Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
The Reverend Martha Frances
Year B, Pentecost 5, Proper 9
9 July 2006

Text:  Mark 6: 1-6
Other Readings: Ezekiel 2: 1-7; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12: 2-10

 

This story of Jesus’ return to his hometown of Nazareth reminds me of the retired schoolteacher being examined for jury duty.  First, the prosecuting attorney asked her, “Mrs. Russell, do you know me?

She responded, “Well, of course I know you, Johnny Smith.  I had both you & your brother Jerry in 8^th grade.  And frankly, I’m disappointed in you.  By now, I thought you would be a judge or at least a state representative.  I haven’t seen you in church in a long time either.”

Then the defense attorney queried the woman.  “Mrs. Russell, do you know me?”

Again, she shook her head in confirmation.  “You were in my class, too, Tommy Washington.  A fine violinist you would have made if you hadn’t been so eager to make money as a hot-shot lawyer.  What’s this I hear about your running around on that pretty wife of yours?”

At which time, the judge called both attorneys to the bench.  He exclaimed to the two of them, “Gentlemen, if either of you asks Mrs. Russell if she knows me, I’ll hold you in contempt of court!”

Like the people in this story, Jesus grew up in a small town, Nazareth, &, upon returning home, was asked to speak in the synagogue.  For once, the issue was not his healing on the Sabbath but rather a matter of his very identity.  Just like Mrs. Russell, they all knew him.  Here was Jesus, the hometown carpenter boy who had gone off as an itinerant preacher, back home again sounding like a rabbi, like an expert.  But they all knew this was Jesus who had worked in the carpenter’s shop making a living for his mother, brothers, & sisters after Joseph died.  This was Jesus, Mary’s son, who had made tables & door frames & windows for their homes & yokes for their oxen.  Who did he think he was, coming back home & teaching like he’d gone of to Jerusalem University & gotten a degree or something?  Sure, he sounded wise, but this was just Jesus.  They all knew him.

And with this story, we see human nature in all its glory.  We’re reminded first of Jesus’ humanity.  Jesus is the carpenter, the son of Mary, brother of James & Joses, Judas & Simon & at least 2 sisters.  Remember how he was left behind in Jerusalem the year he was 12?  How he worried his mother that time!

Second, we see the natural tendency of the townspeople.  They disbelieve that this common working man from their own home town could possibly be anyone special.  He isn’t even from one of the best families.  How could one of theirs know so much about the things of the Spirit?  Why, he’s only a layman!  Many of those who hear him are astounded.  In fact, they “took offense” which means they are scandalized—his being a hometown boy was a stumbling block for them.

And in the end, Jesus himself is amazed at their disbelief.  Not only is he amazed; their disbelief actually becomes a stumbling block to his effectiveness to minister there in Nazareth.  Mark has been describing Jesus’ many miraculous deeds in the previous several chapters: calming the storm, healing the woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years, & raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.  Pretty amazing actions, don’t you agree?  Here, in contrast, Jesus can do no work of power except for healing a few sick people.  This rejection by his own people restricts his ministry & causes him to move on, his work ended in Nazareth.  One commentary calls this an “unmiracle story.”

I pause here to think that, in 2 weeks, we will have one of our own back here at Hope to talk about her new book & sign copies.  Cecile Holmes was not only the religion editor for the Chronicle & a member of St. Michael’s; she also taught the EFM class that folks from Incarnation as well as St. Michael’s attended.  Now she’s gone off to teach at university in South Carolina & has written a book, Four Women & Three Faiths. There was even an article in the Chronicle yesterday about it. But what does she know?  She’s just a hometown gal.  Will we be open to what Cecile shares with us?

For some of you, my coming among you as priest might have been like Jesus coming home to Nazareth.  I had known a few long before I was ordained & then more of you when I was supplying both at Incarnation & St. Michael’s.  However, you have brought me into your fold as shepherd & teacher & friend.  We have worked together to meld this community into one & have done an amazing work over the past year.  We are coming to a familiarity & comfort with one another which now allows us to begin to grow deeper spiritually together & reach out to the larger world, both in our neighborhood & beyond. 

The lesson of our Gospel today applies to all of us as we strengthen our parish for mission & ministry.  Starting the last Sunday of the month, we are beginning a series of sessions in which we will be equipping ourselves for effective ministry, both within this parish & beyond it.  We are inviting one guest speaker to share with us, but most of the facilitators will be from within this church family.  We ourselves are endowed with many gifts & skills which are essential as we go forward in hope as Hope Episcopal.  I am excited about the work which our design team is doing to empower us all as disciples.  Each one of us is called to be a disciple by our baptism, & we are now gaining the skills & momentum to venture forward as a revived community of faith.  Let us affirm those who are willing to come forth as mentors & grow together to do the work which God is calling us to do in this place.

In the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about our providing the financial resources necessary to live into God’s call to us.  Indeed, we must be fiscally responsible & give generously for the work of Christ in this place.  I urge you to reach as deep as possible into your pockets for the ongoing ministry here at Hope.  And equally, I ask you to delve deep within your hearts, open yourself to how God is inviting you to grow as a person & a disciple in this community.  We’re all needed; none of us has the leisure to be an on-looker.  What will it cost?  Only your whole being.  What are the benefits?  An exciting & enriched journey which I understand leads into eternity.  Let’s travel together.

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Trinity Sunday

11 June 2006

Texts:  John 3:1-16; Exodus 3:1-6

Other readings: Canticle 13; Romans 8:12-17

 

            Today is Trinity Sunday.  On this day, we celebrate the coming of our God in three "persons," as the Creeds say, recognizing the mystery of the Holy Trinity while also being aware of the unity of the three persons of God.  We sang about this phenomenon in our first hymn this morning, "Holy, holy, holy."  After the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell among us last week at Pentecost, we are reminded today of the unity of the three basic ways God has been experienced through the ages:  Father, Son & Holy Spirit. 

            Today we also ponder 2 favorite Bible stories as we celebrate the Holy Trinity which is perhaps best grasped through symbol & story anyway.  One is the wonderful story of God's appearance to Moses on Mt. Horeb--or Sinai, speaking out of a burning bush.  Moses had fled from his troubles in Egypt out into the desert & seems content with being a husband & father & tending his father-in-law's sheep.  But God has other plans for him.  God has to get Moses' attention in the ordinariness of his daily work as a shepherd, so God causes a bush to burn but not be consumed by the fire.  Moses steps aside from his intended path out of curiosity, really, to see this great sight, as our reading calls it.  We might call it a sign, mightn't we?  The technical religious word for this occasion is "theophany"—an appearance of God to a human or humans. 

After getting Moses' attention, God calls out to him, "Moses, Moses!"  Moses answers, as many others have done throughout the ages, "Here I am!"  Does Moses have a clue what he is getting into?  Moses may have his doubts, but God is persistent once God chooses someone for a task.  God calls Moses out of his life as father to his own children to take on the life of leader to a whole nation. 

            God tells Moses to take off his shoes because the place on which he stands is Holy Ground.  Notice that there's no temple, synagogue or church nearby.  What makes the ground holy is not because people set it aside as a sacred space but because Moses encounters God there.  Wherever we encounter God is sacred space for us.  It’s as if God were Moses’ host, saying, “Kick off your shoes & rest here; you’re in my presence.”  Perhaps shoes which protect us from the rigors of the ground also make us insensitive to what our soles/souls might feel.  God wants us fully in touch with our world.  God's presence makes a place or a time sacred, doesn't it? 

God's presence also causes Moses to hide his face for he doesn't feel worthy to look at God.  It’s not so much what Moses is able to know about God as that Moses is known by God; God takes the initiative in this encounter.  God calls Moses---& God calls us---away from any sense of unworthiness to do God's work in the world.  There's a saying which has certainly been true over & over again in my own life:  God doesn't choose the equipped but equips the chosen.  God provides a way for those God chooses to fulfill the tasks to which we've been called. 

            People often ask me when I first felt God’s call.  Looking back on it now, I felt called to give my life to God's work when I was 12 years old.  Women weren't ordained way back in the dark ages when I went to college, so I trained to teach, endeavoring to be a Christian teacher.  After all, as we were reminded when we renewed our baptismal vows last Sunday, we are all called by our baptism to be ministers of God's word & work in the world.  I was also called as a mother to provide a Christian home for my boys. Through the years, I realized my call to ordained ministry.  Did I waste all those years before I went to seminary & became a priest?  Of course not.  Every life experience was valid in itself, & God used each to prepare me, to equip me for today’s ministry. 

            Many of you already take seriously this call to discipleship, the call to minister in your daily work & in the church community.  As we develop the mission of Hope to continually be transformed ourselves so that we can become agents of transformation for Christ in our world, I hope you respond with vigor to that call to be a disciple, to minister in your daily life.  The men of the congregation have an opportunity to become more equipped to do Christ’s work as you meet tomorrow evening to reactivate the Brotherhood of St. Andrew chapter here at Hope.  Women have a similar opportunity with our summer book study on Wednesday nights beginning this week following the Eucharist.

Another story worth pondering is that of Nicodemus.  Nicodemus is drawn to Jesus at night.  After all, he's one of the Jewish leaders, so he doesn't want to be too obvious about his fascination with Jesus.  What would the neighbors think? 

            Nicodemus approaches Jesus & calls him "Rabbi."  He recognizes Jesus as a learned man, a teacher of the law like himself.  These are two religious teachers relating to each other.  However, Nicodemus & Jesus almost talk past each other, passing each other like ships in the night.  Nicodemus recognizes Jesus' supernatural power, so he asks Jesus of its origin.  Jesus answers with "very truly," a signal to listen up because what will follow is important.  Then Jesus mentions the kingdom of God, a phrase almost never found in John's gospel, saying one cannot experience the kingdom of God without being born from above.  Now I know we're used to the older translation of this passage as "born again," & that's how Nicodemus understands it, but Jesus really means "born from above."  People in Jesus’ day believed heaven—where God dwells—to be "up there" so Nicodemus should know Jesus refers to being born from God. 

            However, Nicodemus misses the point as do so many people in the book of John.  Nicodemus' literal interpretation of Jesus' words is comic, isn't it?  Nicodemus wants to know if he must re-enter his mother's womb & be born again.  Jesus tries to move Nicodemus—& us—away from simply literal meanings when he talks of being born of water & the Spirit.  Jesus tries to help Nicodemus & us by using one of the translations the Greek word pneuma for Spirit which means both wind & breath.  Actually, the Hebrew word ruah is also translated wind & breath, which reminds us of God's first creation where God breathes forth all living things. 

            Are we in charge of this Spirit?  Can we control it?  No more than we can control where the wind blows, Jesus says.  Jesus emphasizes that only God is in charge, but Nicodemus, dense as ever, still asks, "How can these things be?"  Jesus then explains how God’s reign will come.  He predicts his own death:  the Son of Man must be lifted up—both in crucifixion & in resurrection.  What is the result?  John says the kingdom of God is eternal life.  What must a person possess to receive eternal life?  Jesus says it’s simple:  we must believe in him.

            Then comes what is perhaps the most well-known & well-beloved verse in all of John & perhaps in all the Bible.  We know it so well that perhaps we don't even hear what it has to say to us.  Jesus tells Nicodemus--& all of us--that God loved the world so much that God gave his only Son.  Why?  Because God wants us all to be saved, not to perish, but to have eternal life.  Notice what this says.  God wants ALL of us to be part of God's kingdom, God's reign.  God isn't just looking for a few good men--or women.  God wants us all.

            And God wants our all.  What is required of us?  To believe. We're called to give ourselves fully to God.  God asks us for a whole new orientation of our lives—that we live lives of ongoing transformation.  Jesus says a person must be redirected, repositioned, reconstituted before God.  God is calling us to give ourselves totally to this conversion, this re-creation.  How do we know this?  Jesus tells us ahead of time what is going to happen.  God is giving us God's only son.  God isn't withholding anything.  God gives all & God asks us for our total commitment.

            You see, in giving us Jesus, as a man here on earth but also as God's only son given so totally he was killed on the cross, God is acting out a belief in us.   It’s an invitation for us to join God & God’s Son, with the power of the Spirit, in eternal life.  Sounds pretty Trinitarian, doesn’t it?  That's not someday in the sweet by & by.  That's eternal life starting right now.  What do we have to do?  It's quite simple, really.  God just wants our all.  God just wants everything.  God wants us to act out our belief just as God has acted toward us by letting the Spirit redirect our whole lives.

            Does this happen overnight?  Yes, & no.  We can make a decision immediately to turn our will & our lives over to the care of God as we understand God. Then, we must live as disciples day by day for the rest of our lives.  The decision to believe gets us started on the road.  If belief doesn't grow legs & walk, sometimes even skipping & leaping, but most of the time just taking the next right step, then it withers & dies. 

            The next half of the year, during the season of Pentecost, we will be reading in our Sunday scripture lessons & studying in our adult formation classes what it means to be a disciple.  We'll continue to build Christian community in activities like I’ve already mentioned but also in discipleship training which will begin in late July.  We’re hoping that here at Hope, we will discover, at a deeper level than ever before, what belief in God looks like acted out in a Christian life.  This business of giving ourselves over to God’s service will take the rest of our lives, but we're supposed to be in this together.  Let us give ourselves anew to this call to ministry & mission.

 

Hope Episcopal Church

Houston, TX

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

The Feast of Pentecost

4 June 2006

 

Text: John 20: 19-23; Acts 2: 1-11    

Other Readings: I Corinthians 12: 4-13; Psalm 104: 25-32

 

As we read in several other languages (in Spanish) this morning, I’m sure some of you tuned us out, assuming that we don’t have anything to say to you since we aren’t  speaking your language.  Did you return to some level of listening when we switched to English, the language most of us consider our first—& some our only—language?  Language is a powerful form of communication, but not the only one.  Some of you are speaking clearly this morning with your eyes, attentive & anxious to hear what is shared.  Others speak with your bodies, perhaps even nodding off a bit.  In fact, when my husband Bill was first an Episcopalian, he complained a little that Episcopal sermons were too short to get in a good nap!

Today’s readings on this Pentecost Sunday 2005 are for all of us, “every race & nation,” as we prayed in the collect this morning.  So we hear the story in several languages spoken by members of our congregation (the 2 languages I read well enough not to embarrass myself). 

            The story of Pentecost is as multi-layered as it is many-languaged, so we’ll look at 2 Biblical writers’ versions of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the core event of the Christian celebration of Pentecost. 

            Notice that John’s Gospel reading occurs on Easter evening, the 1^st day of the week, we’re told.  Since Jesus’ resurrection—the distinguishing event of his life—occurred on Sunday morning, Christians have held Sunday special, especially appropriate for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  Where do we find the disciples this very first Easter Sunday?  Locked up in the upper room, of course.  Hidden & frightened for what will happen to them now that their master has been killed. 

When Jesus appears, he greets them with a fulfillment of one of his promises:  “Peace be with you”—peace that comes from belief in him, not from absence of conflict.  He offers his hands & side in proof that he, indeed, is the one who was crucified yet is alive again, bodily & not just as a spirit.  Only when they see his hands & side do the disciples rejoice.  Jesus gets right to the point when he tells those gathered there that he is sending them out into the world?  A larger number of disciples than just the 12 are hovered there, no doubt seeking safety in numbers.  He sends  them out to tell what they’ve seen & heard & touched.  Mary Magdalene has told them the same thing earlier this day, but they are yet too paralyzed to act on her words.  And anyway, she is just a woman, isn’t she?

When Jesus breathes on them, he gives them the Holy Spirit, right then on Easter evening according to John, for the express purpose of giving them the gift of forgiveness. 

With Jesus’ breath, the Holy Spirit descends.  Remember when God created the earth & all that is in it, God breathed into all living beings life—breath—spirit.  In John’s version of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples Jesus’ work & that’s centered in forgiveness of sins. 

Eugene Peterson paraphrases this last verse, “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good.  If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”  Our scriptures return us to the need to forgive each other so that we aren’t separated by old wounds & angers.  What are you going to do with resentments of friends & family—or perhaps the church family—you haven’t let go of?  Who’s being hurt by them?  What good does it do to hang on to them?  Jesus gifts us with the Holy Spirit to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves so we can live as one body, one community. 

Luke, the writer of Acts, tells the Pentecost story as 50 days after Easter.  The disciples are again together in one place when God puts on quite a special effects’ show: a rush of violent wind & then tongues as of fire rest on each of them.  God has amazing ways of getting our attention when we least expect it! 

God works through wind.  “Ruach,” a Hebrew word, is translated wind, breath, & also spirit.  Like the disciples, we can be filled with the spirit right here today as we breathe in deeply to be invigorated to sing & pray & praise. 

God is in the tongues of fire.  How interesting that the fire appears in the form of tongues, & the disciples are empowered to speak in various tongues, or languages!  The disciples are simple Galilean workers who have traveled with Jesus through his lifetime, yet language is no barrier as they share God’s deeds of power with people from all over the known world.   Only by the Holy Spirit’s power do these Galileans break down the boundaries of language & differentness to tell Jesus’ story.  Don’t you imagine that the disciples are as amazed & astonished as those to whom they speak?  Peterson says they are all thunderstruck, & so we might be.

The remainder of Acts tells the spread of the gospel throughout their world, in some cases despite persecution & in other cases because of it.  The Holy Spirit didn’t descend on those early disciples of Jesus just for this one Pentecost, however.  We would assume far too little of the living God if we thought the Holy Spirit only present in that one time & place.

Indeed, the whole point of the story—John’s version or Luke’s—is that the Holy Spirit is given to us today just as the Spirit has been with Christians throughout the ages.  Further, the Spirit isn’t given to you or me or the guy over there alone so one of us might be a super Christian doing Christ’s work better than anyone else.  No, the Spirit & the gifts the Spirit brings are to empower the Church to do Christ’s work in the world.  We all need the Spirit, & we all need each other to do the work we’re called to do. 

Today’s passage from 1^st Corinthians reminds us that we all need each other for none is given all the gifts of the Spirit. The gift each is given is a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, as Paul says. 

Paul continues this way:  “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—& we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”  To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be baptized in the Spirit, & Pentecost is a traditional baptismal day in the church.  We have 2 young ladies offering themselves for baptism today, & with them we will renew our baptismal promises as we each continue to become a new creation.

In so doing, we join their parents & godparents in raising them up in the faith.  Let’s take such a responsibility seriously, with Karina & Marissa & all the children in our community.

In just a moment, we will state the Apostles’ Creed—connecting us again with these same disciples who received the Holy Spirit on that Pentecost so long ago.  Then, I will ask you 5 questions to which you will respond:  “I will, with God’s help.”  We recognize that we can’t fulfill any of them without God’s help, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, these promises will guide us to know how to grow in Christ’s love & how to share Christ’s love with others.  As you stand in a few moments to renew the Baptismal Promises, you are literally standing on the promises which you renew today.  Take them seriously.  They define our lives together as community.

