A Love Story

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Cuero, Texas.
The lessons for the First Sunday after the Epiphany, The Baptism of Our Lord are here.

Do you remember your baptism?  If you were baptized as a baby, most likely not.  But do you know the story of it?  Did your parents or Godparents ever tell you of that day?  For those who were old enough to remember, do you ever really spend time pondering your baptism?  Are you brave enough to ask yourselves questions like why did I decide to be baptized and what difference has it made?  

Although seen as quite radical to those living in first century Palestine, John the Baptizer’s call to baptism wasn’t anything new.  Those who converted to Judaism were washed in a pool of water to signify the washing away of their old life and entering their new life as a Jew.  It wasn’t about membership but life – a new life lived every day according to the Ways of the God of Israel, grafted into the People of God.  John preached a baptism of repentance but not in the way that our modern western minds may go.  So often in our culture we conflate repentance with shame and guilt.  But the Greek word we translate as repentance means a change of heart and mind, literally a turning around, changing direction.  

What made John’s call to baptism so radical was that he didn’t call just those converting to judaism but the Jews themselves to this repentance baptism.  This had never been done before.  If they were born into God’s people and had lived in the framework of God’s commandments their whole life, what did they need to change, to turn away from? And what were they turning toward?  

John was fulfilling who God called him to be: the one who prepares the way for others to have a personal encounter with the coming Messiah, as God promised he would come and set things in order.  The Israelites had been living under political oppression for, well, for majority of the time since Abraham’s grandson Jacob fathered the twelve sons who would become the leaders of the twelve tribes.  Being rescued by God was their birthright.  The promise of the Messiah was their birthright.  Their whole lives were about keeping the rules that set them apart as God’s people so why did they need to repent?  What did they need to change?  

John was telling them they needed a change of heart and mind, a reorientation of what it is to be God’s people.  They needed to remember that living in God’s commands wasn’t a way to earn God’s love but a response to it.  

John is quite surprised and a bit shocked, I’d imagine, that Jesus came to him to be baptized.  John had been raised with the story of his conception and birth, the prophecy that he was to point the way to Jesus, his cousin.  But when Jesus got in line with the folks who were answering the call to baptism, John said, “hold up, you don’t need to change direction. You ARE the compass for the rest of us.  We should be coming to you.”  And Jesus assures him it is the right thing to do.

Jesus is God with us as a human being, born a vulnerable baby and growing up in the culture of God’s people.  He was the least likely to be in need of repentance or a change of heart or mind.  And yet he submitted to John’s call so that he could begin his ministry of showing us in flesh and blood this new way of being God’s people. 

Being God’s people isn’t just keeping a set of rules.  Being God’s people is about being in an active, life-long, intentional relationship with the God who made us and calls us beloved.  Jesus came to show us that keeping God’s commands is a response to God’s love for us, not a way to earn it. 

Just like in John’s day, baptism is an ushering in of a new life here and now, living as Jesus shows us to live, guided by God’s love for all people.  We are all born as God’s beloved, each with the image of God within us.  The life we choose to live in response to our baptism reflects God’s love for us so that others know they are God’s beloved, too. 

Following Jesus doesn’t set us above anyone but aligns us with all who have come before and who are walking this journey, too.  Our baptism orients us toward God and the life we are made for.  When we baptize our babies we are committing to raising up our children to live this life that Jesus has shown us how to live, a life in relationship with God, grounded in knowing that all people are made in God’s image, a life that participates with God in answering the prayer “your will be done on earth as in heaven.”  

John the Baptizer’s call to a baptism of repentance is a call to life in God’s Kingdom here and now, on earth as in heaven.  We follow Jesus in the life that offers a loving invitation to everyone we encounter.  John calls us and Jesus shows us what it is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.  

The promises we make at baptism are our loving response to the God who loved us before our baptism and loves us still.  Our baptism does so much more than make us members of the church.  Our baptism grafts us into God’s people, joint heirs of the Kingdom that operates with an economy of love and justice and mercy.  Living a baptized life, a life oriented toward God, following Jesus in the Way of Love is the life we are made for.  

So, whether or not you can recall the story of your baptism, know that it is a story of love, God’s love for you and hear God say “you are my beloved.”  Amen.  

The Wisdom of the Other

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the second Sunday after Christmas. (There are three options for the Gospel reading for today, I’m using Matthew 2:1-12.)

Throughout the stories we have in the Old Testament, God often enables those who would be considered outsiders to further God’s purposes.  In many of Jesus’ parables, it is the outsiders who demonstrate grace and compassion.  And in Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ earliest days, it is the outsiders who can see the light.  

These wise men, most likely astrologers or even Zoroastrian priests, came from the east.  In the Old Testament writings, to go East symbolized moving away from God, exile, and judgement.  Cain went East of Eden after murdering his brother.  The Israelites were exiled East to Babylon.  To come from the East means moving back toward God, redemption, and hope.  The sun rises in the East.  The second coming of Christ is to be from the East.  The wise men came from the East following a star, a sign in the heavens of something awesome.  

Apparently, though, this star didn’t alert everyone.  The shepherds near Bethlehem saw it.  But Herod or any of his court didn’t seem to take any notice, until he heard of these foreigners who were going around asking about the birth of the King of the Jews.  This is what got Herod’s attention.  Not some sign from the heavens that something awesome was happening but a rumor that threatened his power.  

