Follow The Light Epiphany 3A

 Follow The Light       

One Sunday afternoon in Grace Episcopal Church, Providence, Rhode Island, I saw, for the first time, the musical Godspell. I was wholly and completely moved and transformed by a performance produced by another Episcopal church’s youth group. One could say I saw the light! It was to become the first of several profound events that, with generous support from The Right Reverend George Nelson Hunt, Bishop of Rhode Island, sent me to the General Theological Seminary. One song in particular stuck with me:

Day by day,

Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:

To see thee more clearly,

Love thee more dearly,

Follow thee more nearly,

Day by Day.[i]

It is an adaptation of a prayer by Richard of Chichester (1197-1253), bishop and saint. The prayer outlines what we think of as the typical journey to ordination or discipleship: to see Jesus clearly as the center of one’s life, learning to love Jesus more dearly through study of the tradition, which naturally leads one to follow Jesus more nearly. One day, however, the Reverend Bill Caradine, at the time chief officer of Stewardship for the Episcopal Church, pointed out that that is not how Jesus recruits his disciples. It was Bill’s contention that Saint Richard of Chichester got it all upside down and backwards.

                                                                                   

In Matthew, we hear that Jesus moves to Capernaum in Galilee after hearing that John has been arrested, where he first calls brothers Simon and Andrew, and then the Zebedee brothers John and James, to follow him.[ii] All four are fishermen. Simon and Andrew were casting a net into the sea. John and James were mending nets in their father’s boat. Jesus says to the four of them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people!” Unlike John, as he announces the Good News, he does not ask them to confess their sins. He does not ask if they have any understanding of the teachings and practices of Israelite religion. He does not hand them Torah, the first five books of the Bible, tell them to go home, read, mark and inwardly digest the texts, come back tomorrow, and if you pass an exam on these five books, I will let you follow me. He simply says, “Follow me.” Astonishingly, they do!

 

Furthermore, said Bill, he does not ask anyone if they love him until after the resurrection when he asks Simon, now called Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” Two more time he asks Peter, “Do you love me?” Two more times Peter says, “Yes! You know I love you.” And Jesus says, “Tend my flock…Feed my lambs,” adding an enigmatic saying about when you are young you go and do as you please, but later someone ties a belt around your waist and leads you to where you need to go.[iii]

 

Finally, said Bill, “As to seeing Jesus more clearly – we are still trying to do that! Witness the number of books written, articles published, sermons preached, movies and TV shows made every year claiming to clarify who Jesus is! Besides, Jesus as the great light that shines on those who sit in deep darkness, it is Jesus who leads us to see God, creation and ourselves more clearly. At the end of the day, our life in and with Christ begins when he says, ‘Follow me.’”

 

Epiphany is the season of light. This is why we hear that when the northern kingdom lived in the darkness of occupation by foreign nations, Isaiah, in his poem, imagines the day when the people will “see a great light…For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” [Isaiah 9:1-4] Midian, of course, was that day when Gideon and a small band of 300 soldiers defeated a mighty enemy simply by smashing clay pots on the ground and blasting away on 300 trumpets, scaring the life out of the enemy who ran for their lives![iv]

 

It is as the Psalmist David sings while in hiding from King Saul: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?” [Psalm 27: 1] And Paul, in his second letter to the church in Corinth wrote, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [2 Corinthians 4:6] It is this light that makes Jesus manifest to all the world! The evangelist Matthew identifies Jesus with this same light Isaiah, David, and Paul imagine can, will and does shine through whatever darkness surrounds us on all sides. From the beginning of creation until the time of Jesus, people had faith in the Light of God, which now shone in the Light of Christ. For 2,200 years of more darkness, the light still shines and calls: Follow me.

 

As we sing on Good Friday every year, “Sometimes it causes me to wonder…”: what inspires us to accept the call to follow Jesus? What can inspire us to drop our nets, leave home and family, and follow Jesus into the Light and Life of the world? Peter and Andrew left their nets and their boat – their means to production – the tools that sustained their life and the lives of others. James and John left their father to handle all of the day-to-day operations of Zebedee & Sons Fishing, Incorporated! We know Peter had a mother-in-law in Capernaum, so he must also have had a wife and family. What was going through the minds of Mr. Zebedee and Peter’s wife and mother-in-law as these four fishermen left to become the first people to follow Jesus?

 

After the resurrection, he trusted these four ordinary fishermen and many others to continue the work he had begun. He says “you will continue the work I have done … and greater things than these will you do!”[v] The season of Epiphany begs the question: Have we done that? Do we drop everything and follow Jesus? Do we walk in his light? Have we become the Light of Christ that shines on the darkness of others? All others? Following Jesus, it turns out, is hard work. It raises all kinds of questions. It’s often dangerous work. And yet, we know in our hearts that it’s the only work worth doing. We are called to walk in his light that we too might become light that shines in the darkness; light which darkness cannot overcome.

