A sermon preached September 4, 2011

By the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

As people go back to school, I hope many of you got your homework done and are ready to indicate (during the Offertory) the areas of mission in which you serve in your daily lives. As I look at the Five Marks of Mission:

·        To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

·        To teach, baptize and nurture new believers

·        To respond to human need by loving service

·        To seek to transform unjust structures of society

·        To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

I am struck that underlying each one is a deep sense of community and love …for God, for others, for our society, and for all the creation. It makes me aware of how we are called to be “people of peace” and a “community of love”. We’re not just an assortment of individuals, operating independently and in isolation, but we’re called to be a community of God’s people living in relationship with one another, loving one another and all that God has made. We are each unique, necessary parts of the same body, the community of love, and we’re called to use our different gifts to contribute to the common good.

In the Romans reading today, Paul tells us to “love one another” and to “love our neighbor as ourselves”. It’s like if we really are people of peace and a community of love, then we will not break God’s commandments, because (KJV) “love worketh no ill to his neighbor”. The thing is we know it’s really hard not to break God’s commandments. It’s really hard to be a person of peace and a community of love. Sometimes it seems especially hard to be that in the church. God knows that about us, and God knows how destructive it is to the congregation when people in the church are not repentant and reconciled.  

This is why in Matthew’s gospel Jesus gives us such an explicit pattern for reconciliation in the church: First, he says to go privately to the one who has committed the offense and confront them. If the two of you can’t work it out, then take a few others with you to help both parties speak the truth, hear clearly, and act fairly. If repentance and reconciliation still don’t happen, then take the matter to the church. Now here’s the zinger…If the offender still doesn’t repent, “treat him like a heathen and publican”. Some might take this to mean shun him—cast him out of the community. But if we think about what Jesus would do, we must  remember he befriended outcasts and sinners. Perhaps this means we should simply start over in the reconciling process and give the one who offends another chance to repent. Hopefully in the process, we can begin to see our own contributions to the problem, because as the saying goes, “it takes two to tango”.

In any case when, for Christ’s sake, we work at reconciliation and also whenever we’re engaged in mission, we can be assured we’re not alone, because Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.” With his strengthening presence, we can be people of peace and a community of love. Amen. 

A sermon preached August 21, 2011 Proper 16 A

by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

This reflection on the scriptures followed a presentation and slide show by Susan Frantz on her mission trip earlier this summer to the Mampong Babies’ Home in Ghana.

“Who do you say that I am?” It’s Jesus’ question for all generations. When I was in seminary, however, we learned this Gospel a little differently: Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am”, and Simon Peter answers, “You are the Messianic Parousia, the Pre-existent Logos, the Eschatological Anticipation of the Cosmos.” And Jesus says, “Say what?”

Joking aside, who we say Jesus is is all-important to our spiritual lives and to the spread of the Gospel. Notice what impressed Jesus in Peter’s answer was probably first, that he answered at all. None of the others said a word! Jesus was also impressed with the freshness and spiritual correctness of Peter’s words: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”. No one had ever called anyone that before. It came from Peter’s heart and from his experience with Jesus. They were Peter’s own words…not from text books, seminary classes, theological studies, or what he thought he was supposed to say. Jesus praises Peter for his answer. In fact he blesses him for it, because Jesus knew Peter’s answer was the right answer, and that it had come from God. It was divinely inspired!

So it’s really important when people ask us about our faith (first) that we say something! And it’s important to have a heart-felt, personally experienced response. We don’t have to worry so much about its theological sophistication or about what might be expected. What’s important is that we let God inspire us, not only in our answers, but in our daily lives. So that the Jesus we describe is the Jesus we really know. So that we can pass it on to those who are curious and hungry for truth and hope.

 Now in this story, Jesus claims it is God who tells Peter who Jesus really is; but then notice it’s Jesus who tells Peter who he really is. He’s the rock on which Jesus will put together his church. The Message Bible expands this with, “A church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out…You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven.” That’s who Jesus tells Peter he really is! And I believe Jesus tells each one of us who we really are: Each one a beloved child of God. Each one unique!

In the Romans passage this is expanded by Paul, who says, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.”

Certainly Susan’s mission trip to Ghana, Jake’s teaching mission in Honduras, and what happens in Gideon’s Garden put real flesh on the truth of this: We are all parts of one body with different gifts. The Message notes: “Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.” And so we can each consider the abilities we have as gifts, things God has given us and done for us. They are not things we manufacture for ourselves.

Paul encourages us just to do what we’re gifted to do. The Message says it this way, “If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else. If you help, just help, don’t take over. If you teach, stick to your teaching. If you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy. If you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate. If you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond. If you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.”

These descriptions from Scripture help us know who we are, so that we can better tell others who Jesus is…In our own words, from our own experience. Amen.  

A sermon preached August 14, 2011 (Proper 15A)

By the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

Before this sermon was preached, Ms. Kelsey Wright, a 17-year-old leader in Gideon’s Garden (St. James’ youth-led community garden at Taft Farms), told the congregation about what her experiences working in the garden and with the younger children mean to her. 

Thank you Kelsey for helping make Gideon’s Garden a place of Grace and Love where all can enter with dignity.

Today’s readings have to do with people being “inside” and “outside”. Think of how Joseph was so “inside” with his dad and so “outside” with his brothers. Then outside as a slave and inside as a trusted leader. Then outside in a jail because someone inside lied. Then inside again because of his gifts and wisdom…Joseph basically becomes the Prime Minister of Egypt.

