Category: Sermons

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In a Charlie Brown comic strip, Linus, not looking at all happy, is sitting, holding his blanket, with his thumb in his mouth. He then asks Lucy, his sister, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” Lucy smugly replies, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.” Throwing his hands in the air, Linus shouts, “But what about your own faults?!” Without missing a beat, Lucy responds, “I have a knack for overlooking them.”

Lucy, well, Lucy can just be a rather unpleasant person, but why does Linus even care? Shouldn’t he just be able to let the criticisms go and move on? And wouldn’t it be nice if Linus wasn’t the only one that the negative comments actually effected. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were immune to them as well. The crazy thing is… science has demonstrated how we are more or less hardwired to hear and internalize the negative far more so than the positive. It is referred to as the negativity bias. It is the negative things that people say about us personally or in general—about society, life, other people—that sticks. That criticism about us personally can have long term negative effects, but if that negative is about someone else, it has a way of cheering us up, especially if it is about someone famous.

A 2015 study published in Social Neuroscience demonstrated that the “reward center in the brain, was activated in response to negative gossip about celebrities; subjects seemed to be amused or entertained by salacious celebrity scandals.” (Source) That helps explain why so many are captivated by tabloid news and “royals” on Oprah. Are you susceptible? Here’s a test: according to federal statistics, 600,000 individuals are released from prison and some 9 million rotate in and out of local jails on an annual basis. (Source) If I was to ask 99.99% of the people in USA to name one of those individuals, who would it be? Bill Cosby. The news media know of our fancy for this type of thing, so they feed it to us in large doses. Not because its really news, but because it sells advertising. {rabbit trail… sorry} The point: it is the juicy gossip, the scandal, the fall of the famous, that draw us in and in order to be included in society, we join in. If my friends—or those I want to be friends with—are scandalized by the scandal, then I too will be scandalized in order to be a part of the group. The gossip or criticism, the negativity bias came into play, and we can all point our finger together, and the person we are all pointing at loses all credibility and all status. They become the scapegoat for all the things we see that are wrong with the world.

“Jesus came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’” Hello. We know this guy and he’s know Messiah. Didn’t his mamma get pregnant before she was married? Don’t you remember that? My goodness… and Joseph married her anyhow. Can you say, ‘guilty conscious’? Enquiring minds want to know.

Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown, and the people criticized and scandalized. The negativity bias almost infected the entire community, because we are told that only a few of the sick were healed. However, no sooner had he and the disciples left Nazareth that Jesus began to send the disciples out two-by-two, having given “them authority over the unclean spirits.” What was the result? “They went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” They had not been infected by the criticism of Nazareth. They continued in faith, believing in Jesus and believing in the authority that he had given them. Nazareth—only a few, but out in the world, at the hands of those who kept the faith—many demons were cast out and many sick were healed.

I’m not talking about having a positive mental attitude. That’s not part of the discussion. What we’re seeing in the disciples is faith—a deep and abiding knowledge in the one who sent them and belief in the authority he had given them. And it is through the giving of the Holy Spirit that this knowledge and authority have been handed down through the generations to God’s Church and to you, his chosen people and royal priesthood. (cf. 1 Peter 2:9) Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus gave the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20a) And within you is the potential to fulfill that commission, but what is potential? Merriam-Webster defines it as, “existing in possibility: capable of development into actuality.” Poise your finger above the smooth surface of the water and you have the potential, the possibility of causing ripples that will reach further than you could have imagined, but the ripples will not actually appear until you act and touch. Within you is the possibility, but only the possibility, and the capability given through the Holy Spirit to cause the ripples, that will bring about the fulfillment of the Great Commission, but one of the greatest hinderances to this work will be falling in with the people of Nazareth and allowing the negative to seep in: Jesus was only a really good person. God doesn’t heal like he use to. There are no more miracles. I don’t know how to do this. I’m not good enough. This is too much religion. If I do that, I’ll look like some freak and then… then people will start talking about me. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18) If they criticized him, they will criticize you.

