sermon – Page 30 – Candle in a Cave

17 July 2022

Sermon: Proper 11 RCL C – “Balance and Harmony”

An archaeologist once hired some tribesmen to lead him to an archaeological site deep in the mountains. After moving for some time, the tribesmen stopped and insisted they would go no further. The archaeologist grew impatient and then angry. But no matter how much he cajoled, the tribesmen would not go any further. Then all of a sudden, the tribe members changed their attitude. They picked up the gear and set off once more. When the bewildered archaeologist asked why they had stopped and refused to move for so long, the tribesmen answered, “We had been moving too fast and had to wait for our souls to catch up.”

I guess today is story time with Fr. John because I have another one for you. This one is true. It is about a sixty-one-year-old farmer who decided to run a marathon. Not a twenty-six-mile marathon. A marathon in 1983 that was from Sydney, Australia, to Melbourne: 544 miles. The field of runners was packed with the young and fit, sporting the latest running shoes and shirts listing all their sponsors. Cliff Young showed up in a pair of overalls, work shirt, and work boots. Everyone thought he was there to watch the race and were shocked when he signed up to run.

Who was this old guy? He’s a nutter. There’s no way he can compete, but when the starting gun fired, Cliff started running—and everyone laughed. All the other runners took off in long strides, but Cliff more or less shuffled along. He had learned this style of running on his family’s 2,000-acre sheep farm, where he herded sheep up and down the hills. He said, “See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race.”

What happened? On the first day, all the runners, including Cliff, ran all day, and at night all the runners, except Cliff, went to bed for a six-hour sleep. Cliff just kept going without sleep, and sometime during that first night, Cliff passed all the other sleeping runners. They never caught him. Cliff ran 544 miles in five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes without sleeping to complete the race and, in doing so, knocked two days off the previous record.

There was a prize of $10,000, but Cliff hadn’t known about it when he signed up, so he promptly gave $2,000 to each of the next five runners. He said they had worked just as hard as he had.

His running style that everyone laughed at is now known as the Cliff “Young Shuffle,” and no one laughs anymore.

In his book No Man is an Island, Thomas Merton wrote, “We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but balance, order, rhythm, and harmony. Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence, there would be no rhythm.” (p.134)

All the other runners in that Australian race ran with great intensity for eighteen hours. They moved at such a pace that they had to stop and rest—they had to stop and allow their souls to catch up. Cliff Young moved much slower but with a certain rhythm. A more balanced pace—and his soul was able to keep pace.

Today our Gospel reading is from Luke. The Lord Jesus is in the house of Mary and Martha. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teachings, while Martha is running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Martha becomes so frustrated with her sister not helping that she gets a bit testy with Jesus, “Jesus, I’m working my tail off here! Tell my sister to get up and help me.” Jesus responded, “Martha, Martha. You are anxious and troubled about many things. Stop for a while and let your soul catch up with you. Stop for a while and allow me to minister to you.”

Now, if we were to leave Mary and Martha and not come back to them, you might think that Mary was the one who had it all worked out and poor old Martha had much to learn, but later on, in the ministry of Jesus, we reencounter these two at the death of Lazarus, their brother.

When Lazarus becomes ill, both sisters send word for Jesus to come and save him, but when Jesus does come. It is Martha that goes to him. It is Martha who declares her faith in him. And it is she who calls him Lord, but where was Mary? Scripture says that she was “sitting in the house.” It seems that Martha has it all worked out and that Mary likes sitting around the house. So which one, Mary or Martha, chose correctly? From our gospel today, without telling Martha she was wrong, Jesus says that Mary chose the better portion, but in the story of Lazarus, it would appear that Martha chose better. Which one is right? King Solomon gives us a famous answer in the book Ecclesiastes. He writes:

To everything, there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
A time to tear, And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
A time to love, And a time to hate;
A time of war, And a time of peace.

God has made everything beautiful in its time. And so there is a time to sit at the feet of Jesus, and there is a time to put those teachings into practice. It comes down to balance.

St. Gregory the Great, in his Pastoral Rule, speaks of those great saints who spend much time in prayer, then go out and proclaim the things they have learned. Gregory wrote of these saints, men in this instance, “Holy men go forth as lightings when they come forth from the retirement of prayer to the public life of employment. They are sent, and they go, when from secrecy of inward meditation they spread forth into the wide space of active life. But after the outward works which they perform they always return to the bosom of prayer, there to revive the flame of their zeal and to glow as it were from the touch of heavenly brightness. For they would freeze too speedily amid their outward works—good though they are—did they not constantly return with anxious earnestness to the fire of prayer.” (Source)

Put another way, even the great saints of God have to stop for a while and allow their souls to catch up. You and I are no different. We must find that balance—it is different for each of us. Some can run for five days straight; others must rest more often—but we must find the balance that allows us to carry on with the mission of Christ’s Church while at the same time allowing us the time and space to receive the grace and renewal which comes from God.

