Earlier this year, a performance artist was scheduled to do a day of lamenting at General Theological Seminary in the chapel of the Good Shepherd. It is my alma matter. But there was such an uproar about it - So many alumni had issue with crying and lament as a performance piece - that the seminary cancelled it.


I have wondered about why so many were opposed. (I had no comment, as I heard about it after the fact.)


In our Gospel today, we hear of those wailing and mourning at the news of Jairus’s daughter’s death. It was actually a common practice to hire mourners for funerals. It wasn’t fake. It was to set an example for others: that mourning: weeping; lament is appropriate.
In Judaism today, the mourner’s kaddish is said daily for a full year - and grieving members of synagogues are asked to stand up during this prayer each week. For a Year.


Most of society rushes to get past the pain or grief we are experiencing - or see others experiencing.


Young men are often told not to cry. It makes you look vulnerable. And as women we too often shut off our tears. …while Saint Francis and Saint Clare spoke of “the gift of tears.”




It just makes us uncomfortable…
So when people ask, how are you? We often reply “fine.”


What a loss of true connection.


Expressions of hurt are part of life’s communion.


Both Jarius and the ill woman lament in their appeal to Jesus. The woman tells "the whole truth” in her desire to connect with healing… with her reaching out for Jesus….


I chose lamentations today, because the writer feels utter rejection from God… and yet in the very first line we find hope.


Speaking the truth, as Job did last week, and as the ill woman does this week through lament is a signal to us of movement toward hope. Scripture in fact shows us that lament is a powerful stage of grief that provides that opening for healing, reparation, peace.


So much of the psalms are about this cathartic work.


As one commentator remarked Lamentations give “Sacred dignity to suffering.”


Lamentations is split up into five poems: It describes the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 587. These poems express the intense suffering of the people.


And because these stories of wailing to God are included in the Bible… we believe they are now God’s words to us. We believe lament is appropriate.


In the first part, Jerusalem is personified as lady Zion: a widow who is utterly abandoned (“on the rivers of Babylon where we sat and wept when we remembered Zion”).
The pain and sorrow and trauma the people felt is so great - that to relate the depth of its expression, the author writes of the trauma and grief, as the death of a loved one….the power of it..


18Zion, deep in your heart
you cried out to the Lord.
Now let your tears overflow
your walls day and night.
Don't ever lose hope
or let your tears stop.
19Get up and pray for help
all through the night.
Pour out your feelings
to the Lord,
as you would pour water
out of a jug.
Beg him to save your people,
who are starving to death
at every street crossing.


Still relevant today….very specifically in parts of our World.
This week I was introduced to a Palestinian/Israeli joint group called The Parents Circle - Family Forum. It is a group of 700 Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost someone to the conflict. They bring youth and adults together in discussion to lament and work toward reparations. There is an American Friends of this group. I was also delighted to see a photograph of Bishop Tutu on their website.


Their work is a direct expression of hope. They speak the truth, they’ve reached out to connect. They cry together - and they are committed to sharing their stories with the rest of the world.


One of their recent articles was subtitled:
“It is not naive to know that the only route to justice and equality is peace.”




This is hope.


These stories show how corporate lament as a form of healing is vital.




And as individuals: sometimes when someone has struggled with illness for a long time, or even facing death - they are able to lament and really come through it to a place with God in which they are at peace.


That is transformative, not just for the individual but for those who are with them, their caretakers, those they have touched and connected with in different manners….




Lament generally is so transformative that it leads us through the tunnel of darkness into praising God and life.


As the wisdom of Solomon said..
God did not make death,
And he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal.




"The Lord is my portion," says my soul...
meaning the Lord is my inheritance; the Lord is the hope and sustenance of my being.

Culturally: we are realizing that reparations and reconciliation, peace requires dialogue, lamenting…




Lamentations teaches us that if we can express our corporate grief just as one feels personal grief, things will change.


“Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning…”


Through scripture Today we recognize the lament of Israel  and Jerusalem as a lament for all of creation - for all of us.


When we hear Zion, we hear the heart of us all.
Not a political state… but the state of us all - Personal: like those psalms that put corporate suffering into words that allow us to perceive and digest suffering on a personal level.


Richard Rohr wrote “in my second half of life, I want to teach our children how to cry…”
Reading from Rohr:
“The “weeping mode” is a different way of being in the world. It’s different than the fixing, explaining, or controlling mode. We’re finally free to feel the tragedy of things, the sadness of things. Tears cleanse our eyes both physically and spiritually so we can begin to see more clearly. Sometimes we have to cry for a very long time because we’re not seeing truthfully or well at all. Tears only come when we realize we can’t fix and we can’t change reality. The situation is absurd, it’s unjust, it’s wrong, it’s impossible. ..
The way we can tell our tears have cleansed us is that afterwards we don’t need to blame anybody, even ourselves. It’s an utter transformation and cleansing of the soul, and we know it came from God. It is what it is, and somehow God is in it.”
Jesus also showed us how to lament - at his crying at the death of his friend Lazarus; in his cry out for the future of Jerusalem; and in the anguish of his anticipated arrest.


And through Jesus’ lament he raised Lazarus… and he raised the little girl, he was raised…and he raises us all into that eternal life in God.


Take comfort - that lament will transform you - and lament on behalf of others will change the fate of those who are suffering. It is appropriate.


Because it is not just for eternal life.. meaning in some future heaven… but will help to bring the kingdom of God on this earth now (as it is in heaven).


The coming again of Jesus Christ the Lord, the creator of all that is wholesome, the reconciler of us into justice and peace, and the sustainer of all that is good.    Amen

Wow! (following all of the life and confidence of the Holy Spirit being poured into our lives… Jesus’s healings and teachings…) Today, we are given the storm!