 

In this season of Light, Jesus calls us o’er the tumult of life’s tempestuous sea. Do we hear him? And if we hear him, do we follow? And if not now, when? For it appears to be the only way to love him more dearly. And the only way to see him more clearly is to follow him more nearly. It all starts when he says to us today, “Follow me!”                                                                              

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[i] Godspell (1971), music by Stephen Schwartz, words from "Songs of Praise, Enlarged Edition" (1931)

[ii] Matthew 4:12-23

[iii] John 21:15-19

[iv] Judges 6-7

[v] John 14:12

The Holy Breath of Love Epiphany 2A

 The Holy Breath of Love                                                                                          

Simon and I had heard about a man named John who was baptizing people in the River Jordan near Bethany, an eastern suburb of Jerusalem along the road to Jericho. I went to see what the buzz was all about. While I was there, a deputation of officials was sent from Jerusalem to ascertain who John was. Are you the Messiah, they asked? No, said John. Are you Elijah? No, said John. Are you the prophet? No, said John. Then who on earth are you?

 

“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’” Even his inquisitors knew that hundreds of years ago the prophet Isaiah had written this regarding the Exile in Babylon. “If you are not the messiah, not Elijah and not the prophet – if you are a ‘voice’ – then why are you baptizing all these people from all over Judea?”

 

“I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” [i]  With this, and John’s earlier enigmatic response, the inquisitors returned to Jerusalem empty handed, uncertain as to who John is or from where he had come. I, Andrew, witnessed all of this and immediately went home to find my brother Simon. I said, “Simon, we have found the messiah, what the Greeks call christos, the anointed, the one we have been praying God would send to lift us up and deliver us from this Roman occupation. [ii]

 

The next day, as a young man approached him John said. “Here is the lamb of Elohim, the one lifting the sin of the world, the cosmos, the beautiful world! I did not know him, but here I am baptizing so others can come to know him. Just the other day I saw the spirit-breath coming down from the sky. It remained on him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to purify in water, that one said to me, ‘Upon whom you should see the breath coming down and remaining on him, this is the one who purifies with holy breath.’ I have seen; I give testimony: This one is the son of Elohim.”[iii]

 

The day after that John saw Jesus walking around and again he said, “Look: the lamb of Elohim!” When Simon and I heard this, we left John to follow Jesus. When Jesus saw he was being followed, he turned and asked us, “What are you seeking?” We asked, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He responded, “Come and see.” Simon and I followed him. It was about four in the afternoon.

 

When we got to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany where he was staying, we sat down on the floor. Martha brought us some tea. Mary sat with us. Jesus said he had no idea what John meant calling him “the lamb of Elohim.” The lamb of God. And he wanted to know why we had followed John, and why we were now following him. “I have no place to lead you,” he said. We asked him about the holy breath and what that was like. He said, “I cannot explain it except that when it came upon me I felt a new kind of love. Let me tell you a story.  

A young man asked a Pharisee, and expert in torah, “Is there an end to the study of Torah – God’s commandments? How do we know when our study has been sufficient? How do we know that we understand what has been written and handed down?” 

The Pharisee replied, “You will have studied enough when you know exactly what torah says.”

“But you are the teacher. Can’t you tell us what it says?”

The Pharisee replied, “It is so simple I could tell it to you while standing on one foot!”

“Do that! Stand on one foot and tell us!”

“If I told you, you would still not know. You must find it yourself, in your own study.”

“Can we find it in torah?

“Your life serving others will lead you to it while studying torah” [iv]

 

Then Jesus looked at Simon and said, “Simon, you are a son of Jonah the fisherman. You will be called Kephas [Kay-pas], that is Rock, Petra, or Peter. You will help me fish for people!” Neither of us knew at the time what he meant. What we do know is that our lives were never the same since that afternoon in Bethany. The world has not been the same.

 

You have to understand, we were simple fishermen. We repaired nets. We took fish to market. We paid the road taxes to and from the market. Suddenly, after a year of following Jesus, we were telling stories and teaching torah. More importantly, we learned how to live torah – to touch the lives of others, those who were in need. Just as we had seen him do. We tried to tell his story, to help others know who Jesus was. And yet, even we could not fully explain to people just who he was, and all that he said and did that year of our following. Peter and I still cannot believe that when we asked him where he was staying that he actually took us to the home of Martha, Mary and their brother, Lazarus, his home away from home.

 

And that is the strange thing, isn’t it. Wherever he is, wherever you follow, that becomes home. How do we say: he who had no home was at home wherever he was. Whoever hosted him and the rest of us who followed would come to know that he was the host of us all. Everyone.

