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.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
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.”
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.”
Saturday, October 23, 2010
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
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
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, September 6, 2010
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.
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.
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