Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost: Proper 15

Today's Scripture Readings

Proverbs 9:1-6 (NRSV)

Wisdom has built her house,

she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,

she has also set her table.

She has sent out her servant girls, she calls

from the highest places in the town,

"You that are simple, turn in here!"

To those without sense she says,

"Come, eat of my bread

and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Lay aside immaturity, and live,

and walk in the way of insight."

Psalm 34:9-14 (BCP., p.628)


Ephesians 5:15-20 (NRSV)

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51-58 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." 

Blog Reflection

As I read these Scripture readings in preparation for this blog post, I got three points to focus on.  The first is the Wisdom of God.  The second is Jesus as the Bread of Life.  The third is the life we have through Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the world around us.

Wisdom is often referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures in the feminine gender.  It is very much likened to a mother feeding her children with the very best she has to give.  In this reading from Proverbs, she is most concerned with taking care of her immediate children.  She sends for her servants to deliver the basics of life; bread to feed the body and wine to lift up the heart. 

Bread is the most basic kind of food.  It is made from wheat that grows in the ground from a seed with the help of the sun, water, soil and great care.  The ingredients in bread give the body substance enough to support its health.  

Wine comes from the grape known as the fruit of the vine.  Jesus' reference to the vine and branches in John 15 can also mean a grape patch.  The vine gives life to the branches which breeds and nourishes the grapes.  Once again due to soil, water, air, sun and a farmers attention; the grapes are harvested.  To make wine the grapes are picked, crushed and fermented into wine.  The wine ages and then it is put in a bottle.  Wine has the ability to heal a sick stomach.  Its agents can cheer a soul who is down. 

All of this leads us to those wonderful words in Psalm 34:10.  "Those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good."  I believe this is what Jesus is talking about in our Gospel Reading from John 6 today.  If Christians are to be the presence of God in our world, we must know the fullness of Jesus Christ from within ourselves and our many relationships.  When we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we give thanks for all that God has done and recall the gracious gift God gave us in the death and resurrection of Christ.   Jesus did more that die for and with our sins.  He also gave Himself in total and complete sacrifice so that we might know the fullness of God's love for us and for the world.

Jesus tells us that He is the bread that came to be with us, so that the Presence of God may be real in us and through us.  If we want to know a fuller presence of God and grow in grace, the flesh and blood of Christ is where we will find such an experience.  If as Christians we live into that fullness of the life of Jesus, then we must consume Him and share Him with others.

We live in a world full of violence, oppression, prejudice and injustice.  The wealthy dominate the poor.   The privileged benefit at the expense of the underprivileged.  Those who seek justice for the oppressed are mocked and scorned by the oppressors.  The oppressed are kicked in the gut by those who live in gluttony of the power and prestige they cannot enough of or let go.

Jesus Christ offers to us and to all of the marginalized the unconditional and all inclusive love of God.  Love such as this begins with faith to become tangible and real in this present moment.  Jesus is the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation who feeds us with the grace to believe that even when we fail, God forgives us and empowers us with the Holy Spirit.  God empowers us with gifts to worship, pray, work and serve others in the Name of Christ.   Jesus feeds us with His presence so that we may be His presence in one another and through each other.

Amen.


Prayers

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a
sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us
grace to receive thankfully the fruits of this redeeming work,
and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (Proper 15.  The Book of Common Prayer., p. 232).

God our Father, whose Son our Lord Jesus Christ in a
wonderful Sacrament has left us a memorial of his passion:
Grant us so to venerate the sacred mysteries of his Body and
Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit
of his redemption; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Prayer Of The Eucharist.  The Book of Common Prayer, p. 252).

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us
grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace
with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom,
help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our
communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (Prayer for Social Justice.  The Book of Common Prayer, p. 260).

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: The True Faith and Ministry of the Church

Today's Scripture Readings

Isaiah 51:1-6 (NRSV)

Thus says the Lord:

"Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness,

you that seek the LORD.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham your father

and to Sarah who bore you;

for he was but one when I called him,

but I blessed him and made him many.

For the LORD will comfort Zion;

he will comfort all her waste places,

and will make her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the garden of the LORD;

joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Listen to me, my people,

and give heed to me, my nation;

for a teaching will go out from me,

and my justice for a light to the peoples.

I will bring near my deliverance swiftly,

my salvation has gone out

and my arms will rule the peoples;

the coastlands wait for me,

and for my arm they hope.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

and look at the earth beneath;

for the heavens will vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like a garment,

and those who live on it will die like gnats;

but my salvation will be forever,

and my deliverance will never be ended."

Psalm 138 (BCP., p.793)


Romans 12: 1-8 (NRSV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Matthew 16:13-20 (NRSV)

When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Blog Reflection

This Sunday's Gospel text is one of those that I wish we could skip.  It is a text that has been used to say many different things.  

In the Roman Catholic Tradition this is the text attributed to the Papacy.  Evangelical Christians have interpreted these words from Matthew's Gospel to say that it is only by confessing Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God can one be saved.  More progressive theologians would say that this Gospel reflects that Christians confessed Jesus as the Son of God, but Jesus Himself did not.   This Gospel is also used every year on January 18 the Confession of St. Peter the Apostle in The Episcopal Churches' calendar.  It is a Holy Day with it's own collect in The Book of Common Prayer on page 238.

