St. James…We’ve got a lot of stuff!
I know. I saw it boxed up, loaded, moved and stored. It was hard to see
All those memories, hopes and dreams. Some of them mine. Lots of them yours. Even more from the generations who went before us at St. James.
‘Odd how we didn’t get to go through everything: Throw out. Give away. Organize. Pack. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to or try to. In fact a wonderful group of parishioners worked at it for two days, but then they weren’t allowed to finish. ‘Building Inspector thought it was unsafe.
My personal M.O. when I move is to go through everything thoroughly: Polish, repair, and organize. Then I take only what I really want and need. So this “leaving before the bread had time to rise”, so to speak, was really weird for that compulsive part of me. I keep thinking about how someday someone may unpack an office trash can full of dirty Kleenex and phone messages from July 2008.
It was overwhelming to be there. ‘So overwhelming that the Altar Guild folks, who had permission to be there and to pack up the Sacristy, decided it was probably better just to let the movers do it. I think it was better because it was all just so hard.
Fortunately the crew of six professionals who did our move were really sensitive to how emotional and overwhelming it was for us. If movers can be “pastoral”, I’d say the folks from Billy’s Trucking of Pittsfield were “pastoral”. I will always remember their kindness. I’m still exhausted from this, profoundly exhausted.
But I think today’s passage from Jeremiah has a word of real HOPE for us. An old Credence Clearwater Revival song tells us, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog”, but he was also one of God’s Prophets! ‘One of those extraordinary people God calls to be God’s mouthpiece, to say the things God’s people need to hear, whether they are ready to hear it or not!
In the early part of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, he speaks words of JUDGMENT and WARNING to God’s people. He said the people had gotten “too far from the basics” and become too obsessed with ritual and temple worship. In those early days, Jeremiah’s word to the people was to return to the Law of Moses and God’s Covenant. For our day the prophecy might be something like, “Get back to the Gospel and loving God and neighbor. “ Jeremiah’s message early on was to get back to the basics of the faith.
Today’s story from Jeremiah, however, is from the latter part of his ministry. It happens after years of strife. While God’s people were off being overly precious about their temple rituals, they became an oppressed vassal of Assyria. Then after Jeremiah had a little surge of hope that the people might return to basics, the Babylonians took over. They destroyed the beloved city Jerusalem. They desecrated and destroyed the sacred temple. They sent many of God’s people into exile in Babylon. God’s people lost most of what they knew, loved, and cherished. Their identity had been wrapped up in their city and in their temple.
During that horrible time, instead of seeking the relative safety of exile, the prophet Jeremiah chooses to stay back in Jerusalem to try to help a remnant of God’s people rebuild their lives. It was nearly a hopeless situation, and God’s people had little chance of surviving the Babylonians—either in Jerusalem or in exile.
So it’s against these dreadful conditions, against all odds, that we come to today’s story. Jeremiah himself is pretty much under “house arrest” in Jerusalem when the “word of the Lord” comes to him. In the middle of the ruins of his city, God sends a message to Jeremiah. Although life will never be like it was before, God tells Jeremiah to buy a parcel of land…in the middle of a war zone! So, much of today’s story is really the details of a real estate deal!
Now, I doubt the lectionary writers actually had our situation in mind, but today your Vestry and St. James Place are all too familiar with such transactions. And we’re learning the importance of making sure all the “T”s are crossed and the “I”s are dotted! Like Jeremiah, we’ve got to get it right to insure the future. God’s message to Jeremiah to buy the land is indeed a message of HOPE.
Hope that somehow, someday (and although everything would be different), the people of God would be able to live on and enjoy their own land again. It reminds me of that phrase in our BCP Burial Office, “Life is changed, not ended.” Their lives were changed, not ended. Our lives are changed, not ended.
This makes me think of how survivors of natural disasters and war must feel. After seeing their lives as they knew them totally destroyed, could they ever possibly have their own home again? It must seem nearly impossible to hope. And when God told Jeremiah to buy the land in Jerusalem, it must have seemed like a totally crazy thing to do…probably even a bullfrog wouldn’t do that! But Jeremiah does it because God tells him to. And in doing it, he shows real HOPE that life under God’s Holy Laws—although changed—might someday go on…even in Jerusalem.
So at this time of such great crisis in which much of what Jeremiah had warned about had come to pass…at this critical time, Jeremiah has gone from being a Prophet of DOOM to being a Prophet of HOPE. His buying the land is a sign of hope, an investment in an unknown future that God promises the people with these words, “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”
As we look at our world, at destructive situations far away and near, and as we look at ourselves at St. James, I wonder if we can hear from Jeremiah a word of grace, courage, and hope for our changed lives. What is the “land we can buy” for our children and our children’s children? What are the things we can do as acts of faith in the future? Certainly our support of Jake in Honduras, of the Heifer Project, of ERD’s rebuilding in areas struck by hurricanes and war, of our mission at Gideon’s Garden—especially with the children from WIC and BRIDGE, and even our support of the parish budget in uncertain times…Certainly all these are signs of HOPE. It’s the Hope God calls us to even when we feel we have little reason to hope and even when the situation is so overwhelming we can’t envision a way out.
At these times of darkness—At exactly these times—God makes lavish promises… "Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” Life is changed, not ended. Given God’s promises, we are called to be faithful and to live in Hope.
Let us pray.
God, give us Hope for our futures that we might live with Joy each day of our lives. Amen.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Party Time: Honduras Style from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras
It is hot. Really hot. Every shady spot along the street is crammed with lawn chairs, occupied by mothers fanning squirming toddlers and grandparents waving flags. Vendors walk the winding paths, hawking their offerings of cold drinks and patriotic paraphernalia Teenagers roam in packs with no real destination in mind, eying their peers of the opposite gender. The parade moves haltingly down the main street in the glaring sun, public officials flanked by military personnel. The high school band follows in full uniform, pounding drums, blasting “I Will Survive” while staff members towel beads of sweat off their brows. Is it the Fourth of July in September? No way. Happy Honduran Independence Day (and every other Central American country)!
While I am often surprised and puzzled by the plethora of holidays Honduran government sanctions, I must give them some appreciation for bunching them all together. Within a week, we celebrated the Day of the Child, the Honduran Independence Day, and Day of the Teacher. Translation: about a week and a half of special programming, parties and vacation. Here we go!
The festivities began last Thursday with the Señorita Independencia contest as part of Month of the Patria, sponsored by the city of La Ceiba. A hybrid of a geography bee and a beauty pageant, almost every school in the city had a senior class representative in the competition, 20 participants total. Dressed in flowing, sequenced gowns adorned in jungle motifs, the ladies gave speeches and answered trivia questions pertaining to Honduras’ past and the students future aspirations for themselves, their school, and their country. They also struck their favorite poses, a la Project Runway for the cheering crowd. Performances of pop hits, ethnic Garifuna drumming, and Christian rock music filled in between events.
It was a well run event by all accounts. The only issue was the timing. The entire secondary school attended the event to support our contestant (it was required). So did every other school, which meant that there were easily 700 people packed into a gym with no air conditioning or fans at the hottest time of the day. The snack shop, which made an absolute killing on the day, ran out of cold drinks in the first half hour. Needless to say, I spent most of the day playing bounty hunter, trying to find the students who decided they had had enough of the spectacle and took off. Probably would have been a better evening event instead of losing the entire school day, but why would the government want us to have school?
Day of the Child, celebrated on Friday, was another resounding success at Holy Trinity. Instead of just throwing a party for themselves, the students planned a party and brought it to a less fortunate community. The 10th grade did such a great job last year that we expanded the program to the entire secondary school. The 7th, 8th, and 9th graders returned to the squatter community along the old Standard Fruit rail line known as La Linea. I joined the 10th and 11th grade to the Clinica, which is a Trinity sponsored health center that provides medical treatment for local families at a reduced cost. The majority of their patrons are poor teen mothers with young children, and those were the kids who came.
The students were on the ball serving a snack and organizing activities as soon as the kids arrived. Everyone then gathered outside for the inviolable smashing of the piñata. We found some shady trees and I climbed up to set the string. This particular piñata was super reinforced to the point where even after every kid beat on it with all their might, it had minimal damage. Hoping to avoid mixing young children, free candy and a violently unpredictable broom handle, I elected to climb the tree again with the piñata and do the much safer “rain of candy”. The added benefit was I could control the flow and distribution so that the less aggressive children got a good haul of sweets. My climbing of the tree produced plenty of laughs and pictures and resulted in a minor splitting of my pants. All part of the job.
The party continued for another couple hours and included musical chairs, steal the bacon, cake and coca cola and a dance-off where I was properly “served” by a precocious ten year old with more dance skills in his right pinky than I have in my entire body. It was hilarious. I was happy to see the students taking initiative and connecting with the children at the Clinica, dancing with them and encouraging participation in the games. We returned to school where the students busted open their own piñata then took off for the weekend, a job well done.
Monday was another party day, this time celebrating the Independence Day (don’t we have vacation for that?). Every class put on a skit for the school that celebrated Honduras’ folk and literary heritage, which I found educational once somebody explained to me what the heck was going on. I never get tired of watching the elementary children dress up in cowboy hats and long skirts and dance with each other. They are too cute. Thanks to the 10th grade, I learned that Honduras has its own version of the headless horseman tale, which is especially entertaining when the “horse” is covered in globs of ketchup (blood?) and the horseman’s head is a pineapple. I also learned the folk tale of the witch, “La Sucia”, a woman jilted by her lover who haunts the riverbanks in her wedding dress. One of my 8th grade boys played a very convincing witch to the delight of the primary students. Following the assembly, the students had a traditional meal of boiled yucca and fried pork skins with ketchup (not in my top ten). As for class, neither the students nor the faculty seemed particularly interested so I folded my tent and enjoyed the company, while discretely avoiding the food.
Tuesday classes were cancelled to celebrate the Day of the Teacher (Ironic? I agree). The administration sponsored transportation and food for an all day barbeque at a local park for the staff. It was a great opportunity for everybody to mingle and relax in a beautiful environment, which had a stream full of fish flowing through the middle and was a short walk from the ocean. There were tons of trees heavy with fruits I had never seen before that many of the teachers picked by the bag to take home. The grilled chicken and pork were accompanied by tortillas, refried beans, salsa and lots of soda. A true feast. Most of us retreated to the river and the beach to avoid the burrowing flies that were chasing everyone from the shade. From the beach, we watched an afternoon storm system crash into La Ceiba, while we remained completely dry. My favorite highlight of the afternoon was throwing bits of fruit rinds into the river and watching the fish ferociously swarm and fight over them. It was like vegetarian piranhas feeding. A great trip to bring the staff together.
September 15th, the actual day of Central American Independence, was the first day of the five day vacation. Most schools participated by marching down the street in their school uniforms, walking in a sort of shuffle step and performing coordinated salutes whenever the parade got backed up (Trinity got a reprieve this year but will be on the march next year). The public high school band played an eight song repertoire without music in sweltering heat and looked like they were having fun. I was so impressed that I followed it all the way to the downtown. I checked in at Holy Trinity on my way home, and enjoyed one more round of Honduran barbeque to support their fund raiser.
After a relaxing week, I am excited to get back to school on Monday and begin the second half of the first term. While I have enjoyed the break, it will be nice to not have to worry about which holiday we are celebrating and how many of my classes will be disrupted. Hopefully, my students will return to class refreshed and motivated and not quite so dramatic when I assign them homework.
It is encouraging to see so much pride in a country that has many daunting challenges to confront. I have loved seeing the students participating in the celebration but hope they can take that enthusiasm and harness it productively as they pursue their education. I am optimistic that the students of Honduras will carry their country toward a better economic and political future. I will keep working to help them in every way I can.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
While I am often surprised and puzzled by the plethora of holidays Honduran government sanctions, I must give them some appreciation for bunching them all together. Within a week, we celebrated the Day of the Child, the Honduran Independence Day, and Day of the Teacher. Translation: about a week and a half of special programming, parties and vacation. Here we go!
The festivities began last Thursday with the Señorita Independencia contest as part of Month of the Patria, sponsored by the city of La Ceiba. A hybrid of a geography bee and a beauty pageant, almost every school in the city had a senior class representative in the competition, 20 participants total. Dressed in flowing, sequenced gowns adorned in jungle motifs, the ladies gave speeches and answered trivia questions pertaining to Honduras’ past and the students future aspirations for themselves, their school, and their country. They also struck their favorite poses, a la Project Runway for the cheering crowd. Performances of pop hits, ethnic Garifuna drumming, and Christian rock music filled in between events.
It was a well run event by all accounts. The only issue was the timing. The entire secondary school attended the event to support our contestant (it was required). So did every other school, which meant that there were easily 700 people packed into a gym with no air conditioning or fans at the hottest time of the day. The snack shop, which made an absolute killing on the day, ran out of cold drinks in the first half hour. Needless to say, I spent most of the day playing bounty hunter, trying to find the students who decided they had had enough of the spectacle and took off. Probably would have been a better evening event instead of losing the entire school day, but why would the government want us to have school?
Day of the Child, celebrated on Friday, was another resounding success at Holy Trinity. Instead of just throwing a party for themselves, the students planned a party and brought it to a less fortunate community. The 10th grade did such a great job last year that we expanded the program to the entire secondary school. The 7th, 8th, and 9th graders returned to the squatter community along the old Standard Fruit rail line known as La Linea. I joined the 10th and 11th grade to the Clinica, which is a Trinity sponsored health center that provides medical treatment for local families at a reduced cost. The majority of their patrons are poor teen mothers with young children, and those were the kids who came.
The students were on the ball serving a snack and organizing activities as soon as the kids arrived. Everyone then gathered outside for the inviolable smashing of the piñata. We found some shady trees and I climbed up to set the string. This particular piñata was super reinforced to the point where even after every kid beat on it with all their might, it had minimal damage. Hoping to avoid mixing young children, free candy and a violently unpredictable broom handle, I elected to climb the tree again with the piñata and do the much safer “rain of candy”. The added benefit was I could control the flow and distribution so that the less aggressive children got a good haul of sweets. My climbing of the tree produced plenty of laughs and pictures and resulted in a minor splitting of my pants. All part of the job.
The party continued for another couple hours and included musical chairs, steal the bacon, cake and coca cola and a dance-off where I was properly “served” by a precocious ten year old with more dance skills in his right pinky than I have in my entire body. It was hilarious. I was happy to see the students taking initiative and connecting with the children at the Clinica, dancing with them and encouraging participation in the games. We returned to school where the students busted open their own piñata then took off for the weekend, a job well done.
Monday was another party day, this time celebrating the Independence Day (don’t we have vacation for that?). Every class put on a skit for the school that celebrated Honduras’ folk and literary heritage, which I found educational once somebody explained to me what the heck was going on. I never get tired of watching the elementary children dress up in cowboy hats and long skirts and dance with each other. They are too cute. Thanks to the 10th grade, I learned that Honduras has its own version of the headless horseman tale, which is especially entertaining when the “horse” is covered in globs of ketchup (blood?) and the horseman’s head is a pineapple. I also learned the folk tale of the witch, “La Sucia”, a woman jilted by her lover who haunts the riverbanks in her wedding dress. One of my 8th grade boys played a very convincing witch to the delight of the primary students. Following the assembly, the students had a traditional meal of boiled yucca and fried pork skins with ketchup (not in my top ten). As for class, neither the students nor the faculty seemed particularly interested so I folded my tent and enjoyed the company, while discretely avoiding the food.
Tuesday classes were cancelled to celebrate the Day of the Teacher (Ironic? I agree). The administration sponsored transportation and food for an all day barbeque at a local park for the staff. It was a great opportunity for everybody to mingle and relax in a beautiful environment, which had a stream full of fish flowing through the middle and was a short walk from the ocean. There were tons of trees heavy with fruits I had never seen before that many of the teachers picked by the bag to take home. The grilled chicken and pork were accompanied by tortillas, refried beans, salsa and lots of soda. A true feast. Most of us retreated to the river and the beach to avoid the burrowing flies that were chasing everyone from the shade. From the beach, we watched an afternoon storm system crash into La Ceiba, while we remained completely dry. My favorite highlight of the afternoon was throwing bits of fruit rinds into the river and watching the fish ferociously swarm and fight over them. It was like vegetarian piranhas feeding. A great trip to bring the staff together.
September 15th, the actual day of Central American Independence, was the first day of the five day vacation. Most schools participated by marching down the street in their school uniforms, walking in a sort of shuffle step and performing coordinated salutes whenever the parade got backed up (Trinity got a reprieve this year but will be on the march next year). The public high school band played an eight song repertoire without music in sweltering heat and looked like they were having fun. I was so impressed that I followed it all the way to the downtown. I checked in at Holy Trinity on my way home, and enjoyed one more round of Honduran barbeque to support their fund raiser.
