Important people from all over the Empire file into the Palace for the festivities. All the members of the Senate, magistrates and other officials, wealthy personages and diplomats, enter by invitation for the official showing of the Emperor's new son. He is fitted with royal finery and placed in a kind of mini-throne graced by precious metals and stones. He is being officially named and welcomed as an heir of one who is hailed not only as political leader but also as deity.
From that scenario two millenia back, we look at tonight's gospel pericope [Luke 2: 1-20] for a tale about the birth of another royal personage. Here the action is not in the palace but in a barn. The newborn King lies in an animal feeding trough and wears, not royal apparel, but swathing bands of cheap cloth. He is not greeted by the rich and famous, but rather by outcasts, nobodies. Shepherds, namely, who were considered near the bottom rung of society and to be avoided by respectable folk.
The story, like all our stories, is intended to teach us something about God. Christians are often criticized for being out of touch with reality, for opposing science. In our tradition, nothing could be further from the truth. We don't try to explain, or explain away, the Big Bang or evolution. Those are science questions. But, as Stephen Hawking said, science cannot and will never be able to explain why the Big Bang happened, or who or what preceded it. In other words, science is in the "how" business. We are in the "why" business. We say that is in the nature of God to create and to care about the creation. We believe that God loves all of God's children equally, and that we are called with our lives and labours to witness to that reality.
Let us analogize to parenthood. Many here are parents; others one day will be. Although only human, we surely want what is best for every child, especially to have that a life that is decent, fulfilling, and makes a difference in the world. Would we want one of our children to live well, whilst knowing that another was starving to death? Would we be happy knowing that some of our children were killing others? Would we be satisfied if we knew none of our children would ever share with the others? No, none of that is tolerable for us, and all of it is surely intolerable to God.
We must hurt with the things that hurt the heart of God and struggle to work for the best outcomes throughout humanity.
Tonight's birth announcement is earth-shattering because the one who has come, the incarnation of the Divine, represents the ultimate sign that God cares, that we matter, and that what we do to each other means everything. This child will grow up to call us to full humanity -- to be all that we are capable of being -- by the radical reordering of human priorities. Like good parents, the key to development is involvement. Jesus means God cares enough to be involved, to show us in Jesus the human face of God, to show us how to live and love rightly, how to inaugurate God's Reign by our working to create a world in which God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Christmas means God cares and what we do matters, that life has real meaning. It is Word that we can move beyond our selfishness, narcissism, and tribalism and build the Kingdom. Happy Christmas!
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Monday, December 24, 2018
Advent IV: Mary, Revolutionary
In our the early years of our nation, Congress voted on whether to make our church the State Church. We would have been the Church of the United States. Thanks be to God, that vote failed, and soon a first amendment to the Constitution created what Thomas Jefferson called a "high wall of separation" between church and state. The government cannot interfere with religion, nor promote religion, nor favour one religion over another. Every citizen to free to worship according to conscience, or not to worship at all, without interference. That was a novel concept when introduced.
Religion and politics were inseparable in the ancient world. Political leaders had ceremonial religious functions and often held religious office. The Roman Emperor was High Priest, divine being, political authority all wrapped into one. The early Christians appropriated to Jesus all of the titles that had been accorded Caesar: Divi Filius (Son of the Divine, Son of God), Salvator (the Saviour), Redemptor (Redeemer), Princeps Pacis (Prince of Peace), Pontifex Maximus (Supreme Bridge Builder, High Priest). In other words, Christ was a nonviolent alternate king who resisted Roman imperialism and the Empire's cultural assumptions and false values.
That's tells us something of the context of Mary's song we recited today [Luke 11: 46-55]. Scholars now believe -- and I concur -- that Jesus was born in the year 4 BCE. That is a poignant fact, for it was in that year that Herod the Great died. That event triggered Jewish revolutionary activity over a wide area. Syrian legions (directed by the Roman government) crushed all resistance. For example, the city of Sepphoris -- five clicks from where Jesus lived, and where he and his dad likely did a lot of carpentry work -- was destroyed. The Syrians boldly raped, killed, and enslaved all resisters. Mary and Joseph, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, would have witnessed those horrors. No wonder Jews were praying for divine intervention.
In Mary's song she recaps some themes that are important to the Lucan agenda. We glean that, like Mary, we must each be Theotokos, a God-bearer to the world in which we live. We look to a "New Israel" based not on ancestral heritage but on faithful response to God's calling. And Mary tells us the importance of becoming "reversers," called to turn the world and its fake values upside down. Indeed, in the Magnificat, Mary is a revolutionary. Using proleptic speech, she tells us that God desires a reordering of public priorities -- pulling down the rich and mighty and lifting up the also-rans, the marginalized, and the oppressed. Maybe even those of us who struggle just to feed kids, pay bills, and afford health insurance. Maybe the unemployed and underemployed, and those in struggle to live on minimum wage. Seniors caught by cancelled pensions, inflation, and threats of reducing social security and medicare. People struggling against hatred and bigotry, seeking a fair chance in life. Students battling to manage stifling education loans set at high rates of interest.
Our Lady seems to be saying, imagine what the world would be like with my Son on Augustus' throne, bringing justice and peace. We could ask what our world would be like if Jesus were in the White House. Do you think things would look any different?
Christmas is almost here, to remind us one more time of our call to be social revolutionaries like Mary; to work for God's Reign on earth; to call our society, culture, and religions, to get serious about the divine agenda with which we have been tasked. To make love of God and neighbour a reality in our world.
Religion and politics were inseparable in the ancient world. Political leaders had ceremonial religious functions and often held religious office. The Roman Emperor was High Priest, divine being, political authority all wrapped into one. The early Christians appropriated to Jesus all of the titles that had been accorded Caesar: Divi Filius (Son of the Divine, Son of God), Salvator (the Saviour), Redemptor (Redeemer), Princeps Pacis (Prince of Peace), Pontifex Maximus (Supreme Bridge Builder, High Priest). In other words, Christ was a nonviolent alternate king who resisted Roman imperialism and the Empire's cultural assumptions and false values.
That's tells us something of the context of Mary's song we recited today [Luke 11: 46-55]. Scholars now believe -- and I concur -- that Jesus was born in the year 4 BCE. That is a poignant fact, for it was in that year that Herod the Great died. That event triggered Jewish revolutionary activity over a wide area. Syrian legions (directed by the Roman government) crushed all resistance. For example, the city of Sepphoris -- five clicks from where Jesus lived, and where he and his dad likely did a lot of carpentry work -- was destroyed. The Syrians boldly raped, killed, and enslaved all resisters. Mary and Joseph, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, would have witnessed those horrors. No wonder Jews were praying for divine intervention.
In Mary's song she recaps some themes that are important to the Lucan agenda. We glean that, like Mary, we must each be Theotokos, a God-bearer to the world in which we live. We look to a "New Israel" based not on ancestral heritage but on faithful response to God's calling. And Mary tells us the importance of becoming "reversers," called to turn the world and its fake values upside down. Indeed, in the Magnificat, Mary is a revolutionary. Using proleptic speech, she tells us that God desires a reordering of public priorities -- pulling down the rich and mighty and lifting up the also-rans, the marginalized, and the oppressed. Maybe even those of us who struggle just to feed kids, pay bills, and afford health insurance. Maybe the unemployed and underemployed, and those in struggle to live on minimum wage. Seniors caught by cancelled pensions, inflation, and threats of reducing social security and medicare. People struggling against hatred and bigotry, seeking a fair chance in life. Students battling to manage stifling education loans set at high rates of interest.
Our Lady seems to be saying, imagine what the world would be like with my Son on Augustus' throne, bringing justice and peace. We could ask what our world would be like if Jesus were in the White House. Do you think things would look any different?
Christmas is almost here, to remind us one more time of our call to be social revolutionaries like Mary; to work for God's Reign on earth; to call our society, culture, and religions, to get serious about the divine agenda with which we have been tasked. To make love of God and neighbour a reality in our world.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Gaudete Sunday: DB and JB
Father Philip Berrigan wrote: "The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets." Father Phil was himself a prophetic figure. Born in New York, after high school he went to work on a railway, then joined the U.S. Army in World War II, and served in the Battle of the Bulge, which began on this date in 1944. After the war he discerned a call to Priesthood, went to seminary and became a Roman priest. He quickly established a reputation for activism. The Church kept moving him around and he kept doing remarkable things, like founding the Catholic Peace Fellowship and organizing lobbying efforts for the poor. After the American invasion of Vietnam he became an outspoken opponent of what he called an unjust war. For that, he was beaten and imprisoned repeatedly and gladly, for the Gospel's sake.
After the U.S. withdrawal from that country, he devoted his life to opposing nuclear proliferation, a development that could have -- and still could -- destroy the human race. Surprisingly, Father died of cancer before he could be killed. But we look at his life as an excellent example of telling truth to power, both to his Communion and to his country.
John the Baptiser, the feature of our Gospel reading today, also spoke truth to power in the religious and political establishment, but in his case it cost him his life. John knocks the props out from under his culture's favourite excuses for not getting real with God. First, he attacks inherited religion. In his view, that doesn't count unless it relates to how you live your life. Second, spiritual or sentimental feelings that ignore the real-life needs of others are bogus. Third, passing on ethics, in order to get by is religious treason. In their place, we must have real repentance that leads to action in our relationships. He tells people how to live. Everybody is to give their second coat to the poor, to share their food. Tax agents are to collect what is actually due. Soldiers are to avoid extortion. And, as well know, all of that simply boils down to implementing the Golden Rule.
I fear that many in our culture have psychologized their faith. The Gospel is just a feeling, not a call to build the Kingdom. And the Kingdom is just a mood. And the Messiah is just our mascot who can be pressed into service to affirm our political and cultural false values, instead of transforming us. We do not need a mascot. We need a Saviour.
After the U.S. withdrawal from that country, he devoted his life to opposing nuclear proliferation, a development that could have -- and still could -- destroy the human race. Surprisingly, Father died of cancer before he could be killed. But we look at his life as an excellent example of telling truth to power, both to his Communion and to his country.
John the Baptiser, the feature of our Gospel reading today, also spoke truth to power in the religious and political establishment, but in his case it cost him his life. John knocks the props out from under his culture's favourite excuses for not getting real with God. First, he attacks inherited religion. In his view, that doesn't count unless it relates to how you live your life. Second, spiritual or sentimental feelings that ignore the real-life needs of others are bogus. Third, passing on ethics, in order to get by is religious treason. In their place, we must have real repentance that leads to action in our relationships. He tells people how to live. Everybody is to give their second coat to the poor, to share their food. Tax agents are to collect what is actually due. Soldiers are to avoid extortion. And, as well know, all of that simply boils down to implementing the Golden Rule.
I fear that many in our culture have psychologized their faith. The Gospel is just a feeling, not a call to build the Kingdom. And the Kingdom is just a mood. And the Messiah is just our mascot who can be pressed into service to affirm our political and cultural false values, instead of transforming us. We do not need a mascot. We need a Saviour.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Advent II: Before and After
We spend a lot of our time waiting, don't we? In today's Jewish scripture reading [Baruch 5: 1-9] we are reminded of the Babylonian Exile. In 587, the forces of Babylonia decimated Jerusalem and took captives to be deported to Babylonia. Some Jews fled north to become part of what we call Samaria. Others fled to Egypt, and some remained behind; the Babylonians prioritized the well-educated and most skilled people. Fortunately that included priests and others who could give encouragement and instruction to the people. Upon arrival, the Jews not only had to deal with the theological issues surrounding loss of nation under a God with whom they were in covenant. They also had to deal with inability to travel to the Temple for required worship and sacrifice. So they invented the synagogue and became "people of the Book," as their worship quickly began to focus on reading.
At the same time they wrote the seven books sometimes called "Apocrypha," always accepted by Catholic Christians but later rejected by protestants. The Jews thus adapted until 539 when the Persian king Cyrus defeated the troops of Babylon and released the exiles to go home. Baruch, who has first admonished his readers to remain faithful to their religion and avoid assimilation, now presents this beautiful image of Mother Jerusalem standing on the heights and watching her beloved children marching home again! What a beautiful image of looking back and also forward.
Another, later example was the daughter of Constantine who called for a large piece of Jesus' cross to be delivered to her and she built a church in Jerusalem, Basilica of the Holy Cross, around it. She said that relic made possible a church that could truly look backward to its roots and forward to its future.
Advent is like that. We quietly prepare to celebrate again the Gift of God at Christmas, but also looking forward to our future, as individuals and community. Congregational elections come up next month and this is a perfect time for us to reflect on our gifts and skills and prayerfully ponder where the Spirit may be leading each of us.
At the same time they wrote the seven books sometimes called "Apocrypha," always accepted by Catholic Christians but later rejected by protestants. The Jews thus adapted until 539 when the Persian king Cyrus defeated the troops of Babylon and released the exiles to go home. Baruch, who has first admonished his readers to remain faithful to their religion and avoid assimilation, now presents this beautiful image of Mother Jerusalem standing on the heights and watching her beloved children marching home again! What a beautiful image of looking back and also forward.
Another, later example was the daughter of Constantine who called for a large piece of Jesus' cross to be delivered to her and she built a church in Jerusalem, Basilica of the Holy Cross, around it. She said that relic made possible a church that could truly look backward to its roots and forward to its future.
Advent is like that. We quietly prepare to celebrate again the Gift of God at Christmas, but also looking forward to our future, as individuals and community. Congregational elections come up next month and this is a perfect time for us to reflect on our gifts and skills and prayerfully ponder where the Spirit may be leading each of us.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Artwork or idol?
The Saint-du-jour is named John of Damascus. He was son of the Christian tax agent for the Muslim Caliph of Damascus. (Throughout history, Muslim rulers have generally been tolerant of other religions, unlike many of their Christian counterparts.) John succeeded him in that prestigious post. In time, John desired to know more about his faith, and entered the St. Saba Monastery for study and Christian formation. He went on to be ordained a priest in 726, the same year that the Byzantine Emperor issued a decree against Holy Images, triggering a major controversy. At issue was the question whether artistic forms such as crucifixes, statues and other carvings, paintings, or murals constituted idols. Answering in the affirmative, the emperor ordered the destruction of all Christian art. John wrote three treatises against the iconoclasts {lit. image smashers) and in favour of Christian art. He pointed out that images do not represent either false gods, or even God in God's divine nature, but only saints, or our Lord as a man. He distinguished between veneration and worship, which can be properly given only to God.
The iconoclastic movement was really rooted in the long-discredited, but not fully abandoned, heresy called Monophysitism, which held that Jesus only appeared to be human but actually had only one nature, divinity. If he was not human, then an image depicting him would be inappropriate. It was also related to Manichaeism, another heresy which held that matter itself is evil. Either of these discredited theological teachings, John wrote, denies the Incarnation, the central truth of our faith.
Finally, the last valid ecumenical council, which was held in 787, settled the controversy, decreeing that crosses, icons, and other sacred objects -- indeed Christian art in general -- was appropriate and acceptable for veneration, because the honour paid to them passed on to what they represented.
The religion in which I was raised obviously didn't get the memo, because they were keen to spread the falsehood that Roman, Episcopal, and Orthodox Christians worship idols. Nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, as we have seen, the matter was settled long, long ago.
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The iconoclastic movement was really rooted in the long-discredited, but not fully abandoned, heresy called Monophysitism, which held that Jesus only appeared to be human but actually had only one nature, divinity. If he was not human, then an image depicting him would be inappropriate. It was also related to Manichaeism, another heresy which held that matter itself is evil. Either of these discredited theological teachings, John wrote, denies the Incarnation, the central truth of our faith.
Finally, the last valid ecumenical council, which was held in 787, settled the controversy, decreeing that crosses, icons, and other sacred objects -- indeed Christian art in general -- was appropriate and acceptable for veneration, because the honour paid to them passed on to what they represented.
