Year B Proper 16 WED 2021 Worth

 Year B Proper 16 WEDNESDAY, 25 August 2021

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Worth”

Collect: Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mark 14:1-11

It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people." While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

Worth. What is of worth? We all answer that question differently. Our experience. Our wants. Our hopes. Our delusions. They all shape the worth we give something else, something external to us.

Even more fascinating is the worth that we give to other people and their wants and needs.

When I taught school, this quote was a source of comfort and inspiration as I spent my days to the betterment of these fledglings, little ones not of my family or of my direct responsibility I might add. But each soul was entrusted to my care, and that enabled me to care for those in my direct charge. Garrison Keillor, the host and main persona on A Prairie Home Companion said this: “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.” It gives a weight to these most vulnerable, most precious ones in our midst. It gives sense to their inherent Worth. It helped me get up in the morning, and do it again the next day.

What we give Value, where we find Worth, says much about who and what we are.

The woman who anointed and bathed Jesus’ feet in an act of conspicuous extravagance and adoration made it abundantly clear where she found Worth. Her view of Jesus? He was her all in all. Her view of herself? Unabashed, she humbled herself out of love because of what she had been given; she humiliated herself to those who did not understand. A working man’s year wage she poured out in a moment of supreme beauty and unquestioned sacrifice.

For Judas, this was the tipping point, when the straw broke the camel’s back. This was when he decided that he had had enough, and sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver and became the poster child for betrayal. He shows what he valued, what was of Worth to him.

Even the leaders who were bribing him to get rid of this troublesome teacher knew that this was a small price to pay to get the upstart out of their hair. The precarious balance they had with the Romans could topple with a popular uprising. This had to be quieted as soon as possible. They valued stability. Judas’ price was a thing of small value for the outcome. And what Judas held of Worth was so obvious and easily given.

I have long pondered this idea of Worth. Worth is a magazine. Worth is a family name on my father’s side. My father’s and grandfather’s middle names were Worth. That moniker was not handed on to me, but the idea has lingered through the years. 

Jesus found great value in this story. He found her actions of Great Worth. He made a promise that it would be told and retold along with his story throughout the ages. Extravagance. Beauty. Sacrifice. Grace. Value. Worth. So much in so small an act. But two thousand years later we still wrestle with its meaning.

What do you value like that? What do you hold most dear? What is the one thing that you would never trade or allow to be taken from you? Chew on that today. You will find those questions, and hopefully your answering of them, of Worth. Amen

Year B Proper 16 2021 Dare We Not?

 Year B Proper 16, 22 August 2021

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Dare We Not?”

Collect: Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:

“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

John 6:56-69

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

You cannot jump a hole in two leaps.

When someone says that they are going to meet you halfway, they are often a poor judge of distance.

Whoever finishes a revolution only halfway, digs his own grave. (Georg Buchner)

Do or do not. There is no try. (Yoda)

Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear war.

Our phrases express the wisdom that is as old as time. We cannot cannot build half a bridge and call it done. Or as Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37 NRSV)

We want things to be whole, complete, full, mature, and done. Think of how being half-brained, half-hearted, and half-, umm, -buttocked(?) are all considered bad. Halfway will not cut it.

Half committed, half prepared, half awake all leads to failure. When we commit, let us commit. When we promise, let us keep it. When we do, let us do. Halfway will just not work.

Some of the saddest words in the Gospels are in today’s reading:

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 

They started, but chose not to finish. They believed, sorta. They counted the costs and were found not willing to pay the price. But then, we have a resounding affirmation of faith, a recognition of there is truly no other source of hope.

So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

I find it fascinating that this explicitly states the 12. The 12 included Judas, a true believer. Even when our faith is complete, staying true to the end is required. Anything else can be disastrous.

Joshua called the people to commit. “Choose you this day whom you will serve, ...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

St. Paul instructed us about how to do it, and why. So often we think we are struggling against whatever crisis or problematic character is frustrating us these days. We are a part of a cosmic struggle, Good versus Evil, Light versus Darkness, Truth and Beauty versus Lies and Ugliness. When we forget that, our preparation lessons. We wane in our readiness. We seek comfort and happiness, both good but not the end goal. As we prayed in our collect, we are to show forth the Power of God in our lives to the honor and glory of God.

