A Trendy Revolution

Hey, Y’all. How’s your coffee on this fine Tuesday? More importantly, how are you?
Can I share with you that I am just completely perplexed at the world right now? Not so much over what is happening – the pandemic, the huge influx of migrants at the southern US border, the collapse of Afghanistan, not to mention the natural disasters that seem to be coming at us daily – but our collective response to human tragedy. I am perplexed that we don’t seem to want to see these situations as human tragedies but as someone else’s agenda that we must fight against for no other reason than to defend a political label.

It makes me heart sick when it seems that all we want to do is create a fight about everything: who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s to blame, who’s responsible, who started it…. We spend so much energy deflecting attention away from the truth that there are human beings suffering and it is our responsibility to work together with God to alleviate it to the best of our ability.

Jesus teaches us to see the world through the eyes of compassion, never losing sight of the human beings in front of and all around us.

How would we all be different if instead of a pandemic we saw the faces of millions of human beings sick and suffering and dying?

How would we be different if instead of labeling the migrants coming across the southern US border as ‘illegals’ we saw human beings fleeing a life we know nothing about to try and get even a bit of what we take for granted every day?

How would we be different if instead of pointing the finger of blame we looked at each other and said, “I see you as a beloved child of God” and used our energy and efforts to help rather than blame and complain?

How would we all be different if we took what Jesus teaches seriously and let Love shape our responses to the human tragedies of this world? I know it is very much out of fashion in our twenty first century, individualistic, consumer driven world to claim the responsibility of each other’s wellbeing, but it is the trendiest trend of all time in the economy of God’s Kingdom to bear one another’s burdens. We just have to decide which economy we promote and in which kingdom we claim our primary citizenship.

I am not be able to solve all the world’s problems but I am able with God’s help to respond from a place of compassion to all that I see going on. Together we can make the world a more compassionate place. Together we can be a part of the revolution of the good news of Jesus Christ. I don’t see blaming and complaining making the world a better place, do you? We know that love brings about heaven on earth so let’s use what we know.

Receiving

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, San Antonio, TX.
The Lectionary readings for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Like last week, we begin where we ended, repeating the words of Jesus as he says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This linking together of our readings during these weeks as we focus on Jesus ‘bread of life’ sermon helps us see the wholeness of God’s story and our connectedness to God, each other, and all things.

Hearing Jesus’ “Bread of Life” sermon while sitting in our comfortable chairs, in our air conditioned rooms, in the twenty first century, we have the benefit of hind-sight, two thousand years of reflection on what Jesus is saying, and an overwhelming amount of advertisements for “THE” perfect miracle diet, that all dull our sensibilities to Jesus telling us to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

The Jewish community who first heard him say this would have been absolutely horrified and scandalized, jaws dropped, covering the children’s ears, feeling sick to their stomachs shocked at his words.

Just like if I told you we were going to have a Baptist style Altar Call at the end of this service, singing “Just as I am” over and over and over. Even more shocked than that!

But seriously, let’s step back in time a bit and try to put ourselves in their sandals, to hear this as if for the very first time, as they would have heard it.

I mean WAY back, to the Creation story in which God tells the first humans to eat plants. Did you know that? Humans were originally supposed to be naked vegetarians? Aren’t you so very glad that has changed? Proof that all things do come together for good: the fall of the human race allowed us to wear clothes and eat meat.

Years later, after the Great Flood, when God established a covenant with Noah, God said,
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. (Genesis 9)

And a few generations later, after their enslavement in and deliverance from Egypt as God was establishing the rules of worship with the Israelites, God tells them:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.” (Leviticus 17)

And then Jesus comes along as says we are to eat his flesh AND his blood! He even goes so far as to say that if we don’t do this thing we have no life in us at all. Shocking.

We’ll talk more about their reaction next week so for now lets focus on Jesus’ words and the life we are created for.

It is only by following Jesus, doing the things he tells us to do, that we can live as God intends for us to live. God created us to be in communion with God. Our true life comes only from God.

Jesus says that he is the true food and drink and that we abide him. Just what is abiding, anyway? It means to remain or to continue to be, but it’s not staying in one place or being static.

Do you know the movie Phenomenon staring John Travolta?

If you don’t know the movie I’d like to say I’m not to spoil it for you, but I can’t make my point without divulging plot secrets. You should see it anyway. It’s a really good movie. It’s about a man who develops amazing abilities because of the way a tumor is growing in his brain: He develops a photographic memory and genius level problem solving skills as well as telekinetic abilities.

In one particular scene, he’s talking with two young children he’s befriended and trying to help them understand what is happening. He’s going to die and the little boy is angry. John is eating an apple and he says “if we were to put this apple down and leave it, it would spoil. But if we eat it it becomes a part of us and we take it with us forever.”

The food we consume becomes a part of us at the cellular level, it abides within us. Once we eat something and our body absorbs the nutrients from it, there is no longer a distinction between the apple and us. Your grandmother was right – you are what you eat.