Years later his starving brothers, the ones who had cast him out, come to Egypt looking for relief from the famine. It never occurred to them that Joseph was still alive…Much less the Prime Minister of Egypt and the very person they have to ask for help! They don’t recognize him, but he recognizes them and doesn’t say so immediately. Can you imagine that moment when he finally tells them who he is! The inside ones are now outside, hungry, begging for mercy from Joseph. Fortunately, in the years since seeing his brothers, Joseph has matured. He’s been on the outside and suffered much, felt resentments. He’s been on the inside and known power and prestige. In all this, he’s become very wise. He is aware of how God has loved him. So Joseph is filled with compassion for his hungry brothers. He tells them not to be afraid. This act of forgiveness and mercy is almost too much for the brothers to take in, but they finally see it is Joseph, their brother, and he has forgiven them. And they see that Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt, is willing to help them through the famine, instead of killing them (which he might have easily done).

Now in spite of all this being INSIDE, tempted by wealth and power; and being OUTSIDE, where it’s easy to blame and be resentful; in spite of jealousy, revenge, guilt,  oppression and resentment, God has been able to use evil for good… Joseph mercifully left the door open for his brothers so they could walk through with dignity and find Grace and Love. And so the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are indeed in a position once again to be a blessing to all the people of the earth, to let everyone come inside. 

We see this played out again in the Romans passage. Remember in Romans Paul struggles with how most Jews don’t accept Jesus, and he struggles with what is the place of the Jews. (In/Out?) In today’s reading, Paul has come to see the gifts and calling the Jews have received from God are irrevocable. Then Paul reminds the gentile Christians at Rome that before their conversion to Christ, they were on the outs with God. But then when the Jews did not accept Jesus, that opened up the door for the gentile Romans to come inside and believe. So now the Romans are in, and in a sense, the Jews are on the outs. Paul reminds the Romans that because God held the door wide open for them, then it’s still wide open, so the Jews have a way back in. The Message Bible concludes from this section, “God seems to know how to let all of us experience being on the outside, so God can personally open the door and welcome us back in.”

We can walk through the door with dignity and enter a place of Grace and Love! 

THE GOSPEL also works with this theme of who is in and who is out. A Canaanite woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter. Now the Canaanites were anathema to the Jews. They were considered unclean, untouchable, like dogs. So by this definition, the woman is “outside” and Jesus and the disciples are “inside”. Jesus seems to think, or at least he says he thinks, his mission is only for insiders, the Jews. The woman doesn’t seem to care, and she crosses the line that divides inside and out. The woman obviously loves her daughter and fully believes Jesus can heal her. I believe it’s the woman who opens the door this time. She doesn’t care about the differences, the prejudices, the who’s in and who’s out-ness of the situation. And Jesus, full of compassion and respect for the dignity of this woman, finally realizes or admits his mission is wider than just to Israel. Jesus steps through the door and heals the girl.

In all these scriptures today, there’s the theme of needing to be outside sometimes so we will have compassion for others when we’re inside. This takes a lot of spiritual work. We must learn to let go of our prejudices, hurts, and resentments. We must quit blaming others. We must learn to really forgive. When we do that, we can learn to leave a compassionate door open for others, so that they may enter into Grace and Love without fear, and with much dignity.      Amen. 

A Sermon preached August 7, 2011 (Proper 14 A)

by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

This is a short reflection on Romans 10:5-15, delivered after Jake Pinkston spoke about his two-year teaching mission in Honduras

Paul says to the Romans, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Jake, your feet are beautiful! Thank you for your word!

In today’s Romans passage, Paul is still struggling with the fact that his own Jewish people have not, by-and-large, been converted by the Good News of Jesus Christ. He poses the possibility, entertains the hope, that perhaps they’ve just not yet been adequately exposed to the Good News: “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”

Now in the verses after today’s reading, Paul will let go of this possibility that all the Jews need is to hear the Gospel. He concludes they have heard it, but they’ve rejected it. In our 21 Century world, however, I think this is not the case…There are many out there in our world who have not yet heard and so do not know the Good News of Christ—Crucified and Risen. And our mission, as 21 Century Christians, is to spread that Good News out in our world, in our neighborhoods, where a word of hope and act of love are so desperately needed. We do this in acts of kindness and mercy. We do it when we work for justice. We do it in a million different, loving ways as we “preach the gospel always, and, when necessary, use words”! (Francis of Assisi) This is what Jake did in Honduras, and what Susan did in Ghana. It’s what happens every day in Gideon’s Garden, and if you think about it, it’s what many of us do in our daily lives…Whether we’re aware of it or not.

During August we’re focusing on Mission, so I hope you’ll be here each week to listen to the stories and to become aware of how you are part of God’s great story of redeeming love. We are the ones in our day who have the gift of faith in Jesus.

We must nurture this, train it, so that it is strong and deeply rooted, because we are the ones in our day who can make all the difference to so many others: The people in our world who do not yet know the one to call on; who have not yet believed because they have not yet heard; who have not yet heard, because no one has yet proclaimed. We are the ones to proclaim, because through our baptisms, we are sent by God…“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

During August I think we’ll discover we all have beautiful feet. Amen. 

