"Hope is the Faithful Companion of Life"

 

Detention Center in the Everglades. Photo credit to the Naples Daily News.

That title might seem a little odd as we watch the current political class of our country working overtime to destroy all the things that used to make America great.

Our system of laws seem to apply only when Republicans think it'll help them. 

Our Congress has passed and the president has signed a bill that is predicted to end Medicaid healthcare coverage for 17 million Americans, while giving an enormous tax cut to the wealthiest one-percent of this country. It also jacks up the budget of the Department of Homeland Security to levels that far exceed the money countries such as Russia, a country at war right now, are spending on their military.

The purpose of such spending? To set up "detention centers" aka concentration camps in places such as Florida's Everglades! 

It's hard to maintain "hope" or "faith" or "love" under these conditions. But to give up, for me  at least, is not an option.

And I hope it is not an option for you either. 

In these times, I am thinking it will be up to those of us who are the hope-filled of the church to stand as tall and firm as we can muster against these horrors.

Because "hope is the faithful compaion of life!"

Text: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 and 2 Kings 5:1-14

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I heard a phrase this week shared by the Reverend Canon Dana Corsello of Washington National Cathedral.

 She put this in the context of thinking about our current times in this country.

She said: “For hope alone is the most faithful companion of life.”

I found that phrase to be helpful for me…especially as I looked into the heart of our readings for this Sunday…particularly the Gospel lesson.

Just a quick refresher…last week…Jesus was faced with those who felt they could take it slow…procrastinate…on getting going with the spreading a message and mission of Love.

This week…Jesus is assembling the team.

And Team Jesus is growing…

It’s become more diverse…and a more complete and perfect vision of God’s desire to bring all the world together.

We get that hint from the fact that he’s sending 70…which is a number of perfection in the Bible…and an indication that there are now Gentiles as part of the pack that is following Jesus.

 He’s got them all together…and they’re huddled up to get their instructions.

Don’t bring along extra baggage.

Approach people with a “Peace be with you.”

Accept whatever food and drink is offered to you…no special menu for you. You are the guest.

If the house and the town is good with you…and accepts you…great.

But if they do not accept the message…tell it out loud that you’re shaking the dust of that town off of your feet and moving on.

I’m sorry that the diviners of our lectionary didn’t include the next verse that actually appears in this scripture because I think it’s an important one…especially given all the cultural noise that has been allowed to swirl in this country for decades. So let me just do this quick aside.

After Jesus says to wipe the dust of this unwelcoming town off your feet…he adds that the judgment against such a place will be harsh. In fact…it will be worse for that town than what happened to Sodom.

Now…you probably have heard the story out of the book of Genesis about Sodom…how it and another town called Gomorrah…were destroyed.

What you may not know…is that Sodom was a prosperous city.

It was a place of wealth and extravagance.

And it was a greedy city.

A possessive place where they didn’t want to share what they had.

And that was not just a huge faux pas…that was a violation of the very core of the expected ethical behavior of any people.

So in the book of Genesis…when a gang of men show up at Lot’s door demanding that they be allowed to abuse the two male strangers Lot was sheltering…the sin was not the type of abuse; it was the fact that their abusive behavior was a sign of them not welcoming and showing hospitality to foreigners.

That’s what finally destroyed Sodom.

And that is what Jesus is saying will be reigned down upon those places that refuse to welcome these emissaries that he’s about to send out.

Those places which refuse to feed, clothe and shelter those who are wanderers, foreigners in their midst, will not have a share of the kingdom of God.

Because the kingdom of God is about Love. Mercy. Compassion.

And clearly Jesus knows…and is warning his followers…that they will encounter places full of greedy and inhospitable people.

Afterall…he tells them that he is sending them out like lambs among wolves.(Lk 10:3).

In those First Century times…hospitality was of paramount importance.

Because there were lots of people living like nomads…moving about from place to place.

And so there was an interdependence on each other and an expectation that people would show kindness to strangers…especially in Jewish cities.

For those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus…and believers in God… these expectations have never gone away.

