Thanksgiving Day-November 27, 2008
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Bethlehem Pennsylvania
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. II Corinthians 9
We are gathered together this day in one of the most interesting of intersections of Christian reflection on what is by its very founding and existence a secular or civic holiday! Thanksgiving! The traditions of enjoying the symbols of our well established cultural experience are well entrenched by this point. For many of us, we will enjoy a hearty meal as a reminder of our thankfulness for a hearty harvest yielded to us by the grace of God. Many of us also will participate in the rituals that express our deep connection and thanks to those we love, our families, for health that we enjoy, for shelter and warmth. The surrounding cultural temptations will accompany our celebration; the propensity to overdo our abundance, too much food, too much dessert, too much football, the opportunity and invitation to accumulate more things, and the occasional possibility of too much family. I offer the last as tongue and cheek.
But lest we take too far a leave of the origins of this civic thanksgiving, I am reminded that indeed here we are in this house of prayer and we as Christians are invited to be mindful that the origins of this national holiday came into being in one of the most desperate times of our journey as a united people in America. Though regional, state, and community observances of days of thanksgiving were not unique in the early American experience, a national observance was. A quick re-capture of history I pray will invite us into this unique opportunity for Christian reflection on this secular holiday.
Steeped in the heat of a war torn country, where battlefields bore witness to the fracture of values and identity as a country; in the terror, destruction, and at the height of man’s inhumanity toward man, the leadership of our country, especially Abraham Lincoln seemed to have a deep sense that this brokenness was an abhor ration to the very character and nature of God.
In the midst of this time, and at the plea of others, William H. Seward, Secretary of State, delivered a proclamation authored by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln,
With a pre-amble that recognized the bounty of farmers, the industry of a country that was inventive and industrious, the security of a nation from outside aggressor, and a hope for an expanded freedom for its people----even in and especially despite the fractious and violent conflict this people found themselves in, comes a call for a day of national thanksgiving directed toward a creator of abundance and mercy!
A portion of the proclamation reads this way:
A Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
The Rev. John Woart, Rector of St. John’s Church Norristown Pennsylvania on the very first national observance of thanksgiving in 1863 addressed his congregation with these words,
“This annual festival is, the present year, invested with peculiar interest. Not only are we called upon by the Governor of Pennsylvania to return thanks to God for customary, and also, for peculiar, benefits bestowed upon us, as a fractional portion of a great people, but the President of the United States sends out a request that the day may be observed in every part of our county with special reference to the peculiar favors of God.
The leading purpose of our assembling together is manifest, form the fact that we are gathered within a house of prayer. We meet to pray to our Father in heaven which includes the offering of thanks. Many people go hastily, and, of course, with but little serious reflection into the Sanctuary of God. With the thoughtful Christian, however, it is otherwise.”
Here is the intersection I seek to lift up on this Thanksgiving Day, this civic holiday, the intersection of Faith, the same intersection I believe our forebears were seeking! With a thoughtful heart we look at St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. We are reminded that the seeds of thanksgiving are gifted to us by God and as we plant them, the fruit of thanksgiving is one that multiplies in abundance!
History has so much to teach us. In this case the reminder that at an intersection of human experience that was filled with challenge and despair, that shines unfavorably on the human propensity to err in ways that lead to harm rather than do good, to destroy, rather than to build up, that even in such moments, deep inside all of us is a gateway to another way that can transcend the limitations of our humanity. A spirit of thanksgiving! Isn’t it God inspired that in the midst of a darkest hour a people would be called to look deep inside themselves to discover a primary dependence on a power greater than themselves, and recognize that all that they are, all who they are, all that they have is dependent in a sacred relationship Martin Buber would describe as I and thou, and to live in thanksgiving for it!
You and I live in interesting and challenging times! Yet as Christians we also live in no less challenging times than those faithful who have gone before us. Is it not a “peculiar truth” for us that it does seem to be that when times are more challenging, we are more apt to have a workable lens that allows us to begin to understand just how blessed we have been and what opportunity for a spirit of thanksgiving we might offer. Just how peculiar God is as we are pursued by his generous love particularly when things are messy at best. This does not suggest that life’s struggles and challenges are not real and are not worthy of our struggle, it does suggest however that the power of paradox is that in discovering a sense of thanksgiving lives once overpowered by despair instead find transformation in hope. The 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart wrote, “If the only prayer you say in your whole life is thank you, that would suffice.” For Christian folk, a life well lived, begins and ends with a deeply integrated sense in our being of thanksgiving!
On this Thanksgiving Day, I leave you with inspired words of a preacher who found the intersection of Christian life with the secular and civic worthy of note, again, Rev. John Woart, on the first national observance of thanksgiving in 1863.
“Brethren! It is well for us to be in the House of God today! God has drawn nigh to us during the past year, and blessed us in our homes, and our neighborhoods—in our Commonwealth, and throughout the Union of which we are no unimportant part. Let it be our unceasing prayer of thanks, “that the Holy spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts!” Then will the world know us as Christians. We shall show forth our faith by our works, with cheerful hearts, and according to our ability. We shall be a light which cannot be hid!” Amen.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Christ the King ~ The Last Sunday after Pentecost
November 23, 2008
The Ven. Richard I Cluett
I don’t know about you but when I hear good news followed by not-so-good news, I tend to focus on the not-so-good news. It is what I remember, hold onto, and beat myself up with. Today’s gospel provides one more opportunity to do that.
We tend to assign goatishness to ourselves, thinking that we never have done quite enough to measure up to God or our own view of our best selves, and we are going to pay a penalty for that. We hear Jesus rendering a hellish judgment, rather than hearing him tell us how easy it is to claim our inheritance as God’s sons and daughters. So, I am going to reframe things a little bit this morning.
My children, over the years, have had a myriad of favorite songs. Some of them were a lot more singable than others. When they were very, very young, one of their favorite- and a favorite of mine, too – was a song sung by the Limeliters. It goes like this:
Move over and make room for Marty, He doesn't take very much space, Since Marty is one of our very best friends We surely can find him a place.
Move over, move over, And quick like a rig-it-ty jig, We'll always move over for Marty, For Marty is not very big.
He won't have to stand in the corner, He won't have to sit on the floor, For we can move over for Marty, And still there is room for one more.
Move over, move over, And quick like a rig-it-ty jig, We'll always move over for Marty, For Marty is not very big.
(Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1954, renewed 1982.)
The songwriter wrote about the song: “One of the things children learn easily… is to make room for one another.”
We learn it early, we learn it easily, but we don’t always remember to make room for Marty, in whatever guise, in whatever shape, in whatever color, in whatever gender, in whatever economic status, in whatever condition Marty comes to us.
