Saturday, June 30, 2007
No Turning Back
No Turning Back
Pentecost 5C
It was just a few weeks ago that I preached a sermon on Justification by faith. It was a sermon about God’s working out our salvation, that it is not by our works that God saves us. We do not have to do anything save accepting the salvific work of Jesus. But then why do we have these readings? If God does all the work of salvation, what are we worried about? Christianity is easy. And yet….
Throughout this Pentecost season we hear of the ministry of Jesus. We hear of what it means to be disciples. And in today’s readings we hear of the cost of discipleship. And while our salvation is worked out for us, it is free. There is for the Christian the need to recognize that the life of the Christian is costly simply because there are others who would compete for our attention.
In today’s Gospel of Luke we find Jesus setting ‘his face towards Jerusalem.’ This is a statement showing Jesus’ resolve. The journey to Jerusalem is not a vacation or even a pilgrimage. It is an encounter with God. Jesus’ purpose in life is to be addressed in Jerusalem. In Luke, “to be taken up”, both means ‘journeying UP to Jerusalem and also being taken up by God, ascending to God’s presence’. There is determination in what Jesus is going to do. He and the disciples must go through the territory of the Samaritans.
Now, Samaria was not a welcome place for Jews. It would be like having to walk through the West Bank or the Gaza Strip for a Jew today. This was not a place where he would be welcome. Jesus’ disciples offer to bring down some kind of retribution upon those who do not welcome him. But for Jesus, violence is not the answer. He moves on toward Jerusalem.
One person offers to follow him, and Jesus says something quite cryptic. He says that he has no home, not even a place to sleep. Is the disciple willing to be homeless too? Is the disciple willing to follow when there is no destination in sight? Another disciple is invited to follow, but family obligations are in the way. Another offers to follow but asks only to say good-by.
And Jesus’ response is not like Elisha in the first reading we heard this morning who saw to his obligations at home and THEN followed Elijah. Jesus says something harsh: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
For those who call themselves Christian-- who know the salvation of God though faith, there is no middle ground. It is all or nothing. And it is here that we find that salvation may be free, but the life of a Christian is costly. It is not about paying back God for all that we have been given, it is a matter that if one does not throw one’s self totally into following Jesus, the fullness of God’s life in us cannot be found. There is not to be a lukewarm Christian. We either follow whole-heartedly or we cannot honestly call ourselves by Christ’s name.
Does this mean that we are to be perfect? Not hardly. There is no way that we can be. Does this mean that we are holier than others? Nope!
It means that as Christians we are willing in our lives to make Jesus’ agenda ours—we are willing to leave the comfort of the familiar to follow Jesus with a kind of determination that is single-minded. The life of one who follows Jesus is about commitment to Jesus’ message that violence is not the answer and domination is not the way to live a God-centered life. Vengeance cannot be the way that we live out our faith.
Jesus taught a kind of dispossession, a refusal to be caught up in consumerism, or power brokering for the sake of knowing God more intimately, for the sake of knowing one another more lovingly. Ultimately Jesus refused to allow the basic fear in life to deter him from spreading the news that God could be foremost in people’s lives.
Jesus taught that those fears that are likely to turn us from God are phoney. Just like today, the people of Jesus’ day were afraid of what was happening around them. They didn’t like being occupied by Rome. They feared not being able to pay their taxes or the rent. They worried about the unrest and terrorism in their world. They feared what would come in the future. And Jesus taught them that if they kept their eyes upon God, nothing could harm them because their salvation was already accomplished in the love of the Father.
The Christian life is no different today than what Jesus taught then. We need not fear what cannot destroy the soul. Over and over Jesus taught that we don’t have to worry about what we have or don’t have. We don’t have to worry about what is going to happen. We need to be single-minded about whose way we are going to follow, the way of fear and anxiety, or the way of confidence in God. That sounds simple, but it isn’t easy to live. It takes constant vigilance.
Some years ago I decided to put a vegetable garden in the yard of my rectory in DC. This was a plot that had not been turned over before so I decided to rent a rototiller to help with the project. I spread a good bit of organic material over the area that I wanted to till knowing that the soil was meager and needed additives. I had broken some of the area with a spade, but it needed the kind of mixing that the tiller could do.
Now, gardening is a contemplative endeavor. It requires a bit of single-mindedness. And my unfamiliarity with tillers demanded that I put all my attention on my plowing. I had gotten most of my small plot finished and was on my last furrow when a parishioner came up on the other side of the fence and called to me. When I looked up, the tines of the tiller caught on the chain link fence and in the flash of an eye, the rented rototiller was hanging four feet up the chain link fence. It required a trip to the hardware store for bolt cutters to cut the tiller out of the fence. And no longer was my safe little fenced-in backyard garden secure. There was a hole the size a moose could go through in the fence!
