Blessing for the New Year

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

May God put his name on us this year and all the years to come and bless us as his own.

Amen.

Transformed Advent 2 December 6, 2009

Epistle: Philippians 1:1-11
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Our Gospel today is about power: the power of God to transform the even the landscape under our feet; power with the strength of an earthquake. The words from Isaiah are like old friends - Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Familiar and poetic words spoken by John the Baptist as he proclaims the coming of the salvation of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have heard them every Advent season and they are our old friends. What we don’t often hear when we listen to these words is the extreme radical transformation that they contain – a reordering of the Way of World and our hearts in earthquake-scale language. Think of what the landscape would look like if all the valleys of the bay area were filled in – Mill Valley, Grass Valley, Scotts Valley, Portola Valley, Castro Valley, The Valley of the Sun, the Valley of the Moon – What kind of power would it take to make that happen? Isaiah also says when Salvation comes the mountains and hills will be made low – picture Mount Diablo, Mount Tamalpais, Mission Peak, Mount Hamilton, the Berkeley Hills and San Leandro Hills – all made low by the kind of strength our savior brings: the force of a very powerful earthquake, indeed. That is the scale of transformation that John is announcing to the world to prepare the people for Jesus’ coming. A power so strong that everything in the landscape of our lives changes.

In this reading Luke has also gone to some lengths to describe the political and historical context of John’s proclamations. Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip and Lysanias were rulers in the region, one of whom later had John executed and another who later presided over Jesus’ crucifixion. Annas and Caiaphas were important religious figures. By contrast, John’s own father, Zechariah, was a small town priest and John himself was living in the wilderness in a rather rough state. Though it seems counterintuitive for such a world-changing event, this is the perfect setting for the prophecy – a cry out of the empty wilderness where something completely new is discovered and proclaimed – a cry is heard in the wilderness where the Word of God has come to John and he must leave his hermit’s home and come into the civilized world to advise the people to Repent of their sins and be baptized – to prepare themselves for something greater that their lives are becoming. The Word of God comes to someone like John who is outside, way outside, the political and religious hierarchy, someone not quite socially acceptable, a fellow who might in our day be labeled as crazy or psychotic, delusional. The Jewish people, hungry for change and hope, flock to John, as their lives are intolerably bound to the hated Roman oppressors. They are looking for a Savior to change the political landscape. But John preaches about a transformation to the interior landscape: prepare, repent and your faith will save you. The kind of repentance John advises is not like being sorry for having said something to hurt someone else’s’ feelings. The Repentance John is talking about is a complete turning away from an old way of being to a new way of looking at life – and he points to Jesus as the one who will help us make this transformation.

John stands in a pivotal moment in history – he is the last of the prophets in the style of the Old Testament. John’s story ends the religious chapter of the rule of law and proclamations of the prophets and ushers in the Age of Redemption and Salvation through Christ Jesus: the rule of love and compassion. Today we are looking back at that moment in time knowing that in our own lives we must prepare for the radical transformation that the coming of Christ represents to us as well. We, too, live in a world structured around political, economic and social systems that create mountains and valleys of justice and injustice. Like the world Jesus was born into we live in a time when some people have a lot more money and power than others – some have more food than they can eat and others literally starve. We have not seen the complete fulfillment of John’s prophecy about Jesus here on earth yet, have we?
Or have we?
Let’s look back to the first chapter of Luke, where he describes Mary’s reaction to the news that she would have a very special baby, where we hear more very familiar and beautiful words which we know as the Magnificat:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our forebears, * to Abraham and Sarah and their children for ever.

