Easter 6C

6th Sunday of Easter May 26, 2019 Our gospel readings for the last few weeks in John’s gospel have taken us back in time to before Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Last Sunday, we saw Judas leaving the Upper Room gathering with the other disciples to go out and betray Jesus. And this Sunday, we see the remaining disciples growing increasingly more anxious, and several of them are posing questions to Jesus to try to understand his mysterious words about leaving them soon. This section of John’s gospel is made up of four whole chapters that are known as John’s farewell discourse—four chapters where Jesus is reassuring and comforting and teaching his disciples, trying to prepare them for what is next. Liturgically, this week, we are moving toward the end of the Easter season. This Thursday is the feast day of the Ascension when we celebrate Jesus’s ascension into heaven (it’s 1 of 7 of our major feast days in the church). Two weeks from today, we’ll have the feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. And next Sunday is this weird, in-between time, when Jesus has ascended but the Holy Spirit hasn’t shown up yet. But for today, Jesus is promising his disciples and us that the Holy Spirit is coming, and he offers them and us the gift of his peace saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” I’ve been thinking about peace this week. Often when we use the word peace, we mean an absence of conflict or even a “Peaceful easy feeling” (like we sang coming in at 10). But the word that Jesus uses—shalom—is a much more complex word. It means beyond peace to completeness or wholeness, and even such completeness or wholeness that causes one to act or respond with generosity. The thing about Jesus’s peace is that it is a gift which is freely given by him but cannot be earned or attained by us. Peace is something that we can only receive. And sometimes we refuse to receive it, don’t we? One member of our Wednesday service congregation, when we were talking about this, shared a story of a lady in her church who resisted the institution of the passing of the peace in the “new” prayer book and she would just stand there with her arms crossed as people exchanged the peace around her. So we can resist this gift of peace, this gift of wholeness. But we can also be conduits of Jesus’s peace for one another. Another one of our Wednesday congregation shared that she had recently been using a spiritual practice called “a meditation for loving kindness.” In this practice, you pray the following things for yourself and for other people, praying them three times each. 1. May you be happy. 2. May you be healthy. 3. May you be at peace. Consider starting this practice just for yourself, that you may be open to receive Jesus’s gift of peace, Jesus’s gift of wholeness. Then deepen the practice to include those for whom it is easy for you to love. Pray this three-prayer for each of them three times. Then, we you are ready for the advanced class, add in doing this for a person you are at odds with—maybe someone who has wounded you, someone with whom you disagree. This week, your invitation is two part. First, pay attention to the ways that you resist the gift of Jesus’s peace or wholeness in your life. When you catch yourself in those moments, consider uncrossing your arms and asking for help receiving it. Then second, look for ways to pass that gift of peace or wholeness on to others. There are countless ways of doing this in every single day, but if you are looking for a place to start, consider using the meditation for loving kindness: 1. May you be happy. 2. May you be healthy. 3. May you be at peace.

