tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-337728452024-03-27T02:36:02.656-04:00From Glory into GloryA View of the World "Lost in Wonder, Love and Praise" (well, most of the time)The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.comBlogger492125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-18507406578375079602023-12-20T09:28:00.006-05:002023-12-20T09:28:58.180-05:00Advebt 3: What is Joy? (John the Baptist, Prophet of Joy)<p> <i>Sermon preached on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, 2023, at Church of the Redeemer, Addison: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; John 1:6-8, 19-28</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today we light the
candle of joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Long before there was
anything like an Advent wreathe with its one pink candle, “joy” was what
characterized this Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It began with
the appointed introit for the Latin Mass, so the first word heard on this Sunday
for centuries was <i>Gaudate</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Gaudate in Domino semper: iterum dico gaudate.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The words are from the
Letter to the Philippians, but the opening of the First Thessalonians’ reading
this morning is much the same.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So, this Advent we have
asked: “What is hope?” and “What is peace?” And today we ask, “What is joy?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When I spoke of “hope”
and “peace,” I said we have to go deeper to get at their true meaning for the
Christian.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is not simply optimism.
Peace is not simply the absence of conflict.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So joy is not simply
happiness. It is something deeper.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To get at this deeper
sense of joy, I turn to Orthodox Theologian Alexander Schmemann, who wrote</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">From its very beginning Christianity
has been the proclamation of joy, of the only possible joy on earth. . . .
Without the proclamation of this joy Christianity is incomprehensible. . . . Of
all accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by
Neitzche when he said that Christians had no joy.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Christians
proclaim, “The only possible joy on earth.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But what </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">is</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> this joy we proclaim. What </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">is</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> this joy that we
are enabled to live?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I
think the answer is in John the Baptist.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now, no one ever accused John of preaching joy, at least not joy as
happiness.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John’s message was a tough
one; Repent. End your delusions about yourself. Get right with God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But
ending our delusions about ourselves may just be the key to the experience of
Joy.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can see this in John’s own
understanding of himself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John
was very clear about who he was not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And
to do that he had to say “no” to other people’s expectations.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, I am not the Messiah. No, I am not the
return of the great prophet Elijah. No, I am not the unnamed prophet who it was
believed would inaugurate a new messianic age.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No,
John says, I am not anything you expect me to be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I
have found my purpose, John says, in words from the prophet Isaiah:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The voice of one crying in the wilderness to
make straight the way of the Lord.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span> </span><span> </span>I have found my purpose, John says, in words
from the prophet Isaiah:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The voice of
one crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">There’s a lot going on in the Greek
word translated “straight.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It has the </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">sense of removing all the
obstacles, and John knew this meant not only removing the physical obstacles.
It meant removing all the internal ones.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hence the need for repentance.</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Repentance
is the translation of another Greek word that has a lot going on.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Metanoia</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> is the word, and its simplest
meaning is “a turning,” or “changing direction.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John
knew in his own life that his internal sense of direction was critical.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He spent a lot of time telling people to get
clear about who they were and where they were headed, because he himself had
spent a great deal of time getting clear about who he was and in what direction
he was heading.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So
I’ll submit to you the improbable statement:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John the Baptism was and is the prophet of joy.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So here is what John has to teach us about
joy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Joy
comes from a clear sense of self. Joy comes from removing all the
obstacles—most of them internal.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Joy
comes from knowing who you are and where you are headed.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And by “where you are headed,” I mean “to
whom you are headed.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Just
like in our grasp of what hope means, and what peace means, what joy means is
first of all grounded in reality.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I
can’t know true joy until I know who I truly am, not divorced from reality, but
in the muddy middle of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Isaiah reading helps us understand this a little better. Isaiah says,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God has sent me to bring good news to the
oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to give them
a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness, instead of mourning, the
mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There
a great deal of good news in there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But
the good news starts with reality. You cannot, for instance, experience the
healing of one’s broken heart if you have not been honest about being
broken-hearted in the first place.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A
firm grasp of reality is what is needed to be hopeful, to find the way to
peace, or to experience true joy.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
only way to hope, peace, and joy is through reality.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Which
means that joy, like hope and peace, is something to struggle for, and it looks
far more like a journey than a destination.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So
back to Schmemann’s rather outlandish claim that Christians proclaim the only
joy that is possible on earth. Is that just another exclusivist claim, that if
you are not a Christian you cannot experience joy?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No,
I don’t think so.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Schmemann is saying
that the joy we proclaim, the way we find joy, is the way Jesus found
life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The only way to life for Jesus was
death. He had to go through death in order to find true life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So the joy we proclaim can only be found when
we are willing to go through everything and anything that seems the opposite of
joy:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">anxiety, doubt, depression, grief,
sorrow, the lack of a sense of purpose.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Christian proclamation is the only way out is through.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We
can do things that make us happy. We can earn enough money to live well. We can
be loved by someone. We can feel we have some control, even power, over our
circumstances.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But all those things are
ephemeral, they all can so easily change.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But
true joy never changes, because it rests not in what I am able to accomplish,
but who I am in the eyes of the One who made me.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is that sense of the simple but deep
confidence of who I am in the midst of the muddle of life, that gives me the
chance to, as Paul invites us to do this morning,</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give
thanks in all circumstances.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-left: -4.5pt; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Why?”
Paul asks. Not because of anything we have done, not because of any success we
have made of ourselves, but because that is what God wants for us, that is what
is God’s gift to us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Joy that is
dependent on nothing but the love of God.</span></p><br /><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-77099963280666543882023-12-10T18:06:00.014-05:002023-12-10T18:06:58.757-05:00Advent 2: What is Peace?<p> <i>Sermon preached at the Church of the Redeemer, Addison, NY on the Second Sunday of Advent, 2923: Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85, 2 Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today we light the
candle of peace, and ask ourselves: What is peace? When Christians talk about peace,
what do they mean? Perhaps more to the point, When Christians experience peace,
what are they experiencing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Each of the readings
today give us a different aspect of what we mean. Let’s begin with John.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The message from John
the Baptist seems to have nothing to do with peace.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yet when John was born, his father Zechariah
sang the song that ends with these words:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most
High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare he way, to give God’s people
knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender
compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into
the way of peace. </span></i>(Luke 1:76-79)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Zechariah understood
that what his son would be called to do would be to guide God’s people into the
way of peace. John came to understand that the way of peace was also the way of
repentance and the experience of God’s forgiveness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John knew it was
impossible to experience peace if you are at odds with either another human
being or God. And we all know that’s true, because we’ve all experienced it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There might be a certain
satisfaction in not forgiving someone, a certain sense of well-being that comes
with knowing you were right and someone else was wrong, especially if you were
the one that was wronged.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I know, I have
felt it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But I also know from
experience that particular sense of well-being does not last. It cannot
last.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is nowhere near the experience
of true peace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So the way of peace is
the way of repentance and forgiveness, the way of a favorite word of </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Book of Common Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, reconciliation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Skip to the psalm, with
that well-known verse:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Mercy and truth have met together;</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Righteousness and peace have kissed each <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>other.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The verse uses four of
the Old Testaments’s most frequently used words to describe the dream of God
for the creation:</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ḥ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">esed</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">, mercy or steadfast
love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">emet</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">, truth or faithfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ṣedeqah</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
righteousness or justice</span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">shalom</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
peace or well-being.</span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> M</o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">ercy rings the same hint of forgiveness and
reconciliation that we got from looking at the John the Baptist passage. It is
also interesting that it is paired with truth.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We live in a world where truth is under contention.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">If truth is being spoken about there is sure
to be no peace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">But truth spoken—even debated—with mercy, now that’s a
different story.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We can contend about
the truth if we have mercy in our hearts when we do so.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">But then peace is paired with righteousness or
justice.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">And I would contend that the
way of peace cannot be attained without justice.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">“No justice, no peace,” is a popular mantra
of protesting crowds, and it is a biblical sentiment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">So the way of peace is also the way of justice.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">It brings up the truth that the Hebrew word </span><i style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">shalom</i><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
is much broader—actually much deeper—than the English word “peace.” Shalom is
more than the absence of conflict. It is well-being in every aspect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The word “peace” or “shalom” does not appear in the
Isaiah reading, but the reading as a whole is a vision of shalom, deep and
broad well-being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">“Comfort” is the stand-in word for peace here, and as
the passage moves on from those opening words there is a very clear
understanding that humility is necessary for us human beings.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">“All people are grass, their constancy like
the flower of the field.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I don’t know
about you, but the metaphor describes me to a “t.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We can’t hear God’s “good tidings,” or “good news” if
we don’t get over ourselves, get out of our own way, have patience with
ourselves, each other, and God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">And it’s that insight that the author of the second
letter of Peter has discovered.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">This is
one of the latest writings in the New Testament. By the time it is written it
is clear that Jesus is not coming back soon</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">So the writer cautions us that God’s time and our time
are simply not the same thing, and the biggest consequence of that fact is that
patience is a virtue. Patience with God. Patience with one another. Patience
with ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We wait for a new heaven and a new earth where
righteousness (or justice!) is at home.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Until then be at peace, or at least try. I like the word “strive” there
because it carries a sense that being at peace is not something that comes easy
to anyone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is a struggle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">But what can lessen the struggle is to know that God
has infinite patience with us. If it were not so, we would all be doomed. I
love the phrase, “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">All of this can be distilled in this way:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Peace is not so much a state of mind as a
journey.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">A journey that requires
patience. A journey that requires, frequently, repentance and forgiveness. A
journey that always requires humility and mercy, even in—especially in—the
search for truth. And ultimately the kind of peace the Bible
promotes—shalom—requires justice, for without it there can be no true, lasting,
deep well-being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Some of you may remember Bishop McKelvey when he
delivered the bread of the Eucharist to you, he would say, “The Body of Christ,
food for the journey.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Writing this
sermon brought that to mind, and I think I understand a little better what he
meant by that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Food for the journey on the way of peace.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-5614424891041854162023-12-03T18:50:00.000-05:002023-12-03T18:50:01.622-05:00Advent 1: What is Hope?<p> <i>Sermon preached on the First Sunday of Advent at the Church of the Redeemer, Addison, NY: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80, Mark 13:24-37</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When we think of Advent,
we think of the candles of Advent, marking the four Sundays before Christmas
Day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The origin of the Advent
candles is murky. It’s not ancient, probably no earlier than the 16</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
century, and really not popularized until a hundred or so years ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Part of the
popularization of the Advent wreathe was giving names to the four candles.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope, Peace, Joy, Love.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This made many Protestants feel better about
the practice, making it seem less Pagan or Papist.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s lost in the mist of
Episcopal Church history that burning candles—any candles—in church was very
controversial.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When the rector of old
St. Luke’s Church in Rochester put candles on the altar for the first time it
resulted in a split in the congregation resulting in the founding of what was
once Trinity Church in Rochester. The rector of St. Luke’s was accused of being
a papist because of those candles that we now take for granted.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s a bit of trivia,
but it gets us to the possible helpfulness of the naming of the candles. We
have an opportunity to get down to basics.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So let’s start with
hope. What is hope for the Christian?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">First let’s quickly be
clear about what hope is not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is not
two things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">First, it is not fortune
telling; it is not prophecy in terms of telling the future. Jesus warns against
this—about that day or hour no one knows . . . not even me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Second, hope is not
optimism, which one writer calls a “cheap, over-the-counter drug for
maintaining denial.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is not “always
look on the bright side of life.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So what is hope?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is first of all
grounded in reality. This means that hope always begins with a fearless grasp
of the truth, even when the truth reveals the ugliness of life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope isn’t afraid to ask
hard questions. In this morning’s psalm the writer asks,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">O Lord, how long will you be angered despite the
prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have
given them bowls of tears to drink. You have made us the derision of our
neighbors, and our enemies laugh us to scorn.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is not only
unafraid of the truth of what is really going on. It is also unafraid to lay
this state of affairs on God, to question God, to shake a fist at heaven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And a step further:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is not only unafraid to confront God
with the reality of human existence, but to remind God of God’s promises and to
insist on action.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So we began Advent with
one of the great cries from Isaiah:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Isaiah dares to ask God why he is absent. He speculates that it may be
that God cannot stand the mess we have made, and we, the prophet says, have
indeed made a mess.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But he ends with the
simple plea:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Now consider, we are all your people.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Or, as another translation puts it:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Look, please, we are all your people.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now there’s a paradox
here.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">At the same time we are ruthlessly
honest about ourselves and our world and the hiddenness of God, we also hold on
to God’s promises to be with us, God’s promise that we are his people and he
will never let us go.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And so, the refrain of
Psalm 80:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Restore us, O God of hosts, show the light of your
countenance, and we shall be saved.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So hope gives us
language to make sense of our lives:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We
are in a mess, we </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">are</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> a mess.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That mess is real, but so are God’s promises.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are not forever the mess that we are. God
has promised more than that, and shown us the possibility that our lives will
be more than that in the death and resurrection of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is courage,
really.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Courage to live in the messy
present and to face the uncertain future, claiming that neither the messiness
nor the uncertainty is what defines my life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Having that courage is
precisely what Jesus means when he says, “Keep awake.” You don’t know when God
is going to clear everything up, and it will try your patience that he seems so
often not to be paying attention.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But there is a
time.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Not your time, but God’s time.
