Thursday, November 12, 2015

Proper 28B Hope and Fear


Proper 28B 15

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  . . .  that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.

          We live in a time of transition.  We’re always in transition, but we are particularly aware of transition now in our church. This weekend is Bishop Taylor’s final annual diocesan convention. His final convention will be June 25, 2016 when we will elect his successor as our bishop.  Two weeks ago Bishop Curry was installed as Presiding Bishop.  At St. James Kathryn Costas has begun to serve as your interim rector. 

We deal with transition with fear and with hope. Our collect tells us of the blessed hope of everlasting life given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Hope is a positive response to times of transition, but the negative response of fear is more common. Today I offer you first an extended example of fear and hope in the early history of the Episcopal Church, and second some lessons for our time drawn from that extended example and from today’s Scripture readings.  

The population of the British American colonies increased 10 times from 1700 to 1776, from 250,000 to 2 and a half million, and a million in the last 10 years.  No bishop in America. Americans had to go to England to be ordained. It cost a year’s income.  In the 1760’s Americans began to ask for a bishop for America, an “apostolic bishop” who would ordain clergy and preside at conventions, but have no part in civil government  - a response of hope in a time of transition.  Their request was met with fear and denied. Royal governors feared loss of income from marriage licenses and probate of wills. Other churches feared the Church of England. The English bishops served in the House of Lords and on government committees. They feared loss of power and office.  

          The two years between Yorktown in October 1781 and the peace treaty and British troops leaving New York in fall 1783 were a time of transition in America and in the American church. About a third of the American Church of England clergy had left for England or Canada or had died in the 7 years between 1776 and 1783. Many feared for the continued life of the church.

          But in March 1783 10 Connecticut clergy met in hope to elect Samuel Seabury to be their bishop – an “apostolic bishop” ordaining and presiding, but with no part in civil government.  Seabury was then 55 years old. His father had been a Church of England priest 41 years in Connecticut and Long Island, New York.  Samuel was educated at Yale and by his father, studied medicine in Edinburg, ordained in England, and served 30 years in New Jersey and New York. At the Revolution he supported the crown as a military and hospital chaplain in New York city. 

          Seabury went to England and for over a year sought consecration from the English bishops. They were afraid and they put him off– for several reasons.  First, many American clergy fled to England during the Revolution and were supported there by church pensions. The English bishops feared that Seabury, who had been loyal to the crown, would not be accepted in independent Connecticut and would come back to England expecting support. Seabury’s letters from the Connecticut governor and from American ambassador John Adams did not resolve the bishops’ fears.  And the English bishops still feared a new model bishop. And, we all fear giving responsibility and authority to people we don’t know. The English bishops did not know Seabury. They knew William White of Pennsylvania who had stayed with his rich aunts in London when he came for ordination in 1770. They knew Samuel Provoost of New York who had studied at Cambridge University in 1764. But Seabury had no English connections.  

The English bishops’ excuse was that they could not consecrate anyone who would not take an oath of allegiance to the British crown. We know it was an excuse because the year after Seabury was consecrated Parliament changed the law. White and Provoost were consecrated for Pennsylvania and New York in 1787 without the oaths.  James Madison was consecrated for Virginia in 1790 without the oaths.

          Seabury then went to Scotland where they knew him and where the bishops had no part in civil government. Seabury was consecrated November 14, 1784, 231 years ago Saturday. The Scots were able to act from hope, not from fear.  Seabury came home, ordained clergy, and served as rector in New London, Connecticut for 11 years until his death February 25, 1796.   In 1792 he joined in the consecration of Thomas Claggett for Maryland. All Episcopal bishops trace their apostolic succession through Claggett to Seabury and the Scottish Episcopal Church.  Our bishops and our church are heirs of hope, not fear.

          Two weeks ago Bishop Michael Curry of Maryland was installed as Presiding Bishop. This is from his sermon. It is a story of the triumph of hope over fear. 

“Sometime in the 1940s  an African American couple went to an Episcopal church one Sunday morning. . . .  The woman had become an Episcopalian after reading C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, finding the logic of his faith profoundly compelling. Her fiancé was then studying to become . . . a Baptist preacher. But there they were on America’s segregated Sabbath, the only couple of color at an Episcopal Church service of Holy Communion according to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. When the time came for communion the woman, who was confirmed, went up to receive. The man, who had never been in an Episcopal Church, and who had only vaguely heard of Episcopalians, stayed in his seat. As he watched how communion was done, he realized that everyone was drinking real wine — out of the same cup. The man looked around the room, then he looked at his fiancée, then he sat back in the pew as if to say, “This ought to be interesting.” The priest came by uttering these words as each person received the consecrated bread: The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving. Would the priest really give his fiancée communion from the common cup? Would the next person at the rail drink from that cup, after she did? Would others on down the line drink after her from the same cup? The priest came by speaking these words to each person as they drank from the cup: The Blood our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s Blood was shed for thee, and be thankful. The people before her drank from the cup. The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ….  Another person drank.  Preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.   The person right before her drank.  Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s Blood was shed for thee….  Then she drank.  And be thankful.  She drank. Now was the moment her fiancé was waiting for.  Would the next person after her drink from that cup? He watched. The next person drank.  The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee….  And on down the line it went, people drinking from the common cup after his fiancée, like this was the most normal thing in the world.

