Hospitality

Epiphany 5B February 5, 2018

Some years ago Lucy and I had a friend visit for 10 days recovery after an automobile accident. It wasn't all that easy. The first few days she mostly slept, but then she was up and around, and on the phone making arrangements, and a fourth person at the table when you are accustomed to three takes some getting used to. Everything went well, and Lucy did almost all the work, but I have to admit some feeling of relief when our friend left. Nevertheless, hospitality is a Christian virtue, and friendship includes caring about each other, and I am glad that we were able to offer our friend hospitality.

Hospitality is a Christian virtue. In today's gospel after Jesus preached in the Capernaum synagogue and healed a man possessed of an evil spirit Peter took him home for dinner.

At Capernaum archaeologists say a group of low stone walls are the remains of a 4th century church surrounding a first century house. The house is barely 20 feet on a side. You can imagine how hard it was for Peter's mother-in-law to be sick with a fever and have these extra men arrive, particularly because you don't cook on the Sabbath day; all the food has to be prepared the day before. Husbands who have, once, brought an unexpected guest home to eat will appreciate Simon's situation. His mother-in-law was sick. It took her some effort to be gracious and hospitable. But Jesus responded to her need and to her hospitality. "He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she served them." They ate together.

St. Paul in Romans (12:13) commands us, "practice hospitality." St. Peter's first Epistle (4.9) says "practice hospitality ungrudgingly," and the Epistle to the Hebrews (13:2) reminds us, "do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

The Greek word here translated "hospitality," is philoxenia (like Philadelphia, love of the brother) literally "love of the xenos,” the stranger who becomes a guest. Anthropologists tell us that strangers are always viewed with suspicion and even fear. All people, put in a strange situation, with strange people, are fearful, cautious, and timid. Test this against your own experience; think of a time when you were a stranger, whether it was the first time in a foreign country, or a new town, or a new school.

Strangers are viewed at first with suspicion, even fear, but every society has developed a way to move from suspicion and fear to knowledge and affection - and that is the common meal. A stranger, received into table fellowship, becomes a guest, perhaps even a friend.

Jesus, at table with his disciples at the Last Supper took bread and wine, blessed and gave them, "This is my body and blood; do this in remembrance of me." At Emmaus, Easter evening, "he was known to them in the breaking of the bread." You can appreciate how important the Communion has been in the life of the church as an effective sign of God's love and hospitality.

 At the communion rail we enjoy the Lord's hospitality. Here we can cease to be strangers and become friends together. Here we receive new spiritual life. Here Jesus takes us by the hand to lift us up from our beds of fever to serve the living Lord.

We serve, among other ways, in hospitality, by greeting one another, by concern for one another, by friendly encouragement, by inviting our friends and family to join us at the Lord's Table.

As in church, so in the society. Our national government shut down briefly over immigration . The Congress is negotiating over the “dreamers.” I offer some history and invite you to pray.

We are a nation of immigrants. Henry Rightmyer came from Baden in southwestern Germany to Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1743. He made wheels for a living. His children and their children stayed there for 120 years; it makes family history easy. My mother’s people came from northern Ireland, some in the 1850’s, some in the 1880’s. Until 1891 there was no national immigration policy; the states dealt with immigration issues.  Some were more welcoming than others. My mother’s family remember signs at construction sites, NINA – No Irish Need Apply.  Through most of the 19^th century immigrants came from the British Isles and northern Europe. In the late 19^th and early 20^th century more immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe, Italians, Poles and Hungarians, and Jews from western Russia. Resistance to immigration led in 1921 and 1924 to national immigration acts imposing quotas for each country, quotas based on the percentage of immigrants from each country. Since most immigrants had come from the British Isles and northern Europe, immigrants from those countries had an easier time than people from other countries and other continents. We’ve been tinkering with a quota system ever since. A 1934 immigration act allowed American citizens to bring in foreign spouses and minor children. War brides were admitted in 1945, and the door has been nudged open and nudged closed ever since.

