"If God Is For Us..." A Sermon on Romans 8:26-39 & Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

“If God Is For Us…”

Year A Proper 12, July 27, 2014

St. Thomas’ Episcopal, Richmond, VA

One of my favorite passages about prayer is the words of Paul in Romans in today’s lectionary reading.  Unlike the other writings of Paul, where he is reaching back to churches he founded to correct or encourage, in Romans he is reaching forward to a gathering of followers of Jesus who are in a place he has not been, and he is putting all his theological stuff on the table so that they can be on the same page when he arrives.  Or at worst, they will know where he is coming from so they can work it out when he gets there.  Paul here is at his most theological, convoluted on some points, but we have more glimpses into the heart and soul of the man and what his faith means to him.

At this passage, he speaks of the Spirit “interced[ing] for us in sighs too deep for words.  And God, who searches the heart, knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  Think of it, as we do not know the words to say, or the thoughts to think, we pray.   The Holy Spirit, moving in us and through us, is mingling and pleading with God the Father on our behalf according to God’s will.  Our sacred grunts and groans are enough.  Words fail, but we are known.  Words are not needed.

Then we get to a very problematic Scripture, where it seems a wrong statement at best, or a lie at worst.  “We know that all things work together for good for those that love God, and are called according to God’s purpose.” 

Do we know that?  Do I know that?

Some pretty horrible things are happening to Christians right now, in Iraq and Syria.  Are all things working together for good?  I heard on the radio yesterday that Secretary of State Kerry said that he had never seen the world stage in such a bad condition.  Is the world working together for good?  As Rabbi Kushner’s book was titled, When Bad Things Happen To Good People, we could very well say the same thing.

And the bad does not have to be global.  Like Jacob in the Genesis reading, we can do everything right and there is still a bait and switch.  We do not get what is promised.  Things are not fair.

Before we come back to the theodicy of Romans, this question of the bad happening to those who seem to be the good, I do want us to make note of today’s Gospel reading, and use that to help us illumine what Paul may have meant.

Jesus is preaching is using simple metaphors of the agrarian and fishing variety.  Both would have been common and pervasive in Galilee during his day.  Mustard seeds, yeast, hidden treasure, a pearl of great price, nets pulling in the good and the not-so-good.  These are all metaphors of the kingdom.  They are all surprises, as well.

Mustard seeds, itty-bitty.  Mustard plants, not so much.

Yeast, nigh invisible.  Yeast in dough, all pervasive.

Treasure in a field, hidden and desperately sought.  Purchased field with a treasure to boot, worth every penny.

A priceless pearl, once again worth every penny.

A net pulling in fish of every kind, the wonderful and the awful.  The good are retained, and the not-good are disposed of. 

Now what do all these have to do with the Kingdom of heaven?

These metaphors give handles to the intangible.  They let people grasp the ephemeral.  The Kingdom of Heaven may seem small, but its potential is hidden.  The Kingdom is pervasive and all-encompassing.  The Kingdom is worth the cost, no matter how steep the price.  The Kingdom cannot be avoided.  It receives all.  It encompasses all.  It embraces all.

The Kingdom itself is a metaphor, if you have not realized it, for the work of God in the world and in the hearts and lives of Christ’s followers.

And that is how Paul can say that audacious line, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”  God’s Kingdom is all-pervasive.  Like the yeast and the fishing net, nothing is separate from its influence.

An old story goes that has a man stopping for directions after getting hopelessly lost in the country.  After describing where they are supposed to be going, the local on the porch says, “Well, you know, you can’t get there from here.”

Thanks be to God that we are not in that same situation.  There is no one so far to be unable to get to God, or vice versa. 

I am not saying the cliché here, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  That would be naïve and false.  Bad things happen.  Evil exists.  There are events that are beyond redemption.

I know many people read this passage and make God the causative agent.  “It was God’s will.”  I do not and cannot say that.  Remember the shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)  There are things and events that break the very heart of God.  We live in a universe where some of the things that transpire, they cannot be redeemed.  Broke is broke.  But, no matter what we have done or what has been done (to us or someone else), we can be redeemed.  

God had a choice to make.  It is in the earliest of our stories.  We were not made a creature like any other.  God saw all of the created order and declared it was good.  But when God got around to creating us, male and female, we were created in the very image of God, the imago Dei.  And when we were created, out of all creation, God declared that we were tov vetov, VERY GOOD.  But as Spider-Man reminded my daughter and  me at the Byrd Friday night, with great power comes great responsibility.  We bear the precious and dangerous gift of Free Will.

Abraham Lincoln was asked in the midst of the bloody Civil War, if God was on the Union’s side.  He responded, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”  This is very close to how I hear Paul’s, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  It is not that God steps into our history to rescue us.  That would be the word “miracle.”  And today, I am not speaking of miracles.  

