Pentecost VIII

On the base of the Statue of Liberty are inscribed the words from the poem of Emma Lazarus written in 1883:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Random thoughts towards a sermon. Readings are here.

This week I am thinking about Rebecca. I spent some time looking for information on women in her day. I found this item.

It was probably in this period that women enjoyed greatest freedom and prestige. The stories in Genesis and Exodus showed them as independent and strong, smart and tough. They displayed leadership and initiative. They almost always got their way when they wanted something. Rebecca, for example, is clearly in charge of her own destiny, both in deciding on her own future, and in shaping the future of her clan.

This was probably because women were necessary for the survival of the tribe, and they knew it. They did a wide range of tasks, without which the clan or family simply could not have managed. They moved freely in society, and were not confined within the home. The Bible stories show that they spoke and acted confidently.
Their contribution to the culture of the time was significant. The stories as we have them in the Bible were edited much later by male priests, but there are hints that women had a thriving cultural tradition of their own. Many of their stories dealt with families, children, food supplies, security/safety and home-places. All were matters that related to women’s spheres of influence, and some scholars suggest that many of the stories of Genesis were originally women’s stories, preserved by women in the clan.

As well, women played an active role in religious matters. The concept of monotheism was just beginning to develop, but many women probably worshipped a fertility goddess, the Great Mother, source of plant, animal and human life. Ancient Near Eastern religions certainly had fertility of the soil and animal life as one of their main focuses, with priestesses who served the forces of Nature (the power of river and rain water, abundance of crops and animals, etc.)

The laws of Hammurabi, a famous law-maker and king of Babylonia, provide insights into the lives of women in this period. There were laws to

protect the rights of women in marriage
protect women against rape
define the punishment for adultery
define the just treatment of women who were slaves
regulate the behaviour of sacred women who served in the temples
lay down conditions for divorce, etc.
Another source of information about women and their lives was provided by love poems and lullabies of this period.

Rebecca is clearly a woman who takes her destiny into her own hands. She chooses Isaac and from the text she is is only wife, unusual in those days. She decides that Jacob will be the better leader than Esau, although Esau is the elder brother. She tricks her dying husband to make it possible for Jacob to become first in line. We might think, wow, how can the Bible hold her up as someone to be remembered and honored with her own story? Was God behind all this or is it happy accident or is there a message about making things come into being by nefarious means? Things I think about when reading the stories of the heroes of the Bible. They all seem to be flawed.

This it the weekend we celebrate the founding of the U.S. - certainly we have had some flawed leaders in our history - yet we celebrate the freedom and system of government that has developed. We pledge to defend and protect and extend those freedoms to others. There are always those who say we have to keep it for ourselves - don't let any more in or give any more freedom to others. But as Martin Luther King, Jr. said - the arc of heaven bends towards justice - so the tide of freedom rolls on.

Jesus in the Gospel for today finds the religious leaders trying to protect God by many burdensome laws. People chide him for eating with all sorts of people. They compare him to John who was strict in his religious duties. Of course they did not like John either - too strict.

Andrew Greeley, a Roman Catholic priest and author, tells this joke:

There was some discussion in the Vatican about ordaining a woman priest—in Ireland, b/c they've been running things for 3000 years anyway. They sent her to the edge of County Mayo—so far out that the next parish was in Long Island. She bonded with all the womenfolk, but for the men, it was a bit of a strain. So one comes out and says, would ya like to come out in the fishin' boat tomorrow. It was a glorious day—they have them occasionally in Ireland. She got into the boat and the lads, in they forgot the boat, so she walks on water to get it and says, now get on with your fishin'. And he turns to his friend and says, they send a woman priest out to a fishing parish and she can't even swim.

That seems to be the dilemma that Jesus has. He breaks through it in his usual way of turning the world upside down. He quotes from Wisdom, that it is deeds that show the ways of God's world. There is an easier way - walk with Jesus, follow him, open the doors wide, feast with all who wish to feast. Let God be the host - we are the servers at the table - waiters and waitresses - who pass out the bread of life and wine of the Spirit. The yoke of this service is light and easy.

Bishop Tutu says - who knows what can happen when we sit down at table with one another. There is no limit to the possibilities.

