Talents

Readings for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

So the kingdom of heaven will be like this:

a master goes on a journey and entrusts his property to his slaves - he gives the first guy five talents, he gives the second guy two talents, and he gives the third guy one talent... to each according to his abilities

Now, when we say a talent, we mean something you're good at, like singing or playing basketball, or learning other languages, but that's not what it meant back then. Originally, a talent was an amount of money. So the master gave his slaves different amounts of money, based on what he felt they could handle, and then left to go on a trip. Two of them traded the talents and made twice as much; one of them buried the talent, so that the amount was the same when he gave it back. If you want to know basically how much he gave them (and how much they gave back), a talent is roughly 15 years’ wages for a day laborer. You can get a pencil or pull up the calculator on your phone and figure out what that might roughly be.

Assuming current minimum wage, one talent = (approximately)

$7.25/hour x 40 hours/week x 52 weeks/year x 15 years

Write it down; we’ll come back to it later.

So, in the story, the guy with the five talents and the guy with the two talents are smart - they trade for twice as much. It reminds me of this poem by Shel Silverstein...


Another story of trading up, which you may have heard about, involves a guy from Canada named Kyle MacDonald, who wanted to move into a house and started trading up towards that goal by offering one red paperclip on Craigslist. He writes

On July 12, 2005 I posted a picture of a red paperclip on my blog and in the barter section of craigslist and asked if anyone wanted to make a trade for something bigger or better. A few days later I traded the paperclip for a pen shaped like a fish. Then I traded the pen for a doorknob. And so on, each time trading for something bigger or better. Once all the dust settled, I'd made 14 trades and wound up with a house located at 503 Main Street in Kipling Saskatchewan.

 And that's starting with a paperclip.

What if you started with...  a talent?
Remember how much one talent is?

($7.25  x  40  x  52  x  15...)

So the guy with one talent had something like a quarter of a million dollars, and the guy with two had almost half a million, and the guy with five had over a million! That's a lot of somebody else's money to be responsible for; I sure wouldn't want to lose it.
That was the third guy's approach; he played it safe, not wanting to risk losing any of the money. But the first two guys were responsible for handling even more of their master's money, and they weren't scared at all - immediately went out and risked it in trading.

FEAR is one difference between the first two guys and the third guy. As he says when the Master returns,

Master, I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.

Another difference between the guy who buried his master's money and the other two who risked it is TRUST.

The first two guys viewed the money their master gave them as an opportunity because they trusted his confidence in their ability to handle it. In taking the money and trading with it, they accepted the responsibility of sharing with their master in the household's business. And when he returned, he invited them to share in his joy.

The third guy feared and distrusted the master. When the master gave him more money than he felt qualified to manage, this guy viewed it as a setup - a test designed to trap him - so he buried the quarter million dollars in the ground. Burying the talent was not to keep the money safe for his master so much as to keep himself safe from the master's invitation into shared responsibility. As he says on returning the money "Here you have what is yours." He never accepted the master's trust in him in the first place. "Here's your stuff - I didn't mess with any of it. I don't even know why you gave it to me in the first place. It's none of my business. I just work here."

The master gets really angry with him. His no-risk = no-failure strategy misses the whole point of the exercise. And he doesn’t account for opportunity loss. It's like taking only classes that are way easy for you so your GPA doesn't go down. Or like going up to bat and never swinging at a pitch because you don't want to run the bases and maybe have to slide...and get dirty, or possibly even hurt.

From this parable, I'm beginning to get the feeling that the point of the life we've been given is to get in the game, not to finish with a clean uniform. While we're here, we should play hard, go all out, even if we get grass-stained and dirty in the process. Even if we get hurt; even if we fail. And EVEN - though this is the scariest of all I think - EVEN if we succeed... and God gives us more responsibility to share with him in the work of his kingdom.

The kingdom of heaven will be like this: a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them...

Don't be scared of how much God has entrusted you with.
Ask yourself (like Kyle MacDonald's dad asked him when he thought of giving up the red paperclip idea)...

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

As those famous theologians, The Goo Goo Dolls, wrote:

The end of fear is where we begin.

Amen

Transfiguration

This sermon is posted here. It was written for the "Sermons That Work" series and also delivered in a modified form to St. John's in Silsbee.

To St. Peter's in Brenham, TX

Homily

God, help us to follow Jesus' example and glorify you on earth by doing the work you give us to do.

Just before he's about to be arrested in the garden, Jesus prays to God, his Father, "I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do."

We regularly ask God for the grace to follow this example. Today, after we finish sharing communion, we will pray together, "assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in"

And after that, I'll stand at the back of the church and tell you to do exactly that. I'll say "Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord" And, like a team getting ready to run back on the field, you'll all say "Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Alleluia!"
Then you'll charge out the door to go do all those works that God has prepared for us. At least, that's the idea.

Church is where we come for rest, for encouragement and teaching, and for remembering who we belong to and what we're supposed to be about. It's like half-time - we regroup, catch our breath, take some nourishment, and get some focus and direction from our leaders. Then we go back out. That's a very crucial point. We get back in the game - doing the work God has prepared for us.

What is work is that?
Basically two things: Love God and Love your neighbor.

Priests and deacons help the church with both of those tasks, which are closely related. Though it's a huge simplification, you could say priests specialize in helping us love God, and deacons specialize in helping us love our neighbors.

Deacons often talk to the church about questions like "Who are our neighbors?" I'll warn you, if you get a deacon - and I pray that you do - he or she may start raising this question in directions you find uncomfortable. It's the deacon's job to notice people others don't want to see. Deacon's are charged, at our ordination, to "serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely." We're also charged to "show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself."

If God sends you a deacon - and I pray that he does - you will likely hear the Gospel focused differently through the deacon's preaching because of the deacon's call to focus on the marginalized.
I'll give you some examples from this morning's scripture readings.
In today's Psalm, we addressed God, not as "Our Father" but "Father of orphans," and "defender of widows." In the next verse, we read that "God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom."
Just in two verses, already, we have orphans, widows, single people and prisoners. Notice what kinds of work God is doing for them.
God is a father to those without a father. Think about men you know who are mentors, step-fathers, foster parents or adoptive parents. Think about kids you know whose dads aren't around or can't be at home. How are you men at St. Peter's joining God in this work of being a father to the fatherless?
Have you ever thought about the fact that Joseph was essentially Jesus' step-father?

What other work is God doing for people in the Psalm? God is the defender of widows. There are always folks willing to take advantage of someone who seems defenseless - scam artists prey on elderly people and steal their money or property in all kinds of ways. Is there any way you can join God in defending someone who is vulnerable in this way?

What other work can we see God doing in these two verses? "God gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners into freedom." Did you know that in Zimbabwe, members of Anglican churches were illegally arrested this week and put in prison - and that other parts of our Anglican communion helped to bail them out? I learned this by reading an email newsletter from the Anglican Communion News Service. Anglicans in Zimbabwe are facing a lot right now at the hands of a vindictive deposed bishop who is friends with the despotic president. And these are folks in the church.
What about other people in prison who aren't members of the church? What do you know about the prison system in general - about issues such as retributive versus restorative justice? Crimes with unequal punishments, like the difference in penalties for possessing crack cocaine versus powder cocaine? Why does a poor kid's drug have a smaller penalty than a rich kid's drug?
Uh oh - this is starting to sound almost political - it's starting to meddle in issues...