But like all of Jesus’ teachings, there’s more than a surface level understanding to this. We can grasp the physical side of food building our physical bodies but do we really believe that what we consume through our ears and eyes and minds also feeds us?

When Jesus institutes communion he says to do this – to consume the bread and the wine as if they were his body and blood in remembrance of him so that he can abide in us and we in him. We both call to mind the grace of God giving of himself so that we could receive the life we are intended to have, and we are re-membered, re-created as the hands and feet, eyes and ears, mind and heart of Jesus in this world, here and now as the body of Christ.

By the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine are also the flesh and blood of Jesus that he says we must take into the very cells of our being so that we can become more like him every day. Through this act, we continue to find our being in Christ and he remains in us.

The bread and the wine make us the body of Christ, inseparable from Jesus and from each other. Just as we are created in the image of God, the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are inseparably joined together as the body of Christ.

This interconnected life is the life we are created for. Everything we think, do, and say has an impact, whether we see the ripples or not. We are not as individualized as we like to pretend we are. If we haven’t learned this through the COVID19 pandemic, I don’t know what will teach it to us.

We are, each and all, created unique children of God designed to be an integral part of God’s Kingdom, and God’s Kingdom is not complete without each of us connected together. I cannot be fully the person God created me to be without you and you cannot be fully the person God created you to be without me.

When we answer Jesus’ invitation to follow him in God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven, we are acknowledging that the true life we are designed for is lived in communion with God and each other.

In the Service of Holy Baptism in the Book of Common Prayer, the congregation, all present who are witnessing the welcoming in of the newest members of Christ’s body, is asked if we will do all in our power to support the persons being baptized in their life in Christ before we all, together, renew our commitment to the baptismal covenant. No one is baptized to individualistically follow Jesus; we are all baptized into the body of Christ.

We are all, absolutely and indivisibly in this thing called life together, interdependent on each other, made whole and holy by Jesus’ body and blood. We abide.

It’s no coincidence that the words with which we enfold the physical act of consuming the bread and wine are voiced as prayer. Prayer is how we commune with God. Prayer is being aware of God’s presence with us, it is abiding in God’s grace and righteousness. It is in the humble attitude of prayer that we come before God to receive all that God desires for us. The benefits we receive through this act of thanksgiving and remembrance come to us only by God’s gracious will that all of us live in the Kingdom Jesus tells us is at hand.

This power of the sacrament isn’t limited by our own efforts or the technology through which we may witness it. We come to God’s table and we offer to God the best we have but the benefits – the solace and strength, the pardon and renewal – come from God. It is only with God that we can live the true life we are created for: life in God’s Kingdom, the kingdom at hand, the kingdom built of love and compassion.

And as we receive Jesus, we begin where we end: we leave this place having remembered and been renewed as Kingdom people, following Jesus, filled with the Spirit, and giving thanks to God always and for everything. Amen.

How Would Jesus Love?

In the light of the extraordinary picture of God’s Kingdom that we’ve been exploring through Matthew’s telling of the Good News Story of Jesus (See Matthew 5-7), can we take a moment to talk COVID19, vaccines, and masks? I know we are all so weary of this conversation but it is the reality in which we are living as Kingdom people on earth as it is in heaven. If you need to refill your cup before we begin, I’ll wait here …

We cannot deny nor ignore that the number of people getting very ill is on the rise again. There are more and more people in the hospitals and ICUs daily. And the overwhelming majority of the people in the hospitals and ICUs with COVID are those who have not taken the vaccine.

As Kingdom People the one and only guiding question for our behavior/reaction/response to this pandemic, however long it persists, is “how would Jesus love and how do I love my neighbor best in this situation?” Jesus never told anyone to demand their own personal liberties but to love and care for our neighbor and put other’s needs first.

One of the statements I’ve heard people who are refusing the COVID19 vaccine say is something along the lines of “I can think for myself. I don’t want the government trying to control me by telling me what to do.” What I see them demonstrating by their behaviors and actions is that they are not at all thinking for themselves but of themselves only. Or perhaps they’ve actually decided not to think at all because it’s the easiest, most comfortable path. To think critically and make an informed decision requires that we listen to ideas other than our own and to learn from those who have the education and experience to be rightly titled experts in a particular field of knowledge.

Following Jesus means letting the good news of the power of love and not politics or social media or our own comfort guide the choices we make. Following Jesus is keeping our egos in check not our God-given ability to think and learn and grow.

We are, each and every one of us, beloved children of God. We are unified in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Together with God we can and will make the world better because Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Love as God Loves is the only thing stronger than hate and war and violence and the individualism that is destroying us.

