7th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 11A

7th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 11A July 19, 2020 I’ve been thinking a lot about fear this week. It seems to be rampant—on the news, in social media…If I look carefully, I can see fear at the heart of anger—both my own and others’—in anxiety that comes out in strange ways around strange subjects. I see fear in under-reacting and in overreacting, in the quest for data, answers, certainty. It feels like fear is the water that we are swimming in right now. In our Isaiah reading for today, we see God on trial as a seemingly-defeated deity in the wake of the Babylonian attack on Jerusalem. God testifies on God’s own behalf and tells the truth of who God is to Israel. God challenges the false gods or idols that Israel has turned to; God reminds the people of the covenant, their unique relationship with God. And God tells the people they do not need to be afraid because God is the rock that they know and can trust. This passage evokes the fear of God that is brought down the mountain with Moses and the 10 Commandments, the fear of God that is foundation of the covenant. In that relationship, fear of God is not a bad thing. It binds the community together; it keeps the children of Israel humble so that they do not become evil like the Egyptians that God has freed them from. “Even though things look really bad right now, you don’t need to be afraid.” God tells Israel. “You know me. And I’ve got you.” This week, I read a book about fear that was written by the Episcopal priest Eric Law. It is titled Fear Not: Living Grace and Truth in a Frightened World. The book was originally published in 2007 and draws on numerous anecdotes and data surrounding September 11th, 2001. But in 2019 Law re-published it with some new material about us and about fear in our common life. The book was fascinating to me; it could be a good book for a group to study as there are questions and exercises at the end of each chapter. The tenets that captured my attention the most in this current season fraught with fear are these. 1. Law writes “In this world of fear, we need to find ways to move from risk management to living in faith through Jesus Christ. Living in faith has to do with actively engaging people, the community, and creation in spite of our fear. Living the gospel is about trusting God, and trusting each other as children of God, so that we can be vulnerable, take risks, and tell the truth. And the truth will set us free to connect and be intimate with each other and with God. We need this kind of intimacy the most in order to develop communities of trust in which we can face the world of fear together.”i 2. Law emphasizes that fear in and of itself is not a bad thing. Fear serves an evolutionary purpose in calling us to pay attention to potential danger. He writes,“The fear of fear is the issue…As we avoid the feeling of fear, we avoid knowing the vulnerable parts of ourselves.” He writes that rather than avoiding our fear, we are invited to mine it, to delve deeper into it tracing it to the most terrible destinations (pain, suffering, chaos, isolation, death) in order to see beyond our fear to the wider vision to which God is calling us.ii 3. Politicians, the media, and product marketers evoke our fear because it gives them power and money. Law describes the processes they use in similar terms to the false idols challenge by God in the Isaiah reading for today. “Politicians evoke fear because they want us to give them power by voting for them. They want us to change the polling results and give them a higher approval rating. The news media use fear to keep us watching their news and buying their papers and magazines, which are supposed to give us helpful information…But does voting for a certain politician really help us deal with our fear? Will buying a certain product alleviate our fear? They are but symbolic substitutes [idols?] for what really will help us address our fear. Buying these substitutes gives only the feeling that we are doing something about our fear. They offer only illusions of safety. They are only temporary releases. The feeling of safety wears out quickly, and we crave the next substitute when our fear, which was never really addressed, surfaces again thanks to marketers and politicians. These substitutes distract us from doing the things that will help us face our fear, work through it, and discover our call to ministry.”iii 4. Law shares a portion of the President’s speech immediately following 9/11, where the President urges our continued participation and confidence in the American economy, and he writes, “Many heard this…as the invitation to continue our daily lives as ‘normal’ and not give into what the terrorist wanted us to do-to change our lifestyles and limit our activities. Instead of dealing with our fear, many followed the ritual of ‘business as usual.’ If we changed our way of life, then the terrorists had won. Therefore we ignored our fear, buried it, and continued to practice our ritual of living life as usual. Be good and patriotic Americans, and support the economy-which, for most people, meant ‘Go and buy something.’”iv 5. When we don’t deal with our fear, violence is often the result.v We are seeing this individually and on a societal level. This week, I invite you to dwell a little more with your fear. Pay attention to when others try to stoke it and ask why, what they have to gain from your fear. Look for it the ways it comes out unexpectedly in your life—for me, my fear is usually hidden in anger. For some it is often hidden in anxiety that focuses itself in unexpected ways on unexpected things or situations. Look for the fear that dwells under the surface of your life, and invite it to come out into the light. One of the meditations on my prayer app Pray as You Go this week was on fear and anger, and I’m going to close with the questions they offered for you to use to dwell with your fear or your anger for a bit this week. I hope you will find, like I have, that when you name it, it loses some of its power over you. “Is there anything or anyone who is making you angry [or afraid]? Share these feelings of fear or anger with Jesus now. Where in your life do you need to know God’s peace at this time? What is causing you anxiety or distress? In the quiet and stillness, imagine God’s love flowing through you bringing peace and healing for yourself and others.”vi i. Law, Eric. Fear Not: Living Grace and Truth in a Frightened World. Chalice: St. Louis, 2019. P 5 ii. Ibid. pp 13-14, 17 iii.Ibid. pp 29-30 iv.Ibid pp 35-36 v.Ibid pp54-55 vi.https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/prayer/2020-07-14