As many of you have heard, too many times for some of you, I am a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings. So much wisdom and truth novelized by a fellow Christian, J.R.R. Tolkien, without once mentioning God or Christ or religion. But that truth is in every page without invoking the name. It did not need to do so.

The simple hobbits are living life in goodness and truth, upholding the light even though they did not know it. When darkness spread, a few were called to step outside their comfortable normal to do what needed to be done. At one point Frodo commiserated with Gandalf about having to answer the call.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Friends, if you have not figured it out, we are living in such times. We do not want it. We did not seek it. Afghanistan. Haiti. Countless crises most of us have no clue about. And a global pandemic to boot. We are in a divided country where we do not respect our neighbors and the feelings are mutual. And to make it worse, it is not just disagreement, but the other side is considered crazy or deficient. But we are here and now, and God is with us. God is always with us. Thanks be to God. And God is with Them, whoever Them is. God calls us all to Light and Truth. The darkness is what we oppose. The Lies and Deception are our enemy. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those that curse you,” someone [Jesus] said.

And we are given the freedom of choice, of how much we will tap into that, or not. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

St. Paul says we need a few things to combat “this present darkness.” He used an armor metaphor, because in the Roman empire this image would have been obvious and clear, but listen to what he was saying without the metaphor getting in our modern ears way. We need these things:

• Truth- Wrap yourself in it. May it encircle and bind you. Truth, and seeking it, holds up everything else.

• Righteousness- Other people notice how we live our lives. Moral, upright, good, and fair lives opens a lot of doors, and helps people give us the benefit of the doubt if they are unsure. It is a strong and secure way to live our personal lives.

• Peace- be ready to run to make peace, not conflict or fighting. This is Good News to a divided world. 

• Faith- When the world flings its barbs and arrows your way, whether trying to drown out the light or your particular light, your faith blocks those attacks. Holding on, deep down, when days are dark is how we get through this.

• Salvation- This is what holds together what we hold most dear. I said last week Fear is the Mindkiller. Our salvation is what destroys our fear. We are in a battle that is already won. We are mopping up the remnants of a force already doomed. We are saved! What fear need we have. “If God is for us, who can be against us!” [Romans 8:31]

• Word of God- This is what we read and hear. The Bible and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. This is food that sustains us. The drink that quenches us. It is what we share. It attacks darkness and spreads light. We hate the sin. We love those opposed to the light, and urge them to join in the struggle against darkness.

• Prayer- And last, but far from least, we pray. We pray to start. We pray to finish. We pray all along the way. We pray without ceasing. Some of our minds are better attuned to that than others. But prayer is what binds and surrounds all of this, our connection with the Spirit who directs all our choices and moods.

Friends, there are big days ahead. Days of Goodness and Light. May we live to see them. I want to commend our Vestry. We had a long, detailed, and intense Vestry Meeting on Monday night. They made some hard and good decisions on how we will do church in the coming weeks and months. Some of the changes you have already seen this morning. More news is on the way as we look to programming for the fall. Repeatedly they made choices on safety, health and well-being (physical, mental, spiritual), and sustainability. Lots of meetings of hearts and minds came to consensus. Some of the hard decisions were compromises. All of the votes were unanimous. It was a wonderful exercise in what the Scriptures encourage, “Come, let us reason together.” Some of the decisions made were about new directions in mission and ministry, and repeatedly being a faithful, mission-minded Church was where they landed. That is not easy in these times of uncertainty. Again, and again, and again, faith was shown. Thanks be to God.

Whenever we step out on faith, we never know for sure where our feet will fall. We do not know the whole path when we are called to venture forth. We are told the intended destination and the desired outcome, and encouraged to step out, boldly if we can. But move we must. We commit to the path. Come what may. Come what may.

When I was a child I remember my dad telling me what he would do “One day…” That “One day…” never came. It was a lesson I learned very young. Why say “One day…” when we can make today “Day One…”

Let us step out. Are you ready?

Truth. Check. 

Righteousness. Check. 

Peace. Check. 

Faith. Check. 

Salvation. Check. 

Word of God. Check. 

Pray. Always and Everywhere. Check. 

We are ready. We have been given all we need. Will we step forth?

Do we dare?

Dare we not? “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” If we believe that, what other choice have we?  Amen

Year B Proper 15 WED 2021 Why Do Good?

 Year B Proper 15, 18 August 2021

St. James the Less Epsicopal, Ashland, VA

“Why do good?”

