Christmas 2015: This is our story

Christmas 2015

This is a story that we know well—the Christmas story---in fact, many people of all faiths know this story, or at least parts of it.  Is there anything new to hear?  What does it mean for us as individuals, and as a community, in the year 2015? Can Mary, Joseph, the angels, and the shepherds tell us anything that we do not already know?

Let’s begin with those workers who live on the margins, the low men on society’s totem pole, the shepherds.  They are the first to hear this good news that redemption and light, that God’s very self, is born into the world.  Not only are they the first to hear it, but they are the ones entrusted with sharing this good news.  They are the ones encouraged to come near to God---invited into the birth if you will.  Much of the world may have seen them as everyday laborers, those on the fringe, but God uses them in a most important way to be part of this salvation story of ours.  Without them, no one will know, no one will mark this event.  We would not be here tonight, gathered to hear this story one more time, if it weren’t for the shepherds. Maybe tonight we are called to see ourselves as one of this ragtag bunch---this common laborer whom God uses—despite our weaknesses, despite our status or reputation, despite the rough edges of our humanity---God uses these shepherds, God uses us, to tell our story so that others may know and come and see.  God invites us to take part in our Savior’s birth into our world.

The angels, of course, have a slightly higher status---they are the LORD’s messengers after all.  They are so shiny and bright; and apparently, they can sing pretty well. These are not your everyday laborers like the shepherds.  Maybe tonight those among us who have some status in our communities, some influence with others, those among us who have the ability to use our words and our presence to help others to understand---people like teachers, parents, community leaders, supervisors and CEOs---maybe tonight we can identify with those who are charged to use our gifts to spread the good news---especially with others who may be overlooked or frightened or uncertain if they belong.  God uses these messengers, these communicators, to gather others in, bring others to this salvation party and invite them to participate in our Savior’s birth into our world.

Okay, so what do we do with Joseph?  We don’t know much about him.  How can we relate to Joseph?  First of all, Joseph may be quiet and kind of “under the radar,” but he’s obedient.  Joseph’s strength is his trust that God leads him in the right direction---even in a risky direction.  Joseph certainly had the opportunity to walk away from this entire situation---everyone would have understood---but through the angel Gabriel, God asked Joseph to take this risk with God.  And Joseph said yes.  Joseph, in his quiet, obedient way---risked everything he was and everything he had in order to live into God’s call for him—and incidentally, God’s call to the world.  Even though God’s request of Joseph didn’t really make any sense; it didn’t seem plausible; it was pretty outrageous, Joseph said yes.  And Joseph’s yes led to the protection and care of Mary and Jesus---granting them both security and shelter and a future.  Maybe tonight, we are called to see ourselves as the one who trusts in the dream enough to take the risk.  The one who is called to protect, to secure, and to shelter so that others are granted a present and a future.  God uses those who have a quiet, obedient strength to take part in our Savior’s birth into our world.

And then there’s Mary.  For a long time, Mary wasn’t really useful to me.  As a young person, I was taught she was perfect, blameless, submissive.  I don’t know how well you know me, but if you know me at all, you know I am none of those things.  Even though Mary is the woman in this story, for much of my life, I couldn’t identify with her.  But, I no longer believe Mary was perfect; she was human.  Nowhere in Scripture are we told Mary is divine; she is simply human. Like all of us, I am certain she made mistakes, lost her temper, became annoyed with her children, her husband, her neighbors.  But, she was also extraordinary. Not because she was without fault or blameless, but  simply because she said yes.  Like Joseph, she risked her all, her everything, and she responded to God’s call to hand over her life to God’s control and for God’s dream……and Mary said yes.

I wonder how Mary was formed? how she was empowered and equipped to say yes?  What kind of prayer, study, fellowship and service shaped and formed her so that she was open to this request? Nadia Bolz Weber writes: “Mary is what it looks like to believe we already are who God believes we are.” Tonight, maybe we are called to consider how we are making ourselves available to the movement and messengers of God.  Can we live in such ways that when the angels arrive we might be ready to hear and respond to God’s call to participate in this great salvation story of ours---mine, yours, and all of God’s people, all of God’s Creation?  God uses those who are not perfect, but those who are prepared, to take part in our Savior’s birth into our world.

Tonight as we hear this wonderful story of God’s overwhelming and redemptive love yet again---we are invited to place ourselves into the scene.  We are called to not only find our “role” in this great script of Salvation that is ours, but we are also asked to learn our lines, know our blocking, hear our cues.  To prepare ourselves. For we are nothing less than midwives of the Kingdom of God into this world.  As the German mystic Meister Eckart said: We are all called to be mothers of God – for God is always waiting to be born.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;  cast out our sin, and enter in, 
be born in us today.