Today I am speaking of yeast working its way through the dough of our lives.  The slow and steady kneading of our souls.  I want to be so identified with Christ that when people think of me, they think of him; I hope; I pray.  I do not want to be a pita for Jesus; I want to be a big fat yeast roll for him where the yeast of the Kingdom has worked its way into all the aspects of my life.

In my faith, I want to be on the side of justice and peace at work in the world.  Is the world just?  No.  Is there peace?  Hardly.  Watching the news the last week has been horrific, and I see no peace in sight.  But I do not look to the now, and neither did Paul.  He wrote ahead to Rome, doing his best to encourage and support fellow believers in the way of Christ trying to live out their faith in the dominant capital city in the world at the time.  Take the long view, he seems to say.  If we have latched onto the Christ, who has paid the ultimate price to redeem the world, we are on the prevailing side though there are many battles ahead.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  and also, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  …No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

There is nothing from without that can take away what we hold within.  Our precious hidden treasure in the field, we have claimed.  The pearl of pearls we have claimed.  And not only that, it has claimed us.  As the old hymn declares, “In a love which cannot cease, I am his and he is mine.”

Paul again: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, 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.”

And that is the essence of our faith.

It empowers us and strengthens us.  We look to what should not be do-able, and we think to how and worry not about the “if.”  We are the yeast permeating God’s creative and amazing grace throughout the world.  When we see more and more people begging at street corners, when the line gets longer on Thursday mornings to get a few bags of food at our Food Pantry, when the news is horrific, we have faith.  This is not the end.  If God is for us, who or what can be against us?  Situations might be bigger than you, but God plus you is greater than anything you will ever face.

Frederick Buechner said of our call of God, “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s great hunger meet.”  In other words, what brings you the greatest bliss comes up against the world’s great needs is where you are to be at work in the world.

That does not mean that the bad will *poof* disappear.  We still have our brokenness and hurts.  But what will we do with our brokenness?  What of our deep sorrows?  Dan Allender, a counselor and president of a seminary in Seattle took Buechner’s quote and reframed it.  “The place where God calls you is where your greatest hurt and the world’s greatest need meet.”  And in this I hear the truth of Paul.  When I in my weakness bring that to Christ, my brokenness is transformed and becomes a thing of beauty and glory in Christ.  Christ did not cause it.  I do not believe Christ wanted it to happen.  But like a child whose precious item is shattered, and brings it with outstretched arms to the loving parent, we bring the broken bits of ourselves and come with trust to Christ.

Why?  Because, as Paul said, “We know that all things work together for good for those that love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  In that, even the worst parts of our lives are brought into the Kingdom, and are wrought into the agents for justice, peace and grace.  Because, “in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Sermon: "Fertile Ground and the Call of God"

“Fertile Ground and the Call of God”

Year A Proper 10

St. Thomas’ Church, July 13, 2014

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

¹ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: 

"Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  ⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  ⁹ Let anyone with ears listen!"

¹⁸ "Hear then the parable of the sower.  ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.  ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  ²¹ yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.  ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.  ²³ But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

I have heard, and even preached, on this passage many times.  So often the parable is used in the idea of evangelism, with the word of God’s kingdom going out.  The question is all about how the word is received.  If we see the sower as one of us, then it is easy to interpret it that way.  But today, I am going to ask you to rethink this passage, and see the sower as God.

If God is the sower, then this parable becomes a look at the Call of God.  God’s love energies are constantly coming down.  As the mystical poet William Blake wrote, “We are put on earth a little space to learn to bear the beams of love.”  The call of God is constant, and universal.  I believe the Call of God comes to us all, all the time.

Now you might be saying, “Rock, we cannot all be priests or deacons.”  My response to that would be, “Thanks be to God!”  But let us be clear, Call and Vocation are different.  We are all called by God, a general Call to follow Jesus in our lives.  Vocation is a specific call, and the two are different.

I could say, “We could all really use some help in the Food Pantry this Thursday from 10-12.  If people could show up, that would be great.”

Specific calls are different and more deliberate.  Bob, where are you Bob?  Bob, can I count on you to help in the Food Pantry this week?  [Wait for response, which will be yes because he runs the Food Pantry.]  Doesn’t that way work better?  But for that to work, I have to know Bob, and Bob has to know me, and Bob needs to know and understand the Food Pantry.  The General Call must come first before the Specific Call can be heard and for it to be able to be responded to.

This parable is a recognition of the fact, that not everyone is going to respond, as it says, to the “word of the kingdom.”  There is the hard-beaten path.  There is rocky ground.  There is thorny ground.  And there is good soil.  This general Call of God is cast out, to everyone, all the time.   The premise of the parable is a Sower went out to sow.  God’s very nature is to seek and save that which was lost.  We all have the opportunity to respond.  Our condition is how it will probably be received.

