Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts

The Good Life

Before we dove into the readings for today, I want y’all to take a brief moment and think about how you would describe the good life? Turn to the person next to you and tell them briefly what your description of the good life is. Next question: How do you define the word blessed? Tell the person next to you. Hold on to those thoughts for a bit; we’ll come back to them.

But first, let’s look at the Gospel reading for today. This is Luke’s version of the better known Matthew’s telling of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. Matthew’s version had 9 ‘blessed are’ statements and no ‘woes’, and as is obvious by it’s common title, Jesus does the teaching on a mountain side.

Luke has Jesus talking on a ‘level place’ and the teaching is directed primarily at the disciples, not the crowd. Let’s take a moment to talk about the crowd. This isn’t a group of religious elite or the wealthy class or political officials. These were the powerless and impoverished folks trapped in the poverty of Roman Oppression. They had come looking for Jesus to be healed and made whole.

And after taking care of them, Jesus turns to his disciples and says the craziest, most upside down thing someone can say after having just taken care of the poorest and sickest of people. So we need to make the effort to look at these statements from the same perspective of the people Jesus has just healed and the disciples who had given up everything to follow this revolutionary itinerant preacher.

Jesus’ words are written in Greek yet he most likely would have spoken Aramaic and read scripture in Hebrew. The meaning of the word that we translate here to blessed in English means fortunate or flourishing, or the good life, and it is used to describe the circumstances of another person. It isn’t the same word that we would say in English “God bless you” when wishing them well.But before we get lost in a seminary style word study let me just say that the point is to understand the word, translated here as ‘blessed’ and in other translations as ‘happy’ is a description of something seen in the circumstances of another person. This word isn’t a magical incantation to initiate gifts from God that we want for ourselves.

Jesus is describing what he’s seeing in front of him – the condition of the people who had come to him for healing – using a wisdom word intended to persuade those listening that a certain way of life is the ideal state. Jesus is saying that from the vantage point of God’s Kingdom on Earth as in heaven, these are the markers of those who live the good life: being poor, being hungry, weeping, and being hated and rejected. In the second part of each statement Jesus discloses the gift from God received by those living this Kingdom of God good life.

You who live the good life of being poor in this world are given the Kingdom of Heaven. Notice that this one is in the present tense – the Kingdom of God with it’s upside down perspective of what the good life actually is, is here, for each of us to step into now, if we are willing to reevaluate what makes the good life by God’s rules for measuring flourishing.

We live the good life in God’s Kingdom when we work together to ensure no one is hungry, to lift each other up in hard times, and live the teachings of Jesus regardless of what others may think or say about us. This is the good life because this is the life that God created us to live.

These words of Jesus are his commentary on what is happening in the lives of the powerless people right in front of him, the poor and sick and impoverished. This is the kind of people Jesus chose to share the good news of God’s kingdom with. They are the fortunate ones.

And for those folks who are more concerned with amassing wealth than they are about helping others flourish, for those who would rather gorge themselves than share their abundance, and those who ignore the hardship of others and live only to impress others, well, God’s Kingdom isn’t very good news at all. Determining whether or not Jesus’ message is good news or bad news depends on your perspective of whether or not you are living in the kingdom on earth as in heaven.

If you are walking through life in God’s Kingdom at hand, this is all very good news; if you are walking through life working at building your own kingdom, this is bad news.

From the very beginning, God lays it out plainly: Flourish in the abundance of the garden, just don’t mess with that one tree. Through all of the stories of our faith ancestors, God has instructed us about blessings and woes (otherwise known as curses), life and death. God created us to live within this framework. And over and over again, we get tired of waiting on God’s blessings because we have redefined “blessed” as getting what we want when we want it. In the economy of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven, being blessed is about everyone having what they need to flourish and participate with God by blessing others. This is the good life.

When God made the choice to create us all in God’s image, it wasn’t so that we could convince others to worship us but so that we would know that we are God’s representatives in this creation and our purpose is to be stewards of all that God offers us in and through creation.

Being rich or having enough food or being happy aren’t bad. These are good things that God wants for all people. When we let others go without when we have more than enough, that’s when we’ve taken the wrong path; we’ve corrupted the goodness of God’s provision for all people.

