September 2, 2012 The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Sunday September 2, 2012

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8,14-15, 21-23

A wedding. A handshake. A kiss. A coronation. A parade. A dance. A meal. A graduation. A ritual is the ceremonial acting out of the profane in order to show forth its sacredness. A sacrament is the breaking through of the sacred into the profane.

A sacrament is God offering his holiness to us. A ritual is our raising up the holiness of our humanity to God.

I have oft used this quote from Fred Buechner at weddings or even funerals when I am aware the listeners gathered may be from different religious traditions or as may be the case moreso today, especially at weddings, when those in the assembly may have little experience with religious practices. I do so as an introduction to point to the importance of the rituals we take part in, the purpose of them,  the heart of them.

I do so, especially at weddings to remind all of us gathered that the point of the beauty of the rituals say of “dressing in beauty” or “processing to a public and visible place to consent to a joining” or  “repeating beautiful and profound words of promise to a new creation of marriage defined by covenant” or “joining hands bound symbolically by a stole, the yoke of Christ” or “by humbly kneeling before the altar to have this new creation blessed”  or triumphally, joyfully, and with dignity processing out of the Church and into the world” The point, the heart of the meaning of such ritual is to bring us into the full awareness that what we are about is “holiness”. It is not the pageantry of the symbolic acts that lead to a beautiful photo opportunity, or even the beauty of the words themselves, but what they point to and invoke in us.  Buchner so beautifully says it, to lift the holiness of our humanity to God and have it met by God’s holy offering for our lives!

The ritual pointing to the “mindfulness”  and “heartfulness” and “soulfulness” is what is at play in today’s Scriptures, especially in James and in the Gospel according to Mark.  

In the gospel reading today, Jesus again takes on the religious establishment. The engagement today is about ritual. In this interaction we are reminded of the ritual practices of the priestly establishment ironically enough concerned with a “holiness code”. The establishment are concerned it seems with Jesus’ disciples who are clearly not as concerned as they in keeping the purity rituals, in their minds, the rituals of holiness. Jesus seizes the moment as he often does to bring the audience into the “mindfulness of the heart of the matter.  On this occasion Jesus is asking the people to think of what holiness is discovered in the ritual? – Does the heart of their ritual reveal a holiness found in cleanliness or does their ritual of eating make them mindful that there are those who are hungry who need be fed?  Is compassion brought into mindfulness and action in this ritual?

Jesus reminds those who will listen that it is easy to lose sight of the heart of the matter and become lost from being in mindfulness of ritual for Godly things. It is the state of a holy heart that matters and what is borne from that holy hearts can be fruit of good works, as St. James would have it, or many opportunities for things that defile as Jesus would list them.

  It is not what goes into your body that will defile you or make you holy, and it is certainly not going to matter how meticulously you follow a ritual to “make these things clean” but rather what matters is an awareness of the heart of God that lifts our humanity to holiness and calls us out to live with integrity, compassion, dignity and with respect for all of God’s creation.

What matters to us? What begs us to raise our holiness to God in our rituals and seeks to be met by God’s holiness for us? What is the heart of the matter for us when it comes to bearing fruit reflective of our mindfulness, heartfulness, soulfulness of God’s promise for our lives?

For St. James, like Jesus’, it must go beyond just the ritualistic words of our faith, the words we say and receive is not the heart of the matter, but what is borne from our holiness matters, that is holy lives in activity of “holy living”, “holy acting”.  “Be doers of the word, not just receivers who deceive themselves”, James implores us.

Consider these holy words, taken from an old collection of prayers, produced in 1937 Forward Movement for personal devotion.  Pray this prayer mindful of St. James invitation to be doers of the Word, and Jesus call to the crowd to be mindful of what is in your heart.

Send us, O god, as thy messengers, to hearts without a home, to lives without love, to the crowds without a guide. Send us to the children whom none have blessed, to the famished whom none have visited, to the fallen whom none have lifted, to the bereaved whom none have comforted. Kindle thy flame on the altars of our hearts, that others may be warmed thereby; cause thy light to shine in our souls, that others may see the way; keep our sympathies and insight ready, our wills keen, our hands quick to help our neighbors in their need; for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Sunday August 26th, 2012

Sunday August 26, 2012

The Cathedral Church fo the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pa

Elizabeth Yale, Postulant for Holy Order, The Diocese of Bethlehem

Today, instead of being a good Episcopalian preacher and talking about the wonderful lessons, I want to offer you a challenge.

In effect, I am throwing down a gauntlet and you cannot run and hide because you have already agreed and accepted the challenge. Most of you have accepted this challenge multiple times a year since your baptism. So I am not really as courageous as you may have thought.

In case you need to refer to the specific wording or want to remember my challenge at a later time, it can be found on page 305 in the Book of Common Prayer. In case you haven't memorized the Book of Common Prayer, that is the section where the congregation renews their baptismal covenant before the prayer over the water and the candidate gets wet.

We read it there as the last question, "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” The answer there is, “I will, with Gods help."

"Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

"Will you strive..." We get lucky here at the start. Strive is a great active verb and so we can honestly, or not so honestly, say we are always striving. Obviously we haven't achieved justice or peace among all people yet. Those are gigantic words with multiple meanings. Are we just supposed to be striving for no war, or just war? Or are we supposed to be striving for the lions to be playing with the lambs? We know where we want to go, but we don't always know what it could look like and so we keep striving and trying to reach out to people, trying to create justice and peace in small areas and trying to build together so that one day, justice and peace can be had among all people.

