Sermon: Mark: 1:21-28
Jan. 29, 2012
“What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” That’s the question that reverberates down the centuries. What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
He had come out of Nazareth, been baptized, went on retreat in the desert, called his apostles, set up headquarters in the larger town of Capernaum, and then showed up in the local synagogue where he opened the scroll and began to teach. They were amazed at his new message and the authority with which he taught. There was a man there with an unclean spirit. The spirit knows who he is. He is the holy one of God. The spirit infesting this man is frightened. “What do you have to do with us?” he says. Interesting that frequently in the gospels unclean spirits are referred to in the plural. Jesus drives out the spirit or spirits and the people are even more astounded.
We might as the question… in fact, we should. “What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” The answer is... “everything.” He has everything to do with us. Before the world came to be, He is. The eternal word of God spoken by the Father, intimately involved in our creation, He became human and entered our time zone, became one of us, with a name, Jesus of Nazareth. Through his spirit, the Holy Spirit, he is present to us, within us, helping us if we will let him to be all that we can be. Well, then if we are surrounded by him, even invaded by him, why don’t we know it? Because we are distracted by so many other things, that our spiritual senses are deadened. It is the here and now, though,that matters. Where is the meaning right now? So frequently we are in the past, romanticizing about those better days that used to be or longing for the future when things will improve. Rarely are we with Christ in the present.
I got an insight this week from an unlikely source, Woody Allen. I was watching his recent movie, Midnight in Paris, not expecting to be that entertained when suddenly I got the message. Now I am going to ruin the movie for you, if you have not seen it, by telling the story. If you don't want that, cover your ears for 3 or 4 minutes. On the other hand, it could save your the $8 admission.
It’s about an aspiring young writer who is struggling through his first novel. He finds himself in Paris, brought there by his fiancé and her parents. He loves the atmosphere of Paris, but something is missing, is wrong. As he wanders the streets at midnight he is picked up by one of those grand old motor cars from the 1920’s. In it are Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, who take him to a party where he meets a cast of aspiring young artists. He realizes he is talking with the young Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso before they are famous. The guy on the piano playing that very familiar music is Cole Porter. He is so in his element, even getting help with his novel from Edith Stein, that he goes back each night at midnight to live in that world. It is his golden era. In the meantime he breaks up with his fiancé. Good thing, because he falls in love with a beautiful young woman from the twenties, who herself is bored and unhappy to be alive then. She takes him in a horse and carriage at midnight to the 1890’s, her golden era, where they meet Toulouse Lautrec and a bunch of the impressionist painters. They’re at the Moulin Rouge where the Cancan is being performed. Yet the people there are unhappy and bored with that era and long for something earlier. Then there is a flash to King Louie the 13th and Marie Antoinette at Versailles just before heads started rolling in the French Revolution. Suddenly our friend gets it, just as I got it. He returns to the present day Paris, refuses to travel at midnight and finds a contemporary young French woman; they walk off in the rain along the Seine.
Now is our golden era, not the past, not the future.. Christ is here now among us, within us. Take off the blinders. Be aware. Possibilities are unlimited. That’s what Jesus of Nazareth has to do with us. “ My I suggest to you. This is the best part of our lives.” (Recording by Vance Gilbert of above piece is now played.).
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Jonah and Home Boys
Sermon: (Jonah, 1-5) Jan. 22, 2012
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
This is great. We get to talk about Jonah, God and the Big Fish, based on our Old Testament reading for today. The Book of Jonah is variously called a parable, an allegory or a short novel. What then is it’s message? First the story. Some people here have already found the message. Most people know the story, but maybe not the message. Some people don’t know either. So first the story.
