All Sorts and Conditions of People: Meditation for March 8, 2015



     In today’s gospel Jesus drives the money-changers out of the temple. This should challenge our meek and mild view of Jesus. The money-changers were needed because coins with images, thus idols, could not be put in the temple offering. Other gospels imply the money changers were dishonest, but John’s Gospel, the one read today, offers no reason. The reader must speculate. Scripture frequently invites us to struggle for understanding in order to grow in wisdom.

     One suggestion is that Jesus disapproved that this part of the temple was unavailable for worship. It was the part meant for non-Jewish people. Jesus was not against commerce, but commerce had made the place unusable for worship, the only place for foreigners.

     The temple in Jesus’ day was a series of courts one situated within the other, each intended for a different group of people. The center was the holy of holies, entered only once each year by the high priest. Next was the sanctuary for the daily evening and morning offering of incense. Then a court for Jewish men, then one for Jewish women and children, and finally one for non-Jewish people, the nations, or Gentiles. Jesus cleaned this last one.

     That Jesus would want this area available for the nations is consistent with his teaching. He would care that their part of the temple was unavailable. Jesus opted to dissolve boundaries between peoples, and his disciples ended ethnic distinctions in the community they oversaw. Strong evidence also suggests neither social status nor gender mattered, though gender apparently reemerged in the Second Century, only to be challenged again in modern times.

     This interpretation strongly suggest two insights. First we should not allow other activity to crowd out the care of our spirits. And secondly, we should honor Christ’s teaching that all people have spiritual needs, and we must promote the inclusion of all into our communal spiritual life. It is this latter sensitivity that leads this parish to make our worship more friendly to the spiritual, but not religious. ~Father John

Liturgy, Liminal Space, Ritual and Meaning

When Spiritual communities gather to perform weekly rituals it is called a "liturgy". The word comes from Ancient Greece. It is a compound of the word for people, "laos", and the word for work, "urgy".   As a community project the whole village would repair a road or a bridge together: it was the work of the people, public works.
 

The word is used to designate communal rituals. All the people present are important in a ritual, though some have more prominent roles than others. In a sense it is a performance offered by the community to the divine mystery that is behind, and some would say within, all things. We offer our bodies, minds and spirits to the divine in a time and space. The creation gathers to honor its creator. 

The Celts describe this encounter as a liminal space and time. It is a border line, a thin place where the ordinary and the divine merge, where the relationship between mystery and reality impinges on our hearing, our sight, our imagination. Liminal means frontier. If you know the movies and television programs called "Stargate", you can think of the stargate itself, the door one could enter and by taking a single step travel millions of light years through space. For tens of thousands of years humanity has sought these liminal places, has engaged in rituals to discover the meaning and depth of life.

On the face of it, the Christian liturgy we celebrate today is very simple. We read from ancient texts, we say carefully crafted prayers, we sing songs ancient and modern, we take a little piece of bread, and a few drops of wine and we remember a fateful meal some two thousand years ago, the night before Jesus died. They are ordinary acts, but the liturgy transforms these humble actions into liminal space, space where we spy the divine. In that holy espionage we discover an important truth about humanity. We have purpose, our lives are meaningful, we are cherished, delighted in by Eternity itself. ~Father John

The Evil Spirits We ALL Have

Sermon 20150201

St. John's Church
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Psalm 111
Mark 1:21-28


The story today is pretty simple.  Jesus goes to his hometown synagogue in Capernaum, which is Simon Peter's hometown, and he teaches in the synagogue.  In those days people would be invited to read the passage appointed for that day, and comment on it.  The people were amazed at how Jesus taught.  It was a different style.  He taught with authority.

The difference to other stories about Jesus teaching in a synagogue is that the story is followed almost immediately by the casting out of an unclean spirit.  In fact, the casting out the unclean spirit takes up more of the story that the fact that Jesus taught.

It is interesting that the unclean spirit knows who Jesus is, and is afraid, whereas the people around Jesus notice that there is something special but they miss his power.  This is pretty important.  It is a theme in Mark.  Jesus often tells spirits not to say who he is.  It is a puzzlement.

I read this week an amazing observation about his story which increased my understanding of just how subtle and insightful a teacher Mark the evangelist can be.

The fact that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, and the fact that an unclean spirit was cast out of this man, are not unrelated.  They are two sides of the same coin.  Jesus' authoritative teaching can free us from the powers that grip us, cause us pain and fear, keep us from loving God with our whole heart, keep us from loving our neighbor as ourselves, and rob us of our true joy.

The most powerful destructive powers in our lives are ideas and thoughts that take up residence in our minds and control our lives.  Mark is telling us that the teachings of Jesus can free us from these things.

But it is even more subtle than this.  These destructive powers that take up residence in our minds and control us know they are false, but they deceive us.  They know Jesus for who he is, but they try to convince us that Jesus is not the one who can help us.

These makes complete sense to me because I have learned some of the philosophy of 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon.

In these groups the only way to address addiction to some substance or compulsive behavior is to maintain clarity.  Many people turn to alcohol, or drugs, or food to avoid the pain in their lives.  The alcohol, drugs, food, sex whatever help them check out, take a   break from all that they find hard in life.  The obvious thing is that on an occasional basis taking a break from our hurts, fears and challenges can be a blessing.  But when we turn to these escapes more than we actually live it begins to destroy our lives, our careers, our relationships, our spiritual life.

People begin to say I need this drink, I need this "toke", I need this piece of cake in order to feel better.  They say I will stop tomorrow.  Or I can stop anytime I want to.  These destructive powers are powerful and take hold often because they are half-truths.  But when confronted with the whole truth their folly is not hard to understand.

Addiction is an unclean spirit, it is a destructive power that can take possession of one's life.

The wisdom of the twelve steps is that by constantly confronting this with the truth, and by claiming the willingness to act on it, a person can receive the power from above to live one's life and abstain from the compulsive at or additive substance.

It is called clarity.  In religious tradition it is called wisdom.  In spirituality it is called awareness.

Our Christian insight is that this lack of clarity does not just affect people who have addiction or compulsive behaviors.  We all have destructive ideas which take possession of our minds, and we are often unaware just how much they have taken hold in us.  They fool us because  there is some small element in them that is true or attractive, and so we do not dig dipper, encounter the whole truth.

There are people who say they are not religious.  But I do not agree with them.  They think that religion is about belief in a God.  I do not agree.  Religion is the way you practice your philosophy of life in your everyday existence.  All of us have ideas about our world and our lives, we all have a philosophy of life, even though we may not know it.  And that philosophy of life causes us to make choices every day.

Jesus who teaches with authority wants us to have a philosophy of life that is life giving, satisfying, healthy, wholesome, joyful, blessed.  He wants to cast out of us the destructive ideas that take possession of us and keep us from having this type of life.

In my life as a Christian, but essentially in my ministry, I have met many of these destructive ideas that take over people's lives.  Each and every one of them have been operative in my life and I have to constantly feed on the teaching of Jesus and ask God to keep them at bay.  I will list some here to help explain what I mean, even though each of these is probably worth a sermon in its own right.