I knew then with no uncertainty what the meaning of Jesus’ one liner of today’s Gospel meant: God wants us to know what it means to be so totally focused on living the life of generosity to one another that we cannot be distracted by the fears that those in power would have us focus on. One of the ways that those in power manipulate others is by keeping us anxious, by keeping us afraid, by keeping us focused upon ourselves and our own needs.
Now, I am not talking necessarily about governmental power although I think that governmental power does do this no matter what party you follow. I am talking about anyone who uses power to manipulate. This might mean a boss, a teacher, a pastor, a bishop, a neighbor, a spouse or even a child, anyone to whom we are willing to give power in our lives. It might even mean Madison Ave. or the Stock Exchange. Jesus taught us that we do not need to fear these powers when we put God first. It also means that we have to surrender ourselves to the moment and not the future or the past. It means that we take seriously that God will provide all that we need and that what our idea of success is not necessarily God’s idea of success.
‘Putting our hand to the plow without looking back’ means that we cannot dwell in the past, that God’s life among us is always calling us to a kind of newness that is in front of us. Jesus’ way demands vigilance that will not deter us. Allowing ourselves to be centered on the loving way of Christ is not hard as much as it requires focus. It requires an unwillingness to be distracted with the fears that others would have us entertain.
The cost of discipleship is not one that is paid by the world’s currency of greed, power and manipulation. The cost of discipleship is paid in a willing spirit to embrace the selflessness that Jesus had. Jesus had no home or even a place to lay his head to which he could be attached or tied. He had no possessions save the clothes on his back. He depended up on the generosity of others even for a grave because his life was centered upon the God that could not be encapsulated, manipulated or circumscribed by the law, by the priests, by the leaders. Jesus’ way to know God was to jettison all the trappings that could imprison him so that he could preach God’s love to everyone who would listen.
What I am suggesting to you and to me is that if we are going to know the fullness of Christ’s love for us, we must be willing to live as one unhindered by possessions, fearless in the face of loss, willing to leave it all when called. To do anything else would compromise the free gift of love that God gives us in Christ Jesus. We must be willing to face life fearless of what we might loose, whether it is our possessions or even our image of ourselves. The cost of discipleship is to live in a consumer world without the need to consume, to live in a power-filled world without the need to be powerful, to live in a fear-filled world without the need to fear. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer was wont to say, grace may be free but it isn’t cheap.
I invite you this week to inventory the grace in your life. Are you willing to give up all that you are and have to follow Jesus? That’s what it costs, brothers and sisters. We must be willing to give it all up in the twinkling of an eye. Can we do it? Are we willing to do it?
About a month ago, a friend of mine from St. Peter’s in Bainbridge came to hear me preach here at St. Luke’s. I hadn’t seen her in 20 years and it was a delight to have her here. At ninety-something it was a delight to see her smile and hear her laugh. But just last week, she had to give up everything. She died. At some point, Helen had to give up all she had accumulated, all she treasured for those 92 years, possession, family, and friends, even herself. We all must do that at some point. Are we ready? Are we to recognize that we have no home but in God alone? That is what it costs to be a disciple of Jesus. That is what it means that we cannot put our hand to the plow and look back. Helen followed her row and without any doubt I know that she abides now without fear, without need in the arms of the God who loves her and us all.
This is what it means to follow Christ. AMEN.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Five things for summer
I have just joined Revgalblogpals and having a great time listening to sisters talk about the readings for Sunday, the issues of being a pastor and just the normal being a woman in a still male dominated Church/world. Friday the blog called us to share what speaks of summer for me. It is a fun way to get in the "game" so to speak. And since this blog is called "For a Season" it seems appropriate to address the existential reality of where I live.
These are the questions I have been asked, What is:
1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
My favorite summer foods include cold raw tomatoes, garlic, basil with balsamic vinegar over hot pasta; A gin or vodka and a lemon-lime frizzel drink that my local grocery sells; grilled anything; ICE CREAM; grilled trout (preferably which I have caught that day); strawberries from the area in which I live (not those tasteless golfballs from Watsonville). And I could go on forever. Food is one of my loves.
2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
My favorite music is classical. Anything from Satie; Mozart; Handel's Water Music;
3. A childhood summer memory
Girl Scout Camp, my salvation!
4. An adult summer memory
Standing in the middle of a trout stream and catching a four lb trout in Montana.
5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities) I long to have a week away to do nothing but read, look a the water, and fish.