A sermon preached Sunday, July 31, 2011 Proper 13 A

by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

‘Just had a vacation that was not at all what I’d imagined, but it was exactly what I needed! Due to an unexpected death in Amarillo, a friend’s severely pulled ankle ligament in Santa Fe, and the 105-degree days in Missouri, I basically RESTED for two whole weeks! Not that the death, hurt ankle, or high heat were directly caused by God, but the opportunity to rest was truly a God-send. I had left here two weeks ago totally exhausted; and if things had gone more according to my plans, I would have spent much more time running around doing things and NOT really resting.  It made me aware of how dependent I am on God to give me what I really need. This was the lesson I think Jacob learned as he wrestled with God.

In his rivalry with his brother Esau, Jacob discovered his quest for earthly security had got him exactly a big sense of Emptiness. And he learned that his manipulation, deceit, and striving had got him exactly Nowhere. He learned that the blessing from God that he ultimately wanted/needed could not be won by any deed, contest, or scheme. He was simply dependent, entirely dependent, on God’s grace for God’s blessing, which was the one thing he really needed. It was the most important lesson of Jacob’s life, but it came with a cost: He was marked for the rest of his life with a limp. And from then on, Jacob was known as “Israel”, which means “Perseverer with God”.

Now I think this theme of Dependence on God continues in the Romans passage. Paul is obviously proud of his Jewish heritage: He reminds us God gave the Hebrews eight especially wonderful things: Adoption. Glory. The Covenants. The Law. Worship. Promises. Patriarchs. And the hope of a Messiah from their line. But proud as he is of his heritage, Paul deeply laments that his people, the Jews, have not widely accepted Jesus as the Messiah. This brings Paul anguish. It’s the most upsetting conundrum of his life: In spite of their rich tradition and long association with God as God’s beloved Chosen Ones, the Jews of his day, by and large, are unable to hear the Good News of Jesus. They do not think Jesus is the Messiah they’d been hoping for. Paul is so distraught about this, he’s even willing to sacrifice his own salvation for that of his people—the Jews.

Well, obviously, Paul could not make this happen. God was going to have to work it out with the Hebrews in God’s good way and time. Paul was going to have to just let it go. Paul had to become totally dependent on God’s grace and mercy and trust that God would work out salvation for the Jews in God’s own generous way. Meanwhile Paul was called to continue his work as Apostle to the Gentiles. (The ideas in the section were taken from The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness by A. Katherine Grieb.) So we can see from our first two scriptures we are totally dependent on God for God’s blessing and for salvation. We don’t cause these to happen.

And we see this again in the Matthew gospel. The huge crowd is hungry. The disciples assume they need to go home to eat, but Jesus has a different idea. He asks the disciples to “give them something to eat”. They know right away this is impossible. They discover they have only five loaves and two fish. They take them to Jesus, probably hoping he’ll come to his senses and see they must send the crowd home. But Jesus takes their loaves and fishes. Blesses them. Breaks them. Gives them back to the disciples to distribute. Over 5,000 people were fed. There were 12 baskets of leftovers!

Now in and of themselves, the disciples were right. They could not have fed this crowd with their five loaves and two fish. They were totally dependent on Jesus to take what they had, and bless and break it so that it would be enough. (Much more than enough!) The disciples’ job was to take what they had to Jesus and to distribute what Jesus gave them.

As the people of St. James and St. George today, I think we really need to hear these scriptures. Our congregations, separately and together, have done a lot to put ourselves in a position to receive God’s blessing. Like Jacob, we have persevered, and we are already blessed in many ways. But any further blessing we receive, and the ultimate blessing we need, will come totally through God’s grace. The future of our congregations and the future of those we serve are in God’s hands. We are totally dependent on God. That doesn’t mean we won’t work hard and do our part,

But ultimately it’s about the future God wants for us. Likewise, any deep questions and concerns we have about why God works or doesn’t work the way we think God should…We’ll just have to let go of and, like St. Paul, give them over to God’s salvific care. Meanwhile we will continue on the path we’re given, knowing God can do more than we can ask for or imagine. And when we come to times when it seems like there’s just not enough—not  enough people, money, energy, spirit, generosity, courage, vision, faith, compassion, or not enough love—let’s remember our dependence on God alone. Let’s remember to give what we have, as little as it may seem, to the God who will gladly take it, bless it, break it, and give it back so that there will be plenty for all…and more.

May he who is God over all be blessed forever. Amen.    

A sermon preached July 24, 2011

by the Rev. Howard Seip, UCC Pastor and member of St. James' Choir

I found myself longing for some spiritual encouragement this week that would give me the resources to live my life of faith in a confident way and give me the strength to seek to grow in it.  And in our lectionary passages for this morning (except for the Old Testament reading) I found just such resources.  At first glance, they are hard to discover, but once we work diligently with them, I am confident they will yield riches for us.

The reading that we had from Romans for example is one of the most profound, yet demanding ones in all of scripture.  Would you be able to summarize it?  Well, that’s ok because I probably wouldn’t be easily able to do that either.  Paul is speaking to the people of the church in Rome, trying to give them both solid theological teaching and practical encouragement as well.  And one focus of the passage was a string of seemingly confusing technical theological terms.

          He tells them that the people that God foreknew were also predestined by God to be made into the image of Christ.  And those who were predestined, were also called out by God, and those who were called, God also justified, and those who were justified were also glorified by God.  And you, the people of Christ’s church are the ones who have received all of this.  Isn’t this great?  And there, mercifully, the string of technical theological terms comes to an end.  Those who were foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. What is all this about?  Why does Paul use all of these terms in rapid succession?  And what do they mean to us?  Could you explain or define foreknowledge, predestination, justification and glorification right now? 