Advent 2 c: Will there be room?

Malachi 3:1-4; Canticle 15; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6

This reading from Luke’s Gospel today is frontloaded with names of the ancient world’s rulers and powers.  For those first disciples listening to Luke’s version of the Good News of Jesus, they are being reminded just who is in charge.  Who has the power.  To whom they are to obey: “Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate Governor of Judea, Herod ruler of Galilee, Philip ruler of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Annas and Caiaphas, high priests of the temple.”

And then, in comes John the Baptist.  In comes John---marching right through the thicket of all these names of worldly powers and rulers---and John proclaims: I say someone else is in charge.  I proclaim that there is a greater power, another way, something else to whom we obey and listen, another One who is coming, for whom we are to prepare.  Make way, John professes, make way and prepare.  Our redemption is near.

Our redemption is near; it is time to prepare.  Prepare for the coming.  The coming of Jesus; this is what this season of Advent is all about.  Oh, I know we see preparations all around us: decorations going up, Christmas carols on the radio and over the muzak.  We get excited, and rightfully so, about casting beauty upon our buildings, our homes, and in our neighborhoods.  We attend parties and gatherings.  We buy gifts and wrap them.  We plan beautiful music and worship for Christmas celebrations.  This is all good, all right, all proper.

But, I do not think this is the preparation to which John the Baptist points us.  These “pre-Christmas” activities may be fun, important, and enjoyable, but they are not preparing the way.  What God really desires is for God’s disciples to prepare the way within themselves.  To prepare our hearts and make room in which the Christ can dwell.  Jesus is coming.  Coming to our hearts, our minds, our Spirits.  Will there be room?  room at this inn within us? 

Will we have done the hard work of reconciliation and forgiveness---sweeping out the cobwebs of irritation, animosity, and fear?  Will we have carved out those nasty, dark spots of our hearts where we have held onto our anger and woundedness instead of forgiving someone?  Will we have focused on the life and way of Jesus in such a way that our hearts are softened, our behavior transformed, and our surrender to God’s will is strengthened?

Jesus is coming.  Will there be room?  Room in our daily lives for prayer and reflection?  Room to hear, read, and discuss the Gospel with other disciples?  Time to give thanks to God?  Space in our calendars to greet our brothers and sisters just as they are, loving them simply because we belong to one another?

Jesus is coming.  It is our actions and our choices that make the paths straights.  It is our words, our systems and our policies that fill the valleys and make the mountains low.  God desires the playing field to be leveled, so that all of humanity equally might know the abundance, the grace, the compassion and the love of God. 

Yes, John the Baptist is pointing us to the way of Jesus that demands we work on our social structures, systems and political ways of being to make sure that the playing field is leveled because all people are equally worthy of having enough---enough food, enough clean water, enough shelter.  But John specifically points us to an inner conversion---an inner metanoia---the conversion of our hearts, minds, and spirits through forgiveness, repentance.  Turning away from self-preservation and retaliation and turning toward the Good News of living and seeking the common good.  The Good news of reconciliation---letting go of our practices of avoiding those who hurt us or anger us or discomfort us and embracing the Truth of Jesus---that there is no us and them, only us.  We are all bound to one another in our imago dei---the breath and image of God blown into us at our Creation.

As a church, we are in a time of discernment.  We are seeking God’s way forward for us as we desire to flourish in living out Jesus’ redeeming work, as we desire to be a community of disciples who build up other disciples.  Some may say this is a time of crisis---not simply here at Intercession---but throughout Christianity and in all denominations.  But I believe that every critical point is really an opportunity.  An opportunity to choose, to choose the life-giving way of Jesus so we and those we meet, those we find, those we seek, might know and experience the love and grace of Jesus.

It is day 340 in the year 2015; there have been 355 mass shootings in the United States since January 1^st.  Now is the time. All around us, people desire refuge.  People ache for peace.  People are seeking wholeness.  Many are searching for God, the divine, the holy. Humanity longs for a new way. Like the John the Baptist, let us march through the thicket of the world powers, and proclaim something new. Let us process through the smoke of warfare, gun violence, terrorism, economic distress, poverty, disease, and bloodshed, and let us declare something different, let us assert we know another way, another rpower, another King.  Let us---in our lives and from our lips-----proclaim Jesus. 