Just don’t fall asleep. Just don’t give up. Keep awake. That is what hope is.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-71435984766136307152023-10-23T08:26:00.010-04:002023-10-23T08:26:44.088-04:00You're In Before You're Out<p> <i>Sermon preached at Church of the Redeemer, Addison on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, October 22, 2023: Matthew 22:15-22</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The religious
authorities had made their decision:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus must go. It had been one thing when he had been roaming around the
countryside, but now he had come to Jerusalem, and the crowds had received him
as a liberator, in what we call Palm Sunday. And once in the city, Jesus went
straight to the Temple and drove out the moneychangers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">So, angry, they had
challenged him in the Temple the morning after his arrival.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“By what authority are you doing these things?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Who gave you this authority?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Instead of simply
answering the question, Jesus told a series of stories, each one in its own way
a not-so-subtle condemnation of them.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We’ve heard these stories over the last few weeks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The first was about
the two sons whose father asks them to work in the vineyard.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">One says “yes” but doesn't go.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The other says “no” but changes his
mind.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus says, “The tax collectors
and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">They were willing to change their minds and
believe and you were not.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The second:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The landowner who leased his vineyard to
tenants, but when it came time to collect his share of the produce, the tenants
kill his messengers and even his son.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Therefore
I tell you,” Jesus says, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and
given to a people that produce the fruits of the kingdom.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And third, the king
who threw a great party but those invited refused to come.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">So he invites everyone on the streets, the
good and the bad, to enjoy the party.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Those who said no find themselves in outer darkness.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“For many are called, but few are chosen,”
says Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Then,” Matthew
tells us, “the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">No small wonder
after what they had just heard.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">They had
just heard their condemnation.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It was
clear that Jesus was against them. But also, how sad.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Sad because of what they hadn’t heard.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Their hearts were so hard that their ears
could only hear the condemnation.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But
they could have heard more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">In each of those
stories the condemnation had come only after the invitation.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And, furthermore, the condemnation had been
the result of a clear choice against the invitation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You have been
invited to work in the vineyard, to share the produce, and to come to the
party.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You said “no.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But even when you said “no” you still had the
opportunity to say "yes.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">In each case in
those three stories, it was made crystal clear that they were being included, they
were invited to join in, to be a part of God’s vineyard and the party to end
all parties.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And the invitation was stubborn.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It did not want to take “no” for an answer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Their exclusion had
only come after their inclusion.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Their
condemnation came only after their invitation.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But they had not even heard the invitation.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And in the end, their exclusion was their own
choice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Why was this?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Because they had
the formula backwards.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The formula they
adhered to was “exclusion before inclusion:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You're out before you're in.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And Jesus kept
saying, over and over again:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“No, you’re
in before you’re out.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Inclusion before
exclusion.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God’s love and acceptance come first.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Anything we do to respond to that love is
simply by way of saying thank you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Pharisees:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God’s love and acceptance come second.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You must first follow the letter of the law in
order to be acceptable to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You poor fools!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">No one can follow the letter of the law.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">If the law is the standard, everybody’s out,
eternally out.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Besides, you hypocrites, you
don't understand the law anyway.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You
spend so much time haggling over the small details, you have forgotten the very
reason the law exists:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">to teach us to
love God and our neighbor because God loved us first.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">I know, I was there when it happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But the Pharisees
and the religious authorities could not hear, because to hear would have turned
their whole world upside down.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">They
could not think the way Jesus was thinking.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It seemed all backwards.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And
because they could not think backwards, they could only imagine that what Jesus
was saying is that they were out and he and the tax collectors and the
prostitutes were in.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And that they knew was
preposterous.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Who had obeyed the law all
these years?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Who had worked harder than
they to keep society in order, to please God?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Who had held up God’s standards of behavior?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">I believe the
Pharisees not only rejected Jesus, but the God whom Jesus was
representing.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And in a way their seeking
to trap him and kill him, that was, of course, successful, was a plot to trap
and kill Jesus’ God.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God does not work
like that.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">This God we do not want.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We can’t have prostitutes and tax collectors
walking around thinking that they're loved by God.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We can’t have a God who invites the good and
the bad to parties.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">There will be
chaos.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Our whole way of life is
threatened by this kind of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And so the traps
begin to be set.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The first attempt is
the Gospel reading for today.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The plan
is to make Jesus take sides concerning the Roman occupation of Palestine.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Tell us what you
think.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Is it lawful to pay taxes to the
emperor, or not?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">A very clever trap
indeed.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">If Jesus says “yes” he will
alienate himself from many of the Jews.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The crowds may turn against him.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">If he says “no” he will get himself into trouble with the Romans.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">That would be the best thing of all.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">They have the power to put a man to death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">One problem:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus doesn’t answer yes or no questions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">He asks for a
coin.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">(I find it interesting that he
didn't have one himself.)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Whose image
is this, and whose title?”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It is
obviously the emperor’s, Tiberius’s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Give therefore to
the emperor the things that are the emperor’s.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Ah!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">He has taken sides!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">He says we must pay the tax!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But wait, here
comes the curve ball.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“And give to God
the things that are God’s.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The story says that
the Pharisees were amazed and went away.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The trap had failed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But why had it
failed?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It seems as if Jesus is saying
something like you pay your taxes to the state and your tithe to God.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And we hear that too because of the neat
separation of church and state that we are used to in this country.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus seems to be saying that we are right in
that separation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But this time we
aren’t listening and the Pharisees were, and that is why they went home
disappointed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">“Give the things
that are God's to God,” Jesus said.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The
question is, “What belongs to God”?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The
answer is, “Everything”.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The question
is, “On what is stamped the image of God?”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The answer is, “Every human being.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">So Jesus didn’t
answer the question at all.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">He left them
and us with another one.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">What has
priority for us?</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">What comes first?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Pharisees’ trap
is based on their way of thinking:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">exclusion before inclusion.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We have
to prove that he’s wrong about something.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Because if we prove that he is wrong than we can prove that he is an
outsider, who must be excluded under the law.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We must define him as an outsider.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It’s an old political trick.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But Jesus doesn’t
think that way.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The coin is stamped with
the emperor’s head, the image of Caesar.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">What Jesus’ answer says is that he will not be defined by this
image.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The only image that will define
him is God’s.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And that image is not
something he can get or not get by giving the right answer.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">It already is.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You cannot define whether I am in or I am
out, he is saying.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God has already said
I am in.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">I bear God’s image, not
Caesar’s or yours or anyone else’s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The Church over the
centuries and still today has continued to be tempted by the way of thinking of
the Pharisees.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">You are out before you
are in.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We have, unfortunately, given
into it more often than not.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And in
doing so, we reject the very one we claim to follow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The biblical story
is that God did not say in the beginning that “all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God said, “Let
there be light.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">God said, “Let us make
humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Original
image.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Original blessing.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We were in before we were out.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And it’s still true.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">We can say “yes” or “no” to God. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">But God has already said “yes” to us and has
kept on saying it, and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has
erased no from his vocabulary.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">Jesus is
God's eternal “yes” to us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The only “no” we
can receive is our own.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-42524348042506224832023-09-21T12:56:00.002-04:002023-09-21T12:56:35.993-04:00<p><span style="font-size: large;"> I'm pleased to announce the publication of my book:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaCxhREFKw6QUBxO3C2fVtS8jcR3XttwnQzGq136S3duBsQS8vepMuZmQ6xYfo1Zq11vQjTNUiVicfRVyu_3oDJma6Oi8II0Wz8eEJLiP2CbfBBkCqyOIAZ_d_cyc8fp8kDqfxdTvcjjqeb1-cl6vvQBK2FvcA_N6g4muhHO6YoFaYl0QrwzOB7g" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1325" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaCxhREFKw6QUBxO3C2fVtS8jcR3XttwnQzGq136S3duBsQS8vepMuZmQ6xYfo1Zq11vQjTNUiVicfRVyu_3oDJma6Oi8II0Wz8eEJLiP2CbfBBkCqyOIAZ_d_cyc8fp8kDqfxdTvcjjqeb1-cl6vvQBK2FvcA_N6g4muhHO6YoFaYl0QrwzOB7g=w213-h330" width="213" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Published by Church Publishing and available through them or on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Foreword by The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Complete with Study Guide suitable for groups.</span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Church Publishing says</span></i></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: grey; font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.25rem; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Christ himself lived in a time of immense social and political turmoil, as did his early followers. But can those early struggles provide guidance for God’s faithful in today's divided world? Episcopal priest and peace advocate Michael W. Hopkins proves that they can, tracing the origins of Christian responsibility all the way back to the indissoluble bond of baptism, drawing a clear line between those fraught early days and the turbulent present that Jesus commands Christians to engage in.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: grey; font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.25rem; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Called to Act</em> peels back the historical and scriptural underpinnings of Christianity to exhume the social obligations inherited by all members of the kingdom of God. Through interpretation of Jesus’ words, works, and sacraments, modern day Christians can begin to reframe their fundamental outlook on and participation in the world, working as one to build communities of mutual care. Rather than allow differences of opinion or misguided attempts at neutrality to divorce Christians from the necessary work of political and community engagement, Hopkins provides compelling scriptural evidence for a new kingdom, united not by what has been left undone, but by what Christians are called to do for each other. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: grey; font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica; line-height: 1.75rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.25rem; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-size: large;">Join the conversation on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550780948938" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</span></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-4649476327762713232023-09-10T16:05:00.002-04:002023-09-10T16:05:35.472-04:00With all Creation<p> <i>Sermon peached on the 15th Sunday after Pentecost (observing Creation Season) at Church of the Redeemer, Addison: Exodus 12:1-14.</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We continue this morning
in our second of five weeks celebrating God’s creation and our responsibility
as part of that creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The readings began in
the Book of Exodus with the institution story for the Jewish Passover.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We read this same story on Maundy Thursday,
the day we celebrate Jesus’ gift to us of the Eucharist.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In regard to God’s
creation, the Passover story reminds us that God frequently uses the creation
as a means of communicating with us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is, of course, true for us in the Eucharist, where common things of
the earth—bread made from wheat and wine made from grapes—become the means by
which Jesus shares the offering of his own body and blood for our redemption.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But there is more of the
creation in the Eucharist than the simple use of elements of it as
symbols.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The creation is not just a
subject in our celebration. The creation is an active participant.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are using Eucharistic
Prayer D for the remaining four weeks of our celebration of creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">One of the reasons I chose it is because the
place of the creation in our celebration could not be clearer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Leading up to the
Sanctus—the “Holy, holy, holy,” we pray:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made
all things and fill them with your blessing; you created them to rejoice in the
splendor of your radiance.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What do these words
teach us? They teach us not only that God made everything.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That assertion is important. The creation is
God’s doing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That answers the question
of how? How is the creation made? God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But the prayer goes on to
answer another question:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why? Why does
God create?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“You created them to rejoice
in the splendor of your radiance.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The purpose of
creation—every bit of it—is to praise God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That does not mean that the purpose of all creation is to advance God’s
ego needs.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, to worship God is to be
in relationship with God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Worship is the
exchange of love.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the prayer teaches
us that this exchange of love with the Creator is what all creation is made
for.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The prayer goes on:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve
you night and day; and, beholding the glory of your presence, they offer you
unceasing praise. Joining with them, and giving voice to every creature under
heaven, we acclaim you, and glorify your Name, as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy …”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our job is not only to
sing the praise of God for ourselves, but to give voice to every creature under
heaven.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When we sing the “Holy, holy,
holy,” we do not sing alone. We sing with all that God has made.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And here let us be
careful to note that we do not sing for all creation because it is too dumb to
do so. No, creation, lives in praise of God all on its own, without our
aid.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The part we play is to give that
already praising creation the additional power of human language.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sing “Holy, holy, holy”
and imagine as you are doing so, joining with “all things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small” but also every blade of grass, and especially at
this time of year imagine every luscious tomato and ear of corn.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> I am reminded of the
reading from Pope Francis we had last week:
“Nature,” he said, “</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">cannot be regarded as something
separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of
nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To forget this union we are in with
creation, which we celebrate when we sing, “Holy, holy, holy,” is a very
dangerous thing. Brother Keith Nelson of the Society of St. John the
Evangelist, an Episcopal monastic order, put this danger quite starkly as we
just heard:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When
we violate, abuse, exploit, or even simply ignore non-human creatures, we are
rejecting a core dimension of our humanity and of God’s calling for us. We are
crucifying the earth. We are interrupting, speaking over, or bickering with
God’s gentle language of love, in which each creature is like a syllable of the
living Word.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“We are crucifying the earth.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">As I said, stark words. But important
ones.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is the exact opposite of what
Eucharistic Prayer D says is our place in the creation:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">to rule </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">and</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> to serve.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To crucify is not to rule; it is to abuse.
And to crucify is not to serve, but to use, even to enslave.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Perhaps it is best to leave today with
that stark statement:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What is going on around
us is that humankind—we—are crucifying the earth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So in our celebration of creation in
our own day there must be a firm note of penitence, for what we have done and
left undone in regard to God’s creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our use and abuse must stop and we must learn to act differently.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">How to act differently will be the question I
will try to answer next week.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-51258188177559629272023-09-10T16:02:00.003-04:002023-09-10T16:02:32.328-04:00God Sees Every Thing<p><i>Sermon preached on the 14th Sunday after Pentecost (observing Creation Season) at Church of the Redeemer, Addison.</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Let us pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Almighty God, who hast so linked our lives one with another that all we
do affects, for good or ill, all other lives:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but
for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us
mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern
for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and
reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Amen.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is the Collect for
Labor from </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">The Book of Common Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, and it is also a fitting prayer as
we begin five weeks of celebrating God’s creation and the responsible part we
play in it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Here is the reality we are
trying to come to grips with:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God has
created life in a web and everything we do in that web affects all the web, and
we are not talking solely about human interdependence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Indeed, we are talking about the
interdependence of all creation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In our day, when we
speak of the common good, we speak not only of the common human good, but the
good of all creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are still
learning to speak in this way, and, as a result, are still learning to act in
this way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We have always said in
the church that, as the great Anglican poet John Donne once wrote, “no man is
an island.” We are not made to live life alone, and we are not made to live
life in competition with one another. No, our vision is cooperation, not competition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What we have not always
said in the church is that the cooperation to which we are called is not only
with one another, on the plane of human existence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are called to cooperate in and with
creation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We have rather thought
that the creation is a gift for us to be used to advance our own lives.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We thought that God gave us the right to rule
over the creation. Subdue it, bend it to our will.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s right there in the very beginning of the
Bible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But we have for
centuries abused the creation story, twisted it to our own benefit. I remember
being taught at some young age that at the end of each day of creation God
said, “This is good,” but when he made human beings, he said, “This is very
good.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But that isn’t what the
text says. It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to figure that our. At the end of
the sixth day, the day on which all the animals and humankind were made, the
text says,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it
was very good.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God saw </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">everything</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
he had made, and indeed it was very good.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s the biblical worldview that we must begin with if we are going to
think and act rightly about the creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Each thing God makes is good. Only all together is it </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">very good</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And yes, God said to
humankind to fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over all living
things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But what does it mean to
“subdue” and have “dominion?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Hebrew
word translated “subdue” does not mean have power over. It doesn’t mean subdue
as in enslave. It means something more like “organize,” “create a pattern
with.” The image I have here is of the conductor of an orchestra.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s what it means
that we are in the role of subduing, having dominion. We are the overseers of
the great cooperation God has made.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There’s a balance that is expressed in the Eucharistic Prayer we will
use during the rest of this Creation Season. Prayer D says:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">You formed us in your own image, giving the whole
world into our care, so that, in obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule
and serve all your creatures.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Rule </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">and</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> serve.”
That’s the balance. I’m going to keep coming back to that phrase over the next
several weeks. What does it mean to rule and to serve the creation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Pope Francis said,
“Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere
setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in
constant interaction with it.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It
reminds me of something Richard Hooker said more than 400 years ago.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hooker, the great theological mind of early
Anglicanism, writing as if it were today and he could see the environmental
disaster we are in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">God hath created nothing simply for itself: but each
thing in all things, and of every thing each part in the other hath such
interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing created
can say, “I need thee not.”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Nothing, no one, can say
to any other thing in the whole world, “I need thee not.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s a good place to
start our reflection on the creation and our place in it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We do not have the power
to say to anyone or anything, “I need thee not.”</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-11865549383021452812023-07-30T18:23:00.010-04:002023-07-30T18:23:58.578-04:00The Great Pearl according to Paul<p> <i>Sermon preached on Sunday, July 30, 2023 at Church of the Redeemer, Addison, NY, the 9th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12A): Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52; Romans 8:26-39</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of the four short
parables we just heard, I am most interested this morning in the search for the
Great Pearl.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of
fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he
had and bought it.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It must have been some
pearl, to sell everything he had—to risk it all—to possess it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is hyperbole, of course.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What smart business owner would do such a
thing?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But Jesus’ parables frequently
push us beyond a reasonable response.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The kingdom, Jesus is
saying, is worth everything. So we might ask just what is this great pearl in
your life, in my life, that we would give everything to possess?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">St. Paul knows what it
is. At the end of chapter eight he takes us through an examination of our life,
our frequent perception of the purposes of God, and then the revelation of the
real prize.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He begins the passage we
just heard, laying out what relationship with God looks like—how it works.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He’s not easy to follow, but here I think is
the basic outline:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.5in;">Let’s be real, he
says, we are weak. We don’t know how to pray. Sometimes all we can do in the face
of life is sigh or even groan, a word he used previously in this chapter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>II.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">The good news is
that the Spirit of God within every one of us, prays on our behalf. The Spirit
turns our ignorance, our sighs, our groans into prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hear a groan; God hears what we need.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>III.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">We believe that
in the purposes of God all things work together for good. It is often not easy
to see when we are in the midst of trouble or grief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trust that is required of us is enormous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>IV.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">But the bottom
line, he says, is that whatever the circumstances of our life, we are called by
God, we are justified by God, we are glorified by God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">That would have been a pretty good ending for this
train of thought, but Paul knows he is being idealistic and that these promises
raise all kinds of questions when we are in the midst of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he lays those questions out:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.5in;">What are we to
say about this? In other words, how can we know these things are true?</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>II.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">If God is for us,
he asks, who is against us? It’s a rhetorical question, because we all experience
in life at times—maybe even frequently—that there is plenty that is against us.
