Christmas Eve sermon at Emmanuel

The blessings of this Holy Night
in celebration of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
be with you and welcome you here under this roof
which tonight is a glorified stable adorned by loving hands
and where room is abundantly available
and no one is shut out.
Welcome!
And we want to offer a special welcome to Emmanuel Episcopal Church
to all those visiting here tonight,
family members and friends and neighbors,
all of us together joining in song and prayers
and the sharing of the feast of bread and wine,
the abundant feast of the Supper of the Lamb.

It is good to be here tonight,
to choose to come here in the midst of whatever else is occurring
in your homes and your lives for this holiday.

We are drawn here tonight
called out of homes and warm beds
called away from the Christmas tree with all the presents
and the stocking hung by the chimney with care
drawn away from the table groaning with food
from the goose and plum pudding
from the eggnog and wassail.

We are pulled – for this brief time, at least –
out of a world culture, economic system and political framework
that reflect a poverty of values
where greed fuels and directs the subtle policies implicit
behind motivations and actions
which affect the commonweal of us all
where self-interest keeps our focus in a narrow field of vision
and we do not hear the angels sing.

But tonight we are drawn here.
We may think that we have chosen to come here –
and we all have reasons we can give for why we came
and it’s more than just nostalgia for Christmases past
or sentimentality about candle light and Christmas music.
It’s even more than the beauty of worship
expressed so well through the words of liturgy and scripture.

We are drawn – ultimately – by the Christ Child himself.

Now it is true that a newborn infant has a special magic about it
that makes perfectly sane adults go gaga
and want to hold it and babble baby language endearments.

But this newborn child evokes more from us, much more.
This is the One who generates within us
a sense of awe and reverence and wonderment beyond our knowing.
This is the One who, if our old bones would allow it
and we weren’t so bound up in the limitations of our own sensibilities,
this is the One who would bring us to our knees.
humbled by the sudden recognition that here before us
is the Source of Life,
the Healing of the ages,
the Hope for the world,
and Love itself.

God’s Presence comes and is born among us.

And note this –
this most significant of all births did not occur in the capitol,
nor among the royalty or the clergy,
nor among the those well endowed with abundance
or the most prominent of the community
or in the place of privilege.

The birth happens in a stable,
a place not fit for human habitation.

And so too is the place of birthing
that occurs spiritually in the human person.

The birth of Christ does not occur in human hearts in the place of abundance,
but most usually in the place of poverty
and in the places unfit to live in.

Wherever in our hearts there is despair, darkness, sin, deep wounding,
betrayal, abandonment, failure, disaster, oppression or grief,
it is there that the human heart out of desperation or simple yearning
will open and become a manger
in the filthy, stinking stable of life circumstances
to welcome a tiny, hopeful birth
of the One who brings with him
the unfolding and expansion of the very Reign of God,
which is the liberation of our hearts from all this darkness.

Tonight as you come forward to receive into your hands our Lord
in form of bread and wine,
let yourself be connected in heart and imagination with Bethlehem,
with the stable unfit for human habitation,
yet cradling the very Source of Life, God’s Love Itself.

As you take into yourself the tiny wafer of bread, the sip of wine,
make this place that you are, and your own heart,
another new Bethlehem.

O little town of Bethlehem,
the hopes and fear of all the years are met in your dark streets
the dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

Sermon for Advent 1 at Emmanuel

Advent – here already,
and our minds rush forward to Christmas.
Lists appear in our thoughts:
gift lists
to do lists
calendar events
Thank God this Advent is a bit longer.
Christmas coming on a Saturday and all.
We have a few more days.

Our lives are full – like the inn:
no room there for a new born Christ.
The only room to be found is in the stable,
in the poverty and misery of a place we would think unfit
for the birth of a new human being,
there among the aroma of cow dung
and barnyard animals with fleas
and flies and who knows what other bugs.

Advent – a word that means coming,
which many of you know already,
but there may also be some here
for whom Advent is an unknown or new observance.

Advent means coming, and we can think of 3 comings:
first the coming in Bethlehem,
then what they call the Second Coming, the Coming at the end of time,
and also, number 3, what happens personally for each of us as a coming of our Lord
into our lives, realizing His Presence with us and in us.
But that second coming at the end of time,
that may not be quite what you think,
yet it is certainly an end of time as we understand it
and an end of the old creation, and now a New Creation.

Let’s see: the Gospel reading for today would tell us
that this coming of our Lord is like a flood
that unexpectedly sweeps away
all the holiday parties and eggnog and busy-ness.

So here at Emmanuel, as we begin another new church year
this is what we are going to do:
we are going to be keeping the old traditions.
We are going to keep Advent as Advent
and wait until Christmas before singing Christmas carols and celebrating.

Liturgically the way we will worship these four Sunday mornings
will demonstrate a really counter-cultural life style
in comparison with the shopping mall.

First off, there are parts slowed down for reflection.
When we come to the creed next, we will encounter several pauses.

And you may have noticed right off that we are using Rite One,
and right in the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer
everyone will join with the priest in saying the words
which Jesus spoke over the bread and wine
– yes, it’s all right;
this draws us with all our attention into the meaning being expressed –
and then we will be praying together an extra prayer
after the breaking of the bread before you come forward for communion
the Prayer of Humble Access.
For some of us these are old familiar words from the 1928 prayer book,
for others they are a startling confession of spiritual neediness
just before we come get fed.


We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful
Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold
and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather
up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord
whose property is always to have mercy.

This in addition to saying the General Confession.

Why?
Well, look at it this way:
We here today are mostly white northern European types
many of us from pioneer stock
living in the West, the Far West
and brought up on the idea of rugged individualism
prideful about our self-sufficiency
In the eyes of the world we are successful beyond measure.
In the Seattle-Metro area we on Mercer Island
are better than average, to say the least.
We aren’t in need,
at least in terms of our own life support and success on the material level.

But we are in need
as evidenced by the spiritual hunger, the longing,
the dissatisfaction and dis-ease that can be felt all around us
and is reflected in the pervasive, free-floating anxiety
of this culture and society.

So this liturgy for Advent has been constructed to be
something of a reality check for us.
Consider this: See the liturgy as an aid to our consciousness,
like a flood sweeping away for this morning
all the ways we are distracted from the reality of
His coming/of His immediate Presence with us.

In the gospel reading, Jesus is saying that encounter with
the full Presence of God expressed through the Son of Man “coming in glory”
is so powerful that it will be like the flood in Noah’s days.
The people didn’t see it coming.
It was business as usual and occasions for feasting
right up until the moment when it was all washed away.
It took them by surprise.

Believe you me, when God shows up, really shows up,
it will surprise you,
and it will blow you away.
It will be a catastrophe, which is what the Greek says, the word used for flood.
It will be a catastrophe, in that the old way of looking at things will be blown away
and a new way of seeing and being will present itself.

When?
At some point in the future at the end of time,
the Second Coming as some believe?
Individually for each of us at some crisis point?
At death?

For some there are profound moments of encounter with God,
such as the disciples experienced on numerous occasions around Jesus.
And often the gospel text describes the disciples at these times as
“astounded,” a mild translation which is more accurately conveyed as
“knocked out of their senses.”
Encounters with the divine
that blow away everything they previously had thought,
that pulled their understanding of reality right out from under them,
that left them without their usual bearings.
A catastrophe we might think,
but for them, and also for us,
the opening up of a whole new vista of perception,
a whole new way of thinking and doing and being,
a whole new life, a whole New Creation.

