XIX Pentecost

Readings are here.

The last week or so I have been thinking about the young gay men who have committed suicide after being bullied and harassed. So many people in our world feel that sense of hopelessness that leads to thinking that death is better than life. I cry out with Habakkuk:

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrong-doing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous--
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

And then I read the next line:

I will stand at my watchpost,
and station myself on the rampart;

And I think - oh - this is about me and what I am doing or not doing.

Many and maybe all of us have both experienced bullying and been bullies. I remember that as school children we tormented a boy who cried easily. And I remember the times that I was called names and terrorized. There is something about our nature. Like chickens who pick on the one who is different - even to the point of killing that one - we have that little "chicken" bit of brain down deep in ourselves.

Will I stand guard over myself and in our community. It is hard to stand out and speak up when a crowd is going this way. Last week in our online sermon discussion listserve, Propertalk, I was reminded of the scene in To Kill a Mockingbird:

when the white men come at night and surround the jail where Tom, an African-American wrongly accused of a crime, is held? The men are a mob. They do not see Tom; they only see an enemy-red or blue. They are blinded by rage. Scout, a little
girl, watches them. Her father tells her to run away and go home. But Scout doesn't run, and she doesn't fight....

Scout looks at one of the men in the mob and says, "Hey Mister Cunningham, don't you remember me? I go to school with Walter. He's your boy, ain't he? We brought him home for dinner one time. Tell your boy 'hey' for me, will you?"

There was a long pause. Then the big man separated himself from the mob, squatted down and took Scout by both her shoulders. "I'll tell him you said 'hey,' little lady." Then the mob dispersed.

Scout is the agent of God - helping people to return to their selves and become individuals and not a mob. She stood watch and spoke truth to power.

In our town of about 6000 we have a listserve of about 2000 which is mainly for announcing garage sales. Occasionally someone will say something that is racist, sexist or homophobic or other scary thing. At first it seems terrifying that there are so many who agree - then one person will write offering an opposing point of view - one that restores dignity to those being abused by hurtful words. Suddenly allies appear or write notes of support. The world became less scary by the actions of one person stepping out from the crowd.

How do we learn to step out like this? The 2nd Letter to Timothy gives us a hint:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

In baptism we are asked, "Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?" and we answer with a loud, "AMEN." We can be communities of support and care for all people, we can teach one another to walking in Christ's loving footsteps. We can offer hope to those who feel alone and isolated.
Last week our church camp, that you support through the diocesan assessment and through sending kids to camp in the summer, was the site for a weekend with the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) in Casper. High school students who care and support for each other, especially for those who are gay or lesbian. They spent the weekend using the ropes course for team building and learning more about how to be community who is there for each other. You, Holy Communion, Rock Springs, have become a welcoming church for all who might come seeking hope. We can continue this work and exercise our faith together - so when a moment comes to stand up - we will not fear but step out in faith.

This is being the mustard seed of the gospel. We can be a small seed of faith and hope that grows to a large protective place of respite and renewal -- scattering our mustard seeds of hope to all who need a word of encouragement and knowledge that they are beloved of God, that life is worth living.

The Episcopal Church in Puerto Rico

IX Pentecost

Readings are here

Sometimes I think we say the Lord's Prayer so frequently we race over the meaning and mumble the words. Today I encourage you to read it through slowly, savoring each phrase. Or perhaps reading it in other translations/paraphrases will help see the fullness of the prayer that Jesus offers his followers:

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS
as translated from Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West

O, Birther of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.



From A New Zealand Prayer Book

Eternal Spirit Earth-Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all.
Loving God, in whom is heaven.
The hallowing of your name echoes through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the earth!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.

The lesson from the Genesis reveals a God with whom we can argue and have a conversation and who listens to our concerns. The reading from Colossians tells us we can have our own opinions and do not have to take the ideas of others for ourselves. We are free to seek God on our own. Even the church can't tell us how to think and believe. Jesus asks us to seek and find, knock and doors will open.

