Choosing God's Vision of our Life

Sermon 20120304

St. John's Getty Square

2 Lent rcl year b

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Psalm 22:22-30

Romans 4:13-25

Mark 8:31-38

My college used to have a motto: Bonum inimicum semper optimo. Which literally translated means "The good is always the enemy of the best."

It was meant to cause us young college students recently released from the constant supervision of home, and who had come from schools where we were the top students, to pay attention to our work with our newfound freedom of the college dormitory, and to not be complacent because all of our fellow students used to be the cream of their crop also. Do not assume that on your coasting effort you will rise to the top.

Of course, if one is a perfectionist this advice might be dangerous. I had a friend who used to say "done is better than excellent", meaning it was better to do the best you could now rather than delay until later pursuing the ever allusive perfection. Pefectionist have another struggle.

But today, I think our lessons ask us to pay attention to the reality that we often aim our sights at a goal far below that which God desires to give us. In fact, I think these days we often do not think at all about what we are aiming at all. If we neglect spiritual study, if we neglect self-emptying prayer, if we neglect practicing the presence of God, we might forget that we are on a spiritual endeavor at all. Lent is meant to awaken our reality to the truth we are on a spiritual quest.

Giving up chocolate. Giving up smoking. Whatever. If giving it up does not remind us that God is at work in our lives and we need God more than anything else, we might as well not give anything up at all.

We often think God is up to far less than God really is.

That is what Abraham thought in our first story. Abraham was a wandering cattle owner who God had promised to bless. Abraham thought God was going to just give him a peaceful life, a successful business, a happy family, and some land he could call his own. Now he was very happy with this idea. He really felt he needed all these things. I guess he felt he needed them for the same reason we often feel we need them. When we have all these things, peaceful, healthy life, enough money -- ignoring of course the question, what is enough -- a little house with the mortgage paid off, and people in our lives, we too will be happy.

But God has more in store for Abraham. God announces that Abraham will be the father of many nations. We as Christians believe God already knew that Abraham would be the father of Jesus, and through Jesus the spiritual father of billions of people, of the new humanity.

Abraham wanted the spiritual good, but God knew what he wanted for Abraham was the spiritual best.

Peter falls into the same trap. In the passage just preceding the one today, Peter announces that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and Jesus tells Peter that this was an inspired utterance. Then Jesus announces for the first time that he must suffer, be rejected and die in order to rise again. What God intends for humanity means Jesus must walk down a very hard path. Peter take Jesus aside and admonishes him, that this is not true. No, no, Jesus, what you will do is be a king. You will cast out the Romans, give peace to our kingdom, make our nation prosperous, and the people will be healthy, happy and successful. You are not going to die, Jesus, you are going to fulfill MY expectations.

Then Jesus shocks us. He says to Peter, "Get behind me Satan. You have set your mind on earthly things, not heavenly things."

We are surprised that Jesus speaks thus. We even feel a little sorry for Peter. I often in the past pondered this behavior, and then I realized something recently which cracked it open for me.

Peter had become Satan because Peter actually said things to Jesus that tempted him. Jesus did not want to suffer. Jesus did not want to be rejected. Jesus did not want to die. Jesus would rather have lived his life in peace, healthy, happy, content and successful. Jesus was truly vulnerable on the subject. Peter truly spoke the words of Satan, the temptor. Peter suggested to Jesus that we could do what we desire, rather than what God desires for us. Jesus, said I can be content with so just a successful life in this world.

The reality is when we became Christians we adopted a vision of humanity greater than one ever imagined before. We no longer see our goal as a successful life. We see our goal as the ability to live out the very qualities of God. We can love with passion and all we have. We can be creative and do beautiful great things. We can know a peace and a joy in self-giving that those who pursue wealth, if they only understood one little bit how wonderful it is, would give up everything they have to attain it.

Satan desires to hide this from us. Maybe you do not believe in a personal being named Satan, I am not sure that I do myself. But I do believe that there is a constant force in this world which tries to distract us by hook and by crook from the vision God has for our life.