I recently began reading my next book in my formation.  The book is entitled Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church written by Peter King.   I was reading through the first chapter about the beginnings of the Monastic Movement in Egypt.  I was quite struck by the following paragraphs.  

The first flowering of christian monasticism occurred at a critical time in the history of the Church.  In 313 the so-called Edict of Milan ended the persecution of Christians once and for all.  The Emperor Constantine soon began to look upon the Church as an important support of his monarchy and to grant it various privileges.  Christianity soon became the new state religion.  Bishops were now looked upon as the emperor's advisers and held important positions at court.  From having been persecuted, they became persecutors of those holding deviant opinions.

The consequent worldliness and lowering of standards did not go unnoticed.  Saint Jerome remarked that as the Church acquired princely might it became 'greater in power as measured by its wealth, but less in virtue'.  'Not all bishops are true bishops', he wrote, 'You notice Peter; but mark Judas as well....Ecclesiastical rank does not make a man a Christian'.  As for christian priests, There are other men...who only seek the office of presbyter and deacon that they may be able to visit freely.... When you seen these gentry, thing of them rather as potential bridegrooms than as clergymen'. (Pages 27,28).

I wanted to quote these words to you, my readers, as part of my own interpretation and application of this Gospel text.  It may or may not work among Scriptural and/or theological scholars, but, no one said it absolutely has to.

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans calls upon Christians to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. "   It would seem to me that the ministry of Jesus was about seeking the lost and lonely, bringing justice to the oppressed, and helped people find their way to God through love of God, neighbor and self.  The basis of such a ministry was the God came to us, as one like ourselves to show us the way to a relationship with the Divine, through a life of self sacrifice and devotion to the reparation of the human community.  It was more than a doctrine.  It was about more than what was decided by a Church council, or political party.  It was because God created all of us with the dignity as God's beloved.  In Christ Jesus, our relationship as God's beloved is redeemed, and with us God is well pleased.  If the Church only ministers to and for the wealthy, the powerful and the most privileged, the Church "conforms to this world."   When the Church works for the poor, marginalized and the lonely, it is being transformed by a renewed mind.

The confession of St. Peter and the words of Jesus to him in Matthew's Gospel are about the faith and ministry of the Church, by the grace of God.   They are not a statement of political and/or universal authority for the purpose of control.  The ministry of the so called Apostolic Succession is not only about twelve men, who declared by Sacred Scripture everything from the ordination of women, to justification for discrimination against LGBT people, Muslims, the Jewish people, African Americans and so forth.  It is precisely because of the faith and ministry of the words between Peter and Jesus that the Church should be more inclusive and abundant with diversity.

The late Archbishop Michael Ramsey said it best when he wrote:

The succession of bishops is not an isolated channel of grace, since from the first Christ bestows grace through every sacramental act of His Body.  But certain actions in the work of grace are confined to the bishops; and thereby the truth is taught that every local group or church depends on the one life of the one body, and that the church of any generation shares in the one historic society which is not past and dead but alive in the present.  Thus the church's full and continuous life in grace does depend upon the succession of Bishops, whose work, however is not isolated but bound up with the whole Body (The Gospel and the Catholic Church, p. 82, 83).

The work of confessing Jesus Christ, and the binding and losing of the Reign of God is the work of all Christians in whatever capacity they are in.  It does not matter what our race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, wealth, health, etc.   What matters is that we bring the faith and ministry of the Church into where we are, who we meet and what we do.  We bring that faith to our work for justice for Michael Brown, and peace for Ferguson, Missouri.   We live the confession of our faith in our prayer and work, and in respecting the dignity and integrity of every human person, loving our neighbor as ourselves with God's help, in our Baptismal Vows.

Today's Gospel reading from Matthew is a call of grace upon all Christians, and the true hope for those who have been hurt by the Church and society, so that they may find some kind of peace, healing and reconciliation with God.  Whether they believe what they profess in the Nicene Creed or not.

May our faith and ministry as the Body of Christ mean that the Church fulfills it's mission, because we are all faithful to what Christ has called us to.

Amen.


Prayers

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered
together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your
power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 16: The Book of Common Prayer, p.232).

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.  (Prayer for the Church, The Book of Common Prayer, p.816).

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith,
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all
of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth
and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.  (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, The Book of Common Prayer, p.818).

St. Mary the Virgin: A Woman Graced, Tried, and Rewarded

Today's Scripture Readings

 Isaiah 61:10-11 (NRSV)

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,

my whole being shall exult in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its shoots,

and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise

to spring up before all the nations. 

 

Psalm 34 (BCP. p.627)

 

Galatians 4:4-7 (NRSV)

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

 

Luke 1:44-56 (NRSV)

Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

 

Blog Reflection

As I read through the various traditions of what this August 15th, Commemoration of the St. Mary the Virgin means, I am awestruck by the diversity.  A diversity that is a great source of division among Christians.