The man would later say that it was that reconciling experience of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist that brought him into The Episcopal Church . . .He said, “Any Church in which blacks and whites drink out of the same cup knows something about the Gospel that I want to be a part of.”  That couple later married and gave birth to two children, both of whom are here today, and one of whom is the 27th Presiding Bishop. We are Gods’ children, all of us.  We are God’s baptized children.   We are here to change the world with the power of love. God really does love us. “   

In 7 months clergy and the same lay delegates who are today at Kanuga will meet to elect a bishop. Your comments on this summer’s survey have been considered and a diocesan profile prepared. I hope you will go to the dioceseofwnc.org website and read it.  The profile asks for a bishop who will know us, love us, and lead us – loving God and neighbor, with vision grounded in courage, wisdom, and diversity, committed to justice, to congregational vitality, to pastoral care, with deep integrity, good humor, and an intentional spiritual life. I add a bishop of hope, not fear.

Today we receive communion in the blessed hope of everlasting life, given us in the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  As Bishop Curry said, “We are Gods’ children, all of us.  We are God’s baptized children.   We are here to change the world with the power of love. God really does love us.”

Jesus died for sin on the cross. He rose to give the world new life. He gives us his Holy Spirit of truth and power so we may live to his glory, and tell his good news, particularly in our times of transition.    

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Proper 15B Solomon and wisdom


          Today’s Bible readings are about the spiritual gift of wisdom. Solomon prayed for wisdom and God answered his prayer, giving him the wisdom for which he prayed, and riches and honor besides. The church as Ephesus is told, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” And St. John recalls Jesus’ command to the disciples to continue to come together week by week to receive the spiritual food of remembering Jesus’ death and resurrection in the bread and wine – the spiritual flesh and blood of the risen savior.

          Practical wisdom is knowing and doing the right thing in every situation. In Ephesians it is “understanding what the will of the Lord is” and acting on that understanding.  Wisdom translates the Greek words Logos and Sophia. Logos is also translated Word, as in the opening of St. John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, was one of the titles of Jesus, and it is the name of the great central church in Constantinople. Jesus understood the will of the Father and acted on that understanding. Our wisdom is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in his gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

          Let me begin with the historical context of the Old Testament reading.  Solomon reigned from about 970-930 B.C. Two great powers have historically struggled for control of the middle east, the great Fertile Crescent where civilization began: Egypt at one end and Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria) at the other. In Solomon’s time both were weak. A new Egyptian dynasty (the 22nd) had just begun to rule. Solomon married a daughter of the first pharaoh of this dynasty. Mesopotamia was divided by internal conflict. (So what else is new) The Assyrian (Kurdish) empire just coming together. It would conquer the northern kingdom of Israel in 722, about 200 years after Solomon and the division of the kingdom. Because both great powere were weak Solomon was able to control the center part of trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Think of the trade route like I-40 or I-95. The trade route ran from Egypt back from the malarial Mediterranean coast to above the Sea of Galilee then through Syria and down the Euphrates River.  (Imagine if a ruler of Lenoir/ Black Mountain captured Morganton /Asheville and put a toll on I-40, then traded say for horses with Winston-Salem and for moonshine with Asheville/Knoxville). Besides controlling the trade route Solomon sent ships through the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to trade with Yemen and East Africa. We hear of the visit of the Queen of Sheba. The Ethiopian monarchs claimed descent from the queen’s child by Solomon. Solomon kept David’s army of mercenary soldiers. He continued and expanded David’s practice of marrying for property and political and economic alliances. A ruler who wants to get rich by trade needs peace. Any wars should be quick, cheap, and victorious. Peace is better. Keeping the peace requires wisdom, knowing and doing the will of God.

          We read of wisdom in Isaiah 11, the description of the coming Messiah, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”  

          The church at Ephesus is encouraged to be “wise” to “filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Last week’s children’s talk reminded us of the importance of singing and making melody to the Lord.” We begin our prayer this morning that the bread and wine we offer will be for us the real and spiritual body and blood of Christ Jesus with these words, “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

          And finally, “Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’”  Jesus did indeed give his flesh, dying on the cross to take away our sins, rising from the tomb on the third day as our first-fruits of resurrection and new life. By his resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit we begin a new life in him in our baptism.

