We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Sermons

Sermon, Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023

The Dalai Lama has said that “once committed, actions will never lose their potentiality.”

Every action in today’s gospel has a ripple effect, an influence far beyond the original action.  The story of the death of Jesus stands as stark testimony to the fact that once an action is committed, it cannot be taken back.  The consequences of the action spark other actions, becoming part of the tapestry of events into which our own actions are eventually woven. 

In today’s gospel, actions of betrayal, denial, accusations, manipulations, actions based on greed, actions taken out of fear, actions designed to keep the balance of power in place, are all actions that lead to the death of an innocent man, Jesus. 

This weighty tapestry of events becomes literally so tragic that darkness falls over the whole land as Jesus hangs on the cross.  And then, as Jesus cries in a loud voice and breathes his last, BEHOLD, the curtain in the temple is torn in two. 

The historian Josephus, writing in the time of Jesus, describes this curtain in the temple in Jerusalem, the massive structure which had been renovated by Herod the Great.  Josephus said that the curtain in that temple was made of Babylonian tapestry, “scarlet and purple, clearly depicting royalty.  It was woven with great skill and symbolically depicted the elements of the universe.  Embroidered into the veil was ‘a panorama of the heavens,’ meaning that it probably was designed to resemble the heavenly firmaments.” 

The purpose of the curtain was to separate the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple.  The Holy of Holies was the place in which the Jewish people believed God’s presence dwelt.  Only once a year could the high priest go behind the curtain and enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement to offer sacrificial blood of an animal to atone for his own sins and for the sins of the people. 

Matthew reports that, as Jesus dies, the curtain of the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom, so that it can never again separate God from the people.  Jesus’ death has torn away all barriers to God’s presence with us and for us, even in our deepest sins.

Once committed God’s actions will never lose their potentiality either, which is the good news in today’s sorrowful story.

Although all of the actions that led to Jesus’ death could not be taken back, God used those actions for good, to free us, once and for all from being held forever captive by our sinful ways. 

Now, nothing can separate us from the love of God except for our own active rejection of that love. 

Which brings me to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. That betrayal set in motion the whole series of events that led to Jesus’ death.  Scripture tells us that when Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he repented.  But he could not change what he had done.  He couldn’t go back and fix what he had done.   This story would play out and Jesus would die. 

So Judas at least took his thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests and the elders and said that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  But they said, “What is that to us?  See to it yourself.”  They refused his money and his repentance. 

Judas threw down the money, left, and went and hanged himself.

After all the time he had spent with Jesus, he still didn’t understand that Jesus had brought to earth a new reality in which God’s grace is sufficient.  No longer an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life, but only God’s justice and love.  If only Judas had thought to repent to God instead of to the chief priests. 

But the tapestry in the temple that kept the people from the immediate presence of God was all that Judas could understand.  Even after all that time with Jesus, all that Judas ultimately knew and all that he could see in his mind’s eye was that curtain of scarlet and purple through which he could never pass and through which the chief priests had refused to ever offer atonement for his sin.  And so, his pain and his repentance disregarded by the priests, he felt that he had no recourse to God and death was all that was left.   

Jesus died, and the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom.  God removed that barrier, too late for Judas in this lifetime, for Judas had already taken justice into his own hands. 

How often we come before God in this life with the events of our lives, with all of our sins and weaknesses interwoven into a thick tapestry of our own creation, a barrier that we believe blocks our way to God forever.

But if we remember this story of all that happened the day Jesus died, we can recall that as Jesus breathed his last, God ripped the curtain of the temple in two, and destroyed every barrier that has ever blocked our way to God. 

We can live in hope,  because we know that our true place of repentance is not in the temple in front of a curtain, but kneeling in contrition at the foot of the cross. 

Sermon, March 19, 2023 – Lent 4

Are you stuck in your ways?  I know that the older I get, the more I would say that being stuck in my ways is true of me.   After all, it’s good to do things in a particular way, to be a certain way, and I like my comfortable beliefs.   Life is less complicated if we know how we want to do things,  and we have beliefs that support the way we tend to see the world. 

But today’s passages have made me think differently about being stuck in my ways.  The many people in today’s lectionary readings who are stuck have got some issues to face! 

In today’s Old Testament reading, God shakes his prophet Samuel up a bit because Samuel is stuck.    Samuel is balking over anointing a new king.  After all, Samuel had anointed Saul, the current king, and had been a big supporter of Saul.    But now, God is ready to move on, since Saul has been a disappointment to God as the leader of Israel.  So God tells Samuel—stop being stuck in the past.  It’s time to do something new.  So Samuel finally gets himself together and goes to Bethlehem to find Jesse, the father of many sons. 

Samuel expects that the Lord will choose the one of the oldest, kingliest-looking sons.  He has a preconceived idea of what a king should look like—and yet, seven sons pass by and God doesn’t choose one of them.  So Jesse sends for his youngest son, David, who is out in the fields keeping the sheep.  Certainly not king material—a shepherd, and too young to be given such responsibility. 

But surprise of surprises, when David shows up, the Lord says, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.”  And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.  

The most unlikely person is the one that God chooses as the next King of Israel and not only that, the one from whose family the Messiah will someday be born. 

Samuel isn’t the only one who is stuck. 

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Sermon, 3rd Sunday in Lent, March 12, 2023

Today’s passages invite us to consider for ourselves who Jesus is and what Jesus offers to each of us, if only we take the time to be in conversation with him and to spend time with him.  Jesus welcomes us into a closer and more loving relationship with God through both his living and his dying.       

In today’s passage from Romans, Paul says that “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.”

Is God really waiting to deal wrathfully with us, miserable sinners that we are? 

In his commentary on Romans, William Barclay, a Scottish theologian, explains “the wrath of God” in this way.

Think about the law. 

We all know that none of us can keep the law perfectly.  That doesn’t stop us from trying to keep the law, but sooner or later, we mess up.  When we mess up, we suffer the consequences.  And if we think of God only in terms of the law, then we can assume that God is going to be angry with us when we break God’s laws.  Barclay points out that if we think of ourselves in terms of the law, then we are all headed for God’s condemnation. 

Paul wants  the Romans to know that trying to be in a right relationship with God through our own efforts will never work, because we will never be perfect. 

Thanks be to God, then, that we have another way to be in right relationship with God, and that way is when we enter by faith into a relationship with God.  We learn God is not waiting to condemn us and wrathfully punish us.  Instead, God loves us and is waiting for us to draw more ever more closely into God’s presence. 

Jesus is the one who leads us into a deeper relationship with God.  As we come to know Jesus more and more, then we find ourselves growing closer to God.  Jesus would do anything for us. He doesn’t wait for us to be good, or to have our act together—in fact, while we were sinners, Christ died for us.    

