4th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 6C sermon

4th Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 6C June 16, 2013 This week, Jack and I were driving down the road and talking about opposites. I would say, “What is the opposite of light,” and he’d say, “Dark.” “What is the opposite of happy?” He said, “Sad or Mad.” “What is the opposite of summer?” “Winter.” We were doing well and having fun until he started asking for things that did not have apparent opposites. The game ended rather abruptly when he completely stumped me by asking, “What is the opposite of 1?” (I’m an English major…I don’t do numbers!) Today’s gospel reading also seems to be a lesson in opposites. Jesus is invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee. When he takes his place at the table, a woman comes in, uninvited, and she begins to make quite a spectacle. She is crying, and washing his feet with her tears, and anointing his feet with precious oil from an alabaster jar. The story tells us that Simon, the Pharisee, was having his own inner monologue critiquing Jesus and the woman, and Jesus tells Simon a parable about two debtors and their response to having their debt forgiven. We see a contrast of opposites here. Sinner versus righteous. Forgiveness versus judgment. Hospitality versus unfriendliness. Graciousness versus rudeness. Gratitude versus entitlement. Another commentator writes that this story is really about forgiveness. “Forgiveness gives you back yourself. It is at the heart of the restoration of relationship. It is releasing any claim on someone else for any past injury or offense.” Gratitude is the woman’s response to Jesus’s forgiveness. “So this story is about forgiveness. And it’s about the gratitude that forgiveness creates. And its about the extravagant acts of love and devotion that gratitude prompts. But it’s also about something else; it’s about hardness of heart as opposed to love, about judgment instead of forgiveness and a sense of entitlement instead of gratitude.” “Those who have been forgiven little love very little. It may be not that they’ve been forgiven little but rather they just don’t notice it, don’t think they need it. Simon is a man who has no sense of needing to be forgiven and so judges Jesus and the woman out of hardness of heart. Because of this, he’s missing out from living a life out of love and gratitude” (from David Lose’s blog: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2601). Do you relate to one of these seemingly opposing characters more than the other? Are you like the woman, singularly aware of your sins and your need for forgiveness? Is it hard for you to accept that, no matter what you have done, you are forgiven? Or are you like Simon, seemingly unaware of any need to be forgiven? Or are you a strange mix of both, depending on the day? Theologian Paul Tillich wrote “There is no condition for forgiveness.” And some theologians argue that God offers us forgiveness before we even ask for it. But the awareness of it, our need for it, and our reception of God’s forgiveness are all important parts of our relationship with God and with others. Let’s look again at the connection between forgiveness and gratitude. Br. David Vryhof writes of gratitude in the April 21st meditation from the SSJE series “Brother, Give us a Word”. He writes, “Opening our heats brings gratitude into our lives. A closed heart sees no reason to be grateful; it is aware of its own unmet desires, its own sufferings and disappointments. But an open heart is full of gratitude for all that is. It sees goodness and beauty in ourselves, the world, and others; it senses hope and possibility.” Forgiveness is the key that unlocks and opens our hearts to experience gratitude. Where do you need to accept God’s forgiveness in your life that your heart might be opened? Where do you need to offer forgiveness? And what happens if we can’t accept God’s forgiveness or if we can’t even admit that we need it? I got rather hung up on the character of Simon the Pharisee this week. It’s so easy not to like him and his self-righteous attitude. But he is us. We are him. What happens to us when we can’t admit that we need God’s forgiveness or if we think our sins can’t be forgiven? Jesus confronts Simon not with judgment but with grace. And he asks Simon to open his heart to give and receive the grace of God that is being freely offered to him and to others. Here’s another meditation by Br. David Vryhof. This one is called Grace: “We are recipients of undeserved grace, of a love that overlooks the arrogance, pride, and self-centeredness of our hearts, of a kindness that forgives our haughtiness” (SSJE.org/ Jun 14, 2013). May God open our hearts this morning to the gift of God’s grace, that in accepting God’s forgiveness of ourselves and others, we may live lives of gratitude in which we see goodness and beauty in ourselves, the world, and others; and that we may be open to hope and possibility for ourselves and for all of God’s creation.