What strikes me powerfully about these words is that they are in the present tense. Mary does not say Jesus will cast down the mighty, or will fill the hungry, or will come to the help of Israel as Isaiah says– but that he HAS. In Jesus God has remembered his promise of mercy; he has come to Israel’s help; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones. All that was promised by the prophets is already accomplished by the embryonic presence of Christ in the world. And what I feel and know when I read Mary’s words are that we are also to be SURE that all God’s promises have been fulfilled for us, just because Jesus IS. We live in a world where God’s promises are fulfilled, even though the evidence is often to the contrary. What can this all mean? How are we to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ Child? What kind of transformation are we preparing for?
If we believe what John the Baptist and Isaiah say, it is nothing less than a mighty earthquake in power, something to change the landscape of our souls. How hard is that when all around we see poverty, corruption, injustice and violence? How can it be that the fulfillment of the promises of prophets are here today? John the Baptist says that if you can’t imagine a future different than the life you have now you are a prisoner of the present. John says that repentance, that is Repentance with a capital R, meaning a change of paradigm or a transformation in the way we see the world around us; this repentance will release the power to transform – even mountains, hills and valley. The change comes from within – knowing Jesus IS makes us different today. Knowing Jesus IS IN THE WORLD TODAY transforms us, makes the playing field level.
So what is that earthquake strength transformative power? It is the power of love. When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment he said, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.” As simple as that and as powerful: Love your neighbor as yourself.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about being to the mountaintop he was imagining and living into a world different from the racist world he lived in – and his vision transformed the world. Seeing the world through the heart of Jesus is to live in a transformed state of love and compassion where all differences are between people are made level. Instead of being mired in the darkness of fear and frustration at the state of the world, we can be in the mind of Christ now and own in our hearts the power transformation. We can be Christ for the world just as John proclaimed his coming and Mary knew that because Jesus lived in her the transformation of the world had already taken place. Because Jesus lives in us, the world IS transformed. Our preparation for the coming of Christ is to allow the transformation to happen.
When I was at the School for Deacons, I read a book that transformed my idea of the love of Jesus, called Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman. It is a book that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., carried with him on his travels and was an influence in his spiritual life. Thurman says it takes dedication and discipline to overcome – make level – the prejudices and fears that create injustice in our world. Jesus was able to look beyond the outside of a person – whatever they might have done or become in their lives. Jesus looked into the heart of the individual and found someone to love. We remember the Syrophoenician woman who Jesus called a dog – and his own heart was changed by her faith and love – and in compassion he healed her child. We remember the Roman soldier who, although he was of the ruling class, came humbly to Jesus when all his other resources were exhausted, and begged Jesus to heal his dying servant. Jesus saw past the uniform of the oppressor, was impressed by the faith of the soldier, and had mercy on him. Jesus ate with hated tax collectors who survived the oppressors by selling out their own people. Jesus saw past the exterior and loved them all.
That radical and transformative love is what I believe we are called to this Advent. We are called to Repent, that is turn from misunderstanding and fear, and love our neighbors as ourselves. We are called to the deep compassion and love of Christ to look beyond the ethic, social, political, religious and physical differences of the people in the next house, or in on our block, or in Antioch or California or the United States or the world. We are to love one person at a time. This is the discipline and dedication of a life in Christ – to see the other as ourselves and love them. Now that Christ is with us we are called to prepare for our own transformation at the birth of his love in our hearts. Amen.

Lord, we pray for our brother, Justin, who will soon be deployed to Afghanistan in service of our country. We ask you to keep him safe from harm and warm in your love. Be with him in the scary times and help him be there for others in his strength. Remind him daily of the love that surrounds him. Thank you, Lord, for all those who work to keep us safe in our daily lives, and for the freedom of living in a country like ours. Bless all who serve in the military, and bring them home safe to their families. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Lord, today I pray for the families of Bob and Harvey, who have died in the past weeks. Be with them as they mourn and help them through the days without the ones they loved. We know that you are with us always and that you promise the hope that we will see them again. Bless all those who mourn today and give us the courage and love to continue our work in the world until you call us home. Amen.

