Sermon 10.27.13

Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
2Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

I told the women at the bible study that I rarely tell a good humorous joke or anecdote to begin my sermon and that I would share this little one that Arlene shared with me.  Six year old Judy complained, "Mother I've got a stomach ache."  "That's because your stomach in empty," her mother replied. "You'd feel better if you had something in it."  That afternoon the minister came to visit, remarking in the conversation that he was suffering from a headache.  Little Judy perked up.  "That's because its empty,"  she said.  "You'd feel better if you had something in it."

The passage from Joel and Psalm 65 are wonderful descriptions of God at work in creation.  Actually, God playing with creation.  After all the years of locusts, drought, suffering and shame, there will now be abundant rains again, there will be an abundant harvest, the threshing floor full of grain, the vats overflowing with wine and oil. There will be plenty to eat for all and all will be satisfied.   It is true that Joel ends with some ominous potents in the heavens and earth, blood and fire and smoke and darkness and some terrible day coming.  But right now, between our memories of past woes and our anxiety about the future, in the here and now we are filled with the Spirit.  Right now, it is all about the Spirit of God poured out on all flesh.  This Spirit is an unstoppable, irresistible life force that moves through all things, making fast the mountains, stilling the roaring of the seas, preparing the grain, drenching the furrows, clothing valley fields with grain and the hills and meadows with flocks, and setting all of creation to music, singing with joy.  Everywhere the Spirit of God is filling all things.  Sons and daughters prophesying, old men dreaming dreams, young men seeing visions, slaves and free, male and female all filled with the Spirit of God.  Here and now, at this moment, forgetting what came before or what lies ahead, there is no getting around it, it is possible to simply embrace and be embraced by this life.

It is difficult sometimes to live in the moment.  Sometimes we are stuck in the past.  Maybe regretting some decision we have made, or unable to move beyond the pain of some past event.  On the other hand we sometimes jump ahead, imagining a future full of all sorts of scary outcomes. Maybe not the blood and fire and smoke of Joel, but we have our own imaginations that run wild about all the ways things could go wrong for us.  And sometimes the moment we are in really just isn't a good time at all.  I have been struck lately by how much pain and grief many of us are in now.  I have heard story after story lately of personal trials, many people I know are struggling with the death of loved ones, economic hard times, changing family circumstances, chronic illness and other tragedies, a son in jail, a grandson taken to the emergency room, a house broken into.  We are fragile creatures, and our lives are often precarious and sometimes it is hard to balance ourselves on the still point of the turning world that keeps us in touch with the Spirit of God.

I confess, I sometimes see all these things as getting in the way.  All sorts of things that seem to gum up the works and so on, hinder us from achieving whatever goals and outcomes we have or want to do.  Important stuff you know, all the stuff I think God is calling us to.  I might be waiting for a return phone call, or an email, or someone to do their part in a project we are working on and I find myself getting frustrated and wondering why they aren't paying attention to me!  Only to find that some personal trial and tribulation has overcome my friends.  I do, usually, shift gears, immediately step outside of myself and let go of my agenda in order to be there for them.  I do have to stop my own anxiety about accomplishing my agenda, let go of my own illusion of control over my life in order to really be there for someone else.  Sometimes it is exactly our busyness that is the thing that gets in the way and prevents us from caring for one another.  That prevents us from really being present, right here now, in the moment, for one another.

But when we do that for one another - when we truly are present, simply able to be with someone else  -  I know I am continually surprised to encounter the living God in that moment, in that relationship.  When we can truly see and hear the other who stands before us, we come face to face with the sacred, the holy.  Whether in great joy or deep sorrow or just the every day stuff of life, as we encounter people where ever they are at, we touch some deep common humanity that is connected with a universal reality.  We discover that we really are one, united in all of our diversity.  This is what I mean by Spirit.

I am constantly surprised that this stuff we preach is really real.  That all these stories we tell really do have something to do with a deep and powerful reality that is at the core of each of our individual lives, that flows in and out of all our relationships, that lies at the heart of creation.  This Spirit of God in whom we live and move and have our being.  This liturgy we do here every Sunday really does have the power to transform us and this meal we serve really is about feeding the whole world, and our life together is really about creating that beloved community in which all can share in the blessing of God's creation.  That this Good News!  We really have Good News to share!

Several of us were at diocesan convention last weekend.  During Bishop Waggoner's address he told a story about getting the internet fixed at Paulsen House.  It hadn't been working for several days and staff was anxiously trying to prepare for convention with no internet access.  When the repair man came the bishop followed him to the basement, hovering over him, making sure he was really going to fix the problem.  They came to a mess of wires on the wall in a dark corner of the basement and the repair man fiddled with stuff and the bishop was becoming more anxious and uncertain that a solution would be found.