Prayer is just this sort of seeking and knocking. Sr Joan Chittister says: "God is life, not a vending machine full of trifles to fit the whims of the human race." We may not understand or even accept life as it happens to us. Prayer is a way of finding a deeper understanding of how God is found in our lives. Seeking and knocking does not mean we will get whatever we ask for but it is seeking our relationship with God - how God is life, and finding ever new revelations (doors) about living as though heaven is real on earth and making that more of a reality.

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. ~~Augustine

Glee: Imagine

VIII Pentecost

Readings are here.

Every time this Gospel about Mary and Martha come around, I cringe. It seems to be a set up to pit women against one another using Jesus as the instigator. I know that in the time of the reading it was shocking for Jesus to go to the home of 2 unaccompanied (by men) women, to eat with them, to allow one to slack off on her household duties, and to encourage the other one to do the same, and to teach women theology. Nevertheless it seems every sermon seems to end up with bad Martha, good Mary. What is the good news?

Here is an exegesis by John Julian:

Saints Mary and Martha of Bethany
1st century

“In the Gospel of St. Luke we read that our Lord came to Martha’s house and while she set about at once to prepare his meal, her sister did nothing but sit at his feet. She was so intent upon listening to him that she paid no attention to what Martha was do ing. Now certainly Martha’s chores were holy and important…But Mary…was totally absorbed in the highest wisdom of God concealed in the obscurity of [Jesus’] humanity.

“Mary turned to Jesus with all the love of her heart, unmoved by what she saw or heard spoken and done about her…Why? Because it is the best and holiest part of the contemplative life possible to mortals and she would not relinquish it for anything on earth. Even when Martha complained to Je sus about her, scolding him for not bidding her to get up and help with the work, Mary remained there quite still and untroubled, showing not the least resentment against Martha for her grumbling. But this is not sur­prising really, for she was utterly absorbed in another work, all unknown to Martha, and she did not have time to notice her sister or defend herself.
“My friend, do you see that this whole incident concerning Jesus and the two sisters was intended as a lesson for active and contemplative persons of the Church in every age? Mary represents the contemplative life and all contemplative persons ought to model their lives on hers. Martha represents the active life and all active persons should take her as their guide.”[1]

So wrote the anonymous author of the 14th-century spiritual discourse The Cloud of Unknowing, representing the ancient tradition of seeing Mary and Martha as repre­senting the Two Ways of Prayer. It is interesting that virtually every present-day scholar makes a point of dis agreeing with that understanding – not perhaps surprising in a culture which highly values activity and cares little for meditative silence.

What we know about Mary and Martha of Bethany beyond the scriptural accounts is an extremely tangled and confused muddle, because until fairly recently virtually every scholar identified Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalen. So the medieval legend has it that after the Resurrection, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus set out to evangelize Provence in southern France, with Martha’s relics supposedly being miraculously dis covered in 1187 at the town of Tarascon (on the Côte-d’Azur in southeastern France) where she allegedly tamed the legendary dragon “La Tarasque”.

But what do the scripture accounts themselves tell us about these two good women? According to John, they lived in the town of Bethany, less than two miles from Jerusalem on the Jericho road, and they were the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. But the account of Jesus’ first visit to Mary and Martha appears only in Luke. In his account of that visit we can recognize that Jesus himself is shatter ing at least three Jewish forbidden cultural norms of his society:

a. He is apparently alone with women who are not his relatives. (Where is Lazarus?)

b. A woman waits on him and serves him.

c. He teaches a woman in her own house.

These were all forbidden by universal Jewish custom, so this is yet another example of Jesus’ re fusal to treat women as second-class, subordinate persons but, rather, equal with men.

In addition, Mary is portrayed as taking the position proper only to a male disci ple, i.e., at Jesus’ feet. The Mishnah says plainly: “Let your house be a meeting-place for the Sages and sit amid the dust at their feet and drink in their words with thirst…[but] talk not much with womankind.” By sitting at Jesus’s feet, Mary is violat ing a clear so cial boundary and, according to Jewish custom, is thereby bringing shame upon her house; Jesus himself by speaking with her so deeply also breaks the rab bini cal norm against converse with women.