Jesus is coming. We are to let go of what is not of God in order to embrace more and more of Jesus.   Let go of hearts of stone and receive the hearts of flesh God gives to us---Christ dwelling within us—By this we are empowered and equipped to live as God’s people who are agents of God’s Kingdom.

If we as a community speak the authentic Word of Christ, if we live this authentic Word—putting into practice compassion, forgiveness and mercy---turning our schedules over to God---making room and space in our individual and communal lives---taking this authentic Word and these Jesus practices out into the world, then People will join us.  People will join us because this is what we all long to hear and know: God’s authentic Word of Love.  We are all hungry to see it lived out in flesh, in community---We wish to be in the presence of the HOLY.

It’s true that sometimes we can find this peace and this presence in buildings and spaces.  But any building is temporary.  No temple made of stone or wood will last.  It’s not meant to.  God’s plan for a permanent living space never included buildings.  That is, and always has been, our plan, not God’s.

From the beginning, and in the Coming of Christ, what we are promised, what is foretold, is that God will dwell with us, within humanity.  We are God’s temple.  The prophet Malachi reminds us today: the Lord is coming to the Lord’s temple.  We are called to so much more than simply preparing our buildings, our homes, our neighborhoods for the birth of Christ. As disciples, as the Beloved, we are to get ready. Prepare.  Make Room. In our hearts, our minds, our spirits. God, who has begun a good work in you, in us, God will bring this good work to completion.  Will God get what God wants?  Our hearts.  Our minds.  Our whole selves.  Jesus is coming, beloved.  Will there be room?

Living Grace: All Saints Sunday November 1, 2015

Psalm 24; Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44

Brother James Koester says: “The truth of baptism is revealed in what it does and who it shows us to be, cleansing us, not from dirt but from separation; separation from God, separation from ourselves, separation from one another.”

In baptism, we are not made God’s people; we have always been God’s people.  Baptism is when we turn to God and declare: Yes, God, we are yours. The parents of those being baptized today—Kyle and Trisha; Erin and Mike; Noah and Jessica--- you are saying: Yes, God, this child is not ours, but yours.

So, what does it mean to be God’s beloved child?

First and foremost, it means we are washed in the living water---the water that frees us from our human brokenness and empowers us to live into the new life of Jesus. Following Jesus isn’t simply about being “good” and “nice.” Ultimately, it isn’t about being perfect or not making any mistakes.  Following Jesus is about turning and realignment.  Turning from our missteps and miscues and realigning ourselves with Jesus.  It’s like when you’ve made a wrong turn and you hear the GPS: Recalculating.  Today we have the perfect opportunity to stop and realign as we renew our own baptismal vows.

God knows we are nothing but ashes and dust, with a bit of God breathed into us, and due to that origin of dust and ashes, this life of ours will get dirty, messy and fractured.  That’s why we are given the gift of forgiveness: Forgiveness, which isn’t simply saying I’m sorry.  Forgiveness is living the I am sorry in such a way that we make amends when we have wronged others; we stop acting in ways that deny our connection to God and one another, and we ask for the Spirit to empower us to choose differently, to live differently, to shine Jesus rather than to cast shadows.

Cleansing us from our separation from one another, forgiveness is about reconciliation--- the act of being rebound to those from whom we have become separated. Our ties to one another can be cut in so many ways. Whether we actively participate in systemic sin or simply turn a blind eye to it, the animosity, fear, and indifference that gives life to racism, bigotry, and economic injustice frays our common thread and damages our connectedness to one another and to God. 

Our every day words and actions often destroy relationships.  We engage in toxic behavior without even really giving it much thought--- gossip; name-calling and labeling; ignoring the elderly, the sick, the lonely; allowing racial jokes to stand; telling ourselves we don’t have enough time to help; believing we are more worthy than others; apathy, that dread dis-ease of “whatever.”

Jesus stands outside these tombs of fear, indifference, and ignorance that we have built; Jesus calls out to those whom we have sentenced to something less than life, calling them from the tombs we have built into a full life.  And Jesus calls to us who allow these tombs to stand; Jesus commands us: Unbind them and let them go!  Free them from the oppressive ties of our sin, their sin, and help them to know the abundance of life.

“Unbind them” is God’s call to reconciliation---to participate in reknitting our attachment to all of God’s other beloved children---even when we think those from who we are separated are too different from us---even when we have deemed them unworthy----even when they haven’t earned it or deserved it. 

Because here is the Gospel truth: Their freedom is our freedom.  We will only know true freedom from fear, from anxiety, from anger and dissatisfaction when, like Jesus, we declare that the wholeness of all of Creation and the betterment of every human being is the only way to our own wholeness and our own betterment. 

