tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92724982024-02-20T19:17:33.648-06:00Mere Christian - Sermons, etc., from Barry VaughnUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger308125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-79960479930667636032015-01-27T12:40:00.000-06:002015-01-27T12:40:15.177-06:00Litmus test (Julian Resnick, Kibbutz Tsora, Israel)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
I am sure many of you remember the litmus tests we did in high school chemistry. I do not remember much about them except for the fact that the litmus paper changed colour depending on the acidic or basic quality of the material being tested.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
The concept of litmus tests in which we use the phrase to describe the quality of something with respect to a certain variable is one which I of course seen and have used over the years. I often talk about my litmus test for my kibbutz, as to whether it is still an intentional community I can be proud of, being the way we care for people in the community who have special needs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
Today is January 27th, seventy years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The web, Facebook and traditional media are full of wonderful stories of those who were freed and the lives they have created, filled with the memories of those who perished in that awful place and who are still remembered both by those who knew them and those who have always missed them as the grandparents they never knew or the great uncles and aunts they should have had, filled with reflections about anti-Semitism around the world today and whether there could ever be another Auschwitz.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
I want to use today to talk about something else or rather, somebody else and litmus tests. A few days ago we were shocked here in Israel by the attack on a young person in Jerusalem for one reason and one reason only, he was speaking Arabic. Tommy Chason a young Druze man, a music student in Jerusalem studying piano at the Rubin Academy, until recently a soldier in the IDF, part of a community whose leadership signed the famous "Brit Damim", the Covenant of Blood, with David Ben Gurion in 1950, a self confessed Zionist, was attacked next to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station last week by a group of young men wearing kippot (yarmulkes). He was punched, spat on, kicked and beaten up. His nose was broken.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
Let's be clear about a few things. It was irrelevant to include the detail that I did about him being Druze, about him having served in the IDF, a student of music, a Zionist. Even if I had written that he was a Muslim in traditional garb, who belonged to an anti-Zionist organization and had previously been under suspicion for anti-Israel activities, nobody has the right to decide to use violence against anyone for speaking Arabic in Israel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
Just imagine if in, let's say Paris, young Israelis speaking Hebrew, wearing shirts with IDF symbols on them or wearing kippot, were attacked. An outrage we would say. Anti-Semites we would cry out. Invoking the middle of the 20th Century we might ask was it not enough that they murdered us in Auschwitz!! We would be indignant and rightly so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
On this the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz I would like to make it clear: when those young men in Jerusalem attacked Tommy Chason, they were imitating the behaviour of young men in Germany in the 1930s against our people. Their behaviour is a badge of shame for us as Jews and Israelis. Their behaviour not only pains us, it also stains us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
So that we may continue to honour the memory of those of our people murdered all those years ago in Auschwitz, we need today to do what the President of the State of Israel did after the attack, to be unequivocal in our condemnation of racism when we see it. This was racism in its ugliest incarnation. It is despicable, not Jewish and cannot be part of our lives here in Israel. No ifs, buts or understanding that "we have been through so much etc, etc."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
Racism is racism is racism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify;">
May we bless their memory by working for a society based on the acknowledgement that each human life has an equal value. This must be our litmus test. </div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-35192848329926934252015-01-25T18:58:00.001-06:002015-01-25T18:58:18.888-06:00Jesus calls us (J. Barry Vaughn, Jan. 25, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today’s readings contrast two different responses to God’s
call.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the reading from Mark’s gospel, Jesus addresses two
different pairs of fishermen – first, Peter and Andrew, and then, James and
John – and says to them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”
And they drop what they are doing and follow Jesus.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jonah’s response to God is completely different. God said to
Jonah, “Get up and go to Nineveh,” and Jonah got up and bought himself a ticket
to Tarshish. Nineveh was on the eastern end of Mediterranean, and Tarshish was
on the western end. In other words, God told Jonah to go one way, but Jonah ran
as hard and fast as he could in the opposite direction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which story is more like your life? I don’t know about you,
but I’ve been like Jonah more often than I’ve been like Peter and his buddies. More
often than not, when God tells me to do this, I do that. When God says, “Jump,”
and I dive for cover. When God says, “Put service above self,” and I just keep
going my own selfish way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what do you suppose made Jonah so reluctant to go to
Nineveh? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To understand that we have to know a little history. Nineveh
was a city on the east bank of the Tigris river in Assyria. In the 8<sup>th</sup>
century BC, the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel and also
went to war with the Southern Kingdom of Judah, although Judah lasted another
200 years or so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, God was telling Jonah to go and preach to
his worst enemies, to proclaim God’s judgment on them. Even worse, Jonah had to
give them the chance to repent, to change their ways, and to escape God’s
terrible judgment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Assyrians had had no mercy on Jonah’s kinsmen and women
in the Northern Kingdom, but now Jonah was giving the Ninevites the opportunity
to pray to God to be merciful to them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine the conversation between Jonah and God: “You want me
to go where!? To those rascals, those rats?! Do you know what they did to the
Northern Kingdom? Imagine what they will do to me when I go and proclaim your
message to them! They don’t even speak Hebrew. You mean I’ll have to learn
Ninevish to speak to them?!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that’s when Jonah bought his ticket to Tarshish.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book of Jonah has many messages for us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One is that we cannot confine or constrain God’s mercy and
love. We’re fine when God loves people
like us, people who look like us, people who speak our language and have our
values. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s something in every human heart that makes us just a
little suspicious of people who are different from us, whose skin is a
different color, who speak a different language, who pray in a different way,
who perhaps order their political and economic affairs differently.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope you’ve had the opportunity to see the wonderful new
film <i>Selma. </i>There’s a great scene in
it in which Dr. King is talking to his wife, Coretta. She’s clearly worried
about what might happen to him if he continues leading the civil rights
movement. And he says, “One day I’ll have a church in a small college town and
do some teaching at the college.” That was what Dr. King really wanted to do,
but God had other ideas. In Ralph Abernathy’s autobiography he says that Dr.
King rode to Selma in the back seat of his car curled up in the fetal position,
but when they arrived at the site of the march, King got out of the car and strode
to the front of the marchers. I don’t believe that King wanted to go to Selma;
he was a reluctant prophet, a reluctant warrior for peace. But he heard God’s
call, and he answered it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During my last year at Yale Divinity School, I had the
opportunity to meet Billy Graham. It was a very brief meeting, but I was deeply
impressed with him. This was 1982; President Reagan had been president for only
two years; the Cold War was entering its last phase. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Graham told the story of his recent visit to the Soviet
Union. He had had the opportunity to meet with the Politburo, the men who ran
the USSR. And he came back to the US believing that they sincerely sought peace
with America.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Was Graham naïve? Perhaps. But what a contrast Billy Graham
presents with Jonah! As a young man Graham had preached about the evil of the
Soviet system. He had preached about a war between the US and the Soviets as
the battle of Armageddon in the book of Revelation. And then he heard God
telling him to go to Moscow and speak with the Soviet leadership, to talk to
them about God’s message of peace, of spears being turned into pruning hooks,
of missiles and tanks being turned into money for agriculture and education and
health care. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And what happened? Reagan and Gorbachev met and began to
negotiate down their arsenals of nuclear weapons. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying for a minute that
Billy Graham ended the Cold War. But isn’t it remarkable that this evangelist,
this conservative Christian, heeded God’s call to go to the capital of his
greatest enemy and tell them about God’s good news?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if Billy Graham can go to Moscow, can’t we at least go
across town and get to know the people who are different from us? Can’t we make
an effort to learn their language and share God’s message with those we do not
know?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we hear and respond to God’s call there’s no telling
what might happen. The walls that separate us can fall. Hostile nations can
make peace. The lowly can be lifted up and the mighty brought down from their
places of power. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
God’s message to Jonah was not that different from Jonah’s
message to Nineveh: Do you want mercy or judgment? Will you hear and heed God’s
message and change your ways or do you want to end up in a dark, cold place, a
place as stinky and nasty as a fish’s belly? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But even in that dark, cold place there is hope. It is the
message of the Psalmist: “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee
from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make
my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand
shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. 11 If I say,
"Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become
night," 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as
bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (Psalm 139)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Where can we go from God’s presence? Where can we go that
God does not pursue us with mercy and love? Nowhere. There is no place we can
go where God is not, no place where God will not hear our prayer and deliver
us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This morning at the 10:45 am service we will be baptizing
Oliver Abrao and Madeline Melien. The next part of my sermon is for them, but
you are invited to listen, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oliver and Madeline, today you are becoming a part of God’s
family, a part of this church.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout your life God will be speaking to you. God is
going to summon you many times during your life. God is going to summon you to
love him and to love your neighbor. Sometimes God will speak to you in soft and
gentle tones, and sometimes God may have to shake the heavens to get your
attention.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes you will be like Peter and the fishermen and you
will hear God’s call and follow him. At other times you may be like Jonah and
resist God and even run away from God. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There will be times when you will feel just like Jonah did
in the belly of the fish. You will find yourself in a cold, dark place. You
will wonder where God is. But never forget this: God is with you. There is no
place you can go where God cannot find you. There is no prayer you pray that
God does not hear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today we are giving you several gifts: a candle, a cross, a
bottle containing some of the water from the baptismal font. And since this is
Las Vegas, we’re giving you a T shirt. But I hasten to add that it does not
say, “I was baptized at Christ Church and all I got was this lousy T shirt.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the most important gift you are receiving today is the
gift of the Holy Spirit. That is a gift that God gives to everyone who is
baptized.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Holy Spirit will help you hear and heed God’s call. The
Spirit will bring you comfort and courage even in the darkest and coldest
places.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
May God bless you and always give you a willing heart to
hear Jesus calling and follow him, because if you do, you will have the most
marvelous adventures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amen.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-19845654404809433252015-01-22T01:10:00.001-06:002015-01-22T01:10:23.851-06:00Selma (Rabbi Jonathan Miller, Temple Emanu-El, Birmingham, AL, Jan. 16, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
I shared with the congregation that tonight I was going to share my personal reflections on the movie,<br />
Selma, which Judi and I watched last weekend as part of my sermon. It was excellent and profoundly<br />
moving for both of us and for everyone in the theater. I confess that I am a Yankee, but I have lived in Alabama for a quarter of a century. I raised my children here and made this place my home. This movie was personal to me and to everyone in this state. When the rest of the world watches this movie, it is about "them", a long time ago. For us, in Alabama, the movie is about us and, it is not only about us 50 years ago, but it is about us today.<br />
<br />
Before I begin my reflections, let me set a few things straight for the record. I am a rabbi. I do not<br />
review movies. You would not welcome the late film critic, Roger Ebert, were he alive and, well, to offer a spiritual message on this bima and you should not trust my opinion of a film as bearing any authority. Also, as would be expected, there has been some discussion about the historical accuracy of the events and personalities depicted in the film. That is fair game. If we lived someplace else, we wouldn't care very much. We would judge the movie by how it made us feel and what we experienced watching it. <br />
<br />
But we live in Alabama and this ugly time is a permanent stain on the character of our state and region. Whether Governor Wallace or President Johnson or Sheriff Clark actually said and did what was depicted in the movie matters to us because the story is about us. But, let me point out the obvious: this movie was not a documentary. It was a dramatic retelling of a dramatic turning point in American history that happened 50 years ago in a small and otherwise irrelevant Southern cotton town. In so doing, it took dramatic license in a compelling way to condense the story of several months of planning and execution into a two‐hour storytelling experience.<br />
<br />
For me, this was a personal story. In March 1965, I was ten years old. My sister had just turned seven. We were used to our father, Rabbi Judea Miller leaving home for two weeks to make his way to Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama to engage in non‐violent desegregation drives to integrate lunch counters and public facilities and register African‐American voters. He did this in 1963 and 1964. His congregation in Wichita, Kansas had a bail fund for him. My father actually spent a night in the Hattiesburg Jail. He was thrilled to be there because he thought that if he were on the street in Hattiesburg, he would have been killed. In our town in Wichita, he was involved in racial justice, reconciliation, and fair housing for black people.<br />
<br />
He was a marvelous rabbi, but I assume that a fair section of his congregation deeply resented his<br />
activities on behalf of others, especially black folks. Why on earth should this have been a concern to<br />
this young rabbi from the Bronx, then 33 years old with two children and a stay‐at‐home wife? "Take<br />
care of the congregation" must have been a buzz about town. "You don't have to be doing this. This is not what we pay you for and, with little children, what on earth are we going to do if you get hurt or killed? Who is going to take care of them?" I have been involved in congregational life as a son of a rabbi, as a rabbi myself, and as a father of a rabbi, and I know the way congregations think. Temple Emanu‐El in Wichita, Kansas was so proud of my dad and they were so annoyed with him too. He had to live with that and it couldn't have been easy.<br />
<br />
I remember, vividly, the discussions around the dinner table, and when I lay in bed at night and could hear my parents "discussing" my dad's activities. Let me put it like this: they were not whispering. I<br />
remember my mother's tears and her anger, that my dad was willing to abandon her and us in Wichita, Kansas, far away from any family without any means of financial support. I remember the yellow brick that was hurled through our living room picture window on 6311 East Tenth Street with the attached note accusing my dad of being a "N" lover. I know that, more than once, the phone would ring at our home in Wichita with a threatening voice. "We know where you live and we know how your children walk to school." I cannot imagine how my mother could have lived with this for two to three years and this was in Wichita, Kansas, not Selma, Alabama.<br />
<br />
I also cannot imagine how my father could have stayed away from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. The specter of the acquiescing Christians in Europe just two decades earlier, whose quiet made it possible for the evil people to murder his family, his brothers, and cousins, was more than he could bear. After such an injustice, he could not be quiet and he could not be still. So, for me, the dinner scenes in the movie around the Formica table in the King's family kitchen was personal. Dr. King was just two years older than my dad. His eldest child was a year younger than me. That was me at the table and that tension between Martin and Coretta, without the infidelity, was not all that different from the tension between Judea and Anita in those days. I felt it. I was aware of it. It stung.<br />
<br />
I was moved by the strength and the dignity, and the anger and the rage, of the black people from the<br />
city of Selma who put their bodies up as collateral for their belief in their own dignity and their fervent hope that their white oppressors could change. I was moved by the white progressives from the North and the South, let me add, who answered King's call to March in Selma. I was especially moved by the rabbis and pastors and priests who came to march with Dr. King and the suffering people of Selma. When I saw them get murdered, which actually happened, I wept for them, and for my dad and for my mom and for me. It could have been him. It could have been me.<br />
<br />
Living in Alabama means that the conversation has no end for me or for us. When we first moved here in 1991, my parents came to Birmingham for the first time. My dad had to make his pilgrimage to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to see the basement where our city's four precious girls, in their pretty white church dresses, were robbed of any future by the hatred of the bombers. We went to the Church and we walked around Kelly Ingram Park. There was a silence that I remember. I shared with my children some of what their grandfather did when I was just a bit older than they were then. For the first time that I could remember, my mother spoke words of reconciliation. "Aaron and Alana, Grandpa Judea did what he did so your Mommy and Daddy could live here in Alabama with you."<br />
<br />
I called my mother after the movie and I asked her if Dad ever thought of going to Selma to join Dr. King, which would have been his third trip down South. Her voice changed. "He wanted to go, but I couldn't let him. I couldn't do it again." And that was the end of the conversation in my family, but it is a conversation that really has no end.<br />
<br />
The movie, Selma, is really another layer of conversation with history that has no end. So often, as<br />
Americans or as modern people, we feel that we have to get over the pain of the past. Painful moments are, well, painful and none of us happily invite pain into our lives. Too often, this is what we try to do. We bury our pain. We walk around it. We look straight ahead and, maybe, only now and then do we make a sideways or furtive glance into the painful moments that echo in our hearts and souls. I suppose that is normal and the way it should be most of the time. Even the day after the apocalypse, life goes on and we wouldn't have it any other way. So, we move on towards the future, attempting to shed the pain along the way.<br />
<br />
But, my friends, the pain is still there. It must be. You cannot empty it from your soul the way you<br />
empty the dust from the cuffs of your pants. The sadness is not only a part of us, it is in us. We are<br />
more than the pain and the burdens we bear, let me assure you. We have many parts of happiness and joy too. But they do not wash away the pain and the burdens and the disappointments. So we<br />
accumulate both pain and happiness and fill our hearts and souls with these blessings and burdens until we finally die and God takes them all from us.<br />
<br />
That is what it is like to live in Alabama, even 50 years after Bloody Sunday, after the voting rights march in Selma over the Edmund Pettus Bridge and along Route 80 to Montgomery. We move forward and, sometimes, as much as we complain today‐‐and we have a lot to complain about‐‐we have a lot of injustice and cruelty that we, as a society, still have to overcome‐‐we still visit our pain because it is still there. It will always be there and we can hope to be better. We can hope to have learned from the pain we carry and, maybe, with the grace of God, we might transform it into a blessing for others.<br />
<br />
Now that I am done with my review of Selma, let me share with you my sermon for tonight.<br />
Selma was not only about the rising up of the oppressed black men and women who demanded their<br />
rights, it was also about the transformation of the South. It was about George Wallace and Sheriff Clark and Albert Lingo and the white State Troopers and the hate filled bullies waving the Confederate Flag on Highway 80, and the poor ignorant white people who wielded their violence against the defiant black people in spasms of hatred and fear. It was about them too. We live in the South. We have seen some of these people and we know that, blessedly, most of them have changed.<br />
<br />
This is Shabbat Va‐eira from the Book of Exodus. The drama begins. God reveals himself to Moses and tells him to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh let God's people go. I assume that you know the story. Blood‐‐no. Frogs‐‐no. Lice‐‐no. Wild beasts‐‐no. Cattle disease‐‐no. Boils‐‐no. Hail‐‐no. Locusts‐‐no. Darkness‐‐no. Death of the firstborn‐‐get the hell out, you and every one of you. After every plague, the Torah speaks about Pharaoh's heart. The text utilizes the verb, hazek, meaning strong—literally, that Pharaoh has strengthened his heart.<br />
<br />
To be honest, I find this an odd term. Usually, we associate the word strong with positive attributes. A strong heart? What could be better than that?<br />
But, the strong heart was precisely Pharaoh's undoing and Egypt's undoing. To be strong in one's heart is usually a good thing unless, of course, we are talking about Pharaoh and Egypt. Sometimes, it is better to have a soft heart. Sometimes, it is better to feel the pain that the strong‐hearted impose upon the soft‐hearted. Sometimes, it is better to have our resolve melt away in a sea of compassion. <br />
<br />
Because of his strong‐heartedness, his determination and resolve, Pharaoh could not see the suffering of the Israelite slaves. Because of his strong‐heartedness, Pharaoh could not feel the anguish of those he hopelessly oppressed. Because of his strong‐heartedness, Pharaoh could not hear the cries of those who were hurting in their lives. His heart was too strong to feel the stirrings of compassion that a good leader owes his people.<br />
<br />
The story of the Book of Exodus is, ultimately, about bearing witness to the might and the blessings of a gentle heart, of a bending heart. It is the blessing of compassion which leads to change, which leads to understanding, which leads to tears, which leads to the march of the Israelites through the Sea into the desert and onwards towards the Promised Land. When we tell that story in Alabama, it is also the story of those who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma 50 years ago. It is the story of Birmingham. It is the story of all those whose strong‐heartedness brought about such hatred and pain that 50 years later, none of us could imagine ever going back to that place in time, that sense of Egypt in the South. It is the story, too, of those who cast away their strength of heart to gain a heart of wisdom, compassion, and love.<br />
<br />
So it was then in Egypt. So it was 50 years ago in Selma. So it should be in our own lives today. Be<br />
strong. Be of good courage. Gain for yourselves a soft and kind heart.<br />
<br />
Shabbat Shalom</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-84908359660528550492015-01-20T13:49:00.002-06:002015-01-20T13:49:24.746-06:00A question and a set of keys (J. Barry Vaughn, Jan. 18, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Christ Church Episcopal was built on the corner of
Maryland Parkway and St. Louis in 1961, Las Vegas was a very different place.