St. Francis Day Blessings

When Jesus reflected on the sins of the powerful people in his world he prayed these words from Matthew: I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you haven hidden knowledge of the kingdom from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed this to infants; for such was your gracious will. I paraphrased it a little, but this is a prayer from the Gospel lesson for the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, which we are celebrating today, October 4th. The Kingdom of our God of Heaven and earth is revealed to infants: shorthand for the suffering, the poor, the humble, the innocent and those who serve them, and that was Francis of Assisi. He was a deacon in the Catholic Church and the founder of the Order of the Friars Minor commonly called “The Franciscans”. In 1776, the Spanish explorers established a fort at the Golden Gate of California and a founded a mission named for Francis of Assisi. And that is how San Francisco was named. St. Francis was born of wealthy parents, but rebelled against a life of luxury after experiences in the military and of illness himself. He had great compassion for the poor and suffering and so left his wealthy family just as Jesus sent out the disciples without cloak or sandals or money. Francis devoted his life to “Lady Poverty”, as he called his mission, and his followers grew in number all over Europe. He lived a life of strict and absolute poverty to remain close to those whom he served. Francis and his brother friars were notably cheerful and full of song. There are many apocryphal stories about Francis’ relationship with animals – particularly wild animals, and how they loved him, and would willingly come to him. There is even a story about him baptizing a wolf. Francis followed his call from God to a life lived in Christ’s image in solidarity with the forgotten and disadvantaged people in his world. Last week we read the Gospel from Mark where Jesus tells us that it is better to lose a foot or an eye than to cause harm to one of the “little ones”. Which is, in my way of thinking, the least we could do in our call to further God’s Kingdom on earth by serving the marginalized! Then we move on to today’s reading which at first seems to hold two unrelated stories. In the first part the Pharisees seek to know Jesus’ view on divorce, trying to trap him into saying something they view as “illegal” under Mosaic law. In the second part Jesus stops the disciples from shooing the children away from him and blesses them as examples of the rightful inhabitants of the Kingdom of God. If we dig a little deeper under the surface of this reading, we find Jesus addressing the plight of two vulnerable, marginalized groups in the society of his time – women and children. Neither of these social groups had any inherent power or status in the world Jesus lived in. A woman’s sexuality belonged first to her father and then to her husband. Children, a great percentage of whom died before their first birthday, were powerless and at the mercy of their father or other guardians.
Let’s first consider Jesus’ view on divorce in this reading. He dismisses Moses’ certificate of divorce as Moses giving in to the pressures of male society to be rid of an unwanted wife. His concern is for the peril in which this places the woman, who may be, with or without the certificate, left without a place in society – for no woman had a place without a husband, father, or adult son. Unless she can find a new place in her world she will be left with few avenues for support for herself and her minor children. It often meant prostitution, slavery, death, or loss of her children. By standing up for marriage as a life-long commitment, Jesus stands up for the only hope a woman of his day has for a decent life, even if there is no love between her and her husband. In fact, this is not about a love relationship; it is about the life and death of a woman in a male dominated society. The marriage is a social and financial commitment that protects her from the harsher realities of the world. It is not a pretty picture, but Jesus is standing up for women in the reality of the world they lived in. This was the only way to prevent gross exploitation of women at the whim of their husbands.
