Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts

Accompaniment

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost are here.

So, the most challenging thing about today’s lesson in the midst of our fall ministry support campaign is pronouncing today’s theme: Accompaniment. Take out the insert in your bulletin and say it with me: Accompaniment. This word is a musical term that means to support or complete the melody.

As we use it in God’s Kingdom it means to walk with each other, supporting and completing each other in the melody of God’s Love – working together with God for the transformation and well-being of all of us and our community.

The man in our gospel reading today had an issue with accompaniment. He wanted to follow a checklist of dos and don’ts as a transaction to pay for his own solo entry into God’s Kingdom. He wanted to be self-sufficient, to gain the benefits of God without being in relationship with God. Either he didn’t realize, or he chose to ignore because he was only concerned about himself, that God’s Kingdom is about relationship and community and being with each other as we continually grow into who God created us to be. Our relationship with God and each other IS the kingdom on earth as in heaven

God’s Kingdom is about walking with each other as we follow Jesus, trusting God’s Way of journeying through this world. We can’t earn our way into it. We can’t buy our way into it. We can’t make ourselves important enough to get in. We enter into God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven through the gift of God’s love and grace and mercy. And we enter as a community of believers. I can’t be in God’s Kingdom on earth without you and you can’t be a part of it without me. We all need each other to support and complement the melody of God’s love in this place. When one of us doesn’t show up, the chord isn’t complete. When one or a few of us are doing too much, the chord sounds off. When some aren’t doing their part, we are all a little less harmonious.

All of the blessings God has given us – every part of our life, our wisdom, our work, our wealth – are to be offered back into the economy of God’s Kingdom, not hoarded in our own individual storehouses. God’s law is given to us to help us learn to love with Kingdom love, accompanying each other on this journey, working with each other to ensure we all have what we need, using our collective wisdom for the benefit of all, and sharing our wealth so that every beloved child of God has food and shelter and clothes and safety and knows they are loved. What we do with our resources, our God given resources, reveals our level of trust in God and God’s Way.

When we are transformed by God’s Love we do our work for the glory of God and God’s Kingdom, we speak and live in the wisdom of God’s Love, and we share our wealth in ways that’s reveal people and relationships are truly valuable as we participate with God in the transforming of this world. We are a part of this church because we choose to be transformed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus so that we can reveal God’s Way as the alternative to a world consumed by self-sufficiency. Together, we are called to live a life worthy of God’s love for us, proclaiming God’s transformative love with all that we have and all that we do and all that we are.

Accompaniment is knowing that together we are the Body of Christ and we support and complement the melody of God’s Love in this world, with the whole of our lives oriented toward God as we support and participate in all that happens in this place we call St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church. Amen.

*We are using the Walk in Love materials from The Episcopal Network for Stewardship.

I’m Ok

Some of you know that my husband and I have received the news that he has stage IV pancreatic cancer. As my granddad would have said, “it’s a hard row to hoe.” We are doing our best to be open with each other about what we are feeling and experiencing and I’m so grateful for those who are walking with us. It warms my heart each time someone sincerely asks, “how are you” or “what do you need?” Simply asking the questions often gives me what I need: knowing we are not alone or on our own. I hear myself saying “I’m OK” often and some of you – thank you – double check to make sure I’m not just putting up a false front because it’s the polite thing to do and so I’ve been reflecting on what I really do mean when I say it.

When I say “I’m OK,” it doesn’t mean I’m trying to ignore or hide my problems. It is a statement of trust in the Goodness and Faithfulness of our Creator God. In the midst of struggles God is with me, guiding me, loving me, comforting me. Anchored by God’s love I am not aimlessly tossed about in the storm. In the pain and sorrow, God holds me safe. I know that God is always on the side of the sufferer.

Believing in God and following Jesus doesn’t mean life will be easy*. Believing in God means that this wonderful, amazing life that God has given is lived in relationship with God. It means that my relationship with God is the guide for all of my human relationships and that together we walk in love, following Jesus, each carrying our responsibilities toward God’s Kingdom, and sharing each other’s struggles and celebrations and ordinary days along The Way.

Saying I’m OK means I know that I’m not alone or on my own in this life. I share life with God and all of you. And that fills my heart to overflowing so that I can show you that you are not alone or on your own either when I ask ‘how are you’.

So don’t hear my “I’m OK” as I want you to think I’m perfect; it means I know none of us are. God made us good so that we could know life as a companionable journey of learning and growing. Saying “I’m OK” isn’t an attempt to deceive but a way to test the waters with you: is this an appropriate time to go deeper, am I safe to go deeper with you and are you safe to go deeper with me? We’ll know the answer in each others eyes.

I’m so grateful for all who are walking with us. Thanks for listening.

