Christmas Eve 2014: Luke 2:1-20

Scary Angels

As a priest, I have acquired quite a few angels over the years…not real angels, angel figurines and ornaments.  There was a woman in my last parish who would give me a different one every year.  With those and all my other Christmas angels, my house is overwrought with angels at this time of year.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  Some of them are playing instruments, some are singing and some are even in the shape of instruments. Of course there are a couple of things they all have in common.  They are all women, which is kind of odd when you think about it.  The angels in the Bible are usually men.  They are all pleasant looking with flowing robes. None of them look scary at all.  There are no zombie angels, no angels with limbs missing (unless you count the one with the missing foot---but that just fell off at some point when I was unpacking decorations).  None of them have their faces contorted as if they are screaming.

            Of course angels aren’t supposed to be scary.  They are supposed to be comforting like those people in Touched by an Angel, Michael Landon on Highway to Heaven or Clarence on It’s a Wonderful Life.  Those are the kind of people who you would want to have on hand if you were in a sticky situation.  Yet I am pretty sure that the angels of the Bible looked nothing like the angels we see on TV.  Usually, especially in the Gospels, the first thing that the angels would say was, “Do not be afraid.”  They would not have had to say that if the people weren’t.  And if people were responding with fear consistently, there must have been something about angels that scared people.

            So were they scary looking?  Did they come with weapons and armed guards, or was there something else going on?  Let’s consider the story we heard tonight from the Gospel of Luke.  There were shepherds watching over their flock at night.  This was before electricity, so this must have been pretty dark, probably completely dark.  They were trying to stay awake, pacing a little to keep warm and then suddenly, “An angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”

            Even if the angel looked friendly and warm, it is understandable that they were terrified.  They were surrounded by darkness and out of nowhere, an angel appeared surrounded by what we can assume was a great light.  Often the glory of the Lord is described as a great light, almost blinding.  And you know how it is when you are in the dark and all of a sudden someone turns on a light.  Even if it is not a particularly bright light, it takes a while to adjust.  You might even squint your eyes and ask the person to turn it off.  In that moment, the light can feel unwelcome.      

            The people living at the time of Jesus’s birth had gotten used to the dark.  It had been almost 500 years since the last great prophet preached to the Hebrew people.   For those years and more, they had longed for this moment, this coming of the Messiah but that longing had turned into something more like a fairy tale longing; a princess waiting for her prince to come but with no real grasp of what that prince would be like or what his coming would mean.

            So yes, they were afraid.  They were shepherds and they were used to waiting and preparing.  They were used to a routine.  While their lives were not easy by any means, they knew what to expect.  They knew what was expected of them.  But with this angel who came with the light of the glory of God, they knew in a moment that the world would never be the same.  They were terrified and in some ways, they were right to be terrified. 

            The angel told them not to be afraid. He said, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Surely these words must have allayed their fears.  We know these words.  Most of us hear them every Christmas.  A Savior and a  Messiah…that has got to be good news.  There is no reason to fear that. 

            Maybe by then the shepherd’s eyes had adjusted to the light.  Yet just as they were accustomed to that light and the sound of that one angel, an entire army descended (that is what host means…it means an army).  This army did not come brandishing swords.  They brought news of peace to all whom God favors. 

            Despite the tidings of peace, my guess is that those shepherds were still a little afraid.  They had just seen something extraordinary and they knew that their world would never be the same.  The time of waiting was over.  They had a choice.  They could stay in that field and let their eyes get used to the dark again.  They could remain there because that was their job. And if they did not stay, who would care for the sheep?  They could have come up with 100 excuses to stay in that field instead of searching for a nameless child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.  But they didn’t. 

            They had seen the light.  They had heard the good news of God almighty and they could not just sit there and pretend as if their life had not changed.  No matter how scary that light was, they determined to find it again.  They had to be near it.  Not only that, but they had a message to deliver.  They did not know to whom they were delivering the message or exactly why, but they knew they had a message that was so important that an army of angels had come to them to bring it.

            So they went and they found Mary, Joseph and the child in a manger.  They saw the light in the flesh. Maybe they did not quite understand it, but they knew that what they witnessed was divine and they shared what had brought them to this place.  They shared the news from the angels with Mary and Joseph and by doing so they helped the parents of Jesus understand what had just happened.  I bet that every part of that journey (while exciting) was still terrifying. 

            Usually when we think of angels, and even God to some extent, we think of protectors, beings that will keep us safe.  But in the Bible, the angels challenged God’s people to discover a different part of themselves.  They were terrifying not because they were scary to look at but because they moved people outside of their own little worlds.  They exposed people to the light.  Obviously that light was more than just light.  It was a transformation of being and attitude.  It was a realization that they no longer lived only for themselves, but for the Savior of the World.

            Christmas should be a warm and fuzzy time.  The Christmas story should make you feel good.  But let’s not get too comfortable with this story, because at the heart of this story is disruption and discomfort.  It is risk.  It is fear and yes it is glory.  You could go home, open some presents, watch football and eat too much and call that Christmas.  Or you take this time to look for God’s angels in your own life. They might not glow softly in the night with long flowing robes and wings. In fact, I can assure you they won’t.  The angels that we Christians really need are the angels whose wings cause a windstorm of change and whose light is not a soft glow but a blaze of glory that wakes you up and inspires you to be a better version of yourself.  Merry Christmas! May it be a gloriously transformational one.      

