The Vessels of the Lord

Create in me a clean heart O God And renew a right Spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation And uphold me with your free Spirit. Amen. (Psalm 51:10-12) Kind David was a mighty warrior, highly regarded for his love and devotion to God and He has been praised down the centuries for writing 72 of the Psalms. He lived approximately from 1040 to 970 BCE, that is, before the Current Era. That makes his body of work, the Psalms, more than three thousand years old. The prayer I read is from one of King David’s Psalms, Psalm 51, which I learned as a little girl in the Lutheran Church. We sang it every Sunday then and the complete Psalm is one of my favorites. David is begging God to forgive him for doing something immoral, unethical and downright humanly unforgiveable. He writes: 1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions 2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. 6You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart 7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities (end) And then he adds the verses I read above, Create in me a Clean Heart…. We know David as the young shepherd, the slayer of Goliath, the loving friend of Jonathan, David the National Hero, David the spiritual heir of Samuel and protector of the Arc of the Covenant. We know him as David, the uniter of The Jewish Kingdom, joining Judah and Israel into one nation. We know David as a brave and mighty Warrior, depending on God to lead him into battle. And we know the very human David to be an adulterer and killer. When David had been anointed King, one day he was looking out from his room overlooking the other dwellings nearby. Until this time David was in good favor with God and won all his battles. Then as he looked over his kingdom, he saw from his roof, Bathsheba, bathing herself. She was very beautiful. He sent for her and loved her and she became pregnant. David arranged for her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to be killed in battle so Bathsheba would be free to be with David. Psalm 51 is David’s prayer to God that he be forgiven for his dreadful sin. When we say the words of Psalm 51 we ask that same forgiveness for our brokenness. The same words David wrote 3000 years ago. Bathsheba mourned deeply for her husband, and she bore David a son. This first child of David and Bathsheba died. Then had another baby and he was named Solomon, who became a wise and noble king of Israel. David was a broken vessel of the Lord – he killed many men in battle and he had killed a good and loyal soldier of his own army whose wife he coveted. He had, as they say, blood on his hands. What then makes David worthy to be the one who heads the lineage that leads to Jesus? It is because David takes responsibility for his sin and separation from God in asking for Uriah’s death and taking Uriah’s beloved wife. David also repents in great humility and begs for God to give him a clean heart and not take the Holy Spirit away from him. Jesus, the ultimate redeemer of the world thus descends from the lineage of David – and becomes the Messiah, the Son of David. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul also talks about his experience of the greatness of the glory of God and his awareness of his own weakness. Paul has a vision or dream which is a revelation of paradise. He saw, “Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat." And he believes as a consequence, God has given him a physical flaw, to keep him from boasting about his own powers of visio. This makes life difficult for Paul - enough for him to beg God to remove this flaw, but God says to Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." And Paul goes on to say – “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Counter-intuitive, isn’t it? In our weakness God creates perfect power. How does that work? A few weeks ago the Bishop and Deacons of the Diocese of California got together for our annual meeting. We talked about several different things, but during one part of the conversation the Bishop said, and I am paraphrasing, “We, as human beings, are only as whole as our deepest secret”. In the same way a vase is only as water worthy as its tiniest most hidden crack. A knitted cap is only as strong as its smallest slipped stitch because it is in peril of unraveling. And we, being broken and guilty, vessels of the Lord, are made whole again and powerful by the grace of God. We understand and identify with other people because of our brokenness. We can reach out to God in our misery because we are broken. We can ask for help and comfort because we are broken. Arrogance and pride will not get us to the place of power by the Grace of God because there is no chink in the wall, no hole in the lampshade, no crack in the vase to let the light in. The place of our deepest secrets, worst fears, and greatest humiliation is the opening for God to get in when we are repentant and humble before God. Like David was. Like Paul was: aware of our ability to be separated from God by our own doing. Then when we KNOW that we can sin in this way and repent and come back to God we are stronger than we were before. God is working in us through those faults to make us perfect and powerful in his image so we can go out and serve those who he loves, the marginalized, the poor, the sick and those in prison: who are suffering from weaknesses of every kind. We can help them because we know the power of God to heal us and set us back on our feet. That is the hope of the Resurrection, for our ultimate wholeness in the Kingdom of God, giving us the power to serve God’s people. Now let’s turn to the Gospel for today. At first Jesus visits his hometown and the people are a little taken aback by his purported powers of healing and they didn’t believe in him. “And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." So his power is powerless when they don’t accept what is right in front of them and he couldn’t do any deeds of power there. The next part of the Gospel today shows Jesus sending out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal the sick. He gave some warning about places where they will not be accepted and told them to shake off the dust from their feet there and continue on. “So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Jesus gave them his own power over unclean spirits and they did amazing and miraculous work in his name. Now we know that the disciples were not kings like David or even wealthy people or even priests like Samuel. One was a tax collector, others were fishermen, most of them were probably illiterate in their own language, and they struggled with their own human frailties and disbelief. They were most certainly not perfect people in any sense. I imagine one or two had a deep dark secret that left them feeling broken. Jesus shined his light and power through the broken spots in them and gave them the strength and will to go out into the streets and proclaim the Kingdom of God and heal all who repented of whatever was standing between them and God. And this is our call from God as well: that we should love our neighbors and serve our neighbors and heal our neighbors just as God has loved and served and healed us in our weakness by the Power through the Grace of God. By the power of God our weakness has been and will be made perfect through service to Our Lord and those whom he loves. Amen.