Death is just the most obvious of those things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>III.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">The next
questions gives a hint at where he is going. The God who made himself known in
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, will that God not give us
everything he has promised?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -.25in; tab-stops: right 4.1in; text-indent: -.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>IV.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">But doesn’t this
God also judge? And is not that the great weight upon us all, the fear that we
will be found short of the mark, unworthy, not good enough for God’s promises?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Then
Paul asks the real question. Who is to condemn? Who is it who will judge us?
And if we’ve been paying attention reading this chapter of Romans, our ears
will prickle at the word “condemn.” Where have we heard that word before.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">It
was at the very beginning if the chapter, the rather outlandish declaration
that “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">So who is to condemn us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is that same Christ Jesus, who dies for
us, who was raised for us, who prays for us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">So he asks the question about who will condemn us in a different way:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Who will separate us from
the love of Christ?</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Will hardship separate us from God’s love? Will
distress?—there’s plenty of that in life. Will persecution? Will nakedness,
meaning will economic woes? Will poverty separate from God’s love?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Will danger? Will war?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And to say to us, these are very real questions, it’s OK to
have them, he quotes from Psalm 44, a real complaint to God. “For sake, God, we
are being killed all day long, like sheep to be slaughtered.” Yes, indeed, that
is what life feels like sometimes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But then comes the crescendo, what it all comes down to,
the heart of everything that Paul believes, and, I believe, that Jesus taught.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, he says, when all seems lost we are “more than
conquerors?” When all seems lost we actually win.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Just soak that in. Nothing, not even our own stuff. Nothing.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And there it is. The pearl of great price, the thing that
we would give anything for, the absolute assurance of love. The love that made
the universe is our, guaranteed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the secret is that when we search for it, we find that
it was already ours. The pearl of great price is not somewhere else for us to
search heaven and earth to find it. It was in our possession all the time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Remember these astounding words from the baptismal rite:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">You are sealed by the Holy
Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We say those words not in wishful thinking. We say them
because they are the truest things that can be said about us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No separation. None. The Pearl of Great Price: the
steadfast love of God.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-74864952823504718912023-07-16T07:46:00.002-04:002023-07-16T07:46:14.160-04:00Ishmael's Siblings<p> <i>Sermon preached at Church of the Redeemer, Addison, NY, June 25, 2023, the 4th Sunday after Pentecost: Genesis 21:8-21</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s to the first
reading I turn this morning, a very important piece of the Abraham and Sarah
story from Genesis, although a part of the story with which we are not so
familiar, the story of Hagar and Ishmael.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This story is important
because it is an example of how the biblical story allows for the complexities
of life, and, even as it seems to give us a narrow way to live, there are these
moments when it allows for a broader understanding of what it means to be
faithful.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Two weeks ago we were
with Abram and Sarai as God called them to leave their home and travel to the
land of Canaan, a foreign land.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was a
hard thing for God to ask of them, but it came with a promise:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In this foreign land I will make your
descendants as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, as many as the
stars in the sky.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Your children will be a
blessing to the whole world.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They
trusted in that pro ise and they went.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They went, but the years
went by and the promise was not fulfilled. No children came to them. Yet God
kept promising. Last week we heard of one of those occasions when the promise
was renewed, when Abraham and Sarah were visited by three strangers, who
brought with them the message:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">you will
bear children and they will be a blessing to the world. It was such an
impossibility in their minds at that point that it caused Sarah to laugh.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The unfulfilled promise
was finally dealt with by Abraham and Sarah in their own way. They could not
wait any longer for God to act, so they did.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sarah gave her slave girl Hagar to Abraham so that he might have a child
to be his heir. And, indeed, Ishmael was born.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But then after yet
another reiteration of the promise, Sarah becomes pregnant in her very old age
and bears a son, Isaac, whose name means “laughter.” Finally here is the child
of the promise.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But what of
Ishmael?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sarah cannot bear any rivalry
with Isaac, and so she demands that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away.
Abraham is deeply saddened by this request, but God intervenes. It is all
right, God says, do what Sarah has asked of you. But do not worry about the
boy. I will take care of him. He too will be the father of a great nation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hagar and Ishmael’s part
in the story could have simply ended there and we would not have thought
anything of it, but the biblical writer wants us to know more, wants us to be
sure about God’s care for this other child, the child not of the promise.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God fulfils his promise and the boy lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This story has always
been important to me, ever since I first became aware of it, which if I
remember correctly was not until I was in seminary.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I was and am deeply attracted to Ishmael, the
child not of the promise, the “inconvenient child,” if you will.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Isaac represents
normality, the way things are supposed to be, the way things work best maybe
even the way God wants them to be.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But
then there is Ishmael, the different one, the inconvenient one, the one born
outside the norm, whose life is not typical and, therefore, perhaps not as
highly valued. Ishmael is not the way things are supposed to be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And yet!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is room in God’s heart for
Ishmael.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is room in God’s heart
for the unusual, different, abnormal, inconvenient, not seemingly what was
promised.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There’s room in God’s heart,
that meant and means, for me.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And, truth
to tell, for you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Bible sets out a
path to the promise of abundant life. God tells Abraham that Sarah is right.
Indeed God will use Isaac—the child of the promise—to build his Israel. That is
how life works, what we might call normal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But the Bible also, time
and time again, provides an alternative, a path that does not appear to lead to
the promise, but all things are possible for God. God can find a way whose
lives do not follow the usual route. Those who are not obviously children of
the promise, and yet are still children of love and care. The children of Hagar
are also loved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And that is the good
news for today. Whatever your life does or does not look like, you are loved
and God will find a way for you.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the
church, if we are truly doing our job, will find a way also.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I am proof of that, brother of Ishmael,
thanks be to God.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-72830129770833046842023-06-10T16:15:00.009-04:002023-06-10T16:15:41.709-04:00The Social God<p> <i>Sermon preached on Trinity Sunday, June 4, 2023 at Church of the Redeemer, Addison, New York, in the Diocese of Rochester, my first Sunday as priest-in-residence.</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am pleased to be with
you today and to begin our ministry together, our relationship together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope over the next few months to get to
know each one of you, and for each one of you to get to know me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I will start by telling
you what is at the heart of my understanding of why it is we gather, and what
it is we have to say to the world around us in the Name of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I’ve used the word
already:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">relationship.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The good news is that God desires
relationship with us. The good news is that we are capable of relationship with
God. The good news is that we are called to be in relationship with one
another. The good news is that we never need be alone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A friend remarked that
it was too bad that my first sermon in this new role had to fall on Trinity
Sunday.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I said that actually it is
perfect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is sometimes said
that this is the only Sunday when we celebrate a doctrine rather than a part of
the story. That’s not true at all. The notion of God as Trinity came out of the
early Christians’ experience of God. God as Trinity made sense of their story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Christianity from the
very beginning was an intensely social religion. That is no surprise because
Jesus was an intensely social person. The value of life in community shows up
in all the writings of the early church. Part of the conversion to the message
of Jesus was a profound acceptance that we are responsible for each other, that
the common good among us is vitally important.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Relationship was so
critical to early Christian life, that it came to make sense that even God
consisted of relationship. Their witness said that it is, in effect, too
dangerous to say that God is only one.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The vision of monotheism is the right vision we say, but it is a
dangerous vision.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is dangerous
because, left to itself, God too easily becomes distant lord, monarch, detached
ruler.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is a vision of a God who
ultimately needs nothing and no one.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That is not the God
known by Jesus, and it is not our experience of God. The insight we bring to
the tale is that God needs. God needs the world. God needs us. The very nature
of God is community. Our God is not a monarchical God but a social God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Trinity is more than
a doctrine.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It reveals who we are and
what we are called to do.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It means that
we are called to community and society being created in God’s image.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is our nature, like
God, to need, to need not to be alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And not just with whom already know and love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to co-create with God a world
where no thing and no one is alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is part of “the
dignity of every human being” that we pledge to uphold in our baptismal
covenant.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We sometimes get this wrong in
our culture.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We think that the dignity
of every human being is to stand on his or her own two feet, being a
“self-made” man or woman.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, we Christians say,
the dignity of every human being is to stand among sisters and brothers and
know herself or himself to be one with them, a fellow, equal child of God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And it is our vision of the Trinity that
leads us to proclaim this radical truth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Way back on Easter Day,
we heard the risen Jesus say to the women who came to the tomb, “Do not be
afraid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now, it is perfectly
reasonable for someone in this world of ours, in this county and village even,
to respond, “Why not? Why shouldn’t I be afraid?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is a legitimate
question.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You only have to read the
newspaper or watch the TV news to know that it is a perfectly rational
question.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Do not be afraid, you say?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why not?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Christian answer is
the answer of the Trinity.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why not be
afraid? Because you are not alone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That
is what happens when we know we are not alone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It makes it possible not to be afraid.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Because we are not alone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Then, of course, we must
prove it with our actions.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We must prove
it with those two essential things that are at the heart of the life of the
Trinity and, therefore, must be at the heart of our life:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">hospitality and generosity, the outward and
visible signs of real, unconditional, love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is the discipleship
to which Jesus calls us this morning.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Go and make disciples,” he says, “baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Make disciples of the Trinity.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Make disciples of the social God, the God Jesus
revealed to us whose very life is community.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Go and make disciples who will help me build a world where no one and no
thing is afraid because no one and no thing is alone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 37.4pt right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our belief in God as
Trinity is not our belief in some antiquated doctrine.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is our belief in the fundamental life of
God, and the need of God to make a world where no one is alone.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-30922195725996020402023-02-06T10:39:00.000-05:002023-02-06T10:39:06.486-05:00The Meaning of Righteousness<p> <i>Sermon preached on February 5, 2023, the 5th Sunday after Epiphany, at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY: Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 112, Matthew 5:13-20</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What are we to make of
this proclamation of Jesus?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It comes down
to what the biblical witness means by righteousness.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What does it mean to be righteous?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Luckily, both Isaiah and
the psalmist give us clues.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let’s start
with Psalm 112.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We might call Psalm 112
a “lifestyle psalm.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It begins with a
beatitude, “Happy [or Blessed] are they who fear the </span><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That phrase—fear the
Lord—is used frequently in the Old Testament.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is often misunderstood.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Fear
of the Lord” doesn’t have anything to do with being afraid or living in terror.
God does not want us to be intimidated by him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Fear of the Lord” has
to do with what the second half of that first verse says. Happy are they who
“have great delight in God’s commandments.” “fear” and “delight” may sound like
two very different things, but in the biblical way of thinking they are not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Biblical fear has to do
with putting God first, holding God in reverence and awe, knowing that God is
greater than me, and, therefore, I am accountable to God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The rest of Psalm 112
lays out what this lifestyle entails.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It
drops the word “fear” and uses the term “righteous” or “righteousness.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And what does the psalm tell us about righteousness:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The righteous are
merciful and full of compassion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">They are generous
and just.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">They trust God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">They have a
certain stability about them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">They give freely
to the poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To be fair, the psalm
also claims the righteous will be rich. It is not clear that the psalmist means
the righteous will have loads of money.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is clear that they will have a certain contentment about them, know
that life is a gift, and are committed to share that gift with others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Righteousness in Psalm
112 has nothing to do with being sinless, which is how the word “righteous”
first rings in our ears.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, the
righteous person knows they are in a community of responsibility. In other
words, they seek to live out the commandment to love their neighbors.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They seek to make a difference for good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">On to Isaiah 58. The
context of this passage is the return from the exile in Babylon and the
re-building of Jerusalem and indeed the entire society.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Questions were being asked about worship,
perhaps even arguments occurring. Imagine fighting over worship!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God speaks through the
prophet what must have been an astounding word.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I don’t care about how you worship. I care about how your worship
changes your life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Is this the fast that I choose [asks God]:</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>to
loose the bonds of injustice,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>to undo
the thongs of the yoke,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>to let
the oppressed go free,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>and to
break every yoke?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Here is how you practice
righteousness, God says:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">share your
bread with those who do not have enough, find homes for those without them,
clothe those who are naked.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is a thoroughly
social and economic message:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">it is about
bread, and clothing, and housing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If round about now, we
(and I do mean we) feel some resistance to this text, that is actually a good
thing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It means God is getting our
attention.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God does not want us to stop worshipping,
but he doesn’t want our worship to end when we leave the building.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Worship begets righteousness or it is
meaningless.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To use words form the
prophet Micah from last week, God expects our worship to result in our walking
humbly with God, doing justice in God’s world and loving the way of neighborly
kindness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So, what does Jesus mean
by righteousness?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I believe he meant
just what Isaiah said, and I partly say that because the latter part of Isaiah
seems to have been a rich resource for Jesus in his understanding of both who
God is and what God means for our life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To live a righteous life
is to live in the covenant of loving God and loving neighbor, a covenant which
seeks always the common good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Back to the word
“fear.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Too much we are taught,
encouraged, not to love our neighbors but to fear them, and not to trust them,
because their need may be their own fault, and their attempt to take from us
what is ours.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Bible dares us to
leave behind, to turn our backs on any fear we have of one another and instead
fear only God, to take delight in God’s commandments and to seek to live a life
that is part of the common good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It isn’t easy to make
this turn. It is, in fact, hard to do so.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But if we want a fulfilling life, it is what we have to do.</span></p><br /><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-19803166488627202822023-01-09T16:24:00.001-05:002023-01-09T16:24:15.032-05:00Getting Into the River with Us<p> <i>Sermon preached at St. Thomas Church, Bath, NY on the First Sunday after the Epiphany (the Baptism of Jesus). January 8, 2023: Matthew 3:13-17</i></p><p><i>You can listen to the sermon<a href="https://soundcloud.com/stthomasbath/friend-of-sinners?si=823ab03e961646b4b13b467e1769d05a&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing"> here</a>.</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Imagine with me that
scene at the Jordan River.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Jordan
isn’t much bigger than the Cohocton, so you can imagine it. There’s this guy
named John who has set up camp there. We’d probably call him a religious fanatic.
