Year A Proper 27 2023 Stacking the Dominos

Year A Proper 27, 12 November 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Stacking the Dominos”

Collect

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus said, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

On Thursday, Kasey and I were touching base over everything, and she mentioned that she had just sent to Reggie all the Christmas bulletins so we could begin the work of getting those 95% done before the craziness of the season. This was November 9, over a month before Christmas. I doubt many of you think about how long it takes to make things happen, especially special things that do not fit the norm. We start weeks if not months out on most things. While it locks us into certain things, it liberates us in other ways. The metaphor I use to get all the details in place is “Stacking the Dominos.” Kasey hears me say it all the time. Time to stack the dominos.

You have seen the videos of a gymnasium covered in colored domino tiles set up in intricate patterns, all in preparation of someone flicking the first one to make them all come crashing down. So much of what we do in our preparation is just that, setting up the dominos so that when we are ready to flick the first one we make it look like magic. And of course, you know, the secret to magic, don’t you? PUT IN THE WORK!

We are in a season of domino stacking. In less than 5 months I leave for my sabbatical which will take a good amount of planning and preparation, both personally and lining up priestly coverage for when I am away. Between now and then we have Christmas, Lent, AND Easter and they are a whole other stacking of the dominos. And then in the middle of my sabbatical, I will return home for a few weeks so that I can lead the Triangle of Hope pilgrimage when we host here in Virginia. Each and every one has unique problems and considerations, and a thousand moving parts. Stacking dominos is something we do really well here.

A case in point is your bulletins. When we introduced it six years ago it took some work. It covers 5 to 6 weeks at a time, but doing the multi-week bulletins enables us to save THOUSANDS of dollars a year in printing, HUNDREDS of hours in labor creating, editing, and printing bulletins, and TREES. How many trees have NOT been cut down so that we can have a full service printed so that our guests can follow along easily? At 8 am we use the prayer book because we rarely get guests then. But close to weekly we have a new face in our 10 am, and in our efforts to be welcoming and hospitable we print the bulletin. We even put the announcements on the throw away middle section that changes so you can take those and the prayer requests with you! We worked hard designing this to make it easy, accurate, and replicable. It does take Reggie some time to plan 6 weeks out, but it is worth it. The hymns are so intentional and deliberate. Planning this far out actually helps us be more deliberate.

Planning ahead, though, is something that needs to be more than just weeks and months away. Before we started the Capital Campaign we reviewed all the long term physical plant needs that would be more than the odd air handler. We have a rainy day fund that took decades to build up. From those moneys saved up we could handle replacing the oil burner for our church with 4 high-efficiency air handlers that have proved to be wonderful. Because of great foresight, on top of replacing the oil furnace we had a fund that we could tap into during COVID so we did not have to take the PPP loans from the government. Because of foresight, hard work, and planning, we weathered the storms we faced SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than most churches could have. Now, admittedly, we used more than we are comfortable with, and after the Capital Campaign we will need to replenish that year by year for that odd air handler that crashes usually (and thankfully only) about once a year.

Stacking the dominos while meticulous can also be rewarding and maybe even fun. Almost two weeks ago, the Church received a memorial gift of $10,000. I asked the Vestry to put it towards the parking lot. We could have used it in the general fund, but the parking lot is tangible and will need to happen as soon as we are able to pay for it. I mentioned it to someone who mentioned it to someone, and then came back to me. That $10,000 became $40,000 with three yeses. Stephanie and I recently sold our home in Richmond, and were planning on giving a Thanksgiving offering to the Capital Campaign, for guess how much… YES! $10,000. So then we had $50,000, when we only started with $10k. I approached two other folks with this idea, and in the last couple of weeks, the seed of that memorial gift has grown from $10,000 to $70,000. And all of a sudden we have a parking lot paid for. The contract is signed and we will have a new parking lot as soon as it is warm enough in the spring. THANKS BE TO GOD! But this was not accidental. It took us having vision, planning, preparation, and faith. And when people were approached about giving, I had some thank me for asking them give a sizable check. It is fun to be in on good, big things. It is a joy to give to something you believe in! It is a joy to know that we can! We give from God’s abundance showered on us. Thanks be to God!

In speaking with the other generous folks, we are challenging the parish to match the gifts we have given. All of this was given in faith. The next need, our parking lot is provided for fully. The final two portions of the Capital Campaign, the roof and the principle of the loan we made to ourselves from the Chenery Endowment is approximately $120,000. I believe that we can wrap this up by the end of 2024, and the debt will be eliminated and the money for the roof can be held in trust making interest until we need it. We are on year 33 of 30 year shingles, so it will not be long before a need becomes a necessity, but until then we can make enough for maybe the air handler that we inevitably need to replace from interest. So if you were able to give to the Capital Campaign on your pledge card, THANK YOU! If you are able to consider giving or extending your gift, I would love to be able to say to you at our annual meeting that we have wrapped up our Capital Campaign fully and successfully. If we all stretched like those who stepped forward to close out the parking lot, we could be done very soon, if not today.

