A Servant of the Lord

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with
thee; Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death.
This prayer to the mother of Jesus has
been unfamiliar and even uncomfortable to me.
Raised a Lutheran, as I was, there were the three – God, the Father,
Jesus, the Son and the Holy Spirit whom we called the Holy Ghost. There was no female figure in the mix – and
the idea of praying to a intercessor – someone to mediate and somehow speed
along my prayer seemed unreal. Even
though I was named for the Virgin Mary – my siblings are Elizabeth and David –
I didn’t really have a place for her in my religious framework, except as a
walk-on player in the Christmas pageant with the one famous line – “Here I am,
the servant of the Lord. Let it be with
me according to your Word.” So I have come slowly to wondering about Mary and
her place in the heart of Christianity.
And her place in my own heart. What strikes me most about Mary is that
she is a regular Jewish girl, engaged to man named Joseph, living her life in a
righteous way in her small town of Nazareth.
So Mary is like us – doing the best she can, and she is very young by
our standards, though life expectancy was much lower in those times. Then Mary’s world and whole life are
radically changed upsidedown by the
appearance of the angel Gabriel, sent by God.
If I heard from an unfamiliar angel-like apparition that I was chosen by
God to bear the savior of the world my first instinct would be to dial up the
psychiatric department at Kaiser. Angels
don’t break into our lives and turn things upside down now, do they? Or do they?
I propose that angels do appear all the time in our lives – sometimes we
are able to see them and know them and their influence – and sometimes we are blind
to their action in the world. I was
intrigued by Rev. Amber’s ideas about Kronos and Kairos – time as a measurement
and time as exists in the Kingdom of God.
God time and people time. Mary’s experience with the angel must have
been an experience in Kairos – a moment out of the world with the power of
God. I know we strive to achieve God’s
time when we meditate – losing all sense of people time and resting in the time
that belongs to God. I know that I have
experienced some moments out of time along this journey and that they were moments
that I grasped as holy and sacred – I wanted to go back and live in those
moments. So I wonder how Mary thought about her encounter with the Angel. She only asked one question – how can this
be? And when she got the answer – the Lord will come upon you and overshadow
and the child will be Holy, the Son of God, she made up her mind and said
ok. Here I am your humble servant. Let it happen the way you say it will. I’m all in. By the Grace of God I am all in.
I used to be very careful with my time –
raising three children and working full time, sometimes going to school,
too. Time was a precious commodity. So when someone asked me to do something
extra – I had to consider long and hard how I would work it into my schedule.
Sometimes I had to say no, and then after several no’s, people stopped
asking. In some ways I was a hard case –
I was afraid of putting myself out there, afraid of failure or looking foolish. Afraid of acting more important than I really
was. My insecurity stood between my time
and God’s time, more than my busy life did.
And so when an angel broke through in God’s time to put my life
upsidedown, as angels or the spirit do with all of us, I didn’t have that
lovely response Mary had – here I am your servant – I will do whatever you want
me to. I am always dragged kicking and
resisting into the new life God has for
me – and then I see – oh! This is what is meant. For instance, last summer I lost my job as
Nutritional Services Manager at Sonoma Valley Hospital mostly due to my
resistance to the “new” policies about money being more important than the
patients. The way I saw it. And I had struggled for a year with the new
administration to avoid this outcome – thinking I needed my job to survive and
that the Nutrition Department wouldn’t survive without me. To say that I was devastated when they let me
go doesn’t even touch it. But I have
come to see that sacred circumstances have brought me to a new place in my life
– a place of “yes” – now I have time. An opportunity to get the education I
always wanted. And now the Open Cathedral in Oakland. It is amazing how “yes” changes your
life. John Trubina, the deacon who
started the East Bay Open Cathedral, asked me to join them at 2pm on Sundays
and I said yes even though I usually save Sunday afternoon and evenings for my
kids. He asked me to be on the Bishop’s
Committee as Open Cathedral becomes a special mission to the church and I
hesitated and then the words “yes, I’m in” came out of my mouth. I wonder if it was like that for Mary – here
I am, your servant, do with me as you will.
A response in God’s time. And
then later – wondering how it will all work out in people time. So far it has. And spending time with the most poor, forgotten,
hungry folks in Oakland has been an experience in God’s time. Last Sunday afternoon John and I walked under
an overpass in a quiet, dark corner of the city and carried a box of bag
lunches with us. We saw some folks under
a tarp and walked slowly over with our box.
John said, “Would you like some lunch?”
Yes, they said, sure. So we gave
them bags and asked if there were any others.
And out of the corners of the pile of tarp and boxes came three others –
in the end we gave them the whole box and we asked for a photo. They were gracious enough to let us take
their picture which is now on the Open Cathedral website – we told them we
wanted to tell people about how folks lived on the streets and they wanted us
to tell the story. It was an experience in God’s time out of time. Then I went
home and made dinner for my kids – and watched the end of the football game
with them. And wondered in my heart what
it all means. I wonder what Mary did after the angel left. Did she get up and make dinner? Did she feel able to tell someone like her
own mother about her experience. Did she
feel humbled to find herself in God’s time?
I do. I am in awe of God’s time,
I feel afraid to go there, but I love it when I do. When I say yes to God’s invitation I feel afraid
that it is too big for me, but afterwards I am grateful for the moments in
Sacred Space and time. Being a person
for God in God’s time only takes the word “Yes”. Mary’s “yes” to unknown
circumstances and experiences, yes to certain heartbreak and unconditional
love.
What I have found in my beginning
relationship with Mary is the strength to say Yes to whatever God has in store
for me, a servant of the Lord. And I ask
Mary to give me courage by her ultimate example of grace and faith to help me
along the Way.