Over the past 4 or 5 decades in our time, our attitudes toward divorce have altered greatly. When I was growing up I didn’t know anyone who had been divorced and only heard whispered conversations between my mother and grandmother about a cousin who was divorced. It was all shameful and hush hush. Then we had the great sexual revolution of the 1960’s when women started to take their destinies into their own hands, demanded equal pay for equal work (which we still haven’t achieved) and decent childcare, and adequate birth control to free them from the slavery of yearly pregnancies and in some cases their total financial dependence on abusive marital situations. It is still true that women die trying to escape abusive marriages, some women can’t find employment that would allow them to support their children after they have divorced, and that some women around the world still lack any of these rights at all. We have a long way to go – and yet. There is hope. I am very grateful that I was able to escape a financially and emotionally abusive marriage through the avenue of divorce, and grateful that I live in a society where I had a chance to make another life for myself, even if it has been hard at times. I know other women have not had that chance or the opportunities that I have had due to education and social status. Would Jesus have wanted me to stay in a marriage that hurt me and my children? I don’t know what Jesus would say to me today, but I believe that Jesus wanted to save women from exploitation and let’s include exploited men and children in that salvation as well. Marriage as a social institution that supports each person as an individual and protects their rights in their relationship is good, and as a Christian community we must support married people in their desire to remain married, as we promise when we witness marriages in this church.
Now let’s look at Jesus’ attitude toward children. “Let the little ones come to me. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Normally when we hear this admonition from Jesus we think of sweet, open, loving children gathered up in Jesus arms, children of all colors, representing the innocent world at its best. But in light of the section of the gospel on divorce, perhaps this isn’t exactly what Jesus has in mind when he talks about children and the Kingdom. In this reading from Mark, Jesus says, ‘Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it. Maybe in this reading, Jesus doesn’t mean sweetness, or openness, or even innocence. We all love our children, but we also know that they are not all sweetness and light! Perhaps, instead, he is talking about the vulnerability of children, their innocence exposing them to all kinds of exploitation at the hands of those with less than wholesome motives. We need look no farther than our local newspaper for examples in our time of the horrific exploitation of children. As parents we work for years to protect the children growing up in our lives from potential harm, and sometimes, no matter what extreme precautions we take, they still get harmed by strangers or even by someone they know very well. Are we to come into the Kingdom only in the state of this kind of vulnerability? Why? Why would Jesus require such open vulnerability as a condition for entrance into the Kingdom of God?
One of the themes of our reading from Hebrews and a matching theme from the Gospel of Mark is that of suffering for the sake of love – taking up the cross of Jesus as a requirement for discipleship. Jesus became lower than an angel temporarily to join us in the human condition. Not the human condition of kingly power to rule over peoples’ lives, nor even the condition of power of a husband to force an unwanted wife into the streets, but the human and vulnerable condition of a child. This is how Jesus entered the world – a child vulnerable and poor, born to a poor woman of low social status, whose husband stood by her faithfully though he could have legally sent her away because the baby was not his. She might have been stoned to death for that. This is the vulnerability into which we are invited as disciples of Christ. We are invited to share Jesus’ life if we can enter the kingdom as vulnerable and at risk of exploitation as he was. And this is how St. Francis entered service to God – as poor and vulnerable, without money or shoes, like a beggar. He was just as vulnerable as the weakest members of our society today. We are invited to stand with them as Joseph stood with Mary, as Francis stood with the poor and marginalized people and creatures of his day, as Jesus stood with the women, children, sick and other marginalized people of his time. This is a gift from God, our invitation to compassion as we join Jesus as vulnerable as a child and enter into God’s great Kingdom of mercy and love. Let’s pray together the Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
Hebrews 1:1 - 2:12
Mark 10:2-16
Matthew 11:25-30