Martha, on the other hand, is doing the proper work of a Jewish woman – preparing a meal – and she complains that Mary is not helping her. Within Jewish traditions, Martha’s protest is completely appropriate and entirely justifiable; it is not, as it may seem to us, merely an issue of peevish jealousy or control over her sister. In a sense, Martha is say ing, “Mary’s behavior is shameful for a Jewish woman. She doesn’t know her place. You, Jesus, are a Rabbi; it is your responsibility to correct her.” Jesus certainly would have understood that, and yet he refuses that socially appropriate de mand – and goes even further: he actually gives his approval and blessing on Mary’s “shameful, improper, and unfeminine” behavior.

And when Jesus responds to Martha, he repeats her name – ”Martha, Martha” – which in itself is a sign of mild criticism or at least of a lament. [Jesus uses the same technique of repetition with Peter when he predicts his betrayal: “Simon, Simon, take heed: Satan has been given leave to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22:31-REB)]

Jesus’ statement to Martha has several different versions in early manuscripts:

1. “Only a few things are needed” is Jesus’s response in two early scriptural manuscripts. There are some scholars who suggest that here he may have simply been talking about the meal itself, i.e., saying that Martha need not bother with a lavish feast: that “only a few dishes are necessary.”

2. In six other early manuscripts, the phrase is “There is need of one thing [only].” This seems more clearly to be addressing the matter of spiritual priorities (and is used by the translators of the NRSV, the REB and the NAB).

3. Three other early manuscripts have a slightly fuller version: “Only a few things are needed, indeed, only one.” This seems to be a conflation of two earlier traditions, and it is this ver sion the Jerusalem Bible translators use.

Finally, in a bit of speculation, it is just conceivable that this entire story (which appears only in Luke) may have originally been as much a parable as that of the Good Samaritan (which immediately precedes it in the Gospel) — a conclusion based on four words:

1. In Luke, the story is said to take place in “a certain village” (kómayn tiná). However, that village could not have been Bethany (where John’s Gospel locates them) because that would be far too close to Jerusalem for the journey Jesus is on. Some scholars suggest that it was in Magdala in Galilee. Also, the adjective “certain” (“a certain village” and “a certain woman”) is used most commonly as the introduction to a parable in ten places in Luke and at least two in Matthew (e.g., “A certain man was going down to Jerusalem…”).

2. Martha means “mistress” or “lady” in Hebrew and Mary is from Miriam that means “rebellious”, suggesting that if this was originally a parable, these two women may have been meant simply to represent two behavioral traits, rather than actual persons.

3. When Martha is described as “burdened with much serving” the Greek word for “serving” here is diakoneîn – “deaconing” – which is usually used by Luke to refer to the service of Christian ministry. It might be possible to conclude, then, that Jesus is using the parable/story to place primacy on the hearing of the word rather than on a more active ministry of serving (i.e., deaconing) others.

4. There could a Greek word-play in the last two verses: Martha is described as “anxious” and the Greek is merimnás; and Mary’s name in Greek is Mariám – the two words sound very much alike. Was Jesus telling us that it as better to be “rebellious” than “anxious”?

In scripture, the only other place we meet Mary and Martha is in the Gospel of John. In this ac count, the sisters send a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is ill. Then Je sus waits for two days to make sure Lazarus is recognized as dead. When he is on the way to Bethany, Martha goes to meet him and then calls her sister, apparently telling Mary a white lie: “The Master is here and is asking for you.” when there is no textual evidence that Jesus was, in fact, asking for Mary. Mary runs to Jesus and falls weeping at his feet, and Jesus weeps with her before he orders the cover re moved from the tomb and calls Lazarus out. Later, at a supper with Lazarus and his sisters, Mary silently anoints Jesus’ feet with precious ointment – a gesture of great honor and love.

Certainly, whether in parable or in history, in Jesus’s relation to Mary and Martha, we are presented with a rare human dimension to his life: that of simple, good, human friend ship – a dimension that can enthusiastically be celebrated on this occasion.

