Family, History, Jesus, and the Church

(A sermon preached on at Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, Alabama on August 5, 2012) 

Family, History, Jesus, and the Church 

What a wonderful weekend of family, friends and history.  First, allow me to explain how I came to be in Albertville this weekend in the first place. The story began several months ago in Wetumpka when my friend, Peggy Blackburn, managing Editor of our newspaper, the Wetumpka Herald, knowing that I often come up to visit my mother, asked if I would officiate at her daughter’s wedding on August 4 in Guntersville.  I readily agreed and not long afterwards, Father David Kendrick asked me if I could supply here because he and Laura were going to Washington D.C. for their son John’s wedding. Again I agreed.  And just over a month ago my brother Pat told me about the Main Street Music Festival and the program of Sand Mountain music history that was to take place this weekend.  Jim Connor (who wrote Grandma’s Feather Bed) and is one of Sand Mountain’s most famous musicians,  along with my friend Gary Pledger were to tell the “family” history of music on Sand Mountain.  Add to that my regular visits with my almost 90 year old mother, Eunice, and there really was no other place I wanted to be or could be this weekend. 

This convergence of family and friends and history reminds me of the convergence of family, friends and history which I found in this week’s opening collect (prayer) and this week’s lectionary readings from Exodus and Ephesians.  When my life experience and the scriptures come together like this it both excites me and scares me to death.  I sit up and listen because I am pretty sure God is about to communicate something I need to hear. 

I continue by rereading a portion of today’s opening collect: 

“Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. . . .” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 232) 

Keep this prayer in mind as we journey together as the family of God and the body of Christ, the Church.  We read in Exodus 16 that “the whole congregation of Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  The Israelites said to them, if only we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt, but you have brought us here to die in the wilderness.  Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘say to the people, draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining. . . .Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people that I shall feed them and they shall kno that I am the Lord their God.” 

Apparently God’s people have complained from the beginning of time.  They have misunderstood God, they have disagreed with God’s plans and with their fellow human beings.  God’s people have not liked God’s plan, they have not liked change, they have not liked the unknown and have very often not liked the ideas of their fellow travelers. 

Let’s move forward another 1200 years in our “family” history and see what “the prisoner of the Lord” has to say in his letter to the church in Ephesus, another congregation that has also fallen into disagreements, perhaps misunderstood Paul’s teachings and maybe even understood God’s calling but did not like what they heard. 

“I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you were called, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain  the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-16) 

As I read these words I felt in my soul that this is the key, this is the Gospel God sent Jesus into the world to call us into.  That it is through this lens that we are called to see and be the church in the world.   

As I looked at our beloved church and world through this lens and reflected on Bishop Sloan’s report from General Convention and his statement that the discussions there about important issues of human sexuality and relationships were both difficult and respectful.  The same, he said was true for the many other issues brought before convention from open communion to re-organization of the Episcopal Church.  I also read and reflected on the responses to our Bishop’s remarks and they too were respectful, whether they agreed or disagreed with the bishop’s decision to vote for a liturgy for the blessings of same sex relationships or agreed or disagreed with his decision not to implement the liturgy in our diocese. 

Whether we agree or disagree with Bishop Sloan is not the point.  The point is that “we treat one another with all humility, gentleness’ and patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. WOW! 

Paul continues in this passage from Ephesians: ‘for there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”  But we as God’s people are not and should not be one in ideas, beliefs or talents. . . . “For each of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.”

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord and we are given gifts, not to tear down the body, but to build up the body.  We are joined together in baptism with the Lord and with each other and as I tell people at baptisms, we are “stuck with each other and we do not have the luxarary to tear ourselves lose from one another.  Are baptism does not require us to agree with one another on everything, not even theology or the bible, but according to St. Paul it does call us to treat one another with “all humility, gentleness, patience bearing with one another in love, making every effort two maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  In a few minutes we will all come to the altar to receive the very body and blood of Christ, the very presence of Christ which joins us together with one another and with God.  When we stand or kneel together, quite likely beside someone with whom we disagree, we are the church, in all of our humanness and messiness.  And we see each other as who we are, children of God.  I believe this is God’s Call to us in our faith, in our politics, in our families and in the world.