The Great Vigil of Easter

     Christ is Risen!

     Tonight is a holy and blessed night!  We have heard the ancient stories of Creation, the Great Flood, and the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt.  We heard how God loves this world and all the creatures God made to live in it.   We heard how God handed us the keys to this world and gave it into our care for nurturing.  In the story of the Flood God promises us that never again will the flood come to destroy all of creation. God sets his glorious bow, the rainbow we see after storms when the sun shines through the raindrops, and renews his covenant with us, to love us and protect us. And then we hear the story of the Israelites, sold into slavery in Egypt, their children saved from death at the Passover of the Lord, who walked behind Moses into the desert to find the promised land.  God walked that long journey with them.  Sometimes the people were faithful to God, and sometimes they gave up and complained about the troubles God and Moses had brought on them.  They were not always grateful.  Moses didn’t make it to the other side of the river, but eventually they came home to the Promised Land.   God creates us, recreates us and brings us home. 

     Tonight is a holy and blessed night! We had our dear Jesus with us here on earth for a very short time.  He loved us, showed us how to love others, gave us our marching orders and sent us out in the power of his grace and love to heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, comforted those who are mourning, befriend the lonely, care for the afflicted. And in doing these acts of compassion, Jesus encountered elements of the established powers of various kinds who were threatened by his love and the power it had to change the lives of ordinary people.  Because he so threatened the powers that be our Lord Jesus Christ was cruelly and unfairly crucified and left to die on the cross. We are the witnesses at the cross, loving him, fearing for our lives, dying with him in his suffering and shame. We are his mother, Mary, and the other Marys, watching and praying as he suffers and dies.  We are Peter and the other disciples, hiding out to see what would happen next. One can only imagine the chaos that followed Jesus’ execution.  The disciples were confused and scared - even faithful Peter lied three times denying that he knew and followed Jesus. Jesus had said he would rise again but at this moment none of them thought of that promise. It was chaos. Joseph of Arimathea, a good and righteous man, asked for Jesus’ body and laid it in his own newly-made grave, a cave in the hillside. It was securely closed with a very large stone, almost impossible to move. The women who had witnessed Jesus’ death from the foot of the cross had gone elsewhere to gather and mourn.  Then in the morning they brought the spices and other items they needed to prepare the body for eternal rest when the story unfolded as we just heard in the Gospel reading. The women approached the grave with what we can imagine was some fear and worry – in other versions of this gospel they wonder how they will move the stone, what they will find, even if they will be allowed to approach.  So as they come on the site imagine how they felt when the tomb was open, the incredibly heavy stone rolled away and Jesus gone.  They must have looked and looked again – did someone steal away his body? So in the middle of this confusing and fearful scene two men appear in “dazzling” clothes. In submission the women bow their heads to the ground, did they fear that they, too would be killed in this moment.  We can only imagine. Instead they received a kind of scolding and a remembrance: , "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Yes, then they remembered how Jesus said he would rise again, but they hadn’t understood.  Now there was some hope to cling to in these dark days.  Jesus wasn’t gone, Jesus’ body hadn’t been stolen from the tomb, but raised up, still present in the world.  They ran back to tell the other disciples, but their story seemed so impossible that they were dismissed, except for Peter.  He went to see for himself and found all as the women had said, the open tomb, the empty place where Jesus lay, the rumpled clot hs that had been placed over him.  And then he remembered Jesus’ promise, too.

