George Floyd & Ma’Khia Bryant in the Arms of Jesus

John 10:11-18

This Fourth Sunday of Easter is also known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. Throughout the readings and prayers for this occasion, we encounter, time and again, Jesus defined as our shepherd and ourselves as the sheep of his flock.

I was going to preach today exclusively on Jesus as the good shepherd, but in light of recent events affecting our Black brothers and sisters, I feel compelled to speak to those events.

For more than two weeks, all the world waited with bated breath as we watched the trial of one of the policemen accused of murdering George Floyd. Most of us were astounded at the preponderance of prosecution evidence and disgusted at the defense Derek Chauvin’s attorneys presented. Most people were sure that there would be a conviction of Derek Chauvin, his executioner, but because of past experience with white cop/black victim incidents, many of us were afraid the ‘thin blue line’ of defense would prevail. However, this time the legal system returned a valid conviction on, not only one, but all three charges.

But before we could celebrate that justice was delivered in the George Floyd trial, just less than an hour before the verdict came in, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot and killed by a white Columbus policeman. This is the seventh death of Blacks by law enforcement in the last four months!

Then Friday, a deputy killed Andrew Brown Jr., in North Carolina while attempting an arrest.

Please say with me their names:

Miles Jackson . . .

Andre Hill . . .

Casey Goodson, Jr. . .

Adam Toledo . . .

Duante Wright . . .

Ma’Khia Bryant . . .

Andrew Brown, Jr.

This slaughter has got to stop!!

No matter whether George Floyd was a found sheep, or a lost sheep, he was still a child of God, and deserved to be treated as such. But Derek Chauvin saw him as a threat to himself, and maybe others, and mercilessly took his life by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes. He forgot God’s commandment:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Luke 6:31)

What he did was not subdue George so that he could not harm the police, but maliciously kept his knee on George’s neck until there was no breath or movement – and then kept it there for another three minutes. He was not lawfully carrying out his duties as a police officer sworn to uphold the law and protect the people of Minneapolis. If you see the video, there was only a blank detached stare in Chauvin’s eyes during that whole nine-plus minutes; with no sense that he realized that George Floyd was another human being.

And for once, in a nation of inequality, the brave jury of twelve people, as well as a number of police, determined that Derek Chauvin had committed a crime and should be punished for it. We all know that this one verdict is not going to correct the horrendous murders of black men and women, but it may be a start. Statistically, 98.3% of all police-involved shootings do not result in indictments, trials, or changes in policy and procedures.[1] We all need to work to bring awareness and remedy to police violence and brutality in our society, whether it comes from police or other people.

After the verdict came in, I imagined in my mind, that George Floyd was cradled in the arms of Jesus, being held in the love and comfort by the Savior of us all, protected from any further harm or grief or pain.

Still, as we breathed a collective sigh of relief Tuesday, our community felt the sting of another police shooting, resulting in a sixteen-year old black teenager dead from four gunshots.

Whether Ma’Khia was a troubled foster child, or this started as a spat with two other girls about a messy house and unmade bed, it came when Ma’Khia wielded a steak knife and was summarily shot by a Columbus police officer. The incident and actions of the police officer are still being investigated, so this is not the time to make presumptions. But nevertheless, another one of our Black sisters is dead at the hand of law enforcement.

It is time to mourn Ma’Khia, along with the others whose lives have been snuffed out by extreme use of lethal force by police, when it is likely that they would not have used such force if the victim had not been a person of color.

And so, I again imagine in my mind, that Ma’Khia Bryant is being cradled in the arms of Jesus, being held in the love and comfort of the Savior of us all, protected from any further harm or grief or pain.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said:

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:25–28).

That is what a good shepherd does. And that is what Jesus does for each of us – and we are his sheep.

He is, for all of us, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us. He searches for us when we’re lost, to save us and to show us the way to eternal life (Luke 19:10).

The Shepherd knows each sheep by name, they know his voice, and they follow him. He protects them. The hardest thing the shepherd has to protect us from is ourselves and our own foolishness.

We tend to be like sheep, consumed with worry and fear, mindlessly following after one another. By not following or listening to the Shepherd’s voice (John 10:27), we can be easily led astray by others to our own destruction.

George Floyd and Ma’Khia Bryant, although they no longer live in this human plane, are Jesus’ sheep, and now live eternally with Him. No one can remove them from the arms of Jesus.

But just like sheep, we generally do not ‘get’ it – that is why Jesus repeats this passage of scripture so often. He says:

• • He is the Good Shepherd,
  • He laid down his life for his sheep,
  • And he knows the name of all his sheep,
  • His sheep follow him.

And still we do not always ‘get’ it!

If we are going to look at Jesus as the ‘Good’ Shepherd, we must remember that we are the sheep. We all have been lost, but

Jesus comes and gathers us all back into the safety of the flock.

He shows us how to follow him, listen to him, and come back to the safety of his arms. And he also provides an example of how we can be shepherds to those around us. Jesus challenges us to not only follow him, but be the voice and person to lead others to Him. We each can be the sheep that follow him, but also a member of the flock that lead others to Him.

We are all called to be his sheep.

I would like for you to set aside some quiet time this week pondering

“Who is a good shepherd for you and for whom are you a good shepherd?”

I invite you to take these questions with you –

When we listen to Jesus, as sheep listen to the shepherd, how do we respond?

If we do not respond, are we really listening?

Do we hear him when he speaks to us?

Do we listen when we hear him?

How do we respond to the voice of Jesus?

Amen

 Delivered to Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 25 April 2021

 

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[1]      Carlos Watson, “A Verdict for America”, CNN, Washington Post; 24 April 2021

Acknowledging ‘White Privilege’

The words ‘white privilege’ have been bandied around by pundits, the media and in general conversation, and while many of us accept that it exists, we are not sure what it means. The best definition of ‘white privilege’ that I have found came from a class in women’s studies at the University of Massachusetts:

“a set of advantages and/or immunities that white people benefit from on a daily basis beyond those common to all others. White privilege can exist without white people’s conscious knowledge of its presence and it helps to maintain the racial hierarchy in this country.

The biggest problem with white privilege is the invisibility it maintains to those who benefit from it most. The inability to recognize that many of the advantages whites hold are a direct result of the disadvantages of other people, contributes to the unwillingness of white people, even those who are not overtly racist, to recognize their part in maintaining and benefiting from white supremacy.

White privilege is about not having to worry about being followed in a department store while shopping. It’s about thinking that your clothes, manner of speech, and behavior in general, are racially neutral, when, in fact, they are white. It’s seeing your image on television daily and knowing that you’re being represented. It’s people assuming that you lead a constructive life free from crime and off welfare. It’s about not having to assume your daily interactions with people have racial overtones.

White privilege is having the freedom and luxury to fight racism one day and ignore it the next. White privilege exists on an individual, cultural, and institutional level”.[1]

To quote African -American author, James Baldwin, “Being white means never having to think about it.”

Many of us at Saint John’s benefit every day from our ‘white privilege’. We don’t even acknowledge that we have it, and indeed, enjoy a life that people of color can only dream of, but do not often attain. Life’s path is smoothed for us; the entire world is set up to give us every advantage, allow us to come out on the top. Moreover, we don’t want to talk about the fact that we are privileged, or even think that our privilege directly affects the lives of millions of people of color. We do not have to worry about whether our children will return safely as they walk home from school, or if they are driving, will they be stopped for the most minor of offenses and jailed. I have an African-American friend who does not drive in Bexley because the police consider ‘driving while black’ a reason to stop him. We don’t have that worry. And even if we are stopped by the police, we don’t fear that we will be assaulted or shot. We don’t have to teach our sons how to avoid harassment when they are doing nothing wrong. People don’t cross to the other side when we walk down the street, or hold tight to their purses when we pass by.

Racism is about much more than our feelings toward one another, or about differences that we can fix with talk of tolerance or color blindness. The story of race is an ideology of difference that shapes our understanding of ourselves, the world we inhabit, and the communities in which we live. Racial thinking assigns value to human beings who are grouped within artificial categories. We do not need to embrace contrived notions of racial differences, in the name of inclusion, but to examine to the depth of our hearts how we really feel about people of color. Tolerance is not acceptable; we must search until we can truly look at any other person as equal to ourselves. By minimalizing another person, we are dehumanizing not only them but ourselves.

In light of the murders and shootings of people of all colors in the past few months and most recently, we, may be appalled or anguished, but may not see these events are directly related to the long-standing racism in our nation stemming from slavery. Progress for people of color has been slow, and halting; cultural attitudes and habits have changed at a glacial pace. We think we have made progress, but we have become so used to the ‘racial divide’ in our nation, that in many cases, we do not even realize it is there! The sad and shocking thing is, these killings will continue. Too much of white America doesn’t see the problem. Many subconsciously believe that the shooting victim(s) “deserved it”!

None of this means the situation can’t change. However, until the white people in America can see clearly this injustice occurring, and realize the freedoms and values that we as Americans believe in are not available to everyone, it will continue. Until it tugs at our own sense of fairness and justice, a lot of white people in America will remain unmoved to act. Denying the impact of white privilege on this country’s judicial system creates more injustice, more inflamed rhetoric, more grief, more rage. . . and more deaths!

I saw a sign held by protester at a rally that said: ‘White Silence is Violence’.

Truly, if you do not listen to others who are not like you, keep silent when disparaging words are spoken, don’t hold people accountable for their discriminatory conduct, you are just as complicit in racism as those who hold a gun or burn a cross or lynch a man.

White people are in a position of power in this country because of a long-standing power structure that they control. In the opinion of many, much of the political unrest that we are now experiencing stems from the fact that we fear we are losing that control. Are we brave enough to use our ‘white privilege’ to correct that system or power structure? Are we, as white people, willing to do what it takes to stop the systemic murder of young black men, the institutionalized school-to-prison pipeline, the deep, bleeding wound that is racism in America. It is a hard pill to swallow that, in many ways, white people are the source of the problem and only we can change it! People of color may yell, scream, cry, plead or demand justice, but until we are willing to get really uncomfortable with our own participation in a racist society, nothing will change.

Don’t delude yourself that you do not have the power. You may say ‘I’m not racist — I have black friends! I’m a good person!” You may not be rich and you may truly struggle with daily aspects of your life. You probably are a good person, and you may have black friends. BUT, you still benefit from institutionalized racism.

