The Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 18, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Good morning!
In a dried up coal town, some thirty years after coal had gone bust, a nine-year old boy made his way to church one morning excited as can be. This plump little child and his three older brothers journeyed down that hill to the church in which their mother had taken them since their birth. Headed down the hill that day, that nine-year old plumpy little boy, mindful that things were brewing in his household, had taken note that his father had stopped coming home. “Working”, his mother said. There would be weeks between visits from his father. Nine-year old going on ten aware and perhaps appreciating a little more the stress on his mother’s face day by day, living a life in that dried-up coal town, trying to find his way in the world, his place in his church, his place as any nine soon to be ten-year old would. This day, he made his way down to that church with a little bit of hop in his step because it would be the first time that he would be allowed to acolyte. After church that day, his Uncle Bill, a retired man of , a captain in the Army, and the acolyte master would load this nine-year old boy and his three brothers in the back of his old Chevy, and he would drive them up the hill. Thank God! As he made his way around the route that took him by the river on that cold wintery day, this nine-year old boy looked out upon the river and watched as a mist rose off of that river. In that moment of time, he was transported. Again, aware of the storm that was brewing in his household, at least sensing it, perhaps not understanding it, but certainly sensing it, and watching those vapors mystify in the air, he became acutely aware in the backseat of that old Chevy, that God was with him. It was God and him. He knew in that moment that he was not alone and that he would never be alone again. He knew in that moment acutely and uniquely and because of some transfer of grace that he was loved. Even in the midst of storms that were brewing. He was lost in the pure bliss in the affirmation of having been able to do what he felt called to do. And, in that midst that rose off that river, his imagination was set free with a sense of affirmation and love beyond understanding. That sixty-second drive along that river that day may easily have been as long as a lifetime and as short as a breath, for he was lost in God’s embrace and aware of a genesis of something that was beginning, something that was becoming.
It is in my adult life that I have words to describe that experience of mine. Words to describe that beautiful relationship that I suddenly became aware of eternal life; I believe at least that is what the scripture calls it. Salvation offered freely, John calls it. This is my story. What is yours?
The Reverend Dr. Margaret Ehmer , Associate Professor of New Testament, speaks this way of our scriptures this day. The Lectionary passage for this week begins in John with that strange image of Jesus lifted up as a serpent in the wilderness. She writes in reference to the story in the Book of Numbers. In this story Moses creates an image of a serpent that when gazed upon heals his people from death by a snake bite. She writes, “The snakes are a response of God to the rebellion of God’s people. The invocation in John’s Gospel is that belief in Jesus will heal and bring life to those who are dying, just as the image of the serpent did. Notice the open invitation. Anyone who believes will find this life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Eternal life and salvation -- those are the words you and I throw around from the scriptures, they are theological words.
Hear in my story, I beg you that a promise of eternal life is real! I know, because I have experienced a piece of it. Eternal life, as one scholar has written, is like when you have fallen so deeply in love that you are lost in an experience of something you love and you have such little time, such little sense of the passage of time, and such a full, full sense of a good good time. Like a nine-year old boy in the back seat of a car, and a sixty-second ride that could have been as long as a life time or short as a breath, lost in God’s loving embrace even as the storms of life were brewing in his home.
Salvation you say? Save me from what? Fred Buechner describes Salvation as when you lose yourself so completely, that you find that you are more full of yourself, so potentially full of God’s love than you ever dreamed. Like a nine-year old boy sitting in the backseat of an old Chevy, who suddenly knew that there was a genesis brewing. That’s my story. What is yours?
I have a story about a group of people who meet once a month on a Thursday night.I know a group of people who sit and they pray, and they study once a month, and they talk about the renewing spirit of God’s life for this congregation. In that spirit and in that prayer, one came to a meeting and said I have a word to share. And what’s that word we said? And the word he said is natinvitation. We all looked at him like he was crazy. Natinvitation we said? Natinvitation! He said what if we dare to share our stories with folks who have yet come through that door. There are seven or eight of us here and what if each one of us went and told our story to three people? To three people who don’t normally come to this place and we invited them to come to hear our stories? What if we invited them to share their stories with us? That is Natinvitation.
As we our Lenten journey begins to turn and invite us to dare to look with joy to the paschal feast in a few short weeks, I ask you these questions. What if we just dare to tell our story? Our story of our experience of a God who loves us, who embraces us, who dares for us to lose ourselves in his love only to find a beginning of who we are?. A story of new life, of eternal life and it’s salvation.
So, I ask you, what if seven of us invited three others? Or what if ten of us invited three others in that season of Easter just in our horizon? Or what would happen if every member of the Vestry would invite three people? Or what would happen if every member of the Altar Guild would invite three people? Or what would happen if every member in the forum today would invite three people? What would happen?
A young boy, in the back of an old Chevy, blue it was, found eternal life and salvation and I know that you have too! Where did these st0ries get shared, if not here? Natinvitation! Amen!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The Third Sunday in Lent
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
Listen. God is ready to speak. We don’t hear it today but the way God prepares to speak is truly awesome, awe-inspiring. Thunder rolled. Lightening flashed, the earth shook, and the bush burned but was not consumed. Not the still, small voice that Elijah heard. And Moses stands before God. And God speaks. These are the words God speaks, "I am the Lord your God…"
And God begins to reveal what it means to “walk in the light of the Lord God.” One of the central convictions of Jewish and Christian faith is that human life is to be lived before God and that such life has an order and structure, constituted by God’s commandments.
And lest there be any doubt about it, read Matthew 5:17 where Jesus tells us, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” The true meaning, the true power, the true impact of living within a God ordered life is made known to us in Jesus of Nazareth. He is the light of the world.
As the hymn goes, if you want to “walk as a child of the light, if you want to follow Jesus”, this is how you do it. You order your life according to the Word God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. That’s what Jesus did. And he changed the nature of life. And when we do, it changes the nature of our lives.