*And just to be clear, I do NOT believe that God causes suffering to teach or punish although we have the choice to take the opportunity to learn and grow from our suffering to become more compassionate and better human beings. An appropriate response to suffering lies in between toxic positivity and wallowing in victimhood. We can save this conversation for another day, because I’m feeling a bit to ‘soap boxy’ about it right now and I don’t want to rant.

Kingdom Greatness

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

In today’s reading we have the second time Jesus tells his disciples that he will be killed and rise again and again they do not understand.

Last week, Jesus and the disciples were in Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asked the disciples Who do you say that I am and began to teach them what being Messiah in God’s Kingdom is really about. Peter attempted to correct Jesus and Jesus reminded everyone who is supposed to be following whom.

In between last week’s reading and today’s Jesus continues to show the disciples what it is to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom on earth: we have the story of the Transfiguration in which Peter, James, and John witness Jesus having a conversation with Moses and Elijah and Jesus’ clothes are turned a dazzling white. And from this mountain top experience, Jesus leads them back into town where they encounter the rest of the disciples in a kerfuffle with some folks. A man had brought his son for healing and the disciples were unable to do it. After a brief conversation with the boy’s father, Jesus heals the boy.

Jesus then leads the disciples through Galilee to Capernaum and continues to teach them what being Messiah in God’s Kingdom is: “the Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands and they will kill him and three days altering being killed, he will rise again.” This time, no one argues with Jesus but they still struggle with the reality of what Jesus is saying and they argue amongst themselves. We can’t fault them for this – what Jesus is telling them is difficult. He is their leader, the one they think will set them free from Roman Oppression. What he’s telling them doesn’t fit their world view. If we were in their place, it wouldn’t fit most of ours.

In our current political climate, we are in their place – arguing amongst ourselves about who is the greatest and struggling to understand how love and mercy are more powerful than our enemies.

Greatness in God’s Kingdom on Earth isn’t about who has the bigger sword or who gets the most votes. Greatness in God’s Kingdom on Earth is about loving God and each other well. Jesus says to be first you must serve others and he picks up a child and says whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me. Why a child?

We often read this as a reference to being innocent or teachable and that’s part of it, for sure, but to sharpen our focus on all that Jesus means, we need to remember that in first century Palestine, who you were and what you were allowed or forced to do had everything to do with your well defined social status based on your heritage and your wealth or lack thereof. Children were the lowest on the social status ladder, utterly dependent on others without being able to contribute much if anything to the good of the society. And yet, paradoxically, children are more valuable to a family, to a society, than anyone else. Jesus says how we see children is how we should see each other regardless of what someone may or may not contribute to what our society says is great or valuable.

We are to see everyone as beloved children of God and when we do, we aren’t turning the status ladder upside down, we are doing away with status and rank all together. In God’s Kingdom economy we are all equal. We are each uniquely a part of the greater whole in which we live in the understanding that we need God and each other to be fully human. What makes me most fully who God created me to be is that I work with all of you to ensure that everyone has what we need.

The God who created us and the entire universe chooses to bring about God’s Kingdom purposes with us, the very humans who regularly try to lead Jesus because we think our way is more efficient and effective. God chooses to save the world through vulnerability and love not domination. Genuine greatness in God’s Kingdom is generosity and love and faith.

And we have the choice to let God shape our worldview to be a Kingdom View of the world or to keep trying to prove that somehow electing the right person will solve all the world’s problems instead of continuing to create more of them.

All that Jesus did, all that the writers of the Good News Stories wrote down for us, shows us what it looks like in flesh and blood to live the Kingdom View in this world. The Kingdom View of the world is love, not domination, not coercion, not military or political might, not bullying or wealth or lies. A Kingdom view knows that Love is the most powerful force in all of creation.

In one of my podcasts this week, I heard the best definition of love in God’s Kingdom on earth I’ve ever heard: Love “is a commitment to action for the well-being of another, regardless of my personal feelings towards them.”* Listen to it again, Love “is a commitment to action for the well-being of another, regardless of my personal feelings toward them.”

Imagine a world we we truly and authentically seek the well-being of all of God’s beloved children, regardless of where they come from, regardless of their political leanings, regardless of their wealth or social status. Imagine a world where we see all people as God’s beloved children, invaluable and precious. Imagine a world where we all know our true identity as God’s beloved and all of our relationships flow from this knowledge of who and Whose we are.

When I begin to understand who I am created in God’s image, then who I am as daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, colleague, and priest will flourish. I can let go of the need to be right and walk in God’s righteousness. I can let go of the need to compete and be a companion to all who walk with me. I can let go of the expectations and definitions of success that the world tries to sell me and grow in God’s wisdom.

Only when we let go of our need to defend God’s Kingdom on Earth can we live in the peace of the Kingdom. Anger, defensiveness, hate, and greed only bring about more anger, defensiveness, hate, and greed. Love brings about peace and compassion and justice and mercy. We get to choose which we want more of by the way we see others – as our enemy or obstacle or the means to our own end, or as God’s beloved children. God’s Kingdom on earth is the reality we live in here and now as we follow Jesus in the Way of Love. Amen.

