Christmas Hope

            We had a wonderful Christmas.  Our granddaughter hosted the whole family for a brunch.  We exchanged some gifts, watched the little kids play and enjoyed talking with one another.  Later in the day, I went to the Church of the Atonement in Carnegie and visited with them and all of the volunteers who came from all over the diocese as they hosted the people of their neighborhood for a Christmas dinner.  I loved watching the people come in and sit down and be served the food that they came for.  There were a few families, but mostly ones and twos looking for something on Christmas Day that they had no way of getting on the other days of the year.  At first, there were more volunteers than there were customers; but slowly the people began to trickle in and the place filled up.  This church has been doing this for years, not only feeding the people who come to the church building, but also sending out dinners to shut-ins and others who have no way to get to the church.  What they are doing at Atonement is what we are all called to do by our God.  To take care of the poor, the outcast and those with no means of taking care of themselves. 

            That isn’t news to you, or really to anyone.  It has been the mission of the church since Jesus came to us; and indeed from the foundation of the world.  We forget it easily.  We get seduced by the commercialism of the season and fill our houses with brightly wrapped packages and extravagances that we could easily do without.  What distresses me, when I look at it is that often repeated phrase: Jesus is the reason for the season. That we have to say that to one another is the problem.  Our mission gets subverted by our need to gather in the bargains and spend more than last year.  That certainly isn’t going to change, it is the way of our society.  This fragile church of ours needs to exist in the midst of it, not find ways to force the culture to change.  While this commercial craze is going on around us, it is our job to make sure that those who are the neediest among us are given what they so desperately crave; not only food, clothes and shelter, but also dignity and respect. 

            I love the Christmas stories that we have heard during this season.  It is notable for me that the Angels came and filled the skies with song over the fields of the shepherds instead of on the streets in front of the houses of the rich.  The shepherds in that day were the least of the least.  They tended their flocks outside of the view of most of the rest of society.  They were the poor and the neglected.  I have always loved the fact that when Samuel went to Jesse’s house to find the next king of Israel, he saw all of his sons and then, not being satisfied with any of them, asked if there were any more.  Jesse told him that there was one more, but he was a shepherd out in the fields with the sheep.  When David appeared, Samuel knew immediately that this was the one that he had been sent to crown the king to replace Saul.  It is certainly interesting that our Lord came from the root of Jesse; born of the house of David the shepherd boy in Bethlehem.  Out of the roots of the poorest came our greatest king.

            The other image that strikes me in this Christmas season is the idea of light transforming the darkness.  John’s marvelous eighteen verse fable that begins his gospel is a great testimony to the light of heaven piercing the darkness that covers humanity:

                In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

                and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

                All things came into being through him, and without him not

                one thing came into being. What has come into being in him

                was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines

                in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

            Bringing light into the darkness of the world was God’s intention with the incarnation of Jesus.  God come into the world as a human being to comprehend the nature of humanity and to know what we all experience in this life.  To do that, God chose a humble birth for Jesus; not a noble birth full of pomp and ceremony.  Jesus began his life as an impoverished child in a stable, not a room at the Hilton.  He called disciples from the lowly of his time and he spent his life among the poor and the outcast giving them constant hope in a world full of those whose only goal was greed and power.  Taking care of those people was his ministry, and his charge to the people who followed in his footsteps.  As a church, we haven’t always done that.  We have also been often seduced by wealth and power, and have forgotten our mission.  When we have done that, we have largely disappointed God, who continues to hope that by the disciples who have been called to follow our Lord Jesus, that ministry to the poor and the outcast can be the salvation of the world.

The Blessing of Women in Ministry

            A dear friend of mine celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of her ordination to the priesthood this past week and I was privileged to be there.  I remember the time over thirty years ago when we were fighting to convince the church to ordain women as well as men to the priesthood.  There were a number of us who would gather at the home of a friend in Squirrel Hill to talk and to plan what we were going to do to help it to happen.  There was fierce opposition to this notion, but in 1976 in a wonderful rebellious moment, some women were ordained in Philadelphia by three bishops and that got the toothpaste out of the tube forever.  There were still many who fumed and fought over the very idea of women as priests; but after Philadelphia, it couldn’t be changed.  The Episcopal Church General Convention when it next met ratified the idea and women’s ordination became a firm part of our church life. 

            In 1994, I was privileged also to attend the ordination of a woman in Blackpool, England.  She was among the first women to be ordained in England.  She went on to be the vicar of a church near Hadrian’s Wall and is still doing her ministry, and doing it well. 

            When I look back on all that has gone on in the church over these past thirty years, it seems almost quaint to me that there should have been such argument over something that has been of such immense benefit to not only the church but to our society.  Women bring compassion and gentleness to the work of ministry that men often lack.  They can be remarkable pastors and can bring their feminine talents to their work and help the people of their churches to understand in their lives the remarkable work that has been given to us by our Lord to do in this world.  I thank God for women in the priesthood.  I have been personally blessed by a number of them.

            Luke’s Gospel speaks of the annunciation in a way that lift’s Mary up as the anointed mother of Jesus so that we can understand the beauty of the birth of Jesus in a way that would be impossible otherwise.  Mary’s fear at first dissolves after the angel Gabriel tells her what God has in mind, and when Gabriel is done, Mary simply acquiesces and simply says to the angel:  Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Mary’s quiet faith brought forth her blessed Son, Jesus, who has given to humankind the amazing blessings that have lasted through the two thousand years since his birth.  Here again, is a woman acting as a servant of God to bring about God’s desire for humankind.  This has been continued through the years by women in remarkable ways.  I think of Teresa of Avila, Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa, all of the Roman Catholic Church, and the work of the women religious of that denomination.  They have been the lifeblood of Catholicism over the years, despite what the male leadership of the church might try to say about them.  Recently, the Vatican has published a document that has found that nuns have contributed generously of their lives to the church.  This was after there were rumors that the church would determine that there were significant problems with female religious orders.  That the church recognizes the value of women in their ministry offers hope that one day, they will share with their fellow men in the Roman Catholic Church the work of the priesthood. 