          Practical wisdom is knowing and doing the right thing in every situation. Our wisdom is found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in his gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have been set free from the need to sin, and we have been given a new and eternal life. So let us serve our risen Lord this day and always, in truth, in power, and with wisdom, seeking always to know and to do God’s holy will.  Amen.





 

Friday, August 7, 2015

Proper 14B Absalom

          God loves us as his children. He offers us eternal life with him, eternal life through the death and resurrection of the Father’s only-begotten son Jesus Christ our Lord. And God gives us instruction in how to live in this life as we await the life to come.

Today’s Old Testament reading tells of David’s love for his difficult and rebellious son Absalom. God loves us, even when we are difficult and rebellious. When David heard that Absalom had been killed, he “wept; and as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”  Jesus our Lord died for our sins and rose to give us new life as God’s reborn children.

          Today’s gospel includes both the promise of eternal life and the way this promise is fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And finally today’s epistle gives us practical guidance on how to live in thanksgiving for God’s unconditional love in the promise of eternal life.         

          Some background to the Old Testament reading:  David’s first wife was Michal, King Saul’s daughter. He lost her when he revolted and Saul married her to another man. After Saul died David took her back from her grieving second husband. David and Michal had no children. For good cause she despised him. At Hebron during the conflict with Saul David formed alliances with other powerful leaders by marrying their daughters. He had sons by 6 women.  You can imagine the drama, and the potential succession conflict.
      
         Amnon, David’s oldest son, lusted after his step-sister Tamar, Absalom’s brother. Amnon pretended to be ill and David ordered Tamar to care for him. He raped her, then he hated her, and two years later her brother Absalom murdered him and fled to his mother’s family in Geshur. Joab, David’s nephew and army commander, negotiated Absalom’s return to Jerusalem but not to the king’s household. Four years later Absalom went to Hebron and, following his father’s example, raised a revolt.  David fled north and hid in the forest of Ephriam. Absalom captured Jerusalem and pursued David, but was captured and killed by Joab’s guards in defiance of David’s public order, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” Joab was David’s nephew and his military commander. He had arranged the death in battle of righteous Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband. David mourned for his son until Joab and the army said, “Enough!” and forced David to return and reign. After Absalom’s revolt David hired more foreign mercenary soldiers and put down more rebellions. After another family conflict David appointed Bathsheba’s son Solomon to succeed him.  Absalom was not a good son, his behavior disappointed David, yet David loved him. We are not good sons and daughters, our behavior has disappointed our earthly parents, yet we are loved, and we love our children even when they do not live up to our expectations or live up to their best potential. David loved his son; we are loved and we love, and God loves us.
 
          God loves us as his children. He offers us eternal life with him, eternal life through the death and resurrection of the Father’s only-begotten son Jesus Christ our Lord. And God gives us instruction in how to live in this life as we await the life to come.
 
          St. John’s gospel expresses his mature life-time reflection on his life with Jesus.  Week by week for some 60 years John’s community had met to hear of Jesus’ life and teaching and to join spiritually with Jesus in active remembrance of the Last Supper - and the crucifixion and resurrection. As they received the bread and wine they remembered Jesus’ self-revelation as “the bread of life . . . the bread that came down from heaven.” They ate the bread and drank the wine trusting in Jesus to “raise them up on the last day.”  So we today receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation trusting the Lord to raise us up on the last day. He has done that for almost 2000 years for many millions of believers.  I am the bread of life, the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
  
          Like the Ephesians, we have some practical guidance in living this new spiritual life we receive in baptism.  We receive power by the holy spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith to “speak the truth . . . to put away . . . bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, and malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” This is not automatic. God works by the Holy Spirit in us and through us, and with us. God will not overrule our free will. If we want to be Absalom, difficult and rebellious, God will let us. But he will grieve as David grieved for Absalom, because God loves us, all of us, all the time, into eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
   

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Proper 13B Truth

          In today’s collect we pray that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness.”  In the collect for St. James’ Day July 25 we prayed God  will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people.”  As this parish begins to seek the rector God is preparing to serve among us and as the diocese begins to seek the bishop God is preparing to serve among us, we pray these prayers: that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness, and that God  will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people.”