And this incredible breakthrough of God realization happens spontaneously
and not just in times of prayer but at any moment, any time,
day or night, even in the midst of the very ordinary:

Two men will be working in the field,
one will be blown away and the other will be left oblivious
to the huge advent of God’s Presence occurring right then.
Two women will be grinding wheat into flour,
one will be taken up completely into the divine revelation
totally transforming even how she sees the meal she is grinding, and the other won’t sense any change at all.

It’s a huge secret, but God is not good at keeping secrets.
Those who are willing to be alert, who are poised in wakefulness,
like the meerkat sentry in a colony of meerkats
standing erect and surveying the horizon,
those ones are in a good place to recognize
and be blown away in the best possible way
by God’s transforming Presence in our midst.

There’s a whole other world out there, or in here, to be realized!

So, let us use the not-so-subtle shifts in the liturgy
as aids in helping us become alert and watching
as the spiritual task and purpose of Advent.

Advent a brief season,
not just for doing Christmas shopping and having parties
and baking cookies and drinking eggnog
but more than that, a season for active anticipation in wakefulness and watching
so as to be blown away by God, by the Holy Spirit,
by the Spirit of the Risen Lord and his resurrection appearance.

As Paul wrote to the Romans, and which we heard just read:

“You know what time it is,
how it is NOW the moment for you to wake from sleep.
For salvation is nearer to us NOW than when we became believers:
the night is far gone, the day is near.
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

The Essence of Baptism

Think of a time when you perched a pencil behind your ear so as it have it handy as you went about your work at your desk. After a while you need the pencil, and you start to look for it all over the desk but can’t find it. When you do find the pencil, it is not because you were searching for it, but because you remembered where you put it.

Baptism is for the purpose of awakening within the one being baptized the localization of a prior, unbounded and eternal awareness or wakefulness of the truth, the reality that the whole field of one’s life is divine, is in God. This awareness was always there. This is the way it always was, but we had forgotten. This wakeful perception therefore goes beyond the limits of ego identification, beyond the known self.

In baptism Yeshua as the spiritual master works with his disciples to achieve in them their recognition that the self of the master and the self of the disciple are the same. That is, the very life of the master is the very life of the disciple. So if the disciple is received and fully recognized, the master will also be received and fully recognized. These are the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:40, Luke 10:16 and John 13:20. The goal of the discipleship process is to maturate individuals to be as he is as a witness and light to the world. This process is described in 1 John 3:1-2. The baptismal process is for our seeing him, recognizing and knowing experientially, so that we shall be like him, and thus also see like him, and see the wholeness of life in the Divine. It is not that wholeness of life is thus created or now comes into being. It is that this wholeness of life, this union pre-existed and is the foundation of all interpersonal dynamics. It is their relationship we awaken to.

The spiritual practice of meditation can serve release from attachment to specific forms of self-identification and self-validation. This is a process of loosing and expanding awareness. Yeshua as the master carries the responsibility to awaken the disciples from their state of spiritual unconsciousness of their prior union with the master. There is a strong inclination in us to create our own meaning associations with Yeshua, to hold onto precious experiences of him, to add drama to the process, and to desire or even claim an exclusive perception of the master in relationship to the ego self. This makes the ego bigger and moves in the opposite direction intended by the master in this process of awakening. That is why meditation is a central work in this process of expansion and release of ego identification. Only when we become willing and practice indifference to ego identification in meditation may the master’s responsibility to awaken be effective. This is the essence of baptism.

The baptism we are talking about here is not the liturgical rite for the sake of incorporating someone into the household of faith, but the process of realizing union with the One who baptizes us in Holy Spirit. And this union is not a merging of beings, but a singular wholeness in the unbounded self-being of God. Awakening then, we can say, is only the dissolution of the disciple in the master, the washing away of the self as separate and self-contained – gone, dissolved in the limitless ocean of unbounded Life.

Keep meditating!
Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Sermon Pentecost 20 Emmanuel Mercer Island

I broke out in a rash last week.

I don’t know if it was in reaction to something in my environment
or as a sympathetic association with these 10 lepers!

I went to the doctor.
She looked me over and declared that I had a rash,
confirming my self-diagnosis.
The doctor prescribed hydrocortisone cream and sent me on my way.

No quarantine,
no being sent off to a leper colony,
no isolation from others.

I haven’t had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” wherever I go,
or carry bells around on a stick to ward other people off.
No going to wash in the Jordon River 7 times.
And no elaborate rites and ceremonies to perform, sacrifices to make
in order to be reinstated back into the community.

Ah, the benefits of modern medicine.

The story about the healing of the 10 lepers:
This is a pretty straight forward story.
The lepers come to Jesus but not too close; they know the rules.
Jesus doesn’t even have to touch them.
He just tells them to go show themselves to the priest,
which is what they were to do when their leprosy cleared up.
And while they were on their way,
not immediately, but after they there on their way,
they found that they were indeed healed.

Only one, the Samaritan came back.
Have you ever wondered why? Why him, and not any of the other 9?
I think it was that the rest were Jews following Jesus’ directions
about presenting themselves to the priest,
going to the Temple in Jerusalem.
They were all heavily invested in their religion,
and if you had leprosy and got better,
then in order to be readmitted to the community
and be reunited with your family,
there were special rituals and rites that had to be performed.
If you’re interested in what they were, read Leviticus, chapter 14.
- good bedtime reading –

But the Samaritan –
he is outside of that religious system,
and therefore he is not as connected to the elaborate liturgy
involving sacrifices and washing
and what we might think of as esoteric rituals.
Instead he connects his healing from God with Jesus,
and he comes to offer his thanks to God
NOT in the Temple in Jerusalem
but there at the feet of Jesus – the Living Temple of God,
holy as God is holy,
sacred ground and sacred being.

This just may be the point of the whole story.

This man healed of his leprosy saw the connection with God through Jesus.

This is, after all, the whole point about Christianity, about our faith,
our purpose for being here in this place on a Sunday morning.

In the encounter with Jesus in whatever way that comes
- and it can be in multitudes of ways –
in that encounter with Jesus we meet God.

Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel.
That’s my gospel, my good news that I preach.

Like what Paul wrote to Timothy from the Epistle for today:
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, … that’s my gospel.”

And Paul goes on in the passage to declare our baptismal faith:
“If we have died with him, we will also live with him.”
That’s my Gospel, what I have experienced of the Good News of Jesus,
not theoretical or theological but for me a lived reality.

The word gospel means literally “good news,” in case we have forgotten that.

The question could then be asked:
What do each of you identify as your gospel?
What is your truth about Jesus?
What have you experienced of Jesus?
How is Jesus good news to you?

There is no one right answer.
You will not be graded on this pop quiz.
But it is very important that we each answer these questions.
This is a crucial matter for everyone of us.

Now the encouragement is that, as the Epistle reading states,
“the word of God is not chained.”
There is not just one way to express the Gospel,
so we are exhorted “to avoid wrangling over words,”
literally in Greek, not to fight with words,
not to use words as weapons.

And on the other hand this is not permission to be wishy-washy.

We have this directive from 1 Peter 3:15,
“Always be prepared to answer to everyone asking you
(literally in Greek) for a word, a reason concerning the hope in you.”

So if you haven’t been thinking about this question, “What is your gospel?”,
or the first thing out of your mouth in response is:
Uhhh … and a long pause,
then you have some work to do,
some personal reflection,
some meditation!
some seeking.