God’s blessings aren’t about making our individual lives easier. God’s blessings are to flow outward from the recipients to build up the Kingdom of God on earth. And when we try to seize our own blessing on our own terms, well, woe to us because God will turn us over to the consequences of trying to take on our own terms what God freely gives us.

What we do with our money, how we share what we have with others especially those who don’t have the same societal privileges as us, and who we admire and celebrate with, how we interact with our neighbors, who we consider to be our neighbors, convey what our preferred Kingdom is.

Jesus invites us to live the good life and challenges our understanding of just what the good life is. Remember back to the beginning when I asked you to tell the person next to you what the good life is? We can’t share the good life if we are sitting by ourselves. The good life can only be lived in community with others, loving God and our neighbors, so that everyone flourishes in God’s Kingdom. Amen.

If you say so

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

What’s the scariest, most daunting thing you’ve ever been asked to do? How did you respond? With anger or frustration? With fear? Or with the humble confidence that comes from trusting the one who is asking a hard thing of you?

In our Old Testament lesson, we have Isaiah, a prophet, who’s willingly taken on the task of preaching to the people of Israel about how they’ve tripped up and sinned against God. Isaiah takes on the difficult task of telling the Israelites that if they stay on the path they are on, life as they know it will be turned upside down as God withdraws his support from them.

As we enter into the story, Isaiah’s been told what he’s to say and do and now he’s given a vision of God’s Throne Room. I mean it’s one thing to agree to proclaim God’s truth here on earth, but to be transported straight into the Throne Room with God? If one isn’t prepared properly, that’s certain death! He’s agreed to what God has asked of him but is just beginning to realize the magnitude of it all. Yet Isaiah doesn’t give up or walk away; Isaiah listens to God’s call and responds, trusting God to enable and equip him for all that God asks.

And then it seems that God is setting Isaiah up for the impossible, saying the people Isaiah will preach to won’t comprehend, won’t think, won’t see or hear. But God isn’t forcing the people not to understand, God is saying that even as God has been with the people and spoken to them and taught them and led them, they still want to do life their own way; God has and will continue to give them ample opportunity to walk with God and they keep choosing their own path. If God miraculously changes them to follow God only, God is taking away their freewill and without freewill they stop being fully human and lose the capacity to love. And that is not who God created any of us to be.

So now that we’ve gotten Isaiah squared away, let’s jump over to the Gospel reading: Peter and his buddies have had a terrible night shift with nothing to show for their efforts. And Jesus, whom Peter knows and has apparently heard teach and preach and admires as indicated by the address of ‘master’ tells Peter to try it again – the preacher is telling the professional fisherman how to fish. And Peter, to his credit, gives Jesus the benefit of the doubt, although a bit cheekily with his “if you say so” and tries again, with miraculous results. At the sight of the haul, Peter knows immediately that he’s in God’s presence, and responds in much the same way as Isaiah – with a humble knowing of who he is in relation to God.

Both of these men have accurate and proper responses as they come to terms with the reality in front of them – God is with them. These men are aware that they are human beings created by the One who is coming to them and saying walk with me, work with me, let me show you who you are created to be by love, in love, and for love. They understand that without God, we are not worthy to do the work of God’s Kingdom, that without being in relationship with our Creator, we are only building our own kingdoms. With God and by God only are we made worthy and competent and capable of living in service to God and God’s kingdom on earth with justice and compassion and mercy and love.

Jesus then says to Peter the thing he says almost as much as he tells us to love: ‘do not be afraid’. A few of us had a conversation about this at Wednesday Eucharist week before last. Fear is a natural emotional response we all have. God gave us the emotion of fear to tell us that something is wrong, to help us pay attention to what is going on around us. And in our holy scriptures, the word translated into English as ‘fear’ is used to convey our proper understanding of who God is and who we are in the hyphenated English phrase fear-of-the-lord. We aren’t to cower at the name of God but to respond as Isaiah and Peter did, with the humility that says we know we are’t worthy of who God is and what God does for us. This fear-of-the-lord isn’t supposed to drive us away but to help us properly orient ourselves to God in reverence and awe: We follow God, we don’t direct God. God invites us to be on God’s side; we don’t tell God to be on ours.