The writers of the Gospel story tell us that Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw people hurting and suffering. He didn’t blame them or shame them or tell them to get over it and he certainly didn’t look the other way. Jesus loved them. Sometimes this love meant literally feeding them. Sometimes this love meant literally healing them. Sometimes this love meant asking the tough questions like “do you want to be well?” Sometimes this love meant saying the things others didn’t want to hear like “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Together let’s love as Jesus loves and we will live on earth as it is in heaven. If you have not already, get the vaccine. When you are out in public places, wear a mask. In this pandemic, this is what Love looks like.

Real Life

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, San Antonio, Texas.

The Lectionary readings for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Are you a picky eater? Are your kids? What do you or your kids absolutely refuse to eat? When my son was little, he ate most anything and everything, except for the one thing that all children love – French fries. And what’s the one thing all kids meals in every single restaurant has? French fries. 25-30 years ago, fast-food kids meals didn’t have options like apple slices, only French fries. When we’d go to a sit-down restaurant, Ike would ask if he could substitute a salad for the fries – at 3 years old he started doing this. And the waitperson would inevitably look at me and ask “is he serious” and I’d say yes, he is. And they’d walk away, shaking their head, having their reality of how kids should behave slightly disturbed.

As we continue to hear John’s version of how Jesus established our practice of communion, we encounter Jesus disturbing the reality of those around him as well as our own.

We begin this week with where we ended last week: Jesus saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

And we’ll return to this theme of the bread of life next week and the week after that. So, if we are willing to spend so much time on this, it must be really important, don’t you think?

So, let’s first take a look at what’s going on in this scene and then we’ll return to God’s table. Don’t worry, I don’t have another pastoral letter from our bishop to read this week, but I do hope your reality is disrupted just a little.

Do you remember way back when on the first Sunday in July we talked about the skepticism of the people in Jesus’ hometown because he was disrupting their norm by not being who they had decided he was supposed to be? We have the same situation here: others trying to discredit Jesus because he wouldn’t cooperate and force fit himself into their prescribed role.

It’s easy to sit in our comfortable seats some 2000 plus years later and criticize the Jews for not seeing Jesus for who he really is but let’s get courageous and ask ourselves: “how do we do the same?”

What is our own prescribed role for Jesus?
Do we expect Jesus to be where we saw him last, like the folks who found him on the opposite side of the lake?
Do we expect Jesus to be available to us only when we decide we want him around?
Are we willing to let Jesus disrupt our reality with who he is and who we are?

Remember – It’s a prophet’s job is to disrupt the norm. The vast majority of Jesus’ time in his three year earthly ministry was spent out and about interacting with people in the ordinary every day moments of their life. His whole purpose was to teach people how to disrupt their own reality and norms by seeing the world through the lens of God’s love.

But Jesus doesn’t just disrupt who they think he should be, he disrupts their view of the historical events in which they plant their identity. He has this debate with them about the bread provided to their ancestors in the wilderness. They want to credit Moses for the manna but Jesus reminds them that it was God who provided it; Moses was just the messenger. And, he reminds them, the purpose of the manna was, yes, to fill their bellies, but also to teach them how to live in a trusting relationship with God.

God told them the manna would be there for them every day, that they needed just gather enough for the day because there would be more tomorrow. This is what living the abundant life of God’s Kingdom is: trusting that God will provide enough of what we need to do what God calls us to do. So often we equate abundance with excess when really it simply means a never ending supply.

God gave them what they needed but they still complained and tried to hoard extra. Jesus telling the people not to complain about him would have immediately reminded those around him of the grumbling of their ancestors in the wilderness. When we let ourselves get distracted by what we don’t have, we often miss out on the real message of God’s loving provision. We use our energy to grumble rather than to give thanks.

Jesus uses the most ordinary form of physical nourishment to explain the most extraordinary life that is ours for the living if we open our ears and eyes to what Jesus says and does. He shows us how to be who and whose we are created to be: God’s beloved children, walking with Jesus to bring heaven to earth in the ordinary every day moments of our lives.

God’s deepest desire for us is to live the abundant life of love.
I can’t store up more of God’s love than you have. I can’t earn or win God’s favor so that there isn’t any left for you. God’s love and Grace and forgiveness is abundant, a never ending supply that sustains us and equips us be God’s beloved children.

It is when we deny this life for ourselves or others that we grieve the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells us in his letter to the church at Ephesus we read today:
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

This last bit that Paul says is one of the options in our Book of Common Prayer for inviting others to God’s Table. And even though what we do around God’s Table may look differently these days, the reality of it, the purpose of it, remains in God’s hands. We come to this holy table to receive from God all that God has to give, life abundant with love. All that we do in this place: praising and praying and listening to God’s word, leads us to this act of remembering and being re-membered as God’s beloved.

In one of the prayers that can be used for Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer, we prayer, “Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name. Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.” (Eucharistic Prayer C)

What takes place when we gather weekly to praise, pray, listen, and receive God’s grace is to disrupt our reality enough that we can see and hear the reality of God’s kingdom in the ordinary, every day moments of our lives.

