Proper 8C June 30, 2013

          Today’s reading from the Epistle to the Galatians tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The word translated “patience” in the New Revised Standard Version and “long suffering” in the King James is the Greek makrothumi’a.  It combines two words -  the adjective makros and the noun thumos, derived from the verb thuo – to make an offering by fire, strong passion, particularly strong anger or rage. We think of it as the opposite of short-tempered, or if there were such a word, long-tempered. God is long-tempered toward our sins. Jesus is long-tempered toward the inhospitable Samaritan village. One of the aspects of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives is makrothumi’a or long-temper. Makrothumi’a is a gift of God, a gift we can receive and show forth in the world Jesus Christ redeemed by his death, a gift of the resurrection and new life.  May we seek after and show forth makrothumi’a.

          There are at least three roads from Galilee to Jerusalem. The main road now goes down the Mediterranean coast, and then east and up to Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time that was the long way around and rarely used.  Jesus knew two roads, the winter road along the Jordan valley to Jericho, then west and up to Jerusalem, and the summer road south over the hills through Samaria coming to Jerusalem from the north.

          Today’s gospel tells us the Samaritan villages did not welcome Jesus and his disciples. History tells us why.

          Galilee and Samaria in the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered by Assyria (think Kurdistan) in 722 BC. Most of the people of Israel were dispersed into exile and lost to history. Their place was mostly taken by other conquered exiles who joined with the remnant and formed the Samaritan people.  

          The southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians (think central Iraq) 136 years later in 586 BC.  The Babylonians took most of the people of Judah, including their political and religious leaders, to Babylon where, as Psalm 137 has it, “We sat down and wept.”  But Psalm 137 continues, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget you  O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.” But unlike the earlier refugees the later exiles in Babylon were not lost to history. Led by Ezekiel and other prophets they continued to gather to worship, to study, to maintain the community. They gathered to hear God’s word read, to think about it, to argue about it, to make it part of them, and then to pray – to praise, to intercede for others, and to petition for themselves.  They kept the community together looking for the day when they could return to the land of their fathers.  That day came in just 50 years with the Persian conquest of Babylon.

But the conflict grew bitter between those who returned purified by the experience of the exile and those who had stayed behind. Jews and Samaritans were neighbors who did not love one another, did not eat together, did not intermarry.  So when Jesus and his disciples set out on two or three day hike along the summer high road from Galilee to Jerusalem, they were going through hostile territory. A few places fed and housed Jewish travelers, but most did not. The first place Jesus’ advance men came to turned them away.

None of us likes to be turned away, particularly when we on the road in strange territory. The natural reaction to this kind of rude and inhospitable behavior is anger. When we are badly treated we want revenge. Psalm 137 about the waters of Babylon shows that. “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy the one who pays you back for what you have done to us! Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, and dashes them against the rock!”

“When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.”

To their anger and desire for revenge and destruction Jesus shows the fruit of the Spirit in makrothumi’a, patience, long suffering.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Jesus’ response reminds St. Luke of the cost of discipleship. “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  Jesus and his disciples had left the comforts of home to be dependent on the kindness of strangers.

          When Jesus called a disciple to follow him, the man said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” That might have meant right away, the funeral was that day, but it also might mean the man asked to wait until his father was dead and he received his inheritance.  I’m as prone as anyone else to procrastination, finding excuses to put things off. Retirement reminds me, “What are we waiting for?” God calls us when he calls us; God doesn’t wait around.

          But God does show us makrothumi’a. patience, longsuffering, long temper. He calls us to love and serve Jesus and he waits for us to do so with divine patience, long suffering, long temper, makrothumi’a.

          And to those who have responded to his call God gives new life and his Holy Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Amen.

Task Force on Re-Structurig the Episcopal Church

The Task Force on Re-structuring the Episcopal Church has a Facebook page which is asking what one thing would you like to see changed in the Episcopal Church.

        My response was to reduce the size of General Convention.

