The Beginning of the Good News

The Beginning of the Good News 

We begin the second week of our preparation for the coming of Jesus with these powerful words from the Gospel of Mark 1:1-8:   

"The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: `Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’" 

With these words St. Mark, through the words of the Sixth Century Prophet we call Second Isaiah, prepares us for what is to follow: the appearance of a man in the wilderness dressed in camel’s hair and wearing a leather belt, eating honey and bugs, baptizing people and preparing them for one who is coming after him of whom he is unworthy even to untie his shoes; the appearance of a man who will baptize with water those who follow him, while at the same time, preparing them for one who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. 

We have moved from the coming of a “Cosmic Christ,” on Advent 1 in the direction of the birth of a baby, pausing for the preparation for the baptism of an adult Jesus, a Jesus who will continue and enhance the ministry of John the Baptist and take it to the next level.  The Baptist’s mission is to catch people’s attention: to help them to see that their relationship with God and with other human beings is not irreversible.  Johns’ baptism shows people that the way life was is not the way it has to be; that wrongs can be righted, that sins can be forgiven and that the God of love and life is with us through the good the bad and the ugly.  John also calls people to be awake, to be aware and to be available to the inflowing of God’s Holy Spirit which he proclaims will be given to them by “the one who is more powerful then he and will come after him.” 

The adult Jesus John prepares us for will be a conduit for the power of God to come into the world: but not into the world in nature or creation as people are familiar, but to come into the world as the Holy Spirit, flowing over and around and through each one of us who is God’s Child.  Through this indwelling of the Spirit of God we will be led into all truth.  God will give us the power to forgive one another when we hurt each other.  God will give us the courage to speak truth to power, even if it costs us our jobs, our families or our lives.  Seeing Jesus through John’s eyes allows us to see both a strong Jesus who is meek and a meek Jesus who is strong.  If we can see this, we can be this and if we can be this we can show others how to walk in the Spirit of God. 

Being able to see the coming birth of the baby Jesus through the lens of the adult can give us a better understanding of the importance of His birth and the power that God’s presence through Jesus and in us can have in the world.  Jesus certainly came to bring us an abundant life, but he lived, died and rose again to give us not only abundance but purpose.  By being faithful to that purpose, we become “co-creators” with Christ as we work and pray to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.

Slow Down, Take a Breath, Keep Awake

One of my very favorite times of the year is the season of Advent: the four weeks prior to the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas Day).  It is so important and life giving to me because our lives have become so hectic.  We are busy with family and friends and jobs and community responsibilities.  The world tells us that we need to shop, shop, shop: it will be good for the economy and it will make is very, very happy.  In fact, it just makes me very, very tired.  

On the other hand, the Church in its wisdom has set aside this time of year as an opportunity to slow down, to breath slowly, to prepare for God’s gifts of peace, joy and love. To be ready to receive the presence of God in Jesus. 

During Advent we prepare for the coming of Jesus in so many ways.  We, the people of God, usually think about the coming of Jesus as a baby to be born in a manger.  Advent is that and so much more.  The first coming we prepare for is the coming of Jesus at the end of time, to bring us all into that final and eternal relationship with God the creator and source of life.  We are reminded by scripture that as we prepare for this second coming that we “do not know when that time will come. . .therefore, keep awake,” so that we might be prepared when He comes suddenly.”(Mark 13:24-37) 

As we move into the second and third weeks of Advent we are invited to prepare for the coming of Jesus as an adult, to prepare for his baptism in the wilderness by John the Baptist, when God proclaims Jesus as his beloved Son sent into the world to establish a path that will bring us back into a right relationship with God and all the human race.  We are not yet ready for the “Baby Jesus,” for the joyful songs and carols.  We first are called to prepare for an Adult Christ sent by God to proclaim Good News to the poor, to heal the sick, to release humans from all the chains: physical, emotional and spiritual that prevent us from receiving the blessings that God has in store for all of us.  This adult Jesus, finally, is the one who reminds us that we will do all he has done and more, because God will send us the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth.  He also reminds us “to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” (Mark 13:29-31) 

Finally, as we draw closer to the last Sunday before the Nativity of our Lord, Christmas, we begin to get an inkling of the possibility of the birth of a baby.  We run headlong into St. Luke’s story of God’s Shocking message given to a young, probably teenage Mary by the Angel Gabriel that she was to become the Mother of our Lord.  The Angel informs Mary that ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and you shall conceive a child who^* will be holy and he will be called Son of God. “(Mark 1:35) 

The “Baby Jesus” still has not been born, but we, like his mother Mary, now have a few days to contemplate and meditate about the “marvelous acts of God:” time to reflect on all of God’s gifts of creation, of family, of communities to live in and love in and serve in.  And as we prepare for the coming of the Lord into the world, our hearts are opened to receive God’s blessings and God’s invitation to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 305)

A Very Confusing Parable And Some Reflections on the Church

A Very Confusing Parable

And Some Reflections on the Church

Sometimes I read, and re-read, Jesus’ parables and think to myself, “What in the world was he thinking?” One of these is Matthew 22:1-14 which chronicles the story of a king giving a wedding banquet for his son.  When none of the guests agree to come, the king sends his slaves to invite people from the highways and byways to celebrate with him and his son:  all well and good, so far.  But then one man shows up without a “wedding garment” and the king “bound him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Now I am confused! 

