May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: CHRISTMAS
PROPER:
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 24-25, 2002
TEXT: Luke 2:1-20 – “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.”
ISSUE: The Birth Story of Jesus is something of an overture to all that follows in the Gospel of Jesus. It tells in simplicity of the birth of a real King, Messiah, and Savior that challenges the powerful forces of the world. The story is a great vision of new peace, and hope, in that God has come in and through Jesus Christ to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
St. Luke tells us the story of the birth of Jesus in one of the simplest and most beautiful narrative forms that has captured the imagination and attention of people down through the ages. Luke wrote this story of Jesus’ birth some 80 years after Jesus’ birth, using hearsay and scraps of sources that had come to him. He weaves these into a most beautiful artistic narrative that tells of a very unique and special messianic hope for a very troubled world.
The story is thought by some to be a political statement, or a parody that challenges the powers and principalities of the time. Luke reports that the birth of Jesus come when Caesar Augustus is the Roman Emperor and Quirinius is governor of Syria. At the time the Roman Emperor was seen to be, in fact, a Son of God. He was considered to be worthy of worship, and people were required to make offerings of incense in praise of his great name. The Roman powers were said to bring about the great “Pax Romana” or the great Roman Peace. But peace in the Roman Empire came at great cost to the conquered peoples, like the Judeans and Israelites, because their civil liberties were taken away, and they were greatly oppressed through Roman taxation. The poorer people, of course, suffered the most in this situation.
Thus, Luke is giving a very contrasting vision to the people of the time. Let me tell you about another historical figure born in the time of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, who is really and truly Son of God, who is named Jesus. This Son of God is in deed worthy of worship and adoration. Angels, the very messengers of God pay tribute and announce his coming into the world. The powers and principalities of the world do not herald him. Angels and archangels herald him as the true Savior of the world. He is not proclaimed to the rich and greedy, and those enamored with power. He is announced to the motley shepherds, who were poor and considered little more than dishonorable thieves who didn’t stay home and care for their families. He is born in the little town of Bethlehem, population 100 plus, the birthplace of the King David, the shepherd boy who had once brought grandeur and hope to his people. Now Luke is saying go to the modest little town and Bethlehem and see a new kind of Savior born in a stable, lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths like all the poor little children of Israel. Listen to the Angels of God singing his praise: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” Here’s a real Son of God who comes to the least of God’s creation to lift it up in healing, love, forgiveness, and hope, and to provide peace. Here is a king and savior who is mighty in love, a wonderful counselor, and mighty God, an everlasting father and prince of peace, who shall wear and crown of thorns, and have a cross for a throne, and all the world, inclusively, will see his glory in his suffering servanthood. “You want a King and Savior do you?” Luke is saying to the world. “Let me show you one: He’s wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger!” Born in a manger; crucified on a cross, ludicrous as that may seem, it gave birth to the potential for a whole new world and a new understanding of the power in love.
Luke’s story also contains many additional symbols for believers down through the ages, which heightens the proclamation of just who Jesus is, and the kind of Savior he shall be. The little town of Bethlehem is the place of the birth of Israel’s favorite charismatic and saving king, David, who had been a shepherd boy. Jesus becomes The Good Shepherd of the world.
Manipulated by the powers of the time, Mary and Joseph are force to make the journey to Bethlehem in Judea. There is no room, no place, no honor bestowed upon them and the coming child. Herein is a another sign of the rejection, and the lack of acceptance by the world for the Lord who will be crucified. Yet, Mary and Joseph and the child persist in bring about what must be, the birth of the savior, even in a lowly stable.
The word Bethlehem was a little town where sheep were raised for sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose life becomes a sacrifice, for the sins of the world.
The meaning of the name Bethlehem meant house of bread. The manger in Bethlehem was a feeding trough. The manger scene must have conjured up images of Isaiah’s vision of the lion and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the ox and the bear eating straw together, and the wolf lying down with the lambs. It is a place where all nature is changed and Jesus Christ becomes the one the world needs to feed upon, if it is to change its nature and find peace among men. Jesus feeds the 5,000, and he gives himself as food to his disciples and to the world down through the ages in the Eucharist. If the world is to be changed and find peace, it must feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some two thousand years later, what greater need has the world on the verge of war than to look for and reclaim the ways and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to invite him into our life? What greater need is there in each of our own lives in times of failure, loss, hurt, pain, fear, anxiety, suffering, and all that overwhelms us than to invite the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives, and to feed upon him?
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
Sunday, December 15, 2002
ADVENT 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ADVENT 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 15, 2002
TEXT: Isaiah: 17-25 – For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. . . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent - its food shall be dust!
ISSUE: Isaiah’s passage is one of great joy and hope. It tells of a new creation that is to come. New joys will come among God’s people in a rebuilt Jerusalem, and the people shall all know peace and long life. What a hope that was! The very order of things shall be changed when the wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The serpent shall eat the dust, as in the first creation. Evil and Satan will be trampled under foot, and the Kingdom of God shall rise.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There are several stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that are Creation Stories. We are, of course, most familiar with the story of the world being created in those very special seven days in the 1st Chapter of Genesis. This story is the one in which God makes all things, including, human beings. It says that God’s Creation is very good. A second creation story begins with the 5th verse of the 2nd Chapter of Genesis. In this story Adam gets created from the clay, and Eve is created from Adam’s rib, and the two are placed in the wonderful and beautiful Garden of Eden. Shortly after this creation story, the serpent encourages Eve to eat from the one forbidden tree, and she in turn invites Adam to join her for supper. It’s all down hill from there. They two are cast out of the garden, and their own two sons get into an argument, and Cain kills Abel. The Fall of Adam and Eve expresses the need for human redemption. The stories portray the fact that human beings (symbolized by Adam and Eve, and the kids), who have it all, are never quite satisfied and try to take things into their own hands. It’s all down hill from there.
Then there comes still another creation story, or at least a redemption story of Noah and the Ark. The world is a mess. So God determines to start all over again. He selects the one righteous man, Noah, and has Noah build an Ark of Salvation for himself, and his family, and male and female of all living creatures. And so after the flood, new life begins and abounds with a whole new cleaned up creation. Barely had the rainbow faded away, when Noah’s youngest son, Ham, dishonors his father, and the process of sin continues. Men attempt to build the Towers of Babylon and storm heaven and make themselves like God and so it goes. What is important to appreciate is that when God’s people have gotten themselves into trouble, eventually, God goes after them, and redeems them. So much of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are like the Prodigal Son Parable. God takes back the lost and wayward, and starts over again. There other instances of Creation, or at least renew stories in the Scriptures: Moses Leadership across the Sea of Reeds, Ezekiel’s Vision of Dry Bones, Jesus’ Baptism, etc.)
Notice in the Isaiah (65:17-25) for today, the prophet is proclaiming that God is about to create a new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. (Sounds a little like Auld Lang Syne.) Again, this hope of a new creation is being pronounced, proclaimed, and given to a people who had been all but spiritually and materially devastated by foreign conquerors, but now a new hope comes to them. The central city of Jerusalem shall no longer be a place of hopeless despair, but the Holy City, the city that signified Israel and Judah’s unity will become a place of joy. The temple will be rebuilt, and there will be no more weeping and cries of distress. People’s lives will not be subject to evil foreign powers and death. The death rate of little children, children suffer most in war, plague, and pestilence, will be extended. The mortality rate shall be much longer, and the person who doesn’t live to be at least an hundred years old will be considered accursed. There will be no more homes destroyed by foreign invasion; and the planted vineyards will not be trampled by warriors. What the farmer plants will be eaten by the farmer and his family, it will not be taken away and destroyed. There will be a prevailing peace in the land. And it will be as if the very nature of human nature and of animal nature shall be changed. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent – the dreaded serpent – will eat dust. Evil will be trampled down under God’s feet! The heavens will be clear and crisp, no longer blackened by war’s devastation.
Once again, from the Hebrew Scriptures, we have a profound and beautiful vision and image of a new creation, and a world of hope.
Notice how the Christian Scripture from John’s Gospel picks up this theme of hope. John the Baptist, the dipper, is also a herald or prophet proclaiming the coming of a Messiah, a new hope, a new creation is coming. He calls the people to readiness and preparation. They are baptized, immersed in cleansing waters that symbolize a new birth. John makes it clear that he makes no claim to be that messiah. He is only the messenger. His honor and status must decrease while the honor and status of the one to come increases. We know from the story that Jesus himself comes to be baptized by John, and the heavens open, and the voice of God is heard: “This is my beloved Son, the one with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
What comes from the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus is the raising up, the lifting up of his creation. He teaches justice and peace. He teaches love for God, and for one another. The early Christian Church from what I understand, up until the 3rd Century was quite pacifist. Christians sought the end of war and hatred. Also for the early church, and certainly for St. Paul, Jesus Christ was seen as the New Adam. In Christ there is a new creation that calls human beings back into the image of what they were meant to be as the servants and people of God in the Garden of Eden.
Some may think that this vision is pretty idealistic, pie in the sky. Wolves will never feed with lambs, and lions will never eat straw like the ox. And, Satan will never be ultimately trampled down under our feet. It is so hard in our human nature that prevents us from having these kinds of hope. Our world is sometimes so overwhelming with hatred, prejudice, fundamentalist radicals, impending war. But to allow ourselves to live without hope, dreams, visions, is to let Satan and evil win. That is not our story. It is not the story of the Jews, and it is not the story of the Christian church. The powers of evil, and the corruption of human nature are truly deeply rooted in our human condition. But basically, God said about the creation. It is good. He saw that it was good. And when we look at the Messiah; when we look at Jesus Christ the new Adam, we see what is good, - love, forgiveness, the yearning for and pointing towards God.
We are now in a season that looks for the coming of the new creation, heavens and earth restored to peace and hope. We look for us to be forgiven and to forgive, to be pardoned, and to pardon. We look to lay down our lives for one another as Christ laid down his life for us. We see in Jesus Christ a truly human potential for good, and for hopefulness. Will we a times fail? It’s likely, but then in Christ we begin anew.
Both the role of Isaiah, the prophet - and what a prophetic orator and writer he was – and the prophet Isaiah, that voice in the wilderness, turns people in their sins, weaknesses around. These men down through the ages have challenged hopelessness and despair. They call us to dramatic change demanding we embrace the image and vision of the new man, the new Adam, the new Eve, Jesus Christ.
It had been said that world was flat, and that it was the center of the universe. Anyone who thought differently was condemned. Thank God there were those who let the spirit of God lead them into truth. There are those who thought over the ages there would be no cures for diseases. Thank God for those who persisted in their research. Many things we thought could never be have come to pass: pictures and words sent electronically through the air, the overwhelming resources and information available to us through the Internet. People of hope and expectation, who have never doubted that so many things are possible with God, by God and through God has God has given us our talents, skills, and abilities. Men and women of Goodwill have had visions and dreamed dreams. As we are on the verge of a new creation with the God of Love and King of Peace, may we never for a moment set our hopes and dreams for a new creation aside.
SEASON: ADVENT 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 15, 2002
TEXT: Isaiah: 17-25 – For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. . . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent - its food shall be dust!
ISSUE: Isaiah’s passage is one of great joy and hope. It tells of a new creation that is to come. New joys will come among God’s people in a rebuilt Jerusalem, and the people shall all know peace and long life. What a hope that was! The very order of things shall be changed when the wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The serpent shall eat the dust, as in the first creation. Evil and Satan will be trampled under foot, and the Kingdom of God shall rise.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There are several stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that are Creation Stories. We are, of course, most familiar with the story of the world being created in those very special seven days in the 1st Chapter of Genesis. This story is the one in which God makes all things, including, human beings. It says that God’s Creation is very good. A second creation story begins with the 5th verse of the 2nd Chapter of Genesis. In this story Adam gets created from the clay, and Eve is created from Adam’s rib, and the two are placed in the wonderful and beautiful Garden of Eden. Shortly after this creation story, the serpent encourages Eve to eat from the one forbidden tree, and she in turn invites Adam to join her for supper. It’s all down hill from there. They two are cast out of the garden, and their own two sons get into an argument, and Cain kills Abel. The Fall of Adam and Eve expresses the need for human redemption. The stories portray the fact that human beings (symbolized by Adam and Eve, and the kids), who have it all, are never quite satisfied and try to take things into their own hands. It’s all down hill from there.
Then there comes still another creation story, or at least a redemption story of Noah and the Ark. The world is a mess. So God determines to start all over again. He selects the one righteous man, Noah, and has Noah build an Ark of Salvation for himself, and his family, and male and female of all living creatures. And so after the flood, new life begins and abounds with a whole new cleaned up creation. Barely had the rainbow faded away, when Noah’s youngest son, Ham, dishonors his father, and the process of sin continues. Men attempt to build the Towers of Babylon and storm heaven and make themselves like God and so it goes. What is important to appreciate is that when God’s people have gotten themselves into trouble, eventually, God goes after them, and redeems them. So much of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are like the Prodigal Son Parable. God takes back the lost and wayward, and starts over again. There other instances of Creation, or at least renew stories in the Scriptures: Moses Leadership across the Sea of Reeds, Ezekiel’s Vision of Dry Bones, Jesus’ Baptism, etc.)
Notice in the Isaiah (65:17-25) for today, the prophet is proclaiming that God is about to create a new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. (Sounds a little like Auld Lang Syne.) Again, this hope of a new creation is being pronounced, proclaimed, and given to a people who had been all but spiritually and materially devastated by foreign conquerors, but now a new hope comes to them. The central city of Jerusalem shall no longer be a place of hopeless despair, but the Holy City, the city that signified Israel and Judah’s unity will become a place of joy. The temple will be rebuilt, and there will be no more weeping and cries of distress. People’s lives will not be subject to evil foreign powers and death. The death rate of little children, children suffer most in war, plague, and pestilence, will be extended. The mortality rate shall be much longer, and the person who doesn’t live to be at least an hundred years old will be considered accursed. There will be no more homes destroyed by foreign invasion; and the planted vineyards will not be trampled by warriors. What the farmer plants will be eaten by the farmer and his family, it will not be taken away and destroyed. There will be a prevailing peace in the land. And it will be as if the very nature of human nature and of animal nature shall be changed. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent – the dreaded serpent – will eat dust. Evil will be trampled down under God’s feet! The heavens will be clear and crisp, no longer blackened by war’s devastation.
Once again, from the Hebrew Scriptures, we have a profound and beautiful vision and image of a new creation, and a world of hope.
Notice how the Christian Scripture from John’s Gospel picks up this theme of hope. John the Baptist, the dipper, is also a herald or prophet proclaiming the coming of a Messiah, a new hope, a new creation is coming. He calls the people to readiness and preparation. They are baptized, immersed in cleansing waters that symbolize a new birth. John makes it clear that he makes no claim to be that messiah. He is only the messenger. His honor and status must decrease while the honor and status of the one to come increases. We know from the story that Jesus himself comes to be baptized by John, and the heavens open, and the voice of God is heard: “This is my beloved Son, the one with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
What comes from the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus is the raising up, the lifting up of his creation. He teaches justice and peace. He teaches love for God, and for one another. The early Christian Church from what I understand, up until the 3rd Century was quite pacifist. Christians sought the end of war and hatred. Also for the early church, and certainly for St. Paul, Jesus Christ was seen as the New Adam. In Christ there is a new creation that calls human beings back into the image of what they were meant to be as the servants and people of God in the Garden of Eden.
Some may think that this vision is pretty idealistic, pie in the sky. Wolves will never feed with lambs, and lions will never eat straw like the ox. And, Satan will never be ultimately trampled down under our feet. It is so hard in our human nature that prevents us from having these kinds of hope. Our world is sometimes so overwhelming with hatred, prejudice, fundamentalist radicals, impending war. But to allow ourselves to live without hope, dreams, visions, is to let Satan and evil win. That is not our story. It is not the story of the Jews, and it is not the story of the Christian church. The powers of evil, and the corruption of human nature are truly deeply rooted in our human condition. But basically, God said about the creation. It is good. He saw that it was good. And when we look at the Messiah; when we look at Jesus Christ the new Adam, we see what is good, - love, forgiveness, the yearning for and pointing towards God.
We are now in a season that looks for the coming of the new creation, heavens and earth restored to peace and hope. We look for us to be forgiven and to forgive, to be pardoned, and to pardon. We look to lay down our lives for one another as Christ laid down his life for us. We see in Jesus Christ a truly human potential for good, and for hopefulness. Will we a times fail? It’s likely, but then in Christ we begin anew.
Both the role of Isaiah, the prophet - and what a prophetic orator and writer he was – and the prophet Isaiah, that voice in the wilderness, turns people in their sins, weaknesses around. These men down through the ages have challenged hopelessness and despair. They call us to dramatic change demanding we embrace the image and vision of the new man, the new Adam, the new Eve, Jesus Christ.
It had been said that world was flat, and that it was the center of the universe. Anyone who thought differently was condemned. Thank God there were those who let the spirit of God lead them into truth. There are those who thought over the ages there would be no cures for diseases. Thank God for those who persisted in their research. Many things we thought could never be have come to pass: pictures and words sent electronically through the air, the overwhelming resources and information available to us through the Internet. People of hope and expectation, who have never doubted that so many things are possible with God, by God and through God has God has given us our talents, skills, and abilities. Men and women of Goodwill have had visions and dreamed dreams. As we are on the verge of a new creation with the God of Love and King of Peace, may we never for a moment set our hopes and dreams for a new creation aside.
Sunday, December 8, 2002
ADVENT 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ADVENT 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 8,2002
TEXT: Isaiah 40:1-11 – Comfort, O Comfort says your God. . . . . . He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
ISSUE: Here’s a beautiful vision of Isaiah. He sees in the vision a council of God with his angels. The time has come to redeem and comfort his people. They have had enough difficulty and punishment. He comes to restore them in love and hope. The vision and theme are picked up by St. John the Baptist, calling folk to change and readiness for the savior of the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Once again, I am asking you to focus on another one of the beautiful and intriguing passages from the Prophet Isaiah. The passage is a vision where God is sitting in council with his entourage of angels. It is time for comfort and renewal to come to his chosen people, who for far to long now have been in exile.
