Episcopal – Page 37 – Candle in a Cave

7 November 2021

Sermon: Proper 27 RCL B – “Desperation to Hope”

A fisherman was at sea with his heathen buddies when a huge storm came out of nowhere and was close to destroying their small ship. His friends begged him to do anything, even pray, but he said to his buddies, “It’s been a long time since I’ve done that or even gone to church.” Finally they were desperate for anything, so he said O.K. and prayed, “O Lord, I haven’t asked anything for you for fifteen years, and if you help us now and bring us to safety, I promise I won’t bother you for another fifteen years!”

Merriam-Webster defines desperation as “1) loss of hope and surrender to despair and 2) a state of hopelessness leading to rashness.” The Latin origin word defines itself: de spes / no hope.

As we are all aware, desperation can lead to all sorts of poor choices and wrong behavior. Everything from oversharing in attempts to gain some sort of attention, to acts of violence: the cornered animal can no longer run, so it will turn and fight or attack. As Winston Churchill said, “Beware of driving men to desperation. Even a cornered rat is dangerous.” When we become desperate, our rational selves duck under the covers, leaving us vulnerable to our own emotions. However, just as the word defined itself—de spes / no hope— it also defines the solution.

You have all probably heard the Greek myth of Pandora and her box. According to the mythology, Pandora was created by Zeus as punishment for Prometheus stealing fire from the gods and bringing it down. Pandora was the first mortal created and was gifted with beauty, elegance, life. She was very desirable, but she was also given her box that she was told by Zeus to never open. Curiosity got the cat and it got Pandora as well. She opened it to take a peak and all the evils of the world flew out before she could slam it closed again. Here, there are a couple of different endings, but it seems that there was only one thing that did not escape: hope. All the evils ever created (anger, lust, greed, gluttony, etc) were released into the world to inflict harm on all mortals who would be weighed down in their grief, because there was no hope: it was still trapped in Pandora’s box.

Holy Scripture tells us of similar events: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” And a little further on, “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:7-9, 12) All the evils set loose in the Devil’s great wrath, but where is the hope?

I know I’ve shared it with you before, but it is the poem, The Coming, by R.S. Thomas that just never seems to leave me alone:

And God held in his hand a small globe.
Look, he said.
The son looked.
Far off, as through water, he saw a scorched land of fierce color.
The light burned there, crusted buildings cast their shadows
a bright serpent, a river uncoiled itself, radiant with slime.
On a bare hill a bare tree saddened the sky.
Many people held out their thin arms to it,
as though waiting for a vanished April to return to its crossed boughs.
The son watched them.
Let me go there, he said.

The Devil, that serpent radiant in slime pours out his great wrath, stripping us of hope, but the Son said, “Let me go there,” and in doing so, hope is freed from Pandora’s box, it is released into the world through Jesus. St. Paul teaches us: “Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:12-13) We have been given the hope of God, but do you know what’s funny? Remember those heathen fishermen caught in the storm? Story tells us that in their desperation they tried everything to save themselves and it was only then that they decided to place their hope in God and pray. Isn’t that odd… and we do the same thing.

Have you ever been in some desperate situation and done all you know and can think to do and only then say, “Well, as a last resort, might as well try God.” God gave himself that we might have hope, but we so often only look to him when things become desperate. As crazy as this might seem, why not go to him first? Seeking his will and his guidance before the situation becomes desperate and even if the circumstances continue to deteriorate, you will still not enter into that sense of desperation, because you know that he is with you, bringing you peace even in the midst of the chaos. How do we get there? How do we enter into that peace and that place of hope?

Jesus “sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’”

How do we enter into that peace and hope of God? We take our two copper coins, all that we have, and place them into God’s hands. We do this, not when everything is falling down around us, but at the very beginning, even when life is grand and we’re walking on sunshine. We give him our two copper coins, so that come rain or shine, we are confident and even courageous in knowing that our God, “who neither slumbers nor sleeps,” is watching over us.

“Today we read in our Psalm:
Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth,
for there is no help in them.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth,
and in that day their thoughts perish.
Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!
whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

Put your two copper coins in the treasury that is God and discover the peace and hope that your soul is… desperate for.