These are the questions I have been asked, What is:
1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
My favorite summer foods include cold raw tomatoes, garlic, basil with balsamic vinegar over hot pasta; A gin or vodka and a lemon-lime frizzel drink that my local grocery sells; grilled anything; ICE CREAM; grilled trout (preferably which I have caught that day); strawberries from the area in which I live (not those tasteless golfballs from Watsonville). And I could go on forever. Food is one of my loves.
2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
My favorite music is classical. Anything from Satie; Mozart; Handel's Water Music;
3. A childhood summer memory
Girl Scout Camp, my salvation!
4. An adult summer memory
Standing in the middle of a trout stream and catching a four lb trout in Montana.
5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities) I long to have a week away to do nothing but read, look a the water, and fish.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
The affirmation of youth
Now that summer is here and I can sit on my porch or in my living room with the door open and listen to the children play, I hear the young voices of the nearly 25 children of our neighborhood playing ball. I hear voices saying “thank you” and “please” from them just as much as I hear “gimmie that” and it makes me wonder at my age group’s evaluation of them.
I am getting to the age when I am supposed to find fault with the young. I am supposed to get grumpy and say “the world is going to hell in a hand basket.” And I am not so sure. I have to admit some of the things that I see on TV and certainly the music I don’t understand and feel uncomfortable with it, but I find the kids I meet in church are basically like I was when I was their age---ungainly, tongue-tied (believe it or not!) and so awkward that I would not go back to that age even if I had a chance. They have certainly the sense of fair play that I had, with a wonder that life shouldn’t be fairer.
I have just finished watching the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts-Schori, on a stream from PBS. If you haven’t seen it (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/watch2.html ), it is well worth seeing. I am more and more seeing the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in her election. Her thorough-going sense of science that is at peace with her faith is wonderful for the Church at this time. It flies in the face of the anti-intellectualism that is assaulting Christianity from all sides. And her seeming unflappability in the face of questions is wonderful to behold. Her absolute confidence seems almost child-like, youthful and deeply hopeful. This is what we need if we are to survive as a Church.
She does not believe that the Episcopal Church will split over this entire hullabaloo over human sexuality. And even with her scientific background she has a full sense of the weight of history and context in which we live out our Christian faith. She gives me hope that the Church can and will rise to her expectations.
Now that is naïve, I know. However, sometimes I need to touch my youth too in order to welcome the new, the tough newness, which is abroad in the Church.
Will she be able to direct the Church into a place where those of faith can worship in a manner that is consistent with a faith under girded by a relationship with an all loving God? Will the Church be able to address the changes that are needed to survive this division between those who would cast us into a faith that does not inquire or does not challenge? With the leadership of ++KJS I see her ushering in a continued time of welcome and a continued time of challenge. Will some have to leave? Of course! Will others come? Of course! Thus it has ever been.
I consider ++KJS young. She has not been ordained as long as I or has the wealth of experience that I have. But she has qualities that I admire that will take the experiences she has as bishop and develop a theology of ministry for herself and for all of us in the Church. I believe her when she says that her science informs her faith and I would also guess that her faith informs her science. She stands comfortably in those two streams in a way that gives me the courage to stand in the various streams of my life and give them meaning. What more can I ask of a Presiding Bishop? What more can I ask of any other human being?
She asks for a season of discernment regarding the consecration of gay bishop. It is not so much discernment about LGBT issues—that is not what is in her mind because her understanding of Scripture and science does not judge LGBT Christians. But she calls a moratorium for the sake of community. I am not sure I agree with her, but I will follow her. I am not sure she is right, but ‘for a season’ I will suspend judgment for the sake of community.
Now if she can address the need in the Church to address the growth of over reaching power of bishops for the health of the Church…..well, then she will have attained sainthood in my estimation.
I am getting to the age when I am supposed to find fault with the young. I am supposed to get grumpy and say “the world is going to hell in a hand basket.” And I am not so sure. I have to admit some of the things that I see on TV and certainly the music I don’t understand and feel uncomfortable with it, but I find the kids I meet in church are basically like I was when I was their age---ungainly, tongue-tied (believe it or not!) and so awkward that I would not go back to that age even if I had a chance. They have certainly the sense of fair play that I had, with a wonder that life shouldn’t be fairer.
I have just finished watching the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts-Schori, on a stream from PBS. If you haven’t seen it (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/watch2.html ), it is well worth seeing. I am more and more seeing the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in her election. Her thorough-going sense of science that is at peace with her faith is wonderful for the Church at this time. It flies in the face of the anti-intellectualism that is assaulting Christianity from all sides. And her seeming unflappability in the face of questions is wonderful to behold. Her absolute confidence seems almost child-like, youthful and deeply hopeful. This is what we need if we are to survive as a Church.