          The source and the example of God’s continual mercy, of God’s cleansing and defending goodness, and of “that spirit of self-denying service” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. By the gift of the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, by the truth and power of the Holy Spirit of God, given us in the new birth of baptism and received by faith, we can indeed “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

          We are all examples to one another. Some of us are good examples; most of us are very mixed examples. David was a very mixed example. We saw last week his example of yielding to the sins of lust, and adultery, and murder. Today we hear of the courage of Prophet Nathan, and of David’s example of truth and repentance.  Nathan proclaimed the Lord’s judgment, and David had the grace to admit, “I have sinned against the LORD.” David’s sins were many and gaudy, but David did tell the truth, “I have sinned against the LORD. 

          Many of us have had, or been, children caught with hands in the cookie jar – or the like. And many of know the natural human first reaction to being caught in the cookie jar or the like. What is our first reaction? Do we naturally admit that we have done wrong? That has not been my experience. My experience is that the first reaction is to lie. We all want to be innocent, good children. That is our self-image, and we protect that image - even at the cost of truth. To paraphrase Alexander Pope’s 1711 Essay on Criticism “to lie is human, to forgive divine.” (line 275) And when the lie breaks down, our next human impulse is to blame. I’ve mentioned TEAPOT – Those Evil Awful People Over There.

We see this in Genesis 3:8-13: Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

          When Nathan proclaimed the Lord’s judgment, David had the grace to admit, “I have sinned against the LORD.” In today’s epistle we read of God’s desire that “all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. . . . speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, . .  as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.”

          The quick lie is easier than the hard truth, but as we grow up we learn that it is the truth that sets us free from the tangles that lies get us into.  

     St. John tells in chapter 8 of Jesus teaching the disciples, “the Jews who had believed in him, “…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

     St. John’s gospel reflects a lifetime of reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ life and resurrection.  Archbishop Rowan Williams dates it toward the end of the first century – about as far from the Resurrection as we are from the Korean war.  Our Sunday gospels this month focus on the meaning of Jesus’ feeding the 5000.

     “The truth will make you free.” The disciples who said, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone,” were not telling the truth. The foundational story of Israel is the Exodus. Slaves in Egypt were set free by the mighty hand of God working through Moses. For over 500 years Israel had been subject to Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander and his successors, and then to Rome. Jesus reminds his disciples, and us, that “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Only by Jesus’ death and resurrection can we be free from sin. Jesus  sets free from the spiritual consequences of past sin, and Jesus gives us the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit to resist temptation.

     In today’s gospel Jesus encourages the people, and us, to resist the temptation to work only for the food that perishes, but to work “for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”  We receive that spiritual food, “food that endures for eternal life” given to us in Holy Communion as we remember with present effect, spiritually with the disciples in the upper room on the night in which he was betrayed the Son of Man giving the bread of life, “this is my body given for you,” and the cup of salvation, the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, shed for us and for all who will receive him.
 
          We  pray that the Lord’s “continual mercy” may “cleanse and defend your Church; and . . .  protect and govern it always by your goodness.”  The source and the example of God’s continual mercy, of God’s cleansing and defending goodness, and of “that spirit of self-denying service” is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. By the gift of the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, by the truth and power of the Holy Spirit of God, given us in the new birth of baptism and received by faith, we can indeed “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Amen.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Proper 12B 15 St. James, David, and the 5000



           Four things draw our attention today: (1) Saturday July 25 the feast of St. James, (2) David and Bathsheba, (3) the feeding of the 5000, and (4) God gift to his church, that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love, that we may know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God.” 

          The New Testament tells us of 3 men named James. Our St. James is the son of Zebedee, brother of John, one of the first four whom Jesus called to be apostles, with Peter and John a witness to the Transfiguration, martyred by King Herod Agrippa about 10 years after the Resurrection. (Acts 12). He is said to have preached in Spain, and his tomb at Santiago has received pilgrims for the last 1200 years. He inspired the Christian reconquest of Spain and Portugal. Portuguese missionaries in the 15th century brought his story to the Christian kingdom of Kongo in modern Angola. His symbol is the scallop shell. We name churches after him because he was one of the first apostles, first evangelists, first martyrs, and we look for his spiritual aid in the ministries to which we are called.

          David’s son and successor Solomon was a son of Bathsheba, and the story tells how God can redeem human sin. It is also a story of David’s lust, adultery, and murder, and of the righteous behavior of Uriah, a foreign mercenary soldier and an honorable man, betrayed and killed, a martyr to David’s desire to cover-up his misconduct. The story might come from a blog or this year’s newspaper.  Among other things it is a reminder of the power of temptation. David yielded; by the presence and power of Christ dwelling, as today’s epistle says, in our hearts by faith, we receive divine power to resist temptation. 

David had a wife, Saul’s daughter Machal, from whom he was estranged. In Hebron he had sons by six different women. We’ll hear about their conflicts next month. Judging the past by our moral standards doesn’t work, but you’d think David would had enough. But he didn’t. He took Bathsheba, and when her husband Uriah refused to condone David’s adultery, David had him killed. Joab was David’s nephew, his older sister’s son, the leader of David’s troops, and his accomplice in murder. As we will hear next week, their child died, and Solomon was then born. When Solomon became king he had Joab executed.