These men were very wise.  They listened to Herod and then discerned what they should actually do.  They knew that Herod didn’t really want to pay this child homage but saw this vulnerable infant as a threat to all that he holds dear – power, wealth, and prestige.  And so, after honoring this tiny baby born to a poor family in a small town with gifts for royalty, they went home by another road.  These men, these foreigners/outsiders, knew the road that led to Herod was the wrong road.  

Jump forward in time a few thousand years and we are in a culture that still tries to tell us that outsiders are bad, evil, out to get us.  And we don’t even have to look outside our country’s borders to see it.  Whatever political tribe we align ourselves with, those who aren’t part of our tribe, those we label outsider, are bad, evil, out to get us.  Those who live in a different part of town.  Those who look different or sound different.  Those who have money.  Those who don’t have much money.  Those who worship in a different church. Our culture is conditioning us to see “others” as no good.  

And yet, we have this story of a group of men who represent all that God’s people should think is bad because of where they are from and the religion they practice are the ones who, along with the poor shepherds (definitely outsiders), see the sign of God’s love.  And they don’t just see it, they act on it.  They travel vast distances to honor what the light has told them is happening, even if they don’t fully understand it.  When they discover the baby they are seeking in a small, poor home rather than a palace, they don’t decide to keep their gifts.  They give them and honor the baby and family.  It was Herod, one who ‘belonged,’ who literally had the title ‘king of the Jews’ who sought to do harm. The outsiders honored the God whom they didn’t even worship.

This plot line isn’t unique in scripture.  We see it over and over again in the stories of our faith ancestors.  So often those who consider themselves on the ‘inside’ are blind to the true power and awesomeness of God – the Power of Love – because they are blinded by their own desire for the coercive and controlling power that keeps them on top.  God continues to work God’s redemptive purposes through who those on top would label ‘others’.

God chose to make himself known through a particular family and people group but God never intended for love and mercy and grace and justice to be offered only to those of that people group.  The mission of God’s people is to share all of God’s blessings to the whole world.  Labeling any human being as ‘the other’ and blindly assigning all of the bigoted baggage that goes with such a label is not God’s Way or God’s Plan.  

God’s love has always been an open invitation to everyone.  To follow Jesus means that we have been adopted into God’s family, joint heirs to the riches of the life that is guided by love, mercy, and justice.  Our mission, our purpose is to invite others in, not determine who we should keep out.  Any form of ‘Jesus following’ that defines itself by who they keep out isn’t following Jesus at all.  Any form of ‘Jesus following’ that spends energy teaching others who they should hate and fear isn’t following Jesus at all.  

The story of the wise men and Herod is the perfect illustration of what Jesus would do throughout his ministry on earth.  Jesus spent his ministry showing where those ‘on the inside’ were defying God’s invitation.  Those whom we need to wisely discern their motives, Jesus shows us, are those who hold power over us.  Do they really want to honor God or are they only interested in maintaining their own power?  

Like the men from the east, we too, need to be wise when others try to coerce us with ‘othering’ and we need to take a different road.  We need to keep our eyes on God’s light that illuminates the Way of Love so that those who walk in darkness can see the path and join us on the journey into God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  This is how we live the divine life of following Jesus.  Amen.

In the Beginning

A reflection on the Lectionary Readings for the first Sunday after Christmas Day.

On the first day of my New Testament class in seminary the professor had us write down on a piece of paper our favorite Gospel with a short sentence as to why it was our favorite, seal it in an envelope with our name on it and hand it in. On the last day of class, he returned it to us, still sealed and asked us to open it, read what we wrote and then, as part of our final exam, to discuss, how the gospel we chose could be used to introduce someone who had never really heard the Good News Story to Jesus. The professor did tell us that if our minds had changed over the course of the class, we could use one of the other gospels since he had never seen our answers.

I had written the Gospel according to John on my piece of paper and my mind hadn’t changed. It was and still is my favorite telling of the Good News Story of Jesus. In the three year church lectionary cycle, we don’t spend a year reading through John as we do the others (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) but each year John’s version of the Story is scattered throughout, seasoning the whole of the Story of God that is to shape and guide us as we follow Jesus in our day and time.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

God’s plan for God’s creation wasn’t reset with the birth of Jesus. The coming of the Messiah wasn’t plan B. From the very beginning of all there is, Jesus was, is, has been, and always will be. And the life and light that is Jesus is given to us by the God who pursues us even as we keep trying to make our own way. So much of the time, we begin our understanding of our relationship with God at the point in time where the first humans to walk with God chose to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil. We start with our human choice to damage the relationship rather than the creation of the relationship by God.

The writer of John reminds us that God’s choice to create us in love and by love and for love is the true beginning of the relationship. It is Love as God Loves that is the foundation of all that we are. God’s choice to give us the freewill that we so often misuse shows God’s capacity for unconditional love. God knew we would misuse our freewill and God knew that to learn to love as God loves, we needed to be able to choose for ourselves whether we want to love God, our neighbors, and, yes, our enemies. Love cannot be forced or coerced or controlled. Love can only be given and received.

When we begin our understanding of God with the human choice to go against God’s Way, we begin to lose sight of who and Whose we really are. This misguided understanding is what leads us eventually to the idea that some human beings are better than or worse than others. When we lead with the damaged relationship and base our understanding of God on the wretchedness of humans, we are not seeing the image of God in ourselves or each other. This theology is what enables church leaders to coerce others through fear of a wrathful God rather than lead with Love. This delayed start theology is what gives birth to shame and guilt, of the idea that we have to be ‘good enough’ for God or somehow earn God’s love and pleasure. To start our understanding of our relationship with God with what we humans did is the same misuse of our freewill that caused those first humans to choose their own way instead of God’s Way.