Collect: Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

2 Samuel 18:19-23

Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Let me run, and carry tidings to the king that the LORD has delivered him from the power of his enemies." Joab said to him, "You are not to carry tidings today; you may carry tidings another day, but today you shall not do so, because the king's son is dead." Then Joab said to a Cushite, "Go, tell the king what you have seen." The Cushite bowed before Joab, and ran. Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said again to Joab, "Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite." And Joab said, "Why will you run, my son, seeing that you have no reward for the tidings?" "Come what may," he said, "I will run." So he said to him, "Run." Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

Acts 23:23-35

Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, "Get ready to leave by nine o'clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor." He wrote a letter to this effect: "Claudius Lysias to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, but when I had learned that he was a Roman citizen, I came with the guard and rescued him. Since I wanted to know the charge for which they accused him, I had him brought to their council. I found that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but was charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. When I was informed that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. " So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him during the night to Antipatris. The next day they let the horsemen go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. When they came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he belonged to, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, "I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive." Then he ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod's headquarters.

Mark 12:13-27

Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it." And they brought one. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Jesus said to them, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were utterly amazed at him. Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her." Jesus said to them, "Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong."

There is a strong and powerful station whose waves are filling the spectrum to our detriment. WII-FM. No it is not a radio station. Worse. It is an acronym for what seems to have become the Zeitgeist, the Spirit of the Times. WII-FM. What’s In It For Me?

In our readings today, we see three vignettes of people doing good, staying true even when they did not have to do so, they do. It was the right thing to do. 

Ahimaaz son of Zadok was to carry tidings to the king, but was given the task of carrying bad news. Despite the weight of his task, he did not falter, instead saying, “Come what may, let me run!”

You might think I would speak to Paul, and staying true, but actually Claudius Lysias took care and protected Paul in his status as a Roman citizen. He made sure that the law was followed and the citizen was protected, and that he would get a fair trial. He did this, though, knowing Paul would probably never be in a position to ever do anything for him.

Jesus is confronted by folksk accusing him, and attempting to catch him in poor answer. He stayed true to the societal and the religious expectations, often a hard middle way when asked about taxes and what people should do. And then the hypocrisy of the Sadducees question, who did not even believe in an afterlife, Jesus countered them and their ridiculousness. But he did so in a way to encourage and strengthen others instead of matching spite with spite.

Ahimaaz, Claudius Lysias, and Jesus did what was right even though it mattered not to those who countered them. They chose to do right because of who they were, and the nature of their character.

When the world is self-absorbed, and listening to that WII-FM, “What’s In It For Me?”, remember that. We need to uphold our standards and who we are despite whether there is any return on our labor or not. We are not good because of what we can get out of it, but rather who we want to be and eventually who we are. It helps to also remember whose we are and what we are to be in his name.

Do good today. “Come what may, we will run!” Amen.

Year B Proper 15 2021 The Problems with Metaphors

 

Year B Proper 15, 15 August 2021

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“The Problems with Metaphors”

Collect: Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

John 6:51-58

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” St. Paul urges us to rise up to who we should be in Christ. Today’s readings point us to what true Wisdom is. Something to be sought at all expense, so that we can apply it and reap its benefits. If we have Wisdom, she will gift us with everything else we require.

But so much of Wisdom is context and perspective. What seems foolish to one can be so clear and perfect to another.

One time when the kids were young, we were shopping at Costco. My youngest was in the seat in the basket, hard to imagine now that she was ever that small. But she was. We were walking down the housewares aisle, and they had a nice set of drinking glasses. It came in a few sizes in the set, and they had a sample on the shelf. I picked one up, hefted it. Good weight, good feel in the hand. I grabbed the smallest one, and asked Sojo, “Does this fit your hand?” And I handed it to her.

She took the cup, looked back at me like I was crazy, and then proceeded to stick her other hand in the cup. She did exactly what I had asked her to do. Her understanding and actions took literally what I said. Her hand fit in the cup. My understanding, and meaning, were more socially understood. The cup fits my hand, and for her, her hand fit the cup.” Who was the fool, and who was the wise? I could not fault her. She did exactly what I asked of her to the best of her understanding. I was the fool to think a toddler would know what that phrase meant.