The teacher Walter Brueggemann writes. “These commands might be taken not as a series of rules, but as a proclamation in God’s own mouth of who God is and how God shall be ‘practiced’ by this community of liberated slaves.”
“I am the Lord your God…” that’s who God is, and the next three commandments are about how live in relationship with God. The next have to do with living before God in relationship with those around us – our neighbors, our families, our people, and even those we do not consider as “our people.”
Reformer, John Calvin, described “three uses for the Ten Commandments. First, in showing us how we are to live before God and with neighbor, they expose our sin, cutting through our self-deception that we really are ‘good’ people and revealing some of the many ways in which our lives are not what they could be.
Ahhh. And that brings us to Lent – this season of repentance and reformation, our own reforming into being and living more like the one created and called by the Lord your God.
Second, Calvin says, “the Commandments serve an important civic function in that they restrain sin, which is never simply individual but always corporate, social, and institutional.”
What street scene of violence or distress or illness did you walk by, keeping on your way? Who did you NOT phone? Who did you NOT visit? Who did you show NO care or compassion? Corporately, socially, institutionally, why are we a people conditioned and trained to “walk on by’?
Finally, “the Commandments are our guide as we journey in our life before God and our life with our neighbors.”
They don’t show us what we must do or how we must live in order to receive God’s grace. They light our way and show us how we could live as people who have already been freely given God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
What happened to Jesus in our gospel reading today? Why did he get so riled up? The gospel of John today gives us a view of Jesus so clear that any portrait of a "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" smacks up against this Jesus: Jesus as an enraged, whip-wielding zealot.
He was
- Mad at the temple being turned into a marketplace.
- Mad at the money-changers who had turned a holy obligation into a lucrative profession.
- Mad at the Passover pilgrims, who saw the temple as a place to transact a business deal, not to remember God's holy works and feel God's holy presence.
- Mad at the priests, who had let their love of law and ritual take precedence over their love for God.
- Mad at all the pointless sacrifices that caused the temple mount to swim with the innocent blood of dead animals instead of shine with the living Spirit of God.
He was mad because he saw that the temple had been made profane. The worship of God was perverted; God’s people were cheated. God’s creation was violated. God’s people were not honored. God was neither being honored, nor God’s way being lived. And Jesus got mad. And Jesus cleaned house.
The Word of God on Mount Sinai tells God’s people the way to honor God and God’s people and God’s creation. And it does so for us today as well.
Some good Lenten questions for us raised by the scriptures today:
Do you have the ability, the faith, to get whip-cracking mad for God's sake? What do you have to see or to know or to feel to get you to act, to move, to take action, and to do the work needed to be done so that the one who tells us, "I am the Lord your God…" is honored in your life and in the life of the world? What needs to be cleaned out of our selves, our churches, our institutions, and our society in order to once again let God’s Holy Spirit blow free and breathe its Life into all life?
I commend to you the work of Lent. Listen. Hear what God’s Spirit is saying to the Church. Hear what God’s Spirit is saying to you today. Don’t just walk on by.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Welcome to the Waters of Lent
Lent 1 (Genesis 9:8-17, Mark 1:9-15)
February 26, 2012
Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem PA
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Welcome to the waters. Welcome to the waters of Lent. Not the Lenten greeting you expected? You thought I was going to talk about entering the desert, right? Well, stay with me. Before Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness, before the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert, long before, there was another 40 and another wilderness. You remember when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. You remember the story of Noah and the Ark.
God calls Noah. Noah builds the ark and gathers all the creatures, two of each, one female and one male. Why two? Because the ark carries not only life, but also the expectation of new life. The rain comes and cleanses the earth. It also overwhelms the earth and the Ark is surrounded by a watery wilderness. Like any desert, this water is dangerous, desolate and unrelenting. But in that watery wilderness the ark keeps life safe and when all is done, the animals and people all emerge. God set the bow, the rainbow, in the sky and makes a covenant with all creatures. This new life will thrive.
The ark came safely through the water. Babies in the womb are surrounded and protected by water. In baptism we come safely through the water. New life comes through the water. In the Jordan River, Jesus is baptized and comes safely out of the water…and the Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness.
We have just entered the wilderness of Lent and this year I invite you to think of it as a watery journey. In this watery wilderness the church is a ship. We are all in Noah’s ark for the next 40 days. We are headed for new life and we travel with the rainbow promise. But the wilderness, even watery wilderness, can be tricky to cross. To help us along I’ve brought some guidelines. These come from Peter Mazar, who was a noted liturgist, writer, and editor of Christian Education materials.
Shipboard Rules for the Next Forty Days
1. No matter how hungry you get, don’t eat each other. Lent is a time for fasting.
For turtles, fasting might be easy, but for lions, it will be difficult. Help each other fast. If you get grouchy, make an effort to be cheerful. Keep meals plain and simple. Try to eat together. Enjoy your meals and help others enjoy them.
Put only good things into your body: what you eat, watch, and listen to. Give your attention to what’s really interesting: people, the things they do and make, nature. Be content with less. Stay busy, but keep the noise down.
2. Share what you have. Lent is a time of charity.
Some have more than others, but everyone has something to share. Bees can give honey. Cows can give milk. Canaries can sing for us and crickets can chirp.
On this ark there’s nothing to waste. Don’t throw anything overboard. Recycle. Fix what’s broken. Clean up after yourself. Be ready to lend a hand, and don’t wait to be asked.
3. Keep in touch with God. Lent is a time of prayer.
Even if the ark manages to stay afloat, we will need God’s help to reach safe harbor. Sing praises everyday. Pray for yourself, but also remind God about each other. Make this a good habit.