The challenge here is how can you strive? How can you help create justice and peace among all people? You've given your word that you will, so I ask you, what are you doing? Do you pray for peace? Do you pray for justice? Are you part of an organization, like our beloved friend Tom Lloyd was? He worked for peace. He was passionate about peace. Will you strive for justice and peace among all people?

Okay, maybe you aren't passionate about peace. It doesn't raise your excitement level. It's okay, we haven't finished the challenge. Can you get passionate about respect? I am sure some of you get a little bit passionate when you have been disrespected. The second part of our challenge is "Will you respect the dignity of every human being?"

Every Episcopalian agrees to respect the dignity of every human being, yet not every Episcopalian respects the dignity of every other Episcopalian. We face a large challenge here. We can break it down. On a personal level, should I respect my own dignity? Ash Wednesday told me, I am but dust, and to dust shall I return. What dignity is there in dust? Yet baptism tells me that I am part of the household of God, I share in God’s eternal priesthood. I am one of God’s handiworks and one of his children, so maybe I don't deserve respect, but I should respect the dignity of this awesome creation of God’s that is me. Thus, I respect my own dignity. One down, 7 billion to go.

Should I respect your dignity? You, sitting in this church this morning. You are my teachers, my elders, my providers, my challengers, my family, and my friends. Some of you are annoyances and all of you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. You are dust and you are not worthy of respect. You are God’s children and worthy of the greatest respect I can give. Thus, I respect your dignity. Two hundred down, 7 billion to go.

It seems that seven billion is a large number and growing daily. Not quite the number of the stars in the sky or the grains of sand, so humanity hasn't fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham yet, but large enough for a crowd of every human being to take up more space than the state of Rhode Island. Now we could wave our hands a little saying that we respect the dignity of all the people in the Church, but that still leaves us with most of the world’s population up for consideration. If we want we can pretend that on any given daily basis, we could respect any other human being we interact with. But I am not sure that is true. I'll tell you why. It is hard work respecting the dignity of every human being.

I learned that for myself how hard respecting every human being can be this past summer in Naples, Florida while doing my Clinical Pastoral Education for my seminary program. I worked as a hospital chaplain for ten weeks in the community hospital where everyone and anyone can get some medical help.

My respect challengers were people such as these:

• The man who smelled and told me that I have no idea what the Hebrew bible actually says. (and no, I couldn't tell him that I have read portions of the Hebrew bible in Hebrew).
• The lady in the psych ward who had all of her possessions, that being the clothes off her back, taken by the police in an assault case who was given clothes from the nurses so she could be discharged to the local homeless shelter.
• The teenaged boy who told me off sarcastically for coming to see him, but who I went to see two more times to show him I care.
• The lady who demanded to know how someone can be called a Christian if they dance, drink, or smoke.
• The man who told me I was brainwashed and that I need to open my eyes to the real truth of the world in science and accept that there is no God.
• The woman who owns more than I will ever have and yet cried while telling me how terrible her life is.
• The woman who I loved who scared me completely because she was worried about brain damage after a terrible fall from a horse because her story resonated with my past fall.
• All the alcoholic, drug abusing men who came through the hospital who would tell me stories of their times in prison and the lessons that they haven't learned yet.

It's hard to respect those who have no respect for their own lives, their own minds, their own bodies and no respect for those around them. But I learned this summer that they are the ones who need our respect. They need the model and the encouragement to respect themselves. They don't deserve respect. They are dust and they are not worthy. But they are also children of God. We do not get to pick and choose who is one of God’s creation, one of God’s children. All are Gods. Our sign says, All are welcome. All are to be respected. Will you respect the dignity of every human being? How do you respect every human being? Who are your challengers?

I have one more thing to say about this challenge. As I have already mentioned, if you have been going to an Episcopal church regularly for any length of time, you have already agreed to take on the challenge today. There are no loopholes and no hope for escape, our assent is there on the page. "I will, with Gods help." We say, I will, but we don't say it by ourselves. We say it as a congregation. So many people seem to believe that they must handle their lives, their struggles, their joys, their vows, all by themselves. The band The Shins wrote a song called Simple Song, and it portrays a man telling a woman, his wife or girlfriend, about the connection of their lives, he says in the chorus, "I know that things can really get rough, when you go it alone. Don't go thinking you gotta be tough, and play like a stone." Despite the great song Paul Simon made out of saying, “I am a rock, I am an island,” its not possible. Even the great American Catholic priest and mystic Thomas Merton wrote a book titled No Man Is An Island. Even Jesus kept some friends with him throughout his ministry to support and help him. It's not healthy to believe life can be lived without any help. And we specifically invoke God’s help. We know that if we even think about asking God for his help, God is helping us. God may not be giving us the kind of help we want, but we cannot blame God for not standing up to his end of the deal. The reason I can stand up here and challenge you today is because God is helping me and has helped me. I’ll tell you a secret, its totally worth it. Dignity, respect, justice, and peace are all more than just words. They build community. They open the Kingdom of God.

No matter where you are or where your challengers are, you aren't alone. Even way down in Naples, Florida, away from my family, this community, the seminary community and most of my friends, I was still supported and helped. We are here to support each other.

Thus, I challenge you.  "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

 God is in. I am in. Are you?

 

8th Sunday after Pentecost
July 22, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Yet again we have another tragedy to contend with.  There’s yet one more opportunity in our experience to be confounded, confused, angry, and mystified. Most of all in the midst of the happenings in Colorado this past weekend, to be heartbroken again.  We have before us yet one more opportunity to try to make sense of what makes absolutely no sense.  We have one more opportunity to be invited perhaps into a sense of defeat, of despair, or even fear.