We can be humble creatures, honest to ourselves and others about who we really are, faults and talents, blemishes and fine features. We can desire the good for others, not judging them, yet also finding the occasions to say what needs to be said in love and kindness. We can see when others desiring our good admonish us, and we can open our hearts to it. We can organize our lives to take care of the poor and the needy, we can organize our actions to pursue justice and fairness for people. We can do this when we open our hearts to a vision of life that is focused on God, not earth.

This path is not an easy one. It does involve taking up our cross. It will involve times of hardship, perhaps suffering. However, in choosing Christ over the world, we open ourselves to more. To what God desires for us.

My prayer for myself and all of us, is that God will open our hearts to glimpse a vision of the life desired for us, and give us steadfast trust in the divine grace to accomplish it..

Sunday, September 11, 2011: Forgiveness

Jesus will share with us his ability to forgive.

Pentecost Thirteen:

Proper 19A RCL : 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Exodus 14:19-31 :Psalm 114: Romans 14:1-12 ;Matthew 18:21-35

Our Gospel is a powerful story about forgiveness. We connect both to the person who is forgiven and to the person who is not. We have all been there. And we connect to the one who forgives and the one who does not forgive. Again, we have all been there. And though I do not think any of us have literally spent time in jail, there are times we have all been metaphorically in prison because we were not forgiven, and I imagine we have jailed many people ourselves because we have not forgiven others.

Let's examine some of the teaching about forgiveness in our tradition.. First, forgiveness is not the same as repentance Forgiveness is when we let go of a wrong and give a person a future.

Repentance is when a person is sorry for a wrong and desire forgiveness. There is no reconciliation between two people without both forgiveness and repentance

We are called to forgive, and we are called to repent. There is no reconciliation, the relationship is not truly whole, until there is reconciliation and the relationship is restored.

However just because someone shows no sign of repentance we are still asked to forgive right away so that it is available as soon as a person might repent. The truth is, if we do not learn to forgive, it will eat us up.

As Christians we are called to be very intentional about both forgiveness and repentance, and both forgiveness and repentance demand the virtue of humility, and the suppression of pride. Love requires us to admit our faults in relationships and seek forgiveness when we need to, and Love requires us to be forgiving, and to desire reconciliation..

Peter is wrestling with this. So when someone offends us how many times will we forgive them... Seven times? Okay, Peter is ready to forgive, but the question is, does it ever run out. Can my patience wear thin? Is there a point where I don't forgive.

Jesus's answer is we forgive seventy times seven times. We forgive as often as it is necessary. St. Augustine of Hippo and the early church theologian Chromotius both see in this parable, in the seventy times seven and in the 10,000 talents a symbol of the sin of the whole world throughout time. If we forgive on this same scale, it means that we forgive just as Jesus forgives, the whole world, without exception, without reservation. If we need to see how costly that forgiveness might be we need look only at the Cross.

Do you feel daunted by such a demand? To forgive all the world? And on this anniversary of 9/11 isn't it hard to forgive those who act in such cold-blood. Yes it is. It is for me. It is practically impossible. The cruelty and wickedness of human beings can drive us beyond anger even into rage, deep hurt and grief.

The ability to forgive in this way is not humanly possible.

That is why we do not try to do it on our own strength. We confess to God that we are unable, and we ask for God to give us the strength to be forgiving in this way. We must look to Jesus on the Cross who is ready to forgive us the sin of the world.

We look to Jesus for our forgiveness, and we look to Jesus for the forgiveness of the world. Perhaps I am not able at this time to forgive, but I turn to Jesus and I opt for him, not for myself. I choose his behavior, his way of life, not mine.

We can look to the wisdom of our teachers in the faith from our tradition for help how we might open ourselves to that power. The tradition recommends, sit down, breath, pause, and be aware of the presence of God.

There is no better course of action when we experience extreme and disturbing events. Pause.. "Be still and know that I am God" the Psalms tell us. The Holy Spirit is here always, and when we pause to remember that, to let it penetrate the deep places in our heart, we connect to the power of Jesus, we can live according to his ways, and not our own.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a book, "Writing in the dust" and he said in response to the evil destruction inflicted on the victims of the World Trade Center we must pause, in order to connect to the Spirit of God. And from there respond.

