Sometimes you come across something that is too good not to share.  David Hurd is a professor emeriti's of General Theological Seminary and the composer of many familiar and beloved hymns. He said the following in an interview published by The Living Church last week:

"It’s important for people to recognize that the liturgy is the worship of God. It’s where the church comes together to worship God, to be empowered and sent forth for the life of the world. They’re not mutually exclusive activities, but they’re not the same thing either.

While our liturgies need to be rich and inclusive in all the best ways, they’re not about our own entertainment of ourselves, or our gestures about our social stance. They’re about encountering the Almighty God, and being somehow changed, transformed, and focused for living the life of Christ in the world."

Amen, Amen, Amen!

Forgive us, kind Jesus. Even when we turn our backs, even when we do not want you, even when we do our best to punish others and ourselves for the things that we are not…., Soften our hearts, that we might care what happens to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, the rivers, the hungry children, the refugees, the suffering, and those with their open hands. Forgive us, forgive us, for we know not what we do.

And remind us that though your time of incarnation is finished, your perfect love will never be finished. Your ability to wash us clean, and to bring us back to you will never fail.  Remind us, remind us, and help us to come out of our darkness to see you once again.

Dear Friends,


In this Holy Week, our Bishop reminds us that faith is all about repentance, reliance and resilience. See http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2413e25aba5d483fc15360169&id=117db857d3&e=b9ac3ba4c5)

Each year during Holy Week, clergy attend a Chrism Mass, in which we renew our ordination vows, and the Bishop blesses the oils that we use in baptism and in anointing of the sick.  We had this year's service at St. Michael's in Geneseo yesterday.

As I drove over for the service, I listened to NPR and was struck by the contrast in the news coverage.  First, of course, was the coverage of the Brussels bombings, and the chaos that ensued.  I prayed, as I know we all did, that further incidents would not ensue.  And I prayed for understanding of why, and how...and for forgiveness of those who would do such a thing.  We can not know what makes perpetrators believe that violence is an expression of faith; for truly the loving God who created us would never require us to hurt another in order to gain His approval.

As I mused on that, I also thought about the history making moment of President Obama's address to the Cuban people.  May the end of the Cold War truly be here, and may we begin to restore a once strong relationship with this culturally rich nation.

To me, the events in Cuba teach us about hope and resurrection, even as the moments in Brussels teach us about sin and repentance.  Through it all, we are a resilient people.  Therefore, I was so thrilled to hear that the planned Chrism Eucharist in Brussels went on as planned yesterday.  Knowing that our Anglican brothers and sisters were celebrating their vows and blessing their precious oils as a statement of continuity, and even of defiance, made me know that God's will supersedes humanity's injustices.  (For more about that service, see http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/03/22/brussels-pro-cathedrals-chrism-eucharist-held-as-an-act-of-defiance/)

Most gracious and holy God, you are the one constant that grounds us and restores us in all moments. Renew our hearts and strengthen our souls in these days of confusion and change.  Forgive us in our weakness and quell our violence. Help us to see your light surrounding us, even as we walk through haze and darkness, and the pangs of starting life anew.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

TED Talk Tonight! George Takei on Forgiveness

 

Join us the evening, Wednesday, March 16, 2016 for our final Lenten SoupSupper, followed by a discussion of contemporary issues and Christianity.

Tonight's featured TED talk is by George Takei, well-known actor and activities.  Takei is most well known for his role as Sulu in the Star Trek in the original TV series and subsequent movies.  What is probably less well known is that 70 years ago as a Japanese-American he and his family were forced into a World War II interment camp. Takei married Brad Altman in 2008.

You can join us tonight to watch "Why I Love a Country That Once Betrayed Me" and join in the discussion following.  If you wish to preview the talk or cannot join us and wish to see Mr. Takei's talk you can view it here,

Lent 5 2016

Building Bridges                Sermon from February 21, 2016

They arrived at dawn.