We are all charged with being in the hospitality business and we are expected to show kindness toward people regardless of whether they look like us…talk like us…worship like us…or even vote like us.

We had that same message reinforced on Friday at the service at Christ Church where we heard that portion from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where he reminds us to not just love our neighbor but to show love to our enemies…those we would label as an “other”.

Yet…somehow…this core concept of our Judeo-Christian ethic has been lost on us. Somewhere along the way…we have succumbed to the temptation of our lesser selves…and have turned against each other.

I’m not just talking about the discord and rancor that has infected our everyday political life…and making it impossible for us have rational discussions.

But a habitat for the endangered Florida Panther…and a water source for the entire South Florida region…has now become home to a detention center…a tent city…for people who came to this country…hoping to flee violence and persecution.

That is simply evil.

Is it any wonder that there are already reports that international tourism is down significantly and economists are predicting a loss of as much as 25-billion dollars to this country?

In fact…when we came back from France at the end of May…we didn’t see any international visa holders in line to come into the country at the Atlanta Airport.

Not one person.

It feels as if the world has decided to shake off our dust from their feet and has moved on.

So where is the hope in all of this?

I think we might pick up some if we pay attention again to the first reading we heard today…that peculiar story about Naaman, the great and powerful military man, who has an unfortunate case of leprosy.

Notice in that story that it’s a girl…an Israelite who had been taken by a foreign power…who suggests that Naaman go to the prophet Elisha…one of her people…to get help.

And then when Elisha gives Naaman the simple directive to go take a dip in the Jordan River seven times…and Naaman pouts…it’s Naaman’s attendants…his undelings who say to him… “Gee, General: do the simple thing he told you to do. Why does it have to be hard for you to believe?”

What Jesus is telling us to do…to love…to show kindness…empathy…compassion…to everyone…this should not be hard to do.

We have heard these words… and we partake of the meal at this table.

This meal which is given freely and intended to remind us that our baptism in Christ is a baptism into a mission of meeting the needs of the world with Love.

And just like those early disciples…we won’t necessarily be loved back.

But we do it anyway because there is always hope.

Hope that when we shine that compassionate light of Christ…we will kindle hope in the other.

And hope is that faithful companion of life.

And the choice is always before us:

life and death…blessings and curses.

Choose life. (Deut. 30:19)

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

Unreasonable Jesus in Unreasonable Times

I'm getting the text of these sermons posted late. And this one definitely took a lot of effort on my part to settle down and concentrate on the task at hand. There was just so much that was happening in the country that felt just...ick...and gross that I could barely focus. We've had political assassinations in Minnesota, Marines sent into Los Angeles with a nebulous mission, and the Supreme Court came down with truly crappy and hurtful rulings that further erode both the separation of church and state and my own confidence that the rule of law is still a "thing" in this country.

I went to Valdosta early on Wednesday at the encouragement of another Episcopalian to a three-hour session with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. They were looking for what is happening and still needs to happen to address homelessness exacerbated by the past two hurricane seasons.

That was also super hard to listen to as story after story was told of folks who are at their wits end trying to make it in the community. The upside was that I got the contact information for one of the local movers-and-shakers as well as the Habitat for Humanity leader for Lowndes County.

Hopefully...something good will come out of all of this.

And that's where I am at. How about you? 

Text: Luke 9:51-62

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All of us have something we’re good at doing.

Some are really good working with their hands and can do things like quilting or knitting or woodworking.

Some are great cooks and like to try out new recipes.

Others are gifted organizers, teachers, writers.

We’re fortunate to have people like Avery, Sarah, and David who have musical abilities as part of their talents.

We’ve all got something, some special skill set or a hobby that gives us pleasure…and we do it well.

One of the skills that I have perfected over time is procrastination.

I am a gold medal procrastinator!

I can always find something…anything…to distract me from doing what I am supposed to do.

Even writing this sermon…you would not imagine how important it was for me to go outside in 90-degree heat to clean my car.

One of my friends and neighbors has just retired from teaching at Florida State University.

For a while…a group of us lived together in a house on Tallahassee’s west side.

