The Feast of the Holy Name -- The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

The Feast of the Holy Name

January 1, 2017

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

“What is behind this year’s most popular Lehigh Valley Names”? This headline appeared  the Morning Call newspaper this past Thursday. It seems of course that the most popular names used in America is tracked, and the newspaper did its own localized version.

According to the Social Security Administration the most popular names in America in the year 2016 were….Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Noah, Liam, and Mason.

Locally, in a non scientific poll  of course, we learn that the most popular name chosen for new borns at St. Luke’s this past year were Amelia and Ethan.

According to this piece in the Morning Call, it seems the trend today is that folk may have  a few names in mind when their newborns arrive. Then when they see what the newborn looks like, a decision for naming is made.  Interesting.

What is in a name? Does it matter how its chosen?

In the narrative realm of the Spiritual it seems to matter quite a bit! Today we observe the Feast of the Holy Name.  We typically fly over this feast day because it infrequently lands on a Sunday.

The Gospel according to Luke brings us from the Christmas birth narrative of Shepherds giving witness to an astounding God event found  in the humble beginnings of a barn scene, to the important observance of Jewish religious tradition that gives homage to the covenant between God and God’s people.

Under the law of Moses found in Leviticus,  it was, and is customary that all male children  on the 8^th day after birth be circumcised. This was also a time when family and friends gathered for the Naming of the child. St. Luke seems particularly focused on the naming of Jesus and from where the name came.  He was "called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb" (Lk 2:21).  

So, What is in a Name? What is hoped  for in a naming?

If I said to you, who have you known in your life who you would describe as one who had demonstrated kindness and compassion?  Or who have you known (or know) in your life who you would describe as Strength?  Or who have you known (or know) in your life who has made sacrifices for the sake of Love? Or who have you known (or know) who may through some act of  wisdom or truth, may have saved  you from a poor decision, or unhealthy habit, relationship, or pattern?

Do you know their names?   I bet you do.

And so there we meet Jesus.  Named St. Luke tells us by the angels who announced his promise before he was even conceived in the womb. The name given him that day in Hebrew, Jeshoshua, which means, Yahweh, or God Saves.

Here we meet this person!  This person who will become the very transparency of God on earth. Jesus.  What is so unique and transformative about our following, meeting, and adoring this person, is that by meeting him, we meet compassion and kindness; we meet Strength in times of trouble, we meet sacrifice for the sake of Love, we meet wisdom and truth that gives the power we do not possess on our own to be liberated from anything that might hold us captive! (Salvation)

You see this feast day which finds its context in the narrative of Christmas we realize as Brother Geoffrey Tristram of the SSJE writes, that Christmas is not about the arrival of a new philosophy or even a new religion, but the arrival of a person.

Have you met Compassion and Kindness?  Have you met Steadfast strength in time of trial? Have met sacrifice for the sake of Love? Have you met wisdom and truth and Grace that liberates?  Do you know their names?  I bet you do.  

Jesus. Jehosua, God Saves. 

Christmas Eve 2016 - The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

Christmas Eve 2016

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Bethlehem, PA

The Very Rev Anthony R Pompa

Some years ago, when my very good friend Pat was driving down the road, his then 9 year old daughter Abigail in the back seat, she voiced an unexpected question, as only 9 year olds can do.  “Dad she said, what happens when an atheist dies?”

Her priestly father as he tells it, immediately felt inside of himself the pressure of the moment. An opportunity to pass on the poignancy of his lifetime of theological study and work, as well as the pressure of sorting through the thicket of theological reflections and teachings regarding faith and belief, hoping to land somewhere that his 9 year old daughter would hear worthy of the God he hoped she would know.

In the moment, he launched into his narrative. A narrative about the complexity of the human condition and the magnaminous nature of our Creator. Three lines in to what he believed was pure theological magic, Abigail interrupted,

No Dad, stop,  that’s not what I meant.  I just wanna know if  like, they have a service of some sort and do people come  to it.

Many years of preaching at Christmas, and tonight, in the midst of the complexity of the human condition in which we live, this preacher wonders if perhaps we ought to just take a lunge at the punch line for fear that the 9 year old in all of us may not be yearning for a deep theological reflection this night.

Here it goes. Christmas is about Hope and Love. Plain and simple, straight and forward.

Close your eyes and take a breath. Take a pause and this night and in your daily life, just listen. Listen with your heart and listen with your soul.

Listen to the story of the Scriptures.

