The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his book “Overcoming Life’s Disappointments,” describes three types of experiences for human beings regarding dreams for their lives: 1. Those who dream boldly even as they realize their dreams may not come true. 2. Those who dream more modestly and fear that even their modest dreams will not come true. 3. Those who do not dream at all; lest they be disappointed.
A strange day that we Christians dare to call Good, is this day. Strange because today we live with the disciples in the deepest expression of disappointment and disillusionment as we are drawn into the agony and despair of Jesus. How do we affirm our innate nature to dream or how do we participate in God’s dream for humanity and the world when on this day we live a story of an execution of one who dares dream the world through God’s eyes, Jesus of Nazareth? The story is one whose themes we know oh so well. There are betrayal, false accusations, ultimate injustice, torture, and unspeakable acts of violence against another human being. Make no mistake, at the center of the day is an act of corporal punishment carried out by an occupying government, and the policy of this act is to keep an occupied people firmly rooted in a theme of disillusionment and disappointment.
What of us, Jesus’ disciples, on such a day we dare to call Good? What of Jesus’ disciples who have come to a crossroad in their faith and following of Jesus and the dream he boldly proclaims? How do they watch this abuse and what will become of the dream Jesus carefully implants in them? And what of us? Even as we strive to affirm the possibility that Jesus was victorious against death when at the same time we recount how his body was literally broken and crushed. The powers of death and destruction surround us, who would dare dream boldly? There is war, there is terror, and despite the rhetoric of the day where one is implied as an answer to the other, the result it seems is similar, that is despair and destruction. There is betrayal and there is injustice. There is inequality and there are false accusations. There is abuse and there is even torture in the most surprising of circumstances. There is neglect and there is suffering. There is, even in our day, similar governmental policies of execution and corporal punishment. Yes, it seems ironic as we carry all of this with us as it enfolds itself in the story of Jesus that we could call such a day as this good, even as we are tempted then to be among those who dare not dream at all, lest there be pure disappointment and disillusionment.
BUT, there is the dream, one dreamed boldly that comes in the sure and certain knowledge of God’s I AM. Ehyeh, Asher, Ehyeh, God says, I Am who I AM, I will be who I will be. God’s name, Rabbi Kushner suggests in the Hebrew translates, is I will be with You! For Jesus, the Son of God, Who are you who dares to die for the dream you embody? I AM Resurrection and Life, I will be with you in Resurrection and Life!
God’s dream embodied in Jesus takes on the insufferable ways of the world, takes on abuse, injustice, torture, neglect, not because these themes can be avoided in a world whose default setting sometimes seems to be darkness, BUT because and in spite of it. God’s dream of new life can only come into being by participating in our lives, in the brokenness of it, and by being present as the light that shines in the midst of darkness! Where do we find the strength to dare dream boldly a world of compassion and justice? A world where the dark default setting cannot be betrayal, false accusation, war, injustice, discrimination, abuse, torture, and the execution of our dreams for something better? We start by looking for the light of Christ even as it shines through the mysterious darkness of a day we dare call Good. Listen to words of compassion even from the cross: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Dreams of compassion start with our own lives. Even our own brokenness may not always be entwined in the powers and forces of all the world, but may even be as challenged by forces that break us down personally. Broken relationships, addictions, the breaking down of our bodies, and the unimagined fragility of our very lives! Yet shining, even in the shadow of the cross, is the I AM! I AM with you in Resurrection Jesus will promise! New life even in the midst of darkness! The Goodness of the day begins with a dream that death cannot conquer! Ehyeh, Asher, Ehyeh, I AM with you as light in the darkness and the darkness will never, ever overcome the light! We choose the light and call it Good. We move through the darkness toward the light as the light moves toward us.
1. WILL YOU THINK OF ANOTHER PERSON IN A FORGIVING OR AN ACCUSING WAY?
2. WILL YOU ACCEPT OR REJECT THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOU ARE?
3. WILL YOU REACH OUT AND EMBRACE OTHERS OR HOLD BACK, PROTECTING YOURSELF AND YOUR EMOTIONS?
4. WILL YOU SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE OR WILL YOU HOARD?
5. WILL YOU, THROUGH YOUR ACTIONS, LIFESTYLES, ATTITUDES, SEEK TO HURT OTHERS OR HEAL THE WORLD?
6. WILL YOU TAKE A STANCE OF LIFE THAT RESENTS OTHERS OR BE GRATEFUL FOR OTHERS?
7. WILL YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE WITH A GENERAL SLANT THAT IS GLAD OR SAD? HOPEFUL OR DOOMFILLED?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Maundy Thursday
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
This night we find ourselves at a place in our Lenten Journey that is for some awkward and unbalancing. It is the night in which we live our liturgical drama in a way that challenges us to visit the story of Jesus and risk a bit of ourselves as Jesus has risked himself with us. Our Lenten journey is one that at its core is an opportunity to reflect on the deepest yearnings within us, that is the yearning to be connected with God intimately! Inviting God into the deepest parts of our beings, the broken parts of our beings, the parts of our beings that desire love and need love the most, for some of us that means dark and ugly parts!
There is no irony, just symbol and metaphor that on this night through our ritual we will expose (if we choose) in a spirit of vulnerability, our feet. Awkward as it may be, to deliver our feet, dirty and rough, or sensitive and smooth, or uneven and imperfect, is to lay symbolically a piece of our being bare! To lay ourselves bare in the end is what God desires of us, to open ourselves fully is to invite God intimately into our lives so that our lives are lived in the world as God would have them!
Intimacy! Intimacy defined means Intrinsic or essential. Belonging to or characterizing one’s deepest nature. Our ritual this night is found in the story of Jesus on the most intimate night of his life on earth. He gathered around him those he loved, among them one who would betray him. Jesus would seize the night before his death to give a sign (as John’s Gospel would have it) of what it would be for those who follow him to live as a community of believers in God’s dream for the world as they knew it. He would, in a moment of intimacy, wash their feet! Dirty and tired, aching and smelling, blistered and swollen, the master would engage in an act of servant hood, cleansing and washing their feet, inviting them once more into the fullness of what it is to be a follower of the dream! If they are to be keepers of the dream, they are to “love one another as Jesus loved them”! A “mandatum” is the Latin that gives us our title of this liturgy “Maundy,” a new commandment; to love one another the way Jesus loved them! How did Jesus love them – “intimately”! How will Jesus love us – “intimately”! The disciples’ “deepest nature” would be loved into being a “new community” that stood by the principles of servant hood and compassion, righteousness, and justice! The “deepest nature” of being loved so intimately would lead them not perfectly as a “new community,” but faithfully even as they would certainly watch the powers of the day execute their master! The “deepest nature” of being loved so intimately would lead them through what they would surely witness in the days ahead, that the dream would die on a cross on a hillside in Jerusalem, but that Christ himself would live with them in love as they loved one another and dared to live into Jesus “value system” of serving the most vulnerable and needy.
Raymond Brown, New Testament scholar wrote, “When we live into Jesus’ value system, we make him alive rather than just memorializing him.”
Tonight, our liturgy is a liturgy of intimacy! Our deepest nature yearns for God to love us “intimately”! We draw near this night to Jesus through the power of signs, feet laid bare to be washed in an act of servant hood and love! Our deepest nature yearning to be loved so intimately that God’s dream for our lives might live new, even in our brokenness and awkwardness. Our “mandatum” or commandment to love one another as Christ loved us perhaps draws us into an opportunity to make Christ alive by living into Jesus “Value system” of servant hood! St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” Come, draw near, and love one another as Christ has loved us.
This night we find ourselves at a place in our Lenten Journey that is for some awkward and unbalancing. It is the night in which we live our liturgical drama in a way that challenges us to visit the story of Jesus and risk a bit of ourselves as Jesus has risked himself with us. Our Lenten journey is one that at its core is an opportunity to reflect on the deepest yearnings within us, that is the yearning to be connected with God intimately! Inviting God into the deepest parts of our beings, the broken parts of our beings, the parts of our beings that desire love and need love the most, for some of us that means dark and ugly parts!
There is no irony, just symbol and metaphor that on this night through our ritual we will expose (if we choose) in a spirit of vulnerability, our feet. Awkward as it may be, to deliver our feet, dirty and rough, or sensitive and smooth, or uneven and imperfect, is to lay symbolically a piece of our being bare! To lay ourselves bare in the end is what God desires of us, to open ourselves fully is to invite God intimately into our lives so that our lives are lived in the world as God would have them!
Intimacy! Intimacy defined means Intrinsic or essential. Belonging to or characterizing one’s deepest nature. Our ritual this night is found in the story of Jesus on the most intimate night of his life on earth. He gathered around him those he loved, among them one who would betray him. Jesus would seize the night before his death to give a sign (as John’s Gospel would have it) of what it would be for those who follow him to live as a community of believers in God’s dream for the world as they knew it. He would, in a moment of intimacy, wash their feet! Dirty and tired, aching and smelling, blistered and swollen, the master would engage in an act of servant hood, cleansing and washing their feet, inviting them once more into the fullness of what it is to be a follower of the dream! If they are to be keepers of the dream, they are to “love one another as Jesus loved them”! A “mandatum” is the Latin that gives us our title of this liturgy “Maundy,” a new commandment; to love one another the way Jesus loved them! How did Jesus love them – “intimately”! How will Jesus love us – “intimately”! The disciples’ “deepest nature” would be loved into being a “new community” that stood by the principles of servant hood and compassion, righteousness, and justice! The “deepest nature” of being loved so intimately would lead them not perfectly as a “new community,” but faithfully even as they would certainly watch the powers of the day execute their master! The “deepest nature” of being loved so intimately would lead them through what they would surely witness in the days ahead, that the dream would die on a cross on a hillside in Jerusalem, but that Christ himself would live with them in love as they loved one another and dared to live into Jesus “value system” of serving the most vulnerable and needy.
Raymond Brown, New Testament scholar wrote, “When we live into Jesus’ value system, we make him alive rather than just memorializing him.”
Tonight, our liturgy is a liturgy of intimacy! Our deepest nature yearns for God to love us “intimately”! We draw near this night to Jesus through the power of signs, feet laid bare to be washed in an act of servant hood and love! Our deepest nature yearning to be loved so intimately that God’s dream for our lives might live new, even in our brokenness and awkwardness. Our “mandatum” or commandment to love one another as Christ loved us perhaps draws us into an opportunity to make Christ alive by living into Jesus “Value system” of servant hood! St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” Come, draw near, and love one another as Christ has loved us.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday: Breathe
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Matthew 27:11-54
Breathe.
“Breathe,” my colleague tells me as he senses my anxiety mount because one more thing has gone wrong with my day.
“Breathe,” my friend emails me, “Take care of yourself as Holy Week approaches...hope you can find a few breathing spaces here and there.”
“Breathe,” I tell my companion and I gift him with post-it notes that say, “Things I need to do today: 1) Breathe in. 2) Breathe out.”
Breathe. How simple…and how complex! Breathing, the act of respiration, is a complex chemical and biological process. It is the transformation of oxygen into carbon dioxide. Every cell needs to respire in order to produce the energy it needs. So, if breath is necessary for energy, why do we think of taking a deep breath when we want to calm down?
Perhaps we need energy to focus, to be. Lately I have been reading a book called Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabot-Zinn. He writes, “Bringing awareness to our breathing, we remind ourselves that we are here now so we might as well be fully awake for whatever is already happening.” (p. 18)
Wherever you go, there you are. So where are you this day, Palm Sunday? With the excitement of the palms? With the solemnity of the passion? Somewhere else completely? Wherever it is, breathe. Remind yourself that you are here and now. This is the moment that you encounter God.
Matthew 21:1-11, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Matthew 27:11-54
Breathe.
“Breathe,” my colleague tells me as he senses my anxiety mount because one more thing has gone wrong with my day.
“Breathe,” my friend emails me, “Take care of yourself as Holy Week approaches...hope you can find a few breathing spaces here and there.”
“Breathe,” I tell my companion and I gift him with post-it notes that say, “Things I need to do today: 1) Breathe in. 2) Breathe out.”
Breathe. How simple…and how complex! Breathing, the act of respiration, is a complex chemical and biological process. It is the transformation of oxygen into carbon dioxide. Every cell needs to respire in order to produce the energy it needs. So, if breath is necessary for energy, why do we think of taking a deep breath when we want to calm down?
Perhaps we need energy to focus, to be. Lately I have been reading a book called Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabot-Zinn. He writes, “Bringing awareness to our breathing, we remind ourselves that we are here now so we might as well be fully awake for whatever is already happening.” (p. 18)
Wherever you go, there you are. So where are you this day, Palm Sunday? With the excitement of the palms? With the solemnity of the passion? Somewhere else completely? Wherever it is, breathe. Remind yourself that you are here and now. This is the moment that you encounter God.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
The Fifth Sunday of Lent
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
In the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to John, Jesus reveals the promise that lives in him as he speaks to those who would listen: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will…Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live…Do not marvel at this: the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth…” Today then, a few chapters later, Jesus show us what he means in the long Gospel we just read.
A middle-aged man finds himself in an uncertain situation. Struggling with a depression, a recent fracture and separation from his spouse, a loss of his job, a struggle with alcohol and chemical addiction, he wakes in the middle of the night and becomes aware of his surroundings. The unfamiliar surroundings rise to his awareness, and he becomes fully conscious as he acclimates to the reality of the place he seeks refuge, the basement in his parents home. The despair of his life rises up almost choking him to death. Dead, in fact, is how he feels, and almost making friends with it, he moves from his temporary bed, a pull-out sofa, and lies on the cold ceramic floor. In the middle of the night, his refuge becomes almost tomblike, cold and damp, dark, despairing. Night after night, it seems this is the routine, awakened by despair, oriented to an unfamiliar surrounding, moving to the cold and damp floor. Family members keep vigilant watch: His parents and sisters, though polite and respectful, their broken hearts over their loved one’s despair, offered outside of “the tomb” as day by day they keep watch! How long will death surround? Lazarus, will you ever come out? “Do not marvel at this: the hour is coming when all who are in the tomb will hear his voice and come forth…” Lazarus, come out!
A door opens a crack, a familiar voice follows the light as it walks down the stairs to a tomblike basement, Come on, we’re going to Eucharist. Hymns are sung, a table prepared, a moment comes…Hands extended at an altar rail, a host placed gently, a chalice makes its way, Christ is coming toward, it seems! Lazarus, come out! Years of Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, bible study partners, a crescendo of voices now seem to fill the heart, head and body, seemingly overcoming the once droll symphony of grief and anguish (like Mahler’s Fifth), that certainly was being offered as if by mourners standing outside a tomb. The voice returns...“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.” Lazarus, come out! I am coming toward you! “Aionious” – the Greek word used in John’s Gospel, I have a “new life,” is promised!
How about you? How about me? Lazarus, come out! I am coming toward you!
“Aionious” – What new life is promised?
In the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to John, Jesus reveals the promise that lives in him as he speaks to those who would listen: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will…Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live…Do not marvel at this: the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth…” Today then, a few chapters later, Jesus show us what he means in the long Gospel we just read.
A middle-aged man finds himself in an uncertain situation. Struggling with a depression, a recent fracture and separation from his spouse, a loss of his job, a struggle with alcohol and chemical addiction, he wakes in the middle of the night and becomes aware of his surroundings. The unfamiliar surroundings rise to his awareness, and he becomes fully conscious as he acclimates to the reality of the place he seeks refuge, the basement in his parents home. The despair of his life rises up almost choking him to death. Dead, in fact, is how he feels, and almost making friends with it, he moves from his temporary bed, a pull-out sofa, and lies on the cold ceramic floor. In the middle of the night, his refuge becomes almost tomblike, cold and damp, dark, despairing. Night after night, it seems this is the routine, awakened by despair, oriented to an unfamiliar surrounding, moving to the cold and damp floor. Family members keep vigilant watch: His parents and sisters, though polite and respectful, their broken hearts over their loved one’s despair, offered outside of “the tomb” as day by day they keep watch! How long will death surround? Lazarus, will you ever come out? “Do not marvel at this: the hour is coming when all who are in the tomb will hear his voice and come forth…” Lazarus, come out!
A door opens a crack, a familiar voice follows the light as it walks down the stairs to a tomblike basement, Come on, we’re going to Eucharist. Hymns are sung, a table prepared, a moment comes…Hands extended at an altar rail, a host placed gently, a chalice makes its way, Christ is coming toward, it seems! Lazarus, come out! Years of Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, bible study partners, a crescendo of voices now seem to fill the heart, head and body, seemingly overcoming the once droll symphony of grief and anguish (like Mahler’s Fifth), that certainly was being offered as if by mourners standing outside a tomb. The voice returns...“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.” Lazarus, come out! I am coming toward you! “Aionious” – the Greek word used in John’s Gospel, I have a “new life,” is promised!
How about you? How about me? Lazarus, come out! I am coming toward you!
“Aionious” – What new life is promised?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Pastoral Letter from Bishop Paul Marshall
Pastoral Letter to be read at all services of worship this weekend, March 2
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus,
In a few weeks Easter will have dawned and we will again luxuriate in the light of the Lord’s Resurrection, celebrating the gift of new life that the Cross and Empty Tomb lavish on us.
As I celebrate Easter this year it will be with profound gratitude for what we as a diocesan family are doing. Construction has begun in Sudan and our Social Ministries Committee is preparing to make grants for new social ministries in our parishes. This work is possible because so many hearts have already responded with Christ’s own love for the weak and powerless.
With the active phase of the New Hope Campaign three-quarters over, we have gifts and pledges totaling $3,022,000 (as of February 24), putting us a bit ahead of schedule. Our goal of $3.6 million is well in sight.
Since last September I have been spending a few hours each week at the Trinity Soup Kitchen in Bethlehem, trying to be of use to some of Trinity’s guests for whom life has been harsh. I come away from Trinity each Monday and Friday more convinced than ever that our New Hope decision to assist parishes with seed money for social ministry is God-pleasing and necessary. I am aware of plans in Mt. Pocono and Scranton to undertake ministries of compassion, and know there are more being formulated. My own commitment to New Hope has increased because of this hands-on experience. I share this story as one paltry example of the grand truth that caring for others changes us, takes us out of ourselves, transform our souls. I know that many of you have had similar experiences of feeling that you have received a gift when you made an effort for those in need.
