Matthew 18:15-20        Jesus said, "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

Reflection      Borrowing an analogy from one of my favoirte preachers, Barbara Brown Taylor, we are “like pebbles put in a tumbling jar - smoothing out our rough edges by rubbing up against one another.” Can you imagine one unpolished pebble saying to the other pebbles in the jar, “This is just the way I am. I have always had these points and sharp edges. I have always been like this? Just look at my Meyers/Briggs or my MMPI!” Or, “This point is really special to me?” Or, “You just rub me the wrong way?” 

The thing is, in family life, community life, Church life and global life it is is not all about me. It is all about we. That’s what Jesus wants the disciples and us to understand when he says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” When we come together, work together or worship together, we inevitably rub up against one another. We become as the abrasive grit in the tumbler of life used to smooth the rough edges of gemstones. That is how we grow together, how we become more divinely human and more humanly divine. Like gems hidden in rough unpolished agates the Word of God is secreted within each one of us. The hidden jewel, God’s Word, is love.

For most of us loving our neighbors does not come without a rub, especially if our neighbors do not think, feel, look and behave just the way we do. It is through the rough and tumble of life that we learn to love those, “other people.” Love is cultivated and refined in the give and take of relationships. Anyone who is in a committed relationship or long time friendship knows this. Love means rubbing up against one another. Love is not all about me. Love is about we.

And “Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”” I believe the operant word in Jesus’ sentence is, “Listen.” In fact, Jesus uses the word “listen” four times in three sentences. It must be important.

Listen. Open the ears of your hearts to your sisters’ and brothers’ points of view. Listen beyond superficial differences; traditional, comtemporary; red, blue; global, local; chocolate, vanilla; listen for the place of our shared humanity wherein we care deeply about our children, families, community, Church and world. Listen beyond our superficial differences; Oriental, Asian, Hispanic or Caucasian; Jewish, Islamist, Buddhist, Atheisit, Hindu, Christian, unaffiliated; listen beneath all that for the place of shared divinity wherein we truly love our neighbor.

Loving our neighbor does not require uniformity of thought nor conformity of behavior. Loving our neighbor means we allow enough spaciousness in our relationship to make room for our differences. Loving our neighbor means the jewel hidden within each person is revealed. Listen.

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 31 August 2014

Exodus 3:1-15        Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."

But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM Who I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever and this my title for all generations."

Reflection        Last week we met Jesus asking the disciples and us, “But who do you say that I am?” This week we wander back in history some twelve hundred years and find Moses asking God, “Who shall I tell the Israelite people You, God, are? What is your name?”  God’s answer, “I AM  who I AM,” must have rattled around in Mose’s mind.  “This is not going to be easy!”

Imagine a philosopher pondering on Moses’ behalf, “I AM who I AM; derived from the verb ‘to be’ that must mean, I exist. How can it be enough to say “I exist?”  How can it be sufficient simply to exist without a definable and recognizable image? How can it be enough to claim existance with neither subject nor predicate? It reminds me of Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet moaning as he ponders suicide, “To be, or not to be…?” To exist or not to exist. That is the question. And God’s answer is, I exist. I AM. 

God chose not to identify God’s self as either subject or predicate, which is to say, God refused to be confined to either object or essence. Rather, God chose to identify God’s self as the linking word, the copola, relationship. God identified God’s self as that which connects, a bridge, I AM.

And God continued, “Moses, Moses, “I will be with you….”” In other words, I, your God, AM in relationship with you, I coexist with you. I Am “the God of your ancestors,  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”  I Am joined with or coupled with you and your ancestors. We are intimately linked and have been through time.

Unequivocal as God’s response to Moses may sound, I don’t suppose it much comforted Moses. What are the people going to think when I say,” I AM sent me?” Is that not the question with which we all wrestle? How can I tell the people with whom I work or go to the gym about my God whom I cannot see or touch or frankly find any words sufficient to describe? What shall I say to my children when they ask, “Where is God?”  How shall I defend God when critics query, “If there really is God why do such terrible things as the brutality in the Middle East, ravaging disease in Africa, senseless killing in Misssouri happen?” 

In the course of God’s conversation with Moses God attested, “I have been, I AM, and I will be” in relationship with you. And finally Moses received the answer to his original question, “God, what is your name?” “My name is forever I AM.”  Finding his courage in forever I AM and trusting I AM forever with him, Moses was emboldened to go and confront the king of Egypt, the oppressor of God’s people. Would that we all remember forever I AM and do likewise.