The world was a different place. This was a gracious residential neighborhood.
I suspect that the church was seldom, if ever, locked. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know of very few churches today that remain unlocked, and
that’s a very sad statement. If any building should remain open and welcome
people to wander inside for prayer and meditation or just to sit and rest a
while, it is a church. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I’m a realist and understand the need to balance both
the need to welcome the stranger and to practice good stewardship of this
wonderful old building. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The result of balancing those twin imperatives is that I
carry around a lot of keys, and I know that our sexton Steve Finnegan carries
around even more keys.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today’s gospel reading is about a question and a set of
keys.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The question is, “Who do <i>you
</i>say that I am?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Who do <i>you </i>say
that I am?” Jesus asked Peter, and that question still hangs in the air and
echoes in our ears, because Jesus didn’t just ask Peter that question, he still
asks each of us that question.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do we see Jesus just as one who saves us from our sins but then
leaves us stuck in our complacency? Our do we see him as the Lord of our lives
who commands us to follow him into the struggles he is still engaged in here in
this time and place?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do we see him just as one who speaks soothing and kind words
to us but does not challenge us to rise up and follow him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do we see him as a prophet challenging injustice? Do we see
him as a king whose rule over our lives transcends every earthly kingdom? Do we
see him as a priest who stands in our midst connecting every part of our lives
with the very life of God?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few years ago the singer Joan Osborne asked the question, “What
if God was one of us? … Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home.”
Of course, she was right. That’s exactly what the New Testament says, “Inasmuch
as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Christian faith tells us that Jesus is fully human and
also God incarnate. The phrase “God incarnate” means that everything that God
is came to reside in a human life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus’ humanity was no different from our humanity. I
believe that the idea of the incarnation also means that God can be present in
our lives, too. God can be present in us. God’s light can shine through us. God
can use us to build the kingdom.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Several years ago I heard the chief piano tuner for Steinway
pianos tell the story of going to Carnegie Hall to tune a piano for the great
pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He brought along his young son who had just begun to
play the piano. After he had tuned the piano, his little boy asked if he could
play it, and his father gave him permission. So he sat down and began to play a
simple piece. At that moment, Rubenstein came out of the wings and sat down
beside the boy. The child had no idea who Rubenstein was, so he just continued
to play. And Rubenstein started to improvise an accompaniment that turned the
child’s piece into something extraordinary and beautiful. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is what can happen when we allow God to work through
us, allow God’s light to shine in our lives. Our efforts can be lifted up and
made a part of God’s work. Our words can be given wings. Our lives can be
transformed with divine energy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is what I hope and pray happens at Christ Church – that
we will let God live in and through this community, that we will let God’s work
be done in us in this time and place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then when Peter answered Jesus’ question correctly, Jesus
handed him a set of keys: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth will be loosed in heaven."<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Keys have two functions. One function is to lock things up,
to keep out the bad guys, to protect what is ours. The other function of keys
is to open up, to let people in. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suspect that we mostly think of the former function of
keys, that is, to lock things up and keep people out. However, I’d like us to
think mostly of the latter function: to open up and let people in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe that the primary function of this great old church
is to be as open as possible, to let people in, to welcome the lost and lonely,
the broken and hurting, the hungry and the homeless. And I believe that with
all my heart.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today is the day of our annual meeting, and it is a good day
to think about our mission, our purpose. I believe you could chart the story of
Christ Church through the years in terms of how we have progressively unlocked
our doors and made this place more and more open to all kind of people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 1960s we opened our doors to African Americans and
began to evaluate people not by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 1970s we unlocked the doors of ordination and began
to welcome women into the ministries of priest and bishop, offices closed to
them for almost 2000 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More recently we unlocked the doors of the church and said <i>bienvenido </i>to our Latino sisters and
brothers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this last year the sacrament of holy matrimony was
unlocked and we began to invite our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to
have their relationships blessed and honored.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout the year we free people from the burden of hunger
when we feed them through our Epicenter and our Amazing Grace dinner. We unlock
our doors and welcome the homeless when we host Family Promise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe we are at an important turning point in Christ
Church’s history. This year we are in a wonderful place with our finances. We
began last year with a big deficit, but we ended the year with a surplus. We
begin this year with a balanced budget. It would be tempting to sit back and
enjoy being in this comfortable place, but I believe we need to challenge
ourselves to do more – to expand our staff and programs, to reach out to the community
in new ways…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I want every one of you to unlock your imagination, to free
yourselves up to dream and imagine what Christ Church might become over the
next year, the next five years, the next ten years, the next fifty to one
hundred years. Dream big. Don’t let anyone tell you that your dream is
impossible or impractical. Don’t even let me do that, because I might! If you
are dreaming a dream that God gave you, then do everything in your power to
make it come true, and don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tomorrow we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Dr. King knew how to use the keys that Jesus gave us. His whole life was
about unlocking doors, freeing people from the chains that bind them. But he
also knew how to dream. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I have a dream,” Dr. King said, “a dream that the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my children
will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their character.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My dream for Christ Church is that we will unlock our doors
and welcome all of God’s children – black and white, Anglo and Latino, rich and
poor, gay and straight. My dream for Christ Church is that we will be a place
where people are freed from the chains of despair and given the wings of hope.
My dream for Christ Church is that we will be a place where burdens are lifted
and people are made whole.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is your dream for Christ Church?<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-85863829971687118362015-01-13T20:02:00.000-06:002015-01-13T20:02:25.654-06:00The baptism of Jesus (Rick O'Brien, Jan. 11, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">When I took
the General Ordination Exams, there was a particular question that I found to
be quite relevant, for in my experience, it gets asked a lot. The question went something like this. “When asked, a member of your church replied,
“The trinity? For me that means the
Father, incomprehensible, the Son, incomprehensible, the whole thing,
incomprehensible. I think it is just
something the theologians made up to confuse us. How can it possibly have any bearing on my
daily life?” Does that resonate with
anyone? I thought that it might.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The trinity
is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp as it is unlike anything else we
experience on earth. The idea of one God
in three persons, separate but united, is challenging to understand and to
explain. It is no wonder that people
feel the church has not done a good job in helping to develop a greater
understanding of our triune God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I find that
most people in the church have no trouble with the idea of God the Father as
creator of all. We start with Genesis
and the beginning of the creation story. “In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth”. Here we have God
the Father creating the universe and establishing everything in our
reality. This is the first part of the
trinity; God the Father who is the creator of all. The picture of a benevolent God who loves us
and created the heavens and the earth resonates with people, especially the paternalistic
part. Everyone understands the concept
of a father (even if they do not have one) and it is fairly easy for people of
faith to develop a picture in their mind of God in that way. Describing God as Father allows people to
anthropomorphize God and some people tell me they imagine God the Father
looking a lot like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments, or for the younger
folks, like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus the
Son is also an understandable concept as his coming to earth as one of us,
dying for us, and being resurrected is the cornerstone of our common
faith. God the Son took on our mortal
form; lived and laughed and cried as we do, and knew what it was like to be one
of us from a very personal and intimate perspective. It is not a stretch for people to develop an
idea of Jesus as he clearly took mortal form and walked the earth. As it says in the Gospel of John, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life and the life was the light of
the world. The light shines in the
darkness and the darkness did not overcome it”.
The light of the world, the Word that was with God and in fact <b>was</b> God is Jesus. Jesus was with God at the creation of the
world and the light that broke the darkness was Jesus. The same Jesus who came to earth on Christmas
in the most humble manner was with God in the beginning and has always been the
light of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Returning to
Genesis, “<span class="text">the earth was a formless void and darkness covered
the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters”. The Hebrew word for wind is Ruach, which
translates to Spirit. The Spirit of God,
part of God yet separate from God; and with God the Father and Jesus the Son at
the very beginning. </span>If people can
develop a picture of God the Father and God the Son in more or less human form,
the Holy Spirit is more difficult as it has no form. Without that frame of reference, it can be
hard to grasp the concept of a living Spirit that surrounds us, lives within
us, and can inform all that we do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But it is
this uniqueness of the Spirit which I believe gives it reverence, and is a
tangible reminder that we cannot ever reduce God to the status of being simply
one of us. I have found that we
sometimes try to put God in a box; a box that we can open and close when we
want to. If we can understand God by
making him just like us, we can put him into that box and in that way <b>we</b> are in control. We control when we want to experience God and
when we don’t. We can pull the box out
on Sunday morning and have our nice experience of God, and put him back in the
box when it isn’t convenient for us.
When we want to experience the darkness; when we are doing things that
we know are not what God wants. When we
are petty, or cruel or self-indulgent, it is infinitely easier to rationalize
these behaviors if we have trapped God in that box so He can’t see us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But the Holy
Spirit makes that difficult. If we can’t
picture the Holy Spirit like one of us, we can’t put it into that box. How do you trap a force that surrounds us,
moves among us, and in fact is part of our very being? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And then we
have Mark’s Gospel; the story of Jesus’ baptism. “<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="OLE_LINK4">Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up
out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like
a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased."</a> Here we see the three aspects of the
trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit each demonstrating
their uniqueness, yet acting together in concert to fulfill God’s plan on
earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">For just as
Jesus received the Holy Spirit that day in the Jordan, so did each of us when
we were baptized. Just as Paul baptized
the people at Ephesus, each of us received the Holy Spirit in our own
baptism. That makes it impossible for us
to hide from God, no matter how much we may want to. And it reminds us that our conception of God
and Jesus as merely people like us is fundamentally wrong. We cannot equate ourselves with God and we
cannot reduce God simply to the level of one of us. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit are more than we can comprehend and they cannot be reduced or diminished
by us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">That is the
message of the Trinity at Jesus’ baptism.
God in all forms is acting in the world, not for Jesus, but for <b>us</b>.
God the Father didn’t need to speak out loud to Jesus, but instead chose
to speak so that <b>WE</b> would hear him. Jesus already has the Holy Spirit, but it
comes from heaven to him as a visible sign for <b>US</b>. God in all forms is
acting in the world to remind us of his power and his willingness to love us
with all that He is. So much so that he
came to earth as one of us to die for our sins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Looked at
from this perspective, the Trinity becomes a bit easier to understand. Each aspect of God is unique, yet they work
together and each is a gift to us. While
it may be tempting to call it a merely a theological construction, the Trinity
is very real. It was then, is now and
will always be; and is a wonderful gift to us all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-6687435978268298592015-01-09T18:00:00.000-06:002015-01-13T00:27:45.156-06:00Off the top of my head - We are all French (Jan. 9, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I imagine that most of you are as disturbed by this week’s
events in France as I am. I hope we all remember that on the day after 9/11, <i>Le Monde </i>(the leading French newspaper)
proclaimed that “We are all Americans. We are all New Yorkers, just<span style="background: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> as </span>surely
as John F. Kennedy declared himself to be a Berliner in 1962 when he visited
Berlin. Indeed, just as in the gravest moments of our own history, how can we
not feel profound solidarity with those people, that country, the United
States, to whom we are so close and to whom we owe our freedom, and therefore
our solidarity?” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.5pt;">
In the wake of
the attacks in France, the rallying cry has become, <i>“Je suis Charlie Hebdo,” </i>or “I am Charlie Hebdo.” (<i>Charlie Hebdo </i>is the name of the
magazine whose offices and writers were attacked.) My friend Julian Resnick, an
Israeli, wrote an essay in which he declared that he, too, was Charlie Hebdo.
Julian made the excellent point that he supports toleration for all except the
intolerant: “I want to live in a world where we celebrate all identities with
one very clear line: the identities we have cannot claim exclusivity,
particularly the exclusive right to truth. I cannot live in a world where
fundamentalist ideology is supreme. And here lies the crunch for many of us,
especially those of us who want a Progressive world. How do we define those
identities which are based on exclusivity and focus on not only othering, but
also on a plan of action against others which includes getting rid of the other,
or subjugating the other?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.5pt;">
I have said
before that I believe the Episcopal Church is a big tent church but not an
infinite tent church. Similarly, the free and democratic states of the world
can and must tolerate a very wide range of opinions, but we must draw the line
at opinions that do not tolerate those who differ from them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would also very
much like to say that “I am Charlie Hebdo,” because I believe that all of us
must declare our support for freedom of speech and freedom of the press,
especially when those fundamental human rights are attacked. However, I am a
little reticent to declare complete solidarity with Charlie Hebdo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The excuse (NOT the reason) for the attacks was that many
Muslims were offended by cartoons published in <i>Charlie Hebdo </i>that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammed. I have looked at the cartoons and have to
agree. Nevertheless, satire, no matter how offensive, can never justify murder.
There are limits to freedom of speech, but they are few and far between. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ironically (and tragically) the French policeman who was
killed outside the <i>Charlie Hebdo </i>offices
was Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim. The phrase “I am Charlie” has inspired a companion
phrase: “I am Ahmed.” One person tweeted, “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed, the
dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture, and I died defending his
right to do so.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christians should also remember that our faith has at times
given its blessing to violence. Think of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch trials, not
to mention the willingness of Christians (both north and south) to tolerate and
excuse the institutionalized violence of American chattel slavery.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are we to do, then?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, even if we must use violence against the violent, we
must do so with sadness and reluctance. Violence is never good, even though at
times it may be necessary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, we must encourage moderate Muslims to speak out, and
we can only do that if we recognize that Muslim extremists represent only a
small fraction of the Islamic world. Ultimately, extremist Islam can only be
defeated from within the Muslim faith. If we demonize all Muslims, then the
terrorists have won because that is exactly what they want to achieve. We
encourage moderate Islam by reaching out to Muslims, befriending them, and
getting to know them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
want to conclude with the last words of the article <i>Le Monde</i> published on Sept. 12, 2001: “Madness, even under the
pretext of despair, is never a force that can regenerate the world. That is why
today we are all Americans.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And
it is why today we are all French.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-35750928258142379062015-01-08T13:08:00.002-06:002015-01-08T13:12:43.613-06:00"Je suis Charlie aussi" by Julian Resnick<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A wonderful statement by my friend Julian Resnick of Kibbutz Tsora in Israel responding to the shooting yesterday at the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I am also Charlie.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Even though I am not a cartoonist and even though the attack was not against a Jewish target and even though the attack was not against an Israeli target, I am the last two, both Jewish (proudly) and Israeli (proudly), it was an attack against another part of my identity, my progressive identity (o<span class="">nce again I am proudly progressive).</span></span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What are the ways I identify? Is each part of my identity separate and discreet or are they all part of a single identity?</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I have multiple identities and so do you, each and every one of you, of us, has multiple identities. I am a man, a father, a husband, a Jew, an Israeli, a Progressive. And many more as well; I am an ex-South African, I am bilingual (almost trilingual, but my Afrikaans is in decline), I am a doubter when it comes to belief in a transcendental authority, I am a believer when it comes to the mystery of life. </span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I want to live in a world where we celebrate all identities with one very clear line: the identities we have cannot claim exclusivity, particularly the exclusive right to truth. I cannot live in a world where fundamentalist ideology is supreme.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">And here lies the crunch for many of us, especially those of us who want a Progressive world. How do we define those identities which are based on exclusivity and focus on not only othering, but also on a plan of action against others which includes getting rid of the other, or subjugating the other?</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">My world has place for the Socialist, the Capitalist, the Liberal, the Conservative, the Radical. It does not have place for the Fundamentalist or the Exclusivist.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It is a world where we celebrate multiplicity of truths, we search for accommodation, where we celebrate compromise and diversity. It is therefore extremely complicated and complex. It is not a world of sound bites, of political speeches which create fear and warn us that we have to either destroy or be destroyed. It is a world where solidarity is important. At the same time it is not a pacifist world. It is a world which says "there are things we have to fight for, things we have to defend, that are worth defending". It is not a dreamy world of Peace, Happiness and Flowers. It is a world in which we are sometimes asked to clarify different values which sometimes collide and work out how we create the best possible solution for the greatest number of people.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So as not to be accused of being "airy fairy", with two feet firmly planted in the clouds, it includes Israel as it includes Palestine. It includes synagogues, mosques, temples, shrines and churches and many other places where those who do not worship in traditional manners can explore the meaning of life. </span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">If I could draw, I would end this short piece with a cartoon honouring not only the people murdered yesterday at Charlie Hebdo, but also a cartoon honouring all those who celebrate diversity, who live with doubts, who help the weak without any thought as to who the weak are.</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Take care,</span></div>
<div dir="LTR" style="background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12.5pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Julian</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-46040195076979925422015-01-06T16:43:00.000-06:002015-01-06T16:43:18.187-06:00What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas (J. Barry Vaughn, Jan. 4, 2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happy new year, everyone! New Year’s day is not on the
liturgical calendar, but I want to propose a change to the liturgical calendar
of the Episcopal Church. General Convention will take place in Salt Lake City
this summer, and maybe all of us can go up there and petition the Deputies and
Bishops to make New Year’s Day the feast day for the city of Las Vegas. It’s
what we’re known for all over the world. It may not be a spiritual occasion in
Las Vegas, but it’s certainly a time when spirits are used liberally.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We say “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Needless to
say, that’s a phrase that covers a multitude of sins, but in a strange way, it
may also be a kind of Christian idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” more often than not
means that people come here to do things they would rather others did not know
about. But it also means that we can put our past behind us; we can look ahead
to what is to come. Our history is not necessarily our destiny; we can start
all over again, be reborn, and that is certainly a Christian idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The prophet Isaiah says, “Do not call to mind the former
things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now
it will spring forth.” (Isaiah 43)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of my favorite prayers in the Prayer Book says, “Let the
whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised
up, and things which had grown old are being made new…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how appropriate on this first Sunday of 2015 that we
baptize Rylynn Faith Gordon and also welcome our new minister to children and
youth, the Rev. Erin Spengeman Hutchison.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today we are doing a new thing, or rather, we recognize that
God is doing a new thing among us. We are also renewing something old. This
church has a great history of ministry with children and youth. That ministry
has been somewhat dormant for a while, but today we announce our determination
to renew our ministry to children and youth, because, my dear sisters and
brothers, if we do not pass on our faith to our children, then this church does
not have a future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I imagine that some of you are wondering, “Why do we
need a minister to children and youth when we have so few children and young
people?” It’s not a bad question, but I think it is the wrong question. It
would be better if we asked, “Why in the world would families with children and
young people come here, if we do not have programs for them?” I subscribe to
the “if you build it, they will come” school of Christian ministry. We cannot wait
until families with children and young people join us and then create programs
for them. We have to create those programs before we can attract families with
children and young people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today’s reading from Jeremiah talks about the new things
that God will do for the Israelite exiles in Babylon:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
They shall come and sing aloud on
the height of Zion,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
and they shall be
radiant over the goodness of the LORD,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
over the grain, the wine, and the
oil,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
and over the young
of the flock and the herd;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
their life shall become like a
watered garden,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
and they shall
never languish again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
Then shall the young women rejoice
in the dance,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
and the young men
and the old shall be merry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
I will turn their mourning into
joy,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
I will comfort
them, and give them gladness for sorrow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
I will give the priests their fill
of fatness,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
and my people shall
be satisfied with my bounty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
This priest could do with a little
less fatness, but I like everything else Jeremiah has to say. It is a profound
vision of how God does new things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
Jeremiah tells us that there is
nothing so old that God cannot make it new; there is nothing so decrepit that God
cannot repair it; there is no desert so desolate that God cannot make it bloom;
none of us are so lost that God cannot bring us home; there is no sorrow so
deep that God cannot transform it into joy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
In other words, there is hope. There
was hope after the Babylonians invaded Judah, burned Jerusalem and its temple,
and took its people into exile. There was hope for the crucified Christ on the
cross. And there is hope for us. For beyond exile, there was return and
restoration; beyond the cross, there was resurrection. And beyond our
difficulties and disappointments, God awaits with joys we cannot imagine.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
But there is work for us to do. We
must create programs and structures in this church for the people whom God is
bringing to us. That is why I have asked Rev. Erin to join our staff. And that
is why she and I will be asking you to help us build a Sunday School and youth
ministry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
I want to be perfectly honest with
you: I met Rev. Erin and decided to hire her after we had put together the
budget for 2015, so her salary will add to the bottom line of the budget that
our treasurer Vivien Rothwell put together. So if you want to support our
ministry to children and young people by adding Rev. Erin to our staff, I hope
you’ll give just a little more than you had planned to give to Christ Church
this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
Our children and young people represent
hope. The hymn before the gospel reading tells us that Rylynn, the child we
baptize today, is a “child of blessing” and a “child of promise.” Every child
represents both a blessing and a promise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
Like the magi bringing gifts to the
infant Jesus, we, too, have gifts to bring to the children in our midst. To the
children and young people in our midst we must bring the gift of religious
education, and the even more important gifts of our attention, our support, and
our love.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
So in this season when old things
are being made new and things which were cast down are being raised up, I invite
you to renew and raise up our ministry to children and youth, and to invite
them to join us and the magi in our pilgrimage, following the star of hope that
leads us to Jesus.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-26301804319195351772015-01-01T17:42:00.000-06:002015-01-01T17:42:51.430-06:00Grace upon grace (Rick O'Brien, Dec. 28, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you were
in church on Christmas morning, you are probably saying to yourself, “wait a
minute, didn’t I just hear this gospel reading on Christmas morning?” No it is not simply a case of déjà vu; you
did hear this passage from John. But
unlike television, this is not a mere rerun or simply a way to take it easy on
what is traditionally a Low Sunday. We
have four gospel stories, each with its own way of telling us the good news of
Jesus Christ. Over the course of the
three year cycle of our lectionary we hear each gospel in its entirety, for
there is much to learn from each one.