The religion in which I was raised obviously didn't get the memo, because they were keen to spread the falsehood that Roman, Episcopal, and Orthodox Christians worship idols. Nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, as we have seen, the matter was settled long, long ago.
.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Advent I: Waiting
In 1966 a new musical debuted called "Auntie Mame." Mame was a bohemian, liberated woman who danced to a different drummer and liked to challenge convention. She had an entourage of her own, supporting her lifestyle. And all went well until Patrick, her deceased brother's ten-year-old son, arrived to live with her. He became a foil, testing her. At one point, Mame announces that she intends to decorate for Christmas early. Patrick replies, "Auntie Mame, it is only one week past Thanksgiving Day!"
You know where I am going with this. In our culture, the decorations appear on shop shelves well before Thanksgiving. The hardware often shows up in August. The twelve days of Christmas are sometimes said to end on Christmas Day (when, in fact, the twelve days start on Christmas Eve, ending at the Epiphany.) There are festive "countdowns to Christmas" and Hallmark television programs that span many weeks. Christmas hymns are played and sung months in advance.
What all this is symptomatic of is America's infatuation with instant gratification. We cannot wait for anything. I want Christmas and I want it now! And the marketing world responds accordingly by distorting Christmas to a protracted period. Everything must bow down before the Almighty Dollar and the world of consumerism.
Sometimes, obviously, waiting is hard. In Jesus' time people lived on the edge of their seats. At any time God would solve the world's problem by bringing in God's Kingdom, the Divine Reign, not through us but around us. And that inbreaking of a perfect world be accompanied by amazing cosmic fireworks and special effects. Apparently Jesus shared in that common Jewish expectation of a soon, sudden, and spectacular end to the world as it had been known. [viz. Luke 31: 25-36] He even told a crowd that some of them would not die before the End.. However, elsewhere in Scripture that view is gone and he assures his disciples that no one -- not even he -- knows when the Reign of God may come. But we do know now that it will come when we get off our duffs and change the world.
So where does that leave us? Waiting.. Perhaps you will remember the phrase from Carly Simon's song, Anticipation, in which she sings, "We can never know about the days to come. We think about them in many ways." Yes, we do live in uncertainty but also in expectancy, because we wait, not in passivity or anxiety or fear -- as our culture does -- but rather in faith, confidence, and joyful preparation to celebrate again the birth of the Saviour. We trust that in our lives and mission God is both companion on our journey, and our destination. Thus, we know this Advent season that the one we await and will celebrate once again is Emmanu-El, "God is with us."
You know where I am going with this. In our culture, the decorations appear on shop shelves well before Thanksgiving. The hardware often shows up in August. The twelve days of Christmas are sometimes said to end on Christmas Day (when, in fact, the twelve days start on Christmas Eve, ending at the Epiphany.) There are festive "countdowns to Christmas" and Hallmark television programs that span many weeks. Christmas hymns are played and sung months in advance.
What all this is symptomatic of is America's infatuation with instant gratification. We cannot wait for anything. I want Christmas and I want it now! And the marketing world responds accordingly by distorting Christmas to a protracted period. Everything must bow down before the Almighty Dollar and the world of consumerism.
Sometimes, obviously, waiting is hard. In Jesus' time people lived on the edge of their seats. At any time God would solve the world's problem by bringing in God's Kingdom, the Divine Reign, not through us but around us. And that inbreaking of a perfect world be accompanied by amazing cosmic fireworks and special effects. Apparently Jesus shared in that common Jewish expectation of a soon, sudden, and spectacular end to the world as it had been known. [viz. Luke 31: 25-36] He even told a crowd that some of them would not die before the End.. However, elsewhere in Scripture that view is gone and he assures his disciples that no one -- not even he -- knows when the Reign of God may come. But we do know now that it will come when we get off our duffs and change the world.
So where does that leave us? Waiting.. Perhaps you will remember the phrase from Carly Simon's song, Anticipation, in which she sings, "We can never know about the days to come. We think about them in many ways." Yes, we do live in uncertainty but also in expectancy, because we wait, not in passivity or anxiety or fear -- as our culture does -- but rather in faith, confidence, and joyful preparation to celebrate again the birth of the Saviour. We trust that in our lives and mission God is both companion on our journey, and our destination. Thus, we know this Advent season that the one we await and will celebrate once again is Emmanu-El, "God is with us."
Friday, November 23, 2018
Post-Truth
The Oxford English Dictionary's top new word of the year two years ago was "post-truth," defined as "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotional and personal beliefs." In a word, ideology taking priority over reality -- a dangerous thing.
Jesus is quoted as saying that "truth will set you free." If that is the case, then it seems logical to conclude that lies enslave people. In our world of fake news, it seems that indeed emotions and personal beliefs trump all else and, if they run afoul of reality, the wicked purveyors will invent "alternative" facts, i.e. lies to take the place of truth.
The President of the United States has already been documented as making more than six thousand statements that are not factual and, thus, intended to compound our truth problem instead of helping to resolve it. That suggests a style of leadership in which the leader's elf-interest is the only real consideration.
Let us seriously consider seeking and following the truth, trusting that when we do we will be liberated from our prison of popular lies and set free to make a positive difference in the world, to bring unity where division is now being sown, bringing friendship and mutual respect where hatred and derision rule, changing monologues of self-interest into dialogues of bridge-building. We can become a part of the solution, while there is still time.
Jesus is quoted as saying that "truth will set you free." If that is the case, then it seems logical to conclude that lies enslave people. In our world of fake news, it seems that indeed emotions and personal beliefs trump all else and, if they run afoul of reality, the wicked purveyors will invent "alternative" facts, i.e. lies to take the place of truth.
The President of the United States has already been documented as making more than six thousand statements that are not factual and, thus, intended to compound our truth problem instead of helping to resolve it. That suggests a style of leadership in which the leader's elf-interest is the only real consideration.
Let us seriously consider seeking and following the truth, trusting that when we do we will be liberated from our prison of popular lies and set free to make a positive difference in the world, to bring unity where division is now being sown, bringing friendship and mutual respect where hatred and derision rule, changing monologues of self-interest into dialogues of bridge-building. We can become a part of the solution, while there is still time.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Provocation
I still remember a television news clip years ago. A Russian representative was shouting, "Anti-Sovietskii provokatsiya," anti-Soviet provocation. The word comes from the Latin, pro + vocare, before (someone) + to call out, and means to rouse or incite a response in people. In last week's epistular reading, the unknown author of Hebrews encourages his audience to "provoke one another to love and good deeds." [10:24] What a remarkable statement!
I am sure that I regularly provoke people who don't agree with my view of the Gospel of Christ and its unmistakable political implications, and defriending has sometimes taken place. And much of the energy on Facebook seems to be devoted to provoking others to hatred, bigotry, and assimilation of fake news. So I was already intrigued to think that the writer, probably Apollos, expected his people to provoke other people solely for the purpose of spreading love and doing good. How can that be accomplished? Well, it seems to me that we lead by example. We can only provoke love in others by following Jesus' command to love others and especially our enemies. That can be a hellishly difficult assignment and involves reaching out selflessly to show Christ-like behaviour towards them. Provoking others to good works, likewise, incurs setting an example by doing good works which, for the Christian, means nothing less than working for the Reign of God, in which God's "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That does involve engaging the world and its political implications, however we try to run away from them, remain clear. Whom have you provoked lately?
I am sure that I regularly provoke people who don't agree with my view of the Gospel of Christ and its unmistakable political implications, and defriending has sometimes taken place. And much of the energy on Facebook seems to be devoted to provoking others to hatred, bigotry, and assimilation of fake news. So I was already intrigued to think that the writer, probably Apollos, expected his people to provoke other people solely for the purpose of spreading love and doing good. How can that be accomplished? Well, it seems to me that we lead by example. We can only provoke love in others by following Jesus' command to love others and especially our enemies. That can be a hellishly difficult assignment and involves reaching out selflessly to show Christ-like behaviour towards them. Provoking others to good works, likewise, incurs setting an example by doing good works which, for the Christian, means nothing less than working for the Reign of God, in which God's "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That does involve engaging the world and its political implications, however we try to run away from them, remain clear. Whom have you provoked lately?
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Pentecost XXVI: End Times?
Our gospel pericope [Mk. 13: 1-8] is remarkable for several reasons. Let us unpack this episode. First, let us say that the passage touches strongly on apocalyptic, which simply put means end times. The Bible contains two apocalyptic books, Daniel, which was controversial when chosen rabbinically for the Jewish Canon, and Revelation, which made it into our New Testament by one bishop's vote; Augustine had to break a tie.
Before engaging our Gospel passage, I need to make a couple of preliminary comments. It is important to understand that Mark's Gospel was likely released in the form we have it, shortly after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70. Also, the apostles were all Jews; and as such, would have been to the Temple for every pilgrimage feast, and on other occasions, since age twelve. Now to the text. When Jesus shows the Temple to his followers, they act as though they have never seen it. They are dazzled by the grandeur of the buildings. That sets Jesus up to state unequivocally that no stone will be left upon another. But that too reflects a research error, as the Western Wall stood, and still does today. The purpose of the tale is retrojection, to allow Jesus to predict the destruction of the Temple and its spiritual replacement by Himself, for us who are his followers.
But what about end times? When do you think the world will end? We know that our sun will go nova in five billion years and destroy what remains of the earth. But well before that, the earth will have become too hot to sustain life as we know it. And we can likely back up the calendar even farther, by noting that today's world economy, rooted in greed and exploitation -- human mismanagement -- is already causing the earth to lose some of its ability to sustain life. So we don't know when the world will end, but realistically we experience the end when our own personal earthly existence is over, and life is short.
In the meantime, in whatever time you and I may have left, there will continue to be evil -- hunger, murder, natural disasters, sudden illness. Bang, your world is over, because life hangs by a thread. However, what is important is that God is with us through everything we face and, as long as time runs for us, God makes new beginnings possible. And that is our ground of hope.
In the film, the Shawshank Redemption, Red says to Andy, "Hope is a dangerous thing. It can drive a man insane." Andy corrects, saying, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of all things, and no good thing ever dies."
Before engaging our Gospel passage, I need to make a couple of preliminary comments. It is important to understand that Mark's Gospel was likely released in the form we have it, shortly after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70. Also, the apostles were all Jews; and as such, would have been to the Temple for every pilgrimage feast, and on other occasions, since age twelve. Now to the text. When Jesus shows the Temple to his followers, they act as though they have never seen it. They are dazzled by the grandeur of the buildings. That sets Jesus up to state unequivocally that no stone will be left upon another. But that too reflects a research error, as the Western Wall stood, and still does today. The purpose of the tale is retrojection, to allow Jesus to predict the destruction of the Temple and its spiritual replacement by Himself, for us who are his followers.
But what about end times? When do you think the world will end? We know that our sun will go nova in five billion years and destroy what remains of the earth. But well before that, the earth will have become too hot to sustain life as we know it. And we can likely back up the calendar even farther, by noting that today's world economy, rooted in greed and exploitation -- human mismanagement -- is already causing the earth to lose some of its ability to sustain life. So we don't know when the world will end, but realistically we experience the end when our own personal earthly existence is over, and life is short.
In the meantime, in whatever time you and I may have left, there will continue to be evil -- hunger, murder, natural disasters, sudden illness. Bang, your world is over, because life hangs by a thread. However, what is important is that God is with us through everything we face and, as long as time runs for us, God makes new beginnings possible. And that is our ground of hope.
In the film, the Shawshank Redemption, Red says to Andy, "Hope is a dangerous thing. It can drive a man insane." Andy corrects, saying, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of all things, and no good thing ever dies."
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Pentecost XXV: Religious Cons
The relationship between organized religion and organized government is a hot-button issue around the globe. In our country, we have what Thomas Jefferson called the "high wall of separation between the Church and the State," although many are working to destroy that wall. In the United Kingdom, there is union of Church and State. In Iran, likewise, where all persons of all faiths or no faith are subject to Shariah Law which, taken literally, is just as barbaric and cruel as the Law of Moses. In Ireland, which has Church-State unity, they have finally made it legal for a person to disagree with a teaching of the Roman Communion. In Israel today, you are either an Orthodox Jew or you are a nobody in terms of civil rights. Unity of religion and governance has long been policy in Jewish territory.
It was in the first century, CE. That is why the Scribes discussed today [Mk. 12: 38-44] were so indispensable: they were both legal experts and Bible experts. Indispensable but not incorruptible. Running a con still practised by Christian televangelists today, the Scribes and their colleagues were actively encouraging "seed gifts" of money people needed to live on and could not afford to give. The pitch was that reaching out in extreme giving would results in manifold blessings. That was certainly correct: the evangelist is blessed, as he lines his pockets. So with those Scribes of old feathering their nests.
The Temple treasury wall contained several horn-like protuberances into which various kinds of donations were dropped. Silver coins, given ostentatiously by the rich, had a distinct sound when placed in a tube; copper, a very different sound. It is in this way that Jesus knows that the widow inserted two leptae, the smallest Roman copper coins.
There are Christian clergy who will try to praise the widow's reckless action (giving away her last two copper coins) for their own purposes. The point of the passage is that the Scribes "devour widow's houses," in other words, steal the assets of the poor and gullible by stealth. In fact, donating money needed to live on was a severe sin under the Jewish Law! The Scribe-predators were convincing the vulnerable to break that very commandment. The widow was ripped-off and Jesus is justly angry.
We here learn that we must earn and retain the money required to meet our legitimate personal needs and those of the people who depend on us. Beyond that, then, is the area of our wealth that falls under Gospel judgement. It is the rest of the budget where God calls us to prioritize our holy commitment to build the Kingdom. I might ask you, if an auditor examined your books, would he conclude that God's work is the most important commitment to you? Would the first cheques you write each payday be to church and charitable work? Or maybe God gets the leftovers after you have provided for your needs and then spent on everything you want. If God is not first in our hit parade, something else is, perhaps wealth accumulation, pleasure, hobbies -- any number of things can outrank God in our priorities. Christ calls us to reject these "lesser gods," reorder our values, make God number one in our lives through sacrificial giving, and trust God to take care of us.
When Shelby and I first made the commitment to sacrificial giving, we discovered our donations were only about two percent. We went to work on moving towards the benchmark of the biblical tithe, ten percent, and we surpassed that a long time ago. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are doing what we can do. One sleeps well when the greatest priority is partnering with God. And one receives countless blessings.
It was in the first century, CE. That is why the Scribes discussed today [Mk. 12: 38-44] were so indispensable: they were both legal experts and Bible experts. Indispensable but not incorruptible. Running a con still practised by Christian televangelists today, the Scribes and their colleagues were actively encouraging "seed gifts" of money people needed to live on and could not afford to give. The pitch was that reaching out in extreme giving would results in manifold blessings. That was certainly correct: the evangelist is blessed, as he lines his pockets. So with those Scribes of old feathering their nests.
The Temple treasury wall contained several horn-like protuberances into which various kinds of donations were dropped. Silver coins, given ostentatiously by the rich, had a distinct sound when placed in a tube; copper, a very different sound. It is in this way that Jesus knows that the widow inserted two leptae, the smallest Roman copper coins.
There are Christian clergy who will try to praise the widow's reckless action (giving away her last two copper coins) for their own purposes. The point of the passage is that the Scribes "devour widow's houses," in other words, steal the assets of the poor and gullible by stealth. In fact, donating money needed to live on was a severe sin under the Jewish Law! The Scribe-predators were convincing the vulnerable to break that very commandment. The widow was ripped-off and Jesus is justly angry.
We here learn that we must earn and retain the money required to meet our legitimate personal needs and those of the people who depend on us. Beyond that, then, is the area of our wealth that falls under Gospel judgement. It is the rest of the budget where God calls us to prioritize our holy commitment to build the Kingdom. I might ask you, if an auditor examined your books, would he conclude that God's work is the most important commitment to you? Would the first cheques you write each payday be to church and charitable work? Or maybe God gets the leftovers after you have provided for your needs and then spent on everything you want. If God is not first in our hit parade, something else is, perhaps wealth accumulation, pleasure, hobbies -- any number of things can outrank God in our priorities. Christ calls us to reject these "lesser gods," reorder our values, make God number one in our lives through sacrificial giving, and trust God to take care of us.