God’s love is good news to all people. The Story of Christmas is the story of God’s pursuit of God’s beloved. Even as God’s people continued to choose their own way, God never gave up on us. God came to be as one of us, the very humans God created, to live as us, to die so that we could know the everlasting life that doesn’t fear death. God’s Love is more powerful than our greatest fears, our biggest blunders, our most dangerous misuses of our freewill, or any of our failures or successes. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less than God Loves.

God came to us in the most vulnerable way, as an infant, to show us how powerful vulnerability is. God created us to be interdependent beings; to love requires an ‘other’. In God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, love says that we love each other as we love ourselves and to consider ourselves ‘wretched’ isn’t very loving, is it. When we choose to follow Jesus we are born anew as God’s beloved children. This gift of adoption isn’t earned but given to us by the God who loves us. The best response from us is to live life learning to love more and more like Jesus every day. Like John, we point to the light of God for the glory of the God of love.

I’m not sure exactly how I answered my New Testament professor’s question all those years ago. But I do know that the Gospel according to John is still my favorite and that my understanding of our relationship with God continues to grow as we follow Jesus here and now as beloved children of God. As we approach the new calendar year, I invite you to spend some time with John’s version of the Good News. Listen through the lectionary cycle this year as it peppers the scheduled readings through the church seasons. Open your understanding of who God is and Whose we all are to begin at the beginning of Love. Let God’s Love for you shine the light of love in the dark places of our world.

Anticipating Love

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

Here we are at the fourth Sunday of Advent. Christmas is only four days away. The anticipation continues. The excitement of the unknown being revealed is building. Or is the stress of too much to do weighing down on you? Is the sadness of a celebration without someone you miss so much your whole body hurts pressing in? Are you feeling more cynical than celebratory with all that is going on in our country and the world that is so anti-christmas? Are you a mix of all of this? I am.

And, I imagine, so were Mary and Joseph some two thousand years ago. Yes, I know that they didn’t have what we call Christmas. They weren’t preparing for a festive celebration on a specific day with all of the decorations and shopping and cooking and traveling that have come to define our 21st century western Christmas celebrations. But they did have a world in which those in power only wanted more and more power at the expense of the very people they were supposed to be “leading.” They did have the anticipation of something unknown becoming known. They were, I’m sure, experiencing the pain of someone who had died not being present for their upcoming marriage and birth of their baby.

I’m getting a little ahead of our gospel reading today, so let’s look at it. Matthew gives us insight into Joseph, one of the least known and most significant figures in the Good News Story of God’s Love. In the laws of their day, the engagement was as binding as the marriage. To break an engagement was on par with getting divorced. Mary had apparently told him of her pregnancy and Joseph had every legal right to undo their agreement. But he didn’t want to bring shame to Mary or her family even though he thinks he’s been betrayed by Mary (can we blame him for not believing her about the whole ‘I’m pregnant by God’ thing?). As he’s pondering how to do this very hard thing with everyone’s best interest at heart Joseph learns the rest of the story from an unexpected visitor.

The angel tells Joseph the truth of the situation and Joseph accepts it. The long awaited and prophesied Messiah is growing in Mary’s womb. God is coming to be among us, Emmanuel. And Jospeh takes on the role of God’s earthly father knowing many will assume the worst of Mary and him.

Joseph’s behavior and actions are the epitome of Love, our word for this fourth Sunday of Advent. Joseph, in a difficult relationship situation wants not to hurt or retaliate or get revenge. Joseph wants to do what’s best for everyone involved and when he learns the reality of the situation, he is willing to admit he didn’t have all the information and he pivots, continueing the course he’s been asked to journey.

Genuine Love, love as God loves us and as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to love isn’t some gushy Hallmark Christmas Movie template thing. Love makes the hard decision with the well-being of all involved. Love does what’s best for all even if some will say it makes us look weak. Love seeks the truth of the situation, seeks justice, seeks to follow Jesus. And when harm is done, love listens and sits with the suffering, seeing the image of God in all. Love holds those who cause harm accountable while balancing mercy and justice. Love levels the playing field instead of holding power over anyone else.

I wish we knew more about Joseph and how he navigated being a father to God as Jesus grew up. What an amazing thing to do. Parents want nothing more than for their children to grow up to be who God made them to be (and we have to navigate our own egos that try to force them into who we think they should be, but that’s another conversation). And all the while we, as parents, are continuously striving to be who God made us to be. Imagine how this journey must have been like for Joseph.

Give thanks to God for the example we have in Joseph. Let the brief encounter we have with Joseph open us all up to the continuous shaping of ourselves by the Holy Spirit to learn to love better and better each day. Each day we anticipate in what unknown and unexpected ways we may encounter the presence of God with us. As we ponder the challenges of this world and the hard relational situations we face, let Love as God loves be our guide.

Don’t fret about getting it ‘perfect’. I’m sure Joseph didn’t all the time, he was, after all just as human as we are. Remember that when God made each of us God knew where and how we’d trip up along this journey of love and gives us the stories of Jesus and our faith ancestors and each other as fellow Image Bearers to help keep us on course. An angel of God visited Joseph in a dream to help him correct his course, saying don’t be afraid to be who God made you to be. It is fear that gets us off course. And it is love that sets us back on the right path.

Whatever you are feeling in these days before Christmas, trust and know that God is with you, Emmanuel.