As the angels are gathered around God, and Isaiah is privy by virtue of the vision to hear and see what is going on. He hears the word of God call out to the angel: Comfort Ye, O comfort ye my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry out to her that her penalty for sin is paid. She has received far more than her share of suffering; she has suffered double for her sins. Jerusalem had been destroyed; her people had been exiled to pagan territory. Now, her suffering is ended, and she shall be released and allowed to return to Jerusalem to Judah and Israel. Her suffering is ended.
God tells the angels begin building a highway in the desert. Lift up the valleys, and lower the mountains. Smooth out the rough places, and make the uneven ground level. God is coming to his people to lead and deliver them to their lost land. This is the image and vision of how a high potentate or ruler came to visit his people. God is coming to his people and the people are about to be restored to their homeland.
A voice comes to Isaiah himself, “Cry out, Isaiah.” What shall I cry he asks? “People are like grass,” the angels say, “they come and they go, bloom and fade. But the word, the promise, the declaration and proclamation of God will not fail you. So Isaiah, go to a high mountain and begin to proclaim as a herald of good tidings: “The Lord is coming to his people. He comes with might and his arm rules for him. He brings reward, hope and love. He will feed his chosen flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep!”
Remember what the desert was like both in the time of Isaiah and John the Baptist. It was a place dry and parched. It harbored wild animals and evil spirits. But now the Lord God is coming to the desert, to the most feared of all places. The people need no longer fear, a highway is being built through all that the people feared and new hope and love is coming. God will lead them home to the place of peace, and give them the comfort, the strength to rebuild their homeland again!
Notice the shear beauty of this passage. From our point of view it is as if the angels have manned the bulldozers and have begun to build a highway for God. It is as if a might King is coming, or a Shepherd of shepherds is coming to restore the lands and the pastures of his flocks and people. You’ve seen the valleys lifted and the high places made plain by work crews. The coming of the King, the Savior, The shepherd’s coming shall be expedited, and all who will receive him will know renewal forgiveness, love and hope.
This same theme is again picked up in the Christian Scripture reading from Mark. “Here’s the beginning of the Good News of Jesus the Son of God. Isaiah’s vision is now being renewed for the people of the first century. In this case the messenger is the prophet John the Baptist. John is the one in the desert, in the place of fear, who is redeeming the times and the place. He’s no slacker, John. He is a tough character, a priest, but not a fancy priest in fine robes in Jerusalem. He is wearing camel’s hair garb, and is eating wild locusts and honey. He is among the common people calling them to preparation for the coming, the coming of the Lord. He gives them messianic hope. He calls them to a new purity through baptism. At the time, only converts to Judaism were required to be baptized. Now he calls all men and women to conversion and purification and preparation. The time for repentance, that is, change has come. There’s about to be a great reversal. The last, the least, the lonely, the outcasts, the tax gathers, the soldiers, the common folk are going to be lifted up. They are the very ones who shall be regarded as the sheep of God, to be restored and given hope and love, in a world that condemned and saw them all as the dispensable folk of the world.
John appears in the desert, that place of evil spirits, and we see redemption taking place. Evil is being overcome, and people are being made ready for the coming of the Lord. John becomes Isaiah’s voice of one crying in the wilderness and in the desert. John is the builder with the angels for the coming of the messiah, the Lord, to be with his people. John is calling his people to a preparation for that coming of the Lord God.
Much of our world today is not unlike the dry parched land of the desert wilderness. The evil spirits, and the evil spiritedness of hate, doubt, hopelessness, despair, greed, and terror surround us. Too many women and children know too much about abuse. Unscrupulous drug dealers trap young people. We all fear the uncertainties of terror. There are still many human problems that make us feel deserted by God, and at the mercy of evil that is difficult to escape. We are not free from fear and uncertainty.
But the message of the ages is the very fact that God has and is coming to his people. The God of love and hope is redeeming the very place of evil spiritedness, the desert wilderness of human life. The deserts will blossom, and the Christ who once was himself tempted in the wilderness will be the way to The Kingdom of God.
The passages of Isaiah and of Mark are passages that call us to preparedness, for a readiness, and alertness, to the coming of the Lord God, once again. For the ancient Hebrews, the was the assurance of their forgiveness and the gift of the hope of restoring their land. For the early Christians, there was the assurance that the Christ had come among them, to restore hope and assurance of a better life. The least and last were restored to hope. There was a call to repentance, change, in readiness for the Christ who resisted the world’s ways with the hope of another way of life, love and sacrifice.
We have seen and enjoy in the story of the birth of Christ, the assurance that God has come among us. But what really lies ahead for us in this day and age, is the hope and anticipation that Christ will come again, to renew and restore us to hope and love and joy. The Kingdom of God prevails. That’s our good news. It is in being ready and willing to make the necessary changes in our lives that Christ will come again to us, and that the world we know will become a new world, a world where pollution is a thing of the past. Our children will become addicted to what is right and good. Where we will know peace in the world.
Lo, He comes. Join the angels in building the foundations for God to come among us to be our pastor and shepherd. Be willing to change your own life to be resonant with the way of Christ.
SEASON: ADVENT 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 8,2002
TEXT: Isaiah 40:1-11 – Comfort, O Comfort says your God. . . . . . He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
ISSUE: Here’s a beautiful vision of Isaiah. He sees in the vision a council of God with his angels. The time has come to redeem and comfort his people. They have had enough difficulty and punishment. He comes to restore them in love and hope. The vision and theme are picked up by St. John the Baptist, calling folk to change and readiness for the savior of the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Once again, I am asking you to focus on another one of the beautiful and intriguing passages from the Prophet Isaiah. The passage is a vision where God is sitting in council with his entourage of angels. It is time for comfort and renewal to come to his chosen people, who for far to long now have been in exile.
As the angels are gathered around God, and Isaiah is privy by virtue of the vision to hear and see what is going on. He hears the word of God call out to the angel: Comfort Ye, O comfort ye my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry out to her that her penalty for sin is paid. She has received far more than her share of suffering; she has suffered double for her sins. Jerusalem had been destroyed; her people had been exiled to pagan territory. Now, her suffering is ended, and she shall be released and allowed to return to Jerusalem to Judah and Israel. Her suffering is ended.
God tells the angels begin building a highway in the desert. Lift up the valleys, and lower the mountains. Smooth out the rough places, and make the uneven ground level. God is coming to his people to lead and deliver them to their lost land. This is the image and vision of how a high potentate or ruler came to visit his people. God is coming to his people and the people are about to be restored to their homeland.
A voice comes to Isaiah himself, “Cry out, Isaiah.” What shall I cry he asks? “People are like grass,” the angels say, “they come and they go, bloom and fade. But the word, the promise, the declaration and proclamation of God will not fail you. So Isaiah, go to a high mountain and begin to proclaim as a herald of good tidings: “The Lord is coming to his people. He comes with might and his arm rules for him. He brings reward, hope and love. He will feed his chosen flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep!”
Remember what the desert was like both in the time of Isaiah and John the Baptist. It was a place dry and parched. It harbored wild animals and evil spirits. But now the Lord God is coming to the desert, to the most feared of all places. The people need no longer fear, a highway is being built through all that the people feared and new hope and love is coming. God will lead them home to the place of peace, and give them the comfort, the strength to rebuild their homeland again!
Notice the shear beauty of this passage. From our point of view it is as if the angels have manned the bulldozers and have begun to build a highway for God. It is as if a might King is coming, or a Shepherd of shepherds is coming to restore the lands and the pastures of his flocks and people. You’ve seen the valleys lifted and the high places made plain by work crews. The coming of the King, the Savior, The shepherd’s coming shall be expedited, and all who will receive him will know renewal forgiveness, love and hope.
This same theme is again picked up in the Christian Scripture reading from Mark. “Here’s the beginning of the Good News of Jesus the Son of God. Isaiah’s vision is now being renewed for the people of the first century. In this case the messenger is the prophet John the Baptist. John is the one in the desert, in the place of fear, who is redeeming the times and the place. He’s no slacker, John. He is a tough character, a priest, but not a fancy priest in fine robes in Jerusalem. He is wearing camel’s hair garb, and is eating wild locusts and honey. He is among the common people calling them to preparation for the coming, the coming of the Lord. He gives them messianic hope. He calls them to a new purity through baptism. At the time, only converts to Judaism were required to be baptized. Now he calls all men and women to conversion and purification and preparation. The time for repentance, that is, change has come. There’s about to be a great reversal. The last, the least, the lonely, the outcasts, the tax gathers, the soldiers, the common folk are going to be lifted up. They are the very ones who shall be regarded as the sheep of God, to be restored and given hope and love, in a world that condemned and saw them all as the dispensable folk of the world.
John appears in the desert, that place of evil spirits, and we see redemption taking place. Evil is being overcome, and people are being made ready for the coming of the Lord. John becomes Isaiah’s voice of one crying in the wilderness and in the desert. John is the builder with the angels for the coming of the messiah, the Lord, to be with his people. John is calling his people to a preparation for that coming of the Lord God.
Much of our world today is not unlike the dry parched land of the desert wilderness. The evil spirits, and the evil spiritedness of hate, doubt, hopelessness, despair, greed, and terror surround us. Too many women and children know too much about abuse. Unscrupulous drug dealers trap young people. We all fear the uncertainties of terror. There are still many human problems that make us feel deserted by God, and at the mercy of evil that is difficult to escape. We are not free from fear and uncertainty.
But the message of the ages is the very fact that God has and is coming to his people. The God of love and hope is redeeming the very place of evil spiritedness, the desert wilderness of human life. The deserts will blossom, and the Christ who once was himself tempted in the wilderness will be the way to The Kingdom of God.
The passages of Isaiah and of Mark are passages that call us to preparedness, for a readiness, and alertness, to the coming of the Lord God, once again. For the ancient Hebrews, the was the assurance of their forgiveness and the gift of the hope of restoring their land. For the early Christians, there was the assurance that the Christ had come among them, to restore hope and assurance of a better life. The least and last were restored to hope. There was a call to repentance, change, in readiness for the Christ who resisted the world’s ways with the hope of another way of life, love and sacrifice.
We have seen and enjoy in the story of the birth of Christ, the assurance that God has come among us. But what really lies ahead for us in this day and age, is the hope and anticipation that Christ will come again, to renew and restore us to hope and love and joy. The Kingdom of God prevails. That’s our good news. It is in being ready and willing to make the necessary changes in our lives that Christ will come again to us, and that the world we know will become a new world, a world where pollution is a thing of the past. Our children will become addicted to what is right and good. Where we will know peace in the world.
Lo, He comes. Join the angels in building the foundations for God to come among us to be our pastor and shepherd. Be willing to change your own life to be resonant with the way of Christ.
Monday, December 2, 2002
ADVENT 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ADVENT 4
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 2, 2002
TEXT: 2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16– “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”
Luke 1:26-38 – “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
ISSUE: These stories tell of the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people for a new world at peace under the justice of God in Jesus Christ. The Christian Scripture, and beginning of Luke’s Christmas story, tells of the coming of God to the least of folk, and the story of their being raised up with him begins. The fulfillment of human hopes is realized in the coming of Jesus Christ to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The story of Christmas begins in the passages from the Hebrew Scriptures and the appointed Christian Scripture for this day. The passage from the Book of 2 Samuel tells of God’s promise to King David. The reading from the artistry of Luke’s Gospel tells of the imminent fulfillment of the promise.
In the little town of Bethlehem, long, long ago, there was a man by the name of Jesse and he had several sons. His last and youngest son’s name was David, and David was a shepherd boy. David became the chosen to be come the leader and ruler of all the tribes of Israel, uniting the countries Judah and Israel into one nation. Out of David’s rule came a time of prosperity and peace. While David was hardly perfect, he did sustain the approval of God. Through the court’s prophet, Nathan, God gave to David a promise. That at the end of reign, when he would like down with his ancestors, God would provide an outstanding successor from his lineage. God, himself, would be his father, and the new King would be his Son. The new king would build a lasting temple, and the promise concludes: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; you throne shall be established forever.” David’s immediate successor, and son, Solomon did build the temple, but after Solomon Israel and Judah divided once again, and the nations declined for an extended period of time where there were wars, often-poor leadership, and the nations were conquered by their enemies. The Temple was destroyed on several occasions after rebuilding attempts. However the promise of God was still in the background.
Out of that ancient background, came the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. St. Luke’s Gospel beautiful and artfully crafts the birth story of Jesus to convey the hope and the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy and the promise. The angel Gabriel, a messenger from God, appears to a young woman who is betrothed to a man named Joseph, who is an ancestor of the ancient King David. Mary is very perplexed and apprehensive about this the mystical visitation, and this strange greeting. This period was a time when men never spoke to women, especially if they were alone. Gabriel assures her that there is nothing to fear, and he gives to Mary the news that she shall conceive and bear a son. God’s spirit overshadows her. Mary receives the new that she shall bear a son, and that “he will be great, and called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will rule over the house of Jacob (the Hebrews, and his Kingdom will have no end.” The ancient promise is fulfilled.
Hopefully we’ll avoid being side tracked into concerns over the problems of virginity. Some people become stumped in their belief about the Virgin Birth. Others have somehow felt that virginity is better than sexuality. These issues are not what this artistic story is about. It is about God fulfilling his promise, and God’s spirit overshadowing a very young woman who will bear the Son of God, and the new hope for the world. Her motherhood, like the motherhood of every caring woman is immaculate, as Scholar William Loader says.
Just as David the shepherd boy had been the youngest and last of his brothers in Bethlehem, Mary too is from Nazareth, and nothing good comes from Nazareth. She is barely a girl out of childhood, with no claim to anything. From her and through her comes the Son of God. To the least and the last God comes. God comes to the bottom in Jesus Christ into the process of raising-up all that is fallen, and raising-up those oppressed by the injustices of the world. Notice how in Luke’s birth story of Jesus, the great powers of the world are listed: In the time of Emperor Augustus, a census is ordered throughout the Roman Empire, and Quirinius is governor of Syria. It was a time of great oppression and injustice for the expendable poor. Christ the King comes simply through a virgin woman and to an oppressed people. Few know much about Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire, or Quirinius. But the name of Jesus lives on to this very day, as the new king of peace, forgiveness, hope, and justice for all the people of God. What seemed to be so impossible becomes possible through God’s intense love for his creation and the way to reuniting the people of the world into The Kingdom of God under the leadership of the ways and the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the words of Mary, “He has come to fill the hungry with good things, and to send the oppressive and the greedy away.” (Paraphrased quote)
Christ comes through the expendable Mary, who declares herself “the servant of the Lord, let it be according to your word.” May we each allow ourselves to be the servants of the Lord, and the channels through which the Christ’s love may flow, like streams of living water through a conduit. God’s spirit needs desperately to touch many of the injustices of the world. William Loader, an Australian Biblical Scholar, points out how young women and children in some eastern countries are often abused today by unscrupulous gangsters, selling young girls into prostitution and forcing them into labor in sweat shops. They are the expendable people, children, of our time.
We all especially as Americans, must be so careful about our approach to Christmas. It is a season where so many of us are incline to over indulge our children and ourselves in our wealth. It becomes a happy time in the darkness of winter, and we try to enlighten things with decorative lights. We can become so sentimental over the baby Jesus, and giving a few scraps to the poor. We might remind ourselves of the story of the rich man who dresses in fine purple robes and feasts sumptuously, and then throws breadcrumbs to the poor.
We are living in a time, when some factions in our country seem intent on going to war. The result could well mean the destruction of many innocent lives, especially children, many of whom have already been traumatized. No guarantee for peace is really evident through such action.
All of us as individuals and as a nation stand in need of the savior. We stand in need of the coming Christ to teach and lead the way. To be the ruler of our lives, and to bring the changes, which have to come to bring justice to the world. Christmas is about the human need, the world need for a savior. The world needs a new understanding of what is power, and what is just. It needs a new understanding of being servants with Christ, with God in the world, who join with Christ in a sacrificial life. It needs a renewed understanding of love as care and devotion for one another, for other people, nations, and races different from our own.
The coming of Jesus Christ again gives us another opportunity to step into his Kingdom, into the Kingdom that is God’s, where we become channels of his grace, and those who serve and honor him as the peacemakers, and those who seek what is right, and Jesus Christ is acknowledged as King of Love and Prince of Peace.
SEASON: ADVENT 4
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 2, 2002
TEXT: 2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16– “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”
Luke 1:26-38 – “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
ISSUE: These stories tell of the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people for a new world at peace under the justice of God in Jesus Christ. The Christian Scripture, and beginning of Luke’s Christmas story, tells of the coming of God to the least of folk, and the story of their being raised up with him begins. The fulfillment of human hopes is realized in the coming of Jesus Christ to the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The story of Christmas begins in the passages from the Hebrew Scriptures and the appointed Christian Scripture for this day. The passage from the Book of 2 Samuel tells of God’s promise to King David. The reading from the artistry of Luke’s Gospel tells of the imminent fulfillment of the promise.
In the little town of Bethlehem, long, long ago, there was a man by the name of Jesse and he had several sons. His last and youngest son’s name was David, and David was a shepherd boy. David became the chosen to be come the leader and ruler of all the tribes of Israel, uniting the countries Judah and Israel into one nation. Out of David’s rule came a time of prosperity and peace. While David was hardly perfect, he did sustain the approval of God. Through the court’s prophet, Nathan, God gave to David a promise. That at the end of reign, when he would like down with his ancestors, God would provide an outstanding successor from his lineage. God, himself, would be his father, and the new King would be his Son. The new king would build a lasting temple, and the promise concludes: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; you throne shall be established forever.” David’s immediate successor, and son, Solomon did build the temple, but after Solomon Israel and Judah divided once again, and the nations declined for an extended period of time where there were wars, often-poor leadership, and the nations were conquered by their enemies. The Temple was destroyed on several occasions after rebuilding attempts. However the promise of God was still in the background.
Out of that ancient background, came the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. St. Luke’s Gospel beautiful and artfully crafts the birth story of Jesus to convey the hope and the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy and the promise. The angel Gabriel, a messenger from God, appears to a young woman who is betrothed to a man named Joseph, who is an ancestor of the ancient King David. Mary is very perplexed and apprehensive about this the mystical visitation, and this strange greeting. This period was a time when men never spoke to women, especially if they were alone. Gabriel assures her that there is nothing to fear, and he gives to Mary the news that she shall conceive and bear a son. God’s spirit overshadows her. Mary receives the new that she shall bear a son, and that “he will be great, and called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will rule over the house of Jacob (the Hebrews, and his Kingdom will have no end.” The ancient promise is fulfilled.
