Year B Ash Wednesday 2024 If You Could Not Fail

 Year B Ash Wednesday, 14 February 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“If You Could Not Fail”

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

"So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Tonight, we come to begin a season of penitence, contrition, and self-discipline. This is a good thing. It is good, and right, and true.

We mark the season as we mark ourselves, with the sign of the cross so that we can know that we are sitting ducks with our faith. We are declaring, or better yet, proclaiming that we are of Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. We identify with him, and as he turned his face to Jerusalem, so do we. We could not be more profound in what we do here today. We know the outcome of this journey. But in promise, we also know the Triumph of Easter.

Saturday we laid to rest a dear woman of God. Some funerals are easier to do than others. Susan Chambers was kind through and through. I am sure I will see her in the Resurrection. Of her I have no doubts. But in the service we are promised the Hope of Easter, and no matter when we have a funeral, in penitential times like Advent or Lent, it is always a joyous celebration with the Alleluias included. As the rubric for the funeral rite says: 

The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all meaning in the

resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too, shall be

raised.

The liturgy, therefore, is characterized by joy, in the certainty that

"neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present,

nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else

in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ

Jesus our Lord."

As we celebrated the life she lived, we are also reminded that this was not the end. Susan is singing and celebrating and living and serving God still and with no doubts or questions like we have on this side of the veil of death. The early church embraced this and lived like there is a forever tomorrow, and this foundational belief changed the world.

We have lost the sense of the early church in that we are unstoppable. There is a phrase that is bandied around, often as a motivator for people. 

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Another way to say it is also heard…

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Great questions. There have been several movies of late where people seemingly die, and then magically or technologically they zap back to where they were with no ill effect. It is done in the comedy Groundhog Day, and the sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow, and with superheros in Dr. Strange. They all are fulfilling that fantasy of what we would do if we knew we could not fail. And in Hollywood they say fail, and what they really mean is DIE. As followers of Christ, we are promised that death is not the end, and a victory as follow Christ. As St. Paul said, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

So, what would you do if you knew you would not die?

That is a very different question. It is the driving force in the early church when they voluntarily went to serve lepers in leper colonies, or sang praises to God while being fed to Lions. The early church knew something that shook the moral fabric of the Roman Empire to its core. And somehow martyrdom and love conquered the Roman Empire.

These people were not afraid of death, some even willingly and joyfully embraced it. 2nd Century Theologian Tertullian said, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” Graphic, but history does not negate his thought. 

Today, we come. We come to be reminded of our mortality. We come to be reminded that we know the outcome of the path, whichever way it may lead. We come to acknowledge that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Like when Jesus was asked about paying taxes, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” When we meet our ending, give back to the earth what is earth, and give unto God what is God’s. And that is what made you YOU, anyway. You and your soul are made in the image of God, and it will return home.

One of the great founders of the modern missionary movements is William Carey. He said in a sermon, “Expect great things for God. Attempt great things for God.” And knowing the outcome of the game makes us taking bets with our finances, our families, our very lives, much easier.

That is why Jesus can instruct us when we pray, or fast, or give alms, do it for the God at work in you, and not for the recognition here on earth. We keep our disciplines secret, we keep them safe. We entrust them to the one for whom they are done.

When we treasure what God treasures, we are well on the way to the maturity that Christ calls us to. And we are storing up those treasures where they can never be taken away.

As you enter into this season, know that Christ is our Lord, but also our brother. He walks with us. He encourages us. He has walked this way before and we can trust his promptings to enrich and enhance our path.

And when we fall or fail, Christ will pick us up, dust us off, and invite us to begin again.

What would you do if you could not die?

You answered this in your baptism. You died to sin and death, and were raised into newness of life, but even more ETERNAL LIFE!