After a relaxing week, I am excited to get back to school on Monday and begin the second half of the first term. While I have enjoyed the break, it will be nice to not have to worry about which holiday we are celebrating and how many of my classes will be disrupted. Hopefully, my students will return to class refreshed and motivated and not quite so dramatic when I assign them homework.
It is encouraging to see so much pride in a country that has many daunting challenges to confront. I have loved seeing the students participating in the celebration but hope they can take that enthusiasm and harness it productively as they pursue their education. I am optimistic that the students of Honduras will carry their country toward a better economic and political future. I will keep working to help them in every way I can.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Cats, Chaos, and Continuation: My First Week Back - from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras
As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I heard a low growling coming through the air conditioning unit. At first, I thought it might be the motor slowing down because the power was fluctuating. The noise grew steadily louder. Suddenly, there was a hiss, a screech and a thump as the cats from next door rolled off the roof, hit the sidewalk below, and began brawling with each other. Unable to sleep through the fracas, I opened the back door to chase them away, only to set off the outdoor motion detector alarm, waking up everyone else in the house. The cats moved their battle elsewhere, the alarm eventually shut off, and normalcy was restored.
Preparing for my second year in Honduras, I expected a similar experience to last year; settling in quickly with few surprises. So far that has not quite been the case.
I arrived a week ago Sunday to find my housing situation in limbo. There was a possibility around March of three long term missionaries to be working at Holy Trinity this year. A three bedroom cottage a block from the church came up for rent, and the church picked it up. I already had an apartment at the time so some parishioners who were in need of short term housing were given the house to live in until the next school year when I would move in with the rest of the missionaries.
Fast forward to my arrival last week: the cottage is still occupied by the family and in need of major cleaning and maintenance. The three full time missionaries are down to just me and Dana, an ALCOA scientist from Pittsburgh who is here on a four week mission. While work was done on the house, we stayed in Veronica Flowers’ guest rooms. By the end of the week, everything was finally cleaned out, scrubbed out, swept out and fumigated, minus some moldy cupboards and residual dead pests.
However, when I went to turn on the shower, I found little more than a generous, lukewarm, drip. Apparently this part of La Ceiba has very low water pressure. In order to fix the problem, a significant investment would have to be made in a water drum and electrical pump. I mastered the art of the bucket bath while teaching in India a few years back, but that would be a hard sell to prospective missioners coming from the United States. The cottage project was officially abandoned, and I am living at Veronica’s until an apartment at my residence last year opens up in about a week.
School has been equally turbulent in the past week. The buildings are undergoing a full makeover, but the painters got behind schedule, preventing the teachers from getting their classrooms and office spaces ready until late in the week. They are still doing touch up work as I write. Most of the students waited until the last minute to register for classes, occupying the administration and throwing off teacher orientation. Missing schedules and miscommunication meant that I did not find out what classes I would be teaching until Friday and the text book situation remains unclear.
Yet in spite of all the chaos and uncertainty, the students flowed through the doors yesterday at 7 am to begin the new school year. We had an all-school Eucharist and welcoming assembly before the students retreated to their homerooms for class overviews and rules. It was a wonderful feeling to be standing in front of so many familiar faces again with the entire year ahead. It is like I never left.
This year I will be working with the 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, which should be a little less stressful as their English abilities are more advanced than the younger classes. My schedule is much fuller than last year but I am excited about teaching new courses and solidifying the upper level science curriculum. I will teach the same 9th Grade Physical Science and 10th Grade Chemistry and Biology classes I taught last year. I will also be teaching 11th Grade Chemistry and Biology, 10th Grade Ancient History, 11th Grade Modern History, and help with the art classes. The history and art classes should be particularly interesting as I will be challenged to develop a different approach and format for my lessons.
Looking at the year ahead, there are still a lot of unknowns intermingled with the familiar. I will live in the same place (hopefully soon…), but in a different apartment. I will be in the same school, but with a different mix of faculty and students. I have reconnected with many of my Honduran friends, but I already feel absence of Mike and Betty, who finished their missionary tour last year. I will be focusing on the place I am, but also looking ahead to next year and what I want to pursue. While it has been a bumpy start to the year, I feel the path already starting to level out. Like the cats last night, the disruptions are only temporary distractions to my goals. I know that if I continue to work hard, be patient, and trust in God, the right things will happen.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Psalm 36: 5-6
Preparing for my second year in Honduras, I expected a similar experience to last year; settling in quickly with few surprises. So far that has not quite been the case.
I arrived a week ago Sunday to find my housing situation in limbo. There was a possibility around March of three long term missionaries to be working at Holy Trinity this year. A three bedroom cottage a block from the church came up for rent, and the church picked it up. I already had an apartment at the time so some parishioners who were in need of short term housing were given the house to live in until the next school year when I would move in with the rest of the missionaries.
Fast forward to my arrival last week: the cottage is still occupied by the family and in need of major cleaning and maintenance. The three full time missionaries are down to just me and Dana, an ALCOA scientist from Pittsburgh who is here on a four week mission. While work was done on the house, we stayed in Veronica Flowers’ guest rooms. By the end of the week, everything was finally cleaned out, scrubbed out, swept out and fumigated, minus some moldy cupboards and residual dead pests.
However, when I went to turn on the shower, I found little more than a generous, lukewarm, drip. Apparently this part of La Ceiba has very low water pressure. In order to fix the problem, a significant investment would have to be made in a water drum and electrical pump. I mastered the art of the bucket bath while teaching in India a few years back, but that would be a hard sell to prospective missioners coming from the United States. The cottage project was officially abandoned, and I am living at Veronica’s until an apartment at my residence last year opens up in about a week.
School has been equally turbulent in the past week. The buildings are undergoing a full makeover, but the painters got behind schedule, preventing the teachers from getting their classrooms and office spaces ready until late in the week. They are still doing touch up work as I write. Most of the students waited until the last minute to register for classes, occupying the administration and throwing off teacher orientation. Missing schedules and miscommunication meant that I did not find out what classes I would be teaching until Friday and the text book situation remains unclear.
Yet in spite of all the chaos and uncertainty, the students flowed through the doors yesterday at 7 am to begin the new school year. We had an all-school Eucharist and welcoming assembly before the students retreated to their homerooms for class overviews and rules. It was a wonderful feeling to be standing in front of so many familiar faces again with the entire year ahead. It is like I never left.
This year I will be working with the 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, which should be a little less stressful as their English abilities are more advanced than the younger classes. My schedule is much fuller than last year but I am excited about teaching new courses and solidifying the upper level science curriculum. I will teach the same 9th Grade Physical Science and 10th Grade Chemistry and Biology classes I taught last year. I will also be teaching 11th Grade Chemistry and Biology, 10th Grade Ancient History, 11th Grade Modern History, and help with the art classes. The history and art classes should be particularly interesting as I will be challenged to develop a different approach and format for my lessons.
Looking at the year ahead, there are still a lot of unknowns intermingled with the familiar. I will live in the same place (hopefully soon…), but in a different apartment. I will be in the same school, but with a different mix of faculty and students. I have reconnected with many of my Honduran friends, but I already feel absence of Mike and Betty, who finished their missionary tour last year. I will be focusing on the place I am, but also looking ahead to next year and what I want to pursue. While it has been a bumpy start to the year, I feel the path already starting to level out. Like the cats last night, the disruptions are only temporary distractions to my goals. I know that if I continue to work hard, be patient, and trust in God, the right things will happen.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Psalm 36: 5-6
Sunday, August 1, 2010
A Heartfelt "Thank You" from the Rev. Noreen Suriner, delivered August 1, 2010
I come today not to preach, but tell a story of your history. A little story.
A young 3rd grade teacher came to Gt. Barrington, and while at a New Year’s Eve Party,
She met a priest, dressed in a bright red jacket, Pierce Middleton, shooting craps.
After traveling many miles to church, she visited nearby St. James. While she found the people friendly and the priest welcoming, The Book of Common Prayer was a mystery— The order of service didn’t make any sense and there were no pictures in the book. The priest would say prayers that weren’t there so even after she was directed to the correct place, she would immediately get lost again.
This young teacher held a bible club after school where 30 or so children came each Wednesday to learn simple bible stories, sing simple songs and to work on crafts. They would learn stories such as Mary Magdalene, Moses, Gideon, even Jesus.
Since there were so many children and her apartment was too small, Pierce welcomed the teacher and the 30 children into St. James where for months they enjoyed the great room. Additionally Pierce gave money for the teacher to purchase bibles and snacks for the children.
After a few weeks of attending St. James, and still bewildered by the Book of Common Prayer-it wasn’t so common for her, Pierce invited her to meet the newly elected Diocesan Bishop, Alexander Stewart at Trinity Church in Lenox. He was holding a preaching mission.
The teacher was traveling with friends from AIER and members of St. James, and they headed off to Lenox on Feb 16th. There she was the first person out to shake the Bishop’s hand and exclaimed, “Wow, an Evangelical sermon in an Episcopal Church.”
The bishop, with his bushy eyebrows, intensely asked, “Who are you?”
After hearing she was a teacher and had graduated from a nearby college, He immediately responded with “I am sending young people traveling…are you interested?”
Not only was she interested, she was willing. She had visions of traveling around the country, visiting various churches, perhaps even singing in a traveling singing group….
But he actually meant traveling for Vacation Bible Schools and only in the Diocese of Western Mass.
It wasn’t as extensive as she had hoped, but it was traveling…..
Bishop Stewart asked her to wait to get her information. He had a very full congregation to greet. So she and her hosts waited….. And waited….. And waited…..
Eventually, it was decided the bishop, while well meaning, wasn’t going to get to her. As they walked out of the parish hall, she literally bumped into the bishop. There he got her name and address.
However, she heard nothing for several months. But was convinced he would hire her during that summer, so she passed on summer school teaching job. Just before the close of school, she got a phone call to meet at the Lenox School for boys.
Over Cold Duck as the team for the summer Vacation Bible School was assembled. They toasted. It was then, the bishop said to the young teacher. You will be my first woman priest. This was in 1970 when women priests didn’t exist. We all laughed.
Your congregation, St. James, was instrumental in the first woman in Western Mass to be ordained. Your congregation opened the door for a young teacher, not only to be fed by the Eucharist, to find a spiritual home, to have a place of intellectual growth and spiritual nurture.
It was also a place for service.
I tell this story, because your congregation welcomed this young teacher into the Episcopal Church. Your congregation started this young teacher on a meaningful spiritual journey. I tell you this story because this young teacher, now a retired priest, comes to say thank you.
Thank you for being God’s instrument to propel the woman to become the Bishop’s first woman he ordained; To become the first woman to serve as the President of the Episcopal Clergy Association;
First woman to serve as a Church Pension Fund trustee, and finally as Vice Chair.
After 36 or so years, this priest, comes to you, St. James, to Say with a grateful heart
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
A Return Visit
I returned to St Bede's Santa Fe today. Because I no longer feel like a tourist, I have not given it that title here. Someone on the HOBD list serv recently quoted Verna Dozier " The institutional church found out that following Christ was hard work. It was much easier just to worship Him." I think this sums up the difference between the two churches here.
I think that Gideon's Garden is about following Christ. If our worship does not produce such fruit, then it is just a lot of (well performed) hot air. But worship can nourish human beings and help send us out to perform the work that the Gospel compels us to do.
I have visited a lot of churches and know what it feels like to walk into an unfamiliar one. We are fortunate in the Episcopal Church that our ritual and common prayer help to bind us together. It can ease the anxiety and create a sense of belonging and familiar structure even when details are not the same. But without a warm welcome all this is for nothing really.
Today I received a very warm welcome as I returned to St Bede's having visited for the first time two weeks ago. Several people greeted me by name. Many who did not remember me offered a smile or other friendly greeting as I entered the church. They do not ignore the stranger here! The octagonal shape of the Sanctuary helps to give a sense of being embraced by a community.
I hope that everyone at St James gets a chance to visit other churches and experience what it is like to be a stranger. Of course it is easier for some than others. But I hope that every time I see an unfamiliar face in our congregation that I am able to in some small way make them feel welcome. Otherwise we will end up being a bunch of Mrs Beamishes.
I think that Gideon's Garden is about following Christ. If our worship does not produce such fruit, then it is just a lot of (well performed) hot air. But worship can nourish human beings and help send us out to perform the work that the Gospel compels us to do.
I have visited a lot of churches and know what it feels like to walk into an unfamiliar one. We are fortunate in the Episcopal Church that our ritual and common prayer help to bind us together. It can ease the anxiety and create a sense of belonging and familiar structure even when details are not the same. But without a warm welcome all this is for nothing really.
Today I received a very warm welcome as I returned to St Bede's having visited for the first time two weeks ago. Several people greeted me by name. Many who did not remember me offered a smile or other friendly greeting as I entered the church. They do not ignore the stranger here! The octagonal shape of the Sanctuary helps to give a sense of being embraced by a community.
I hope that everyone at St James gets a chance to visit other churches and experience what it is like to be a stranger. Of course it is easier for some than others. But I hope that every time I see an unfamiliar face in our congregation that I am able to in some small way make them feel welcome. Otherwise we will end up being a bunch of Mrs Beamishes.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Episcopal Tourist, Santa Fe
Today I attended The Church of the Holy Faith. It is a building that blends southwestern and traditional styles. The interior has stained glass windows and exposed beams above. They have a fine pipe organ and choir.
The greeters at the front door gave me a nice welcome though I had difficulty engaging others I saw along the way.
The organ burst out gloriously for the opening hymn "Love Divine all Loves Excelling". There was a very dignified processional with crosses at the beginning and end. This was all rite one with the most traditional forms used for everything. The language was not gender inclusive.
The woman reading the first lesson had a very large black hat. She spoke with a slight British accent and her words were very clear. The Psalm was done in Anglican Chant and Charles would have approved as it moved in a natural speaking rhythm. The Gospel procession was executed with great precision, the acolytes in perfect sync.
The sermon was delivered by the associate rector the Rev Curtis Norman. He dwelt on a number of points concerning the Luke Gospel of the good Samaritan. Who is our neighbor? It is not just those who live near us. Jesus's parable expands the definition Love depends on deeds. The mission of Jesus was to restore broken humanity. We are those broken people. When we accept his compassion, Jesus takes us off that dangerous road. We are to show that compassion to the world.
The prayers of the people were read by the priest, followed by confession and absolution. The peace was quickly celebrated and the children were led out to Sunday school.
The offertory solo was sung like last week at St Bedes by an apprentice from the Santa Fe Opera program. Mezzo soprano Renee Tatum delivered "There is a Balm in Gilead" with deep and rich tone. I hope all were moved as much as I was.
The Sursum Corda was delivered facing the congregation, but after that the Deacon, Sub Deacon and Celebrant turned to the high Altar. All during the service I needed to pay close attention to the BCP in order to come out with the correct responses.
After the prayer of Humble Access (crumbs under the table and all) we received kneeling at the altar rail. The choir sang Durufle's "Ubi Caritas.
After the recessional, "Joyful we adore thee" the organist improvised a postlude to that tune and I listened with great appreciation for his skill.
The lady in the pew with me engaged me in conversation and complimented my singing. I recognized patrons of the opera who had had our cast to their house last week. But I can not say that anyone else greeted me other than the priests at the front door as I left. And no one offered to take me to the coffee hour which I did not attend.
I found the service very moving on many levels Anglo Catholicism at its finest, great music, liturgy and ritual done with dignity and precision, and beautiful surroundings. But I have grown impatient with rite one with its archaic speech and old fashioned theology. Do we really think that God has "wrath and indignation" for us? I also cringed at the non gender inclusive language," for us and for all men" and God spoken always as "He". I grew up with this and have always admired its majesty and beauty, but now in the 21st century I do not think it represents our idea of what God is. How long will some churches hang on to this?
The greeters at the front door gave me a nice welcome though I had difficulty engaging others I saw along the way.
The organ burst out gloriously for the opening hymn "Love Divine all Loves Excelling". There was a very dignified processional with crosses at the beginning and end. This was all rite one with the most traditional forms used for everything. The language was not gender inclusive.
The woman reading the first lesson had a very large black hat. She spoke with a slight British accent and her words were very clear. The Psalm was done in Anglican Chant and Charles would have approved as it moved in a natural speaking rhythm. The Gospel procession was executed with great precision, the acolytes in perfect sync.