The Power of Joy

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the Third Sunday of Advent.

Stir up your power, O God, and with great might, come among us!!! What an expression of joy! Don’t you think?

It’s so hard to feel joy right now. I’ve been singing along with Christmas music on the radio a little more enthusiastically than I have in previous years in an effort to stir up the Joy that is part of the anticipation of Advent. If you haven’t guessed it already, the word for this third Sunday (can you believe it?!) of Advent is Joy.

With all of the anger and hate in our country, I want more than anything for God to come among us with God’s great power of Love. John the Baptizer wanted it too. I know we are supposed to be preparing for Christmas but our Gospel reading for today is in the middle of the story of Jesus’ earthly ministry and John is in prison. A challenging place, for sure, to reflect about Joy.

John had done as God had asked, he was faithful and humbly (albeit directly and energetically) pointed all who came to him to the Messiah. He didn’t take credit for any of it, didn’t look to get rich or famous or even have a fancy wardrobe or be seated at the best tables. John the Baptizer faithfully did what was his to do in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. He was in prison because he made those in power uncomfortable because he knew true power wasn’t the thrones of this earth but the love of God for all people. John the Baptizer was a messenger of Joy.

Joy is found in the deepest part of us that remembers that we are created good as God’s beloved. Joy is the feeling of wholeness when we realize the way God came to us as a helpless infant to grow and live as we do, when we comprehend that God finds us worthy to, well, find us where we are, as we are. Joy is knowing that God says our lives are worth more to God than God’s own life. What great power there is in knowing this.

The only appropriate response to this most powerful love is to live a life sharing this love to the best of our ability and with God’s help. Even in the hard times, especially in the hard times, God’s love is present to us and the more we share it the more we have to share. And, yes, we mess it up. A lot. We are hindered by our egos that mistakenly tell us we are worth more or less than anyone else. And God comes to us to remind us who and Whose we are. And God forgives us and loves us.

I was recently on a walk with my 7 year old granddaughter and she was trying to “feel” God. She’d asked me earlier if God was in heaven and I said yes, and that God is also everywhere and in us. We stopped at some lovely flowers and asked her how she felt when she looked at them and she said flowers made her happy. And then I asked how she felt when she hugged her mommy and daddy or played with her sister. She thought for a while trying to find the right words and said she felt love and I said that’s what God feels like. Of course, I went on to say that God isn’t just with us when we are happy but also when we are sad (this is why I don’t teach children, y’all, I never know where to stop), that God is with us always even if we don’t feel God. She looked very thoughtful for a while as we walked and I was waiting for what she would ask next but instead she got distracted by a lovely display of Christmas decorations in the neighbor’s yard. I was grateful for the distraction as we finished our walk in our own thoughts.

In her childlike questions and ideas, I found deep joy – the presence of God with us in her desire to understand this amazing world God made and my adult fumbling in trying to provide the ‘perfect’ explanation. This is how Joy shows up. In the midst of the ordinary happenings of our days when we catch a glimpse of the beauty of God’s creation and childlike delight. When we feel love even when the world is harsh and unkind. When we are content just to be with another person. When we are content just to be who and Whose we are.

In this Advent season, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, look for God to show up in the ordinary moments of your day. When you are feeling stressed by so much to do or what’s happening in the world, look for God to show up in the simple routines and rhythms of waking and eating and drinking and talking with others. And when you doubt that God can show up where you are, ask someone to remind you.

John the Baptizer sent people to ask Jesus to reassure him and Jesus told them to look at what they could see – all the ways God’s love disrupted what people thought was the status quo. Jesus told them to look at all the ways God’s love breaks through the pain and suffering in this world and the way God is present in this world. God’s love is good news to those who need good news. God’s good news upends what we think we know about who is first and who is last and what true greatness means. The good news of God is that all are beloved children whom God comes to to reminds us of the goodness in us.

So, this third week of Advent, let Joy come to you. Listen to your soul remind you of God’s greatness, of God’s love for you.

To close with, I’d like to share this poem I came across this week. It’s appropriately titled “Joy”:

Amen.

Peace Making

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the Second Sunday of Advent.

The word for this Second Sunday in Advent is Peace.  When I watch the news, Peace feels elusive these days.  Our political scene in the U.S. has devolved into a continuous playground battle for superiority and most of what I see is people attempting to feel superior by yelling louder insults in an attempt to dehumanize large groups of people.  If we have to step on others to elevate ourselves, we are not making peace.  Domination, whether it is with insults and verbal violence or physical violence and force, is artificial peacekeeping because life for the one who’s insulted and oppressed has no peace at all.  

Jesus says blessed are the Peace Makers and all of our lessons for today describe what the Peace Making Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is like.  The prophet Isaiah offers a poem of the peaceable Kingdom in which all violence is ended as God restores all of creation.  But don’t take it literally, because that lets us humans off the hook if we can make ourselves believe that a restored creation is only about how the animals behave.  Isaiah isn’t saying that God is going to change the digestive systems of the animals.  It is the proper order of God’s creation for wolves to prey on lambs.  

I remember when I was a child, my family would watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom every Sunday.  When we would be upset at the lions eating the gazelles, Dad would explain to us that the lion isn’t being mean, the lion is being a lion and that God made the lion to hunt and made the gazelle to be an important part of the food chain that kept creation going.  Gazelles and lions and wolves and lambs and leopards and goats only know how to be what God made them to be.  They live in the interdependence of God’s creation.  It wasn’t the animals that made the choice to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil.  