     Tonight is a Holy and Blessed Night!  We have seen the flame of God’s love for us and all creation and followed it into this sanctuary.  We remember Jesus’ love for all people and especially those sick, in prison, suffering, mourning, dying, without hope, without family, alone. How will we recognize the risen Christ among us?  We know he is not dead, you can’t look for a grave and a headstone that says Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, on it.  You won’t find it.  Christ is risen and lives among us, around us and IN US! In the story of the women returning to the tomb in the Gospel according to Mark, the author ends with this statement “And afterward (that is after he was risen) Jesus himself sent out through them (the disciples) from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation”.  Now we must go and do the same: Jesus’ work of bringing compassion and care to those who suffer. In a few minutes we will renew our baptismal vows – let’s pay careful attention to the questions we are asked and promise to fulfill. They are: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?  With God’s help , Jesus’ guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will.

Christ is Risen!

      

    

Lepers and Demons

Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Damascus, was a leper. He was
advised to seek out Elisha, the disciple of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, who bade
him wash seven times in the river Jordan in order to be cured. Naaman did so, in
spite of misgivings, and "his flesh was restored as a little child's" (II Kings
5:1-19). As a reward Naaman offered Elisha many gifts, which the latter refused,
explaining that the cure had come only from Heaven.

“The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

In the first six weeks
of this new calendar year in the Liturgical Season of Epiphany we have been
reading from the Gospel of Mark. In Mark
we find a sense of – the urgency of Jesus’ message and the need to spread the
Good News and promote the Kingdom of Heaven for God’s children. Jesus tells us
and shows us what the kingdom of Heaven is like through his words and
deeds. Starting at the last Sunday in
Advent we heard John the Baptist’s declaration that he, John, was only
the precursor, someone great and powerful was coming. The first Sunday of Epiphany is Jesus’
baptism in the Jordan and God’s announcement that Jesus is his Beloved Son and
that all should listen to him. This sets the stage for the reading in the weeks
to come from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament about the coming of
the Kingdom and God’s call to God’s people to service. The second Sunday of
Epiphany we read about Samuel in the Hebrew Scripture readings: He is a young
priest-in-training, living in the temple.
One night he keeps waking up his mentor, Eli, who was also sleeping in
the temple. Samuel thinks he hears Eli calling him several times in the night
until Eli realizes that it is not Samuel’s imagination, but God calling to
Samuel. So finally Samuel listens and he
hears God speak to him. And he becomes a trustworthy prophet of the Lord. In
the same group of readings Jesus sees Nathaniel standing under a fig tree and
declares him to be an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel says,
where did you get to know me? And Jesus promises him that he will do more than
see Nathaniel, he will show Nathaniel the heavens opening and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. In these readings we begin to see
the theme of God calling and people hearing; God creating servants and servants
obeying God’s call to service, all the time being assured that God knows each
of us and in that knowing, calls to us, with the promise of the Kingdom of
Heaven in the background.
On Epiphany 3 we heard
the story of Jonah serving God by going to Nineveh and asking the people, great
and small, to repent of their sinful ways, to put on sackcloth and to
fast. And so surprisingly they did and
they were saved from the calamity that Jonah had warned them about, which God
had threatened. God called to his
servant and his servant Jonah reached out to the people in response and in the
end, everyone was saved from impending calamity. Meanwhile, back in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus
is gathering up his disciples and preparing for his ministry here on earth: making
fishers of people.
Two Sundays ago,
Epiphany 4, we met our first demon, also known as an unclean spirit, in Mark’s
Gospel. They were in the synagogue on the Sabbath and an unclean spirit cried
out that he knew who Jesus was “the Holy One of God” and Jesus rebuked
him. Now I looked up the word “rebuke”
because I wasn’t sure of its origins. In
the present era rebuke comes from a French word that means “chop down”. The translators of the Gospel intended to
imply that Jesus “chopped down” the demon – he didn’t just reprimand the demon
or ask him to step out, he didn’t criticize or admonish the demon. He chopped it down. The demons want Jesus to be quiet and Jesus
wants them gone. Of course this casting out of the unclean spirit makes Jesus
newsworthy and the story spreads throughout Galilee.
Last week we visited
Simon, one of the disciples, at home with his mother-in-law and family and some
other disciples. Jesus came there right after Synagogue and AT ONCE they told
him that the mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. “He came and lifted her up. Then the fever
left her and she began to serve them.”
Jesus healing touch directly led to her service. She didn’t linger in bed and revive herself
with some breakfast and tea. She didn’t
hesitate when she was healed of what was making her ill. She got up and starting serving “them”. Jesus heals the servant, and the servant begins
to serve.
Now today in our
readings we come to the hardest medical cases – those folks who suffer from
leprosy. Let’s move into the present day
for a moment to see how the stigma of leprosy is affecting us even today. I
have been watching a show called “House” on Netflix. Each week it features a narrative
about a person just going about their lives who is suddenly stricken with a
strange and hard to diagnose illness; which usually includes throwing up large
quantities of blood. I really like the
part where they show what is happening inside the person – like a tour ride
into their insides. I have been studying
biology, anatomy and physiology in preparation for acquiring a license as a