The sermon was delivered by the associate rector the Rev Curtis Norman. He dwelt on a number of points concerning the Luke Gospel of the good Samaritan. Who is our neighbor? It is not just those who live near us. Jesus's parable expands the definition Love depends on deeds. The mission of Jesus was to restore broken humanity. We are those broken people. When we accept his compassion, Jesus takes us off that dangerous road. We are to show that compassion to the world.
The prayers of the people were read by the priest, followed by confession and absolution. The peace was quickly celebrated and the children were led out to Sunday school.
The offertory solo was sung like last week at St Bedes by an apprentice from the Santa Fe Opera program. Mezzo soprano Renee Tatum delivered "There is a Balm in Gilead" with deep and rich tone. I hope all were moved as much as I was.
The Sursum Corda was delivered facing the congregation, but after that the Deacon, Sub Deacon and Celebrant turned to the high Altar. All during the service I needed to pay close attention to the BCP in order to come out with the correct responses.
After the prayer of Humble Access (crumbs under the table and all) we received kneeling at the altar rail. The choir sang Durufle's "Ubi Caritas.
After the recessional, "Joyful we adore thee" the organist improvised a postlude to that tune and I listened with great appreciation for his skill.
The lady in the pew with me engaged me in conversation and complimented my singing. I recognized patrons of the opera who had had our cast to their house last week. But I can not say that anyone else greeted me other than the priests at the front door as I left. And no one offered to take me to the coffee hour which I did not attend.
I found the service very moving on many levels Anglo Catholicism at its finest, great music, liturgy and ritual done with dignity and precision, and beautiful surroundings. But I have grown impatient with rite one with its archaic speech and old fashioned theology. Do we really think that God has "wrath and indignation" for us? I also cringed at the non gender inclusive language," for us and for all men" and God spoken always as "He". I grew up with this and have always admired its majesty and beauty, but now in the 21st century I do not think it represents our idea of what God is. How long will some churches hang on to this?
A Sermon Preached July 11, 2010, Proper 10 C by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
‘Don’t know why, but I never tire of the story of the Good Samaritan. It always makes me remember a Vacation Bible School one of the first summers I was ordained. We told the story of the Good Samaritan to the children and then asked them to dramatize it. I remember the man who was attacked by robbers was played by a very small little boy. And I remember not the faces, but the attitudes, of all the others…The robbers, the Priest, the Levite, and the Good Samaritan.
Now according to the children, the robbers were sort of mean thrill-seekers… ‘Just roughing up a guy they didn’t even know for the heck of it and to get his money in the process. It was basically an impersonal thing, just something they did maybe because they were bored. The Priest and Levite were a different thing: One actively sneered at the injured man, as if to justify his indifference, and the other just pretended not to see him at all.
The Samaritan’s attitude was a bit of a surprise to me. He was played by a tall, lanky teenager, and he did what he did quite matter-of-factly. There was no great emotion or gushing, like, “You poor, wretched thing.” He simply applied the appropriate first aid, and then gently picked up the victim and placed him over his own shoulder (there was no pack animal in their play!) and carried him off to the inn. As if to say, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” As if to say, “Here is another human being. Regardless of our ethnic and social differences, this brother human being needs help, and I gladly take it on myself to help him. It’s the least I can do, and it’s certainly what I’d want someone else to do for me in the same circumstances.” Well, the children got all this across without a word! Their body language and acting said it all. (My hunch is the way we act and our body language often “says it all” about us as well.)
But as I think about this parable Jesus told, I really wonder what message he intended. Why was the “good guy” the despised Samaritan? If the Vacation Bible School children were right, and Jesus simply wanted us to understand how important it is to do acts of mercy, it wouldn’t matter to the story who the people were. We wouldn’t have needed the detail that they were a Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. And if Jesus was wanting to poke at the hypocrisy of some ordained types, the third man should have been a Jewish lay person, and that would have made the point much better. If Jesus was wanting to illustrate that we are to love our enemies, then it seems the victim, not the mercy-giver, would have been the Samaritan. But, the mercy-giver was a Samaritan, so perhaps the parable’s propose is to shake us out of being too smug about our own particular religion or ethnic group.
However, today my mind goes back to the little boy who played the man who was beaten, robbed, and left half dead. He had no choice in the thing (about being hurt or being helped). He was basically unconscious and no doubt in pain when Grace came to him, and in the most unlikely way…Through the mercy of a Samaritan, a person considered detestable by Jews.
I wonder if that’s really the main point of this parable: That we have to “be in the ditch”, a low/desperate place, or at least, we have to be like a little child in a helpless place…a place where we don’t really expect that anyone can/will/would help us, before we can receive God’s full grace and mercy.
Think about times in your lives when you may have been “in a ditch” or weak and helpless. And think about how help came to you. What happened that made you better? Who helped make you better? My hunch is it came in a most unexpected way and through the mercies of people you might never have imagined. That’s how God’s grace works. We don’t earn it or deserve it. Sometimes we don’t even ask for it. Grace just IS!
Now today we will all be witnesses to such Grace as we baptize Aidan into the Body of Christ. Aidan’s certainly not “in the ditch”, but he is small and helpless. He’s going to be baptized here not because he’s earned it or deserves it, but because his parents and godparents and all of us are here, as mercy givers, are asking God to bestow upon Aidan this priceless gift of Abundant Life. This Child of God will be marked as Christ’s own forever, as were his siblings Gabriel and Olivia before him.
And today there will be yet another Grace as the twins receive Holy Communion for the first time. Not because they’ve earned it or really deserve it but because they desire it, Olivia and Gabriel will be nourished in an unexpected form—a tiny piece of bread, which will become for them, and for all of us, the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven!
As I think back on that Vacation Bible School drama of so long ago, I have a new understanding of why the children chose a tiny boy to be the victim. I thought it was just so the teenaged-Samaritan could carry him more easily. But today I think those children understood something I did not: It’s not the big and strong who are able to receive God’s Mercy. It’s the ones “in a ditch”, the helpless, the desperate, and the little ones who are truly receptive to the healing gift and treasure or God’s Amazing Grace.
Amen.
Now according to the children, the robbers were sort of mean thrill-seekers… ‘Just roughing up a guy they didn’t even know for the heck of it and to get his money in the process. It was basically an impersonal thing, just something they did maybe because they were bored. The Priest and Levite were a different thing: One actively sneered at the injured man, as if to justify his indifference, and the other just pretended not to see him at all.
The Samaritan’s attitude was a bit of a surprise to me. He was played by a tall, lanky teenager, and he did what he did quite matter-of-factly. There was no great emotion or gushing, like, “You poor, wretched thing.” He simply applied the appropriate first aid, and then gently picked up the victim and placed him over his own shoulder (there was no pack animal in their play!) and carried him off to the inn. As if to say, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” As if to say, “Here is another human being. Regardless of our ethnic and social differences, this brother human being needs help, and I gladly take it on myself to help him. It’s the least I can do, and it’s certainly what I’d want someone else to do for me in the same circumstances.” Well, the children got all this across without a word! Their body language and acting said it all. (My hunch is the way we act and our body language often “says it all” about us as well.)
But as I think about this parable Jesus told, I really wonder what message he intended. Why was the “good guy” the despised Samaritan? If the Vacation Bible School children were right, and Jesus simply wanted us to understand how important it is to do acts of mercy, it wouldn’t matter to the story who the people were. We wouldn’t have needed the detail that they were a Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. And if Jesus was wanting to poke at the hypocrisy of some ordained types, the third man should have been a Jewish lay person, and that would have made the point much better. If Jesus was wanting to illustrate that we are to love our enemies, then it seems the victim, not the mercy-giver, would have been the Samaritan. But, the mercy-giver was a Samaritan, so perhaps the parable’s propose is to shake us out of being too smug about our own particular religion or ethnic group.
However, today my mind goes back to the little boy who played the man who was beaten, robbed, and left half dead. He had no choice in the thing (about being hurt or being helped). He was basically unconscious and no doubt in pain when Grace came to him, and in the most unlikely way…Through the mercy of a Samaritan, a person considered detestable by Jews.
I wonder if that’s really the main point of this parable: That we have to “be in the ditch”, a low/desperate place, or at least, we have to be like a little child in a helpless place…a place where we don’t really expect that anyone can/will/would help us, before we can receive God’s full grace and mercy.
Think about times in your lives when you may have been “in a ditch” or weak and helpless. And think about how help came to you. What happened that made you better? Who helped make you better? My hunch is it came in a most unexpected way and through the mercies of people you might never have imagined. That’s how God’s grace works. We don’t earn it or deserve it. Sometimes we don’t even ask for it. Grace just IS!
Now today we will all be witnesses to such Grace as we baptize Aidan into the Body of Christ. Aidan’s certainly not “in the ditch”, but he is small and helpless. He’s going to be baptized here not because he’s earned it or deserves it, but because his parents and godparents and all of us are here, as mercy givers, are asking God to bestow upon Aidan this priceless gift of Abundant Life. This Child of God will be marked as Christ’s own forever, as were his siblings Gabriel and Olivia before him.
And today there will be yet another Grace as the twins receive Holy Communion for the first time. Not because they’ve earned it or really deserve it but because they desire it, Olivia and Gabriel will be nourished in an unexpected form—a tiny piece of bread, which will become for them, and for all of us, the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven!
As I think back on that Vacation Bible School drama of so long ago, I have a new understanding of why the children chose a tiny boy to be the victim. I thought it was just so the teenaged-Samaritan could carry him more easily. But today I think those children understood something I did not: It’s not the big and strong who are able to receive God’s Mercy. It’s the ones “in a ditch”, the helpless, the desperate, and the little ones who are truly receptive to the healing gift and treasure or God’s Amazing Grace.
Amen.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A Sermon Preached July 4, 2010, Proper 9 C by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Today’s Gospel is familiar to many of us at St. James. We used it as our “Dwelling in the Word” passage for the entire first year of the Partnership for Missional Church process.
Jesus sends out 70 disciples, Two by two to spread God’s peace to the towns and to cure the sick. Now when these disciples are welcomed and well-received, God’s peace is shared, hospitality is offered and gratefully received, and the sick are healed. When this happens, Jesus tells the disciples to say to the town, “The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” (The King James Version we heard today). I love that phrase…“The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you” or (the more familiar from the New Revised Standard Version) “The Kingdom of God has come near.” It’s almost like the Kingdom walks by and dusts us with the fragrant hem of its garment.
And aren’t there times in our lives when the Kingdom of God seems to “dust” us: When it has indeed come near to us, when we or someone else has been open and receptive to God’s deep peace and healing? The place where I am most aware of this right now at St. James is at Gideon’s Garden.
The Spirit nudged our young people to have a garden to feed the hungry. Parishioner Pennie Curry took the word out, and the wonderful people of Taft Farms offered gracious hospitality to help make it happen. And so young people from all over the area go out two by two by two to plant, tend, stake-up, and water.
Before we know it, the harvest is truly plentiful, and more laborers are always welcome and needed. And true to the kids’ original mission…HUNGRY PEOPLE ARE FED. The bountiful produce goes to the People’s Pantry, Breaking Bread Kitchen, the Stockbridge Open Table, and others in the community who need food. But I think what’s going on with these young people, and with all the other people who even hear about this garden—I think these people may be the REAL harvest!
The young people of St. James are involved. It’s their garden! And they also bring their friends. There’s also some youth from St. Paul’s Stockbridge, and several young people from the wider community. So Gideon’s Garden is a place, not unlike a traditional church, where a variety of people gather, who might not know or even like each other otherwise, but they learn to care for each other because they’re all Children of God. As with big people, sometimes this learning to care takes awhile…it isn’t easy. Boundaries must be set. But when it happens for them (as for us big people), true community is formed. There is healing, reconciliation, peace—the Kingdom of God has come near.
And the Kingdom is near as well when young people find their strengths, and learn how grounding and good it is to get their hands dirty in work that ultimately feeds hungry people. When this happens, again there is healing: Hungry people are literally nourished; and the children are nourished, and they grow at least as much as the plants! All this going out and nurturing and healing and growing and transforming and feeding is ultimately the work of God’s Spirit of Mission.
Last year we know there were several individuals and families who would go to the garden to work and to pray. Sometimes we knew who they were. Sometimes not. It seems this year the wider community is becoming very interested in our garden. So, Pennie and Garden Foreman Brendan Farnam are going out, two by two, to tell people about it. They’ve spoken with the Railroad Youth Project boards. As a result, they are sending some young artists to paint the garden in all seasons. Pennie and Brendan have also spoken with the Brookside School, a close neighbor to Gideon’s Garden, Brookside wants to start a garden of their own, and asked us for ideas. And they’ve talked with the People's Pantry board. Soon they will talk with the Breaking Bread Kitchen board, Women in Crisis in Pittsfield (WIC). They will also set up meetings with contacts in the Hispanic Community through Fairview Hospital and also the BRIDGE organization. Senior Citizen groups in Sheffield and Housatonic want to hear about the garden as well. So as you can see, people in the community are excited about our garden! I’d venture to say Gideon’s Garden is bringing healing, peace, and a sense of God’s Kingdom to many we’ll never even know about.
I hope you can see Gideon’s Garden is not about recruiting a lot of new children and families to come to Crissey Farm for worship. In a sense, Gideon’s Garden is a church in itself already. It’s a church without walls. It is a place where people come together in community and get in touch with the earth, each other, themselves, and God. . .for the sake of feeding the hungry.
(Sounds pretty much like a church to me.)
Now the garden even has—not a pew— but a meditation bench. Perhaps its icons are the amazing Scarecrows the children made last Thursday. The liturgy is literally the work of the people, young and old. The mission and offering is the bounty from God’s good earth. The Peace of the Lord is what prevails.
I hope you will all go there at least to visit (if not to get your hands dirty!). Take some time to sit on the bench, experience the hospitality, feel the peace, and say your prayers. I think you’ll find the Kingdom of God has come very near.
Now it would be great if we could just stay in the Garden or the Kingdom all the time, but Jesus knows we can’t, and I will speak about this briefly. Remember in today’s Gospel, when the disciples are not welcomed…When their peace and ministry are not well-received, and there’s no hospitality for them? Jesus tells them not to force themselves, God’s Peace, or their healing ministry on anyone. Instead, Jesus says, “Your peace will return to you… and you should shake the dust from that town from your sandals and move on.”
There is a message here for us about TOUGH LOVE. As Jesus’ disciples we are called to offer Peace, to do what we can to help someone or a situation be healed. It may be a person or situation in our personal lives, in our church, in our community, our nation, or the world. But it’s always a two-way street…The other person/entity must offer us hospitality, and must be willing to receive God’s peace and healing from us. Sometimes the people we most want to share God’s love with and the people we most want to get better and be healed, just cannot receive our ministry and love. It’s perplexing, heartbreaking, maddening to us…
Why won’t they take love and peace and healing?
For whatever reason, they just can’t (at least not at that time). Jesus makes it clear when this is the case, there comes a time when he expects us to let it go, to let our peace return to us, to quit agonizing and trying to make them change, and to shake their dust from our feet.
Jesus wants us to spend our time and energy and lives spreading the Kingdom where it can be received, where the ground’s fertile. I know it’s sometimes painfully hard to “shake dust”, but it’s what Jesus calls us to do. But we can take heart because even when we “shake dust”, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God has come near.” Think about it…When we speak the truth in love, even if it’s not well received, it is heard, at some level. So we can let go with confidence that God’s Spirit will use what we’ve said and done in some way…Only God knows how or when. And so, even for the one who cannot yet receive, who cannot yet offer hospitality to God’s peace and healing, even for that one the Kingdom has come near, if we speak the truth in love.
Let us pray…
O God, keep sending us out two by two, speaking and doing your Truth in love. Give us hearts to offer your healing and peace. And when it’s there, as it is in Gideon’s Garden, help us see it and celebrate it, always thanking you for your grace and goodness. And when there’s no hospitality for your healing and peace, help us let go graciously, knowing your Kingdom is always there and your goodness is always at work. In Jesus holy name we pray, Amen.
Jesus sends out 70 disciples, Two by two to spread God’s peace to the towns and to cure the sick. Now when these disciples are welcomed and well-received, God’s peace is shared, hospitality is offered and gratefully received, and the sick are healed. When this happens, Jesus tells the disciples to say to the town, “The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” (The King James Version we heard today). I love that phrase…“The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you” or (the more familiar from the New Revised Standard Version) “The Kingdom of God has come near.” It’s almost like the Kingdom walks by and dusts us with the fragrant hem of its garment.
And aren’t there times in our lives when the Kingdom of God seems to “dust” us: When it has indeed come near to us, when we or someone else has been open and receptive to God’s deep peace and healing? The place where I am most aware of this right now at St. James is at Gideon’s Garden.