One of the most destructive idea people have is that they are not important, or that they have no worth.  They forget that God loves them and could not imagine the world without them.  They want to hide from God or others, or are afraid that if they are truly known they will not be valued.  They forget that they have qualities and gifts that will make the world a better place if they will only truly love themselves and live in this world with joy.   We are often tempted to think that because our life is not the way we would prefer it, that it is not wonderful.  We often miss out on the blessings in our life because we are constantly wishing we had other ones.

Another very destructive idea I see people have is that they thing that they are a good person.  THey think, "Sure, I'm not perfect, but I am not really awful like other people."  This thought is destructive because it stops us from looking deeper.  All of us have much to learn in the art of love, and all of us cause hurt to people around us through either action or inaction.  All of us have growing edges.  When we start to think that we have nothing to confess to God and to ask for forgiveness it is very destructive.  When we begin to think we are okay we begin to judge others and this is very dangerous.  When we stop scrutinizing our life we open ourselves to all sorts of spiritual danger.

A third destructive idea that I think people have is that they believe they are okay if they just take care of themselves and try not to harm anyone.  This idea causes us to miss out on the greatest blessing in life which is to be in generous relationships with others and to discover our gifts that can be used to honor God and serve our neighbor.  It is an idea we get from the rabid individualism of our  culture.  This is why many people believe they do not need to go to a worshiping community.  They do not realize that in a community we help one another.  Sometimes I am the one being helped, sometimes I am the one helping,  and very often just by being with each other we are helping each other.  If we simply seek to do no harm, the awful consequence is we also do not good, and do not have the joy of generosity.

Our collect today asks God to grant us his peace.  May we listen to the teachings of Jesus in scripture and tradition, and allow it to bring us spiritual clarity and wisdom.  May Christ free us from the destructive ideas, the unlearn spirits, that hold us back spiritually.  May Christ make us eager to grow in love for God and one another, receiving from him the power to live lives that give him honor and bring us peace.

The Kingdom of God: Living in the World as if not.

St. John’s Church, Getty Square

3^rd after Epihany

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31

Psalm 62: 6-14

Mark 1:14-20

When I lived in Poitiers France I participated in the University Chaplaincy and I met a lot of very memorable people.  One person I remember a great deal, Michelle (a pseudonym) had long blond hair and always had a very genuine sweet smile.  It was not a fake smile, or a put on smile, or a temporary smile like some people carry.  It came out of a place of peace and calm.  She told me people sometimes ask her why she always has this smile and she would tell them,”Because God is so good and I am thankful for my life.”  She was a student but she struggled in deciding what she intended to do with her life.  She lived very simply. 

I stayed with her in her apartment when I went to Poitiers in part to attend her wedding to Jean-Denis (a pseudonym) and I noticed a very used prayer corner, complete with Bible, Candle and Icon of Jesus.   Jean-Denis lived in an intentional community called Emmaus and it was a place where homeless people could come and live.  They would eat and pray together.  I am not sure about what other ways they helped the homeless, but I admired the dedication of both Jean Denis and Michelle.  Both of them were very well respected in the church at Poitiers and at their wedding there were some ten priests at the altar. 

I tell you about her because I think Michelle is an example of someone who seemed to me to be living the kingdom of God.  She dwelt in this world as all of us do, yet she had a peace and a joy that came from above.  I have been privileged to know a few people in life who I think reflected this reality, however, most of the people I admire are like me, they are on the path to that place, but struggle, and maybe even fight and resist the whole way there.

Sisters and Brothers, when Jesus calls his disciples in today’s gospel, and asks them to follow him, I see his asking them to follow him into the kingdom of God, to live in the world but to reside in the kingdom of God, to live by god’s wisdom, to trust completely in God, to seek the will of God in all things, to not be afraid, and to have quiet confidence and solid hope that God’s purposes are not thwarted.  I am encouraged by the fact that the apostles seem more like me than Michelle.  For each of them their discipleship to Jesus was troubled and a struggle, like mine, but the tradition conveys that many of these common ordinary people, even fisher people, that Jesus called, showed a peaceful powerful joy by the end of their lives.  They truly followed Jesus.

When the gospel today says the disciples left their father in the boat with the hired, this is a jolting phrase.  In our culture it is not unusual to go off into the world on one’s own and to leave father and mother.  However in Jesus day this was a huge break.  It tells us that Jesus was calling the disciples to do something huge, life changing, even a shift in their identity and loyalties.

I propose this is what St. Paul describes in our Corinthian readings.  St. Paul was very clear that life in Christ is living in the world in a very different way.  He describes all of these every day major parts of our life, marriage, grief and joy, business as things we do as if not doing them.  Some have interpreted this as meaning a very rigid life, an austerely ascetic life,  where we are married but do not have relations with our partner, or as a rejection of emotions, where we keep a very steady emotion and are not moved by grief or joy, or where we shun commerce and live a life like that of a hermit.  I truly do not think so.  I think that is too concrete.  I think that kind of reading probably misses the main point.

St. Paul is saying we live in this world, we marry, we have our emotions, we conduct our life affairs, just as human beings will do, but all along we keep such great hope and faith in God, that it is as if we are not living in the world.  There is a way in which we are truly and fully present to the world, but we also transcend the world by having utter confidence in God.

It is this strain in our faith that causes many people to make positive comparisons of the Christian faith to Buddhism.  In fact one of the most popular Buddhist writers of our day, Thich Naht Hahn, claims to be both Buddhist and Christian because he sees Jesus as someone who invites others to enlightenment. He believes Jesus asks us to dwell in this world where there is so much suffering and violence but to be the presence of peace, love and joy.

And that is what I saw in Michelle.  I saw in her someone who brought the peace, love and joy of Christ, to her everyday living.  And I pray God will make me more like that.

As I prepared for today I came across a very good observation about this kind of life.  The author points out that living in the world as if not, that living the life of Christ, means two things.  First, by God’s power we escape the fears that beset us and so are freed from gripping anxiety, but also that we gain a new urgency to do the kind of things Jesus would have us do.  Our greatest passion is no longer to struggle to survive in this world, we give that to God.  Our greatest passion becomes to do the things Jesus would have us do.

To do this we must have an active prayer life.  If we are not intentionally focusing on God in prayer, if we are not seeking fellowship with other Christians as we are here doing today,  if we are not seeking the strength we receive in this liturgy of word and sacrament, I do not see how we can accomplish this call to have peace and hope.  If we do not pay great attention to God I think our weak human nature will succumb to the assaults of a troubled world.

If we stay connected to God and other people of faith, he we focus on service of others, we escape what 12-step group participants might call the prison of self.  Instead of always thinking of ourselves, our needs, our hurts, our wants, we make a positive effort to serve other people and to relieve their hurts and needs.  We no longer just see horrible things in the world, we see places where we can take the mercy of God, and show love to others. 