The story is told of a judge who had been frequently ridiculed by a conceited lawyer. When asked by a friend why he didn’t rebuke his assailant, he replied, “In our town lives a widow who has a dog. And whenever the moon shines, it goes outside and barks all night.” Having said that, the magistrate shifted the conversation to another subject. Finally someone asked, “But Judge, what about the dog and the moon?” “Oh,” he replied, “the moon went on shining—that’s all.” What did my friend St. Josemaría Escrivá say: “Don’t waste your time and your energy — which belong to God — throwing stones at the dogs that bark at you on your way. Ignore them.” (The Way, #14)

Through Christ Jesus, you have great potential to do amazing work. If the dogs bark, let them bark. If the critics criticize, ignore them. You… you continue to shine.

I give you this blessing today:
May God give you more than you can ever think or ask;
May He use you far beyond the boundary of your task.
May God lead you further than your vision can yet see;
May He mould you, day by day, more perfectly.
May God guide you and keep you in the way He sees best;
And may he bless you—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—so that every life you touch is blessed.
Amen.

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The Venerable Fulton Sheen said, “Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.” I’m thinking that he means they aren’t all that exciting. I don’t know if I’ve heard more exciting than I have given, but there are some who come for confession that I know I’m going to feel like a hypocrite for sitting there and listening to.

As you are probably aware, confession (a.k.a. The Reconciliation of a Penitent) is not all that popular in the Episcopal Church. I encourage it because I know how helpful it can be, but as many are fond of saying, “All may, none must, some should.”

In the Book of Common Prayer (p.447), following the confession, the penitent says to the priest, “I humbly beg forgiveness of God and his Church, and ask you for counsel, direction, and absolution,” and the rubrics state that the priest is to give these things. That is the individual confession, but in the general confession, the one we say together, has no instructions. It is expected that you will have done some preparation prior to making the general confession, but in the end, you simply pray the confession and receive absolution, with no counsel, direction, etc. Not mentioned in either form is the giving of any act of penance: “Say five Hail Marys and two Our Fathers,” “Fifty lashes”, etc. Perhaps the reason being is that forgiveness of sins is a gift, so there should be no suggestion that you are somehow “paying” for that forgiveness through some act on your part. I get that, but should there still be some type of act / response on our part in receiving absolution? I believe the answer is “Yes” and it would seem that this is one of the many lessons we can take from our Gospel reading today.

Before Jesus was crucified, Peter denied him three times, so we understand why Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me.” It was to fully restore Peter back to himself. Peter responds in the positive, “Yes, you know that I love you,” but as we read, Jesus didn’t pat Peter on the head and say, “Good boy.” No. Jesus gave Peter a means of responding to the forgiveness of sins, “Feed my sheep.” “Do you love me?” “Yes. I love you.” “Good. Go out and show the love you have for me to others. Remember: ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

For the forgiveness of our sins, Jesus died on the cross. The absolution we receive for our sins is a free gift, an expression of Jesus’ love for us. Therefore, it is fitting that we respond to this love of Jesus by an act of penance. Not because we have to or we are being compelled to, but because we want to love Jesus by loving others.

An act of penance is not a punishment for our sins, nor is it payment for the absolution we received. An act of penance is an expression of love, freely given as a response to the great love that has been shown to us. So whether you have made a personal confession or a general confession, ask yourself, “How might I love others in response to the love I have been shown.”

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Boudreaux and Rupert are out in the woods doin’ some squirrel hunting when Rupert suddenly collapses. Ol’ Boudreaux checks him over and Rupert doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are starting to glaze over, so Bourdreaux whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “I think Rupert is dead! What can I do?” The 911 operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” Boudreaux says, “Ok. Hang on.” There is a silence; then the 911 operator hears a gun shot. Boudreaux then gets back on the phone and says, “OK, now what?”

