Father’s Day & Taking Children from their Parents

A portion of a Sermon Preached on, June 17, 2018

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, & minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.(Book of Common Prayer, page 230)

Today is Father’s Day, a good day to reflect on how we as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and a Nation care for children. A good place to begin is to look at the Bible and see some of what Jesus, Paul and the Prophets have to say about how we care for people generally, and then apply these lessons to children in particular.

In these challenging times, Christians and all people of good will have differing opinions about many issues, including immigration, both legal and illegal. Hopefully we can find some consensus on how we care for children and sometimes use children as a tool for achieving our policy goals as a nation or a political party. Whether in a divorce situation or a political situation, I believe that children should never be tools, should never be the means to an end.

I believe it is time for us, who are followers of Jesus, to spend a lot more time digging deeply into the scriptures in order to better understand the nuances, subtleties and context so that we might better follow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and do what He did.

Jesus sets the standard for our treatment of children. “Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” (Matthew 19:13-14)

With this as our foundation let’s look at Paul’s Letter to the Church in Rome, a letter under much discussion this week by those who know the scriptures as well as those who do not. Portions of Chapter 13 were used to justify actions, but they make little sense when taken out of context with the whole book. Therefore, I want to broaden the picture and include all of Romans Chapter 12 and 13 to give us a better understanding of St. Paul’s message.

Paul doChapter 12: I appeal to you therefore, brothers & sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy & acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable & perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same functin,⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and  individually we are members one of another. . .

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ ²⁰No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Chapter 13: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; ⁴for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. ⁷Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the lawes not make it easy for us and ultimately comes down on the side of the Jesus’ command to love one another as the fulfillment of all the law. I do not believe that Paul believed that the Roman leaders were chosen by God. Remember that Paul was executed for disobeying Roman law. It may well be that Paul was attempting to help Christians avoid persecution by the law.

I close with Jesus’ first Sermon: “When Jesus came to Nazareth he went to synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. ¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-21)

Today let us remember our children and the gift from God they are to us! Let’s remember what we would do if they were subject to rape and murder, the lengths to which we would go to keep them safe and fed and what we will do if someone tries to rip them out of our arms.  Then let’s pray for all parents everywhere, that God and God’s people will help them protect their children.

Let’s pray for all children everywhere that God and God’s people will protect them from any who would do them harm.

As members of the Jesus movement, it is time for us to immerse ourselves in the scriptures, and pray to be bathed in the Holy Spirit as that same Spirit leads and guides us into all Truth! May we with God’s help strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.

Reflections On The Holy Trinity

Throughout human history people have attempted to explain their experience of God. God is known throughout the world and across different religions by many names: God, Lord, Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, Great Spirit, Creator, Redeemer, and many others.  

On Trinity Sunday, we who are Christians celebrate our understanding of God as three individual persons of one substance. So, what in the world are we doing, what are we trying to say?

Before seeking an answer, I offer a (very) brief history of the doctrine of the Trinity. After Constantine become emperor of Rome and made Christianity the chosen religion, not necessarily a good move, he looked for ways to unify the empire and one way was to have the church agree on its basic understanding of who God is. So, in 325 C.E. he called a council of Bishops in Nicaea and asked them to formulate an understanding of who Jesus is as both human and divine, and how God the Creator, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit related and were all one God. The Bishops complied, what else could they do, and formulated the first part of what we call the Nicene Creed. Forty-nine years later at the Council of Constantinople, the bishops met again to finalize the creed in its present form. This council primarily addressed the Trinity and the co-equal relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This Creed, I believe, does not necessarily define God as God is, but it does give us a way to try and explain our experience of God. We experience God in creation and the beauty and the power of that creation. We experience God as a loving presence, and those of us who are Christians experience that loving presence as Jesus. We also believe that God is Spirit, and that as Spirit is present in our lives and in our world at all times.

Those of us who are “people of the Book,” also have our Scriptures to guide us on our journey to understand our experiences of God and the Holy in our lives. The eighth century B.C. prophet, Isaiah had an experience in the temple that changed his life and through him, the course of history.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on

 the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:1-8)

This kind of experience with God can, at times, only be expressed in song or poetry, because we have no words within ourselves to describe the experience:

Canticle 13: A Song of Praise, Book of Common Prayer

         Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; you are worthy of praise; glory to you.

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; we will praise you and highly exalt you 
for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.
Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; we will praise you and highly exalt you for
ever.
Glory to you, beholding the depths; in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:12-17 that we need not fear, because we have received the spirit of adoption and that when we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—

As brothers and sisters with Christ we can hear and understand Jesus words to Nicodemus (recorded in John 3:1-17) that we are born of the spirit as well as of the flesh and that as such we are called to share Jesus message with the world:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

So finally, God the Trinity is about relationship, the interrelationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the Triune God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God and the World.

May our response be that of Isaiah: “here I am; send me!”