I reviewed so much about September 11, 2011 in preparation for today, and I so want to share a story, but I don't have time now. It is about two people who paused on 9/11 inside the towers themselves. One survived and one did not. Both paused because they were in the process of helping someone else escape. I hope you will ask me about it, because I so want to mediate on these two stories.

As we remember 9/11 today we too will pause. We grieve for those who have died and those who lost loved ones. We grieve for our nation and we attempt to make sense of the events that have transpired since that day. We have anger at those who would take the lives of others, and even do it in the name of God. Today, we will pause and connect to God. We are invited to choose Jesus's way, and to open ourselves up to what that might mean, by being still. In our silence we ask for the love and the wisdom of Jesus.

After the creed we will have a special form of the prayers of the people. We will enjoy a long long silence and during that time all are invited to come and light a votive light. We light these lights as a prayer, and we also light these candles with the prayer that our heart and life may become a candle for the world giving off the light of Christ. In the name

Sunday, September 4, 2011: Proper 18A

Our first reading is about the Passover, the sacred meal the Israelites had on the night before they were let go from Israel. It is an eire passage as the angel of death slips through the city taking the lives of the firstborn. The Israelites were spared because they marked their lintels with blood, a sign that they were trying to follow the instructions of God.

The Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites for 400 years, but do you think the Egyptians were happy? When they had the children of Israel as their slaves?

Maybe they didn't realize they had a problem, but I think on the deep level they could not have been happy.

I say that because of my experience of the South. I saw recently the movie the Help. It describes the life of black housekeepers who care for little white children while someone else is at home taking care of their own.

The white people thought everything was great, but black people were underpaid, overworked, and treated as second class human beings. White people had a master lifestyle on a craftsman salary because black people did the hard work for very little pay.

White people thought they were happy, but that is not the truth. There was a cancer eating away at the very center of their humanity. Christ teaches us that God is love, and to know God we must love our sisters and brothers. However, many white people did not even recognize their brother and sister around them. The true beauty of humanity as God intended it was becoming shriveled up, black and putrid.

They walked in delusions and ir-realities. They are most to be pitied.

So, No, I do not believe the Egyptians were happy. They thought they were happy. Just like someone who lives in a palace but does not understand that the structure of the house is about to collapse on them and ruin them forever.

No they were, crippled versions, of humanity Something had gone wrong so that they preferred cruelty to kindness, oppression to cooperation. And they even held onto those slaves, despite countless plagues. God showered them with frogs, fiery hail, gnats, lice, locusts. God turned their river to blood, covered their body in boils, and sent darkness to cover the earth.

And still they did not relent, not until they lost their firstborn, sadly representing the truth that our refusal to reform leads not only to our own suffering but to that of those whom we love also.

Sadly I think this is the human condition. We can see the cracks forming in our life as we lead it, and yet we will continue living the same way. It takes a situation where we lose practically everything before we will listen to God, and understand that our life depends on God and that the only satisfying way to lead life is to love.

Paul writes in his Epistle today "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Now love is not a smile and a sweet "Hello". Love is arranging our lives so that it respects and serves our neighbor. We design our lives so that we seek the good of all people. Love recognizes that we are all bound to one another and that our life as we live it impacts the lives of others.

My purchases help support an economic system which depends on cheap labor in the third world. We could begin to make all our own clothing like Ghandi, or we could work hard to promote justice for the people who make our clothes. Love requires some response.

This is why the church has adopted to support the Millennium Development Goals. These goals were developed by a United Nation commission and have won widespread support from the world's religious communities. They are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce childhood mortality rates, improve maternal health, combat diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, to develop a global partnership for development.

Our parish participates in the Carpenter's kids program which is inspired by these goals. We promote people to support Episcopal Relief and Development buy buying gifts from their catalog such as chickens and seeds and mosquito nets for those in need. And this year our Sunday School is going to raise money towards an ER-D project.