Andrew Rosenthal, a writer for The New York Times, stated:

“The point of the “Black Lives Matter” movement is not that the lives of African Americans matter more than those of White Americans, but that they matter equally, and that historically they have been treated as if they do not.”[2]

Speak with people of color, listen, to learn — or perhaps more appropriately, unlearn the racism that has been instilled in us by our country. . . and our churches.

It’s time for white people in America — especially the white American church — to start putting action behind our prayerful social media memes. The unfortunate reality is that America has a really big race problem, and it is white people must take the leadership to fix it. We, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, should be leading the charge, not arguing about the semantics of whose lives’ matter’.

I call on ALL congregations, but especially white congregations, to unite in protest, to refuse to stand in silence, to speak out against racial injustice, to examine our individual lives and attitudes until we understand our participation in racism, and wipe it from our lives!

We must build a society where we no longer see people of color bloodied and broken. . . or dead, due to racial violence.

We must ensure that our children do not take on the racial attitudes and habits that we were so subtly taught.

Join me in acknowledging, understanding and shedding the mantle of our ‘white privilege’.
 
 
[1]      The Social Construction of Whiteness and Women, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

[2]      Andrew Rosenthal, “The Real Story of Race and Police Killings“, The New York Times; September 4, 2015

 
Written for the Crossroads, Saint John’s Episcopal Church and Parts Adjacent, Worthington, OH; 18 July 2016

Jesus’ Charge to Us

John 13:1-17, 31-35

Today is Maundy Thursday, the least understood, probably least attended, and undoubtedly the most intimate of the Christian holy days.

It was the time of Passover when all Jews commemorated their escape from the Angel of Death while captives in Egypt. We share with those Hebrews, Jesus, and His disciples in that last meal, the foundation of the Eucharist we celebrate today, reminding us of Jesus’ suffering and our redemption through His body and blood.

Jesus knew His path would be to the cross, and he tried again to get the disciples to understand what would be happening.

The disciples were a rag-tag collection of people who gave up everything – their families, their jobs – to follow this man from Nazareth. There had to have been intense love and respect for Jesus. He had spent almost three years preaching and teaching these men and women. Yet, the disciples didn’t understand and seriously denied that He would go away.

One last time, Jesus provided an example of how the disciples and WE are to live in a relationship with God.

After the meal, Jesus humbled himself, as a servant, to wash the feet of the disciples – a custom relegated to the lowest of the low in the Jewish community. He instructed the disciples to follow his example:

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them (John 13:15)

This scripture reminds us that by following His example of humbling Himself, we can be more Christ-like and live a more godly life.

Today, it is called ‘maundy’ from the Latin ‘mandatum, ‘ meaning commandment or order, because of the command that Jesus gave ALL of us.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Holy Thursday draws us to the table, in the company of Jesus and the disciples, as he begins to speak his final words. The disciples, nor will we understand everything Jesus has to say, will not be able to comprehend fully the import of what he is telling them, but his words will sear themselves into their hearts. These words will return to the disciples later, in that bewildering time known as ‘after’. These words will comfort them and stir their courage for the path that still awaits them.

But for now, they and we are at the table. As the night unfolds, we will see that the word at the center of Jesus’ vocabulary is this:

Love.

That is our charge, not only on this Maundy Thursday but now and for the rest of our lives.

To paraphrase,

“Unless you let me do this, unless you let me humble myself, unless you let me do something that you think is shameful, unless you let me embrace you in your shame, you cannot truly share my life, mission, and love.”

And so now, if we don’t let Jesus into our lives where we’re genuinely most vulnerable, ashamed, and broken, we don’t let Jesus into our lives at all.

The love of God, as we learned from Jesus, is unconditional. . .

Just as we are.

To share in His life and be fully followers of Jesus, we must love ourselves and others in that way, too.

Unconditionally.

Are we willing to accept that Jesus loves us, regardless of our failings, no matter what dirt we wear?

Can we remember that he suffers when we suffer?

Can we fully accept that our pettiness, anger, and violence hurt him deeply, as it hurts all humanity?

Can we fully comprehend that no matter what, his love has redeemed us, and through his suffering and example, we are assured we have eternal life?

Let us pray:

Please.
If you’ll help me
I promise to try to trust you enough to believe,
to believe in your wild and radical love
that it might even be for me
in a real way,
and to let you hold this sin of mine.

The one I like to carry because I think I deserve its weight,
its punishing load should be forever shaking my arms.
So if you’ll help me
I promise to try to trust and believe you can be that wonderful
for me, too.[1]

Amen.

                       Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, Columbus, OH; 28 March 2024

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[1]      Adapted from prayer by Rev Erin Counihan, Oak Hill Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, MO

Building Prophets

Mark 6:1-13

May the words of my mouth be acceptable to you, O Lord, and encourage us to be ‘sent out’ to spread the Good News. Amen.

We heard in the Gospel:

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:1-3)

He was REJECTED by the people who knew him the most – his own hometown! His own neighbors refused to accept his teaching. Imagine if you went home to visit and everyone said:

“We know exactly where you come from, boy! Remember your place!”

As my grandmother used to warn me when I got high and mighty:

“Don’t get too big for your britches!  

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things – Jesus was indeed doing some extraordinary things, though he was quite ordinary. He was healing people; he was driving out demons; he was challenging the status quo and confronting the religious establishment.

The people in Jesus’ hometown acknowledged this or at least some of this. They said,

“What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands.”

So what was holding them back? Why couldn’t they join in and be part of the movement of Jesus’ teachings? Why couldn’t they participate with Jesus in what he called the kingdom of God?

They rejected him – afterall,

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

Then Mark added,

And they took offense at him.

They took offense.

Why?

Because they knew his family; because he was a carpenter by trade; because he was so ordinary. How could someone so ordinary be so extraordinary? And this astounded them.

The text says that Jesus was

“amazed at their unbelief”

They could not believe because they could not see, and they could not see because they couldn’t get past how ordinary Jesus was. They couldn’t get past their limited worldview, their narrow vision of reality, and so they couldn’t believe that Jesus could be more than a boy from Nazareth!

But, being rejected did not stop Jesus from following his mission on earth – he kept preaching and teaching his disciples how to follow in his footsteps after he was no longer on the earth. The disciples were not ‘getting it’, but he never gave up – he kept on teaching and preaching and healing.

We all face rejection in our lives, sometimes because of some skill we lack, because we say something that isn’t mainstream, or we support others who may not be a member of ‘the gang’.

What can we do when we face rejection?

Clebe McClary is a wounded Vietnam Veteran who lost an eye and an arm fighting for our country. He had an acrostic he lived by: F.I.D.O. He said it stood for “Forget It and Drive On.”

• Bad things happen in life, he said, and when they do,

F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.

• You meet some bad people in life, and when you do,

F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.

• You don’t succeed in a task; then,

F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.

F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.

Theodore Roosevelt once said,

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat”[1].

That same advice applies to each of us – as we try to live in the way Jesus wants.

Even if we don’t recognize them, we have prophets/disciples/apostles in our very midst – they are not always famous or noteworthy or even members of the uppercrust. They may be the person sitting next to you or living on your block.

Prophets tend to be misunderstood by people of their own time and place because they are always calling people to see beyond that time and place. As an example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is almost universally loved and quoted today by people of all walks of life and political persuasions. However, when he was alive and working for civil rights and against the war in Southeast Asia, he was continually investigated by the FBI, and was called a communist and many other names by many, many people.

When God calls people to be prophets, they seldom become the most popular residents in the neighborhood. They may even be the very young, teens or senior citizens – people we would normally not think of as ‘prophet’ material. Prophets have been, are and likely will continue to be misunderstood. At times they are threatened, slandered and even killed for their trouble.

Jesus directed his disciples to travel from village-to-village teaching, preaching and healing – he knew that they were still untrained and would not always be successful, and people would not always be receptive. When people rejected the prophet, the prophet should go elsewhere, taking the power and the healing and Good News of God with them. In case of rejection, He told the disciples:

Shake off the dust and go on (Mark 6:11)

Or in the words of Clebe McClary:

F.I.D.O: Forget it and drive on.

In some ways, each one of us is a prophet/carrier of Jesus’ message of love.

We need to wake up, shake our neighbors in the pew out of this disbelief. God is at work in the world, saving, transforming, rescuing, even if we cannot see it. We have to ask ourselves:

“Where are we stuck?

Where are we blind?

What is it that keeps us from seeing God at work in ordinary people doing extraordinary things?

What are we missing?”

When we can see ourselves as a beloved child of God and everyone else is just as beloved, then we see and live in reality. Seeing is believing, and seeing is also loving. If we see, we will love. If we do not love, then we do not see and believe.

In life some of us often feel we don’t have a very important role to play. What we do seems so insignificant. It isn’t; every Christian has an important part to play in those numerous “little things” we do every day.

Let’s renew the way we look at our homegrown prophets. Let’s give our young men and young women/elders and those seemingly ordinary people among us another look, another chance. What an opportunity we have to build ‘prophets’ and enrich lives.

I leave you with three questions:

• Who do you think of as prophets today?
• How might God be calling you to proclaim God’s Good News?
• How might God be calling you to be a prophet?

Let us pray:

Dear God, thank you that you use ordinary people like us to do your work on earth. Help us to realize that our part—no matter how small—is a vital part of the whole picture. Open our eyes to your grace at work everywhere. Open our eyes to the gifts of all, so that the richness of your kingdom can become our reality. Amen.

 

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[1]      Knute Larson, “Dancing With Defeat,” Leadership, Fall 1993, 104-107

Delivered at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 4 July 2021

A Gift for Us

John 3:14-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my soul be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

John 3:16 is one of the most recognizable verses in the entire Bible:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that you who believe may not die but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

You can find ‘John 3:16’ on graffiti walls, football game marquees, car windows and bumpers, and roadside billboards. Even non-religious people know what this phrase means. And almost every little child who has attended Sunday School can recite it.

But maybe we need to rephrase it:

For God so loved YOU that he gave his only Son so that YOU who believe may not die but have eternal life.

How could God love such a world as ours? Martin Luther said,

“If I was God and these vile people were as disobedient as they now are, I would knock the world to pieces.”

The miracle is that God does not! God sent His Son.

“that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Luther calls this verse “the gospel in miniature.”

