July 25, 2015

                  … Earth’s crammed with heaven,

 And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, …

From ‘Aurora Leigh’ By Elizabeth Barrett Browning  (1806–1861)

                  When you look around at the world, what do you see? We think that we always see clearly. We think that what we observe is plain and obvious. Scientific reasoning can blind us to the truth of other realities. It’s not that science is wrong – it just doesn’t answer everything. Did you see any of the pictures from Pluto? Planet or not, we are seeing new things – or are we? Didn’t that round rock always look as it did? We have simply found a new perspective.

                  Jesus is teaching and healing. It is the end of the day and no one wants to go home. It’s time to eat. Jesus asks, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” It’s a simple question that is at the back of our own minds much of the time. We might ask, “What’s for dinner?” We might also ask more generally, “How will I get what I need?” or, “How will we get through the month?” or, “Who’s going to pay for all of this?” In providing for the day or planning for the future we try to be prudent and careful. We make our plans based on past experience. We make a budget. We try to guess what the future will bring.

                  In our determination to be careful we may miss the evidence outside our usual experience. We may live as if everyday is much the same as any other. We can miss truth that lies beneath what we can see.

                  Jesus asks about lunch and there are a number of responses. Philip adds up the cost and it’s way over budget. Andrew finds a boy who has a few loaves and fish and he is willing to share – nice, but not enough. Jesus organizes the crowd, he thanks God for the food, and then he makes the disciples pass it around. Everyone has as much as they want and the disciples gather up twelve baskets of leftovers (twelve because there were twelve of them.) The crowd believes this is a miracle. It is a sign of God’s miraculous provision of food in the wilderness. They want to elect Jesus the next king.

                  This is not what Jesus wants so he withdraws and sends the disciples away across the Sea of Galilee. In the night, there is a storm, and the disciples see Jesus walking on the water. They are terrified (maybe he is a ghost) but Jesus calls to them and stills the storm and they end up safely on the other side.

                  We call these works miraculous. The things Jesus does are outside the laws of nature. He makes a small amount of food feed a huge crowd. He walks across a lake and quiets a storm. Jesus doesn’t seem to have to follow the agreed-upon rules that limit us. Jesus performs some powerful acts, but I wonder why? I think part of the reason he did all these wonderful and strange things is that he wants us to see him as he is and to be open to a world that is larger than the one we think we know. The miracle is that the disciples are able to see him as more than a carpenter – he is God’s son.

                  We are always being tempted to turn away from the God who is present in our lives. We are tempted to turn away from the sacredness in all things and settle for utility. We reduce the simple things of life into merely simple things – instead of seeing the hand of God in the good earth we have been given. We reduce virtue into mere efficiency. We equate worth with wealth. We want to know, “What’s in it for me.” Instead of asking, “How is God at work in me in this moment.”

                  The feeding of the crowd has many Eucharistic implications. Jesus feeds the world with his very body. He nourishes us and makes us God’s children by eating holy food. Today we are invited to see the sacred in everything. We are urged to accept God’s miraculous gifts as a sign that God is always providing for us. We are also invited to see the world with the new perspective that Jesus gives the disciples. Jesus is more than a carpenter. He is God’s son and he gives us life. We are not gathered to make the world work for God. God has called us to work salvation in us. It’s right beneath the surface of what we see. It’s happening all the time. It’s happening right now.

July 19, 2015

         How we long for a great leader! As we begin the posturing leading to the presidential primaries, we are surrounded with noise and possibility. I believe there are seventeen declared candidates from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump. At this point there is something for everyone. I think many of us will want to avoid the news and the noise. Beneath all this confusion, there is a real desire to find a good leader, the right leader. We suspect we will be disappointed. We hope for better days to come.

         We want a free country. We want a prosperous country. We want to leave something of value for generations to come. We are no different than generations of Americans who lived before us.

         I believe that this is some of what is motivating David as he plans to construct the first temple in Jerusalem. David is grateful for all that God has done for him. He is working to unite the northern and southern tribes into one kingdom, centered in Jerusalem. A permanent temple would give the nation focus and a common gathering place for the worship of God. The prophet Nathan thinks it is a great idea.

         Nathan has a dream that changes David’s plans. God never asked for any temple. God is content to dwell in a tent (as if anything we could build would be more appropriate.) God reminds us that God is in no one place. God is with us wherever we go. Instead of needing our protection and support, God declares that God will make of David a house, or dynasty. David’s son will rule, and another son forever.

         This only happened for a time in ancient Israel. The kingdom eventually divided. The people were conquered and sent into exile. The promise to David becomes a messianic hope. One day God will raise up a son of David, to rule as God desires, and care for the people like a shepherd.

         Jesus comes upon the scene, evoking all of these ancient hopes. He sees that the people are like sheep without a shepherd and he has compassion on them. He teaches and he heals. He feeds them and he leads them into a better way of living. The people recognize him. They know who he is – as a healer and a teacher. They also recognize that he is offering a way of life that evokes the promises of God.