When Shelby and I first made the commitment to sacrificial giving, we discovered our donations were only about two percent. We went to work on moving towards the benchmark of the biblical tithe, ten percent, and we surpassed that a long time ago. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are doing what we can do. One sleeps well when the greatest priority is partnering with God. And one receives countless blessings.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
St. Paul the Confessor
The years 311 and 325 were crucial to what Christianity became after the early centuries in which it was not a legal religion in the Roman Empire and was frequently persecuted. The worst persecution occurred before the accession of Emperor Constantine. As the story goes, he was in battle when he experienced a vision of a cross in the sky, with the legend, In hoc signo vinces, In this sign you will conquer. Then and there he pledged to go Christian if he won the battle, which he did. So, as of the year 311, Christianity was legal. (It would be another century before it became the state religion.) Soon the Emperor decided that Christianity, which simply would not die out from persecution, was indeed the glue he needed to unify the nation. Being a Roman, he saw Christianity in the category similar to ancient philosophies and, so, wanted doctrine standardized. One size must fit all. To that end, he called the first ecumenical council in 325, paid the travel expenses of all bishops to attend, and chaired all the meetings, not allowing adjournment until a Creed was produced. The result was the Nicene Creed, our story which we still recite every Sunday. But, unlike our church today, every article had to be literally and strictly construed. That is uniformity, not unity!
The biggest single issue to be hammered out was whether the logos of God was existent from the beginning of time or created in time. The Catholic position was clear, "There was no time when He was not." The Arian heretics, in turn, denied that doctrine. Some sessions turned violent and, although the orthodox position prevailed in the Council, the Arians left the council and continued to teach their heterodox opinion over a large area of the known world. It is within that environment that Saint Paul the Confessor was ordained Bishop of Constantinople, who held the most influential ecclesial position in the East. Paul was, in fact, installed as bishop and then exiled three times!
During the third exile in Cappadocia, he was strangled by an Arian Christian and is, therefore, one of the martyrs.
His story reminds me of two key points. First, the early church had a diversity of opinion, was not eager to silence divergent voices, but rather focused on Christianity as a relationship with Christ and one another, in which we love God and neighbour, and devote our energy to building the Kingdom of God. Ever since Nicaea we have been distracted with much doctrinal stuff that gets in the way of our mission. When we are tempted to descend into dogmatism, we need to remember to stay tuned to what is really important. And it isn't dogma and doctrinal purity.
Second, I am reminded that church politics is insane because the treasure is in earthen vessels. Now, as then, Mother Church attracts crazy people. But despite everything, the Holy Spirit works through the mess and leads us into all truth, as promised, and gives us the clarity and strength to do more than we know or can imagine. Christ continues to live in his people and in those we serve, as we work towards the Reign of God.
The biggest single issue to be hammered out was whether the logos of God was existent from the beginning of time or created in time. The Catholic position was clear, "There was no time when He was not." The Arian heretics, in turn, denied that doctrine. Some sessions turned violent and, although the orthodox position prevailed in the Council, the Arians left the council and continued to teach their heterodox opinion over a large area of the known world. It is within that environment that Saint Paul the Confessor was ordained Bishop of Constantinople, who held the most influential ecclesial position in the East. Paul was, in fact, installed as bishop and then exiled three times!
During the third exile in Cappadocia, he was strangled by an Arian Christian and is, therefore, one of the martyrs.
His story reminds me of two key points. First, the early church had a diversity of opinion, was not eager to silence divergent voices, but rather focused on Christianity as a relationship with Christ and one another, in which we love God and neighbour, and devote our energy to building the Kingdom of God. Ever since Nicaea we have been distracted with much doctrinal stuff that gets in the way of our mission. When we are tempted to descend into dogmatism, we need to remember to stay tuned to what is really important. And it isn't dogma and doctrinal purity.
Second, I am reminded that church politics is insane because the treasure is in earthen vessels. Now, as then, Mother Church attracts crazy people. But despite everything, the Holy Spirit works through the mess and leads us into all truth, as promised, and gives us the clarity and strength to do more than we know or can imagine. Christ continues to live in his people and in those we serve, as we work towards the Reign of God.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Pentecost XXIII: Learning to See
The ancients referred to sight as the "Queen of the Senses." Imagine being unable to see all of the wonderful things in our daily lives. When cataract surgery was first introduced, people who had an accumulation of tissue, sometimes for decades, were able to see again. It was too much for some to process. Others had first to adjust to patches of colour and then gradually to associate them with substance. Sight is that fundamental.
Our pericope today is the story of the healing of blind beggar Bartimaeus. Like all miracle stories, this tale is not intended to demonstrate that Jesus could do magic. Its purpose is to convey a deeper message: Bartimaeus comes to ask for more than money (sight) but then receives more than he asked for (relationship with God.) He emerges an exemplar of trust and joyful acceptance of discipleship.
Let's ask two questions about this story, relevant to our spiritual health and mission. First, when we are truly sighted, what are we supposed to see? Carryl Houselander was a great American mystic who died in the last century. In a key vision, she was looking out the window of her small garret in London, when she saw a bus full of people. As she watched, she realized that every single man, woman, and child had the face of Jesus! A good reminder that God loves all his children and calls today for us to serve all -- not to judge or exclude anyone.
In the Middle Ages, the story is told of a famous rabbi who one day asked his disciples to tell him how one knows when night is past and it is daytime. A disciple suggested the ability to differentiate man from woman. Another suggested being able to distinguish between two different kinds of trees. And so forth. The rabbi then told them the answer to his riddle: unless you can look into the face of any man or any woman and see there the face of your brother and sister, it is still night, no matter what time it is.
Second, how do we adopt an attitude of prayer that will allow us to see in this open, inclusive way? Bartimaeus is our key, as he prayed, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The attitude of true humility is essential. Remember the parable of the pharisee and the publican? The pharisee prays about all his virtues -- he tithes and follows the commandments, even exceeding some -- and thanks God he is not like that publican (tax agent) over there who has simply prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said the publican is justified for God, the pharisee is not. This kind of humility certainly is not popular in our age of self-promotion, cutthroat competition, and self-actualization. Yet, the right kind of humility is not putting yourself down or cultivating low self-esteem., but to acknowledge who you are in relationship to the Divine. When I first became acquainted with the Episcopal Church, I asked a wise old priest why Episcopalians kneel to pray. He replied: Kneeling reminds us of who's who in this equation.
Our pericope today is the story of the healing of blind beggar Bartimaeus. Like all miracle stories, this tale is not intended to demonstrate that Jesus could do magic. Its purpose is to convey a deeper message: Bartimaeus comes to ask for more than money (sight) but then receives more than he asked for (relationship with God.) He emerges an exemplar of trust and joyful acceptance of discipleship.
Let's ask two questions about this story, relevant to our spiritual health and mission. First, when we are truly sighted, what are we supposed to see? Carryl Houselander was a great American mystic who died in the last century. In a key vision, she was looking out the window of her small garret in London, when she saw a bus full of people. As she watched, she realized that every single man, woman, and child had the face of Jesus! A good reminder that God loves all his children and calls today for us to serve all -- not to judge or exclude anyone.
In the Middle Ages, the story is told of a famous rabbi who one day asked his disciples to tell him how one knows when night is past and it is daytime. A disciple suggested the ability to differentiate man from woman. Another suggested being able to distinguish between two different kinds of trees. And so forth. The rabbi then told them the answer to his riddle: unless you can look into the face of any man or any woman and see there the face of your brother and sister, it is still night, no matter what time it is.
Second, how do we adopt an attitude of prayer that will allow us to see in this open, inclusive way? Bartimaeus is our key, as he prayed, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The attitude of true humility is essential. Remember the parable of the pharisee and the publican? The pharisee prays about all his virtues -- he tithes and follows the commandments, even exceeding some -- and thanks God he is not like that publican (tax agent) over there who has simply prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said the publican is justified for God, the pharisee is not. This kind of humility certainly is not popular in our age of self-promotion, cutthroat competition, and self-actualization. Yet, the right kind of humility is not putting yourself down or cultivating low self-esteem., but to acknowledge who you are in relationship to the Divine. When I first became acquainted with the Episcopal Church, I asked a wise old priest why Episcopalians kneel to pray. He replied: Kneeling reminds us of who's who in this equation.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Henry and Olivia
A week from Sunday, God willing, Bishop Wallace Ohl will be with us at Saint Matthew's to preach and preside at Mass. He is scheduled to confirm seven adults, receive one, and reaffirm another. In addition, we anticipate two infant baptisms. The parents of these beautiful children have chosen two very unusual and inspiring patron saints of their offspring.
Saint Henry. He was an English clergyman who was chosen to become Archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden and was so installed there. Henry formed a friendship and very strong alliance with Carl, King of Sweden. The two decided to attempt to convert the Finnish people next door in 1153, which they succeeded in doing, baptising them and founding churches. Henry fell in love with the Finns and chose to stay behind to minister to them. One day he attempted to give canonical punishment to one Lalli for the crime of murder, but Lalli became incensed and murdered Henry on the spot.. Although never holding a church office in Finland, Henry is their Patron Saint. In later mediaeval times, many miracles were attributed to Henry. Henry's feast day is celebrated by the Lutheran Church of Finland, the Roman Catholic Church, our Anglican Communion, and even some protestant bodies.
Saint Henry's feast day is 19 January.
Saint Olivia. Olivia was born in Palermo, Sicily in 448. She was the beautiful daughter of a Sicilian nobleman and was known for her Christian piety and constancy. In an attempt to turn her from the Faith, she was sent by the authorities to Carthage (Tunis) in North Africa. Instead of rethinking her commitment, she began to convert non-Christians there. As a result, she was subsequently tortured and beheaded on her feast day, 10 June, in 463. This Virgin-Martyr was the subject of a mediaeval poem in 114 octaves and also a play in three acts. The Roman Cathedral in Palermo is called the Cathedral of St. Vincent dePaul and St. Olivia. She is venerated not only in the Catholic Tradition (though not officially in Roman provenance) and in the Orthodox Churches, and even by Muslims, who have possession of her relics -- her remains!
These two very different, very interesting characters in the Christian historical drama have one critical thing in common. They were faithful to the Gospel, even to death. We should also always stand ready to give whatever we must for the cause of right. That is the essence of Christian mission.
Saint Henry. He was an English clergyman who was chosen to become Archbishop of Uppsala in Sweden and was so installed there. Henry formed a friendship and very strong alliance with Carl, King of Sweden. The two decided to attempt to convert the Finnish people next door in 1153, which they succeeded in doing, baptising them and founding churches. Henry fell in love with the Finns and chose to stay behind to minister to them. One day he attempted to give canonical punishment to one Lalli for the crime of murder, but Lalli became incensed and murdered Henry on the spot.. Although never holding a church office in Finland, Henry is their Patron Saint. In later mediaeval times, many miracles were attributed to Henry. Henry's feast day is celebrated by the Lutheran Church of Finland, the Roman Catholic Church, our Anglican Communion, and even some protestant bodies.
Saint Henry's feast day is 19 January.
Saint Olivia. Olivia was born in Palermo, Sicily in 448. She was the beautiful daughter of a Sicilian nobleman and was known for her Christian piety and constancy. In an attempt to turn her from the Faith, she was sent by the authorities to Carthage (Tunis) in North Africa. Instead of rethinking her commitment, she began to convert non-Christians there. As a result, she was subsequently tortured and beheaded on her feast day, 10 June, in 463. This Virgin-Martyr was the subject of a mediaeval poem in 114 octaves and also a play in three acts. The Roman Cathedral in Palermo is called the Cathedral of St. Vincent dePaul and St. Olivia. She is venerated not only in the Catholic Tradition (though not officially in Roman provenance) and in the Orthodox Churches, and even by Muslims, who have possession of her relics -- her remains!
These two very different, very interesting characters in the Christian historical drama have one critical thing in common. They were faithful to the Gospel, even to death. We should also always stand ready to give whatever we must for the cause of right. That is the essence of Christian mission.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Pentecost XXI: Can the Rich be Saved?
On this day in the year following the end of World War II, The play "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway premiered on the Lux Soap Flakes Radio Theatre. The radio production starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who had recently announced their wedding engagement. The same day, I was starring in my own production, my birth, at Vanderbilt Hospital to two wonderful parents. They sacrificed over the subsequent years to ensure that I received a top-flight education, opening doors for opportunity. They passed on to me many positive values. At the end of their lives, they left me a legacy, an inheritance which continued to help me.
In today's gospel [Mk 10: 17-31] a young man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. That term in Latin is percipeo which can have more than one meaning, but the original Greek, kliranameo, is unforgiving: it means exactly what it means in English. The young fellow knows he is a child of God and he wants to enjoy the abundant life that should be his own birthright. Jesus replies by reciting the Commandments; he ad libs an extra one but the young man apparently doesn't catch it. Rather, he replies that he has done every one of those commandments, all of which are relational. Speaking in modern terms, we might say he treats other people right. He is a good person, and he should be doing fine. But he isn't. He knows perfectly well that something is missing, something that is interfering with having a meaningful, contented, fulfilling life, with true peace of mind.
Jesus identifies what is standing between the young man and right relationship with God. The problem is attachment to wealth. Eternal life describes the bond between the believer and the enduring values of the Kingdom of God. It describes relationship between humans and Christ, bringing us personal experience of the living, loving Spirit of God. Passion for possessions has permanently blocked the total surrender to God that God seeks, and the life commitment binding followers of the Lord. Jesus tells the young man to sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow. That command is unacceptable to the rich fellow and he goes away sad, and unsaved. Jesus has previously taught against accumulation of wealth and warned that one cannot serve two masters.
Our own Archbishop Desmond Tutu on one occasion was asked why the African Christians were fervent in a way that western Christians aren't. Easy, said Tutu, the poor don't have anything in between themselves are God, westerners are rich. That is an important word to us as to how we steward what we have received, to ensure that nothing outranks God in our hierarchy of values.
Later, back at the ranch, Jesus says that it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of needle than for wealthy people to enter the Kingdom of God. (Recent linguistic scholarship favours the translation, 'rope' rather than the traditional 'camel.') The disciples, who as good Jews have been bought up on prosperity gospel, are blown away, wondering if all rich folks are doomed, but Jesus assures them that anything is possible for God.
We too can be good people, live pious lives, and treat others well, and still miss the boat. Jesus beckons us to make a course correction into eternal life.
In today's gospel [Mk 10: 17-31] a young man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. That term in Latin is percipeo which can have more than one meaning, but the original Greek, kliranameo, is unforgiving: it means exactly what it means in English. The young fellow knows he is a child of God and he wants to enjoy the abundant life that should be his own birthright. Jesus replies by reciting the Commandments; he ad libs an extra one but the young man apparently doesn't catch it. Rather, he replies that he has done every one of those commandments, all of which are relational. Speaking in modern terms, we might say he treats other people right. He is a good person, and he should be doing fine. But he isn't. He knows perfectly well that something is missing, something that is interfering with having a meaningful, contented, fulfilling life, with true peace of mind.
Jesus identifies what is standing between the young man and right relationship with God. The problem is attachment to wealth. Eternal life describes the bond between the believer and the enduring values of the Kingdom of God. It describes relationship between humans and Christ, bringing us personal experience of the living, loving Spirit of God. Passion for possessions has permanently blocked the total surrender to God that God seeks, and the life commitment binding followers of the Lord. Jesus tells the young man to sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow. That command is unacceptable to the rich fellow and he goes away sad, and unsaved. Jesus has previously taught against accumulation of wealth and warned that one cannot serve two masters.