So the Epistle, 2 Timothy, tells us how:
“present yourself to God.”
After all,
Life ultimately does not depend on how we present ourselves to others -
mostly that is costuming,
masks over what we would rather not have seen.

Rather than how we present ourselves to others,
instead present yourself to God.
And that’s easy,
because you already are in God’s Presence,
with nothing hidden,
no chance to check how we look in the mirror,
fully known, fully loved, fully accepted.

And in that glorious space
of being present to and aware of the Divine,
ask for the Word, the reason concerning the hope that lies within you,

so that the Gospel good news for you may come crystal clear,
your faith may be enlivened,
and your hearts overflowing with unspeakable joy.

Sermon Pentecost 15 Emmanuel Mercer Island

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
yes, and even life itself,
cannot be my disciple.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to preach on the Epistle today?
After all, when was the last time you heard a sermon on Philemon?

It’s a great little epistle to study.
It shows a very human side of Paul,
how he very adroitly twists Philemon’s arm regarding a runaway slave
and lays it on rather thick:

Paul writes:
“When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God…
I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed - through you,
my brother…
For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ
to command you to do your duty,
yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—
and I, Paul, do this as an old man,
and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus,
whose father I have become during my imprisonment.
Formerly he was useless to you (a pun on the name Onesiums, which means useful),
but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me.
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I wanted to keep him with me,
so that he might be of service to me in your place
during my imprisonment for the gospel;
but I preferred to do nothing without your consent,
in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced.
Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while,
so that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—
especially to me but how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord.
So if you consider me your partner,
welcome him as you would welcome me.
If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything,
charge that to my account.
I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it.
I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.
Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord!
Refresh my heart in Christ.
Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you,
knowing that you will do even more than I say.
One thing more--prepare a guest room for me,
for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you.”

Well, who can say no to all that?!
Paul asks a lot of Philemon, and I bet he got it all.

But then there is the Gospel for today,
this message of Jesus that we don’t want to hear.
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
yes, and even life itself,
cannot be my disciple.”

“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me
is not able to be my disciple.”

“…none of you is able to become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
This is the message of Jesus that we don’t want to hear.

If we take his words seriously,
then it sure looks like Jesus is asking too much.
Paul comes across a lot more pastoral and understanding of our humanity
than Jesus appears here.
Paul may ask a lot of Philemon,
but Jesus demands even more from his disciples.

And this Gospel reading for today is not the only passage
in which this radical message appears.
It’s in all four Gospels in eight different places!


Well, we do need first of all to look at that word “hate” that appears here.
Does Jesus really mean for us to hate father and mother,
spouse and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself?

Consider two kinds of hate.
One is the emotion of hate in which one person is reacting to another.
There is a relationship there, a connection and a violation.
The reaction of hate comes about because there has been connection,
and so it ties the one hating even more to the one hated.
There is very strong attachment in this kind of hate.

The other is what is indicated in this passage here in the Greek.
It means to turn forcefully away from, to renounce,
to turn away from attachment.
This is a kind of repentance, a letting go of prior circumstances,
a letting go of the way in which all prior relationships had been held.
Jesus is asking his disciples for this kind of repentance.

But even at that, this is still extreme.
Disciples are asked to reframe all prior relationships
with family, with possessions, with job identity,
- which feeds a lot of our own sense of self-worth –
reframe our relationship with self.
How can we possibly measure up to what Jesus is asking?
Very, very few have shown such utter abandonment of self
in following Jesus –
maybe Francis of Assisi and a few others.

So for the rest of us, we need to be in a continual process
of spiritual formation, of spiritual growth
- working towards becoming a disciple, seeking to become a disciple -
as a life long process
until we are fully converted,
until we have finally become disciples.

Make no assumptions about your spiritual state
You’re not as fully advanced as a Christian as you may think.

The more I experience faith and trust in Jesus,
and the more I become aware of the Divine Presence,
the more I realize how utterly ignorant I am,
how far I have to go to become an authentic disciple.

This passage is about the willingness to give up self identity
in terms of ego centric attachment to body and mind,
to let that go in devotion to Jesus,
to lose one’s self in Jesus,
to call nothing “mine”
because there is no “me” left.
When there is no me left
then we are like Jesus,
then we are true disciples.

Well, you can’t get there from here.
This is not anything we can accomplish by ourselves.

But we can cooperate in the process of formation,
being formed as disciples,
being formed into the image of God,
being formed as a new being in Christ.

Think of the image of clay in the hands of the potter – this is process of formation.
Translate that into the human situation:
We need to be as pliable as clay in order to be formed,
that is, we need to be open and willing to be changed.

Truthfully there is very little substantial change that we can accomplish for ourselves
but we can discover the way of letting go
of our own self improvement projects
in order to be in that wonderful flow of life in the Spirit.

So the question is, do we want to follow Jesus?

Jesus tells the parable of counting the cost:
whether building a tower or waging a war
some forethought is called for.
Once you get started, you better be prepared
to see it through to the end,
to be ready to accept all the consequences for your choice,
and to do that it will cost you everything.
So in counting the cost
part of making it possible to meet that cost
is the conscious decision
to be active in fostering spiritual growth
now and in the future and for your whole life time.

Spiritual growth and Christian formation
is not about learning more and more facts and figures
about the Bible or the Church or liturgy,
although that can provide a context for spiritual discovery.

Formation happens through the spiritual disciplines
of prayer and meditation
and reflection on the texts of the Bible
and on the texts of our lives and where they intersect.

I have to ask myself,
am I a disciple of Jesus
or a disciple of the institution?

The institution of the Church may be very good and helpful
in supporting our whole spiritual lives,
but it is not the same as Jesus himself
and can be a step toward him, or a step in between him and us.

I think Jesus might rather prefer to have a raw disciple
than to have to un-teach us,
to strip off layers of learning that have become so imbedded
that they have become unconscious assumptions,
learning that make us good churchmen and churchwomen,
but which haven’t necessarily brought us face to face with Jesus
in the same way this Gospel lesson for today does.

Moses says, in the reading from Deuteronomy for today,
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Choose life!”

Choose life.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.”
Jesus said, “I am Resurrection and I am Life.”

Choose life.

Fall Meditation and Biblical Spirituality Course Offerings

The Prayer of the Lamb, with expanded text (2nd Edition)

This is the classic Prayer of the Lamb meditation course open to new and returning meditators, a comprehensive teaching of the essential elements of this meditational prayer: meditating with the Prayer of the Lamb, communion, baptismal identity, meditation as outreach ministry. Each session includes discussion of selected readings from the text, meditation, reflections on practice, and study of a related Gospel passage.

Time: Tuesday evenings 7:00 – 9:00 PM, beginning October 5, for 12 sessions
Location: The Meditation Center at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island


Intercession and Healing

A new offering scheduled to follow immediately after the midweek Eucharist at Emmanuel, this course will be a study about offering prayers of intercession and healing for others using the Prayer of the Lamb. The time together will focus on actual meditation practice with specific intention for healing along with reflection on related Gospel texts.

Time: Wednesday mornings 10:30 AM – 12:00 Noon, beginning October 6, for 10 sessions
Location: The Meditation Center at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island


Jesus as Guru

Jesus as Guru?! The word guru has many different connotations and usages, but what if we look at the traditional eastern understanding of guru? Can this shed any light for us about Jesus and our relationship to him? A biblical spirituality course exploring the process of discipleship that Jesus engaged with those who came to him and wanted to follow him. Each session also includes meditation.