In closing today, I want to share a prayer from the prayer book, A Prayer for Young Persons (BCP, p. 829). And since we are all children of God, it fits all of us too, the young, and the youthfully challenged. I find it alarmingly appropriate as we begin the journey of Lent. It has been modified to the first person. Let us pray:

God our Father, you see us your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show us that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help us to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give us strength to hold our faith in you, and to keep alive our joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Year B Last Epiphany 2024 I Don't Know

Year B Last Sunday After Epiphany, 11 February 2024 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “I Don’t Know” Collect: O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Mark 9:2-9 Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. I get the opportunity every year to preach on the Transfiguration the Last Sunday of Epiphany. Year A from Matthew, Year B (like this year) from Mark, and Year C from Luke. And John, who would seem to be really into something like the Transfiguration does not even mention. And then Peter brings up the event in his letter which we call 2 Peter.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

And you all will probably nod and smile while I talk about all this. You have heard this story before, maybe yearly, and you know it is part of something we do. But the hard part is, when it comes to this story about Jesus, most of us cannot even picture it in our minds, and if we can, it is vague and unclear. Hazy at best, I am guessing. We can picture Jesus healing people. We have been sick and we have seen people get better. We can wrap our minds around that. We can picture feeding 5,000 even, as we all eat and have probably been in an embarrassing situation we could not see our ways out of at all. But this, this prayer meeting on top of a mountain where the holiest of ancestors come and God speaks audibly. This is a whole different category for most of us. Epiphany is about the unveiling of Jesus as the second person in the Trinity. From the Wise Men to the Apostles, and at the Transfiguration all hiddenness is removed and we see Jesus for who he is. And that only makes for more confusion and questions. In our limited capacity, in our finitude, in our corporality, we are trapped. We are not all-knowing, eternal, or transmutable. We are mortal, caught in time, and trapped in bodies. Once we get into the omni-whatevers we are on shaky ground. And this event, as described, means that Jesus is all these things: omniscient, immortal, and extra-corporeal. And Beloved to boot. Explaining this is a tall order. We use that word, Mystery, an awful lot, and we don’t want to overdo it. So as we unpack the Transfiguration today, can I just start saying, “I don’t know.”? I know that might be troublesome for some, but it would help me feel more honest. That is the thing about faith. Once you start in the process, the things I cannot explain become easier. I let go of being anxious, and I just lean back into the “not knowing and just trusting.” It is a place that is becoming more and more comfortable the older I get. It is relearning the lesson children get so early. Mom calls you for dinner, and you get to the table. You prepare by washing your hands and acknowledging that you heard her. But you show up, and it is all there ready for you. You can trust Mom. And more and more we have to learn that we can trust God, too. Unless we have the faith of a child we can never enter the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3) Not having an answer does not come easy to me. I want to have an answer. I want to instill trust and faith into all our hearts, and repeatedly you all let me know that my vulnerability is better than an unsure answer. So here we are, when it comes to this event, I don’t know. I believe it. I teach it. I preach it. I speculate on it. But at the end of the day, I have to take it on faith. Like everything else. The part that I find beautiful about this Transfiguration event is not the goose-pimple raising sense of holy awe, but the comfort of the voice from heaven. While the idea of a Vox Dei (the voice of God) is often intimidating, God spoke for the disciples much more than for Jesus. You were communing fully with God, when the Voice came bellowing out: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Ho Agapetos, THE BELOVED. These words were for the disciples, Peter, James, and John. Or maybe Moses and Elijah, but I doubt that. I feel pretty BELOVED that God the Father would let us know that Jesus is THE Beloved. That means, in letting us in on this info, that we are pretty beloved, too. Thank you, God! And I love that God says we should listen to Jesus. I should do that more and more. I think we all can say that. Maybe I should just say that. I don’t know about the How or Why of all of this. It is. It happened. Thanks be to God for letting us in on this knowledge of Jesus beyond our comprehension and beyond our belief. Maybe as I mature I am becoming more and more like Mark Twain. A line he said stuck with me. "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." The loving of enemies. Turning the other cheek stuff. That is pretty clear and straight, and much harder to do. I have a much harder time with those. So maybe as I sit in the mystery, I can rest easy in Christ’s words and encourage others to do that, too. I can see why Peter got confused and thought that this was the pinnacle of the story. That the show was over, and it was time for the after party. It seems pretty climactic. But this was the preview of coming attractions. The amuse bouche on the way to Jerusalem. Tabernacles and sites of remembrance are not needed. We need not come here for this is merely a waystation on the destination. We get so easily distracted. I think that is why Jesus told his closest comrades to keep quiet about this. Peter, who was there, could not get straight what had happened and what to do about it. How do they explain to the others who were not there what happened, why they weren’t invited, and what it all means? It was a lot, and Jesus knew, until they had the whole picture, including the resurrection, they just would not get it. Just like us. So still I left wondering, what do I say to you all on this last Sunday of the Epiphany, as we turn our face to Jerusalem? Hold on to your horses, we have just gotten started? Or, more soberly, let us prepare for the road ahead, wherever it may lead? So, dear people of God, the Transfiguration. Yeah, I don’t know. But listen to Jesus and you’ll be okay. God said so. Get ready, the road ahead is not an easy one, but God is with us now, and will be all along the way. Amen