I suppose many people of his day also thought of him that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John spends his time
telling people how awful they are—that they’re not right with God. They are
destined for God’s wrath, he says, and he calls them things like “you brood of
vipers.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Despite this message,
people are attracted to John. Who knows why?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Is it just curiosity? He is certainly eccentric, even, perhaps,
exotic.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Or is it because he’s telling
people the truth?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Maybe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But maybe not just that.
He’s telling people the harsh truth about their lives, but he’s also offering
them a second chance.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You can turn your
lives around, he says.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s what he
means by the Greek word </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">metanoia</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, which gets translated into English,
“repent.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And he’s giving them a way to
act this out, by baptism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John didn’t invent
baptism, as some Christians erroneously think. He was following a Jewish
tradition of immersion in water as a ritual purification. It was called </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Tvilah</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
and it had to take place in naturally moving water, called a </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">mikveh</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, and
it was repeatable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We’re told that crowds went
out to John. They didn’t just wander by.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is about twenty miles from Jerusalem to the Jordan.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, they meant to be there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So imagine a mass of people on the banks of
the river, they quite possibly come from all sorts and conditions of people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Some of them probably
thought they were basically good people. Others knew their life needed
changing. Some of them carried the label unclean or sinner.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But John called them all sinners.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He neither cared about labels or about the
degrees of sin that religious people tend to devise. They were all equally
guilty before God as far as he was concerned.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now one day into this
mass of people walks Jesus.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is
tempting to imagine a hush falling over the crowd, and their parting the way
for this obviously holy person.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Don’t go
there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Imagine instead, that Jesus just
gets in line.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Nobody knows who he is yet
and he is perfectly content joining the crowd in its need, to be identified as
one of them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We make a big deal about
Jesus being without sin, and we don’t have any reason to doubt that was the
truth about him.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But in a sense that
doesn’t much matter, because Jesus chose to identify with all those John called
sinners.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And his identification
with sinners did not stop at his baptism.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was his lifestyle.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was what
he did, and it was controversial, especially among the religious leaders of his
day. They ask his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?” (Matt 9:10-11). And they say about him, “Look! A glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (11:19).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If he never sinned, he
was certainly more comfortable among sinners than the religious of his
day.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And it gave him a bad reputation,
and eventually it was among the reasons they had him done away with.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We have just gone
through our annual celebration of Emmanuel, “God with us.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And today, sort of at the tail end of that
celebration, we get clear about just how radical an act that was and is—God
with us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God with us in the
needy, messy mass of us; God with us in the river; God with us struggling and
often failing to be better people; God with us when we are feeling better than
others; God with us when we are labeled sinner by others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A teenager in my first
congregation, not long after my ordination—which will be 33 years ago on
Tuesday—took me aside one Sunday morning, looking troubled.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A friend of hers, she said, had told her that
her pastor was a sinner. She was embarrassed that she had not know what to say.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I suggested she engage
her friend on the topic again and when her friend delivered the judgment that
her pastor was a sinner she reply, “Of course he is. Isn’t yours?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">She did that.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Not as bad as yours,” was the reply she got.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I smiled when she told
me that, and we had a talk about who Jesus kept company with.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There are two different
ways of understanding how and why we are saved.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Actually, there are many, but they basically fall into one of two
categories.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">One is that our
relationship with Jesus saves us from sin, and we are no longer sinners. Oh, we
sin from time to time, and then we have to repent, but that moment when we
first asked for forgiveness separates us from the mass of unrepentant sinners.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are “the saved.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The second is that
Jesus’ relationship with us saves us because he identifies with us in our
sinfulness, in the brokenness and messiness of our lives, he loves us as we
are, first, and then calls us to be more, and out of gratitude and a renewed
sense of purpose that is what we do.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But he does not call us
to be better than other people.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That’s
not a category with which he has any concern.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And he does not call us to separate ourselves from other people.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He himself steadfastly refused to do so even
when it caused scandal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus calls us to be
more, calls us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to find God in the
neighbor, and not just our neighbors who have their acts together.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And he calls us to be committed to his
cause—the God-given dignity of human beings, which means making peace and doing
justice in our daily lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You may recognize those
callings to be part of our Baptismal Covenant, which we will re-affirm in a few
moments.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They are not ways to be better
than others.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They are ways to follow God
into the messiness of human life and once there, be loved and love and love
again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">At Jesus’ baptism, we
are told a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with
whom I am well pleased.” We might assume that God said those words because
Jesus had lived an exemplary life, and came to the Jordan, at around thirty
years of age unlike the rest of us, without sin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I do not think so.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What if God’s pleasure in his beloved Son was
because he did what he did at that river—he chose to be identified with
sinners, to be one of them, whether he deserved to be or not?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John wanted Jesus to
baptize him, as he recognized him as the sinless one.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus’ reply amounts to this:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“No, John, this is the right thing to do. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The only way for me to help people to be
righteous is to get into the river with them.”</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-51045840020463321102023-01-03T10:52:00.001-05:002023-01-03T10:52:14.022-05:00Holding God in Our Arms<p> <i>Sermon preached at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY on Holy Name Day, January 1, 2023: Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 2:15-21<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexE67e5urCkURVUD_ZLy1QXgKPmjnnjBzr_-EZWx6qf2RVrzoPMbo3-JMxZu7hsri3AQZqKpVUfFr6D5-UcIRN4TgfkUyfsnhJrsRZlhr7bWAyxbmW_4R5S7wDftHAVtm3v60Pcjh3rwnpjEuvic00-kXxhj6-qYysINbbTQ837cPhy_iwVA/s1728/Madonna%20&%20Child%20Westminster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="1219" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexE67e5urCkURVUD_ZLy1QXgKPmjnnjBzr_-EZWx6qf2RVrzoPMbo3-JMxZu7hsri3AQZqKpVUfFr6D5-UcIRN4TgfkUyfsnhJrsRZlhr7bWAyxbmW_4R5S7wDftHAVtm3v60Pcjh3rwnpjEuvic00-kXxhj6-qYysINbbTQ837cPhy_iwVA/s320/Madonna%20&%20Child%20Westminster.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sculpture by Guy Reid<br />St. Matthew's, Westminster, UK</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I love this image of Mary
and Jesus. It is so different from most depictions of
Mary and Jesus, with the two focused entirely on each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Here both Jesus and Mary
are looking outward. If the picture were head on, you would see them both
staring straight at you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the pose. The first
time I saw it I instantly thought, she’s wanting you to hold him. Like so many
mothers with their newborns, at least to people they trust:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Would you like to hold him?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">As Episcopal priest
Martin Smith says about a similar statue, that question—Do you want to hold
him?—gets at the very heart of Christmas.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is as though Mary were saying, “My baby is as much yours as he is
mine.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He belongs to you as much as me.
Let me hand him over to you.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it is not easy, is
it, to imagine taking Jesus into our arms, especially if he is who he says he
is. If he is the Word made flesh, God incarnate, well, that would put us in the
ridiculous position of holding God in our arms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But this is absurd, is
it not? God is all-powerful, to be feared in dreadful majesty.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And that gets at the
point. We can’t hold the baby Jesus in our arms </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">and</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> hold onto our fear
of God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are so attached to our fear
of God. We are so convinced that God is menacing, even though we sometimes
bravely say he is love. We are so sure that God’s closeness would be overwhelming,
somehow dangerous, that we are glad we can keep our distance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But that sentiment comes
under judgment when Mary says, “Here is the God you are so afraid of. Will you
hold him?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can only do so if we let
go of our fear.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Remember, what are the first
words spoken directly by humanity to God in the Bible?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the Garden of Eden, God calls out to Adam
and Eve, “Where are you?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And Adam
replies, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid . . .”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The consequence of the first sin is to fear
God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now, you will say, the
Bible tells us to fear God, frequently.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yes, yes it does.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But then, when
God speaks either directly or through an angel, or through Jesus himself, how
does that speech so often begin?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Do not
be afraid.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is what the angel
Gabriel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, I come with good news.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The same is said to the shepherds.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And Mary, as pictured in this statue, is
giving that same message to us, “Would you like to hold him? Do not be afraid.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What if the fear God wants
from us turns out to be love? That love which one of our post-communion prayers
calls “gladness and singleness of heart.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So we come to this
Eucharist on this New Year’s Day, the 8</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Day of Christmas,
celebrating, in the words of St. Paul, the self-emptying of God. We confess
together with some embarrassment and, hopefully, some relief, that once again
we have gotten God all wrong.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The word comes to us
through the ages, “Do not be afraid!”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And when we get to Easter in a few months we will hear it again, as was
said to the women at the tomb, “Do not be afraid.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Will we believe
them?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Will we say “yes” to Mary when she
hands us our God to hold? She says to us, “This is the one of whom you are
afraid.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Here, hold him.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And isn’t this precisely
what I will do in a few minutes? Hand him over to you, in a bit of bread.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Take him, it really is him, but in a form
that makes our fear absurd.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We come together as
Christmas continues, doing the thing we always do, remembering that day more
than two thousand years ago when being afraid of God itself became absurd.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">With grateful thanks to The Rev. Martin Smith’s sermon, “Would you Like
to Hold Him?” found in </span><i style="font-size: 10pt;">Nativities and Passions: Words for Transformation</i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
(Boston: Cowley Press, 1995, pp. 3-7.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-61320854117997994232022-11-20T15:12:00.006-05:002022-11-20T15:12:41.707-05:00Broken Words, Broken Lives (It's a Good Thing)<p> <i>Sermon preached at St. John's Church, Catherine, and St. James' Church, Watkins Glen on the Last Sunday after Pentecost, often called "Christ the King Sunday," November 20, 2022. Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-43</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Christ the King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the only Sunday of the church year celebrating
a metaphor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christ the King.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s a good Sunday to
remember the limits of human language and how we use it when we talk about God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We use human language to
describe God. We have to, it’s the only tool we have.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it is good for us to remember the
difference between description and definition.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When it comes to God, description we can do; definition we cannot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Remember the third of
the ten commandments:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">You shall not
make wrongful use of the name of the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>
your God, for the <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> will not
acquit anyone who misuses his name.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We take this to mean
that we should not use “God” or “Jesus” as a curse word.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But the commandment is deeper than that.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is about control—how we attempt to control
God by definition.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The commandment is
about protecting the freedom and mystery of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The truth is that human
attempts to define God always go awry.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We attempt to describe God in many ways:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Almighty, Eternal, Shepherd, Lord, King, even Father, just to name a
few.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Each of these does help us understand
God, but God also has a tendency to break them open.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Take the title
King.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It helps us speak about the God
who is the ultimate ruler of all things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But when we use the title for Jesus—Christ the King—we have to come to
terms with how Jesus broke open the title.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">First of all, he did not
use it for himself.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He speaks frequently
of the kingdom of God, but never calls himself its king.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In John’s Gospel at one point he slips out of
town because he feared the people were going to try to declare him king (John
6:15).</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When Pilate accuses him of
wanting to be king, he says his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:33-37).
In other words, Jesus is saying that you may call me a king, but you have no
idea what you are talking about.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The soldiers then mock
Jesus as a king, with a bloody cloak and a crown of thorns, and Pilate has
affixed to the cross the accusation against Jesus, “This is the King of the
Jews.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And yet we call him
King.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But he breaks open our human
language, our human description—King—from the cross.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He is not a King who sits on a royal throne
in a royal palace and has the power of life and death over others. His throne
is the cross and he uses his power to accept his own death on behalf of others.
And while accepting death, he asks God to forgive those who made his death
happen and offers mercy to his fellow sufferers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He takes the title
“King,” breaks it, and offers it back to us infused with new meaning.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You can take any title we give him and find
that he does the same thing:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">breaks it,
and gives it new meaning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is how God works.
And it is not only our human language that God breaks. It is also us, if we let
him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Think about that time in
the Eucharist where we break something.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The breaking of bread.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“The
fraction,” we call it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is only one of
two places in </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">The Book of Common Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> that insists on silence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The rubric says, “Silence </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">is</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> kept.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is one of the least
followed Prayer Book rubric because we are uncomfortable with silence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If there’s too much silence, we think
something is wrong. Somebody’s forgetting something!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But the silence is there
because what we have just done—break the bread—is the whole point.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God wishes to break us open and make us new
people to send out into the world.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We
are asked to keep silence before the mystery of that great truth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">St. Augustine said it
well. He said that if it is true what St. Paul says, that we are the Body of
Christ, then behold its mystery on the Altar.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He said,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If, therefore, you are the Body and
the members of Christ, your mystery is placed on the Lord’s table; you receive
your own mystery.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It
is your body, your life, which is broken.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So, he says, when you come to receive the broken body,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Respond, “Amen,” to what you are, and
by responding give your assent. You hear, “The Body of Christ,” and you
respond, “Amen.” Be a member of Christ’s Body so that your Amen may be true.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God
wants each one of us to describe ourselves in the same way we describe God,
knowing that what we say about ourselves is always in need of being broke, so
that even more truth about ourselves can be revealed. It is how, as St. Paul
says, we are enabled “to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light,”
and be “transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Broken”
has become a bad word.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We don’t want to
be “broken people.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But we do not need
to fear being broken by God, because it is the way God makes us a new creation,
and leads us into ever new life.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-58854012434854791502022-10-17T14:45:00.004-04:002022-10-17T14:45:44.606-04:00What is Truth?<p> <b>What is Truth?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">October 17, 2022<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Pontius Pilate’s famous question for Jesus is often taken as
a parody of his actual ignorance. At the
very least, it was dripping with cynicism.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>But what if it was a good question? And what if it is a good question for us to
ask ourselves?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Every age of history can be seen as a struggle for the
truth. Ours is no different. The battle lines are being sharply drawn, and
those of us who consider ourselves progressive Christians may have a much more
important role to play than we have gotten used to over the past 50 years as
our numbers and influence has dwindled.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>In my first congregation’s little chapel (seating about 30
people), the east wall was dominated by an over-sized round window, probably
five feet across. In the middle was a sword superimposed over a Bible with the
citation: Ephesians 6:17. “The sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
This verse is part of the “put on the whole armor of God” passage
(6:10-17), which includes “fasten the belt of truth around your waist.” The author wants us to be ready for spiritual
battle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers
of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>It's a passage that sounds tailor-made for those who espouse
conservative and nationalistic views.
But it begs several questions:
Who are the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers and spiritual forces of
evil? How does the word of God function
like a sword? And, yes, What is truth?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>A friend from church and I sat through a “Rally for Truth”
recently in the village square just down the street (aptly named “Liberty
Street”) from our church. We went
because we weren’t certain exactly what was going on. We feared that Christian
Nationalism would be front and center.
It wasn’t, at least not explicitly, but the “talk” which was part of the
program did have the topic of “Truth.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The speaker used a blizzard of analogies, peppered with
biblical references (mostly from John’s Gospel), to prove that the world was
run by Absolute Truth, and we had a decision to make, whether to follow and
adhere to that Truth or not. He said one
thing that particularly struck me: “We
have a choice about where to get our Truth from. Does it come from the mind of man or the word
of God?”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>My friend and I looked at each other and said “What?” The distinction did not track for us. I’ll come to why that’s the case in a moment,
but first it must be said that the speaker was expressing both an old Truth for
a significant part of Protestantism, and a very contemporary way of
interpreting our contemporary world and understanding the state of politics in
(at least) the United States.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>At a recent meeting of the National Conservatism Conference,
there was a great deal of talk about the nature of the current divisions in US
politics, and a lot of that talk was explicitly religious. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri declared,
“Without the Bible there is no America.”