(Forty Days and Forty Nights: A Lenten Ark Moving Toward Easter, text by Peter Mazar, art by Judy Jarret. Liturgy Training Publications 1994.)
We are all in this together. It is not always comfortable, here in our ark, but it’s what we have. We don’t always get along, but you don’t always get to choose your shipmates…and we each have gifts to share.
Welcome to the waters of Lent. Fast. Give. Pray. New life is on the way.
February 26, 2012
Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem PA
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Welcome to the waters. Welcome to the waters of Lent. Not the Lenten greeting you expected? You thought I was going to talk about entering the desert, right? Well, stay with me. Before Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness, before the Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert, long before, there was another 40 and another wilderness. You remember when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. You remember the story of Noah and the Ark.
God calls Noah. Noah builds the ark and gathers all the creatures, two of each, one female and one male. Why two? Because the ark carries not only life, but also the expectation of new life. The rain comes and cleanses the earth. It also overwhelms the earth and the Ark is surrounded by a watery wilderness. Like any desert, this water is dangerous, desolate and unrelenting. But in that watery wilderness the ark keeps life safe and when all is done, the animals and people all emerge. God set the bow, the rainbow, in the sky and makes a covenant with all creatures. This new life will thrive.
The ark came safely through the water. Babies in the womb are surrounded and protected by water. In baptism we come safely through the water. New life comes through the water. In the Jordan River, Jesus is baptized and comes safely out of the water…and the Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness.
We have just entered the wilderness of Lent and this year I invite you to think of it as a watery journey. In this watery wilderness the church is a ship. We are all in Noah’s ark for the next 40 days. We are headed for new life and we travel with the rainbow promise. But the wilderness, even watery wilderness, can be tricky to cross. To help us along I’ve brought some guidelines. These come from Peter Mazar, who was a noted liturgist, writer, and editor of Christian Education materials.
Shipboard Rules for the Next Forty Days
1. No matter how hungry you get, don’t eat each other. Lent is a time for fasting.
For turtles, fasting might be easy, but for lions, it will be difficult. Help each other fast. If you get grouchy, make an effort to be cheerful. Keep meals plain and simple. Try to eat together. Enjoy your meals and help others enjoy them.
Put only good things into your body: what you eat, watch, and listen to. Give your attention to what’s really interesting: people, the things they do and make, nature. Be content with less. Stay busy, but keep the noise down.
2. Share what you have. Lent is a time of charity.
Some have more than others, but everyone has something to share. Bees can give honey. Cows can give milk. Canaries can sing for us and crickets can chirp.
On this ark there’s nothing to waste. Don’t throw anything overboard. Recycle. Fix what’s broken. Clean up after yourself. Be ready to lend a hand, and don’t wait to be asked.
3. Keep in touch with God. Lent is a time of prayer.
Even if the ark manages to stay afloat, we will need God’s help to reach safe harbor. Sing praises everyday. Pray for yourself, but also remind God about each other. Make this a good habit.
(Forty Days and Forty Nights: A Lenten Ark Moving Toward Easter, text by Peter Mazar, art by Judy Jarret. Liturgy Training Publications 1994.)
We are all in this together. It is not always comfortable, here in our ark, but it’s what we have. We don’t always get along, but you don’t always get to choose your shipmates…and we each have gifts to share.
Welcome to the waters of Lent. Fast. Give. Pray. New life is on the way.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Epiphany 4
January 29, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Good morning!
Today if ever there was a time for me to remind and invite you into living into the story, that is the gospel. In the gospels what we receive is a masterful telling of a story with an enfolding theme. A story designed to lead up and enrich; to captivate and invite us to a thrilling conclusion, much like a good novel. I invite you this day to join me as we look at this story the gospel, the Gospel of Mark.
Today, however we will start with Aristotle. I know that Aristotle is not in the Gospel of Mark. Just for the record. Today we start with Aristotle. There is not one among us who would argue with Aristotle’s greatness or with the authority and respect of Aristotle’s teaching. Aristotle was the authority of his day and his imagination and intellect and his worldview pervaded all those who would know and live and learn from him for thousands of years. I remind you that it was Aristotle who taught many that when you climb into a height if you took a ten-pound object and a two-pound object and dropped them from a similar height that, of course, the ten-pound object would arrive on the earth sooner. That was what Aristotle taught. Aristotle was the authority of his time and day and that teaching became woven into the world view for generations and generations. And, I remind you that a couple of thousands of years later—not quite a couple of thousands but a thousand or so years later, that this interesting guy named Galileo decided to challenge the conventional wisdom. And it was Galileo who ascended on top of a height, and I don’t know if it was ten pounds or two pounds but an object heavier and a lighter object and dropped them to see, of course, that gravity would pull them to the earth at the same pace. You see Aristotle was the authority of his day and for generations the truth of what he taught was woven into people’s belief system. Galileo, so many years later, would challenge that. And even those who would witness the truth of Galileo’s example would reject it. They didn’t believe him. As a matter of fact they were threatened by him. You see in Galileo’s experiment he was unweaving and unpacking the very essence of what people believed was true about the world in which they lived. That, as we know by our own experience can just be downright scary. We living in the 21st century can relate, can’t we? It seems many of the “truths” we once held of the world seem a bit upside down.