Language, especially socially constructed meanings and metaphors, can get us in so much trouble and get in our way. Today I am going to ask you to put on your thinking caps, and join me. Hopefully we can share some wisdom, and as the poetry of Proverbs said, Wisdom invites us. “You that are simple, turn in here!”

We use language a lot, but today I am inviting you to think about how you think, how you use language, how you modify your behavior by what you think. Thinking on how you think is a higher level request, turning on the meta-cognitive as we called it back in my education days. (Metacognition: definition- awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.)

One of the key things we use in the spiritual realm is the use of metaphor and metaphorical language. Going back to our early grammar, a metaphor is “This is That.” You know, “God is Light.” “I am the Bread of Life.” This is That.

A simile is like a metaphor, but it uses like or as. “God is like the stars, distant but always looking down on us.” “Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…” Metaphors are stronger because there is no wiggle room. It is clearer, but it creates some problems. And that is where we are coming in today.

In today’s Gospel, we have some very clear metaphors from Jesus.

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

I am the Living Bread.

The Bread I give is my Flesh.

Wow! Clear. Kinda gross. Easily argued and misconstrued. In fact, that is what was fired back. Some folks… “then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

They took the metaphor and made it literal. Any metaphor has gaps and places where the analogy breaks down and does not work. And that is where our problems emerge. So many problems we face in this world are when we take the metaphorical and treat it literally.

Because this is church, let’s just look at some of Jesus’ statements.

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:29-30

Jesus did not want you to pluck out your eye or chop off your hand. Hyperbole, exaggeration, is a rhetorical device to make a point. When we take some of these statements literally it can have disastrous results. (Ask Origen!)

The folks who countered Jesus on his metaphor, I am the Bread of Life, were being obtuse, intentionally or to be contrary. Anyone with any wisdom would see what he is doing, but some are obstinate just to be oppositional. I prefer doers and thinkers and dreamers to contrarians. But in every system there are those who choose that as their role. As leaders our role is to invite, encourage, cajole them, appealing to the better angels of their nature as Lincoln put it.

Metaphors have a strength and resilience. We celebrate Jesus’ metaphor almost weekly in the Eucharist because it still has value and weight.

One of the facts that we as a people of faith need to admit, is that anything intangible is metaphor. These intangibles are constructs of our minds, based on faith and experience, but each and every one of us approaches and conceives of them differently. Through years of walking in faith, they may have the proof of the Tangible in our minds. We forget that. As we grow in our faith, the Metaphors gain the weight of the Tangible in our minds. Metaphors give us common language for these ambiguities, but they do not conform our interior constructs, our personal metaphors. Those apart from faith, that is one of the great leaps that they are most uncomfortable making. They need proof more than what an intangible can give.

So many things we treat as hard facts are nothing more than socially agreed upon constructs. National borders. The value of a piece of paper we call money. The zeros and ones in our phones that allow us to conduct business. What we value most in the world too often are the things of no inherent worth outside of the metaphor, the social construct, that we give them.

For Jesus to be the Bread of Life, we must treat him as such. For his Flesh to be that Bread we have to change to make it so. If not it is just electrons flitting through our brains like a daydream or a fantasy. But for those of us who believe, who act on this belief, it is everything.  “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18

The opposite is also true. So many problems we face in this world are when we take what was meant literally and we take them metaphorically. “You have heard that it was said, 

“You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” 

That was not metaphor. Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Quench the thirsty. These are the simple and easy and clear literal things Jesus said. To these Tangibles, he adds the metaphorical faith statement. When you have done it unto one of the Least of These, you have done it to me. Too often we let the Intangible distract us from the Tangible, the Metaphor consumes us to the Literal’s expense.

On that trip to Costco, we never did get those cups. But everytime I walk down that aisle, and they have those cups, I pick it up and hand it to whoever is with me. “Does this fit your hand?” We are crazy creatures. 

Friends, as we face the problems of this life know what you are dealing with, metaphor or the tangible. If metaphor, know its strengths and weaknesses. If something tangible, ignore it to your detriment. “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Amen

Year B Proper 14 WED 2021 Life is not a Game

Year B Proper 14 WEDNESDAY, 11 August 2021

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA (Streaming and In-Person)

“Life is not a Game”

Collect: Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mark 10:17-31

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

This is one of many passages that so many of us think we know. We often cite it, or think of it referring to how we should live our lives often. But I think, too often, we think we know what is happening and being said.