This past week as Jim and I sat down for a meal at our favorite local diner, and just as we were going to say grace, Jim spotted a sign on the wall above our table that read, “Grace isn’t a little prayer you say before receiving a meal, it is a way to live.”

Let this meal disrupt you. See, hear, and taste the reality of life in it. Be strengthened and renewed. Receive the grace it offers and let the abundance of God’s kingdom flow through you in all that you do this coming week. Amen.

A Well Fed Life

A sermon preached (and letter shared) at Grace Episcopal Church, San Antonio, Texas.

The Lectionary readings for the tenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Do you remember where we ended last week? Jesus has just fed thousands and then he and his disciples make their way back across the lake, the disciples in a boat and Jesus on foot.

Sometimes I wish I had a big flannel-graph map to help illustrate the ongoing activities of the life of Jesus around the Sea of Galilee and to help us keep up with this ongoing story. Jesus and the disciples are now on the northern shores of the Sea at Capernaum.

In his travels, Jesus encountered folks who were going through the regular activities of their every day life – fishing and going to the market and synagogue, caring for their families and attending to their work – and he showed them the extraordinary life of God’s Kingdom. He didn’t offer an escape but the way to live fully and authentically in their regular activities of their every day life.

But changing the way we see the world is difficult and takes time. We don’t always learn the first time. Or the second. Or the third. The people, the very same people who had just witnessed Jesus turn 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fish into the best picnic lunch they’ve ever eaten, were perplexed about how Jesus got to the other side of the lake without a boat. Jesus definitely didn’t fit within the realm of their reality.

But instead of explaining that he walked on water, Jesus responds with a statement that gets right to the heart of their motivation: “You’re not following me in order to find God,” Jesus says, “you are following me thinking I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“Alright” they say, “what do we do to get whatever it is you are offering?” What must WE do? They are making it about what they want, about human efforts, without Jesus at the center.

Jesus says “look to me and you’ll find so much more than a picnic lunch. Take yourself out of the center, keep your eyes on me and I will show you God. I will show you who you really are as God’s beloved children.”

“Follow me and I will show you how to live the life God intends for you.”
“Follow me and I will show you so much more than what you think you want and need.”
“Follow me and I will show you what authentic life grounded in God’s love is.”

Jesus wraps this message in a metaphor intended to help them bridge what they’ve witnessed Jesus do with the true reason for his doing it: Bread, the universal and timeless symbol for the sustenance of life.

The life Jesus is pointing us toward is more than just physical sustenance. It is complete and total sustenance for our body AND soul – our whole being. When we come to know God as the source of our life, we do not hunger for love or a sense of belonging because we are filled to overflowing, and we do not thirst for power or control because we fed by the compassionate life of Jesus.

This is what we are called to remember each week when we gather around God’s table for both physical and spiritual sustenance. We come together to remember who God is so that we are continuously re-membered, re-connected, re-united with each other as we receive Jesus into the very cellular structure of our being.

What happens in this place shapes and transforms us into the body of Christ at all times and in all places, whatever we are doing. Jesus isn’t an escape from our life but the way to live our life extraordinarily as God’s beloved children.

How we do what we do in this place, like every aspect of our life, has been in flux over the past 18 months and many of us may feel like we are the ones chasing Jesus back and forth across a lake looking for a sense of security and certainty.

We stand in front of Jesus and say ‘how did you get here? You were over there and I need to know where you are so I can find you when I need you.”

And Jesus says to us, “don’t just look for me when you want something. Live with me and you’ll want for nothing.”

In the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul implores us to “live in a manner worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called.” A life fed by and sustained in God, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Whatever is going on in the world around us, we are called to live grounded in God’s love, even when things aren’t going as we would like them to.

Even in a pandemic. Even when we are weary and tired and running low on patience in a situation that feels like it will never end. Especially when we are weary of the world and need our souls fed and sustained by God’s love.

We want so desperately to be able to say we are in a post-pandemic world. But we are not. And so, we must, with God’s help, continue to walk with Jesus and respond in love and compassion.

This past Wednesday, Bishop David Reed sent out a pastoral letter in response to the new increase of COVID19 infections because of the Delta variant and asked the clergy to read the letter to our parishes today. It is the most amazing example of living with Jesus at the center of all that we say and do. We truly have a godly role-model.

Some of you may have gotten it by email already or seen it posted on social media but I ask you to listen again, with your heart and soul.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It seems we were almost there. With good reason, we had been thinking and talking more about the future. But now comes a surge in illness caused by the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, and we are faced once again with uncertainty and anxiety made worse by imperfect, incomplete knowledge. Our churches had begun to plan with hope for the fall, for new beginnings, and for an unfettered return to worship, fellowship and ministry. But now…what? What shall we do?