The absolute best times of the year were at the end of the fall and spring semesters when final grades needed to be turned into the university.

Because that’s when my dear academic friend would hit the kitchen…and make one delicious meal after another.

If there were a lot of papers to be graded…we might even get Hyde Park chocolate fudge cake or brownies.

We might have heard that 18^th century saying that “procrastination is the thief of time.”

Today…we’re hearing in the Gospel of Luke…that Jesus is telling us that procrastination is the thief of Love.

Where this Gospel reading starts is at a critical moment in Jesus’ mission and journey.

We hear that “when the days drew near for him to be taken up”…meaning when Jesus is crucified…resurrected…and when he ascends in a similar dramatic way to that story we heard of Elijah…Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

This is the turning point in Luke’s Gospel.

Jesus has been teaching and healing…meeting people out in their wilderness moments…going beyond the borders that most Jews would have gone to find those lost sheep like that Gerasene demoniac we heard about last week.

Now he’s headed into the heart…and the heat…of Rome’s power hold in the region: Jerusalem.

This is where things are going to get real…and ugly.

And he knows it.

He sends messengers ahead of him into Samaria.

Crossing through there would be a more direct route to Jerusalem from the region of Galilee where they were.  

It’s also a trickier path since the Samaritans…the remnant of Jews from the Northern Kingdom… and the Jews such as Jesus who see Jerusalem as the center for Temple worship…hated each other.

Like they really…really saw each other… not as comrades in a struggle against the Roman Empire…but as people who wanted absolutely nothing to do with each other and routinely committed violence against each other.

So…not surprisingly…word came back to Jesus that the Samaritans wanted nothing to do with his march to Jerusalem and would not help him and his followers.

James and John want to use their refusal to help against them.

They turn to Jesus…seeking his approval to reign down fire on these no-good so-and-so Samaritans.

Because what says Christ-like Love more than wanting to barbecue your enemies, right?

Naturally…Jesus says “Nope. Not gonna let you do that.”

He could have reminded them that the appropriate answer to those who don’t show hospitality is simply to shake off the dust from your feet and move on.

Maybe he could’ve even reiterated that point he’d made earlier about loving your enemies. 

But he’s not got time for that.

His face is set to go to Jerusalem.

And that’s when he encounters the procrastinators.

These are those folks who say they want to be on his team…take up his cause…go on this journey to spread mercy…compassion…love…and justice for all.

Ahhh….but…each of them has excuses for why they can’t go quite yet.

There’s the eager one wanting to join…who probably didn’t like the idea that to be with Jesus means to be homeless.

The one who wants to fulfill the commandment to honor mother and father by burying their dead parent.

The one who wants to look back at their home…what they have there…and take that in…dwell on their past…before going on.

Jesus says to all of them…Love cannot wait for those who are going to procrastinate.

The time for Love…and to Love… is now.

Not tomorrow.

Not next week.

Not when I have completed whatever and whatever.

The time for those committed to Love…in the way that Jesus has shown us and instructed us to love…to have mercy…to show compassion…and to commit to the mission of helping everyone breathe free is right now.

Biblical scholar Richard Swanson calls this the unreasonable Jesus.

Jesus is throwing down the gauntlet.

He’s looking at us in the eyes with both his tenderness and tenaciousness and telling us to quit waiting for the perfect moment to minister to the needs of the people and places before us.

Jesus is unreasonable…because these are unreasonable times.

This past week…I went to a meeting here in Valdosta hosted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

They brought in a team to hear what was happening in the city after the hurricanes and the needs for housing assistance.

And what they heard…and what I heard…was that there are multiple problems still facing people in the community.

Homes that still haven’t been fixed.

Landlords that will rent places that really aren’t suitable for housing.

Rents and utility bills that people can barely afford or really CAN’T afford without some kind of assistance.

Some elderly residents who can’t afford a hotel room any more and are sleeping in their cars.

Compounding the problem are some even more basic failures.

There are a lot of adults who simply don’t know how to read and so they can’t understand the contracts that are put in front of them.

Now these are the real needs in Valdosta.