But before I get into that, I want to start where Jesus starts.

Jesus and the disciples are walking, and out of nowhere, a desperate and hurting young man runs up and asks what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looks at him and says that he knows the commandments, the foundational requirements of the faith. If you believe, then this is how you should behave. We even have them posted on our walls for that very reason. They are good. They always will be. It speaks to some of the primary flaws of the human condition, the peccadillos we go to when we forget to care for each other and our relationship to God.

Then, after Jesus names some of them, it says something so important. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” Friends, that is the foundation of ministry. We meet people, and however they are, wherever we find them or they find us, we love them.

In love, Jesus says to this particular individual, 

“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

He said he wanted eternal life, but Jesus saw his blind spot. And he called him out on it. He was more obsessed with the things of this world, the baubles of riches, than he was about eternal life. He used his commandment obedience as a way of keeping score. He thought of eternal life as winning the game.

Philosopher and Theologian Dallas Willard was asked what the Gospel of Jesus was. His response, listen closely, was “The Gospel of Jesus is getting into heaven before you die.” Before. Making the Kingdom of Heaven, here, now. “On earth as it is in heaven.” Further in the interview he said, “Grace is not opposed to effort; it’s opposed to earning. Effort is action; earning is attitude.”

The man wanted to earn his way into eternal life. Jesus, I believe, wanted him to let go of that being-blessed-equals-being-rich theology we still are stumbling over 2,000 years after Christ and his Gospel of Grace. Even Peter and the other disciples were wrestling with this. What’s in it for us?

Somewhere along the way we have to shift to doing things to be Christian, but transition to being like Christ more and more and more. Daily, we take up our cross, that gift only we can give to the world, and follow in our master’s footsteps.

For this man, it was his possessions. He left grieving because he had a lot. What is it that gets in my way of following Christ all the more? Possessions? Thoughts? Self-Image? Past Trauma? Ideology? Politics? The Cost? As individual as our fingerprint, we all have one or a myriad of ways to avoid living lives in the Kingdom of God here and now. “How hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!” Jesus said. Not all the oldest manuscripts have, “How hard it is for the rich…” Jesus knows it is hard for all of us. 

But that is what Christ wanted for the Man, and his disciples, for you, for me. He wants eternal life for us, and he wants it for us now. The Great Reversal, the last shall be first, and the first last. The “Winners” are Losers, and the Losers Win. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Amen

Year B Proper 14 2021 Woe Is Me!

 Year B Proper 14, 8 August 2021

St. James the Less Epsicopal, Ashland, VA

“Woe Is Me!”

Collect: Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

John 6:35, 41-51

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Woe is me! Woe is me! We live in a time when dissension is running amuck. We have forgotten our neighbors are our sisters and brothers, and that we are all beloved of God. We have forgotten that one of our oldest stories is that we are our siblings’ keepers. We have sinned and fallen short of the high calling you have made on our lives. Woe is me! Woe is me!

There are times and places where we all feel sorry for ourselves. Our own little pity party. Overwhelmed by our emotions, we turn that anger inward. That is Depression. We turn that anger outward. That is Rage. One of the great things about being reflective and intentional in our lives is that we have the ability to take those honest feelings, recognize them for what they are, and then turn in faith to do something about it. 

Our readings all have a common theme today, one that I did not catch in several readings. But then I found a thread that really spoke to me. In 2nd Samuel, David mourns that Absalom was killed. His son had rebelled and taken arms against his father, a wretched betrayal. But David was his Father, and always would be. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Woe is me! Woe is me! My son, the traitor is dead, and would that I would have died in his place. Alas…

In our Gospel, Jesus warns those who doubt his veracity to stop complaining amongst themselves. The small, the petty, those who feel unempowered do that. Snivelling and complaining, they complain and backbite, and one day when opportunity arises they escalate to backstabbing. All of it the refuge of the pitiful or the wretched.

Instead of confronting Jesus directly, they stand in their circles and belittle and bemoan. But Jesus knows, the Truth, and the Truth will out. 

Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me… Woe is me! Woe is me! What am I to do with these people!

St. Paul’s instructions to us are clear, near impossible, but clear. 

“Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil… Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God... Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

To sum that up: Speak truth. Don’t be petty. Turn the other cheek and respond with only Grace. Be like Jesus, and respond as he did!