Easter 5C

The 5th Sunday of Easter Year C May 19, 2019 This past week, I was spending some time preparing for our upcoming move by going through a bunch of our stuff that has been stored in our garage for the last two years. In and among untold numbers of books that have been hidden away in boxes, I re-discovered one in particular of which I am quite fond. It’s title is Being Dead is No Excuse (and if that isn’t intriguing enough, the subtitle is): The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral. The book was written by Episcopalians and natives of the Mississippi Delta—Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays. The book is full of recipes and anecdotes about funerals and characters from the authors’ small town of Greenville, Mississippi. And the emphasis throughout the book is on how food can both unite and divide the community. While chapter one signifies the unifying force of good funeral food (it is titled: “Dying tastefully in the MS Delta” and concludes with a top ten list of funeral foods), chapter 2 captures the division that can be created by different visions of what is appropriate in good funeral food. It is titled “the Methodist ladies vs. the Episcopal ladies.” The opinionated, Episcopal authors have this to say about the local Methodists’ funeral food: “Though a number of old planter families still hew to the religion of the Wesley brothers, and there is certainly no spiritual or theological animosity, the culinary competition between the Episcopal ladies and the Methodist ladies is cut-throat. Episcopalians are snooty because they spurn cake mixes and canned goods, without which there would be no such thing as Methodist cuisine. Methodist ladies do great things with the contents of cans and boxes. If a survey were done of the winners of Pillsbury Bake-Offs, ten to one the majority would be Methodists. The casserole is the most characteristically Methodist foodstuff…The Methodist culinary genius might be summed up this way: “Now you’re cookin’ with Campbell’s. (See also [Chapter 5] “Comfort Foods: There is a Balm in Campbell’s Soup p. 141.)”i Our Acts reading for today gives us one of the most pivotal moments in the early Christian movement, when Peter has a vision where the voice of God tells him that he no longer needs to worry about being bound by the Jewish dietary laws that he has followed all his life. In our reading for today, we have the second telling of this same story, which happens when Peter has returned to Jerusalem and is justifying his actions of eating with Gentiles to the other Jewish followers of Jesus. Food has been the number one thing that this early church has been fighting over, namely the question of whether the Gentile converts to Christianity have to convert to Judaism and follow the dietary laws. Because of this vision given to Peter by God, Peter becomes converted in his thinking and in his response, and we see that he recognizes that he does not want to stand in the way of the work that God is doing. “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” Luke tells us of Peter’s critics, “When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’” Food which has divided this community since its very beginnings, is now no longer an impediment to belonging and to following Jesus. Over the last few months, the Church Development Institute (CDI) team from St. Thomas (that is me, Tracy Edgar, Mary Haley, and Rick Lantz) along with the vestry have conducted interviews of various parishioners about the gifts and challenges of St. Thomas. Folks were pretty much unanimous in their assessment that one of our strongest gifts is hospitality—how we use food (and drink!) to create community and welcome others. One of the greatest challenges that folks have generally articulated is the desire for us to attract new members. As a part of our work with CDI, we are supposed to plan and implement a project over this summer. After looking at the responses to the interviews, we began trying to figure out how to capitalize on our gift for hospitality in order to attract new visitors to our congregation. We had a number of different ideas, but through various conversations, we have begun working more intensively on a particular idea. It is a project called “CAST” which is short for Co-op At St. Thomas. Our vision is to create a gathering place for our community of Isle of Hope and beyond on our church grounds once a month beginning in September and running on a trial period through December. We plan to begin reaching out to local vendors from other farmers’ markets, local artists, food trucks, musicians, a local pet-grooming truck, the people who catch and sell shrimp and crabs, anyone we can think of who could help us create this festival on the first Friday night of the month from 4 pm to 8 pm. We also want to have a featured charity who we would promote and who would help us promote the event and who we could raise money for that month. We’ve also talked about having activities for children centered around our newly re-vitalized playground. We have a vision of creating a community gathering space for people to bike, walk, golf-cart, or drive over, shop and picnic on our grounds listening to live music and enjoying each other and our beautiful home. All this would be centered around locally grown, caught, or cooked food--Food as a way to unite us here in Isle of Hope. We would also look to have some soft advertising for the different things going on here at St. Thomas as a possible bridge for folks who might be interested in joining us for worship or other events. I want you to be thinking about the following questions. We’ll be collecting feedback from you in the comings days about this idea of CAST—Co-op At St. Thomas. Here are the questions I want you to be considering: What do you think? Do you have any ideas/suggestions about this? What are your concerns? Would you like to help with this endeavor? How might God be calling us to expand our vision of how we use our gift of hospitality to promote unity and community? i. Metcalf, Gayden and Hays, Charlotte. Being Dead Is No Excuse: The official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral. Miramax: New York, 2005, p 34.

Easter 4C 2019

Easter 4C 2019 May 12, 2019 I am struck this morning by the story from Acts. There are all sorts of interesting details in this story not the least of which is the transformation of Peter from total failure to a hero who rivals the prophets of old in his ability to resurrect someone. But the story isn’t so much a story about Peter; instead, it is a story about the church; it gives us a wonderful picture of a worshipping community in the early church which is also a community that expects, even demands resurrection, and it shows us some characteristics that we can try to emulate as we try to grow more deeply into how God is calling us to be a resurrection community, a community that expects, demands, and works for resurrection in this particular time and place. The writer of Acts (who is also the writer of Luke’s gospel), tells us that in the particular place of Joppa, there lived a disciple whose name was Tabitha. She was well known for being devoted to good works and acts of charity. She is the only woman in all of scripture who is named as a disciple, and she is particularly well known for her ministry to widows, some of the most vulnerable of the population of the Roman Empire and in Jewish culture. Tabitha is known for making clothing for widows; when she becomes ill and dies, the disciples send for Peter, whom they know to be in a near-by city. This part, in and of itself is incredibly remarkable. She is dead! What is it that they expect Peter to do? Well, clearly they expect Peter to bring Tabitha back from the dead, otherwise, why else would they call him? Peter comes quickly, and they tell him the stories of Tabitha and the ways that she has made a difference in their lives and in their community. He puts them all outside, prays, and then says to her, “Tabitha, get up.” And she does! Peter takes her out and shows her to the rest of them, and the news of what has happened spreads throughout Joppa, and many come to believe in the Lord. And Peter stays with them there for some time. But how does all this relate to us? We see disease and brokenness all around us and within us. The recent school shooting in Colorado (just one in a string of far too many—the shooting at the synagogue, the bombing in Sri Lanka on Easter) these are further evidence of the relentless insinuation of evil and destruction in our lives and our world. What is modeled for us in this story of life in the early church is that, as a community who expects, demands, and works for resurrection, we must first be dedicated to being a community of healing; we must first be dedicated to be a community of hope. We must be unafraid to ask for healing and resurrection for ourselves, for each other, and for the whole world. We also cannot be content to let disease, unhealthy patterns of life, and death run unchecked among us. Another thing that strikes me about this story and how the community at Joppa functions as a community that expects, demands, and works for resurrection is the reciprocity that is involved in the community and the mutual care that is offered there. Tabitha is known for being devoted to good works and acts of charity; she takes care of vulnerable people within her community probably from her own resources. When she becomes ill and dies, the community takes care of her, washing her body, calling for Peter and physically going to get him. They care for her as they mourn her loss. In this picture of health and life in the early church, all are both giving and receiving, and the health of this faith community spills out into the greater community as evidence of the power of Jesus Christ to heal and resurrect. So, your invitation this week is two-fold. First, ask yourself if you are participating in the full reciprocity of what it means to be this church, this resurrection community. Are you giving more than you are receiving? Are you receiving more than you are giving? Do you feel that you are not being nourished? If so, could that be because you are only receiving and not giving? Do you feel tired, burned out? If so, could that be because you are only giving and not receiving? What balance might God be calling you to find between these two extremes? One way to be intentional in seeking this balance is to allow someone to do something for you, whenever you can, and to try to do something for someone else at least once a day. Second, spend some time listing to God in your life every day, and then let your life be a prayer, a response to what God is speaking in your life. Ask God for health, wholeness, healing, and resurrection in your life. Ask God for health, wholeness, healing, and resurrection in this church. Ask God for health, wholeness, healing, and resurrection in our world.