She does not believe that the Episcopal Church will split over this entire hullabaloo over human sexuality. And even with her scientific background she has a full sense of the weight of history and context in which we live out our Christian faith. She gives me hope that the Church can and will rise to her expectations.
Now that is naïve, I know. However, sometimes I need to touch my youth too in order to welcome the new, the tough newness, which is abroad in the Church.
Will she be able to direct the Church into a place where those of faith can worship in a manner that is consistent with a faith under girded by a relationship with an all loving God? Will the Church be able to address the changes that are needed to survive this division between those who would cast us into a faith that does not inquire or does not challenge? With the leadership of ++KJS I see her ushering in a continued time of welcome and a continued time of challenge. Will some have to leave? Of course! Will others come? Of course! Thus it has ever been.
I consider ++KJS young. She has not been ordained as long as I or has the wealth of experience that I have. But she has qualities that I admire that will take the experiences she has as bishop and develop a theology of ministry for herself and for all of us in the Church. I believe her when she says that her science informs her faith and I would also guess that her faith informs her science. She stands comfortably in those two streams in a way that gives me the courage to stand in the various streams of my life and give them meaning. What more can I ask of a Presiding Bishop? What more can I ask of any other human being?
She asks for a season of discernment regarding the consecration of gay bishop. It is not so much discernment about LGBT issues—that is not what is in her mind because her understanding of Scripture and science does not judge LGBT Christians. But she calls a moratorium for the sake of community. I am not sure I agree with her, but I will follow her. I am not sure she is right, but ‘for a season’ I will suspend judgment for the sake of community.
Now if she can address the need in the Church to address the growth of over reaching power of bishops for the health of the Church…..well, then she will have attained sainthood in my estimation.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
To think or not to think
The conversations at Father Jake’s blog bring to mind such an important piece of what it means to be an Anglican in the US or an Episcopalian for me. Ever since my swimming the Thames, I have noticed the high level of intellectual engagement in the Church. It has been a point of pride that educational prowess has always characterized seminary-trained clergy. It is not surprising then that I find myself bumfuzzled by the current level of anti-intellectualism that is characterizing some in the Episcopal Church.
During my seminary and then doctoral studies I strained to understand JDE and P for OT classes and embraced higher criticism as I understood what redaction meant. Now, I am expected to take seriously clergy who reject basic scientific data and scholarship of Scripture. To find that clergy are being ordained who belittle such complexities in the Bible and then thump arcane 5th century theologians makes me suspicious not only of their training and testing, but upon their honesty in the process towards ordination.
As one of the commentators on Fr. Jake’s blog reminded me that underlying the discrimination in denying Bishop Gene Robinson by the Archbishop of Canterbury is a denial of science. Now that is remarkable as the ABC is seen as a superb academic. But the kind of anti-intellectualism that ++Williams is succumbing to is considerable.
For the past 50 years or so both the medical and the social science disciplines have shown that homosexuality is neither an aberration of human mental health nor a threat to the social fabric. Same sex love has been a part of the human social contract of societies as long as there has been human relationship.
For the past 50 years or so, Scripture scholarship has shown that the homophobic passages found in the Bible are ones that do not apply to present day any more than the prohibition of wearing garments of more than one kind of thread. And yet… and yet…
Still we hear the same things trotted out whenever we have to deal with inclusion of GLBT persons.
The uber-right has spent a great deal of money and effort to reinforce for all Christians that science is not to be trusted. It reminds me of the parents of students in the school where I was teaching not wanting their children to learn more than what they knew. They wanted to control what their children learned as well as control their children. I am sure that they had the best intentions for their children. But knowledge and learning are not controllable. Once a child has learned to research an issue, if they are curious, they will learn on their own. What is incumbent on a parent to do is teach the child the values that will help them order what they learn. Protecting children from life is an anti-intellectualism that is rooted in fear and power.
The failure of the ABC to invite +Gene Robinson means that ++Cantur has caved into the anti-intellectuals that have invaded the Church and who have decried biblical scholarship as undermining the faith. He as succumbed to the pressure of those who have not had educations allowing them to embrace the ever-widening experience without giving the structures, values or spiritual center to discern what is right or wrong.
The real fear from the uber-right in the Communion is that they fear that if they meet +Gene they might find out that his spiritual depths far out strip many of their own and that would not do. I do hope that +Gene will attend as a guest and continue to tear down the walls of prejudice and fear that he has been doing since his consecration.
We as Church have asked much of +Gene by confirming his election. We have opened the minds of many people to an understanding of Christ’s love through him. God reveals Gods-self in the flesh of humanity, in the truths of science, in the love of people for one another, not through covenants, creeds or law. We may not throw out our minds or our hearts to accommodate present culture.