 

We remembered, John had called him the lamb of Elohim, the lamb of God. Lambs were not sacrificed for sins or anything else at the Temple. Only sheep and goats and cattle. Lambs were sacrificed to remember – to remember our deliverance from Egypt by the hand of God and the leadership of Moses. John called him the Passover lamb because he came to lift us up and deliver us not from our sins, but from the sin of the world. A world he had made, and yet remains alienated from him. He lifts us up out of this world into his world and his Father’s world. He lifts us away from darkness and closer to the light. So close, that the last time we saw him he breathed on us. We felt the love of his holy breath ourselves. We still do![v]

 

There is so much more to say about all of this. The world cannot hold the number of books it would take to tell the whole story. But if like Peter and me you want to follow him as we did, you will find yourself – your true self – when he invites you to, “Come and see.” His spirit-breath will come to rest upon you, and suddenly, all shall be well. All shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well. Look! One day you will see him. Do what we did. Follow him and ask him where he is staying. He will say “Come and see”. And you will feel the holy breath. And when you do, you will know where he stays: he stays in your heart. Now. Forever. And ever. Amen.

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[i] John 1:26-27

[ii] John 1:41

[iii] John 1:32-34, translated by Richard W. Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of John (The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland (2010) p.324

[iv] Carse, James, The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple (Harper San Francisco:1997) p. 39-40

[v] John 20:21

You Are My Beloved Epiphany1A Feast of our Lord's Baptism

 You Are My Beloved

We know this story. Perhaps we know it all too well and miss what’s really happening.  Since the Troubles surrounding his birth, beginning with the visit of the three magi from the East. They had stopped to see Herod, the King of the Jews to ascertain where the child had been born. Herod’s own wisemen had said it must be in Bethlehem home of David, King of the Jews, and so it was. Yet, the visitors could tell Herod was not at all excited to hear the news of the child’s birth, so instead of returning to Herod to confirm the location, they went home by “another way.”

 

Meanwhile, in a dream Joseph was warned to take the child and his mother to Egypt. Of all places! That’s where the story began, but by fleeing out of Egypt to get the people of God out of bondage to Pharaoh. But to Egypt they fled, and a good thing too. For Herod sent his most savage forces to Bethlehem and the surrounding region to kill all children under the age of two – and any and all parents, aunts, uncles and so forth who dared to get in the way. Much innocent blood had been shed. The child born to be king would grow up with no cousins, and few other family members.

 

A messenger again appeared in a dream to give Joseph the all clear signal: it was safe to take the child back to Bethlehem. But when they got there and saw what had happened, and that another more fierce descendent of the House of Herod was now in charge, Joseph took the child and his mother to Nazareth in the northern region of Galilee. This is where the child grew up. His name was Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

 

When he was around 30-years old, Jesus had heard of a man named John, down south, on the banks of the River Jordan, outside Jerusalem, leading a revival meeting that attracted all sorts of people from the region of Judea. John was hearing their confessions and baptizing them in the river, turning people back to live in the Way of the Lord. Some Pharisees and Sadducees, who thought of themselves as holier than the Lord God, came to watch. John chased them off, calling after them, “You brood of vipers! What makes you think you can escape the wrath to come!” Even John did not know that the “wrath to come” would be a kind of forgiveness and love the world had never seen. That the wrath of God is God’s relentless compassion and love, pursuing us even when we are at our worst. [i]

 

Soon after the arrogant ones had left, Jesus came walking down from Galilee to join with the people who were confessing and being baptized and starting their lives anew. John recognized something authentic and true in the young man before him. John said, “No!” John said, “It is you who should be baptizing me!” No, said the young man, I have been sent by my Father to live among God’s people. I want to bathe in the waters of repentance just like everyone else. John saw there was nothing to do but to baptize this Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

 

That’s when it happened. As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended and landed upon him like a dove – like the dove after the flood. And if that was not enough, a voice came out of the heavens above, “This is my Son, my Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.” [ii]The crowd around John all stopped. They had seen and heard something. Some, as reported by the evangelist John, thought it was thunder! Others thought it was angels! Jesus said, “No, it was not thunder, nor was it angels. It was my Father, my God and your God. My father and yours. I’ve been sent here to teach you to pray to our Father and live in his Way.”

 

See what happened there? In these few spare sentences of Matthew’s, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all on stage at the same time. The Holy Family of the Blessed Trinity are all there, down by the river. John surely saw it as plain as day. Everything had just been made new!

 

It was as Isaiah had said all those many years ago: “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… Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it… I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” [iii]

 

And that is just what Jesus set out to do – bring forth justice for all peoples and to tell people that the old ways have already passed, and the new news is good news for all people, for God my Father shows no partiality. In every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.[iv] Jesus then gathered come companions (which means those who share bread), beginning with Peter and his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James. They were all fishermen, but Jesus asked them only to follow him and fish for people.