The Third Sunday of Easter Year C

The Third Sunday of Easter Year C May 5, 2019 This past week, our speaker at Spring Clergy Conference was Dr. Catherine Meeks who is the Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta. (Let me just say that I’ve gone to 15 years of clergy conferences, and Dr. Meeks, was by-far the best speaker I have heard. She has such a gracious presence, is clearly very comfortable in her own skin, and has a way of sharing her story and other truths in a way that is both matter of fact and gently joyful.) Dr. Meeks’ time and work with us was divided between watching documentaries (one of which revealed to me a part of our American history that I had been completely ignorant about), conversations about what next steps we might take in our congregations, and her emphasis on the notion that racial healing in our Church begins with our own inner work and awareness. She began our conversation together by referencing the story of Jesus’ healing of the man at the pool of Bethsaida, when Jesus first asked the man, “Do you want to be healed?” She reminded us that “we as Christians believe in healing and transformation. We believe that Jesus brings those about. It is up to us to set ourselves on the road.” I am still processing all of what she said and what we all shared, and I don’t have any ideas about what my next steps here are in light of all this, but we have certainly already begun this conversation in our Just Mercy book study, and through that, I am thankful that we have already begun this work of racial healing here together. But what I was struck by is her image of healing and transformation which is given by Jesus and of our own responsibility to set ourselves on the road in light of our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today. We see Saul, who has made a name for himself by persecuting people of the Way, the followers of Jesus. We have already seen the young Saul earlier in Acts as he stood by and held the coats of the people who stoned Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Our reading for today shows Saul on the road to Damascus when he is blinded by a light from heaven and hears a voice asking him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” It’s interesting to me that Saul never answers the Lord’s question. Instead, he responds with a question: “Who are you, Lord?” And the Lord replies: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." The story goes on that those who are with Saul hear the Lord’s voice but do not see anything. Saul follows the Lord’s instructions, going into the city where he is blind and doesn’t eat anything for three day. Finally, he is visited by Annais, who the Risen Christ has sent (after having to do some convincing). And through Annais faithfulness and work on behalf of the Risen Christ, Saul is healed and transformed, and he begins to testify about his conversion. But still I can’t help but wonder, why is Saul persecuting Jesus and his followers? What is it that is going on inside him that makes him think that is what he needs to be doing? Most of us don’t naturally identify with Saul, I would guess. It’s not a very flattering picture of humanity, and yet it is one in which we all share. Each one of us is capable of being a Saul, persecuting others, and if we are truthful, we have all done this in much smaller, yet still destructive ways. I think back on the times when I have persecuted someone else—making someone else feel like they are an outsider, engaging in gossip about someone, thinking uncharitable thoughts about someone, judging someone. All of these are micro-aggressions or precursors to persecution that come out of a place of insecurity or dis-ease in my own soul. We persecute others, I think, when we are afraid that we are going to lose something that we think belongs to us or is owed to us. Your invitation this week is to pay attention to the goings on in your soul, especially when those goings on involve persecuting someone else or even the precursor to persecution, when you are feeling insecure or uneasy or you are afraid. When you catch yourself in that moment or in reflecting after, ask God for forgiveness and healing, and rest in the assurance that both you and the one you have harmed are both beloved of God who are loved beyond what you could ever ask for or imagine. “We, as Christians, believe in healing and transformation. We believe that Jesus brings those about. It is up to us to set ourselves on the road.”