On this New Hope Renewal Sunday, I ask that you take a moment to listen silently to what God is calling you to do. If you are still waiting to make your commitment to New Hope, now would be the perfect time.
It is my growing hope that on Easter morning, 2008, we will have met our goal, and this is my heartfelt invitation to each of you to be as much a part of this ministry as God has enabled you.
This comes with my best wishes for the holy days ahead.
Faithfully yours,
+Paul
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus,
In a few weeks Easter will have dawned and we will again luxuriate in the light of the Lord’s Resurrection, celebrating the gift of new life that the Cross and Empty Tomb lavish on us.
As I celebrate Easter this year it will be with profound gratitude for what we as a diocesan family are doing. Construction has begun in Sudan and our Social Ministries Committee is preparing to make grants for new social ministries in our parishes. This work is possible because so many hearts have already responded with Christ’s own love for the weak and powerless.
With the active phase of the New Hope Campaign three-quarters over, we have gifts and pledges totaling $3,022,000 (as of February 24), putting us a bit ahead of schedule. Our goal of $3.6 million is well in sight.
Since last September I have been spending a few hours each week at the Trinity Soup Kitchen in Bethlehem, trying to be of use to some of Trinity’s guests for whom life has been harsh. I come away from Trinity each Monday and Friday more convinced than ever that our New Hope decision to assist parishes with seed money for social ministry is God-pleasing and necessary. I am aware of plans in Mt. Pocono and Scranton to undertake ministries of compassion, and know there are more being formulated. My own commitment to New Hope has increased because of this hands-on experience. I share this story as one paltry example of the grand truth that caring for others changes us, takes us out of ourselves, transform our souls. I know that many of you have had similar experiences of feeling that you have received a gift when you made an effort for those in need.
On this New Hope Renewal Sunday, I ask that you take a moment to listen silently to what God is calling you to do. If you are still waiting to make your commitment to New Hope, now would be the perfect time.
It is my growing hope that on Easter morning, 2008, we will have met our goal, and this is my heartfelt invitation to each of you to be as much a part of this ministry as God has enabled you.
This comes with my best wishes for the holy days ahead.
Faithfully yours,
+Paul
Sunday, February 24, 2008
A Sermon for The Third Sunday in Lent
By The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:1)
Thank you, O God for the gift of Water. Water. The source of life. Water. Through water and blood we are born of a woman into this life. Through the water of baptism we are born to eternal life. Through the mingling of the water and blood of Jesus we are cleansed of all that pollutes ones life. By water and wine we are strengthened for daily life.
Through the waters of the Red Sea, Israel is saved from Egypt. By water from the Rock struck by Moses at Massah and Meribah, Israel is saved in the desert wilderness of Sinai. From the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus learns of his identity as God’s beloved son and the ministry that is his.
From a new well, called a borehole in the Bari language of the people of Kajo Keji, there is now refreshing, life-giving water in the hilltop village of Romogi, their new diocesan worship, administrative, and educational center thanks to the people of this cathedral community. Water that will assuage, refresh, cleanse, purify, irrigate, empower and baptize, bringing people to Christ and to a new fullness of life in his community. Water. Thank you, O God, for the gift of water.
For all its goodness water is also a source of power, a weapon of oppression, a reason for enmity. It is said that if water was abundant in the Israeli and Palestinian region, the other matters would soon fall away. That is a bit overly simple and hopeful, but the point is well taken that water, access to water, is a major source of division between those peoples. Indeed the Wall that is being build to fence in Palestinians meanders, not randomly, but meanly and meaningfully from water source to water source fencing in the water wells for Israeli communities.
In our own country the states of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee are in court battling over who may and may not have access to their water.
In the gospel selection from John today, we find Jesus traveling in foreign territory Samaria, stopping at a well where Jacob and his family drew their water. The enmity between Samaria and Judea was 600 years old. Each contending that salvation, the messiah of God, would come from them.
And Jesus’ need for water to drink provides the opportunity for him to demonstrate and proclaim some very important things about God’s kingdom.
He meets a woman who couldn't be more of an outsider in a people, the Samaritans, who are themselves outsiders for a good Jew, and he receives her as an insider, an intimate who has no cause for shame. He brings up her past, and her present, not to shame her, but to take away their power in showing how little they affect how Jesus and the God he proclaims receive her.
Jesus received the Samaritan woman with such love and such grace she was profoundly transformed that after meeting Jesus, she's bold enough to demand living water from him. “Sir (Man), give me this water.” By the end of the conversation, she's left her water jar behind and is rushing into the very center of the village, demanding to be heard by those who were once her tormentors. And she IS heard; many believe in Jesus because of the woman's bold testimony.
What transformed this woman could transform our world. The woman at the well was despised by her village, which was despised by Judeans, whose ancestors had been humiliated by Babylonians. From generation to generation, every humiliation, resentment, and violence had been recorded, numbered and passed down from parent to child keeping the score so that they could even it. Jesus sets all that aside.
He demonstrates in a living parable the truth that God has opened the kingdom to every race and nation and tribe and clan and family and person!
It is true for the nation of the homeless and the nation of the hungry and the nation of the imprisoned and the nation of the disenfranchised and the nation of the elderly, and the nation of the young. All those whom our society, the world, would separate or exclude out on account of their difference because they do not fit a particular category... all of them are included by Jesus in God's kingdom now, today and forever.
What is also true is that many, many people do not know this Good News. They can't prove it by their experience. Real life, the school of hard knocks, has taught them something else. And there are some who have never heard it and so can’t know it.
What God has done in the gift of his Son and the gift of the cross and the gift of the kingdom with living water is to give it to all of us for a purpose. And that purpose is to show others, demonstrate to others their worth, their purpose, their power, that they have wonderful gifts that come as graces from the God who loves them and has claimed them as his own; the beloved daughter, the beloved son - now, today and forever.
Sometimes, there are barriers that prevent people from hearing, believing, knowing this Good News. Sometimes, folks have to have their bellies filled first. Sometimes, folks have to have their bodies clothed first. Sometimes, folks have to have be sheltered first. Sometimes, folks have to have their fears acknowledged and quieted first. Sometimes, folks have to have their isolation broken through the presence of a caring person first;
Sometimes those things have to be taken care of first before they can know of this gracious goodness of God. Sometimes just in taking care of those things people have come to know because they can see and feel and hear it.
Every race, every nation, every man, every woman, every child must know that God's kingdom is theirs and that Jesus and life-giving water are available to them in every moment of their waking, working, sleeping, celebrating, suffering, caring, loving and being loved. Everyone, including you is to know that.
Please pray with me. O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of friendship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made whole and perfect in our love for all your children. Amen.
Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:1)
Thank you, O God for the gift of Water. Water. The source of life. Water. Through water and blood we are born of a woman into this life. Through the water of baptism we are born to eternal life. Through the mingling of the water and blood of Jesus we are cleansed of all that pollutes ones life. By water and wine we are strengthened for daily life.
Through the waters of the Red Sea, Israel is saved from Egypt. By water from the Rock struck by Moses at Massah and Meribah, Israel is saved in the desert wilderness of Sinai. From the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus learns of his identity as God’s beloved son and the ministry that is his.
From a new well, called a borehole in the Bari language of the people of Kajo Keji, there is now refreshing, life-giving water in the hilltop village of Romogi, their new diocesan worship, administrative, and educational center thanks to the people of this cathedral community. Water that will assuage, refresh, cleanse, purify, irrigate, empower and baptize, bringing people to Christ and to a new fullness of life in his community. Water. Thank you, O God, for the gift of water.
For all its goodness water is also a source of power, a weapon of oppression, a reason for enmity. It is said that if water was abundant in the Israeli and Palestinian region, the other matters would soon fall away. That is a bit overly simple and hopeful, but the point is well taken that water, access to water, is a major source of division between those peoples. Indeed the Wall that is being build to fence in Palestinians meanders, not randomly, but meanly and meaningfully from water source to water source fencing in the water wells for Israeli communities.
In our own country the states of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee are in court battling over who may and may not have access to their water.
In the gospel selection from John today, we find Jesus traveling in foreign territory Samaria, stopping at a well where Jacob and his family drew their water. The enmity between Samaria and Judea was 600 years old. Each contending that salvation, the messiah of God, would come from them.
And Jesus’ need for water to drink provides the opportunity for him to demonstrate and proclaim some very important things about God’s kingdom.
He meets a woman who couldn't be more of an outsider in a people, the Samaritans, who are themselves outsiders for a good Jew, and he receives her as an insider, an intimate who has no cause for shame. He brings up her past, and her present, not to shame her, but to take away their power in showing how little they affect how Jesus and the God he proclaims receive her.
Jesus received the Samaritan woman with such love and such grace she was profoundly transformed that after meeting Jesus, she's bold enough to demand living water from him. “Sir (Man), give me this water.” By the end of the conversation, she's left her water jar behind and is rushing into the very center of the village, demanding to be heard by those who were once her tormentors. And she IS heard; many believe in Jesus because of the woman's bold testimony.
What transformed this woman could transform our world. The woman at the well was despised by her village, which was despised by Judeans, whose ancestors had been humiliated by Babylonians. From generation to generation, every humiliation, resentment, and violence had been recorded, numbered and passed down from parent to child keeping the score so that they could even it. Jesus sets all that aside.
He demonstrates in a living parable the truth that God has opened the kingdom to every race and nation and tribe and clan and family and person!
It is true for the nation of the homeless and the nation of the hungry and the nation of the imprisoned and the nation of the disenfranchised and the nation of the elderly, and the nation of the young. All those whom our society, the world, would separate or exclude out on account of their difference because they do not fit a particular category... all of them are included by Jesus in God's kingdom now, today and forever.
What is also true is that many, many people do not know this Good News. They can't prove it by their experience. Real life, the school of hard knocks, has taught them something else. And there are some who have never heard it and so can’t know it.
What God has done in the gift of his Son and the gift of the cross and the gift of the kingdom with living water is to give it to all of us for a purpose. And that purpose is to show others, demonstrate to others their worth, their purpose, their power, that they have wonderful gifts that come as graces from the God who loves them and has claimed them as his own; the beloved daughter, the beloved son - now, today and forever.
Sometimes, there are barriers that prevent people from hearing, believing, knowing this Good News. Sometimes, folks have to have their bellies filled first. Sometimes, folks have to have their bodies clothed first. Sometimes, folks have to have be sheltered first. Sometimes, folks have to have their fears acknowledged and quieted first. Sometimes, folks have to have their isolation broken through the presence of a caring person first;
Sometimes those things have to be taken care of first before they can know of this gracious goodness of God. Sometimes just in taking care of those things people have come to know because they can see and feel and hear it.
Every race, every nation, every man, every woman, every child must know that God's kingdom is theirs and that Jesus and life-giving water are available to them in every moment of their waking, working, sleeping, celebrating, suffering, caring, loving and being loved. Everyone, including you is to know that.
Please pray with me. O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of friendship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made whole and perfect in our love for all your children. Amen.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Second Sunday in Lent: The Miraculous Spiral
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Genesis 12:1-4, John 3:1-17
It’s called a logarithmic spiral. This particular kind of spiral curve is mathematically defined. In fact, if you look up its definition, you will find an equation. It has perfect proportions. In geometry it is known as the golden spiral and is built on the proportion of the golden rectangle. But it is more than a concept or something that can be computer generated. In the 17th century, mathematician Jacob Bernoulli called it the “spira mirabilis” which means miraculous spiral. It is miraculous because it is exquisitely beautiful math. And it is miraculous because it is also found in nature.
It is seen in the spiral path of a hawk as it descends on its prey. It is found in the shape of the Milky Way and other galaxies. It is familiar to us in that spiral of clouds of a low pressure system demonstrated so often on the weather channel. And it is found in the chambered nautilus.
This sea creature, a type of mollusk, builds its shell as it grows in this perfect spiral shape. When cut in half, the shell of this nautilus reveals a beautiful mother of pearl interior made of chamber after chamber. Each section is slightly larger than the last, in perfect proportion to the one before. The creature itself does not fill the entire shell. Rather, it lives in only one chamber at a time. While it lives and grows, it busily prepares the next chamber. When it outgrows that space in which it resides, it moves into the new chamber and seals the passageway behind it. But the old chamber, while left behind, is far from useless. The inner chambers are filled with gas and help the nautilus to maintain neutral buoyancy. When the nautilus needs to dive, it can exchange the gas with liquid in order to reach the depths. The chambered nautilus is considered to be a "living fossil" as it has undergone little change in over 400 million years. Perhaps it has the right idea.
Nicodemus did not quite have the right idea. A Pharisee and part of the leadership in the Israel of Jesus’ time, he was a respected teacher. I will venture to say that he was a man of some years, to have gained such wisdom and status. Perhaps he had become what he wanted to be when he grew up. Or perhaps not. Because he comes to Jesus at night seeking something. He knows there is something about Jesus, but what is it? He comes in the darkness approaching the one we know as the light of the world. So…this is how I imagine it goes.
Nic: Rabbi, can you explain one thing to me? See I know you can’t be apart from God because you do all these signs and things.
Jesus: Well, I tell you what. No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above…(or born again, because the Greek word means both).
Nic: Say what? OK for argument's sake, let's go with the born again theme. Just how do we do that after we have grown old?
Perhaps Nic is feeling his age. Perhaps he thinks he is too old to learn a new way of being. But Jesus goes on to call Nicodemus into a new kind of birth, one that will stretch his very soul. Jesus challenges Nicodemus to embark on a path that will lead him to new growth and eventually to the foot of the cross.
We know that Nicodemus was changed by this encounter. He moved beyond his set ways. He stepped beyond his familiar beaten path. A bit later we find him defending Jesus to the Pharisees and chief priests. They were ready to condemn Jesus and his teachings. They had sent their officers to arrest him and when these folks come back to the council without Jesus, the leadership is ready to act against him anyway. It is Nicodemus who speaks up, “Wait a minute, since when does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he is really about?” And on the day of the crucifixion, when Joseph of Arimathea comes to take away the body of Jesus for burial, it is Nicodemus who comes with myrrh and aloes to anoint the body and prepare it for burial according to custom. Nicodemus offers that last service of love and ritual.
Truly, I tell you, Nicodemus has moved from darkness into the light. He left behind the confines of his safe, but cramped, world of knowledge where the miracles of Jesus could not exist. He turned his face toward the light, and nurtured a faith that brought him new life.
What about us? Do we have the right idea? Where are you in your spiral of growth? Is it time to realize the confines of the space you are in? Is it time to move beyond this chamber and into the space waiting beyond? Is it time to be born again, from above, through water and spirit? In this time of Lent, what new life do we need to nurture, give space to, encourage? We can choose to move on, knowing that as we enter into new space all that is past remains a part of us, giving us buoyancy and allowing us to navigate the waters of this life. As the seasons roll on, as we grow up (and even grow old), we continue to have new space, new vistas, new understanding in front of us. After all, Abram was 75 when he set out from Haran following God’s lead. And God didn’t tell him where they were headed.
And finally, at last we move into the greatest chamber of all: the dwelling place in God’s house that has been prepared for us. We are truly nurtured within a miraculous spiral, which leads to light and life and God.
The poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94) had the right idea. Contemplating this amazing sea creature he composed The Chambered Nautilus. This is how his poem ends:
…Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Genesis 12:1-4, John 3:1-17
It’s called a logarithmic spiral. This particular kind of spiral curve is mathematically defined. In fact, if you look up its definition, you will find an equation. It has perfect proportions. In geometry it is known as the golden spiral and is built on the proportion of the golden rectangle. But it is more than a concept or something that can be computer generated. In the 17th century, mathematician Jacob Bernoulli called it the “spira mirabilis” which means miraculous spiral. It is miraculous because it is exquisitely beautiful math. And it is miraculous because it is also found in nature.
It is seen in the spiral path of a hawk as it descends on its prey. It is found in the shape of the Milky Way and other galaxies. It is familiar to us in that spiral of clouds of a low pressure system demonstrated so often on the weather channel. And it is found in the chambered nautilus.
This sea creature, a type of mollusk, builds its shell as it grows in this perfect spiral shape. When cut in half, the shell of this nautilus reveals a beautiful mother of pearl interior made of chamber after chamber. Each section is slightly larger than the last, in perfect proportion to the one before. The creature itself does not fill the entire shell. Rather, it lives in only one chamber at a time. While it lives and grows, it busily prepares the next chamber. When it outgrows that space in which it resides, it moves into the new chamber and seals the passageway behind it. But the old chamber, while left behind, is far from useless. The inner chambers are filled with gas and help the nautilus to maintain neutral buoyancy. When the nautilus needs to dive, it can exchange the gas with liquid in order to reach the depths. The chambered nautilus is considered to be a "living fossil" as it has undergone little change in over 400 million years. Perhaps it has the right idea.
Nicodemus did not quite have the right idea. A Pharisee and part of the leadership in the Israel of Jesus’ time, he was a respected teacher. I will venture to say that he was a man of some years, to have gained such wisdom and status. Perhaps he had become what he wanted to be when he grew up. Or perhaps not. Because he comes to Jesus at night seeking something. He knows there is something about Jesus, but what is it? He comes in the darkness approaching the one we know as the light of the world. So…this is how I imagine it goes.
Nic: Rabbi, can you explain one thing to me? See I know you can’t be apart from God because you do all these signs and things.
Jesus: Well, I tell you what. No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above…(or born again, because the Greek word means both).
Nic: Say what? OK for argument's sake, let's go with the born again theme. Just how do we do that after we have grown old?
Perhaps Nic is feeling his age. Perhaps he thinks he is too old to learn a new way of being. But Jesus goes on to call Nicodemus into a new kind of birth, one that will stretch his very soul. Jesus challenges Nicodemus to embark on a path that will lead him to new growth and eventually to the foot of the cross.