Our own Archbishop Desmond Tutu on one occasion was asked why the African Christians were fervent in a way that western Christians aren't. Easy, said Tutu, the poor don't have anything in between themselves are God, westerners are rich. That is an important word to us as to how we steward what we have received, to ensure that nothing outranks God in our hierarchy of values.
Later, back at the ranch, Jesus says that it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of needle than for wealthy people to enter the Kingdom of God. (Recent linguistic scholarship favours the translation, 'rope' rather than the traditional 'camel.') The disciples, who as good Jews have been bought up on prosperity gospel, are blown away, wondering if all rich folks are doomed, but Jesus assures them that anything is possible for God.
We too can be good people, live pious lives, and treat others well, and still miss the boat. Jesus beckons us to make a course correction into eternal life.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Pentecost XX: Tough Talk on Marriage
I would be that many Americans really do not believe that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. Maybe he was a Brit who spouted Elizabethan "King James" English. Or maybe he was a blond blue-eyed Scandinavian sheep herder. Or even a conservative evangelical American. Maybe..but no. He was a Jewish rabbi functioning in Palestinian culture within the Roman Empire in the first century. Although he was very critical of their hypocrisy, Jesus was theologically a Pharisee. He bought into their teachings on angelology, messianism, resurrection, the afterlife and eschatology. He also followed rabbinic teaching practices. Understanding those ground rules makes it much easier to avoid misinterpreting his concerns and utterances. One of those methods was to answer a question with a question. Another was to use puns. Read Genesis in the Hebrew and you will find puns by the score! Another technique was to absolutize. Elsewhere Jesus said we must be perfect like his Heavenly Father. How can a human being follow that? Impossible, but it is a goal to seek. I think outlawing divorce is a similar kind of utterance; he points us towards an ideal, without expecting people to remain in abusive, loveless or completely broken-down unions.
In today's gospel [Mark 10: 2-16] Jesus, at first blush, appears to outlaw divorce. This passage is adopted out of context by the Roman Church, conservative Campbellites, and other groups, to teach that Jesus forbade termination of a marriage. But consider that Matthew has Jesus add that divorce remains ok when the wife is guilty of sexual misconduct. Mark also contains a prohibition against a woman divorcing, even though only a man could initiate divorce in Jewry! If Jesus had intended a hard and fast rule, Saint Paul never heard of it because he adds yet another ground for divorce, that the spouse is not a Christian. So much for any blanket prohibition of divorce.
Jesus was always, always concerned with people, not rules. Here is what I think he was concerned about. The underlying law appears in Deuteronomy 24: 1-4 which states a man may get rid of his wife by giving her a get or writ of dismissal. If she is lucky enough to remarry, but then a second husband also divorces her, the first husband cannot re-marry her. By Jesus' time, the reality was that women who were divorced and did not have a wealthy family would have to turn to begging or prostitution.
Remember that marriage began in the fourth millenium BCE in the Middle East and consisted of legal contract transferring the woman as chattel, as personal property, from the father to husband, sealed by some consideration or " bride price." She had no rights in the marriage, no way to avoid abuse or mistreatment, and was subject to being out on the street at a moment's notice. I think that must have been Jesus' concern here -- speaking out in a patriarchal society to protest sexism, inequality, and the abuse of women.
How do we do our best to approximate what Jesus is calling for -- healthy marital relationships?
In the Roman Communion, those wishing to remarry must arrange for the church to call a trial, a tribunal, and attempt to prove there was no first marriage. How insulting to people's intelligence.
In the Orthodox Communion, the parties must make a public confession of regret for the failure of the first marriage. In our Anglican Communion, counselling is required before the second marriage to help ensure that issues that contributed to the failure of the first marriage will not be introduced into that next marriage. The bishop is to be satisfied on that score and other issues like adequate provision for the children, then grants consent for the re-marriage. Our process is sensible, respectful of the Sacrament, and always focused on helping the couple succeed in the new marital commitment.
In the Episcopal Church, we also acknowledge and honour the full humanity of gay and lesbian Christians and support those couples who seek to make before God a lifetime, exclusive marital commitment. We are not into judging and excluding other people from our faith communities. Never is it a sin to be who God created you.
In everything we try to err on the side of love, because everything Jesus did was about love and acceptance of all God's children. And after all, God is love.
In today's gospel [Mark 10: 2-16] Jesus, at first blush, appears to outlaw divorce. This passage is adopted out of context by the Roman Church, conservative Campbellites, and other groups, to teach that Jesus forbade termination of a marriage. But consider that Matthew has Jesus add that divorce remains ok when the wife is guilty of sexual misconduct. Mark also contains a prohibition against a woman divorcing, even though only a man could initiate divorce in Jewry! If Jesus had intended a hard and fast rule, Saint Paul never heard of it because he adds yet another ground for divorce, that the spouse is not a Christian. So much for any blanket prohibition of divorce.
Jesus was always, always concerned with people, not rules. Here is what I think he was concerned about. The underlying law appears in Deuteronomy 24: 1-4 which states a man may get rid of his wife by giving her a get or writ of dismissal. If she is lucky enough to remarry, but then a second husband also divorces her, the first husband cannot re-marry her. By Jesus' time, the reality was that women who were divorced and did not have a wealthy family would have to turn to begging or prostitution.
Remember that marriage began in the fourth millenium BCE in the Middle East and consisted of legal contract transferring the woman as chattel, as personal property, from the father to husband, sealed by some consideration or " bride price." She had no rights in the marriage, no way to avoid abuse or mistreatment, and was subject to being out on the street at a moment's notice. I think that must have been Jesus' concern here -- speaking out in a patriarchal society to protest sexism, inequality, and the abuse of women.
How do we do our best to approximate what Jesus is calling for -- healthy marital relationships?
In the Roman Communion, those wishing to remarry must arrange for the church to call a trial, a tribunal, and attempt to prove there was no first marriage. How insulting to people's intelligence.
In the Orthodox Communion, the parties must make a public confession of regret for the failure of the first marriage. In our Anglican Communion, counselling is required before the second marriage to help ensure that issues that contributed to the failure of the first marriage will not be introduced into that next marriage. The bishop is to be satisfied on that score and other issues like adequate provision for the children, then grants consent for the re-marriage. Our process is sensible, respectful of the Sacrament, and always focused on helping the couple succeed in the new marital commitment.
In the Episcopal Church, we also acknowledge and honour the full humanity of gay and lesbian Christians and support those couples who seek to make before God a lifetime, exclusive marital commitment. We are not into judging and excluding other people from our faith communities. Never is it a sin to be who God created you.
In everything we try to err on the side of love, because everything Jesus did was about love and acceptance of all God's children. And after all, God is love.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Guardian Angels
The word angel literally means "messenger," and throughout human history there have been manifestations of angels, human and divine, in Jewish tradition. The concept was embraced fully by the pharisaic movement. Although Jesus was critical of their hypocrisy, Jesus followed the theology of the Pharisees, including their devout belief in angels. In this morning's gospel reading, Matthew 12: 12b-15, Jesus says that that the little children have their respective angels in heaven. Decades later, Saint Luke in the book of Acts describes an incident in which the faithful Christians mistake Peter for his guardian angel. Angels were later elaborated in the Shepherd of Hermas, a popular book that was almost included in the Christian Bible when our bishops determined the contents in 397 C.E., and nonetheless continued to be treated as Scripture by some congregations for quite a while.
With such solid biblical and extra-biblical footing, it is no surprise that the guardian angels were revered intercessors in England even during the Anglo-Saxon period. In the eleventh century, Saint Alcuin, in particular, focused on them as intercessors. A definitive statement was made by Honorius Augustodunensis (d. 1151) when he taught that each human soul, when infused into the body at birth, is entrusted to the particular care of a single angel, who protects body and soul and offers prayers to God. Talk about back-up!
The angels of whom I have been truly aware were human, but there are certainly amazing instances of grace without human intervention. I bet you have had something like that in your life as well. Saint Paul, in the thirteen chapter of I Corinthians, says that in this life "all we see are puzzling reflections in a mirror," but will later have full knowledge. In the mean time we merely glimpse the sacred from time to time in a great many ways and trust the teaching of the Church that one spiritual agency at work in our lives is our guardian angel.
Let us close with the traditional prayer:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen.
With such solid biblical and extra-biblical footing, it is no surprise that the guardian angels were revered intercessors in England even during the Anglo-Saxon period. In the eleventh century, Saint Alcuin, in particular, focused on them as intercessors. A definitive statement was made by Honorius Augustodunensis (d. 1151) when he taught that each human soul, when infused into the body at birth, is entrusted to the particular care of a single angel, who protects body and soul and offers prayers to God. Talk about back-up!
The angels of whom I have been truly aware were human, but there are certainly amazing instances of grace without human intervention. I bet you have had something like that in your life as well. Saint Paul, in the thirteen chapter of I Corinthians, says that in this life "all we see are puzzling reflections in a mirror," but will later have full knowledge. In the mean time we merely glimpse the sacred from time to time in a great many ways and trust the teaching of the Church that one spiritual agency at work in our lives is our guardian angel.
Let us close with the traditional prayer:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Pentecost XIX: Mister X and Esther
In our gospel reading [Mk. 9:38 et seq.], au unknown person acting in Jesus' name is "casting out demons."(In modern language, he was relieving mental and emotional suffering). The disciples have their knickers in a twist because the man is not one of them, not a certified member of the apostolic college. Jesus attacks their criticism, saying "whoever isn't against us is for us." We don't know the historicity of this episode; when Matthew picks up a decade later he changes it; he has Jesus say just the opposite, "whoever isn't for me is against me." No matter, we don't look to Scripture as historical but as theological material and we focus on the message.
I find some really solid messages here. First, we are not presume that we know what God is doing, nor why nor with whom. That is not our province. Second, we must not be elitist or exclusive. We must avoid us v. them scenarios. Not to say that we should not stand by our convictions, but we can do some without judgmentalism towards others. As Christians we aren't called to be right. We are called to be faithful. I recently received an invitation to a clergy-appreciation event at a retirement community where I offer regular services and minister to several people. I was shocked to learn that some residents asked the management not to invite me (or the Roman priest who also serves) as they don't consider us Christians. They need to read this passage and some history books.
Another message that the passage conveys to me is the value of ecumenism. First, Christian ecumenism which allows us to learn from persons of various traditions and to be more tolerant. I serve in an ecumenical body with a gentleman who was a lifetime pastor in an exclusivist type of tradition, and I was delighted when he announced recently that he has left denomination for a more open and progressive one. Second, broader ecumenism can also be wonderful. The teaching which we called the Golden Rule is the philosophical basis for all the worlds great religions. I have come to know, respect, and learn from, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other faith traditions.
In our Hebrew pericope [Esther 7, portions] we engage a wonderful book which was written in the fifth century B.C.E., and the text was enlarged and finalized in the second. There are only three books of the Bible starring women, the other two being Ruth and Judith. In Esther, persons following the traditional religion and values of the Persian Empire have decided that Jews are guilty of being different and need to be annihilated. Showing amazing chutzpah, Esther, learning of a planned pogrom, enters the King's court, reveals the plot and saves herself and her people. The book teaches several good points. First, people of faith, faced with an Empire and its culture hostile to their values (as we are today) need not withdraw, but become involved in the culture and try to better it. Second, people of faith can and should honour what is good in the prevailing culture. And, finally, people of faith should cooperate with the system when they can do so with violating the principles of their tradition. There is good stuff here about being responsible, yet faithful, in a hostile environment.
Let me close with Edwin Markham's poem "Outwitted"
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.
I find some really solid messages here. First, we are not presume that we know what God is doing, nor why nor with whom. That is not our province. Second, we must not be elitist or exclusive. We must avoid us v. them scenarios. Not to say that we should not stand by our convictions, but we can do some without judgmentalism towards others. As Christians we aren't called to be right. We are called to be faithful. I recently received an invitation to a clergy-appreciation event at a retirement community where I offer regular services and minister to several people. I was shocked to learn that some residents asked the management not to invite me (or the Roman priest who also serves) as they don't consider us Christians. They need to read this passage and some history books.
Another message that the passage conveys to me is the value of ecumenism. First, Christian ecumenism which allows us to learn from persons of various traditions and to be more tolerant. I serve in an ecumenical body with a gentleman who was a lifetime pastor in an exclusivist type of tradition, and I was delighted when he announced recently that he has left denomination for a more open and progressive one. Second, broader ecumenism can also be wonderful. The teaching which we called the Golden Rule is the philosophical basis for all the worlds great religions. I have come to know, respect, and learn from, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other faith traditions.
In our Hebrew pericope [Esther 7, portions] we engage a wonderful book which was written in the fifth century B.C.E., and the text was enlarged and finalized in the second. There are only three books of the Bible starring women, the other two being Ruth and Judith. In Esther, persons following the traditional religion and values of the Persian Empire have decided that Jews are guilty of being different and need to be annihilated. Showing amazing chutzpah, Esther, learning of a planned pogrom, enters the King's court, reveals the plot and saves herself and her people. The book teaches several good points. First, people of faith, faced with an Empire and its culture hostile to their values (as we are today) need not withdraw, but become involved in the culture and try to better it. Second, people of faith can and should honour what is good in the prevailing culture. And, finally, people of faith should cooperate with the system when they can do so with violating the principles of their tradition. There is good stuff here about being responsible, yet faithful, in a hostile environment.
Let me close with Edwin Markham's poem "Outwitted"
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.
Monday, September 24, 2018
Saint Matthew, Patron
In the Fifties, the flagship parish of Tulsa, Trinity, in a paroxysm of evangelical fervour, founded four mission churches in its environs: St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John. Located on the four points of the compass, all these are still extant, though St. Mark and another congregation were later merged to become St. Aidan's.
In the three great traditions of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church -- Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican -- it is customary to place each new congregation under the protection of a Saint for whom it is named. Thus, Saint Matthew, tax agent of the first century, is our Patron. He is an interesting character. As a Jew who collected taxes for the occupying enemy, the Roman Empire, he was despised by co-religionists, who shunned the traitorous tax collector, and were aware that most were con-artists who charged for their fee whatever the market would bear. A pious Jew would not even marry into a family that contained a single tax collector. Jesus rejected that kind of harsh judgmentalism; indeed one of his most powerful stories is about a proud Pharisee whose judgmental prayer was rejected even as God honoured the prayer of the very tax agent he criticised, when the tax man prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus liked to turn things upside down.
We see that in today's pericope [Mt. 9: 9-13] depicting the call of Matthew. He is in his tax booth where goods going out of Palestine were charged a toll (a rate set by Rome but then augmented by any amount the tax agent could get away with adding on). Jesus says "Follow me," Matthew does immediately follow. Then later the new recruit throws a dinner party for Jesus at which Pharisees bitch and moan because Jesus and his disciples are eating and drinking with people like Matthew and other outcasts.
After the Resurrection, Matthew was an effective evangelist in Judaea, then travelled east and was martyred. That is why our liturgical colour today is red. The gospel later named in his honour is truly Jewish-Christian and its Jewish provenance is seen in the emphasis of deeds over words, and especially a person's religious obligations to neighbours, family, even enemies. And the capstone of the Matthaean gospel is the Sermon on the Mount, which contains many things to do, not one doctrine or dogma to profess.
Matthew's life teaches us the importance of discernment and then bold action in response, (Be sure you are right, then go ahead, as Abraham Lincoln said). When Matthew read who Jesus was, he was all in, forever. His life also teaches us the importance of perseverance; his ministry was rich and full, continuing to the end of his life.
Saint Matthew, teach us to read the signs of the times, to respond to God's call on our lives, and to live out that response forever. And, to aid us in fulfilling our mission, Saint Matthew, pray for us.