This is how we love. We acknowledge that we are all in relationship in this world, and we try to lead lives that are faithful to those relationships. And we know that we need forgiveness for we are slow to change, and sometimes halfhearted in our attempts to love. It is not easy.

Our gospel reading today talks about a process or reconciliation in the community when there is conflict. When a party feels wronged they are invited to talk to the person. This is something that takes great courage. To go to someone whom you feel has wronged you, and to seek reconciliation. I find this daunting. I come from a conflict averse family. We tend to walk away and never talk to such a person, cowering in anger and fear. But as we try to build a church, a restored humanity in Christ, we must make an effort to resolve our conflicts. Otherwise they work against all we try to do. Hard stuff.

I believe the Civil rights movement lead by Martin Luther King, Jr. was such an effort. Black people confronted white people with how they were being treated and demanded redress to their grievances.

I think the Millennium development goals reflect the same process. Representatives from all over the world asked, why should a baby raised in the West never know hunger, and a child born in another part of the world never have enough? Is this love? Is this justice?

The same is true here in our country. To owe someone love, to be reconciled to our neighbor involves us knowing about our community and our world and finding ways to respond to its needs. That is love.

The night that the angel of death passed through the streets the Israelites shared a sacred meal. The next day they left slavery for freedom. We come here each week bringing to Christ our stories of a world which needs so much love, and fed at this table, we are sent out to love that world. As we do this the heart in our breasts is healed slowly. We begin to be less focused on self, and we can begin to turn our eyes towards others and show them love through our actions and our deeds. This is how we too find freedom.

In the name....

Sermon given March 27, 2011: Living Water

PROPERS Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42; Psalm 95

SERMON

Mmmmm. Living water welling up in us to everlasting life. That sounds good.

Do you feel any admiration for this Samaritan woman at the well? She answers and engages in conversation as an equal. I detect a little bit of playfulness in the conversation. Do you think I am imagining it? Sir, you have no bucket. How will you draw water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us the well?

The conversation is very mixed. In the course they talk about history.. It was Jacob who gave us this well. Jesus brings up her personal life. They talk about prejudice: You, a Jew, are asking me for a drink. She brings up theology. Jesus teaches that the time is coming when the true worshippers will worship the Father not in a specific time and place but in spirit and in truth. National pedigree, race, gender will not matter. What will matter if a person comes in spirit and in truth. If a person can be really who they are before God. There is self disclosure. "I have not husband." "I am the Messiah."

We often focus on this story being about Jesus' willingness to transgress conventional boundaries in order to include people, and it is that. He goes to Samaria. A no-no. He talks to a woman. A no-no. He drinks from an implement a Samaritan has used, a no-no. Jesus sees all people as his friends.

But this time, I was struck that this story as a moment of encounter and fellowship. It is an informal, every day, normal getting a drink kind of moment. How many times does one drink water in an arid climate? Eight? Twelve? It is like the proverbial water cooler., a place of conversation and community. This exchange where walls between two people were broken down, and where the gracious presence of God became known, happened in a very ordinary conversation at a drinking hole. We should not be confused by the fact it is a holy story. The event is like events we experience every day..

What they did also reminds me of our worship. We come to this table each week to encounter God. To give thanks for our life, for our salvation, to ask assistance both for ourselves and the world. We sit down and we engage in a ritual conversation. We read stories and reflect on our spiritual journey as a people. Then we engage in a meal with God where we give ourselves to God who transforms that gift (us) into the Body of Christ and gives it (us) back to us. In this Eucharist, in the holy conversation and in this holy meal God enters our lives making us into the saints, the people who go out into the world and show and discover his presence all around..

Our worship is a rehearsal for our life. The next thing we do right after this service is also very sacred. We go to coffee hour. There at coffee hour we practice doing in our day to day life the things Jesus and this woman did at the well, the things we do sacramentally in the Eucharist. We care for one another by sharing sustenance. We tell stories. We make friends with people we would not ordinarily associate with. As we grow closer we share the secrets and challenges of our lives. We talk about theology, what is a good and a wholesome and a spiritual life in the midst of a world that seems so crazy? And we discover in each other the face of Christ.