Let us pray: O God, our Creator, you are our hope and light. We are your people, a people of hope. Bless us, O Lord, and send your Spirit upon us. It is through our love and caring, that you give us hope, and we bring light to each other. Help us, O Lord, to keep our hope centered on you and may we bring light to each other. May your love inspire us, and your light sustain us. May a future full of hope bring us closer to you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

5 November 2021

Journal: November 4, 2021

Picture it: approximately 4:00 a.m. Sleeping peacefully in a queen size bed… all by your lonesome. Things are going well. Not too hot… not too cold. You’ve had the bed to yourself for several years, so you’re accustomed to roaming from one side to the other. This side is too hot… roll over to the to her… Ahhh…. nice and cool. Then tragedy strikes: at some point in the night, you’ve forgotten that you’ve rolled over to the other side and then there is the cat. The cat is hot. So, throughout the night you subconsciously move away from that precious little ball of fur (a.k.a. Her Royal Highness, the Queen of All that has Ever Been Created) and unbeknownst to you–Yes, Charlie, you’re on the very precipice of a 30 inch drop. What do you do? You roll over and…. “Shi……!” The first “whack” is to the head, right on the eyebrow and the second is to the shoulder. I do not recall the last time I fell off the bed (IF EVER!), but a few nights ago, I did just that. Even The Queen was embarrassed, although I did catch her laughing hysterically a few moments afterwards…. little bitc….. and now, here we are. I hope to go another fifty-six years without doing it again. By then, my bones will be so brittle that my skull will pop like a melon and I won’t have to endure a ridiculing cat!

The sabbatical, the great adventure on the Camino de Santiago… yeah. Probably not going to happen next year. Sigh. Still planning the trip to Rome and maybe even to Lisbon… definitely Rome. That one is already booked.

There has also been another project that I’ve been working on since December 20th last year with my friend (yes, I have one), The Rev. Sean Ekberg. Code word: COKO and I hope to be sharing with you soon as we’ve just about completed round one. We feel confident that this will be something for the entire Episcopal Church and pray that it will bring a bit of hope to us all… trust me: it’s good. It is very good! You’ll know it when it arrives and probably ask me to please stop promoting it. Enough! However, with that on its way, Fr. Anthony will have a bit more time to solve another murder. The Marble Finger must have its story told!

And I’ve picked up a new hobby… watercolors. This one is a challenge, but I find that I can do a bit of painting between other projects. Let’s the creative side have a walkabout without… I don’t know. It seems to go faster than writing, but I do need to be a bit more patient. Before putting a second color on top of another, there must be time for drying. Also, I’ve got to give the paints more time to do their thing as opposed to dabbing at it and spreading them. Leave them alone. They’ll spread on their on at their own time and make a much better picture. This is attempt #4 after watching a video. I actually kind of like it, but see the areas for improvement. I’ll keep practicing. Doesn’t really matter if you’re any good at this sort of thing. It really is about just enjoying the process and seeing what happens. Oh, and The Queen (she’s showing quite a bit in this post), she likes to drink the water that I wash the brush in. Weirdo. (Don’t tell her I said that.)

Thinking about going to NYC for a few days. Will take photos.

What I’ve learned: At some point, you have to start living. You can wait a lifetime to begin, but then that life will be over and you will be standing by the side of the desert road with your thumb stuck out while waiting for the ride that will never come. Start walking. Start walking and they’ll eventually find you and if your journey should take you into the desert where the cactus grow and the scorpions hunt… then watch your step and all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

Thought for the day: Modo liceat vivere, est spes. While there’s life, there’s hope. — Terentius. Preaching on this Sunday. It is the one thing that didn’t escape out of the box, but it is what Jesus brings.

3 November 2021

Sermon: Richard Hooker

The 1549 Book of Common Prayer was the first Book of Common Prayer. There are many significances to its publication, but primarily, it established a uniformity of worship within the English Church, now separated from the Church of Rome. When it was published, Edward VI was king and he had some very protestant leanings. Three years later, in 1552, we have the second Book of Common Prayer, Edward was still king, but those protestant leanings took a wild swing towards Calvinism, so the revisions were quite severe.