 Like many throughout the world and in the United States, we are invited by the barrage of media coverage and their attempt to make sense of a senseless act.  We are barraged as in such a way that we indeed have this trauma extended to us and indeed our hearts break.  Our anxiety rises and the horror of what is so foreign to us mystified us.  For we human beings, particularly for us gathered here in this place, in this context, we are a spiritual people, and once again we might be asking ourselves this question.  So where is our God anyway?  This might be a day we check in with the theology of our hearts. 

So how is it that a reigning God can allow such things to happen?  This might be one of those times as we listen to many who seek to make sense, and again I remind you, there is no making sense that we check our “gut” questions.  In light of these circumstances you might find yourself playing some some of those old theological tapes in response to horror and trauma like this.  “Is this a test dear God?”  Or some even straining to make sense of it might go here—“Perhaps this is God’s will in some way for us to find maybe some pearl that will invite us into a new understanding.”  Those of us who experience clinical pastoral education know that this is not a question or a mindset or a theology that bears much fruit.  For once again, we are faced with a reality of what it is to live in an imperfect world with imperfect people, where evil indeed does rare its head.  And it is as simple and as difficult as bad stuff happens.  So where are we?  We are spiritual people, trying to make sense of a world that is indeed sometimes senseless.  We are trying desperately to pursue a path that reveals some sort of concert with our God and our neighbors.

A friend of mine recently posted a quote from the Chaplain at Williams College whose adult child was killed.  The quote posted reads,   “I wish some people would get it through there otherwise intelligent heads that God does not go around the world with his fingers on triggers, his fist around knives, or his hands on steering wheels.  God is against all unnatural deaths and Christ spent an inordinate amount of time delivering people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy, and muteness.  The one thing that should not be said when someone dies senselessly or even at all is this.  It is the will of God.  Never do we know enough to say that.”

So where does that leave us faithful people, faithful disciples, helpless on this side of the country so distant from that horror yet so close?

I believe as faithful people we are once again asked to place ourselves in the heart of the gospel story.  As we seek to be faithful, living for the good in our society and in our lives, and in our relationships, we might very well once again on this day be like the disciples who have returned from spreading kingdom news.  In our story today in Mark we find that the disciples have returned from extending hands of help and healing and Jesus invites them to “come away to a deserted place and rest for a while.”

 We today might do well to be tempted to join Jesus in the deserted place.  Like the disciples we might also recognize that the world’s needs continue to impress upon us, just as the crowds followed them along the shore bank that day.  Like those disciples who slipped away with Jesus, we indeed do know the world’s needs and hurts are following us, they are inescapable. These needs it seems sometimes even may be trying to get ahead of us, much like the needs of the crowds scurrying ahead of Jesus and the disciples hoping to have already arrived on the shore where Jesus would land his first step. The hurts of the world and the needs of the world await us. 

Once again we’re just asked as disciples to get on the boat with Jesus to go across the shore and moor the boat.  Difficult as it is, we are once again asked to join with the brokenness and the hurt of the world and know that God’s will for us is to share in our brokenness and offer it a balm of healing and love.  Jesus words so powerful then and so powerful now, we indeed are like sheep without a shepherd. 

Jesus’ response to us today is as it was all those many years ago when he looks at us in our hurt, he has compassion upon us.  We find ourselves this day with an opportunity to responds to Jesus’ compassion as those in the crowd on that crowded shore; that is to  crowd around him seeking healing and wholeness even in the midst of things that are beyond our understanding and of which we will never be able to make rational sense of, regardless of the volume of media reporting. 

 Fellow disciples, may I beg you one more time, may I ask you one more time to reach out again in the midst of our broken hearts and spirits and  dare to touch again the fringe of the garment of our Lord.  Can we ask of one another again to believe in healing and in hope and in grace and in a peace that is beyond our understanding, especially in the midst of bitter confusion.  Perhaps in the midst of so many words filling the airwaves trying to make sense of the senseless, we who walk by faith may be best to reach our hands and speak few words;

Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy.  Lord have mercy.

7th Sunday after Pentecost
July 15, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity

Good morning!

In the “Information age” in which we live, that is the era of newspapers, the era of blogging, the era of rapid and instantaneous information—not always accurate mind you, but information nonetheless; I find myself  wondering what is it that those who would have witnessed the Jesus event would have blogged or reported?  What would they have said about the life , teaching and the ministry of Jesus?  What would they say about his death and about his resurrection?  Perhaps one would have said something like this, “Government Forces quell radical movement of Jesus of Nazareth,  Religious and Political Insurrectionist.”  “Dream Dies on a Hillside.” 

At the same time, I wonder what those who actually witnessed the fullness of the story,  that is those who lived, followed, ate, and served with Jesus would have reported? Well we kind of know what they said, don’t we?  Something like this, “Our lives have been touched by a vision and a dream, and we are spellbound.  We are compelled by the one who indeed has conquered death and now we seek to live and work in a world for transformation.  We seek to live with courage even as the world would want us to fear, for the dream that we follow did not die on there on a hillside.  Those are two very different stories.  Two very different accounts, and I guarantee you, two accounts being reported at the time of Jesus’s life, his ministry, his death and his resurrection. 

Today we get a glimpse into stories about power and authority.  We get a glimpse into Herod’s experience of power and authority.  Herod’s experience of this Jesus and of John the Baptizer.  Herrod, who was drunk with power and a bully to keep it, was so intrigued with the truth that John the Baptizer had to offer him.  Herrod was treacherous.  He was brutal.  And, he was oppressive.  He ruled in such a way that those in whom he had power over would live in fear. 

