Sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Dr. Titus
Presler
St. Matthew’s Church, Enosburg Falls, Vermont
Year A, Proper 11, RCL: Genesis 28.10-19a; Psalm
139.1-11, 22-23;
Romans 8.12-25; Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43
Some time ago at the
airport in San José, California, I was having a quick meal at California Pizza
Kitchen when I was arrested by an odd repeated sound, like this:
"Aehhh!Aehhh!Aehhh!"I looked over and saw that the sound was coming from a young girl,
perhaps 10 years old, who was engaged in some distress with her mother and
father, who were sitting with her at another restaurant across the concourse.I immediately realized that the girl was
disabled both mentally and physically: she was unable to articulate words; her
motions were jerky and uncoordinated; and there was a wheelchair nearby.The sound was loud, and I was concerned as
well as curious.
"Aehhh!Aehhh!Aehhh!"The parents were
feeding the child, so I wondered whether the problem was that the food was too
hot, but then I saw they were feeding her a salad.But when they fed her some ice cream she
seemed to calm down a bit.
Then her father came
over to California Pizza Kitchen to pick up something else, and the child was
left with her mother.The child stared
after her father, her eyes now riveting in their intensity as she followed this
parent with her eyes.The mother wiped
her daughter's mouth and nose, but still the child would not take her eyes off
her father.When he disappeared behind a
partition she set up her chant again, only now there was a difference.No longer was it "Aehhh!Aehhh!"Now it was "Pehhh-Pehhh!Pehhh-Pehhh!"She was
calling out to her father, using the only name for him that she could
articulate, something like Papa.Sure
enough, the father presently returned and took her with him to whatever he was
up to in California Pizza Kitchen, and she walked haltingly beside him, now
quiet.
It could just as
well have been the mother who left, and I expect the child would have set up
some kind of Mama chant.I was moved by
this tableau.I stopped by the mother on
my way to the gate and told her how impressed and touched I was by the gentleness
and persistence with which she and her husband handled a clearly difficult
child.
In that child's cry
I heard and saw the dependence of child upon parent that is universal in the
human family and common to the biography of every child born into the
world.We all know this dependence from
our experience with our own parents.We
may know the particular tear in our spirit that comes with the death of a
parent, usually later in life, but for some quite early in life.We may know this dependence from the other
side, the experience of being parents and having the lives of children
dependent on us – especially in infancy and childhood, of course, but in other
ways in teenagedom, young adulthood, and so on.Yes, being a parent never stops!
In the cry of that
child in the airport I heard and saw the pathetic helplessness that is a part
of each one of us, somewhere in our being.It was more vivid coming from her because she was older, no longer an
infant, and yet she was voicing and not concealing this deep need.No matter how adequate we may appear to
others, no matter how adequate we may feel in ourselves, no matter how adequate
we may wish to portray ourselves to others, and no matter how adequate we may
actually be – and there is certainly plenty of solid adequacy around –
nevertheless there is some part of each one of us that feels alone, inadequate
and helpless, a piece of ourselves where we want to be taken care of, a place
where we do, in fact, need care, nurture, support and closeness.
That, dear friends,
is the place that Paul so tenderly identifies as the nerve ending of our
relationship with God.When we cry,
"Abba!Father!" he says, it is
the Spirit of God “bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in
fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”
"Abba!"That's a word in the Aramaic language that
was commonly spoken in Palestine and that Jesus himself spoke.Yes, it means father, but it's a term of
familiarity, the kind of name that a child might actually use to address his or
her father, more like Daddy, Dad, or Papa.It's striking that Paul, a Hellenistic Jew, for whom Greek, not Hebrew
or Aramaic, was his natural language, such a man writing to a mixed group of
Jewish and Gentile Christians at Rome, for whom Greek was their natural
language, would bring into this argument, all of it written in Greek, that
Aramaic term for Daddy, Papa.In the
early Christian churches the preservation of that form of address in a language
far from the experience of most people in those churches probably represented a
way of staying connected with how Jesus himself experienced and addressed
God.
Over these last
weeks in the lectionary we've been walking alongside Paul's compelling
presentation of the Christian life in his letter to the Romans: how we are
brought into right relationship with God through faith; how in baptism we
participate in Christ's death and resurrection; and then how without Christ we
can't make headway in our struggle with sin and death.Now, in the eighth chapter, his point is that
for those who are in Christ anything and everything is possible because the
Holy Spirit dwells in us.Left to our
own devices, of course we'll fall back into the life of the old nature, but
through the Spirit we're empowered to live transformed lives in Christ
Jesus.Why, says Paul, it's that
indwelling of the Spirit in us that enables us to cry, "Abba!Father!"That indwellingness of the Spirit signifies how we are so connected with
God that we can be called the very children of God.
So Paul is assuring
the Roman Christians of their deep connectedness with God, a connectedness
through which they can rely on the very presence and grace of God working in
their lives through the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.Evidently they needed this reassurance that they were not alone in their
struggles.
