Friday, May 25, 2007

Pentecost: A Great and Glorious Day

The Ven. Richard I Cluett
May 27, 2007
Genesis 11:1-9 + Acts 2:1-21 + John 14:8-27

Wouldn’t you have loved to have been there; to have been in Jerusalem that busy, urban center at the beginning of the Christian Era, at the beginning of the Christian Church? Walking those narrow streets, crowded with people from all over the known, and the unknown, world? “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs…”

Eventually finding yourself in an open square filled with hundreds and hundreds of people, standing before a house where the followers of Jesus had gathered? “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

It would have been wild. It would have been crazy. It would have been chaotic, and maybe even a bit scary. You would have been amazed and astonished, and perhaps perplexed.

But for sure you would have known that something new and different and powerful and transformative for the world had taken place… and maybe even transformative for you, yourself. But you’re not sure, you don’t know what it means.

And then this powerful figure rises and stands above the crowds and tells you and all assembled what it means as he reminds you of the words of the prophet Joel,
“…I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.” It is the Lord’s great and glorious day.

And you remember the scripture “And all flesh shall see it together.” And you see it. You get it. You believe it. You know it.

You have a new and powerful sense of yourself as God’s child, so beloved by God that God’s Spirit would descend upon you. God’s blessing would be upon you.

And you resolve to build your life anew upon it. You want all people – you want the world – to see and know what God has done in Jesus of Nazareth and how God has empowered the people by the coming of the Holy Spirit. You want the world to be built anew upon it.

You want it for those you love, you want it for your family, you want it for your friends, you want it for those who are closest to you and yu want it for those who do not have it or know it or who live across the world. You want them to know this joy, you want them to receive this power, you want them to claim this purpose for their lives.

It is as if you are filled with new wine… filled to overflowing with God’s Holy Spirit and Power and you want it to flow out and over all those around you.

Oh my God! Oh My God!

And here we are today, two millennia later remembering how it was, way back there, back when God’s Spirit came so powerfully onto God’s people, came so powerfully into God’s world. And perhaps we wonder, What has happened? Where is that presence? Where is that power, today, in my life, in this world?

I want to say to you that “Today is Pentecost.” Today is the Day of the Lord. Today God’s Holy Spirit has come upon you. Today you are declared God’s beloved. Today you are to know that Jesus of Nazareth was born and lived and ministered and was crucified and was resurrected and has ascended to God’s right hand – for you and for the life of the world.

You have been called by name. You have been saved. You have been baptized by water and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit has descended upon you and enriched your life already and empowered you – and sent you into God’s world which knows not God. Sent to God’s world which knows not God’s power. Sent to God’s world which knows not God’s presence. Sent to God’s world which knows not that Jesus has come to save the world. Sent to God’s world which knows not that life lived in Christ and in the power of the Spirit is a life filled with joy and purpose and power and fulfillment. Sent to God’s world, which God has created and knows and loves and will not abandon.

Today is Pentecost, a day to know anew God’s power and presence and purpose in our own lives and in the lives of those around us, indeed in the life of the world.

It is the Lord’s great and glorious day and you are God’s great and glorious child upon whom his spirit has come to rest. It is a day when everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Easter 7: Time for Prayer

The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
John 17:20-26

Welcome to the in-between time! Next Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, the end of the great 50 days of Easter, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Last Thursday was the feast of the Ascension, 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus, when the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven. So today is the in-between time, the Sunday after the Ascension and before Pentecost. What do we do with those ten days when Jesus is not here and the gift of the Holy Spirit is not here yet either? What do we do with any in-between times? Times of transition. Times of uncertainty. Time of darkness. Well, one good idea is to pray. But how do we pray in the in-between times?

Recently in the Inquirers’ class I teach someone asked what exactly is prayer? We could answer, “conversation with God” as we often do. But if prayer is conversation, how do we handle it when God doesn’t seem to talk back? I have heard this question from practical seven-year olds and wise sixty-year old alike. So what is prayer? Rather than offering my own definition, I will trust wiser sources: a children’s book and the catechism. First our catechism. Found in the back of your prayer book, the catechism is a teaching. It is a summary of Christian doctrine in questions and answer form. Thus, finding the answer about prayer is simple. On p. 856 we find the question, “What is prayer?” And the answer: Prayer is responding to God by thought and by deeds with or without words. Responding to God encompasses so much more than conversation or dialogue. It can mean making music, singing or drawing a picture. It could be holding hands around the dinner table, watching a sunset or standing in silent awe at the peak of a mountain.

