Second Day of Christmas: St. Stephen, Deacon and Marytr

Today's Scripture Readings

Jeremiah 26:1-9,12-15

At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came from the LORD: Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD; speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word. It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings. You shall say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently-- though you have not heeded-- then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, "You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, `This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, "It is the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears."

Psalm 31 (BCP., p.622)


Acts 6:8-7:2a,51c-60

Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us." And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Then the high priest asked him, "Are these things so?"

And Stephen replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. You are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

Matthew 23:34-39

Jesus said, "Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Blog Reflection

This Holy Day dedicated to the commemoration of St. Stephen, that follows the Nativity seems so out of place.  We just celebrated the arrival of the Christ Child yesterday.  It was a joyous and festive occasion.  It seems so gruesome today to remember with a special feast, the first Deacon who was stoned to death.
This past Christmas Eve, the Rt. Rev. Brian Prior, IX Bishop of The Episcopal Church in Minnesota, said something quite profound in his sermon.  He quoted a moment in which a young person had stumped the Bishop with the question: "Why did Jesus have to be born in a manger, surrounded by shepherds?"  Bishop Prior answered that question on Christmas Eve by saying that Jesus was born in that stable to show us that the Word can come to us in the most ordinary and unusual places.   God with Us in Christ, can come among us in our messiest moments, our moments of being rejected, or disappointments, and even at our death.  Even on this day after Christmas, when returning to work can feel like a penance in and of itself.

Stephen had been chosen by those twelve Apostles to carry out the service of ministering to others on behalf of the Church.  He was also a preacher, who spoke of the Word and taught it to others.   The Christians of the early Church were shaking things up in their communities.  They were telling the story of the Jesus who had come, lived, was crucified, rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God, and has now sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.   They were engaged in the work of ministry.    Stephen was an important part of that ministry.

Two things come to mind for me as I think about St. Stephen today.

1.  It is very important to take from this story a certain caution.  That caution is with the age old idea that Christianity is a religion that supercedes all others.   The idea that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans and many others must come to Christianity for salvation, is a very unfortunate interpretation of Acts.  The twelve Apostles received the Holy Spirit, but they were all still fallible men.  As were those who handed these stories down to us.  The Christian Faith for those who have chosen it is a beautiful and awesome experience.  Those in the time of the Apostles who were converted, were indeed blessed with a zeal for Christ and His ministry.   That ministry is one that we should pass on and invite others to share in, and that is everyone.   However, each person can and will find their path to God through whatever religious tradition they chose or may have had chosen for them.  If we Christians want to be part of changing the world for the better, let us begin with an authentic appreciation and acceptance of other religious traditions without the negative stereotyping.

2.  What actually got Stephen stoned?   That answer, I believe is in the first point I just made.  Religious diversity intolerance.   The religious and political authorities of the time had created an intolerance for other points of view.  As this new guy named Jesus came on the scene and called them to repentance for their sins, and to a new way of living, they chose to kill the messenger rather than listen to the message.   Here in the stoning of Stephen, they did it again.  

How do we respond to those messengers of our time?

How do we respond as the Church, to those who are calling us to a renewed understanding of our faith, without prejudice towards women, LGBT, people of different races, immigration statuses, health status, economic status, religion, etc?

Are we listening to the Holy Spirit who is calling us to change?  Or, are we blocking them out with our own prejudices and stubbornness?   

Why do we have this feast in honor of St. Stephen the day after Christmas?

The Christ Child came to heal our broken relationships.  He came as one so vulnerable, yet, he welcomed shepherds and the poor to attend and serve Him.  He changed the world around Him, as one would normally have been ignored or forgotten.  Jesus reminds us today, to serve others in His Name, but to respect each other in our diversity and responsibility to who we ourselves are. 

How interesting that on St. Stephen's Commemoration, we hear him ask the Lord to forgive those stoning him.   Jesus was born to ask God to forgive us our sins, and of course, that is what God did.

Amen.


Prayers

We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the
first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed
for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at
your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, p. 237).

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to
take our nature upon him, and to be born [this day] of a pure
virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made
your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed
by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and
for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 213).

Laurence: Deacon and Martyr: Who Are the Treasures?

Today's Scripture Readings

2 Corinthians 9:6-10 (NRSV)

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,

"He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever."

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Psalm 126 (BCP,. p. 782)


John 12:24-26 (NRSV) 
 

Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor."

Blog Reflection

Laurence the Deacon was martyred in Rome in 258 under the decree of Emperor Valerian.   He decreed that the upper class in the Church be persecuted and all of the buildings and treasures ceased and given to the Emperor to sell and/or obtain for his treasury.   Laurence was martyred six days after Sixtus II and his companions were in the same cemetery where Laurence was grilled alive on a gridiron.  

Before Laurence was martyred, they ordered him to find all the treasures of the Church and to turn them over to the Emperor.  Laurence returned with the poor, the sick and the children with whom he had taken care of through the Church's relief fund.   When Laurence returned, he said; 'These are the treasures of the Church."

Who are the treasures of the Church today?  

Christians are in a very difficult time.   The election is full of corporate cash being used to support the wealthy, such as health insurance company executives.  Owners of large oil companies and financial market appear to be spending their legalized unlimited cash to confuse voters about what is really at stake in things like the Ryan budget plan that would turn Medicare into a voucher paid system, leaving millions of elderly and disabled Americans in major financial disarray.