And of course the others do not always act lovingly.  Frequently they are users, abusers, dishonest, selfish, ungrateful, ill-behaved people.  And we have to learn to respond to people like that with compassion and great wisdom.  Sometime our hearts will go out to them because we will perceive in them great need for spiritual healing , and yet we feel helpless seeing them stuck in a prison of hurt, avoidance, and in self delusion, the very opposite of humble wisdom.  We can serve others, we cannot rescue them.  Much prayer will be required as soon as we come to understand the sufferings of those around us.

And yet some of the people we reach out to, some will hear the call of Jesus to follow him.  They will take his hand and embrace the path of forgiveness and healing.  They will start down a path which seeks first God’s kingdom.  They will say a prayer that truly means, “Thy will be done.”  They will find Jesus through our love and compassion.  And Jesus will turn and say to us, “See, I told you I would make you fishers of people.”

Let us pray, sisters and brothers, that God will cast out our fears.  Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will give us confidence in God.  Let us put our whole trust in God and invite him to address the hardships that beset us.  Let us open our eyes to ask him where and how he would have us serve others.  Let us pray that we might in some way help others find Christ’s offer of peace and love.  In doing these things I think we truly live in the world as though not living in it.  In doing these things I think we truly leave all and follow Jesus

Easter 3 A: Standing Still and Looking Sad

Sermon  20140504

St. John’s Church, Downtown Yonkers

Easter 3 a

Luke 24:13-25

In the name of the Father….

When Jesus meets the disciples on the road to Emmaus he asks the disciples what they had been discussing walking along the way.  The text says, “They stood still looking sad”.  They were walking forward, but they stood still and looked sad.  After their astonishment that Jesus did not already know the disturbing events they told him the whole story, and in the midst of their speech they said, “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.”

What did the redemption of Israel mean to the disciples?  What exactly were they hoping for?  The reality is the disciples held on to the very same hopes, ideas, and agenda that they had before they ever met Jesus.  Their expectations were unaffected even after listening to the teachings of Jesus for three years.  They never allowed his words to challenge their expectations, their ideas, their desire, and their image of goodness.  His disciples are still focused on their own vision, their own expectations, and their assumptions of what is good.  They were standing still.

The disciples were not bad people.  The problem with our broken world is not just with bad people.  Our problem is when good people withdraw; when they cease to engage;  when they cease to allow others into their hearts; when we allow our ideas to be fixed, and rigid.  When we think we are good people, we are often closed to outside voices and other people.  The saints teach us that whenever we think we are good people, beware.  We might have taken a break from the work of growing in faith, and being open to God, and we are in a perilous place whether we realize it or not.

As long as our hearts are closed both to other people and to ideas other than our own we will stand still and we will be sad.

God does not simply give us what we hope for.  God is not a wish fulfiller.  God gives us what will exceed our imagination.  God gives us what will well up in us to eternal life.  We still hold on to futile dreams and hopes and expectations, but Jesus wants us to follow him along a better path.   It is said that Steve Jobs was a successful inventor at Apple because he did not ask people what they wanted, he used his creativity to figure out the very thing they did not yet know they wanted.  God has greater knowledge of our true spiritual needs than we do.

Jesus walks with them and opens for them the scriptures.  He shows them that their reading of scripture had been shallow.  They had not paid attention deeply.  The expectations they had were not the expectations he had tried to create in them through his teaching.   And now, in order to recognize him, their hearts must be open.

The life of blessing is not the life of comfort, it is a hard life, but one focused on love, peace, compassion, mercy, openness and welcome.  And that hard life, the one where no good deed goes unpunished, that is the life of blessing.

Jesus asks us to live a life of the beatitudes, being poor in spirit, meek, to mourn for sorrow, to have mercy, to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst for a world where all are reconciled to God and all truly care and serve one another.  He asks us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit those who are sick and in prison, he asks us to reach out to those others cast out, and to have patience with each other, to turn the other cheek, forgiving one another.  He asks us not to think highly of ourselves and not to think others are less worthy.  He asks us to give God the opportunity to use our lives and bodies to serve the people all around us.

The problem is that when we are so fixed on our own expectations we cannot even see the resurrection right before us.  The disciples are listening to Jesus.  He is right in front of them.  God incarnate is right in front of them.  Something stirs.  They even reflect later,  “Were not our hearts burning within us”.  But they did not recognize him.  The most wonderful person and the most wonderful event in the history of the universe was right in their presence, talking to them, and they did not see it.

When did they recognize him?  They recognized him in the Eucharist.  When they remembered him in the words this is my body, this is my blood; when they realized that Jesus is the one who shows us life; when they remembered that Jesus is the one who asks us not to live for ourselves, but to live for him, and to meet him in the face of every human being.  They recognized him when they remembered him saying, “I am your strength, I am your sustenance, I am what gives you life: take eat”   He will feed us with his very body, with his very life.  He IS our HOPE.  He will send us what we need to embrace the life of the beatitudes.

The disciples knew the Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  And at that point they realized a life with him as their true friend, and a life like his, is what their heart truly desires.  That is the redemption of Israel.  That is the redemption of the fallen universe. Everything else pales in comparison to Jesus, his friendship, his love.

They did not get what they had wanted… they got something else that was more than they were able to imagine.  That same hour they got up and went to Jerusalem and told the disciples about their encounter.  This was for them the first moment of a changed life and they had to go tell someone.  They got up and went to Jerusalem.   They are no longer standing still.  They are no longer sad.

What shall we do?  What do we want Jesus to do in our lives? What are the assumptions we make about our lives that Jesus wants to challenge? Where do our hearts need cracking open? What beatitude is Jesus asking us to embrace? We can delay joy, we can delay love, we can delay life as long as we want to.  We can stand still and be sad.   But do we want to?

Or we can give in.  We can say “yes” to Jesus in new and more wonderful ways in our life.  It will come at a cost, true, but the cost will seem like so much nothing compared to the greatness of saying yes to Jesus.  The cost is irrelevant when we feel our hearts warmed.  The cost seems so small when we recognize Jesus, as we greet him, as we love him with all our hearts, and as we take his love into our world.   And I do not need to tell you, brothers and sisters, do I, how the world longs so very much to know his healing, his compassion, his love.

In the name of the Father…

Sermon, January 26, 2014: Jesus says, "Follow me."

Sermon 20140126

St. John’s Church, Downtown Yonkers

Epiphany 3 A

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Matthew 4:12-23

Psalm 27:1, 5-13

Jesus said to his disciples, “Follow me.”

So you are working hard at your job, in the middle of a project, or just closing up for the day, and along comes someone who says, “Come, follow me.”  What are you likely to do?  Well, it depends, doesn’t it?  Do you know this person? What kind of reputation does this person have?  Who is this person?  What is this person likely to ask you to do?

The disciples who left their nets to follow Jesus must have had some knowledge of Jesus.  They certainly knew of Jesus, his reputation as an incredible Rabbi, a healer, a teacher with authority unlike the others to this point.  If we look at our reading from last week they also knew that John the Baptist was pretty convinced he was the “Lamb of God”.  And they had perhaps even spent time with Jesus in his home.  They even thought he might be the Messiah, the one who was to come, and to fulfill the promises of God, something longed for for over 400 years.  Maybe, just maybe, that had hoped he would come and ask them to follow him.

