Saturday, February 27, 2010

We Are The Wings of God

28 February 2010/Lent 2C
The Reverend Kirk Alan Kubicek
We Are The Wings Of God
The last time I preached on these lessons at Good Shepherd, I noted the following:
1- How against type that the Pharisees are warning Jesus to go into hiding from Herod.
2- Jesus calls Herod a fox, which is a cutting insult since foxes were considered inferior hunters next to Lions – the symbol of Judah – The Lion of Judah.
3- And by contrast Jesus likens God [Jesus- the Word] to a mother hen.
Thus, I no doubt concluded, here is one of the Bible’s many female images of God. At the time we were struggling as a church to accept women as priests let alone female images of God, yet there it is in the Bible from the mouth of Jesus.

This image cuts two ways. We are God’s chicks. Ever see a mother hen try to get all of her chicks under her wings? As soon as one gets in two more squirt out! The agrarian crowd listening to Jesus would get the humor in all this.

But, and with Jesus there is always a big but, in Lent we are meant to consider how often we, as God’s chicks, squirm out from under God’s protecting wings and try to live on our own. Lent is a time to make our way back under God’s wings.

On the other hand, taking the rubric on page 298 in the Book of Common Prayer at all seriously, by Water and the Holy Spirit we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church. That would make us the Mother Hen for others in today’s world.

So the first time I preached on these lessons at St. Peter’s, I was preparing a children’s sermon. I wanted a song to teach the kids, but could find no song about God as a mother hen. So necessity being the mother of invention, I wrote one: I AM the Wings of God.

Note how it begins with God’s name from the burning bush: I AM who I AM. Then the second verse acknowledges our identity with the Word of God, Jesus his Son. The third attempts to remind us that eternal life with God is now – not some future time, but as the Buddha teaches us, it is always now – eternity is now. By extending God’s protection to others, we participate in God’s eternal glory, which as we pray in our collect today, is to have mercy.

Shortly after leaving Good Shepherd I came to a similar awareness of a baptism I did before coming here. I was at Christ Church, Winnetka. I baptized a five year-old girl, Eleanor, and her mother. At brunch afterwards, I was eating quiche and drinking a glass of wine when I felt a tug on my pants leg. It was Eleanor with a question, “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” Meaning, of course, the cross traced with oil sealing her as Christ’s own forever. It is also a sign of her answers to five important questions, including: Will all that you say and all that you do proclaim the good news of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons – not some people, or lots of people or a few people, but all persons? And will you seek justice and peace for all persons respecting the dignity of every human being? “I will with God’s help,” she had answered to all of them!

I said “Yes, Eleanor, I can still see the cross on your forehead.” And I remember thinking, “That’s a good question for all of us. Can others see the crosses on our foreheads?” A cross we just had retraced on Ash Wednesday, a ritual we repeat every year to remember who we are and whose we are. A week later as I was vesting there was a tug on my alb. It was Eleanor again. I asked her what it was this week. She asked, “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” It would be years later before I would write this song: Can You See The Cross on My Forehead?

By the way, Eleanor is getting married later this year!

My understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ hinges on that rubric back on page 298 in the Prayer Book, and the opening story in Jesus’ adult life – his baptism by John in the River Jordan. As he comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove – not a dove, but “like a dove” – and a voice from heaven announces, “You are my Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

If by baptism we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, when we come up out of the waters of baptism there is a voice that says to us, “You are my Beloved – with you I am well pleased.”

Accepting that as the truth about who we are and whose we are, is one step into getting back under God’s wings and becoming the protective wings of God for others. Know that you are God’s Beloved.

Paul says this to the church in Philippi, “He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his Glory… stand firm in the Lord in this way, my Beloved.”

There it is again. God in Christ says to us, “You are my Beloved. I am well pleased with you.”

You are the Wings of God.
Can you see the cross on my forehead?
You are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with you.
Life lived with God, under her wings, never ends!

Amen.