        I propose that every diocese be represented by at least one priest or deacon and one lay person, and that for every 10,000 over the initial 10,000 ASA the diocese elect another priest or deacon and a lay person. Each diocese is represented by one bishop with an additional bishop for every 10,000 ASA.  Based on 2011 figures:

        For 110 dioceses that gives 220+49 = 269 House of Deputies and 135 bishops.

        The additional representation includes one each from these:

Province 1
         Connecticut 17K
        Massachusetts 18K
Province 2
        Haiti 17
        Long Island 15
        New York 20
Province 3
        Maryland 11
        Pennsylvania 15
        Southern VA 10
        Washington DC 15
Province 4
        Alabama 10
        Atlanta 17
        Central FL 13
        North Carolina 15
        South Carolina 12 (adjustment may be needed)
        SE FL 13
        SW FL 14
Province 5
        Chicago 13
Province 6
        Colorado 10
Province 7
        Dallas 12
Province 8
        Los Angeles 19
Province 9
        Honduras 10

        If we elected by province and figured one priest or deacon and one lay person for every 10,000 ASA we'd have 126 in each house.

Province 1 - 56K - 6
Province 2 - 95K - 9
Province 3 - 102K - 10
Province 4 - 171K - 17
Province 5 - 62K - 6
Province 6 - 30K - 3
Province 7 - 77K - 8
Province 8 - 21K - 2
Province 9 - 19K - 2    

          Bishops and deputies could meet together but preserve the two house concept by voting separately and requiring concurrence of both bishops and deputies.

           This is not a new idea. I remember Bishop Thomas Fraser of North Carolina suggesting it to a group of clergy in the late 1970’s. It made sense then and makes sense now.    

  

Proper 5C June 9, 2013

          Nain is to Shunem as Chunns Cove is to Haw Creek. Nain is on the northeast side of the ridge, Shunem is on the southwest side of the same ridge. Both are small communities south of Nazareth.  Both were the place of a miraculous resuscitation. Elisha, Elijah’s successor as prophet, brought back to life to son of a woman of Shunem (2 Kings 4) as Elijah brought back to life the son of the widow of Zarephath in southern Lebanon. Those are 2 of the 3 resuscitation accounts in the Old Testament. The 3^rd is in 2 Kings 13. As Elijah was buried (2K13:21) “a marauding band was seen and a man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood on his feet.”

There are a number of Old Testament prophecies of resurrection in the last day. In the Prayer Book Burial Office we hear Job 19:25, “I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.” Isaiah 26:19 has “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” and Daniel 12:2 says, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”

In 3 places in the New Testament Jesus raised the dead before his own resurrection Easter Day: this event in Nain, Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:40-56, Mark 5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26) and Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44).  

          After Jesus’ resurrection, St. Matthew reports (27:52-53)  “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”  In Acts 9:36 Peter at Joppa raised Tabitha or Dorcas from the dead. “She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.”  In Acts 20:10 Paul at Troas raised Eutychus, who went to sleep during Paul’s sermon and fell out a window.  In Acts 14:19-20 Paul was beaten, stoned, and left for dead at Lystra, but “when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city.”  Paul does not use the language of new life in Galatians, but Paul’s experience of being “called through grace” and the radical change in life which followed are very like death and resurrection.  

          In St. John 5:28 Jesus said, “ the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.”  And also familiar from the Burial Office, John 14:2, “In my father’s house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you.”

          In 1925 Eugene O’Neill wrote a play, “Lazarus Laughed.”  It is a long 4 act play with more than 100 parts and a Greek style chorus. It is more read than performed.  Lazarus’s first line is, “Laugh! Laugh with me! Death is dead! Fear is no more! There is only life! There is only laughter!” As Lazarus continues to rejoice in life those around him, caught in the fear of death, become more and more frightened and the Roman Emperor Tiberius finally had Lazarus burned to death.  The text is on line.

          But O’Neill’s play invites us to consider also the son of the widow of Nain, the son of the widow of Zarephath, the son of the woman of Shunem, the man who fell into Elisha’s grave, Jairus’ daughter, Tabitha or Dorcas, or sleepy Eutychus or Paul. What was their new life like for them?

          What did they do the next morning? Did they go on doing what they did before? How was their life different?