Dec. 14, 2014: Joy

It's Ok to be Sad on Christmas

Year B, Advent 3                
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126, & 1 Thess 5:1-24

 

            Finally, we have some perkier readings.  They are not about sorrow, repentance, sin, or the end of the world.  Now we can really get into the Christmas cheer!  We even light a pink candle, and that is so much prettier.  Some people even call this joy Sunday because of the apparent shift in the tenor of the readings.  The word joy is used 3 times in our 7 verse Psalm.  We also hear references to joy in Isaiah.  After some serious downers over the past couple of weeks, Isaiah appears to be all about gladness and rejoicing today.  Even Paul, who has never been described as perky starts this portion of his letter to the Thessalonians with “Rejoice always…”

            I looked at these texts and I thought, thank goodness we are through with all of those depressing texts.  Now we can really get ready for the fun part of Christmas. I can put up my Christmas decorations without feeling mildly guilty.  I can listen to Christmas music, especially the happy stuff.  But that eagerness passed pretty quickly as I realized I was not ready to let go to the contemplative and countercultural aspects of Advent.

            The longer I spend as priest in the church, the more I realize that while Christmas is a happy time for many, it is a difficult time for many as well.  I have talked to several colleagues and we have all agreed that more people die or get very sick during this time than any other.  That means that there are more families who are mourning either a very recent loss or the anniversary of a loss.  Even if you did not lose a loved one during this time, you are certainly reminded of that loss in a time when we talk about the importance of being with your friends and family.  The implication is that if you are not with friends and family, then you aren’t really celebrating Christmas.

            I have not experienced the loss that many of you have, but I find that Christmas always makes me a little melancholy.  I experience that feeling whenever I am in a place or a time when I feel this pressure to be cheerful and happy, when I feel as though I have to hide any negative emotions, even minor ones. 

            I am not sharing this because I am trying to make you all sad and suck the cheer out of the holiday, but because I know that there are a lot of people who suffer at this time of year, and if we talk about it and bring it out into the open, then maybe more people will feel comfortable in church.  A lot of people are afraid to show any kind of negative feeling in church.  They feel as though they need to put on their best face when they come to church.  People often tell me they don’t come to church because it makes them cry and they do not want to cry in front of other people.  While I understand that discomfort, I think that church should be the one public place where crying is absolutely ok.  Before I was a priest I used to occasionally cry in church because it was a place where I felt safe and free to be vulnerable.  I wish that for all of you.

            Let me tell you a little secret about these texts about joy.  They are not texts about pure joy or perfect bliss.  They are a little more complex than that.  Let’s consider Isaiah. Isaiah proclaimed that he was bringing “good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted… to comfort all who mourn…- to give them…the oil of gladness instead of mourning….”  He would not have been asking God to bind up the broken hearted or comfort the mourners if the people were not broken hearted and mourning. 

We have been hearing from Isaiah for several weeks and we know that the people of Judah have been going through numerous ups and down.  They were exiled in Babylon where they spent all their time hoping for a return to Jerusalem.  When they returned, they were devastated to see the place was in ruins.  They continued to struggle as they rebuilt and there is no evidence in the Book of Isaiah that it was an easy task.  There was no happy ending for the people of Israel, at least not the kind of happy ending we expect around Christmas.  Yes they came home.  Yes, they were eventually able to rebuild; but it was never easy.  By the time Jesus was born, they were under the control of the Romans and desperate for a Messiah to save them. 

            The Psalm also appears happier than it is.  It begins with them reminiscing about the good times when God was present in their lives and their mouths were filled with laughter.  But things have changed and now they are asking God to restore their fortunes.  The end of the Psalm reads, “Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.”  The people are weeping now and asking God for a time when they will be singing songs of joy...but right now they are weeping. 

            Paul is both easier and harder to explain.  He explains why we should rejoice always.  We rejoice because that is the will of God.  You might think, well that is even more pressure!  I have to be cheerful because God wants me to be cheerful.  But joy is not the same thing as cheerful and happy.  I just received one of those Christmas cards with a child laughing and then it just says, “Joyful” (or something like that).  Those are cute cards, but they don’t always send the right message.  Being joyful is not always about laughing and having fun. It’s about rejoicing in the Lord. 

Now I realize that sounds horribly vague.  A couple of years I got another Christmas card from a friend with three children.  On one side of the card was a picture of the three children looking cute and happy.  On the other side was a picture of the whole family, a couple people with strained smiles, one child clearly having a fit and the father pretending to sob (at least I assume he was pretending).  That I think is a better picture of Christian joy.  It’s messier than the joy that is advertised on tv, catalogues and cards.  Sometimes real life can bring us, pain, loneliness and fear.   None of those things sound joyful, but someone experiencing those things can still know the joy of God.  Sadness isn’t always a bad thing.  It’s a part of who we are.  More importantly, it is part of who Jesus was and is.  Jesus experienced the complex array of human emotions. 