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Easter VII

The Sunday after Ascension Day

28 May 2006

 

 Texts:  Acts 1: 15-26 & John 17: 11b-19

Other readings:  Psalm 47; 1 John 5: 9-15

 

The readings for today are really quite peculiar.  We have first one of

the 2 stories of the death of Judas, this one the more bloody & horrible.

And then we find the story of the choosing of another apostle to take the

place of Judas with the other 11 disciples.  We also read today two

lessons from John the Evangelist, & I must admit these lessons are

somewhat confusing to me.  John says a lot about this thing called "unity"

with the disciples working together in the power of Jesus Christ.  He's

pretty repetitious.  No indeed-the readings are not easy.

 

Neither is this time of year easy.  In the liturgical calendar, we

celebrated the Ascension of Jesus into heaven last Thursday.  Next Sunday,

we celebrate one of the great festivals of the church year, Pentecost, &

this year, in addition to our morning Eucharists & church picnic, we will

all meet back at 4:00 in the afternoon for a worship service celebrating

the renewal of all our ministries as well as my institution as your

rector.  What a wonderful opportunity to affirm once again our new lease

on our community life as we move forward to fulfill our mission as one!

 

Meanwhile, in these days in between Ascension and Pentecost, our days are

perhaps like being in a hallway.  One door has closed, & we are counting

on another opening soon.  Which door will open?  And when?  It isn't easy

to live in the middle.  I don't like being in the hallway.  I want another

door to open very quickly.  In the Gospel for today, Jesus indicates that

we are living in the middle-in the in-between time.  Jesus tells God, "Now

I am going where you are; but I ask these things while I am in the world."

Jesus is in his in-between time, & we, just as the disciples for whom

Jesus prays, are living in the middle.

 

The story in Acts is actually a very familiar story in many ways, for we

see the disciples, just after Jesus' Ascension, beginning to regroup, to

prepare for the mission which Jesus has given them.  They've suffered a

great loss, the shock of Jesus' death & then the period of time after the

resurrection when he is with them, giving them last minute instructions &

empowering them to spread the Good News.  Then, before they can get used

to his presence again, he is gone.  What are they to do? 

 

The number 12 has been vital to them, not only because there were 12

tribes of Israel whom they are now to reach but also because 12 is a

number of completeness, so they go about choosing another 12th man.  I

don't think the Aggies' 12th man has Biblical significance, but we

certainly understand their need to fill in the gap.  The criteria for the

new apostle is that he must have been with them from the beginning-as far

back as Jesus' baptism-but also that witnessed the resurrection.  There

are 2 candidates, but notice that the apostles don't try to control the

outcome.  They pray & then draw lots.  They leave the choice up to God.

They trust that God will provide the right person.  Now, they are ready to

go out to fulfill the mission Christ has equipped them for.  The rest of

the book of Acts describes the beginnings of that mission to which even we

are heir.

 

The Gospel lesson from St. John is part of the great high priestly prayer

which Jesus prays asking God to protect & strengthen the disciples.  Jesus

knows that he can't stay with the disciples much longer, & he prays to God

for his disciples.  They are going to need strength & unity for the days

which follow.  It's true that it isn't necessary for Jesus to relate

anything to God as God already knows all, but the evangelist John offers

Jesus' concern for the disciples in the form of a prayer.  Certainly, this

is one way Jesus teaches the disciples so they won't forget that God gives

them all they need to continue Jesus' work in the world.  Jesus asks God

to take care of them & protect them when Jesus returns to the nearer

presence of God.  Jesus' desire for the disciples to find joy is so strong

that he says their joy will be his.

 

The reports on the Gospel of Judas which has just recently been discovered

purport to announce a new concept-that Judas' betrayal of Jesus was simply

part of the plan.  Our Gospel today has been part of the canon of

scripture since the early days of the Christian Church & says the same

thing.  Jesus says the only disciple that was lost was the one destined to

be lost so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  I haven't read the

Gospel of Judas yet, but at least regarding this one point, John has been

pretty clear centuries earlier.

 

Another important element in the Gospel reading for us is that Jesus does

not expect the disciples to withdraw from the world; God will not whisk

them away to a safe place separated from the struggles of worldly life.

No, the disciples' work is indeed interacting in the everyday life of

people.  Jesus instead asks for them-& for us-God's protection & guidance

& some degree of joy as we reach out to others & experience the

vicissitudes of life.  The equipment we need to fulfill Christ's work in

the world is Christ's word which is truth.  Jesus asks that we be

sanctified-set apart as holy-so that we may be empowered to share that

truth with others.

 

Notice also that Jesus has already won the victory; that's not our mission

because it's already been done with his death & resurrection.  The

disciples' job-& that includes you & me-is to work out that victory so

that all who possibly can may experience Christ's love & pass it on to

others.  That's the work of the Church today, & we are the Church.  We

don't have to all think the same way, but Christ calls us to unity in

mission so that the world will be a better place because he & his

disciples have been in it. 

 

We at Hope are being empowered for mission in our community, & the doors

of our hallway are opening for us to venture beyond & share the Good News

with others.  During the weeks of Pentecost, let us be committed to doing

just that.

 

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Easter V
14 May 2006

 

Texts:  Acts 8: 26-40 & John 14: 15-21

Other readings:  Psalm 66: 1-8; 1 John 3: [14-17] 18-24

 

            John the Evangelist tells us in the Gospel today that Jesus says "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."  In the epistle by the same author, he tells us that we are to love not in word or speech but in truth & action.  Later in the epistle, he says our belief in Jesus Christ is demonstrated by our love of one another.  Gee, whiz, here we go again.  Here we go talking about what we're supposed to DO as Christians.  Isn't it enough for us to say we believe?  What does Jesus expect from us?  After all, most of us are just regular working folk, or retired & trying to enjoy our retirement.  We’re all so busy it’s hard to find time even to get to the church for a meeting.   How could Jesus expect anything of us?

            Pay attention, my friends.  I see nothing here about Jesus speaking, or John later writing, just to wealthy people who drive luxury cars & live in River Oaks.  Jesus is speaking to his disciples in this last opportunity he has for teaching on the night he is arrested.  Who are his disciples?  He's talking to the men & women who've remained with him even when the crowds gave up & drifted away.  He's talking to those who have stuck with him, but they're just fishermen, tax collectors, semi-skilled workers, regular folk like you & me, & he's telling them what it takes to be a disciple.  He's telling them that believing in him isn't just an intellectual exercise or even just a warm, fuzzy feeling we get in our hearts.  Nope, believing in him means we've got work to do.  Believing in him means we've gotta love our neighbors.

            I don't know about you, but my neighbors aren't always that lovable.  They don't play my sort of music, you see, but they're proud of it because they play it LOUD!  The TV plays early morning to late at night—the one that's against the wall of our living room.  Some of them aren’t very fond of my fine black wiener dog & the folks who own the water wall park don’t want me to take him walking there.  They complain about the strangest things, & they take forever to get on & off the elevator.  Then there are the neighbors who drive like they got their driver’s licenses out of a Post Toasties’ box. 

             You mean those are the neighbors I'm supposed to love, Jesus?  Yep, he says, they're the ones I mean.  As well as the ones who take up two places in a busy parking lot, the ones who ask for money on the street corners, & the ones who call during dinner to sell me magazines I don't have time to read.  Those neighbors!  Well, Jesus, just how the heck do you expect me to pull off this love-your-neighbor bit?  I'm not very patient, you see, & I have a temper.

            Jesus tells us that he will ask God, his Abba, to send another Advocate to be with us forever.  It's interesting that Jesus says God will send ANOTHER Advocate.  I think that tells us that Jesus himself has been the first Advocate, & certainly, Jesus' life is an example of one called alongside the poor & disenfranchised, whom other people considered unworthy.  The Greek word is "Parakletos" which is also often translated a counselor or comforter, but a better translation is a strengthener, one whose presence beside us makes us brave & strong. 

            This Advocate is like the best of attorneys, one who believes in us enough that we can believe in ourselves.  John tells us in the epistle that God is greater than our hearts, & God knows everything.  John continues, "Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; & we receive from him whatever we ask,. . . ."  Notice first that we are called "beloved."  God takes the initiative in this love business.  God loves us first.  God doesn't ask us to behave toward others in any way that God hasn't behaved toward us first. 

            Yet, what do we do in response?  Often, we put ourselves down.  We say something like, "Well, I'm not able to do much.  I don’t have any special talents.  And I’m terribly busy.  I have the children, you know.  And my husband has been poorly lately."  I think that's what John means when he says that our hearts often condemn us.  We can think of every reason in the world that we aren't good enough or smart enough or strong enough to behave like a disciple. 

However, if we recognize in ourselves the precious children whom God created us to be, then we can have boldness to do whatever God asks us to do.  We are promised that God will give us what we need, often through the one Jesus calls the Advocate but whom we usually call the Holy Spirit.  Where is the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit is "abiding", or "indwelling," we're told, in each one of us; in me, but also in you, & you, & you, & even in that "neighbor" who most irritates you.  Some of us keep our indwelling Spirit pretty covered up deep inside.  But again, God takes the initiative to call that Spirit of God to be present in each of us.  And God calls us to do our part in recognizing that Spirit which abides in those we encounter, even those who really get our goats.

            We have an example today of an apostle acting like a disciple in Luke's wonderful story about Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch.  Let's look at it more closely.

            First, Philip doesn't just happen to meet this Ethiopian eunuch because he is wandering down this wilderness road.  No, Philip gets a message from an angel of the Lord directing him to that very spot.  God takes the initiative from the get-go.  In a passage just a few verses back, Philip has been on a successful evangelistic crusade in Samaria, preaching the good news of Jesus, healing many people who respond with great joy.  So it's curious that the angel rushes him away to a lonely road to nowhere & to one foreigner, & on top of that, a eunuch. 

            Now eunuchs are not even allowed entry into the temple by Jewish law, yet he has been to Jerusalem to worship.  He is at least a God-fearer & is certainly an earnest inquirer, now searching the scriptures as he returns to Ethiopia in his chariot.  He's a high court official, treasurer for the Candace, which is a title like Pharoah, & that is why he can afford a chariot & doesn't have to walk on his pilgrimage.  Philip has to have some of that boldness we read about in the epistle in order even to approach such a bigwig. 

            The eunuch is reading aloud, as most people did in those days, so Philip asks if he understands what he is reading.  The eunuch is probably pretty relieved to see a Jew who must know more than he does about the Jewish scriptures, so he invites Philip to enlighten him.  Early Christians believed that Jesus gave them the key to interpret Hebrew scriptures, what we often call the Old Testament.  So naturally, Philip’s good news is that Jesus has fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy for he is God’s servant who in humility bears the consequences of others' sins.  Philip's actions that day illustrate the 3rd baptismal promise:  "Will you proclaim by word & example the Good News of God in Christ?"  We all respond, "I will, with God's help."  And, certainly, God's Spirit was with Philip as he explained scripture to the eunuch.  If we're doing what God calls us to do, God truly abides with us. 

            Philip has told the eunuch the story of salvation & before long, the eunuch spots some water in this arid land & asks to be baptized.  What an affirmation to Philip that he is fulfilling Jesus' great commission to go out to the ends of the earth, proclaim the good news, & baptize all people!  We don’t know what then happens to the eunuch after this, & Philip disappears immediately after the baptism, continuing to preach the good news all the way back to Caesarea. 

However, in this story Luke emphasizes how Jesus’ Gospel breaks down both geographic & ethnic barriers in the early Christian community.  At this Easter time of year, we are drawn to the similarities of this story to Jesus' encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus the evening after his resurrection.  Perhaps the eunuch, just like those disciples, tells the good news himself as he returns to the Candace's service in what is now the Sudan. 

            I haven't seen many chariots coming down 43^rd Street lately, but each of us has ample opportunity to reach out to our neighbors, not only in word & speech, as John says, but in truth & action in our daily lives.  I had on my backward collar not long ago as I was in BabiesRUs buying a shower gift.  The saleswoman couldn't figure out what to call me, but when I told her I am a priest, she told me of the rough time in her life right now & asked for a blessing.  So, by golly, I laid my hands upon her right there in the store & prayed for her, sealing her with the cross of Christ in front of God & everybody. 

            Most of you don't wear distinctive clothing to show that you're a Christian other than perhaps a cross around your neck, but the way you live your life every day speaks volumes.  Turning away from an angry person rather than reacting with bitter words is an incredibly difficult thing to do, but you're not alone, are you?  Remember the Advocate abides with you, indwelling in that soul-spot deep within you.  Bowing to say grace when you eat out is a true witness to the priorities in your life as is tipping the waitstaff a healthy sum since they make little else.

            There was a bumper sticker a few years ago which I loved.  It said, "Practice random acts of kindness."  I'd like to challenge you today to be alert.  To watch this next week for opportunities to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ by your actions, whether or not the other person knows that your Advocate, your strengthener, is the Holy Spirit.  Whether or not the other person is even aware of your action.  What difference might your acting like a disciple make in your own life this week?  What difference might it make in your neighbor's?

 

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Easter III

30 April 2006

Texts:  Luke 24: 36b-48

Other readings:  Acts 4: 5-12; Psalm 98: 1-5; 1 John 1:1 - 2:2

 

            Last Sunday we looked at one of Jesus' resurrection appearances on Easter Sunday night as recorded by John.  Today, our Gospel reading is Luke's Sunday night story, & I'd like for us to enter this story similarly to what we did with John's story last week in our becoming "characters" in Luke’s resurrection story.

            It is late on Sunday night, & we have been together most of the time since the horror of the crucifixion on Friday.  Still stunned by the emotion-laden events of the past few days, we aren't sure what to do, but it's too dangerous & frightening out there on the streets of the city, so we remain together, sitting in silence much of the time, then recounting what has happened in groups of 2 or 3 from time to time.  We had thought that our friend & rabbi Jesus was the Messiah for whom all we Jews have been waiting expectantly, & then he allowed himself to be captured & crucified.  We should have seen it coming the other night when we shared the Passover supper with him.  What extraordinary words he had to say when he blessed & then shared the bread & wine!  Is it all to come to nothing?

            Then, as if out of nowhere, here he is with us once again.  Jesus is among us, proclaiming "Peace be with you."  Of course we're terrified!  Wouldn't you be?  We've never seen a ghost before.  But he tells us that there's no need for fear; that we can touch his hands & feet.  Look!  He's eating a piece of broiled fish!  Ghosts can't eat, can they?  Is it possible that what the women returning from the tomb told us is true?  Even Peter said that the tomb was empty when he went to check it out this morning.  And our friends returned from Emmaus with an amazing story of encountering Jesus on the road.  We thought they were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.  But, can Jesus possibly be alive?  Yes, here he is, among us.

            Listen!  What is Jesus telling us?  That his suffering & crucifixion & then this resurrection fulfill what we have been told in our scriptures.  That what we've read & sung about in our psalms is really coming true in our lives.  How can this be?  It's happening far too fast!  My head is spinning!

            What's he saying now about repentance & forgiveness of sins?  Preach this message to all nations?  Who, me?  Just because I've been a witness?  What does he mean?  It's far too dangerous out there.  Just look what happened to him!  Who does he think I am?

 

            Today, on the 30^th of April in the year 2006, here at Hope Episcopal Church on 43^rd St.,  who does Jesus think that I am?  Who are you?  Who are we all who call ourselves Christian?  Are we witnesses to the risen Jesus?  Does he mean for us to go & tell the nations?  What does Jesus' resurrection appearance in Jerusalem that Easter Sunday night long ago have to do with us? 

            Yes, indeed, Jesus does mean us.  You & me.  Jesus joins us today, as we celebrate this ancient ritual of Holy Eucharist in contemporary language & as we hear the state-of-our-parish from our wardens at the quarterly meeting after worship today.  Jesus joins us each time we read his Word from the Bible & stand to affirm our faith in the Creed.  Jesus joins us when we pray for our sisters & brothers in the Prayers of the People, coming today from throughout the congregation because they are the prayers among all of us. 

Jesus stands among us & says, “What are you going to do about those for whom you pray?”  How are we to proclaim repentance & forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name to all nations?  That's what we say we'll do, after all.  When we gather at Christ's table to receive the bread & wine of Eucharist, sharing a meal together & being nourished in Jesus' name, what task are we nourished for?  What would Jesus have us do?  Who are those with whom we are supposed to preach repentance & forgiveness? 

            I remember a friend with both cancer & a heart condition whom I visited when I was a chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital.  When I walked into his room one day, I found him sitting up in bed, holding the rapt attention of two lay chaplains & his nurse with stories of his ministry with inmates in prison.  I wondered for a minute who the real chaplain was.  Weeks before Benny died, he was sharing Jesus' repentance & forgiveness with inmates in prison.  Shortly after Benny's death, his wife led a Kairos weekend at the Hobby women's unit at Marlin. 

            I’ll never forget one New Year’s morning at Lord of the Streets after the clean & sober overnight we hosted so our parishioners could stay safe & well fed on a very dangerous night for street people.  Movies ran all night, blankets were available for all who wanted to crash in the hallways, & hot breakfast was served before they left to spend a New Year on the streets.  One fellow asked for bus tokens for a day pass for his new friend.  He explained, “I can pay for my own bus fare, but this fellow has just gotten to town, & I want to show him the places he can stay warm & get a bite to eat on this holiday.”  Christ’s love extended to another in a new city on a cold winter holiday.

            When we speak to newcomers in church & invite them to coffee in the parish hall, encourage them to join a small group or help out on a workday, remember their names next time they come, & encourage them to come again, we are all reaching out with God’s love to others.  The Vacation Bible School, the Blessing of the Pets, a Halloween carnival we have planned for October, & Joys of Christmas are all opportunities we have as a church community to reach into the neighborhood, & we need your participation in all of them.  What about your relationships with co-workers, neighbors, workers where you shop, & your social contacts?  Have you invited them to church?  Has your daily behavior in their company made them desire to know you & your community?  We don’t share Christ with others just to get them inside our church.  That may or may not be a bonus when we reach out in joy & generosity to others in Jesus’ name. 

Jesus says that everything written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets, & the psalms is fulfilled in his life, death & resurrection.  Jesus emphasizes the need to have open minds which understand--or strive to understand--the scriptures.  Jesus promises that we will be empowered to go forth, & one way to be clothed with power from on high is to immerse ourselves in disciplined study of God’s word.   We have a Bible study group at 9:00 each Sunday morning over in the parish hall yearning to do just that.  If you’d like to start a weekday or evening Bible study, see me for we’re in process of developing small groups.