I offer this experience as a way to enter into the gospel lesson today, as a way to understand Jesus entering into the synagogue to begin teaching. It is Jesus who would enter into the synagogue and he would begin to teach as the scripture says, with authority. That is to say that what Jesus began to teach was very different than the established worldview of that community there. It was enough to grab people’s attention. Jesus is teaching differently. Not as the scribes teach. That’s not to say that the scribes didn’t teach with authority. It says that the way Jesus was teaching in authority was different than that of the scribes. The scribes, I remind you, were the certificate holders. They were the ones who had some theological training. They were the ones who had the certificate letters behind their names—M.Div. perhaps. I’ll only pick on myself at this service. But Jesus is teaching differently than those who are credentialed to do the teaching. He’s doing so in a room full of interesting people. In fact, Jesus teaching with authority gained some interesting attention. First, by the regular attenders who know enough that the status quo is not what is happening before their very eyes. As a matter of fact, they seem not to be really quite sure what’s happening. They just know that it’s different. As then also, Jesus is accompanied by the most unlikely of audiences. It seems that there are demons present—possessing one by-stander. And it seems that in our story today in the Gospel of Mark, that invitation to draw us in there in the very beginning verses of the first chapter. It seems to be the demons that have the clearest picture of what’s going on here or to be clear for Mark in his wonderful story and his wonderful story telling of enticing us and entrapping us, the demons are not asking what the others are asking. The others are asking what is going on here. The demons are asking who is going on here. And this, I submit to you, is where the meat in our story lies.
You see Jesus’s authority does not come through his credentials as it would the scribes in the synagogue. Jesus’s authority comes from who he is and the truth of what it means to know him, and to get to know him. It is here that the reader of Mark finds a portal to enter into this poignant story. We consider this wonderful introduction of Mark to follow his story as a way of knowing Jesus. Jesus’s teaching is with authority. A definition of authority is recognizing a power in which we seek to vest our trust. Shall I say that again? A definition of authority is seeking a power in which to vest our trust. Jesus is teaching with authority, his credentials are who he is.
Let’s follow the story and let this truth wash over us. Mark begins his wonderful story if you recall with John the Baptist. John the Baptist, this is how Mark’s story begins—with John the Baptist telling people to repent, that is, turn yourselves away from whatever is pulling you away from the truth—from God’s truth. “Repent”, John says, that is turn your heart toward that Truth. If there is anything scattered in the path that makes it crooked, clear it out so that you have a straight line. Make the path straight so you can get to it as quickly as possible. Then Jesus appears in the story. And Jesus does what? That’s right he gets baptized! Very good! Baptized by John. Jesus enters that water and appears back out from underneath the depth of that water and a voice comes from heaven and the voice says “This is my son, my beloved with whom I am well pleased.” We are told in Mark’s Gospel who this Jesus is. God’s son . . . with whom God is well pleased. Jesus exits that water and Jesus immediately does what? That’s right, Jesus goes into the desert and what does Jesus do in the desert? He is tempted in the desert. And what he is tempted about? That’s right he is tempted to doubt or betray the very essence of who he is. That’s what Jesus is tempted about. Who are you Jesus? Satan wants to know. Satan knows who he is. This is the great flirtation of Mark, because the demons and Satan get it from the beginning. Who is it? Who are you Jesus? Are you the son of God who’s come into the world to reveal the truth about God’s heart and God’s kingdom that must turn this world upside down?
Satan says to Jesus, how bout a case of amnesia Jesus. Forget who you are, how about being just part of the world—like the rest of them. Here Jesus, look at it all. You can have that! You can have all the possessions, kingdoms, treasurers of the world, You just can’t be who you are. So take it Jesus. Take all the world has to offer you.
That’s what’s going on in that desert. But as Mrs. Iannelli has rightly pointed out Jesus emerges from that experience and we are revealed by Mark’s Gospel in to who he is—the son of God, in flesh in the kingdom. And what does Jesus do next? That’s right! He begins to recruit some help—in the unlikeliest of people. A couple of common folks, some fishermen. He begins to call them and say to them, you don’t know me yet, but follow me and I’ll show you a little bit more about your trade than you ever dreamed or imagined. So, come along! Jesus collects himself some help. And then Jesus begins to preach, and to teach, and to heal, and to cast out demons. And the rest of Mark’s story, this wonderfully written story, a story designed to entice and to entrap and to convict us, and I mean convict in the best sense of that word.
The rest of that story will be about who gets it, who doesn’t and who might. Who gets it in that first chapter of Mark?
This is fantastic! Who wouldn’t stick around for the rest of the story? Who gets it? God the Father in heaven gets it. John the Baptist gets it. The demons get it. And, Satan gets it. Who doesn’t get it? The authorities of the day don’t get it. The folks with the certificates don’t get it. And who might get it? Who might get it? The disciples might get it. Ray Arcario might get it. Mrs. Iannelli, if she keeps teaching that class, she might get it. We might get it.
Did you know that the Gospel of Mark has two endings? Did you know that? The first ending of Mark ends with Jesus’s resurrection. It ends with the disciples witnessing an empty tomb. The disciples, who I remind you, followed him around for three years. Who ate and drank and bathed with him. Who witnessed him heal the sick, cure the lame, cast out demons and proclaim a new day for the poor and the broken hearted. It is his disciples, who at the tomb are seized as Mark tells us with trembling and bewilderment, saying nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Well who wouldn’t be. For they were afraid. That’s the first ending of the Gospel of Mark. The beautiful story as he tells it, of course, leaves us, the reader, with that question: Who might get it? And then the story hit the editor’s table. And the editor decided maybe we should help them a little more. The second ending has Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene because clearly they understood if they really wanted to get the point across they needed some help from the women folk—because the disciples were seized with fear. And then Jesus also appears to two disciples on the road. And between Mary Magdalene and the disciples, they go back and tell the others and just like Galileo dropping the truth in his experiment, guess what, they didn’t believe them. It just couldn’t be! It isn’t so! We’re so afraid. We’re seized. We’re inactive. We’re unable to respond. So the editor continues.
So Jesus finally goes and appears to the eleven, all of them together. And in lines he whips them into shape. (snapping fingers) okay . . . This is like this. Our relationship is like this. You’ve been trying to figure this out. You might get it. That might getting part it is good news for us, believe me. But Jesus whips them into shape. He reminds them who he is and the Kingdom that is part of every atom in his body. He tells them it’s on them now. It’s on you now. So get up! Get out! Proclaim the gospel that you know because of me. Baptize in my name. And proclaim that gospel, by the way, to every creature. Mark’s words, Every creature!