The hard-beaten path, the busy way, gives no opportunity to the seed to grow.  The comings and goings of life make it hard for us to receive the Call of God.  We’ll get to it tomorrow, but tomorrow gets filled before we can listen.  And then the flighty, the birds, come and eat it up.

The rocky soil is different.  There is a clear and quick response, but conditions are such that despite the initial springing up, there is no way for the roots to get down deep and the grain to flourish.

The thorny soil allows for the seed to germinate, but the thorns be the systemic ills, conditional, or addictions, they choke out this call to the kingdom life so that it does not have a chance.

Then finally we arrive at the good soil, where the seed can both spring up, and go deep.  That is where I want to spend the rest of the time today.  How do we cultivate good soil?  How do we create an environment for the best receptivity of the Call of God?

If you think about it, that is what Christian Formation is all about, or to use an older word, Discipleship.  When we care for our children and our youth by providing them opportunities to start their lives of faith well, and let those roots get down deep before they have to confront the busy-ness of the world, then their faith can get a head start.

But what about the adults?  We have to be a place that is set apart.  We have to be a wayside to the frenetic pull of our culture to busy-ness and consumption.  We have to help people get off the beaten path.

Also, we have to be about helping people get rid of the rocks in their soil.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs talks about the basics we have to have taken care of before we can focus on the “higher” needs.  It is no accident that Jesus has us pray for our daily bread, and their is no accident that we give food to those that come to us on Thursdays.  Jesus understands that if we are hungry, thirst, or naked it is hard to hear the call of God.

We also have to be about the Thorns.  There are systemic thorns that choke out the hope of people, societal ills that choke out the life of folk.  This could be racism or its byproducts.  Two conversations in our city remind me of this: where to put a baseball stadium, and where the public transportation is allowed to go.  These are more than thorny issues, the are thorns that distract and choke our hope.

The thorns can horrible home conditions or addictions that prevent us from being still and quiet enough to hear that subtle Call of God.

In our Formation, we need to focus on removing the rocks and thorns, and slowly tilling the soil of receptivity both for ourselves and those that come to our doors.

So, what do we do with those that are receptive, and the seeds of the Call of God are growing?  We nurture them.  And when we do, we can see 100, 60 or 30 fold growth!  This is where the Specific Call of God comes in!

One of my favorite St. Thomas moments so far was the Speed Dating day with the ministries a few weeks ago.  People heard a few minutes of many of the ways they can share their faith and their growth.  My 7-year-old was there.  She heard them talk about what SHE could do!  She believed and knew that she could do something, and responded.  I have seen her pledge card.  In her block letters at name she scrawled SOJO.  And on the back, she circled Coffee Hour.  She has a passion for Coffee Hour.  Now, can the call of God come through a 7-year-old’s love of cookies?  YES!  Resoundingly yes!  Her passions, or at least her interest, were piqued.  She heard the call and responded.  She can make a plate of cookies.  And if I remember right, she is doing one in August.  Will it take help from mom and dad?  Of course, but that this environment, and the fertile ground that we are trying to create for her at home, she heard that general call of help, and that specific call of “I can do that!” and she responded.  

That is what Jesus was talking about.

Don’t be confused.  Last week’s lesson in the lectionary, while comforting, was openly telling us that there is work involved in this spiritual journey.

Matthew 11:²⁸ "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Christ’s call to take on his yoke is a Call to those in the fertile soil to walk beside him, doing what he has done and is still doing at work in this world, and learn from him.  Notice that the rest is for our SOUL, but there is still work involved.  When we are at work in the world doing God’s work in our setting, then we go to sleep at night, we sleep the sleep of the righteous.

Our response to the Call of God is not to think that we have arrived, but that we have begun a life of co-laboring with Christ to change the world.

The place where I learned the most about ministry was a camp for inner-city Richmond children called Camp Alkulana.  In the kitchen where we were allowed to hang out after hours, there was a poster, and its words stay with me to this day.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

There is a lot of Truth in that.  That general call of God calls all of us to do what we can as we are able.  Remember, the Good Samaritan was not called to medical missions!  He was called to respond to someone there in his path.  And so are we.

You were put on earth, a little space, to learn to bear the beams of love.  Open yourself to those beams, and as you grow and learn and share that love, you bring glory to God.  Hear that General Call of God, and when you hear it, you may begin to get a clear vision of that vocational call, that piece of the puzzle that only you can fill.

The Call of God is so often more the “still small voice” that Elijah heard, instead of the “blinding light” of St. Paul.  Till your soil.  Get rid of the rocks and thorns as you are able, and get help for those things that you cannot, and be ready for a life better than you can imagine.  Amen.