I ask you to pray about immigration and to let the members of Congress know what you think.

And as you pray, remember Peter’s mother-in-law who was healed by Jesus and got up to serve her son-in-law’s friends. Give thanks to Jesus who welcomes us to feast at his table. Amen.     

Evil Spirits

Epiphany 4B Newland

This morning we prayed, “Bring wholeness to all that is broken and speak truth to us in our confusion, that all creation will see and know your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.” 

This Sunday and next Sunday our Gospel readings tell us about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Today Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit; next Sunday we will hear of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and how Jesus “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.”  Then after Lent and Easter we return in June to more about Jesus’ public ministry of teaching and healing.

Ash Wednesday we’ll meet at 6:00 PM for a bilingual service from the Prayer Book in English and Spanish. This year our Palm Sunday service will be from Evangelical Lutheran Worship and the Easter Day service from the Book of Common Prayer. Next year reverses: Palm Sunday from the Prayer Book, Easter Day from the  ELW.

In today’s gospel we hear, “. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out . . .” We have lots of unclean spirits in the church and in the society. Jesus “brings wholeness to all that is broken and Jesus speaks truth to us in our confusion.” Wholeness and truth are connected.  Wholeness is brought by truth. And as St. John reminds us in 8:32 and 16:13 that the truth makes us free and that the spirit of truth will guide us into all truth. About half the congregations I know of have suffered some kind of serious misconduct by clergy or lay leaders. Sexual misconduct, stealing money, misuse of power, malicious gossip, all these evil spirits are found in the church and in the society. Penn State, Hollywood, the American gymnastics organization, our political life, all of these have recently shown the presence and the power of evil spirits.

Last week Rachel Denhollander testified at the sentencing hearing of Dr. Larry Nassar. Nassar had been convicted the Michigan court of sexually abusing her and other young girls. The transcript of her testimony is on line. You can read it after church. Her report of misconduct by the doctor and by university and gymnastic association leadership is horrifying.

But the testimony is also a word of grace. This is part of what Rachel Denhollander said in court directly to her abuser, “The Bible you speak carries a final judgment where all of God's wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you. I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me -- though I extend that to you as well.”

The truth sets us free. It appears to have set Rachel Denhollander free. The truth will set us free.

In your bulletin today are letters from Bishop Jose McLoughlin and from the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. They call us “to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent. We must commit to treating every person as a child of God, deserving of dignity and respect.”

Evil spirits do not come out easily. Conflict and trouble have come along with the progress we have made toward holy, humane, and decent treatment of all people regardless of race, sex, language. We have a ways to go. But Jesus who set free the man in the synagogue in Capernaum works by his spirit of truth in each of us, in the church and in the society, to set us free to love and serve our Lord.    

Bishops letters on sexual abuse

The Diocese of Western North Carolina            January 24, 2018

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On January 22, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, called on all people to examine and repent the many ways in which our Church has been complicit in the marginalization and victimization of women.

In the letter, they write, "As our societies have been forced into fresh recognition that women in all walks of life have suffered unspoken trauma at the hands of male aggressors and harassers, we have become convinced that the Episcopal Church must work even harder to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent."

Indeed, our Lord counted among his disciples several women, and the Gospels record that women were the first to encounter the resurrected Jesus and were the first evangelists. Clearly, he honored, valued and empowered women as vital participating members of his community. As such we, too, are called to advocate for the safety, protection and equality of all women and girls, our sisters in Christ.

I therefore invite everyone to read and reflect on Bishop Curry and the Rev. Jenning's letter and then to talk about the implications for our ministry and mission in your parish. It is my hope that we all take part in an Ash Wednesday Day of Prayer on February 14, "devoted to meditating on the ways in which we in the church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment and to consider, as part of our Lenten disciplines, how we can redouble our work to be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse."