Today, 2000 years
later, do you need that reassurance that you are so connected with God in
Christ that you can rely on God as a child relies on a parent?I don't know about you, but I do!And, by the way, I'm saying parent rather than father here, because it
could just as well be God our mother as God our father – the focus is on the
relationship of parent and child and on the spiritual DNA that is the image of
God imprinted on our being.Yes, it's at
the heart of our faith, but don't you need to be reminded of it?I
do.Oh, how I can rely on myself!Oh, how self-sufficient I can feel!And, oh, how I pity myself when I then feel
alone and isolated: “Oh, God, I feel so alone – where are you?”And God replies, "Right where you last
abandoned me and decided to go it alone.”
So how do we nurture
that connectedness?By letting God
nurture such connectedness within us.That
means being available to God in open-agenda quiet time with God.It needs to happen both alone and in the
company of other people.The worship
that happens here every Sunday is such connectedness in the company of other
people.The worship we undertake
together is not primarily something to be arranged and organized and worried
about.Rather, we gather to support one
another in crying out “Abba!” to God.We
gather to help one another receive the altogether amazing gift of God’s
overwhelming love for us as we acknowledge our childlike dependence on God.
Cultivating the
habit of being available to God individually is equally important.Coming before God alone is a one-with-one
encounter, with all the opportunities such encounters offer.We can be candid.We can take the time we need to collect
ourselves out of our distractedness and bewilderment.We can fumble as much as we need to.We can take time for silence, for listening
to however God may come to us.We can
offer up all the anxiety and anguish we have within us.And all the gratitude and joy that may
overcome us.
So set aside time
for alone time with God, dear friends.It helps to have a regular time and place for that – a time that is
yours and a place that you enjoy.For me
the time has always been first thing in the morning.We’ve lived lots of different places, so the
particular prayer spot has varied: the top of our garage in Hamilton,
Massachusetts, a chair or couch in my various studies, a balcony in Texas,
behind a mountain in Africa, on our terrace here in Vermont.
In such times allow
for silence.Allow for spontaneous
prayer to struggle out of your spirit.If you need help, there’s plenty of that handy.The Daily Office in the Prayerbook is
helpful, as are the Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families.The Daily Lectionary readings can nourish
your reflection and prayer, as do the Psalms.Verses from this morning’s psalm, for instance, could catalyze your
prayer:
Lord, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from
afar.
You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Search me out, O God, and know my heart;
try me and know my restless thoughts.
A committed prayer
life can bring surprises, often when we least expect them.Consider Jacob in today’s Old Testament
reading.He was fleeing his brother, who
was furious with him for deceiving him.He was alone in his guilt and cowardice.Yet still God came to him with blessing and promise as he slept in the wilderness,
and the experience was so powerful that when he woke up he marveled, “Surely
the Lord is in this place – and I did not know it!”And he called the place Bethel, which means
House of God.Each needs to have times
and places in our lives that we can call Bethel, House of God, because we have
know that God was in those times and places in our lives.
The key is to give
yourself time and space where you can cry, "Abba!" and rest in your
deep connection with God the lover of your soul.As that child in the San José airport cried
out, “Peahhh-Peahhh!" so we cry out “Abba!” – Daddy, Mom, Papa, Mummy.Think of that Abba as you pray the Lord’s
Prayer this morning: “Our Father, who art in heaven.”
As Isaiah says, once
the word of God goes forth, it does not return empty, for it accomplishes the
purpose of God.That has happened in the
lives of each one of you, such that you are here today. In the wonderfully careless and profligate way
in which God sows seed in Jesus' parables, some seed does take root.Its sprouting in the lives of each one of us
means that through the Spirit of God we can cry out "Abba!Father!" That is the heart of it.That is everything.
The Rev. Jane Butterfield
June 19, 2011
St. Matthew’s, Enosburg Falls
Father, Son & Holy Spirit; Dad, the Kids &
Mom.
How is Dad doing?
Gensis1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Cointhians 13:11-13,
Matthew 28:16-20
There is the character
building Dad, ever pushing for the next goal, the one who reminds us of how
easy we have it:
“I had to walk to
school. Barefoot. In the snow.Uphill
both ways.”
And then there’s the pal Dad,
a coaxing companion on life’s way.
He’s the father who runs
alongside, reassuring:
“There’s nothing a little duct tape can’t fix.”
Most fathers mix the two up
depending on the situation, but whether you have a duct tape Dad or a
life-is-an-endless-climb–barefoot-in-the-snow kind of Dad, you know how
important that person has been in your life. And you are grateful for him!
And if he has been absent,
well, you might realize the great gift that a Father is precisely because of
how much harder or sadder his absence made your life.
Today is Father’s Day and
Trinity Sunday and it’s probably not the first time the two have coincided.
Happily, there are some ready
lessons to be wrung from human fathers sharing the day with the grandness of
the Three-in-One God.
I want to focus on just three
of many possible points:
Commitment,
Creation and Caring
Or, in Bible-language,
Covenant, Creation and Stewardship.
A good father,
the type we hope our sons will be and our daughters will
marry,
combines all three of these dimensions of Godly character
that we see in the (long) story of Creation.
The first chapter of Genesis
is our introduction to who God is,
what God is like and the Community of the Trinity that is God.
Notice how God is not alone?