In the three great traditions of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church -- Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican -- it is customary to place each new congregation under the protection of a Saint for whom it is named. Thus, Saint Matthew, tax agent of the first century, is our Patron. He is an interesting character. As a Jew who collected taxes for the occupying enemy, the Roman Empire, he was despised by co-religionists, who shunned the traitorous tax collector, and were aware that most were con-artists who charged for their fee whatever the market would bear. A pious Jew would not even marry into a family that contained a single tax collector. Jesus rejected that kind of harsh judgmentalism; indeed one of his most powerful stories is about a proud Pharisee whose judgmental prayer was rejected even as God honoured the prayer of the very tax agent he criticised, when the tax man prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus liked to turn things upside down.
We see that in today's pericope [Mt. 9: 9-13] depicting the call of Matthew. He is in his tax booth where goods going out of Palestine were charged a toll (a rate set by Rome but then augmented by any amount the tax agent could get away with adding on). Jesus says "Follow me," Matthew does immediately follow. Then later the new recruit throws a dinner party for Jesus at which Pharisees bitch and moan because Jesus and his disciples are eating and drinking with people like Matthew and other outcasts.
After the Resurrection, Matthew was an effective evangelist in Judaea, then travelled east and was martyred. That is why our liturgical colour today is red. The gospel later named in his honour is truly Jewish-Christian and its Jewish provenance is seen in the emphasis of deeds over words, and especially a person's religious obligations to neighbours, family, even enemies. And the capstone of the Matthaean gospel is the Sermon on the Mount, which contains many things to do, not one doctrine or dogma to profess.
Matthew's life teaches us the importance of discernment and then bold action in response, (Be sure you are right, then go ahead, as Abraham Lincoln said). When Matthew read who Jesus was, he was all in, forever. His life also teaches us the importance of perseverance; his ministry was rich and full, continuing to the end of his life.
Saint Matthew, teach us to read the signs of the times, to respond to God's call on our lives, and to live out that response forever. And, to aid us in fulfilling our mission, Saint Matthew, pray for us.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Pentecost XVII: New-fangled Messiah
Mark is the earliest canonical gospel and it does not have a flattering portrait of Jesus' disciples. They are an ignorant and hard-hearted lot. In Chapter 4, they debate who Jesus might be. They are clueless. In Chapter 6, they mistake him for a ghost. They're hopeless. But for us who are readers, reality sets in from the very first sentence of the gospel: Jesus is "the Messiah, the Son of God."
In today's pericope [Mk. 8: 27-38] Jesus calls the question and Peter actually gets the answer correct, "You are the Messiah." So far, so good. But then Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone. (In the Markan gospel, his true identity is to be kept secret until the resurrection). More importantly, Jesus now pivots to explain that he is re-defining messiahship! He will not be the expected and glorious military leader who heads up a violent revolution against the Roman Empire, re-establishes Jewish statehood, and brings in God's earthly kingdom by magic. On the contrary, this new-fangled Messiah will suffer.
Suffer? That is a shocking notion, that the one we awaited should be a suffering servant instead. And suffer he shall. Let me make a theological statement about that. He will not suffer because suffering builds character and endurance (suffering often just makes people weaker, and bitter). He will not suffer because his angry, unforgiving Father demands to be appeased through bloody sacrifice. No, Jesus is going to suffer because it is the natural consequence of a life lived fully in conformance to God's will. He will reject bad social and religious norms, opposed imperial power and the values of the Empire. He will lift up the marginalized, the unclean, the forgotten, teaching that God equally loves all his children and never gives up on any of us.. That kind of social action can get a person killed -- and it will.
The question for us is not "do we profess?' but "do we practice?" Do we live Jesus' life and take those same risks that Jesus took for the sake of God's inbreaking Reign?
In answering the interrogative "Who do people say I am?," many folks today acknowledge Jesus a prophet, a religious leader. Many others, like the disciples, mistake him for a ghost with unlimited knowledge and powers, not a fully-human being magnificently radiating the love of God. But Jesus wants to be our leader and master, not our favorite philosopher, nor a godlet disguised as a human. Jesus wants to be our Lord and Savior, not our mascot. That requires surrender to the faithful and dangerous God-life which is our mission and is the only life worth living anyway.
In today's pericope [Mk. 8: 27-38] Jesus calls the question and Peter actually gets the answer correct, "You are the Messiah." So far, so good. But then Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone. (In the Markan gospel, his true identity is to be kept secret until the resurrection). More importantly, Jesus now pivots to explain that he is re-defining messiahship! He will not be the expected and glorious military leader who heads up a violent revolution against the Roman Empire, re-establishes Jewish statehood, and brings in God's earthly kingdom by magic. On the contrary, this new-fangled Messiah will suffer.
Suffer? That is a shocking notion, that the one we awaited should be a suffering servant instead. And suffer he shall. Let me make a theological statement about that. He will not suffer because suffering builds character and endurance (suffering often just makes people weaker, and bitter). He will not suffer because his angry, unforgiving Father demands to be appeased through bloody sacrifice. No, Jesus is going to suffer because it is the natural consequence of a life lived fully in conformance to God's will. He will reject bad social and religious norms, opposed imperial power and the values of the Empire. He will lift up the marginalized, the unclean, the forgotten, teaching that God equally loves all his children and never gives up on any of us.. That kind of social action can get a person killed -- and it will.
The question for us is not "do we profess?' but "do we practice?" Do we live Jesus' life and take those same risks that Jesus took for the sake of God's inbreaking Reign?
In answering the interrogative "Who do people say I am?," many folks today acknowledge Jesus a prophet, a religious leader. Many others, like the disciples, mistake him for a ghost with unlimited knowledge and powers, not a fully-human being magnificently radiating the love of God. But Jesus wants to be our leader and master, not our favorite philosopher, nor a godlet disguised as a human. Jesus wants to be our Lord and Savior, not our mascot. That requires surrender to the faithful and dangerous God-life which is our mission and is the only life worth living anyway.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
St. Paul Jones, Bishop
Born in Pennsylvania, Paul Jones was graduated from Yale University and then took his theological decree at Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first posting was to a congregation in Logan, Utah. That must have been a bit of a cultural shock. In the event, Father Jones was named Archdeacon of the Missionary District [proto-diocese] of Utah. He excelled at the growing of congregations and diocesan institutions and, in 1914, was elected Bishop of Utah. He was strongly opposed to the First World War, which was born out of entangled alliances and had no moral purpose, and that opposition soon led to trouble.
In 1917, Bishop Jones attended a meeting of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Los Angeles and, in a speech, made the statement that "war is un-Christian." He was immediately attacked in the press, especially with banner headlines in Utah. In the ensuing furor, the House of Bishops appointed a committee to investigate the situation. The committee conducted a trial, found fault with Jones's statement and called on him to resign, explicitly rejecting his contention that he had a right to object to the war on grounds of faith and conscience. In the spring of 1918, Bishop Jones resigned. From then on, he continued to lead a strong peace movement. Under his leadership, the Fellowship of Reconciliation became international and accomplished much. In 1940, he was the Socialist Party candidate for governor of Ohio. Bishop Jones died on 4 September, 1941.
The churchly crisis Bishop Jones faced is a reminder of how, even today, there are Christians and religious leaders who refuse to allow their religion to interfere with their politics! Leaders for whom values instilled by Jesus Christ are to be openly rejected, especially his clear teachings on peace and non-violence. When Christianity becomes inconvenient, just redefine it to conform to the world's agendas! It is a sad fact of life that Christianity does not convert cultures; cultures find ways to convert Christianity.
I am pleased to say that the House of Bishops, meeting in 1962, declared "the validity of the calling of the conscientious objector and the pacifist, and the duty of the Church fully to minister to him, and its obligation to see that we live in a society in which the dictates of his conscience are respected."
Bishop Jones wrote, "Where I serve the Church is of small importance, so long as I can make my life count in the cause of Christ." So it must be for us.
In 1917, Bishop Jones attended a meeting of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Los Angeles and, in a speech, made the statement that "war is un-Christian." He was immediately attacked in the press, especially with banner headlines in Utah. In the ensuing furor, the House of Bishops appointed a committee to investigate the situation. The committee conducted a trial, found fault with Jones's statement and called on him to resign, explicitly rejecting his contention that he had a right to object to the war on grounds of faith and conscience. In the spring of 1918, Bishop Jones resigned. From then on, he continued to lead a strong peace movement. Under his leadership, the Fellowship of Reconciliation became international and accomplished much. In 1940, he was the Socialist Party candidate for governor of Ohio. Bishop Jones died on 4 September, 1941.
The churchly crisis Bishop Jones faced is a reminder of how, even today, there are Christians and religious leaders who refuse to allow their religion to interfere with their politics! Leaders for whom values instilled by Jesus Christ are to be openly rejected, especially his clear teachings on peace and non-violence. When Christianity becomes inconvenient, just redefine it to conform to the world's agendas! It is a sad fact of life that Christianity does not convert cultures; cultures find ways to convert Christianity.
I am pleased to say that the House of Bishops, meeting in 1962, declared "the validity of the calling of the conscientious objector and the pacifist, and the duty of the Church fully to minister to him, and its obligation to see that we live in a society in which the dictates of his conscience are respected."
Bishop Jones wrote, "Where I serve the Church is of small importance, so long as I can make my life count in the cause of Christ." So it must be for us.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Pentecost XIV: Communion
In today's gospel reading [John 6: 56-69] Jesus delivers a sermon about his real presence in the Eucharist. His language is unmistakably clear, "My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink." And he repeats the assertion many times. The result is that many of his followers bail out, because they won't believe it. That has always been something of a mystery to me. If the Spirit of God infuses all of creation, why is it so hard for some today to believe that the same Spirit infuses and transforms bread and wine at Mass? That protestants can blow off this clear biblical teaching is more of a mystery to me than the mystery of real presence itself.
I read recently of the experience of a theologian who served as a tour guide in the Middle East, enjoying the privilege of bringing visitors to sites where Jesus lived, taught, aggravated so many Establishment types, was crucified, buried, and resurrected. One time, at a stop in Cana -- the town noted for the water-to-wine story -- tourists were sampling locally-made wine when one lady asked him whether that wine was from the time of Jesus. The theologian replied, yes, because now is the time of Jesus. He is risen, he is alive and in charge of the Christian enterprise. What a poignant and meaningful observation. For many protestants communion, when it happens, seems to be about the consumption of bread and grape juice while thinking about the events of two thousand years ago. In our tradition, Communion is about the real presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine, received at every Mass, every Sunday and holy day. It is spiritual food for our life journey.
But we need to recognize that the eucharistic sacrament is also sacramentum unitatis, as we have always held, the sacrament of unity. We live in a society which is continuously more polarized, in political and social matters, divided along lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, and other human- made barriers to relationship. Jesus warns us that unless we find unity among ourselves, we will not find unity with God. Judgmentalism and exclusionary policies in many Christian traditions make a bad situation worse. That model is avoided assiduously by Episcopalians, as our part of being faithful to Jesus who taught us about God's equal and unconditional love for all.
In the late 1940's, a young Afro-American woman in Ohio, who had been raised Baptist, visited an Episcopal parish, loved it, took instructions, and became an Episcopalian. Soon she began to date a young man, whose background was also that of a Black Baptist. She invited him to Mass at her church. He told her that he knew that most of the members of her church were white and, in that segregated society, he was frankly afraid to participate in race-mixing. She assured him that there was nothing to fear, and he gave in and attended with her. He enjoyed the liturgy, but when it was time for Communion and she took him to the rail, he said that he was terrified. The priest came through with the hosts and administered those, "The Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." The couple received the consecrated bread together. Then the chalice was brought, and the young man was astonished that all partook of the same cup. "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." All those who came forward for Communion knelt together as equals, as brothers and sisters whose relationship transcends human categories. The young couple received the consecrated wine together. The boyfriend said that his amazement was based on knowing that he could not drink water from the same public fountain as whites or eat in the same restaurant, yet here in the Episcopal Church all were equal in Christ! He was so impressed that he soon took instruction and was confirmed in the Church.
The couple went to on to have a successful marriage and life. In 1953, they had a son, Michael Curry, who is now the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church -- a great blessing in his national ministry. I am so delighted that we can preserve our Catholic Tradition in an open fashion. Here you don't have to "qualify" for Communion by allegiance to the Pope, or by affirming all Eastern Orthodox doctrines and being confessed. You just have to be a baptised child of God, that's all.
I read recently of the experience of a theologian who served as a tour guide in the Middle East, enjoying the privilege of bringing visitors to sites where Jesus lived, taught, aggravated so many Establishment types, was crucified, buried, and resurrected. One time, at a stop in Cana -- the town noted for the water-to-wine story -- tourists were sampling locally-made wine when one lady asked him whether that wine was from the time of Jesus. The theologian replied, yes, because now is the time of Jesus. He is risen, he is alive and in charge of the Christian enterprise. What a poignant and meaningful observation. For many protestants communion, when it happens, seems to be about the consumption of bread and grape juice while thinking about the events of two thousand years ago. In our tradition, Communion is about the real presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine, received at every Mass, every Sunday and holy day. It is spiritual food for our life journey.
But we need to recognize that the eucharistic sacrament is also sacramentum unitatis, as we have always held, the sacrament of unity. We live in a society which is continuously more polarized, in political and social matters, divided along lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, and other human- made barriers to relationship. Jesus warns us that unless we find unity among ourselves, we will not find unity with God. Judgmentalism and exclusionary policies in many Christian traditions make a bad situation worse. That model is avoided assiduously by Episcopalians, as our part of being faithful to Jesus who taught us about God's equal and unconditional love for all.
In the late 1940's, a young Afro-American woman in Ohio, who had been raised Baptist, visited an Episcopal parish, loved it, took instructions, and became an Episcopalian. Soon she began to date a young man, whose background was also that of a Black Baptist. She invited him to Mass at her church. He told her that he knew that most of the members of her church were white and, in that segregated society, he was frankly afraid to participate in race-mixing. She assured him that there was nothing to fear, and he gave in and attended with her. He enjoyed the liturgy, but when it was time for Communion and she took him to the rail, he said that he was terrified. The priest came through with the hosts and administered those, "The Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." The couple received the consecrated bread together. Then the chalice was brought, and the young man was astonished that all partook of the same cup. "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." All those who came forward for Communion knelt together as equals, as brothers and sisters whose relationship transcends human categories. The young couple received the consecrated wine together. The boyfriend said that his amazement was based on knowing that he could not drink water from the same public fountain as whites or eat in the same restaurant, yet here in the Episcopal Church all were equal in Christ! He was so impressed that he soon took instruction and was confirmed in the Church.
The couple went to on to have a successful marriage and life. In 1953, they had a son, Michael Curry, who is now the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church -- a great blessing in his national ministry. I am so delighted that we can preserve our Catholic Tradition in an open fashion. Here you don't have to "qualify" for Communion by allegiance to the Pope, or by affirming all Eastern Orthodox doctrines and being confessed. You just have to be a baptised child of God, that's all.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Assumption of Mary
Today the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, commonly called the Assumption, reflects the ancient belief in the Church that, from the last moment of life, Our Lady was reunited with her Son in heaven. This conviction is shared by us Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Mary's Assumption constitutes a beautiful sign of our own resurrection to glory and is the logical conclusion to her remarkable life. Let's take a look at the life of Mary, "Model Disciple."
First, Mary is a model of faith; she demonstrated radical trust in God all her life, no wavering. Second, she is also a model of obedience; her 'yes' made out salvation possible. She is also a wonderful model of prayer, pondering the things of God in her sacred heart. She is a model of devotion, responsible for Jesus' religious education; serving him during his earthly ministry, experiencing her Son on the cross and in resurrection; patiently waiting with the disciples of the coming of the Spirit on her and them at Pentecost, the birthday of the Church; then on to Ephesus with Saint John to be a special light to that congregation until the end of her earthly life. Now in heavenly reality, she is our heavenly prayer partner.
We don't know exactly what resurrection is like, but we can to turn to the analogy used by Jesus as well as Saint Paul, that of the seed -- something dies so something more wonderful and beautiful can emerge. Where Mary is, and how Mary is, we shall be. She has shown us the way.