During my seminary and then doctoral studies I strained to understand JDE and P for OT classes and embraced higher criticism as I understood what redaction meant. Now, I am expected to take seriously clergy who reject basic scientific data and scholarship of Scripture. To find that clergy are being ordained who belittle such complexities in the Bible and then thump arcane 5th century theologians makes me suspicious not only of their training and testing, but upon their honesty in the process towards ordination.
As one of the commentators on Fr. Jake’s blog reminded me that underlying the discrimination in denying Bishop Gene Robinson by the Archbishop of Canterbury is a denial of science. Now that is remarkable as the ABC is seen as a superb academic. But the kind of anti-intellectualism that ++Williams is succumbing to is considerable.
For the past 50 years or so both the medical and the social science disciplines have shown that homosexuality is neither an aberration of human mental health nor a threat to the social fabric. Same sex love has been a part of the human social contract of societies as long as there has been human relationship.
For the past 50 years or so, Scripture scholarship has shown that the homophobic passages found in the Bible are ones that do not apply to present day any more than the prohibition of wearing garments of more than one kind of thread. And yet… and yet…
Still we hear the same things trotted out whenever we have to deal with inclusion of GLBT persons.
The uber-right has spent a great deal of money and effort to reinforce for all Christians that science is not to be trusted. It reminds me of the parents of students in the school where I was teaching not wanting their children to learn more than what they knew. They wanted to control what their children learned as well as control their children. I am sure that they had the best intentions for their children. But knowledge and learning are not controllable. Once a child has learned to research an issue, if they are curious, they will learn on their own. What is incumbent on a parent to do is teach the child the values that will help them order what they learn. Protecting children from life is an anti-intellectualism that is rooted in fear and power.
The failure of the ABC to invite +Gene Robinson means that ++Cantur has caved into the anti-intellectuals that have invaded the Church and who have decried biblical scholarship as undermining the faith. He as succumbed to the pressure of those who have not had educations allowing them to embrace the ever-widening experience without giving the structures, values or spiritual center to discern what is right or wrong.
The real fear from the uber-right in the Communion is that they fear that if they meet +Gene they might find out that his spiritual depths far out strip many of their own and that would not do. I do hope that +Gene will attend as a guest and continue to tear down the walls of prejudice and fear that he has been doing since his consecration.
We as Church have asked much of +Gene by confirming his election. We have opened the minds of many people to an understanding of Christ’s love through him. God reveals Gods-self in the flesh of humanity, in the truths of science, in the love of people for one another, not through covenants, creeds or law. We may not throw out our minds or our hearts to accommodate present culture.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
That they all may be one --Reprise
In the week following Easter 7 when the RCL appoints John 17 “that we all might be one”, the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC) lets it be known that Bishop Gene Robinson will not be invited to the Lambeth Conference which is THE tea party that all Anglican bishops are invited to. Only +Gene and +Martyn Mimms, a bishop of Nigeria who has been posted to interfere with the American Church by his archbishop, have been not invited.
How are we to understand this snubbing? I believe that we should see it as the ABC’s finale to a sad term in office. He has steadfastly ignored the Episcopal Church’s (TEC) witness to gay and lesbian persons. He has avoided meeting with the House of Bishops HoB) or attending the General Conventions of TEC even when invited. He has proposed a Covenant relationship for membership in the Anglican Communion and supported the Primate’s attempted interference in TEC. And now he has refused to be seen in the company of a gay bishop. So much for the listening process promoted by Lambeth ’98!
To me it is clear that the Windsor Report, the Primate’s Communique, the HoB communication, the will of General Convention has all been a great exercise in nothingness and a major waste of time and money. The ABC doesn’t get it. He is as dense as Jesus’ disciples. And I doubt if the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is going to do anything for him. And if the ABC is one of the marks of unity, I think it is time for TEC to recognize that the spirit of Anglicanism resides in TEC, not the CofE.
Either we are one or we are not. To say that all the diocesan bishops of TEC can come but he can’t have LGBT cooties in their midst is not living out the Gospel that concludes Jesus’ Priestly prayer. What an insult to TEC, to the HoB, to the HoD, to the Executive Council, to + Gene, to all of us who have tried to continue in dialog when the heart of the ABC has been closed to LGBT people all along!
Until now I have been one who has been supportive of staying in the Anglican Communion (AC) at nearly all costs. I was proud of the HoB’s communication to the Primates as to the demands they made by making it quite clear that bishops are not the only Christians with authority in TEC. But now I am not sure that we can stay in the AC if only some of our bishops are welcome and others are not.