But that’s reality… For so many of us… The storms come upon us both metaphorically and literally.


Jesus is on the water with his disciples and many others who decide to travel with him across the sea. And they find themselves in a storm.


Now there is some significance in this experience for fisherman who know (way better than us) what a real storm on the sea feels like. Water is in the boat. That’s panic time…They are experienced fishermen - they are terrified!
And Jesus quells the storm.


The psalm and the book of Job may be in their minds, when they say
“Who is this?!”


They know the sea
They know scripture


3 He gathered them out of the lands; *
…
23 Some went down to the sea in ships *
and plied their trade in deep waters;
25 Then he spoke, and a stormy wind arose, *
…
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, *
…
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper *
and quieted the waves of the sea.




The disciples are on to Jesus…


At the same time even while following “the way” with Jesus, they will encounter storms (as we know too well).


The Book of Job is still so famous today that many people refer to the hardships of Job.


Job is thought to be the oldest writing included in the Bible. While the very early stories such as Creation and others were gathered over time, Job is thought to have been the oldest actual manuscript included in the Bible. That is profound. It is a book about life. It is part of the wisdom literature which consists of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.


The books have been broken down to represent different aspects of our growth into maturity. Proverbs reads as though there are rules to living. If you do the right thing you will be rewarded. Life is fair and you get what you deserve. While it is full of wisdom, it appeals to a youthful ideal about how the world operates.
Ecclesiastes goes on to expose a level of cynicism, more attributed to one who has lived a bit - and experienced that “you can’t always get what you want.”  as the Rolling Stones coined the phrase. Life isn’t always fair. “Everything is like smoke.” So enjoy what matters most: family, friends, conversation…God’s creation…


And Job…. Job finally speaks to a very mature sensibility and wisdom….How do we live a good life even through suffering?


In this portion of Job, God is finally speaking after 37 chapters of story. Job has lost everything. His family, his property, his health. He cries out to God in his distress; He still praises God, until one day he curses the very day he was born and demands God speak with him. Meanwhile his friends spend chapters trying to identify just what sins he had committed to deserve such a fate. And another intermediary speaks for several chapters about the merits of God’s omnipotence.
Finally God speaks, but rather than providing an answer for Job’s suffering: Why a Holy Person should suffer?…
God puts these cosmic questions to Job:


“….who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?--
when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?"


After many more illustrations of the cosmic nature of God’s work, Job replies with humility and awe.


And God then tells the friends (who searched tirelessly for a reason that Job deserved his suffering) that God was angry. That they were wrong. But God says that if Job prayers for them their folly will be forgiven.
And Job does pray for them. After this, Job’s life begins to thrive again….
It is a very mature story.
Humans often blame the victim. We can’t seem to help it.
It is so much easier to place blame than to grapple with the idea that the World throws storms our way. That is a scary scary place to find ourselves in.


Some people naturally inherited good health, good teeth, the list goes on…Other people (as Craig would say) were born on third base…


We often can’t relate to the trials of others… so we place blame instead. We act like devout disciples of Proverbs… an immature reading on life…believing we actually deserve the things we have.


We look through our own lens… rather than looking at one another “not from a human point of view” as Paul said in our reading last week - but through Christ’s lens: with compassion and love - and a humility that suggests we don’t have all of the answers.


We just celebrated Juneteenth this week - and for many of us, it is so hard to fathom the realities of those who have - and continue to live a very different and unfair reality.


Juneteenth is important in many ways … It represents the explicit move of slave owners to the West, who relocated their slaves to Texas - a place far from the law’s arm.


We’d maybe like to believe these enslaved individuals were unaware - that they spent two years in some kind of blindness. But all of their eyes were open… the slave holders and the slaves. Those individuals knew through their relocation what was transpiring - and others through underground channels of communication the “why” of their continued suffering.


For those of us who have experienced illness or chronic pain - two years is a heavy burden with unanswered questions; fear of death before release; a life out of control - uncertain ongoing suffering. We may fall into the trap of Ecclesiastes: is there no meaning to life at all?


The Story of Job is a mature story. It reminds us of our humanity - our lack of control.


Why are we “good” ?- why do we care? - It is not to be self righteous…it’s not to get a reward from God -


- but to find those modes of being that reflect the deeper reality of being truly human - and enhance the experience for others (to be like the Son of man)…as we say… the perfect human… the New Adam.
A new creation….


Job is a mature reading of life. Job prays for those who trespassed against him. He didn’t have to forgive them first. Prayer in the true sense of opening our hearts - moves us to forgiveness. Moves us to transformation. Moves us to wisdom.


We hope to experience this one precious life fully… which means to love fully. As Paul says, "our hearts are wide open to you - there is no restriction in our affection…”
A lovely thing about Paul, is that he is always trying to help us live the message of Christ. What are the practical ways?


I encourage you to pray for those who have trespassed against you… And in recognition of this federal holiday of Juneteenth…


To participate in some of the anti-racism training and resources we have in the Episcopal Church. I’m on the committee. It is eye opening. It is important for us not to be blind to the continued suffering of others - not to place blame, and make excuses now because we can’t fathom the actions of our ancestors then; or because we fearfully don’t know how to repair things today.


Our focus should be on how we are weathering it. We are trying to figure out reparations. We are in this boat together. As Jesus says, face into it with faith.


And wisdom….As Paul says: “by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.”


Amen.


​

Happy Father's Day. And the collect is apt in suggesting that like the father -  we lead and act with boldness, justice and compassion!
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy Spirit!


This week in the Damascus I shared an image of a mustard tree growing in Israel. It is a huge Tree. And in other pictures I found sprawling unwieldy shrubs growing radically - almost in a crawling fashion taking over massive amounts of ground.