First, pray. Pray for the sick and for those who care for them. Pray for your clergy and Vestry or Bishop’s Committee members who are continually called upon to make the best possible decisions in the midst of changing situations and partial knowledge. The local protocols they have developed and implemented, along with the diocesan Guidelines, are useful tools that have served us all well, by God’s grace. Pray that your church’s leaders will be given wisdom to continue adapting and responding, for the greatest common good. Pray for yourself, that you might hold fast to the truth that “nevertheless, the Kingdom of God has come near.”

Second, be vigilant, but keep this latest development in perspective. The vaccines are working and greatly reduce risks to those fully vaccinated. While breakthrough cases receive lots of media attention, far fewer than 1/10th of 1% of those fully vaccinated are experiencing symptomatic infection. Since February, 99.5% of COVID-related deaths in Texas have been among unvaccinated people. Pay attention to the CDC and your local health officials. Tuesday, July 27th , the CDC revised its guidance on mask-wearing. In response to the new predominance of the Delta variant, they encourage all people to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor places in regions where infections and hospitalizations are high.

Third, if you are eligible and have chosen to remain unvaccinated, please prayerfully reconsider. The Delta variant is highly transmittable, and the unvaccinated are at much higher risk of infection. Additionally, they are much more likely to transmit the virus to other unvaccinated people, including children under the age of 12 for whom there is currently no vaccine. If not for your own sake, I implore you to get vaccinated for the sake of those around you who cannot receive the vaccine and for the well-being of your church and your community. Offer your church as a vaccination site; offer rides to those who want to be vaccinated; do not discourage those who choose to resume wearing masks.

Fourth, continue as you have. The past months of the pandemic have not been wasted on us. We know so much more than we did when we first heard about COVID-19 and I’ve included a few reminders of what we know at the end of this letter. We can lead fairly normal lives individually and in our churches. We do know precautions and health/hygiene practices that make us all less vulnerable to the virus. Every church in the Diocese has adopted protocols to fit their local context. I encourage all congregational leaders to review those protocols and adapt as needed.

Fifth, for the time being, the diocesan Phase 2(d) Guidelines remain in effect, as revised on May 18. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had hoped to be announcing the removal of remaining restrictions. I’m sorry, as we all are, that the situation has changed. From the beginning, we have known that the pandemic might change in ways that cause us to pull back again. Thankfully we are not there yet, and the current Guidelines and your own church’s protocols should allow your church to adapt as needed to the context of your community.

Finally, “above all these, put on love.” As churches and individually, we have put up with so much during this season, from inconvenience to grief. We have put off so many things that matter to us, big and small. We have put away cherished customs and habits. Now it is time for us to rededicate ourselves wholeheartedly to putting on the love of Christ, regarding one another through the eyes of Jesus, and loving one another as he loves us. Because we are his Body, there can be no other way for us than this. It is the only way for us to continue living in and moving through this pandemic together, in the Name of Christ and for the life of the world. May the love of the Father sustain you; may the light of the Son enfold you; may the power of the Holy Spirit make you bold.

Love in Christ,
+David M. Reed
Bishop of West Texas

Treasured

Whew, y’all! I re-read what I wrote last week and I guess Jesus’ directness prompted my own. I should have tried to be more encouraging about the joy of participating in bringing about God’s Kingdom on earth, There is great joy in participating with God in all things because we come to know that we are beloved children. This is what Jesus wants us to discover as we follow him.

As we continue to look at Jesus’ sermon as Matthew recounts it for us, Jesus goes on to talk about the rewards of what we do. If we seek to prove ourselves better at religious activities than everyone else by our outward actions, we will get what we seek: the temporary and fickle recognition of showmanship. If we do what we do to deepen our relationship with God, we will get what we seek: the joy of knowing we are loved and enabled to love as God loves.

In the midst of this talk of earthly and heavenly rewards, Jesus teaches us a prayer through which we ask God to bring about the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. All that Jesus teaches and shows us is about participating with God in answering this prayer. God’s will, what God desires most is to be in loving relationship with us! All of us, each and every one of us, every single human being ever born (yep, even that person). As we continue to follow Jesus, this becomes the focal point of our worldview, so that we, like Jesus, fulfill God’s Law of Love.

Looking into our inner motivations is difficult work. Jesus asks the difficult questions (in the form of stories) not to condemn us and not to have us condemn ourselves or others, but to help us discover who and whose we are: God’s beloved children, God’s greatest treasure. Knowing this and letting God’s love be our guiding light is the greatest reward of all!

I pray you are encouraged!

Distractions

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, San Antonio, Texas.

The Lectionary readings for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Since I introduced Mark’s version of these two stories last week, instead of retelling of the gospel reading with my usual artistic license and occasional dramatic flourish, I want to share with you a more current version of the story of the loaves and fishes:

One evening at a previous parish where I was serving – we were hosting our monthly meal and food distribution in cooperation with the local food bank. On this particular evening, we were serving tamales, rice, and beans and I was helping in the kitchen to fill plates. About an hour into serving, with the line still at least 20 people long, I opened the warming container and announced to the room that this was the last package of tamales. And as we put the last two tamales on a plate, someone else opened the warmer and took out another package.