We are to make room for one another and to make room for the other. And there you have the nub, the core of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there you have the central teaching about the work of a disciple and the work of the church. And there you have the basis for judgment When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, when he sits on the throne of glory… to judge the world.
And judgment will be rendered on this basis: Did you, did I make room for Marty? Did we make room for him in our church? Did we make room for him at our table? Did we make room for him in our care and concern? Did we make room for him in our lives? Did we make room for him in our hearts?
It is also easy to unlearn that early lesson so easily learned. The world we live in teaches other lessons, has other priorities, holds out other promises, and exacts penalties for going against the world’s way. What matters to Jesus is not our status or achievements, but our continuing willingness to let the life of God be lived through us, concretely in our acts of love for others.
But we get so busy, don’t we? We have so many responsibilities. We have so many worries and anxieties. We have so much to contend with in our own lives, that the needs of others, indeed, the very fact of another’s existence can elude our attention, escape our notice and our care. We can so easily hurry on by and not notice what is right before us, who is right before us. I am sure that we don’t, by and large, do that on purpose. We are good people, with good hearts.
But sometimes our hearts are sore or bruised or fatigued or focused elsewhere or hardened that we become inured and unresponsive to the plight of others, and we miss the one God has placed before us for our care. That’s why the Apostle Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened.
The judgment of Jesus will deal with such things as: when I was thirsty in Sudan you helped me find water; when I was longing for something useful to do, you let me help; when I was forced to leave my homeland, you gave me sanctuary and made this place my home; when I was homeless and cold, you gave me shelter and warmth; when I was ill and in hospital you visited me as you could; when I was lonely, you came to see me. When I was young, you spent time with me. When I was in prison you prayed for me, cared for me and you visited me. When my clothes wore out you found me new ones. When I was feeling lost you stayed with me and helped me find my way.
These are not big things, these are not demanding of huge sacrifice, these do not require of enormity of effort, but they are signs of God’s love and presence in your life and in the life that has been touched by you because you made room in your life and in your heart so that God’s love could flow through.
In all my years of life and ministry I have been in a lot of hospitals, food pantries, clothing thrift shops, kitchens and dining rooms filled with the poor and hungry, church school classrooms. The people I have encountered in these places cooking, serving, sorting, visiting, consoling, engaging, teaching, welcoming, chatting – these people are really just ordinary people doing ordinary, mundane, and sometimes very menial tasks that just happen to enrich and enable the lives of others, and thereby they are rich and beautiful beyond measure.
Because they have moved over and made room in their lives and in their hearts to bring care into the life of another, they have warmed the hearts of those whose lives they have touched – as at the same time they have touched and warmed the very heart of God.
Most of them would say something akin to, “Aw shucks, I didn’t really do anything. I just sat a while. I just cooked a meal. I just sorted some clothes. It wasn’t much.”
It is to them that Jesus says, “Come you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”
If you have not yet done so or not done so lately, today Jesus invites you to move over and make room in your heart and in your life for those he has placed in our care. It is never too late.
Amen.
November 23, 2008
The Ven. Richard I Cluett
I don’t know about you but when I hear good news followed by not-so-good news, I tend to focus on the not-so-good news. It is what I remember, hold onto, and beat myself up with. Today’s gospel provides one more opportunity to do that.
We tend to assign goatishness to ourselves, thinking that we never have done quite enough to measure up to God or our own view of our best selves, and we are going to pay a penalty for that. We hear Jesus rendering a hellish judgment, rather than hearing him tell us how easy it is to claim our inheritance as God’s sons and daughters. So, I am going to reframe things a little bit this morning.
My children, over the years, have had a myriad of favorite songs. Some of them were a lot more singable than others. When they were very, very young, one of their favorite- and a favorite of mine, too – was a song sung by the Limeliters. It goes like this:
Move over and make room for Marty, He doesn't take very much space, Since Marty is one of our very best friends We surely can find him a place.
Move over, move over, And quick like a rig-it-ty jig, We'll always move over for Marty, For Marty is not very big.
He won't have to stand in the corner, He won't have to sit on the floor, For we can move over for Marty, And still there is room for one more.
Move over, move over, And quick like a rig-it-ty jig, We'll always move over for Marty, For Marty is not very big.
(Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1954, renewed 1982.)
The songwriter wrote about the song: “One of the things children learn easily… is to make room for one another.”
We learn it early, we learn it easily, but we don’t always remember to make room for Marty, in whatever guise, in whatever shape, in whatever color, in whatever gender, in whatever economic status, in whatever condition Marty comes to us.
We are to make room for one another and to make room for the other. And there you have the nub, the core of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and there you have the central teaching about the work of a disciple and the work of the church. And there you have the basis for judgment When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, when he sits on the throne of glory… to judge the world.
And judgment will be rendered on this basis: Did you, did I make room for Marty? Did we make room for him in our church? Did we make room for him at our table? Did we make room for him in our care and concern? Did we make room for him in our lives? Did we make room for him in our hearts?
It is also easy to unlearn that early lesson so easily learned. The world we live in teaches other lessons, has other priorities, holds out other promises, and exacts penalties for going against the world’s way. What matters to Jesus is not our status or achievements, but our continuing willingness to let the life of God be lived through us, concretely in our acts of love for others.
But we get so busy, don’t we? We have so many responsibilities. We have so many worries and anxieties. We have so much to contend with in our own lives, that the needs of others, indeed, the very fact of another’s existence can elude our attention, escape our notice and our care. We can so easily hurry on by and not notice what is right before us, who is right before us. I am sure that we don’t, by and large, do that on purpose. We are good people, with good hearts.
But sometimes our hearts are sore or bruised or fatigued or focused elsewhere or hardened that we become inured and unresponsive to the plight of others, and we miss the one God has placed before us for our care. That’s why the Apostle Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened.
The judgment of Jesus will deal with such things as: when I was thirsty in Sudan you helped me find water; when I was longing for something useful to do, you let me help; when I was forced to leave my homeland, you gave me sanctuary and made this place my home; when I was homeless and cold, you gave me shelter and warmth; when I was ill and in hospital you visited me as you could; when I was lonely, you came to see me. When I was young, you spent time with me. When I was in prison you prayed for me, cared for me and you visited me. When my clothes wore out you found me new ones. When I was feeling lost you stayed with me and helped me find my way.
These are not big things, these are not demanding of huge sacrifice, these do not require of enormity of effort, but they are signs of God’s love and presence in your life and in the life that has been touched by you because you made room in your life and in your heart so that God’s love could flow through.