            Frederick Buechner, a Christian writer and preacher, wrote that tears are often God speaking to us about the mystery of where we have come from and where God is calling us next.[1]  This is not always the case, but consider those moments when either you just cry out of nowhere or you feel that need to cry and you don’t.  And I am not just talking about tears of sadness…but all those powerful emotions that come with tears: anger, fear, elation, grief, relief, etc.  What if God is speaking to you in those moments?  And if we take those moments to consider what God is saying, or even just consider God, then we will find Christian joy.  Anytime we interact with the sacred and the holy…that is a time of joy even if it is cloaked in tears.

            If you are sad on Christmas, please don’t feel ashamed or like you are less of a Christian.  Let yourself cry, even in church on Christmas Eve.  Find comfort in that release, that moment where God nourishes those dry places in your life.  If you are happy on Christmas, then that’s great too.  But don’t just let it end there.  Look for Jesus in your happiness.  If you can find him there, then you will find true Christian joy.  When those two things come together, it is immensely beautiful.  If you are happy, find someone who is not.  Don’t tell them to cheer up.  Don’t tell them how happy you are.  Tell them that you care about them.  That is greatest gift you can give.  That is the gift that Jesus gave us when he became human.  In this act he was saying, “I love you so much that I am here with you, in your pain, your fear, and your laughter.”  That is where we can always find joy, in the presence of Jesus here with us. 

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[1] http://frederickbuechner.com/content/tears

December 7, 2014: Isaiah 40

It is time to cry out!

Year B, Advent 2                                                  

The texts for today are beautiful texts.  They speak to the greater message of Advent, to preparation for the coming of God and to hope in general.  I wanted to talk about what it is to have hope when things seem lost, but I had a really hard time writing that.  It is been an exceptionally difficult few months in our nation. This week was no exception.  I don’t understand why violence is such a big part of our culture.  The average child will see 40,000 murders on TV before they finish elementary school and that is not including video games.   It almost seems as though we have become immune to it to some extent.  Yet there are times when something shakes us from this numbness to violence. 

Just a few months ago the nation gaped in horror when a video was released that showed the beheading of a journalist.   This week the video of Eric Garner’s death was released.  It was gut wrenching to watch that video.   It’s not just in the movies or video games, it’s real and it’s on youtube.  What frightens me is that our reaction to violence is often more violence.  I looked at the comments under the video of the journalist’s beheading and people wrote things like, “Let’s bomb them!”  What frightens me even more is there was a part of me that really understood that and empathized with that emotion…that need for vengeance.  After 9-11, I remember feeling so happy to watch the news coverage of bombs dropping in retaliation.  We see again and again that violence begets more violence.

            It’s hard to know what to feel right now.  I have immense respect for our military and our police.   They have very difficult jobs. I just don’t understand how our society got to a point where all of this was the norm, when people felt like they needed guns to protect themselves.  Fear is rampant in our society and in many ways it is merited.  Yet this fear is not protecting us.  It is just causing more pain, more violence.  I don’t know what the answer is.  What I do know is that we are never going to get the answer if we don’t start talking about these difficult issues, even in the church. 

            The church is supposed to be a light in the darkness, not a shelter from the darkness.   Both the reading from Isaiah and the Gospel are about proclamation of the message of God.  Isaiah is a little confusing in the way it is written.   It would be easier if it was in script form so we knew who was talking in any given moment.  It starts with that famously repeated line, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.”   It would seem as though God is telling someone to comfort his people.   Scholars have hypothesized that God was talking to a divine council, kind of like God’s entourage.  He was asking them to comfort his people.  You might think, hey, isn’t that God’s job?  Shouldn’t God have been comforting the people? In a way he was.  He was imploring his people, the people who were not beaten down by weariness and pain, to share his love and comfort with those who were.

            What I like about this specific council that we hear from in Isaiah is that they seem to interact with God and one another.  One member of the council said, “Cry out!” And then another said, “What shall I cry?  All people are like grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field…” This voice sounded frustrated.  I mean, what’s the point of crying out when you are crying to grass, grass that withers so easily? The people of Judah screwed up again and again. They committed their love and loyalty to God again and again just to abandon him.  Because of that, this speaker’s frustration is understandable. The divine council has no reason to trust the people of Judah.  Then the voice that began responded, “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.”  It would seem that this member of the council had little confidence in people, but a great deal of confidence in God.  This voice was saying, it’s ok that people are weak.  It is God who sustains us, even in our weakness.

            Then this text shifts again because someone else is talking.  “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength…lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’” It would appear that this member of the council is done talking amongst themselves. It is time to talk to all of the cities, all of the people.  It is time to proclaim the good news.  And the good news is not that God will save them or even comfort them, but that God is here, ready to lead.  He will not only lead them, but he will feed them and even carry them if he has to.  Because that is what the good shepherd does.  The shepherd carries us in our weakness, in our indecision and fear. 