First, Mary is a model of faith; she demonstrated radical trust in God all her life, no wavering. Second, she is also a model of obedience; her 'yes' made out salvation possible. She is also a wonderful model of prayer, pondering the things of God in her sacred heart. She is a model of devotion, responsible for Jesus' religious education; serving him during his earthly ministry, experiencing her Son on the cross and in resurrection; patiently waiting with the disciples of the coming of the Spirit on her and them at Pentecost, the birthday of the Church; then on to Ephesus with Saint John to be a special light to that congregation until the end of her earthly life. Now in heavenly reality, she is our heavenly prayer partner.
We don't know exactly what resurrection is like, but we can to turn to the analogy used by Jesus as well as Saint Paul, that of the seed -- something dies so something more wonderful and beautiful can emerge. Where Mary is, and how Mary is, we shall be. She has shown us the way.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Pentecost XII: Getting Real about Religion
In 1963, on a whim before I was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, I decided to take a road trip with some beach time. Having limited resources, I took a Greyhound bus from Tennessee to Florida. The bus drove southwards through Mississippi before hanging a left to go to Pensacola. On the way south, I watched uniformed police officers standing out in the fields, training dogs to attack young men in white shirts and ties -- the uniform of freedom riders. Then, during a stopover in Jackson, I -- also wearing a white shirt and tie -- went into the coffee shop next door and could not get served. I repeatedly requested a cup of coffee and was uniformly ignored, so I returned to bus, went on to the beach for a couple of days, then homewards again.
Those experiences made a strong impression and led to my later involvement in promoting civil rights. I am still an ACLU member and proud of it. During the trip I kept thinking that many of the leaders of the Movement were Christian clergy, like Doctor King and Episcopal Presiding Bishop John Hines. Yet, my parent's denomination taught that people of colour were inferior and quoted bible verses to prove that God wanted blacks to be a servant class for Caucasians. I heard one of our pastors actually use the description, "sub-human." I realized that Christianity could be approached, as Doctor King did, with focus on Jesus' teachings or it could be co-opted to justify prejudices and ignorance or to satisfy a political, economic, or social agenda.
That is still the case. If you don't believe that the Faith is manipulated by cons motivated by a desire for self-aggrandizement and accumulation of great wealth, just tune in to the entertainment-religion television channels. Or listen to the messages of a variety of eccentric Christian cults who are obsessed with everything but the issues important to Jesus like promoting freedom, justice, and equality. Like opposing violence in all forms and accumulation of wealth. In recent polls we find that the fastest growing religious classification in America is "no thanks." Persons whose religious preference is: none. When you see what passes for Christianity, it is not surprising.
We all know of people whose personal code of conduct is irreproachable but have not come to faith. They do so for humanitarian reasons outside the context of religion and community. They may style themselves as "spiritual, not religious." We do not judge them or question what God may be doing in their lives. A priest friend of mine, formerly a protestant minister, was fired as youth pastor of his Baptist congregation after he told a youth group that Mahatma Gandhi (whose life has remarkable parallels to the life of Jesus) could be in heaven!
Alongside those who have rejected Christianity are two categories of Church members. First, we know of many who have deep trust in God and mature relationship to God in Christ. They show remarkable strength and resilience when dark times pass through their lives. They bounce back. They experience the Church as their prime resource, where they are fed by "the Word faithfully preached and the Sacraments duly administered." We might analogize that they make regular deposits into their "heavenly bank account." On the other hand, there are many tangential members: Sometimes we speak of C&E's (Christmas and Easter Catholics) or ACE's (Ash Wednesday, Christmas, and Easter folks.) They are often devastated by a crisis and get angry with God because, when they need to make a withdrawal from that heavenly account, it is empty or overdrawn. We get out of our spiritual life pretty much what we put into it.
As Episcopalians, we strive to follow genuine Christianity, the actual teachings of Christ, and to be fed by Word and Sacrament to do just that. Let us then recommit to our mission of building God's Kingdom, a world where God's will is done in earth as in heaven. Then victims of phony religion, doubters, and half-hearted people may see the real thing shining in our lives and want that life for themselves.
Those experiences made a strong impression and led to my later involvement in promoting civil rights. I am still an ACLU member and proud of it. During the trip I kept thinking that many of the leaders of the Movement were Christian clergy, like Doctor King and Episcopal Presiding Bishop John Hines. Yet, my parent's denomination taught that people of colour were inferior and quoted bible verses to prove that God wanted blacks to be a servant class for Caucasians. I heard one of our pastors actually use the description, "sub-human." I realized that Christianity could be approached, as Doctor King did, with focus on Jesus' teachings or it could be co-opted to justify prejudices and ignorance or to satisfy a political, economic, or social agenda.
That is still the case. If you don't believe that the Faith is manipulated by cons motivated by a desire for self-aggrandizement and accumulation of great wealth, just tune in to the entertainment-religion television channels. Or listen to the messages of a variety of eccentric Christian cults who are obsessed with everything but the issues important to Jesus like promoting freedom, justice, and equality. Like opposing violence in all forms and accumulation of wealth. In recent polls we find that the fastest growing religious classification in America is "no thanks." Persons whose religious preference is: none. When you see what passes for Christianity, it is not surprising.
We all know of people whose personal code of conduct is irreproachable but have not come to faith. They do so for humanitarian reasons outside the context of religion and community. They may style themselves as "spiritual, not religious." We do not judge them or question what God may be doing in their lives. A priest friend of mine, formerly a protestant minister, was fired as youth pastor of his Baptist congregation after he told a youth group that Mahatma Gandhi (whose life has remarkable parallels to the life of Jesus) could be in heaven!
Alongside those who have rejected Christianity are two categories of Church members. First, we know of many who have deep trust in God and mature relationship to God in Christ. They show remarkable strength and resilience when dark times pass through their lives. They bounce back. They experience the Church as their prime resource, where they are fed by "the Word faithfully preached and the Sacraments duly administered." We might analogize that they make regular deposits into their "heavenly bank account." On the other hand, there are many tangential members: Sometimes we speak of C&E's (Christmas and Easter Catholics) or ACE's (Ash Wednesday, Christmas, and Easter folks.) They are often devastated by a crisis and get angry with God because, when they need to make a withdrawal from that heavenly account, it is empty or overdrawn. We get out of our spiritual life pretty much what we put into it.
As Episcopalians, we strive to follow genuine Christianity, the actual teachings of Christ, and to be fed by Word and Sacrament to do just that. Let us then recommit to our mission of building God's Kingdom, a world where God's will is done in earth as in heaven. Then victims of phony religion, doubters, and half-hearted people may see the real thing shining in our lives and want that life for themselves.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Saint John Mason Neale
The Saint-du-jour was born in London in 1818 and after university was ordained to the Priesthood in 1842. At a personal level he exhibited traits often considered "saintly," especially gentleness, good humour, modesty, devotion, and generosity to a fault. All that despite besetting physical issues.
His contributions at the theological/ecclesiological level were quite significant. He strongly supported the Oxford Movement. calling the Church back to full Catholic faith and practice. In his enlightened recognition that the suppression of religious orders had been a mistake, he founded the Sisterhood of Saint Margaret to serve the needs of suffering girls and women.
At the liturgical level, he was a prolific translator of ancient Latin and Greek hymns, doing more than thirty such compositions into English. He also composed many fresh hymns which we sing including the three we sing today at University Village: Christ is Made the Sure Foundation; Of the Father's Love Begotten; and All Glory, Laud and Honour, translated from Latin and typically sung during the Palm Sunday procession in our churches.
Neale's Christmas music is also well known, as, for example, Good Christian Men, Rejoice; Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain; and Creator of the Stars of Night. On Good Friday, our congregation will intone Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle after the traditional Latin form, Pange Lingua Gloriosae.
Thanks be to God for the faith, devotion, and dedication of John Mason Neale in reviving the life of the Anglican Church and enhancing her liturgy.
His contributions at the theological/ecclesiological level were quite significant. He strongly supported the Oxford Movement. calling the Church back to full Catholic faith and practice. In his enlightened recognition that the suppression of religious orders had been a mistake, he founded the Sisterhood of Saint Margaret to serve the needs of suffering girls and women.
At the liturgical level, he was a prolific translator of ancient Latin and Greek hymns, doing more than thirty such compositions into English. He also composed many fresh hymns which we sing including the three we sing today at University Village: Christ is Made the Sure Foundation; Of the Father's Love Begotten; and All Glory, Laud and Honour, translated from Latin and typically sung during the Palm Sunday procession in our churches.
Neale's Christmas music is also well known, as, for example, Good Christian Men, Rejoice; Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain; and Creator of the Stars of Night. On Good Friday, our congregation will intone Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle after the traditional Latin form, Pange Lingua Gloriosae.
Thanks be to God for the faith, devotion, and dedication of John Mason Neale in reviving the life of the Anglican Church and enhancing her liturgy.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Salvation
Much of contemporary Christianity seems to be hooked on transactional salvation. By that, I mean to say that one must perform certain steps. First, convince oneself that Jesus is Lord, however that is understood. Second, make a public proclamation or sign a nifty "faith statement." At that a person is deemed "saved," which essentially means saved from eternal torture by an angry deity in the afterlife.
Our understanding of salvation is that it is a completely free gift from God, holy initiative on God's part. And the proper response is not performance but living a whole new way of life, the Christ Life. Through Christ's resurrection, we are called to be resurrection people, promoting God's Reign in this world, living the promised eternal life now and forever. That is called radical discipleship, a crazy new way of being, a tospy-turvy existence in which we love others as much as we do ourselves, and pray for them -- especially our enemies. Who does that? It means making our stewardship over our own resources and assets first to serve God's work before any other purpose.. Who does that? I say adherents are few and far between, yet these qualities are the imitation of the Christ we are called to bring into reality in our own day, in our daily lives. If we live this life to which we are called, we have no time to obsess on prospects in the afterlife and nothing to worry about. God can be trusted forever.
Pentecost IX: Life Beyond Literalism
A bishop once told me that the best definition of our Episcopal experience was "the Catholic Church where you don't check your brain at the door." There is no area in which that is more true than the interpretation of Scripture. I grew up in a tradition which taught that God sent the biblical authors into a trance and dictated the contents of the bible word-for-word in Hebrew and Greek. Seriously. And Scripture had to be interpreted factually and literally, even though it contains contradictions, factual and scientific errors, and terrible theology in places. That kind of hermeneutic simply cannot stand up to intelligent inquiry and has led to the proliferation of thirty thousand individual protestant denominations. More seriously it has led to droves of intelligent young people bailing out on the Faith. Thank God, they can find, as I found, the Episcopal Church and its rational engagement of Scripture.
We understand the holy books to be inspired by God yet the work of a cadre of fallible human beings trying to express their communities' experiences in search of God. Thus we read with every possible analytical tool available and with focus on the context/story of each author. Several readings today would lend themselves to serious analysis. For example, our reading from Jewish Scripture (II Sam. 7) might leave us wondering how the God who, Saint Paul says, does not dwell in human temples is today demanding a house to live in after dwelling in a tent. We could look at our New Testament selection (Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56) and query how Jesus' cloak could have curative powers. Instead, I want to take about our Ephesians reading (2: 11-22).
We know that the literary conventions of the Graeco-Roman world included a pass for plagiarism. Signing an author's name to a work was considered honorific, even if the content would not have passed muster with that writer. In that regard, we now know that Saint Paul did not write six of the books attributed to him. They are identifiable by unfamiliar vocabulary, theological strangeness, as well as reference to things that happened after Paul died. One of those six is Ephesians which is generally a beautifully-written inspiring book but we see today a major flaw literalists would miss. The writer says Jesus annulled the Jewish Law. Utter nonsense! God does not lie or go back on his promises. In today's psalm (89) God says to the Jewish People, "I will not take away my love or let my faithfulness prove false. I will not break my covenant." Saint Paul assured us that the Christian Movement was grafted onto the vine of Israel; it did not uproot it. Saint Peter, in the book of Acts, states that in every nation the person who loves God and does what is right is acceptable. So, no, God has not abandoned his first love. Therefore, our Communion and the Roman Communion, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Unitarians and others do not attempt to convert Jews. That does not mean that a Jew is denied entry to the Christian Covenant, which is open to all people. But this preacher is convinced that if God had really replaced the Jewish religion with Christianity (i.e. supersession) for faithlessness to God's will, then surely by now God would have replaced us with a third covenant.
We understand the holy books to be inspired by God yet the work of a cadre of fallible human beings trying to express their communities' experiences in search of God. Thus we read with every possible analytical tool available and with focus on the context/story of each author. Several readings today would lend themselves to serious analysis. For example, our reading from Jewish Scripture (II Sam. 7) might leave us wondering how the God who, Saint Paul says, does not dwell in human temples is today demanding a house to live in after dwelling in a tent. We could look at our New Testament selection (Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56) and query how Jesus' cloak could have curative powers. Instead, I want to take about our Ephesians reading (2: 11-22).
We know that the literary conventions of the Graeco-Roman world included a pass for plagiarism. Signing an author's name to a work was considered honorific, even if the content would not have passed muster with that writer. In that regard, we now know that Saint Paul did not write six of the books attributed to him. They are identifiable by unfamiliar vocabulary, theological strangeness, as well as reference to things that happened after Paul died. One of those six is Ephesians which is generally a beautifully-written inspiring book but we see today a major flaw literalists would miss. The writer says Jesus annulled the Jewish Law. Utter nonsense! God does not lie or go back on his promises. In today's psalm (89) God says to the Jewish People, "I will not take away my love or let my faithfulness prove false. I will not break my covenant." Saint Paul assured us that the Christian Movement was grafted onto the vine of Israel; it did not uproot it. Saint Peter, in the book of Acts, states that in every nation the person who loves God and does what is right is acceptable. So, no, God has not abandoned his first love. Therefore, our Communion and the Roman Communion, Methodists, United Church of Christ, Unitarians and others do not attempt to convert Jews. That does not mean that a Jew is denied entry to the Christian Covenant, which is open to all people. But this preacher is convinced that if God had really replaced the Jewish religion with Christianity (i.e. supersession) for faithlessness to God's will, then surely by now God would have replaced us with a third covenant.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Pentecost VIII: Royal Families
I was deeply moved by a Facebook post by a member of our extended family which read "I have family who are not blood. I have blood who are not family." The statement beautifully reflects his situation, in which my family and I are family to him , but not blood relatives . Family can have a range of meanings.
Our readings today speak of two ancient royal families. The first relates to King David (II Sam. 6). Let's go back to the beginning thread of the narrative where we find the Philistine giant Goliath. He figures in two major stories -- one in which he is killed by David; in the other, by someone else. We are positioned in the David narrative. Here King Saul declares that whoever kills Goliath will have a reward in the form of his eldest daughter. David (whom Saul apparently dislikes) kills Goliath and Saul reneges and gives first daughter to another man. David protests and Saul replies that, if David brings him the foreskins of 100 Philistines, David may have Saul's second daughter Michal. (That is good because the text tells us the Michal really loves David!) The request is, of course, literally ridiculous. It means killing a hundred men. David goes out and kills 200 Philistines (remember that genocide against Philistines is a Jewish pastime back then.)
So David gets to have Michal. However, Saul sends troops out to kill David. Michal lowers him out a window and she takes an idol, dresses it in David's clothes, puts a wig on it, and covers it up in David's bed. When the troops arrive they are in for a surprise. David is on the lam. During this time, Saul gives Michal to another man. David consoles himself in the meantime by taking two other women as wives. When David has become king, he takes Michal away from her husband and takes her as a wife. When David comes into Jerusalem in triumph, he dances lustily before the Ark of the Covenant. Michal sees it and hates him. Maybe the hatred goes back to being abducted from her previous husband, maybe not. In the event, David throws a big victory party. When he comes home Michal lays into him for his unkingly dance, making a fool of himself. He tells her that now he will turn from her and start partying with servant girls!