Luke tells us that Jesus opened their minds, & his message was his life, his suffering & death, & his resurrection from the dead.  The promise he said would come to us if we repent & return to God is forgiveness of sins.  That is also the promise we proclaim to those to whom we tell the good news. 

            This message of forgiveness is a powerful one which we sometimes miss or discount.  I talked of forgiveness last week also, but the Easter season proclaims the freedom we receive & give when we take forgiveness seriously in our lives.  We pray every time we say the Lord's Prayer that we may be forgiven just as we forgive others their sin.  Hmmm.  Those two actions seem to be closely connected, don't they?  Indeed, in the model prayer Jesus taught his disciples we pray we can fully receive the fruits of forgiveness only if we are willing to forgive others their wrongs against us.  First, can we forgive ourselves for those things we hold deep within our hearts but which Jesus wants to forgive us for? 

            How can we tell that we are living into God's forgiveness of us?  Our attitudes & our actions change.  We reach out to be that light that the writer of First John told us about this morning.  "If we confess our sin, God who is faithful & just will both forgive us our sin but also cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Oh dear, that means that we may have to change not only our thoughts but our actions!  We may have to begin to see others as Christ sees them, as Christ's precious brothers & sisters, as our precious brothers & sisters.  This business of our living as Easter people, as resurrection people, means that we have to accept ourselves & each other as loved children of God.  When we've been forgiven, we have to start acting as forgiven people, to live lives of gratitude instead of scarcity.

            The season of Easter is the perfect time for us to strengthen our bond with the Christian community so that we are better able to go forth in Christ's name.  I invite you to come & see.  Then I encourage you to go forth & tell the good news of Jesus to all whom you encounter.  Our church community can be your grounding for your outreach to others.  Ours will be a powerful witness if we learn to live out of that life of abundance regardless of how much or little we possess in this world.  Let us commit to be Easter people during this season so it may spill out in abundance in all our lives.

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Second Sunday of Easter

23 April 2006

Texts:  John 20: 19-31 

Other readings:  Acts 13: 12a, 13-15, 17-26; Psalm 118: 19-24; 1 John 5: 1-6

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter Day, the high point of the church year, when we rejoice in Jesus Christ risen from the dead.  For the disciples, Easter was a new beginning, & we are encouraged to celebrate Easter every Sunday as we affirm the resurrection in our own lives.  Each Sunday, we hear the Word of God, the Logos as is represented in our scripture readings, as well as participate in the commemorative meal that Jesus shared with his first disciples & commanded us to repeat in remembrance of Jesus’ gift of life. 

            Today, we at Hope also continue to celebrate new beginnings.  We remember that our worship & life together as a joined community began just a year ago, & last Tuesday night our vestry called me to be your rector & I accepted.  If all goes as planned, we will celebrate my institution & new ministry officially on Pentecost afternoon, 5 June, about 4:00 p.m.  Our communal call to grow to be a more vital parish, better fulfilling our commitment to serve God’s world in this place, will continue as we grow into the mission statement and goals we have developed.

            Also, I want to point out that from now until Pentecost, 7 weeks from now, is Eastertime, or the Easter season, & we emphasize the stories of Jesus’ appearances to the disciples after the resurrection.  After all, the resurrection makes us Christian, for we celebrate Jesus as fully human but also his breaking out of the bonds of human life & death because he is also divine.  This stupendous gift of God to us cannot be contained in one Sunday or one week but we celebrate it for 7 weeks because Jesus' resurrection makes all the difference.  The alleluias which we buried for the 6 weeks of Lent abound during Easter season so we lift up our voices again & again to say "Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!"

            Today our Gospel reading takes us to Easter evening, "that day," the evangelist John tells us, "the first day of the week."  We find ourselves with the disciples huddled in the upper room, wondering what on earth will happen to us now.  Several of us have been to the tomb & found it empty.  Mary Magdalene tells the story of encountering the gardener at Gethsemane, & then her eyes were opened to see that the gardener was indeed Jesus.  She exclaims to the other disciples when she joins them, "I have seen the Lord!"  What are we to think about these happenings?  What are we to DO about them?

            We’re not left to wonder for long because Jesus appears in our midst.  He stands among us & says "Peace be with you," an interesting contrast to angels who always begin their appearance with "Don't be afraid."  Jesus comes & offers peace to us.  He knows that we disciples want assurance so offers his hands & his side.  We can actually see that he has been crucified & has come to us in bodily form.  Yet, wait a minute;  the door is locked!  How did he get in here?

            We’ve been presuming that all is back to normal.  Now Jesus proclaims that he is sending us out into the world, & he equips us with the Holy Spirit.  The scripture states that Jesus breathes on us, so literally, the Church is "inspired" by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Does this remind you of the creation story at the beginning of time when God breathed the breath of life into humans, the Spirit which had hovered over the deep which was infused into creation by God's very own breath?  Jesus now inspires us with such breath, with such power.  Here Jesus makes good his vow that he made before his crucifixion to send the Paraclete.  Some translations call this Spirit "the Advocate," a legal term for an attorney or someone else who stands up with us, taking our side. 

            Jesus is pretty specific about what gift the Spirit empowers us to share with others.  It is the gift of forgiveness.  We're to go out & offer the new covenant of reconciliation, as the collect for this Sunday states.  We prayed in that prayer early in our service for God to give us the power to show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith.  Jesus calls us to share the gift of forgiveness with others.  When we don't do that, what happens?  Jesus says it right here:  the sins which we retain—those we're unwilling to ask God's forgiveness for—will continue to haunt us. 

            Some of us are plagued with such unforgiveness this morning.  I would wager we’ve all lived with the sin of unforgiveness from time to time in our lives.  Right here, in Jesus' first appearance to most of the disciples, Jesus tells us to ask & receive forgiveness.  What are the sins that you are holding onto, which you don't believe can ever be forgiven?  Who are we to hold on to sins for which Jesus so freely offers forgiveness? Why is this forgiveness of sins so important right from the get-go?  Jesus is sending the disciples out to the world to live a resurrected life.  How can we be effective proclaimers of the Gospel if we're weighed down by the sin of unforgiveness?  In a few minutes, we will confess our sins to God before we come to the table for communion.  I urge you to offer up those sins to God & take seriously the absolution I will pronounce in God's name so that you will be equipped to be sent out as an agent of reconciliation to the world in Christ's name.  Immediately after the confession & absolution, we offer communion, the body & blood of Christ, the sacred meal through which we can be strengthened to be Christ's disciples.

            What did the original disciples do after this incredible encounter with Jesus?  All we know is they talked about it enough among themselves that Thomas found out what he'd missed by not being in the upper room that Easter night.  The church has labeled good ole Thomas "the Doubter" because of today's gospel story.  Why is it Thomas's doubting we remember rather than his earlier suggestion that the disciples go to Jerusalem with Jesus in a courageous move to accompany Jesus to almost certain death?  Thomas has a negative reputation as one slow to accept the risen Jesus until the evidence is overwhelming.  Actually, Jesus affirms this interpretation when he says "Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have come to believe."

            How many of us are like Thomas?  Have you often felt left out when others describe dramatic experiences of conversion & you cannot pin-point a particular moment when you were swept off your feet just as Paul was swept off his horse & confronted by Jesus Christ in an unmistakable moment?  I can tell you that I, as a child brought up in a Christian home by a preacher father & believing mother, baptized as an infant in a country Methodist church, have often felt sort of cheated because I cannot point to a one-time conversion experience.  I can tell you when I first realized & accepted that I am an alcoholic.  But I cannot tell you a specific time when I became a Christian.  I guess you could say my whole life has been a process of becoming Christian.  I didn't have a burning bush experience.  Does that mean that I am any less a faithful Christian than Paul or one of you who was slain in the Spirit in a dramatic way? 

            I believe Thomas is a testimony to all of us whose coming to faith has been more gradual.  If even one of Jesus' first disciples felt he had to have proof of Jesus' resurrection, then should I feel any less a Christian because Jesus worked on me gradually?  The point is that Jesus provided Thomas with the experience he needed but then reminded us all that, in the long run, faith isn't really provable like a math or science problem.  Faith, in the long run, is a gift from God that we don't earn & can't demand from Christ on our timetable.

            This whole matter of coming to faith reminds me of the wonderful story of the Yankee who came south & stopped at a coffee shop in East Texas for breakfast.  He looked over the menu & ordered sausage & eggs complete with hot biscuits.  When his server appeared with his breakfast, he stared at the white mound on his plate simmering in butter.  "What is that?" he questioned his server.  She replied, "Oh, that's your grits, sir."  Continuing to stare at his plate, he bellowed, "Grits.  I didn't order grits!"  The server assured him kindly, "You don't order grits, sir.  Grits just come."  Well, grits, my friends, are like faith.  They're a gift.  We don't order grits, & we can't order faith.  Both just come as a gift from God.  The best we can do is open ourselves to that gift.

            I hope you'll remember that they're a gift just like faith.  We can't order it up from the kitchen.  We can't demand it on our time.  It's a gift, & we receive faith in God's time & in God's measure. 

            So what if we, like Thomas, want proof?  What if faith does not come easily for us?  It seems that Jesus is assuring us that we'll receive what we need for faith if we're just willing to be open.  In recovery terms, we encourage people to act "as if," to fake it till you make it.  That doesn't mean that we're to be hypocrites.  It simply means that, as we live faithfully, we are given faith.  The second reading today says something about this living into the faith.  We're told that we are to love God & obey God's commandments.  The writer tells us that God's commandments aren't burdensome, so we need to live out of them.  We'll be given a faith which can conquer the world.  And it's not our victory; it's Jesus Christ's victory.

            During this Easter season, may we be faithful in discovering what Jesus has for each of us to do to profess our faith by showing it forth in our lives.  We begin by stating in who & what we believe.  In a moment we will stand & renew our commitment to walk the walk of faith by stating our beliefs in the words of the Nicene Creed.

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Easter Day

16 April 2006

Texts:  Mark 16: 1-8

Other readings:  Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118: 14-17; 22-24; Colossians 3: 1-4

                So the women went out & fled from the tomb, for terror & amazement had seized them, & they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.  That's it!  That's how our gospel reading ends today.  They said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.  Doesn't sound very much like the joyous Easter we affirm today, does it? 

                For the first time in 6 weeks, we proclaim Alleluia today.  We began our service with "Alleluia.  Christ is risen.  The Lord is risen today.  Alleluia!"  We returned to acclaiming "Glory to God in the highest" which we have skipped during Lent.  We have already sung two Easter hymns which celebrate Jesus Christ risen & living & our ability to live because Jesus does.  And all of this is true.  All of this is right for us to celebrate, for today is the Feast of the Resurrection.

                So what are we to do with this Gospel lesson for today?  What are we to think of these women who have experienced evidence of Jesus' resurrection first hand at the tomb yet are so terrified at their experience that they say nothing to anyone for they are afraid? 

                How would you have reacted that first Easter morning had you been at the tomb with those women?  They have come to anoint Jesus with spices for the proper burial for which there had not been time on Friday before the Jewish Sabbath began at sundown.  The women have had to plan ahead to prepare the spices because no work could be done on the Sabbath.  However, they go to the tomb only partially prepared: only on the journey do they remember that they'll have to have someone roll the stone away.  After all, that's why the stone was placed there to begin with:  so that no one could steal the body. 

                Upon arrival at the tomb, they are surprised to see that the barrier is gone; the stone has already been rolled back.  Their relief at that obstacle's being overcome is short-lived, however, as, upon entering the tomb, they encounter a young man dressed in white.  We can guess his identity when his first words are  "Do not be alarmed."  Such words in biblical literature come from an angel, don't they?  Jacob was told not to fear.  Zacariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, & Mary all were told not to be alarmed by the  angels who appeared to them.  And how do these women respond to the angel's reassuring words?  They are frightened out of their wits, so to speak.  He tells them that Jesus of Nazareth has been raised—is not there—has gone ahead of them to Galilee.  He admonishes them to go tell his disciples & Peter the news & then to go to Galilee in order to see Jesus again.

                And how do the women respond?  They flee from the tomb & say nothing to anyone, for they are afraid.  According to Mark, neither Peter nor the rest of the disciples learn of Christ's resurrection from the women.  The women are struck dumb by the reality of the situation.  They are silent in the face of the greatest news ever to happen on earth.

                How do we react to such fantastic news?  We come to church on Easter Sunday morning where we sing familiar hymns which we've not sung since last Easter.  We rejoice with Alleluias.  We tell each other "Happy Easter!" & we eat the ears off a chocolate Easter bunny if we're fortunate enough to get one.  We hide Easter eggs for our children & make up ridiculous stories about rabbits & eggs which fool no one.  We plan a festive meal with our family or friends, & our mood on Easter morning is joyous.  We're glad that we're Christians on the day when we celebrate Jesus' rising from the dead.

                So what?  What will Christ's resurrection mean tomorrow morning?  What will we do the next day when the scales tell of our excess, when a loved one falls ill, when there is difficulty at work, when our lives begin to unravel ?  Even if we've had a good Lenten discipline & read the Bible or prayed or not eaten meat every day for the 40 days leading up to Easter, what difference does it make in the long run?  How does Jesus' dying & rising matter when the chips are down?

                I hope that during the 40 days of Lent, you really have done some interior work to so that your life is more Christlike.  I hope that today Christ Jesus does live within your heart as we affirm in our alleluias as we worship.  I pray your renewal of life makes a difference as you live into tomorrow & next week & next year. 

                It is absolutely true that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected for each one of us in this room today as well as those who never darken the doors of the church.  Jesus Christ really would have died for you even if you were the only person left alive, as the old time preachers have told us.  However, I am in very great danger of thinking that Jesus Christ died & was risen for me, just me.   It is terribly important for me to celebrate Christ’s resurrection today together with you as a community of faith. 

                That's where I want to challenge you to stretch this morning.  How can the Easter Alleluias we sing & say & rejoice in today be the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ unless we share with others so that we & they really believe that Jesus Christ died & rises for us all?  Easter is not just one day, you know.  Easter lasts for 7 weeks, even longer than Lent does, all the way to Pentecost.  We have a wonderful opportunity throughout this Easter season to externalize the work we have done during Lent by proclaiming the miracle of Christ's resurrection—which is our own resurrection—in the way we live our daily lives.  

                In the baptismal promises which some of us renewed at the vigil yesterday evening, we promised to "proclaim by word & example the Good News of God in Christ."  Proclaim by word & example:  let's see how many ways we can do that in the next 7 weeks.  The next 2 baptismal vows give us hints as to how to go about that proclaiming.  We promise to seek & serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  And we promise to strive for justice & peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.  The leadership of Hope Episcopal has recently undergone a mutual ministry review of the past year, & we are embarking on an action plan for revitalizing our community. We invite you to explore with us how our resurrection with Jesus Christ can make a difference in our own lives & in those of others.  The time for standing on the sidelines to see whether we’re going to “make it” as a parish is behind us now.  We’re moving forward with renewed vigor by the grace of God, & you are a necessary part of resurrection in this place. 

                We’ve just sung a hymn that encourages us all to full participation in God’s call for Hope to live into our mission.  The words include "Jesus is Lord of all the earth," & "Spread the good news o'er all the earth." As we bless & receive the body & blood of Christ in our Eucharist today, we partake of the heavenly food which strengthens us to share the gospel with others in our actions as well as in our words.  We’ll have many opportunities to share Christ’s marvelous gift of new life through the Easter season & into our future in & of Hope.  Let us join one another in making every day an Easter day in our corner of the world.  Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Great Vigil of Easter

15 April 2003

Texts: Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13; Exodus 14:10-15:1;

Ezekiel 36:24-28; Ezekiel 37:1-14

                This is a night like no other night.  After 6 long weeks, tonight we are waiting, waiting expectantly for the Easter morning which we know will follow in just a few hours.  It's not quite the expectancy that kids have on Christmas Eve, but we all know that Easter morning & the resurrection are just a night's sleep away.  Some will spend part of this night in prayer here in our chapel, in fact.

                We have to stop ourselves short, however, to remember that those first disciples who huddled in the upper room on that Sabbath day after Jesus' crucifixion did not have the expectation which we enjoy for tomorrow.  Peter, James, John, Andrew, Mary Magdalene, Salome, the Mother Mary--all had been through a tremendous shock just the day before seeing the hopes & desires of the past three years nailed to a cross in what felt like utter defeat.  How had this happened?  When had it all gone wrong?  They had tried to warn Jesus that he was treading on thin ice with the authorities.  Hadn't he cared what would happen to himself?  To all of them?  What were they to do now?

                For us to truly experience the joy of Easter, we have to put ourselves in the place of those fearful & despairing disciples closeted away in the upper room so many years ago.  One thing they had in their hearts & souls that Sabbath was the sacred history of the Jewish people, some of which we have heard this evening in our scripture readings, psalms, & songs. 

                First, we hear the story of God’s 1^st covenant with the creation: Noah & the flood.  Noah has obediently built the ark & now ushers a sampling of all the creatures including his own family into the ark to endure a storm which would make Katrina look like a spring shower.  Forty days is biblical language for a long time which seems like forever, after which time Noah sends the dove out only for it to return the first time & again the second with an olive leaf, so, in his persistence, Noah tries again a week later & the dove does not return.  Not only does God give Noah a 2^nd chance but also sets a rainbow in the sky as a sign of covenant, not only with the humans but with all the earth’s creatures.  God covenants to be ever with us, all of us.

                Next, we hear the foundation story for the Hebrew people, the one which our Jewish brothers & sisters are also celebrating this very week, which they call the Passover.  As they left Egypt, they were an unruly mob of slaves, & it took 40 years (notice again, a LONG time—almost forever) for them to be formed into the Hebrew nation which had an identity & knew that they were God's own forever.  Through the Red Sea Moses took the Hebrew people, & our baptismal rite reaches back clear to the Hebrews' crossing through waters which could have destroyed them to new life as God's chosen people.  We hear only the beginning of that story tonight, but we remember it as the beginning of freedom just as the song says. 

                Ezekiel relates another of God’s promises to the people who have been scattered & whom God gathers once again into one community in their own land.  Note once again the symbol of baptism as God sprinkles them with clean water, giving them new birth with a new heart of flesh rather than of stone.  As we renew our own baptismal vows tonight, we remember God’s promise to be our God as we promise to live as God’s people.

  We sang in response to this reading one of my very favorite canticles, "Surely it is God who saves me," in which we affirm God's presence & accessibility to us at all times.

                Finally, I chose the vision of the valley of the dry bones partially for fun.  I couldn't find a copy of "Dem bones, dem bones gonna rise again" but it's that spiritual I always think about when I hear this passage.  I think it's the idea that absolutely no one is beyond God's care, that no soul is too dry & brittle for God to breathe life into.  Even though I sometimes give up on individuals & suspect they are beyond redemption, not even the toughest macho man or crustiest woman is unreachable by God.  The Hebrew word for breath or wind in Hebrew is that for spirit, so the image of God's breathing God's spirit into Ezekiel's dry bones is the same that can breathe into your & my dry bones & allow God to fill & use each of us to reach others.