Let there be light
Let there be
a dome in the midst of the waters
Let the earth put forth vegetation,
Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures
from black flies to trout to chickens to sheep, goats
and above all, COWS.
And finally,
Let US make humankind in our own image,
According
to OUR likeness.
Which is to say, let us make a community of people who
-will be capable
of making deep commitments of mutual love
-will not only
create children (and grandchildren) but raise them to be creative, to use their
full capacity to make new things and make all things new, whether with duct
tape or by virtue of heroic perseverance
-will care for
each other and their world with the wise, visionary and inexhaustible
compassion that will ever distinguish these creatures from the four-footed
variety.
Fathering is highest calling
a boy can set his compass to;
The true north of the male character.
Which is why I was moved to
tears when our youngest child, Amos, announced to me at the age of four that
more than anything else,
he wanted to be a Father when he grew up.
He was aiming high, fully
integrating all the dimensions of his humanness, inspired by the full range of his godly nature.
Of course, Amos's childhood ambition may have been related to the fact that
when he asked if he could have a little brother,
we responded by getting him a nice little puppy instead.
But now he is a devoted father,
and little Thomas has entirely reordered his life priorities!
A man doesn’t have to get
married and make babies to fulfill his fatherly nature.
Jesus, for example, fathered
an entire community of disciples,
A movement that
redeemed and re-created the world.
His mission demanded that he embrace all of humanity, as it were,
In order to father a new order of humankind into being –
He was both the life is ever
uphill in the snow barefoot kind of father,
And the
running alongside duct-tape Dad;
God covenanting with humanity, recreating humankind and entering into an infinitely compassionate and caring relationship with all people forever.
Jesus made all things new,
and with the most humble material one can imagine –
Simon who became Peter, Mary Magdalene, you and me.
He was a creative genius of
the highest order,
Combining compassion with
commitment.
Nothing less than these three
can make a family or a community work.
God created them male and
female.And God blessed them by turning
all that God had created over to their care and stewardship.The word Dominion is used in this morning’s
translation, but we have all come to realize that the most effective way to
care for this environment we inhabit begins with an attitude of humble
gratitude and patient discovery, and a resolve to manage it wisely and effectively.
So it is with this sacred
task of fathering.
The fathers we celebrate
today have made a new life in their image,
With another, of course, as the biologically essential community of two
generates an new and other creature in their image.
Let us sum it all up by
looking at the symbol of the endlessly creative community of the Holy Trinity
in our bulletin:
See the dynamic movement of
creative grace that is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit or the Creator, the Created, and the
Creative -
Generating the community of Church that expands into the
world to renew the face of the earth, ever in union with the One creative,
caring, committed God.
As Dad might say, “Be like
me,
The uphill-all weather-meet every challenge hero - man and
The resourceful, ever loving, reinventing and patient pal.
To paraphrase Psalm 8,
“What is Dad that you, O God,
should be mindful of him?
You have made him almost
an angel, at his best moments,
aglow with glory and honor,
You give him mastery over the
works of your hands,
You offer him ability and responsibility
to take care of the whole Creation,
and especially his family that with your blessing he has created.
O Lord our Creator,
What an exalted vision!
May we all, fathers, mothers and children - but especially today, our fathers -
grow into the fullness of your purpose for us.
With Commitment, Creation and Caring
In the Spirit of Covenant, Creation and Stewardship.
Bless all fathers this day as
they seek your grace to fulfill this high call.
The Rev. Jane Butterfield Year A, Epiphany 2 January 16, 2011
What Are You Looking For? Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 40:1-12, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42
“What are you looking for?” Jesus asked two of John’s disciples who decided to leave John and follow him.
Jesus asked such good questions: Do you want to be healed? What are you looking for? Whose image is on this coin? What are people saying about me? Who do you say that I am?
His questions were short, honest, probing… and not easy to answer.
Last week our Deacon Virginia asked us a question That Jesus probably asked himself: What are you here for? What do you want to do (for God)?
These two questions – What are you looking for? and What are you supposed to do with your life? - are deeply programmed into our very nature as human beings, as creatures who are made in the image of God, as sinners who are alienated from God and each other. Sinners – not a word Episcopalians use very often, So let me explain what I mean by ‘sinners’: I mean that we as people we are creatures created to be in intimate communication with God. The human tragedy is that we are born loved but separated from God. God sent Jesus to reconcile – get back with – God. Jesus is not only the most persuasive sign that God loves each and every one of us, Jesus also forged a two-way relationship between us and God, a redemptive connection that works as we act upon it. We are able to enjoy this relationship to the extent that we communicate with God in Jesus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
So what are we looking for when we follow Jesus? This is a question I want to answer together, one which we must talk about with each other and in prayer.
What are you – what are we – looking for? Comfort, reassurance, love, acceptance, security…definitely. But more than that – a purpose to our lives, a reason for being on this earth, A sign that God has something particular in mind for us.
Most of you have met my husband Titus. I am blessed to have a wonderful life companion who shares my desire to be in touch with God. I’ve always felt a need to thank God for the gift of our marriage – We all know marriage has it’s challenges – and offering myself to Godly service was and is my thanks offering.
