Ministry Musings

Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul Sermon

NB:  The gospel text for this day is John 21:15-19.  It is also worth noting that today is the 16th anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate.  One of the lines in the examination reads:  "You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world."  (BCP. pg. 543)  I pray that this sermon do that on this day.

Jesus said:  “Do you love me?  Feed my lambs.”

 It’s not supposed to be easy.  If it was going to be easy then Peter would not have been forewarned by the Risen Jesus that his hands would be stretched out, that he would be bound and led someplace where he did not want to go.

 Today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.  And a day on the Church’s calendar is not all they shared in common.  Paul had his own moment of forewarning at the home of Philip the evangelist.   (Acts 21.10ff)  There Agabus the prophet takes Paul’s belt and binds his own hands and feet saying, “This is how the man who owns this belt will be bound in Jerusalem.”

 Peter and Paul are apostles, evangelists, missionaries.  They are men who, by the grace of God, were able to set aside their rebelliousness and times of denial to become proclaimers of the Good News of Christ Jesus.  They are men who, forewarnings notwithstanding, lived their lives feeding and tending the early church, the beloved flock of Christ.

 Jesus said:  “Do you love me?  Tend my sheep.”

 I have been wondering how in the world I as preacher can say anything meaningful in four minutes.  Can anything monumental happen in four minutes?

 In four minutes around the world there will be:

-          21 newly diagnosed cases of HIV/AIDS

-          1,838 new cases of malaria

-          89 new cases of diabetes

 In these four minutes:

-          130 people will die of cardiovascular disease

-          58 will die of cancer

-          10 will die in traffic accidents

-          20 will die from preventable food and water issues

-          7 will die of malaria

 During these four minutes:

-          85 violent crimes

-          7 cars stolen

-          721 identities stolen

 In four minutes:

-          40,319,000 SPAM emails will hit inboxes

-          1,524 of those will be notices of a large sum of money you can have if you can help get it out of Nigeria.

 We who are leaders in Christ’s holy church, who are the inheritors of the foundational work done by Peter, Paul and a host of other holy women and men, live in a world engulfed in bad news.  Every second of every minute brings life-altering tragedy and joy; peace and turmoil; chaos and tranquility – all of which, like the Sewanee rain, falls equally on the just and the unjust.

 Jesus said:  “Do you love me?  Feed my sheep.”

 It will be good to remember that in four minutes grace can and does happen.  In four minutes – and often less, sometime in the “twinkling of an eye” – God can touch our hearts and change the course of our lives and the lives of those around us.

 In four minutes or less:

-          A bishop can examine and consecrate a deacon, priest or bishop

-          Water can be blessed and a person baptized into the risen life of Christ Jesus

-          Marriage vows can be exchanged

-          The Eucharistic prayer can be prayed

-          And for us today, a body of the gathered faithful can eat and drink and experience the very real presence of Christ

 And, then, who knows what can happen?

 As we walk out of this chapel, fed and reminded to follow Jesus, we might:

-          Smile at a lonely person just on the edge of despair giving them cause for hope

-          Give a cup of water to the thirsty or a plate of food to the malnourished

-          Write a check to buy a mosquito net

-          Be “bound” in conversation with someone who needs companionship and a word of encouragement so that they can get “unbound.”

 We will realize, with Peter and Paul, that it’s not supposed to be easy.  It is not easy to feed, to tend, to serve, to lead, to preach, to encourage, to live and to respond to the call of Jesus in our lives.

 Easy?  No.

 Simple?  Yes.

 It is as simple as trusting Jesus when he speaks those simply powerful words of invitation:  “Follow me.”

Follow me.  Follow me.

What is so good about Good Friday?

“Why is it called ‘Good Friday’?”If I had a nickel for every time I have been asked that question – well, you know.

But it is a “good” question for us to ponder today.  And we might consider this – what do we mean when we use the word “good?”  The Oxford Dictionary lists way more definitions than I care to recite and most likely more than you care to hear today.  “Good” can be used as an adjective, noun and adverb.  It can be descriptive, exclamatory or attributive.  How we understand “good” depends on the context in which we use the word.

It is tempting to view “good”, as in “Good Friday,” as an adjective – this Friday is good as opposed to other Friday’s which are bad or perhaps mediocre.  I would suggest that before we can understand “good” as an adjective, we might consider looking at “good” in a way that might make grammarians cringe.  What if we understood “good” as a noun?

As a noun, the Oxford Dictionary defines “good” as “that which is morally right, righteousness” and a “benefit or advantage to someone or something.”  Perhaps we could call today “Righteousness Friday” since on this day Jesus takes upon himself the darkness of the world and the sin of humanity.  Note, I said, “sin” and not “sins.”  We think of “sins” as those things we do which cause separation between us and God and between us and others.  “Sins” are those innumerable acts that cause hurt and pain, “things done and left undone” as the traditional language of the confession puts it.