Prophets, like Jesus, often told parables or stories to illustrate the hard point they were making.  The scenes Isaiah describes upend our ideas of this world.  These scenes are meant to make us rethink how we see the world around us and ask hard questions of ourselves.  Has human violence against other humans become as normal as a wolf hunting a lamb?  Has human fear of other humans become as normal as a calf running from a lion? 

Human violence and human fear are not part of God’s well ordered, interdependent creation.  These are human ideas built from the broken desire to dominate others.  And when we attempt to dehumanize others, we are also dehumanizing ourselves.  And, I won’t even say we become animals because that would insult the animals.  

So, what about the gospel story for today?  Why are we reading about John the Baptizer calling others names if we are supposed to be imagining the Peaceable Kingdom of God?  What do peacemaking and repentance have to do with each other?  Everything.  Repentance is a change of mind, a turning from one way to another.  John the Baptizer baptized those who wanted to live a new way, the way of God.  And this new way is a life of peacemaking.  In this new way the King will judge the poor with righteousness and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.  Children will be safe from harm and everyone will know God.  All of creation will be restored to God’s original intent.  

The Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to be baptized but John questioned their motivations.  John needed to disrupt their way of thinking, to upend their worldview, just as Isaiah was trying to do with his poem.  John just chose to be more direct and less poetic than Isaiah.  John wanted them to face some hard questions about themselves.  Did they really want to give up the power they had over others?  Or where they hoping that John’s call for repentance would be yet another way they could control others through shame and fear?  Did they want to have their own relationship with God or continue to ride the coattails of their ancestors?  It wasn’t Abraham’s righteousness that earned him God’s choosing.  God had spoken to Abram and Abram had done as God asked.  God credited Abram with righteousness because Abram believed what God promised and did what God asked of him.  The Pharisees and Sadducees felt entitled to the fruit of God’s kingdom rather than being willing to bear good fruit for the good of the Kingdom. 

The fruit worthy of repentance is the fruit we bear when we seek to be the humans God made us to be: interdependent on each other and God as we work to build up others not tear them down.  To bear the fruit of the Kingdom we have to let go of all that keeps us from being who and Whose we are made to be.  We have to let God clear us of our chaff.  Every wheat grain is encased in chaff, but for the wheat to do what wheat is made to do, the chaff must be removed. 

Peacemaking means disrupting the artificial peacekeeping status quo, it means we have to change our worldview to a Kingdom view.  Peace making seeks out injustice and strives to remake the systems that mistreat or oppress people.  Peace making works toward equity, mutuality, and justice for everyone.  Peace making begins with the knowledge that all people are created in the image of our Loving God and that all people are beloved children of God.  Peace making enables everyone to be fully human. 

The prophets of God spoke in ways that enabled others to change their hearts and minds, to repent.  Isaiah’s and John the Baptizer’s message is as poignant today as when they spoke aloud.  When we make the choice to not let violence, whether verbal or physical, become normalized, our peace making efforts from prayer to protests will help some to change their hearts and minds.  No effort is too small to participate with God in the building up of the peaceable kingdom.  Peace Making isn’t a one time endeavor but a life of following Jesus. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Hope

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Advent.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the season before Christmas in the church calendar in which we intentionally anticipate what is to come. In our instant gratification society, so many have lost the excitement of anticipation, the shaping of ourselves that happens in hopeful waiting.

In the church of my childhood, the gospel story we read today was used to frighten us. If we weren’t ‘ready’ for the second coming, we’d spend eternity in fire and torment. If we weren’t ‘ready’ we’d get left behind. There was even a so-called Christian song about it. The song didn’t offer hope or encouragement or even instruction on how to be ready, just the doom that came with not being ready.

One of the many things I am grateful for having learned in the Episcopal Church is the understanding that our response to Jesus’ invitation ‘Follow Me’ is about living our regular ordinary days here and now AND the life to come. We are invited to participate with God’s redemptive purposes in this life as we reveal the Love of God in and through our lives. We journey with Jesus for a purpose not a goal.

Prior to the bit of Matthew’s telling of the good news we read today, Jesus has been talking about the very real and scary events in this world: wars, earthquakes, famine, persecutions, and great suffering. He warns against false prophets and false messiahs. And he says plainly that no one will know when the time will be that God will come and renew all of creation and so we must be awake and alert for what is to come.

The things Jesus talks about, eating and drinking, marrying, working, tending to the needs of our families, these are the ordinary things of every day life. And in our regular lives, unexpected disruptions occur: job loss, death, illness, broken relationships. Are we ready for God to show up in the midst of the struggles of this life? Are we ready for God to show up when we are doing the ordinary things of life? Do we live in hope or fear?

God’s greatest desire is to be in daily relationship with each of us. Jesus came to show us in flesh and blood what this looks like. It doesn’t look like fear or competition. It looks like companionship, mercy, and grace. To be ready for God to show up in our every day looks like the love God has for us.

Jesus says over and over that this Kingdom of God is available to us now, almost as much as he says do not be afraid. He isn’t offering us an escape from this world but the means of navigating it. Wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions have been happening since long before Jesus came and will continue until in God’s timing the New Heaven and New Earth come to be. Our purpose as we follow Jesus is to shine the light of God’s Love in the midst of all of it. And, yes, there will be times when we can’t, we each at times become overwhelmed by the unexpected sorrows of life and in those moments the Jesus-following community around us shines the light for us so that no one feels left behind.