The only explanation I have for how we managed to meet, fall in love and stay together for 36 years is God: Jesus, the Holy Spirit. But let me tell you how it happened and how we’ve managed to make it keep happening: I was looking for someone to complete my life. When I first met Titus I figured I’d found him! But Titus wasn’t enough. Turns out, I really wanted God. At a certain point in our courtship, I realized I had made a kind of idol out of Titus and our relationship and I had to let go of him in order to find him again, through Jesus.
Given the statistics, I’ll have some time on this earth without my husband. In the most important way I can, I have prepared myself for that day: I know how to get in touch with God. Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and my life. Because I’ve invested in this primary relationship over the last 40 years, I have some confidence I won’t be consumed by grief if and when I become a widow.
Finding Jesus in our lives can become a holy and life-saving habit. I found a nice book for our grandchildren entitled, “Can You Find Jesus?” In every scene, Jesus is present – and a little boy, dressed in a striped T-shirt. I hope our grandchildren will go to Sunday School and learn about Jesus because each of our children and the women our sons married also know how to find Jesus and want their children to have that security and that fullness of being.
What am I looking for? Jesus in my life. Jesus in our life together Jesus in Franklin County.
I’ve learned how to find him for myself, Because I remember how life was when I really didn’t know who he was and I know what a difference he makes! And now Jesus has invited us to find him together.
God intended Israel to be the nation that would help the rest of the world find God and be reconciled with their Creator. But they were jealous and proud, as most of us tend to be, and wanted to keep God to themselves, to treasure their identity as God’s special people. Again and again, Isaiah laid out God’s plan for Israel: “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, (those with power in the world) and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
We are looking for God. And God is looking for us. There is a holy reason for our lives; A blessed mission to share. If we find Jesus, he will lead us to it.
The Rev. Jane Butterfield 3 Epiphany, Year A January 23, 2011
Evangelism and Episcopalians; is There Any Hope? Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1,5-13, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23
Why is it that the word Evangelical makes the skin of most Episcopalians crawl? It just isn’t our ethos, it is foreign to us. We aren’t like those Evangelicals who force their religion on others. We enjoy God in the confidence of good liturgy, with the best hymnody in the Church Many of us don’t even need to attend church, feeling close to God in the beauty of the wide outdoors, amply educated with informed and accomplished lifestyles. We are not like those Evangelicals.
The problem is that Episcopalians persist in being sadly uninformed about the impressive evangelicals in our own history and the evangelicalism at the heart of our Book of Common Prayer and all of our cherished hymns. We often confuse evangelicalism with Christian cults – Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of the Latter Days Saints, Christian Scientists and others. In fact, there is something to learn from all of those cults, both to emulate and to avoid! But we find such movements within the Christian tradition all too easy to dismiss as extreme. But evangelism is the essential life dynamic in the Catholic, Orthodox faith also and our own history as Anglican Episcopalians is full of shining examples. Evangelism is an integral part of our ethos, in fact, and if we fail to exercise it, the concept will continue to be defined by others.
I overheard a conversation in Ben’s coffee shop several months ago between Ben and a young man who was consulting Ben about a young woman he was interested in. This young woman attends Kingdom Hall where Jehovah’s Witnesses meet for instruction and worship, right down here on route 105. Their parking lot fill sup well before the 10 AM service on Sundays and one has to admire the growth and vitality of their community. “Those Jehovah Witnesses all seem to be good-looking,” Ben counseled his friend, with is wonderful combination of humor and wisdom, “but you have to really listen to what they’re saying and not just look at them. You don’t want to be joining a group if yo can’t get on board with what they believe/ do you believe what they tech, really?” Then he looked at us – my son Amos and his wife and their beautiful little boy and he said to us, “Are you Jehovah’s witnesses because, hey, you’re good looking folks?” Which got laughs all around. Ben would be a great evangelist because he gets at the heat of the matter without causing offense.
And he invited an evangelistic response from me: “No,” I replied, laughing, “We’re Catholic and Episcopalian but what we believe isn’t that different from what they talk about at Kingdom Hall. We’re just not so sure of the end times and final events.” It wasn’t a good time to go deeper, but that’s definitely a conversation left open and waiting to continue.
And there’s plenty of good stuff for Episcopalians to talk about, beginning with St. Francis, to Charles Wesley and William Wilberforce, to name a few. The church has changed the world for the better through movements of evangelistic renewal and dedication and many of the leaders of the most effective movements have been of the Anglican/Catholic tradition.
Anglican liturgy (as in the Book of Common Prayer) and hymnody (including many of Wesley’s hymns) is the most evangelical of all, from the Eucharistic prayers of Great Thanksgiving at the heart of Holy Communion to the insistence on hearing four portions of Scripture to the enduring inspiration of hymns ancient and modern.