The disciples saw in Jesus something they had longed for, something they deeply desired, something they hoped would heal their souls.

Yesterday was the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  He had persecuted Christians, but in that persecution he also came to learn the message of Christ.  This process prepared him to encounter a vision of Christ on the road to Emmaus.  He came even while persecuting Christians to understand that Christ offered the hope of satisfying his deep spiritual longing for connection to God and to humanity, for a restored earth, for a better way.  He came to say that he counted all things as rubbish, compared to the surpassing knowledge of his Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why the Apostles would leave their old lives behind to follow Christ.  They saw in him hope for their own healing, their own spiritual lives, for their relationships, hope that their lives actually mattered.

The situation we find ourselves in is that Jesus actually issues this same call to us, “Follow me”

And that puts us in the place of saying why should I follow?  What about Jesus makes me want to follow him?  What do I know about Jesus that attracts me to him?  Does the life Jesus show me offer me hope that I can be healed?  That my spiritual needs can be met?  That my relationship with God and with other people can be better?  That my life can actually matter?  Do we see in Jesus something that we long for?

It is not possible to answer this question if we spend no time with Jesus.  If we only half pay attention during the reading of the Gospel; if we neglect reading the Gospels; in our prayer life if we neglect praying and placing ourselves in the presence of God and asking to meet God in Christ; if we neglect our spiritual lives, if we neglect quieting our mind so that we can meet God in the still small voice, in the quiet, how can we know that Jesus offers us the satisfaction of longing?

I wonder what attracted the disciples the most?  I suspect it was that Jesus knew and cared for each of them for who they were.  We have stories of his meeting disciples and showing that he knew them sometimes better than they knew themselves.  I suspect it was that Jesus was a forgiving person.  He welcomed all, sinner and righteous person.  He knew their struggles and wanted to encourage them to take the next step in love no matter where they were starting from.  He did not put up with judgmental holier-than-thou behavior.  Jesus sympathized with people in their suffering, healing their illness, weeping with them in their grief, asking them, “what do you want?”  And he healed them.  Jesus inspired them.  He taught them with authority and they were amazed by his teaching because of its wisdom, but also because it was so surprising.  But this teaching did not come from nowhere.  We often fail to note that Jesus was a serious student.  He knows the scriptures through and through; that was not by magic.  That was from years of study.  And Jesus’ communion with God did not happen by divine intervention; he spent hours in prayer, often going off alone to pray. 

With some reflection, it certainly would seem that Jesus is attractive because he is the very message he preaches.  He asks us to love God and love neighbor, and we see in his life someone who truly does love God and love neighbor.

When he asks us to follow him, that is exactly what he asks us to do: to also become people who love God and neighbor.  I will make you fishers of people, he says.

And there is a paradox in the call to follow him.  We think our healing will come from paying attention to ourselves, seeking our needs, finding meaning in our lives.  But Jesus tells us the healing will come from learning to be people who love God and love neighbor.  Yes we focus on ourselves, but we focus on our selves capable of loving and serving others.  And the way to learn that is to actually do it.

It is not just enough to follow behind Jesus and watch him be Jesus.  Following Jesus means learning to do, and actually doing what he does.  To follow him means we learn to know and care for people and that we do not judge or discriminate between people. 

This week we celebrated also the feast of St. Francis de Sales.  He was a Roman Catholic bishop in Geneva, Switzerland, and he was famous for his love of the people in his neighborhood.  Someone asked him, “Don’t you find your life of service to the poor and needy a task?”  And he replied, “Yes, it does require effort, and it can be tiring and hard, but it brings a deep healing and joy that there is no other way to know.” 

Also while addressing this question he pointed out that everyone has the ability to love and care for others.  We are not all the same, we do not all have the same gifts, but all of us do have gifts that we can use in the service of God and of neighbor.   He points out that a bishop loves God by caring for the priests and people in his diocese, a monk by saying his prayers, working to support the monastery, and welcoming visitors who need a quiet place to renew.  He says a father loves by providing for his children, teaching them about Jesus, and being a good neighbor to those in his neighborhood.  A tradesman serves God by doing fair business, being charitable, making a difference in his neighborhood. 

As you know, I often visit nursing homes to celebrate the Eucharist where I often suggest to the residents that they can have a ministry of prayer for the world, for their fellow residents, for the staff.  I suggest to them that they can serve God and neighbor by caring and understanding one another.

Jesus called the disciples to leave all and follow him.  He intended to groom them to go out and change the world.  But Jesus does not call all to be leaders and missionaries in the church.  He calls many of us to be mindful of the ways we can follow him right where we are.

Where are the places in your life where you can follow Christ?  What can you do at your home with the people you see every day?  Maybe there are places we need healing in order to be able to love?  Are we actively asking God to heal us, or to show us a way?  Maybe we are unsure of our spiritual gifts?  Are we exploring, asking God to help us find the gifts we have to follow Christ, to love and serve God and my neighbor?

How can you learn to love God and neighbor more in this parish church?  Sure, our community needs to repair this building.  Sure, this community needs to raise money with penny socials and renting the parish hall.  Sure this parish needs people to coordinate fixing the pipes.  But we do all of those things so that every person in this room, and those who did not make it this morning, can actually love God and neighbor by service and putting it into practice in their daily lives.  The bishop told the vestry last week that when someone comes to this church it is important that the see this as a place where their spiritual needs can be meet.  We are the ones who God will help do this, if we will venture out to do it.  Yes, it might seem uncomfortable, or strange, or even challenging, but God also offers to give us the wisdom and the strength to accomplish his will if we will just say yes.  If we will put down whatever nets are holding us back, entangling us,our set ways.  Like the disciples we must put down somethings in order to answer the call.

Jesus says to us, “Follow me.  And we say, ”Yes,  Jesus, we follow.”

Sunday Nov. 24: The Puzzle of a Crucified King

Sermon 20131124

St. John’s Church, Yonkers

Christ the King, Proper 29C

Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

Are any of you puzzled by the gospel reading? This is Christ the King Sunday.  Today we celebrate that Christ has the victory over sin and death.  Today we celebrate that to him all things shall bow, on heaven and on earth, and acknowledge the glory of his name, the glory of the only son of God.  Today we celebrate that all history, all the universe seeing his example of love, compassion and forgiveness acknowledges him as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

So why are we having a story about the crucifixion?

If this is puzzling to you, that is not surprising; yet it is important to heed this puzzle, because in it is one of the central mysteries of our faith.

Christ the king came to serve, not be served. The kingly authority of Christ comes from service, from love, from compassion, from forgiveness.

The opposing view is that physical strength and force, the ability to harm and destroy, is the source of authority.  Another way to say this is that sometimes we have to be practical rather than do the right thing.  This is often the view of earthly kings and powers.  This was the view of the Roman Empire.  And if one views the cross from this point of view, then on the Cross Christ was defeated, not victorious.

Yet Jesus shows his authority on the cross.  When condemned unjustly to die he prays to God, “Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing.” This is true power: the desire to show compassion even on those who do you ill.