For Roman Catholics, today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Catholics believe that on this day, Mary did not die, but was assumed body and soul into Heaven.  It was a dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1945.  This belief is based on another belief by Catholics in Mary's Immaculate Conception.  Meaning she was conceived without original sin, prefiguring the victory won by the death and resurrection of Christ.  Both dogma's suggest that because Mary was God's perfectly created creature, who did the will of God from conception to the end of her earthly life, she who was "full of grace" never experienced death, and was rewarded with a glorious assumption by Mary's Son.

 In the case of what this day means to the Eastern Orthodox, today is the Feast of the Dormition.  In a stunning explanation of the connection of the Feast of the Transfiguration which we celebrated on August 6 and the Dormition, the following comes from the website to St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Both feasts are connected with death. The Transfiguration comes before the death of Christ and anticipates it. The Dormition marks the death of the Mother of God, and comes after the death and resurrection of Christ. 

About the Transfiguration, we say that the revelation of His glory was the Lord's gift to the disciples Peter, James and John in anticipation of His suffering and death. The revelation of glory was meant to give the disciples something - some hope - to see them through their experience of holy week and to strengthen them in the face of death of their Master. Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary.... (Kontakion) 

The Dormition of the Mother of God is also a gift. It is a gift of hope because it reveals that in Christ, death is no longer the master and great anxiety of our lives, but is itself subject to the power of His love. The reality and power of the resurrection of Christ is applied to our common human life in the person of the Mother of God. What is proclaimed as Gospel - the risen Christ, the Lord of Life, trampling death by death - is experienced here in the reality of the believer's new life in Christ. For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb. (Kontakion)

The Commemoration of the St. Mary the Virgin presents us with some interesting spiritual and theological problems as well as much to rejoice in.  The problem as Abbot Andrew Karr, OSB of St. Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, MI points out in his blog for today, is that Mary is either deified or made out to be a demigod.  

Mary’s real glory is that she was a human being every much as the rest of us. That is, she was and is a Jewish girl. Mary is, of course, inseparable from the Incarnation of the Word in her womb. Although Mary’s son was (and is) divine, Jesus was (and is) fully human, like you and me. In his excellent book Sheer Grace, Drasko Dizdar says that Mary, far from being a deity or demigod, “is the utterly and simply human subversion of this deification of human “archetypes” into the divine feminine.’” This is what the famous words of Mary in the Magnificat are all about when she says God “has cast down the mighty from their seats and has lifted up the lowly.” If such words simply mean other people become just as mighty as the ones who were cast down, then the words change nothing for humanity. The ones who are raised up are lowly and continue to be raised up only by remaining lowly. The proud are scattered in the “imagination of their hearts.” The rich are sent away empty because their hearts are too full of their desires to have room for God. What is so subversive about Mary, then, is her humanity. While other humans try to make themselves more than human by being movers and shakers, Mary is blessedly content to be human. As Dizdar says, Mary is a whole human being “as God has always intended the human creature to be as creature.” 

Then there is the matter of The Real Mary .  A 16 year old girl in a culture under immense oppression, with religious laws that are represented by as much misogyny as you can get.  Women were property to be owned by some man, with their dignity at the mercy of such a culture.  Yet, she has the most incredible experience with the Angel Gabriel who tells her that she was to be the mother of the Incarnate Word.  She accepts God's will, and she struggles like all of us do, with what exactly God is doing when we are blessed by God's random act of grace to do mighty things.   In her Magnificat, she sings of how God turned over the worlds corrupt structure, and gave life to the lowly, the hungry, and keeps God's promise of mercy.  Yet, as Mary experiences the crushing moments of Jesus' agonizing death, she questions God's purpose, and suffers with her son, and experiences what all parents who lose children do.  The experience of having died an inner and excruciating death as a mother feels in the depths of her womb, because the child who was once part of her body, is dead. 

On the subject of today's Commemoration of St. Mary the Virgin, I would like to throw some things out based on my own experience. I was a Roman Catholic for 15 years and believed very strongly in the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, her perpetual virginity and the rest. One of the great gifts of being Episcopalian is that we are open to differences of belief and opinion, and even questioning so that we arrive at an authentic faith. So, here is what I now think. It is just as possible that the Immaculate Conception and Assumption did happen, as much as it is possible that they did not. Whether they happened or not, we do know from the Gospel accounts, that Mary received a fantastic random act of grace to conceive and give birth to Christ, who is God incarnate. The human became infused with the divine, and the divine changed forever the relationship between humankind and God. Therefore, Mary is an awesome example of what it means to be a recipient of God's random act of grace, and to live her life, changed forever, by the fruit of her womb. Whether we believe in the Immaculate Conception and/or Assumption or not, I think the important thing is, are we transformed by our encounter with Jesus, the fruit of Mary's womb? How do we respond when we receive a random act of God's grace? Are we truly transformed, or do we return to business as usual? Mary is the example of how to live out that transformation, and receive the reward of God's saving grace. 

Perhaps on this Commemoration, we can pray for God's random act of grace to help us address the issue of climate change, the horrific violence to LGBT people in Russia, Uganda, New York City, and in other places because of prejudice and oppression.   What would we do if we received God's random act of grace to uphold the dignity of women with regards to adequate reproductive health care, job creation and training, equal job wages, protection from exploitation and gender violence?   