Hopefully we’ll avoid being side tracked into concerns over the problems of virginity. Some people become stumped in their belief about the Virgin Birth. Others have somehow felt that virginity is better than sexuality. These issues are not what this artistic story is about. It is about God fulfilling his promise, and God’s spirit overshadowing a very young woman who will bear the Son of God, and the new hope for the world. Her motherhood, like the motherhood of every caring woman is immaculate, as Scholar William Loader says.
Just as David the shepherd boy had been the youngest and last of his brothers in Bethlehem, Mary too is from Nazareth, and nothing good comes from Nazareth. She is barely a girl out of childhood, with no claim to anything. From her and through her comes the Son of God. To the least and the last God comes. God comes to the bottom in Jesus Christ into the process of raising-up all that is fallen, and raising-up those oppressed by the injustices of the world. Notice how in Luke’s birth story of Jesus, the great powers of the world are listed: In the time of Emperor Augustus, a census is ordered throughout the Roman Empire, and Quirinius is governor of Syria. It was a time of great oppression and injustice for the expendable poor. Christ the King comes simply through a virgin woman and to an oppressed people. Few know much about Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire, or Quirinius. But the name of Jesus lives on to this very day, as the new king of peace, forgiveness, hope, and justice for all the people of God. What seemed to be so impossible becomes possible through God’s intense love for his creation and the way to reuniting the people of the world into The Kingdom of God under the leadership of the ways and the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the words of Mary, “He has come to fill the hungry with good things, and to send the oppressive and the greedy away.” (Paraphrased quote)
Christ comes through the expendable Mary, who declares herself “the servant of the Lord, let it be according to your word.” May we each allow ourselves to be the servants of the Lord, and the channels through which the Christ’s love may flow, like streams of living water through a conduit. God’s spirit needs desperately to touch many of the injustices of the world. William Loader, an Australian Biblical Scholar, points out how young women and children in some eastern countries are often abused today by unscrupulous gangsters, selling young girls into prostitution and forcing them into labor in sweat shops. They are the expendable people, children, of our time.
We all especially as Americans, must be so careful about our approach to Christmas. It is a season where so many of us are incline to over indulge our children and ourselves in our wealth. It becomes a happy time in the darkness of winter, and we try to enlighten things with decorative lights. We can become so sentimental over the baby Jesus, and giving a few scraps to the poor. We might remind ourselves of the story of the rich man who dresses in fine purple robes and feasts sumptuously, and then throws breadcrumbs to the poor.
We are living in a time, when some factions in our country seem intent on going to war. The result could well mean the destruction of many innocent lives, especially children, many of whom have already been traumatized. No guarantee for peace is really evident through such action.
All of us as individuals and as a nation stand in need of the savior. We stand in need of the coming Christ to teach and lead the way. To be the ruler of our lives, and to bring the changes, which have to come to bring justice to the world. Christmas is about the human need, the world need for a savior. The world needs a new understanding of what is power, and what is just. It needs a new understanding of being servants with Christ, with God in the world, who join with Christ in a sacrificial life. It needs a renewed understanding of love as care and devotion for one another, for other people, nations, and races different from our own.
The coming of Jesus Christ again gives us another opportunity to step into his Kingdom, into the Kingdom that is God’s, where we become channels of his grace, and those who serve and honor him as the peacemakers, and those who seek what is right, and Jesus Christ is acknowledged as King of Love and Prince of Peace.
Sunday, December 1, 2002
ADVENT 1
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ADVENT 1
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 1, 2002
TEXT: Isaiah (63: 15-19) 64:1-9a – O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
ISSUE: There is profound and beautiful imagery in the Isaiah reading. It is as if, a beaten sinful nation is expressing its yearning to be saved and redeemed by The Father who seems to have turned his back on them. It is an image of the imploring prodigal son who yearns to return to the goodness of The Father. It is the nations coming to its senses, its right mind. We have been molded by the great potter, and need to be in his hands once again. The passage is one of pleading hope, fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I do hope that you listened and read carefully the extraordinary passage from the prophet Isaiah this morning. It is to that passage that I want to draw your attention. What rich beautiful and elegant yearning for the presence of God. So much of the Isaiah’s Hebrew Scriptures are so beautifully appropriate to the Advent Season, and the this world of our time.
The passage reveals a yearning prayer of Isaiah the prophet: “O that you (God) would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence . . . . – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble in your presence.” This passage and prayer comes from a period in the history of the Hebrew people when they had been exiled to a foreign land. Their homeland had been destroyed and the Temple in Jerusalem totally destroyed. The political and religious structures were in ruins. During the period of the their exile they lived under the injustices and the oppression of their enemies. Many of them lost the rituals of their faith, and often turned to foreign gods and marriages, lessening their identity as the people of God. This prayer implies their unfaithfulness in turning to other gods, and their harlotry as a nation of unfaithful. Even when they were finally allowed to return to Judah and Jerusalem, they returned to nothing more than ruins. It was a heart breaking time of despair and hopelessness.
In the passage comes the pleading of the prophet for God’s people: O God, tear open the heavens and come down to us. Remember us. Show your power and your glory to the nations of the world. Make the earthquake at your coming, just as you did when Moses stood before you on Mount Sinai. Set the brushwood ablaze, as you did the burning bush of Sinai. Strike the waters with your lightning that make water steam and boil instantly. But God you became angry when the people turned away from you building a golden calf. You became angry when we were in exile and we lost sight of you. It is as if God you have turned your face from us. Standing outside the boundaries of your affection, it is as if we are all worthless, dirty, and unclean. We have becomes like dried dead leaves in the wind of your spirit that drives us farther and farther away from you. We are overwhelmed by our sin, the burden is intolerable when we are so far from you. Isaiah closes the prayer pleading: “Yet, O Lord you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever.” Notice the reference to the Lord as “Father.” The appeal to God in the Hebrew Scriptures as “Father” is very rare, and considered to be much to familiar a term for common people to appeal to God.
The appeal here is that God is the one who has begotten us, just like the Potter begets the molded bowl. God is like a father. From the Christian stand point, what I think you see here is Israel, Judah, like a prodigal son, who has been lost coming to its senses in the Prophet’s Prayer. It is a nation crying out to its Lord, to its maker, to its Daddy! IT is like a child crying out in the darkness and its fears. Open the door and come in to us light and hope shine upon us. Lord, God tear open the heavens and come back to us, save us from our despair and hopelessness we implore you, and let the world see your power and your glory.
I think passages like this one, which is a prayer for a wayward nation, also reflects the personal suffering of the people of this time. Life was never easy. Diet was poor, medical care non-existent. Infant mortality was very high. Children and people died young. Young children were often orphaned. On top of this you homeland is taken from you. You have to make a journey to a foreign land and nothing is familiar. The total structure of your society with its laws and customs are totally foreign. Is it any wonder God’s people sat down and wept? Their world was chaos. “O God, rip open, tear open, the heavens and come down to us. Remember us, we are your children, and you are our Father; can you turn away forever? Save us and redeem us, which essentially means take us back and don’t be angry with us forever!
Now notice in the Gospel of Mark today, which incidentally is the Gospel that will be highlighted throughout this next year, this too is a passage in Christian Scripture also directed to an extraordinarily difficult time. It is apocalyptic in nature revealing again a need and longing for God to come and save his people. Mark wrote this passage either just before, or just after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. It is time expressed in apocalyptic language of signs, not to be taken literally. Once again it is a time of great destruction. It is as if the end his hear, and the very foundations of both heaven and earth are shattered. Again the destruction is overwhelming. Mark’s message is stay faithful; change, or repent, and await the coming of God the Father again to restore a world of misery. Be ready for a time when God will tear open the heavens and come to His children.
Notice well that we also are living in an apocalyptic age. That was made especially clear on September 11, 2001. If you were in New York City that day, the sky turned black with smoke. If you were in one of the towers, it was as if the very heavens had collapsed as you were being consumed in fire. We saw a symbol of our affluence crumble. IN Washington, D.C., we saw the symbol of American power, the Pentagon, under another severe attack where the sky turned black. We were then at war: War with what? War with whom? When will it end? We are already at war with the drug cartels that are killing our children. Is or is not the impending war with Iraq a part of this apocalyptic experience. What biological and dirty atomic gizmos lie ahead for us?
And by the way, African nations are facing drought and impending famines, Again! The AID’s epidemic is growing. Poverty in our own land is growing. Policemen in our streets, which are symbols of authority that have come under fire as chaos reigns in the streets and in our schools, like Columbine High. Even the church is plagued with misconduct. Each and everyone of us usually are and are presently dealing with some kind of personal crisis, like illness, alcoholism, abuse, worry about family, loss of jobs, and loved ones. What have we done; what have we done; what have we done to deserve a world like this one. People say, they don’t understand the Bible. Well, I bet we understand Isaiah prayerful plea: O God, that you would tear open the heavens and come down to us, and give the world one hell of a shaking! O God you created us, like a Potter molding a bowl. Do it again Lord, like a loving father re-shape, and re-make us all over again, and bring us into the true light of your salvation and hope.
And then, one day, some shepherds looked up into the heaves, and the heavens were torn open. And the saw a heavenly host of angels singing, Glory to God in the Highest, and peace on earth among men and women who please God. If only Isaiah could have been there. Born in Bethlehem is a savior, who is Christ the Lord. Unlike the demanding, manipulative powers and affluence of the world, the Christ comes to God’s people. He brings, well we know what he brings: sacrificial love, healing, hope, resurrection and lifting up, hope. In addition, Jesus’ coming just doesn’t mean, every body love good old Jesus and everything is going to be all right. But Jesus brings hope, and a call and a mission to each of us. We are clay in the hands of the potter, and each of us is different with varieties of talents and abilities. We are called into fellowship with him, camaraderie with him. Our lives and the world we live in are only overwhelming, if we see ourselves as alone. We are not alone. God has torn open the heavens and come to us to bring peace, and to make us into a set of clay ware pottery that the world in time may learn to feed on the bread of life and hope. We are all his vessels and he has torn open the heavens to come among us, and the spirit of flame and fire (as the kids would say, “The fire bird”) has come and is coming again to revitalize us. Be alert, awake, look for Jesus Christ to embrace you life. Let him come again to renew you, strengthen you, to alert us all to the healing and the peacemakers of the world who have already embraced the power of God. In all of the apocalyptic events of our lives that would cause us to cry out, “O Lord, tear open the heavens and come down to us.” Be alert and aware of his coming, and be prepared to follow him like a mighty company of saints in light into the future with hope.
SEASON: ADVENT 1
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: December 1, 2002
TEXT: Isaiah (63: 15-19) 64:1-9a – O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
ISSUE: There is profound and beautiful imagery in the Isaiah reading. It is as if, a beaten sinful nation is expressing its yearning to be saved and redeemed by The Father who seems to have turned his back on them. It is an image of the imploring prodigal son who yearns to return to the goodness of The Father. It is the nations coming to its senses, its right mind. We have been molded by the great potter, and need to be in his hands once again. The passage is one of pleading hope, fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I do hope that you listened and read carefully the extraordinary passage from the prophet Isaiah this morning. It is to that passage that I want to draw your attention. What rich beautiful and elegant yearning for the presence of God. So much of the Isaiah’s Hebrew Scriptures are so beautifully appropriate to the Advent Season, and the this world of our time.
The passage reveals a yearning prayer of Isaiah the prophet: “O that you (God) would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence . . . . – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble in your presence.” This passage and prayer comes from a period in the history of the Hebrew people when they had been exiled to a foreign land. Their homeland had been destroyed and the Temple in Jerusalem totally destroyed. The political and religious structures were in ruins. During the period of the their exile they lived under the injustices and the oppression of their enemies. Many of them lost the rituals of their faith, and often turned to foreign gods and marriages, lessening their identity as the people of God. This prayer implies their unfaithfulness in turning to other gods, and their harlotry as a nation of unfaithful. Even when they were finally allowed to return to Judah and Jerusalem, they returned to nothing more than ruins. It was a heart breaking time of despair and hopelessness.
In the passage comes the pleading of the prophet for God’s people: O God, tear open the heavens and come down to us. Remember us. Show your power and your glory to the nations of the world. Make the earthquake at your coming, just as you did when Moses stood before you on Mount Sinai. Set the brushwood ablaze, as you did the burning bush of Sinai. Strike the waters with your lightning that make water steam and boil instantly. But God you became angry when the people turned away from you building a golden calf. You became angry when we were in exile and we lost sight of you. It is as if God you have turned your face from us. Standing outside the boundaries of your affection, it is as if we are all worthless, dirty, and unclean. We have becomes like dried dead leaves in the wind of your spirit that drives us farther and farther away from you. We are overwhelmed by our sin, the burden is intolerable when we are so far from you. Isaiah closes the prayer pleading: “Yet, O Lord you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever.” Notice the reference to the Lord as “Father.” The appeal to God in the Hebrew Scriptures as “Father” is very rare, and considered to be much to familiar a term for common people to appeal to God.
The appeal here is that God is the one who has begotten us, just like the Potter begets the molded bowl. God is like a father. From the Christian stand point, what I think you see here is Israel, Judah, like a prodigal son, who has been lost coming to its senses in the Prophet’s Prayer. It is a nation crying out to its Lord, to its maker, to its Daddy! IT is like a child crying out in the darkness and its fears. Open the door and come in to us light and hope shine upon us. Lord, God tear open the heavens and come back to us, save us from our despair and hopelessness we implore you, and let the world see your power and your glory.
I think passages like this one, which is a prayer for a wayward nation, also reflects the personal suffering of the people of this time. Life was never easy. Diet was poor, medical care non-existent. Infant mortality was very high. Children and people died young. Young children were often orphaned. On top of this you homeland is taken from you. You have to make a journey to a foreign land and nothing is familiar. The total structure of your society with its laws and customs are totally foreign. Is it any wonder God’s people sat down and wept? Their world was chaos. “O God, rip open, tear open, the heavens and come down to us. Remember us, we are your children, and you are our Father; can you turn away forever? Save us and redeem us, which essentially means take us back and don’t be angry with us forever!
Now notice in the Gospel of Mark today, which incidentally is the Gospel that will be highlighted throughout this next year, this too is a passage in Christian Scripture also directed to an extraordinarily difficult time. It is apocalyptic in nature revealing again a need and longing for God to come and save his people. Mark wrote this passage either just before, or just after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. It is time expressed in apocalyptic language of signs, not to be taken literally. Once again it is a time of great destruction. It is as if the end his hear, and the very foundations of both heaven and earth are shattered. Again the destruction is overwhelming. Mark’s message is stay faithful; change, or repent, and await the coming of God the Father again to restore a world of misery. Be ready for a time when God will tear open the heavens and come to His children.
Notice well that we also are living in an apocalyptic age. That was made especially clear on September 11, 2001. If you were in New York City that day, the sky turned black with smoke. If you were in one of the towers, it was as if the very heavens had collapsed as you were being consumed in fire. We saw a symbol of our affluence crumble. IN Washington, D.C., we saw the symbol of American power, the Pentagon, under another severe attack where the sky turned black. We were then at war: War with what? War with whom? When will it end? We are already at war with the drug cartels that are killing our children. Is or is not the impending war with Iraq a part of this apocalyptic experience. What biological and dirty atomic gizmos lie ahead for us?
And by the way, African nations are facing drought and impending famines, Again! The AID’s epidemic is growing. Poverty in our own land is growing. Policemen in our streets, which are symbols of authority that have come under fire as chaos reigns in the streets and in our schools, like Columbine High. Even the church is plagued with misconduct. Each and everyone of us usually are and are presently dealing with some kind of personal crisis, like illness, alcoholism, abuse, worry about family, loss of jobs, and loved ones. What have we done; what have we done; what have we done to deserve a world like this one. People say, they don’t understand the Bible. Well, I bet we understand Isaiah prayerful plea: O God, that you would tear open the heavens and come down to us, and give the world one hell of a shaking! O God you created us, like a Potter molding a bowl. Do it again Lord, like a loving father re-shape, and re-make us all over again, and bring us into the true light of your salvation and hope.
And then, one day, some shepherds looked up into the heaves, and the heavens were torn open. And the saw a heavenly host of angels singing, Glory to God in the Highest, and peace on earth among men and women who please God. If only Isaiah could have been there. Born in Bethlehem is a savior, who is Christ the Lord. Unlike the demanding, manipulative powers and affluence of the world, the Christ comes to God’s people. He brings, well we know what he brings: sacrificial love, healing, hope, resurrection and lifting up, hope. In addition, Jesus’ coming just doesn’t mean, every body love good old Jesus and everything is going to be all right. But Jesus brings hope, and a call and a mission to each of us. We are clay in the hands of the potter, and each of us is different with varieties of talents and abilities. We are called into fellowship with him, camaraderie with him. Our lives and the world we live in are only overwhelming, if we see ourselves as alone. We are not alone. God has torn open the heavens and come to us to bring peace, and to make us into a set of clay ware pottery that the world in time may learn to feed on the bread of life and hope. We are all his vessels and he has torn open the heavens to come among us, and the spirit of flame and fire (as the kids would say, “The fire bird”) has come and is coming again to revitalize us. Be alert, awake, look for Jesus Christ to embrace you life. Let him come again to renew you, strengthen you, to alert us all to the healing and the peacemakers of the world who have already embraced the power of God. In all of the apocalyptic events of our lives that would cause us to cry out, “O Lord, tear open the heavens and come down to us.” Be alert and aware of his coming, and be prepared to follow him like a mighty company of saints in light into the future with hope.
Thursday, November 28, 2002
Thanksgiving
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Thanksgiving
PROPER: A,B,C
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 28, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 6:25-33 – What will we eat?
What will we drink? What will we wear?
Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear . . . . But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
See also: Deut. 8:1-3, 6-10, 17-20. “Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth. . .