Briefly it is that God told Jonah He wanted him to travel over to Nineveh and warn the Ninevites that unless they repented of their sinful ways they were going to be destroyed. Jonah hated the Ninevites; they were Assyrians. He considered them to be the enemies of the Hebrews. He wanted them to be destroyed. So rather than do God’s will and carry words of repentance to them he set out in the opposite direction to the Mediterranean Sea where he booked passage on a ship headed west. He was running away from God. Do you think God would allow that? How silly, almost as silly as Francesco Schettino, the captain who ran his cruise ship on the rocks in the same sea last week and thought he could abandon ship and his passengers and not get caught. Well, Jonah and he do not get off that easily. In Jonah’s case, God caused a great storm to come upon the ship so that the sailors feared for their lives. They prayed to their gods to be spared but the storm only got worse. Eventually Jonah came clean and admitted the storm was his fault because he was running away from his God. The sailors became believers in the God of Jonah and started praying to Him to save them, but the storm only got worse. Jonah finally said you’ll have to throw me overboard to avoid shipwreck. They did and the sea calmed. God was still not going to let Jonah get away, though. He had this big fish swallow him up. Jonah prayed like crazy to be delivered. God let him squirm for three days and three nights before having the fish belch him up on the same shore from which he had set sail. Then the question: “Are you ready to do now what you were told?” Jonah decided to obey God, (hard-headed fellow that he was), but he didn’t decide to like it. He travelled to Nineveh and told them they would have to repent and change their ways or God would destroy them. This part he was enjoying. It was a big city, more than a 120,000 people. It took him three days to cross the city, shouting “repent or be destroyed.” He didn’t expect they would repent; he hoped they wouldn’t. After all, they were the hated Assyrians. When he had crossed the city he found a hill and sat to see the city destroyed. But lo and behold the king heard the words. He called on the people and even the animals to dress in burlap, put ashes on their heads and fast. God saw their true repentance and did not destroy them. Jonah is got so mad he couldn’t stand it. He is going to hold onto his biases and his hatred, come big fish or high water. He is still sitting in the sun, baking in his misery. Rather than relent he says he wants to die. The story ends there. The Ninevites flourish and Jonah is left in his misery.
So what is the message of this little novel? I can think of two. First, you can’t get away from God. Second, we are the true victims of our own racism, prejudices and hatreds, not the ones we fear and hate.
I wrote the first draft of this sermon last Tues. but was unhappy with the practical applications to our situations in the here and now. Then I had the good fortune to hear Father Greg Boyle Wed. night. You may recall last Sun. I invited people to go to Detroit to hear him as part of our honoring of Dr. Martin Luther King. Well, several of us went and were truly inspired. He is the Jesuit who in his first assignment as a priest went to the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles, right between the two largest housing projects west of the Mississippi, an area dominated by Latino gangs. Twenty five years later he is still working with gang members, mostly former gang members, and together they have built a multi-million dollar network of businesses to provide employment for former gang members, known as Homeboy Industries. That is all wonderful and has made him famous, but Greg’s real message is about the Homies, both men and women, Home Boys and Home Girls who with the help of God have transformed their lives. The hatred and killing between rival gangs in L.A. and elsewhere, to an outsider look so senseless because they are between similar people fighting over who would dominate which blocks of the city. It dawned on me that this is what the Book of Jonah is about. The Hebrews and the Assyrians were rival gangs fighting over territory. They are loved and pursued by the same god, the One God. When confronted by God the Assyrians, at least in Nineve, turn and repent. Jonah will not. He wants to keep his attitude.
The most touching stories told by Greg Boyle, and there are many, are those involving rival gang members, who come to Home Boy Industries and find themselves working beside each other. The grace of God works, so they end up being willing to give their lives for the former enemy.
So, the question for us is who are the Ninevites, the rival gang or gangs, we fear and hate, those groups we are unwilling to share territory and jobs with, even though we all are loved by and pursued by the same God. Are they the Mexicans, the undocumented, the Blacks, the Arabs, the poor on welfare who we are convinced are to blame for their own poverty? Or maybe its the people next door.