Once again, that’s ok, because it would be tough for me too.  So I’m not going to even try to list and explain the meaning of these terms to you.  You’re as relieved about that as I am, aren’t you?  But I think that they were intended to convey a very important thing to the members of the Roman church, and to us today.  The early church was constantly having problems and encountering opposition.  Confidence I’m sure was a great problem.  Confidence in the faith, confidence in God, confidence in this Christ they were following.  These were real issues, as I think they are for us, in living the Christian life. 

And so Paul seeks to encourage them by giving them confidence in what they are doing.  Confidence, not in themselves, but in God.  Look he says, God has called you to this life.  God has already known you and who you are.  God has set up the circumstances that will enable you to succeed in this life of faith.  God has made you right with life and with Christ by forgiving and saving you.  So you can be confident in reaching out and taking the risk to live this life of faith and prayer and love in the church and know that God has been beside you in the past, God is with you now, and God will be with you to the end. With grace and mercy to make all of this that may seem so difficult and demanding now a real possibility in your life that will bring you true and abundant life. That’s what calling and predestination and justification and all the rest are all about.

          And then finally, after all of this, Paul turns poetic as it were, and reassures them again of God’s faithful, loving presence with them that can give them all the confidence they need to live the Christian life.  What are we to say about all this, he asks?  If God is for us, who is against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will anything negative in all the world?  And just as we might be ready to say – maybe, Paul says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loved us.  For he was convinced that nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so we can live our Christian lives of faith with boldness and confidence, knowing that if God is for us who can be against us?  For all its initial difficulty, doesn’t this passage turn out to be exciting and inspirational?  It reminded me of a great little song, based on this reading, that I sang in our church choir when I was a little boy in Whittier, California in the 1960s that really captured the spirit and feel of Paul’s message.  And part of it goes something like this,  (Mike sings)

 If God be for us, who can be against us, Who can be against us.

If God be for us who can be against us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

If God be for us, who can be against us, Who can be against us,

If God be for us who can be against us.

          It still moves me today. And now we turn our attention to the gospel lesson.  And once again we encounter difficulties.  For again we encounter a rapid fire sequence of words, only this time they are phrases, the images and metaphors of the parables of Jesus.  He is teaching the crowds, and tells them that the kingdom of heaven (or God) is like a mustard seed.  Oh, but it is also like yeast that is made into bread.  The kingdom is heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, but you know it is also like a pearl of great value.  This is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

          And then Jesus asks the big question of us – Have you understood all this?  And as we begin to answer honestly, no, we all of a sudden hear the crowd say, yes, and we ask, what?  They understood this cacophony of words and phrases, images and metaphors that are tumbling rapid fire from this gospel story?  Do you?  For the second time this morning, if you find yourself at a loss, do not fear or be dismayed.  For I initially felt the exact same way.  A mustard seed, a lump of yeast, a treasure in a field, a fancy pearl.  What are they trying to tell us?  What do they mean? And what if anything do they have to do with one another, since Matthew has strung them in a line for us?

          Well, the message of Jesus was about the coming of the reign of God, the kingdom of heaven.  And he was convinced that God was the most important thing in life.  What is the first and greatest commandment?  To love God with all your heart.  And God’s will and desires were of tremendous importance as well. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as the prayer has it.  And the coming of God’s will and desires to be on earth among God’s people was of highest importance as well.  This along with other things was what God’s reign was all about, the coming to be of things in the way that God wanted, a way of goodness and life and love.  And Jesus thought that was happening in his midst and that if they were to be saved, people had to see that and get on board with it or they would be left behind.

          And so he told stories, parables, about mustard seeds, and yeast and treasures and pearls. And they all had to do with getting people to turn around in their lives and get on board with God’s reign and be a part of it through their lives of faith and prayer and love.

It might seem a small, even invisible thing in your life or in the world around you, but Jesus insists that just like a tiny mustard seed or a little bit of yeast, because of God’s action, this reign could grow into a gigantic, massive thing that could take over the world.  So don’t sit on the side lines, get involved, be a part of what’s happening and take God and God’s doings seriously in your life. 

Because this, God and God’s doings is what is really important in life.  Your faith and life in God is truly the center and focus of everything else.  It’s like a great treasure that might come your way, or even an incredibly expensive pearl that could be yours.  It’s the highest and the greatest thing in life.  And again, because of that, it’s urgent that you get involved.  That you do whatever it is that you need to do, whatever you have to sell, to make this thing of God’s at the center of your life.

Again, like the reading from Romans, from an initial inability to understand what was going on, this series of confusing parables from Matthew in the end turns into an incredibly practical and inspiring call to us. To have the confidence to plunge into the life of faith that we have, our relationship with God, and to put it at the heart of our lives and center ourselves and our priorities around it.  When I was reading this series of parable images in Matthew, again I thought of a song that was familiar to me. 

There’s a Spanish folk hymn in The New Century Hymnal of the United Church of Christ that uses this exact same device, mirroring Matthew’s style in today’s lesson.  It too was confusing to me when I sung it at first because it too strings together a long series of images that again at first seem unconnected and leave the point unclear.  But once you see how he is mirroring scripture to lead us to commit our lives anew to God and Christ and the Church, it becomes a moving and inspirational tribute.  The hymn is called “You Are the Seed”, and part of it goes like this -  (Nancy sings)

You are the seed that will grow a new sprout, you’re the star that will shine through the day;

You are the yeast and a small grain of salt, a beacon to glow in the night.