When Jesus died, he showed us the way to God by showing us the way of God—God is always breaking love wide open so that it can be shared more fully.  When Jesus was broken open in his death on the cross, God’s love flowed from the cross out into the world like a stream of living water that gushes up to eternal life.

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Sermon for March 5, 2023 – “Faith is foundational to our lives as Christians”

Faith is foundational to our lives as Christians.

In the Living Compass Lenten devotional that some of us are reading during Lent, the readings last week were about faith.  Robbin Brent wrote in her entry for Friday, March 3, that faith is believing in something and then acting on that belief. 

And she quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who says that “faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole stairway.” 

We are practical people—we like to see what’s ahead, and plan accordingly so that we can be thoroughly prepared.  Planning trips, planning vacations, planning for school, planning for retirement, planning for issues that we may face toward the end of our lives—all of this planning is good to do.  But we so often plan as if we are the only ones in charge of our lives and fully in control,  forgetting that life is notorious for handing us unexpected and often unwelcome challenges that we have not planned for. 

But when these unexpected things happen, we can act on our belief in God by stepping faithfully into whatever the situation is, knowing that God is with us, and will go with us, and will never, ever leave us alone—so we can proceed, yes, often with trepidation, or with caution, or even with great sorrow, but proceed we can and will.  We can lay aside our own plans and enter the unknown into which life is calling us.   

We can step into the unknown because we are people of faith.

In today’s Old Testament reading, God tells Abram, just a regular person like us, to go from his country and his kindred and his father’s house to the land God will show him.  God does not give Abram a map or tell him anything about how to get where God is leading him—that is the future that Abram cannot see.   

But Abram believes in God, and so he acts in faith.  The writer of Genesis states succinctly, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” 

Today’s psalmist is starting out on a difficult journey to Jerusalem, a trip that will be full of unknown challenges, since the traveler must pass through the barren wilderness, exposed to the heat of the day and the chill of the nights, possible attacks by thieves, getting lost, and no telling what else.  Wouldn’t it be easier just to stay home? 

But the psalmist is willing to set out because that person has faith in God’s steadfast love.  The traveler knows that especially in the difficulties of the journey, God, like a mother hen spreading her wings over her chicks to protect them from predators and to keep them warm and safe, will also protect the psalmist in the face of any challenge that may arise. 

And then we come to Nicodemus.  I really like the story of Nicodemus because he is a practical human being, a literal thinker with a bit of an imagination,  a law keeper and a planner, all admirable traits. 

It’s that bit of imagination and that need to plan that brings Nicodemus to Jesus at night.  After all, he and his fellow rabbis know that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God and that Jesus couldn’t do what he was doing apart from God. Nicodemus just might need to factor Jesus into his life and his plans.  So he decides to go have a talk with Jesus to find out.

The first thing that Jesus does is to dismantle the tendency of Nicodemus to think  literally, to believe only what he can see and understand.  Jesus introduces Nicodemus to the world of imagination—to the life of the Spirit, a life that requires being willing to enter the unknown, because “the Spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”  

Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus(and here’s the GOOD NEWS)  that God is on the side of the world—all of those who don’t know God, or have any idea of the Spirit—Jesus has come to clue them in, to open them up, to challenge them to go beyond what they can see to what they cannot even imagine, that is, the beginning of life in God, here and now. 

Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world but to save the world.

We’ve probably all been where Nicodemus is—we are curious, we can see that God is at work in the world, and we want to know—what do you, God, have to do with my life?  We believe in God, but we aren’t sure that we want to act on that belief by letting the Spirit in and possibly wrecking our carefully thought out plans. 

We can’t predict or control the Spirit.  So how can we plan for the work of the Spirit in our lives? We have to have imagination, to be open to possibilities that may never have occurred to us, to be willing to jettison our carefully laid plans and be willing instead to enter the unknown. 

Ultimately we have to choose—we can take a chance and enter into the unknown life of the Spirit, and act on our beliefs, going where God calls us, or just continue on as we are, thank you very much. 

Remember, faith is believing in something and acting on that belief.  As Robbin Brent says in the essay that I mentioned earlier, “it is our faith in God, expressed through our willingness to act on what we believe, that prepares our minds and hearts to respond compassionately to suffering, our own, others’ and the world’s.” 

One person who chose to enter the life of the Spirit was Harriet Tubman. She was born a slave and escaped to freedom.  But Harriet could not forget all of the people who were still enslaved back home.  So she acted on  her belief that “God don’t  mean people to own people.”  She had compassion on those who were still suffering as slaves.  At great risk to her own life, Harriet Tubman kept going back into danger, over and over, even though she had a bounty on her head, to lead many more slaves to freedom. 

Quaker abolitionist Thomas Garrett said of Harriet Tubman in 1868 that “I never met a person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul…and her faith in a Supreme Power truly was great.”  His statement is on the wall of an exhibit at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Dorchester County, Maryland. 

 Many of us know about this intrepid woman because of our friend Cleo Coleman, who embodies Harriet Tubman and tells the story of Harriet’s faith and how she acted on her faith by becoming a liberator of her people.    As the History Channel says of Harriet Tubman, “she is one of the most recognized icons in American history and her legacy has inspired countless people from every race and background.”   

Harriet Tubman has a new separate feast day on the Calendar of the Episcopal Church, and that day is March the 10th. The Episcopal Church encourages all parishes and dioceses, in conjunction with other communities of faith,  to honor Harriet Tubman in a worship service  on or near the 110th anniversary of her death, which will be this Friday, March 10, 2023. 

So we honor her today as a person who did not hesitate to enter the unknown life that the Spirit called her into, by acting on her faith and responding compassionately to the suffering of others by leading them to freedom.  And as Harriet Tubman herself said, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.  You have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world.” 

After Nicodemus left Jesus late that night and made his way back home, maybe he looked up at the stars and remembered God’s promise to Abraham,  that God would make of Abraham a nation as numerous as the stars in the heavens.  After all, Nicodemus was a member of that nation of Israel and a teacher.  But now, maybe Nicodemus wondered what else Jesus could teach him.    Would he ever understand what Jesus was trying to say about being born again, being born from above, being born anew?  Maybe Nicodemus wondered if he might dare to follow Jesus openly.  Or maybe he was just too tired and too puzzled to give the conversation he had just had with Jesus much more thought right then.  

We will never know.    

But what we do know is that several months before Jesus was crucified, the chief priests and the Pharisees, of whom Nicodemus was one, wanted to have Jesus arrested. Nicodemus spoke against this arrest.    He said, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?”  He was taunted for his statement—the others said, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you?” So now we know that  Nicodemus must have given more thought to what Jesus had said to him, for Nicodemus is acting on his belief that Jesus has come from God by having compassion on Jesus and speaking against his arrest. 