If you identify such a group that you have an attitude about and you don’t open up to God’s grace-filled attitude adjustment, I recommend you don’t get on a boat in the Mediterranean.
We have acquired a copy of Father Boyle’s book, “Tattoos on the Heart.” It is truly inspiring and available for loan around.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
This is great. We get to talk about Jonah, God and the Big Fish, based on our Old Testament reading for today. The Book of Jonah is variously called a parable, an allegory or a short novel. What then is it’s message? First the story. Some people here have already found the message. Most people know the story, but maybe not the message. Some people don’t know either. So first the story.
Briefly it is that God told Jonah He wanted him to travel over to Nineveh and warn the Ninevites that unless they repented of their sinful ways they were going to be destroyed. Jonah hated the Ninevites; they were Assyrians. He considered them to be the enemies of the Hebrews. He wanted them to be destroyed. So rather than do God’s will and carry words of repentance to them he set out in the opposite direction to the Mediterranean Sea where he booked passage on a ship headed west. He was running away from God. Do you think God would allow that? How silly, almost as silly as Francesco Schettino, the captain who ran his cruise ship on the rocks in the same sea last week and thought he could abandon ship and his passengers and not get caught. Well, Jonah and he do not get off that easily. In Jonah’s case, God caused a great storm to come upon the ship so that the sailors feared for their lives. They prayed to their gods to be spared but the storm only got worse. Eventually Jonah came clean and admitted the storm was his fault because he was running away from his God. The sailors became believers in the God of Jonah and started praying to Him to save them, but the storm only got worse. Jonah finally said you’ll have to throw me overboard to avoid shipwreck. They did and the sea calmed. God was still not going to let Jonah get away, though. He had this big fish swallow him up. Jonah prayed like crazy to be delivered. God let him squirm for three days and three nights before having the fish belch him up on the same shore from which he had set sail. Then the question: “Are you ready to do now what you were told?” Jonah decided to obey God, (hard-headed fellow that he was), but he didn’t decide to like it. He travelled to Nineveh and told them they would have to repent and change their ways or God would destroy them. This part he was enjoying. It was a big city, more than a 120,000 people. It took him three days to cross the city, shouting “repent or be destroyed.” He didn’t expect they would repent; he hoped they wouldn’t. After all, they were the hated Assyrians. When he had crossed the city he found a hill and sat to see the city destroyed. But lo and behold the king heard the words. He called on the people and even the animals to dress in burlap, put ashes on their heads and fast. God saw their true repentance and did not destroy them. Jonah is got so mad he couldn’t stand it. He is going to hold onto his biases and his hatred, come big fish or high water. He is still sitting in the sun, baking in his misery. Rather than relent he says he wants to die. The story ends there. The Ninevites flourish and Jonah is left in his misery.
So what is the message of this little novel? I can think of two. First, you can’t get away from God. Second, we are the true victims of our own racism, prejudices and hatreds, not the ones we fear and hate.
I wrote the first draft of this sermon last Tues. but was unhappy with the practical applications to our situations in the here and now. Then I had the good fortune to hear Father Greg Boyle Wed. night. You may recall last Sun. I invited people to go to Detroit to hear him as part of our honoring of Dr. Martin Luther King. Well, several of us went and were truly inspired. He is the Jesuit who in his first assignment as a priest went to the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles, right between the two largest housing projects west of the Mississippi, an area dominated by Latino gangs. Twenty five years later he is still working with gang members, mostly former gang members, and together they have built a multi-million dollar network of businesses to provide employment for former gang members, known as Homeboy Industries. That is all wonderful and has made him famous, but Greg’s real message is about the Homies, both men and women, Home Boys and Home Girls who with the help of God have transformed their lives. The hatred and killing between rival gangs in L.A. and elsewhere, to an outsider look so senseless because they are between similar people fighting over who would dominate which blocks of the city. It dawned on me that this is what the Book of Jonah is about. The Hebrews and the Assyrians were rival gangs fighting over territory. They are loved and pursued by the same god, the One God. When confronted by God the Assyrians, at least in Nineve, turn and repent. Jonah will not. He wants to keep his attitude.