Amen.


Luke 1:26-38
Advent 4B
December 18, 2011

The Names of God

The Names of God

I am Who I Am, Holy Father,
Immortal, Jehovah, Source of All Blessing, Adonai, Invisible, Glorious, Alpha
and Omega, Supreme Being, Divine
Presence, Creator of the World, Theos, King of Kings, Lord of Hosts, Lord of
Light, Ancient of Days, Redeemer, God of Israel, God of Abraham and Sarah,
Deliverer, Yahweh, Holy Light, All Knowing, All seeing, Elohim, Mighty Warrior,
Eternal Father, Allah, Spirit of the Living God, Omnipotent, Lord of Space, The
Source, The Guide, Heavenly Father, Deus, God of Jacob, Breath, King Eternal,
Maker of Heaven and Earth, God our Maker, Three in One and One in Three, Great
God, Elaha, Creator Spirit, Shield, Fortress, Lord God Almighty, Divine Power, Comforter,Umma,
Mother, Father, Abba, Papa, Daddy.
Everything we relate to in our
world and in our lives has a name. Names
define objects and people; give us history or tell a story; show us how to
relate to whatever is being named. We
name our children after those we love, we name our pets after the way they
look, or their breed name, or something we love, some extension of ourselves.
My beautiful doggie, Freckles, was so named because of the many black spots she
had on the white part of her coat – and it was her personality, too. Like a freckled kid, happy, free. My daughters carry their Grandmothers’ names
– my mother was Janet and my mother-in-law was Gerrarda Maria. My daughter Christine is named Christine
Gerrada Maria – for a great aunt of mine who died young and for her paternal
grandmother, who died too soon. And
Christine has another name – she was called Eun Yeung by her foster mother in
Korea – it means pure blessing. Christine carries in her names memories and
hopes and lots of love. She’s a living anthropological study in human migration
–including her Swedish immigrant Great-Grand Aunt, her Dutch Grandmother and
her Korean birth names given her at the beginning of her life. Her names tell about her history, a little about
who loves her, where she has been, what is hoped for her, who she belongs to,.
Names are very very important. They define our relationships.
In Jewish thought, a name is also not just a random combination of sounds. Names conveys the nature and essence of the
thing named. They represents the history and reputation of the being named. The
first Name used for God in scripture is Elohim. The word is a masculine plural
of a word that looks feminine in the singular (Eloha).This is an ancient word
for God, gods, or powers. In current culture we mostly refer to God as a
masculine being. The earliest written
form of the Germanic word god comes from the 6th century CE and is
pronounced ǥuđan. It is generally agreed
by linguists that Gudan meant either "to call" or "to
invoke". The Germanic words for god were originally neuter that is, neither masculine or feminine—but during the spread of
Christianity to the Germanic people the word God took on a masculine context.
This gives us our first inkling of who or what God is. And that first idea is a
question – Is God male or female, or both, or neither.
What else do we know
about God? Generally, God is most
often thought of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the Universe. Theologians
from many different backgrounds agree to a few concepts of God: infinite
knowledge, unlimited power, presence everywhere in the world, perfect goodness
and eternal existence. No wonder we have
so many words and names for God. The
concept of God is too big to wrap our arms around. How is it possible to be in
relationship with someone so unimaginably omnipresent? Maybe that is why there are people who don’t
believe in the existence of God. It’s just too big a problem to figure out who
God is and how I am in relationship with him or her or them. Or some people want to be able to
scientifically prove that God exists.
One of the saddest people I have known is a scientist who I dated
briefly a long time ago. He tried so
many times to empirically prove the existence of God and failed. So he could not let himself believe, even
though he wanted to. So he was without a greater being and I think that was a
lonely thing for him. We often speak of God calling us – Just as the