We know that Nicodemus was changed by this encounter. He moved beyond his set ways. He stepped beyond his familiar beaten path. A bit later we find him defending Jesus to the Pharisees and chief priests. They were ready to condemn Jesus and his teachings. They had sent their officers to arrest him and when these folks come back to the council without Jesus, the leadership is ready to act against him anyway. It is Nicodemus who speaks up, “Wait a minute, since when does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he is really about?” And on the day of the crucifixion, when Joseph of Arimathea comes to take away the body of Jesus for burial, it is Nicodemus who comes with myrrh and aloes to anoint the body and prepare it for burial according to custom. Nicodemus offers that last service of love and ritual.
Truly, I tell you, Nicodemus has moved from darkness into the light. He left behind the confines of his safe, but cramped, world of knowledge where the miracles of Jesus could not exist. He turned his face toward the light, and nurtured a faith that brought him new life.
What about us? Do we have the right idea? Where are you in your spiral of growth? Is it time to realize the confines of the space you are in? Is it time to move beyond this chamber and into the space waiting beyond? Is it time to be born again, from above, through water and spirit? In this time of Lent, what new life do we need to nurture, give space to, encourage? We can choose to move on, knowing that as we enter into new space all that is past remains a part of us, giving us buoyancy and allowing us to navigate the waters of this life. As the seasons roll on, as we grow up (and even grow old), we continue to have new space, new vistas, new understanding in front of us. After all, Abram was 75 when he set out from Haran following God’s lead. And God didn’t tell him where they were headed.
And finally, at last we move into the greatest chamber of all: the dwelling place in God’s house that has been prepared for us. We are truly nurtured within a miraculous spiral, which leads to light and life and God.
The poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94) had the right idea. Contemplating this amazing sea creature he composed The Chambered Nautilus. This is how his poem ends:
…Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
ASH WEDNESDAY
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON ONE WILL FIND A PAINTING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST MICHAELANGELO MERISI, LATER KNOWN AS CARAVAGGIO, HAVING TAKEN ON THE NAME OF HIS BIRTHPLACE, A SMALL TOWN IN NORTHERN ITALY. THE PAINTING I REFER TO IS A DEPICTION OF ST. LUKE’S ACCOUNT OF THE ROAD TO EMMAUS STORY. YOU’LL REMEMBER THE STORY OF THE RISEN JESUS ENCOUNTERING TWO BROKEN-HEARTED FOLLOWERS WHO BELIEVED THE HOPES OF ISRAEL DASHED HAVING JUST WITNESSED JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION. THE TWO FOLLOWERS OF JESUS, NOT RECOGNIZING HIM IN THE MOMENT, SOON FIND THEMSELVES BREAKING BREAD WITH THIS “STRANGER ON THE ROAD” AND AS THEY DO, THEIR EYES ARE OPENED AND THEIR HEARTS BURN AGAIN, HAVING ENCOUNTERED NOW THE RISEN JESUS AND THE HOPE RENEWED FOR LIVES OF FREEDOM!
IN HIS PORTRAYAL OF THIS STORY CARAVAGGIO DEPICTS THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS’ TIME IN THE FACES OF CONTEMPORARIES OF HIS. IN THE DEPICTION ONE CAN LOCATE A LARGE SCALLOP SHELL ON THE LAPEL OF ONE OF THE MEN WITNESSING THE RISEN JESUS. THE SCALLOP SHELL, OF COURSE, WAS WORN BY PILGRIMS IN CARRAVAGIO’S TIME AS A SIGN OR MARK, A SYMBOL OF BAPTISM TO BE RECOGNIZED BY OTHER PILGRIMS SO THAT THEIR JOURNEY TO DISCOVER A PLACE OF HOLINESS AND FREEDOM MIGHT BE RECOGNIZED, SUPPORTED, AND EVEN JOINED!
THE SCRIPTURES TELL US ON SUCH DAYS AS THIS, ASH WEDNESDAY, TO REND OUR HEARTS AND NOT OUR GARMENTS, A REMINDER FOR US TO CUT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. ON SUCH A DAY AS THIS, THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS WE BEGIN A LENTEN JOURNEY TO RE-CONNECT WITH OURSELVES, ONE ANOTHER, AND THE ONE WHO MADE US BY DARING TO EMBARK ON A PILGRIMAGE THAT WILL NECESSARILY LEAD US THROUGH DEATH, TO LIFE! WE, LIKE THOSE DEPICTED IN CARAVAGGIO’S BEAUTIFUL PAINTING, ARE ON A PILGRIM’S WAY!
MARCUS BORG, NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR, REMINDS US THAT LENT IS ESSENTIALLY A PILGRIM’S WAY! A WAY OF FOLLOWING THE PATH FROM DEATH TO LIFE! THAT WAY IS DISOVERED BY FOLLOWING JESUS! FOR THE NEXT FORTY DAYS WE WILL INTIMATELY STEP WITH JESUS. THROUGH STORY AND SONG, HEART AND PRAYER, WE WILL JOURNEY WITH JESUS FROM GALILEE TO JERUSALEM…FROM LIFE, MINISTRY, HEALING AND HOPE…TO THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS, THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE GIVEN IN PAIN AND SUFFERING, AND FINALLY TO AN EMPTY TOMB WHERE PARADOXICALLY, ITS EMPTINESS LEADS TO OUR FULLNESS OF NEW LIFE!
WE WILL FOLLOW JESUS, WE WILL PARTICIPATE IN HIS FINAL JOURNEY….A JOURNEY OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION. “LENT IS ABOUT DYING AND RISING,” MARCUS BORG REMINDS US, ABOUT “MORTALITY AND TRANSFORMATION”!
NOW I REALIZE THAT THESE ARE WORDS YOU MIGHT EXPECT TO HEAR FROM THE PREACHER, WORDS THAT ARE SOUND THEOLOGICALLY, ALMOST POETIC, CERTAINLY CHURCHY, BUT WHAT DO THEY MEAN FOR YOU, FOR US?
I ONCE DEVELOPED A PRAYERFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH A YOUNG WOMAN WHO WAS SEARCHING FOR SOME CONNECTION IN HER LIFE. WE BEGAN A LONG DISTANCE LETTER WRITING RELATIONSHIP. HER SEARCHING AND SEEKING TAPPED INTO MY OWN SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. I CAN REMEMBER SAYING SUCH WORDS TO HER AS, “TO FIND YOUR LIFE YOU MUST LOSE IT.” SHE, IN HER CANDOR AND HONESTY, SAID, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN!”
SO IF WE SAY LENT IS A PATH TO DEATH, THEN WE SAY WE MUST DIE TO BE BORN AGAIN! WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DOES THAT MEAN?
PERHAPS WHAT I RECOGNIZED IN THAT YOUNG WOMAN AND IN MYSELF IS A TRUE DYNAMIC OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, A MATTER OF THE HEART AS IT WERE. WE ALL STRUGGLE WITH THE UNCERTAINTY OF WHAT LIFE PRESENTS US AND WHAT MAY BE BEFORE US. THIS PARTICULAR YOUNG WOMAN SET OFF ON A PILGRIMAGE THAT WOULD LEAD HER THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: A LOSS OF A YOUNGER SISTER, THE DEATH OF HER MOTHER, THE UNCERTAINTY OF WHAT WAS NEXT IN HER PROFESSIONAL LIFE. IN HER PILGRIMAGE SHE ARTICULATED A TRUTH FOR ALL OF US, THAT ON HER PILGRIMAGE SHE DEMONSTRATED SHE COULD BEAR THE MYSTERIES OF DEATH SHE ENCOUNTERED IN THE VALLEY, BUT SHE COULD NOT BEAR HER LIFE WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IT, FINDING ITS MEANING, AND LIVING WITHOUT THE HOPE OF NEW LIFE ON THE OTHER END OF IT.
LENT IS OUR JOURNEY TO DISCOVER MEANING! MEANING OF A GOD WHO HAS PURPOSE FOR US. WHO CREATED US OUT OF DUST, BREATHED LIFE INTO US, AND NOW CALLS US ON A PILGRIM’S WAY TO EXPERIENCE DEATH AND NEW LIFE…MEANING IN OUR LIVES!
TONIGHT (TODAY) YOU WILL BE MARKED (IF YOU CHOOSE) WITH ASHES IN THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. ESSENTIALLY, YOU WILL BE REMINDED OF YOUR MORTALITY. NO, IN FACT, YOU WILL BE “MARKED FOR DEATH.” IN THE MARKING, HOWEVER, YOU ARE GIVEN THE SIGN OR SYMBOL TO BE ON YOUR PILGRIMAGE, THE PILGRIMAGE TO DISCOVER THAT REALLY, THE MARK IS YOUR GIFT TO FREEDOM. TO FOLLOW JESUS IS TO UNDERSTAND THAT THINGS MUST DIE TO GIVE WAY TO THAT WHICH IS NEW!
SO ON THE PILGRIMAGE WAY THIS LENT, ASK YOURSELF PERHAPS THESE QUESTIONS: WHAT NEEDS TO DIE? WHAT DEATH NEEDS TO OCCUR TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?
MARCUS BORG OFFERS THESE QUESTIONS AND REFLECTIONS FOR OUR JOURNEY: “WHAT BEHAVIOR THAT HAS BECOME DESTRUCTIVE OR DYSFUNCTIONAL IN YOUR LIFE MUST DIE? WHAT RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS GONE BAD MUST CHANGE, OR DIE, WHAT UNRESOLVED GRIEF MUST DIE? WHAT STAGE OF LIFE MUST YOU PASS THROUGH AND DIE TO LIVE? PERHAPS IT IS SELF-PREOCCUPATION ITSELF THAT MUST DIE, OR IS THERE A DEADNESS IN YOUR LIFE THAT ITSELF MUST DIE FOR YOU TO LIVE?
OUR JOURNEY BEGINS THESE FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS. WE JOIN JESUS ON A PILGRIM’S WAY, MARKED FOR DEATH AND EXPECTING NEW LIFE!
IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON ONE WILL FIND A PAINTING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST MICHAELANGELO MERISI, LATER KNOWN AS CARAVAGGIO, HAVING TAKEN ON THE NAME OF HIS BIRTHPLACE, A SMALL TOWN IN NORTHERN ITALY. THE PAINTING I REFER TO IS A DEPICTION OF ST. LUKE’S ACCOUNT OF THE ROAD TO EMMAUS STORY. YOU’LL REMEMBER THE STORY OF THE RISEN JESUS ENCOUNTERING TWO BROKEN-HEARTED FOLLOWERS WHO BELIEVED THE HOPES OF ISRAEL DASHED HAVING JUST WITNESSED JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION. THE TWO FOLLOWERS OF JESUS, NOT RECOGNIZING HIM IN THE MOMENT, SOON FIND THEMSELVES BREAKING BREAD WITH THIS “STRANGER ON THE ROAD” AND AS THEY DO, THEIR EYES ARE OPENED AND THEIR HEARTS BURN AGAIN, HAVING ENCOUNTERED NOW THE RISEN JESUS AND THE HOPE RENEWED FOR LIVES OF FREEDOM!
IN HIS PORTRAYAL OF THIS STORY CARAVAGGIO DEPICTS THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS’ TIME IN THE FACES OF CONTEMPORARIES OF HIS. IN THE DEPICTION ONE CAN LOCATE A LARGE SCALLOP SHELL ON THE LAPEL OF ONE OF THE MEN WITNESSING THE RISEN JESUS. THE SCALLOP SHELL, OF COURSE, WAS WORN BY PILGRIMS IN CARRAVAGIO’S TIME AS A SIGN OR MARK, A SYMBOL OF BAPTISM TO BE RECOGNIZED BY OTHER PILGRIMS SO THAT THEIR JOURNEY TO DISCOVER A PLACE OF HOLINESS AND FREEDOM MIGHT BE RECOGNIZED, SUPPORTED, AND EVEN JOINED!
THE SCRIPTURES TELL US ON SUCH DAYS AS THIS, ASH WEDNESDAY, TO REND OUR HEARTS AND NOT OUR GARMENTS, A REMINDER FOR US TO CUT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. ON SUCH A DAY AS THIS, THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS WE BEGIN A LENTEN JOURNEY TO RE-CONNECT WITH OURSELVES, ONE ANOTHER, AND THE ONE WHO MADE US BY DARING TO EMBARK ON A PILGRIMAGE THAT WILL NECESSARILY LEAD US THROUGH DEATH, TO LIFE! WE, LIKE THOSE DEPICTED IN CARAVAGGIO’S BEAUTIFUL PAINTING, ARE ON A PILGRIM’S WAY!
MARCUS BORG, NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR, REMINDS US THAT LENT IS ESSENTIALLY A PILGRIM’S WAY! A WAY OF FOLLOWING THE PATH FROM DEATH TO LIFE! THAT WAY IS DISOVERED BY FOLLOWING JESUS! FOR THE NEXT FORTY DAYS WE WILL INTIMATELY STEP WITH JESUS. THROUGH STORY AND SONG, HEART AND PRAYER, WE WILL JOURNEY WITH JESUS FROM GALILEE TO JERUSALEM…FROM LIFE, MINISTRY, HEALING AND HOPE…TO THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS, THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE GIVEN IN PAIN AND SUFFERING, AND FINALLY TO AN EMPTY TOMB WHERE PARADOXICALLY, ITS EMPTINESS LEADS TO OUR FULLNESS OF NEW LIFE!
WE WILL FOLLOW JESUS, WE WILL PARTICIPATE IN HIS FINAL JOURNEY….A JOURNEY OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION. “LENT IS ABOUT DYING AND RISING,” MARCUS BORG REMINDS US, ABOUT “MORTALITY AND TRANSFORMATION”!
NOW I REALIZE THAT THESE ARE WORDS YOU MIGHT EXPECT TO HEAR FROM THE PREACHER, WORDS THAT ARE SOUND THEOLOGICALLY, ALMOST POETIC, CERTAINLY CHURCHY, BUT WHAT DO THEY MEAN FOR YOU, FOR US?
I ONCE DEVELOPED A PRAYERFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH A YOUNG WOMAN WHO WAS SEARCHING FOR SOME CONNECTION IN HER LIFE. WE BEGAN A LONG DISTANCE LETTER WRITING RELATIONSHIP. HER SEARCHING AND SEEKING TAPPED INTO MY OWN SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. I CAN REMEMBER SAYING SUCH WORDS TO HER AS, “TO FIND YOUR LIFE YOU MUST LOSE IT.” SHE, IN HER CANDOR AND HONESTY, SAID, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU MEAN!”
SO IF WE SAY LENT IS A PATH TO DEATH, THEN WE SAY WE MUST DIE TO BE BORN AGAIN! WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DOES THAT MEAN?
PERHAPS WHAT I RECOGNIZED IN THAT YOUNG WOMAN AND IN MYSELF IS A TRUE DYNAMIC OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, A MATTER OF THE HEART AS IT WERE. WE ALL STRUGGLE WITH THE UNCERTAINTY OF WHAT LIFE PRESENTS US AND WHAT MAY BE BEFORE US. THIS PARTICULAR YOUNG WOMAN SET OFF ON A PILGRIMAGE THAT WOULD LEAD HER THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: A LOSS OF A YOUNGER SISTER, THE DEATH OF HER MOTHER, THE UNCERTAINTY OF WHAT WAS NEXT IN HER PROFESSIONAL LIFE. IN HER PILGRIMAGE SHE ARTICULATED A TRUTH FOR ALL OF US, THAT ON HER PILGRIMAGE SHE DEMONSTRATED SHE COULD BEAR THE MYSTERIES OF DEATH SHE ENCOUNTERED IN THE VALLEY, BUT SHE COULD NOT BEAR HER LIFE WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IT, FINDING ITS MEANING, AND LIVING WITHOUT THE HOPE OF NEW LIFE ON THE OTHER END OF IT.
LENT IS OUR JOURNEY TO DISCOVER MEANING! MEANING OF A GOD WHO HAS PURPOSE FOR US. WHO CREATED US OUT OF DUST, BREATHED LIFE INTO US, AND NOW CALLS US ON A PILGRIM’S WAY TO EXPERIENCE DEATH AND NEW LIFE…MEANING IN OUR LIVES!
TONIGHT (TODAY) YOU WILL BE MARKED (IF YOU CHOOSE) WITH ASHES IN THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. ESSENTIALLY, YOU WILL BE REMINDED OF YOUR MORTALITY. NO, IN FACT, YOU WILL BE “MARKED FOR DEATH.” IN THE MARKING, HOWEVER, YOU ARE GIVEN THE SIGN OR SYMBOL TO BE ON YOUR PILGRIMAGE, THE PILGRIMAGE TO DISCOVER THAT REALLY, THE MARK IS YOUR GIFT TO FREEDOM. TO FOLLOW JESUS IS TO UNDERSTAND THAT THINGS MUST DIE TO GIVE WAY TO THAT WHICH IS NEW!
SO ON THE PILGRIMAGE WAY THIS LENT, ASK YOURSELF PERHAPS THESE QUESTIONS: WHAT NEEDS TO DIE? WHAT DEATH NEEDS TO OCCUR TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?
MARCUS BORG OFFERS THESE QUESTIONS AND REFLECTIONS FOR OUR JOURNEY: “WHAT BEHAVIOR THAT HAS BECOME DESTRUCTIVE OR DYSFUNCTIONAL IN YOUR LIFE MUST DIE? WHAT RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS GONE BAD MUST CHANGE, OR DIE, WHAT UNRESOLVED GRIEF MUST DIE? WHAT STAGE OF LIFE MUST YOU PASS THROUGH AND DIE TO LIVE? PERHAPS IT IS SELF-PREOCCUPATION ITSELF THAT MUST DIE, OR IS THERE A DEADNESS IN YOUR LIFE THAT ITSELF MUST DIE FOR YOU TO LIVE?
OUR JOURNEY BEGINS THESE FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS. WE JOIN JESUS ON A PILGRIM’S WAY, MARKED FOR DEATH AND EXPECTING NEW LIFE!
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Last Sunday after Epiphany: We Are Hiking Together
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9
(This sermon is not available electronically. Hard copies are available by contacting the Cathedral office.)
Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9
(This sermon is not available electronically. Hard copies are available by contacting the Cathedral office.)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Fourth Sunday of Epiphany -- Oh, the Places You'll Go!
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.
You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
Except when you don’t
because, sometimes, you won't.
I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and hang-ups
can happen to you.
You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?
But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!
---Dr. Seuss
Imagine a great adventure such as this wonderful description of the challenge and opportunity of life given by Dr. Seuss. Somehow deep inside my childish imagination I might wonder if Jesus had in his pitch to Simon and Andrew, James and John, such vivid imagery to invite them into the greatest adventure in history! I can imagine the morning they awoke as they always had, probably before dawn, into another day at the tasks at hand in their defined lives as fishermen. Work to be done, nets to be washed and prepared, boats to be prepared for launch. I don’t know what you are like pre-dawn, but me, it’s pretty ugly really, hum and then drum. I can imagine that morning when Jesus arrives fresh off a date with the devil in the wilderness where as Matthew’s Gospel would have it, he comes through a period of “identity truth” and is so full of himself and what God would have of him, that he moves to the land of the Gentiles and begins his public ministry by echoing the words of the baptizer! Repent! The Kingdom of God is near! Remembering from last week Repent: Put on a new pair of eyes, see the world in a different way! For the Kingdom of God is near!
For Matthew, I believe he wants us to understand, that Kingdom Jesus speaks of, is no less than God’s eschatological Rule on earth! John Dominic Crossin, New Testament theologian reminds us that the great adventure of eschatological adventure means that Jesus brings a new set of rules for the world, that is, the world he lives in! The old set where the innocent get stepped on, the weak and sick ignored, the strong get stronger and more, the weak get weaker and less. This understanding and experience of the world gets turned upside down. So to be part of this adventure literally means to touch sick people that others wouldn’t touch! To risk getting in trouble by violating the rules of the day to get food in the stomachs of hungry people. To walk right into the face of the authority of the day and say, your rules and laws are hurting people, oppressing people, discriminating against people, you are not the power of the day – God is. (This is, after all you realize, what Jesus is doing when staring down the Chief Priests and Herod of Rome.)
So, come on, James and John, Andrew and Simon, want to become part of a great adventure! Oh, how I imagine it if Jesus had just lain out for them both the excitement of the journey and the challenge of it as beautifully as Dr. Seuss. But here is the great Gospel truth? Matthew doesn’t afford us the inside scoop! There is no beautiful prose that describes or assures success, there is no catchy phrase that warns that the work involved in this adventure is uncertain and tricky. There is just the absurdity of a stranger intruding in the everyday of fishermen’s routine and taking the risk to invite them into the great adventure of God’s redemption of the world! Jesus risks in the ask, Follow me! Our friends risk in the response! Immediately they follow and soon they are off on a great adventure, Matthew tells us, proclaiming this “new rule” and curing diseases of every kind! It seems for our friends the adventure has chosen them and they can do nothing other than to follow it!
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.” Such I believe is the spiritual challenge for us as we seek to make sense of the invitation that is ours into this great adventure. Do you believe first and foremost that God truly cares about the world in which we live to be acting in a redemptive way? Do you believe that God might come into the routine of our lives and call us to be something we never dreamed or imagined and that we are partners in this adventure? Do you believe somewhere in your life even in a culture that has been taught so well to regard our “right to choose” our own destiny, that God may have an adventure for you that is choosing you! What is it? What is that thing that God has been nudging you with! How long has God been nudging? Years, days, hours, minutes? What adventure is there for you that is risking to choose you, and you are risking to follow?
For Matthew, I believe he wants us to understand, that Kingdom Jesus speaks of, is no less than God’s eschatological Rule on earth! John Dominic Crossin, New Testament theologian reminds us that the great adventure of eschatological adventure means that Jesus brings a new set of rules for the world, that is, the world he lives in! The old set where the innocent get stepped on, the weak and sick ignored, the strong get stronger and more, the weak get weaker and less. This understanding and experience of the world gets turned upside down. So to be part of this adventure literally means to touch sick people that others wouldn’t touch! To risk getting in trouble by violating the rules of the day to get food in the stomachs of hungry people. To walk right into the face of the authority of the day and say, your rules and laws are hurting people, oppressing people, discriminating against people, you are not the power of the day – God is. (This is, after all you realize, what Jesus is doing when staring down the Chief Priests and Herod of Rome.)
So, come on, James and John, Andrew and Simon, want to become part of a great adventure! Oh, how I imagine it if Jesus had just lain out for them both the excitement of the journey and the challenge of it as beautifully as Dr. Seuss. But here is the great Gospel truth? Matthew doesn’t afford us the inside scoop! There is no beautiful prose that describes or assures success, there is no catchy phrase that warns that the work involved in this adventure is uncertain and tricky. There is just the absurdity of a stranger intruding in the everyday of fishermen’s routine and taking the risk to invite them into the great adventure of God’s redemption of the world! Jesus risks in the ask, Follow me! Our friends risk in the response! Immediately they follow and soon they are off on a great adventure, Matthew tells us, proclaiming this “new rule” and curing diseases of every kind! It seems for our friends the adventure has chosen them and they can do nothing other than to follow it!
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “An adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.” Such I believe is the spiritual challenge for us as we seek to make sense of the invitation that is ours into this great adventure. Do you believe first and foremost that God truly cares about the world in which we live to be acting in a redemptive way? Do you believe that God might come into the routine of our lives and call us to be something we never dreamed or imagined and that we are partners in this adventure? Do you believe somewhere in your life even in a culture that has been taught so well to regard our “right to choose” our own destiny, that God may have an adventure for you that is choosing you! What is it? What is that thing that God has been nudging you with! How long has God been nudging? Years, days, hours, minutes? What adventure is there for you that is risking to choose you, and you are risking to follow?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Thanksgiving Day: You Are What You Eat
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
John 6:25-35
Everyone called her Chocolatina. That is Tina, the character in the book Chocolatina, who loved to eat…well, chocolate! Breakfast was “Choco Crunchies,” lunch was accompanied by chocolate milk, and the fruit salad for dessert at dinner had to be adjusted by several dollops of chocolate syrup. Chocolatina was fine with her food choice. One day as she listens to the sour health teacher remonstrate once again that “you are what you eat,” she wished it was true. That night a strange thing happened…yes when Tina woke up she discovered that she was indeed made out of chocolate! It was hardly the paradise she imagined. Her day was difficult as she could only move stiffly and a bit funny as her friends had to carry her in from recess because her feet had melted to the pavement. But her day turned somewhat frightening as one absent minded friend and then one malicious health teacher each tried to take a bite out of her.
You are what you eat. So what will you end up being today? Turkey? Cranberry sauce? Pumpkin pie? Or perhaps you will end up being something different like some friends of mine who always have thanksgiving lasagna. Beyond being amusing, this adage tells us something about a deeply held conviction. We believe that we reflect, and even embody, what we take in. Thus we say that someone who is complaining or whining has been eating sour grapes. Or when one of our companions is out of sorts, we might wonder what they had for breakfast. There is some evidence to support this. We know what a sugar high can do to a toddler at bedtime and why we all want naps after our thanksgiving turkey. We know that when we don’t eat properly, we don’t function properly.
So what is the right food for our souls? What fills us, satisfies us? For what can we be thankful? Today is a feast day—clearly. It is not listed as such in the church calendar, but it is a celebration that involves food. But we take in more than holiday food today. We will be feasting on expectations, family traditions, and…other people. Today is a feast that involves family and friends, in their presence or their absence. Today we embody relationships. What will you fill yourself up with today? Will it satisfy you? I think that a discipline of thankfulness, if you will, is one way that we pay attention to our spiritual intake. Would we rather fill ourselves with grievances or gratitude? Now we do not have control over what people hand us, but we can exercise some control over our intentions. We don’t have to react like toddlers—putting everything into our mouths. We have some choice about what we consume not only today, but everyday.
So as you encounter folks today, you can dwell on how annoying your brother is, or on how grateful you are for the kind smile of the teenager at the grocery store check-out. You can cry over the pie/turkey/table decorations that didn’t come out they way you planned, or you can delight in the gorgeous fall leaves that dance around you and rejoice in the Lord. You can lose yourself in what is lost to you today, or you can discover that you have some support you hadn’t noticed. You will have to fill in your own blanks!
Jesus filled a large crowd of people with some bread and fish; perhaps as many as 5000 people with just five loaves and there were leftovers. When the crowd realized that Jesus had left the building, they went looking for him. They wanted more. But more what? Bread? The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life not just to one or two but to the world. Jesus tells the seekers of fulfillment, “I am the bread of life.” It is Jesus who in giving up his life gives life to the world. To partake of Jesus is to partake in this gospel cycle of death for life, emptiness for fullness. We are here on Thanksgiving Day to share in a sacred meal of our tradition. We eat the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. We drink the Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. We call this Eucharist, which in Greek means, “thanksgiving.”
Whether we know it or not, we come here today to practice a discipline of gratitude. We do this with one another, because it is always easier to exercise with others! We choose to put this in our mouth. We choose to embody Christ. We choose to be here today because in some way or other we have a glimpse of the mystery of what truly satisfies us. In some way or other, we know in our souls that the reversal that Jesus offers is what gives us life. In some way or other we grasp why the first shall be last and the last shall be first, that if we gain our life we will lose it and if we lose our life we will gain it, that to be baptized into the life of Christ is to be baptized into his death as well and if into a death like Christ’s then the resurrection too. It is our work to empty ourselves when we are full in order that we can hunger for God again. It is our work to fill those who are empty, so that they may know the satisfaction of being full.
With what will you fill yourself today?
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
John 6:25-35
Everyone called her Chocolatina. That is Tina, the character in the book Chocolatina, who loved to eat…well, chocolate! Breakfast was “Choco Crunchies,” lunch was accompanied by chocolate milk, and the fruit salad for dessert at dinner had to be adjusted by several dollops of chocolate syrup. Chocolatina was fine with her food choice. One day as she listens to the sour health teacher remonstrate once again that “you are what you eat,” she wished it was true. That night a strange thing happened…yes when Tina woke up she discovered that she was indeed made out of chocolate! It was hardly the paradise she imagined. Her day was difficult as she could only move stiffly and a bit funny as her friends had to carry her in from recess because her feet had melted to the pavement. But her day turned somewhat frightening as one absent minded friend and then one malicious health teacher each tried to take a bite out of her.
You are what you eat. So what will you end up being today? Turkey? Cranberry sauce? Pumpkin pie? Or perhaps you will end up being something different like some friends of mine who always have thanksgiving lasagna. Beyond being amusing, this adage tells us something about a deeply held conviction. We believe that we reflect, and even embody, what we take in. Thus we say that someone who is complaining or whining has been eating sour grapes. Or when one of our companions is out of sorts, we might wonder what they had for breakfast. There is some evidence to support this. We know what a sugar high can do to a toddler at bedtime and why we all want naps after our thanksgiving turkey. We know that when we don’t eat properly, we don’t function properly.
So what is the right food for our souls? What fills us, satisfies us? For what can we be thankful? Today is a feast day—clearly. It is not listed as such in the church calendar, but it is a celebration that involves food. But we take in more than holiday food today. We will be feasting on expectations, family traditions, and…other people. Today is a feast that involves family and friends, in their presence or their absence. Today we embody relationships. What will you fill yourself up with today? Will it satisfy you? I think that a discipline of thankfulness, if you will, is one way that we pay attention to our spiritual intake. Would we rather fill ourselves with grievances or gratitude? Now we do not have control over what people hand us, but we can exercise some control over our intentions. We don’t have to react like toddlers—putting everything into our mouths. We have some choice about what we consume not only today, but everyday.
So as you encounter folks today, you can dwell on how annoying your brother is, or on how grateful you are for the kind smile of the teenager at the grocery store check-out. You can cry over the pie/turkey/table decorations that didn’t come out they way you planned, or you can delight in the gorgeous fall leaves that dance around you and rejoice in the Lord. You can lose yourself in what is lost to you today, or you can discover that you have some support you hadn’t noticed. You will have to fill in your own blanks!
Jesus filled a large crowd of people with some bread and fish; perhaps as many as 5000 people with just five loaves and there were leftovers. When the crowd realized that Jesus had left the building, they went looking for him. They wanted more. But more what? Bread? The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life not just to one or two but to the world. Jesus tells the seekers of fulfillment, “I am the bread of life.” It is Jesus who in giving up his life gives life to the world. To partake of Jesus is to partake in this gospel cycle of death for life, emptiness for fullness. We are here on Thanksgiving Day to share in a sacred meal of our tradition. We eat the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. We drink the Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. We call this Eucharist, which in Greek means, “thanksgiving.”
Whether we know it or not, we come here today to practice a discipline of gratitude. We do this with one another, because it is always easier to exercise with others! We choose to put this in our mouth. We choose to embody Christ. We choose to be here today because in some way or other we have a glimpse of the mystery of what truly satisfies us. In some way or other, we know in our souls that the reversal that Jesus offers is what gives us life. In some way or other we grasp why the first shall be last and the last shall be first, that if we gain our life we will lose it and if we lose our life we will gain it, that to be baptized into the life of Christ is to be baptized into his death as well and if into a death like Christ’s then the resurrection too. It is our work to empty ourselves when we are full in order that we can hunger for God again. It is our work to fill those who are empty, so that they may know the satisfaction of being full.
With what will you fill yourself today?
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
Sunday, November 18, 2007
24th Sunday after Pentecost: Spiritual Vision
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Haggai 1:15-2:9 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38
What is the real color of a leaf? This was my seven-year-old daughter’s question as we drove to church this morning past the glorious fall trees. Is the true color of a leaf the bursting green of mid-summer, or the wild orange of November? And what if you had never seen a fall in the Northeast? When our vision is limited, we don’t always get the full story, or the full beauty.
My friend Robert was walking along a beach in Florida one morning last summer, acutely aware that this particular morning was the one year anniversary of his father’s death. As he walked, he came across a spectacular sandcastle, perhaps the most beautiful he had ever seen. It delighted him and seemed to invite him to come and play. He recalled sandcastles that he and his father had built together long ago. Being the reflective person that he is, he saw it as a holy gift given him that morning. A few hours later as he walked back along the beach he encountered a park ranger aggressively destroying the sandcastle with his vehicle. My friend was overwhelmed. He thought of his own father and the sand castles they had built together. He imagined the parents and children who had worked hard to build this sand castle. He felt himself become annoyed and angry. Now, he could have walked away at this point. I am sure you can imagine the story he would have told. But Robert is one of the most generous people I know and instead he spoke a friendly “good morning” to the grumpy looking stranger. He was surprised when the man turned a friendly face toward him. “So, you’re getting rid of a sand castle?” The park ranger explained that people were welcome to enjoy the beach but they asked everyone to take down their own sand castles. The beach was a nature preserve and a nesting ground for turtles. If the turtles walked into a sand castle they cold get trapped and die. “We have to keep the beach level for these friends of ours,” the man explained.
What a difference that conversation made. How often do we come to wrong conclusions, make faulty decisions, because of our limited vision? as he reflected on his encounter, my friend Robert remarked, “how tempting and treacherous it is to live with my assumptions…my own ‘stuff’ can easily become death energy.”[i] About a year ago I had to give up my contact lenses for eye-glasses. No matter what we tried with the contacts, I could only see two out of three distances. I could read and drive but not see the computer screen. Or I could see the computer screen and drive but not read the map. For several months I tried to compensate and colleagues often found me squinting at the computer screen. I needed a new kind of correction in order to see well. Thank God for progressive lenses!
But what about our spiritual vision? When was the last time you had an inner eye check-up? How much of our spiritual life is based on assumptions that we haven’t taken out and checked lately? How is our image of God limited by our own limitations? This of course brings us right to the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were one of several groups of Jews at the time of Jesus. Just as we have many Christian denominations today, so there were many factions within Judaism and I am sure each thought they had the best picture of God. The Sadducees limited the scope of their vision to only the first five books of the Hebrew bible—the Torah, the law, the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They did not read the prophets. No Isaiah or Jeremiah for them. They did not think of the psalms or the book of Job as scripture. For the Sadducees, if it wasn’t found in the Torah, it wasn’t worth knowing about. They could not imagine that God had any revelation outside of those five books. Among other things, they did not believe in resurrection. So they come to Jesus with their own trick question (as others had done). They want to point out how absolutely absurd the idea of resurrection would be. Thus their complicated story about marriage in heaven. But while they did not believe in resurrection, their story does reveal their anxiety about death and their desire to live on through the procreation of children. They placed an extremely high value on keeping the family line going. So they pointed to the tradition of “levirate marriage,” in which a man was to marry his brother’s widow if there were no children simply to ensure that there would be children (which would somehow be his brother’s) and that the family line would not die out. The women apparently did not have much to say about this! In reality, levirate marriage was an extreme way of grasping a sense of eternal life through the family line.
Jesus’ response it to tell them they need new glasses. Look around he says, this is a new age. You do not need to be limited by old ways of seeing and understanding the God that you and I both worship. This is the God of Abraham… and Isaac… and Jacob This is the God that Moses met at the burning bush. This is the God of the living , not of the dead! The questions of who is married to whom in the resurrection makes no sense in the new life that Jesus is talking about. Life as children of God is so much greater, so much more full than we can possibly imagine with our limited vision. Jesus dares to suggest that God reveals Godself in new ways all the time. He exclaims that we do not, simply cannot, understand the ways of God.
The Sadducees suffered from spiritual myopia. Their bible was too small. Their experience of God’s revelation was too small. Their understanding of the resurrection was too small. What about us? There are many temptations to keep our visions limited. We can also be satisfied with being nearsighted, seeing and engaging with only that which is right in front of us at the moment. I’m guessing that like the Sadducees, we too limit our reading to only certain books of the bible. Not out of a particular theology perhaps, but at least out of habit. Episcopal priest and writer Barbara Brown Taylor describes her well-worn bible, one in which she has spent years mining treasures: “If you look at it from the side you can discover my favorite places to dig: Exodus, Job and Hosea in the first testament; Mark, Luke, and Acts in the second. Like most Christians, I have my own canon, in which I hear God speaking most directly to me.” But she goes on to remember that God has more to say to her than what she finds in those familiar and comfortable passages. “But I also like the parts in which God sounds like an alien since those parts remind me that God does not belong to me.”[ii]
We can also be over invested in being far-sighted, looking only far off into the distant future, or to the distant past. We can blind ourselves by focusing on the Good Old Days. This is the complaint of the prophet Haggai. Haggai lives and writes in 520 BCE, after the first group of exiles has returned to Jerusalem. They seem to have no energy for rebuilding the temple that was destroyed. They are caught in nostalgia.