6th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 10A

6th Sunday after Pentecost- Proper 10A July 12, 2020 This past week, my brother, the one who is, among other things, an organic farmer, shared an image on his Facebook page. The image was originally shared on a page called The Farmer’s Footprint. The title on the image is Mexico Commits to Phase out Glyphosate, and it has a quote from Victor Toledo Mexican Environmental Secretary: “Glyphosate is the most dangerous poison in the world” . My brother introduced the image with the words: “Good for Mexico. Human health, and planetary health, starts with soil health.”i It wasn’t until this week that I actually started thinking about soil health. As you know, we have been back-yard gardening during this safer at home season. I believe that the fruits of our harvest are due in part to the prayers some of you have been offering, as you well know my spotty history with growing things. So here’s the update. First the good news: our tomatoes and the basil plants are doing amazingly well! I actually made a tomato pie this past week with tomatoes from our little garden. But….the peppers are struggling, (it’s like they are small and stunted and still, the plants can’t support their weight); we only managed to produce one sickly squash before all the squash plants just up and died. And don’t even get me started on the watermelon! All this got me to thinking about soil health. Could it be that there was something in the soil that helped the tomato plants flourish and what might have been lacking in it that the squash plants need? Because in my beginning gardening research, I’ve learned that the quality of the soil is absolutely necessary in order for the plants to have strong roots. And if the roots aren’t nourished by the soil, then the plants aren’t going to thrive or survive.ii Our gospel reading for today is one of the parables of Jesus. I have most often heard it referred to as the parable of the sower, but this week, I learned it has also been called the parable of the soil. In this parable, Jesus talks about the effects of a sower who casts the seed on all different types of soil: some soil is rocky and the seeds can’t grow strong roots; some soil is actually on a path and is too shallow, so the birds come and eat the seeds; some soil is already choked with thorns and so the seeds become choked with thorns as they try to grow; and some soil is good soil, and it gives forth plants that yield a harvest that is miraculous in its abundance-far beyond anything a normal harvest on good soil could ever expect or even hope to produce. As I read this parable again this week, I’ve continued to think about what my brother wrote: “Human health, and planetary health, starts with soil health.” If I have learned anything in this Covid-season, it is that we are so much more interconnected than we, in our independent minded society, have remembered. The writer Brian McLaren reflects, “We used to think that we caught diseases as individuals: ‘I'm sick; you're not.’ But now we realize, no, we catch diseases as individuals who are part of families, and families who are part of cities, and cities that are part of states and nations. We realize now that our whole species can become infected, and that our whole globe can be changed because of our interconnectedness. . .” iii This pandemic has shown us that we are much more deeply connected than we have remembered in our modern world, and as a result, Jesus’s parable this week invites us to examine the health of our soil—not just for some of us but for all of us. One aspect of soil health is whether there is enough water. Our Old Testament reading speaks of this, comparing God’s Word or God’s truth to the rain that waters the earth. Isaiah reassures God’s people that God’s truth is just as trustworthy, as reliable as the rain. How much truth do we allow for our in own lives? Are we truth-tellers in our speech or do we tell people what we think they want to hear? Do we hold people accountable when they do not tell the truth? Do we demand truth from our elected and public officials? Another key aspect of soil health is nutrients. If there is not enough nutrients in the soil to nourish the roots, the plants will not thrive. The plants will also suffer if the soil is too shallow. What sorts of spiritual and intellectual nutrients are we ingesting for our souls these days? In what places are we seeking depth: depth of ideas, depth of conversation, depth of care? Are we connecting regularly to God through prayer or spiritual practices, tapping into the source of our nourishment? Is what we are reading, listing to, opening our hearts to, is that stuff that is nourishing and life-giving, or is toxic for our souls like chemicals or too much sugar is for our bodies? Are there impediments in the soil, such as rocks or thorns? Consider what these might be in our own hearts and in the soil that is our society. I know for me, when I am thorniest or most hard-hearted/rocky, it’s because I am focusing too much on myself and my independence and not enough on others. What are ways we can seek to uproot the rocks and the thorns in our own hearts right now? Finally, are we paying attention to how the soil of our common lives affects those around us, especially those who do not have as many resources as we have? We have learned that what one person in our community does affects everyone else in our community, for good and for ill. How might we be called to respond? Today, as we partake of the reserve sacrament together, there is no greater reminder of how we are all bound together. As we feed on the body of Christ, we are re-created once again as that very body, sent out into the world to be the hands and feet and heart of Christ, living no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. May it transform us, embolden us, inspire us to be agents of the resurrection in our homes, our church, and in our community. i. Here’s the article cited in the Farmer’s Footprint post: https://sustainablepulse.com/2020/06/27/mexico-announces-phase-out-and-ban-on-glyphosate-herbicides/?fbclid=IwAR3U7U3vxUL7uuetWR-Lbkm1gSlEiPZEQ_1Bix1bSGVRY4kcNQ3qhaXij8w#.Xwmv-xJ7mpp ii. https://growbeautifully.monrovia.com/how-important-is-a-strong-root-structure/ iii. This passage was shared in the Thursday, July 9th email from CAC.org. Originallly from Brian McLaren, “We Are All Connected,” Wisdom in Times of Crisis (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2020), faculty presentation (April 20, 2020), YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FOeCyEzbjM;