Who gets it? Who doesn’t? Who might? Two weeks ago I asked the question of you as we began a new year, I asked the simple question. Is God finished with you yet? Or, does God have something yet more for you to know about him and to respond to him in your life, in this new year? And today I leave you with this question. In whom and in what do you vest your trust? Think about it. Amen.
January 29, 2012
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Good morning!
Today if ever there was a time for me to remind and invite you into living into the story, that is the gospel. In the gospels what we receive is a masterful telling of a story with an enfolding theme. A story designed to lead up and enrich; to captivate and invite us to a thrilling conclusion, much like a good novel. I invite you this day to join me as we look at this story the gospel, the Gospel of Mark.
Today, however we will start with Aristotle. I know that Aristotle is not in the Gospel of Mark. Just for the record. Today we start with Aristotle. There is not one among us who would argue with Aristotle’s greatness or with the authority and respect of Aristotle’s teaching. Aristotle was the authority of his day and his imagination and intellect and his worldview pervaded all those who would know and live and learn from him for thousands of years. I remind you that it was Aristotle who taught many that when you climb into a height if you took a ten-pound object and a two-pound object and dropped them from a similar height that, of course, the ten-pound object would arrive on the earth sooner. That was what Aristotle taught. Aristotle was the authority of his time and day and that teaching became woven into the world view for generations and generations. And, I remind you that a couple of thousands of years later—not quite a couple of thousands but a thousand or so years later, that this interesting guy named Galileo decided to challenge the conventional wisdom. And it was Galileo who ascended on top of a height, and I don’t know if it was ten pounds or two pounds but an object heavier and a lighter object and dropped them to see, of course, that gravity would pull them to the earth at the same pace. You see Aristotle was the authority of his day and for generations the truth of what he taught was woven into people’s belief system. Galileo, so many years later, would challenge that. And even those who would witness the truth of Galileo’s example would reject it. They didn’t believe him. As a matter of fact they were threatened by him. You see in Galileo’s experiment he was unweaving and unpacking the very essence of what people believed was true about the world in which they lived. That, as we know by our own experience can just be downright scary. We living in the 21st century can relate, can’t we? It seems many of the “truths” we once held of the world seem a bit upside down.
I offer this experience as a way to enter into the gospel lesson today, as a way to understand Jesus entering into the synagogue to begin teaching. It is Jesus who would enter into the synagogue and he would begin to teach as the scripture says, with authority. That is to say that what Jesus began to teach was very different than the established worldview of that community there. It was enough to grab people’s attention. Jesus is teaching differently. Not as the scribes teach. That’s not to say that the scribes didn’t teach with authority. It says that the way Jesus was teaching in authority was different than that of the scribes. The scribes, I remind you, were the certificate holders. They were the ones who had some theological training. They were the ones who had the certificate letters behind their names—M.Div. perhaps. I’ll only pick on myself at this service. But Jesus is teaching differently than those who are credentialed to do the teaching. He’s doing so in a room full of interesting people. In fact, Jesus teaching with authority gained some interesting attention. First, by the regular attenders who know enough that the status quo is not what is happening before their very eyes. As a matter of fact, they seem not to be really quite sure what’s happening. They just know that it’s different. As then also, Jesus is accompanied by the most unlikely of audiences. It seems that there are demons present—possessing one by-stander. And it seems that in our story today in the Gospel of Mark, that invitation to draw us in there in the very beginning verses of the first chapter. It seems to be the demons that have the clearest picture of what’s going on here or to be clear for Mark in his wonderful story and his wonderful story telling of enticing us and entrapping us, the demons are not asking what the others are asking. The others are asking what is going on here. The demons are asking who is going on here. And this, I submit to you, is where the meat in our story lies.
You see Jesus’s authority does not come through his credentials as it would the scribes in the synagogue. Jesus’s authority comes from who he is and the truth of what it means to know him, and to get to know him. It is here that the reader of Mark finds a portal to enter into this poignant story. We consider this wonderful introduction of Mark to follow his story as a way of knowing Jesus. Jesus’s teaching is with authority. A definition of authority is recognizing a power in which we seek to vest our trust. Shall I say that again? A definition of authority is seeking a power in which to vest our trust. Jesus is teaching with authority, his credentials are who he is.
Let’s follow the story and let this truth wash over us. Mark begins his wonderful story if you recall with John the Baptist. John the Baptist, this is how Mark’s story begins—with John the Baptist telling people to repent, that is, turn yourselves away from whatever is pulling you away from the truth—from God’s truth. “Repent”, John says, that is turn your heart toward that Truth. If there is anything scattered in the path that makes it crooked, clear it out so that you have a straight line. Make the path straight so you can get to it as quickly as possible. Then Jesus appears in the story. And Jesus does what? That’s right he gets baptized! Very good! Baptized by John. Jesus enters that water and appears back out from underneath the depth of that water and a voice comes from heaven and the voice says “This is my son, my beloved with whom I am well pleased.” We are told in Mark’s Gospel who this Jesus is. God’s son . . . with whom God is well pleased. Jesus exits that water and Jesus immediately does what? That’s right, Jesus goes into the desert and what does Jesus do in the desert? He is tempted in the desert. And what he is tempted about? That’s right he is tempted to doubt or betray the very essence of who he is. That’s what Jesus is tempted about. Who are you Jesus? Satan wants to know. Satan knows who he is. This is the great flirtation of Mark, because the demons and Satan get it from the beginning. Who is it? Who are you Jesus? Are you the son of God who’s come into the world to reveal the truth about God’s heart and God’s kingdom that must turn this world upside down?