A Sermon: "Letting Go"

“Letting Go”

Year A Proper 7 June 22, 2014

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church

There are some Sundays when the sermons flow.  I read the lectionary, and immediately something comes to mind.  An image, an idea, a “word from the Lord.”  I really believe that the Holy Spirit is at work right now.  I trust that what I am saying is at a prompting from the Holy Spirit.

Also, I trust, you are chewing on what I am saying, even if it is “Where is he going with this?”  Some weeks are easy and immediate.  This week was not.

As I read through the lectionary readings for the umpteenth time, it struck me that it was a time for a priest to make a confession.  I have a hard time with today’s readings.  Every one of them is a hard one.  There is no easy one in the bunch. 

Some Sundays, I can use an easy one to slide into a harder passage.  But not this week.

Look with me, if you will.  In Genesis we have Hagar being banished by Abraham at Sarah’s encouraging so the Sarah’s son Isaac will not have to share his inheritance with Hagar’s son Ishmael.  Now if you remember how this all transpired, Sarah encouraged Abraham to take Hagar, who was Sarah’s handmaid, and produce an heir.  Remember, this was all Sarah’s idea!  But then out of worry, she banishes them to likely death.  They are sent out into the arid land with a wineskin of water.  And eventually Hagar and Ishmael run out of water, and fully expect to die.  Such a loving act!

Or we could look at the Romans passage, where the Apostle Paul makes an argument for dying to sin so that we can live in Christ.  With the dying metaphor, and all the back and forth on sin, it also is a hard place to start.

Then we get to Jesus.  It is like a compilation album in chapter 10, The Greatest Hits of Instructions to Those Being Sent Out.  Matthew almost seems to have taken several remembered lines from Jesus and brought them together for Jesus’ followers commissioning.  But even though these are rules for the road, to our ears when we hear about not loving Father and Mother, Son and Daughter, or taking up our own cross and following, I know I get wrangled. 

So what are we going to do this Sunday?

Instead of spinning and making this all easy, today we are going to talk about letting go.  In the children’s time I told the story of a little boy clinging to what he had, not knowing he was missing out on something greater because he could not let go of the little he had, nor could he envision something so much better that he would forget about what he held onto so tightly.

Sometimes we have to do exactly that.  We hold onto what little we have because we cannot see that something greater is just beyond our sight.  And not letting go can lead to disaster.

In a previous job, I used to be the recruiter for a seminary.  It was my job to drive around to colleges, set up times to meet with professors and chaplains, talk with pre-ministerial candidates, and tell them the benefits of my school.  Often several seminaries would organize these trips together so that we could get a bigger draw and meet with more people.  One of the other recruiters was named Mac, and he drove a twenty-year-old diesel Mercedes.  And he loved that car.  On a joint recruiting trip, we were between small Kentucky college towns, and the fastest way to get from one to the other was over backroads through the country.  Mac was running late, and when he was an hour late for our meetings at the next college we all became a little worried.  When he finally arrived he told us this story.  While holding on to his coffee, he was coming over a ridge, and abruptly on the other side the road curved.  They did not have the blaze orange warning arrows to redirect drivers.  Well, because he was already late, his speed was such that he did not follow the curve but went straight into the yard of the mobile home situated there.  He hit his brakes, but the wet Kentucky bluegrass caused him to slide sideways with his rather hefty twenty-year-old Mercedes diesel made from solid steel.  Sliding sideways over the grass, he hit the mobile home with such force it knocked it off its foundation.  He was a bit shaky after all of this, and looking down he noticed that he was still holding his coffee cup in his hand.  He also shared that maybe his priorities were a bit out of whack.  A wrecked but drivable car, a stranger’s house sustaining serious damage, but his coffee is unspilt.  He was clinging to the wrong things.  How much are we like Mac?

Jesus tells those he has called, “Listen up, if they called the teacher the devil, what do you think they are going to call his followers?  What do you expect?”

Later he goes on, “Do not fear those that can kill the body but cannot kill the soul...”  He does not mince words, when you go out, you do not need to fear death.  This is graduate level faith here.  We are not talking about “love everybody” level.  We are talking about the costs of discipleship, and it can be hard things to hear.

“Present me before others, and I will present you before my Father.  Don’t, and neither will I.”  Ouch.  Okay.

We need to let go of our worries, about how others see us, about how we are going to fare.  Like the Adidas ads I see all over the World Cup games, “All in or nothing.”  They could be Jesus’ words instead of a slogan for shoes.

Jesus said: "^10:34Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;  ³⁶ and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

³⁹ Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

These are hard words.  Very hard words.  Jesus asks of those who follow, to make this their first priority.  Here he emphasizes this with images of infighting amongst those closest to us, but he has put it this way in another setting: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.”  (Matthew 6:33)

This is and must be our first priority, and if it is there is a promise, “all this shall be added unto you.”  Or, as one of my seminary professors translated it, “And everything else will fall into place.”

Does this make the path easy?  Of course not.  We still hold onto those things that bring us meager comfort because we forget the better that is to come.