         I wonder how this connects to our own longing in our own day? We want a better life. We are mature believers and we are beyond wishing for more things and more comfort. We want purpose and meaning. We want to know love and to give love. We worry about budgets and numbers, not because we are faithless, but because we are worried about what will remain. We want to make something that will last and that will be available for generations to come. In our longing and in our hoping, whom are we serving?

         We too have to remember God’s promise. We may wish that what we have is kept safe forever. We polish the brass and paint the woodwork. We try to preserve the assets of the church. God’s promises are of a different sort. God promises to make a new people. God promises to heal and save. God promises to break down all the divisions and fears that beset us. In our concern to protect and preserve the traditions that have helped us we may become out of step with God’s work. The walls we preserve may become the walls that divide. God will sweep this all away in order to build a new temple, and a new people.

         We do not save the world. We are not responsible for saving anyone. We are responsible for our own faithful journey as disciples. Our work is to share good news wherever we go.

         The people were joyful as they recognized Jesus. They recognized his work. They recognized his way of leading them into a new relationship with God. Perhaps this is the thing we should worry about. Instead of worrying about what things or traditions we preserve, we can worry about how we are showing the life-giving love of God. May we be a community of faith where we are becoming Gods new people. When people see how we live and how we love, may they recognize Jesus in us.

July 12, 2015

         We often come to church, or open the bible, to find comfort and assurance. In summertime, our minds are filled with plans for vacation. We are thinking about relaxing and escaping the pressures of life. We want to have fun. We want to unwind. Today we hear words that may not be so encouraging. We hear about he beheading of John the Baptist. What place does this have in our summer? What place does this have in our church?

         We follow Jesus as disciples wherever we are, no matter what the time of year. We may find ourselves culturally in a time of rest. Our faith still defines us. We have a series of readings that follow from the week before, telling parts of different stories. First, we hear about King David, bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Before, it had been set up in a field, where it had been found, following its return from a Philistine city. David is uniting the kingdom of Israel, and he has chosen a border city of Jerusalem as his capital. He is bringing the ark to Jerusalem to make it a political and religious center of Israel. Setting aside all these political considerations, David is also joyful. He leads the ark in procession, dancing and leaping for joy.

         We respond to this story with a psalm of entrance. This particular psalm is a piece of liturgical writing. It begins with two verses of praise to God acknowledging that everything is mad by God. Then a question and response follows, much as how we begin our worship. I make a statement (or a question) and the congregation responds. The question is “who can enter into the holy place?” The next three verses is a kind of response answer. It assumes that all the holy people can enter. Then it goes on for the last four verses as kind of refrain and verse. God alone can enter the most holy place because of who God is.

         The gospel holds no such joy. It is a sad story of political maneuvering and a pompous brutal dictator. John has spoken some hard truths and the people in power don’t like it. Herod (son of Herod the great) keeps him in prison but is afraid to kill him. His wife, Herodias uses her daughter to get the revenge she seeks. What good is this story? It is certainly a negative example. It shows what may happen to a man who succumbs to fear and builds his life on the illusion of control. I also think it is a lesson in faithfulness.

         We want to think that if we believe, if we give ourselves to God, then all will be well. In the larger picture this is true. Until we reach the place where God completes every promise, we are called to be faithful in this world. The gospel was written originally to a group of small churches on the fringes of society. They were part of the Roman Empire, which functioned exactly as described in the gospel reading. They were powerless and without respect in the wider culture. From time to time, their very lives were in danger. It is possible that when this gospel was being shared throughout the empire, the Romans had already destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

         We are blessed to live in a culture of religious freedom. We are only now getting used to being a minority community. We are not used to being on the fringe. We remember being in the center (at least we thought we were.) The gospel is not synonymous with the United States of America. It is not synonymous with free market capitalism. It is not synonymous with suburban Connecticut. There are many good things here and we should be thankful for our blessings. God did not call us to be comfortable. God calls us to be disciples.

         God’s call doesn’t stop here, in this gathering. God calls us to love. We gather to practice and learn about God’s love. Then God sends us out to do it. We are not called to only be Christian in this place. We are Christian everywhere we go. The gospel today reminds us that it is hard to be a Christian. The gospel reminds us what it costs.

         If we are content to be content, then we will only want to live well and look out for those close to us. If we want to be faithful, we will embrace a deeper calling. We will make it a priority to live more closely with God. We will be interested in the lives of those around us. We will not only talk about loving our neighbor, we will seek them out and take an interest in their welfare. If we are serious, we will look beyond the borders of our comfortable lives and seek neighbors who are strangers and seek to be their companions.

         The most hopeful message is in the letter to the Ephesians. Unlike some of Paul’s letters, this seems to be written to a region of churches. This is why it omits many personal references we find in Paul’s other letters, and why he doesn’t seem to be answering specific questions of problems.

         The letter begins with a sort of poem or hymn that praises God for the mystery of salvation through Jesus. It is hard to read in English, but it is well crafted Greek. We have to add periods to break it up and make sense. It is written with phrase after phrase; each phrase suggesting the next and responding to what came before. It feels as if it is going round in circles. It is a different way of expressing hope and joy.