Let us pray: “Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your church, and because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness. Amen.

“Build My Church:” Buildings and Bible School

Honduras Good Works: Days 4 and 5, July 21 and 22, 2012

“Build My Church:” Buildings and Bible School

When God told the 12^th and 13^th century St. and Mystic, Francis to build His Church Francis had a small misunderstanding and believed he was to rebuild the building of the Church of San Damiano near Assisi in Italy.  Francis set out to accomplish this task which he did successfully.  Francis later realized that God had, in fact, called him to “build His Church,” to bring people into a true and honest and life giving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  He spent the remainder of his life doing just that.  He formed an order later known as the Franciscan Order and their purpose was to bring the people of Italy into that relationship.

Our purpose in Zarzal was not unlike that of Francis.  We went with the intention of “Building Christ’s Church.”  Our first task was to begin the building of the church building.  We followed this task with a three day Bible School for the children of Zarzal.  Bible school was scheduled from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  The theme of our time together was “Campiones de la Fe,” taking our cue from the upcoming Olympic Games as well as from the life of Jesus.  Pat Ritchie organized and coordinated the program, Kathy Doane led the physical exercises and games and Tracey was our all around “do whatever needed to be done guy.  Elizabeth Miller and I told the stories about Olympic champions as well as spiritual champions.  We also led discussions and watched our own heads spin around as we spent several hours each “speaking in tongues (Spanish).”

The 3 to 11 year olds really got into everything and the teens of the community were a great help in leading the activities and working with the children.  A couple of the teens even led a rousing game of “Simon Dice.” (Simon Says).  We took journeys with Jesus as well as a journey with a young man named John as he participated in his first Olympics.  We drew pictures depicting Jesus’ work of salvation for us and for all of God’s people and we played lots and lots of games.

After the first day, the 1:00 p.m. start time became 9:30 a.m.  So we took turns playing games and creating activities with the children and working on the building.  I suspect St. Francis may have had some of these same issues of budgeting his time.  Day one and two brought us 24 children along with several parents and day three 50 children had shown up before lunch time and they were joined by a dozen teens who helped make things happen and keep things calm.

What a blessing to teach, learn and travel with God’s people in the world.  When God calls you to build The Church, be ready for whatever God sends your way!

“Iglesia de La Epifania, Zarzal, Honduras”

Honduras Good Works: Day 3, July 20, 2012

“Iglesia de La Epifania, Zarzal, Honduras”

Though arriving a day late, I became the Designated Driver (it’s not what you think) for our time.  Having worked for the US Forest Service in years past and dodged my share of logging trucks on one lane mountain roads in California I was simply elected.  We had two projects in Zarzal.  The first was to assist with building a building for the Church of the Epiphany and the second was to lead a Bible School for the Children of the village (Bible School Story will come later).  Fortunately for us and for the good people of Zarzal, the Deanery through “Reverando Dagerburto Chacon” hired Jorge, a man who knew what he was doing, to supervise the project and to make sure that Pat, Tracey, Kathy, Elizabeth and I along with the local volunteers did our part properly so that the building will stand as it should.

Zarzal is about five miles “off the paved road” on a narrow dirt and rocky track that requires four wheel drive to traverse.  Due to this remoteness we mixed concrete by hand on the ground using shovels as mixing tools.  We then carried the concrete in three gallon buckets or by wheelbarrow to the trenches we had helped to dig, pouring it in over the rebar we had also put into place (having learned how to do that “on the job.”)

As we worked side by side with the local adults and teenagers we learned more about Honduras Good Works Mission.  We learned that in 2004, a grass roots scholarship movement grew out of a conversation around a table while folks relaxed after a long days work in the medical portion of the mission.  Today, Honduras Good Works provides $250 Scholarships to 140 teens, which allows them to attend a “collegio” for middle school and high school.  Education in most villages ends with the sixth grade.  The $250 does not pay for everything, but added to what the families can pay and the service work donated to the community by the teens themselves it makes this education a reality.