“Where did that come from?” I asked in disbelief.
“From the warmer.”
“But I already got the last package.”
“No this is the last package.”
“Oh, OK. I guess I just didn’t see it.”

A few minutes later, as again we were putting the last two tamales on a plate, someone else retrieved another package from the warmer.

We just stared at each other in silence for a brief moment and then returned to filling the plates. And as the last person approached the window, we put the last two tamales on their plate.

No one spoke. I walked over to the warming container and opened it ever so slowly. I don’t know what we expected, but it was empty and we just stared.

We had undoubtedly witnessed a miracle. But what is most intriguing to me is that at no point did any of us panic or say “what are we going to do when we run out?!?” We just kept opening the warmer and filling plates. And God provided.

We didn’t let the fear of “what are we going to do?!?” take over. We just kept feeding people with what we had. And we had enough.

In our reading today, John tells us that after Jesus fed the crowd of thousands with a single picnic lunch, the people believed that Jesus was God’s prophet. But they were so distracted by their own ideas of what this promised prophet should do for them that they wanted to make him an earthly king.

Jesus knew they wanted a king who would treat the Romans as they had been treated. They wanted their situation dealt with by war and revenge and oppressive power and this is not at all the new Kingdom life Jesus was showing them.

The Kingdom of God, as Jesus had just taught and shown them, is about feeding bodies and souls with compassion and love.

One of the “Episcopal” things that you may or may not be familiar with are the prayers assigned for each Sunday of the Church year along with the readings in the lectionary. The fancy church phrase we use for this prayer is the Collect of the Day, meaning it takes the connective theme from the readings and collects all of our prayers together as one in praise and thanksgiving to God.

We don’t use this scripted prayer in our worship here at Grace but I do post it weekly on my website with the text of my sermon. I know it’s a bit odd to offer up a prayer in the middle of sermon, unless of course y’all are praying for it to be over already, but I’d like to share today’s Collect with you, if I may, because it preaches well:

Let us pray:
“O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

And I want us to really listen to the part that says “with you,” with God, “as our ruler and guide, we may SO pass through things temporal, THAT we lose not the things eternal.”

It’s an odd word order for many of us but what we are praying is for God to show us how not to be distracted by the things of this world, our own desires, ways of thinking, our fears, that we miss out on noticing God’s presence here and now, the eternal kingdom at hand.

“Things eternal” isn’t about something in the future. It is about seeing things as they are now: God here among us, as God has been and always will be, on earth as in heaven.

The people who had witnessed Jesus’ power in this picnic wanted to force fit Jesus into their temporal understanding – the temporary ways and things of this world that Jesus tells us will pass away.

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom, he is using the eternal meaning, The Kingdom that was and is and is to come, always has been, always will be.

This life we live here and now isn’t something we must just endure until we get to heaven nor is it a test to earn our way into heaven later.

Jesus tells us we are to live on earth as in heaven. That as we live this life, AS we pass through things temporal, the things of heaven are available to us, if we don’t get so distracted by the temporary things that we miss noticing the eternal things.

What do we let distract us from seeing Jesus with us?
Are we distracted by the glitter of wealth?
The power of position?
Or do we use all that we have and all that we are to show the world God’s Kingdom of Love?

Do we let the fear of losing what we have or the fear of not getting what we want stop us from doing what God asks of us?
Or do we see Jesus walking toward us in the storm saying “do not be afraid.”

Do we let the things on the news make us angry against another group of God’s beloved children rather than seeing others with eyes of compassion as Jesus does?

When we see others in need, do we ask like Philip “how are we to do this big thing?”
Do we respond in scarcity like Andrew and say “what we have is not enough.”
Or do we know that with Jesus, we will have enough.
Do we give thanks to God for what we have and believe in the abundance of God’s Kingdom?

On that evening at St. John’s McAllen if the others had listened to me rather than the Holy Spirit prompting them to open the container one more time, we would have turned people away unnecessarily, we’d have missed the miracle. Instead we just kept feeding those who came to us hungry.

And lest we all walk away berating ourselves for the times we’ve been distracted, let me wrap up with this: When we do get distracted, because we do and we will, the Good News is that Jesus comes to us in the storm saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
When we let Jesus in our boat we enter the land where Jesus is leading us, the Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Knowing Firsthand

Good morning, Y’all!

As we continue our conversation about Jesus’ sermon as given to us in chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s telling of the good news story, Jesus has framed the purpose of God’s law as a means of compassionate and loving relationships for the greater good of everyone and now he offers some specific examples with a series of statements that begin “you have heard that it was said.” Matthew 5:21-48

Jesus doesn’t say, “you know,” or “as you’ve been taught,” or even that “it is written,” but gives this vague, three times removed, indirect and non-confirmable source of information. And you thought we invented this method of “knowing” in the 20th century with the advent of the internet and social media!