In all the comings and goings of your life, allow yourself the time necessary so that your soul can catch up, and when it does, then set off once more on the journey. As Thomas Merton would encourage us, allow yourself to find the “balance and order and rhythm and harmony.” Allow yourself to enjoy the silence within the music and discover the peace of God.

Let us pray:

God, who is more than we can ever comprehend,
help us to seek you,
and you alone.
Help us to stand before all that we could do
and seek what you would do,
and do that.
Lift from us our need to achieve all that we can be
and instead,
surrender to what you can be in us.
Give us ways to refrain from the busyness
that will put us on edge and off center,
give us today your peace.

Amen.

10 July 2022

Sermon: Proper 10 RCL C – “Neighbors”

This is probably something you’ve seen, but I don’t believe I’ve shared it with you. It is the comedian Robin William’s list of the top 10 reasons to be an Episcopalian:

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don’t have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry – none of the guilt.

2. You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

That is a list that most Episcopalians could agree on. It is a humorous way of looking at how we see ourselves. Not only is it essential to have fun with such things, but it is also important to take a more serious look, and we, in the Episcopal Church, received the results of one of these more serious looks in Jesus in America, a study, commissioned by the church, that came out in March. Its goal: to learn how people understood Jesus and the church. What did we learn?

When we as a Christian people look at ourselves, we believe we’re doing a pretty good job representing the faith: in the 50%+ percentiles, we see ourselves as giving, compassionate, loving, and respectful. Those are good qualities. However, those who are not religious have a different view of Christians. In the 50%+ percentiles in this group, Christians are seen as hypocritical, judgmental, and self-righteous. Not such good qualities. We look just fine to ourselves, but not to others.

It would seem that many have a bad taste in their mouths regarding Christianity and Christians, and that bad taste is getting worse. I read a bumper sticker that said, “I’ve got nothing against God. It’s his fan club that I can’t stand.” Not necessarily original. You have all probably heard the Gandhi quote from several years ago, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” However, the Christian “image” seems to be deteriorating even more, but it’s no wonder when we spend so much time condemning what we dislike instead of proclaiming Who it is we love.

Please don’t misunderstand; I am in no way lumping you all in this category. You are not guilty of this type of behavior. Still, in the eyes of many today, you are guilty: guilt by association because we all live under the banner of Christianity regardless of denominational lines, ideologies, theologies, etc.

For some, to overcome, the appropriate response is to separate and attempt to isolate themselves and shout in their loudest voices, “We are different! We are better! We have the answer!” But this does not resolve anything. In all likelihood, it only compounds the original problem because Christians begin fighting with other Christians, and the rest of the world sits back and laughs at the hypocrisy. At the other end of responses are those who simply walk away, disillusioned and frustrated with their experience with Christianity, because they had believed it was something different. They thought it held meaning for their lives and answers to life’s questions, but they discovered it was no different—if not worse—than the secular world. In between those two extremes is just a great deal of apathy.

Is there a way out? Absolutely. And we begin to see that way when we answer the question that was put to Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?”

Our Gospel reading today is probably one of the more familiar: the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells the story after a rabbi asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ answer is simple, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.” However, the rabbi was more interested in one-upping Jesus than actually seeking wisdom, so he added a follow-up question, “And who is my neighbor?” In response, Jesus tells the parable.

A man, presumably Jewish, was attacked on the road and left for dead. A priest comes by but does not stop to help. Another of the religious leaders comes by, but he does not stop to help either. It is the Samaritan that comes across the dying man, and it is he that helps. To fully understand the parable, we must understand two critical details of the story, 1) the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and 2) the perspective that the parable is being told from.

First, Jews and Samaritans: we’ve covered this before, but the best way to understand that relationship is to look at the state of Jewish / Arab relations today. There may not have been open warfare between Jew and Samaritans, but the animosity between the two groups is similar to Jews and Arabs. They don’t get along.

Second, generally, we understand this parable from the perspective of the Samaritan. Would we be like the one that helps the injured man, a person who is often regarded as an enemy? Would we see this enemy as our neighbor? However, Bishop N. T. Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, tells us that we’ve got it the wrong way around. (For the record, we are to look at parables from all perspectives. That’s how we learn from them.) Wright says the proper perspective is viewing the parable from that of the injured Jewish man. Will he decide who his neighbor is? Wright puts it this way, “Can you—that is, the injured Jewish man—Can you recognize the hated Samaritan as your neighbor? If you can’t, you might be left for dead.” See how the story turns? It is no longer about you being this big-hearted person saying, “Look at me. See me helping this poor slob. Aren’t I a good neighbor?” No. It is about that “poor slob” deciding whether or not you’re a good neighbor.