 

Together, as a community of God’s people, they healed people, fed people and taught people the Way of the Lord’s love and forgiveness. And they baptized people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Although Herod thought he had put an end to this Jesus on a Roman cross, alas, after three days in a borrowed tomb, having no home or tomb of his own, he began to appear to his companions. He handed over his Spirit to them. He breathed on them! And after being in hiding for several days, they set out to tell the story, to proclaim the news to all people everywhere, showing no partiality.

 

For now, Jesus was in them. They were in him. And everyone who joined in sharing the bread of companionship with them and with Jesus came to know a deep and important truth: Like Jesus, they too were God’s Beloved! God was well pleased with them! Right on down to this very day the news continues to spread: You are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with you! Be still, let loose, and know, says the Lord, that I am God, and you are my beloved children.[v] And I breathe on you my life and my love for you to share with others, all others. Everywhere. All the time.

 

That is what happened down by the River Jordan that day when Jesus walked down from Nazareth of Galilee to join with all the people being baptized by John. New things happened. And new things continue to spring forth, as former things have come to pass! For the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all here, right now, all the time! All shall be well. All shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well! Amen. Amen. Amen. Alleluia! Alleluia!

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[i] Ross, Maggie, The Fire of Your Life (Paulist Press, NYC:1983) p.137

[ii] Matthew 3:13-17

[iii] Isaiah 42:1-9

[iv] Acts 10:34-43

[v] Psalm 46:10

What’s In A Name Feast of The Holy Name of Jesus 2023

 

What’s In A Name         Feast of The Holy Name of Jesus

“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” – Luke 2:21

 

Much of the Bible centers around names and naming. The great procession of creation as outlined in Genesis chapter 1 finds God speaks a single word: Light! And light appeared as the first order of taming the darkness and chaos that had existed so far.

 

Then in Genesis chapter 2, Adam, the first man, is given the task to name all the animals. In Deuteronomy, the people are given the task of building the Jerusalem Temple: “then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.” [i] Making clear, God does not live in the Temple, only God’s name.

 

Which name is revealed in Exodus as Moses is addressed by a bush that burns but is not consumed. The bush tells Moses to take a message to God’s people held hostage and enslaved in Egypt. When Moses asks, “Who shall I say sent me?” The voice from the bush replies, “YHWH, I am who I am. Tell them ‘I am’ sent you; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” [ii]

 

Throughout scripture we find examples of God recognizing something more in the essence of someone than their name captures. God often gives the person a new name as when God renames  Abram and Sarai. The name Abram meant “exalted father,” but God calls him Abraham, meaning “the father of nations.” Sarai meant “quarrelsome,” but God calls her Sarah, which means “princess.” God took Jacob, which means “heel grabber” and named him Israel, meaning “the one who struggles with God.” Jesus does the same when he calls Simon, whose name means “to hear” or “to listen,” by the name Cephas or Peter, both of which mean “rock.” Saul, who is the persecutor of the first followers of Jesus, is given the Greek name Paul for he is sent to bring the Good News of God’s salvation found in Jesus to the Gentiles, who would otherwise remain left out of the coming reign of God. [iii]

 

And so on the eighth day after his birth, the child born to Mary and Joseph is given the name Jesus, the name given by God’s messenger before he was conceived. Jesus, or Yeshua in its Hebrew form, means “YHWH saves, or God saves,” connecting this child directly to the voice from the Burning Bush all the way back in Exodus. In Biblical terms this means that Yeshua is not simply his name, but his essence and purpose in life is to be “God saves,” or “God is salvation.”

 

From there, throughout the New Testament texts, Jesus is called by nearly 200 other names, beginning with Christos, “God’s anointed,” and Emmanuel, “God is with us.” Later, the community who gives us the Gospel of John call him the Logos, or the Word, through whom, as in the beginning, all things come into being. Further, the Logos is a light like the first light that shines in the darkness, and which we are told has not been overcome by the darkness. This Logos, this Word,  comes to us and sets up a tent to dwell among us and stand beside us.  

 

All of which connects this eight-day-old child to YHWH, to “I am who I am,” the one who begins the entire story with one single word, “Light!” To underline this connection, the Fourth Gospel presents Jeus frequently saying “I am”: e.g I am the good shepherd. I am the bread from heaven. I am the vine, you are the branches.

 

There has long been some mystery as to how these four Hebrew letters, yodh-he-vav-he, are to be pronounced, as well as the long-standing tradition that in public readings of the texts, when the four letters appear one is to substitute another name for the God of the Bible, usually Adonai. There is one other interesting conjecture about the Holy Name of God – that it may be pronounced “Yah-wheh,” and is meant to represent the sound of breathing in and out: yah…wheh…yah…wheh. This gives God’s name the distinction of being the first word we “speak” when born with our first breath, and the last word we “speak” with our last breath when we die.