                Even though we don't celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection until tomorrow morning fully, we get a taste of that feast tonight--sort of an appetizer--as I sang the Exsultet, a haunting song of praise to God for the gift of Jesus' resurrection & our own participation in it.  And we close our service for tonight by remembering our own baptismal vows.  We anticipate Christ's resurrection with our own vows to go into this Easter season committed to living into the promises we make in baptism.  First, we reaffirm our faith by the words of the oldest creed, the Apostles', & then we respond to 5 questions regarding our living as Christ taught us to do.  May we ponder these promises we make as we wait expectantly for the joy of the morning.

               

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Maundy Thursday

13 April 2006

Text:  John 13: 1-15

Other Readings:  Exodus 12: 1-14a, Psalm 78: 14-20, 23-25; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26

                The scriptures for today give us pictures of what God has done for us & is still doing for us.  As we prepare for the actions of this worship experience & to continue our journey through the next 3 days, the holiest of our Christian year, let's enter into the stories that are laid before us.

                First, we join Hebrew slaves preparing to leave Egypt.  The plagues are past, Pharoah has hardened his heart 9 times & now has relented temporarily & is letting the Hebrew people go.  Our Jewish brothers & sisters celebrate their Seder meal last night or tonight right here in Houston & around the world, commemorating the meal described here. 

                The psalmist reminds us that God was in charge throughout the Exodus, leading the Hebrew people with a cloud by day & fire by night, quenching their thirst with water from the rock, & feeding them manna & quails in the wilderness.  God provided the mortals--the humans--food enough. 

                Macrina Wiederkehr, one of my favorite authors, calls us to experience both the Maundy Thursday rituals we celebrate tonight as entertwined:

                “Eucharist means thanksgiving.  It often happens at a table, but not always.  There is another table called daily life.  There are many Eucharistic moments right in the midst of daily life.

                On the night before he died, Jesus gathered around the table with his friends to celebrate the grateful memory of the deliverance of their ancestors out of slavery.  We have never forgot that Eucharist, that moment of breaking the bread & sharing the cup.  We often forget the other Eucharist moment that happened at the table that night.  We must learn to read between the lines of that foot-washing moment.  It was so much more than example setting.  Jesus’ heart was overflowing with sorrow, love, & gratitude, & so he ministered to his friends by washing their feet.  He ministered to them by loving them—by being Eucharist.  At that moment he called us all to be servants—not doormats, but servants!  The difference between being a doormat & a servant is the difference between living in slavery or freedom.  To be a servant means we let Jesus sing his song to us, in us, & through us.  Only free people can be servants.  Only free people can be Eucharist for one another.”  (from Embracing Your Memories:  A Journey of Healing for Lent, 2002, p. 43-44)

In a few moments, we will remember Jesus’ action in our footwashing where I begin as your servant/priest by washing the feet of our two senior wardens.  Those of you who want to join actively in this sacred rite are then asked to do so.  Other please join in our prayer song.  At times like this, we truly act as sisters & brothers in Christ, equal in God's eyes, to be Christ for each other.  Wiederkehr continues:  “Sadly, I often allow this fearful, materialistic world to smother the song in me.  I forget the call to be Eucharist.  Yes, there are times when I’ve allowed the song within me to be stifled.  There are days when I’ve remained unsung & people around me have starved for lack of Eucharist.” We also remember that Jesus washed ALL the disciples’ feet, even Judas who will betray him.  Jesus never gives up on any of us.  Jesus includes us all.

Isn't it strange that we often call our Eucharist the "last" supper since Jesus told us to repeat this ritual meal as often as possible in memory of him?  St. Paul tells the Corinthians what he has received from Jesus, he passes on to them,  & indeed this sacrament has been passed on to us Christians ever since.  We celebrate Holy Communion at least twice a week at Hope in memory of the meal which Jesus hosted for his disciples in that upper room on the first Maundy Thursday.  We take the bread offered us today, ask God to bless it—make it holy—for us, break it open to nourish each of us, & then give it to one another.  Somewhere in the midst of this sacred rite, Christ himself enters so that when we eat the bread & drink the cup, we are receiving his body & blood, becoming one with Christ, letting Jesus once more strengthen us for our journey.

                Although we don't act it out in our worship today, I want you to carry another picture out with you tonight.  After this sacred time together in the upper room, Jesus takes his disciples out into the Garden of Gethsemane where he asks them to pray with him.  Jesus' last action with his disciples is prayer.  Jesus knows that he is soon to be betrayed.  Does he accuse?  Does he lecture?  No, he prays.  And he asks his disciples to pray with him.

                Jesus prays for us in the Garden.  He prays that we all may be one.  He prays that our unity will lead the world to believe.  He prays that we might keep watch with him.  He asks Peter, James, & John to stay awake with him, to support him in his prayer.  He asks us to do the same. 

                Then Jesus prays the prayer which all of us pray from time to time.  Jesus prays for there to be another way.  Jesus prays for a less painful option.  Jesus doesn't want to have to go through the pain of death, either for the disciples who have fallen asleep just a stone's throw away, or for us.  But then Jesus prays the prayer which never fails:  Not my will but yours be done.  Jesus gives up his human desire to avoid pain & gives in to God's wisdom & mercy & care. 

                Jesus sees us each in our own Garden of Gethsemane & doesn't want us to be alone.  He wants us to know that he has been there, too.  He knows what it's like to be plotted against, to be confused, to be torn between his own will & God's will.  He knows what it is like to beg God to be off the hook & for God to say, ever so gently yet firmly, "No." 

                Somewhere in that final night in the Garden, Jesus accepts God's answer.  Jesus gives in & gives up to the death which he knows lies ahead.  His turmoil is gone.  He is ready to fulfill God's will, for each of us & for the whole world.  He says the eternal "Yes" to God. 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Palm Sunday

9 April 2006

Texts: Mark 14:32-15:47

Other readings: Isaiah 45:21-25; Psalm 22:1-11; Philippians 2:5-11

                This morning's readings are pretty overwhelming when taken as a whole, & just the Gospel is the bulk of the Passion story according to St. Mark.  Beginning with the palm procession & continuing through our participation in the Passion Narrative, we experience a wide range of emotions brought about by such a panorama.  We begin in the Garden of Gethsemane, see Jesus arrested & led away to the high priest & then to Pontius Pilate.  As he is led away, we follow after him to Golgotha where he is crucified & dies.

                Today we are drawn into the story of Jesus' last week & have the opportunity to walk behind him with the crowd, entering in some way the central drama of the Christian faith which will occupy our hearts & minds for the next week.  Walk with me, if you will, along the path with Jesus, to see how some of the followers respond to Jesus' journey.  Do you share feelings with any of these folk, or could you be a combination of several of them?

                Most of the Twelve leave the Upper Room with Jesus, perhaps, but he calls only Peter, James, & John to wait near him in the Garden of Gethsemane while he prays, distressed & agitated.  Twice, Jesus returns to find his closest friends & companions asleep, their flesh weak though their spirits are willing.  Some of us find that same difficulty in staying awake during the sermon each Sunday, & maybe even during the long gospel reading today.  During Jesus' agony in begging for the cup to pass from him, yet in agreeing that God's will is to be done, where are we?  Have we stayed awake to support him in his most difficult prayer time with God his Abba, or have we too fallen asleep?

                Judas has left the Upper Room ahead of the others & enters the Garden with the authorities.  What desperation pushes Judas to his wits' end when he calls his master "Rabbi" yet betrays him with a kiss?  For what in our world would a kiss be worth to you?

                The unnamed young man in the garden flees the authorities for safety, leaving his linen cloth & escaping naked.  When our lives are laid bare, where can we flee naked if we run away from Jesus?  From whom are we running away?

                Peter follows to the high priest's house & warms himself by the fire.  Where does he go after the servant girl recognizes him as a country hick?  Where do we go to hide when we are found out?  What cocks crow in our lives to awaken us to times when our strength fails?  Have we been ignoring any wake-up calls?  What betrayals cause us to weep in shame & sorrow?

                Pilate would like to free Jesus.  Pilate sees in him little threat to the political order, so he offers the crowd an alternative:  Jesus or Barabbas?  Then Pilate bows to the wishes of the crowd.  Have I ever done the same?  Of course, as I was swept up in the fervor of a crowd, I have also shouted "Crucify him!"  Have you?

                Look!  Here comes Simon of Cyrene!  He's in town today, & he's been compelled to carry Jesus' cross.  He doesn't shy away from the task.  He takes up Jesus' cross to follow the crowd up the hill to Calvary.  How do I respond when I'm called to shoulder a heavy burden?  I often want everyone to notice how noble I am.  Simon disappears into the crowd.  What happens to the Cyrenian after this?

                Here we are at Golgotha.  Where are the disciples?  Does not ONE of them hear their Lord question God's absence?  No wonder Jesus feels abandoned!  No, there's really nowhere to hide up here on this bald hill.  I certainly won't get any closer.  Someone might recognize me!  I hope Jesus knows I came as close as I dared.  After all, what good would it do for all of us to be crucified?

                Listen to that soldier.  Why, he's a Roman!  He's not even one of Jesus' followers.  How does HE know that Jesus was God's son?  Will knowing Jesus change his life?  Will knowing Jesus change mine?

                Most everyone has fallen by the wayside by now & hurried back to the city to the safety of their homes.  Oh, look, there are some women over there.  Jesus' mother Mary with Mary Magdalene & Salome.  How could Jesus have managed without their provision for the past three years?  Wouldn't you know they would be close by?  They don't look frightened, only overcome with grief.

                And look there.  There's a council member coming.  It's Joseph of Arimathea.  He's taking Jesus' body.  I wonder where?  It's too chancy to follow to find out.  But the two Marys are going to brave the dangers.  We can ask them later.  Let's leave before someone asks us why we're here.  I know a place we can hide.  It's an upper room.

                Next Sunday morning we will gather here to behold the miracle of God's gracious goodness revealed through Jesus' resurrection.  Jesus won't love us any MORE if we have been here during the week to walk the Way of the Cross with him through the worship services marking his Passion.  But neither will Jesus love us any LESS.  Jesus' love is immeasurable.  We come together to worship & watch & wait this Holy Week so that this stupendous gift can be real for each of us, so that we can live more fully into our baptism as sisters & brothers of Jesus the Christ, as a community of faith.

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Lent 4

26 March 2006

 

Texts: John 6: 4-15

Other Readings:  2 Chronicles 36: 14-23; Psalm 122; Ephesians 2: 4-10

 

            "Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near," our Gospel reading begins today.  We could say, "Now, Easter, the festival of the Christians, is near," for today is the 4th of 6 weeks of Lent, & just as Jesus continues to move toward Jerusalem, we continue to move toward Easter.  We began Lent by looking inside ourselves to do necessary house-cleaning; by midway, we look forward to Easter, knowing that soon the Alleluias will be back, & we will celebrate Christ's resurrection with great rejoicing.  What better way to celebrate the joy of new life as we greet the coming of spring with beautiful days like yesterday than with a story about bread, about being fed until we are satisfied!

            Of course, this Gospel is also reminiscent, urging us to look back to the defining event for the Jewish people, the beginning of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt with the original Passover.  The Passover, which begins this year on our Maundy Thursday, is the epic festival of the Jews & formed the backdrop in Jesus' time for his crucifixion, burial, & resurrection.  The Seder meal— the Passover meal which Jesus & his disciples shared together in Jerusalem—commemorates God's fortifying the Israelites for their amazing deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians & the journey which followed which took 40 years.  The bread which Jesus took, gave thanks for, & distributed to the 5,000 plus people in today's gospel would remind any first century Jew of the manna with which God nourished the Hebrew people in their wilderness journey.  Of course, the people expected a messiah king, a savior like Moses had been, but here, Jesus slips away to avoid being crowned king.  Yes, throughout this passage, hints of the Jewish story of liberation which all Jews knew & celebrated abound.

            The story of the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication of the loaves & fish, is the first one to show up in all 4 gospels, so it must be an important one.  In addition, this year we read the account from the 4th Gospel, the only account of a Eucharistic celebration in John's gospel since John recounts the foot-washing story in the Upper Room instead of the Last Supper.  Here we have a story which leads us forward to the central liturgical celebration for Christians: the Holy Eucharist. 

            What an amazing story is this feeding of 5,000, above & beyond the miracle of the abundance of the food!  Jesus has retreated to rest with his disciples, but the crowd has followed him, so Jesus initiates their being fed.  They cannot hear the Good News on empty stomachs.  At Lord of the Streets where most of our parishioners came hungry, we served food for every major event including service every Sunday morning.

            Jesus takes charge, mustering his resources, & involves his closest followers in the problem-solving.  Philip's response is one of resignation & helplessness:  they don't have enough money to buy bread for the crowd.  Andrew may not have any more hope than Philip, but at least he has been close enough to the people to know what resources are at hand.  Have you ever wondered how Andrew knows the boy has 5 barley loaves & 2 fish?  I suspect he's been wandering through the crowd, perhaps making friends with this young boy whose mother may have asked Andrew to look after him.  The boy has a picnic lunch, so his mother must have been thinking ahead, something that the men had forgotten to do.  Perhaps the boy has offered to share his lunch with Andrew.  But so little for such a multitude!

            At this point, Jesus organizes the chaos.  He has the disciples seat the people out on the hillside.  Jesus practices the hospitality for which people in the Middle East have long been  famous.  Jesus takes the barley loaves & fish, gives thanks for them, & then distributes them himself.  Do those verbs sound familiar:  took, gave thanks, distributed?  Each time we celebrate Eucharist, I perform the same actions, following Jesus’ admonition to do this in remembrance of him.  I actually perform the gestures as representative of the whole community.  "Eucharist" is the Greek word for "thanksgiving," & that's what we are offering when we have the Lord's Supper:  thanksgiving to God; Eucharist.  The gospel writer says the crowds near Jesus have as much as they want; they are satisfied. 

            Everyone whom Jesus fed was so satisfied that there was a surplus of 12 baskets!  What was once considered meager is now abundant.  Jesus is not wasteful either.  He tells his disciples to gather up the left-overs so nothing will be lost.  Jesus invites us to live life abundantly also.

            Wouldn't you have liked to be there with the 5,000 on that hillside?  What conversations must have gone on during that meal, especially when the cleanup crew came around.  Much speculation has gone on about exactly how the miracle happened.  Did Jesus' breaking of the bread make it expand like magic?  Is the whole story a matter of gross exaggeration?  Or perhaps, when others in the crowd see the young boy's generosity, are they also willing to offer the food that they have been hoarding, previously not willing to share?  As with the miracle of the Eucharist itself, the point is not precisely how 5 loaves & 2 fish become sufficient to feed such a crowd abundantly.  The miracle is that when Jesus is sensitive to the needs of the community, all are provided for.  And the Kingdom of God breaks forth in the midst of the believing community.

            What is needed to celebrate Eucharist?  Megan McKenna, writer of Not Counting Women & Children includes 5 items needed:  the people, the bread & wine, the word, a collection for the poor, & the priest.  In this story, Jesus takes the initiative in his community to use its resources to provide for their needs & those beyond.  That's what we do here at Hope:  each Sunday, we gather as community to hear the Gospel story, to rejoice in God's love & care for us, to break bread & share it together in Eucharist, in thanksgiving.  Even during Lent, Sundays are days of thanksgiving; they aren't counted in the 40 days.  We stand together as people of the Word & Table to celebrate what God has done & is doing for us.

            But our celebration doesn't end here within the walls of Hope Episcopal Church.  With Jesus in our midst, there is abundance as we gather the collection for the poor.  Many in this community give generously of their time, talent, & treasure so that our commitments as a parish can be fulfilled.  The miracle continues beyond this celebration, this hour or so when the gathered community makes Eucharist together.  For the Gospel to be Good News to the world, the abundance must reach out into the world.  Someone once said that the Church is the only institution which exists only for those who are not yet in it.  I don't believe that totally.  The Church certainly exists for you & me to be nourished with the Word & the Body & Blood of Christ, for the community to give thanks & to bind up each others' wounds, for us to study & learn how to love each other.  But the church is no more than a good social club if we are not constantly turned outward to, as we say at the close of our Eucharist, go forth & serve the Lord in our world.

            The people in John's story are much like we are, though.  They get the message only half right.  They see Jesus as a prophet who is come into the world.  But they want to crown him king, the political ruler who will overthrow the oppressive regime.  Jesus might have been tempted to be that kind of a messiah.  Perhaps life would have been easier for him.  But he would not have been our savior.  No, he was not to be the messiah/king.  So he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.  The people tried to make Jesus what he wasn't, just as we do.  We would like to keep Jesus to ourselves, to make him our hero, the American or the Democratic or the Episcopalian dream.  But Jesus resists our keeping him for our own. 

            Jesus continues to take the initiative & call us to reach beyond our comfort zones to share our bread which he has blessed with others, some of whom are very different from us.  Perhaps we are called to pray for the Iraqies as well as for the Americans.  As we pray for those whom we know or who are dear to people we know, let us pray also for our enemies who are also loved children of God.  Let us pray that the world may know peace as it has never known peace before.  Meanwhile, let us reach out to care for those around us who do not know God's love, who do not have a community to support & grow with them.  As we pray for all sorts & conditions of people in our Prayers of the People today, let us also pray to be open to how we can be Christ's body & blood to the part of the world out in our neighborhood.  As our Lenten time moves through the drama of Holy Week to the glory of Easter, may we be available to share part of Christ's miracle out in our world anew.

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Lent 3

19 March 2006

 

Text:  John 2: 13-22; Exodus 20: 1-17

Other Readings:  Psalm 19: 7-14; Romans 7: 13-25

               

John's gospel passage today is one of the most awesome yet troubling in all the accounts of Jesus.  Jesus & his disciples arrive in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, & upon arriving at the temple, Jesus throws a royal hissy-fit.  When he sees the commerce in the temple, his temper gets the better of him.  Had this happened in Houston, the men in blue would have arrested him for disturbing the peace or for destroying others' property.  He hurriedly makes a cord whip & sends the sales people & the money-changers packing.  Later, the disciples recall the passage from Psalm 69 which says, "Zeal for your house will consume me."  All those around him must be downright astonished, but the Jewish religious leaders recover their wits soon enough to ask him for a sign to explain his bizarre action.

 

                At times, I have rejoiced in this story, feeling I was justified in a similar explosion, as in, "If Jesus could lose his temper, perhaps it's not too bad when I do the same thing."  At other times, I am dismayed that Jesus isn’t always as pacifistic as I would wish him to be.  We wrestled mightily with this passage several weeks ago in our Sunday adult formation class.  Perhaps physical violence is the only way he can express his strong objections to what he sees in the temple.  The religious leaders are always trying to catch Jesus in something that will incriminate him; he's in the middle of a first-classed snit & they ask him for a sign.  Sheesh!  Most of the time, this story simply perplexes me.  What can it all mean?

