A sermon preached by Bishop Townsend on July 27th, 2008
The text is Matthew 13:31-33,44-49a
In the name of God, whom we name Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
The people who set up our lectionary and decide what we will read from week to week have wrought great mischief on us in the Gospel readings for last Sunday and today. Since I was not here last week, preaching on the text from Matthew, I will take last Sunday’s and today’s readings together. Our editors have somewhat scrambled and edited the text of the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, and I think we have lost something in the process.
What Matthew intended in this chapter is to throw a rapid cascade of word pictures at us all about the kingdom of heaven, like a swirl of confetti as the bride and groom emerge into the summer sun.
But instead, what we had last Sunday was just the frame of the stories - the fairly obvious parable of the weeds among the wheat which Jesus then interprets, detail for detail. There’s hardly any work left for the preacher to do. The rest of this flurry of images about mustard seeds and yeast and hidden treasure are what we heard this morning.
And edited out entirely from the readings is the gem which in my bible is titled, “The Use of the Parables.”
34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.”
When speaking of God and holy things, Jesus always speaks in parables and metaphors because that’s the kind of language that seems to fit for such deep truths.
Over the years and especially at times of confirmation, I have heard people speak of their experience of coming into the Episcopal Church. After a while of exploration in other traditions and finally arriving at an Episcopal Church, a man told me, “It feels like coming home.”
- A woman one time told me of her new rediscovery of a long dormant childhood faith – “It's like falling in love.”
We tend to talk of our experience of holiness in terms not of what it is, but of what it is like. And such comparisons allow us to be a little poetic about things that matter to us. We might describe someone we admire as having eyes as blue as the petals on a corn flower. While the color description might be more accurate, we are less likely to say she has eyes the color of a plastic re-cycling container.
There is good precedent for this way of speaking about the holy. In the Gospels, Jesus does not speak of God and heaven in absolute terms but by simile and metaphor. God is a loving father or a good shepherd or the host at a banquet. And sinners are like lost sheep. The word of God is like seed sown on different kinds of soil, the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast, God is like the owner of a vineyard.
Jesus did this all the time, teaching by making comparisons and telling indirect stories.
In last week’s and this morning's gospel Jesus delivers a rapid-fire volley of images. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a good seed sown into a field; it is like a mustard seed, like yeast, he says. Like buried treasure, like a fine pearl, and like a net cast into the sea. We have no time to reflect on all that. Jesus just tosses them to us and it's rather like trying to catch six basketballs all at once. These are not like the grand canvases of stories like the prodigal son and the good Samaritan. These are more like snap-shots in an old family album.
It's a lot to digest in one or two sittings, but there is a thread that holds these particular images together. They are all hidden. The wheat is hidden amidst the weeds. The mustard seed hidden in the ground, the yeast in the dough. The treasure is hidden in the ground and the pearl is something discovered. The net is hidden in the depths of the sea as it does its work of catching fish. Jesus seems to be saying that the K of G is not obvious but concealed. It is something for which we must search. The heartbeat of God is pervasive, but subtle. Yet what Jesus is saying in these five snap shot images is that the kingdom is hidden in what is in plain view.
If we would speak of heavenly things, Jesus seems to say, then we must begin by speaking of things we know and understand. So he spoke of farmers planting their harvest, of women searching for a lost coin, of meals together and of going fishing. The kingdom is like these things. The kingdom is even concealed within these things, waiting to be brought to light.
It is in the ordinariness of our day to day lives that the Kingdom of God is held and revealed, so I will tell you a parable from my own experience while on vacation last week.
I know that when you are in North Carolina, then you had better eat barbecue. My son-in-law Chris and I had asked a local where to get the best barbecue near to us in Kitty Hawk. “Saul’s” he replied without hesitation. “It’s 4 miles onto the mainland past the bridge on 158.” “What about ‘High Cotton?’” we asked, naming a barbecue place closer to our cottage. “That’s OK, but if you want the real thing, go to Saul’s.”
So we called Saul’s to check on directions and to order food to be ready when we got there. “Don’t worry about that. It’ll only take a couple of minutes to put your order together,” the girl said. “Be there in 15 minutes,” Chris said, and we set out.
When we got there, the place looked deserted. We opened the door and there were a couple of families at tables. We spoke to a woman at the reception counter and said we wanted take-out. “Oh we closed 20 minutes ago,” she told us. We were puzzled and a little annoyed. Why hadn’t they told us that they were closing when we called? Why on earth would they close at 7:30 any way? People are on vacation don’t necessarily want to eat early. They still had food in the kitchen, but they weren’t offering any of it to us.
We left significantly put off by there attitude of non-helpfulness to their would-be customers. We headed back across the bridge and went to High Cotton. A cheery girl took our order, which was fairly big. She chatted as we waited. In a couple of minutes our order was brought out in two large bags. The girl explained, “We ran out of french fries so the cook gave you an extra rack of ribs and a container of mashed. Will that be OK?” It was OK. And it was pleasantly courteous. A couple of nights later when we wanted barbecue again, we didn’t bother going to Saul’s, even though we had the time. We went to High Cotton, where we had been treated well. We never got to compare the actual product of the two restaurants.
I say to you that the Kingdom of Heaven - yes and even the Church at her best - is not like Saul’s but is rather like High Cotton, treating people as individuals and as of great value.
And how do we measure up? Is Emmanuel Church like Saul’s or High Cotton? Do we expect strangers to fall in line with the way we do things? Or do we go out of our way to make people feel welcome and appreciated? When we cannot provide exactly what they are seeking, do we say, “tough” or do we give them something of greater value? Ribs instead of french fries. The Kingdom of Heaven is hidden in such small details of our daily lives.
That is where our gardens are to be planted. That is where we are to dig and search. Our lives are where the seeds of the kingdom are sown and where priceless treasure is buried. Seek and you shall find.
In Name of Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Vine Newsletter (July 2008)
July 2008
CROSS ROADS:
The last weekend of June was gloriously festive for many of us. On Saturday I went to the National Cathedral in Washington for the Ordination and Consecration of Eugene Sutton as the 14th Bishop of Maryland. The music and pageantry were majestic, the preaching uplifting. The new bishop is already cherished within the diocese, and the mixture of races and cultures in the congregation was a great witness to the wideness of God’s love. When the cathedral is packed with over 3,000 enthusiastic worshipers, the singing can ring the rafters. The presence of our Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts-Schori brings luster to any occasion. It was exciting to be a part of that service.
On Sunday, for Emmanuel the day started out with our 8 o’clock celebration of the Eucharist. I always appreciate the quiet spirit of that service. We had cancelled our 10 o’clock service so that parishioners could join the people of St. James’, Westernport for the festive service that they were having. Again the Presiding Bishop was the celebrant as she ordained Garrett Carskadon and Thomas Hudson, OP, as priests. For our neighbors especially, it was a great day.
Such high profile celebrations, however, are not the usual fare for our spirits and I think that is a good thing. My sense of well-being is usually influenced by smaller things. A smile when I meet someone when I had expected a frown; an offer of a few hours from my son to help with some gardening project; a shared laugh at some irony; the bank of daylilies by my fish pond. I think that for most of us it doesn’t take a rise in the stock market or a new car. If the timing is right, it takes very little to make a so-so day into a truly happy one.
Our lives are, I think, more affected by the small acts of generosity or unkindness that we experience, than by the stories that make headlines. That means that the quality of life of those around me is affected by how I treat them. Huh.
I often envy Jesus for not having had instant access to news from around the world and for not having had a cell phone. All the gospel accounts show him ministering in completely personal situations. Even his confrontations with Pharisees and Roman authority were always in encounters with real flesh-and-blood people. He never dealt in abstract propositions. He told stories that had to do with familiar things like lost coins and hunger, wedding feasts and broken relationships. When he taught, he sat on a hillside and talked with whoever showed up. He gathered a small group of friends to carry on the kind of caring for people that he showed in his life.
For a while, the first followers of Jesus kept things simple. The wealthier members of the community opened their homes so that the people could gather to break bread and give thanks together. They told the stories that Jesus told and even touched people lives with a healing touch, just as Jesus had done. They rejected power plays to get their way, often choosing instead to be martyred. That didn’t last for more than a few generations. Once the Emperor Constantine recognized (in AD 314) that this Christian movement could be used as a good political tool to unite the empire, the importance of little things took a back seat. The Church was now a political power itself. It became something that kings feared. Church rulers wielded their power always under the cloak of righteousness and truth and for the furtherance of God’s reign. But to the citizenry, the demands of the Church could not have felt very different from the demands of the emperor.
As our own political season gears up, it might be good for us to remember that we are inheritors of the legacy of Jesus as well as of the Church. In both church and secular politics, appeals will be made to authorities, particularly scripture, by both sides of many arguments. Power is already being exerted to oust The Episcopal Church from the worldwide Anglican Communion. Sadly, that is the way of the Church after it received imperial approval and lost touch with down-to-earth things. It plainly is not the way of Jesus who welcomed all sorts and conditions of people into his fellowship. Jesus dealt with simpler realities like caring for people’s health, feeding the hungry, and helping followers to see the presence of God in their lives.
For all the pomp and splendor of last weekend’s ordination services in Washington and Westernport, they were not about power or self-aggrandizement. They were about serving the world through the community of faith. Especially when tempted by power and distracted by the grandeur of a great cathedral, we need constantly to look to the earliest Christians. They certainly stumbled in their attempts but they sought always to serve the world in Jesus’ name, not as power-brokers but as the welcoming arms of Jesus himself. May we follow in their foot-steps.
In God’s Peace,
+Martin
VISIT OF THE PRESIDING BISHOP:
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, visited St. James Church in Westernport, MD, on Sunday, June 29th for an Ordination Liturgy. Deacons Garrett Carskadon and Thomas Hudson, OP, were ordained to the Holy Priesthood. This was also the occasion for installing the new ministry team of St. James Church as the collective “rector” of the parish, which is both a new trend throughout the Episcopal Church (especially in rural and other small parishes) and is a very ancient concept going back to the very beginning of Christianity.