Imagine lying on the side of the road, beaten and bloody, half dead. Several people, maybe even your priest, see you but can’t be bothered with stopping—too busy or whatever—and then, the one person you detest, despise, loathe more than anyone else comes by and instead of pointing at you and laughing and declaring, “I see you’ve finally gotten what you deserve!” Instead, this person stops and begins to offer you help. What do you do? Because you detest, despise and loathe them, will you tell them to go away and leave you to die? Or, are you going to think to yourself, “Perhaps this isn’t such a bad fella after all? Perhaps this person is my real neighbor?”

The world around us has a very poor view of Christianity. We are not going to change the world’s opinion. Still, we, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, may be able to change our community’s view of Christianity by showing them that we are willing to set aside race, creed, politics, and financial status, all of it for one straightforward reason: we want to serve, which is to love. In the process, the community might decide that we are not such bad neighbors after all.

Will our community—the wounded and the injured—will they know we are their neighbor if we shout out what we like or don’t like? Whom we agree with, or whom we disagree with? By our staunch view on this topic or that? No. They’ll know what we think and maybe, rightly or wrongly, what we believe, but they will not know us as their neighbors.

Thomas Merton writes, “Corrupt forms of love wait for the neighbor to ‘become a worthy object of love’ before actually loving him. This is not the way of Christ. Since Christ Himself loved us when we were by no means worthy to love and still loves us with all our unworthiness, our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business, and in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy if anything can.” (Disputed Questions, p.125) If we shout out at the world who they must be and what they must believe before we will love them as neighbors, then we’ve honestly forgotten how it is that Jesus loves us.

We can change our community’s view of Christianity not by just seeing them as our neighbors but also by loving them in such a way that they see us—see us!—as their neighbor. That is the church we are called to become.

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 of 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.

6 July 2022

Sermon: Boniface

“Until well into the 20th century, prayer cards and other representations of Bonifface typically portrayed him as an old bishop, with the accoutrements of his martyrdom: a book and a sword. These two symbols (sometimes combined into one, a book pierced with a dagger) came to emblematize him: the book reflected the Ragyndrudis Codex, regarded as a shield to ward off heathen axe blows, and the sword was a transformed version of that axe.” (source) The book is cleaved half in two as Boniface is reported to have been reading and Boniface held up the book to protect himself when his attacker charged him.

The Prophet Ezekiel was sent to the Israelites to warn them of the results should they not repent of the evil they were committing and return to the Lord. By setting Ezekiel in this role of prophet, the Lord was making Ezekiel, a watchman over the people. As a watchman, Ezekiel was responsible for communicating to the people God’s message. Failure to share this message would make Ezekiel guilty of sin.

The Lord said to him, “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give them no warning, or speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way, in order to save their life, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity; but their blood I will require at your hand.” The opposite was also true, “But if you warn the wicked, and they do not turn from their wickedness, or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity; but you will have saved your life.” Essentially, if Ezekiel failed to communicate God’s warning to the people, Ezekiel would be guilty of murder for failing to tell the people how they could live.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul said, at every opportunity presented since I’ve been with you, “I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. Therefore,” he says, “I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” Like Ezekiel, he did the job God had called him to. They have been warned, and it is now up to them to follow the Lord.

This commitment to fulfill God’s calling by delivering the message of salvation continued with Boniface, whom we celebrate today.

During the fifth century, the barbarian tribes overran most of Europe. Not only did this put the Roman Empire out of business in that area, but also the Church, as the conquering armies established their pagan religions. However, over time, the Church would return. How? Some of you may recall that it was Augustine, a European missionary who in 597 firmly established Christianity in England. In 716, Boniface, the fruit of Augustine’s mission work, a Benedictine monk and English priest, went on a mission to barbarian Europe in Frisia—now Holland and Belgium—to re-establish Christianity in Europe following the barbarian invasion. Boniface was successful and would later be named the Archbishop. He would be martyred in 754 while preparing for the Confirmation of a thousand converts.

Just before His ascension, Jesus told his apostles that “repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” This was the commission that Boniface heard and fulfilled in his work in Europe, so their blood was not on his hands. However, this commission that Jesus gave did not end with Boniface. It has been passed on to us. Like Paul, like Boniface, and like so many others, we have a responsibility to be prophets in our own time by speaking the word of God to the world around us.

The Lord will provide you with many opportunities to share the Good News. When he does, consider Boniface and boldly declare the faith that is in you.

3 July 2022

Sermon: Proper 9 RCL C – “Forgive and…?”

The apple. I’m not a real fan of the apple unless it has sufficient peanut butter or is baked in a pie, but regardless of my thoughts on that particular piece of fruit, it is both famous and infamous. There’s the Big Apple, American as Apple Pie, Johnny Apple Seed, and more, but there is also that one little apple in a Garden that enticed Eve. Yet, in this case, the apple is falsely accused because nowhere in the Holy Scriptures are we told that the piece of fruit was an apple. It is only ever referred to as fruit, so how did it become an apple? For the answer, we have to go back to the fourth century when St. Jerome translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin: the Vulgate Bible.