            That this has already happened in the Episcopal Church is a reason for celebration and gladness.  Thank God for this great blessing.

The Meaning of Christmas

            We decorated the house this week for Christmas.  It is an incredible job for a couple of senior citizens.  I have to get all of the boxes down from the attic, we have to unpack them and find all of the things that we thought we had lost.  I put up the imitation tree and Rosie puts on the ornaments.  We get the light strings more or less sorted out and hang them in appropriate places.  Santa goes on top of the china closet and Mrs. Santa finds her place on top of the refrigerator.  We work to get it all done by this coming weekend because we will celebrate multiple birthdays this Sunday.  Mine is the sixteenth, Beethoven’s birthday, our daughter Melanie’s is the fifteenth and our grandson in law, Pete has his on the eleventh.  Beth, Melanie’s partner and friend has hers on the eighteenth.  There is a lot to celebrate and we will have a great celebration dinner to commemorate all of it. 

            But decorating the house only one way that we get ready for the great festival of Christmas; there is shopping and cards and all kinds of things that we have to do before the great day comes: we need to decide what to get the kids for Christmas and which of the many events we will try to attend.  Jennifer always has a wonderful “cookie day” when she and all of her friends and the little ones gather in her kitchen to bake cookies.  There is always a dinner and I am always one of the cookie “judges”, which puts me in a terrible position of having to decide which are the best cookies.   It is a festive time and I love getting together with all of the people and celebrating. 

            Celebrating is really what this season is all about.  It isn’t about getting things, although we have been taught that it is from our birth.  For many of us, we have enough of everything and we don’t really need more.  Television and the other media constantly tempt us to buy.  Everyone is always having some kind of a sale; the car dealers offer specials, the appliance stores and the department stores tempt us with what look like remarkable bargains, which may or may not be true.  The bottom line is that we really don’t need more “stuff”.  The people who need stuff are the poor and the homeless and they sometimes benefit from the season, but it isn’t really the heart of the matter. 

            Mary’s wonderful Magnificat spells out the responsibility that those who follow Jesus have not only at Christmas time, but all year long.  She sings this great psalm after the Angel Gabriel announces to her that she is pregnant with Jesus, who will grow up to be the hope of the world.  She sings this tribute to God:

            He has shown the strength of his arm,  
    he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
   He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,  
    and has lifted up the lowly.
   He has filled the hungry with good things,  
    and the rich he has sent away empty.

            There is the essence of Christian responsibility for anyone who wants to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Getting and spending is not our agenda.  Taking care of those who have nothing is what we are here for.  When I see the Salvation Army kettles outside of the supermarkets, I feel that something is being done; but never enough.  We still tramp all over each other to get to the specials in the stores and knock the homeless aside in our rush.  This is the essence of sin: the overwhelming need that we have to get more and more. When we can finally decide that those who have nothing are more important than we are is when the world will finally settle into peace.  Until then, we will continue to have racism, terrible political controversy and religious differences that seem to be insurmountable.  The way through this is through the lives of the poor and the homeless.  Can we make their Christmas a bit more merry?  That really isn’t as hard as it seems.  It only requires each of us to look upon those in need with compassion and without judgement.  God bless us in this magnificent season and God bless all of those who hope that they can escape the prison of want and need.

The Peace of Jerusalem

            When we were in Jerusalem, I looked all over the place for signs of Christianity.  I was hoping to find some absolute proof of the life of Jesus in that place.  I couldn’t find it anywhere.  That holy city is the home of all three Abrahamic religions.  They vie with each other to use the space.  The Muslims have taken over the area where the Jewish temple once stood.  The incredible Dome of the Rock sits in that space, commemorating Mohammed’s leap into heaven on a horse.  Al Aqsa mosque also sits on that hill, and has been a constant thorn in the side of the Israeli people who would love to reclaim the space where their old temple stood.  The only remnant is the hallowed Western Wall of the old temple, where the faithful pray daily. 

            We have been taught to pray for the peace of Jerusalem; but there has very seldom been peace in that place.  It has erupted countless times in religious wars that have killed many and sometimes mocked the hopes of the world’s people that the city be a symbol of peace and God’s kingdom.  I think that city has become instead a symbol of a constantly divided world, and our prayers need to be for ourselves as we cope with the terrible divisions that exist among us.

            Here it is Advent again.  We look forward to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the great preacher who lies at the heart of Christianity.  It was Jesus who by his short life taught us all the Way of God, the hope of the ages.  Jesus came not with a short list of things that we all have to believe in order to be “saved”, but instead a list of instructions about how to live our lives in the service of those around us.  His eloquent Sermon on the Mount tells us what to do in order to make this world a place of peace and hope.  We aren’t expected to all agree on our doctrine, but instead to agree on how to take care of each other, regardless of what we believe.  That for me is a lesson that is made clear in the strife that exists not only in Jerusalem, but throughout the world.

            We look at the war that is going on between the Islamic State and others in the Muslim community and the Christians who are also present and we react in despair at the loss of life and the terrible things that are said by the participants; but these people are doing things that are no different from what Christians have done to each other throughout the centuries.  We have also excluded one another from our community because of the differences in our belief systems.  In the Inquisition and through the difficulties of the persecutions of numerous people because of their religious differences with the rest of Christianity, we have done exactly what the people in Syria and Iraq are doing presently.  Why our religious issues ought to determine who lives and who dies is a disgusting testimony to our inability to live according to what our Lord told us.  We are to love one another as he loved us.  That is a simple commandment and the one that we have ignored over and over again to produce the chaos that presently exists in this world. 