But the beginning of John’s gospel is so rich, so full of import for our
understanding of Jesus, that it is repeated. Indeed, I could preach on the beginning of
John for a full year and still have only scratched the surface of its
significance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t know
how other preachers handle their preparation, but I like to read the lessons
several times over a number of days and see what words or message resonate with
me. Each time I do this, I find some phrase or nuance that I have not noticed
before. Far more than simply a story or
a collection of advice, the Bible is a living document; it is God’s message to
us that informs how we live our lives.
That is why reading the Bible is a lifelong pursuit, for unlike a Dan
Brown novel; it does not have a beginning, middle, and an end. The words in the Bible are the same, but their
meaning is revealed to us in different ways as our lives change and our
understanding of ourselves and our relationship with God deepens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Two phrases
caught my attention this week. John
tells us, “He gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood
or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” And Paul echoes this in Galatians when he
says “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so
that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God
has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba!
Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then
also an heir, through God.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Children of
God. It is easy to focus on Jesus in the
gospel, but we too are included in the Good News. We call Jesus the son of God, but John
reminds us that we too are children of God.
By taking on our mortal form, Jesus the Immanuel makes us God’s
children. As God’s children, we are not
slaves or outsiders. By giving us the
gift of Jesus, God has accepted us as his own and this is vividly demonstrated
as Jesus assumes our flesh and blood.
For if God becomes one of us then we too become part of God. As slaves or outsiders we have no right to
expect anything from God, but as his children we then may claim the inheritance
of a child. The inheritance of God
Immanuel, who rose from the grave to show us that death was defeated and that
eternal life with God is our destiny. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second
phrase that captured my imagination was “From his fullness we have all
received, grace upon grace.” Grace upon
grace. What a lovely phrase. But what does it mean? Grace seems to me to be an absolute term; you
either have it or you don’t. So what
could John mean by this phrase?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many years
ago I was in New Orleans for a weeklong conference. I had never been there before, but had always
heard that New Orleans had some of the best restaurants in the country. I was not disappointed. The first night there, I had the best meal I
had ever eaten in my life. I remember
going back to my room, absolutely full to bursting and thinking “I will never
have such a wonderful meal again, that was as good as it gets.” The next night, as you can probably guess,
the food was even better. It got better
each progressive night, and I had to constantly reevaluate my thinking that
this was as good as it gets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Grace upon
Grace is something like that. For grace
is not a binary proposition. It is not a
“take it or leave it “proposition. Grace
is like that first meal in New Orleans.
A wonderful experience that exceeded anything I had ever had in the
past. But unlike my thinking that this
was as good as it gets, Grace just keeps on getting better. Grace is not simply enough, it is more than
enough. Grace is an inexhaustible supply
of abundance that overflows our ability to experience it. God’s fullness of grace is more than we can
imagine or experience. It fills us and
washes over us in its abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tying the
two images together helps us to understand the concept of Grace upon
Grace. Through the incarnation of Jesus
we are children of God. As children, we
are not yet prepared for all of the grace that God has in store for us. For just as a newborn is not yet ready to
dine on Prime Rib, we are not ready from birth to experience all of God’s
grace. As a child must learn to crawl
before they can walk, we must learn to comprehend the idea of a relationship
with God. As infants we have a
relationship with our parent. But that
relationship changes as we grow and mature.
The same is true of our relationship with God. And it is only as this relationship grows
that we can even begin to appreciate the idea of grace upon grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Indeed, as
our relationship with God develops, so does our need for Grace. We need one type of grace in times of
abundance and a different type in times of peril. A prayer of thanksgiving for all of God’s
gifts is quite different from the cry for help when one is in need. Both are calls from a child to a parent, but the
response is different based upon the situation.
Grace upon grace assures us that the inexhaustible supply of Grace will
be there for us no matter our circumstance or the level of our relationship with
God or one another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” This Christmas let us remember the coming of
the savior, who made us children of God and heirs of his grace upon grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-73345159415408451492014-12-26T17:13:00.000-06:002014-12-26T17:13:02.384-06:00Where are you, Christmas? (Rick O'Brien, Christmas Day 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I want to
start by saying that I am an enormous fan of Christmas music. Sacred or secular, I love it all. But they started playing Christmas music this
year shortly after the fourth of July.
Even for me, that is going a bit too far. Or a lot too far. The main problem with this, aside from its
crass emphasis on trying to separate you from your money, is that starting the
music so early makes it somehow less special.
It is hard to focus on the words to Silent Night when you have heard it
73 times before Labor Day. So what begins as a lovely reminder of the season
quickly fades into nothing but background noise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But every
once in a while, at an unexpected moment, the fog of life clears, and you find
yourself listening to the words. I was
driving home from a long day of work and shopping, in my own little world,
concentrating on my own problems.
Without realizing it, I found myself listening to the song “Where are
you Christmas? “ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I had heard
it 327 times already this year, but for some reason I found myself paying
attention to the words. “Where are you
Christmas, why can’t I find you, why have you gone away? My world is changing, I’m rearranging, Does
that mean Christmas changes too?” Does that mean Christmas changes too? This started my thinking about MY
Christmases; how they used to be and how they in fact have changed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I recall as
a young child that Christmas was about Santa and presents and, as I was an only
child and the only grandchild, being the center of attention. I rather liked that. The first time Christmas changed for me was
when I was 6. My grandmother died at
Thanksgiving time, the first time that I had any experience of death. Christmas was not going to be the same after
that. Later that year, my mother gave
birth to my baby brother, on December 22, and Christmas changed again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Fast forward
and I am in college for my first year, all by myself and homesick. Christmas was very different that year, with
none of the preparations and traditions I had taken for granted as a youngster.
So, after feeling sorry for myself for a bit, I took the bus to Kmart and
bought a tiny tree and a cassette tape of Bing Crosby. Setting up this Charlie Brown tree in my dorm
room, listening to White Christmas, I started to feel better and realized that
I was now creating my own Christmas traditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jen and
I were married, Christmas changed again.
For the first time in my life I didn’t wake up in my parent’s home. We now had two families, with two different
sets of traditions, and each wanted their traditions to stay the same. Each family expected us to take part in their
traditions, and we had to find a way to mediate the differences and act as
agents of change. Neither family got
exactly what they wanted, but all had to adapt to a new reality that included
changes in Christmas from that point on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We had our
first son, and that changed Christmas again, in many, many ways. We now found ourselves in the position of
establishing traditions for our own family, both as keepers of the past, and
looking forward into the future. Two
more sons followed over the years, and we evolved our own set of family
traditions, some that incorporated our larger family, some that were only for
us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then our
sons grew up and left for college too.
Christmas changed again when one of them could not come home, so we went
to him. Our first Christmas in a hotel
room was unusual, but lovely in its own special way. Over the years, we have celebrated Christmas
in my parents’ house, in Jen’s parents’ house, in a hotel room, in a church
basement, in a rented house in Florida, and one memorable time in a closed
restaurant where my brother worked that we took over with the owner’s
permission. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I think
about it, Christmas has been changing all of my life. Life moves on, people come into and leave our
lives, and the world keeps on turning.
Change is a constant; even when we don’t want it to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For some
people change comes rather easy; while others meet change kicking and
screaming. If you are one of the former,
then you are comfortable with the idea of Christmas changing. You can listen to the song and answer, “Yes,
Christmas DOES change, and all will be well.”
But if you are one of the people who is uncomfortable with change,
perhaps this will help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our
Christmas celebrations change. The
people we celebrate with change. We go
to different places, we eat different foods, but there is one thing that does
NOT change. That God sent his only son
into the world in the mostly lowly fashion to become one of us and save us from
ourselves. This infant Jesus who we
celebrate today is the one thing that does not change, in fact has never
changed. Jesus is eternal. He has always been, is now, and will always
be part of our triune God. As John tells
us in the beginning of his gospel, “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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The word
that John so eloquently describes is Jesus.
Jesus was with God at the creation of the world; indeed, the world was
created through him as all things came into being through him. This Jesus, born today as a tiny baby in a
humble cattle stall is none other than the eternal God, who loves us so much
that he choose to dwell among us. Our
light in the darkness; the light of all people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our
Christmases will change. People we love
will not be with us, we may find ourselves in unfamiliar places. But Christmas has been the same for 2,000
years. It is not about HOW we celebrate,
but about WHAT we celebrate. And it will
always be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-56599216730841619032014-12-25T04:04:00.003-06:002014-12-25T04:04:27.798-06:00Christmas in the trenches (J. Barry Vaughn, Christmas Eve 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
On the 28th day of June in year 1914, a Serbian terrorist shot and
killed the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Austria
threatened to retaliate against the Serbs; Russia, which saw itself as the
protector and defender of all Slavic peoples, said that they would defend the
Serbs if Austria and its German ally attacked them; France, bound by treaty to
Russia, said that they would stand by Russia in any war that might come; and in
London, the government of his Majesty King George V said that they would honor
their treaty obligations to France and would also protect the neutrality of
tiny Belgium. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
And so on 2 August 1914 Germany invaded France via Belgium and the
Great War began. Within weeks both sides had dug hundreds of miles of trenches.
They stretched from the North Sea to the border of neutral Switzerland, and for
the next four years those trenches did not move more than ten miles in either
direction. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
For four years the First World War was a dreadful stalemate, and the
status quo was maintained at the cost of millions of young lives. Almost daily
on both sides young men were ordered up and out of the trenches and into the no
man's land between the two sides, where they faced almost certain death in the
deadly hail of machine gun bullets. The casualty figures at the end of the war
tell the dreadful story better than words can. Great Britain and its far-flung
empire lost about one million soldiers; France had lost about 1.3 million;
Italy about half a million; Russia 1.7 million; and Germany and Austria about
three million.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
But in the midst of the war came something like a Christmas miracle. On
Christmas Eve 1914 all up and down the western front soldiers on both sides
began to sing Christmas carols. Sometimes one side would sing a carol familiar
to them in their own language; then the other side would respond with a carol
they knew in their own language. Sometimes the same carol would be sung
simultaneously in at least two different languages. One British soldier said
that he would die rather than sing “Silent Night” in German, to which a German
soldier replied, “And it would probably kill us to hear you sing it, too!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Folksinger John McCutcheon tells the story of the Christmas truce in
his song, “Christmas in the trenches”:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
I was lying with my mess mate on the cold and rocky ground,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Says I, “Now listen up, me boys,” each soldier strained to hear<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
As one young German voice sang out so clear:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
“He’s singing bloody well, you know,” my partner says to me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Soon one by one each German voice joined in harmony. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
The cannons rested silent. The gas cloud rolled no more<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
On Christmas 1914, soldiers on both sides of the western front
abandoned their trenches. They met one another in “no man’s land.” They shared
food and drink, and they sang songs. Then someone on one side or the other
kicked a football (incorrectly termed a “soccer” ball in America) into no man’s
land, and a lively game followed. The soldiers shared parcels of food from
home; admired pictures of each other’s sweethearts; and in places the Christmas
truce lasted two or three days or longer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
The officers, safely ensconced well-behind the front lines, tried to
put a stop to it, but the enlisted men paid no attention. And in places even some
officers joined in the festivities. In Rome, the pope – Benedict XV – the last
by that name until the current occupant of the throne of St. Peter – pleaded
with the warring powers to “cease during the holy season of Christmas,” but his
pleas had no impact. Much more effective than the pontiff’s appeal was the
simple desire of the soldiers to keep the holiday the way they had kept it all
their lives - by singing the familiar carols, exchanging gifts, and above all
by remembering and telling the story of the Holy Child whose birth to a poor
couple had brought hope to the entire world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
But eventually the soldiers went back to their trenches and waited for
the signal to launch themselves again into no man’s land or to unleash the
deadly fire of their machine guns on the men with whom they had spent Christmas
Eve singing carols and playing football. But it is said that in some places the
soldiers deliberately fired over the heads of the men with whom they had sung
carols and shared a glass of whisky. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung.<br />
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung.<br />
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war<br />
Had been crumbled and were gone for ever more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
You and I live in a world that is very similar to the western front in
1914, a world divided between rich and poor, black and white, Christian, Jew,
Muslim. Like the soldiers in the Great War we huddle in our trenches, our
caves, our homes, fearful that someone or something may try to take away something
we have earned. And sometimes our fears are not even that specific; we just
fear for no particular reason because the human mind and heart seem to be wired
to fear those who are different from us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
But long ago, even before the spontaneous Christmas truce of 1914,
someone came into this world that we share with those whom we perceive to be so
different from us, someone who would have no part of the things that divide us.
He pitched his tent in that most dangerous of places – right in the middle of
no man’s land, right between our warring factions. Refusing to identify with
this side or that, he claimed to belong to all humanity and called himself the
Son of Man.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Like the Christmas truce of 1914, his arrival was heralded by a song, a
song that promised peace on earth. He came to heal the divisions that separate
us. Lepers were reunited with their families; sight was restored to the blind;
thieves and prostitutes, excluded by the morally upright, were made welcome in
his company. To our astonishment he told us that the poor were the special
objects of God’s favor. Wherever he went it was as if people came out of their
trenches, even out of their graves – sometimes literally so. “Lazarus! Come
forth!” he commanded, and he healed the greatest of all divisions – that
between the living and the dead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
He chose to live in no man’s land, between Jew and Gentile, rich and
poor, the oppressor and the oppressed. The men who ventured into no man’s land
eventually went back to their trenches when the holiday was over, but he did
not. He stayed in no man’s land. Of course, we call it “no man’s land” for a
good reason: no one can stay there for long. Jesus had enemies. His enemies are
those who seek to keep the poor in their place, who traffic in oppression; who resist
the empowerment of women, who benefit from the anger and violence that separate
us from each other. Jesus began to put them out of business. When peace breaks
out, the merchants of war have to create new conflicts. So they really had no
choice: Jesus had to die. They brought him before the authorities on trumped up
charges and accused him of treason. Some soldiers took a bit of barbed wire and
fashioned a crown. Others found a few pieces of lumber in the mud of no man’s
land and nailed him to it. And just as surely as if a machine gun had cut him
down, he died while both sides looked on. And then some friends took his body
and placed it in a tomb that was meant for a wealthier man. Someone said,
“Well, that was nice. The Christmas truce was lovely. For a few moments it
seemed that the English and the Germans and the French seemed more similar than
different, that the music of peace might drown out the discord of war. But
eventually we have to go back to the real world, don’t we? To put away the football, the violin, the
bottles of whisky that we shared with the other side, shake the hand of the
soldier opposite us and then pick our gun and shoot him.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Then something completely unexpected happened. A woman of dubious
virtue (there are a few attached to every regiment) came and told them that he
was alive, that his grave was empty. Some scoffed; others went and found that
it was true. Some saw him or were convinced by the testimony of others that he
had indeed risen from the dead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
But why is it, then, that we still live in such a divided world? A
world divided by poverty, oppression, race, and violence? If Christ came to
heal these divisions and if his resurrection is the definitive proof that God
can overcome our divisions, why does our world still resemble the western front
in 1914? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
I think we live in a troubled world because God gave us the great and
powerful gift of freedom: the freedom to believe or not, to love or hate, to
live or die. God doesn’t overwhelm us; rather, God woos us, invites us to
believe. Not everyone saw the Risen Christ, only those who had been acquainted
with him during his earthly life. But I believe, indeed, I am convinced, that
he comes among us today just as surely as came among us 2000 years ago. He continues
to live in that most difficult and dangerous of places, that no man’s land
between forces that hate and would kill each other. He continues to offer us
peace for war, harmony for violence, reconciliation instead of division. He
holds up a mirror to human life and shows us that the violence and cruelty we
inflict on others, we really inflict on ourselves. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
And so on this Christmas Eve almost a century after the Christmas truce
and almost 2000 years after the angels sang in Bethlehem, he invites us to come
out of our trenches, our places of hiding, to join with others in song, maybe
even play football. But most of all, he invites us to make the acquaintance of
those we fear, to look at pictures of their family members and to share
pictures of our own loved ones, to share our food and drink with those who have
none. And when they tell us to go back to our trenches and pick up our guns, he
invites us to say, “No.” Because now the dawn is upon us, the light has risen.
And in that light we can see that the men and women we feared are no more nor
less than our own sisters and brothers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
My name is Francis Tolliver. In Liverpool I dwell.<br />
Each Christmas come since World War One I've learned its lessons well.<br />
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame<br />
and on each end of the rifle we're the same<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-54034182378758834352014-12-22T00:11:00.003-06:002014-12-22T00:11:53.408-06:00The yellow brick road (Rick O'Brien, Dec. 20, 2014 - Ordination of the Rev. Rick Smallwood)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I met Rick and
Jeanne Smallwood one Sunday morning in 2009 at coffee hour. Two people I had never seen before asked me
if I were the aspirant at the parish. I
was a bit surprised, but realized that it wasn’t too hard to figure it out
since I had been serving at the altar that morning. The guy then said to me (still wearing his
Stetson cowboy hat), my name is Rick and I want to be a priest too. And then
the story started to come out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rick had
felt his calling from God many years ago in the late 1960s, but like many who
are on another path, he felt that it was not quite real. That God couldn’t be
calling him, that he was somehow not worthy.