As these angels on our screen stand with majesty and care over us, hear the poetry of their message to be not afraid, for God is with us. Everywhere and ALL the time. No matter how challenging life may get, God is with us. Mary, Joseph, Be Not Afraid. Which didn’t meant there wasn’t anything to be afraid of, but instead meant Don’t let Fear hold you back! Hold you back from taking your part in this Godly orchestration of Hope and Love found in this Jehoshua (Jesus) which means God Saves. Find the courage to Say YES to Hope and Love.  Be Not Afraid! May we find the courage to say Yes to Hope and Love.

Listen to the Awe found  in the experience and voices of common Shepherds, who standing in the fields doing what they do in life everyday,  lift their voices as they “see” God at work in the world, causing them to be astonished and among the first to tell the story  of the  birth of Hope and Love. May we in our everyday be visited by God’s Holy Astonishment and tell of the birth of Hope and Love wherever and whenever we see it!

Listen to the majesty of Kings who journey toward the promise of a star lit in the sky, that will lead them to humbly fall to their knees and offer the best of what they have at the feet of pure beauty , Hope and Love, enfleshed and born in the person of Jesus,  taking his nascent breaths in the  humblest of circumstances.  Listen to these Kings and be so in tune with with these life-saving virtues that they were wise enough to see the contrast found  in  Herod’s dark design of violence and oppression, becoming  Wise as they  choose to go home another way, choosing the Hope and Love of Jesus, over the despair and hatred of  Herod. May also be offer the best of who we are to our Lord of Hope and Love, and may we be wise in our recognizing Despair and Hatred, and choosing the instead the path of Christ, the path of Hope and Love.  

Listen, to the beauty of melody and song, songs of Hope and Love in each note and lyric lifted to the rafters of this Cathedral and beyond, and let them bolster your spirit, lift your hearts, and fill you with courage to Love more boldy. May we LOVE more boldly as God Loves us so boldly.

Just listen.  Listen.  Listen for God’s footsteps, heartbeat, breath, for at Christmas Hope and Love Come to dwell among us.    Can you hear?

And if even if all this picture I paint this night fails , if it seems as if the preacher has failed you with overdone religious imagery and narrative………..

Try this.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch. Imagine the Grinch standing puzzling and puzzling. Imagine the Grinch looking upon us as if we are all the Who’s in Whoville, even as if the darkness of a night may strip us sometimes of all the packages, boxes, and bags that we may feel necessary for the security and celebration of our lives.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch, any Grinch for that matter, whose hearts have become small and are in need of Grace to grow bigger.  Imagine that Grinch puzzling for three hours as each of us, Each of us Who, tall and small, sing our song of LOVE and HOPE, the best present of all.

Imagine perhaps the Grinch, or any Grinch for that matter, who through singing comes to know what we know, “Maybe Christmas…perhaps….means a little bit more!”

And as the theological master Seuss says,

Imagine what happens then?

Well, the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!

And so does ours at least.

Merry Christmas!

Genesis/Luke 18:1-8 -- The Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Sunday October 16, 2016

The Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

Genesis/Luke 18:1-8

The scriptures today in the Old Testament and in the Gospel call us to fight. Yes, I said fight. They call us to mix it up in the ring of prayer and relationship, Faith and Life.

I don’t know how you decide what you are willing to fight for or how it is your conditioned when it comes to fight or flight, but the stories in our scriptures today of Jacob’s wrestling with God and the vulnerable widow persisting with the unjust judge is an invitation to roll up the sleeves and rumble in the ring of faith.

These stories are wonderful. They are about contending with God, God’s character, and the nature of our faith life. I hope to say a word about each of these elements.

First, about contending with God. That is this wonderful reminder that like all relationship that hold their worth, our relationship with God is worth our time, effort, persistence, resilience, struggle, fight! Just like those we love most in flesh and blood, isn’t it worth mixing it up, sorting it out, struggling to come to love deeper, better, more faithfully?  So it is for Jacob and God, Jacob’s struggle to understand himself, Jacob and God struggling for Blessing, Jacob thinking he needs to steal it.  Or the widow in her vulnerability and powerlessness, understanding she has little shot at actually being heard or treated fairly in the system she lives in, choosing to persist, to struggle, to use any means she can to pressure, persuade.

Second, about God’s character. Isn’t it terrific what we learn about God here. Jacob is a creep. Jacob is creepy! Jacob is hiding out because he has behaved woefully and awfully- thinking he needs to “steal” a blessing, he finds himself in the struggle of a lifetime with the God who shows up in his creepiness, ironically, literally wrestling with him to deliver the very blessing Jacob thought he was stealing. Isn’t that the way God is. Showing up, struggling through, being willing to wrestle with creeps like us, so that we can be blessed.