Jesus knows all too well this world can be an extremely scary place. Jesus knows we are human and we will experience the emotion of fear. And he says ‘don’t be afraid’. He’s not telling us to ignore our fear but to not let it control us and to not use it to control others. Leaders who rule by fear are the very leaders that God and the prophets and the apostles and all of our holy scriptures speak against.

When Jesus says do not be afraid, he is reminding us that God is with us and it is God’s strength and power of LOVE that give us the courage to stand up to the injustices of this world. Do not be afraid is a call to stand against those who are working so very hard to instill fear in all of us. Fear, when we let it take control of us, is paralyzing and prevents us from walking in the righteousness and justice of God’s Kingdom. Letting fear take control prevents us from being who and Whose we are.

When we come face to face with God, when we are aware of God’s presence with us, yes we have the ability to chose God or not, but is there really any other choice than to admit we are human and worship and praise the One who created us? How amazing is it that the God who created us wants to be with us and in relationship with us and asks us to participate with God in the building up of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven?

We don’t have to be perfect before God chooses us; we don’t have to earn God’s favor; we don’t have to prove to God or anyone else what a good person we are. With God and by God’s actions we are worthy to do the work of God’s Kingdom. God chooses us. God loves us. God calls us to share that Good News with the hurting world.

We don’t have to worry that we won’t live up to God’s expectations. We don’t have to go into the service of God’s Kingdom naively. God tells us what we are to do – God tells us to love. And when we love well, God is pleased. And when we don’t love well, because we are all only human after all, God loves us still and calls us to return to the way of the Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

God asks us to do hard, daunting things: to love when the world says hate; to show compassion when the world says judge; to work for the greater good of all when the world says take care of number one; to remain faithful even when it seems we aren’t having any effect on the suffering in this world, even when we are the ones suffering. God asks us to do hard things and walks with us as we do, giving us the strength and courage that is fed by God’s love. And that is very good news, indeed. Amen.

Presenting Jesus

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The readings for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany (aka The Presentation of Jesus) are here.

I’m going to begin by asking each of you “how are you?” I don’t mean it rhetorically. Say your answer out loud. The world feels so hard and prickly and completely discombobulated. So, how are you, really?

I have to admit, I’m overwhelmed. I know it’s important to stay informed on what’s happening around us but it is so disheartening to witness the flood of anger and division and the fear it is causing in so many.

Two weeks ago, an Episcopal Bishop stood in the pulpit and preached on unity and mercy, things Jesus spoke about often. And now congress is trying to officially condemn the message as a “distorted message”. To people who want to spread fear, mercy does distort their message. But Mercy is a core and primary message of God’s good news of Love for everyone. And it is our responsibility as we follow Jesus, to lift up the marginalized in our society, in our community. Being in the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven is about building others up, not tearing them down. It is about making our table bigger, our circle wider, welcoming the stranger and the immigrant. Regardless of what our government may say and do, we are God’s church, God’s people, followers of Jesus, the Body of Christ.

Martin Luther King said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” We must speak and act God’s Love louder than the anger and hate so those who are afraid can hear us. And this takes the courage and strength and confidence that comes with knowing who and Whose we are.

In our reading today from the prophet Malachi, we hear the question “Who can endure, who can stand” when the messenger of Love comes? For those who are taking part in our conversation about Revelation, John echoes these questions and the answer isn’t spoken but shown, Jesus is the only one who can stand in the presence of God, who can truly proclaim God’s Love. AND, ALSO, Jesus makes us worthy to stand before God and to speak God’s message of Love, too.

Refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap don’t destroy, they make what is being worked on better, more pure. Refining the descendants of Levi isn’t about culling the herd but about making each and all of us a kingdom of priests before God (and yes, that includes each of you) better and better, as we are continuously shaped into who and Whose we are.

The refiner’s fire doesn’t create something new, it removes the impurities in the gold and silver so they can shine as they are intended to. The fuller’s soap takes wool and removes the impurities that have settled in it as the sheep lived their life outside so the wool is what it originally was, pure wool.