Recently, I have witnessed this beautiful truth.  Intercession family member, Bobbie Joy Amann, comes to the Shalom Center each month.  As a Shalom minister, she has an incredible gift of meeting people just as they are.  Not expecting them to put on their best behavior—even though most of our guests do just that---Bobbie Joy sees them first and foremost as someone to whom she is connected.  And she listens to them with God’s ears; she sees them with God’s eyes.  Instead of being separated by differences, she begins from her common divine DNA with each of our guests.  Living grace; amazing grace; grace that resurrects.  Being church. 

I saw this again when this family came together to host a wonderful community event.  Okay, we might have gotten excited because it was a fundraiser and our hope began with our own flourishing, but then this incredible thing happened.  Many hands and minds and backs came together for all the various elements: providing the ingredients; donating baskets and items for the silent auction; selling tickets; buying tickets; getting the Parish Hall ready; putting the Parish Hall back to rights; making food; serving food; welcoming guests----the young, the older, newer members, long-term members, male, female, liberal, conservative---it wasn’t our differences that mattered---it was our common goal, our common love and passion to be the church family of Intercession Episcopal.  AND, we had fun doing it.  Some of us created new relationships, some of us strengthened growing relationships---all of us were empowered and built up by the presence and ministry of one another.  It was like the unfolding of the heavens right here at a Steak Fry.

Beloved, Jesus didn’t die for your freedom.  Jesus didn’t die for my freedom.  Jesus gave his life in the ultimate act of sacrificial love for OUR FREEDOM.  For our communal wholeness and holiness. And the only way it can be extended is if you and I choose to participate in this sacrificial love of Jesus.

Beloved, you cannot be made whole without me; I cannot be made whole without you; and none of us can be made whole when we allow for any one of God’s children or any part of God’s creation to be deemed unworthy, to be cast aside and forgotten.  Our wholeness only comes when all are restored to their rightful place within this web of grace.  And guess what?  It isn’t up to us to decide who is in and who is out. It isn’t our role to determine if another person has done what is needed to be worthy of God.  God has already declared that all are worthy.  Our role is to live that truth.  The truth that all are worthy, all are wanted, all are valued by our Creator, redeemer and sanctifier God.  All.

This water of baptism is about resurrection.  Dying to one way of life in order to rise to a new life: the sacrificial life and love of Jesus. Recognizing that we are bound to all others, and in that binding, we are made free and whole, this is a life that can only be lived in community.

Baptism means we take our place in this great communion of saints.  Saints, after all, are simply those who choose God because God uses any human being who is willing to take part in God’s redeeming acts.  Remember Scripture tells us: the first shall be last and the last first; the poor, of all people, are blessed; the rich are cursed by their possessions; prostitutes make great dinner guests; the lame, the blind, the children, the leper and those with the least amount of social status are at the top of God’s party guest list. 

Beloved, we believe in and worship a God who doesn’t celebrate a person’s piety or perfection, but, as Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it, a God who gets “redemptive and holy things done in this world through, of all things, human beings, all of whom are flawed.” [1]

Yes, every single human being is flawed.  We do not have much of a problem accepting this.  Harder for us to believe is that every single human being---regardless of faith, race, gender, sexual orientation, social status, economic status, health, political belief or age---every single human being is loved, wanted, valued, and needed.  Yes, even those on welfare, even the illegal immigrant, even the criminal, the insane, the smelly addict, the dirty homeless.  Yes, I am talking about the Muslim, the Jew, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the agnostic, the atheist.  Your enemy, my enemy, America’s enemy.  Every single human being is loved, wanted, valued, and needed by God---and because we are God’s people---then every single human being is to be loved, wanted, valued, and needed by us as well.  We are connected and bound to them all.

This is the good news we are called to share. This is the good news we are sent to live. 

No exceptions.  No outcasts.  No one left to the side of the road.   All are sinners; all are saints.  God’s a mystery.  Get over yourselves and get on with the light and love of Jesus.  Beloved: let us live grace.

---

[1] Bolz-Weber, Nadia.  Accidental Saints, Convergent Books; 2015, pg 7.

Belong, Believe, Become

Proper 23b: 

Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

First question: what is meant by eternal life?  We know this doesn’t mean living forever in the bodies we now have.

Jesus shows us that eternal life is having an intimate and personal relationship with God---this Triune God of three persons: Creator, redeemer and sanctifier.  God is the stream of eternity—the One who has always been, is now, and will be forever.  Eternal life can only be found in this stream of the divine---trusting that God is the One who made us, the One to whom we belong, the One who rescues us from our brokenness and the One who can restore and make us holy so that we are equipped to join the never-ending dance of the Blessed Trinity, so that we are able to dive deeply into eternal life.