3rd Sunday after Pentecost--Proper 5C (8:00 am service homily)

3rd Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 5C June 9, 2013; 8:00am “[Elijah] called to [the widow] and said, ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ But she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug. I am not gathering a couple of sticks so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” A severe draught hangs over the land. The widow and her son are at the end of their resources—only a handful of meal at the bottom of the jar and the remaining dregs of oil in the bottle. They are literally at the bottom of the barrel. And this wild and wooly prophet wanders up from out of the wilderness and demands that they feed him. He (and God) seem to be asking the unreasonable, the unthinkable from them. They barely have anything left, and he asks them to share the last of it with a stranger. But they do it, and God promises them that the jar of meal and the jug of oil will not run out, and it doesn’t. And when the widow’s son takes ill and dies, Elijah embodies God’s compassion and works with God to raise the child from the dead. They were all at the bottom of the barrel…One of the lessons from Vacation Bible School this week that we taught the kids was “Trusting God helps us stand strong.” That’s a great lesson, easy to preach and to say in our brightly decorated Sunday school classroom, where it’s hard to imagine anything bad ever happening. But it’s not as easy to practice when it seems too much is asked of us, when it seems we have too little left, that we are all at the bottom of the barrel. I read a story this week about how a man named Rufus Watson loved this story of Elijah and the widow and her son. Rufus lived to be 99 years old, was the son of former slaves. He served his country in the military, pitched in the Negro professional leagues, made some money investing in real estate. He witnessed lynchings and spent a lifetime wondering how people could commit such atrocities and still go to church and call themselves Christian. He found comfort in the story of Elijah and the widow. He said if his life wasn’t proof enough, this story showed that God meets people at the bottom of the barrel. He said, “That’s where God meets us…at the bottom of the barrel. God meets us when we’ve gone so low that all we can do is look up.”i. i. From the Homiletical Perspective by H. James Hopkins. Feasting on the Word Volume 3 Year C. Ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor . Westminster John Knox: 2010, p103.