There is no way to be in dialog, to address conflict if both sides are not at the table to speak. By excluding both +Robisnson and +Mimms, there is no way that the issue that is tearing our Communion apart can be healed. As long as people are silenced, as long as their voice is not permitted to be at the table, there is no unity and no possibility for its development.
I hope the HoB has the courage to live up to the convictions that they had in April. If the steadfastness to stand in unity with LGBT persons is as strong as it was in TX, they, to a bishop, need to decline the invitations en masse. The Executive Council and the HoB should also be unwilling to foot the considerable funding of Lambeth ’08 that it has done in the past. The ABC must know that the unity that he has so symbolized is a shattered by his actions, not TEC, or Nigeria or the Global South or Windsor compliant folk. The symbol of unity is a sham.
How are we to understand this snubbing? I believe that we should see it as the ABC’s finale to a sad term in office. He has steadfastly ignored the Episcopal Church’s (TEC) witness to gay and lesbian persons. He has avoided meeting with the House of Bishops HoB) or attending the General Conventions of TEC even when invited. He has proposed a Covenant relationship for membership in the Anglican Communion and supported the Primate’s attempted interference in TEC. And now he has refused to be seen in the company of a gay bishop. So much for the listening process promoted by Lambeth ’98!
To me it is clear that the Windsor Report, the Primate’s Communique, the HoB communication, the will of General Convention has all been a great exercise in nothingness and a major waste of time and money. The ABC doesn’t get it. He is as dense as Jesus’ disciples. And I doubt if the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is going to do anything for him. And if the ABC is one of the marks of unity, I think it is time for TEC to recognize that the spirit of Anglicanism resides in TEC, not the CofE.
Either we are one or we are not. To say that all the diocesan bishops of TEC can come but he can’t have LGBT cooties in their midst is not living out the Gospel that concludes Jesus’ Priestly prayer. What an insult to TEC, to the HoB, to the HoD, to the Executive Council, to + Gene, to all of us who have tried to continue in dialog when the heart of the ABC has been closed to LGBT people all along!
Until now I have been one who has been supportive of staying in the Anglican Communion (AC) at nearly all costs. I was proud of the HoB’s communication to the Primates as to the demands they made by making it quite clear that bishops are not the only Christians with authority in TEC. But now I am not sure that we can stay in the AC if only some of our bishops are welcome and others are not.
There is no way to be in dialog, to address conflict if both sides are not at the table to speak. By excluding both +Robisnson and +Mimms, there is no way that the issue that is tearing our Communion apart can be healed. As long as people are silenced, as long as their voice is not permitted to be at the table, there is no unity and no possibility for its development.
I hope the HoB has the courage to live up to the convictions that they had in April. If the steadfastness to stand in unity with LGBT persons is as strong as it was in TX, they, to a bishop, need to decline the invitations en masse. The Executive Council and the HoB should also be unwilling to foot the considerable funding of Lambeth ’08 that it has done in the past. The ABC must know that the unity that he has so symbolized is a shattered by his actions, not TEC, or Nigeria or the Global South or Windsor compliant folk. The symbol of unity is a sham.
Monday, May 21, 2007
That we may all be one.
Today our gospel reading is a portion of what is called Jesus’ High priestly prayer. It is the final discourse of Jesus in the gospel of John before his Passion. It is a long discourse in which he addresses God and calls God to protect those who have followed him.
The particular portion that we have today is on unity. He prays that those who follow him might be one. I must admit that I have found this particular passage very difficult to preach on at the moment. And when I find difficulty in preaching on it, I know that God has some real meaning to impart to me or to people who are to hear this sermon. It is at times like these that being obedient to the lectionary requires more attention and trust that God’s word will be heard, not my particular feelings about a passage.
What we find in today’s reading is not just a mere sense that we should all think the same. What I hear loud and clear is that God is calling us to a kind of unity that we would rather not deal with. That I am here to preach in a communion not my own says that there is something amiss. That we even have different denominations says that something is amiss. God wants us all to be the same, some would say. But I think that is far too simplistic a rendition of this passage.
John has brought together the whole life of Jesus to this discourse. The words of Jesus have been redacted more in John than in any other gospel, but that does not damage the message that God would have humanity be one---not in our thinking, not in our opinions, not in even our actions but in our love.
And I would suggest to you that this passage in John while very beautiful and wonderfully poetic is perhaps the hardest to live. It stands on the premise that because we can see God in the person of Jesus, we can then see God in one another because of Jesus. It is the hardest part of being a Christian there is. All the rules of being a good Christian are enveloped in this one statement. It is why the Golden Rule is so difficult, because all too often we cannot see the Christ in one another.
