May 25, 2014: Acts 17:22-31

Year A, Easter 6                                                    

            Last year my husband and I decided to try something a  little different for our vacation.  We found a yoga ashram (which is kind of like a retreat center) and decided to give it a shot.  I called before making the reservation because I was a little worried about the twice daily chanting and meditation.  I have practiced yoga for over 10 years, but I have never gotten into the chanting.  I was also concerned that we would be forced to bow to Hindu gods and that would not have gone over well with my husband.  He was already upset about the fact that there were only 2 meals a day.  They assured me that it was in interfaith center and no one faith was emphasized over the others. 

            We arrived and discovered a beautiful center with breathtaking scenery. Our first yoga class was on a platform right next to the ocean.  We had dinner, which was pretty good. Even my husband was happy.  Then we walked into the temple and both of us freaked out a little.  There were huge pictures of Hindu gods as well as statues of their guru.  In the corner there was a tiny picture of Jesus with a rosary hanging over the edge.  Then we proceeded to chant Sanskrit.  I looked at the translation and it was pretty clearly directed to Hindu gods.  There was also bowing involved. My husband started looking for an escape route.

            The Book of Acts is essentially a sequel to the Gospel of Luke because it was written by the same person.  While the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and his followers, Acts tells the story of the beginning of the church.  The church began in a place where faith and religion was already established. In the Gospels we hear about the Jews and the Gentiles.   Often the term Gentile and pagan are used interchangeably, which is not correct.  Pagans are people who believe in multiple gods.  A Gentile is someone who is not Jewish.  Not all Gentiles were pagans, but pagans were all Gentiles.  Jesus spent most of his time with Jews.  He had a couple interactions with Gentiles, but it was very rare.  Things changed after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  In Acts the disciples began to preach to the Gentiles, who were often pagans. 

            In the reading from Acts today, the Apostle Paul addresses the people of Athens.  Athens was the home of the great thinkers and philosophers.   They were idol worshippers and had prolific idols to prove it. This is the first time that Paul addressed a group like this.  He was only in Athens because he was driven out of the previous two cities that he preached and he was really just waiting for his companions to catch up with him.  He had not intended on preaching to the Athenians.   

            However, while he was waiting, he walked around the city and grew exasperated at the sight of idols throughout the city.  He spent some time in the synagogue speaking to Jews but then engaged in conversation with some philosophers who passed by.   The philosophers were curious about this new idea that Paul was discussing and encouraged him to go to the Agora, which was basically the city center, and address the Aregopagus which was the prestigious court of the Athenians.  He was speaking to the philosophical leaders, which was a pretty big deal and the first time that Paul had addressed a crowd like this. 

            Paul took a slightly different tactic than normal.  Typically he was blunt and not too worried about who he would offend.  This situation was different.  It required some finesse.  So he preached the Gospel in a completely different way.  He started by flattering them remarking on how very religious they were with all their objects of worship.  It’s hard to believe he was sincere given that those objects of worship (idols) were the very same thing that exasperated him upon his arrival.  But perhaps in his conversations with the people, he started seeing these objects from a different perspective.  Maybe he realized that any community that would go to the trouble of creating these idols was clearly searching for something that was beyond their understanding.  

He then appealed to their common ground which was creation and nature.  The philosophers had a respect for creation and God’s part in creation.  They recognized that there was something bigger going on.  Then he pointed out that if God created all these things they worship, how could God possibly live in shrines created by human hands?  Paul did not rely on scripture to prove his point, as was his tendency.  Instead, he quoted two well-known philosophers.  He quote, “In him we live, and move and have our being.”  We can agree with that right? It sounds like something that would come out of the Bible.  The second quote was, “For we too are his offspring.”  If we were to use Christian terminology, we would say that we are all children of God.  What Paul was doing was brilliant because he was taking things from their culture and then putting it in the context of the Christian faith.   He wasn’t tearing them down; he was lifting them up.  He was not smashing their idols, he was changing the way they looked at their idols.  

What is fascinating is that he never even mentioned the name Jesus.  He referred to a man who had been raised from the dead.  And that is when things departed from typical philosophical ideals. After talking about us all being offspring, he said, “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent…because he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has given reassurance to all by raising him from the dead.”  In other words, God proved himself when he raised Jesus from the dead.  Therefore, this man who has been raised from the dead is worthy to judge the whole world.  In my opinion that was a pretty big leap, but we probably don’t have the whole speech.