After Jesus is crucified and dies,   Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus, asks Pilate for the body so that he can give Jesus a proper burial.  Nicodemus goes with Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus, and brings with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.  The weight of these spices would be appropriate for the burial of a king.  Clearly, Nicodemus revered Jesus and had compassion for him, or he would not have honored him so lavishly. 

We hear nothing more of Nicodemus and we can only imagine the rest of his story.   Did his compassion for Jesus become compassion for the world around him? 

We don’t know the rest of our stories either.  We can’t know the future.  But what we do know is that God loves us with a steadfast love.  And that steadfast  love never ceases.  God’s love will carry us through all our goings and comings in this life, through all the joys and all the heartaches, because we know that God’s mercies will never come to an end.  Even after our longest and darkest nights,  God’s mercies are new every morning. We can proceed through the unknowns ahead with confidence.   

And we can faithfully act on our belief in our steadfast, merciful and loving God by letting the Spirit blow where it will through our lives.   We can faithfully step into the unknown, and go where God would send us, full of steadfast love and compassion for all this hurting world. 

One more look at Nicodemus – from a sermon in 2011

“Nic was a big guy in many ways.  He was tall, and even though he had put on a little weight in middle age, he still had a certain youthfulness and confidence that other men envied.  Nic was a big guy at work too, having successfully risen to the top of his profession, known as a leader, not only in the local company, but also at the corporate level.  People listened when Nic spoke.  They paid attention, sought his guidance.

Black Escalde“Nic drove a large black Escalade. He loved the way the Escalade roared to life when he turned the key in the ignition, the way he sat up high above the rest of the traffic, barely having to press the accelerator to gun past anyone in his way and to get to his destination in record time.The Escalade suited Nic, summed up who he was, really.Big, bold, in charge.”

Read more of the 2011 sermon

Sermon, Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Feb. 19, 2023

John Meng-Frecker – “Transfiguration of our Lord”

Jesus has traveled a long way since his baptism. 

That day, when John baptized him in the Jordan River, Matthew tells us that just as Jesus came up out of the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Can you imagine what Jesus must have felt that day?  His skin tingling as the cool river water poured down his face and over his body, his eyes squinting as brilliant light poured out of heaven, and from that light, he saw a dove descending and alighting on him. 

And in his ears, a voice ringing. 

“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 

It was after his baptism and his forty days in the wilderness that Jesus began to proclaim throughout Galilee, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 

He called his first disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  And the disciples went with him as he taught and healed, restored a girl to life, and as he did all of this, people could see what the kingdom of God could and would be like on this earth. 

The disciples watched and learned. 

And then Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”

And Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Soon after this, Jesus started explaining to the disciples that he would go to Jerusalem, undergo great suffering, that he would be killed, and on the third day be raised. 

Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him!

“God forbid it, Lord!  This must never happen to you.” 

Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 

Jesus then teaches the disciples that if any want to become his followers, they must take up their crosses and follow.

And then, only six days after Peter has said that Jesus is the Messiah, we come to today’s gospel. 

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, and leads them up a high mountain, by themselves. 

Now it’s their turn to see light pouring out of heaven, Jesus shining like the sun, his clothes dazzling white.  Now it’s their turn to hear a voice ringing, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

And an added phrase.  “Listen to him.”

No wonder Peter, James and John fell to the ground in fear. 

But Jesus came and touched them, saying “get up and do not be afraid.”  And when they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus himself alone. Moses and Elijah, the dazzling light, the bright cloud, the ringing voice—all gone.

But Jesus was still there, with them! 

Their skin must have tingled as Jesus touched them.  And the voice they heard was his, familiar, reassuring, challenging and strengthening.  

“Get up and do not be afraid.”

And then they went back down the mountain.

We hear this story every year in church on the last Sunday after the Epiphany. 

The transfiguration inspires the disciples in the moment, what some would call a mountain top experience, because what they see points beyond his death to what will happen to Jesus in the future—his resurrection. 

When Peter, James and John see Jesus shining like the sun, and his clothes dazzling white, they are seeing a vision of the future, Jesus in his resurrection body, the one who will lead them “out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life”   as the words of Eucharistic Prayer B say. 

And so the disciples would remember the transfiguration forever because this event proved to them without a doubt that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, and that his reign stretches into eternity.    

So no wonder that in the Second Letter of Peter, the writer says that “we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty” and we ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, saying “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 

So, the writer goes on, “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your own hearts.”

This story of the transfiguration can serve as a  lamp shining in a dark place for each one of us when we find ourselves facing into bad news, like the disciples faced the bad news that Jesus would suffer and die. 

This story helps us to remember that beyond death is resurrection, and that Jesus goes with us through our lives, through our years of health, productivity and mostly stability.  But at some point, we all end up staring death in the face, just as Jesus did.  But Jesus knew, and told the disciples, and they got to see, that beyond his death was resurrection. This fact is true for us as well.  The light of the resurrection burns through and beyond the darkness of death for all of us who follow Jesus.   

Today is the day of our congregational meeting, when we review the year just past.  

This church has been blessed for the almost two hundred years that it has been in existence.  I have no doubt that God considers this church as beloved, and that God is well pleased with this church.  For here we are, moving forward, even as we face the challenges of illnesses, aging, deaths, and other changes and transitions that have been difficult.

Like Peter, we may find ourselves saying, or wanting to say, “God forbid it, Lord!” when it comes to our individual challenges, and the challenges that we face as a small church in what seems to be a decline.   

But the story of the transfiguration reminds us to hear instead the words  of Jesus and to heed them. 

“Get up, and do not be afraid!” 

Jesus has always been with this church!    Jesus is with us now!  And Jesus will be with us!

When we are discouraged by our small numbers, discouraged by the accidents and illnesses that disable us for varying periods, when we want to do some work of God in the world that we feel might be impossible because we’re too small, or too old, or too isolated,  let’s turn to this story and not be afraid to proceed wherever it is that God will lead us.  Because just as Jesus led the disciples down that mountain back into ministry, Jesus leads us too. 

Our job is to follow, knowing that as the followers of Jesus, suffering may be inevitable, but guess what, our resurrections are inevitable as well.

So as this season after the Epiphany comes to a close, and we look back on 2022, and at all St Peter’s did last year, and as we look back at all that happened in our own lives,

Remember.  “We are God’s beloved.  God is pleased with us.”

For we are the light of the resurrection and the reign of God here and now in this time and in this place.  As God’s beloved sons and daughters,  our job is to continue to be resurrection light out in the world, so that the world can see that the reign of God has indeed already drawn near! 

Jesus has touched us, and blessed us and God has blessed this church, over and over and over. 

So get up, and do not be afraid.  Let’s head down the mountain and take up our crosses and follow Jesus wherever he will lead us, knowing that resurrection awaits.   

