On Friday we marked Epiphany: The visit of the Magi to the Christ child. And today we celebrate The Baptism of our Lord. Epiphany is not transferred to today. We have two special days back to back and they are paired for a reason.
“…when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” This is a Trinitarian moment Father, Son, and Holy Spirit calls on our senses. It invites us to hear God’s voice, see the Holy Spirit and feel the movement of Jesus coming up out of the water! It invites us to use our senses. Otherwise it is quite difficult to wrap our minds around the Trinity. Our Trinitarian understanding of God may not easily be captured by the mind alone, or as one image. Primarily because as this moment expresses: the Trinity is the ever dynamic movement of exchange. It was actually described as a circle dance by the earliest of Christian thinkers; Perichoresis. Our Fourth Century theologians, The Cappodocian Fathers, described the Trinity as an ever out pouring, self-emptying flow of love. This dynamism. It is the exchange between God: Creator Love; Son: Human Love; Spirit: Returning Love. That redemptive Love that returns us to God through love working and moving in the world. It requires all of our senses. In this baptism imagery, We see it, hear it, feel it. With all aspects of the Trinity in motion we are given a true picture of the dynamism of our God. Recently in our Wednesday study of Julian of Norwich we read a section she entitled Sensuality. She wrote: “At the very moment that our Soul is made sensual, the dwelling of God is established, divinely placed within us since before the beginning of time.” She really captures Jesus’ constant teaching that “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.”… Jesus says, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Believing in Jesus is the same thing as believing about Jesus:’ following in the character and way of Jesus. Allowing Jesus this indwelling. God in you, and you in me, and I in you. We hear from Peter in Acts that all those who believe in the character, the name of Jesus, and who are living justly, will be forgiven for their sins. Jesus is ordained judge The way of Jesus is into right relationship, with God… Righteousness as it is called in the Bible. The covenant with God is about being in relationship. This emphasis on Righteousness shows up in our Gospel passage today too. John the Baptist at first doesn’t think that it is his place to baptize Jesus. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? But Jesus says, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” John the Baptist protests that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. So what is this righteousness? In the Old Testament righteousness is about trust and faith in God, not about perfection. The whole thing is really about being in right relationship with God, rather than pretending to somehow be perfect. Jesus joins others in the Baptism of John to be in right relationship with God and Others. Returning to Julian Of Norwich, Another question that came up for us in our Wednesday study related to the gift of the Holy Spirit at Baptism…While we also hear from Jesus and the mystics that we have had the Holy Spirit from birth… that the Spirit breathed life into us.. and our souls become the dwelling place of God. So which is it? Baptism is a rite. It is one of our sacraments. We define sacraments as the outward sign of an inward grace. They are a ritual to mark what already is. Baptism means we are recognizing what already is seeded in us and what we are making a commitment to live out. Like marriage as the sign and commitment to our love which is already there. Baptism is recognizing that indwelling of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit already there, already brimming with potential. For infant baptism, it is the community and family making the commitment to help the child live into this identity to the fullest… to be in relationship with God. We are in the Season of Epiphany. This Sunday is called the First Sunday after the Epiphany and The Baptism of our Lord. On Friday we celebrated Epiphany as the Wise Men (the Magi) arrive in Bethlehem to seek out and honor the Christ Child born in a manger. It is a story full of excitement: danger, dreams, prophecy and miracle. It is also connected with the word epiphany itself which we use year round to express a sudden insight. The word comes from the Greek, meaning “revelation from above.” Generally, when we have an “epiphany" it is a great idea that surprises us. It often comes suddenly and with the power to shift our perspective, illuminate a situation, even change our minds. It is an awakening. Epiphanies usually happen when we are problem solving…we are trying to figure something out, and a light bulb goes off in our heads; awakening us to a new possibility. Epiphany for us marks the new way of the Christ Child. The problems of humanity will be solved through a new revelation. Like the Magi (who do not return to Herod who had plans to kill the Christ child). Our wise men will not sell out to leaders through perpetuating cycles of violence.They will find another “route.” We will begin to follow "the way" led by the Prince of Peace. Our vision, is that Like Mary and Joseph, we will start to embrace the epiphany that God may be made manifest through us; And Like the shepherds we will announce to one another that joy and love are our inheritance. The Gospel of Matthew fast forwards us from the Magi’s visit to Jesus’ as a two year old, to his Baptism as a grown adult. These two feast days are paired for a reason. Jesus (our Epiphany ) comes down to the Jordan and at his baptism, we hear: Look! See: the Holy Spirit! Listen: You are the Beloved! Touch the living water. Use all of your senses to be engaged, to be awake, to be present. And be one with others. Jesus goes down to the river to be baptized with everyone else. He doesn’t stand apart, aside, or above. Jesus immerses himself in the creation completely. He immerses himself in the waters of creation and in humanity. He is immersed in his senses. He places himself in the muddy waters of the Jordan with a wild and unruly prophet, and with all of the other people seeking forgiveness. And like at the beginning of Creation: God said “it was good.” “In you I am well pleased.” Echoing Isaiah: Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. Jesus did not take on human form to teach us perfection, but to teach us belovedness, justice, mercy… and the divine and dynamic flow of that work in our lives. Epiphany reminds us of this Revelation. That each day we may recommit to this righteous path that we have inherited. And Jesus’ Baptism reminds us to live in this dynamic flow of love that Christ came to reveal. In the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
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Tonight we celebrate the word made flesh! …the Word of God made incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the Word. Tonight we celebrate The Spirit of Truth inhabit the Material. It is a sign from God of our completeness, the gift of what true humanity looks like and what we are meant to grow into.