            When I see countless people protesting the actions of the police in recent weeks by holding their hands up and chanting, “Don’t shoot!,” I am reminded of the great divide that separates all of us from each other.  It isn’t only religion, it is also our skin color, or our nationality.  What is it that brings up these ridiculous issues?  I know it is our greed and our inability to look at each other with love and understanding instead of threat.  This is why there is not peace in Jerusalem, or Staten Island, Cleveland, or Ferguson.  We are the ones who can do something about this if we can simply look at each other with love instead of suspicion.  The greatest Christmas present that we can give to each other is our unconditional love.  God bless us in this season of expectation.

Thanksgiving, Anyway!

            Thanksgiving Day is a time to reflect on what it is that we have and to thank our God for the goodness that there is in this world.  It isn’t always easy to see the goodness.  Sometimes we get hit in the face by the things that seem to be so wrong around us.

            I don’t really know what to say in the wake of the lack of an indictment in Ferguson, Missouri this week.  I must say that the cynic in me didn’t expect that there would be an indictment.  That was borne out in the belittling comments made by the county prosecutor when he announced the Grand Jury’s findings.  I wasn’t surprised that there were demonstrations and anger on the part of the people in the community.

            Of course, it would be better if we could curb the violence and take these things that happen in their stride; but in light of the way that the races have been treated in this nation, that is profoundly impossible.  It is certainly important that the citizens of the community tell the officials how they feel.  It is important also for the officials to listen to them, which seems not to be happening.

            I also have to tell you that I have never particularly liked the mythological story that undergirds our Thanksgiving tradition.  The idea of the black-hatted Puritans receiving food from Squanto the Indian and then a relatively few years later taking his land for their own is unnerving to me.  I’m not sure it really happened that way, but that isn’t important.  What matters is that we understand something of the need that we all have to give thanks for what we have received; and to know that our God is the source of what we have been given. 

            That also isn’t always easy to see.  We are constantly reminded that the rich have inherited the earth.  The one percent seems to control just about everything.  We can’t even have elections that are fair because money from super PACs pour into them and affect the outcomes.  We seem sometimes to be stuck in an unyielding political morass that just won’t yield, and give us the fairness and justice that we yearn for.

            But we have our families.  That is the source for most of us of our comfort; and this parish family is a source of comfort for many people who have no other place to turn.  That is what we have to give thanks for on this day. 

            Our scripture lesson for this holiday is the account of what Moses said to the people when they were about to enter the promised land that God had provided for them after their forty year sojourn in the wilderness.  Moses tells them that God is giving them a good land that will take care of all of their needs and will provide them with great wealth.  He then tells them that after they have created this wealth, not to forget that it is God who has provided it, not themselves.  This is a lesson that we still haven’t quite learned today.  We think that we are the source of all of the good things that have been provided to us; and that we, not God, are the great providers.  We see this in the so called one percent who have all of the wealth and continue to build it on the backs of those who have nothing, or who work for small wages while their providers continue to get rich.  This is what makes our thanksgiving difficult. 

            We need to remember to give thanks for small things.  When Jesus healed the ten lepers who cried out to him, only one, a Samaritan, came back to give him thanks.  Jesus asked, “were not ten made clean?”  But he closed the moment by telling the one who thanked him; “go, your faith has made you whole.”  That is what we always need to remember.  It is our faith in our Holy God that continues to make us whole.  Even in the face of all of the things that are oppressing:  Grand Juries that refuse to indict; rich who refuse to compensate their workers; police who can’t seem to curb their racism, we still, like that Samaritan leper need to give God continual thanks for what it is that we have received:  families who love us; churches who continue to serve the needy and all of the wonderful goodness that exists in the world, despite humanity’s continuing difficulty with understanding who is really in charge. 

           
God bless us all on this glorious day and remember to continue to love one another.  That is what our God continually asks us to do and when we do it, the world works well.

Sheep and Mission

            There is a lot of reference to sheep in the scriptures.  Ezekiel quotes God as saying that he will come and gather up his scattered flock and give them good pasture on the mountains of Israel.  Psalm 100 tells us that the Lord is God and we are His people and the sheep of his pasture; and then there is that powerful passage from the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which I think is the crowning teaching of Jesus to the people of this world.  He tells of the final judgement, when the Son of Man will come with all of his angels and sit on the throne of his glory.  He will separate humanity into two groups: the sheep and the goats.  To the sheep he will promise everlasting life and glory because when he was hungry and naked, in prison or sick, they provided for him.  The people ask when this happened, and the Son of Man tells them that whenever they did this for the least of His people, they did it for him.  Then to the goats, He says: depart into the flames prepared for you because you never took care of the needs of my people.    

            I can’t imagine a better summary of the teaching of Jesus while he was in his ministry, travelling through the countryside caring for all of the need that he found in his path.  He healed, he comforted, he visited, he fed and he did this constantly.  There is that momentous time after the death of John the Baptist when Jesus simply needed to get away and grieve, but the people followed him, eager to hear him speak.  He took the time to speak to them and when the hour got late and his disciples told him that the people needed to go somewhere and get something to eat, Jesus told them: “give them something to eat yourselves.”  They were stunned until he asked them what resources that they had and they told him of the young man who had five loaves and two fishes.  Jesus asked that they be brought to him.  He blessed them, broke the bread and there was enough for all of them to eat with twelve baskets left over.  That is what Jesus was asking of his disciples.  Take what you have, even though it doesn’t seem like much and make do with it and feed and take care of the people before you. 

            That is what we are still asked to do in this world.  That is a quick summary of the mission of the church.  We work on mission statements, we craft them and make them sound very good, but this twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel is what it is that God expects from all of us: to feed, clothe, visit, comfort and care for the people in our path.  After all of the theologians have their say, after all of the evangelists proclaim their salvation story, this is the command of our God that we love and take care of one another.  There is no higher calling than this.