         Who are we? We are God’s children. This is what matters most. This is what we live for. This is what we were made for. In a sense, the good news is absolutely free. We do not earn it (or deserve it.) The cost is in what we have to let go of because we no longer need it. All of the trappings and posturing or wealth and power are of no use to us. As we follow Jesus, we begin to take on new values and new purpose. As we seek to love our neighbor, we should expect to be at odds with the present dominant culture and we should expect resistance.

         God gives us courage. God gives us strength. God gives us life. When the work is difficult, God also gives us joy and God gives us hope. We cannot see any particular outcome. We know to whom we belong and we know what God wants for us. This is always more than enough.

July 5, 2015

          As we reflect with happy nostalgia about the people and events that lead to our country’s independence, we may forget how uncertain and dangerous those events were. Today we have bright colors and brass bands, with marble monuments in the background. At the time we were lead by untested leaders, experimenting with new ideas. It turned out well for us and for the world. However, those first patriots might have been executed as treasonous rebels.

         Saint Paul, our patron saint, is our exemplar. We find wisdom and guidance in his words. He may have not had the same relationship with churches in his day. He had an especially difficult relationship with the church in Corinth. They were wealthy and wise. They liked to show off their eloquence and their sophisticated attitudes. Paul seemed to come off as pushy and a little odd looking. He did not fit the image of the cultured orator. They made fun of him.

         Paul writes to the church in Corinth about his own impressive spiritual gifts. He has had visions of the third heaven. (The sky is the first heaven, the stars are the second heaven, and the third heaven is paradise.) Yet even so, he tells about how God chose to not heal him of a “thorn on the flesh.” Paul had some sort of physical difficulty, (epilepsy? a limp, a deformity? No one knows.) Paul uses this as proof of how God works. It is not by sight or cleverness. God doesn’t use popularity or plain proofs. God uses the weak and the foolish to save the world.

         Jesus returns to his hometown. People have mixed feelings. They know he is a famous teacher and wonder-worker. They’d like to see what he can do. They also remember Jesus as a child. They can’t imagine how he became something else. Who does he think he is? That’s just Mary’s kid! They town doesn’t believe in him, so he can’t do much good there. So Jesus looks out and begins to share his message to the surrounding villages.

         It is in this context of failure and disbelief that Jesus begins a new work with his disciples. It is not after some great miracle, or while huge crowds are gathered around. When the town of Nazareth doesn’t think too much of Jesus or his message, it is then that Jesus sends the disciples out two by two, to share the good news. It is as the disciples see Jesus rejected and relatively powerless that they are asked to teach and heal as Jesus does.          Not very encouraging, is it? This is how God works. We forget this. We get caught up in memories of success. We live in a culture that values success based on numbers and outcome and profit and loss. God seems to always be turning things upside down on us.

         We are living in an upside down world. Nothing is as we remember and we don’t know how the world will change. We have anxiety about this. We mourn many people and good things that we have lost. We can take courage from realizing that it is just this context that God chooses to work powerfully. It is just this context that God calls us to act.

         I have been reading a source book for the missional church by Alan Roxburgh. He reflects that the church has always been in a dialogue with the gospel and the culture. We see this quite clearly in how Jesus send out the disciples. They have a mission to proclaim good news and to bring gifts of blessing and healing. At the same time, they go with no expectations. They work with who or what they find. They give gifts and also will receive gifts. This is a kind of interaction that we have forgotten.

         We are so used to being an institution (and a respected on at that), that we have forgotten that we are a movement. We are part of a conversation with the world around us. Our purpose is not to bless whatever we see in culture, nor is it to condemn it. We are to be part of this world and proclaim the good news we know in this very real world of the here and now. It is no longer adequate to find our niche and attract people to this place, this room, or this community. The whole town is our community and our context.

         This means we have to let go of the idea of attracting members. Instead we have to take on the work of bringing good news out into the world. We will find that God is already there. There is work to be done right in front of us. We have to get used to traveling light. We have to get used to the idea that we are not to carry answers or spiritual gifts that the world cannot find with out us. We are not special or privileged. We are simply fortunate enough to know God and to have something to share.

         I am not proposing that we go door to door by twos and impose ourselves in some sort of artificial way. I’m proposing that we get used to the idea that our Christian lives are lived most fully outside of these doors. I’m not suggesting that we all become evangelists and force our faith on others. I’m proposing that we acknowledge the presence of God everywhere, and look for the movement of the spirit wherever we find ourselves.

         The first step is to live whole lives – not compartmentalized into different categories of work, school, home, and church. The next step is to have the courage to be Christian in every context. This will not mean speaking Christian jargon at every opportunity. It is the willingness to live with integrity wherever we find ourselves. This will also require humility and listening. We assume that we do not know what God is doing everywhere. We assume that if we pay attention, we will see God at work and we will discover new ways of working with God.

         This gathered community is still vitally important. We are no longer the end and purpose of our common work. We don’t need to get more members so we can pay the bills. We need to live faithfully in a fractured, wounded world where people are used to suffering in isolation. As we step outside these walls (and any other barriers we have constructed) we invite a new vision to people around us. We offer a new path to God’s love.