Sin on the other hand is that which infects our souls and is a deep part of the human condition.  It is that orientation which leads us in a direction away from God and puts us on the path where “sins” are the result.  Where “sins” cause separation, “Sin” is separation.  Sin is the seed from which grows the tree which bears the fruit of disobedience, accusation, division and, ultimately, death.

Righteousness Friday is the day when Jesus removes that which keeps us from being morally right.  It is the day wherein we are allowed to lay down the “sins” of our lives and recognize that even as Jesus dies on the cross, Sin dies with him.  The disease of Sin is healed.  The power of Sin, Death, is defeated.

This helps us to recognize that today then is the “Friday of our Benefit.”  The process of our becoming right with God and each other has begun.  Jesus suffers.  Jesus experiences deep pain.  In this we recognize the degree to which God understands our own suffering and pain. We recognize that our suffering and pain are forever entwined with Jesus’ suffering and pain.  And we are assured that as we take up our cross and follow Jesus on his path of suffering and death we will just as surely be raised with him to a new life.  We “benefit” from that which Jesus undergoes today.  We “benefit” in the form of new life, new hope, new joy and a new awareness of how deeply we are loved by God.

“Good” has a Germanic origin.  In German, the word “gut” and is spelled “g-u-t”.  Gut.  Good Friday is a day that hits us in the gut.  Good Friday gets our attention in order that we might become aware of what Jesus is experiencing.  It is a day like no other.

Yet there is another day even more profound.  Good Friday is a day that is but prelude to the Day of days which occurs in three days.  On that day, bright and shining, we will look back on the pain and suffering of Jesus on this Friday and recognize that “good” (as adjective) is indeed descriptive of a day where God proclaims his deep love and desire for his people to be in unbroken relationship with him and each other for eternity.

And that is why Good Friday is good.

"Rebellious" - Mid-week sermon 7 April 2011

            It starts out cute.  “No!”  Unless you are the parent, this little word can bring a bit of a grin when it first comes out of a child’s mouth.  “No!” means the first step towards developing a sense of a separate self and is a natural part of a child’s growth.

            BUT, it does not stay cute for long.  Soon it can become a test of wills.  Liquefied vegetables end up spit out on the plate.  Sippy cups get tossed onto the floor.  Little bodies throw themselves on the floor of HEB screaming and fussing.  Homework gets shoved off the desk.  Doors get slammed.  Curfews get disregarded. Sneaking out happens.  Cars get “borrowed.”  Deadlines are ignored.  Words get harshly spoken.  Forgiveness withheld.  Hearts get hardened and life gets unpleasant.

            We were born to be rebellious.

            “Go down, for your people, whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I have commanded them,” the LORD says to Moses. (Ex. 32.7-8a)  The people turned aside by fashioning a golden calf towards which they offer worship and sacrifice.  The people point to this calf as their “gods…who brought [them] up out of the land of Egypt!”

            Like a parent with an errant teenager, God desires to throttle his rebellious children.  “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”  (vv. 9-10)  Thankfully, Moses is able to convince the LORD to show mercy to his people.

            In our collect for today we pray that God “drive from us all weakness of body, mind, and spirit.”  Most of us do not want to admit weakness – even when the evidence clearly shows we are weak.  In fact, in order to deny the discomfort of weakness human nature seeks to lay hold of anything that feels strong.  When uncertainty sets, we grab for anything that seems certain, be it money, power, a relationship, food or drink.  In the case of Israel, they grabbed for their stock of gold and fashioned a golden calf to be their sign of certainty in a time of uncertainty in the wilderness.

            Notice that God does not just call their action a poor decision from which they should learn and not repeat.  He declares that the people, his people, have “corrupted themselves.”  And when we hear this word, we might want to think beyond just a lack of ethics and morals among political, business and religious leaders the world round.  We might want to grab hold of a more archaic definition.

            To corrupt means “to altogether break and to decay.”  In other words, the people have altogether broken their connection to God by their desire to connect with a false God and now they are in a state of decay.  Picture, if you can, a people who exist as living beings yet in a state of physical decay.  Think zombies.  The price of human rebelliousness is not a spiritual “timeout” or “grounding.”  The price of human rebelliousness is to become the “living dead.”

            Thus we pray to be delivered from a state of weakness to “being restored to wholeness, [in order that] we may with free hearts become what [God] intend[s] us to be and accomplish what [he] want us to do.”  The answer to our weakness is not power grabs but surrender.  The remedy for being a spiritual zombie is to forget about a golden calf or anything else we might concoct in our frenzied uncertainty.  We should remember who we are, whose we are and who has brought safe thus far.  As we continue our march with Jesus toward Jerusalem and the cross, let us hold fast to the certainty of God’s desire for us to be made alive, truly, fully alive, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Spirit and the People of God

The World Cup has provided me an opportunity to learn a new language.