            I have a little more confidence in people than this divine council in Isaiah did.  I believe that we can conquer fear.  But only if we address it.  Only if we stand up to it and cry out-- even when it seems like those cries are not heard or just ignored.    Much like the divine council, we must speak to one another so that we can encourage one another.  Because in the midst of all that is going on in our world and our nation, it is tempting to give up the quest for justice, mercy and love.  It is tempting to grow a little numb to violence and hatred.  But we cannot. 

Jesus was born as a baby so that he could experience what we experience, so he would be vulnerable to pain both physical and emotional.  He did that to remind us that God’s love is stronger than the fiercest hatred.  Jesus knew what it was to live in a violent world as a member of a persecuted people. He knew what it was to die a violent death.  We know that he conquered all of this when he rose from the dead.

            It’s true that sometimes I can feel a little hopeless about what is going on in our world.  Yet, I feel more hopeful now than when I started this sermon.  I also believe that God is stronger than my hope or lack of hope and that together as the body of Christ, we become stronger.  We become louder.  Isaiah called people to go to the mountain top and cry out. I wonder if that is why so many of our churches are so tall, so that we can be that mountain top in the world.  Here at St. John’s we have a mountain top (ours is even newly renovated).  More importantly, we have the voices.  Now all we have to do is to cry out.

November 30, 2014: Isaiah 64:1-9

And now...

Year B, Advent 1                                                                 

            Happy New Year!! I know it’s not January yet, but it is the first Sunday of Advent and that means it is the first Sunday of the liturgical year.  If it was January, we would all be working on our New Year’s resolutions, perhaps dusting off some old ones or coming up with something new.  We might be committing to a new exercise routine, joining a gym, buying more vegetables, or if you are anything like me, getting really annoyed that the gym is suddenly crowded and your favorite cardio machine is no longer available.  The point it, you would be preparing for change, perhaps an improvement. 

A New Year’s resolution is usually a proactive response to a new opportunity.  However, when we talk about the new church year and Advent in particular, we talk about waiting, preparation and anticipation.  To be an active participant in Advent we tell you to sing mellower songs, not decorate the church, and light one candle a week…one candle.  On New Year’s Eve in New York City they have a famous ball drop at midnight.  The ball they are currently using is lit by 32,000 LED lamps. It is 12 feet in diameter and contains almost 3,000 Waterford Crystal panels.  Clearly, if it was a contest about light and drama, we would be losing this New Year’s contest. 

            Thankfully, it is not a contest.  In fact one of the things that we try to do in Advent is prove that the church is countercultural.  Yet I worry that in our push towards mellowing out and waiting, what we are really doing is telling people to “Get bored.”  And that is not what this is supposed to be and the readings for the day remind us that there is nothing dull about Advent and there should be nothing boring about our faith.  The first line from Isaiah is, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence….” Having the sky ripped open would be a whole lot more impressive than a 12 foot crystal ball dropping a couple hundred feet. 

            Isaiah is a book full of dramatic twists and turns.  The author spent the first part of the 66 chapter book trying to convince the people of Jerusalem to change their ways and follow the one true God or they would be conquered by a foreign land…which is indeed what happened.  Jerusalem was conquered and their beloved temple was destroyed.  The majority of the people were deported to Babylon where they lived under foreign control and were forced to worship other gods. 

The whole time they were in Babylon, they lamented over the exile and looked forward to returning to their home and their temple.  In the last section of Isaiah (which is one of the longest books of the Bible) the people return to their home to find it ruined.  While they try to rebuild, it takes much longer than they expected.  They have long periods of despondency where they question whether they can even build a temple again.   They wonder whether God has abandoned them.  In many ways, they were moving through an interminable Advent…all of this waiting and Christmas never came.  

            The reading we have for today comes from the very end of the Book of Isaiah.  The people have been back for some time and that initial excitement of returning to their home has passed.  Things have not happened as fast as they hoped.  They are wondering if it had been worth returning.  They learned a hard lesson when they were forced to leave their homes and leave just a few people in Jerusalem.  Part of that lesson was how important it is to remain loyal to God and not to take God for granted.  Yet they forgot that lesson very quickly.  They forgot it so completely, it would seem that they no longer knew how to recognize the presence of God.  Otherwise, they would not asked him to tear open the heavens and come down.  That would be a pretty dramatic entrance for someone who is already there. 

In this one short passage of Isaiah, the people ask God to make his presence known so dramatically that people would have to take notice, have to believe.  After making that request, the people remind themselves and God of the relationship they once had and the power that God once displayed.  But the mood shifts again when they admit that despite the power of God and his care for his people, they had sinned and turned against God since their return to their home.  All of this waiting had not given them time to slow down and rediscover their relationship with God.  It had just given them enough time to get distracted and whiny.  They had gotten so lazy that they would not even call on his name. 

            Yet…that is the English word that comes to us in verse 8.  It seems like a small unimportant word, but it was pivotal in this text because it marked another shift…but not just any shift, a shift to the present.  A better translation would be, “And now.”  And now, “O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of you hand.”  While they were in Babylon, they spent all of their time longing for that time when they would return to their homeland.  They were full of hope and longing, but it was all for this future event.  When they returned they discovered that this home of theirs did not look like what they remembered or what they hoped for.  So then they started reminiscing about the past, of what was or what could have been. 