Sermon 4th Sunday after the Epiphany

At the beginning of creation, God put everything into perfect balance, each part of creation connected to the whole, and everything supporting and supported by everything else.  God made conditions ideal for all of creation to grow and to thrive.  We all live within a great web of life.

But depending on conditions within the web, growing and thriving may be compromised. 

I want to tell you about the African violet I got from a friend. 

Periodically, I find that one of its leaves has dropped. If I just left it where it fell, the leaf would die.  But if I place that African violet leaf in water, it will start to root.  And if I leave it in the water long enough, the one leaf will get more leaves. 

But for this leaf to thrive and to grow into a plant,  I need to plant the leaf with its new roots and leaves in some dirt, because water, by itself, doesn’t have everything this plant needs to grow and thrive. 

So here’s a plant that I grew from one leaf.  You can see that putting the roots in dirt meant that the plant could grow. 

But dirt is not all the plant needs.  At first, as the plant put out new leaves, the leaves grew long and scraggly and were more yellow than green. 

What do you think my plants lacked? 

They lacked light!

So then I got a grow light.

With enough light, the leaves became green, and then, to my surprise, my new African violets bloomed!

So with the right soil, enough water and enough light, these African violets are growing and thriving. 

God made each one of us with the hope that we will grow and thrive, for after all, we are part of God’s creation.  We are like the leaves that fall from my African violet.  Without the essential things we need to live and grow, we just wither away.  But when we have all we need, we too can grow and thrive and live in a thriving community with one another, in the human web of life. 

One thing I love about the Bible is that it has so many stories about so many interesting people.  A lot of these people make spectacular mistakes, because they get messed up in their relationships with God, with one another and with the world around them. Then they start to wither away because they no longer have what they need to grow.    The Bible tells us about what these people learned, and how many of them corrected their ways and started growing and thriving again. 

God sent prophets to help those who were out of balance, those people who were no longer in right relationship with God or with one another.  The prophets told the people what they needed to get back into balance, to take their places again in the web of life instead of dying from a lack of what they needed. 

The stories of these prophets and what they had to say are in the Bible as well. 

Today’s Old Testament reading is from the prophet Micah. Just think, Micah spoke these words almost three thousand years ago to the people of Israel. 

And these words are all about what the Israelites needed to get back in balance and to live in beloved community with one another and to be in right relationship with God. 

Here’s what Micah says.   

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

When we do these three things, not only can we grow into the people hopes we will become, but we can help others to do so as well. 

So let’s start with “love kindness.” 

The word for kindness in the Bible adds richer and deeper meaning to our usual understanding of kindness.  That word is “hesed.”  As the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary explains, hesed “has to do with love, loyalty, and faithfulness.  It can be used to describe the key element in relationships—the desire to love God and to love one another, faithfully and consistently.” 

If I were not consistent about keeping water in this rooting container, and then watering the plants once they are in soil, they would die.  We all need love to grow into the people God hopes we will become—and our kindness/love to others helps them to grow as well.  Without love, we can so easily wither away, just as a plant will wither away without water. 

Then there’s doing justice.   

Doing justice is providing the soil that will allow a whole community to grow in love. An example of doing justice in the natural world is that trees work together for the good of the whole.   I’ve mentioned before in sermons that trees share water, carbon,  nutrients, and even alarm signals through their underground mycorrhizal networks, each tree contributing to the life of the community of trees in which it lives. 

 In the Bible, when the prophets talk about justice, they are talking about fairness and equality for everyone, so that everyone can thrive. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., a modern day prophet, says that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

That “inescapable network of mutuality” is the great web of life in which we all live.  What affects one of us will sooner or later affect all of us.   When we “do justice” and work for fairness and equality for all, then we find that we too will benefit from the rich soil that we are cultivating for the good growth of those around us. 

And last, Micah tells us that God wants us to walk humbly with God. 

We are always tempted to walk in our own light—our self-importance, our desire for fame, pointing to ourselves by shining light on ourselves.   But God asks us to walk in God’s light.  When we walk in God’s light, with God as our companion, we point the way to God in what we do.  And walking in God’s light we bloom, and become beautiful. 

Water, soil and light—love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with your God. 

These are the things that God requires of us. 

Jesus was also a prophet and a teacher.  He came to tell us and to show us how to love kindness, to do justice and to walk humbly. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples about loving kindness—blessed are those who mourn, who are willing to let the sorrows of the world in and to feel the world’s pain, blessed are the ones who are merciful.

Jesus teaches the disciples about doing justice—blessed are the peacemakers, the ones who work for justice, for when there is justice for all,  God’s peace be realized on this earth.    Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing God’s work in this world.  Those who work for fairness and equality for all will inevitably be persecuted. 

And Jesus teaches the disciples about walking humbly with God—blessed are the poor in spirit, the ones who know that they are completely dependent on God; blessed are the meek, those who live under God’s control rather than their own wills; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those people whose greatest desire is to be in completely right relationship with God and with one another.  And blessed are the pure in heart, those whose hearts are turned toward God, and whose motives are determined by God’s will rather than their own wills.  

Through his teaching and through all he did on this earth, Jesus showed us how to grow and to thrive as the children of God, living in beloved community with all God’s children.  Jesus showed us how to love, Jesus showed us how to work for justice, and Jesus showed us how to walk humbly with God. Jesus showed us how to live in perfect balance as we each do our part in the web of life in which God has planted us. 

When you leave here today, look for ways to  do justice, to  love kindness, and walk humbly with your God, at school, in your families, with your friends, and anywhere else you find yourself. 

For these are the things that God wants of us, and what Jesus will help us to do, so that we can all grow and thrive, through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

Sermon, Second Sunday after Epiphany – “We are the People of Hope”

Sermon, Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A 2023
I Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42

“Calling of Peter and Andrew” – Caravaggio 1602

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

So begins Paul’s letter to the Christians in Corinth, a diverse and contentious group of people, called together by God into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord:  called to be the church, to be God’s light in the world. 

Paul’s enthralling words remind us that God calls us too—you and me– to be saints, that is, to follow Jesus and to witness to God’s justice, power, mercy, healing, and love in this world. 

That is why we’ve chosen to be here today, because we have heard God calling us to be part of this fellowship of the saints that we know as the church. 

Here, God reminds us, through scripture and prayer and song that we are not alone in this calling to follow Jesus. 

Jesus is not just a prophet with tremendous healing power and a mighty heart, willing to go to death and beyond as he does God’s will in this world, someone to admire and emulate.  Jesus is more than all of that, as wonderful as all of that is. 

Jesus is God’s Son.