The word for fruit in Hebrew is peri, and according to a professor of English literature, whose name just so happens to be Robert Appelbaum, “Jerome had several options, but he hit upon the idea of translating peri as malus, which in Latin has two very different meanings. As an adjective, malus means evil. As a noun, it seems to mean an apple, in our own sense of the word, coming from the very common tree now known officially as the Malus pumila. So Jerome came up with a very good pun.” (Source) What was the name of the tree that Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat from? Answer: “The tree of the knowledge of good and malus/evil” (Genesis 2:17) but could also, according to Jerome, be named, “The tree of the knowledge of good and malus/apples.” Afterward, the fruit showed up in many paintings as an apple, and in the seventeenth century, when John Milton published Paradise Lost and referred to the fruit as an apple—game over. It will forever be thought of as an apple. So what is the point of this apple lesson?

Throughout our culture, we say/believe many things that we believe are passages of Holy Scripture when they are not. For example: “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s in the Bible. Right? Wrong. That was Benjamin Franklin in the Farmer’s Almanac. How about this one: “God will never put more on you than you can handle.” Scriptural or not? Not. St. Paul says something similar in his letter to the Corinthians, but it is only about sin, not everything else that comes against us. There are many more, but the one I want to look at today is a favorite of Christians: “Forgive and forget.” Exactly where is that in the Bible? Nowhere. The source of this misguided piece of wisdom is actually Don Quixote. The line: “Let us forget and forgive injuries.”

Forgiveness is hard enough as it is without adding other conditions. Heck. In many cases, it doesn’t even seem like the fair thing to do. Someone hurts you somehow, but the onus is placed on you instead of them having to do anything. You have to go to that person and say, “I forgive you,” when you would probably prefer to tell them something entirely different. I’m the one that was hurt, so why should I have to do all the hard work to make it right? Now someone is going to come along and say, “Not only must you forgive the other person, but you must also forget what it was they did to you.” Where does such a notion come from?

In Jeremiah, the Lord says, “I will forgive their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins.” Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has [God] removed our sins from us.” Forgiving and forgetting are part of the nature of God and St. Paul teaches in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Forgiving each other, yes. Forgetting? It’s not really there.

I’ve told you this one before: it is the story of a young peasant woman living back in the middle ages who began to have visions of Jesus. The report of her visions spread far and wide, eventually reaching the ears of the Archbishop. Not believing that a young peasant woman could possibly be having visions, he went to see her and asked her what she saw, and she told him. Still, in disbelief, he told her, “The next time you have visions of Jesus, you ask him what I confessed at my last confession. If you can answer that, then I will believe.” Some months later, the report reached the archbishop that the woman was again having visions, so he went to her again and asked if she had spoken to Jesus and asked the Lord about the Archbishop’s last confession. Her response was, “Yes.” “Well then,” said the Archbishop, “What did Jesus say?” Her response, “Jesus said, ‘I don’t remember.’” God forgives, and God forgets.

Another story: a woman went to visit her priest in great distress. Through many tears, she told him about how they had discovered that her father had for several years been sexually molesting her daughter. When questioned even more, the woman told the priest that her father had also sexually molested her as a little girl. She said that in her later years, “Not only did I forgive my father, but I also worked very hard at forgetting what he had done to me. I didn’t want to remember; it was too painful.” She had tried to do what we see as the “godly thing”; however, in forgetting, she did not remember that her father never confessed to a wrong, never repented, so in her forgetting, she placed her daughter in great danger.

When we forgive, it is not spiritually possible to forget. In many cases, to forget will only increase the potential harm done to us or others, so perhaps a better saying would be, “Forgive and be prudent” or “Forgive and use sound judgment.”

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus made what some would consider an uncharitable statement, but it is speaking of prudence in all our actions, including forgiveness. He said, “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” Matthew’s Gospel expands on the same statement: Jesus says, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” In other words, Jesus says, “I know that the world is not a safe place; therefore, be peaceful in your actions, but stay alert. Be prudent in your dealings with this dangerous world.”

The author of Proverbs writes, “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways” (Proverbs 14:8) and again, “Whoever strays from the path of prudence comes to rest in the company of the dead.” (Proverbs 21:16)

We must forgive the wrongs done against us—end of discussion—we must forgive. We forgive even if the person who committed the wrong never repents or refuses to repent. That’s between them and God. However, when we forgive someone, we are not saying that what happened didn’t matter, that everything can go back to the way it was. In addition, we have to keep in mind that forgiveness is very much a process. It will probably not happen overnight unless you are a saint, so there will be days long after you believe that you have forgiven when the anger rises in you all over again, but it doesn’t mean you haven’t forgiven. It simply means that you are human.