Satan says to Jesus, how bout a case of amnesia Jesus. Forget who you are, how about being just part of the world—like the rest of them. Here Jesus, look at it all. You can have that! You can have all the possessions, kingdoms, treasurers of the world, You just can’t be who you are. So take it Jesus. Take all the world has to offer you.
That’s what’s going on in that desert. But as Mrs. Iannelli has rightly pointed out Jesus emerges from that experience and we are revealed by Mark’s Gospel in to who he is—the son of God, in flesh in the kingdom. And what does Jesus do next? That’s right! He begins to recruit some help—in the unlikeliest of people. A couple of common folks, some fishermen. He begins to call them and say to them, you don’t know me yet, but follow me and I’ll show you a little bit more about your trade than you ever dreamed or imagined. So, come along! Jesus collects himself some help. And then Jesus begins to preach, and to teach, and to heal, and to cast out demons. And the rest of Mark’s story, this wonderfully written story, a story designed to entice and to entrap and to convict us, and I mean convict in the best sense of that word.
The rest of that story will be about who gets it, who doesn’t and who might. Who gets it in that first chapter of Mark?
This is fantastic! Who wouldn’t stick around for the rest of the story? Who gets it? God the Father in heaven gets it. John the Baptist gets it. The demons get it. And, Satan gets it. Who doesn’t get it? The authorities of the day don’t get it. The folks with the certificates don’t get it. And who might get it? Who might get it? The disciples might get it. Ray Arcario might get it. Mrs. Iannelli, if she keeps teaching that class, she might get it. We might get it.
Did you know that the Gospel of Mark has two endings? Did you know that? The first ending of Mark ends with Jesus’s resurrection. It ends with the disciples witnessing an empty tomb. The disciples, who I remind you, followed him around for three years. Who ate and drank and bathed with him. Who witnessed him heal the sick, cure the lame, cast out demons and proclaim a new day for the poor and the broken hearted. It is his disciples, who at the tomb are seized as Mark tells us with trembling and bewilderment, saying nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Well who wouldn’t be. For they were afraid. That’s the first ending of the Gospel of Mark. The beautiful story as he tells it, of course, leaves us, the reader, with that question: Who might get it? And then the story hit the editor’s table. And the editor decided maybe we should help them a little more. The second ending has Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene because clearly they understood if they really wanted to get the point across they needed some help from the women folk—because the disciples were seized with fear. And then Jesus also appears to two disciples on the road. And between Mary Magdalene and the disciples, they go back and tell the others and just like Galileo dropping the truth in his experiment, guess what, they didn’t believe them. It just couldn’t be! It isn’t so! We’re so afraid. We’re seized. We’re inactive. We’re unable to respond. So the editor continues.
So Jesus finally goes and appears to the eleven, all of them together. And in lines he whips them into shape. (snapping fingers) okay . . . This is like this. Our relationship is like this. You’ve been trying to figure this out. You might get it. That might getting part it is good news for us, believe me. But Jesus whips them into shape. He reminds them who he is and the Kingdom that is part of every atom in his body. He tells them it’s on them now. It’s on you now. So get up! Get out! Proclaim the gospel that you know because of me. Baptize in my name. And proclaim that gospel, by the way, to every creature. Mark’s words, Every creature!
Who gets it? Who doesn’t? Who might? Two weeks ago I asked the question of you as we began a new year, I asked the simple question. Is God finished with you yet? Or, does God have something yet more for you to know about him and to respond to him in your life, in this new year? And today I leave you with this question. In whom and in what do you vest your trust? Think about it. Amen.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
IV Advent
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
December 18th, 2011
Have you noticed? Have you noticed that we just don’t wait so well? I suppose it makes sense when we think of the conditioning we have bought into, the conditioning to expect things so immediately. You know, 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 4 G that connection so much quicker. Marketing genious has taught us carefully to find value in immediacy, the silver club gets us immediate check in at the hotel of our choice, the green mile club assures us our rental car will be waiting for us and we Not waiting for our rental car, Miracle of all Miracle’s Even the Government will eliminate your waiting time to process your passport, if your willing to pay the price! Indeed it seems we have been conditioned to expect NOT to Wait.
This struck home the other night when I attended my daughter’s orchestra concert. I confess, my internal voice questioned, I wonder how long this will be? The ego-centric me should have been delighted when it seemed clear those who put the program together were concerned about the attention span of the audience. The program was short. No time for an intermission, hard working middle schoolers cleared the stage between acts as we were “entertained” with background piano designed to distract us and try to keep our attention as the stage was furiously cleared…….as if we wouldn’t wait, and equally important, as if what was being presented wasn’t worth waiting for. I mean after all, ALL of us were there to capture the moment of our offspring offering their best!
We are not good at waiting, as a matter a fact, we’ve become so good at not waiting, we tend to expect to move from one thing to the next with such immediacy it is as if we have bought into the belief that we must do so for fear that we might just miss something if we don’t get there quicker. This I submit to you in God’s economy is as they say bass ackwards!
Advent is a time that’s calls us to wait. It is a time to wait expectantly and expectantly wait. In a culture that conditions us to not only expect immediacy but has convinced us its worth paying NOT to wait, hear clearly this spiritual message of waiting expectantly and expectantly waiting is in direct conflict with our culture. Once again, the Gospel is countercultural.
It is this Gospel that leads us to explore what it is we can expect to find if we are patient enough to find it? It seems what we can expect is the unexpected.
We consider Mary in today’s gospel. This young woman--most likely a teenager at the time of the Annunciation--Mary, living out in small town Nazareth, betrothed (engaged) to Joseph the carpenter; is totally taken by surprise, as God’s messenger Gabriel speaks directly to her one day. The messenger shocks her nearly to death by telling her that she is God’s favoured one; she is going to give birth to the Messiah; she is going to name him Jesus (in Hebrew, Joshua or Jeshua, meaning “God will save”)! Surely, if we were to talk with Mary today, and ask her whether this was part of her plan; whether she was EXPECTING such a visitor, with such a message, OR that this message was what she was waiting for all of her young life, my guess is she would be hard pressed to answer Yes.