Do we really believe this?  I don’t mean do we say we believe this.  I mean do we make this real in our lives day by day? Do we look at our life as successful if we have served others, if we have forgiven those who wrong us, if we make personal sacrifice because we love and care for others?  If we are honest with ourselves do we lead our lives this way? 

I sometimes wonder what was going on for the thief on the cross.  I mean he is angry at the other thief who is mocking Jesus.  At this final moment of his life he has a flash of clarity.  He considers that his punishment is just because he is a thief.  But he sees Jesus and sees injustice.  When he sees Jesus he sees a man whose crime was healing people, winning theological discussions, pronouncing people forgiven, trusting God.  I sometimes think the thief in his mind considered Jesus naïve, but in his goodness and simplicity beautiful.  I sometimes imagine the thief is in a way humoring Jesus because he admires him.  He chooses at this moment to go along with Jesus’ point of view even though it is not really his own.  He says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”

The other thief mocks Jesus saying, “Call down heavenly forces and free us”  The other thief is seeing the world from the point of view of this world where might makes right.  But the thief who ask Jesus to remember him, whatever he thinks about the world really in the depth of his heart, sees the beauty, the goodness, the wonder of a man on a cross forgiving his enemies and trusting God even as he dies a torturous death.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And what does Jesus say, “Truly this day you will be with me in paradise.”  In the face of a terrible death.  In the middle of the most final moment Jesus continues to put his faith and hope in God, and gives that faith and that hope to this criminal.

On the cross, the faithful, the hopeful, the good, the compassionate, the forgiving, the loving Jesus has the victory.  He exercises true power.  He reigns supreme from the tree in this moment of glory.  This is why, when Jesus told his disciples it was the time for him to go to Jerusalem to suffer death he called it “his hour to be glorified.”

It is Easter that shows this to be true.  Christ rising from the dead, appearing to his disciples, appearing to 500 at one time, turning the lives of the apostles upside down with joy and amazement, it is Easter that is the crown Christ wears after he has sat on the cross, his throne.

Kings and governments may rule from palaces with armies to back them up.  And I am not even saying that in this world where man hunts man that it is a bad thing.  St. Paul says it is a necessary thing for there to be social order.  But the truly important work is the work you and I do every day.  It is the service we perform for one another. 

Service such as the work Adam has done for us for 40 years here, keeping our plant ready for our worship and programs. 

It is when we greet one another warmly, learn each other’s names; it is when we welcome the newcomer with a smile and learn about their lives, their joys and struggles; it is when we buy a toy for a child who has none, or help a neighbor by giving food or connecting them to someone with a job such as Mother Teresa did; it is when we invite someone to eat with us so that we can listen to the burdens of their heart; it is when we point out injustice to our civic leaders and demand change, such as Martin Luther King or Ghandi have done; it is when we care for our neighbor and do not judge them, as Pope Francis said “Who am I to judge”;  It is when we learn to give sacrificially with joy for our neighbor’s aid;  It is when we trust God with the future and the outcomes, simply putting our hearts and minds toward the doing of good today.

It is when we do these simple things that we are dwelling in Christ’s kingdom, the one true kingdom that will endure throughout eternity. It is when we stive to live this way, and always ask forgiveness when we fail, that we begin to see Christ’s kingdom.  This is the kingdom that gives peace and joy.  This is the kingdom where our souls can be satisfied.  This is the paradise Jesus promises to the thief, ...  and to us.

“Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”

In the name…  

Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013: Let the One Who Started the Story also Write the Ending

Sermon 20131110

St. John’s Church

Proper 27C

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Luke 20:27-38

  

The Sadducees were the ruling group in the Religious Establishment of Jesus’ day.  They strictly interpreted the Torah and were resistant to what they saw as outside influences.  They held in suspicion the idea of a resurrection of the dead.  This is not an idea that you will find explicitly in the teaching of Moses.  It is similar to an idea found in some ancient religions that there is life after death.  The Egyptians had complicated religious and burial rites associated with life after death.  But life after death is not an idea developed in the books of Moses.  It was a belief among the Pharisees who felt that God’s justice would reward those who adhered to the law even in the face of torture and persecution, and it is a teaching that Jesus held.

But the Pharisees did not believe in resurrection of the dead and they set Jesus up with a convoluted, even amusing little conundrum.  In Mosaic law if a man dies without leaving children to his widow one of his brother is obligated to marry her to give her children.  It is a merciful law because women cannot survive without family in that culture.  So what if, the Sadducees ask, 7 brothers married the same woman and they all died.  Whose wife would she be in heaven?  It is a good argument.  I thought of widowed people I know who have had multiple spouses they love.  The Sadducees point out that in an afterlife these folks are going to feel pretty awkward.  It is clever.  It is insightful.  It is humorous.

Yet also there is not only a tone of philosophical argument in the situation, there is also some mockery.

Jesus takes this challenge very seriously.  He says that they do not understand.  The life of the resurrection is not just a continuation of this present state.  It is a new state.  More like the life of Angels than the life where one gets married and has children.  And he goes even further; he quotes scripture, to say that God, when speaking to Moses through the burning bush, says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  I am God of the living not the dead.

I’ll be honest.  I took this reading very seriously this week.  I got out one of my old theology text books.  I read commentary.  I discussed it with clergy and lay.  I take it very seriously because the Resurrection is at the center of our faith.  It is an keystone part of the Christian hope.

There are many people, including many clergy, I believe even Bishop Spong, who do not see Jesus’ resurrection as an event one could call historical.  And they are not on as shaky or surprising a ground as you might imagine.  The eternal life that Jesus brings us is one that transforms our hearts.  When we are baptized we are sacramentally made part of a new reality.  We declare we have died and risen with Christ.  We enter through faith into the Kingdom of God in a time outside of time; though our eyes and ears do not see it, our faith does.  Understanding the resurrection in this way is faithful to Jesus’ teaching that we cannot understand the resurrection in the same categories as the Sadducees, just more life on this earth.  The Resurrection is not just a future event, it is something that is already breaking into the world, and we are to seek it now, not to just wait for it after death.

However for me I hold onto a belief in the resurrection.  To be honest, if I did not believe in the resurrection I would not be here preaching to you.  Sure, I would still believe in God, but I would be pretty annoyed at him, because this life does often seem unfair, especially to the most vulnerable.  I would still pray.  They tell us prayer is an activity which has its own benefits even from a health perspective.  I would probably even participate in church to some extent.  I would for sure still study theology because the study of theology, the discussion with friends about God and wonder and life is the most delicious activity known to man.  But I would not be a priest.  And I certainly would not be before you today.  However, I do believe in the Resurrection. I don’t believe in all the Biblical miracles.  I am a very modern man nurtured in a modernist culture, however, just looking at things I do believe that Jesus rose from the dead .

What happened to the Apostles in those days we call Easter is astonishing.  Men who were  seen as small and mousy became bold enough to spread a movement throughout the Roman Empire and the world.  Eventually even the Emperor himself came to worship the crucified one.   Their transformation in this life, leaves me with little option but to believe they did encounter Jesus, he did appear to them, he was present to them, and he is present to them and to us still.