It was at that point (when he made that leap) that he lost a couple of people.  They ridiculed him.  But there were some who wanted to hear more and some immediately became believers.   This might not be the overwhelming response that was experienced in the beginning of Acts, but it’s not bad considering who he was talking to.   At least three people became followers and who knows whose lives they touched. 

My husband and I spent three days at the yoga ashram.  We went to the chanting sessions because it was required; but I resented it. I talked to almost no one the whole time I was there.  In the last hour we were there, we were killing time until our taxi came and one of the yoga teachers offered to give us a tour.  It was fascinating.  We had a wonderful conversation about their philosophy and why they did what they did.  I really regretted that I had been so closed minded that whole time, so unwilling to engage with others because I was uncomfortable.  I just did not know how to relate, even though we all had something in common, and that was yoga.  I’m not saying I should have evangelized to them, but I think we could have learned from one another.  They might have had some questions had they known there were two Episcopal clergy in their midst.

I think a lot of times we try to take things in our culture and change them to make them Christian.  We think that is how we might reach out to non-Christians.  But that is not really authentic.  Instead what we should do is what Paul did.  Find the common ground and put that in the context of the Christian faith.   That sounds harder than it is.   Because if we believe that God created heaven and earth, as well as humans….well then everything is God’s.  Everything belongs in God’s context.  It’s our job to make that real for people, to make it relevant.  We should never miss an opportunity to do that especially when you are not in church.

May 17, 2014: 1 Peter 2:2-10

Easter 5, Year A                                                                

 

            A few years ago the chapel of Virginia Theological Seminary suffered a catastrophic fire.  Much of the building was wooden and it burned in less than an hour.  Since it was in the middle of the day, many of the students witnessed their beloved and historic chapel burn.  A reporter asked a student what it felt like to see her church burn to the ground.  She replied, “That is not the church” and then indicating the people around her she said, “this is the church.”   I assume that the statement was not meant to dismiss the importance of the building, but to indicate that the Church of Christ was the people of Christ, not the structure that housed the people of Christ. 

            In our reading from 2^nd Peter, we hear about living stones.  Jesus is compared to a living stone as are the people who Peter is writing to.  It’s an odd phrase because we don’t usually associate a stone with life, which is one of the reasons why we can’t read this too literally. Peter makes that clear when he writes, “…and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”

            In the very early church (when 1^st Peter was written), there were no physical structures dedicated to the Christian faith.  Most Christians were worshipping in homes either because they feared persecution or because there was nowhere else to worship.  There were no community centers or schools and they were no longer welcome in the temples.  They did not have a house dedicated to God (like the Jews were used to having at this time period and we are accustomed to now).  So Peter was urging them to create a spiritual house with themselves as the building blocks and Jesus as the cornerstone.  Thus wherever they went, as long as they were together, they could be in a sacred place.

            I suspect these words were a great comfort to the recipients of this letter.   In the beginning Peter writes “To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia…”  Because of this greeting, and other indicators in the letter, it is believed that the recipients of this letter were people who were displaced from their homes.   Not only did they not have a place to worship, but they might not even have a place to live.  It’s possible that some of these people were separated from their families and in many ways their heritage.  So the idea that they could create a spiritual home wherever they were and with all different kinds of people gave them the promise of belonging, the promise of a home.

            At the same time, it was a challenge.  Jesus, this stone that had become the cornerstone, was a stone that others had rejected, rather dramatically and violently.  It was a stone that caused some people to stumble. And the people who they were building this new spiritual home with were not necessarily the people they were used to worshipping with.   They were people from various ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and social status.   These living stones did not all look alike, nor did they necessarily fit together well…which is why that corner stone, that foundation of Jesus Christ was so critical.  They were not meant to be a community of like-minded people.  They were meant to be a spiritual house, a sacred space created to worship and honor God. 

Many people believe that Christians worshipped only in homes before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380.  This is not entirely accurate.  As the communities grew, in the 200’s and 300’s, special spaces were converted for the specific purpose of hosting a Christian community.  If we were to see these places now, we might not recognize them as a church; but they were in the sense that they were buildings designed specifically for a community of Christians to gather and worship Jesus.   They had created that space because they needed the space for more people to gather.