 

                The other 3 passages read today may help put this one in perspective.  Psalm 19 rejoices in the law, much as does the longest psalm,  Psalm 119.  Look how many synonyms the psalmist uses for law:  testimony, statutes, commandment, judgements.  Regardless of which term is used, the psalmist's attitude toward the law is positive & life-giving.  It is perfect & revives the soul, gives wisdom to the innocent, rejoices the heart & gives light to the eyes.  There is a yearning for the law & its fulfillment:  more to be desired than gold, sweeter than honey in the comb. Christians often put down the Hebrew laws & assume that the Jewish people felt burdened by them.  This psalm contradicts any such sense of burden, doesn't it?  On the whole, Jewish people found & find the law life-giving & joy-bringing.

 

                It’s not coincidental that the reading from the Hebrew scriptures today is God's delivery of the 10 Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  God commands the Israelites to keep these 10 basic guides for living as they wander in the desert for 40 years.  To form & develop cohesive community, God’s chosen people need laws for healthy behavior with each other.  The first four commandments refer to the Israelites' honoring one God, the Hebrew God Jhwh:  having no other gods, not making an idol of anything or anyone else, not misusing God's name to do magic or to discredit God, & keeping the Sabbath holy--setting aside 1/7th of the week to worship God & be rejuvenated for work.

 

                The other 6 commandments are guides for living so closely together in community:  honoring parents who brought them here in the first place, doing no murder, not committing adultery, not stealing, not defrauding a neighbor or coveting any of that neighbor's possessions.  We know these lessons for living with each other peacefully still work pretty well if we just follow them, right?  I’ve given you a little exercise for working with them on the front of the pew bulletin, & we’ll explore these commandments at the program Wednesday night, so please come.

 

                Was Jesus undermining these very practical religious practices when he threw the merchants out of the temple precincts?  Heavens, no.  He even told those trying to trap him regarding the law to follow the Shema: to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, & strength; as well as the partner commandment: to love their neighbors as themselves.

 

                The point Jesus makes here & elsewhere is that observing the 2 great commandments means the heart of all the laws is fulfilled.  Jesus doesn't just want a rote grudging or judgmental following of the law.  He wants his disciples to love the freedom fulfilling the law should mean to them, not the penny-pinching slavishness to the law which had added 603 more through the years.  In fact, the temple represents the epitome of the law to the Jewish people who go there to offer sacrifices & adoration to God.  What Jesus seems upset about is that the Jews’ meticulous adherence to the law means they often follow them blindly.  I'm sure that some poor people were literally wiped out financially by the cost of the required sacrifices.

 

                So Jesus answers the religious leaders who ask him for a sign.  He says, "Destroy this temple," & they think of course he is talking about the building which took 46 years to build.  Jesus has already replaced the temple building in his own mind with his  body which they will in fact destroy.   They misunderstand him, however, assuming he intends to destroy the temple, this holy place of sacrifice & worship which represents the heart of their religious observance.  It isn't that they are failing to be faithful Jews.  They are, in fact, fulfilling the details of the law so fully that they have lost the spirit of the law. 

 

Jesus' anger is that their focus on fulfilling every detail of the law has blinded them to God's call to be more loving & more faithful.  We see Jesus over & over uncovering the hypocrisy & self-righteousness of the religious leaders, & here at the geographic center of their worship, once again he sees hypocrisy & self-righteousness at work.

 

                One commentary calls this powerful vignette Jesus’ "displacement" of the temple.  Jesus the human lived faithfully on earth, was crucified, died, was buried, & rose again to break the bonds of sin & death.  He presents himself as the new site of God's revelation, the new "temple."  In the new Covenant with God, we are to worship Jesus just as the Jews worshipped in the temple. 

 

                There wasn't anything wrong with the law as given to Moses on Mt. Sinai as we read about 1st today.  What had developed was the "religious people's" worshipping the law itself rather than worshipping God the law-giver.  When the law became the god of the people, that was sinful.  We call that idolatry, making something else into God.  Look back at the 2nd commandment:  "You shall have no other gods before me;  you shall not make for yourself an idol. . . ." 

 

                It's really tricky, isn't it?  Paul tells us he wanted to be righteous in God's eyes yet his careful desire to fulfill the law momentarily blinded him to God's will in his life.  God had to resort to rather drastic measures to get Paul's attention.  It is not the law which is sinful, Paul makes clear.  It's our allowing the law to become our god which is sinful.  We see in other places that Paul was really quite proud of how obedient he was to the law, & that's often a clue to us also, isn't it?  How many times have you caught yourself being proud of your humility?  For Paul, even when he desires to do God’s will, he fails & does the very thing he hates.  Just like Paul, we get in our own way when we forget that life is about keeping God in the center of our lives, not our great abilities. 

 

                In today’s world this tendency crops up regularly not in worship of the law or worship of the temple but in worship of the Bible.  The Bible is the inspired word of God, but it's not God.  The Bible is an awesome tool for us to know God more fully, especially through the life, death, & resurrection of God's son Jesus Christ.  But sometimes, instead of wrestling with a passage to see what God is saying for our lives today, we simply cut to the chase & say we should or shouldn't do something because it says so in the Bible.  Of course, in order to make that work, we have to pick & choose what we decide to take literally in the Bible because it is often contradictory.  Our Gospel reading today is a good example.  In other places, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, but we certainly don't see any cheek-turning when Jesus enters the temple grounds, do we?  It is God through Jesus Christ whom we worship & not the Bible itself.  If we do, we make the Bible an idol.

 

                At one point in Paul's deliberations to the Romans today, he throws up his hands & says, "Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?"  Even when we try to live a faithful Christian life, we sometimes get to the end of our ropes & have to give up.  We sometimes call it hitting bottom, because everything we've tried in running our own lives seems to have gotten us farther into a web of self-will run riot.  Only then do we realize Who it is who will rescue us from the pit.  Paul proclaims it to us:  "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."  By golly, just when we figure out that our own best efforts aren't enough, we have to let go & quit running the show by ourselves.  Only then do we give up & turn to God, the God who has been there all along to pick us up, dust us off, & do a much better job of guiding our lives than we ever did?  Does this process sound familiar?  I suspect all of us experience it over & over again in our lives because we just can't get it in our heads that we can't run our own lives, God can, & we might as well let God do it. 

 

                Today is the 3rd Sunday of Lent, & this week we'll be halfway through this 40 day period of penance & preparation.  What salespeople & money-changers does Jesus need to pitch out of your temple so that there is room for Jesus to dwell there & be the Lord of your life?  What spring housecleaning do you need to do in your life so there's room for God to be truly at home there?  What nooks & crannies have you been holding back, trying to keep control of them yourself?  I pray that you'll open the door to those secret places & give them a good airing out so that God can dwell there. 

 

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Lent 2

12 March 2006

Text:  Mark 8: 31-38; Genesis 22: 1-14

Other Readings: Psalm 16: 5-11; Romans 8: 31-39

 

            Our gospel lesson today jumps right into the middle of a familiar story.  Just preceding today’s reading, Peter has identified Jesus as the Messiah in what we call the confession at Caesarea Philippi.  Jesus then silences the disciples concerning his identity.  Now, Jesus explains what type of Messiah he is.  In the first passion prediction according to Mark, Jesus announces openly that suffering & death lie ahead for this Messiah.

            The disciples simply cannot imagine their leader Jesus suffering, being further rejected by the religious leaders, actually being killed, & then rising again.  In fact, Peter, usual spokesperson for the disciples, misses Jesus’ resurrection prediction completely & takes him aside to rebuke him.  Peter dares strong language with Jesus as "rebuke" is the powerful word which often describes Jesus’ exorcisms, his casting demons out of a person.  Having just identified Jesus as Messiah, nothing in Peter’s Jewish background has prepared him for this kind of Messiah.  After all, Peter & the other disciples have left homes, families, & professions to follow Jesus.  They've given three years of their lives to this itinerant preacher, looking forward to Jesus' power play when both the religious authorities & the Romans will learn just who is in charge. 

            Thus, Peter isn’t prepared when Jesus, in turn, rebukes him with "Get behind me, Satan!"  What might this rebuke mean?  Could Jesus be tempted to become the conquering messiah they expect & satisfy the religious authorities as well?  Peter offers Jesus a way out just as Satan had in the desert, yet once again, Jesus resists.  No doubt he reminds himself as well as Peter that such is human & not divine thinking & behaving. 

            Jesus then proceeds to outline for his followers what his messiahship will mean for them as well as for him.  Jesus is actually pleading with Peter to continue to follow him when he says, "Get behind me," in much the same way we might as someone to “back”—to support—us, in some endeavor.  Jesus realizes that he must suffer, not because God wants to see his Son suffer, but because his understanding of God’s will is contrary to that of the religious authorities.  Actually, the disciples’ responsibility isn't to protect, guide, or possess Jesus but to follow him—whatever the cost.

            Up until now, the disciples have enjoyed following a popular Jesus as he has healed, preached, & comforted the common people.  Now, Jesus' invitation to follow him means most likely not to earthly power but to his death. Denying themselves, taking up their crosses, & following Jesus might not be too safe for them either.  In fact, Jesus says specifically that those who want to save their life will lose it & those who lose their life for his sake will save it.  Wait just a minute now; all of a sudden Jesus is talking life & death, the disciple may say.  Does he mean others might have to forfeit their own lives also?

            In the first lesson today, God asks Abraham point blank to take Isaac up on the mountain & sacrifice him.  Isaac, Abraham & Sarah's long-awaited & cherished son, was born to them when the proud papa was 100 years old & Mama Sarah about 90.  Now, when God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only or favorite son,

Abraham prepares to fulfill just what God has asked.  I don't know about you, but this ancient story troubles me greatly, so much so that I wrote a research paper on it in seminary. 

Where was Sarah all this time?  Would she knowingly have allowed Abraham to sacrifice their precious son?  And what about Ishmael?  Did God—& Abraham, for that matter—remember that he had another son by the slave woman Hagar?  Commentators assure us that the story was told partially to show that God no longer wanted God's people to perform human sacrifices.  If that is true, why did early Christians see in the Abraham & Isaac story a model for God's sacrifice of Jesus?  At the least, we see in the story of Abraham & Isaac a society revising its vision of God.

I’ve recently read a rumination by a Jewish scholar questioning whether Abraham might not have been testing God in this encounter, just as he bargained with God to save the city of Sodom.  Just how serious was God about Abraham’s being the father of many nations?  Was God truly to be trusted fully? If this interpretation is valid, God certainly passed the test!  The ram’s opportune appearance was more answered prayer than miracle. 

            I’m a bit like Peter here when Jesus says I have to deny myself, take up my cross, & follow him, even if it means following to my death.  I understand what Jesus is saying, but I don't want to believe it—I can't bear the thought.  What does Jesus mean that we have to lose our lives for the gospel’s sake in order to save them?  Not many people in today's world have to literally sacrifice their lives for Christ's sake though we hear stories of people like Archbishop Oscar Romero in South America murdered for his faith.  Certainly in World War II, millions of Jews lost their lives in the Nazi gas ovens just because they were Jews. 

            And then I have to get honest with myself & realize that taking my Christian walk seriously meant I had to die to old ways of living.  Over 20 years ago, I first decided to quit drinking alcohol because when I drank at night, I couldn't get up early the next morning for  prayer & meditation, an important aspect of my faith journey.  Not drinking also meant I had to give up other things: companions whose primary activity was drinking, parties centered on drinking, even using a few drinks as an excuse to tell other people what I thought of them.  I had to subject myself to disciplines in my life which require me to explore other character defects & let go of them, attend support meetings regularly & do service work in order to keep my side of the street clean.  Basically, I had to die to being the center of my own universe in order to be born again to follow the Messiah. 

Sometimes the choices aren’t so black & white.  Several years ago, I asked why I should give up teaching, a good & valuable profession at which I excelled, to go off to four years of seminary?  Yet, when I prayed, that was clearly what Christ was calling me to do.  Amazingly, when I let go of my secure old life, I found a new life much more rewarding than the old one. 

            The ancient wisdom which has provided us with this Lenten season & these Lenten lessons to ponder turns us year after year to explore how Christ calls us to be better equipped for discipleship.  Lent comes around once a year because we need to revisit ourselves & discover where the cobwebs are in our own attics.  What wreckage of the past is Christ calling you to surrender to God this Lent?  What cross would Jesus have you take up this year in order to follow him? 

            Amendment of life takes courage which we often lack on our own.  It is at such times that we learn to rely on our Christian community to hold us up in prayer as we do the same for others.  Some people find that they would like to make confession to a priest in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection at Easter.  At Hope, we are offering several opportunities for your spiritual contemplation & growth:  Wednesday evening Eucharist & program, Stations of the Cross on Fridays, a Quiet Day for women, the April 1st workshop with Tom Ehrich for us all, & a full Holy Week schedule through which we can walk with Jesus as he carries his cross to Calvary. 

Finally, as we travel this Lenten journey, we can carry with us the assurance of today’s passage from Romans:  "If God is for us, who is against us?"  And later, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?"  Paul lists many obstacles we may allow to come between ourselves & God:  hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.  What are your distractions? Paul’s assurance can be your gift this week as you ponder Jesus’ call for you to follow:  "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
The Reverend Martha Frances
Year B, Lent 1
5 March 2006 - 8:00 a.m. only

Text:  Mark 1: 9-13; Genesis 9: 8-17
Other Readings: Psalm 25: 3-9; 1 Peter 3: 18-22

 

Today’s readings are about covenants, among other things.  God’s relationship with humans has often been in the form of a covenant, & the end of the flood story is one of the first covenants in the biblical account.  Covenants are usually made between unequal parties.  Equal parties contract with one another, but here, God’s covenant is with all creatures, not just humans, & none, not even all gathered together, are equal to God.  This covenant isn’t just with Israel but is between all present & future generations of humans & other living creatures & God. 

Furthermore, notice that neither Noah nor his sons ever say a word.  God is the only one who speaks.  God doesn’t even require a response.  Isn’t it amazing that, immediately after God has destroyed the whole of animal life on the earth except for the 8 people on the ark, God is eager to establish this free & gracious gift with the world which didn’t ask for, earn, or even respond to God’s promise.  What an awesome God we worship!

God obviously knows that even these folks whom God saved in the flood are going to sin; that’s part of the equation.  Yet, sin is the starting point of redemption, & God is willing to take another chance on the beings on this earth.  Just in case God forgets this rash promise to continue to relate lovingly to the world, God places a rainbow in the sky to remind Godself first as well as the rest of us of this lavish covenant. 

In Peter’s first epistle, we are reminded of God’s patience with Noah & Noah’s family & that Noah’s prehistoric family was saved from the waters of the flood just as we are saved through the waters of baptism into God’s covenant with us through Christ. 

The gospel story today has 2 parts:  Jesus’ baptism & Jesus’ temptation.  We will focus on temptation, sin, & redemption through much of the Lenten season, but today, let’s remain with the image of covenant, this time through baptism.  God’s gift of Jesus & affirmation of relationship with Jesus is a powerful part of Jesus’ baptism.  God’s voice affirms to Jesus:  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  How much more lavish could God be in covenanting with us than through the gift of a Son who dwelt among us as a human & was even destroyed for humankind’s short-sightedness & sinfulness?

In a few minutes, we will reaffirm our own baptismal vows as we begin this Lenten journey of 2006.  Why?  First, because our Bishop will be here at the later service, & it is fitting when the Bishop visits for us to concentrate on our baptismal covenant as a people of God in community.  Also, because we are just beginning our journey as Hope Episcopal Church, it is appropriate for us to renew those promises which we take on with our baptism, & there’s no better time for us to explore how we can live into our covenant relationship with God than in this Lenten season of retrospection & self-examination. 

Let me point out that God still makes covenant with us regardless of whether we ask for it or respond to it, & we can certainly never earn God’s love.  God sent Jesus the Christ to all of us, those who acknowledge that gift but also those who never recognize Jesus as Lord.  God continues to reach out to us unconditionally, so our response isn’t about earning God’s grace or forgiveness.  That’s already offered.

When we respond by living into the covenant which God makes with us, our lives are infinitely richer.  We’re invited, in community, to respond to that incredible love of God by covenanting—promising—to live faithfully in Christian community & reaching out to ever-widen that circle of community.  Because we need a sign much like God’s rainbow reminder of our promises to God in response to God’s love for us, we repeat the baptismal covenant on a regular basis. 

We promise to believe, & the specifics of that belief are outlined in the Apostles’ Creed, so we begin there.  Then we promise to continue those activities necessary to be community with each other, those behaviors & rituals through which the first century church was nurtured.  We recognize that evil is ever in our midst but that we can, with God’s help, resist it or at least repent & return to God’s love & care.  Being in community is incredibly important, but we promise to share the Gospel, the Good News of Christ, both by what we have to say & by how we behave, how we live our lives.  We reach out to our neighbors by recognizing the Christ in others & actively behaving in Christ-like ways toward them—& by ever-broadening our view of who our neighbors are.  And finally, we will work within the structures of our society for a just & peaceful world in which every person is treated with dignity.  What do those promises mean to you today?  How may God be calling you to live out your part of the baptismal covenant this Lenten season & beyond?  Let’s take a few moments to open ourselves to God’s gift to each of us before we stand to affirm our covenant with God.

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, Texas
By the Rev. Martha Frances
Ash Wednesday1 March 2006

Text:  Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21
Other: Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17; Psalm 103: 8-14; 2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6: 10

 

 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them,” Jesus says at the beginning of the Gospel reading each Ash Wednesday, & then in a few minutes I will invite you to come forward, & I’ll smudge a cross of ashes on your forehead for all the world to see.  We Christians are a bundle of contradictions.  Our worship was filled with alleluias just 3 days ago, but the alleluias are now buried until Easter morning.  Yesterday was filled with green, gold & purple Mardi Gras baubles & beads as we gobbled pancakes while today we determine what it means to us this year to fast.  I will invite you in a few minutes to observe a holy Lent with great devotion & then will remind you that each Sunday is considered a feast day & does not “count” as one of the 40 days—but still no alleluias, please. 

And what’s all this business about ashes?  First, no one is required to have the imposition of ashes in order to properly observe Ash Wednesday.  It’s a choice, so please don’t feel pressure.  Our use of ashes has strong historical roots, however, & they are powerful symbols to begin this Lenten journey.  As I place the ashes on your foreheads, I will say to each of you, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Lent is a time of remembrance, a time to get in touch with our humanity, & what better way than for us to get up close & personal with a dab of that dust?  As humans, we need the physicality of what we can see, hear, smell, taste, & touch in order for our world to be real to us.  I wear a wedding ring, I bless myself with water when I pass the baptismal font, I eat & drink of the body & blood of Christ at Holy Communion, & I shake hands or hug you as a token of being in community with you because we humans need the physical. 

