Our Mission in This World

           

            There have been a number of times when I have been worried for this world.  With all of the arguments with North Korea, the possibility of nuclear war loomed for a while.  It still isn’t out of the picture and it could still happen.  The killing of the Washington Post reporter at the hands of the Saudi Arabians was an awful thing to see.  Again, it made me wonder about what was on the horizon. Then there are the families at our border wanting asylum in the United States because of the oppression in their native Central American countries who are having their children taken from them and are living in terrible conditions as they are repeatedly refused entrance in to this country.  As a country of immigrants, we ought to bee able to do something to take care of their needs. 

            This is a confusing time that we are living in.  World peace seems more elusive than ever and fear is not easily put aside.  This is certainly a time when my faith is more important to me than ever.  Here in the season of Advent there is certainly hope that our Lord and our God will work to take care of creation.  

            The scriptures that we hear on this day are promises to us by our creator that even though the world seems to be in chaos and that we are all in danger of losing all that we have, our God is close and will take care of us all.  Even though our Lord Jesus was crucified and buried, we know that on the third day he rose from the grave and appeared to his disciples and to many so that they knew again his joyful presence.  Our God tells us that he will come again to bring life where we only see death and give back to God’s people all that they have lost.  We call this the “second coming” and we recite it in our creed. 

            Despite all of the chaos in the world, God’s love will triumph over all.  The poorest of the poor have always been dear to our God.  Jesus took care of the poor constantly.  In our faith, we are asked to do the same.  This is the way that God’s love is shown to the world.  You and I are the instruments of God’s purpose.  While we wait for God to finally make all things right in this world, we have the means to make lives brighter for those who hurt.  Taking dinner to the people housed at one of the shelters in our town is one way that this has been done.  Another is taking coats to places where they can be given to people who need them for warmth this winter.  There are many other ways that show themselves to each of us daily.  Giving of ourselves for the benefit of others is God’s will for all of us.  There is certainly enough greed in this world.  Making life easier for those who have nothing is the basis of our faith.

            God bless us in our lives and our ministry to others as we move toward the birth of our savior.  May our Christmas be a joy              

Love to Counter Hatred

           

            All of us have been deeply affected by the horrible killing of the people worshipping at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill this past week by a man who told the world how much he hated the Jewish people and that he was “going in” to do something about it.  The something was to take four guns with him into the sanctuary of the synagogue and to kill eleven people and to wound four others.  He was wounded himself and taken to the hospital under guard.  Many charges were filed against him and he faces severe punishment.

            This event happened in the wake of the mailing of pipe bombs to a large number of critics of President Donald Trump by a man who is connected to radical right-wing organizations who value white supremacy above everything.  This incredible eruption of hatred is coming as we near the midterm elections with all of the name calling and destructive speech that seems  to be connected to it.  The very idea of one of the candidates promising to dig golf spikes into the face of his opponent reminds us of how divisive the politics in this country is becoming.  It’s almost as if we want to continue the Civil War with its hatred of African Americans or World War II with the massacre of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis.  In each of these historical events there was tremendous loss of life as we set out to rectify the damage that hatred was doing to this world. 

            It’s not like hatred is a new thing; it’s been with us as long as we have had creation in this world.  Hatred has fueled most of the struggles in history and has caused enormous grief.  This latest eruption is another reminder of the work that we need to do as human beings and as Christians to make the world that our God created to be a reflection of God’s kingdom and not a place where we work our flawed will for our own benefit.

            In Mark’s gospel is a wonderful dialogue between Jesus and one of the scribes who had been listening to the Sadducees disputing with one another and who has asked Jesus “which is the greatest commandment?”  Jesus gave him the answer that we have all heard from our Lord’s teaching; Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.  This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like unto it:  love your neighbor as a person like yourself.  On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.

            These are beautiful words and are the answer to the hatred that exists in this world.  I don’t know how many times that Jesus told us to love one another.  It is the essence of the New Testament and the reason that Jesus came among us.  He gave his life for all of humanity by dying on the cross condemned by the hatred of the authorities whom he confronted, and subsequently rose from the dead on Easter morning as a revelation to us of what God has in mind for us when we finish this life on earth.   Jesus’ life and ministry was a wonderful expression of love for all of God’s creation.  His example hopefully will remind us of how to conduct ourselves when hatred abounds.   

