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November 18, 2007
Frannie Kieschnick - Nov 18, 2007
I do not like airplanes. I love traveling to far away places but flying makes me fearful and anxious. Especially after 9/11, it often finds me separated from my stomach and clutching the armrests. On a recent flight, the turbulence was especially troubling- I usually find some reassurance by checking to see that the flight attendants are showing no signs of panic, but there were none in sight - so slightly panicked, I pulled out my traveling Bible At this point my seat mate leaned over and asked, "Do you know something we don't know?"
These are turbulent times- We are on an exciting new journey at Trinity and yet our beloved rector is ill. We live in a beautiful, prosperous community and yet life's pressures take their toll. There is violence and injustice at home and abroad. An oil spill has badly damaged beaches and wildlife and if that isn't enough, Yale lost to Harvard in the big game.
What to say then, on this Stewardship Sunday, in anticipation of Thanksgiving on Thursday, in the face of an unknown future and present doubts? People of God at Trinity we do know something and that can make all the difference.
We know that surely our God will save us, we can trust in God and not be afraid.For our God whom Jesus proclaimed and Jesus knew, is gentle, loving and generous. Our God calls us to live not out of fear and guilt but out of gratitude and hope.
A reading from the short quiz called "Are you ready to talk about money in your church? "
When the preacher begins a sermon on stewardship your first thought is:
A: Did I leave the oven on ?
B: I'm so glad my shallow materialistic neighbor is here to hear this.
C: I wonder what God might have to say to me today about the stewardship of my treasure, my talent and time.
D: OK , just try to convince me!
If your answer was C I wonder what God might have to say to me today then be assured that this preacher is not going to argue that Paul's advice to avoid certain believers living in idleness and Jesus's dire predictions are God's way of saying you should increase your pledge, or else.
Some who call themselves believers do just that using fear and guilt to convince or motivate others. But their God is not our God. No fear tactics or guilt trips here. For we know a Jesus who said, Perfect love, casts out fear. Who said, Do not be afraid. I will be with you always.We may not always experience his presence but we will never be separated from his love.
The lessons today talk about what we know as disciples and followers of Jesus- they show us a way- and it is what fills me with gratitude and hope,despite the fears we face, the challenges we endure, the future we do not know...
Paul says to the congregation of Thessalonika, believers, you know how to imitate me. You are capable of talking the talk, but not all are walking the walk. What good is the gospel if only lip service is paid to it.Some are practicing idleness, not godliness Hang in there. Don't stop practicing godliness and doing what is right.
In the gospel, the disciples, terrified by Jesus predictions, want to know when the end of times will come and what sign there will be, Don't we all! But Jesus turns their attention on what they need to know in the time being. He says, there is no get out of jail free card. Even for his followers, there will be struggles and choices but these will be moments of truth for they are opportunities to give witness in word and work to the eternal love of God.
I want my children's generation to grow up in a safe and comfortable world, but I want them to know that safety and prosperity are not always the highest values. Those saints, like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa who have loved God's world with exuberant joy and aching lament did not escape suffering. And yet they lived extraordinary lives. They practiced godliness, They practiced compassion and they gave thanks for the chances to do just that.
They knew something. It is something we know but do not necessarily live. God's home is not in buildings, possessions and institutions, but in the love of our hearts and the generosity and compassion of our actions. What would it mean if we considered turbulence and suffering in our lives,and in the world, as opportunities to give witness in word and work to the eternal love of God, the love from which nothing can separate us, If we lived not out of fear and guilt but out of gratitude and hope?
Would we do things, say things, give things differently?
Jesus says, Make up your minds not to prepare in advance for I will give you words and wisdom. I don't know about you, but I can relate to the Gospel according to Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown has just dropped the baseball and Lucy is looming over him, hands on her hips, shouting "What do you have to say for yourself" Charlie Brown looks out and says, "Isn't this where Jesus is supposed to give me the words?"