2nd Sunday after Pentecost-Year C

2nd Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 4C June 2, 2013 It is a dark and terrifying time in Israel. Yahweh has made clear that he is angry with the people, especially with the rule of King Ahab, who is described as more evil than all his predecessors, and Queen Jezebel, who has introduced the worship of Baal, the Canaanite agricultural god into Israel. Yahweh is so angry, that Yahweh has imposed a horrible drought upon all the land. So the King has enlisted the help of 450 prophets of Baal, who is known to be the giver of the rain in Canaanite culture. And Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, stands alone before them to face off in an epic showdown. But before the show starts, Elijah indicates what is really at stake here. It’s not about the rain or the drought. He faces all the gathered people and says to them, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” What follows is a great deal of drama, with the prophets of Baal trying desperately to invoke a fiery response from their god and a great deal of taunting from Elijah. Finally, Elijah prays to Yahweh, again, articulating exactly what is at stake here: “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” I was struck by one sentence written by a commentator about this story and the insight it provides into the story. She writes, “Beneath the surface of this narrative throbs the terrible fear of being abandoned by God.”i When the going has gotten tough in Israel, the people fear that they have been abandoned by God, and so they hedge their bets, divide their loyalty, just in case. And that is the problem. Elijah reminds them that they must choose this day whose people they will be, Yahweh’s or Baal’s, and he and Yahweh together make a compelling case to prove that Yahweh has not abandoned them. It is a dark and terrifying time in the life of us modern day believers as well. Underneath the surface of our stories is the deep and terrible fear that we have been abandoned by God. Bad things continue to happen. Disappointments from all through the years pile up until they threaten to overwhelm us. We cry out to God for help, for healing, for some refreshment in the dry, drought-filled, and parched places of our lives. We pray to God whose “never failing providence sets in order things both in heaven and earth” but we might not really believe this anymore. And so we hedge our bets; we seek out other ‘gods’ that make us feel safe and secure and better,--we worship other idols of money, status, security, power, tradition; we make up more and more rules for our religion so we can be the ones who are “in”, assured of God’s love and presence, as opposed to those who are “out.” We choose to divide our hearts between God and other things because, deep down, we live with the terrible fear that God has abandoned us. And just like the people of Israel, it is our very hearts that are at stake here. Part of the reason why we fear that God has abandoned us is because we cannot believe that we are truly worthy of God’s love. In her book The Gifts of Imperfection, sociologist Brene’ Brown writes, “Love and belonging are essential to the human experience. As I conducted my interviews, I realized that only one thing separated the men and women who felt a deep sense of love and belonging from the people who seem to be struggling for it. That one thing is the belief in their worthiness. It’s as simple and complicated as this: If we want to fully experience love and belonging, we must believe that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness-the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving…. Worthiness doesn’t have prerequisites. So many of us have knowingly created/unknowingly allowed/been handed down a long list of worthiness prerequisites: I’ll be worthy when I lose 20 pounds. I’ll be worthy if I can get pregnant. I’ll be worthy if I get/stay sober. I’ll be worthy if everyone thinks I’m a good parent. I’ll be worthy when I can make a living selling my art work. I’ll be worthy if I can hold my marriage together. I’ll be worthy when I make partner. I’ll be worthy when my parents finally approve. I’ll be worthy if he calls back and asks me out. I’ll be worthy when I can do it all and look like I’m not even trying. Here’s what is truly at the heart of wholeheartedness: Worthy now. Not if. Not when. We are worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.”ii In the reading from Galatians today, Paul reminds his readers and us, that the gospel of Jesus Christ proves to us, once and for all, that God has not and will not abandon us. It proves that we (and our divided hearts) are the only impediment between us and God’s love. Another commentator writes that for Paul, “the gospel is the unbearably good news that divine love anticipates us, surrounds us, precedes us; anything that serves as an obstacle to our awareness of this love is ‘accursed.’ The nature of the Divine is to be love, and the great conversion of faith is to let this love live in us. For Paul, the gospel makes every religious, civil, and social authority secondary to confidence in the intimate love of God manifest in Christ.”iii One of the popular reposts among my clergy friends this week on Facebook is a blog entry titled 15 Things Jesus Didn’t Say. They are all pretty clever and insightful parodies on popular Bible passages and the ways that we have distorted Jesus’s teachings in our religion and in our lives. One that is particularly pertinent to today is this one that Jesus didn’t say: “For God so loved the world… you know like theoretically… as in, God loves the big ‘W’-world. But when it come to you specifically, there are quite a few things that would need to change for God to actually and specifically love… or even like… YOU.”iv You are loved by God, no matter what, and God is with you always in and through the intimate love of God as manifest in Christ. The absence and the loneliness that we experience is from our own divided hearts. In our prayers and our breaking of bread together this day, let us pray: Answer us, O Lord, answer us, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned our hearts back. i. Sharp, Carolyn L. Feasting on the Word Year C Vol 3. Theological Perspective. Westminster John Knox:2010, p78 ii.Brown, Brene’. The Gift of Imperfection. As quoted in BibleWorkbench Issue 20.4. The Education Center. p22. iii.Farley, Wendy. Feasting on the Word Year C Vol. 3. Theological Perspective. Westminster John Knox: 2013, p.88. iv.Jim Palmer. http://jimpalmerblog.com/2012/12/14/15-things-jesus-didnt-say/