*From Voxology: 473 – Politics & Potlucks: The Church’s Place in American Culture, Sep 16, 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voxology/id1049250910?i=1000669694579

Loving Relationship

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church. The Lectionary readings for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

When I started working on the sermon for today, I struggled to choose whether to talk about James’ words that not many should become teachers because teachers are held to higher standards or Jesus’ words to Peter, “get behind me Satan.” Neither on the surface sound like feel-good topics about the God of Love, do they? In fact, when Jim asked me what I would be preaching about and I described to him which lessons were being read, he said, “that doesn’t sound like loving relationships at all.” So, let’s see what we can uncover as we dig into them both.

What we call the book of James is written by Jesus’ half-brother Jacob about 30 years or so after Jesus resurrection and ascension. Jacob was a leader in the Jerusalem church and he writes to the Jews living outside of Jerusalem to teach and encourage them to live in the wisdom of Jesus’ summary of the Torah: loving God and their neighbors as Jesus showed them in flesh and blood. Jacob knew the weight his words would carry; he accepted the accountability that came with being a leader in the early church. He teaches the wisdom that the words we use can either build up or destroy, bless or curse and so we must always work with God’s help at controlling our words. His metaphors leave us with the question: if our words are causing harm, can we really claim to be following Jesus? Jacob believed that Jesus came to build up the Kingdom of God by teaching that love is action guided by God’s justice and generosity. And he prompts us to ask if we truly believe it, too.

With (Jacob)James’ guiding wisdom of what it means to teach the Good News ringing in our ears, we step into Mark’s narrative of Jesus and Peter in one of their better known exchanges. Mark would have penned his telling of the Good News around the same time that Jacob’s writing was circulating among the early Christian communities. I have no idea who’s came first or if they ever read each other’s writings but I do applaud the lectionary folks who paired these pieces together for us today.

Jesus, the teacher, the radical Jewish Rabbi, asks his disciples who others say that he is, followed by the question, “who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers confidently, “you are the Messiah.” And then Jesus does this curious thing and sternly orders them not to tell anyone. Why on earth would he do that? Because he knew they weren’t ready to be teachers yet, they only have the beginning of the wisdom Jesus is leading them toward. They can speak the words, “you are the Messiah” but they aren’t yet ready to live these words.

And so Jesus continues the lesson to counter Peter’s idea of what the Messiah is to be. Messiah is an ancient title that means anointed one and and carried royal implications. The long awaited Messiah was to come and deliver God’s people from the oppressive nature of the Caesars of the world. And of course this meant big armies and lots of weapons and military and political power bigger and more dangerous than Caesar’s, right?

Wrong. Jesus says that the Messiah will suffer, he won’t rise to political or military power but will actually be killed by the powers he’s come to save God’s people from. And the zinger of the lesson is that the Messiah, after being killed, will rise again, that death won’t be the end but only the beginning of the new life the Messiah is bringing to the world!

But Peter is so discombobulated by the idea of the Messiah being killed that he doesn’t seem to hear the conclusion of the lesson. He stopped listening when Jesus’ teaching went against his own ideas of what the Messiah would do. And so Peter tries to take things into his own hands, making himself the teacher of Jesus to correct Jesus. Imagine the audacity?!
Jesus isn’t gentle in his correction of Peter, there’s too much at stake here, it’s ‘life-and-death’ serious – like teaching our children not to run into traffic serious. And where Peter speaks to Jesus privately, Jesus scolds Peter in front of all of the disciples and then calls in the crowds so as many as possible can hear. This isn’t private information to be hoarded by a select few, but wisdom for the life of the whole world.

And yet, Jesus doesn’t condemn Peter or expel him from Jesus University. Peter, in all of his humanness, sometimes gets it right and sometimes gets it wrong. He isn’t perfect; he’s human. Like the rest of us he has a lot of growth potential. But Jesus wants to convey the weight of understanding what God means by sending God’s anointed one, the long promised and long awaited Messiah, and so he uses another title that lets Peter and the others know that Peter is standing on the wrong side of the Good News.

Satan means adversary or accuser, it is a title given to one who opposes an idea or teaching. So when Jesus says get behind me, he isn’t calling Peter a bad name and he doesn’t think Peter has just become possessed by a demon, he’s reminding Peter who is supposed to be following whom.

Following Jesus isn’t just a Sunday morning thing. Following Jesus is a way of living life on earth as it is in Heaven. We can’t take our ideas of what the good life is and force fit the Good News of God’s love into them. The Good News of Jesus isn’t about going to heaven but heaven coming to earth. God chooses to come to us in Jesus to show us how to the life we are created for – a life grounded in love and justice and compassion for all people and all of creation. If our behaviors Monday through Saturday don’t match what we profess in here on Sunday, we are, to put it in James’ words, trying to be a tree producing two different kinds of fruit.