 

First, I had to come to terms with the reality that what I have called “soccer” the rest of the world calls “football.”  And this “football” is played on “pitch” not a “field” – although it looks a lot like a field to me.  The teams do not play a “game” but rather play a “match.”  The “final” score is called “full time” score.  Teams don’t “practice” but “train.”  Teams do not play “overtime” but rather play “extra time.”

 

It has taken a little while for my brain to “re-boot” and assimilate these new terms so that I can follow the commentary on the television.  Knowing the language, the rules, the strategies are all important parts of being able to really engage, what, for me, is a relatively new sport as a spectator and fan.

 

Paul writes to the Galatian church these words:  “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”  Paul, remember, is addressing a church divided over the issue of circumcision, essentially a “who-is-a-‘better’-or-‘more committed’” believer in the community.  Paul is not only challenging the false teachers in the community but he is warning the people of God against not “biting and devouring one another” over such matters. It is only by setting aside this and any future division that they would truly be able to exhibit and live a new life in the Spirit.

 

As I reflect on these words to the Galatians, it seems to me that what Paul is asking the people of God to do is to learn a new language and new terms for this new life in Christ.  It would mean they would have to set aside what they thought they knew about God and life in Christ.  A life regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit looks, sounds and feels different.  A redefinition occurs that reorients God’s people towards His purpose in our world.

 

The challenge, of course, is to set aside human reluctance to let go of the known.  It is high talk to speak of letting go and letting God but the unknown makes even the most saintly among us uncomfortable.  The church historically has held up those whose lives reflected a tremendous life of faith.  Yet each of those saints had their own struggles and challenges which were part of the process leading towards a redefining of their lives when they surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s power.

 

Last week I shared with you some of the challenging questions I am wrestling with as we continue to discuss the attributes of a missional church.  (If you missed last week, you can find the text of that sermon in last week’s eSpear.)  The greatest challenge we (and any other congregation considering missional church questions) face is our own reluctance to change.  Change is fearful to most humans because it means letting go of the known and embracing the unknown.

 

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God,” (Hebrews 10.31) says the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews.  And yet, the history of the people of God is written in the lives of those who have been willing to leave their known and venture out into the Great Unknown of God.  Abram, remember, answered God’s call to leave his family and his land to venture forth into an unknown Promised Land. (Genesis 12)  Only in the letting go of the known was Abram able to embrace a new possibility for his life and the life of his household.  Only in the letting go was Abram able to share with the world the chance to experience the new life of blessing God was offering.

 

Later this week our city will host the International Conference of Alcoholic Anonymous.  Tens of thousands of recovering people from all over the world will gather to share their experience, strength and hope found in the recovery program begun by two seemingly hopeless drunks in the late 1930’s Ohio.

 

One of the favorite slogans of the recovery community is “Let go and let God.”  This little saying is meant to encourage the person new in recovery to let go of the old, known way of living which no longer works and embrace the new, unknown life God will give through the 12 Steps.  By letting go of the known, the newly sober can embrace the Great Unknown God who will daily reveal more and more of His love and grace as a new relationship blooms.

 

Further, it is in fully walking this disciplined journey through the Steps that hopeless, dying people are able to redefine, regenerate, their lives.  It is through the Steps that clarity comes and new priorities emerge that make for a new, more satisfying way of life. “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result” of the Steps, a new life emerges that has as its hallmark loving service to others.  And this new life is not lived in isolation.  It is to be lived in the context of a community of others who are all committed to looking externally to the needs of those who still suffer and to share the blessings they have received.

 

The Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, an Episcopal priest in New York who provided much of the early spiritual direction which shaped AA’s 12 Steps, wrote that the Church could learn much from AA.  I think what he meant was that we could learn to let go of what we think we know and embrace the power of God which drives us out of our comfortable selves into the uncomfortable but exceedingly more satisfying way of life of loving and blessing others.  He points in the direction of a Christian life not lived in isolation from other Christians but rather living in the context of an externally focused community of blessing seeking to bring the redemptive life of Jesus to those who suffer in the world.  In other words, he points toward the Church reclaiming its missional mindset, a mindset which characterized the first century people of God.

 

This week I invite you to consider the following questions on your Sermon notes page:

 

W   Which areas of my life do I need the Holy Spirit’s help to redefine?

 

W   In what ways can this redefinition help me to clarify and prioritize my day to day life?

 

Beware the temptation to reflect only.  Consider what tangible changes need to be made.  Consider the third question:

 

W   In what ways might Christ be calling me to join the larger people of God in loving service to others?

 

Jesus speaks words in our gospel text today that I believe to be important in our continuing conversations about the missional church.  62 “Jesus said…, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”  He speaks these words as warning to those who wish to delay their joining Jesus in the Kingdom of God work because they have other priorities.