And life, as is does, tended to get in the way. So he hit the snooze button. And then he hit it again. And again and again. Each time he felt the stirring of the call,
he hit the button and focused on other things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Make no
mistake, despite an active Navy career that involved postings all over the
country and the world, Rick was always involved in the church in one fashion or
another. He was living out his Christian
ministry, but there was always that quiet call in the background. Sometimes it was very loud, other times only
a whisper. But it was always there. And it was always put on hold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus tells
us that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. So when the Bishop in his diocese sent out
word that they were short on priests, the alarm clock started ringing very
loudly. And this time, the snooze button just
wouldn’t work. For at last, Rick’s time
and God’s time had come together and there was no longer any way to deny the
reality of God’s call. 40 years after
the first stirrings of his calling, Rick entered the discernment process and
started on a path toward this day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Having been
in the process for a while, an unexpected roadblock materialized. A roadblock that would likely have stopped
him in the past, but not this time. For by now Rick was absolutely convinced of
his call, and he would not let it go.
That determination led him to a conversation with Bishop Dan in the
unknown wilds of Nevada. The bishop had
not told him he would be ordained, merely that he would be allowed to pursue
the process. With no more assurance than
that, off they went.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was
fascinated by this story and asked when they had arrived in Nevada. Last night, they said. Where are you living? Don’t know yet. Where are your things? In the car outside. You mean you just packed up everything, left
your life behind and drove to Nevada with no planning and only a promise that
you could at least attempt the discernment process? Yes, was the answer. I have to tell you that I was deeply moved by
this. To do this was a significant leap
of faith, one that I am not certain that I could have made. I was impressed by Rick, but I have to tell
you, I was even more impressed by Jeanne.
Picture for a minute this conversation over the dinner table. “Honey, I
want to pull up stakes and move to Nevada because that is what God is calling me
to do.” And her answer was not, “have
you lost your mind”, it was, “OK, when do we leave?” Wow.
Think about that for a moment. Each of them demonstrated a great deal of
faith, in God and in each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The path
Rick embarked upon is not an easy one. The
discernment process is a bit like the yellow brick road. Lest you think you heard me wrong, yes, I am
going to preach on the Wizard of Oz. Sometimes
the path runs through a beautiful happy place like munchkin land full of
sunshine and smiling people. Other times
it runs through a dark forbidding forest and the path is hard to follow and
seems to go in circles where you wander aimlessly making no progress whatsoever. When you are on the path, it can be difficult
to understand why it is so complex and always changing. When you are in the middle of something it
can be hard to have a sense of perspective and appreciate it for what it
is. But when you look back over the
journey, you can see that every part of it, the good and the bad, the easy and
the difficult was put there for a reason.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is very
tempting in the good times to think that you are doing it all on your own, that
you are completely equipped for the journey and are ready to go. But it is the dark times, the times when you
are lost or feel overwhelmed or totally inadequate; those are the times that
you are reminded that the journey is not about you, but about God. Only by falling back into the arms of God can
you find your way through the hard times, and that also helps you to see that
it was God, not you, who was acting in the good times as well. For this call to the priesthood is not about
you, but about God and we are called to be servants of all in His name. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It has been
my privilege to walk alongside Rick for some of his journey on this path. I
have seen him in the good times and in the bad and I know that he has learned
well the lessons of the path. Rick, hold
fast to those lessons. Always remember
that it is God who equips you to face the journey, for today you begin on a new
path. I am sorry to be the one to tell
you this, but everything you have done so far is merely prologue to the journey
you undertake right now. When I was
ordained, a couple of wise priests told me that I would find serving as a
priest in a congregation very different from what I had experienced
before. There would be a new level of
expectation from people and I would be called upon to serve in ways that I had
not yet imagined. I listened politely and
was sure they were wrong. They were not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Starting
today you are on a new path, a lifelong journey as a priest in God’s
church. You will never be the same
again. You will be called upon in new
and different ways and you will most certainly be stretched outside your
comfort zone. Yes, there will be munchkin
land time, but you have some time in the dark forest ahead as well. When that happens, remember the lessons you
leaned on this path, for they will serve you well. Trust in God to be with you and equip you in
the good times and the bad and He will always lead you through.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, it
would be easy for everyone here to think that I am speaking only to Rick. And you would be wrong, for each of us is
called by God to ministry. Each of us is
given special skills and talents from God and we are all called to use them to
serve God’s purpose and build the kingdom. Rick may be called to ordained
ministry but that is no more or less valid than the ministry to which all of us
are called. Matthew tells us that the
harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, and that is a challenge to each
of us. For each of us is called to labor
for the Lord and each of us is given the skills necessary to carry out that ministry, And like Rick, each of us will spend time in
munchkin land, and each of us will spend time in the dark forest. And like Rick, if each of us can put our
trust in God rather than ourselves, God will most certainly lead us through.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, Rick,
you are about to complete a journey that is more than 45 years in the
making. I know that there were times
that it seemed to you that this day would never arrive; that your time in the
dark forest would never end. Today, you
complete the first phase of the journey and commence the more daunting journey
as a priest in Gods holy church. You
will be challenged in ways you have never been before, but you have been prepared
for this in ways you have never been as well.
The work you undertake today is both sacred and necessary. For the world we live in is in desperate need
of the gospel and people are in greater need of God than ever before. Your brothers and sisters in the priesthood
have been waiting patiently for you, for we have need of your skills and
abilities in the work that we share. The
harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
Today you recommit yourself to our shared labor and there is much labor
to be done. We celebrate your
accomplishment, rejoice with you in the successful completion of your journey,
and welcome you to the sacred work you now begin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-1375548634997345102014-12-22T00:10:00.002-06:002014-12-22T00:10:08.524-06:00The imagination of our hearts (J. Barry Vaughn, Dec. 21, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christmas is a season of the imagination. We say that
Christmas is for children. Maybe that’s because their imaginations are richer
and more active than ours are. Children can still imagine a magic sleigh that
flies through the air pulled by eight tiny reindeer (nine, if you count
Rudolf). Children can still imagine a white Christmas, even in Las Vegas.
Children can still imagine shepherds coming to the manger, three, wise kings
traveling over “field and fountain, moor and mountain” to visit the newborn King,
and that an angel asked a Jewish peasant girl if she would become the mother of
God. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Immediately after the story of the angel Gabriel’s
announcement to Mary that God was inviting her to be the mother of “the Son of
the Most High”, Mary left Nazareth and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. When Elizabeth greeted by saying, “Greetings,
favored one. The Lord is with you,” Mary responded with the Magnificat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
My soul doth
magnify the Lord : and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
For he hath regarded :
the lowliness of his handmaiden.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
For behold, from
henceforth : all generations shall call me blessed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
For he that is
mighty hath magnified me : and holy is his Name.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
And his mercy is
on them that fear him : throughout all generations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
He hath shewed
strength with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of
their hearts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
He hath put down
the mighty from their seat : and hath exalted the humble and meek.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
He hath filled the
hungry with good things : and the rich he hath sent empty away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: .5in;">
He remembering his
mercy hath holpen his servant Israel : as he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I especially like the phrase, “He hath scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.” Mary herself was no slouch at imagination.
She imagined that God would come to help of his people Israel, that God would
put down the mighty from their seats and lift up the lowly and meek; that God
would fill the hungry with good things but send the rich away with empty
bellies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In one his best known songs, former Beatle John Lennon also
invites us to imagine:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine there's no heaven<br />
It's easy if you try<br />
No hell below us<br />
Above us only sky<br />
Imagine all the people<br />
Living for today...<br />
<br />
Imagine there's no countries<br />
It isn't hard to do<br />
Nothing to kill or die for<br />
And no religion too<br />
Imagine all the people<br />
Living life in peace...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine no possessions<br />
I wonder if you can<br />
No need for greed or hunger<br />
A brotherhood of man<br />
Imagine all the people<br />
Sharing all the world...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I like John Lennon, and I used to like the song “Imagine”
until I began to think carefully about what Lennon was saying.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I really like the bit about<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine all the people<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Living life in peace…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine no possessions…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No need for greed or hunger<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A brotherhood of man<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine all the people<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sharing all the world…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But frankly, I think this song shows Lennon’s lack of
imagination. First, he seems to buy into the idea that religion is responsible
for all the world’s problems. Now to be perfectly honest, and if we just do a
superficial investigation of things, there seems to be some support for that
idea. After all, wasn’t religion responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisition,
the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, the tension in the Middle East between
Muslims and Jews, and the tension in India and Pakistan between Hindus and
Muslims?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t think so. I believe in all those instances religion
is the excuse for violence, not the reason. The terrible crimes of the
Crusades, the Inquisition, and so on, were not committed by nice people who
would have lived in peace with their neighbors had they not been religious.
They were committed by bad people who would have been responsible for murder
and mayhem regardless of what they believed or didn’t believe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the whole, religion helps more than it harms. Religion
gave us Gandhi and his philosophy of nonviolent resistance to tyranny; it gave
us Martin Luther King, Jr., and his inspiring call for people to be evaluated
by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Religion
gave us Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer, and I could go on and on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Lennon gave us some great songs, but his world is flat,
colorless, one dimensional. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe there is a heaven above us, and although I have
serious doubts about a hell down below. However, I do believe that our actions
have consequences, both here and in eternity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think Mary’s song, the Magnificat, beats John Lennon’s
“Imagine” hands down in the, well, in the <i>imagination
</i>department.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Long before John Lennon, the prophet Mary sang:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted
the humble and meek;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he
hath sent empty away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Long before John Lennon, the prophet Isaiah sang,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Learn to do right; seek justice.<br />
Defend the oppressed. <br />
Take up the cause of the fatherless;<br />
plead the case of the widow. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Long before John Lennon, the prophet Amos sang, “I hate, I
despise your feasts, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness
like an everflowing stream.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do you suppose that God “scatters the proud in the
imagination of their hearts”?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, what is it that the proud were imagining? Being proud,
their imaginations were probably mostly concerned with themselves. Fourth
century theologian Augustine of Hippo said that the human heart is <i>curvatus in se, </i>curved in upon itself.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that Augustine was right. We are
selfish; we want the world to revolve around us, and we do everything in our
power to make that happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We imagine more power and money for ourselves. We imagine a
world arranged to suit our needs and desires.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when Mary sang, “God hath scattered the proud in the
imagination of their hearts,” she wasn’t talking about someone else, she was
talking about me… and you, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is that you are imagining this Christmas? Are you
imagining a new car, a new house, a bigger bank account? Are you imagining a
trip to Tahiti or a cruise to the South Pole? There’s not a thing wrong with
any of that, but this Advent I’d like to join the prophet Mary in imagining a
very different world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine a world in which religious militants don’t kill innocent
children in their school in Pakistan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine a world in which police officers are not targeted
while carrying out their responsibilities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Imagine a world in which black mothers and fathers do not
have to weep because their children are suddenly and unjustly taken away from
them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because if we imagine these things, then maybe, with God’s
help, we can build a different world, a world that more closely resembles
Mary’s song.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not sure, but it’s possible that our Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox sisters and brothers have put too much emphasis on Mary. I
just don’t know. But I do believe that we Protestants have paid too little
attention to Mary. Maybe part of the reason we have done that is that she
frightens us. Her uncompromising obedience to God is so different from our
halfhearted obedience. Her boundless faith is a far cry from our doubts and
uncertainties. And most of all, her song about God’s fierce and uncompromising
justice troubles us, because we are so reluctant to imagine a world in which
the mighty are brought low and the meek and humble are raised up; the poor and
hungry are filled with good things, and the rich are sent away with empty
bellies. Because we ARE the powerful, and we ARE the rich. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-29510228996250994122014-12-14T16:17:00.001-06:002014-12-14T16:17:14.419-06:00New lamps for old - J. Barry Vaughn (Dec. 14, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Do you remember the children’s tale of Aladdin? Wandering
the streets of Baghdad, Aladdin heard a street vendor crying out, “New lamps
for old! New lamps for old!” Aladdin was mystified and curious; why would the
vendor want to exchange something new for something old? Something shiny and
clean for something worn out and dented and covered with scratches?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Today’s reading from Isaiah might make us scratch our heads like
Aladdin: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed
me; he has sent me to… comfort all who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise
instead of a faint spirit.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Well, you don’t need an MBA from Harvard to know that there
is something wrong with God’s business sense. God sends Isaiah out like an
Amway representative, but instead of buying low and selling high, Isaiah is to
trade garlands for ashes, gladness for mourning, the “mantle of praise instead
of a faint spirit.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In other words, new lamps for old.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So, you would think that the people who hear Isaiah’s
message would come pouring into the marketplace: the oppressed and
brokenhearted, prisoners and those who mourn. Yet, look around you. This is a
once in a lifetime, never to be repeated offer, yet very few are taking
advantage of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">God is eager to exchange new lamps for old, divine riches
for human poverty, but very few want to accept God’s offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But if something is wrong with God’s business sense,
something is even more wrong with ours. We clutch at our griefs and sorrows
even though God is eager to give us “gladness instead of mourning.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Irish poet William Butler Yeats coined the phrase, “the rag
and bone shop of the heart.” How appropriate is that? When I look at my heart,
I see grudges, old hurts, memories of past failures, insults long forgotten by
the one who insulted me but which I’ve never forgotten, much less forgiven.
What do you see when you look in your heart? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">God is ready to exchange new lamps for old, divine treasure
for our trash. Yet we hoard petty grievances and old wounds, the real or
imagined insults of years long ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">C.S. Lewis once observed, “Our Lord finds our desires not
too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with
drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant
child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine
what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily
pleased.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“New lamps for old” is the theme of the Christian faith from
beginning to end. At a wedding feast at Cana, Jesus took water and made rich,
sweet wine. He took lameness and gave back two strong legs. He took blindness
and gave back the light of day. And finally, upon the cross, Jesus took death
itself and gave back life abundant and everlasting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Ashes, mourning, faith spirits… God takes our trash and
returns treasure; God takes these hard, old hearts of ours and gives them back
to us new and improved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the words of a favorite Christmas carol:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">What can I give him, poor as I am?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">If I were a shepherd<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I would bring a lamb;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">If I were a wise man<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I would do my part:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Yet what I can I give him: give my heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The heart is all God asks, but the heart is everything. For
in it are the ashes of dashed hopes, the grief that must come to every human
being, and the spirit that is faint from a thousand disappointments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has sent me to
proclaim good news to the poor.” God gave Isaiah good news to proclaim to those
who taste the ashes of defeat and whose faint spirits struggle to get out of
bed in the morning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In other words, God gave Isaiah good news to proclaim to
people just like you and me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In Advent we anticipate once more the coming among us of
this strange God who not only offers us new lamps for old but who chooses to
dwell among those who do not have any way of purchasing the merchandise God is
offering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The One who read Isaiah’s words to a synagogue in Nazareth
still proclaims good news to the poor whenever the Bible is read, and whenever
we share bread and wine in his name, he fills the hungry with good things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-87070583391453112372014-12-11T23:13:00.000-06:002014-12-11T23:13:02.745-06:00The skeleton at the party (J. Barry Vaughn, Dec. 11, 2014. Celebration of marriage equality in Nevada.)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The 2013 film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philomena
</i>is the story of an Irish woman’s search for the son she had out of wedlock
who then was sold to an American couple by the nuns who ran a home for unwed
mothers. After discovering that her son was gay and died of AIDS, Philomena
also learns that Sister Hildegard prevented the son and mother from meeting
when the young man visited Ireland shortly before his death. When they meet and
Philomena asks the nun why she prevented her from meeting her son, Sister
Hildegard answers, “You had no one to blame but yourself and your own carnal
incontinence. Self-denial and mortification of the flesh… that’s what brings us
close to God.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Self-denial and mortification of the flesh… that has all too
often been the Christian church’s attitude toward the kind of love celebrated
in the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon from which Michael Dimengo read the
first lesson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One of the most common misunderstandings of religion in
general and of the Christian religion, in particular, is that they are
concerned with a realm we call “spirit” that is completely separate and apart from
the realm of the earthly or material.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It’s easy to see why many
Christians believe this when you read Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “Do not
gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to
the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh..” But in fact,
when Paul uses the words “flesh” and “Spirit”, he means something quite
different than what we usually mean when we use those words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This misunderstanding is not just a slur spread by the
enemies of religion; it is a conviction deeply held by a lot of the faithful
themselves, including a lot of good Christians who go to church every Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But if it is true that the spiritual and the physical are
completely different realms, then why does the Bible contain the Song of
Solomon? This extended poem is frankly – almost embarrassingly - erotic: “I am
faint with love. O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right
hand embraced me… Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away… let me see your
face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely…
My beloved is mine and I am his…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Of course, from the time this poem was written to the
present day, good faithful religious people have tried to spiritualize it
beyond recognition. The rabbis of Israel claimed that it depicted God’s love
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">b’nai Yisrael, </i>the children of
Israel. And the church fathers, following in the footsteps of the rabbis,
claimed that it was about the love of Christ for the church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Beware when people speak well of you and tell you how
spiritual you are, because they are usually trying to make you completely
irrelevant! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But of course, the rabbis and the church fathers were wrong;
the Song of Solomon is a love poem. And to speak of love, one must speak of the
flesh; one must speak not only of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">agape -
</i>the love which gives without seeking anything in return; one must not speak
only of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">philos - </i>the love that we
have for our family members and friends; one must speak also of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eros, </i>or passion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Plato said that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eros </i>was
the child of hunger. Anyone who has ever loved another knows that Plato was
right. If you have loved another with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eros,
</i>passion, then you know the hunger for the other’s presence, the other’s
eyes and voice, the other’s embrace, the other’s… well, I’m in a pulpit, so I
better not finish that sentence!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Until very recently, the church, at best, merely tolerated
gay and lesbian people, although there is no doubt that the church has had gay
clergy from the very beginning. And although the church has done its best to
marginalize women for most of the last 2000 years, I am certain that many of
the women who did find ways to lead and serve loved other women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The church told us that we would be acceptable only if we
did to our love for one another what the church did to the Song of Solomon: We
had to spiritualize it until it was nothing but a dried up stick. We had to
deny that it had an erotic component. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And yet, at the very heart of the Christian faith is a
celebration of the physical, of matter, of flesh: In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sarx </i>– a Greek word meaning flesh and
blood and bone. The Word became flesh and blood and bone and lived among us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Christian faith is the most physical, the most fleshy of
all religions. In the early church those wishing to be baptized stripped naked,
and were anointed all over their bodies with sweet smelling oil before stepping
into cold running water. Every Sunday from the first century to the present,
Christians have claimed that they eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood
when they receive the bread and wine of the eucharist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">To say that someone’s love for another is acceptable only as
long as it does not include a physical, an erotic component, is to deny
something essential to the Christian faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Tonight we are celebrating marriage equality in Nevada. Over
the last few years we have witnessed a great sea change. In spite of DOMA, the Defense
of Marriage Act of 1996, (which should really be called the Denial of Marriage
Act) thirty-five states now issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. From
the enactment of DOMA in 1996 to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’
decision granting same sex couples in Nevada the right to marry, we have
traveled light years, but the price for that journey was too high.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Song of Solomon says, “Do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready…” It was the AIDS crisis that stirred up and awakened both love
and rage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Writer Andrew Sullivan says, “The radicalism of [AIDS]
segued into the radicalism of gays in the military and same-sex marriage…. Once
[we] had experienced… the responsibility for life and death for [ourselves] and
others [we] … found it impossible to acquiesce in second-class lives. [We]
demanded full recognition of [our] service to [our] country, and equal
treatment under the law for the relationships [we] had cherished and sustained
in the teeth of such terror.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love Undetectable,
</i>p. 65)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The AIDS crisis gave a voice to the love that once dared not
speak its name. No longer voiceless, we refused to be silent when we were told
that we could not serve openly and honestly in the service of our country. And
then when we were told that the love of gay and lesbian couples was different
from and less honorable than the love between a man and a woman, we spoke out
again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But the price was the death of 650,000 men and women. It was
AIDS that brought our love out of the closet and empowered us to fight for
recognition. And that gives new meaning to these words from the Song of
Solomon: “…love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes
are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">On Dec. 1, I helped lead a candle light vigil for persons
living with HIV/AIDS or who had died of AIDS. And that night I sensed that
there was a connection between the vigil and the celebration of marriage
equality that I was helping Bishop Edwards to plan, a connection that I
couldn’t quite articulate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And then it came to me in the form of a question: Would
there have been an AIDS epidemic if the church had embraced gay and lesbian
people? Would the AIDS quilt contain 48,000 panels if the church had given its
blessing to gay and lesbian relationships? I don’t think so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Andrew Sullivan also wrote, “Plagues and wars… force people to
ask more fundamental questions of who they are and what they want…. Out of
cathartic necessity and loss and endurance comes… a desire to turn these things
into something constructive… [to] give meaning and dignity to what has
happened. Hovering behind the politics of homosexuality in the midst of AIDS
and after AIDS is the question of what will actually be purchased from the horror.