           

Love, Joy, Fruit and Baptism

We read in the first letter of John (4:7-21) that “there is no fear in love, but that perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” As we read in the Gospel of John, 15:9-17, Jesus continues the theme of love over fear as God’s plan for our lives and for our world.

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my Father’s commandments, you will abide in my love as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus goes on to remind the disciples, and through them, us, “that we did not choose him, but he chose us and appointed us to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” He gave us these commands so that we might love one another and so that in loving one another our joy would be complete.

Jesus did not give us this good news to hoard, but to share with all of God’s people. Luke, writing in the Acts of the Apostles continues this theme of sharing the Good News.

"While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 10:44-48)

Our commandment from God is to love, to experience joy, to bear much fruit, to baptize and to REPEAT. The love of God is like ripples on a lake: it comes from the Father to the Son and through the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son to us, and from us to all those we meet and through them to the whole world.

Some verses from Ripple (The Grateful Dead, 1970) show us how the message of God flows through us encompassing all that is as it flows out into the whole world.

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine, and my tunes were played on the harp 
unstrung, would you hear my voice come through the music, would you hold it near as
it were your own?

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken, perhaps they're better left unsung.
I don't know, don't really care Let there be songs to fill the air.
Ripple in still water, when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty, if your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain that was not made by the hands of men.

You who choose to lead must follow. . . If I knew the way I would take you home.

Ripple in still water, when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow.

May we, like Jesus, bear much fruit, and may the love of God flow out through us!

I Will Pour Out My Spirit

Before his Ascension, Jesus made a promise to his disciples, which I believe is a promise to us as well. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for the promise of the Father. This is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." (From Acts 1:1-11)

Last Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost, the day we Christians celebrate the fulfillment of that promise. Luke continues the story in the Book of Acts like this:

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (From Acts 2:1-21)

Luke goes on to explain that there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem and that each of them heard in their own language the disciples proclaiming the marvelous acts of God. Many in the crowd were amazed and astonished at what this might mean, but there were others, there always are, who sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’" What a great opening for Peter to proclaim the Gospel and share with them the good news of God’s continuing presence in the world through the Holy Spirit.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Peter explains that God’s spirit is given to all people: old and young, male and female, friend and stranger. And we who receive God’s Holy Spirit will see not only what is, but we will have visions and dreams of what can be when we proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom and prophesy about the justice and peace that accompanies that Kingdom.

In 2004, Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town in South Africa, wrote a book entitled God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for our Time. In this book Bishop Tutu proclaims that “God Believes in us, God loves us as we are, and that God loves our enemies.” When we are filled with the Holy Spirit of which Peter speaks, we receive faith and courage to do God’s will on Earth and we become part of God’s dream. Our part of God’s dream is to “love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.   

God’s Dream is that we love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves.

           

“All You Need Is Love”

Since the development of human speech, poets, prophets, preachers and performers have been talking about, singing about and proclaiming love. In the 1960’s we heard “All you need is love” and “I love him, I love him and where he goes I’ll follow,” and many other songs and poems about love. Of course, the Bible proclaims love in many of its various books: Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” and Luke 10:27-28, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

About 100 A.D., a teacher of the Johanine School (1 John 4:7-21) proclaimed,

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

The teacher goes on to proclaim that, “as God is so are we in this world.” That is, if God is love, then we too are love in this world!” And after God’ promise, the challenge: “those (of you) who say, I love God, and hate your brothers or sisters are liars. For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” “The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

And who are our brothers and sisters? I believe they are the same people Jesus describes as neighbor in his parable of the Good Samaritan related in Luke 10:29-37.  I share with you a “Southern Version” of that Parable, as told to me by the protagonist who I will call “Reverend Bob.”

In the late 1960’s Rev. Bob was pastor of a small, Southern, rural Methodist church. He was invited to lead the devotion at a Klan Rally. He was picked up, blindfolded and driven into the mountains where the paved road turned into a dirt road. At the end of the dirt road he was lead down a foot path to the circle where the cross was burning, at which point the blind fold was removed. He began to preach, telling a story of a black man who drove his car into a ditch. Amid cheers and applause, Rev. Bob told of the local Methodist preacher, Baptist preacher and Police Chief who stopped, looked over the situation and drove on. And then . . . a Klansman stopped, saw the man and helped him to the hospital. The cheers turned to boos.  The fire was extinguished and Rev. Bob was left alone in the mountains in the dark. Slowly he found his way back to the paved road where a member of his congregation picked him up and took him back to his car.

Who is our neighbor? Who are our brothers and sisters? I believe Micah, John, Jesus and Reverend Bob help us see who they are.

“May we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

The Person of Jesus

A major trait of almost all human beings is that we love to argue. Some of us argue because we want to be, or “know,” we are always right. Some of us love to argue because it’s fun, or just to stir things up. For the past two thousand plus years we have continually argued about “who is Jesus.”