There have been two horrific shootings.  One in Aurora, Colorado and the other in Wisconsin.  Yet, those "second amendment rights" must be defended.  It is much more important to support the right to carry assault weapons, than to seek the safety of the people who die when a mad man goes into the place of worship of another religion other than Christianity, and kill those who don't preach the Christian Gospel.

Of course, we have people like Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, suggesting that the children of same-sex couples should be kidnapped and carried through an "underground railroad."   Fischer believes that children being raised by same-sex couples are endangered of being "recruited" as LGBT people.  

Rev. Susan Russell wrote an outstanding article in The Huffington Post in response to Fischer.  In the article, Susan wrote:

Because here's the deal: There are good people of deep faith who read the same scriptures and come to different conclusions about a whole variety of issues. And then there are dangerous people of deluded faith who have projected their biases onto God and are so convinced that they have sole possession of the absolute truth that facts don't matter, laws don't matter, and the rights of those who disagree with them certainly don't matter.

And it is long past time for the rest of us -- for all the rest of us -- to claim our power by speaking out, standing up, and calling out the toxic rhetoric of the Bryan Fischers of the world for what it is: antithetical to the life, witness, and Gospel of Jesus; contrary to authentic Christian values; and not of God.

It should go without saying that kidnapping is not a traditional Christian value, but given that it apparently does need to be said, if we don't say it, who will?

The treasures of the Church are those people whom Jesus draws close to. Those who are marginalized and oppressed, because of discrimination and negative stereotyping, are people that Jesus went out to welcome and bring healing.   The Church is called to reach out to God's treasures by being a place of hospitality and reconciliation for all people.   We reach out by being open to the movement of God's Holy Spirit, who wants to rip open those Pandora's Boxes, and help us to see God working in the lives of the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, the LGBT and the women who are attacked for exercising their reproductive rights.   We are called to be concerned for those who are sick and cannot afford to go to the doctor because they do not have health insurance.   We are called by Jesus to pray for those who are held captive by poverty, corruption and social oppression. 

Laurence was martyred, because he knew who the treasures of the Church were.  He brought them forward, so that his persecutors and we here in 2012, may remember that we give our lives for Christ, by being open to God's generosity and mercy in those with whom we share our faith and world. 

Do we know that we too are treasures of God and the Church?

God loves us all.  

God imparts God's grace to all. 

We are all treasures of God. 

May we all learn to think of ourselves as God's treasures.

May we all learn to see and love each other as treasures of God.

Amen.


Prayers

Almighty God, you called your deacon Laurence to serve you with deeds of love, and gave him the crown of martyrdom; Grant that we, following his example, may fulfill your commandments by defending and supporting the poor, and by loving you with all our hearts; 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. 519).

Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you
all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us
to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick,
and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those
who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow
into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for
our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Poor and Neglected, Book of Common Prayer, p. 826).

 

Commemoration of Thomas Merton: Quotes and Excerpts

Today is the commemoration of Thomas Merton.  A Trappist monk known for his deep contemplative writings and sound thinking.  Thomas died by accidental electrocution in Bangkok, Thailand on December 10, 1968.

Rather than include a Gospel and meditation.  I am simply going to provide some quotes I have found from various sites that have samples of his words.  

Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_merton.html#ixzz1gAGK7iUH

 

A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_merton.html#ixzz1gAGK7iUH

By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_merton.html#ixzz1gAGcbTKI

In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_merton.html#ixzz1gAGqSmiJ

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_merton.html#ixzz1gAH3O12c

 

The following are taken from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1711.Thomas_Merton.

 

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
― Thomas Merton

 

 

“If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.”
― Thomas Merton 

“MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
Thomas Merton” 

 

“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain  

 

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.” ― Thomas Merton, Love and Living 

 

 

Prayer

 

Gracious God, you called your monk Thomas Merton to proclaim your justice out of silence, and moved him in his contemplative writings to perceive and value Christ at work in the faiths of others:  Keep us, like him, steadfast in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, for ever and ever. Amen. (Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 113). 

Acknowledging God's Goodness in Others

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 10:32-39 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

Blog

The Gospel that was chosen for today's commemoration of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury 1633 to 1645 is one that is used by conservative Christians quite a bit.  Evangelist Billy Graham used the first part of this Gospel at his crusades about acknowledging Christ before others so that Christ will acknowledge us before God as he encouraged people to come forward to publicly confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Mother Angelica founder of EWTN used this Gospel as her reason for not coming out of her cloister when former Bishop David Foley acknowledged her when he dedicated their new church.  Once again the Bible gets misused as a device to put fear in people if they do not view Jesus in the way conservative Christians view Jesus, those "other" people are doomed.  It closes people's thoughts to finding religion fulfilling and having some kind of attraction for diversity.  The erroneous teaching that the "fear of the Lord" means to be afraid that God will condemn us to hell continues because of Biblical literalism.  The "fear of the Lord" is an invitation to know that God has loved us and spared nothing, not even the dignity of God's divinity in Jesus, but gave his life for all of us.  Therefore, we are invited to consider loving God and our neighbor with the same self-less and sacrificial love.   Accomplishing this requires us to see our own prejudices and need for senseless violence towards people who  are different than ourselves.