It seems for sure when it comes to Godly things; one of the things we can expect is the unexpected! Maybe even the unwanted advances of God on our lives. At first blush in this story one would perhaps want to tell Mary, perhaps you shouldn’t have waited around Mary.
If Mary had not waited around, and if we do not wait so we just might miss it. We just might miss God’s opportunity in our lives. The opportunity even to be shocked by God; the opportunity to learn that we ourselves, each of us, are favoured ones of God, that we too have something Godly begging to be born into the world; that we ourselves are called to take part in God’s plan of salvation.
God calls the strangest people; speaks the most surprising messages to them; and asks them to do the most unexpected things. At first, we, like Mary, tend to respond by being perplexed; by becoming overwhelmed or afraid. We, like Mary, may also be sceptical: “How can this be, since I’m a virgin?” Or we, again perhaps like Mary, may wish God would not choose us for such an unplanned, surprising future. After all, we are “creatures of habit,” some of us schedule our lives to the nth degree, We gotta get to the next thing, and some of us may not feel the unplanned or suprising is something worth our waiting. In a world that extols the virtues of planned, ordered living; of living for the immediate, where we seem to have lost the “art of waiting”, moving from one thing to the next for fear that we might be missing something; the message of today’s gospel says to us that which is not to be missed IS Worth waiting for AND we should NOT be afraid of God’s unexpected, surprising plans for our lives.
DO NOT BE Afraid are the words of the interruptor, God’s very Angel. God’s future for our lives can be unexpected and even surprising.
In a world where we have much cause to be afraid; where human life seems all too cheap and even at times disposable. God’s word speaks to us, “Do not be afraid.” As we look at our own personal lives or the lives of loved ones; we may respond with fear for the future and ask questions like: “Am I going to get sick? Am I going to recover from my illness? Am I ready to face and accept the worst? God answers: “Do not be afraid.” Or maybe we fear our future as a congregation: what are God’s future for this Cathedral? Will we live and grow, prosper and flourish / will we wither and die? God answers us: “Do not be afraid.”
So I ask you, when it comes to your relationship with the God who made you…….What do you expectantly Wait For And What are you Waiting for Expectantly? What is it that you feel is worth waiting for?
IV Advent
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
December 18th, 2011
Have you noticed? Have you noticed that we just don’t wait so well? I suppose it makes sense when we think of the conditioning we have bought into, the conditioning to expect things so immediately. You know, 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 4 G that connection so much quicker. Marketing genious has taught us carefully to find value in immediacy, the silver club gets us immediate check in at the hotel of our choice, the green mile club assures us our rental car will be waiting for us and we Not waiting for our rental car, Miracle of all Miracle’s Even the Government will eliminate your waiting time to process your passport, if your willing to pay the price! Indeed it seems we have been conditioned to expect NOT to Wait.
This struck home the other night when I attended my daughter’s orchestra concert. I confess, my internal voice questioned, I wonder how long this will be? The ego-centric me should have been delighted when it seemed clear those who put the program together were concerned about the attention span of the audience. The program was short. No time for an intermission, hard working middle schoolers cleared the stage between acts as we were “entertained” with background piano designed to distract us and try to keep our attention as the stage was furiously cleared…….as if we wouldn’t wait, and equally important, as if what was being presented wasn’t worth waiting for. I mean after all, ALL of us were there to capture the moment of our offspring offering their best!
We are not good at waiting, as a matter a fact, we’ve become so good at not waiting, we tend to expect to move from one thing to the next with such immediacy it is as if we have bought into the belief that we must do so for fear that we might just miss something if we don’t get there quicker. This I submit to you in God’s economy is as they say bass ackwards!
Advent is a time that’s calls us to wait. It is a time to wait expectantly and expectantly wait. In a culture that conditions us to not only expect immediacy but has convinced us its worth paying NOT to wait, hear clearly this spiritual message of waiting expectantly and expectantly waiting is in direct conflict with our culture. Once again, the Gospel is countercultural.
It is this Gospel that leads us to explore what it is we can expect to find if we are patient enough to find it? It seems what we can expect is the unexpected.
We consider Mary in today’s gospel. This young woman--most likely a teenager at the time of the Annunciation--Mary, living out in small town Nazareth, betrothed (engaged) to Joseph the carpenter; is totally taken by surprise, as God’s messenger Gabriel speaks directly to her one day. The messenger shocks her nearly to death by telling her that she is God’s favoured one; she is going to give birth to the Messiah; she is going to name him Jesus (in Hebrew, Joshua or Jeshua, meaning “God will save”)! Surely, if we were to talk with Mary today, and ask her whether this was part of her plan; whether she was EXPECTING such a visitor, with such a message, OR that this message was what she was waiting for all of her young life, my guess is she would be hard pressed to answer Yes.
It seems for sure when it comes to Godly things; one of the things we can expect is the unexpected! Maybe even the unwanted advances of God on our lives. At first blush in this story one would perhaps want to tell Mary, perhaps you shouldn’t have waited around Mary.
If Mary had not waited around, and if we do not wait so we just might miss it. We just might miss God’s opportunity in our lives. The opportunity even to be shocked by God; the opportunity to learn that we ourselves, each of us, are favoured ones of God, that we too have something Godly begging to be born into the world; that we ourselves are called to take part in God’s plan of salvation.