“You remember how great the temple was that Solomon built? We could never build that, so why bother!”
“Which one of you even saw that temple?” Haggai cries out. “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” Stop pining for the “good old days” and recognize that God is here now. Take courage! Your God, the Lord of hosts speaks, “take courage…work for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts…My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” Our God is a God of the living, not the dead, proclaims Haggai. This is a new age, proclaims Jesus.
In addition to spiritual near- or far-sightedness, we can also limit ourselves by keeping to the middle distance, never examining our theology or motives too closely, nor looking too far beyond our comfort zone. Any of these choices does not give us a complete view of God. But what does? In fact, is there any way for us to have perfect vision when it comes to God and God’s revelation to us? Of course not! We cannot escape our limits. Human life is always so constricted by human sin. So what do we do? Jesus’ answer is to widen our vision. Know that a new world is coming. Expect a new age in this world.
Our image of God will always be too small. What can we do? Give yourself a spiritual vision check. Expect there to be more than you have seen. Stop and ask questions. Be willing to listen. Read something in the bible you have not read before. Notice sandcastles on the beach…and nesting turtles as well. Believe that God’s power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Expect a new revelation.
[i] This story was published in the October 2007 issue of The Rubric, the newsletter of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington by the Dean, Robert V. Taylor.
[ii] Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (HarperSanFrancisco 2007), p. 216.
Copyright ã 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
Haggai 1:15-2:9 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38
What is the real color of a leaf? This was my seven-year-old daughter’s question as we drove to church this morning past the glorious fall trees. Is the true color of a leaf the bursting green of mid-summer, or the wild orange of November? And what if you had never seen a fall in the Northeast? When our vision is limited, we don’t always get the full story, or the full beauty.
My friend Robert was walking along a beach in Florida one morning last summer, acutely aware that this particular morning was the one year anniversary of his father’s death. As he walked, he came across a spectacular sandcastle, perhaps the most beautiful he had ever seen. It delighted him and seemed to invite him to come and play. He recalled sandcastles that he and his father had built together long ago. Being the reflective person that he is, he saw it as a holy gift given him that morning. A few hours later as he walked back along the beach he encountered a park ranger aggressively destroying the sandcastle with his vehicle. My friend was overwhelmed. He thought of his own father and the sand castles they had built together. He imagined the parents and children who had worked hard to build this sand castle. He felt himself become annoyed and angry. Now, he could have walked away at this point. I am sure you can imagine the story he would have told. But Robert is one of the most generous people I know and instead he spoke a friendly “good morning” to the grumpy looking stranger. He was surprised when the man turned a friendly face toward him. “So, you’re getting rid of a sand castle?” The park ranger explained that people were welcome to enjoy the beach but they asked everyone to take down their own sand castles. The beach was a nature preserve and a nesting ground for turtles. If the turtles walked into a sand castle they cold get trapped and die. “We have to keep the beach level for these friends of ours,” the man explained.
What a difference that conversation made. How often do we come to wrong conclusions, make faulty decisions, because of our limited vision? as he reflected on his encounter, my friend Robert remarked, “how tempting and treacherous it is to live with my assumptions…my own ‘stuff’ can easily become death energy.”[i] About a year ago I had to give up my contact lenses for eye-glasses. No matter what we tried with the contacts, I could only see two out of three distances. I could read and drive but not see the computer screen. Or I could see the computer screen and drive but not read the map. For several months I tried to compensate and colleagues often found me squinting at the computer screen. I needed a new kind of correction in order to see well. Thank God for progressive lenses!
But what about our spiritual vision? When was the last time you had an inner eye check-up? How much of our spiritual life is based on assumptions that we haven’t taken out and checked lately? How is our image of God limited by our own limitations? This of course brings us right to the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were one of several groups of Jews at the time of Jesus. Just as we have many Christian denominations today, so there were many factions within Judaism and I am sure each thought they had the best picture of God. The Sadducees limited the scope of their vision to only the first five books of the Hebrew bible—the Torah, the law, the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They did not read the prophets. No Isaiah or Jeremiah for them. They did not think of the psalms or the book of Job as scripture. For the Sadducees, if it wasn’t found in the Torah, it wasn’t worth knowing about. They could not imagine that God had any revelation outside of those five books. Among other things, they did not believe in resurrection. So they come to Jesus with their own trick question (as others had done). They want to point out how absolutely absurd the idea of resurrection would be. Thus their complicated story about marriage in heaven. But while they did not believe in resurrection, their story does reveal their anxiety about death and their desire to live on through the procreation of children. They placed an extremely high value on keeping the family line going. So they pointed to the tradition of “levirate marriage,” in which a man was to marry his brother’s widow if there were no children simply to ensure that there would be children (which would somehow be his brother’s) and that the family line would not die out. The women apparently did not have much to say about this! In reality, levirate marriage was an extreme way of grasping a sense of eternal life through the family line.
Jesus’ response it to tell them they need new glasses. Look around he says, this is a new age. You do not need to be limited by old ways of seeing and understanding the God that you and I both worship. This is the God of Abraham… and Isaac… and Jacob This is the God that Moses met at the burning bush. This is the God of the living , not of the dead! The questions of who is married to whom in the resurrection makes no sense in the new life that Jesus is talking about. Life as children of God is so much greater, so much more full than we can possibly imagine with our limited vision. Jesus dares to suggest that God reveals Godself in new ways all the time. He exclaims that we do not, simply cannot, understand the ways of God.
The Sadducees suffered from spiritual myopia. Their bible was too small. Their experience of God’s revelation was too small. Their understanding of the resurrection was too small. What about us? There are many temptations to keep our visions limited. We can also be satisfied with being nearsighted, seeing and engaging with only that which is right in front of us at the moment. I’m guessing that like the Sadducees, we too limit our reading to only certain books of the bible. Not out of a particular theology perhaps, but at least out of habit. Episcopal priest and writer Barbara Brown Taylor describes her well-worn bible, one in which she has spent years mining treasures: “If you look at it from the side you can discover my favorite places to dig: Exodus, Job and Hosea in the first testament; Mark, Luke, and Acts in the second. Like most Christians, I have my own canon, in which I hear God speaking most directly to me.” But she goes on to remember that God has more to say to her than what she finds in those familiar and comfortable passages. “But I also like the parts in which God sounds like an alien since those parts remind me that God does not belong to me.”[ii]
We can also be over invested in being far-sighted, looking only far off into the distant future, or to the distant past. We can blind ourselves by focusing on the Good Old Days. This is the complaint of the prophet Haggai. Haggai lives and writes in 520 BCE, after the first group of exiles has returned to Jerusalem. They seem to have no energy for rebuilding the temple that was destroyed. They are caught in nostalgia.
“You remember how great the temple was that Solomon built? We could never build that, so why bother!”
“Which one of you even saw that temple?” Haggai cries out. “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” Stop pining for the “good old days” and recognize that God is here now. Take courage! Your God, the Lord of hosts speaks, “take courage…work for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts…My spirit abides among you; do not fear.” Our God is a God of the living, not the dead, proclaims Haggai. This is a new age, proclaims Jesus.
In addition to spiritual near- or far-sightedness, we can also limit ourselves by keeping to the middle distance, never examining our theology or motives too closely, nor looking too far beyond our comfort zone. Any of these choices does not give us a complete view of God. But what does? In fact, is there any way for us to have perfect vision when it comes to God and God’s revelation to us? Of course not! We cannot escape our limits. Human life is always so constricted by human sin. So what do we do? Jesus’ answer is to widen our vision. Know that a new world is coming. Expect a new age in this world.
Our image of God will always be too small. What can we do? Give yourself a spiritual vision check. Expect there to be more than you have seen. Stop and ask questions. Be willing to listen. Read something in the bible you have not read before. Notice sandcastles on the beach…and nesting turtles as well. Believe that God’s power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Expect a new revelation.
[i] This story was published in the October 2007 issue of The Rubric, the newsletter of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington by the Dean, Robert V. Taylor.
[ii] Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (HarperSanFrancisco 2007), p. 216.
Copyright ã 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Sent By Jesus to Preach,Teach and Heal: The Church's Mission to the Whole Person
Sermon at Diocesan Convention, Oct. 13, 2007
Bishop Anthony Poggo, Diocese of Kajo-Keji
Isaiah 2:2-4, Ephesians 2:13-22, Luke 10:1-9
It is my pleasure to speak to you this morning. I would like to thank Bishop Paul for inviting me to be present at this important Convention and also for asking me to speak at this Eucharist. The theme of our talk this morning is “For the Mission of the Church”. Let me begin by making some definitions.
What is Mission?
One of the definitions given by the Oxford Dictionary is “the work of teaching people about Christianity, especially in a foreign country”. The other definition is “particular work that you feel it is your duty to do”. I would like to see the concept of Mission in a much broader context than just teaching Christianity. It is teaching Christianity, living it and ministering in a holistic way or integral way i.e. meeting the needs of the body, soul and spirit.
In our Gospel reading, we read the story of how Jesus sent 72 people to go ahead of him into all the towns and places where he was about to go. He wanted them to be part of His mission to the world. He told them that although the harvest is plentiful, there are few workers, but that the Lord who is the Lord of the Harvest is the one who sends the workers. He sent them to preach, teach and heal, that is, to undertake the wholistic mission of meeting the spiritual and physical needs. .
In v. 4, he instructs them not to take any purse or bag. Theirs was to rely on Him. When we receive God’s call, we should answer His call. Our response should be “here I am send me”. The modern trend is that when we are hired to do a job, we negotiated what our remuneration is. As Christian workers this should not be the main reason why we do what we do. We should see it as our ministry to that Lord. He will provide us as we undertake it. Recently, I came to make this realisation that when God gives you a vision for a mission, he provides. When God is for a vision, i.e. if he is “pro” a vision. He will provide the provision, because he is “pro” the “vision” – hence the English word “provision”. Many of our pastors in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji have been volunteers for the last 20 years.
From vv. 5 to 6, Jesus says that the message preached should be the message of peace, the message of the Kingdom. In v. 7 He again says rely on the people who I am sending you to. Eat what they eat. According to v.9, the Preaching of the good news should also include the healing of the sick. This can happen through prayers or through ministry through medical field. When they came back, there was excitement. Jesus said they should rejoice that their names are written in heaven. We have been giving the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. This is His mission through us; we are in a “co-mission” that is to say that we “co-workers” or working together with him.
Does the Mission of the Church include a Social Concern in Ministry?
As I mentioned before, I believe that the Mission of the Church should be to the whole person namely body, soul and spirit in other words meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the disciple. Hence Jesus sent his disciples to teach, heal and preach. When Jesus embarked on his ministry, he gave an address in Nazareth in Luke 4:18-19. This is what he said:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to released the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
This verse has been referred to as the Nazarene Manifesto. It is our manifesto as Christians. Luke 4:18 says that Jesus’ ministry was aimed not only at the spiritual need, but both physical and spiritual. Preaching of the good news should be holistic. You cannot go and preach the good news and leave the person to die due from lack of food.
During the war many places in Sudan experienced a real meaning to the Lord’s Prayer especially where we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”. This is because it meant a lot as they prayed it in reality. In other parts of the world, this is not the case, as often one would have such bread in the fridge or nearest supermarket. James argues in his letter that our faith should be seen in our good work. This means that the mission of the Church should be a mission to the whole person.
The recent launch of the New Hope campaign is indeed one of the ways that the Diocese of Bethlehem is remaining true to the total mission of the Church. You wisely chose to assist the Diocese of Kajo-Keji as well as some parts of Pennsylvania where there are the poor. I appreciate the commitment of your Bishop and the entire Diocese in this worthwhile campaign. Indeed this will bring hope to a situation of hopelessness to a people who have known nothing but war and poverty. Related to this is ignorance and disease. I would like to assure you that this campaign will impact many lives and will bring change to many people.
Although the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has been signed between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party, many people have not yet seen tangible fruits of this peace. Some of the protocols of the Agreement have not also been implemented. We appreciate that now we have peace, there is no fear from aerial bombardment; we also have freedom to travel anywhere in Southern Sudan, although we in Kajo-Keji still have to travel south through Uganda to go north to any part of Sudan.
The prophecy of Isaiah 2:4 where swords were converted into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks is not yet fulfilled in terms of the Southern Sudan context. In contrast to this, when a peace treaty was signed in Mozambique in 1992, they found out that the Mozambique was awash with guns and many landmines. The Christian Council of Mozambique then came up with a plan to exchange guns for sewing machines, ploughing instruments, bicycles and seed grain. The church there converted tools of war into useful tools, as we read in this passage.
For us in Southern Sudan, not all areas of Southern Sudan are enjoying the fruits of the agreement. This is due to the non-implementation of the all the terms of the CPA; the SPLM leader recently said that Southern Sudan could easily go back to war. Pray with us that the CPA is implemented.
Update on the CPA
The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the SPLM and the National Congress Party, has given hope to the people of Southern Sudan. Although many people have not yet seen tangible fruits of this peace, there is now freedom of movement, a functional government in Southern Sudan, some roads are being repaired, schools being rebuilt. In Kajo-Keji, we have seen some people constructing shops, houses, schools being built by some NGOs. The roads in Kajo-Keji are still among the challenges.
Having said that there are still many challenges to the CPA. This week we heard news from Juba that the SPLM has withdrawn from the Government of National Unity (GoNU). This means that the SPLM ministers and advisors will not participate in the government. Apart from the non implementation of the CPA, one of the issues cited is the right of the SPLM to reshuffle its members in government. Some of the aspects of the CPA that still need to be implemented include:
1. Lack of Transparency on the Exploitation and Sharing of Oil revenue.
The NCP has not been transparent on the actual income of the oil revenues. The CPA stipulates that 50% of the oil revenue from oil fields found in Southern Sudan should go to the Government of Southern Sudan. The income expected is less than what was anticipated. There is belief that this is not the correct revenue.
2. The North South Border:
The NCP has intentionally avoided implementing the CPA provisions on issues pertaining to the South – North border demarcation. This has implication on the right level of income from the oil revenue. Because the correct border has not been determined, it means that the GOSS is not getting a correct level of its oil revenue.
3. The Withdrawal of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from Southern Sudan.
According to the CPA, the Sudan Armed Forces should have redeployed its forces from the south by July 9th, 2007. While the majority of the SPLA have withdrawn from the North, this has not been reciprocated by SAF.
4. The Abyei Protocol
The NCP has refused to implement the Protocol on Abyei. It has also refused to implement the Abyei Boundary Commission (ABC) Report which was carefully and thoroughly researched and written by international and national experts.
5. Delay in formation & operationalisation of various Commissions of the CPA.
The NCP has been slow in the formation and operationalisation of a number of commissions and other institutions as stipulated by the CPA. These include the Census Commissions, the Civil service reform.
What is the way forward?
It is important for the international community to bring pressure to bear on the NCP. I call on you to urge your government to bring pressure on the National Congress Party to implement the whole of the CPA and not do it selectively.
The full implementation of CPA could be a blue print for settling the conflict in Darfur. The media and international attention on the conflict in Darfur has been at the expense of the implementation of the CPA.
The involvement of the church in reconciliation
In the reading from the book of Ephesians 2:13 we are reminded that Christ death on the Cross reconciled us to God. He made peace between God and us. He also reconciled believing Jews and believing Gentiles. It is because of his death that I am here and can indeed see you here, as my brothers and sisters in Christ and that is why you thought of New Hope campaign. In v.18 we read that it is because of this that we have access to the Father and making us members of this family. One of our Sudanese bishops says that we are all people of God but those who accept the Cross become children of God. That is why, in verse 19, we read that we are no longer foreigners and aliens but members of this household. Regardless of where you are, as long as you are a believer, you are a member of this household and this family of Christ.
I would like to encourage each one of you in this ministry of reconciliation. I would like to encourage you to undertake a wholistic ministry in your mission, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people. It is important that there is a balance made between the physical and spiritual needs of the people. You cannot do one without the other and claim to be doing the mission of the Church.
Bishop Anthony Poggo, Diocese of Kajo-Keji
Isaiah 2:2-4, Ephesians 2:13-22, Luke 10:1-9
It is my pleasure to speak to you this morning. I would like to thank Bishop Paul for inviting me to be present at this important Convention and also for asking me to speak at this Eucharist. The theme of our talk this morning is “For the Mission of the Church”. Let me begin by making some definitions.
What is Mission?
One of the definitions given by the Oxford Dictionary is “the work of teaching people about Christianity, especially in a foreign country”. The other definition is “particular work that you feel it is your duty to do”. I would like to see the concept of Mission in a much broader context than just teaching Christianity. It is teaching Christianity, living it and ministering in a holistic way or integral way i.e. meeting the needs of the body, soul and spirit.
In our Gospel reading, we read the story of how Jesus sent 72 people to go ahead of him into all the towns and places where he was about to go. He wanted them to be part of His mission to the world. He told them that although the harvest is plentiful, there are few workers, but that the Lord who is the Lord of the Harvest is the one who sends the workers. He sent them to preach, teach and heal, that is, to undertake the wholistic mission of meeting the spiritual and physical needs. .
In v. 4, he instructs them not to take any purse or bag. Theirs was to rely on Him. When we receive God’s call, we should answer His call. Our response should be “here I am send me”. The modern trend is that when we are hired to do a job, we negotiated what our remuneration is. As Christian workers this should not be the main reason why we do what we do. We should see it as our ministry to that Lord. He will provide us as we undertake it. Recently, I came to make this realisation that when God gives you a vision for a mission, he provides. When God is for a vision, i.e. if he is “pro” a vision. He will provide the provision, because he is “pro” the “vision” – hence the English word “provision”. Many of our pastors in the Diocese of Kajo-Keji have been volunteers for the last 20 years.