 

On the border we had a term, “mañana,” “tomorrow.”  Of course, on the border “tomorrow” could be tomorrow or the next day or the next week.  It is open-ended commitment.  Jesus’ call is for full, immediate commitment to His mission.  We can interpret Jesus’ words this way:  “Don’t wait until you are ‘ready’ or you’ll never get started.  Get on with the work! Go be a blessing!”

 

The Spirit of God is ready to give you what you need to get on with being a blessing in this world.  We are invited to “stand firm” in the work of letting go and embracing God’s vision for our life of blessing in this world.  Know that you will be tempted to put off until “mañana” what God is inviting you to embrace today.  Resist that temptation knowing that God has blessed us with freedom – not to serve ourselves but to freely offer loving service to others.  This is what Paul means when he says, “…live by the Spirit…walk by the Spirit.”

 

Allow the fruits of God’s Spirit – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” – to redefine your life so that others might see the blessings of God and His Eternal desire to reveal Himself in their hurting lives and bless them in ways they could never have asked or imagined.

 

“If we live by the Spirit…[and we]…walk by the Spirit” we will experience a new World.  And in this new World we will drink from a new Cup of Blessing and share that new Cup of Blessing with others.  And that not only changes this game we call Life but the future life of the world.

Promise and the People of God

 Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

 

“The unexamined (or the unreflected upon) life is not worth living.”

 

It is believed that the ancient philosopher Socrates spoke those words some 3000 years ago.  They were floating around in my mind the other day as I reflected upon the ongoing conversation about what a missional church would look like.

 

Those folks who attended the June 5 “Abide in Me “ Conference and listened to Reggie McNeal speak about the “missional” church gathered with me this past Thursday evening to “debrief” the conference and continue the conversation.  The group, which will meet again on July 8, identified three starting points.

 

1. We decided this conversation needs to come into the pulpit.
2. We acknowledged that each of us personally needed to begin speaking about what we have heard and spoken to each other and how we are living our own lives in light of what we have learned.
3. We ask and encourage YOU, our sisters and brothers, to begin blessing people in your daily lives.

In my own quiet time, many questions and thoughts come to my mind:

 

If “God’s mission has a church,” then what role does our congregation have in that mission?

 

If missional churches have an external and not an internal focus, what does that look like in how we organize our collective time, talents and treasure in the living of our day to day ministry life?

 

If missional churches do not worry about traditional ways of evaluation (membership and financial numbers), what do we have to change, or even throw out, as we look forward at how we evaluate our mission effectiveness?

 

If missional churches concentrate focus on “people” development rather than “program” development, how does that impact the way we offer Christian education and spiritual formation classes?

 

If missional churches are not about doing different missional activities in place of or in addition to current programs and ministries, then what are we to do on our journey towards becoming and being a congregation which is engaged in God’s mission in the world beginning with the community around us?

 

As we begin to open our minds and hearts to this conversation, I think it would be wise to take our own advice from the meeting and get back to basics, to get back to Jesus.  We need to reopen our minds and, more importantly, our hearts to what the Scriptures have to say that will inform us about being the church.

 

So let’s start at the beginning.  Let’s start with Genesis, specifically chapters 12 and 17, which tell the story of what God desires for His creation, His people.

 

Genesis 12.1-2:  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 And 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.

 

Genesis 17.4:  “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”

 

Genesis 17.7:  “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

 

Promise and the People of God

 

Three themes come out of these verses that are important in our future conversations about what it means to be a missional church.  First is the theme of promise.  God makes a promise to Abraham and his “offspring.”  Second is the theme of being the people of God.  God’s people have a specific responsibility in the world.  Third is the theme of covenant.  God establishes a covenant with his people which defines the nature of the relationship between God and His people.  We will take up the notion of covenant over a five-week period beginning August 29 so we will begin to lay the foundation of the first two themes.

 

What is the promise?  God makes a promise to Abraham that comes in two parts.  First, God promises to bless Abraham and to make of him and his descendants a great nation that would be able to extend the initial blessing of God to others.  Second, God promises to be “God to [Abraham] and to [his] offspring after” him.

 

These two parts orbit each other throughout the Abraham narrative and show up over and over again throughout the whole of Scripture.  As Christians we believe that they find their fullness and fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.

 

Paul picks these up in the third chapter of his letter to the Galatians.  In the midst of controversy about whether or not Gentile believers of Christ should be circumcised in order to fulfill the Law, Paul points to the promise God makes to Abraham to fashion for Himself a people, a nation, to bless and to be a blessing.  Paul points out to his opponents that God’s promise predates the Law and that the Law is unable to fulfill God’s promise.  He also makes clear that God has held up His end of the covenant and identifies Jesus as “the offspring” through whom the promise might be extended to the world.  “..if you are Christ's,” Paul argues, “then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.”