Tonight we receive the gift of God’s promise of Salvation - The Christ child: The angel of the Lord said to the shepherds: “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” What a story! A story of completeness: to be utterly connected with God… God showing up as one of us demonstrates for us the deep desire to be connected with us completely. To be in direct communication. One of my favorite lines is from psalm 27: When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” The incarnation demonstrates that while we seek to know God, God seeks to be fully human. We are wrapped in a love affair: Wrapped up like swaddling clothes. The shepherds see a great light and an angel of the Lord tells them"Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” The bands of cloth Mary wrapped Jesus in create what we refer to as swaddling, and what other translations of this passage call “swaddling clothes.” The bands create an embrace, like being in the womb; a cocoon of comfort. Swaddling keeps an infant from flailing around; hurting themselves; scratching themselves with those tiny, sharp little fingernails. God comes to us this way: needing swaddling, consolation and protection. In doing so, God says to us your human frailty, your vulnerability is God-given, loved, blessed, part of the divine nature! And in mutuality it is God’s embrace that offers us consolation and keeps us from flailing about. This tiny infant Jesus whom we welcome, grows up to embrace us in different ways with his healings and with his teachings, forever reminding us: When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Throughout the scriptures, Jesus sees us often in our flailing about, and he blesses, heals and forgives. His swaddling embrace comes with teachings to try to keep us from hurting ourselves and one another. Jesus demonstrates for us the love of humanity while he directs us through so many parables to answer the question: What does it mean to seek God’s face? Jesus sees God’s face in us…struggling to grow into our full humanity. Jesus sees every circumstance as a way to lead us into reconciling relationship: Incarnated Love. “This Messiah is to bring great joy to all people (not just those who look like me, or think like me, or think like us). God so loved the World.” (not specific politics, ideologies, colors, cultures, genders, or races) but flesh and blood: everlasting spirit and frail material united. We celebrate God breaking into history through the incarnation, into frail humanity to help us love our own incarnation: To be that connected. To teach us Peace. God’s word is enfleshed in Jesus’ life. “The word became flesh and lived among us.” What we mean is that Jesus’ life is the teaching of God. That’s why we say, we follow in his footsteps and can say in certain circumstances: “What would Jesus do?”; “What would Love do?” We don’t always do, nor want to do what Jesus demonstrated even when we desperately want to be like him, a loving healing presence. As we celebrate the light of God entering the World, It is important to remember the story tells us Jesus was born in the midst of genocide. He lived during a time of tyranny and war. God sought us in that time. And still seeks our face, our humanity today. We have the hope and the light of Christ. And all shall be well in our lives in God. But on earth we have not yet learned to hammer our weapons into plough shares. In 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr said “if we are to have peace on earth and goodwill toward men [it] is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God. And so when we say “Thou shalt not kill,” we’re really saying that human life is too sacred to be taken on the battlefields of the world. …Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such. Until men see this everywhere, until nations see this everywhere, we will be fighting wars. [He said] One day somebody should remind us that, even though there may be political and ideological differences between us, the Vietnamese are our brothers, the Russians are our brothers, the Chinese are our brothers; and one day we’ve got to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. Because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow, there is neither bound nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus.” This Christmas I turned to the voice of MLK, because he reminds us that Christ’s salvation comes whenever we look into one another’s face and seek the incarnation of God’s love. Peace comes when we work at home to seek God’s face. And teach that lesson to our children. When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Christ’s salvation comes when our manifest spirits reach out to one another to protect and console. It is that redemptive swaddle that is our gift and our salvation. Every Christmas this tiny baby is our sign of God’s promise that can be ours now, and is everlasting: Salvation in the knowledge that we are flesh and blood and we are Spirit incarnate in a great love affair with God that is meant to be expressed with and for one another. Martin Luther King went on to say: “I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward men. It will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.” Scripture is full of poetry because it gives us images that are beyond what we can see or speak in regular language, but we know in our hearts sing true: “the morning stars will sing together, then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, * And “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace.” “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. “ May we feel his embrace this Christmas, and may we offer it to others. Merry Christmas! Today we have a birth narrative from Matthew. There is a lot packed into a very short passage. Not all of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ birth.
Mark starts his gospel at the Jordan River with John the Baptist. John begins with the word: The word made flesh, the light of the World…and John the Baptist who came to testify to the light. Luke also begins with the birth of John the Baptist but goes on to give us the lovely stories of the angel’s visits to Mary and Elizabeth and to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah. Matthew is the only Gospel to focus on the angel’s visit to Joseph. Joseph is the star of this Gospel passage. And there is a lot going on in Joseph’s story. Joseph’s story begins with this dream of an Angel’s visitation. And Joseph has many dreams that follow. Matthew’s Gospel approaches the birth of Jesus from the sure perspective that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. We are given this mysterious dream of the angel who tells Joseph that the child conceived in Mary’s womb is from the Holy Spirit. But just before this story, in our opening passage, is the genealogy of Jesus which reads as a list of names from Joseph going all the way back to Abraham and importantly going through the House of David. According to the prophets, the messiah is to come from the House of David. And this genealogy makes that very clear. It is important that Joseph is the father of this child to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah has foretold. It is also important that this child be from a young woman to fulfill the words the Lord spoke through the same prophet. The Lord gave Isaiah two realities. And we embrace these two realities as the Son of god and the Son of man. We say Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. The prophet says he is to be named Emmanuel which means “God with us.” Some say no one was caught more unaware by this mystery than Mary and Joseph themselves! But what they did with their mysterious circumstance is what helped bring love into the world. Mary said yes to this baby. And Joseph said yes to this baby against all odds. The angel told Joseph to name the child Jesus. Which means “God is your salvation.”So we also have two meanings in the names given to the Son of Man and the Son of God. God is among us, and very importantly God is a loving healing and saving God. (In case you have any doubts about what it will be like to have God with you.) You shall call him Jesus. Joseph goes on to