Because the Presiding Bishop’s travels don’t ordinarily bring her this close to Keyser, and because we wished to show our support for the new priests from our area, it was decided that the congregation for the 10:00 AM Holy Eucharist at Emmanuel Church would attend this special event. There was actually a good representation of our members from both the 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM congregations present, along with visitors from the other Episcopal parishes in the area, so it was almost like an Episcopalian family reunion.
Unfortunately due to the crowd and frustrating technical difficulties, I was only able to take a couple of photos of members of Emmanuel Church with the Presiding Bishop (sorry, Kim Pifer, but your photo died on my BlackBerry), but here the survivors. If you happen to have your own photos of the event, please feel free to send them to me.
Let us remember the newly ordained priests, the parish of St. James, and our Presiding Bishop in our prayers, that their labors in the fields of Jesus Christ will bring forth abundant fruits of the Spirit.
SUNDAY MORNING EDUCATION SCHEDULE:
Bishop Martin’s special series for adults and high school students.
July 6, 13, 20th BREAK
July 27th Why I Love the Episcopal Church
- balance in an out-of-kilter world
August 3rd Questions that You’ve Always Had About the Episcopal Church
- but were afraid to ask
August 10th BREAK
August 17th Report from The Lambeth Conference*
- see the brief description below
August 24th Questions that Have Arisen During the Summer
- no taboo topics
*The Lambeth Conference
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - Monday, August 04, 2008
Location: Canterbury, England
The Lambeth Conference, one of the gathering points (technically called an “Instrument of Communion”) for the global Anglican Communion, will be held July 16-August 4 in Canterbury, England. It is convened every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is an opportunity for the Anglican Communion's bishops to meet for worship, study and conversation. Archbishops, bishops, assistant and suffragan bishops within the Communion are invited. Also invited to attend are bishops from other churches 'in communion' with the Anglican Communion, bishops from United Churches, along with a number of ecumenical guests. (I attended the last Lambeth Conference in 1998 – MGT)
In addition to the more than 800 bishops who attend, their spouses are invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury's wife to a parallel gathering: the Spouses Conference.
For further information visit: http://www.lambethconference.org
COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN:
[Editor’s Note: This is a new monthly feature for The Vine that I’m especially thrilled about, and it comes from none other than Thelma Stewart. When I took over the editorial duties of The Vine a couple of months ago, I kept thinking that she should definitely have a part in our little newsletter, and I am grateful that Thelma was so gracious to accept my invitation to be a regular contributor. No matter how far she may live away from Emmanuel Church, Thelma will always be a member of our family – plus she’s painted into the beautiful mural at the back of the church, so we get to see her standing over the entrance.]
From 68 to 220
From 400 (Willey) to 301 (Mineral)
From West to East
From home to really HOME…Emmanuel
I was so emotionally and spiritually filled to be sitting in MY pew with MY niece at MY Emmanuel Memorial Day weekend. Being with my “family” for those few hours continues to feel me with much joy.
Shortly after that visit, “Shakjula” (Michael), contacted me and asked if I would consider..uh..Writing, uh..Or sharing some thoughts in The Vine. Whaat!! He must be nuts. I didn’t even respond. Then he revisited the request and asked that I pray about it.
Well, pray I did, and kept right on thinking…NO WAY. Now let me tell you how the Lord works. This morning around 3:30a.m., something or someone awakened me and by 5:30a.m. I was still counting sheep and anything else. So, I got up and, (believe it or not I speak the truth), walked a direct path to the computer; sat down, and said…”okay Lord, Here I am.”
It was a pleasure meeting Bishop Martin Townsend, and his wife and son. I sincerely believe Emmanuel, once again, has been truly blessed.
I submit this as an introduction to my “contribution” to The Vine. To Michael, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to continue to be a part of Emmanuel. Pray that the Lord will keep the thoughts coming to me so that I can continue to share them with you.
“What matters is not your competence, but your character.
What matters are not how many people you know, but how many you remember?
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.”
Author: Michael Josephson
INDEPENDENCE DAY:
L
ord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [Book of Common Prayer, Page 242.]
HELPING HANDS BENEFIT GOLF TOURNAMENT:
Sharon Floyd, Chairperson of the Outreach Committee, has requested that members of Emmanuel Church consider donating for advertising space for the upcoming Helping Hands Golf Tournament. The advertisements cost $25.00, and the money will go for a wonderful local charity. If you are interested in assisting the tournament, please contact Sharon at your earliest convenience.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
Bishop Martin has recommended a couple of books to the 9:10 AM Adult Education Group, on the subject of better understanding the Holy Bible. We thought that this would be good information to share with all those who are unable to attend the classes.
The New Oxford Annotated Study Bible (NRSV): The New Revised Version of the Bible is what is used for all the liturgical readings at Emmanuel Church (and one of the official translations approved by the Episcopal Church nationwide), and it is a very clear, accurate translation of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. This translation follows in the same tradition as the King James Version (or Authorized Translation) and the Revised Standard Version, and the introductions and notes contained within the New Oxford Annotated Study Bible have been presented by a team of ecumenical biblical scholars, so there’s a wealth of valuable information for anyone who is serious about studying the Word of God. It is also available with the Revised Standard Version translation for those who prefer that version (I have both versions, and they’re excellent). The New Oxford Annotated Study Bible comes in a variety of bindings, from paperback to Morocco leather editions; if you’re planning on using a study bible quite a bit, I would recommend that you opt for either a hardcover or leather-bound edition since the paperback versions really won’t hold up that well.
The Oxford Bible Commentary: Well, if you’re going to purchase the Oxford Study Bible, you might as well get a copy of the commentary. It is the fruit of the labors of 70 biblical scholars from the spectrum of Christian traditions, so it’s a very balanced commentary on all the books of the Bible (including the Apocrypha which the Anglican Church uses in the Liturgy). Thus far the Oxford Bible Commentary is available only in hardcover format, so it’s going to be on the pricy side of things.
Both the New Oxford Annotated Study Bible and the Oxford Bible Commentary are available at Amazon.com, Oxford University Press, and the Episcopal Bookstore – all of which are on the Internet. If you’re not all that computer-savvy, feel free to contact Michael Summers at your convenience, and he’ll get you access to catalogues or help you with the ordering process.
A FAMILIAR STRANGER:
I saw a stranger today.
I put food for him
in the eating-place
And drink
in the drinking-place
And music
in the listening-place.
In the Holy name
of the Trinity
He blessed myself
and my family.
And the lark said in her warble
Often, often, often
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
O, oft and oft and oft,
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
Celtic Rune of Hospitality
THE NEW CITY COUNCIL MEMBER:
Congratulations to our very own Sonny Rhodes, who was elected to serve on the Keyser City Council during the local elections in June. According to the Cumberland Times-News, he gained the largest number of votes. We wish you the best of luck as you embark on your new political career, Sonny!
GETTING TO KNOW YOU:
[Editor’s Note: This is a new monthly feature that was announced in the June edition of The Vine, and I’m looking forward to interviewing all of you out there in the months to come. For this month the “Guinea pig” is none other than Andrew Rankin. Since he doesn’t say too much, I felt it was only fair that he be the one to get a major introduction to Emmanuel Church. And I am really grateful that Andrew decided to be so cooperative with my schemes.]
#1. How long have you been at Emmanuel Church and what things are you involved in here?
I have been at Emmanuel practically all my life, my dad says I have been here since I was a few months old. So almost 20 years. My first involvement with the church was when I started acolyting at the age of 6, and I have been doing that to this day, I have participated in the youth group events, played music during services, I have been on the vestry for about a year in a half, still with no end in sight, and most recently was nominated for a position on Emmanuel's Rector Search Committee.
#2. What do you enjoy most about the church?
There is so much I love about Emmanuel, but I think the one thing that binds all of them
together is the fellowship and welcoming spirit with the members of the church.
#3. Please tell us a little more about yourself (hobbies, future plans, trivia that we don't know about you).
Well one of the most important things to me in my life is music, I enjoy a wide variety of music
from extreme metal to jazz. I love playing, listening, attempting to write, and just being involved with it in some way or another. Aside from music I do have a life, I am a full time student at Potomac State College, and will finish up my degree in Business Technology this fall semester, and begin working on my Associates in Business Administration.
DIOCESAN FAMILY ADVENTURE:
Family Adventure!
“And God saw that it was good.”
August 5-7, 2008
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis, we hear over and over again God’s pleasure in His creation. Join us August 5-7 for a chance to enjoy one of the most beautiful parts of God’s creation: wild and wonderful West Virginia. Ace Adventure Resort is a 1,400-acre facility specializing in outdoor adventure. Complete with hiking and biking trails, lakes for fishing and swimming, white-water rafting, and accommodations ranging from rustic to deluxe, Ace is the perfect setting for our Family Adventure!
Family Adventure is an event for all ages and abilities. With miles of hiking and biking trails, fishing, swimming, white water rafting, and plenty of time to relax and enjoy the mountain, there will be something for everyone! Enjoy a ‘rustic’ stay at the campground, or make arrangements to stay in one of the many cabins (complete with a large deck and hot tub). Join us in the community room for games, music, worship and fellowship!
Visit Ace Adventure Resort online to see what is in store at www.aceraft.com! Please contact Jason Beschinski at the diocesan office if you have any questions or concerns. (304) 344-3597 or jbeschinski@wvdiocese.org
Registration:
We need a separate registration form for each person or family member attending the event. We need a medical form only for middle school and high school students that are attending without a parent or guardian: Registration is due back to the diocesan office July 1, 2008.