To follow Jesus, we have to let go of those ideas which are counter to this Good News. Gaining political power in this world is not the way of Jesus. Leading with fear and division is not the way of Jesus. Teaching hate and dehumanizing groups of God’s beloved children is not the way of Jesus. Dominating others is not the way of Jesus.

To take up our cross means we must give up that which causes us to try and lead Jesus rather than follow him.

The way of Jesus is to love as God loves – not some simplistic sentimental emotion that makes us feel better about ourselves but to love actively seeking the greater good of all of God’s beloved children. The way of Jesus is wanting for all people what we want for ourselves and being willing to do all that we can together to bring heaven on earth.

When we claim to follow Jesus and then attempt to distort Jesus’ teachings for our own power and gain, we are not following and our words cause great harm to others and ourselves. Remember when Jesus said that it isn’t what goes in but what comes out of our mouths that corrupts?

When we let God’s Spirit direct our hearts, we live in the wisdom of the Word of God. We can hear the whole of Jesus’ teaching, following him in this new life here and now, walking each day in the presence of God in the land of the living, growing in God’s love so that we can learn to love more and more each day. Amen.

Loving Kindness

What does it mean to be kind? When someone harms you by their behaviors and words, is it kind or nice to ignore it?

I have recently been navigating a challenging relationship in which one person has lied about what I’ve said and another person chooses to believe their lies and aggressively confront me with orders to “give them grace.” When I say “they lied” and when I’ve tried to discuss the other person’s regular patterns of harmful and self-centered behavior, I’m told to stop being mean and hateful.

And so I’ve been spending some time with the idea of being kind and what does Jesus show us about kindness. In some theological circles it has been taught that Jesus wants us to be doormats who never stand up for ourselves. But my study of scripture tells me this is not true.

In Matthew’s telling of the Good News Story, Jesus says, “do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also (Matthew 5:39, NRSV). When we understand this statement in the appropriate cultural context (1st Century Palestine, not 21st Century North America) it becomes a statement about standing up for equal justice, not being a doormat. Here is an excellent video commentary from the BibleProject on this section of Matthew.

As Jesus sends the disciples out to carry to the Good News of God’s Love to others he says, “I’m sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:18, NRSV). Serpents were understood as a symbol of cunning and wisdom. In other words, use the wisdom of God’s love to navigate each situation you find yourself in; don’t seek retaliation against those who attempt to bring you harm.

Let me offer two more quick examples of Jesus modeling for us how to be in healthy human relationships. Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Matthew 19:16-0, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30) all offer a story about Jesus and a rich man who lived transactionally rather than relationally. God’s law was a checklist to earn God’s due favor. Jesus tells him he must live God’s law of love by using what he has to love his neighbor as himself, to want for his neighbor what he desires for himself. And the man walks away because his wealth was more important to him than God or any person. And Jesus let him walk away. Jesus didn’t chase him or scold him or belittle him or threaten him. Jesus didn’t say to the man, ‘you just behave however you choose and I’ll pretend all is good’ because that is not what grace is.

In John’s telling of the Good News, he offers a story of a woman brought to Jesus with accusations of adultery (John 7:53 – 8:11). Jesus tells the people who are witnessing this unjust spectacle that the one who has never done anything wrong should be the one who administers the punishment. Jesus is confronting the unjust law that says a woman is the one who should be punished in crimes involving sexual exploitation. Again, understanding this scenario in the context of first century Palestine, a woman had no identity except in relation to the men around her, no rights, no worth, no agency. So, Jesus looks at the men and says do better than what the law requires, go a step further and apply God’s justice to the situation. Apply the same standards of behavior to yourself that you hold others accountable to.

Being kind is part of loving well, yes, but loving as Jesus shows us means always wanting the best for another. Enabling others in their harmful self-centered behaviors by turning a blind eye isn’t love. Love has the wisdom and courage to attempt to correct without the motivation of revenge or retaliation and love as Jesus shows us allows us to hold healthy boundaries as a model for the mutual accountability necessary for all healthy relationships.

Love does not require us to continuously place ourselves in the path of another’s harmful behaviors. Love requires that we do not seek revenge or retaliation when we are harmed but instead work diligently for justice in all situations. Justice involves accountability and right action and appropriate consequences. Love means holding boundaries for those who choose not to have any. Love means standing up for ourselves and each other without being blind to our own or others harmful behaviors. Love isn’t easy and love doesn’t always feel like joy. Sometimes the best way to love is to say “I will not let you harm me or others because your harmful behaviors also damage your soul and interfere with everyone’s ability to have a healthy relationship.”