God loves the world:

God loves the entire world.

His love is not limited to one nation. His love is not limited to one person. His love is not limited to good people. Just as the rain falls on the just and the unjust, so is the love God has for the world. No one is outside the love of God. God’s love is infinite and never changes.

God cared enough to send his very best – His Son Jesus.

How can we be sure that God loves each of us? Giving a gift to a loved one is the best expression of love. Gifts express love. They are physical tokens of love. We say, “I love you,” with a gift. God gave us a token of his love. God emptied himself of godly powers and prestige and humbled himself to be born of a virgin. God gave his only Son to us; there is no greater gift.

As we hear in the Bible,

No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

John 3:16 describes the ways God loves us – not “how much,” but how:

• God loves us by sending his only Son to give us eternal life (John 3:16)
• God loves us by lifting up his Son so we can believe in him. (John 3:14-15)
• God loves us by saving us from our sins (John 3:17) – not just our petty little everyday sins but even our sins with a capital ‘S.’
• God loves us by shining the light of Christ into the dark places in our lives, the places where we try to hide our sins (John 3:19)

So I believe John 3:16 can be summed up in five words. This is the truth that will set you free today!

God is crazy about you.

Turn to your neighbor and say, “God is crazy about you.” Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there is only one of us to love.” God held nothing back to show you how much he loves you and that he wants you whole.

So, to recap the crux of this Gospel, we can say:

Beginning of the story

God loves
God gave
We believe
We have life

God loves
God gave
We believe
We have life

End of story

Let us pray:

Is it possible, O God, for you to love such as us? Yet we know it is true. If we allow ourselves to doubt your love, all will be lost. Thank you, God, thank you for loving us. Help us never to betray such incredible love. Amen.

Delivered at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber Terrace Assisted Living, Columbus, OH; 10 March 2024

The Snake and the Cross

John 3:14-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my soul be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

John 3:16 is one of the most recognizable verses in the entire Bible:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that you who believe may not die but have eternal life.

You can find ‘John 3:16‘ on graffiti walls, football game marquees, car windows or bumpers, and roadside billboards. Even non-religious people know what this verse means. And almost every little child who has attended Sunday School can recite it.

However, additional verses in John 3:14-21 have a deeper meaning, often ignored by most people.

Who doesn’t love the Indiana Jones movie series? Everyone who knows about Indiana Jones knows he hates snakes. He is a robust and tough guy until he meets a slithery thing. Then, he dissolves into a quivering mass of spinelessness. Some people like snakes, keep them as pets, and let them slide about their homes. But these people are definitely in the minority.

Most of us do NOT want to be in the company of snakes. Most of us are right there with “Indiana Jones.” Snakes are slippery and scaly and slimy and scary. Snakes are creatures we do not want to engage with or embrace. Snakes are creatures so different from us that they evoke disgust and fear, even when we do not know if the snake we are looking at is dangerous or a harmless natural insect repellant. 

So, we do not readily have a warm, fuzzy relationship with limbless reptiles. We have been conditioned to this hatred, to this fear, since the words of Genesis. In the “second” but earliest Genesis story, the tale of Adam and Eve and their fall from the paradise of Eden, the first “bad guy” is not a guy but a serpent. The serpent later becomes a snake when cursed by God.

Let’s go back and look at the presence of snakes in the Bible. Snakes are often associated with negative symbolism, and their representation usually means deception, temptation, and evil.

• First, we start with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God created a world with everything to satisfy their needs. It might be called ‘Heaven on Earth’. There is only one condition:

“of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat” (Genesis 2:17)

The serpent addresses both Adam and Eve; Eve responds, but not Adam. The serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. God discovered that transgression and the world changed forever. Tempted by Satan in the form of a snake, Eve encouraged Adam to eat the apple, causing their exile from the Garden of Eden and leading to the fall of humanity: God banished Adam and Eve from their paradise, and the serpent changed into a snake.

• Another significant encounter with snakes occurred when the enslaved Hebrews were in Egypt. Moses repeatedly appealed to Pharoah to let them leave, but Pharaoh ignored their pleas. God rained down seven plagues on Egypt, including a plague of insects and frogs.

When Moses and Aaron confronted Pharaoh again, they turned their staffs into serpents to signify God’s power. Pharaoh’s magicians also turned their staffs into serpents. But, Aaron’s serpent swallowed the snakes produced by Pharaoh’s magicians, demonstrating God’s superior control over the Egyptian sorcerers’ magic. However, this did not move Pharoah’s heart.

• In Acts 28:3-5, the native people welcomed Apostle Paul and other prisoners and guards who survived a shipwreck on Malta. As Paul gathered sticks and placed them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself onto his hand.

When the natives saw the venomous snake hanging from Paul’s hand, they assumed that he must be a murderer and that divine justice served, as they believed he would die from the snakebite. However, Paul shook off the snake into the fire and suffered no harm. The bystanders, seeing that he was unharmed, changed their minds and thought he must be a god

It is important to note that while snakes are often portrayed negatively in biblical narratives, not all references to snakes in the Bible are associated with evil. For instance, the Bronze Serpent in Numbers 21 serves as a means of healing and redemption when venomous snakes bite the Israelites. Additionally, Jesus said of himself:

Just as Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted, that everyone who believes may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15),

drawing an analogy to the bronze serpent of Moses’ time.

The snake-bitten people could do nothing to save themselves. God had to provide a way for healing, or they would all die. When they confessed their sins and asked Moses to intercede, God provided this strange remedy:

Make a bronze snake, put it on a pole, and whoever looked at it would live.

We all know what it is like to over-promise and under-deliver. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for us to believe that God sent Jesus to give us eternal life. Jesus promised so little but delivered so much.

This week’s gospel text is about the revelation of God’s redemptive rescue of humanity for all eternity. Jesus changed all the rules and regulations. In his crucifixion, Jesus was lifted up on a tree and killed horribly in a public manner. And at the place of the ‘skull,’ or ‘Golgotha,’ Jesus crushed the serpent forever for our sins.

Jesus’ death on the cross recalled God’s remedy during the plague of poisonous serpents in Moses’ day, healing those who looked on the bronze serpent. Anyone who looks on Jesus in faith receives eternal life. 

We are all under the condemnation of eternal death because of our sins. No human remedy can help; God graciously provided the way to salvation for us. He sent His own Son to be like that snake, lifted in the wilderness.

In John’s Gospel, there are references to Jesus being “lifted up” (John 8:28 and 12:32). Together, these verses speak of two ways Jesus would be “lifted up”:

• On the cross at His crucifixion;
• Similarly, lifted up on a “pole “(i.e., the cross), and repentance and salvation came to all who looked upon Him. Jesus removed the sting of death and preserved us from the “snakebite “of Satan.
• Jesus also spoke of being lifted in His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. Jesus was “lifted up” from the grave when God raised Him from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Jesus was “lifted up” from the earth and returned to heaven after His resurrection (Acts 1:9–14). And now Jesus is “lifted up” over every angel, authority, and power (1 Peter 3:22–23). He sits at the right hand of God, above all creation (Ephesians 1:20–23).

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was like the symbolic snake raised on the stick that saved the Israelites in the desert. Christ’s death at Golgotha – The Place of The Skull- was a word of forgiveness, grace, and love. From that most terrible place of suffering and death, from that Roman cross meant to be the most humiliating way to die, God used Jesus to save the whole world.

1. Jesus Christ crucified was God’s only way of salvation for Jews and Gentiles. In Number 24:4-9, God loved the Israelites and provided a way of healing; in the New Testament, we hear that

“God loves the world,”

that is, Jews and Gentiles, giving His Son for the redemption of His people from every tongue, tribe, nation, and language.

2. The serpent was lifted before the Israelites in the camp to heal the bitten. Christ lifted –first on the cross, then in His resurrection, His ascension, and finally in the preaching of the Gospel–so salvation came to sinners who looked on Him.

The cross of Christ is a humbling remedy for our sins. It is humbling to admit that we can do nothing to save ourselves. Jesus did it all. All we have to do is trust in Him. His salvation is by grace (undeserved favor) through faith so that no one could boast they had a part.

This promise is made to us today amid our Lenten waiting. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it. Already condemned, already dead; from the time of Adam and Eve, we have chosen our desires over God and suffered death. We have chosen to be our gods. We have decided to align ourselves with anything and anyone other than God.

Yet we also hear that God loves the world – the world that has chosen anything but God. The world that would rather die than let God be in charge. But we are the world that God loves.

We know God loves the world; although sin earned God’s wrath and humankind was in a hopeless condition,

• • God gave His Son as an undeserved gift.
  • God gave Jesus up to extreme suffering for the entire world.

Love is how God chooses to judge the world rather than by what we justly deserve. Our discomfort with waiting, our desire for answers, and certainty push us so often towards darkness and death that God should let us suffer. Instead, God gives Himself over to our death-dealing ways. God in Christ is given over to be ‘lifted up‘ and then shows us something new.

God shows us life. Life instead of death – light instead of darkness – healing instead of suffering. It hurts to wait for that promise; it hurts to have those wounds and scars covered over. It hurts to look into that light when our eyes are accustomed to darkness.

As we hear in John 3:16:

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.

That is the God of John 3:16:

A God who loves…

so loves…

the world that He gave his Son.

God’s only Son to a world that wants to die but that now, because of the cross and because of Christ, will find that His death is a life path.

God loves us so much that God will come and be wherever we are to save us. God’s willingness to sacrifice his own Son saves us by grace.

Let us pray:

Is it possible, O God, likely that you can love such as us? Yet we know it is true. If we allowed ourselves to doubt your love, all would be lost. Thank you, God, thank you for loving us. Help us never to betray such incredible love. Amen.

 

Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, & Ohio Living Westminster Thurber, Columbus, OH; 10 March 2024

 

Unabridged given at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square (starts at 29:20)

https://www.facebook.com/stories/10156630596670733/UzpfSVNDOjE0NTQyODE1OTE4NDY2NTk=/?view_single=1

Given at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber

https://youtu.be/Rt40rCcoAfQ?feature=shared (starts at 5:19)

Wisdom and the Gate

Proverbs 4:7-27, Wisdom 10:15-21, Matthew 7:13-20

Let’s look at some background:

Solomon was the most esteemed man of wisdom in the Old Testament, so it comes as no surprise that someone wanted to credit him with the authorship of this Book of Wisdom. However, by the first century, scholars were questioning this attribution. The Book of Proverbs is traditionally attributed primarily to King Solomon, although it also contains contributions from other authors.