The registration fee is $30 per person, children 2 and under are free. This includes breakfast and dinner on Wednesday and breakfast on Thursday and all evening programs. You may also add on a white-water rafting package. See below for cost and details.
Lodging:
Bring your own tents and camping gear and stay in the campground at no additional cost. Families may also make their own arrangements to stay in one of the many cabins and chalets by contacting Ace Adventure Resort (1-800-223-2641) or online at www.aceraft.com. It is recommended that you make cabin/chalet reservations as early as possible. Note: youth being chaperoned by EYF will need to stay in the campground with our group.
Evening Program:
We will gather each evening for music, games, fellowship, and worship. Musical guest Fran McKendree will be joining us, providing music for worship and doing a concert Wednesday evening. Fran is a professional musician and retreat leader, and has been involved with events at Peterkin and several parishes in the Diocese of West Virginia.
Optional Packages:
Swimming (4 hour pass for $5): The Adventure Play Park is the place to go for water trampolines, slides, and many other beachfront activities. These passes may be purchased at Ace after you arrive.
Upper New Rafting ($89 for adults, $49 for youth ages 6-17): Playful waves and beginner-friendly rapids make an ideal setting for rafting on the lighter side!
Lower New Rafting ($102 for adults, $89 for youth ages 14-17): Over 20 legendary big-water rapids await you on this rafting trip for the more adventurous!
RECIPE OF THE MONTH:
Orzo Salad
This delicious Greek salad (known as Salata Meh Kritharaki) is perfect for summer – nice and cool.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
2 (6 ounce) cans marinated artichoke hearts
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 red onion, chopped (or a Vidalia onion for a touch of sweetness)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (if feta is too pungent, use crumbled mozzarella)
1 (2 ounce) can black olives, drained (try Kalamata for authenticity)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup extra-virgin olive or sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or more if you like)
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Drain artichoke hearts.
2. In large bowl combine pasta, artichoke hearts, tomato, cucumber, onion, feta or mozzarella, olives, parsley, lemon juice, oil, basil and pepper. Toss and chill for at least 1 hour in refrigerator. Toss salad before serving.
CROSS ROADS:
The last weekend of June was gloriously festive for many of us. On Saturday I went to the National Cathedral in Washington for the Ordination and Consecration of Eugene Sutton as the 14th Bishop of Maryland. The music and pageantry were majestic, the preaching uplifting. The new bishop is already cherished within the diocese, and the mixture of races and cultures in the congregation was a great witness to the wideness of God’s love. When the cathedral is packed with over 3,000 enthusiastic worshipers, the singing can ring the rafters. The presence of our Presiding Bishop, The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts-Schori brings luster to any occasion. It was exciting to be a part of that service.
On Sunday, for Emmanuel the day started out with our 8 o’clock celebration of the Eucharist. I always appreciate the quiet spirit of that service. We had cancelled our 10 o’clock service so that parishioners could join the people of St. James’, Westernport for the festive service that they were having. Again the Presiding Bishop was the celebrant as she ordained Garrett Carskadon and Thomas Hudson, OP, as priests. For our neighbors especially, it was a great day.
Such high profile celebrations, however, are not the usual fare for our spirits and I think that is a good thing. My sense of well-being is usually influenced by smaller things. A smile when I meet someone when I had expected a frown; an offer of a few hours from my son to help with some gardening project; a shared laugh at some irony; the bank of daylilies by my fish pond. I think that for most of us it doesn’t take a rise in the stock market or a new car. If the timing is right, it takes very little to make a so-so day into a truly happy one.
Our lives are, I think, more affected by the small acts of generosity or unkindness that we experience, than by the stories that make headlines. That means that the quality of life of those around me is affected by how I treat them. Huh.
I often envy Jesus for not having had instant access to news from around the world and for not having had a cell phone. All the gospel accounts show him ministering in completely personal situations. Even his confrontations with Pharisees and Roman authority were always in encounters with real flesh-and-blood people. He never dealt in abstract propositions. He told stories that had to do with familiar things like lost coins and hunger, wedding feasts and broken relationships. When he taught, he sat on a hillside and talked with whoever showed up. He gathered a small group of friends to carry on the kind of caring for people that he showed in his life.
For a while, the first followers of Jesus kept things simple. The wealthier members of the community opened their homes so that the people could gather to break bread and give thanks together. They told the stories that Jesus told and even touched people lives with a healing touch, just as Jesus had done. They rejected power plays to get their way, often choosing instead to be martyred. That didn’t last for more than a few generations. Once the Emperor Constantine recognized (in AD 314) that this Christian movement could be used as a good political tool to unite the empire, the importance of little things took a back seat. The Church was now a political power itself. It became something that kings feared. Church rulers wielded their power always under the cloak of righteousness and truth and for the furtherance of God’s reign. But to the citizenry, the demands of the Church could not have felt very different from the demands of the emperor.
As our own political season gears up, it might be good for us to remember that we are inheritors of the legacy of Jesus as well as of the Church. In both church and secular politics, appeals will be made to authorities, particularly scripture, by both sides of many arguments. Power is already being exerted to oust The Episcopal Church from the worldwide Anglican Communion. Sadly, that is the way of the Church after it received imperial approval and lost touch with down-to-earth things. It plainly is not the way of Jesus who welcomed all sorts and conditions of people into his fellowship. Jesus dealt with simpler realities like caring for people’s health, feeding the hungry, and helping followers to see the presence of God in their lives.
For all the pomp and splendor of last weekend’s ordination services in Washington and Westernport, they were not about power or self-aggrandizement. They were about serving the world through the community of faith. Especially when tempted by power and distracted by the grandeur of a great cathedral, we need constantly to look to the earliest Christians. They certainly stumbled in their attempts but they sought always to serve the world in Jesus’ name, not as power-brokers but as the welcoming arms of Jesus himself. May we follow in their foot-steps.
In God’s Peace,
+Martin
VISIT OF THE PRESIDING BISHOP:
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, visited St. James Church in Westernport, MD, on Sunday, June 29th for an Ordination Liturgy. Deacons Garrett Carskadon and Thomas Hudson, OP, were ordained to the Holy Priesthood. This was also the occasion for installing the new ministry team of St. James Church as the collective “rector” of the parish, which is both a new trend throughout the Episcopal Church (especially in rural and other small parishes) and is a very ancient concept going back to the very beginning of Christianity.
Because the Presiding Bishop’s travels don’t ordinarily bring her this close to Keyser, and because we wished to show our support for the new priests from our area, it was decided that the congregation for the 10:00 AM Holy Eucharist at Emmanuel Church would attend this special event. There was actually a good representation of our members from both the 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM congregations present, along with visitors from the other Episcopal parishes in the area, so it was almost like an Episcopalian family reunion.
Unfortunately due to the crowd and frustrating technical difficulties, I was only able to take a couple of photos of members of Emmanuel Church with the Presiding Bishop (sorry, Kim Pifer, but your photo died on my BlackBerry), but here the survivors. If you happen to have your own photos of the event, please feel free to send them to me.
Let us remember the newly ordained priests, the parish of St. James, and our Presiding Bishop in our prayers, that their labors in the fields of Jesus Christ will bring forth abundant fruits of the Spirit.
SUNDAY MORNING EDUCATION SCHEDULE:
Bishop Martin’s special series for adults and high school students.
July 6, 13, 20th BREAK
July 27th Why I Love the Episcopal Church
- balance in an out-of-kilter world
August 3rd Questions that You’ve Always Had About the Episcopal Church
- but were afraid to ask
August 10th BREAK
August 17th Report from The Lambeth Conference*
- see the brief description below
August 24th Questions that Have Arisen During the Summer
- no taboo topics
*The Lambeth Conference
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - Monday, August 04, 2008
Location: Canterbury, England
The Lambeth Conference, one of the gathering points (technically called an “Instrument of Communion”) for the global Anglican Communion, will be held July 16-August 4 in Canterbury, England. It is convened every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is an opportunity for the Anglican Communion's bishops to meet for worship, study and conversation. Archbishops, bishops, assistant and suffragan bishops within the Communion are invited. Also invited to attend are bishops from other churches 'in communion' with the Anglican Communion, bishops from United Churches, along with a number of ecumenical guests. (I attended the last Lambeth Conference in 1998 – MGT)
In addition to the more than 800 bishops who attend, their spouses are invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury's wife to a parallel gathering: the Spouses Conference.
For further information visit: http://www.lambethconference.org
COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN:
[Editor’s Note: This is a new monthly feature for The Vine that I’m especially thrilled about, and it comes from none other than Thelma Stewart. When I took over the editorial duties of The Vine a couple of months ago, I kept thinking that she should definitely have a part in our little newsletter, and I am grateful that Thelma was so gracious to accept my invitation to be a regular contributor. No matter how far she may live away from Emmanuel Church, Thelma will always be a member of our family – plus she’s painted into the beautiful mural at the back of the church, so we get to see her standing over the entrance.]
From 68 to 220
From 400 (Willey) to 301 (Mineral)
From West to East
From home to really HOME…Emmanuel
I was so emotionally and spiritually filled to be sitting in MY pew with MY niece at MY Emmanuel Memorial Day weekend. Being with my “family” for those few hours continues to feel me with much joy.
Shortly after that visit, “Shakjula” (Michael), contacted me and asked if I would consider..uh..Writing, uh..Or sharing some thoughts in The Vine. Whaat!! He must be nuts. I didn’t even respond. Then he revisited the request and asked that I pray about it.
Well, pray I did, and kept right on thinking…NO WAY. Now let me tell you how the Lord works. This morning around 3:30a.m., something or someone awakened me and by 5:30a.m. I was still counting sheep and anything else. So, I got up and, (believe it or not I speak the truth), walked a direct path to the computer; sat down, and said…”okay Lord, Here I am.”
It was a pleasure meeting Bishop Martin Townsend, and his wife and son. I sincerely believe Emmanuel, once again, has been truly blessed.