The Day of Pentecost-Year C

Pentecost Year C May 19, 2013 I’ve had two different conversations with two different priests this very week, and both began by posing almost the identical question to me: “Do you think that the Episcopal Church is still relevant?” Our numbers in the national church are steadily declining. We are closing more congregations that we are opening. We used to be a voice that people listened to, and now, not so much. Do you think the Episcopal Church is still relevant? What an interesting question to ponder on this major feast day in the life of the church, the Feast Day of Pentecost which is originally a Jewish festival or holiday when the Jews who lived outside of Jerusalem would come home. For us, Pentecost is the conclusion of our Easter season, the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the movement that became the church. It is also a day when it is especially appropriate to baptize people, and when we don’t have a baptism (like today) then we renew our baptismal covenant in order to remember The vestry and I are reading a book together called I will bless you and you will be a blessing, and in the introduction, the authors are writing about covenant. They write, “Baptism binds us to God by binding us to one another. Salvation is inherently social and communal. This bond, furthermore, does not depend on our agreement with one another but instead relies on what God has done and is doing among us. In fact, our unity in God gives us room to disagree safely, ideally without threat of breaking our unity, which is God’s own gift. This principle is the very foundation of all covenants, beginning with the covenant between God and God’s people, exemplified in baptism, reflected in ordained ministry, lived in vowed religious life and marriage, and encompassing the life of the Church. Our common call as God’s people is not to find unanimity in all matters of faith and morals, but to go out into all nations as witnesses to the good news of God in Christ.” (Location 307 of 2902 Kindle version) So maybe the question isn’t so much, “Is the church still relevant?” But rather how are we, as the Church, called to relevant? How are we called to live more fully into the covenant that God has already made with us? How are we called to “go out into all nations as witnesses to the good news of God in Christ?” How is the Holy Spirit already working in our lives to inspire us to witness to the good news of God in Christ? I want to invite you to take a moment to think about that question in the light of your own particular situation. Is the church relevant in your life outside these walls? Does your following of Jesus Christ make any difference in how you live your life when you are not here? How are you as the Church called to help make the good news of God in Christ relevant to the people whom you encounter in your life? Here are two other seeds that have been planted in my soul this week, that I want to share with you. The first is the short meditation from SSJE-- Brother, Give Us a Word--titled Identity. Brother David Vryhof writes, “Whether you are a success in the world’s eyes or a failure, you belong to God. Whether you achieve all you hope for in life or few of your dreams come true, you belong to God. Whether you were born into a happy home or a troubled one, whether you’ve had a comfortable life or you’re struggled all the way, whether you’ve been much loved or largely ignored, you belong to GOD.” This is the truth of the body of Christ into which we are all baptized, and it is through our proclamation of this truth to those in the world which can make the Church relevant. Second, I’ve been haunted by a simple African hymn in preparation for this feast day of Pentecost that goes—“If you believe and I believe and we together pray/ the Holy Spirit must come down and set God’s people free/And set God’s people free/And set God’s people free/The Holy Spirit must come down and set God’s people free.” Last week, I asked you what is holding you captive in your life? Today, it is appropriate to ask you, in light of the gift of the Holy Spirit, what are the places in your life where you are being set free? (For that is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work there.) And how might you be called to share that good news with others? How is the Holy Spirit already at work to set us free as a people and as individuals? How are we being set free to be the Church who is relevant to the world through the spreading of the good news of God in Christ? Then let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.