             

           

           

             

Faith and Politics

                       

            We have had a lot going on in these recent days.  Politics are heating up with indictments of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen on charges relating to the election in 2016 and the possibility of Russian interference in it. There has also been a grand jury report on the sexual assaults by members of the Roman Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania and the protection of some of the clergy by their bishops.  These events hit most of us close to home because we care about our country and we care about our faith.  Things that demean either of them are hard to listen to and very difficult to watch.  I have no idea how all of this is going to turn out.  The politics are hard to imagine.  There will be many accusations and denials coming along in the near future.  It is hard to know how the midterm elections will turn out, although it is probable that all of this will make some kind of a difference.  What is clear to me is that this is the world that we are living in and it is necessary that we all take it seriously.  I love this country and I love my faith.  I want to be certain that this nation thrives and also that our faith has an impact on how we all live our lives.  It is tempting to look at the President’s current problems and to laugh because of all of the denials       , but that isn’t helpful.  What we need is to get things back on the right track and to continue to be a country that cares about the world that we live in and offers as much help as possible. 

            Jesus has been all over Israel preaching and healing.  He has attracted many disciples who have heard his words and have followed him.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus is tells all of them who he really is: the bread which has come down from heaven.  Not like the bread that your ancestors ate, and they died.  But those who eat of this bread will live forever.

            Many of those who heard Jesus say this couldn’t believe what he said and they went away, but the twelve whom he had chosen stayed with him.  He asked them if they also wanted to leave him, but Peter said: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to know that you are the Holy one of God.  These are beautiful words spoken by Peter on behalf of the rest of the disciples.  They tell the truth about Jesus and what he did for us in this world.  He brought himself to live among us; offered his body and blood for us as signs of eternal life.  When we come to the altar and receive the Eucharist, we are receiving that wonderful gift and the promise of eternal life. 

            This is the point that our faith makes in a world full of chaos.  We can spend our time worrying about the ridiculous political mess that is going on around us, or put our trust in the

God who loves us and who sent his only Son to come to us and give himself up for us so that we can know what the promise of eternal life means.  It is interesting how faith began and shaped this country.  The Puritans and the Pilgrims came to our shores to create a place where their faith cold be secure.  In many ways, Puritanism has continued to be a part of our nation’s faith ever since.  We have had a number of famous preachers emerge in our culture.  Many of them have had a political strain to their preaching.  I think of Jerry Falwell and Jim Bakker who tried very hard to lead this country in a conservative direction.  Billy Graham was always seen as a faithful pastor whose preaching was always an attempt to help people to see the truth of the faith. 

            In recent times, we have Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama who have shared their faith in a wonderful book called The Book of Joy, which I eagerly read.  It takes us out of the places where we spend most of our time, our own worries and needs and places us in an environment where we can understand how God intends for us all to live.  I am impressed that both of these dynamic men suffered their own trials:  Bishop Tutu as a black man in South Africa, oppressed by the white majority and the Dalai Lama in Tibet oppressed by the Chinese.  Their testimony in this great book lifts us all above he oppression of this world and places us in the hands of a loving God.  I love the mixture of religion in this book.  Here is an eminent Buddhist and a remarkable Christian pooling their common love and sharing it with the world. This is what God has in mind for humanity.  We are loved deeply by our creator and we are called to love one another with equal fervor.

Buildings and Ministry

              I’ve been in some beautiful churches over the years.  The one that sticks in my mind is the elegant cathedral in Coventry, England.  Building a marvelous house of God has been a task that humanity has set for itself from the beginning of religion.  It has to do with loving God above all things, and it has produced some great places.  It has also produced some great calamities. The Anglican cathedral in Coventry, was bombed by Germany in 1940 and destroyed.  Winston Churchill and the dean of Coventry wandered through the wreckage of this place and found a cross made of the fallen roof timbers.  This still sits in what used to be the sanctuary of the destroyed church as a reminder to all of us what the purpose of the church has always been. 