What exactly … did a third of a million Americans die for? If not their
fundamental equality, then what?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The church’s refusal to accept gays and lesbians and affirm
their relationships forced their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eros, </i>their
passion, underground and into the shadows. Denied healthy channels, passion
become pathological, and so the epidemic came.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">For me tonight there is a note of sadness and anger in our
celebration. It is wonderful that we have marriage equality in Nevada and 34
other states. It is wonderful that the Episcopal Church now allows me to bless
and celebrate gay and lesbian relationships. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So thank you… I guess. But I also have to ask the church,
“What took you so long? Why are you so late to the party?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Why did it take you so long to say to your lesbian daughters
and gay sons, “We love you and accept you. We bless your relationships and want
to encourage them.” Because for such a very, very long time, that is not what you
told us, and it is still not what many, perhaps most, branches of the Christian
church are saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Some would say that the church withheld its blessing from
its gay and lesbian children because of the Bible. They tell us that the Bible
condemns homosexuality, and you cannot bless gay and lesbian relationships
without undermining the authority of the Bible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But I don’t find that a very persuasive argument. There are
just over 800,000 words in the Bible. The Old Testament contains only 45 words that
unambiguously refer to homosexuality. In the New Testament there are only 48
words that refer unambiguously to homosexuality. There are a few words that are
ambiguous, so let’s include them. That gives us possibly 51 words in the New
Testament that refer to homosexuality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So if we combine the Old Testament and the New Testament,
that gives us 96 words that refer to homosexuality. Ninety-six out of more than
800,000. That means there are at least 799,914 words that don’t say anything
about homosexuality, either positive or negative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Now, it’s a little unfair of me to argue this way. After
all, you can’t assume that homosexuality is not an important topic in the Bible
just because it has so little to say about homosexuality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So let’s look at a couple of other things. What did Jesus have
to say about homosexuality? Not a thing. What about the Ten Commandments?
Nothing there either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This is not the time or place to go into all the reasons
that Christianity gave such extraordinary weight to just 96 words in the Bible,
words that were used to justify the condemnation and sometimes the killing of
men and women who loved differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
I am certain that the world would be a warmer, better, more loving place if the
church had read those words in a different light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I loved a man who was an elder in the Presbyterian church
and who was also HIV positive. Scott and I were together for two years. I am
certain that his life would have been very different if the church had accepted
the way he loved, had offered to bless his relationship with another man.
Perhaps he would not have become infected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I am certain that my life would have been very different if
I had gone off to college with the encouragement of my parents to meet a nice
young man, settle down, and get married. Perhaps I would not have arrived at my
59<sup>th</sup> year having spent only two of those years in a loving and
intimate relationship with another man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So by all means, let’s celebrate marriage equality in Nevada
and elsewhere. But there is a skeleton at the party or rather 650,000
skeletons, so for me this celebration is tinged with regret and anger. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The most powerful moment in the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philomena </i>occurs<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>immediately
after Sister Hildegard tells Philomena that what’s important is “self-denial
and mortification of the flesh” and that she prevented her from meeting her dying
son because of her “carnal incontinence” as a young woman. Philomena looks at
Sister Hildegard and says, “I want to tell you something: I forgive you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I would like to be able to say to the Christian church, “I
forgive you,” but I’m not quite there yet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-83243160699730208362014-12-10T17:49:00.001-06:002014-12-10T17:49:20.200-06:00Comfort ye, my people (Rick O'Brien, Dec. 7, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<em><span style="color: #4a4235; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">O God, our creator and preserver, we cry out to you along with
our brothers and sisters in West Africa, especially Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea, where so many lives have been lost. We pray that as they continue to
live and struggle with the Ebola Virus Disease, you will grant them your grace
and mercy that an end to this virus will come soon; and that life and community
will be restored. Give us the courage and strength to respond willingly to this
great human need. We ask this in the Name of the One who came and gave his
life, so that we might live life fully, Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen </span></em><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Braeden Mannering is a typical 11
years old boy from Delaware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He enjoys
riding his scooter and playing video games with his friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Braeden is unusual in one respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"It started off when I saw a man who was
homeless," Braeden said. "I couldn't stop thinking about him."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brae went home, made a brown bag lunch, and
brought it to the man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In so doing, he
provided more than just food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By his
simple act of kindness, he offered hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are many people like Braeden in the world, and there are many 11
year olds who do simple acts of kindness like this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But Braden was not satisfied doing a simple act of
kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wanted to do more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Brae's Brown Bags are brown bags
containing a few healthy snacks, water and a message from Braeden, including a
list of local services and contact information for people to get further
assistance. He often includes food, gloves, and books for children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the past year, Braeden has personally
given out over 2,000 of the bags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The label on the front of each bag
says, Brae’s brown bags to provide hope and nourishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This young boy is giving hope to those who
have none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is an agent of change, he
is following Jesus’ instructions to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care
for those in need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Braeden understand
the message from Isaiah, Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may surprise Rusty, by for this verse I
prefer the King James version that says Comfort Ye my People.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The season of Advent is a time of
waiting, but it is also a time of preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But unlike waiting for the birth of a baby in our family where we would
be buying bibs and high chairs and cribs, we are preparing for the arrival of
our God incarnate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does one do to
prepare for such a world-changing gift?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Isaiah tells us that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comfort Ye
my People.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight a highway in the desert, every valley shall be lifted up and
every mountain and hill made low.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isaiah is telling us that we need
to change the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to remove
the artificial barriers we create between ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make the crooked straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lift up those trapped in the valleys of life
and stop exalting others for no reason because we are ALL of us children of God
and Jesus is coming into the world not for some but for all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comfort ye my people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A message to us that we may take comfort from
the fact that God will soon be among us, but also a challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A challenge that we should not simply wait
for the Lord but WE should be the ones doing the comforting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Braeden knows this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This 11 year old boy gets it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is comforting the people, with food, love
and encouragement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So how do we build upon this
child’s wonderful example?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we
offer comfort to God’s people?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We do some of this already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through our outreach ministries at Epicenter,
Christ Church brings comfort to God’s people through our food bank which is on
track to provide 1 million pounds of food to the hungry this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We comfort by giving clothes to those who
need them through Matthew’s closet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
comfort by housing homeless families through Family Promise and by caring for
sick teenagers through the Huntridge teen clinics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But these are things we do every
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while it is easy to take pride
in these accomplishments, for many of us these are things that are done by
other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our involvement may be to
support these efforts financially or with prayer, but in Advent we are called
to take on a more active role in preparing the way of the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The collect I began with is for our
brothers and sisters in Liberia and West Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bishop Katherine has called upon the entire
church to pray for them this second Sunday of Advent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span style="color: #4a4235; font-family: "Georgia","serif";">With Isaiah, pray for comfort and strength for all God’s
children; seek out the builder of straight roads and giver of healing balm for
all on this difficult journey. Learn about this crisis, and instead of
fear, let your hearts be moved to respond in generosity of spirit and of
purse.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our sister parish of St Augustine’s
is in Maryland county Liberia, right on the border of the Ivory Coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life in Liberia is not what any of us would
consider to be easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have faced
great challenges from many years of civil war in their country and in their
neighboring countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church
building itself was literally torn apart as people scavenged the materials to
rebuild their own homes which had been devastated by war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have none of the comforts that we take
for granted, and then came the Ebola crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our brothers and sisters at St Augustine’s have had far more than their
share of trouble, and yet, they are full of the Spirit and they too await the
coming of our Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spoke this week
with Father Williams who told me of their joyful Advent service and the
anticipation it brings them of the birth of the Christ child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And so this second Sunday of
Advent, I would ask that you follow Isaiah’s instruction and offer comfort to
our brothers and sisters in West Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are several ways to do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first is to pray for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pray that God will alleviate their suffering, and bring about an end to
the Ebola disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second is to make
straight the highway in the desert, to donate to ERD so that we can help rebuild
their churches and their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And just
as important, we can offer hope and encouragement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a table in the courtyard where you
can write out a Christmas card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
brothers and sisters there will likely never meet most of us in person, but
they need to know that we love them and care about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So fill out a card; let them know that you
are praying for them and wish them the joy and love of Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will send them all to St Augustine’s so
that they will know that we love them and care about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From half a world away we will be offering
hope and encouragement to brothers and sisters that we have never met.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Prepare for the coming of the
Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if Isaiah and Brae and I
haven’t convinced you this morning, then perhaps this bumper sticker I saw the
other day will help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It said, “Jesus is
coming – Look Busy”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-81759170616120325922014-11-23T22:11:00.000-06:002014-11-23T22:11:03.285-06:00The quest for the kingdom (J. Barry Vaughn, Christ the King Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">On Christ the King Sunday, we sing, “Crown him with many
crowns…” and “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow…” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I have to confess that the Feast of Christ the King makes me
a little uncomfortable. Think about it: If we proclaim that Christ is the king,
that everyone in heaven and earth must bow the knee to him, then what does that
mean for everyone outside the Christian church? What does it mean for Jews and
Muslims? Hindus and Buddhists and Sikhs? What does it mean for agnostics and
atheists? Well, I don’t think that Christ the King Sunday is about converting
everyone else into Christians. And here is why I believe that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I did a little research. The feast of Christ the King is
actually a very recent invention. Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925,
only three years after Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy.
Mussolini invented the political ideology we know as “fascism.” Fascism gave
all power to the state. Loyalty to the state was supposed to supersede loyalty
to anything else. Mussolini may have invented fascism, but Adolph Hitler and
his Nazi party perfected it! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So the feast of Christ the King challenges our loyalty to
the state, the nation, the tribe, even the family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Pius XI said, “If Christ the Lord is given all power in
heaven and on earth; if everyone, purchased by his precious blood, are
subjected to his dominion… it must be clear that not one of our faculties is
exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with
perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of
Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of
God. He must reign in our hearts, which should … love God above all things, and
cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which
should serve … as instruments of justice unto God."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The feast of Christ the King is rich with royal imagery:
kings, crowns, bowing the knee, and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I love this stuff! I think I have always loved it. My friend
Rabbi Miller likes to tease me about my love of all things English. When we
were in India, we traveled across the country by train. I pointed out that
although there had been many bad things about British rule of India, at least
they gave the Indians a great railway system. Rabbi Miller said, “It would be
more accurate to say that the Indians gave the British a great railway system,
because the Indians were the ones who laid the tracks!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Recently, I’ve been watching a movie about Lord Mountbatten,
the last British viceroy of India. In one scene, Lord Mountbatten is sworn in
as viceroy in the great viceregal palace in Delhi. The Lord Chancellor who
swears him in wears elaborate robes and a wig; Mountbatten is in his dress
naval uniform; he and Lady Mountbatten are seated on elaborate thrones. The
British certainly understand how to do pomp and ceremony!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But we live in a world in which kings and queens and the
grand ceremonies that accompany them are in short supply (except on the covers
of the sensational tabloids in the check out line at Albertsons’s). The United
States rejected the idea of having a monarchy, even though many begged George Washington
to accept a crown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So Christ the King Sunday requires us to make an imaginative
leap. In our day, kings and crowns and thrones and scepters are mostly found in
the literature of fairy tales and fantasies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We cannot translate the imagery of Christ the King into
vocabulary that makes sense to us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">With apologies to Sen. Bryan, when the young girl kisses the
magic frog, he turns into a handsome prince, not a handsome senator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Of course not. We want the frog to become a prince or
princess, not a congressman or cabinet member.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We can’t turn King Jesus into President Jesus or Chairman
Jesus. It just doesn’t work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In fairy tales and fantasy, royal imagery is often
accompanied by the story of a quest. The princess must embark on a dangerous
quest to regain the crown she has lost to an evil usurper. She must climb
mountains, slay dragons, and rescue the handsome but dim-witted prince from the
clutches of a sorceress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Similarly, I believe that Christians, too, are on a quest.
Our quest is no less adventurous or dangerous than that of Frodo and his
companions in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord of the Rings. </i>But
our quest is not for the “ring of power”; our quest is for the kingdom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Our quest takes us from this world to the next, from the
kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Before we start, though, we have to know where the kingdom
of God is located. Is it “east of the sun and west of the moon”? Do you go to
the North Start and turn left and go straight on till morning?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Some would tell you that the Kingdom of God isn’t in this
world at all; it is in heaven; it is spiritual; it is incompatible with this
physical world in which we dwell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But I don’t buy that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">After his baptism, Jesus began his public by saying, “The
Kingdom of God is at hand…” In other words, the kingdom of God is near us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I propose that the kingdom is present in this world, that it
is close to us. The quest for the kingdom of God takes us from the present to
the future. The kingdom of God is something that we are called upon to build.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">What does the kingdom of God look like? Jesus gives us a
vivid picture of the kingdom in today’s gospel reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">He says that when God’s great day of judgment comes, all
nations will be gathered before the place of judgment. On one side are the
sheep, those who have built the kingdom of God, and on the other side are the
goats, those who have been indifferent to or even hostile to the kingdom of
God. And the difference between the two will be that the sheep have fed the hungry,
clothed the naked, visited those in prison, and cared for the sick. And the
goats are those who have neglected the hungry and sick, the prisoners and the
naked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">United Methodist minister Wiley Stephens calls this
“heaven’s audit of our souls.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We know that our quest is over; we know that we have arrived
at God’s kingdom when the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, when the
homeless poor have shelter, when the unjustly imprisoned are released, when the
sick are healed and the lonely are comforted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I know that sounds terribly idealistic and I suppose it is,
but so what? I’m tired of hearing the word “idealism” used as a criticism. “Oh,
you’re so idealistic!” “Christianity is just too idealistic.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But what’s wrong with being idealistic? Don’t we want to
instill idealism in our children? Don’t we want to live up to the highest
ideals? The next time someone accuses me of being too idealistic, I’m going to
say, “Oh, thank you so much. What a wonderful thing to say!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One more thing about the quest for the kingdom of God: It is
not a solitary affair. In literature, the hero or heroine gathers companions
around her for the dangerous quest. The quest for the kingdom is something that
we have to do together as a church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I’m glad that Christ the King Sunday is this church’s feast
day. It reminds us that we are joined together in a great enterprise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So how do we get there?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">First, we have to be equipped for the quest, and we do that
by making this church the best church that it possibly can be. We have to have
a great Sunday school program for our children. We have to have the best staff
members that we possibly can have. We have to have a strong musical program.
But keep in mind that these things are only the preparation for the quest; they
are not the quest itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That is what stewardship is all about. It is about equipping
us for the quest for the kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But the goal of the quest is not to stay huddled together in
this building. The goal is to go out into the world, to bring the good news of
God to the least, the last, the lonely, the downhearted and despairing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Just a couple of months
before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached a powerful
sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church in which he had been raised and
where he had been ordained. He told them how he would like to be remembered. If
Christ is ruler over our lives, Dr. King told them, then my Nobel Peace Prize
is less important than my trying to feed the hungry. If Christ is King, then my
invitations to the White House are less important than that I visited those in
prison. If Christ is Lord, then my being TIME magazine's "Man of the Year"
is less important than that I tried to love </span></span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">extravagantly,
dangerously, with all my being. (Quoted by Dr. Greg Garrison in “If Christ is
King, What Does that Mean?”)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Christ
the King Sunday is about what is really important. It is about our loyalty to
Christ above all things. Hear that again: It is about our loyalty to Christ –
not to the church. It is about deeds more than it is about creeds. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It is about letting Christ reign in our minds, our wills,
our hearts, and about turning our hands into instruments of God’s justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-3660007066295105172014-11-16T21:36:00.001-06:002014-11-16T21:36:23.258-06:00A future worth building (J. Barry Vaughn, Nov. 16, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I have recently been reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Returnings: A Spiritual Journey </i>by Dan Wakefield. It is what I
would call a “spiritual autobiography,” an account of Wakefield’s boyhood in
the American Midwest in the 1950s, a time of affluence, security, and religious
faith, followed by his education at Columbia University when he adopted a
superficial agnosticism. The book is about Wakefield’s eventual return to the
Christian faith later in life.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Wakefield writes of his youthful outrage at the pious
platitudes of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the popular preacher of the 1950s who
wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Power of Positive Thinking. </i>Wakefield
says that Peale popularized a “bland, conformist Christianity” that “not only
seemed superficial but downright offensive.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Power of Positive Thinking </i>asserted “that religion was a
‘scientific’ method of making one’s life better” and that “the Bible contains
‘techniques’ and ‘formulas,’ … “that ‘may be said to form an exact science’.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“Dr. Peale made it seem so simple with his assortment of
hints for happiness such as ’10 easy, workable rules,’ ‘7 … steps,’ and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">A friend of Wakefield’s family took him to New York City’s
Marble Collegiate Church which Peale served as pastor. Wakefield described “the
vastness of the church and the huge crowd of worshipers…” He said ”there was
not an empty pew… at the shrine of 1950s upbeat conformity and assurance. I
remember the smile and the gleaming white teeth of the famous pastor.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I had an occasion to meet Norman Vincent Peale several years
ago and think that he had a bit more depth than Dan Wakefield is willing to
attribute to him. Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to reconcile Peale’s
belief that the Bible contains anything like a “science” of “positive thinking”
with the words of the prophet Zephaniah:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Be silent
before the Lord GOD!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">For the day of the LORD is at hand;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">At that
time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">and I will punish the people<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">who rest
complacently on their dregs,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">those who say in their hearts,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">"The
LORD will not do good,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">nor will he do harm."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THEIR</span></b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> wealth
shall be plundered,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">and their houses laid waste.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Though
they build houses,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">they shall not inhabit them;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">though
they plant vineyards,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">they shall not drink wine from them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The great
day of the LORD is near,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">That day
will be a day of wrath,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a day of distress and anguish,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a day of
ruin and devastation,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a day of darkness and gloom,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">a day of
clouds and thick darkness,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Neither
their silver nor their gold<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">will be able to save them<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">on the day of the LORD's wrath;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">in the
fire of his passion<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">the whole earth shall be consumed;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">for a
full, a terrible end<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The words
of Psalm 90 are almost equally harsh:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">3<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">You turn us back to the dust and say, *<br />
"Go back, O child of earth."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">4<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is
past *<br />
and like a watch in the night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">5<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">You sweep us away like a dream; *<br />
we fade away suddenly like the grass.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">6<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the morning it is green and flourishes; *<br />
in the evening it is dried up and withered.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The span of our life is seventy years,</span></span><span style="color: black;"><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia;">
<span style="background: white;">perhaps in strength even eighty; *</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">for they pass away quickly and we are gone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">About the same time that Norman Vincent
Peale was writing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Power of Positive
Thinking, </i>theologian Paul Tillich was teaching at Harvard University’s
divinity school. In one of his great sermons Tillich wrote this about Psalm 90:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; tab-stops: 9.0pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">A shallow Christian idealism cannot
stand the darkness of such a vision. [But] the Bible… the most universal of all
books, … reveals the age-old wisdom about man's transitoriness and misery. The
Bible does not try to hide the truth about man's life under superficial
statements about the immortality of the soul. Neither the Old nor the New
Testament does so. They know the human situation and they take it seriously. [The
Bible gives us no] easy comfort about ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; tab-stops: 9.0pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;">There is nothing in Tillich about the
Bible or the Christian faith as “</span>a ‘scientific’ method of making one’s
life rosier.” I might say that Tillich represents the opposite pole from Peale!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don’t know
about you, but I prefer Paul Tillich to Norman Vincent Peale. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also do not find the words of Psalm 90 to be
all that depressing, especially when you contrast them with the words of
Zephaniah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Zephaniah
tells the people of ancient Judah that they would build houses but not inhabit
them; they would plant vineyards but not drink the wine that would be pressed
from their grapes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In contrast,
the psalmist says to God, “You have been our refuge from one generation to
another.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Do you hear
the contrast? Zephaniah speaks of the futility of human effort: Nothing we
build will last. That’s true, says the psalmist, but we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">DO </b>have a home, an eternal home, in God who is our refuge from one
generation to another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In brief,
the human predicament is this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Life is
short. Nothing we do or build or make will last forever. So what’s the point?