Yep, that's what a deacon's likely to do: push the Church back out into the world where there's work to be done, back in the game, not watching from the stands.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, gave an interview that's posted on YouTube in which he said that as Christians, we should look around to see what God is doing and join in.

When God sends you a deacon - as I pray he soon will - that person will help you to see what kinds of work God's doing out in the world outside these walls - the works he's preparing for you to walk in. And I pray you'll head out these doors and join in.
Thanks be to God!

Ash Wednesday

Readings:

Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12

Psalm 103 or 103:8-14

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Today is Ash Wednesday, when we are reminded that we don’t have all the time in the world.

This is an excellent video meditation produced by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix, AZ:

Today begins the season of Lent, when the church tries to slow itself down and take a good look around its house and do some spring cleaning. A lot of mess can accumulate over a year. When you’re in a rush, going from one crisis to another, you don’t really notice the papers piling up on the table or the beans growing fungus in the fridge. But just because you’re not paying attention to the mess doesn’t mean it isn’t there. What if company dropped by? As soon as they walked in the door, every dirty sock, every piece of string on the carpet and every smudge of peanut butter on the counter would have a neon sign pointing at it.

Lent is one time in the church year when we remind ourselves that we’re expecting company. Just like we got together before the Bishop’s visit to clean up our house physically – wash, vacuum, throw out, rearrange...., we also need to clean up our “house” spiritually. And it’s not just a one-person job. It takes all of us.

Consider these thoughts on Lent from the Very Rev. Tony Clavier, rector of St. Paul’s in LaPorte, Indiana:

"Too easily our [Lenten commitments] begin to look like holy variations on New Year’s resolutions, and we know how long they last!
Part of the problem is that we individualize Lent. We begin with me. Because we begin with me, the whole thing slides into another form of personal spirituality, perhaps somewhat ruined by our sly hints to others about just what it is we are sacrificing.
Sacrifice in Christianity, as with our Jewish ancestors, means the offering of life. Its culmination is Jesus’ offering for us on Calvary.
...
Lent’s forty days prepare us for the Cross and the Resurrection, and no good intentions about giving up something gets us to that “Green Hill far away.” True, once our goal for Lent is established, fasting and abstinence is a way to keep us on track, but the goal comes first. The goal is simple but profound. It begins with our parish church. How does our community of the faithful intend to spend Lent together? What extra acts of worship or study will be added to the calendar? In what ways will the parish reach out to the world? We begin there. These extras on the calendar are not for the holy few. They determine how each of us may spend Lent, and guide us to choose individual acts of love that fit into that wider program.
At the same time, we remember that what we do doesn’t earn us God’s love. The question rather is how may I, and we, as a parish, become worthy of Christ’s death and passion? How do we deserve His conquering death for us and giving us eternal life?
On the one hand, we can’t earn and can never deserve God’s love for us in Christ. But we can open ourselves to the gift and seek to rid ourselves of those things that get in the way of God’s redeeming grace. We used to call these impediments the Seven Deadly Sins. Obviously gluttony was among them. Those old sins – do look them up or Google them – were neat ways of reminding us just how “self” gets in the way of service. Now, of course, you may feel you do pretty well in avoiding these failings and fallings. But just ask your partner, your children, your parents, or your best friends. With a little nudging they will come up with examples of bad temper, feeling sorry for yourself, being envious, or angry.
The point isn’t that we dwell on these things, but that we offer them daily to God in our devotions, certain that God forgives and strengthens us.
The gospel today reminds us that the smudge of ashes on our foreheads may either be a boast, or it may be a sign to us and to others that this Lent will be about more than giving up chocolate; it will be a time when God’s redeeming work transforms each of us and our parishes.
So may it be."

Here at St. John’s, we’ve been given an opportunity to slow down and take a close look at what we’ve been doing as a parish and consider what we want to do next. During Lent, we need to take that task seriously and clean up around here.

We need to fix things that are broken – relationships, models for doing ministry, whatever isn’t working right.

We need to throw some things out – old grievances, rotten attitudes – whatever is cluttering up the place and making it stink.

We may even need to let go of some successes and things that were good at one time if they’re not relevant to what God’s calling us to do now.

Some of the things you’ll come across, you won’t want to throw out because you have fond memories of them, and you hope you can use them again. This will really be a challenge for St. John’s especially. I hear y’all talking a lot about your past. But I think God is envisioning for us a future. We’ll have to let some things go to have an open hand to receive something new. Another thing that can happen when we begin a deep cleaning is that we may find treasures we forgot or didn't know we had, and that's something to look forward to.

Some of the dirt and gunk you’ll come across, you won’t know who put it there – it doesn’t matter; if you see a mess, clean it up. God is constantly having to clean up after us, so one way to express gratitude for that is to graciously clean up after each other when we have an opportunity.

We did a good job cleaning up the building for Bishop Doyle's visit. Now let’s work on cleaning up the rest of our church – inside as well as out - to be a functional home for Christ to live in and work from.

Amen.

Go on, Go back, or Sit still?

God, like Moses and Abraham, may we follow you, even not knowing the way. Amen.

You’ve heard it said... you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not swear falsely

But I say... don’t even stay angry with your brother or sister. If you don’t reconcile with each other, the part of your heart that harbors resentment and animosity will start to abscess and become necrotic, and it will poison you from inside. Cut it out.

Jesus is making a distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

The letter of the law tries to define the spirit of the law, which can be helpful up to a point, but after that point, the more specific the letter of the law gets, the more it sucks the life out of the spirit. Living your life strictly in accordance with rules (even the Ten Commandments) with no reference to what the law is for is like teaching to the TAKS – it makes the whole system a farce.

Not that basic skills are unnecessary or irrelevant. They’re absolutely foundational. For your spiritual development, keeping the Ten Commandments is like learning plus, minus, times and "guzinta," or like learning nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions – its good to learn them, but knowing those things is not an end in itself. The goal is that we take those materials and start to create new things no one’s ever seen before. You teach kids grammar so the ones who are poets will be able to somewhat translate for us the songs they hear the angels singing. You teach them multiplication so they can chase infinity.

If the letter of the law hands you a paint-by-number kit,

 

 then the spirit of the law walks you into a sunlit studio and simply says....
Create something beautiful.

Yesterday at Council, Bishop Doyle told us that, not only in individual parishes like St. John’s, but all across the Diocese, we’re going to have to rethink our direction and our way of being Church, because we’re realizing that the map we’ve been looking at doesn’t match the terrain we’re moving toward anymore.

We may as well unplug the turn-by-turn GPS. We maybe should even stop the car and open the door and start walking through the grass. As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in the Book of Hours, “Now you must go out into your heart, as onto a vast plain.”

The Bishop has invited us to start a process of inventing and imagining new things, but his invitation yesterday did not to me sound like a theoretical pathway-- more like a life and death kind of turning point.

He said:

Continuing this church economy, doing the things we have been doing for the last three decades leads only to greater conflict and loss. Continuing to be church, simply tinkering with efficiency and symptoms leads unequivocally to closure. However, at this very same moment we stand on the pass with a second thought not yet fully formed but forming. That thought is that you and I stand on the edge of a new missionary age – a new geography of hope.