In 1553, at the age of fifteen, Edward VI died. Lady Jane Grey ruled England for nine days and was then executed. She was seventeen. At this point the Book of Common Prayer went out the window as Queen “Bloody” Mary, a staunch Roman Catholic ascended to the throne. She lasted about five and a half years, then died and was followed by Elizabeth I—our beloved “Bess”, who became Queen in 1558. Elizabeth’s inheritance was a kingdom on the brink of civil war between the protestants and the Catholics. What was such a Queen to do?

To begin, as part of the Elizabethan Settlement, Elizabeth issued the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, which sought a middle ground between these two warring factions. For example: in the 1549 English Book of Common Prayer, when the priest distributes communion, he says to the communicant: “The body of our Lorde Jesus Christe whiche was geven for thee, preserve thy bodye and soule unto everlasting lyfe.” This is a very Catholic statement in that it points to the real presence of Jesus in the bread and the wine. In the 1552 English Book of Common Prayer, the priest says, “Take and eate this, in remembraunce that Christ dyed for thee, and feede on him in thy hearte by faythe, with thankesgeving.” This is a protestant view of the sacrament, in that the bread and wine are only a memorialization. Elizabeth, in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, had the priest say: “The bodie of our lord Jesu Christ, which was geven for the, preserve thy body and soule into everlastinge life: and take and eate this in remembraunce that Christ died for thee, feede on him in thine heart by faith, with thankesgevynge.” It was a combination of the two views. This type of compromise can be found throughout the 1559.

Calvin once got into an argument with his tiger, Hobbes, which resulted in a compromise. Calvin’s opinion on the result: “A good compromise leaves everybody mad.” (May 1, 1993) Elizabeth’s solution basically accomplished the same result, but it was a beginning. This way of seeking the compromise is known in the Anglican Church (Episcopalians included) as the via media / the middle way. It is very much what defines our church. We are neither Catholic or protestant. We are—and I agree—the best of both worlds.

According to the Episcopal Dictionary, “Via media is often misunderstood in a negative way to mean compromise or unwillingness to take a firm position. However, for Aristotle and those Anglicans who have used it, the term refers to the ‘golden mean’ which is recognized as a more adequate expression of truth between the weaknesses of extreme positions.”

Why all this talk of the development of the Book of Common Prayer and the via media? It was our saint for the day, Richard Hooker, who was the great apologist/defender of this Anglican Way. In his great work, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity, he puts forth the arguments that allowed the Elizabethan Settlement to be more fully realized and to continue to this day. Even Pope Clement VIII (died 1605) declared: “It [the book] has in it such seeds of eternity that it will abide until the last fire shall consume all learning.”

The via media today tends to get hijacked by whichever side is in power, but in the end, the prayer is that it will come back to that “golden mean”, where there are no sides, but only the truth.

31 October 2021

Sermon: All Saints Day

Photo by Gianni Scognamiglio on Unsplash

A doctor was lecturing on the subject of nutrition. He said, “What we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is terrible. Soft drinks eat away at your stomach lining. Chinese cooking is loaded with MSG. High-fat diets can be very risky. But there’s one thing that’s more dangerous than all of these, and we’ve all eaten it, or will eat it. Would anyone like to guess what food causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?” After a few seconds of silence, a small, hunched 80-year-old man in the front row raised his hand timidly and said: “Wedding cake.”

Today’s service is a combination of Halloween—which was originally known as All Saints Eve—All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Just to make it interesting, we’ve also decided to throw in a wedding. Remember that song from Sesame Street: “One of these things is not like the other….” Well, it may seem like it, but as it turns out, these events are all closely related. Let’s start with the wedding.

Since we are combining the wedding with our Sunday service, we’re doing things just a bit differently, but during the normal wedding liturgy, the bride and groom would stand down here. While here the bride and groom give and receive consent from one another, agreeing to be husband and wife. They also receive the consent and assurances of the congregation that they will be supported in their life together. It is also the time when they hear the reading of the word and a teaching or sermon, expanding on their life together. This first part then, which takes place down here, is about their common life and ours and instruction. Once this portion of the liturgy is completed, the bride and groom take a step up.