RD. So I am very interested when I
recognize the medical terminology on House and can figure out what they are
actually talking about. A while back I
was watching a show in the series about Hansen’s disease. House and the other doctors
discussed the symptoms of sores on the skin, breathing problems, trouble
controlling the legs and arms and eventual deformity of the fingers and toes,
as the cartilage was absorbed into the body. They called it Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s is known as Leprosy – named after
the doctor who discovered the source of this terrible infection. Leprosy is
very serious and deforming but it does not cause arms and legs to fall off
contrary to popular belief. It does cause terrible sores on the skin and damage
to the nerves. Leprosy is progressive if left untreated and the body’s natural
defenses are destroyed by the bacteria that have invaded it. Recent research suggests that there is a
defect in an individual’s immunity that causes susceptibility to Hansen's
disease. Less than ten percent of the world's population is capable of
acquiring the disease.[
Today
there is a global protocol for treating leprosy with various antibiotics, but
many still suffer because of late diagnoses and inadequate access to
healthcare. Leprosy has been around for
4000 years that we know of, and it has been only in the past century that there
was any way to treat it. Lepers have been segregated throughout history to
prevent the disease from spreading, and they lived short and miserable lives at
the mercy of an unknown bacteria. People
who had leprosy were severely stigmatized in the world of Bible times and are
still stigmatized around the world, frequently shunned from normal society.
Now the very interesting
thing about our Hebrew Scripture reading from the Second Book of Kings is that
Namaan, a mighty warrior, has leprosy.
Perhaps because of his status or power he doesn’t seem to be stigmatized
or segregated from the rest of the society.
Nevertheless, a servant girl, captured from Israel, knows of prophet Elisha
back home, who might be able to cure Namaan’s illness. So Namaan’s mentor, the king of Aram, heard
about the prophet who might be able to cure his beloved warrior in Israel and
so he sent Namaan and some servants off to the King of Israel for
treatment. The king of Israel doesn’t
seem to know anything about this cure and tears his clothes in frustration. He
finally finds the person who can help Namaan and Elisha tells Namaan to go wash
in the Jordan seven times be clean.
Namaan takes this badly, finding the prescription insultingly easy and
was set to go home when his servants convinced him it would be simple enough to
wash in the Jordan and why not give it a try?
So Namaan washed and was cured, clean and restored to the flesh of a
young boy. The servants in this story
are the catalysts for the healing power of God.
A young servant girl, captive from the land of Israel tells Namaan’s
wife about Elisha. When Namaan is about
to give up because he belittles the treatment offered the servants intervene to
push him on to try at least. God’s servant Elisha provides the healing
connection. God speaks to God’s servants
and guides them to healing action in the world.
And now to Jesus and
today’s Gospel. A leper comes to Jesus
(which is pretty brave, considering that lepers were required to stay away from
other people in Jesus’ time) and the leper humbly kneeled. Jesus is filled with
pity and compassion and reaches out and actually touches the man. Jesus touched
his deformed and sore ridden skin. And IMMEDIATELY the man was made clean.
IMMEDIATELY. How long did this
unfortunate man wait to hear the healing words and feel the healing touch? We can’t even imagine what it meant to him
and to his family. Jesus’ compassion
leads to healing service of a man who would be bitterly shunned by others.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
Today we still have
folks who suffer from leprosy in our world.
We don’t hear much talk about demons or unclean spirits, but they exist
now as well. The demons of today are the
same as the demons of yesterday – the powers opposed to God’s will still curse
the efforts of humane and loving people.
The powers opposed to God’s will disparage those who try to do good, sow
hate, feed on jealousy, greed and fear.
They split apart rather than build up.
The forces in the world on the side of God’s will and living in the
Kingdom of Heaven bless and do not curse, encourage all to a better life,
promote love, compassion and charity, draw all together in generosity. David Lose, a professor at Luther Seminary in
Minnesota says that Jesus “opposes the forces of evil which would rob the
children of God of all that God hopes and intends for us”. We listen to God’s
call to his servants and in healing the world we find our own healing.
On Sunday afternoons I
attend the worship service of Sacred Space Oakland, where a group of East Bay
Episcopalians meet to serve the people of a poor community, where people with
all kinds of illnesses – mental and physical, live separately from the rest of
the city. Many of them living on the street.
Stigmatized and shunned, maybe forgotten, in need and yet living, loving
and sharing with one another, supporting each other the best they can. One of the women in the Sacred Space last
Sunday was very drunk. Drunk and angry and
sick, too. This woman suffers from an
unclean spirit – the forces that oppose healthcare for the poor, the forces
that oppose housing and food for those who cannot provide for themselves. The
forces that degrade and deride those who are in extreme poverty or suffering
from addiction – blaming them for their own unfortunate circumstances. Tearing
down instead of building up. This drunken, sick and angry woman suffered a
seizure last Sunday afternoon in the Sacred Space and our Deacon John held her
while the fire truck and ambulance came.
He touched her and brought the healing forces of modern medicine to her –
I don’t know how it all turned out, but I do know that John and others like him
care. God has spoken to God’s people and
God’s servants will answer the call with action in the world to touch and heal,
build up and draw together God’s people so that all of God’s children can have
the life in the Kingdom of Heaven which God intends for us all.
“The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
Amen.
Mark 1:40-45
2 Kings 5:1-14