His words sound like what Moses told the people of Israel as they were standing just outside the Promised Land, ready to cross over. After wandering in the desert 40 years, circling around and around in the same tracks, they were about to walk into a place they’d never seen, trusting God. Moses knew there was still hesitation, so he laid out for them what was at stake.

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity... Choose life that you and your descendents may live.”

The Egyptian people today are standing at a similar kind of gate. They’ve got the door down and a path open in front of them. Will they walk through it toward a different kind of future? Or will they get cold feet and revert back to the way things were before? It’s up to them.

It seems to me St. John’s is on that kind of a course right now; we’ve got some choices to make about our future and how we’re going to shape it. When the Bishop was here two weeks ago, he set some hopeful, life-giving options in front of us. Some of them are new things that we’ve not previously imagined – that even the diocese has only recently begun imagining. He told us we’ll have the freedom to choose how we’d like to do ministry in this place, even to create new ways of doing it.

We’re at a point where we can walk into a new territory or go back the way we came – or we can stand still and try not to move, waiting for someone who knows more, someone who has more authority, to come and tell us what to do. That would be ridiculous - and also not necessary. The Bishop is the head of this diocese and of this congregation as part of it; Fr. John, as the rector, is acting as the Bishop by extension, filling his shoes in this place when he’s not here. But when the Bishop is here, wearing his own shoes, that’s the most authoritative voice you’re going to get – nobody knows more about where he wants the Church in the Diocese of Texas to be headed than him. And he’s already told us... and given us a project to work on. The scary thing is, it’s not a paint-by-number; it’s a blank canvas. From what I’m coming to learn, this is a different kind of relationship than you’re accustomed to having with your bishop. It’s new for everybody – him too – start enjoying it.

If we choose, we can stop walking around in circles and set off toward a new land that God will show us. It’s not going to be easy to discern this; we have no map for where we may be going. But think of it this way: if we’re willing, we’ll get to help make the map of this new territory the Church is being called to inhabit.




Map of America - 1730 by Guillaume Delisle

 Amen.

Judgment Day: Christmas, Part 2

When he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, [may we] without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing. Amen.
"one will be taken and one will be left"
Taken… When we hear it relating to people, it has scary associations. Like Elizabeth Smart taken from her home at knifepoint… the movie Taken with Liam Neeson where his daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers. Sometimes we talk about people being 'taken from us' by disease, drugs, accidents, mental illness....
When we hear that two will be in a field and one will be taken and the other left – what does being taken mean? What do you imagine?
Two folks standing out there in the garden, pulling radishes, and suddenly one shoots up into the stratosphere, and the other left standing, staring at the sky?
One interpretation of this passage, made famous in the Left Behind series, imagines it somewhat like this – just on a larger scale, like a cosmic evacuation on the eve of a military strike. God, with a handful of rescue ropes tied to his most valuable assets, yanks them up and out of there right before he pushes the big red button.
In this view, to be taken is to be rescued out of the world by God while others are abandoned, left to die with the enemy.
What kind of Good News is that? Not very. It offers salvation only to folks who are on the right side and important enough to rescue. It's a cosmic Halo mission, and you may or may not make it to the chopper to get out before the bombs start falling. It's a gospel that believes the world is doomed to destruction. A gospel that sees God as a powerful and highly unstable leader who may at any moment decide to nuke the whole planet. It's a gospel driven by fear: fear of the enemy, however you would like to define them, but mostly fear of God, because he may go postal and blow you up with everybody else if you don't figure out how to become necessary.
In our culture, everything is charged with fear these days. Everything around us is telling us how to prepare for hurricanes, for floods, for being charged by a bear, for surviving a broken elevator chain, for escaping from a psychopathic serial killer. Buy a security system, a gun, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher – I mean, you never know. Try to secure your position at work so you don't get axed, watch what you say. In relationships, you can't trust anyone; never let down your guard. It's not paranoia if they really are after you. The Left Behind gospel plays right into those fears.
But is this the kind of message Matthew's intends when he says keep awake - you don't know when the Lord is coming… he'll be like a burglar? Should we sit up all night on the couch with a .45? What if he opens the door – shoot him?
That's one of the problems with bad theology. It leads you to conclusions that don't make any sense with the rest of the story.
Let's try another way to read this passage, especially the part about some being taken and others left. What about that word left? Does it mean rejected/abandoned? As in one will be accepted and the other rejected? Just because we have a word pair doesn't mean they're opposites, like good/bad, yes/no, hot/cold; some word pairs are simply related things: parent/child, today/tomorrow, call/response.
Here's one way we use taken/left that doesn't mean accept/reject. We were picking some radishes out of the garden a couple weeks ago. Some we took; others we left. We didn't reject them; they weren't bad. They just weren't ready yet, so we left them a while longer. I don't know if that's a justifiable interpretation here, but I think it's worth considering. At least it makes more sense to me with the rest of the gospel.
And what about taken. What are some other ways we can use it – other than to mean stolen, kidnapped or killed, as in 'he took my wallet' 'that lunatic took our daughter,' 'leukemia took my mom.' What about "receive" or "accept" as in 'take a compliment' 'take a call' 'take help that's offered.'
If you offer someone a compliment, don't you want them to accept it? If you give someone a call, don't you want them to answer? If you give someone a gift, don't you want them to take it? What if that's an accurate way to understand "one will be taken"? One will be accepted, received by God; one person's life as a gift, which God takes. "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee..."
Christmas will be coming up a few weeks from now; this period of Advent is preparing for it. We're not waiting for Jesus to come, though. We're waiting for him to come back. We say it all the time: "Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again" "We remember his death; we proclaim his resurrection; we await his coming in glory." Advent is actually preparation for Judgment Day – Christmas, part 2. We're not primarily reenacting a period of waiting for Jesus to be born, to pretend like it's happening again. We're preparing for what happens next.
Think of Christmas morning as a day of judgment – it's a moment of truth… All the things that have been hidden under wrapping paper are finally opened and everybody sees what was given.
Now think of Judgment Day like Christmas morning, when God takes and opens the gifts we've offered. That's what Advent is about, working on the gift you're preparing for God. Your life - or what you trade it for - will be your gift, the reciprocal part of the exchange. At Christmas, we opened the gift God gave us. On Judgment Day, he'll open the ones we give him.
When he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, [may we] without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
Amen

You are a promise

Year A, Proper 3
Readings: Isaiah 49:8-16a 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 Matthew 6:24-34 Psalm 131