So when we follow Jesus, God’s Son,  we enter ever more deeply into the heart of God, even in the ordinary things that we do, which can grow into the extraordinary things that God calls us to do, the things that we never believed possible—Glory to God, whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we could ask, or even imagine. 

God imagines our lives—magnificent, challenging lives that reveal God to those around us! 

God has already imagined the life that God is calling you and me  and this church, St Peter’s, into.

God wants our imaginations to expand, so that ultimately, God’s imagination for each of us and for this church, and for this world, can and will  become reality. 

The clue to how we even begin to live into God’s imagination is to have the desire to know God more deeply, to want to live in the heart and mind of God, which is what the two disciples in today’s gospel realized they wanted. 

They were followers of John the Baptist.  But when they saw Jesus walk by and heard John say, “Look!  Here is the Lamb of God” these two disciples of John followed Jesus. 

Jesus turned and saw them following and asked what they were looking for. 

Their answer was simple and to the point. 

“Rabbi, we want to know where you are staying.”

Jesus invites them, right that minute,  to come with him and see. 

And so these two went with him and saw where he was staying and they remained with him that day. 

Andrew, one of these disciples, was so excited that he went to find his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” 

In that time he had spent with Jesus, Andrew had found his imagination sparked.  And now his imagination was growing because he realized that Jesus was the one they had been waiting for, the one sent by God, 

The Messiah!  The Anointed One!

Andrew didn’t go to Peter and say, “We’ve found the Son of God or the Lamb of God.”  That deeper understanding of who Jesus was would come later. 

Instead, Andrew proclaimed, “We have found the Messiah!” 

In Andrew’s time, the Jewish people were looking with great expectation for the Messiah, the one God had promised, for they lived under the yoke of the Roman Empire.  The people of Palestine were oppressed, disrespected, and mistreated.  Since they were not Roman citizens, they could not expect the privileges of a citizen.  They were nobodies. 

So when Andrew told Peter that they had found the Messiah, Andrew must have been convinced that Jesus was the one that would lead the people out of bondage. 

You can see how Andrew’s imagination had started growing.  He must have imagined that Jesus would somehow lead his followers into freedom.  Maybe he imagined the literal deliverance from the bondage of the Roman Empire and  freedom for the people that the Messiah, sent by God,  would bring. 

All of us are in bondage to something that limits our imaginations. 

Right now we are in the season of winter, and the darkness closes around us late in the afternoon.  And in the winters of our lives, especially, the darkness  of illness, accidents, the deaths of those we love, transitions, wanted and unwanted, and the list goes on—we find ourselves in bondage to anxiety and worry and despair and fear.    

The challenges of aging, the challenges of illness, the challenges of addiction, the challenge of stressful busyness, all of these things can kill our imaginations and hold us captive to what is.  We lose the ability  to imagine what could be. 

That’s when the story of Andrew and the other disciple comes as a welcome reminder that wanting to go where Jesus is, and learning from him can turn the twilight and darkness that can so easily close around us into the brightness of a new day.

Spending time with Jesus in prayer, worship and study helps us to imagine more fully what God’s kingdom here on earth could be like, especially when the current reality tempts us into hopelessness.   One of the big functions of a Messiah is to restore hope to those who have lost hope. 

Choosing to follow Jesus is an act of hope!

We follow Jesus because we hope and imagine something different and something better, not just for ourselves but for everyone, and for all of creation.   

Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is today, was a man whose journey into God as a follower of Jesus allowed him to see through the darkness of the racial discrimination and segregation that gripped this nation and held it in bondage into the light of what God must imagine for this nation, liberty and justice, equality and respect for all.     

King’s journey on this earth as a pastor and as a civil rights leader was a journey of hope and imagination.    

King’s dream is not a solitary, individual dream.  It includes all of those who call on the name of God and who follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior, a way of non violence, love, and insistence on God’s justice for all, no matter the cost.     

In a stirring speech, Dr King shared his dream of God’s kingdom come on earth with the over 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.    

In his speech, King pointed out that our destinies and our freedoms are bound together. As King puts it, “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”

A little later in the speech, King describes  what he is imagining, his dream—that we all might be one, his dream that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”… “that black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.” 

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, King shares God’s dream for us all, that God’s glory will be revealed in all of creation and in all of us.    

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, King says.  God’s imagination made reality when we in this nation come together to dream of and work for freedom and justice for all people. 

So now, joining Andrew, that first one to follow Jesus, joining those people in the church at Corinth, joining with all who have followed Jesus down through the ages, joining modern day saints like Martin Luther King, Jr,

We are the people of hope. 

We are the saints, the ones who call on the name of the Lord Jesus and seek him. 

And when we seek him, Jesus invites us to come and see. 

Jesus invites us to be the ones who imagine God’s dreams of grace and peace and justice, mercy and healing for this earth. 

Jesus invites us to live the magnificent and extraordinary lives that God imagines for us.   

Jesus invites us to be the ones, who when God’s power is working through us, can help turn God’s dreams for this earth into the reality of a new day, bright and full of God’s glory and love for all.

Come and see.  Let’s take Jesus up on that invitation.  The world is waiting. 

 

Resource:  https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety 

Sermon, Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2023 – “Where should we be looking?”

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Matthew. 

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The gospel of the Lord. 

When the wise men arrived in Jerusalem after following the star across untold miles, they had only one question for King Herod. 

“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”

That question struck me as one that we should always be asking.

“Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”

“Where is our Lord and Savior in this world?” 

Where should we be looking? 

We don’t want to leave the wise men and their question about where to find Jesus trapped in the Gospel according to Matthew and largely forgotten after the Christmas season.

Because their question, “Where should we be looking?” is the question that informs our own journeys to God. 

The fact that the wise men saw a star that guided them reminds us that when we are on the lookout for Jesus, active and at work in our lives, we will receive signs, maybe not as dramatic as a star, but signs none the less! 

As I mentioned in the sermon on the last Sunday of Advent, these signs may be enigmatic, or the signs may be literal, but God will speak directly to us about where Jesus may be found in our world—and I won’t discount prophets and angels speaking to us, or even stars and other signs from God’s creation lighting the way. 

The places we find Jesus will probably be unexpected.  The wise men went to Herod, because they knew that Jesus was born the king of the Jews.  And yet, Jesus wasn’t in the halls of power, but with his parents in the small town of Bethlehem. 

This location would have been unexpected, except to those who had been watching for signs of the Messiah—the chief priests and scribes knew, for they had studied the prophets. 

What are the unexpected places we can look for Jesus?  (Ask what listeners think) 

I’d say that we can find Jesus wherever there is love.  The wise men found Jesus with his mother, who loved and cared for him.   Wherever people love and care for one another, Jesus is present. 

And when we find ourselves in his presence, we too want to kneel before Jesus in gratitude, and offer all that we have to him, to bring our gifts. 

