Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts

God’s Rhythm

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The Lectionary readings for the second Sunday of Christmas are here.

Today is the last day of the Christmas season, the 12th day of Christmas and if you were here on Christmas Day, you’ll hopefully remember that I talked about what the items in that song mean as symbols of our life following Jesus. The twelve drummers drumming represent, not the disciples but the Apostles’ Creed, a creed that many of us are less familiar with than the Nicene Creed that we say each Sunday. These Creeds outline the basics of our belief in God the Creator, Jesus the Son, and Spirit the Life Giver. They give us the rhythm, the drum-beat if you will, of our life with Jesus and one of the many intentional formation tools woven into our regular patterns that we use in the Episcopal church to equip all of us to live what we say we believe.

We also mark our daily rhythm with the annual church calendar that takes us through the stories of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and his teachings each year. After each major event in the lives of our faith ancestors, God told the Israelites to mark the day with an annual festival to teach of their experiences with God to their children and their children’s children. We, too, continue to tell these stories because they create the melody of God’s love for us and all creation in the sound track of our life.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Epiphany, on which we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, commonly known as the wise men, at Mary and Joseph’s home to bring gifts for Jesus whose birth they had discerned in the stars. Most of us think of an epiphany as a sudden ‘aha’ moment but it can also mean an insight into the reality of a situation, sometimes sudden and sometimes brought on by careful attention and thoughtful discernment.

This past week has been full of epiphanies for me, and it wasn’t because I spent time contemplating the new year – I’ve never been a big New Year’s Eve celebrator. I am anxious in big crowds and I’m not one for staying up late and then there’s the whole resolution thing. Although, yes, we have to want to be better people in order to become better people, there is no magical turning of the calendar page that enables us to wake up one day better than we were when we went to bed. There isn’t a feast day on the church calendar for God to offer us a mulligan. Every day, every moment is an opportunity for us to grow and change through the regular rhythms of life. The life God gives us is a continuous journey of becoming who God created us to be.

My epiphanies this past week were about how much I don’t know when it comes to current technologies and how much said technologies shape our days. There was a brief period of time on Thursday when we thought that today we would be going old-school and using the Book of Common Prayer instead of printed bulletins.

20 years ago, I worked in the tech industry and was fairly knowledgeable about what was then the latest and greatest. I learned this week that I now know barely enough to describe the issues to the tech experts. But the true wisdom gained from my week of realizing how little I know about some stuff is that I don’t need to know nor is it possible for me or any of us to know everything about everything. If I live what I preach – that God gave us all specific gifts and talents to serve each other in the Kingdom – then I am living into the body of Christ by depending on others to know what I don’t know and do what I’m not equipped or able to do.

My role as your priest here at St. Francis by the Lake isn’t to know everything and solve every problem but to help us all work together to be who we are created to be and do that which is ours to do for the purpose of proclaiming God’s love in this world. If I think I have to do everything, I’m denying your place in God’s Kingdom.

If we believe that we are each created uniquely by God for the purpose of serving each other and the world for the glory of God, then we accept that we are to work together to accomplish God’s purposes. It’s not up to any one of us but all of us, doing what is ours to do and letting others do what isn’t ours to do. We are wise when we make the effort to discern the difference.

In our gospel reading today we have the story of the magi, people from a foreign land and of a different faith, following their curiosity to discover what God is up to in this world. These men saw something in the stars that signaled a major shift in creation and they wanted to be a part of it, to celebrate the glorious event. Instead of a sudden ‘aha’ moment, these men were on a lifelong journey of paying attention and being curious. It was their job to discern changes among the stars and to interpret the meaning. It was their belief that the creator of the universe signaled events and changes through the display of the heavenly hosts.

Herod, on the other hand, was threatened by the whole thing. Herod wasn’t interested in working with anyone, he was only concerned with maintaining his own power and control by whatever means necessary, the very opposite of wisdom and discernment. The magi’s second epiphany, as critical as noticing the sign in the stars, was seeing the reality of Herod’s true intent and traveling home by a different road.

We can learn a lot from the magi about paying attention and being curious. Do we seek God in the world around us or just come visit once a week? Do we look for the divine in each other and remember we are all made in the divine image? Do we sense the stirring of the Spirit as we make choices and decisions in the regular rhythms of our ordinary days?

Epiphanies are exciting and allow us to see what we were unable to before. Epiphanies are like a bridge in a song, a momentary wandering from the core rhythm and melody. But the song always returns to the core rhythm and melody. Living our faith together, honoring who each of us is and what we are able to do, sharing our joys and sorrows, celebrating the good and navigating the challenges, doing life together is the harmony of our life in God’s Kingdom.

As we continue to move through this new year, let’s take the call of Advent and the story of the magi with us – be awake and alert, be curious about what God is up to in this world. Pay attention and discern how we can spread the good news of God’s love in our community. Be wise enough to know what is and isn’t ours to do, walking together as we follow Jesus into the Kingdom.

Every day is a new beginning in the Kingdom. Our role is to follow Jesus and share the Good News. Some days we are better at that than others. We are all human. God doesn’t offer us a mulligan but grace and mercy and forgiveness that enable us to continuously grow into who and Whose we are. Amen.