have more dreams. Listening to God and his heart, I’m sure the resonance there, he plans for this child. After the Magi visit, Joseph is interrupted by yet another dream: “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” (Matthew 2:13). And Joseph does so. But again after settling in Egypt with Mary and Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to him again and instructed him to go back to the Land of Israel. Since Herod was dead, Joseph planned to go back to Judea; but just when they were about to reach the southern kingdom, learning that it was Herod’s son upon the throne, he had another dream and the Angel told Joseph to head north instead into Galilee. God chose to come into the world as a child. Not a powerful King equal to Herod… but as a vulnerable child who first needs our protection. Joseph goes to great lengths to protect his family. There is a famous quote I love by Meister Eckhart, “We are all meant to be mothers of God, because God is always needing to be born.” And the story of Joseph reminds us that “We are all meant to be father’s of God, because God is always needing to be raised up in this world.” Before he was raised up to God, Jesus needed to be nurtured and raised up on this Earth. When we think of immigrants, migrants and refugees it would be helpful to remember Joseph and Mary were refugees; loving parents traveling great lengths and against all odds to raise up Jesus. They were like many of the people who are trying to cross our southern border fleeing persecution, gang violence, communities with astounding murder rates and natural disasters. When we think of God among us: Emmanuel, it may be helpful to remember that Jesus does not provide an easy road, but requires us to take risks with a love like Joseph’s that will empower us. When we think of our own decisions, nudges or even dreams about what God is doing in our lives, it may be helpful to remember that unexpected challenges and turns in the road, may be God leading us in ways we cannot anticipate. God among us is only comforting because the reality of that concept wakes us up to the people around us. To the people we love and to the strangers we meet. When we think how difficult this all may be, it is helpful to remember that as as the body of Christ, we are doing this together. We represent God with us to our community. Jesus, “God with us” came to show us how to access the divinity within us (which is always to tap into that foundational love). It is our calling to be those mothers and fathers for others on this earthly journey. Matthew gives us the story of Joseph: A “righteous” man (as he’s named). In this story, he is a man who accepts this most incredible idea that the Holy Spirit has delivered to us a gift in the form of the son of man - who will show us what it means to follow in the steps of the Son of God. Who will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. God is with us from the beginning until the end of time. Matthew gives us a child in swaddling clothes. Each birth is miraculous. Even when a pregnancy is planned, I’d say many parents-to-be still marvel at how this really has come to be? New life. A whole new person for us to cherish and teach and lead in loving ways! We as the body of Christ are to continually raise up this divinity in each new child, through love, and in confidence. Matthew wants us to be fully confident in this message. For in the last line of this Gospel Jesus tells us “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Amen. Our Advent candle today traditionally represents Joy.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. We are awaiting this rich renewal. I love the passages that make the earth alive using human signs we can relate to: Mountains that skip, deserts that rejoice, flowers that sing, trees that clap their hands! This Advent we are awaiting with great expectation the signs of God’s presence. We are always seeking it… but Advent marks this renewal specifically. We are awaiting new birth. We are awaiting the signs of God breaking into the world… And today the Gospel raises the question for us: Will we recognize the signs? John the Baptist is the focus of two of our Gospels for Advent. Last week he was offering forgiveness and prophesying the coming of the Messiah. People were flocking to John - and to the Jordan River. "Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” All of Judea! This is a large population recognizing that forgiveness was essential to their identity, to their wholeness and to their relationship with God. To be forgiven of sins; to know we are okay. Truly. They needed this! What a gift! It was a sign. This is pretty bold of John on two levels. The tradition held that the community paid for forgiveness by purchasing animals for temple sacrifice. Not everyone of course could afford to do this. John is offering them free forgiveness. Remember how the religious authorities also told Jesus he was blasphemous for doing so “for only God can forgive sins.” Second, John is proclaiming that he heralds the coming of the Messiah. And this work of forgiveness is part of the plan for the coming of the Lord. John the Baptist had a huge following. He was raging against the machine. He was dressed in animal fur and living off of locusts and wild honey. He was living an extreme ascetical lifestyle to make the extreme point that society and the powers of the world were out of communion with God. John knew he was not the messiah… he was proclaiming the coming of another…baptizing people in the same river in which the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus… And the crowds were flocking to him to the dismay of the “powers that be.” Even that “brood of vipers” (as he called them) came to see what the stir was about… How halting: Forgiveness is disruptive to the status quo!…Forgiveness heralds the healing of so many places in ourselves and people in our lives. I have spoken of forgiveness in other sermons. Here it is at the very beginning of our Christian story. With the one who heralds the coming of the messiah. Our story does not only culminate with Jesus’ forgiveness on the cross. Our story begins with forgiveness. It’s a circle. And on the spiritual path we encounter stages of development. Practicing Forgiveness is essential to our identity as Christians. It is essential for hope, and it is foundational for recognizing the signs of God’s redeeming work breaking into the World. John has been imprisoned for his disruptive prophesying. Perhaps he is frightened. Perhaps he is unsure. He expected the messiah to be powerful. John was full of righteous judgment. That’s what animated his followers. He hears what Jesus is doing and sends word to him essentially asking "are you the one?” Jesus responds by saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” This is the powerful work of the redeemer that is built on a foundation of forgiveness… Indeed John, you have paved the way. Jesus sends good news to John. Hopeful news: Yes, indeed all of the things Isaiah prophesied and our psalmist sings: Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! * whose hope is in the Lord their God;.. 6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, * and food to those who hunger. 