          Spiritually we are like all these them because we have been reborn in baptism. In baptism the old man died and we received a new spiritual life, an eternal life. Does the daily remembrance of our new life make a difference in how we live?

          Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that it is “appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment.” These 8 people who died once had to die a second time. This body will die, but we who are spiritually reborn in baptism will be raised to share in Christ’s eternal life.

          Six years ago last October I had surgery on my pancreas for a non-malignant growth and spent 3 months recovering. That experience reminds me that every new day is a gift from God. We all know that, but serious illness is a powerful reminder. I think resuscitation after death was also, at the least, a powerful reminder.

          We are reminded of God’s continuing love and providence. We are reminded to focus our attention on God who gives life. We are reminded that God gives us life and all that we have for God’s purpose – that we may love and serve God with all we are and all we have, and our neighbor as ourselves.

          As we will say at the end of today’s service, “And now, Father, send us out, to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. To  him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.” Amen.

Proper 4C  June 2, 2013

          The centurion said, “Lord . . . I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; . . .But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me;  . . .”  When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd . . .  he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

          We exercise authority under authority. Authority is received and exercised in faith. Our faith is that God is at work in the world he created, the world in which Jesus redeemed all who call on him, the world of the Holy Spirit of love, and truth, and power.  Our task as Christian people is to join with the Spirit’s to make God’s will a reality. God’s authority is given us to do that work.

Authority comes with faith. Today we heard the Prophet Elijah exercising God’s authority in his conflict with King Ahab and the priests of Baal. We heard St. Paul exercising God’s authority writing to the Galatian Christians. And we heard Jesus’ authority healing the Centurion’s servant and his teaching that authority, divine and human, is received and exercised in faith.  

          Our Old Testament lessons this month will be about Elijah in continuing conflict with the alternative religion of his time.  For the next 6 weeks our Epistle readings will be from Galatians, St. Paul dealing with false teaching in the church. In the Gospel from now to December we will follow Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing, a ministry that led to conflict with the leaders of the people, that led to the cross of Good Friday, the empty tomb of Easter, and the power of God in the mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire as the Holy Spirit of love, truth, and power comes to the church to show us God’s will and to give us the power and authority to seek to accomplish God’s will.

          King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel had a problem. Israel was politically unstable. It had 3 violent changes in government in 53 years.  Fathers seized power, ruled about 20 years and were succeeded by sons who were quickly overthrown.  Ahab’s father Omri had overthrown Baasha’s son Elah.  Baasha had overthrown Jeroboam’s son Nadab. Jeroboam had over thrown Solomon’s son Rehoboam and divided the kingdom.

          Ahab tried to create political stability through religious uniformity. He chose to support the Baal Astarte religion of his Lebanese wife Jezebel and to reject the religion of the neighboring kingdom of Judah. Ball was the storm god, shown as a bull. Astarte was the earth goddess. The Baal Astarte religion was a nature religion based on the cycle of fall and winter rain to grow barley and winter wheat. To bring the fall rain and encourage the storm god to make the earth goddess fertile farmers would go to the Baal temple and participate in sympathetic magic – sexual intercourse - with women worshippers of Astarte.  For some it was a popular religion. But cyclical earth religions are based on the idea that things don’t change. They may get a little worse, but they don’t get much better.  

          Against Ahab’s effort to unify his kingdom in worship of Baal and Astarte Elijah proclaimed the will of God. God is God of all. He created all that is, visible and invisible. He is God of nature. He created the fertile earth, He sends the rain. But God is more than simply a God of nature. God is a God of history. God created all that is for his purpose - that we may love and serve him in our time until he brings his creation to an end. God brought the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt into freedom in the Holy Land. God sets us free from the compulsions of sin, free to love and serve him. God is a God of freedom. The nature religions are people trapped in the cycle of nature and historically that leads to slavery.