It was a statement that could be reasonably debated. But he went on to accuse the “left,”
especially in its social agenda, of having as their “real target . . . the
inheritance of the Bible.” “<span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a;">What they particularly dislike about America is our
dependence on biblical teaching and tradition.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Of course, this statement is a politician’s
setting up of a “they” scarecrow, a caricature of their opponents, obviously
wrong and easily knocked down.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">The
problem is in its description of themselves.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Just who is this “our?”</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">And what
is this “biblical teaching and tradition” upon which they depend?</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">And what does it mean for those of us in
Christian traditions that have a very different understanding of and belief in
“biblical teaching and tradition?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Another speaker answered that
question. We who have a different
Christian perspective have become captives of “woke” religion. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, “</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">argued the divide in the country was one between Christian
theology and a ‘woke religion that is raising itself up as the official state
ideology,’ adding that ‘insofar as conservatism as a movement has a future, it
is a future that is going to be increasingly tied to explicit theological
claims.’”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Now
it is clear from the context of this quote that “woke religion” does not
directly refer to progressive Christianity, but to a general “left,” a “new age
secularism” that is increasingly speaking in religious (i.e., absolutist)
language. Said one speaker, “</span><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Progressivism has taken on increasingly religious overtones.” One shouldn’t entertain any doubt, however,
that these folks consider progressive religious traditions in the same way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">So, back to Pilate’s question and
the notion that Truth is both absolute and comes either from the “mind of man”
or “from God.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Of course, the reason my friend and
I reacted to that distinction the way we did was that we are both traditional
Episcopalians, schooled in an understanding that revelation (aka, “the Truth”)
is given, yes, through the Bible, but also through the tradition of Christian
experience through the ages, and the God-given ability for men and women to
reason.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">This means we can never use a
word about the Bible that the speaker on the village square did that day:
“inerrant.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">And it may be even more simple and fundamental
than that.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">I don’t much like using the
term “fundamentalism” as a negative, for we all have our fundamentals that
shape the rest of our faith and action.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">I agree with John Booty, that for Episcopalians/Anglicans our
fundamental is </span><i style="color: #2a2a2a;">wholeness</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">. And as a way of understanding what he means,
he quotes Richard Hooker, perhaps the greatest of early Anglican theologians:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God
hath created nothing simply for it selfe: but ech thing in all things of everie
thing ech part in other hath such interest that in the whole world nothing is
found whereunto anie thing created can saie, I need thee not.</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a;"> (<i>Sermon on Pride</i></span>)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Hooker’s insight was that we
participate in God and God in us, we participate in one another, we participate
in the creation and the creation in us.</span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">God’s most basic desire is for relationship, and not just for God’s own
self, but for the community of humankind and the community of creation. In
short, love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span>If wholeness is our fundamental than what is truth? Whatever brings us into and keeps us in
relationship with God is true. Whatever
brings us into relationship with one another and keeps us in it is true.
Whatever brings us into and keeps us in relationship with the creation is true.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>My friend and I and the speaker at that rally in the square
could agree that Jesus is the Truth, and being in relationship with him is the
ultimate spiritual goal of the Christian.
But I fear we would soon part company.
For us, when Jesus says he is “the way, and the truth, and the life”
(John 14:6), he does not mean three separate things. The way, truth, and life <i>are the same
thing</i>. Which means the truth is
something you <i>do</i>. You do the truth as you follow the way and live the
life that Jesus asks of us. The truth
can only be rightly understood as a verb. That is the only thing that can keep
it from being just another absolutist idol that we use in our human project to
divide us from them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>So we do the truth when we love our neighbors as
ourselves. We do the truth when we
strive to honor and uphold the inherent dignity of every human person (full
stop, no exceptions). We do the truth when we work tirelessly for justice and
peace in our world. Those are our
values. Call them biblical, call them Christian, call them “moral,” if you want
but we may never call them anything that ends up with a world divided instead
of whole.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Some will say this is the easy path. To which I can only say as someone who
strives to practice it, “Are you kidding me?”
It is the hardest thing in the world.
Division is always easier than wholeness. Always.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The “sword of the Spirit” is not an altogether helpful
metaphor because it is easily seen as a metaphor of division. That is what swords do when they are swung.
They divide things. And this seems to be
the intent of a similar use of the image in the Letter to the Hebrews
(4:12): “The word of God is living and
active, sharper than any two-edged sword . . . it is able to judge the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.” But what
is being divided/judged? “The thoughts
and intentions of the heart” sound to me like primarily relational
matters. The word of God helps me
discern the rightness or wrongness, the helpfulness or unhelpfulness, of my own
thoughts and intentions. Yes, first mine
before I take a crack at yours. Take the
log out of your own eye, you’ll remember Jesus saying, before you take the
speck out of your neighbor’s eye (Matt. 7:3, Luke 8:21).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I do not believe that we can know anything approaching
absolute truth this side of death. It
may be our goal, but it is something we only glimpse, as that same Letter to
the Hebrews says was true of all our ancestors in the faith. “All of these died in faith without having
received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them” (11:13). This lines up with Paul’s statement: “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, only then
will we see face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).
We “know only in part,” he says.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I like the adjective “ultimate” better than “absolute” for
truth because it carries a future orientation.
And in that future orientation, I also like the word “true” better than
“truth.” “What is true?” seems to me a
question for the journey. “What is
truth?” is a question for the destination.
“What is true?” is a question we can experience, disagree about,
struggle to answer, with both the word of God and our God-given brains
(including our God-given emotions) as partners in the conversation. “What is truth?” is something we will finally
rest in together in the future that belongs to God.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-75528167468284166112022-10-10T14:20:00.000-04:002022-10-10T14:20:55.123-04:00Francis & Jeremiah: Rebuild My Church, Rebuild My Earth<p> <i>Sermon preached on Sunday, October 9, 2022 at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY, the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, also celebrated as St. Francis' Day: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The man we know as St. Francis
was like many young men of his social class at the turn of the 13<sup>th</sup>
century. His father was a prosperous merchant and Francis had all the fun he
could have off that wealth. When his city went to war with the neighboring city
of Perugia, he signed up for the glory of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Only he did not find
glory there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Instead, he was captured
and imprisoned. Eventually his father paid his ransom, but something had begun
to happen to Francis.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He developed
compassion for the poor of Assisi and especially the lepers who lived outside
the city gate, people who were perpetual outcasts, feared and detested.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">One day, still trying to
figure himself out, Francis Was wandering around the countryside. He came
across an abandoned church, St. Damiano.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Inside the church, he heard a voice say “Rebuild my church.”.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Francis took this quite literally and set
about repairing that church building.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It wasn’t long after
that Francis heard another voice in another church, St. Mary of the Angels, it
was called. This time it was the voice of Jesus speaking through the Gospel
that was read that day:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">As you go proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of
heaven has come near”. . . . Take no gold or silver or copper in your wallet,
no bag for your journey, nor two tunics or sandals or staff.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Francis knew he was
being called to this life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He was called
not only to serve the poor, but to live as one of them.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And not just to live as one of them but see
God in them and help them see God in themselves.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He gave up everything of his father’s wealth,
renounced all possessions and lived as a beggar the rest of his life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The command to “rebuild
my church,” became for Francis something more than stone and mortar.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It became about bringing the life of faith
outside the walls of churches and into the streets, indeed, into the whole
creation, to learn to call all living things—all the things of creation—brothers
and sisters.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">His message was simple,
but also very demanding:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">find Christ and
serve Christ where you are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">1800 years before
Francis there was a prophet named Jeremiah.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jeremiah warned the people of Judah of what was coming—the conquest of
Judea by the Babylonians from the east.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He lived through that conquest; he watched Jerusalem be destroyed and a
large number of the people taken into exile in Babylon.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He and his companion Baruch were among those
left behind.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The very pressing
question to those in exile was, “What do we do now?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There were choices, much like the choices we
all have to make when trouble comes upon us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">One option, the choice
of denial:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">they could pretend that this
wasn’t so bad and would soon end.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Or
another option, the choice of anger:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Spend your life in perpetual resentment and sabotage your oppressors
whenever possible.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Or a third option, the
choice of assimilation:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When in Babylon
do as the Babylonians do.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let the past
go, including the God you thought was on your side.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">From afar Jeremiah knew
that his people were wrestling with these questions, and he came to believe
that there was another option, an alternative which was a gift from God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So, he wrote a letter to the exiles, a
portion of which we heard this morning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The letter urges the
exiles to remain who they are in that foreign place, implying that they were
going to be there a long time.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Build houses,
plant gardens, marry, raise children.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Multiply there,” he writes, “and do not decrease.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And then he says a most
astounding thing. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He says,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you
into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will
find your welfare.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No denial. No
resentment. No assimilation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Be who you
are, remain who you are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But also be </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">where</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
you are and seek its good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now you must remember
how tied Israel was to the land, the land of the promise.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The land they believed God gave them in which
to prosper and to be his people.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now
that land was gone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They were in a
foreign land, for all intensive purposes, permanently.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Psalm 137 catches the
anguish they felt: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we
remembered Zion.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">How can we sing the
Lord’s song in a foreign land?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s a sad
but beautiful psalm, although it takes a sudden turn of anger, desiring Babylon
itself to be destroyed as Jerusalem was.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But Jeremiah says,
“Wait.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sing the Lord’s song where you are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Seek the foreign land’s good as if it were
your own land.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So we have this morning Jeremiah
and Francis.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Two people living in very
different times and contexts, but with a remarkably similar message.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Find God where you are. Expect God where you
are. And do the works of God where you are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Seek the well-being of where you are. Don’t forget who you are!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Keep nurturing who you are!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But seek to do good where you are, however strange
that place and its people may be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That may be enough of a
sermon, but I’ve got to bring it into the situation we find ourselves in today.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Church, we are in a troubled time.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Troubles without and troubles within.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The troubles are too many to name, but I’ll
name just one obvious one, the one we are sitting in right now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are not in exile, not
exactly. We’re still in our comfortable home.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But to be perfectly honest, there aren’t many of us left here.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yet God keeps saying to us, “Rebuild my Church.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And God keeps saying to us, “Be who you are,
strengthen who you are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And keep doing
the mission, keep seeking the welfare of where you are, yes, even if there
doesn’t seem to be much return for your faithfulness.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">How do we do those
things?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">First, I submit, check your
anxiety. Learn from Francis and from Jeremiah. Do not make the obvious choices.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Do not choose denial. Do not pretend that everything’s going to be
all right. They’ll come back, after all
we have a beautiful building and a beautiful liturgy. No.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Do not choose resentment. Do not blame the pandemic. Do not blame the
loss of Sunday as our time and no one else’s. Do not blame the church fights
over gender and race and sexuality. No.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Do not choose assimilation. Do not give up. Do not take the spiritual but not religious
route. Do not close the doors and get on with life. No.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God says no to all those
things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God says, Don’t panic.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Don’t be in denial. But don’t panic.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Don’t dwell on the past. Honor it and learn from
it, but let it go as a measure of the present.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And above all don’t give up.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Be who you are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Continue to be faithful.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Do what I have given you to do.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Follow Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Francis gives us the
message, “Rebuild my Church.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jeremiah
gives us the message, “Multiply, do not decrease.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If we take those directions literally it’s
easy to despair.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But I think what
Francis learned about rebuilding the church, and what Jeremiah was encouraging
those exiles to do, was stay clear about who you are and keep doing what God
would have you do to serve the world, even the world that no longer cares
whether you exist or not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A good place to start is
in our outward gratitude for life—for the whole of creation—because it is a
gift. Care for the creation in which we find ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What if our witness to
the world as God’s gift that we must care for was so bold that people driving
past our red doors would say, “Those people really care about the earth.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is not everything we must do to rebuild
the church, but we must commit ourselves to the larger imperative of rebuilding
the earth. Because in its welfare we will find our own welfare.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rebuild my Church and
Rebuild my Earth must go hand in hand in our own time of troubles.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-24873250090749510402022-08-15T17:19:00.004-04:002022-08-15T17:21:26.585-04:00The Great Cloud of WItnesses (Jonathan Myrick Daniels)<p> Sermon preached at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY on August 14, 2022: Hebrews 11:29--12:2; Luke 12:49-56.</p><p><span style="font-size: 16pt; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are surrounded by a
great cloud of witnesses, the Letter to the Hebrews tells us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is that truth that we claim in the
Apostles’ Creed:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I believe in the
communion of saints.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Today I am thinking of
one of those witnesses in particular.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">His name is Jonathan Myrick Daniels, whose day of remembrance on our
church’s calendar happens to be today.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">His story is one that all Episcopalians should know.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan was born in
1939 in Keene, New Hampshire.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When he
was in high school he was attracted to The Episcopal Church.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He surprised everyone when he chose to attend
the Virginia Military Institute for college.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He said he thought he needed discipline in his life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He found life hard there but eventually
graduated as the class valedictorian.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He went to Harvard to do
graduate work in literature. By this time his faith had waned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But on Easter Day 1962 he went to the Eucharist
at Church of the Advent in Boston and found faith again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his high school years he had toyed with
the idea of ordained ministry, and now it became a calling he could not ignore.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He enrolled in what was
then the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There he began to awaken to what was
happening in the South—the civil rights struggle was reaching its apex.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He, with so many other
Americans, was appalled by what happened in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965,
the march that was so brutally turned back.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Later that month he heard Dr. Martin Luther King’s plea for northern
whites to come to Alabama to help secure the right of blacks to vote.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He was tempted to go. He
had developed a passion for standing up for the poor and the oppressed.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Later that day at Evensong in the seminary
chapel, while singing the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, he decided he must go.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He had sung,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath
exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and
the rich he hath sent empty away.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He wrote later in his journal, “I knew that I must go to Selma. The
Virgin’s song was to grow more and more dear to me in the weeks ahead.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan went to Selma
and joined in the work. The racism he experienced shook him to his core,
including the complicity of the Episcopal Church.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He lived with a black family—the West
family—and he took them to church on Palm Sunday.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They were made to sit in the back of the
church and receive communion last of all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He briefly went back to
Cambridge to complete his seminary exams, but was back in Selma by the
beginning of June.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He joined an effort
to register black voters in a nearby county, one of the most rigidly segregated
counties in all of the South, where not a single black person had been allowed
to register.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Among those he worked with
there was Stokely Carmichael.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They were all heartened
when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But on August 14</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> they were
arrested and spent several days in jail.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They were released on August 20</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, and the group went to the
one local store that would serve blacks as well as whites to get something cold
to drink.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A man by the name of Tom
Coleman was waiting for them in the shop doorway. He pointed a shotgun at them
and told them to leave.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan stepped
in front of a sixteen-year-old named Ruby Sales.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Coleman fired and Jonathan was killed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In 1991, Jonathan was
officially added to the Church’s calendar. At first he was characterized simply
as a “seminarian.” Later editions of the calendar would use the term “martyr.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan’s death was in
many ways not unique.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Countless more
blacks died during the civil rights struggle, including Dr. King.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Several other white volunteers were killed
also.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan was the only
Episcopalian, at least of which I am aware.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">His death was part of
gradual awakening in The Episcopal Church.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Fighting injustice gradually became a commitment asked of every
Episcopalian.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In 1976, we would adopt a
new </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Book of Common Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> which included as part of the Baptismal
Covenant the promise to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and
respect the dignity of every human being.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We heard Jesus say this
morning a very hard thing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Do you think
that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is not what we expect to
hear from one we call “The Prince of Peace.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But Jesus knows that
following his way of life will not always make people happy, even people of our
own household.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And sometimes practicing
our faith will take great sacrifice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I’ve been mulling over
the paragraph we all say together in the Eucharistic Prayer we are currently
using.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now gathered at your table, O God of all creation, and
remembering Christ, crucified and risen, who was and is and is to come, we
offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves, a living sacrifice.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“We offer ourselves, a
living sacrifice.” Those words can slip off the tongue without much
thought.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The story of Jonathan Daniels,
however, might give us pause over them.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Not that we are called to martyrdom.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But short of death, what does it mean be “a living sacrifice.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It means always to be
open to God’s call, and ready, even expecting, for that call to sometimes take
us to an uncomfortable place, perhaps a place of conflict, even, as Jesus says,
with members of our own family.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But this openness does
not mean the readiness to make enemies.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan Daniels learned this in Alabama.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">After being there several weeks he wrote that
he suddenly experienced a new sense of freedom, and that was the freedom to
love the enemy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is a life ruled by a
love whose source is God that is to be a living sacrifice.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That is love that is not withheld from
anyone, and that kind of love will get us into trouble, as we seek to love
those the world around us sees as unlovable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To be a living sacrifice
is the willingness to put others’ needs before our own. Not, let me be swift to
say, instead of our own, and not in order to save them.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is only one Messiah, and it isn’t us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Finally, to be a living
sacrifice is to take this as one’s rule of life:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">to have faith in God. Faith that is “the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This faith is not the
assurance of belief or conviction based on the evidence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No one gets that, as the Letter to the
Hebrews so eloquently and movingly says,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yet all these [great followers of the way of God],
though they were commended for their faith, did not received what was promised,
since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us,
be made perfect.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is the communion of
saints at its very core, the reality that in the plan of God we are saved
together. We are not individual actors in our own personal drama. We are made
perfect before God together, and not just with those we know and love, but with
all those who have gone before us and all those who will come after us, those
who have offered themselves as a living sacrifice in faith, in hope, in love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That means, among other
things, that those we call saints and whose deeds we remember, like Jonathan
Myrick Daniels, were not perfect. Perfection does not make one a saint. We are
only made perfect together, and only in the fullness of time.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Perhaps that is the great truth that people
like Jonathan teach us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Any one of us
will not stand before the judgment seat of God alone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jonathan and that great cloud of witnesses
will be with us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God will see our
perfection, our righteousness, the worthiness of our lives in union with theirs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That, my friends, is the
best news I have to give you.</span></p><br /><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-320798462646888642022-07-17T15:36:00.006-04:002022-07-17T16:01:58.305-04:00I Trust in the Mercy of God Forever and Ever<p> <i>Sermon preached at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY on July 17, 2022, the 6th Sunday after Pentecost: Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28.</i></p><p><i>You can listen to this sermon <a href="https://soundcloud.com/stthomasbath/trust-in-the-mercy-of-god-for-ever-and-ever?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing">here.</a></i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Amos, what do you see?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Near the end of the book
of the prophet Amos, the prophet receives four visions.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Two of them begin with this direct
question:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Amos, what do you see?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What the prophet sees in both cases is
something very simple, very ordinary.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Last week’s vision was of a “plumb line,” a tool used in building.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This week’s is “a basket of summer fruit.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Having seen these
ordinary things, God asks Amos to see more deeply.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The plumb line shows an Israel that is so out
of balance that it is headed for sure disaster.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The basket of summer fruit is fruit that is ripe but soon will begin to
decay, and the decay in Israel is severe.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The decay is the trampling of the needy, the systematic ruining of the
poor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is the state of the
affairs that God sees and that God calls Amos to see and then proclaim.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Amos must proclaim what God sees because the
people cannot see it. They refuse to see it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They see their own prosperity. They feel satisfied that they have gotten
what they earned. But this satisfaction has made them blind.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They do not see the poor being trampled upon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What do </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">you</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> see?