Can you think of a time where you were nourished by a time in fellowship with others? Have you ever felt known or healed from your encounter with others? Did you ever find a spring of water welling up inside you in the love you found in the seemingly ordinary activities of friendship?

We sometimes despair of finding spiritual nourishment, but the truth is it can be found all over. The people in our Old Testament lesson were worried about having enough water, but God told Moses to strike a rock. A rock? okay, dig a well maybe, but hit a rock with your staff? Say what? But when Moses did, the water flowed. God can satisfy our longings in the most surprising places.

Christ is there to be found everywhere we go. We are taught in Matthew chapter twenty-five that whenever we care for those in dire need we do it to Christ. And the Apostles told us that we should show hospitality and kindness to strangers because many have entertained angels, messengers from God, and even Christ himself. Christ comes to us, speaks to us, ministers to us in our lives through other people. Our Christian life is a growing in seeing all of life, all it's interactions with other people, as encounters with God. through listening to people's stories of joy and sorrow, by sharing our bread and drink with them, by imitating Christ's example of care and witness, we see all of life transformed into worship of God and communion in Christ.

We will read soon of the two disciples walking to Emmaus when they encounter a stranger. They begin speaking about all that happened to Jesus of Nazareth and the conversation turns to scripture. When they break bread they recognize Jesus with them and they say to each other, did not our hearts burn within us along the road? I feel like this happens often at our Bible Studies, and our Souper Spiritualities, here at St. John's. Our hearts are warmed and our souls feel nourished. Sometimes I think we cheat ourselves by not talking about God enough because so often when we do we come alive. And I don't mean just the simple things we sometimes say like, "well it is in God's hands" or "God is good." Those are good things to say. But I mean why not find times to wrestle with the deeper questions such as Jesus and this Samaritan woman discussed.

Where can we enjoy pondering on the grace and goodness of God? There are springs of living water waiting for us to chance upon them.

St. Paul writes to us in today's reading that the love of God has been poured into our lives, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. This love of God, this Holy Spirit is with us always, in all we do, at home, at work, we need only look in order to find.

If there is anything to focus on in Lent, in this time when we examine our lives and repent of those harmful things we do to ourselves or others, as we try to focus on doing those wholesome things that we neglect, it is good to resolve to keep our eyes open for Christ in our encounters with others. To be prepared not only to minister to others, but to recognize when we are being ministered unto. It is good to see that all of Life becomes the Eucharist, a sharing of life giving stories, ours and others, and a sharing of nurturing food and drink. As we say to each other in the Liturgy. The Lord be with you. And also with you. May we notice that he actually is. Every moment of our lives. There is a spring of water welling up in us. Let us open the eyes of our heart and see it, and open the lips of our heart to taste its freshness with great gladness.

(The beautiful photograph is provided by Samurai / www.freedigitalphotos.net Thanks!)

Sermon: Given Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sermon 20100228

2 Lent Year C RCL

St. John's Getty Square

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35

In the name....

There was a great emperor in India named Ashoka the Great. He ruled in the 3rd Century BC and he conquered all of what is modern India. He became famous because he was an enlightened ruler calling the people of his empire his children, forbidding violence even to animals, and entering into diplomatic and friendly relations with the nations around him. This was due to his conversion to Buddhism. He walked out into the city one day after his victory, and after observing the destruction everywhere, the piled up corpses of the victims of war, he asked, "If this is victory, what is defeat?"

Ashoka, I think, got it. He was a man who could easily fall into the temptation of power: shortcuts, self-privilege, worrying more about power than the judgment of God. H.G. Wells in his book the History of the World said, "... there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'their highnesses,'... But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day.

Ashoka's empire did not last long, but an emblem of his rule is still to this day on the flag of India. He is remembered for his goodness.

I think this is what we learn in Lent. Our collect says today, the glory of the Lord is mercy. Mercy is his glory. Forgiveness. Aren't we taught over and over again that this is weakness? That it is unjust? That it introduces fault lines in the fabric of our society? Isn't the common wisdom longer and longer prison terms, and heaven help the ex-convict who is looking for a job. But our collect, this Lent, teaches us that the glory of the Lord is mercy.