God calls the strangest people; speaks the most surprising messages to them; and asks them to do the most unexpected things. At first, we, like Mary, tend to respond by being perplexed; by becoming overwhelmed or afraid. We, like Mary, may also be sceptical: “How can this be, since I’m a virgin?” Or we, again perhaps like Mary, may wish God would not choose us for such an unplanned, surprising future. After all, we are “creatures of habit,” some of us schedule our lives to the nth degree, We gotta get to the next thing, and some of us may not feel the unplanned or suprising is something worth our waiting. In a world that extols the virtues of planned, ordered living; of living for the immediate, where we seem to have lost the “art of waiting”, moving from one thing to the next for fear that we might be missing something; the message of today’s gospel says to us that which is not to be missed IS Worth waiting for AND we should NOT be afraid of God’s unexpected, surprising plans for our lives.
DO NOT BE Afraid are the words of the interruptor, God’s very Angel. God’s future for our lives can be unexpected and even surprising.
In a world where we have much cause to be afraid; where human life seems all too cheap and even at times disposable. God’s word speaks to us, “Do not be afraid.” As we look at our own personal lives or the lives of loved ones; we may respond with fear for the future and ask questions like: “Am I going to get sick? Am I going to recover from my illness? Am I ready to face and accept the worst? God answers: “Do not be afraid.” Or maybe we fear our future as a congregation: what are God’s future for this Cathedral? Will we live and grow, prosper and flourish / will we wither and die? God answers us: “Do not be afraid.”
So I ask you, when it comes to your relationship with the God who made you…….What do you expectantly Wait For And What are you Waiting for Expectantly? What is it that you feel is worth waiting for?
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Third Sunday of Advent 2011
I want to tell you about my first time. I was four years old when my parents took me on my first real family vacation. We went to a hotel on the beach on Cape Cod. It was gorgeous, beautiful, sand, water, fancy. The best thing that happened was that my dad gave me a silver dollar to use on anything I wanted. It wasn’t for saving. It was for using. After a couple of days he suggested that maybe I would want to use it at the ice cream stand down the beach the next day – on anything I wanted. Anything!
So my dad and I went the next day. We walked down the beach to the stand. And we walked and walked and walked. And then I slipped on the deep stand and fell. Actually I sprawled, flat out, hands flailing and my silver dollar flew – away. And I did not know where and I couldn’t find it. I was destroyed. I was desolate. Dad picked me up and dusted me off and dried me up and said, “Let’s go get our ice cream. You can have anything in the stand.” And we did – but it wasn’t the same.
That was my first time. The first time I knew loss, disappointment, a dream unfulfilled, a hope denied. It was the first time. Only the first one. There have been others.
And how about you? Just when was it that you began to realize that not all your hopes and desires and expectations and dreams were going to be met?
The lessons today point to the future, but they point to the future for a people who had learned not to expect what they hoped for to come true. The history of this people, their own personal history meant that they would be disappointed.
The reading from Isaiah today comes from the time when Israel had returned from exile in Babylon. Cyrus had released them to return to the promised land and promised time that had been prophesied when they were a captive people. They had returned to the promised land. They had returned to the Holy City. They had gone to rebuild the temple, their towns, their homes, their lives. But it was still all dust. The Land was dust. The city was dust. The temple was a rubble heap of dust. The prophecy was dust. The promise had turned to dust.
Into their lives comes the voice of the prophet Isaiah reminding them of God’s promise. Telling them that God’s salvation is available to them, even now. God’s salvation is meant to transform the world here and now, not just later at the end. The Israelites were, we are, invited to participate in this salvation, redeeming work of the world now. If salvation is not another place and time but the reality of this world as it should be, then Isaiah asks us to think about how we might participate in ushering in what is meant by God to be the real world, now.
Centuries later along comes John. John, who says he is but a voice crying in the wilderness, testifying to the redeeming of the world that is to come, pointing to what God is doing in the world to make things right. Yes, it was a desert wilderness; but also a human and political wilderness, too.
"O come, O come, Emmanuel!" It wasn’t then a hymn, nor is it just a hymn now. It was a prayer. It was a plea. It was a hope. It was an expectation that God would deliver Israel, one more time out of all her trouble. Foreign domination would end. There would be peace and harmony, and the kingdom of God would be the kingdom of this earth. The Lion would lie down with lamb.
John pointed to the future. To the Messiah. To the One who would bring God's kingdom into being. And no one listened. Well, almost no one. Very few listened... at least in a way that led them to believe one more time in the promises of God. In the future. In the kingdom. In the Messiah.
Today so many of our people are returning from the exile of wars in foreign lands to their families, towns and and churches as those first exiles must have returned to a homeland and a temple in ruins. The home they had expected often turns out to be a place filled with disappointment, disillusionment, and division.
Too many people are living today with loss; loss of a loved one, loss of work, loss of homes; loss of pride; loss of one’s very self by disease or trauma. Alongside the backdrop of war, injustice, poverty, and greed, the word of the prophet still haunts a nation that has grown rich in things but poor in soul.
Yet Isaiah reminds us again today that the God who can build up ancient ruins is also the God who can redeem the ruin of a prodigal life; the God who shall raise up the former devastations is also the God who means to make whole a broken heart; the God who shall repair the ruined cities and the Temple is also the God who can repair even the nation that has forgotten its way in the world.
Each of today's readings tells of God’s prophetic promise and the need to hold fast to faith during times of darkness and anticipation. Advent begins in the dark. For some of us it feels like that’s all there is. There was a flash of light we call Jesus. But now it is pretty dark again, and the future for so many looks as dark as now.
In this late Advent time, when we are getting ready to celebrate the Incarnation, we are reminded that God did send the Messiah, that God did redeem the world, that God is faithful.
The spirit of the Lord GOD was upon him,
because the LORD had anointed him;
he came to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn…
As we walk through the last days of Advent, we remember not just that Jesus came but that he came and will come again for this – to bring all of us, to bring each of us, into a time of the Lord’s favor. Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us – again.
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