James 1:17-18,21-27 – Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
ISSUE: We live in a very anxious and worrisome world. We feel pressure to accomplish and gain wealth and prestige. We like being thought of as a self-made man or woman. Yet, scriptures from long ago share a more basic truth. It is first that God gives all we have, and for that gift from God we are grateful.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The appointed scripture readings for this Thanksgiving Day are always rather startling. We can give thanks as Americans for so many “things.” Yet often in the back of our minds most of us were taught, or at least got the message that we have to be self-made men and women. We were taught that we had to make something of ourselves. Idleness, the devil’s workshop was frowned upon. Another big emphasis in our culture has been that of getting an education. Getting an education is certainly important, but what lay behind the emphasis on education was that with an education you can get a job, and make a lot of money so you can make it in the world, and be seen as successful. It’s a do it yourself world. It’s interesting to me how these cultural attitudes often play out in the life of the church. Often the heads of committees or leadership figures end up saying, “I’ll just do whatever the task is by myself.” And then comes the accolades from others for the accomplishments of the person in point. It becomes something of the need for reward from our peers. Being successful in the our work, marriages, raising our children often creates for us enormous worries and anxieties. Can I? Will I make it in the world? Do I measure up to the world’s expectations?
What is startling about the Scriptures today is that they address the world with and from a very different point of view. They dare to say, “Simply keep the words and Word of God, and all the rest of the stuff that we so worry about will come.” Keep the commandments and all that your physical need will come. It is a genuine call to faithfulness and trust in God.
Often we Christians are likely to say the Hebrew law is not very important in the light of God’s free gift of grace. But a Jewish person loves the law of God and cherishes the opportunity to keep the law. It reveals a covenant relationship with God. God is first and foremost, which in fact is what the first four commandments are about. The final six laws of the commandments are a person’s relationship with others, with the community. And Jesus himself summarized it by saying Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind. Just like it is the command to love your neighbors, you community, as yourself. It seems that out of this relationship with God and fellow human beings flows a bounty for all. The bounty comes from God. Everything begins and ends with God, not in what we do.
The James Epistle makes it very clear that everything is from God, every good and perfect gift is from above. Don’t be just hearers of the word of God, but embrace it and put it into action in terms of sharing. The word of God is about the law of loving God, and loving one another, seeking liberty and justice for all in world order that sometimes deprives people of all that God has to offer. Love God, and stay concerned about the needs of others. This teaching was for James an essential part of true religion. True religion is not escaping from the world but sharing the bounty of God with the world.
This concept was difficult in our Lord’s time just as it is today. We worry about what we’ll eat, drink, or wear, that is the material concerns. Again Jesus offers another approach: Don’t worry about all that. Step into the Kingdom of God, which is not anxiety driven. The birds of the air neither plant or sow, or build barns, yet they have enough. The lilies of the field neither work not spin wool, and yet they are an expression of God’s beauty. First we seek the Kingdom of God, a place of love and peace. “All the rest will come, says Jesus, trust me.”
The world clamors with noise, explosions of hatred, injustice, and with greed. Jesus is telling his followers to knock-it-off. First claim the Kingdom of God where the values are very different. He offers sacrificial love, forgiveness, peace, healing, hopefulness for the future, and a bounty of spiritual food for the crowds. What have we to be truly grateful for? Being over weight as a nation. The accumulation of so much junk we hardly know what to do with it all? But what of a basic spirituality, which comes from God, that is love? We are given knowledge of what is good, just, beautiful, and caring through the life and the teaching and the healing miracles of our Lord. All the rest, St. Paul, would say is refuse. God love us, and we in turn do what we can to love one another as doers of the word, and not just hearers.
It was hard for the peasants of Jesus’ time not to worry. They often did not know where the next meal was going to come from. But they also had to be aware that with working for justice their anxiety would never go away. Jesus challenges: Seek first the Kingdom of God. It’s hard for us too not to be anxious; there is such pressure upon us to be successful as the world demands, and pay the bills. Yet what freedom and joy it is, what perfect liberty to be liberated from that kind of pressure, anxiety, torture even, and look to a God of love and bounty who gives himself to us, and charges us with the commission to be the channels of that love for the world for others. To change our focus between what the world expects and demands, and what God would have us be and do is certainly liberating. And, it is a passage and way certainly based upon the re-ordering of our lives.
SEASON: Thanksgiving
PROPER: A,B,C
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 28, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 6:25-33 – What will we eat?
What will we drink? What will we wear?
Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear . . . . But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
See also: Deut. 8:1-3, 6-10, 17-20. “Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth. . .
James 1:17-18,21-27 – Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
ISSUE: We live in a very anxious and worrisome world. We feel pressure to accomplish and gain wealth and prestige. We like being thought of as a self-made man or woman. Yet, scriptures from long ago share a more basic truth. It is first that God gives all we have, and for that gift from God we are grateful.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The appointed scripture readings for this Thanksgiving Day are always rather startling. We can give thanks as Americans for so many “things.” Yet often in the back of our minds most of us were taught, or at least got the message that we have to be self-made men and women. We were taught that we had to make something of ourselves. Idleness, the devil’s workshop was frowned upon. Another big emphasis in our culture has been that of getting an education. Getting an education is certainly important, but what lay behind the emphasis on education was that with an education you can get a job, and make a lot of money so you can make it in the world, and be seen as successful. It’s a do it yourself world. It’s interesting to me how these cultural attitudes often play out in the life of the church. Often the heads of committees or leadership figures end up saying, “I’ll just do whatever the task is by myself.” And then comes the accolades from others for the accomplishments of the person in point. It becomes something of the need for reward from our peers. Being successful in the our work, marriages, raising our children often creates for us enormous worries and anxieties. Can I? Will I make it in the world? Do I measure up to the world’s expectations?
What is startling about the Scriptures today is that they address the world with and from a very different point of view. They dare to say, “Simply keep the words and Word of God, and all the rest of the stuff that we so worry about will come.” Keep the commandments and all that your physical need will come. It is a genuine call to faithfulness and trust in God.
Often we Christians are likely to say the Hebrew law is not very important in the light of God’s free gift of grace. But a Jewish person loves the law of God and cherishes the opportunity to keep the law. It reveals a covenant relationship with God. God is first and foremost, which in fact is what the first four commandments are about. The final six laws of the commandments are a person’s relationship with others, with the community. And Jesus himself summarized it by saying Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind. Just like it is the command to love your neighbors, you community, as yourself. It seems that out of this relationship with God and fellow human beings flows a bounty for all. The bounty comes from God. Everything begins and ends with God, not in what we do.
The James Epistle makes it very clear that everything is from God, every good and perfect gift is from above. Don’t be just hearers of the word of God, but embrace it and put it into action in terms of sharing. The word of God is about the law of loving God, and loving one another, seeking liberty and justice for all in world order that sometimes deprives people of all that God has to offer. Love God, and stay concerned about the needs of others. This teaching was for James an essential part of true religion. True religion is not escaping from the world but sharing the bounty of God with the world.
This concept was difficult in our Lord’s time just as it is today. We worry about what we’ll eat, drink, or wear, that is the material concerns. Again Jesus offers another approach: Don’t worry about all that. Step into the Kingdom of God, which is not anxiety driven. The birds of the air neither plant or sow, or build barns, yet they have enough. The lilies of the field neither work not spin wool, and yet they are an expression of God’s beauty. First we seek the Kingdom of God, a place of love and peace. “All the rest will come, says Jesus, trust me.”
The world clamors with noise, explosions of hatred, injustice, and with greed. Jesus is telling his followers to knock-it-off. First claim the Kingdom of God where the values are very different. He offers sacrificial love, forgiveness, peace, healing, hopefulness for the future, and a bounty of spiritual food for the crowds. What have we to be truly grateful for? Being over weight as a nation. The accumulation of so much junk we hardly know what to do with it all? But what of a basic spirituality, which comes from God, that is love? We are given knowledge of what is good, just, beautiful, and caring through the life and the teaching and the healing miracles of our Lord. All the rest, St. Paul, would say is refuse. God love us, and we in turn do what we can to love one another as doers of the word, and not just hearers.
It was hard for the peasants of Jesus’ time not to worry. They often did not know where the next meal was going to come from. But they also had to be aware that with working for justice their anxiety would never go away. Jesus challenges: Seek first the Kingdom of God. It’s hard for us too not to be anxious; there is such pressure upon us to be successful as the world demands, and pay the bills. Yet what freedom and joy it is, what perfect liberty to be liberated from that kind of pressure, anxiety, torture even, and look to a God of love and bounty who gives himself to us, and charges us with the commission to be the channels of that love for the world for others. To change our focus between what the world expects and demands, and what God would have us be and do is certainly liberating. And, it is a passage and way certainly based upon the re-ordering of our lives.
Sunday, November 24, 2002
LAST PENTECOST – Christ the King
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: LAST PENTECOST – Christ the King
PROPER: 29 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 24, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:31-46 – “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
SEE ALSO: Ezekiel 34:11-17 – “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.”
ISSUE: The passage is a vision of the Kingdom of God. Where those who have joined with Christ in his compassionate ministry inherit the Kingdom. The basic issue is not imperialistic achievement and status, but the ability to love one another as brothers and sisters, and to be in and with Jesus Christ, like suffering servants.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today’s gospel reading is a blend between a parable and a vision of the Last Day. It is an appropriate ending to the church year. It stands as a vision on this last day of the church year, as the final reckoning for the world on the last day of God’s final judgment. Remember parables like that of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Normally, the gospel accounts are assuring in that they offer forgiveness and opportunity for change and renewal. We are very comfortable with those stories and parables. Even the infamous Prodigal Son gets another chance. But there is also the final time of reckoning, when life is over and the day of reckoning comes, and there’s no turning back to try again. There comes a time, when the door is slammed shut. The party banquet begins and the Bridegroom doesn’t remember those who come late, and the door is shut and that awful trumpet of God sounds: “I don’t know who you are!” and the foolish are shut out in the darkness. There is an ultimate time of reckoning. Be alert; be ready.
Before I get into Matthew’s vision of the Last Day, and the Parable of the Last Day, I want to begin by saying a few things about the Hebrew Scripture reading from Ezekiel. At the time Ezekiel was writing, kings and rulers were considered to be the guiding shepherds of their people. Remember that chosen King David was a shepherd boy, who becomes a shepherd of his people in Israel. But David was certainly not totally successful in his leadership. Kings that followed divided the kingdom into Judah and Israel. Other empires in turn captured them. The rulers uprooted the people. Their homelands were destroyed, and the people were often exploited and treated unjustly by the ruling monarchs and emperors. Israel and Judah suffered significantly at the hands of imperial governments. Finally, you have Ezekiel’s great vision of hope where God himself says, “I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them . . . and bring them to their own land. . . feed them with good pasture, . . . they shall like down in good grazing land. . . and shall feed on good pasture . . . I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and I will make them like down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between the sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.”
In this passage there is much, which is similar to the 23rd Psalm, but much which is similar to what Jesus Christ does when he gathers a flock of 5,000 to feed in green pasture. What we have in the Christian Scriptures is Jesus Christ revealed as The Word, that is, what God has to say. In the ministry and the teaching of Jesus Christ, you see the shepherding of God in Christ to reclaim a lost creation. We see the prophetic utterances of Ezekiel played out in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He becomes for the Christian Community The Good Shepherd and Christ the King!
Then we are given the visionary parable of Matthew’s Gospel. The Son of Man, the Shepherd of God, Christ the King, has all the nations of the world and their rulers standing before him. The Good Shepherd, Christ the King begins the process of separating the sheep from the goats. The imagery here is fascinating. Sheep were honorable animals and were taken care of by shepherds. They were largely honorable because the male sheep were protectors of their females and families, because when they were slaughtered they did not cry out. Women in the family, on the other hand, cared for goats. Male goats shared their females with other males, and thereby were considered dishonorable in their unfaithfulness. Therefore, the separation of sheep from the goats meant that the shepherd was separating the honorable from the dishonorable, and the faithful from the unfaithful.
Now notice carefully what this visionary parable is saying about the Last Day. The judgment of the shepherd is based on faithfulness and what is honorable. The shepherd here is not some imperialistic type. The Good Shepherd, Christ the King’s status is based on something quite different from the imperialist way of the world. The new imperialism is based on the compassion and the caring of the shepherd for his flock. Furthermore, the flock is also judged on its ability to be compassionate as well.
The caring shepherd brings the sheep to his right hand, the hand or place of honor, saying to them, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Why? Well, not because of your achievements, not because of your status, but because you gave food to the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, took care of the sick, clothed the naked, and visited those in prison, and incidentally a fair number of early Christians were in prison at one time or another. Those who are the righteous are those who faithfully served with Jesus Christ in a spirit of hospitality and compassion. Without moaning and complaint they sought justice for one another, all as brothers and sister with Jesus Christ, and caring hospitality becomes a way of life.
It becomes relatively clear, I think, that if you live in a world of injustice, and world without patience, a world without caring, then you live in a world that is on its way to hell, to the garbage dump where the flames don’t go out, and where nations are nothing more than an ambitiously competitive to the point of destroying one another. It becomes a world where there is no peace.
We must not trivialize the gospel of Christ. Remember last week’s parable of the Talents. It was not about a master giving his servants a few bucks in hopes of a return of a few more bucks. It was about a master who gave millions to his servants, and some of them doubled the money, while one buried his. Participating in the church and the Kingdom of God is not about giving you a buck, and asking you to double it. It is rather about the understand of the wealth of love and forgiveness, the shepherd of God in Christ for his creation, and having his servants share in and participate in the great mission of God’s eternal love and hospitality.
While certainly this visionary parable calls God’s people to a caring for their own families and rejoicing in the privilege of being suffering servants for one another without complaint. It is also about the care of God’s total world community, especially for a nation that has so much. Too often the church itself becomes self-satisfied, if not complacent with contributions to food pantries and other such charities. That is well and good, and is as it should be to handle emergency situations for people who face rough times. There is still a far greater picture. We have to ask ourselves why it is that we give and give and give to the Food Pantry, and there are still people coming week after week, month after month, and the need does not decline. It in fact increases. There needs to be a systemic change as to how the poor can find ways to move to more lucrative work, and have available more lucrative wages that sustain single parent families in our world. It is not just in the giving of a few canned goods, but it comes to the way we vote, and the way we challenge and inform our leaders of their need to be good shepherds in the world order. We all may have to reduce our own expectations of what we get out of life for the benefit of others. “We may have to live simpler, that others may simply live,” is a common aphorism of our day.
Some years ago, the Episcopal Church had an outstanding evangelist. Her name was Gert Behanna, and she had written an autobiography entitled, The Late Liz, referring to her pen name, Elizabeth Burns. Gert went through a remarkable change, a period of grand repentance. She had been very wealthy, but as she lived out her life she went through several divorces, and her health declined significantly due largely to a serious alcohol problem. When her wealthy but extraordinarily miserable life was finally in the pits, by the grace of God, Gert had a conversion experience. She sobered up with the help of God and Alcoholics Anonymous. She set up her wealth into a fund for people in need, and her health dramatically improved. She spent her last days, well into her 70’s speaking at churches and to AA groups about her life. And Gert had a feeling, or perhaps, her own vision of the Last Day. Gert used to say that on the Last Day, “We will all stand before our Good Shepherd and he won’t ask about your great accomplishments. All the Shepherd will ask is, “How much did you love?”
SEASON: LAST PENTECOST – Christ the King
PROPER: 29 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 24, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:31-46 – “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
SEE ALSO: Ezekiel 34:11-17 – “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.”
ISSUE: The passage is a vision of the Kingdom of God. Where those who have joined with Christ in his compassionate ministry inherit the Kingdom. The basic issue is not imperialistic achievement and status, but the ability to love one another as brothers and sisters, and to be in and with Jesus Christ, like suffering servants.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today’s gospel reading is a blend between a parable and a vision of the Last Day. It is an appropriate ending to the church year. It stands as a vision on this last day of the church year, as the final reckoning for the world on the last day of God’s final judgment. Remember parables like that of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Normally, the gospel accounts are assuring in that they offer forgiveness and opportunity for change and renewal. We are very comfortable with those stories and parables. Even the infamous Prodigal Son gets another chance. But there is also the final time of reckoning, when life is over and the day of reckoning comes, and there’s no turning back to try again. There comes a time, when the door is slammed shut. The party banquet begins and the Bridegroom doesn’t remember those who come late, and the door is shut and that awful trumpet of God sounds: “I don’t know who you are!” and the foolish are shut out in the darkness. There is an ultimate time of reckoning. Be alert; be ready.
Before I get into Matthew’s vision of the Last Day, and the Parable of the Last Day, I want to begin by saying a few things about the Hebrew Scripture reading from Ezekiel. At the time Ezekiel was writing, kings and rulers were considered to be the guiding shepherds of their people. Remember that chosen King David was a shepherd boy, who becomes a shepherd of his people in Israel. But David was certainly not totally successful in his leadership. Kings that followed divided the kingdom into Judah and Israel. Other empires in turn captured them. The rulers uprooted the people. Their homelands were destroyed, and the people were often exploited and treated unjustly by the ruling monarchs and emperors. Israel and Judah suffered significantly at the hands of imperial governments. Finally, you have Ezekiel’s great vision of hope where God himself says, “I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them . . . and bring them to their own land. . . feed them with good pasture, . . . they shall like down in good grazing land. . . and shall feed on good pasture . . . I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and I will make them like down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between the sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.”
In this passage there is much, which is similar to the 23rd Psalm, but much which is similar to what Jesus Christ does when he gathers a flock of 5,000 to feed in green pasture. What we have in the Christian Scriptures is Jesus Christ revealed as The Word, that is, what God has to say. In the ministry and the teaching of Jesus Christ, you see the shepherding of God in Christ to reclaim a lost creation. We see the prophetic utterances of Ezekiel played out in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He becomes for the Christian Community The Good Shepherd and Christ the King!
Then we are given the visionary parable of Matthew’s Gospel. The Son of Man, the Shepherd of God, Christ the King, has all the nations of the world and their rulers standing before him. The Good Shepherd, Christ the King begins the process of separating the sheep from the goats. The imagery here is fascinating. Sheep were honorable animals and were taken care of by shepherds. They were largely honorable because the male sheep were protectors of their females and families, because when they were slaughtered they did not cry out. Women in the family, on the other hand, cared for goats. Male goats shared their females with other males, and thereby were considered dishonorable in their unfaithfulness. Therefore, the separation of sheep from the goats meant that the shepherd was separating the honorable from the dishonorable, and the faithful from the unfaithful.