7 The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; * the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;… the Lord cares for the stranger; * he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. This is the dream for John in captivity. Here are the signs! Who knows what stories John is hearing in prison. Perhaps he wonders about a personal sign from Jesus. We all may wonder about this. John gives us the permission to doubt… and yet Jesus still praises John saying “among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.” In this doubting, the question arises: what are the signs of the Good News? And Are we looking for them? Recently I was speaking with someone who is very goal oriented in his spiritual life, well in his whole life. When he reviewed his goals for this year, he had achieved a lot of them, but while he could’ve broken out a glass of champagne to celebrate, instead he was overcome by the “when" and “where” God really showed up for him. This year he said God showed up in his relationships where unexpected holy moments had emerged. Working on relationships hadn’t been a particular goal for him. It was God’s hidden work showing up in unanticipated ways. “Goals or no goals” God was present. In his efforts to seek out God, he was “heralding in, paving the way.” Reflecting on these experiences freed him. What does freedom look like for you? What parts of you are imprisoned? Would forgiving yourself or someone else set you free? What is the hope of God that we ask for this Advent? Certainly many of us doubt like John the Baptist when we struggle with our lives, our bodies, and what is going on around us. We have been waiting for the great disruption of the World as we know it. For peace for and love to prevail. In the Epistle this morning, James asks us to be patient, but more so, James’ patience can be translated as endurance. He speaks to us of waiting, but not simply waiting. His description of farming evokes work and persistence. James’ message follows suit with our Advent readings thus far, that have asked us to get ready, sows the seeds, be prepared, and then keep awake to the signs in this world of God’s love and renewal. Jesus shows up to show us the nature of God is Love. Interestingly he says, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” The world was scandalized by Jesus. How can one who shows up to heal be the one we’ve been waiting for? We want a great and mighty leader. And still today the world seems to want a great and mighty leader. Most people continue to be scandalized by a God that would come to identify with our suffering rather than magically end all suffering. How many times have you heard, “If there really was a God why is the world this way.” God’s love unites us in our suffering, strengthens us in that communion, and leads us into wisdom and truth. To me, the faces in this sanctuary are signs. Our work is to be patient with one another and ourselves. To forgive one another and our selves. To bring healing love into the world. This Advent let us embrace the joy of renewal. Here as a community together let us rejoice and sing. And let’s also think about what kind of renewal our neighbors need and their children seek? How can we, like John, make holy disruption in the lives of our community? …How can we be a sign of hope for them? Do our friends and neighbors understand that forgiveness, healing and love are at the core of our identity? Ask them? Ask them what signs they seek? And let’s ask ourselves how we can help pave the way…for Emmanuel breaking through: God Among us! This Sunday is the first day of Advent and the first day of our calendar year. We are awaiting two things: the birth of the incarnate God. And we are awaiting the Second coming of Christ!
The readings this week share imagery of light and the prophecy of Peace. Isaiah famously tells us that in the days to come God will be the great arbiter between nations: they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah’s final words to us are “Come let us walk in the light of the Lord.” And in the reading from Romans Paul encourages us to put on our armor of light: wake from sleep; wake from darkness. He says: “let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.” That sounds fairly doable, and yet we find ourselves struggling with quarreling - or battling feelings of jealousy. And certainly a war-torn world. So, How do we follow such instruction? The Gospel of Matthew goes on to get very personal with this teaching, by suggesting that "being awake to the light" is an internal activity. The story is puzzling. It tells us “Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” In our theology we believe in the first coming of Christ as the human Jesus walking among us. The second coming is when God and the earth are completely united. Although it is heralded by calamity, the Second Coming is anticipated with great expectation. Jesus asks us to practice keeping awake to the unity of God and earth made manifest: “when nation shall not lift up sword against nation.” In the Gospel, essentially, two people may appear from the outside as if they are engaged in identical tasks, yet in Jesus’ metaphor “one is awake” and “one is asleep” so to speak. Keeping awake as Jesus asks, will help us to know who we are and where we are. We do this in the context of our faith. We believe in a salvific reign of God. Meaning we believe in restoration of our world and of ourselves in the body of Christ. Jesus’ message to “Keep awake" is within the context of this greater vision: The Second Coming. What am I doing in this moment and how does that connect with my greater identity as God’s beloved? My life here-and -now, and the extension of that reality into the greater realm of God? “Keep awake” is a term Jesus uses several times. It also coincides with his instruction: “abide in me.” Keeping awake is a matter of presence. Practicing presence in our lives with our loved ones, with our chores etc., with other people in the workplace, and in daily errands, sheds light on God invisibly moving in our everyday activities. Whether it's washing our hands, or setting our phones down and looking at the face of our partner or child, practicing presence makes us more deeply connected to the revelation of life: we are here. We are incarnate, and made in God’s image! This is the Good News of the Gospel. Two things that we are celebrating in Advent: We are made in the image of God like Jesus…and made for a peaceable Kingdom: A kingdom of light that overcomes darkness. Tapping into this light makes us available to others: more compassionate, more discerning, more at Peace! When we are at peace with ourselves, it begins to extend to others. Throughout this chapter, Jesus goes on with more parables about being ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Readiness for God is not a quick fix prescribed by Jesus when we see or experience signs of upheaval. Instead readiness is training for this life. It is about seeing Christ in all that we do. We have a theology of the “already - not yet” Kingdom. We believe the realm of God is already here and yet unfolding. It exists as our foundation; we recognize that we are saved in Christ; and yet we suffer with the knowledge that it has not been fully realized in the World. We still have war. We still have quarrels. We still have violence. The second coming we are preparing for is God’s Peace in the World. All of Matthew’s parables that follow are about readiness in this "already not yet” reality we reside in. It culminates in the story of the “Coming of the King, The Son of Man.” At the end of this chapter Jesus explains what it will be like and why he is talking about separation of one woman from another and one man from another. I’m going to read it to you in its entirety because it help explain our passage this morning. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,g you did it to me.’ Jesus is telling us that Christ’s presence is here with us where we do not expect it, and when we do not expect it… in the poor, in the stranger, and in one another. Even while we experience the calamity of quarreling and jealousy, so much war, and so much violence, mass shootings, poverty and natural disasters; the church faithfully continues working through all of it, making Christ known in the World through loving, nurturing, outreach ministries and fellowship. It is within the calamity that we see the work of Christ in one another and for others. And we do this as individuals who make up the body of Christ. Peace begins at home with waking up to our families, to our neighbors, to strangers; tuning life into a stream of prayer, and faithful activity. This Advent, we are practicing wakefulness. I would ask you (if you don’t already) to say a prayer before you leave the house. Abide in Christ for just a moment. And when you leave the house you will leave wearing the armor of light. And it will touch others, as Jesus touched us, to help us usher in the Peaceable Kingdom. As Paul says, You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. Luke’s Gospel passage is set at the place called "The Skull”: it is the crucifixion of Jesus.