One has to imagine Herrod rubbing his eyes, rubbing them hard, as he hears from people who come to him and say about Jesus, “There is one who is teaching with power and authority.”  Herod, only knowing John, says “How can this be?  Is John the Baptizer raised from the dead?”  And some who we might consider bloggers of the day think perhaps this power, this Jesus, who’s teaching might have been John who was raised from the dead, or might have been Elijah perhaps they said or perhaps a prophet of old.  Can’t you see it?  Can’t you read it written in  your favorite blog?  The accounts of such reported by those without any factual information.

  Dr. Suzanne Mets writes about today’s scripture, “ while todays’ Gospel passage is mostly a bit of history, we also get a glimpse into Paul and his letter to the Ephesians.  We get a glimpse into what the faithful witnesses of Jesus were saying about him in Herod’s time.  Paul helps us understand how we are connected to God.  Paul reminds us of the amazing gifts we are given because God loves us.  And Paul reminds us that instead of being afraid that Jesus is John raised from the dead, Paul says blessed be God who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heaven.  There is no fear here.  Just joyful gratitude that we are empowered by God’s blessing.  Paul goes on to tell us what some of those blessings are.  But, in the end, Paul reminds us that God’s grace is being lavished on us.  None of these things is a worldly gift.  They are all heavenly in nature.  And, we can, we can live our earthly lives with the spiritual authority in power as ones who understand themselves as lavishly graced and live in the world without fear, spreading the good news among our brothers and sisters.  In other words, being a witness and telling a story.  Our power and authority comes from being lavished by God’s blessings.  Like David, living into the full acceptance of Christ, of God’s presence, these blessings might cause us to dance, even in the face of what the world might consider us to be fearful of. 

I have just returned from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.  The 77^th version thereof.  I’m still recovering from that event . . . literally.  I like some of you have already begun to read what the bloggers and the newspapers had to say—because trust me when you’re there you don’t have time to read those things.  I am mindful of what some may be saying about the convention, it’s spirit, and the actions taken there and I am mindful that like my question posed about what individuals would have written about the Christ event in ancient times, there is a diversity of reporting.

In light of this, I thought I would like to add my first  hand experience as a witness and participant to the Convention. I stand here then as  a witness, that is  as a person who was actually there, on the floor, interacting and taking my part in the councils of the Church.  One who worshipped, , taking the bread, taking the blood of Christ, engaging with brothers and sisters of this church of ours from across this country.   I’m here to tell you that we have been lavished by God’s blessings.  Our General Convention was organized around the five marks of mission.

 They are to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.  They are to teach, baptize and nurture new believers.  They are to respond to human need by loving service.  They are to seek to transform unjust structures of society. They are to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.  So let me tell you what we actually did at General Convention. 

  We passed a $111-million national budget.  The majority of which seeks to empower our church in the pursuit of these five marks of mission.  We passed unanimously the creation of a special task force to help us forge ahead a new vision of the structure of our church to better enable us to pursue these marks of mission and better align our resources.  I can’t help but tell you that eight hundred and some deputies on the floor, a couple of hundred of bishops in the other house—it may be unprecedented but the vote to create such a task force was unanimous—in both houses.  I don’t think that’s ever happened.  The unanimous vote seemed so startling to the House of Deputies we stood and applauded ourselves and we sang a hymn, “We Are All In One Mission.”  And now I will tell you, I was a little disturbed by it, because you would have thought that we had just eradicated poverty as opposed to just agreeing that we need to do business a differently.  I just mention our self congratulations over this obvious need to change as perhaps a check on our ego’s and  a challenge for all of us as we consider the greater challenges before us.

We authorized, and I’m sure you saw this on CNN, the creation of rites for same-sex blessings.  Something that you know in this Diocese, we have been doing. At the same time that authorization respected those Dioceses and parishes that may find practicing such rites theologically incongruent.  I want you to know in the conversations and hearings around this issue, the tenor on all sides was respectful., prayerful, earnest, and honest.

We elected representation for the next committee for the selection of candidates for our next presiding bishop.  Our own Cathy Bailey stood for election in Province 3.  Next time we’ll get her elected.  We had an impassioned conversation about evangelism and about an open table,  that is an evangelism strategy that invites all persons to participate in our table fellowship, not just the baptized.

 We authorized rites for a pastoral response for those grieving the illness and death of their pets.  Something the Methodists and Presbyterians did a long time ago.  How nice to be following the Methodists and the Presbyterians. 

We elected new leadership.  The House of Deputies elected The Rev. Gay Jennings as the President of the House of Deputies.  Gay, some of you might remember, was the preacher here for my installation as your Dean and our celebration of new ministries.  Clearly I’m happy for my friend.  But I’m also lifted up by the wise discernment of our church to invest in someone who I and many know  lives with courage every day for the sake of the gospel.  We worshipped together at General Convention, and we listened to one another at General Convention.   We enjoyed one another at General Convention. And we were lifted up by one another at General Convention.  The conversations that I had with the leaders of our church were life giving.  All of them, most of them, were about the vision of a future and the mission that we’re called to.   I left General Convention alive, a little tired, but alive. I return to you  feeling that our church is vital and faithful. I recognize this may not be what you might have  read. 

I left General Convention realizing that I/ we have been lavishly blessed and that all of must live with a courageous vision of the kingdom in a new day.  We are lavishly, lavishly blessed.