And to set appropriate accountability for our own behavior, he then follows each of these statements with “but I tell you.” Jesus offers us first-hand, direct from the source information for living as Kingdom people. How we live and how we treat others matters AND our motivation for doing what we do matters.

Just because I can say I’ve never physically taken another person’s life, doesn’t mean I haven’t caused damage to both my own soul and their’s by treating them as if they weren’t a living, breathing, worthy of love child of God. When I even think of another human being as a means to my own satisfaction, I have failed to see them as a living, breathing, worthy of love child of God. Just because I can do something legally doesn’t mean I should. Legal and moral are two different things and I must not use the law to justify my own immoral behavior even if I can.

It is better to give up what we want in order to seek the greater good of all people than it is to get our way. Life isn’t meant to be lived individualistically but communally; we are the body of Christ. What we do impacts others; we are bound to each other in God’s love for each of us.

Life in God’s Kingdom isn’t a competition or combat for the best seat won by a cycle of violence that leaves no winners in the end. Life in God’s Kingdom is a companionable journey in which there is always enough love and compassion for everyone, even those we don’t like. We can’t blame our own behavior on some meme our neighbor’s brother’s co-worker posted on social media. We have to be accountable not only for our behavior but for the sources we choose to shape our behavior.

Jesus tells us directly the being Kingdom People is about managing our own behavior, with God’s loving help and direction, so that we are best equipped to participate in bringing about God’s Kingdom on earth.

KNOW that you are a worthy of love child of God and everyone you encounter today is as well. Treat yourself and others accordingly.

Interruptions

A Sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, San Antonio, TX.

The Lectionary readings for the eighth Sunday after Pentecost can be found here.

Hear this in my best TV series narrator voice:

Previously on the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus had warned the disciples that going out to spread the good news would be challenging especially with those who knew them best and sent them out to spread the message, and then we saw a flashback of Herod’s murder of John the Baptizer.

Two Kingdoms each highlighted in comparison to the other: Herod’s earthly kingdom built on the love of power and God’s kingdom built on the power of love.

Today, we join up with the disciples as they return to Jesus and share with him all that they had done and taught – a post-mission trip debrief of sorts.

And because Jesus understands the importance of self-care, he invites them on retreat, to get away by themselves to rest a while and they get in their boat and head out to a deserted place.

But their plans are interrupted by the crowds of people who beat them to the deserted place.

Mark doesn’t tell us the disciples’ initial reaction to the crowds but if this had happened to us, when this happens to us and our plans are interrupted by other’s needs, how do we respond?

I haven’t always done this well, how about you?

Once upon a time in my ‘before ordination’ life, I was a supervisor in a bank and on one particularly challenging day, as I locked the door behind the last customer well beyond our scheduled closing time and made my way to my desk to take care of several hours worth of paperwork, I caught myself saying to no one in particular, “if it weren’t for all these customers, I’d be able to get my job done.” And as I said it, I realized how ridiculous I sounded. The customers were my job.

Several years later, when I was newly ordained, the priest who was mentoring me said, “whatever you may be working on in your office, always remember that the interruptions are your day. When the phone rings or someone walks in the doors, always make them the most important part of your day.” I chuckled and told him the previous story. It’s a message God keeps repeating to me.

How often in our regular days, do we see others as an interruption rather than our purpose?

Jesus saw the people who surrounded him as children of God who were hurting and who needed to know that life could be radically different. Jesus knew these people were the most important part of his day, that they needed their life interrupted by God’s love.

Our reading today, skips over Jesus’ the details of what happens with this first interrupting crowd and another event that gets us to the second crowd they encounter at the end of our reading.

We will read and talk about these events next week as we step into a spin-off from our current show to hear the good news of Jesus and bread as told by the Apostle John (not to be confused with John the Baptizer from last week’s episode).

But I want to fill in the blanks because, one it will help us see all of this as a continuous flow of events, and two it will give us insight into the challenges that the disciples, and I’d venture to say most of us have, in shifting our vision to life in God’s kingdom.

As you know, Jesus and the disciples, in an attempt to get away for some rest and recreation cross the Sea of Galilee to a deserted place, but the people find them and their retreat is interrupted. So, they invite this group of interruptors to a grand picnic and at the end of the day, Jesus again sends the disciples across the lake without him while he dismisses the crowds and to spend some time chatting with God.

But before he departs the deserted place that had been full of people (?), he watches the disciples struggling with the wind in their boat for several hours. Mark tells us Jesus arrived on the beach at evening and then sometime between 3 and 6am, he heads out, on foot, across the lake, on the water, intending to just pass them by, not to stop and join them in the boat.

But they see him and begin screaming in fright because they think he’s a ghost. To reassure them, Jesus attempts to interrupt their fear, as he does so often with “don’t be afraid, it’s me!” And he steps in the boat and the wind stops.