Our gospel readings in the next 4 weeks are from St. John chapter 6, the feeding of the 5000 and the meaning of that miracle. The feeding is reported in all 4 gospels. St. John’s version most clearly recalls the miracle of God’s feeding the people of Israel in the desert after the Exodus with manna. The people go across the sea; the Passover is at hand. The leftovers fill 12 baskets – one for each of the tribes of Israel.

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” After the Exodus feeding with manna Moses withdrew to Mount Sinai where he received the Law. David had fought to be king; Jesus withdraws.

For almost 600 years the Jewish people had been ruled by foreign kings – Babylonian, Persian, Alexander and his Egyptian and Syrian successors, then after 80 years of freedom under the Maccabees, by Rome The desire for freedom under a Jewish anointed king was strong. St. Luke tells us that even after the Resurrection as they went with Jesus to the Mount of Olives for the Ascension the disciples asked, “Will you now, (finally) restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’ last words to them and to us were these, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

Ten days after the Ascension, in the upper room, the Holy Spirit did come down on the apostles, giving the church the gifts of power and truth, power and truth to be witnesses to Jesus “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – even to us today in this congregation and city. 

As the epistle reminds us, we are given “power through his Spirit that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love. . . . that we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.” With St. James and all the saints we join in the prayer, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Friday, May 8, 2015

Rogation Sunday Easter 6B

Easter 6 Rogation B
          We used to call this Sunday Rogation Sunday, and the Prayer Book includes as “other commemorations - the Rogation Days, traditionally observed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day.”   The collect for these days in the old Prayer Book was this: Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth; We beseech thee to pour forth thy blessing upon this land, and to give us a fruitful season; that we, constantly receiving thy bounty, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
          I remember gathering with my priest father and the congregation of St. George’s Indian River Hundred, rural Sussex County, Delaware, in the churchyard on Rogation Sunday to pray for the land and the crops. That tradition continued in Baltimore County, Maryland, and I invite you all to gather with me after this service around in the garden to ask God to “pour forth his blessing upon this land, and to give us a fruitful season.”
          Our secular society reinvents responses to human needs.  In 1970 John McConnell began to promote Earth Day, first in March then in April. McDonnell’s father was a Pentecostal Christian evangelist.  Earth Day is observed by lots of people all over the world who never heard of the Rogation Days.  Some history:
          Back in 470 A.D. the Rhone river area in France suffered unusual storms, floods, earthquakes. Bishop Mamertus of Vienne called for three days of fasting and prayer that God would “pour forth his blessing upon this land, and give us a fruitful season.”  He also called Christians to walk in processions through the fields and pray. And he recommended, and the Roman governor agreed, that the people not work those days.  He picked the three days before Ascension Day in keeping with the custom of a time of prayer and fasting before the great feasts. These were called Rogation Days from the common Latin word rogo – to ask.
          It might have been the human need, or the prayer time, or the three day holiday, or just the opportunity to get out in the spring and visit friends, but the popularity of the Rogation Days gradually spread through northern Europe.  In England Rogation processions are found from the 1100’s and continued through the Reformation into our own time.  Led by the clergy and church leaders people of the parish walked the boundaries of the parish carrying walking sticks to beat the ground at agreed landmarks.  Then they all returned to drink and eat together  - with the leftover food and drink being given to the poor.
          As they walked property disputes were settled by common consent.  And people were encouraged to use the Rogation days as a time to settle other interpersonal conflicts.  The priest poet George Herbert (born 1593 died 1633) wrote of the four advantages of Rogation:  First, God’s blessing for the fruits of the field; Second, Justice in the preservation of bounds;  Third,  Charity in loving walking and neighborly accompanying one another, reconciling differences at that time,  and Fourth, Mercy in relieving the poor by liberal distribution of alms.
          Rogation Days were also observed in America. In the British colonies from Maryland south the Church of England was the established church. In tobacco-growing Virginia and Maryland taxes and rents were paid in certificates of pounds of tobacco. From 1619 in Virginia and from 1692 in Maryland a head tax of about 30 pounds of tobacco each was collected on white males aged 16 and over and on all black slaves 13 and over. The tax was collected at harvest time by the sheriff and paid to the vestries for the support of the church and the poor.  The average worker could make between 1000 and 1500 pounds of tobacco, so 30 pounds of tobacco church tax was about 2 to 3% of income. And the US national average charitable contribution in 2010 was between 2 and 3% of gross domestic product.
                Many of the early settlers of northeast North Carolina were dissenters from the established church who came south to escape the church tax.  Direct taxation of any kind was neither popular nor effective in the Carolina and Georgia colonies. It was not popular, but it was effective in Virginia and Maryland. Parishes were too large for Rogation processions so vestries appointed “processioners” to investigate property boundaries and determine the number of tobacco plants. But the custom of parishes offering spring prayers for the crops and eating a common meal continued.
          The idea of beating the bounds morphed into punishing children at the landmarks so they would remember them. In the 1873 investigation of the Maryland Virginia boundary in the Chesapeake Boy an old waterman told of his father taking him one spring in childhood to the state boundary, showing him the landmarks and then beating him so he would remember them. That’s a far cry from asking God’s blessing on the crops, but it is an indication that the idea continued.
          So far this is more or less interesting history, but what does it have to do with the gospel?  The gospel is in today’s collect, which addresses God who has “prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding.” We pray that God will, “Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire.”
          We read of the first man and woman in a garden. Their task was to tend and to enjoy the garden. St. John’s  has a beautiful garden. Gardening is hard work, but it is rewarding work. Pulling weeds is redemptive - physical weeds in the yard, spiritual weeds in the heart. We enjoy the fruits of the earth. Unlike what is trucked in the local strawberries really have some taste and when they are ripe a wonderful sweetness.
          The sweetness of the crops is a continuing sign of God’s sweet love for us in Jesus Christ. We are blessed with fertile soil, adequate water, good seed, and reasonable weather.  In St. Matthew 5:45 we are reminded that God sends rain on the just and the unjust.  In Isaiah 55:10-11 we learn that as the rain comes from heaven to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so God’s word will accomplish his purpose and prosper.           The Word of God has come to us in Jesus Christ. So let us give thanks for his death and resurrection, for his real and spiritual presence here in the bread and wine of the mass, and pray for his continued love and mercy on us and God’s whole creation.  
          O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayers at the blessing of the land:
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor:  Be present with your people where they work; make those who carry on the industries and commerce of this land responsive to your will; and give to us all a pride in what we do, and a just return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature:  Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Easter 4 B