We Are The Wings of God

28 February 2010/Lent 2C
The Reverend Kirk Alan Kubicek
We Are The Wings Of God
The last time I preached on these lessons at Good Shepherd, I noted the following:
1- How against type that the Pharisees are warning Jesus to go into hiding from Herod.
2- Jesus calls Herod a fox, which is a cutting insult since foxes were considered inferior hunters next to Lions – the symbol of Judah – The Lion of Judah.
3- And by contrast Jesus likens God [Jesus- the Word] to a mother hen.
Thus, I no doubt concluded, here is one of the Bible’s many female images of God. At the time we were struggling as a church to accept women as priests let alone female images of God, yet there it is in the Bible from the mouth of Jesus.

This image cuts two ways. We are God’s chicks. Ever see a mother hen try to get all of her chicks under her wings? As soon as one gets in two more squirt out! The agrarian crowd listening to Jesus would get the humor in all this.

But, and with Jesus there is always a big but, in Lent we are meant to consider how often we, as God’s chicks, squirm out from under God’s protecting wings and try to live on our own. Lent is a time to make our way back under God’s wings.

On the other hand, taking the rubric on page 298 in the Book of Common Prayer at all seriously, by Water and the Holy Spirit we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church. That would make us the Mother Hen for others in today’s world.

So the first time I preached on these lessons at St. Peter’s, I was preparing a children’s sermon. I wanted a song to teach the kids, but could find no song about God as a mother hen. So necessity being the mother of invention, I wrote one: I AM the Wings of God.

Note how it begins with God’s name from the burning bush: I AM who I AM. Then the second verse acknowledges our identity with the Word of God, Jesus his Son. The third attempts to remind us that eternal life with God is now – not some future time, but as the Buddha teaches us, it is always now – eternity is now. By extending God’s protection to others, we participate in God’s eternal glory, which as we pray in our collect today, is to have mercy.

Shortly after leaving Good Shepherd I came to a similar awareness of a baptism I did before coming here. I was at Christ Church, Winnetka. I baptized a five year-old girl, Eleanor, and her mother. At brunch afterwards, I was eating quiche and drinking a glass of wine when I felt a tug on my pants leg. It was Eleanor with a question, “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” Meaning, of course, the cross traced with oil sealing her as Christ’s own forever. It is also a sign of her answers to five important questions, including: Will all that you say and all that you do proclaim the good news of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons – not some people, or lots of people or a few people, but all persons? And will you seek justice and peace for all persons respecting the dignity of every human being? “I will with God’s help,” she had answered to all of them!

I said “Yes, Eleanor, I can still see the cross on your forehead.” And I remember thinking, “That’s a good question for all of us. Can others see the crosses on our foreheads?” A cross we just had retraced on Ash Wednesday, a ritual we repeat every year to remember who we are and whose we are. A week later as I was vesting there was a tug on my alb. It was Eleanor again. I asked her what it was this week. She asked, “Can you still see the cross on my forehead?” It would be years later before I would write this song: Can You See The Cross on My Forehead?

By the way, Eleanor is getting married later this year!

My understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ hinges on that rubric back on page 298 in the Prayer Book, and the opening story in Jesus’ adult life – his baptism by John in the River Jordan. As he comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove – not a dove, but “like a dove” – and a voice from heaven announces, “You are my Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

If by baptism we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, when we come up out of the waters of baptism there is a voice that says to us, “You are my Beloved – with you I am well pleased.”

Accepting that as the truth about who we are and whose we are, is one step into getting back under God’s wings and becoming the protective wings of God for others. Know that you are God’s Beloved.

Paul says this to the church in Philippi, “He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his Glory… stand firm in the Lord in this way, my Beloved.”

There it is again. God in Christ says to us, “You are my Beloved. I am well pleased with you.”

You are the Wings of God.
Can you see the cross on my forehead?
You are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with you.
Life lived with God, under her wings, never ends!

Amen.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Heading For The Light

14 February 2010/Last Epiphany – Luke 9:28-36
The Reverend Kirk Alan Kubicek, Saint Peter’s at Ellicott Mills, Maryland
Heading For The Light

Back at the beginning of the Epiphany Season we looked at the Baptismal Font – that eight-sided font, one side for each day of the week plus one to signify that place where we are given new life, a new day, a new way.