Why try?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Not only are
we mortal but even our civilization is mortal, finite, limited. According to
Psalm 90, we may live for 70 or 80 years. A civilization may last for a few
hundred or even a few thousand years, but even our civilizations will pass
away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">However, there
ARE things that are eternal, and Paul speaks of them in his first letter to the
Thessalonians: “…since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the
breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Faith, hope,
and love – these are the things that are eternal, the things that last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Today our
stewardship drive concludes. We are asking you to make a pledge to Christ
Church not so that we can build the things that are mortal and finite such as
buildings. We are asking for your financial support so that we can build
things that really last, such as faith, hope, and above all, love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This last
week I saw the new film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interstellar. </i>Like
Zephaniah and the author of Psalm 90, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interstellar
</i>can be seen as a pessimistic and gloomy film. For some unspecified reason, life
on earth is coming to an end. Humankind must find a new home on another planet.
But any planet conducive to human life is an unimaginable distance from Earth,
so some way must be found to bridge the vast distance from our galaxy to
another. Some way must be found to transcend not only the vast distance of
space but even time itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One of the
main characters in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interstellar</i> says
something that even the apostle Paul would agree with: “Love isn’t something we
invented. It’s observable, powerful, it has to mean something... Love is the
one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends the dimensions of time
and space.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“Love is the
one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends… time and space.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In today’s
gospel reading Jesus tells us of the wealthy man who went on a journey and
entrusted one servant with five talents, another with two talents, and a third
servant with only one talent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We misread
this completely if we think the word “talent” as Jesus used it means anything
like the word “talent” when we use it. It does not mean a skill, such as a
talent for music or painting or playing football.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The <em>talanton </em>was
the largest unit of currency in Jesus’ time. It meant something like a huge
bucket full of solid gold." You would have to be a weight lifter even to pick up a <em>talanton. </em></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don’t
think Jesus was thinking of money at all when he spoke of “talents.” What do
you or I have that would be the equivalent of a bucket of solid gold?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The word
“talent” as Jesus used it meant all the gifts that God gives us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the
parable of the talents Jesus is asking us: What have you done with all the
things that God gives you -- the life, the health, the intelligence,
imagination, and creativity, and above all the love with which God endows all
of us? What have you done with all that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Those are the
things that last, the things that will not go down to the dust. Those are the
things that we are trying to build here at Christ Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In his
sermon on Psalm 90, Tillich went on to say: “<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;">The psalmist does not think that … the truth of what he has
been saying will cast man into despair. On the contrary, he believes that just
this insight can give us a heart of wisdom -- a heart which accepts the
infinite distance between God and man, and does not claim a greatness … which
belongs to God alone.</span> …<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;">Something
new appears in these words: the significance of past and future, the prayer for
a better future,… <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a future of happiness
and joy, of the presence of God…. God … is … the God of the future. The cycle
from dust to dust, from sin to wrath, is broken. There appears the vision of an
age of fulfillment, after the ages of misery…. The individual no longer stands
alone before God. He is included among the other servants of God, in the midst
of the people of God who look not toward their return to dust, but toward a
life in a new age in which God is present. Hope supersedes tragedy.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">That is a faith worth living for and a
future worth building: We are mortal but we are not alone. We look not only
toward our return to the dust but toward life in a new age in which God is
present.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="background: rgb(251, 251, 223); color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 9.0pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So build
something that will last: Love others with all your heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Counter despair with hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overcome evil with goodness. Because at the
very heart of the universe there is a goodness greater than evil; a hope
greater than despair; a love which holds us in an eternal embrace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-21689363477936453762014-11-11T18:55:00.002-06:002014-11-11T18:55:58.006-06:00Bridesmaids - Wise and Foolish (Rick O'Brien, Nov. 9, 2016)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A
wedding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone has their own
interpretation of what a wedding is, or at least what it should be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your own, your friends, your children’s and
perhaps even your parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wedding is
a celebration of life, a union of two people in love who pledge their lives to
one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Nevada and in many
states, this now includes ALL people, and that is truly a good and joyful
thing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A wedding is
a binding contract tying two people together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the church we consider it to be one of the sacraments as we see it as
far more than simply a civil contract, but as a gift from God and a pledge of
obedience to each other and to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is also often a huge event!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a time
for celebration with family and friends, a time to eat, drink and be
merry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A time to connect with people you
don’t see often and to renew bonds of friendship and family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the
ancient world, weddings had some of the same character, but there were some
very distinct differences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is these
differences that make today’s passage from Matthew a bit hard to understand, so
this morning I would like to talk about them and see how they may help us with
the wedding concept.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today we
think of a wedding in basically two parts; the ceremony and the reception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether in a church in front of a priest, at city
hall in front of a justice of the peace, or in a wedding chapel in front of
Elvis, the ceremony marks the beginning of the union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An engagement is an agreement to be married,
but it is not until the ceremony that a binding contract is established between
the two people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In ancient
days things were different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wedding
was actually in three parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first
was the betrothal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was what we
would consider the engagement where an offer of marriage was made and
accepted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not typically made by
the couple, but by their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Arranged marriages were common and were much more about joining of
families for economic reasons than for anything as silly as love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, unlike our concept of engagement, the
betrothal was a binding agreement and the couple were considered to be married
at that point, even though they would still live apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases this was because the couple
were children and had to wait to move forward until they had come of age, while
in other cases it was to allow the groom time to earn the dowry called the Mohar
that had to be paid to the bride’s family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember the story of the Virgin Mary and her betrothal to Joseph?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each advent I get asked why Mary would be
traveling with him if they were not yet married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now you understand that as they were
betrothed they were in fact considered to be married.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When the
time came for the second part of the wedding, the families would agree on an
approximate time, but it was not a fixed point in time. The second part is what
we would think of as the consummation of the marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember that the couple was already
considered to be legally married, but the consummation would establish the virginity
of the bride and the commencement of their life together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was largely up to the groom to determine
the exact date and time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bride was
expected to make herself ready for the groom, attended by her bridesmaids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bridesmaids would prepare her for the
arrival of her husband, but since they did not know when he was coming, they
were with her morning, noon and night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only once the groom had arrived and the marriage had been consummated
would the third part of the wedding begin; the celebration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember
that we are not talking about a time and place with 9 channels of HBO and a 4G
WiFi connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were small rural
villages in Palestine with extremely little in the way of entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every wedding in the village was a huge event
and all of the family and friends would take part in the celebration; a
celebration by the way that would last an entire week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wedding was the event of the year and after
all, who doesn’t want to be part of a week-long party? But there was of course
a catch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You had to be there when the
party started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were not, then you
were quite literally shut out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it was
important to be sure you were ready when the groom arrived because you clearly
did not want to miss out on the event.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which brings
us to the story of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who were wise had planned ahead and
brought enough oil for their lamps, while the foolish had not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I imagine they were very excited for their
friend, were flattered to have been chosen to take part in this momentous
occasion in her life, and were very much looking forward to the feasting and
dancing at the wedding banquet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in
their enthusiasm for the moment, they had let their concern for the present
come before their hope for the future; and in so doing they sacrificed their
ability to share in the wonder of the event that was to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I think
we are starting to get a taste of the meaning of the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bridesmaids were called to wait with the
bride for the coming of her groom; for the commencement of the life that meant,
and the celebration that they had long looked forward to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they were either too excited about the
event to properly prepare themselves for their task, or they were too caught up
in their own lives and problems to invest the effort and energy needed for the
task at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wise had been just as
excited or just as preoccupied, but in their wisdom they knew the importance of
preparing for what was to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Wisdom
of Solomon tells us “Wisdom is radiant and unfading and is found by those who
seek her.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you seek wisdom, we are
told, you will have no difficulty in finding her as she waits for us,
graciously appearing in our paths and meeting us in every thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is the catch isn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For while wisdom is always ready for us, we
must want to find it in the first place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We must seek wisdom; we must place a value on wisdom and want to open
ourselves to what we can learn from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we don’t
value wisdom, or if we aren’t willing to accept that we have things we can
learn and be willing to invest the time and the energy, then wisdom will elude
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The foolish bridesmaids saw no value
in wisdom and found themselves on the outside looking in, but the wise were able
to accomplish their task and enjoy the rewards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But there is
another point to be made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not
just about the good maids vs. the bad or the wise vs. the foolish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For what happened when the foolish asked the
wise for some oil?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They didn’t tell
them, tough luck you should have planned ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, they told them we don’t have enough, but you should go and buy some
and return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of deriding them for
their lack of preparation, they gave them a helpful suggestion and a path to
the wisdom that had eluded them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you are
not actively seeking wisdom, now would be a good time to consider it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For as Jesus says, you know neither the time
nor the hour when the groom will come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you are wise and are preparing for the coming of the bridegroom, good
for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But remember not to be smug
about your preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember also to
offer help to those who need it so that we all may attend the bridegroom when
he returns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the bride is the church
and the bridegroom is Jesus Christ the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We know not the day nor the hour when he will return to take possession
of his world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if that day were
today, which of the bridesmaids would you be?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-40140233517063620692014-10-27T02:58:00.001-05:002014-10-27T02:58:23.291-05:00Are your dreams big enough? (J. Barry Vaughn, Oct. 26, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The story of Moses’ death on Mt. Nebo is one of the most
poignant stories in the Bible. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">We have heard stories of Moses all our lives, but I’d like
to present Moses in a slightly different light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Moses was an enigmatic and many faceted man. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Exodus tells us that he was born an Israelite in a time when
the Israelite people, who later became the Jewish people, were threatened with
genocide for the first, but certainly not the last, time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">At the time of Moses’ birth the Israelites were living in
Egypt. The story of how they came to be living in Egypt may or may not be
familiar to you, but that will have to wait for another time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Israelites were strangers in a strange land. They had
become slaves of the Egyptians, but Egypt’s ruler was deeply troubled by this
strange and foreign people in the midst of his land. So he took measures to
make sure that they would die out. He not only gave them hard and cruel tasks
calculated to weaken and kill them from exhaustion; he also directed the
midwives, the women who assisted in childbirth, to kill all male Israelite
children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This story already has a modern ring to it: A wealthy and
powerful nation fears the presence of aliens in their midst and takes measures
to exclude them. Remind you of anything? I will leave you to draw your own
conclusions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But when Moses was born, the midwives spared his life. Moses’
mother placed her baby in a basket and set him adrift on the River Nile, hoping
that an Egyptian family would find him and raise him as their own. The
desperate mother’s plan succeeded beyond her wildest expectations, because the
daughter of Egypt’s Pharaoh found Moses and took him as her own child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But here there is a mystery in Moses’ story: Exodus gives
the name “Moses” an explanation that makes it a Hebrew name: It says that
Pharaoh’s daughter gave the child the name “Moses” because it resembles the
Hebrew word meaning “to draw out” because she drew him out of the water. But
actually, Moses is not a Hebrew name at all; it is an Egyptian name meaning “son
of”. It is similar to the names gives Egyptian rulers, such as Ramses or even
closer Thutmosis. Ramses means “son of Ra” (the sun god), and Thutmosis means “son
of Thut”. It is most likely that the name “Moses” was originally attached to
the name of one of the Egyptian deities. But when Moses asserted his identity
as an Israelite, he rejected the association of his name with Egyptian
religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Moses was an Israelite, a Hebrew, but grew up at the summit
of Egyptian power and affluence. Then something happened to make him reject his
Egyptian-ness and assert his identity as an Israelite. Seeing an Egyptian
supervisor cruelly beat a Hebrew slave, Moses grew so enraged that he murdered
the Egyptian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Now a fugitive from justice, Moses fled into the desert
where he had a profound mystical experience. The voice of God spoke to Moses
from a bush that burned but was not consumed. God commanded Moses to return to
Egypt and demand that Pharaoh release the Israelites. Moses did so, and aided
by divine power, the Israelites fled into the wilderness where they wandered
for forty years before coming to the Promised Land of Canaan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But in the wilderness there was another strange turn in
Moses’ life. Moses the Egyptian had become Moses the Israelite. Moses the
Israelite became Moses the liberator, the revolutionary. But in the wilderness, Moses
the revolutionary became Moses the lawgiver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Revolutions are tricky business. It is one thing to free a
people from tyranny; it is quite another thing to impose order on a revolution.
The American revolution managed that transition fairly well, but most other
revolutions have not managed it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The French revolution descended into the Reign of Terror.
The Russian revolution gave rise to the gulag, the chain of forced labor camps,
plus a host of other terrors. The Chinese revolution gave us the Cultural
Revolution which resulted in perhaps as many as 20 million deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Moses was almost unique in both freeing his people and also
creating institutions and laws that enabled them not only to survive but to
thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">There is so much more to the story but that is enough to
take us to today’s Old Testament story. After forty years in the wilderness,
Moses and his people finally arrived at the Promised Land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Imagine the feeling with which Moses anticipated taking his
people across the Jordan River into Canaan, the land we know today as Israel or
Palestine. But God directed Moses to climb to the top of Mt. Nebo overlooking
the land, and there God told Moses that although he had given his entire life
to bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt and across the vast wilderness,
he would not enter the land with him. And so Moses died after getting one brief glimpse
of the culmination of his life’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And here again, the story of Moses is reminiscent of the
story of so many other great leaders. There are very few leaders who have managed
both to free their people and create a stable society. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Think of Abraham Lincoln. He led the United States successfully through the Civil War, but a month after the South's surrender, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln before he could complete the task of reuniting the divided states.</span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Or think of Gandhi, the Indian leader who freed his people from
British rule and gave them independence. There are many echoes of Moses’ story
in Gandhi’s story. Gandhi’s devotion to independence for India began when he personally
experienced the cruelty with which his people were treated by the white regime
in South Africa. He then worked for more than forty years to create an
independent India. He did live to see India become independent but as soon as India
became free, civil war broke out between Hindus and Muslims. And Gandhi died by
the hand of an assassin, his heart broken by the violence between his
countrymen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But perhaps the story with the most echoes of Moses’ story
is that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King invoked the very words of Moses
in his last sermon in Memphis, Tennessee on the night before his death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In
his sermon, Dr. King said, “I have been to the mountaintop. God’s allowed me to
go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I
may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people
will get to the promised land. And so I am happy tonight…Mine eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That
was on April 3, 1968. On April 4, King died by the hand of an assassin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I
think there is a great lesson for all of us in the stories of Gandhi, Lincoln, King
and especially Moses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">How
often do any of us live to see the culmination of our life’s dream? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Dreams
are the building blocks of our lives. We have the dream of going to college, of
being successful in our careers, of buying a home, of starting a family, of seeing our children
successfully launched in their lives, of a comfortable and healthy retirement.
None of us will live to see all of our dreams come true. All of us will see one
or more of our dreams wreck upon the rocks of reality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Someone
said that life is completely fair because it breaks everyone’s heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Life
is difficult and often sad. The failure of our dreams can lead to bitterness,
but we must not let that happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But
think about this: The larger our dream, the more likely it is that we will not
live to see it come true. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Lincoln dreamed of preserving the Union and reuniting the divided states</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Gandhi
had an enormous dream, the dream that India would throw off the yoke of the mighty
British Empire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Dr.
King dreamed of a world in which people would be
evaluated not by the color of their skins but by the content of their
character.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Moses
dreamed of freedom for his people and a land in which
they could live in freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I
want to urge you to dream great dreams, enormous dreams. I want you to have a
dream that will take more than your lifetime to dream. I dare you to have a
dream so large that you will not live to see it come to pass. I want you to
have a dream to which you can devote your life, a dream so vast and noble that
you will invite others to participate in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The
story of Moses is not a story of failure; it is a story of success. Moses’
dream was too big for one lifetime. It was too big for one individual. It was a
dream that went beyond his own lifetime out into the future. Moses’ dream has
influenced all parts of the world and all times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That
is the kind of dream that is worth living for and even worth dying for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Today’s
reading from the gospels echoes Moses in an indirect way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked Jesus this question: "Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "`You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second
is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">More
than a thousand years after Moses, Jesus and the Pharisees debated his words.