Time: Monday mornings 10:00 – 11:30 AM or evenings 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Class time will be determined by number registering.
Beginning October 4, for 10 sessions
Location: The Meditation Center at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island


Immediately preceded by:
Begin the Week by Creating Some Calm, with Pieter Drummond

Guided meditation in the beautiful light filled space of the Emmanuel worship space.
This form of meditation feels very natural and supports relaxation. Whether you have experience with meditation or are just curious feel free to join us. There is no obligation and no cost.

The quality of our life is measured by the quality of our relationships from our children and spouses, to our friends, clients and co-workers. Meditation transforms not only our relationship with others but also our relationship with each moment of life. As we discover a greater sense of fullness and abundance in each moment we relate to each moment of life with more honesty, trust and compassion.

Time: Every Monday morning 9:15 – 9:45 AM
Location: Emmanuel Episcopal Church in the worship space

For more information please contact: Pieter Drummond, 206-661-1023, pieter.stonegroundmeditation@gmail.com


Register for the above classes by calling 206-713-5321 or email PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com

Searching for God

There is something I have observed as I have worked with people in the Church. I have seen those who have been eager to find God, who have been hungry for the Holy. But then in their earnest efforts of searching, they have found instead Religion. By this I mean that there comes a point in the process of searching when real discoveries and insights and spiritual experiences occur, and the language of religion, especially as it is expressed through liturgy, gives voice to what they have been experiencing. This is a potentially dangerous time. People may think they can engage a spiritual practice that will bring them closer to God by taking on the language, the theology, intellectual study of the scriptures, and the liturgical customs and rituals.

All of these can be tools helpful along the way, arrows on the road map directing us beyond ourselves. But too often they become like a railroad siding, off the main track, where the seeker sets up housekeeping and is happy and content. Thus the great prize that St. Paul talked about for which he kept pressing on is lost beyond the horizon of present absorption of attention.

The Apostle Paul was taken out of just such absorption in religion by the Resurrection Jesus on the Damascus Road, and now with all clarity Paul could say:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;

but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

That is why meditation as a spiritual practice for those seeking God can be particularly helpful. Meditation can give perspective to what religion is all about, and remind us that these are all tools to direct our attention toward God. In meditation we sit and be with a clean, unadorned space in which we can see what is going on behind all the activity of our lives, and with open and trusting hearts let ourselves be shown what we rarely are aware of – our motivations and values, our desires and what we reject, our emotions and feelings. When our meditation is with the Prayer of the Lamb, we have a way to see all this with openness, trust and compassion for self. Then with the Apostle Paul I can say, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10), as the mystery of our baptismal identity with Jesus in his death and resurrection is revealed to us.

Let yourself be meditated by the flow of compassion, love and joyful creativity from the heart of Yeshua/Jesus awake within you. Let go of self-concern about the searching, and let your meditation practice be devotion. Devotion is surrender of self-concern. Devotion is trust and openness to the flow of present Life. Devotion is free receptivity to the radiance of Yeshua’s presence. Then, like the little fish swimming everywhere desperately looking for the ocean, realize that you are in the ocean of God’s love, of the very Presence of Christ in whom all live and move and have their being (Acts 17:28).

Keep meditating!

Beverly

Sermon Pentecost 13 Emmanuel, Mercer Island

Remember the old phonograph records?
Sometimes there would be a scratch on the record
and the needle would get stuck in a groove
and we would hear the same bit of music over and over and over.

When we examine our lives we can also find scratches
where the movement of life gets stuck,
and over and over again we find ourselves stuck
in life-inhibiting patterns, such as:
our spouse laughs or sniffs in a particular way we find annoying, and we react;
at times we drink too much,
or stay angry for three days,
or yell because someone is making us be angry,
or victimizing us in some other way.
We want desperately for something to work for our advantage
and we try to manage the situation each time,
and it never works.

We are stuck in grooves that keep us repeating old patterns
of being and doing and relating
that close us down,
and we can’t move on.

Someone has to come and lift the needle over the scratch into the next groove
so that the music can flow along in its freedom and beauty.
The old cycle of bondage in frustration and suffering is ended.

Jesus was in a synagogue teaching the crowd there,
and among those there
was a woman bent over and unable to stand up straight.

It was the Sabbath, a day of rest, sacred in its observance,
and Jesus sees her there in the crowd,
and knows she has suffered for 18 years
–a long time to suffer such a debilitating condition.

Yes, there is the commandment:
“You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”
How is it to be kept holy? by rest,
ceasing from work
Why? so that attention can be given to praising God.

The woman had not asked Jesus to heal her.
He called her to him,
brought her up in front of everyone there in the synagogue.
And he freed her, liberated her, loosed her bonds,
by the touch of his hands on her.

And suddenly she was standing up straight.
And what was her response? She glorified God; she praised God,
God the Creator who made the heavens and the earth in 6 days.

Jesus had created a new back for her, an straight spine,
a complete spine that was now capable
of allowing the woman’s head to be held high –
the act of healing is an act of creation.

Now the ruler of the synagogue, the leader,
the source person as the voice of authority in the synagogue,
has a problem.
This act of creation and healing and liberation happened on the Sabbath,
the no work day.

Yes, the woman was healed, but it’s the principle of the matter.
It’s a slippery slop.
An exception for a good dead today,
and tomorrow an exception to fit someone’s convenience,
and before you know it, no one’s keeping the Sabbath.

Washington State used to have a lot of “blue” laws when I was growing up.
They’re gone.
And there are soccer games scheduled for Sunday mornings,
and no more observance of the Sabbath.
Commandment # 4 made obsolete.

The man’s got a point,
but it just pales in comparison with what had happened
when the hands of Jesus touched this woman’s back.

There’s a connection that can be made between healing and repentance.
The literal meaning of the word, repentance, in its biblical sense is
turning around.

The woman in the synagogue was bound for 18 years with her face to the earth.
She cannot turn up.
Her world was empty of the source of light.
She had no power to help herself.

Then Jesus lays his hands upon her, and immediately she is made straight
and she praises God.

The text does not record her saying,
“Free at last! Now I can again look up at the sky and the sun.”
There is a turning that has taken place in her
that is more than the turn from facing downward.
She has been taken beyond herself and her self-concern to praising God.
Jesus turned her full around
and the Spirit of the living God poured into her.
It is the giving by the hand of Jesus of freedom from her bondage,
and the blossoming of the praise of God in her.

This is a biblical example of repentance as turning,
and its fruit, which is glorifying God.
The repentance, the turning, is an act of empowerment by God,
as it states in Acts 11:18.
And it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance,
as it says in Romans 2:4.

So repentance is not just for those who are bad, who have done wrong.
Repentance, we see, may work with power even in the not so bad,
those who are passably good,
all those trying to lead decent lives
who faithfully drag themselves to church on Sunday mornings.

But the power of repentance is blocked in those who attach to
external rules to define and achieve righteousness of their own effort.

There is the full repentance, the full turning about,
of God’s powerful action in our lives
that literally turns us around in our tracks.
And there is the self-generated repentance which is self-absorbed,
that says, I repent of what violates who I want to be,
whom I want others to think I am,
the regret and chagrin we feel in the failure to meet ego standards.
This is more like self-conflict arising from a fear of vulnerability
or from a sense of a depleted self-worth,
and the desire to be the creator of one’s self.