Year B 5th Epiphany 2024 Getting The Word Out

 Year B 5th Sunday after Epiphany, 4 February 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Getting the Word Out”

Collect: Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Mark 1:29-39

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

We are coming to the end of the football season, and some people care passionately, and some could care less. One of the things about the fall, when it comes to football, anyway, is that some people are easily identifiable as being for one team or another. It stands out. And in this coming week some of your friends may wear a 49ers jersey or some other swag, and others will be sporting the Chiefs gear. Loudly, proudly, and with great joy emanating from them. The rest of us may show up, if for nothing other than the commercials. But for those in the thralls of team passion, enjoy it while it lasts.

Seeing what side we are on, is often not as obvious as the team gear I just mentioned. And like with the Big Game next week, there are those that care, and a whole spectrum of those who stretch across the vast center. Not cold or hot, just kinda there. One thing about the team swag, especially the jerseys, is that it gets your message out there early and readily identifiable. Not all messages are that easy.

Jesus, in our Gospel reading today, is still on the front end of getting the word out that he was here, he was actively doing ministry, and starting a process to take over the hearts and minds of all God’s Children one at a time. It would be long and slow, and it would be hard. He knew he only had a few years to make it visible to his disciples so that he could carry on the work he begins here.

We see him healing Peter’s mother-in-law, and silencing demons who want to undermine his work by loudly proclaiming his work and ministry before Jesus was able to lay the necessary good foundation. And he knew the level of self-care that this would require to accomplish this divine conspiracy to take over the world with love.

I do not think that it is accidental that Jesus models for us, even in the FIRST chapter of Mark, that for him to do what he came to do he has to continually revive and renew by getting away with God. He is not doing under his own power and strength as an individual, but rather, he is relying on God and making that relationship his first priority. He does this so he CAN get the word out. He cannot do the self-care later, he has to do it all along the way.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

He did not come to set up a station for ministry, what we would probably call a church, that would make him important in a single place, he knew he had to keep on the move to ensure that the message was spread far and wide “FOR THAT IS WHAT I CAME OUT TO DO.” He did not mince any words.

Paul, likewise, is very clear. His heart is set on the Message, and getting the word out as far and wide as he possibly could. He rode his Roman citizenship so that whether free or arrested and being transported, he preached and shared and got up and did it again the next day. He says he was commissioned by Jesus and made an apostle (that is one sent out) to share this message, and he is obliged by this calling to make it so.

And he knows about communication. Very rare is the message that is “One Size Fits All.” The art of communication is often the art of sales. You have to speak the language of the person you want to receive the message. That is part of the job. Paul’s description may sound divisive and harsh to our ears, but it is clear and what the job required to share the Message. He put it this way…

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak.