The words of the Law, the Torah, that Moses gave to the people of Israel, echo
down the halls of time and space. We still debate them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">At
the end of his life God gave Moses a glimpse of the land that his people would
occupy, but I wonder – did God also give Moses a glimpse of the way that his
words would influence human history? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The words
of Moses continue to influence our lives. The words that he gave to a small
band of escaped Israelite slaves are written on the very fabric of time. As
long as the human race endures, the words of Moses will endure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Here
at Christ Church we are called upon to dream great dreams. God calls us to
dream of being a place of light for those in darkness, a place of hope for
those who live in despair, a place of nourishment for those who are hungry, a
place of shelter for those who are homeless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I
would like you to think of your pledge to this church in those terms. Do not
think only of what we can accomplish today; do not think only of what we can
accomplish this year. Think of what we can accomplish over the next century. A
great dream requires great resources. When you make your pledge to Christ
Church, I want you to dream big and then give a pledge big enough to make that
dream come true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This church
is an indirect result of the dream that Moses dreamed. And it is a direct
result of the dream that Jesus dreamed, a dream of a world set free from sin
and death, a world in which all men and women will live as brothers and
sisters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Like Moses
and the Israelites, we are a people on pilgrimage who travel from a world of bondage, a
world of slavery, toward a world of freedom, justice, and peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Come
and dream with us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-34797495823308594532014-10-19T20:47:00.002-05:002014-10-19T20:47:35.825-05:00Render unto Caesar (Rick O'Brien, Oct. 19, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the past
several weeks we have been listening to stories of Jesus teaching the crowds
and generally taking the Jewish authorities of the time to task for their focus
on life on earth as opposed to life with God in the kingdom to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we see that the authorities are not
taking this lying down and are striking back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, Jesus has so rattled the authorities that they are desperate to
discredit him and generally shut him up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Pharisees, as we know were the Jewish authorities of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were the temple priests, the keepers of
the faith, the representatives of God to his chosen people; the Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pharisees greatly resented the presence
of the Romans, who had taken much of their power and authority away as they
occupied the land and imposed the will of the Emperor; even over the will of
God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
Herodians on the other hand, were Jews as well, but they were loyal to King
Herod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Herod was the King of Galilee,
who the Romans had installed as a puppet ruler in an effort to appease the Jews
and provide the polite fiction that they had some aspects of self-rule over
their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real power of course
lie with Rome, but Herod was someone to be feared nonetheless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you might
expect, there was no love lost between the Pharisees and the Herodians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pharisees hated all that Rome was and
wanted them gone, while the Herodians owed their power and status to the
Romans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the two groups to unite on
any issue should give you an indication of just how much they feared Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">They come
together in an effort to trap Jesus into giving an answer to a seemingly
innocent question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it lawful to pay
taxes to the Emperor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this was not
such a simple question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Jesus
answered that it was not lawful, that God, not Caesar was the true ruler, he
would have angered the herodians who would have turned him in to the Roman
authorities for preaching against the emperor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If he answered that it was lawful to pay taxes, he would be legitimizing
the authority of Rome and recognizing their claim that the Emperor was the
lawful ruler and should be worshipped as the God he claimed to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do this would anger the Pharisees and
their followers who worshipped no ruler but God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was a
clever conundrum and they must have felt quite proud of themselves for coming
up with such a fool-proof scheme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Whichever way he went, Jesus was sure to anger one side or the other
and, in so doing, dilute his standing as a teacher and Wiseman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus of course saw the trap right away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, as is typical for Jesus, he does
something completely unexpected and chooses a third path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We all know
this story of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King James
version says “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and
unto God the things that are God’s.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus frustrates the efforts of both the Pharisees and the herodians by
telling them that it is not about the money but rather about God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money is an earthly thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a creation of men and though it holds a
huge place in our hearts, it should not be the focus of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should focus less on earthly things and
more on divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The job of a
preacher is to open the scriptures to us; to interpret the words of the
earliest times to our life today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>20<sup>th</sup>
century theologian Karl Barth said that we should read scripture with Bible in
one hand and today’s newspaper in the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So my task today is to find some current relevance for this gospel story
and help us all to see the teaching for us in 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I read
this passage, I think of the relationship we have with money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money was very important to people in Jesus
time and is has not become any less important throughout the centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know about you, but I find myself
thinking a great deal about money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
I have, what I don’t have, what I can do with it and how I can get more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as I reflect on this passage, I am
reminded that I spend more time thinking about money than I do about God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I find that
troubling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’ message to the crowds
to focus more on God than on money was true then and is true now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a reminder that we place too much
emphasis on money and have let it become a substitute for God in some ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not healthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is also a
reminder that no matter how much we feel we have earned it, the money is not
ours, but comes to us from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We work,
using our gifts and talents to earn a living and feel that we are entitled to
the fruits of our labors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we fail to
recognize that our gifts, our skills, our very lives are gifts from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without God we would not have the ability to
earn this money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This of
course leads to the concept of stewardship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we accept that all of what we have is ours, not because of ourselves
but because of God, we have an obligation to give back to God in proportion to
our gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to give of our
time, of our talents, and yes, of our money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each is a gift we have received and each is important for us to give
back to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tend to think that we
can be good stewards by offering one of these to God but that would be to
diminish the gifts we have been given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need to give each to God, our time, our talent and yes, our
money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For each is a gift given to us by
God and we must give back in thanks for the abundance of blessings we have
received.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For as Jesus tells us “Give to
God the things that are God’s”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-66033259721078547682014-10-05T19:25:00.001-05:002014-10-05T19:25:07.331-05:00Building a foundation, putting down roots (J. Barry Vaughn, Oct. 5, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Several years ago Roy Moore, the chief justice of the
Alabama supreme court, had the Ten Commandments engraved on a huge rock and
placed in the foyer of the Alabama supreme court building. Many regarded
Justice Moore’s action as an infraction of the constitutional guarantee of the
free practice of religion and a breach in Thomas Jefferson’s wall between
church and state and went to court to have the monument removed. The case went
all the way to the U.S. supreme court which decided against Moore. They not
only had the monument removed; they also had Mr. Moore removed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Undaunted, Roy Moore began to take his enormous rock bearing
the words of the Ten Commandments from place to place on the back of a flatbed
truck. The rock weighs over 5000 pounds or more than 500 pounds per
commandment. It was lifted on and off the truck by a 57 foot yellow I beam
crane that weighs five tons, and even it sometimes buckles under the weight of
the monument.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I was living in Philadelphia when the U.S. Supreme Court
handed down its decision against Roy Moore and insisted that he remove the
monument from the Alabama supreme court building. One night at a dinner party a
friend asked me where I thought the Ten Commandments were now that they had been
removed from the supreme court’s foyer. I said, “I don’t know where the
monument is now, but the Ten Commandments are where they have always been: In
the 20<sup>th</sup> chapter of Exodus and the 5<sup>th</sup> chapter of
Deuteronomy. And that’s where they belong.” They belong in our Bibles, in our
hearts and minds, in our behavior, and perhaps even on our lips. They do not
belong on a 5000 pound rock in a courthouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Make no mistake: I am a big fan of the Ten Commandments.
They are a wonderful guide for our lives. They tell us how to live a genuinely
human life, a life that allows us to flourish, not just exist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We may or may not disagree with Justice Moore’s decision to place
a monument to the commandments in a government building, but for many of us there
seems to be a kind of heaviness around the Ten Commandments; perhaps there
seems to be a kind of heaviness around any commandments, around the very idea
of a commandment, a “thou shalt not” or even a “thou shalt.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But I would like you to think of the commandments not as a
huge stone weighing us down but as a firm foundation upon which we build our
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Poet Andrew King wrote this marvelous poem about the
commandments. The commandments are<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are beacons, words that cast shadow,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are firesparks struck from stone,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are trumpet, calling to silence,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that will echo through ages to come,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are the beating heart of a covenant,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
of requirement, words that are gift,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are bones in the body of a people,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are blood flowing into their veins,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are power, spoken to weakness,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are freedom because they are fence,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that challenge us, words that summon us,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are song for a life-long dance,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are dwelling place, words of foundation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are law, given in grace,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words
that are signposts, words that are journey,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">words that are a pathway pointing to
peace.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Ten Commandments create a kind of wall around human
life. The purpose of a wall is both to keep things out and to keep things in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The things that the Ten Commandments keep outside are things
like lying, envy, murder, unfaithfulness to our spouse. The things that the Ten
Commandments keep inside are truthfulness, faithfulness, gratitude, and life
itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Much is sometimes made of the fact that the commandments are
phrased in the negative: “Thou shalt <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NOT…”</i></b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of us likes to be told that we cannot do
something. There’s something in us, especially Americans, that likes being
forbidden to do something. There’s even something about being forbidden to do
something that makes us want to do it even more. I’ve always thought that God
made a huge mistake when he told Adam and Eve <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i></b>to eat that darn
apple! That just about guaranteed that they would eat it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Visual artists tell us that one of the best ways to learn to
draw or paint is not to focus on the object we are trying to represent. If you
do that, you will almost certainly fail. You have to focus first on the space
around the object, the negative space. When Michelangelo carved a beautiful
angel out of a block of marble, he was asked how in the world he was able to
create such a beautiful object out of a cold, dead block of stone. Michelangelo
replied that all he did was to take away the pieces of stone that were
surrounding the angel and, as it were, liberate the angel from its stone
prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In a sense, that’s what the Ten Commandments do, too. They
carve out a space in which real, authentic life can flourish. They take away
the things that are ugly and harmful, such as lies, unfaithfulness, envy, and
murder and create a space for things that are good and healthy such as truth,
faithfulness, gratitude, and life itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It would be impossible to enumerate all the things that we
are supposed to do in life. Every day there are hundreds of tasks that we are
supposed to do, such as get up in the morning, get dressed, make breakfast,
drive to work, do our jobs, and so on. It would be impossible to list all the
things we should do; it is much easier to eliminate the things that we should <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i></b>do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Let’s give some thought to the things that the Ten
Commandments do <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOT </b>say. The Ten
Commandments tell us nothing about which economic system we should follow. You
will find nothing there about whether it is better to be a mercantilist or a
capitalist or a socialist. The commandments leave us free to make our own
decisions about that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The commandments tell us nothing about the political system
that is best. They leave us free to decide how to order our political systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The commandments tell us nothing about whether or not we
should let women serve as political and religious leaders. We have to look
elsewhere for guidance on that subject.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And the commandments say absolutely nothing about
homosexuality. Neither did Jesus. It is time for the church to stop acting as
though homosexuality is the worst of all sins. It is perfectly possible to
observe every single one of the commandments and also love someone of the same
sex.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In today’s gospel reading, Jesus
quotes Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone…” and goes on to say, “The one who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Ten Commandments are like ten
great foundation stones. They create a foundation on which we can build good
lives. If we fail to observe them, then we pretty quickly see the truth of
Jesus’ observation that “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to
pieces… it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” A man or woman who lacks the
foundation of the commandments or who breaches the wall that they build around
human life will eventually find life impossible as lies, envy, unfaithfulness,
and lack of respect for life crowd into the space of his or her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We live in a world full of people
who are looking for foundations for their lives. We are in a time of
questioning; people are looking for answers. We here at Christ Church know a
secret that the world around us longs to share – We have a foundation for our
lives. We have found that life becomes richer, deeper, more meaningful, when we
build it upon the rocks of truth, gratitude, fidelity, and respect for life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But the stone of offense, the
stumbling stone of which Jesus was speaking was not just the foundation of the
commandments; Jesus was speaking of himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Jesus is the “great foundation,”
the “cornerstone” of the Christian life. The author of First Peter says that we
are “living stones” who are being “built into a spiritual house.” Beneath the foundation
of the commandments is the very source of our lives. Theologian Paul Tillich
called God the “ground of our being.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This church rests upon a foundation
not made of stone. It rests upon a foundation created by generations of people
who worked to establish it – Mom and Pop Squires, Bishop Harry Graham Gray, Arthur
Kean, Malcolm Jones, Talley Jarrett, Karl and Midgene Spatz, perhaps your
parents or even your grandparents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We have inherited both a great
tradition and a great responsibility. It is our task now to build upon the
foundation handed down to us, to invite all in this community who seek a
foundation for their lives to join us, to find here a place upon which they can
build strong and flourishing lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Our annual stewardship campaign
begins today. Stewardship offers you the opportunity to share the foundation
given to us with others, to maintain and build upon the foundation bequeathed
to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I am asking everyone to consider
increasing their commitment to Christ Church by at least ten percent. If we all
do that and if those who are able to do even more, we will not only have a
balanced budget, we will also be able to continue all our present ministries
and even expand some of our ministries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Although I grew up in the Southern
Baptist church, I do not preach hellfire and brimstone sermons, but sometimes I
have to tell you that our actions have consequences, and if we do not support
our church with our pledges and increase our pledges gradually over time, there
will be consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">There’s a wonderful murder mystery
set in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. It is entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Divine Inspiration </i>and is written by Jane Langton. Langton invents
the Church of the Commonwealth although it is obvious to anyone familiar with
Back Bay that the church she created for her novel is a combination of Trinity
Church, Copley Square, and its neighbor Old South Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The section of Boston known as Back
Bay was built in the 19<sup>th</sup> century to be a gracious neighborhood. To
build it a section of Boston harbor had to be filled in, so Back Bay is built
on land fill. Back Bay includes some of Boston’s most beautiful and important
buildings, including the Boston library, Trinity Church, and Old South Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The tower of Trinity Church, a
church built by Phillips Brooks – the author of “O little town of Bethlehem”
and later bishop of Massachusetts – weighs almost 10,000 tons. That’s 10,000
TONS, not 10,000 POUNDS. In order to build it on the land fill of Back Bay,
they had to drive enormous pillars down into the water beneath the land fill of
Back Bay. As long as the pillars are surrounded by water, they are enormously
strong, but if they ever dry out, they will crumble. There is a system of
automatic sensors that measure the depth of the water around the pillars, and
if the water level drops, additional water can be pumped in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Divine Inspiration, </i>the water level is allowed to drop with
disastrous consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">While the church’s organist is
playing Bach’s chorale prelude, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Thee
Is Joy, </i>he accidentally pulls out too many stops, causing the building to
shake with Bach’s joyful music. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">“The building swayed… the floor
rolled beneath him… shaken by the long waves rumbling within it…. The music
swarmed… the building shook, the spongy floor sagged…Behind the pulpit the east
wall crumpled and caved inward. A single block from the vault over the pulpit
pitched down with a crash, and then the rest roared down together in an
avalanche of stone…. The church was no longer in darkness. Looking up, [the
organist] saw the limpid sky of morning…. Now only one of [the] massive vaults
remained, clinging to the high walls south, west, and north, trembling in the
empty air to the east, thrusting outward into nothingness its tons of arching
stone…. It was Easter morning.”</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">That is what happens when we do not
build our lives upon the foundation of the commandments. That is what happens
when we do not send the roots of our lives down into the foundation that God
provides for our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Stewardship provides us with the
opportunity to build strong foundations and to invite others to join us under
the shelter of the living stones who form the very house of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Facts about the monument’s weight, the crane, etc. from “Dancing the Decalogue”
by Thomas Long, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Christian Century, </span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;">March
7, 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> From
“Andrew King’s New Weblog,” Sept. 28, 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Barry/Documents/sermons/new%20sermons/proper%2022a%20oct%204%202014.docx" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> From
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Divine Inspiration </span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;">by Jane Langton. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-62756124987586934362014-09-29T12:17:00.000-05:002014-09-29T12:17:42.965-05:00Sour Grapes (William Tully, Christ Church Episcopal, Sept. 28, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 23pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Sour grapes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">A sermon for the people of
Christ Church, Las Vegas<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Sunday, September 28, 2014, the
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">The Rev. William McD. Tully<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Religious people are some of the biggest whiners
on earth. The ones I know best are, like me, the American variety of religious
people. Our great, cosmic whine for generations has been that things are not as
good as they were in the old days. Then there’s that whole political movement
devoted to whining that our politics has become too secular, that this is a <i>Christian</i>
nation, that religion should have some sort of semi-official or even official
place in public life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">In the tradition of fables and in the world-view
of the Bible, there’s a phrase for that: <i>sour grapes</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">You may recall Aesop’s fable of the fox who tries
and tries to reach a bunch of grapes hanging above his head. When he realizes
he’ll never be able to reach them, he pretends that he never wanted them,
saying, “They are probably sour anyway.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Aesop was writing in the 6th century b.c.e., and
at nearly the same time the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel was addressing the crisis of
the Jews in exile in Babylon. Although not everything about their exile lives
was bad, they felt a pervasive sense of loss: stories of the grandeur and
integrity of old Jerusalem, the dignity of independent statehood, the primacy
of their own religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">And they let everyone know how they felt:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">“We sat down and wept, wept by the rivers of
Babylon,” goes Psalm 137. But “we sat down and whined, whined and whined by the
rivers of Babylon,” would be more like it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">In particular, they whined and complained about
their ancestors—those who blew it, those who failed to pay attention to the law
and the prophets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 6pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Ezekiel would have none of it: “What do you mean
by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?’ As I live, says
the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">In other words, the prophet said, the Lord has a
clear message for you: <i>Stop whining. Stop blaming others. Look to
yourselves.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Scholars often cite the 18th chapter of Ezekiel
as the Bible’s explicit turning point toward individual responsibility. I’m
interested in how we can use this wisdom, which we find in even greater force
and clarity in the approach of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Early in my time at St. Bart’s, the leadership
and I agreed that the condition of the parish was precarious-— not enough
people, too much money going out and not enough coming in. We decided to make
changes, take risks, challenge people to come along. We also knew there were
lots of reasons, including very real and painful internal conflict and huge
changes in the world, that were to blame. But if we were to bring St. Bart's
back to viability we would have to accept those facts and just get on with our
work. There was simply no time to look back or complain. I had some buttons made
for the staff: a circle with the word "whine" in it and a slash
through it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">No whining.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was
talking to a restless, unsatisfied crowd and said: “To what then will I compare
the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children
sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>‘We
played the flute for you, and you did not dance; <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>we wailed, and you did not weep.’</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[Luke 7.31-32]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">In other words, like children, meaning not very
mature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Whining and blaming are symptoms of immaturity.
Those who just complain and off-load their complaints and miseries on others
are <i>stuck</i>. They can’t change, and the ability to change is a spiritual
gift, a necessity if you’re going to grow up. And, this isn’t just about you.
The ability to take responsibility, to change what you can, is also the
necessary precondition for justice, and for that ultimate good, wholeness and
peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">I once knew a family therapist who surprised me
by saying that he had stopped working with whole families. Yes, you heard that
right. A family therapist who wouldn’t see the family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">He especially avoided accepting clients who
wanted to send him their troubled family member, the so-called identified
patient. Instead, after an initial interview with the person who called, he
determined which family member was the healthiest, the most motivated to
change, the most educable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">I wondered, How do you determine who that person
was? “Easy,” he said. “I look for the person who is blaming the least.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Sour grapes is no way to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">One particular form of spiritual immaturity is
whining about the universe. The biblical view, not the view of every verse, of
course, but the view of the developed theology and spirituality, <i>the arc of
its narrative</i>, if you will, is that we human persons are very complicated
beings, but we’re endowed with capabilities of dealing with an open universe.
