Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany: Authentic and Transparent Love of Neighbor

Today's Scripture Readings

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 15:15-20 (NRSV)

If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water;
stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
Before each person are life and death,
and whichever one chooses will be given.
For great is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power and sees everything;
his eyes are on those who fear him,
and he knows every human action.
He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,
and he has not given anyone permission to sin. 

Psalm 119:1-8 (BCP., p.763).


1 Corinthians 3:1-9 (NRSV)

Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

Matthew 5:21-37 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, `You shall not murder'; and `whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, `You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

"It was also said, `Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, `You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be `Yes, Yes' or `No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Blog Reflection

How do we know something is authentic and transparent?   We know, because it is more than what is on the surface, and what is under the surface gives new life beyond itself.  

Last Sunday Jesus told us that He is the fulfillment of the Law.  Jesus also told us to be salt that seasons, light that shines and gives glory to God.  

This Sunday, Jesus is telling us that love of neighbor as oneself is more than just doing what the Law requires on the surface.  It is seeing beyond cultural norms, common prejudices and suspicions.   Love of neighbor means living from what is under the surface of the act.  It means we see Christ in our neighbor and would not even entertain the notion that doing that which fails to show reverence and respect for the presence of God in one another.  Because showing reverence for the consciousness of God, means that to injure that relationship is much too important to us to just ignore our gratitude for God's unconditional love. 

The fact of the matter is, if Christians really did have a higher degree of reverence and respect for God's presence in our neighbor, many of the things we entertain concerning women, LGBT people, people of other races, cultures and religions would be the furthest thing from our mind.

In Chapter 4: On the Tools for Good Works in The Rule of St. Benedict, verse 50, he instructs us to: "Dash against the feet of Christ your evil thoughts, as soon as they come into your heart...." (Preferring Christ, by Norvene Vest, p.59).   It is amazing how much power our thoughts can have over our heart and our actions if we do not keep Christ as the center of our lives.  Not just in our personal prayer, but also in terms of what we think and do to one another.  A Christ-centered life goes beyond what we pray, and becomes an authentic and transparent love of neighbor. 

Yet, what we witness in our world around us and sadly by the hands and wills of individuals claiming to be Christians, is violence, disregard for the poor and the sick, irresponsible stewardship of the earth, and prejudice of all kinds. 

A recent article written in Plain Simple Faith suggests that Christians immerse themselves in the Bible in a way that disregards the need for earth changing social justice in the name of sanctity.   The article sings a nice tune about no longer opposing inter-racial marriage, but it no where mentions no longer opposing the freedom to marry for same-gender couples.  There again, is that exception for LGBTQ people, that Christians can just continue to disregard their cruel rhetoric and speech with a religious based bias.  

We also received the really sad news that the President of Uganda is going to sign the bill that will further criminalize certain citizens in it's own country, because of who they are, and who they love.  This kind of thing is bad enough by itself.  But, the very reality that there are Christians who support laws like this, is the Christian faith lived only skin deep, with a really big and angry mouth.

On the other hand, this past week when the Kansas House passed a bill that would make discrimination against LGBTQ people legal on the basis of "religious liberty",  Two Episcopal Bishops in Kansas spoke out, and shared the Gospel of concern for God and neighbor.

We continue to have problems with laws passed that violate the dignity of women.  The right of minorities to exercise the right to vote.  The environment continues to be abused by corporate greed, resulting in the fracking of our drinking water, the land, our forests and our air.  

In our prayers it is important to open ourselves up to the movement of God's Holy Spirit.   The Spirit helps us in our prayers, where our own words and emotions alone cannot move the heart of God. (See Romans 8:26-27, NRSV).  Yet, the Spirit also pleads for us to make our relationship with God authentic and transparent.   So that the Christian Faith may be real and visible in the hearts and lives of those who profess belief in God by way of the Catholic Creeds, and the Sacraments become the means of grace that bring real life-giving evidence of God's revelation in Christ in our churches, communities and the world around us.

Amen.

Prayers
  

O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you:
Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness
we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your
grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please
you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, p. 216).

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. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 260). 

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this
land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to
eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those
who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law
and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of
us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, p. 826). 

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: The Gospel Way to Things and People

Today's Scripture Readings

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23 (NRSV)

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me -- and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

Psalm 49 (BCP., p.652)


Colossians 3:1-11 (NRSV)

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things-- anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Luke 12:13-21 (NRSV)

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Blog Reflection

The readings for today are about living the Gospel practically. They are guiding us to do more than read and pray.  We are being told to do what the Gospel is about in terms of things and people.   It is a message we need in this age of wealth having the power to control the future of everyone and everything at its beckoning.   In the era of the post Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court in 2010 by which individuals and corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence national and local elections, this message of responsibility of what we have and what we do with it with regards to others, is timely.  