Acknowledging Jesus before others means recognizing the goodness of God within all people.  My good mentor Fr. Tetrault often said: "God did not say we have to necessarily like our neighbor, God did say we have to love our neighbor.  There is a big difference."  There may be many things about a particular person we might not care for.  We are all different.  We all have different tastes, abilities etc.  But we are also all human. Created out of the love of God for the purpose of loving God in others and ourselves.   Christians are far from blameless for how we have used the Name of Jesus Christ to justify attitudes of bigotry towards other people.  Christian Tradition has often turned the Bible which is the story of how God loves God's people, into the book of God's penal code.  The Catholic church is notorious for using the Sacraments as bargaining chips towards married people who have divorced, supported same-sex marriage or a woman's right to choose.   While the Sacraments are not a "life insurance policy" to avoid hell, they are means by which we can grow in grace to love and serve God and one another as adopted daughter's and sons through Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist, Rite I we pray:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.  We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.  But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, page 337).

God is not really interested in condemning us because conservative Christians use the Bible as a penal code.  God wants to manifest (reveal) God's Self to us by helping us to acknowledge God in others, just as Christ wants to acknowledge us before God.  Not just by our extraordinary faith, but because we seek the common good for all who are marginalized as failures.  This includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people.  It includes African Americans, women, Native American Indians, the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, Pagans, atheists and so on.  If we are going to acknowledge Jesus in others, we need to acknowledge that Jesus loves all people. And therefore, so should we.   Jesus came to call those who follow him to be people of radical hospitality and be about the ministry of reconciliation. 

This past weekend all of us in America have been shocked and horrified by the events in Tuscon, Arizona.  There is a media war that is being waged between the right and the left about who's rhetoric bears some responsibility.   I have to side with those who do call the conservative corporate media to some accountability for how they have perpetuated suggestions of gun violence coupled with outrageous discriminatory remarks towards people of different races, skin colors, sexual orientations/gender identities/expressions etc.  Not which the least is President Obama because he is our first African American President. 

One matter that I have to call attention to is the fact that the intern who saved Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's life this past Saturday, Daniel Hernandez is a Hispanic, Gay man.  Sadly, it has also not taken long for Conservatives and Tea Party folks to call attention to it for their own biased use.

It didn't take long after 20-year-old political intern Daniel Hernandez emerged as the hero of Saturday's mass shooting in Arizona for the cynics to figure out the angle. As a poster on Free Republic remarked, "Look shortly for the leftist media to push the 'Gay, Hispanic-American Intern saving the Liberal Congresswoman's life from the Tea Party' angle." Well, Freepers, here it is!

It's not quite that simple, of course. However we try to understand the causes of the tragedy in Arizona and the political rhetoric of violence, it seems clear that there's considerably more to the disturbing story of shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner than can be explained by pointing to a few wry Sarah Palin quips. And if simply being gay and Latino were grounds for heroism, Ricky Martin's face would be on the $10 bill.

Daniel Hernandez is, by any measure, an extraordinary young man. He had been interning in Gabrielle Giffords' office only five days when an event at a local Safeway thrust him into the international spotlight for his quick thinking, bravery and competence in the wake of unimaginable violence. On the "Today" show Monday, Matt Lauer explained how Hernandez drew upon his high school training as a certified nursing assistant to check on the pulses of other shooting victims before noticing the severity of Giffords' wounds and, as he puts it, prioritizing her. He put her upright and held her in his lap as he applied pressure to staunch the blood. "I could tell she had a severe gunshot," he said. "I just tried to do my best until emergency medical services could arrive. My focus was on making sure I was doing everything I could to take care of her." Even when the ambulance arrived, he stayed with her, because "I saw my job then as not taking care of her medical needs but taking care of her emotional needs. I tried to comfort her and make sure she knew she wasn't alone. I let her know I was going to try to contact her parents and her husband."

Gay people as well as Hispanics now have a terrific role-model in one amazing person.  An individual who stepped outside of himself to do exactly what he was trained to do, to save a most precious individual life.  This very action by itself, brings to mind that God gifts every one of us with the ability to reach out to others and do something that reminds us all of why God placed us on this earth.  To be a helping hand for others when they are hurting and in need of a friend.   Jesus calls of God's people Jesus' friends and says: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 12:13).  Daniel Hernandez may have be a Christian individual, he may very well be an atheist.  Does it matter?  No.  He acknowledge God before others when he reached out to save the life and soul of one individual who had just been shot and faced the possibility of death.  Nevertheless, the fact that is gay and even Hispanic means we must acknowledge God in him too, and resist the prejudice and violence now hurled at him by those who are bashing him in the media, with all the ears of non-thinking people to hear.

As we commemorate William Laud who was not noted for openness to diversity, let us nevertheless be open to the beauty of God not only in the Liturgy or our church buildings, but also in all of the wonderful people, with all their diversity and beauty by which we all acknowledge Jesus before other people. 

Prayers

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servant William Laud, we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for William Laud, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, Page 165). 


Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday After the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Book of Common Prayer, page 214).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).

Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for Those Who Influence Public Opinion, Book of Common Prayer, page 827). 

Jesus Is About Building Communities, Not Tearing Them Down.

Today is one of those commemorations where the Gospel in the Divine Office is better suited than the one for the Eucharist.  Because I want to focus more on inclusion, I am going to use the Gospel from the Divine Office and refer to the commemoration of Henry Martyn who was a Priest and Missionary to India and Persia.

Luke 10:1-16 (NRSV)

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house!" And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, "Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near." I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. 'Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. 'Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.' 

No matter what impression the Christianists like to give of Jesus, it is obvious to me that Jesus is very different from how they present him.  God is not a psycho path.  God is not an angry vengeful God waiting to strike some one down.   At last week's candle-vigil held in Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Rev. Dr. Robyn Provis said: "The Bible is not God's penal code."  "The Bible is not God's sexual ethics book."  As Dean Spenser Simrill has said: "Christianity does not hold a monopoly on the truth."  We Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Truth, but that does not mean we have a monopoly against someone because they do not worship or believe as we do.