It is here that they make their vows to one another. Vows that bind them together as one. Here we also have the giving and the receiving of rings: a symbol of those vows they have taken. A symbol, not only to one another, but to the world. A symbol that states, I have given myself to another and no other. Next, it is here that the couple also receives the blessing of the Church and the pronouncement that they are now husband and wife (but Nick, you don’t get to kiss her yet!), because these vows are followed by a time of prayer for the life together, and then we make the final progression forward to the altar.
At the altar, the bride and groom, now truly husband and wife, through the office of the priest, receive the blessing of God.

There is the work of the people, there is the blessing of the church, and here is the blessing of God. And the entire ceremony is not only a progression of two lives being joined together as one, but of two lives being joined together as one and bound together by Christ Jesus. As husband and wife, they are joined together in a pilgrimage that is designed to draw them ever nearer to God.

How are All Souls Day and All Saints Day so closely related to a wedding: because following the wedding, we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, which is truly the wedding banquet and representative of the wedding banquet to come. Today in our lesson from Revelation, we heard St. John say, “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” And a few chapters earlier John also used the imagery of the wedding:

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Today, we the Church and all the souls and all the saints are the bride and Christ Jesus is the groom. All the souls and all the saints are the ones who have already washed their robes in the blood of the lamb and have entered into the banquet hall and it is they that we celebrate today for their great works and examples of righteousness that they provide for us. As they await our arrival to the feast, they do not simply mingle about, but are actively engage in prayer and intercession on our behalf. Through this wedding today, we are provided a vision of our future glory in that New Jerusalem, where we, with all the other souls and all the other saints enter the Kingdom that has been prepared for us from the foundation of the world.

As we celebrate all these great events today, it may at first seem that one is not like the other, but as it turns out, the wedding is at the heart of them all.

Let us pray: O God, you have so consecrated the covenant of marriage that in it is represented the spiritual unity between Christ and his Church: send forth therefore your word and your Spirit into our souls, that we might all be conformed into your image and be made holy and righteous in your sight, that we may be found worthy to enter the banquet you have prepared for all those who love you. Amen.

29 October 2021

Journal: October 29, 2021

Has it really been over a month since I posted a journal entry? My goodness… how time flies when you’re busy. A short bit of explanation and then a bit of catching up.

Explanation… things got a bit crazy around the church. We started back up with our regular “school year” programming, which has been good, but then our parish entered into a season of great sadness. We lost four members in five or six weeks. We’re not that large, so such a loss hit us all pretty hard. All four were very good men. Faithful in their lives and participation, so… yeah. I think we’re all trying to regroup ourselves and our souls. We’ll get there, but as many have said, “We’re done with funerals for a while… God willing!” We’ve also had Clergy Conference and Diocesan Convention and the annual Diocesan Council (I’m on that too) Retreat is next weekend. So, instead of journaling, I took the time to breathe a bit. Hope you all are still out there. Folks always say, “You’re so busy”, but the truth is, we all are! The way I see it, get done what you can and after that… well… it’ll be OK.

In the midst of all this, my reading has fallen to the side. I had planned to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (I actually got about 20 pages in), but then we (the friend I was reading it with) decided to watch the movie first and… it broke my damn heart. I’ll probably get back to it sometime, but my heart has been broken enough with the funerals this past month and I just can’t bring myself to continue. What am I reading instead (Lord, I can hear the eye rolls as I type!), The Stand by Stephen King. How many times is this… I don’t know. At least ten. It is just such an amazing story. Oh.. and I also just finished the new CBS series of the book… hmmm…. a bit disappointed. The casting wasn’t good at all. The “Walking Dude” needs to be… you know!… The Walking Dude! Instead, it was 2020 Dude with a well groomed beard. Maybe that was it: they made the movie, but brought everyone into the 2020s and they all just turned out to be… hmm… weak. It seems that no one is allowed to be strong these days. The Dark Man was brutal in the book, but here he’s just a bit greasy and skinny. Ok. Enough of that.