That is the question God has for the people.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And more to the point, What do you </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">trust</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In what is your security? Is your trust in your
prosperity? Is your trust in your relative comfort in living?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The psalmist has an
alternative in Psalm 52:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Much of what passes for
Christianity in this country—and around the world—has trouble with this simple
belief:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God forever
and ever.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We trust in many
things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We trust in ourselves We trust
in our own self-sufficiency.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We trust in
whatever gives us a sense of security. We trust in our own capacity to fight
back when threatened.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If we trust in
God, it is in God’s desire to give us the good life. We trust in the favor of
God we feel when we are prospering.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Ultimately, we trust more in God’s judgment than God’s mercy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is certainly how many
Christians act:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the judgment
of God forever and ever.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But the psalmist says,
“I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> What does it mean to
trust in the mercy of God? I think we
associate the word “mercy” with forgiveness, and that is certainly an aspect of
its meaning. But it is more than
that. The Hebrew word in Psalm 52 is </span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ḥ</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">esed</span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, which
is often translated as lovingkindness or steadfastness or steadfast love. It is a relational word; it always assumes a
reciprocity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So to trust in the mercy
of God is to trust in relationship with God, and we must not forget the end of
the sentence, “forever and ever.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
mercy of God can be trusted because it is not just a matter of present fact. It
is a promise, a steadfast promise.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is
what we mean when we say at a Baptism that “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit
and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Because it is a
relational word, however, it is not just about God’s promise to us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is about our promise to God and to the
world God has made.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The greatest sign
that I do in fact trust in the mercy of God is when I show mercy to others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So through the prophet
Amos God is announcing to Israel that in their treatment of the poor, their
disregard for the well-being of all God’s children, they have violated God’s
trust.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They are not showing mercy to
those in greatest need.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In biblical terms, greed
is often what gets in the way of mercy.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our sense of “my stuff that I earned” can block compassion and the
generosity toward those among us who struggle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This trust is about our
hope.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is because, as I said, the
mercy of God is not only a present reality but a promised future.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope is not the same thing as optimism.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is easy to confuse the two, but optimism
requires a fairly comfortable existence to begin with.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It tends to fade when life becomes a struggle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hope, on the other hand,
can be carried through the struggle of life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I recently came across this quote from biblical scholar Walter
Brueggemann.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He says the whole biblical
story can be summarized as “the costly reality of human hurt </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">and</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> the
promised alternative of evangelical hope.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Bible requires of us
our honesty about life and its struggles.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Human hurt” is something that comes to all of us, and sometimes (like
in Amos’ day) it comes at our own hands.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We get hurt and we hurt others. And the primary way we hurt others is
not by some egregious deliberate act against another. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The primary we hurt others is by our
indifference to their suffering.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the struggle of life,
the Bible tells us, we can hold onto the promise of God, the good news of
hope.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This capacity to hold on is
crucial to the passage from Colossians this morning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Paul says to the
Colossians, you have to hold on—be steadfast—in the faith you have been
given.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And what does that look
like?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He says it is “not shifting from the
hope that is the promise of the Gospel.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now when he speaks of hope he’s not just talking about the promise of
eternal life. He’s talking about being reconciled to God and one another in </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">this
</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our hope is, Paul says,
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Christ in you </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">now</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Christ
in you </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">now</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> and Christ’s own for ever and ever.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I find this to be a very
helpful mantra.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I find at times it is
all that I can pray.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it is a gift to
hang onto when my hope is challenged. It is also a gift when my compassion is
challenged.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is a reminder of God’s
promise and a reminder of my responsibility. It is a reminder of how I can
participate in making God’s promise a reality in my own life and in that of
others.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I commend it to you as a
touchstone for your faith, a reminder to love as you are loved, and to hope in
spite of everything.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.</span></i></p><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-56206936505013261242022-07-05T10:27:00.003-04:002022-07-05T10:27:30.466-04:00What is Freedom for the Christian?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxlp7t0JDqSpTHB3zo65Qi9bAQzjpKqrlBcW6R4GHEFFzYEjm08zqnR48y4Db8vws1e4n45DB4FNQ9Ikk1TvpEiPW-irg5JEpNTRW2e9wY94FYH1wcVx0aJ5sLk-XtLrFZP9CwCt5Jc5xxvOUTeNWqaBFKlt4C05kkXXF1UCMF5oKYmIFblo/s225/Galatians%205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxlp7t0JDqSpTHB3zo65Qi9bAQzjpKqrlBcW6R4GHEFFzYEjm08zqnR48y4Db8vws1e4n45DB4FNQ9Ikk1TvpEiPW-irg5JEpNTRW2e9wY94FYH1wcVx0aJ5sLk-XtLrFZP9CwCt5Jc5xxvOUTeNWqaBFKlt4C05kkXXF1UCMF5oKYmIFblo/s1600/Galatians%205.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><i>Sermon preached on June 26, 2020, the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY: Galatians 5:1,13-25</i><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">For freedom Christ has set us free.</span></i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This cry from St. Paul
is the heart of the Letter to the Galatians, and the heart of his proclamation
of the Gospel, the Good News of God in Jesus Christ.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">My question today is
this:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What do Christians mean when we
use the word “freedom?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can answer the
question if we trace Paul’s development of the concept of freedom in this
letter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Paul writes the
Galatians in great anxiety.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He has heard
that since he left them, other teachers have visited with a different message,
and that message was that in order to be saved, Gentiles (non-Jews) had not
only to believe in the work of Jesus, they also had to follow the biblical law—the
Torah—to the letter. Among other things, that meant that males had to be
circumcised, which was not the practice of the Gentile world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It wasn’t just about
circumcision, of course.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was also
about what is now called “keeping kosher,” and adhering to all the purity code.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was not long after the time of Paul when
rabbis came up with the number 613:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">613
commandments in the Torah, and every last one must be followed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Paul was more than
anxious about this teaching—he was apoplectic.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">At the beginning of the letter his pleasant greeting is the shortest of
all the letters. By verse 6 he says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly
deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">By the beginning of
chapter 3, he has worked himself into a lather:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“You foolish Galatians!” he says. “Who has bewitched you?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He then spends a good
bit of time laying out the difference between the gospel as he has taught them
and the teaching which is tempting them.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is about, he says, choosing to live in slavery or in freedom, living
under the yoke of the law or living in the freedom of faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So he gets to the
passage we heard last week. It is among the best known passages from Paul. We
heard:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Before faith came we were imprisoned and guarded under
the law until faith would be revealed.
The law was our disciplinarian . . . but now faith has been revealed and
we no longer need a disciplinarian. For in Christ Jesus you are all children of
God by faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And what does Paul say is
the implication of this freedom from the law? He goes on:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for you are all one in
Christ.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What the law does best,
Paul is saying, is to divide us, to separate us into neat categories.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is, in fact, the nature of the law to do
so.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The law, Paul says, creates the
category of sinner. That category is useless now that faith has been revealed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Does this mean that sin
isn’t real anymore?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Does it mean what we
do and how we do it doesn’t matter?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No,
of course not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it does mean that
righteousness is not something we earn by following the law. It is a gift by
the grace of God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our status as children
of God is not something we have to earn. It is something we have only to have
faith in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Then comes this
morning’s great cry. “For freedom Christ has made us free! Stand firm and do
not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We skip Paul’s final
harangue this morning in verses two through 12 of chapter 5.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Paul’s anger at those who are tempting the
Galatians boils over.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Those who demand
that you be circumcised—I wish their knife would slip and they would harm
themselves instead of you!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He uses much
more colorful language.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Clearly this is
extremely important to him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Having vented his
spleen, it seems like he takes a deep breath and then we get to his final
point.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now that you are free, he says,
use your freedom for good.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And he lays
out the way of the Spirit verses the way of the flesh, the way of
self-indulgence.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We get two lists, vices
and virtues.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rather than focus on them,
I simply ask you to notice that they are all about relationship.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now we can go back to
our question:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What is freedom for the
Christian?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom is the glorious good
news that we are all on an equal playing field. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are all one, the same, before the God of
Jesus Christ.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Whatever boundaries come
between us in this world are rubbish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This declaration is not
a “one off” for Paul.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He returns to it
again and again in his letters.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He will
use the metaphor elsewhere that this good news makes us a new creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are each made in the image of God, and
whoever we are counted to be in this world, we are children of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In short, freedom is
throwing off the shackles of all the world’s limitations, be they created by
law or culture or religion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That alone is good news
but there is more.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom is not,
however, an end in itself.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom is
not the highest state of being.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom
is not the end. Freedom is the beginning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are free to be and
free to make choices.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And make choices
we must, every day. It is as certain a part of life as breathing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">As we heard him say this morning,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">You are called to live in freedom, brothers and
sisters, but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom means making
choices, and we can make them for good or for ill.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can make decisions that hurt others and
ourselves, or we can make them so that we can love God and love our neighbors
as ourselves.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom itself is not the
end. Freedom is the beginning of building a new world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now this can be
caricatured as:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">well there Paul goes,
and there the church goes, spoiling all our fun.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the end the church does not want to set us
free, it wants to control us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is true that the church
in some of its expressions—including some of its current ones—is about
control.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But that is not what Jesus
wanted for his followers and it is not what Paul’s vision of the church was.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">For Jesus and for Paul,
the church is the people of God knowing deep down in their bones the freedom
that is God’s gift to each and every one, and choosing to use that freedom to
build the common good in ways that no law can make happen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">For freedom Christ has
made us free.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are to use our freedom
for the freedom of others, so that all can live as the beloved children of God
that they are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This should be an
important part of our proclamation in the world, a fundamental piece of the
good news we are called to tell and to live.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom is a gift, a glorious gift.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it is not the end. It is the beginning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is a saying, “No
one is free until everyone is free.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I
think Paul would agree.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">As Americans we
treasure our freedom and we will rightly celebrate it in the coming week.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But because freedom is not the end, but only
the beginning, we must also treasure and celebrate that freedom is a
journey.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The end is our absolute
equality as children of God.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So let
there not only be a celebration of freedom, but a re-commitment to its
attainment by all God’s children, by all God’s creation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">For freedom Christ has
set us free.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let us use our freedom for
the freedom of all, for the making of a new creation, the kingdom of God, a new
world ruled by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-76698208035710075102022-06-12T16:47:00.001-04:002022-06-12T16:47:14.610-04:00Making a Name for Yourself<p><i>Sermon preached the Day of Pentecost, June 5, 2022 at St. Thomas' Church, Bath New York: Genesis 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21, John 14:8-27.</i></p><p>You can listen to the sermon <a href="https://soundcloud.com/stthomasbath/name">here</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> One of the things that
came out of the recent book study in which several of us participated was the
very basic question of “So what?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> The author was trying to
get across the need for we Christians to get clearer about what difference it
makes to be a follower of Jesus, to be a baptized believer. So what?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Of course, there are
many ways to answer that question, and the answer will vary from individual to
individual. We Christians respect the God-given difference each one of us
manifests.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> But there are some
basics. One comes out today in these
readings, and it centers around a word that appears in all but the psalm: the word “name.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> We begin in pre-history
Genesis. The story is of a city called
Babel, where humankind is beginning to get the hang of being, well,
humankind. They determine to build a
great tower, reaching far into the sky.
