You are no longer Strangers and Aliens, but Members of the Household of God

 Author’s Note: I wrote this on July 15, 2021 during another stressful and challenging time in our country. This appeared in my Memories today and I believe it can be helpful to us in navigating our current situation in the United States. I pray it will be helpful to all of us a we seek God’s will for our nation and the world. Blessings and Peace. 

You are no longer Strangers and Aliens, but Members of the Household of God

 

So, Jesus came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

The title for today’s reflections comes from Ephesians 2:12-22, written by Paul or one of his followers in the 50’s or 60’s A.D. as instructions to both Jews and Gentiles, on how to live together as God’s people, and perhaps even like each other and cease being hostile to one another even though they come from different backgrounds and spiritual traditions. This letter celebrates the author’s vision for the church and how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus brought together a new and unified community. When it was written it expanded the vision of God for both Jews and Gentiles, giving to all a greater understanding of the “bigness of God and of God’s inclusive Kingdom.

I believe we today can learn from this timeless writing how we, like those in Paul’s day, continue to put God in a box, limiting, not God, but ourselves. As we open our boxes and let God be God to us, God will open our hearts to see God’s universal love for “all the Children of the World.”

The more I read the Christian and Jewish Scriptures on which I have been nourished from my youth, the more I realize I am not qualified to determine “who is in and who is out” of God’s kingdom based solely on their religion or lack thereof, or their politics and whether they agree with me or not. I do believe that our allegiance to God comes before our allegiance to country, and that being first a citizen of the Kingdom of God will give us the vision necessary to be a citizen of our country of birth or choice as well as a citizen of the world. Jesus gives us an example of how this might work in the following passage from Mark’s Gospel.

“And the Disciples and Jesus went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. As people recognized him, they rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.” (Mark 6:30-56)

My prayer for all of us today is that, like Jesus and the early disciples, wherever we go and whatever we do, that all whose lives are touched by us will be healed.

 

 

 

Jesus People and Violence in America

 Time Present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in the past.

                                                         --T.S. Eliot 

Note: This column was first published July 13, 2016, and republished on July 14, 2020. In light of our continuing struggles for Justice and Peace in America, it seems appropriate to republish. This should up on my Facebook Memories this morning, July 14, 2024, 17 hours after former President Trump was attacked at a rally in Pennsylvania. So today, July 14, 2024, I publish for the third time in eight years. I pray that I will not have to publish again on July 14, 2028. May God guide us all to show mercy to one another. 

As a Christian and a Preacher called to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel in good times and bad, the past two weeks have been a challenge. Two Black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were killed by police officers, one in Baton Rouge Louisiana and the other in a Minneapolis suburb. Then before we as a nation could come to grips with these tragedies, five police officers in Dallas, Texas, Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Ahrens, were killed by a sniper near the end of a peaceful demonstration by the group “Black Lives Matter.” 

We also know that there were others in America who died violently last week in situations which did not make the national news and which were less politically charged. These losses of life were no less important to the loved ones of those who died. 

How do we who are followers of Jesus, “the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” respond to these actions and the divisions they either cause or point out in our nation? 

I want to begin looking for an answer by looking at the Gospel which was read at Christ Episcopal Church in Albertville, Alabama, and many other churches this past Sunday. 

We read in Luke 10:25-37, that a lawyer stood to test Jesus, and asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” We know the story, Jesus asks him what is written in the law, and he responds, “you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” When the lawyer tries to justify himself by asking, “who is my neighbor,” Jesus tells him and the crowd the story of the ‘Good Samaritan.” 

He then asks the man, “who then was the neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?” To this he responds, “the one who showed him mercy.” Jesus then challenges him to “Go and do likewise.” So this is my beginning: as Jesus People, as Christians, we begin with scripture, and we open our hearts to that scripture together. This is not always the starting place for people today. Often, we begin by choosing sides. We either choose the police, or we choose “Black Lives Matter.” I believe Jesus would choose both, just like he chose Samaritans lives matter and lawyers lives matter. 