Jesus uses the metaphor of God showing up like a thief not to make us fearful but to illustrate how God can take us by surprise. When we work daily on our awareness of God, we become more and more ready to receive God’s Love so that we are still always in awe of God and always aware that God is with us.

It’s natural to want relief from the suffering and pain in this world. Together we regularly cry out to God “how long”? And together we keep our eyes on Jesus and our hearts open to the Holy Spirit, trusting in God’s timing. We weep with each other, celebrate with each other, and work for the benefit of each other.

Today’s Advent word is HOPE. Hope isn’t necessary in an instant gratification world. Hope isn’t wishful thinking. Hope is the wisdom of trusting God’s Way, remembering that God is with us always. The life God wants for us, the life God made us for cultivates hope because it is a life of relationships. And relationships take a lifetime to cultivate. Relationships are living and growing. Relationships have purpose not goals. Our relationship with God and our relationships with each other enable us to be fully human as God made us to be. I cannot be fully who God made me to be without God or without you.

Our life with God isn’t just about the next life, but this one also. In all that we think, say, and do, we are to want good for all people. Most of us don’t have the means to change the whole world but we do have the daily opportunity to shine God’s light of Love to those around us. We can share the hope we have in God knowing the more we share the more there is. We can live always inviting others in and never scheming to keep some out. God doesn’t want anyone left behind and neither should we.

This is a busy season. Many of us are making preparations for the celebration of Christmas. That’s what Advent is for: preparing, waiting, anticipating. Make time each day to wait on God to reveal God’s presence with you. Light a candle, sit quietly and listen. Whatever comes into your thoughts, offer it to God, your fears, your worries, your struggles, your wishes and dreams. Hold on to the sure and certain hope that God is with us always. Be ready to receive God’s love. Amen.

Kings and Kingdoms

A reflection on the Lectionary Readings for Christ the King Sunday.

In the church calendar, today is known as Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year and the Sunday before we enter the season of Advent.

It feels so uncomfortable to talk about kings right now. This title has become yet another divisive word in our national landscape. In ChurchLand, this year marks 100 years that Christ the King Sunday has been a part of the Liturgical Calendar. In 1925 Pope Pius XI established the day to address the rise in secularism and fascism in post world War I Europe. Pope Pius wanted to remind folks that Christ is the ultimate ruler and to direct attention to the way Christ rules in juxtaposition with the kings of this earth who seek to hold power over others by dominating and oppressing those in their rule.

The Old Testament reading assigned to today is the prophet Jeremiah’s proclamation of the coming Messiah. And we’ll get to it in a bit but the story of Israel’s first king is helpful in understanding how the talk of kings became part of our story as God’s people. The tribal elders went to the prophet Samuel saying they wanted to be like the nations around them. They wanted a king. God warned them that an earthly king would be oppressive and abuse the power but they continued to ask for one and so God let them have their way. God said this was their rejection of God who had been their ruler since the days of Abraham. The people of God wanted to be more like the kingdoms of this world than like God. They chose their own kingdom over God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

Throughout the Old Testament stories, we see how these kings struggled with power, how they abused and oppressed their people because having power over others meant more than the people themselves. Times haven’t changed much. Whether we call our rulers kings or presidents or governors or CEOs or managers or priests or bishops, power is a risky business.

This Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, is the last Sunday before we enter the Season of Advent as we anticipate the coming of God as the infant Jesus, the Messiah proclaimed by Jeremiah. The God of Love chose to come as one of us, to remind us in flesh and blood what it is to be God’s people. We live under the rule and authority of earthly rulers, some who rule well and some who rule dangerously. And always we are to hold up Jesus as the model of power and God as our authority.

Jesus was not a king who took to a throne but The King who knelt at his friends feet and washed them, who fed the hungry, who healed the sick, who restored those on the margins to the wholeness of being in community. Jesus lifted up those whom society and the rulers at best ignored and at worst oppressed.

Jesus led by love and compassion, not fear. Jesus fed the hungry without asking them to justify themselves. He broke the cultural norms that created hierarchy and competition. Jesus taught that it’s not the poor who are the problem in society but the greedy who take from others for their own gain. When he was tempted to take power on his own terms, he refused.

Jesus spoke out against the harm done by those in leadership positions, in the government and in the temples and synagogues. And these leaders murdered him for it. To be clear, it was the Roman Empire who murdered him. The religious leaders didn’t have the authority to do so; their complicity lies in promoting it and letting it happen because they thought it would benefit them and enable them to maintain their power.

Things haven’t changed much in 2000+ years. Those who are currently in governmental power have slaughtered the teachings of Jesus and many in church authority have helped them do it. Power has become the most important thing to those who hold the highest offices in the US. The actual people they are to be leading mean very little to them.

When God gave in to the Israelites demand for a king, God didn’t say ‘ok, worship me and do as you like under the authority of your king’. God warned them that the king they chose would shape their lives for bad or for good. God warned them that to give a person power over others is a risky business. God warned them that power over others corrupts the heart of those who wield it.

Our lesson on this Christ the King Sunday is to know that those we choose to lead our country shape our lives. Our faith in God, our belief in Jesus, must shape who we choose. If we vote for those who lead by fear and intimidation, we are not holding Jesus up as a leadership model. If we are willing to make excuses for or ignore the intentional harm caused by our governmental leaders, we become complicit in that harm.