Jesus says “The glory that you have given me I have given them , so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Now usually John refers to Christ’s glory as his passion. And Jesus knows that God has given us a passion to live through so that we may be made one. And isn’t it the truth that when organization, families have to go through tough times, they are often brought closer together.
I hope and pray that this is what is happening in my own denomination. I pray that the fighting that is going on in the Episcopal Church will make us stronger and faithful even though it is seems to be tearing us apart. But what does that say to us, here at St. Luke’s? What does it mean when an Episcopalian talks of her church among a bunch of Lutherans? Does it heighten or soften the anxiety of our separateness?
Do we find Christ in this exercise or not or do we merely wipe the sweat from our brow and say “there but the grace of God goes the Lutheran Church”? Are we really one or not? Can we find in one another the Christ, the passion of the Savior, that draws us mightily together so that we too can pray this prayer?
Can we find in our own journey in faith the sense of unity despite different customs, liturgy, even how we understand what bishops mean, to find the Christ in one another to bridge the differences between us to make a common journey?
I believe that in this 21st century we are going to see a total realignment of churches if not in the whole world, at least in the US. I see a reconfiguration of Christianity based less on protestant and catholic norms but based more on how we understand Scripture and the difference between truth and fact. I see a reordering of church communities based less on ethnicity and more on how we live out our baptismal vows. We will find commonality less on creedal statements or liturgy and more on how we understand the relationship of the Divine in the lives of people. And please God we will be known less for our rules and regulations, or even our creeds, and be known by the love we show one another in healthy and holistic ways.
I believe that is what Jesus is teaching us in this prayer today. I know that I have to listen to this prayer intensely so that I can remain in my own communion. I must be willing to see Christ in my bishop even if he has a hard time finding Christ in me. I know that you need to listen intently to this prayer that you may address the issues that face this parish. We are called to know that God’s name has been preached among us. Each of us has been called to honor that name with our lives, our actions, the way we treat one another. Our Lord prayed that we be loved with the love that God loved him and that it may be in us.
These are not just nice poetic words—they are powerful words that work in us that for which they were prayed. Loving others is not just something nice—they are passion. They are words calling forth a willingness to endure the passion our Lord endured. It is the willingness to lay down our lives for one another, not in battle, but in surrender to love. It is far easier to lay down our lives in battle than to lay down our lives in surrender to love, I can assure you.
God has loved us before the foundations of the world. And even though we make a mess of the world, we stand forgiven before God washed in the mercy of Divine forgiveness. All of us---ALL OF US stand in that mercy no matter what we have done. And because we all stand in that mercy, none of us have the right to hold judgment against another. We by rights have only one attitude, to be in holy relationship with one another. It is what communion is about. It is what Scripture is about. It is what life is about.
We are one.
But that does not mean that we are the same. It means that we must find the Christ in one another despite the idiosyncrasy of the other, the strangeness of the foreign, in that which is different from each other. We do not have the right to malign others because they are different. We may not find evil in the actions of others just because they do not fit our norms. ( I do believe in evil but it is rare.)
This is the message that we as Christians all through the ages have always found so difficult—that people who think differently can be one with one another. It is why we have orthodox, catholic, reformed and evangelical Christians of so many stripes. It is why we have had holy wars over who believed what. We have had splits and holy and unholy alliances throughout history. We often confuse politics with theology. We often carry more ideology than faith when we come to the altar and kneel in humility before our God , we often exclude those we don’t understand from our midst.
But Jesus prayed that we all might be one ---those who had seen him and those who had just heard of his love. Jesus prayed that God’s love might be in us, that we might be known by the way that we shared that love with others.
Let’s make St. Luke’s a center of loving for the people of Sidney and the area around here. Let’s find in one another the image of Christ and trust that each other’s faith is given by God just as surely as our own has been given. It doesn’t make us feel very righteous. It is hard to point to how powerful we are. But I believe that it will draw others to know of the faith who have not heard the gospel of Christ’s love. And if we are not about that, we have no reason for being here.
Faith in Christ is not about being good. It isn’t about being holier than others. Faith is about being willing to love.
The particular portion that we have today is on unity. He prays that those who follow him might be one. I must admit that I have found this particular passage very difficult to preach on at the moment. And when I find difficulty in preaching on it, I know that God has some real meaning to impart to me or to people who are to hear this sermon. It is at times like these that being obedient to the lectionary requires more attention and trust that God’s word will be heard, not my particular feelings about a passage.
What we find in today’s reading is not just a mere sense that we should all think the same. What I hear loud and clear is that God is calling us to a kind of unity that we would rather not deal with. That I am here to preach in a communion not my own says that there is something amiss. That we even have different denominations says that something is amiss. God wants us all to be the same, some would say. But I think that is far too simplistic a rendition of this passage.