            Sometimes, I get tired of the church.  We spend a great deal of time arguing over small things like whether or not women can be ordained, or whether people of the same sex can be married, or participate in our common life.  We have a constant bombardment of moral issues that we are expected to comment on and decide for the rest of society.  It is interesting that the English church just decided that women can be bishops.  I think that we already knew this.  The Roman Catholic Church is trying to come to terms with a raft of changes in society.  The Pope seems to be trying to effect changes that will be far ranging.  I wish them all well.  These things are really on the fringes of what we are called to do. We focus on them because it takes our mind off the mission that we have been sent to accomplish.  We are the agency created by our Lord to make the Gospel come alive in the world; to take care of the needs of those who are left out by the rest of society.  That is why we have soup kitchens, clothing drives, chaplains in prisons and hospitals and do all of the things that we do to make life better for those who have nothing at all.  We all live with the need every day.  That is why there is so much violence on our streets and in our homes.  We are constantly trying to find solutions to these things.

            Religion isn’t something that we say with words.  It is something that we do with our lives.  When people see the goodness that we are able to create when we care for those who have nothing, they see our religion.  They see the hand of God working in this world.  We are the hands of our God.  That sounds awesome to me when I say it; but it looks awesome to me when I see it at work. 

           

            We are in the stewardship season of the church, when we appeal to all of our people to be generous with their contributions.  The reason that we do this is because the church is a place with limited means.  It has always been a place of limited means.  But our limited means are not an excuse for doing nothing.  We are called to use whatever we have for the sake of the Gospel.  That is the only measure that we need to apply to what we do as the people of God.

How Can We Use Our Talents

            There was a story reported this past week about how some people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida were arrested for feeding the homeless because the community had passed a resolution making it unlawful to do that.  Among those arrested was an Episcopal priest and some others from the religious community who commented that they were just doing what was required by their faith.  The mayor of the city replied to the criticism that followed that he was sorry that this had happened and that the city was not trying to keep those without food from being fed. 

            This was another example of how our political process sometimes trumps our faith; but that is certainly nothing new.  Religion has often been something that stays on the sideline until it is needed to bolster somebody’s idea of how we ought to live. 

            The story that we can take away from this is don’t fool around with what God has asked of all of us. God knows what we need and what God wants.  And God will have his way in the end.  That is what we are being told in the parable of the talents in Matthew’s Gospel.

            The master gave various amounts of his property into the hands of his slaves.  To one he gave five talents, to another two and to a third, he gave one.  He then went away.  Two of the slaves invested their talents and doubled them.  The one with one talent was afraid and buried his in the ground.  When he master came back, he wanted an accounting of his property.  The two who had invested the talents gave back the talents and the profit.  The one who had hidden his talent confessed of his fear and returned the one talent.  The master was furious with him over this and ordered him to be thrown into outer darkness.  The message is that we are to use what we have been given and not be afraid.  This is not a story for those in need, it is a story for those who have been given much. The master in this story is God and the people in need are the object of the story.

            I know that the people on the street living homeless who have to struggle every day just for essentials are those who need our help.  Helping them is how we, who have much more, are to use the talents that we have been given.  To restrict our use of what we have been given to us with foolish law is, I think, to laugh in the face of God.   But this isn’t the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  He goes on in the last part of this chapter with the most eloquent statement of God’s command to all of us; how we are to feed, clothe and house one another when we have nothing, and when we do this, we do it for Our Lord.  That is what we are about in this life: taking care of those in need because we are commanded to by our God. That is what investing our talents means. It is why we are given what we have.  It isn’t for us, it is for all of us in community to share because the Love of God makes us the hands of the Almighty, and we can make a powerful difference in this world.

About Death and Dying

            Death is something that we all know about.  For some people, it is something that seems to follow them every day.  People who live on the street, who don’t have much of the support of society; who seem to have none of the things that we all know that we need, such as food, shelter and clothing, sometimes have the sense that death is not far away.  Many of you know some of these people and how difficult it is to live like this.

            Grief is that thing that comes to us when we have a loss.  It isn’t easy to deal with and sometimes causes extreme pain.  I have been with a lot of people when they have experienced the death of a loved one.  Sometimes it seems to go easily; but more often there is racking sadness, tears, anxiety and pain.  I have felt all of these things myself.  When my parents died, I grieved.  It wasn’t easy getting through those days.  I needed the support of my wife and my kids.  It was great to have someone close who understood how I felt.  My experience of this heightened my concern of people who grieve but have no one to share that grief with.  

            I know that is one of the reasons that we have a church community.  When our church community suffers a loss, every member is involved in it.  The grief isn’t only individual, it is something that everyone experiences, and it isn’t easy.  When Princess Diana died, I watched on television people on the streets of London fighting tears for a woman that most of them knew only as a newsworthy person of the realm, with whom they had little personal contact.  These tears were decried as “crocodile tears” by one correspondent who had little understanding of what grief can mean to a community.  I don’t think that grief is something that we can write off lightly.  It comes out of the relationships that all of us form and that we value.  What is terrible is when our grief isn’t valued and we are belittled for it.  

            When Jesus died on the cross, his mother and a few disciples stood by and wept.  When Jesus rose from the dead, one of the first things that he saw was Mary Magdalene standing by the grave weeping.  Weeping is something that comes naturally to all of us at our time of grieving and it needs to be understood and accepted.  We are not weak because of our tears.  We are simply giving our love an outlet when it is lost to death.  Wouldn’t it be a terrible world if we didn’t cry over what we have lost?  It would diminish the lives that have been lost and make our grieving meaningless.  I value the tears that I have seen shed by those who have lost a loved one.  I know that they come from a time of great love.