Likewise, once a year, I need to be branded with a sign of my mortality & my faithfulness.  Fr. John Beddingfield from St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in New York says that the ashes are a sign, a reminder, & an invitation.  For centuries, they have been a sign of grief, of the limits of our humanity, & of our sorrow when we fall short of the person God created us to be.  Ashes are what are left after chaos, catastrophe, & destruction.  What a potent reminder they are after a fire when their aroma also permeates the air!

As we each look at the others with ashes on their foreheads today, we also remember that we come from the same place.  We may look very different, wear a variety of clothes, fulfill many kinds of tasks in our professions, & enjoy a range of leisure-time activities.  But in God’s eyes, & in our heart of hearts, we are all made of the same stuff, & we are each precious in God’s sight—even that person whom you find most difficult to love.

The psalmist tells us that God remembers how we are made, that we are but dust.  What does that mean?  We have to return to Christmas to remember that God gave us Jesus, incarnated—with flesh on—so that Jesus, the man, could fully embody what it is to be human, & we as humans can recognize what it means to be made in God’s image & likeness.  Ashes on our heads symbolize our humanity in the form of a cross, the cross on which Jesus died so that each of us may be resurrected with him.

The invitation implicit in today’s ashes is to repentance.  Joel tells us that God says, “Return to me with all your heart.”  Only in our dying to our past sins can we be born to new life.  And this does not happen once & for all.  Our being converted is a lifelong process, which is why we get to go through Lent every single year. 

But let me assure you we can’t do this Lenten discipline thing perfectly.  Our repentance will be effective not because of our holiness but because of God’s graciousness.  The ashes mark the beginning each year of a season of silence & reflection moving to an even longer season of rejoicing in our resurrection with Christ. 

No, we’re not to wear the ashes in order to be seen by others, but rather in order to experience deeply our own Lent.  Matthew urges 3 traditional Jewish disciplines, & I commend them to you as guides along the Lenten journey this year:  giving alms, praying, & fasting.  First, giving alms:  sharing with others from the resources we have been given.  We can tithe to the church community, give our time & talent to further God’s reign here on earth, open our hearts to those in need to whom we have previously been unresponsive.

The second discipline is prayer.  Daily private prayer—perhaps preceded by a pertinent scripture reading—is a life-giving habit to begin, or perhaps to take up again if your prayer life has been sloppy.  Prayer within the community is also essential, & corporate prayer is offered at 6:30 on Wednesdays weekly but during Lent is followed by a soup supper & program.  Each Friday evening, we will walk the Stations of the Cross with Jesus, preparing both for his death but also for his resurrection—& ours as well.

Fasting is a difficult discipline for me because, as a diabetic, I have to maintain a modified fast.  Avoiding some foods for 40 days allows me to pray without ceasing, remembering that we don’t live by bread alone & that I must rely upon Christ for my spiritual nourishment.  Fasting might be committing to a positive discipline such as daily Bible reading, or reading a good spiritual book which will help you fashion your mind after the mind of Christ.

How is Christ calling you to observe a holy Lent this year?  As I issue the invitation in a moment, open your heart to hear how God would have you make way a path in your ashy wilderness this year to the fertile valleys of the springtime of resurrection at Easter.  Amen.

 

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Last Sunday after the Epiphany

26 February 2006

 

Text:  Mark 9: 2-9

Other Readings: I Kings 19: 9-18; Psalm 27: 5-11; 2 Peter 1: 16-19 [20-21]

 

         Today’s readings are about theophanies—moments when God breaks into human life in powerful supernatural ways.  We end both the season of Epiphany & the season of Pentecost with the story of the Transfiguration when Jesus is revealed as Messiah on the mountaintop in the company of the two greatest prophets from the earlier times for the Hebrews:  Moses, representing the Law, & Elijah, the prophet of the older prophets. 

Just as at Jesus’ baptism, God’s voice is heard again, this time by the closest apostles, “This is my son, the Beloved; listen to him!”  The old passes away as the three disciples look around & find only Jesus—the Messiah of the New Covenant.  Clearly, the actor in this scene is God, for Jesus neither speaks nor acts; God is unequivocally blessing is Child.  Jesus is aware that the disciples aren’t yet mature enough to share this experience effectively so asks them to keep quiet about the transfiguration until after his death & resurrection. 

Peter doesn’t “get it” on the mountain as he wants to hang onto the mountaintop experience & stay there, basking in Jesus’ glory, just as we have perhaps wanted to prolong a particularly powerful spiritual moment or memory rather than getting on with our lives & learning how God wants us to use “Christ moments” to do God’s work in the world. 

As Peter later recounts this moment of Majestic Glory in his 2^nd epistle—the one we read from today—he betrays his incomplete understanding as he repeats God’s words yet omits perhaps the most important sentence.  On the mountain of transfiguration, God tells the disciples, “Listen to him!”  In the disciples’ listening to Jesus, they are called—as are we—to show forth in their lives Jesus’ love for all the world, one person or group at a time.  If we really listen to Jesus, no telling what group at a time.  If we really listen to Jesus, no telling what Jesus will expect us to do.  Perhaps proclaim the Good News by word & example & seek & serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves just as we promised to do in our baptismal covenant. 

Let’s return to the earlier theophany, however, when God gets Elijah’s attention in that cave.  Elijah has been busy, frustrating Queen Jezebel & wiping out a whole bevy of priests of Baal, & he’s gone up into a mountain cave to hide out from Jezebel’s wrath & to lick his wounds.  He’s worked hard, & he doesn’t feel like anyone really appreciates what he’s done for JHWH, the Lord God.  This job of prophet is much harder than he’d ever dreamed, & he’s pooped. 

When God appears & asks him  what he’s doing there, Elijah turns out to be a sniveling belly-acher:  “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, & killed your prophets with the sword.”  And listen to this:  “I ALONE am left, & they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 

Have you ever felt like this?  Like God & others ought to appreciate your hard work much more than it appears they do?  The last few weeks, I’ve certainly done my share of sniveling:  “Look, God, at all the hard work we’ve done to join these 2 churches together, & now it’s almost Lent & I’m in charge of making sure the congregation has meaty food for thought & prayer for a Holy Lent, & I don’t have time for Bill to be having health problems.  So you just take care of it:  make Bill better fast!”  You know what?  God hasn’t answered my sniveling prayer like I think God should have done!  Bill has had a health emergency every day this last week, & I’ve had to deal with it!  I’d give a pretty penny for a cave to spend a few nights in!  Have some of you had that sort of a 2006 thus far?  Yeah, I know I’m not terminally unique—many of you have similar stories.

And what does God tell Elijah?  God doesn’t tell Elijah to put up his feet, open a cool drink, & relax.  Nope, God says, “Go out & stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”  YHWH sends Elijah back out into the fray.  There’s a great wind, an earthquake, a fire, & even “a sound of sheer silence” as the writer of I Kings tells us.  It’s only the sheer silence which moves Elijah to wrap himself up protectively & leave the cave.  I wonder if he is thinking to himself, “What’s God gonna do next?”  But he still hasn’t learned anything.  He’s still sniveling—using the same words as before.  Look at the text if you don’t believe me.  Elijah clearly wants to resign his commission as lead prophet in Israel.  I have to admit that I sometimes whine long enough that God is probably really weary of listening to me.

God’s still there, however, & God’s solution to Elijah’s resignation is to give him a new job.  Would you believe God is recommissioning Elijah?  God says, “All you have to do, Elijah, is suit up & show up.  Put on your prophet uniform, go to Damascus, & anoint a new king of Aram—Hazael.  Then do the same for Jehu in Israel.  Before you get to retire, you’ve got to find Elisha, anoint him, & train him as your replacement prophet.  And just in case you think success or failure is all your responsibility, give it up.  There’ll be 7,000 faithful in Israel, so you’re not alone.”

How many of you have thought we could sit back & relax now that we’ve done the hard work of combining into one congregation?  After all, we’ve been blessed this year not just so we can bask in the accolades at Diocesan Council.  We’ve come together so that we’ll better be able to do the work which God calls us to do.  You & I are the saints of Hope which God is equipping for ministry in this place.  We’re being shaped into a new parish so that we can more effectively do the ministry God wants of us.  Once I get over whining about how hard my life is right now, perhaps I’ll open my ears & my heart & listen to how God will equip me for the next step in my ministry in your midst. 

Your vestry has taken your goals & vision & is organizing our tasks for the near future into an action plan for our renewed parish.  You’ll hear more about the work we’ll be about in the next several weeks & months.  Already, several small groups are forming for growth, support, & outreach.  The Lenten program provides all of us an opportunity to open ourselves & listen for the work God is equipping us for. 

We’re all in this together, my friends.  And it’s not up to us.  God is in charge.  Who knows?  Perhaps the first part of God’s answer to my whining is for me to share with my congregation Bill’s & my need for your prayers & support at this time.  None of us has the leisure to go into our cave & wait until it’s comfortable to come out & the responsibilities have all been sorted out.  There aren’t enough somebody elses to let you off the hook.  God is calling us ALL to make Hope the reality of all that Hope can be.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to take time for rest & renewal.  That’s part of our work together, too.  That’s one reason we have Lent each year, time for God to renew us for recommitment.

Lent can be our time to listen & learn to how we can fulfill another of the baptismal promises in this community:  to continue in the apostles’ teaching & fellowship, in the breaking of bread, & in the prayers.  I encourage you to participate in as many of the Lenten worship & learning activities as you are able:  Ash Wednesday worship, Friday Stations of the Cross, Wednesday Lenten worship & programs, and Eucharist & Christian formation each Sunday, for children & adults.  I urge you particularly to be present next Sunday at 10:30 to welcome Bishop Don Wimberly and his wife Wendy.  Throughout the next several weeks, open yourself to how God is calling you to grow as a part of this parish this year.  God & the Hope community need every one of us. Listen & learn, & always give thanks, for God is in charge.  Amen.

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

19 February 2006Text:  Mark 2: 1-12   Other Readings: Isaiah 43: 18-25; Psalm 32: 1-8; 2 Corinthians 1: 18-22

This story of 4 friends carrying their crippled friend to Jesus on a stretcher is one of my favorites from childhood. What was the appeal to this child? First, this man had such good friends they cared to go to such lengths so Jesus could heal him.  Friendship is important to children.

Secondly, the adventure of removing part of a roof to lower the paralyzed man down to Jesus captured my imagination. In fact, when my friends & I tried to duplicate the feat, using my sister as the paralytic because she was the smallest & had to do what we told her to, our good deed turned into a fiasco as the garage door we pretended was a flat roof swung down to 90 degrees, tumbling my sister Mary—as well as the rest of us—out onto the driveway, skinning our knees & requiring the usual explanations to our parents.

Even the cleverness of getting the crippled man past the crowds added to this story’s excitement. My heart thrilled to the dramatic climax when the man actually rose, took up his pallet, & walked. I, like the crowd, was amazed, never having seen anything like this. 

Indeed, I still haven't seen such a thing, & in the rational years of my youth & young adulthood, we spent many hours in Bible Study groups hovering over such passages, bolstered by St. William Barclay's commentaries. We pondered piously why astounding miracles such as this happened in Jesus' time but not in our own.  We justified Jesus' coupling the man's sins with his paralysis as pre-scientific superstition.  We failed to connect the ways we were paralyzed by fear or lack of freedom by the selfish, sinful thoughts & actions in our lives.  We could join the healed man in glorifying God for his healing while failing to relate this story to our lives at all. After all, we weren't crippled, were we?  From what paralysis did we need to rise, take up our pallets, & walk?

Now I turn to this ancient story with new eyes after some years of experience of Life with a capital "L". The details of the story still thrill me.  I pray my friends would be faithful enough to remove part of a roof & lower my heavy pallet to Jesus' feet. Today, I focus on the faith of friends who knew Jesus & trusted that he could minister to their friend.  Why, it isn't even the paralytic's faith that heals him.  It's his friends' faith! There are times in my life when my faith wobbles, when I can't stand on my belief alone. Then, my friends’ faith is essential.  I count on it!

We rely on each other's faith each time we pray intercessory prayers.  We stand in solidarity for our Prayers of the People to praise God together & ask healing, guidance, discernment, & strength for our whole community, citing many by name individually, in union with one another.  We carry the parish prayer list home to continue our prayers privately because we continue to be brothers & sisters in the faith, even when we are scattered from one another. Each Wednesday evening at 6:30, some of us celebrate Eucharist with healing prayers here in the chapel. Some will come seeking prayers & laying on of hands for their own healing; others will petition for their friends or loved ones. You may want to join in those prayers.

As I have prayed with this scripture story this week, I also recognize the real focus goes beyond healing of physical infirmities.  Jesus calls the paralytic "Son", indicating a familial relationship, & declares his sins forgiven. The real focus of this story is that        Jesus has the authority to forgive sins.  Jesus didn't even have to touch the leper to heal him in last week’s story yet did so because the leper needed human touch. Jesus had the authority to make the unclean clean. Today, Jesus doesn't need to touch the paralytic.  Jesus speaks forgiveness of his sins which frees him to walk.  Jesus provides the paralytic with what he needs.

Mark tells us that Jesus senses what the scribes see as scandal. Jesus calls the scribes' bluff. They call Jesus' declaration blasphemy, saying only God can forgive sins.  But Jesus demonstrates his authority by giving empirical proof—the man can walk! Today, we stand on the other side of the crucifixion & resurrection, beyond five centuries of hammering out the Creeds which declare Jesus as God, after fifteen more centuries of affirming that faith& praying for forgiveness as we do in the Lord's Prayer.

Yet we still sometimes question whether Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive our sins. We wonder whether our particular sins are not beyond Jesus' redemption.  Or worse, our better selves know that Jesus will forgive us, but we fail to be able to forgive ourselves.  So we stay paralyzed by our shortcomings, frightened that others will learn just how petty or self-centered or wicked we really are.  So, just like the psalmist, we keep quiet & try to ignore, justify, or minimize our sins. “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long.”  After all, doesn't everyone hate the mother-in-law at times? And anyone who has kids as ornery as mine has to let off steam occasionally by screaming at them or even whalloping them.  Everyone cuts corners on income taxes, don't they? After all, the government takes so much & the big guys don't pay their share anyway. And then, what about the really big secrets? Those things we swore we'd never tell anyone?

Jesus tells the scribes and the crowds, & especially the paralytic, that he forgives sins.  He declares this even though—to the scribes—it is blasphemy, a capital offense. Jesus experiences the cost of forgiveness up close & personal. The conflict which begins here with the authorities escalates throughout the rest of the gospel & climaxes at the cross.

Likewise, Isaiah, in the first lesson today, describes lyrically the new thing that God does for God's people, regardless of whether the people have been faithful or not. God says not to remember the former things or consider the things of old.  God blots out our transgressions for God's own sake & doesn't remember our sins. Jesus takes up this generous tradition in today’s healing story.

Every recovering alcoholic or other person living by the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous can testify to the power of such forgiveness of sins.  People paralyzed by addiction or compulsion for years can make a decision to let a loving God take over the reins of their lives & steer a straight path through the desert which their lives have become. Once they do the preparation work, share with another human the exact nature of their wrongs, & humbly ask God to remove their shortcomings, the weight lifted off their shoulders is like a healing, a miracle.  It's not a once-for-ever kind of thing.  Sometimes it takes a long time & lots of practice to actually let go & let God be in charge.  But lives change & people walk with new hope & purpose, sharing their miracle with others. 

Note what the psalmist tells us, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, & did not conceal my guilt.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’  Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.”  When I withhold forgiveness from someone else whom I believe has harmed me, whom does it hurt?  It may or may not be harmful to the other person, but it most definitely paralyzes me, & I lose my relationship with that person.  Of course, when we hold a person in unforgiveness, we really give that person certain power over us, don’t we?  As is often said in recovery circles, we allow that other person far too much room in our heads.  When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  We can experience forgiveness ourselves only to the extent that we are able to forgive others.

Every Sunday we say the General Confession in our worship service before we move on to receive Communion.  Then I offer the Absolution which is really God’s absolution of which I assure you.  I hope you consider the power of that confession & absolution in our service in a few minutes.  For many of us, such confession is adequate most of the time.  However, acknowledging our sin & feeling free from the paralysis under which sin holds us is sometimes greatly aided by speaking aloud to another person.  The Church has always recognized the need for confession of our sins.  During the liturgical season of Lent, your own self-examination may help you recognize you need private confession in order to be fully reconciled to God, to your neighbor, & to your own best self. 

In the Episcopal Church, we say private confession is open to all, required of none, but necessary to the spiritual growth of many.  If you find that private confession would help you be free of your old self to be resurrected anew with Christ on Easter Morning, please make an appointment with me.  Let me assure you that it’s nothing to be afraid of, but rather an opportunity for opening yourself to the freedom which Jesus offers.  We call the sacrament “Reconciliation” because our purpose in making confession is to melt the wall of separation so we have peace in our hearts. 

Will God really forgive you your sins?  Listen to the evidence of the scriptures once again.  Paul tells us in Corinthians that, as surely as God is faithful, every one of his promises is a “Yes.”

It takes courage to sincerely go through this process of confession & forgiveness with all your heart.  Why?  If you’re honest & really mean it when you confess your sins, then you can’t go back to wallowing in them again.  Jesus tells the paralyzed man to take up his pallet & walk.  Jesus expects the man to get on with the new life that Isaiah was telling us about.  That means we have to act like we’re forgiven.  We have to behave in ways which support our new resurrected life.  We can’t continue to sit on our comfortable albeit smelly pallet & watch the world go by.  This is the dangerous part.  Jesus expects us to establish better habits for our lives.  It means we have to find ways to give back the grace & mercy God has given us.  Being healed of paralysis means we need to begin to do the actions that speak louder than words at a more serious level.  During the 6 weeks of Lent, we’ll each have the opportunity to explore what Jesus is calling us to confession, to turn away from, in order to live a new life.  Conversion—which we’re all called to do over & over in our lives—not only means turning away FROM, but also turning TO Christ, truly making Christ the focus of our lives, personally & in this community. 

I pray today never to cease being amazed at the radical forgiveness Jesus offers.  Let us give thanks for our Christian community just developing, friends who carry us when our faith is shaky, when we're paralyzed by such burdens as unforgiveness. What or who do you need to forgive today? Do you believe that Jesus has the authority to forgive you? If so, what keeps you paralyzed? What must you do to stand, take up your pallet, and walk?