The teens in Zarzal, male and female worked right beside us, digging ditches, mixing concrete, hauling buckets of concrete (yes, the girls too) and thus fulfilling their part of the “win/win” agreement.

Money was donated by friends of our group as well as others to purchase the materials and pay Jorge.  The work will continue until the money runs out and will be suspended until more money is raised. This is the way things work.  Not ideal, but as my friend and former Associate, The Rev. Susan Kennard says, “what is, is.”  And it works.

What a blessing to spend several days building and learning and building some more.  What a humbling experience and a blessing to be reminded that the “Americans” are part of the team and not the source of all wisdom, knowledge and skill.  What a blessing to be reminded that in God’s Economy, all are necessary and that the image of God is only complete when all of us are included in it.

“Leaving on a Jet Plain, Racing Through Tegucigalpa”

Honduras Good Works: Day 2, July 19, 2012

“Leaving on a Jet Plain, Racing Through Tegucigalpa”

After a wonderful day at the Houston Passport Office and environs, Becky, Reign and I journeyed back to the Houston International Airport to secure our boarding passes and make sure our other two stragglers were accounted for and would be with us at 6:30 the following morning.  Boarding passes accomplished, and 50% of our companions accounted for, the final member of the team made it down on the 20^th of July.

The next morning we passed through security again with our newly minted passports.  The TSA officer noted that the shirt in my passport photo was the same shirt I was (still) wearing.  I guess he figured that one out.  Getting on the plane with a passport good for ten years (until July of 2022) was a piece of cake.  Anyone who has ever flown to Tegucigalpa, Honduras knows that the approach and landing is a life changing experience.  As the 737 comes across the last hill approaching the airport, one can see the smiles on the faces looking out of the windows of the homes (which appear to be at wing level), and then the plane almost skims the surface as it heads for the airport.  If one was not religious when the mission began, I promise you will find yourself praying to God or to anyone else who might listen.  According to the flight attendant, this airport is the second most dangerous in the world.  Wherever the most dangerous one is, I do not want to go there.

The four of us met Randall, the coordinator of our mission at the airport as well as three young Honduran women who were to be translators for some of the medical practitioners.  The women had heard of our mission the day before, via cell calls from a friend of a friend of a friend.  They turned out to be wonderful, caring young people and an asset to our group.

We then loaded into three Nissan four wheel drive trucks and began “The Amazing Race, Tegucigalpa Style.”  Randall knew where he was going and Becky and I stayed right on his tail lights, not letting little things like traffic lights, stop signs and other vehicles get in our way.  After driving round and round and round, we finally ended up on the road to Zamorano and the Kellogg Agriculture Institute.  Not only does the institute provide an excellent agricultural education for students from this region, but they also boast of a very good hotel and cafeteria.  This would become our home for the next week.

As our colleagues began to arrive from the villages we shared stories of our own particular adventures during the twenty-four hours we were apart.  It seemed much longer because of all we accomplished during that time.  After Dinner our worship time included a commissioning as missionaries lead by Dr. Don Hopkins, founder of the Mission, The Rev. Paul Moore, board member, Mr. Randall Hollihan, coordinator of the mission,  and The Rev. Deacon Pat Ritchie, coordinator our teams church building and Bible School efforts.  What a powerful reminder of the reason we were there and the presence of God and others in this mission.  It was an excellent message that we are never alone, that a mission such as this must have a group of people with a diversity of gifts and talents and personalities.  I guess what I am trying to say is that if any one of us had been missing, that the image of God would have been incomplete.  We were presented a multicolored cross as a symbol of this mission, which I will treasure forever.

Tomorrow we take a look at life in the village of Zarzal.

“The Houston Passport Office”

Honduras Good Works: Day One

“The Houston Passport Office”

I was invited to go with wonderful friends from Beaumont, Texas on a mission trip to Honduras.  Having served as Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Beaumont, I was excited to join Pat Ritchie, Kathy Doane and Elizabeth Miller and new friend, Tracy Donaie as we became part of a fifteen year old mission, Honduras Good Works.  HGW Mission is primarily a medical mission based out of the Kellogg Agricultural Center in Zamorano, Honduras and St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas.  Our team of five a different perspective to the larger group, as we were to help build a building for “La Iglesia Episcopal de la Epifania,” in Zarzal, a small community located about 40 Kilometers from Zamorano.