Paul’s whole argument in the Romans’ passage is about letting go.  “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?”

We have to let go of those little comforts we cling to so closely.  Some of those things are good things, family, comfort, entertainment.  Some of those things are our addictions or sins that we have a hard time releasing.  If it is not Christ, we are called to give them over to him.

Notice I said give them over to Jesus, not let them go.  If it is addictions or sins, obviously those are things we need to drop.  But Father or Mother?  Spouse?  Children?  These are the very gifts of God.  Do we drop them?  As Paul said, “By no means!”  But as we entrust them to Christ, and put Christ first, how could they be in better hands?

A story is told of children during World War II who were placed in refugee camps after having been orphaned in the horrible destruction.  They had food, good care, and a safe place to sleep, but sleep often would not come.  The children, despite all the care, were not able to let go of the terrors that had put them in the refugee camps.  Those who cared for the children were at a loss, until someone came up with the idea of giving the children a piece of bread with which to sleep at night.  The children held onto those rolls of bread, and sleep was finally able to come.  The children held in their hands a promise that tomorrow would be okay.

They were children, and the clung to the bread because they emotionally could not understand that tomorrow they would receive the same tomorrow.  They could not see the promise.

For children this makes sense.  But are we children as well?  Do we cling to those things that bring us momentary comfort because we do not see the promise of tomorrow?

And what of the situations where we do not choose to let go of something?  What do we do when we are told that things are being taken away?  The moving and unjust story of Hagar and Ishmael is a perfect example of this.  She did everything that had been asked of her!  No matter how unjust we see it.  She did all that was asked of, or forced upon, her.  

What about our situations?  When we lose a job because we did the RIGHT thing?  Or we come home, and our spouse tells us that what we has assumed was a lifetime promise is over?  When a child is tragically taken from us?  Where is God in those situations?

God is even there.  Hagar had set the child Ishmael down so she did not have to see him die, and wandered a distance away, when she then hears God’s words from an angel and sees the well right there.  God is even there at the end of her rope.

From today’s Psalm:

86:¹⁰ For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; save the child of your serving girl.

These are hard words, but necessary words.  We have to let it go.  Whatever it is that clings too closely.  Whatever it is that prevents us from growing deeper in Christ.  The great reversals of Jesus promise a future different from the world we are living in.  The meek will inherit the earth.  The last will be first.  The seekers will become the finders.

We need to let go because something greater than we can possible imagine is coming down the road.  We hold onto things that are distractions at best, life-crushing sins at worst.  Of all the great reversals of Jesus, no challenge is greater, nor is any promise.

³⁹ Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Amen.

What I Learned at AJC: a reflection on the last 4 years

Tomorrow is my final day at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School.  It is a bittersweet day.  I was asked to write up my reflections of my four years there, and forced myself not to think about it till I sat down to write it out.  This is what came out...

What I Have Learned at AJC

I have been in the doubly burdensome role of being a teacher and a preacher to the students and staff at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School.  Both come with their own hesitancies and intimidations.  I will have no way of knowing how long any of my lessons will last with any of those who have heard me teach or preach, but I do know that the lessons that I learned will stay with me for a lifetime.

Probably the first lesson I learned during my first year was how to pray.  I have been blessed in my life that even though times have been tight, my family has never been in the position of deep need or want.  Even more, we have never been in position of being unsafe or in fear.  My first year, I remember during prayer requests some of the kids thanked God for waking them up that morning.  Having heard their stories of shootings and other situations around their homes, what had often been a cliche when I had heard it before became an honest and sincere prayer of thanks that the student had been given another day of life.  This touched me in a profound and soul-altering way.   I will never pray the same, and some of my white middle-class privileged assumptions have been pushed to the wayside.  For that I will always be thankful.

You never hold back on love.  Sometimes the most loving actions are to say, "No."  Sometimes the most loving act is to hold people accountable.  Being a strict, but fair, teacher of high standards gives a gift that too often these students have not had.  Would it be easier to be the nice teacher that had an easy class?  Of course.  Would that help anybody in the short or longterm?  No.  And the kids would not respect my teaching or my preaching either one.  Grace comes with grade book sometimes, and to love the kids the best that I can, I had to create a rigorous environment that drove them to be the best that they could be.  My love came out in hard books, and clear, consistent, and hard work.