I don't know about you but there are plenty of times in my life when Jesus' words and wisdom do not seem to be coming to me. That is why Jesus says, at the end, by your endurance you will gain your souls. Hang in there. Stay with it. Through it all, I will be with you. By your constant diligence,by practicing the presence of God all along the way you will gain your souls.
In his Cotton Patch version of Luke, Clarence Jordan translates the words- "you will gain your souls" - to, "you will find a new dimension to life. Your life will be rooted in the eternal -you will live out of a sacred space -and God will live through you, Christ's spirit will speak through you."
How do we find the inner strength to endure? It comes from doing what God means us to do in life despite fear, doubt and even death .It comes from the God of all comfort and strength who in Paul's words gives us sufficient capacity so that when we are knocked down, we are not knocked out. It comes through acts of compassion.
A story is told about Christians who were prisoners of war. Early on they prayed regularly, read their Bibles and made a great effort to maintain their faith. But as their conditions worsened their faith began to waver. So the men turned to the care of those who were suffering most.It was here in acts of compassion for the weakest among them that the spark of faith began to glow again and their faith was shown to be alive.
Could it be that compassion then is both the source and manifestation of inner strength. Could it be that what we must do to stand when others are falling, in the midst of turmoil and trials, is to choose to show compassion. How contrary to the conventional wisdom of how we deal with turbulent times. But that is why we are here - gathering together, growing together. Not just to survive but to thrive.
What if we understood the pledges we make this day to be acts of compassion-expressions of God's love in the very midst of life- given to a faith community whose mission is just that, acts of compassion. What if we understood Thanksgiving to be an opportunity to give witness in word and work to the eternal love of God. What a difference it would make!
May we live and choose not out of fear but out of hope, to live compassionate Christ like lives.. AMEN
Let us pray-
O Master let me walk with thee, In lowly paths of service free, Teach me thy secret, help me bear, The strain of toil, the fret of care...Teach me thy patience, still with thee, In closer dearer company, In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, In trust that triumphs over wrong. In hope that sends a shining ray, Far down the future's broadening ways. In peace that only thou canst give, With thee O master, let me live.
(Washington Gladden)
November 11, 2007
Beth Foote - November 11, 2007
Job 19: 23-27a, Luke 20: 27-38
Who were the Sadducces? This is their one appearance in the gospels. They were a Jewish sect who did not believe in the resurrection. We know a lot about the Pharisees, and we know that the Essenes were another more mystical sect.
How would this thing called the resurrection, the afterlife work? Clearly, in this story, they are laying out a sort of trick question for Jesus. Kind of an unsolvable story problem. They’re saying, How can you believe such an off the wall thing? How would the social order continue? But the Saducces were a “show-me” kind of group, a lot like us much of the time, really.
In some ways I see the Sadducces’ point; they are honest about how little we know about life after death. Where are you on the resurrection? Of course, the resurrection is one of the central beliefs of Christianity. Let’ look a little closer at our own Episcopal tradition.
One of the readings appointed for today comes from the book of Job. Job is famous for suffering; he has everything taken away, and as he suffers, Job laments, wrestles and questions God and his own faith.
We did not hear it today, but I’ll read it for you…
Job says, “O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!”
The rest of the reading also appears in the BCP on page 491, the first page of the Service for Burial, and I’ll quote from that:
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth… After my awaking, he will raise me up; and in my body I shall see God. I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him who is my friend and not a stranger”
Believe it or not, even though I’m on the road to being a priest within the year, I’ve only attended two Episcopal burial services with a coffin. Witnessing the priest meet the body at the door to the church and say these words as the procession enters the church is a deeply moving experience. Both times the tears of mourning were mixed with tears of love and joy at those comforting words. “I know my Redeemer lives…in my body I shall see God…who is my friend and not a stranger.”
Our tradition honors the wrestling and questioning about the nature of life and death. Indeed, we may believe in the resurrection, yet it may not seem possible in the midst of our grief for a loved one. And our tradition is deeply rooted in the Ancient Creeds, and the traditions of the early church. The Apostles Creed says, “I believe in the resurrection of the Body and the life of the world to come.” Just last week we celebrated All Saints Day and remembered those who have died and entered the communion of Saints, the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, alive in heaven.