But with that one small phrase, “and now,” they were back in the present.  They were ready to live instead of just remember.  They came up with a pretty interesting way to do that.  It was something they had not yet tried.  They allowed themselves not only a new beginning, but a new beginning with God as their maker.  God would not just be their creator, but their re-creator. 

            Yes, Advent should be a slightly more quiet and contemplative time.  But that time should end with something more than just an unused gym membership.  It should be a time of re-creation when we put ourselves in the hands of God and let him mold us.  The Gospel text tells us that we should keep awake.  That is what Advent is really about.  It is a time for quiet, but it is also a time to wake up and to live life in the present.  We are not waiting for Christmas.  We are preparing ourselves and our world for a God that is so magnificent and so luminous that the mere sight of him would crush a 12 foot Waterford crystal ball.  That light from that ball in New York City would look like an old flashlight with a dying battery when compared to the light that we as Christians are preparing for: The light of Christ.  So stop waiting around.  It’s time to wake up and prepare to be re-created by the light of the world.

 

 

 

Special Thanksgiving Sermon

Giving Thanks and Asking for Healing

Song of Simeon and Song of Mary                                                             Nov. 26, 2014

          Like any holiday, the history of Thanksgiving has many different versions.  Historians cannot agree on where the first Thanksgiving occurred, or even when it occurred.  However, what I find most interesting about the history of the holiday was when and how it was nationalized.  There are references to various thanksgivings in the 1600’s but they are far different from what we celebrate today and they were not annual celebrations.  However, on Nov. 1^st of 1782, the Continental Congress issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in which they declared the last Thursday of November to be a “solemn day of Thanksgiving to God, for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks to testify to their gratitude to God for his goodness…”[1]  If you know your American history, you will realize that this declaration comes right at the end of the American Revolution.  The Americans felt that they had much to be thankful for, but they were also very aware of the challenges that faced them. 

While this proclamation was presented, Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863.  Abraham Lincoln declared it to be such in the midst of the civil war.  In Lincoln’s speech, he asked the nation to set aside a day to thank God for the blessings he has given us, and also ask God to heal our nation.[2]  Thanksgiving was revisited once again in the midst of WWII by Franklin Roosevelt.

          I find it remarkable that the national holiday of Thanksgiving was created and maintained in times of national crisis.  It was in those times that our national leaders realized that we needed to thank God for what we had been given.  Even after the nation had nearly been torn in two, Lincoln called on the American people to find God’s blessings in the rubble.  Today, our nation is in the middle of a great deal of strife outside our borders, within our borders and even on our borders.   The economy while improving has still left many without jobs and with dwindled savings-of any at all.  Some might find it very difficult to be thankful this year.  However, it would seem that this holiday was meant for times just like these.  It was meant for times when people were having trouble seeing the blessings in life, having trouble finding God in the midst of job losses, racial turmoil, injustice and war. 

          If you look at both The Song of Mary and the Song of Simeon you will see a similar theme, thanksgiving in the midst of fear and grief.  Mary isn’t just thanking God for what he has done for her, the blessing that he has given her, she is thanking God for the changes that Jesus will bring for her people- her people who are essentially enslaved by a foreign government.  For her Jesus is an answer to a prayer, a prayer for an oppressed people…people who are beaten, battered, lonely, angry, poor, hungry…a prayer for all of us. 

          The second reading is only a chapter later in the Gospel of Luke, but a lot has happened in that chapter.  Jesus has been born.  Shepherd and angels greeted him.  It was a time of joy and hope.  Soon after he was born, like all Jewish boys at the time, Jesus was presented at the temple.  There were two people there who immediately recognized him as more than just an infant in the arms of a peasant.  They saw this child for who he really was.  Simeon began his song with great joy.  He could die now.  His life was complete because he had seen this child, this prophesy fulfilled.  But after he said all of this, he turned to Mary and said, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed- and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”            Hey now, where did that come from?  All is well.  Prophesy is fulfilled and by the way a sword will pierce you.  Can you imagine how Mary felt?  It has always seemed like such a bizarre way to end something that we call a song- the Song of Simeon.  But he was right.  It would not be an easy road for Mary.  It would be a road that would end with a cross, nails, and even a sword.  While it was Jesus who was pierced, we all can imagine Mary feeling that.  It wasn’t just a momentary sharp pain. It was a pain that lingered because she had lost her son. 

          Grief and joy often come together.  It’s messy and I would much prefer some plain old joy, but that is not what God has promised us.  From the beginning God has promised to love us and care for us, but he never said it would be easy.  He never said it would be painless.  He did ask for our thanks and our songs of praise.  So that is why we gather here tonight.  We thank God even when we do not feel like thanking God.  We thank God in a divided nation and a divided world.  We thank God when we feel divided because we know that God can bring us wholeness.  Abraham Lincoln asked the nation to set aside this day to ask for God to heal us.  We still need that, don’t we?  While the need is still here, we can be thankful that we have a God who has the power to heal if we can only find the strength to ask.    

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[1] Thanksgiving Proclamation from  the Continental Congress on Nov. 1, 1782.  www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=875&display_order=8&mini_id=1083

[2]President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, Oct. 3, 1863.