Jesus has been preparing the disciples (and us) for months; yet this event feels much too soon. It is shocking. We’re not ready. We desperately want to look away from the brutal execution. (As adults we may have even become inured to it as we live with hindsight and the knowledge of the resurrection.) But if we are willing to look closely, the crucifixion is where we see the cruel violence of the World conquered by compassion and forgiveness. We even speak of the tenderness and mercy of Christ in connection with this horrific event. How can this be? On Wednesdays our study group has delved into the writings of Julian of Norwich, a nun who spent her life exploring this very question. Julian lived during the plague of fourteenth Century England, and is thought to have been the first woman author published in the English language. Her writings are called The Showings. When Julian was about thirty she had a near death experience. While she was close to death the priest came into her room and placed a crucifix in front of her face. Julian had an intense experiential vision while gazing upon the crucifix, with several more visions to follow. She had what we call a "mystical experience.” Surprisingly Julian did recover, and she spent the rest of her life contemplating, reflecting and writing about the meaning of the crucifixion. Julian does not look away from the blood, the pain, and the suffering of Jesus. Actually, it is a deep dive into the gruesomeness of the crucifixion. While at the same time, her interpretation of these visions upon the cross are pregnant with the knowledge of Jesus’ love. Jesus’ love, faithfulness, companionship, forgiveness, tenderness and mercy. It flows unceasingly for us. The font of every blessing. PAUSE As we recited in the Canticle this morning: In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Jesus is broken open not only by human violence, but also through his heart given over completely to humanity. It is that break that allows new light to shine upon our very human predicament with tender compassion. If you are willing to look closely at the crucifixion, the dark forces of the World are not overcome solely by Easter Morning. They are overcome by and with the cross, where the intersection of humanity and divinity is fully revealed. Jesus empties himself completely and joins us in our humanity. The cross reaches both vertically and horizontally to bring heaven and earth into a shared point and purpose. Although I do not think of heaven as being in the sky, The Cross as intersection of humanity and divinity is central to our concept of who Jesus is and why he came for us. * We are not to feel guilty because Jesus died for us. It is unfortunately the message that so many received growing up in a church of penance. That is the church of human tendency. Not the church of God’s tenderness. We are affirmed by the very earliest of Christians, In the letter from Paul to the Colossians, that we are “rescued through Jesus who reconciles us to himself and forgives us of all of our sins.” Jesus empties himself upon the cross and offers forgiveness to the crowd and to the soldiers:“Father, Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Christ's voice still rings out today in the violence we perpetuate against one another, both globally and at home. The mission of the church as our catechism states, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.” That’s who we are. That’s what we do. The prophet Jeremiah also speaks of this reign of justice and righteousness; Against shepherds gone awry, against those who have scattered the flock. Another helpful way to view this prophetic vision is that it helps define what is and what isn’t the reign of God. We can therefore see the divisiveness and separation, the scattering occurring in our World has nothing to do with the true Kingdom. The Reign of this Kingdom is about justice and righteousness and Peace. We may think of Power as in complete control. But another way to look at power is to have agency: The activity. Paul tells us, “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power.” When we died with Christ through our Baptism our voices were meant to rise with his in a chorus of forgiveness and compassion. We believe in One Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. This one crucifixion & this one Baptism intersect on the Cross with forgiveness. We are made for this. Forgiveness for ourselves and for others is the way into Peace. As difficult as it may feel when we have been hurt, forgiveness works to release us from the torment of those abuses, just as Jesus was released from the torment of the cross. If we are willing to look closely at the crucifixion, we see the Resurrection is not a separate event. Together they are part of the fullness of his being. And our ascension from where we "dwell in the shadow of darkness” is also part of God’s fullness. We are made for this. We may not be able to change another’s behavior, just as Jesus did not change the behavior of the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, or the crowd that heckled him. But we can resist the temptation to further the cycle of trauma by forgiveness. Lead us not into temptation. forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgiveness is not about amnesia. It does not mean excusing the harm. It means release from the torment of grudges; release from our captivity to pain and anger and revenge. The crucifixion is where we witness this release. This outpouring of love. Baptism for our forgiveness from sins is a sacrament: We call sacraments an outward sign of inward Grace. The inward activity (agency) of that Grace involves loving. Loving ourselves and loving others. We need to begin with loving and forgiving of self so that we can pour it out for others. Most of us struggle with loving ourselves. We want to turn away from what we feel ashamed of. We often were given the idea as children that we had to show only our perfect selves to God, so we hid the things about ourselves that didn’t feel perfect. We trained to hide from God because none of us is perfect. In Julian’s writings, she reminds us that we are going to miss the mark. Often. And God loves us anyway. In Jesus we see that invisible God seeking after us always. Offering compassion to those thieves suffering with him: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” You who have missed the mark. You who have sinned by your own admittance. You shall be with me in Paradise. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. Christ’s Kingdom was revealed through Jesus’ healing ministry even unto death. He was healing those hanging beside him. Christ's Kingdom was revealed in forgiveness poured out from the cross. Christ’s Kingdom was revealed in Jesus’ humanity for humanity. Like Julian of Norwich, and like Paul, perhaps if we are willing to look closely into the crucifixion, not for penance, but for strength…. We will see where it intersects with our lives and sets us free. Remembering it daily when we say: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. In the Gospel this morning the disciples are exclaiming about the beauty of the temple. Jesus responds with a story about impermanence. All of this will eventually be thrown down.