There is alot of confusion out there about the very meaning of the word “evangelism.” Wikipedia, just for example, notes that the neutrality of it’s own article is disputed: “Evangelism,” it says, “Refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity. Christians who specialise in evangelism are known as evangelists whether they are in their home communities or acting as missionaries in the field. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in a leadership position; they may be found preaching to large meetings or in governance roles. Christian groups who actively encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or evangelist. The scriptures do not use the word evangelism, but evangelist is used in Acts 21:8, Ephesians 4:11, and 2 Timothy 4:5.” Among the several problems with this definition is that evangelism is exclusively information based. But the most successful evangelism and evangelist comes out of relationship with God through Jesus, rather than information about Jesus. Jesus is both the stunningly effective evangelist and the Evangel the Good News - incarnate By the end of today’s passage, Jesus has four disciples who left everything and followed him. How did he do it? His own vocation as Evangelist began in the wilderness with a personal encounter with God that later defined the nature of his mission in the world and the Body that he birthed into the world, that is the Church.
John’s arrest signaled that it was time to get going. And so he returned to the Napthali region of Galilee, as Isaiah prophesied. He went back to familiar ground, for Galilee was home territory for Jesus; but he went to the outermost social, cultural boundaries of that area - Napthali. And he knew he couldn’t do it alone, So he gathered partners or companions for God’s mission whom he apprenticed. Finally he began the pattern of God’s mission evangelistic mission that has characterized Christian mission ever since: Starting among his own people, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the KOG, and curing every disease and sickness.
And thus it has been and always will be: Proclaiming, teaching, curing. Evangelism, education, healing reconciliation.
Evangelism has always been central. It begins with a personal conversion, as with St. Francis of Assisi whose story is well known. “Preach the gospel always, use words if necessary,” he famously said. He was a living proclamation of God’s saving grace in Jesus. One of the earliest and best known evangelistic missionaries.
Anglicanism - the Anglican Communion – was spread not only by Colonial development by Anglican evangelicals, missionaries who in discovering a new place discovered God anew in it: And then, after the pattern of Jesus – Proclaimed the good news - established churches Taught - established schools, and Healed - established clinics and hospitals Mistakes were made, but Christian mission was by any measure enormously successful and has become the prototype for secular rescue and development agencies around the globe. More cultures and languages have been preserved by Christian missionaries than by all the anthropologists and development organizations combined. But more of that in the weeks to come.
For now, let us ponder Evangelism anew and get back on the mission track.
Rhonda Hughey works with an evangelistic movement focused particularly on New England, called “The Glory of God in New England.” She makes the very important point that, “In order to proclaim Good News, we have to have truly heard it ourselves.”
An Anglican priest, John Wesley embodied this principle in becoming an active evangelist at the age of thirty-four. The Methodist Church was founded by the many renewed and converted who followed Wesley, but he died among his own people, an Anglican to the last – but one who was changed by a personal encounter with God. How did it happen for John Wesley? Following a difficult and discouraging mission trip to the American colonies during which he witnessed a heart-rending amount of suffering, he questioned his faith. In 1738, at the age of 34, Wesley attended an evening worship service in London which moved him deeply. In his journal, Wesley describes his "Aldersgate experience:"
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.† About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.†† My own life-changing, renewing encounter with God happened in Boston. I shared a little about that with you last Sunday. Enough to say this week that it was that redemptive, healing, life-giving encounter with God that began a very real relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit that in turn led to life-long companionship with Titus that led to missionary work, that led to ordination (despite my resistance) , that led to everything else including my being here with you. That Boston experience is my touchstone, the recalling of which has repeatedly rekindled the spark of love I first experienced when I was change; when I felt my heart strangely warmed.
February
20, 2011-7th Sunday after Epiphany
St.
Matthew’s Church - Morning Prayer
Leviticus
19:1-2,9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1
Corinthians 3:(10-11,16-23
MATTHEW
5:38-48
The only
thing that kept David and me walking on our stupid treadmill was our reading
aloud to each other.For several months
we read William Barclay’s commentary on Matthew, on the Beatitudes.One would expect that I should be able to
incorporate all this wisdom into an instructive sermon.Well - no, I can’t.
This
list that we have been reading for several weeks that we call the Beatitudes
has probably had more volumes of analysis written about it than most parts of
the Bible.The Beatitudes are fertile
soil for scholars.All of my commentaries
agree that they are important because they turn all conventional wisdom upside
down.You’re blessed because you
mourn?Persecuted? Reviled? Hungry?Anyone can
look around and see that it is the rich who are blessed, not the poor.Those who wield the power are blessed, not
the meek, and those who have food and enough to throw away, not the
starving.The Beatitudes seem to have
things backwards.
So
what’s the problem?It’s
me.The older I get,the more I find myself almost weeping when Iam writing a sermon
because my knowledge is so darned superficial.That’s a direct quote from my mother who sighed one day when she
was in her eighties and said: “my knowledge is so darned
superficial.”Yes, I know - and
love you for it - many of you tell me that you love my sermons.But I go home and remind myself that sermons
are not to be “loved”: they are to be argued over, disagreed with,challenged. They are, to
quote the late Robert MacAfee Brown: supposed to “comfort the afflicted
and afflict the comfortable.”And
I ask myself how I dare produce simple, and often simplistic, sermons when I
know so little.
In the
Mikado there’s a song that fits: “Here’s a pretty state of
things, here’s a pretty how-de-do”.