Unfortunately, Christian history is full of examples of missionaries and other individuals thinking that Christians do have a monopoly on the truth and going in to other lands and tearing down their societies to remake them.  Now the Christian community is confronted with what happens when we do that kind of thing.  Uganda's "Kill the Gay's" bill is just such the result of colonization of other continents believing that those who are different, should become like how we think they should be.  Such behaviors are really not what evangelizing in the Name of Jesus Christ is about.

In the Gospel today, Jesus sends out 72 and calls on them to bring peace to the places where they are welcomed.  Jesus also instructs the 72 to not let the places that will not receive them, get to them too much.  It is important to recognize Jesus' reference to Sodom and Gomorrah as being about hospitality, not homosexuality.  Jesus sends out the 72 to bring healing, community, and caring to all who welcome them.  Jesus tells them to eat whatever they are given and to create a community through which God can work through those who are building the community.    Jesus challenges those he sends out in his Name to build up communities, not tear them down.


Heterosexism and homophobia, as well as all other forms of prejudice towards any person or group of people, does not build community.  Phobia's and isms break down communities and create walls for people to avoid accepting and embracing each other. Hate rhetoric and organizing against a group of people based on sexual orientation and/or gender diversity/expression is a way of tearing people down, not building them up.  Rather than seeking to recognize God's creative beauty in other people, phobias and isms separates and divides.  Over these past few months we have seen Christianists using Jesus and the Bible to justify cruelty and violence of the most vicious kind to destroy any group of people who are not like them.  The Tea Party movement is about destroying people, not building them up.


One of the LGBTQ communities most famous bumper stickers reads: "Celebrate Diversity."  Diversity when celebrated and embraced builds up communities.  The people Jesus sent the 72 out to visit with, were diverse.  Yet Jesus told the 72 to do what they could for each of them.  When communities are receptive to diversity, they become welcoming communities where everyone really does care about each other.  When someone is down on their luck or in need of help, members of a diverse and welcoming community will reach out to do what they can.  Our race, sexual and gender diversity, ability or challenge, gender, language, culture are not barriers in a community that celebrates diversity.  Rather, diversity allows each person to become who God has created her or him to be, and everyone in the community learns something about themselves as they learn about each other.  This is the community that the LGBTQ communities embrace, and they should be the same communities that the Church embraces.  As the United States of America, working towards equality for all people should be our pride and joy, not our most complicated political issue.  


As Christians it is our duty to share the good news of God's love in Jesus Christ with all people.  That is what Henry Martyn did.  Yet, our sharing of the good news should not stop at the doors of compassion and caring about people who are different than ourselves.  The Church is going through a lot of growing pains to learn that.  We have to look back at our history and understand what we did well, and what we missed the mark on.  Plundering whole countries, religions and peoples to remake them into what we thought they should be, were just a few examples off those miss the mark moments.  Telling the whole world that God loves us all in Jesus Christ and invites (not threatens us if we do other wise) us to know and love him better, is exactly what the Church is suppose to do.  I hope all of us celebrate as much as we rededicate ourselves to continue to work to make the Church a more welcoming and inclusive community that builds people up instead of tearing communities up.

Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession 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 24, Book of Common Prayer, page 235).

O God of the nations, you gave your faithful servant Henry Martyn a brilliant mind, a loving heart, and a gift for languages, that he might translate the Scriptures and other holy writings for the peoples of India and Persia: Inspire in us a love like his, eager to commit both life and talents to you who gave them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Henry Martyn, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 647).


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, page 815).

Sergius: Abbot of Holy Trinity in Moscow: Could We Learn to Listen to God Too?

Luke 8: 16-21 (NRSV)

Jesus said:‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ¹⁷For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. ¹⁸Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.’

The True Kindred of Jesus

19
Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ ²¹But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

This Gospel reading comes just after Luke 8: 1-15 with the following Parable beginning at verse 4.

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to Jesus, he said in a parable: ⁵‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. ⁷Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. ⁸Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

The Purpose of the Parables

9
Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets^* of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak^* in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
   and listening they may not understand.” 

There is a real difference between hearing and listening.  It is often easier to hear than it is to listen.  When we hear something it is often something that may or may not be intended for us, but we hear the sound anyway.  The sound of a bird chirping or a lawn mower, for example.  Listening requires a sense of surrender.  When we listen we are attentive with an interior focus on what someone is saying or waiting for something we expect.  Listening involves a risk.  There is always the possibility that when we are listening, we will hear something we do not particularly care for.  When we hear something we do not care to hear, we can choose to only hear it or actually listen to what happened.  Hearing something only can stop it as soon as it is in the mind.  Listening risks something going through the mind and into the heart.  If it is something that hurts and we listened, it will turn our emotions to anger, hurt or even deep sadness.  When we listen to good news, we will experience joy and a sense of serene.

When it comes to listening for God, it requires a willingness to listen to what is beyond ourselves, and yet how God connects with the deepest parts of ourselves.  When God enters our space of silence when we cannot hear so much as a pin drop, that is when God the Holy Spirit comes to our restless hearts and makes her home deep within our souls.  The Holy Spirit calms us with her wonderful Motherly grace and tells us once again how much God loves us.  As we listen to the Holy Spirit, she will tell us to see ourselves through God's eyes not through the eyes of our common world.  The Holy Spirit makes no distinction of persons, but comes to the heart that is wounded and seeks to help us find solitude in the quietness of God's wondrous graces.