In all my years of life and ministry I have been in a lot of hospitals, food pantries, clothing thrift shops, kitchens and dining rooms filled with the poor and hungry, church school classrooms. The people I have encountered in these places cooking, serving, sorting, visiting, consoling, engaging, teaching, welcoming, chatting – these people are really just ordinary people doing ordinary, mundane, and sometimes very menial tasks that just happen to enrich and enable the lives of others, and thereby they are rich and beautiful beyond measure.
Because they have moved over and made room in their lives and in their hearts to bring care into the life of another, they have warmed the hearts of those whose lives they have touched – as at the same time they have touched and warmed the very heart of God.
Most of them would say something akin to, “Aw shucks, I didn’t really do anything. I just sat a while. I just cooked a meal. I just sorted some clothes. It wasn’t much.”
It is to them that Jesus says, “Come you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”
If you have not yet done so or not done so lately, today Jesus invites you to move over and make room in your heart and in your life for those he has placed in our care. It is never too late.
Amen.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday November 16, 2008
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Sermon by The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
The Millennium Development Goals
Matthew 25:14-30
In 2000, leaders from the United States and 190 other nations came together to develop a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. To guide this critical work and measure its success, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created. At the 74th General
Convention in 2003, the Episcopal Church formally endorsed the MDGs. In 2006, at the 75th Convention, the Church voted to make the MDGs a mission priority over the next three years. Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) use the MDGs as benchmarks to measure our progress in fighting extreme poverty and disease around the world.
Today, we will pray and focus ourselves on the MDG’s as we commit ourselves to living out the Baptismal Covenant by working to achieve the MDGs. We see ourselves and the Church as on a pilgrimage in the world, journeying with each other toward the justice of the Reign of God as manifest in the goals.
Today we celebrate the opportunity and challenge of living into our baptismal covenant! To celebrate the gifts, the “talents” if you will that God has given to us to offer the world, to accept the challenge of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant, to seek and to serve, to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Such I believe is the challenge Jesus puts forth in this difficult parable that on first read to 21st century eyes, seems like bad advice in a difficult financial market, but instead to an audience of early converts to a radical view to live for a new world order, is a sharp reminder to resist the temptation to hold fast, to play it safe, to be lulled into inactivity or to let inertia get the best of us. The challenge of course for any steward, first century or 21st century is to overcome our fear, our inertia, our anxiety, our comfort, our natural inclination to cling on to secure things, especially when things seem insecure. The challenge is to resist the temptation to hold fast to what has been given to our care, that is our gifts/ our “talents”, and instead challenge ourselves to use our gifts/talents, for the wild ride of living for others.
Each one of us in our baptism was given a wealth of love and an intimate experience of the presence of God. We renew that gift at each Eucharist, as we receive Jesus into our lives and join with the hosts of heaven in worship and thanksgiving.
On this day as we meet the opportunity and challenges of living into the MDG”s we begin with our baptism and our baptismal Covenant, and soon we renew them as we look to continue to greet the challenge of meeting the MDG’s.
Tertullian, an early Church Father reminds us that Christians are not born, they are made, that is as we turn our faith toward the challenges of our baptismal covenant we are more and more made into the image of Christ.
Turning with eyes of Faith then towards a pursuit of Millennium Development Goals we ask the pragmatic question, what are they, and how do we as Christians continue to pursue them?
What are the MDG’s?
You see above me the beautiful and brightly colored banners created by one of our own parishioners that are the “icons” to be our window into the eight goals established as a measuring stick to cut extreme global poverty in half by the year 2015. These goals invite us into prayer and action. They are:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
How do we as a community of faith worshipping at this Cathedral pursue the MDG’s?
1. Participation in the New Hope Campaign- Our efforts as a Diocese to partner with our brothers and sisters in the Sudan to create educational structures, infrastructure, and economic development in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. This congregation has been faithful in prayer, financially supported, and physically visited with our brothers and sisters in the New Sudan. This I pray is just the beginning of a long and faithful partnership.
2. Waters flow from a well in Romogi, the growing cultural center in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. These waters were made possible by members and friends of this Cathedral called to serve Jesus Christ. The invitation was to drill one well, but an abundance of your generosity made it possible to drill two wells. Now, waters flow in the center of this village providing the waters of life for this community. These same waters carried across continents now mixes with our own baptismal waters as a symbol of our bond with our brothers and sisters in Kajo Keji.
3. There is a historic partnership with New Bethany Ministries that the Cathedral enjoys. We join in this critical ministry to the community around us that reaches out and offers opportunity by way of food, shelter, housing and employment training opportunities! Many of you prepare food, raise funds, contribute food items, and offer helping hands to neighbors in need.
4. It is no mistake that today we are inviting you to participate in the Living Gifts Fair. This unique opportunity to educate, inspires, and invites your participation in ministries that reach out locally, nationally, and globally. As these ministries do what they do, they clearly are in pursuit of Millennium Development Goals.
These examples I am humbled to say are but a few examples of both the needs of the world but also of the response of this Cathedral community. These are but some of the ways we corporately respond to the needs of others and by doing so pursue MDG’s.
In addition, you may wonder of other ways you as individuals may become involved in this noble and faithful pursuit. Ways in which you may bring your baptismal covenant to the intersection of the world’s needs.
Here are some organizations and resources to consider:
· Episcopal Relief and Development Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) works with Anglican and ecumenical partners in 40 countries worldwide. All ERD’s international programs address one or more of the eight Millennium Development Goals—helping vulnerable communities fight extreme poverty and disease.
» www.er-d.org/mdg
· » Anglican Women's Empowerment The Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE), as representatives of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) Observer’s Office to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Woman (UNCSW), intends to be an effective and empowered Anglican voice for women at the United Nations (UN) and in the Anglican Communion and further commitment to worldwide reconciliation, right relationships and shared work for peace and justice.
· » Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation A network of lay and ordained economists, business people, students, social organizers, theologians, attorneys, labor activists, and advocates who commit to giving 0.7% of our personal budgets - and working towards giving 0.7% of our parish, diocesan, Church, and national budgets - to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals overseas.
· » Gapminder Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.
· » The MDG Inspiration Fund The MDG Inspiration Fund is a new partnership between Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), Jubilee Ministries, and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to raise $3 million to fight malaria and other preventable diseases.
· » ONE Campaign The ONE Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans – one by one – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united to help make poverty history.
· » United Nations The United Nations initiated the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. This site provides updates on the work happening to meet the deadline of 2015.
var bcTitle="";bcTitle=" » MDGs & You"
In the making of Christians we are called to the wild ride that is life! This wild ride is also full of life, and we are strengthened by our close walk with the God who made, redeemed and sustains us!