What
should be my attitude when faced with these Beatitudes?Ah - “here’s a pretty state of
things, a pretty how-de-do”.my attitude should be to recognize my own limitations, and
be aware of my own lack of wisdom when it comes to scholarly subjects.When I admit to myself that I have
limitations, then I begin to realize that my biggest blessing is that I KNOW
THAT I DO NOT KNOW, and go on from there.
Micah
thunders at his people: "But what does the Lord require of thee?To do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."You KNOW that Micah is not talking about
humility ofthe
Uriah Heep variety.Uriah Heep with his hand rubbing, ostentatious
humility, his whined "I'm just a 'umble man" talk, is far from what Micah is talking
about when he uses the word "humbly."Uriah Heep is also far from what Jesus is
talking about when he says the meek are blessed.We have trouble with words like
"humble", words like "meek", words like
“kindness” - and equate them with "spineless", and
"wimp."
Before
we moved to Vermont David was asked to speak at a forum for a deanery
church.He was invited to speak as a
representative of the Diocesan Peacemaking Committee, and the rector told him
that he was to be the third speaker in a series the church was having on
CONTROVERSIAL subjects.Peace?Controversial?Blessed are the peacemakers?David didn't feel particularly blessed or
happy!Being a peacemaker sounds good
until you run smack into how controversial a subject peace can be.When you run up against someone who is part
of the military-industrial complex and begin to talk peace you find yourself
labeled unpatriotic.We all know that
today if one spoke out against our government’s bombing in Afghanistan,
that even those high in the government called this unpatriotic!
Jesus
must have been engaging in comedy when he calls all those about whom he speaks
in these Beatitudes as being happy, blessed.
And in
truth, that is just what he is doing - for comedy always has a serious
underside to it so that we often don't know whether we want to weep or laugh,
and often we do both.Jesus uses
shocking words and actions to turn the world upside down, to reverse the
world's values and wisdom.Can you
picture him sitting back in the audience at some of our TV game shows?At one of the talk
shows?I was watching a Geraldo show
once to see why Betsy refused to watch him - he was interviewing people who had
kinky sex arrangements with multiple partners.It was an eye-opener!At one
point when the audience was asking the speakers questions, a man in the back row
got up and asked, as Jesus himself might have done,"Do any of you ever wonder if what you
are doing might be wrong?"There
was a dead silence, an uncomfortable one, and Geraldo passed the microphone to
someone else and the show went on.
These
Beatitudes are, in a sense, comedy - because they are so outrageous.They are tragedy, too, because each of us
knows how impossible they are to fill. “Here’s a pretty state of
things, here’s a pretty how-de-do”.I would add another
Beatitude to those we heard today, and I can't remember where I first
read it:"How blessed are they who
know their need of God." We have the key to the attitude these Beatitudes
call for, the answer to this “pretty how-de-do”,when we realize that whatever we have,
whatever we are, comes not from ourselves but from God. And God has this funny
way of choosing foolish, weak, low and often despised people to confound the
world's wisdom.
We seem
to have an attitude problem.And Jesus
in the Beatitudes is saying to us that he wants us to change.Each of us wonders if we are ABLE to change -
able even to WANT to change.It is a
gift of grace when we are given to know we can't either want to or succeed in
change without God's help. How blessed are those who know their need of God, for
they will receive the help they need.
And help
they’ll need! Talk about outrageous – here’s a pretty
how-de-do – after all these weeks of instructions on how to behave, Jesus
begins to wrap it all up with these words: “Therefore be ye perfect, even
as your father in heaven is perfect.”
You must
be joking!He must be joking.Perfect?Do you know ANYONE who you would consider “perfect?” (other than me, of course?)President Clinton asked for a definition of the word
“is”.I ask for a definition
of the word “perfect”, as applied to people.Someone saintly, yes, pious, loving, andalways kind. Impossible to live up to or live with. Give me someone
who’ll have a glass of wine at a wedding, someone who’ll tell a
good story and not be adverse to weeping publically
over a dear friend’s death.Oh.Yes. We do already have our
definition of “perfect” don’t we?I am convinced that there is no way we can
even begin to live up to this impossible directive – on our own. Here is
truly when we need all the help we can get. We know where to get it:we need to be really humble, admit our need,
ask God for help and then accept it.It
is the accepting part that is the crux of the equation – asking is easy
if we do so with fingers crossed.
Rev. Virginia Thomas
Rev. Virginia Thomas at 93
Feb 27 2011 8th Sunday after the Epiphany Year A Enosburg Falls St. Matthews Dave Ganter
Psalm 131 Isaiah 49:8-16a, I Cor 4:1-5, Matthew 6:24-34
Collect: Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide us from the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Themes for todays readings are assurances, letting go, and serving God
The readings for today tell us to serve God. They tell of things that separate us from God - things like searching for wealth, and worrying about getting food and clothing. They give us some direction and some assurances that aid us in serving God. The curious thing about these directions is that they don't revolve around striving. Rather, they tell about letting go.
The reading from Isaiah is an assurance to exiles in Babylon, the "prisoners" in the text. The people have some anxiety that God has abandoned them but they are reassured that they will be led and fed. “They shall feed along the ways ... they shall not hunger or thirst ... I will not forget you“
The Psalmist says "O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks". These are things that separate us from God. The author has let go of pride and haughtiness. The author has given up being occupied with "great matters, or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet" One could treat "things too hard for me" as things that cause worry and anxiety, think today's Gospel reading, and by getting rid of them achieves quietness. The Psalm ends by saying to serve God. It says "O Israel, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth for evermore."