7th Sunday of Easter Year C

7th Sunday of Easter—Year C May 12, 2013 Today is a strange Sunday in the life of the church. And, no, I’m not talking about Mother’s Day…! I’m talking about the 7th Sunday of Easter, when all our alleluias have grown maybe a little shabby or a little tired, and even more importantly, the Sunday just after the major feast day of the Ascension, the day we celebrate Jesus’s leave-taking of us, and his instructions to his disciples to stay together and to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Comfortor, who we will see coming next Sunday at Pentecost. So it’s kind of strange….Jesus has left, but not really. The Holy Spirit isn’t here yet, but actually she is. And our readings for this day in Year C, don’t give any acknowledgement that the Ascension has already happened for us. Strange, right? It’s almost as if, in the midst of absence, and loss, in the midst of waiting and not really knowing what to do, our tradition reminds us first that we still are called to celebrate the resurrection and it reminds us second that life goes on. So it’s no surprise that on this Sunday after the Ascension and the Sunday before Pentecost, our readings today show us business as usual, life going on. Jesus continues, in what is known as John’s farewell discourse, to say goodbye to his disciples. And in today’s reading, he offers prayers to God on their and our behalf. So even though Jesus is not with us, he’s praying for us. The words from the reading from Revelation call to us from across the ages, as words of hope, promise, and invitation: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift….” And then there’s that strange story from the Acts of the Apostles, where Paul and Silas are in Macedonia, having been summoned there by a man in a vision. And they are going around, minding their own business, when a slave girl, with a spirit of divination, starts following them and crying out “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” The story tells us that after days of this, Paul gets irritated and casts out the spirit, which gets him into trouble with her owners, who had made quite a profit off this woman. So Paul and Silas are accused of disturbing the peace and advocating customs that are not lawful for Romans to adopt, and they get flogged and thrown into prison. While they are in prison, they pray and sing hymns of praise to God, and suddenly there is an earthquake which shakes the foundations of the jail, and all the prisoners are freed. The jailer comes running and prepares to take his own life because he believes all of his captives has escaped, but Paul stops him. And the jailer asks Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And so the jailer takes them in, and cares for them; he and his household are baptized, and they all celebrate together. In this strange story, during this strange in-between time, there are multiple images of slavery or captivity and freedom. The slave girl is captive, but then she is suddenly free of her spirit of divination when Paul acts in a moment of irritation. Paul and Silas are said to be slaves of the Most High God, and they are physically captive in prison. The other prisoners who are in jail with Paul and Silas are captive, and they are also suddenly free after the earthquake. The jailer is captive by his fear of his own failure and what will happen to him, but then he is freed when Paul intervenes and invites him to become a follower of Jesus. There are many different ways to be captive and to be free in this story. There are also many ways for us to be captive and to be freed in our lives. And so I ask you today, what is holding you captive? I want to share with you a vignette about the things that hold us captive by the writer Federich Buechner’s (pronounced Beekner) (from Whistling in the Dark ). HELP: As they're used psychologically, words ike repression, denial, sublimation, defense, all refer to one form or another of the way human beings erect walls to hide behind both from each other and from themselves. You repress the memory that is too painful to deal with, say. You deny your weight problem. You sublimate some of your sexual energy by channeling it into other forms of activity more socially acceptable. You conceal your sense of inadequacy behind a defensive bravado. And so on and so forth. The inner state you end up with is a castle-like affair of keep, inner wall, outer wall, moat, which you erect originally to be a fortress to keep the enemy out but which turns into a prison where you become the jailer and thus your own enemy. It is a wretched and lonely place. You can't be what you want to be there or do what you want to do. People can't see through all that masonry to who you truly are, and half the time you're not sure you can see who you truly are yourself, you've been walled up so long. Fortunately there are two words that offer a way out, and they're simply these: Help me. It's not always easy to say them--you have your pride after all, and you're not sure there's anybody you trust enough to say them to--but they're always worth saying. To another human being--a friend, a stranger? To God? Maybe it comes to the same thing. Help me. They open a door through the walls, that's all. At least hope is possible again. At least you're no longer alone. What is holding you captive? Is it a situation in your life? Is it someone else’s unhappiness or bad decisions? Is it your work or lack thereof? Is it an addiction? Is it your own infirmity or illness? Are you being held captive by your busy-ness? Is it money? Is it your pride? Is it your pessimism, that things just can’t be any better? Is it laziness? Is it regret or the past? Is it frustrated hope or expectations? Is it failed relationships? What is holding you captive? And what would it take for you to ask for help? What would it take for you to say to God or someone else—Help Me!—or to say along with the jailer, “What must I do to be saved?” And to hear the invitation from across the ages, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift….”