Now notice carefully what this visionary parable is saying about the Last Day. The judgment of the shepherd is based on faithfulness and what is honorable. The shepherd here is not some imperialistic type. The Good Shepherd, Christ the King’s status is based on something quite different from the imperialist way of the world. The new imperialism is based on the compassion and the caring of the shepherd for his flock. Furthermore, the flock is also judged on its ability to be compassionate as well.
The caring shepherd brings the sheep to his right hand, the hand or place of honor, saying to them, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Why? Well, not because of your achievements, not because of your status, but because you gave food to the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, took care of the sick, clothed the naked, and visited those in prison, and incidentally a fair number of early Christians were in prison at one time or another. Those who are the righteous are those who faithfully served with Jesus Christ in a spirit of hospitality and compassion. Without moaning and complaint they sought justice for one another, all as brothers and sister with Jesus Christ, and caring hospitality becomes a way of life.
It becomes relatively clear, I think, that if you live in a world of injustice, and world without patience, a world without caring, then you live in a world that is on its way to hell, to the garbage dump where the flames don’t go out, and where nations are nothing more than an ambitiously competitive to the point of destroying one another. It becomes a world where there is no peace.
We must not trivialize the gospel of Christ. Remember last week’s parable of the Talents. It was not about a master giving his servants a few bucks in hopes of a return of a few more bucks. It was about a master who gave millions to his servants, and some of them doubled the money, while one buried his. Participating in the church and the Kingdom of God is not about giving you a buck, and asking you to double it. It is rather about the understand of the wealth of love and forgiveness, the shepherd of God in Christ for his creation, and having his servants share in and participate in the great mission of God’s eternal love and hospitality.
While certainly this visionary parable calls God’s people to a caring for their own families and rejoicing in the privilege of being suffering servants for one another without complaint. It is also about the care of God’s total world community, especially for a nation that has so much. Too often the church itself becomes self-satisfied, if not complacent with contributions to food pantries and other such charities. That is well and good, and is as it should be to handle emergency situations for people who face rough times. There is still a far greater picture. We have to ask ourselves why it is that we give and give and give to the Food Pantry, and there are still people coming week after week, month after month, and the need does not decline. It in fact increases. There needs to be a systemic change as to how the poor can find ways to move to more lucrative work, and have available more lucrative wages that sustain single parent families in our world. It is not just in the giving of a few canned goods, but it comes to the way we vote, and the way we challenge and inform our leaders of their need to be good shepherds in the world order. We all may have to reduce our own expectations of what we get out of life for the benefit of others. “We may have to live simpler, that others may simply live,” is a common aphorism of our day.
Some years ago, the Episcopal Church had an outstanding evangelist. Her name was Gert Behanna, and she had written an autobiography entitled, The Late Liz, referring to her pen name, Elizabeth Burns. Gert went through a remarkable change, a period of grand repentance. She had been very wealthy, but as she lived out her life she went through several divorces, and her health declined significantly due largely to a serious alcohol problem. When her wealthy but extraordinarily miserable life was finally in the pits, by the grace of God, Gert had a conversion experience. She sobered up with the help of God and Alcoholics Anonymous. She set up her wealth into a fund for people in need, and her health dramatically improved. She spent her last days, well into her 70’s speaking at churches and to AA groups about her life. And Gert had a feeling, or perhaps, her own vision of the Last Day. Gert used to say that on the Last Day, “We will all stand before our Good Shepherd and he won’t ask about your great accomplishments. All the Shepherd will ask is, “How much did you love?”
Sunday, November 17, 2002
PENTECOST 26
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 26
PROPER: 28 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:14-29 – The Parable of the Talents
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”
ISSUE: Here’s a tough parable. Two men what the master has given them, and one does what was actually expected at the time; he buried the talent, and justifies the action by saying that the master was a hard man and he was afraid. This surreal tells of the enormously abundant bestowal of money given to his servants, and he is expecting a reversal of common culture to save up, and live in fear. The parable dares to call for risks, and to make us all aware of the great abundance bestowed upon us that we miss.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here’s a parable that shocked the hell out of the disciples of Jesus, and certainly as Matthew tells it, it shocks the early Christian Church. It is shocking enough that even most modern Biblical scholars believe that it can be attributed to Jesus himself. Bear with me. For many of us today, the parable is not nearly as terribly shocking to us, as it was in Jesus’ time and the first century. Most of us are born again capitalists, so we think we sort of know what this parable is all about, and rejoice with the servants who double their money. At the same time, however, the parable is often trivialized in terms of what it may mean in our time. Bear with me.
This parable is really very surreal. A master is going to go away for a very long time. So he generously leaves with three of this servants an extraordinary sum of money. To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to the last servant one talent, according to what he thinks their ability is. Obviously he has knowledge of this servants, and sort of what might be expected. Please keep in mind that a talent was a sum of money, and not gifted abilities of his servants. Much of the time the Christian Scriptures speak of denarii, which is a day’s wage. This passage speaks of talents. There are different estimates, but William Loader says that a talent was around 6,000 denarii, and the first gets a total of 30,000 denarii, which comes to about in today’s money some 5 million dollars! Five million dollars was more than the budgets of most large countries of that period. We’re talking big bucks, surreal amounts of money.
When the time of reckoning comes, and the master returns to collect the money he has left with his servants. It was not a gift, but rather the money was left in their care. So the first servant reports that he has doubled the money. Now we’ve got Ten Million Dollars! The master commends him, and puts him in charge of bigger things. The second servant declares he has doubled his money. Now, all totaled, the master has some Fourteen Million dollars. “Well done good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” But the last, servant buried his one talent, and returns it to the master in the same amount that had been given to him. No interest not even from the bank. He argues that he knows the master is a harsh man, who reaping fruits that he had not sown, and gather where he had not plant; so he was afraid and hid the money in the ground.
The master becomes very angry with him. The least he could have done was put the money in the bank and collect a little interest. The slave thought he was harsh; well we’re about to see how harsh the master can be. “So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and thy will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” We find this rather startling, and indeed harsh, but in our capitalist thinking, we can understand the master’s displeasure.
However, in this period the good people were not capitalists. Peasants listening to this parable would really have been shocked. Getting ahead and moving above your station, and accumulating money was what evildoers did. The rich were always suspected of gouging and abusing the poor, and accumulating more than what they were entitled. The last servant did what he thought was expected of him. He kept the talent safe and secure for his master, and returned it accordingly. He took no risk with what was not his. He did what was expected of him self in the world. The peasants and the early church were really startled by this parable! The master was demanding the opposite. Jesus was calling for, once again, the reversal of thinking.
What’s being reversed? The parable is not about the world. It is about the Kingdom, realm, dominion of God, which is quite different from the world. God is Judge, and we do live under his judgment, but God is also bountiful in love and the giving of grace, and gift giving. If you think God is harsh and cruel, vengeful, then that’s what you’ll get out of life and the world. But this parable is about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is surreal. The master is bestowing an incredible bounty, and inconceivable bounty upon his people in the Kingdom of God. The millions of bucks be thrown all around the place is the symbol of that very bounty.
Think of what it is that we have been given as the creatures and people of God. We have been given life itself, and an incredible sense of self-awareness and consciousness. We have been given minds to think and reason. We have kills to build and create. We can make music. Have you listened lately to the rich gifts of the masters? We have been given a universe and a world coupled with a sense of the beauty, awe, and wonder. We have been given the gift of sexuality that enable us to participate in the creative processes of God. We have been given a sense of moral rule and commandments, civility that can enables us to live in peace and harmony with one another. What’s more we have an image of the God of Love revealed in Jesus Christ who is the living expression of the God of Love, and the gift of forgiveness, and the hope of ascension and resurrection, when we have fallen, failed, or stumbled. We have been given a love through Jesus Christ that is the very outpouring of God on a cross that forgives, renews, and resurrects. I believe that this is the richness that is implied in this surreal parable where the master is throwing around enormous sums of cash for his servants to invest and with which to live.
There is that parable of the Sower, where he spreads seed indiscriminately, which would never have been done by a farmer in Jesus’ time that ends up yielding crops in an unheard of abundance. There is the parable of the two fish and the five parley loaves that in the hands of the disciples feeds a multitude. The Kingdom of God is perceived of as an inordinate amount of yeast in a loaf that will abound to be the size of a house! Jesus saw in God abundance, and he expanded it and risked and gave himself to all who would hear him an awareness of the greatness of the bounty of God, and at the same time of the risky discipleship that was called to invest in the magnificent loving abundance of God.
David Buttrick tells of a Catholic Church, that after the Vatican II conferences, which called for renewal of the church, removed an old crucifix of Jesus over the altar. It had a spear stuck in the side of the corpse with blood running down the side. In its place they put in large letters over the altar the word LOVE. After awhile those letters seemed so saccharine. Finally, they put the crucifix back over top of the word LOVE, and it all made so much more sense. Love is the pouring out, and the investing in the human condition. The Kingdom of God is that place where the inhabitants join with God, and join with Christ of pouring them selves out in the Holy Spirit of God, and join in God’s rejoicing.
Now there are always choices. We call it free will. What we can see the pain and the suffering of the world. We can see that God seems to let terrible things happen. We can perceive God as harsh, judgmental, and cruel. We fear the war that may come, the threats of terrorism. We fear cancer and the dwindling economy. We may see this as a truly harsh world controlled by a vengeful God, and become paralyzed in hopelessness and despair.
The parable changes things around; it is a wake-up call to the disciples, the poor, and the elite of Jesus’ time. Look at what God pours out on the travesty of the world, and what those who are his are called to appreciate and participate in. Take some risks, become involved in the world with God’s love and blessing. Become the agents, the conduits of his grace, the channels of his forgiveness, embracing the world of God’s with the arms of his love. Examine what you do, and who you are, as a baptized child, a man or woman, of God who has been welcomed into the Kingdom of God, and into God’s bounty. How do we as individuals and a church, spend and invest what God has given to us?
This parable of the Talents is indeed a parable of judgment. Yes, we are under the judgment of God. At the same time, we are under the incredible outpour of God’s wealth. The master goes away for a very long time. But there is coming a reckoning, and those who have served him well and appreciate his abundance of grace have absolutely nothing to fear.
ADDENDUM: God is like a Father, not a grandfather or grandmother. The latter will be inclined to spoil, but the Father, and the Mother require discipline.
SEASON: PENTECOST 26
PROPER: 28 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 17, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:14-29 – The Parable of the Talents
Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”
ISSUE: Here’s a tough parable. Two men what the master has given them, and one does what was actually expected at the time; he buried the talent, and justifies the action by saying that the master was a hard man and he was afraid. This surreal tells of the enormously abundant bestowal of money given to his servants, and he is expecting a reversal of common culture to save up, and live in fear. The parable dares to call for risks, and to make us all aware of the great abundance bestowed upon us that we miss.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here’s a parable that shocked the hell out of the disciples of Jesus, and certainly as Matthew tells it, it shocks the early Christian Church. It is shocking enough that even most modern Biblical scholars believe that it can be attributed to Jesus himself. Bear with me. For many of us today, the parable is not nearly as terribly shocking to us, as it was in Jesus’ time and the first century. Most of us are born again capitalists, so we think we sort of know what this parable is all about, and rejoice with the servants who double their money. At the same time, however, the parable is often trivialized in terms of what it may mean in our time. Bear with me.
This parable is really very surreal. A master is going to go away for a very long time. So he generously leaves with three of this servants an extraordinary sum of money. To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to the last servant one talent, according to what he thinks their ability is. Obviously he has knowledge of this servants, and sort of what might be expected. Please keep in mind that a talent was a sum of money, and not gifted abilities of his servants. Much of the time the Christian Scriptures speak of denarii, which is a day’s wage. This passage speaks of talents. There are different estimates, but William Loader says that a talent was around 6,000 denarii, and the first gets a total of 30,000 denarii, which comes to about in today’s money some 5 million dollars! Five million dollars was more than the budgets of most large countries of that period. We’re talking big bucks, surreal amounts of money.
When the time of reckoning comes, and the master returns to collect the money he has left with his servants. It was not a gift, but rather the money was left in their care. So the first servant reports that he has doubled the money. Now we’ve got Ten Million Dollars! The master commends him, and puts him in charge of bigger things. The second servant declares he has doubled his money. Now, all totaled, the master has some Fourteen Million dollars. “Well done good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” But the last, servant buried his one talent, and returns it to the master in the same amount that had been given to him. No interest not even from the bank. He argues that he knows the master is a harsh man, who reaping fruits that he had not sown, and gather where he had not plant; so he was afraid and hid the money in the ground.
The master becomes very angry with him. The least he could have done was put the money in the bank and collect a little interest. The slave thought he was harsh; well we’re about to see how harsh the master can be. “So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and thy will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” We find this rather startling, and indeed harsh, but in our capitalist thinking, we can understand the master’s displeasure.
However, in this period the good people were not capitalists. Peasants listening to this parable would really have been shocked. Getting ahead and moving above your station, and accumulating money was what evildoers did. The rich were always suspected of gouging and abusing the poor, and accumulating more than what they were entitled. The last servant did what he thought was expected of him. He kept the talent safe and secure for his master, and returned it accordingly. He took no risk with what was not his. He did what was expected of him self in the world. The peasants and the early church were really startled by this parable! The master was demanding the opposite. Jesus was calling for, once again, the reversal of thinking.
What’s being reversed? The parable is not about the world. It is about the Kingdom, realm, dominion of God, which is quite different from the world. God is Judge, and we do live under his judgment, but God is also bountiful in love and the giving of grace, and gift giving. If you think God is harsh and cruel, vengeful, then that’s what you’ll get out of life and the world. But this parable is about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is surreal. The master is bestowing an incredible bounty, and inconceivable bounty upon his people in the Kingdom of God. The millions of bucks be thrown all around the place is the symbol of that very bounty.
Think of what it is that we have been given as the creatures and people of God. We have been given life itself, and an incredible sense of self-awareness and consciousness. We have been given minds to think and reason. We have kills to build and create. We can make music. Have you listened lately to the rich gifts of the masters? We have been given a universe and a world coupled with a sense of the beauty, awe, and wonder. We have been given the gift of sexuality that enable us to participate in the creative processes of God. We have been given a sense of moral rule and commandments, civility that can enables us to live in peace and harmony with one another. What’s more we have an image of the God of Love revealed in Jesus Christ who is the living expression of the God of Love, and the gift of forgiveness, and the hope of ascension and resurrection, when we have fallen, failed, or stumbled. We have been given a love through Jesus Christ that is the very outpouring of God on a cross that forgives, renews, and resurrects. I believe that this is the richness that is implied in this surreal parable where the master is throwing around enormous sums of cash for his servants to invest and with which to live.
There is that parable of the Sower, where he spreads seed indiscriminately, which would never have been done by a farmer in Jesus’ time that ends up yielding crops in an unheard of abundance. There is the parable of the two fish and the five parley loaves that in the hands of the disciples feeds a multitude. The Kingdom of God is perceived of as an inordinate amount of yeast in a loaf that will abound to be the size of a house! Jesus saw in God abundance, and he expanded it and risked and gave himself to all who would hear him an awareness of the greatness of the bounty of God, and at the same time of the risky discipleship that was called to invest in the magnificent loving abundance of God.
David Buttrick tells of a Catholic Church, that after the Vatican II conferences, which called for renewal of the church, removed an old crucifix of Jesus over the altar. It had a spear stuck in the side of the corpse with blood running down the side. In its place they put in large letters over the altar the word LOVE. After awhile those letters seemed so saccharine. Finally, they put the crucifix back over top of the word LOVE, and it all made so much more sense. Love is the pouring out, and the investing in the human condition. The Kingdom of God is that place where the inhabitants join with God, and join with Christ of pouring them selves out in the Holy Spirit of God, and join in God’s rejoicing.
Now there are always choices. We call it free will. What we can see the pain and the suffering of the world. We can see that God seems to let terrible things happen. We can perceive God as harsh, judgmental, and cruel. We fear the war that may come, the threats of terrorism. We fear cancer and the dwindling economy. We may see this as a truly harsh world controlled by a vengeful God, and become paralyzed in hopelessness and despair.
The parable changes things around; it is a wake-up call to the disciples, the poor, and the elite of Jesus’ time. Look at what God pours out on the travesty of the world, and what those who are his are called to appreciate and participate in. Take some risks, become involved in the world with God’s love and blessing. Become the agents, the conduits of his grace, the channels of his forgiveness, embracing the world of God’s with the arms of his love. Examine what you do, and who you are, as a baptized child, a man or woman, of God who has been welcomed into the Kingdom of God, and into God’s bounty. How do we as individuals and a church, spend and invest what God has given to us?
This parable of the Talents is indeed a parable of judgment. Yes, we are under the judgment of God. At the same time, we are under the incredible outpour of God’s wealth. The master goes away for a very long time. But there is coming a reckoning, and those who have served him well and appreciate his abundance of grace have absolutely nothing to fear.
ADDENDUM: God is like a Father, not a grandfather or grandmother. The latter will be inclined to spoil, but the Father, and the Mother require discipline.
Sunday, November 10, 2002
PENTECOST 25
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 25
PROPER: 27 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 10, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:1-13 – The Wise and Foolish Virgins
ISSUE: How many times has Christ’s Holy Spirit come to us, asking us to be ready to serve and lighten the way for him? The story of the Wise and Foolish Virgins is a call to readiness, preparedness, and eager anticipation for lighting the way of the Lord in the darkness of the world. We lead the way to joy and hope as symbolized by the Wedding Feast.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew’s gospel account tells us a parable of what is popularly referred to as the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. We might also tag it as the Parable of Here Comes the Bride or better still, Here Comes the Bridegroom. In short, the parable is saying simply< “Be ready for the coming of the Lord.” It has that advent theme, and at one time, I believe, it was one of the gospels appointed to be read in Advent, a church season of getting prepared for the coming of the Lord at Christmas.