I did my first watercolor the other day. It is not good, but… I’ve seen worse. I found that I really enjoyed the time of just sitting and trying to create. Given that I haven’t had much time to write (other than the sermons, etc) this was an easier and creative outlet. I think I’m going to paint several of “The Yellow Tree” and work on the technique and see how I improve (“IF” I improve). It is a bit tricky and as “visual” of a person as I am, I would like to improve. It has been suggested that “The Yellow Tree” be the next label for my wines, but then… what about the sexy ladies!? Yes. The problems I have.

Movies: eh.

Upcoming plans: looks as though the Camino will be off for another year. Spain is still in the category of not recommended for travel and it seems that folks are having a difficult time finding places to stay for the evening. I’m not sure completely, but will pull the trigger or put back on the safety in the next month or so. Rome is definitely still a go in ’22 and after visiting with the friend who is helping to organize, we will definitely be taking a church pilgrimage to the Holy Land in ’23.

What I’ve learned: there are days when being a priest is not all it is cracked up to be. There are days when you feel like you’re just the member of the family that drew the short straw and has to get up and lead the rest of the clan in prayer when you’d rather sit with them and cry. It is then that you realize what a privilege it is to be the one who drew the short straw and gets to lead the rest of the clan in prayer for the one you all love.

Thought for the day: go buy a balloon for someone who really only wants to let it go so that they can watch it gathered up in the varying winds and float off into the distance. It is good to have the freedom to roam.

28 October 2021

Sermon: For Richard Roark

I don’t normally post the sermons I write for funerals, but I’ve decided that I would like to start because it is my way of remembering these individuals, so I suppose these types of posts will be more for me…

Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.”

During our online Morning Prayer services, when someone makes a comment, I see what they are saying. And almost without fail, there would a “Good morning” from Richard. That was always nice, but it was in the Zoom Rosary service that I could actually see him and for the last twenty months or so, almost every Tuesday at noon, Richard and I would meet and pray the Rosary together. We would occasionally have others join us, but most of the time it was just the two of us. We would visit for a few minutes about life and he would always ask if I thought anyone else would join us (he never quite understood why no one else did), and then we would get down to the work at hand. Sometimes we would pray a Rosary with special intentions, but mostly… we just got together and prayed those ancient words, meditating together on the life of our Savior.

We can read and hear about Richard’s life, which will tell us something about him, but it was this faithfulness in prayer that tells me all I really need to know. The Psalmist says,

You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”
Your face, LORD, will I seek.

And that was Richard. Doesn’t make him perfect, but in his life of prayer, he sought the face of the Lord, which tells me that he did the same in his life. Seeking the face of the Lord in the faces of those he encountered.

Job said,

I know that my Redeemer lives
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.
After my awaking, he will raise me up;
and in my body I shall see God.
I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him
who is my friend and not a stranger.

Richard sought the face of the Lord and now his eyes do behold the face of his Redeemer, who receives him as a friend and a beloved child. The inheritance and reward of his faithfulness, an inheritance and reward that awaits all who call on the name of the Lord. This is our joy and our hope and the fulfillment of God’s promise to us all.

The Salve Regina or Hail, Holy Queen is the final prayer of the Rosary. I prayed it with Richard a few hours before he died: “Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

“… and after this our exile show us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” And on this day, for Richard, she has. I am thankful to know that when I pray a Rosary down here, Richard will pray with me from his new home in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

24 October 2021

Sermon: Proper 25 RCL B – “Faith and Faith”

A well known Israeli rabbi had a call in radio program on Israeli radio. One day a lady called it and, crying, said, “Rabbi, I was born blind, and I’ve been blind all my life. I don’t mind being blind but I have some well meaning friends who tell me that if I had more faith I could be healed.”

The Rabbi asked her, “Tell me, do you carry one of those white canes?”

“Yes I do,” she replied.

“Then the next time someone says that, hit them over the head with the cane,” the Rabbi said. “Then tell them, ‘If you had more faith that wouldn’t hurt!’”

I wonder how you would respond if we went around the room and each of answered the question: “What is faith?” I know I’ve thought about faith, but I don’t know that I’ve really ever sat down and tried to think through what it is. If you asked me, my answers would along the same lines of many other folks, they just say it much better.

G.K. Chesterton: “Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”

Voltaire: “Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.”