The greatest gift we can offer is to become the signs of Jesus, present and active here and now, loving and caring for one another. We can bring love and care to those who have no care or love, and who so desperately need God’s visible presence with them. 

But sometimes, when we are suffering or in pain, or full of anxiety,  it’s hard to be a sign of Jesus, or to go looking for Jesus, or to realize that Jesus is already present with us.   

That’s when using our imaginations becomes essential.  In his meditation, Journey to the Heart of God, January 2, 2023, Richard Rohr, a Catholic theologian, says that “Imagination is largely a matter of being able to re-image life in new ways.  It is not to be caught or trapped in old images of hopelessness. When we’re trapped in old images, we keep living out of them, fighting against them, resisting them, and even saying they don’t work. But it seems we are incapable oftentimes of creating or even accepting new images and living out of those new images.”

Hopelessness can keep us from searching, imagining or knowing anything except hopelessness. 

And that’s the beauty of the Epiphany. 

When we are feeling hopeless, we can remember the wise men.   We can call them up in our minds.  We can see them on the horizon, following the star that God has sent, leading them who knows where.  We can imagine ourselves following after them, and we too will eventually find the beloved community where Jesus waits. 

For even if at times we must only imagine Jesus, because we are in pain or suffering, and he’s nowhere to be found,  in the imagining that we are with him, we can find hope and even joy and the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that keeps our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord—Jesus, who is alive, and sustaining and true, the one who loves us beyond even our greatest imagining.    

Sermon, Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2022

Sermon, Christmas Day III, 2022 John 1:1-14

In the magisterial opening of John’s gospel, John describes a great cosmic darkness into which life and light come—the Word made flesh, Jesus. 

Ultimately, what difference does the coming of Jesus make to us several thousand years later?   Why should we care?

Because as John points out, the world does not care.  The world did not know Jesus, and does not know Jesus now. 

So I ask you, “Why should we care?  Why should we accept this Word into our lives?”

Because as St Athanasius says, “For the Son of God became man so that we might become gods.” 

That is, we can only be what we are until we come across Jesus, and if we receive him, then our lives begin to expand, not only on this earth, but out into eternity. 

As John puts it, “For all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives the power to become children of God, who are born not just as flesh and blood, but born of God.”

That’s why the coming of Jesus makes a difference, and why we should care.  Because receiving Jesus draws us into the life of God, into eternity beginning now, into love and into light, even in the darkness that surrounds us. 

When we choose to become children of God, our vision changes.  God gives us the great desire to see into the essence of the universe, to see into the essence of God’s creation, and to see deep into the hearts of one another. 

Newborn babies are very sensitive to bright light.  Their pupils are small, limiting the amount of light that comes into their eyes. 

But as their retinas develop, their pupils widen and allow more light into their eyes.  And, as Kierstan Boyd says in her article about the vision development of newborns, “they can see light and dark ranges and patterns.” 

We human beings tend to limit the amount of light that comes into our eyes as well, limiting our vision to what fits into our limited world views, that is, until we become children of God. 

Then, our “children of God”  retinas develop, letting in more and more of God’s light.  We can distinguish more clearly the light and the darkness and the patterns of light and darkness in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.  

And as children of God, we gain the ability to see the light in others that is mostly  hidden to all except to God. 

As we see into the essence of things, we now see light even in the darkness of our lives.  We see light in the lives of others.  We can look into the light with no fear of being blinded.   We realize that the light we are seeing is the light of love itself. 

And so, our ability to love deepens.  We gain the capacity to love ourselves as God loves us, and to  love others as God loves them.

As we love with God’s love, the light of that love helps to push away the darkness of our own shame, and  the darkness of hatred that is so much a part of our world. 

To see light is to see God’s love at work in the world, and to see the potential of God’s work in the world—to see beyond the years into the mighty eternally transforming power of God’s love. 

And as children of light, we become part of God’s work of love on this earth. 

When we become children of God, God also gives us new hearing.  We can hear God speaking in the sounds around us.  We can hear the meaning of sounds. 

When we hear people shouting with rage and hatred, we now can hear in their raging the interior voices of fear that drive the hatred.  We can hear loneliness in the silence of the neglected.  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow could hear God’s voice in sounds.    My reference is an article written by Dennis Rainey. Longfellow lived from 1807 to 1882 and was a well known poet in his time.  He is still known today for his poems.  But what I didn’t know about Longfellow was that his life was filled with great tragedy.  In a horrible accident, his wife’s dress caught fire.  Longfellow tried to put out the fire with his own body, but his wife was killed by the flames.  And then, only two years later, in 1863,  one of Longfellow’s sons, Charlie, joined Lincoln’s army.  The Civil War raged as the country fought a war with itself. 

On December 1, 1863, as Longfellow was eating dinner with his family, he received a war telegram letting him know that Charlie had been severely wounded and might be paralyzed for the rest of his life. 

On Christmas Day, this widowed father of six, with a war raging through the nation, and his oldest son nearly paralyzed, heard the bells of the churches pealing.  As Justin Taylor writes, Longfellow felt a war within his own heart.  He  could see for himself that there was no peace on earth.  He could hear the destructive sounds of war,  and yet, the sound of the bells promised peace on earth, goodwill to all.  As Longfellow kept listening to the bells, he heard something beyond the sounds of the bells themselves.  He heard the sound of hope in the midst of despair. 

And so Longfellow wrote “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.”  This poem is a testimony of this child of God’s ability to hear in the sounds of those Christmas Day bells the hope that we can hear as children of God,

the hope we hear in a sleeping child’s soft breathing,  the hope of a kind word spoken into fear or sorrow,  the hope that can rise in our hearts when we listen to music, the universal language, hope even in the sound of bells,

hope beyond the hatred and division of our times, hope that we someday, even in our differences, will all be one in God’s love. 

The love and the hope that we experience as children of God change us into better people as we continue to grow in God’s love. 

And so we find ourselves wanting to share that love and hope, because God’s love and hope for this world are too great to hoard—we cannot contain the immensity of either. 

God’s love and hope flow through us out into the darkness of the world, and we become witnesses, like John the Baptist, who  testified to the light and glorified God.    

We children of God become the messengers that announce peace and bring good news.  With God we bare our arms and fight the injustices around us.  God gives us the power to offer the comfort on God’s behalf, the comfort that can come only from God, because we know that God is in the world and is always coming into the world in new ways, and  bringing love, light, and new life. 

And through the years, as God sustains our hope and enriches our love for God and for one another, the light of God’s love in our lives will shine ever more brightly.

God will set us, God’s children, on fire with love that can and will  shine out with God’s radiance.  And this fire of God’s love brings life and the light that illumines and transforms our minutes and our hours into the nearer presence of God in and through our love for one another.  We can see and hear and know that we too are part of the eternity of God’s love.    