All went well as we met the team at the Houston International Airport at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.  We received our boarding passes, had our passports checked three times and all was well. . . .UNTIL WE TRIED TO BOARD THE PLANE.  Passports were checked one more time and two of us found that two months remaining on our passports was not sufficient for us to leave and re-enter the USA, even for a one week trip.

Thus began our adventure: “Spending the day at the Houston Passport Center in order to obtain an expedited passport.”  As inconvenient and time consuming and humbling as it was, I found the experience to be a “learning opportunity,” and a time to build friendships and “share our pain and our gain.”

The mother of my “partner in crime,” a 19 year old by the name of Reign,” was a Captain with Southwest Airlines, who, wearing her full dress uniform drove us to Houston and stayed with us through the entire ordeal (except when she had to leave to feed the parking meter).

Just about the time we began to feel “put upon and mistreated,” a mother from San Antonio arrived, having driven three hours with her four children who ranged in age from 7 years old to four months.  At the end of the day she would drive the three hours back to San Antonio.  Needless to say, we decided our lives were pretty good. 

After standing in two lines we finally received confirmation that our passports would be ready that day and were told to report back at 2:30 p.m. (As it turns out, 100 other people were told to report back at 2:30 p.m. as well.  The three of us in our party walked over to a small Thai Restaurant where I had, arguably, the best Thai food I have ever eaten.  We also got to know each other better as we shared our stories and our lives.

Returning at 2:30 p.m. we spent the next two, yes, two hours making more friends, sharing more stories and waiting patiently  for our names to be called out of the 100 of us who reported for our 2:30 appointment.

I learned and reflected on many things.  First that “what is, is” as my former associate, Susan Kennard used to say.  Secondly, don’t panic, take a deep breath, slow down, talk to the airline representatives, and develop a plan and stick with it.  I learned that if you are going to need a one day turn around passport, Houston is a really, really good place to need one.  I was also reminded that no time is wasted and that everything that happens to us helps to make us who we are, reminds us that none of us is perfect and that we all can and will make mistakes and that maybe, just maybe this will help us to be less judgmental and more understanding of others.

It reminds me of the maxim, “If you want to  hear God laugh, just tell God your plans.”

Unplanned, well spent time can truly be a gift from God.

This Is My Commandment: Love One Another As I Have Loved You

“This Is My Commandment:

That You Love One Another As I Have Loved You”

AS I preached this as a sermon on “Mother’s Day,” It occurred to me, as it almost always does, that Mother’s Day is NOT an official church occasion, but that the love most of our mothers had or have for us may help us understand Jesus’ command to love one another as he loves us, as God loves us.  So let’s reflect a little bit on our mothers’ love for us.  First, our mothers loved us before we loved them, in fact before we even knew what mothers were or what love was.  Secondly, a mother’s love is unconditional.  Mothers love us no matter what we do.  They may be disappointed by some of our actions, they may even be heartbroken when we do things they never dreamed we could do.  The good news about this is, among other good news, is that when we did really dumb, even stupid things in high school, they did not abandon us or throw us out on the street. 

This is the kind of love Jesus is talking about in the Gospel of John 15:9-17 when he proclaims, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love. . . I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and so that your joy may be complete. . .This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,”

Jesus then says something very interesting, very motherly, if you will: “you did not choose me, but I chose you.”  This to me is one of the greatest assurances that God loves all of us, regardless of race, religion or lack of religion, political belief or our sins.  What a blessing that the God who created us, all of us, loves us just as our mothers love us: without reservation, second guessing or favoritism.

As I reflect on Jesus’ new commandment, I am reminded of Psalm 98 where the psalmist begins by proclaiming, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvelous things.”  Truly, God has given us a New Song, A New Commandment, and, to quote my Lutheran Pastor Friend and Civil Rights activist, Robert Graetz, “God has given us a New Word for a new day.”