This Dynamic Life

Happy New Year – is it a proclamation or a question or a prayer? I guess it depends on each of us and what we’ve journeyed through in the previous year. 2024 was a year of heartbreak and pain for me and as we turn the calendar to January 1, 2025, I’m still healing some deep wounds. Today doesn’t feel like a new beginning or any different from yesterday. But I know it is both new and different. I often open my prayers with “thank you, holy, loving God for the new beginning each day is in your Kingdom.” Some days I feel it more than others but I know it’s always true.

In my 57 years, I’ve learned that life isn’t static and isn’t supposed to be and I’m so grateful for that lesson because it enables me to not fight against what is occurring in my life but neither does it cause me to passively accept what is occurring. As Jesus calls the disciples he says “follow me.” It is an invitation into life, the life God created us to live: life lived every moment primarily in relationship with our Creator and also with each other. We are created to journey in this life together and with God as we are shaped and formed by all that Jesus teaches.

In the darkest moments, we know God is with us, holding us, comforting us, giving us strength. And when we lose sight of God’s light we need each other to assure us it’s still there. In the most joyous of times we know God is with us, celebrating with us. And when we forget that we are given all by our loving God to share with the world, we need each other to remind us to practice gratitude and generosity. In all of the ordinary moments of our lives, we know God is with us as we pour a cup of coffee, start the laundry, take out the trash, feed the dogs, make plans for our day and week and month, gather with friends and family, tend to the responsibilities that provide us an income, play, rest, and tend to our spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing – all that we do in this dynamic life.

My plan for 2025 is to continue to follow Jesus, bringing with me the wisdom of years gone by, growing closer to God, proclaiming LOVE more loudly than the fear and hurt in this world, with God-given confidence and courage. Together, let’s be intentional about continuously becoming who God created us to be, building each other up as beloved Kingdom people, swinging wide the gates and inviting others to God’s ever growing table. Together in 2025 and all the years to come, let’s continuously learn to love better and better.

I am so grateful you are following Jesus with me.

Living Christmas

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for Christmas can be found here.

Merry Christmas! Having grown up in a Christian denomination that didn’t use any type of liturgical calendar, the song The Twelve Days of Christmas always confused me. And to add to my confusion, when my dad was stationed in Germany, my mom adopted the use of an Advent Calendar, the kind with the 24 little doors that is used to count down the days from December 1 until Christmas, and so the twelve and the 24 never made sense to me.

That is until as a young adult I found the Episcopal church and learned that Advent and Christmas are two different seasons in the church year and the twelve days starts on Christmas Day. And then I learned that the song isn’t just nonsense about a romance between a shop-a-holic and neurotic farmer. The song is actually a form of catechism, and although there isn’t much original source evidence that it started out as such, it’s an effective way to give us something to ponder while singing the interminably long song. And beside, such backward meaning making is fairly common in ChurchLand. For instance, the candles on the altar were once used simply to light the book the priest used because there wasn’t electric light, and now we make them symbols of the light of Christ and still use them even though we have electricity.

It’s easy to see the True Love as a symbol for God. I preach a lot about God’s love because our culture has diluted and shrunk love down to whether or not we like a certain food or movie and because so many of us grew up hearing more about how we can earn or lose God’s love than we did about how God loves.

God’s love is such that God chose to step into creation as a human being, born a fragile and vulnerable infant. The kind of love that is willing to become like another rather than the distorted love that insists others become just like us before we can love them. This is the love we celebrate during Christmas.

God’s love that we see in the person of Jesus is self-giving love. But, don’t confuse self-giving with self-denying. Jesus was both God and Human, he didn’t deny his divinity as he took on our humanness. Self-giving love isn’t about denying who we are created to be but recognizing that God created all humans as good and in God’s image and that we are most fully human when we work together in relationship with God and each other rather than just looking our for ourselves.

Today is the first day of Christmas when our true love comes as one who would lay down his life for us. Partridges are birds known to fiercely protect their young, even giving their lives to do so.

Jesus said that he came to fulfill God’s law, not do away with it. And so on the second day, Turtle doves are symbols of love and faithfulness, and the two remind us of the two testaments Old and New, all of the stories of how our faith ancestors experienced God pointing to the coming of Jesus, then, now, and some day, to teach us how to love as God loves.

Beyond day two, however, the actual items are not so plainly connected to what they’ve come to represent, but let’s keep going and see if we can make any other connections.

On the third day of Christmas God offers us the opportunity to grow into the virtues of faith, hope, and love. I’m not sure about how these connect to French hens, and since the actual gifts in the song have changed through the centuries, I’m fairly sure it’s the number that’s important more so that the actual items.

On the fourth day of Christmas God offers us the Good News as told by the four writers of our gospel stories, proclaiming the love of God – the life and teachings of Jesus to shape and guide our lives as we do our part in bringing about the kingdom on earth as in heaven.

On the fifth day, we ponder the law of God as given us by our faith ancestors in the first five books of what we call the Old Testament. The God in the stories of the Old Testament and the God of the stories in the New Testament is the same God. God didn’t change, God didn’t come up with plan B because plan A failed. Jesus says he came to fulfill the law. God has spent the entirety of human history reminding us that if we would live as God says we are created to live – in loving relationship with God and each other – we would thrive in the kingdom on earth. We keep deciding we know better. And yet God stays true to us. Something to ponder as you hold the notes for ‘five gold rings’.

Six geese a laying are to remind us of the creation story, not to lock us into a pharisaical belief that God created all there is in six literal days, but to remind us of God’s amazing power and perhaps, with the ‘which came first’ conundrum, to keep our egos in check. God is God and we are not.