A lot of people today are questioning why we have church buildings now.  Some people would recommend that we go back to house churches like the early church communities.  Then we would not have worry as much about budgets and things like that.   And I thought about that when I was discerning a call to St. John’s.  What would it mean to be a pastor of community that was especially connected to the building where they worshipped?  Why not start a bunch of house churches if that is what the church of the future looks like?

In ancient times, things that were considered rooted in the ground (like Stonehenge for instance or other huge stone structures) were considered to be living because they “seemed to possess some inherent integrity; their vitality was a function of their being rooted in place.”[1]  So in a sense, these monolithic structures were living stones because they were connected to the past.  That is an intriguing idea when you consider that in the context of old church buildings like St. John’s.         It makes me wonder what it is that makes a building a sacred space.  I suppose there would be a different answer for each church and for each person.  But what makes St. John’s especially sacred to me is it’s connection to all those who worshipped before.  When I celebrate the Eucharist with the communion silver from 1618, it’s almost like I can feel the pulse of those who held those vessels in years past.  It’s a profoundly holy experience.  I have heard other people express that same connection; so I am fairly certain it’s not just me.    

While I value that connection, that rootedness in the past, I fear that sometimes the roots keep us from growing in different directions, in seeing ourselves as living stones that have come together to create something sacredly new.  The roots might be our rich history, but the cornerstone is always Jesus Christ.  That is the one thing that brings us together—that keeps us together.  That is who defines us.   And together as living stones, we are called as Christians to build a spiritual house.  That spiritual house is unlike any actual building because it is a building that is never complete.  It is a building that we work on our whole lives.  We work on it as individuals and we work on it as a community.  In terms of our physical space- we know what our building looks like (and soon we will know what our renovated tower looks like), but what does our spiritual house look like?  There are limits to what this beautiful building can do, but there are no limits to what our spiritual house can do—only those limits we inflict upon ourselves.  So let us maintain this building and honor the connection to Christians and to God—but let us burn those limits we put on our spiritual house. Let’s never stop building and stretching. 

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[1] Commentary by Daniel G. Deffenbaughh, www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=909

May 11, 2014: John 10:1-10

Easter 4, Year A                                                         

 

            The General Convention of the Episcopal Church, comprises the leadership of the Episcopal Church, and meets every three years.  I have had the pleasure of participating in the last three. Each diocese sends 4 clergy, 4 lay people and a bishop. This allows every diocese to have equal representation.  It also creates a fairly large group.  There are about 800 clergy and lay people in the House of Deputies.  A flimsy wall surrounds the 800 people so those who are not deputies (and therefore are not voting) have to stay on the outside.  Once you are inside, it is a hodgepodge.  There are people from all across the world. It really allows you to see the diversity of the Episcopal Church. 

            The last time I was there, our deputation was right next to the Diocese of South Carolina.  At the time, South Carolina was very close to deciding to leave the Episcopal Church.  Because most of us knew that, we were all watching them pretty carefully and for the most part going out of our way to be kind and welcoming.  There was another deputation near them that was known to be fairly liberal, so I was especially curious about their interactions. 

The Gospel reading for today tells part of the familiar story of the Good Shepherd.  Jesus refers to himself as both the Good Shepherd and the gate that the sheep enter through.  This passage comes right after Jesus had a pretty major altercation with the Pharisees.  He had cured a blind man and this created a huge disagreement in the community about where Jesus got his power from.  The Pharisees were trying to prove that he was not a man of God. Things did not end well.  Following this disagreement, Jesus told a story about bandits and thieves who tried to steal the sheep and strangers who tried to lead the sheep astray. 

It is natural for us to assume that these bandits and thieves might be the people who Jesus was disagreeing with.  In some ways, we can find the imagery of a gate…of separation, comforting.  It’s us against all those bad guys lurking around, trying to steal our book of common prayer, our church property and even our people.  It’s us against those thieves and bandits. 

            When John wrote this Gospel, the Christian Church was not yet established.  There was a contingent of Jewish people who had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.  They did not yet see themselves as a separate group.  They were not trying to break off and create their own church.   They saw it as a natural progression for the Jewish people, and in time all Jews would come to know Jesus as the Messiah. 

But in the meantime, the Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah were in the minority.  They must have felt the pain of separation, the pain of being ostracized by a group that was essentially their family.  Therefore, it must have been very important to them, that they be right, that they be on the inside of the fence this time. 