 

More importantly, Paul proclaims to the church in Galatia, “you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Through baptism all people, regardless of the external differences, belong to Christ Jesus through whom all of God’s promises have been fulfilled and through whom the covenant has been passed to this new manifestation of the people of God.

 

We can now see, Paul argues, that the blessing given to Abraham is to be shared with all people and this blessing and responsibility is now passed onto this new incarnation of the people of God.  The people of God, that is the followers of Christ, are blessed to be a blessing to all people.  The people of God embody the promise of God made to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ Jesus.  The message is, in effect, “You Galatians, with all your differences in gender, race, creed and everything else you can think up, are, like it or not, God’s people who are the inheritors of the ‘Blessed to be a blessing’ role promised to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus, and this means you must stop finding ways to be divided and be the One people through which Christ Jesus’ redeeming and renewing life can be given to the world.  You are blessed!  Go be a blessing!”

 

The first verse of the third chapter of Galatians begins, “O foolish Galatians!”  If we substituted “Episcopalians” or “North American church members” or “St. George folk” for “Galatians,” the rest of the chapter would apply to us.  The details would be different but it fits, doesn’t it?  And the conclusion is also the same:  “We are blessed.  We must go and bless others.”  The challenge is that we have no power in us to make this shift.

 

We are, by virtue of our baptism, one in Christ.  By baptism we become a part of the People of God, the Body of Christ, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, through Christ Jesus.  And, as Jesus has promised, we receive the Holy Spirit who works in us and through us, who blesses and who makes it possible for us to be a blessing.

 

To reconnect to our opening reflections, we can identify that our first, baby step toward becoming a missional church is to open ourselves up to the power of Jesus’ promised Holy Spirit who can move us beyond our worldly differences and move us towards God’s desired future for His world, a world He loves so much He sent His Son to redeem at a great, great cost.  We can recognize that we are the inheritors of Abraham’s role to take our blessing and to share it with others around us who are in great need of that life-changing blessing.

 

Reggie McNeal shared with all of us a practice of his at restaurants.  At the arrival of the meal, he shares with his server that he is about to offer a prayer of blessing to God.  He then asks the server if there is anything at all the he can ask God give as blessing to the server.  He states that sometimes the reaction is shock or confusion.  He also states that sometimes the answer is “no.”  But he also shared that over time those to whom he offers this will often come asking for a blessing and that God always moves in and answers that prayer in a way that opens up a conversation about the power of God and the love of Jesus.

 

In one instance one attendee at another of his conferences took McNeal at this challenge.  He began to ask the barista at the coffee shop he frequented how he could pray for God’s blessing in his life.  The response was surprising and exciting as his prayer list grew to others at the shop.  It was so amazing to him that one day at different coffee shop he asked the barista how he could pray for God’s blessing in her life and was met with the excited response:  “You are one of those blessing people!!”

 

Do you want to be “one of those blessing people” here in your own community?

 

I challenge you to join those of us who have already begun this practice in restaurants around this church.  I invite you to both recognize your life as blessed and your response to that blessing is to be a blessing to others.  I encourage you to reflect on your life this week through these questions on your “Sermon Notes” insert:

 

In what ways has God blessed me to be a blessing to others?

 

 

What can I do today to offer God’s blessing to another person?

 

 

What are some of the ways I am already offering God’s blessings to others in my everyday life?

 

O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you and your people with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dragons

Dragons.

I have been thinking about dragons today.  Dragons are imagination-capturing creatures.  They are bold and foreboding and scary and fascinating all at the same time.  Dragons seem to be creatures waiting for an opportunity and it does not matter whether it is for good or ill.

Dragons in Near Eastern mythology are monsters of chaos.  For some reason I get this picture of Godzilla.  If you have seen the movies, you can see it too.  The waters of Tokyo Bay churning and air raid sirens blaring loudly, the monster Godzilla arises from the deep, aroused by some nuclear tinkering of humanity, to wreak death and destruction on a fleeing and frightened populace totally ill-equipped to deal with the monster's power.  This monster of chaos is always driven back but at the end there is always the lingering threat that someday......

Dragons are dangerous and deadly.  In literature, dragons represent greed, evil, lies, and death.  They can infect humanity and change people for the worse.  In the Bible, specifically the Revelation to John, the dragon is called "satan," the "devil," and the "serpent."

Dragons are iconic.  That is, dragons are windows into the world of chaos that our "-isms" can create.  Materialism, hedonism, secularism, alcoholism and its addictive corollaries including workaholism, individualism, relativism and many others can become monsters which churn in the depth of our souls.  Alarms begin sounding warning us that we are totally ill-equipped to deal with this threat and that we are treading dangerously close to death and destruction in our souls.  We might be able to beat them back but there is always the lingering threat that someday...