Lastly, I would have to say that the troublesome issue of race is still something this country and the Church need to continue to work.  I had homeroom with the same group of students for three years, and in the third year of our time together my group of guys (from 6th through 8th grades) and I were able to laugh and joke about stereotypes and differences.  They could ask me about being white, and I could learn from them about being African-American.  They asked me about why white people all looked alike, and why we have funny names.  But it took three years to build trust and the benefit of the doubt so that we could get to a point of honest and mutually-respectful dialogue.  I learned how far we have come and how far we need to go when I was reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with my 7th grade boys and after about 50 pages one of the students asked who was on the front cover.  The front cover showed Huck and Jim, an escaped slave.  I responded to the question, "Huck and Jim."  The student asked, "Huck is the black guy, so who is the white kid?  Did they have white slaves?"   I said, "No, our slavery was based on racism.  The white kid is Huck, and the black man is Jim."  But then to keep learning, I asked, "So what made you think that Huck was black?"  The student said, "Because he says the N-word all the time.  I have never heard a white person say the N-word."  Wow.  Our society has gotten better, obviously, but that things had been turned on their head to that extent, that this classic novel written to fight racism was now confusing because the white people that this student had had interactions with did not use that word.  I learned a lot that day.

Prayer, love without limits but very clear boundaries, and continuing dialogues on race are all things that I will carry with me, both as a man and a priest.  This time has shaped me, deepened my spirituality and my prayer life, and drawn me closer to God and my neighbor.  "Who is my neighbor?" was asked of Christ.  Anna Julia Cooper School could be a modern answer to that ancient question.  We are all each others' neighbors.

Sermon: Pentecost "Happy Birthday!"

Happy Birthday!

St. Thomas Episcopal, Richmond

Year A, Pentecost 2014

Happy birthday!  Really, happy birthday!  In a decade and a half, give or take a year or two, we will be two millennia old.  And when someone or something is in their one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-eighties, do we really need to quibble over a year or two?

Today is the birthday of the church, Pentecost, the 50th day since Easter.  Pente- five, pentecost, fifty in Greek.  People had arrived in the Temple from all over the world, Jews, believers in this desert God who were not Jewish, God-fearers they were called, for the Shavuot, the festival for the reception of the Law.  It was seven weeks since the second day of Passover.  After the giving of the 10 commandments, to know how to be good and in favor with God, what we see now is the fulfillment of the prophets, that Israel would be a “light unto the nations.”

In a small room, the remaining apostles and followers of Jesus were in prayer, when the Holy Spirit came upon them in power and glory.  It is described as tongues of flame resting on their heads.  And with that, they were sent out.  And preaching with vim and vigor, they went amongst those that were gathered at the Temple and spread the Good News that the Messiah had come.

People understood them in their own tongues.  No matter the stripe, people were brought into the Church.

A few weeks ago I spoke to the Holy Spirit, and how much I appreciated the emphasis in our church of the indwelling of the Spirit.  In a moment we will pray the Holy Spirit to surround and indwell Camille at her baptism.  It is a big day.

Now I apologize if this seems simplistic, but I wanted to make sure we were on the same page about the Holy Spirit and the Church, especially because of Pentecost and the baptism we are about to have.  If you could all do me a favor and open up your prayer books.  They are the smaller ones with the red covers, probably, and the cross on front.   And then turn to page 852.  I am going to read the Qs, the questions, and if you could read the As, the Answers.

The Holy Spirit

Q.	What is the Holy Spirit?
A.	The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, God at  work in the world and in the Church even now.
Q.	How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the Old Covenant?
A.	The Holy Spirit is revealed in the Old Covenant as the  giver of life, the One who spoke through the prophets.
Q.	How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the New Covenant?
A.	The Holy Spirit is revealed as the Lord who leads us into  all truth and enables us to grow in the likeness of  Christ.
Q.	How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in  our lives?
A.	We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we  confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love  and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our  neighbors, and with all creation.

The Holy Spirit is God at work in the world and the Church even now.  This is not a there-and-then thing, this is a here-and-now thing.  The Spirit leads us into the likeness of Christ.  The Spirit brings us into a place of harmony with everything, God, ourselves, others, all creation.  This is the rest of the story.  This is to be continued.  This is the sequel.  This is what comes next.  

And what comes next is the Church, how we move forward with Christ’s work in the world.  So what is the Church.   Please turn to page 854 and 855.  Read with me “The Church.”   

The Church

Q.	What is the Church?
A.	The Church is the community of the New Covenant.
Q.	How is the Church described in the Bible?
A.	The Church is described as the Body of which Jesus  Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are  members. It is called the People of God, the New Israel,  a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and the pillar and  ground of truth.
Q.	How is the Church described in the creeds?
A.	The Church is described as one, holy, catholic, and  apostolic.
Q.	Why is the Church described as one?
A.	The Church is one, because it is one Body, under one  Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Q.	Why is the Church described as holy?
A.	The Church is holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells in it,  consecrates its members, and guides them to do God's  work.
Q.	Why is the Church described as catholic?
A.	The Church is catholic, because it proclaims the whole  Faith to all people, to the end of time.
Q.	Why is the Church described as apostolic?
A.	The Church is apostolic, because it continues in the  teaching and fellowship of the apostles and is sent  to carry out Christ's mission to all people.