            After the war, they rebuilt that cathedral. What comes to my mind when I think of the new Coventry Cathedral is the great hung tableau of the risen Christ that hangs over the altar.  Our Lord looks over the heads of the gathered congregation, through etched glass portraits of the saints in the rear window of the church that looks over remnants of the destroyed cathedral still lingering after all of these years.  Coventry didn’t want to let the old church go away.  They have retained it as a reminder of what it is that the world does to religion and they are trying to do something positive about that.  The people of this place have created an organization called The Community of the Cross of Nails.  Their purpose is to engage with other places in the world where there has been great tragedy and to be part of a community of survivors.  They have reached out to Germany, to Japan and many other places in the world where pain and misery have gathered our attention.  The results of these offers of community has been to restore humanity in these places and to make the purpose of religion to be seen by many people to be love and understanding.

            David wanted to build a great house of God.  He got the Ark of the Covenant and was ready to build a place to store it.  He never got it done.  The building of the temple waited until his son Solomon came into power after David’s death to build the first of the great Hebrew churches in Jerusalem.  This was done to honor all that God had done for the people of Israel in giving them their common land and their heritage.  That great edifice didn’t last.  It became one of three large temples devoted to God that the Hebrew people built.  The last one in Jerusalem still has the western wall remaining where countless people come to pray constantly.  The temple mount has become the home of the great Muslim Dome of the Rock, where Mohammed is supposed to have leapt into heaven on the back of a horse.  It is also the place where many believe that Abraham offered Isaac to God as a sacrifice.

            What stands out for me in all of this is that the cathedrals and temples that we build are not scheduled to last forever.  The temple of God that lasts is the love that we pour into the world because of our faith.  When we help one another, when we provide for one another in our mutual distress, we offer to God a lasting temple of our love and understanding that far outweighs any kind of a building that we can build.  When our parishes work to clean up the world’s pain, we are doing all that we can to honor God’s love for humanity.   

          

Love and the Law

       

            I remember the first of the Indiana Jones movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, when they discover the Ark of the Covenant that had been owned by the Hebrew tribes since Moses got the Law on Mt. Sinai. There are a lot of adventures and finally, Indiana and his companion are all tied up at the end of the movie while some Nazi’s open the Ark  and are destroyed by the fires that erupt from within.  Finally, Indiana takes the Ark and transports it back to the United States where in the last moments of the film, as the credits roll the Ark disappears into a massive government warehouse probably never to be seen again. 

            I loved that scene for a number of reasons.  First of all, how God’s law superseded the Nazi militancy and dictatorship.  Secondly, the way that the whole thing was stored away at the end so that we still have it, but presumably don’t really know where it is.

            The truth of it all is that we really do know where it is.  The Ten Commandments were given to Moses early in his prophetic life, have been with us through all of the development of our religions.  We know on some level that they are true and that we need them.  Many people have been tempted to worship them.  There is the story of the judge in Alabama who wanted to build a monument to the ten commandments in his court and was prevented by other judges who told him that this wasn’t quite right. 

            The Ten Commandments became a foundation of the law that was added to and expanded in the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy to include all manner of things that humans like to do; the law is expanded throughout the Old Testament.

             One of the great gifts that Jesus gave to humanity was to tell us what it is that God wants from all of us. In the Sermon on the Mount are the beatitudes that outline God’s grace for those who suffer: blessed are the meek; they shall inherit the earth; and blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Then finally Jesus gives us his commandments.  The first of these is to Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment, Jesus says.  And the second is like unto it:  Love your neighbor as a person like yourself.  On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.

            That is incredibly good news for all of us.  Love is the critical issue.  We don’t have to spend our time acting like the supreme court analyzing the commandments to be sure that we obey all of them.  All that we have to do is to love our God and each other. 