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/source/sb2/sb2w.htm

Nov. 16, 2014: Matthew 25:14-30

Taking Chances

Year A, Pentecost 23                                                           

                                                           

            When I was newly ordained, I was at a large clergy gathering and was standing next to the bishop as we were about to sit down for a meal.  (This was not our current bishop by the way.) This particular bishop would often ask the new clergy to pray.  I think he thought it was an honor.  To me, it was just mean.  When he asked me to pray I said, “No thank you.”  The thought praying in front of the bishop and 100 clergy who were all older than me and much more experienced at public prayer was absolutely terrifying.  A couple years later, another priest told me that he thought I would not last very long after I refused to pray for the bishop.  While I said no because I was afraid, in retrospect it was probably a lot riskier to say no to the bishop then it was to pray in front of all those people who would no doubt judge my praying skills and possibly boo me out of the room, throw rotten fruit and shame me for life. Thankfully that bishop while slightly intimidating, never held my fear against me.

            The Gospel reading for today is perplexing.  Many people interpret it the same way I did for the children’s sermon; as a story about the importance of using our gifts and talents for the greater good.  Don’t hoard the gifts you have, share them and then you will be rewarded.  I must confess, I thought about preaching that.  It is tempting especially on Stewardship Sunday when we ask you to pledge your time, talent, and treasure.  I could use this text and say, “Pledge to the church and you will be rewarded by your Father in heaven.  If you do not, you will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  It would definitely change the tenor of our stewardship campaign.  But I’m just not convinced that is what this text is saying.

            One of the challenges of interpreting this text is the character of the land owner.  People have assumed that the landowner represented Jesus Christ and the slaves were us.  The first complication is the word slave…which can also be interpreted as servant.  Jesus did not treat people as his slaves nor his servants.  He treated people as friends.  He told his disciples “I do not call you servants any longer… but I have called you friends…”

Another problem is the way that the landowner treated the third servant.  As you will recall, each servant was given a sum of money.  The first servant was given five talents, the second two talents and the third was given one talent.  The text does not say that he asked them to invest these talents; it just says that he entrusted his property to them.  The first two servants doubled the investment and the third servant buried it in the ground.  Now I will concede that burying money in the ground is not the best investment strategy, but it was definitely the safest approach.   When the landowner returned he rewarded the first two servants and punished the servant who buried his talent in the ground. 

            There are several theories about why he rewarded the first two and punished the third and why this is true to the character of God. However, it still does not make much sense to me.   All the theories seemed a little too convenient.  I think what is interesting is not what the third servant did with the money or why he was punished, but the reason why he buried the money.  The reason is there, right in the text.  The servant told the man on his return, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”

            He was afraid of his master.  He perceived him as a harsh man with questionable business practices.  The man never gave the servant the money.  He merely entrusted it to him for a time period and that servant did not even know how long it would be.  He did not know if he was returning in a week, a month or several years.  The master did not specify.  So to me, and to many people, the third servant really did the smartest thing.

            Yet here is the curious thing, there is no evidence that the first two servants feared the landowner.  Do we really even know if the landowner was really as bad as the third servant implied? When the landowner responded to the servant, he did not say, “You are right, I am all of those things you said I am.”  No he said, “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” It was a question, almost a challenge.  Now you might say that the landowner confirmed that servant’s perception when he threw him into the outer darkness; but let’s put our literal interpretation on hold because this is obviously not meant to be interpreted literally.  If it was, he would have thrown him into jail or a dungeon, not outer darkness.  There is no specificity in the punishment.

            What if this story is not about how God punishes us, but about how we punish ourselves with our own misconceptions of God and faith and even ourselves? Perhaps the first two servants felt comfortable taking risks because they perceived the landowner as a generous and forgiving man.  The third servant buried his talent in the ground because he was so afraid of losing what the landowner entrusted to him.  He expected the landowner to be cruel and merciless and so he was.  It was essentially a self-fulfilling prophesy.

            When people perceive God as judgmental, vindictive, and fickle, then that is what they will see. They will expect judgment from God and anyone or anything that represents God.  Yet when people perceive God as a friend, someone who loves them unconditionally and will do anything to display that love…then they will act in a way that reflects that confidence.  They might take chances, not with investment, but with who they love and how they love.  They might work a little less and rest a little more.  They might love people who could spurn their love.  They might share the love of God with people who perceive God as judgmental and merciless. They might invite someone to church even if they don’t think there is any chance that person will attend.  They might believe in God wholeheartedly even when the world tells them that faith is foolish and God is imagined. 

            It has been eight years since I refused to pray in front of the bishop and the clergy of the diocese.  A lot has happened in that eight years.  For one thing, I am a lot more accustomed to praying publically.  But what really makes a difference is that I know the bishop and I know most of the clergy of the diocese.  I don’t fear them or expect judgment.  I except acceptance and support and that is what they give. 

Yes, we should all share our time, treasure and talent.  However, I wonder if the first step to sharing those things is that we know that God loves us for whatever time, treasure and talent that we have and the people of God do as well.  So maybe you have never acted, but we need to do a Star Wars themed Advent play and you think just maybe you could pull that off.  Or maybe you have never led a Bible study but you know a priest who could walk you through it.  