You are the dawn that will bring a new day, you’re the wheat that will bear golden grain;

You are a sting and a soft, gentle touch, my witnesses where’er you go.

You are the life that will nurture the plant; you’re the waves in a turbulent sea;

Yesterday’s yeast is beginning to rise, a new loaf of bread it will yield.

There’s no place for city to hide, nor a mountain can cover its might;

May your good deeds show a world in despair a path that will lead all to God.

          To lead all to God.  A seed that will grow a new sprout.  Our readings today are calling on us and inspiring us to begin our lives of faith again as this new week begins.  Tomorrow as we rise from bed.  No, no, today as we worship together and go forth from this place.  And they call on us to deepen and strengthen that faith, wherever it may be at this time.  For some of us, it may be a small mustard seed barely visible.  For others, it might be a treasure buried in the ground.  But with God’s grace and love ever beside us, it can grow, it can become something great and large, and it can become something of a great and valuable treasure in our lives and for the world.  We just need to respond to the word that we hear and the reassurance that God will be with us to give us the strength that we need to live this life.

          Let us let the words of song be our guide again, our inspiration that will lead us from this place into God’s world to live a new life of faith and hope and love.  (Nancy and Susan sing) –

Go my friends, go to the world, proclaiming love to all,

messengers of my forgiving peace, eternal love.                

Be, my friends, a loyal witness, from the dead I arose;

Lo I’ll be with you forever, till the end of the world.

Amen.

St James Gideon's Garden Float goes down Main St

A Sermon Preached July 10, 2011 Proper 10 A

by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

Perhaps this is more the summer for the preacher to wrestle with Romans, study Romans than to preach a steady diet of Romans!

Today I want to focus mostly on the Gospel…“A sower went out to sow…”

A sower of course is someone who plants seeds so plants can grow. In this story from Matthew most people think the sower is God.

In a gardening book I love, (Bringing a Garden to Life, Carol Williams, p.82) it says about planting seeds, “Having drawn lines in the soil with a finger, I place the seeds—pressing each one firmly down in staggered rows with about four inches between seeds and four inches between rows. In the end there will be a patch of plants in a kind of honeycomb pattern.

“The general rule for covering seeds is twice the depth of their own thickness. I crumble the soil carefully between my fingers so that no heavy clod will bury a seed. Then, very gently, I tap the soil lightly down with the palms of my hands, the way one might tuck in a baby, securing the seeds in their bed.”

What a difference from the way the sower planted seeds in today’s Gospel! God has a different way of sowing than most of us! God’s way is with wild abandon. God Freely scatters the seeds anywhere and everywhere.

I’m reminded of a story I heard about a grandmother. She was showing her young granddaughter how to plant flower seeds—carefully in rows—not unlike my gardening book suggests. The granddaughter watched attentively. She obediently, painstakingly planted the first row or two. Then, without warning, the little girl just gleefully threw the rest of the seeds into the air, letting them fall where they would! Apparently the little girl wanted to garden, not so much like her grandmother, but more like God—with wild abandon! Somewhere between her grandmother’s careful training and the girl’s obedient row planting, she let go of the need to control where every seed fell. Like the sower, she let go of caring if the soil was rich and well-prepared; or too rocky, sandy, or poorly-drained.

Now even if the sower doesn’t plant by the book, there are many things in my gardening book the sower knows the truth of…like this:

 “Making compost is rather like living. If you wait until you can do a perfect job, you’ll never get started. Better to make a start and learn as you go.” (Ann Mendenhall in Bringing a Garden to Life).

The sower has grace for us when we don’t do a perfect job. The sower knows we can actually live and learn and become more loving. The sower is Good and Wise.

The sower has Good Seed. The sower knows the spark of life that’s hidden in each seed, so the sower is always Hopeful. Expectant. The sower gives the spark of life to all, gives all a chance to learn, become richer, more fertile. The sower sows good seed with wild abandon. The sower’s supply of seed is abundant. ‘Seems unlimited. It’s out of this sower’s generosity and abundance that we are sustained physically and spiritually, day after day, year after year.

We say at the offertory, “All things come of thee, O God.” And they do!

ALL THINGS are from God…Not only the things that supply our physical needs but also the spiritual things we need.

Now that does take me back to today’s Romans! In Chapter 8 v. 2, The Message translation says, “The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.”  Such freedom! Such lavish grace! Such forgiveness and new life offered, even when we don’t do it perfectly!

What are we to do in response to such generosity, abundance and grace?

Perhaps the sower can show us a way of sharing, giving and forgiving out of the great abundance God showers on us. There’s really no telling what God the Holy Spirit can grow in the soil of our souls, if we accept the seed, the compost, the watering, the tilling, and the Grace. And if we accept these with the humility that admits they are not from us but God, then perhaps we’ll know the truth of the rest of that offertory sentence, “And of thine own have we given thee.”

We can give generously of ourselves and our possessions. We can offer mercy, love, and forgiveness when someone needs it. We’re not meant to hoard our strengths, gifts and spiritual freedom but to share them with the community…

Perhaps in “random acts of kindness”. Perhaps in “giving someone who is wrong a soft place to land”. (James Alison)  We, like the sower, are meant to scatter our seed with wild abandon…Not being too picky about who might receive it. With the Holy Spirit at work, there’s no telling what might spring up! Even in the most unlikely of places, we, like the sower, can be Hopeful and Expectant. Amen. 