          Ahab called for a religions face-off. God gave him victory, and a bloodbath followed. When Queen Jezebel heard Ezekiel had murdered her priests she ordered him to leave or die. In exile in Sinai Elijah heard the Lord (19:12) in what the KJV calls “a still small voice” and the NRSV “a sound of sheer silence.”  The Lord told Elijah to foment revolution – to anoint Hazael king of Syria, and Jehu king of Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah his successor as prophet in Israel.  The Lord promised to leave 7000 in Israel, “all the knees that have not bowed the knee to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” Throughout history the Lord of history has preserved a spiritual witness to his love, truth, and power. God grant us grace and power and his authority to be God’s witness in our time.  All authority is a gift of God, a gift given to guide and empower us to do God’s perfect will.

          Our Epistle tells how Paul had evangelized Galatia in central Turkey, preaching in the synagogues to Jews and “god-fearers.” God-fearers were gentiles attracted by the ethical standards of Judaism. But the men were not able to undergo circumcision surgery and the women were not able to keep the laws about foods and family life. The Galatians received the good news of Jesus “who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” with joy.

          But once we are converted, once we have received the good news of Jesus with joy, we live out that joy in our lives in a continuing spiritual conflict between law and grace. The teachers from the Jerusalem church were  accustomed to the habits of prayer and obedience to the 613 commandments in the Torah – the law of God – 365 negative, one each day in the solar year, and 248 positive, the number of bones and organs in the human body (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b-24a)  They said these are required. Paul and Jesus said, No! Love God, love our neighbor, and love because you are loved.

          Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”  I invite you to consider:  What do we habitually do in gratitude to Jesus for his death and resurrection, led by the Spirit to exercise God’s authority?  Do we habitually pray? Do we habitually give our time and talent? Do we habitually look for opportunities “to love and serve” God “as faithful witness” to the presence and power of Christ in our lives?  How do we exercise our God given authority in our lives? How to we live out our faith?    

          Can Jesus say of us, as he did of the Centurion, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Trinity Sunday 2013

          Spiritual forces include both an outward force that calls us into relationships outside ourselves and an inward force that calls us to protect the self. These spiritual forces need to kept in balance. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish. God the Holy Trinity is the spiritual force of balance, the force that both keeps us together and keeps us reaching out. As St. Augustine of Hippo in North Africa taught us 1600 years ago, the unifying love of the persons of the Holy Trinity is both the example and the power of our created unity in diversity.

          Most special days in the church year remember events in the life of Christ or his church. For 800 years Christians in Western Europe and in churches planted from Western Europe have kept the Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday, “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” Today we celebrate God as revealed to us in the Bible and in the life of his church.

          God is revealed as one, as a unity expressed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The unity of the three persons of God is formed by the love they share. Trinity Sunday reminds us we are one person in many relationships, our unity formed by God’s gift of love in Jesus.

          Maintaining the balance among the forces in our lives takes love, attention,  and spiritual effort. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish

          God’s unity in trinity in the relationship of mutual love is our example, our guide, and by God’s gift of love in the Holy Spirit of Jesus our strength and power. So the Trinity is important, important in our thinking and important in our lives.

 
          The church’s teaching about God is based on God’s self-revelation in the Bible, particularly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  The church’s teaching about God is summarized in the creeds. The Episcopal Church expands the creeds in the Prayer Book Catechism (pp 845-862) and the Historical Documents, the Athanasian Creed and the Articles of Religion.

          The creeds start with the unity of God. “We believe in one God.” Jesus, when asked a trick question (St. Matthew 22:35-40, St. Mark 12:28-31, St. Luke 10:25-28) answered from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Shema Israel, Adonai elohenu, adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” He added from Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Observant Jews begin and end the day with the Shema; it is a good spiritual practice.

          God is not fragmented; God is a unity. We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).We are not essentially fragmented; we are created a unity.  We maintain our unity in love.  “God is love and those who dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them.” (I John 4:16)

          Just as the Father loves the Son and the Son the Father in the bond of the love of the Holy Spirit, by the same Holy Spirit God dwells in us, and we in him. The love of God in Trinity is our example of unity, and the love of God in Trinity  creates and sustains us as whole and balanced people.