I’m not going to say that there is no risk in sharing our gifts.  There is.  But this is the place to take those risks. God is who you should trust with your fears and insecurities.  And I think St. John’s is really good at supporting people who try.  You would not believe how many St. John’s people cheered when I threw (more like rolled) that horrible pitch this summer.  So please expect God to support you and love you.  Look for examples of that love and you will see it.  Be grateful and you will discover the many things that you can be grateful for.  There will still be disappointment, loss and pain but if you have nurtured a relationship with God, you will not perceive a God who has abandoned you in these moments, but a God who walks with you through the pain, the insecurities and the joy.   God can hold all these disparate parts of us…when no one else can.  We just need to give him the chance. 

Links for Videos of Oct. 26th & Nov.2nd Sermon

Sermon from Oct. 26th on youtube: Shattered Dreams Video
Sermon from Nov. 2nd on youtube: Marshmallowy Paradise

Funeral Homily for Ann Ward

I don't usually post funeral sermons on this blog, but a few people asked for this. 

 

                Ann left specific instructions for her funeral and her reception. She picked out the music and recommended specific flowers. She said that there would not be any steamed shrimp or crab at her reception and specified what beverage would be provided. Is there anyone here who does not know what she asked for?  Classic Coke.  Ann was also pretty clear that she did not want an open casket.  Her exact words were: “I don’t want anything at the funeral home…particularly no open casket.  I don’t want people looking down at me and saying… ‘doesn’t she look good…considering.’ How can one look good when they are dead?” That was Ann, making us laugh, even at her funeral.      

                I first met Ann when I was interviewing for this position.  She showed me around the church and then drove me to lunch.  I knew we would get along when I got in her car and saw a coaster that said, “Jesus loves everyone, but I’m his favorite.”   Ann would not want us to be morose on this occasion.  She would want us to celebrate the wonderful life she had.  She had so much joy in her life.  And I don’t mean she was always chipper and happy.  She was joyful.  It was a joy that came from within as if it burned at the center of her being and I could not help but smile when I saw her. 

                There are so many dimensions to Ann and almost all of you know her better than I did.  There was of course her love of animals.  After her first extended stay in the hospital, she came home and started making me this stole for the animal blessing.  She made the last rector one as well.  Her pets were precious to her, which is why we chose this gospel reading.  This reading from John depicts Jesus as a shepherd who cared for his sheep.  Jesus was not a typical shepherd.  Not all shepherds would give their life up for their sheep.  The good ones took great care of their sheep, but Jesus laid down his life for his sheep.  For Jesus, each sheep is precious, each is his favorite. 

                While Ann loved animals, she loved people as well.  Not only that, but people loved her.  She was in the hospital for several months and I can only think of one or two times when I went to see her where she did not already have a visitor. She was a loyal friend and a loyal member of this church.  You can’t get far without seeing some evidence of Ann’s work in this church.  She was incredibly creative and loved to work with wood.  All of the hand carved signs in the parish hall were made by Ann. Jesus was a carpenter as well.  There is something profound about taking something that is essentially died (wood) and making it new again….recreating it. 

                On earth Ann was like that unformed wood.  It was beautiful wood.  It was solid and strong.  It served many purposes.  But now that wood is being recreated by the greatest carpenter the world has ever seen.  Ann asked not to be buried in a metal casket because it seemed too cold and there was nothing cold about Ann.  I don’t know much about caskets, but I know that Ann is in a place where the radiance of God’s love surrounds her. She will never be cold.  She will be surrounded by peace and love and her memory will remind us of what it is to know God and understand what true Christian joy is. 

                While we should not feel defeated by her death, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of the loss.  It’s hard to imagine how such a small person in stature could create such an enormous hole when she is gone. 

            Some of you might know that slogan of St. John’s Church is “fightin sin since 1610.”  What many of you may not know is that Ann came up with that. She told me that she was sitting in church and she heard it like a message from God.   Well Ann has now joined the heavenly chorus.  She is not fighting sin anymore.  She is now in paradise with Jesus Christ, the one who truly defeated sin and gave us new life.   I want to close with a beautiful description of Ann that Letia Drewry provided for me.  She was a “surrogate mother, sister-friend, fierce advocate, trusted advisor, Lamaze coach, Godmother to Alex, shopping companion, truth teller, thoughtful listener, confidant, cheerleader, guide through the dark times, gift giver, partner in crime, fellow seeker, enthusiastic gadget finder, chicken and rice maker, and just fun, dog-loving, creative, ready for the next adventure, Auntie Ann.”   Ann is indeed on her way to her next adventure. 