So although it may be uncomfortable to talk about kings, it is fitting that Christ the King Sunday is the end of the church year. All this talk of kings should cause us all to take notice of who we hold up as our model leader. Who is it we follow? Whose Kingdom are we participating in? Whose Kingdom are we most loyal to? The season of Advent is also the time of intentional anticipation of the coming of Jesus every day as we live in our daily routines.

These are not easy questions. These are important questions that open us up to the guidance and formation of the Holy Spirit so that we can grow to be more like The One we follow. In the Gospel reading for today, a jump forward in the readings to Jesus’ brutal murder, the man dying next to him asked to be remembered by Jesus. And Jesus responds in the same manner as when the disciples asked Jesus to send the people away so they could find something to eat. Jesus told the disciples “you give them something to eat” and Jesus told this man “you will be with me”. Jesus would do more than remember him, Jesus would walk with him.

Our faith in God and belief in Jesus aren’t passive. Jesus invites us all to follow him so that every aspect of our life is shaped by our faith and belief. With all that we are and all that we do, the purpose for which God created us is to reveal the image of God within us so that those who are hurting in this broken world know God’s Love in and through us. This is what it is to live in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

The season of Advent is also the time we anticipate the coming again of the Messiah when God brings about the New Heaven and New Earth restoring all of creation to the original intent. To follow Jesus is to live as if this has already come to be. In God’s Kingdom, no one is hungry or alone. We all participate with God to alleviate suffering. We want for our neighbors what we want for ourselves. God is our authority. Jesus is King. Amen.

Don’t Grow Weary

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.

The world is a mess, Y’all. I wrote a piece this past week for my facebook page using Paul’s words from Galatians “do not grow weary of doing what is right” because I wanted to encourage others to not give up doing good even when we feel like we have little to no impact.

And then I saw that in today’s readings we get the same message from Paul. So, apparently, we really need to hear this! In his second letter to the church in Thessaloniki Paul is responding to reports he’s gotten that there are those who are leading disordered lives, lives no longer aligned with the teachings of Jesus. Scholars have speculated several possible reasons. Some may have the attitude that since Jesus is coming back soon why bother with do much or that some were serving the Roman elites even if what they were asked to do went against the teachings of Jesus.

Whatever their reasoning, Paul’s correction is clear. Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to live the ordered life of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. What we are able to do we are to do for good of all.

But this doesn’t mean that we are licensed to dictate to others how they should serve. This is the only place in all of scripture that the greek word (periergazomai) translated as ‘busybodies’ is used. Strongs Concordance says it is “used apparently of a person officiously inquisitive about others affairs.” Vine’s Expository Dictionary says the Greek renders “some who are not busied in their own business, but are overbusied in that of others.”

I read in this a two-fold correction by Paul. We are to live well-ordered lives patterned after Jesus so that we work together to build up the body of Christ. And also that we don’t get so caught up in finding what we think others are doing wrong that we forget to do our own work. We are to build each other up, offer constructive correction when we see others are out of order with Jesus’ teachings, and our main focus of correction is to be ourselves.

And all of this flows from the Gospel lesson for today as Jesus offers us words of understanding and encouragement. Life is hard and the world is a scary place. When humans decided they knew better than God how to define right and wrong, good and evil and decided to build their own kingdoms, the beautiful and good world that God created was damaged. And the human harm continues to this day.

Jesus tells us to stand firm in the faith that God will set things right in God’s timing. Justice will prevail and God’s goodness will fill the new heaven and new earth. Until then, life will be hard at times and we cannot let fear take control of us. And as we hold tight to the hope of God’s promises we can’t lose sight of the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. We stand brave and strong in the path of Jesus and keep doing what is right, keep living The Way of Love. Some will try to distract us from the here and now and attempt to control us with fear. Others will turn against us. Jesus tells us to remember that God is with us and the life we are choosing to live is the life we are really made for, even as many in this world have lost sight of God’s Kingdom.

This isn’t blind optimism or toxic positivity. It is faith in God and standing strong because of who and Whose we are. We don’t pretend life isn’t hard difficult at times, we just know that God is good and his promises prevail. We remember God and sing praises and give thanks for all God has made and all God does to love us. And we do what is ours to do to show others what God’s Kingdom looks like.

God’s Kingdom looks like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, showing hospitality to strangers, holding those who cause harm accountable, being willing to acknowledge our own wrongdoings, and wanting for our neighbors what we want for ourselves. This is how we show that we love God and how we invite others into this Kingdom.

A well ordered Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven life doesn’t mean that we have to do everything or work our fingers to the bone. It means we do what is ours to do, what is within our ability and means. It means that we use what we have to help others. It means we do the hard internal work of letting the work of the Holy Spirit shape our hearts to be like Jesus’ heart.

Paul wrote his letter to the earliest of churches some 2000+ years ago. The people he wrote to were trying to figure out what it is to follow a risen savior who was no longer physically present with them. Many of them had never heard Jesus teach first hand and had come to know Jesus through Paul’s teaching. They didn’t have it all figured out. Paul didn’t have it all figured out. The disciples who lived with Jesus day in and day out for three years didn’t have it all figured out. And things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. We are still, as every generation before us and all that will come after, trying to figure out what it is to follow a risen savior in our day and time. God doesn’t expect anything else from us. We don’t have to be perfect, just willing to do our best with God’s help.

And the best resource we have for developing and deepening our understanding of who God is is our holy scriptures. These are the stories of our faith ancestors and how they, since creation, have lived into their trust in God. These are the stories of how they got it right and how they got it wrong. The stories of when they chose God’s Way and when they chose their own and the consequences of each choice. And through it all God continues to love and forgive and seek us out. Our scriptures are the grand and eternal story of God coming to us, to show us love, to show us who we really are and invite us to walk with God, to live on earth as in heaven. Let these stories shape and guide who we are always becoming. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them so that we hold fast to the hope of the life we are made for.