Food for the Dogs

Mark 7:24-37 Food for the Dogs
Our Gospel reading for Sunday falls into the category of things we wish Jesus’ never said. It seems very counterintuitive to our understanding of Jesus to hear him call the Syrophoenician woman a dog and refuse to heal her daughter. It is almost shocking to our ears to hear our compassionate champion of the poor and outcast say these things. Why then, is this story included in both Matthew and Mark? The writers of the Gospels must have a reason for including such an unflattering picture of Jesus in their writings, or so it seems from our point of view. So let’s take a closer look.
There are several ways to read the gospels: the first way is to read behind the text to discover and reconstruct the world of Jesus’ day. This would include learning about the customs and taboos of how people from different regions of the time related to one another, and what was acceptable social interaction between men and women of different ranks in society. Another method of reading the Gospels is to read in front of the text. This means we examine how we each subjectively interact with the words and try to discover the personal meaning the Gospel has for us. And then there is the method of reading on the text; trying to discern the message the author was conveying by his editorial work. Each of these methodologies has its place and merit. The third method of reading on the gospel is the methodology recommended by Dr. Scott Sinclair in this gospel reading and might help us understand the story of the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter who was possessed by a demon. Jesus’ insulting reply to her and general lack of pastoral care for this twosome is difficult to explain if we take a historical or personal approach as his actions are really counter to our general understanding of the compassion Jesus had for the marginalized people in his life. So today we are going to see if we can understand this story by reading on the text to discover what the author of the Gospel of Mark was trying to tell us. In order to do this we need to read back a couple of passages to the story that came just before today’s story. In Mark chapter 7 verses 15-16 Jesus says to a gathering of Pharisees, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person which by going into him can defile him; but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” Now the Pharisees often get a bad rap because they were so rigid in their insistence on following the rules for living set down by Moses. And essentially, these are good rules which lead to a healthy and wholesome life and can lead to a deeper spirituality. But when the emphasis on obeying the rules becomes more important than compassion for human suffering, then the rules lose their meaning and people can get hurt. So here is a tricky topic for Christians of all ages, following the “rules” versus caring for those who suffer and whose lives are not always virtuous or acceptable to our way of being.
In our story at first Jesus embodies the traditions of his Jewish heritage of that time and views the Syrophoenician woman as a “dog”, someone not fit to sit and eat at his table. She represents a person who is outwardly defiled by background and lifestyle according to Jewish thought of the day. When Jesus says that the food for the children (children of God, the chosen ones) should not be given to the dogs, she comes back at him with “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She passes his test with her trust and determination. Jesus has tested her faith and finding her faith undefiled he is then willing to make a miracle in her life by removing the demon from her daughter. He says, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” Once again we find Jesus turning the rules upside down. Defilement, according to the Pharisees, comes from eating that which is impure. But according to Jesus, only what exists inside a person can defile him or her. The Syrophoenician woman did not look, or act, or speak in a socially acceptable way to the social group Jesus lived in, but on the inside she had faith and purity of heart. That is what made her acceptable to Jesus in a way that no adherence to rules or family ties could have done. That is the story of Jesus. It is not what is on our backs or which family we were born into, or the strict rules we doggedly adhere to, but it is the intention of our hearts that pleases Jesus and creates the Kingdom where he invites us to live.
Last summer I had the privilege of doing my Clinical Pastoral Education at Napa State Hospital. There are two parts to the hospital – one building houses the most mentally ill people who are without means to support themselves in any way. Family has been understandably unable to care for them, and they are dependant on the state to create the best quality of life that is possible, given their unimaginable mental and physical conditions. The other part of the hospital is a state prison where folks wait for court dates and rulings on their mental health, and are striving desperately for health and physical freedom. To say that it is a daunting place is a gross understatement and yet…the Kingdom of God is present at Napa State Hospital. My own personal understanding of the Holy Reign of God changed forever during my CPE experience. I went there bound by my own rules of what it means to be a good deacon and a caring Christian. I knew what I expected of myself in this circumstance –I had and still have a deep compassion and desire to be a healing force in the midst of desperate suffering. It is a romantic and mystical vision that I have been able to live into through other experiences in hospice and hospital work. But at the state prison hospital all bets were off. None of the usual “stuff” works there – it’s hard to get the attention of someone lost in their own schizophrenic world. It’s hard to talk with someone who is being assaulted by demons as you speak. It’s hard to be fully present when you are afraid for your own safety from moment to moment. But the Kingdom of God is present there. Because of the depth of the suffering and the Spartan condition of the prison hospital, I had to keep asking myself, where is God present in this place? And slowly I began to see the hidden corners and pockets of love and compassion dotting the landscape. And I realized that because I couldn’t use my usual props and words – that I was free in a way that I had not ever been free before. No one expected anything particular of me except that I try to be present to the suffering. I didn’t have to fix anything, or come up with a program, or even make myself heard while I preached over the murmur of voices. I couldn’t carry my prayer book because it would be stolen. I had to wear an alarm at all times in case something happened, and yet I was free to be myself more in Napa State Hospital than anywhere before or since. Without a plan for the day, or words to read from a paper, I had to make it up as I went along. With a deep sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit in me; and with the incredible guidance of Nick Ristad, the Lutheran Chaplain at Napa, I found the freedom to proclaim the love of Jesus in a place that was full of the most defiled characters in our society. The healing love of Jesus is present even there, particularly there.
How does this understanding of the gospel reading affect us here today? Which of us feels really totally acceptable deep in our most secret heart? In our teenaged heart that still wonders if we are good enough, acceptable to the crowd? In our struggle with the economy, in our worries about family and health and job stability? In our conflicts with others at home and work, do we ever feel really acceptable? Jesus sees into our secret hearts, into the dark corners of our lives, and looks past the defilement that we fear and loves us for our purity of faith and dogged determination to know and love him more. To Jesus we are all worthy of mercy, compassion and healing. That is the story of Jesus. When the Syrophoenician woman went home she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Amen.

The Blessing of a Birthday

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of another year. Thank you for my friends, family, work, ministry, children, Dr. M, Sr. S, and dear pets. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, my good buddy, always right on time. Thank you for challenges and hope and keeping me going. Thank you for using broken vessels. Bless those who suffer and are sad or lonely or scared or hungry or lost. Give us, me in particular, grace to know you in the faces of strangers and in the breaking of the bread. Help us, me in particular, to be Christ for those I meet. I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.