Germanic meaning of God’s name means we
call to or invoke God. We feel God
calling to us and we call back. There is
no way to prove it, even though I know God calls to me as well as I know my own
name.
So we are in relationship with a supreme
being with many names who we cannot see or touch or taste or smell. But we can hear God’s call. That is not a small thing. What else do we
know about God? As Christians we believe that Jesus is God coming into the
world as a human being and that through knowing Jesus we have a chance to know
something about God. In the Gospel according to John we read: “In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Here is another
name for God – The Word, in the form of Jesus who brings to us the Word of God.
John goes on to say ,”In him was life, and that life was the light of all
mankind. The light shines in the
darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Our relationship with Jesus is
about knowing the lightness and truth about God and being assured that that truth
will not be overcome.
In our Gospel reading today Jesus is not
happy about names that religious leaders of his time call themselves. Jesus tells us not to call anyone teacher,
rabbi or father because these are some of the names of God. The behavior of religious people who pretend
to be better than others offends Jesus because they act like they have the
inside track with God. They wear special religious clothing out in the street
and pray on the corners so everyone can see them. He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3therefore, do whatever they teach
you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they
teach. 4They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on
the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to
move them. 5They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they
make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6They love to have the place of
honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7and to be greeted with respect in
the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.” It seems that these
people have forgotten that our relationship with God is like that of a child to
his or her father – a father who loves and cherishes them. I know that all human fathers are not like
this. God our Father is the ideal father
– one who loves and nurtures his or her children with the love of both a mother
and father. The child is innocent and
humble of heart. The child leans on God
and is protected and cared for. The
religious people Jesus is criticizing here -and in the following verses he
really lights into them – these people prevent others from coming to God the
Father by putting impossible barriers in their way – barriers like education,
or proper dress, or manners, or status of birth. These people are shut out by the rules and
regulations of the religious structures of Jesus’ time – and it makes Jesus
angry. Who are God the Father’s
children? Jesus says , “The greatest
among you will be your servant. For
those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will
be exalted.” The Kingdom of God belongs to those who know God as the nurturing,
loving, caring parent and who humble themselves to serve in God’s kingdom in
the service of those who have become the least in society. Our Psalm today is a
recitation of many things that can go wrong for human beings – they wandered in
a wasteland, were hungry and thirsty, suffered in prison, were subjected to
bitter hard labor, lived in darkness, suffered affliction because of their
sins, and got lost at sea. But in every case, when the people called out to
God, God heard them and blessed them, filled them with food and drink, saved them
from the crashing waves, made cities for them to live in, freed the prisoners
and saved the people from the hand of
the foe. We come to church to praise our
loving God for all the good things God has done for us. The psalmist says, “The upright see and
rejoice but all the wicked shut their mouths. Let the one who is wise heed
these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” Let us pray. We thank you Lord God for all your good and
loving care for us. May we go and do
likewise to the least of your children. Amen.

The Soap Opera Continues...