One of the more recognized icons is that of St. George and the dragon.  This "window" (that is what an icon is) into the realm of God shows the valiant saint riding a white stallion trampling a much smaller black beast.  In meditation one is to notice that good always truimphs over evil and that the powers of darkness are absolutely no match for the power of God.

Dragons, whether beasts of darkness or "-isms" causing restlessness and discontent, are ultimately no match for God.  However, dragons will stick around unless we are willing to look deeply into their beady eyes and answer some questions.

Will we lose our fear of dragons and place our trust in the life-changing, life-giving love of God?  Are we ready to have God the Creator, the Loving Father of all defeat once and for all the dragons which keep us from becoming the jewel of God's creation and His devoted, loving child?

Like a valiant knight we will have a moment of truth when we will decide to say "yes" to God and allow His power to defeat, once and for all, the dragons which torment our souls.  But unlike a valiant knight these dragons are not to be slain by lance and sword, or as in the Godzilla movies bombs and bullets.  No, these dragons can be slain by only one thing:  the undying love of God's Son who delivers us and makes us new.

Bread

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”  (John 6:37-39)

God has a dream.

God has a vision.

God has a plan.

The dream, the vision, the desire that God has is one in which God’s people might not continue forever to be lost.

Lost.  Yes, that is the state of humanity.  Lost is the reality of the state of the world.  Don’t believe me?  Haven’t you read the paper or watched the news on TV?  Just this week:  an unimaginable terrorist plot uncovered; bombs continued to kill and maim in Lebanon; 6,000 children today will become AIDS orphans; our own citizens, our own neighbors here in San Antonio, are suffering from poverty and hunger; untold numbers of families are on the verge of utter collapse chasing the “American Dream” of economic and social success.  I could go on and on and on but you get the point.

This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Jesus himself points to the truth of God’s love for the world.  His mission is to reclaim that which has been lost and raise it up on the last day.

No longer does humanity need to seek after the bread of this world which is here today and gone tomorrow.  For that is exactly what the manna does in the desert.  God sends it and the Hebrews are to gather up only enough for today.  If they gather up two days worth the bread goes bad, spoils, after a day.  Yet, the crowd in chapter 6 of John seeks the “magic” bread, the bread which is perishes.

Jesus himself is the bread provided by the Father and is the only bread which last for eternity.  The words which precede the beginning of the passage today are these:  “you have seen me and yet do not believe.”

There is warning in those words for you and for me.  Are we looking for the bread which perishes?  Are we looking for the bread which we make with our own hands and our own efforts?  If so, it will spoil.  We can do no good on our own.  We might get lucky for eventually our luck will run out.   We need something more than bread made by our own hands.  We need something more than bread which is here today and gone tomorrow.

God provides this bread.  God provides the finest of bread.  God provides the bread of eternal life:  Jesus, his Son.

This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

So, what are we to do?

Our salvation depends not on our work.  Thank God!  I don’t know about you, but I am not very good at baking bread.  I have yet to make any that lasts very long.

Here are some of the recipes I have tried:

W      Think that straight A’s would make me happy.

W      Think that drinking and eating were the answers to my problems.

W      Think that acquiring material possessions would give me fulfillment.

W      Think that the latest self-help book or management theory or leadership tactic or spiritual fad would bring me an enlightened heart and mind.

W      Think that the more ministry I did the closer I would get to God, the more He would love me, the more anyone would love me.

W      Think that I could earn my salvation.

I have seen yet I have not believed.

Yet believing is all that I can do.  Believing is all any of us can do.  And believing is enough.  If we can just come to believe in the one who has come to bring salvation, if we can just come to believe in the one who is making God’s dream come true, then we too can be sure of being raised up on the last day.

Listen to what else Jesus says:  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

Amazing, isn’t it?

Jesus, the one who claims to know and live “the will of him who sent” him and promises that he will “lose nothing of all” that he has been given,” but raise it up on the last day,” has already done what we could never, ever in a million years do for ourselves. 

He has brought us salvation.  He has given himself to us as bread which will bring us life with him forever.  He has given himself to us as bread, not made by human hands and human will, but by the will of God to bring the world back into relationship with him.

What is even more amazing is this:  That as we are fed by the bread of heaven, we become a part of God’s plan for the reclamation of the world.  As you and I are fed by God’s word and sacraments, we are a become part of the flesh, the Body of Jesus Christ.  We become, with Jesus, the bread which he gives “for the life of the world.”

God has a vision.  And that vision is of a world which once and for all recognizes God’s rule, God’s reign.  It is a vision in which God’s people once and for all completely trust him to give them their daily bread and quit living as though God has no power to bring the world and all of its people to himself.