This famous parable of the mustard seed doesn’t often make complete sense to us, because here we think of spindly weed-like mustard.


As Billy said, at centering prayer - there aren’t any birds nesting in these mustard weeds…
But the mustard Jesus spoke of indeed grows as a great haven for birds nests. And that is yet another teaching, that the Kingdom may not look like what you expect it to….but it nurtures and provides safe space for us to thrive.


Last week I spoke about God’s time as eternal… and so we shouldn’t worry too much about the time in which our families or friends take to come to God. But rather than worry (remember Jesus said, “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”)


Instead of worry - our role is to plant seeds…


…Physical and Spiritual and Loving.


We already physically planted a pollinator garden with the kids! And it has sprouted into flowers! And next week we will observe our garden with Maribel and Elisabeth and do some more spiritual planting!
These activities stay with us for a lifetime - and grow the Kingdom.


When I was in college I did a wood cut of a tree and I wrote a poem to go along with it. I gave it to my sister as a gift. And she has always hung it over her bed.


It wasn’t until years later when I was visiting-  and saw it on her wall - that I realized my poem was completely inspired from scripture. Particularly this scripture of the mustard seed! (Apparently I was listening in Sunday School)…


Many of my friends who grew up in faith communities, but no longer attend are faithful volunteers in food pantries and food drives and give to important charities. That influence almost always came from growing up in a faith community. That seed grew!


And that is the Kingdom shining through.
Remember St. Francis is attributed to saying, “preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”


Payton helps at the food pantry sometimes… and I’m quite certain he will never forget it.


The posters and pieces of scripture that I put in the classrooms and in the parish hall are designed to sink in for children - and for those who rent our space. Many of the things that they read may not fully make sense to them… but the seed is there.


When I was a child my parents put up a cabin where they are now retired. For thirteen years, all we had was a one room cabin with a loft.


I would lie there in the early morning and look at the red lettering stamped into the beams. Some letters were visible and others were not - I couldn’t put the words together. I would mix and match different letters until eventually I realized the letters spelled Kiln Dried.
And that felt like such an epiphany after at least a year of staring at them.
Wow: Kiln Dried!
Awesome.
Yet!
My six year old mind had no idea what kiln dried meant…


I’m pretty sure I asked my parents….
But it still was years later when it really meant something to me. It took time.


Like Jesus said,
“The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.


And you know what… it was fine that I didn’t know what it meant. I knew my parents knew what it meant - that they had put those beams there purposely for the good of the cabin. They were in fact supporting the very cabin.


We do not have to understand the works of God completely - to know that they are good - that they are supportive of us. So we give it over. We give over to our faith. And that relieves so much burden and worry.


As we say: Let us cast all our cares on you, oh God.


And Jesus speaks about the Kingdom in parables because it is beyond plain language. Parables help illustrate deeper Spiritual truths.


The first parable in this passage reads….


Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
basically whomever is planting doesn’t REALLY have any idea of how this all comes to be…no matter the science and the technology.


The Mystery of God is at the center of all things.


As the psalmist sings…


All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.


Life and death is our reality - but as Paul writes to the Corinthians we have confidence, “for the love of Christ urges us on… We are a new Creation…”meaning we no longer see anyone from a human point of view. A tall order: But remembering that we have died to Christ and are alive in Christ helps us to do as the collect says: walk and act with boldness, justice, and compassion like Christ… because Our seeds plant the Kingdom - and while God is at the center of all things….what we each do as co-creators with God really matters.


The parables about the kingdom are the most beautiful to me:
It is like the yeast that levens all of the bread.


It is like a treasure in a field - and we sell everything to buy that field.


It is like the pearl that we sell all our belongings to cherish…


“The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. [And]…


“when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Amen!

​

I think there is a subtle connection between these readings. They may come across as a bit harsh… but with further reflection they reveal the Trinity at work… (but let's just say it takes a bit of reflection!) We may feel a bit jolted by Jesus’ statement that to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin.


I recently heard of a survey asking young people what they thought of the church. Most of the responses even from those who grew up in the church, were that “you lost me.” - “I grew up in the church… and yet you didn’t make it understandable.” [1]


And worse: Some dismiss our faith as brainwashing, sleep walking, fear driven. This is certainly my generation’s general response. You aren’t seeing a lot of “Gen-Xers” in church.


But at the end of the story - one of the interviewees said…


“You may not have me now. Christianity is not aligning with everything else I’m learning about life… but that doesn’t mean you won’t ever have me.” [2]


Coming to understand Christ… for some of us it takes a lifetime. And some of us yearn for our family members to “get it now.”


…but coming to understand the meaning of Jesus is a journey. To quote Rohr:
“Even the Gospels seem to jump over Jesus’ thirty years of uneventfulness, paralleling midlife for most of us, during which all the seeds are planted for a later sprouting.”
In our Gospel, coming to understand Jesus was also something that obviously his generation is grappling with.


His mother, who is possibly his greatest supporter and witness hesitates here. It is the only time we see this behavior. Is she really questioning his sanity? Or -are she and his family trying to protect him from the harsher charge of belonging to Satan?…


This is occurring at a time when all we’ve heard about Jesus up until now, is his incredible ministry of healing.


The claim is that he is empowered by Beelzebul, which means King of the dungheap! Lord of the Flies; the devil; Satan!


Such accusation as Jesus sees it - literally goes against the commandments…


Thou shalt have no other God’s before me… And thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain… unforgivable…


And his statement emphasizes the ultimate claim that Jesus and his healing work is coming from God.
—--


The Gospel writer of Mark used a specific style for story telling. He sandwiched parables to get his points across when telling a story - “the meat of the message” is in the middle.