 

The Franciscan, Richard Rohr, takes interpretation to a deeper understanding of the name of God. It levels the playing field for there is no rich or poor way of breathing. There is no European, African, American or Asian way of breathing. No male or female way of breathing. There is no Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or Buddhist way of breathing. The air we breathe is one and the same air throughout the world, and the divine ruach, the divine breath or spirit, blows where it wills, which appears to be everywhere. No one and no one religion can control the spirit and breath of God. When understood in this way, God becomes available through the very thing we all do – all persons, all creatures, all plants – which is to breathe!

 

Being conscious of all this, and breathing consciously, we come to realize that we are all connected, all humanity and all creation, from cave men and women, to astronauts, the animal kingdom, and plants, shrubs and trees! And science now tells us that the very atoms we breathe are the very same stardust that came out of the Big Bang of creation. The Oneness of all creation throughout all galaxies and the universe itself, is no longer “a vague mystical notion, but a scientific fact.” [iv]

 

It would seem that this Feast of the Holy Name is the prefect way to begin the New Year: to ponder the name of God in all its depths of meaning; to know that our God stands with us, even in our darkest moments; that the true light shines through all darkness to guide us in the Way of the Christ Child, the Way of Love; that we are inherently all connected to all of creation and need not let anyone or anything divide us; that not only every year, but every day we can begin again, with a clean slate in the company and the name of Lord God beside us. This is the Lord who descended from a cloud on Mount Sinai, passed by Moses and said, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation.” [v] This God is with us with every breath we breathe. All of this and more is embodied in the name we remember today, Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh saves! Amen.

 

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[i] Deuteronomy 12:11

[ii] Exodus 3:14

[iii] The Right Reverend Frank Logue, Sermons That Work, January 1, 20023

[iv] Rohr, Richard, The Naked Now (Crossroad Books, NYC:2009) pp.25-26

[v] Exodus 34:6

Christmas Eve 2022

Christmas Eve   2022  Memories of Frank and Missy McClain

“How pretty the paper, the lights and the snow/How precious those memories of long long ago”

-John Prine

There was a time in my life when every Christmas my mother would give me the new John Prine album. John grew up in her neighborhood, and just a couple of miles from where I did. John is correct in linking Christmas with memories. Which is, of course, the basis of nearly all Christian liturgy: “do this in remembrance of me,” we say, twice a week, week after week. Christmas is no exception

 

Which explains why every Christmas and Easter I wear this old, well-worn, somewhat tattered white stole. It’s for the memories it carries from long long ago. For it was just before Christmas, the year 2000, when I learned that my first rector and mentor, Frank M. McClain, had died suddenly in Charleston, South Carolina, where he and his wife Missy had retired after his tenure as rector of Christ Church, Winnetka, IL where I was a curate fresh out of seminary. I took a train from Baltimore to Charleston to be with the family at Frank’s funeral. Before going to the church, we stopped at the funeral home for Missy and their three daughters, Rebecca, Mary Lee and Kate, to say their goodbyes before closing the casket. Frank was dressed in the vestments in which he had been ordained a priest. After everyone had had a moment with Frank, Missy suddenly raced back to the casket, nearly dove in, head first. When out she came, like the old table-cloth trick, she pulled out his ordination stole, gently folded it, walked over and presented it to me, saying, “The girls and I want you to have this.” I was overwhelmed to have this precious stole which Frank had worn through decades of parish ministry, a tangible reminder of the man who taught me nearly all I know about parish ministry. I wore it that Christmas when I got back to Ellicott City, and have done so ever since. Just a week to the day before Frank died, two weeks ago, Missy left to join him.

 

An even longer ago memory of Frank was that first Christmas I was a priest, 1983, when Frank scheduled me to celebrate the Holy Eucharist at the late Christmas Eve service in the Church on Sheridan Road. Frank preached what to this day remains my most favorite and perfect Christmas sermon. I asked him for a copy, here is what he said:

 

“Can you remember those days of budding sophistication when you began to doubt Santa Claus? Probably you had been challenged by older, more worldly-wise friends. There was, you recall, one last fleeting moment of wanting to believe, and yet wanting to test reality.

 

“That year for me, as a late developer, I determined not to tell anybody what I “wanted for Christmas” – until I sent the letter up the chimney. (We still had fires and fireplaces in those days.) Believe me, I told no one and I decided to “want” the most outlandish item that no one could imagine – not a chemistry set to make bombs (that came later); - not a Monopoly board (I’m getting one this year from myself with English street names and utilities and railroads). I asked for a motion picture projector and some films, this in the days of silent pictures.

 

“How it ever happened has never been explained, because no one in all honesty knew how it happened. But, there under the tree on Christmas morning was a motion picture projector, with a film of Mickey Mouse, and some jerky, sepia-colored scenes of Venice, San Marco’s, pigeons, gondolas, and all. I’ve never wanted to go to Venice since, needless to say.