There was a series on NPR for a week where they invited people from many faiths to talk about belief in life after death.  A Rabbi made a wonderful argument.  He says that he believes in life after death because of justice.  The promise of this life seems broken.  There is far too much suffering, far too much wickedness, far too much pettiness of spirit and downright meanness on earth to believe that the potential, the righteousness of God has been satisfied.  I am restating his argument in my own words; I hope I am not misrepresenting him.  He says God’s justice demands that there be more than this life.

This sentiment rings in my heart.  I look at all the people I encounter.  I see such suffering in their lives.  I see relationships broken because of a perversion of God’s intent.  I am saddened by lost opportunities for beauty, and love, and fellowship, and joy, and peace, especially in the lives of some people who seem caught in circumstances that overwhelm them, and I think this is not what I feel in my heart to be true.  God is going to right this, if not in this life, then in another.

This argument about God’s justice and my perception of the life of the Apostles are enough to support my faith.  They are enough to allow me to believe with a good  sense of intellectual integrity.  I can declare and celebrate saying, “Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!”

However, I this week I cam to realize my arguments are bad, bad that is when compared to what I came to realize this week.  I came to realize I had ignored the most compelling and indeed the most obvious reason to have faith in the resurrection.   Jesus says at the end of his argument that God is the God of the living not the dead.  And then it dawns on me, Jesus is the expression of God’s love.  God loves us. 

God does not just give us new life and everlasting life because he wishes to set right the promise latent in creation.  He does it because he loves us.  Jesus does not just come to set things right because he wanted the job to be done right.  He does it because he desires us.

The apostles were not just transformed because they had hope of everlasting life.  They were transformed because Jesus loves them, and they have come to love him with a life consuming passion.

God wants us to rise to new life because God wants us.  When our hearts grasp this.  When we realize that the resurrection is not just the solution to a problem, but that the resurrection is the embrace of a lover, it is the offering of a relationship of mutual desire, then we realize that desiring God is the purpose of our life, and that desire is so beyond human estimation that nothing can thwart it, not even death. To find satisfaction in God.  To Want God.  When God becomes our greatest treasure.  When God brings us joy.  When we learn this in our hearts.  When we embrace this divine truth, death and life pale in comparison to this love, to this miracle of life: God wants to give himself to us. 

May we throughout our lives give ourselves to God, and know the joy of partnership with the divine! 

Sunday, November 3, 2013: Pineapple Upside Down Cake & The Saints of God

Sermon 20131103

St. John’s Church Downtown Yonkers

Sunday After All Saints’

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18

Psalm 149

Luke 6:20-31

Pineapple upside down cake is a wonderful thing.  It is cooked with the top on bottom, the pineapple rings and cherries on the bottom slightly caramelizing and browning to make a wonderfully delicious and attractive top to the cake once it is turned upside down.

Luke’s Gospel is a kind of pineapple upside down cake.  He sees much of what goes on in the world upside down to what our normal human understanding tends to think.

In Luke’s gospel the Baby Jesus, savior of the universe, is born in a stable. Angels announce this wonderful birth not to kings or to the entire world on the BBC but to poor shepherds, the poorest of the working poor.  When Mary sings her song in thanksgiving for the child she bears, the “Magnificat”, she says the poor have been filled with good things and the rich sent empty away, the mighty have been cast down from their thrones and the lowly have been lifted up.

And as if this was not enough we have another great upside down turning today in Luke’s version of the beatitudes which we have just read.  Jesus says that the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are persecuted are the ones who are blessed.   And he says that those who are rich, have plenty to eat, who laugh and have a good time, and are praised by all are unfortunate.  Woe to them!

Of course all the gospels have the greatest turning upside down of them all, Christ comes to us in this world bringing healing, wisdom, truth, compassion and fellowship with God and rather than being welcomed like the Red Sox were in Boston this weekend with a parade, he is outcast, executed as  criminal.

I think there is an attraction for us when Luke turns our normal thinking upside down.  We deeply sense that the world is not what it should be.  Though humanity has done many wonderful things, no matter what our accomplishments, we watch as injustice, hatred, violence, greed, back stabbing, intolerance, cruelty, snobbery, indifference infect our lives like mold in bread which sends its ugly smelly putric tendrils all through the loaf making what is good repulsive. 

Humanity has a sense that the world lacks something it needs, and much of our private and corporate lives is spent trying to put our finger on it, and seeking to correct.  The writer of the book of Daniel, who wrote our first reading, also had this sense.  

He was brought up on Moses and the Prophets and he saw the world as a place where God was the center of life, the king subordinate to God in order to serve the people, and the priests and peoples live in peace justice and harmony as a community. The law of Moses even has periodic correctives to any imbalance that might happen with years when the slaves were to be freed when debts were to be cancelled and ancestral lands returned to the correct clan.  They had an idea of what it meant for there to be “Shalom” in the world, rather than this mold we experience.

But dream goes unrealized.  Kings misbehave.  Neighbor exploits neighbor. foreign armies and kings conquer the land, exile or kill the people, and destroy the temple.  The beasts in our first reading represent a series of empires which upset the balance of the people of God in this way, with the most cruel being the fourth empire, that of Alexander the Great and his successors, who even set up statues of foreign gods in the very midst of the temple.

But Daniel has more to say not in today’s reading.  He also sees one like the Son of man coming to restore the Shalom, the order that should be for God’s people, with God in the center, and the king and people serving God.  He calls it the kingdom of God.  And this is the hope the prophets create, an expectation for a king, a messiah, an anointed one, who will set all right, who will establish the kingdom of God.

But Jesus and Luke insist that we see upside down.  Jesus and Luke tell us we need to change our expectations, set them up as God desires.  A great king cannot come to impose order on the people.  The kingdom of God cannot be top down. That simply leaves the very mold of force and coercion in the very fabric of society which spoils the dream every time.

Jesus and Luke turn it upside down by saying that shalom comes not from outside, but from inside us.  The kingdom enters not with the king but with the subjects who choose the shalom of the kingdom of God.  It is not by forcing others, but by opening ourselves to God that the kingdom of God takes place.  When we commit ourselves to the process, and it must be a great commitment, the world begins to be put aright, it gets turned upside down in the correct way, like pineapple upside down cake, because we are allowing the kingdom of God to take place in our lives.

This is visible in the lives of saints whom we celebrate today.  When we think of saints, we think of the extraordinary ones.  But we know that Sainthood is not only heroic acts.  If sainthood was about heroism it would not make sense of the Beatitudes and the woes.  Sainthood is a quality of heart, a humble heart before God, open to God’s healing.  Most of the saints who have gone before us remain unnamed.  They may not have done great heroic acts, but they allowed the kingdom of God to take place in their hearts and lives.  They became the kingdom of God in the world, just as Christ did, through the Holy Spirit.  It is not a quick fix.  It is not like taking a pill.  It is more like athletic training, it is more like marriage. 

St. Ephraim of Syria says that when simply one person allows the heart to be fixed on God the resulting benefits touch the lives of thousands.

We at St. John’s are asked to be that for Yonkers.  In our simplicity, and in our humility, we are asked to let God touch our hearts and make us the kingdom of God in the middle of a world off track.