Jesus’s parable is about plundering the strong man’s house. “..no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.” He’s saying that that is what he is doing through the power of the Holy Spirit…


The Holy Spirit has bound Satan…and the dark forces are fleeing, being cast out, or turning on themselves…


He throws this parable into the middle of his teaching
that a divided house will fall  - and that those who suggest that his work is from Satan are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Because it’s Satan who divides. And it is Satan who is falling…


His logic is that Satan cannot cast out Satan. Only the work of God can do this!


Within this suggestion  -  is that the breakdown of the family is occurring in real time because look what this blasphemy on the part of the crowd has created:
Division.


And the Holy Spirit is about unity.
So, How does this apply to us?!


How did Jesus’ message get so turned on its head that so many only heard a message of unforgivable sin instead of his claim to family…that we feel we were born sinful and need to be baptized to be cleansed of sin?
This is what got so many of us lost….


Contrary to what many may believe about us blindly following Christianity out of fear…


If you read the catechism, our outline of faith in the Book of Common prayer never mentions that baptism saves you from going to hell - nor does the rite of Baptism. Instead it says that baptism makes us a part of the family of God. It reads:


“Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us
as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body,
the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.
The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with
Christ…birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.”


We are God’s family. Here is the union that Jesus was creating through his healings, the family he was building; what he meant when he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”


We are God’s adopted children. God’s time is eternal. And it may take some time for us to “get it.”
And while we may want our families to get it now… give it time…


Like our young interviewee said, the message of Jesus may not be lost on us forever.


Our stories remind us today that God is the creator of all things… the one who casts out Satan as the serpent… and also the one who calls to us in the garden he made, seeks us so that we may in turn find “him”…
Paul tells the community of Corinth…The Holy Spirit is working in us constantly even as we are passing away… “because we look not at what can be seen, but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”


… an eternal family in those eternal dwelling places…


And finally, from the Gospel: Jesus who commands us, heals us, forgives us, and breaks the chains of death… doesn’t work alone:


his life isn’t the story of a strongman. Jesus’ power is in the power of the Holy Spirit who casts away darkness and brings us into life.


That Spirit has been given to us and moves at the ground level. No matter the division we feel in our personal lives, we continue to plant the Spirits’ seeds through love and forgiveness in the lives of others…
Not matter the division we witness in a World struggling to wake up, we can be assured that the power of the Holy Spirit is also working to unite us.


This is our triune God, whom we worship because we are awake and in Awe, not because we are sleepwalking through life.


To end with one of my favorite lines:


“My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen for the morning, *. (Awake)
more than watchmen for the morning.”






1. This story was offered by Joy J. Moore
https://www.workingpreacher.org/authors/joy-j-moore


2. Again: I am paraphrasing Joy J. Moore here.

Today is Trinity Sunday!
We celebrate it now because the Holy Spirit has just been actively revealed through the experience at Pentecost. Expressing the Gift of the Spirit - Three in One. The Trinity.
Pentecost is celebrated with the color red. It represents the fire of the Spirit, the transformation of our hearts, and like blood - an inner vitality, that’s been gifted to us.




The Trinity is not that complicated really.
We are connected to God the creator of all things, seen and unseen.
God in Jesus came as one of us to give us this message,
And gifted us with the Holy Spirit who guides us into truth and love and peace.
It’s that simple really.
We do not need all of the complex theology wrapped up over so many years to believe that we are connected to the creator of all things: Loved
and called to Love.


Believe can really be translated into Beloved.


This is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus… who seeks him out after dark to discuss the teachings and the signs that Jesus was offering.


Nicodemus is a Pharisee; a religious leader, a scribe and a lawyer. He isn’t here to question Jesus’ validity, but rather to understand more. He approaches Jesus calling him Rabbi - and he says WE know that you are from God.
Different than other public accusations and pointed questions from religious leaders, this is a private and quiet moment of spiritual direction from one who seeks to understand what Jesus has to offer.


John 3:16 has been considered the foundation of the Gospel meaning the Good News at large:


“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”


Taken out of context, Sometimes this phrase is experienced - or used as a threat in our Christian evangelising…


But  importantly 3:17 goes on to say:
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”


Jesus came to teach us that we are saved through a great love that God has for us. And it is a big message of unification, communion and peace. It frees us.


There is no condemnation.
There is Love that is so great that it’s difficult to wrap our intellectual minds around it (as we have attempted to do for centuries).


It is a message of the heart. And it gets corrupted and confused when we try to only intellectualize it. That is a worldly response.


The Spiritual Direction conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is similar…


Nicodemus may be so caught up in the thinking aspects of theology by this time, the intellectualization…that he has lost the true message that sings from and to the heart of the matter: The heart of God.


Jesus says we need to be born anew, from above.
Nicodemus asks, “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”


It’s a seemingly rhetorical question…


But the word “womb” used here is also known figuratively as “the heart.”


The answer is yes. Not no…


We can be born anew, Yes - we can return to the “mother’s" heart.


Jesus offers spiritual direction to an already studied man. We all need to be born anew to remember the awe of God, not simply the law of God and theology - that humans have projected onto God - but the Holy Holy Holy part:


Richard Rohr writes,
"The Spirit is always a gratuitous gift. It’s always an unmerited favor. It’s always pure grace. Like wind, it cannot be seen…
[And echoing Isiah’s call in the temple] Like smoke, it cannot be controlled. The Spirit is elusive, blowing where it wills.


…Yet like fire, the Spirit can be felt. The Spirit is experienced as the warmth of God’s love. And like blood, it is experienced as an inner vitality…”


This vitality, this energy is available to us… freely given.


The Holy Spirit is not some quiet third of the Trinity… - It is the agency of our lives if we let it flow.