The Spirit nudged our young people to have a garden to feed the hungry. Parishioner Pennie Curry took the word out, and the wonderful people of Taft Farms offered gracious hospitality to help make it happen. And so young people from all over the area go out two by two by two to plant, tend, stake-up, and water.
Before we know it, the harvest is truly plentiful, and more laborers are always welcome and needed. And true to the kids’ original mission…HUNGRY PEOPLE ARE FED. The bountiful produce goes to the People’s Pantry, Breaking Bread Kitchen, the Stockbridge Open Table, and others in the community who need food. But I think what’s going on with these young people, and with all the other people who even hear about this garden—I think these people may be the REAL harvest!
The young people of St. James are involved. It’s their garden! And they also bring their friends. There’s also some youth from St. Paul’s Stockbridge, and several young people from the wider community. So Gideon’s Garden is a place, not unlike a traditional church, where a variety of people gather, who might not know or even like each other otherwise, but they learn to care for each other because they’re all Children of God. As with big people, sometimes this learning to care takes awhile…it isn’t easy. Boundaries must be set. But when it happens for them (as for us big people), true community is formed. There is healing, reconciliation, peace—the Kingdom of God has come near.
And the Kingdom is near as well when young people find their strengths, and learn how grounding and good it is to get their hands dirty in work that ultimately feeds hungry people. When this happens, again there is healing: Hungry people are literally nourished; and the children are nourished, and they grow at least as much as the plants! All this going out and nurturing and healing and growing and transforming and feeding is ultimately the work of God’s Spirit of Mission.
Last year we know there were several individuals and families who would go to the garden to work and to pray. Sometimes we knew who they were. Sometimes not. It seems this year the wider community is becoming very interested in our garden. So, Pennie and Garden Foreman Brendan Farnam are going out, two by two, to tell people about it. They’ve spoken with the Railroad Youth Project boards. As a result, they are sending some young artists to paint the garden in all seasons. Pennie and Brendan have also spoken with the Brookside School, a close neighbor to Gideon’s Garden, Brookside wants to start a garden of their own, and asked us for ideas. And they’ve talked with the People's Pantry board. Soon they will talk with the Breaking Bread Kitchen board, Women in Crisis in Pittsfield (WIC). They will also set up meetings with contacts in the Hispanic Community through Fairview Hospital and also the BRIDGE organization. Senior Citizen groups in Sheffield and Housatonic want to hear about the garden as well. So as you can see, people in the community are excited about our garden! I’d venture to say Gideon’s Garden is bringing healing, peace, and a sense of God’s Kingdom to many we’ll never even know about.
I hope you can see Gideon’s Garden is not about recruiting a lot of new children and families to come to Crissey Farm for worship. In a sense, Gideon’s Garden is a church in itself already. It’s a church without walls. It is a place where people come together in community and get in touch with the earth, each other, themselves, and God. . .for the sake of feeding the hungry.
(Sounds pretty much like a church to me.)
Now the garden even has—not a pew— but a meditation bench. Perhaps its icons are the amazing Scarecrows the children made last Thursday. The liturgy is literally the work of the people, young and old. The mission and offering is the bounty from God’s good earth. The Peace of the Lord is what prevails.
I hope you will all go there at least to visit (if not to get your hands dirty!). Take some time to sit on the bench, experience the hospitality, feel the peace, and say your prayers. I think you’ll find the Kingdom of God has come very near.
Now it would be great if we could just stay in the Garden or the Kingdom all the time, but Jesus knows we can’t, and I will speak about this briefly. Remember in today’s Gospel, when the disciples are not welcomed…When their peace and ministry are not well-received, and there’s no hospitality for them? Jesus tells them not to force themselves, God’s Peace, or their healing ministry on anyone. Instead, Jesus says, “Your peace will return to you… and you should shake the dust from that town from your sandals and move on.”
There is a message here for us about TOUGH LOVE. As Jesus’ disciples we are called to offer Peace, to do what we can to help someone or a situation be healed. It may be a person or situation in our personal lives, in our church, in our community, our nation, or the world. But it’s always a two-way street…The other person/entity must offer us hospitality, and must be willing to receive God’s peace and healing from us. Sometimes the people we most want to share God’s love with and the people we most want to get better and be healed, just cannot receive our ministry and love. It’s perplexing, heartbreaking, maddening to us…
Why won’t they take love and peace and healing?
For whatever reason, they just can’t (at least not at that time). Jesus makes it clear when this is the case, there comes a time when he expects us to let it go, to let our peace return to us, to quit agonizing and trying to make them change, and to shake their dust from our feet.
Jesus wants us to spend our time and energy and lives spreading the Kingdom where it can be received, where the ground’s fertile. I know it’s sometimes painfully hard to “shake dust”, but it’s what Jesus calls us to do. But we can take heart because even when we “shake dust”, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God has come near.” Think about it…When we speak the truth in love, even if it’s not well received, it is heard, at some level. So we can let go with confidence that God’s Spirit will use what we’ve said and done in some way…Only God knows how or when. And so, even for the one who cannot yet receive, who cannot yet offer hospitality to God’s peace and healing, even for that one the Kingdom has come near, if we speak the truth in love.
Let us pray…
O God, keep sending us out two by two, speaking and doing your Truth in love. Give us hearts to offer your healing and peace. And when it’s there, as it is in Gideon’s Garden, help us see it and celebrate it, always thanking you for your grace and goodness. And when there’s no hospitality for your healing and peace, help us let go graciously, knowing your Kingdom is always there and your goodness is always at work. In Jesus holy name we pray, Amen.
The Episcopal Tourist, Santa Fe
This morning I attended St Bede's Church in Santa Fe. The church is located just off a large suburban street. Like most buildings here, it has adobe walls and the sanctuary is in an octagonal shape with large windows looking out at the desert and mountains.
They are very friendly. When I entered the building, there was a welcome desk where I was warmly greeted, given a blue ribbon to identify me as a visitor and a very informative pamphlet about the parish, mission, fellowship, services, as well as a welcome for all people. There was a rainbow flag out front also. Others greeted me as I received the bulletin and entered the sanctuary.
I found a seat in one of the large wooden pews and took in the simple but lovely space and the views of the mountains. Tom Woodward, a retired priest and deputy to GC came over and introduced himself.
The organ was an undistinguished electronic one, but it was well played with nice spirited tempos for the Hymns. There were two young singers from the Santa Fe Opera program there one of whom sang "If with all your hearts" from Elijah.
The Gospel read by the Deacon was ever so familiar to me as we have used this for meditation and reflection in the Partnership for Missional Church process. The sermon given by the rector the Rev Dr. Richard Murphy tied in the OT reading, recounting the miracle of Naanan's cure merely by taking a bath.
For the Luke passage he said that the most important thing was that the 70 were bringing the message that the Kingdom of God has come and that the world will begin to be healed. He then recalled another miracle concerning the gathering of a bunch of disagreeable men in Philadelphia who protested against injustice and began the process of founding our nation
The Eucharist was celebrated and bells (no smells) were used. As we went up to receive we sang Fairest Lord Jesus followed by all 3 verses of America the Beautiful. I choked up as I looked out the window at the real " purple mountains' majesty" while I sang those words.
There were some prayerful celebrations of birthdays and anniversaries. Prayer shawls were brought to the front. The church had hosted a party for Gene Robinson at his visit last week for the gay pride march here and that committee was given a round of applause. Then Tom Woodward came forward and told a remarkable story of healing through prayer of a young person with severe brain damage
After the service I spoke with many many people including the musicians of course. I met the rector and spoke for some time with Tom. He is a fascinating and multi -talented person who also writes plays. As a blogger, a Deputy, and in other venues he has been a tireless advocate for full inclusion of all the baptized, evangelizing strongly to the gay community.
This seems like a wonderful warm church, and I hope to come back often.
John Cheek
They are very friendly. When I entered the building, there was a welcome desk where I was warmly greeted, given a blue ribbon to identify me as a visitor and a very informative pamphlet about the parish, mission, fellowship, services, as well as a welcome for all people. There was a rainbow flag out front also. Others greeted me as I received the bulletin and entered the sanctuary.
I found a seat in one of the large wooden pews and took in the simple but lovely space and the views of the mountains. Tom Woodward, a retired priest and deputy to GC came over and introduced himself.
The organ was an undistinguished electronic one, but it was well played with nice spirited tempos for the Hymns. There were two young singers from the Santa Fe Opera program there one of whom sang "If with all your hearts" from Elijah.
The Gospel read by the Deacon was ever so familiar to me as we have used this for meditation and reflection in the Partnership for Missional Church process. The sermon given by the rector the Rev Dr. Richard Murphy tied in the OT reading, recounting the miracle of Naanan's cure merely by taking a bath.
For the Luke passage he said that the most important thing was that the 70 were bringing the message that the Kingdom of God has come and that the world will begin to be healed. He then recalled another miracle concerning the gathering of a bunch of disagreeable men in Philadelphia who protested against injustice and began the process of founding our nation
The Eucharist was celebrated and bells (no smells) were used. As we went up to receive we sang Fairest Lord Jesus followed by all 3 verses of America the Beautiful. I choked up as I looked out the window at the real " purple mountains' majesty" while I sang those words.
There were some prayerful celebrations of birthdays and anniversaries. Prayer shawls were brought to the front. The church had hosted a party for Gene Robinson at his visit last week for the gay pride march here and that committee was given a round of applause. Then Tom Woodward came forward and told a remarkable story of healing through prayer of a young person with severe brain damage
After the service I spoke with many many people including the musicians of course. I met the rector and spoke for some time with Tom. He is a fascinating and multi -talented person who also writes plays. As a blogger, a Deputy, and in other venues he has been a tireless advocate for full inclusion of all the baptized, evangelizing strongly to the gay community.
This seems like a wonderful warm church, and I hope to come back often.
John Cheek
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A Sermon Preached June 27, 2010 (Proper 8 C) by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Summer vacation time’s here and I know sometimes when we go away, we actually don’t take our cell phones or computers. We don’t listen to TV or radio and we don’t look at newspapers. So, in a sense, we have the opportunity to create, temporarily, an idyllic world…Hopefully it has beautiful scenery, perfect weather, people we enjoy, great food, interesting things to do, and time to really rest.
But then when we come home and pick up a New York Times or Berkshire Eagle, turn on NPR, and get reconnected to the internet, the non-idyllic underbelly of our world, nation, and community come back in focus abruptly. It’s all too real.
Being in touch with the “real world” helps me understand why Paul might have written the Letter to the Galatians. Paul says, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”
Images of these come alive in the news every day. We don’t have to go far from home (Maybe we don’t even have to leave home?) for the reality of these “Works of the Flesh” to come alive. The human underbelly is alive and well, and it’s an ugly, mangled form of what God intends human life to be. This human underbelly is the reason God gave God’s people the Law in the first place: To protect us from ourselves, from our human willfulness, from our lower natures.
But in the Letter to the Galatians, Paul says “Freedom in Christ has set us free. . . If you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.” In other words, in Christ we are free to do as we please because in Christ we are led by the Spirit of Love—not by the desires of the flesh, the world.
Now it can be easy for us to misunderstand this and to conclude things like: The body and the spirit/soul can be separated. The body is bad and the spirit is good. Or our fleshy/earthy nature is somehow not as good as or is less important than our spiritual life. This is a way of thinking that many Christians have adopted over the centuries. But it is not correct. It is not what St. Paul or Jesus had in mind. This way of thinking, is called “dualism.” It came from the earlier, pagan, Greek, Gnostic thought and was in fact declared a heresy by the early Christian Church. (A heresy is thinking and teaching that is not consistent with right thought/orthodoxy.) Dualism is especially contradictory thought for Christians because of the fact that God gave us our fleshy natures in the first place and called them “good”. God also honored our physicality in an ultimate way: God came in Jesus as one of us…Human, fleshy, knowing the joys, pains and desires of the body. If God had not thought our bodies were very important, we might have been made differently. Perhaps we would have just roamed the universe as disembodied souls! But we’re not disembodied souls. We are fleshy people who have minds and souls enlivened by God’s Spirit.
Nevertheless, this kind of dualistic thought has persisted throughout the ages in Christianity. And in spite of our media, which spare us no explicit details about the human body and what it can do…in spite of that, in a complicated and confused form, this dualistic idea still persists today. Today dualistic thinking brings us “wisdom” like, “Sex is dirty. Save it for someone you love” and “Sex is beautiful, don’t talk about it.” No wonder we’re confused about our bodies!
Paul’s letter to the Galatians, however, can go a long way towards clearing our thoughts. Paul says, “We are called to freedom; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s the Spirit-of-Love Paul is talking about not the-Spirit-as-opposed-to-the- Flesh, as if they’re two separate and contradictory things. The Flesh Paul is talking about is the lower part of our natures that’s not governed by love. To Paul “the flesh” is the kind of self-centered things one might see in the tabloids at the grocery check-out or on the evening news. The Flesh Paul is talking about is not a put-down of the fact we have BODIES that feel, need and desire, because God gave us our bodies and celebrates and blesses them through Jesus’ life on earth. The Flesh Paul is talking about is more like the powers and principalities…Things human beings do without regard for Love. These are the things we renounce at our baptisms.
Remember, it’s the Spirit of Love that Paul is holding up. The Spirit of Love, the Gospel, is what sets us free. This Gospel freedom is countercultural because it is in direct opposition to all those things our culture seduces us to become addicted to and idolize. Our Bishop said the other day about Gospel freedom: “You know you are free when your neighbors feel loved!” Paul puts it another way…He says we know the Spirit of Love is present, we know there is true Gospel freedom, when we experience “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These are the “Fruits of the Spirit”, and I think they can help us know when what we are doing or what someone else is doing is of Love. Think about it in your relationships. Think about it when you listen to the news, go to work, or go to church meetings. I actually have a bracelet that has those fruits of the spirit on it. I often use it when I’m sitting in a meeting to help me discern if what’s happening in the room is in the Spirit of Love or something else. If there is a scarcity of these things—love, joy, peace, patience, etc.—then I think we are living in the Flesh.
Let us pray today and always for the SPIRIT OF LOVE to enfold us and guide us so we know that Gospel freedom, and so our neighbors feel loved.
Amen.
But then when we come home and pick up a New York Times or Berkshire Eagle, turn on NPR, and get reconnected to the internet, the non-idyllic underbelly of our world, nation, and community come back in focus abruptly. It’s all too real.
Being in touch with the “real world” helps me understand why Paul might have written the Letter to the Galatians. Paul says, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”
Images of these come alive in the news every day. We don’t have to go far from home (Maybe we don’t even have to leave home?) for the reality of these “Works of the Flesh” to come alive. The human underbelly is alive and well, and it’s an ugly, mangled form of what God intends human life to be. This human underbelly is the reason God gave God’s people the Law in the first place: To protect us from ourselves, from our human willfulness, from our lower natures.
But in the Letter to the Galatians, Paul says “Freedom in Christ has set us free. . . If you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.” In other words, in Christ we are free to do as we please because in Christ we are led by the Spirit of Love—not by the desires of the flesh, the world.
Now it can be easy for us to misunderstand this and to conclude things like: The body and the spirit/soul can be separated. The body is bad and the spirit is good. Or our fleshy/earthy nature is somehow not as good as or is less important than our spiritual life. This is a way of thinking that many Christians have adopted over the centuries. But it is not correct. It is not what St. Paul or Jesus had in mind. This way of thinking, is called “dualism.” It came from the earlier, pagan, Greek, Gnostic thought and was in fact declared a heresy by the early Christian Church. (A heresy is thinking and teaching that is not consistent with right thought/orthodoxy.) Dualism is especially contradictory thought for Christians because of the fact that God gave us our fleshy natures in the first place and called them “good”. God also honored our physicality in an ultimate way: God came in Jesus as one of us…Human, fleshy, knowing the joys, pains and desires of the body. If God had not thought our bodies were very important, we might have been made differently. Perhaps we would have just roamed the universe as disembodied souls! But we’re not disembodied souls. We are fleshy people who have minds and souls enlivened by God’s Spirit.
Nevertheless, this kind of dualistic thought has persisted throughout the ages in Christianity. And in spite of our media, which spare us no explicit details about the human body and what it can do…in spite of that, in a complicated and confused form, this dualistic idea still persists today. Today dualistic thinking brings us “wisdom” like, “Sex is dirty. Save it for someone you love” and “Sex is beautiful, don’t talk about it.” No wonder we’re confused about our bodies!