 I am aware of  one opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal characterizing  General Convention as a carnival atmosphere;  I missed that because I like all there was busy worshipping our God, sharing a vision for the church.  Sharing in hospitality with my brothers and sisters in Christ,   being built up, connecting with friends and witnesses from generation to generation, all of whom stood proclaiming our Lord Jesus Christ as Lord.  Whenever I’m at such gatherings, I think about our congregation here in Bethlehem. I think about our stories, and I think about you. I think about how courageously everyday people in this parish witness to our Lord.  I think about our angels  perched upon our rood screen believing they are watching over us.   I’ve said this before and I’ll say it until I actually do it,  but someday these angels will  come to life for me in a book, I promise, and  in that book they will proclaim lavish blessings upon us as we are reminded of our mission. Lavishly blessed we are as a church, and in that spirit hear the angles bestowing this blessing in the word from author John O’Donahue, “A Blessing of the Angels”. 

May the angels in their beauty bless you.  May they turn toward you streams of blessing.  May the angel of awakening stir your heart to come alive to the eternal within you to all the invitations that quietly surround  you.  May the angel of healing turn your wounds into sources of refreshment.  May the angel of imagination enable you to stand on the true thresholds at ease with your ambivalence and drawn in new directions through the glow of your contradictions.  May the angel of compassion open your eyes to the unseen suffering around you.  May the angel of wildness disturb the places where your life is domesticated and safe and take you to the territories of true discovery.  Where all that is awkward in you can fall into its  own rhythm.  May the angel of Eros introduce you to the beauty of your senses, to celebrate your inheritance as a temple of the Holy Spirit.  May the angel of justice disturb you to take the side of the poor and the wronged.  May the angel of encouragement confirm you in worth and self-respect that you may live with the dignity that presides in your soul.  May the angel of death arrive only when your life is complete and you have brought every given gift to the threshold where its infinity can shine.  May all the angels be your sheltering and be your joyful guardians.  Amen.  

June 17, 2012 Proper 6

June 17, 2012

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

                                             Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 6

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

I Samuel 15:34-16:13; Mark 4:26-34

First, let me name the day that is today in our secular calendar. Father’s day. A prayer of thanksgiving we lift for Father’s and for the vocation of Fatherhood.  I pray this is a day that sustains and builds up relationships and a day for warm remembrance. For those who find such days as this difficult, I pray for a peace that passes all our understanding in the depth of love of our God who made and loves us.

As we enter into another election season it has been estimated that nearly 6 billion dollars will be raised and spent in elections all over this country. One somewhat startling characteristic of elections in our era is that more than 90% of elections won is by the candidate with the most money. In stark contrast to machines of image and politically motivated promises we entertain are the subtle stories of scripture that have us introduced to an  anointed shepherd king and mustard shrub kingdoms.

 Mark in his Gospel has Jesus quoting the Prophet Isaiah  just prior to the telling of these parables, that people would “look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand. (Mark 4:12).

The passage from 1 Samuel also invites us into this seeming predicatable habit of the human condition ; seeing those things we wish to see, or understanding those things as we would have them and conversely  not seeing or understanding  holy things and holy direction.

Samuel’s initial and persistent instinct to anoint the one who looks to be the  most attractive candidate is met by a HOLY other set of expectations. The young, inexperienced, eighth option, not even on Samuel’s ballot makes no sense at all to the reasonable mind.  Yet David it is for HOlY choosing. God’s future is God’s, it rarely looks the way we might initially conceive it.

Likewise, Jesus teaches that there are truths about the kingdom difficult for us to see, almost hidden it seems amidst sleeping gardeners and in the branches of an ordinary shrub born of the tiniest of seed.  Subtle, ordinary even, unremarkable and maybe even unnoticed by the human eye and heart when such has been conditioned to look to the glitz and glimmer of a well oiled public relations image or message.

 The truths of the Kingdom of God may not be obvious to any at first glance or even at the twentieth hearing. Even we who are followers of the one who reveals to us the truths of this Kingdom sometimes lose sight of its subtle but powerful truth.

In this era of communication where we would be foolish not to make good use of marketing strategies, webpages, facebook pages and even twitter; we must be careful and mindful of those occasions where for the sake of “building the Kingdom” we reflect what looks good on the outside, but inwardly has very little to do with the one who kingdom begins in something as insignificant as a mustard seed. Indeed like Samuel we may be attracted to the best looking profile of success and Lord Knows we want to be “liked” on our Facebook page posts.

 It takes a holy imagination to see a King in the runt of the litter and to get excited about a mustard shrub. Yet if Scripture is to soak into our hearts we may begin to see and maybe understand that is precisely where the heart of the Kingdom is located.

Our challenge is to lift our eyes from our hypnotic gaze toward  those daily messages fueled by budgets and spectacle making messianic promises for society and life that cannot be kept,  we just might have the eyes to begin seeing God at work right here in the simple mustard shrub shades of the relationships we enjoy and the service we extend. The seeds of the kingdom it seems are sown in the fertile ground of one another’s challenges and hopes and yearning for one another’s authenticity.  In a common belief that the sum of our parts is greater than any of us can ever hope to appropriately post on a facebook page.

Those who find rest in the shade of this congregation’s  branches promise no obvious return on investment. The faithful subtlety of ministry of this congregation will win no awards or rewards, or even find itself on the front page of the local paper which seems to prefer stories about churches “failing”.  Instead, we put on our eyes of faith and seek to understand that the Kingdom of heaven is like 35 men on a cold winter night simply eating a good hot meal and sleeping on a cot in a warm auditorium. The Kingdom of heaven is like a fiery and faithful women in her golden years, carrying the sacrament to a lifelong member of the congregation who has just learned they must go to hospice care, Christian friends for years, sharing a holy meal just as they had done many times before, but now with no words spoken other than the prayers they both know, and it is sufficient. Indeed the Kingdom of heaven is like a Sunday School Teacher running a race to raise money and awareness for cancer prevention and treatment, motivated by the quiet and unnoticed bond they have made with a parent of one of their students, conveying hope and extending love, that no ONE but the two can know and understand!