Modern biblical scholars believe that the Parable was probably not a parable that really belonged to Jesus, but was rather a story of the time that Matthew inserted in his gospel account to make certain points. The reason that modern scholars fail to attribute it to Jesus is because it seems about himself, and there is reason to believe that Jesus was not really fully aware of himself as The Messiah of God, the bridegroom of God, who was to come at this point in his ministry. They also seem to think that the parable is a bit too pat and moralistic. The wise virgins are fully prepared for the coming of the Lord, but the foolish virgins are lacking in their taking their part seriously enough, and are unready for what they were supposed to be doing. And for their foolishness they get locked out: “Truly I tell you I don’t know you.” So the moralistic conclusion is that you had better be good, and be ready to receive the Lord at all times, or you are going to get locked out of the Kingdom of God! IT is as if Matthew is trying writing his gospel account long after Jesus’ life is expressing and urgency and trying to drum up the enthusiasm and energy need in the early formation of the Christian community. Shape up, be ready, alert, awake, and ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and if you’re not, then you’d better watch out! Many scholars say that for these reasons the parable doesn’t sound exactly like Jesus, and more like a pep talk for the early church.
Personally, I can see that argument, but there is another point that the Parable makes that is somewhat in keeping, I think with Jesus’ message. And the startling conclusion of the possibility of being locked out is very alarming and thought provoking. Actually I think the uncertainties and the arguments about the scriptures and what they mean are really rather interesting, fun, and challenging. How boring Christianity can be, and how small God becomes, when we think we’ve got it all figured out.
Any way here’s the story: A couple is going to be married in a first century Middle Eastern community. This was a big deal. The groom goes to the home of his bride to bring her to his father’s home, because that was the custom and the new bride would live with her husband’s family, mother and sisters. His family had made the arrangements with dad making all the arrangements for the dowry, and mother checked out and dotted the “I’s,” and crossed the “T’s” of the contract. People in the community were all invited, which included the young unmarried girls, teen-agers, in the community, of which there are ten in this town. They wait along the road to greet the new couple and light the way with their lanterns if it gets late. For some reason the couple are held up, keeping in mind that punctuality was not exactly a virtue of the time, and there may have been some last minute things to discuss between the families regarding the marriage contract, and lots of farewells, hugs and kisses for the departing bride. Back home the guests are waiting, and the teen-age girls are out on the road waiting to announce their coming and light the way in the dark.
It is late, and the virgin teen-age virgin maidens see that the wedding party is coming so they get ready to light their lamps. Now the wise maidens brought extra oil and are ready for the procession. The foolish teen-agers have not brought enough so they want the wise maidens to share, but the wise maidens are teen-agers too, and they refuse, which really doesn’t say a lot for the wise maidens. (Spoken child like:)
“Go get your own oil.”
“But the stores are closed now.”
“Tough luck. We got ours; now you go get yours.”
Meantime, the bridegroom comes, and there is a procession to the wedding feast, to the grand party.” Those with the oil lamps lead the way. They enlighten the way. What’s more they are filled with the oil, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Are these they who have been sealed by the Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever?” Where is all this leading? It is leading to the Feast, one of the most joyful occasions of the time! I think so! And the silly foolish girls are left out, and we may be inclined to feel sorry for them. But don’t! They were invited. They knew the way but they didn’t take it seriously. Like the guy who as invited to the Wedding Feast in another parable, but who didn’t wear his wedding garment. He got thrown out with the girls. This parable of Matthew, and Jesus, I think, is told at a difficult time in their history. Jesus foresaw the potential doom of the destruction of Israel, and Matthew lived through it. The parable stern call to come to the Wedding Feast, to the banquet in the Kingdom, and take it seriously and keep focused as the children of light, and as those anointed with the oil of the Spirit. Don’t miss the boat; don’t miss the party. Look for the coming of Christ of Christ in the darkness as faithful servants. That is what we are called to, faithfulness, loyalty, commitment to Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom and Lord that we serve.
Let’s shift for a minute to the Hebrew Scripture Lesson from Amos. A great lesson. No, a powerful lesson. Amos is saying to his people the coming day of the Lord is not light. It is a day of gloom and darkness. “It is as if you were running away from a lion and ran into a grizzly bear.” The day of the Lord is not always sweetness and light. There are very difficult and painful times. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies, you half-attended church services, and your fattened lamb dinners. I take no delight in your songs, your harps, your bell choirs, Christmas Bazaars and flea markets. “I want justice to roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos speaking on behalf of God calls his people to a genuine spiritedness that addresses the doom and the gloom of the world, and leads the way to the party, to the feast, to a new world kingdom where everybody has enough, and nobody has too much; where we become deeply spiritually involved in the pain and suffering of the world, both its people and the environment.
This time is not a particularly jolly time for us. We stand on the edge of a war. War is not fun. People suffer and die on both sides, and even if you win for many of the afflicted there is no fun. There is the constant threat of terrorist attack against a world that some people see as arrogant. One of the most insidious problems in our society, which has persisted for a long time now, is the drug problem in our culture. But as long as the general population thinks “pot” is fun, then we’ll have to live with the drug intrusion, and its consequences. We are living in a world where the AIDS-HIV problem is becoming an ever more serious problem, creating unrest and serious problems around the world, creating terrible havoc in some poorer nations. Poverty continues expand, and often what the greater church does is apply band-aid handouts. Older people have difficulty paying for their medications. The teenyboppers in the parable have all been invited to walk with the bridegroom, to walk with the Lord, but they failed to take the invitation seriously and commit themselves and to stay ready in their mature relationship with the Lord, like people who miss the point of the Spirit of God given at their baptism. So they get left out, but don’t forget that those who do take their relationship with the Lord and the community seriously get to go into the party. The parable is a call to maturity in faith, and the joy of seeing the Kingdom Banquet of God become realized.
When I was in college I met a young man, Dennis Livingston, whom I enjoyed to very much. We used to have many late night discussions. I was a philosophy major, and Dennis was an art major, and was quite good. We had many good times together. But time passed, and each of us went our separate ways. Years passed. One day at a city festival, I saw a man, I was sure was Dennis.
“Are you Dennis Livingston?” I asked.
“Why, Yes I am,” he replied with a somewhat puzzled look on his face.
“Remember me? I’m David Remington.”
“Who? Dennis questioned.
“David Remington. You remember, from Washington College.”
“Sorry, Mr. Remington, I don’t know who you are.”
To be the church of God, to be friends with God, we have to do our faithful part in keeping the relationship going from day to day.
SEASON: PENTECOST 25
PROPER: 27 A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 10, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 25:1-13 – The Wise and Foolish Virgins
ISSUE: How many times has Christ’s Holy Spirit come to us, asking us to be ready to serve and lighten the way for him? The story of the Wise and Foolish Virgins is a call to readiness, preparedness, and eager anticipation for lighting the way of the Lord in the darkness of the world. We lead the way to joy and hope as symbolized by the Wedding Feast.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew’s gospel account tells us a parable of what is popularly referred to as the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. We might also tag it as the Parable of Here Comes the Bride or better still, Here Comes the Bridegroom. In short, the parable is saying simply< “Be ready for the coming of the Lord.” It has that advent theme, and at one time, I believe, it was one of the gospels appointed to be read in Advent, a church season of getting prepared for the coming of the Lord at Christmas.
Modern biblical scholars believe that the Parable was probably not a parable that really belonged to Jesus, but was rather a story of the time that Matthew inserted in his gospel account to make certain points. The reason that modern scholars fail to attribute it to Jesus is because it seems about himself, and there is reason to believe that Jesus was not really fully aware of himself as The Messiah of God, the bridegroom of God, who was to come at this point in his ministry. They also seem to think that the parable is a bit too pat and moralistic. The wise virgins are fully prepared for the coming of the Lord, but the foolish virgins are lacking in their taking their part seriously enough, and are unready for what they were supposed to be doing. And for their foolishness they get locked out: “Truly I tell you I don’t know you.” So the moralistic conclusion is that you had better be good, and be ready to receive the Lord at all times, or you are going to get locked out of the Kingdom of God! IT is as if Matthew is trying writing his gospel account long after Jesus’ life is expressing and urgency and trying to drum up the enthusiasm and energy need in the early formation of the Christian community. Shape up, be ready, alert, awake, and ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and if you’re not, then you’d better watch out! Many scholars say that for these reasons the parable doesn’t sound exactly like Jesus, and more like a pep talk for the early church.
Personally, I can see that argument, but there is another point that the Parable makes that is somewhat in keeping, I think with Jesus’ message. And the startling conclusion of the possibility of being locked out is very alarming and thought provoking. Actually I think the uncertainties and the arguments about the scriptures and what they mean are really rather interesting, fun, and challenging. How boring Christianity can be, and how small God becomes, when we think we’ve got it all figured out.
Any way here’s the story: A couple is going to be married in a first century Middle Eastern community. This was a big deal. The groom goes to the home of his bride to bring her to his father’s home, because that was the custom and the new bride would live with her husband’s family, mother and sisters. His family had made the arrangements with dad making all the arrangements for the dowry, and mother checked out and dotted the “I’s,” and crossed the “T’s” of the contract. People in the community were all invited, which included the young unmarried girls, teen-agers, in the community, of which there are ten in this town. They wait along the road to greet the new couple and light the way with their lanterns if it gets late. For some reason the couple are held up, keeping in mind that punctuality was not exactly a virtue of the time, and there may have been some last minute things to discuss between the families regarding the marriage contract, and lots of farewells, hugs and kisses for the departing bride. Back home the guests are waiting, and the teen-age girls are out on the road waiting to announce their coming and light the way in the dark.
It is late, and the virgin teen-age virgin maidens see that the wedding party is coming so they get ready to light their lamps. Now the wise maidens brought extra oil and are ready for the procession. The foolish teen-agers have not brought enough so they want the wise maidens to share, but the wise maidens are teen-agers too, and they refuse, which really doesn’t say a lot for the wise maidens. (Spoken child like:)
“Go get your own oil.”
“But the stores are closed now.”
“Tough luck. We got ours; now you go get yours.”
Meantime, the bridegroom comes, and there is a procession to the wedding feast, to the grand party.” Those with the oil lamps lead the way. They enlighten the way. What’s more they are filled with the oil, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Are these they who have been sealed by the Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever?” Where is all this leading? It is leading to the Feast, one of the most joyful occasions of the time! I think so! And the silly foolish girls are left out, and we may be inclined to feel sorry for them. But don’t! They were invited. They knew the way but they didn’t take it seriously. Like the guy who as invited to the Wedding Feast in another parable, but who didn’t wear his wedding garment. He got thrown out with the girls. This parable of Matthew, and Jesus, I think, is told at a difficult time in their history. Jesus foresaw the potential doom of the destruction of Israel, and Matthew lived through it. The parable stern call to come to the Wedding Feast, to the banquet in the Kingdom, and take it seriously and keep focused as the children of light, and as those anointed with the oil of the Spirit. Don’t miss the boat; don’t miss the party. Look for the coming of Christ of Christ in the darkness as faithful servants. That is what we are called to, faithfulness, loyalty, commitment to Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom and Lord that we serve.
Let’s shift for a minute to the Hebrew Scripture Lesson from Amos. A great lesson. No, a powerful lesson. Amos is saying to his people the coming day of the Lord is not light. It is a day of gloom and darkness. “It is as if you were running away from a lion and ran into a grizzly bear.” The day of the Lord is not always sweetness and light. There are very difficult and painful times. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies, you half-attended church services, and your fattened lamb dinners. I take no delight in your songs, your harps, your bell choirs, Christmas Bazaars and flea markets. “I want justice to roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos speaking on behalf of God calls his people to a genuine spiritedness that addresses the doom and the gloom of the world, and leads the way to the party, to the feast, to a new world kingdom where everybody has enough, and nobody has too much; where we become deeply spiritually involved in the pain and suffering of the world, both its people and the environment.
This time is not a particularly jolly time for us. We stand on the edge of a war. War is not fun. People suffer and die on both sides, and even if you win for many of the afflicted there is no fun. There is the constant threat of terrorist attack against a world that some people see as arrogant. One of the most insidious problems in our society, which has persisted for a long time now, is the drug problem in our culture. But as long as the general population thinks “pot” is fun, then we’ll have to live with the drug intrusion, and its consequences. We are living in a world where the AIDS-HIV problem is becoming an ever more serious problem, creating unrest and serious problems around the world, creating terrible havoc in some poorer nations. Poverty continues expand, and often what the greater church does is apply band-aid handouts. Older people have difficulty paying for their medications. The teenyboppers in the parable have all been invited to walk with the bridegroom, to walk with the Lord, but they failed to take the invitation seriously and commit themselves and to stay ready in their mature relationship with the Lord, like people who miss the point of the Spirit of God given at their baptism. So they get left out, but don’t forget that those who do take their relationship with the Lord and the community seriously get to go into the party. The parable is a call to maturity in faith, and the joy of seeing the Kingdom Banquet of God become realized.
When I was in college I met a young man, Dennis Livingston, whom I enjoyed to very much. We used to have many late night discussions. I was a philosophy major, and Dennis was an art major, and was quite good. We had many good times together. But time passed, and each of us went our separate ways. Years passed. One day at a city festival, I saw a man, I was sure was Dennis.
“Are you Dennis Livingston?” I asked.
“Why, Yes I am,” he replied with a somewhat puzzled look on his face.
“Remember me? I’m David Remington.”
“Who? Dennis questioned.
“David Remington. You remember, from Washington College.”
“Sorry, Mr. Remington, I don’t know who you are.”
To be the church of God, to be friends with God, we have to do our faithful part in keeping the relationship going from day to day.
Sunday, November 3, 2002
All Saints – The Sunday After
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: All Saints – The Sunday After
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 3, 2002
TEXT: Matt 5:1-12: The Beatitudes and The Baptismal Symbols: They Call Us to Mission with Christ
ISSUE: This sermon reviews the meaning of Baptism Symbols of water, oil, candle, chrisom, and the presence of people. The selection of All Saints as an appropriate time for Holy Baptism recognizes each of us as the community of God’s saints, not be virtue of achievements and talents but as a spirited people in union with Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Feast of All Saints’ Day is one of the days that the church sets aside as especially appropriate for Holy Baptism. Today, I’d like to review for us all some of the symbols we use in Holy Baptism and how they express the meaning of the importance of Holy Baptism for the Christian Community. Unfortunately, there were some strange teachings concerning Holy Baptism in the Middle Ages that were used more to control people than they were to make Holy Baptism a confession of Faith in Jesus Christ. Some of you older folks will remember the teaching of Holy Baptism that said if your baby wasn’t baptized it would not go to heaven. Baptism was seen as a way to clean up people from their sins. Many folk, especially mothers, were left to wonder what sins their new born baby had committed. That whole mentality and belief was often a manipulation of making people afraid not to be Christian for fear of hell.
In recent years the church has struggled to restore the ancient meaning and theology of Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is the outward and visible sign of our being made a Christian, or a follower of Jesus Christ, and a child of God. It is a ritual of renewed spiritual birth into the community of Christ Jesus, which we call the church.
The use of water is a birthing symbol. We were all carried in the womb in a sack of water. When we are born, we are born out of that water and into the world. Immersing or pouring the water over the child tells us this is a spiritual birth experience. The child is born again into the community of Christ, the church. The event may take place in a church building, but the church is the people of people baptized Christians. For that reason, we do not do baptisms privately, but when the whole church community is gathered at its main service of worship on a Sunday or Feast Day.
Water is also a symbol of new creation and hope that goes far back into the Hebrew Scriptures. Out of water came the creation of God with the Holy Spirit of God brooding over the chaotic waters. Out of it came the creation, and God scooped up from the clay the image of Adam the first human. Moses led the people of Israel to the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds). By the power and Spirit of God, he raised up his staff, and the waters parted, and Moses and his people fled oppression and slavery and the evil of the Egyptian pharaoh, crossing the Sea, and landing safely on the shore to continue an adventure toward the Promised Land. The sea closed up, and evil Pharaoh’s oppression was washed away. The Israelites with Moses begin a new life in anticipation of hope and finding the Realm of God’s Promised Land.
The Baptism of Jesus by John marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Coming up out of the water the Holy Spirit is there brooding over Jesus identifying him: This is my son, my child, the one in whom I am well pleased. Jesus is the new Adam, He comes up out of the water and begins his ministry, going just as Moses had done going into the wilderness and begins the journey to the Kingdom of God.
Notice the symbolism of a person or child’s baptism in the church today. It is the immersion into the water. It is actually a drowning experience. Early Christians were, and still some today are fully immersed into the water. Then they are raised up out of the water. It is rebirth, and it is death and resurrection to a new life. All the evil of the past is renounced and done away, and we begin a new life never beyond the reach of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and compassion, and that God’s the church. Listen for the voice of God saying: “This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Still another ancient symbol was that of the anointing with oil. The oil chrismation was all but lost for a while in our church, but has been returned to the ritual. The oil comes from a time when the prophets of God anointed priests and Kings, who were to serve His people. It was a marking with the Spirit of God. Today we make the sign of the cross (+) with the oil, saying, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and marked as Christ’s own forever.” (P.B. p. 308) The baptized are the sealed and anointed of Christ. Remember when Jesus asks the Herodians and the Pharisees whose image is on the coin, and they say, Caesar’s. And Jesus tells them to give that to Caesar, but give to God what is God’s. That’s us. We are the ones marked as Christ’s, anointed, signed, sealed, and delivered as his own coinage, priest, and prophets in the world today. See how this symbolism impresses, or imprints upon us who we are and who this child really belongs too, at her baptism. After the imprinting we all say together: “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his royal priesthood.” P.B. 308
Still another symbol is that of the Chrysom, which is a white garment placed upon the baptized person. It was an ancient garment of the very early church. Again for a period of time, it fell from use, but some parishes are restoring the custom. The white robe is reminiscent of the Resurrected Lord, of purity in Christ, of putting on Christ and being in partnership with Christ in the Church. These are the ones whose robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev.7:9-17) (The Chrysom was also used as a shroud in the event of the death of a child within the year.) Another common custom in baptism is to give the person a candle, which is lighted from the Paschal (Easter) Candle. It reminds us that we are the lights of the world in God’s world.
The role of this congregation, these parents and all parents, the sponsors or Godparents is to see that this child is brought up and raised in the community into of God’s church, learning the ways and teachings of God’s church so that it will join with us in that mission of proclaiming the love of the crucified Lord, proclaiming hope and resurrection, sharing faithfully in the royal priesthood of servanthood in the world, which is the work of the saints of God.