The most touching stories told by Greg Boyle, and there are many, are those involving rival gang members, who come to Home Boy Industries and find themselves working beside each other. The grace of God works, so they end up being willing to give their lives for the former enemy.
So, the question for us is who are the Ninevites, the rival gang or gangs, we fear and hate, those groups we are unwilling to share territory and jobs with, even though we all are loved by and pursued by the same God. Are they the Mexicans, the undocumented, the Blacks, the Arabs, the poor on welfare who we are convinced are to blame for their own poverty? Or maybe its the people next door.
If you identify such a group that you have an attitude about and you don’t open up to God’s grace-filled attitude adjustment, I recommend you don’t get on a boat in the Mediterranean.
We have acquired a copy of Father Boyle’s book, “Tattoos on the Heart.” It is truly inspiring and available for loan around.
Friday, January 6, 2012
My Beloved Daughter
Sermon: Mk 1:4-11
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1-8-12
We have chosen to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany today, because it is an important feast in the church year. It was actually Jan. 6, and today is technically the First Sunday after Epiphany. Epiphany signals the end of the Christmas Season. Hence, we will take down the Christmas decorations after service today.
Epiphany also signals the beginning of the next season called, of all things, the Epiphany season. That will take us to the beginning of Lent. During this season the focus is on epiphanies, or revelations, of who Jesus is. It is not about a single revelation, but a series of revelations, as we are brought to a fuller understanding of the mystery of the Christ. So, for instance, today’s Gospel tells the story of the Magi, those wise astronomers, who discerned from the stars that a great king had been born and followed his star to Judaea. So, we learn He is a King. The gospel for the first Sunday after Epiphany tells the story of His baptism at the Jordan. When He came up out of the water He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him and a voice came from
Heaven, “You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” This in Mark’s account. In Matthew’s account it says “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It would seem that the epiphany or revelation was intended for John the baptizer and the crowd who was there and, of course, for us. So now we know He not only is a king; he is also the Son of God. But the biggest thing for me is that, following Mark’s version, it was an epiphany for Jesus. He is being told He is God’s Son and that his Father is pleased with him.
Hard to understand? Didn’t He already know this? Apparently not. It is hard to understand, in fact it is impossible to understand the mystery of who Jesus is. The Christian doctrine from at least the fourth century is that he is both God and man, two natures, divine and human in one person. Truly God and truly man. In our efforts to understand this I think many times we come down on one side and not the other. One version is that He was always God and just pretended to be human. He went through the motions. He knew everything there was to know because he was God, so He knew He was God’s beloved Son. He didn’t have to learn it. Also, He didn’t really feel human emotions like love and anger. He didn’t really suffer as a human being would, but played the role. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that version believable based on reading the Gospels.
The other version is that he was only human and not divine. Okay, the greatest human who ever lived, but not God. God revealed special things to him and gave him the power to perform miracles, but He was only human. Sure he felt all our emotions and all our pain because He was human. At the end of his life he was taken into heaven and has the highest place next to God, but is not God, not one of the three persons in the Trinity.
Now either version is relatively easy to understand, but neither is the Christian teaching; both were condemned as heresies in the early church.
We are left with the mystery of the God-man. We cannot totally understand him, but we can identify with him, unite ourselves to Him. It is easier to do that by looking at His human experience, rather than His divinity. Since He was truly human I assume that means in His human mind he did not know everything. He had to grow in knowledge and wisdom before God and men, as we are told when he was lost in the temple at the age of 12. We know that he went frequently into solitude to pray to the father in order to know the father’s will for him. It must have been a great consolation and affirmation to hear the words at his baptism, “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
What does this have to do with us? Don’t we all need and appreciate hearing words like that? “You are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.” Many men have trouble saying those kind of words. My own father was like that. He was quite emotional but had trouble expressing himself. Many times he said to me, “You know how I feel.” And I did know.