And so the soap opera continues. Rev. Amber told us last week about Jacob who tricked his blind, old, father, Isaac, into giving him his brother’s blessing and inheritance. He did this by disguising his smooth body with a fur robe to imitate his brother’s hairy body. And his mother, Rebecca, was coaching him from the sidelines. Now we find that Jacob himself has fallen in love with the daughter of a man named Laban, a distant cousin. Her name is Rachel and she is the younger sister of Leah. Jacob wants Rachel for his wife and is willing to strike a bargain of labor in Laban’s fields for seven years to win his bride. After the seven years are up, the trickster is himself tricked – Laban dresses up the older daughter, Leah, as the bride and marries her to Jacob instead of Rachel. Jacob is, of course, outraged and demands to know what Laban is up to – and Laban says that they never marry off the second daughter before the first. You think he might have mentioned that seven years ago! So Jacob works seven more years for the beloved Rachel and so they were also married, both sisters to the same husband. Trouble and rivalry ensue. As the story continues, Rachel and Jacob have one son, named Joseph while Leah bore Jacob at least six sons and several daughters. We also remember the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, and how he came to be sold into slavery by his jealous half brothers. Yet he lived to be the most important right-hand man to the Pharaoh in Egypt. From the unethical trickery of Jacob and his father-in-law came the saving grace of Joseph’s mystical intelligence and power. From small, petty, even evil acts, God created the power and grace of Joseph, who saved his family and people from starvation. God redeems the past and creates a future for God’s people.
In our Gospel for today, Jesus gives eight examples of God doing something surprising and redemptive: the tiny mustard seed becomes a tree large enough to shield and house many birds; the parable of the wheat and the weeds is explained to the disciples; the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a treasure hidden in a field that is discovered by someone who hides the treasure and then purchases the field with joy; a merchant finds a pearl of such perfection and beauty that he sells everything he has and buys it; a large catch of fish is hauled in and separated into good and bad - Jesus even adds that this is what the angels will do at the end of the age to the evil and righteous! Jesus asks if the disciples understand and they say yes. And he adds, as the eighth parable, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the mistress of a household who brings out of her treasure what is new and what is old.” This statement doesn’t seem to go with the other parables, does it? “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the mistress of a household who brings out of her treasure what is new and what is old.”
I think Paul gives us three clues in Romans that might enlighten the statement about the scribe and her treasure. Paul identifies three promises or maybe treasures that God has given us in this reading from Romans. The first is the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit with us: ” 26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” The second promise is the gift of God’s gracious blessing to those who love him: “28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose”. And then there is the third promise, the confidence Paul has in the unfailing presence of God in our lives – that God will not abandon God’s people ever. And he lists all the things that cannot and will not separate us from God. Not in the past, not in the future. Like Jacob and Joseph, like the scribe who brings out of her treasure to the Kingdom that which is old and that which is new, is God being faithful and present to his people old and new – past, present and future. God redeems the past and creates a future for God’s people.


For I am convinced
That neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities
Things present or things to come
Nor powers
Nor life nor death
Nor any other created thing
Will be able to separate us from the love of God
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many historians have observed that Jesus might have been identified as Christ, but Paul was the founder of Christianity. And this verse put to song could have been their theme song. Paul tells us today of his surety that even though it seems like things are not always going so well for the Early Christians, nothing will separate them or us from God’s unfailing love, no matter how perfect or imperfect we are. The story of the early centuries of Christianity is long, bloody and complicated - a seed of love and compassion planted among the first followers of Jesus grew in many directions and took various forms even from the beginning. Our namesake town, Antioch, was a chief center of early Christianity. Although the Romans had claimed it as one of their capitals earlier in the 1st century, the city had a large population of Jewish origin and attracted the earliest missionaries. Antioch is said to have been evangelized by Peter first and then later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul's first missionary journey. The converts in Antioch were the first to be called Christians. They were just one small branch of the large tree growing from the trunk and roots which were Jesus. Things did not always go smoothly in Antioch, there were varying opinions on many details of belief and doctrine. They fought, they tried to exclude those with opposing beliefs. They disagreed bitterly about including the gentiles in their congregations and what would be required for them to join. In the readings from Morning Prayer this week we have been following some of these accounts in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Saturday’s reading was about a letter the folks in Jerusalem sent to the congregation in Antioch, encouraging them to include the gentiles and their culture in the Christian Way, sending out Paul and Barnabus for on-site support. Acts 15:“22Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, 23with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, 25we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.” The early Christian congregations were not without a great deal of conflict, but they believed that nothing could separate them from the love of God, and they encouraged each other and lived, loved, suffered and argued together. And the small seed that was the deep compassion of Christ grew to a large tree, large enough to shade the whole earth. God redeems the past and creates a future for God’s people.
For I am convinced
That neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities
Things present or things to come
Nor powers
Nor life nor death
Nor any other created thing
Will be able to separate us from the love of God
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.