I offer this Celtic Prayer to remind us of who we are as followers of Jesus and to help us live fully into the challenges of tomorrow.
Lord, help me to live into your call
Take me from the tension that makes peace impossible
Take me from the fears that do not allow me to venture
Take from me the worries that blind my sight
Take from me the distress that hides my joy
Help me to know that I am with you
That I am in you
That I am in your love
That you and I are one.
Amen.
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Sermon by The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
The Millennium Development Goals
Matthew 25:14-30
In 2000, leaders from the United States and 190 other nations came together to develop a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. To guide this critical work and measure its success, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created. At the 74th General
Convention in 2003, the Episcopal Church formally endorsed the MDGs. In 2006, at the 75th Convention, the Church voted to make the MDGs a mission priority over the next three years. Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) use the MDGs as benchmarks to measure our progress in fighting extreme poverty and disease around the world.
Today, we will pray and focus ourselves on the MDG’s as we commit ourselves to living out the Baptismal Covenant by working to achieve the MDGs. We see ourselves and the Church as on a pilgrimage in the world, journeying with each other toward the justice of the Reign of God as manifest in the goals.
Today we celebrate the opportunity and challenge of living into our baptismal covenant! To celebrate the gifts, the “talents” if you will that God has given to us to offer the world, to accept the challenge of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant, to seek and to serve, to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ, and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Such I believe is the challenge Jesus puts forth in this difficult parable that on first read to 21st century eyes, seems like bad advice in a difficult financial market, but instead to an audience of early converts to a radical view to live for a new world order, is a sharp reminder to resist the temptation to hold fast, to play it safe, to be lulled into inactivity or to let inertia get the best of us. The challenge of course for any steward, first century or 21st century is to overcome our fear, our inertia, our anxiety, our comfort, our natural inclination to cling on to secure things, especially when things seem insecure. The challenge is to resist the temptation to hold fast to what has been given to our care, that is our gifts/ our “talents”, and instead challenge ourselves to use our gifts/talents, for the wild ride of living for others.
Each one of us in our baptism was given a wealth of love and an intimate experience of the presence of God. We renew that gift at each Eucharist, as we receive Jesus into our lives and join with the hosts of heaven in worship and thanksgiving.
On this day as we meet the opportunity and challenges of living into the MDG”s we begin with our baptism and our baptismal Covenant, and soon we renew them as we look to continue to greet the challenge of meeting the MDG’s.
Tertullian, an early Church Father reminds us that Christians are not born, they are made, that is as we turn our faith toward the challenges of our baptismal covenant we are more and more made into the image of Christ.
Turning with eyes of Faith then towards a pursuit of Millennium Development Goals we ask the pragmatic question, what are they, and how do we as Christians continue to pursue them?
What are the MDG’s?
You see above me the beautiful and brightly colored banners created by one of our own parishioners that are the “icons” to be our window into the eight goals established as a measuring stick to cut extreme global poverty in half by the year 2015. These goals invite us into prayer and action. They are:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
How do we as a community of faith worshipping at this Cathedral pursue the MDG’s?
1. Participation in the New Hope Campaign- Our efforts as a Diocese to partner with our brothers and sisters in the Sudan to create educational structures, infrastructure, and economic development in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. This congregation has been faithful in prayer, financially supported, and physically visited with our brothers and sisters in the New Sudan. This I pray is just the beginning of a long and faithful partnership.
2. Waters flow from a well in Romogi, the growing cultural center in the Diocese of Kajo Keji. These waters were made possible by members and friends of this Cathedral called to serve Jesus Christ. The invitation was to drill one well, but an abundance of your generosity made it possible to drill two wells. Now, waters flow in the center of this village providing the waters of life for this community. These same waters carried across continents now mixes with our own baptismal waters as a symbol of our bond with our brothers and sisters in Kajo Keji.
3. There is a historic partnership with New Bethany Ministries that the Cathedral enjoys. We join in this critical ministry to the community around us that reaches out and offers opportunity by way of food, shelter, housing and employment training opportunities! Many of you prepare food, raise funds, contribute food items, and offer helping hands to neighbors in need.
4. It is no mistake that today we are inviting you to participate in the Living Gifts Fair. This unique opportunity to educate, inspires, and invites your participation in ministries that reach out locally, nationally, and globally. As these ministries do what they do, they clearly are in pursuit of Millennium Development Goals.
These examples I am humbled to say are but a few examples of both the needs of the world but also of the response of this Cathedral community. These are but some of the ways we corporately respond to the needs of others and by doing so pursue MDG’s.
In addition, you may wonder of other ways you as individuals may become involved in this noble and faithful pursuit. Ways in which you may bring your baptismal covenant to the intersection of the world’s needs.
Here are some organizations and resources to consider:
· Episcopal Relief and Development Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) works with Anglican and ecumenical partners in 40 countries worldwide. All ERD’s international programs address one or more of the eight Millennium Development Goals—helping vulnerable communities fight extreme poverty and disease.
» www.er-d.org/mdg
· » Anglican Women's Empowerment The Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE), as representatives of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) Observer’s Office to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Woman (UNCSW), intends to be an effective and empowered Anglican voice for women at the United Nations (UN) and in the Anglican Communion and further commitment to worldwide reconciliation, right relationships and shared work for peace and justice.
· » Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation A network of lay and ordained economists, business people, students, social organizers, theologians, attorneys, labor activists, and advocates who commit to giving 0.7% of our personal budgets - and working towards giving 0.7% of our parish, diocesan, Church, and national budgets - to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals overseas.
· » Gapminder Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.
· » The MDG Inspiration Fund The MDG Inspiration Fund is a new partnership between Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), Jubilee Ministries, and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to raise $3 million to fight malaria and other preventable diseases.
· » ONE Campaign The ONE Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans – one by one – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united to help make poverty history.
· » United Nations The United Nations initiated the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. This site provides updates on the work happening to meet the deadline of 2015.
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In the making of Christians we are called to the wild ride that is life! This wild ride is also full of life, and we are strengthened by our close walk with the God who made, redeemed and sustains us!
I offer this Celtic Prayer to remind us of who we are as followers of Jesus and to help us live fully into the challenges of tomorrow.
Lord, help me to live into your call
Take me from the tension that makes peace impossible
Take me from the fears that do not allow me to venture
Take from me the worries that blind my sight
Take from me the distress that hides my joy
Help me to know that I am with you
That I am in you
That I am in your love
That you and I are one.