Thus says the Lord, “I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people…” (Is 49:8)
A covenant is a promise. God says, “I have… given you as a promise to the people…”
God has given you as a promise to this town and this place. God has given you like a promise to the people of Silsbee and Hardin County. You are part of God’s promise to the people you live around and come to know and care about.
What kind of promise? – for one, a promise of justiceWhat kind of promise? Isaiah talks about things like helping people establish themselves and get back their lost, wasted or stolen heritage. Those are promises of justice.
We are part of God’s promise to this community – and that includes working for justice for people who are being mistreated and hurt and taken advantage of.
Examples
For many years, Gary Monday served as a police officer and saw all kinds of abuse and violence and exploitation – and part of his job was to serve justice by catching the offenders and sometimes by restoring some of what was lost in the damage. Gary was part of God’s promise of justice to the people he served. He was also part of God’s promise of justice to the offenders themselves – because as Paul would argue, being shown that you’ve broken the law gives you a clear call to turn around and change.
But Gary couldn’t possibly keep the whole of God’s promise of justice to all those people by himself (though sometimes, people seem to expect that of the police). There are lots of pieces to our justice system, and lots of people involved in each of those pieces.Betty See worked for many years with victim’s services, and part of her job was to help the victims re-establish themselves – to gain back some sense of security and dignity and self-confidence.
Diane Bebee is now extending her previous work as a social worker and therapist. She’s working to establish The Roosevelt House here in Silsbee. It’s going to be a place of refuge for girls who have been temporarily taken out of their homes because of abuse or neglect.
Right in the back of the church here, sharing space with us, is the Samaritan Counseling Center. You can see the sign when you go out the kitchen door. It serves some of these same children by offering counseling to cope with the abuse they have suffered.
Earl Stover works as a judge, and his job is also part of God’s promise of justice to the people of this community. Our laws serve as guides to set down what we understand justice to be – what kinds of interactions between people reflect justice and what kinds of interactions reflect injustice… It’s the job of judges to interpret those questions in individual situations. When a judge administers justice well, it can give people the opportunity to make things right.
Justice and Grace
This is similar in some ways to the function of the service of reconciliation in our prayer book – just as our justice system doesn’t assume people are perfect, the church also doesn’t assume people are perfect, that we will never mess up, that we will never hurt each other. Of course we will – of course we do. Both the church and our legal system assume that we will mess up. They provide ways to deal with the wrong things we do and also give opportunities for us to turn around and do things differently and re-join the work and service going on.
Fr. John used to be a lawyer, serving as part of God’s promise of justice in that capacity, and now he is a priest and offers us in an even more obvious way God’s promise of justice – which includes grace and forgiveness.
All these things: making just laws, justly enforcing laws, justly interpreting laws, helping victims, helping offenders, offering avenues for reconciliation and grace and forgiveness – these are all part of the same promise of justice that God makes – and that God has given us some responsibility for upholding.
That’s a really big responsibility – to uphold God’s promise of justice - Justice is a tall order. That’s why it takes so many people doing different parts – and each doing them conscientiously. None of those parts are dispensable. Each one of us individually is not so strong or powerful, but together, and with God, we can stand up against injustices and defend people who are being hurt and taken advantage of, especially those who can’t stand up for themselves. And we can work to reconcile and restore people who are doing the hurting as well. God’s justice covers a lot of things.

Don't forget
An important part of justice is not forgetting things that are unresolved, not forgetting people who are still suffering, but making sure we remember until things are made right.
There are lots of people still stuck in bad circumstances, and they are wondering if anybody knows or cares – or if they have been forgotten by everyone, if even God has forgotten them…

But God doesn’t forget. God doesn’t forget any of the people he has made. ‘Can a woman forget [her own baby]? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you,’ God says, ‘See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.’ (Is 49:15-16)God doesn’t forget any of us. He has our names written on his hands.
What can we do to remember the people and situations we should not forget?
One big way is prayer.
With her prayer beads, Bette Cheek holds in her hands the people God’s given her to remember – including everybody here at St. John’s – and everyday, she prays for us. And she makes prayer beads so other people can do the same. I’m sure many of you have some. Glenda Gray’s pictorial directory can be a similar tool. You can look at the pictures and pray for people and pray for the church. The prayer list in the bulletin is another tool - we pray aloud for these needs Sunday and Wednesday of each week. The Daughters of the King have studied and made vows to pray regularly, and they meet together to stay accountable to that calling. They also wear their crosses everyday to help them remember they have committed themselves to prayer.
Our prayer book includes prayers about every kind of situation the church feels must be remembered – and they’re laid out in a regular rotation so we cover them all. The prayers of the people we do each week also remind us of all the areas God’s hand covers – and for which we also share some responsibility. Justice is only one of them. Our worship is intentionally structured so we will be reminded on a regular basis of all the things God is concerned for – all the things God promises – for us and for everyone.
But being reminded is just the catalyst, just the first part to get things started – if I remember and then forget again, remember, forget, remember again.. without anything ever actually happening as a result, what good is that? The reason we remember is that remembering God’s promises should change the way we live.

God has given us as a promise to the people around us – and God does not forget his promises.

You are a promise.
We are a promise.

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
May 25, 2008

Seeing and Knowing God

Easter 6, Year A
Readings: Acts 17:22-31 Psalm 66:7-18 1 Peter 3:13-22 John 14:15-21

Do you know God?
Have you ever seen God? How do you know God is real?

Bob and Joyce are driving to Houston. As they come into the city, traffic starts to pick up. Just as they enter a construction zone, Bob spots a car stalled, partly in their lane because of the construction barricade. He looks in the mirror to move over, and there’s a semi in the other lane – there’s not enough space for all three vehicles – and nowhere for Bob and Joyce to go.
They both flinch, expecting impact – and then, somehow, they’re on the other side.
“How did you do that?” Joyce asks, amazed.
“I don’t know,” Bob says. “It wasn’t me.”

How do you know God is real? Have you ever seen God?
Lots of you have children and grandchildren. Think back to holding that brand new little baby for the first time – those perfect, delicate ears, beautiful eyelashes and tiny fingernails.
Look at your own hand and the lines on your knuckles, the roadmap of purple veins just under your skin.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24-25)
It feels like this is true – that there must be somebody responsible - It feels like there must be a God, but how do we know God is real if we can’t see God?
Can you see your eyelashes? Why not? Because they’re too close to your eyes.
Maybe we can’t see God because God is too close. Paul tells the people in Athens, “indeed he is not far from each one of us.”
Can you see your heart? Why not? Because it’s inside of you.
Maybe we can’t see God because God is inside of us. Jesus tells his disciples, “You know [the Holy Spirit], because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Sometimes you can feel what you can’t see
You can’t see your eyelashes because they are too close to your eyes. But, you can move the tip of your finger near your eye and feel the tiny hairs brushing against your skin, so you know they are there.
You can’t see your heart, because your heart is inside you - but you can put your thumb in the little space between your collar bones and feel bom-bom as it pumps blood through the arteries in your neck.
I can’t see God, but there are times when I feel that God is with me. I remember once in early spring, taking a walk in the middle of the afternoon, and suddenly, I felt that God was walking with me. I didn’t see him, but I knew he was there. It seemed that if I leaned my head over, it would be resting on his shoulder.
I remember how familiar and simple it felt to be walking together like that with God, and I remember feeling surprised that it was so familiar and so simple – as though we already knew each other very well.
You don’t have to see God to know him. And you already do know God, and he knows you. “Indeed he is not far from each one of us.”