I submit this as an introduction to my “contribution” to The Vine. To Michael, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to continue to be a part of Emmanuel. Pray that the Lord will keep the thoughts coming to me so that I can continue to share them with you.
“What matters is not your competence, but your character.
What matters are not how many people you know, but how many you remember?
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.”
Author: Michael Josephson
INDEPENDENCE DAY:
L
ord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [Book of Common Prayer, Page 242.]
HELPING HANDS BENEFIT GOLF TOURNAMENT:
Sharon Floyd, Chairperson of the Outreach Committee, has requested that members of Emmanuel Church consider donating for advertising space for the upcoming Helping Hands Golf Tournament. The advertisements cost $25.00, and the money will go for a wonderful local charity. If you are interested in assisting the tournament, please contact Sharon at your earliest convenience.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
Bishop Martin has recommended a couple of books to the 9:10 AM Adult Education Group, on the subject of better understanding the Holy Bible. We thought that this would be good information to share with all those who are unable to attend the classes.
The New Oxford Annotated Study Bible (NRSV): The New Revised Version of the Bible is what is used for all the liturgical readings at Emmanuel Church (and one of the official translations approved by the Episcopal Church nationwide), and it is a very clear, accurate translation of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. This translation follows in the same tradition as the King James Version (or Authorized Translation) and the Revised Standard Version, and the introductions and notes contained within the New Oxford Annotated Study Bible have been presented by a team of ecumenical biblical scholars, so there’s a wealth of valuable information for anyone who is serious about studying the Word of God. It is also available with the Revised Standard Version translation for those who prefer that version (I have both versions, and they’re excellent). The New Oxford Annotated Study Bible comes in a variety of bindings, from paperback to Morocco leather editions; if you’re planning on using a study bible quite a bit, I would recommend that you opt for either a hardcover or leather-bound edition since the paperback versions really won’t hold up that well.
The Oxford Bible Commentary: Well, if you’re going to purchase the Oxford Study Bible, you might as well get a copy of the commentary. It is the fruit of the labors of 70 biblical scholars from the spectrum of Christian traditions, so it’s a very balanced commentary on all the books of the Bible (including the Apocrypha which the Anglican Church uses in the Liturgy). Thus far the Oxford Bible Commentary is available only in hardcover format, so it’s going to be on the pricy side of things.
Both the New Oxford Annotated Study Bible and the Oxford Bible Commentary are available at Amazon.com, Oxford University Press, and the Episcopal Bookstore – all of which are on the Internet. If you’re not all that computer-savvy, feel free to contact Michael Summers at your convenience, and he’ll get you access to catalogues or help you with the ordering process.
A FAMILIAR STRANGER:
I saw a stranger today.
I put food for him
in the eating-place
And drink
in the drinking-place
And music
in the listening-place.
In the Holy name
of the Trinity
He blessed myself
and my family.
And the lark said in her warble
Often, often, often
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
O, oft and oft and oft,
Goes Christ
in the stranger's guise.
Celtic Rune of Hospitality
THE NEW CITY COUNCIL MEMBER:
Congratulations to our very own Sonny Rhodes, who was elected to serve on the Keyser City Council during the local elections in June. According to the Cumberland Times-News, he gained the largest number of votes. We wish you the best of luck as you embark on your new political career, Sonny!
GETTING TO KNOW YOU:
[Editor’s Note: This is a new monthly feature that was announced in the June edition of The Vine, and I’m looking forward to interviewing all of you out there in the months to come. For this month the “Guinea pig” is none other than Andrew Rankin. Since he doesn’t say too much, I felt it was only fair that he be the one to get a major introduction to Emmanuel Church. And I am really grateful that Andrew decided to be so cooperative with my schemes.]
#1. How long have you been at Emmanuel Church and what things are you involved in here?
I have been at Emmanuel practically all my life, my dad says I have been here since I was a few months old. So almost 20 years. My first involvement with the church was when I started acolyting at the age of 6, and I have been doing that to this day, I have participated in the youth group events, played music during services, I have been on the vestry for about a year in a half, still with no end in sight, and most recently was nominated for a position on Emmanuel's Rector Search Committee.
#2. What do you enjoy most about the church?
There is so much I love about Emmanuel, but I think the one thing that binds all of them
together is the fellowship and welcoming spirit with the members of the church.
#3. Please tell us a little more about yourself (hobbies, future plans, trivia that we don't know about you).
Well one of the most important things to me in my life is music, I enjoy a wide variety of music
from extreme metal to jazz. I love playing, listening, attempting to write, and just being involved with it in some way or another. Aside from music I do have a life, I am a full time student at Potomac State College, and will finish up my degree in Business Technology this fall semester, and begin working on my Associates in Business Administration.
DIOCESAN FAMILY ADVENTURE:
Family Adventure!
“And God saw that it was good.”
August 5-7, 2008
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis, we hear over and over again God’s pleasure in His creation. Join us August 5-7 for a chance to enjoy one of the most beautiful parts of God’s creation: wild and wonderful West Virginia. Ace Adventure Resort is a 1,400-acre facility specializing in outdoor adventure. Complete with hiking and biking trails, lakes for fishing and swimming, white-water rafting, and accommodations ranging from rustic to deluxe, Ace is the perfect setting for our Family Adventure!
Family Adventure is an event for all ages and abilities. With miles of hiking and biking trails, fishing, swimming, white water rafting, and plenty of time to relax and enjoy the mountain, there will be something for everyone! Enjoy a ‘rustic’ stay at the campground, or make arrangements to stay in one of the many cabins (complete with a large deck and hot tub). Join us in the community room for games, music, worship and fellowship!
Visit Ace Adventure Resort online to see what is in store at www.aceraft.com! Please contact Jason Beschinski at the diocesan office if you have any questions or concerns. (304) 344-3597 or jbeschinski@wvdiocese.org
Registration:
We need a separate registration form for each person or family member attending the event. We need a medical form only for middle school and high school students that are attending without a parent or guardian: Registration is due back to the diocesan office July 1, 2008.
The registration fee is $30 per person, children 2 and under are free. This includes breakfast and dinner on Wednesday and breakfast on Thursday and all evening programs. You may also add on a white-water rafting package. See below for cost and details.
Lodging:
Bring your own tents and camping gear and stay in the campground at no additional cost. Families may also make their own arrangements to stay in one of the many cabins and chalets by contacting Ace Adventure Resort (1-800-223-2641) or online at www.aceraft.com. It is recommended that you make cabin/chalet reservations as early as possible. Note: youth being chaperoned by EYF will need to stay in the campground with our group.
Evening Program:
We will gather each evening for music, games, fellowship, and worship. Musical guest Fran McKendree will be joining us, providing music for worship and doing a concert Wednesday evening. Fran is a professional musician and retreat leader, and has been involved with events at Peterkin and several parishes in the Diocese of West Virginia.
Optional Packages:
Swimming (4 hour pass for $5): The Adventure Play Park is the place to go for water trampolines, slides, and many other beachfront activities. These passes may be purchased at Ace after you arrive.
Upper New Rafting ($89 for adults, $49 for youth ages 6-17): Playful waves and beginner-friendly rapids make an ideal setting for rafting on the lighter side!
Lower New Rafting ($102 for adults, $89 for youth ages 14-17): Over 20 legendary big-water rapids await you on this rafting trip for the more adventurous!
RECIPE OF THE MONTH:
Orzo Salad
This delicious Greek salad (known as Salata Meh Kritharaki) is perfect for summer – nice and cool.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta
2 (6 ounce) cans marinated artichoke hearts
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 red onion, chopped (or a Vidalia onion for a touch of sweetness)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (if feta is too pungent, use crumbled mozzarella)
1 (2 ounce) can black olives, drained (try Kalamata for authenticity)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup extra-virgin olive or sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or more if you like)
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Drain artichoke hearts.
2. In large bowl combine pasta, artichoke hearts, tomato, cucumber, onion, feta or mozzarella, olives, parsley, lemon juice, oil, basil and pepper. Toss and chill for at least 1 hour in refrigerator. Toss salad before serving.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Visit of the Presiding Bishop
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be visiting St. James Church in Westernport, MD, on Sunday, June 29th for an Ordination Liturgy. Deacons Garrett Carskadon and Thomas Hudson will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood.
Because the Presiding Bishop doesn't ordinarily come this close to Keyser, and because we wish to show our support for the new priests from our area, it was decided that the congregation for the 10 o'clock Holy Eucharist at Emmanuel Church will attend this special event.
Accordingly there will *NOT* be 9 o'clock Sunday School or the 10 o'clock Holy Eucharist at Emmanuel Church on June 29th. The 8 o'clock Holy Eucharist will be celebrated as usual.
Those who wish to attend the Ordination Liturgy, which will begin at 10 o'clock in the morning, are asked to arrive early at St. James Church in order to be seated.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sermon for June 22, 2008
Genesis 21:8-21 June 22, 2008
Matthew 10:24-39 Pentecost 6
Matt 10:24-39
I speak to you in the name of him who says of himself that he brings not peace, but a sword, even Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
This morning’s readings from Genesis and Matthew have a very dark mood to them. In the first reading the Matriarch Sarah insists that her rival Hagar be ousted from Abraham’s camp and that she take her son with her. She is banished to the desert with nothing more than a loaf of bread and a skin of water to sustain herself and her son.
And then, even more ominously in the Gospel reading, Jesus warns, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.’
This does not sound like good news to me. I am not completely sure of what we are to make of this teaching, so let’s keep it on a back burner for a while and look at the context of this week.
It began well enough with Tiger Woods winning the US Open in double overtime while using a 9 iron as a crutch, protecting a broken leg. There has been the usual flow of news from Iraq and Afghanistan. The presidential campaign is clearly gearing up.