When we are open to being refined and purified, to do the work with God’s help that gets through the self-preserving layers down into the redeemed original created in God’s image by and for love, we are ‘pleasing to the Lord’ even as we are still a work in progress. When we are stagnant and stuck and refuse to see any way but our own, we are not very pleasing, either to God or anyone else.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear the story of Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus to the priests in the Temple as was the custom of their day. Luke chooses to put more focus on an elderly man named Simeon and prophet named Anna. Simeon and Anna speak of Jesus as the personification of redemption and salvation, God at work in a way they’ve been waiting for their whole lives, a fulfillment of Malachi’s words. And they know that the man this baby will grow to be, with his very life will show us what God’s redemption and salvation looks like. And what Jesus shows us is that God’s redemption of the world, God’s salvation, looks like mercy and grace and compassion and love.

Jesus is the embodiment of Malachi’s refiners fire and fullers soap. Redemption is taking what’s already there and purifying it, restoring it to what it was intended to do or be. As we follow Jesus, doing our best with God’s help to live each day by his teachings, we are continuously being purified each time we make the choice to err on the side of mercy instead of taking the easy way of hate.

It is easier to hate than to show mercy because showing mercy means we may have to give up something we want. But in the end, being merciful means we all have what we need. The Rolling Stones were on to something!

It is easier to claim that the Truth requiring us to change or sacrifice is distorted than it is to let the Truth of God’s Love redeem and save us from ourselves. You’ve heard me say, “life is much easier when we aren’t self-aware”. But life is much better when we seek to be who God created and intends for us to be, our true, authentic selves that sometimes gets buried among the impurities of living in this world.

When we come into this place each week, we are following Jesus, presenting ourselves to God. We enter with all of our experiences, thoughts, emotions, and interactions of the previous week. We bring our whole selves into this community, and as we greet each other at the door, we have to move around and past the Baptismal Font. Do you notice it? Do you wonder why it’s in the way?

It is there, front and center, to remind us of God’s redemption and salvation, merciful gifts to us that we are commanded to share with others. In the vows we make at our baptism we renounce the ‘forces of wickedness that rebel against God and corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, as well as the desires that draw us from the love of God. And then we promise to turn toward Jesus, putting our whole trust in his grace and love, as we follow and obey him. As we enter and leave this place, the water of baptism reminds us that we are first and foremost citizens of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven and the command to Love is what guides who we are and all we do.

As we move toward God’s Table, we come to receive the mercy of God’s Love. We present ourselves to God, made worthy by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We receive Jesus’ life into ourselves so it shapes us from the inside out and then we carry it with us into this world – a light to those who are afraid in the darkness.

And, so, I’ll end as I began, “how are you?” Are you feeling a little more peace and strength because of the Word of God? Are you feeling a little more courage because of the precious gift of God’s mercy and love? Are you aware of God’s presence with us just as Anna and Simeon felt the movement of the Spirit in the temple? Our refining is a lifelong process of becoming more and more aware of God with us in all that we do, in who we are, in who all people are – God’s beloved people. Amen.

Come in

A sermon preached at St. Francis by teh Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for the second Sunday after the Epiphany are here.

Imagine going to a state park and only looking at the entrance sign and not actually entering the park. Signs aren’t the thing, they only point to it. Street signs tell us what street we are on but aren’t the actual street. Directional signs tell us how to get to our destination but aren’t the destination. Signs are an invitation to enter what they point to.

This is how Jesus used what John calls ‘signs’ and others call miracles. The amazing things that Jesus does are just that – amazing, wonderful, miraculous acts that heal and restore, but the purpose of them is what comes next, entering into the abundant life, this life, in the here and now, of the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. So often, Jesus cautions people to not be so enamored by the sign that they get distracted from actually entering into God’s Kingdom.

Isn’t it curious that the first sign pointing at the now and not yet Kingdom of God isn’t a healing or raising someone from the dead or an exorcism, it’s turning water into gallons and gallons of wine at a family celebration.

But before we talk about that, let’s look at this wedding with an understanding of the time and place in which it happens. In the Jewish culture of first-century Palestine, a wedding celebration would last up to a week and the wine served was an important sign of hospitality. And, just like at St. Francis’ Decktime and FEASTS, the guests brought wine to contribute to the festivity. So, running out of wine tells us that this wasn’t the upper crust of society but just ordinary folks coming together to celebrate with all that they had!