Jesus told his disciples, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth …. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are all connected with each other and with us, so when we encounter God, it will probably feel familiar rather than strange and frightening.
In a way, this can make God’s presence hard to recognize. If we are expecting God to be completely different from anything we know, we may be surprised to encounter God in a way that feels close and familiar.
Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, asked him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
And Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.”Don’t make it more difficult than it is – you know this already
Sometimes, we can make things more difficult than they are.
Some things are difficult and complicated; that’s true. But some things are simple, and we make them complicated when they don’t need to be.
For example, how do you feel about Algebra?
x + 2 = 5 Solve for x. If you’re like me, just hearing ‘ x’, you feel a mild panic. But relax and think about it – slow down. You already know this. It’s actually familiar. If you start with 2, how do you get to 5?
You have to let yourself recognize the familiar parts and realize that you know them so that you don’t panic or give up. Don’t make it more difficult than it is.
For some people, reading and spelling cause the panic.
How do you spell ‘Episcopalian’?
It’s so long and has all those syllables! I can’t do it.
Yes, you can – slow down – listen to the sounds. What are the letters that make those sounds? Just do one at a time. You already know this. It’s actually familiar. Don’t make it more difficult than it is.
Learning to read is similar – for someone learning to read, looking at all those words can be intimidating. They’ll just start guessing. You have to tell them, “Slow down, look at what’s there; don’t guess.“
When it connects – that those letters represent familiar words – it’s like epiphany – like revelation.
Knowing God is similar. It may seem intimidating or even impossible to think about trying to know God.
How can I know God? I’ve never seen God. God is totally ‘other’ – completely beyond human comprehension.
Except that Jesus and Paul both say it’s not like that.
We’re God’s children, Paul explains, so we know God already, because God made us and takes care of us. In him we live and move and have our being, and He is not far from each one of us. We know the Spirit, Jesus says, because he is with us and will be in us.
God is familiar, even if we can’t put words to it or explain it. So don’t worry about what you can’t see, what you don’t know; look at what’s there. We’ve seen God reflected to us in thousands of ways. We’ve seen God reflected through people and events; we’ve seen God reflected through the beauty of the world around us; we’ve seen God reflected in scripture, in the liturgy, and we’ve seen God reflected in our own hearts.
CS Lewis says we each have a ‘God-shaped hole’ in our hearts, so even before we recognize what’s missing in our lives, the shape of the emptiness traces an outline of what God must be like to fill it.
Don’t make knowing God more difficult than it is – you already know God. And He knows you.
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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
April 27, 2008

Thomas - not falling for that again

Year A, Easter 2
Readings: Acts 2:14a,22-32 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 Psalm 16

A lot of times, people refer to this story as being about 'Doubting Thomas,' because Thomas didn't believe the disciples when they told him they'd seen Jesus. He said he'd have to see it for himself. He'd have to put his finger in the nail holes in Jesus' hands before he'd believe that Jesus was really alive.
Fr. John has talked before about doubt, saying that the opposite of doubt is not faith; the opposite of doubt is certainty. Just because you sometimes doubt, doesn't mean you don't believe or you don't have faith. You can be in both of those places at once; it's actually a pretty common thing to be partly believing and partly doubting at the same time - or mostly believing with a little prickle of doubt - or mostly doubting with just a tiny piece of hope that would even just like to believe.

It's hard sometimes to figure out what's true and what's real and so what to believe.
All four of the gospels describe situations where various people encountered Jesus after he rose from the dead - and all four gospels talk about people not believing it at first when they heard about it - some of them even had a hard time believing it when he was standing right in front of them.
Thomas wasn't the only one who doubted - he's just the one who got stuck with the label.
Listen to some of the other stories about what happened after the resurrection.

Here's part of the story from Luke ..on the first day of the week, at early dawn, [several of the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Mag'dalene and Jo-an'na and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
-That had to have been really frustrating for those women. They saw two men in shining clothes, who told them Jesus was alive. So they went and told the apostles and all the rest - but the apostles thought it was 'an idle tale' - some ridiculous story they all - collectively, the whole group of them - made up or imagined... you know how we women can be so hysterical sometimes...

Here's how the story goes in Mark -

Now when [Jesus] rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. (Mk 16:9-14)

So, here, it's not just Thomas - it's everybody who has a hard time believing that Jesus is really alive. I don't blame them. It's been their experience - mine too - that people who die...stay dead. But with Jesus, suddenly that doesn't seem to hold true. It had to be very shocking and hard to believe, even if he was standing right in front of them - maybe especially so because he was standing right in front of them.
Hearing the story as we do after the fact, and after many centuries of getting used to the idea, it doesn't seem so shocking. We can think about it abstractly - I believe in Jesus, that he died and rose again, that he is here with us today... And I do - But it's not like I can see him physically standing here saying, like he did to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side..."
I believe that Jesus died and rose again, but it's pretty much impossible for me to really know that. I didn't see him die; I didn't go to the tomb and see the angels; I didn't touch his feet. I wasn't there...

Some of the philosophers, when they talk about knowledge, say that we can only know what we experience. The rest, we have to believe - or not. It's a choice we make, based on a lot of factors. One of the biggest is trust - trust in the person giving the information
Once a few decades ago, when people were less skeptical than they are now, a radio broadcaster began giving a fake newscast about an alien attack, and people became very panicked because they believed it was real - the joke really backfired, because people took it seriously. Then, after that, they were uncertain whether to believe the news or not.
Trust is much easier to break than to rebuild.

What's the rest? ......... "Fool me twice, shame on me."

This is what I'm hearing when Thomas says,
"Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."Thomas had put everything into the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the one his people had been waiting for. He trusted Jesus. He believed him. Totally. Hook, line and sinker. Gave up his whole life to follow.
But then Jesus got arrested and killed. And what is a dead Messiah? A dead Messiah had to have been, as CS Lewis framed it, either a liar or a lunatic. Only a live Messiah could be the Lord, but this one was clearly dead.
That had to be a hard pill to swallow, especially on that 'long Saturday' when no one knew what was going on and all they could do was wait to see what would happen next. Nobody had any idea. The hope that Jesus' followers had for a Messiah had been crucified with him. They had put everything into that hope, and it was gone. He was gone. What now?

Nothing - nothing to do but wait.

In TS Eliot's The Four Quartets, he writes

"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope of the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting." (East Coker, III)

Then, suddenly, people are all over the place saying that Jesus was alive again. He had risen from the dead.

It's hard enough to bury the beautiful dream that you had to watch die so painfully. It's unbearable to have people teasing you with the hope that it's not really dead. Because that's what you wish so much could be true that you can hardly bear even to let yourself think it, much less say it out loud. And when other people are saying it, it's hard not to at least want to believe. But he was not going to fall for that again.
Some people hold their hope close to the surface, and it blooms at the first hint of spring. Others push it down deep where maybe it will survive a freeze. But I think God's the one who planted it in all of us.
This is why I think that, even though Jesus gets on Thomas a little for making it so hard for himself to believe, he still walks through that wall of doubt, past the locked door, to reach him inside.

Whatever it takes, Thomas... Whatever you need to believe it's true - because it is true...

"Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing."

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
March 30, 2008
In our society, we've had a lot of broken trusts - in the family and in the larger culture - divorce rates and spousal abuse, child abuse and elder abuse are pretty high; political scandal is commonplace now; we can't keep track of all the professional sports, music and movie stars who are on drugs; not only stockbrokers but even economists are gambling with the finance markets; leaders in corporations and non-profit groups embezzle money frequently - and the church is not immune to any of these things, certainly. The preacher's wife murdering her husband, TV evangelists confessing to everything imaginable, priests molesting children.
Belief in anything truly good has become kind of a quaint notion. People in my generation grew up in a very commercial culture. There's not a lot people my age believe in - although it seems there's a lot they would like to believe. It's just that we've learned by experience that most things are a lie - to sell you something or get something from you. Exploitation, not charity is the normal motivation for a lot of interactions in our culture.
Why do people from various companies, organizations, or colleges call at 6 pm on a weeknight? Because they want you to give them money, obviously.
Why is public school attendance encouraged and rewarded and non-attendance punished? Because education will make children's lives better or because attendance figures determine state funding? What about all those tests? Hard to say sometimes.
What about the health care system - who determines your treatment?