In 325 CE, the emperor Constantine called the bishops together in Nicea and charged them to figure it out: “is Jesus God, or is he human? Is he fully God or fully human, or something in between. After weeks or months of discussion (arguing?), and as rumor has it, a few fist fights and a night or two in jail for some of the bishops, they found an answer: “yes, Jesus is both fully God and fully human.” As Christians in the twenty-first century, we believe that Jesus will be known “in the sky by and by, but can he be known as and loved as a human being.

The Gospel of Luke (24:13-17) states, “two of Jesus’ followers meet Jesus after the crucifixion and resurrection as they were walking the road home to Emmaus.” Cleopas and, if the Mosaics in the Jerusalem Chapel at the National Cathedral are correct, his wife or sister are heading home discussing the events of the weekend when Jesus appears to them and ask what they are concerned about. Though they failed to recognize Jesus as they focused on their own doubts and fears, he was a real person to them. He listened to their concerns, feeling their pain and showing compassion for them. Jesus, as a real person, felt their frustrations, disappointments, hopes and fears. This is what real people do. As Jesus shared a meal with the couple and broke bread, they recognized him as their Lord and as a fellow traveler.

Do we, the church today, at times walk with Jesus and fail to recognize him? Do we remain absorbed in ourselves as did the disciples on the Emmaus Road? Years ago and in a church far away, I learned a lesson about giving up our wills to Jesus’ will. Construction in the Nave/Sanctuary had destroyed the women’s meeting room downstairs. As the church discussed the repair of the meeting room, a woman in her 80’s spoke up: “we do not need another meeting room for those of us who are older. We need a nursery for the children of young families, or we will die as a church.” She truly was walking with Jesus and recognized him and knew him as a person, and heard his call. And the church built a nursery.

Jesus became a “real” person to the disciples on the road when they poured out their hearts to him and invited him into their lives. If Jesus is to become real to us, and not just a spirit we will meet “in the sky by and by,” we too must be willing to share our lives with him. When we do this, we see Jesus as a real person, who cares about our lives in this world as well as our salvation. As the old song in the Cokesbury Hymnal of my youth proclaims:

We serve a risen savior, his in the world today, I know that he is living, whatever men my say. I see his hand of mercy I hear his voice of cheer and just the time I need him, he’s always near. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along lives narrow way. He lives, he lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. (Alfred Ackley, 1933)

As Jesus becomes more and more real to us, the barriers that separate us from God are torn down. We can approach him and share our lives with him. Jesus knocks on the door to our hearts and waits for us to invite him into our lives. Today and everyday!

           

Answers are the Easy Things

I love the exciting and challenging story of Jesus’ first post resurrection encounter with the disciples, all but Thomas, and of Thomas’ (legitimate) doubts. (John 20:19-31) I believe “Doubting” Thomas gets a bad rap. I suspect that until Jesus breathed on the other 10 and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” that they were at least a wee bit skeptical. I am pretty sure my reaction would have been similar to Thomas’, proclaiming that “until I put my fingers in the holes in his hand and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” As we know from scripture, when offered the opportunity, Thomas simply proclaimed, “my Lord and my God.” Maybe doubt is as important as belief in our Journey with Jesus.

Another doubter, someone I will call “Doubting Dennis,” holds an important place in my heart. Many years ago, Dennis came to my study almost in tears. I asked him to “tell me what was going on.” He told me that “he was afraid he was going to hell because he could not believe all the Bible Stories some of his friends believe with such certainty.” As we talked we shared some of the stories that made believing difficult for both of us: why would God harden Pharaohs heart? Why does God create man and woman at the same time and then one chapter later create Eve from Adam’s rib? People can walk on water without sinking, really, do dead people really return to life? We could go on, but you get the point. We talked about these things and the possibility that parts of the Bible are efforts of the writers to explain to themselves and others the experiences of God in their lives.

The Bible is the foundational book (Library actually) of our faith, containing many stories, teachings and hymns that strengthen our faith. It also contains stories that can cause doubts in some of us. The Bible answers many questions, and those answers often lead to more questions. As singer, songwriter, Jimmy Buffett once sang, “Answers are the easy part, questions raise the doubts.”

As a Christian who has had both strong faith and strong doubts, I went to seminary to find “the answers” and a simple, understandable faith. What I found were more questions and a life-giving faith

Our faith is challenged not only by some of what we read in the bible, but by events in the world and in our lives: untimely deaths of loved ones, sadness, depression, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters that shake up or lives and shake the foundations of our faith. In times like these I often find myself praying the prayer of the father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed (recorded in Mark 9:14-25). “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

I still have doubts, but my faith is strengthened through regular worship with a Christian Community as we read and study the scriptures together and as we are joined with Christ and one another by receiving Holy Communion. I have learned not to be afraid of my doubts and questions but to see them as opportunities to grow in grace. As we travel this journey with Jesus together, may we with Thomas proclaim, “My Lord and My God.”