From vv. 5 to 6, Jesus says that the message preached should be the message of peace, the message of the Kingdom. In v. 7 He again says rely on the people who I am sending you to. Eat what they eat. According to v.9, the Preaching of the good news should also include the healing of the sick. This can happen through prayers or through ministry through medical field. When they came back, there was excitement. Jesus said they should rejoice that their names are written in heaven. We have been giving the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. This is His mission through us; we are in a “co-mission” that is to say that we “co-workers” or working together with him.
Does the Mission of the Church include a Social Concern in Ministry?
As I mentioned before, I believe that the Mission of the Church should be to the whole person namely body, soul and spirit in other words meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the disciple. Hence Jesus sent his disciples to teach, heal and preach. When Jesus embarked on his ministry, he gave an address in Nazareth in Luke 4:18-19. This is what he said:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to released the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
This verse has been referred to as the Nazarene Manifesto. It is our manifesto as Christians. Luke 4:18 says that Jesus’ ministry was aimed not only at the spiritual need, but both physical and spiritual. Preaching of the good news should be holistic. You cannot go and preach the good news and leave the person to die due from lack of food.
During the war many places in Sudan experienced a real meaning to the Lord’s Prayer especially where we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”. This is because it meant a lot as they prayed it in reality. In other parts of the world, this is not the case, as often one would have such bread in the fridge or nearest supermarket. James argues in his letter that our faith should be seen in our good work. This means that the mission of the Church should be a mission to the whole person.
The recent launch of the New Hope campaign is indeed one of the ways that the Diocese of Bethlehem is remaining true to the total mission of the Church. You wisely chose to assist the Diocese of Kajo-Keji as well as some parts of Pennsylvania where there are the poor. I appreciate the commitment of your Bishop and the entire Diocese in this worthwhile campaign. Indeed this will bring hope to a situation of hopelessness to a people who have known nothing but war and poverty. Related to this is ignorance and disease. I would like to assure you that this campaign will impact many lives and will bring change to many people.
Although the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has been signed between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party, many people have not yet seen tangible fruits of this peace. Some of the protocols of the Agreement have not also been implemented. We appreciate that now we have peace, there is no fear from aerial bombardment; we also have freedom to travel anywhere in Southern Sudan, although we in Kajo-Keji still have to travel south through Uganda to go north to any part of Sudan.
The prophecy of Isaiah 2:4 where swords were converted into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks is not yet fulfilled in terms of the Southern Sudan context. In contrast to this, when a peace treaty was signed in Mozambique in 1992, they found out that the Mozambique was awash with guns and many landmines. The Christian Council of Mozambique then came up with a plan to exchange guns for sewing machines, ploughing instruments, bicycles and seed grain. The church there converted tools of war into useful tools, as we read in this passage.
For us in Southern Sudan, not all areas of Southern Sudan are enjoying the fruits of the agreement. This is due to the non-implementation of the all the terms of the CPA; the SPLM leader recently said that Southern Sudan could easily go back to war. Pray with us that the CPA is implemented.
Update on the CPA
The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the SPLM and the National Congress Party, has given hope to the people of Southern Sudan. Although many people have not yet seen tangible fruits of this peace, there is now freedom of movement, a functional government in Southern Sudan, some roads are being repaired, schools being rebuilt. In Kajo-Keji, we have seen some people constructing shops, houses, schools being built by some NGOs. The roads in Kajo-Keji are still among the challenges.
Having said that there are still many challenges to the CPA. This week we heard news from Juba that the SPLM has withdrawn from the Government of National Unity (GoNU). This means that the SPLM ministers and advisors will not participate in the government. Apart from the non implementation of the CPA, one of the issues cited is the right of the SPLM to reshuffle its members in government. Some of the aspects of the CPA that still need to be implemented include:
1. Lack of Transparency on the Exploitation and Sharing of Oil revenue.
The NCP has not been transparent on the actual income of the oil revenues. The CPA stipulates that 50% of the oil revenue from oil fields found in Southern Sudan should go to the Government of Southern Sudan. The income expected is less than what was anticipated. There is belief that this is not the correct revenue.
2. The North South Border:
The NCP has intentionally avoided implementing the CPA provisions on issues pertaining to the South – North border demarcation. This has implication on the right level of income from the oil revenue. Because the correct border has not been determined, it means that the GOSS is not getting a correct level of its oil revenue.
3. The Withdrawal of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from Southern Sudan.
According to the CPA, the Sudan Armed Forces should have redeployed its forces from the south by July 9th, 2007. While the majority of the SPLA have withdrawn from the North, this has not been reciprocated by SAF.
4. The Abyei Protocol
The NCP has refused to implement the Protocol on Abyei. It has also refused to implement the Abyei Boundary Commission (ABC) Report which was carefully and thoroughly researched and written by international and national experts.
5. Delay in formation & operationalisation of various Commissions of the CPA.
The NCP has been slow in the formation and operationalisation of a number of commissions and other institutions as stipulated by the CPA. These include the Census Commissions, the Civil service reform.
What is the way forward?
It is important for the international community to bring pressure to bear on the NCP. I call on you to urge your government to bring pressure on the National Congress Party to implement the whole of the CPA and not do it selectively.
The full implementation of CPA could be a blue print for settling the conflict in Darfur. The media and international attention on the conflict in Darfur has been at the expense of the implementation of the CPA.
The involvement of the church in reconciliation
In the reading from the book of Ephesians 2:13 we are reminded that Christ death on the Cross reconciled us to God. He made peace between God and us. He also reconciled believing Jews and believing Gentiles. It is because of his death that I am here and can indeed see you here, as my brothers and sisters in Christ and that is why you thought of New Hope campaign. In v.18 we read that it is because of this that we have access to the Father and making us members of this family. One of our Sudanese bishops says that we are all people of God but those who accept the Cross become children of God. That is why, in verse 19, we read that we are no longer foreigners and aliens but members of this household. Regardless of where you are, as long as you are a believer, you are a member of this household and this family of Christ.
I would like to encourage each one of you in this ministry of reconciliation. I would like to encourage you to undertake a wholistic ministry in your mission, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people. It is important that there is a balance made between the physical and spiritual needs of the people. You cannot do one without the other and claim to be doing the mission of the Church.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
19th Sunday after Pentecost: Know Your Story
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
2 Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10
Welcome to the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania! Do you know where you are? Do you know the story of Nativity? Are the names Packer, Sayre, and Linderman familiar to you? These are some of the names found on the memorial plaques along the walls of this Cathedral Church. So, let me tell you a story. It may be quite familiar to some of you, but here we go. Bethlehem was settled by the Moravians in the 1740s as a faith community with a missionary purpose. By the nineteenth century, it was also a popular summer spot for folks from New York City and Philadelphia. Among its attributes and favorite places of respite was the Sun Inn, then (and now) to be found on Main Street. Then came coal, canals and railroads.
When the coal fields of this region were discovered, transporting this commodity became an industry. A canal was opened up from Mauch Chunk to Easton to deliver coal. From Easton it was easily transported to Philadelphia and New York (if Mauch Chunk is not familiar to you, you may know it as Jim Thorpe; the town changed its name in 1954 to honor its famous hometown athlete). Enter Asa Packer, a familiar name around here, who knew a more efficient way to transport coal than by canal and built the railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton the early 1850s. This Lehigh Valley Railroad was only the second such railroad in the United States. Robert Sayre was his chief engineer.
William Sayre, Sr., Robert’s father, and Asa Packer were friends and colleagues. In 1835, they were among the founders of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mauch Chunk. Family friends had been gathering regularly in William Sayre’s living room for prayer and worship, and eventually a parish was formed. The life of the Sayre family continued to be centered in St. Mark’s and Mauch Chunk until mid century. In 1857 the Lehigh Valley Railroad was joined by North Pennsylvania Railroad just south of the Lehigh River making South Bethlehem a destination. Robert Sayre moved from Mauch Chunk to Bethlehem to manage the Leigh Valley Railroad and he soon succeeded Asa Packer as director of newly formed Bethlehem Iron Company. He built a beautiful home in South Bethlehem, overlooking the Lehigh River and the railroad. It is still there, across the street from us, now known as the Sayre Mansion Inn. Soon, like his parents before him, he gathered with friends and family in his home for regular worship. Records indicate that on June 16, 1861 the assistant priest from St. Mark’s came and held services. Robert’s brother, William Sayre, Jr., also moved to South Bethlehem and built his house (now the funeral home) across from his brother. In May of 1862, they and their friends met in Robert’s home and agreed to form a parish. Thus St. Mark’s in Jim Thorpe is the “Mother Church” of Nativity.
The parish began first with a church school of 52 students. William Sayre Jr. became the superintendent in the fall of 1862, a position he kept for 47 years until his death in 1909. He was loved by the children. Regular Sunday services began September 7th and have continued without a break to this day. The vestry was formally constituted on November 8, 1862 the official date of the start of the parish. First—education and youth ministry. Second—regular worship. Third—recognition and solidification of leadership. These were the building blocks of this parish. Services and Sunday school were held at the railroad station as parishioners sought to build a moderate chapel, and one that must include Sunday school rooms. The vestry bought an acre of land (this acre we are currently occupying) for $350. The corner stone was placed on August 6, 1864 and the first service in the church building was Christmas Day 1864.
The good people of Nativity didn’t stop there:
• in 1866 Lehigh University opened its doors, its president a member of this parish and Nativity’s first rector, Mr. Eliphalet Potter, the professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy and Christian Evidences (his brother Edward Potter was the architect of Nativity).
• 1868 Bishopthorpe School for Girls opened, founded by parishioners
• the folks of Nativity helped build Grace Church in Allentown
• they started a Sunday School on the North side of Bethlehem which became Trinity Church
• In 1873 St. Luke’s hospital opened, a dream of then rector the Rev. Cortlandt Whitehead
• Thus, by 1885 the moderate chapel they had built was no longer large enough and new construction began
Ruth May Sayre, daughter of Robert Sayre, was the first child baptized at Nativity. She married Robert Linderman and their daughter Ruth Evelyn was the first child baptized in the newly expanded church. You can read this in histories of Bethlehem or in our own parish publication, “One Hundred years of Nativity.” You can read it on the memorial plaques along these the walls. And I have only told the first chapter!
Now it may seem that this story of Nativity and its beginnings would more appropriately have been our Dean’s story to tell today. After all, he is the one who grew up at St. Mark’s Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe and played in the cemetery where all the Sayres are buried. But it is my story too, even though I only moved to Bethlehem 8 years ago. And although there are many here who can tell the story differently than I, and have a longer claim on it, it is now part of my life and I am part of it. We are all in its current this morning, even if you are visiting.
Knowing and telling our story is important. Episcopal priest Jerome Berryman, who directs the Center for the Theology of the Child in Texas, discovered the incredible power of storytelling working with troubled families. He was part of a counseling team treating families with suicidal children. They discovered that all the families had one thing in common; they didn’t tell stories. Not about how mom and dad met, not about where their family came from, not about births, deaths, vacations or anything. So they taught the families how to tell their stories. And once they did, the children stopped acting out and the families began to heal..
There is another reason why telling our story is important. Because that is how faith is passed on. Not one of us would be here if the story of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ was not passed on. And after all, how did Jesus teach the people about God’s love for them? He told stories. This is what is so important about Paul’s letter to Timothy, a beloved friend. It is a testimony to the power of passing on the faith. This is a letter to a second generation Christian. Paul writes to encourage Timothy to hold fast to his faith. Where did this faith come from? “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” Faith is not something that is learned as much as it is absorbed. Faith is about our story, about relationships. There is research that shows that most adults who are faithful will point not to a church, but to a person who modeled that faith to them: a parent, a grandmother, a beloved uncle or godparent.
Now our faith story, any faith story, is not always easy to be a part of. This is because being part of God’s story of salvation is not so much about having faith, as it is about being faithful. This is what Jesus was getting at with the disciples. “Increase our faith!” they cry. If we only had more faith then we could…. You fill in the blank. Jesus’ response is that they do not need more. If your faith is only the size of a mustard seed, it is plenty. Because it is not about having a certain amount of faith, it is about being faithful. Another way to think about this: the opposite of faith is not doubt, but unfaith. What are we faithful to? Where do our loyalties lie? And it is when the going gets rough that our faith is tested. When disaster strikes, in our country, in our church, or in our personal lives, this is when we are called to be faithful. It is easy to have faith in our government when we agree with its policies. It is easy to have faith in our church when we are comfortable in our pews. It is easy to be faithful in our relationships when everything is going smoothly.
I am sure the story of the Sayre family and the beginning of Nativity was not as smooth as I told it. How was their faith tested? Like Timothy, I also have a grandmother and a mother who faithful (even Episcopalians) and they passed that faith on to me. I wonder how their faith was tested over the years. What brought them to their knees? What brought tears to their eyes? When were they about to walk away from it all? What kept them faithful? The disciples ask for more faith. But they do not need more; they need to exercise the faith they have. To remain steadfast and faithful even in the midst of trouble takes a dynamic faith.
Being faithful can be hard and painful. It’s like giving a gift. You know how a young child gives her little brother the gift she really wants, and then won’t let him play with it? You have to let go to truly give. I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. It is like giving our money to a cause, but then wanting to dictate how that money is used. I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. And this is like giving my life to God—I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. We have no control over how or when or in what way our faith is tested. Being faithful does not guarantee a life without stress. A dynamic faith is one that knows its story. A dynamic faith knows where it came from and is hopeful about where it is going. Ultimately, faith is about what and where God is calling me to be. Where is God calling you to be? This is the only question. And only you can answer it.
Amen
Copyright © 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
2 Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10
Welcome to the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania! Do you know where you are? Do you know the story of Nativity? Are the names Packer, Sayre, and Linderman familiar to you? These are some of the names found on the memorial plaques along the walls of this Cathedral Church. So, let me tell you a story. It may be quite familiar to some of you, but here we go. Bethlehem was settled by the Moravians in the 1740s as a faith community with a missionary purpose. By the nineteenth century, it was also a popular summer spot for folks from New York City and Philadelphia. Among its attributes and favorite places of respite was the Sun Inn, then (and now) to be found on Main Street. Then came coal, canals and railroads.
When the coal fields of this region were discovered, transporting this commodity became an industry. A canal was opened up from Mauch Chunk to Easton to deliver coal. From Easton it was easily transported to Philadelphia and New York (if Mauch Chunk is not familiar to you, you may know it as Jim Thorpe; the town changed its name in 1954 to honor its famous hometown athlete). Enter Asa Packer, a familiar name around here, who knew a more efficient way to transport coal than by canal and built the railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton the early 1850s. This Lehigh Valley Railroad was only the second such railroad in the United States. Robert Sayre was his chief engineer.
William Sayre, Sr., Robert’s father, and Asa Packer were friends and colleagues. In 1835, they were among the founders of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mauch Chunk. Family friends had been gathering regularly in William Sayre’s living room for prayer and worship, and eventually a parish was formed. The life of the Sayre family continued to be centered in St. Mark’s and Mauch Chunk until mid century. In 1857 the Lehigh Valley Railroad was joined by North Pennsylvania Railroad just south of the Lehigh River making South Bethlehem a destination. Robert Sayre moved from Mauch Chunk to Bethlehem to manage the Leigh Valley Railroad and he soon succeeded Asa Packer as director of newly formed Bethlehem Iron Company. He built a beautiful home in South Bethlehem, overlooking the Lehigh River and the railroad. It is still there, across the street from us, now known as the Sayre Mansion Inn. Soon, like his parents before him, he gathered with friends and family in his home for regular worship. Records indicate that on June 16, 1861 the assistant priest from St. Mark’s came and held services. Robert’s brother, William Sayre, Jr., also moved to South Bethlehem and built his house (now the funeral home) across from his brother. In May of 1862, they and their friends met in Robert’s home and agreed to form a parish. Thus St. Mark’s in Jim Thorpe is the “Mother Church” of Nativity.
The parish began first with a church school of 52 students. William Sayre Jr. became the superintendent in the fall of 1862, a position he kept for 47 years until his death in 1909. He was loved by the children. Regular Sunday services began September 7th and have continued without a break to this day. The vestry was formally constituted on November 8, 1862 the official date of the start of the parish. First—education and youth ministry. Second—regular worship. Third—recognition and solidification of leadership. These were the building blocks of this parish. Services and Sunday school were held at the railroad station as parishioners sought to build a moderate chapel, and one that must include Sunday school rooms. The vestry bought an acre of land (this acre we are currently occupying) for $350. The corner stone was placed on August 6, 1864 and the first service in the church building was Christmas Day 1864.
The good people of Nativity didn’t stop there:
• in 1866 Lehigh University opened its doors, its president a member of this parish and Nativity’s first rector, Mr. Eliphalet Potter, the professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy and Christian Evidences (his brother Edward Potter was the architect of Nativity).
• 1868 Bishopthorpe School for Girls opened, founded by parishioners
• the folks of Nativity helped build Grace Church in Allentown
• they started a Sunday School on the North side of Bethlehem which became Trinity Church
• In 1873 St. Luke’s hospital opened, a dream of then rector the Rev. Cortlandt Whitehead
• Thus, by 1885 the moderate chapel they had built was no longer large enough and new construction began
Ruth May Sayre, daughter of Robert Sayre, was the first child baptized at Nativity. She married Robert Linderman and their daughter Ruth Evelyn was the first child baptized in the newly expanded church. You can read this in histories of Bethlehem or in our own parish publication, “One Hundred years of Nativity.” You can read it on the memorial plaques along these the walls. And I have only told the first chapter!
Now it may seem that this story of Nativity and its beginnings would more appropriately have been our Dean’s story to tell today. After all, he is the one who grew up at St. Mark’s Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe and played in the cemetery where all the Sayres are buried. But it is my story too, even though I only moved to Bethlehem 8 years ago. And although there are many here who can tell the story differently than I, and have a longer claim on it, it is now part of my life and I am part of it. We are all in its current this morning, even if you are visiting.