            But that isn’t really easy, is it.  Look at this society of ours.  I get to the point sometimes that I don’t want to watch the news.  One thing after another seems to cloud our contemporary lives.  How many shootings have we had this year? This month? This week?  I’ve also been disgusted at the way that the kids at the border have been treated – taken away from their parents and locked in cages.  We can certainly do better than this.  On the good side, what a wonderful show of love was given to those soccer players stranded in the cave in Thailand.  One of the seals who was trying to rescue them died, but all twelve were rescued along with their coach.   

            Love has always been elusive to us because of our human greed and egos. There are lots of stories about how we have failed to love.  The story in Mark’s gospel about John the Baptist telling King Herod that it isn’t lawful for him to marry his brother’s wife does nothing but get him imprisoned and finally beheaded when Herod’s daughter Salome danced and asked for John’s head on a platter. And it certainly didn’t take humanity long to deal with the beauty that Jesus offered to all of us.  He threatened the established religion to the point that they had to get rid of him. 

            As soon as it was possible, he was arrested, turned over to Pilate and the Romans and crucified on the cross.  But even with all of this, God wasn’t finished.  From his place on the cross, Jesus forgave those who crucified him; he invited the thief who was crucified with him to join him in eternal life and three days after his crucifixion, Jesus was raised from the dead to remind us once again that Love is the issue.  God’s extravagant love of us all to not let Jesus’ death be the last word; and to continue to love each of us in our lives.

            So how do we continue to love in the face of all of the noise and corruption that is around us?   I know that there have been prayer meetings about the kids on the border and that a number of churches have gathered food for the hungry.  This is the kind of good work that love for one another dictates.   A number of churches are supporting the kids on the border by holding prayer meetings, raising money and doing other things to help.  These things might seem to be small, but they make a difference.  Continue to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as a person like yourself.  That is our work.

           

A Resurrection Reflection

             We watched the television production of Jesus Christ Superstar the other night. This was an outstanding production with all of the elements of the original stage play and motion picture in place.  The story was familiar, compelling and acted with great talent for all of us.  As always, I was deeply moved by the way that Jesus did his ministry, healing and comforting while the establishment looked on with dismay.  The black-clad Pharisees and Sadducees surrounded him in the early parts of the story and eventually took him into custody and delivered him to Pilate who condemned him.  John Legend played Jesus with great talent and Alice Cooper was a harsh Herod.  At the end of the story, Jesus is hung on a cross and disappears through a cross-shaped hole in the scenery and just disappears.  We all know what happened next. 

            The story of the resurrection is a remarkable one.  We have nothing else like it in our memory or in our lives.  We know very well that death is at the end of all of our lives.  We go through our own story knowing that we at the end must leave all that we have on this earth.  Our fate is certainly in the hands of our loving God.  Jesus’ resurrection is a great sign to us that the God who made us will not let us go.  We have resurrection to look forward to after our deaths. 

            I have done a number of funerals in my ministry.  All of them are somber with families in mourning and friends surrounding them.  I always try to say something about the person who has died and move on to the story of Jesus’ resurrection as our eternal hope.  It isn’t always easy.  I remember one man who had been a mean alcoholic who had left behind a family that more or less detested him.  They all sat in a knot on one side of the church during the funeral.  I could see the anger in their eyes.  I wanted somehow to reconcile them to the man who had died, but it was not something that I was going to be able to do in the course of one religious service.  I did what I could to assure them of God’s love for him and for them and to assure them that what had happened was all over and that they could get on with their lives even with their dark memories, and that if they desired, all could be well.  Resurrection wasn’t what any of them were looking forward to at that moment. They were happy that he was gone.

            But that isn’t the case with most of us.  Resurrection is a happy thought in the middle of death.  It gives a hint of what our God has in store for us for eternity:  joy in our maker’s presence forever.  I have also had a few moments when that was emphasized to me eloquently.  There was one woman who was close to death in the hospital when I visited.  Her family was around her and as she took her last breath, she looked up and said, Oh, it is so beautiful!  I knew that she had seen something wonderful in that moment.  I believed that it was a glimpse of heaven.