Collect for Peace in the technology we use

O God, thank you for
new discoveries and technologies that strengthen our relationship with you by
providing universal access in Word, song, art and prayer. Help us to use our
Daily Office Facebook group, blogs and other Internet tools and applications to
glorify you and carry out your mission of justice, healing and peace, in Jesus’
name. Amen. (Josh Thomas, author)

The Present Form of this World is Passing Away.

Messiah
Posted: 18
Jan 2012 02:00 AM PST
Like Peter, we believe that Jesus is the promised one of God who
will make real and present for us the mystery of God’s reign. What sets us
apart as Christians is that we believe with Peter that Jesus is not simply an
itinerant preacher and miracle worker or even a prophet but that he is himself
“Emmanuel” — “God with us.”
–Br. James Koester
Society of Saint
John the Evangelist

How many of you enjoy jigsaw
puzzles, crossword puzzles, Scrabble or something similar? I am hooked on a
Word with Friends game that I have been playing with one of my buddies for
several months! As challenging and frustrating as a puzzle can be there are a
lot of gratifying moments along the way to completion – AHA! A piece that had
been escaping your eyes falls right into place and another part of the puzzle
is revealed. In cartoons we see a light bulb over the head of a character who
has a sudden insightful thought – AHA! Or why didn’t I see that before? What was so confusing is suddenly lighted up
– AHA! The meaning is revealed. People
have been known to exclaim Eureka! upon suddenly finding or discovering
something, like Archimedes and his discovery of the displacement of water or
like the 49er miners finding gold in California. Eureka! It’s a city in California and it is
also our state motto – the only state motto with an exclamation point in it. The
word we use for communion is Eucharist – the “EU” coming from the same Greek
root as the first two letters in Eureka – meaning good or well or OH! The
moment of discovery. This AHA! moment is what Epiphany is all about. In popular usage the meaning of epiphany is
more linked with a sudden revelation than it is with the effort that went into
creating that moment of discovery. But
the three wise men didn’t suddenly appear at Jesus’ door – an accidental
discovery. No, indeed they spent a long
time searching for Jesus, faithfully and diligently following the star to the
place where Jesus lay. Or maybe by the time
they got there he was running around making Mary crazy. In any case – the epiphany of God’s
Incarnation in the Human Being, Jesus, was not sudden or unexpected or in any
way spontaneous. God intentionally sent
his son, “The Word” who had existed from the beginning, into the world to show us, reveal to us, give us the
AHA! Moment of realization of who God really is, Jesus: the exact and perfect
image of God.
Last week Rev. Leslie spoke to
us about how important it is for human beings to be appropriately and lovingly
mirrored by their parents and caregivers. And that God sees us and mirrors us
in human form in Jesus – who is perfectly God and perfectly human. Rev. Leslie
also talked about how we see and mirror others in our world, in our daily
encounters. If we are crabby and
impatient then we mirror that to those around us. And if we see others in context of their
circumstances and mirror them with loving kindness then the reality of their
lives can be revealed to us. Then we get the AHA! moment of knowing the others
to be like ourselves and like God. And the possibility of loving them with the
same passion and compassion with which God loves us is open to us. God sees us for who we are and mirrors back
boundless unconditional love. What happens then, when we see the other the way
God sees us? What happens when we see “the other” with boundless love as God’s
precious child?
In our Gospel today Simon, Andrew, Zebedee
and John are going about their daily work – fishing with their families and