            Far off course. Not from this area. They were strangers.
                        No one had seen ones like them in a long time.
                        And people were not quite sure how to respond.
                                    So they gawked. They took pictures. Some called the authorities.
There had been a few previously. In fact, in other parts of the world, their type had been around for eons upon eons. But here?
            What should they do?
Some said: leave them alone. They must be sick to be this far removed from their group.
Maybe they did something wrong and were exiled?
Yet others said: be warned. If these have come, there will be more, and they will destroy what we have.
Others said: capture them so that they can’t hurt us.
Some said: send them away.
But no one….no one asked why they’d come, or what they needed.
No one dared to get too close.
No one welcomed them in.
Except God.
            God knew that they should be far afield. God knew that they weren’t with their families or friends.
God knew what had brought them there, and what they needed. 
God heard their amazing call.
And God said to them: stay.  Turn towards the light.  I am here with you, and I will be here with you.
God didn’t question the who’s or what’s or why…..God was patient and gave to them according to their need.
            And in God’s mercy, they were able to find strength. They were able to recover what they had lost. They were able to find their path again.
            Who are these that were lost?
Were the Syrian refugees trying to enter Europe?
Were they people fleeing violence in Central America, trying to cross into the US from Mexico?
Were they persons who had come out as gay, or lesbian, or transgender, and who were forced from their homes?
Were they the ones who had contracted Zika, or AIDS, or mental illness, and now were exiled?
Were they the ones whose homes had been destroyed by lead, by drought, or by famine….
Were they the ones who had done violence elsewhere in the name of a God, or a regime that they wanted to spread….

But maybe they none of these. Maybe they were just lost.



Cranes, Ipswich, MA (c) David Burnet

 

 

They were sandhill cranes.

Sandhill cranes are a subspecies of whooping cranes, those large, elegant birds that have an incredibly distinct and loud call.  Cranes are one of the oldest birds still in existence—there are fossil records in Nebraska that are over 10 million years old.

They’re abundant all along their migration route from Florida to Alaska, but they’re not commonly seen in New England, and when they show up, it’s newsworthy. Seeing two together is quite rare, though it makes sense for this breed, which mates for life, and can live for upwards of 20 years.

So somehow these two got off route, and ended up in Ipswich Massachusetts, and our photographer managed to capture it on film.  It’s a great shot. It shows them facing into the light, comfortable with each other, companionable.  They aren’t hiding. They aren’t in a defensive stance. They are simply there, in the light.

Now if you’re sitting there saying: cranes? She was talking about refugees, about outcasts, about people at the border. Well that’s hardly the same. Talk about a bait and switch. 

Actually, I never said the vignette was about humans. 

But the vignette is about mercy, and our relationship to it…and it’s a little easier to wrap our heads around if we make it about animals.

First let’s take a minute to talk about what mercy is, and then we can talk about what it means for us today.

Theologian Rudolpf Bultmann defined mercy as both character and action that emerges as a consequence of the character. 

He said that mercy is demonstrated most clearly by qualities as compassion and forbearance. When we have compassion, we can then act mercifully. In a legal sense, mercy an involves pardon, forgiveness or the mitigation of penalties.  In each case, mercy is experienced by two –the one who gives it (and has power to do so), and the one who receives it (and who has not authority in the situation).

Barbara Brown Taylor’s defines mercy as not getting what you deserve.  You get pulled over for speeding, but you don’t get the ticket.

Mercy is a gift to the undeserving. And all of us are undeserving, because we are imperfect, we are selfish, we are human. Let’s take a moment and look at how this plays out in the scripture:

In our Genesis reading, we have Abram not quite understanding his relationship to God, and God giving him the covenant, the promise of heirs and land. Does Abram deserve it? No….but God has made up his mind, and makes it happen. And in Luke, we have the disciples saying to Jesus, come away. Herod wants to destroy you.  But Jesus knows that he still has work to do.  Even as he would like to draw the people in, it is not time...so he continues on with his ministry, knowing that the full covenant is one in which his death and resurrection is the ultimate gift. And do we deserve it?  No.  But God has determined that, despite our many failings, he will keep his covenant with us.

            It’s all about mercy. About a loving God sticking with us and giving himself for us and through us.  This is about mercy that comes to us in the moment and stays with us, healing us, even when we do not know why, or how, or what the next move should be.

And I’m sure you can think of times when you’ve witnessed it.  When the guy at the farm market said, “you don’t have quite enough? Pay me next week.”  When the person stopped to help you change a flat tire.  When the judge wrote off your parking ticket.

We have all needed mercy.

So, what’s the connection between lost sandhill cranes, the times when we’ve received that gift we didn’t deserve, and our lives as Christians?

Let’s go back to the cranes for a moment. It’s easy to feel merciful and to act mercifully toward a pair of cranes.

1.    We don’t blame the cranes for showing up.

2.    They’re not a threat to us, or who we think we are.

3.    There are only a few of them—so we don’t feel overwhelmed

4.    If they leave, they won’t take anything that we need.

In other words, we can be merciful in situations in which we feel no risk.  But that’s not what God calls us to.  Because somewhere in the mental math about mercy, we do some judging.  What is this person, animal, situation to me? What do I feel I am called to do right now? What do I want to do that will cost me the least? What do I have to gain?

And when we feel threatened—physically, socially, emotionally, economically….we may be tempted NOT to be merciful.