David was a great king but his personal life was messed up. He specialized in stealing other men's wives, although he said what he got from his boy friend Jonathan was better than what he even got from a woman! Anyway, this was a troubled royal family.
In our New Testament reading [Mk 6: 14-29] we see another royal family, that of Herod and wife Herodias. Herod is a Roman puppet king, half-Jewish in order to placate Jewish subjects. When he marries Herodias, she is still married to his brother-in-law, an egregious violation of Jewish Law. John the Baptiser points that out and it costs him his head, but signals the launch of Jesus' public ministry. Another messed-up royal family.
Our epistle [Eph 1: 3-14] speaks of yet another royal family, the Church in which we are all adopted brothers and sisters called to healthy relationship, to doing ministry for and with one another, in the parish and out in the world. Indeed, Saint Paul speaks of our faith family as our primary allegiance. We are children of the King, serving the world in his name. That is what we are all about as healthy family members who have each other's back, who strive to walk in love and service. I have family who are not blood, and so do you! The family of God.
Our readings today speak of two ancient royal families. The first relates to King David (II Sam. 6). Let's go back to the beginning thread of the narrative where we find the Philistine giant Goliath. He figures in two major stories -- one in which he is killed by David; in the other, by someone else. We are positioned in the David narrative. Here King Saul declares that whoever kills Goliath will have a reward in the form of his eldest daughter. David (whom Saul apparently dislikes) kills Goliath and Saul reneges and gives first daughter to another man. David protests and Saul replies that, if David brings him the foreskins of 100 Philistines, David may have Saul's second daughter Michal. (That is good because the text tells us the Michal really loves David!) The request is, of course, literally ridiculous. It means killing a hundred men. David goes out and kills 200 Philistines (remember that genocide against Philistines is a Jewish pastime back then.)
So David gets to have Michal. However, Saul sends troops out to kill David. Michal lowers him out a window and she takes an idol, dresses it in David's clothes, puts a wig on it, and covers it up in David's bed. When the troops arrive they are in for a surprise. David is on the lam. During this time, Saul gives Michal to another man. David consoles himself in the meantime by taking two other women as wives. When David has become king, he takes Michal away from her husband and takes her as a wife. When David comes into Jerusalem in triumph, he dances lustily before the Ark of the Covenant. Michal sees it and hates him. Maybe the hatred goes back to being abducted from her previous husband, maybe not. In the event, David throws a big victory party. When he comes home Michal lays into him for his unkingly dance, making a fool of himself. He tells her that now he will turn from her and start partying with servant girls!
David was a great king but his personal life was messed up. He specialized in stealing other men's wives, although he said what he got from his boy friend Jonathan was better than what he even got from a woman! Anyway, this was a troubled royal family.
In our New Testament reading [Mk 6: 14-29] we see another royal family, that of Herod and wife Herodias. Herod is a Roman puppet king, half-Jewish in order to placate Jewish subjects. When he marries Herodias, she is still married to his brother-in-law, an egregious violation of Jewish Law. John the Baptiser points that out and it costs him his head, but signals the launch of Jesus' public ministry. Another messed-up royal family.
Our epistle [Eph 1: 3-14] speaks of yet another royal family, the Church in which we are all adopted brothers and sisters called to healthy relationship, to doing ministry for and with one another, in the parish and out in the world. Indeed, Saint Paul speaks of our faith family as our primary allegiance. We are children of the King, serving the world in his name. That is what we are all about as healthy family members who have each other's back, who strive to walk in love and service. I have family who are not blood, and so do you! The family of God.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Pentecost VII: Marching Orders
Today Jesus goes home. At first he dazzles the crowds in Nazareth, but then reality sets in. Isn't this a local guy? We remember him growing up! His Mom and her step-kids still live here! How does this upstart think that he is all that? Jesus finds that he can do little with a community that will not take him or his message seriously. He retreats to the suburbs.
Now what? He decides to send his immediate successors, the twelve apostles, on a mission. They will go out, offering the same ministries that he does, just as we do today. The marching orders he gives are meant for us as well. Let's take a look.
First, they are to travel light. Jesus has elsewhere assured them that accumulating and loving wealth is the greatest danger to spiritual health. The poor are most beloved of God precisely because they don't have stuff in the way. (Remember, for example, how Saint Francis of Assisi gave away his wealth before beginning his remarkable ministry.) The apostles must not take actions that will show dependence on material things if they are to focus on the spiritual.
Second, they are to be long on method. Jesus does not meticulously dictate what to do, so much as how to do it. This reminds us that we evangelize primarily by our actions, not what we say. We are the hands, feet, heart and voice of Christ today. There are different ministries for different persons. The sacramental work of Christ is continued by ordained bishops and priests, but we are all part of his service ministry. Everthing we do is to be done in a Christian way. We want our life and work to cause others to want a piece of this new, different, and abundant kind of life.
Third, they are not to waste time where there is no receptivity. Let me tell you a true story about that. Before the American Revolution, the town of Bath, North Carolina was the Las Vegas of the British colonies. Blackbeard, the most honourable of all pirates, whose real name was Arthur Thatch, retired to Bath towards the end of his career. He became the Royal Governor's best friend. At about the same time, my seventh great-grandfather, Francis Shackelford, left Virginia and retired in Bath. And soon thereafter the town of Bath received a most distinguished guest.
The visitor was George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who moved from England to America He met the Wesley brothers, became part of the Methodist movement in Georgia, founded an orphanage, and supported the successful introduction of slavery into Georgia, where it had been illegal. Although a Methodist, Whitefield had adopted Calvinist doctrine (at his request he is buried under the pulpit of a Presbyterian church in Massachusetts) along the lines of Jonathan Edward's assault on "sinners in the hands of an angry God." During his preaching tour in the Colonies, he made a special stop at Bath. But "sin city" had no interest in his rigid Calvinism. His message fell on deaf ears. As a result, he went to the edge of town, shook the dust off his shoes, cursed Bath, never to return. He followed Jesus' admonition to the apostles as a literal command and obeyed it. We too may be reminded by this episode to conserve our energy and resources, and not to lose heart when our efforts fail.
Well, there you have it. Our marching orders for today and all our days to come.
Now what? He decides to send his immediate successors, the twelve apostles, on a mission. They will go out, offering the same ministries that he does, just as we do today. The marching orders he gives are meant for us as well. Let's take a look.
First, they are to travel light. Jesus has elsewhere assured them that accumulating and loving wealth is the greatest danger to spiritual health. The poor are most beloved of God precisely because they don't have stuff in the way. (Remember, for example, how Saint Francis of Assisi gave away his wealth before beginning his remarkable ministry.) The apostles must not take actions that will show dependence on material things if they are to focus on the spiritual.
Second, they are to be long on method. Jesus does not meticulously dictate what to do, so much as how to do it. This reminds us that we evangelize primarily by our actions, not what we say. We are the hands, feet, heart and voice of Christ today. There are different ministries for different persons. The sacramental work of Christ is continued by ordained bishops and priests, but we are all part of his service ministry. Everthing we do is to be done in a Christian way. We want our life and work to cause others to want a piece of this new, different, and abundant kind of life.
Third, they are not to waste time where there is no receptivity. Let me tell you a true story about that. Before the American Revolution, the town of Bath, North Carolina was the Las Vegas of the British colonies. Blackbeard, the most honourable of all pirates, whose real name was Arthur Thatch, retired to Bath towards the end of his career. He became the Royal Governor's best friend. At about the same time, my seventh great-grandfather, Francis Shackelford, left Virginia and retired in Bath. And soon thereafter the town of Bath received a most distinguished guest.
The visitor was George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who moved from England to America He met the Wesley brothers, became part of the Methodist movement in Georgia, founded an orphanage, and supported the successful introduction of slavery into Georgia, where it had been illegal. Although a Methodist, Whitefield had adopted Calvinist doctrine (at his request he is buried under the pulpit of a Presbyterian church in Massachusetts) along the lines of Jonathan Edward's assault on "sinners in the hands of an angry God." During his preaching tour in the Colonies, he made a special stop at Bath. But "sin city" had no interest in his rigid Calvinism. His message fell on deaf ears. As a result, he went to the edge of town, shook the dust off his shoes, cursed Bath, never to return. He followed Jesus' admonition to the apostles as a literal command and obeyed it. We too may be reminded by this episode to conserve our energy and resources, and not to lose heart when our efforts fail.
Well, there you have it. Our marching orders for today and all our days to come.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Independence Day
We gather to celebrate the wonderful freedom and opportunity that we enjoy here in the United States, but also to take opportunity to consider how that freedom calls for moral responsibility in various ways. Let me share a few things that are on my heart.
Few people seem to be aware that our Episcopal Church failed, by one vote of Congress, to become The Church of the United States. Being the state church in this country would have been a great honour, also a great burden. In their wisdom, the Founders instead decided that we should have a system of government in which there is freedom of religion but also freedom from religion. Every tradition and school of thought was to be respected, but there would be no coercion. Just imagine how you would feel as a hard-working taxpaying American citizen who is also a Muslim, a Jew, or Buddhist, or even secular, when you learn that your child's public school teacher is proselytizing for her Christian denomination. It happens. I have a Jewish friend whose son received a public school essay back marked with an "A" and also a notation asking "Are you saved?" We must reaffirm our commitment to the basic constitutional separation of the church and the state. We must do so in a spirit of mutual respect.
Another concern is that we seem to have slipped into the habit of making our religious values secondary to militarism. Today anyone who enters the Service and participates in combat becomes a "wounded warrior hero." That is reminiscent of the worship bestowed on Roman gladiators. We are perilously close to military worship. Don't get me wrong: I am a military veteran and I do appreciate all that veterans have done, but let us keep perspective. There is no sense anymore that an individual ought to exercise moral judgement as to participation in violence sponsored by our government. Our collect says that our nation "lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn." But how many times has our federal government supported murderous dictators who were allied to our national economic interests? How many times do we prop up a dictator one moment and depose him the next? How many democratically-elected leaders have we assassinated? Let us not be hypocrites!
Some people are so devoted to a particular political philosophy that they have managed to convince themselves that it is ok to bend Christianity to align with their pet tenets. Our bottom line in all these things must be that the Gospel stands above every other consideration and must be the lens through which we view and judge everything else in life. Otherwise, we are just playing at Christianity.
Have a wonderful Fourth, but stand strong in a faith that is confident enough to respect those who differ, that balances rights with responsibilities, freedom with obligation to the Gospel. That is our best gift to the Republic.
.
Few people seem to be aware that our Episcopal Church failed, by one vote of Congress, to become The Church of the United States. Being the state church in this country would have been a great honour, also a great burden. In their wisdom, the Founders instead decided that we should have a system of government in which there is freedom of religion but also freedom from religion. Every tradition and school of thought was to be respected, but there would be no coercion. Just imagine how you would feel as a hard-working taxpaying American citizen who is also a Muslim, a Jew, or Buddhist, or even secular, when you learn that your child's public school teacher is proselytizing for her Christian denomination. It happens. I have a Jewish friend whose son received a public school essay back marked with an "A" and also a notation asking "Are you saved?" We must reaffirm our commitment to the basic constitutional separation of the church and the state. We must do so in a spirit of mutual respect.
Another concern is that we seem to have slipped into the habit of making our religious values secondary to militarism. Today anyone who enters the Service and participates in combat becomes a "wounded warrior hero." That is reminiscent of the worship bestowed on Roman gladiators. We are perilously close to military worship. Don't get me wrong: I am a military veteran and I do appreciate all that veterans have done, but let us keep perspective. There is no sense anymore that an individual ought to exercise moral judgement as to participation in violence sponsored by our government. Our collect says that our nation "lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn." But how many times has our federal government supported murderous dictators who were allied to our national economic interests? How many times do we prop up a dictator one moment and depose him the next? How many democratically-elected leaders have we assassinated? Let us not be hypocrites!
Some people are so devoted to a particular political philosophy that they have managed to convince themselves that it is ok to bend Christianity to align with their pet tenets. Our bottom line in all these things must be that the Gospel stands above every other consideration and must be the lens through which we view and judge everything else in life. Otherwise, we are just playing at Christianity.
Have a wonderful Fourth, but stand strong in a faith that is confident enough to respect those who differ, that balances rights with responsibilities, freedom with obligation to the Gospel. That is our best gift to the Republic.
.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Pentecost VI: Woman, Rescued
Scripture tells us that humans see what is on the outside of a person, God sees through to heart. Today, Jesus the metaphor of God does exactly that, as he encounters a woman destined to die unremembered and alone. Scripture also assures us that the letter of the Law kills, but the spirit of the Law gives life. In today's encounter the woman's life is seriously diminished by the primitive provisions of the ancient religious heritage to which she is bound. Jesus will free her of that.
Today's text [Mk 5: 21-43] presents a woman who has suffered from haemorrhage for a full twelve years. Physically, that means that in a culture where aristocrats feast on meat and others want for effective levels of protein, the woman has been painfully anaemic, weak, no doubt depressed. Now adding to her plight, the old Jewish tradition declares her effluence renders her ritually unclean. Anyone who touches her, even accidentally, becomes unclean. In a state of uncleanness, worship at the Temple is forbidden. As she is perpetually unclean, she is not even welcome in the Court of Women. Under the theology of the time, it is presumed that she, or perhaps her parents or even grandparents, did something to anger a God who holds grudges for generations and, in retaliation, withdraws his protection from the sinner or a descendant. . Loss of that protection means demons invade and bad things ensue, in this case, haemorrhage. To get right with God under the Law, she must go and offer the prescribed sacrifices to God, but she can't because she is constantly ritually unclean and banned from the Temple. Catch 22!
The woman has taken the logical next step and turned to medicine-for-profit. As a result, she is skint, as millions of Americans are today, and her condition is growing worse. The woman has heard of our Lord's fame as exorcist and spiritual leader -- how the blind come to see, the deaf to hear and to understand, the lame to run and walk. So she tries Jesus' free clinic. Good move. She experiences healing, which Jesus attributes to her faith. Many will not experience such a magical remission but rather find healing in being reconciled to the reality and finding new strength to move on. Jesus heralded her physical improvement but more he wanted the woman to be healed in mind and soul as well, and fully restored to family and community. She can begin to live again because of the action of a God whose true nature is love and compassion, demonstrated in the the Saviour.
How many of us in time of crisis, like this woman, try just about every possible solution before turning to God? We can often be our own worst enemy. Jesus wants to give us peace, wholeness -- shalom. Abundant life awaits. What inside you needs healing?
Today's text [Mk 5: 21-43] presents a woman who has suffered from haemorrhage for a full twelve years. Physically, that means that in a culture where aristocrats feast on meat and others want for effective levels of protein, the woman has been painfully anaemic, weak, no doubt depressed. Now adding to her plight, the old Jewish tradition declares her effluence renders her ritually unclean. Anyone who touches her, even accidentally, becomes unclean. In a state of uncleanness, worship at the Temple is forbidden. As she is perpetually unclean, she is not even welcome in the Court of Women. Under the theology of the time, it is presumed that she, or perhaps her parents or even grandparents, did something to anger a God who holds grudges for generations and, in retaliation, withdraws his protection from the sinner or a descendant. . Loss of that protection means demons invade and bad things ensue, in this case, haemorrhage. To get right with God under the Law, she must go and offer the prescribed sacrifices to God, but she can't because she is constantly ritually unclean and banned from the Temple. Catch 22!
The woman has taken the logical next step and turned to medicine-for-profit. As a result, she is skint, as millions of Americans are today, and her condition is growing worse. The woman has heard of our Lord's fame as exorcist and spiritual leader -- how the blind come to see, the deaf to hear and to understand, the lame to run and walk. So she tries Jesus' free clinic. Good move. She experiences healing, which Jesus attributes to her faith. Many will not experience such a magical remission but rather find healing in being reconciled to the reality and finding new strength to move on. Jesus heralded her physical improvement but more he wanted the woman to be healed in mind and soul as well, and fully restored to family and community. She can begin to live again because of the action of a God whose true nature is love and compassion, demonstrated in the the Saviour.