My whole life that phrase has haunted me. “Be angry, but sin not.” It goes against my Irish blood. All the reason I need Jesus all the more. I will have the feelings, STRONG FEELINGS. I will recognize the feelings. I will allow myself to feel the feelings. Feelings are just that. Fleeting emotions that come and go. Feelings are our teachers about ourselves. They show us before we think what we are really thinking. Some of us feel deeply. Some of us can cry at a commercial that tugs the heartstrings. Some of us don’t. But all of us have feelings and are confronted with them day in and out.

The hard part is to let them be, and then choose to respond in Christlike ways no matter what our feelings are. My kids are going to make fun of me. I have quoted this in sermons here, and at their chapel at St. Catherine’s. But in the book DUNE, there is a mantra that begins. “Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Fear is one of the many feelings that can step in and control. When it arrives it tries to push its way into the driver’s seat. Anger is merely our fear pointed outward as a defensive weapon. Or inward to control ourselves to save us from feeling the feelings, and that swallowing of those emotions can be just as destructive. 

Joy, Rage, Sorrow, Pity, all of it can be overwhelming and pull out from us things which we do not want to express. Like the mantra against fear, replace most any emotion. See it. Recognize it. Maybe ask where this is coming from. What was the trigger? And then your brain can choose how you will respond. That way we can be angry, and sin not. When we are slapped or countered or mocked or hurt, we need not respond with the like. We have a choice in how we respond, and as the prophet said, “Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:15)

Think of the freedom that gives us! Think of the lightening of our burden. We need not be driven by the wind of rage in our sails. We need not be forced by the lash of our emotions to go where we would not choose to go. 

God’s call is for us to be our whole, complete, mature selves, and to be like Christ who even on the cross forgave his torturers, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Following that example, and seeing that ability in ourselves, is the only way we can do what St. Paul calls us to: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Especially for those temperaments whose hot heads sometimes get the best of them. St. Peter is the perfect example of someone whose emotions run ahead of their brain. “Jesus, I will never deny you!” and then within hours three times he denied the very one to whom he swore total allegiance. In the Garden of Gethsemane, striking the High Priest Caiaphas’s servant Malchus with a sword and cutting off an ear to protect the Prince of Peace! The irony! The hypocrisy! But also, the reality! Be angry, but sin not.

Friends, I have to confess my frustration lately with the people who refuse to get vaccinated. I obviously do not mean those who cannot, but those who have excuses and fears that overwhelm the science and numbers. Almost as frustrating are those who do not care enough of others to mask up. Soon they will be the lepers and pariahs in some areas, and some of them will gladly take on the mantle of martyr for their rights. 

And on the other side, people are tired of the pandemic, tired of being told what to do. Just tired. 

I have to remind myself, and all of us, even though I feel so strongly about my point of view, I am called by Christ to love. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts. There are no asterisks on Grace.

Some of you have strong feelings about how we are responding to this ongoing, and this ever-mutating crisis. Thank you for your patience and forgiveness when we get things wrong. None of us have a playbook on how to do this. No, not one. We are doing the best we can with what we have, and we are following the instructions and mandates of those who have authority over us. 

Woe is me! Woe is me! We live in a time when dissension is running amuck. We have forgotten our neighbors are our sisters and brothers, and that we are all beloved of God. We have forgotten that one of our oldest stories is that we are our siblings’ keepers. We have sinned and fallen short of the high calling you have made on our lives. Woe is me! Woe is me!

I express my feelings in lament, that biblical tradition of bringing those deep feelings to God. Lament is prayer. David lamented his son. Jesus lamented those who doubted. St. Paul lamented when we let our anger get in the way of our discipleship. I lament. You lament, though you may not have a word for it or thought of it that way.

As I said in the mantra against fear, Fear is the mindkiller. Lament is a way to let those emotions happen, and then to release them and let them pass on through. Lament is seeing it, and once seen we can let it go. 

Laments are common in the Bible. The dictionary definition is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.” Check the Psalms, or better yet, the whole book of lamentations. We have those feelings. Those feelings make us human. What we do with them makes us mature, or shows the opposite. How we respond despite our feelings shows how much we are like Christ.

We are called to love! We are called to forgive! We are called to “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Friends, when you find yourself saying “Woe is me! Woe is me!” that is okay. See it. Learn from it. And let it go so you can love like Christ. Amen.