I’ve read that the seven swans are supposed to be in reference to the seven virtues of the Spirit named in the Messianic promise in Isaiah 11, but I only count six there: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear-of-the-Lord. So let’s use it to remind us that the number seven is Hebrew numerology is about being complete. We are only complete, only whole, in relationship with our Creator and that as we follow Jesus we learn to become more and more like him.

Jesus gives 8 ‘blessed are’ statements that we call the Beatitudes in the sermon on the mount that instruct us on the fulfillment of God’s law. Perhaps as we sing the song, we pray to be more concerned with living as Jesus teaches us in this sermon that we are about forcing the Ten Commandments to be posted on walls in public places.

Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Spirit that Paul gives in his letter to the Galatians. I so appreciate that it’s ladies dancing for the fruit of the Spirit. These are the attributes that all Jesus Followers are to exhibit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Please notice it says ‘self-control’ not ‘control others.’

Ten lords leaping are the Ten Commandments. I choose to interpret this as the way men have tried to leap over the intended use of these commands of God. God gave them to teach us what God’s will for us is – how to love God and each other well, not so we could attempt to use them to force others into submission to our will.

And as we come near the end, eleven pipers, representing the eleven so-called faithful disciples, leaving out Judas Iscariot. But what about Peter’s predicted denial? What about the other nine or ten, depending on which version you read, who fled and hid instead of standing at the foot of the cross with the women? This should teach us grace and forgiveness instead of using it to build our egos about how we’d never deny Jesus.

At at long last, the twelve drummers. How many of you predicted this would be the symbol for the disciples? But no – it is for the Apostles’ Creed which summarizes the tenets of our belief. Remember that an apostle is one who is sent out. In that sense we are all apostles, we are sent into this world to proclaim the love of God for all people, as remain disciples, life long learners of the Way of Jesus.

Our relationship with God isn’t about counting days on a calendar or defined by symbols, it is lived. From the beginning, God’s plan was to be in relationship with us, to come to us and show us how to love. This is the good news of Christmas Day, on each of the twelve days of Christmas, and every day of the year, and throughout all eternity. Amen.

Anticipating

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are here.

It’s almost Christmas, Y’all! Are you ready? If not, that’s ok because we are still in Advent – the season of anticipation, like in the time before Amazon when we had to wait a week or even two for what we ordered to arrive. Advent is about anticipation on three fronts: We step back in time and imagine what it is like to wait for the long promised messiah to come, what it is for Mary and Elizabeth to wait the births of these two extraordinary babies; we look into the future imagining what it will be when God fulfills the promise to restore heaven and earth to the original intent; and we stay present in the moment looking for all of the ways God comes to us each day in the here and now.

Each of the Sundays in Advent we have focused on a characteristic of God’s Kingdom: Hope, Peace, Joy, and today’s is Love.

We talk about these in a particular order because they build on each other. Our Hope comes from God’s faithfulness; it isn’t wishful thinking but the confidence that God keeps God’s promises and is faithful to us even when we are unfaithful with God. And when we are feeling hopeless, we need each other to remind us of God’s faithfulness.

And because of God’s faithfulness we can know the peace that comes from learning God’s form of justice – knowing that every human being is created good and in God’s image so we work towards everyone having what they need to thrive on equal footing. Kingdom Justice doesn’t switch the oppressor and oppressed, the haves and havenots; Kingdom justice levels the playing field so we live in companionship, not competition.

And as we work toward the peace of God’s Kingdom we know the Joy that comes from knowing God is with us always, regardless of our external circumstances. We hold fast to the Hope of God and abide in the peace of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. When we are in the darkest dark, we know the light of God is with us, even if we can only take someone else’s word for it. If I can’t see the light, I need others to assure me it’s there.

And today Love completes the circle. Love comes to us in a vulnerable baby. Emmanuel. God with us, in relationship with us because God is Love. We are created by God to be loved and to love. To walk this life’s journey with God and each other. None of the Kingdom characteristics can be lived out individualistically; each requires community, cooperation, collaboration, with God and each other.

Together these characteristics tell the Good News of God’s love for each of us and all of us. Not some sentimental Hallmark Movie love but a bold, active love that propels us into the Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

To counter the ever-too-loud message of the world, that I need to only take care of me, that it’s ok to take what I want regardless of the impact on others, and that if someone else has something good there’s less good for me to have, we have to keep proclaiming the Good News by living the Kingdom Characteristics we focus on in Advent, not just in these four weeks but every day of the year.

In our Gospel readings today, we bear witness to two women living for God’s Kingdom, saying yes to very difficult things.

Biblical scenes where there are only women present are rare and we must allow them to jolt us from our comfort zones and ask “what’s God up to here? Why did the writer find this important enough to use precious ink and parchment to record it?” This scene of Mary and Elizabeth rejoicing at God’s plan for creation is bookended by the scene of the women who come to the empty tomb to be the first to proclaim the resurrection. These aren’t meek and mild stories of timid girls for us to say “oh, look how sweet they are”. These are powerful stories of bold, courageous women standing firm in God’s promises, proclaiming God’s Love louder that the hate of this world.

I love this painting of Mary and Elizabeth. You can hear them laughing!

God has made himself known to these women and they rejoice in the divine presence and proclaim the glory of God.