It is so very important that we join together in prayerful reflection and recommit ourselves to the holy work of standing up against and eradicating exploitation and abuse of all God's children.

Faithfully, 

The Rt. Rev. José A. McLoughlin ,

VII Bishop of Western North Carolina

The Episcopal Church – The Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies

Dear People of God in the Episcopal Church:     January 22, 2018

In recent weeks, compelling testimony from women who have been sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men has turned our minds to a particularly difficult passage of holy scripture:  the story of the rape of King David’s daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13: 1-22). It is a passage in which a conspiracy of men plots the exploitation and rape of a young woman. She is stripped of the power to speak or act, her father ignores the crime, and the fate of the rapist, not the victim, is mourned. It is a Bible story devoid of justice.

For more than two decades, African women from marginalized communities have studied this passage of scripture using a method called contextual Bible study to explore and speak about the trauma of sexual assault in their own lives. Using a manual published by the Tamar Campaign, they ask, “What can the Church do to break the silence against gender-based violence?”

It is, as the old-time preachers say, a convicting question. As our societies have been forced into fresh recognition that women in all walks of life have suffered unspoken trauma at the hands of male aggressors and harassers, we have become convinced that the Episcopal Church must work even harder to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent. We must commit to treating every person as a child of God, deserving of dignity and respect. We must also commit to ending the systemic sexism, misogyny and misuse of power that plague the church just as they corrupt our culture, institutions and governments.

Like our African siblings in faith, we must create contexts in which women can speak of their unspoken trauma, whether suffered within the church or elsewhere. And we must do more.

Our church must examine its history and come to a fuller understanding of how it has handled or mishandled cases of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse through the years. When facts dictate, we must confess and repent of those times when the church, its ministers or its members have been antagonistic or unresponsive to people—women, children and men—who have been sexually exploited or abused. And we must acknowledge that in our church and in our culture, the sexual exploitation of women is part of the same unjust system that also causes gender gaps in pay, promotion, health and empowerment.

We believe that each of us has a role to play in our collective repentance. And so, today, we invite you to join us in an Ash Wednesday Day of Prayer on February 14 devoted to meditating on the ways in which we in the church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment and to consider, as part of our Lenten disciplines, how we can redouble our work to be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Neither of us professes to have all of the wisdom necessary to change the culture of our church and the society in which it ministers, and at this summer’s General Convention, we want to hear the voice of the wider church as we determine how to proceed in both atoning for the church’s past and shaping a more just future. May we find in our deliberations opportunities to listen to one another, to be honest about our own failings and brokenness, and to discern prayerfully the ways that God is calling us to stand with Tamar in all of the places we find her—both inside the church and beyond our doors, which we have too often used to shut her out.

Faithfully,  

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings President, House of Deputies

Epiphany 3 Jesus Calls Us

 Now when John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  Three points: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.”

The time is fulfilled. All of human history prepared for a day on a lake shore, the shore of a fresh water lake between Egypt and Syria, near the main road between Africa and Asia, a lake big enough to support commercial fishing, 64 square miles, 13 by 8 miles, the lowest freshwater lake on earth.  God is not only God the creator of all that is; God is creator of particular things and particular people.  

Human history began in in east Africa about 200,000 years ago. People moved to Egypt and Mesopotamia to about 50,000 years ago. We began to farm about 10,000 years ago, began to use metal tools and write things down about 5,000 years ago. Abraham lived about 1500 years before Christ, the Exodus was about 1250 years before Christ, David about 1000, the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom 722. The Babylonian exile began in 586 and formally ended in 538 when Cyrus the Persia set the exiles free to return. Alexander the Great conquered from Greece to India to Egypt around 333.  In 165 the Maccabean revolt brought the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple - celebrated at Hanukkah. Jesus knew Roman military occupation. all of human history prepared for a day on a lake shore.