 In just a moment we will be asked to renew our commitment to Christ.  And we will be asked to renew vows concerning our whole lives, vows which we know we can only keep with God’s help.  And we will pray for God to enable us to keep these vows.  I challenge myself, and I ask each and everyone of you to take these vows and these prayers very seriously.  Yonkers needs saints, not necessarily heroes, but people humbly open to God.  And I believe God is asking us to be those people.  In..

Sunday, October 25, 2013: One Open, One Not

Just a picture I like

Sermon 20131027
St. John’s Church
Yonkers

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Luke 18:9-14

St. Augustine and St. Cyril of Alexandria when commenting on this passage compare both the tax collector and the Pharisee to sick people.  They compare sin to sickness.  The Pharisee did NOT report his symptoms to God his doctor, whereas the tax-collector did, and thus the tax-collector went home in an open and real relationship to God the great physician, not the Pharisee.  The tax collector is on the path to healing.

The Pharisee does many good things.  I wish we would all do them.  He prays.  He practices simplicity by fasting.  He is a good steward giving the tithe, the 10% to support the worship of the community.  But practicing religion also means an inner disposition is necessary.  A willingness to be open and honest before God, even when it means facing up to things about ourselves which make us uncomfortable or even ashamed.  It is only by being totally honest and open to God and to ourselves that we can realize the greatness of the blessing we have from God.

We know that the other man is a tax collector, someone who extorts high taxes from already suffering people for a foreign occupying and brutal Empire.  But we do not know the rest of his life.  We do not know the hardships he has been through.  We do not know what it is like to be him.  We should be humble by not making assumptions based on our first impressions of people.  We do know that he is aware of his sins, and he is bringing them to God.  He is staying connected to God in an open honest relationship.  And Jesus says he went home justified, that is in right relationship with God.

When we tell God all the good things about ourselves and we take credit for them, we are making a big mistake.  Those good things about us have their origin in God.  Our purpose is to be humble even in our thanksgiving, overwhelmed by the great generosity shown us.  These gifts can fill us with joy and they are also meant to be shared with others.  When our hearts know love sharing them is a double blessing.

The Pharisee took credit for these things, and thus considered himself better than other people, better than the tax collector.  The sin of the Pharisee is not only pride, that is lack of humility before God, but also judgment, holding in disdain what God loves.  God loves us all.  God loves the tax collector, and wants us not to condemn one another, but to keep channels open so that we can be instruments of his healing.

What if that tax collector moved by his guilt turned to the Pharisee for help?  What kind of help could that Pharisee be since he held the tax collector in disdain?  When we judge or condemn people can we remain open to them?  Or what if we find ourselves in need of their help, what kind of groundwork have we laid for that to be able to happen?

Jesus showed us this kind of humility, this kind of openness to God.  He is the only person in history we believe that could claim to truly be without sin, but because he understood that to be human, to be humble before God meant to stay in relationship with all humans, he joined us in our sin.  He suffered abuse in our broken political and religious systems.  He experienced the betrayal of friend and family.  He suffered death for us on a cross.  He did not claim exemption from all that happens to humanity, rather he made himself available, he even embraced humanity, because he understood that by embracing us God could minister to us through him, and se he became our savior.  The resurrection shows it so sweetly!

Not to judge others is hard.
Not to try and feel better than others is hard.
Not to take credit for the good things God has given us is hard.
The first step is to admit to God when we are doing it.
God will heal us.
God will lead us into the holy path when we open our hearts to him.

The reason we want to abandon judgment, and pride, is not because we want God to love us, or because we want to be saved.
God’s love is beyond question.
We can trust Jesus to be working in us to save us.
We do not need to worry about those things.

We ask God to deliver us from judgment and pride because when we are free of them we can enjoy life so much more, we can have more happiness, more joy.  And God can use us to bring that joy into the lives of others.  We can enjoy God and one another more.

An analogy might be made to a banquet.   We are not trying get an invitation to the banquet.  The banquet is already spread before us.  We are putting away judgment and pride so that we can actually taste and enjoy the banquet.

Let us pray that God will put away our pride and our judgment
And that God will enable us to love God and our neighbor, so freely, so selflessly, that we know a delight surpassing all that we can hope for.

When we put out our hands to receive communion today let us open our hearts to taste God’s goodness.

Sunday, April 29: Easter 5B: Life in Christ is like a Team of Carpenters

Sermon 20120429
Easter 5B RCL
Written for St. John's Church, Getty Square, Yonkers

Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18


Mr. Smith and his crew built several of the houses in our neighborhood when I was just a child.  I was fascinated to walk by and see a house rise from the ground.  First there came the foundation, usually built of cinderblock and a poured concrete base.  That happened before Mr. Smith and his crew arrived.  But after the frame of the house would rise up toward the sky.  There were four in the team and I would watch them work.  They did not talk much.  They worked in concert, measuring and sawing and hammering.  They would build sections and then put them up and nail them together.  Once the house was completely framed the roof was nexted because it protected the work from the elements.  Then tar paper would go around the outside, then the siding, whatever that would be.  The siding was to keep the vandals out.

What struck me was the smoothness of their work.  They were a team.  They were on the same page.  They worked not like four individuals, but like a single force, raising up an edifice.  If you pointed to a certain two by four, or a certain rafter, they would most likely be hard pressed to say who had done what.  They did the work together, their reputation was flawless and they never lacked work.

Today's gospel teaches us about the love that should be between Christians, and the fruit that we should bear by being united into the body of Christ, made a new people.  Mr. Smith's team of carpenters are a living symbol of that.

Christ said that we should love one another so that we are one, just as he and the Father are one, and we give glory to God when we bear good fruit.  It is a connection and unity that is truly profound.  The carpenters represent that unity for me, and their work grows out of that unity.

Yet the image used in the Gospel, that of a vine, is even more profound than that of a team of carpenters.  Jesus compares the community to a vine.  He is the vine, we are the branches.  We are joined to him, and we derive our energy, our nutrients from him.  As the water and nutrients flow from the soil and the leaves into the branch, so our spiritual nurture comes from Christ.  When separated from the vine we wither, dry up, and die.

When we bear no fruit we lose our purpose in being, to produce grapes.  The connection to Christ is pointless.  To be truly part of the vine means both to receive nutrient and to produce fruit.  If either does not happen we are somehow not our true selves..

I had a little fun trying to think of modern parables for this relationship.  It is as though Christ is the power line and we are the bulbs.  Not attached to him we give off no light.  It is like Christ is the water main and we are the faucets.  Unattached we provide no water.

For St. John, our patron, and the writer of today's gospel, what made Christ, Christ, was his being so intimately connected to the Father, and doing the works of the Father, thus enjoying fully the mutual love of the Father, and showing forth God's glory in the world.  There was one energy in the two of them.  The Son did the very works of the Father.  The Father and the Son were one.

As we approach the feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see that this teaching of the Vine is foreshadowing life in the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit is what makes the vine and the branches alive, it is the energy that binds the Son and the Father, and that life lived is so completely an expression of God that the Holy Spirit has come to be understood as one of the very Persons of our Trinity.