Cowan, Tom; The Way of the Saints; G.B. Putnam’s Sons; NY; 1998.
Cross, F.L. & Livingstone, E.A., eds.; The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; Oxford U.P.; Oxford; 1988.
de Voragine, Jacobus (Ryan, W.G. (tr); The Golden Legend; vol. 1 & 2; Princeton University Press; Princeton; NJ; 1993.
Esler, Philip F. & Piper, Ronald A.; Lazarus, Mary and Martha: A Social-Scientific and Theological Reading of John; SCM; London; 2007.
Hughson, Shirley C, OHC; Athletes of God; Holy Cross Press; West Park, NY 1930.
King, Ursula; Christian Mystics: The Spiritual Heart of the Christian Tradition; Simon & Schuster; NY; 1998.
Wikipedia: “Martha”; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha; (04/21/05)


[1] Johnston, William, tr. & ed.; The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counseling; Doubleday; New York; 1973.

If Martha was an early church deacon - is the story more about the way clergy slip into too much doing and not enough waiting in the stillness of God. That I can see more than a story of women fighting.

And from J. Frazer Crocker

SAINT MARTHA
Scolded like an impolite child
stopped in mid gesture
with a wooden spoon in one hand
while a bowl falls from the other
Hidden in the dimness of the pantry
under a chandelier of spider-webs
she stands ashamed in the glow of the kitchen fire
covering her dress with a blue apron
stained by a small dark smudge over her breast
She shades her brow with a starched cloth
In the darkness the barrels pray
patient with the maturing of malt
The truth of oil settles in clay jugs
A tear trembles on a flaxen eyelash
Greatly saddened shadows
are lit only by a humble and apologetic
sliver of green glance
Yet still disobedient she continues to serve
heart in a rush of love
even when her wise sister
slim as a poplar
calmly takes out of her hands
a warm loaf of bread sprinkled with snow

Argentia, !SI!

From Argentina, where they just passed a marriage equality law:

VI Pentecost

Readings are here.

The Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori preached last week on what I tried to say this Sunday morning - On Freedom:
On June 27 Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, in the morning, and at evensong at St. Michael and All Angels in Christchurch.

The readings for the day were: 2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14; Psalm 77: 1-2, 11-20; Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9: 51-62.

Well, I rejoice with you over the success of the All Whites, (NZ soccer/football team, ed.) and lament their exit.

All the hoopla around the World Cup brings to mind another athletic celebration. In 1968 two American athletes stood on the podium in Mexico City and raised their fists. They wanted to make a statement about freedom and their lack of it, for they were black.

Even though the law insists that all people are equal, people of color continue to suffer injustice, in my homeland and, I think, in yours. Their salute got them thrown out of the summer Olympic Games, but it raised the consciousness of a lot of people, and helped the cause of freedom for many, many others.

In one of the biblical languages, the word for prayer means opening a clenched fist. That black power salute began another petition in a continuing prayer across the world, that all people might be free. The crucifixion is a cosmic version of that same prayer – Jesus’ arms and hands open so wide they take in the whole world, indeed, the whole creation.

‘For freedom Christ has set us free. So stand up and stop being a slave,’ Paul says (Gal 5:1). But freedom isn’t only freedom from ; it’s freedom for – for loving self and others. We have been set free in order that we might become that same sort of liberating love in the world, setting others free.

Freedom is directional. It moves away from slavery, and it moves toward something more, the more that God intended from creation. It has something to do with what those two guys on the podium were protesting – an end to slavery, an end to oppression, an end to poverty and systems that keep some in thrall while others profit.

Freedom also has something to do with expansion – in the same sense that Mary prays, “magnify the Lord” – let the glory and love of God in our hearts expand our capacity to be tools and servants of that greater possibility.

The freedom we have received in Christ is meant to give us larger hearts and wider-seeing eyes that don’t focus so much on our own fears. That sort of freedom gives us the ability to look for the larger good, rather than only our own.