The time is fulfilled. Every day God’s time is fulfilled. Every day someone is born and someone dies. Under the Deerfield main staircase sits a green marble topped French Provincial chest of drawers. On it are placed framed pictures of residents when they die. Living residents irreverently call it the check-out counter. For each of us every day our time to come to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God has come near. The kingdom has come near. The kingdom is not here. In every age we face the temptation to over-identify our wills with the will of God. The kingdom of God includes all God’s children who love and serve him, all of us who claim our place in God’s kingdom by conversion and baptism. In the life and teachings of Jesus, in his death and resurrection, God’s kingdom draws near. As we come to the communion rail we claim again the place in God’s kingdom Jesus has secured for us by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the empty tomb.

We claim that place as we obey Jesus’ command to repent and believe the good news. As Martin Luther reminded us we are justified and forgiven sinners – simul justus et peccator. We rejoice in the good news that in Jesus Christ God forgives our sins and sets us right with him. We are assured by St. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is the proclamation of the good news.

Christians are often right in what we affirm, but we get into trouble when we try to deny. Preachers who affirm salvation by grace received through faith are frequently tempted also to a false negative. If all who believe are saved, then what about those who do not believe? The natural human response is to say that those who do not believe are damned. But the natural human response is wrong. The Bible does not condemn. In St. Matthew 5:11-12 , Jesus says “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”  The most we can say about those who do not believe is that they do not believe. We have to leave the state of their souls to the mercy and love of God.

Jesus went on to call his first four apostles: Peter and Andrew, James and John. As we will sing in the Hymn of the Day, “Jesus calls us.” 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  

Epiphany 3B Jesus Calls Us

 Now when John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  Three points: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.”

The time is fulfilled. All of human history prepared for a day on a lake shore, the shore of a fresh water lake between Egypt and Syria, near the main road between Africa and Asia, a lake big enough to support commercial fishing, 64 square miles, 13 by 8 miles, the lowest freshwater lake on earth.  God is not only God the creator of all that is; God is creator of particular things and particular people.  

Human history began in in east Africa about 200,000 years ago. People moved to Egypt and Mesopotamia to about 50,000 years ago. We began to farm about 10,000 years ago, began to use metal tools and write things down about 5,000 years ago. Abraham lived about 1500 years before Christ, the Exodus was about 1250 years before Christ, David about 1000, the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom 722. The Babylonian exile began in 586 and formally ended in 538 when Cyrus the Persia set the exiles free to return. Alexander the Great conquered from Greece to India to Egypt around 333.  In 165 the Maccabean revolt brought the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple - celebrated at Hanukkah. Jesus knew Roman military occupation. ll of human history prepared for a day on a lake shore.

The time is fulfilled. Every day God’s time is fulfilled. Every day someone is born and someone dies. Under the Deerfield main staircase sits a green marble topped French Provincial chest of drawers. On it are placed framed pictures of residents when they die. Living residents irreverently call it the check-out counter. For each of us every day our time to come to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God has come near. The kingdom has come near. The kingdom is not here. In every age we face the temptation to over-identify our wills with the will of God. The kingdom of God includes all God’s children who love and serve him, all of us who claim our place in God’s kingdom by conversion and baptism. In the life and teachings of Jesus, in his death and resurrection, God’s kingdom draws near. As we come to the communion rail we claim again the place in God’s kingdom Jesus has secured for us by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the empty tomb.

We claim that place as we obey Jesus’ command to repent and believe the good news. As Martin Luther reminded us we are justified and forgiven sinners – simul justus et peccator. We rejoice in the good news that in Jesus Christ God forgives our sins and sets us right with him. We are assured by St. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is the proclamation of the good news.

Christians are often right in what we affirm, but we get into trouble when we try to deny. Preachers who affirm salvation by grace received through faith are frequently tempted also to a false negative. If all who believe are saved, then what about those who do not believe? The natural human response is to say that those who do not believe are damned. But the natural human response is wrong. The Bible does not condemn. In St. Matthew 5:11-12 , Jesus says “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”  The most we can say about those who do not believe is that they do not believe. We have to leave the state of their souls to the mercy and love of God.