They may not be the real needs of anyone sitting here today.

But when you have a room of about fifty people…and you here these stories…and testimonies from those who could attend a meeting in downtown Valdosta on a Wednesday morning…it doesn’t take much imagination to realize that there are probably another 50 or so people out there that also need help.

And what’s happening in Valdosta and Lowndes County is happening in other communities in Georgia and throughout the country.

The problems facing us are numerous and too large for one person or even one church to handle alone…especially for this church which has its own needs…and issues to address.

And yet…Jesus keeps pressing us forward…keeps reminding us that Love isn’t going to wait around for a convenient time and place to act…for a moment when we’re ready.

Jesus can be just so unreasonable….and we can be so reticent.

But if we’re looking to promote a world of health…healing and hope…with God’s unconditional love…maybe it’s time to consider the best ways for us to live out God’s love for our neighbors as well as ourselves.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

  

 

Fear and Facing Evil with the Power of Love

It's not normal for me to preach on all of the Scripture readings. That's just too much and can get way too messy trying to pull things together. But for some reason this week...it felt right to touch on all of them.

We're entering into what is called "Ordinary Time" meaning that we're simply keeping time, or the weeks, of After Pentecost. From a liturgical standpoint, that means we'll be mostly reading from one or two books of the Old Testament while the Epistle and the Gospel will be more likely to be intentionally chosen. And this is Year C in our Episcopal calendar, so the Gospel lessons will be coming from Luke. 

Even though this is called "ordinary time"...there ain't nothing "ordinary" or "normal" at this time in the life of the United States of America. In fact, as I am typing this, we are apparently dropping bombs on targets in Iran. 

God help us...I mean it.

This sermon will post on Sunday evening...about 24 hours from now. We'll see where we're at by then.

Meanwhile...here's the sermon. See what you think.

Texts: 1 Kings 19:1-15a; Psalms 42 and 43; Galatians 3: 23-29; and Luke 8:26-39

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O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving­-kindness…

These words from our opening collect this morning have been sticking with me especially as I reviewed and thought about our readings from First Kings…both of the Psalms…Paul’s Letter to the Galatians and that wild story of suicidal pigs in the Gospel of Luke.

Quite the collection to sort through and ponder!

I thought about where we’ve been in the lectionary these past couple of weeks.

We’ve had the powerful Spirit-filled moment of Pentecost and the unifying Wisdom of last week’s lessons for Trinity Sunday.

Both of those were really positive and life-affirming lessons to carry us into the week.

And now…today…it seems as if we’re dealing with matters of fear and trouble…division…and standing up to an evil that can’t be chained or locked away.

Tougher lessons to work with for sure.

And unfortunately…none of us has the privilege to live in a world…somewhere over the rainbow… where our troubles melt like lemon drops… right?

The angst…and the frustrations in our readings might feel like an echo coming back to us from across time.

Elijah…having gotten on the wrong side of a corrupted King Ahab and his vengeful Queen Jezebel…thinks he can run away and hide.

Paul is not happy with what’s been happening to the Galatian church.  

Some unnamed character has been trying to tell the new converts that they have to adopt a bunch of rules…including circumcision…in order to be right with God.

And then there is Jesus coming face-to-face with a demonic power that has been tormenting this poor man in Gerasene…leaving him naked and howling…and very alone.

While all these stories are tales told of our biblical ancestors….that sense of the enormity of the opposition to Love may feel fresh against our modern-day backdrop of things happening both here and abroad.

The cry of the Psalmist…”Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me?” might be the best and the most real response to the nightly news these days.

That restlessness is our soulful response to things that are not right in the world.

Yet even in the middle of what might seem like an endless tide of doom and gloom…there is hope.

There is still that promise of the God who does not fail us…if we can keep our hearts and minds fixed on that much greater power of Love.

The story in Luke of the Gerasene demoniac is a great example of the ultimate strength of Love…and Love’s ability to overcome even a Legion of evil.

There’s a reason this demon calls itself “Legion.”