Now, don’t forget, these disciples had seen Jesus heal every form of disease and affliction, including casting out a legion of demons, raising a young girl from the edge of death, and curing a woman who’d been ill for over a decade.
They had gone out on their own with the God given ability to heal others and to teach others about the good news of Jesus.
And, they’d just witnessed Jesus feed thousands of people with a single sack lunch.

But they see someone walking on water, something that would interrupt anyone’s reality, and the first thing they can come up with is “it’s a ghost!” Like Herod, their thinking is shaped by the constant shadow of death of their earthly kingdom, even though they’d been shown the abundance of life in God’s Kingdom.

One translation says, “Their minds were closed so they resisted God’s ways (CEB).” And another, “None of the things they had witnessed had penetrated their hearts (MSG).”

Jesus and the disciples make it safely to the shore at Gennesaret and again they are swarmed, interrupted by people who believed that even just a touch of Jesus clothes was all they needed to live this extraordinary life they’d heard about. These people didn’t worry if he was someone raised from the dead nor did they accuse him of being a ghost.

They want to be whole, to be restored to health and community, and they seem to know beyond doubt that Jesus can help them, that even just a small touch would interrupt their current course and change their life completely.

The men who knew him best couldn’t see beyond their own way of thinking.

The one man who’s power Jesus’ teachings threatened the most couldn’t just accept that God had come among us to change lives for the good.

They didn’t allow their way of seeing the world to be interrupted.

What about us?

Do we resist God’s ways or let the good news about Jesus change our hearts?

Do we stick stubbornly to our own way? Or do we let the reality of God interrupt ours?

Jesus tells us the Kingdom of God is at hand, right here and right now. God’s Kingdom isn’t someplace else or for some future time. It is right here among us, every moment of every day, an available interruption to the worldly ways that keep us blind to who we really are.

As our world was interrupted by a pandemic, did we look for all the ways God reveals himself to us or did we fight continuously to get back to where we were?

In conversations we’ve had, I’ve seen y’all looking for God at work in each other and the ministry of Grace church in this sabbatical time. You know that God is in this interruption that is enabling y’all to grow into who God is calling you to be.

God is always with us whether we see God at work in this world or we choose not to. When we choose to see God in everyone at all times and in all places, we learn to see through the eyes of compassion as Jesus sees and our worldview is interrupted.

We come to see God’s Kingdom as it really is – built by relationships, made up of all of us, bound together by the power of the Holy Spirit in each of us, strengthened and fed by the sacrament in which we receive Jesus into ourselves so that our hearts and minds are changed.

Jesus see us with the same compassion he saw the crowds. We are not some interruption of Jesus’ plans, we are his plan and his purpose: to show us that life in God’s kingdom is radically different and radically better than any kingdom we might try to build ourselves. Amen.

Laws of Relationship

Good morning, Y’all! How is your week shaping up? We’ve had so much rain lately and the very last thing I want to do is to complain about it, but it sure has been nice to have some sunshine these past two days! It really does wonders for my mood. I pray that your coffee is sufficient and the sunshine draws you outside for a little vitamin D therapy so that our collective outlook is improved!

There seems to be a prevailing current these days that says if we just make enough laws then everyone will be a good person and our lives will be better. After God gave the ancient Israelites the Ten Commandments, it took 613 more laws for them to work out all the details they thought would prevent the breaking of the original ten. And people still found loopholes and ways to still do what they wanted to do for themselves all the while justifying their behavior with the law.

Laws don’t magically create good people. Good people modeling good behavior together as a collective group are what shapes and forms our culture and society for the better. It is our human character and how we see our fellow human beings that really guides our behavior, not an external set of laws.

The Ten Commandments are about how we live, collectively, in relationship with God and with each other. There is nothing in them that teaches or enforces an individualistic, “what’s in it for me” kind of life. Jesus tells us that he came to fulfill the law not to do away with it. God’s law is all about relationship and Jesus models for us how to live for the greater good of all people.

“Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:17-19, Common English Bible

We’ve heard so much (mostly in very angry voices) about our personal liberties these past few years. And I’ve also heard from some of the same folks who are angry their personal liberties are in danger that we are a Christian nation. Yet, I can’t find a way, in all of the words of Jesus, the apostles’ letters, or even in the ancient teachings of the Hebrew prophets to reconcile these two thoughts. Jesus doesn’t teach us about protecting our personal liberties but living together for the greater good of everyone.

It has become so challenging to wrap our 21st century, American minds around the concept that real freedom, the true life God created and desires for us to live as Beloved Children of the Kingdom, comes only through loving relationship with others. We are most fully human in community, speaking of and to each other with compassion not anger.

Together, we can participate with God in bringing about the reality of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Together, following Jesus on the Way of Love, we can make our lives better by being who and whose we are created to be.

God’s peace be with you, my friends!