The problem with this tower is not so much its height as the motivation
behind making it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> “Come let us build
ourselves a city,” the residents say, “and a tower with its top in the heavens,
and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad
upon the face of the earth.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> I think the key words
there are “let us make a name for ourselves.” Let’s do some thinking about that
phrase: “Let us make a name for ourselves.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> It’s a phrase we might
use to say something nice—even impressive—about someone. “She really made a name for herself.” I would be proud if one or more of our nieces
and nephews “made a name for him or herself.”
So that’s a good thing, isn’t it?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Sure. But there are also problems. The name we make for ourselves is
fleeting. We’d like it to be our legacy,
something that keeps people remembering us far after we are gone. But that’s hardly ever the case, is it? The “name we make for ourselves” is fleeting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Example. Not long ago I visited the website of the
parish of which I was Vicar and then Rector in Glenn Dale, Maryland, in the
Diocese of Washington, DC. I clicked on
“history,” and was disappointed to find I received a single mention: “The Rev. Michael Hopkins became the first
rector of Glenn Dale Parish after having served as Vicar for a number of
years.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Wait a minute, responded
my ego. I took that place from a handful
of people stuck in the rural past of that area to embracing the incredibly
diverse suburbs that had grown up around it, and we built the first entirely
new church facility in that Diocese in over fifty years. I started with a congregation of 40 and left
with a congregation of 275.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> So, my ego got bruised
and, frankly, I was depressed for a few days.
Why? Because I thought I had made a name for myself there, and it seemed
to have faded fast.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> I tell that somewhat
embarrassing story about myself in the hopes that you will say, “Oh yeah. I’ve felt something like that before.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> It isn’t always easy to
be content with who we are, to even embrace our own obscurity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Now on to the reading
rom Acts. Peter speaks after the wind
and fire and the miracle of each understanding the language of each by
recalling the prophet Joel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> “Hey,” he says, “what’s
been going on here may seem extraordinarily odd to you, but the prophet Joel
talked about a day like this. And after
he described the day we just had he gives the “so what” of it: “Then everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> The sentence can whiz
right over our heads, at the end of a long reading that is finally over. But it’s a show-stopper. It is a piece of good news. It is a piece of <i>radically</i>
good news.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> <i>Everyone</i> who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Didn’t matter what language they soke and therefore where they came
from, what nationality about which they boasted. It didn’t matter what their record was in the
morality department. It didn’t matter if
they had or had not made a name for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It mattered only that
they called on God’s name, said “yes” to the divine invitation that was
exploding all around them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Jesus also speaks of
this divine name and its power. “I will
do whatever you ask in my name,” he says, “so that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Now that is a somewhat
difficult saying because it can lead to an over-simplified understanding of
prayer. It sounds like a simple instruction
to open the divine cookie jar. Ask
me—use my name!—and I will do it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> It’s important not to
lose the context—what we ask needs to be for God’s glory, not our own. And, there is the little addition of love.
“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> When Jesus says to “pray
in my name” he’s not establishing a sort of magic incantation, that as long as
you say “in the name of Jesus we pray” at the end of any prayer, poof, request
granted.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> No. “in my name” means
something far more, far deeper. In
Jewish thinking, one’s “name” is a symbol, a container, for one’s very essence. God’s Name is God’s essence, and God’s
presence. It was the <i>Name</i> of God that was said to dwell in the Temple.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> So if we are praying in
Jesus’ name we are praying in his essence, trying to be as best as we can a
total part of what he is about in the world.
We’re trying to bring our own name and his name together, our own essence,
our own being, one with his essence, his being.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> So—and here’s the good
news—we don’t have to make a name for ourselves. We just need to get in alignment with Jesus’
name. We need to get in tune with God’s way of being in the world</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> So—sure—it would be nice
to be remembered—to be credited with a great thing now and then—to make a name
for myself. But all that is really,
blessedly, meaningless.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> It is enough to
participate in divine glory-making, divine love-making. It is enough to take on
the name—the only name that saves, and it isn’t mine or yours. It is Jesus.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the Holy
Spirit?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Well, it is the Holy Spirit that
is Jesus’ own gift to you and to me and to us to lead us into any “so what?”
that really matters.</span> </p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-46409029437685553092022-06-08T12:36:00.001-04:002022-06-08T12:36:11.736-04:00Revelation: God's Replacement Theory<p> <i>Sermon preached on May 29, 2022, the 7th Sunday of Easter, at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY using the Book of Revelation.</i></p><p><i>You can listen to the sermon <a href="https://twitter.com/stthomasbath/status/1530996344436969472?cxt=HBwWgMCy6YnEmL8qAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email">here.</a></i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I recall the reading
from Revelation from two weeks ago:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw
the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as
their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will
wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and
pain will be no more.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And this morning we
heard:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they
will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Most of us would ignore
the Book of Revelation if we could, and, practically speaking, most of us
do.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But I believe we need the Book of
Revelation and its most basic message.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The whole point of the
Book of Revelation is this:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We must
choose to live under the reign of death or within the reign of life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The reign of death rules the world now, but
it ultimately has no future.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can
choose to live in it, but then we will have no future either.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And no future, no hope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We can resist the reign
of death. We can choose to embrace the way of life. The way of life—the way of
God—is all future because the future belongs to God, and God alone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But we must not expect the reign of death to
give up its power easily.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It will not
and resisting it may result in great suffering.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But if we truly embrace the way of life, we will have the power to
endure, and God will be there in the end to wipe our tears.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Many who read the Book
of Revelation can only conclude that the writer—who is known as John the
Seer—was deeply disturbed.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">His writing
is at best bizarre, at worst, angry and violent, full of hatred and wrath.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Many in John the Seer’s
community of Christians in Asia Minor thought the same thing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The reign of death, which John personifies as
the great beast, was simply the Roman empire under which they had to live, like
it or not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They believed they could make
accommodations for it, and have a chance to live in peace, to prosper even.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John would have none of
it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rome was nothing but a seducer and
deceiver.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Empire’s propaganda
machine churned out the notion of itself as the bringer of order and prosperity
to the world.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They called it the </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Pax
Romana.</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John said It was a lie. It
was a lie to cover up the oppression and violence that was the true heart of
Roman rule.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rome ruled by the threat of
death masqueraded as the gift of life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Look deep, John
says.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Learn to recognize the seduction
of the Empire, its empty promises, the death disguised as life, and have the
courage to say “no” to it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Say “yes” instead to the
vision of a new heaven and a new earth, a new city in place of Rome:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">the new Jerusalem, the gift of God, the place
where God dwells among us and death is no more.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In that city the gates are always open because there is no need of
defensiveness, and all who enter are welcome, so long as they say “yes” to its
vision.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who
wishes take the water of life as a gift.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John invites us, urges
us, cajoles us, demands of us to make this choice:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">death or life, the city of our making or the
city of God’s making.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Perhaps we lack the
urgency of John. Perhaps we are uncomfortable with the choice put in such stark
terms.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We love our country and its
hard-won freedoms. That is much on our minds this Memorial Day weekend, when we
remember those who have sacrificed themselves so that we can be free.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Love of country is not a
bad thing. Desire for freedom is not a bad thing.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In a few weeks we will hear from the Letter
to the Galatians one of St. Paul’s great cries, “For freedom Christ has set us
free” (5:1).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John would say, “Yes,
but look carefully at what the promise of freedom is obscuring, what it actually
costs. Is it really freedom? Freedom for everyone?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Or is it a smokescreen for the power of
death, the maintenance of an oppressive political control?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is the seduction,
for instance, that guns make as safer and are necessary for the protection of
our freedoms.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Really?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Ask the families of the ten murdered in Buffalo
two weeks ago. Ask the families of the 19 fourth graders and their two teachers
murdered in Texas on Tuesday.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You will
get a different answer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Look deeply for the need
for power at any cost masquerading as freedom.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The seductive power of so-called “replacement theory,” that fear and
action are required to defend the dominance of white culture.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Well, we saw the “action” in Buffalo, and it
was a total embrace of the culture of death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I know I have, for some
of you, crossed the line from spirituality to politics from the pulpit.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John the Seer crossed that line a scant fifty
years or so after Jesus’ death and resurrection.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s uncomfortable, and we will disagree, but
we cannot put on blinders when we walk into a church building.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We cannot pretend in
here that everything is OK out there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Everything is not OK.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There is an
ugliness out there, an embrace of the culture of death, oftentimes fed by a
blasphemous notion of God and God’s purposes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We must stand with John
and Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the bright morning star, the giver of
life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John did have a replacement
theory, and we Christians have a replacement theory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is the replacement of hate by love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The replacement of fear by faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The replacement of chaos and despair by hope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The replacement of death by life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The replacement of the city of our own making by the City of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let us be about this
replacement.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let us choose the way of
life rather than the culture of death.</span></p><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-88447260098727993992022-04-17T16:43:00.002-04:002022-04-17T16:43:50.739-04:00The Cup of Freedom: Suffering, Longing, Freedom, Glory<p> <i>Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday, 2022 at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY: Psalm 116</i></p><p><i>You can listen to the sermon <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-263153813/suffering-longing-freedom-glory" target="_blank">here.</a></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I lift up the
cup of freedom as I call on God’s Name.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I want to add another
short text to today’s biblical mix, four verses from Paul’s letter to the
Romans.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for
the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of
the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will obtain the
freedom of the glory of the children of God. </span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">(8:18-21)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Suffering. Longing.
Freedom. Glory.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">These words are in the
air today as we gather during this Holy Week to contemplate the last hours of
Jesus’ life, and their meaning for our lives in “this present time.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Suffering.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Holy Week is hard work. There is so much
suffering and death to go through before we get to Easter.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And it is not just the suffering and death of
Jesus, although that alone is hard enough.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We started today with
the story of the first Passover, the passing over of the homes of the
Israelites by the angel of death, killing every first-born person and beast in
Egypt. How many first-born persons are here today?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yes, we’d be done in this story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Tomorrow we will hear
the story of Jesus as we heard it this past Sunday—the story of betrayal,
cowardice, maliciousness, cruelty, and death.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And hanging over the story the sense that in some way God willed all
this to happen.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And even when we gather
for the Easter Vigil Saturday night, and finally get to hear that first
“Alleluia,” we have to go through the stories of God’s destruction of creation
in the flood story, and Egyptians lying dead on the seashore after the
Israelites escaped through the sea.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why all this
suffering?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The only answer I have is
that it is our real life.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our life and
the life of the whole world. There is no way to deny it.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And it is the life, as Paul says, of the
whole creation, living in what seems like futility.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In our stories, and the stories of all living
things, the angel of death comes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Longing. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the next verse Paul uses the word
“groaning.” The whole creation and we ourselves are groaning for something
more, something better.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let us know
without our doubts that we indeed are the children of God, that there is
something better than suffering and death.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But where and how?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">If we knew the answer to that then could our
longing could stop?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Yes, we know the
answer is Easter, but Easter is a promise—a good one, mind you, the best—but
still a promise. From a distance—as the Letter to the Hebrews says
(11:13-16)—from a distance we see and greet it, and we shout Alleluia on Easter
morning and for a moment it is in our grasp, and then we re-enter this present
time, and our groaning, our longing, is back.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom. I will lift up
the cup of freedom, as I call on God’s Name, as I long for God’s promise.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">You expected the word “salvation,” didn’t
you?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The cup of salvation, that’s what
we say, that’s what we call it, what we are here to celebrate. It’s part of the
obligation and gift Jesus left us on that last night with his friends.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But salvation is a
church-word, freighted with centuries of confusion and abuse.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We think we know what it means, but, truth to
tell, its meaning lies just beyond our reach. Our evangelical friends ask us,
“Are you saved?” And we’re not entirely sure what they mean.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Am I going to heaven?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sure. But, frankly, heaven is the least of my
worries most days.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What does it mean now?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But “the cup of
freedom.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Maybe—just maybe—there’s
another way into what is going on here and out there 24/7.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Freedom is what I long for, what the creation
groans for, and not some cheap big-talk, “I can do anything I want to and say
anything I want.” Not the freedom that means we are a law unto ourselves.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, the freedom to just
be—the freedom to know who I am deep , deep down, in the place where that
groaning comes from. The freedom to live in the world without the anxiety and
fear that I am not enough or to have to waste so much time proving my worthiness
to myself, to others, to God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This kind of freedom may
be another way of talking about, of seeing, the promise, the promise of life
that is greater than death, the promise of Easter.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The promise that this whole creation means
something.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It still doesn’t deliver the
promise, but it is something if I can lift up the cup of freedom as I long for
God, as I long for life.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Glory.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Now there’s a word. But another church-y
word.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A word of the promise, a word that
is what is just the other side of what we long to be revealed to us.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it’s a good word,
because we may not be able to describe it, but we know it when we see it.
Again, not the cheap and momentary glory when we are the winners and we feel
good about ourselves. I mean, thank God for those moments, but they are, in the
end, just moments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Glory is that revealing
that we are, actually going to be OK, that our lives matter no matter what,
that we can still see the glimpse of life in the midst of suffering and death.
It’s there in the creation, it’s there in our lives.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus showed us where to
look for it, not in denial of our real lives but in gathering all the
fragments, all the missed opportunities, all the hurts, all the hopes, and look
at the bread and the cup.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Don’t look
somewhere else, beyond. Look at what is, in front of you, what literally gives
you life, the food given from the creation which groans along with you.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Lift up your lives in
the cup of salvation, the cup of freedom, as you call on God’s Name.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">St. Augustine once said to folks who had
recently been baptized, who were experiencing the bread and cup for the first
time.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Look!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is your mystery on the altar!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When you receive the bread, receive the cup
you are receiving your life! When you respond Amen, you are saying Amen to your
life!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And you are saying Amen,
in spite of all the crud, and in some small touch with the freedom that is
inside of you and inside of your neighbor, to know the God who is not ashamed
to be called your God, the God of the promise but also the God of the present.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In reality, with no
denial. With deep, deep longing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I will lift up the cup
of freedom as I call on God’s Name.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">And
when we do the glimpse we get of glory is just enough to keep us on the journey
to something better, to love, to God.</span></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-64652439548576362702022-03-20T18:19:00.004-04:002022-03-20T18:19:37.158-04:00The Good Gardener<p> <i>Sermon preached on the 3rd Sunday in Lent at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This time the
questioners were not there with a trick question. It was not their goal to trap
Jesus into an answer that would turn the political and religious authorities
against him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They were honest people
asking an honest question. I assume it was a question that the people of God
had been asking as long as anyone could remember. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I know it was a question that people have been
asking ever since.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why suffering?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And why, especially, innocent suffering, be
it at the hands of a ruthless government or a random catastrophic event of
“nature”?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Why?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And their question came,
as this question often does, with an assumption.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Perhaps the innocent were not so innocent.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Were they being punished for their sin? Or
for their lack of faithfulness?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Before we wrestle with
Jesus’ answer, let’s contemplate how this question pops up in our own lives.