And sometimes to be our best, we have to put some distance between ourself and the one who is harming us so that we aren’t triggered into behaving badly. It may appear we are holding a grudge in our distance and silence but what we are really doing is holding up a boundary so we can be our best selves and heal from the hurt.

I’ve learned that being a good person does not mean I have to bear another’s bad behavior in silence, that I can say hard things in a kind way. And I know that in my hurt I’m not always the best at saying hard things in a kind way; I’m working on it. This is grace – that I know that people hurt others because they too are wounded. Grace doesn’t excuse bad behavior or make it acceptable. Grace gives us the wisdom to navigate the harmful behaviors of others with compassion and boundaries.

Nuance

I didn’t preach today, but I wanted to share some pondering thoughts related to the Gospel reading for today (you can see the lectionary readings here.)

Y’all know that rarely do I get “political” and I put that word in quotes because what we mostly mean when we say that is “I speak as loudly as possible about how my political tribe is always right and yours is always wrong”. If we were to take the word “political” with it’s actual meaning, it would mean we are “interested or active in the government or social affairs of our country” which we all should be. As we trudge through this election season, I get quite frustrated at the ads that tell me how terrible another candidate is rather than tell me how the candidate who paid for the ads will work to make life good for all people in this country. In our current culture, people pay millions of donated dollars to tell the world how terrible someone else is. They pay our donated dollars to tell us how afraid we should be if the other tribe wins. Think about that for a minute. And think some more.

It seems that the goal of most political ads is not to inform us but to make us afraid of how bad the other side is. But pointing out how terrible another person is does not make me good. Wanting the best for everyone, even those I disagree with, does. Pay attention to when you are pointing out the faults of the other side of any issue. Change your words to state clearly and as specifically as possible what is good about your side. Define yourself by what you are for rather than what you are against. Ask yourself why do you support the political tribe you do. And be curious about what is good in the other. Live in the nuance of life; every human situation has layers and layers of understanding and meaning. Rarely is life a clear cut checklist of right/wrong, good/bad, even if on the surface it may seem so. There is always nuance.

In the gospel story for today, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” And then Jesus explains, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.’” (Mark 7:6-7, 8).

Jesus makes it clear it matters that our words of worship and our regular patterns of behavior must be in sync. If I spend an hour or so worshiping God on Sunday morning and then spend the rest of the day and week trashing another political tribe, belittling and mocking people groups, looking our for my own gains, refusing to take accountability for my harmful behaviors, I am not working for the good of the Kingdom of God. Wanting the best for everyone fulfills the command Jesus says is equal to the command to love God: to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we love our neighbor as ourself, we want for our neighbor what we want for ourselves. When we look for the nuance of each situation instead of saying stuck in the certainty that we are right we come to know how much there is to discover about our neighbors, and ourselves. And the greatest wisdom we can gain is knowing we can only change our own behaviors and thoughts so instead of expending our energy on what we think others get wrong, let’s work on our own growth in God’s love.

So, back to not being political: we should, absolutely, participate in the governance of our society and country. We should do so in the knowledge and wisdom of the good news that Jesus brings to every human being – that we are all equally beloved children of our Creator God. We should work together to build up the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Who we choose to vote for should not be based blindly on a particular party but guided by God’s love for all and who will help all of us best love our neighbor as ourselves. This is how we honor and worship God with our lives.

Perspective

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Are y’all familiar with the cartoonist Nathan Pyle? He does a cartoon series called Strange Planet in which he views the human world imaginatively through his alien and animal characters. Nathan’s work draws us out of our selves so we can learn to see other perspectives and points of view through humor and art and storytelling.

One of his classics is of two eagles sitting in wingback chairs reading newspapers and drinking coffee. One of them asks the other, “do you think the owl is a predator?” And the other eagle responds, “of course not. He’s never bothered me.” To which the first eagle replies, “exactly!” and after a pause says, “no idea what Mr. Mouse is going on about.”

When we aren’t willing to be curious about each other we get stuck in our own way and believe that everyone experiences life the same way we do. And this being stuck in ourselves lead us to thinking our way is the only way and anyone who doesn’t think and act like us is wrong or even evil. And this way of thinking is what stops us from seeing other people as beloved children of God, made in the image of God.

We like to fool ourselves into thinking that if we lump a big group of people who think differently than we do together and label them as our enemy that excuses us from having to love them and treat them with dignity and respect.

This is not the example of the godly life Jesus shows us. The fruits of Jesus’ redeeming work that we prayed to receive thankfully is a life lived in the Way of Love, proclaiming a gospel message that invites and welcomes others freely, a journey that leads us into the fullness of who and whose we are.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells us that to be wise is to understand what the will of God is. From the very beginning of time and through all of the stories we have of our faith ancestors the will of God has always been that every human being be in relationship with God, that we choose to love God because God loves us. God’s will, God’s desire for us is that we walk the continuous journey of learning more and more each day how to love God and each other well.