Essentially: Do not confuse this human-made lavishness with eternity. Eternity belongs to God. This does not mean that Jesus was against the Temple the Holy Place. When he enters Jerusalem a couple of chapters before this scene, he weeps at the state of things. He sees the corruption of the society. He prophesies its destruction. But Jesus continues to spend time in the temple teaching. And fter his ascension in the book of Acts the disciples continue to pray in the temple. Actually they return to the temple with great joy, praying unceasingly. So we know that Jesus was not against the temple, but that Jesus was about God’s Kingdom (not of this world) and ascension. And the story points to that deep truth, that structures of this world will pass away, literally need to pass away, in order for transformation to occur… It is a message that connects us to our deepest human truth: Our physical bodies pass away in order for the Spirit to ascend. In that process there is a “letting go” required throughout our lifetime. We often do this kicking and screaming. Change can be very difficult for us. When the structures we rely on, shift. When our own understanding of things is challenged, or when are bodies are injured or start to age… Our egos require letting go. Our bodies start to fail us. We begin to recognize we are not permanent. But we are a resurrection people. There are little deaths we withstand as we practice letting go: Asking for help Developing humility Recognizing our own weaknesses; Little persecutions Little persecutions are also when our families and friends or even strangers disregard our faith. We might think of them as the persecutions Jesus names. These moments can feel like little deaths as we may suddenly feel cut loose, misunderstood or even ridiculed for our faith. (Our metaphors and rituals that point to a greater reality in God are deep and often misunderstood.) We can handle these little deaths (all of them, social and physical ) because we have already embraced a Larger Death. In our Baptisms we speak of of dying with Christ. We have died to the world and have been risen to a new life in God. We believe in that higher love as both our foundation and our eternity. The pains, the disappointments of this world cannot really touch us, because our Souls belongs to God. Jesus prophesies, “some of you will be put to death, but not one hair on your head will perish.” He’s telling us there will be death, but what he’s also telling us, is that there will be ascension. The temple in Jerusalem did fall. They thought it was going to be the end of the world. (But it wasn’t.) Religious practice moved into homes and communities. Rabbinic Judaism was born - a Judaism that does not require pilgrimage and ritual sacrifice at the temple. And Christianity spread. Again, today these religious structures are being challenged. Culturally the U.S. is moving away from organized religion. This weekend Jon Symer and I were at our Episcopal Diocesan Convention for two days of marathon meetings, presentations, and voting in committee offices and resolutions. There was a strong overtone that the church is going through change. There is some grief, but as I’ve said before, this is a cultural shift. And our bishops tell us that we are not to feel like failures because the Episcopal Church is struggling. We do need to change: as we shrink, we do need to collaborate, share resources. We don’t know what that will look like yet. But we are a resurrection people. We are here to do the work that we have been given to do, and that will never change. The church is doing amazing work as detailed through many of our resolutions. We are taking seriously the church’s historic role in slavery, and what that means for a body of Christians who follow Jesus’ way. We created a 501c3 for our Reparations Committee to function similarly to Episcopal Charities; safe-guarding this important work which officially began in the diocese in 2008. We have started a credit union. That has been a project ten years in the making. It will make possible savings, loans and banking to so many in our diocese that have been left out of the traditional banking system because of poverty and racism. Many other wonderful things came out of the convention related to domestic violence, reducing our carbon footprint…proving that we are willing to do the hard work - we are already doing the hard work of developing humility, looking at ourselves, recognizing our weaknesses, but also using our collective communal gifts to make change. We are a resurrection people. Jesus came to heal and teach about love and forgiveness; the most transformational forces of life. We do not need to fear change. Jesus tells us that we will be filled with words and Wisdom as we enter into the future. This Wisdom is coming through the power of the Holy Spirit which we believe is God working in our lives and working in our churches. The Spirit is moving in our collective body to raise us all up, all of us! So on the last day we all may ascend into the joy of the everlasting Kingdom. Amen Today we celebrate All Saints Day.