Dan Brown (he’s an authority, DaVinci Code and all that): “Faith ― acceptance of which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.”

C.S. Lewis: “You can’t know, you can only believe – or not.”

And then there is St. Paul: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

This morning during Sunday school, we also talked about an incident of faith. Abraham and Sarah are childless, so one night , Abraham is asking God how he will be the father of many nations if he has no children. So the Lord directed Abraham to go outside and then said, “‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Abraham believed the Lord. He had faith that what the Lord had spoken was true.

And then in our Gospel we have Jesus’ encounter with blind Bartimaeus (we also just finished hearing this passage in our Wednesday night study on discipleship). Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” Through faith, he regained his sight.

Again, I hear these definitions and examples of faith and they fit my understanding, but with that understanding, my faith has a certain dependency on me. Consider this one: Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” In my way of understanding faith, I have to believe to such a degree—although small—that I can move a mountain, but my ability to do this seems to rely on me and what is inside.

I suppose that a part of this is true, but it turns out, this is only one “type” of faith. In the Greek, it would called pistis. As with any type of faith, it is a gift from God and can best be defined as Gods’ divine persuasion. God has gifted me with a belief that this or that is true. Apparently, this is a very Christian understanding of faith. However, it is through the writings of Martin Buber, a Jewish theologian, that we learn of another kind of faith: emunah, the type of faith we read about in the Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament. This is a faith, based not in my actions of belief, but in a person, specifically, God. So let’s see how it works itself out in the examples from above.

Abraham: he believed God in that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. pistis says that Abraham believed because God said it, then he—Abraham—would be able to accomplish it. Emunah says that Abraham believed God would accomplish it. Bartimaeus: pistis says that if Bartimaeus had enough faith in God, then he would receive his sight. Emunah says that Barimaeus believed that Jesus could give him his sight. It sounds a bit like I’m splitting hairs this morning, but for me, faith has always placed a part of the burden on me, but from a Jewish perspective—and don’t forget that Jesus was Jewish!—faith is not only about my abilities or state of mind or actions. Faith is about my relationship with God. And so, faith from this point of view is not, do I have enough belief to move the mountain, but is instead, if the mountain needs to be moved, God can and will move it. See the difference?

And that’s all well and good and probably too academic. In the end, we all probably have a faith that is a combination of these two types, but what does it mean for us in our daily walk with God?

I won’t speak for you—even though I know that it is true for all of us—but for me, there are days when, through faith, I feel like I could move a mountain. I mean, it is like I’m this giant of faith and can make anything come to pass if it is according to God’s will. And then, there are days that my faith feels like I couldn’t move a grain of sand even if I flicked it with my finger. Most days are somewhere in between those two extremes, but what I forget, is that my faith is not dependent upon how I feel. My faith is not dependent upon me. Instead, my faith is dependent upon the one who “is the same yesterday and today and forever.” My faith is in God, based on my relationship with Him. And what is my relationship with God? I am his son. We are his daughters and sons, grafted in… adopted into God’s own family through the death and resurrection of His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have been given the grace to have faith and to believe, but even when our faith wains or fades, we have a God that is always and forever and who dearly loves his children with an unwavering love. As the Psalmist writes (Ps 136):

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Let us pray:

God our Father,
you conquer the darkness of ignorance
by the light of your Word.
Strengthen within our hearts
the faith you have given us;
let not temptation ever quench the fire
that your love has kindled within us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. AMEN

17 October 2021

Sermon: Proper 24 RCL B – “The Cross at the Center”

Albert Einstein dies and goes to heaven, only to be informed that his room is not yet ready. “I hope you will not mind waiting in a dormitory. We are very sorry, but it’s the best we can do and you will have to share the room with others,” he is told by the doorman.

Einstein says that this is no problem at all and that there is no need to make such a great fuss. So the doorman leads him to the dorm. They enter and Albert is introduced to all of the present inhabitants. “See, here is your first roommate. He has an IQ of 180!”

“That’s wonderful!” says Albert. “We can discuss mathematics!”

“And here is your second roommate. His IQ is 150!”

“That’s wonderful!” says Albert. “We can discuss physics!”