          This truth held clearly in our minds can set us free from all that divides us, both within ourselves and between one another. The God who made us loves us. He poured out his love on us in the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are set free from the need to sin, from the need to hurt as we have been hurt. We can accept God’s forgiveness and in the power of that forgiveness forgive those who have sinned against us.

          Maintaining the balance among the forces in our lives takes love, attention,  and spiritual effort. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish

          Our various relationships and roles vie for our attention; each wants to be supreme. We need to pay continuing attention to the question, “What is most important in our lives?” How are we maintaining balance among the forces in our lives? How are we both internalizing and expressing God’s love for us in Jesus Christ? 

          God the Holy Trinity is the spiritual force of balance, the force that both keeps us together and keeps us reaching out. So let us now celebrate God’s unity in trinity in the words of the Nicene Creed.  

Funeral sermon

          This is what I peached at a friend's funeral 2-16-2013

          The first man and the first woman “heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening;” and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. The Lord called to Adam, “Where art thou?” And Adam said, “I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  The Lord responded, “Who told thee thou was naked; hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?” And Adam gave a perfectly human response, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”  In spelling out the consequences of their disobedience the Lord God gave the sentence we hear each Ash Wednesday, “dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.”  (Genesis 3:19)

          I was asked to speak about death. Death is real. Death is separation. Death is painful. And death is not the final answer. Christians believe in the death of Jesus, and Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus for all who believe in him. As St. Paul wrote the church in Corinth, “As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22)

          At the Committal we will say, “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God our brother; and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.  The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him, the Lord lift up his countenance upon him and give him peace.  Amen.”

          The last part of that prayer comes from Numbers 7:24-27 where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Speak thus unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, on this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel.”  Following the words of the blessing we read, “And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” 

          The sentence of God is real. We are dust, and we die. The mortal body dies and returns to dust and ashes. But death is not the final answer. God has put his name on us and God blesses us.  Baptism begins, “Name this child.” We receive our Christian name at baptism. At baptism we are washed clean of the sin we receive as an inheritance from our families and our humanity, we are born again in Christ, and we are “marked as Christ’s own for ever” with the sign of the cross – Christ’s cross, on which our Savior died to redeem us.

           We affirm in the creed that Jesus Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.”  As Jesus died, so our brother in Christ died. And as Jesus rose, so in God’s good time our brother will rise, not in the physical body but in a new and perfect spiritual body. That is God’s promise, and God’s promise is true.

           But we cannot misuse God’s true promise so as to avoid the reality and pain of true death. We go through the pains and difficulties of life and death and not around them  A Swiss physician noticed five emotional stages in grief: denial; anger; bargaining; depression; and, some degree of acceptance. Too quick a jump from death to resurrection may be a sign of denial. Death is real; death is separation – separation of the body and spirit, the end of life and of relationships in this life. The relationships continue. We continue to love despite death. But we mourn the loss.

           Anger is a normal and natural reaction to change and loss. We can be angry with God for cutting life short too soon; God can take it. We have a right to be angry. Life is too short for all we want to do, and sometimes it seems too long, and it is hard.  We want to bargain and we think of the “if only.” But it is what it is and we play the hand we’re dealt. Our brother certainly did that, and when his wife called to tell me of his untimely death my first reaction was to remember the grace with which he lived his life - as son to his mother, as husband, as friend to us all in his many areas of community service, and in business.

           We have all lost by his death, and we have a right to be depressed. Depression can be anger turned inward. Depression  is real. We all have much to be depressed about, in our personal lives and in the world around us. But by God’s grace we have the time if we will take it to feel that depression and to hold on with two hands to the blessed hope of God’s continuing love in Jesus Christ.

          We have no assurance of universal salvation; we are certainly not made right with God by our good works. Our assurance is in Jesus Christ - in his death to redeem us from sin and in his resurrection to new life for all who live in him.  The church at its best is the company of those who share this faith and assurance in Jesus Christ seek to live as he would have us live. And the church at its worst is a place where the envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness of the world are made more evident by the gap between belief and practice.  But our faith is not in the institutional church. Our faith is in the church’s Lord, Jesus Christ.  I know our brother lived that faith. I know he can claim Jesus’ resurrection.

