How you get to the Party

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Sermon: Sunday October 15^th, 2017

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

How do you get to the Party

Some years ago a middle aged man was invited to a party. It was a big number birthday for a person he knew. What he remembered about parties this person would throw, and this party specifically  is that many didn’t want to go, in truth, he probably could be counted among them. In fact often when an invitation would come, the middle aged man killed the invitation immediately, by tearing it up and throwing it away before his wife would see it.  The man thought to himself, I can’t go to that party because,

a. I have other things to do, important things.

b. These parties are notorious for having all kinds of people there. This host is notorious for inviting just about anybody he saw.

c.  Sometimes these parties got, well, raucous. Not unseemly mind you, but vibrant, a little loud, sometimes a little extravagant. “I sometimes feel out of place amidst all of that, not sure if I fit in.”

Well, party day came, and the middle aged man’s spouse of course learned of the party, not by the invitation the man had killed by tearing and throwing it in the garbage, but by other friends. After a long and fervent dialogue, the two dressed and went to the party.

And it was extravagant, and it was loud, and it was full of all sorts and conditions of people, and people the middle aged man just wouldn’t otherwise ever had associated with, but they were all there and having a good time, but the middle aged man still wasn’t sure and feeling a bit out of place. And then, the music stopped.

The host of the party called everyone’s attention, reached for a box, and then one by one, to his guests, he by name delivered to them a small, but precious gift. Each gift thoughtfully chosen and presented to each guest. Each guest lovingly, warmly, thanked for being there, for being part of the celebration, for being part of the hosts life, and naming how valued each person was and the gifts of life each guest brought to the party.  It was beautiful. The middle aged man was humbled, and grateful, and a little embarrassed inside about his reticence to want to attend, but mostly, he was covered in gratitude, glad to be there, and felt o.k. …..like he fit in, was supposed to be there.

A modern day story about the parable we receive today in Matthew’s Gospel account of the wedding feast. A gospel narrative that portrays the great feast of the Kingdom where God tirelessly invites those who will come to a feast of extravagant love and mercy and where those who cannot come to find it, find themselves in darkness.  A feast where all too many times we out of our own insecurities or prejudices, or stubbornness or fear, may literally kill off an invitation to mercy.  Or we may at times be pre-occupied with the distractions of life, or our misconceived notions of what is important, or our investment in the idols we have made of our need to succeed, or gain social status or importance, or even an innocent misconception about what matters most in life, may cause us to miss the invitation to an extravagant feast of love and life, of Grace and Mercy that God offers so persistently. . Even at times we may have found ourselves taking the things of our lives and like the Israelites at the bottom of the mountain waiting for Moses, spinning our fears, our impatience, our insecurities, our inadequacies, into a golden calf that shines bright the dark contrast of our unspoken darkest myth of our lives……that we are not o.k.  That we are unworthy of such extravagant love.

Yet the Good news couldn’t be more  loud and compelling when it comes to God’s desire for us and the Kingdom we are called to live into. The invitation comes multiple times and when we get ourselves to the party, however we get ourselves to the party, there is a gown of love and mercy that covers every inch of our bodies and every ounce of our being and our hearts are changed and we know that we are o.k. and we are worthy.  And so does everyone around us because of who we become.

So, I suppose the compelling point must be,  just get to the party.  I don’t know about you, about how  you got to this party, but clearly somewhere, somehow  you made it to a party where this Jesus was the host because here you are. And maybe like me you may have come here today because you need to be reminded or ae hoping you might be drenched or covered anew by the lavish extravagance of love and mercy the host has prepared for us. 

It is our season of stewardship here in this Cathedral. All year long we live into the stewardship of response to the gifts we are given by our Host by giving our time, talent and money to the kingdom work of love and mercy. Each fall we enter our season of stewardship where we ask the faithful to consider generosity and ask for the giving of monies to support what we do together in Jesus name. But, hear me this day, our story doesn’t begin or end with us asking one another for money. It begins with accepting the invitation to come to the party and it ends with our hearts changed and overflowing with generous love that can change everything!