            In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he speaks to them of what death means.  He says:

      We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18  

            But we don’t often think this way.  We approach death as something to be infinitely feared and at all costs to be avoided.  We worry when we contemplate it.  But the reality is that death will come to all of us.  What is important though, is as Paul says, we don’t grieve as others do who have no hope.  We have the certainty of eternal life that has been promised to us by our Lord Jesus.  That is a life beyond that which we know here, safe in the loving arms of our God who created us and will sustain us forever.

How Do We Speak to Power?

            Tuesday is Election Day.  I hope that all of you will vote.  I have my own preferences about who will get my vote, but I wouldn’t presume to tell you who to vote for.  You have to make that decision based on your own preferences and your own prejudices.  The problem is that too many people don’t vote at all.  That leaves the running of the government to the people who are able to get enough people to vote for them.

             Since the Citizen’s United decision by the Supreme Court, vast sums of money have been poured into campaigns to influence the outcome of elections.  This has caused enormous argument in this country and a great amount of turmoil among people who are running for office.  Most of the money is spent on negative campaign ads; saying sometimes made up things about opponents.  The people who pretend to know, say that this has produced outcomes that have disrupted our system.  It may be the source of so much discontent and brokenness in our government.  Nothing seems to get done and the people in office don’t seem to do much more than complain about the other people in power.  It is hard to watch, and even harder to figure out what to do about it.  Election Day ought to be a time to make our voices known and to help the government get back to governing and out of the business of complaining and doing nothing at all.

            The Old Testament prophet Micah has something to say about this.  In his own time, the rulers were much like ours.  Paying little attention to the poor and the outcast and spending their time on their own welfare.  Micah says:

      Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray,

who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths.  Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. Micah 3: 5-7

            God isn’t pleased when we ignore the problems that are all around us.  I know that is why God has done all that could be done to clean up the messes that we have made.  Moses got the law, which didn’t work because we broke every commandment.  Then the Prophets were sent to us to remind us of who we are and whose we are.  But we ignored them and went our own way.  Finally, God sent his only Son, Jesus to show us by his very human life the way that God intended us to live.  It only took us three years to get around to putting him on a cross and killing him.  But God wasn’t done yet.  Jesus had called disciples; people who followed and believed him.  Some deserted, but many stayed, and to this group of faithful, God sent the Holy Spirit to touch and fill them with God’s message of love to the world. 

            Even though the church has had its own problems with following God instead of its own inclinations, the Church is still the best agency to provide ways to touch the agony that this world constantly gives to those who have little power.  The church, when it stands up to power makes a remarkable difference in this world.  Certainly Martin Luther King is an example of this, as is Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and many others who have put themselves at risk in order to provide for the needs of the sick and the oppressed.  Consider the work done in Africa to deal with the misery of Ebola by Samaritan’s Purse and Doctors without Borders.  These are faithful people who put themselves on the line to bring healing to people who have no other place to go.  This is the work of the church in this world; people who are humbly going about the business of righting wrong and bringing hope where there is only despair.  This is what God intends for this world.  May we find faithful ways to communicate this to those in power.

Being the Gospel

            There is so much violence in this world.  I think of Ferguson, Missouri and the death of the young black man at the hands of the police; and the protests that erupted afterwards.  I think also of the terrible group of crises in the Middle East, where the Islamic State fighters are trying to take over both Iraq and Syria; the Israelites and the Palestinians are in constant conflict.  And it is hard to turn on the news anymore without seeing violence in our streets; shootings in our neighborhoods and almost uninterrupted violence all over the place. 

            I have no idea what causes all of this.  It seems to me to be simply our human need for power and our feelings of being left out and discriminated against.  We have a divide among the races in this country, although we try to say that it isn’t real.  Immigration is a contentious issue, with people afraid of people from other countries.  Guns are everywhere and provide for those who want to hurt others a ready weapon of choice.  There isn’t a simple solution to this, although people on both sides of the gun issue shout at each other across the divide, and nobody is ready to concede or compromise anything. 

            The problem is something that goes deep into our souls.  We seem to have an unwillingness to accept each other for what we are and instead want to judge and criticize until it leads us beyond words to violence.  I hear it in the terrible rhetoric of this election season.  The negative ads only contribute to the verbal violence that seethes all around us.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people running for office would say only once to their opponent: “Gosh, I never thought of that.”  But instead, we get denials and counter attacks that only rough up the debate even more.

            Jesus had no end of argument with the people of his day.  We have heard in our gospel lessons how the Pharisees have tried to trap him with their insistent, manipulative questions.  We heard how they asked him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, and Jesus asked for a coin to show them Caesar’s picture on it and said to them to “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  The latest attack by the religious leaders is to ask Jesus what was the greatest commandment; a subtle attempt to get him to blaspheme the law.  Jesus has an instant answer for them that has come down to us as what we call the “summary of the law.”  He says:  You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul and your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like unto it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.

            This was the end of the question asking on the part of the religious establishment.  From this moment on, they planned to lead Jesus to trial and execution.   This, for them was the only way that they could rid themselves of a man whom they saw as a menace to their power and their religious establishment.

            Let’s not go too far away from what Jesus told those people.  He offers to them and to us a ready solution to our violence and our hatred.  Love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbor as a person like ourselves.  If we could simply do that, we would rid the world of all of the terror and violence that we see in our streets and our neighborhoods every day.  We would be more courteous on the highway when we are driving; we would help those in our streets who are impoverished and are without the basic needs that most of us enjoy.  We would readily contribute to the charities that help so many people and we would get involved with these efforts ourselves.  I think that is what our churches are here for. 

            The reason that I want to come to church on Sunday is to worship our God, but also to see all of you.  My day isn’t complete until I have had conversation with you about your lives and how things are going with you.  This past week, my wife had surgery to have her knee replaced.  We gathered as a family to help her through all of the stress that this caused, and we heard from many friends who asked about her and how she did through it all.  I thank God for the prayers that were offered and the helpful comments that we all received.  That, for me, is what religion is all about.  Expressing our love for each other is one of the most important things that we do each day.  Can you imagine how it would be if we never said nice things to each other?  It would eventually make us wonder about ourselves.  That is what I think happens on the street when people go through their days never hearing a kind word spoken.  How can they do anything but think that they are not worthy.  Our job as a church is to do something about that: to make our religion a verb, not an adjective.  Our faith is something that we need to do, not describe.  Jesus is our model.  He gave his life for all of us.  The least that we can do is to show our love for one another.