5th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 9A

5th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 9A July 5, 2020 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Let us receive these comforting words of Jesus as the invitation that they are. I invite you to reflect on the question “What heavy burden do you need Jesus’s help carrying?” and open your hearts to the rest that he promises. Come to me, all you that are uncertain and afraid, unsure of what the future holds. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are bearing the heavy burden of chronic pain or illness. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that mourn, daily mindful of who is absent and of the future that will not happen. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are lonely, longing for touch from family and friends. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are tossed about by the chaos of the 24 hour news cycle, of the pontificating on social media; come to me all you who are skeptical, doubtful, distrustful; all you who are passionate, righteous, and seeking justice. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are broken-hearted. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are longing for just a few minutes of quiet, of stillness, of peace in the chaos of your lives, your homes, your families. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are struggling to stay connected through technology; all you who have adapted, developed, created, and learned. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that have lost your humor, your joy, your zest for life. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that feel like your hearts have become hardened, weighed down, no longer open. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you whose burden has not been named. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you that are just so weary. Come to me, and I will give you rest. I invite you to close your eyes, rest in the invitation of our Lord, as we sing Come, be with me by Keith Duke. i. As we move toward Eucharist, I invite you to hear in your hearts the invitation of our Lord: Come to me and feast at my table, where you will find all your hunger sated and all your thirst quenched. Come and taste my joy. Come to me, and I will give you rest. i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLy0qzcPXVo