Paul’s letter to the Galatians, however, can go a long way towards clearing our thoughts. Paul says, “We are called to freedom; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s the Spirit-of-Love Paul is talking about not the-Spirit-as-opposed-to-the- Flesh, as if they’re two separate and contradictory things. The Flesh Paul is talking about is the lower part of our natures that’s not governed by love. To Paul “the flesh” is the kind of self-centered things one might see in the tabloids at the grocery check-out or on the evening news. The Flesh Paul is talking about is not a put-down of the fact we have BODIES that feel, need and desire, because God gave us our bodies and celebrates and blesses them through Jesus’ life on earth. The Flesh Paul is talking about is more like the powers and principalities…Things human beings do without regard for Love. These are the things we renounce at our baptisms.
Remember, it’s the Spirit of Love that Paul is holding up. The Spirit of Love, the Gospel, is what sets us free. This Gospel freedom is countercultural because it is in direct opposition to all those things our culture seduces us to become addicted to and idolize. Our Bishop said the other day about Gospel freedom: “You know you are free when your neighbors feel loved!” Paul puts it another way…He says we know the Spirit of Love is present, we know there is true Gospel freedom, when we experience “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These are the “Fruits of the Spirit”, and I think they can help us know when what we are doing or what someone else is doing is of Love. Think about it in your relationships. Think about it when you listen to the news, go to work, or go to church meetings. I actually have a bracelet that has those fruits of the spirit on it. I often use it when I’m sitting in a meeting to help me discern if what’s happening in the room is in the Spirit of Love or something else. If there is a scarcity of these things—love, joy, peace, patience, etc.—then I think we are living in the Flesh.
Let us pray today and always for the SPIRIT OF LOVE to enfold us and guide us so we know that Gospel freedom, and so our neighbors feel loved.
Amen.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
A Sermon Preached May 9, 2010, Easter 6 C by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Part of me feels a little judgmental of the man in the Gospel who’d been ill for 38 years. He’d just been lying by the healing pool all that time, and complained nobody would put him in the water at the right time…like they just cut in front of him and took their turn, apparently ignoring him. In saying that, he sounds helpless and blaming. He seems to be playing “the victim”, and in doing that, he makes the others “the oppressors.”
Why didn’t he assert himself—boldly say, “I’m next” and then ask someone to help him? Why didn’t he have any friends/family to help him? Maybe he really didn’t want to get better. Maybe he got some payoff from being the “poor man, who always sat at the pool.”
Yes, (I hate to admit it, but) there’s a part of me that initially “blamed the victim” in this story. But to really understand this story, it’s important to know that (for whatever reasons) Verse 4 was actually left out of the NRSV translation we heard today. Fortunately the translators did include Verse 4 in a footnote. It says:
(He was waiting for the stirring of the water;) “for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.” (Helps to know that, doesn’t it?)
From this we can see there was only a small, infrequent, window of time in which someone might get into the water and be made well. Knowing that, I can start to see how competitive it must have been to get into the pool, and how, human beings being what we are, (even if the man had aggressively asked for help) he might well have been ignored because everyone was looking out for themselves. And then I remember as well that in that First Century people who were ill were ostracized from their communities: Not only was the man physically sick for 38 years, he also suffered the wound to his soul of being out of community for all that time. His friends and family, as they might have once been, had fallen away.
Now Jesus knows all these things about human nature and the way communities work. So what he does in this story—and really what God does, one way or another, in all of today’s stories—is call someone out of their ordinary life into a new place.
In the case of the man at the pool, Jesus calls him back to physical health, and consequently back into the community. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Jesus does this in a radical way: He does not perpetuate the Victim-Oppressor cycle that had kept the man there, unhealed, for years. In Jesus’ way of coming about things “sideways”, he circumvents the pool and the issues of competition, human selfishness, need for being assertive, and all that. After he establishes the fact that the man is willing to change and really does want to be well, Jesus simply says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” Amazingly, the man JUST DID IT!
Now we don’t know just why the man trusted Jesus enough to even try such a thing. (Just imagine how atrophied his muscles must have been after all those years!) We don’t know the reason for his faith or why he obeyed. Maybe he’d heard of Jesus’ healing powers. Maybe Jesus was so charismatic, the man just “knew” to trust him. Maybe he was just so desperate he’d try anything. But he was willing to do something different: To break out of the cycle that had kept him down. To leave his ordinary life behind. To leave his way of thinking about his life as a sick man and to stand up and enter into the New Life Jesus gave him as a whole man…That’s what God is about! (Making us whole.) And in one way or another, that’s what all of today’s scriptures are about. They’re about how God intervenes in people’s lives, if we are open to the Spirit’s voice. And if we are willing to let go of our old life, plans, and the way we’ve always done it, then New Life will follow.
Today’s story from the Acts of the Apostles comes after a wrenching debate, in which the Christians finally decided that not only Jews but Gentiles should be included in the faith. Paul is traveling with Silas and Timothy, and they plan to go back (to all the cities where Paul had preached) and teach the young churches about including the Gentiles in the faith. They’d been a lot of places already and thought they’d go into Asia next. “But the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” So they went down to Troas. That’s where Paul has today’s vision about going to Macedonia, in Europe. Not for the first time, God called Paul & Co. out of their ordinary lives (In this case, their plan to go to Asia) and into a new place.
In Macedonia Paul met Lydia and her family. Lydia, a cloth merchant with some wealth, and a Jewish woman of faith already, was probably comfortable and content with her life. ‘Probably thought she’d continue as she was. But after hearing Paul, her whole life changed, and she and her family became the first Europeans we know about to be baptized as Christians. Lydia’s response was to invite these strangers/now friends into her home…Probably not something she’d planned to do that morning when she woke up!
God called her out of her ordinary life to a New Life. And because Paul was willing to let go of his initial plan to go to Asia, the new church in Europe got a major base of operation (Lydia’s home) and a major benefactress.
In a similar but cosmic way, the reading from Revelation, gives us the vision of a “New City”. It’s not a place where it’s business as usual, but a place where God is the light. Where noting is unclean. Where there’s no abomination or falsehood. It’s a place where “the nations are healed”. (Sounds good, doesn’t it?) The “New City” is a vision of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is where we hope we are heading, and it’s not just our ultimate destination, in “the life of the world to come”. It’s also what we’re called by God to help bring in NOW, even in this life. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth (as in heaven).
The thing is, we’ve got to be shaken out of our accustomed way of life. Let go of it. Like the man at the pool. Like Lydia. Like Paul. We, like they, have got to accept the New Life, the new path, Jesus offers before we can really be on the Way to that New City. And before we can really help bring in the New Vision…So that the Kingdom of God is indeed both now on earth and yet to come in heaven. Amen.
Why didn’t he assert himself—boldly say, “I’m next” and then ask someone to help him? Why didn’t he have any friends/family to help him? Maybe he really didn’t want to get better. Maybe he got some payoff from being the “poor man, who always sat at the pool.”
Yes, (I hate to admit it, but) there’s a part of me that initially “blamed the victim” in this story. But to really understand this story, it’s important to know that (for whatever reasons) Verse 4 was actually left out of the NRSV translation we heard today. Fortunately the translators did include Verse 4 in a footnote. It says:
(He was waiting for the stirring of the water;) “for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.” (Helps to know that, doesn’t it?)
From this we can see there was only a small, infrequent, window of time in which someone might get into the water and be made well. Knowing that, I can start to see how competitive it must have been to get into the pool, and how, human beings being what we are, (even if the man had aggressively asked for help) he might well have been ignored because everyone was looking out for themselves. And then I remember as well that in that First Century people who were ill were ostracized from their communities: Not only was the man physically sick for 38 years, he also suffered the wound to his soul of being out of community for all that time. His friends and family, as they might have once been, had fallen away.
Now Jesus knows all these things about human nature and the way communities work. So what he does in this story—and really what God does, one way or another, in all of today’s stories—is call someone out of their ordinary life into a new place.
In the case of the man at the pool, Jesus calls him back to physical health, and consequently back into the community. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Jesus does this in a radical way: He does not perpetuate the Victim-Oppressor cycle that had kept the man there, unhealed, for years. In Jesus’ way of coming about things “sideways”, he circumvents the pool and the issues of competition, human selfishness, need for being assertive, and all that. After he establishes the fact that the man is willing to change and really does want to be well, Jesus simply says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” Amazingly, the man JUST DID IT!
Now we don’t know just why the man trusted Jesus enough to even try such a thing. (Just imagine how atrophied his muscles must have been after all those years!) We don’t know the reason for his faith or why he obeyed. Maybe he’d heard of Jesus’ healing powers. Maybe Jesus was so charismatic, the man just “knew” to trust him. Maybe he was just so desperate he’d try anything. But he was willing to do something different: To break out of the cycle that had kept him down. To leave his ordinary life behind. To leave his way of thinking about his life as a sick man and to stand up and enter into the New Life Jesus gave him as a whole man…That’s what God is about! (Making us whole.) And in one way or another, that’s what all of today’s scriptures are about. They’re about how God intervenes in people’s lives, if we are open to the Spirit’s voice. And if we are willing to let go of our old life, plans, and the way we’ve always done it, then New Life will follow.
Today’s story from the Acts of the Apostles comes after a wrenching debate, in which the Christians finally decided that not only Jews but Gentiles should be included in the faith. Paul is traveling with Silas and Timothy, and they plan to go back (to all the cities where Paul had preached) and teach the young churches about including the Gentiles in the faith. They’d been a lot of places already and thought they’d go into Asia next. “But the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” So they went down to Troas. That’s where Paul has today’s vision about going to Macedonia, in Europe. Not for the first time, God called Paul & Co. out of their ordinary lives (In this case, their plan to go to Asia) and into a new place.
In Macedonia Paul met Lydia and her family. Lydia, a cloth merchant with some wealth, and a Jewish woman of faith already, was probably comfortable and content with her life. ‘Probably thought she’d continue as she was. But after hearing Paul, her whole life changed, and she and her family became the first Europeans we know about to be baptized as Christians. Lydia’s response was to invite these strangers/now friends into her home…Probably not something she’d planned to do that morning when she woke up!
God called her out of her ordinary life to a New Life. And because Paul was willing to let go of his initial plan to go to Asia, the new church in Europe got a major base of operation (Lydia’s home) and a major benefactress.
In a similar but cosmic way, the reading from Revelation, gives us the vision of a “New City”. It’s not a place where it’s business as usual, but a place where God is the light. Where noting is unclean. Where there’s no abomination or falsehood. It’s a place where “the nations are healed”. (Sounds good, doesn’t it?) The “New City” is a vision of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is where we hope we are heading, and it’s not just our ultimate destination, in “the life of the world to come”. It’s also what we’re called by God to help bring in NOW, even in this life. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth (as in heaven).
The thing is, we’ve got to be shaken out of our accustomed way of life. Let go of it. Like the man at the pool. Like Lydia. Like Paul. We, like they, have got to accept the New Life, the new path, Jesus offers before we can really be on the Way to that New City. And before we can really help bring in the New Vision…So that the Kingdom of God is indeed both now on earth and yet to come in heaven. Amen.
Monday, April 19, 2010
From Easter to Ascension - from Jake Pinkston on teaching mission in Honduras
During Monday’s morning assembly, the Trinity student body and staff saw for the second week in a row a dramatization of the Resurrection Day by one of the fifth grade classes. The week before, the sound system was not working and it was impossible to hear what the students were saying, so the teacher elected to show it again. Even with the microphones, the dialogue was indecipherable and the skit degraded to students running to the “tomb”, looking around puzzled, and then running back without any answer as to what was really going on. Reflecting on the awkward chaos, which contagiously spread through the seated children who also wanted to be running around, I realized that it was a much more likely interpretation of the events that occurred that first Easter morning than the controlled, organized, celebrations we mark the occasion with today. And yet out of that early morning disarray a revolutionary new covenant was made for all.
The teacher ended by reminding everyone that Easter is not just a one day holiday but a celebration over the next forty days, culminating in Ascension Day. She encouraged everyone to wish each other a happy Easter throughout that time, to commemorate the sacrifice that was made for us. So, as my turbulent life seems to be progressively settling around my May 19th departure, I am hoping to resurrect the blog for this last month as I begin to reflect on a year completed and prepare for a year to come. I will begin by wishing all of you a Happy Easter, even if we are two weeks in.
It has certainly been a busy time since I last wrote. The arrival of the mission team from Colorado that I first came to Honduras with coincided with my second cousin John’s stop over on his way home from kayak guiding in Costa Rica as well as my birthday in early March. John joined the missionaries and me that Saturday painting buildings and roofs at the Emilia D’Cuire School for Special Needs Children. John and I were able to combine our Eagle Scout ingenuity to successfully construct a cargo net for the children out of a 100 foot piece of marina rope, which had us both giddy with excitement when we realized it would actually work. We were rewarded with an evening of guacamole, steak fajitas, and Honduran cigars courtesy of the principle and her husband before John took off the next day to catch his flight out of San Pedro Sula.
My birthday presents from the team were two boxes of granola bars and a toaster oven. The granola bars were a reference to my lunch of choice (and necessity) last year as a ski boot repairman. Vail Resorts gives Nature Valley bars away at the ticket counter and I used to grab a handful on my way off the slopes before going into work to keep my food budget down. Needless to say, six months of eating 4-6 everyday became a little tiring. Last year on the mission trip, one of the team members found ways to hide granola bars in my bed, clothes, and even dinner just to make sure I did not lose my taste for them and so the birthday present continued that tradition. The toaster oven idea was leaked by my mother to the team. I had been complaining that I could not cook any of her recipes because they all required an oven, which my two-room apartment is not furnished with. I had been in the market for a toaster oven, but the team beat me to the punch, hauling it all the way down in a duffle bag. I would not call myself a master of the toaster oven just yet, but I have successfully baked a few dinners in it. The toast of course, could not be better. It was a great birthday. I would like to give a special thanks to Mrs. Ide, who has always written me wonderful birthday cards on behalf of the congregation and once again hit it out of the park. She does a wonderful ministry for St. James, and it is always something I look forward to.
The first annual science fair that the secondary students put on that week was a rousing success by all measures, though it had more than its fair shared of bumps along the way. My goal of avoiding the last minute panic and rush to finish projects a day the due date by setting weekly deadlines for the 6 week process were dashed and smashed by week 3 when the every deadline calendar I had handed out mysteriously and simultaneously vanished from the Earth. This meant a lot of handholding throughout the project and at times, I was completing more of the 18 projects than my students. With many of the projects stalling, I finally decided to create a cut off date for experimentation and as a consequence, the entire 7th grade and a few other less motivated groups who refused to even begin their investigations were given alternative assignments. They were disappointed, but I think they learned from the experience and will do better next time. Most importantly, it saved my head from explosion.
In the end, the move saved the assignment and the remaining kids jumped on board and started to do some solid, independent work. There were projects on rockets, catapults, trace fossils, paper airplanes, acid rain, and yeast fermentation to name a few. It was fun to see experiments and data collecting going on all over the school during lunch periods and after school. All at once, there was a collective realization among the students that this project was actually going to happen and they could do it. The students made posters, showing the steps they followed through the scientific method to test their hypotheses, and then gave oral presentations and peer evaluations to their classes before the big day.
Partly out of disorganization on my part and partly out of fear that the event might not even come to fruition if I set a firm date, I did not get invitations out early enough to parents so only a few came to see the Friday afternoon extravaganza. However, the Colorado team cleared their afternoon schedules and was a wonderful audience, walking around the auditorium, asking the students about their posters and projects, and taking pictures for me. I was blown away at how well the students did, talking with people they had only just met in English, answering tough questions and explaining their research with passion and clarity. I also invited the elementary students to come and visit, and they added to the electrifying, inquisitive atmosphere. I am hoping that it will get them excited about studying science at the secondary level, especially the incoming 7th grade class that has to make the decision of whether or not to continue with their education. It was a fantastic culmination of a long and difficult project and I was gratified to see the students making the most of the experience and showing how capable they are.
After the science fair, the rest of the third term flew by as everyone transitioned back to normal class mode, and I rushed to finish up chapters and get in tests before finals week arrived. Our finals ended and were followed by a week long vacation for Holy Week or Semana Santa. I decided to get out of town for a bit and took off for Utila, which is the smallest of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras that also includes the more touristy Roatan Island that is a frequent stop for cruise ships.