The ruler of the synagogue in this story believed that
repentance was within the scope of self-management.
The rules are to be kept.
Such thinking would keep us unaware of
the constant and all inclusive creativity of God
at work outside of our rules.
The ruler of the synagogue, and those of us like him, get hung up on the rules.
But the ruler of the synagogue had no spiritual power to liberate others from the physical, mental and spiritual bondage they suffer.

Such hypocrites are good at taking care of their own
- and here I implicate all us clergy -

good at taking care of their temples, their vestments, their salaries,
their presumptions of legal, moral and institutional righteousness all in the Name of God.

What shall we say? How about this:
We are good enough.
We know the rules well enough.
We avoid harm and evil rightly enough.
We take care of ourselves pretty well, well enough.
We do NOT like to hear it said that, as we are, is NOT good enough.
Good enough, but we are not THIRSTY enough
thirsty for the fullness of life, for complete healing and liberation.

We may not understand why, at times we drink too much,
or stay angry for three days,
or yell because someone is making us be angry,
or victimizing us in some other way.
We may not know why it is that we trivialize the Love of God
to feel good about ourselves,
and so overlook the terrible freedom and the transforming intimacy
that God constantly reveals even in our suffering,
precisely in our suffering.
We are stuck in grooves of life-inhibiting patterns of suffering.

And so we turn half way;
our repentance is incomplete because of our own self-management of it.
And we resist, in fear and self-idolatry
being turned all the way around by the Holy Spirit.
We are not thirsty enough.

BUT will you let the hands of Jesus touch you and turn you
so that you can look into the source of your light?
Will you let him lay his hands upon you,
even though the rules say it is the wrong day or the wrong way
to repent and be empowered for a holy life?
Will we, who have been baptized by Jesus for initiation into his life,
turn by his turning all the way around and drink?

Sermon Pentecost 10 Emmanuel, Mercer Island

Today’s Gospel is on a theme that Jesus often addressed,
the stewardship theme of our relationship to wealth and possessions,
and it may not be easy to listen to.
Nevertheless, it will be life-giving.

Now, to give you an idea of the warped sense of humor I have,
at one time in another congregation I told a parishioner
(when I was in a particularly wicked mood)
that this parable of the rich man
is a story about what will happen to you
if you don’t keep your pledge current!

Well, here is a story about financial security
and its relationship to Jesus,
with whom nothing is secure for very long
if we are seriously open to his Spirit at work within us.
…financial security and its relationship to Jesus…

Let us note the collect for today. We prayed:
“Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church…
because it cannot continue in safety, in security, without your help…”

We open the door to Jesus, and this becomes an invitation into the heart
and before we know it, it is taken as carte blanche
for some major spiritual renovations by the Holy Spirit.

In the case of the story Jesus tells,
this would be particularly challenging for Pharisees,
or for any of the good “church-going” folks of that day.

You see, the current theology, the popular belief system of that day
was that prosperity was an indicator
that you had been blessed by God,
that you were doing a good job in being a righteous person.

We could make a comparison with the Protestant work ethic,
(you’ve heard of the Protestant work ethic?)
and we can see that belief reflected even today,
where one might find a preacher promising that those who follow Jesus
could expect to come into “abundant living” as a sign of God’s blessing.

This is the theology that says
that God blesses those who do what is good and right,
and economic prosperity and a long life
are therefore signs of being blest by God.

This is a trap, a subtle perverse twist of logic
to justify our continuous acquisition of material wealth,
until we accumulate for ourselves way beyond basic life necessities.

So Jesus warns about greed; he tells the crowd:
“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Greed, we can say, is a form of idolatry
in which we have forgotten what our life consists of.

You see, Jesus is operating out of a very different economy
than the one of his culture,
a very different economy than our culture.
His economy is the economy of the Kingdom of God.

If we were to keep on reading in Luke’s Gospel
after this parable of the Rich Man and his barns full of wealth,
we would read these words in the next verse:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
what you should eat,
nor about your body, what you shall put on.
For life is more than food,
and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens:
they neither sow nor reap,
they have neither storehouse nor barn.
and yet God feeds them.”

This is obviously a different sort of economy.
It is an ecological, organic way of looking at life.
And this fits with how we also talk about the Body of Christ.
There is an organic wholeness and unity to life
in which all belong and no one is separate.
No one and no thing can stand alone from the rest; all are interrelated.

And so we can then begin to see how this person in the parable Jesus tells
is setting himself up for disaster.

He has been successful.
He has so much that he can retire early and live a life of ease.

However that night he is due to have a massive heart attack,
or a stroke, or get hit by the proverbial Mack truck.

Being self-sufficient, self-contained in providing for one’s own needs,
won’t be of any benefit to him then.

He was self-sufficient regarding his own needs,
but separate from everyone else and from their needs.

You see, having the opportunity to do good for the benefit of others,
but not doing it, was considered to be a sin.
This is the sin of omission.
St. Francis of Assisi said that this was stealing from the poor.

I once read this gospel in one church I served
where many of the parishioners were immigrant farm laborers.
When the rich man got the word that he was going to die,
their response was to say that divine justice was being done,
for he was hoarding, a sin in that cultural group
where whenever someone was in need,
the rest banded together to help.

So this person in the parable is standing convicted before God,
not for being successful,
but for neglecting the opportunity he had for helping others in need.

Now get this. This is the important point.
His life was forfeit,
because he had cut himself off from community with others
by neglecting the chance he had to be of benefit
to his own human community.

There with his appetite for financial security
which had become idolatry for him,
and which had turned his attention away from connection
with the organic whole of all living beings,
his very life was forfeit.

“So it is,” Jesus was saying, “with those who store up treasures for themselves
but are not rich in God.”

Jesus would shake us loose from our idolatry,
turn us back out of our illusions of ownership and security
to the basic and fundamental reality of our existence
as a part of the whole ecosystem, (like the ravens)
back where we then are challenged with radical trust in God
to provide the essential needs of life, so that we can be rich in God.
Jesus doesn’t make it easy for any of us:
he is challenging us to the extent of radical trust in God
to provide the essential needs of life.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.”

These might be scary thoughts, disquieting,
and they ARE meant to stir up some reflection in us.
We need to ask ourselves: Is this parable a mirror for my own condition?

So Jesus was being hard on that person who wanted him to arbitrate
in the dispute with his brother about the family inheritance.
Jesus was being hard on those in his culture who were prosperous.
Jesus was being hard on everyone
who had divided loyalties between wealth and God.
Jesus is being hard on us, who, in comparison
with most of the rest of the human family on this planet,
are rich beyond measure.

But it’s not because we are particularly wicked or sinful or hard-hearted
that Jesus is saying these hard words to us,
but because of his immense compassion.
He sees through the closed heart,
and looks at us with the agaph Love of God.

His mercy is there in his toughness,
a severe mercy because it is for our sake.

Would that we would let go of our fears,
that we would quit investing our wealth
in what has so many fears associated with it.

Would that we would be aware
and not neglect the opportunities for generosity,
generosity that is life giving for others.

Would that we would let go of our fears
and instead become rich in God.

Sermon Pentecost 8 Emmanuel, Mercer Island

The ministry of hospitality –
It was very important in OT times
as the story of Abraham and the 3 visitors indicates
It was very important in the time of Jesus
as seen in Martha working hard at providing hospitality
for Jesus and his entourage
and it has importance now
in how we offer hospitality here at Emmanuel.