Our unity with God, our doing the good things that flow out of God, are the work of the Trinity.  We tend to associate the various traditional actions of God to various persons of the Trinity.  We tend to associate creation with the Father, our Salvation with the Son, and our ongoing life in God with the Holy Spirit.  However, the three are so united that if we are to follow the theological heritage closely we will not assign certain tasks to only one person.  The belief is that the Father and the Spirit are both doing the work of our Salvation  with the Son.  The Son and the Spirit are both doing the work of creation with the Father.  And both the Father and the Son are working in us when we are energized by the Holy Spirit.

The trinity itself is in perfect harmony in the work the trinity does.

How do we allow ourselves to enter into the unity of the Holy Spirit?  What can we do so that our life reflects the glory of God.  What effort is required on our part?

The traditional, and I think wise answer, is that there is nothing we can do.  No act of ours can cause this to happen.  It is grace.  It is gift.

On our side we must desire it, not as a personal possession, but desire to share it.  We must allow God to free us from the prison of self, of radical individuality, of self focus, self absorption, in order to become part of the community of love.  And there are those who even say this surrender to love, is it self a gift.

My desire for St. John's and for all churches is that we grow in this grace.  That God give us this grace, so that we can work together like Mr. Smith and his carpenters.  So that the outside world can see that we love one another.  So that we are inspired to  make a difference in our community reaching out to all those in any hurt or need.  My desire is that when people think of St. John's Church, there is no doubt in their mind that we are disciples of Christ, that Christ is working in us.  My desire is that the clusters of our generosity and love are big and fat like clusters of grapes hanging heavy on a vine.

And MY desire must be surrendered if God is to achieve that.   When I surrender my desire for  the gift of humility I allow God to work in me.  We as a church must discern the direction we believe God desires for us, and be prepared to surrender what we might choose for ourselves.  It is asked of all of us.  Read Scripture.  Study the Tradition.  Pray without ceasing.  Be generous.  Be not afraid.  Love one another.  Somewhere as we seek and desire to be faithful to that proces, it will be God who causes us to bear the fruit God desires, and God's goodness will be known in Yonkers, New York, throughout the world.

Sunday, April 15, 2012:Locked Doors

Why was the door shut? The text tells us that the disciples were afraid of the Jews. They had persecuted and killed Jesus. Were they next?

Why do we lock doors? What does that say about the world we are in? We know only too well that there are people who will come and take our things, or perhaps do harm to us. So we lock doors. I hear occasionally of people who come from neighborhoods where people do not lock their doors. Of course, some communities have walls and gates. Treyvon Martin was in a gated community.

And then there are borders around countries. I know a woman who was not allowed to go into England because the organization that invited her to do a workshop had not applied for the rite visa, and she was not allowed to go into England. They put her on the next airplane to New York.

The reason we create security is because we feel unsafe. We cannot trust other poeple, and we use our efforts to build security. Our feeling unsafe, whether justified or not, displays our fear. And we are afraid because we have only to often experienced the cruelty of this humanity we call our family. We become afraid of each other.

There are many ways to be locked in a room.

Sometimes we are stuck in a job because we do not know if we could make a living if we left.

Some are locked in a job because they have a medical condition and they cannot risk changing insurance.

Some people are locked in fear of their neighborhood. They cannot afford to live in an area where the streets are safe, so they must always worry about their kids and children.

Some are locked in relationships which are taxing and difficult.

Sometimes it is as simple as feeling all alone as someone cares for a loved one in medical need.

Sometimes it can be struggling with children who have made bad choices and the heart is broken.

Sometimes we have a disease, or an addiction, or a pattern of behavior and we feel locked in.

Sometimes we lock ourselves in doors of resentment. We blame others, and judge others, and are angry at others for making our life unsatisfactory. This is perhaps one of the most dangerous locked doors of all, because it distracts us from what God can do for us, and it distracts us from our part in our dilemma.

I think many of us are locked in a room spiritually. We fill our minds with images from the consumer culture we live in, and we have come to believe that our happiness is based on having stuff and the leisure to enjoy it. So we want more and more stuff, and we watch more and more media. And the very media which is supposed to provide us leisure increases the pressure by showing us more and more things we need to be happy, to be beautiful, to be sophisticated, to be cool. When we fill our mind with the messages of consumer culture, sometimes we do not even realize that someone else turned the key in our door.

When the disciples were gathered in the room, they had the doors closed, and they had reason to be afriad. Their ideas of God's kingdom was a threat to the Romans who quite frankly liked ruling the world. And because if the Romans felt threatened the Jewish leaders did too. They had some modicum of power because the Romans allowed them to have it, and they needed to keep the nation in line to hold onto their problem.

Christ's teaching and actions declared the kingdom of God, declared love, declared breaking down barriers, declared caring for those who were oppressed caused his death. The Romans needed to put an end to this, and his disciples wondered if it would stop there. Would those authorities come after them too, just to be sure?

The doors were locked. Tight. And they were hiding.

The resurrected Lord was not kept out by those locks. Jesus came right into the midst of their fears, and said "Peace be with you." He showed them his wounds. And the disciples rejoiced.

That rejoicing was not simply the happiness of being reunited with their teacher and Lord; they also rejoiced because in Jesus's greeting they also found forgiveness for abandoning Jesus during his passion.

The next thing he said to the disciples was that just as the father had sent him he now sends us. And then the strange thing happens. I hope you noticed it. This is the first day of the Week. Our story takes place on EASTER day and Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on them. IN John's Gospel the day of ressurection is also the day of Pentecost!

We see that Christ not only sends us out into the world to do his work, he breathes his very spirit, his power, into our lungs. Breath is such a powerful image. Our bodies need food, and they need oxygen. Jesus gives us his body, his blood, and his breath to empower us to do what he asks us to do.

Just as Jesus rose from the dead with his body. So he wants us to use our spirituality as the fuel for our bodies, so that we can walk out the locked doors to do his work.

Also when he breath on us, breath is also the vehicle by which words travel through air. To be nourished by the Spirit means also to be nourished by the wisdom of the apostles. It means encountering and learning from scripture. It means encountering and learning from the great Christian teachers throughout the ages. It means holding a conversation together to discern the way forward, drawing on the gifts of all.

When we fill our lives with these messages from people who seek good, they unlock the doors our consumer individualistic culture closes on us.

We no longer see comfort, or wealth, or beauty, or sophistication as our good above all other. We know that God who is love is our good above all other. And we go into the world to love and support others. Yes, we will encounter resistance, because so many other people are afraid, just as they were afraid of Jesus. But the resurrection teaches us that this is the most important.

We open all the locked doors of our lives.

We design our lives not based on fear but based on faith and hope.

We do not make decisions based on the values of the media, but based on the values of God.

We let the new life of Christ enter into our real life. That is what salvation is.

We allow God to take away our resentments so that we can discover the wonderful things that the Risen Lord can do for us.

We leave our locked doors, and by God's grace, we know the joy of who God meant us to truly be as we minister to a world which longs for it.