For me personally, it has been a wonderful week. My younger brother flew in from Vancouver and my older brother came down from Philadelphia. The three of us have not had several days together, especially with no crowds around, for many years. It was a gracious time to relearn our love for one another.
The chances are that for most of us, the week had a familiar rhythm. Those who have work got up and went to their jobs on Monday and probably had the same job on Friday. Some did not, victims of a faltering economy. Children, the lucky ones, might be eagerly looking forward to summer camp. Families were talking about vacations. Everyone wonders about the price of gasoline. Some pursued political interests. Most church doors were locked throughout the week, but they are now open on Sunday for a few bright hours of worship and affectionate conversation.
In many lands, all days were the same as men, women, and children, bearing lethal weapons, some wearing the uniforms of state, others carrying nothing but the will to kill each other did so, often in the name of religion.
Also this week, the State of California has seen hundreds of visitors, couples of men and couples of women taking the opportunity to celebrate their relationships as marriages under the new California law. As soon as the law was enacted, a counter-force initiated a move for a state constitutional amendment forbidding such marriages.
And speaking of counter-forces, this weekend, about 1,000 splinter group Anglicans, mostly from Africa and the Pacific Rim, some from the US, all opposed to what they consider liberal leadership within the Anglican Communion, will gather in Jerusalem for an eight-day meeting that likely will solidify the deep alienations, particularly over homosexuality, that have divided the church. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Zuhail Dahwani, pleaded with the organizers of the conference not to use his diocese that way. They ignored his plea.
In the mean time, about 800 bishops from around the world, including our own Bishop Klusmeyer, are packing their bags and reading white papers, getting ready to travel to England for The Lambeth Conference to be held in Canterbury next month.
The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of Anglican bishops from throughout the world, invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury every ten years, to meet for discussion and for the development of opportunities to work together for the furtherance of God’s rule on earth. It is a surprise to many Episcopalians to learn that The Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, is the third largest Christian group in the world, having 77,000,000 members in over 160 countries.
In 1998 Barbara and I had the huge privilege of being a part of the last Lambeth. Then, we spent most of our time in small group bible study and in hearing reports on world issues like hunger and disease and Third World debt. It was not all sweetness and light, but bonds of affection were made and strengthened. This year the conversations will be dominated by matters of sexuality.
The two gatherings - the splinter group in Jerusalem and the main group in Canterbury, mostly of bishops, will talk about little but sexuality. They will talk as if warfare, environmental destruction, tribal hatreds, inequalities and repression among people, the fragility of hope, joblessness - as if God cared nothing about such things and is now concerned only with who makes love with whom.
In the Gospels, Jesus devotes two thirds of his teaching to wealth and power and the distribution of resources. He does challenge the standard interpretations of scripture of his day. He says not a word about sexuality.
And now, in Jerusalem and soon in Canterbury, Anglican bishops will seem to have probed the mind of God and come up with the perfect formulation of truth on matters of sexuality and the authority of scripture. With little sense of irony, they will promulgate Christian teachings in areas that Jesus never trod. As much as prayers for grace and humility will be offered, I fear that formal statements from each of those conferences will serve more to divide than to reconcile.
Perhaps all of this is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ... And one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
That’s the Gospel truth that is always simmering on some back burner of our lives, so let’s stir that pot for a few minutes. The discernment of truth is not easy. It usually takes several different points of view to get close to the kind of truth that enables people to live lives with integrity and generosity. We too often settle for some partisan prejudice that masquerades as truth, but usually makes someone else a victim. Such is not truth as God would have it. Yet lynchings happened in the light of a burning cross and roadside bombs are detonated in the name of Allah. It is only a short few years since Protestants and Catholics were doing such things to each other in Ireland. Ethnic and gender bias are hardly dead in our own culture and time. God must weep at such mockery of everything that the Good News of Jesus Christ stands for.
“Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” Jesus said. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
If we find the value of our lives in the pious and often biased opinions we hold, then our lives will crumble to dust, Jesus seems to be saying. The invitation here is to take up some worthy challenge that helps another. To bear another’s cross. The call is to let go of some prejudice that you hold but which makes somebody else a little less than human. The collateral promise in this is that in giving up something that seemed so dear, you in fact lose nothing at all. In truth, you gain a larger circle of friends and a more loving outlook on life, and a deeper peace than mere prejudice can ever give you.
I pray that people on both sides of the conversations in Jerusalem and Canterbury will discern truths deeper than their already held convictions. And I pray further that they all will remember that those with whom the strife is sparked are also beloved friends of Jesus.
As we just sang in Hymn #661, “The peace of God, it is no peace, but stride closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing - the marvelous peace of God.” Amen.
Matthew 10:24-39 Pentecost 6
Matt 10:24-39
‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! ‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’
I speak to you in the name of him who says of himself that he brings not peace, but a sword, even Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
This morning’s readings from Genesis and Matthew have a very dark mood to them. In the first reading the Matriarch Sarah insists that her rival Hagar be ousted from Abraham’s camp and that she take her son with her. She is banished to the desert with nothing more than a loaf of bread and a skin of water to sustain herself and her son.
And then, even more ominously in the Gospel reading, Jesus warns, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.’
This does not sound like good news to me. I am not completely sure of what we are to make of this teaching, so let’s keep it on a back burner for a while and look at the context of this week.
It began well enough with Tiger Woods winning the US Open in double overtime while using a 9 iron as a crutch, protecting a broken leg. There has been the usual flow of news from Iraq and Afghanistan. The presidential campaign is clearly gearing up.
For me personally, it has been a wonderful week. My younger brother flew in from Vancouver and my older brother came down from Philadelphia. The three of us have not had several days together, especially with no crowds around, for many years. It was a gracious time to relearn our love for one another.
The chances are that for most of us, the week had a familiar rhythm. Those who have work got up and went to their jobs on Monday and probably had the same job on Friday. Some did not, victims of a faltering economy. Children, the lucky ones, might be eagerly looking forward to summer camp. Families were talking about vacations. Everyone wonders about the price of gasoline. Some pursued political interests. Most church doors were locked throughout the week, but they are now open on Sunday for a few bright hours of worship and affectionate conversation.
In many lands, all days were the same as men, women, and children, bearing lethal weapons, some wearing the uniforms of state, others carrying nothing but the will to kill each other did so, often in the name of religion.
Also this week, the State of California has seen hundreds of visitors, couples of men and couples of women taking the opportunity to celebrate their relationships as marriages under the new California law. As soon as the law was enacted, a counter-force initiated a move for a state constitutional amendment forbidding such marriages.
And speaking of counter-forces, this weekend, about 1,000 splinter group Anglicans, mostly from Africa and the Pacific Rim, some from the US, all opposed to what they consider liberal leadership within the Anglican Communion, will gather in Jerusalem for an eight-day meeting that likely will solidify the deep alienations, particularly over homosexuality, that have divided the church. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Zuhail Dahwani, pleaded with the organizers of the conference not to use his diocese that way. They ignored his plea.
In the mean time, about 800 bishops from around the world, including our own Bishop Klusmeyer, are packing their bags and reading white papers, getting ready to travel to England for The Lambeth Conference to be held in Canterbury next month.
The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of Anglican bishops from throughout the world, invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury every ten years, to meet for discussion and for the development of opportunities to work together for the furtherance of God’s rule on earth. It is a surprise to many Episcopalians to learn that The Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, is the third largest Christian group in the world, having 77,000,000 members in over 160 countries.
In 1998 Barbara and I had the huge privilege of being a part of the last Lambeth. Then, we spent most of our time in small group bible study and in hearing reports on world issues like hunger and disease and Third World debt. It was not all sweetness and light, but bonds of affection were made and strengthened. This year the conversations will be dominated by matters of sexuality.
The two gatherings - the splinter group in Jerusalem and the main group in Canterbury, mostly of bishops, will talk about little but sexuality. They will talk as if warfare, environmental destruction, tribal hatreds, inequalities and repression among people, the fragility of hope, joblessness - as if God cared nothing about such things and is now concerned only with who makes love with whom.
In the Gospels, Jesus devotes two thirds of his teaching to wealth and power and the distribution of resources. He does challenge the standard interpretations of scripture of his day. He says not a word about sexuality.
And now, in Jerusalem and soon in Canterbury, Anglican bishops will seem to have probed the mind of God and come up with the perfect formulation of truth on matters of sexuality and the authority of scripture. With little sense of irony, they will promulgate Christian teachings in areas that Jesus never trod. As much as prayers for grace and humility will be offered, I fear that formal statements from each of those conferences will serve more to divide than to reconcile.
Perhaps all of this is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ... And one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
That’s the Gospel truth that is always simmering on some back burner of our lives, so let’s stir that pot for a few minutes. The discernment of truth is not easy. It usually takes several different points of view to get close to the kind of truth that enables people to live lives with integrity and generosity. We too often settle for some partisan prejudice that masquerades as truth, but usually makes someone else a victim. Such is not truth as God would have it. Yet lynchings happened in the light of a burning cross and roadside bombs are detonated in the name of Allah. It is only a short few years since Protestants and Catholics were doing such things to each other in Ireland. Ethnic and gender bias are hardly dead in our own culture and time. God must weep at such mockery of everything that the Good News of Jesus Christ stands for.
“Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” Jesus said. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
If we find the value of our lives in the pious and often biased opinions we hold, then our lives will crumble to dust, Jesus seems to be saying. The invitation here is to take up some worthy challenge that helps another. To bear another’s cross. The call is to let go of some prejudice that you hold but which makes somebody else a little less than human. The collateral promise in this is that in giving up something that seemed so dear, you in fact lose nothing at all. In truth, you gain a larger circle of friends and a more loving outlook on life, and a deeper peace than mere prejudice can ever give you.
I pray that people on both sides of the conversations in Jerusalem and Canterbury will discern truths deeper than their already held convictions. And I pray further that they all will remember that those with whom the strife is sparked are also beloved friends of Jesus.