The Book of Wisdom and Proverbs contain wise sayings, teachings, and advice on various aspects of life: morality, work, relationships, and spirituality.

Wisdom is thinking and acting using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. It is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence, non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.

Aristotle believed in two types of wisdom: theoretical and practical. The former involves the exploration of things we can’t change but about which we seek truth. The latter explores that which we can change through making good choices.[1]

Wisdom involves several characteristics:

Knowledge and Insight: Learning acquired over time, encompassing factual knowledge and experiential understanding, going beyond mere information, allowing one to discern inner qualities and relationships. Imagine it as a vast library of life lessons and insights.

Sound Judgment: Prudent decision-making by seeing beneath the surface of things, weighing options, and choosing wisely using common sense and unbiased judgment. Picture it as a compass guiding you through life’s complexities.

Ethical Virtues: Virtues like compassion, benevolence, and ethics. A wise person considers their well-being and the greater good. Think of it as a moral compass that steers actions toward kindness and justice.

Self-Transcendence: Rising above personal biases and attachments to see beyond ego and connecting with a broader perspective. Imagine it as a bridge between the self and the universe.

Ancient Teachings: Teachings of old wise men offering guidance on living a meaningful and purposeful life. Picture it as a treasure trove of timeless advice.[2]

Wisdom isn’t just about knowing facts; it’s about applying knowledge, making sound choices, and embodying virtues that enrich our lives and the lives of others.

In Proverbs 4:7-27 verses, we hear eight steps to incorporating wisdom into our lives:

1. Pursue Wisdom and Understanding: actively seek knowledge, understanding, and discernment, learning from various sources, seeking advice, and being open to growth.
2. Cherish Wisdom: wisdom enriches our lives.
3. Straight Paths and Steady Steps: walking straight paths leading to righteous living where our steps are sure, and we avoid stumbling.
4. Guard Your Heart and Words: Our hearts influence our actions. We must protect our inner thoughts, emotions, and intentions by watching our words, avoiding gossip, lies, and harmful speech.
5. Stay Focused and Avoid Distractions: keeping wisdom in sight and within our hearts.  
6. Choose the Path of Righteousness: the contrast between the righteous and the wicked is clear. The righteous path leads to light, while the evil path is darkness.

The dark side will tell you to believe what you want. It will convince you with thoughts like these:

•     Allow hate into your life, and it will give you power!

•     Allow your lusts to be released and fed because you deserve it!

But Scripture repeatedly tells us to resist the dark side. The prophet Isaiah said:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

• Self-Reflection and Steadfastness: considering your actions, motives, and goals; steadfast in your values, even when faced with challenges or temptations.
• Avoid Extremes, which can lead us away from wisdom. Avoid rigid dogmas or reckless behavior, seeking moderation and discernment.

In summary, applying these principles involves seeking wisdom, guarding our hearts, making intentional choices, and staying focused on righteousness. Let these timeless truths guide our daily lives.

In the Matthew passage, Jesus warns that there are two gates into Heaven: one wide and one narrow. If we live our lives guided by the principles in Proverbs, we will select the narrow gate as our path.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the road is easy, which leads to destruction,

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Are you on the narrow path?

Delivered at First Wednesday, March 2024, Trinity Episcopal Church
on Capitol Square,  Columbus, OH; 6 March 2024

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[1]       Aristotle, Lacewing, n.d., Positive Psychology

[2]       Dictionary Thesaurus, Meriam Webster.org

Baptism and Temptations

Mark 1:9-15

Today is the first Sunday of Lent – the annual period of self-reflection leading to the joy and celebration of Easter.

It is also the Sunday that we hear in the reading about the baptism of Jesus and God’s affirmation that He is His

“well-beloved son.”

It helps remind us of our baptisms, the first sacrament we share with Jesus. Just as it was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, it is the beginning of our life in Christ and compels us to follow His teachings and emulate His life.

Although most of us do not remember our baptism, we relive it each time we witness a baptism, and we have the opportunity to begin anew our life in Christ through our baptismal vows. Indeed, as a family of Christ’s followers, we commit ourselves to try to live the life Jesus taught.

It’s pretty powerful stuff – or at least it can be. We can start again, do better this time, and live up to Christ’s teachings and values.

Following His baptism, Jesus went into the desert for forty days. He did not choose to do this willingly but was driven out into the desert by the Holy Spirit. He was cast into the wilderness to prepare for His great work on earth. He didn’t go to a library or a spa; he went alone into a wilderness with wild beasts, dust, sand, heat during the day, cold during the night, no food, no water for forty days of fasting and prayer. It was a rigorous time, it was a lonely time, it was a time in which most would have turned back, given up from fear or doubt or dread.

During these forty days and nights, we learn that Jesus was tempted by Satan three times:

• When hungry and challenged to turn stones into bread, Jesus replied that

‘we cannot live by bread alone;’

• When in his solitude and powerlessness, Satan taunted him to have the angels catch Him as He threw himself down from the cliff; Jesus reminded us that we should not tempt God;
• Overcome by loneliness and helplessness, Satan offered Jesus the kingdom of the world with all its power and riches; Jesus rebuked Satan, reminding us that we should worship ‘only the Lord our God’ and nothing else.

In the desert, Jesus found the inner strength, calm, and resolve to claim his identity as God’s child and to let the rest of his life – his words, his relationships, and his love, even dying a painful and unjust death on the cross, come from that identity as God’s

‘beloved Son.’

Jesus denied Satan’s three temptations, saying:

Get behind me, Satan!

At that point, he was ready. Jesus came out of the wilderness proclaiming the reign of God had begun.

Jesus suffered and prayed in the desert for forty days and forty nights. And this is why we have Lent.

Does anyone see a pattern of His forty days in the desert and our forty days of Lent?

During those forty days, Jesus was without food and water, being tempted by Satan to prove he was the Son of God. It becomes clear that even with baptism, He (and we) do not get a ‘get out of suffering’ card. We will still have conflict and suffering. Our baptism equips us both for the realities of the wilderness and joyful proclamation at the resurrection. Through prayer and God’s grace, we, too, will get through it.

We have now entered the desert of Lent on our spiritual quest. Lent is not a tame kind of pious self-improvement (giving up something that most people think is good to give up, at least for a time — chocolate, beer, swearing — drop a few pounds and maybe look a little more like what our culture thinks of as ‘good’).

But if we want to experience our Lenten quest fully, we need to realize that our pursuit of these forty days is neither tame nor flippant. Jesus left his family and entered a desert with wild beasts, hunger, bodily discomfort, and all the temptations of Hell – and angels.

And if we strive to follow Him, we should make our Lent a time of fasting, reflection, repentance, searching, and prayer. During our forty days of Lent, we can prepare ourselves for the jubilation of the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning.

Jesus was alone, but we are not alone. We have each other, and we also have something else on our journey – the opportunity to encounter God as Jesus did, to wrap ourselves in God’s word that we are His beloved children, to claim that identity as Jesus did – the only identity that matters –

a child of God.

Lent is not only forty days of centering and reflection; it is about dying to an old identity defined by our culture, traditions, habits, and even our families and being born into a new identity centered in the spirit of God.

It is about dying to our deadness, that daily routine of our lives that we trudge through, oblivious to the needs of others and the call of our Lord. It is a time of reminding ourselves of God’s love. It is a time to be lifted from our confinement, removing those feelings of burden, mortality, fear, and doubt.

How shall we spend these forty days of Lent?

• How about forty days where we truly open ourselves to God through prayer and meditation and invite God to live through us;
• How about forty days where we examine ourselves, our shortcomings, our judgments, our arrogance, and egos, where we face who we are and strive once again to be all that we can be;
• How about forty days in which we remember we are dust, and to dust our bodies will return, but with our spirits transformed by God’s grace, we can live this life and the life to come more fully, embraced in God’s unending love.

So just as we came Wednesday to have ashes in the sign of the cross placed on our foreheads, may we open our hearts, admit our helplessness to save ourselves, and accept the grace and forgiveness that marks us as a child of God with new resolve to be His body on earth.

Let us pray:

O God, you created us in your image and gave us life’s gift. We want to live in a way that will honor you in everything we do; we want to be like Jesus. We want to see the reflection of Christ in the eyes of everyone. We want to be part of the gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, that lives in each one of us and enables us to share – to share love, to share concern, service, and to be disciples. Bless us on this and every day with the opportunity to be like Jesus and make a difference in the world. And when we are in the wilderness, help us to experience your presence; allow us to know that we, too, are attended by angels and can come out of the wilderness into the world and make a difference in your name.

Amen.

Delivered at In The Garden, Trinity Episcopal Church On Capitol Square, Columbus, OH; 18 February 2024

How Will You Be Remembered?

Proverbs 22:1

In the last few weeks, we have experienced the loss of several residents here at Westminster-Thurber. Loss is not uncommon because of the nature of our facilities, but it still often takes us by surprise. After attending memorial services, I began thinking about what I would like someone to say about me in a eulogy, which prompted this sermon.

What we hear at a funeral or memorial service should give us something to consider as we listen.

****

Ben just came to town as a new rabbi. Unfortunately, his first official duty was to conduct a funeral service for Albert, a man who died in his eighties, with few relatives. Since Ben didn’t know the deceased personally, he paused from his sermon to ask if anyone in the congregation would say something good about Albert. There was no response. Ben asked again: “Many of you have known Albert for years; surely someone can say something nice.” After an uncomfortable pause, a voice from the back of the room said, “Well, his brother was worse.”

That is not what we would like to hear said about us!

If you died tomorrow, what would people say about you?

Would you be proud of how you lived and the choices you made?

If someone looks back on your life years from now, what will they remember about you?

None of us will probably have our names in future history books; what will likely happen is that we will be remembered by those whose lives we’ve touched.

There’s an old saying,

“If you want to know how to live your life, think about what you’d like people to say about you after you die … and live backward.”

The idea is that we earn our eulogy by our everyday actions.

What would you do if told you had ten years to live? Would it change your life? Of course, it would. But what would you do with those ten years? Would you:

• Go wild, lose control, and do anything you want without conscience?
• Sulk and have a big pity party?
• Sit around feeling sorry for yourself in depression?
• Drink and eat more than is reasonable?