It’s what is told of a sailor in the Pacific during the Second World War. His ship was bombed and a fierce fire broke out in the hold, where the munitions were stored. The crew fought the fire for two days.

At some point a gunner’s mate tied a rope around his waist and had himself lowered into the hold. He went down into that hell so he could train a fire hose on the bombs, lest they be set off by the heat. He stayed there for hours, helping to set others free. Freedom lets us choose the life abundant meant for all.

Freedom, Paul says, invites us to become the loving servants of others. Just before I left New York, a group of the Church Center staff gathered to discuss and strategize around the referendum in Sudan next January. The people of Sudan will vote on whether or not southern Sudan should become a separate nation, and there is great concern over the violence that may erupt around that election.

We will call the whole of The Episcopal Church to prayer, to study, and to action in solidarity with the Episcopal Church of Sudan. The larger body, through advocacy, prayer, and ways we haven’t yet discovered, may be able to help bring greater peace in Sudan. The world is poised to observe – and influence – the community in and around Sudan.

Will we see those self-centered responses that Paul calls works of the flesh: “strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy” – or together can we encourage works of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”? Even the simple act of attending, paying attention to the suffering of others, begins to unclench the fist.

That kind of solidarity or coming alongside is one kind of freedom we’ve been given. When Elisha asked for a double portion of spirit, he was seeking that gift to share with others. He is blessed with that kind of freedom as Elijah departs, and he spends the rest of his life healing people, raising the dead, challenging oppressors, speaking truth to power, bringing warring kingdoms to the peace table, feeding and looking after people who would otherwise be forgotten.

It’s the kind of freedom that’s needed to respond to the situation in Haiti. Before the earthquake in January, the Diocese of Haiti ran 254 schools, serving 80,000 students, from preschool to trade and music schools, in a nursing college and university.

Much of the infrastructure of those schools is now gone. The bishop announced a couple of days ago that he can no longer afford to pay his 37 clergy. All that infrastructure helped to support the diocesan mission, and they’ve lost about $30,000 a month, income that used to help keep expanding the ability of the church there to teach and heal and show the incarnate love of God.

Rebuilding Haiti will take at least a decade, and it needs our willingness to be servants of the Haitians – to be free enough to love in ways that they ask, rather than what we direct. Haiti is already experiencing resurrection – and there is abundant opportunity to open our hands and pockets to help support that rebuilding.

There’s something about the freedom we know in Jesus that cures our paralyzing fear of those on the margins. You know how that sort of clenching goes: “there but for the grace of God go I. Don’t let that happen to me – keep me far away from any hint of the possibility of homelessness or disability or disaster. Thank God I wasn’t born to that culture.” May the unclenching prayer in us be more like, “dear God, I see this suffering. Help me see you in my neighbor.”

The guy who drove me to the airport went a way I hadn’t gone before. It was an eye-opener. We went by a Jewish center with beautiful mosaics on the front of the building, and young men in yarmulkes walking down the street.

We stopped at a red light and I looked over at the next car, to see a Sikh in turban and full beard, with a ceremonial knife hanging from his rear view mirror. That knife is actually a symbol of freedom – in the ability to choose non-violence.

The next block was filled by a beautiful old stone church complex – Mary, Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic Church. The shops and storefronts gave evidence of the world’s many families, languages, peoples, and nations.

Are we free enough to see that as blessing? Are we free enough to meet all the world’s people with a desire for their full flourishing? Can we be martyrs – witnesses – to the image of God in all people?

The freedom we have is to choose for those on the margins, to be in solidarity with the friendless and forgotten, the despised and the demonized. Exercising that freedom is almost always challenging – it annoys people who don’t see any need to change the status quo, it offends those in power, it challenges the ways of the world that say, “me first.”

Crossing those boundaries sent God into human flesh. Crossing those boundaries is the heart of God’s mission. It’s not for the faint of heart, but we find courage from our elder brother who has already opened his hands and arms wide enough for the whole world. We find strength in his body gathered here, and through all time and space. May we claim the freedom that is ours. May our fists open for all!