            I do not believe that was the way Jesus thought.  Jesus did not see groups.  He saw individuals.  Jesus could see into the depths of each person’s soul.  Thus when Jesus referred to himself as a gate, it is not a gate that divides.  It is a gate that welcomes.  There were two different kinds of sheep folds in this time period.  One was the large communal sheep fold in the village.  These sheep folds had good fences and one very strong door or gate.  They were safe places for the sheep and the shepherd.

 But shepherds liked to take their herds out in the warm season and they would not necessarily return to the village at night.  In those times, the shepherd had to create a more rudimentary sheepfold.  Instead of having a door with a key, there was just a small opening.  Therefore, to protect the sheep, the shepherd would lie across the opening.  Anyone, or anything that would go in or out, would literally have to go over the body of the shepherd. 

That is how Jesus acted as a gate.  It was not simply a matter of dividing some sheep from everything else; it was about being the point of entry into the community.  Every individual would come by, or over Jesus.  People were not judged by what group they were part of, where they were on the spectrum of conservative or liberal.  It was about knowing the underbelly, the soul of each person coming through. 

            There are a lot of fences in the Episcopal Church now.  There have been for some time.  Of all the General Conventions that I have been to, this seemed the most amicable, although that might have been because most of the people who were upset had already left.  Everyone in that gated area knew that there was a good chance South Carolina would walk out and not return.  As the days went by, more and more of their deputation left.  By the last day, their table was empty. 

            I think we have to be careful about how we use the gates in our communities.  We do not have the shepherd with us…not literally.  We can’t always know for sure if what we are doing is what he would want us to do.  What I know is that he would want us to leave our doors and gates wide open.  There might be someone standing at the gate, but that person should be someone who would be ok with the underbelly of the individual.  

            We might think that we do not have to worry at St. John’s about things that are going on in the national church.  Perhaps not, but I believe each individual church deals with some of the same challenges.  We get so nervous about protecting ourselves from what is outside of us that we lock our doors and welcome people with caution.  We would not want someone to walk all over us, would we?  Yet that was exactly the model that Jesus was displaying.  The sheep walked right over the shepherd.   It was one of the reasons that the shepherd knew the sheep so well. 

I am not advocating having our usher lie across the entrance of the church.  That would make people a little uncomfortable.  I am just trying to figure out how our community can not only be welcoming to the outside but also be ok with the underbelly of one another who are already here.

            A couple days into the convention, someone I knew from the liberal deputation turned to one of the priests from South Carolina.  She shook his hand and said, “I’m really glad you are here.  We need people like you in our church to give us balance. If you leave, it will throw us off balance.”  I found this fascinating because I knew the person who was talking was gay and in a partnered  relationship.  She would not be allowed to serve in South Carolina and she knew that.  But he still wanted them to stay with us in the fold. 

            Maybe instead of just worrying about who we are letting in, we should also consider those who feel so different and alone, that they think they have to leave.  That is why it is so important that we know and love the underbelly.  Because once you really love someone as Jesus loves each of us, it’s harder to let them go and it is harder for them to go.  The church should not be an easy place to exit, not because we lock you in, but because we are committed to loving one another even when we are so incredibly different, even when we occasionally mistake one another for the thief or the bandit.

            There is no room in the Kingdom of God for thieves and bandits.   Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  The thieves and bandits only come out when we are stingy with our love.  Because then we are the thieves and bandits. Let us not be stingy with our love.

May 4, 2014: Luke 24:13-35 (youtube link included)

You can find this on youtube here: http://youtu.be/Xc-1ma_uY9o

Year A, Easter 3                                                                     

                                                                               

            This is a perplexing story. In some ways, I felt as though I was unraveling a mystery as I studied it…or at least trying to.  One of the many mysteries of this story is why the two followers of Jesus did not recognize Jesus when he appeared to them.  Was he wearing a disguise…speaking in a funny accent?  How is it that two people who had known him so well could perceive him as a stranger?  Of course this is not the only time when Jesus is not recognized after his resurrection.  Mary thought that Jesus was a gardener.  My theory which I shared with you on Easter is that she was not able to recognize Jesus because she was blinded by her own expectations. She was looking for him in the wrong place…in the tomb.  That is not where you find the risen Christ.  I think part of the reason these two followers of Jesus did not recognize the risen Christ was because they were moving in the wrong direction.  Instead of looking in the wrong place like Mary was, they had stopped looking at all.