How many of us in time of crisis, like this woman, try just about every possible solution before turning to God? We can often be our own worst enemy. Jesus wants to give us peace, wholeness -- shalom. Abundant life awaits. What inside you needs healing?
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Pentecost IV: For Father's Day
Anthropologists tell us that the earliest human societies were organized and led by women, and that they worshipped goddesses. That is not surprising as men were off hunting and women and children gathered foods near their settlement. The people would have perceived in the Divine the very good feminine qualities attributed to their goddess -- nurturing, relationship, reconciliation, devotion. As agriculture kicked in men and women functioned side by side, and the divine patheons came to be populated by both male and female deities. As populations became more dense and human social organization grew more complex, male deities began to predominate. For example, in early Hebrew religion, the great Canaanite god El became the sole divine partner in covenant, and El's wife Ashterah was fired. In the Jewish Bible, we discover that Ashterah continued to be popular with Jewish women and, so, worship of her had to be suppressed.
Patriarchal Judaism naturally began to attribute to God masculine qualities. Unfortunately, in this exercise of men making God in their own image, God came to have both positive traits, like leadership, counsel, and protectiveness, but also the negative traits like being capricious, angry, jealous, bloodthirsty, and in favour of violence, war, and conquest, as well as cruel and unusual punishments for misbehaviour.
It is only natural to anthropomorphize God, as it is easier to imagine and relate to a deity we do identify with a gender. But it can also be dangerous when it is used to justify injustice, genocide, oppression, and cruelty. Fortunately that old tribal view of God is gone -- at least from those of us practising liberal Christianity. God has not changed or "evolved," our understanding has improved.
Today, on Father's Day we want to lift up the best aspects of manhood. The good father loves and values the child, forms and models for the child, knowing that ultimately our efforts are in God's hands, so to speak. The Prophet Samuel is an example of someone who apparently did all that he could do for his two sons, and they turned out to be corrupt and incompetent. So much so that he had to replace them as judge-executives with their first king, and that king was a loser. In our reading today, Samuel tries again, and this time lands David, who for all his sinfulness, will become Israel's paradigmatic monarch, eventually to be touted as an ancestor of Jesus.
Jesus tells us that even the smallest amount of faith, "like a mustard seed," can empower us to move mountains -- to do things we never thought we could do. Paul, in our epistle reading [II Cor. 5: 6 et seq.], reminds us that we walk by faith but will be judged by our actions. James, step-brother of our Lord, said faith and works are inseparable. There seems to be no room for the nonsense that we simply sign some statement of opinion about Jesus, thereby "get saved," and can be raptured to a replacement planet after death. Clearly we are being called to build the Kingdom and to be judged accordingly. We sow the seed of the Gospel through faith-impelled action, and God will bring in God's harvest in God's good time. A harvest of love, justice, and peace on earth.
Patriarchal Judaism naturally began to attribute to God masculine qualities. Unfortunately, in this exercise of men making God in their own image, God came to have both positive traits, like leadership, counsel, and protectiveness, but also the negative traits like being capricious, angry, jealous, bloodthirsty, and in favour of violence, war, and conquest, as well as cruel and unusual punishments for misbehaviour.
It is only natural to anthropomorphize God, as it is easier to imagine and relate to a deity we do identify with a gender. But it can also be dangerous when it is used to justify injustice, genocide, oppression, and cruelty. Fortunately that old tribal view of God is gone -- at least from those of us practising liberal Christianity. God has not changed or "evolved," our understanding has improved.
Today, on Father's Day we want to lift up the best aspects of manhood. The good father loves and values the child, forms and models for the child, knowing that ultimately our efforts are in God's hands, so to speak. The Prophet Samuel is an example of someone who apparently did all that he could do for his two sons, and they turned out to be corrupt and incompetent. So much so that he had to replace them as judge-executives with their first king, and that king was a loser. In our reading today, Samuel tries again, and this time lands David, who for all his sinfulness, will become Israel's paradigmatic monarch, eventually to be touted as an ancestor of Jesus.
Jesus tells us that even the smallest amount of faith, "like a mustard seed," can empower us to move mountains -- to do things we never thought we could do. Paul, in our epistle reading [II Cor. 5: 6 et seq.], reminds us that we walk by faith but will be judged by our actions. James, step-brother of our Lord, said faith and works are inseparable. There seems to be no room for the nonsense that we simply sign some statement of opinion about Jesus, thereby "get saved," and can be raptured to a replacement planet after death. Clearly we are being called to build the Kingdom and to be judged accordingly. We sow the seed of the Gospel through faith-impelled action, and God will bring in God's harvest in God's good time. A harvest of love, justice, and peace on earth.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Pentecost III: Jesus the Artist
My wife and I attended Chautauqua in Tulsa on each of the last five nights. The annual, free, themed program under a big tent at the Historical Society features world-renowned scholars who come to portray a famous person and then answer questions. This year's theme was the World War I era and we got to "meet" General John BlackJack Pershing, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Native American artist Acee Blue Eagle, Josephine Baker, and Ernest Hemingway. Throughout the presentations one realizes how artistic personages struggle against misunderstanding and other challenges to succeed.
Let me suggest that, among other identifications, Jesus was an artist. An artist of lovely theological rhetoric. Consider the majesty of his "lilies of the field" discourse, the simple power in his parabolic teachings, and the majesty of his "high priestly prayer" in the John gospel which ranks among best farewell addresses of all time. Yet Jesus was quite misunderstood. In our pericope [Mk 3:20-35] of today, there is a double whammy. First, his own family conclude that he is "out of his mind." To be mentally ill, like all other maladies, was believed at the time to result from demonic possession. In turn, Jesus' professional detractors claim that an evil spirit has made Jesus an agent of "Satan," i.e. agent of evil.
Jesus' reply is powerful. First, he rightly points out that, as he is driving out evil and bringing fresh life and hope to people, the accusation means that the power of evil is driving out evil, which makes no sense, of course. In fact, Jesus decries people calling any work of God evil or calling an emissary of God "Satan." To do that is to call light darkness, to definitively reject the Kingdom of God. That, Jesus says, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and unforgivable!
When Mary and his step-siblings come round, Jesus says that whoever actualizes God's will is his family! The obvious takeaway is that the relationship among faithful people is the primary tie, that bonds among disciples are to be stronger than the bonds of blood relationship! The one who comes into the Church through baptism is added to a second family that takes priority based on real love lived out in the community and beyond.
Our pre-scientific Bible treats Evil as an independent force, expressed as a personality of Satan and minions. That calls for warfare. We must fight the battle in every venue -- home, church, school, in the streets, and in legislative halls. We may not always agree on method (that's very Anglican), but there is no excuse for inaction. We fight evil by living out the Christian message of love and service every day. Including love and service of those we perceive as enemies and persecutors. That is so because everyone, every human being, is a child of God. Everyone counts. Everyone is in need of redemption from ever being less than the person God has in mind.
Let me suggest that, among other identifications, Jesus was an artist. An artist of lovely theological rhetoric. Consider the majesty of his "lilies of the field" discourse, the simple power in his parabolic teachings, and the majesty of his "high priestly prayer" in the John gospel which ranks among best farewell addresses of all time. Yet Jesus was quite misunderstood. In our pericope [Mk 3:20-35] of today, there is a double whammy. First, his own family conclude that he is "out of his mind." To be mentally ill, like all other maladies, was believed at the time to result from demonic possession. In turn, Jesus' professional detractors claim that an evil spirit has made Jesus an agent of "Satan," i.e. agent of evil.
Jesus' reply is powerful. First, he rightly points out that, as he is driving out evil and bringing fresh life and hope to people, the accusation means that the power of evil is driving out evil, which makes no sense, of course. In fact, Jesus decries people calling any work of God evil or calling an emissary of God "Satan." To do that is to call light darkness, to definitively reject the Kingdom of God. That, Jesus says, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and unforgivable!
When Mary and his step-siblings come round, Jesus says that whoever actualizes God's will is his family! The obvious takeaway is that the relationship among faithful people is the primary tie, that bonds among disciples are to be stronger than the bonds of blood relationship! The one who comes into the Church through baptism is added to a second family that takes priority based on real love lived out in the community and beyond.
Our pre-scientific Bible treats Evil as an independent force, expressed as a personality of Satan and minions. That calls for warfare. We must fight the battle in every venue -- home, church, school, in the streets, and in legislative halls. We may not always agree on method (that's very Anglican), but there is no excuse for inaction. We fight evil by living out the Christian message of love and service every day. Including love and service of those we perceive as enemies and persecutors. That is so because everyone, every human being, is a child of God. Everyone counts. Everyone is in need of redemption from ever being less than the person God has in mind.
Saturday, June 9, 2018
St. Boniface
Named one of the "Makers of Europe," Saint Boniface was born in Devonshire in southwestern England in 675, educated at Exeter, and at Winchester (county town of Hampshire) he as professed as a monk and ordained a priest. He discerned a call to do mission work and went to the Netherlands where he bombed.
With understandable disappointment, he left and went to Rome to ask for the Pope's advice, and the Holy Father sent him to Germany where he flourished. There he organized churches, built monasteries, and created three dioceses. In 722 he was ordained a bishop, in 732 appointed an archbishop, and in 743 was given a see, namely Mainz, the beer capital of Germany. :-)
The Frankish Church called him to preside of reforming councils and Bonfiace anointed Pepin king. (Pepin's son was Charlemagne who united Christian dominion in the West.)
In 753, with a terrific track record, he decided to take another shot at mission work amongst the Dutch. Back in Frisia and waiting for a group of converts coming to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, he and his companions were murdered by indigenous non-Christains at Dokkwor. Felicitously, his body was buried at Fulda Monastery which he founded near Mainz.
Lessons? Well, besides the fact that he is a model of persistence and devotion, we may also learn that getting a second opinion in the process of discernment can be a blessing.
With understandable disappointment, he left and went to Rome to ask for the Pope's advice, and the Holy Father sent him to Germany where he flourished. There he organized churches, built monasteries, and created three dioceses. In 722 he was ordained a bishop, in 732 appointed an archbishop, and in 743 was given a see, namely Mainz, the beer capital of Germany. :-)
The Frankish Church called him to preside of reforming councils and Bonfiace anointed Pepin king. (Pepin's son was Charlemagne who united Christian dominion in the West.)
In 753, with a terrific track record, he decided to take another shot at mission work amongst the Dutch. Back in Frisia and waiting for a group of converts coming to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, he and his companions were murdered by indigenous non-Christains at Dokkwor. Felicitously, his body was buried at Fulda Monastery which he founded near Mainz.
Lessons? Well, besides the fact that he is a model of persistence and devotion, we may also learn that getting a second opinion in the process of discernment can be a blessing.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Corpus Christi Sunday: The Basics
There are three kinds of references to the Eucharist in the New Testament. The earliest reference is from Saint Paul [I Cor. 11: 23-29] in the early Fifties, where he passes on the tradition he received about the Last Supper and clearly articulates belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Next come the narratives, which appear in three of the gospels -- Mark, Matthew, and Luke -- and agree as to the Saviour's actions in the story: namely, that Jesus took bread, declared it to be His Body, gave it out; then took wine, declared it His Blood, and gave it out; and then authorized his apostolic followers to repeat the rite "as a memorial of me." Thus the Last Supper was the First Mass.
The third reference is today's gospel vignette [John 6: 47-58] in which Jesus propounds Church teaching: "My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink." The Greek word for 'real' is 'alitheis," meaning true, genuine, actual. The meaning is unquestionable. No doubt mirroring John's own community's dispute with mainstream Jews, "the Jews" present at Jesus' sermon dispute among themselves about the doctrine of Real Presence and most abandon the Christian Movement. Our Lord certainly does not say, "My flesh is a real symbol, my blood is a real symbol." No, but later heretical Christians would teach that anyway. The Quakers went so far as to abolish the Sacrament altogether...solved that dilemma!
The Last Supper text is central to worship on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday) but that falls at a sad time of the liturgical year, so people later began to ask for a day on which these readings could be the focus in a Mass with more upbeat, celebratory tone. . The result: the Feast of Corpus Christi ("Body of Christ"), which falls on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, although often observed on the following Sunday.
Anglicans do not impose a "scientific" definition of Real Presence. For centuries, the Universal Church spoke of transubstantiation, in which the essence of the elements is changed forever into Christ, but the accidents -- the observable qualities of matter -- remain as before. Later, Luther invented consubstantiation, identical except that the sacred Presence disappears at the end of the Eucharist, leaving some plain bread and wine (so they cannot reserve the Sacrament). Recently, investigations into quantum physics have led to a revival of acceptance of transubstantiation. It probably is still the best way to articulate what is, after all, not a mystery to be solved but truly a spiritual reality to be celebrated and lived into.
In our opening hymn, we praised "this blessed sacrament of unity." In the Roman Communion, the Sacrament is open to those who swear loyalty to the Pope as infallible, absolute ruler. The Eastern Orthodox Communion admits to the Sacrament those of their members who fully accept the Greek takes on doctrine based on the ecumenical councils. In our Anglican Communion, we admit to the Table all baptised Christians. At the font, God's "water broke" over each of us. We had a symbolic rebirth into a new life in a second family, life personally activated later through the sacrament of Confirmation by a bishop in the apostolic succession.
Holy Communion provides us with the divine 'fuel' to go out and attempt to be replicas of Jesus, living lives of pure outpouring of love and service to others. Hence, the real sense of our policy on admission to communion. If we can't even bring the three great branches of the Catholic Church together at the Holy Table, how will we ever begin to unite the "catholic church" of all believers on the earth?
The third reference is today's gospel vignette [John 6: 47-58] in which Jesus propounds Church teaching: "My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink." The Greek word for 'real' is 'alitheis," meaning true, genuine, actual. The meaning is unquestionable. No doubt mirroring John's own community's dispute with mainstream Jews, "the Jews" present at Jesus' sermon dispute among themselves about the doctrine of Real Presence and most abandon the Christian Movement. Our Lord certainly does not say, "My flesh is a real symbol, my blood is a real symbol." No, but later heretical Christians would teach that anyway. The Quakers went so far as to abolish the Sacrament altogether...solved that dilemma!
The Last Supper text is central to worship on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday) but that falls at a sad time of the liturgical year, so people later began to ask for a day on which these readings could be the focus in a Mass with more upbeat, celebratory tone. . The result: the Feast of Corpus Christi ("Body of Christ"), which falls on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, although often observed on the following Sunday.
Anglicans do not impose a "scientific" definition of Real Presence. For centuries, the Universal Church spoke of transubstantiation, in which the essence of the elements is changed forever into Christ, but the accidents -- the observable qualities of matter -- remain as before. Later, Luther invented consubstantiation, identical except that the sacred Presence disappears at the end of the Eucharist, leaving some plain bread and wine (so they cannot reserve the Sacrament). Recently, investigations into quantum physics have led to a revival of acceptance of transubstantiation. It probably is still the best way to articulate what is, after all, not a mystery to be solved but truly a spiritual reality to be celebrated and lived into.
In our opening hymn, we praised "this blessed sacrament of unity." In the Roman Communion, the Sacrament is open to those who swear loyalty to the Pope as infallible, absolute ruler. The Eastern Orthodox Communion admits to the Sacrament those of their members who fully accept the Greek takes on doctrine based on the ecumenical councils. In our Anglican Communion, we admit to the Table all baptised Christians. At the font, God's "water broke" over each of us. We had a symbolic rebirth into a new life in a second family, life personally activated later through the sacrament of Confirmation by a bishop in the apostolic succession.
Holy Communion provides us with the divine 'fuel' to go out and attempt to be replicas of Jesus, living lives of pure outpouring of love and service to others. Hence, the real sense of our policy on admission to communion. If we can't even bring the three great branches of the Catholic Church together at the Holy Table, how will we ever begin to unite the "catholic church" of all believers on the earth?
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