Paul was well versed in the wisdom of our faith ancestors that we get a glimpse of in both the reading from Proverbs and the Psalm for today. The writers tell us to “Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight” and “turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Our faith is an active, ongoing journey.

In our gospel reading, the perspective Jesus is giving us with his cannibalistic sounding metaphor is what this godly life is. Jesus is intentionally upsetting our perspective, our way of thinking, to awaken our imagination to so much more than the surface level of life. Jesus wants us to see that our faith isn’t simply a checklist of dos and don’ts. Our belief in God is so much more, it is a way of being, a relationship with our Creator. It is who we are created to be.

This wise, mature, human life that Jesus invites us into isn’t clothes or homes or cars or dominating power, coercive power, or power over in any way. Life as God created us to live is about being with God and with each other in relationship. Jesus wants us to grasp, as much as we can in our humanness, this wonderful mystery that God is not some external entity that we worship but that God is part of our very being. The core of who we are is the image of God in us; the core of every human being is the image of God. The growing awareness of this is the eternal life Jesus speaks of – knowing who and Whose we are.

We all are given the choice to either live life on our own terms, expecting everyone to see things from our perspective and behave accordingly, or to live life on God’s terms in relationship with God, walking with each other in this world both seeing and offering the perspective of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. Offering, not forcing. Our proclamation of the good news of Jesus is always an invitation and never an arrest warrant.

One of my favorite current day theologians is a woman named Barbara Brown Taylor. She says our faith is asking with each step we take in this world “what is this about?” Not “do I like this” or “do I want more or less of this” but “what is this about?” This is a curiosity that expands our perspective so we have the eyes to see and ears to hear the amazing work of God in all people and all situations.

When we hear the challenging words of Jesus, “I am the living bread and whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life,” he wants us to ask, “what’s this about?” What does Jesus mean by saying that he is as much a part of our humanness as the food we eat, that our nourishment is Jesus himself? A checklist of rules doesn’t fit this metaphor. A way of being does. God’s loving wisdom shapes our hearts and minds into who God created us to be just as the food we eat builds our bodies.

When we wear the blinders that keep us thinking we are the only ones who get this life right we will only see what others get wrong. When we put on the blinders that allow us to only see how good our own life is, we can’t see how to contribute to the goodness in the world. We become like the eagles in Nathan Pyle’s cartoon – unable to see the pain of others because it isn’t our pain. We become stuck and unable to grow in compassion or empathy or love. We loose sight of the will of God.

A cartoon by Nathan Pyle. https://www.nathanwpyle.art/

The will of God is that we learn more and more each day what it is to love well, to work for the greater good of all instead of building our own prestige and power. The life that God created us to live fully is life together knowing that we are dependent on God and each other to be fully human, to be who we are created to be. We need each other’s perspective. Being curious about how someone else sees the world isn’t a threat to our own way of being. To be curious about another means we are both confident in and wise about what we believe and who we are and opens our eyes wider to the amazing work of God in this world.

Following Jesus, knowing that the best life we can live is because of Jesus, receiving thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work makes our world bigger and there is always room for others to join us in this godly life journey. Amen.

Tell

Some thoughts along my journey.

You know that quote that goes something like you never know what another person is going through so be kind (I googled it and couldn’t find a source, just lots of memes). It’s a good thought to begin every interaction you have with another human being and it helps us to remember to be kind even if they are not. And to be kind even if your own struggles make you want to be curmudgeonly. And for simple, public interactions it is the way we should be.

But what about our actual relationships? Should we leave others wondering what we really are going through or should we be open and honest and authentic enough that they know? For my generation and older, we’ve been taught to keep our pain and struggles to ourselves and to only express positive emotions publicly. We grew up with “don’t cry” and the idea that negative emotions make us look weak. My family had the policy of keeping the hard things secret and we pretended it was to protect others people’s feelings but I am learning that it is really is about avoiding the hard stuff of life so the image we projected was only positive.

And, yet, Jesus teaches us that we can’t, and shouldn’t, avoid the difficult conversations in life because they are as much a part of being human in this world as breathing. When we learn to express our emotions in healthy and productive ways – the full range of the emotions that God created us to experience – we are being more fully human, not less, not weak, not immature.

When we read the Psalms we learn that our faith ancestors knew the importance of expressing their emotions. In the Psalms we see the full range of human emotion, brought to God authentically. Even the most difficult stuff. When they felt anger and wanted to retaliate against their enemies they brought those requests to God because they knew that only God can be truly righteous in anger. When they were heart broken and desperate, they brought that to God knowing that in God’s goodness they would find comfort and peace and hope. When they were joyful and happy they brought that to God knowing God is the giver of all good things.

