Scriptural Basis
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
When the time came for me to consider a new spiritual home there was one thing that was most important to me. I wanted a home for Jason and I where we would be accepted as a gay couple. That is true and important. To be in a place where Jason and I did not have to hide who we are or fear being sneered at when we kiss each other during the sign of peace was also important. I also wanted to be in a place that has superb Liturgy and music, and that we have found. A place that has a strong sense of social justice and doing more than just talking about it, and in spite of the fact that every place could do better in that department, what we have found at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral is really good.
The most important matter to me was the understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That is something that we have most certainly found in the Episcopal Church. And I for one could not be more thankful for having found that.
I also deeply appreciate that the Episcopal Church is a place for independent religious thinking and not one where we program people if you please. We have our Book of Common Prayer, but as Episcopalians within the Anglican tradition we believe in allowing individuals not a Church body to decide for themselves what they believe, why and how. Yet, we are Christians in all aspects of who the Episcopal Church is.
At the heart of our worship as Episcopalians is the Eucharist. The celebration of thanksgiving and praise for all God has done through the saving mysteries of Jesus Christ on the cross. Not only Christ's death on the cross, but also the resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. All of these are at the heart of who we are as Christians, Catholics and Episcopalians.
Among the matters that has challenged me about becoming Episcopalian is that we shift the emphasis from how Christ is really present in the Eucharist (transubstantiation, consubstantiation etc), to how each believer makes the presence of Christ in the Eucharist real for them. That understanding has finally helped me to understand the importance of the Gospel reading on Maundy Thursday about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.
Our worship of Christ's real presences in the Eucharist is really worthless unless we are willing to engage in radical, inclusive hospitality and service.
This is why it is so very important for the Church (and here I don't just mean the Episcopal Church, I mean the entire Christian Church) to open the doors, altars, confessionals, pulpits, sacraments, ordination etc to the marginalized of society and the Church, including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people. If we are to be the Church of the One whom we believe is really present in the Eucharist, then we cannot stop at the people that are most acceptable or "normal" as much as I hate the term.
Jesus made his offering of self in the food of bread and wine, complete by exercising it's meaning when he washed the feet of the disciples. Jesus was willing to remove his clothing, stoop over and become a servant to all persons to the point of washing their feet. The most loving and humbling of gestures, gave and gave of himself again and again.
What God calls all of us to do is nothing less. God calls upon each one of us to be willing to go into the depths of our selves and give of ourselves for the good of others. Even if it means giving up our stature, our "importance" or our prestige. It means being willing to recognize the goodness of every person as one created and loved by God. Putting aside all prejudice and thirst for violence and dominance to become a subjective servant to all, including the unloved by society and the Church.
Subjective, not in the sense of giving up all of our own personal dignity, but within our dignity, being willing to uphold and defend the dignity of all persons, including and especially those whom our political and religious institutions oppress because of who they are. Where they come from. The color of their skin. A person (s) sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. What language they speak and/or write. Whether they are totally healthy and wealthy or weather they are challenged or poor.
Someone who lives the meaning of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is willing to do all she or he can to work for a society and Church where there is justice, equality and inclusion for all people. A society and Church where "socialism" is understood as necessary to take care of each other, because we are connected to each other. What affects one person, really does affect us all in one way or another. This is why we should speak up about bad immigration laws, laws that take medicaid money away from transplant patients, HIV/AIDS prevention and education, food stamps and housing programs.
Radical, inclusive hospitality and service is willing to go to the lowest point of where people are, and do what we can to lift them up and give them hope for a better tomorrow.
The slain gay activist Harvey Milk said: "You gotta give them hope."
May all of us see on this Maundy Thursday the opportunity to live out our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, by giving hope through radical, inclusive hospitality and service. Amen.
Prayer
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSV)
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Blog Reflection
When the time came for me to consider a new spiritual home there was one thing that was most important to me. I wanted a home for Jason and I where we would be accepted as a gay couple. That is true and important. To be in a place where Jason and I did not have to hide who we are or fear being sneered at when we kiss each other during the sign of peace was also important. I also wanted to be in a place that has superb Liturgy and music, and that we have found. A place that has a strong sense of social justice and doing more than just talking about it, and in spite of the fact that every place could do better in that department, what we have found at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral is really good.
The most important matter to me was the understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That is something that we have most certainly found in the Episcopal Church. And I for one could not be more thankful for having found that.
I also deeply appreciate that the Episcopal Church is a place for independent religious thinking and not one where we program people if you please. We have our Book of Common Prayer, but as Episcopalians within the Anglican tradition we believe in allowing individuals not a Church body to decide for themselves what they believe, why and how. Yet, we are Christians in all aspects of who the Episcopal Church is.
At the heart of our worship as Episcopalians is the Eucharist. The celebration of thanksgiving and praise for all God has done through the saving mysteries of Jesus Christ on the cross. Not only Christ's death on the cross, but also the resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. All of these are at the heart of who we are as Christians, Catholics and Episcopalians.
Among the matters that has challenged me about becoming Episcopalian is that we shift the emphasis from how Christ is really present in the Eucharist (transubstantiation, consubstantiation etc), to how each believer makes the presence of Christ in the Eucharist real for them. That understanding has finally helped me to understand the importance of the Gospel reading on Maundy Thursday about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.
Our worship of Christ's real presences in the Eucharist is really worthless unless we are willing to engage in radical, inclusive hospitality and service.
This is why it is so very important for the Church (and here I don't just mean the Episcopal Church, I mean the entire Christian Church) to open the doors, altars, confessionals, pulpits, sacraments, ordination etc to the marginalized of society and the Church, including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people. If we are to be the Church of the One whom we believe is really present in the Eucharist, then we cannot stop at the people that are most acceptable or "normal" as much as I hate the term.
Jesus made his offering of self in the food of bread and wine, complete by exercising it's meaning when he washed the feet of the disciples. Jesus was willing to remove his clothing, stoop over and become a servant to all persons to the point of washing their feet. The most loving and humbling of gestures, gave and gave of himself again and again.
What God calls all of us to do is nothing less. God calls upon each one of us to be willing to go into the depths of our selves and give of ourselves for the good of others. Even if it means giving up our stature, our "importance" or our prestige. It means being willing to recognize the goodness of every person as one created and loved by God. Putting aside all prejudice and thirst for violence and dominance to become a subjective servant to all, including the unloved by society and the Church.
Subjective, not in the sense of giving up all of our own personal dignity, but within our dignity, being willing to uphold and defend the dignity of all persons, including and especially those whom our political and religious institutions oppress because of who they are. Where they come from. The color of their skin. A person (s) sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. What language they speak and/or write. Whether they are totally healthy and wealthy or weather they are challenged or poor.
Someone who lives the meaning of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is willing to do all she or he can to work for a society and Church where there is justice, equality and inclusion for all people. A society and Church where "socialism" is understood as necessary to take care of each other, because we are connected to each other. What affects one person, really does affect us all in one way or another. This is why we should speak up about bad immigration laws, laws that take medicaid money away from transplant patients, HIV/AIDS prevention and education, food stamps and housing programs.
Radical, inclusive hospitality and service is willing to go to the lowest point of where people are, and do what we can to lift them up and give them hope for a better tomorrow.
The slain gay activist Harvey Milk said: "You gotta give them hope."
May all of us see on this Maundy Thursday the opportunity to live out our belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, by giving hope through radical, inclusive hospitality and service. Amen.
Prayer
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Maundy Thursday, Book of Common Prayer, page 221).
Thank you Philip...!
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