Like Nicodemus, Jesus directs us too - to the spiritual wonder. The Holy:


The voice of the Lord is the voice of Splendor.
The psalmist sings again and again of the voice of the Lord. 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; It Thunders. *The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; * … [And even with all this power, lastly] the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.


There is awe and wonder in response to the vastness of God. As our outline of faith states:
Awe as “Adoration is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, asking nothing but to enjoy God's presence.”


How do you marvel? And what makes you awed? What reveals the Holy, Holy, Holy in your life?


The Spirit didn’t just show up on Pentecost. The Spirit was revealed to many that day…but everything, everything in the World including Jesus came through the Spirit of God.


And each one of us deserves to have the kind of Spiritual Direction that Nicodemus received from Jesus…
…Receiving guidance in your Spiritual Life.
What prayer practices would animate you - what stories, what passages, what bits of psalms move you?


What is it about nature, art, sports, cooking or other activity that makes you marvel at the intricacies of life; the mystery; the glory of God? Where is Holy, Holy Holy in your life?


The question Jesus might ask is, Where is it stirring in you?
The Trinity is really not that complicated. It takes three aspects to describe the work of the Lord.


And since we are made in the image of God, we share in these aspects.
We too have the desire and ability to create, the call to love and forgive, and the vitality to live and move and have our being in the fullness of life.


It’s that simple really.

“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem…the crowd gathered was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked,…And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”


God didn’t have the crowd all suddenly understand one language. Instead God had one message sent out - that could be interpreted and understood in many languages!


This passage alerts us to the fact that Jerusalem was very diverse… perhaps we don’t think of it that way. And many people were gathered there celebrating Yom Kippur: “Pentecost” which means 50 days since Passover. Jesus celebrated Yom Kippur…which still is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community. It is the day of atonement. A day when people fast and pray and atone for their sins of the previous year.


Theologian Richard Rohr has written about Atonement as “at-one-ment.” He splits up the word to express how sin as separation from God is repaired through atonement. This at-one-ment means we are united again with God and one another through meditating on how we are divided from God and one another - and how we spend time through prayer not as punishment - but to see where we have fallen away from one another and our selves in God.


So here we are in Jerusalem with everyone gathered to atone…
And a strong wind arrives as the Holy Spirit…and alights upon the apostles who can now speak in many different languages.
To communicate the message…
Can you imagine…. That moment…


This diverse gathering all hearing a message of Jesus’ teachings - and the gift of the Holy Spirit present here to guide us_”


Three thousand people were baptized that day.


It is an event of “at-one-ment.”


And it is written that the fellowship of believers that came together from that moment, held everything in common; they sold their possessions - and fed the poor; they broke bread together; they worshipped and shared the teachings of Jesus with “glad and sincere hearts.”


This was their response to the message from the Holy Spirit they heard in many languages - this was what “saved” them from what Peter called “a corrupt generation.”
They found at-one-ment in their very life style - a way to be saved from the cruelty and competitiveness of a corrupt World.


So many people from so many different nations brought together through a message of love. This is what saved them…the Holy Spirit at work in the World through them…
Before…Christianity was a formal religion
Before technology
Before Face book…


They were Tribal (who perhaps like today in our Facebook world) only heard stories about the “other”
through biased claims.
and unexperienced connection.


But at that Pentecost and Today we learn
The Holy Spirit is here with us.
Our guide who asks us to listen
(Without the tv
Without FB)
To listen
To one another -


And remember Jesus said, “when two or three are gathered in my name I am with you.”


There is this third force always with us
If we tune in.


The Spirit of Truth doesn’t speak to us in one language.
Just as it didn’t speak to the people of Jerusalem in one language.


But in many. I think it is a mistake to believe that our unity as followers of Jesus is dependent on whether we will all think alike.


But instead to have a “singlenesss of heart” - that devotion to Christian hope and love which opens us up to a higher calling.


Listening allows us to be opened up to that presence -
That third force that is always with us
Guiding us into communication…
because it offers us a “third way” - out of polarized thinking and responding.


We may tune into the Holy Spirit’s guiding force when we take a stance of wishing to come from a place from “above” - To
Elevate our level of Perception
Elevate our level of participation
Elevate Our level of communication
The Holy Spirit is all about communication…available to guide from this higher calling: God working through us in the World.


As Father Mac said last week the Book of Acts has no ending because we continue the book of Acts…through communion with the Holy Spirit.


Rather than it being known as the “Acts of the Apostles” it has also been named “the Acts of the Holy Spirit”… because all that is good, all the power of the apostles, all of their healings; and communicative connection is prompted by the power of the Spirit.


And we have been given that gift.


Joy in the presence of Jesus, as I spoke about a couple of weeks ago - is maintained through Joy in the Holy Spirit.


The promise of the Spirit and the joy that follows links Jesus’ final words to his disciples before his ascension … and then picks right up in the beginning of Acts… as we see the joy that both new converts experience - as well as the joy that the already established group experience gathering more (as scripture tells us “their numbers increased daily”).




This is part of our hope…As Paul says in Romans, we do not hope for what is seen.
It is in hope that we are saved. Hope is not a feeling - it is a continuous act; a singleness of heart.


It is the drive toward something (perhaps not yet attained) but nevertheless promises us the Kingdom to come.


The Spirit helps guide us through this process of hope.


So in St. Paul’s famous words:
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in
believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Romans 15:13

In the name of the one who creates us, loves us, sustains us…


Jesus says … “abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you”


So often we overlook the joy Jesus brings to us …we are focused on his difficult and controversial conversations, his important healings, his sacrifice…It all seems very serious…


But when I was in seminary I wrote a paper on Joy in the presence of Jesus - and through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.
Joy in the presence of Jesus begins when he is still in the womb… when John the Baptist jumps for joy in Elisabeth’s womb when Mary comes to visit her. Mary herself rejoices at the news of Jesus which we hear in the Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”


Joy in the presence of Jesus is found throughout the gospels… and now that we are traveling through Acts, Joy is found throughout the healing work of the disciples through the Holy Spirit!