What we are doing today is making another saint. Alexa is born and acknowledged a saint of God today. We all know that there are famous wonderful saints who are remembered in books and stained glass windows. But there are many more saints of great simplicity, who were hardly ever known. Who were they?
Well Jesus took his disciples up on a mountain. He sat down and he began to tell them who were the saints, the ones whom God held as blessed. Indeed, the disciples were probably shocked again, because Jesus was always doing and proclaiming things different from the way the world thought. The Saints of God were not always people of great achievement and accomplishment. Let me tell you, says Jesus who the Blessed are . . . Let me tell you who the honorable folks are, the Saints. The honorable saints of God are the poor in Spirit. It is those who suffer and cry and mourn at the hand of injustice. The honorable and blessed are those who are meek and hospitable, who are merciful, and strive for righteousness and justice. The honorable ones, the saints are they are not the hot shots and big shots, but those who have been persecuted, but who remained faithful. You too, you disciples will know persecution, but remain faithful to me, and join me in servanthood for a troubled world, and you too shall be my saints, the honorable and blessed ones.
W live in a world where people set one another on fire, where people kill one another with guns and bombs. We live in a world threatened by war. We live in a world where people argue and fight for the right to put someone else to death by the death penalty. We live in a world where people use one another to have them selves made into hot shots and big shots. We live in a world where people will go to great lengths for fame and mostly for fortune at the expense of the poor and the struggling.
But what does God bless and honor, and who does God want to call his saints? Why Alexa Marie Harle, of course! Her parents and Godparents, this congregation and all who are poor in spirit, mourning and sadden over the world situation, and who want to be the lights of Christ in this generation working, hungering and thirsting for righteousness sake, and will to face persecution. Because we have been chosen and respond faithfully to proclaim the loving faith of Christ crucified, and share in his resurrection to a world of hope.
We have to understand the symbols of our rituals, because they call us to join with Christ, to be instruments and agents of his love and grace, resurrection hope, to be his saints in mission with Christ, and being partners in his vital ministry of hope for the world.
SEASON: All Saints – The Sunday After
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: November 3, 2002
TEXT: Matt 5:1-12: The Beatitudes and The Baptismal Symbols: They Call Us to Mission with Christ
ISSUE: This sermon reviews the meaning of Baptism Symbols of water, oil, candle, chrisom, and the presence of people. The selection of All Saints as an appropriate time for Holy Baptism recognizes each of us as the community of God’s saints, not be virtue of achievements and talents but as a spirited people in union with Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Feast of All Saints’ Day is one of the days that the church sets aside as especially appropriate for Holy Baptism. Today, I’d like to review for us all some of the symbols we use in Holy Baptism and how they express the meaning of the importance of Holy Baptism for the Christian Community. Unfortunately, there were some strange teachings concerning Holy Baptism in the Middle Ages that were used more to control people than they were to make Holy Baptism a confession of Faith in Jesus Christ. Some of you older folks will remember the teaching of Holy Baptism that said if your baby wasn’t baptized it would not go to heaven. Baptism was seen as a way to clean up people from their sins. Many folk, especially mothers, were left to wonder what sins their new born baby had committed. That whole mentality and belief was often a manipulation of making people afraid not to be Christian for fear of hell.
In recent years the church has struggled to restore the ancient meaning and theology of Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is the outward and visible sign of our being made a Christian, or a follower of Jesus Christ, and a child of God. It is a ritual of renewed spiritual birth into the community of Christ Jesus, which we call the church.
The use of water is a birthing symbol. We were all carried in the womb in a sack of water. When we are born, we are born out of that water and into the world. Immersing or pouring the water over the child tells us this is a spiritual birth experience. The child is born again into the community of Christ, the church. The event may take place in a church building, but the church is the people of people baptized Christians. For that reason, we do not do baptisms privately, but when the whole church community is gathered at its main service of worship on a Sunday or Feast Day.
Water is also a symbol of new creation and hope that goes far back into the Hebrew Scriptures. Out of water came the creation of God with the Holy Spirit of God brooding over the chaotic waters. Out of it came the creation, and God scooped up from the clay the image of Adam the first human. Moses led the people of Israel to the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds). By the power and Spirit of God, he raised up his staff, and the waters parted, and Moses and his people fled oppression and slavery and the evil of the Egyptian pharaoh, crossing the Sea, and landing safely on the shore to continue an adventure toward the Promised Land. The sea closed up, and evil Pharaoh’s oppression was washed away. The Israelites with Moses begin a new life in anticipation of hope and finding the Realm of God’s Promised Land.
The Baptism of Jesus by John marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Coming up out of the water the Holy Spirit is there brooding over Jesus identifying him: This is my son, my child, the one in whom I am well pleased. Jesus is the new Adam, He comes up out of the water and begins his ministry, going just as Moses had done going into the wilderness and begins the journey to the Kingdom of God.
Notice the symbolism of a person or child’s baptism in the church today. It is the immersion into the water. It is actually a drowning experience. Early Christians were, and still some today are fully immersed into the water. Then they are raised up out of the water. It is rebirth, and it is death and resurrection to a new life. All the evil of the past is renounced and done away, and we begin a new life never beyond the reach of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and compassion, and that God’s the church. Listen for the voice of God saying: “This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Still another ancient symbol was that of the anointing with oil. The oil chrismation was all but lost for a while in our church, but has been returned to the ritual. The oil comes from a time when the prophets of God anointed priests and Kings, who were to serve His people. It was a marking with the Spirit of God. Today we make the sign of the cross (+) with the oil, saying, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and marked as Christ’s own forever.” (P.B. p. 308) The baptized are the sealed and anointed of Christ. Remember when Jesus asks the Herodians and the Pharisees whose image is on the coin, and they say, Caesar’s. And Jesus tells them to give that to Caesar, but give to God what is God’s. That’s us. We are the ones marked as Christ’s, anointed, signed, sealed, and delivered as his own coinage, priest, and prophets in the world today. See how this symbolism impresses, or imprints upon us who we are and who this child really belongs too, at her baptism. After the imprinting we all say together: “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his royal priesthood.” P.B. 308
Still another symbol is that of the Chrysom, which is a white garment placed upon the baptized person. It was an ancient garment of the very early church. Again for a period of time, it fell from use, but some parishes are restoring the custom. The white robe is reminiscent of the Resurrected Lord, of purity in Christ, of putting on Christ and being in partnership with Christ in the Church. These are the ones whose robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev.7:9-17) (The Chrysom was also used as a shroud in the event of the death of a child within the year.) Another common custom in baptism is to give the person a candle, which is lighted from the Paschal (Easter) Candle. It reminds us that we are the lights of the world in God’s world.
The role of this congregation, these parents and all parents, the sponsors or Godparents is to see that this child is brought up and raised in the community into of God’s church, learning the ways and teachings of God’s church so that it will join with us in that mission of proclaiming the love of the crucified Lord, proclaiming hope and resurrection, sharing faithfully in the royal priesthood of servanthood in the world, which is the work of the saints of God.
What we are doing today is making another saint. Alexa is born and acknowledged a saint of God today. We all know that there are famous wonderful saints who are remembered in books and stained glass windows. But there are many more saints of great simplicity, who were hardly ever known. Who were they?
Well Jesus took his disciples up on a mountain. He sat down and he began to tell them who were the saints, the ones whom God held as blessed. Indeed, the disciples were probably shocked again, because Jesus was always doing and proclaiming things different from the way the world thought. The Saints of God were not always people of great achievement and accomplishment. Let me tell you, says Jesus who the Blessed are . . . Let me tell you who the honorable folks are, the Saints. The honorable saints of God are the poor in Spirit. It is those who suffer and cry and mourn at the hand of injustice. The honorable and blessed are those who are meek and hospitable, who are merciful, and strive for righteousness and justice. The honorable ones, the saints are they are not the hot shots and big shots, but those who have been persecuted, but who remained faithful. You too, you disciples will know persecution, but remain faithful to me, and join me in servanthood for a troubled world, and you too shall be my saints, the honorable and blessed ones.
W live in a world where people set one another on fire, where people kill one another with guns and bombs. We live in a world threatened by war. We live in a world where people argue and fight for the right to put someone else to death by the death penalty. We live in a world where people use one another to have them selves made into hot shots and big shots. We live in a world where people will go to great lengths for fame and mostly for fortune at the expense of the poor and the struggling.
But what does God bless and honor, and who does God want to call his saints? Why Alexa Marie Harle, of course! Her parents and Godparents, this congregation and all who are poor in spirit, mourning and sadden over the world situation, and who want to be the lights of Christ in this generation working, hungering and thirsting for righteousness sake, and will to face persecution. Because we have been chosen and respond faithfully to proclaim the loving faith of Christ crucified, and share in his resurrection to a world of hope.
We have to understand the symbols of our rituals, because they call us to join with Christ, to be instruments and agents of his love and grace, resurrection hope, to be his saints in mission with Christ, and being partners in his vital ministry of hope for the world.
Sunday, October 20, 2002
PENTECOST 22
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 22
PROPER: 24A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: October 20, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 22:15-22 – “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
ISSUE: Jesus is being challenged. The world challenges Christ’s call to be faithful to God. He responds with the clever answer of “Give to God what belongs to God.” The world is challenged in return to a careful examination of what is it that we owe to God, who has already given us everything by God’s grace. It is to return to God the appreciation and understanding of our being God’s sons and daughters.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today we are dealing with one of the most famous of the well known challenges that were ever put to Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Let me set this exchange between Jesus and his opponents in context. This passage in Matthew’s Gospel account follows the fact that Jesus has already upset the tables of the money changers in the Temple, and he has been offering some of his famous parables to the crowds in the Temple complex. He is gaining significant stature and honor, and this is of course threatening to other honorable leaders. So you have a kind of ganging up on Jesus.
You have two groups confront Jesus, Pharisees and Herodians. You can tell there is some desperation here, because Pharisees and Herodians were themselves enemies. Pharisees were very committed to the Torah and meticulously involved and keeping its 613 laws for the sake of their purity. The Herodians were loyal to King Herod, and thereby were something of puppets of Roman authority. It was safer that way in keeping the peace. Factions that were normally opposed to one another confront Jesus to dishonor him, and minimize his status.
First, they flatter him in hopes of knocking him off guard: We know you are sincere teacher; you teach the way of God; you show no partiality. Then comes the challenge that is designed to entrap him: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? If he says, ”Yes,” the large peasant following will be lost. And, he will be accused of not keeping the law. If he says, “No,” the Herodians will report him as against the Roman Empire for treason, and all the hopes and fears aroused by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem may cause an insurrection. It appears to be a no win situation. So Jesus asks them to show him a coin. And they produce one, which is their first mistake. “Whose head is this, and whose title?” he asks. Obviously it is the emperors. It bears the image of Tiberius Caesar, and the inscription, “Tiberious Caesar, Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, high priest.” Caesar is God. To produce such a coin and image in the Temple was a breaking of the first commandment, their second mistake. It was idolatry, and the characters producing it, are humiliated in the eyes of the people, and lose honorable status. They are seen as hypocrites.
Let me insert here what the tax is that they are discussing. It was a head tax, or poll tax, required of every man, woman, and slave from the age of 12 to 65, (few people ever lived to 65) for the privilege of living in the Roman Empire.
So then, Jesus makes the clever response: “Give therefore (or repay) to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The people were amazed! Notice that in the Hebrew Scripture reading from Isaiah, the prophet acknowledges that God can even use a heathen to restoration to his people. When the Jews had been crushed and exiled by the Babylonians, Cyrus, a pagan Persian, set the Jews free to return and rebuild their homeland. They saw this action, as the action of God working through Cyrus. (Isaiah 45:1-7)
But the real point that Jesus is making is whether or not the Herodians, the Pharisees, and all gathered there that day were paying to God what they really owed God. That is the question for all the centuries and for us today. It’s the question to all who pay allegiance and taxes to the state, and to those who call themselves the people of God: Christians, Jews, or Muslims. Do we pay God appropriately for the privilege of being in the Kingdom, or Realm of God? That’s tricky; be careful. We believe in the complete and full grace of God. You don’t have to pay anything to be in the Kingdom of God. It is free. God’s grace is for free. It is unmerited and unearned. You don’t buy your way into God’s Kingdom. It is tax-free! No charge, free admission. It is the free gift of God’s love to his people.
All this is tricky, because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have Jesus saying that the workers in the vineyard who came early in the day, and those who came late in the day and all get the same wage: the bountiful love, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion of God. And then say, well you have to pay God to be in his Kingdom. None of us have got that kind of money or merit. You can’t have the prodigal son received home with such love, and the angry brother begged to come in to the party by the loving father with great forgiveness, and then say you have to be good to have the Father’s benefits. The grace and love just pour out to all the same. The Episcopal Church says that the appropriate offering to God is tithe of our income. A tithe? A tithe of our incomes is but a pittance, an insult in the very face of God for all we have been given: life, reason, insightfulness, skill, talents, abilities, our children, our families, our world, love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, beauty, freedom! All that for only a tithe? Come on.
Show me coin of what we pay to God. Show it to me! Show it to me! Show it to me!
It is us! We are the coins in the hands of God! Show me the image of who is on the coin? It is you. We are made in the image of God. It was stamped upon us at our creation and acknowledged by the sign of the cross imprinted on our heads at Holy Baptism. We are the valuable and precious coinage of God. God is stamped upon us and within us. “You are sealed by the Spirit in Baptism, and marked as God’s own forever.” We are God’s. We express God’s worth in the world. We are his loyal legal tender currency in the present and coming Kingdom of God. We are given to the world as an alternative form and kind of currency, and economics. We are the worth of God’s love, of God’s forgiveness, of God’s longing for justice, of God compassion, of God’s mercy. We reveal by our loyalty, our faith and our devotion to the Great God Almighty how valuable and worthwhile God is, and how God’s grace is continually and lavishly extended through us, his coinage. We are the channels, the agents, the economy of God that is but treasure for the world that funnels the free love and grace to the world. We extend the treasure; we are the treasure by the grace of God. And God forbid that we should deliberately allow our selves to be counterfeit through disloyalty, indifference, or apathy.
Today we face some difficult times. The American economy is slow, in retreat or recession. But the retreat of the Christian churches in the world in their longing for safety, and lack of concern for human needs, and especially health care for all, and for involvement in justice needs for communities is a far cry worse, and in greater recession. We face a world where people are brutal and violent. The economy and coinage of God’s love must be taught and spread around more to give the world a greater treasure of love and hope than it presently experiences. We live in a country that uses the death penalty as a source of ultimate punishment, as if human lives really don’t count. When the coinage of God is the coinage of compassion and loving grace in opposition to the harshness of the world. We live in a world that solves its problems by violence and war, at the expense of human lives and great suffering, especially that of children. If we face situations where we must and feel forced into war for the greater good of God’s people, it must not be done with joy and a sense of triumph and delight, but with resistance, sorrow, penitence, and without gloating. If we gloat, we diminish the value of the God of peace and justice.
The long and the short of all this, the coinage of God is us. We are given full value, being in the image of God, and valuable to God, Sons and daughters of the high God, We are a part of the royal priesthood of God. Remember what you say at a Baptismal Service of a new person made a part of the Kingdom of God: “We receive you into the household of God, confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his royal priesthood.” How we give, share, sacrifice, love, become involved in God’s world is so very important. We have other commitments too, and we pay the powers that be, what is appropriate, but even the powers that be belong to God. God is gracious, bountiful, and all giving in his love, and we are the continuing expenditure, The coins of his Grace, in a world deeply need of the mercy and grace of God.
SEASON: PENTECOST 22
PROPER: 24A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: October 20, 2002
TEXT: Matthew 22:15-22 – “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
ISSUE: Jesus is being challenged. The world challenges Christ’s call to be faithful to God. He responds with the clever answer of “Give to God what belongs to God.” The world is challenged in return to a careful examination of what is it that we owe to God, who has already given us everything by God’s grace. It is to return to God the appreciation and understanding of our being God’s sons and daughters.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today we are dealing with one of the most famous of the well known challenges that were ever put to Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Let me set this exchange between Jesus and his opponents in context. This passage in Matthew’s Gospel account follows the fact that Jesus has already upset the tables of the money changers in the Temple, and he has been offering some of his famous parables to the crowds in the Temple complex. He is gaining significant stature and honor, and this is of course threatening to other honorable leaders. So you have a kind of ganging up on Jesus.
You have two groups confront Jesus, Pharisees and Herodians. You can tell there is some desperation here, because Pharisees and Herodians were themselves enemies. Pharisees were very committed to the Torah and meticulously involved and keeping its 613 laws for the sake of their purity. The Herodians were loyal to King Herod, and thereby were something of puppets of Roman authority. It was safer that way in keeping the peace. Factions that were normally opposed to one another confront Jesus to dishonor him, and minimize his status.
First, they flatter him in hopes of knocking him off guard: We know you are sincere teacher; you teach the way of God; you show no partiality. Then comes the challenge that is designed to entrap him: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? If he says, ”Yes,” the large peasant following will be lost. And, he will be accused of not keeping the law. If he says, “No,” the Herodians will report him as against the Roman Empire for treason, and all the hopes and fears aroused by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem may cause an insurrection. It appears to be a no win situation. So Jesus asks them to show him a coin. And they produce one, which is their first mistake. “Whose head is this, and whose title?” he asks. Obviously it is the emperors. It bears the image of Tiberius Caesar, and the inscription, “Tiberious Caesar, Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, high priest.” Caesar is God. To produce such a coin and image in the Temple was a breaking of the first commandment, their second mistake. It was idolatry, and the characters producing it, are humiliated in the eyes of the people, and lose honorable status. They are seen as hypocrites.
Let me insert here what the tax is that they are discussing. It was a head tax, or poll tax, required of every man, woman, and slave from the age of 12 to 65, (few people ever lived to 65) for the privilege of living in the Roman Empire.