God has a dream. And that dream is a dream in which humanity would once again walk shamelessly with God in complete trust and in complete relationship with Him and each other.  A dream in which “swords will be made into plowshares” (Isaiah 2.4); where The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together” (Is. 11.6); where the poor receive good news, the brokenhearted are raised up, the captive receiving liberty, where the blind receive sight, where God’s favor is proclaimed. (Is. 61.3)

God has a plan.  The plan is Jesus.  This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

God’s plan includes you and me as we take care to prayerfully seek to look on the Son, Jesus, and trust and believe that God has already uniquely called us and equipped us to be agents of His life transforming love in Christ Jesus.

How humbling it is to know that through us, through our lives lived to God’s glory in the ordinary everyday world, Jesus will draw the world to himself.  How awesome that Jesus will accept our offering of our lives and labors to be an ingredient in the Bread he will give to for the life of the world!

Let us pray:

“Yes, Lord, we believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world.”  May we seek you where you will to be found and may our lives be acceptable ingredients in the bread you fashion to bring life to the world.  Use us, we pray, as you will and always to your glory and for the welfare of your people!  Amen.

A Messenger's Burden

Who am I in Christ Jesus?

The life of a messenger had to be one of constant preparedness.

There could be no other way.  To be a messenger of a king’s court must have required constant readiness.  A messenger never knew when he would be called upon to quickly deliver an important message across the kingdom.  Whether by foot or horse a messenger needed to be healthy and strong, ready to endure the hardship of travel.  He needed to be of single-minded focus.

The job was dangerous.  Thieves, bandits, scofflaws of all sorts would populate the roads, especially at dark.  And, a messenger never knew whether the message being delivered was going to be received well or not.  This must be the genesis of the old preface we have all used when we are called upon to deliver someone else’s unpleasant news, “Now, don’t get mad at me, I am only the messenger, but….”

The job of messenger was difficult, dangerous – risky.  To be a messenger was bear a difficult burden.  To stand in the place of someone mightier is a heavy burden indeed and this is exactly what a messenger must do.

John the baptizer had such a role.

Even in his mother’s womb he, “leapt,” that is heralded or proclaimed the coming King Jesus who was, also, in his mother’s womb.  You might say that the whole meaning of his life was to point to someone who is mightier than even he could imagine.  He was, you might say, born to be a messenger.

John’s story verifies what I have already said about the job of a messenger being difficult, dangerous, and risky.  In John’s ministry he gave up all comforts that his family status could have provided him.  He chose to wear the clothes of a wilderness prophet and eat a diet of locusts and honey.  He criticized Herod and his incestuous relationship with Herodias.  For his efforts he was imprisoned.  In the end, his unswerving dedication to proclaiming the truth of God’s word cost him his head.

John’s diligence to his role as messenger is helpful for us.  You see, we are also messengers.  Our role is not much different from John’s.  We are to proclaim the one who is coming.  We are to herald the coming King.  We are to leap for joy over the coming birth of King Jesus.

Believe me, our job as messengers is still difficult, dangerous, and risky, just not in the same was as it was for John.  To be a messenger in our own day is still a burden.  You are I are still entrusted with the role of pointing to the one who is “mightier than we.”  You and I are still given the responsibility of proclaiming the one whose “sandals [we are} not worthy to even untie.”

The difficulty here is that we are to speak to a world that has begun to not listen.  Whether it is the fault of the noise of the world – the constant chatter and noise of TV, radio and other news and entertainment media– or our own fault for not checking to see whether we are communicating in a relevant or, even understandable, fashion, this reality remains:  we must work especially hard to communicate that King Jesus is coming and develop creative ways to invite people to ready their hearts to receive him.

The danger for us is not physical.  The danger for us is that we will lose our resolve.  The greatest danger we will face is to decide that the rest of the world is not interested in the salvation offered in Jesus Christ or, worse, that they do not deserve it.  In the face of ever increasing odds, we might be tempted to take the easier, softer way of sitting back and waiting for people to come to us.  The real danger of being a messenger in our day is that we won’t put on our running shoes and race around the countryside sharing the message.

The messenger business is still risky, but just not in the way you might imagine.  The risk for you and I is that people will listen.  Like the people of Nineveh, those who hear us proclaim the message of hope and life and love through Jesus will respond and then we will be responsible for their continued development and growth as believers.  We will become responsible for their lives and will have to see to it that they reach the full stature of Christ.  We will have to give up our own comfortable habits and adopt new ways of being God’s family that include our new family members.

And all of this is still a burden.  Yes, it is a burden.  But burdens are not exclusively negative.  You see some ministry can be a burden without being burdensome.  The business of being a messenger is such a ministry.  You see the burden of being a messenger comes from standing in the place of the One who is Mightier.  As messengers of King Jesus, you and I stand in his place proclaiming to all who have ears to hear the wondrous and wonderful good news of God’s saving work.  Through our words we prepare the way of another’s heart to receive Jesus as a baby at Christmas so that they might receive him as King when He comes again to judge the living and the dead.  As messengers of the Holy One we have the potential to influence the direction, not only of someone’s life, but of someone’s eternal soul.