Wendell Berry writes:
We Who Prayed and Wept

We who prayed and wept
for liberty from kings
and the yoke of liberty
accept the tyranny of things
we do not need.
In plenitude too free,
we have become adept
beneath the yoke of greed.

Those who will not learn
in plenty to keep their place
must learn it by their need
when they have had their way
and the fields spurn their seed.
We have failed Thy grace.
Lord, I flinch and pray,
send Thy necessity.

P. 211 in Collected Poems: 1957-1982

It's all about me!

HT to Doug and Grandmere Mimi.

Books - Friday Five

RevGalBlogPals has a reading meme this week:

1) Do you think of summer as a particularly good season for reading? Why or why not?

Not so much - long summer days full of light and outside activities don't leave much time for reading. Winter with its short days and a nice fire are better for reading. Mostly I "read" while driving to church on Sunday - books on CD or tape -- 2 hours there and 2 hours back give lots of time for a book. Harry Potter was great on CD as was the Philip Pullman series.

2) Have you ever fallen asleep reading on the beach?

Not since I got a terrible sunburn doing that!

3) Can you recall a favorite childhood book read in the summertime?

I loved reading as a child - Anne of Green Gables, all sorts of book series, mostly I hated it that our library had books divided into "boys books" and "girls books" - it was always a challenge to me to take a book off the boys shelf and check it out.

4) Do you have a favorite genre for light or relaxing reading?

Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries! Reading a new Marcia Muller now (on tape!)

5) What is the next book on your reading list?

Whatever I can find for my flight to Nashville - probably a mystery. I have a bunch of "serious" reading to do but they sit in piles around the house. I do want to read the Manga Bible though - it is in my bag to take along..

Holy ground in cyberspace

Many of you already know much of what is in my latest essay on Episcopal Cafe from your own online experiences. I write today on how EfM Online has been working and building community around the world. Students from South Africa, Korea and other places tell of how it has made them feel more connected to one another while taking their journeys in faith.

Read it here

Safe at home: RIP George Carlin

Blogging

What every blogger needs!





HT to Grandmere Mimi

Friday Five - surf's up!

RevGalBlogPals had an irresistable, to me, Friday Five. I love the beach - the northern Oregon coast is my psychic home - my home of the heart. Here are the questions if you want to play.

1. Ocean rocks, lake limps? Vice versa? Or "it's all beautiful in its own way"?
The basalt headlands and sea stacks are breathtaking. Haystack Rock is a favorite.

2. Year round beach living: Heaven...or the Other Place?
Heaven except for the winter rain, rain, rain.

3. Any beach plans for this summer?
Definitely - a beach run - only 1000 miles from here

4. Best beach memory ever?
Hard to pick one. Playing with our kids when they were small, sandcastles and a complete map of the coast of Washington and Oregon with our oldest grandchild, one of the kids saying "who put all this sand here for me?" Church camp at Gearhart in High School where I discovered church was more than Sunday services.

5. Fantasy beach trip?
Don't need fantasy - have been to the best - Cannon Beach, the beach in Puerto Rico at full moon, and the beach in Tanzania at Oyster Bay. This summer I go to the beach in the south of England and to Iona.

Bonus: Share a piece of music/poetry/film/book that expresses something about what the beach means to you.
Any song from Missa Gaia.

IV Pentecost - more

As I was driving to Rock Springs I was listening to NPR - Sunday Weekend Edition - and the broadcast of this week's This I Believe really resonated with what I ended up saying in my sermon. Read it here.

Colin Bates is a resident service assistant for people with mental disabilities and a student at Pennsylvania State University. He's finishing a degree in English and will pursue a MFA in creative writing. He lives in Bellefonte, Pa., with his cat, Cleo.

Most of my friends have recently graduated from college. Every so often, one will call me up to grumble about their new job, telling me how underappreciated they feel, or how they're not achieving the success they wanted. I enjoy listening to them. I think that's what friends are for. But it also gives me perspective on my own work.

I work with two developmentally disabled men, my bosses essentially, who each have profound mental retardation. They're loud without being able to speak. They're violent without understanding the consequences. They can't bathe themselves. They can't cook or work a job. Their behaviors range from catatonic to aggressive.