That is where the deeper convergence of bible and science can be found.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">If you’ve ever raised a child, or you’ve learned
to be reflective on your own growing up, you know that the expectations of the
infant don’t completely go away. They linger deep inside us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Yes, you hear them in lifelong whining and
blaming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">And you hear them in the egocentricity of the
infant, who generally assumes three things about life:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt 16.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 19.0pt 35.5pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 1.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">I am in
control or ought to be in control of all that has to do with life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt 16.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 19.0pt 35.5pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 1.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">I am at the
center of the universe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt 16.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 19.0pt 35.5pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 1.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Everything
and everyone ought to be spinning around me so I can have what I want and life
will be the way I want to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">In the addiction recovery communities, this
pattern might be described slightly differently, but the accumulated wisdom of
those programs is that until you give up these self-delusions, you won’t
recover inner control or sobriety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Put another way, you need to be born again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Put still another way, you need to grow up and
learn to take responsibility for what can be changed and work at it,
acknowledge what’s out of your control, and come to that place of maturity
where you can tell the difference between the two. Sound familiar?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">Jesus appealed to our potential for growth, not
infantile addiction. He worked with people he picked out of crowds who seem to
want to work or change, and he had running arguments with those who insisted
solely on asserting and following the rules.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">This isn’t to say that Jesus, or that the
authentic Christian faith tradition, is just for the already strong and
well-motivated. It is to say that if you want what the gospels call abundant
life, if you want to grow to become your real and full self, if want to be
“saved,” and if, incidentally, you want your church to grow in healthy and
exciting ways, you need at least to stop whining.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">You need to take responsibility for yourself, for
the world you live in, and work with it, not to say, <i>Sorry, my teeth are on
edge because of the sour grapes</i> . . . and you fill in the rest: because of
my parents, because I can’t afford it, because of the economy, because I’m a
victim, because God isn't there when I need God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">The ancient prophet's message is still true:
claiming that you’re a victim of your ancestors’ mistakes, or the state of the
world, or even of your own mess-ups will get you nowhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">It’s never too late to turn, accept the realities
of the world and get in touch with the joys of living the life you've been
given. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;">The more I try it, the more I think that's what
Jesus meant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-16505138079067313582014-09-26T23:14:00.001-05:002014-09-26T23:14:29.320-05:00You can't always get what you want (Rick O'Brien, Sept. 21, 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Four million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
my number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four million dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have given this a great deal of thought and
I think that is the right number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
see, I am in my late forties and hope to live for another 35 – 40 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four million divided by 40 would give me an
income of $100K a year, before Uncle Sam takes his portion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that will do nicely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and I live a fairly simple life, but
like everyone we have bills to pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have three kids that we are trying to get through high school and college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a mortgage on our home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We both drive older cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be nice to not have to worry about
paying for these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four million
dollars would certainly pay off our mortgage, assure our kids of a good
education and leave more than enough for us to drive fancy new cars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not only about us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would like to be able to give more money
to the church and to other worthy causes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We would like to take some mission trips to other parts of the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if Royal Caribbean cruises
to such places?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK, I guess I have to
admit that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mostly</i> about
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, I suspect if you are honest, it
is mostly about you too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who here has
not had that fantasy of winning the lottery or hitting the big jackpot down on
the strip?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all want more than we have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that is part of the human condition,
to always want more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Israelites wanted more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, then parted the Red Sea to
lead them to safety when Pharaoh changed his mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he closed the sea again to destroy the
army that pursued them, assuring their freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They composed a song of praise and sang it to the Lord to celebrate his
glory! “In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided
them by your strength to your holy abode”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That was chapter 15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as we
hear today, by chapter 16, all of that is forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If only we had died in Egypt when we sat by
the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into the
wilderness to kill us with hunger.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notice
that they don’t say, “Gee, I am hungry and wish there was some food here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, the Israelites appear to have quite the
flair for drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So God, being kind and loving, sends them manna to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In Numbers, the same story appears and tells us that manna was not
enough either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If only we had meat to
eat!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our strength is dried up and there
is nothing at all but this manna.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
literally provides for them the bread of heaven, and it is not enough for
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God answers their plea and
sends quail each evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course you
know the rest of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Israelites wander in the desert for 40 years and complain bitterly at every
turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why did we ever leave Egypt!” “
If only we had died in Egypt”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If only I
had four million dollars”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Oh wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That last
one was me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess it is very easy to
fault the people of Israel for their lack of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not their exclusive province.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For just as they wondered why they couldn’t
have meat, I wonder why I can’t have $4M. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, why does God answer some
prayers, but not others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why won’t he
just send me the money?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is at this point that Fr Barry would provide you a
quotation from a great philosopher or an ancient mystic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can never hope to match his level of erudition
and won’t even try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I do have
something germane to the conversation to share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is from a 20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> century prophet whom you may know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a fairly unlikely prophet, but his
message here is spot on. I refer of course to the great prophet Mick
Jagger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You can’t always get what you
want. But if you try, sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find this to be excellent advice, even if
from an unexpected source.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God does not
always give us what we ask for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is
not some candy shop owner in the sky who will give us a lollipop whenever we
ask for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But God does give us what we
need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Israelites were given freedom,
protection, water and food, but they wanted more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has given me good health, a wonderful
family, and the privilege of being your priest, and still I want more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we all need to listen to Mick and
focus less on what we want and more on the blessings that God has sent by
giving us what we need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matthew’s Gospel today is a favorite of mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the type of story that can make you
want to pull your hair out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have heard
passionate debates among clergy and scholars railing against the sheer
unfairness of the landowner in this story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No matter the group, this story is certain to provoke heated conversation
and often leads to a discussion of today’s political arena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now before you start squirming in your seats,
I am not going to turn this sermon into a political discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A wise priest friend once told me that
sermons are far too important for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I am going to see if we can make some sense of this
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On its face it does appear to be
unfair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should those who work all
day get the same as those who just showed up?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Shouldn’t some get more and others get less?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think the problem we have with this story is that it is
about money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We take money far too
personally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is fine to talk about God
and faith and service, but when the conversation turns to money, it is as if we
have crossed a line and are now in very personal territory. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So let’s turn the parable around a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we can agree that the landowner in
the story is God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God goes in to the
marketplace and finds several people ready to work in his fields and he puts
them to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He goes back later and
finds more people ready to work and puts them to work too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This happens again, and again and again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when the work is done, all of the workers
stand before God for their wages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
God gives them their pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eternal Life
with Him in heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This story is not about money at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not even about the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is about God loving us so much that he
will bring us home to be with him when our time on Earth is done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It matters not whether we have worked our
entire lives for him or if we were baptized on our death bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all get the same reward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can’t give some more than others because
this is one-size fits all gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
no greater hope for us than to be with God for eternity and there is nothing we
can do to earn it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus paid the entry
fee for each and every one of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So why then should we labor in the fields for the Lord?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why not just sit back and wait for the good
things to come?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because that is not what
God wants us to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells us to
make disciples of all nations and we do that by bringing them the good news of
the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are commanded to work for
the Lord, not because it will earn our way into heaven, but because we know
that our life is better by having God’s light in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walking with Jesus in our lives is a
miraculous gift and we would be selfish if we did not share that with other
people so that they may have the same joy that we have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spreading the love of God does not dilute His
love, for that is impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So how can
we not share this amazing love with others?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">God knows this and equips us for that purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Saint Paul speaks often of the gifts of the
Spirit and how they equip the saints for ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of us is blessed by the Spirit with
gifts that enable us to work together to serve God’s purpose here on
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t all have the same gifts,
but listen well when I tell you that we ALL HAVE GIFTS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your gifts are not like mine and mine are not
necessarily like yours, but we all have them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I spoke to you a few months ago about evangelism I
mentioned that we would be holding a class on gifts discernment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That course will begin on October 5 at 9:15
and run for six Sundays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together we
will explore what gifts are and use some practical tools to help each of us
discover the gifts God has given us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
promise you that you have gifts that you don’t even recognize, and learning
about them is the best way to begin to use them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did you wonder in this gospel story why some folks were
ready to work at dawn while others trickled in over the course of the day?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some were not ready to work because they were
too caught up in their own lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
were not ready because they were too busy complaining that they didn’t have
everything they wanted, that they didn’t have their $4M.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others were not ready to work because they
didn’t know that they already had the skills to do the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s work together to be satisfied with the
blessings we have and discover ways to use the gifts we have been given to
bring others to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For there is no
greater joy than having God in your life, and we can work together to bring
others to that same joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is our
mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is evangelism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is how we are the people of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9272498.post-87562685752585185442014-09-26T23:05:00.003-05:002014-09-26T23:05:42.603-05:00Recipe for Happiness (Rabbi Jonathan Miller, Temple Emanu-El, Birmingham, AL, Rosh HaShanah, 2014/5775)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Sermon: Rosh Hashanah, 5755, 2014<br />
Rabbi Jonathan Miller<br />
Temple Emanu-El<br />
Birmingham, Alabama<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">U'ntaneh tokef kedushat hayom ki
hu norah v'ayom. Uvo t'nasseh malchutecha, v'yakun b'hessed kisecha, v'tashev
alav b'emet. Let us declare the sacred power of this day. It is awesome and
full of dread. For on this day your dominion is exalted. Your throne is
established in steadfast love. There, in truth You reign.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In truth you are Judge and
Arbiter, Counsel and Witness. You write and You seal. You record and recount.
You remember deeds long forgotten. You open the book of our days, and what is
written there proclaims itself, for it bears the signature of every human
being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The great shofar is sounded. The
still, small voice is heard; the angels, gripped by fear and trembling, declare
in awe: This is the Day of Judgment! . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And then the words that awaken
every slumbering soul--the words that frighten even the most complacent and
skeptical:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As the shepherd seeks out his
flock, and makes the sheep pass under his staff, so do You muster and number
and consider every soul, setting the bounds of every creature's life, and
decreeing its destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Now comes the confines of our
mortal lives:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On Rosh Hashanah it is written
and on Yom Kippur it is sealed: How many shall pass on, how many shall come to
be; who shall live and who shall die; who shall see ripe age and who shall not;
who by fire and who by water, who by sword and who by beast, who by hunger and
who by thirst; who by earthquake and who by plague; who by strangling and who
by stoning?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yes, the poem tells us, you have
made it this far. You have made it to another Rosh Hashanah. Our New Year
celebrations are fixed in number, but we have made it to the Sanctuary. So far
so good. If you have gotten this far, dayeinu, we have enough for us to be
grateful for our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But the poem does not end here.
It then addresses the quality of our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Who shall be secure and who shall
be driven; who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled; who shall be poor
and who shall be rich; who shall be humbled and who exalted?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And finally hope. No matter how
challenging our lives might have been, no matter how challenging our life is
today, no matter how uncertain our times or our destiny,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Repentance, prayer, and charity
temper Judgment's severe decree!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This 13th century poem examines
human frailty and the cauldron of life's uncertainties and asks all of life's
pressing questions, except one. The poet does not ask, "Who shall be
happy, and who shall be unhappy?" And I think it should. Because attaining
happiness is the most important task a human being can achieve. And happiness
too often eludes us as we work our way through the years. Like a rainbow, we
love happiness and we are awed by it. But when we run to grab its pot of gold
and make it ours, it disappears out of sight. "Who will be happy and who
will not?" That is the hardest question. Even the U'ntaneh Tokef doesn't
tackle this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It is the hardest question
because happiness means different things to different people at different times
in life. What exactly is happiness, and how do we measure it? The man who works
a lifetime and builds a million dollar nest egg is happy with his
accomplishment. The man who has millions of dollars tucked away and earns
another million dollars, his earnings will not bring him happiness. The woman
who drinks an occasional glass of wine at dinner, that wine will make her
happy. The woman who drinks a bottle of wine every night, that wine will not
bring her happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I used to think that the most
difficult human questions were these: Why do we live? Why do good people
suffer? What is the meaning of life? As I have matured, I have learned to live
with my deep questions and my shallow answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why do we live? Because God gave
us life. I am good with that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why do good people suffer?
Because they do. Suffering is by its nature unfair. That is the best answer I
have.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What is the meaning of life?
Perform mitzvot and serve God with a full heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">These are life’s hard questions.
I can only offer easy answers. But the questions surrounding happiness: What
exactly is it? How do we get it? And how do we keep it? These are the hardest
questions a person can answer and the greatest puzzle to human life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On Sukkot, two weeks from now, we
will read the book of Ecclesiastes. According to tradition, King Solomon wrote
this book in his old age. He described how happiness has eluded him. He sought
happiness in laughter and merriment and the pleasures of the flesh. But these
did not bring him happiness. As enjoyable as laughter and pleasure are--and we
should enjoy the things which bring us pleasure--a life devoted to pleasure
will soon grow tiresome. One cannot build happiness on a foundation of laughter
and merriment and pleasure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">King Solomon sought happiness in
wealth and success. And he achieved more than any man in his generation. He
built palaces and gardens and amassed fortunes of silver and gold, more riches
and beauty than the eye could behold. But he realized that he would leave
behind all of his accomplishments. And my friends, to add insult to his injury,
he realized that another person, a person who did not earn what he labored to
achieve would enjoy the wealth that he accumulated throughout his life. Wealth
is much better than poverty, but happiness cannot be bought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">King Solomon sought happiness in
wisdom. But the more he knew, the more troubled he became. Knowledge and wisdom
do not make us happy. He shared the sobering observation that the wise man and
the fool share the same fate. The knowledge and wisdom we work so diligently to
accumulate disappears with us when we are laid to rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And my friends, while we seek out
happiness, paradoxically, unhappiness plays a constructive role in our lives.
At some basic level, if we were not discontent with what we have and who we
are, why would we strive to create anything or take on new challenges? If we
are content with what we know, why bother to learn anything new? And if we are
content in our relationships with our parents, siblings and children--and if we
are content with the love we give and receive from our life's partners and our
appointed tasks, why even bother to work to make our relationships better and
more fulfilling as the years and decades progress. A settled life is an
unfulfilled life. A life of ease is not the same as a life filled with
happiness. We cannot attain happiness unless we also endure a dose or two of
unhappiness. The two opposites are a pair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So what are we human beings to
do? To sum up Ecclesiastes' conclusion: Enjoy all the pleasures to which we are
entitled, but happiness will not come to us from enjoying our pleasures. Earn
money and appreciate the comforts and security that wealth can bring, but
happiness will not come from earning money and accumulating wealth. Fill the
mind with wisdom, but know that wisdom will not make us happy. So what are we
human beings to do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I am going to share with you my
five part recipe for happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My first ingredient in my recipe
for happiness is forgiveness. People who bear their grudges--that they have
rightfully earned on the playing field of life--will find that happiness will
elude them. Even when we are justified in our anger and sadness and
disappointment, at some point we need to give it up and let it go. Rosh Hashanah
is the Day of Judgment. And we ask God for forgiveness. But not only does God
judge us, but we judge others too. With Divine wisdom, God did not appoint us
to be judge and arbiter, counsel and witness. At some time in our lives all of
us will give up our hurts and disappointments. When we are laid to rest, we
will not take our resentments to heaven. We would be happier today if we laid
our resentments now on the altar of forgiveness, rather than keep them clutched
tight in our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My second ingredient in my recipe
for happiness is satisfaction. It is hard for the human spirit to be satisfied.
We feel that we have to be the very best. But few of us will ever earn a gold
medal, and none of us will earn a gold medal in everything we undertake. Instead
of working to be the best in everything we do, we ought to strive to be good at
what we take on and become better in the future. Perfection is impossible.
Incremental betterness is within our reach. Be satisfied with what is good
about you and your lives, and focus your energies on how you might be better
and do better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My third ingredient in my recipe
for happiness is appreciation. Appreciate more. People can be so critical. We
can be so quick to find fault and pass judgment, and for what purpose? Of course,
we cannot expect that all of our efforts are our best, and criticism can be
necessary to help others and help us improve. But too many people focus their
constant attention on the things that need improvement, and praise comes
infrequently. How does an attitude of criticism make anyone happier with the
people they love, their community, or their own view of themselves? We all know
people who are fault finders. They are insufferable. And when we shine the
light of truth honestly on ourselves, we all know that we can voice plenty of
fault and dissatisfaction with people we are closest to. If we would have just
a glimpse of our critical selves through the eyes of others, most of us would
be shocked. Here he comes again. She is ready and willing to spread her doom
and gloom. Happy people make happiness. Unhappy people make unhappiness. The
Dali Lama said about the happy person, "It is better to want what you have
than to have what you want." And I would like to take the Dali Lama's
wisdom and apply it to us. "It is better to be who you are than to strive
to be who you are not." Appreciate what you have and who you are, and
appreciate what others have and who they are, and in the future you will
capture some more happiness in your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My fourth ingredient in my
happiness recipe is for us to live with concern for others. But we intuit the
opposite. When we put ourselves at the center of the universe, we won't find
ourselves increasing our happiness over time. How many times do we engage in a
conversation, and it is as though the person on the other end of the line is
not even there? Notice how often we talk about ourselves. One would think that
with the rise of social media, with the fact that we can have thousands of
friends on Facebook and be followed by a multitude on Twitter, that we should
always be happy. But Facebook and Twitter can add to our existential
unhappiness. Because all we do is talk about ourselves. When we are the center
of the universe, we lose our happiness. Again, words from the Dali Lama:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Consider the following. We humans
are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We
survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is
hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities.
For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in
the context of our relationships with others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Make other people matter, and
when you do, you will be happier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My fifth ingredient in my
happiness recipe is faith. But faith is not a simple declaration that we
believe in God. God should be the last thing that engages a faithful person.
Before we can get to God, we have to believe that our lives have significance;
that our struggles matter for something; that other people matter to us; and
that fairness and justice mean something. Before we can believe in God, we have
to live In such a way that God believes in us. I believe that our dedication to
others and our willingness to sacrifice what we desire for ourselves to enhance
the greater good is what it means to believe in God. God is not simply some
abstraction or some formulaic utterance. The living God lives in us, and we
live with the knowledge that life existed before us, and will continue beyond
us, and that our struggles have meaning. So when we are kind and generous, when
we reach out to someone struggling or suffering, when we place others before
ourselves, when we show gratitude and appreciation for the magnificent world in
which we live and create for ourselves a purposeful life, we then can say we
believe in God. The Higher Power is just that, the world beyond ourselves that
we strive to engage with our best selves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.15pt; margin: 4.5pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So these are the five ingredients
that we need to create our own happiness recipe. You can mix the ingredients as
you wish, but nobody gets to be happy without a proper measure of forgiveness,
satisfaction, appreciation, concern for others, and faith. Only with these
elements in place will our lives make sense, and we will be happy. Maybe that
is the reason the U'netaneh Tokef poem does not ask, "Who will be happy,
and who will not?" Because our happiness is not like life or death. We
have little control over whether we will live or die, whether we will be secure
or be driven, whether our lives will be long or not so long. God decides those
things for us. But happiness?--that is in our control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">We are the only ones in charge of
our forgiveness. We are the only ones in charge of whether we are satisfied
with our lives today. Only we can measure our appreciation for what we have and
who we are. We alone can exhibit concern for other people. Our faith starts
within us and only much later ends with God. These five factors are totally
within our control. We are powerless over so much of our lives, like the lamb
before the shepherd, the subject before the king, or the defendant before the
judge. But when it comes to our happiness, we are our commander in chief.</span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A
story is told about a teacher, maybe he was a rabbi or priest or an imam or she
was a roshi or a college professor--it doesn't matter. At the start of their
learning, the teacher invited all of his students to take a cup on the table.
Each student grabbed hold of a cup near to them. The teacher poured the tea for
the students, and they began to sip. But soon they noticed that some of them
had cups that were large and others that were light and delicate and others had
cups that were chipped or cracked or the finish was peeling off the sides. And
the students began to eye each other's cups. Soon they stopped enjoying their
afternoon tea, thinking instead about why they had one cup and others were
different, and wouldn't they be happier with someone else's cup instead of
their own?</span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
The teacher expected this response. It is such a human response. And she taught
her students this first lesson in happiness. "Each of you holds up a
unique cup, one of your own, unlike anyone else's cup around the table. And no
one has the perfect cup. But each of you is drinking the same tea. You should
all be equally happy with this gift, set aside for each of you. You share the
same tea, the same warmth and the same sweetness. It doesn't matter what cup
you are holding it in."</span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
Rosh Hashanah is the tea in our cup. It is the sweetness of another year of
life. For each of us, the cup is different. For some of us, the cup is cracked.
For others, the cup is chipped. Some of us would like a cup that would be
larger or smaller; lighter or more sturdy. Nobody's cup is perfect. But let us
be happy in the life that we have been given. This is a sweet time. All of us
drink from the cup of life. Let us drink it all in with happiness and joy.<br />
Shanah Tova T'kateivu, May you be inscribed in the book of life for a sweet and
happy year.<br />
Amen<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com