If we were to receive such a random act of God's grace, would we truly be transformed, to become a missionary of God's transforming grace?  Or would we just continue with business as usual?

Amen.

Prayers

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness
of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we
may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the
power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for St. Mary the Virgin, Book of Common Prayer, p.242).

 O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for the Human Family, p.815).

Holy Cross Day: The Cross: An Opportunity for Growth

Today's Scripture Readings

Numbers 21: 4-9 (NRSV)

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Psalm 98 (BCP., p. 727)


Galatians 6: 14-18 (NRSV)

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

John 12: 31-36a (NRSV)

Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light."

Blog Reflection

My former Spiritual Director, Abbot Anselm of Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland once told me:

"The best way to beat the devil at his game, is to take something meant for evil and grow in grace because of it."

In today's Brother, Give Us A Word, Brother Kevin Hackett of the Society of St. John the Evangelist wrote:

"By focusing on the cross and its place in our lives (rather than its place in Jesus’ life), we are reminded in stark relief that an integral part of the life to which Jesus calls us includes disappointment and defeat and suffering and death. This does not immediately sound like good news, I’ll admit, but it is the truth." 

The quotes from Fr. Abbot Anselm and Br. Kevin are the reason I chose to the reading from Numbers used in today's Morning Prayer as opposed to the chosen reading from the Lectionary to be used for the Eucharist.  

The reading from Numbers seems so odd for us.   The idea of God sending snakes to bite and kill people, just doesn't sound very good.  It sounds a lot like those who suggest that Hurricane Isaac hit New Orleans, Louisiana a couple weeks ago because of Southern Decadence.   However, we need to read this from the view point of the people and the times in which they lived.  Numbers was not written at the time in which these stories would have taken place. The book itself suggests that it came from about the period of 400 B.C.E.  However, it is most likely that it would have been written between 1500-1200 B.C.E. well after the Babylonian Exile.   Having said that, these events would have been shared by way of an oral tradition, long before it would have been written down. Therefore, we need to be very careful about interpreting these as if God must send bad things, because of things we do.  I do not believe that is the point of this reading.

There is something important to look at from the point of Moses holding up a golden image by which people are now healed.   Didn't God punish Israel severely for worshiping the golden calf in Exodus 32?   Here a snake of gold placed upon the staff of Moses is used to heal people.   What might we take away from this?

One answer might be that the things that happen in our lives that are so dreadfully evil, can also become very beneficial if we put God at the center of our lives instead of the circumstances of what is going on.   We become so focused on why something happened or the potential end, whether it is actual or imagined, and it becomes our idol.  It robs us of our center and we become slaves to something that has no business owning us.   This is very much what happens with addictions.   We become so obsessed with how the alcohol makes us feel, how talking meanly to our spouse or children, or someone different from ourselves, that we can no longer hear God calling us to holiness.   We must at some point refocus our hearts and minds on who we are to serve, rather than what we are giving all of our life's energy to.

As we celebrate today the Holy Cross on which Christ died, I think what Br. Kevin wrote is very true.   We can become so focused on Christ dying on the Cross for our sins (for which we should indeed be very thankful), and forget that we too have our own dying to do.  Not just physical death, which will happen to us all, but also the death of our immaturity so that we may grow more into the likeness of the Divine Savior who is Jesus the Christ.

Jesus reminds us today in the Gospel that he was lifted up so to draw others to himself.  Yet, he reminds us, as does St. Benedict in his Rule: "Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness will not overtake you" (John 12: 35, Rule of Benedict substitutes the word: "Walk" for "Run" RB 1980, Prologue, vs. 13, p. 159).  All we have is what is before us, right here, right now.  What we have is what we have.  As Sally Field's character Momma in the movie Forrest Gump said on her death bed: "You do the best you can with what God gave you."  

As lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, we have been given our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression by God's creative grace. 

Patrick S. Cheng writes extensively about a particular sin and grace with regards to LGBT people in his book From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ, in Chapter 9, Model Five: The Self-Loving Christ.  I understand Fr. Cheng to suggest that we must seek God's continual graces so that instead of living in shame as many Christianists would have us do, we will be able to live with a sense of pride.  By pride, we do not mean the kind that says we are any better than anyone else.  However, the shame that is a sin in and/of itself that says we are worse than everyone else, is nothing but a bold face lie that comes from the immaturity of the discrimination and oppression of those who cannot see the effects of their attitudes and behaviors beyond themselves. What looks like a lifestyle of sin and shame to them, must become the source of grace and healing for us. As  they attempt to push us further and further away from what is true, we must embrace the Cross and so die to what they say we are, and become true about who we are.   Rather than give in to unhealthy relationships and behaviors such as alcoholism and sexual abuses that give their claim of our shame lots of power, however, inappropriate it is, we must seek healthy, wholesome and life-giving relationships that speak of the radical dying to self that the Cross demands of us.  This is the kind of pride that comes by way of the grace of God.   It is not earned, nor is it something that can just be assumed or taken for granted.   It comes to us as a gift of God, through the redemption of Christ and the Cross. 