Amen.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Pentecost 26/Proper 27
November 9, 2008
The Ven. Richard I Cluett
Amos 5:18-24 + 1Thessalonians 4:13-18 + Matthew 25:1-13
What a momentous event we have experienced these last days in the United States of America! A black man elected to the highest office in the nation! Would you ever have thought that you would see that happen in your lifetime or the lifetime of your children? So many have waited and hoped for so long to see such a day.
In his election night speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, which itself had been the scene of great in-justice and violence, the president-elect spoke of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106 years old black woman. He said, “…tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress” and today she “touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote”. Mrs. Cooper participated in the culmination of a dream that no one ever thought that they would see realized – the fulfillment of the promise of a just and full place in American society for people of color. It is a sign that even if not yet complete, it is well under way.
3000 years earlier, Amos, a dresser of sycamore trees, a shepherd and the prophet of the God of Israel stood on a wind swept hillside and spoke of the injustices of his time and God’s judgment. The names Ahab and Jezebel will forever live in infamy as symbols of the excesses that marked his time. Israelites were losing their land in droves and being sold into slavery. Wealth was be-coming concentrated in the hands of the few. And Amos spoke the Word of God. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
On an August day in 1963, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed… and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Today some have seen that day; today some have seen the redemption of a people in the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States; today some have seen the fulfill-ment of the dream of independence promised of our forebears and of our God that all men are created equal. So many have waited and hoped for so long to see such a day. Today some have seen.
In the gospel today we have a parable from Jesus about the necessity of waiting and living in Hope; waiting for Kairos, waiting for “God’s Time”, waiting for God to accomplish God’s purposes; and in that waiting time Jesus says, we are to remain faithful; we are to remain vigilant; we are to remain ready; we are to keep working; and we are to keep hope alive.
Who among us has not cried at one or another time, “How long, O Lord? How long must I wait? How long must we wait?”
We live in the here-and-now as if what we hope for in the great bye-and-bye will, in fact, come to pass, and we work to be ready when that Great Day comes. We live in Hope. Hope is what tells us that life is worth going on.
Probably the greatest Oral Historian of our time was Studs Terkel who died a few days ago. For 60 years he has listen to, recorded, annecdoted, reported, and found meaning in the stories of people’s lives: work life, family life, love life, life-changing life, cataclysmic life, war-torn life, and life of epic and historic proportions.
He wrote Will the Circle Be Unbroken, his oral history about death. He finished what was to have been his last book when he was 90. But he didn’t die right away. Instead he learned that after death in the roster of human subjects comes the greatest subject of them all – and one well timed to every moment – Hope.
He had one more book in him, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times. It is a re-minder that in good times, you can do nothing and still have hope, but in bad times, you have to act, take that first small step, in order to hope.
I have two preaching nightmares. One is that I will get to the pulpit and have absolutely nothing to say, and everyone will know that I have lived on borrowed faith much of my life. The second is that the church will be stone cold empty. And then I’ll have to face the questions, “Even if no one else believes, do I believe? Will I hold fast until God’s work, or my work, is done?” I hope so. I am trying.
Today's parable reminds us that it takes more than good intentions.
Many years ago Cornell professor Carl Sagan spoke at a Lehigh Commencement. He urged the graduates to embody – to body forth – what they knew intellectually. Speaking about the state of the eco¬logical environment, he said, "Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. Do something."
We who believe, who know, who have seen, and have been touched by the power of Christ in our own lives; we are to do something. We are to be signs of God’s presence here and now, the light of God’s presence here and now.
Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal on the death of her colleague Tim Russert, “After Tim's death, the … media for four days told you the keys to a life well lived, the things you actu-ally need to live life well, and without which it won't be good. Among them: taking care of those you love and letting them know they're loved, which involves self-sacrifice; holding firm to God, to your religious faith, no matter how high you rise or low you fall. This involves guts, and self-discipline, and active attention to developing and refining a conscience to whose promptings you can respond. Honoring your calling or profession by trying to do within it honorable work, which takes hard effort, and a willingness to master the ethics of your field. And enjoying life.”
Some signs I see of the kingdom right here and right now: children, youth & adults growing in their knowledge and love of the Lord; mission trips to care for others; food given to pantries that feed the hungry; people being present with others in times of pain, of sorrow and of joy; building schools and churches in Kajo Keji; gathering regularly for joyful, spirit-filled and empowering worship of God and on and on and on.
All of them, and each of them individually, bring light to the world, bring signs of God’s pres-ence and purpose to the world, and bring reason to hope to the world. May such hope never die and may this light never be quenched. Amen.
The Ven. Richard I Cluett
Amos 5:18-24 + 1Thessalonians 4:13-18 + Matthew 25:1-13
What a momentous event we have experienced these last days in the United States of America! A black man elected to the highest office in the nation! Would you ever have thought that you would see that happen in your lifetime or the lifetime of your children? So many have waited and hoped for so long to see such a day.
In his election night speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, which itself had been the scene of great in-justice and violence, the president-elect spoke of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106 years old black woman. He said, “…tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress” and today she “touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote”. Mrs. Cooper participated in the culmination of a dream that no one ever thought that they would see realized – the fulfillment of the promise of a just and full place in American society for people of color. It is a sign that even if not yet complete, it is well under way.
3000 years earlier, Amos, a dresser of sycamore trees, a shepherd and the prophet of the God of Israel stood on a wind swept hillside and spoke of the injustices of his time and God’s judgment. The names Ahab and Jezebel will forever live in infamy as symbols of the excesses that marked his time. Israelites were losing their land in droves and being sold into slavery. Wealth was be-coming concentrated in the hands of the few. And Amos spoke the Word of God. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
On an August day in 1963, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed… and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Today some have seen that day; today some have seen the redemption of a people in the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States; today some have seen the fulfill-ment of the dream of independence promised of our forebears and of our God that all men are created equal. So many have waited and hoped for so long to see such a day. Today some have seen.
In the gospel today we have a parable from Jesus about the necessity of waiting and living in Hope; waiting for Kairos, waiting for “God’s Time”, waiting for God to accomplish God’s purposes; and in that waiting time Jesus says, we are to remain faithful; we are to remain vigilant; we are to remain ready; we are to keep working; and we are to keep hope alive.
Who among us has not cried at one or another time, “How long, O Lord? How long must I wait? How long must we wait?”
We live in the here-and-now as if what we hope for in the great bye-and-bye will, in fact, come to pass, and we work to be ready when that Great Day comes. We live in Hope. Hope is what tells us that life is worth going on.
Probably the greatest Oral Historian of our time was Studs Terkel who died a few days ago. For 60 years he has listen to, recorded, annecdoted, reported, and found meaning in the stories of people’s lives: work life, family life, love life, life-changing life, cataclysmic life, war-torn life, and life of epic and historic proportions.