 

“It was a day of mixed emotions.

           

“First of all, there was stunned surprise. Was it really true that this wonderful gift was mine? There was, as well, a kind of embarrassment, not knowing what to do with such a great treasure. Embarrassment, too, because it was the height of the depression; I had a fleeting suspicion of what the gift had cost and that it really hadn’t come from the North Pole.

 

“But there was also a welling up of unutterable joy and gratitude, - which appears to have lasted because here that Christmas morning is swirling up out of unconscious memory over a half century later.

 

“Each of you can test that same experience tomorrow. Surprise, embarrassment, or some similar word, joy and gratitude.

 

“The special gift you receive will be a surprise. You will gasp. You will draw in your breath. Ahhh. The diamond like in the DeBeers advertisement, the scarf carefully knitted by a six-year old, the box of bitter chocolate wafers you never expected to see again, a letter of gratitude which arrived this very morning from someone who had found strength and spiritual help at Christ Church who no longer lives here.

 

“Then, is it embarrassment or a sense of unworthiness? Why me” How much effort and skill went into that six-year old’s green and red and orange knitted scarf? How many hours of research and looking went into that out-of-print edition of Emily Dickinson’s poems! Why all this for me?

 

“But finally, joy and gratitude! It is as if those tight bands about the heart (which most of us know) are unloosed. There may even be a tear or two. I hope there will be at least a hug, of genuine, warming, bear-type quality. And a final deep breathing sigh of utter completion. It will be of the kind of fulfillment which allows a new beginning, facing the afternoon of Christmas Day or the twelve months ahead of newly invigorated life.

 

“Christmas, we have often emphasized, has been a time of giving. The letters that come in the mail, stack upon stack of them, tend to underline those words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is recorded in the Book of Acts and not in the Gospels.^[i] That of course is true – and yet, never forget it, Christmas is also a time to receive a gift, a wonderful truth.

 

“We will each of us receive some special gift tomorrow from someone who loves us. More wonderful even, we will each of us, singly and together, receive a gift from someone who loves us even more, from God.

 

“In any of our lives there is a manger, now doubtless empty, cold, malodorous, surrounded by beasts – the heartbreaks, tragedies, disappointments of our lives. But it is there that you will find the child, new born, if you will look on him and be open to receive God’s gift.

 

“It can come to you this Christmas, that gift, that birth within you of the Christ Child, when you become aware of and touch, perhaps only fleetingly, the whole and complete person God intended you to be, that God intends you to be. It can happen here, at this present Bethlehem, this Holy Table, when and where you receive tangible evidence, symbols of bread and wine, God’s Body and Blood, God’s Life.

 

“As in receiving any real gift, your response will be astonishment, humility (Why me?), and deep, restorative joy – to which you can only say Gratia, Thank You, Eucharisto, Grace!

 

“Be open tonight to receive that gift, open-handed, offering nothing but your need, your empty manger. Centuries of experience assure you that God’s gift is being offered, God’s Son, born within you. Arise and go out into the world with astonishment, with humility, with joy. Respond in whatever language you may know. Thank You, Eucharisto, Gratia. Your gratitude will show forth – and – a Merry Christmas!”

 

So, that’s why I wear this well-worn, somewhat tattered white stole. And why I re-read Frank’s words every Christmas: for the memories, and to remind me of the gift that makes me who it is God intends for me to be.

 

One other Christmas ritual for me is to end each Christmas proclamation with the immortal words of Charles Dickens’s Tiny Tim Cratchit, God bless us every one! ^[ii]

   

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[i] Acts 20:35

[ii] Tiny Tim Cratchit in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, added by this curate and scribe.

I AM With You Always! Advent 4A

 I am with you always       Advent 4A

A miracle and a name. Three names, really, but more on that later. One notes that unlike the more familiar birth story in Luke, Matthew provides little detail about the actual birth, but rather focuses on what is happening behind the scene. [i] Which, as it turns out, is quite a bit of drama, scandal and danger.

 

After a long and curious genealogy (all male except for 4 scandalous women) in chapter 1, the text simply says, “Now the birth of Jesus the Christ [the anointed, the messiah] took place in this way.” Mary is engaged to Joseph, which in those days would last about a year or more – the betrothed woman often being a young teenager, a young woman. The narrator tells us that she is with child, not from Joseph, but “from the Holy Spirit.” Next, we are told, that Joseph is a “righteous man” – that is, he faithfully observes all the 613 commandments in Torah, the first five books of our Bible. At least one of which says if the prospective bride is “damaged,” he must dismiss her, divorce her, cut her loose, or risk scandal. Typically, then, her family, being dishonored, would at the very least cut her loose as well, or perhaps take her life in “an honor killing.” The birth of Jesus the Christ is already in immediate danger of not taking place at all, despite the qualifying note that Joseph means to dismiss her “quietly.” After all, how long could it be before she is “publicly exposed”?