We say we believe we are part of a community of Saints; those who came before us and those who are with us. In this scene from the Gospel, Jesus’ message was for all of us, but also for this particular group of apostles he has chosen, who stand before him. We may project that these apostles were “perfect” Saints, forgetting their specific trials and tribulations. We might imagine that these disciples were all quite alike: They were first Century Jewish men. Yet, Jesus chose a diverse crew to be his apostles: from different strata, with differing opinions, and from poor to rich. We have Peter (a fisherman) and his brother and friends who were economically lower middle class. We have Matthew (a rich tax collector). And he was basically also a sworn enemy of Simon who they believe was a Zealot… (One of the rebel Jews willing to fight Roman occupation); We had Thomas who doubted. We had Judas who betrayed. The mysterious Beloved disciple. All of them offer us versions of ourselves, and also the profound notion that such a diverse group was capable of walking the way with Jesus. This not-so cohesive group heard Jesus’s cohesive message. This passage is referred to as the Sermon on the plain. It sounds quite similar to the sermon on the mount (from the Gospel of Matthew). Did you notice it begins: “Jesus looked up at his disciples and said…” He has specifically chosen to sit on the ground and teach from a posture of humility. Looking up, he begins to speak about the blessings to come for those who are lacking. And woes to come for those who are fulfilled…And he ends with the famous teaching about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek. He’s talking to his close group of followers. We may also hear the message as if all of the blessings belong to one group and all of the woes to another… but that may not be all of what Jesus is saying here. He is showing that we all share in these realities. You who are mourning will one day be laughing. You who are rich may one day be poor. One day your’re “up”, the next day you are “down”… One day we are well. The next day we are ill. We all need to be awake to the condition of one another and our moment. He is saying this to his very first followers and he is saying it to us. It takes humility to recognize this reality and the greater reality of God’s everlasting constancy. Jesus is using a style of teaching which includes Non-duality. “Non-duality is the recognition that underlying our diversity of experience there is a single, infinite and indivisible reality… [Some say] the recognition of this reality is not only the source of lasting happiness within all people; it is the foundation of peace between individuals, communities and nations.” [1] "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you… Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It is a teaching style and world view that emphasizes our hope: That “we all may be one.” As covenant people we recognize that there is a mutuality in our life with God. It is a relationship, not a top down system. It is a reality that is formed by communion. But we are prone to duality. We like to divide things into categories of this and that and them against us. But Jesus is forever reminding us that God’s system is always about reconciliation, reunion, redemption: unity, constancy and peace. It’s not quantitative, it’s qualitative. And it is everlasting. There is an infinite, indivisible reality at our source that we name God. We like to speak of “this World and the Next”, “Heaven and Earth.” But today we celebrate All Saints Day which asks us to really consider and pray about this indivisible reality as our source in which the community of Saints is a part. We remember we are not alone on Earth in our spiritual pilgrimage. You might say we embrace our faith fully today. I say this, because while we regularly pray for those who have died, today we recognize that those who have passed before us are praying for us too. We are affirming that we believe in eternal life in God: The eternal Word. This indivisible reality. It is key to our faith. We acknowledge the communion of Saints weekly through our Eucharistic Prayers, and our creeds. We claim it daily in morning and evening prayer. Every day is All Saints Day. We may say the words without truly absorbing this. But this is our theology. Today in our litany we will pray for those who came before us and modeled great healing in their lives (for themselves and for others). But it is important to remember that we all are part of the community of Saints: blessed and holy. This does not mean that we are perfect. God is loving us into perfection. Our very woundedness is the catalyst for our seeking wholeness through the love of God and one another. We are on a spiritual journey to be healed in this world, to come through it, and to be that healing presence for others. (That is the way of Jesus). We are all Saints on the way. Consciously praying into this reality - making it a part of your daily routine - will not only support you in your suffering, It may help you in discernment of your life choices. Praying with those who came before us - those we hope to emulate, or who played a significant role in our lives gives us strength. And it repairs those damaged relationships. And in time it may, most helpfully, break down our fear - as we break down the walls we imagine exist between life and death. Our culture is constantly reinforcing fear. Communion is our way through that. In our Eucharist we believe The Holy Spirit binds us to the communion of Saints. It is a ritual that points toward that greater indivisible unity and the path we are walking. But it is not simply something we do on Sunday. It is what we are doing. And what the mystical body of Christ, all of the saints are eternally doing To heal, To forgive, And to be a healing presence for others. Communion requires humility. Like Jesus who sat down before his followers and said “Love one another. Love your enemies.” Just like those first century apostles gathered by Jesus. They were as human as we are, hearing the good news of Christ for the first time, trying to absorb this message: to turn not only to strangers but to one another with Love. "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you… Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This message is eternal. From our lesson today: I pray that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know the hope to which you are called, and to the riches of your glorious inheritance among the saints. Amen In our story from the gospel, we meet Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in this region, a Jewish authority secured by Rome to collect taxes from the people (his own people). Roman occupation was a place of taxation without representation and apparently ripe with fraud and extortion. Zacchaeus was reviled (hated) as a sinner, as most of the tax collectors were.
Zacchaeus hears of Jesus’ plan to pass through the area and climbs a tree in order to get a better view. He can see over the crowd. In doing so, he literally broadens his horizons. Perhaps for the first time he is alerted to the amount of poverty that exists, and the role he has played in it. He vows to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back (four times over) his past fraudulent activity. He has a conversion experience that transforms him and his activity in the world. Zacchaeus’ new vision and conversion brought Martin Luther King Jr. to mind: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” These are the sentiments of an 19th Century clergyman, Theodore Parker who was an abolitionist clergyman. He made this statement one hundred years before MLK Jr. And we are still working on it. It seems we have a long way to go before the world really reflects a radical conversion to love. This week our message from the prophet Habakkuk gives us a cathartic plea. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. When I read this in preparation for today I felt a great wave of consolation in the knowledge that I am not alone in my pain over current events and contentions; And the slow climb toward peace, justice and love. I was also reminded of the passage from Romans: "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” It reminded me that even when I doubt my prayer is helping (which can feel like empty words) it is actually filled with the Spirit of Love and hope. Something is actually working inside of us for the good. Conversion is happening. Bishop Tutu said, “We Christians are prisoners of hope.”That is what keeps us looking even when we can’t bear to see the “wrong doing” as Habakkuk says. That is what keeps us bearing witness to the violence in our world. As faithful people we continue to trace that arc of morality with hope. We scan toward the horizon. Love is what keeps us looking. Generally we don’t speak of morality in terms of an arc, but rather a compass. “Do you have a moral compass?” Most of us would say we do… and we try to follow it. But morality is not personal, just as we don’t have a personal Jesus. As Christians we believe in a radical Kingdom of Salvation - and a Savior for the whole World. Rev. Theodore Parker and MLK wisely told us morality is an arc that bends toward justice. In this regard we must acknowledge the necessity of our adaptability. We must have faith in our ability to change course. We must be willing to bend (try on a new perspective) to see the hope of others. In doing so we may discover new horizons like Zacchaeus. The text says, when Jesus asked Zaccheaus to come down and take him to his home, “All who saw it began to grumble.” All: Everyone. There was not one person that believed in Zacchaeus. There was no hope for conversion. There was no faith in salvation. There was only hate. Yet, Jesus calls him into relationship. Jesus says, I need you too Zaccheaus. Today, like yesterday, we find that our societies are in need of a massive conversion to love (locally and globally). Morality is not in one’s hand. The scope of the moral universe is something that is gleaned through forgiving dialogue at every level. MLK is also famous for following in Jesus’ way by telling us that “Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Conversion is turning our hearts to others. It is a life-long journey. We may have had a moment we can point to like Zaccheaus, when the overwhelming love of God spoke clearly to us. But turning our hearts, is practicing that moment, by opening to others every day: to our children and families and to our neighbors and community and to strangers. Conversion is a life-long practice. Jesus often changes minds through his skilled debate, and yet it is his radical love that stirs peoples’ hearts and leads to conversion. Great knowledge and wisdom is when the mind becomes attuned to the heart. And that opportunity happens moment by moment. I may not understand you, but I am going to climb down from whatever perspective I’ve held because we need each other to understand the greater picture. We need one another to ease our family problems, our nations’ problems, and our world problems. There is nothing that guarantees perfect outcomes with those we love or around the world. But we can work on our conversion to love that furthers, that arc of salvific justice. Jesus says, I need you. That is the saving power of the Kingdom. The Gospel today seems pretty clear. We hear it and it resonates with the stories thus far from Luke.