As New Testament, Resurrection People, following Jesus in the Kingdom on earth as in Heaven is a group activity, a life of community and communion. What we experience in our humanness isn’t to be hidden but shared in healthy relationships as we journey with God and each other in this life. We do life together, building each other up so that we are on equal footing, tending to each other without rank or status, all of us both giving and receiving. Following Jesus is about companioning not competing, being our authentic selves with each other and expressing our authentic emotions in healthy ways in our God-centered, God’s-presence-filled community.

When I teach and preach and write about following Jesus on earth as in heaven I use the words becoming and journey and growing, I talk about being aware of God’s presence, and knowing who and Whose we are, because following Jesus is a life-long, continuous process of growing into who God created us to be. In the stories our faith ancestors tell about creation, God created all things good. Not perfect but good. Good gives us the freedom to grow and mature. The idea that we must be perfect keeps us stuck, either because we have the false idea we are already perfect and therefore have no need to mature or because we are paralyzed with the fear that others will see the imperfections we are working so hard to hide. We tend to understand perfect to mean without flaw. But neither the Hebrew nor the Greek word we translate into English as perfect means without flaw; these words mean complete as in whole or complete as in finished, full grown, mature.

Our purpose as we follow Jesus in this life is to become more and more like him. That’s what disciples do, live and work and grow to become like their teacher. So, yes, we should do our best at being kind with everyone we encounter. And, yes, we should work at being more authentic and open in our relationships. We need to normalize sitting with each other in the difficult times and just being; we need to normalize asking for what we need. We need to be willing to receive comfort and companionship as much as we are willing to offer it to others. Talk about what you are feeling and experiencing; listen to how others feel and experience life. Be human as God created us to be.

God’s Work

A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The Lectionary readings for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost are here.

This past Monday, July 29, the Episcopal Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood. If you didn’t get to watch the Philadelphia Eleven film with us, I hope there are other opportunities for you to see it. (https://www.philadelphiaelevenfilm.com/) It is an incredible story in our history and I am honored and privileged to stand on the shoulders of these amazing women and the men willing to stand up for equality and do the work of God in this world.

For those of you who have ever asked me about my calling to the priesthood, you know that I quote Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus that we read today “The gifts God gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, (now, here’s the important part, so listen carefully) to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” Being a priest is about enabling and equipping all of us to do God’s work together.

And, Paul tells us, we are to continue equipping each other until all, ALL, all come to the unity, not exclusivity, of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The measuring stick of our maturity is Jesus. Our purpose is to become more and more like Jesus as we do what Jesus teaches us to do. Jesus sums up all that he shows us by telling us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We show we love God by loving our neighbor and if we love our neighbor as ourselves then we want for our neighbor what we want for ourselves – the life God created us to live, as Kingdom people living in a world where all are equal and no one is hungry or thirsty or without.

In our gospel reading today, the crowds ask Jesus what must they do to perform the works of God and Jesus tells them plainly, “this is the work of God, that you believe in the one God sent.” When we follow Jesus, believing that he is the one God sent to show us how to walk in the Way of Love, we are doing the work of God in this world.

In our prayer for today, we ask God to both cleanse and defend God’s Church and to govern the Church by God’s goodness. Now y’all know we aren’t talking about the building but about the Body of Christ, the one holy, universal, bound together by God’s grace and love through the power of Holy Spirit, church. But do we trust and believe that God will defend us and do we really want God to cleanse us? Because when we ask God to cleanse the church, it isn’t about removing those we consider undesirable, but a prayer to cleanse our own hearts and minds of those things that keep us stuck in emotional and spiritual immaturity. It’s so much easier to pray “God, those people over there need cleansing, you go smite them and we’ll defend you from our pews”. But that is not doing the work of God.

The reason we remind ourselves in this prayer that only in God can we, the church, continue in safety is because it is only by God’s loving work of unity and community that we can be saved from our ego driven behavior. It is in our spiritual and emotional immaturity that we are so easily offended by others’ ideas and ways of moving through this world and convince ourselves that we need to defend God instead of asking God to defend us.

Following Jesus is an invitation to all to join in the Way of Love. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians could easily be written to most any church in the USA Today. God’s work that we are called to participate in in this world is leading a life worthy of God’s love for all so that we are working toward unity not division.

If the truth we claim to speak in love is motivated by excluding others, elevating ourselves above others, or condemning others who aren’t just like us, it isn’t God’s truth. God’s truth in love is motivated by wanting others to join the journey of growth and maturity, but never, ever forcing them; it is an invitation to a better life, the life we are created for: this life of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven in which we are all walking together, using the gifts God gave us for the greater good. God’s love always wants the best for others, all others.

One of my fondest memories of General Convention was at the Revival Night when Bishop Curry was preaching. At one point in his sermon he said his familiar phrase: “if it’s not about love” and a thousand Episcopalians, without missing a beat, excitedly finished the sentence “it’s not about God.” This is our theme. If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.