A sermon preached July 10, 2011 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Stockbridge, MA

by the Rev. Tom Damrosch, Rector of St. Paul's

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

Later, Jesus spoke to his disciples privately in the house and explained this parable to them. “Hear then the parable of the sower,” he said.

“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

In the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our scriptures today speak to us of God’s abundance, of our struggles to let that abundance fill our lives, and of the power of God’s Word and Holy Spirit to nourish the faith that has taken root in us.

I have just spent ten days experiencing the abundance of God’s love and seeing how that love overcomes many human and natural obstacles. Our mission group from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts spent this time on the island of Hispaniola, up in the mountains which form the border between the two nations which share that island.

In the eastern, larger part, is the Dominican Republic, where European culture first established itself in the New World.  We ended up spending our first day in its capital city, Santo Domingo, waiting for our luggage and supplies to catch up with us after nearly 20 hours of travel much disrupted by summer weather.

Coming from a country where we think of the Pilgrims as early settlers, it is daunting to step into a city of great stone buildings, including its Cathedral, which had been in place a hundred years before the first settler ever stepped ashore here.

Then we travelled west across the country to the border town of Jimani where we were to live and work for the rest of our stay. The Dominican countryside is lush and fertile.  The language is Spanish.  The society is a mix of first world and third world life. We saw comfortable homes and simple shacks. We also saw banana groves interspersed with cactus.

Finally, we reached Jimani, where we were welcomed by Padre Naftali, a priest from Haiti who has served for many years in the Dominican Republic.  The church of San Pablo Apostol – St. Paul the Apostle – is typical of the Episcopal Church in that country –  new, vibrant, evangelical and rapidly growing. Resources are limited but put to maximum use. There’s electricity in most places much of each day.

Water is delivered periodically by truck and pumped up to roof top cisterns when the electricity is available, though it’s not actually drinking water. There is no air conditioning, but the fans work much of the time and there is usually a breeze. 

The church is new, airy, and beautiful in a simple way. It serves both the established population of the town and also Haitian refugees.  Over the church are a parish hall and a small apartment for the priest.

Next door is a new medical clinic next door with dorm rooms on the second story for mission teams and for relief teams crossing into Haiti. There is also a church school under construction next door.

Here we lived for the next week. Our team of 12, with four Spanish speakers among us, worked with 10 local teens and one awesome grandmother, conducting Vacation Bible School for 175 children every day. The kids would begin lining up an hour early, and part of our team would lead them in singing as they waited, with more kids flocking down the roads to the church by the minute. After they were all checked in, we began each day with music and a skit.

Jim Munroe, the dean of our cathedral, was a show stealer in these skits, playing a sheep, then Satan, and many characters in between.

Then the kids were divided into three large groups by age, and distributed among thematically designed craft in the church, music and food upstairs (for some, their principal meal of the day), and games outside in the yard of an apartment building under construction. Then all came back together for a brief closing time and dismissal. My modest task was to get all three groups moving on time for each rotation.

We’d then have a meal with our Dominican collaborators and begin adjusting all our plans for the  next day based on the many surprises we constantly encountered. As this was the first VBS every to be held in this town, this was a work in progress all week long.

The final weekend was a time of contrasts. On Saturday, we all piled into a small bus with Padre Nafatli and crossed into Haiti. For many miles within the Dominican Republic there are army checkpoints, watching for Haitian refugees. The border itself was well guarded and daunting.

A very large lake in Haiti sits in the mountain pass at the border, and its water level has risen greatly over the last year. So the larger buildings at the border sit abandoned in the flood waters, along with many trucks.

The road though this pass – the main road for relief supplies going into Haiti – is in poor condition on the Dominican side. On the Haitian side, it’s been totally swallowed up by the lake and now consists entirely of crushed rock from the mountain side pushed into the lake to make a rough temporary roadway. Down this road was heading a steady stream of trucks – including an electrical supply truck from western Massachusetts

Then we were deposited, with all our supplies, in the no man’s land between the Dominican and Haitian border gates. We were intensely aware of how often neighbors are divided and at enmity in our world – Israelis and Palestinians, Greeks and Turks, Northern and Southern Sudan, Protestant and Catholic Ireland. 

This reality has echoes for me in our first scripture reading today, where the future patriarch Jacob schemes to trick his older brother Esau out of his birthright. That kind of enmity has been deep rooted between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Fortunately – blessedly – God has a way of entering such impossible conflicts and working through all our human stubbornness and creating something new. Last year’s cataclysmic earthquake in Haiti has led to such changes. And the two Episcopal dioceses of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have been pioneers in building the new bridges their great island so desperately needs.

And in a sign of this, a Haitian bus pulled up to our forlorn little group. Two Haitian Episcopal priests jumped out and embraced their Dominican colleague and the rest of us, and we were all to pile onto their bus and enter Haiti at last.

Immediately we saw great differences. On the Dominican side, cattle and goats were wandering about, grazing in the foliage on sides of the highway.

On the Haitian side, the mountains were deforested and cattle and goats were attempting to forage in lifeless soil and rocks. From the Dominican Republic, a country struggling for stability to find stability, we entered Haiti, the poorest nation in the entire Western hemisphere. And instead of four of us twelve speaking the language, we were all helpless in Creole.  