A “legion”… for the original audience of this Gospel…was representative of a unit of five thousand Roman soldiers…part of the Imperial force of the day…deployed throughout the Empire and hated by the Jewish followers of Jesus…and not loved by the Gentiles in Gerasene either.

The occupation of Legion in this man is causing him to have fits of rage…busting chains…and behaving in ways that have made him an outcast.

Legion recognized the power of Jesus…calling him, “The Son of the Most High God.”

Just as a point of reference: Legion knows who Jesus is…while those following him were still scratching their heads.

Just a few verses before this story in the Gospel…Jesus calms the raging waters while he and the disciples are sailing across the lake to Gerasene…leaving his friends wondering, “Who is this guy who commands the winds and the waters to obey him?” (Luke 8:25).

Jesus not only confronts and casts out the demonic Legion from this man…he further asserts Love’s superiority to the Roman Empire by sending the Legion into pigs who then run off a cliff and drown.

Pigs…and swineherds…were an important and a vital part of the Roman agricultural economy.

Pigs were also often used in some of the sacrifices to Roman gods.

So not only had Love gotten rid of a bunch of demons from this one man…it had greatly disrupted the institutions of the Empire…and proved…again…that the God who is Love will win…and prove that Love is a better way.

In this act of exorcising Legion…Jesus has asserted that Love will stand as a bulwark against the evils of the Empire…and will be with those who are seeking justice…mercy…and compassion.

This sentiment is crucial for us to remember in our times.

We don’t face demons of possession in the same way that the Gerasene man did.

But there are other insidious forces that want to disrupt and break the spirits of the people of God.

There are those who want us to turn on each other… and be suspicious of each other because of our race…gender…country of origin… orientation… or identity.

The sin of “othering” people is probably one of our most pervasive wrongs that continues to plague humanity.

And it has been leading to deadly consequences in society…as we have seen in Minnesota….and in less violent ways through the denial of healthcare to trans people and the shutting down of suicide hotlines.

“Othering” is what ends diplomacy and starts wars.

When we “other” people…when we start ranking some creatures of God as being more superior…we are not following Christ or even the Scriptures.

But we are drifting away from God and into the dystopia of a George Orwell novel.

It is the othering…the dividing and deciding who is in and who is out…that led Saint Paul to pen his angry letter to the Galatians…reminding them in no uncertain terms that in Christ Jesus…there are no “others.”

In that same way…we are called upon to stand in firm in Love.

Our Baptismal Covenant makes it clear…that our constant task is to resist those forces of evil that seek to turn us against one another…and when we do fall into that sin…to realize we’re wrong…turn around and go back to the God who made us out of Love and to love.

Love for ourselves as the wonderfully and beautifully made creatures of God.

From that centered and grounded place…we can extend love and give respect and dignity to every human being as we strive to make this world a place where all can live in peace.

Our scriptures today remind us that none of the work of living into our call as Christian witnesses is easy.

But as the psalmist reminds us…put your trust in God…keep calm…keep close to that source of love…because that love is more powerful.

 And THAT love will get us through to the other side of our troubles.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

Wisdom and the Trinity

 

No Kings demonstration at the Florida Capitol June 14, 2025. Photo by Bob O'Lary

This was the sermon that finally came to me...knowing that I would be preaching the day after the country had...once again...been in a position of having to choose sides. Were we going to celebrate the birthday of our current Commander-in-Chief who decided to make a celebration of the Army's 250th year all about him...even though he has never served in any branch of the military and avoided Vietnam by getting a medical excuse (he said he had bone spurs).

Or were we going to see more people turn out in protest of this leader who has had the audacity to put out images of himself as King Donald?

All this while his regime has stepped up arrests and harassments of Latinas/os going to their jobs at Home Depot and such in Los Angeles. Against the wishes of the Governor of California and the mayor of LA, the president has federalized the CA National Guard and sent thousands of troops to this major metropolitan city to do what? They're not really sure except to stand guard outside a federal building. His Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, actually had the gall to say that they were there to "liberate" LA from "socialism." And when CA U.S. Senator Alex Padilla attempted to ask her a question at her press conference, ICE officers grabbed him, shoved him out the door into the hallway, forced him to his knees and handcuffed him. 