I went to an ordination this past week of a woman in our diocese and I was introduced to several new hymns about women from a hymn collection called Voices Found: Women in the Church’s Song. It’s been in publication since 2003 and amazingly this is the first I’ve come across it; why isn’t it better known? I guess that’s to ponder another time, back to the story: One hymn we sang was titled “God of the Women” and one verse read, “God of the women who walked Jesus’ way, giving their resources, learning to pray, Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and more …”. At this point the woman I was sitting next to leaned over and sang “because there’s not enough time to list them all” and we both laughed with joy at the acknowledgement of women like us who have said yes to God’s call to ministry. We laughed with joy because we were a part of celebrating and lifting up another priest who said yes to the love of God.

Love, Kingdom Love, is the most powerful force in the universe. It is more than simply feeding the poor or sharing with those who may have less than us, helping those with less than we have is just the beginning of how we learn to love well in this world. Love is wanting the best for others. Love is working together to remove the obstacles that prevent others from thriving; taking down the walls that divide us and them; leveling the path so that no one is elevated above another. Love is doing life together in such a way that we all are equipped and enabled to do the work we are given to do in the Kingdom.

Love changes the world we live in each time we celebrate each other, weep with each other, hold each other up in challenging times, remind each other we aren’t on this journey alone, when we stop competing with with each other, stop trying to fix each other, and make the choice to be companions following Jesus.

I have a dear friend who says “Love is telling each other when we have spinach in our teeth” and there’s so much to unpack in that statement but the summary is that Love is both wanting the best for each other and helping each other be our best. Love is speaking truth to each other and the world. Love is the foundation of our Kingdom living because God is Love.

So in these last moments of anticipation before Christmas morning, be awake and watchful for the presence of God. Rejoice in the the hope and peace that comes with knowing there is nothing we can do that would make God love us any more or any less that God already loves us.

God may not ask us to do anything nearly as difficult as giving birth to and raising God’s own Son, but we can still say yes to God and God’s Kingdom every day. We can celebrate how the good news changes everything because it changes us and how we move through this world. And we can proclaim the glory of God and the joy of the good news with everyone we encounter by loving well. Amen.

Joy?

Twelve years ago yesterday, I was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. It didn’t really hit me what day it was. I’ve been moving through my days doing what needs doing, trying to take care of me and the dogs and the house, but most of the time I feel only partially present. I know this is typical in grief and I keep reminding myself of that but it doesn’t always help. I am a very organized woman who believes deeply in a well-ordered life. God created the universe by bringing order to the chaos, breathing over the dark waters to make the land and the sea, making days and seasons and years to help us order our days by God’s plan. I think ahead to what’s next and do what needs doing in a timely manner so that when the unexpected happens – not the major stuff but the phone calls and invitations to visit over coffee or lunch, someone who needs my help with something, things not going as anticipated, a dropped cup of coffee that now requires me to mop the hallway, you know, just the regular every day things that pop into our days – I can respond and be present because I know that I’ve managed the regular occurring tasks and deadlines. I used to do all this well. And now I have to put post-it notes on the front door so I don’t forget what I need to bring with me for the day. I look at my calendar every few minutes because I can’t remember what I’m doing next.

And then this afternoon, when I had a chance to sit and relax for a bit amidst the things I needed to get done today, the pictures from my ordination popped up in my FB memories. What a joyous day it was! So many precious people, family, friends, fellow clergy, all gathering to worship and pray and come together around God’s table because God and the Church wanted to make me a priest. Me! What a privilege it is. Even on the most difficult days of doing life with the people of my parish, I still say at the end of the day, “I have the most amazing vocation on the planet.” I get to do life with folks who are also doing their best to follow Jesus. We hold each other up, help each other, laughter and cry together, grieve and celebrate together, and serve God together as we work toward the Kingdom on earth as in heaven. It’s a beautiful life.

Looking through the pictures, I laughed and I cried. There are pictures my dad and me. I miss him so, so much. He was so proud of me being a priest and he told me so often. He’s been gone almost 5 months. I miss his laugh and his smile and his hugs. There are also pictures of Jim and me.

It was just a few days before my ordination that Jim asked me to marry him the first time. We had only been going out a couple of months but he knew. I knew, too, I think, but I told him not to ask me yet. I was about to be ordained a priest (I was already a deacon and had been for 6 months) and I told him that I needed to focus on finding my footing as a priest first. He didn’t run away. Six months to the day after his first asking, he asked again.

Jim, too, was so proud that I was a priest. He’d spent his career, his vocation, in a field dominated by women and I was in a vocation dominated by men. We talked about that a lot. The whole of my priesthood he’s been by my side, encouraging me, listening when I needed to talk, calling me out when my ego was showing, understanding when pastoral visits and church events had to take priority, and never complaining that holidays weren’t times we could go see any of the kids. He even told his golf friends that he couldn’t take their annual trip to Vegas over Easter weekend anymore! That’s true love, y’all!

It’s not even been 2 months since Jim died. I miss him so much. I know ‘grief brain’ won’t last forever, that slowly I’ll feel like I’ve got a handle on life again, even as I know it will be a different life. And I know I don’t forge this new path alone. God is with me and God created all of us to be our best in companionable and collaborative relationships with each other. I am so very grateful for the extra-large family Jim gave me. I am so very grateful for the beautiful people of my amazing parish.