After reading the passage and doing some research, I believe that the writer of Matthew has pushed two of Jesus’ parables together, giving us an unrealistic story.  The “Great Banquet” tells of an invitation into the kingdom, which many ignore, while the second story, “the man without a wedding garment,” speaks of the importance of being prepared to enter the kingdom of God.  Both important lessons, but when pushed together into one risks our missing both lessons.

The important point to note about Jesus’ parables is that they are lifelike, whereas Matthew tends to allegorize many of Jesus’ parables, thus giving them at times unrealistic features such as killing reluctant guests killing the king’s slaves and the king burning their city to the ground.

Looking at Jesus’ original parables I see in the first one a judgment on some of His contemporaries who reject the coming kingdom; an assurance to the outcasts by Jesus that they will be invited to the great banquet and a reminder to be ready.  In the second parable I hear a message to be prepared when the Lord shows up, a very similar invitation to the Parable of the 10 Brides Maids which shows up later in Matthew.  Through both of these parables Jesus invites us to be prepared, to be ready to enter into the kingdom, to take the place that has been prepared for us.

The invitation to the banquet of those not originally invited, of those perhaps unworthy, is how Jesus lived his life.  It is also part of the reason he was often in trouble with the religious and civil authorities of his time.  Jesus made a practice of eating with those he should not have eaten with, Zacchaeus; of healing those whom he should not heal, the Phoenician woman’s daughter; of talking with those with whom he should not talk, the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus believed that even Tax Collectors and Prostitutes were invited into and welcome in the Kingdom of God. 

How are we as Christians to hear and live into these two individual parables?  How can they help us follow Jesus in the way that leads to fullness of life?  I believe the answer lies in learning who we are called to invite to the banquet, to worship, to the fellowship in the body of Christ.  With whom do we share the Holy Meal?

We invite those who are searching for meaning, those who have suffered loss, those who have experienced profound joy and the presence of God in their lives.  Some of these people will be like us in dress and background and nationality.  Others will be very different.  They may be a different race, speak a different language.  They may have a different legal status or a different sexual orientation.  Some people God puts in our way may not understand us and our situations any more than we understand them and their situations.  I learned over forty years ago when I lived and studied and worked in a country with different customs and a different language that “understanding would come later, or not at all.”  I chose not to let that keep me from meeting and getting to know the people around me nor keep them from getting to know me.

God does not ask us to change people.  God does not even ask us to understand them. God simply asks us to “invite them to the banquet.”  God will take care of the change, the transformation.  Oh, and if some of them happen to be sinners or hypocrites as we ourselves often are, then God asks us to forgive them just as God forgives us.

The Generosity of God

The Generosity of God 

When Jesus tells the parable of the “workers in the vineyard,” I suspect that the workers who spent all day in the hot sun were not the only ones who felt that the land owner who paid everyone the same wage was unfair.  In an agricultural economy like the one Jesus grew up in, many, many people made their living working in the hot sun for twelve hours a day.  For them to imagine someone working only six, or three or one hour a day making the same wage must have rubbed them the wrong way completely.  I believe that is why Jesus told the parable in this way; to catch their attention.  After all, the parable is not really about work, but about generosity, the generosity of God, and perhaps, our generosity as well. 

There were people in Jesus’ day who found a life giving relationship to God at an early age and it served them for a lifetime.  For others it was much more of a challenge to believe in God or to follow God, or both.  In this story, Jesus is communicating that the Kingdom of God is not just for the early arrivals, or the particularly pious or holy.  The kingdom of God is open to the first, the last and those in the middle.  It is open to priests, scribes, Pharisees as well as prostitutes and tax collectors. 

We Christians need to hear this today.  We also need to hear that the kingdom of God is also open to Christian denominations other than our own, and also to Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, agnostics and atheists. 