My buddy drove me on the back of his dirt bike to the port outside the city Monday morning. I jumped on the hour long ferry, arriving on the island around noon with a backpack and my dive card. I learned to scuba dive for a geology trip at Colby when I went to Bermuda for a week in January 2007, but I had not been since. As soon as I got off the ferry, with no reservations or plans, I was greeted by a local who brought me fifty yards through what I guess are two peoples back yards to a two story boarding house with chipping white paint. It had a long, covered porch with a couple hammocks hanging from the rafters and sat almost in the bay. Tethered to the uneven pier with planks missing was an old 1940s decommissioned anti-mine boat with faded sign in graffiti styling that said “Paradise Diving”. I knew I was in the right place. Within 30 minutes, I was 30 feet underwater, doing my warm up dive then exploring the reef. I stayed for four days and increased my certification to Advanced Open Water Diver. I made nine dives in total, including a wreck dive to a sunken freighter a hundred feet down and a night dive that was more like being in a disco with the thousands of bioluminescent plankton that lit up the reef as we swam around. During the evenings, I spent time exploring the little town (it only has one road) and hanging out with a fellow from Boston who was working to get his dive master certification. It was an awesome (and cheap) vacation, and it was tough to leave on Thursday afternoon.
Easter services at Holy Trinity on Sunday were momentous as a dozen parishioners were confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church by the bishop, including several of my students and one of the staff members. It was the first confirmation I had attended in years and it reminded me of my own at Saint Paul’s back in 6th grade. After the Eucharist I had the opportunity to eat lunch with the bishop at Veronica Flower’s house. Bishop Lloyd Allen is a powerful presence and a fascinating man, the first Honduran born bishop of the Honduran Diocese. This was the fourth time I had met with him. We talked about his biggest project right now: making the diocese completely self sustaining. In 2003, only 2% of the diocesan budget was covered by the Honduran parishes, almost all of the funding coming from the United States. In the interest of giving the church autonomy in choosing its rectors and setting its programming, protecting it from what will likely be large budgetary cuts in the United States, and most importantly reenergizing the church’s mission, he has undertaken the impressive and often unpopular task of redefining how the church runs itself and the roles of both ordained and lay people in the congregations. He has made significant headway, improving the Honduran budget contribution to over 53%, but concedes it will likely be a decade before it reaches total financial independence.
The next related obstacle is teaching people how to give to the church and take ownership of the church, both new necessities in the difficult financial climate. Besides increasing plate donations, one way Bishop Allen is addressing this is by improving the lay ministry training in Honduras. From both a financial and ministerial perspective, he sees it as the most efficient way to strengthen the existing membership and expand the churches reach, especially in rural areas that might not have enough congregants to support a full time rector. Father Joe Rhodes, a South Carolinian who has served as the spiritual advisor to the Colorado teams as well as other mission groups visiting Honduras for years, has committed to moving down to Honduras and heading up that educational initiative with his wife Tina beginning once his daughter graduates from high school next spring. It is an exciting step for the Episcopal Church here in Honduras that will hopefully allow the church to remain self sustaining and grow to fill the needs of more Hondurans. The church is lucky to have Bishop Allen at the helm.
Now I am focused on the fourth term and finding ways to squeeze in a couple more chapters while still keeping the students engaged. We have some field trips lined up for the students in the coming weeks to visit the jungle and the local universities so I am sure that will be a blast. It is hard to believe that I only have a month left in this school year. It has certainly flown by faster than I ever could have imagined. I am pleased with how far my students have gone and it will be sad to say good bye to Mike and Betty, who are finishing their tour of service as long term missionaries in Honduras. However, I am determined to celebrate and make the most out of every moment that I have left and build momentum for August when I get to start all over again. On May 19th when I fly out of San Pedro Sula, I won’t be traveling quite as high as Jesus did ascending into heaven. I can only be inspired by how much he accomplished in those 40 days and try to do the same, using my last month as a springboard into next year.
The teacher ended by reminding everyone that Easter is not just a one day holiday but a celebration over the next forty days, culminating in Ascension Day. She encouraged everyone to wish each other a happy Easter throughout that time, to commemorate the sacrifice that was made for us. So, as my turbulent life seems to be progressively settling around my May 19th departure, I am hoping to resurrect the blog for this last month as I begin to reflect on a year completed and prepare for a year to come. I will begin by wishing all of you a Happy Easter, even if we are two weeks in.
It has certainly been a busy time since I last wrote. The arrival of the mission team from Colorado that I first came to Honduras with coincided with my second cousin John’s stop over on his way home from kayak guiding in Costa Rica as well as my birthday in early March. John joined the missionaries and me that Saturday painting buildings and roofs at the Emilia D’Cuire School for Special Needs Children. John and I were able to combine our Eagle Scout ingenuity to successfully construct a cargo net for the children out of a 100 foot piece of marina rope, which had us both giddy with excitement when we realized it would actually work. We were rewarded with an evening of guacamole, steak fajitas, and Honduran cigars courtesy of the principle and her husband before John took off the next day to catch his flight out of San Pedro Sula.
My birthday presents from the team were two boxes of granola bars and a toaster oven. The granola bars were a reference to my lunch of choice (and necessity) last year as a ski boot repairman. Vail Resorts gives Nature Valley bars away at the ticket counter and I used to grab a handful on my way off the slopes before going into work to keep my food budget down. Needless to say, six months of eating 4-6 everyday became a little tiring. Last year on the mission trip, one of the team members found ways to hide granola bars in my bed, clothes, and even dinner just to make sure I did not lose my taste for them and so the birthday present continued that tradition. The toaster oven idea was leaked by my mother to the team. I had been complaining that I could not cook any of her recipes because they all required an oven, which my two-room apartment is not furnished with. I had been in the market for a toaster oven, but the team beat me to the punch, hauling it all the way down in a duffle bag. I would not call myself a master of the toaster oven just yet, but I have successfully baked a few dinners in it. The toast of course, could not be better. It was a great birthday. I would like to give a special thanks to Mrs. Ide, who has always written me wonderful birthday cards on behalf of the congregation and once again hit it out of the park. She does a wonderful ministry for St. James, and it is always something I look forward to.
The first annual science fair that the secondary students put on that week was a rousing success by all measures, though it had more than its fair shared of bumps along the way. My goal of avoiding the last minute panic and rush to finish projects a day the due date by setting weekly deadlines for the 6 week process were dashed and smashed by week 3 when the every deadline calendar I had handed out mysteriously and simultaneously vanished from the Earth. This meant a lot of handholding throughout the project and at times, I was completing more of the 18 projects than my students. With many of the projects stalling, I finally decided to create a cut off date for experimentation and as a consequence, the entire 7th grade and a few other less motivated groups who refused to even begin their investigations were given alternative assignments. They were disappointed, but I think they learned from the experience and will do better next time. Most importantly, it saved my head from explosion.
In the end, the move saved the assignment and the remaining kids jumped on board and started to do some solid, independent work. There were projects on rockets, catapults, trace fossils, paper airplanes, acid rain, and yeast fermentation to name a few. It was fun to see experiments and data collecting going on all over the school during lunch periods and after school. All at once, there was a collective realization among the students that this project was actually going to happen and they could do it. The students made posters, showing the steps they followed through the scientific method to test their hypotheses, and then gave oral presentations and peer evaluations to their classes before the big day.
Partly out of disorganization on my part and partly out of fear that the event might not even come to fruition if I set a firm date, I did not get invitations out early enough to parents so only a few came to see the Friday afternoon extravaganza. However, the Colorado team cleared their afternoon schedules and was a wonderful audience, walking around the auditorium, asking the students about their posters and projects, and taking pictures for me. I was blown away at how well the students did, talking with people they had only just met in English, answering tough questions and explaining their research with passion and clarity. I also invited the elementary students to come and visit, and they added to the electrifying, inquisitive atmosphere. I am hoping that it will get them excited about studying science at the secondary level, especially the incoming 7th grade class that has to make the decision of whether or not to continue with their education. It was a fantastic culmination of a long and difficult project and I was gratified to see the students making the most of the experience and showing how capable they are.
After the science fair, the rest of the third term flew by as everyone transitioned back to normal class mode, and I rushed to finish up chapters and get in tests before finals week arrived. Our finals ended and were followed by a week long vacation for Holy Week or Semana Santa. I decided to get out of town for a bit and took off for Utila, which is the smallest of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras that also includes the more touristy Roatan Island that is a frequent stop for cruise ships.
My buddy drove me on the back of his dirt bike to the port outside the city Monday morning. I jumped on the hour long ferry, arriving on the island around noon with a backpack and my dive card. I learned to scuba dive for a geology trip at Colby when I went to Bermuda for a week in January 2007, but I had not been since. As soon as I got off the ferry, with no reservations or plans, I was greeted by a local who brought me fifty yards through what I guess are two peoples back yards to a two story boarding house with chipping white paint. It had a long, covered porch with a couple hammocks hanging from the rafters and sat almost in the bay. Tethered to the uneven pier with planks missing was an old 1940s decommissioned anti-mine boat with faded sign in graffiti styling that said “Paradise Diving”. I knew I was in the right place. Within 30 minutes, I was 30 feet underwater, doing my warm up dive then exploring the reef. I stayed for four days and increased my certification to Advanced Open Water Diver. I made nine dives in total, including a wreck dive to a sunken freighter a hundred feet down and a night dive that was more like being in a disco with the thousands of bioluminescent plankton that lit up the reef as we swam around. During the evenings, I spent time exploring the little town (it only has one road) and hanging out with a fellow from Boston who was working to get his dive master certification. It was an awesome (and cheap) vacation, and it was tough to leave on Thursday afternoon.
Easter services at Holy Trinity on Sunday were momentous as a dozen parishioners were confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church by the bishop, including several of my students and one of the staff members. It was the first confirmation I had attended in years and it reminded me of my own at Saint Paul’s back in 6th grade. After the Eucharist I had the opportunity to eat lunch with the bishop at Veronica Flower’s house. Bishop Lloyd Allen is a powerful presence and a fascinating man, the first Honduran born bishop of the Honduran Diocese. This was the fourth time I had met with him. We talked about his biggest project right now: making the diocese completely self sustaining. In 2003, only 2% of the diocesan budget was covered by the Honduran parishes, almost all of the funding coming from the United States. In the interest of giving the church autonomy in choosing its rectors and setting its programming, protecting it from what will likely be large budgetary cuts in the United States, and most importantly reenergizing the church’s mission, he has undertaken the impressive and often unpopular task of redefining how the church runs itself and the roles of both ordained and lay people in the congregations. He has made significant headway, improving the Honduran budget contribution to over 53%, but concedes it will likely be a decade before it reaches total financial independence.
The next related obstacle is teaching people how to give to the church and take ownership of the church, both new necessities in the difficult financial climate. Besides increasing plate donations, one way Bishop Allen is addressing this is by improving the lay ministry training in Honduras. From both a financial and ministerial perspective, he sees it as the most efficient way to strengthen the existing membership and expand the churches reach, especially in rural areas that might not have enough congregants to support a full time rector. Father Joe Rhodes, a South Carolinian who has served as the spiritual advisor to the Colorado teams as well as other mission groups visiting Honduras for years, has committed to moving down to Honduras and heading up that educational initiative with his wife Tina beginning once his daughter graduates from high school next spring. It is an exciting step for the Episcopal Church here in Honduras that will hopefully allow the church to remain self sustaining and grow to fill the needs of more Hondurans. The church is lucky to have Bishop Allen at the helm.
Now I am focused on the fourth term and finding ways to squeeze in a couple more chapters while still keeping the students engaged. We have some field trips lined up for the students in the coming weeks to visit the jungle and the local universities so I am sure that will be a blast. It is hard to believe that I only have a month left in this school year. It has certainly flown by faster than I ever could have imagined. I am pleased with how far my students have gone and it will be sad to say good bye to Mike and Betty, who are finishing their tour of service as long term missionaries in Honduras. However, I am determined to celebrate and make the most out of every moment that I have left and build momentum for August when I get to start all over again. On May 19th when I fly out of San Pedro Sula, I won’t be traveling quite as high as Jesus did ascending into heaven. I can only be inspired by how much he accomplished in those 40 days and try to do the same, using my last month as a springboard into next year.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
A sermon preached April 18, 2010 (Easter 3 C) by the Rev. Frances A. Hills,Rector
Today’s readings include some long, complicated and wonderful stories about our Christian faith. They are stories about how, when and where Jesus showed up after the Tomb was Empty. Though the stories are all very different, they end up on a joyful note of praise that affirms who Jesus is.
First, the marvelous story from the Acts of the Apostles of Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Now Saul is a Roman Zealot who persecutes Christians, (He’s the one who becomes the apostle Paul.) But all of a sudden he’s stopped in his tracks and struck blind by this voice of Jesus. By the end of the story he is converted, full of praise, and proclaiming Jesus as “The Son of God.”
Then in the reading from Revelation, which is about John of Patmos’ vision, the joyful note of praise we heard in Saul’s conversion story becomes a full-blown song of praise. It comes, not from human beings but from myriads of angels who call Jesus, “the Lamb who was slain.” The angels are joined in the praise and affirmation of Jesus by “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them.” They sing out, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Finally, the reading from John’s Gospel is that wonderful story of Jesus’ third (fourth if you count Jesus' appearing to Mary Magdalene at the tomb) appearance to the disciples after his crucifixion. I can’t imagine what all they’d been thinking and feeling since Good Friday, and since Jesus had appeared to them the other times…Awed, bewildered, numb, lost, scared, rudderless (?). Eventually Simon Peter announces, “I am going fishing.” Maybe he thinks he’s going back to life as he’d known it—before Jesus. Six others join Peter, (perhaps all wanting to return to their pre-Jesus life?) but they have no luck…no fish. Then there’s this mysterious man on the beach. They admit to him they have no fish. Then the man suggests they cast nets on the right side of the boat. For some reason they do what he says. The nets fill, well past their capacity, but they don’t break! Then John, the beloved disciple, finally realizes…this man on the shore is the Lord! Then the story tells us they all knew it was Jesus as they shared a breakfast with him of campfire-cooked fish and bread. (Note the meal consisted of the two fish Jesus had already started to cook and some of the fish Jesus had empowered them to catch.)
No doubt it was a joyful time as they celebrated Jesus’ presence among them. I wonder if they thought they were going back to life as it was with Jesus, before Good Friday (?). But then, Jesus interrupts the happy moment, ups the stakes. He asks Peter three times if he loves him. Peter is emphatic, if frustrated by being asked so many times, “Yes, yes, yes…I love you!” Then Jesus tells him: In response to that love, he must feed and care for Jesus’ sheep.
God doesn’t just leave us in our joyful places where we know Jesus is in our midst. Our songs of joy and praise, our agape meals, even the Holy Eucharist are only a start. God calls us out, like Peter, from these blissful places, from our ordinary lives, to tend and feed those in need. Now I think this literally means those who don’t have enough food to eat. And at St. James we are faithful to this call through our ministry with the People’s Pantry, Breaking Bread Kitchen, Heifer Project and other programs. But I think Jesus’ call to tend, feed, and care goes well beyond literally feeding with food…I know there is loss and grief in our world that’s caused by broken systems, and natural disasters. And there’s also personal loss and grief in our very midst. God calls us to tend and care for those who grieve. To give them ears to listen, shoulders to cry on, and arms to embrace. But we’re also called to give the mind, heart, voice, and funds to work at fixing our world’s broken systems and to help with disaster relief. In addition, God calls us to tend and care for those who are sick, dying, or oppressed…Those around the world and those in our own families and cities. We do this through organizations like Heifer, ERD, Construct, South Berkshire Community Coalition, and through a certain missioner we know in Honduras.
Sometimes this work seems overwhelming, grim, even hopeless. It’s certainly not something overtly filled with the joy and praise, we heard throughout today’s scriptures . . . AND YET. . . That’s the very thing about Jesus’ appearances: He shows up at the darkest times/ the darnedest times. As the Psalm says...wailing can be turned to dancing. When Saul seemed to redouble his energy for going out and finding Christians to persecute…Jesus appeared to him, and showed him a better Way. And when the Disciples resigned themselves to go back to their “old way of life,” it didn’t work! They couldn’t catch any fish. They couldn’t feed themselves, themselves anymore. (They’d tasted a better food.) Yet in the midst of that darkness, Jesus appears and not only feeds them, but asks them to feed others.
In the midst of times that seem the darkest, we may be tempted to think God is not there. God must have abandoned us. However, what Jesus does is contrary to that…Jesus shows up at the darkest times. By extension I think he calls us to show up at the darkest times, when people are hungry, when people are hurting, when people are grieving, when people are oppressed. ANYTIME God’s sheep need feeding or tending, we’re called to be there, trusting the fish God supplies and bringing some of our own fish that God has empowered us to catch.