To all he found the slant that they needed to hear. Being a “slave” to the message is requisite. The Message is the Master, and finding the necessary slant is the job of the Communicator. While we shudder (rightly) at the word “slave” here, it is the Greek word given. Many translations use “servant” here to appeal to our sensibilities. But the word diakonos, the foundation of our word deacon, is servant or waiter. Dawn+, our deacon, serves at the table we come to today. Diakonos. But Paul uses the word Doulos, slave, as he is possessed with the Gospel and by the Gospel. His self-identification as such is all the more powerful. We still use this word in one who cares for the mother in childbirth, doula. It is still a powerful image.

So as a Doula, slave, Paul slants the Message to Jewish ears, and to Law-abiding, and to  the Lawless, and to the Weak. He finds a way to connect with the one hearing so that he can share this thing that possesses and consumes him. There is nothing higher in his life for Paul, this News so Good that he cannot help himself. He is so transformed that he changes his name from Saul to Paul, from the name of the first King of Israel who thought pretty highly of himself to a name of Latin origin meaning small or humble. In this new life, for Paul, was this message he was commissioned to carry to the known world. 

Today, we have numbed our ears to how radical and life-changing Jesus’ message is. It is an oxymoron to say that it is Old News, but probably we have watered it down so much that it is meaningless to too many.

Communication specialists tell us that the common person needs to have 6-8 interactions with something for the information to stick. And about 14 times for us to take action on it. Kasey and I have to laugh sometimes or we would cry when someone says we did not announce something when we did, repeatedly. But that is the nature of getting a message out. We say it. We say it again. We say it again and again. And even then it may not stick or no action is taken. That is hard.

And for my sanity, and Kasey’s, too, when you feel like we did not say something or get the word out, maybe phrase it, “I did not get that word.” instead of the far more accusatory, “You never said it.” We tossed the ball, really. It just was not caught.

In the coming days you are going to hear us try and get a message out, and we need everyone to hear it. We have had many “helpers'' turning the thermostats warmer. And I get it. We have had some very cold days in recent months. The problem is that the helpers make spaces warmer and then do not turn the thermostat back down. We came into a large space last week and someone had made it 80 degrees and then left it run that warm all night on a particularly cold night. That cost us a pretty penny. Last month’s electric bill was more than double the norm. So please, if you make it warmer you must turn it back down to the programmed temperature before leaving. We check when we walk by, but we cannot go to every thermostat in the building when we leave at the end of every day. 

Now in that paragraph I have tried in many ways to get the message out, don’t touch the thermostats or if you do, turn them back to the programmed settings. We even added little notes to them repeating this message. We have to do this. Electricity is expensive, and we can use those funds for so much more important things, like sharing the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as already shared, no communication is 100% effective. None. Even Paul says as much as he concludes in today’s reading. 

I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.

All things to all people to save some. Some. Not 100%. But Paul recognizes that we must try every tack we can take to see if one will work. And every group, every person, has their own peculiar slant. We have to find their slant and tack the message to let it have every possible means of being heard.

The other thing as we do what we can to share Christ’s Message is to trust the Holy Spirit to do the Holy Spirit’s job. Even Jesus knew his sticking around was not called for in Capernaum. He shared the world. People saw miraculous signs, and then after he recharged, he moved on. His job was to preach it, and then like a seed planted in the ground, it takes root in ways that we cannot imagine, and if God blesses it something miraculous can come to fruition.

Friends, from Jesus, to Paul, to your parents and Sunday School teachers, and maybe an occasional preacher planted the seed of faith that took root in your heart. And if not yet, I have faith. God can work miracles, and still does. e might not have jerseys to identify who team we play for, but maybe it is better that way. Scripture promises they will know we are Christians by our love, and that is better for the Message anyway.  Amen