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.

Easter 4 B

Easter 4B 15

          The gospel readings for the 4^th 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.   

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.”

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!   

Last Epiphany B February 14, 2015

          Three points: (1) St. Valentine, (2)  Trans-figuration in the life of the church and the life of Jesus, and (3) transfiguration in our spiritual lives.

          First, in the florists, candy, and greeting card calendar today is St. Valentine’s day.  Valentine comes from the Latin word valens – worthy, strong, powerful. Valentine was a popular name in late antiquity. Three St. Valentines are associated with Rome and with February 14.  St. Valentine is connected with human love is in late medieval romance literature including Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 1300’s.  Another connection with human love may come from the weather.  Asheville and the Mediterranean are on the same parallel. The worst of winter is over.  We have time for weddings before the prohibition of Lent. 

Second, in the church calendar this Last Sunday after Epiphany is one of the turning points in the church year.  The church year is an ellipse around the fixed date of Christmas and the movable date of Easter. Next Wednesday Ash Wednesday, then 40 days plus Sundays of Lent, Easter April 5, then 50 days including Sundays of celebration until Pentecost, then 6 months until Advent and Christmas.  In the 1960’s a revision of the Roman Catholic calendar assigned the Transfiguration gospel to the Sunday before Lent, replacing three Sundays of Pre-Lent (Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquegesima). Pre-Lent began about 550 with prayer that God would spare Rome a spring raid by the Lombards. Once Charlemagne defeated the Lombards in 775 people began to celebrate in Carnivals.  

           The Transfiguration was a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus had been baptized by John and tempted. He preached and healed, called the disciples and taught them about God’s coming kingdom. The disciples, sent out with power and authority to preach and heal, came back rejoicing. Jesus saw they were ready to enter more fully into their calling. So one day when they were alone he asked them, “Who do men say that I am?” They told them the many things they had heard people say about him. Then Jesus asked them a question each one of us has to answer for ourselves, “And who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ of God.” Jesus told them plainly, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and on the 3^rd day be raised.” They didn’t understand. Even Peter rebuked Jesus, “God forbid Lord; this shall never happen to you.” Jesus responded, “Get behind me Satan.” 

          Then Jesus was called up the mountain, and as he was praying his appearance changed and even his clothing became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appeared, Moses through whom God had given the Law, the sign of the covenant, and Elijah the first of the prophets through whom God had called Israel back to the glory of obedience, prophets through whom God had worked many miracles.  Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about his death and resurrection God way to establish his kingdom through his church forever.

          From the cloud came the voice of God, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.”  On Sinai God spoke in thunder and lightning to the people of Israel. On the same mountain he spoke to Elijah in the still small voice. We are not told what tone of voice God used at the Transfiguration, but the disciples heard and obeyed.  From the Transfiguration Jesus’ face was resolutely set toward Jerusalem, toward death and resurrection. The Transfiguration was a turning point in Jesus’ life and ministry.  

          Jesus’ death on the cross sets us free from the power of sin. Jesus’ resurrection is our assurance of new life. In baptism we are made members of the body of Christ and by the same Holy Spirit who  came on the disciples at Pentecost we are given power to lead transfigured lives.

          In Genesis we learn that we are made in the image of God. But God’s image is marred by our willful separation from God. We inherit from our first ancestors the desire to be like God. The story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent is a parable of our wanting to be like God, and of the bad consequences when we want to do it our way.  Jesus’ death and resurrection make it possible for us to be like God in his way. 

          Lent can be a time when we can focus our spiritual attention on showing God’s image in us.  The Transfiguration can be a turning point in our lives as it was in the life of Jesus and his disciples, as it is remembered in the church year.  Let me end with some questions.

What are your turning points? Have you come to the place in your life where you are ready to make, or to make again, your own covenant with Jesus, where you are ready to receive the love Jesus has for you and commit your life to him in the fellowship of Jesus’ body the church?  We all have to do that once, and then repeat as needed.          

 

Have you received his love and committed your life to Jesus and now feel the call to move to new and hard and active trust in his forgiveness and new life? Who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to turn loose and trust to his love?

          The penitential season of Lent offers us opportunity for worship, fellowship, and study so we may grow in our new life in Christ. Jesus and his disciples turned at the Transfiguration to death and resurrection.  May God grant us grace to turn and turn again to him in worship, love, and service.  

Epiphany 4B 2015

          “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” 

In Chapter 2 of his 1964 Little Red Book Mao Tse-Tung wrote, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”  On June 5, 1989 near the north side of Tienanmen Square a single man walked into the path of a column of tanks.  When the tank stopped the man climbed up to talk with the soldiers inside the tank and then came down and resumed his position. He was finally pulled aside by a group of people and disappeared into the crowd. Not far away from where that brave man stood, over the entrance to the Imperial Palace, is a huge portrait of Mao. The massacre of the Tienanmen protestors had happened the day before, but that lone man’s action in protest is an enduring sign of the authority of love, the authority of resistance to the politics of force.

In some ways Mao was right; in the world of sin political power depends on force and the will to use force. But in the kingdom of God force yields to the spiritual authority of God’s love shown us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, known to us by his Holy Spirit.

We live in the world of sin and in the kingdom of God. In both we live under authority, and we exercise authority – over ourselves and in our relationships.  Our first experiences with authority come when as small children we come to know love, and we come to know fear. We are small, and the people around us are big – and powerful. We know they can hurt us. And we also know that when we hurt ourselves these people are there to comfort and heal us. “Mommy kiss the booboo and make it well.”

We learn that the food we are given, the warm house, the soft bed, the changed diaper, even the warm bath, are all signs of the love which surrounds us.  But we have to be taught the signs of love. Our naturally self-centeredness feels entitled to these. And the flip side of self-centeredness is our feeling of total  responsible for everything that happens, particularly bad things. Our little egos come to believe that we somehow earn love – by good behavior or in lots of other ways. 

The commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother,” given at Sinai, is fundamental to all who share that covenant. It is a spiritual correction for our egos. The commandments express God’s will for the world her has created. God created a world where he is loved and honored, where we don’t give things of this world in God’s place in our hearts and lives, where God’s name is honored, where we remember God has created us and the world and keep his Sabbath holy, where parents and those in authority receive the respect due them, and where all people are secure in their lives, in their property, in their relationships, in their reputations, and where we are not consumed with envy and covetousness, where we are not continually obsessed with wanting other peoples’ stuff.   

“Honor thy father and thy mother;” parents love your children. God creates with natural love for our children. Parents get to mediate to their children God’s perfect and unconditional love. We do it imperfectly; our parents imperfectly mediated God’s love to us, but we all want to do better than we were done for. One of God’s gifts to grandparents is another opportunity to share God’s unconditional love for children.   

The fear we learn as children remains in us. The theological term is servile fear. Servile fear has some benefits in this sinful world. It helps us stay out of some bad situations. Why do we slow down when we see a police car?  Partly for fear of a ticket.  But we drive the speed limit or close to it not only for fear of police or of an accident, but also because we want to share the road safely with the other drivers. We offer them the respect we want to receive from them.  That is the fear the Bible calls the fear of the Lord – not servile fear of punishment, but respect and love.

Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for the sins of the whole world has set us free from servile fear of God’s punishment for our sins. We sometimes have to suffer the natural consequences of these sins in this life, but God forgives us punishment in his kingdom, in this life and the life to come. And because we are forgiven sinners we have both the duty and the power to forgive those who sin against us.

And because we share in the resurrected body of Christ we share in that respect and love we know as the fear of the Lord. 

I don’t know whether the man who stood in front of the tanks over 25 years ago was a Christian. The chances are about 1 in 25 that he was. But he transcended his servile fear and showed forth the divine authority of love, the authority Jesus showed in the synagogue, the authority he shares with us.

Jesus drives out our unclean spirits, the spirits of hate, and fear, and unreasoning force. Jesus has filled us with his Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, and godly power, and love.  Thanks be to God! Amen.        

 

Epiphany 2B

In 1946 Victor Frankel published a book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankel was an Austrian psychiatrist, Jewish, liberated from a Dachau area concentration camp in April, 1945. His wife and parents had died in the camps, and Frankel wrote about his experiences, and about how hard it was for him to feel joy again.

Frankel restates the basic biblical affirmation that all life has meaning. God calls us to the task of discerning that meaning and bringing it to life in our lives.

       In today’s collect we pray, “that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” A child looking at the stained glass said, “saints are the people the light shines through.” We are God’s saints, and as we say in the “Lift up your hearts” the Sursum corda, “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

       When we make real the meaning of our lives we “shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory.” We make real both internally and externally. Internally we understand and act on some thought or feeling, and externally we bring that thought or feeling into being. “Always and everywhere” we “give thanks to” the “Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

       Samuel was asleep in the temple of the Lord. Samuel was a special child. Hannah and her hasband Elkanah had no children and Elkanah’s second wife Peninnah taunted Hannah. Barrenness ran in the family. Abraham and Sarah’s maid Hagar taunted Sarah after the birth of Ishmael. Isaac and Rebecca were barren for 20 years before Esau and Jacob were born. Jacob’s 2^nd wife Rachel whom he loved was also barren until Joseph and Benjamin were born.  Later Elisha’s prayers brought a son to the Shunamite woman (2 Kings 4). And Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother, also old and barren.  

       Samuel was specially dedicated to God’s service. It was a spiritually dry time.  “The word of the LORD was rare in those days” as the King James says, “there was no open vision.” The temple was corrupt. High priest Eli allowed his sons Hophni and Phinehas to cheat those who came to sacrifice. In a time of spiritual dryness, need, and corruption God called Samuel.  Samuel made real his calling to revive the people, to be a good and righteous judge, to “shine with the radiance” to prepare the people for the realized kingdom of David.

       In God’s good time his son Jesus was born, the Word made flesh, and began his ministry of reconciliation with John’s baptism in the Jordan. Ministry is not solitary, and Jesus began by recruiting his disciples. This week we hear of Philip and Nathaniel, next week St. Mark’s account of Andrew and Peter, James and John. And then Jesus’ ministry begins in Capernaum - teaching and healing and casting out demons.

       Jesus returned to Galilee, the area where he had been brought up. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and Judea despised Galileans. Galilee was part of the northern kingdom of Israel whose 10 tribes had been deported by Assyria 7 centuries before. The road from Egypt to Mesopotamia passed through Galilee and the people were more susceptible to the influence of foreign ideas. Jerusalem had only ruled Galilee for only a century. Philip was from a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He realized inwardly that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah, and when Jesus called him realized that fulfillment externally, following Jesus and sharing with his brother Nathaniel.

       The Prophet Micah wrote in chapter 4 about the promise of God’s kingdom, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.” “Sitting under the fig tree” became a metaphor for bible study. Nathaniel’s question reflected the skeptical attitude of the Jewish leaders toward Galilee, but Philip’s response is fundamental evangelism, “Come and see!”

       We begin with “come and see.” Someone brought us to see – to see Jesus in his church, in the people of God, in his word written and preached, to see Jesus in baptism and in the holy communion. We saw, and we realized Jesus in our hearts, in our lives, in the truth and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us grace to be faithful to his call on our lives.

       Victor Frankel came to know the meaning of life in the concentration camps, in the loss of wife and parents, in the gradual recovery of joy in freedom. We know the meaning of life in Jesus, and as begin to “shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.”