In the Fantastic Voyage: Destination Brain, the great science fiction author, Isaac Asimov wrote, “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” (Especially if you’ve got friends like Boudreaux who might hurry it along!) When you begin to obsess over that “troublesome” part, it can turn into thanatophobia, which is the fear of death. No, I’m not going to get all morbid on you by talking solely about death, but the topic is a bit unavoidable given our lessons for today. And it was that first lesson that actually explains why it is troublesome and even our fear of death. I don’t normally do this, but it is short enough, so I want to read it to you again, because it is from the Apocrypha and we don’t hear it too often (as you know, we consider the writings of the Apocrypha to be good in providing examples of life and teaching, but not the inspired word of God). Solomon writes:

“God did not make death,
And he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal.

“God created us for incorruption,
and made us in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.”
(Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24)

Why is dying troublesome to some and why do we have this fear of death? Because “God did not make death… God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity.”

I think I’ve told you this before, but so many will tell you that “Dying is a part of living” or “Death is natural.” No! God did not make death. Dying and death are the most unnatural things we do. It is why we fight it so hard, do all we can to extend our lives, hurt for others when they are dying or losing loved one. Death is anything but natural, so how did it come about? We understand the fall in the Garden of Eden and how sin entered, but Solomon, in the same chapter of Wisdom as our reading, expands on that:

“The ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death;
considering him a friend, they pined away
and made a covenant with him,
because they are are fit to belong to his company.”
(Wisdom of Solomon 1:16)

What did the ungodly do? According to Solomon, they looked only to themselves, fulfilling their every desire while neglecting and oppressing those who were weaker. They rebelled against God, turning on his Holy One. And so through those words and deeds, they invited death into the world and condemned themselves, and in the process they dragged the righteous down with them, even the twelve year old daughter of Jarius that we read about in our Gospel. Just as the sun rises on the evil and the good / the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous (cf. Matthew 5:45), so does death come to all, but that is where the equality ends, because from there the ungodly receive their punishment, but the righteous, Solomon tells us:

“Those who trust in [the Lord] will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,
and he watches over his elect.”
(Wisdom of Solomon 3:9)

The righteous will abide with God and he will speak to them in a similar way as Jesus spoke, “Little girl, get up.” “Get up,” he will say to them, because you were not made for death or corruption. Get up, “you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) For the us, there really is only one bit of trouble with all this (and maybe I’m just speaking for myself, but I don’t think so): I’m nowhere near as innocent as a twelve year old and I know in my heart that I’m not one of the righteous. (I could… not going to… but I could give you the names of more than a few that would be more than happy to attest to it!) I am not one of the righteous: I do try—Lord knows I do—but through my words and my deeds, I’m one who has summoned death, so how can I even think to hear him speak those words, “Get up!” Answer: because in my heart, I have this hope, this faith that speaks into that potential despair and says, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

If I did not believe that were true, I would not be standing here today. If I thought that I was beyond the saving grace of Jesus, I truly would give myself over to being the “ungodly,” for without this hope, I know that I would be condemned forever, but I do have hope, this faith that speaks to my soul and tells me I will hear those words: Get up and enter, “your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Go in peace and be raised up from death.

The anthem from the beginning of the burial rite:

“I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord.
Whoever has faith in me shall have life,
even though he die.
And everyone who has life,
and has committed himself to me in faith,
shall not die for ever. —and a few lines further—
After my awaking, he will raise me up;
and in my body I shall see God.”
(Book of Common Prayer, p.491)

“Do not fear, only believe.” We may sleep, but he will awaken us. That is the message for us all. It is not a message of death, but of life eternal.

Let us pray (adapted from Psalm 16:8-11):
Gracious Father, we set you always before us;
    because you are at our right hand, we shall not be shaken.
Therefore our hearts are glad, and our bodies rejoice;
    for our flesh dwells secure in your loving embrace.
You will not abandon our souls in death,
    or let them taste corruption.
You make known to us the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Amen.