This "command" to love one another is not disciplinary. It is about finding true Joy - and "joy complete" as Jesus describes…
Love explicitly expressed through Joy: the love of our children, the love of one another, the love of stranger, the love of God living through us.


We know what joyful children are like. They are usually engaged, sharing …in play, or collaborating on a project.


We adults are not so different than they are!  But we get caught up in being “grown up” - busy with agendas and time constraints and we forget the joy that comes from being present to one another….


This is why Jesus calls his disciples "little children" because we need to be reminded to have a beginner's mind and a beginner's heart for "joy complete.”


To have a beginner’s heart and mind is to be present to our surroundings - to the little things in life - and to others without a jaded perspective.


Today in Acts, the disciples and the other Jewish believers are So overcome with the Gentile expression of extolling God - praising and rejoicing - that Peter baptizes them on the spot! He is so excited for them - and seeing the Holy Spirit working in them!


On a personal note one of the very special things about Craig - was that he was joyful. Not just that - he was so enthusiastic about his friend’s successes. I have never met someone who could get so excited about the projects his friends were engaged in. He told me all about them - And he told them! He let them know they were doing something good and important - and he was excited for them. It was such a life-giving quality that he shared….


And a true abiding with the joy of God - who creates us to rejoice in the World.


Now that we have learned vital lessons about surviving into adulthood - we can let some of our preconceived notions about the World wane. They are not always true actually - and in new circumstances we can simply be projecting onto other people.


We aren’t going to lose anything by opening up our hearts. We are going to gain the World. As John says in his first letter,


“”…This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.”


The very first time Jesus sends out the disciples…
They return from healing the sick and casting out demons! And we are told, Jesus jumped with joy! He literally spins around in exultant praise at their success.


To quote Kate Bush: “Jesus must have had a beautiful smile.”


Remembering to have Jesus’ joy in us as we experience the successes of others is vitally important to our growth in community - our unity - and our abiding in the love of God.


We are in a joy soaked universe if we can do as Jesus says, and let his joy be in us.


In our study of the outline of faith - we’ve been delighted to re-read that we belong to a universe that is good - the next line asks… What does that mean about our place in the universe? what this means - and I quote:  “the world belongs to its creator, and that we are called to enjoy it”


Today the psalm speaks of nature itself rejoicing


Let the rivers clap their hands, *
and let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord…"


Joy is not relegated simply to Christ’s birth narratives… joy eternal is meant for Easter and for us …


Complete joy is to know that Jesus’ joy is in us, even as we struggle. It is foundational to our charism as Christians. It is foundational to our relationships.


Maintaining joy is not always easy. That’s why it is so helpful to remember that God is working inside us. Lean into that idea that Jesus’ joy may sustain you through the tough times.


This passage from John is actually happening during that Gospel’s version of the Last Supper. There isn’t a Eucharist, as in the other three Gospels. Instead, there is this long teaching about abiding in God’s love… And Jesus explaining that he is sending us the Holy Spirit. Even on this frightening evening - the joy that Jesus has is not extinguished.


To have Christ’s joy is not to always be "happy go lucky”… to stick our heads in the sand about what is going on in the World…but rather to have a true sense that all shall be well - and all things shall be well - As St. Theresa of Avila said.


That stance allows us the joy of being in the moment - working through the moment with the assuredness of our ultimate place in the universe.


Some of us use the mantra: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.


Sometime you might try: “I can do all things through Christ who rejoices in me.”


Teach the children that joy is foundational to our faith - to being a Christian - to being human.


We adults have got this; we can handle things pretty well... so now, let's “let go” a bit - and let Jesus' joy in us fill our activities… our interactions, and Jesus calls it “the lamp of our eye!”
From our Eucharistic Prayer D, let us pray:


Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all
things and fill them with your blessing; and you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance. we acclaim you, and glorify your Name.

Amen!

Jesus said to his disciples, ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower…Abide in me as I abide in you…
I am the vine, you are the branches.


I love this image and how it dovetails into John’s letter…


Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.


The Vine of God is immense. We might have a romantic idea of a thin vine that carefully navigates the border of a drawing or book of text.


We may imagine a spindly growth that we are just trying to deter.
But last weekend Billy and I spent at least an hour dealing with an invasive vine overcoming the forsythia in the rectory yard. They may seem spindly, but they are not - it reaches out its tendrils to incorporate all; whether it is tree or post or wall.


Vines are not actually like neat calligraphy on a family  tree. Vines are robust. Vines use tendrils and holdfasts and words that sound kind and gentle (if they are where we want them to be). If they are actually for support.


The vine of life: God’s vine reaches out to all. Think of the vineyards vine - the power in that metaphor - the extent and breadth of its vision!




That Love is immense… and this is what Philip and the other disciples have been asked to tend. They have been asked to reach out their branches to all the nations.
It is a dangerous time in the Gospel. Stephen has just been stoned to death; a persecution rose up against the church in Jerusalem and scattered them throughout Judea and Samaria. Saul (St. Paul himself before his conversion) is busy going door to door and arresting both men and women followers of Christ.


Brave Philip goes down to Samaria to continue spreading the Gospel. Today we hear of this joyous encounter with the Eunuch. We are told it occurs on a "wilderness road" between Jerusalem and Gaza. Wilderness roads play important roles in many of our readings. They are in-between spaces, often dangerous, and the stories display "the workings of God outside of human boundaries and conventions."(1)


The Eunuch too, is an individual who inhabits a body and a role outside of average human convention. Eunuchs held a role in society, but they were often slaves and servants who worked closely with royal women - and who were castrated with or without their consent. We can’t be sure in every case. But regardless, they are inhabiting bodies that have been altered.