Many people by now expect to be used and mistreated - it comes as a suprise when someone seems genuinely honest - and the key word there is 'seems.' Because even our desire for authenticity has been caught up in marketing strategy - I encourage you to notice this week how many ads use words like 'real' 'genuine' and 'authentic.' Some are beginning to pick up on that also, and we're even more suspicious when we meet someone making claims of truth or authenticity - because we're waiting for the real truth to come out - it almost always does - what is it you want from me?

Mainly, the goal is not to be taken in, not to be hoodwinked, taken for a ride or taken advantage of.
Do you know these?
"Once bitten, twice shy"
"Fool me once, shame on you...."

Nicodemus - faith and reason

Year A, Lent 2
Readings: Genesis 12:1-4a Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17 Psalm 121


The story of Nicodemus is fascinating to me. I think it describes what often happens when a logical, analytical mind encounters spiritual truth.
Nicodemus is trying to understand who Jesus is and where his power is coming from - because he figures it has to be from God, but how does that work, exactly?
He's sincere - he really wants to understand, "What is this relationship between body and soul? - between God and man?" but when Jesus answers him, Nicodemus finds the reply very confusing.
Jesus had said that, to see the kingdom of God, everyone needed to be 'born from above,' but that didn't make sense to Nicodemus. "How can anyone be born after having grown old?"
Jesus tells him. "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit..."
That still didn't clarify it totally for Nicodemus, because his next comment is, "How can these things be?"
I find this conversation encouraging, because I think Nicodemus is an intelligent person, so if he's confused, I feel reassured that, when I'm confused about faith questions, it's not that I'm not smart enough, it's just that the answers really are hard to understand.
I also find it encouraging that, when Nicodemus says he's confused, Jesus works harder at explaining it. I'm grateful for people who have the courage and honesty to say when they don't understand something, even if it makes the teacher irritated, because usually then the teacher will say it again more clearly and maybe use some examples, and the result is that everybody understands better. Think how many people have come to understand God's purpose in sending Jesus to save humanity - which is what our faith hangs on - from the single verse of John 3:16 - part of Jesus' further clarification to Nicodemus. It's such a clear explanation. When I was little, we memorized it in Sunday school. You probably know it, too.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
We can partly thank Nicodemus for that excellent summary because he asked the question.
Asking questions is, I think, an important foundation of scientific inquiry, and we've come up in a scientific, questioning age. Everything is being and has been questioned and examined, turned inside out, defined and re-defined - like we were trying to chart and re-map in specific details all the vagueness of the past, to take away the element of mystery that wrapped around everything in the medieval period. We don't want 'hocus pocus'; we want reality - something solid and definite to believe in.
Here's an interesting little piece of linguistic information about that word 'hocus pocus,' the way we talk about words or rituals that seem silly and pointless. "Hocus pocus...abbra cadabra, and Viola! Here's a bunny!"
But it's fake; it's a trick to make you think the magician has powers, but really he doesn't. He just knows how to make you look the other way at the right time.
During the Protestant Reformation, people were beginning to question what the rituals in church were all about, really. The service was all in Latin, and so people didn't know what was being said and mostly didn't understand what was being done, but at some point, the priest would say a particular thing, a bell would ring, and everyone was supposed to look, because the priest would hold up the bread, and that was how you received communion - that's how you received grace. The people who attended the service didn't actually take communion by eating the bread or drinking the wine; they received it by seeing it. So, if you weren't paying attention then, you could miss the main part of the service and seemingly it wouldn't do you any good. But some people started to wonder whether any of those things, which they didn't understand, were actually doing them any good anyway.
People had lost track of what all those things meant that the priest was doing and saying, and they started to question whether those things had any meaning at all. The words sounded like gibberish. When the priest held up the bread, he said (in Latin) "Hoc est corpus meum" - "This is my body." But most people didn't know Latin. So it's not suprising, really that when the priest said "Hoc est corpus meum" - and maybe the bells would drown out the 'meum' part, leaving just "Hoc est corpus..", it's understandible that what people heard was 'Hocus pocus,' - - and that came to have a meaning of its own related to how they felt about what they saw and heard in church. Maybe all these rituals and unintelligible words don't really have a meaning. It's just 'hocus pocus...'
People became dissatisfied with accepting things they didn't understand; they wanted reasons and answers.
Religion has reacted in different ways to this cultural shift of wanting to question everything - in many instances defensively, making it wrong to question issues of faith, which put a lot of people in the predicament of feeling they had to choose between thinking or believing. Some people were executed because of dilemmas like this. And some fought back, carrying out executions of their own and breaking all the things that smacked of mystery and 'hocus pocus' to get back to a 'true religion' based on reason and not meaningless movements and unintelligible words. But just because someone doesn't know the meaning or understand the words doesn't mean they don't have meaning - we have to be careful to balance our capacity for reason and desire for explanations with respect for what we don't understand.
As Fr. John and Fr. Jack discussed in the Lenten series class Wednesday night, "faith vs. reason" is a false dichotomy - that's just not how it is - God made us with the ability to reason. It's only right that we should use it - and the faithful use of gifts God gave us will not lead us away from God but toward God, even if the path seems to wind around.
And it has wound around quite a bit - even in the past 10-20 years, not to mention the past 100. Our culture has changed a lot in this questioning and exploration. One thing I think we're learning from this process is that we're not likely to ever understand it all. For every new thing we've learned this century, we've discovered whole areas of things we never dreamed about before - and each new thing is more beautiful, and complicated and amazing than we imagined. Remember what whole new worlds, literally, were opened up to our imaginations by the invention of the telescope and the microscope, for example, and more recently with quantum physics, genetics, and multi-dimensional math.
As we look for answers to our questions about life and the world, as we try to understand, God shows us new things, and each thing we understand is more amazing than we had imagined before... until I think eventually, more than answers to our questions about life and the world, we begin to want to know the God who made this world and gave us life.
In our class Wednesday night, talking about how the world began and why we're here, we had a big discussion about this relationship between faith and science. George Kondos made a comment about Einstein saying that science was trying to understand the mind of God. Einstein represents to many people the pinnacle of modern scientific thought - one of the most brilliant minds of all time - and his conclusion is that science is essentially a search to know God.
Isn't that really theology?
I love theology, and I think it's the highest of all fields to study, but I think even that is not where the journey of faith is leading. One of the most brilliant theologians of all time - St. Thomas Aquinas - after he had written tomes of material constituting a complex and beautiful systematic theology, one day completely stopped writing. Because, he said, something had happened while he was celebrating the Eucharist one day, and whatever that experience was, it made everything he ever wrote seem like 'so much straw.' Compared to what he'd been trying to describe in his theological writings, the reality was so much more amazing - so the thing to do then was worship, not write about it.
Our ability to reason and our desire to understand may be things God created in us, but they're tools, things to help us get to where we understand enough to worship, and at that point, the rest of it, as amazing and complicated and beautiful as it is, won't even be able to hold a candle to the one who made it. This may partly explain the stories why some people who meet Jesus just stop whatever they were doing to follow Him - even though not everybody does it immediately when they meet him, like some of the disciples did.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I love the story of Nicodemus, because it took him a while to work it out. Today's gospel reading is not the only place he shows up. Here, in this passage, we see the beginning of his journey - questioning, trying to understand who Jesus is and how he has access to God's power. Later, he comes up at Jesus' trial, trying to offer a voice of reason in Jesus' defense. Then, still later, he is one of those who come to take Jesus' body down from the cross, "bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes.." - kind of like those wise men from the East, whose scientific inquiries led them to follow a star.
Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was diligently trying to observe and follow the law, started from a different place. While the magi started from science, Nicodemus started from religion, but they all found themselves on a journey of faith that ultimately led them to worship the God who made it all, who created the star, and who gave the law, and who sent his Son to show us how much God wants us to know him and be with him, because he made us and loves us, brains, questions, and all.