He wrote Will the Circle Be Unbroken, his oral history about death. He finished what was to have been his last book when he was 90. But he didn’t die right away. Instead he learned that after death in the roster of human subjects comes the greatest subject of them all – and one well timed to every moment – Hope.
He had one more book in him, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times. It is a re-minder that in good times, you can do nothing and still have hope, but in bad times, you have to act, take that first small step, in order to hope.
I have two preaching nightmares. One is that I will get to the pulpit and have absolutely nothing to say, and everyone will know that I have lived on borrowed faith much of my life. The second is that the church will be stone cold empty. And then I’ll have to face the questions, “Even if no one else believes, do I believe? Will I hold fast until God’s work, or my work, is done?” I hope so. I am trying.
Today's parable reminds us that it takes more than good intentions.
Many years ago Cornell professor Carl Sagan spoke at a Lehigh Commencement. He urged the graduates to embody – to body forth – what they knew intellectually. Speaking about the state of the eco¬logical environment, he said, "Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. Do something."
We who believe, who know, who have seen, and have been touched by the power of Christ in our own lives; we are to do something. We are to be signs of God’s presence here and now, the light of God’s presence here and now.
Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal on the death of her colleague Tim Russert, “After Tim's death, the … media for four days told you the keys to a life well lived, the things you actu-ally need to live life well, and without which it won't be good. Among them: taking care of those you love and letting them know they're loved, which involves self-sacrifice; holding firm to God, to your religious faith, no matter how high you rise or low you fall. This involves guts, and self-discipline, and active attention to developing and refining a conscience to whose promptings you can respond. Honoring your calling or profession by trying to do within it honorable work, which takes hard effort, and a willingness to master the ethics of your field. And enjoying life.”
Some signs I see of the kingdom right here and right now: children, youth & adults growing in their knowledge and love of the Lord; mission trips to care for others; food given to pantries that feed the hungry; people being present with others in times of pain, of sorrow and of joy; building schools and churches in Kajo Keji; gathering regularly for joyful, spirit-filled and empowering worship of God and on and on and on.
All of them, and each of them individually, bring light to the world, bring signs of God’s pres-ence and purpose to the world, and bring reason to hope to the world. May such hope never die and may this light never be quenched. Amen.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
All Saints Observed - Consecration Sunday
Sermon for Consecration Sunday at Nativity Cathedral, Bethlehem, PA 11-2-08 The Reverend Patrick J. Wingo
I am very glad to be here with you to speak about Stewardship on your Consecration Sunday.
I suppose some of you might think it odd for a good ol’ boy from Alabama to come so far North for this event.
The short answer to this is that Tony is my friend and the last time I was here was for his wedding in 1993, so it’s high time I came back.
But since I brought up this North/South subject let me start today with a story about a businessman from the North who went South for the first time.
He flew into Birmingham, rented a car, then drove out to Bug Tussle, Alabama, which has since changed its name to the more respectable Wilburn.
He found a little motel and went to bed for the night.
The next morning the man went to Bubba’s Diner for breakfast, and because he was very hungry he ordered something called the Trucker’s Breakfast.
When the waitress brought his plate it looked wonderful—beautiful sunny-side up eggs, big hunks of sizzling bacon, a huge stack of pancakes.
But with the delicious breakfast there was also a large blob of white goo.
He said to the waitress, “what’s this,” and she replied “grits”.
The man said, “But I didn’t order grits.”
The waitress looked at him and said, “Honey, you don’t order grits—grits just comes!”
I will get back to that story in a minute, because believe it or not it goes to the heart of what I want to say, but for now I need to acknowledge that I speak today in the context of many other events.
I think it was Paul Tillich who said that preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the New York Times in the other.
Just a cursory glace at the New York Times tells me that we currently go about our daily business with an economy in shambles, with a war that has been going on far too long with far too many casualties, and with a very important election just a few days away.
It also occurs to me that in coming to be with you from Alabama, while there is a significant distance between us in miles, and perhaps a small bit of cultural and culinary difference, there is no difference in us as human beings:
I have a family to take care of as many of you do.
I have elderly parents, financial concerns, and many of the same joys and sorrows as you.
Those are some things on my mind, as I suspect they are on your mind.
Yet there is something else on my mind as well, because today in the church calendar we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints’ Day.
It is the day we remember all the saints who have gone before us, and all the saints with whom we live, who give us a glimpse of God by the way they have lived.
It is a day when we are reminded that in spite of our failures, we are beloved of God, and God is making us all into saints.
It is a day in which we are reminded that life is pure gift.
I was reminded of that gift in another way not long ago.
My family and I took a trip out to the Grand Canyon last summer.
My wife and I have three daughters, ages 17, 12 and 10, and this was a trip we had been planning and looking forward to for a while.
We stayed inside the Grand Canyon National Park, just a short hike from the Canyon rim, and we had a wonderful time.
On our last night there, around dusk, we had been following an elk around trying to get a decent picture of it (we never did), and when we got back to our room my wife and I waited until it got completely dark outside, and then told our kids to put on their sweatshirts, because we had one more thing to show them.
Since they had started to settle in for the night and were tired from a long day of fun, there was quite a bit of complaining, but we didn’t back down.
There’s a very long road that runs along the rim of the Grand Canyon, and every so often there are places to turn into a parking lot and get out and walk along the rim.
That last night of our visit we drove down that road until we were far away from the hotels and restaurants and other fun places, and we came to one of the turn-ins and drove into a parking lot, which was dark and deserted.
This was in early June, and as we got out of the car the wind was whipping around us and it was really cold.
The kids complained some more, but I brought out a small flashlight, and we walked up a path to the rim of the canyon.
We walked through a stand of trees to a sidewalk next to the canyon, and told the kids to close their eyes and lie down on their backs on the pavement.
I turned off my flashlight, told them to open their eyes, and there before them, on that cold, clear night lying on the ground next to one of the grandest places on earth they saw the grandeur of the heavens, more stars than they could have ever imagined existed.
“Wow,” they kept saying over and over. “Wow!”
It is one of my fondest memories, and what I remember about it was not only that it was fun and beautiful, but it was also more stars than I ever imagined could exist.
I also remember that as we lay there in the dark while my children exclaimed their sheer awe, the words of Psalm 19 kept running through my head:
“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament displays his handiwork.” Wow!
I would submit to you that we can’t truly begin to understand what God asks of us as Christian stewards until we get a glimpse of the glory of God.
Stewardship begins with having the eyes to see the awe and wonder of God in our lives.
It’s not about giving our fair share.
That’s great for the United Way, but it’s not Christian Stewardship.