On this Holy Cross Day, we are being asked to see opportunities for growth as the way we can carry our own crosses.  This upcoming Sunday, we will read about how Jesus calls us to discipleship by carrying our cross and following him.   For many of us who are among the marginalized of the Church and society, that will mean that we do not live or think according to those negative attitudes and rhetoric around us, but rather by that truth that sets us free, when we accept and embrace ourselves and others around us.   Such as accepting the commandment to love one another as we have been loved.  Even if we are hated for all the wrong reasons.  It may come by way of being totally disgusted and speaking up about the evils perpetrated upon the Muslim people in Libya and elsewhere, and politicians here in the US making remarks about them for their own political advantage.

We are challenged today to live out our own crosses by looking at the difficulties and disappointments we face, and growing in grace from and because of them.  Even if that means we lose some prestige or popularity.   Even if it means that by death, we will have new life. 

Amen.


Prayers

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted
high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to
himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery
of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and
follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect for Holy Cross Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 243).  


Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always
those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without
you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 14, Book of Common Prayer, p. 232).


Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (A Collect for Fridays, Book of Common Prayer, p.99).

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: Hospitality, Reconciliation and the Living Bread

Today's Scripture Readings

1 Kings 19:4-8 (NRSV)

Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Psalm 34  (BCP., p. 627)


Ephesians 4:25-5:2 (NRSV)

Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

John 6:35, 41-51 (NRSV)

Jesus said to the people, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Blog Reflection

St. Benedict in his Rule, chapter 53, On the Reception of Guests begins with the following at verse 15:

Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received; our very awe of the rich guarantees them special respect.

The kitchen for the abbot and guests ought to be separate, so that guests--and monasteries are never without them--need not disturb the brothers when they present themselves at unpredictable hours.  Each year, two brothers who can do the work competently are to be assigned to this kitchen.  Additional help should be available when needed, so that they can perform this service without grumbling.  On the other hand, when the work slackens, they are to go wherever other duties are assigned them.  This consideration is not for them alone, but applies to all duties in the monastery; the brothers are to be given help when it is needed, and whenever they are free, they work wherever they are assigned.  (R.B. 1980, The Rule of St. Benedict: In Latin and English, p. 259).

Sr. Joan Chittister in The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century wrote:

The fact is that we all have to learn to provide for others while maintaining the balance and depth, of our own lives.  The community that is so to greet the guest is not to barter its own identity in the name of the guest.  On the contrary, if we become less than we must be then we will no gift for the guest at all. (p.233).

As we continue through the sixth chapter of John, Jesus is identifying who he is.  He identifies as "the Living Bread".  Jesus proclaims that whoever partakes of him as the Bread of Life, comes as someone moved by God to approach and receive this grace.  Jesus is the fullness of God's grace as the Word made flesh. Yet, as Jesus shares the ultimate in hospitality, he still remains who he is.  The Holy One of God, sent to love us and help us become more like God.

Notice in the Gospel, Jesus says: "Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and who ever believes in me will never be thirsty."  Jesus never said, nor implied that only those lesbian or gay people who will seek to change their orientation, who comes to him, will never be hungry.  Jesus' invitation and proclamation of himself, is to share what he is with all who come to partake of God's grace through Christ.

Many of us feel a lot like Elijah.  We have been working for justice and inclusion.  Trying to talk to people we know, and others across political and religious lines about why we need to be concerned about the dignity of every human being.   We have gotten politically sandbagged.  They have spread lies and misinformation everywhere.  We are often worn out and in need of refreshment.   We need to escape to find rest and refreshment.  To pray and find peace with God and ourselves.   We need to be loved by our partner(s) and given the energy to get back into the activities of our lives.

Jesus invites us to come to him as the Bread of Life.  The Living Bread sent by God to welcome us and reconcile us.   God invites us to see sin and grace from a Christ centered model, instead of a crime and punishment model as Patrick S. Cheng writes in From Sin to Amazing Grace; Discovering the Queer Christ.   To understand that sin is an immaturity that keeps us from being more like Christ, and grace is to mature more into the image of the Divine.  When we receive Jesus as the Living Bread, we are welcomed by God's hospitality, and reconciled by Christ's Divine and healing grace.   The healing grace that helps us to grow in the knowledge and love of God for us and others.

The ministry of hospitality and reconciliation we are nourished to continue in, calls us to give of ourselves for others, without compromising who we are.  As LGBT people, we are called to reach out to others, to share and help, while never giving the anti-LGBT folks the power to decide who we are, or how we love others.   It is way too easy to allow them to have more power over us than they should have.   In the example I gave from St. Benedict's Rule, the community welcomes and feeds the guests, but at no time do they stop being the community that they have created.  They go about their work, and help each other as the need and availability arises.  So, should all of us do for each other.

As people of faith, we are commissioned to not only be who we are, and to offer ourselves in service to others, we also have a great responsibility to do so, going forward in sanctifying grace.  The grace that calls us to mature, by being more like Christ.  The One who gives of himself for the good of others, while sill remaining who he is as God's beloved.

So should we all do.

Amen.


Prayers

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always
those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without
you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Proper 14, Book of Common Prayer, p. 232).

O Lord my God, 
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
and you have bestowed upon me
all the good things I possess,
and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
for I cannot seek you unless you teach me,
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you.  Amen.  (Prayer by St. Anselm, St. Benedict's Prayer Book for Beginners, Ampleforth Abbey Press, p. 118).