Easter 4B 15

          The gospel readings for the 4th Sunday in Easter all from St. John Chapter 10 . The common theme is Jesus the Good Shepherd, and Jesus’ word to the apostles, “my sheep hear my voice.” What does that mean for us? How do we hear the voice of Jesus, and what do we do in response to hearing Jesus’ voice?

          God is revealed as a God who communicates.  Again and again in the Bible we read, “And God said.”   God spoke to Adam in the garden, to Noah before the flood, to Abraham and the Patriarchs, to Moses at the bush that burned and was not consumed, to the Prophets, by the angel to the Virgin Mary, to Jesus, and to the disciples – and through Christian history to the saints, and in our own time.
 
         We have to be listening. And we need to beware of other voices that are not from God. Hearing voices “is often seen as a prime symptom of psychosis.”
 
         Only once in 49 years of ordained ministry have I experienced what I believe to be the voice of God speaking directly to me. At Good Shepherd, Asheboro, NC, in a time of intense parish conflict, I heard inside my head a voice saying, “Tom, I died for their sins. You don’t have to.” It was a revelation that Good Shepherd was the Lord’s church.  My call was to be faithful, love the people, offer the sacraments, and preach the gospel, but the Lord would deal with Good Shepherd’s conflict. A few weeks later Bishop Weinhauer, who had known me at General Seminary, called to ask if I’d be interested in serving at Shelby where we spent 9 happy years. The Lord has not chosen to speak to me in the same way since, but I hear him in the Bible, through those who love me, through the church, and in prayer.
  
        The Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth and power, works in all God’s people to bring us closer to God, to teach us God’s truth, to give us the power to do God’s will in the world Jesus has redeemed by his death and resurrection.  The Holy Spirit continues to speak to us.
  
        The Holy Spirit of God chiefly speaks to us through God’s word written, his Holy Scriptures – the Bible. We hear God speaking to us by his Holy Spirit as we hear God’s word proclaimed in Holy Scripture, and as we read the Bible seeking to know and to do God’s will. God speaks to us in our hearts as we open them to God.
 
         An example is Elijah in 1 Kings 18. On Mount Carmel the fire of the Lord consumed Elijah’s sacrifice, not the sacrifice of the priests of Baal. The Baal priests were slaughtered, Elijah fled from the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to the Sinai desert. He was afraid, depressed and full of self pity. He prayed, “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” But the Lord fed him for 40 days, a long time, in a cave in the wilderness. “And, behold, the word of the Lord came to Elijah and the Lord said, What are you doing here, Elijah? And Elijah said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” The Lord said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.” “And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:  And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” The voice of God sent Elijah back with a mission, to call Elisha as his assistant and successor, and to bring a regime change to Israel and Syria at the hands of Jehu and Hazael.