And so the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 

And so, yes, we care, these thousands of years later, that a baby has been born, and that angels are singing, and that shepherds are telling the good news of all they have seen and heard, that a star is shining, and that Mary is pondering all of these things in her heart. 

For unto us a child is born, and if we choose to follow him, we too will sing, and tell out the good news, and shine and ponder it all, and get reborn for the love that never ends. 

 

Resources:

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/baby-vision-development-first-year

https://www.theraineys.org/post/i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day

 

Sermon, Advent 4, Dec. 18, 2022 -“God with ALL of us for the good of all of us”

Sermon, Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A 2022
Isaiah 7:10-16, Matthew 1:18-25

Fear is an awful thing. 

Fear can pounce, overwhelming us unexpectedly.  Fear can also be like a seed, planted in our minds, a seed that takes root and grows, and takes over our minds like one of those kudzu vines down south that grows out of control, covers everything in its  paths, and kills everything under it. 

We, too, must deal with the inevitable fears that come to us in this life, for if we do not, fear will take over and kill us. 

Dealing with fear can be next to impossible, though, for fear, once it takes root,  is so overwhelming. 

So here’s the good news in today’s gospel. 

God is with us, and God wants to help us deal with our fears.   Today’s lessons give us some examples. 

King Ahaz in today’s Old Testament reading is filled with fear. 

Ahaz is the king of a small nation, Judah.  His neighbors, Israel and Syria, are about to invade his nation to force him into an alliance with them so that he’ll have to join in their fight against Assyria, a powerful country that is threatening to  overwhelm all of the small nations around it. 

God knows that Ahaz is full of fear, and so God says, “Ask me for a sign.”   

God is telling Ahaz—”I am with you, Ahaz, and I will help you deal with your fear.” 

But Ahaz turns God down.  “No, I will not ask for a sign and put the Lord to the test,” he says. 

Then the prophet Isaiah says that even though Ahaz doesn’t want it, the Lord will give him a sign anyway. 

And the sign is that a young woman is with child and shall bear a son and will call him Immanuel, and that sign means “God with us.”    And before the baby grows up, the two nations that Ahaz is worried about will be deserted.  In other words, those two kings will be destroyed and Ahaz won’t have to fear them. 

But Ahaz chooses to ignore the sign from God and continues to let fear drive his decisions.  He turns to the king of Assyria for help, a bad plan, for in the end, Assyria brings Ahaz and Judah to ruin.  

If only Ahaz had only paid attention to God’s sign and acted accordingly! 

Then we come to Joseph in Matthew’s gospel.  Joseph has found out that Mary is pregnant.  And so Joseph is frightened.  He is caught in a great dilemma.  Break the law and take Mary as his wife anyway?  Let Mary go?  If he lets her go, her life will be in danger, for the penalty she might face for her pregnancy is death. 

What to do! 

Joseph decides to dismiss Mary quietly, hoping that she will not be exposed to public disgrace. 

But after he makes this mental resolve, God comes to Joseph in a dream.  The angel tells Joseph not to be afraid, because wouldn’t you be afraid if an angel showed up and started talking to you?

And then the angel gives Joseph a sign, the same one that Ahaz had received so long ago. 

A virgin will conceive and bear a son, whose name will be Emmanuel, God with us!

God with us. 

When we find ourselves full of fear, that’s the time to look for a sign from God, for God is with us in our fear, and we will get through the fear to the other side if we welcome God into the fear.      

But how do we receive signs from God when we are afraid? 

Prophets like Isaiah and angels like the one who appeared to Joseph in a dream seem to be in short supply these days, but we need not despair.  God still speaks to us in an infinite variety of ways, especially when we are full of fear, or facing an unexpected challenging situation.  God will speak to us in our fears and will sustain us as we deal with those fears. 

Some of you know Salli Hartman.  Her husband, Frank, died of ALS a few years ago.  Can you imagine the fear that Frank and Salli felt when the doctor told them that Frank had ALS?   What horrible news. 

So here’s what happened, and I’m sharing this with Salli’s permission.  As they both agonized over what was ahead, Salli received a sign from God, a curious and maybe unwanted at that moment sign, a sign about the future that would require trust in God and patience.   Within forty-eight hours of Frank’s diagnosis, Salli  felt a very clear call from God to become a deacon in the Episcopal Church.  But wait, she had to take care of Frank!  As time passed, though, Salli realized that this call to the diaconate was a sign that God would be with her through Frank’s illness and death, and that God had a plan for her and her life after Frank was gone.  That was a powerful sign!    Salli trusted in God and had patience with God’s timing.   Today, she is an ordained deacon and is serving at St Mary’s, over in Colonial Beach.   

Now here’s a literal sign from my own life.  Earlier this year, I had some tough decisions to make and just didn’t know how I’d manage to do what I felt God was asking me to do.  I was full of fear on many levels.

God provided signs about what I should do, and I won’t go into all of that because to tell you about how God’s grace has been in my life in so many ways this year would take hours.   But I want to share this one sign because it meant so much to me in the moment. 

One rainy cold night, I was driving and trying to deal with a series of alarming texts.   I pulled into a parking lot to answer the texts. And there, right in front of me in the window of the store where I had stopped was a hand painted wooden sign, and here’s what the sign said. 

“I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”  Philippians 4:13. 

That handpainted wooden sign was a literal sign from God.   What reassurance I felt. 

The person who painted that sign and put it in the window could have had no idea that I would see the sign and know that God was speaking directly to me. 

God has given me strength this past year. 

And God will give you strength too, in your greatest fears. 

The signs you receive from God may be enigmatic, or the signs may be literal, but God will speak directly to you—and I won’t discount prophets and angels speaking to you, even in our profane times.   

So the next time you find yourself full of fear, expect a sign from God that God is with you.  God will sustain you.  God will give you strength and courage to deal with your fears.    

There’s one other thing that I hope you’ll remember from today’s readings.  God is with us in our fears and gives us signs not just for our own benefit, but for the greater benefit to those around us and to the rest of the world. 

If Ahaz had paid attention to God’s sign and had resolved to wait on God rather than Assyria, the nation of Judah may have been saved rather than destroyed. 

Joseph paid attention to the sign God sent him, and in so doing raised the boy who would turn out to be the Savior of the world.

In this season of preparation, we get to remember all over again that  God gives all of us the same sign that God gave to Ahaz and to Joseph so long ago. 

“Look, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel.”

God with us.

God with ALL of us for the good of all of us. 

God’s signs to us, when we receive them, allow us to be part of God’s eternal work of creating beginnings from endings, bringing life out of death, and making all things new. 