In the midst of suffering and in the valley of the shadow of death, we say these words together and let God carry us in faith. The rubrics in the Prayer Book say “the liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised.”
Jesus responds to the Sadducces by affirming the resurrection as something that transcends the social norms of the time, and really, of most of social norms of the world today. It is a radical vision that makes no distinction between men and women; all are liberated to be children of God, “children of the resurrection.”
Recently, a neighbor of mine lent me an audio version of C.S. Lewis’ “Great Divorce” to listen to on my commute. It’s a fantasy tale about the afterlife. The protagonist is a ghost who takes a bus ride with other ghosts up from a grey town Lewis describes as a washed-out, joyless “hell” to a strange, beautiful country that turns out to be “heaven.” Lewis has the reader overhear various conversations between ghosts and heavenly beings who patiently try and expand the vision of the ghosts. But almost all of them are stuck on the issues of their earthly life, on protecting themselves from spiritual growth. Many of the passengers on the bus give up and go back to the grey town. At the end of the story, the narrator wonders why the heavenly beings can’t get on the bus and go back down to the grey town and help out those poor ghosts who seem so stuck in their ways?
His guide laughs and says that the heavenly people would literally not fit back into the grey town. He reveals that the bus the narrator rode had actually come up through a tiny crack in the ground; the people who now lived in the heavenly country had grown so big that there was no way they could become that small to return…so their heavenly souls were now gigantic, they were so filled with joy and light.
Lewis does a marvelous job of challenging us to see the largeness, the unexpected awe of God’s vision of the effect of the resurrection. Perhaps the ghosts are something like the Sadduccees, or ourselves much of the time. They want heaven to fit into their “box” of the way things are on earth. Social systems would remain the same. Women and men would have their roles. Jesus says, “no, it’s bigger than that.” God is capable of much more than we can fathom. But we can’t see it if we continue to make the rules for ourselves or, like the ghosts in Lewis’ tale, protect ourselves from spiritual growth and God’s grace.
So, the resurrection means we are transformed after death. And I think knowledge of the resurrection also transforms us, expands us as people of faith in this life. Several years ago, Nora Gallagher wrote a fabulous memoir called, “Practicing Resurrection.” What a great idea, to “Practice Resurrection” the way we practice prayer or meditation. Do you practice resurrection in your own life? How does the belief in the resurrection affect the way you live your life? What difference does it make?
For me, when I’m aware of the resurrection, and practice living that way, there always appears to be a breath of fresh air, a whisper in my ear that there is more going on than meets the eye. My belief in the Resurrection adds an openendedness to my life.
“Practicing resurrection” makes me aware of God’s grace that comes from outside myself. Just when I think that I have things all figured out, and that I know all the parameters to the “system” of my life, the Holy Spirit swoops in and stirs up the waters, rearranges the pieces on the gameboard so that I have new horizons, and I see the abundance of God’s grace. And I grow and stretch in grace and awareness of God’s limitless potential. The resurrection brings hope into all aspects of my life, even places where it might look hopeless.
How can we access this hope? How about what we do every week here at the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a weekly reminder of this hope; they embody the hope of the resurrection. This is made clear to me each week as we share the Eucharist here at Christ’s table. It’s always something of a revelation. (and I have to say that I’m loving being a deacon, and distributing the bread.) When we receive the blessed bread and the wine, I often think that that grace, that hope from God becomes molecularly part of who we are. It really is awesome. We carry it out within us to coffee hour, and home with us into the world from week to week. The resurrection becomes part of us. As we gather again this morning, consider how God’s abundant love of the resurrection flows through your life. What an awesome gift we have. Come receive the resurrection, become a “child of the resurrection.” Live your life out of that abundance. And consider how you can share this abundance with others. Amen.