Knowing and telling our story is important. Episcopal priest Jerome Berryman, who directs the Center for the Theology of the Child in Texas, discovered the incredible power of storytelling working with troubled families. He was part of a counseling team treating families with suicidal children. They discovered that all the families had one thing in common; they didn’t tell stories. Not about how mom and dad met, not about where their family came from, not about births, deaths, vacations or anything. So they taught the families how to tell their stories. And once they did, the children stopped acting out and the families began to heal..
There is another reason why telling our story is important. Because that is how faith is passed on. Not one of us would be here if the story of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ was not passed on. And after all, how did Jesus teach the people about God’s love for them? He told stories. This is what is so important about Paul’s letter to Timothy, a beloved friend. It is a testimony to the power of passing on the faith. This is a letter to a second generation Christian. Paul writes to encourage Timothy to hold fast to his faith. Where did this faith come from? “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” Faith is not something that is learned as much as it is absorbed. Faith is about our story, about relationships. There is research that shows that most adults who are faithful will point not to a church, but to a person who modeled that faith to them: a parent, a grandmother, a beloved uncle or godparent.
Now our faith story, any faith story, is not always easy to be a part of. This is because being part of God’s story of salvation is not so much about having faith, as it is about being faithful. This is what Jesus was getting at with the disciples. “Increase our faith!” they cry. If we only had more faith then we could…. You fill in the blank. Jesus’ response is that they do not need more. If your faith is only the size of a mustard seed, it is plenty. Because it is not about having a certain amount of faith, it is about being faithful. Another way to think about this: the opposite of faith is not doubt, but unfaith. What are we faithful to? Where do our loyalties lie? And it is when the going gets rough that our faith is tested. When disaster strikes, in our country, in our church, or in our personal lives, this is when we are called to be faithful. It is easy to have faith in our government when we agree with its policies. It is easy to have faith in our church when we are comfortable in our pews. It is easy to be faithful in our relationships when everything is going smoothly.
I am sure the story of the Sayre family and the beginning of Nativity was not as smooth as I told it. How was their faith tested? Like Timothy, I also have a grandmother and a mother who faithful (even Episcopalians) and they passed that faith on to me. I wonder how their faith was tested over the years. What brought them to their knees? What brought tears to their eyes? When were they about to walk away from it all? What kept them faithful? The disciples ask for more faith. But they do not need more; they need to exercise the faith they have. To remain steadfast and faithful even in the midst of trouble takes a dynamic faith.
Being faithful can be hard and painful. It’s like giving a gift. You know how a young child gives her little brother the gift she really wants, and then won’t let him play with it? You have to let go to truly give. I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. It is like giving our money to a cause, but then wanting to dictate how that money is used. I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. And this is like giving my life to God—I haven’t given it, if I want to control it. We have no control over how or when or in what way our faith is tested. Being faithful does not guarantee a life without stress. A dynamic faith is one that knows its story. A dynamic faith knows where it came from and is hopeful about where it is going. Ultimately, faith is about what and where God is calling me to be. Where is God calling you to be? This is the only question. And only you can answer it.
Amen
Copyright © 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The 16th Sunday after Pentecost: Spiritual Dust Bunnies
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Luke 15:1-10
Why do we call them “dust bunnies”? You know, those little balls of dust and dirt that gather under beds and in corners of most homes. Are they “dust bunnies” because they multiply like rabbits, or because they move so quickly that just when you think you are about to capture one it scurries further under the bed and eludes you. Wikipedia, the online dictionary, proffers this, “Dust bunnies (often one word, dustbunnies) are little clumps of fluff that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly.” It says nothing about where the term comes from. My daughter reminds me that Wikipedia is not a reliable source. So, another source of information available is Dust Bunny Facts at www.durtbunnies.com, which tells us that dustbunnies have been around for centuries and are an “untouched resource of easy-care pets for our busy life styles. They have lived quietly along side us and have already been domesticated.” Further internet research reveals Dust Bunnies, Inc. in Irving, TX which provides housecleaning and janitorial services. You can find them at www.dustbunniesinc.net.
None of these sites gives us a clue as to the origin of the term, but they aptly describe (even humorously) the dust and dirt that collects in our everyday lives. There is always “stuff” that eludes even the most diligent of housekeepers. Furthermore, I am convinced that spiritual dust bunnies have invaded our souls as well, cluttering them with who knows what. And there are also all those small items that get lost amongst the dust, as if the dust bunnies keep them as treasures: lost pencils, lost game tokens, and lost coins.
When Jesus was questioned about the kind of company he kept—you may remember that many people were concerned about him hanging out with the poor, the least, the lonely, and the lost—in typical fashion, he tells a story. He describes a woman who loses one of ten coins. She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. Once she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together to celebrate. Right. When was the last time you threw a party after you finally found that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle you couldn’t finish last winter? What an incredible story Jesus tells.
But sometimes what is lost is much more important than a missing puzzle piece. I believe we can be lost amongst the dust and darkness of our inner lives, in profound ways, but also in everyday ones. When have you been lost in the darkness and dust of your own house, of your everyday life? We cannot keep our spiritual lives clear of clutter at all times. What if we have a God who is a diligent woman bringing light into the dark places of our lives? What if we have a God who industriously sweeps away all the dirt and dust and then searches to bring us out into the open? What it, once we are found, we are also brought into the community to celebrate with friends and neighbors?
That is exactly the kind of God we are loved by, and knowing this brings us hope. Hope is something we can give as well. Our Diocese and our Bishop have made a commitment to bringing hope to others. In a moment we will hear in a letter from Bishop Paul about our New Hope Campaign. This effort reaches out to those who are lost in their everyday lives of struggle and poverty. The New Hope Campaign affords us the opportunity to bring light into their darkness and sweep away despair. It compels us to search diligently for whoever may be lost and, once we find them, to then bring them into community. Better yet, we can become a community together, surrounding one another as friends and neighbors so that we can all celebrate!
God may be the diligent woman who searches for what is lost, but perhaps we can be the light or the broom or the neighbors who rejoice. When we are poor, or least, or lonely, or lost, God searches for us diligently, leaving no corner unswept. And once we are found, God welcomes us into community with all of those whom God loves. Knowing a God like this fills us with hope. When those around us are poor, or least, or lonely, or lost, we can also bring them hope. New Hope. New friends. New life.
Amen.
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
Luke 15:1-10
Why do we call them “dust bunnies”? You know, those little balls of dust and dirt that gather under beds and in corners of most homes. Are they “dust bunnies” because they multiply like rabbits, or because they move so quickly that just when you think you are about to capture one it scurries further under the bed and eludes you. Wikipedia, the online dictionary, proffers this, “Dust bunnies (often one word, dustbunnies) are little clumps of fluff that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly.” It says nothing about where the term comes from. My daughter reminds me that Wikipedia is not a reliable source. So, another source of information available is Dust Bunny Facts at www.durtbunnies.com, which tells us that dustbunnies have been around for centuries and are an “untouched resource of easy-care pets for our busy life styles. They have lived quietly along side us and have already been domesticated.” Further internet research reveals Dust Bunnies, Inc. in Irving, TX which provides housecleaning and janitorial services. You can find them at www.dustbunniesinc.net.
None of these sites gives us a clue as to the origin of the term, but they aptly describe (even humorously) the dust and dirt that collects in our everyday lives. There is always “stuff” that eludes even the most diligent of housekeepers. Furthermore, I am convinced that spiritual dust bunnies have invaded our souls as well, cluttering them with who knows what. And there are also all those small items that get lost amongst the dust, as if the dust bunnies keep them as treasures: lost pencils, lost game tokens, and lost coins.
When Jesus was questioned about the kind of company he kept—you may remember that many people were concerned about him hanging out with the poor, the least, the lonely, and the lost—in typical fashion, he tells a story. He describes a woman who loses one of ten coins. She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. Once she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together to celebrate. Right. When was the last time you threw a party after you finally found that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle you couldn’t finish last winter? What an incredible story Jesus tells.
But sometimes what is lost is much more important than a missing puzzle piece. I believe we can be lost amongst the dust and darkness of our inner lives, in profound ways, but also in everyday ones. When have you been lost in the darkness and dust of your own house, of your everyday life? We cannot keep our spiritual lives clear of clutter at all times. What if we have a God who is a diligent woman bringing light into the dark places of our lives? What if we have a God who industriously sweeps away all the dirt and dust and then searches to bring us out into the open? What it, once we are found, we are also brought into the community to celebrate with friends and neighbors?
That is exactly the kind of God we are loved by, and knowing this brings us hope. Hope is something we can give as well. Our Diocese and our Bishop have made a commitment to bringing hope to others. In a moment we will hear in a letter from Bishop Paul about our New Hope Campaign. This effort reaches out to those who are lost in their everyday lives of struggle and poverty. The New Hope Campaign affords us the opportunity to bring light into their darkness and sweep away despair. It compels us to search diligently for whoever may be lost and, once we find them, to then bring them into community. Better yet, we can become a community together, surrounding one another as friends and neighbors so that we can all celebrate!
God may be the diligent woman who searches for what is lost, but perhaps we can be the light or the broom or the neighbors who rejoice. When we are poor, or least, or lonely, or lost, God searches for us diligently, leaving no corner unswept. And once we are found, God welcomes us into community with all of those whom God loves. Knowing a God like this fills us with hope. When those around us are poor, or least, or lonely, or lost, we can also bring them hope. New Hope. New friends. New life.
Amen.
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
Sunday, September 02, 2007
14th Sunday after Pentecost: Where is God in All This?
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Jeremiah 2:4-13 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14
The water bottle is ubiquitous this time of year. You see them everywhere because drinking water is important—especially when it’s hot. There have been several days this past week when we have had to be careful of the heat. Drinking water is actually urgent when you are hot, or pregnant, or exercising. Yet drinking water is important all the time, even when not urgent. Still, it is amazingly easy to ignore water and our thirst for it.
I once volunteered to help with field day at the elementary school. My job was to handle the water station. I poured water from a cooler into tiny paper cups so that thirsty 1st and 2nd graders could come for a water break. But when they came, one looked at me, puzzled. “What’s this?”
“Water.”
“I don’t drink water.” I don’t drink water. Not, I don’t like water, or I don’t want water, or I’m not thirsty, but I don’t drink water. I just looked at her.
“Do you have any juice boxes?” she asked.
“No.”
She was not the only who refused. I pondered this. How could you not drink water? Had she and her family been lured into believing that juice boxes, full of sugar and false nutrients, could assuage her thirst? In so many instances we are lured into what seems easy or comforting or flavorful and ignore that we simply need water in order to survive. As we forget or forego the importance of water for our thirsty bodies, so we can easily forget God for our thirsty souls.
It is amazingly easy to ignore God--even for religious folks. Many people go days, even weeks or months without thinking twice about God. For some it is years or a life-time. Even those of us here today, who have made some public affirmation of some kind of faith, are not immune to God-forgetfulness. How easily do we set God far off? In heaven or in the future?
This is the cry of Jeremiah. Why do you not seek for God, he cries. Living and preaching God’s word 500 years before Jesus was born, Jeremiah was God’s chosen prophet to all the families of the House of Israel. “What wrong did your ancestors find in me,” God speaks through Jeremiah, “that they went far from me, and (not only that) went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” Why did they not simply ask, “Where is the Lord?” This is the important question for Jeremiah to be asked at all time and at all places—where is God in all this. Because in asking the question, we set our attention toward God. When our eyes and heart are set on seeking God, we have already acknowledged God’s presence. We pay attention. We sense that God is near.
This is the question for us as people of faith to be asked at all times and in all places: where is God in all this? It is not a rhetorical question. It is a question of faith, because it assumes an answer. It is not whether God is present, but how God is present. The answer to “Where is God” will always be, “here.” It is the forgetfulness of the people that Jeremiah laments. Your ancestors did not say, “Where is God?” and the priests did not say, “Where is God?” They stopped asking the important question. Instead they forgot who they were. They went about their lives as if God were not. And worse than that, they tried to replace the sustenance of God with empty wells. They forgot to drink their water. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
I once had a water pitcher with a crack in it. I kept filling it and putting it in the refrigerator, but when I wanted a cold glass of water it never seemed full. I kept thinking that someone was drinking a lot of water. Somehow I didn’t take notice of the puddle of water that kept pooling at the bottom of the refrigerator. Even today we trust cracked theologies, false gods and faulty reasoning. We place our hope in systems of faith that simply do not work, that won’t hold water. We are lured into living day-to-day as if God is far off and as if heaven is in the future. This can lead us into the false notion that our life is about living well in order to get into heaven. Then we will meet God face to face. Since God is far off and in the future, there is no relationship now.
We couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus knew this. Jesus knew that the Sabbath was not about worshipping a God who was far off, not about keeping strict rules of worship in order to be honored and earn a special place at God’s banquet table in the after-life. The Sabbath was set aside to remember God’s great act of creation, to honor that creation and each one in it, to celebrate a relationship with God here and now. A life in Christ is not about how to get ourselves the best seat at the table—it is about inviting others to the table. Jesus enacts an ethic of radical hospitality as if we were in the Kingdom of God at the banquet table right now. As if it was true. As if God were present here and now.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds those first century followers of the way (and now 2000 years later reminds us) what God has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you!” Because God is here and now, God’s love is here and now. We are called to enact mutual love, show hospitality to strangers, remember those in prison, honor our marriage vows, keep our lives free from love of money, and be content with what we have because we are God’s beloved. Our lives as God’s beloved are not about working to earn ourselves a place in some far off Kingdom of God, but about working to create the Kingdom of God for others here and now.
When we stop asking, “Where is God?” we lull ourselves into believing we can live without water. We need to turn to God for living water. And we need to invite others to come along; or better yet, take the living water to them. We need to say again and again, “Where is God in all of this?” In times of desperation, where is God? In times of joy, where is God? In times of foggy indifference, where is God? Because there is no where or when, where God is not.
Amen.
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
Jeremiah 2:4-13 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1, 7-14
The water bottle is ubiquitous this time of year. You see them everywhere because drinking water is important—especially when it’s hot. There have been several days this past week when we have had to be careful of the heat. Drinking water is actually urgent when you are hot, or pregnant, or exercising. Yet drinking water is important all the time, even when not urgent. Still, it is amazingly easy to ignore water and our thirst for it.
I once volunteered to help with field day at the elementary school. My job was to handle the water station. I poured water from a cooler into tiny paper cups so that thirsty 1st and 2nd graders could come for a water break. But when they came, one looked at me, puzzled. “What’s this?”
“Water.”
“I don’t drink water.” I don’t drink water. Not, I don’t like water, or I don’t want water, or I’m not thirsty, but I don’t drink water. I just looked at her.
“Do you have any juice boxes?” she asked.
“No.”
She was not the only who refused. I pondered this. How could you not drink water? Had she and her family been lured into believing that juice boxes, full of sugar and false nutrients, could assuage her thirst? In so many instances we are lured into what seems easy or comforting or flavorful and ignore that we simply need water in order to survive. As we forget or forego the importance of water for our thirsty bodies, so we can easily forget God for our thirsty souls.
It is amazingly easy to ignore God--even for religious folks. Many people go days, even weeks or months without thinking twice about God. For some it is years or a life-time. Even those of us here today, who have made some public affirmation of some kind of faith, are not immune to God-forgetfulness. How easily do we set God far off? In heaven or in the future?
This is the cry of Jeremiah. Why do you not seek for God, he cries. Living and preaching God’s word 500 years before Jesus was born, Jeremiah was God’s chosen prophet to all the families of the House of Israel. “What wrong did your ancestors find in me,” God speaks through Jeremiah, “that they went far from me, and (not only that) went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” Why did they not simply ask, “Where is the Lord?” This is the important question for Jeremiah to be asked at all time and at all places—where is God in all this. Because in asking the question, we set our attention toward God. When our eyes and heart are set on seeking God, we have already acknowledged God’s presence. We pay attention. We sense that God is near.
This is the question for us as people of faith to be asked at all times and in all places: where is God in all this? It is not a rhetorical question. It is a question of faith, because it assumes an answer. It is not whether God is present, but how God is present. The answer to “Where is God” will always be, “here.” It is the forgetfulness of the people that Jeremiah laments. Your ancestors did not say, “Where is God?” and the priests did not say, “Where is God?” They stopped asking the important question. Instead they forgot who they were. They went about their lives as if God were not. And worse than that, they tried to replace the sustenance of God with empty wells. They forgot to drink their water. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
I once had a water pitcher with a crack in it. I kept filling it and putting it in the refrigerator, but when I wanted a cold glass of water it never seemed full. I kept thinking that someone was drinking a lot of water. Somehow I didn’t take notice of the puddle of water that kept pooling at the bottom of the refrigerator. Even today we trust cracked theologies, false gods and faulty reasoning. We place our hope in systems of faith that simply do not work, that won’t hold water. We are lured into living day-to-day as if God is far off and as if heaven is in the future. This can lead us into the false notion that our life is about living well in order to get into heaven. Then we will meet God face to face. Since God is far off and in the future, there is no relationship now.
We couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus knew this. Jesus knew that the Sabbath was not about worshipping a God who was far off, not about keeping strict rules of worship in order to be honored and earn a special place at God’s banquet table in the after-life. The Sabbath was set aside to remember God’s great act of creation, to honor that creation and each one in it, to celebrate a relationship with God here and now. A life in Christ is not about how to get ourselves the best seat at the table—it is about inviting others to the table. Jesus enacts an ethic of radical hospitality as if we were in the Kingdom of God at the banquet table right now. As if it was true. As if God were present here and now.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds those first century followers of the way (and now 2000 years later reminds us) what God has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you!” Because God is here and now, God’s love is here and now. We are called to enact mutual love, show hospitality to strangers, remember those in prison, honor our marriage vows, keep our lives free from love of money, and be content with what we have because we are God’s beloved. Our lives as God’s beloved are not about working to earn ourselves a place in some far off Kingdom of God, but about working to create the Kingdom of God for others here and now.