 To many eyes these things might look to be insignificant and unremarkable, to many not even noticeable. Certainly not “newsworthy”, but for those with eyes to see,  the Kingdom of God is blooming. Look.

Trinity Sunday - June 3, 2012 - The Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall

Trinity Sunday

June 3, 2012

The Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall

In my life in the last two months, I have experienced the birth of a grandchild, the marriage of a wonderfully Christian nephew and spouse, and the election of three of my former seminary students as bishops.  The unexpected learnings and joy of these moments have put me into something of a whirl, and this text from last week’s readings keeps intruding into my thinking, because as I age, I find God showing me the world in ways I could not have anticipated, and that I have to digest and grow into.

So I am still living with a fragment of last week’s Gospel—one that captivated me to a level that I didn’t preach on it last week at Mediator. It is this:

John 16:12-15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;

Jesus words about what we cannot bear now but will learn later invite us to deeper wisdom about our entire life cycle.

When a couple learns that they have a child coming, the excitement of that new life can be one of the most beautiful things that happen to them.  People celebrate with them…and then some people start giving advice. Some of it may be useful, some of it may increase fear unnecessarily—but most of it goes unheard because the couple are in one state of mind and are not yet ready for what comes next. Even if you happen to be the world’s leading authority on child development, there is no point in telling a newly pregnant couple the ten most important points about raising a teenager.

Having recently watched the awe and love of new parents up close, I knew that the last thing they need from me was advice about anything. They need my presence, love and support. And when the time comes to learn about raising toddlers, ‘tweens and teens, they will learn—and the knowledge they get then may be fresher than the war stories I could tell them about my mistakes as a father. As a grandfather I think my role is just to love them all. And speak when spoken to.

Again, all of this is meant to remind us that there are, in life, all kinds of things that are true, but depending on where we are, we aren’t ready for them, or as Jesus told his disciples, there are things we can’t bear to know. Let’s take discomfort in that one degree deeper, sticking with the life cycle.

It is a bit of an agony to prepare a couple for marriage: there is so much they cannot hear. They are in love and can hear very little else. They cannot hear that in five or six years their safe conversation will be exhausted, opening the door to tedium and resentment. I cannot tell them that much of what excites them now in their romantic moments can become dull and limited. I cannot tell them how much courage and strength will be required of them to be honest and risk-taking with each other to go to the next level of relationship rather than to sink into what is quiet, safe, and unexciting. I can only tell them that there is a 100% possibility that there will be new and wonderful joys and that there will be new stresses and that the church will indeed be there for them when is it time to grow again.

What this has to do with Trinity Sunday and baptism and confirmation is very important.

The teaching that God is three persons yet one God, and that God is essentially those persons in a constant relationship of creation, love, and outreach, took about 350 years to develop—the Spirit leads the Church into truth at God’s own pace. Other things that we now recognize as obviously true were once utterly unbearable.

An example of unbearable truth is very American. The Wright brothers had an interesting dad. He was a bishop in the Methodist church, and something of a public speaker. He is remembered for giving a fiery sermon on God’s obvious intention that humans should stay out of the air, because God did not intend us to leave the surface of the planet, whether by balloon or other means. A few years later Wilbur and Orville went out to Kitty Hawke and changed the world. His children had to lead him into truth which was unthinkable to him.

In our own past, those of us over a certain age can remember a time when it simply was unthinkable that women could be full partners in human life, unthinkable that they could be assertive without being called pushy, and that their anger and their special joys were not pathology. For some folks, and not just men, those have been very hard truths to receive.

This is the point. One of the most startling things about Christianity for its earlier competitors was that its God did things, led people to new places, that their revelation grew. Their God was in motion—the ideal for the Greeks who followed Plato was that God sat perfectly still contemplating his own perfection—not to much use for people seeking growth or change.

That idea that God is in motion throughout our life is why children are brought to baptism today, and we together thank God that their families want that for them. And I want to say directly to those young people being confirmed today that I know that Nativity has is second to none in having a well developed and challenging confirmation preparation. I say that sincerely, and wish more people put this kind of energy into preparation. You who are to be confirmed have had the best preparation for this day, and have come to this day because you are ready for it, because each of you decided it is something that you personally are ready to do. That gives me great joy and satisfaction; it is something to celebrate, and in Sayre Hall we will continue to celebrate it.

At the same time that I congratulate you on being informed and clear about what you are doing, I just want to plant the same seed that Jesus did: there is a great deal more to learn. The one that is guaranteed is that life still has many stretches and challenges and perhaps some pain ahead. Sometimes you may have to struggle to make sense out of things. Those are precisely the times when you want to get closer to God and be very attentive to where the Spirit may be leading you. The more you know, the more you can learn.

It is precisely at the moments where religion may seem boring or irrelevant that you may be God’s instrument for leading the rest of us to something new. Boredom is not a cue that somebody should entertain you: boredom is a cue that your mind needs to do something. Use boredom or discomfort in school, marriage, job, religion, as a cue to listen hard to what the Holy Spirit may be saying not just to you about your job or marriage, but to all of us.

That can be a little unsettling, that thought of going to a new place. So there is a little prayer I wish I could find a place for in the liturgy. It is this: “Guard us from contempt for what is old and from fear of what is new.” Honoring the old and welcoming the new is a spiritual discipline that works for marriage, job, religion and most of all, for your own life and God leads you through what you may not think you can bear to what you will come to treasure. God who has brought you this far will indeed stay with you for the rest of the journey.