God is good and I’m ok. In the midst of it all, I am joyful and hopeful because I know that God is good. Today is the third Sunday in Advent, a day we focus on Joy. Joy is both a gift from God and something we need to practice. It isn’t a fake “things are great” when they really, really aren’t. Joy isn’t the opposite of grief, it sustains us in our grief. Joy is not about our circumstances but comes from our faith in God’s goodness and love. Joy comes from being aware of God’s presence with us always. I pray that you feel the joy within you, today and every day.

The Bishop and the clergy laying their hands on me as they pray for God to make me a priest.

My dad putting my priest’s stole on me with my son looking on. My son was the Bishop’s Chaplain for the service.

So many clergy! I’m on a stool in the back center!

Jim and me at the reception. This has been the cover photo on my phone ever since.

The Work of Peace

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the Second Sunday of Advent are here.

Don’t you just love this time of year when you can yell “don’t come in here” and folks just think you are wrapping presents instead of avoiding people and trying to find a little peace amidst the chaos.

Today, on this second Sunday of Advent, the theme is Peace, the peace that can only come from the sure and certain hope (last week’s theme) we have in God’s faithfulness. So much of the time I think we simplify the meaning of peace to be the absence of conflict or stress, or walking through life without any bumps or potholes in our path. But that’s just not realistic is it? Life always has bumps and potholes and sometimes raging rapids to mix to mix my metaphors well.

It’s easy to say we want peace, but peace is something we must work toward. Jesus calls us to be peace makers not peace keepers. The Romans ‘kept’ the peace in first century Palestine by making everyone afraid.

So, when we say ‘the peace of God’ just what do we mean? The Hebrew word ‘shalom,’ which we translate into English as peace, is best understood as wholeness. And the Greek word for peace is related to the verb ‘to join’ so that peace is found in being joined together. In Christ, we are made whole and are joined together as God’s beloved children, the body of Christ. God created us for relationship – with God, with each other, with the world and all of creation – and through us, God has chosen to begin healing the world with the power of love. The peace of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven is an active peace.

When we pass the peace, we are doing so much more than saying hi. We are, quite literally, offering each other the Peace of God, wholeness, being joined together. With the simple phrase “the peace of the Lord” we claim our confidence in God’s love and forgiveness that make us worthy to come to God’s table, at peace with God. And we are saying from our hearts “if I’ve done anything that has hurt you that I’m unaware of, please forgive me so that we can go to God’s table at peace with each other.” It is saying that in the midst of the chaos in this world, we trust in God’s faithfulness so that we can be at peace in God’s Kingdom on earth.

This is just a taste of the peace we are to work toward in the world, the work of bringing people together instead of dividing us from them. The work of peace makes bigger tables not fences or walls. The work of peace works to dismantle the political and societal systems that elevate one group above another. The work of peace works toward justice for all of God’s beloved children, building up, not dividing or tearing down.

In place of our psalm today, we read Zechariah’s prophecy from Luke’s telling of the Good News. Zechariah was John the Baptizer’s father. And when the angel Gabriel came to him to announce that Elizabeth would give birth to the Messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord, Zechariah was given the gift of silence, he was unable to speak through Elizabeth’s pregnancy. And the first words Zechariah said in months were about peace, the peace that can come only from God’s righteousness and justice.

Elizabeth and Zechariah’s son, John, was to prepare the way for the Messiah, the One whose light will guide our feet into the way of peace. When we follow Jesus, we work for the peace of God’s kingdom, with our work, our words, our wisdom, and our wealth.

John the Baptizer was the last of the Old Testament prophets, proclaiming the message of God’s faithfulness in announcing the coming of God’s Messiah. In our prayer today, we ask for God’s grace that we might truly hear the words of God’s prophets that call us to repent so that we are prepared to receive God’s salvation.

We’ve talked about repentance before but I think it’s going to take a lot more church conversations to undo the years and decades of our misunderstanding illustrated by the street corners and TV preachers who yell ‘repent’ in angry voices to scare us into submission. If anyone is trying to preach the good news with fear, it isn’t good and it isn’t about God. So, who remembers what repent means: To change our hearts and minds, to reorient ourselves toward the Kingdom on earth as in heaven, literally to turn around. Repentance isn’t about beating ourselves up or shaming or belittling or condemning ourselves or anyone. Repentance is the realization that our way hasn’t brought about much love and reconciliation in this world and that God’s way does. We turn and ask for God’s forgiveness and we do life differently, following Jesus in the way of love that brings Peace on earth and goodwill to all.

If we are moving through life constantly angry or with contempt for others we will never know true peace and so we have to change how we move through this world. If we want things to change, we have to turn our hearts and minds toward God’s Way and ask God to forgive us and let the Spirit transform us, heart, mind, body, and soul.

God’s forgiveness is transforming, it releases us, frees us from the enslavement of our sin, our desire to put ourselves first, to raise ourselves up above others. The words Malachi uses to describe the coming Messiah aren’t about punishment or condemnation but about purifying, making holy, cleansing and freeing from sin. A refiner purifies metal and a fuller cleans and beautifies the cloth; they don’t destroy rather they make the metal or the cloth what it is supposed to be. God’s forgiveness isn’t to bring us fear but peace, the wisdom that only with God can we become who we are created to be. We are refined by the ongoing, lifelong journey with Jesus.

The peace of God’s kingdom on earth comes with relationship, our relationship with God, with each other and all of God’s creation. And although there are times we all need a quiet space to be with ourselves we can only be at peace alone when our relationships are in good order. And tending to our relationships takes work. This is the peace making Jesus talks about: Blessed are the peacemakers for they are called the children of God.