We are a product of what we have already been and done in our lifetime. If we did little with our life, we would probably do more of the same – only intensified. We would likely continue the same habits; if we lived a life of substance; we would work at being the best we could be.

We would smell the roses, waste less time on things that have no meaning, value our friendships more, and work harder at things that count and have meaning in our lives.

Our love for those vital to our lives would grow even more. We would start seeing more positivity and less negativity in this world.

We would care more about those in need and help those we can. We would not want to waste a single day and appreciate each day for what it is – a miracle. Would we stop learning and growing as a person? I don’t think so. We will continue to do the same as we are now, but only with the awareness that time is short.

One area that does seem to change for people in this situation is their spiritual life. Most of us don’t want to give much thought to the dreaded ‘life after death.’ If told the end is near, we will naturally think about it. Gaining a sense of oneness with our Creator certainly is a comfort. Maybe it’s the most important thing anyone can do in this situation [or any situation]. There is no lasting peace and comfort with money, achievements, titles, hobbies, or endless TV.

In his book, When Everything You Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, Harold Kushner writes:

“Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter so the world will be at least a little different for our having passed through it.”

So what would you do?

• Live to be remembered for the important things.
• Live to be remembered for giving up your rights and your possessions for the benefit of others.
• Live for acts of kindness that lighten the load of hurting and weary people.

‘At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel.’

There’s a lot of truth in the paraphrased quote from Maya Angelou. You can probably remember your childhood, neighbors, classmates, or teachers who made you feel good, and others who did not feel great.

But the focus today is not on others; it’s on you. How are you making other people feel as you navigate your daily life? Do you cause those you encounter to feel better about themselves and the world around them? Or are you giving off a vibe that is, at best, neutral or even a little negative?

People want to be remembered for different reasons:

1. Some people wish to leave a lasting legacy.
2. Others may want to know how they make others feel and how those around them treat them.
3. Others want to be remembered for being selfless, caring, compassionate, kind, loving, patient, and understanding.

Ultimately, people remember others depending on their actions, character, and impact on others.

How do you want to be remembered?

We hear in Proverbs 22:1:

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.”

We all agree it would be nice if those we encountered felt better about crossing our path. If we could

“…reach the hearts of others and give them something that will broaden and enrich their lives. The desire that every person be open and alive to higher inspirations and filled with beauty and truth so splendid that it elevates their soul.”[1]

Well, that sounds like a lot, you might think. I want others to feel better and elevate the people I encounter. But elevate their souls? How does that work?

There is a simple guide to follow, one you can start using right now. It consists of three keywords, all with an action we can take daily with each person we encounter. They are:

• Recognize
• Encourage
• Praise
  
  
• Recognize those you know and don’t with eye contact, a warm smile, and, when appropriate, a “hello” or friendly greeting. Chat with anyone with the time to engage with you and, most importantly, listen to them. From that point, you can take the next step and add encouragement or praise to the mix.
  
  
• Encourage those who need a kind word, who appear to be having a rough day, and anyone needing uplifting. Do something as simple as a “keep up the good work” to a gardener, a heartfelt word for an overworked waitress, or silently wishing all you encounter happiness.
  
  
• Praise those doing something/anything of value, even complimenting the barista at the coffee shop or commenting positively on a coworker’s fashion choice.[2]

Each of us walks through life engaged in our ‘ministry.’ Our ministry encompasses “how we live our lives” and “how we handle situations, our values and ideals, goals, and the way we strive to attain them.” Most importantly, our ministry revolves around “how we treat others.”

I encourage you today to lend a smile or a kind word to someone; you may be pleasantly surprised by the response. You don’t need a reason to be kind. Allow God’s love to shine through you and be a path of righteousness for others.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, You are the ultimate example of goodness, and we want to be more like you. Give us the courage to share kindness with a world that is so much in need of your love. Allow goodness to flow through us so we bless others because of Christ in us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

 Delivered at Ohio Living Westminster Terrace and Thurber Tower, Columbus, OH; 11 February 2024

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[1]      Tom Rapas, Wake Up Call

[2]      John Templeton, Worldwide Laws of Life, 200 Eternal Spiritual Principles

WE Are His Disciples

John 1:43-51

“Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.” Give us ears to hear Jesus calling, “Follow me.” Help us find ways to “Come and see.”

The calling of disciples is a mystery, something profound, sacred, and beyond complete human comprehension. It usually involves divine intervention in a person’s life and a deep personal transformation with significant changes in their beliefs, values, and behavior, and deepening of spiritual awareness and understanding

So we have to ask:

Who is called to be a disciple?

What qualities are required to be a disciple?

What is a calling? According to the Webster International Dictionary, ‘Calling’ is a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action, particularly when convinced of divine influence.

Calling disciples involves Jesus approaching individuals, often fishermen or other ordinary people, and inviting them to:

“Follow me,”

The people left their current occupations and families to become Jesus’ followers.

They heard a voice only their inner self could listen to. Once heard, the call redirects their lives. They had found meaning in following Jesus.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus never said to make disciples by taking them to church—or a Bible study group? Not that these activities aren’t an integral part of a disciple’s growth, but the calling is much more personal.

What makes us and others disciples of Jesus?

• People more concerned about individual souls than numbers to fill a church.
• People striving to be like Jesus rather than complaining, criticizing, and confronting from a distance.
• People willing to leave their comfort zone to teach instead of hiding behind four walls and waiting for someone to appear.
• People standing up for the gospel’s truth rather than caving when friends or family members exert pressure.
• People who know what the Bible says and say what the Bible teaches instead of giving personal opinions or quoting off-the-wall scholars.
• People praying without ceasing instead of constantly harping.
• People with open hearts and homes and Bibles rather than closed off to offering their time and presence.

Maybe they’re nowhere near you. So you have a great opportunity: become one of them. Learn how to become a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. Start from scratch. You and the Holy Spirit. You and the divine power of God. You and the gospel truth of Jesus that transforms lives and saves souls.

When Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection, He left His followers explicit instructions for the people there with Him that day and for every follower of Jesus who would come after them. He said,

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20).

God wants his people to go out into the world. The religious folk prefer clusters and cloisters, the safety of numbers where one can sway with the crowd and avoid risk in the work of the Kingdom.

Which am I?

Which are you?

The Kingdom begins with me. I, for one, am determined that it will not end with me.

Will you join me?

Jesus only has us to become disciples and encourage others to join us. Faith passes from person to person. Discipleship is simply helping people become better friends with God.

Jesus Himself used the concept of friendship to describe what He’s looking for from us in John 15:14-16:

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus did not call exceptional, famous, or influential people to be his friends.

• He publicly endorsed Matthew – a despised tax collector who stole from his people.
• He commissioned a naked man possessed by demons as his first missionary.
• He entrusted a promiscuous Samaritan woman with his testimony.
• He held up a Roman centurion, the military enemy of the Jewish people, as an outstanding example of faith in Israel.
• He let Mary of Bethany – a woman- sit at his feet in the place of a man.
• He handpicked James and John – uneducated fishermen as his protégés.
• He selected Peter – a headstrong, unfaithful loudmouth to be the foundation for his church.
• He chose Paul – the murderer of the church, to proclaim his name to the Gentiles, their kings, and the people of Israel.

Over and again, Jesus picked the most unlikely characters to represent him—the least of these, the outsiders, the bottom of the food chain.

He calls each of us to become disciples, doing what we can to expand the teachings of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

So, I challenge you to reach out to just ONE person, carrying the message of the Love of God and salvation through Jesus. It isn’t that hard:

• Greet someone here who you do not know 
• Talk to someone at coffee hour and ask them to come again
• Ask your neighbor to go to a church function.

If you do, marvelous things can happen!

Remember the words of Saint Teresa of Ávila:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.[1]

Will you commit yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus?

Let us pray:

We come before you with a heart open to your guidance and a spirit eager to walk in the path of discipleship. Lord, we recognize the call to follow you, to be your disciple, and to grow in our faith each day.

Grant us the strength to leave behind our old ways and embrace Jesus’ teachings. Please help us to surrender our will to yours and to trust in your divine plan for our lives.

Fill us with the wisdom of your Word so that we may understand the depth of your love and the purpose you have for us as a disciple. May your Holy Spirit guide our steps and illuminate our understanding as we strive to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

Amen.

 

(Starts at 3:36–15:42)

Delivered at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber Tower and Westminster Terrace, Columbus, OH; 14 January 2024

 

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[1]      Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), No Hands But Ours

Christmas Has JUST Begun

John 1:1-14

I have a poem I’d like to share with you. It’s called “The Month After Christmas.”

Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house,
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I’d nibbled, the eggnog I’d tasted.
All the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales, such a number arose!
I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).

I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I’d never said, “No thank you, please.”

As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt,
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt—
I said to myself, as I only can,
“You can’t spend a winter disguised as a man!”

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip,
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished,
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won’t have a cookie–not even a lick.
I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or cornbread, or pie,
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore—
But isn’t that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all, and all a good diet![1]

So take a big breath, and now let out a big sigh.

Christmas is over!

Or is it?

Let’s think about this for a minute.

We are actually in the middle of celebrating the Christmas season right now because Christmas doesn’t begin until December 25th, when we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus. So, according to the Christian calendar, we are just starting the Christmas Season.

Of course, according to the secular world, Christmas started the day after Halloween and ended on December 25th. This lengthy season gives us, the consumer, plenty of time to spend, spend, spend –

because love for our fellow man is measured by how much we spend, right?

Then, on December 26th, the POST-Christmas season begins, when you rush out to big sales to spend even more money on items you didn’t receive on the 25th.

We are always so busy during the Christmas season. We are rushing here, rushing there. Yet, as we opened our presents that morning, the thought that had been dwelling in my mind for the past several weeks came to the forefront of my thinking. We, as Christians, are polarized by this holiday. We battle against the secularization and commercialism of one of the two most Holy days in the life of a Christian.

We participate in the holiday hustle and bustle of shopping, parties, etc., while raging against the system. Our priorities are all tangled up, just like our tree lights when we get them out each year, no matter how hard we try to keep them neat and orderly. So we close our eyes and try to focus on the reason for the season, but the world keeps getting in our faces when we open them.