For me, I was taken to the party as a child. By my mother, whose mother took her to the party. And she, my grandmother, by her parents who took her to the party. And the generation before that, and before that. Anglicans, English and Welsh, who through prayer and sacrament found Jesus,  the extravagant host who gave them a place to fit in, be o.k., to find resilience and strength for life by being covered every inch and every ounce in a wedding garment of Love and Mercy.

I think about the awkward teenager I was and I think about the community of party attenders my mother chose for me. The people who rallied around our family during difficult times where shame was the unspoken darkness in my quiet soul but where love and acceptance prevailed through the actions of a faithful Christian community. I learned not in my head by reciting a creed or even by reciting my catechism or a bible verse implanted by my extraordinary mentors and Sunday School teachers, I learned by being Loved and shown that Jesus IS that Love,  that I was o.k., that I was worthy, that I was going to be okay, and that God working me me and others could do wondrous things beyond my imagination or asking. I came to know  that I was loved. This because it was written on my heart by a host of a great feast, whose name is Jesus. Life has never been the same since.

My friend Pat Wingo, who some of you have met, a Priest, a friend who was here as our preacher at the end of the Summer.  Pat was studying in Guatemala city last month, seeking to learn to speak Spanish. On a Sunday morning he attended the Roman Catholic Cathedral in that city for morning mass when as he described it to me through tears, he witnessed the bold beauty of Grace unfold before his eyes. A Cathedral filled with all sorts and conditions of humanity, movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes. An image of an older woman, peasant woman, poorly dressed and whose face was worn hard by life. Slowly making her way the length of this large and beautiful Cathedral.  Inch by inch, slowly, deliberately, making her way to receive communion. On her knees. Clearly with a physical impediment, he watched with tears in his eyes, as she made her way to the Table to take part in the feast.  On her knees.

I suppose all of us come to the party in various ways. I suppose all of us at one time or another have sought to kill the invitation, or avoid it for whatever reason. But come to the party, this extravagant party. And Receive your gift. Love, Mercy. You’re O.K.  Your belonging. Life can never be the same. 

A Sermon by Rick Cluett

Pentecost Proper 20                Nativity Cathedral                  September 24, 2017

A Sermon by Rick Cluett

“The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt…for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Exodus 16:2-3

I begin with this passage because it helps, I think, to give to some context to our own day and time. The newspaper had a headline yesterday, Ordinary life beyond reach in Puerto Rico. Actually, ordinary life as we had known it seems to be beyond the reach of most of us.

We seem to think that this time is the epitome, the quintessential human life lived in all its extreme. We wonder, “Was there ever such a time of angst, agony, stress and distress as this?” We turn on the news, we open up the newspaper, we check Facebook or Twitter, we talk with our neighbors and our counselors and our pastors and we discuss the plight of humankind. We learn about the devastation, destruction, displacement and pain brought by the Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria hurricanes, by the earthquake in Mexico and the fires in the northwest and southwest of this country. Earthquakes, fires, and floods the apocalyptic signs of the end-time.

In Matthew 24:6-7 Jesus said, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places…” Well, Pretty much… and good luck with not being alarmed… and there is a famine in almost every country in central Africa and elsewhere.

We read about Afghanistan and Syria and South Sudan and so many other places. There is hardly a spot in this world, hardly a place on this earth, where enmity does not reign and the horrors of war are being visited upon innocent people – in more places in this world than it is not. If war is not actual, it is a threatening potential.

Terrorists and mentally ill people with guns make going to the grocery store or restaurant or a sporting event or a public gathering of any kind, or simply getting on an airplane, a potentially life-threatening activity. Government cannot govern, Leaders cannot lead.

