God’s Word, Jesus Christ God’s Son

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son.” (Book of Common Prayer, Page 218)

Our opening prayer reminds us that our God is merciful and gracious and has given us the Word of God, Jesus Christ his son, to lead us into all truth. Note, that God’s word is not the Bible, but the Bible, a wonderful Library that records the words of God’s people as they try to explain their experience of God, Points us to The Word of God, Jesus Christ God’s Son.

In the Gospel of Mark, the writer gives us a sense of God’s truth when he writes, Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?” (Mark 8:31-38)

In following Jesus and the Gospel, the Good News, we find life. And when we find life, we want to share it, no, we must share it. The powerful poetry of Psalm 22:22-30 draws us into a way to begin to share life.

22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; stand in awe of him, offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob's line, give glory. 23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does he hide his face from them; but when they cry to him he hears them. 24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him. 25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him... 26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him. 27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; * he rules over the nations... 29 My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever. 30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn the saving deeds that he has done.

 

Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 and advocate for the Poor, echoes the words of Psalm 22 when she says, “We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.”

 

Often, I lose sight of poverty. I am comfortable and warm; I have many friends. But if I, venture far from my home, poverty stands right in front of me, sometimes blocking my path. Then I see it, whether I want to or not.

 

Within the past two weeks this has happened more than once: a young couple knocked on my door to see if they could do some work in my yard; a young man from India was walking down the street in the rain and asked how far it was to Guntersville where he was to meet someone. And just last Friday I went kayaking with friends on the Flint River near Huntsville, Alabama and we saw what we thought was an abandoned car under the bridge where we put into the river. We realized that the van was not abandoned but a woman and two children were inside. Four hours later we shuttled back to pick up our trucks and the family was still there, apparently living in their van and found this to be a safe place to spend the day, if not the night.

 

I was not able to give much help to any of these people, but it made me aware of our calling from Jesus to help bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. The Psalmist proclaims that “God hears the call of the poor and that they shall eat and be satisfied.” My experience in the past two weeks reminds me that we who are comfortable my just be the Lord’s servants who make sure that the Poor eat and are satisfied.

 

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Give us strength and a steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son.”

 

The Wilderness Changes Everyone

The Wilderness Changes Us

 

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him…. (Mark 1:9-15)

My sense is that Jesus went into the wilderness to prepare for his ministry which God had sent him into the world to do. At his baptism, God had proclaimed him His Son and that he was well pleased with him. However, the human side of Jesus needed time to reflect on his life in this world, his purpose in this life, and how to approach the people God had sent him to.

The Wilderness is a place where one can be alone, away from distractions, away from noise. The wilderness gives us uninterrupted time to think about, to pray about what is important to us, about what God has called us to do.

I believe Jesus reflected on God’s words: what does it mean to me to be God’s Son? What does it mean that God is pleased with me?

And then prayed: How and where do I carry out this mission? Who will help me do this? What if people get upset with what I say or do? Who will continue this ministry after we are all dead, not matter how that happens?

I like Mark’s Gospel because he does not waste any words. He gives us the facts, just the facts, and moves on.

So, right after Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, Mark tells us, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” And immediately after that Jesus recruits the first four disciples.”

Yes, we will get more details, from Matthew and Luke, but Mark gives us what we need to know, including some answers to the questions I believe Jesus wrestled with in the wilderness. 

I truly believe Jesus’ wilderness time was not only important to him and his ministry but set an example for us to follow in our lives. Lent is our opportunity to spend wilderness time as Jesus did. Time reflecting on why God sent us here, what are our gifts and talents, what are we called to do to be Co-creators with God in helping fulfill the petition of the Lord’s Prayer for God’s” Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

As we observe Lent, we will have opportunities to be together. To worship and study and enjoy fellowship as we build up the body of Christ on Earth.

I also hope we will all have wilderness time, whether that wilderness is in the forest or on a river, on a walk in our neighborhood, or even a few minutes alone in our homes or garden or yard.