As a resident service assistant, I go to where these men live and help them in everything they do — bathing, dressing, cooking, feeding, cleaning, going to the bathroom — from the moment they wake until they go to bed. It pays nine bucks an hour.

Underappreciated? Try having your hair ripped out while changing a diaper. Try having the meal you've prepared thrown at you. Try being spit on.

The funny thing is, I love my job. I do. I know I'm young and still have a lot to learn, but here it is: I believe in helplessness, which is to say I believe we need other humans.

It isn't enough to be what our society has dubbed as successful. What we really need are others around us engaging, nurturing, listening and willing to sacrifice their time and agendas. I don't care if you're the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company or a single mother with five kids. Nobody is completely self-sufficient and so, in that way, we are all helpless. We're helpless unto each other.

The cool thing about the guys I work for is that they make their needs explicit. Things that take seconds for most of us, like changing socks, can take hours for them, but their vulnerability isn't a handicap so much as an example. Being with them, encouraging them — "Yes, the socks are on! The socks are off!" — puts things into perspective.

Most of the people I know are embarrassed by what they can't do. They see it as a sign of weakness and consequently walk around with burdened hearts. For my generation, the notion that success equals fulfillment has been pounded into our brains as if it were the truth. My generation is being told that if you can't do something alone, if you're not smart enough or capable enough, then you've failed.

So far, the turning points in my life have not been the times I succeeded at something, but the times I've whispered, "I'm lost," or, "Help me," or, "I need a friend." In becoming helpless, I've allowed myself to be shaped and supported by those who love me — which makes helplessness a gift.

And I have my bosses to thank for it. We've discovered the joy of helping and being helped. I believe sometimes our vulnerability is our strength.

Independently produced for Weekend Edition Sunday by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

IV Pentecost

Readings are here.

Jesus is having dinner with the disciples and the usual suspects - sinners and tax collectors. Sinners were those who could not live up to the strict religious laws of the time. Those who could not keep from being "unclean" according to the rules of their religion. This would include any who came into contact with outsiders, blood, death, or who did not live up to the purity laws of the day. If you had a stall in the market place, or worked in a job where you touched unclean things - you were considered a sinner. Only the very wealthy had the leisure and ability to stay "clean." Tax collectors worked for the hated Romans - making their money by collecting taxes and adding on their "salary." It is really quite astounding for a person like Jesus to be eating dinner with such a motley crew. It is as if the most popular group in a social setting chose to hang out with the least popular. It is like when those with power and privilege - give it away to those without, taking second place or lower.

This passage from the Gospel of Matthew goes on with even more surprises. A member of the religious establishment comes into this mix to ask for help for his daughter. What love he must have for his daughter - to risk his position and status in the community for a girl child. Jesus does not question his presence or his request but jumps up to respond. On the way to the man's house, a woman- perhaps emboldened by the actions of Jesus, risks all to touch the fringe on his cloak.

As Jesus arrives at the house the crowd laughs at him for thinking he can save the dead girl. He breaks through that wall of laughter - and reaches out his hand to the girl. Over and over Jesus breaks through the religious and societal rules to bring healing to those who reach out to him.

These readings speak to those of us who feel unworthy because of the circumstances of our lives -- there is nothing (as it says in Romans 8) that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. God has broken through all the walls of our lives in Christ. There is no longer a payment system - where we must do something to obtain this mercy and healing. The Psalm tells us this, Abraham and Sarah tell us this. Each proclaims and trusts in the promises of life even in the face of enemies or old age. No matter what we have done or not done - the door is always open to God.

In response we are called, as the Body of Christ, to also be open to others who come into our lives. Healing of the world will come through these actions.

Picture from the catacombs.

The Visitation

Mary and Elizabeth Icon by Laurie Gudim

4082

Remembering on Memorial Day - 4082



HT to Bruce in Portland.

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Readings are here.

I read in the news that once more we are suffering "compassion fatigue" or perhaps the US economy and worries about gas prices are tightening our generosity impulses. But what if we suddenly found everything swept away and we were totally dependent on neighbors around the world? What if our own government, like the government of Myanmar, was controlling most avenues of assistance? How would we cope? How would we hear the words of Jesus from our gospel today?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith?