As we just sang in Hymn #661, “The peace of God, it is no peace, but stride closed in the sod. Yet let us pray for but one thing - the marvelous peace of God.” Amen.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sermon for June 15, 2008
Exodus 19:2-8a
In the Name of the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and of Jacob, Rachel and Leah. Amen.
Last week I talked about Abraham and the promise that God made to the great grandfather of the children of Israel.
- Abraham was a giant of a man, remembered as they told stories around the camp fire on nights when the moon was barely a wink coming from the night sky.
Today we meet the other superhero of all the Hebrew scriptures, Moses himself.
Moses is another of those biblical characters who does not break down easily into the morsels we usually serve up as readings on Sunday mornings.
- Even more than Abraham, Moses strides across the stage, never sitting still for a complete portrait. The heart of Hebrew scripture is called the Books of Moses. What governs the people from this time forward is called the Law of Moses.
It was by artful deception and some God given fortune that Moses even survived his own birth in Egypt. At the time Pharaoh had ordered that all male infants be killed.
- Moses’ mother hid him for a few months then floated him in a basket on the Nile where she knew that Pharaoh’s daughter would find him. Which she did - and adopted him and raised him as an Egyptian prince.
But Moses always knew of his own roots as a child of Israel. He showed that when he murdered an Egyptian overseer who was flogging an Israelite slave. Word of it reached Pharaoh so Moses fled again from Pharaoh’s wrath, this time into the Sinai desert.
It was during this time of his life that Moses first heard the voice of the living God. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Then the LORD said, “I have watched the misery of my people who are in Egypt… and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And you are just the guy to make it happen,” God said.
Moses whined some, trying to get off this particular hook. He made a lot of excuses and finally came up with the perfect challenge:
- “OK. Suppose I do go to the leaders of Israel and tell them what you have in mind. Who shall I say sent me?”
The new name that God revealed to Moses is actually very difficult to translate from the Hebrew. It is a form of the verb “to be.” It could mean, “I am who I am becoming,” or “I am who I am,” or simply “I AM.” One translation has it, “I will be there with you.” However you translate it, one thing is clear. God is a verb, not a noun or an adjective. God’s self description is not static, but active. He likes people who are on the move, not stuck in the mud.
“I AM WHO I AM. Tell the people that I AM has sent you to them.”
- And that pretty much shut Moses up. From that point on, at least for a while, he listened and followed orders.
He went back to Egypt and told Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” And he ordered up ten plagues to prove that he really meant it.
Finally Pharaoh’s advisors convinced their boss that Moses and all the other Israelites should leave Egypt before anything worse happened.
- So Moses and all the rest packed their bags and camping gear and headed towards Sinai.
- They got to a marshy patch of the Nile delta that English translators mistook to be the Red Sea, when actually it was the reed sea.
It was just three months after that that this morning’s reading takes place.
- In seven short verses Moses moves from being the great liberator to being the great lawgiver. He made several trips up and down the mountain before his conversation with I AM was over. Each time he brought some new word to the camp on the plain below Mount Sinai.
Imagine how it might have been - a summer storm crackling out of the sky, lightning drawn to this high point, thunder deafening.
- “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,” God says in this morning’s reading. “and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”
Wow! A treasured possession. Of God’s. Nice.
- It is too bad that that promise stands in the shadow of the phrase just before it: “if you obey my voice and keep my commandments.”
Well…. Does that mean that God’s love is conditional? That if we don’t follow all the rules, then God will NOT love us?
- That is what we are taught from our earliest memories, isn’t it? “If you don’t do as I say you’ll regret it when your father gets home.” “You can come for a beer after work if you fit in.”
Is that the kind of deal that God is offering here? Must we perfectly obey the law to earn the promise?
That is what it sounds like, but that can’t be quite right because Moses himself was a murderer, bringing us the commandment not to kill.
- More import, though, is that Scripture is nothing if not the record of God’s constant reaching across the gulf that we seek to put between God and ourselves.
- Reaching out to Abraham and his wildly dysfunctional family; reaching out here to Moses, forging a new bond with a rag tag troop of escaped slaves.
- In the reign of King David God watched over Jerusalem and the temple, giving a Golden Age of peace to which future generations would look back as they dreamed of a new Messiah - though David was a murderer as well, and an adulterer.
- Through the reluctant and imperfect prophets, God sought to reestablish the constantly re-broken covenant. That seems to be the major theme of all scripture.
When Moses came down from the mountain for the last time with the tablets of the law in his arms, he saw the whole camp dancing around a golden calf that his own brother Aaron had fashioned.
- Moses threw the tablets on the ground, breaking them into pieces. It’s as if he knew that these commandments would never be properly kept.
If the relationship with God were really dependent on obeying the law, then that would have been the end of it right there.
- The whole deal would have been off, wrecked before it was even delivered.
- But that was not it. Moses continued to lead the people towards the promised land because that part of God’s promise to Abraham had not yet been fully realized.
The Promised Land was elusive. They thought they had it for a while, but while Abraham was still alive, famine drove them to Egypt where eventually they would become slaves.
- It was from this status that Moses led the people towards the Promised Land.
Understand that Moses’ band was not lost in the desert. They knew perfectly well that to get from Egypt to Canaan you head northeast up along the coast. But Moses led them southeast into the wilderness.
Somehow he knew that they needed some serious time of rebuilding if they were truly to come together as a nation.
- Having just come through an excruciating period of slavery and abuse, they needed an extended retreat before leaping forward into an uncertain future.
- They needed to reclaim their identity as children of God before they could forge themselves into a united people. That was Moses’ job with them in the desert. He is the archetypal priest-in-charge.
So Moses led them by stages to the Promised Land.
- They broke some of the rules along the way. They discovered that being on the outs with God made them anxious and even miserable.
A rabbi colleague once told me that the Hebrew word “Torah,” which we translate as “law” does mean law in the sense that we usually understand. It would be better translated as “teaching.”
- Starting even with St. Paul, Christians made Torah sound rigid – what we do mean by law - so that the grace of Jesus would be all the more apparent.
- But how might Torah have made sense at the time?
To help themselves stay closer to God, the Hebrews did recall how God had led them out of bondage, and they tried to stay away from idols, things they had thought up themselves as if they could make them happy and content.
In their better moments they understood that actually knowing the name of God, I AM, was a sign that they had a relationship with God that should not be treated casually. They tried to treat God’s name with respect.
They discovered other things: taking a real day off each week reminded them that they were more than their job descriptions.
- they learned that treating their parents well protected their own place in the procession of time.
- they somehow knew that killing each other was a bad idea. Life, while abundant, is still a limited resource.
Some even learned that messing around with marriage vows was a bad plan. It seemed that sticking with one person, working through conflicts and hard times, was the best chance they had for actually growing up.
Stealing and making false promises caused painful fractures in the community.
- And they did sense that being jealous of what others had simply drew them into a morass of self-pity and resentment.
They only needed these ten fairly comprehensive but terse rules to make it all work.
It turned out that the Covenant that Moses brought down from the mountain was not a bunch of arbitrary rules designed to make life hard.
- It was a gift that made life more gracious.
They discovered that the “IF” of God’s promise was not God being stingy. It was just a reminder of what to look out for.
- Both as community and as individuals, they functioned better when they paid attention to the teachings that Moses had received from God.
So hear God’s promise, first to Abraham, reaffirmed through Moses, echoing down the ages so that it is now addressed directly to us: “Out of all the peoples of the earth, you are my treasured possession.”
And that’s both Torah and the Gospel truth. AMEN.
They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”
In the Name of the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and of Jacob, Rachel and Leah. Amen.
Last week I talked about Abraham and the promise that God made to the great grandfather of the children of Israel.
- Abraham was a giant of a man, remembered as they told stories around the camp fire on nights when the moon was barely a wink coming from the night sky.
Today we meet the other superhero of all the Hebrew scriptures, Moses himself.
Moses is another of those biblical characters who does not break down easily into the morsels we usually serve up as readings on Sunday mornings.
- Even more than Abraham, Moses strides across the stage, never sitting still for a complete portrait. The heart of Hebrew scripture is called the Books of Moses. What governs the people from this time forward is called the Law of Moses.
It was by artful deception and some God given fortune that Moses even survived his own birth in Egypt. At the time Pharaoh had ordered that all male infants be killed.
- Moses’ mother hid him for a few months then floated him in a basket on the Nile where she knew that Pharaoh’s daughter would find him. Which she did - and adopted him and raised him as an Egyptian prince.
But Moses always knew of his own roots as a child of Israel. He showed that when he murdered an Egyptian overseer who was flogging an Israelite slave. Word of it reached Pharaoh so Moses fled again from Pharaoh’s wrath, this time into the Sinai desert.
It was during this time of his life that Moses first heard the voice of the living God. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Then the LORD said, “I have watched the misery of my people who are in Egypt… and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey... And you are just the guy to make it happen,” God said.
Moses whined some, trying to get off this particular hook. He made a lot of excuses and finally came up with the perfect challenge:
- “OK. Suppose I do go to the leaders of Israel and tell them what you have in mind. Who shall I say sent me?”
The new name that God revealed to Moses is actually very difficult to translate from the Hebrew. It is a form of the verb “to be.” It could mean, “I am who I am becoming,” or “I am who I am,” or simply “I AM.” One translation has it, “I will be there with you.” However you translate it, one thing is clear. God is a verb, not a noun or an adjective. God’s self description is not static, but active. He likes people who are on the move, not stuck in the mud.
“I AM WHO I AM. Tell the people that I AM has sent you to them.”
- And that pretty much shut Moses up. From that point on, at least for a while, he listened and followed orders.
He went back to Egypt and told Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” And he ordered up ten plagues to prove that he really meant it.
Finally Pharaoh’s advisors convinced their boss that Moses and all the other Israelites should leave Egypt before anything worse happened.