Don’t be afraid even when the world seems so scary around us. Know what Jesus teaches. Keep following Jesus. Know who and Whose you are. Remember that everyone is made in God’s image, even if it seems impossible to see it in some. Together and with God’s help we continue to build each other up, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is who we are created and called to be. Amen.

Resurrection Living

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Cuero, TX.
The lectionary readings for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Good morning! It’s so nice to be back with y’all today. Are you ready for another “I knew Peter when” story? Way back in 2014, I led a group of folks on a retreat to Holy Cross Monastery in New York. This monastery is home to a group of Episcopal monks who spend their days in prayer and worship, lead spiritual retreats, and host guests in their guesthouse. It’s an amazing place where you experience life grounded in the presence of God with us and framed in prayer. The trip played a role in Peter’s discernment to the priesthood. It’s his story to tell so I’ll let y’all ask him about the details if you choose, I’ll just use it as a reference point to ask this question: were you aware there was such a thing as religious orders, groups of men and women living in community with each other in the ancient rhythms of prayer and worship and hospitality, in the Episcopal Church?

We don’t hear much of religious orders nowadays but they are real and I want to share a story of some modern day nuns in Austria. This small group of three, each in their 80s, have made the news because they recently fled the nursing home they were moved to against their will and moved back into the convent they had lived all of their adult lives. In doing so, their community has surrounded them in support and love and the attendance at mass in their chapel is increasing every week. So, with the overall decline worldwide in church attendance, you’d think those ‘in charge’ would be pleased . But they are not. Because these strong, resilient women broke rank of church hierarchy and followed what they believe to be God’s call for them. And people are responding positively to their devotion to God, even as the church authorities are nursing bruised egos. Not unlike the story in our gospel reading this morning.

Jesus is confronted by a group of Sadducees who are feeling threatened by the popularity of his good news message. The Sadducees, part of the temple leadership, approach Jesus with a question they think will cause him to look foolish to the crowds. They didn’t believe in any form of resurrection and that death was it. When you died, they believed, you ceased to exist which adds weight to the importance of having children as this is what kept your legacy alive. They also believed that only the five Books of Moses held scriptural authority and that none of these books teach about resurrection. So their question wasn’t to clarify doctrine or understanding, it was to catch Jesus in an impossible situation.

What they bring up is known as Levirate marriage, a law that says if a married man dies without any children, his brother must take his widow in marriage. The official intent of this law was to ensure the woman was cared for in her later years by her husband’s family as well as ensuring the continued legacy of the husband, but the real effect was to treat her as property without any agency in her own life.

Jesus, as he so often does, turns their scenario back on them. He knows they don’t really want an answer, they just want to discredit him. Jesus takes God’s words to Moses from the burning bush to say that God is a God of the living or else why would God have described himself to Moses as he does? God said “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not I WAS. God speaks in the present tense. How could this be possible if these ancestors were not somehow alive after their physical death?

Jesus undoes their original assumption that current cultural norms will also persist after death. Jesus makes it clear that regardless of our understanding of who others are or their place in our culture, in the New Heaven and New Earth of God’s Kingdom we will live into the core of our identity as Children of God. We will be part of a new age in which the cultural norms will be of God’s Kingdom, not earthly kingdoms.

This was very good news to someone like the widow in the Sadducees scenario. In the economy of God’s Kingdom, her value and worth aren’t dependent on her relationship with anyone but God. And even better news is we don’t have to wait until death to claim our identity as God’s beloved children. Jesus tells us that God’s Kingdom is already with us and we are to live accordingly.

It is with this understanding that we live in the answer to the prayer that Jesus gives us as we ask that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. God is the God of the living, of our lives here and now AND of our lives after this one. Jesus doesn’t give us much more than this story about what the next life will be like but he does give us much about what this life, here and now, can look like.

Our faith is a living faith that is to guide all that we think, say, and do so that we both reveal the image of God within us and see the image of God in others. To go back to the story of the three nuns in Austria, their superiors are behaving much like the Sadducees in the Gospel lesson: they want these women to conform to the cultural norms that say they are too old to live and work in the convent that is their home and in doing so the church leaders are losing sight of the good that their presence in the community is doing, revealing that God is a Living God and the God of the Living.

And so we need to regularly be willing to ask ourselves where do we try to force fit the Kingdom of God into our cultural norms instead of letting the Holy Spirit guide us in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven? What are our own undiscovered biases that prevent us from seeing others as children of God here and now? Are we willing to stand against our own cultural norms that are contrary to God’s Kingdom?

All people are invaluable to God. We each have agency and freewill to live our lives in response to God’s love or not. Jesus’ invitation to follow him into the Kingdom here and now is very good news indeed. We are resurrection people. We have the choice to live in the freedom afforded us with our identity as God’s beloved, citizens and heirs of God’s Kingdom here and now grounded in the sure and certain hope that God will set all to rights when the New Heaven and New Earth come to be.

Together, we are all called to follow Jesus into the Kingdom, continuously formed into who God calls us to be, whatever age we are, wherever we live. The prayers of those called to live their lives in religious orders are for all of us, for the conditions of the world so that we, too, live in the ever growing awareness of God’s presence with us here and now as we shine the light of God’s love for all in our own community. Amen.