            If I had one small criticism of Jesus Christ, Superstar, it would have been that there was no resurrection portrayed.  I would have loved it if they had included that wonderful moment from John’s gospel when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty.  She sees Jesus and thinks that he is the gardener and asks him where they have put Jesus’ body.  He turns and says to her: Mary! and all of a sudden with that word of his, she knows that it this man is her risen Lord. That for me is probably the most significant moment in all of scripture.  Mary knows that the resurrection has happened, and it is right in front of her. 

            I think that the woman in the hospital saw something like that.  I hope that is the vision that we all will see with our last breath.  Spending eternity with those whom we love in the presence of our God is a gift beyond anything that we could ever desire.  That is what resurrection means for all of us.

           

                      

Snakes and God

         

            My daughter was bitten by a snake once.  She was white water rafting in Fayette County, went ashore and climbed up some rocks.  There was a large snake sleeping there and she stepped on it.  She was bitten on her leg and immediately knew that it was trouble.  Her friends got her to Uniontown hospital where she was treated and released.  She came home and told us what had happened, and we took her to Passavant hospital’s emergency room where a doctor began to care for her.  She stayed overnight; the doctor did a lot of research to find out what kind of a snake it was and what she needed to do about it.  It turned out that the snake was a cottonmouth, an old snake, which meant that the venom wasn’t as strong or as intense as a young snake’s venom would have been. Our daughter got through all of this with some pain and some difficult moments with her leg, but it all turned out all right. She is at this moment living a happy life in San Diego with her fiancé.

            I don’t think that snakes have been a large part of my life.  We saw some rattlesnakes when we were driving in Arizona, but they stayed away from us.  Snakes pay a part in the lesson from Numbers when the Hebrews become discontented with Moses and with God because they are in the desert with no food and little water.  Because of their anger, God sends poisonous snakes among them and some are killed.  I hate to criticize God, but  I thought that this was a bit of an  overreach, but nonetheless, they complain to God about this and God tells Moses to create a snake on a pole so that anyone who is bitten by a snake can look at the snake on the pole and live.  The other use of a snake in scripture is in the Garden of Eden when Eve wonders about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the snake tells her that she can eat of it without trouble.  After she eats of the fruit of the tree, the snake tells her that she can also let Adam eat of the tree.  This results in both of them getting thrown out of the garden by God and from that moment on, humanity has been cursed by not having peace, but always knowing the difference between good and evil in the world, in others and in ourselves and making our own judgements about what we think of the evil that we see. 

            Then we have the story of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s two sons.  They were vastly different, Cain a wanderer, a hunter and Abel a farmer.  Cain was very jealous of Abel because he seemed to be accepted where Cain was not; so he killed him.  When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain answered with that famous line: Am I my brother’s keeper? Cain was also exiled and lived in the land of Nod. 

            We all have moments when our selfishness leads us into sin.  Sometimes we find ourselves in dark places needing very much to find healing and hope.  This is why we all live in community, where we can take care of each other in these dark times.  In my ministry, I have seen many people in difficult situations where they needed help to get through them.  Without care from others, life could be difficult and even dangerous.   I have known young people who were addicted to drugs and who needed to be given help to get away from their addiction.  It was only by conversation and caring that they were enabled to do that.  The twelve-step process created by Alcoholics Anonymous has led many people through hard times back to a semblance of normality.  I think that programs like this are what are meant by the snake on a pole that people who are in trouble can look at and find curing.  Helping each other is the essence of religion.  Jesus told us to love one another as we are loved by God.  That is what we are asked to do in this world to help each other with the hard times and to help us to know what joy is in the middle of our lives.   

            Jesus alluded to this in John’s gospel when he says that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so Jesus must be lifted up so that people can see him and find the way to eternal life.  That is a great use of the Old Testament lesson.  It tells us that there is the way through evil.  Evil that exists all around us and that can invade our lives easily.  Keeping our eye on our Lord Jesus, who died for all of us that we might lose our sin and be admitted to everlasting life is the essence of Lent.  It is why we are here together in these pews each week.  We are here to love one another and to take that love with us into the world where there are people being set upon by evil all over the place.  When we help them, we help our God to make this earth a more heavenly place.  That is what was in God’s mind when he sent Jesus to teach us.