- So Moses and all the rest packed their bags and camping gear and headed towards Sinai.
- They got to a marshy patch of the Nile delta that English translators mistook to be the Red Sea, when actually it was the reed sea.
It was just three months after that that this morning’s reading takes place.
- In seven short verses Moses moves from being the great liberator to being the great lawgiver. He made several trips up and down the mountain before his conversation with I AM was over. Each time he brought some new word to the camp on the plain below Mount Sinai.
Imagine how it might have been - a summer storm crackling out of the sky, lightning drawn to this high point, thunder deafening.
- “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,” God says in this morning’s reading. “and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”
Wow! A treasured possession. Of God’s. Nice.
- It is too bad that that promise stands in the shadow of the phrase just before it: “if you obey my voice and keep my commandments.”
Well…. Does that mean that God’s love is conditional? That if we don’t follow all the rules, then God will NOT love us?
- That is what we are taught from our earliest memories, isn’t it? “If you don’t do as I say you’ll regret it when your father gets home.” “You can come for a beer after work if you fit in.”
Is that the kind of deal that God is offering here? Must we perfectly obey the law to earn the promise?
That is what it sounds like, but that can’t be quite right because Moses himself was a murderer, bringing us the commandment not to kill.
- More import, though, is that Scripture is nothing if not the record of God’s constant reaching across the gulf that we seek to put between God and ourselves.
- Reaching out to Abraham and his wildly dysfunctional family; reaching out here to Moses, forging a new bond with a rag tag troop of escaped slaves.
- In the reign of King David God watched over Jerusalem and the temple, giving a Golden Age of peace to which future generations would look back as they dreamed of a new Messiah - though David was a murderer as well, and an adulterer.
- Through the reluctant and imperfect prophets, God sought to reestablish the constantly re-broken covenant. That seems to be the major theme of all scripture.
When Moses came down from the mountain for the last time with the tablets of the law in his arms, he saw the whole camp dancing around a golden calf that his own brother Aaron had fashioned.
- Moses threw the tablets on the ground, breaking them into pieces. It’s as if he knew that these commandments would never be properly kept.
If the relationship with God were really dependent on obeying the law, then that would have been the end of it right there.
- The whole deal would have been off, wrecked before it was even delivered.
- But that was not it. Moses continued to lead the people towards the promised land because that part of God’s promise to Abraham had not yet been fully realized.
The Promised Land was elusive. They thought they had it for a while, but while Abraham was still alive, famine drove them to Egypt where eventually they would become slaves.
- It was from this status that Moses led the people towards the Promised Land.
Understand that Moses’ band was not lost in the desert. They knew perfectly well that to get from Egypt to Canaan you head northeast up along the coast. But Moses led them southeast into the wilderness.
Somehow he knew that they needed some serious time of rebuilding if they were truly to come together as a nation.
- Having just come through an excruciating period of slavery and abuse, they needed an extended retreat before leaping forward into an uncertain future.
- They needed to reclaim their identity as children of God before they could forge themselves into a united people. That was Moses’ job with them in the desert. He is the archetypal priest-in-charge.
So Moses led them by stages to the Promised Land.
- They broke some of the rules along the way. They discovered that being on the outs with God made them anxious and even miserable.
A rabbi colleague once told me that the Hebrew word “Torah,” which we translate as “law” does mean law in the sense that we usually understand. It would be better translated as “teaching.”
- Starting even with St. Paul, Christians made Torah sound rigid – what we do mean by law - so that the grace of Jesus would be all the more apparent.
- But how might Torah have made sense at the time?
To help themselves stay closer to God, the Hebrews did recall how God had led them out of bondage, and they tried to stay away from idols, things they had thought up themselves as if they could make them happy and content.
In their better moments they understood that actually knowing the name of God, I AM, was a sign that they had a relationship with God that should not be treated casually. They tried to treat God’s name with respect.
They discovered other things: taking a real day off each week reminded them that they were more than their job descriptions.
- they learned that treating their parents well protected their own place in the procession of time.
- they somehow knew that killing each other was a bad idea. Life, while abundant, is still a limited resource.
Some even learned that messing around with marriage vows was a bad plan. It seemed that sticking with one person, working through conflicts and hard times, was the best chance they had for actually growing up.
Stealing and making false promises caused painful fractures in the community.
- And they did sense that being jealous of what others had simply drew them into a morass of self-pity and resentment.
They only needed these ten fairly comprehensive but terse rules to make it all work.
It turned out that the Covenant that Moses brought down from the mountain was not a bunch of arbitrary rules designed to make life hard.
- It was a gift that made life more gracious.
They discovered that the “IF” of God’s promise was not God being stingy. It was just a reminder of what to look out for.
- Both as community and as individuals, they functioned better when they paid attention to the teachings that Moses had received from God.
So hear God’s promise, first to Abraham, reaffirmed through Moses, echoing down the ages so that it is now addressed directly to us: “Out of all the peoples of the earth, you are my treasured possession.”
And that’s both Torah and the Gospel truth. AMEN.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Sermon for June 8, 2008
Genesis 12:1-9 June 8th 2008
12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
In the Name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Amen.
The problem with the way most of us hear scripture is that we hear it in little excerpts of just a few verses. On Sunday mornings we are given no context. This morning’s introduction of Abraham and Sarah is a case in point.
- The saga of these people is too great and too important to be heard in snippets, nine verses at a time. Abraham was a huge character who deserves a bigger stage, whose story needs to be told in a bigger sweep than any one lesson can contain.... so we’ll look beyond this morning’s text to reach a fuller understanding... I am grateful to my colleague Barbara Taylor for the way she tells a tale.
The people at the center of this story we know best as Abraham and Sarah, but as the story opens they are Abram and Sarai. We’ll get to how their names were changed in a few minutes.
In the story we just heard about Abram, this is the first time the old patriarch had actually heard the voice of God. Abram was 75 years old and he had traipsed up from Babylon into Syria with his father’s clan and with his own wife Sarai.
Then we are told that the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
And when they got to Canaan, God added, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Now on the face of it - as we might casually hear it - that’s pretty neat. Abram’s kids are going to inherit quite an estate.
- The problem is that all we know about Abram and Sarai as this story opens is that Sarai is barren. No children. And that was about the worst thing that could happen to a couple in those days. To make matters worse, Abram was 75 while Sarai was 66. The prospects weren’t good; nonetheless, Abram built an altar in thanksgiving for the promise. And he began to hope.
Taking the story of Abram and Sarai beyond this morning’s reading, God popped up every few years and reiterated the promise. “To your descendants I will give this land.”
- But there was the same problem: no descendants.
Then there was a famine in the land so Abram’s household moved to Egypt which always had plenty of grain.
In Egypt, Abram didn’t show the best of his character. The Genesis writer tells us that Sarai was very beautiful and Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him in order to claim Sarai, even though she was in her 70s. So Abram said she was his sister, at which point Pharaoh claimed her as a concubine. In return, Abram got status and servants and became rich. There is an unflattering term for men who do what Abram did.
Somehow when Pharaoh learned that he had been tricked he just kicked Abram and Sarai out when he really had just cause to kill Abram. But that would have spoiled the plot.
So Abram and his household returned to Canaan with his nephew Lot and his tribe. After arguments broke out between Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders, in order to avoid a blood feud they agreed to part company. Lot took his family into the land East of the Jordan River while Abram stayed in the hills to the West.
But still there was no child. They were 87 and 78 yet still there was no clear sign that God was going to keep the promise. So Sarai convinced Abram that he should hedge his bets. “Have a child with my servant Hagar,” Sarai suggested. So he did and the result was a son named Ishmael.
This is the first instance in the bible of a blended family, and it didn’t work too well. Sarai was jealous and Hagar was kind of smug. The years rolled by and it must have been difficult for everybody. Hagar feeling that she was not getting the respect she deserved, Sarai feeling like a failure.
Ishmael as an adolescent knowing he is viewed as second best, even though he is the heir apparent. And there was Abram. Abram who would go out into the sky bright night hoping to hear that voice again. Hoping to hear some detail of how things would unfold.
“What’s up?” Sarai would ask. “Nothing,” he’d reply, as he chewed on a stem of sage grass.
And then when Abram was 99 while Sarai was a spring chicken of only 90, the voice came again.
“I am God Almighty,” God said, though what he actually said was in Hebrew: “I am El Shaddai.”
- That was rather important. God had told Abram his name, El Shaddai. A few hundred years later he’d use a different name when he introduces himself to Moses. Then the name will be Yahweh. But for Abram it was El Shaddai. And El Shaddai said to Abram something that might sound like a small thing to us but it was a big deal to the patriarch. “You shall no longer be called Abram” God said. “Instead you will be called Abraham,” which means “father of a multitude.”
Throughout scripture people are given new names and it always signifies a changed relationship. God seems to be moving into a higher gear.
- “And your wife will no longer be Sarai but will be Sarah,” God adds. Than means “princess.”
That was a bit of a puzzle still, because Sarah was still childless, even with the new name.
- The puzzle seems just to be extended when three messengers come, apparently from God, and inform the couple that they are going to have a son. Abraham seems to have laughed in renewed hope while Sarah laughed in derision. She was, after all, as scripture tells us, “past the age of child bearing.”
- But it’s still all promise and no action. Sarah is yet to wake up sick one morning and realize that she has something important to tell her husband.
As you might understand, the mood in the camp was not always easy. Hagar apparently became rather snippy and refused to address “Princess” by her new name. Abraham's name of “Father of a Multitude” seemed like a cruel joke to everybody who loved him and like crazy arrogance to everybody else.
There are a few more memorable stories in the Abraham saga, like the departure of Hagar and Ishmael and when the patriarch almost killed the son he had only waited a century to get. And there was the incident at Sodom and Gomorra. But they will hold for other sermons.