When we stop asking, “Where is God?” we lull ourselves into believing we can live without water. We need to turn to God for living water. And we need to invite others to come along; or better yet, take the living water to them. We need to say again and again, “Where is God in all of this?” In times of desperation, where is God? In times of joy, where is God? In times of foggy indifference, where is God? Because there is no where or when, where God is not.
Amen.
Copyright © 2007 Anne E. Kitch
Sunday, August 19, 2007
12th Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Fire
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Isaiah 5:1-7 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56
I wasn’t caught in the deluge on Friday afternoon, but my friend was. We were just finishing lunch in a downtown restaurant when someone mentioned that it had begun to thunder. My friend left immediately hoping to reach her parked car and close the windows before it started to rain. I stayed behind to finish a conversation. No one was really prepared for the cascade of wind and water as the storm hit. Although there had been warning signs, it seemed to come out of nowhere. The force with which it hit, even hail in some places, was certainly out of the norm for an August day in Pennsylvania. I certainly wasn’t expecting it. I had checked the weather report earlier because we were planning a picnic that night and even after that first onslaught I kept insisting it would clear in time for dinner.
Perhaps we had been lulled into the comfort zone that is late summer. Isolated thunder storm are expected, but not like this. Or perhaps it is because we are city dwellers that we don’t really expect a storm to catch us unawares and without shelter. A change in the weather can be an inconvenience. My friend was soaked, but unharmed. Yet there are times and places when being unprepared for a storm is a matter of life and death. Outdoor enthusiasts know this. Hikers, kayakers, and bikers know to read the signs. They respect weather and approach it with caution and wisdom. Now we all know how to read the signs: a change in wind, dark clouds overhead, a drop in air pressure. These could be significant. And the wise among you also know that despite all these signs, the weather is completely unpredictable as well. Storms come. If we are lulled by the summer sun, by our comfort zones, we will not be ready. Don’t underestimate the power of creation.
What about the rest of our lives? How well do we navigate the weather in our everyday lives? In our relationships? In our interactions with the world at large? In our faith? Do we read the signs? Do we remember not to underestimate the powers around us? Do we know what kind of a God we are dealing with? Jesus wondered--his strong words in the Gospel shock us, “I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!” Where is the good news in this? In today’s collect we honor Jesus as an example of godly life and we pray that God will help us follow in his blessed steps. But what kind of example is this? Calling down fire on the earth, bringing division rather than peace. What blessing is there in households divided? But what he speaks about is a matter of life and death.
Jesus has already set his face toward Jerusalem and has already turned the corner to the cross. He knows, even if his followers do not, that the heat is on. The crowds gathering around him now numbered in the thousands. He has been teaching about judgment and greed and the imperative to be rich toward God. He has told them not to be anxious about daily life, but to trust in God. He has said that where your treasure is there will your heart be also. He has counseled them to strive first for the Kingdom. These are comfortable words. But then it escalates. He warns them all to be prepared for the master coming at the unexpected hour. And then this—I came to bring fire to the earth!
Lest we get lulled by a quiet summer afternoon and a lovely lunch with friends, Jesus warns that there is a storm coming. Lest his followers believe that a few wise sayings about real treasure encompass the Gospel and Jesus’ work on earth, Jesus speaks of the fire to come and of his baptism to come. This is not the baptism performed by John in the River Jordan that began Jesus’ ministry, but the one that will complete the work that Jesus has begun. Do you remember John’s words when he baptized all who came to him, “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming after me and he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire!” Jesus is that one and is ready to kindle the fire—a fire that will consume him. He will raise a storm that leads to his death on the cross. Because nothing less will save the world.
There are many storms that rage around us. We only need to read the headlines in the local paper to see the evidence of their wrath. As the prophet Isaiah cries out, “The Lord of hosts expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” Sometimes it feels as if the evils of the world are creeping closer and closer to our front door. It seems that storm clouds of despair are looming. We can get lulled into the comfort zone and not act, hoping to stay protected. But it doesn’t work that way. We will not stay protected. For what happens in the world, happens to us. That is what it means to be part of the Body of Christ. We cannot simply divorce ourselves from the other members. No wonder Jesus spoke strong words! No wonder he cried to people to look around them and see the redemption that the world cried for, “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Even if others didn’t, Jesus knew his work was matter of life and death for the entire world. He knew that even his closest followers had no idea about the power he would unleash: the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that began by dying on the cross.
I came to bring fire! We know something about fire and its power. We know that it burns, is destructive, dangerous, out of our control, hungry and devouring. But there is more. Do you know the story of the lodge pole pine? This evergreen is prolific out west. Like most evergreens, its seeds are contained in pine cones. But no matter how many of these cones fall to the ground, the seeds will not sprout. The cones are shut tight, glued together by resin. Certain seeds from the cone are only released when the resin is melted by intense heat: the heat of a forest fire. Do you recall the forest fires that destroyed much of Yellowstone Park 20 years ago? For most of the 20th century, the caretakers and national park managers fought all forest fires believing that fire suppression was good stewardship. They thought of any blaze only as a destructive force—one they could tame or at least temper. But in not allowing any blazes to burn, they created forests that were unhealthy, full of dead wood that became ready tinder for a huge and devastating fire. And then it turns out that forests have all sorts of adaptations for fires—like the lodge pole pine. In the midst of destruction, the seeds are preserved. New life comes forth. We have learned much about forest fires and how to fight them over the last 20 years. It turns out that in the economy of the forest, fires are necessary to ensure that healthy life continues.
This is what God’s fire can do in our lives. We cannot tame Jesus any more than we can avoid storms or control fires; nor would we want to. A tame, soft-spoken Jesus couldn’t save the world, wouldn’t bring us new life. What new life is there in you that has yet to be unleashed? What seeds lay hidden, lulled in a comfort zone that need to be awakened by God’s holy fire?
Copyright © 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
Isaiah 5:1-7 Hebrews 11:29-12:2 Luke 12:49-56
I wasn’t caught in the deluge on Friday afternoon, but my friend was. We were just finishing lunch in a downtown restaurant when someone mentioned that it had begun to thunder. My friend left immediately hoping to reach her parked car and close the windows before it started to rain. I stayed behind to finish a conversation. No one was really prepared for the cascade of wind and water as the storm hit. Although there had been warning signs, it seemed to come out of nowhere. The force with which it hit, even hail in some places, was certainly out of the norm for an August day in Pennsylvania. I certainly wasn’t expecting it. I had checked the weather report earlier because we were planning a picnic that night and even after that first onslaught I kept insisting it would clear in time for dinner.
Perhaps we had been lulled into the comfort zone that is late summer. Isolated thunder storm are expected, but not like this. Or perhaps it is because we are city dwellers that we don’t really expect a storm to catch us unawares and without shelter. A change in the weather can be an inconvenience. My friend was soaked, but unharmed. Yet there are times and places when being unprepared for a storm is a matter of life and death. Outdoor enthusiasts know this. Hikers, kayakers, and bikers know to read the signs. They respect weather and approach it with caution and wisdom. Now we all know how to read the signs: a change in wind, dark clouds overhead, a drop in air pressure. These could be significant. And the wise among you also know that despite all these signs, the weather is completely unpredictable as well. Storms come. If we are lulled by the summer sun, by our comfort zones, we will not be ready. Don’t underestimate the power of creation.
What about the rest of our lives? How well do we navigate the weather in our everyday lives? In our relationships? In our interactions with the world at large? In our faith? Do we read the signs? Do we remember not to underestimate the powers around us? Do we know what kind of a God we are dealing with? Jesus wondered--his strong words in the Gospel shock us, “I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!” Where is the good news in this? In today’s collect we honor Jesus as an example of godly life and we pray that God will help us follow in his blessed steps. But what kind of example is this? Calling down fire on the earth, bringing division rather than peace. What blessing is there in households divided? But what he speaks about is a matter of life and death.
Jesus has already set his face toward Jerusalem and has already turned the corner to the cross. He knows, even if his followers do not, that the heat is on. The crowds gathering around him now numbered in the thousands. He has been teaching about judgment and greed and the imperative to be rich toward God. He has told them not to be anxious about daily life, but to trust in God. He has said that where your treasure is there will your heart be also. He has counseled them to strive first for the Kingdom. These are comfortable words. But then it escalates. He warns them all to be prepared for the master coming at the unexpected hour. And then this—I came to bring fire to the earth!
Lest we get lulled by a quiet summer afternoon and a lovely lunch with friends, Jesus warns that there is a storm coming. Lest his followers believe that a few wise sayings about real treasure encompass the Gospel and Jesus’ work on earth, Jesus speaks of the fire to come and of his baptism to come. This is not the baptism performed by John in the River Jordan that began Jesus’ ministry, but the one that will complete the work that Jesus has begun. Do you remember John’s words when he baptized all who came to him, “I baptize you with water, but there is one coming after me and he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire!” Jesus is that one and is ready to kindle the fire—a fire that will consume him. He will raise a storm that leads to his death on the cross. Because nothing less will save the world.
There are many storms that rage around us. We only need to read the headlines in the local paper to see the evidence of their wrath. As the prophet Isaiah cries out, “The Lord of hosts expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” Sometimes it feels as if the evils of the world are creeping closer and closer to our front door. It seems that storm clouds of despair are looming. We can get lulled into the comfort zone and not act, hoping to stay protected. But it doesn’t work that way. We will not stay protected. For what happens in the world, happens to us. That is what it means to be part of the Body of Christ. We cannot simply divorce ourselves from the other members. No wonder Jesus spoke strong words! No wonder he cried to people to look around them and see the redemption that the world cried for, “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Even if others didn’t, Jesus knew his work was matter of life and death for the entire world. He knew that even his closest followers had no idea about the power he would unleash: the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that began by dying on the cross.
I came to bring fire! We know something about fire and its power. We know that it burns, is destructive, dangerous, out of our control, hungry and devouring. But there is more. Do you know the story of the lodge pole pine? This evergreen is prolific out west. Like most evergreens, its seeds are contained in pine cones. But no matter how many of these cones fall to the ground, the seeds will not sprout. The cones are shut tight, glued together by resin. Certain seeds from the cone are only released when the resin is melted by intense heat: the heat of a forest fire. Do you recall the forest fires that destroyed much of Yellowstone Park 20 years ago? For most of the 20th century, the caretakers and national park managers fought all forest fires believing that fire suppression was good stewardship. They thought of any blaze only as a destructive force—one they could tame or at least temper. But in not allowing any blazes to burn, they created forests that were unhealthy, full of dead wood that became ready tinder for a huge and devastating fire. And then it turns out that forests have all sorts of adaptations for fires—like the lodge pole pine. In the midst of destruction, the seeds are preserved. New life comes forth. We have learned much about forest fires and how to fight them over the last 20 years. It turns out that in the economy of the forest, fires are necessary to ensure that healthy life continues.
This is what God’s fire can do in our lives. We cannot tame Jesus any more than we can avoid storms or control fires; nor would we want to. A tame, soft-spoken Jesus couldn’t save the world, wouldn’t bring us new life. What new life is there in you that has yet to be unleashed? What seeds lay hidden, lulled in a comfort zone that need to be awakened by God’s holy fire?
Copyright © 2007 by Anne E. Kitch
Sunday, August 12, 2007
11th Sunday after Pentecost:Right Now
The Rev. Canon Cliff Carr
George went to the doctor for his annual checkup. When he returned home, his wife noticed that he seemed troubled and anxious. “What’s the matter dear,” she asked. “The doctor told me that I would have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.”
“That’s not so bad,” she said – “there are a lot of people who have to do that…….” “Yes dear, I know that,” said George, “but the doctor only gave me 10 pills.”
It’s surprising how many people are afraid and worry about all kinds of things: fear of illness, fear of losing a job or friends, fear of the past or the future. In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock…… do not give up hope - - have faith.”
The scripture scholars tell us that Luke was most likely writing for early believers living under the threat of persecution – Jesus speaks to their fears like a mother or father speaking to a frightened child in the middle of the night. “Don’t be afraid, little one……..” Christ encourages us to put our trust only in God, rather than in wealth or possessions - - or in anything else that does not have “foundations whose architect and builder is God.” He also calls his disciples to “roll up their sleeves,” – to be “dressed for action and have their lamps lit,” for there is work to be done. We who are the Church are called to be a people of service and action – those whose work is to bring light to the world and society where we are. The New Hope Campaign of the Diocese, which begins this fall, is clearly a response to this call of Jesus to be ready and willing to live God’s love in our time and place.
Lest we be worn out along the way, we are encouraged by the witness of the Abrahams and Sarahs of the past, as well as Christ’s own promise that He will surely return and seat His faithful ones at the heavenly banquet table and wait on them. Here at this Eucharist we have a foretaste of what that will be like. And as usual when dealing with Jesus, things are turned upside-down. For here at this table, we can “take a breather” – we can rest a minute from our labors and gather our strength. Here we can “recline at the table” in the mid-eastern fashion and be waited on and served by the Master. Jesus offers us Himself in His Holy Word and Spiritual Food. And we are fed and nourished as we look around at the other servants who have also come in from the fields of their own labors to join us in voicing praise and thanks to God.
With them we reach out with hungry hearts for the food that sustains us as we work for the Lord and try to be vigilant during our long wait for His return. In the Gospels the various “meal images” always point us to that final Banquet we will share when this period of work and diligence and temptation is finally over. What we do here week-by-week is only a partial sign of that Heavenly Banquet, making visible in faith what the Gospel promises. For at this table we gather, we “recline” in faith and receive what Jesus offers us - - His very self as our food and our forgiveness - - nourishment given to strengthen us to do the work given us to do.
Today’s readings may sound like those we might hear during Advent - - with talk of perseverance in trials, faithfulness in waiting, and hope in Christ’s return. But watchfulness isn’t just a part-time virtue, or a one-season practice. We should always be on the watch for the Lord in our daily lives. It could be that Christ will come into my life TODAY. That Christ constantly comes into my life, steadily inhabiting every moment and every chance – being there always to fill the random things of my life with meaning. It could be that Christ is in my life and I haven’t noticed, that I am so busy preparing for an unknown future event that I can’t see what’s happening right in front of my eyes. That’s certainly true about a lot of other things. Barbara Crafton, meditating on this passage suggests that most of us “try to borrow the future every day, to live either in it’s happiness or its horrors, when the only joys and sorrows we really have are the ones we have right now. Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid little flock.” Look at what fills your life right now – maybe there are nuggets of gold embedded in the homeliest of them.”
At the most unexpected times, and yes, even in surprising people and circumstances, Jesus knocks at the door of our lives and asks to be let in. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in this celebration and in the coming days, and give him an entrance through the Word we have heard and the Holy Food we are about to receive. AMEN.
George went to the doctor for his annual checkup. When he returned home, his wife noticed that he seemed troubled and anxious. “What’s the matter dear,” she asked. “The doctor told me that I would have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.”
“That’s not so bad,” she said – “there are a lot of people who have to do that…….” “Yes dear, I know that,” said George, “but the doctor only gave me 10 pills.”
It’s surprising how many people are afraid and worry about all kinds of things: fear of illness, fear of losing a job or friends, fear of the past or the future. In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock…… do not give up hope - - have faith.”
The scripture scholars tell us that Luke was most likely writing for early believers living under the threat of persecution – Jesus speaks to their fears like a mother or father speaking to a frightened child in the middle of the night. “Don’t be afraid, little one……..” Christ encourages us to put our trust only in God, rather than in wealth or possessions - - or in anything else that does not have “foundations whose architect and builder is God.” He also calls his disciples to “roll up their sleeves,” – to be “dressed for action and have their lamps lit,” for there is work to be done. We who are the Church are called to be a people of service and action – those whose work is to bring light to the world and society where we are. The New Hope Campaign of the Diocese, which begins this fall, is clearly a response to this call of Jesus to be ready and willing to live God’s love in our time and place.
Lest we be worn out along the way, we are encouraged by the witness of the Abrahams and Sarahs of the past, as well as Christ’s own promise that He will surely return and seat His faithful ones at the heavenly banquet table and wait on them. Here at this Eucharist we have a foretaste of what that will be like. And as usual when dealing with Jesus, things are turned upside-down. For here at this table, we can “take a breather” – we can rest a minute from our labors and gather our strength. Here we can “recline at the table” in the mid-eastern fashion and be waited on and served by the Master. Jesus offers us Himself in His Holy Word and Spiritual Food. And we are fed and nourished as we look around at the other servants who have also come in from the fields of their own labors to join us in voicing praise and thanks to God.
With them we reach out with hungry hearts for the food that sustains us as we work for the Lord and try to be vigilant during our long wait for His return. In the Gospels the various “meal images” always point us to that final Banquet we will share when this period of work and diligence and temptation is finally over. What we do here week-by-week is only a partial sign of that Heavenly Banquet, making visible in faith what the Gospel promises. For at this table we gather, we “recline” in faith and receive what Jesus offers us - - His very self as our food and our forgiveness - - nourishment given to strengthen us to do the work given us to do.
Today’s readings may sound like those we might hear during Advent - - with talk of perseverance in trials, faithfulness in waiting, and hope in Christ’s return. But watchfulness isn’t just a part-time virtue, or a one-season practice. We should always be on the watch for the Lord in our daily lives. It could be that Christ will come into my life TODAY. That Christ constantly comes into my life, steadily inhabiting every moment and every chance – being there always to fill the random things of my life with meaning. It could be that Christ is in my life and I haven’t noticed, that I am so busy preparing for an unknown future event that I can’t see what’s happening right in front of my eyes. That’s certainly true about a lot of other things. Barbara Crafton, meditating on this passage suggests that most of us “try to borrow the future every day, to live either in it’s happiness or its horrors, when the only joys and sorrows we really have are the ones we have right now. Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid little flock.” Look at what fills your life right now – maybe there are nuggets of gold embedded in the homeliest of them.”
At the most unexpected times, and yes, even in surprising people and circumstances, Jesus knocks at the door of our lives and asks to be let in. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in this celebration and in the coming days, and give him an entrance through the Word we have heard and the Holy Food we are about to receive. AMEN.
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