John has brought together the whole life of Jesus to this discourse. The words of Jesus have been redacted more in John than in any other gospel, but that does not damage the message that God would have humanity be one---not in our thinking, not in our opinions, not in even our actions but in our love.
And I would suggest to you that this passage in John while very beautiful and wonderfully poetic is perhaps the hardest to live. It stands on the premise that because we can see God in the person of Jesus, we can then see God in one another because of Jesus. It is the hardest part of being a Christian there is. All the rules of being a good Christian are enveloped in this one statement. It is why the Golden Rule is so difficult, because all too often we cannot see the Christ in one another.
Jesus says “The glory that you have given me I have given them , so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Now usually John refers to Christ’s glory as his passion. And Jesus knows that God has given us a passion to live through so that we may be made one. And isn’t it the truth that when organization, families have to go through tough times, they are often brought closer together.
I hope and pray that this is what is happening in my own denomination. I pray that the fighting that is going on in the Episcopal Church will make us stronger and faithful even though it is seems to be tearing us apart. But what does that say to us, here at St. Luke’s? What does it mean when an Episcopalian talks of her church among a bunch of Lutherans? Does it heighten or soften the anxiety of our separateness?
Do we find Christ in this exercise or not or do we merely wipe the sweat from our brow and say “there but the grace of God goes the Lutheran Church”? Are we really one or not? Can we find in one another the Christ, the passion of the Savior, that draws us mightily together so that we too can pray this prayer?
Can we find in our own journey in faith the sense of unity despite different customs, liturgy, even how we understand what bishops mean, to find the Christ in one another to bridge the differences between us to make a common journey?
I believe that in this 21st century we are going to see a total realignment of churches if not in the whole world, at least in the US. I see a reconfiguration of Christianity based less on protestant and catholic norms but based more on how we understand Scripture and the difference between truth and fact. I see a reordering of church communities based less on ethnicity and more on how we live out our baptismal vows. We will find commonality less on creedal statements or liturgy and more on how we understand the relationship of the Divine in the lives of people. And please God we will be known less for our rules and regulations, or even our creeds, and be known by the love we show one another in healthy and holistic ways.
I believe that is what Jesus is teaching us in this prayer today. I know that I have to listen to this prayer intensely so that I can remain in my own communion. I must be willing to see Christ in my bishop even if he has a hard time finding Christ in me. I know that you need to listen intently to this prayer that you may address the issues that face this parish. We are called to know that God’s name has been preached among us. Each of us has been called to honor that name with our lives, our actions, the way we treat one another. Our Lord prayed that we be loved with the love that God loved him and that it may be in us.
These are not just nice poetic words—they are powerful words that work in us that for which they were prayed. Loving others is not just something nice—they are passion. They are words calling forth a willingness to endure the passion our Lord endured. It is the willingness to lay down our lives for one another, not in battle, but in surrender to love. It is far easier to lay down our lives in battle than to lay down our lives in surrender to love, I can assure you.
God has loved us before the foundations of the world. And even though we make a mess of the world, we stand forgiven before God washed in the mercy of Divine forgiveness. All of us---ALL OF US stand in that mercy no matter what we have done. And because we all stand in that mercy, none of us have the right to hold judgment against another. We by rights have only one attitude, to be in holy relationship with one another. It is what communion is about. It is what Scripture is about. It is what life is about.
We are one.
But that does not mean that we are the same. It means that we must find the Christ in one another despite the idiosyncrasy of the other, the strangeness of the foreign, in that which is different from each other. We do not have the right to malign others because they are different. We may not find evil in the actions of others just because they do not fit our norms. ( I do believe in evil but it is rare.)
This is the message that we as Christians all through the ages have always found so difficult—that people who think differently can be one with one another. It is why we have orthodox, catholic, reformed and evangelical Christians of so many stripes. It is why we have had holy wars over who believed what. We have had splits and holy and unholy alliances throughout history. We often confuse politics with theology. We often carry more ideology than faith when we come to the altar and kneel in humility before our God , we often exclude those we don’t understand from our midst.
But Jesus prayed that we all might be one ---those who had seen him and those who had just heard of his love. Jesus prayed that God’s love might be in us, that we might be known by the way that we shared that love with others.
Let’s make St. Luke’s a center of loving for the people of Sidney and the area around here. Let’s find in one another the image of Christ and trust that each other’s faith is given by God just as surely as our own has been given. It doesn’t make us feel very righteous. It is hard to point to how powerful we are. But I believe that it will draw others to know of the faith who have not heard the gospel of Christ’s love. And if we are not about that, we have no reason for being here.
Faith in Christ is not about being good. It isn’t about being holier than others. Faith is about being willing to love.
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