These two pictures do not go together. They conflict with one another. So we come away confused, wondering what we are supposed to see at Christmas time.

 Who is this child born into our midst? That’s the question.

The story opens with Jesus’ birth to Mary and Joseph, the angels singing, and the shepherds, actual working and struggling people like us, coming to behold this strange new gift to a world on the edge of despair. But the readings for Christmas Day do not answer who this child is. Instead, they embrace the sweep of human and divine history. They look back and forth to find the depth of the mystery and meaning of Christmas.

John 1:1-14 is the third time the Bible tells a Christmas Story. It is the same story we heard last night; the story of the manger and the shepherds and the angels — and the same story Matthew tells in his Gospel, with Joseph’s dreams and the wise men, but the point of view is different. John’s Gospel sounds strange to ears more accustomed to descriptions of crowded inns and angel choirs. That’s because other people are telling the same story.

The Christmas story we are all most familiar with: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, Bethlehem, angels, shepherds, and some outstanding singing. We usually throw in a donkey or a barn and add our little adventure that every door in Bethlehem was slammed in poor Joseph and Mary’s faces, although none of that is in the text.

This morning, however, we hear the same Christmas story. Still, we are told very differently than the one we are most familiar with: no Mary and Joseph, no angels or shepherds, no little town of Bethlehem, no swaddling clothes or manger.

John begins the birth story in John 1:1:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

John begins the story a lot earlier — he reminds us that Christmas begins just before Genesis — before the beginning of creation. John talks about the Word of God —God in action, God creating, revealing, and redeeming.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Then he tells the birth story — in only nine words:

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”

‘The Word’ who was with God in creation, the one who is God at work in history and human life, this one became a person, became flesh — as utterly human as you and I. Not God with a “people-suit” disguise on; not a good person whom God rewarded and made memorable, not a super angel God created earlier and saved up for Bethlehem.

Only God can tell us that the baby born to Mary in Bethlehem is the eternal Word. If God had not told us THIS Christmas story, we would still have THAT Christmas story about Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds. But we would never see its significance.

Shocking!

Unbelievable!

The Word becomes flesh in a vulnerable, inarticulate baby. The message is this: someday, the child will grow and become an adult and walk, talk, love, live, say things, and do things that will show us how much God loves us. But even here, even in this Christmas season, what we celebrate is not the potential for communication that a baby has—but that someday God will speak through incarnate life. We celebrate that this baby, the Word made flesh, was already a wholly formed message of love, full of grace and truth toward us. God is saying:

Here I am.
I am with you.
I am for you.
I am trusting myself to you.

I need you.

Christmas means that God keeps His Word. John 1:1,14 says:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us……”

You see, God is a God of His Word 365 days a year. In that sense, we can celebrate Christmas all year. In one of my all-time favorite movies, the original Miracle on 34th Street, the character played by Edmund Gwenn explains it best with the line,

“Christmas isn’t a day; Christmas is a state of mind.”

To sum it all up, the next time someone asks,

“Well, Christmas is over … now what?”

ask them what they mean by Christmas being over.

Christmas is never over because God keeps His Word 24 hours a day/ 7days a week /365 days a year.

Jesus came into the world to know human suffering and teach important lessons to serve humankind forever. Ultimately, Jesus, the light of the world, came to deliver his people from sinful ways and point them toward salvation.

Let us pray:

God, I approach this Christmas season with some trepidation, and a lot of fear and trembling. Because I don’t know if I really  understood before,  what was sacred,

before now.

All the pomp and circumstance of Christmas lies by the wayside now, like crumpled wrapping paper. After all, we are not here to impress anybody. What is left is the Christ Candle, burning the conviction into our hearts, that life is sacred, precisely because it is all so unique and beautiful and brief.

Fill us up, with what Christmas means for each of us this year. Reminding us that God sent a baby in a manger for every one of us and God values us– enough to send babies and angels, and teachers and doctors and nurses, and vaccines and masks, and phone calls and cards, and candles and stars, and every other symbol that we need to remind us that we are beloved.

And that we are here to fill the world with love any way we can, because that is the Christmas miracle turning emptiness into something else.

Let us go and be comforted by the Love of God.
May God bless us and keep us in Belovedness—
wrapped in the miracle that God is here. [2]

Amen.

Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, Columbus, OH; December 25, 2023

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[1]      Author unknown, The Wonders of Christmas
[2]      Excerpted from Pastor Katy Stenta

Through the Backdoor

Luke 2:1-20

Holy One, we gather in the darkness of this night to remember the sacred story: The baby that has been born. We offer our deep gratitude. We look ahead with anticipation. We place our world, communities, loved ones, and ourselves in your tender care. For the desperate, we pray for hope. For the fearful, we pray for peace. For the heartbroken, we pray for joy. For all people, on this holy night, we pray love. Let us know your powerful and intimate presence with us as we celebrate the birth of your son, Jesus. Amen.

I think I was eight or ten years old the first time I was in a Christmas pageant. Because I had a good memory and projecting voice, I was always the narrator of the Christmas story into my late teens. That was my privilege and honor.

Luke tells us the most familiar Christmas story, and he does an excellent job setting the whole stage for the story. He begins with the headline of the day:

“In those days, a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.”  (Luke 2:1)

If there had been newspapers in the ancient Mediterranean world, this would have been the front-page headline on every one of them. In Athens, Ephesus, Damascus, Alexandria, and Jerusalem alike, the big news was this decree from the Roman emperor. It would have been the lead story on every news broadcast and the hot topic of each roundtable discussion. It set people in motion throughout the Empire, including a newly married couple from Nazareth.

But, I call Christmas “God’s sneak attack” because the Baby Jesus didn’t come marching into the world through the front door. He didn’t come with power or prominence, with influence or importance. He didn’t enter into the spotlight. God came into the world through the back door; he snuck in. He came practically unnoticed by the world to an obscure and unimportant place and unknown and insignificant people. And that continues to be his Christmas strategy. He continues to sneak into our world, into our lives, at Christmas time.

Christmas was — and continues to be — God’s sneak attack. He sneaks in through songs, traditions, and sentiment. He sneaks in through the season’s generosity, goodwill, and festivities. He sneaks in through the excitement children feel at Christmas.

Christmas gives us a glimpse of what God is like and what he continues to do. God didn’t come marching in through the front door, flexing his muscles, and demanding the spotlight. He could have, but he did not. The movie star may arrive with their entourage. The sports team trots onto the court or field with fanfare, cheers, and applause. The big-name performer receives a standing ovation. And the President, Prime Minister, and Queen are all welcomed by bands, red carpets, and protocol. But the King of Kings arrived in swaddling clothes, mostly ignored by the world. And, still today, the Lord does not barge into our lives. Instead, he stands at the door, knocks (Revelation 3:20), and waits for us to welcome him. [1]

Look at that familiar nativity scene and the elements there: Joseph and Mary, the little town of Bethlehem, a stable, and a manger. At Christmas, Jesus came into the lives of insignificant, ordinary people. That’s good news for you and me; he willingly comes into our lives, too. At Christmas, God came into a place that seemed small and unimportant. I’m glad my life and home are small and inconsequential. At Christmas, He went into a place that was dirty and unworthy of him. And that’s good news for me, for my heart is dirty and unworthy, yet God comes to reside there.

Philips Brooks’ Christmas carol sums up Jesus’ entry into the world:

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given; so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him; still the dear Christ enters in.”

Some people of Jesus’ time expected the Messiah to be an influential and powerful man who would free the Jewish nation from under Roman rule. But the Savior of the world, whose life, death, and resurrection would have eternal impact, was born into lowly circumstances. Neither Joseph nor Mary had a position or power, and even Jesus’ birth city of Bethlehem was politically unimportant. Those who kept vigil for a Messiah with worldly status no doubt missed the Savior when He came.

Here is a God who is marvelously willing and able. He is ready to come backstage, and then he can steal the show. I have seen the Christmas story repeatedly played out in individual lives. It is the story of this God who could come bursting in but does not. It is the story of this God who comes in gently and unassumingly, perhaps even unnoticed at first. And it is the story of this God who, bit by gracious bit, moves into the spotlight of our lives. He moves toward the center of our stage. And the God who comes into your life and mine backstage, by his mercy, becomes the star of our show.

I was eight or ten when I first narrated a Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve, which was my privilege. But it is today, my most incredible honor- and yours, too – to be a year-round nativity scene: a life that depicts how God comes and reigns.

Theologian and African-American, Howard Thuman penned these words:

On this Christmas Eve, as Baby Jesus was the light of the world:

“I will light candles this Christmas.
Candles of joy, despite all the sadness.
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch.
Candles of courage where fear is ever present.
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days.
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens.
Candles of love to inspire all of my living.
Candles that will burn all the year long. “[2]

Let us pray:

Jesus, the Light of the World, as we celebrate your birth, may we begin to see the world in the light of the understanding you give us. As you chose the lowly, the outcasts, and the poor to receive the most significant news the world had ever known, so may we worship you in the humility of heart. May we also remember our brothers and sisters less fortunate than ourselves in this season of giving.

Christmas Eve Benediction
As you leave this time of worship, may you carry with you the wonders of the sacred Christmas story: the unconventional hospitality of the manger, the painful joy of new birth, the fearful awe of encountering angels, the surprising presence of God in the swaddled Christ child. Go now in the hope of God, the peace of Christ, and the joy of the Spirit. Know that Divine Love always goes with you on this holy night and ever more.

Amen.

(starts 4:19-15:14)

Delivered at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber Tower and Westminster Terrace, Columbus, OH; 24 December 2023

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[1]      Adapted from David J. Kalas, Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Cycle C, CSS Publishing Company
[2]      Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations

Rejoice! I Say REJOICE!

 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

The Winter Solstice, the shortest and darkest day and longest night of the year –– occurs this week. It is the onset of the winter season when the sun is the furthest from Earth and is often a time of darkness, doubt, and fear. Winter solstice can significantly affect people, causing lethargy, irritability, and difficulty concentrating because of the reduced light. Lots of people feel unmotivated at this time of the year.

And yet, Sunday is Gaudete Sunday – a beloved day in the Advent season that fills our hearts with joy and anticipation. This unique Sunday is a beacon of joy and hope as we journey towards Christmas.