That kind of eternal significance is a heavy, heavy burden to bear. But, let us not be discouraged.  Let’s always remember that Jesus promised us that his “yoke [would be] easy and his burden light.”

So, on this day, I invite you to gladly bear this wonderful burden at Advent as preparation for the rest of our lives.  You and I are called by God bear this burden of messenger each day to each person we encounter in our daily walk.  This is who you and I are called to be in Christ Jesus.  You and I are called to bear the message of hope and love and life in Christ Jesus to the world.  You and I are called to recognize that we, like John the baptizer, were born to be messengers of Christ Jesus so that others might experience the joy and wonder of Jesus’ birth in their hearts.  AMEN.

Who am I in Christ Jesus?: Awareness and the In-between

The family and I returned yesterday from a Thanksgiving trip to my wife’s family ranch. We had a great time. The weather was great – although a bit warm – and we enjoyed roaming around the 50-Acre Field and just wandering around.

I have a little bit of custom that has turned into a personal tradition. On Thanksgiving morning each year, I wander out to do a little deer hunting. I enjoy very much the time spent alone in the field. I find that I hear better. I can hear things that normally I miss. The noise birds make when they jump from branch to branch and sing their songs. Sometimes I wonder if their melodies are warnings to others of my presence or if they are serenading me as their guest.

Did you know that cottontail rabbits make noise? In the quiet of the field one can hear the “scritching” and scratching as they move over caliche road foraging for their breakfast or dinner. Nature has a language all of its own and I take time when I can to reacquaint myself with that tongue when I can.

In today’s gospel, Mark’s Jesus warns us of the signs of God's coming kingdom. Where our text ends today is with Jesus calling the disciples and us to “Keep awake” or, in my translation, “stay aware.” Jesus is teaching his followers that if we can stay aware, we can recognize the signs of his coming again and the establishing of God’s kingdom once and for all.

We must remain aware of one reality which the early church faced: they were persecuted. They lived and moved and had their being in a world which was hostile to their faith. Further, in the face of growing persecution, they began to hope for the return of Christ Jesus for with that would come the final and full establishment of God’s reign. Those early Christians believed that Jesus would return and the Kingdom of God would be established in their lifetime.

So, now here we are. Some two thousand years later and we are still hoping and praying for the return of Christ Jesus and the coming of the final and full establishment of God’s reign. This reality can pose some difficulty for some since it seems to be inconsistent with what Jesus himself spoke about his return and with the early teachings of the apostles.

So, in her wisdom, the Church begins each liturgical year with the season of Advent. We are in a different season, a different time. At the church I serve we started our worship with an ancient rite, the Great Litany, which reminds us of our mortal, sinful nature and asks deliverance from God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We have toned down our music to remind us that we are now in a time of preparation, a time of getting ready for what Christians in all ages have longed and hoped: the coming of Christ Jesus our King.

The Church in this season stands in stark contrast with our culture. Go to any store and what will you see: Christmas lights and trees, Santa, and you will hear the cheerful music of Christmas. That is fine. I like all of those things. In fact, I am not an “Advent Nazi,” opposed to anything Christmas before the actual liturgical season.  But, I do think it a big mistake to not sit and linger with Advent and let Advent work on us. If we miss Advent then we miss an important piece of who each one of us is in Christ Jesus and a vital piece of the process of growing in our spiritual lives.

You and I live in a time of in-between. We are in-between the victory of God’s kingdom in the resurrection of Jesus and the final establishment of his Kingdom. Christ has secured the victory of God’s kingdom already, but the kingdom is not fully established yet. In Advent, we prepare for the first coming of Jesus as vulnerable, helpless baby in a cave in Bethlehem and his final coming as a victorious king with all of his heavenly hosts. We live in a world I like to call “already but not yet.”

The problem with living in the already but not yet is that we can get too easily distracted. Unless we pay very close attention to being aware and staying aware we can get caught up in the cuteness and preciousness of the baby Jesus being worshipped by Santa, and lose sight of the coming Victorious King that scares the preciousness clear out of the county!

Awareness is the key ingredient to a balanced life in Advent. Where will you take some time away during the next four weeks? Have you filled every waking moment with shopping and celebrations? Have you allowed your calendar to continue to rule your life? Where will you take some quiet to listen? Where will you take some time hear God’s “scritching and scratching” on the roads of your heart foraging for your being, your very soul?

Part of who you and I are in Christ Jesus is an in-between time follower who is in much need of practicing awareness. As we become aware, that is “wake up” to the signs of God’s coming reign in our lives, we can become more of who God has created us to be for the world in our in-between time.

Keep awake! The signs of God’s present kingdom are all around us.

Stay aware! God is continuing to create you into the likeness of Jesus.

Wake up! Let God lead you to your life of mission and ministry into the world.