           As we will say in the Commendation at the end of this service, “All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.” Amen.   

Epiphany 4 2013

Epiphany 4C SABC 2-3-13 Jeremiah 1-4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, I Corinthians 12, St. Luke 4:21-30

           “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.”  The Greek word is thumos, found 18 times in the New Testament: in St. Luke 4:28 and Acts 19:28 the rage of the crowd, 5 times in St. Paul, once in Hebrews for Moses’ faith fleeing from Pharaoh’s wrath, and in the Revelation about the wrath of God against evil-doing.

          Wrath is one of the 7 capital or deadly sins – Wrath, Avarice, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, and Gluttony.  All these sins are natural human characteristics taken to an extreme that dominates our lives and control us.  St. Paul calls wrath (in Galatians 5:20) one of the works of the flesh, and tells the Christians to put it away. 

          By God’s grace we can put away wrath and replace it in our lives by the love of God we read of in First Corinthians 13 in today’s epistle.

          In today’s gospel, “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage” Rage is anger out of proportion. The congregation began with positive feelings toward Jesus. “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” But Jesus disappointed them. He called them to repentance and a change of heart.

          An hour walk northwest of Nazareth is Sepporis, the traditional home of Mary’s parents, a center of Roman authority, with many Gentiles and Greek-speaking Jews, despised neighbors. Jesus calls the Nazareth congregation to repent of their attitude toward the Gentiles.

          The crowd’s response to Jesus’ call to repentance was anger, and more than anger, murderous rage. “They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”

          Acts 19 is similar. At Ephesus in Turkey was a great temple to the goddess Diana of the Ephesians with an image carved from a meteorite.  (black and white picture of an ivory statue) She was an ancient goddess of fertility.  St. Paul preached there over two years, and his ministry had been blessed by the Holy Spirit. Many had been converted and many healed, so many that the idol-makers feared for their business and raised a riot. But the city authorities held a hearing in the city theatre, and St. Paul’s friends sent him on his way to Macedonia.

          From these bible accounts and our own experience we learn about thumos or rage.  Rage is anger carried to such an extreme that it takes control of our emotions and actions. Rage leads to extreme actions - in the biblical accounts to attempted murder, in our experience to similar tragedy. Rage comes on us suddenly without much warning.

          Anger is a reaction to disappointment, a feeling that comes when things are not as they should be, when we feel we are not getting what is due to us, what is fair. One of the spiritual gifts God gives children is a keen moral sense of what is fair to them. We are of course better able to discern what is not fair for us because we are keenly aware of all our circumstances – or think we are. We don’t know the details of others’ lives, and it is harder for us to see the unfairness that leads to their frustration.

          We all learn more or less well to deal with our angers. We can learn to stop, to “count to ten,” to withdraw and not be consumed by anger in others. Jesus “passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” St. Paul moved on from Ephesus to Macedonia, to begin proclaiming the good news of Jesus on the continent of Europe.

          We all have different triggers for our anger. Over time we can learn what situations evoke anger, what experiences tend to hook us in. Parents, siblings, and spouses learn what actions and situations give us pleasure and which evoke anger. Those of us who have taken a long car trip with two children in the back seat know what I’m talking about.  And that’s a small example. There are more serious ones.

          Anger and rage are human emotional reactions. So is love. And love is God’s antidote for anger and rage. Sometimes the hard word has to be said.  The people of the synagogue in Nazareth needed to hear Jesus’ true word of God’s love for their Gentile neighbors. St. Paul’s ministry in Ephesus was a fruitful ministry of preaching and healing. The church in Ephesus that Paul founded later offered refuge to St. John and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

          But as we learned from our parents, “Mean what you say, but don’t say it mean.” The God who made us loves us and pours out his love on us so we can love others in his name. St. Paul in today’s Epistle reminds us of this love.  By God’s grace we can put away wrath and replace it in our lives by the love of God, love that is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, love that does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  This love is God’s love in Jesus given to us to share. May God give us grace and opportunity to drive anger and rage from our hearts and replace it with his love.