From 1990 until 1995, Psychiatrist and Writer, Gerald May found peace and the presence of God, and meaning in the wilderness. May would go into the forest, and spend days and nights, sometimes just gazing at a fire and “doing nothing.” The Wilderness experience did for May what I believe it did for Jesus. He found a connection with creation and with nature. The nature around him as well as the nature inside of him. He connected with his humanity and with humus, the soil. May rediscovered the presence of God, a presence he referred to as the Slowing.

Five years later, May was diagnosed with cancer and over the years of his treatment and ultimate death, the lessons and he gained from his wilderness time gave him the wisdom and courage to stay connected to creation and to the presence of God, the Slowing, he found.

Wilderness is a place and a time where we find peace, where we find wisdom and guidance. Wilderness is where change can take place.

Wilderness Changes Us: Wilderness changed Jesus and Gerald May and it will change you and me.

Lent leads to Wilderness, leads to Mystery, leads to Change, leads to Life. In wilderness we find our deeper, wilder, more natural selves, and we find God.

The Passion of the Christ--Not the Movie

 When I first wrote this article on Maundy Thursday, 2018, I believed its message was vitally important to us as a nation and to all of people of the world. Today, in March of 2023 just 3 days before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week and just days after the murder of six people at Covenant Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, I believe Jesus’ message to us is still vitally important. For this reason, I share it with you again. My prayer is that as we Journey with Jesus from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter, that we will be strengthened and blessed to live with the courage and power of Jesus. 

Join me now on a journey to Jerusalem at Passover in the Year of Our Lord 33. We see Jesus’ Triumphant Entry and how people praised him as the king who came in the name of the Lord and spread their cloaks and leafy branches along the road for him. All well and good, but I want to suggest that as important as this was, it was not “the Triumphant Entry” that actually took place on that day. I suggest that the “Triumphant Entry” actually took place from the West and stared Pontius Pilate rather than Jesus. Passover was an exciting, crowded and potentially volatile and dangerous time in Jerusalem. Jews from all over the Mediterranean and Middle East gathered to make their annual sacrifices, renew their faith and enjoy time with friends, old and new. 

The Emperor of Rome made sure that Jerusalem was secured by legions of soldiers on foot and horseback. These soldiers along with Pilate, most likely on a strong white stallion, made up the “Triumphant Entry” into Jerusalem from the coast. Jesus and his motley crew, on the other hand came in from the East, with Jesus, not on a mighty steed, but on a donkey. Yes, on a donkey. I believe Jesus’ entry was, in fact, an act of protest, an act of resistance against the worldly and religious forces which were exploiting and oppressing the people of God. As the people proclaimed “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” they were proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. And, if Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, and if God is King, Caesar is not. The very next day, according to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus enters the temple and drives out the Money Changers, the sheep the goats and the doves, and those who sell them. 

This is exactly the kind of disturbance the empire did not want, and therefore the kind of disturbance the Chief Priests wanted to avoid. This attracted too much attention and could bring about persecution for all Jews. A plot was developed to have Jesus betrayed and executed. 

As I reflect on Jesus’ act of resistance and his courage in his time, I reflect on resistance by some of his followers in our day. Martin Luther King Jr.’s resistance by his work with the Memphis Sanitation Workers in April 1968, and Archbishop Oscar Romero’s work for the poor of El Salvador in 1980. And just the day before Palm Sunday 2018, a major act of resistance took place to bring changes to gun laws and save lives of Americans was participated in by millions of, mostly young, people and lead by students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 

Jesus warned his disciples that he would be tortured and crucified by the powers of this world. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed that as desirable as longevity was that there were more important things, and proclaimed, “I have been to the mountain top and have seen the Promised Land; mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Archbishop Romero worked tirelessly against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture. All three were executed or assassinated. 