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Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep. — Charles M. Schulz

We used to sleep five to a bed and three of them used to wet the bed. I learnt to swim before I could walk. — Bernard Manning

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong. — George Carlin

Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. — Dave Barry

I’ve always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed. — David Benioff

Our Gospel reading from Mark began, “When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’” When it was dark, the disciples went out onto the waters. Mark gives us time and place, a time and place that are reminiscent of another time and place: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:1-2) The deep is what rose up in the time of Noah and destroyed every living soul except for those on the Ark. The deep is what swept down and destroyed the armies of Pharaoh. The deep is the place Jonah was cast into and devoured by the whale. The deep is the home of the Leviathan. The deep is the chaos of the world. The deep is death. And the disciples go off into the darkness and onto the face of the deep, and it is then that the wind blows and this deep, this chaos and death begins to churn, thrashing the boat and making the disciples fear for their lives. They call out to Jesus who is sleeping in the bow of the boat, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Do you not care that we are descending into the chaos and the death? Of course he cares, so he rebukes the wind and the rain, “‘Peace! Be still!’ and a dead calm returns to the face of the deep.” The disciples then ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Who then is this that even the chaos and death obey? The disciples have not yet grasped the truth of who Jesus is, for there is only one who can calm the chaos and put an end to death. From our Psalm today:

“[The Lord] stilled the storm to a whisper
and quieted the waves of the sea.” (Psalm 107:29)

It is the Lord our God who commands the chaos and it is the Son of God that rebukes and conquers death. So why is it that Jesus sleeps?

A story tells of a young man who applied for a job as a farmhand. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he responded, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” This puzzled the farmer, but he liked the young man and hired him. A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm.

They quickly began to check things out to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. The farmer and his wife then inspected their property. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage shed, safe from the elements. The tractor had been moved into the garage. The barn was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. All was well. And they found the farmhand sound asleep. The farmer then understood the meaning of the young man’s words, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” The farmhand did his work loyally and faithfully when the skies were clear, so he had faith that whenever a storm would blow in, all would be well. He was not afraid and so he slept in peace.

Jesus slept when the wind blew, because he knew that all had been cared for by his Father. He knew that God’s purposes were being fulfilled and that his Father was with him. As the Psalmist says:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:7-10)

Jesus slept, even when the chaos was blowing and the smell of death was in the air because he had faith in… because he knew of the Father’s presence and the loving hold that that the Father had on his life. And here’s the Good News: Jesus slept because he knew of the Father’s presence and Jesus slept so that we could also know of the Father’s presence… so that we could see that we have no need to be afraid of the chaos or even death itself. Jesus slept so that we would know that we could sleep.

There will always be storms, chaos, and death, but these things do not have the final word. Jesus is the final word and he declares, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13) And his end is life eternal.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:1-2, 9-11)

Yes, Jesus calms the storm, but you have been set free so that you may sleep while it is blowing.

Let us pray: O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and the storms rage, and when we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things. Amen.

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Duties of state. We’ve probably discussed these in the past. Duties of state are those ordinary tasks which come about due to our various states of life (i.e. husband, employee, friend, mother, etc.) If you are employed to deliver the daily paper, then one of your duties of state is to deliver the paper, but it actually goes beyond that, for included in that is the commitment to do it well and to the best of your abilities. So a newspaper boy’s duty of state says that he’ll get up every morning, deliver the paper, insure that it doesn’t land in the neighbors yard or in the sprinkler, and that it won’t arrive at 7 p.m. instead of 7 a.m.

The trouble with these routine items is that over time, they can sometimes become so familiar that we no longer attend to them as we should. If you stay late at work everyday, while at the same time ignoring the needs of your family, then you are not fully attending your duties of state. At other times, we can become bored and even begin to resent those duties. There are any number reasons that this can occur, but in failing to meet our duties, then not only are we failing those around us, but we are also failing God.