“And here is your third roommate. His IQ is 100!”

“That’s wonderful! We can discuss the latest plays at the theater!”

Just then another man moves out to capture Albert’s hand and shake it. “I’m your last roommate. I’m sorry, but my IQ is only 80.”

Albert smiles back at him and says, “So, you want to talk politics?”

Today, it is very beneficial to know what is happening just before and after our Gospel reading so that we can more clearly understand what is taking place. Just prior to it we read from Mark’s Gospel: “They [Jesus and the disciples] were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.’”

It is then we have our Gospel from today: James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And so on.

Where were they headed on the road as they had this discussion? First they would make a brief stop in Jericho and then continue on to Jerusalem. What happened when they entered Jerusalem? It was the triumphal entry, what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Knowing this tells us that Jesus would be crucified in less than ten days and so when Jesus was talking about his death, the disciples were talking about politics: who is going to get to be boss? I suspect that the other ten, when they get angry at James and John, are really just angry with themselves for not thinking to ask Jesus for the seat of power first.

None of them are understanding what is about to happen even though Jesus just told them plainly he would be killed. (It is very easy to wonder at how dense these disciples could be, but the truth is, we wouldn’t have done any better.) When Jesus told them about all that was to take place, perhaps they didn’t want to hear it or believe or maybe they were hearing it as just another parable. “Maybe all this talk about being arrested and condemned and death is just another parable and how many times have we not understood those… this is just another example. He doesn’t really mean he’s going to die.” For whatever reason they failed to understand the climax that Jesus was bringing them to, so instead of truly hearing and comprehending, James and John catch up to Jesus and say, “Hey, JC, let’s talk about how we’re going to govern this place once the new boss is in town.” They want to sit on Jesus’ left and right when he comes into his glory, but what they don’t understand is that Jesus will come into his glory when he is lifted up on the cross and those who are chosen to be at his left and his right are two thieves who would be crucified with him!

No. Jesus is not going up to Jerusalem to simply replace the current political system with another. This has been tried time and time again and each—no matter how good they are to begin with—are eventually corrupted. Jesus is about to do something new and far more radical. Jesus is about to love the world in a way that it has never been loved before—”Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”—Jesus is about to die, to become the servant of all, so that we might be ransomed from death and the devil. Jesus’ words and action were and are very political, but not in the simple and small ways we think of politics. They are words and actions that transcend all others, for they are not about temporal politics, but eternal politics, and the political parties involved are heaven and hell. And, like James and John, when we attempt to make Jesus about anything… anything… other than that, then we are attempting to co-opt him for our own benefit.

So with that in mind, how do we live out lives that express the love of Christ on the cross? Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians said that when he came to see them that he “decided to know nothing… except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Can we do the same when we are out and among others and in our daily lives? Can we place the cross, that great love of Jesus, at the center of everything we do? Is it possible for us to subject our wills and plans and desires to that one singular event? How do we do this? Well… this is where this sermon may become a disappointment, because I don’t have an answer. I can say to you, “Put the cross of Jesus at the center of your life,” but that’s not going to help you. It wouldn’t help me either, because I’m still trying to learn what that means for myself. So today, I’m really just asking you to think about something: think about how in this world of ours you individually and we corporately can live out the death and resurrection of Jesus. How can we live out a life that is as radical as his? And, in thinking on that, what are your concerns or fears in doing so? Can you overcome those obstacles? Are they even real? Finally, in trying to answer these questions, remind yourself that it isn’t about you. It is about God. Remind yourself that within you, you cannot accomplish it, but with God all things are possible. Remind yourself of the words from that first “hymn”you ever learned:

“Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong,
They are weak but He is strong.”

Remind yourself that this is about love and nothing else.

I believe that God wants to move in this place. I’m asking for your faithfulness, prayers, and help in discerning how that is. How I am going to love like Jesus loved. How you are going to love like Jesus loved. How we are going to love like Jesus loved.

Let us pray: We offer You, Lord, our thoughts: to be fixed on You; our words: to have You for their theme; our actions: to reflect our love for You; our sufferings: to be endured for Your greater glory. We want to do what You ask of us: in the way You ask, for as long as You ask, because You ask. Amen.