It’s not about paying our dues.
That’s fine for the country club or the PTA, but it’s not Christian Stewardship.
Christian Stewardship is risky because it begins with the understanding that the God who made the Universe, the God who made those millions of stars that my children saw only when we took them to a place where it was possible to see them, is the same God who made me, and you, and has given us the blessing of life itself.
It’s risky because we have to go to a place where we can experience the awe and wonder of God, and sometimes that place can be uncomfortable.
Yet that is where Christian Stewardship begins.
Since we can’t go to the Grand Canyon every day, and since the awe and wonder of God can be found anywhere if we have the eyes to see it, I believe we can best go to that beginning place as Stewards right here as we worship God.
The word ‘worship’ literally means, “to give worth.”
In other words, we worship what we most value.
We are making a profound statement when we come here every week to worship the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ.
We are saying that worshipping God in Christ is worth it, that we value our relationship with God and we take it seriously.
Now, I know that we value other things as well.
We value our families and our friends, certainly, and we value material things—our homes, our cars and, in my case, college football season.
Becoming a Christian Steward, however, means that we take the risk to prioritize everything in our lives, and it means that we are willing to admit that we give more value to some things than they deserve.
It means that we have the audacity to approach the God who made the heavens and the earth, and realize that this Holy One cares about us, so much so that he gave us the gift of life, and even knows the number of hairs on our heads, according to the Bible.
What is our response to that gift?
Here’s what I think that response should be:
we look honestly at how we give our time, our talents and our treasure to God through the work of God’s church, and we make a commitment that our response to God’s gift will move up our list of priorities, starting now.
Some folks will examine their lives and decide that their response to God is pretty significant in the grand scheme of things—that’s great.
Make a commitment to keep it there.
Others may decide that they are so far from responding to God as a priority in their life that they’ll never get there.
That’s why stewardship has to be a journey.
Look specifically at your financial gift to God’s work through the church as a proportional gift.
Figure out what percentage you give and then make a commitment to make that percentage a half percent higher this year, and then maybe one percent higher next year.
I guarantee that as you begin to honestly take an account of your life in this way, your priorities somehow find themselves falling into their proper place, and the result is joy.
When people hear the word “Stewardship” they think “OK, they’re going to try to shake some money out of me now.”
But that’s not stewardship at all.
That’s fund-raising.
Fund-raising in the church deadens the soul;
giving as a response to God’s generosity is joyful.
How do we learn that lesson?
How does it come to be a part of our being?
I mentioned earlier that today is the Sunday after All Saints’ Day.
This day is always important to me because of my grandmother’s influence in my life.
She was a saint, who died in 1975 at the age of 79, and in her own quiet way, I think she had more influence on my understanding of God than anyone else.
Every summer when I was a kid I spent every Saturday at the baseball field, and then would walk over to my grandmother’s house to eat dinner and spend the night.
My dad would have taken my clothes and other things over to her house earlier, so while Granny fixed my dinner I would shower and get ready for a night of playing canasta, watching Perry Mason re-runs and being doted on by someone who loved me extravagantly.
We would stay up late having fun, and then the next day my dad would pick us up for church.
Every Sunday my grandmother, my dad and I would slip into the fourth pew from the back on the right side of All Saints’ Church in Birmingham, and my grandmother would kneel to pray.
And when my grandmother prayed, you could just tell God was listening.
She had very little money, but every week she put a check in the offering plate, and, as children often do, I saw how important that act was for her.
As I grew to be a teenager, she told me over and over again that when I was confirmed, she wanted to be the person who gave me my first prayer book.
Even though it’s a 1928 version, I still cherish that book.
I tell you about my grandmother because even as a little boy I knew how important her relationship with God was to her.
Of course I could not have articulated that, but what I felt was the abundance of her of love for me, and in small ways I learned from her about the extravagant love of God.
I still miss her and think of her often.
I know that she is one of those saints gathered around the throne of God, of which we heard about today in our reading from the Revelation to John.
I also know that her love for me, as overflowing as it was, is just a glimpse of the love that God has for me, and for each of us.
She gave me a glimpse of God’s love, and something in that glimpse made me want to respond.
We get glimpses of God’s love every day.
If we truly had the eyes to see it clearly, we might only say “wow” over and over and over again.
As it is, the very best way we can respond to God is to be self-giving, making love of God and neighbor our first priority, committing ourselves to God because we have discovered that God’s love is the most valuable thing we have.
It is in that love that we also discover that there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor, or make more it abundant.
God’s grace and love is like grits in the South.
You don’t order it. It just comes.
I am very glad to be here with you to speak about Stewardship on your Consecration Sunday.
I suppose some of you might think it odd for a good ol’ boy from Alabama to come so far North for this event.
The short answer to this is that Tony is my friend and the last time I was here was for his wedding in 1993, so it’s high time I came back.
But since I brought up this North/South subject let me start today with a story about a businessman from the North who went South for the first time.
He flew into Birmingham, rented a car, then drove out to Bug Tussle, Alabama, which has since changed its name to the more respectable Wilburn.
He found a little motel and went to bed for the night.
The next morning the man went to Bubba’s Diner for breakfast, and because he was very hungry he ordered something called the Trucker’s Breakfast.
When the waitress brought his plate it looked wonderful—beautiful sunny-side up eggs, big hunks of sizzling bacon, a huge stack of pancakes.
But with the delicious breakfast there was also a large blob of white goo.
He said to the waitress, “what’s this,” and she replied “grits”.
The man said, “But I didn’t order grits.”
The waitress looked at him and said, “Honey, you don’t order grits—grits just comes!”
I will get back to that story in a minute, because believe it or not it goes to the heart of what I want to say, but for now I need to acknowledge that I speak today in the context of many other events.
I think it was Paul Tillich who said that preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the New York Times in the other.
Just a cursory glace at the New York Times tells me that we currently go about our daily business with an economy in shambles, with a war that has been going on far too long with far too many casualties, and with a very important election just a few days away.
It also occurs to me that in coming to be with you from Alabama, while there is a significant distance between us in miles, and perhaps a small bit of cultural and culinary difference, there is no difference in us as human beings:
I have a family to take care of as many of you do.
I have elderly parents, financial concerns, and many of the same joys and sorrows as you.
Those are some things on my mind, as I suspect they are on your mind.
Yet there is something else on my mind as well, because today in the church calendar we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints’ Day.
It is the day we remember all the saints who have gone before us, and all the saints with whom we live, who give us a glimpse of God by the way they have lived.
It is a day when we are reminded that in spite of our failures, we are beloved of God, and God is making us all into saints.
It is a day in which we are reminded that life is pure gift.