Offering hospitality seems to come with some rewards:
for the congregation, we think about how
our lives would be enriched by guests who come and stay.

This would be a little different than in our homes
when we hope that the guests will go back to their own homes
after an appropriate length of time!

At church can we be honest about whether or not
we really want all guests here to stay?
What if that guest is someone different from ourselves?
What if that guest challenges us
and the extent to which we are willing to offer hospitality?
Be careful!
This difficult guest will most likely turn out to be Christ in disguise, a kind of pop quiz regarding our intentions and dedication and devotion.

In the Genesis story today hospitality is rewarded.

The three guests are angels of God,
or indeed the Divine Presence in Triune form,
as the famous Russian icon of the Trinity
at table under the oaks of Mamre.

The reward here is a healing for Sarah
so that she and Abraham will have the long promised son.

But now the hospitality story in the Gospel reading…
This story is odd; it doesn’t fit regarding hospitality
- as per much of what we read in the Gospel of Luke.
There is often an unexpected twist in these stories
from what one would ordinarily expect.
With Jesus something radical often happens,
and this case is no exception.

Martha has invited Jesus to her home,
and along with Jesus comes his disciples,
and if word got out around Bethany - and it most likely did -
then others show up.

Hospitality was the #1 social rule; it was sacrosanct.
In being properly hospitable, one must provide food, of course,
but also the other amenities – to provide for the guests to freshen up,
to wash feet … and hands and face…

I get the feeling that Martha actually would rather have been
just spending time with Jesus.
Quite possibly she was feeling resentful
because Mary was doing just what she wanted to do:
sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen to him, to be near him.

But instead Martha is running around seeing to hospitality needs
for all those guests in her home,
doing what was good and right, and not like her slacker sister,
so Martha was only able to listen to Jesus with one ear in passing,
as she went about carrying out this important duty of hospitality.

So she appealed to the obvious authority that Jesus has
for him to tell her sister to return to her proper place
in this obligation of hospitality, of serving and service.

But in this situation to serve while everyone else is sitting and listening
is to have a divided attention.
You really can’t give your full attention to the listening.
It’s trying to do some task while listening to someone talk to you.
You know, if that someone is your children, they usually call you on it.
They want your undivided attention.
and they aren’t hesitant to tell you so. Mine weren’t!


Jesus responds to Martha by addressing her own divided attention.
“You are anxious about many things,” he says.
And the Greek word for “anxious” means literally to have a divided mind.

Of few things is there a need, or just one, he tells her.
Mary has chosen the good part,
the single focus,
not the divided mind of both serving
and trying to catch bits of the Word Jesus is speaking.

Martha is to learn from Mary about the one thing necessary,
even more necessary, or especially more necessary,
than that culture’s #1 priority.

Too much of the Church’s ministry
of diakonia or service and the ministry of hospitality
is done with a divided mind,
with mixed motives, and without sitting and listening to Jesus.

Service flows from sitting and listening first,
from the relationship with Jesus that results in the realization
and deep knowing of our identity through baptism in Christ.
True serving
can only come out of first realizing on a very deep level
our relationship to Jesus,
and then service and ministry will flow and be unstoppable.
It doesn’t really work the other way around, in the reverse order.

If we want our service, our ministry, and hospitality
to be authentic and effective,
then we need to do what Mary was doing.

There is such a history of human good intentions about serving others
that ends up causing more harm than good,
that is patronizing and demeaning, that is manipulative,
that is done for the benefit of feeling magnanimous
rather than truly looking at what the recipient needs or wants.
We need to do what Mary is doing first.

What is it, then, to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he says?

Let me suggest to you that it is exactly that: Sit and listen.
I know something about this.
For me – if I am to be a spiritual leader worth my salt,
I need to do some serious listening.
For too many years I went just on memory,
what I learned in seminary
and what bits and pieces of hearing Jesus I had experienced
throughout the years.
But the time came when my inner spirit finally got through to me
with the truth of my spiritual condition:
Sit down, shut up and listen.
That’s when I started meditating.

You know, I took off 2 years from active ministry
for an extended sabbatical just to sit and listen.

Essentially I did nothing but meditate 6 – 8 hours a day and read the Bible,
There is a lot to this process of sitting and listening,

But here’s the thing –
after I had sat for 15 months straight,
I was sent back out into a new ministry of active service.

But this time with a whole new experience of faith and self-understanding
and context of compassion and integration in the whole being
of what had only been glimpsed at in the head previously.

So now I instruct others in how to sit down and listen, too,
because this is so crucial for doing any sort of ministry.

So what about here at Emmanuel?
Not everyone is going to run off and spend a year meditating in a convent.

But for all there is some form of spiritual practice,
that, when engaged faithfully and over time,
will facilitate sitting down and listening,
so that then your ministry can be transformed in its effectiveness.

Being here on a Sunday morning is good;
it’s a move in the right direction.

But how much time do we actually spend sitting and listening
during the liturgy?


We listen to scripture, you listen to me yammer,
but that can all go by quite quickly
with little or no time to absorb what you heard.

During communion is a good time for sitting and listening,
if we use that time intentionally for that.

You could come early and sit in silent prayer before the service.
You could stay after.
You could come to a meditation class.

What I am saying is that we need more than one hour on Sunday morning.
We need to practice this listening to Jesus daily.

I’m available for individual consultation regarding
figuring out a spiritual practice for sitting and listening,
or for assisting you in a spiritual process you are already doing.
I encourage each person to look intentional
at just what is your spiritual practice.

And follow Mary’s example first and foremost.
Then watch what happens to the ministry, service, and hospitality
that flow from it.

This is where the reward for hospitality is in the Gospel reading –
in getting to sit at Jesus feet,
getting to be with him…
What could be better?

SUMMER RETREAT – A Time to Live the Prayer of the Lamb
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17

July 5 – 9, 2010
Change of Location!
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
4400 86th Ave SE
Mercer Island

We will now be meeting at Emmanuel in the meditation room set amid flowering gardens and trees in a quiet neighborhood.
Full handicap accessibility.



Daily periods of group meditation,
scripture study and teaching,
with time for personal reflection.
Celebrations of the Supper of the Lamb
and generous spaces of silence.



We will meet daily 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM,
and share preparations for a simple lunch.

Each day will include five periods of silent meditation for a total of three hours, with an early morning meditation period optional.



Cost: Suggested donation $100
Scholarships available

Registration will be limited to 15.
Call 206-713-5321 or email PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com with inquiries and to reserve a space.

Sermon Pentecost 3 Emmanuel, Mercer Island

Today we have some really terrific scripture readings
with really important spiritual teaching
and I would love to preach on everything there
but I will restrain myself reluctantly,
even though the feast is so rich.

But before we can get to that
I have to go to the one place in all these readings
that is most likely to hang us up,
the place that jars our sensibilities
and tends to sour our receptivity to all the rest.

It is the matter of the baby.

The words are hard to take.
Nathan tells David:
Now the LORD has put away your sin;
you shall not die.
Nevertheless…
the child … shall die.

One might well ask,
What kind of God is that who will let the adulterer and murderer off
but punish the innocent victim with death?

Let’s look at this first,
so that we can then be able to be with the rest of the lessons
and see the spiritual truth ready to be revealed to hearts open in faith.