We are living in a world, not of discord but of hate where whole groups of people have become the objects of the hate of other groups of people. Someone posted the other day, “We can remove flags and statues all day, but until we figure out how to remove the hate in our hearts, nothing will change.” Clearly, we are not ready for that change yet.

A friend recently suggested to me that stress and dis-stress are so extreme and so constant, that many of us are walking around with undiagnosed PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome — except it is not Post-. It is ever present; for some, present every minute of every day. People, to quote Thoreau, “… lead lives of quiet desperation.” Or they violently rage, rage against unknown, unseen powers of oppression.

And we think, “Was there ever such a time of angst, agony, stress and distress as this?”

Then we read Psalm 60,

O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; now restore us! You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering. You have made your people suffer hard things...

In Exodus, chapter 3 the Lord God said to Moses, “I have seen the misery of my people; I have heard their cry… I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them. So, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people… out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7-10

Eugene Peterson writes that Job speaks the language of an uncharted irony, a dark and difficult kind of truth when he says, “We take the good days from God -- why not also the bad days?” The Book of Job is not only a witness to our suffering but also to God’s presence with us in our suffering, it is also a biblical protest against (easy) answers.

And in Matthew’s gospel: When (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority… over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. Matthew 9:36-10:1

So… Yes, there has been a time such as this. Indeed, there has never not been a time such as this. Every time is an apocalyptic time with signs of the end time, including ours.

In the year 2000 I and three colleagues were sent by Bishop Paul to the southernmost county and diocese in Sudan. They had been living with the presence of war and all its attendant horrors for 50 years. When we arrived, they were having a quiet and peaceful moment in time. We spent almost 3 weeks visiting their towns and villages. We listened and heard their stories, stories of horrific violence, with burning, rape, desolation and loss. And we prayed with them, and worshipped with them.

The gift we brought to them was that fellow disciples of Jesus from a little diocese, thousands of miles away, had heard their cry and been sent by God to encourage and love and support them. They told us that they knew we had been sent by Jesus and they were filled with Joy by our presence and love as this new sign of God’s presence with them in all their suffering.

Their gift to us was the power and joy of their faith, how they loved one another and shared what little they had. They literally had nothing, except they found everything in the love and presence of God shared with one another. And that gave them the power to sing mightily, dance joyfully, and to pray powerfully in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

So, if you begin to despair, if the stress of these times weighs you down, remember the Lord God’s promise of presence, remember Jesus sending his disciples to minister to the people. And remember the Cajun Navy driving their boat trailers to from Louisiana to Texas. Remember the guy jumping into the fast-flowing flood waters to free a woman from her flooded car. Remember those two women hugging and comforting each other in the midst of the swirling waters.  Remember the hordes of people and dogs searching for survivors in the collapsed building in Mexico. Remember the thousands of folks who have come from near and very far to volunteer and to let other people know that they are not alone and to help them reclaim their homes and lives. Remember all those volunteers who have placed themselves in immediate danger in war zones around the world to protect us and those who live in those places. Make no mistake, our time is a time of heroic love lived out.

Listen to our presiding bishop: “It may be that we cannot solve everything, and we cannot do everything. But we can do something, no matter what. We can pray. We can give. If possible, we can sign up and go to work.

We have been nurtured in the love and presence and power of the Lord God who knows us, who loves us, who hears our prayers and cries and who sends us to be with one another. For no matter what it looks like around us or within us, this God is faithfully present with us. And this is “who we are to be for one another”, to quote a colleague.

And then perhaps, we, too, can joyfully sing and dance and pray and worship together in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  Pray God. Amen.

Breadth of my Love.

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Sunday May 14, 2017

John 14

Sermon: The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

In my the parish of my growing up, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Jim Thorpe, PA, now St. Mark’s and St. John’s, there is are two treasured Louis Comfort Tiffany windows. One depicting the resurrection story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and the other a non-biblical story entitled the “breadth of my Love”. This depicts a youthful looking Jesus resurrected, standing in a field with his arms stretched wide. His very garment in the artful mastery of tiffany is transparent, showing the very flesh of Jesus’ arms and legs through his vibrant white garment of resurrection.