November 1, 2014: Rev. 7:9-17 & 1 John 3:1-3

Marshmallowy Paradise

Year A, All Saints                                                                

            When I was a child I asked my parents what heaven looked like.  They told me to imagine whatever it was that I loved and that would be heaven.  I figured that it would have to look cloud-like, so I imagined heaven completely made of marshmallows.  To this day, when I think of the physical place of heaven, I see marshmallows.  Most of us have some view of heaven in our heads, usually formed by what we see on TV or how it is described in a book.  The Simpsons, a long running cartoon, depicted heaven as divided into Catholic and Protestant sections.  The Protestant section looked a bit like a country club with people playing badminton and croquet.  The Catholic one looked like a big party with dancing, piñatas, and music.  Jesus was in the Catholic heaven having a blast.  While I cannot say this for sure, I am fairly confident that heaven is probably nothing like my childhood marshmallowy paradise nor the cartoon version depicted in the Simpsons.  That’s probably a good thing because while any one of these places might be fun for a couple of days, eternity would be a long time to play badminton or eat marshmallows.           

            The reason there are so many diverse views of heaven and why people feel so comfortable depicting it with artistic license is because the Bible doesn’t provide a great deal of clarity about heaven.  We hear references to heaven throughout the Bible, but there is no clear description.  There is no St. Peter at a gate determining who gets in.  It’s not full of chubby little cherubs on clouds playing the harp.  If you want to find the most detailed description of heaven, you go to the Book of Revelation. 

But if you are anything like me, you might find Revelation to be a little confounding.  It is very different from the rest of the Bible.  The writing is what we call apocalyptic because it is about the end of time.  And frankly, no one I know in the Episcopal Church likes to talk about the end times.  We leave that to other Christian groups and then we tend to judge them for their preoccupation with the end times.

I confess that I am not very comfortable with the Book of Revelation. I never have been. The imagery sounds bizarre to me.  Consider the reading we had today: “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”  Why would people be washing their robes in blood and what is the deal with the lamb?  It makes no sense. 

Revelation depends heavily on symbolism and numerology.  You all know what 666 is; that comes from Revelation.  Revelation is believed to be written from a vision that John had and decided to share with the Christian community.  It contains vivid and often disturbing images: a great deal of blood, locusts with human faces, horsemen, dragons, famine, destruction, and so much more. The more I read it, the more confused I get.

Confusion is not necessarily a bad response to the Bible, especially the Bible as it pertains to end times.  Jesus was evasive about the end of the world.  In fact, there were a lot of answers that he did not give.[1]  I often think that if I had Jesus in the flesh with me in my day to day life, I could get a lot cleared up. I would not have all this confusion about things like the Book of Revelation.  But even with his disciples, he did not always explain these things in detail.  He said that some things would not be revealed until later.  The author of 1 John was pretty clear about this as well.  He wrote, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.”  What we will be has not yet been revealed…

Christians are often criticized for focusing too much on heaven and not enough on earth.  The criticism states that by focusing on what comes next, we have an excuse to be lazy because we can say something like, “well we don’t need to help those people now because what happens on earth is temporary and we need to focus on getting these people into heaven.”  Perhaps we are occasionally guilty of that.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by the horrible things that are going on in the world.  This is especially true now when we know about every horrible thing happening everywhere because of 24 hour news and social media.  It is tempting to throw up our hands and say, “Let’s put our hope in the life that is to come.”  The world as we know it, a world saturated with violence, hatred, disease, starvation, self-indulgence, etc…is more than we can possibly process. 

            But we can’t take the easy way out because as the author of 1^st John says, we are children of God now.  And not only are we children of God, but all those people who are suffering here and abroad are children of God as well…now.  Sometimes we forget that these words are not just written for us.  They are written for everyone.  While I struggle with much of the imagery in Revelation, there is some that is quite profound and beautiful.  “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…”  Who cares what heaven looks like?  What matters is not whether the streets are paved with gold or marshmallows, but the fact that God wants everyone there.  There is no discrimination, no bigotry…people of every nation, every race will be gathered at the throne of God because we are all children of God…right now. 

It’s hard to picture that in our head given that Sunday morning is still the most segregated time of the week.  But it was probably even more difficult to imagine in Israel in the 1^st century when people of different faiths and ethnicities could not even speak to one another.  It was practically a caste system there was so much segregation.  People were truly separated into tribes and those tribes were often enemies.  But that was not the vision that God gave John.  The vision that God gave John was a great multitude, from every nation… At the time, that probably sounded crazier than locusts with human faces, dragons or lakes of fire.   

In some ways it is.  In this day and age, the most fantastic things can be portrayed in movies and video games.  If you can imagine it, it can appear.  Yet no one even bothers to imagine the vision of all the people of the world…of every color, every heritage, every nation, every socioeconomic status gathered at the throne of God.  I wonder if we are scared to imagine.  We don’t mind imagining dragons and great battles in space because we can’t do anything about those things.  But we can do something about bringing people together.  We can do something about sharing the love of God with our neighbors. 

“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”  I do not like the imagery of animal blood.  However, when this text talks about blood of the lamb, the lamb is Jesus Christ.  It is referencing how Jesus was sacrificed.  The people washed their robes not in their blood, but in the blood of Jesus Christ.  He was sacrificed for all.  So while we all have unique DNA and different blood types, we all share in the same blood, the same body of Christ. We are not one nation under God.  We are one world, one universe under God.  That is what heaven looks like.  We can start working on that here on earth and here at St. John’s…we can start working on that right now.   

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[1] Matthew 24:36