            St. Francis told his disciples:  Go and preach the gospel.  Use words only if necessary.  That is what I mean by taking our religion into the world.  It is what we do, not what we say that is important.

How Does God Answer our Prayers?

            I have wanted to have absolute assurance that God has been with me a number of times.  I have never seen God’s face.  That is what our God told Moses on the mountain when he gave him the Ten Commandments.  “No one can see my face and live,” said God to Moses.  Moses argued with God about that.  “Show me your glory,” he said.  God tucked him into a cleft in the rock and passed by him so that Moses was aware of his glory, but never saw his face.  God assured Moses that he would always be with him and his people.  And so it went as they moved from Sinai to the Promised Land.  God was with them in the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud that guided them.  God provided manna when they were in need of food, and Moses’ staff struck the rock and they received water when they were thirsty.  They were taken care of by God for the years that they wandered the desert; and finally they were brought to the land that they had been promised.

            These were a surly people, never entirely faithful, always questioning.  They were a people just like you and me.  That’s why I always want assurance that God is with me. But I have seen God’s face a number of times.  God was in the face of the doctor who took out my brain tumor when it threatened my life.  God was in the face of the Bishop of Pittsburgh when he listened to me about wanting to go to seminary and found a way to get me enrolled in a matter of months.  God has been with both me and Rosie when we have had things happen to us that were beyond our control, and we have been sustained and made whole again.  God is with all of us, whether we know it or not.  God sees beyond our egoism and our hypocrisy and helps us to get through the turmoil of our lives.  Even when we die, God is with us.  We have been given the promise of eternal life by our God and that is not an idle promise. 

            To show us that promise in its completeness, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to be with us, to teach us and to ultimately give himself up to death for all of us.  When Jesus went to the cross, it was something that we all did.  We crucified Jesus because he threatened our power.  The religious leaders of his time saw that our Lord was teaching a different kind of faith than they were teaching.  They liked the power that they had over the people; but Jesus constantly challenged that.  When the poor widow put her small coin in the offering plate, Jesus praised her for giving more than the rich religious leaders.  The Widow’s Mite became a symbol of God’s eternal love.

            Once when my grandson was about three, he went outside the house and got into the car that was parked in the alley.  Somehow he released the brake and the car began to drift down the alley.  My daughter came out into the yard, saw what was happening and shouted, “Jesus Christ.”  When she told us about this, she apologized for what she thought was bad language.  I told her that what she had said was a prayer; a prayer from a worried mother about her child.  And God heard that prayer.  Somehow the car stopped and my grandson was all right. 

            I offer prayers constantly for the people whom I know.  Sometimes I see concrete evidence that the prayers made a difference, and sometimes I see no evidence at all.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t answer the prayers.  Frequently the answers are just not what we were expecting.  I have been with a number of people when they have died.  Once I was wakened at two in the morning to go to the intensive care unit of our local hospital to see a young woman who had been there for some time.  I went and had a prayer with her and the next day she died.  I grieved when she died and wondered what it was that I had done when I had seen her the night before.  I know that my call to her side had a purpose; it certainly provided her with care as she died; and it also helped me to understand something about my role as a priest.  It was another moment of God’s touch in this world and my opportunity to respond. 

            The religious leaders wanted to challenge Jesus because they didn’t like him.  They asked him if it was “lawful” to pay taxes to the emperor.  Jesus asked for a coin and they gave him one.  “Whose picture is on this coin,” he asked.  They told him that it was the picture of the emperor.  “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  The religious leaders didn’t ask him any more questions.  I know that if we live our lives with that in mind, we will always be close to God and that God will be close to us.

God's Incredible Presence

          Rosie and I have had a wonderful time for the past couple of weeks.  First, we went to Cape Cod, where dear friends have a cottage.  We had a delightful time there, visiting the many beaches and enjoying the almost incredible luxury of the Cape.  We saw old friends and had great conversations that we will always treasure.  We tried to go on a whale watch cruise out of Provincetown.  The boat was full of people who wanted to see the whales.  The ocean was very choppy and a lot of the people on the boat got sick.  The crew had distributed Dramamine to those who were afraid of sea sickness, and there were people dozing all over the boat.  We didn’t see any whales at all.  The problem was that the whales were apparently on a sabbatical or something and after three hours of looking, the captain decided that we were out of luck, so he took us back to the pier.  The absence of the whales didn’t mar the day; we enjoyed the trip up to the tip of the Cape.   

            This must be our year for mishaps.  After we came back from the Cape, we traveled to a North Carolina beach for a week’s stay.  On the way down, we hit a large fire extinguisher that had probably fallen off a truck.  The extinguisher damaged our transmission and we had the car towed to a local dealer who eventually fixed it. I picked it up earlier in this past week.  We rented another car to get us to the beach. 

            The message of all of this for me is to enjoy what the days give to us.  Despite the inconvenience of no whales and no car, we have had much to enliven our trip and our days.  I got up one morning to a glorious sunrise over the Atlantic, we have had wonderful lunches at the restaurants on our trip and most of all, we have enjoyed each other.  We have collected stories to tell when we get back.  Most of all, we rested, read and relaxed, something that we both needed very much to do.

            Was God with us on this trip?  Certainly, when I look at all that happened, there is no way at all that I could possibly deny it.  When we hit the fire extinguisher on the road, there was no other traffic around, and I was able to bring the car to a stop with no problem at all.  The AAA people got a tow truck to us, and we were treated very well by the dealer to whom we took the car, and we got back on the road after only a couple of hours.  We were very fortunate, and I know that whatever might have happened, our God was beside us the whole way. 