There are situations in which others think God is absent. They ask, “How could God have let this happen?” Or “What kind of God would do this?" Or they may decide, “There is no God.” In the face of such questions and doubt, our love and concern for others can stand as a gentle presence that says “not so” to these questions & doubts. Our love and concern can do this…WE KNOW THAT! But sometimes it just can’t do that, and we have to let people go. However, even at the times when our love and concern do not seem effective, we can trust God’s love and concern are ultimately and perfectly effective.
So no matter what happens, we’re called to be faithful—To be that gentle presence that consistently tends, cares, and feeds. We can do this because we know who Jesus is. We know he is with us in the darkness. And we know he is risen indeed! Amen.
First, the marvelous story from the Acts of the Apostles of Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Now Saul is a Roman Zealot who persecutes Christians, (He’s the one who becomes the apostle Paul.) But all of a sudden he’s stopped in his tracks and struck blind by this voice of Jesus. By the end of the story he is converted, full of praise, and proclaiming Jesus as “The Son of God.”
Then in the reading from Revelation, which is about John of Patmos’ vision, the joyful note of praise we heard in Saul’s conversion story becomes a full-blown song of praise. It comes, not from human beings but from myriads of angels who call Jesus, “the Lamb who was slain.” The angels are joined in the praise and affirmation of Jesus by “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them.” They sing out, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Finally, the reading from John’s Gospel is that wonderful story of Jesus’ third (fourth if you count Jesus' appearing to Mary Magdalene at the tomb) appearance to the disciples after his crucifixion. I can’t imagine what all they’d been thinking and feeling since Good Friday, and since Jesus had appeared to them the other times…Awed, bewildered, numb, lost, scared, rudderless (?). Eventually Simon Peter announces, “I am going fishing.” Maybe he thinks he’s going back to life as he’d known it—before Jesus. Six others join Peter, (perhaps all wanting to return to their pre-Jesus life?) but they have no luck…no fish. Then there’s this mysterious man on the beach. They admit to him they have no fish. Then the man suggests they cast nets on the right side of the boat. For some reason they do what he says. The nets fill, well past their capacity, but they don’t break! Then John, the beloved disciple, finally realizes…this man on the shore is the Lord! Then the story tells us they all knew it was Jesus as they shared a breakfast with him of campfire-cooked fish and bread. (Note the meal consisted of the two fish Jesus had already started to cook and some of the fish Jesus had empowered them to catch.)
No doubt it was a joyful time as they celebrated Jesus’ presence among them. I wonder if they thought they were going back to life as it was with Jesus, before Good Friday (?). But then, Jesus interrupts the happy moment, ups the stakes. He asks Peter three times if he loves him. Peter is emphatic, if frustrated by being asked so many times, “Yes, yes, yes…I love you!” Then Jesus tells him: In response to that love, he must feed and care for Jesus’ sheep.
God doesn’t just leave us in our joyful places where we know Jesus is in our midst. Our songs of joy and praise, our agape meals, even the Holy Eucharist are only a start. God calls us out, like Peter, from these blissful places, from our ordinary lives, to tend and feed those in need. Now I think this literally means those who don’t have enough food to eat. And at St. James we are faithful to this call through our ministry with the People’s Pantry, Breaking Bread Kitchen, Heifer Project and other programs. But I think Jesus’ call to tend, feed, and care goes well beyond literally feeding with food…I know there is loss and grief in our world that’s caused by broken systems, and natural disasters. And there’s also personal loss and grief in our very midst. God calls us to tend and care for those who grieve. To give them ears to listen, shoulders to cry on, and arms to embrace. But we’re also called to give the mind, heart, voice, and funds to work at fixing our world’s broken systems and to help with disaster relief. In addition, God calls us to tend and care for those who are sick, dying, or oppressed…Those around the world and those in our own families and cities. We do this through organizations like Heifer, ERD, Construct, South Berkshire Community Coalition, and through a certain missioner we know in Honduras.
Sometimes this work seems overwhelming, grim, even hopeless. It’s certainly not something overtly filled with the joy and praise, we heard throughout today’s scriptures . . . AND YET. . . That’s the very thing about Jesus’ appearances: He shows up at the darkest times/ the darnedest times. As the Psalm says...wailing can be turned to dancing. When Saul seemed to redouble his energy for going out and finding Christians to persecute…Jesus appeared to him, and showed him a better Way. And when the Disciples resigned themselves to go back to their “old way of life,” it didn’t work! They couldn’t catch any fish. They couldn’t feed themselves, themselves anymore. (They’d tasted a better food.) Yet in the midst of that darkness, Jesus appears and not only feeds them, but asks them to feed others.
In the midst of times that seem the darkest, we may be tempted to think God is not there. God must have abandoned us. However, what Jesus does is contrary to that…Jesus shows up at the darkest times. By extension I think he calls us to show up at the darkest times, when people are hungry, when people are hurting, when people are grieving, when people are oppressed. ANYTIME God’s sheep need feeding or tending, we’re called to be there, trusting the fish God supplies and bringing some of our own fish that God has empowered us to catch.
There are situations in which others think God is absent. They ask, “How could God have let this happen?” Or “What kind of God would do this?" Or they may decide, “There is no God.” In the face of such questions and doubt, our love and concern for others can stand as a gentle presence that says “not so” to these questions & doubts. Our love and concern can do this…WE KNOW THAT! But sometimes it just can’t do that, and we have to let people go. However, even at the times when our love and concern do not seem effective, we can trust God’s love and concern are ultimately and perfectly effective.
So no matter what happens, we’re called to be faithful—To be that gentle presence that consistently tends, cares, and feeds. We can do this because we know who Jesus is. We know he is with us in the darkness. And we know he is risen indeed! Amen.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A Sermon Preached April 11, 2010 (Easter 2 C) by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Is your life different today? Is it radically different from eight days ago—Before Easter? Has the Good News of Jesus’ conquering sin and death changed you? Has the fact Jesus washes away your sins and breathes his Spirit in you at baptism made you a different person? Are you now a person who is more just and who helps bring in the Kingdom of God?
Where is your faith these days? How do you embody it? One thing that’s clear in the Gospel of John is that the disciples—Jesus’ first followers—were all over the map in their different types and levels of faith. Some faith is based on seeing signs and some faith needs no signs. There’s weak faith and strong faith. There’s shallow faith and deep faith. There’s faith that’s growing and maturing and faith that’s faltering.
In the Gospel of John, faith is not just a decision we make once for all. It’s a decision we make in every new situation. For example, we make a decision every time we come up against the powers of the status quo that favor the rich and oppress the poor. These are powers that are not of the Kingdom of God.
Look at Thomas. Now here’s a disciple who was courageous, spiritually wise, and devoted to Jesus. The tradition says he was the first Christian missionary to India. Perhaps he even wrote a book about Jesus called The Gospel of Thomas. But Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus’ wounds in order to believe. His faith journey was ready to go to a deeper level. But ever since then we’ve called him “doubting Thomas” and often see this somehow as a bad thing. But look at the other disciples in the Gospel of John. The beloved disciple believed something (but we don’t know what) with no evidence, except an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene believed because a man called her by name and she knew his voice. Ten disciples believed because they saw the risen Jesus. Thomas struggled some. He’d missed the other experiences and needed some physical proof. I don’t think Jesus faults him for this.
For some, faith comes gently and easily. For others of us, we struggle and wrestle with doubt. It was true then, and it’s true now…Faith comes in all shapes and sizes, and one is not necessarily better than the other.
Where is your faith today? How do you embody it? Does it matter in your life that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into his disciples. He did it that day in the house, when he came through the locked doors and appeared to the 11 disciples. He does it each time one of us is baptized…“You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” He also does it over and over again in our everyday lives in an infinite number of ways. Jesus comes to us, appears to us, gives us Peace, bestows the Holy Spirit on our community, then sends us forth. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We are now his hands and feet. His wounds. We are the voice of his forgiveness, his healing touch, and his word that speaks out when people are oppressed by the powerful. We are this now, and we come to know him more and more as we go about continuing his work in the world. We are now members of his body and that’s not like being a member of a book club or soccer team. It’s like being, in fact, one of Jesus’ limbs…an arm, a leg, a hand or foot. We are his only hands and feet now. We are Christ to this sinful and broken world! We are the ones to spread peace. To spread Good News. To bring in God’s Kingdom. So what’s it like to be surrounded by Jesus this morning? Just look around at your brothers and sisters here…It’s enough to change you!
Jesus knows we’re not all in the same place spiritually. For some faith is easy, and for some it’s hard. But no matter where we are in our faith journeys, he has died for us, saved us, given us forgiveness and ultimate Peace. And by breathing the Holy Spirit into us, he has SENT US FORTH changed…To spread that Peace and forgiveness…To spread God’s justice.
How do you personally/how do we at St. James spread God’s Peace, Forgiveness & Justice? What particular member of Christ’s body are you/we as a community? A contemporary spiritual director wrote,
“He still comes in everydayness. He still says, See my hands and my feet. Don’t avert your eyes from my wounds out of politeness or disgust. Look at them. Put your finger here. Don’t be afraid. Remember the incarnation. I came among you first in human flesh—flesh that can be hungry and fed, flesh that can be hurt, even killed. Flesh that can embody God’s love. He comes among us still, mediated through human flesh. See his hands, his side. Touch him, and see.”
(Margaret Gunther, Christian Century, April 12, 2004)
What happens when one of us/or when we as a community, like Thomas, gets to the point of recognizing the risen Christ, of calling him “My Lord and My God,” and of living our lives in a way that shows we really believe it? What happens is—We’re CHANGED. Our lives are radically different. We know we’re forgiven. We know that Jesus died and rose again for us. He conquered the powers of evil and oppression. We know we are his hands and feet. We’re here to spread God’s Kingdom. And empowered by God’s SPIRIT, we have LIFE and give LIFE in his name. Amen.
Where is your faith these days? How do you embody it? One thing that’s clear in the Gospel of John is that the disciples—Jesus’ first followers—were all over the map in their different types and levels of faith. Some faith is based on seeing signs and some faith needs no signs. There’s weak faith and strong faith. There’s shallow faith and deep faith. There’s faith that’s growing and maturing and faith that’s faltering.
In the Gospel of John, faith is not just a decision we make once for all. It’s a decision we make in every new situation. For example, we make a decision every time we come up against the powers of the status quo that favor the rich and oppress the poor. These are powers that are not of the Kingdom of God.
Look at Thomas. Now here’s a disciple who was courageous, spiritually wise, and devoted to Jesus. The tradition says he was the first Christian missionary to India. Perhaps he even wrote a book about Jesus called The Gospel of Thomas. But Thomas needed to see and touch Jesus’ wounds in order to believe. His faith journey was ready to go to a deeper level. But ever since then we’ve called him “doubting Thomas” and often see this somehow as a bad thing. But look at the other disciples in the Gospel of John. The beloved disciple believed something (but we don’t know what) with no evidence, except an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene believed because a man called her by name and she knew his voice. Ten disciples believed because they saw the risen Jesus. Thomas struggled some. He’d missed the other experiences and needed some physical proof. I don’t think Jesus faults him for this.
For some, faith comes gently and easily. For others of us, we struggle and wrestle with doubt. It was true then, and it’s true now…Faith comes in all shapes and sizes, and one is not necessarily better than the other.
Where is your faith today? How do you embody it? Does it matter in your life that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into his disciples. He did it that day in the house, when he came through the locked doors and appeared to the 11 disciples. He does it each time one of us is baptized…“You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” He also does it over and over again in our everyday lives in an infinite number of ways. Jesus comes to us, appears to us, gives us Peace, bestows the Holy Spirit on our community, then sends us forth. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We are now his hands and feet. His wounds. We are the voice of his forgiveness, his healing touch, and his word that speaks out when people are oppressed by the powerful. We are this now, and we come to know him more and more as we go about continuing his work in the world. We are now members of his body and that’s not like being a member of a book club or soccer team. It’s like being, in fact, one of Jesus’ limbs…an arm, a leg, a hand or foot. We are his only hands and feet now. We are Christ to this sinful and broken world! We are the ones to spread peace. To spread Good News. To bring in God’s Kingdom. So what’s it like to be surrounded by Jesus this morning? Just look around at your brothers and sisters here…It’s enough to change you!
Jesus knows we’re not all in the same place spiritually. For some faith is easy, and for some it’s hard. But no matter where we are in our faith journeys, he has died for us, saved us, given us forgiveness and ultimate Peace. And by breathing the Holy Spirit into us, he has SENT US FORTH changed…To spread that Peace and forgiveness…To spread God’s justice.
How do you personally/how do we at St. James spread God’s Peace, Forgiveness & Justice? What particular member of Christ’s body are you/we as a community? A contemporary spiritual director wrote,
“He still comes in everydayness. He still says, See my hands and my feet. Don’t avert your eyes from my wounds out of politeness or disgust. Look at them. Put your finger here. Don’t be afraid. Remember the incarnation. I came among you first in human flesh—flesh that can be hungry and fed, flesh that can be hurt, even killed. Flesh that can embody God’s love. He comes among us still, mediated through human flesh. See his hands, his side. Touch him, and see.”
(Margaret Gunther, Christian Century, April 12, 2004)
What happens when one of us/or when we as a community, like Thomas, gets to the point of recognizing the risen Christ, of calling him “My Lord and My God,” and of living our lives in a way that shows we really believe it? What happens is—We’re CHANGED. Our lives are radically different. We know we’re forgiven. We know that Jesus died and rose again for us. He conquered the powers of evil and oppression. We know we are his hands and feet. We’re here to spread God’s Kingdom. And empowered by God’s SPIRIT, we have LIFE and give LIFE in his name. Amen.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
A Sermon preached Easter Day C 2010 by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Over the centuries in art, music, literature and film, people have speculated about Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus. The Bible makes it clear she was part of his inner circle. And, in spite of what the tradition has invented, there’s nothing in the Bible that says she’s a woman of ill-repute. The Bible does say she is a troubled person, and Jesus accepts her, values her company, and heals her of many demons. We can imagine how grateful she is to him. How much she loves him. They are close.
So just imagine how she’s feeling that morning. Confused. Exhausted. Heavy with grief. Bereft of this man she loved. She comes to anoint his body for burial, to touch him again (even in death), but he’s gone! Missing! And then, what was it like to hear him say her name. To see him. To so long to hold him. But to be told “No.” “Don’t touch”. Here’s poet Janet Morley’s take on this scene:
It was unfinished.
We stayed there, fixed, until the end,
women waiting for the body that we loved;
and then it was unfinished.
There was no time to cherish, cleanse, anoint;
no time to handle him with love,
no farewell.
Since then, my hands have waited,
aching to touch even his deadness,
smoothe oil into bruises that no longer hurt,
offer his silent flesh my finished act of love.
I came early, as the darkness lifted,
to find the grave ripped open and his body gone;
container of my grief smashed, looted,
leaving my hands still empty,
I turned on the man who came:
‘They have taken away my Lord—where is his corpse?
Where is the body that is mine to greet?
He is not gone
I am not ready yet, I am not finished—
I cannot let him go.
I am not whole.’
And then he spoke, no corpse,
and breathed,
and offered me my name.
My hands rushed to grasp him;
to hold and hug and grip his body close;
to give myself again, to cling to him,
and lose my self in love.
‘Don’t touch me now.’
I stopped, and waited, my rejected passion
hovering between us like some dying thing.
I Mary, stood and grieved, and then departed.
I have a gospel to proclaim.
(All Desires Known: Prayers Uniting Faith and Feminism, “They have taken away my lord,” p. 54.)
“I have a gospel to proclaim.” “I have a gospel to proclaim.” And so Mary, the first witness to the Risen Lord, is charged by him to go and tell the others. Mary Magdalene, this grieving, bewildered woman, who loved him so, realizes it’s not about clinging on to what was in the past. The joy of His earthly company. His teaching. His care. Now it’s about telling everyone…He Lives! God’s love is stronger than sin, violence, and death. This is Resurrection Power! Now it’s time for Mary to let the world know that the compassionate, healing love of God can and will overcome anything.
Mary had this Gospel to proclaim. And we have this Gospel to proclaim! It’s about the times in our lives when we have been at a place, not unlike Mary Magdalene’s, when all has seemed hopeless. Dark. Powerless. When we cannot do it ourselves anymore. When our trying gets us nowhere. When we cannot see a way forward. When we need our demons cast out. When we finally have to surrender—admit our powerlessness, our vulnerability—and collapse into the arms of the One who stretched his out in total powerlessness that we might come within the reach of his saving embrace.
Maybe this time of surrender in our lives has come as we’ve sat at the bedside of one we dearly love and had to let them die. Maybe it’s when we’ve had to let go of the dream of a child when it cannot be conceived or is not viable. Maybe it’s when the one we love is addicted to something, and we finally have to say that we cannot continue in that relationship, the one we’d vowed to stay in for life. Maybe it’s when the hopes and dreams we’ve had about our career have to be let go of in the face of reality. I know you can all add to this list.