As we journey together, side-by-side, following Jesus, we grow from praying “God, give me my bread and, oh, yes, while you are at it can you feed the hungry” to “God, we give thanks for the bread you give so that we can do your work in this world of feeding the hungry.”

The bread of life isn’t just about our bellies. We need nutritional sustenance for our bodies, AND we need nutritional sustenance for our souls. When we feed on the negativity and and anger and hatred of the world, we are not nourishing our souls with the bread of life but of food of death. When we feed on the words of scripture, do life together in community and in worship, we nourish our souls with God’s goodness.

Pay close attention to what you are consuming with your eyes and ears. Is it helping you bring about God’s kingdom on earth or teaching you to put up walls to keep others out?

Following Jesus is about making this world better – doing God’s work to change it from the nightmare it often is, to the dream that God intends. Do not let anyone convince you that we need to go backwards or sideways or any direction other than the Way of Love in God’s Kingdom.

There’s a meme that’s been around for a few years, I’m sure many of you have seen it, of a young man and Jesus sitting on a park bench and the young man asks, “Jesus, why do you allow so much injustice and suffering in this world?” And Jesus responds, “why do you?”

50 years ago, a group of people stood up and asked why do we let the ordination rules in the Episcopal Church exclude half the population from discerning a call to the priesthood. They believed that God’s loving truth said that women are equal to men. It wasn’t an easy path but they knew they were following Jesus. It felt divisive at the time because people had to chose to walk in God’s kingdom or stay stuck in their spiritual immaturity. We all stand on the shoulders of those who helped make the path more and more like God’s Kingdom. Together, in love, we are called to build up others and grow to be more and more like Jesus, inviting everyone to join us so that God’s Kingdom is on earth as in heaven, and still loving those who chose not to join in.

This is the work of God, that we believe in him whom God has sent and offer the bread of life to all. Amen.

A Good Grief

I’m not at church today. My dad died. That’s direct, I know, and may shock some and cause you to gasp. I’ve been playing with the phrase “passed on to the everlasting life” but I truly believe that our everlasting life begins with the physical life we are in so I’m not sure that is a good theological statement about death. I don’t like that in our modern western culture we work so hard at pretending we can avoid death. We make aging a disease rather than a part of the amazing gift of life that God has given us. This pretending does not equip us to live well or to grieve well when someone we love dies.

Dad and me at my ordination to the diaconate.

My dad’s mom, my grandmother, lived and aged more gracefully than anyone I’ve ever known. She wasn’t afraid of getting older. She said she ‘earned’ every wrinkle and gray hair by living the best life she could. To her, the ‘best life’ wasn’t about things but about loving God and others well. I’ve tried to emulate that. People who knew her her whole life would say to me, “you look just like her when she was your age” and I’ve always held that close to my heart. I tried for much of my life to be like her before gaining the wisdom that I have to be who God created me to be and that all that she taught me by the way she lived her life is part of who I am.

It’s the same with my dad. Part of his everlasting life is that he is a part of me and my siblings, and all of his grandchildren and many others whose lives he helped shape. I don’t claim to know for certain what happens when our physical life on this earth is done (since I’m a priest, that statement may shock some of you, too). Jesus tells us we will be with him but he also tells us he will be with us in this life. He just doesn’t tell us exactly how that all works. I’m ok with that mystery. Jesus spends much more time showing us in flesh and blood what it is to live this life well than he does talking about what’s next. Eternity doesn’t begin when we die; eternity already is. Our faith in God isn’t an after-life insurance policy. Our relationship with God is the foundation of who and Whose we are: beloved children of God who are created and called to be image bearers of God’s love in this world so that others know they are beloved image bearers. My dad did this well. My grandmother did this well.

In the beginning, God created us (and all things) and calls us good. God created us in and through love so that we could love. The greatest and most dangerous gift God gave us was free-will. God knew we would misuse it for our own gain, but in order for us to have the capacity to love we have to have free-will. Love isn’t forced or coerced or controlled. Love is given and received freely. (I’m not talking hallmark love but self-giving, other-focused, always-growing-in-emotional-maturity, walking-with love.) My grandmother and my dad loved well.

Our first family portrait taken in 1968.

As we have begun the process of going through all of Dad’s stuff, I came across a notebook filled with my grandmother’s handwriting. When she was grieving my granddaddy’s death, she wrote him letters in this notebook, telling him what she was up to, how sad she was, who had been to visit her, and how she was learning to live without his physical presence but with the wisdom that he was always a part of who she is. She grieved well.

My dad and my grandmother have always been my ‘touchpoints’ – those people to whom I turned when I had something to celebrate, when I was struggling, when life was just an ordinary routine. They were my wisdom people who helped me navigate life and when I didn’t navigate it well, they walked with me without guilting or shaming me. Now that Dad has died, I’m feeling a bit unmoored. And yet, I know he is part of who I am and always will be. I pray that with God’s help, I will do this grief thing well. As we love, we grieve.