With all that said, there are parts of those hurtful and wrong instances that we should forget; specifically, we should forget—set aside—the deep hurt and anger that builds in us because if we persist in it, then we are allowing another person’s sin to lead us into sin—a vicious cycle.

By forgiving, we may allow the other person to feel better about themselves for bringing harm to us or someone else, but ultimately our forgiveness is not for their sake or their benefit. Instead, it is for the sake of our souls so that it will not torment us and draw us into sin.

Bottom line: forgiveness is about healing. If it can heal relationships—Good. If it can heal other situations and bring comfort to others—that’s fine too. However, in the end, forgiveness is about healing you. It is about freeing your soul so that you may experience the joy of the Lord.

Forgive and be prudent, but whether those who hurt you ask for forgiveness or not, forgive them. Unshackle your soul and be free of the bitterness.

Let us pray: Lord, we sinners who are in need of Your mercy. Help us to have a heart of genuine sorrow for our sins and turn to You for that grace. As we seek Your mercy, help us forgive the wrongs others have committed against us. We do forgive. Help that forgiveness enter deep into our souls as an expression of Your holy and Divine Mercy. Jesus, we trust in You. Amen.

29 June 2022

Sermon: Josemaría Escrivá

Mark Twain writes, “I do not like work even when someone else is doing it.” That probably sums up how many people feel about work. There are those who are completely content not working, even if it means someone else will have to pay their way, but for the Christian person, work is not something that should be shunned, because, through our work, we are participating in the work of God.

Cardinal Stephan Wyszynski (the head of the Catholic Church in Poland for thirty-two years) wrote Sanctify Your Daily Life, with the subtitle, How to Transform Work Into a Source of Strength, Holiness, and Joy. He says, “Everything in the universe acts by God’s power. If God were to deny His power to the world, even for an instant, it would all be plunged into lifelessness and the shadow of death.

“Everything that lives is bound up with this work [of God]; everything is dependent on it for existence. It is worthwhile keeping this picture before one’s eyes so as not to overestimate the fruits of one’s own work. Man creates nothing; he merely transforms God’s ready-made gifts…. Yet [God] entrusts the details of His design to man, to a rational being who, with the help of prudence, must play his part in bringing all creation to the fulfillment of the whole plan intended by God.

“Christianity… brought about the elevation of work [but now]…work is often regarded as a sad necessity to be gotten through for the sake of earning a living, Christianity continues to link it with God. From this linkage flows the whole blessing of work. ‘For thou shalt eat the labors of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee’ (Ps. 127:2).” (p.14, 17, 21)

The Spirit of Human Labor, also by Cardinal Wyszynski, was first published in 1948 and became widely known in the 50s and 60s through multiple translations primarily because of the work of our Saint for the day, Josemaría Escrivá. Escrivá would give copies of it to those he led in spiritual direction. Given that, although I don’t have proof of it, I would say it is safe to say that Wyszynski contributed to Escrivá’s understanding of work, which is one of the main focuses of Escrivá’s teachings and the organization he founded, Opus Dei (The Work of God).

Escrivá writes, “Work is man’s original vocation. It is a blessing from God, and those who consider it a punishment are sadly mistaken. The Lord, who is the best of fathers, placed the first man in Paradise ut operaretur, so that he would work.” (The Furrow #482)

Today, in our Gospel, Peter and the others have been fishing all night and caught nothing, but when the Lord told them to try again, they caught more than they could haul in. Work for work’s sake can be fruitless, but work done in cooperation with God can produce great fruit, sometimes materially, but always spiritually.

Understand your work as being in cooperation with the work of God so that no matter what, the work you do is sanctified. In doing so, even when it is mundane and repetitive, you will experience the love and joy of God.

26 June 2022

Sermon: Proper 8 RCL C – “Influence”

Shot of Jesus standing with his hand outstretched on a bare landscape

Peppermint Patty is talking to Charlie Brown and says, “Guess what, Chuck? The first day of school, and I got sent to the principal’s office. It was your fault, Chuck.”

Surprised, Charlie Brown responds, “My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?”

To which she declares, “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? Then you should have been a better influence on me.”

Influence. Merriam-Webster has multiple definitions for influence with the first summing up the rest: “the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways.” That can apply to everything from how gravity affects an object in motion to how—like in the case of Peppermint Patty—a person can have influence over another, for good or bad. So, who influences us and the lives we live?

I told you that while I was in Italy I saw some absolutely remarkable places and works of art and everywhere there were people trying to take the perfect picture of what they were seeing. In addition to the tourist, such as myself, there were also the “social media influencers” who were not trying to take the perfect picture of what they were seeing, instead, they were trying to take the perfect picture of themselves.