Oftentimes it is a simple, “Why me?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And
the assumption is that I must have done something wrong, or, perhaps, I did not
pray enough.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Sometimes it comes up
from the opposite direction.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">An
acquaintance of mine several months ago got some horrible news. Cancer had
returned and she was given three to four months to live.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Two weeks ago, after weeks of intense
treatment, a scan showed her to be cancer free.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Amazing news!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">She is grateful
beyond the telling.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A mutual acquaintance
called it a miracle.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">She declared that
clearly God isn’t done with her yet. And this is the power of prayer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I want so much to
believe those things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And I do not want
to say that this is </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">not</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> a miracle.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It certainly is miraculous!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And I
add my profound gratitude to hers.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But I
am also left with profound questions.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Did God choose her to live and a cousin of mine—a good man—to die a
gruesome death from brain cancer?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In another approach, throughout
the pandemic we are still going through, I have often heard, “When it’s my time
it’s my time.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The clear implication is
that someone—God, fate, “the universe”—decides when it is my time to die. Is
that what faith in God means, to succumb to a fatalism about life?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God is “in control” so whoever dies today,
well, their time was up.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And then there is St.
Paul’s contribution to the question:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">No testing has overtaken you that is not common to
everyone. God is faithful, and he will
not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also
provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Much mischief has come
from these two verses.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They are often
shortened to something like, “God won’t give you anything more than you can get
through.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And it gets applied to physical
ailments as well as moral quandaries.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But Paul is talking
about moral temptations.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Temptation” is
really the better translation than “test.” The key is in the next verse which
is unhelpfully left off. Paul says, “Therefore” (hear that connection word
“Therefore!”), my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So don’t ever let
yourself apply these verses to physical ailments.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Do not use these verses to lessen the impact
of the suffering of others.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That is not
what Paul was talking about.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So back to Jesus’ answer
about the suffering of innocents.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He
replies clearly and simply.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“No.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Do you think they were
worse sinners than all other Galileans?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, I tell you.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">God was not punishing
those Galileans or those upon whom the tower fell.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And I do not believe he was limiting his
comment to those two situations.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
answer is “No.” No, God does not punish people because they somehow deserved it
more than anyone else.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Then, I have to say,
Jesus messes with our heads a little bit, nay, a lot.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“But,” he says, “</span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">but</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> unless you
repent, you will all perish as they did.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Is this a sleight of hand? Giving good news with the one hand and bad
news with the other?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, I don’t think
so.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I think it is simpler than it
sounds.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">All that Jesus is saying is that
we are all going to die, and our death is not predictable.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus has taken us back to Ash Wednesday.
“Remember that your are dust and to dust you shall return.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And Jesus is saying, “Be
ready.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Don’t put off turning to God
today because you think you’ve got until tomorrow, or next year. Or, as St.
Paul said in Second Corinthians, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is
the day of salvation!” (6:2).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">One can still hear in
that a potential threat, however.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Many
the evangelical sermon includes the warning to get right with God because you
don’t know when you’re going to die! You don’t want to get caught at judgment
day without your house in order.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But then Jesus tells a
parable.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It’s simple. A person’s got a
fig tree.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It should be producing figs
but it’s not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I need to get rid of it,
she says to herself, because it’s just taking up space.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But her gardener says, “Let it alone.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let me try again. Let’s re-evaluate next
year. You can cut it down then if you feel you must.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> Does this mean we only
get one extra chance? I don’t think so,
and here is why not. The gardener says,
“Leave it be, wait.” The Greek word is </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">’άφες. Another translation of <i>aphes</i> is
“forgive.” It is, in fact the word Jesus
uses from the cross, “Father, <i>aphes</i>, forgive them; for they do not know
what they are doing” (23:34).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The gardener is Jesus who says </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">aphes</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">,
forgive.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And I think that gardener says give
it one more year with his fingers crossed behind his back, and that is not just
wishful thinking. I also see it in the text.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The gardener says, “If it bears fruit </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">next
year</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Again, not the only way to
translate what is there.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The text does not
say “next year.” That is an assumption. The text says εἰς τὀ μἑλλον, “in the
future.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I see that difference and I ask to
myself, “What happens ‘next year’ when the owner and the gardener get to this
tree again and it has still borne no fruit?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I hear the gardener say, “</span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Aphes</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, forgive.” I hear Jesus say, “</span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Aphes</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">,
forgive, in the future.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We’ve covered a lot of ground. A brief
summary.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">1. </span>Let’s be careful
of what we attribute to God and not attribute to God. We must resist the
temptation to decide for ourselves for what God is or is not responsible. If life gives us sorrow or suffering, it is
enough to know that God shares that sorrow or suffering. If God gives us good
things, it is enough be grateful.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">2. We can be
definite about one thing: We cannot equate
human suffering with punishment for sin.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">3. St. Paul’s
encouragement that God will not give us more than we can handle should not be
applied to physical human suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">4. Jesus wants us to
keep our death always in mind, not as a threat to worry about, but as a sense
of urgency to be as right with God as we possibly can all the time.
“Repentance” is not an act in a moment of time. It is a way of life.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">5. Our judge is
Jesus, the good and patient gardener who is aways ready to say “<i>Aphes</i>,
forgive” and has a somewhat fuzzy sense of time, “In the future.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">There remains an urgency
to get right with God, but the urgency does not require anxiety.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">For the judgment for which we prepare will be
presided over not by the impatient landowner, but by the good gardener.</span></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-70990931449613080222022-03-04T14:20:00.010-05:002022-03-04T14:20:57.483-05:00A Horizontal Conversion<p> <i>Sermon preached at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, New York on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022: Psalm 51</i></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Almighty and Everlasting God, you hate nothing you
have made . . .<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This year during Lent
our emphasis as a community of faith is to explore our place in the
creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">At first glance it may seem
that this does not have anything directly to do with the traditional emphasis
of Lent and its traditional devotions. Isn’t Lent a time to explore our relationship
with God, using tools such as self-examination and confession, fasting, prayer,
and self-denial, and reading and meditating on God’s Word in the Bible?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What we are lifting up
is that our relationship with God and our relationship with the creation are
intertwined.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are saying that one of
the ways we sin against God is by sinning against creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are saying that our continued abuse of the
creation is a sin, and that our self-examination and repentance of this sin
against creation is urgent.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are
saying we must be clear-eyed about how God relates to the creation and how God
expects us to relate to the creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We
are saying that the work of conversion has not only a vertical aspect but a
horizontal one as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Our spirituality must deepen
its earthy aspect.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">For too long we have
assumed that the work of religion, of spirituality, was about getting right
with God, ensuring our salvation, ending with eternal life in the presence of
God. We thought of the earth as a gift, yes, but a temporary one, one given for
our benefit while we live on it, to use as we need to use it, but ultimately to
escape from, to leave behind.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We cannot afford to
believe this way any longer.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We need to
re-examine our assumptions, to re-learn what the Bible, for instance, has to
say about the creation and our relationship to it, about the future of creation
and its participation in eternity.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What
are the ramifications, for example, of the vision of the last two chapters of
the Bible, from the Book of Revelation, a vision of eternity that involves “a
new heaven and a new earth?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In one of his first
public pronouncements after becoming Pope, Francis wrote,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Everything is related, and we human beings are united
as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love
God has for each . . . and which also unites us in fond affection with brother
sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth. </span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">(<i>Laudato Si</i>, 2015)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Lent has always been
about the cultivation of the virtue of humility.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Humility—that word that itself comes from the
</span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">humus</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, the Latin word for “earth.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To hold up humility is why on Ash Wednesday we take a good long look at
our mortality.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Remember that you are
dust, and to dust you shall return.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To
some this seems like a bizarre act. Why come to church to be reminded that you
are going to die? To seemingly embrace, if not celebrate, that grim truth?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We do it because without
the remembrance that we will one day die, we forget how much a part of creation
that we are.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And this amnesia leads us
not to humility but to arrogance. We forget that we are not God. We forget that
we are responsible and accountable. We forget that our human dignity is part of
a web not only of humanity, past present and yet to come, but a web of
creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We forget . . . forget . .
.forget . . . and the world around us pays the price.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And the last thing we forget is that when
others—including the creation—pays the price, eventually the price comes back
upon our own heads.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We are </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">not</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> saying
do not bother with your relationship with God during this Lent.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Quite the opposite.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Do </i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">work on your relationship with God
this Lent. Do the work of conversion. But, pay attention to the horizontal work
of conversion. Examine your relationship with God through your relationship
with God's good creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Examine the
ways you participate in human sin against the creation.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Find new ways to participate in the renewal
of the earth and its creatures.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Embrace
the humility without which the creation around us will continue its precipitous
slip into crisis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in right 4.1in;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Have the creation and
your place in it at the front of your mind and spirit when you say with Psalm
51, “Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”</span></p><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33772845.post-4245331286939400292022-01-24T09:42:00.004-05:002022-01-24T16:49:47.910-05:00A Faithful Jew Proclaims a New World<p><i>Sermon preached on the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, January 23, 2022, at St. Thomas' Church, Bath, NY: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, Luke 4:14-21.</i> </p><p>You can listen to the sermon <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-263153813/anti-semitism-is-a-sin?si=df5105352b0040d6af3fc837f369b719&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing">here.</a></p><p><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Let me try a summary
statement of the story we just heard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A faithful Jew asserts his right not only to interpret
the Scriptures but to fulfill them in a new world where old divisions and
prejudices are overturned.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Gospel writer Luke
places this story at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. This placement gives it
critical importance. The story proclaims who Jesus is and what the good news is
that he proclaims and lives.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It has
three critical elements. Each one of these elements is just as important for us
today as they were in the gospel writer’s day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus the Jew</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">First of all, this story
continues a theme begun in the birth story.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus is a faithful Jew.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He was
circumcised eight days after his birth, presented in the Temple on the fortieth
day, attended the Temple for Passover as a boy, and now we find him returning to
his hometown synagogue to begin his ministry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus is a faithful
Jew.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Christians through the ages,
including in our own day, frequently suffer from amnesia about this fact.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And this amnesia has resulted in nearly two
thousand years of antisemitism and anti- Judaism.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This continues to rear its ugly head.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In fact, it is on the rise in our day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So let us refresh our
memory.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus was born a Jew. He was
raised a Jew. He lived as a Jew. He died a Jew. He was raised a Jew.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He is eternally a Jew.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Was he critical of the
religious authorities of his day? Absolutely.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Did he seek reformation of his religion? Yes.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Did he wish to expand his understanding of
God’s chosen people to Gentiles?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is
clear that he did.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Did he mean to start an
entirely new religion that rejected the religious tradition of his people?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No, emphatically not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Antisemitism and
anti-Judaism are sins, </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">full stop.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They are perhaps the original sin of the
church. They began to appear among the followers of Jesus in the New Testament
itself, and echo through the centuries with the cry of Jewish innocents who
have been murdered in the name of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus our Interpreter of the Scriptures</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Second, Jesus the
faithful Jew nevertheless does assert himself as </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">the</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> interpreter of
Scripture for us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Luke takes great pains
to emphasize this truth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This fundamental
understanding that Jesus is the interpreter of Scripture for us began back in
that boy in the Temple story, where Jesus is found teaching the religious
teachers.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It continues in our passage
this morning, and several other passages in Luke, culminating in the great post-resurrection
story of the road to Emmaus, when the disciples realized that their hearts had
burned as the stranger—who turns out to be Jesus—opens the Scriptures for them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Again, we don’t remember
this very well when we hear other Christians talking about the authority of the
Bible, and perhaps even as us the question, “Does your church believe in the
Bible?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The answer to that
question is, “No.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We believe in God; we
believe in Jesus; we believe in the Holy Spirit.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We learn about this faith primarily through
the Bible, yes.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But it is not the Bible
that is central to us. It is Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus </span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">always</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> gets
the last word for us.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">We cannot
interpret or use any passage of Scripture, Old or New Testament, without
asking, “What does Jesus say?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">What does
Jesus do?”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I use the present tense quite
deliberately.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is one of the reasons
it is so important that we keep Jesus as the center of things.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Bible is bound in time. Jesus is
not.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus continues to speak to us
though the Holy Spirit, who is Jesus’ own first gift for those who believe (</span><i style="font-size: 16pt;">Book
of Common Prayer</i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">, p. 374).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus Who Calls Us to Live in a New World</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Third, the primary thing
that Jesus does is to call us to live in a New World.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">He called it the kingdom of God or the
kingdom of heaven.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">But because the
language of “kings” doesn’t resonate with us, I like the term, a New
World.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And what is sure and certain
about this New World?</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It is the Great
Reversal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Great Reversal.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus finds it in the prophet Isaiah today: the
poor and outcast get good news for once; captives get freedom, the blind get
sight; the oppressed get the yoke of their oppression cast off; and human
beings are called to live in the Lord’s favor. Not earn it—live in it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This is also a
significant theme of Luke’s Gospel.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus’ mother sang of it before his birth:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">the hungry fed, the mighty moved off their
throne, the proud hoisted on their own petard, mercy promised by the Judge of
all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So many of the parables
exclusive to Luke are about this Great Reversal: a Samaritan called good, a son
who rejected and squandered his inheritance welcomed home not to judgment but a
grand party, the rich man and poor Lazarus get their places switched in heaven.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And in Luke’s second
volume, the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christians get the reputation of
“those people who turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The New World, an
upside-down world.</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It begins right here,
when we gather, as Paul says, in one body, with a diversity of members who
cannot say, “I have no need of you,” no matter how different they are, how
“respectable” they are, how deserving by the old world’s standards they are.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">I love how a friend of
mine, Sam Portaro, puts it:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The Table we
gather around each Sunday is an “intentional violation of the customary
boundaries that separate us.”</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/mwhop/Google%20Drive/Sermon%20Archive/Epiphany/Epiphany%203C,%202022.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="font-size: 16pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; 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; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Perhaps we should post a
warning at the door:</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">“Caution! An
upside-down world awaits you within.”</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Would that it be that we should have such a reputation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">So, in this story of
Jesus reading Scripture in the Nazareth synagogue, we have three take-aways
that speak to us clearly across the centuries:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">v<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Jesus was a
faithful Jew, and antisemitism and anti-Judaism have no place among Christian
people.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">v<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Jesus is the
interpreter of Scripture, it is he who is <i>the</i> Word of God through whom
all things are understood, including the Bible.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">v<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Jesus calls us to
live in a New World and we should always look for ways to help it be formed
among us, expecting that it will most often turn our old world upside down.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">A faithful Jew asserts his right not only to interpret
the Scriptures but to fulfill them in a new world where old divisions and
prejudices are overturned.</span></i></p>
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<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/mwhop/Google%20Drive/Sermon%20Archive/Epiphany/Epiphany%203C,%202022.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; 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; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Sam Portaro, <i>Crossing the Jordan: Meditations on Vocation</i> (Boston,
Cowley Publications, 1999), p 68.<o:p></o:p></p>
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</div><i></i><p></p>The Rev Michael W Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10109964754305290671noreply@blogger.com0