‘Gaudete’ is a Latin word meaning “Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4-5 instructs us to:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

The ‘rejoice’ command appears over 150 times in the Bible; obviously, this is critical to following the teachings of Jesus.

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus in his First Advent and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Coming. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,600-year-old historical event. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ, and all creations reconciled to God. Scripture readings for Advent emphasize the Second Coming, including accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope for eternal life.

The history of Gaudete Sunday is deeply rooted in Christian tradition. The observance dates back to the medieval period when the Church recognized the need to balance the penitential nature of Advent with moments of joy and hope. The third Sunday of Advent serves as a brief respite from the more somber aspects of the season, allowing believers to rejoice in the imminent arrival of the Christ child.

Today, Gaudete Sunday, REJOICE Sunday, reminds us that Christmas is nearly here. The somber tone suddenly turns joyous today – we shift from deep purple to pink to give us a clue that we’re nearly there. In essence, Gaudete Sunday encapsulates the dual nature of Advent – a time for reflection and repentance, balanced with anticipation and rejoicing in the promise of salvation. It serves as a reminder that, even in our preparations, there is joy in the expectation of the Christ child’s arrival.

All the expectation, the longing, and the waiting will soon be over – we’ll be opening the presents we wanted, and some perhaps we didn’t.

Sometimes, we can’t hide the disappointment in socks, homemade knitted scarves, or chunky sweaters knit by a well-meaning relative. As a people of faith, we do well to know where our true joy comes from – those who know the pain of disappointment in others, what they say and do, or what they forget to say and do.

True joy comes from God. If we rejoice when times are good, only when we get what we want, only when we hear what we want to hear, then quite frankly, God needn’t bother with Christmas.

“Keep your Son,” we should say – thank you very much, we don’t need him. Even John the Baptist wondered whether the guy he heard so much about was ‘the One’ – he sent his disciples to double-check. Jesus said: ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’ – see what’s happening – lives are changed.

Yours and my lives change through encounters with Jesus –or is something holding us back from fully embracing the little child?

For those who have faith that brings them to worship God (rather than just be entertained on a Sunday morning), joy and faith can keep us going – despite what life throws at us.

Our hymns at this time of year can particularly hit nerves. Take In the Bleak Midwinter, for one. Hasn’t it been miserable enough? This last year, we’ve had floods, drought, winds and storms. Christmas is nearly here to lift our hearts, and we start singing about bleak midwinters!

Perhaps the writer of that hymn did lose the plot and think that Jesus was born on a bleak, windy moor in a January blizzard. Was it winter in Bethlehem? Did it snow? Or was it an ordinary Middle Eastern night with nothing happening except angels appearing and singing?

Perhaps, though, some of us have in our minds what a bleak midwinter is all about – I don’t mean the weather outside; I mean the experience inside us. There are many stories within our communities of the midwinter life experiences – whose ground is hard and cold. Comfort can be elusive: maybe because of a loveless marriage, a depression that is hard to shake off, the sadness of life without a loved one, concern for a child, worry about health and the future, and so on. Christmas in this light can seem like fluffy, trivial nonsense. Christmas might be memorable for the comfortable or those wishing to escape reality, but a romantic, fluffy Christmas can offer little refuge to those in the bleak midwinter of life.

In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live “between the times.” We are to be faithful stewards of that entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the Church celebrates God’s arrival in the Incarnation and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,” it also confesses its responsibility as a people commissioned to

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart.”

and to

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30)

A spirit of expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing marks Advent. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by enslaved Israelites in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed enslaved people and brought salvation!

Although Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday during the penitential period of Advent, it is a mid-point break in the Advent season. Gaudete Sunday is the chance to celebrate before returning to assessing our lives.

On Gaudete Sunday, the liturgical color is often rose or pink, a deviation from the usual Advent color of purple or blue, symbolizing the joy and excitement of the approaching celebration of Christmas. In some Christian traditions, the clergy lights a pink candle on the Advent wreath on Gaudete Sunday.

Advent was a time for preparing for Christmas through penance and fasting in medieval times. Today, Gaudete Sunday, is a day to relax from Advent penance and to rest, preparing ourselves for the final stretch of this penitential season.

The modern observance of Advent is often difficult to distinguish from the season of Christmas. The secular world is already in full party mode, with Christmas sweets, social celebrations, and even gift-giving.

It’s almost laughable to think of Advent today as a season of penance and fasting. Yet, Advent was a penitential season similar to Lent for most of Christian history, though never as strict. It consisted of periodic fasting and personal sacrifices, traditions that starkly contrast to the modern delicacies everyone enjoys throughout December.

Gaudete Sunday can be confusing and joyful in the middle of the Advent penances. There is joy in looking forward to the annual celebration of Christmas, but there is also joy in recalling the birth of Jesus on the first Christmas.

• Jesus was born to save us from sin (Matthew 1:21b).
• The rejoicing also extends to the anticipation of the Second Coming, either at the end of physical life or the end of the world, when believers will dwell in the place in the Father’s house (John 14:2) with God and his angels and saints for all eternity.

The Isaiah passage (Isaiah 61:1) is the first indication that this Sunday is about bringing good news:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; (Isaiah 61:1)

And, following in later lines:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, (Isaiah 61:10)

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 commands us:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The reading for Advent 3 usually includes the ‘Magnificat,’ Mary’s hymn of acceptance.

And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on, all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-49).

The foretelling of the Baby Jesus is another reason to be joyful on Gaudete Sunday.

In the spirit of joy and giving, some Christian communities use Gaudete Sunday to engage in acts of kindness and charity – possibly outreach to those in need or special community service projects.

Today, may Gaudete Sunday be filled with the joy, faith, hope, and love of the God who wants to be reborn in you and me again. All this, not so that we can feel great about ourselves and be smug and self-satisfied, but so that the love we encounter in God who gives everything may be modeled in what we do and think and say alongside others – those who believe and those who have yet to see through all the rubbish of religion and encounter the God of love and joy and relationship. That’s the sort of Christmas I want to sing about, right? Rejoice!

So we are told:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.

Let us pray:

Loving Father, keep your Church faithful in telling the good news, loving justice, and drawing many to freedom through the joy of your forgiveness.

We pray that there may be integrity in leadership, mercy, justice for rich and poor, strong and weak, peace among nations, and respect for all.

We pray for our community, families, and friends for their hopes and fears. May the love of Christ be shown in what we do and how we speak. We remember now all those we know with special needs, locked in physical and emotional pain; all weighed down with worry or despair. God of Advent hope, will you restore, replenish, comfort, and free them?

Finally, loving Father, we commend those who have died to your love. We especially miss loved ones whose memory is a treasure at this time. May they and we, in turn, experience the joy of your eternity forever.

Accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, Columbus, OH; 17 December 2023

Advent 1 – The Season of Waiting

Today begins the Christian season of Advent; its origins in the fourth century draws its name from the Latin term “adventus,” which translates to “coming” or “arrival.” Initially, Advent was a season of fasting and penance, similar to the Lenten season. Early Christians dedicated this period to preparing their hearts and minds to celebrate the birth of Jesus through prayer and confession. Today, Advent is more a time of preparation and expectation of the coming of the Lord through His birth in Bethlehem.

In earlier times, Advent focused on self-reflection, repentance, and spiritual preparation. It served as a time for believers to reflect on the significance of Christ’s incarnation and anticipate his coming into the world, not only at his birth but the hopeful expectation of his promised return or second coming.

Advent spans four weeks by many denominations, including Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican churches, beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Each of the four Sundays of Advent has specific rites, readings, colors, and meanings of the candles in the Advent wreaths.

Over time, the observance of Advent underwent an evolution; the somber and penitential aspects gave way to a more joyful anticipation of Christ’s birth. The focus shifted from strict fasting and repentance to embracing a spirit of hope, expectation, and joyful waiting for the coming of the Messiah.

We see in the stories of ancient Israel and in the writings of the prophets a world very much like our own, a world of people rebelling against God and finding themselves lost in darkness again and again. The prophets also show how God had a plan for his people, Israel, and the world, extending beyond the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

In Advent, we recall the ancient prophecies and signs that led to the birth of the Messiah, and we look forward in hope with faithful anticipation that the same Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come again as he promised.

Beyond its symbolic traditions and religious observances, Advent beckons Christians to engage in acts of charity, kindness, and generosity. This sacred season urges individuals to actively embody the core values of love and compassion actively, reaching out to others in meaningful ways.

Encouragement toward charitable events inspires Christians to participate in various service projects that benefit the less fortunate. These activities range from organizing food and clothing drives to volunteering at shelters or participating in community outreach programs.

Donations to those in need are an integral part of Advent observance. Whether it involves contributing resources, time, or skills, giving becomes a tangible expression of empathy and solidarity with those in need. Churches and charitable organizations often mobilize efforts to support marginalized groups, underscoring the importance of extending a helping hand during this season of goodwill.

While preparing for the Advent season, I came across this poem by Father Daniel Berrigan, which contradicts the negative thoughts of the world today. 

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss. In John 3:16, we are promised

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction. Again, in John 10:10, we hear:

I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.)

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word and that war and destruction rule forever. The prophet Isaiah foretold:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world. Matthew 28:18 tells us

To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers. The prophet Joel 2:28 reminds us

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for the liberation of humankind, justice, human dignity, and peace are not meant for this earth and history. John 4:23 gives us hope:

The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and truth.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love, peace, and justice. Let us affirm with humility, joy, faith, and courage:

Jesus Christ is the life of the world.

Let us be patient and wait. Wait for the coming of the baby Jesus.

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. (James 5:7-8)

Let us pray:

God of Advent waiting, You do not grow tired or weary, but we do. Your understanding is unfathomable, but ours is very limited. So guide us with your wisdom and revive us with your power. We enter into this sacred season of Advent resting within your arms. Let us appreciate the light and the shadows of the season. Renew our strength and grant us your peace.

Amen.

(starts 2:53-13:08)

Delivered at Ohio Living Westminster Thurber Tower and Westminster Terrace, Columbus, OH;
3 December 2023

What Are You Doing with Your Talents?

Matthew 25:14-30

This section of Matthew’s Gospel contains the Parable of the Talents. In ancient days, a ‘talent’ was a weight or coin used as money.

However, I would like to suggest that these talents in this text are of greater value than money; these are the ‘talents’ God has given us. These gifts may be physical or spiritual; each person has their own set of ‘talents.’