Do you have a Loki in your life?

Easter VII

May 20, 2012

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

I have a question for you this day and some of you are going to know right away of what I reference and some of you may not but we’ll get there.  So my question is, “Do you have a Loki in your life?”  Loki you may know is the adversarial character in the story of the Avengers, from Marvel comics and now the rave in its movie form.  Loki, of course, really comes from Norse mythology where Loki is the god of mischief.  Loki is, the brother, the antithesis and the arch enemy of Thor the god of thunder.  What I frame for you today, I frame in the context of what the movies have done with the Marvel comics story line.  Let me remind you of the Avengers:  Captain America!  Strong, loyal, brave, patriotic, strategic in his thinking.  Iron Man-- brilliant, intelligent, technologically savvy, tough, made of iron, flies, strong ballistics.  The  Incredible Hulk--incredibly strong, fast, furious, big, green.  The Black Widow, intelligent, creative, empathic, strong, and capable of getting what is needed for the task; The Hawk,  vision capable of taking in the big picture and in a moments notice honing in like a magnet on an item to be acted upon, a skilled marksmen;  And, of course,Thor--the god of thunder, his mighty hammer can conquer all things, protect all things.  He, too with his hammer, can fly.  Together the Avengers stand for righteousness and for truth.  I am certain it exists somewhere but if there’s not a college-level course on these sociological statements of these characters and storylines there should be.

The Avengers--all those gifts used together cannot be defeated in pursuit of justice and of righteousness and for the defense of all.  But then there’s Loki, that adversarial character.  The god of mischief.  Loki’s mission is to gain power by disruption, by deception.  His approach is slippery.  It is as slippery as his ability to disappear and to reappear.  He is in the movie personification, the perfect example of an insidious presence.  Loki’s strategy in the latest version of the movies of the Avengers is to cause the Avengers to doubt. To doubt themselves, to miscalculate their abilities and to doubt the truth of who they are and what they can do. Loki’s actions are designed to make them suspicious and fearful of one another’s motives and how they might employ their rather extraordinary abilities.  A solid strategy if you’re a Loki, the god of mischief, the adversary. 

I ask my question again,  do you have a Loki in your life?  Do you have an experience of Loki?  That is, a force that seeks to cast out or  to dis-integrate? A person or force that causes you to question or miscalculate your abilities or  to fear or mistrust the motives of others thus preventing you from experiencing what it might be to find the joy of experiencing one another’s gifts?   A Loki experience can take place  a Loki experience can take place in family life.  It take can take place in the work place.  It can take place in an organization that you might participate in.  It can even take place dare I say in the church -- a Loki experience or Loki people.  Now I’m not speaking about those people or experiences in our lives who tell us valuable truths that we may not like.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  That’s another sermon for another day.  But rather I’m asking you—do you have a Loki in your life?  Do you have Loki moments?  Perhaps you might have a Loki voice  somewhere inside your head or your heart or your soul?  A voice perhaps that subtly or not so subtly calls you away from who you really are.  The truth of who you are.  Calls you to doubt the power of  the gifts that you possess.  I can’t speak for you but my experience has taught me that there are Loki’s in our lives at one point or another. 

Fred Buechner, my theological hero, calls Loki people or experiences “negos” as in negativity.  Nego’s are  those people in our lives or the voices in our heads that have one script regardless of the circumstance:  “You can’t, you are not, you will not, you cannot, you are not”.  So I ask you, do you have a Loki in your life?

 If you have a Loki in your life, then hear the good news of the gospel today.  In this beautiful and intimate moment from John’s Gospel our Lord Jesus prays in what biblical scholars describe as the highly priestly prayer of Jesus.  Jesus prays for his disciples and, therefore by definition he is praying for us, as he prepares to take leave.  He prays for his disciples because he knows that they will have Lokis in their lives.  They will, as we do, have those experiences, those voices, and those people, who will seek sometimes overtly and sometimes subtly to pull us apart.  Actively seeking to dis-integrate,  to distract or  to tear down.  The disciples he knows  will have those who will seek to have them doubt the truth of who they are and of  whom they follow.  The hope of the Loki’s in their lives is to spread seeds of doubt and suspicision and to have them question the  gifts that they possess for the healing of the world in which Jesus sends them and us. 

The disciples will have Loki moments in their lives that will cause them to doubt one another, to mistrust one another’s motives and be pulled away from the source of their power.  Does this sound familiar?  Jesus prayed intimately and beautifully to his Father in heaven that they may be in the world belonging to him but not of the world.  He prays they endure the loki people and voices of the world and trust their belonging  to  God and one another. He prays that their gifts used in union will cause a new light to shine.

So do you have a Loki in your life?  That is an experience, a person, a voice that seeks to disintegrate, take away, tear apart, to mistrust, to second guess the truth of who you are.  Of who God has made you to be? 

The gift that God has given you to be a joyful light in the world.  Whether it be on a personal level or on a community level, there is good news today.  We have a high priest, and he’s praying for us.  Praying for USs! This praying reminds us daily who we are.  His prayer is protection, this is what he asks for.  For us!  His prayer is want.  It is desire.  It is a reminder.  It is motivation.  And, it is hope.  And his prayer is holiness.  The truth the gospel reminds us today is that we are sanctified in the very truth that God dwells with us and we with Him. By definition, we are holy.  We are gifted for this work that we are called to do. Our motives are as pure as the joy we find in dwelling with God. 