Would we say - oh right, sure Jesus - easy for you to say with all those women providing for you along the way so you and your disciples can go on walkabout.
Yet - it was those who were barely making it through each day - who are the ones Jesus is talking with. Jesus talks about money and wealth more frequently than any topic except prayer. His concern is that we become so fearful about our money and things that we fall into loving things and using people instead of loving people and using things.

Jesus offers a variety of views about money, not all are about giving everything away but all are concerned about our anxiety and tendency to live in a scarcity model of being. In the parables, Jesus does not condemn wealth but he does condemn greed. The rich fool stores everything away and then loses it in a moment of bad luck. the unjust steward does not treat those under his control with the same justice as he is granted by his employer. In the story of the rich man and the poor man - Lazurus - it is the lack of concern by the rich man for the poor man outside his door. In the great judgment scene in the Gospel of Matthew, it is those who give material aid those who are sick, naked, in prison, or hungry who are blessed. And although he tells the rich young man to sell all he has and give it to the poor, in the story of Zaccheus - the tax collector is praised for repenting of his greed and giving only half away. The Gospel of Luke tells that good stewards are the ones who invest wisely and make money. The diversity of sayings from Jesus shows that Christians are called to reflect on the gifts we have been given and evaluate our use of them.

One core of Jesus' teaching is that in community we do not have to fear and hoard. Comes around, goes around is a way of life. When I am down - you help me up, when you are down, I reach out a hand.

Recently in Basin, Wyoming, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church showed how this can be done. A family's mother and daughter were in a terrible car wreck. The mother died and the daughter severely injured. A short time later the family house burned to the ground taking everything in the fire. Although several members of the extended family and their families were living there due to job losses and other events - no one was injured. But they were left destitute with only the clothes they were wearing. St. Andrew's and the community rallied to help them. A fund was set up at the local bank, a house was given to the family for shelter, food, clothing and groceries poured in. There is still the grief of loss of life and goods but the love shown by all through these gifts will carry them through the days to come.

Now what happens in a place like Myanmar where the whole community was devastated by a cyclone and the aftermath of flooding and loss of life? Where the government is not helping its own people? Where is the community when everyone is in the same condition? This is when the church can also be community for one another. After Hurricane Katrina, and the tsunami in South Asia and the earthquakes in Pakistan, Episcopalians came forth with amazing generosity and already Episcopal Relief and Development is working with partner churches in Myanmar to help with emergency needs. Although the government until this weekend was blocking aid from the US - ERD was able to work through Anglican churches in the region to get tents, blankets, fresh water, building supplies, medical care and other needed items in through trusted sources in the Anglican Communion. We, then are the neighbor in whom they are entrusting their hope.

You might say - but they are mostly Buddhists or Muslims - our church there is so small and our presence so tiny. When someone asked the Christians in Pakistan why they were helping all those "others" - they looked dumbfounded - and said - that is what Jesus teaches us. We are here as a witness to the love of God in Christ - it is not what we get in return, or that we are often persecuted for our faith, it is about showing what we believe. And so it is that we witness our faith through our gifts around the world. Somedays I think - will it never end - all these needs - I feel like the Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar with all the lepers clinging to him - "heal me, touch me, help me" they chant. And the truth is it will never end - Jesus was right - the poor with always be with us - but it is not just a poor person - it is a moving target - someday it might be me or you - as you know from when the terrible fires stopped short of destroying homes in the Green Knoll Fire.

So, there are two messages in this sermon (which my homiletics professor would tell me is a real no-no!!) One is about the inserts in your bulletin and doing whatever you can to assist Episcopal Relief and Development in this current crisis in Myanmar. The second and long term point is about the evaluation of our wealth and material goods in terms of Jesus call to worship God and not money. When we worship money and things we become fearful and anxious, when we put it in its proper place we are freed from fear and anxiety. We can consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air and live in the present moment. We can plan and provide for ourselves and our families but without the tight grip of fear -- we can hear the words of Jesus saying:

"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." And we can rejoice in the beauty in this day - which may be the only one we have.

UPDATE from our diocesan listserve:

Dear Friends,

I just signed a check for over $8,000 to be sent to the Durney family in Basin. Once again our diocesan family has made me proud. God bless you all for your generosity.

Faithfully yours in Christ
Bruce Caldwell
Bishop of Wyoming

Jesus and money ideas from Mastering Mammon at Text Week.