It is a window that reveals hope and LOVE that the resurrected Jesus shows the breadth, the wideness, the embrace of God’s Love in his resurrection. It is reassurance, it is promise, and it is as real as the feel of a warm embrace in the flesh, here and now!

This window by the way is a memorial to Lucy Packer Linderman, daughter of Asa Packer, and grandmother (or great grandmother)  of our own Ann Shanley.

Today’s Gospel from John is a familiar one. It is read often at funerals to convey that very promise of Jesus’ revelation of promise of hope and breadth of God’s love. It is a narrative of reassurance and it is a promise of God’s presence here, now, and throughout eternity.

But lets take a look at its context here and now for us, this morning. This section of John’s gospel narrative takes place as part of what scholars call his farewell discourse to his disciples. What has happened to this point is that Jesus disciples have followed and witnessed Jesus’ performing many “sign’” as the great revealer of God’s very nature. He has healed the sick, cast out demons, brought sight to the blind, and even raised a dead man to life!. God the healer, God the ruler of even demons, God the enlightener, God who has power to bring life even in the face of death. This Jesus, “the revealer” has shown his disciples the very character of God, and now he prepares to leave them.

But here now they find themselves gathered with Jesus and they seem unsettled and in need of reassurance. The setting for his address:  He has had a “last super” with them. Washed their feet and explained they must be servants of all. He has foretold of his betrayal by one of them, and the betrayer has gone off into the night to do his work. He has let them know that he will be with them only a little bit longer and that where he is going they cannot come AND he has told them that one of them will deny him. (Peter). Tough night, tough speech, tough dinner conversation.

So one might be sympathetic of an anxiety that may be in their midst and the need for reassurance.

“Let not your hearts be troubled” Jesus says. “Believe in God, believe also in me”.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places, and I go there to prepare a place for you”. “And as I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back to you, so that where I am you will be also”.

I like here by the way the King James Version of this translation, In my Father’s house are many mansions. Mansions to me conjers up the image Jesus is really after. Mansions are BIG,  Bigger than you can imagine, Mansions are solid, firm, Foundational.  The breadth of God’s Love is the same.

In other words, you may feel like the foundation of all that I have shown you about God (the healer, the enlightener, the one who has power over even demons, and the one whose love conquers even death) is on shaky ground, but it is a firm and wide and broad and certain as the finest dwelling place……and it is in that dwelling place that God and you, and I will live. It is the best definition of home base. 

The dialogue continues to reveal that in Jesus, the disciples, you and I,  find the way to know God’s breadth of Love, even as Philip gives us permission to say to Jesus, well sometimes we miss it, that is sometimes we miss seeing in Jesus, the nature of God’s hope-filled presence, that Jesus himself “shows us” again and again that God is about healing, God is about enlightenment, God is about “saving” us from our demons, God is about Life over death”.  This the breadth of God’s Love.

Have you seen this breadth?

I see it---when a sister lovingly washes her brothers feet, as Jesus washed his disciples.

I see it—when a person struggling with the demons of addiction, find a Grace to overcome it.

I see it—when waters are poured over a child’s head surrounded by the Love and hope-filled expectation of parents and a community of faith who can’t wait to get their hands on this child. When they will be fortunate enough if they hang in here with us for Barb Ianelli to introduce them to the Breadth of God’s Love through story. When mentors in the Journey to Adulthood experience reveal to them that community support and love with one another can literally heal the deepest anxieties and insecurities of the young and unsure—that acceptance is a gift of Love. Broad and wide.

I see it ---when the courageous extend hospitality and care to the most vulnerable, a family trying to make a new life, a stranger hungry or in need of clothing, or a place to sleep.  I see it---

I see it---the breadth of God’s Love, when someone we Love finds hope and comfort and belief that death is never the final answer, even as we lovingly say good-bye here to one we have loved desperately, finding faith in the promise tha that Love never dies.

