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.