Obedience

Obedience and Righteousness

There are two words in our readings for today that stuck in my head – obedience and righteousness. In our contemporary culture both of these words can have negative connotations, as self-determination and freedom of will are held in high regard in our society. Being obedient is accepting one’s submission to authority. Which can be negative or positive depending on the source of the authority. According to Roget’s Thesaurus some synonyms for obedience are: accordance, acquiescence, agreement, compliance, conformability, conformity, deference, docility, duteousness, dutifulness, duty, manageability, meekness, observance, orderliness, quietness, respect, reverence, servility, submission, subservience, tameness, tractability, willingness. We sometimes see traits like tractability and docility as signs of weakness or giving up or even depression.
Obedience. In Genesis God says to Abraham “…by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” Abraham obeyed God by his submission to God’s authority over him. He accepted and trusted God’s authority over him. He was obedient even to the very point of sacrificing his beloved long-awaited son Isaac. The antonyms or opposite of obedience are rebellion, bad behavior, disobedience, mischief, mutiny, and misbehavior. These are also some of the milder synonyms for the word sin. Is sin the opposite of obedience? I always think of sin as what stands between me and God – whatever actions, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs or feelings I have that prevent me from moving closer and closer to a full life in the Spirit. In the verses before our Gospel for today, Jesus says to his followers, “Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”. A person can’t wait until he or she is free of the cross, the weight of our own sin, to follow Jesus with obedience and submission. We carry our own cross for the sake of love for Jesus. My cross is not my obedience to Jesus Christ. My cross is my own sin; whatever separates me from God. So it’s confession time. I find that my pride is one of the feelings that stands between me and God. Part of being obedient to God for me is not standing on my pride – oh so hard to do. Especially at work when my expertise is challenged, I will argue for my stand, for my knowledge and skill, on behalf of my staff, AND I will argue because I NEED to be RIGHT!!! And sometimes God’s way lives on the other side of my need to be right. Pride goeth before a fall; I know it well. My second confession is that I also feel self-righteous sometimes about being a rebel. The diaconate can attract folks who feel called to the fringe of society, as our call is to serve the poor, hungry, imprisoned, lonely, aged, sick and all others who stand outside the community. Jesus was considered a rebel or insurgent for taking this kind of stand so I can feel a certain amount of self-righteousness about my call to the marginalized. But this very stance about my sense of my own call is a sin for me. My potential self-righteous attitude about taking care of the poor can undermine any good that may come. It is a sin that stands between me and true life in God. Pride and self-righteousness are my cross to take up and carry on the journey to full life in Christ.
What about the other word that stuck in my head this week? Righteousness. I just used it negatively as self-righteousness. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, says “thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Having once been a slave of sin, that is, submissive to my own pride, entrapped by my own self-righteousness, now I, by the grace of God, strive to become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which I was entrusted through my baptism – the teaching of Jesus. And that striving to be set free from sin by Jesus’ teaching, have become a slave of righteousness. Not a possessor of righteousness, but a slave to righteousness. Now when I looked up righteousness in the Thesaurus it was defined as devotion to a sinless life. Wikipedia says that righteousness is an attribute that implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading a life that is pleasing to God. God “reckoned” Abraham’s faithful obedience to God as righteousness. And God asks the same slavery to right action and faith from us. Jesus says, in the verse just before our reading today in Matthew, that he who loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find it – giving up our lives we have justified ourselves and striving for a life justified by God.Jesus says, whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of Jesus will receive the reward of the righteous… And that reward is being justified by God in our obedience. Sounds hard to me. And it is hard. For me it means not going to the stubborn place of pride when I’m challenged, but trusting that God will find a way to make things work. And it means not always having to be right, to be willing to listen to authority, not always having rebelliousness as my response to authority. Living in awareness of these attributes has become spiritual practice for me. It’s not easy for me. But when I can listen and not react, empty myself and not be full of pride, let go of my need to always be right - I feel something new, there is a new voice in my heart, and I know God is with me.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him. Grant, Lord God, to all who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, that as we strive to put away the old life of sin, so may we be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and live in righteousness and true holiness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Genesis 22:1

Romans 6:12

Matthew 10:40