And for the widow who wrestles with the creepy judge. He doesn’t care about such pity, powerless, worthless folk like her. Yet she persists. She wares him down, threatening really that if she is not heard he will end up with a black eye (maybe literally, certainly publicly).

Jesus in this parable says, so even if this creepy scoundrel can be worn down by this widow’s persistence, just imagine how much more God will grant, by your persistent prayer, faith, action.  For the Love of God,   Roll up your sleeves and get in it!

Finally about our Faith- Look, I don’t know how your conditioned to be in relationship. I am guessing there are times in your relationships you don’t feel like you have the time, energy, passion, or conviction to fight your way to deeper places of love and understanding. You may at times feel despair, you may not feel like you are being heard even, but hear the scriptures today, particularly when it comes to your relationship with God who calls you to be faithful actors of love in the World! Persist! Roll up your sleeves! Get in the game and fight on! Say your prayers, even when you think they aren’t being heard, by golly just ask Jacob how his hip feels! Or better yet, take gander at a black eye on the  face of an unjust judge who has been worn down and worn out by some poor Christian demanding, screaming, lamenting, persisting for justice.

Keep the faith, say your prayers, get in the fight. You know the interesting thing about us…..we want to know who wins right?  Who wins the fight?  Jacob?  The widow?  God?      What do you think?

Contending with God

The Character of God

   -God mixes it up, Shows up, in the struggle

   -(How much more…… If vulnerable, powerless, woman can even wear this creep down, How much more you can expect God’s justice/satisfaction)

                 (Even when we think God is silent….contend…contend…)

Nature of Christian Faith

  -Longing of Faith,  Activism that is stoked in the faith

The. Rev. Charles Barebo, Deacon - January 3, 2016

The Rev. Charles Barebo, Deacon

January 3, 2016

Following a Star

 Finding Jesus is no easy matter. Our faith journey is not scripted. Life’s journeys come with unknowns, risks and rewards. The wise men’s incredible journey is no different; it is complete with a goal, diversions and reaching their goal. This theme seems to repeat itself in our lives as well. Matthew tells a remarkable story of faith in this story. And he sets up the conflict of Jesus and God’s Kingdom versus the forces of ego, power and greed that will culminate in the resurrection.

The wise men undertake a perilous journey. No maps, no established roads, plentiful thieves and brigands, few inns and unknowns in terms of food and water. They are traveling to pay homage to the new born king of the Jews. They have faith in a scriptural prophecy and followed a star. This is a story of faith, tremendous faith; a model for us two thousand years later.

Matthew’s story of conflict between God’s Kingdom and evil starts at the beginning of the second chapter of his gospel. Herod’s tenuous claim to kingship is partly derived from marrying into the family of the Maccabees. He is the corrupt, insecure, false king of the Jews. He is propped up by the Roman occupiers who seek a shallow pawn to manipulate. He is supported by the chief priests and scribes. All seek to secure their claims in power and riches, at the cost of God’s kingdom. Threatened by this news of the birth of the legitimate king of the Jews foretold in scripture, Herod seeks to use the wise men to unknowingly betraying Jesus location.

Thus begins the conflict between the Son of God and His kingdom and the forces of evil. The elements of evil; fear, greed, ego, and a desire for power are still at work in our world today. The wise men see Herod for what he is. They follow their star to Bethlehem and are “overwhelmed with joy” when they find the child. They worship the new born king. They open their “treasure chests” and offer their gifts of great value. The gift the wise men give us today is the gift of faith, faith and wise discernment of their call, and the example that following our faith requires discernment and tenacity. It was not and still is not always easy to be faithful.

And so it is with our journeys. We, too, seek to find this king, Jesus. Our guiding star is the gospels. Herod is still with us today with the same old diversions; insecurity, fear, ego, greed and false power. The tools of evil seek to destroy our families and friends, communities and government, our faith in our fellow man, our very selves and hearts. They seek to hide the star that we follow to meet Jesus.

To find the king is not an easy journey. There are no maps or charts. The way is fraught with peril. We must follow the star, our star the gospels. We must remain vigilant for Herod and his tools and avoid them. We must discern our path in our personal lives, our church lives and in the greater community. And when we encounter the King, we too, must be prepared to open our treasure chests. The only treasure our king desires is our hearts – for where our hearts are there will be our treasure also.

And if we have the courage, wisdom and faith of the wise men we will follow our star to the king. And be prepared to give him our treasure, our hearts. Amen