What are social media influencers? These are individuals who build up large numbers of followers on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and all the rest. Once you get a large enough following, then you can start making large money by throwing your support behind products and travel locations and so on, and by having advertisers. For example, Khaby Lame is now number one on TikTok and he has almost 150 million people following his antics. If you’re trying to sell “Boudreaux’s Beauty and Hunting” products, then you can quickly advertise your latest product to 150 million people simply by placing an ad on Lame’s internet feed. Last year he earned about $6 million for his efforts. That’s not bad work for someone who less than two years ago was a machinist just learning to speak English. Now, I did not see him while in Italy, but I did see many wannabes.

Generally, it would be two girls but occasionally it would be a combination. One of the girls, all dolled up would stand in the middle of a piazza with a gorgeous fountain or building (even the Vatican) in the background, then she would go about striking ridiculous poses while the other clicked away. They would then run together, review the photos, and, if satisfied, switch places, repeat, and then dash off to the next exotic locale. What’s interesting is that if you were to see those photos online, you would not be seeing the real world. Why? Because with the proper angle, cropping, and photoshopping, you can edit out the masses of people that were around you, you can cover up the blemish on your nose, the smell that can at times almost be seen is lost, and in the end, it appears that you had all of Rome to your beautiful sexy self. We, on the receiving end of all their efforts, think to ourselves, “I’ve got to go there and see that! And by the way, where did he get that fantastic hat? I’ve got to have it!” Social media influencers and we are influenced.

Back to Merriam-Webster, influence is “the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways.” Some would like to argue that there is a difference between power and influence: power is the ability to command or force, whereas influence involves a more democratic approach, but the truth is, if someone can influence you, then they have power over you. Why? Because you are no longer thinking for yourself. You are allowing them to do all the heavy lifting while you just go along for the ride.

In our lesson from First Kings, Elijah has been up on the mountain of the Lord. He’s just discovered the voice of the Lord, not in the wind or an earthquake or a fire, but in a whisper and now the Lord is giving him instructions, the last of which is, “anoint Elisha… as prophet in your place.”

Elijah sets out and does as the Lord commanded and he finds Elisha. We are told, “There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of [Elisha], and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ Then Elijah said to him, ‘Go back again; for what have I done to you?’” There is no indication that Elijah and Elisha knew each other prior to these events, but Elijah’s mantle, his cloak would have been an indicator to Elisha as to who this person was. How so?

There are several instances throughout the Old Testament that the mantle of the prophet would have been distinctive and made of animal skin, and we see it again in the New Testament with John the Baptist: “John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist.” Elisha would have known that Elijah was the prophet of God and by having the mantle placed upon him, would have known that he had been chosen as an apprentice. In recognizing this, Elisha ran to Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” To which Elijah responds, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” Elijah is saying, “Go think for yourself. I have no power over you. I am not trying to influence you to do one thing or another. I am only a messenger. You must decide how you will respond. How it is you will live.”

Elisha did just that and when he reached his conclusion, which does not seem to have taken long, he took his livelihood (his oxen) and slaughtered them, then used the plow and yoke as fuel for the fire to cook them. He then gave away the food and “set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”

Elisha’s response—“Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”—sounds similar to the responses that so many were giving Jesus when he was calling them—“Let me say goodbye.” “Let me bury my father.”—but the difference was sincerity. Those who were speaking to Jesus never really intended to follow him. They were being influenced by all that was going on around them and answering without really thinking. They were like a grain of wheat sown on rocky ground. They sprang up quickly but had no roots, so when the heat came, they withered. On the other hand, Elisha heard the call of God and when he understood what it meant, without hesitation and without holding anything back, he followed.

If I tell you that you must do ABC and you must not do XYZ otherwise you’ll go to hell, then I am simply trying to influence you by fear. If I tell you that if you get it all right and live a certain kind of life, you will be allowed entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, then I am only trying to influence you by offering you a reward. Either way, by observing your life from the outside, it may appear that my work was successful, but really all we’ve done is cropped and photoshopped your life, because if we pull back from the closely arranged photo, all the mess, garbage, smells, etc are all still there.

Elijah, placing his mantle upon Elisha, was not Elijah saying to Elisha, “Follow me.” It was Elijah saying to Elisha, “Follow God.” In order to accomplish this calling, Elisha had to do more than where the prophet’s mantle, he had to think for himself, to decide for himself how he would live. That decision was whether or not to be transformed, by following God, into a new creation.

When Jesus says to us, “Follow me,” he is asking nothing less, therefore, like Elisha, we must count the cost, willing to sacrifice our life for the life he will lead us into. God is not interested in influencing us. God’s desire is our transformation.

Today, Jesus places his mantle upon you.

Let us pray: Father of love, hear our prayer. Help us to know Your Will and to do it with courage and faith. Accept the offering of ourselves, all our thoughts, words, deeds, and sufferings. May our lives be spent giving You glory. Give us the strength to follow Your call, so that Your Truth may live in our hearts and bring peace to us and to those we meet, for we believe in Your Love. Amen.