God has given us the scriptures as a “family story,” and as a guide, but Scripture is not the end of the conversation, it is simply a part of the ongoing conversation between God and God’s people.  God continuously goes beyond what we believe to be the limits of God’s Kingdom to include others.  In The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 10, we hear that “the Spirit fell upon all who heard the word, even on the Gentiles.”  Peter then proclaims, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”  The Spirit has gone beyond the confines of the church and bestowed its blessings on outsiders.

What I believe this means for us as Christians is that we first become friends of Jesus, and only then can we become friends with each other.  I believe this means we face the world with open scriptures and open hearts, with, as H. Richard Niebuhr proclaimed in the 1950’s and 1960’s, we face the world with the Bible in one hand and the Newspaper in the other.

As the people of God, our world becomes more complicated.  Once we have become friends with the Jesus who chose us first and loved us first, then we are called “to love one another as Jesus loved us.”  This is true, even when we disagree with other Christians over so many things: immigration, same sex marriage and relationships, war and peace, who God saves and who God does not save, and. . .you fill in the blank!  If our faith does not deal with these issues and in this way, it is not a faith worth having.

Whatever our disagreements, we stand at the same altar and receive the same “body and blood of Jesus Christ.”  This can lead us to share our differing beliefs respectfully and to work together to reduce the rhetoric, anger and hate in our society as a whole.

So, Jesus says, “this is my commandment, that you agree, that you be conservative, that you be liberal, that you be perfect, that you be correct all the time, that you defend God.” NO! 

 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you, PERIOD!” 

That you love one another just as your mothers love you! PERIOD!

The Law Written on Their Hearts

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.  Not like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, which they broke.  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my people.  I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah, 31:31-34)

We, like the early Jews know the law as it is written.  We have read it, we have recited it and we have memorized it (sort of), and we, like the Jews, have broken it.  This law written on the heart is given to us by the presence of God, the Spirit.  The God who moved over the waters at creation, the Spirit who filled Jesus at his baptism and led him into the wilderness and protected him.

This same God will protect us in our own personal wildernesses.  The wildernesses of divorce, division, anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, jobs, and money.  This God will be with us when we are angry and frustrated and envious of those who have more than we have.  This God will be with us in our prejudice and contempt of those who are different from us or have less than we have.

This law comes from the God we experience.  It is not a law written on stone or paper, it is written within our lives and on our hearts.  It is the law of God, the Spirit, which moved over the waters at our baptisms.  It is the law of the God who allows us to be buried with Christ in His death and raised with Him in His resurrection.  This is the law that we learn through our experience of the living God.

Several years ago, when I was the Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans, we welcomed a new family into the church.  The couple had moved from Florida to New Orleans for better medical care for the young wife who had had breast cancer for seven years.  When I visited them for the first time, I asked the woman if she would like to be anointed for healing.  She responded that yes she would and that when she was in Florida, the priest had anointed her during worship.  My first thought, was, why didn’t I think of that?  I then responded that I liked the idea and that I believed we could make that happen.  The first time we included this sacrament of healing in our worship, seventy-five percent of the congregation came forward for the sacrament of healing.  This continued for the remaining eight years I served this congregation.  The presence of the Holy Spirit was tangible.  God’s presence was real and life changing.  The experience of God, the law written on our hearts!

We also see God writing the law of life and salvation on our hearts through the life and ministry of Jesus.  Jesus says, “and now my soul is troubled.  What should I say—Father, save me from this hour?  No, it is for this reason that I came to this hour. . . .and I, when I am lifted up from the Earth will draw all people to myself.” (John 12: 20-33)

I want to go out on a limb and suggest the possibility that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection was designed to draw all people to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or to God as Spirit and Truth.  Lent is a wonderful time for Christians to reflect on this possibility.  I believe that God is bigger than we are.  I truly believe that God loves all of creation and that Jesus’ life is a sacrament, an action of God that requires no action from us.  If God truly loves God’s creation, then it makes sense that God loves all people. 

Our baptismal covenant affirms what we read in scripture.  In it we are asked, “will you seek and serve Christ in All persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  Next we are asked, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”  We answer both of these questions, “I will with God’s help!” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 305)

As God spoke through the prophet, Jeremiah, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; I will be there God and they will be my people.  I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)