The repair man scratched his head.  He attached his equipment, did his tests and finally said, "You know the signal is very strong, but something is stifling it, blocking it from getting through."  Finally he looked at a box in the middle of all this mess of wire.  The bishop insistent on a solution asked if he could fix the box, replace it, something! and get the thing working again!  But the man just scratched his head again.  "No," he said, "I can't fix it or replace it."  Of course the Bishop then was beside himself!  Then the man said,  "We don't even use this kind of box anymore."  We've changed all of this all up and down this neighborhood and upgraded the whole system and it works completely differently now."  So the man removed the box and took the wires that had gone in and out of the box and spliced them together directly and they tested the system again and sure enough they now had lightening speed internet at Paulsen house, better than ever.

The signal is strong, but something is blocking it, something is stifling it.  The bishop drew a parallel to the story of the Gospel.  The story is strong, he said, but, he asked, what is it about the way we do church, what boxes are we tied too, what outdated ways of thinking and doing are we stuck with that stifle and block the power of that story?  Where are we stuck?  What are we anxious about, what can't we let go of?  What are we busy with that keeps us from being able to tap into this present moment and catch a glimpse of the Spirit of God at work?  Is the way we tell our transformative story something that can tap us directly into the power of God, or does our tradition just get in the way?  Is the vision of the Kingdom of God something that gives us hope or it something that we just worry about, feel guilty about, because we can't make it happen?

Our guest speaker at Convention was Sara Miles, from St Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco.  She says she is as a new Christian, not having grown up around religion at all, coming to the faith as something brand new, with fresh new energy and a naive enthusiasm she says.  So new, she said, she didn't realize that the purpose of the vestry was to keep people from using the church!  (That got a laugh from all the old timers!) Well, despite some folks reticence to risk and try new things, St Gregory really was founded as  a new church start intentionally designed to reach out to the unchurched, those spiritual but not religious folks, and to the poor and the diversity of the community around them and it was designed intentionally to tap into the energy latent in these people of God.  To see them actually as people of God, filled already with the Spirit.

Sara showed us a video of their very energetic spirit-filled worship really very Eastern Orthodox looking and sounding, with all sorts of pomp and pageantry and costumes and colorful celebration and also an intentional openness and inclusivity.  Surrounded in this round sanctuary by beautiful icons of an eclectic assortment of saints, the room was filled with people of all kinds, not really decently and in order at all, a visible celebration of diversity.   All gathered in a circle around the table. They served real bread. Children were chalice barers.  Everyone was welcome at the table without question.

From this vision of the Eucharistic meal came their community outreach.  Sara and her team of volunteers run a food pantry right there in the sanctuary and she showed us another video of a typical day.  Food came from the local food bank, tons of donations, lots of fresh produce.  The sanctuary is round with the altar in the middle and no pews.  Volunteers, many of them people who also come to get food, set up all around the altar what amounted to a farmers market.  Stacks of fruits and vegetables and fresh bread, a visible sign of this incredible abundance of creation and people came into this space and gathered what they needed.  An extension of the Eucharistic meal itself, a spirit filled, sacrament.  Over 800 served that particular day.

One of the biggest ways we block the Spirit is our own anxiety about failing.   And that was the Bishop's biggest advice to us.  Risk failure and then try again and fail even better the next time!  We are seeking to model an infinite reality and we are after all finite fragile creatures being filled with the infinite energy of the Spirit of God!  It simply is impossible, crazy, silly really.  And so we just have to give ourselves over to the absurdity of it all.  And really learn to play with it!  The folks at St Gregory's are really no different than any other folks, regular people doing incredible things.  They had a goal, figured out a plan, organized themselves to accomplish at task, and that is all important stuff to do, but ultimately it not about this.  It is about the synergy of regular folks coming together and creating a whole greater than the sum of all the parts, more than we could ever ask or imagine, this is the Spirit of God at work.  Sara's advice to us was not to recreate the liturgy or service of St Gregory's but to find the way God is working in and through us and unleash that Spirit that is uniquely given to us.  All around the Cathedral of St John's in Spokane where she was speaking were displays from most of the churches in our diocese, showing lots of ministry going on.   Feeding programs, community meals, mission trips, housing projects, Stephen's ministry, global projects and a display of Christ's Church's latest focus, our Faith Food and Farming Project.