So, instead of trying to escape the chaos of this world or artificially keeping peace by pretending we have no challenges along the Way. , find Peace in our relationship with God, the peace that comes from surrendering our will to God’s and together let’s do the work of peace-making in our relationships with each other, the world, and all of God’s creation.

I’d like to end with a poem by Malcolm Guite, an Anglican priest and poet, and I invite you to close your eyes and listen with your heart. It is titled simply “peace”

Peace by Malcolm Guite
Not as the world gives, not the victor’s peace, Not to be fought for, hard-won, or achieved, Just grace and mercy, gratefully received: An undeserved and unforeseen release, As the cold chains of memory and wrath Fall from our hearts before we are aware, Their rusty locks all picked by patient prayer, Till closed doors open, and we see a path Descending from a source we cannot see; A path that must be taken, hand in hand, Only by those, forgiving and forgiven, Who see their saviour in their enemy. So reach for me, we’ll cross our broken land, And make each other bridges back to Heaven.

Amen.

A Reminder

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for Christ the King Sunday are here.

The seven-year-old-fairy-tale-believing little girl in me has always been enamored with the British Royal family. So, I must admit that in my time in Canada, I enjoyed participating in the royal customs and traditions of a country in the Commonwealth, well except for a particular pub game called Save the Queen (I guess it’s Save the King now). In this game, your supposed friends would plunk a coin in your beverage and, because the image of the queen was on the coin, you had to chug what was left of your beverage to save her from drowning while everyone else sang “God save the Queen”. I made the mistake once of trying to get out of chugging a full pint by saying, “she’s not my queen” and was booed and threatened with expulsion from the pub. Both in the pub and in my classes, I learned a lot about how serious they take their allegiance to the Monarch while remaining faithful to our confession that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Since much of our identity as Americans stems from the fact that we booted the Monarchy out of our country so very long ago, we struggle to fully grasp the concept of pledging allegiance and loyalty to a King or Queen and especially how our faith in Jesus as King of Kings informs our allegiance to any leader. Our form of government in this country came about because we wanted out from under the total authority of a monarchy. And to be clear, Great Britain is not a true monarchy as their monarchs no longer have any executive or political power. The role of the monarch, in Great Britain and the Commonwealth at least, is a symbol of a unifying national identity, not political power.

As we talk about the Kingship of Jesus, we have to be careful in our understanding and the words we use. We have to understand it through the stories of our faith ancestors in the Old Testament and with the words and actions of Jesus in Roman occupied, first century Palestine.

On Christ the King Sunday we close out the church year with the story of Jesus’ condemnation by the powers of this world before we turn our attention to preparing for God to step into history as a vulnerable baby. We can’t separate these events because they paint the full picture of what God is up to in this world.

God chose to step into history not in privileged wealth or status or power, not with physical force or military might but as the most vulnerable among us to show us how powerful love really is. And God chose to give himself over to the oppressive authorities to be executed to show that love as God loves is more powerful than any oppressive governmental system and even more powerful than our greatest human fear, death.

When we claim to follow Jesus, our ideas of leadership, regardless of the century we may be in, should reflect God’s Way and God’s Kingdom, not the world’s way. Jesus refused to be made King by humans and said that his kingdom is NOT of this world. We cannot label our human derived, might-makes-right driven governments with Jesus’ name. Putting a label of “Jesus” or “God” on hatred, bigotry, oppression, or fear, does not make it God’s Way. This is using God’s name in vain; it is our modern idolatry.

When God agreed to give the Israelites a King, it wasn’t a reward, it was a concession. God said to the Israelites, “I will be your God and you will be my people” and the Israelites said they’d rather be like all the other nations. So, God let them have their way, giving them over to the consequences that would come from choosing to be like other earthly kingdoms rather than living as God’s people on earth as in heaven. And then God appointed prophets to hold the Kings accountable for being the leader of God’s chosen people, because God’s anointed are to rule with justice, mercy, and grace while walking humbly with God, to serve as a role model of the image bearers we are created to be.

And many thousands of years later, we haven’t done any better. When we choose to follow our own way instead of following Jesus, God lets us. And there are consequences. When we choose to lead or rule by fear and oppression or follow a leader who does, we can never feel the security and safety we pretend we are offering others.

Regardless of who our leaders and elected officials might be, when we make the choice to follow Jesus, Jesus becomes our primary teacher and guide, our Lord of Lord and King of Kings, the one who shows us in flesh and blood what it is to love as God loves, even when it’s hard. Even when it costs us everything. Even when the world promises us riches in exchange for our true identity. Even when the world says Jesus’ Way is weak and out of date.

The throne room imagery we have in our readings today is the majesty of God on the throne, not any human and the one like a human is Jesus who has the title Son of Man, the one who can rule without letting the power corrupt his motivation.

So, like Pilate, we have to ask ourselves, what is truth? Do we claim the world’s truth that says power is physical and military might that bullies others to conform to our will, that constantly defines “us” as against “them” and that seeks revenge and retaliation in the place of justice?

Or do we claim the truth of Jesus, that the power of God’s Kingdom is the love, mercy, and justice that both enables and requires us to see the image of God in all people.