22 June 2022

Sermon: Sts. Peter and Paul

If you’ve ever read any of the Old Testament, you know that early on it speaks a good bit about the sacrificial system during the time of the Temple in Israel. The rules were very specific on how, when, who, and other details. One part of certain sacrifices was the “libation offering.” In Exodus, for a specific sacrifice, the people were to offer two lambs; furthermore, it says, “And with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering.” So with this offering of the lamb, you would also include about a quart of oil and a quart of wine. Why? Scripture seems to indicate that these additions of oil and wine would make an aroma that was pleasing to God. Having done a bit of cooking myself, I would have to agree.

Today, we read in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, “As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.” Paul is alluding to the libation offering in the Old Testament. His life has been poured out with the sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus, and is even now rising, as an aroma that is pleasing to God.

As we celebrate two of the greatest apostles of Jesus, Peter and Paul, we can see in them both, lives that were poured out for the purpose of the Gospel, that were sacrificed to God, and in a spiritual sense, rose as an aroma pleasing to God.

Question: Is the “aroma” of your life pleasing to God? Is your life mingled with the sacrifice of Jesus and poured out upon the altar of God? If it is do you think your part, especially when compared to that of the Peters and Pauls of this world, as insignificant? Maybe a flash in the skillet, but definitely nothing that any would take notice of or get excited about?

During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation, he asked them to picture in their minds a parade that he knew would be held in Picadilly Circus after the war.

First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky.

Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner’s caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, “And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?” And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, “We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.”

My grandaddy was one like that. They wouldn’t call him up to serve because he had a vital job working in a paper mill. We all have these purposes, ordained by God, and the work we do – great or small, noticed by the world or ignored by all—as one of my seminary professors said, “Sometimes the work God calls us to just isn’t all that sexy”—but if done for the Father’s glory is beautifully fragrant to Him. For by pouring out our lives in service to His purpose, we are feeding His lambs and tending His sheep. By pouring out our lives for His purposes, we are answering the question that, three times, Jesus asked Peter: Do you love me? The libation offering of our lives, our lives poured out in His service, answers that question by saying, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

19 June 2022

Sermon: Proper7 RCL C – “Stay or Go?”

Clotile and Boudreaux are having one of their regular arguments. But this time, the shouting gets louder and louder until Clotile just can’t take it anymore. She screams at Boudreaux, “That’s it. Go! Get out of this house right now. I can’t stand the sight of you anymore.”

The truth is, Boudreaux was quite happy to obey. He starts to walk towards the front door. But as he does Clotile shouts at him an insult that one day she would no doubt regret, “I hope you experience a long, slow and excruciatingly painful death.”

Boudreaux stops in his tracks, turns around, looks at Clotile, and says, “For crying out loud, make up your mind already. So now you want me to stay?”

You will have to be a fan of 80s music (the only truly great music) to know of the punk rock band The Clash and to further know that in 1981 they had a great song: Should I stay or should I go now? The chorus:

“Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?”

If you are a fan of 80s music, that song is now stuck in your head for the rest of the day, but I think ol’ Boudreaux would have also been singing it as he waited for Clotile’s answer on whether he should stay or go.

Today, in our Gospel, we have Jesus and the disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee and coming to the land of the Gerasenes on the northeast shore of the Sea. This is a land of Gentiles. We know this because of the region and by the fact that there are herds of pigs roaming around (in the eyes’ of the Jewish people, the pig is a filthy animal). There, Jesus and the disciples encounter the demon-possessed man. There are many demons within him, thus the “spokesdemon” refers to them all as Legion. In the time of Jesus, a legion was a military term and consisted of 6,826 soldiers, so it is safe to assume that there were more than just a few demons possessing the man. These demons recognize Jesus for who he is and are terrified of what they know he can do to them: cast them back into the abyss (FYI: that should tell us something about the abyss if the demons don’t even want to return to it), so Jesus has compassion—for lack of a better word—on them and does as they request: he casts them out of the man and sends them into a large herd of pigs. The pigs go crazy and fling themselves off a nearby cliff and were drowned in the sea. When the swine herders saw this, they became afraid, ran back to town, and reported what they had seen. “Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.”

The demons were terrified of Jesus which is understandable, but what is not understandable is why the people from the nearby town were “seized with great fear” and asked Jesus to leave.

Most commentators note that there would have been a certain amount of fear from the people because Jesus had brought about the death of the pigs, which would have been a large loss of income, but that was perhaps not the more significant reason.