In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians he says we should let go of pronouncing judgements. He says he is serving Christ. and says when Christ comes again he will bring to light some things now hidden. Until then, because there are hidden things we cannot see, we should not be judging. Give it up.
The first part of today's today's Gospel reading declares that we can't serve two masters. We can't serve God and wealth - a short, two sentence, declaration.
In the rest of the Gospel reading, Jesus tells how God provides enough that we should not have to worry about wealth or even more basic things. Worrying about wealth, concentrating on wealth, will take up our time, energy, and attention. Based on the assurances, we can let go of the worry.
That means we don't have to serve wealth and are free to serve God.
Here is a transition point. What happens once we recognize that we have worry, time, and effort, that is overly concentrated on something which separates us from God? What happens after we are able to be comforted by the declaration of the Psalmist "my soul is quieted within me.", comforted by the assurances found in Isaiah, and comforted by the assurances found in the Gospel. How can those with wealth and those in need receive the Gospel message?
No matter what our economic status, we are supported. Those with security and wealth are free to give. We don't have to invest time and effort to keep a grip on what we have at the expense of not using it to serve God. Those who are in need of food and clothing struggle to see the answer to the promises in these assurances. Some of these needs are met when the people with wealth “get the message” and share what they have.
Worry and anxiety can tie up anyone and keep them from serving God whether it is about finding food and clothing or whether it is about gaining and keeping wealth. Jesus is telling us that for us to be in an anxious state is not what God wants for us. God wants us to be free from worry, to let it go, but, to be free for a specific purpose – to be able to serve Him.
AmenFeb 27 2011 8th Sunday after the Epiphany Year A Enosburg Falls St. Matthews Dave Ganter
Psalm 131 Isaiah 49:8-16a, I Cor 4:1-5, Matthew 6:24-34
Collect: Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide us from the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Themes for todays readings are assurances, letting go, and serving God
The readings for today tell us to serve God. They tell of things that separate us from God - things like searching for wealth, and worrying about getting food and clothing. They give us some direction and some assurances that aid us in serving God. The curious thing about these directions is that they don't revolve around striving. Rather, they tell about letting go.
The reading from Isaiah is an assurance to exiles in Babylon, the "prisoners" in the text. The people have some anxiety that God has abandoned them but they are reassured that they will be led and fed. “They shall feed along the ways ... they shall not hunger or thirst ... I will not forget you“
The Psalmist says "O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks". These are things that separate us from God. The author has let go of pride and haughtiness. The author has given up being occupied with "great matters, or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet" One could treat "things too hard for me" as things that cause worry and anxiety, think today's Gospel reading, and by getting rid of them achieves quietness. The Psalm ends by saying to serve God. It says "O Israel, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth for evermore."
In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians he says we should let go of pronouncing judgements. He says he is serving Christ. and says when Christ comes again he will bring to light some things now hidden. Until then, because there are hidden things we cannot see, we should not be judging. Give it up.
The first part of today's today's Gospel reading declares that we can't serve two masters. We can't serve God and wealth - a short, two sentence, declaration.
In the rest of the Gospel reading, Jesus tells how God provides enough that we should not have to worry about wealth or even more basic things. Worrying about wealth, concentrating on wealth, will take up our time, energy, and attention. Based on the assurances, we can let go of the worry.
That means we don't have to serve wealth and are free to serve God.
Here is a transition point. What happens once we recognize that we have worry, time, and effort, that is overly concentrated on something which separates us from God? What happens after we are able to be comforted by the declaration of the Psalmist "my soul is quieted within me.", comforted by the assurances found in Isaiah, and comforted by the assurances found in the Gospel. How can those with wealth and those in need receive the Gospel message?
No matter what our economic status, we are supported. Those with security and wealth are free to give. We don't have to invest time and effort to keep a grip on what we have at the expense of not using it to serve God. Those who are in need of food and clothing struggle to see the answer to the promises in these assurances. Some of these needs are met when the people with wealth “get the message” and share what they have.
Worry and anxiety can tie up anyone and keep them from serving God whether it is about finding food and clothing or whether it is about gaining and keeping wealth. Jesus is telling us that for us to be in an anxious state is not what God wants for us. God wants us to be free from worry, to let it go, but, to be free for a specific purpose – to be able to serve Him.
Amen
The Rev. Jane Butterfield Year A, Christmas Eve 2010 St. Matthews, Enosburg Falls
Christmas is God Making Home With Us Isaiah 9:2-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-20
Welcome to all, especially those who are here for the first time! Don’t be surprised if you feel at home here. You are God’s child and his home is your home. On this night made holy with the light of God that is Jesus, we come home to God because God came home to us in Jesus.
The Creche tradition, started by St. Francis, tells the story of what God’s first home on earth looked like. Home is a theme woven through story of Jesus' birth we hear tonight beginning with announcement of the census: Caesar Augustus commanded that everyone residing in the vast Roman Empire should be taxed so everyone went home.