Jesus went on to call his first four apostles: Peter and Andrew, James and John. As we will sing in the Hymn of the Day, “Jesus calls us.” 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  

Epphany 2 Knowledge

Today’s Scripture readings have in common the theme of God’s knowledge. The God who made us loves us, and the God who made us knows us, knows us better than we know ourselves, better than anyone or anything else in all creation knows us.  Nathanael asked Jesus, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

In Jesus’ time and since “under the fig tree” had become a metaphor for bible study and prayer. In I Kings 4:25 during Solomon’s time “Israel and Judah dwelt in safety, every man under his vine and fig tree.” Micah 4:4 in God’s kingdom “they shall sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” And Zechariah 3:9-10 “I the Lord of hosts will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. In that day every one of you will invite his neighbor under his vine and his fig tree.”  When Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree” everyone – except maybe us – knew that Jesus knew Nathanael in prayer and study.

We have the witness of the Collect for Purity. “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires know, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God knew Eli the priest and priest sons Hophni and Phineas. Eli was a godly man but old and weak. I Samuel 2:12 says Hophni and Phineas “were worthless and had no regard for the Lord.” God knew Hannah’s sorrow at having no children, and God knew how her co-wife Peninnah provoked her for that reason. God heard Hannah’s vow to lend her son, if she had one, to the Lord’s service, and God sent her Samuel. Samuel grew up with Eli and Hophni and Phineas, but he did not know the Lord. But Eli did know the Lord, and Eli was an honest man. When Samuel reported the Lord’s judgment on Eli and his house, Eli accepted God’s judgment.

The Psalmist witnesses that the Lord who made us knows us, knows all of us from our conception. The Lord surrounds us and lays his hand on us. God knows each of us better than we know ourselves. Part of the joy of life is the joy of self-discovery, learning what we can do that we didn’t think we could do, learning how to experience and to share God’s love for us, learning also what we shouldn’t do and what we can’t do but must leave to others.

The church in Corinth had heard the good news that Jesus’ death and resurrection had set them free from sin and had lifted from them the burden of the ceremonial law of Moses. But this knowledge of freedom is not unlimited. Rather than the external law of the Torah, Christians take on the internal obligation of self-control. Paul commands the Corinthian Christians to shun prostitution.  He reminds them, and us, that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that we were freed from the need to sin only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, will give us knowledge of God’s truth, and the Holy Spirit, the spirit of power, will empower us to do the truth we are given to know.

John’s Gospel opens and closes with knowledge and with skepticism. When Philip tells Nathanael of Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanel’s skeptical response is, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  City people in the Roman Empire looked down on country people and called them “pagans.” In Jesus’ time Nazareth was a country village about 4 miles southeast of Sepphoris, the major town of central Galilee. Sepphoris was excavated in the 1990’s by a team from Duke. But when Jesus shows his knowledge “I saw you under the fig tree,” Nathanael comes to faith, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  

The parallel account is at the end of John’s Gospel. Thomas was not present when the resurrected Jesus first appeared to the disciples. He said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later when Jesus said, “Put your finger here . . . reach out your hand . . . Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  

The God who made us loves us, and the God who made us knows us, knows us better than we know ourselves, better than anyone or anything else in all creation knows us.  So let us rejoice that God knows us, and loves us, and calls us to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

Epiphany 1 Baptism

The beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry is the theme of the gospel readings on the Sundays after Epiphany, first his baptism and then the call of the apostles and Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. We break for Lent and Easter and resume after Trinity Sunday. This morning for the Creed we will reaffirm our Baptismal Covenant (page 292). The Covenant has 8 questions: 3 expect the answer “I believe” and 5 expect “I will, with God’s help.” The 3 “I believe” questions repeat the Apostles’ Creed. The 5 “I will with God’s help” questions ask: (1) Will you continue, (2) Will you persevere, (3) Will you proclaim, (4) Will you seek and serve, and (5) Will you strive?  To all 5 questions we answer “I will with God’s help.”