Soon we came to the village of Fond Parisien. The church there was established many years ago by the sisters of St. Margaret, from Roxbury. The buildings of its school are rudimentary, and show many cracks from the distant earthquake in Port au Prince, the capital city of Haiti. We’ve been able to provide them with $ 8,000 for repairs, with more to come, and we brought several suitcases full of school supplies.

The priest for the area, Pere Valdema, had until last week been serving six churches with a thousand worshippers on Sunday. In the last week, two of the churches, including this one, have been taken over by a young priest, Pere Frederic, who also teaches one day a week in the our seminary.

Outside the church there is abject poverty  and then a habitat-for-humanity style development of perhaps a hundred tiny, pastel colored houses for people who were both injured and displaced by the great earthquake.

We were welcomed warmly, and fed, and shared enthusiastic and beautiful worship with the people of Fond Parisien. Their resources are meager in the extreme. But the Episcopal Church is deeply rooted and vitally important in Haiti. It is by far the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church, and its schools – preschool to university level – have resumed functioning where the public institutions have simply been unable to do so. Educational aspirations remain very high, and the music sung by two groups of young people at our worship was breathtakingly beautiful.  We came back from that day sobered, moved and deeply concerned to help these brothers and sisters rebuild what little they have, and for us to learn from their faith and determination.

Our final full day in the Dominican Republic began with the parish Sunday Eucharist at St. Paul the apostle, which was also the closing service for the Vacation Bible School. It was exhilarating. Indeed, introducing VBS in the Dominican Republic increased Sunday attendance at church by 50%.

Bathed in music and prayer and praise, I looked out at the Body of Christ at work, alive and growing and vibrant. It was clear that God had planted many seeds in those young people, and in our team, and in the team of Dominican young people with whom we had worked.

It was not easy for the community that had formed that week to disperse. There were many, many tears.  But we came away from that place changed and more deeply aware than ever that the Body of Christ is indeed one body. We all have so much to receive from each other. And while our primary location for  mission for each of us in the place where we live, we also know in a new way that our connectedness to the needs of the world and to the power that God’s love is generating throughout the church and the world matters. 

Jesus challenges his disciples today with a question: What kind of soil are you for the word of God that has reached you, that tiny seed of faith that has been planted in your heart and in your mind and in your life? And he gives several examples and explanations.

If we’re honest, we will probably admit that all of Jesus’ descriptions apply to each of us some of the time.  The real miracle of the sower, for me, is God’s patience with us. God only needs one tiny grain of faith to really take root in us. And God only needs us to allow God to keep nurturing that seed as it turns into a green and vibrant shoot.

That was one of the activities that our children did in their VBS – planting one bean seed in a plastic cup with a few cotton balls and some water. Five days later, the Altar at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle was covered with green shoots.  A couple of hundred children had experienced the love of God springing up as they were seeing it in those plants. And we of the American team and our Dominican partners had seen and experienced that springing up of new life in ourselves and each other.  And each of us from western Massachusetts has come home a lot more aware of our individual and collective blessings, and a lot more aware of the power of the faith that is in us and in our brothers and sisters here and abroad.

Life seems overwhelming sometimes, here and in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti. And yet God calls us continually to faith, to new life, to joy and to abundance. And so St. Paul the Apostle says to us today that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead indeed is dwelling in us, and God will indeed give us new life through that Spirit. Let us not be rocky ground. Let us not be a briar batch. Instead,  let us cherish and share the faith that is growing in us.

Amen.

A Sermon Preached Pentecost 3A, July 3, 2011 @ St. James & St. George, Crissey Farm

by Lee Cheek, Lay Preacher

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67;
Canticle: The Song of My Beloved (Song of Solomon 2:8-13)
Listen to the music here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L69774G10Q
Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

“Arise, My Love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of a steep place, let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely.”

You know, I just couldn’t believe it when Francie and I settled on July 3d as the date when I would preach and be commissioned as a Lay Preacher in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. I looked at the assigned readings for this morning and thought, “Good Lord, what a dense bunch of stories!”

As I was pondering this, Francie noted that we had a choice of Psalm 45 or the canticle from the Song of Solomon. I recognized some of the words from a piece which John has sung on most of his recitals and which he sang, entirely appropriately, at our niece’s Christian marriage ceremony last summer. Without a second thought, I opted for hearing John sing it again because I thought you would enjoy it.

Little did I know how over these past three weeks the depth of beauty in Richard Hundley’s setting would open my eyes and my heart to the deep, profound message of these words.

I think Mr. Hundley captures quite perfectly the spacious, unhurried sweetness of the way Love communicates to us in the worst of our times—when we are dwelling in fear, resentment, or inadequacy. Or when we are covered over by the depth of our despair. Or when we are anxiously perched on the precipice of a too busy life.

“Arise, My Love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of a steep place, let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely.”

The actual author and dating of The Song are unknown and perhaps this is just as well because the words have been able to bear many interpretations over the centuries. Yet its soft gesture of a gently extended hand and the graceful tone of its invitation have remained the same. When the heart hears it, lives are changed. Even the world is changed as we saw last week in the foundational story of our faith.

“Abraham! Dear Abraham! Step away from what the unmerciful god of violence wants you to do. Let me see your face and hear the sweetness of your heart that does not want to kill an innocent child, your son.”