Breadth of my Love?  Have you seen it?

God is Love

God is Love
Good Friday Sermon
April 14, 2017
The Rev. Charles Barebo

God is love and nowhere is this more true than on Good Friday. For God gave his only son so that those who believe in him would not perish. For God to have endured Good Friday seems an incredible witness to His love for us. That love, to sacrifice his only son so that we might truly live, is incredible. . For those of you who are parents, you know how we  suffer when one of your children suffers. For me it would be better that I undergo the sickness, pain or trauma than to witness the suffering of either of my children. When I meditate on Good Friday I am amazed by the love that God shows for us and the incongruity in our response.

The love story starts in the first chapter of Genesis. After God has perfected creation he creates mankind, the image bearer. Our role is to enjoy God’s presence, to worship and celebrate, to procreate, to take responsibility for creation and to reflect our creator’s love back to creation. What an incredible blessing….to celebrate, to create, to worship, to be responsible for the Garden and to reflect God’s love to the rest of creation. It seems too good to be true. And then God visits the Garden to spend time with man, to hang out and enjoy our company.

Something about the way we’re wired makes it hard for us to stay in our role as image-bearers. Perhaps because we are made in God’s image we forget who we are and the role we are to play. For over 4,000 years we have sinned, that is strayed from our role, from our relationship with our Creator. Time after time God comes back to rescue us.

Sin isn’t a fussy list of dietary do’s and don’ts. Sin is when we turn our back on God, when we hurt people or when we worship something that isn’t meant to be worshipped. And man’s history is replete with examples of all three. When I talk about worshipping something that was never intended to be worshipped I mean things like position and power. We call that sin idolatry. Things never intended to be deified and worshipped. Yet the list of our idols is a long one: money, power, position, sex, food, wine and the list goes on and on. And this sin has been leading people astray ever since we left the Garden.

So on Good Friday we find something has gone terribly wrong. The story has reversed, and become corrupted. The love story that begins in a garden sees the beginning of the end in a garden. In Genesis God goes to the garden to find man while on Good Friday we find that man has come to the garden, Gethsemane, to find God. But man’s intentions are to destroy God. Jesus threatens the comfortable position and power of the chief priests and scribes. And these sins the idolatry of power, position, money and sex are the foundations of man’s sad turn from the garden.

This worship of position and power has led the Jewish nation to Golgotha. Pinioned under the crushing weight of the Roman occupation, the false Jewish king Herod and the chief priests and scribes have sold out their God and his people to keep their power and privilege. They condemn an innocent man, the true Jewish King to a horrific death, so that they may continue to enjoy power, money and position. Is there any sin greater? To deny God, to manipulate His people, to condemn an innocent man so that they can enjoy fine clothes, good food and money is the essence of evil.

The farcical judgement and trial of Jesus by the chief priests and then Pilate is all about worshiping the idol of power and privilege. All evil combined that day to overthrow the Kingdom of God and his son. And so, Jesus is called the King of the Jews by Pilate. The pretenders mock him and scourge him. He is stripped, beaten, and spat upon.  His throne will be the cross. He has known of his fate and announced it no less than four times to his disciples. He accepts his fate and is nailed to the tree.

When Jesus dies on the cross that first Good Friday something happens. The cross is the moment when the world suddenly changed – inaugurating God’s redemption plan for the world. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “your kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” And Jesus has ushered in the age of the kingdom on earth. The moment of Jesus’ death the world becomes a different place, for the kingdom has indeed come. The victory of death is shattered forever. While the resurrection will be the first sign that God’s new plan is underway. Good Friday is the day the revolution began, the revolution against evil and idolatry.

So, the story of God’s love continues, until the end of time. God’s work for his beloved, we, the image bearers, is now clear. We are to bring the kingdom to life on earth. Good Friday is the day the love revolution began. God is love.