Next Sunday we step into the season of Advent, the time in which we prepare for the coming of Jesus not just as a baby at Christmas or to restore all things to God’s original intent in some future time, but in this now and not yet season of our everyday lives. How do we expect Jesus to show up every day? As a bully to vanquish those who disagree with us, as a dictator demanding perfect loyalty, as a self-serving master who sucks the life from us, or as a humble servant teacher who says the greatest commandment is to Love, offering us and everyone peace and grace and mercy and the renewed life we are created for?

There is much anger and hate in this world and it is very, very loud. Jesus shows us in flesh and blood that Love is more powerful than anything else and yet we tend to whisper love. We need to shout LOVE from the rooftops, make our love actions louder and more visible so that the world knows the Good News of God’s Love. This is how we remain faithful to our King of Kings Jesus.

Jesus is the one who unifies us in our identity as God’s beloved and we are to show the world the power of Love not because we believe in some fairy tale but because we stand in the truth of who God is and Whose we are: God’s beloved children, created in the image of the loving, life-giving, liberating God of all Creation, regardless of what country or century we live in. We are citizens of God’s Kingdom-not-of-this-world and it is God’s will that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and with our works of love and mercy and justice as we follow him, all of creation will be restored to God’s original intent.

As folks who know we are God’s beloved, we must show the world that everyone is God’s beloved, because so many in the world have forgotten it. If you’ve forgotten that God loves you, let me remind you, let our time of worship and sacrament today remind you, so that knowing you are loved you can shout love loudly with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If it’s not about love, it’s not about God. Amen.

Held Together

The day after Jim died, my friend Carrie came by to visit and we talked about Jim’s funeral. As we talked through what Jim wanted for readings and music she said she’d get it all together and send me a draft bulletin to review. I said, ‘oh, it’s already done.’ Carrie laughed and said, ‘of course you have that done’ and then after a pause ‘now send it to me and remember that you are not the priest right now, you are the wife.’

These roles haven’t always been intertwined for me even though Jim and I met and began dating shortly after my ordination. We had only been going out for a couple of months when he first brought up the topic of us getting married. I responded, as kindly as possible because I didn’t want to shoo him away that I was still trying to figure out what being a priest was all about and I couldn’t do that and figure out how to be husband and wife together at the same time. I told him I wasn’t saying no just not ready to talk about it yet. Apparently in my efforts to explain myself I said something along the lines of ‘give me 6 months’ because 6 months later to the day, he asked again. He even showed me where he wrote on his calendar. (I said yes.)

As we began having conversations with the other priest at the church where I was serving we decided to keep the wedding date a secret and that we would get married as part of a regular Sunday morning service just like a baptism is done. For the first part of the service, Jim and I sat in the congregation. After the reading of scripture, Fr. Jim (FYI – dating someone with the same first name as a priest in the parish is tricky) called us forward and we said our vows and he blessed our marriage. After the Passing of the Peace, we moved into the place where I sat as a priest as I put on a stole and assisted with Holy Communion. It was an intentional bringing together of my roles of wife and priest.

Carrie’s words brought me to the realization that I must now untether these roles. It will take time and intentionality and there’s no hurry. In these past weeks, as my church has generously given me time to grieve, I’ve thought about how comforting – and often awkward feeling – it has been to let them minister to me. One of my grounding ideals as a priest is that it is my role to equip and enable others to do their ministry as together we all follow Jesus. They are an amazing group of people who truly have hospitality in their collective DNA. They show up and do life together, and I can say with much love and comfort that I’m doing life with them and I am so very grateful.

I have one more week before stepping back into regular routines and obligations and the joy of being their priest. My first ‘event’ will be a pre-Advent retreat day that we had scheduled months ago and I’m excited that is what’s first in this new chapter that we will write together as we walk it. Leading retreats is my favorite thing to do and it was really how I began my relationship with this amazing congregation. In the spring of 2021, they asked me to lead them on a day of listening and discernment to discover how the Holy Spirit was leading them. They knew there wasn’t ‘going back’ after the COVID pandemic and they wanted to follow Jesus as faithfully as possible moving forward. It was a wonderful day. So in a week I’ll lead them in a conversation about orienting ourselves in all ways to the coming of Jesus, into history as God incarnate, into the ordinary and extraordinary moments of our lives each day of the now and not yet, and into the someday fully realized Kingdom on earth as in Heaven.

I am held together by love: God’s love, Jim’s love for me and mine for him, the loving acts of prayer and food and conversation with the good people of St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church and our bishop and diocese and my fellow clergy, and of course by my family and friends. Kingdom Love is the strongest force I know. God is good and I’m ok.

And just in case you need to hear this – you are held together by love, too. You are loved and worthy of love.

Identity

Some pondering over early morning coffee.

Throughout the whole political season (I’m concerned it isn’t a season but the way of being of this country), I have seen over and over, people professing to be Christian dishing out hate and fear in apparent attempts to ‘win’ people to a particular side. And, yet, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that hate and fear are not a part of God’s Kingdom on earth. It is clear that professing to be Christian and actually following Jesus are two different things. Jesus knew many would do this and warned against it.

I’ve seen many folks make their political party their primary identity. But this is not who God created us to be. When we let our political party views shape how we present christianity to the world, we’ve gotten ourselves all discombobulated and forgotten that Jesus came to bring Good News to all people. Our identity as Jesus’ Followers should shape and transform our political views, our worldview, how we see everyone and everything, through the lens of God’s love for us.