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Gospel text for Sunday 24 August 2014

Matthew 16:13-20        When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Reflection    I believe everything hinges on our response to Jesus’question. “But who do YOU say that I AM?” Who is this Jesus who has caught the imaginations and hearts of people for more than two thousand years? What sets him apart from the great prophets, teachers, kings and priests throughout history and now? What about him has kept the stories of people’s encounters with him alive and engaged for twenty centuries? Why have millions of artists been inspired to render mages, in their own likeness, of Jesus? Why, for two thousand years, have people not tired of studying and writing, wondering and asking, Who is this Jesus?

Please remember. When Jesus asked the question, “But who do YOU say that I AM?” there was no creed, no council of bishops,  no conversation about dual natures, no theology of the Trinity. There wasn’t even a Christian church. There was just Jesus and the people who recognized him and allowed their lives to be changed because of him. So today I set aside the creeds, the great books and all I have been taught ABOUT Jesus and ask myself, who is Jesus in my life? What difference does he make? 

My painfully inadequate response to Jesus’ question is, “Jesus, you are  present, real, surprising, relevant, gift, astonishing, heartening, comforting, challenging, baffeling and disturbing. Jesus, you reveal God’s unspeakable love in the only way I could even begin to apprehend it, in human form, just like me. Jesus, you touch me with Wisdom that speaks in whatever language it takes for me to hear the Good News that God is with and for me and all of humanity, no matter what. Jesus, you give me Hope that I and humanity will not be overcome and separated from God when human conditions breed hatred, mistrust, violence and senseless killing. Jesus, you are my brother, my teacher, my guardian, my companion and my God, calling me to faith and finding me when I get lost. Jesus, you are all things to me in order that I may know...  I am.“ 

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Gospel text for Sunday 17 August 2014

Matthew 15.21-28        Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly

Reflection        Oh dear, how shall we deal with this incredibly rude Jesus? How will we justify his heartless behavior? How could the son of God behave this way? And then the Canaanite woman reminds us, Jesus is Lord and he is also the son of David, born of Mary, of woman. He is also fully human. He was raised as an observant Jew. He knew the Hebrew scriptures and the temple customs. It was as natural for Jesus to see the Canaanite woman as an untouchable stranger who had no business approaching him and asking for his help as it is for many Americans to see the Central American women and children entering this country illegally as strangers or aliens who have no business entering this country and asking for help. 

Yes, Jesus is the son of God and Jesus is the son of humanity; fully divine and fully human. For reasons we will never know the Canaanite woman recognized the dual natures of Jesus, Lord and Son of David. After all his healing, preaching, exorcisisms and raising people from the dead, this story offers a glimpse of Jesus’ humanity. Just like every one of us, Jesus was subjected to the conditions of his social, cultural and religious context. And, just like us, Jesus had the capacity to stretch beyond the limits of his condioned social and emotional responses and become more compassionate. 

Something happened to Jesus in his exchange with the Canaanite woman. His original idea of who he should and should not relate with was changed. His notion of who was eligible for his help and healing was radically challenged. The Canaanite woman’s persistent faith pierced the depths of Jesus’ humanity and sparked the mercy of his divinity.  And he was changed. Who are the people seeking mercy from us? With our human and divine natures balanced and engaged, how shall we respond? Do we dare follow Jesus, step into foreign territory, meet the stranger face to face and allow ourselves to be changed?

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Gospel text for Sunday 10 August 2014

Matthew 14:22-33

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."

Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God.”

Reflection     I believe it is a good thing that ever eager Peter, while walking on water toward Jesus, noticed the squalling winds and began to sink into the sea. Had Peter forged undaunted through the squall, Jesus’ story would be about magic, a happily ever-after ghost tale. Had Peter not noticed the strong winds and slipped into the drink his would not have been a real life story with God. 

Storms are always kicking up dirt, spitting ice or screaming sirens in our journey with God. The thing is, it is not the storms that will get us. The real danger is that we see ourselves as separate from God then scramble to cling to perishing things. 

Instead of pausing and listening for God, we are distracted by things we think we are losing - our boats, our cars, our health, our loved ones, our life. When we hitch our lives to things that perish, naturally we become afraid. It is rather like building our house in a wash or flood plain, eventualy we will be forced to face the truth. We have made our lives depend on things that cannot last. We have worked so hard to stitch together our strategies for safety and security, affection and esteem, power and control that we have left no time to pause and be present to the Presence of God with us. For many of us it is not until we are caught in the midst of a storm, with nothing left to lose that we finaly open the ears of our heart for God. 