This is not what we come to understand in our superficial contact with the universe. We think that might, power, being right, being strong is glory. That is what saves us in crisis. But the glory of the Lord is mercy.

There is a deeper truth built into the fabric of the universe. It was wonderfully told in the Chronicles of Narnia. The White witch thought she could take over Narnia by power, by strength. And she had the right to kill one of the four kings and queens of Narnia, namely Edmund, because he had been a traitor to his brother and sisters. Yet, Aslan, the lion, the enemy she feared the most, the son of the Great Emperor across the sea, Aslan, agreed to give his life in exchange for Edmund. The White Witch executed Aslan on a stone altar. When Aslan's friends to their delighted suprise later found him alive and full of a vigor that perhaps surpassed his former power, Aslan said to them that what the White Witch had failed to comprehend was the deeper law writ into the Universe. The goodness of an innocent soul exchanging his life for someone who deserved punishment reaches deeper into the truth of the universe than we normally rech. It is part of a deeper law. The glory of God is mercy.

There is a deeper truth built into Universe, and those who look only at the surface will fail to see it. And to obey that truth makes us sometimes seem foolish, weak and naive to the wise of this world.

Abraham in our story seems foolish. He trusts that God will fulfill the promise to make him the father of a great nation even though a foreigner is his heir. How can Abraham be the father of three religions when at the age of almost 100 he had no children at all. It is because he understood there is a truth deeper writ in reality than that which is on the surface. He trusted in the Lord and it put him right with God and with the world.

Jesus today baffles us. He looks even more foolish. He is warned not to go to Jerusalem by the very people who are in cahoots to kill him, yet he goes anyway. He is operating by a different belief. He is operating by a belief that the glory of the Lord is mercy. He is operating by a belief that God is Love, and that justice, truth and love, will overcome all the tools of the devil, even the fear of death.

One of the reasons we fast is we confront our own mortality. Without food we die. And so we give up food for periods of time to remind us of our mortality. But we also are reminded that food, and indeed life, is not everything. There is more to life. There is goodness, beauty, there is justice, there is delight, there is peace and joy. There is always hope for those with faith. And above all there is love. Sometimes it is better to lay down our life so that it becomes the expression of love than it makes sense to grasp on to it.

Jesus in our gospel knows this. He acts from confidence and from deep wisdom. But I do not believe Abraham does understand it quite so deeply. This strange passage lets me know that Abraham only understands as though in a deep sleep. In his deep sleep he sees this pot of fire representing God passing between these sacrificed animals. He only sees dreamily the signs that means God will keep the promise to make Abraham a great nation whose people outnumber the stars in the sky. For Abraham this deep truth about the world, about the faithfulness and love of God, is seen in shadows of slumber, and in strange symbols.

I think the same is true for us at first. In fact, I think it is scary at first, when we begin to make our decisions based on justice, truth and love rather than on what is best for number one. In fact, some will pity us and call us foolish. Ashoka the Great would not, I do not believe. Neither would the Buddha whose disciple Ashoka was. Neither do I suspect would Abraham, religious forebear of almost 4 billion living people today. I am sure Jesus would not.

At first we come to believe this hesitantly, that justice, truth and love, that mercy are the foundation of life in the universe. But I believe that as we practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving in Lent, as we meditate on the story of Jesus, as we devote our body, mind and imagination to the Eucharist, its readings and prayers and pious acts, as we do this, I think we slowly awake from a shadowy dream like faith into the living faith of Jesus.

I believe this because of the witness of the Apostles. I believe this because of the witness of the Saints. I believe this because I see hints of it in my experience and the experience of others. At first we accepted faith by coercian from our parents and peers, then we began to accept it because it was beautiful, and now I am beginning to think as we gain experience and wisdom, we may feel some of it's peace. If we surrender to God and to a commitment to practice our faith it will bring us to the same peace and acceptance we see in Jesus. Indeed, it will bring us to the fulness of Easter Joy, not just at the holiday, but in the very depth of our being.

In the name...