We are first and foremost beloved children of God, created in God’s loving image. Our purpose is to be image bearers shining in the darkness of this world. Our obligation is to remember that all human beings are created by the same loving God. All human beings. ALL. It is not our job to sort through who is worthy of love and who isn’t. God makes all people worthy through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We can work diligently to show them just how worthy they are because so many people in this world don’t know that or have forgotten. There will be a lot of folks who don’t want to know it either and it isn’t our job to force them to see who and Whose they really are. Because love is never forced or demanded.

I am also a mother, sister, aunt, grandma (aka Gamby or Mimi), and friend. My purpose is to love the people in my circle in such a way that they know they too are beloved children of God. My responsibility is to help equip them to be the best image bearers they can be, with the unique gifts and skills and talents they possess. It takes all of us working together, working WITH each other and with God’s help to build up God’s Kingdom on earth as in Heaven. It is not my job to control those around me, to coerce them, or manipulate them. Because love does not control or coerce or manipulate.

I am also a priest in the Episcopal Church. My purpose is to lead others in the Way of Love, through the administration of the sacraments, spiritual formation in worship and study, and in pastoral care so that we are all better equipped to be image bearers shining in the darkness of this world. It is not my job to save souls or to fix others. It is not my job to point out other people’s sins or incite fear in anyone. Because love isn’t fearful nor does love incite fear.

I am also an American and this does not in any way change my purpose nor any of my responsibilities in life. It is simply the setting in which I live into who God created me to be. Regardless of which county I may be in, regardless of any particular political party I may align with, I am still a beloved child of God created to be an image bearer, gifted with the love of others who I journey with, and called to lead others as we follow Jesus in the Way of Love. In whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we follow Jesus. We love. We tend to each other and equip each other to love better and better each day with God’s help.

In whom do you ground your identity? If you are one of many who ave you forgotten that you are a beloved child of God, hear me say, you are loved. Let God’s love shape and transform you. Choose to follow Jesus into the Kingdom on earth as in Heaven where love is stronger than fear and hate, where the light of God’s image shines into the darkness.

A Good Grief, Part 2

When I wrote this piece in early summer, I didn’t plan on a part 2. When my dad died in July, we didn’t yet know the seriousness of Jim’s cancer. We didn’t even know for sure he had cancer. He had so many symptoms that could be related or could not be related, that could be one thing or another. We thought we’d solved two of the biggest symptoms and he was feeling better than he had in a while. Three months later, a week ago today, pancreatic cancer took Jim’s physical life from us. I’m sad. I’m angry. I’m scared. I’m hopeful. I’m glad he isn’t sick any more. I know I’m not alone and that I’m loved and supported by many. And I still have laundry to do, meals to fix and eat, dogs to tend to, a home to manage, bills to pay, stuff to learn, people to love.

Grief, good grief, doesn’t mean life stops even as we set some things aside for a while. Good grief doesn’t mean we pretend all is well when it isn’t. Good grief is allowing ourselves to be sad/angry/scared and to be hopeful and grateful and to love and be loved.

I don’t know why God created us to have limited life spans on this earth. I don’t know why, when humans decided to choose for themselves how to define good and evil rather than accept God’s way, that human action somehow enabled disease and corrupted cells that grow in ways that cause our physical bodies to die not of old age. I don’t need to know these things to appreciate this life God has given me. What I do know, in the very depths of my soul, is that the Loving and Life-giving God I know and love and who loves me and every single human being ever, did not ‘take’ Jim’s life, or cause him to be sick and suffer and die for some “reason I don’t understand”. I don’t hear this as often in the Episcopal Church as I did/do in the denomination of my childhood but I had some folks say it about my dad and I’m sure at some point someone will say it about Jim. The idea that God somehow needed Jim more than I and his kids and grandkids need him here is, my friends, simply bad theology.

Yes, we have the opportunity to learn in our suffering in this life, but the God who loves and values our humanness enough to become like us, born of a woman, fully human/fully God, to live as we live, isn’t some chess master style god who cruelly makes one of his beloved children sick to somehow ‘teach us something.’ What I can learn from the struggles and deaths I’ve experienced these past months is how to live and love better, not because God thought I needed to learn a hard lesson but because God always calls us to continuously learn to be more and more like Jesus in every moment of our lives.

Jesus showed us in flesh and blood what it is to live as God created us to live – in loving relationship with our Creator and with each other and this amazing planet we live on. All created things – humans, animals, plants – die a physical death. This isn’t something to be avoided because we don’t understand it or are afraid of it. Death is a part of the life God gave us. And we know that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have life after this physical one. Jim and I speculated a lot about what this might be like. And, the best we came up with is that we don’t know the details but we do know that it is a life without cancer, and without suffering, and pain, and sorrow.

All of the emotions we experience when someone dies are part of being who God created us to be. The emotional pain is challenging and we want to feel better. Perhaps this is why some have come up with the idea that God ‘takes’ people for reasons beyond our understanding. Is it easier to say we can’t understand than it is to face the pain? Suppressing pain or denying it doesn’t make us better. Bringing our most difficult emotions into God’s presence and letting God’s love hold us does. Talking with others we can trust to let us express our pain without platitudes or toxic positivity or attempts to ‘fix it’ helps the pain heal and in healing we become better.

I’m sad. I’m angry. I’m scared. I’m hopeful. I’m not alone and I’m loved by many and I have many people to love. I’m a beloved child of God and so are you. The best we can be is to let suffering, ours and others, teach us to love more and more like Jesus. God’s peace be with you, my friends.