So then, Jesus makes the clever response: “Give therefore (or repay) to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The people were amazed! Notice that in the Hebrew Scripture reading from Isaiah, the prophet acknowledges that God can even use a heathen to restoration to his people. When the Jews had been crushed and exiled by the Babylonians, Cyrus, a pagan Persian, set the Jews free to return and rebuild their homeland. They saw this action, as the action of God working through Cyrus. (Isaiah 45:1-7)
But the real point that Jesus is making is whether or not the Herodians, the Pharisees, and all gathered there that day were paying to God what they really owed God. That is the question for all the centuries and for us today. It’s the question to all who pay allegiance and taxes to the state, and to those who call themselves the people of God: Christians, Jews, or Muslims. Do we pay God appropriately for the privilege of being in the Kingdom, or Realm of God? That’s tricky; be careful. We believe in the complete and full grace of God. You don’t have to pay anything to be in the Kingdom of God. It is free. God’s grace is for free. It is unmerited and unearned. You don’t buy your way into God’s Kingdom. It is tax-free! No charge, free admission. It is the free gift of God’s love to his people.
All this is tricky, because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have Jesus saying that the workers in the vineyard who came early in the day, and those who came late in the day and all get the same wage: the bountiful love, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion of God. And then say, well you have to pay God to be in his Kingdom. None of us have got that kind of money or merit. You can’t have the prodigal son received home with such love, and the angry brother begged to come in to the party by the loving father with great forgiveness, and then say you have to be good to have the Father’s benefits. The grace and love just pour out to all the same. The Episcopal Church says that the appropriate offering to God is tithe of our income. A tithe? A tithe of our incomes is but a pittance, an insult in the very face of God for all we have been given: life, reason, insightfulness, skill, talents, abilities, our children, our families, our world, love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, beauty, freedom! All that for only a tithe? Come on.
Show me coin of what we pay to God. Show it to me! Show it to me! Show it to me!
It is us! We are the coins in the hands of God! Show me the image of who is on the coin? It is you. We are made in the image of God. It was stamped upon us at our creation and acknowledged by the sign of the cross imprinted on our heads at Holy Baptism. We are the valuable and precious coinage of God. God is stamped upon us and within us. “You are sealed by the Spirit in Baptism, and marked as God’s own forever.” We are God’s. We express God’s worth in the world. We are his loyal legal tender currency in the present and coming Kingdom of God. We are given to the world as an alternative form and kind of currency, and economics. We are the worth of God’s love, of God’s forgiveness, of God’s longing for justice, of God compassion, of God’s mercy. We reveal by our loyalty, our faith and our devotion to the Great God Almighty how valuable and worthwhile God is, and how God’s grace is continually and lavishly extended through us, his coinage. We are the channels, the agents, the economy of God that is but treasure for the world that funnels the free love and grace to the world. We extend the treasure; we are the treasure by the grace of God. And God forbid that we should deliberately allow our selves to be counterfeit through disloyalty, indifference, or apathy.
Today we face some difficult times. The American economy is slow, in retreat or recession. But the retreat of the Christian churches in the world in their longing for safety, and lack of concern for human needs, and especially health care for all, and for involvement in justice needs for communities is a far cry worse, and in greater recession. We face a world where people are brutal and violent. The economy and coinage of God’s love must be taught and spread around more to give the world a greater treasure of love and hope than it presently experiences. We live in a country that uses the death penalty as a source of ultimate punishment, as if human lives really don’t count. When the coinage of God is the coinage of compassion and loving grace in opposition to the harshness of the world. We live in a world that solves its problems by violence and war, at the expense of human lives and great suffering, especially that of children. If we face situations where we must and feel forced into war for the greater good of God’s people, it must not be done with joy and a sense of triumph and delight, but with resistance, sorrow, penitence, and without gloating. If we gloat, we diminish the value of the God of peace and justice.
The long and the short of all this, the coinage of God is us. We are given full value, being in the image of God, and valuable to God, Sons and daughters of the high God, We are a part of the royal priesthood of God. Remember what you say at a Baptismal Service of a new person made a part of the Kingdom of God: “We receive you into the household of God, confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his royal priesthood.” How we give, share, sacrifice, love, become involved in God’s world is so very important. We have other commitments too, and we pay the powers that be, what is appropriate, but even the powers that be belong to God. God is gracious, bountiful, and all giving in his love, and we are the continuing expenditure, The coins of his Grace, in a world deeply need of the mercy and grace of God.
Monday, October 14, 2002
PENTECOST 19
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 19
PROPER: 23 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 14, 2002
TEXT: Luke 17:11-19 – Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
See also: Ruth 1:1-19a
ISSUE: In this healing story, the leper who returns to Jesus to thank him seems at first to be the point of the story. However, there is much more in that boundaries are being expanded to include more people into the Kingdom that Jesus proclaims, the Kingdom of God. Christians are to be aware of that expansion and to respond with loyalty, faith in Christ as the way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ten lepers come to Jesus crying out for mercy, and for the possibility of healing. All ten are healed, but only one of the ten, a Samaritan, returns to thank Jesus. The question is raised why were the other nine who fail to return to give thanks to Jesus. At a first quick glance at this story we are left with the moral that it is appropriated to be thankful, and to praise God and Jesus for the many blessings we have received. It seems like something you learn first of all in kindergarten. Remember your mother telling you, “Remember to say thank you.” Part of my training for the priesthood included remembering to be always thankful, and recognizing gifts with a thank you note. People do like to be thanked and recognized for their generosity. This passage from Luke you might think was a reading that would be assigned for reading on Thanksgiving Day. It isn’t.
Being a thankful person is certainly an important aspect of life. While we may have many troubles and concerns at times in our lives, a deep examination of our lives often reveals that we do, especially as Americans, have much to be thankful for in material terms, and especially as Christians in terms of the forgiveness and love of God and one another which is such an integral part of our being. Being thankful is an important part of our present day modern up bringing, and moral life.
To get the most out of a biblical passage is to understand it in the context of the period in which it was originally written. Ten lepers, nine Galileans and one Samaritan come to Jesus begging for mercy, and healing as Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem along the border of Samaria and Galilee. The leprosy of the Bible is not Hansen’s disease, or leprosy as we think of it. Leprosy of the Bible was most any skin disease that caused scaling and oozing of the skin. Anyone who had such a disorder was excluded from the community and required to live outside the town gates. They were to touch no one, and to cry out whenever they were in the proximity of other people, “Unclean, unclean, I am unclean.” The fact that they were separated from the community had nothing to do with whether or not their skin disorder was contagious. Many of the kinds of skin diseases were in fact not contagious. Hansen’s disease itself is not extremely contagious, and even spouses often do not catch it from their mates. The issue was not contagion; it was a boundary issue, and the lepers not excluded because they were contagious, but because they were ritually unclean, according to the laws in the Hebrew Book of Leviticus.
Anything that oozed out of the body was often seen as unclean. Women were considered unclean during their menstrual period. Skin was a boundary and anything oozing out of it was breaking through the boundary. When a Jewish person traveled outside of the boundaries of Israel, he shook the unclean dust of a foreign unclean land off of his feet when he returned to Israel. The belief was that you must keep Israel holy, as the Lord is holy. Oozing skin was unholy, unclean, and breaking the boundaries.
In the story you have nine Galilean Jews teamed up with one hated Samaritan, a half-breed and hated part Jew. They shared their suffering and exclusion in common, until they come to Jesus for healing. Pleading for mercy from Jesus, they are instructed to go to the Jerusalem priest to be declared clean. On their way, they are healed. They can go to the priest at the Jerusalem Temple, be declared clean and restored to their community. Except, of course, for the Samaritan. He cannot go to Jerusalem to be declared clean by the Temple priest, because he is a Samaritan. He belongs across another border, and because he was a Samaritan was unworthy of entering the Temple premises. He has only one to whom he can offer praise and thanks, and that is Jesus. He returns falls on his knees in thanksgiving and praise. “Get up,” says Jesus, “go your way; your faith has made you well.” The Samaritan who had been brought up hating Jews had put his faith in the healing power of Jesus a Jew. He returns offering thanks and intrinsic loyalty.
What is the story telling the world? What is its message? It is essentially about Jesus breaking down the boundaries that separate people from one another, from God, from the alienation of themselves from themselves. Ten isolated lepers, who are considered unclean, come to Jesus who is traveling along the border of Galilee and Samaria. Jesus restores them to community be removing the boundary, the leprosy or skin disorder that separates them from the whole community and from the worship of God in the Temple. They are healed and more importantly restored. The hated Samaritan, who has crossed the border or boundary line into Galilee is not excluded because of his heritage and background. He too is healed and restored and embraced by Christ Jesus. In return he gives Jesus thanks, because he has nothing else to give him in return. His only return is thanks and praise for the enormous unearned grace and love he has been forgiven.
In the very beginning of this story, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We know what happens there; he gives his life for his friends and begins a new Kingdom founded in grace and love. He breaks down all boundaries that separate people from one another and from God. All that is required is loyalty, trust, faith in the mercy and hope of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan’s loyalty and faith is what saves and restores him, as the most unworthy of all. Interestingly enough, the nine Galileans do not return, because they believe all they have to do is do what the law requires: show himself to the priest. They believe that all they have to do is when they see Jesus again is to pay him back. But, the early church believed we are not worthy to pay back the free grace and love of God in Christ. You return loyalty, trust, faithfulness, thanksgiving for the unearned, unmerited, mercy, love and grace of God.
Let me also include some thoughts about the story of Ruth from the Hebrew Scriptures. Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem in Judah during a period of famine, and to save themselves took up residence in an alien land. Their sons grew up there and took wives from that land, Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately all of the men died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, all widowed. Widows were in poor straights in those days, so Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to return to their families, and she will return to her family in Bethlehem. Orpah returns to her Moabite family and the Moabite gods. But, Ruth insists on returning with Naomi remaining faithful and committed to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ruth is not pure Jewish, but she returns to Bethlehem with Naomi, (“Wither thou goest, I will go.”) remarries, and becomes the great grandmother of Israel’s greatest King David, who is obviously not a thorough bred. It is Ruth’s faithfulness and loyalty to Naomi, to God, in spite of the fact that she comes from the other side of the tracks that is important in the story. This story gives still another dimension to be holy as God is holy. God is faithful in his love and mercy, and salvation and future hope is found in faith.
At the present time, we are living in a very complicated and dangerous time. Suddenly we are conscious of many varieties of borders and boundaries, between our country and others, and between our religious faiths. It is a very frightening time, and we look for healing, mercy, hope in the face of a terrorism that limits our freedoms. Where do we turn? What is the right path of action? We fear that aggression will fan the flames of terrorism. We fear that non-action will bring about more and more terrorist acts. It seems like a no win situation. The human condition has confronted us with guilt in terms of why are we hated, with fear of a very uncertain future, with grief and mourning, with hopelessness. A new kind of spiritual leprosy separates us from the good. We inclined to close the boundaries that once were open to people in search of new beginnings and hope. Where do we turn? We turn to Jesus Christ. Lord God, we need healing. We need to be restored to peace and reconciliation. In our uncertainty there is only God to whom we can turn, and ask that the boundaries that separate us be removed, that our humanity and the human situation be returned to one of peace and of new found brotherhood in God. God enable us to rely in faith, loyalty, and trust upon you and your way of life for us. The terrorism we face today is evil. It does indeed confound us, and limits our freedom. In quiet assured confidence we turn to Jesus Christ to enable us to find our way by his grace to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of peace and love, where old boundaries are torn down, and we find a widening of all boundaries that include all folk of faith and goodwill.
SEASON: PENTECOST 19
PROPER: 23 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 14, 2002
TEXT: Luke 17:11-19 – Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
See also: Ruth 1:1-19a
ISSUE: In this healing story, the leper who returns to Jesus to thank him seems at first to be the point of the story. However, there is much more in that boundaries are being expanded to include more people into the Kingdom that Jesus proclaims, the Kingdom of God. Christians are to be aware of that expansion and to respond with loyalty, faith in Christ as the way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ten lepers come to Jesus crying out for mercy, and for the possibility of healing. All ten are healed, but only one of the ten, a Samaritan, returns to thank Jesus. The question is raised why were the other nine who fail to return to give thanks to Jesus. At a first quick glance at this story we are left with the moral that it is appropriated to be thankful, and to praise God and Jesus for the many blessings we have received. It seems like something you learn first of all in kindergarten. Remember your mother telling you, “Remember to say thank you.” Part of my training for the priesthood included remembering to be always thankful, and recognizing gifts with a thank you note. People do like to be thanked and recognized for their generosity. This passage from Luke you might think was a reading that would be assigned for reading on Thanksgiving Day. It isn’t.
Being a thankful person is certainly an important aspect of life. While we may have many troubles and concerns at times in our lives, a deep examination of our lives often reveals that we do, especially as Americans, have much to be thankful for in material terms, and especially as Christians in terms of the forgiveness and love of God and one another which is such an integral part of our being. Being thankful is an important part of our present day modern up bringing, and moral life.
To get the most out of a biblical passage is to understand it in the context of the period in which it was originally written. Ten lepers, nine Galileans and one Samaritan come to Jesus begging for mercy, and healing as Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem along the border of Samaria and Galilee. The leprosy of the Bible is not Hansen’s disease, or leprosy as we think of it. Leprosy of the Bible was most any skin disease that caused scaling and oozing of the skin. Anyone who had such a disorder was excluded from the community and required to live outside the town gates. They were to touch no one, and to cry out whenever they were in the proximity of other people, “Unclean, unclean, I am unclean.” The fact that they were separated from the community had nothing to do with whether or not their skin disorder was contagious. Many of the kinds of skin diseases were in fact not contagious. Hansen’s disease itself is not extremely contagious, and even spouses often do not catch it from their mates. The issue was not contagion; it was a boundary issue, and the lepers not excluded because they were contagious, but because they were ritually unclean, according to the laws in the Hebrew Book of Leviticus.
Anything that oozed out of the body was often seen as unclean. Women were considered unclean during their menstrual period. Skin was a boundary and anything oozing out of it was breaking through the boundary. When a Jewish person traveled outside of the boundaries of Israel, he shook the unclean dust of a foreign unclean land off of his feet when he returned to Israel. The belief was that you must keep Israel holy, as the Lord is holy. Oozing skin was unholy, unclean, and breaking the boundaries.
In the story you have nine Galilean Jews teamed up with one hated Samaritan, a half-breed and hated part Jew. They shared their suffering and exclusion in common, until they come to Jesus for healing. Pleading for mercy from Jesus, they are instructed to go to the Jerusalem priest to be declared clean. On their way, they are healed. They can go to the priest at the Jerusalem Temple, be declared clean and restored to their community. Except, of course, for the Samaritan. He cannot go to Jerusalem to be declared clean by the Temple priest, because he is a Samaritan. He belongs across another border, and because he was a Samaritan was unworthy of entering the Temple premises. He has only one to whom he can offer praise and thanks, and that is Jesus. He returns falls on his knees in thanksgiving and praise. “Get up,” says Jesus, “go your way; your faith has made you well.” The Samaritan who had been brought up hating Jews had put his faith in the healing power of Jesus a Jew. He returns offering thanks and intrinsic loyalty.
What is the story telling the world? What is its message? It is essentially about Jesus breaking down the boundaries that separate people from one another, from God, from the alienation of themselves from themselves. Ten isolated lepers, who are considered unclean, come to Jesus who is traveling along the border of Galilee and Samaria. Jesus restores them to community be removing the boundary, the leprosy or skin disorder that separates them from the whole community and from the worship of God in the Temple. They are healed and more importantly restored. The hated Samaritan, who has crossed the border or boundary line into Galilee is not excluded because of his heritage and background. He too is healed and restored and embraced by Christ Jesus. In return he gives Jesus thanks, because he has nothing else to give him in return. His only return is thanks and praise for the enormous unearned grace and love he has been forgiven.
In the very beginning of this story, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We know what happens there; he gives his life for his friends and begins a new Kingdom founded in grace and love. He breaks down all boundaries that separate people from one another and from God. All that is required is loyalty, trust, faith in the mercy and hope of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan’s loyalty and faith is what saves and restores him, as the most unworthy of all. Interestingly enough, the nine Galileans do not return, because they believe all they have to do is do what the law requires: show himself to the priest. They believe that all they have to do is when they see Jesus again is to pay him back. But, the early church believed we are not worthy to pay back the free grace and love of God in Christ. You return loyalty, trust, faithfulness, thanksgiving for the unearned, unmerited, mercy, love and grace of God.
Let me also include some thoughts about the story of Ruth from the Hebrew Scriptures. Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem in Judah during a period of famine, and to save themselves took up residence in an alien land. Their sons grew up there and took wives from that land, Orpah and Ruth. Unfortunately all of the men died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, all widowed. Widows were in poor straights in those days, so Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to return to their families, and she will return to her family in Bethlehem. Orpah returns to her Moabite family and the Moabite gods. But, Ruth insists on returning with Naomi remaining faithful and committed to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ruth is not pure Jewish, but she returns to Bethlehem with Naomi, (“Wither thou goest, I will go.”) remarries, and becomes the great grandmother of Israel’s greatest King David, who is obviously not a thorough bred. It is Ruth’s faithfulness and loyalty to Naomi, to God, in spite of the fact that she comes from the other side of the tracks that is important in the story. This story gives still another dimension to be holy as God is holy. God is faithful in his love and mercy, and salvation and future hope is found in faith.
At the present time, we are living in a very complicated and dangerous time. Suddenly we are conscious of many varieties of borders and boundaries, between our country and others, and between our religious faiths. It is a very frightening time, and we look for healing, mercy, hope in the face of a terrorism that limits our freedoms. Where do we turn? What is the right path of action? We fear that aggression will fan the flames of terrorism. We fear that non-action will bring about more and more terrorist acts. It seems like a no win situation. The human condition has confronted us with guilt in terms of why are we hated, with fear of a very uncertain future, with grief and mourning, with hopelessness. A new kind of spiritual leprosy separates us from the good. We inclined to close the boundaries that once were open to people in search of new beginnings and hope. Where do we turn? We turn to Jesus Christ. Lord God, we need healing. We need to be restored to peace and reconciliation. In our uncertainty there is only God to whom we can turn, and ask that the boundaries that separate us be removed, that our humanity and the human situation be returned to one of peace and of new found brotherhood in God. God enable us to rely in faith, loyalty, and trust upon you and your way of life for us. The terrorism we face today is evil. It does indeed confound us, and limits our freedom. In quiet assured confidence we turn to Jesus Christ to enable us to find our way by his grace to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of peace and love, where old boundaries are torn down, and we find a widening of all boundaries that include all folk of faith and goodwill.
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