Amen

The Rev. Charles Barebo, Deacon

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday has been a day of excitement as long as I can remember. As a boy, it was the great sword fights when the palm fronds and the eager anticipation of next week’s egg hunt and candy. Today’s gospel tells us about this unexpected and triumphal entry of Jesus entering the Jerusalem. People thronging along the roads, placing their cloaks on the roads, waving palms, singing hymns, there was a festival feeling in the air. Their excitement was only matched by their expectations for this new Messiah or prophet. It’s easy for us to underestimate the emotion that was in the air.

I’ve been through a Palm Sunday much like the one Matthew describes. We were in Kajo Keji on our annual inspection trip about 9 years ago. The parallels between that first Palm Sunday and that Sunday were remarkable. Their new bishop had been elected but had yet been enthroned. The entire diocese was at a fever pitch. The country was voting on independence that month, New Hope had completed three buildings at the college and our first two primary schools. Samaritan’s Purse had committed to building 80 churches in the diocese. In fact, the new bishop was making a visit that Sunday to consecrate and open the first of these new churches. For the first time in over 50 years it appeared that God was bringing his full blessings on His people and they were rejoicing.

From five miles, out people were walking along the road to the village. About two miles out they were lining the road, waving entire palm branches, covering the road with palm fronds, jumping up and down, carrying banners, playing guitars and drums, singing hymns and shouting. A half mile from town the road was completely packed with celebrating people. We got out of the car, and walking behind a tall cross, drummers and hundreds of singing people paraded to the new church began.

Wherever Jesus went the kingdom of God was at hand. And that steamy Sunday morning in Kajo Keji I tell you the kingdom was at hand. I felt it stronger and closer than ever before or since. The spirit was palpable, it was oozing.  The Kingdom is the place we aspire to; it is the place where we want to be. It is indescribably right, so different than what I dreamed for or expected. It is a place of pure joy, peace knowing you are in the presence of God. The Kingdom was at hand on that Palm Sunday.

Like the people thronging on the roads to Jerusalem, the people in Kajo Keji had a different set of expectations for Jesus and the Kingdom than Jesus held for himself. James, John and their mother had a set of expectations for Jesus. Their expectations were about place and power. The people want their new Messiah to be a great military leader. One like Judas Maccabees who will have military victories and cast out the Romans, Herod, the chief priests. But the meaning Jesus attaches to this triumphal entry is quite different from the meaning the crowd has for their messiah.

People turn to God when things get bad. Give us peace now, heal my diabetes, protect my pension, don’t let it rain on our vacation. Give me a job tomorrow. Jesus intends to answer these and all our prayers. He doesn’t wait for us to become pure and able to look him in the eye. He has come to rescue the sick and poor and the lost. It’s not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick.

Jesus answers the people dreams in his own way. The people are asking for a messiah but a messiah on their terms. Jesus will tell them that Jerusalem is under God’s judgement. They want an enthroned messiah but this one will be enthroned on the cross. They want to be rescued from evil and oppression but Jesus will rescue them in full measure not by merely rolling back the Romans and Herod. Jesus will say yes to their prayers at the deepest level. But it will look completely different from what they imagined.

When you invite Jesus to help he will do so much more thoroughly than what we imagined, more deeply than perhaps what we wanted. We may not recognize at the answer to our prayers at first. The story of Palm Sunday is the story of Jesus surprising triumphal entry is a lesson in the mismatch between our expectations and God’s answer. While the people will be disappointed at a surface level the moment Jesus arrives is the moment that salvation is at hand. To learn that lesson is a growth in faith. Let’s relish the feeling of God’s Kingdom entering Jerusalem that Sunday. It is a taste of what heaven will be!