So far the March for Our Lives organizers have not been killed but they have been the subject of vicious lies, made up stories and photo shopped posts on social media. Yet they have not backed down. 

Jesus was persecuted and executed because he proclaimed by word and example that the kingdom of God was for all people. He turned over tables and spoke truth to power. His church has been and will continue to be persecuted when we do the same. And yet, do the same, we must! 

Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Blessed are we who follow him! Amen!

Get Right With God

Long before there were interstate highways, many of us who grew up in the south remember signs on the highways throughout the countryside stating in huge letters, “GET RIGHT WITH GOD!” We do not see these signs as often as in the past, but the question they bring up is just as important today as it always was. “How do we ‘get right with God?’”

 

That question has existed since the arrival of Homo Sapiens on the earth. “Exactly how do we know; how can we know God’s will for us? We who are Christians have been taught, and believe that reading the Bible, and attending worship, singing hymns, and receiving communion point us in the right direction. I believe this is true as far as it goes. The Bible and worship definitely point us toward Jesus who points us toward God the Creator, but is this the answer or is this the “doorway to the answer?” To dig deeper, lets look back at the eighth Century B.C. Hebrew prophet, Micah, and see what he teaches the people of Israel and then follow his teaching forward 900 years to Jesus and his teachings.

 

We read in the sixth chapter of the book of the Micah, his instructions reminding the people of God’s love for them and God’s promise that he will be their God and they will be His people. Then Micah continues: “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7)

 

In this passage Micah recounts as I just did the details of the worship of his day, the details the people believe will get them “right with God.” He does not say, don’t do these things, but he implies that there is something more than this, or perhaps, he is saying that there is something less. Micah continues in verse 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?”

 

That’s it? Something that simple? Yes, that’s it, it’s that simple. However, simple is not necessarily the same thing as easy. To be “right with God” in this fashion, we must recognize that humility means realizing that we are not always right, that the poor aren’t necessarily poor because they are lazy. We will begin to realize that God is bigger than we can ever ask or imagine and that He welcomes people into the kingdom of God whom we would exclude. Again, simple but not easy.

 

God’s justice reminds us that human laws do not always bring justice to the poor and oppressed and challenges us to work together to change some of society’s laws. It would be easier if we could just pray, study the Bible, and sing hymns, but even Jesus teaches us that this is not enough. When the lawyer asks Jesus what the first and greatest commandment is he answers:

 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and you shall Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

 

Again simple, but not easy. Thanks be to God that Jesus promises to be with us always, even to the end of time, giving us God’s help to carry out these simple, but not easy, tasks so that we might “be right with God,” and with God’s People.

Life, Marriage, Death, Baptism, Life

This past weekend, my wife, Lynn, and I went back to the city we consider our second hometown: New Orleans: The Big Easy, The Crescent City. A city whose motto in French is “Lalissez Le Bon Temps Rouler.” “Let The Good Times Roll. New Orleans is a city that prides itself in living life to the fullest and in every moment. This includes all of life, from birth to death and beyond, from Mardi Gras to Lent to Easter and beyond. 

Our reason for the trip included all the above! Thirty years ago, I met a couple in my first week as pastor/rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church. He was fifty-nine and she was thirty-nine. They met in the parking lot of their apartment building and wanted to be married on St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, because the bride’s maiden name was McKenzie. The bride knew she would likely be a widow for a long time. As it turns out, she died this past December leaving her almost ninety-year-old husband widowed. Friends of Nancy’s from all aspects of her life: broadcasting, Caledonian Society, University Education, and St. George’s Church, planned and organized a Memorial Service and Time of Remembrance for her and asked me to participate. What an honor and a pleasure. We prayed, we read scripture and told stories, ate her favorite Petit Fours, and drank her favorite wine. Truly in life there is death and in death life as seen in the following scripture which was read at her memorial.

 

“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9) Rest in Peace my friend.