I think of that scene from the movie Hook with Robin Williams.  He has forgotten that he is Peter Pan, burdened by the pain of distant memories of loss and the fears of failure in his career, driven and distracted by all the busyness of his life.  He is having trouble believing and the Lost Boys are trying to get him to remember, trying to get him to play again.  They are sitting around the table for dinner, but all Peter can see is the empty bowls and plates before them.  The boys all dig in with a veracious appetite and Peter is dumbfounded, just not seeing it. Then after actually a confrontation with his rival Rufio in which Peter and Rufio are trading more and more creative insults, Peter begins really acting like a again like boy, focuses completely on this relationship, is fully present, gets into the moment so to speak.  Then, Peter is the one who without thinking starts a food fight with imaginary food.  He suddenly sees what the other boys see. They say, "Peter, Peter, your doing it.  Your using your imagination!" Suddenly he is living in the moment, fully alive, playing once again.

And as I think about that sanctuary filled with all the activities going on in congregations throughout the diocese, small and large congregations, just regular fragile folks living precarious lives, young and old, men and women, rich and poor, dreaming dreams, seeing visions, caring for one another and their communities, I can't help but think, "Look, we are doing it!  The Spirit of God is flowing through us!"  We are directly linked, having gotten outside of our boxes.  We are alive with this irresistibly strong and powerful signal.  And the signal is stronger and faster than ever!  AMEN.

Sermon 9.15.13

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10                                        

Our old testament passage today is very dark!  Jeremiah presents us with a devastating apocalyptic vision of what is to come for God's people.  A hot wind too strong for winnowing or cleansing, that will bring destruction.  A time of judgement.  The prophet has God saying, "My people are foolish, stupid children with no understanding, skilled at doing evil, but do not know how to do good."  The whole earth is of wasteland, a desolation, the cities are in ruin.  A land of darkness, earthquakes, the birds have fled and the once fruitful land turned to a desert.  All brought about by the fierce anger of God.

The Psalm continues this theme of the foolish who say in their hearts, "There is no God."  The Psalmist laments, there is none who does any good and depicts The Lord, looking down from heaven upon us all searching for just one person who might be wise, who might follow after God, but there is no one who does good, no not one.

When I hear language like this, so dark and pessimistic, when folks start talking like this, in such stark absolutes about how horrible everything is I want to say to them, "Its time to take a break!  Get some rest!  Get some perspective!"

I think immediately of burn out.  Burn out, Compassion Fatigue, these are real conditions that effect especially us who are faithful people, who really do want to help make the world a better place, who have a vision of how the world could be and yet are constantly bombarded with the reality of how we all fall so short of this vision.

It is amazing how negative we can so quickly turn, when our frustration level gets too high, when all of our efforts seem to be of no avail.  When we have just become too tired to continue on and yet we keep pushing ourselves out of sense of duty.  How quickly we begin to feel overwhelmed by all the problems we can't fix, all the ways we have no control over how things are going.   We begin to feel all alone, the only one left.  We know we can't do it on our own, yet we push on, feeling so isolated.  We begin to focus on all the things that are going wrong, on all the people who are really just in the way.  Those we started out hoping to help and comfort and heal turn into people we blame.  All those companions on the way who shared the vision with us become people we criticize and complain about.

Then we start to say things that really are just not true.  We make these sweeping negative generalizations about the whole world.  We say silly things really that we really do believe like the words of the Psalmist spoken out his own deep depression.  "No one does good.  Everyone is evil.  All are corrupt.  No one is wise.  No body has any faith."

When the reality is it is we who have lost our faith.  We who have lost hope.  We who have allowed our exhaustion to color the way we see the world.  If we are honest with ourselves we all can recall moments when we have let our own exhaustion turn our thoughts negative.  Maybe we have apologized when we snapped at our spouses or children, saying, "Forgive me, I am just really tired."  We have all watched the quality of our communities deteriorate when the pressure gets too high.  Committee meetings turn ugly, bickering increases, hurtful things are said, often because we have all just been working too hard for too long to try to solve some problem that seems to just go on and on.  And we are exhausted.  And yet we continue to try to push through!

If you are tired, what really is the only solution for this?  Rest.  Sometimes it is just sleep!  There is really nothing like a good night's sleep!  Sleep can really do wonders!  Our spiritual and emotional lives really are all wrapped up in our physical bodies.  Doing something completely different, taking a break, recreation.  The word is re-creation.  We really can rejuvenate ourselves, re-create ourselves by taking a break, letting go, quit beating our heads against a wall.  Often just by stopping doing that one thing that is killing us, we get a whole new perspective on our lives.  Peace only comes when we actually can stop.