The 18th century French Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, wrote The Sacrament of the Present Moment. There he states, “No moment is trivial, since each one contains a divine Kingdom, and heavenly sustenance.” He also writes, “To discover God in the smallest and most ordinary things, as well as in the greatest, is to possess a rare and sublime faith. To find contentment in the present moment is to relish and adore the divine will in the succession of all the things to be done and suffered, which make up the duty to the present moment.”

Faithfully fulfilling those duties of state, even the most trivial, becomes a sacred act because we recognize the moment as a gift from God. Evelyn Underhill, who we celebrate today, also understood this. In her book, Life as Prayer, she wrote: “Never let yourself think that because God has given you many things to do for Him…pressing routine jobs, a life full up with duties and demands of a very practical sort—that all these need separate you from communion with Him. God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament; however unexpected its outward form may be, receive Him in every sight and sound, joy, pain, opportunity and sacrifice.”

Underhill believed that we should be so filled with God’s Holy Spirit that we give over our lives to His service, not just in church and ministry, but in the ordinary as well, and that if we are faithful, we will encounter God.

Think about the woman in our Gospel reading today. There are many things that are taking place in this incident, but consider the fact that she was performing a very simple task—going to the well to draw water. This was a task she performed everyday, if not multiple times per day, yet in going about her day-to-day business, she encountered God. The same can be true for us, so I have an assignment for you today: at some point today, you are going to be performing some chore, something you do all the time, perhaps even something you don’t really think about as you go about it. In the middle of that task, I would like you to pause for just a few moments and ask, “Where is God in this?” “How can I please Him through my work?” In doing so, you might not only discover the desire to perform the task better, but you might also discover joy in the process.

Enjoy the gift of each “now” the Lord gives you.

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A clown is out surfing in his full clown costume one day. Suddenly he’s attacked by a great white shark.

The shark takes one bite, quickly realizes his error and swims away.

As the shark rejoins his friends below the surface, one of the them asks him, “Why didn’t you just kill that thing?”

The attacking shark replies, “It tasted funny.”

On the fifth day, “God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.’  So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.”

The variations and number of God’s creation on this day were so great that we still have not even discovered them all. When it comes to the sea, perhaps the most feared of them all is the Great White Shark (even if they don’t like funny tasting clowns), but there are many other creatures that just go about their business: everything from the Blue Whale that can weigh as much as 330,000 pounds to the tiniest single cell organisms (and lets not forget the Leviathan!) There are so many, so today I want us to consider just one: Nautilus pompilius, also known as the Chambered Nautilus. You’ve got a picture on the cover of your bulletin of one’s shell that has been split. They’ve been around so long that they are included in the fossil record.

One variety can grow up to 10 inches in diameter and live for up to 20 years. They live in the Pacific between Japan and Australia, spend most of their time at 1,000 feet (but can dive to 2,000), and according to one, eat “anything that smells,” because it is through various chemical signatures that they locate their food. Alive… well, they almost look as scary as a Great White Shark, but it is for the beauty of their shells that they have been highly prized for centuries, and you’ll see the shell in art, incorporated into drinking glasses, and other decorative items.

As the creature grows, it develops the various chambers. Its body moving into the larger one as it ages. The empty chambers then are used for buoyancy and to regulate depth by filling them with water or air, and it was the understanding of how the shell and chambers are formed that inspired the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes to write a poem, The Chambered Nautilus (source). Holmes saw the growth of the soul and spirit within the growing chambers of the nautilus. He begins:

“This is the ship of pearl…”

From there he describes how the nautilus spends its life toiling to create for itself a larger and more perfect and glorious home, which is not known until the creatures death, but even so, it persists in that work of growth. Holmes then takes the imagery further, to speak to us about our spiritual “home”:

“Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!”