Beatitudes

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

Sunday January 29, 2017

Sermon: Matthew 5:1-12

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

Our days have been filled with much. Not far from Inauguration day and the days that followed among much newsworthy things were the gatherings of crowds and even some debate regarding the size of such. Whether it be the Inauguration itself or of the subsequent rallies, and marches of protest, including the recent march of the Pro-life movement, or those gathering quickly at airports to protest the latest controversial refugee and immigration policy, we certainly know crowds.

Many of us know these crowds and many of us may have even been part of those crowds.  I myself know some who attended the Inauguration, some who marched or participated in rallies following, some who marched in yesterday’s Pro-life March, and I also know through  others some who stand outside of airports this very morning.

Ironically enough, or fitting enough, or God moment enough, this very real experience right now for us of crowds gathering helps us meet our Gospel today.

It should be easier for us to imagine the crowds who gathered around an itinerant preacher some 2, 000 years ago, who in a real context of time, offered a compelling hope-filled message that turned up large crowds and began a movement. This is the context in Matthew’s gospel.  When the crowds coming to see this Jesus were so large, he invited his disciples to the top of  a mountain where they could look out upon the crowds and Jesus could deliver to them what many biblical scholars call “The Messiah’s Inaugural address”.

Like Inaugural addresses we know, we are to see in Matthew, the beatitudes as the very front piece of who Jesus is, What HIS Kingdom is about, and what is required of those who will follow Him. 

This Inaugural address anticipates the end game- that is the GREAT Commission, when all who follow him are to be sent into the world baptizing and proclaiming God’s Kingdom.

The Baseline, the foundation, the litmus test, the springboard, the touchstone- the Beatitudes lay out the primary expectations that those who put their faith in Jesus are not simply enlisted as believer, but that their faith must be actualized in their behavior.

Our job, today, in this important time, and in a critical context, is to listen ourselves to Jesus Inaugural address, and challenge ourselves anew to actualize our faith.

Our Lord’s address:

Blessed.  Blessed is the translated  word  to set the stage for what it is to be part of this Kingdom adventure.  I know that you know what it is to be blessed. You know that experience in life when your heart, mind, body, and soul becomes aware of the rich deep presence of God. When love overwhelms you, when joy erupts in your heart, when your awareness opens to the reality that in your life you find an abundance of grace, of love, of security.  We are blessed.

Jesus says,

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit; that is rich in God’s presence are those who are so humbled and aware of how dependent they are on God. Wealthy or poor, middle class, Republican or democrat, Independent or otherwise. Rich in God’s spirit are those who know that all things come from God and all things return to God, and without God we have nothing. With God, we have everything.

Blessed are those that Mourn. That is rich in God’s spirit are those whose hearts are broken when living or looking at deep disruptions to God’s dream of Justice for all people. You see, in Jesus time, the spirit of this beatitude would be found in the broken heartedness of those who mourned over Israel’s disobedience to God and God’s commandments to Love God and one another. A Disobedience that translated in their faith view to the disintegration of a Just and Righteous way of living. Heartbroken for example, were those who watched and lived  a rigged system where the poor bore the burden of a tax system designed to appease the Empire and maintain the Religious establishments place of power. A system that saw many poor farmers forced to sell the few possessions they had and even family members into slavery in order to make their way. Rich in Spirit are those whose hearts are broken at such Injustices. The Kingdom of Heaven will have none of it.

Blessed are the Meek; That is Rich in Spirit of God’s presence are those who are humble, gentle, non-violent in their dealings with others. Humbly and faithfully reflecting God’s Character.

Jesus continues,

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. That is Rich in the Spirit of God’s presence are those who may be literally hungry for lack of food or those who hunger for a world where no one hungers. 

Rich in spirit are those who are awakened at night because that the core of their being they are troubled by acts and actions that are unjust and deep in their hearts they know it. It awakens them in the middle of the night, like a sharp pain in the stomach or a tightening of a parched throat.

Blessed are the merciful; that is Rich in God’s Spirit are those who know compassion and forgiveness, who live it and offer it without fear or reservation.