I was reminded of that gift in another way not long ago.
My family and I took a trip out to the Grand Canyon last summer.
My wife and I have three daughters, ages 17, 12 and 10, and this was a trip we had been planning and looking forward to for a while.
We stayed inside the Grand Canyon National Park, just a short hike from the Canyon rim, and we had a wonderful time.
On our last night there, around dusk, we had been following an elk around trying to get a decent picture of it (we never did), and when we got back to our room my wife and I waited until it got completely dark outside, and then told our kids to put on their sweatshirts, because we had one more thing to show them.
Since they had started to settle in for the night and were tired from a long day of fun, there was quite a bit of complaining, but we didn’t back down.
There’s a very long road that runs along the rim of the Grand Canyon, and every so often there are places to turn into a parking lot and get out and walk along the rim.
That last night of our visit we drove down that road until we were far away from the hotels and restaurants and other fun places, and we came to one of the turn-ins and drove into a parking lot, which was dark and deserted.
This was in early June, and as we got out of the car the wind was whipping around us and it was really cold.
The kids complained some more, but I brought out a small flashlight, and we walked up a path to the rim of the canyon.
We walked through a stand of trees to a sidewalk next to the canyon, and told the kids to close their eyes and lie down on their backs on the pavement.
I turned off my flashlight, told them to open their eyes, and there before them, on that cold, clear night lying on the ground next to one of the grandest places on earth they saw the grandeur of the heavens, more stars than they could have ever imagined existed.
“Wow,” they kept saying over and over. “Wow!”
It is one of my fondest memories, and what I remember about it was not only that it was fun and beautiful, but it was also more stars than I ever imagined could exist.
I also remember that as we lay there in the dark while my children exclaimed their sheer awe, the words of Psalm 19 kept running through my head:
“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament displays his handiwork.” Wow!
I would submit to you that we can’t truly begin to understand what God asks of us as Christian stewards until we get a glimpse of the glory of God.
Stewardship begins with having the eyes to see the awe and wonder of God in our lives.
It’s not about giving our fair share.
That’s great for the United Way, but it’s not Christian Stewardship.
It’s not about paying our dues.
That’s fine for the country club or the PTA, but it’s not Christian Stewardship.
Christian Stewardship is risky because it begins with the understanding that the God who made the Universe, the God who made those millions of stars that my children saw only when we took them to a place where it was possible to see them, is the same God who made me, and you, and has given us the blessing of life itself.
It’s risky because we have to go to a place where we can experience the awe and wonder of God, and sometimes that place can be uncomfortable.
Yet that is where Christian Stewardship begins.
Since we can’t go to the Grand Canyon every day, and since the awe and wonder of God can be found anywhere if we have the eyes to see it, I believe we can best go to that beginning place as Stewards right here as we worship God.
The word ‘worship’ literally means, “to give worth.”
In other words, we worship what we most value.
We are making a profound statement when we come here every week to worship the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ.
We are saying that worshipping God in Christ is worth it, that we value our relationship with God and we take it seriously.
Now, I know that we value other things as well.
We value our families and our friends, certainly, and we value material things—our homes, our cars and, in my case, college football season.
Becoming a Christian Steward, however, means that we take the risk to prioritize everything in our lives, and it means that we are willing to admit that we give more value to some things than they deserve.
It means that we have the audacity to approach the God who made the heavens and the earth, and realize that this Holy One cares about us, so much so that he gave us the gift of life, and even knows the number of hairs on our heads, according to the Bible.
What is our response to that gift?
Here’s what I think that response should be:
we look honestly at how we give our time, our talents and our treasure to God through the work of God’s church, and we make a commitment that our response to God’s gift will move up our list of priorities, starting now.
Some folks will examine their lives and decide that their response to God is pretty significant in the grand scheme of things—that’s great.
Make a commitment to keep it there.
Others may decide that they are so far from responding to God as a priority in their life that they’ll never get there.
That’s why stewardship has to be a journey.
Look specifically at your financial gift to God’s work through the church as a proportional gift.
Figure out what percentage you give and then make a commitment to make that percentage a half percent higher this year, and then maybe one percent higher next year.
I guarantee that as you begin to honestly take an account of your life in this way, your priorities somehow find themselves falling into their proper place, and the result is joy.
When people hear the word “Stewardship” they think “OK, they’re going to try to shake some money out of me now.”
But that’s not stewardship at all.
That’s fund-raising.
Fund-raising in the church deadens the soul;
giving as a response to God’s generosity is joyful.
How do we learn that lesson?
How does it come to be a part of our being?
I mentioned earlier that today is the Sunday after All Saints’ Day.
This day is always important to me because of my grandmother’s influence in my life.
She was a saint, who died in 1975 at the age of 79, and in her own quiet way, I think she had more influence on my understanding of God than anyone else.
Every summer when I was a kid I spent every Saturday at the baseball field, and then would walk over to my grandmother’s house to eat dinner and spend the night.
My dad would have taken my clothes and other things over to her house earlier, so while Granny fixed my dinner I would shower and get ready for a night of playing canasta, watching Perry Mason re-runs and being doted on by someone who loved me extravagantly.
We would stay up late having fun, and then the next day my dad would pick us up for church.
Every Sunday my grandmother, my dad and I would slip into the fourth pew from the back on the right side of All Saints’ Church in Birmingham, and my grandmother would kneel to pray.
And when my grandmother prayed, you could just tell God was listening.
She had very little money, but every week she put a check in the offering plate, and, as children often do, I saw how important that act was for her.
As I grew to be a teenager, she told me over and over again that when I was confirmed, she wanted to be the person who gave me my first prayer book.
Even though it’s a 1928 version, I still cherish that book.
I tell you about my grandmother because even as a little boy I knew how important her relationship with God was to her.
Of course I could not have articulated that, but what I felt was the abundance of her of love for me, and in small ways I learned from her about the extravagant love of God.
I still miss her and think of her often.
I know that she is one of those saints gathered around the throne of God, of which we heard about today in our reading from the Revelation to John.
I also know that her love for me, as overflowing as it was, is just a glimpse of the love that God has for me, and for each of us.
She gave me a glimpse of God’s love, and something in that glimpse made me want to respond.
We get glimpses of God’s love every day.
If we truly had the eyes to see it clearly, we might only say “wow” over and over and over again.
As it is, the very best way we can respond to God is to be self-giving, making love of God and neighbor our first priority, committing ourselves to God because we have discovered that God’s love is the most valuable thing we have.
It is in that love that we also discover that there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor, or make more it abundant.
God’s grace and love is like grits in the South.
You don’t order it. It just comes.
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