Easter 6C

Easter 6C May 5, 2013 My mother came to stay with us this week. She was fleeing her home where workmen were doing some sanding and other interior work, and so she spent several nights with us. And it was wonderful! She cooked breakfast and supper for us almost every day; she ran errands, went grocery shopping, helped with dishes and laundry, took care of the children (even waking up with them before 6:00). Of course, there is always at least a small amount of upheaval when someone comes and stays in your home. We make the necessary preparations for their arrival—changing sheets, cleaning bathrooms, etc. Sometimes our plans need to change or at least become more flexible to accommodate another. Our relationship with God is like this. In the gospel reading for today, Jesus tells his disciples, in what is known as John’s farewell discourse, “‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let you hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid…” Many years ago, when I met with Bishop Gray and David Johnson to hear the news that they were going to send me to seminary to begin training to be a priest, I was so excited, that I almost didn’t hear the last part of what David Johnson had to tell me, but I have remembered his words frequently over the years and reflected on the wisdom of them. He offered me a word of caution, those many years ago, about the challenges of discipleship and about what a life of priestly ministry might entail, and he quoted to me one of his favorite hymns, hymn 661 in our hymnal whose words were written by a Mississippian. The words are, They cast their nets in Galilee just off the hills of brown;/ such happy, simple fisherfolk, before the Lord came down. Contented, peaceful fishermen, before they ever knew/ the peace of God that filled their hearts brimful, and broke them too. Young John who trimmed the flapping sail, homeless in Patmos died/ Peter, who hauled the teeming net, head-down was crucified. The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod/ Yet let us pray for but one thing -- the marvelous peace of God.i The peace of God that Jesus is offering isn’t an end to conflict or hardship. Rather the peace of God that Jesus is offering is the abiding presence of God in our lives. It is the gift of understanding that our lives are not our own but that we can offer them to God for the greater purpose of the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. We see this Peace of God at work in the story from Acts for today. Luke tells us that Paul has a vision during the night of a man from Macedonia pleading with Paul to come to Macedodnia to help them. So Paul changes his plans, travels to Macedonia and takes up residence in Phillipi. On the Sabbath, he and his companions look around for a place of prayer, and they head outside the gate by the river, where they find a group of women gathered. And Paul sits down (in the usual method of rabbinic teaching) and begins to talk to the women (about Jesus). From the beginning of this story, Paul opens himself up to accommodate God’s call to unexpected places and to unexpected people. As a result, God speaks through Paul to Lydia, one of the women who are gathered at the river. Lydia is already a worshipper of God, and she is unusual because she is said to be a dealer in purple cloth, which means she has access to the aristocracy who were the only ones who could afford to wear purple cloth; and she is also unusual because she is the head of her own household, which was most unusual for a woman of that time. Luke tells us that God “opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” And she and her whole household were baptized, and she urged Paul and his companions to come stay at her home, and so her home became the headquarters of the missionary movement in Phillippi and Macedonia. In this story we see similar actions mirrored in Paul and Lydia’s lives. Each one is open to God and God’s call in their lives. This means that their own vision for how their life is to be used by God is easily set aside when God shows them a different way, a different path. Also, as they open their hearts to God, then their hearts become opened to others, and to the new possibilities that come with opening their hearts to others. It is much like what we do when we invite people into our homes. We open ourselves to change of rhythm, routine, plans, and vision, and we gain the reward of new possibilities, new encounters, and the grace that they bring with their presence. We have seen this at work of late within our own parish as well. In opening ourselves to God, we can reach out to others in gratitude and hospitality primarily in thanksgiving for all the good things that God has offered us. And in opening ourselves to God and to others we are changed in ways that we would never have dreamed. How are you being called to open your heart to the indwelling of God? How is the life that you are living a response to God and a gift of gratitude for God’s generosity? If it’s not, then what is holding you back? What controls or fears might you need to relinquish in order to live more fully in the peace of God? And Jesus answered, “‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let you hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid…” The peace of God, it is no peace, but strife closed in the sod/ Yet let us pray for but one thing -- the marvelous peace of God.i i.Words: William Alexander Percy (1885-1942), alt. Music: Georgetown, David McKinley Williams (1887-1978) Words: Copyright by Edward B. Marks Music Corporation. Used by permission by The Hymnal 1982. Used without permission here.

Easter 4C sermon

Easter 4C April 21, 2013 I recently returned from being away at an 8 day conference about wellness. This was a conference that was put on and funded by the Church Pension Fund, and we spent 8 whole days talking and learning about how to be well as clergy people. I have come home from this wonderful retreat with a renewed sense of purpose in ministry as well as with a commitment and a plan for how to be a healthy person who seeks wholeness in life and in ministry. In this work that I did, I also thought a great deal about this parish, about what health and wholeness looks like for us as a people. You know that I continue to return to the image and the identity for us that we are a resurrection community; so you can imagine my delight when I discovered the Acts reading for us this morning. Now it is tempting to read this story and see Peter at its center and to lift up a time when Peter actually gets to be the hero who rides in to save the day. But then I think we miss the richness that this story has to offer us. 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 resurrection community, 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 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, and so when she becomes ill and dies, the disciples send for Peter, whom they know to be in a near-by city. 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. So 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 bombing at the Boston Marathon and subsequent events in Boston and the surrounding areas is 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 resurrection community, 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 resurrection community 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. I am going to begin working with folk within this church to discuss how we as a church promote health, wholeness, and healing as a part of our mission as a resurrection community. In the meantime, there are some things that you can do to help us grow in our mission as a resurrection community. First, ask yourself if you are participating in the full reciprocity of what it means to be a parish. Are you giving more than you are receiving? Are you receiving more than you are giving? Do you feel that you are not being fed? 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.