Now, you may be asking, “Rock, when are you going to talk about Jesus?” I know people get squirmy when preachers talk about money. I do, too. And my answer to when I am going to talk about Jesus is now. In my mind I have been. I have been talking about stepping out on faith, which is what Jesus called us to do. I have been talking about being gracious in our giving, like God was to us in Christ Jesus and every day of our lives. So I have been there, too. But in our Gospel reading for the day we are given a cautionary tale. A tale of obedience, and a tale where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, implied at least.

We have 10 Bridesmaids, 5 intentional and deliberate in their actions, 5 not so much. Friends, I read this parable on two levels. On one level, it is being prepared for the coming of Christ, living in such a way that we can run with open arms when he arrives instead of hiding and regretting what we have done. The other level is the day in, day out understanding of applying it to all our lives. Being a follower of Christ is like being a Scout, we are to BE PREPARED. We look for contingencies, potential problems and pitfalls. WE AVOID THEM AS ONE CAN! Also, we do what needs to be done today for the best tomorrow. A wise person plants a tree under which they will never sit, or digs a pool in which they will never swim.

We do the Capital Campaign so that generations from now we can be generous and faithful in our neck of the woods 30 more, 60 more, 100 years from now. May God’s Kingdom be preached and enacted on Beverly Road and in Ashland and Hanover for generations to come.

And friends, if you love your church, you can give to it forever through legacy gifts that give on and on and on. Like I mentioned last week, Chenery has given over a million and a half dollars away from an original gift of a few hundred thousand dollars. Your gifts can do that, too, by endowing this place through legacy gifts in your financial planning and wills. Talk with me if you have questions on that. If you loved your church your whole life, no reason to let death get in the way of keeping that going.

Being a follower of Christ is being intentional and deliberate with this precious life that we have been given. The Bridesmaids teach us that. We must be living the life we want to have now. Some day may be delayed or never come. We must begin now.

The only thing that we can take with us is our soul. Money, it will come and go. Possessions, come and go. Our very bodies and all that we hold dear, our grasp on them is fleeting and will one day slip from our fingers. We pay for our roof now knowing we will need to do so someday very soon. We pay off our debt so that 100% of our giving goes to our ministries today.

I do not know when Jesus is coming back, but when the bishop comes to visit us in 2024, probably in Advent, I want to tell them then how faithful and brave you all are. You stretched out in faith, and you planned ahead anticipating the inevitable and made it real. You were wise bridesmaids, and faithful and true.

So friends, as we bring our pledge cards forward today, let it be a true celebration of what God has done in our lives and our thanksgiving offering for what God has done. God has been faithful. Now it is our turn. We can never “pay back” for all that we have been given, but when we give in faith sacrificially, we show that we have received the message and we know that we will have enough when the hard times come, and even then, God is with us and will see us through.

So let us stack the dominos, and look on in awe when God flicks it to make things happen in Ashland, and Hanover, and around the world. 

Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

    we were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter

    and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then it was said among the nations,

    “The Lord has done great things for them.”

The Lord has done great things for us,

    and we rejoiced. (vv. 1-3) Amen.

Year A Proper 26 2023 Belief and Inaction

Year A Proper 26 WEDNESDAY, 8 November 2023

St. James the Less, Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Belief and Inaction”

Collect: Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Matthew 13:53-58

When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

He came to his home town and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.’ And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

When I was out of seminary (this is back when I was in another denomination), my mom asked if I might consider applying to be the pastor of the church I grew up in. Without missing a beat I responded, “Nobody should go back to pastor a church where they changed your diapers.”

I was thinking of Jesus in this passage today, where he is rejected because people could not imagine him as his own person. They saw him through his brothers and sisters (whom they knew). And Jesus gives a very apt reminder, ‘Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.’

Once people establish a frame by which they picture you, it is hard to think of you otherwise. Jesus was no different. They had heard the stories. They knew the rumors, but this passage is very clear. 

And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

Their unbelief affected him. It is kind of like Santa in the movie, Elf. Santa’s sleigh could not fly without juice in the Belief-O-Meter. It just could not cut it.

Jesus could not either. There was no sense of awe in this passage. No wonder. No belief equaled no miracles.

Belief is about seeing in your minds’ eye what you know not to be reality.

If you cannot see it up here [point to head], then we [fan our hands] cannot see it made real.

We are living in an age when belief is under attack. We are encouraged to believe without questioning. Or we are belittled for trusting anyone or anything at all. You just cannot win.

I would like to think that people can get over their preconceived notions, but once the pre-judging (prejudice) comes in it can take years to get over it, if one ever does at all.

God works through our belief. Our faith is what is construed as righteousness as the Scripture tells us. If we have the faith of a mustard seed we can say to a mountain move, and it will.