Those who often listen become people of wisdom and leadership.  A humble listener does not need to place themselves in the front rows to be seen.  A listening leader leads by example and compassion and a desire to meet the challenges around the individual and her or his community and know that by action she or he can change things for the better.  Even if she or he only helps others take a tiny step forward.

*In the middle of the Russian Civil War, Sergius began a life of seclusion in a nearby forest from which he developed the Monastery of the Holy Trinity as a center of revival for Russian Christianity.  Sergius was inspired intense devotion to the Russian Orthodox Faith.  Sergius supported Prince Dimitri Donoskoi to that helped him win a decisive victory against the Tartar overlords in the Kulikovo Plains in 1380 and laid the foundations for his people's independent national life. 

The Russian Church observes Sergius' memory on September 25.  His name is familiar to Anglicans from the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, a society established to promote closer relations between the Anglican and Russian Churches.  (*See Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 600).

Sergius is an example of what can happen when an individual takes the opportunity to spend some time in solitude and listen to what God has to say.  One can learn to listen to God in a diversity of situations and be moved to understand things in diverse ways.  Listening has the power to turn what we listen to into actions that can change people's lives.

The Episcopal Church has been listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to help us change our understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people (LGBTQ).  We understand that sexual orientation and gender identity/expression is not a choice, but a gracious and wonderful gift from God to love and to be the person/people God created us to be.  Our committed and loving relationships are also a symbol of God's love for all humanity, the love of Christ and the Church.  The love of God in Jesus Christ is for all humanity, not just a particular part of humankind.  It is humankind that must learn to stretch our hearts open to love others different than ourselves.  God's heart is always wide open to love every one of God's precious children. 

Sadly, the Archbishop of Canterbury's (ABC) own language towards LGBTQ people is still old fashioned.  Archbishop Rowan Williams reportedly supports gay bishops who remain celibate.   In other words as long as gay and lesbian people are willing to refrain from our vocation to love someone of the same sex, which is why God blesses us with sexual and gender diversity.  It is a shame really that having spent some time with Pope Benedict XVI he would adopt like ideas, even if they do not reflect the truth of God's love for LGBTQ people.    This is hardly listening to the experiences of lesbian and gay people as the Lambeth Council of 1998 suggested.  Happily the Episcopal Church does not share the ABC's narrow minded opinion.  Because in the Anglican Tradition we do not have a hierarchy control such as the Papacy, each Church within the Anglican Communion can decide how to operate within it's own borders.

In her Pentecost Letter, Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church wrote:

The recent statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury about the struggles within the Anglican Communion seems to equate Pentecost with a single understanding of gospel realities. Those who received the gift of the Spirit on that day all heard good news. The crowd reported, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11).

The Spirit does seem to be saying to many within The Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian persons are God’s good creation, that an aspect of good creation is the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnership, and that such persons may indeed be good and healthy exemplars of gifted leadership within the Church, as baptized leaders and ordained ones. The Spirit also seems to be saying the same thing in other parts of the Anglican Communion, and among some of our Christian partners, including Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic churches of Europe, and a number of others.

That growing awareness does not deny the reality that many Anglicans and not a few Episcopalians still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality. This Episcopal Church is a broad and inclusive enough tent to hold that variety. The willingness to live in tension is a hallmark of Anglicanism, beginning from its roots in Celtic Christianity pushing up against Roman Christianity in the centuries of the first millennium. That diversity in community was solidified in the Elizabethan Settlement, which really marks the beginning of Anglican Christianity as a distinct movement. Above all, it recognizes that the Spirit may be speaking to all of us, in ways that do not at present seem to cohere or agree. It also recognizes what Jesus says about the Spirit to his followers, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:12-13).

The Episcopal Church has spent nearly 50 years listening to and for the Spirit in these matters. While it is clear that not all within this Church have heard the same message, the current developments do represent a widening understanding. Our canons reflected this shift as long ago as 1985, when sexual orientation was first protected from discrimination in access to the ordination process. At the request of other bodies in the Anglican Communion, this Church held an effective moratorium on the election and consecration of a partnered gay or lesbian priest as bishop from 2003 to 2010. When a diocese elected such a person in late 2009, the ensuing consent process indicated that a majority of the laity, clergy, and bishops responsible for validating that election agreed that there was no substantive bar to the consecration.

The Episcopal Church recognizes that these decisions are problematic to a number of other Anglicans. We have not made these decisions lightly. We recognize that the Spirit has not been widely heard in the same way in other parts of the Communion. In all humility, we recognize that we may be wrong, yet we have proceeded in the belief that the Spirit permeates our decisions.

If all of us could take some time to listen to the Holy Spirit lead us towards heavenly understandings, we would see that our earthly prejudices are groundless.  May a little listening help us all to love each other today better than we did yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.

Grant us, Lord, not to anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things which are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 20, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Sergius of Moscow, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Sergius, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 601).

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 you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 818).

LGBTQ People are Cross-Bearers

1 Peter 4:12-19 (NRSV)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And
 
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?"
 
Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

This is a very busy week for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people.  This week on the floor of the United States Senate is scheduled a vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  DADT as we know is the ban that keeps open LGBTQ people from serving in the United States Military.  We have an open war that has already begun as Senator John McCain is promising to stop the repeal at all costs.  Already the Christianists have started their attack of LGBTQ people not only about DADT but also marriage equality.