"For All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Jesus was the great equalizer. It is a theme. We hear it from the very beginning of Luke. Mary sings in the Magnificat: He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. John the Baptist goes into the the region around the Jordan, baptizing people for forgiveness of sins proclaiming: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” God’s path smoothes out the rough edges, and builds up a community of equity for God’s saving Grace. In the Gospel today the pharisee is speaking to God of all of his virtues. His need to build himself up in this way is a lack of self awareness in the moment. He’s gotten caught in a self rewarding trap that doesn’t allow for God’s grace, God’s mercy. There is no space for forgiveness. Additionally, he is casting aspersions at another: Causing that separation, creating a wedge. He is forgetting that prayer is about being connected to God and interconnected to one another on one playing field, literally in one body. There’s a saying: “God’s glory is the human being fully alive.” Cutting others down is a descent into dark spaces in our own psyche, and when justified heralds a domino effect of darkness, cutting ourselves off from others. It is not just a lack of awareness but a Lack of life. The tax collector is standing afar beating his breast. Crying for mercy, he uses the language of psalm 51: Have mercy on me a sinner. This phrase is shorthand for everything that psalm holds. Hearers of the day accustomed to oral teachings and storytelling often knew scripture from heart. This would signal them to a whole picture, the whole theme of the psalm which is asking for God to remove their guilt. According to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 3 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. This is not merely a confessional prayer, but the tax collector is humbly asking for the presence of God’s saving Spirit to sustain him. He is asking for God’s help. He is asking for justification which means to remove guilt. The other seems to merely be justifying himself. But let’s not be too hard on him. In this moment, he is not fully awake. And of course we want to pray prayers of thanksgiving… but not at the cost of being unaware of our blind spots, our hidden contempts that may show up in self justification. Righteous judgment separates us from one another. It makes others feel unaccepted, and it falsely makes us feel protected. It fuels our tendency to let ourselves get fired up about something, and generally justify what we want to do, or did do, or how we feel. It fuels anger; not just in other people but in ourselves. It stokes the fire of personal discontent as well as the fire of war, whether that’s quarreling family members, or world nations. By dividing into you and me we feel we can set standards and measure everyone up against ourselves… but using our self as the measure is quite the illusion… My mother had this great quote on her fridge for years: “We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.” We often take everyone else’s missteps as a definition of who they are rather than simply as a lack of awareness, a difficult day in a life, or a hard lesson for them to reflect on. To have a Christlike consciousness, is to identify with the predicament of another. Right now The Russians feel justified in war. The Ukrainians feel justified, Nato and the U.S. feel justified. And where does that leave us: death and destruction. That lack of life. Our political leaders are modeling self righteousness. Our media is modeling it. I really don’t recall any point in my lifetime when the people we looked up to used such damaging judgmental and reckless language. Resisting these voices takes all of our effort. It requires staying awake. Preparing the way of the lord… means trying to stay awake and finding our way back onto God’s path: the “way.” We all have our moments: It is easy to recoil or turn on someone when their version of the truth feels threatening. But in our best of moments we can return again to the path, empty ourselves and pray for a clean heart, for God to fill us with knowledge, wisdom and compassion. For us to be humbled in very simple terms, is that unhappy moment when we find ourselves eating our own words. On a grander scale it is the humility that comes with illness or hardship, or war: The times when we desperately need connection. It is the humility when we realize our lives are not ultimately in our hands. And our lives are not different from one another’s when it comes to that truth. When we turn to God in these moments, forgiveness also begins to flow more freely. We begin to wake up a little bit to our shared circumstance as flawed and fragile children. Ultimately it is God drawing all of us into the same forgiveness that makes us know we are equally beloved. That all life is precious. Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke (the patron saint of physicians). Physicians take a hippocratic oath to do no harm. Following the sermon we have a special litany written by one of our parishioners to honor those healers in our lives. Today I pray that we would individually follow their lead. I pray our political leaders would follow such an oath, be filled with wisdom, and may we all come to know God, that saving Spirit who sustains us, and who ultimately we name the great physician! Amen. |
AuthorThe Rev. Heather K. Sisk Archives
May 2024
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