co-workers, making a living, supporting their loved ones. And along comes Jesus – who is a
charismatically powerful man. So powerful
is his love and kindness that grown men, responsible for the livelihood of many
others, walk away from their jobs and take up lives accompanying this itinerant
preacher. “As he
went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who
were in their boat mending the nets. 20Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee
in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.” Immediately! AHA! There he is – the one we have been seeking
for centuries! Not an impulsive moment of irresponsibility, but a moment God
has had in the works forever. I can just imagine Zebedee’s father and the hired
men in the boat – where are you going? Come back, there is work to do! His sons
have had the AHA! moment of the loving call of Christ and there is no turning
back. Jesus has called them over and
beyond the love of father and mother, wife and children. And off they go. We don’t know if they went back to explain,
or make amends, or arrange support. We
only know that the working out of God’s great plan for mankind was in that
moment clear to the disciples who were called from the sea – so clear that they
dropped everything, everyone, the life they knew and followed him. Amazing.

Imagine for a moment that Jesus is visibly present here at St. Georges’.
He stands among us and we see him for who he really is – all God, all
human. The visible form of the invisible
God. What would that be like? It’s hard
to imagine the human Jesus sitting here in this pew. I have known a person who
have waited all her life for a vision of the living Christ to come to her – and
had not seen him and was bitterly disappointed.
The person I am thinking of wanted to SEE GOD and to be seen by God and
she wanted a sign, a vision, something concrete that let her know that God
loved her beyond any doubt, had not forgotten her. She felt forgotten and left behind because
she was dying of breast cancer and was convinced that God didn’t love her
anymore. She was my first hospice
patient and I was such a novice, I didn’t know how to address her concern and
so I was silent. Week after week she
told me how God had abandoned her because she wasn’t good enough. And I listened. I hurt for her and wanted to comfort her but
the evidence of God’s love that she craved had to be tangible and I was
unpracticed enough not to know what to say.
Until the day I had my Eureka! Ah! moment. She had asked me some questions about how I
became a hospice chaplain and why I did it.
She accused me of self-righteousness and pitying others who were dying
like she was. I felt hurt by what she
said and I started to cry. And then the words came out – God sent me to you,
there is no other way I could have found you.
We never would have met if God hadn’t called me to ministry in hospice –
I am the evidence that God loves you and I keep coming here because God loves
you and I love you too. She was shocked
into silence and became compassionate and loving toward me and patted my hair. We sat in silence for a while each in our own
AHA! moment. . And she reflected back to
me all the love God showered on her in that moment – once she opened her heart
to receive it. I see how it could have been different she said then. I regret
all the time I wasted being angry. But
it was part of the process – the leading up to her awareness that Christ is an
icon of God and that we are all icons of Christ for each other. Around us in
this church are icons of Christ, and we are all called now, immediately, in
this moment to turn and follow Jesus’ call to join him on the way. We don’t
know where we are going – it is an adventure! And this adventure of compassion
is what we were made for – to be Christ for each other and all the others in
the world with whom we come in contact.
May it be so.

Amen.

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.