Joseph went from Nazareth, his place of residence and work to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the “house and lineage of David." Mary was leaving her home of Nazareth at a difficult time, great with child, only to be told there was no possibility of the family making tmporarty home in an inn in Bethlehem.
So God came to this displaced couple, met them as intimately and fully as God had ever met anyone in the history of Creation, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, somewhere in the hills where sheep patured under the watchful eyes of shepherds – shepherds who were used to being essentially homeless.
And the parents of the God-child "laid him in a manger, because no there was no room for them in the inn" But God was in the stable, in the child, in the pain and joy of giving birth, and so that deserted place became God’s home full of glory, divine presence and the absolute safety that we humans know only in God.
In the baby Jesus, God made home with us so that we might be at home with God.
The shepherds were mysteriously drawn to God’s home on earth as divinely invited guests of God himself and Mary and Joseph understood that the announcemnt had been given, beyond all means of human transmission.
What do we make of all this? Why is this stable scene is one of our favorites in the whole Biblical saga? We're inordinately fond of crËches: figures of the Holy Family in a rough stable, making their newborn comfy in the straw, being warmed by the gentled breath of oxen, donkeys, sheep. And all of this is illuminated by a glow of light, either pictorially or in fact on mantles and in town squares.
This year we have set our favorite Creche in a miniature Vermont forest of Fir saplings planted in a large tray in our new bay window. Forest animals and domestic animals are making their way to the crËche through the woods, over large, moss-covered rocks dug from our land. God is coming to us in our new home in Vermont, far from the big cities in which we have lived and worked for most of our lives.
We take this homeless scene of the Holy Family’s exile and make of it a symbol of God’s homing with the humble. We admire Joseph and Mary’s resourcefulness and persistent faith even as we celebrate God’s searching love in meeting them in their extremity.
This holy story of God’s home-making in the midst of human hardship and apparent abandonment in is outward expression of the sweet and mysterious promise – Christmas’s profound message - of the Incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas. God made it clear that every part of the human experience is redeemable, holy in its essence, infinitely precious to the Creator.
God in Christ left God's natural home in the cosmos, left God's natural mode of spirit only, and took flesh in the alien modality of flesh among the alienated peoples of the fallen world.
People have a strong desire to return home for Christmas. We were moved as Vermont soldiers returned from Afghanistan days before Christmas; our children are driving long distances and flying over their few days off to join us in the home we’ve waited to live in for sixteen years. Everyone wants to be home when God comes home.
Because of values epitomized by Vermont – the beauty of the natural creation, the simple life, the integrity of hard work, making things, caring for animals and eating good, wholesome food – it is considered America’s home state. Young people leave, but often return to raise their own children because everywhere else feels lacking in some way. It seems better for our children to grow in a place where they can grow up, as the Baptismal prayer of welcome puts it, with a sense of “joy and wonder in all God’s works”.
Ironically, it may be this intuitive sense of God’s clsenes in the created natural beauty that makes Vermont the state in the nation that boast the very lowest involvement in organized religion! Why go to church when one can go for a walk in the woods and feel the presence of God without taint of human failings. Rebecca Chase, son of beloved clergyman Ben Chase, wanted to come home to Vermont to raise her children. Lawyer in St. Alban’s couldn’t imagine raising a family anywhere but in Vermont and after trying to settle donw in Philadelphia and Wasington DC, came back to St. Albans where she couldn’t be happier with her husband and children.
We feel like we have finally come home after 17 years of visiting. Day after day I find myself in what Titus and now call our “Daze of Contentment” Why? It is the beauty of the snow, the relative lack of stress of semi-retirement. But Plymouth was my birth home; God made me feel at home in Zimbabwe, even while I lived out of a suitcase while working NYC, I was comforted by God’s presence.
But I most recognize home as that promised land where God has provided a meeting place, where we meet God again and again. Leaving home, living an itinerant life, having a place I longed to be because God was always here when I could come here, was helpful in finding home: I needed to leave home to find God, And then I needed to follow God to come to my heart’s home.
God leads us home, Just like the Angels lead the shepherds home.
Americans have been counted this year, just as Joseph was counted in the Roman Census 2000 years ago. Parenthetically, Deacon Dave and our son Henry, who were both Census workers, enjoyed Census work immensely and look forward to sharing Census stories. Part of that, I think, is because they got to see people in their homes. It is a privilege. But neither Caesar nor Deacon Dave nor son Henry will ever know as much about the people they have enrolled in the Census. Nor can the Census serve the well-being of the nation as perfectly and fully as God.
God calls us home to God’s self in love, not so that we can be taxed or merely counted, but so that we can be saved.
The Good News, the Gospel, for us in tonight’s most magnetic story Is that God has come and made home among us Because God knows and loves us better than we are capable of knowing and loving ourselves. When we receive God into our home, into our heart. The deep and persistent restlessness of the spirit longing for home Is satisfied and everywhere is home. ET uttered a single word in that famous movie bearing the homely little alien’s name: Home. May each of us recognize in our longing for home, the even deeper longing for God and give thanks this night for Jesus, who is once and for all and forever, God making home with each and all of us.