Ultimately the spiritual peace that we seek for ourselves and the world is not something we attain for ourselves.  We know the doctrine perhaps, that we are saved by faith alone, not by works, but we really live our lives, practically speaking, like it all depends on us.  If we weren't doing what we do, the world would fall apart.

Paul's letter to Timothy says something completely different.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  Paul gives the example, of himself, a saved sinner, and his story is not about his own righteousness, his own model character, which others should follow.  No, his story is an example of what the power of God can do.  Paul begins with his gratitude to Jesus who strengthens him.  He is clear that he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man of violence, but rather than dwelling here, he talks of the mercy he has received in his own life and relies instead upon the way that God in Christ defines him, a faithful servant.  He talks about the grace and love of Christ that has come into his life.  He talks about the utmost patience that Jesus Christ has displayed in working with him, the foremost of sinners.  This patience is that constant vision that though we may all too well know the negative about ourselves and the world, Jesus is constantly seeing us and calling us into the vision he has for us, modeling and shaping us into the Good and Faithful Servants he already knows we are.  This is the power of God working in us.

In our gospel today the righteous religious leaders of the day complain about Jesus saying, He welcomes sinners and eats with them."  They don't seem to understand why Jesus is so concerned with this unsavory bunch, these outcasts, the rabble, the unclean, those outside the pale of civilized society.  It seems in this passage, quite the opposite of the Jeremiah passage, that the perception here is that most people seem to be doing just fine.  We might say they are living in denial, in their own sense of their own righteousness perhaps.

Jesus, though, tells a parable about sheep, and the first thing to notice is that most of the sheep really are doing just fine.  In this parable 99% of the world is actually ok.  Well enough, actually, that the shepherd can leave them unattended and go off in search of that 1% of the flock that is lost.  He leaves the 99 and goes after the one that is lost.  In fact, all the attention is paid to this one lost soul, really disregarding all the rest.  Quite the opposite of the vision in Jeremiah with its focus on all the evil of everyone.  Here the emphasis is on the few that are left out of the blessing of creation, that are on the edge, lost and separated from the rest of the flock.  The concern is for the safety of these lost ones and the desire is to reunite them with the rest of the flock where they too can share in the good pasture, drink from the stream also, and be cared and tended for by the shepherd - where they too can bask in the blessing of creation.

And where they can join in on the cosmic celebration that will take place upon their return. For there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

And so we can see ourselves and the world in a couple different ways.  We can catch the glimpse that Jesus offers us of all people in heaven and on earth sharing in the blessing of God's creation and joining in together in a cosmic celebration.  In this vision it is just unthinkable that anyone should be left out, and we will do all we can to make sure that all are included, and we will rejoice when we see our own communities mirror this ultimate heavenly inclusive vision.

Or we can see the whole world as a dark and desolate and lonely place described in Jeremiah.  If you are seeing the world this way, perhaps it is you that are lost.  Perhaps you have found yourself left out of blessing, far away from the good pasture, perhaps you feel all alone and see no one who can be your companion on the way.  The lost are not just those other folks out there on the fringe, who we have to go find.  Sometimes the lost are ourselves as well. Sometimes it is we who are wondering exhausted in a wilderness and it is we who need to find rest again in the shepherds arms.  It is we who need to be laid upon his shoulders and carried for awhile while he rejoices in finding us.

One of my favorite songs is called "Jubilee" by Mary Chapin Carpenter.  It is the story of a young man, lost himself, who struggles to accept the community of people who love him.  He has a hard time seeing how much he needs the rest that is being offered to him.  Trouble seeing how much he really wants the company of his friends who love him.  Trouble grasping what a wonderful incredible joyful time he will have when he finally joins the celebration.  He is so use to the "home" he has in his isolation and depression that it is hard to see what is being offered to him.   The song ends like this:

And I can tell by the way you're standing
With your eyes filling with tears
That it's habit alone keeps you turning for home
Even though your home is right here

Where the people who love you are gathered
Under the wise wishing tree
May we all be considered then straight on delivered
Down to the jubilee

'Cause the people who love you are waiting
And they'll wait just as long as need be

The people who love you are waiting, Jesus is waiting, the whole of heaven and earth in all it goodness and beauty and splendor, all its incredible blessing, is waiting.  Take some time to rest from your weariness.  Join in the party!  Once again receive the strength and power to share the good news that all that are lost are invited to come home.