The reading from Ecclesiastes and the Psalmist tell us that what we do and work for in terms of possessions and wealth is a fleeing reality.  We are all born and nourished in environments of the necessities of life, as well as those things that while not necessities do bring a tremendous amount of joy.  Yet, whether what we work for provides necessities or that which delights us, they are all passing away, as do our lives.  Nothing of what we have now will go with us at the end of our lives.  We often find during the course of our lives, the more we hang on to things and even people, the more they tend to slip away.  What really is worth hanging on to then?

The Gospel calls us to a state of accountability when it comes to being able to let go for the sake of our salvation.  The words of the parable are harsh. The Gospel will unsettle us when we are open to what the Holy Spirit says to us.  If we are so busy gathering what we need and more that we forget that God is most imperative to us, then what we are hording is worthless.  

One of the differences between Benedictines and Franciscans, is our view of material things.   As Benedictines we don't take a vow of poverty so as to live in abject poverty.   However, we do live with a sense that anything we have and/or use, is not ours to own.  Everything, life itself, even our own bodies are on loan from God.  We honor God by how well we use what God has given us.   St. Benedict instructed us in Chapter 33 of The Rule that everything we have and use is for the use of the Community.  In Chapter 31 Benedict instructs the Cellarer when he says: "He will regard all utensils and goods of the Monastery as sacred vessels of the altar."   In other words, everything is of importance, but nothing is to be possessed to the point that it distracts us from growing closer to God.  

What might be the reason for what Jesus is saying in the Gospel and Benedict in The Rule?

In Jesus Christ, God's perfect revelation of Self, God showed that God knows human beings better than we know ourselves.  Though we are not suppose to allow things, money, control to become the spiritually and psychologically damaging thing that it is, those things happen.  While we cannot do everything perfectly, it can still be used to help us discern God's will.  If we are hording things, wealth and power all to ourselves, what does that say about how we handle people?   How does such a spiritual disorder affect our willingness to let go of our control of people?  Especially, but not limited to those who are different from ourselves?

As a nation, we are so hooked on our current sources of energy and fuel that we are not being good stewards of what those resources are doing to our earth.  We are also blind to how wealthy coal executives, oil company CEO's, and more are, to the point that they use it to control our politics. We are polluting our water, air, destroying the rain forests, polar ice caps and more at an unprecedented rate. We live lives of waste and over use of things that we know are not good for us.  What does this misuse of creation say about our taking seriously our responsibility for taking care of one another?

We live in a nation of incredible wealth and resources that can help every human person.   Yet our immigration system is broken.  We have politicians voting for the fortieth time to repeal health care reform that is working to help people who have little or no access to quality medical care.   We have laws being passed that are punishing women who are raped or sexually assaulted by closing clinics that help the most economically challenged.  We have individuals speaking violent rhetoric towards African Americans, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews, LGBT people. There are many individuals doing such things in the Name of Jesus Christ, and celebrating their misapplied zeal.  

We know from history that when peoples are empowered to get the health care they need, find good paying jobs, live in peaceful communities, work to erase violence and prejudice, there is healing and reconciliation.   We also know that when people invoke the Name of Jesus Christ to extend radical hospitality to bring about healing and reconciliation, the results are mind blowing.  Friendships are created.  Communities grow in their relationship with each other.  And, everyone is held accountable for using what they have for the good of others around them.  

This past Thursday an amazing thing happened in Minnesota   Marriage Equality became legal.  Same-sex couples can now legally marry the person they love.  On Thursday, August 1st, Jason and I got married.  We are now husbands.  We share the same life and love we always have.  The only difference is, we are now united to one another, vowed to each other and are one.   We now get to say that we are husbands and is as true as it can possibly be.  

I would say that marriage is one of those things that opposite sex couples cannot hold for just themselves.  It is a great opportunity and even a "wealth" that is meant to be shared with Same gender couples.  Marriage is one of those things that is not given to us to keep unto ourselves.  It is something God gives, and calls on us to use for the purpose given.  Marriage is about love, commitment and responsibility.  I do not believe that all marriages are for the purpose of giving birth to children.  If it happens that a marriage brings about the birth and raising of children, then that is their particular vocation.  Not every marriage brings about children.  Marriage does bring a sense of stability to those who live together, and it helps build a sense of security in the home and society.  It is not for any sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression to keep from others.  It is to be shared with and for people who are ready and willing to live in love, commitment and responsibility with each other.  To regard each other as vessels containing Christ.  And that, is  how the Church and society is meant to live in relationship with each other.

Amen.


Prayers

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your
Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without
your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 13, 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, Book of Common Prayer, p.816).

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth,
you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom
and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one
may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet
to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Conservation of Natural Resources, Book of Common Prayer, p. 827).