            I love the prayer that reads:  Lord, we pray that your grace may always        precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works

            That was certainly our experience on this trip; and I think it is also our experience in the rest of our life.  God’s grace is a certainty, and we can always count on it.  But what do we mean by God’s Grace?  Is it protection from anything at all that can happen to us?  Certainly not. What I know for certain is that if that experience with the fire extinguisher on the road had had a tragic ending, that God would still have been there to bring us through.  I don’t understand that, I only have God’s promise to be with us in all things and to ultimately give us the reality of eternal life.   It is simply the assurance that whatever befalls us as human beings, we are loved by our God and that God’s arms are wrapped around us forever.  Given our problem with keeping control of our lives, that is something that troubles us.  I have always loved that old saying, “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”  That has been my experience, and I could tell you many stories about how I set off on one direction and was moved to another, not by my own actions, but by the Grace of God.

            The 23rd psalm is one that most of us know by heart.  It was taught to me when I was a kid, and I love its message. Notice what it says to all of us about God’s presence in our lives, for better or worse:

                        Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
                        I shall fear no evil; *
                        for you are with me;
                        your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

             

            God called the Hebrew people to be his own.  He sent Moses to free them from the slavery in Egypt.  When they got to Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the Law, and when Moses was gone for what the people thought was too long a time, they petitioned Aaron to “Come, Make Gods for us.” Aaron did as they asked, using the gold that they all had on their persons to create a Golden Calf, that they all worshiped.  God saw this and told Moses that he was going to destroy those people.  Moses interceded and God did nothing to the people, and they went on their way.  At the end of their journey through the desert, God brings his chosen people to the land of Canaan, the promised land, where they thrived until their anxiety and their quest for power got in their way again and they found themselves divided.  The human aspirations of all of us get in our way from time to time, but God has a plan for each of us, and when we submit ourselves to God’s will, we always discover that God’s grace – God’s love-- moves us in the direction that we are willed to go; and ultimately we will see our creator face to face and find that all encompassing love surrounding us forever.

How Far Does Forgiveness Extend?

            I preached about forgiveness recently and a person came to me after the service and said: “that business about forgiveness is great, father, but what about Hitler?  Is he also forgiven?  He was pure evil!”  I certainly agree with him about Hitler.  How could anybody forgive a man who sent six million Jews and many others to horrible deaths?  And Hitler isn’t the only one.  How about the man who so brutally executed two Americans in the desert over the past couple of weeks, or the people who drove four airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Somerset County?  Such evil is impossible to put out of our minds, or for us to nonchalantly forgive.  That is certainly what was on that man’s mind as he asked me the question, and he was right to ask it.  Deep in my heart, I have no means of letting that evil go.  I mourn the desolation that it has caused in so many lives and I have no way to forget any of it.

            But in a larger context, it isn’t up to me to forgive Hitler or any of the others who have caused such misery and desolation.  It is solely up to God; and God is remarkable in his ability to forgive all of the imperfections of humankind.  I accept that truth with great joy because when I look at my own imperfections, while perhaps not adding up to the evil that I see in other places in this world, they certainly fail to live up to what our Lord taught us in terms of caring for each other.

            I am really attracted to Paul’s words to the Romans in chapter 13 when he says that the law is fulfilled when we love each other.  That may sound simplistic to some, and impossible to others, but it really tells the truth.  Love includes forgiveness.  That is where the tall order comes.  I don’t think that any of us have a harder problem than forgiving one another for the things that have been done to us.  The reality is that holding on to grudges and problems caused by other people has become a way of life to most of us.  Forgiveness is a very hard thing to do when it involves serious matters. 

           

            The experience that I had in Western Penitentiary ministering to my group of convicts taught me a great deal about this subject.  All of the men in my group yearned to be forgiven.  I talked about it frequently and saw the longing in their faces.  One of them told me, “God could never forgive what I did,” and he said it with all sincerity.  One day a while later in our group, I was talking about forgiveness once again and I saw a light in his eyes that I had never seen before.  All of a sudden, he got it.  He could see that despite what he obviously believed about himself that God’s forgiveness extended even to him.  It was a profound moment for him and for all of us.  Forgiveness is a reality.  From that moment on, he was a changed man.  It was as if an immense burden had been lifted from his shoulders.  It was a refreshing and incredible moment for me to see what God’s almost inconceivable love could do for one isolated man. 

            In another one of his epistles, Paul talks about the “refining fire” that cleanses all of us.  It burns out all of the impurities that cause so much of our behavior to go wrong and reveals the beauty of the person that we were created to be.  That refining fire is the work of forgiveness. 

            Then why do we all have such a problem with forgiving one another?  I think that holding on to hurts is a way of saving treasure.  We somehow think that the things that have been done to us make us better than the person who has done these things.  Forgiving would somehow diminish that.  The reality is that forgiveness is a way of lifting a burden from us and letting us continue to live our lives without the weight of the pain caused by whatever it was that was done to us.  Forgiveness is a road to freedom; freedom from continuing to hold on to anger and resentment and to enter again into love.  After all, it is Love that creates community and holds us all together, despite our many failures.

            Which of us is perfect?  Certainly Paul wasn’t.  As a Pharisee, he held the coats of the people who stoned to death the martyr Stephen.  He knew his faults very well, and it was his own forgiveness that prompted his comments in his letters.  I will hold the notion of forgiving Hitler for another time.  Right now, the issue is much smaller: the problem of forgiving one another.  Paul is telling us to do that by entering again into Love and getting on with our lives.  That is the message that he has for his audience and it is the best advice that we can get.