The nautilus grows, creating and recreating a home for itself that is larger and more glorious than the last. We are to do the same, so that when the Lord comes, he will find within us a mansion prepared for himself, but it does not end with the individual, for we are to grow in the image and likeness of God, so that the kingdom of God may also grow. So that a home is created as a sanctuary for every living being. As Jesus said in our Gospel, “The kingdom of God… is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” How are we to understand this and apply it?

“From the smallest of all the seeds on the earth….” The seed that was the smallest, that is, the one that humbled itself the most, was God—Jesus—who was born in a manger and who then humbled himself even more, to death on a cross, and then like a seed that was laid to rest in the earth: Joseph of Arimathea “went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb.” We know not how it all happened, but on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, and from him, from that smallest and humblest of all seeds and all beginnings has grown the greatest of all sanctuaries for every living soul: the Church, but the Church only grows if we—in union with one another—like the nautilus, continue to grow, ever seeking to be more like Jesus.

Is the church perfect? If I’m a part of it, most definitely not! As Archbishop Michael Ramsey stated and something we always need to be reminded of, “The Church is not the society of those labeled virtuous.  It is the mixed community of sinners called to be saints.” However, as we seek and discover greater perfection in our own life, creating and recreating our spiritual homes, then we also assist in growing and perfecting what Christ Jesus began when he called twelve—not so virtuous—fellas to follow him. The Church will not reach perfection until the end of days, however, through our good work, it will continue to grow and provide a home for those who are called.

For us to spiritually grow is the will of God. C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, states, “To ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God.” God is working within us, growing us, so that we might be like him and with him, and so that the Kingdom of God might be fulfilled. Like the nautilus, always be in that process of creating and recreating your spiritual home that you might participate in the greater work of the Church.

Let us pray:
Heavenly Father,
look upon our community of faith
which is the Church of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Help us to witness to his love
by loving all our fellow creatures without exception.
Under the leadership or our Bishop
keep us faithful to Christ’s mission
of calling all men and women
to your service so that there may be
“one fold and one shepherd.”
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Amen.

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Locals were burying a man near a river when a monk came along. The monk inquired as to how the man died and was told that he had been attacked by a creature and dragged under the waters. Later, a companion of the monk was swimming in the same river when a large creature approached him. The monk seeing this, made the sign of the cross over the creature and cried out, “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.” The creature obeyed. We know the monk as St. Columba (b.521), the river as Loch Ness, and the creature… yep… the Loch Ness monster. This was the first written account of someone spotting the now legendary creature. True or false? I’ll let you decide.

Columba is highly revered, although I’m guessing that he may have been difficult to live with, especially in his early years. One of his biographers writes, “Of all qualities, gentleness was precisely the one in which Columba failed the most.” He was responsible for a battle that cost 3,000 lives, he got into a legal battle over the copyrighting of the Psalms, and he was required to go into exile. However, that exile landed him and twelve companions on the shores of small island, Iona, which would become one of the most powerful monasteries in existence. Given his growing reputation (dramatically improving by this point), Columba would not only be the Abbot over the monks of the monastery, but he also had authority over the Bishops of Scotland, even though he was only a priest.

There is much to learn about Columba and the monastery at Iona, but as I was reading on him this week, I just kept coming back to the legends, which—whether true or not—probably speak a great deal about the real Columba, so… one more.

In the year 597, Columba was seventy-seven years old. During the Easter season of that year, he felt that he was near death, but did not want to die during Easter so as to grieve his fellow monks during such a festive time. Later that year, when he knew his time was imminent, he went to say goodbye to some who worked in the fields, but because he was so tired, he was unable to walk and was therefore carried in a cart.

He spent time with the monks and blessed them and after awhile began the journey home, but he became so weary that he was required to stop along the way. It was then that his favorite horse, a white one, came galloping up to Columba and placed his head on Columba’s chest and shedding tears, as if aware of his friends nearing death. Columba’s companion tried to shew the horse along, but Columba said to him, “Allow this lover of mine to shed his tears on my chest. For this horse, being an animal, understood instinctively that I was going to be with my Lord, yet you as a man could not foretell this.”