 

Then begins the miracle. Joseph evidently sleeps on his decision to dismiss the young woman, when a messenger from God assures him that if he follows through with the engagement and marriage, all shall be well. For this child is from the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ruach, the Holy Breath, that same breath that way back in Genesis chapter two gave breath and life to the first human. Joseph is told to name the child Jesus, for “he shall save his people from their sins. Be not afraid!” The name is Yeshua, or Joshua, which means “God helps, or God saves.” That is, Joseph, despite how this all looks, do not fear the scandal, the damage to your reputation, in standing by this young woman, for in the end you will be honored for following through, and you shall name the child so that he will henceforth and forever be incorporated into the house of your ancestor, David. A truly appropriate birth narrative for this child, who when he grows up, will scandalize everyone! His understanding of God, salvation, mission, nation and self will sound strange and disloyal to many people and be met by murderous plots. [ii]

 

So as to make the case for going forward even stronger, storyteller Matthew intervenes to let us know that all this is to fulfill a prophecy from long ago – some 500 years ago – by the prophet Isaiah: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” [iii] Well, what Isaiah really said was, “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and she shall name him Emmanuel.” In all fairness to Matthew, it is common throughout the Bible to repurpose earlier texts to fit current situations. In this case, Matthew wants to underscore that the boy is not from Joseph, or anyone else, but from the Holy Breath of God, so he makes Mary a virgin. And that Joseph shall, as instructed, join in naming the child Jesus as the messenger had instructed. Thus, “they shall name him Emmanuel,” not just the young woman in the prophecy. And they do name him Jesus.

 

Oops! Do we notice a third name? To Jesus, “God saves,” and christos, “the anointed or messiah,” the child is also to be known as Emmanuel, which translates as “God is with us.” Jesus Christos Emmanuel – God’s Anointed who Saves Us and is With Us.” Emmanuel is an important addition, not only to harken back to Isaiah’s “sign” to the irascible king Ahaz, but so as the story continues, we all now know that when Jesus is feeding people, God is with him, and with us. When Jesus heals people, God is with them. When Jesus teaches people, God is with them. As we hear this story, God is with us. Us. All of us. Not just me, or you, or even just Christians. God is with us as in All of Us! Everyone, everywhere. Matthew understands, and wants all who hear his story of Jesus, that God is with and in Jesus in all that he does, and that God is with us and in us, whoever we are, wherever we are.

 

In fact, this is the core of the Good News as Matthew proclaims it. For the very last words of Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28 verse 20, as Jesus is giving all who would be his disciples, those who walk in his Way, instructions to bring this Good News to all people everywhere, the final words of the Risen Christ and the story are, “And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.” We do well to note that “you” is plural in the Greek, as in “I am with y’all!” Not singular. English is confusing this way. Jesus, he who saves, the Christos, God’s anointed, God with us, is with us all – now and to the end of time!

 

When Joseph wakes up from his astonishing dream, the miracle takes place: Forsaking reputation, scandal, and perhaps face all kinds of reprisals, we are told, “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and they named him Jesus.” Joseph was not afraid of the scandal and strangeness of his appointed task. He followed through with his assignment. The child who becomes Jesus is also not afraid. One lesson here is that entertaining scandal and strangeness just may be how we welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives. [iv]

 

Of course, Joseph could have refused. Had he refused, who knows, we might not be here today to once again hear the story that we believe makes us who we are: a community of those who walk in the Way of Jesus, as strange and scandalous as that may be. For as we are faithful in becoming his community of love, he promises he is with us all every single day to the end of time!

 

A miracle and three names. He who saves, anointed by God, Emmanuel. God is with us. God is with Joseph and Mary, and the child to be named Jesus. They are not afraid. Danger has been averted. For now. But as we will see, not for long. To be continued.

 

But for now, for all of us here, God is with us – all of us – now until the end of days!

Alelluia! Amen!

 

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[i] Matthew 1:18-25

[ii] Shea, John, Starlight (Crossroads Press, NYC:1992) p.55

[iii] Isaiah 7:14

[iv] Ibid, Shea

That Rascal Elijah Advent 2A 2022

 That Rascal Elijah     

The Prophet Isaiah envisions someone coming from the line of Jesse, father of David, who will “shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth” [i]  And Psalm 72 asks on behalf of the people of God to give their national leader “your justice, O God … that he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice.” [ii] Isaiah and the Psalmist imagine God will send someone to care for the meek and the poor of the land.