Sometimes when men express deep emotion, it surprises people. I was reading about this priest who was preparing a sermon on this very text and got so inspired that he immediately text messaged both of his adult sons and said to each “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” One of the boys never acknowledged the message, but the other answered “Thanks, Dad. Are you okay?”
So, on this Epiphany day, it might be a good idea to tell our children how we feel about them. God did.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1-8-12
We have chosen to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany today, because it is an important feast in the church year. It was actually Jan. 6, and today is technically the First Sunday after Epiphany. Epiphany signals the end of the Christmas Season. Hence, we will take down the Christmas decorations after service today.
Epiphany also signals the beginning of the next season called, of all things, the Epiphany season. That will take us to the beginning of Lent. During this season the focus is on epiphanies, or revelations, of who Jesus is. It is not about a single revelation, but a series of revelations, as we are brought to a fuller understanding of the mystery of the Christ. So, for instance, today’s Gospel tells the story of the Magi, those wise astronomers, who discerned from the stars that a great king had been born and followed his star to Judaea. So, we learn He is a King. The gospel for the first Sunday after Epiphany tells the story of His baptism at the Jordan. When He came up out of the water He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him and a voice came from
Heaven, “You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” This in Mark’s account. In Matthew’s account it says “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It would seem that the epiphany or revelation was intended for John the baptizer and the crowd who was there and, of course, for us. So now we know He not only is a king; he is also the Son of God. But the biggest thing for me is that, following Mark’s version, it was an epiphany for Jesus. He is being told He is God’s Son and that his Father is pleased with him.
Hard to understand? Didn’t He already know this? Apparently not. It is hard to understand, in fact it is impossible to understand the mystery of who Jesus is. The Christian doctrine from at least the fourth century is that he is both God and man, two natures, divine and human in one person. Truly God and truly man. In our efforts to understand this I think many times we come down on one side and not the other. One version is that He was always God and just pretended to be human. He went through the motions. He knew everything there was to know because he was God, so He knew He was God’s beloved Son. He didn’t have to learn it. Also, He didn’t really feel human emotions like love and anger. He didn’t really suffer as a human being would, but played the role. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that version believable based on reading the Gospels.
The other version is that he was only human and not divine. Okay, the greatest human who ever lived, but not God. God revealed special things to him and gave him the power to perform miracles, but He was only human. Sure he felt all our emotions and all our pain because He was human. At the end of his life he was taken into heaven and has the highest place next to God, but is not God, not one of the three persons in the Trinity.
Now either version is relatively easy to understand, but neither is the Christian teaching; both were condemned as heresies in the early church.
We are left with the mystery of the God-man. We cannot totally understand him, but we can identify with him, unite ourselves to Him. It is easier to do that by looking at His human experience, rather than His divinity. Since He was truly human I assume that means in His human mind he did not know everything. He had to grow in knowledge and wisdom before God and men, as we are told when he was lost in the temple at the age of 12. We know that he went frequently into solitude to pray to the father in order to know the father’s will for him. It must have been a great consolation and affirmation to hear the words at his baptism, “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
What does this have to do with us? Don’t we all need and appreciate hearing words like that? “You are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.” Many men have trouble saying those kind of words. My own father was like that. He was quite emotional but had trouble expressing himself. Many times he said to me, “You know how I feel.” And I did know.
Sometimes when men express deep emotion, it surprises people. I was reading about this priest who was preparing a sermon on this very text and got so inspired that he immediately text messaged both of his adult sons and said to each “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” One of the boys never acknowledged the message, but the other answered “Thanks, Dad. Are you okay?”
So, on this Epiphany day, it might be a good idea to tell our children how we feel about them. God did.
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