Also, in this long ago culture, to run out of wine was more than just inconvenient; since wine was a key mark of hospitality, running out would bring shame on the host family and the whole community. Mary, in her request to Jesus, isn’t just looking to refill her own glass, she’s worried about the reputation of the family and wants the best for them.

Let’s take a short sidenote to talk about Mary: despite what well known Christmas Carols may say, she wasn’t meek and mild. Mary was bold and courageous. As we talked about during advent, Mary said yes to God’s radical plan. To be a young jewish woman in an occupied culture which looked on her as mere property, pregnant outside of marriage was at best to be cast out of your family and society because of the shame, and at worst, a death sentence. Her relationship with God, her faith and her trust in God, gave her the courage to risk her life to be the one who brings God’s own son into this broken world.

It should be no surprise to us that at this wedding Mary is the one who steps up to prevent the shame that was about to come upon the family. The exchange she has with Jesus makes me laugh with delight because of her boldness. She wasn’t looking to take over for God or do things her way, she knew of God’s life-giving love and is sharing it abundantly symbolized by the wine.

Mary tells Jesus they are out of wine and he responds, ‘why should we care, I don’t want to make a scene’ – please note, when he calls her ‘woman’ it isn’t a put down but a term of respect, much like we’d use ma’am today. And Mary, knowing her intent to to prevent any relationship damage in their community, presses on. She turns to the servants and says, ‘do whatever he tells you.’ Mary knows the way of God’s Kingdom on earth.

The vessels Jesus uses aren’t random – six purification jars, one shy of the number of wholeness signaling the kingdom is now and not quite yet, vessels that held the water for washing before worship, each about 25 gallons, a glimpse into the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, the outward signs that we are kingdom. people.

The first thing that Jesus wants us to understand is the abundance of good in God’s Kingdom. God’s Kingdom isn’t about keeping others out or condemning or shaming others. God’s Kingdom is a hospitable and welcoming Kingdom, filled with looking-out-for-each-other, telling-each-other-when-we-have-spinach-in-our-teeth kind of relationships, God’s kingdom is a building-bigger-tables, and inviting everyone to the abundant feast kind of Kingdom.

It’s not small thing that Jesus started his public ministry with a party, a wedding, a joyous celebration of a relationship and the coming together of families to do life together. This sign both points us to the beginning of the journey into God’s Kingdom and gives us a taste of the banquet to come. To be in God’s Kingdom isn’t restricted to a particular time or place, in this building or sometime in the future when we die; to be in God’s Kingdom is to be in abundant relationship with God and each other now. If we don’t start with relationship, the rest makes no sense and there’s no point to the journey. If we aren’t willing to be in self-giving relationship with each other and with God, what good does healing do if there is no community in which to be healed. What good does forgiveness do if there are no relationships to be restored? What good does casting out evil do if there is no modeling of goodness in which to grow into God’s beloved?

Jesus loved a good party; he was accused of fellowshipping with the drunkards and gluttons, what polite society calls ‘the wrong sorts of folks’. This first sign wasn’t at all frivolous, it points to the foundation of who and Whose we are: beloved people in loving, life-giving, liberating relationship with God in the kingdom on earth as in heaven.

So, how do we participate in the abundant now and not yet Kingdom of God in our here and now? The answer is the same as Mary gives to the servants: do whatever Jesus tells you. Love God with your whole being, love your neighbor as yourself, love your enemy. Love. Invite. Include. Bring all you have to the party, share life with each other, and build each other up.

Be bold and courageous like Mary to stand in the kingdom even if the culture around us says differently. The most powerful force in heaven and earth is God’s love. Jesus showed us the signposts into the Kingdom, we know the Way, and it’s up to each and all of us to walk the Way as we courageously and boldly stand up to the forces of hate and shame and oppression in this world. Don’t just marvel at the sign; do what Jesus tells us and we enter the life we are created for. Live the life the sign is pointing to – life in community with God’s beloved, building each other up, bringing all we have to the table, celebrating our good, sharing our abundance, grieving our sorrows as we walk together in the Kingdom of God here and now. Amen.

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.