But we don’t have to wait until we are beaten up, at the end of our wits or the end of our life. We can decide to pause and listen for God.  The trappist monk, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar Thomas Merton (who died in 1968) counsels, everything we truely desire we already have. All that is needed is that we pause and allow ourselves to experience what we already have. Merton calls the pause, contemplation. It is being present to what is already Present. It is listening for God (New Seeds of Contemplation, chapter 1).

For those who bristle at the word, ‘contemplation’ is not about sitting still. Contemplation is about paying attention to the present moment exactly as it is because God is already there. It takes practice to focus our attention. That’s why some people practice meditation or centering prayer, play the trumpet, paint, run long distances or walk the dog early in the morning. Anything we do with all of our attention opens the ears of our hearts to hear the voice of the One who speaks in the depths of our own being where our life loses its separate voice.

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Gospel test for Sunday 27 July 2014

Matthew 13:31-33,44-52         Jesus put before the crowds another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Reflection        The kingdom of heaven is like the most fantabulous, extraordinary, multicolor, surrond sound, kaleidoscope of majestic, triumphant, sublime, angelic, grace and glorious holiness. No. That is not what Jesus said. The kingdom of heaven is like a miniscule seed, baker’s yeast, a buried treasure, a wild-goose chasing merchant, a fishing expedition. What are we to make of this? Heaven is not celestial, blissful, supernatural holiness? Heaven is everyday, run-of-the-mill stuff hidden in plain sight. 

Do you remember the “Where’s Waldo” books? “Where’s Waldo at the Beach? The Santa Spectacular? The Incredible Paper Chase? In Hollywood? The Search for the Lost Things?” If you are not familiar with Waldo, he is an adventurous, gangly, bespectacked teen age boy whom you might find on the road, in deep seascapes, in a crowded room or squeezed between memos or skyscrapers. The way the ‘reader’ relates with Waldo books is by searching for Waldo in the elbow-to-elbow mob scenes in Escheresque images. The thing is, Waldo is not hiding. He is an ordinary boy in a red and white striped tee shirt who may show up anywhere. The question is, do you, the ‘reader’ of the “Where’s Waldo” books  have the desire to find him? The persistence to keep looking? And the eyes to be surprised when finding him in plain sight? 

Waldo is like a seed sowed in a field. He is like yeast, a hidden treasure, a pearl of great value, a good fish in a buldging net. He is always right there in the midst of ordinary things waiting for you to be surprised and delighted by his presence. 

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Gospel text for Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 20 July 2013

John 20:11-18        Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Reflection        Once upon a time there was a couple. From the instant they met something stirred inside each of them. They tenderly touched fingers to fingers, looked into each other’s eyes, told stories and laughed. When it rained they huddled close in the still protection of a cave and waited for the sun to return. One day an official arrived and said, “I have a book you must read. It tells you everything you need to know about love and relationships. It will tell you when it is proper for you to touch your fingers together, when you should look into each other’s eyes and when you should look away. It will tell you how to build a proper house. Everything you need to know about love and life is in this book. 

Being in love or learning about love? Being in love transforms us. Learning about love informs us. I believe the task of the 21st century is to move beyond this dichotomy or dualistic way of thinking and being. We are growing into non-dual consciousness as we recognize that we are people of mind and soul, body and spirit, science and religion. All of it is informed and transformed in God. We human beings are most fully alive when we welcome the paradox, live into the contradictions and refuse to be prisioners of judgement; good feeling - bad feeling; right thinking - wrong thinking; subject - object; other - self;  dead - alive. Non-dual consciousness emerges as humanity steps beyond a world divided into two camps into an awareness that embraces all that is. 

This is what Jesus was talking about when the Jews were questioning whether he was the messiah and he unequivocally declared,  “The father and I are one” (John 10.30). It was a radical statement of non-dual consciousness and it nearly got Jesus stoned. Then there was Jesus praying for the disciples,  another example of non-dual consciousness. “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one..” (John 17.22-23). 

All things are by God and with God and in God. No thing is outside of God, which is to say, all that is is of God. Non-dual consciousness apprehends there is only God; unborn and undying, being and nonbeing, always and everywhere, beyond all names and within all names. Paul’s counsel to the Romans, “Though we are many, we are one body,” (Ro 12.5) is yet another expression of the inclusivity of non-dual consciousness. Humanity and divinity are not apart from each other. As Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.”

I believe Mary Magdalene was the first person in Western spirituality following Jesus to experience and express non-dual consciousness. I believe that is how she recognized the resurrected Jesus. I believe that is why she is the apostle to the apostles. I believe that is why more and more people are fascinated by her presence in the Christian narrative. I believe that is why we observe the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. 

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