Faith and Hope in an Uncertain Time

            There doesn’t seem to be much going on in the world these days that is good.  All that the news seems to report is shootings, rapes, wrecks and fires.  In the international community, we are focused on wreckage all around us; the horrible execution of a journalist in Iraq and Syria by the so called Islamic State that yearns to recapture the lands that were restyled before the First World War with the borders that they now have.  Our intervention in Iraq has obviously contributed to much of this, and our troops leaving not only Iraq, but also Afghanistan is leaving a political void that is being filled by those with a yearning for power to impose their religion on all of humankind. 

            When I look at all of this, I can only wonder what it is that I can do about any of it.  It certainly looks very dark and hopeless.  We are used to seeing this country as the protector of freedom throughout the world, but that doesn’t seem to work very well any more, and we are looking more and more impotent as the days go on.  What are we to do with all of our military might in the face of a world that isn’t impressed with hardware?  One of the things that we seem to be doing is giving the weapons to local police departments who are using them in ways that are also being increasingly criticized.  Why are unarmed black men being shot by police in questionable circumstances?  What are we going to do about any of this? 

           

            I am attracted to St. Paul’s letter to the Romans where he says pointedly:

                                If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live

                         peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves,

                         but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written,

                         "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

                         No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are

                         thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you

                         will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome

                         by evil, but overcome evil with good.

            All of this is said in light of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus by a man who did some very evil things in his own life; holding the coats, for example of those who stoned the martyr Stephen to death.  This, it seems to me is advice that we also need in our own time, faced with the turmoil in the world. 

            When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he took his disciples aside and told them that when he got there, that he would be persecuted and finally killed, but that he would rise again.  This was too much for Peter to hear.  He took Jesus aside and said to him: God forbid it Lord, this must never happen to you! But Jesus answered Peter sternly: Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.

            So how do we set our mind on divine things?  I suspect that it has less to do with armament and military strategy than with care and compassion.  We aren’t very much attracted to compassion and care when we have aggression in front of us and great concern about what the mission of the enemy is all about.  We think about the events of 9/11 and worry that something like that may happen again.  It is a delicate balance that we seek; to protect our country and still be concerned about those who suffer.  I have no easy answer to all of this except to suggest that our prayers ought to be directed at both sides in these difficult moments; to hope that somehow the divine plan will make itself known to all of us and that we may find ourselves in a better place than we can now imagine.  May God bless us all in our ignorance and sustain those who suffer and bring us together somehow in the Kingdom.

The Keys to the Kingdom

         What are the “Keys to the Kingdom” that Jesus tells Peter about in the Gospel of Matthew?  How many times have we seen a cartoon with an authoritative Peter standing behind a podium before the pearly gates with someone standing before him waiting to enter those gates.   Peter, in these cartoons is the admission officer to heaven; the one who says yes or no to whoever comes to stand before him.  What an awesome responsibility.  What does he do when somebody who refused to forgive his neighbor is before him?  Does Peter say, “You know what?  I did that too!” And let the poor person in.  What if these keys of the kingdom are all about forgiveness?  What if forgiveness is the essence of what Jesus came to teach us?  Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things that any of us wrestle with in the life. 

            Why is it that you come to church?  For me, it is the fundamental sense of community that it provides.  It isn’t doctrinal, it doesn’t even have much to do with the things that the church has taught through the years; it is primarily because I like to see all of these people who sit in the pews with me.  That is for me what church is all about.  There is also something else that happens in church that I find enervating:  Every week we kneel or stand in this place and confess our sins, those things that we have done or left undone.  We humbly ask God to forgive us and let us get on with our lives.  After we have done this, the priest pronounces absolution of our sins.  This is not a small thing.  It is God, through the priest, saying to each of us:  you are clean, you are forgiven, you can go on. 

            What is significant to me is that this is done right before we offer the peace of God to each other.  Here are a group of cleansed people coming to each other and saying “The Peace of the Lord be always with you! We then reply, “and also with you!”  If this isn’t a profound statement of community, I have never heard one.  It transcends all of the petty differences that we have with each other, lets us get back to the only thing that keeps us together, our relationship with each other.  It is then that we go on and break the bread, fill the cup and celebrate the real presence of the Lord in our lives.  That is what we take with us when we leave this place.

            What if we took this notion of forgiveness one more step:  To look at all of our relationships and see where we need to forgive.  That can be life giving, not only for the person whom we forgive, but mostly for us.  The burden of carrying hurts with us through our lives can wreck our souls.  Being resentful is something that continually causes pain; and when we can let it go, it breathes life back into us.

            For many years, I had a ministry at Western Penitentiary.  I had a group of men, all who had killed somebody and were in the place for life.  We talked about a lot of things, often about what had led them to be in the prison in the first place.  One week, one of the men in the group told us that he had gotten a letter from the family of the victim of his crime.  They wanted to come and see him.  He had been a teacher, who had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students.  In the course of events, she was killed and he was sentenced to prison.  He went to see the parents.  The father said to him, “we have come to forgive you.  It is time for us to bury our daughter and to get on with our lives.  It is time to stop the hatred and to look forward.”  My inmate was stunned.  The father went on to tell him that this wasn’t done lightly.  “When you were being transferred to the court house from the prison, I was on a roof down the street with a rifle.  I wanted to kill you, but I couldn’t do it.  I thank God that I didn’t take that step.” 

            What happened in that encounter was a miracle.  My inmate was amazed and somewhat put off by it; but the parents were freed.  They were able to let go of all of the anger and resentment that they had with that man and get on with their lives.  That is certainly not a small thing.

            I think that is the essence of what Jesus came to help us to understand.  From the cross, he said, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.”  That, for me is the message of the church to the world.  What if we were able to forgive without reserve?  Wouldn’t we all live better lives?  Wouldn’t the world be a better place?  Wouldn’t our freedom be multiplied? We take the Keys of the Kingdom with us when we go through our lives.  We are the ones behind the podium.  Forgiveness is the key.