Like the Avengers, who figure out that together they will conquer their enemy.  There is nothing, not one thing, we cannot do, and there is no Loki that can separate us from his Love.

So, do you have a Loki in your life?  If you do Park it!  Park it.  Park Loki.  And let there be light!

 Amen.

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

April 22, 2012

Sesquicentennial-Central Moravian-Nativity in History

“We Welcome you, because your fathers joined hands with us around the Cross; because in principles and practice we have many things in common; because we both desire the same high and holy end.”

The Rev. Edmund deSchweinitz, Good Friday 1865

These words spoken by the Pastor of Central Moravian in a joint service held here in this space (smaller space then) on Good Friday were words of welcome as a fledgling congregation of Episcopalians were crossing the threshold of a holy dream of a new congregation into what would become a Cathedral of God’s imagination.  These words, spoken by Mr. deSchweinitz, were repeated to us, just an hour ago, by Pastor Carol Reifinger, of Central Moravian Church, and she standing on the shoulders of those who have come before, send us now with yet again a blessing, a blessing that bids us welcome to cross again and anew the threshold’s in our lives and emerge as a blessed people of faith who gather in this Cathedral of God’s imagination.

John O’Donahue in his book, “To Bless the Space Between us: A Book of Blessings”,  suggests  that the culture of business in which we live challenges our sense of community and connectedness. He says, “while our culture is all gloss and pace on the outside, within it is too often haunted and lost. The commercial edge of so called “progress” has cut away a huge region of human tissue and webbing that held us in communion with one another. We are at rise of falling out of belonging. Consequently, we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives, we have no rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross into the unknown.”

A blessing, he reminds us is that which evokes a sense of warmth and protection, a reminder that no life is lived alone; that each life is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to everything else. That through all things, there is an inner light of providence that can never be quenched because we are a blessed people connected to one another.

My dear friends: I invite you this day to cross again as our forbears did the thresholds of our lives into this Cathedral of Imagination. I invite you to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before and have found the words, rituals, the poetry, the songs to connect them And to Be a people of Blessing!

This time is our time and it is a time of new beginnings. It is a time of new beginnings because we are a people of new beginnings. This is our story, its an Easter story. New beginnings at every turn. Let us go as Blessed into the Cathedral of God’s imagination.

In our of the way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on, Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety, And the gray promises of sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled, And you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning; This is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit of adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in  a new rhythym,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday: The Sunday of Passion
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
Bethlehem, PA
Sunday April 1, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
　
Our lives are lived in a fickle world. Our lives themselves may be seen as such sometimes, fickle. In one moment of time our enthusiasm, belief, trust, and confidence might find a perfect repository for its investment. In a person, a situation, a place. In the next moment of time our doubt, skepticism, mistrust, and insecurity might find itself in a darker place, even an uglier place. Weeds of darkness then choking off even to death, the fruit of a previous investment.
How fickle is this story of the human experience we tell on this day, this week. A triumphal entry it is described as, for Jesus of Nazareth into Jerusalem. This ancient city whose streets are lined with the diversity and complexity of humanity. So many there in that city on pilgrimage to bring their humanity to the holiness of Jerusalem. Some in that crowd depositing their enthusiasm, belief, trust, and confidence in the hope of what they believe this Jesus represents for their lives.
How quickly our story turns; how fickle is the human experience, as these songs of praise turn to shouts that call us to the darkness of death. How diminished and darkened are the hopes and dreams for some, how dark becomes the day when the poison of skepticism, threat, and mistrust shows its ugliest hand.
How quickly the story we tell this week turns from light to darkness and soon then again, from darkness to light: From Hosanna! To Crucify Him! From Crucify Him to He is Risen! As we ponder our own human experience, is this not a truth filled pattern for the human condition? Light and darkness, darkness and light?
We dare to call this week holy. We do so even as we enter it in the fickle contrast of the human experience of light to darkness; darkness to light.
Our story has us pondering the darkness of Jesus’ crucifixion and suffering; which of us has not suffered one way or another? We've all had our crucifixions, where God seems to be absent and light seems to disappear, and the world is dark and terrifying. Anybody with faith or without faith has had somehow to live through that kind of a time. The question is what comes out of that time?
We've all known our dark times; we've all felt abandoned by God or felt there was no such thing as God to abandon us -- just the emptiness, the craziness of the world. Yet, equally crazy, out of this, it seems faith can often come.
It seems to me that there is an intersection of this light and darkness; darkness and light. A place where our enthusiasm, belief, trust, and confidence intersect with our doubt, mistrust, skepticism, and insecurity. This day, this week, we follow Jesus to the cross, and there find this intersection, a cross if you will. We are invited with courage to raise our eyes and gaze upon it; for it seems to be that very intersection there may be a crucible where a mature faith is to be discovered.
When we follow Jesus to the cross we find the great trial of humanity, its fickle nature, the light and the darkness, and somehow if we gaze upon it we find there is an opportunity to discover an unrealized courage, an unimaginable hope for life. A fierceness to stand and look in the eye the ugliest of scenes so that we may conquer them; A stamina discovered to journey an extra mile down the roughest of roads; a resilience to fight back with voice and heart when life kicks us hard even as our eyes struggle in the haze of darkness to embrace the light of a new day dawning.
In a weeks time we will wake in the darkness of the morning, having travelled with Jesus through the darkest of times. It will be dark and our eyes will be fuzzy and worn from the journey of heart and soul. Yet we will raise our eyes to the horizon and await a dawning of a new day. Our question: What will we see? What will we see?
This sermon was inspired by an interview of The Rev. Fred Buechner which took place on PBS in 2008.