Tuesday in Easter Week: The Resurrection Should Live In Us

Today's Scripture Readings

Acts 2:36-41 (NRSV)

Peter said to the multitude, "Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Psalm 118: 19-24 (BCP, p. 762)


John 20:11-18  (NRSV)

Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Blog Reflection

Alleluia. Christ is risen,
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.

The Gospel reading on this Tuesday in Easter Week is the same one from Easter Day.  Why do you suppose it is here after we already heard it two days earlier?

It is here so that we can continue to celebrate the event of the Lord's resurrection from the dead.  We are to celebrate the resurrection as Christ's Easter People, who are experiencing and giving witness to the Risen Christ in our daily life and work.  In our relationships and in our struggles.  We are to "Give thanks to the Lord who is good, God's mercy endures forever." (Psalm 118: 1).

We Christians especially in the West tend to celebrate Easter at this particular time of the year.  Many of us have just about had it with all the alleluia's in the Daily Office by the time we get to the Second Sunday of Easter.  It is as if we would rather wallow in our misery than celebrate God's victory over death in Christ's resurrection.  That is partly because in our human weakness which includes our limited vision of God, we can only imagine the resurrection, we cannot prove it by human standards.  It is only through faith that we can believe in it.  It is by our actions towards God, others and ourselves that we can give witness to it's reality.

Mary Magdalene was the first to see the Risen Jesus.  Christ came to her as she was weeping, as she was dismayed about where his dead body might be.  When Jesus said her name "Mary" she looked up and recognized him.  Jesus then tells her not to touch him, because he had not yet ascended to his God and our God.

This image of Jesus risen from the dead, coming to one who was weeping with disappointment, fear and discouragement is something we should spend some time meditating on.  We celebrate this week the Easter event in our prayer, Liturgies and in our church activities.  But, our lives are still very broken by sickness, discrimination, violence, much pain and brokenness.  If we will seek out the Risen Lord in our fragile hearts, He will come to us and affirm God's love and claim us as adopted children by way of Christ's redemption of humankind.  Christ who was crucified and now alive in the resurrection, meets us at the point of our sadness and moments of personal growth.  He meets us to tell us that God has forgiven our sins and wants to transform us, to help change the world around us for the better.  We don't have to accept injustice, oppression, prejudice and inequality any longer.  We are God's Easter People reborn in the waters of Baptism, and renewed by God's grace as we celebrate the Paschal Mystery.

The narrative of Christ's resurrection cries out for people who have been marginalized and excluded, to come and be made part of God's family.  To know that all people are loved unconditionally by our God who has triumphed over sin and death.  Sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, race, religion, cultural background, language, employment status, physical/mental/psychological challenges, immigration status, are not barriers for God to continue the work of redemption in our Church and society.  It is through diverse individuals and peoples, that God will tear open the Pandoras Boxes that keep us from loving one another as Christ has loved us.  The resurrection means new and unending life for all people, if only by God's grace expressed through the hearts and work of those who believe in Jesus.  We can grow to respect the dignity of every human being, with God's help, because that is what we have said in our Baptismal Covenant.  God has the power to transform us and the world around us, if we will, with God's help make the effort to do so.

The work of hospitality and reconciliation that is at the heart of the ministry of Jesus Christ, by which we grow in relationships with each other, is the Paschal Mystery active and speaking through our daily lives. As Christ comes to us in our misery and distress, so we in God's Name go to others, to wash their feet and give to them the sign of peace.

Alleluia. Christ is risen,
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Prayers

O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus
Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to
light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may
abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the
Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen. (Tuesday in Easter Week, Book of Common Prayer, p. 223).

O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten
Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection
delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die
daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of
his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen. (Collect from Easter Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 222).

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, p. 823).     

Thursday of the First Week in Lent: Ask, Seek, Be Persistant in Prayer in the Search for God

Today's Scripture Readings

Esther (Apocrypha) 14: 1-6, 12-14 (NRSV)

Then Queen Esther, seized with deadly anxiety, fled to the Lord. She took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. She prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: “O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, for my danger is in my hand. Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, for an everlasting inheritance, and that you did for them all that you promised. And now we have sinned before you, and you have handed us over to our enemies.

Remember, O Lord; make yourself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. But save us by your hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, O Lord. 

Matthew 7: 7-12 (NRSV)

‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

Blog Reflection

There is nothing so horrible than to find yourself at rock bottom, with no one there to listen to you, receive you, or hold you in your most desperate hour.  That feeling of total helplessness, by which there is no way out.  Whether the reason be an addiction, grief from the loss of a relationship or job that went bad, the death of someone very close, or just reaching such a place of such depression that there seems to be no way out.  Finding yourself at that place is a horrible feeling.  Human words are often unable to express the total feeling of rejection and isolation of the heart at such a moment.

To be at such a point, one is almost tempted (and sadly, many are not only tempted, they do) reach the point where they have lost faith in God.  Faith in humankind.  Faith in themselves and their friends. It is at this point, that one has to make the decision to face things as they are and reach out for some kind of help to get up and live again.  Or, to stay there and let all of life lose all meaning, hope for the future and even the reason for living. 