On the next day, Sunday, as we visited St. George’s where I had been rector for twelve years, we received even more confirmation of God’s presence throughout our earthly lives and beyond. Eliza, nineteen-month-old daughter of a young family was to be baptized and receive the sacrament of new life. Baptism, whether of an adult or child is always a joyful event, a time for all of us to renew our own Baptismal Covenant, and Eliza’s baptism was no different: until it became different, and even better! As we left the church building, we were met by a Jazz Band and led in a “Second Line” around the block on which the church is located.

A word of explanation for those not familiar with the “Second Line” and its importance in the life of New Orleans. The “First Line” is the slow, solemn, and mournful jazz procession to the cemetery. The “Second Line” is the joyful, life affirming procession away from the grave with dancing and waving of handkerchiefs and umbrellas celebrating life and resurrection. In New Orleans the Second Line has come to be a celebration of life on almost every occasion. What better way to celebrate Eliza’s new birth into the death of Christ so that she will be raised with him in his resurrection.

 

 

 

 

 

How do we Pray, Why do we Pray, What difference does our prayer make?

 

(Based on Luke 11:1-13)

 

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

I assume since some of disciples had been John’s disciples that they knew about John’s teachings on prayer. In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, and another of John’s disciples saw Jesus and asked John who he was. John answered, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Andrew and the other disciple responded, “see you John,” and ran after Jesus.

How then did Jesus teach his disciples to pray: Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” That’s it: short, sweet and to the point. 

WHY do we pray: we pray to know God’s Purpose in the world, and God’s purpose for us. We pray to know how God meets our needs and protects us, and to know how God can use us to meet the needs of others.             

Let’s elaborate on the why by looking at what Jesus taught them: First you may notice that Matthew’s version (6:9-13) is longer and seems to have been adapted to liturgical worship, while Luke’s version, as mentioned earlier, ‘cuts to the chase.’ For this reason, I want to look at the prayer and learn from it through Luke’s eyes, weaving the how and the why together.

Father, hallowed be your name: the introduction, the reminder that God is Holy; Your kingdom come: God’s Kingdom is Inclusive: Heaven and Earth, “Red & Yellow, Black & White we are precious in his sight.” And as St. Paul, reminds us, “Jew, and Greek, male and female, slave and free.” And I would add, “any other division we humans have come up with in our time on this earth. We truly are praying to help God bring God’s kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Jesus continues, give us each day our daily bread. This is a two-fold meaning: a reminder that God desires for us to be nourished for today, and that we have a place reserved for us at the Heavenly banquet.

Next, we have a somewhat, to me, confusing phrase: “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. I do not believe that our forgiveness of others earns God’s forgiveness, but I do believe it inspires us to forgive others and is likely a condition of our continuing forgiveness by God, and our part in bringing about God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Finally: do not bring us to the time of trial: God does not bring us to trials and temptations, but they exist, and we ask God to protect us, now and in the life to come                                                                                                      

Perhaps the most important of our three questions is: What difference does it make? Does prayer protect us from all of life’s problems: cancer, auto accidents, divorce, job loss, or natural disasters? We know it doesn’t, so why pray, what difference does Prayer really make?

For answers, we again turn to Jesus. Prayer in the bible is not only a mystical experience, but also one of the ways we work with God to bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth as in Heaven. God’s purpose for us is health, wholeness, and peace. Life on this planet sometimes prevents this. Jesus’ prayer we just looked out reminds us that we are joined with God and one another through Holy Spirit. Through this prayer relationship we become co-creators and co-caregivers and co-peacemakers with God.

Good News, Bad News, Good News 

Some reflections on how to survive as a Church, Nation and World

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 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 be those laborers, 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.' Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near. But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'” 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 in 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! 

I want to refer to politics, but this is not a political statement. This a statement 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 our responses to the many decisions handed down by the Supreme Court this past week. Decisions affecting abortions, gun rights, carbon emissions, and immigration. 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 just as you do and 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 a church, a 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.”