Just this past week the news was released that the Minnesota Catholic Conference is going to send a DVD to all Minnesota Catholic households to encourage them to oppose marriage equality in Minnesota.

What a relief it was to open a Facebook item from Integrity USA about a letter that was sent by members of The Religious Institute  suggesting that it is time for religious institutions to make open the way for Christians to support equality for LGBTQ people in terms of repealing DADT, marriage equality and ending work place discrimination.   In the document I read I found written: 

At the center of our traditions is the Biblical mandate to love, do justice, seek equality,
and act with compassion. The richness of our sacred texts allows for a variety of
interpretations, and there is room for legitimate and respectful disagreement about the
meaning of specific passages. However, using the Bible to exclude or attack people
violates the very spirit of our traditions and is morally unconscionable.
 
Sacred texts provide moral wisdom and challenge, but some passages may also
conflict with contemporary ethical insights. As we move toward a more just society,
we approach our texts and traditions with fresh questions and new understandings.
For example, biblical texts that condone slavery, regard women as property, forbid
divorce, or equate disease with divine retribution can no longer be regarded as
authoritative. We honor instead those texts and traditions that invite us to welcome the
stranger, love our neighbor as ourselves, and view all people as created in God’s image.
Even so, we cannot rely exclusively on scripture or tradition for understanding sexual and
gender diversity today. We must also pay attention to the wisdom of excluded, often
silenced people, as well as to findings from the biological and social sciences.

LGBTQ people are experiencing the cross of Jesus Christ as we work towards full equality in the laws of our nation as well as full inclusion with in the Church. The phrase from Integrity USA is "All the Sacraments for All the Baptized".  The reading from 1 Peter today tells us not to be surprised if we suffer because of our identity as Christians, and that includes LGBTQ Christians.  Because we are individuals of sexual and gender diversity, and believe in Jesus Christ we face persecution from society, Christianists and even from people within our LGBTQ communities.   Just because we are experiencing such difficulties is no reason to give up the fight for equality, inclusion or from living our sexual and gender diversity as believers in Jesus Christ.  


In today's Gospel of Mark 8: 34-38 we read:

Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

When we accept our sexual and gender diversity and work towards equal justice and inclusion while clinging to the cross, we are living out our faith as Christians.  Jesus Christ was crucified because he was different.  LGBTQ people experience discrimination and persecution because we are different.  We are people who like Jesus come with a message of loving people in different ways, and we are mistaken for villains and sick people, even traitors to the Christian faith.  John Coleridge Patteson and his companions whom we commemorate today were killed by the Natives of Melaneasia because they were thought to be enemies of the people there.  It took the work of Bishop Selwyn to reconcile the Natives of Melaneasia with the understanding that Bishop Patteson had come to help them, not harm them.  


When people are ignorant, they become fearful, and as a result they become prejudiced.  And fear and prejudice rips societies and even churches apart, until someone comes along and helps them to reconcile and understand that the fear they once had, has no foundation to exist.  Fear and hate killed Harvey Milk.   Fear and hate are trying to rip the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion apart over the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool.  Fear and hate are at work in Uganda and the Anglican Bishop there.  Fear and hate are at work through the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, the American Family Council, Concerned Women for America, The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Focus on the Family, and The Call by Rev. Lou Engle.  Rather than preach a Gospel of unconditional and all inclusive love they are resorting to hate and fear as they fill more American Christians, and other Christians abroad to countries like Uganda, with misinformation and rhetoric that is designed to stir up violence in speech and action.  


The public attention given to Pastor Jones a week ago is about hate and fear, not about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The fear and hate that has filled many American Christians about the Islamic people and their religion is based on things that are not true.  As a result the peaceful people who are seeking peace in their lives and the lives of other people, are scandalized and ruined.  

The Christian Religion does not hold a monopoly on truth.  The Christian Faith is not suppose to be a capital enterprise to raise billions of dollars on selling fear and hate to raise up rebellions and political upsets.  The Tea Party and the Christianists are depending on people's fears to win seats in Congress.  And if we do not pay attention, it just might work. What and who will pay the price?  Those of us who are trying to live honest, peaceful and loving lives.  It is often one of the most real consequences of picking up our cross and following Jesus Christ, the true Prince of Peace.


Those of us who follow Jesus Christ with our cross, believe in love inclusive, diverse and in being open minded.  Following Jesus Christ calls us to recognize within ourselves and others different than ourselves the beauty that God has made and redeemed through Christ who died and rose again.  To carry our cross and follow Jesus, to loose our life means that we wish to serve and love God first and foremost and to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.  We are called to go beyond the status quo and be people who believe and act on our Faith no matter what cost our Faith and our diversity might require.  


Many of us LGBTQ people have given up our families, former careers and whole communities of people we once knew to grow and become who we really are.  When others told us to hate our sexual and gender diversity, we chose to learn to love ourselves as God made us.  When Christianists told us to "pray away the gay" we said, no, we are called to carry the cross of recognizing God's image and likeness within everyone regardless of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.  As LGBTQ people we also recognize the goodness of all people regardless of their race, religion, gender, ability, challenge, ability to speak or write in one language, employment, wealth, health, and occupation.  We will face the cross as we embrace the diversity of all humankind.  At times our acceptance of others will mean the lose of our reputations or even our lives.  In such moments we can say with Paul: "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" (Galatians 6: 14).