How very sad that so many school students who have been questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, or who knew and had accepted themselves, or just been suspected of, found themselves there.  The only option they felt they had, was to take their lives. 

In our reading from the Apocrypha today, Esther seems to be in one of those places.  That spot where the only hope she has is God.  So,from her despair and for the good of not only she, but her people, she cries out to God.  Esther prays from the depths of her nothingness, and recognizes the goodness of God so that she can empty herself with some kind of trust in God.  She recognizes that she is before the lion who looks to devour her, her people and the hope of all who are looking for some kind of help.

Jesus tells us to ask, to seek, and be prepared to receive. But what is it we are to ask?  Who and what is it we are to seek?  What should we be prepared to receive?

The problem with how prayer is often portrayed is a kind of "I ask you, you give me" thing.  Just like putting coins in a vending machine and getting what you have selected.  This illustration of prayer, is not quite accurate.

The other extreme is to think that Jesus might be telling us to ask, seek and be prepared for nothing.  After all, why pray for something we might very well not receive?   This also, is not what is going on here.

Here, Jesus is giving us a wonderful description of a Parent who loves their children to the point, that they absolutely would not respond to their requests for help in such a way, as to totally disregard their love for them.  Even if a parent is not able to give exactly what the child has asked, they are still going to take the time to listen and give what they can.  How can God who is the perfection of love, do anything less?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, and other marginalized persons in the Church and society, know what it is to ask and appear to be getting no where.  We say that we want our equal rights now, but, we make only a small amount of progress.  Some times we gain some. Some times we lose some.  We open our hearts to the renewed understandings of how the Bible does not teach against loving and committed same-sex relationships, or an alternative gender identity/expression, yet, we are faced by the oppression and violence of Christianists and other hate groups.  We may be tempted to give up on God and all religion.  It can seem as if God is not paying attention, or giving unfair wins to the other side.

Regardless of what side of politics we are on, what our understandings of God and others are, God's relationship to all of us is one of love, mercy and seeking to help us grow. Each of us grows at our own pace and as God prompts us by the Holy Spirit. God comes to us and helps us grow from where we are.  God does not have high expectations of us. God just asks us to be faithful. God meets us more times than not, at the point of our need, not our want.

When we are persistent in prayer, what God is looking for from us, is the willingness to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who helps us accept God's will and not our own.  Even if we are in a place that we have arrived, by no act of God's will, nor ours, God still meets us there and wants us to experience God's grace and providence.  God wills to see us to where God wants us.  God is on our side.  God is not telling us to join some godless ex-gay group, or that our opponents are right. God is empowering us by God's grace to accept ourselves as we are, where we are, and invites us to ask and seek God's will to respond to God's grace in this present moment  God's grace in what is to come will be there, as we learn to accept God's grace in the here and now.

Lent is an opportunity to make room for God within the silence of our hearts, as well as through the noise of the situations of life at which we find ourselves.  If we will make ourselves available to God's grace right here, right at this moment, God will reveal God's will and grace for all that is to come.  And, God will provide the strength and help to accept and bear what is given to us.


Prayers

Strengthen us, O Lord, by your grace, that in your might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, and with pure hearts serve you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Thursday in the First Week in Lent, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, p. 39).

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.  (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 217).

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and
rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be
our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee,
to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou
art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832). 

 

Saturday After Ash Wednesday: The Marginalized are Called to Partnership with Christ

Today's Scripture Readings

Isaiah 58: 9b-35 (NRSV)

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,
   the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
   and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
   and satisfy your needs in parched places,
   and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
   like a spring of water,
   whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
   you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
   the restorer of streets to live in.

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
   from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call the sabbath a delight
   and the holy day of the Lord honourable;
if you honour it, not going your own ways,
   serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
   and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Luke 5: 27-32 (NRSV)

After this he went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others sitting at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ 

Blog Reflection

This Lent, I chose for my seasonal reading the book entitled: Pilgrim Road: A Benedictine Journey Through Lent, by Albert Holtz, O.S.B.  On each day of Lent, Holtz has written a page about his sabbatical pilgrimage that took him from Newark Abbey in New Jersey through England, to Bolivia, Amsterdam, and just about all over the world.  He completes his story of what he saw on a particular day's trip with a reflection for our Lenten observance.

On the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Holtz recalls his Euro-star train journey from Paris' Gare du Nord at 8:09 a.m., through arriving at 10:35 a.m. in Waterloo Station in London.  As Holtz writes, he paints for the reader a magnificent picture of what he is seeing and experiencing from the beginning of that train trip to the end.

At one point, he writes of the following experience.

10:20 a.m. Out of the tunnel...Syndenham, Hill station...Herne Hill....apartment buildings and row houses...worn-out neighborhoods of brick and asphalt...rough, rough, shuddering tracks... A double-decker bus below...a wide river alongside--probably the Thames.

I think about the little man in the gray cap, and a snatch of Scripture from the prophet Jeremiah comes to mind.  God's chosen ones, he declares, "will be like a well-watered garden." Hmm... What if we were less like a speeding train and more like a watered garden?