Our catechism goes on to outline principle kinds of prayer and you can read these for yourself. But I want to think of two in particular: adoration and oblation. Adoration is lifting up our hearts and minds to God. We tend most often to pray “help me!” or “thank you.” But what about a response to God that is pure adoration? What is our prayer is asking nothing but to enjoy God’s presence, to bask in God’s love and delight of us, and to give ourselves over to that glory? An oblation is an offering. A prayer of oblation is offering ourselves, our lives, our labor and our leisure, to God. For God. For God’s purposes.

I promise to get to the children’s book in a minute, but I want to think of these two kinds if prayer, adoration and oblation, as we look at Jesus’ prayer in this reading from John. What we have today is only the last third of a prayer that Jesus prayers over his disciples. After Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and explains to them again about his betrayal, death and resurrection, he prays for them, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your son so that the Son may glorify you.…” This prayer does many things. But among those I think it expresses adoration and oblation. Jesus sets himself in the presence of God’s glory and love and offers his life and service. He lifts up his heart and mind to be one with God. There is petition in this prayer as well, as Jesus prays on behalf of those who are with him, that they too may be one with God. He also prays on behalf of those who will come later, those who will believe because of the words of these disciples. So Jesus is praying on behalf of us as. Jesus desires his disciples, and us, to be one with him so that we may see ourselves in the presence of God’s grace and love.

This prayer draws us into the image of the Son dwelling with the Father, and in this ten day period between the Ascension and Pentecost, we are drawn into the mystery of the trinity as well. In this in-between time, we can offer prayers of adoration of this mystery and oblation. We can simply allow ourselves to be in awe. But do we have time for that? Episcopal priest and author Suzanne Guthrie asks this question, “We have so little time to contemplate these mysteries. We make so little time. Our culture, even in the church, values this kind of time in prayer so little. We dismiss wonder so ruthlessly. Who encourages simple, prayerful awe?” She goes on to invite us to pause in this in-between time. “Next week, we’ll celebrate the active struggle of life again in Pentecost and the call to go to the ends of the earth as messengers of the gospel. And before we are sent into the world, we will have to remember and understand deeply the implications of Jesus’ prayer that ‘they may all be one.’ But in this brief time, these ten days of Ascension, we are given the gift of waiting in reverence, love, joy, wonder. Even if we sit in adoration of the mystery of the Trinity only once a year, it is enough to remind us why we are so driven the rest of the time. Let us worship in the beauty of holiness.” ( quoted from an article in The Christian Century, May 16, 2001)


I did promise to share a children’s book with you. It’s a wonderful book called Granddad’s Prayers of the Earth by Douglas Wood. In the story, the grandfather shares with his grandson his love of God’s creation. He teaches the young boy about the prayers of the wind and streams and rocks and trees. He tells him about the wonderful variety of prayers of people as well. The boy asks his grandfather, “Are our prayers answered?” The wise man replies, “Most prayers are not really questions and if we listen very closely, a prayer is often its own answer. Like the tree and winds and waters, we pray because we are here. Not to change the world, but to change ourselves. Because it is when we change ourselves that the world is changed.”

In this in-between time, let us pray, remembering that prayer is our response to God by thought and by deed. Pray in adoration and oblation, allowing yourself to be drawn into the mystery of God. Pray in awe, taking the time to wait in wonder and reverence. Pray not to change the world, but to change ourselves, to become one with God and each other. Because it is when we change ourselves that we change the world. Amen.


Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Easter 6: The Question is...

The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, John 5:1-9

Sometimes life is just about trying to survive. What do we need to survive?

Jesus comes to a pool that is known to have healing powers. There are many people there seeking to survive. They are hoping to be healed. One man has been in need of healing for thirty-eight years. Jesus asks this man, “Do you want to be made well?” Now, I ask you, just what kind of a question is that? Jesus didn’t ask, “Do you want me to make you well?” So what kind of a question is it? I think it is one of respect and one of invitation. Jesus doesn’t assume that he knows what the man wants or needs. Whether the man wants to be healed or not is a fair question. It is also a gift. One that offers the man, and us, the chance for introspection. What do we want? Perhaps we should ask ourselves this sometime.