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

12 February 2006

Text:  Mark 1: 40-45; 42 Kings 5: 1-15ab

Other:  Psalm 42: 1-7; I Corinthians 9: 24-27

 

Today we have 2 biblical stories about leprosy which happened centuries apart.  Having a look at both of them is instructive in how we interact with God & with each other.

The disease we call leprosy today is more formally called “Hansen’s disease,” & it both disfigures persons who contract it & isolates them from even their closest loved ones.  Certainly a similar disease existed in biblical times, but the “lepers” in neither of these stories seem to have Hansen’s disease.  Rather, both Naaman & the unnamed leper who came to Jesus have one of a variety of skin diseases which are dubbed dangerous as much by society’s ignorance of their causes & transmittal as by their effects.  The 2 men probably have different diseases from each other.  Regardless, each comes to a healer confident that he can be healed & asks for healing.  And each is healed.

Disease is a great leveler of persons.  We know little about the leper who comes to Jesus, but most lepers in the Christian scriptures are ostracized from the community & considered no-counts.  They have little quality of life & less social or familial life, so Jesus’ healing this man by laying hands on him essentially breaks the taboo of isolation & provides what he may yearn most desperately for:  connection which conveys value upon the leper.  He matters; he’s like other people; he’s accepted.  Jesus’ hands-on healing reconciles the leper yet makes Jesus ritually unclean, driving a wedge between himself and the religious authorities.

Naaman, commander of the Aramean army, seems to have suffered little socially or professionally from his disease, although he probably could use a king-sized bottle of Calomine lotion for these diseases were often dry & scaly.   He clearly has an exalted opinion of himself, yet his desperation leads him to reach out to a foreigner through the intervention of his wife’s lowly maid, a captive no less.  He at first works through diplomatic channels, approaching the Israelite King with a letter from the king of Aram, & we have a bit of comic relief when the Israelite King fears that diplomatic relations are on the line when he has no clue how to heal this foreigner.  Little does he realize that he’s only to do his part & connect Naaman with the prophet Elisha.  Elisha is closely-connected to the court in Israel, for he hears about Naaman’s request & steps up to provide the desired healing. 

Where Jesus’ method for healing is personal & simple, Elisha really upsets Naaham—he who thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think—by not even granting him a personal audience but by sending a messenger with simple instructions to go wash in the river Jordan—a task he considers beneath himself in a river which is far inferior to the rivers of Damascus, he’s sure.  Naaman’s true task is to develop a degree of humility so that he is open to God’s work of healing.  Isn’t it ironic that it is Naaman’s lowly servants who convince him to try the only method available to him—a bath down by the riverside of the Jordan.  How often do we miss out on the opportunity to let go of scaly old ways of thinking & being because we’re suspicious of God’s ways of healing us? 

I’m aware that many in this congregation today stepped out in faith back last March—or in the intervening months—to trust that God was leading us to a more abundant life in the combined community which has now been established.  About 30 of us processed into Diocesan Council yesterday in Waco to be welcomed as the new Hope Episcopal Church by representatives from all over East Texas.  We have been walking in faith together for nearly a year, letting God wash off the unhealthy, scaly old ways of doing things to make room for the new birth of Hope.  Much work still is needed for our new life to be robust & healthy, but yesterday’s celebration acknowledged the strides already made as we’ve come this far by faith.  A huge thank you to all who traveled to Waco yesterday as well as to all who prayed for our travels & continue to participate in our new endeavor.

Returning to Jesus & the leper in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus sends the healed leper forth to the priest who can not only proclaim him cleansed but also restore him to relationships in the community.  Jesus wants the leper to experience the joy of new life yet cautions him not to tell how it happened—a command which the healed leper blatantly disobeys out of his unbridled joy at being set free of his disease & all the shackles attendant upon it.  The leper is freed yet Jesus’ ongoing ministry is hampered to some extent by the greater demand on his healing powers.

Naaman is healed by his obedience, not by any hocus-pocus performed by Elisha.  In fact, Elisha doesn’t come near for the healing, it is suggested, because God is the true healer, & the healing is a free gift.  Notice that Naaman’s faith is not a pre-condition for health but rather, Naaman does not express his faith until after the healing has taken place.  God’s gracious favor to Naaman comes first.

In what ways have you limited God’s work in your life because you have thought God had to have you perform some act of faith before God would act.  Naaman was simply obedient, even when what God’s servant asked something rather simple.  May each of us be available to God’s working in us, individually & within our community, & accept God’s outcome as pure gift & grace.  It’s really amazing what God has been able to do in our lives in the past year.  Let’s continue to open ourselves to what God can accomplish next.  Are you willing to take that chance on God? 

 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

5 February 2006

Text:  Mark 1: 29-39

Other:  2 Kings 4: 8-37; Psalm 142; I Corinthians 9: 16-23

If I were to give a title to this sermon, it would be “Back when Jesus was Successful.”  We enter the story early in Jesus’ ministry; in fact, note that this is still the 1^st chapter of Mark’s Gospel.  Mark moves us right into the heart of Jesus’ professional life.  This summary of Jesus’ activities could also be called “A Day in Jesus’ Ministry in Galilee.” 

Immediately before this passage, Jesus & his disciples have attended the synagogue for Sabbath worship, for they are observant Jews.  Right there in the synagogue, Jesus cured a man of demon-possession.  Today we would probably say the man was mentally ill & Jesus brought him back to his right mind.

We begin today’s passage with a scene change, & this time, Jesus heals a woman of a fever.  This isn’t just any woman; this is Peter’s mother-in-law.  As we study scripture, it is good to note what ISN’T said, what is left out.  Isn’t it curious that here we learn that Simon Peter is married?  Do you ever think of Peter as married?  I’ll admit that I didn’t ‘till I really listened to this story.  I sometimes wonder what happened to all the women who hang around somewhere in the Bible stories but whom we never meet.  Even those we meet aren’t named except in reference to their male relatives.  This woman is Simon-Peter’s mother-in-law.

At any rate, even though we don’t know her name, this specific woman, Peter’s mother-in-law, is in bed with a fever, & Jesus rather unceremoniously takes her by the hand & lifts her up.  No mumbo-jumbo or magic tricks.  He just comes to her & helps her up.  When the fever leaves her, she begins to serve them immediately.  I’m always a little miffed that Mark, the male author of this text, shows this woman’s healing by what she can do for the men now.  Nevertheless, he’s now healed a woman as well as a man, this one of a physical illness rather than a mental one.

We’re given 2 specific examples of his healing powers, one after another.  You know, ours is a faith of particulars.  Jesus was a particular human being in a little Middle Eastern country who took care of particular people, men & women, in quite individual ways, & we are given specific examples of his healing powers in passages such as this.  To Jesus, every person is worth caring for.  We’re ALL worth the trouble, even those people very different from ourselves.

After Mark tells us about these 2 healed people, he broadens his story to show Jesus’ miraculous healings for all the community after sundown.  In this Jewish community, the crowd of people cannot bring their ill to him until after sundown, for only then is the Sabbath completed.  Notice that Mark tells us the whole city is gathered around the door.  Jesus continues healing both physical & mental illnesses, probably far into the night.  Can’t you just picture all these people milling around in the open courtyard of this complex of houses of Peter & Andrew’s family right next door to the synagogue?  We know this because archeologists have found the remains of this complex in Capernaum. 

When Jesus casts out demons, he commands them not to speak.  This secrecy found repeatedly in Mark’s gospel is called his “messianic secret,” & many brilliant Bible scholars have questioned why Mark’s Jesus didn’t want people to know who he was.  I suspect Jesus didn’t want to take the focus off the gospel message.  His healings were preliminary to the greatest act of healing of all:  the resurrection.  In fact, through Jesus’ death on the cross, & in his rising again, Jesus continues to heal the broken-hearted, doesn’t he?  The curious thing in Mark is that the demons know who Jesus is though the disciples keep missing the point—we’ll see that throughout Mark’s gospel.  How often do we miss the point of who Jesus is?  But we don’t always have to understand Jesus; we’re just called to love as Jesus loved!

Early the next morning, hopefully after Jesus had gotten some sleep, he gets up & slips out to a deserted place to pray.  Remember that his temptations were in the wilderness, too, but that doesn’t keep Jesus from leaving the others & entering the desert to spend time with God.  Jesus models for us a healthy balance of work, rest, & prayer in his life.  Don’t you imagine that if Jesus needed daily private prayer, so do we?  He’s an observant Jew, so he prays at least 3 times a day conforming himself to God’s will.  If we don’t have the various aspects of our lives in balance, we’re bound to be off-center.  Jesus knew this & taught by example.  Prayer in the corporate worship as well as private prayer is essential for us to grow as Christian disciples.  The Daughters of the King offer daily prayer by name for anyone this community adds to our prayer list; just use a blue prayer list card in the pew slots.  If we are to be a community of deepening spirituality, it is because we are a praying community.

Jesus also models his need for solitude & getting away from work.  In this overly-busy world, we’ve largely lost the concept of Sabbath time when we can allow ourselves to be human beings rather than human doings.  Spiritual reading, meditating, journaling & wasting time with God are all important ways we can leave ourselves open to God’s transformation of our lives.  Spending time with our families, not accomplishing tasks but simply enjoying one another’s company, can be a holy task.  I commend it to each of you as I try to be a better steward of my own time in my life.

Of course, the disciples, Simon & his companions, just don’t get the point & come searching for Jesus when he is at prayer.  They can’t even drink their morning coffee without having Jesus right there by their sides.  They are really enjoying this exciting time of successful ministry with Jesus, & they want to go at it again, basking in the popularity Jesus has with the crowds.  It is surely tempting to get back to the adoring fans, isn’t it?

Jesus resists that temptation all of us have to return to our earlier successes where we know we’ll get more rave reviews.  Jesus responds to Simon’s urging by moving on.  Jesus is acutely aware that they have more work to do, so they persevere to the neighboring towns, proclaiming the gospel in a wider community.  Jesus practices what he preaches when he holds fast to his plan to spread the good news far & wide.  He doesn’t depend on the good will of those who saw him heal the sick the day before.  He stays the course as he acts on the basic call God gave him:  proclaim the gospel, the good news!

Jesus’ central message is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul & strength, & to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Jesus also heals the sick in body, mind, & spirit, but he doesn’t get wrapped up in the crowd’s evaluation of him, even when it is positive.  Jesus focuses on his mission & doesn’t get side-tracked either on ego trips or pity parties.  He balances prayer, rest, & work so that he has something of himself to give, always pointing to the coming of God’s reign on earth.

What can we learn from this review of a day in the life of Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee?  The real question before us is not what would Jesus do, but the harder one:  What would Jesus have for me to do?  What would Jesus have us to do in this community, this new parish of Hope?  Jesus encouraged a balance of work, prayer & study, & rest for each day of our lives.  Is your life balanced among these three essentials?  Is our community life shared among the parishioners in such a way that we all do our share?  Are we growing spiritually within our parish & also actively reaching out to invite others to share with us?  And are we giving ourselves away beyond these walls, even to those whom we’ll never see & who cannot give anything back to us or to the community?

Many of us will be traveling to Diocesan Council in Waco for their welcoming us as Hope Episcopal Church into the diocese.  There are still spaces on the bus, so sign up today with Dorothy Miller or Myrna Srenaski.  Our Sunday morning adult class has revolving leadership & is in need of leaders for the next several weeks, & our Mustard Seed class has needed another teacher for months.  Small groups are forming so we can grow in fellowship with one another & share our Christian journey in a small, safe environment.  The vestry met last weekend to turn our parish goals & vision into a strategic plan with action steps for the near future.  The fulfillment of this plan is up to ALL of us.  We’re ALL needed for Hope to become reality.

And rest.  What about rest?  Do you give yourself enough time during the day to stop the crazy need to be rushing on to the next task & just rest?  I try to use my standing-in-line minutes & my holding-on-the-phone minutes to give thanks & relax instead of resenting not being able to rush on to the next thing on my to-do list for the day.  I try to wind down when I go to bed at night so I can truly rest in peace.  I’ll admit this is the area I need the most spiritual growth.

Finally, let me remind you that each of the baptized has the responsibility to live into the promises we made or were made for us at our baptism.  We restate them several times a year & will do so a month from today when Bishop Wimberly comes to us for an Episcopal visit.  Each of us is called to act out our faith, that love which will not let us go.  Any who want to be baptized or confirmed need to get with me as soon as possible so we can make preparation.  All of us are called to recommit to our baptismal vows when the Bishop visits.  Not sure what all that entails?  I’ll answer as Jesus answered his inquirers, & that includes all of us whether we are newish Christians or have been long on this journey of faith:  “Come & see!” 

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Third Sunday after the Epiphany  -  22 January 2006

Text:  Mark 1: 14-20   Other:  Jeremiah 3: 21-4: 2; Psalm 130; I Corinthians 7: 17-23

 

On the front page of yesterday’s Houston Chronicle stands a rancher, John Merrill, in the middle of his stock pond in Crowley near Ft. Worth.  The pond, usually chest-high full of water, is nearly dry, and the accompanying Texas map indicates that we will need near monsoon-levels of rain to adequately humidify this part of the state this year.  Jesus might not have to be too persuasive these days for Mr. Merrill & other ranchers like him to respond positively to his call to “Follow me.” 

Perhaps the fishing business had been about as fruitful for Simon & Andrew, James & John that season as ranching has been in Texas this year.  Along came Jesus by the seashore with his invitation to “Follow me & I will make you fish for people.”  After all, the 4 fishermen were clearly middle-classed members of their society for they had homes & families & their own fishing boats, & they employed hired men, so the complications of running a fishing business which supported rather large extended families may have really gotten to them, & anyway, Zebedee had been particularly overbearing lately.  And Peter was feeling put-upon by both wife & mother-in-law who had been rather sickly, don’t you know?  Jesus, the charismatic rabbi from up the road, offered an alternative which may have sounded much like an opportunity to run off & join the circus to these hometown boys.

Last Sunday’s Adult Formation class considered at some length Jesus’ call to the first 4 disciples & their response:  they left their nets immediately & followed him.  Never mind how countercultural their response was; how was Zebedee going to manage without his sons?  Peter’s wife without his visible means of support?  In fact, later passages indicate that the fishermen returned to their craft in between missionary journeys, or at least after Jesus was crucified.  In fact, the point isn’t how extraordinary were the men & women who joined Jesus’ band of traveling disciples but rather how ordinary they were, how much they were like the man or woman down the block to whom we speak at the grocery store, or how much they were like you & you & you, & me. 

Jesus’ call to a spiritual journey arose out of a tradition in which the Hebrew people were regularly called from the everydayness of their lives to once again make faithfulness to God the first priority in their lives.  Moses spent 40 years molding a people to make Jhwh their one & only God.  Centuries of prophets followed him.  In our 1^st lesson today, Jeremiah speaks for the Lord God whom Israel’s children have forgotten, urging them to return that they might be healed of their faithlessness.  The psalmist reminds the people that the Lord’s forgiveness is ever-offered & that in God’s word is hope, a word which has taken on greater meaning for this congregation in the past week.  Paul urges the hard-headed people of Corinth to lead the life which God has assigned & to which God called them.  Paul tells them that obeying the commandments of God is everything—God’s will is to be the center of their lives.  In none of these instances is the audience a group of professional preachers-to-be which God is calling to be set apart to work for the Church.  No, all of these calls are to folks who have daily lives & responsibilities & who are called to a new orientation in the lives they’re already leading. 

This gospel, the good news which Mark was so anxious to record for future generations, Jesus issued to fisherman & tax collectors & housewives & even professional religious folks like Nicodemus who came to him at night.  This invitation to “Follow me, & I will make you fish for people” is issued to us here today also.  And what might that look like in our lives?

When Jesus calls people to repent & believe in the good news, the initiative is always his.  Many people who took our survey reaffirmed the testimony of countless folks in church:  a friend invited them to come & see.  Jesus operates through you & me to call people to further faithfulness, but it is Jesus’ impetus to begin with.  I promise that I wouldn’t have the courage to reach out if Jesus weren’t urging me to do so.  How about you?  Even an invitation to others is our responding to God’s call.

Those who are called to make God the center of their lives are usually going about doing ordinary things.  Jesus didn’t go out on the street corner to those hanging out to pick up as his disciples those who didn’t have anything better to do.  Jesus reaches out to folks who are effective members of their professions; Jesus wants those who know how to get things done, for they’ll get holy things done, too. 

How many times have you heard or read the Gospel that we’ve read today?  How many times have you & I said, “Here am I; send me” & really meant it?  Jesus issues a clear summons to follow him over & over again in our lives because it’s not an easy task to fulfill & we have to keep being reminded.  The word “repent” means to turn around & let Jesus reorient our whole lives—& Jesus expects such a call to disrupt business as we’re doing it.  Our initial response may be as immediate & unreflective as was that of the fishermen, & an emotional response to a powerful religious experience is often how we begin a deeper path in our journey.

However, keeping our lives Christ-focused isn’t a once-&-for-always proposition;  we can’t stay on task on our own will power;  if we could, we wouldn’t need a savior.  This journey is just that:  a journey.  It will take the rest of our lives, & we’re called to share Christ’s mission so we have to keep getting plugged into the source.  We do that through daily prayer & regular Bible study & exploration of an abundant Christian life.  Christ calls us to share, so we have to discipline ourselves to nurture our conscious contact with Christ.

And you know what? A deepening & maturing faith isn’t a solo, just-you-&-me, Jesus proposition.  Jesus called 12 apostles & had a far larger community of disciples beyond his closest friends.  Jesus expected us to travel in community with others who have responded, & that’s part of the reason why we have joined 2 smaller communities together here at Hope:  we need each other.  Neither St. Michael’s nor Incarnation was any longer a viable entity by itself.  We ALL needed to hear Jesus call to follow & to say “Yes” to the good news & share it with others anew.  We need to lift each other up in prayer.  We need to get together in small groups to learn together & ask hard questions about what our faith means to each of us.  We need to offer ourselves up to the larger community in ministry—being willing to give of our time, or talent, & our resources that we can be a light of Christ in this neighborhood. 

We have an opportunity to respond today by attending the Annual Parish Meeting & getting involved in this new joint community.  No excuse that you forgot your finger food!  This community has never starved for lack of a dish being brought.  Come along;  we need you.  The vestry needs your prayers next weekend as we turn our vision plan into an action plan for ministry this next year.  On the 11^th of February, we need YOU to be on that bus to Waco to celebrate this new community.  Don’t agree with everything being done?  Come along, be part of the process, celebrate the new life even if it doesn’t look exactly like what you’d prefer.  We need your voice, too.  Join a small group & take a chance that Christ intends to use YOU in the revitalization of your own faith & the opportunity we have to share God’s gracious love with others beyond these walls. 