Think for a moment about the situation and its political ramifications.
The king has played fast and loose with his royal power.
He has a faithful and trusted servant in his army general Uriah,
a man who is from outside the nation, a Hitite,
but who shows his loyalty by scrupulously following
the customs of the people among whom he has come to live.
Uriah shows his devotion to the king
by staying with his men in their encampment
instead of going home and sleeping with his wife
which would have given the king a covering for his adultery.

And so by his own uprightness Uriah dooms himself
and he sets things up for David to further sin
by deliberately causing his death in battle.
Uriah dies for his adopted country, a war hero, but needlessly.

Well, something like this can’t be kept a secret.
People can count.
Bathsheba produces a son for King David
in an amazingly short time after their marriage.
But no one is going to say anything about it around the king.

No one, that is, except Nathan, the prophet,
who risks his life to bring such a message to the king,
but it is essential to make the king, the Lord’s anointed, accountable,
for David’s sake and for the sake of the nation.

Adultery and murder at the heart of the government
is a travesty to the Covenant between God and the people.

And the great thing in this story is that David sees his sin and repents.

But, the wording of the passage tells us,
“the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David,
and it became very ill.”

The child dies.

It was actually a mercy that the child did die.
Think of it.
This son would always bear the burden of the events surrounding his birth.
His presence would be a continual reminder.
The culture and political climate into which he was born
would not tolerate that, and that is what killed him.
David would spend the days of the child’s illness
in prayer and fasting and weeping.
He saw the death coming and mourned.
And when the baby actually dies,
he gets up and washes his face and eats and resumes his work.

Yes, it is tremendously hard for a parent to lose a child.
That is the worst kind of loss that can happen, I believe.

And David suffered that not once, but twice,
again when his handsome son, Absalom, started a coup
to take over the throne from his father.
David gave explicit instructions to his military generals
that when captured, Absalom’s life should be spared,
but that did not happen,
because it couldn’t happen in that kind of political system.

And again, one might say, David bore the consequences of his sin
in the death of this second son.

It’s a horrible outcome all around.
We know that we have to live with the consequences of our actions
whether we are a king or not.
In our common shared humanity,
there is so much we just cannot get away with
without some kind of repercussion,
most especially in creating alienation in our closest relationships.

Now maybe our hearts can be open
so that we can look at the main issues in all these passages:
repentance, forgiveness, love and faith.

So let’s turn now to the gospel lesson.
Jesus is having dinner at the home of Simon, a Pharisee.

As a Pharisee, Simon would have been a good, upright, law-abiding man.
He probably was also well aware
that Jesus quite frequently had been critical of Pharisees
and quick to point out hypocrisy among them.
Simon was not entirely hospitable then in having Jesus as his guest,
for he had neglected to offer one of the typical services
of water to wash the road filth off the feet as he came in.
That was being taken care of by the tears and kisses of a disreputable woman
who had somehow gotten into Simon’s house.

The parable Jesus told said it all.
This woman knew she was a sinner
and somehow had come to the realization of forgiveness
and that this was directly linked with the person of Jesus.
Now she was showing him great, extravagant love
with the expensive alabaster jar of perfumed ointment –
a huge contrast with the restrained welcome Jesus got from Simon.

And then Jesus says to the woman:
Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
Your faith has saved you.

Repentance, forgiveness, love and faith.
A very wise person once said to me,
“Faith is too important for God to leave it all to us.”
“Faith is too important for God to leave it all to us.”

That is the point of the epistle reading from Galatians today.
Paul is saying something very important,
and if you don’t hear anything else,
I would hope that you hear this.

The faith that saves us, that makes us justified before God,
is not our own faith produced by our own effort,
but the actual faith of Jesus.
Paul, speaking to us in the first person, states the union he experiences,
which we call our baptismal identity in Christ.
Translating literally from the Greek, Galatians 2:20 reads:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God.

It is his faith in us, the author and source of any faith we claim as our own,
that is the keystone, the linchpin, the cornerstone.

This is Jesus drawing us all to himself from his elevated place on the cross.
This is the gift of repentance, the gift of forgiveness, the gift of faith
in the lavish outpouring of love he shows to us
which draws us all into the outstretched arms of his embrace.

This is what the woman kissing Jesus’ feet had experienced.
This is what David had experienced,
so evident in the psalms he wrote,
the psalms that poured out of him
in response to the forgiveness he knew had been given to him,
a forgiveness that is the removal of alienation among the people.

And this is available for us too,
wherever we are in our realization of our need for being forgiven.

Moral Pharisee or blatant sinner, can we see that any sin is pernicious
and will lead to death – physical death or relational or spiritual death?

The adulterer and murderer gets off
and the innocent victim is put to death,
the holy child, the Lamb of God, no victim as we would think of as victim,
but self giving to the greatest extreme,
that the sinner may live, that we may live.

How much do we love him?
a little or a lot?
Does that say anything about how much we perceive that we are forgiven?

How much do you love Jesus?

Expansion of Prison Ministry and Need for Volunteer Instructors

The opportunity has been extended to the Community of the Lamb to expand the meditation instruction being offered at the Monroe Correctional Complex beyond the Twin Rivers Unit to two other units in the prison. I have been in conversation with the Catholic chaplain about what it would take to do this, and she has done some research on grant possibilities for funding meditation instruction in prisons. This is an exciting development that needs to be shared with others, because it is not something I can continue to do by myself.

At this stage I am asking those of you who have an established practice with the Prayer of the Lamb to consider a process of discernment about whether you might be called to this form of outreach ministry. Are you being called by the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua to assist in leading meditation sessions with convicted men incarcerated in the state prison in Monroe?

This is not a casual ministry. Those drawn by our Lord to this work must be committed to taking part in a very specific training process, be willing to work in partnership with others, and commit to offering service for a two year time commitment.

You will receive clear and exact instruction on how to present the Prayer of the Lamb and how to conduct a meditation session with a partner, as well as taking part in the prison’s volunteer orientation program. Once screened and authorized by the state prison system to enter the Monroe Correctional Complex as a volunteer, you will come with me and act as an assistant during a state required probationary period.

While the setting and the commitment needed may seem daunting, the joy and excitement of this kind of ministry is extraordinary. I always find it fascinating, engaging, humbling and encouraging working with men from very different life experiences and brokenness who are making attempts at bettering their personal condition or seeking God or peace or who simple know that something has to change for them. To be with them in this work has provided me with some very rewarding moments, and I am always thankful that I have been given the privilege of ministry in the prison.

The offenders who take part in the meditation program report that this is the one time during the week when they can get away from the noise that is constantly around them, when they can finally sit down and not have to be on guard, and when they can find some inner peace. Some are overtly Christian, and others have no church background, but all are willing, as far as they are able, to offer the Prayer of the Lamb for themselves and even for others.

As I have always said, I never would have chosen to be engaged in this kind ministry myself, if it had not been for circumstances and the Holy Spirit pushing me into it. But now that I am there, I am so glad I didn’t say no. Would you pray about this for yourself?

For engaging into discernment about a call to this prison outreach ministry, talk directly with Beverly at 206-713-5321.

Walking the Prayer of the Lamb

For the last ten years besides sitting in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb, I have also prayed the Prayer while walking. Living where I do in a pedestrian-intensive neighborhood I walk to the post office, bank, grocery store, restaurants, etc. on a regular basis. So I get many opportunities for doing my practice interspersed throughout the week in the midst of routine activity. Not only am I getting in extra time beyond my commitment for daily sittings, but I know that I am also contributing to other beings around me as I walk along asking for that abundant and free-flowing mercy of the Lamb of God for all of us.