The world LGBTQ Christians are crucified to, is the world that says discrimination and violence based on sexual and gender diversity, racial diversity etc is to be tolerated.  The world that we are crucified to is the world that makes peace with oppression.  The Church that we are crucified to, is the one that uses the Bible to condemn us for our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression and our healthy and committed relationships.   In so doing, we are among the followers of Christ, bearing our cross.

Grant us, Lord, not to anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things which are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 20, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).

Almighty God, you called your faithful servant John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to be witnesses and martyrs in the islands of Melanesia, and by their labors and sufferings raised up a people for your own possession: Pour out your Holy Spirit upon your Church in every land, that by the service and sacrifice of many, your holy Name may be glorified and your kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for John Coleridge Patteson and his Companions, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 595).

Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (A Collect for Peace, Book of Common Prayer, page 123). 

Discovering Our Treasures Among That Which is Old and New

Matthew 13:44-52 (NRSV)

Jesus said to his disciples, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

The Episcopal Church today commemorates a Priest who was heavily involved in the Oxford Movement.  A Priest by the name of Edward Bouverie Pusey.  He was born near Oxford on August 22, 1800 and lived until September 16, 1882.  Pusey was very fond of the teaching about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  In 1843 Edward Pusey preached a sermon before Oxford University entitled: "The Holy Eucharist, a source of Comfort to the Penitent."  Pusey was condemned for this sermon.

When the Late Cardinal John Henry Newman converted to Catholicism in 1845, "Pusey's adherence to the Church of England kept many from following, and he defended them in their teachings and practices." (Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 590).

On the wall above my computer from which I am typing this blog post I have a 2010 Episcocat Calendar that has pictures of cats with every month.  Underneath each picture is a written phrase.  Below the picture for January 2011 is printed: "High Church, Low Church, Broad Church....What happened to Christian unity, not to mention charity?"  A phrase with some truth to it, no doubt.

The Episcopal and Anglican traditions are well known for our excellence in worship, music and architecture. Having come from the Roman tradition I tend to like moderate to high worship.  I have maintained my belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Over the past year and four months I have also become more open to inclusive language and an appreciation for different styles of worship that help others to enjoy their meeting with God.  Among the things I want to meditate on today is that God finds God's treasure and pearl within us.  God has recognized the beauty of God's Self stamped into everyone of us whom God has made and redeemed through Christ.  God is as in love with God's treasure that is found in the love shared between people who are LGBTQ as those who are heterosexual.  God finds God's treasure in those who are not Christian, or white, or male, healthy, wealthy, who write or speak in English or of one gender in heart, mind or body.  We are all God's treasure and in us is a beautiful pearl whom God happens to love very much.

At the end of today's Gospel we read the words: "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." (Vs. 51, 52). 

I beg the indulgence of those more learned about the Scriptures than I, but I think there is room to interpret the line that I have italicized to mean that God is able to bring out of all of his treasures including LGBTQ, women, people of other races and the like, that which is old and that which is new.  The Christian Faith is as much about hanging on to those things that we have always understood and believed, as much as it is about understanding and believing in things, in new ways.  At one point in our history the idea of ordaining women as Priests or Bishops was like speaking a foreign language.  Now, it is more common.  At one point ordaining an openly gay Priest would have been considered unheard of.  Now, there are many openly LGBTQ Priests, two openly gay Bishops and many more in discernment.  While we are a long way from full and complete acceptance, we have made many strides towards full inclusion. 

As I prepare to close out today's blog I want to convey a message from the House of Bishops that are meeting in Arizona this weekend.  They are supporting the Dream Act that will be before the United States Senate this upcoming week.  Sadly and I cannot imagine why it is being completely looked over, but so is the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell included in the Defense Authorization Bill that contains the same Dream Act.  Nevertheless I would echo their request to please contact our Senators this week and ask them to support the Dream Act as well as the Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.   What is the Dream Act?  According to Bishop Brian Prior of Minnesota here is what it means.

DREAM is an acronym for “Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors.” Under the act, eligible students can apply for “conditional lawful permanent residency” for a six-year period during which they must graduate from a two-year college, complete two years of a four-year degree, or serve in the military for two years with honorable discharge (if they choose to leave service). At the end of the six-year period, if they have met the criteria, they can become lawful permanent residents.

Why is the DREAM act important? Each year 65,000 US raised students are denied access to higher education and legal employment due to the fact that they were brought to this country at a young age by their parents. Instead of punishing these students for actions taken on their behalf and beyond their control, the DREAM Act would provide a fair process by which these young people could gain legal status in virtually the only country they have ever known.

Please contact your Senators and ask them to support the Dream Act as well as the Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I must also take this time to call out Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Great Britain.  Last night I watched an incredible Choral Vesper Service at which both Pope Benedict and Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams celebrated  in Westminster Abbey.  The message of the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury about working towards Ecumenism was totally wasted. Today the Pope will beatify John Henry Newman and place his feast date not on the date of his death, but on the date of his conversion to the Roman Church.  What started out as a wonderful possibility towards mutual respect and charity, has turned into an opportunity to give the middle finger to the Anglican Communion by the Roman Pontiff.  In so doing the Pope has conveyed an attitude of Supersessionism towards of the Roman Church towards the Church of England.   The Christian Charity just went right out the window. 

As we remember with gratitude the holy women and men of the Church, let us also pray that the Church will become a more charitable and inclusive home of worship, prayer and service for all of God's holy people.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 19, Book of Common Prayer, page 233).


Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following the example of your servant Edward Bouverie Pusey, we may with integrity and courage accomplish what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Edward Bouverie Pusey, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 591).

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Prayer for All Christians in their vocation, Ember Days, Book of Common Prayer, page 256).