III Pentecost

Readings are here.

Sermon notes for Holy Communion, Rock Springs.

A reflection in our EfM group and some sermon notes by Robert Cornmer, turned my thoughts to the comparison of the woman and the Pharisee in today's gospel. The two main characters are a study of us in many ways.

The woman comes to Jesus in her poverty. She is at the end of her rope and rushes in all hair and tears to offer everything she has. A woman of the city is a polite way to say a sex worker. Someone who earns her living selling her only commodity - her body. She is an object to be used by whomever has the money to pay, but looked down upon by all those who are the "good" people. She is like us when we are lost - do not know what else to do but turn to God and throw ourselves on the mercy of the one who created us. The person who has lost everything: family, wealth, status, home, mind, body, spirit. We are her when we have no security and no one to turn to, when our lives are out of control.

Simon, the Pharisee, on the other hand, has everything: position, power, wealth, family, even a name. He knows how to move in the circles of power, is respected in the community, a pillar of the synagogue (church). He follows the religious and purity laws in the most righteous of ways. He lives a life that does not encounter "sinners" - he stays in his own group. He is like us when we are feeling control of are lives, when our job and our lives are going well, we have health insurance, our families are not falling apart, when we have it all together.

Jesus comes into the picture as a bridge between these two. He offers his love to both. He asks them to see one another as he sees them. To the woman who comes with nothing he shows compassion and raises her status to a person of faith. For the Pharisee, he shows that although Simon considers himself a person of faith and person with everything - he really has as little as the woman - in fact perhaps less because his faith is built on an illusion of control. Whereas the woman realizes that she has no control in her life. She has so little that she is willing to break all the taboos of her time - coming uninvited into a dinner party of men - unbinding her hair - touching a man public, spending her money on alabaster and ointment. She does not see Simon as a person any more than Simon sees her as a person. They are both objects to one another if they notice at all. Jesus calls each of them to live into their humanity - that human image of God they were created to be.

Although as individuals we are like both the woman and the Pharisee - as the church, the body of Christ, we are called to be Christ in the world to make spaces for people to see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ - as God's beloved children. Your thrift shop for instance - provides people with clothing that allows them to feel good about their appearance - and it raises funds to support other opportunities for the community. Those who come for clothes and those who provide the clothes are the same in Christ's eyes. We are called to give without condescension but to respect the dignity of each person as we promise in our baptismal covenant. When we get to feeling "holier than thou" - we know we have moved out of following the one who tells us that the leader is the one who serves. We have become our own little gods when we think we have earned our own way - forgetting the gifts we have been given and the support along the way - the doors that have opened for us. When we feel less than others - we have also slipped away from God - that is not the humility of Christ but forgetting that we are the beloved and have a claim on a space of grace as much as any other person.

From today's Collect - the prayer before the readings --
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; -- may it be so. May we be a place where all are welcome and all feel the sense dignity and acceptance and the love of God.


additional thought --
I heard our Presiding Bishop quote this recently: The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning. This is our mission - creating spaces of grace - may it be so.

on the death of my brother

Today we hold the service celebrating my brother's life. Last week he was playing golf and this week he is dead. No one knew that the cancer was there - he lived life until he died. He had good relationships with his kids and grandkids and siblings. It is all just so stunning to us to think of not seeing him in this life. He asked me to do his service and I will. People from various parts of his life will speak, his children will offer their thoughts and I will say something like the following:

You have heard many aspects of my brother’s life from friends, colleagues and his daughter and son; and the empty space he leaves in our lives. The scriptures, however, call us not to lose heart in the midst of our loss and promise that the love we experience is not ended but changed. From now on we carry the memories of a life well lived and love freely given – we carry that on to the next generation and to one another.

The gospel of John speaks of many dwelling places. The words used are those of traveling – they refer to Jesus as the one who goes ahead on the journey to make arrangements and provide comfort for when we arrive, who leaves tracks and signs of how find our way. Steve has completed his part of the journey. We have ours to live. Steve showed us a one way to live – we each take a piece of that pattern and carry it with us. God, as creator stands at the beginning and end of our lives, God in Jesus is the path and companion, God as Spirit encourages us and gives us hope.