If my life were a garden, then my heart would be a place of calm, patient waiting for things to come in their own due time: seasons of blossoms, seasons of plenty, and seasons of sleet and snow and seeming sterility.  If my life were a garden to be tended, then my desire to control everything would no longer make sense, because a garden can't be forced or pushed or hurried along; a garden needs to be nurtured, not driven headlong like a train on a track.  Then my efforts at prayer or work would take on a different meaning, because anything that a garden produces comes not as my accomplishment but as a mysterious, beautiful gift of nature's bounty (p. 9-10).

At his reflection point for all of this, Holtz writes:

If your life is like a garden, then Lent is not a project to be accomplished, but rather an opportunity to let God help you to look carefully at your garden and help it to be more fruitful.  Prayer, fasting and works of charity are traditional ways of doing this.  If your life is a garden that needs to be watered and weeded but cannot be forced or controlled, ask the Lord to help you this Lent to let go of your need to control, and to teach you how to be patient with the God's slow way of doing things (p. 10).

Lent is a period of tending to our gardens. Our lives are full of seeds that have been planted.  Some by God, some by those who have inspired us, and those particular things that are part of the natural law called: life.  As we receive the gifts of faith, hope and love from these seeds comes the life of God's creative beauty that will bring forth something wonderful, that shall grace the sky with dazzling new colors and flavors that will please the most discerning of palates. 

There will also be the weeds, that come through sin and the difficulties of life.  Many of these will be planted by the biological realities of our D.N.A. Many weeds will grow from our families and the behaviors they teach us by word and example.  There will be many pains and hurts that will give life to the weeds, which seek to weaken what grows from the seed.  Many of them will come through no fault of our own.  Some will come as we harbor grudges and find it difficult to forgive those who cannot tell the difference between good vegetation from healthy seeds vs. the weeds.  Such people often insist on trying to pull the weeds out for us, because of what they do not understand.  Others will insist that the weeds along with the product of the seed must be burned, suggesting that the whole garden is contaminated.  What they do not see, is that while the seeds are sprouting, and the plants are growing, that through some are being challenged by the weeds, they are discovering a fuller knowledge of themselves. They really only need help to work past the effects of those weeds, to become a mature and healthy food that will provide nourishment and hope for generations to come.

The tax collectors in Jesus' day were presumed by those of their time, to be sinners.  They were marginalized "because of the dishonesty and injustice associated with their profession. Jesus does not talk to Levi privately, but calls him in the midst of his business, and goes to a public banquet where a "large crowd" of tax collectors and other friends are present.  The Pharisees emphasize the impropriety of sharing a meal with these people, who, besides being sinners, would have contact with the Gentiles and thus been ritually unclean.  Jesus uses a proverb to explain his stance: he has come to help those in need and will go out to them.  Those who will not recognize their own need are not ready for the doctor" (Jerome Kodell, O.S.B. Collegeville Bible Commentary, New Testament Volume, p. 947).

Once again, we see that Jesus goes to those presumed to be "ritually unclean" because of what they do.  Jesus, not pleased with that kind of thing, does not waste time trying to reason with those who have already written them off.  Instead, Jesus goes and makes a partnership with them, to welcome them (hospitality) as part of God's family first, and to show God's mercy and forgiveness (reconciliation) for them second.  Jesus does not see individuals as "ritually unclean", alternatively, he includes them to be part of the work God has sent Christ to do.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer individuals, along with other marginalized persons, have experienced being set aside by those who consider us to be "abominations." This is their way of suggesting that we are "unclean."  The injustices experienced by Native Americans at the hands of white, Christian, men who insisted that their cultural identity and religious values made them such a superior class that they thought of themselves as "commissioned" to exploit and dispose of others who were not like them; is a shameful chapter in American history. This attitude brought by through colonization, resulted in many cultures, traditions and peoples being subjected to the most cruel and unacceptable means of stigmatization and prejudice.  This is something that we as Americans and Christians should not be proud of.

Lent is a time for us to take an honest look at what has been happening in our garden.  As we grow in the company of people of diverse sexual orientations, genders, gender identities/expressions, classes, races, cultures, languages, health statuses, wealth statuses, religions and so on and so forth; what are we declaring to be "unclean" when it is in fact a product of God's Holy Spirit?  Are we looking at other plants recognizing their unique contributions to the work of God among us? Or, are we declaring them weeds because, well, they are just not like us?  

God has come in Christ to make us part of a partnership for the expansion of the reign of God among all people.  We, as Christians, are just one particular flavor, or product of what God is growing in the great garden of life.  It is God's job to determine what no longer bears good fruit.  Not ours.  Our partnership with God, is to participate in loving everyone who is part of God's garden. Each person is created in God's image and likeness, and have been redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That includes us.  That includes those that we have arrogantly decided are weeds. 

During this Lent, let's allow God to have control over our own gardens, and leave those of others to the care of God as well.  

When we work with God by letting the goodness of the seeds of our own faith, to be nurtured by unconditional and all-inclusive love; the awesomeness of God's transforming grace becomes visible to others so that they can add their God created flavors to the diverse garden of God's holy and life-giving people. 


Prayers

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth your right hand to help and defend us, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, p. 35).

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.  (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 217),


O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, p. 815).