On Thursday, Pope Francis got into a shouting match with Donald Trump.  At issue? Immigration.  And here’s the thing: each one knows there is a real crisis going on. The difference, as Francis pointed out, is that Trump’s position seeks a solution based on fear, doubt, and self-protection.  It blames the other.  And if one reads the gospels—any one of them—Francis is right.  We are always called to accept the stranger and act out of mercy. Treat others as we would want to be treated. Just like we see Jesus doing in Luke today: do not fear Herod, but stay in the moment and attend to the ministry needs in front of you.

Francis said that building walls is not the answer—but that is not all he said. The full thing he said is that building walls is not the answer if that’s all you do instead of building bridges.

Pope Francis is talking about compassion. Compassion grounded in the knowledge that everyone of us is a sinner. None of us is perfect. All of us have gotten off path, have looked for refuge, or forgiveness, or a way out of a situation….and all of us have had the power to make a difference for someone seeking refuge, forgiveness, or a way out of a situation.  Francis is saying: concentrate less on the judgement and more on the mercy. Build bridges.

Think of the parable of the person going upstream.

Imagine an ancient village with women doing laundry at the side of the stream.  Every day they did laundry, and one day, one of the women looked up to see a baby floating among the reeds.  She waded in and retrieved the baby, and all the other women dropped their laundry to come see.  In celebration for this life saved, they left the laundry and prepared a feast.  The next day they went back to continue the laundry, and they found two babies floating among the reeds.  Of course they saved these infants too.

 

On the third day, still having to complete the laundry that was piling up, they went back to the water. And there they found three babies.  So now they had six new babies, and a crisis on their hands. They had to build an orphanage. They had to figure out wetnursing for the children.  All the normal work of the village turned from their normal lifestyle of hunting and gathering to caring for these children.

 

And the children kept coming.  Whole teams had to work to pull the children out.  One day, one of the women broke off from the rescue team and began to walk upstream. "Where are you going?" the others yelled.  "We need you here to help."

 

"I'm going upstream to find out who is putting the babies in the water, and why."

If they had continued accepting all the babies without thinking about it, their own civilization would have been overwhelmed.  No one would have tended to the hunting or gathering. No one would have prepared for the winter, or thought about the needs of the old and infirm.  So someone had to walk upstream. Someone had to go find out why the babies were in the water and why…and that person is the bridge that builds connection and understanding.

THAT IS what the Pope meant. Building the fence to keep the “other” out is not the answer. It’s incomplete.  The next time that you are faced with a situation, listen for that voice that is the judging voice, and ask yourself, where is the voice of mercy in this?  Where do I see my humanity in this situation? And what is the gift that I can give, simply because God gave me the gift?

In every situation, we are called to be people of merciful character, acting mercifully. We are called to bring hope. We’re called to be beacons of God’s loving healing. We’re called to stay in the moment, and to be authentically faithful, even without the answer for the future. That’s God’s to provide.  So like the cranes, let us turn towards the light and say, I am here Lord.  I am encountering something new, and I am not sure what to do.  I know and trust that you do know, and I trust that you will bring mercy into this moment. May you be the bridge that brings healing and compassion into our midst. .  Hearken to my voice, and mercifully answer me. 

Amen.

 

 

 

           

Temptation: Will You Take The Bait?

During Lent, the sermons will focus on a series of photographs by Rochester photographer Dave Burnet. The first image is of waves crashing on the rocks of the Lake Superior coast, taken in Presque Island National Park, in Marquette Michigan.  This is the sermon that accompanied the photo.

Looking at the picture.  

Waves on Lake Superior, Presque Isle, MI (c) Dave Burnet

          What do you see? The waves. The seaweed waving in the water as it flows in and out. The spray as it hits the rocks. The sea urchins and moss on the rocks. Seagulls flying overhead.  The trees that stand above it all.  The watermarks at the hightide places. The water packed sand.  The starfish and horseshoe crabs that have washed up.  The driftwood caught in the rocks. The clouds.  The calmer water further off.

Are the waves beautiful or threatening?

Where is the safest place to be standing?

          Note the rock in the middle that is flat and stands above it all

Would your perspective be different up on top of the cliff, at the edge where the water is pounding, or out in the harbor, away from the shore?  What about what’s to the right? Is there a calm beach further in, where the waves are just lapping at the shore?

          You’re standing there and what do you hear—thunderous sound of the waves, crashing of the water, the wind, the seagulls.

          What do you feel—the seaspray, the wind, the coolness of the air next to the water

          What do you smell—the brine, the seaweed, the wet rocks

And you ask yourself: is this a test?