Teacher, what must I do to inherit?  Notice the question isn’t: “What must I do to earn?”  We cannot earn eternal life.  This isn’t a matter of earning enough gold stickers or amassing a bigger lists of things we have done right versus things we have done wrong.  Inheritance is something given, usually from one family member to the next, passed down generation to generation.  Inheritance is about belonging to a family.  Eternal life, then, begins with belonging.

How do we help others know that they belong?  They belong to God, they belong to us, we belong to them, that we are one big family of belonging?  How do we come to know and believe this ourselves?  For me, it started with coming to church on Sunday morning.  Even as a child, I knew I belonged to my faith community.  One: because my parents told me I did---and then, when I went to church, those in the faith community showed me I belonged.  They knew my name; they looked after me, took interest in my life, treated me like family, taught me, listened to me, corrected me, spent time with me, they loved me.  Of course, some of them loved me better than others.  Like in any family, some of them ignored me or only tolerated me---but I knew I belonged.  I grew up with these rituals and church spaces---and they have always been safe places for me---so church for me has always equaled belonging.

We know how to do this.  We know how to make people like me feel as if they belong.

But what about people who didn’t grow up with these rituals?  Who didn’t grow up going to church spaces? Or those who did and were taught things they can no longer believe? Or those who were hurt by their faith families?  Who were told they weren’t good enough? That they were not worthy in God’s eyes---because let’s face it, church has told many people that God is not interested in them as they are---that somehow their sin is worse and smellier and uglier than anyone else’s so they better clean up their act if they want to belong at church.

Or what about those who simply grew up with other ways of being church?  Who didn’t use books and hymnals and kneel and cross themselves?  Who didn’t say the same words every Sunday or use an organ or meet in beautiful places with dark wood and stained glass and lots of items that are beautiful, and yet, can be intimidating?  What about them?

How do we help these people to know they too belong?  Should we simply tell them, if you want to belong here all you need to do is be like us?  Is that what belonging means? Do they need to start with Sunday morning in order to belong?  Can people belong if they show up at a potluck or a social gathering?  If they come to a steak fry or a craft show?  How do we express our belief that we belong to one another if they come for a community discussion, to seek some help in a time of need or simply because they were walking by and wondered?

If inheritance first means belonging to a family---how did we come to know we belong and how do we help others know?  How do we remind one another that we belong---even when there are bumpy patches and disagreements, tension and differences of belief?  Whose job is it to remind one another that “Hey:  I know you are finding it tough right now, but we belong to one another?”  What might that look like?

And, of course, if eternal life is having a personal, intimate relationship with God, how do we help people to know God---to believe in God---to explore and meet God?  How is God revealed in the midst of us?  Can it be through more than worship?  Can it be through fellowship, through dinners and conversations, through studies and questions, through prayer disciplines and serving others?  Can it be done in other spaces---places other than church---in homes, in restaurants, in bars and coffee shops? And if it can, how committed are we to taking part in these things?  Do we as a faith family want to put in the time and investment it takes to know God, to help others know God---do we want to risk what it might mean to be known by God?  How do we open ourselves to God?  How do we make it safe enough for others to open themselves to God with us? 

As a child, people told me what to believe, and if I could express what I believed (which had been told to me), then I belonged.  That’s not the way it works anymore.  At least for most of us.  And it is not the way that Today’s Gospel is implying it should work.

Inheritance = belonging.  Belonging means we find ourselves within a community who can help us to believe, but we need not believe before we belong.  As seen in Job and throughout Scripture, believing often comes with questioning, with struggling, with poking and prodding what we have been told to believe.  Believing isn’t a one-stop shop kind of thing; it is a never-ending process of growth.

From the belonging and from the believing, we are empowered to become. The desire to even want to become grows within us. To become who God dreamed us to be---human beings made in the image of God.  Human beings who shine with the light of Christ, human beings who love with the compassion and mercy of Jesus, human beings all bound together in the web of grace knit by the Almighty Creator who from the dark chaos made all that there is so that the Creator might know and be known by Creation.

Belong, believe, become.

The rich young man’s question to Jesus is really two-fold: Why am I here and how can I live that why?  This question from the Good News of Jesus Christ is the question the church must answer for itself today---the world-wide church, the denominational church, the church Diocesan, and this church called Intercession: Why are we here and how can we live that out?