Columba returned to the monastery that day, but died in the chapel, shortly before the night prayers began.

When the seventy disciples retuned, Jesus said to them, “Do not rejoice… that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Columba was not without his faults—the same holds true for all of us—but we can give thanks that his name was written in heaven and that he kept the faith alive and assisted in it prospering in Scotland, which in turn, helped restore Christianity following the Dark Ages.

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A story by Leo Tolstoy tells of an older sister from the city coming to visit her younger sister in the country. The older sister talks of how much better city life is, but the younger maintains that it is country life that is best and that her husband is a good man and that because they lived in the country and had a simpler life, there was no way her husband, Pahom, could be tempted by the devil. Pahom says that the only problem country farmers have is that they don’t have enough land, but agrees that he could not be tempted. Unfortunately, the devil, who had been lurking in the kitchen, hears this and devises a scheme to trap Pahom, and it comes in the form of a unique offer from a large landowner: for 1000 rubles, Pahom can buy all the land he could walk around in a single day. Only catch: he had to be back at his starting point by sundown. At sunrise the next day, Pahom starts walking.

By noon, he had covered a great deal of ground, but not until late in the afternoon did he realize that he had perhaps gone too far in order to get back by sundown, so he picks up his pace even more. When the sun begins to sink, Pahom begins to run, but just as the sun begins to dip below the horizon, Pahom sees the place where he began, so with everything he had left, he sprinted as fast as he could, and just seconds before the sun disappeared below the horizon, Pahom staggered across the finish line. He then collapsed and died on the spot.

His few servants dug him a grave: a bit over six feet long, three feet wide and six feet deep. The title of Tolstoy’s story: How Much Land Does a Man Need? Turns out, not very much.

I suppose most of us really do have fairly simple needs. There are the basics: food, shelter, etc. And although we may each have a different understanding of how we’ll go about meeting those needs, they are for the most part within reason. However, when those basic needs are met, then our eyes and minds begin to look further and instead of seeking to fulfill our needs, we look to satisfy our wants. Those are OK as well, as long as they are within reason, do not deny others of their basic needs, and don’t consume us in our pursuits of them. It is when we go outside those types of parameters that our wants can lead us to greed, coveting, and then to other more grievous sin. We’ve talked about that in the past: that state of mind when we are never satisfied and can never have enough, no matter how much we have. However, this corrupt appetite for more is not limited to land or things or money, it can also play itself out in relationships, stimulation, thrills, physical perfection, achievements, all sorts of ways. It is as though our minds get bored, and like Pahom in his quest for more land, we will pursue the fulfillment of the appetite regardless of the cost. When we reach such a state, we will never be satisfied. It… fill in the blank for yourself… will never be enough. Hold that thought…

These past couple of weeks, during Morning Prayer, we have been reading from the first chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy. In chapter four, we begin to hear the teachings forbidding idolatry and the Lord comes right out and says why: “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.  For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” And anyone that has been following along with us in Morning Prayer can tell you, that in the next few chapters, God says, “If you do this, I will blow you up.” But, that was not a deterrent. There was Baal and Asherah and all the other gods of the lands they entered into and the people began to worship them as well. Why? Because they believed that these gods would offer them additional benefits. These were fertility gods, thought to bring rain and crops and all sorts of other benefits. They were the gods of the people in the lands they came into, so they wanted to get along. The Israelites did not cast out the One True God, Yahweh, aside however, Yahweh, did not see it this way. He saw it is a complete rejection of Himself, because in their hearts and in their minds, the people were saying, “The One True God… is not enough.” He is not enough, so we have to have all these others in addition to Yahweh, a bit like an insurance policy, in case Yahweh doesn’t come through.