These are the dark times. The helpless times. The times we need healing. And it is to save us from the hopelessness of these that Jesus, in the most powerless and vulnerable of all postures, stretches out his arms of love to us. And at that point, he doesn’t say, “Don’t touch me.” He says, “Come. Let me embrace you.” And so we discover New Life—the peace our loved one finds in death. A certain completeness about their life, and eventually peace for ourselves. We discover the great blessing and gift spending those last days with them was to us. We come to know deeply: Their life is changed, not ended. It’s Resurrection Power! Or we discover Jesus embraces us when we, who have no children, discover God has other ways of blessing us and giving us little ones to nurture and teach and love.
And when we have to leave a chaotic relationship, we discover God comforts our lives with deep peace and serenity and friends who become our family. We discover when we miss a rung on that steep career ladder and have to go down a few notches, God can be there as well (even in that!), restoring us, reordering our lives in ways that are more fulfilling. It’s Resurrection Power!
In all these, we, like Mary, have seen the Lord! These are our resurrection stories! And, having known those dark places, and admitted our powerlessness to the God who’s power is made perfect in weakness, then we, like Mary, are empowered not just to cling to him for comfort, but to spread the Word…The Good News of our stories! In these it’s become very clear to us personally that HE IS RISEN! We too have seen the Lord! It’s Resurrection Power in our very lives!
So we, like Mary Magdalene, on this glorious Easter morning, have a Gospel to proclaim!
We have a Gospel to proclaim!
We have a Gospel to proclaim…
So let’s do it…
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.
So just imagine how she’s feeling that morning. Confused. Exhausted. Heavy with grief. Bereft of this man she loved. She comes to anoint his body for burial, to touch him again (even in death), but he’s gone! Missing! And then, what was it like to hear him say her name. To see him. To so long to hold him. But to be told “No.” “Don’t touch”. Here’s poet Janet Morley’s take on this scene:
It was unfinished.
We stayed there, fixed, until the end,
women waiting for the body that we loved;
and then it was unfinished.
There was no time to cherish, cleanse, anoint;
no time to handle him with love,
no farewell.
Since then, my hands have waited,
aching to touch even his deadness,
smoothe oil into bruises that no longer hurt,
offer his silent flesh my finished act of love.
I came early, as the darkness lifted,
to find the grave ripped open and his body gone;
container of my grief smashed, looted,
leaving my hands still empty,
I turned on the man who came:
‘They have taken away my Lord—where is his corpse?
Where is the body that is mine to greet?
He is not gone
I am not ready yet, I am not finished—
I cannot let him go.
I am not whole.’
And then he spoke, no corpse,
and breathed,
and offered me my name.
My hands rushed to grasp him;
to hold and hug and grip his body close;
to give myself again, to cling to him,
and lose my self in love.
‘Don’t touch me now.’
I stopped, and waited, my rejected passion
hovering between us like some dying thing.
I Mary, stood and grieved, and then departed.
I have a gospel to proclaim.
(All Desires Known: Prayers Uniting Faith and Feminism, “They have taken away my lord,” p. 54.)
“I have a gospel to proclaim.” “I have a gospel to proclaim.” And so Mary, the first witness to the Risen Lord, is charged by him to go and tell the others. Mary Magdalene, this grieving, bewildered woman, who loved him so, realizes it’s not about clinging on to what was in the past. The joy of His earthly company. His teaching. His care. Now it’s about telling everyone…He Lives! God’s love is stronger than sin, violence, and death. This is Resurrection Power! Now it’s time for Mary to let the world know that the compassionate, healing love of God can and will overcome anything.
Mary had this Gospel to proclaim. And we have this Gospel to proclaim! It’s about the times in our lives when we have been at a place, not unlike Mary Magdalene’s, when all has seemed hopeless. Dark. Powerless. When we cannot do it ourselves anymore. When our trying gets us nowhere. When we cannot see a way forward. When we need our demons cast out. When we finally have to surrender—admit our powerlessness, our vulnerability—and collapse into the arms of the One who stretched his out in total powerlessness that we might come within the reach of his saving embrace.
Maybe this time of surrender in our lives has come as we’ve sat at the bedside of one we dearly love and had to let them die. Maybe it’s when we’ve had to let go of the dream of a child when it cannot be conceived or is not viable. Maybe it’s when the one we love is addicted to something, and we finally have to say that we cannot continue in that relationship, the one we’d vowed to stay in for life. Maybe it’s when the hopes and dreams we’ve had about our career have to be let go of in the face of reality. I know you can all add to this list.
These are the dark times. The helpless times. The times we need healing. And it is to save us from the hopelessness of these that Jesus, in the most powerless and vulnerable of all postures, stretches out his arms of love to us. And at that point, he doesn’t say, “Don’t touch me.” He says, “Come. Let me embrace you.” And so we discover New Life—the peace our loved one finds in death. A certain completeness about their life, and eventually peace for ourselves. We discover the great blessing and gift spending those last days with them was to us. We come to know deeply: Their life is changed, not ended. It’s Resurrection Power! Or we discover Jesus embraces us when we, who have no children, discover God has other ways of blessing us and giving us little ones to nurture and teach and love.
And when we have to leave a chaotic relationship, we discover God comforts our lives with deep peace and serenity and friends who become our family. We discover when we miss a rung on that steep career ladder and have to go down a few notches, God can be there as well (even in that!), restoring us, reordering our lives in ways that are more fulfilling. It’s Resurrection Power!
In all these, we, like Mary, have seen the Lord! These are our resurrection stories! And, having known those dark places, and admitted our powerlessness to the God who’s power is made perfect in weakness, then we, like Mary, are empowered not just to cling to him for comfort, but to spread the Word…The Good News of our stories! In these it’s become very clear to us personally that HE IS RISEN! We too have seen the Lord! It’s Resurrection Power in our very lives!
So we, like Mary Magdalene, on this glorious Easter morning, have a Gospel to proclaim!
We have a Gospel to proclaim!
We have a Gospel to proclaim…
So let’s do it…
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.
A Sermon Preached at the Easter Vigil 2010 at St. George’s Episcopal Church, Lee, MA by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector St. James’ Great Barrington, MA
The Exsultet (so beautifully chanted tonight by Ian) tells us our story:
This is the night when God brought our forbearers out of bondage in Egypt.
The night when all who believe in Jesus are freed from sin and restored to grace.
The night when Christ broke the bonds of death and rose victorious from the grave.
On this Night of Nights as we’re all gathered together here at St. George, I want us to hear a poem by Ann Weems. It’s called, “The Story and the Child.”
The child comes,
and we dye eggs
and make a cake
and decorate.
“Why are we doing this?”
he asks.
“Because,” I answer,
“Life is about to happen,
and on Sunday morning
we’ll catch stars.”
He looks at me,
quizzically at first,
and then grins.
It’s then I ask him
to tell me the story.
The only way he’ll learn
is to tell it himself.
The only way we’ll learn
is to tell it again . . .
and again . . . to the child.
Tonight we’re telling the story, as we tell it year after year on this night. It’s the story of Salvation History. It’s the love story between God and God’s people. Someone said that “God just loves stories, that’s why God made people!” This story is one we tell a bit of every week at church as we hear the lessons, sing the hymns, and reflect on their meaning. But at the Easter Vigil, we hear more of the story. And we start with the beginning. The Creation, when God makes all things. and makes them all GOOD. Then we move to that really essential and core story of the Easter Vigil…The Crossing of the Red Sea. It’s when God’s people leave the slavery of Egypt and move into the freedom and challenges of the Wilderness.Then comes The Valley of the Dry Bones. In his vision, the Prophet Ezekiel sees bones coming together—enfleshed, breathing! Those who have died live again!
And finally we hear the story of The Gathering of God’s People. After years of exile in Babylon, God’s people return to their beloved Jerusalem. The Prophet Zephaniah reminds them of their need for religious renewal…not pie-in-the-sky, otherworldly renewal. It’s the renewal of this world he’s concerned with so that it reflects God’s vision of peace, justice, and freedom from oppression. It’s a world where God may sing because God’s people are singing!
Hopefully in the midst of all these ancient stories, we realize they are our stories as well. They tell us why we were created. How we too can get bound up in slavery to a variety of things…addictions, and how God can free us of that. They tell us how God can guide us through the wilderness. How at times we may feel like a bag of useless bones. Dried up. Living but partly living. Then God can breathe New Life into us, so that gathered together, we can help renew the world and bring in God’s reign on earth. These are YOUR stories and MY stories—All bound up together with God’s on-going love story.
And in the midst of all our stories tonight is THE CANDLE. The Paschal Candle. It is a central symbol of the Easter Season. In the Exsultet Ian sang, “All you who stand by this marvelous and holy flame, pray with me to God the almighty, For the grace to sing the worthy praise of this great light.” In its own way, the Paschal Candle tells God’s Story /Our Story as well.
The name of this candle certainly gives us a clue about the stories it symbolizes, as “Paschal” means “Passover.” It reminds us of when the Angel of Death was sent to slay all first-born male children in Egypt. Then the Angel passed over the sons of the Hebrew slaves because they were God’s chosen people. And so to this day, our brothers and sisters who are Jewish celebrate the Feast of the Passover during the same time we Christians celebrate Easter, because, according to the Gospels, the first Holy Week occurred during the Passover.
The Paschal Candle also reminds us of when God helped the Hebrew people pass over the wilderness, leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
The Candle is a central reminder of Easter, when Jesus passed over from the death of Good Friday to the life of Easter. And so we’ll burn the candle for the 50 days of the Easter season.
We also burn this candle when we baptize someone into the body of Christ. At baptism, we pass over from our old life into our new life with Jesus. “We are buried with Christ in his death and raised with him in his glorious resurrection.” We share in his Resurrection Power!
Finally we burn the Paschal Candle at funerals. It reminds us of our Christian hope: The person has passed over from mortal death into the eternal life God promises through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
So as we “Sing the worthy praise of this great light,” I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am personally to see this white, bright, sturdy, straight Paschal Candle here at St. George’s this evening. A few weeks ago when I was in the St. James’ building with our Insurance Broker, I noticed our Paschal Candle had melted and bent over. It had come to rest, in fact, on the credence shelf right by the baptismal font. It was hard to look at that helpless Paschal Candle…all melted and bent over…because of all the things it symbolizes, all the things I’ve been speaking about tonight. The candle symbolically embodies the sacred stories, and it helps us tell the story over and over again.
Whenever someone is baptized, their stories are added to The Story, and so The Story is changed, because we’ve added a page and we tell it in a new way. That’s why it’s so important for the children in the congregation to gather around the font at a baptism and to stand in the light of the Paschal Candle. That way, they can see the story as it unfolds. And as the new lines are written, they can start telling the story themselves.
On this holy night, “When wickedness is put to flight and sins are washed away,” we renewed our Baptismal Vows. By doing that, our personal life stories, and our stories as community, began a new chapter in The Story of Salvation History. It’s the story that matters, and we do have our stories! We’ve told them tonight.
We’ve added to them tonight. We’re empowered by them tonight. It’s the story that matters, and a melted candle cannot take that away!
So as we dye our eggs and decorate our cakes, because (the Easter) “Life is about to happen,” let’s teach our children to tell the story as we tell the story to them…over and over again. So that as we leave here tonight and wake in the morning, we too will “catch stars” and share in Christ’s Resurrection Power! Amen.
This is the night when God brought our forbearers out of bondage in Egypt.
The night when all who believe in Jesus are freed from sin and restored to grace.
The night when Christ broke the bonds of death and rose victorious from the grave.
On this Night of Nights as we’re all gathered together here at St. George, I want us to hear a poem by Ann Weems. It’s called, “The Story and the Child.”
The child comes,
and we dye eggs
and make a cake
and decorate.
“Why are we doing this?”
he asks.
“Because,” I answer,
“Life is about to happen,
and on Sunday morning
we’ll catch stars.”
He looks at me,
quizzically at first,
and then grins.
It’s then I ask him
to tell me the story.
The only way he’ll learn
is to tell it himself.
The only way we’ll learn
is to tell it again . . .
and again . . . to the child.
Tonight we’re telling the story, as we tell it year after year on this night. It’s the story of Salvation History. It’s the love story between God and God’s people. Someone said that “God just loves stories, that’s why God made people!” This story is one we tell a bit of every week at church as we hear the lessons, sing the hymns, and reflect on their meaning. But at the Easter Vigil, we hear more of the story. And we start with the beginning. The Creation, when God makes all things. and makes them all GOOD. Then we move to that really essential and core story of the Easter Vigil…The Crossing of the Red Sea. It’s when God’s people leave the slavery of Egypt and move into the freedom and challenges of the Wilderness.Then comes The Valley of the Dry Bones. In his vision, the Prophet Ezekiel sees bones coming together—enfleshed, breathing! Those who have died live again!
And finally we hear the story of The Gathering of God’s People. After years of exile in Babylon, God’s people return to their beloved Jerusalem. The Prophet Zephaniah reminds them of their need for religious renewal…not pie-in-the-sky, otherworldly renewal. It’s the renewal of this world he’s concerned with so that it reflects God’s vision of peace, justice, and freedom from oppression. It’s a world where God may sing because God’s people are singing!
Hopefully in the midst of all these ancient stories, we realize they are our stories as well. They tell us why we were created. How we too can get bound up in slavery to a variety of things…addictions, and how God can free us of that. They tell us how God can guide us through the wilderness. How at times we may feel like a bag of useless bones. Dried up. Living but partly living. Then God can breathe New Life into us, so that gathered together, we can help renew the world and bring in God’s reign on earth. These are YOUR stories and MY stories—All bound up together with God’s on-going love story.
And in the midst of all our stories tonight is THE CANDLE. The Paschal Candle. It is a central symbol of the Easter Season. In the Exsultet Ian sang, “All you who stand by this marvelous and holy flame, pray with me to God the almighty, For the grace to sing the worthy praise of this great light.” In its own way, the Paschal Candle tells God’s Story /Our Story as well.
The name of this candle certainly gives us a clue about the stories it symbolizes, as “Paschal” means “Passover.” It reminds us of when the Angel of Death was sent to slay all first-born male children in Egypt. Then the Angel passed over the sons of the Hebrew slaves because they were God’s chosen people. And so to this day, our brothers and sisters who are Jewish celebrate the Feast of the Passover during the same time we Christians celebrate Easter, because, according to the Gospels, the first Holy Week occurred during the Passover.
The Paschal Candle also reminds us of when God helped the Hebrew people pass over the wilderness, leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
The Candle is a central reminder of Easter, when Jesus passed over from the death of Good Friday to the life of Easter. And so we’ll burn the candle for the 50 days of the Easter season.
We also burn this candle when we baptize someone into the body of Christ. At baptism, we pass over from our old life into our new life with Jesus. “We are buried with Christ in his death and raised with him in his glorious resurrection.” We share in his Resurrection Power!
Finally we burn the Paschal Candle at funerals. It reminds us of our Christian hope: The person has passed over from mortal death into the eternal life God promises through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
So as we “Sing the worthy praise of this great light,” I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am personally to see this white, bright, sturdy, straight Paschal Candle here at St. George’s this evening. A few weeks ago when I was in the St. James’ building with our Insurance Broker, I noticed our Paschal Candle had melted and bent over. It had come to rest, in fact, on the credence shelf right by the baptismal font. It was hard to look at that helpless Paschal Candle…all melted and bent over…because of all the things it symbolizes, all the things I’ve been speaking about tonight. The candle symbolically embodies the sacred stories, and it helps us tell the story over and over again.
Whenever someone is baptized, their stories are added to The Story, and so The Story is changed, because we’ve added a page and we tell it in a new way. That’s why it’s so important for the children in the congregation to gather around the font at a baptism and to stand in the light of the Paschal Candle. That way, they can see the story as it unfolds. And as the new lines are written, they can start telling the story themselves.
On this holy night, “When wickedness is put to flight and sins are washed away,” we renewed our Baptismal Vows. By doing that, our personal life stories, and our stories as community, began a new chapter in The Story of Salvation History. It’s the story that matters, and we do have our stories! We’ve told them tonight.
We’ve added to them tonight. We’re empowered by them tonight. It’s the story that matters, and a melted candle cannot take that away!
So as we dye our eggs and decorate our cakes, because (the Easter) “Life is about to happen,” let’s teach our children to tell the story as we tell the story to them…over and over again. So that as we leave here tonight and wake in the morning, we too will “catch stars” and share in Christ’s Resurrection Power! Amen.
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