And this Eunuch is also certainly an outsider to Philip’s clan. He is neither entirely Jewish nor Gentile. He is from Ethiopia; and while he is an entrusted servant, he nevertheless is a servant, a eunuch, and quite different from Philip.


But Philip trusts, as the first letter of John states: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us.”


An angel of the Lord sends Philip to the Eunuch who is on the road reading Isaiah - and the Holy Spirit tells Philip to “join him.”


So Philip does… he runs up alongside the chariot - and he asks him whether he understands what he is reading. The Eunuch says, not without someone to guide me... "And he invites Philip to get in and sit beside him.”


What trust they had - What a leap of faith on a dangerous road for these two strangers to connect.


Philip takes a leap of faith to continue his ministry…. And to extend guidance to a stranger on the road - and the Eunuch in turn extends hospitality. It is very intimate. You can imagine the two sitting side by side in a chariot discussing scripture and the message of Jesus “the messiah” with such excitement!
The Eunuch is so taken with Philip's evangelism, that he asks to be baptized on the spot!


"What is to prevent me...?" he exclaims.


He hears and he understands that it is good - and he takes a leap of faith...and Philip is there to greet this "outsider" as a full member of the Body of Christ. Their trust turns what might have been an isolated wilderness journey into a unitive joyous event.




Many people are still metaphorically on a wilderness journey. People who feel cut off from the vine. Today this passage particularly resonates with the transgender community - and the Episcopal Church is celebrating their inclusion this month. It brings hope and consolation, that we all may abide in the Love of God.


I'm bringing this forward today, because I want you to know the church you are a part of. It is not simply a political or moral issue. The Episcopal Church, unlike many other churches, believes it is an issue of Love.


Love in God is about abiding… and Resurrection life is about trust and unity - and remembering that God's LOVE is always greater than our human boundaries, conventions and expectations!


Today many of us are concerned about what is happening with young people and issues around transgenderism. We are concerned rightfully about our youth having surgeries too early. We can remember the trials of junior high and high school clearly. Puberty is rough.


Regardless of how the politics and medicine around transgenderism evolves, these issues of identity and how we present are real, and personal, and connected to our relationship with God. And so we must trust.


The Episcopal Church is inclusive, Thanks be to God!


We believe transgender individuals were created transgender by God.


And since 2012 transgender individuals have been fully accepted into the ordination process. We are a church with transgender clergy.


….As the Eunuch says
“What is to prevent me?”
And rightly so, our church says: Nothing!


We must remember, fear has not reached perfection in Love.


And The Episcopal Church is working to perfect Beloved Community.


Perhaps the Eunuch was trusting of Philip because his Queen entrusted him with her treasury. Trust builds trust. And that trust allowed something beautiful to emerge - and blossom into Baptism and discipleship: as wholeness into life-giving community.


The Eunuch was converted, but so are we through a story of unitive and abiding Love.


“For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
he rules over the nations.”


The Lord the Giver of Life - and Life in Abundance!


Jesus said,
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”


All of the disciples of God in love -  in us provide the support - the tendrils and the branches of this vine that is meant to spread to all peoples.


Amen.


​

Each year on the 4th Sunday of Easter we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.


Shepherds are less familiar to us today, while they are still abundant around the world in less industrialized areas. Many of us only associate shepherds with Christmas stories and pageants. It is a comforting image. And I think our reading from John today offers much more comfort.


In the first Century, there were shepherds who worked in big areas along with other shepherds. A single pen might hold several flocks. The sheep knew their shepherd’s voice amidst many other shepherds.
And, a Good Shepherd knows a sheep’s voice. Like a child in a group of others - or crying out from a nursery: the parent recognizes their individual child’s voice. It was a kinship relationship.


This is why we relate Jesus to the shepherd who knows your individual voice; hears you - and is looking out for you.


We may not always feel that in our moments of panic or pain… but you are known individually.


Good Shepherd Sunday is a reminder that Psalm 23 (while we often recite at funerals is not about death) but it is about Life.


It is about eternal life!
This Sunday is placed in Easter Season, because we are looking forward to the ascension. We believe that Jesus laid down his life for us as a shepherd does for his sheep- and something very significant happened.


The World was forever changed.


In our passage Jesus says that like a good shepherd he lays down his life for the sheep: His soul and his spirit, not simply this earthly life, but he lays it all down: his eternal life.


And eternity has no bounds. Jesus’ love for humankind has no bounds.




Before Jesus is risen… We have this tradition that he descended to the dead (as we say in the creed) and broke the chains of hell - and closed the gates of hell - and raised everyone up from the depths who had not yet seen his revelation - raised them up to be brought into the flock. It is called the Harrowing of Hell.


Personally as a child I found this very comforting: that you wouldn’t be going to hell, because Jesus had gone down to close it up - and raised those who there out of that separation from God… pulling them all into the fold; To be named; to be healed; and brought into the abundance of communal life!


This was helpful - very comforting for me, and it still is to this day…


This idea - there is a God who searches for me  - even when I am lost - unable to even find myself…And that I belong through him (along with many others) in an abundant life. It is a life that transcends death - and connects us across the ages.


A second very important and comforting piece of John’s Gospel, is that Jesus tells us that he has the power to lay down his life and pick it back up again….by his own mastery. John uses the word “authority” - which also translates into power and skill and mastery.


Jesus establishes his life for the sheep. The sheep are his purpose. We are his very purpose. In the Greek to “lay down” - is also translated as “established." He created a new foundation; a new relationship between God and humans.