The labyrinth has been a spiritual practice that many people have tried out or engaged. It is a way to “go on pilgrimage” without traveling great distances. There are specific ways by which people can undertake walking a labyrinth, but here I would like to offer another option using the Prayer of the Lamb, although note that this should not replace the basic practice of sitting in silence.

Consider the following: As I embark on a personal pilgrimage of walking the labyrinth to its center and back, I begin from where I am. That means I am taking along with me all the current thoughts running through my head, all the to-do list, relationships currently being engaged, concerns, anxieties, desires, and an ever fluctuating self-identification. As I walk slowly, mindfully and deliberately with the words, Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us, gently marking each step, all that I have brought with me is offered into that mercy. As may often be the case in silent meditation, this stage may take awhile. By the time I reach the center all has been offered (purgation) and now comes a time to sit and simply be in that mercy offering the innocent devotion of the Prayer with an openness of heart to God (illumination). After a luxuriously long amount of time at the center, I begin the journey of returning, and out of the realization of baptismal identity in the Lamb of God (union) I am offering the Prayer as a universal intercession for all beings that I will encounter as I emerge from this walking meditation. This last stage is an act of outreach ministry, a contribution pouring out of abundance. As with all my meditation this is not a private spiritual practice; it is ecologically and sacramentally integrated. …another way to walk the labyrinth.

Sermon 5th Sunday Easter, Emmanuel, Mercer Island

Last week we had a lovely time relishing in the past, among other things looking at photos that reminded us of the way things used to be. But our memories, we know, are selective. We reminisce about what fits with our current agenda, either positively or negatively. All the past memories have a bittersweet quality to them because we know that what we are remembering is in the past not to be repeated. It can never be that way again.

That can fill us with sadness, or on the other hand we may say, thank God! We don’t have to go through that again!

A lot of you liked last Sunday’s liturgy, but come on, admit it, you don’t really want to have it that way every Sunday.

Let’s not dwell in the past. Isn’t that usually good advice? Instead one might look at the passage from the Revelation for today in this Easter season series of readings. The book of the Revelation is a really scary book and incredibly misunderstood as though it were possible to “decode” the book and thereby discover the exact time and set of circumstances for the coming again of the Lord for vengeance and judgment.

Ah, but we Episcopalians have figured out how to have readings from this disturbing book of the Bible and not cause ourselves nightmares. We simply pick out the lovely parts. We even read them at funerals as a way to comfort the bereaved.

And we make huge leaps with these passages into ideas about what heaven is, and what it is like, how if we have been decent folks, led good lives, been reasonably nice we can look forward to being reunited with loved ones and enjoy a happy, pleasant eternity. It isn’t usually in our thoughts that we might just as well be reunited with ones we don’t love.

Yes, if our heads aren’t in the past, they’re in the future.

Well, I have some cold water to throw on all that this morning. You’re probably not going to like this if you really pay attention and think this through.

There is no past nor future. They’re all in your head. There is only now, and most of us don’t like being in the now.

And yet the now is where salvation is, liberation, where truth is, where life is. Be here now and you can discover how much illusion and denial is going on but you can also discover that there is a huge abundance of life right now untapped, un-tasted, unlived. You may also discover that the present moment is incredibly full, overflowing with mercy, freedom, love, peace and joy.

You may have noticed that the Bible doesn’t really say a whole lot about an afterlife. All the stuff about St. Peter at the pearly gates checking names in a book with a plumed pen, or people with wings sitting on clouds and holding harps is made up, right?

Instead eternal life is referred to over and over again as the quality of life, the recognition of life in its fullest form present here and now for the eyes of faith.

This passage from the book of the Revelation says, “See, the home of God is among mortals…” See, and the word in Greek means realize this, with insight, perceive, really get it. The home of God is among mortals, not off somewhere in a heaven far across the universe but here in our midst God is at home. When we see that, then every tear, every sigh, every downcast spirit will realize profound and healing comfort. All the lost dreams, all the wounds of the past, all the griefs we have known are eclipsed by the Light that shines forth from the One who is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the source point and the completion/fulfillment, the One who holds within him the whole scope of life and existence and creation, the One who makes all things new,

who transforms our seeing so that we can actually perceive how creation is new every moment so that we can get it that resurrection is the way new creation comes into being now and now and now.

It’s not “Jerusalem, my happy home, when shall I come to thee?” but God himself is with us - Emmanuel.

The first way of seeing things and giving it meaning and thereby struggling with it and living in frustration, fear, anxiety and anger has passed away, and now the limits of vision are blown and we do not know what we see.

So we retreat to the past and the future, those places in our mind that we can have some control over, and we miss the abundance of life in its eternal quality right now all its potential and potency and threat and promise.

Jesus saw the truth of now and lived it fully. That is why he could say in that moment at the last supper right when Judas had gotten up from the table and had gone out into the night to betray him, “NOW the Son of Man has been glorified.”

Jesus goes on about this glory: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.”

Glory, glory, glory. In light of what is about to happen in the Garden of Gethsemane and at Golgotha, what in the world is this glory?

In the biblical sense of the word, both from Hebrew and Greek,

to glorify is to give honor to, to attribute value and worth to, to give weight to. Glory is more than just having splendor, flashiness, pizzazz.

Glory is the weight of all worth.

And truly that describes the Cross. And its outcome – Resurrection.

And so Jesus at that moment of glory begins his long discourse with his disciples, the last words of his earthly ministry begun here in the 13th chapter of John and continuing on through the 17th chapter.

And right out of the chute he gives his disciples the means by which they will be able to see the glory and live in the now and have that abundant, eternal quality life now and now and now. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”

Yes, that’s the ticket – love one another.

Love one another and it will all come clear, and, glory be, we will see that the home of God is among mortals.

Well, of course, this isn’t ordinary love.

Our English language is poverty stricken when it comes to the word love. In Greek there are several words for love, each with rich nuances of meaning: the intimate love between two people, and the love that keeps the bonds of fidelity, and then the God-quality kind of love which is unitive love, the love that exists within the Trinity, so full that no distinction can be made between lover and beloved, there is only Love. And we are pulled into that love, drawn up into that by the action of the Cross so that we might know that love now, and be transformed by it.

As we find in the first epistle of John, “God is love.”

Jesus, the Son of God, the Eternal Word present from the beginning with God, the One through whom all things came into being and have creation, Jesus tells his disciples, “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, - with that unitive love of God – you also should love one another - with that unitive love of God. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Well, obviously this unitive love of God that Jesus has for us and which he also wants us to express and live and give to others is not foremost in our thoughts and actions all the time. It’s not at the top of the priority list, it isn’t the motivating factor for everything we say or do or think. If it were, then truly everyone would know that we are disciples of Jesus witnessing to the resurrection. Even in this secular Pacific Northwest none-zone if we had this God-love for others, it would stand out and be noticeable.

This Love requires being in the now, not some memory of the past, not some hope for the future, but being in relationship right here and now, otherwise it’s not the kind of love that Jesus is talking about and commanding of us.

Until we love one another as Jesus commanded us to do we will continue to place our ideas, opinions, goals, personal self-interest, desires and discriminations, likes and dislikes, and personal preferences above our relatedness one with another.

Until we love one another as Jesus commanded us to do, we will have tears and death and mourning and pain and not see that the home of God is among mortals here and now.

Until we love one another as Jesus commanded us to do the world will not know our witness to the Resurrection.

Beloved, let us love one another.