God does not ask us to decide who gets in.  But God does ask us to invite everyone into the kingdom, by everything that we say or do.  I once served a church in a major U.S. city.  A city with all the joys, blessings and problems of most large cities in the world: crime, poverty, prostitution and homelessness were an everyday occurrence for many on our wonderful city.  One of the members of our church was a prostitute and another was a sometimes street person.  These two were welcomed by most into the church itself, but problems arose when they wanted to attend a book study held in a member’s home.  Most American Christians who worship in homogenous congregations do not usually think about this possibility.  The Church made the decision to move the book study to the church.  The woman who hosted the study did leave the church for awhile, but thanks be to God, came back fairly soon.  It can be hard to welcome everyone into God’s Kingdom at times.

If God’s Justice is to give priority to the “unwanted,” what does that mean for us, the church, the body of Christ?  Even though difficult, I believe that God’s Justice does not set one group against another.  Instead, it enables the whole community to grow together by making it vulnerable before those most vulnerable.   This is not easy, but the question for us is, can we be gracious and compassionate as God is?  Can we be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love as I believe God is?  Yes, I believe we can.  It is not always easy, but I believe we can. 

We are gracious and compassionate when we listen to others, when we value their opinions and feelings, when we don’t assume that we are always right, even if we would like to believe that.  In writing to the Colossians, St. Paul shares a recipe for relationships that we can all learn from. 

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14) 

We can avoid jumping to conclusions as we listen to others and hear what they are really saying and we can get the facts on issues about which we disagree.  We as God’s people, God’s Chosen Ones, can “love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and we can love our neighbors as we love ourselves.”

 

 

 

Owe No One Anything, Except to Love One Another

Owe No One Anything, Except to Love One Another

(A Sermon Preached at Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, Alabama, September 7, 2014)

In his letter to the church at Rome (13:4-14) Paul gives us his summary of the law: “The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not murder, you shall not covet and any other commandment are summed up in this word, ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

If we can live into this then perhaps we can learn from one another, even if we have different opinions or ideas or beliefs.  There is a prayer in the Marriage liturgy of the Episcopal Church which I believe applies to all relationships and should give is all hope: “Give them grace when they hurt one another to recognize and acknowledge their fault and to seek each other’s forgiveness and yours.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 429)  This Law of Love, this loving one’s neighbor as one’s self comes from the Book of Leviticus (19:18) and is one half of Jesus’ Great Commandment, “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.” (LK 10:27-28)

We who are the church area connected to each other and bound together by our baptism and our love, by our need for the gifts and talents we all bring into the community.  We are not connected by constant or blind agreement. We will have disagreements, but if we allow these differences to separate us then the body of Christ and our witness in the world will be diminished.  All of us are the ministers of the church: not just the priest or pastor or the vestry or church council, but all of us.  If one of us is missing then the body is incomplete.  St. Paul points this out to the Church in Corinth at a time when they were fighting over whose gifts were more important.

For there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; varieties of services, but the same Lord, and varieties of activities, but the same God who activates all of them in every one.  Each of us is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith by the Spirit, to another the gifts of healing, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits and to another various kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Cor. 12:4-13)

Yes, we are all in this together, bound together by baptism love and the Spirit!  We do not all think alike, act alike, believe alike, vote alike, understand the Bible alike, but we are brought together by God and made to drink of the one Spirit.  The gifts we have each been given by the Spirit are for the building up of the kingdom of God. 

Where we are in agreement we will rejoice, where we differ we will rejoice, where we have answers we will share them, where we have doubts we will honor them and where we have disagreements we will talk.  And where God leads us as a body, as the church, we will go together!

Reflections on All Saints

Reflections on All Saints

(Revelation 7:9-17): After this I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Who are the Saints according to the Book of Revelation?  Who are the Saints for the Church?  Who are the Saints in your life?  This time of remembrance we call the Feast of All Saints, and the Feast of All Souls gives those of us who are God’s people the opportunity to reflect on these questions and to reflect on how our lives are affected, changed and even made better by the presence of “Saints” in our lives.

The Book of Revelation, Chapter 6 tells us that the saints are “those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given.” Worship on All Saints Day suggests that the saints are those who have set an example for us in virtuous and godly living, even if they were not slaughtered for their life of faith.  St. Paul in some of his letters addresses all the Christians in a particular community as saints:  “To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 1:1-2)  This progression leads me to believe that all Christians, maybe even all of God’s people, are saints, and that some of them have influenced me in such a way that I have become a follower of Jesus Christ and that I may even be considered to be a saint for others in this world which is striving to be the Kingdom of God.

The promise from God according to the book of Revelation to all the saints is that:

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 7:13-17)

I want to pick just two “saints” whose lives have something to share with us and who have made me a different and better person than I would otherwise have been.

William Law, born to a respected family in England, attended Cambridge University and had a bright future in the Church of England, but because he refused for conscious sake to sign a document necessary to allow him to become a priest, was denied that future.  Instead he became a teacher and writer, his most famous book being A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.  This book reflected the commitment and seriousness with which Law approached his religion and his life.