10 October 2021

Sermon: Proper 23 RCL B – “I”

Boudreaux and his wife Clotile would go to the state fair every year, and every year Boudreaux would tell his beloved, “Clotile, I’d like to ride in that helicopter.”

Clotile always replied, “I know Boudreaux, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks!”

One year Boudreaux and Clotile went to the fair, and Boudreaux said, “Clotile, I’m 75 years old. If I don’t ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance.”

To this, Clotile replied, “Boudreaux, that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”

The pilot overheard the couple and said, “Folks I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say one word I won’t charge you a penny! But, if you say just one word then it will cost you the fifty dollars.”

Boudreaux and Clotile agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still, not a word.

When they landed, the pilot turned to Boudreaux and said, “By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn’t. I’m impressed!”

Boudreaux replied, “Well, to told you the truth, I almost said something when Clotile fell out, but you know, fifty bucks is fifty bucks!”

Money has a way of making people crazy. For some, if they don’t have it, they’ll do just about anything to get some. For others, if they have more than enough, they’ll do anything to get more. It makes people blind to others in their pursuit for more money.

In the time of Jesus, if a person was wealthy, it was assumed that they were blessed by God and if they were poor, it was a sign of being cursed, but Jesus—as we know—likes to turn things on their head and today he does not let us down: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Why would he say this? Because some who are rich do not feel the need for God. Why would I need God when I can go out and get it / buy it for myself? They feel as though they can put their trust in themselves and not in God. Not only that, but in their pursuit of more for themselves, they don’t see or simply ignore the needs of others. But let me ask you this? This not seeing and ignoring, is this only the problem of the rich? Is not relying on God a problem only associated with the wealthy? No. I believe that Jesus was pointing out a specific trap that those who are wealthy can fall into, but I believe he was making a larger point that is applicable to us all.

Shortly after the cousin graduated from college, the two of us got in the car and made a thirteen day driving tour of the west. Dallas to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City… all the way up to Vancouver, British Columbia, then back down and across Montana and South Dakota and home. If I remember correctly, it was about 5,000 miles. Crazy, but fun. This was pre-audio book times, so I drove and the cousin read aloud. The book that got us to Salt Lake City was Anthem, by Ayn Rand.

A dystopian novel about the elimination of the individual and the word “I” has been removed from the vocabulary. Only “we” can exist. Even the names of individuals have been stripped away, so the main character is known as Equality 7-2521. However, over the course of the novel, this character discovers the lost word “I” and then goes on to understand its meaning, but then it takes a bad turn. Equality 7-2521 gives himself a name, Prometheus (the Greek god that brought fire/light to humans), and says:

“Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: ‘I will it!’… I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!” He concludes, “And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: ‘I’.”

For him, the collective “we” must be abolished, saying, “The word ‘we’ is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it.”

I agree with him in that the taking of the “we” to its ultimate end is bad. The individual should always have rights—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”—but when “I” becomes the god we kneel before and worship, then things fall apart and the centre cannot hold.

In our Gospel, Jesus was pointing out a specific trap that the wealthy can fall into, but the teaching is applicable to us all, because the problem with wealth and for us all is seeking to serve the “I” without any concern for others and by making it a god that even the One True God must become subject to.

This teaching of Jesus came about because the rich young man came to Jesus and asked, “‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus told him, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

The young man lacked one thing. I suspect that we all have “one thing”—if not more than one—that prevents us from following Jesus as we should and I also suspect, if we will examine ourselves, that at the source, the center of that “one thing” we will discover “I”. An “I” that is not about individual rights, but an “I” that is selfish and greedy. An “I” that we say even God must be subject to. “This is just who I am and what I want, so God’ll just have to deal with it.” Which only shows all the more that it must be dealt with. And, as with the rich young man, the healing of that dis-ease may cause you a certain amount of grieving. It might even be painful, but if we will root it out, we will find that we are able to follow Jesus much more closely. Is this possible? Can you do this on you own? Short answer: no. You can’t, but “for God all things are possible.”

Turn from the god of “I” to the One True God, and allow him to work in you, bringing about in you what is well pleasing in his sight.

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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