          God speaks to us in prayer. Be careful what you pray for. God speaks to us by his Holy Spirit in our consciences, in that God-given gift of knowing right from wrong.

          And God speaks to us through other people. God’s love is expressed through our parents, and especially through our wives and husbands, and through friends. God speaks to us, but sometimes when we aren’t carefully listening he speaks to through those who love us. But be careful if someone says, “The Lord told me to tell you.” Test that spirit, listen to be sure the Lord is saying the same thing to you, be sure the word spoken through another person to you is consistent with the word of God in Holy Scripture. Pray about it. Especially pray about it if the word you are given about another person happens to agree with what benefits you.

          And finally God speaks to us through his body the church. We say in the creed that we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. God can speak through church councils, through resolutions and actions of diocesan convention and General Convention. Clergy and lay delegates to convention will listen for the word of the Lord as we have before when we elect a bishop next summer. The bishops and Standing Committees of our church will listen to God’s word of confirmation of that election. Clergy serve not only in the parish but in the diocese and by delegation beyond the diocese. Bishops serve not only in the diocese but in the wider church.

          God can speak to us through sermons in church and elsewhere, and God speaks to us speaks in our prayers. When I preach I pray you may hear God’s word through my words. 

But we all need to test God’s word in resolutions and actions, in sermons and in prayer  the like by Holy Scripture and conscience. Be careful when you like what you hear. We can easily deceive ourselves.  God speaks through an informed conscience. We need to know what the church is saying, and by the Holy Spirit’s gift of discernment judge church statements by Holy Scripture, by the great Tradition of the church, and by an informed conscience.  

          God spoke to Adam in the garden, God spoke to Moses at the bush that burned and was not consumed, God spoke to Elijah in the still small voice, God told Jesus at his baptism and at his Transfiguration, “You are my beloved son.”  The same God speaks to us in the Bible, by his Holy Spirit in conscience, through those who love us, even through the church, and especially in our prayers .  He spoke to me in my mind Asheboro.  I pray that when the Good Shepherd speaks to us in all the ways he chooses to speak that we will listen,   Amen.   

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Lent 3B March 7, 2015


Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

          We all need some structure – too little and we fall apart, too much and we feel in prison Anglicans pride ourselves on spiritual balance, avoiding both spiritual rigidity on one side and spiritual lawlessness on the other. We think we see these among Roman Catholics and fundamentalists and also among the more liberal churches and faiths.

          We need structure. We need an internal spiritual structure, a rule of life that includes balanced attention to the body and to the soul – regular times to sleep, to eat, to work, to play, to pray. We need places to be for each of these.

          God’s plan for the world he created is stated in the covenant at Sinai with the people God set from physical slavery in Egypt, the people with whom he establishes a covenant of spiritual freedom. The covenant comes down to us in negative terms, but the meaning is positive.

          God who made the world and made his covenant with Noah, and with Abraham, God who brought his people “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” is the only god.

God alone is to be worshipped. Inscriptions give names and pictures of over 1500 Egyptian gods and goddesses. Many are shown with human bodies and animal heads. Nothing in all creation can adequately represent God. God is greater than his creation. God is compassion and mercy and love.

God’s name is sacred - and so are the names, reputations, and honor of all people who God made in God’s image. I spent yesterday in a 6 hour course to renew my commission as a Notary Public. I use that to help with absentee voting and other things at Deerfield. The state form for affirmation is “I affirm on my personal honor.” God’s name is sacred; God’s honor is sacred, and our honor as creatures made in God’s image is sacred.

 God’s plan for the world includes times of rest and recovery. Times of prayer are holy. Slaves have to work all the time. God’s plan gives us freedom to pray, freedom to seek his holiness in our lives.

There’s an old story about a great-grandmother living with her family. She was nearly blind, had lost her teeth, and was finally reduced to eating her mush from a wooden bowl. When she finally died the family throw out the bowl, but the youngest child rescued it. When they asked her why, she said, “I’m saving it for you.” Societies are rightly judged on how we treat the very young and the very old. Honoring parents is the spiritual basis of all civil authority. When the Rotary Youth Exchange sends and receives young people – high school juniors – from Europe and Asia we require them to know the 5 D’s: Don’t drink, drug, drive, date exclusively, or do anything dumb your mother wouldn’t approve of.

God’s plan for the world he made and redeemed in Jesus includes safety and security of life, of relationships, of property. God’s plan includes truth-telling, and it includes a society and people free of the sin of envy. 

God rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the desert to establish with them a covenant that they would live by God’s perfect plan for their lives. God rescues us from slavery to sin by the death of Jesus and establishes in Jesus’s resurrection a new covenant, making us members of his body, and giving us his Holy Spirit of truth and power so we can live by God’s perfect plan for our lives.

          The religious leadership of Jesus’ day had broken the covenant. They built the Jerusalem Temple to God’s specifications. In the center was the Holy of Holies – the empty chamber symbolizing God’s continuing presence. Around it was the court of priests where the animal sacrifices were made, and around the court of priests the court of Israel for the people of the covenant. Around the court of Israel was a large open space, the court of the Gentiles for all people. But the Gentiles stayed away in droves, and the religious leaders filled the place of prayer with “approved” sellers of “approved” sacrificial animals. The religious leaders required the payment of offerings in “temple money” coins of the long gone independent commonwealth rather than the coins with the heads of the Roman emperors. It was a closed system in which the priests determined the rate of exchange, then sold the “temple money” coins back to the money changers. Jesus over threw that system.

 

          Jesus overthrows all our systems to manipulate God’s plan to our advantage. He overthrows all our plans to structure our lives to avoid the hard call of God on our lives, to attempt to build lives that keep God at a safe distance. The leaders of the people took great pride in their 46 years rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple.  A generation after Jesus’ death and resurrection that Temple was destroyed and all that remains is a retaining wall of the Court of the Gentiles.

          Part way into Lent I invite you to think about the structures of your life. Do they help you to focus on God’s plan for your life? What walls have we built to keep God at a safe distance? How have we misused God’s plan to our own advantage? What are our versions of the spiritual rackets Jesus wants to end?  How can we truly live in the freedom of God’s covenant of freedom in Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

Friday, February 20, 2015

Lent 1 B February 22, 2015


This Lent’s Old Testament readings are about covenants – this week Noah, then Abraham, then Moses and the Ten Commandments.  There are divine covenants and human covenants.  Some of us may live in property covered by deed covenants restricting what we can do including who we can sell to.


          This came up in 1986 when William Rehnquist was nominated to be Chief Justice. Rehnquist was born October 1, 1924 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a grandson of Swedish immigrants. He and died September 3, 2005 as Chief Justice. In 1961 he bought a house in Phoenix, Arizona, with a 1929 deed covenant that it could be sold only to persons of the white race.  The US Supreme Court in a 1948 case from St. Louis, Shelley vs Kraemer, had ruled that such deed covenants could not be enforced at law. Rehnquist moved to Washington in 1969 and bought a summer house in Vermont which had a 1933 deed covenant forbidding sale to anyone of “the Hebrew race.” Justice Rehnquist successfully argued that he did not know of these property covenants and had never agreed to them.


From 1912 on Asheville had a city ordinance restricting where what were then called “colored people” could live. Such deed covenant and other restrictions are fear-based, intended to preserve our neighbors’ property values at the cost of our liberty.


          The Bible has a number of covenants between God and man. God’s covenants seek to restrict human behavior, but not for reasons of fear, rather for reasons of love. God who made us loves us; he sent his son Jesus to set us free from sin and death, to give us a new and abundant life, a life in which we are free to love God and love our neighbors, and love ourselves.


          The story of Noah in Genesis chapters 6 to 9 combines accounts written down over a period of 500 years from about 1000 BC (David) until after the return from exile in Babylon.  Today’s reading includes God’s promise, “the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”  The covenant with Noah repeats God’s command recorded in Genesis 1:28, “be fruitful and multiply.” In Genesis 1:29 God gives vegetables and fruit for man to eat. Noah’s covenant adds animal flesh, but human life is sacred. We are all made in God’s image, and God calls us to protect and support one another. The sign of this covenant with Noah, and “with every living creature” is the rainbow.


          Many cultures have flood stories. A large asteroid seems to have struck in the Indian Ocean between India and Arabia about 2900 B.C. -  about the time we find writing worldwide.  The stories have in common the flood as a supernatural punishment for wrongdoing, the saving of a few people, and a fresh start for human culture. Our flood story includes God’s promise, God’s agreement, God’s covenant with us.


          Today’s Epistle tells us the terms of our new covenant in the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. As Noah was saved by the flood, so baptism in water saves us by joining our lives to the life of Jesus. We are drowned in water and raised to new life in Jesus. Jesus makes us part of his resurrected body. He guides and directs our conscience by his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and power.


          In his 40 days of temptation after his baptism, Jesus relied on the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit.  I pray that this Lent – and in all our lives – we also may rely on that same truth and power given us in God’s new covenant in Jesus.


          The covenant on land was restrictive, based on fear. God’s new covenant is with God’s own people and gives new life in Jesus. Thanks be to God!