Throughout the biblical history, this attitude of God not being enough and needing to be supplemented to fulfill both needs and wants has been a problem. God wasn’t enough for Adam and Eve, they wanted more, so they ate the fruit. God wasn’t enough following the Exodus, so they made for themselves the Golden Calf. As we just said, God wasn’t enough while they were in the land, so they worshiped the foreign gods. God wasn’t enough to lead them, so they called for the anointing of a king so that they could be like everyone else. There was Yahweh and there were all the rest and Jesus says, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” When God’s people decide in their hearts and in their minds that God is not enough, then their house is divided, and it cannot stand.

For us today, I do not believe that we intentionally or even consciously declare that God is not enough, but through our actions or inaction towards God, we are saying it. By placing our wants ahead of those things that God desires of us, we say that God is not enough for me to have fulfillment in my life. By not making time for the worship of God, we are saying that God is not enough for me to make a sacrifice of parts of my life for Him. By not making time for prayer, we say that God is not enough for me to commune with. Whenever God and our obligations to Him are pushed to the side in favor of anything else, we are saying that God is not enough and our house is divided. It is not that God does not want us to truly live—he wants us to have life and have it abundantly!—he desires that we have joy and enrichment and fulfillment, but we must take care that the pursuit of those things does not relegate God to a secondary concern in our lives that will divide our house. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness—do not be divided—and all these things will be added to you.”

Let us pray: God, our Father, may we love You in all things and above all things. May we reach the joy which You have prepared for us in Heaven. Nothing is good that is against Your Will, and all that is good comes from Your Hand. Place in our hearts a desire to please You and fill our minds with thoughts of Your Love, so that we may grow in Your Wisdom and enjoy Your Peace. Amen.

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The Church Year is something that liturgical churches are very aware of. In it we have the various seasons: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and the season after Pentecost. We also know that contained within those seasons are various other feast days and celebrations, for example, this past Sunday was Trinity Sunday. We also know that within Holy Week, there are other significant days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, etc. and it is on Maundy Thursday that we celebrate the giving of the Holy Eucharist, because it was on the Thursday before his crucifixion that Jesus celebrated the Eucharist for the first time with his disciples in the upper room. With that in mind…

In the year 1192, a young girl, Juliana, was born in Belgium, and she later had a younger sister Agnes; however, their parents died and the two were left orphans, so they were taken to an Augustinian monastery to be raised. Later, Agnes died leaving Juliana alone with the Augustinian sisters. At the age of 16, Juliana began to have the same vision over and over, both during the day and at night: she saw a bright moon with a dark spot on it, but she did not understand its meaning until Jesus explained it to her.

Jesus said that the moon represented the Church Year and that the dark spot was a missing feast day that he wanted to see instituted: a feast day in celebration of the Holy Eucharist. As there was already Maundy Thursday, Juliana asked why another was needed and was told that people would soon begin to forget or disbelieve the Real Presence of Jesus in the Sacrament and that there was also to be a joyous celebration—not something that could take place during Holy Week—of the sacrament. Hearing this, Juliana went on a mission to establish the feast, but the idea was not popular and she only saw it celebrated once in her lifetime. But, if God wills it… as it turns out, one of Juliana’s friends whom she consulted about the entire matter before her death was Jacques Pantaléon, who would later be known as Pope Urban IV. It is good to have friends elevated to such high positions and Pope Urban would eventually establish the Feast of Corpus Christi across the Church and it would continue in the Church of England, even after the split from Rome.

There are few Protestants who believe in the Real Presence and there are many within the catholic tradition who simply believe that the bread and wine remain bread and wine, but… they are wrong. From St. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (FYI: his feast day was yesterday): “We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” And Jesus could not have been any more clear: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:54-56) In the past, Christians were put to death as cannibals for believing and saying such, but we as God’s people know that the Real Presence of our Savior is truly present, hidden within the bread and the wine; therefore, let us always approach this most wonderful sacrament with joy and awe and wonder and fear, for it is Jesus himself that is being given to us.