 

Love Is Still The More Excellent Way

1 Corinthians 12: 31-13:7 (NRSV)

But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Thank God this past week and weekend is behind us.  What a painful time last week was.  We witnessed a terrible spectacle with Pastor Jones and his wanting to burn the Quran and all the media frenzy that went on.  As I wrote in yesterday's blog, Jesus got a bad name last week.  I got that idea from Dean Spenser Simrill's sermon at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minnesota.   


There was one very important lesson that many learned and others forgot last week.  Given all that goes on in our daily lives with jobs, family, health issues, issues of accepting ourselves and others, we tend to forget that love is still a better and "more excellent way".  That is why I love the first and second verses of chapter 13 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.  "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."  

We can explain every thing that is written in the Book of Common Prayer, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Book of Worship, or the United Methodist Book of Discipline, or the Manuel of the Church of the Nazarene if we want to.  But explaining and knowing all that is in those books do not make us Christians, nor do they help others want to know what we know.  We can know all about John Crysostom whom we commemorate today.   John Crysostom was a brilliant bishop of Constantinople and theologian, who could tell about the Trinity, the Eucharist and the early Apostles.  We can tell all those stories, about all of the people who are dear to us in the Church.  But, as long as we do not know the love of God deep in our own hearts, and demonstrate that love by reaching out to everyone and showing God's love and our love to every person regardless of their gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, challenge, cultural background, ability to write and/or speak in English, the story of God's love remains a legendary fable.  God's love is not real when we place barriers in front of people that even God has not placed upon humankind.

When we decide to interpret the Bible literally and suggest that God hates everyone who does not worship God as a Christian, or that only Christianity has a monopoly on truth, the love of God is a lofty idea by people with some fake and idealistic notion.  The love that Paul talks about in today's reading from 1 Corinthians is suppose to be a real, abiding, unselfish and wholesome love.  It will challenge us in our comfort zones.  Love will tell us that our doctrines, dogmas and altar calls are not enough.  Love tells us to put God's love into the actions of our lives.  To struggle with accepting others who are different than ourselves, and to keep working on ways to reach out and love people, defend the weak, love the Islamic people, pray and welcome LGBTQ people to the altars to receive Holy Communion, and be allowed to be ordained as Bishops, Priests and Deacons.  Love tells us to welcome the love that is shared by loving and committed homosexual partners and allow them to share in all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of marriage in the Church and society.  Love tells us to reject and condemn all acts of violence and cruelty that results from attitudes of fear that gives way to attitudes and behaviors supported by prejudice.  

A wonderful story appeared in Think Progress over this past weekend.    

As news that Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach Center planned to publicly burn a Qur’an — an operation which appears to have been called off, for now — raced around the world, many in the Muslim world reacted with angry protests, feeling that Jones’ actions were indicative of an America that was indifferent to the sensitivities of the Islamic faith.

Yet on Saturday, the day that Jones had dubbed “International Burn a Qur’an Day,” one American stepped forward to fight back against the rising tide of Islamophobia among the far-right.

In Amarillo, Texas, David Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, “which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer,” planned to burn the Islamic holy text at a public gathering. But before he could set the book ablaze, a 23 year-old skateboarder named Jacob Isom swooped in and grabbed it.

An individual who may or may not have even believed in Jesus did the right thing, while conservative Christians were ready to do something so very uncharitable and unloving.  Who was the greater witness to the love of God?  If the 23 year old skateboarder does not believe in Jesus, is there anyone reading this blog think that maybe, just maybe, God was working in the mind and actions of the young hero?  

God's love is not limited to us or our understandings of Jesus, the Bible or any books of theology or philosophy.  God's love is not limited by Christian Values being used as "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (Rev. Susan Russell).  God's love is not conditional on us being white, heterosexual, wealthy, male, healthy, capable of hearing, seeing, thinking, behaving in certain ways, able to write or speak in one language, being employed, or on even being Christian.  God's love is always inclusive.  God's love was never meant to be exclusive.  


God wants so much to infuse our world with a love that is shown through those of us who believe in God.  The world that is so turned off by Christians because of sexism, racism, heterosexism, islamophobia, religious discrimination, and discrimination of people with challenges, wants to see God's love shown through Christians so as to turn this world of hate upside down, and inside out as Diana Ross used to sing.  God wants God's heart of love for all of God's children to be show by and to all of God's children by those who have freely received it, that they may also freely give.  


The great hymn writers Fredrick H. Lehman with Meir Ben Isaac Nehoral wrote the words:


The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can every tell,
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell!
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave God's Son to win;
God's erring child God reconciled,
And pardoned from their sin.


Oh love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure,
The saints and angel's song.


Could we with ink the ocean fill, 
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every person a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Tho' stretched from sky to sky.


God's love is so great, so immense, so powerful that it can be found in the hearts, minds and bodies of everyone who truly loves God and their neighbor.  It is as much found between two people of the same sex sharing God's love and their love for one another in the great mystery of sexual love that God has given to opposite sex couples, and transgendered people.  If we could all stop for just a few moments to celebrate all of the diverse ways that God's love is so great in our world, all the hate, evil and violence just might stop.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 19, Book of Common Prayer, page 233).

O God, you gave to your servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim your righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of your Name: Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellency in preaching, and fidelity in ministering your Word, that your people may be partakers with them of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for John Chrysostom, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 579).

Gracious Father, we pray for your 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 your Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 816).

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Mission, Book of Common Prayer, page 100).