Starting with this morning’s reading and extending for twenty-four years, all that Abraham and Sarah had to go on was a series of promises the realization of which only seemed to get less and less likely.
- But still they lived with hope.
That must have been really hard. It maybe feel a bit dumb to allow yourself to be that gullible.
What this whole story tells us is that it’s a hard thing to live by a promise - live by it day in and month out, year by year to be reminded of it by the night sky and by the murmur of your lover by your side and even by your own name that was given to you in a special moment.
It is hard to believe in a promise that you cannot make come true. You simply cannot wrap up this particular train set on behalf of Santa Claus.
Everything is future tense. Whenever God speaks, all the blessings are yet to come. You will receive the land; you will have a son; the world will be blessed through you. So what is there to live on right now we might ask.
Well, where might we look for such food for the spirit? What better way is there to live than to be shaped by a promise, and a divine one at that?
- This story is telling us that that’s a pretty good way to begin a day - wondering what foretaste of the promise might be waiting nearby.
- And so, we latter day Abrahams and Sarahs do not live with wistful backward glances, nor are we to complain about any present dysfunction. God calls us to look forward with hope.
- That is what we are called to here at Emmanuel Church. Whatever we know of old disappointments and present disagreements pails next to the promise that we are bound for glory.
- A couple of weeks ago Michael Summers joked about a plot he was hatching to make Emmanuel Parish, Keyser into the flagship parish of a revitalized Anglican Communion. That might be a little over the top, but it’s the right direction.
- Our task, it seems to me, is to set a course and then let God set the timetable.
- A life lived with such a focus could relax into appreciating every day as it passes. Every encounter, each moment, is a seed that can be nurtured to bear fruit - and it is all promise. The world itself is the voice of God, inviting us to live with hope, to be awake to the possibilities and to know that everything echoes the heartbeat of God, that everything is holy.
That is what Abraham and Sarah learned. For twenty-four years they lived with a hope that hung precariously from a promise from God. For a quarter of a century they tended their flocks, moved through famine and wealth, deception and mercy, family alienation and the sweet gentleness of old age, always with an awareness of God’s promise leading them forward. And apparently they enjoyed each other as husband and wife.
Then one spring morning as Abraham neared his 100th birthday and Sarah was 90, she awoke to a new queeziness in her belly. Her husband who had come in the previous night from gazing up into the countless stars as he often did, was sleeping softly beside her.
- She shook him gently. “Abraham,” she said. “I have something to tell you.”
12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
In the Name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Amen.
The problem with the way most of us hear scripture is that we hear it in little excerpts of just a few verses. On Sunday mornings we are given no context. This morning’s introduction of Abraham and Sarah is a case in point.
- The saga of these people is too great and too important to be heard in snippets, nine verses at a time. Abraham was a huge character who deserves a bigger stage, whose story needs to be told in a bigger sweep than any one lesson can contain.... so we’ll look beyond this morning’s text to reach a fuller understanding... I am grateful to my colleague Barbara Taylor for the way she tells a tale.
The people at the center of this story we know best as Abraham and Sarah, but as the story opens they are Abram and Sarai. We’ll get to how their names were changed in a few minutes.
In the story we just heard about Abram, this is the first time the old patriarch had actually heard the voice of God. Abram was 75 years old and he had traipsed up from Babylon into Syria with his father’s clan and with his own wife Sarai.
Then we are told that the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
And when they got to Canaan, God added, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Now on the face of it - as we might casually hear it - that’s pretty neat. Abram’s kids are going to inherit quite an estate.
- The problem is that all we know about Abram and Sarai as this story opens is that Sarai is barren. No children. And that was about the worst thing that could happen to a couple in those days. To make matters worse, Abram was 75 while Sarai was 66. The prospects weren’t good; nonetheless, Abram built an altar in thanksgiving for the promise. And he began to hope.
Taking the story of Abram and Sarai beyond this morning’s reading, God popped up every few years and reiterated the promise. “To your descendants I will give this land.”
- But there was the same problem: no descendants.
Then there was a famine in the land so Abram’s household moved to Egypt which always had plenty of grain.
In Egypt, Abram didn’t show the best of his character. The Genesis writer tells us that Sarai was very beautiful and Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him in order to claim Sarai, even though she was in her 70s. So Abram said she was his sister, at which point Pharaoh claimed her as a concubine. In return, Abram got status and servants and became rich. There is an unflattering term for men who do what Abram did.
Somehow when Pharaoh learned that he had been tricked he just kicked Abram and Sarai out when he really had just cause to kill Abram. But that would have spoiled the plot.
So Abram and his household returned to Canaan with his nephew Lot and his tribe. After arguments broke out between Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders, in order to avoid a blood feud they agreed to part company. Lot took his family into the land East of the Jordan River while Abram stayed in the hills to the West.
But still there was no child. They were 87 and 78 yet still there was no clear sign that God was going to keep the promise. So Sarai convinced Abram that he should hedge his bets. “Have a child with my servant Hagar,” Sarai suggested. So he did and the result was a son named Ishmael.
This is the first instance in the bible of a blended family, and it didn’t work too well. Sarai was jealous and Hagar was kind of smug. The years rolled by and it must have been difficult for everybody. Hagar feeling that she was not getting the respect she deserved, Sarai feeling like a failure.
Ishmael as an adolescent knowing he is viewed as second best, even though he is the heir apparent. And there was Abram. Abram who would go out into the sky bright night hoping to hear that voice again. Hoping to hear some detail of how things would unfold.
“What’s up?” Sarai would ask. “Nothing,” he’d reply, as he chewed on a stem of sage grass.
And then when Abram was 99 while Sarai was a spring chicken of only 90, the voice came again.
“I am God Almighty,” God said, though what he actually said was in Hebrew: “I am El Shaddai.”
- That was rather important. God had told Abram his name, El Shaddai. A few hundred years later he’d use a different name when he introduces himself to Moses. Then the name will be Yahweh. But for Abram it was El Shaddai. And El Shaddai said to Abram something that might sound like a small thing to us but it was a big deal to the patriarch. “You shall no longer be called Abram” God said. “Instead you will be called Abraham,” which means “father of a multitude.”
Throughout scripture people are given new names and it always signifies a changed relationship. God seems to be moving into a higher gear.
- “And your wife will no longer be Sarai but will be Sarah,” God adds. Than means “princess.”
That was a bit of a puzzle still, because Sarah was still childless, even with the new name.
- The puzzle seems just to be extended when three messengers come, apparently from God, and inform the couple that they are going to have a son. Abraham seems to have laughed in renewed hope while Sarah laughed in derision. She was, after all, as scripture tells us, “past the age of child bearing.”
- But it’s still all promise and no action. Sarah is yet to wake up sick one morning and realize that she has something important to tell her husband.
As you might understand, the mood in the camp was not always easy. Hagar apparently became rather snippy and refused to address “Princess” by her new name. Abraham's name of “Father of a Multitude” seemed like a cruel joke to everybody who loved him and like crazy arrogance to everybody else.
There are a few more memorable stories in the Abraham saga, like the departure of Hagar and Ishmael and when the patriarch almost killed the son he had only waited a century to get. And there was the incident at Sodom and Gomorra. But they will hold for other sermons.
Starting with this morning’s reading and extending for twenty-four years, all that Abraham and Sarah had to go on was a series of promises the realization of which only seemed to get less and less likely.
- But still they lived with hope.
That must have been really hard. It maybe feel a bit dumb to allow yourself to be that gullible.
What this whole story tells us is that it’s a hard thing to live by a promise - live by it day in and month out, year by year to be reminded of it by the night sky and by the murmur of your lover by your side and even by your own name that was given to you in a special moment.
It is hard to believe in a promise that you cannot make come true. You simply cannot wrap up this particular train set on behalf of Santa Claus.
Everything is future tense. Whenever God speaks, all the blessings are yet to come. You will receive the land; you will have a son; the world will be blessed through you. So what is there to live on right now we might ask.
Well, where might we look for such food for the spirit? What better way is there to live than to be shaped by a promise, and a divine one at that?
- This story is telling us that that’s a pretty good way to begin a day - wondering what foretaste of the promise might be waiting nearby.
- And so, we latter day Abrahams and Sarahs do not live with wistful backward glances, nor are we to complain about any present dysfunction. God calls us to look forward with hope.
- That is what we are called to here at Emmanuel Church. Whatever we know of old disappointments and present disagreements pails next to the promise that we are bound for glory.
- A couple of weeks ago Michael Summers joked about a plot he was hatching to make Emmanuel Parish, Keyser into the flagship parish of a revitalized Anglican Communion. That might be a little over the top, but it’s the right direction.
- Our task, it seems to me, is to set a course and then let God set the timetable.
- A life lived with such a focus could relax into appreciating every day as it passes. Every encounter, each moment, is a seed that can be nurtured to bear fruit - and it is all promise. The world itself is the voice of God, inviting us to live with hope, to be awake to the possibilities and to know that everything echoes the heartbeat of God, that everything is holy.
That is what Abraham and Sarah learned. For twenty-four years they lived with a hope that hung precariously from a promise from God. For a quarter of a century they tended their flocks, moved through famine and wealth, deception and mercy, family alienation and the sweet gentleness of old age, always with an awareness of God’s promise leading them forward. And apparently they enjoyed each other as husband and wife.
Then one spring morning as Abraham neared his 100th birthday and Sarah was 90, she awoke to a new queeziness in her belly. Her husband who had come in the previous night from gazing up into the countless stars as he often did, was sleeping softly beside her.
- She shook him gently. “Abraham,” she said. “I have something to tell you.”
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Blessing of the New Votive Stand...
Bishop Martin Townsend, Priest-in-Charge of Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Keyser, blesses the new Votive Stand. The Votive Stand was custom-designed and crafted by Mr. Kenneth Dolechek, a local woodworker who lives in Keyser.
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