Q.	What is the mission of the Church?
A.	The mission of the Church is to restore all people to  unity with God and each other in Christ.
Q.	How does the Church pursue its mission?
A.	The Church pursues its mission as it prays and  worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice,  peace, and love.
Q.	Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?
A.	The church carries out its mission through the ministry  of all its members.

The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  How? Through the ministry of all its members.  

Ah, the ministry of all its members.  The Holy Spirit in us gifts us with things that only we can do.  All of our gifts work together for what needs to happen and take place as God works in the world.  Today we are also asking you to Claim Your Ministry, and the cards are handed out.  We will gather those at the the Thanksgiving time.

There is an economy of God that is beyond our comprehension.  This is an economy where there is no waste.  This is an economy where every need is met, but often we need to open our eyes to see them.  This is an economy of blessings.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  We are blessed to change the world.

Think about it, on that first Pentecost did the disciples stay in that upper room saying, “Wow, cool flames?”  No, no, no, no, no.

They immediately went out.  They went out and met people where they were, and held nothing back.  They were so enthusiastic that people thought that they were drunk.  But others heard their words, and took them to heart.  I have been at the immersion cleansing tanks outside the doors to the Temple mount where many baptisms probably took place that day.

As we read in the Catechism, “The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.”  We come to this altar for solace, but we also come seeking strength to go out.  

As joyful as these balloons are, it would be a sin for them to stay in here.  I would come in Wednesday for the Contemplative service and it would be sad, just sad.  A roomful of dead or almost dead balloons that were happy for an hour, and did not get used for the best in their limited lifespan.

When you leave, make sure that their is not a balloon left.  You have my permission and encouragement to take one home.

What would be an even greater sin, though, is for each of you to go out of here today and not remember that you are apostolic, you are being sent out to change the world.  You do it through prayer and worship.  You do it when you proclaim the Gospel.  And remember what St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel at all times.  When necessary use words.”  You change the world when you promote justice, peace and love.  Go out, balloon in hand, and that sight alone might bring a spot of joy into someone’s life.

You have been blessed to be a blessing.  You have been sent to change the world.  Happy birthday!  Share that joy!

"If you love me..." A Sermon

This is my sermon for Sunday, May 25, our outdoor service with our Church Picnic following.

“If You Love Me...”

Year A Easter 6

St. Thomas’s Episcopal, Richmond, VA

Some of you are so excited about being outside today.  Some people may have stayed home, because they did not like being outside today.  That is fine, too.  Even with the promise of fried chicken, some people do not like things different.

We have come to expect things the way they are, and we often do what we can to avoid change.  Change can be good, and it can be blessed, but still we do not want things to be different.  We embrace the status quo, often to our detriment.

The phrase, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” screams of this aversion to change.  Not everyone is like this.  There are some early adapters.  But even then, the hopes of the different have to outweigh that inertia of keeping things the way they are.

I have heard it said that the equation for change is CHANGE is EQUAL TO when the DISSATISFACTION with the way things are PLUS a compelling VISION of what could be PLUS concrete FIRST practical STEPS, the three things DISSATISFACTION, VISION and FIRST STEPS have to be greater the the pull to keep things the way that they are, the DISSATISFACTION, VISION and FIRST STEPS must be GREATER THAN the RESISTANCE TO CHANGE.  That is how you have change.

Change = (Dissatisfaction with the way things are +

  Vision of what is possible + 

First practical steps) > Resistance to Change

This formula works well when we are planning and encouraging change.  People hate change, but Jesus knew that his time was over, and that change was inevitable and coming within hours.  He knows of our tendency to memorialize, and live in the past.  But he cast a vision and a promise to his disciples who would soon be distraught and scattered.

On the night he was betrayed, and the day before he was killed, Jesus spoke to those closest to him, letting them know that things were going to change.  Things were not going to stay this way, but he let them know they would be okay.

From John 14, ¹⁸ “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”  Here is the straight scoop friends, it will no longer be the way it was, but it will be better.  A Vision with a Promise.

Jesus knew what it was to his disciples, and to us, how hard it is when things change.  He needed to leave so the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, could come and be with us.  And not just with us, but in us.   

Jesus is very clear how different it will be.  “¹⁷ This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

I love the emphasis we have on the Spirit.  Really.  Growing up in an evangelical setting, the Trinity seemed more Father, Son, and Holy Bible, instead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  One of the many gifts Jesus gave his disciples was the promise of the One who was to come when he was gone.  “You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”  

One of the prophesied names of Jesus was Emmanuel, God-with-Us.  But this is something more, God-in-Us.  I love that we can take seriously the indwelling of the Holy Spirit without ecstatic utterances, but with no less seriousness or lack of any devotion to that indwelling Spirit.  Devotion need not be loud to be exuberant.  Still waters, it is said, run deep.