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
Feb. 17, 2008

Taking away sin

Year A - Epiphany 2
Readings: Isaiah 49:1-71 Corinthians 1:1-9John 1:29-42Psalm 40:1-12


John the Baptist points to Jesus and says 'Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'
This is a really central part of how we understand who Jesus is and what he does for us.
Jesus is the Lamb of God
and he takes away the sin of the world.
But it's kind of a complicated idea, and it requires some background to get a grasp on what it means and how it works.
I want to look at three things mainly:
What does 'Lamb of God' mean?
What is sin?
How does Jesus take it away?
First, what does it mean to say Jesus is the Lamb of God?
It's an image that takes a lot from the context of the society in which Jesus and John the Baptist lived. For many thousands of years, people have made their living raising animals for food and other benefits. In the area where John and Jesus lived, many people raised sheep, which were a key component in that society's economy. It might be like the buffalo for the Plains Indians or whales for people groups living around the Arctic. Or it might be like oil or timber for this area.
Many people during the time of the Hebrew scriptures raised sheep, so there are a lot of stories relating to shepherds and sheep. Back in Genesis, Abel, one of Adam and Eve's sons, brought a lamb to offer God. It represented the return on his work, and he was giving it to God. We still do that; it just looks a little different. We don't bring live animals up here and put them on the altar, but we do bring offerings to God from the return on our work - and in a money-based economy, what we usually bring is some form of money. It's even still called an 'offering'.
This idea of an offering of thanksgiving was one association John's disciples could make when John pointed at Jesus and said, 'Here is the Lamb of God...'
Depending on the kind of offering, sometimes the priests and the people who brought it would eat part of it. Today, a lot of people brought food also to celebrate another year at St. John's and hear what the church has been able to do with its resources and time, so if someone brought deer sausage, that would maybe in some way be similar.
Another association is that of a sin offering. Later Jewish laws for worship included an elaborate system of sacrifices to pay for sins. For one kind of sin, if you were the king, you'd have to bring a cow; if you were a prince, you might have to bring a male goat. If it was for a sin you did on purpose, intentionally, you'd probably have to pay extra for it, along with a sin offering. If it was a sin you did unintentionally or just by being careless, the penalty would be less. Under this system, a lamb was one type of offering made to pay for sin.
So, when John pointed at Jesus and said, 'Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' this was part of the meaning.
Another very important story relating to Jesus as the Lamb of God is the Passover story in Exodus. The people of Israel became slaves in Egypt for a long time until God sent Moses to lead them out of slavery. The only problem was that the Pharaoh didn't want to let them go. God send 10 plagues on Egypt to diminish Pharaoh's attachment to the Israelites. Part of the story of the plagues is the story of the Passover, when God sent the final plague, which caused the first-born of every household to die.
God instructed Moses to tell each family to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the door of their house, and they were protected from the destruction of the plague. On that night, Pharaoh let them go, so they were protected from death and also freed from slavery. For more than three thousand years now, since about the 13th century BC, the Jews have celebrated Passover each year, re-enacting and remembering God's deliverance. This story is also part of our story as Christians.
When John pointed at Jesus and said, 'Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' his students who heard him could relate it to many things: an offering to God, a sacrifice to pay for sins, and a reminder of God's deliverance from slavery and death.
So, on to the second question - What is sin?
Sin is a kind of slavery and also a kind of death, and Christ's sacrifice delivers us from these. But thankfully few, if any of us have any direct experience of slavery, and though we have experience with death, it's still very hard to understand on this side of it.
Sin has also been described as a separation - separation from God. It's a broken connection, a missing relationship that ought to be there, an estrangement.
Sin can be defined in many ways.
One way to think of it is that sin is a kind of debt.
What is a debt?
A debt is when you owe something, like when you borrow money or finance something, or when somebody buys you something and you promise to pay them back.
Now, I should clarify that I'm not saying that debt is a sin. I'm saying that sin can be thought of as a kind of debt. Debt is one metaphor to understand what sin is.
So, if you're in debt, I'm not saying that makes you a sinner. A lot of people are in debt, including me. Probably almost everybody either currently is in debt or has been at some point. That's partly what makes it a good metaphor, because people can relate to what being in debt means. We know what causes it, what results from it, what it feels like to be in debt and hopefully also what it feels like to get out of debt.
So, sin can be thought of as a kind of debt. And a debt is when you owe something.
On a ledger, it's a negative number. It's negative both in the sense that nobody likes it and also in the sense that it's the opposite of a positive number. To cancel it out, you have to put an equal or bigger positive number in there.
Because what is a negative?
It's a lack - an absence - something is missing - it's like a hole.
Here's another way to think of it.
This glass is empty.
How do you get it not to be empty? Do you remove the emptiness? Take away the emptiness?
No, but you can put something in, and when you put something in, it's not empty anymore.
A few weeks ago in Sunday school, we were talking about evil, and there's one idea that says maybe evil is a kind of lack - a kind of emptiness or a kind of nothing - where there ought to be good, there's not. It's similar to the way darkness isn't exactly a thing itself - it's just how we describe where there isn't any light.
How do you get rid of darkness? You bring in a light.
So to get rid of evil, you don't exactly take it away; instead, you put something good there.
How does Jesus take away sin?
He puts himself in the place of the sin - and even after all that the payment of sin takes out of him, Jesus is still infinitely good.
Infinite good minus the sins of the whole world is still infinite good.
What is happening when Jesus 'takes away' the things where we're lacking?
Something positive happens.
How does he remove a separation? By making a connection.
How does he take away emptiness? By filling it.
How does he subtract a debt? By paying it.
Sin is a debt, and Jesus pays the debt of the whole world by becoming a sacrifice. He takes away what's lacking in us by filling it with his Spirit. He dispells our darkness by making himself a light that shines inside us.
Like the Psalmist, who was lifted out of the desolate pit - pulled out of a depressing hole - and God put a new song in his mouth. 'Great things are they that you have done, O LORD my God!...Oh, that I could make them known and tell them! But they are more than I can count.'
And also similar is the way Paul describes God's grace given to the members of the church in Corinth.
'I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind -- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you -- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift..'
In a minute, we're going to re-enact a lot of this story by telling it again. We do this all the time - every week, because it's important and we need to learn it and remember it. So pay attention.
It's a good story.
Jesus is the Lamb of God and he takes away the sin of the world.
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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
Jan. 20, 2008