In our age of disbelief and lack of trust, maybe the mountain our faith needs to move is the spirit of our age. Maybe? Amen

Year A All Saints' (Observed) 2023 The Blessed Way

Year A All Saints’ (Observed), 5 November 2023 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “The Blessed Way” Collect Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 1 John 3:1-3 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Matthew 5:1-12 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Blessing and peace, dear siblings in Christ. Over the last three days some of us, and hundreds from across the diocese, gathered to look at bridging the gap between religion and life. The Book of James says, “Faith without works is dead.” But if we compartmentalize our religion, our reconnecting with God, to our Sunday mornings from the rest of life, then it is worse than dead. Our faith is invisible. It is so irrelevant as to be non-existent. The message we proclaim to the world can be confusing and inconsistent. When I used to help with training for overseas missionaries I heard the story from some folks who had served in the Philippines. One of the great inconsistencies was our culture. They, the Philippinos, did not understand how a Christian singer could be so sex oriented and sinful. The missionaries asked what Christian singer they were confused by, and they said, “Madonna. She wears a cross and her name is Madonna. She is obviously a Christian.” Painful lesson there. Wearing a cross does not make us a Christian, picking up our cross and following Jesus does. Our diocesan convention the last few days was different, thank goodness. I was so inspired this weekend seeing people openly talking and wrestling with what it means to be intentionally faithful in their context. I wish each of you could have been there. And it fits so hand in glove with today. Today we observe All Saints’ Day, when we remember those beloved ones of God who lived their life God’s way. And we set them aside to give us guides, not to be like them, but to love God like them. The calling of the saints to us is for each and every one of us to live OUR lives, for us to be who we are, and to put God first in our lives and expand God’s Kingdom in our neck of the woods. The quote that was the theme for the weekend comes from the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool who helped, along with the Anglican bishop, keep the peace in this huge city filled with Irish immigrants across the very small Sea of Ireland. Together they held this city about to boil over from having any major clashes when explosions were happening everywhere during “The Troubles.” I was standing next to our bishop when he read this quote for the first time when we were in Liverpool for Bishop John Perambulath’s installation. We were at the statue on Hope Street which connects the two cathedrals. Immediately Bishop Stephenson said, “This is what I have been looking for. This is what I want Convention to be about.” This is what he read…

“Close the gap between religion and life, between what goes on in Church and what goes on at work and at home; to make our faith a living reality that can be a sign of hope to people in rather troubled times; and at the same time to secure justice and human dignity in the ordinary affairs of life.” --Archbishop Derek Worlock

Beautiful ideas. Wonderful imagery. But where do we start? Fear not friends. I am not going to give you any scheme or plan, but I am going to simply remind you of what you already know. From today’s New Testament reading, I John… See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. Friends, the complete work has been done. God did it all. Anything that was in the way has been removed. The love of God was given to us. It was love that enabled our epistemological shift. We are now Children of God. When God pulls out God’s wallet, your picture is there. When God goes to Little League, it is your game. When you scroll through God’s phone, there you are. We are “called Children of God, because that is what we are.” It is not a euphemism. It is not a metaphor. Our existence is shifted and this is our reality. We are the Children of God. We walk around like everyone else. And they assume that they are like they are. They think we play by the same rules, or lack thereof. They do not recognize who we are, we will see. Going on in I John… The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. When my oldest did their senior project presentation, I was amazed. The way I phrase things, the self-deprecating humor, all of it, was coming out of my child’s mouth. No one else would recognize it that day. I knew where my kid got it from because they had heard me preaching their entire life. I knew where it came from because I know me. Or, another way to put it, the apple does not fall far from the tree. One of the hard parts of being a Christian, in a nation that is nominally Christian and tells itself that it is Christian, is that we too often expect those in our lives who are outside the faith to play by the rules we play by. And they assume the same of us. As it says in another place in I John, “They will know that we are Christians by our love.” And when we are confronted by other systems, other rules, even outright opposition, then we love them. That’s it. We model another way. Then, we love each other. And we love the God that loved us first. And I believe that people, when we are sincere and loving, will want what we have in their lives, too. When people see God in our lives, they will want God’s love, too. God will be revealed to us, and hopefully to all. As I John continues… Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. As we grow more and more into Christlikeness, like the Saints of God we remember today, people will see God in us, or maybe see God through us, through the lives we live, through the people we touch, through the love we share. We are only part way there. God’s not through with us yet. And when we see God as God is, all will be complete. When he is revealed, we will be like Moses mentioned last week, face to face, as he is. Like Julian of Norwich who saw him in her anchored cell at Norwich Cathedral. Like St. Francis when he saw the Christ on the cross so clearly the wounds appeared on him, too. Maybe you will see God, too, when you are living your best, your most Christ-like, lives. And finally from I John… And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. There will be a stripping away. The word holy means “set apart.” The parts of our lives that need to be set apart from us so that we can be like him. Pure, just as he is pure. Purity, a dream for most of us. But we are not trying to do it all by ourselves. God is at work in us, and will be faithful to complete what has been begun. God is drawing all things to Godself. The Saints have made a path for us. God has cleared the obstacles, and sent the invite himself. Friends, let us climb the ladder of Paradise, let us run the celestial race. We are Children of God, and nothing less is expected of us. Let us get on the blessed way. Amen