John Calvin, who I’m not always a big fan of writes, “Power strikes men with terror, makes them fly from the presence of God, and drives them to a distance from Him: but goodness draws them gently, and makes them feel that nothing is more desirable than to be united to God.” The townspeople knew nothing of the teachings of Jesus and his goodness. They had only witnessed the power of God and it was this power that they were afraid of.
Commenting on this same incident, R.C. Sproul writes, “When the Holy One is manifest in the midst of unholy people, the only appropriate human response is dread.” Even those who worshipped pagan gods knew that it was always best to keep the gods at a distance and they likely thought of Jesus as one of these gods, but the gods can be unpredictable and they are never safe, so do you really want one meddling in your life. It is best for them to stay away. That is until you need them. Consider our Psalm for today.

Today, we began with verse 18, but we are all familiar with the opening lines of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? and are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress.” We know these as the words that Jesus cried out from the Cross, but it was David who originally penned them. In writing them, David was feeling pinned down by his enemies and there are indications that he was in physical pain as well. As we read today, David says,

Be not far away, O Lord;   you are my strength; hasten to help me.
Save me from the sword,   my life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth,   my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.

These are the words of someone who wants God to come to them and to stay with them. To save them from all their troubles. Amidst an unholy people, the power of God brings on dread, but amongst a people that are holy, it is the goodness and nearness of God that are most desired.

The holy and the unholy. The goodness and the dread. Two very opposing positions and I can assure you that I stand firmly in one of those categories… depending on the circumstances. And please don’t pretend that I’m alone.

For each of us, there are circumstances when we want God firmly on our side, guiding, protecting, loving, merciful, etc., and then there are circumstances when we would prefer it if He would just “go away”. There are days when we desire his goodness and there are days when we dread His eyes upon us and so on those latter days, like the Gerasenes, we invite Him to leave—at least for a little while. Until we need Him again.

When we ask him to go, it would make things easier if he would just slap us on the back of the head and say, “Don’t be stupid, John”, but Jesus will allow us to make the decision. Remember, when the Gerasenes were afraid and asked Jesus to leave, he got back in the boat he arrived on and went back home. He allowed them free will and he will do the same for us. Instead of slapping us on the back of the head, he says, “Should I stay or should I go? It’s your call.”

St. Paul said to us in his letter to the Galatians, “Therefore the law was our disciplinarian… the law was the slap on the back of the head, the dread of God’s power… until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Through our faith and our baptism, we have clothed ourselves in Christ Jesus. Let’s not be fickle like those who change clothes according to our circumstances or those things that suit their desires, but instead, let us stay firmly wrapped in the clothing of Christ, always desiring to be the holy ones who live in his goodness and mercy.

Let us pray: Breathe in us, Holy Spirit, that our thoughts may all be holy. Act in us, Holy Spirit, that our work, too, may be holy. Draw our hearts, Holy Spirit, that we love only that which is holy. Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard us, then, Holy Spirit, that we always may be holy. Amen.

15 June 2022

Sermon: Evelyn Underhill

The dictionary defines wisdom as: “The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.” Therefore, wisdom is the intelligent application of knowledge gained through study and life. Knowledge tells me that my tongue will stick to a metal pole when it is -16 degrees. Wisdom tells me, “Don’t be an idiot and try it.”

When it comes to God, Proverbs 1:7 teaches us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” In this case, “fear,” is not defined as reading The Shining by Stephen King while you’re home alone, but is more accurately defined as reverence and awe, a recognition of who God is. So, a rewording of the Proverb could say, “The recognition of who God is brings knowledge.” The true wisdom that proceeds from this knowledge and is then put into practice is made evident in the life and teachings of Jesus. As we read in the Book of Wisdom “She [Wisdom] is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.” True Wisdom, the spotless reflection of God, is Jesus.

So how do we go from knowledge of God to wisdom through Jesus? It requires contemplation of God, and it is the deeper contemplation of God that is often referred to as mysticism.

The word mysticism from a negative perspective is seen as a new-age hocus pocus and from a positive perspective as something that is only achieved by some of the greater Saints, such as Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. However, Evelyn Underhill, whom we celebrate today, teaches that the mystical life is attainable to anyone who nurtures such a life. In The Spiritual Life, she writes, “a spiritual life is simply a life in which all that we do comes from the centre, where we are anchored in God.” She teaches that a contemplative life, a mystic’s life is available to anyone who would place God at the center and strive for a deeper understanding of Him. Such a teaching is in line with what many others have said. For example, in Life and Holiness, Thomas Merton writes, “The spiritual life is not a life of quiet withdrawal, a hothouse growth of artificial ascetic practices beyond the reach of people living ordinary lives. It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God.” (Introduction)

Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Jesus was saying, it is not about where you worship or how you worship; instead, worship is about spiritual union with God. Evelyn Underhill teaches that this union is available to us all, if—like anything else we want to be successful at—we dedicate ourselves and practice. Through practice, we can gain wisdom about the things and nature of God.

Take the knowledge you have of God—God is love, faithful, merciful, etc.—and by intentionally contemplating that knowledge, allow it to draw you into greater union with Him.

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