Law and two elderly women he cared for began to distribute food to the poor from their home, something that did not thrill the neighbors.  The three of them also began schools for poor girls teaching them to read, sew, knit and to love and live the Christian faith.  Law and the two women made a commitment to live off of 10% of their income and use the other 90% for works of ministry.  This goes for beyond the Old Testament teaching of giving 10% of our income to God, but it does show how our commitment to the Mission of Christ in the world can affect our stewardship of all that God has given us.

This story leads me to describe another saint in my life.  The life of William Law was shared with me in a book by friend and Pastor LaMon Brown.  In this book Brown reviewed the lives of two special “saints,” William Law and Catherine of Genoa.  LaMon has been a part of my life for a long, long time, and I want to share just a little bit about how I am a different person  partly because of the relationship LaMon and I have had over the past 60+ years.

I first met LaMon Brown in a small Alabama town when we were five years old and on our way to “Mr. Martin’s Store.”  I lived two blocks from the store and LaMon a block from the store.  I walked there (on my own) to buy baseball cards, and LaMon road his tricycle there (on his own) to pick up bottle caps for his bottle cap collection.  Mr. Martin would empty into LaMon’s wagon the contents of the cap container into which the caps fell when people paid their 5 cents for their soft drinks and opened the bottles on the drink machine.

Since that time we went to school together from first grade through high school, and I was an usher in LaMon’s wedding when he was a sophomore in college.  He became an ordained Baptist Minister and then an International Missionary.  When I was exploring my own call to become an Episcopal Priest I received a News Letter from him in which he stated that “if you believe God is calling you to a special ministry you will not know more about that call until you take the next step and then God will reveal more to you.”  With that encouragement, not even directed personally to me, I took the next step and have been an excited and passionate priest for the past 27 years.

Our paths have crossed over and over again in the past 30 years and we never fail to challenge and strengthen one another in our faith.  A friend like this is a blessing and a gift from God and certainly the kind of person St. Paul would refer to as a saint.  Who are these saints in your life?

  

Be Transformed

“Grant, o merciful God, that your Church, being gathered in unity by your Holy spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples.” What a wonderful and powerful way to begin worship, which is what we did on August 24, 2014. This was a day that the sermon focused on transformation, and what better way to lead into this subject than to ask God to fill the church with the Holy Spirit, so that we might show forth God’s power among all people. This prayer was then followed by the reading of Paul’s letter to the Romans (12:1-8) in which St. Paul challenged us “not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we might discern what God’s will is for us.”

This passage goes on to remind us that like a human body, the church has many members and that all members do not have the same function. In fact, each of us has gifts that differ from those of others in the church and that each gift is a grace given to us by God. Some have the gift of teaching, others the gift of preaching, or caring, or generosity, or leading. Others know how to feed the hungry or shelter the homeless, or mow the grass or prune the roses. All of these gifts are given to us by “one and the same spirit, for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)

It is important for each of us to recognize that we all have something to give to the church and the world. We have different talents and gifts and as St. Paul tells us, they are all given by one and the same spirit for the common good. In addition to the gifts of teaching, singing, praying, building and serving, there are times in each of our lives where our gift just might be receiving. Yes, receiving. Being still, being cared for, laying fallow, so that when our time comes again to use our gifts we will be ready, revived and resourceful.

I am convinced that Jesus’ main purpose in coming to earth was to make God’s Kingdom as real on Earth as it is in Heaven and to inspire us to be co-creators with Him in this venture. After all, the Gospels tell us that we will do even greater things than he does because God will send us the Holy Spirit. Our purpose, then, must be to help transform the world, which just might involve transforming the church first.

What does it mean “to transform the church?” Does it mean to change everything that we do? To completely change our style of music, to quit wearing vestments and wear denim? No, I do not believe it means this at all. But, it might mean to survey our community, find out who comes to church and why, who does not come to church and why not, which demographic groups come to church and which do not. Next it is important to figure out who we are and who we are not and to recognize that we cannot be all things to all people. Finally, who would we like to involve in our worship and fellowship, and what changes will help us attract them. After all, the church exists just as much for those who are not members as it does for those who are.

Having done all of this, then we may want to add some variety to our preaching, or singing, or liturgy. To look for ways to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in ways to which they can relate. St. Paul, might call this meeting people where they are. Besides, it just might be fun to use a variety of the resources available to us as Episcopal Christians. This often allows us to hear God speaking in different ways or for us to speak to God in different ways. When we do this we never know exactly where the spirit will lead us, but we do know that we may have to hang on for the ride.

Remember, transformation is what the Kingdom of God is all about: transformation of the church, transformation of each individual Christian, and ultimately transformation of the world.