 

Into this vision of expectation comes a man dressed in animal skins, eating grasshoppers dipped in honey, addressing some of the more prominent citizens of Jerusalem, Pharisees and Sadducees, as “a brood of vipers.” This is probably not the first person we might consider inviting to dinner. Yet, we are told that all of Jerusalem, and the citizens of all of Judea and the surrounding countryside were flocking down to the banks of the River Jordon to “confess their sins” and be baptized by this John, who very much lived “off the grid” as we might say today. [iii]

 

John is the quintessential outsider. Anyone looking at him and listening to him would recognize him as a modern-day Elijah – Elijah of whom it is written, “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.” [iv]

 

Advent anticipates and calls us to reflect on that day of the Lord we believe the Christ will return “to judge the living and the dead.” All those flocking to John down by the riverside evidently need to get a lot of things off of their collective chests before such a time of reckoning. This story about Elijah that may enlighten our understanding such a day of judgment.

 

Elijah was walking past a house in which he could hear the sounds of a party. Elijah suddenly spun around, and poof, he was dressed in the rags of a beggar. He knocked on the door and a man opened it and looked at him. “I was just in the neighborhood and heard the sounds of a party inside your house. If that is true, I love parties. May I come in?” The man looked at him up and down in his rags, and said, “You are right, my daughter’s wedding feast is well under way. But there is no place here for one such as you.” And he slammed the door in the prophet’s face.

 

Elijah grinned, and with another spin in the air, he suddenly was dressed in all the finery of a proper gentleman, carrying a wooden cane with a gold top. He knocked on the door again. The man opened the door again. “I was passing by and thought I heard the sounds of a party inside and was hoping you would let me in.” “You are right,” said the man. “My daughter’s wedding feast is well under way, but for someone like yourself there is always room. Come inside.”

 

Once inside Elijah went to the food buffet. He began stuffing all his pockets with food. The inside pockets of his coat, the outside pockets, his pants pockets, his shirt pockets were all just overflowing with food. Then he began to pour wine all over himself, over his shoulders, down his arms and legs, wine pouring all over the place! The man came over and said to the prophet, “Just what do you think you are doing? I invite you to my daughter’s wedding feast and here you are pouring wine and stuffing food all over your fine clothes. This makes no sense.”

 

“Sure it does,” says Elijah. “Just think of it. The first time I came to your door dressed as a beggar and you turned me away. Then I came dressed as a gentleman and you let me in. Obviously, I am the same man. So, you must have invited my clothes in to your feast! And now, I have proceeded to feed them!”

 

The host and the guests were all embarrassed and looked down at the floor. When they looked up the prophet was gone. All that remained was his fine wooden cane with a gold top. Elijah did not have to judge the man and his guests. They stood judged by their own behavior. So it is with God and Christ. They do not need to judge us. Our actions speak for themselves. As did the actions of those Pharisees and Sadducees who dared to come down by the river to see what John was up to. For some of them had been collaborating with the bad shepherds of the Roman occupation – believing they were helping to protect “their people.” Perhaps John helped to open their eyes as Elijah had of those at the wedding feast. Elijah who, like Isaiah and the Psalmist, advocates for justice for the meek and the poor.

 

Yet, even John does not fully know the “one who is to come,” suggesting that Jesus will arrive with a “winnowing fork in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” [v] That is what John is doing by his threatening greeting to the Pharisees and Sadducees. He sees them as being like the bad shepherds we heard about from Jeremiah just a few weeks ago: those wicked shepherds who destroy, scatter and divide the people of the land. Rather, the Christ who also comes down by the river, heals, repairs, gathers, and unites everyone and everything. All are welcome. All are his beloved people. The Christ comes as if to say, “Come on people now, smile on one another, everybody get together, try and love one another right now.” [vi]  Jesus just does not strike us as a winnowing fork kind of guy.

 

One thing John does get right may be summed up in three words: “God is able…” God is able to and has raised up “children to Abraham,” not only among Christians, Jews and Muslims, but among people of all faiths and no faith at all who live the Good News: God loves you. You are forgiven. All those who act accordingly. All people everywhere who “bear fruit worthy of repentance,” who strive for justice and peace, and practice mercy, forgiveness and love; who work to heal, unite and repair a broken world. We do well to remember: Elijah is one of two people in the Bible who do not die. When Elijah comes knocking at our door, will we invite him in to the party? And, if not now, when?

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[i] Isaiah 11:1-10

[ii] Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

[iii] Matthew 3:1-12

[iv] Malachi 4:4-6 NRSVUE

[v] Ibid, Matthew 3:1-12

[vi] Get Together, by Chet Powers (aka Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service), released as a single by We Five in 1965 (#31 Hot 100); on Jefferson Airplane Takes Off  in 1966; before the 1967 Youngbloods release (peaking at number 62 and reaching 37 on the US adult contemporary chart). However, renewed interest in the Youngbloods' version came when it was used in a radio public service announcement as a call for brotherhood by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The Youngbloods' version was re-released in 1969, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.)