As many others are doing, I have been watching Dallas, Texas to see if there are lessons we can learn from them. I have seen police and civilians of all races embracing one another and supporting one another. I have read of Sergeant Ed Trevino, a part of the “Heroes, Cops and Kids Community Campaign,” that works to build better relationships between police and civilians by sharing concerns and listening to one another. His advice to all of us: “communicate and make sure you have all facts before deciding who is right and who is wrong.” 

Dallas has strengthened my belief that we are all in this together: police and civilians, black, white, yellow, brown, Christian, Moslem and Jew. If not, we are in deep trouble. As Sergeant Trevino says, “the vast majority of people out there are good people, and we have to band together rather than divide. 

Our world is not simple, there are competing philosophies and ideas, and it is important to hear the words of others and try to understand where they are coming from just as it is for them to hear and try to understand us. Will this be easy? No. Can we with our human wisdom and knowledge alone solve the problems of violence and division? Probably not. But if we build our foundation on the solid rock that is our God and on the foundation of the Prince of Peace, then there is truly hope that we as human beings will find the “peace that passes all understanding.” 

Addendum July 14, 2024: Today as we await more details of the incident in Pennsylvania, I see people jumping to conclusions, looking for someone to blame. I also see many others in leadership calling for patience, calling for love of country and of love of one another. Now is the time to pray for each other and for our Country, to allow law enforcement to find the facts. Now is the time to follow Jesus’ teachings and example. 

May we “love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS WE LOVE OURSELVES.

Today, I believe Jesus is asking us the same question and giving us the same answer he gave the lawyer: 

“Which one was neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?” “The one who showed him Mercy.” 

May we “Go and do likewise!”

Good News, Bad News, Good News

The Good News about the Episcopal Church is that there’s room for everybody. The bad news about the Episcopal Church is that there’s room for everybody. The Good News of the Gospel is that it can teach us how 2 live with everybody, even if our faith leads us to see the world differently from one another. In the Gospel of Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, we see Jesus send out the seventy disciples two by two throughout the land to invite people into a relationship with God and with one another. He sends them out with these instructions: “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, so pray that the Lord will send more laborers into the harvest.” Then Jesus admonishes them to be those laborers, and to “travel light:” “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.”

“Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.' Then go out into its streets and say to them, ‘even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.'” So, whether the people welcomed the disciples or not, the Kingdom of God had come near to them.

The following prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer sums up this Gospel in one small Paragraph. “O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection. Amen.” 

How can we live out the Gospel and this prayer in a church where there is room for everybody? How do we, the Body of Christ, proclaim this good news in a country where there is so much division, even among those of us who follow Jesus? Answer: refer to the above prayer! 

This a statement not about politics, but about faith, about how the good news of the Gospel of Christ can shape our politics and our relationships. As we look at political actions and relationships, we first remember the words of Jesus that “the Kingdom of God has come very near you. 

Having said that, I want to reflect on politics and on our responses to the many decisions handed down by the Supreme Court over the past two years. Decisions affecting abortion, gun rights, carbon emissions, immigration and presidential immunity among others. The reactions by the citizens of our country and the members of our religious communities have been quick and emotional and diverse. Many people have been thrilled and excited and joyful. Others have been disappointed, angry, hurt and heart broken. Many of the people on all sides of these important issues are people of faith, who have made their decisions based on their faith and their life experiences, just as you and I have come to our decisions based on our own faith and life experiences. Many on all sides are members of your faith community.

This piece is not about who is right and who is wrong about any of these decisions, even though I have my opinions about that and I will work faithfully towards those ends. No, this piece is about how we as people of faith relate to God and to one another. So, I do not leave you with answers to difficult questions at this point, I leave with a prayer that I hope and pray will lead us into right relationship with God and one another in our churches, our country and in a world where “there is room for everybody.”

“O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection. Amen.”

Yes, “the Kingdom of God has come very near to us!”