            When Jesus first appeared to them, they were leaving Jerusalem…the place where Jesus was crucified.  They were leaving even though there were rumors that Jesus was alive again. You would think that if there was even a chance that Jesus was alive again, even a crazy rumor, they would have stuck around to see what all the fuss was about.  Why were they leaving the holy city?  When they told this stranger who ended up being Jesus what had happened, they said, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”  We had hoped. 

They stopped hoping, even though they had heard him talk about his resurrection before he died, even though they had heard from people that he was back, risen from the dead.  But this was not how it was supposed to be.  He was crucified by the Romans and Israel was not redeemed. If anything, things were worse than before.  Things had not turned out as they hoped and because of that they did not even recognize Jesus. 

            Yet in just a few short hours, Jesus reawakened their hope.  He didn’t do it with a spectacular light show.  The clouds did not break allowing rays of light to rest upon his head.  There was no voice from heaven.  All of these things had happened before while he was still alive, but not this time.  This time Jesus simply walked with them and listened to their grief and their fear.  He talked to them about the Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures…which is the place where they had first learned to hope. 

Yet their hope was still dead…at least it was dormant.  They still could not see.  So he sat down and ate with them because they begged him to stay.  Even though they did not recognize him as the Christ, they saw something in him that made them need his presence.   There were still walls around their heart, but the walls were beginning to crumble.  The scales were falling from their eyes. And then he broke bread with them.  Finally they saw and believed.

Well, duh…I mean how obvious can you be? Wouldn’t we all see Jesus if he broke bread with us?  It’s such an obvious allusion to the Last Supper.  But wait, these two were not with Jesus at the Last Supper.  These two were not one of the 12 apostles.  They had not read the Gospels because the Gospels has not yet been written.  When I see this scene in my head I imagine Jesus breaking bread and then winking at the television audience—now they are going to get it! It was not as obvious as it seems to us.  They were not at the last supper.  This was not an obvious hint.  Something else opened their eyes. Their hearts that were so closed off because hope had died, their hearts finally opened. 

            And I am not sure why.  But I believe it’s because like so many of us, faith took time.  When all hope is lost when hope has literally died on a cross, it’s going to take some persistence.  They had built walls around their hearts to protect themselves and it was going to take time for those walls to come down.  Jesus was going to have to do more than just preach a good sermon for them.  He was going to have to stay a little while, sit with them and share a meal.  You know, sometimes I think that if I can preach a good enough sermon, I can break through to someone who has lost faith.  And I know how that sounds, I know it is only God who can make such a difference, but I believe that my sermons come from God, at least the times when God can break through my walls. 

            You see we all have these walls around our hearts.  Some of us have been building them for years and years…some perhaps have temporary walls that go up occasionally when we need them, or think we do. Our walls are as unique as each of us.  Cleopas and his nameless friend had walls too.  And I suspect that the walls were always there.  The hope they had while Jesus was alive was probably a little fragile.  Hope can be a fragile thing, which is why we protect it with walls. 

            One of the many interesting things about this story is that Jesus doesn’t just stop them on the road to Emmaus, make himself known, give them a pep talk and tell them it is time to turn around.  He could have.  He could have done something dramatic, perhaps even forced them to see.  But he didn’t.  He knew they had to come to this a little more slowly. So he walked with them, even when they going the wrong way.  He stayed with them, even though they were still blind to his presence. 

Jesus’ love for us is persistent.  It is relentless.  Even when we are not persistent in our faith, even when we are moving in the completely wrong direction, Jesus never gives up on us.  Jesus knows that no matter how thick—how sturdy our walls are, they ultimately crumble in his divine presence.  And when we veer off course again…which we will, Jesus will always be there to guide us back.  

            Jill and Casey- I would tell you that your journey is just beginning, but I won’t.  In some ways it is true, but you both have already had profound experiences and challenges in your faith journey.  You will have more.  One of my favorite parts of this ceremony is the charge to the young people (your peers) and the congregation.  In this service, like in baptism, we agree to support you in your faith.  There will be times when you need that support.  There will be times when you will be a support to others.  One of things that the two people on the road to Emmaus discovered was the importance of sharing their faith and their doubt with one another.  I think that trip would have been much harder if they were alone.  Jesus came to both of them. I hope you know that church is a place where you do not have to be perfect.  You can have doubts and questions and you can share those doubts. We are companions on this journey together.  Wherever you may go, whatever you may do, remember this, you are always welcome here. Nothing can change that.  (That goes for the rest of your too.)

(The last part of this sermon was written specifically for our Rite 13 Celebration.)