The man’s response to Jesus’ question is an explanation of why healing is unavailable to him. “Sir,” (he doesn’t know who Jesus is) “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I am struggling to get there, someone else gets there first.” This explanation is more easily understood with some traditional commentary. If you know this story from the King James translation of the bible, you may recall this as the pool of Bethesda. Some translations insert a verse about an angel of the Lord who used to come from time to time and trouble the waters of the pool. Once the water was rippling, the first person in was cured. Thus all the people hanging about the pool watching and waiting for that moment of miracle. (Many ancient copies of this gospel do not have that verse so modern scholars don’t include it).

So when Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed the man explains why he is not yet healed—he simply can’t get to the water. Most likely he is lame, so when the water is stirring and the miracle about to be available, he cannot get to the water first. The healing offered there is not accessible to him. So he waits. He waits for healing. He has waited for a long time. Now before arriving at this pool, Jesus had met a woman at a well where he offers her living water. He tells her “the water that I will to anyone give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” This water of life is hers for the asking. The man has been unable to reach the healing waters. But then comes Jesus, who has the water of life, who is salvation. Do you want to me made well?

This question is echoed centuries later in 1864 when Baptist preacher Robert Lowery writes what has become a well know hymn, “Shall We Gather at the River?” Lowry based his him on the text we heard read from Revelation today, this glorious image of the City of God, with the great river of life flowing from the throne of God. The writer of Revelation has been given a vision of the Holy Jerusalem, the heavenly city where all creation is complete. In this City of God, there is no need of a temple in which to worship God because God is completely present. There is no need for the sun, because God’s glory is the light that ushers in everlasting day. This light draws people form all nations to its uplifting and rejuvenating presence. And in this beautiful city, flowing from the throne of God is a great and beautiful river. The river of the water of life, which gives sustenance to the tree of life on either side. These trees bloom so abundantly, that they produce fruit each month, and a different fruit each time.

This glorious City of God is what revelation is about. This is what the end times are about. This vision of the great completion of creation is what we have to look forward to. And it is a place where we will find welcome. We have already been invited. Lowry wrote this hymn on a warm afternoon as this vision played in his head. He chose to start it with a question; what he calls “a quest­ion of Christ­ian in­quiry.” For Lowry this question is the basic question of faith: “Shall we ga­ther?” Like Jesus’ question to the lame man, it is an invitation. It is not a given—not a command.
Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod,
With its crystal tide forever
Flowing by the throne of God?

Like Jesus’ question to the lame man, this too is an invitation to healing and to being made whole. But this time being made whole by is accomplished by taking our place in the City of God. It is an invitation to community, to take our place with the saints.

For Lowry the answer to this invitation is yes. Thus the chorus of his hymn:
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.

In the monastic tradition, a person who wishes to become part of a community makes a series of vows or commitments. Each of these vows is for a greater length of time. There is a six-month probationary period in which a person decides if monastic life is for them. Then he or she makes a commitment of one year. Then three years, and then final vows for life. When a person makes his or her first vow for the probation period, the question they are asked is “What do you desire?” When they make their life vow, the question they are asked is, “What do you desire?”

Do you want to be made well? Shall we gather? What do you desire? Each questions is a gift. For the seeking Christian, it begins with the question—not the answer. In the presence of Christ, healing and community are immediate. Healing is available…you have to decide you want it. Community is present…you just have to show up for it. We have a God who invites, not one who compels.

Do you want to be made well? Shall we gather at the river? What do you seek?


copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Easter 5: Here we are...

The Ven. Richard I Cluett
May 6, 2007
Acts 11:1-18 + Revelation 21:1-6 + John 13:31-35

So, here we are… Christians gathered in community in the name of Jesus Christ… planted, rooted, fed and nourished by the deep riches of God's grace. Here we are, the fruit of the labor of the likes of Peter and Paul, and countless other faithful, itinerant, missionary, evangelizing followers of Christ. Here we are, recipients of the faith and tradition and stewardship and fidelity of the generations who have preceded us in this cathedral parish.