Often we only think of laying down his life in terms of the sacrifice of the crucifixion, rather than in terms of this new foundation that he is establishing…


And we may have wondered and cringed at the words of the Eucharistic Prayer…why would God ask him to suffer upon a Cross??


I don’t think that’s what was asked of Jesus. I believe he was asked to lay down his life for humanity; to establish a new foundation. What transpired in these efforts was that Jesus was crucified.  Do you see the difference? I think it is very important and also comforting.


He has accepted, what he been commissioned to do by God - Yes, he offered himself in obedience to God’s will… but this is not simply about martyrdom.
This is about a new foundation for the World of love and healing which Jesus comes to establish in this life.


And in the horror of the crucifixion we see the new foundation play out because this new foundation is affirmed in the resurrection and ascension.


It is God receiving and also forgiving all human trespasses willingly. The crucifixion was human will and Jesus’ offering freely given, as he in God knows that God will not lay down retribution, but will establish reconciliation.


To be seated at the right hand of God, means that Jesus brought humanity into heaven.




Our outline of faith affirms that Jesus (fully Human and fully God) was not only bringing God to live among us as flesh and blood, but through his ascension he brought humanity to God in this realm we refer to as heaven; To co-exist; In intimate familial kinship.


These spaces in eternity do not occupy different time. They co-exist. This was not simple martyrdom, but a cosmic act that changed the shape of the universe.


A new foundation:


The Lord of your life knows you and loves you. God is alive and God is present. Hear the call of the shepherd who calls you to kinship in a kingdom of love.


You belong with this flock. Christianity is about belonging. It is not about membership. To me these differences are very clear. We may be an organization that calls people to be members of our flock… but our community is open. We are not exclusive. We are members - members of the body of Christ, which is vast and eternal and cosmic in scope.


Jesus says, I am the gate. And there is no better comfort than to know that we are welcomed in - and free to roam in these pastures - of eternal love.


Amen.

Jesus is risen!


And I love that Luke’s gospel tells us that all of the disciples were afraid… instead of just singling out Thomas!
It is more believable. Because most of us would probably be afraid - most of us would be doubtful -


What you don’t hear in our Gospel passage today, is that the disciples have already claimed, “It is true! The Lord has risen!” But even as they are proclaiming it, they are in shock and disbelief and afraid.


If you notice our Gospel has broken the first sentence in half. -
What proceeds this section is the story of “The Road to Emmaus” in which Jesus meets two disciples on their way, and reveals himself to them in the breaking of the bread.


Afterward, it says,
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. 36 While they were still talking about this/ While they were still talking about this Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”


They are terrified that he actually appears. All of the disciples are afraid. They think they are seeing a ghost. But Jesus says to them, Don't be afraid. Touch me.




Last week Fr. Mac spoke about our culture's general disbelief in the resurrection, as we fail to believe what we cannot understand - even as science continually demonstrates to us that there is much we cannot understand or see that makes our bodies, our world, and our universe animate. In fact we cannot see or understand most of it! 


Jesus's invitation to "touch me" is a direct call to our humanity.


Among all of the things that God has created "seen and unseen" (as we say in our outline of faith) we as humans know touch as the most intimate way to know - to connect. Scientists and Doctors tell us that Touch is necessary for us to thrive. Jesus says "Touch me." 


Jesus said: ”I have come so that you may have life.
and have it abundantly [to thrive]. " (John 10:10-11)


Jesus brings us his Peace
That is what the resurrection is about - how it animates our lives now.


The resurrection is about power over death… but sometimes we stop there… we fail to continue to move in that direction - into the reality of it. This is not a one time event. It is about life! It is present.


The resurrection is about Thriving. This morning in Acts, Peter refers to Jesus as the “Author of life!”


…This daily concept of an ever-present resurrection written into the fabric of our lives. The Word made flesh…


Resurrection is something that is helpful for us in defining what we are doing - and where we are going - how we participate in “life giving” activities for ourself -and for others.


To remain open to this ever-present reality offers us the Peace that Jesus gives.
We all need peace in our hearts - and peace in our minds. If we are open to this outlook on life - take this stance… then we will thrive.
I don’t mean to “tune out” to have peace. That is not the stance.


We need to remember this gift of Peace and attempt to bring an openness to the turbulence in our lives; in those we love who create grief; And even to those we may consider our enemies.


There is peace in prayer. There is power in prayer - not that we always get the outcome we hope for in a World that offers us so much to worry about… but prayer brings consolation. The hope of the resurrection is around us to glean, if we take this stance.


To know something is to participate in it. 
And at this moment in our Gospel, the Disciples have heard about the resurrection, but they also need time to participate in it. Hence the doubt and fear.


But what they do - do (which is why we are gathered here together today) is to act on it - to live into it; to participate in it through their own embodiment.


Because of them, we come together to touch the “Author of life” each Sunday. Our Eucharistic language refers to this as the holy mystery made known to us in the spiritual food of the Sacrament.


We reenact our union with God and one another each time we do this. What -we- come -to -know about the resurrection is embodied. It becomes very real even as we may not fully understand the mysteries of life.


Those who do not participate in faith community may still wrestle with this "lack of assurance.”
Fear and Doubt is almost always a fallback stance when we are confronted with something we don’t understand, or cannot see, or have not experienced.


...But to know the Love and Peace of God is to participate with God.


We take the stance. As James Finley writes:
To do this, “I will not play the cynic. I will not break faith with my awakened heart. I know… that I am graced by what transcends and permeates every moment of my life.”
                                
The resurrection is embodied through this stance through us. It wasn’t only the mission for the first disciples to claim…


It’s also for us to do…


Why don't we invite those friends and family, the PV community to participate:


to “Touch and See.”


And then they will also know.
Amen.