Is the water testing you to see how much you, and the shore can bear?

Is it offering something to you?

Or taking something from you?

There is so much to the ocean, to the edge of the shore, to the way nature moves that we can not control or understand

          Does that feel beautiful or overwhelming?

Asking these questions in order to get a glimpse into what’s happening in today’s scripture.

Jesus is being tested by the Devil.  And that testing is all about the Devil saying prove to me who you are, and prove to me who you are not.

          Are you the son of God? Then make something into what it is not.  Make this stone into bread. Make these rocks into smooth spaces for the water.

          Are you the son of God? I will give you the glory and the authority of the kingdoms of the world. I will give you all the power stored up in those waves, and in those clouds, I will give you the hard strength of the rocks and the strength of the trees.

Are you the Son of God? Then walk into those waves and let them overtake you, let your angels save you from your frailty.

And Jesus, standing on the shore, or at the top of the cliff, or even looking back at the shore, does not take the bait.

Jesus lets the water be, he lets the rocks be, he lets the trees and the clouds and all of it be. He doesn’t turn the bread to stone. He doesn’t fall for the power trip of ruling the kingdoms,  he doesn’t dive off the cliff and ask the angels to save him.  Why? Because none of those things matter to Jesus.

You see, there is a difference between being tested and being tempted.

testing is outside of us. We test others to have them prove themselves. We test them to see where they are weak.  Think of how a lawyer examines a witness—looking for the holes in the defense.

          The devil wanted to know whether Jesus would take the bait.  But Jesus didn’t.

          And here’s the thing.  It wasn’t that Jesus was tempted—notice how ready his replies were.  For  Jesus it was simple: he didn’t see it as a test. These things weren’t tempting to him.  You can only be tempted if the thing being offered to you is something you were already internally oriented to want.

So let me give you another example. Most people, if you ask them, will say they either prefer sweet things or salty things.  If you put a piece of chocolate cake in front of a person who likes salty things, they’ll let it sit there all day.  In the same way, people who like sweet things don’t care at all about chips or french fries.  They could go mold for all that sweets person would care. You know who you are!

Temptation is from within us.  It’s our reaction to something that we like, want, or even think we need.  Even when we know that the thing that tempts us isn’t good for us, it will still turn our head.  The devil thought he had what Jesus wanted because he was offering Jesus the things that normally would turn a human’s head: food, power, and the proof that we couldn’t be hurt. 

          And Jesus says, with God, none of those things are our worry. With God, all of those things will be provided.  So therefore, not deal on all of those tests.

          Jesus is standing on the shore, looking at the chaos, and sheer power swirling around him, and he’s looking beyond to the calm of the water and the majesty of the clouds, and understanding that what matters to him is bigger.

          Each of us has something that tempts us.  Many things, in fact.  And how do we respond? Do we wade into the water and risk the rocks and being swept under? Do we scramble up onto the cliff and watch, spellbound, from a safe distance away? Or do we walk away from the shore entirely, and simply focus on the dry land elsewhere? In each case we think about the things we are tempted to do and how we say no. We focus on how not to be consumed by the power of it, and we say no with courage and with hope.

          Today, however, I think the scripture is inviting us to go a little deeper.  I want to add one other thing to the scene. Something that is not there yet.  Imagine there is a raft there, with refugees trying to get to shore. 

          Then the picture changes. Then, in order to get them safe, we know we have to at least consider risking our own safety.  Do we do it?  Or do we stand back and think about all the ways we could be hurt, all the ways in which we might not succeed, all the things we have to lose.  How are we then tempted?

Sometimes, God calls us to do things we don’t want to do, and we’re tempted to say no.  We’re tempted to think about all the things we do not have, all the tools and the strength and the skills that have left us. And we throw our hands up, and say, “Not me, Lord. I can’t make it my problem.”

The seas are too rough, I don’t have any way of pulling them in, I’m not strong enough, those people don’t look to friendly…what if they rob me once we get to shore?

And we can hem and haw, and explain, and excuse, and deny, and blame all manner of reasons why we can’t go in….but the truth is, it’s because we don’t trust ourselves and trust God enough to get us through.

So now, as you look at this picture…think about what God is calling you to, and how many times you have said no because it was easier or you thought it was safer than saying yes.  Don’t let your fear overwhelm you.  Because when you do that, you test God.  Jesus says today, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”  If he’s calling you to something, then don’t let your temptations take you away from him.  Trust him and know that these waves, these rocks, these clouds are as much a part of God the love and strength and confidence that our Lord has in you to follow him.

Temptation is your invitation to see where God is calling you to something more….so stand on that shore and listen. And see where God takes you next.

Amen.