Blessed are the pure in heart; that is Rich in God’s Spirit are those who know Psalm 51, asking God continuously to create in us a clean heart, to renew a right spirit with us.  A heart that helps us to see the world with the purity God intends for us to see it, and in seeing it clearly, seeing its hunger clearly and responding to it.

Blessed are the peacemakers-  that is Rich in God’s Spirit are those who devote themselves to the hard work of reconciling hostility toward individuals, families, groups, nations. Rich in God’s spirit are those who work for the biblical Shalom, which is to be understood as harmonious cooperation aimed at the welfare of ALL Persons.

Finally Jesus concludes his Inaugural address by reminding those with ears to hear, that if one  who puts their faith in this world view, this way of being, one who actualizes in their behavior their faith in these beatitudes, then one will certainly know they will be persecuted.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake and those who are called out because of their faith;  Rich in God’s spirit are those who take the heat because we know what is right and are willing to act for it, speak to it, stand up for it.  Expect to be called out by powers who don’t want to hear the contrast in your speech and in your action.  

Brothers and Sisters- Can you imagine with me in such a way that you can hear and receive this Inaugural address anew? Can you hear with me what I and other faithful leaders of this thing our Presiding Bishop calls The Jesus Movement, believe stands in stark contrast to the messages and actions we are watching take place before us? You see I believe the Gospel gives us the challenge to look for the contrast and questions are hearts and souls to respond to it.

Please know that when Jesus delivered this address in the moment and time he delivered it; this teaching stood  in stark contrast to the worldly message of his time. We know also from history that time and time again the truth of the Gospel has stood out in stark contrast to worldly messages that called many to fear, instead of hope, many to build divides instead of work for shalom, many to cast others aside, instead of show compassion. We also know from history, that sometimes that contrast has been overlooked, ignored, or just simply denied.

Beloved, Can you join with me again, and with our Lord, and live again in openness to what we find in our Lord’s Inaugural address?  Might we put our faith in Jesus, allowing ourselves to be challenged by  Pope Francis’ reminder yesterday, that putting our faith in Jesus, means not only believing but actualizing our belief in our behavior. A perfect challenge in response to the beatitudes, Francis challenges us, that if we are to call ourselves Christians, we must live the beatitudes. 

I believe our Lord’s Inaugural address paints a sharp contrast in our current context I pray you will consider. This contrast has moved me to act by shortly sending to you all a pastoral response where I will make known that this Cathedral stands with our denominational leaders, our Presiding Bishop, our President of the house of deputies, and faith leaders from many denominations, making it known that we will continue to be a place that seeks to live the beatitudes.

Specifically, I believe the beatitudes speak directly in a contrasting and challenging way to the policy decision to ban on refugees. First, the spirit and rationale given for this ban is foreign to this communities’ first hand experience of refugee ministry. Second, that Jesus people do not stand for adding already to the burdens of those who have been burdened most. Our first hand experience with resettling a family from Syria helps us to incarnate the reality of this unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Those closest to this ministry can tell you that the vetting process for refugees is as rigorous as there is on this planet. The vetting process for the family we have welcomed among us was rigorous, extensive, and took nearly two years while they waited in a refugee camp. We also know sadly a bit more about terror. The terror this refugee family has experienced chased from their homes with a terror that resides in psyche and soul of experiencing bombs exploding outside their homes and outside their school while children hid under their desks. The sudden pronouncement of this ban seems to me, does not in anyway measure up to any standard of the Gospel we know. It is immoral, unethical, and callous. There is no blessedness in it.

I pray that we will continue to be a place where our faith is actualized by welcoming, loving, and advocating for the most vulnerable. Whether they be homeless men who speak many languages and whose stories of whoa humble all of us, or loving a family who had experienced more than any of us can possibly imagine or want to imagine, find their way without prejudice and fear, to living a dream most of us take for granted.

Blessed are we, followers, believers, actualizers of Jesus dream.