God has made  many covenants with God’s people – Genesis 9 the rainbow covenant with Noah and his descendants, Genesis 12-17 the covenant with Abraham and his descendants, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy the 10 Commandments covenant with Moses and Israel, 2 Samuel 7 the kingdom covenant with David. Jeremiah  31:30 tells of God’s promise of a new covenant. And Christians see the Lord’s Supper as the sign of the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood.  

Both the Prayer Book Catechism (pp 844-862) and Luther’s Shorter Catechism  (1160-1167 in ELW) teach about the Creed, the “I believe.” Today let’s look at the 5 questions to which the expected answer is, “I will with God’s help.”  

We all know from our experience with New Year’s resolutions that human will alone cannot accomplish many results. But God gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit first to know God’s Truth and second in the Power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s truth.

The first of the 5 “I will with God’s help” questions is about life in the church. “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” Four interrelated parts of church life: teaching and learning, fellowship, holy communion, prayer. All four are important. We both are and are not solitary Christians. We are born alone but we are born into a family, into a biological family and into a church family, born into shared life and heritage. We will die alone, and by Christ’s resurrection we will be born again into a family “with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven.” So we pray with and for one another, we share in broken bread and wine, we share in chili and cornbread.

The first question is continue, the second is persevere. “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” The temptation to give up is ever with us. Being a Christian takes courage. Owning up to our failures takes courage and humility. In the 12 Step programs people speak of “the great river of Egypt” Denial. Denial is easy; confession is hard – and healing. God gives us people who love us who help us know when we have done wrong, people who receive us with God’s love when we “repent and return to the Lord.” Jesus taught us in a prayer to say, “forgive us our sins or trespasses or debts as we forgive those who sin or trespass against  or owe us.”

Continue, persevere, proclaim. “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”  “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” “God so loved the world,  that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” To St. Francis of Assisi is attributed, “Preach the gospel, when necessary use words.” There is no record he said that. The closest record is from the Franciscan Rule of 1221, Chapter 12, “All the Friars should preach by their deeds.” We need to be clear in our own minds what we are doing and for whom we are doing it, and why, and then be prepared to speak of God’s saving grace.

Continue, persevere, proclaim, seek and serve. “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  I’ve been told, “Jesus calls us to love our neighbors and our enemies, because frequently they are the same people.”  My mother used to say, “We are all examples to one another; some of us are good examples.” God made us all. It is easy to discount people; it is sometimes hard to recognize God’s love in other people, particularly when they are so wrong about so many things. But the love of God for us calls us to love one another, to love with his love.

Finally, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” We can agree on the goal of justice and peace. We are free to differ in conscience on the means by which justice and peace are to be accomplished. We may well strive for different political candidates, but we are all called to respect the dignity of every human being. I read the Washington Post on line, and have become aware recently of some of the differences of opinion  inside the Beltway. It is easier to respect the dignity of some people than others, but our covenant is to respect the dignity of all. As a society we have made some progress, some progress in respecting the dignity of people who look different from us, progress in respecting the dignity of gay people. In the last few months our society has become more aware how common is sexual misbehavior and how common rare attitudes that do not respect women’s dignity. We have a way to go in respecting the dignity of every human being.

By ourselves, in our own strength, we cannot, but with God’s help we can. So let us thank God for his grace, God’s grace shown us in Jesus’ baptism, God’s grace poured out on us in our own baptisms, the grace of God’s Holy Spirit who strengthens us in prayer, in Bible study, and in this sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. God’s grace in Jesus Christ is shown forth in his baptism, in our baptisms, and in the body of all baptized people. God’s grace sustains us in this life and the life to come. Amen.