Sermon, Nov. 27 – Advent 1 – Be prepared for the unexpected day by seeking to do good

The signs of ending are all around us now.  Thanksgiving has come and gone, the sweet sounds and smells and sights of the Christmas season have arrived.  Before you know it, 2022 will be history, and we’ll wake up to a new year. 

But all is not ending. 

Yes, in so many ways our lives reflect “end times,” but we Christians know that the end times point us toward new beginnings, and that even in the endings, God is making all things new. 

And that is what the season of Advent is all about.  As we stand in the debris of the old year, we seek out the hope, and look deep into the future with eyes of faith, knowing that “Christ will come again.” 

That’s one of the most mysterious, powerful and life giving things about Jesus—he died, but death did not destroy him.  He is risen, and in his risen life, is with us at all times and in all places, if only our hearts are open to him.  But  best of all, and this is the looking into the future part, Jesus will come again.

Jesus will come again, not only to the quiet welcoming places that we prepare for him in our hearts, but Jesus will come again in glory, to make all things on this earth right at last, to bring God’s just and peaceful reign to replace the messes we have made.  Heaven will come on this earth. 

So we Christians look for the completion of God’s rule here on earth, and we prepare not only our hearts, but we also work to prepare the world around us as well, in the ways that we can.  Like those who farm, we do what we can to prepare the earth for the new growth and life that is on the way when spring comes once more. 

So this season is full of joyful expectation.  And in gratitude, each Sunday we offer to God our gifts of bread and wine, which God in turn offers back to us, filled with God.  

And with great thanks and praise, as we take the bread and wine, we offer our own God filled lives back to God, imperfect as our lives are, and will continue to be. 

Today’s psalmist lived many centuries before Jesus, but the psalmist knows the same joy that we feel when we come into God’s presence and offer ourselves to God.    

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” 

Pilgrimages to Jerusalem were marked with great joy.  Even as the people headed for Mt Zion, they knew that all would not be perfect when they got there.  But–even  as they were jostled, even in the noise of people gathered in a city, even in the dust and dirt of the streets, the people could see beyond what was true at the moment about their surroundings to what could and would someday be. 

They knew that Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity with itself…. So the pilgrims prayed for its prosperity, prayed for the peace of Jerusalem, for peace within its walls, and quietness within its towers.  

Peace has always been in short supply, and prosperity comes and goes, BUT we too know that someday, God’s peace will reign, not just in Jerusalem, but over all the earth.  

Just not in our lifetimes, we say resignedly, and that’s why we need this season of Advent.  

Because yes!  God’s peace can and will reign in our lives, and in the world around us.   Advent reminds us first of all that we believe that this promise is true, and second, that as people of faith, we are to be on the lookout for God’s love breaking into this world yet again, and over and over again,  a never ending gift.  

The Apostle Paul, who expected the return of Jesus sooner rather than later, has some great advice for us as we wait.  

Paul wants us to be prepared.  So here’s some advice he has for those in the Roman church, and for us too.  

Don’t sit around in your pajamas, as tempting as that might be.  

Get up and get dressed, and don’t put on just any old thing— 

Paul says to put on the Armor of Light.  

The Armor of Light has both inward and outward properties.  

Wearing the Armor of Light means that we can see more clearly within ourselves.  The shadowy places in our lives, the places that need some work, get lit up.  We can see, all too clearly, the areas that need attention, the dust in the corners, the repairs that need to be made in our lives, the interior work that we need to do to prepare for God’s fuller presence in our lives.  

And second, the Armor of Light pushes away the darkness out in the world around us.  When we are feeling overwhelmed by news of the latest mass shooting, or the intransigence of war, or even just aggravated by the little annoyances of life,  the Armor of Light shines a ray of hope into all that darkness.  We wear those bright rays of hope.  People who look at us can see light, and be encouraged, and find some hope in the darkness.  

Last Thursday in its Thanksgiving edition,  The Washington Post published a section called “Inspired Life,” Section F of that day’s paper.  The section consisted of various inspiring stories that the editors felt illustrate the best of us.  

To me, one of the most inspiring of all the stories was the one called “Costumed strangers make Halloween wish come true for boy with cancer,”  originally published September 22, 2022.  

Can Halloween costumes become Armor of Light?  Yes!  

So here’s the story, which takes place in Hamilton, Ontario.    Alexandros Hurdakis was one year old when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and now, at age five, the doctors could do nothing else to save the child.  

His parents asked Alex what he still  wanted to experience in the time he had left.  He said that he wanted to see monsters on Halloween, because he remembered the fun he’d had visiting a haunted house a few years ago. But he was too sick to travel.  

So a neighbor decided to build a haunted house in Alex’s back yard, and then she got on Facebook invited neighbors to show up in costume.   The post exploded with people offering to help make a special day for this little boy.  

On September 14, the day of the event, close to 1000 people showed up, parading through the streets dressed in spooky costumes.  Inflatable decorations lined the streets, and the police officers and fire trucks showed up too.    

Alex loved it all. 

No one put that day into these terms, in any of the articles I read,  but this verse from Isaiah fits what happened that day. “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”  That’s what all of the people did who came out to bring joy to a little boy and his parents.  They were walking in the light of the Lord.    

Alex’s father said that “at the most painful point in his life, he and his family are feeling gratitude for all of the support.  We’re very blessed to live in a community like this.”  And Arian Clark, who lost her daughter at age three to cancer, said that “it’s humbling and heartbreaking to witness this community come together every single time to support families like ours.  I had chills, I cried a lot, I smiled a lot.  This place, I swear, there is nothing like it.”  

Halloween costumes pushing away the darkness of death, people taking time and energy to bring joy to a devasted family, that’s a whole community putting on the Armor of Light and bringing into reality, if only for a short time, the reign of God that is to be on this earth.  

In today’s gospel, when Jesus is talking with the disciples before his death, he speaks of the time when he will return, a time that not even he knows.  He makes it clear that in this world, life goes on from day to day, some days more memorable than others.  We go about our ordinary activities and forget that nothing about our lives is ordinary! 

And then, something happens—that something could be a blinding revelation, or the quiet advent of unexpected grace, maybe the sudden awareness you haven’t had in a while of the beauty of the late afternoon golden light turning everything to fire and light as the sun sets. 

So this is the season to be prepared—for the things that we count on happening, our days coming and going—our family times of celebration, our care for the people around us, our putting on the Armor of Light in the ways unique to each of us.  

But this is also our season to be prepared for the completely unexpected, for in a split second our lives can be changed beyond recognition, or even ended.  

But when we have prepared for that unexpected day, by seeking to do good, we can accept whatever comes with peace and in praise and in gratitude for all that has been, for it’s all from God. 

We can give thanks for all that is, and yes, give thanks even now for the unknown things yet still to come, for Jesus will be part of it all.