Matthew 24:14-18 reveals that all Christians are not blessed equally. Spiritually, we are all equal in Christ, but physically and materially, we receive different talents.

“Some are born kings, some into slavery; some born male, others female; some born wealthy, some poor; some born alive, some stillborn; some born normal physically, some born deformed; some born mentally handicapped; some born with ambition, some born indifferent; some born with five talents, some born with one talent.”[1]

Though we are all spiritually equal, we do not have the same opportunities and responsibilities. It may be similar to our spiritual gifts; some have four or five gifts; others just one or two. Matthew 25:15 says these talents

Are given according to his ability.

Regardless of the number of talents, we must use those talents to the best of our ability. We must be faithful to our gifts to develop the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God seeks those who are faithful. No matter the number of talents you receive, the question is, “are you faithful?” You must remain faithful to whatever talents given. When you do so, you will

enter into the joy of the master. (Matthew 25:23)

Those not found doing so and not having produced anything

will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30)

In conclusion, examine yourself to see whether you are ‘in the faith.’ Examine if you are a faithful servant doing the work of God for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Look beyond personal interests, personal gain, and selfish thinking instead of believing and loving Christ. By doing so, you will desire to glorify and honor God. Allow the word of God to increase your talents through the Holy Spirit by loving your neighbor and making disciples of all nations.

The servant who received one talent did nothing with what he received. The gifts we receive from God include skills, abilities, family connections, social positions, education, experiences, and more. The parable’s point is to use whatever given for God’s purposes. The severe consequences to the unproductive servant show us that we should invest our lives, not waste them.

There are five lessons the Parable of the Talents can teach us about work, success, and wealth:

1. First, success is a product of our work. 
   In the book of Genesis, we see that God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. As Christians, we work God’s mission in the here and now.

Far too many evangelical Christians today see their salvation as simply a “bus ticket to heaven.” They believe it doesn’t matter what they do while they “wait for the bus.” The Parable of the Talents teaches us what we are supposed to do while we await the return of Christ.

We are to work, using our talents to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. Biblical success is working diligently in the here and now, using all the talents God has given us to produce the return the God expects.

2. God always gives us everything we need to do what he has called us to do.
We feel sorry for the servant who received only one talent, but in reality, he received as much as a million dollars from the master and buried it in his backyard. He had more than enough to meet the master’s expectations.

Just as the master expected his servants to do more than passively preserve that which was entrusted to them, God expects us to generate a return by using our talents towards productive ends. The servants had enough to produce more – it is the same with God’s gifts. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We seldom associate this verse with our work, but we should.

3. We are not all created equal.
The most overlooked part of this parable is the second half of Matthew 25:15:

the master gives to each servant talents, “…each according to his ability.”

The master understood that the one-talent servant could not produce as much as the five-talent servant.

We want to protest this as unfair. Yet we know this is true from our own experience.

But even though we’re not created equal about the talents given, there is equality found in the Parable of the Talents. It comes from the fact that it takes just as much work for the five-talent servant to produce five more talents as it does for the two-talent servant to make two more. This is why the reward given by the master is the same. The master measures success by degrees of effort, as should we.

4. We work for the Master, not our selfish purposes.
The money given to the servants is not their own. The money they earn with the capital is not theirs to keep. The servants are only stewards of the master’s investment, and it is the quality of their stewardship that the master seeks to measure.

We should maximize the use of our talents not for our selfish purposes but to honor God. We should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given us, seeking to honor him.

5. We will be held accountable.
The Parable of the Talents is not about salvation or works of righteousness but about how we use our work to fulfill our earthly callings. It is about whole-life stewardship.

The unfaithful steward in this parable didn’t so much waste the master’s money – he wasted an opportunity. As a result, he was judged wicked and lazy. We are responsible for what we do for God with what we are given, and one day we will be held accountable.

But wherever we are in life, and whatever we are given, we have no excuse to be unprofitable. We are called to be responsible for our large or small opportunities.

If we are faithful to the Lord and live as faithful servants of His, we will hear these words:

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.”

Let us pray:

Dear God, we thank You for the gifts You‘ve given each of us. We pray that we will be faithful in using these gifts to show others how wonderful You are. Thank you for the gifts you have given to us and for the part you have given us to play as you orchestrate your plan for the world in which I live. Help me to play my part diligently, faithfully, and to the best of my ability always for your glory and the benefit of others. Grant that we will so live today that when we stand before you face to face, we will hear your welcoming words,

‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Amen.

 

Delivered at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 19 November 2023

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[1]      Extracted with variations from Jeremy Myers, Redeeming God

God Gave You Talents

Matthew 25:14-30

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was leaving on a trip. He called his servants and handed his possessions over to them. To one he gave five valuable coins, and to another he gave two, and to another he gave one. He gave to each servant according to that servant’s ability. Then he left on his journey. “After the man left, the servant who had five valuable coins took them and went to work doing business with them. He gained five more. In the same way, the one who had two valuable coins gained two more. But the servant who had received the one valuable coin dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. “Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 

The one who had received five valuable coins came forward with five additional coins. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Excellent! You are a good and faithful servant! You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’

“The second servant also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done! You are a good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’

“Now the one who had received one valuable coin came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man. You harvest grain where you haven’t sown. You gather crops where you haven’t spread seed. So I was afraid. And I hid my valuable coin in the ground. Here, you have what’s yours.’ “His master replied, ‘You evil and lazy servant!  (Matthew 25:14-28)

Now, this scripture sounds like it is about money, but I would like to suggest that these coins (called ‘talents’ in ancient times) in this text are of greater value than money; these are the ‘talents’ God has given us. Each and everyone of us has their own set of ‘talents.’

Matthew 25:15 says

He gave to each servant according to that servant’s ability..

Regardless of the number of talents, we must use those talents to the best of our ability. We must be faithful to our gifts to grow them as we are able.

We each should assess our lives to determine if we are increasing our talents or not.

1. Consider the gifts with which God has blessed us.
   Take some time this week and reflect on all the good gifts given us. Think about our family, finances, friends, possessions, opportunities, church, family, and more. Give glory to God and thank Him for His grace shown to us.

2. Consider our faithfulness.
   Ask ourselves how we have managed what God has given us. Are we generous and sacrificial; are we good managers of God’s resources? Are we wise or foolish? Are we investing in the kingdom of God or our kingdom?

3. Get to work.
   If we have not been a faithful servant in the past, we can start doing it now. Don’t despair about your history; live with determination for your future, resolve to be led by God’s Spirit, and be determined to live in faithfulness.

The irony of this parable is the man with the smallest amount of responsibility was the one who was declared wicked and lazy. The measure is not how much God has given us but what we do with it. In other words, there are no excuses.

Wherever we are in life, and whatever we are given, we have no excuse to not grow our talents. We are called to be responsible for our large or small opportunities.

Let us pray:

Dear God, we thank You for the gifts You‘ve given each of us. We pray that we will be faithful in using these gifts. Help us to play our part to the best of our ability. Grant that we will so live today that when we stand before you face to face, we will hear your welcoming words,

‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Amen.

Delivered at Street Church, Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 19 November 2023

 

Love Yourself

(Matthew 22:39)

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:39)

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is a pretty radical command -that we think of our love and concern for humanity in the same way as we regard our love for ourselves.

In this day of wars, conflicts, and alienation, loving your neighbor is not easy to do. . . and those who do usually get vilified by the press and people around them. But Jesus tells us this is the second greatest commandment we should follow after loving God.

But I think the more radical commandment is in the second part of that verse:

“as yourself”.

This speaks of the other important – often overlooked type of love—self-love.

We all have an innate instinct for self-preservation. We all want to be happy. We all want to live satisfied with our lives. We all want:

• food
• clothes
• a place to live
• protection from violence
• meaningful or pleasant activities to fill our days.
• friends to like us and spend time with us.

We want our life to count for something. All this is self-love.

Self-love is the deep longing to minimize pain and increase happiness.

Everyone, without exception, has this human need for love. We spend much of our time waiting, hoping to be loved, searching and yearning for that special love, wanting someone to give us love and fill us up.

We feel empty and lost without it.

Unfortunately, that’s not usually how life works. You attract to you exactly what you send out into the world and what you believe you are worthy of. So, loving yourself can create love in your life.

No scripture in any holy book states that God created anyone undeserving of love. You will remember that God said,

‘And it was good’

at the end of creation. Jesus taught that every person has value to God. Self-love should naturally grow from knowing that we are all precious to Him.

But how do we love ourselves when the world says loving ourselves is selfish – not a good character trait?

1. Fall in love with yourself. Think about what makes you ‘You’. Love yourself for all the good you see and accept your flaws and the fact that you are imperfect. Look in the mirror and fall in love with the reflection that is You.

2. Be honest with yourself about how valuable you are. How you see and treat yourself is the same way others will see and treat you. Do you treat others with love? That’s the first step to feeling better about yourself.

3. Think about what you need. What specifically are you lacking? No one is more capable of loving you and giving you precisely what you need than you are!

4. Forgive yourself if you believe you aren’t worthy of love. No matter what you may have been told as a child or hear now,

It SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE.

Say to yourself

“I forgive myself for believing I am not worthy of love.”

Look in a mirror and say it out loud to yourself; look yourself right in the eyes and say it like you mean it.

5. Start sharing yourself with others. Everybody has something to share. Share your happiness, sadness, and, most importantly, your life. By sharing, you will start feeling better about yourself and start loving yourself.

6. Remember that love is not a feeling but a choice! Choose to love yourself, and love will come. The more loving you are to yourself, the more loving you will be able to be to everyone around you. Choose to love yourself and everyone important in your life.

And last but not least:

7. Hug yourself. Don’t worry what others think; it’s about how you feel about you. Try to accept yourself as fully as you can.

Loving yourself is not being self-centered or selfish. We must care for our body, mind, and soul as treasured possessions given to us by a God who loves us.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, help us to accept ourselves just the way we are. Help us recognize that we are beloved creatures of your creation and deserve to be loved, honored, and cherished. Clean our minds of emotional poison and self-judgment to live in complete peace and love. Give us the power to unconditionally love ourselves, our family, and our friends. Today is a new beginning. Help us start our life over today with the power of self-love.

Amen.

       Delivered at Street Church, Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 29 Oct 2023