All week I have been thinking about the Parable of the Talents where people are given certain gifts to steward. Some do well with their gifts, others do not.

In Steve, we see one who took his gifts and talents and by giving to the world and to his family, multiplied them far beyond his knowing. As in the parable I hear God saying to Steve, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master.”

Readings are
Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, 
 the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 
He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

23 Psalm
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— if indeed, when we have taken it off* we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

John 14:1-6
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe* in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’* Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Trinity Sunday

Thoughts toward a sermon:
Readings are here.

There is a joke that was going around preaching circles last week as we pondered what to say this year about Trinity on this-- the celebration of this revelation.

Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am? And his disciples answered and said, "Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or other of the old prophets." And Jesus answered and said, "But who do you say that I am?"

Peter answered and said, "You are the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."

And Jesus answering, said, "What?"

It is easy to fall into trying to solve the questions around the concept of The Trinity but the readings call us into something other than a logic problem and out into relationships, love, hope, dance, and poetry.

It has been said about the Trinity: They took poetry and made it into a rule.

Or as Karl Barth said: The Word became flesh, and theologians made it words again.

The readings encourage us to get out our heads into mystery -

Like John Donne in his poem on the Trinity --

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

Or Killian McDonnell:

God is not a problem
I need to solve, not an
algebraic polynomial equation
I find complete before me,

with positive and negative numbers
I can add, subtract, multiply.
God is not a fortress
I can lay siege to and reduce.

God is not a confusion
I can place in order by my logic.
God's boundaries cannot be set,
like marking trees to fell.

God is the presence in which
I live, where the line between
what is in me and what
before me is real, but only God

can draw it. God is the mystery
I meet on the street, but cannot
lay hold of from the outside,
for God is my situation,

the condition I cannot stand
beyond, cannot view from a distance,
the presence I cannot make an object,
only enter on my knees.

The reading from Proverbs sings of Lady Wisdom who was present and participated in creation – who tells us she can be found out on the street, in the town square or walking the beach on Memorial Day weekend:

she calls, and raises her voice
On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
"To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.

She calls to all who live – she proclaims that God is not a secret knowledge only open to special people but there for all who live – calling them to deeper and greater life.

The Psalm continues with this joyous raucous call – singing of God who works wonders in creation – who offers it all to us as a gift and treasure. The creator whose creation is so grand and yet who holds each of us in the palm of the hand.
Considering each of us with the eyes of love and seeing each of us as worthy.

This same God revealed Paul’s letter to the Romans – who provides with hope
that does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Hope being the quality that calls us to the present and future and keeps us from despair.

This ever revealing nature of God is what Jesus speaks of in the Gospel of John – that we cannot know all at any one time in history – nothing is finished. What we think of as the end may only be a beginning – what me may think is a beginning may only be the continuation of things we do not even know.

As we contemplate the Trinity this day – perhaps we can see it in the image of the Celtic knot – an interweaving of the form – with not beginning or ending. More like a poem or a dance. Illusive and yet capturing something momentarily and then gone in a flash only to reappear. The Trinity offers us a relationship with God that is not static – but available to where we are each day. Some days we need the mysterious presence of the Spirit, some days a companion to walk with, some days a guardian or parent to offer guidance. All are aspects of God who desires to dance with us and make us creators of life for all who inhabit this earth.

In the bible often the word translated as Doers as in the gospel of James:
Be doers of the word not only hearers - Can also be translated
Be poets of the word not only hearers

Or as it says in the old country western song:

Life is a dance
With steps you don’t’ know
Join the dance
Learn as you go.

The Trinity represents the One who is waiting for us to join the dance – pick your partner – do si do.

Happy Birthday Mukhtar

Just for fun - some regular riders on Mukhtar the bus driver's route organized a flash mob for his birthday. Good news does happen



h/t Andrew Sullivan

an oldie but goodie - say no to all those "others"