Here we are… and in that truth there is both blessing and rub. Christians planted, rooted - together - stuck with each other - through thick and thin, good times and bad tough times, in for the long haul. And when the clashes come as they always do - between our faith and our culture, our belief and the world - when differing views and understandings come within the community itself - here we are with one another and here is where we are going to be - with one another. Brothers and sisters gathered by Christ into his community.

And what is the Gospel message from Jesus? “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Pretty clear, isn't it? Not easy, but clear!

And if it is not clear enough for you, let me remind you that Jesus is giving this new commandment right after washing the feet of his disciples as he prepares to go to the Cross. That’s the nature of the love we are to share, exhibit, and live.

Do you know what keeps us from loving our neighbors, whether they are within the church or outside? Our neighbors do. They keep us from loving them. Don't you have to admit, in all truthfulness, that some of the people among whom you live and move and have your being are not very lovable, at least some of the time.

And furthermore, there seem to be very few possibilities of life in this day and time without conflict - without the clashing of differences. And if we continue speaking the truth, is it not true that there will always be conflicts whether they be between generations in a family, or between leaders and those being led; even between and among people with a common purpose, but with different views about how to move toward that purpose? Even in the Church?

Some questions for us who are in this Christian enterprise, in this particular community, for the long haul are: To what do we point with the testimony of our lives? What do our individual lives and our community life say about us? What are the signs of discipleship? Do the words and actions of our lives convict us before the world as disciples of that Jesus? Is there any place where we, individually or corporately, could be hindering God?

Jesus said that the sign of discipleship is the love shown to the world by his community of disciples. It is by this that people will know the nature of the Jesus whom we call Lord. It will tell the world plainly - if we love powerfully. Love ourselves, love one another, and even love those who are in the world but have not yet, heard, known, believed, or accepted the Gospel. The fundamental command is not that we agree, but that we love.

It is true that that even though there is not the possibility of living without conflict, there is the possibility of life without hostility. Conflict is inherent when more than one is gathered together; hostility is outside the life lived in the name of Jesus.

All of which is to suggest that the failure to love does not lie outside ourselves, but rather somewhere within us. And that, of course, is what makes this so hard.

Sometimes it is our insecurity that keeps us from living love. Where do we find the deep down security that will give us the confidence we need to live fully and to love fully? Here! It is precisely in Jesus Christ and in his community that we find the possibility of doing away with the need for self-protection.

It is true, what the Sergeant on that great old TV show, Hill Street Blues, said when he sent his squad out into the streets, “Be careful, you can get hurt out there.”

But there are other truths as well. Jesus has given us himself, the assurance of security, and each other. In the book "Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten", one of the learnings is “When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.”

But, some could, and do, say, “You know, there are some people that you just don't like. The vibes are bad. You know the saying, ‘I love people, its just Harry who gives me a pain.’ ”

For Peter, the issue was with Gentiles, people who thought, ate, and lived differently from the ways of the Jews. In our day and time and culture, it could be Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, illegal immigrants, gays and lesbians, poor people, aged people, any people who think, eat, or live differently from how we do, or with whom we just disagree.

It is true that those feelings exist, but it is also true that there are other feelings, other influences, other urges that work just as automatically, but for love. And it is here in the community of Jesus, in the common life, prayer, and work of the people of God. It is here that we are exposed to the possibility of being able to love the Jesus way. It is here that we will find others who also are willing to make the attempt with us - not in spite of who we are - but rather because of who we are.

As Barbara Crafton wrote this week, “Not that we won't make any mistakes. Not that we'll be sinless. Not that we'll agree on everything important. None of these will certify our discipleship. The imprint of our love for Jesus and his love for us will be shown in the way we treat one another.”

It is here that hostility, is unacceptable and declared to be sin. It is here that there is healing and forgiveness for the unwanted hostility that is in each of us. It is here where we find support and encouragement as we move out into the neighborhood, and the marketplace, and the home, and the workplace and the playground to seek and to do the will of God.

Because this is where we live, we know what needs to be done, we know the strategies to employ, we know the people who need the gospel of Jesus, we know we have each other, and Jesus has told us how important it is for the world to see and know the truth. Amen.