And as we look into that font we see stories, ancient stories of our faith. We see the breath, spirit and wind of God, God’s ruach, hovering over the face of creation. We see that same spirit dividing the Red Sea waters so that the Hebrew slaves can escape Egypt to a land of freedom – The Exodus and Passover! And we see that same ruach, that same spirit of God some to rest on Jesus like a dove as a voice from heaven proclaims, “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

The water in the font tells us these stories - stories that must never be forgotten. To forget these stories is to forget who we are. Look into the water and see all these things.

That was the beginning of Epiphany. Now it is the Last Sunday after The Epiphany, and we are on a mountain top where Jesus takes three of his friends off alone and goes to pray, just as he was doing when the voice from heaven called him God’s Beloved at his Baptism. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah are talking with him about his Exodus, translated “departure”. Jesus and his clothes are dazzling white – brighter than any light one had ever seen!

When it says they are speaking of Jesus’ “departure” the Greek word is “exodos”. And when Peter wants to build booths, it is suggestive of the Feast of the Tabernacles, a time every year when the Jewish people recall the wilderness sojourn of the Exodus. A cloud comes over the mountain recalling the pillar of cloud that led them for forty years, the cloud that enshrouded the top of Mt Sinai as God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses for the people – the basis of their covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then the voice returns. The voice we heard at Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan – reiterating, “This is my son, my Chosen; Listen to Him!”

After the voice had spoken, Jesus was alone, and Peter and James and John kept silent, telling no one what they had seen or heard that day. But if there were any doubt in their minds as to who this Jesus was, it had now been made clear: God’s Chosen, God’s Beloved – Listen to him.

For any of us who wish to listen to him, we would do well to consider several things. To listen to Jesus, to really truly listen to him we need to allow him to lead us off to a place away from others. This revelation does not take place in a crowd, at the synagogue, or by the sea with lots of other people. If we are to hear God speak, we must be silent.

Secondly, once we see and hear the vision God reveals to us, we cannot stay. No time to set up booths. No time to stay in the midst of the cloud on top of the mountain. One must return to the chaos and confusion of life at the bottom of the mountain – that is where we are sent to do the things he calls us to do.

And finally what he call us to do is to be Light for the World. Note how the “You are my beloved” has changed into “This is my son, my Chosen …” Why the change? Perhaps the clue lies in his dazzling whiteness! Perhaps it is a reference to Isaiah chapter 42:
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
5Thus says God, the Lord, .. who spread out the earth,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it…
I have given you as a covenant to the people,*
a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

This is what the aged Simeon had said to his mother Mary as she brought her baby boy to be presented at the temple, proclaiming this baby to be “a light to enlighten the nations (gentiles), for the glory of your people Israel.” (Lk 2:32)

Luke is telling us that this Jesus is God’s chosen servant, God’s Chosen in whom God’s soul delights – with whom he is well pleased. This Jesus is a covenant to the people, and a light to the nations. And just as Jesus announced in his first sermon in his hometown synagogue, he will open the eyes that are blind, free prisoners, and bring out those who sit in darkness. That is, he is the Beloved, the Chosen servant to lead us in a new Exodus.

So it is we say, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us!

In our Baptism, we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, that mystical body, the Church. We are to be a covenant to the people. We are to be a light to the nations. We are to open eyes that are blind and free those who are bound up, those who sit in darkness. That would include ourselves – we are to let Christ open our eyes and head to the light.

Jesus’ Transfiguration is to lead us to our transfiguration. Our transfiguration is to lead to the transfiguration of the whole world – the whole world God has in God’s hands.

We did not come to Jesus. We are his chosen, his Beloved, his Light, “a light to enlighten the nations (gentiles), for the glory of your people Israel.”

Allow him to take you to a place apart from all the chaos and confusion of this world. Pray with him. See and hear his vision. Be transfigured so that you can be a light to the world! Amen.