Spacious, unhurried sweetness. And Isaac, the precious son, was unbound, the blood of a ram was spilled instead, and the arc of human history began to bend away from the injustice of human sacrifice.[1]

Today’s reading from the 24^th chapter of Genesis is a telescoped compression of the story of Abraham’s servant who has been sent on a journey to find a wife for the now 40 year old Isaac.

I hope you will afford yourself the delight of reading the entire chapter, because in addition to enjoying the stretched out pacing of its repetitions and the richness of its detail, you will see that it is really the trusted servant who has a bead on who the True God of Love’s next matriarch should be.

On his quest, the servant stops at a well near the city of Nahor and feverishly prays to God that he will meet a girl with an outsized sense of hospitality who will offer to draw water for him and his ten camels. Before he even stops speaking, Love has quietly responded as a very fair young girl, Rebekah, comes out of the city and approaches the well to fill her water jar.

Though the text indicates she quickly lowers her jar for him to drink and that she quickly fills the trough for the camels, the story has a spacious sense of being deliberately drawn out as the servant gazes at her in silence.

“Arise, My Lord, from your anguish, and drink from the well. I will draw also for your camels, until they have finished drinking.”

Some of the verses that have been left out of today’s excerpt are about Rebekah’s brother Laban and they tell another story. His hospitality is extended only after he sees the jewelry that the traveler has given Rebekah. Negotiations follow and by the time Rebekah leaves with the servant, the contrast between a world of extraordinary generosity and the world of envious greed is clearly drawn.

And that brings us to Paul’s dense rhetoric in today’s excerpt from his letter to the Romans. These verses are essentially about the temptations of turning a divine warning about the consequences of envy back into a system of religious violence that the warning was designed to prevent in the first place.[2]

As Francie said last week, it was important to Paul, in anticipation of his visit to the Roman Church, that they understand what he now understood about love and mercy. When reading Paul’s letters, it is helpful for us to keep in mind how he came to his new understanding of love.

Some years earlier, Paul was on the road to Damascus was breathing threats and murder to Jews who were following the Way of the rabbi who caused so much trouble by eating and drinking with sinful tax collectors and other outcasts.

That rabbi—the one who had been scapegoated and lynched by a coalition of powers in Jerusalem—became alive to Paul right there on that road to Damascus. Unhurriedly and sweetly, Love Himself invited Paul into a recognition of his own loveliness and into the world of love that Paul had tragically lost hope of ever knowing.

“Paul! Paul! my fair one, my Love. Arise, and come away with me. Come out of the dark place of your blindness and let me see your beautiful face. Let me free your lovely voice to sing the song of the Real World of Love where no one is beyond loving.”

Paul began to see and understand what Jesus had been saying all along, especially as lined out in the verses we read from today’s gospel:

“You can’t make lovers of people by punishing them when they fail to love—you just have to love and forgive them as I do. If you continue to follow the trends of the marketplace about who is good and who is bad, who to include and who to exclude, who is worth loving and who is not, you will tire yourself out and end up in the same old stagnant place of un-Love you were desperately trying to avoid.”

Sadly, we all know firsthand that the voices (which include our own!) in the vicious, snarky world of tit-for-tat, me-first, blame-the-other-guy, and violence-as-usual—these voices are exceedingly compelling, much louder, and much more convincing, than the sweet, unhurried voice of Love.

That is why it is so terribly important for us to help one another by telling stories about how Love’s voice has broken through and how lives are changed by its invitation. So I want to tell you one more story, a very recent one of how Love’s Song can be heard even when it seems impossible.

About two weeks ago I was drawn to a story and accompanying video which appeared on the front page of the New York Times website because I recognized the name of mental health expert Marsha Linehan, whose treatment for severely suicidal people is used worldwide.[3]

She was at the Institute for Living in Hartford on June 23d to address friends, family, and doctors and for the first time to tell her personal story in public.

In 1961, Dr. Linehan had been hospitalized at the Institute as an extremely disturbed and suicidal teenager. In 1963, after 26 months of agonizing treatment, she was discharged with little hope of survival. In 1967, after two more suicide attempts and another hospitalization, she found a room in a Y.M.C.A. in Chicago and often visited a chapel in the Cenacle Sisters Retreat Center nearby.

In a video interview for the Times, she describes her complete and total despair one evening as she sat outside the door to the chapel. Knowing that no one could help her, she entered the chapel and knelt down.

When she looked up at the crucifix above the altar, suddenly everything went gold. The crucifix began to shimmer gold. Then the room was shimmering gold when, she says, “I had the unbelievable experience of God Loving Me!” She jumped up and ran out. When she got to her room she said out loud, “I love Myself!”

And the minute she said that out loud, she knew she had been transformed.

Of course, after that, her life, like Paul’s or Abraham’s, was not without challenges and trials, but the trajectory had bent in another direction and she knew she would never cross the line again to being, in her own word, crazy.

Can you imagine being so loved when all the voices of the world, including your own, are saying you are undeserving, unworthy? Yet, incredibly, the stories keep coming to tell us that Love, in its unhurried sweetness never gives up on us and never fails to see what we thought was impossibly lost or corrupted.

“Arise, My Love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of a steep place, let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely.”

---

[1] Girard, René, Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, (New York: Continuum, 2007), p. 203.

[2] For an expansion of this, please see Robert Hamerton-Kelly’s Sacred Violence: Paul’s Hermeneutic of the Cross (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992).

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html?scp=1&sq=marsha%20linehan&st=cse