Joseph was a good man

Year A - Advent 4
Readings: Isaiah 7:10-17 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25 Psalm 24 or 24:1-7


Today's gospel reading, from Matthew, talks about the birth of Jesus - from the perspective of Joseph.
Joseph is the lesser known of the 'Mary and Joseph' pair. We don't hear as much about him, usually, but today, I'm going to focus on Joseph and his role in this story of Jesus' birth - and Jesus' life - and what kind of model that can give us as we prepare for Christmas.
So who is Joseph?
In a nativity scene, Joseph is the guy standing next to Mary and the baby Jesus. How do you know it's Joseph? Well, because he's standing next to Mary and the baby Jesus.
But how do you know if the figures are not already set up?
When you take the figures out of the box, you can find Joseph by a process of elimination:
This is Mary, obviously. Here's Jesus, obviously. This one's carrying a lamb; he must be one of the shepherds. This is a king; he's wearing fancy clothes, and he's got a gift. This one's got wings, obviously an angel. Okay, that leaves - this guy - must be Joseph.
He's not carrying a lamb or leading a camel or bringing gifts. He's not singing. Usually, he's just standing there. So why does he get to be right in the middle of the scene - in the middle of the biggest event in history?
It would look like Mary and Joseph, with the baby, are mom and dad, so if that was the case, that's why he's important. But as the angel in today's reading explained, the child conceived in Mary was "from the Holy Spirit," so God is Jesus' "real" father.
Joseph married Jesus' mother, so in a sense, Joseph was Jesus' step-dad.
Probably that wasn't something they tried to explain to the neighbors, though.
"Joseph, your son broke my window!" "Well, actually, he's not my son..."
What else do we know about Joseph? How can we imagine what he was like as a person?
Well, he was a carpenter. So, I suppose if he lived in Silsbee, he might work for Westvaco - or at the pallet factory - or maybe he'd have his own cabinet shop behind his house.
If he was a member here at St. John's, he'd probably get drafted into being the Junior Warden at least once. The first time I came to St. John's, I pulled into the back parking lot, looking for the door to come in at, and there were three guys standing outside looking up at the roof. I'm pretty sure one of them was Bill Phillips, and Lloyd Boone may have been out there, too. I don't know what they were doing exactly – I guess they were fixing something - but probably Joseph would have been in that group.
I also bet he'd have been one of those folks helping people fix their houses after Rita. He and Vernon Gray would talk shop. Probably he'd have a long honey-do list, so he and John Derkits could commiserate about that, and Mary would probably complain to Bonnie that Joseph still hadn't fixed the back door to shut all the way, and Bonnie would nod sympathetically.
Anyway, that's how I imagine it. But it's a fair enough guess, because this is a real man we're talking about, and why would he be that much different from any of the men here?
Joseph was a regular person. He did normal things, dealt with normal problems with job, house, kids - except that his oldest was the son of God... Imagine that as a step-dad - even if God did give him the job and presumably backed him up, it can't have been easy raising Jesus.
We hear a few more things about Joseph up to the point when Jesus was about 12, and then the story skips ahead to Jesus at about 30 and then we don't hear any more about Joseph. So, it's possible he died before Jesus started his ministry.Joseph was a central figure in Jesus' young life, and he can be a good model for how we relate to Jesus, just as Mary is a good model.
What do we learn about him from today's reading?
Mainly, we learn two things: he was a good man, and he obeyed God.
We heard first that Joseph was engaged to Mary when he found out she was pregnant.
The next thing said about him is that, "being a righteous man," he didn't want Mary exposed to public disgrace. He was going to treat his fiancée kindly even if she'd done wrong by him.
But then, an angel appears and tells him not to be afraid to marry her - the child is from the Holy Spirit, and he should name the baby Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
This really is an odd message, delivered in an alarming way. I can't imagine what I would think to receive a message like that. It's hard to see how it would clarify the situation.
Joseph's response, though, when he woke up, was to do what the angel told him. We don't know whether any of this business about the Holy Spirit and God saving his people through this child made sense to Joseph; the text doesn't say what he thought about it - just that he did what God told him to do.
One thing I noticed about the way this passage tells the story is that, in this account, Joseph never says anything. He plans and decides to do something, he listens to the angel, and he does what the angel tells him. But he doesn't talk about it.
That struck me as similar to several men I know. Although quietness isn't confined to men, and there are many men who aren't quiet, there are a lot of guys who operate like this - they think about something and make plans, they may listen to advice, and when they decide what they're going to do, they do it. But there may not be a lot of talking in the process.
Maybe you know one of these guys. Maybe you're sitting next to him.
Maybe the person next to you is digging you in the ribs.
When I got to thinking about Joseph and what he may have been like, in relation to this doing-more-than-talking aspect, I thought of my Uncle Jim - not a big talker, but definitely a good man. He does right by his family, more so than we deserve sometimes, helps people who need help, supports his wife in her activities, and deals honestly with people.
That's how I imagine Joseph. Not much of a talker, necessarily, and not all that complicated, but someone who's honorable. He was kind to Mary, and he was obedient to God.
It's hard to represent that visually, unless you put a halo or something over his head, so that's why in nativity scenes, it looks like Joseph is just standing there, doing nothing special. But there's a lot more to it - he's standing there with Mary and Jesus, claiming them as his, looking out for them and providing for them. He's just a good man - and he's obeying God. That's all. And that puts him front and center in the middle of God's biggest plan for human history.
And good men, obeying God, are always right in the middle of whatever God's doing, wherever they are. It's like that for good men today - you can't tell just by looking at them, but watching how they live, it's obvious and powerful, even though it's not complicated.
Who do you know like this?
Think of these men when you look at Joseph in the nativity scene. Think how their example tells us something about how to make room and provide for Christ in our lives.
How does Joseph provide a pattern for us in preparing for Jesus' coming at Christmas?
Joseph claimed Jesus, worked to make a home for him, providing for him and for the people who nurtured him. Joseph made space for Jesus to grow and protected him while he was vulnerable and weak.
That's what we can do, individually and as a community: acknowledge Christ's place in our households, make space for him, and allow for his role in our lives to grow by providing for things that nurture our communion with Christ. Also, we can protect this process of growth, especially when it's new or weak or in other ways vulnerable.

In one of our Christmas hymns, we sing, 'O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.'
But that sounds more like how Mary received him, and maybe you can't relate to the way Mary made space for Jesus. Maybe you're more like Joseph. In that case, here's a verse from a different hymn, with substantially the same meaning but a different image. 'let each heart prepare a home where such a mighty guest may come.'

There's a much more modern country and western song by Emerson Drive called 'A Good Man,' and the chorus goes like this:
I wanna be the one, when all is said and done,
who lived a good life, loved a good wife,
and always helped someone in trouble.
On the day they lay me down, I want everyone to gather ‘round
and say, 'He was a father, brother, neighbor and a friend. He was a good man!'
I was thinking that, if Joseph did die while Jesus was still a teenager or a young man, this would be the kind of thing Jesus might have said about his step-dad, the man who claimed him, made a place for him, and provided for him and his mother... "He lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble...he was a father, brother, neighbor and a friend - he was a good man."What more than that would you need?
Would it matter whether he was a pipe-fitter, a police officer, a professor or a priest?
He was a good man, and he obeyed God.
That's an excellent pattern to follow.

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
Dec. 23, 2007