Now, we don’t have separate altar calls in the Episcopal Church.  We believe we’re all called to come forward & be nurtured by the body & blood of Christ each week at the communion table of the Eucharist.  But just in case you haven’t ever felt personally included in such a call as Jesus made to the 4 fishermen & the multitude of other disciples, I want you to hear loud & clear today that Jesus is calling you—or is calling you anew—to follow him.  Jesus is calling you in order that you may grow in Christ’s love but also calling you to ministry in your daily life.  Jesus says, “Follow me, & I will make you fish for people.”  Hope Episcopal needs each of you in our fishing expedition.  [In a few minutes, we’ll sing “Jesus calls us,” & I hope you hear that call & are ready to respond.  The communion hymn may be new to you, but it is a way to express our response, & then we close today with a hymn which reminds us of the many ways Christ has for us to respond.]  Come & see!

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Sermon for St. Michael’s & Incarnation Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, Second Sunday after the Epiphany - 15 January 2006

Text:  I Samuel 3: 1-10 [11-20] - Other: John 1: 43 -51; Psalm 63: 1-8; I Corinthians 6: 11b-20

 

            Good morning, brothers & sisters in Christ!  Today is a glorious Sunday, the Lord’s Day, during this season of Epiphany when we celebrate the light of Christ.  We sang about it in our hymn of praise:  “The light of Christ has come into the world.”  We’re singing & praying & hearing scripture about the light of a star which first rested over the Christ child so that foreign kings could find & worship him, & so that Christ’s love could be spread beyond a little back-water country in the Middle East throughout the world.  We’re invited to participate in spreading that Christ-light.  And this is Good News.

We told God in our psalm this morning that this is OUR God whom we eagerly seek, that our souls thirst & our flesh faints for God as if we are in a barren & dry land & only God can quench our thirst.  St. Paul tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit & that since we were bought with a price, we must glorify God in our bodies.  Jesus calls his disciples in our Gospel reading, inviting us also to “Follow me,” and to “Come & see.”   And this, too, is Good News.

And we sing songs today commemorating a modern martyr who calls us even today to continue to work for justice & peace in our nation & world so that we & our children are not judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.  My family in Christ, we in this Christian community right here on 43^rd Street are day-by-day & week-by-week testifying in our parish life to some fulfillment of that dream which Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed in 1963 & died for in 1968.  As several of us discussed yesterday, in combining these two parishes which were born at the beginning of the modern civil rights movement & were nurtured by a courageous priest who stood in Selma & stood in Houston that we might stand here today, we are indeed fulfilling part of Dr. King’s dream & Fr. Jack Bosman’s dream.  And this is definitely Good News!

Today’s lesson from I Samuel—one of the “call stories” which influenced me most as I ministered for years as a lay person & now as a priest—sprang from the Bible anew as I began to pray & study for this day, this day when we choose the new name for our church, for Christ’s church here in Northwest Houston.  Indeed, this IS the story of young Samuel’s call to priesthood, but it is also a recognition of endings & a challenge to embrace new beginnings for us.  This, too, is Good News!

Samuel was apprenticed to the old, nearly-blind priest Eli & was sleeping right in the temple to be available to Eli.  We’re told the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread; in other words, no one expected any supernatural communication.  No wonder it took Samuel’s waking Eli 3 times for Eli to snap that GOD was calling Samuel!  If we’re not listening for God’s call, God may have to turn up the decibels & be repetitive.  Perhaps it wasn’t just Eli’s SONS who were negligent of their priestly duties!  Sounds like Eli may have been going through the churchy motions but left something to be desired in his own spiritual disciplines. 

At any rate, Eli finally catches on & instructs Samuel, if he hears the voice again, to respond, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!”  Yesterday, our diaconal intern Linda Shelton led the Daughters of the King and the Pastoral Care Committee in an exploration of what it means for us to listen actively for & to God & to others as we sharpen our skills at listening & responding.  Samuel listens for God’s voice, hears, & responds.  And God pronounces an amazing promise:  “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.”  I believe God is saying to us here, today, “Listen up!  I am about to do something at this parish here in Oak Forest that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.”  What might be God’s Epiphany message for us today?  Well, what did Samuel learn?

God’s first words were of judgment, removing the priestly power from Eli’s family who had not been faithful stewards of the ministry God had given them.  Although Eli’s sons were blasphemers, actively turning against God, Eli’s transgressions were more subtle.  Eli had not restrained his sons; he had undoubtedly allowed them to take advantage of their privileged position & not curtailed their presumptiveness. 

Perhaps we, too, relate to sins of omission more often than of commission;  allowing the status quo to continue without boldly standing & taking responsibility for the church’s ministry or for proclaiming Christ’s love & caring in our own lives.  After all, someone else will do it.  Those really religious folks will pledge, perhaps even tithe, & the church will somehow make it.  Those people who have children will make sure there are children’s or youth formation programs so the kids will learn how to be Christlike.  What concern is it of ours?  We don’t have kids yet.  Or, our kids are grown up & have moved to the suburbs.  No one person or any specific actions caused either of these combining churches to shrink to the point where they were no longer viable by themselves.  Many factors contributed, & that’s all water under the bridge now.  The reality is that we good Christian people more often practice the neglect of Eli much more than the more overt evil behavior of Eli’s sons.  Further, other factors have combined to decrease the viability of our separate congregations.  Our responsibility at this point is to have the grace & courage to say goodbye to that which is ending, to close the door on that which is no more & ask God to help us heal from the pain of its passing.  It is such an ending that God signals to Eli & to the Hebrews through Samuel’s vision.  Eli exhibits extraordinary bravery as he listens to Samuel’s vision & recognizes God’s words as true.  Eli hears Samuel through & then responds, “It is the Lord;  let him do what seems good to him.” 

God didn’t leave the Hebrews there, however.  Even as the old was passing away, God called forth Samuel to a new kind of priesthood & eventually, established a new form of leadership in Israel in the form of the Davidic monarchy.  We’re told that the Lord was with Samuel as he grew up & let none of his words fall to the ground.  The Hebrew people grew to listen to Samuel & through Samuel, to God.  We’re told that Samuel was the Lord’s trustworthy prophet.

Even as the old passes away, God provides the birth of the new.  A new wind blows in our parish today; do you not feel it?  Since last Palm Sunday, God has been nurturing a new creation in you & in me.  We need each other in this intentional community to listen to God’s call together & to venture forth boldly to love & serve the Lord.

With today’s choice of a new name, we will be Christened at Diocesan Council on the 11^th of February, & we’re chartering a bus to make it possible for lots of us to be present in Waco for the rebirth.  Never before in this diocese has a church community been born in this manner, & folks all over the Diocese of Texas are poised to celebrate with us.   As we process onto the floor of Council, we will be a visible sign of the intentional diverse yet unified community for which Dr. King & so many others dreamed 40 years ago.  And indeed, my Christian family, this is Good News!

We presented more than a page of previously-submitted names to Bishop Wimberly last week, & out of those, he has chosen 4 from which we can choose.  They are all fine names.  We can be proud to be called any of these names.  There is not a church in the Diocese of Texas with any of these 4 names.  First, Hope Episcopal Church.  We are certainly a church of Hope—& that hope is palpable as we venture forth.  Second, Episcopal Church of the Messiah.  We daily celebrate our worship of the Messiah who had been expected by Israel for generations, yet Jesus the Messiah was much more than his Hebrew neighbors could ask or imagine.  Third, Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation.  Surely, we proclaim Reconciliation in our joining one another to fulfill together what our catechism tells us is the ministry of lay persons: “to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.”  And 4^th, Episcopal Church of Christ the Servant Savior, echoes our mission statement that “we are servants of Jesus Christ, an inclusive community, called to spread God’s transforming love to all people.”  Each of these names NAME us.  Whichever one we carry forth will call us to live into God’s call for us to be a new creation.  Today, we are filled with Good News!  Let us each be alert to God’s word as we choose our name & as we fashion, with God’s help, a new creation.  Let us each respond to God’s call to us:  “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” 

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Sermon for St. Michael’s & Incarnation Episcopal Church

The Reverend Martha Frances

Year B, First Sunday after the Epiphany

The Baptism of our Lord - 8 January 2006

Text:  Mark 1: 7-11  -  Other:  Isaiah 42: 1-9; Psalm 89: 20-29; Acts 10: 34-38

 

This morning we celebrate Jesus’ baptism, one of the great themes of the Epiphany season, Jesus’ being manifest as God’s Son, the Beloved, with whom God was well pleased.  That’s what “epiphany” means, of course:  manifestation, a showing forth.  Certainly God’s greatest manifestation was Jesus Christ, & with his baptism by his cousin John, he began his public ministry. 

            The evangelist Mark jumps right into telling of Jesus’ adult ministry with his baptism just 7 verses into the Gospel.  John the Baptist identifies Jesus:  “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down & untie the thong of his sandals.”  In Jesus’ day, slaves—those who washed the feet of their masters & guests—were the lowest rung on the social ladder.  We also remember when Jesus, at the Lord’s Supper, untied the disciples’ sandals in order to wash their feet—Jesus their leader taking a slave’s place to show the disciples what form their ministry should take after his death & resurrection.

            John also explains the difference between his own baptism with water & that of Jesus who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  The Jewish people would have recalled that the Spirit brooded over the waters of creation & again as a dove left the ark to find new creation after the flood.  He who baptized with the Holy Spirit HAD TO BE the Messiah.  Christianity was a new religion but definitely developed from Judaism.

            Only a few words—one simple sentence—are necessary to describe John’s baptism of Jesus.  Other gospel writers describe both the appearance of a dove & the voice from heaven as a public event, but Mark indicates it was a private showing forth seen & heard by Jesus alone.  We modern-day hearers or readers have the advantage because we know of this as a cosmic symbol of Jesus’ divinity.

            And throughout Mark’s gospel, the disciples miss the points Jesus makes & don’t recognize who Jesus really is.  Sometimes we want to scream into the pages of the gospel, “Pay attention!  That’s Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God!”  We fancy ourselves so much more aware & cleverer than Jesus’ companions, yet would we have recognized Jesus as Messiah had we encountered the earthly Jesus?  Furthermore, if we modern Christians recognize Jesus as Son of God, how do we show forth Jesus’ influence on our lives to the rest of the world?

            What is baptism to us today?  We will baptize Sterling today, a young man who asked me recently if he could be baptized, so as we prepare to be an effective support community to Sterling today, we also reflect on our own baptism.  First, God is the primary actor in both Jesus’ & our baptism.  While Jesus is the human actor, God initiates the action, & it is God’s spirit appearing as a dove, speaking to Jesus to commission or ordain him for his ministry.  Our baptism, whether it occurred when we were babies, teenagers, or adults, is first & foremost God’s gracious action upon our lives.  It “marks us as Christ’s own forever” as the baptismal rite states.

            In the Episcopal Church, we don’t rebaptize for this reason: God—the primary actor—did it right the first time.  God doesn’t mess it up or do it partially the first time.  When older teens & adults choose to accept the responsibilities of their baptism for themselves, the Bishop lays hands on them & confirms them in the rite of Confirmation after they have attended Inquirers’ Classes.  Our next Inquirers’ Class begins at 9:00 next Sunday morning in my office in preparation for Bp. Wimberly’s visit on March 5^th, the first Sunday in Lent.  One does not have to be preparing for Confirmation to attend the classes; just come along & learn more about this faith community.  And, in case you are half asleep because you think this baptismal conversation is old hat to you, let’s remember that since we’re ALL responsible for bringing up Sterling & all our children to live into their baptism, we need regularly to evaluate how well we’re fulfilling the promises we made or were made for us at our own baptism.

            Baptism is our entry into the Christian community because God has drawn us to Godself & to God’s other people.  We, just like Jesus, need to have a loving & caring community journey with us as we likewise continue to update our own awareness of God’s desire for how we live out the ministry God calls us to fulfill in our lives & to witness to others.

            Baptism didn’t just set Jesus apart as God’s son so Jesus could feel good about himself, but baptism commissioned Jesus for ministry.  Once again, the primary action is God’s.  Jesus sort of suits up & shows up, makes himself available for God to send him forth to do the work of ministry.  Our baptism begins the process of our being the disciples God calls us to be—all of us, lay people & ordained alike.

            How do we learn to be disciples?  We’re given some pretty good guidelines in the 5 questions which we’ll ask Sterling & his parents & godparents in a few minutes.  I want to thank Sterling for this opportunity for us to once more review the promises we made or that were made for us at our own baptism.  Notice that your response to each of these 5 questions is “I will, with God’s help.”  We aren’t expected to grow as Lone Ranger Christians.  God & the Christian community support us in our spiritual quest. 

            In a few moments, we’ll stand & say the Apostles’ Creed & then promise, with God’s help, to grow each day as we support others to continue their Christian formation.  We promise regular worship attendance where we break bread, learn through regular Bible study, & get to know each other in fellowship with one another.  We promise to tell people about the good news of Christ’s love for us & to live in such a way that others believe that news.  We promise to stay alert to others’ Christlikeness, treating our neighbors as we want to be treated, & recognizing all we encounter as our neighbors.  Finally, we promise to work within the structures of our church & society to make our world more just & peaceful, affirming each other’s God-given dignity, even when others act as if they don’t believe it themselves.  These are not frivolous promises, but we share in their fulfillment with God’s help as we commit to growing up our children to join the larger community as faithful disciples ourselves.

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Sermon for St. Michael’s and Incarnation Episcopal Church

and St. James Lutheran Church

Houston, TX

by the Rev. Martha Frances+

The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ - 1 January 2006

 Text: Luke 2: 1-14 [15-20]  -  Others: Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8; Galatians 4: 4-7 (Lutheran Lectionary)

 

Several years ago, when I began my ministry as the priest in charge of Lord of the Streets, a mission for homeless people in midtown Houston, I searched for an icebreaker activity for a planning retreat involving both homeless community leaders & representatives from supporting churches, folks in very different circumstances in their lives.  How could they relate to each other on a more-or-less equal basis?  Then I realized that we all have stories about our names—for whom we are named, what our name means, why our name fits our personality, how our name has changed.  Indeed, even those in our society who own so little they can carry their possessions around in their backpacks possess a distinct name.  Names convey meaning & identity for each of us.  What about yours?

Each of our readings today relates to naming, & in fact, both the Lutheran & Episcopal liturgical calendars recognize this as Holy Name Day & celebrate the naming of Jesus.  The Gospel tells us Jesus was circumcised 8 days after his birth & was named Jesus, the name given Mary by the angel at the annunciation.  Paul tells us in Galatians that Jesus was sent in the fullness of time & gained identity in part by the name he called God: “Abba! Father!” A new relationship with the Creator, one of an adopted child, one which gives us all a new identity.  The psalmist twice affirms the exaltation of God’s name by even the lowliness of humans in terms of God’s creativity, especially the creation of human beings as little lower than the angels.

And the Aaronic benediction which Yhwh gave to Moses with which Aaron & his sons were to bless the Israelites as they became a nation, a people, during their sojourn in the Egyptian desert.  Growing up Methodist, I thought this blessing was written by one of the Wesley brothers as we always opened or closed meetings reciting or singing it, so imagine my surprise when I found it actually hiding amidst all the laws & minutia in the book of Numbers!  Yhwh’s purpose was for the tribal priests to bless the people with God’s own name.

In fact, in our opening prayer today, we affirm the power of Jesus’ name as a sign of our salvation for, indeed, Jesus—or Joshua—means “God saves.”  We ask God to plant the name & love of Jesus within our hearts that we, too, may be a sign of God’s love.

Naming is historically very powerful as we have ample biblical evidence, from Yhwh’s giving Adam the responsibility of naming the animals at creation, to Yhwh’s cryptic response to Moses’ request for a name:  “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.”  Abram, Sarai, & Jacob all gained new names as they gained new identities & were called forth by God to fulfill various ministry responsibilities.  In the Christian scriptures, Simon became Peter, Saul became Paul, & those Jews & Greeks who began to follow the Way of Jesus of Nazareth became Christians.  It is no wonder that the Church celebrates this Holy Name Day when Jesus was given a specific identity—the One to Save—while also being identified as one whose parents fulfilled the Jewish customs. 

Mary & Joseph took Jesus to the temple on the 8^th day as was the custom, for circumcision & naming.  They were observant Jews yet were also attentive to what new thing God was doing through them as they named the babe, not after Joseph as Jewish custom would have deemed appropriate, but the name given him before his conception by the angel at the annunciation.  The shepherds had come to see the babe, seeking verification of the message the angels had sung to them, & then they became the first earthly messengers, praising & glorifying God.  The shepherds knew something new & unique had happened though, no doubt, were still flummoxed as to its significance.

Mary his mother obediently named him Jesus & bundled him up to head off to the temple to fulfill their parental duties for this firstborn child, but she also treasured the words of the shepherds & no doubt added them to the angel’s words nine months prior as well as the actions of Elizabeth’s child who leapt in her womb recognizing Mary’s son’s coming Messiahship.  Mary pondered  all that had happened, & this word ponder means something like she threw together dissimilar happenings which nonetheless had cumulative meaning.  One commentary says as she pondered, she hit on the right interpretation of the things she had experienced, but her pondering—& perhaps our own—was a work in progress, not complete, finished, worked out. 

So we, too, ponder what new thing Jesus is doing in our lives as we seek to live as faithfully the ministry to which God calls us as Joseph & Mary did as Jesus’ earthly parents.  We are each called as we were named at our baptism to fulfill God’s call for us.  Each of us has a personal name, a Christian name, & a family name also.  At baptism, we took on yet another surname, the name “Christian.”  In so doing, we joined countless others who, in wearing Christ’s name, are called to show forth the salvation of Christ & carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.  Some of us wear the name “Lutheran” & others “Episcopal” & have chosen that particular branch of the Christian family with whom we gain our nourishment to work, pray, & give for the spread of Christ’s love in the world. 

At the present time, we Episcopalians who have come together to form a new church in a sort of marriage out of two former parish churches have a special opportunity to determine in the next couple of weeks what our name will be from this time forth.  Just as individuals & communities gained new names as they set forth on new tasks in the biblical narrative, so we from St. Michael’s & Incarnation are moving into a new phase of community as we become one.  Many names have been set forth;  our prayer is for God to guide us to the name which best expresses who God calls us to become.  We ask for you folks from St. James to pray that we hear God’s desire for who we are becoming & that we act on that call to ministry. 

We all celebrate Jesus’ name day today because Jesus IS, for real, the one who is our Joshua—our savior—& continues to save us, not just from our past, but saves us to be new creatures who are no longer slaves to our past but are God’s children & God’s heirs, as Paul tells us in Galatians.  As we begin a new year, NOW is the fullness of time.  God has sent the Spirit of God’s Son into our hearts.  In the year 2006, who is our Abba, Father calling us to be?  What ministry is our Abba, Father calling us to do?  Will we have the courage to be God’s new creation?