This indwelling Spirit changes us from the inside out.  It draws us closer to God.  It makes us love God all the more.  It makes us obey Christ all the more.  His words, his commands, become dear to us, and we begin to see with new eyes.  Differences become not gaps between us, but celebrations of God’s creative genius.  As we cling closer to Christ’s teaching, we receive those promptings from the Holy Spirit drawing us further down the path of Christlikeness, enabling us to do more and more of what would have seemed impossible before Christ was in us.  “²¹ They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

From an outside perspective, this sounds so controlling.  “I know you love me because you do whatever it is I command you to do!”  But it is not like that.  Devotion begs obedience.  Think about it.  If I did not cheat on Stephanie my wife because she asked me not to, what kind of husband would I be?  I do not, have not, and would not cheat on Stephanie because of my love for her, and the honor I have in our relationship.  Cheating is not a “Thou-Shalt-Not,” but rather a “Why-Would-I?”  When we are in relationship, submitting, serving, avoiding destructive actions becomes a part of who we are and more so as we get deeper and deeper into it.

One of the most amazing and wonderful transformations of this love relationship with Christ was the change in Paul, the one we used to call Saul.  I do not expect you to remember, but last week, one of the readings was the Stoning of Stephen, the first martyr.  The one who had held the coats and helped organize the stoning was Saul.  He had been a “Pharisee’s Pharisee,” his own description of himself.  Yet, this stoning-prone Pharisee, finds himself a few years later standing in Athens, the center of Greek culture and learning, renowned home of the Academy and the Parthenon.

Now stay with me here, you may remember some of the Ten Commandments.  “You Shall Not Murder.”  “You Shall Not Commit Adultery.”  “Remember the Sabbath Day and Keep It Holy.”  

These would have been engraved on Saul-come-Paul’s mind since his earliest days.  And the one that jumps out at me is “You Shall Make No Graven Images.”  They say when the Roman General that conquered Jerusalem strode into the Temple was shocked that there was no statue in the Holy of Holies.  First he had the audacity to go in, which only the High Priest was allowed to do once a year.  It was a big room, with just a few items inside.  Nothing humongous.  Nothing spectacular.  They would never have something devoted to their wild desert God because no image or statue could encompass who he was.

Yet, here we see this Pharisee’s Pharisee standing in Athens, and he makes this UNBELIEVABLE claim, when you think that a former leader of the Jewish people would say this.  He is standing in the area of debate, where intellectuals and philosophers would gather and argue and debate the ideas of the days.  Paul had the chutzpah to stand up in their midst, and say the following:

^22b “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.  ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,  ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”

Now remember, this very Jewish guy, who knows the Ten Commandments and probably all 613 commandments in the Hebrew Scripture, is standing in a city surrounded by statues to the Pantheon of gods, and the Parthenon to Athena, and he finds an altar to “the unknown god.”  “This god you are speaking of when you talk about this unknown God,” Paul is implying, “is who I am talking about today.”  

Are you getting what is happening here?  Someone who was willing to stone Stephen for being heretical, has gotten to the point where he can stand in the midst of heathen, point at an idol and say, see that altar over there, that is the God I want to tell you about.  Now, he says that an idol cannot do him justice, but this is a MIND-BLOWING transformation!

For Saul the persecutor of the Church to get to the point where he can point at an idol and and say that is his God, the one and only God, some radical, crazy, transformative stuff has to be going on.  Saul-come-Paul has been infested with this Advocate, this indwelling God, this Holy Spirit.  He is being changed, deeply, radically, profoundly.  His story has been changed by THE Story.

Some more from Paul’s argument:

²⁶ From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,  ²⁷ so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him--though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸ For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'  ²⁹ Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.  ³⁰ While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

So Paul brings it full circle.  God is reaching out to any and all, wherever they are so that they all can come home to God.  Just like he, Paul, did.  This same Jesus that he persecuted, this same Jesus that confronted him on the road to Damascus, this same Jesus that spoke to his disciples and promised then something greater than his presence with them, this same Jesus teaches us across the ages, and invites us today.  

Paul learned that the 613 commandments he was willing to kill for were trumped by Jesus’ commandments.  And Jesus was not willing to kill for what he believed, but he was willing to die.

John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And what are Jesus’ commandments?  In the next chapter of John, Jesus makes it clear and plain.

15:12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

Today, as we are outside in God’s beauty, let us think about changing things up.  Some big changes are coming soon.  We have already had a year of change.  10 months ago, I had no idea I would be here short-term, and I certainly had no idea that I would be here long-term.  God is preparing us all.  God is preparing our new rector.  The Holy Spirit is prompting us, preparing us, priming us for bigger and better and different things.  And through it all, through the ups and downs and confusion of transition, let it be said that we stayed true and did it all out of love of Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit.

If we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments.  Amen.