All for attempting to ask a question while not wearing a suit.

We're in horrifying times.

And we need Wisdom to come...and come quickly. 

Texts: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Rom. 5:1-5

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I want us to hear these words again…

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?

On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;

beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:

"To you, O people, I call,and my cry is to all that live.”—(Proverbs 8:1-4)

 

We call this day “Trinity Sunday”….a time to rejoice and celebrate those three ways in which we understand and experience the Holy One: God the Father…God the Son…God the Holy Spirit.

In the New Zealand Prayer Book…the Trinity is described as “Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, and Life-giver.”

Our former presiding bishop…Michael Curry…often invoked the “loving, liberating, and life-giving God.”

All of these are accurate ways in which we find words to express our understanding of God that was put together by fourth-century theologians as they grappled with how to talk about the experience of God…and the way God shows up in our lives.

God as the nurturing Father.

God as the Son who lived and died as one of us.

God as the Holy Spirit that keeps us moving forward in that Love that comes from the Father and through the example of the Son.

But there is that special element that makes these three truly One.

It’s that common thread…knitting and weaving them all together.

And that is Sophia: Wisdom.

We heard in our passage today from Proverbs that this Wisdom has been with our Trinity from the very outset of all time…manner…and place.

She was at play…working alongside the Creator…rejoicing in all that was being formed out of the depths of the oceans and the rocks of the mountains.

She took great pleasure in being part of the breath of creation that brought forth the human race.

She is the drumbeat…the bass note…to everything we seek when we turn to God for blessing and assurance as we make our way through this world.

Wisdom…we often pray…will be the guide for anyone who takes on the mantle of leadership…whether its in the church…or in secular society.

Because Wisdom has a way of keeping us balanced without malice or a need for dominance…and cool under the pressures that always seem to come at us.

Our biblical ancestor Solomon…who is credited with many of the sayings in the Book of Proverbs…prayed for wisdom when he became the king upon the death of his father David.

Indeed…he needed Wisdom when he had to settle the dispute between two women warring over who was the true mother of a baby (1 Kings 3:16-28).

Wisdom was there with Jesus in every moment that he faced tests of his ministry…and attempts to trap him into betraying his mission of bringing people back into closer relationship with the God and Father of Love.

And Wisdom was with the apostles as they began their journeys to take the Gospel out…beyond Jerusalem…building this movement that would then become the fire in the belly of so many others throughout the centuries. She was that element…that Spirit of Truth… that Jesus says will guide his followers into all truth (John 16:13).

She is the very essence of God the Holy Spirit…our sustainer in the midst of the challenges we face.

Wisdom is still with us today….making herself a presence in our lives in subtle ways…from the heights…to the crossroads…and at the borders of our lives.

The professor and theologian Robert Alter looked at this passage about Wisdom and remarked…”this is a celebration of her powers: her gift of plain and accessible discourse, the preciousness of her words, her indispensability as a guide to all who govern and the material benefits she conveys to her followers.”

Thanks be to God for that Wisdom…that basic necessity…as one of the cornerstones of our faith!

We need her presence now as much as the early followers of Jesus needed her in their time of social upheaval and uncertainty.

That brings me to the reading we heard this morning from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

The reading we have as translated by the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible talks about us “boasting in our sufferings” and that through our “sufferings” we gain endurance.

The Common English Bible translates the Greek a little differently.

Instead of “boasting in our suffering”…the C-E-B talks of us taking “pride in our problems.”

And this isn’t “pride” in that sense of feeling “good” or even “joyful” about having problems.

Instead…what Paul is telling this new church in Rome…a church in the heart of the very Empire that is attempting to crush the Jesus movement…is to see their oppressor…and this resistance to love for the reality that it is.

Yes…the Empire is against you.

Yes…the Empire is denying you the dignity and respect that you deserve.

But Paul wanted the church to then dig deeper…and realize that for every attempt the Empire makes to disrupt and destroy this Jesus movement…they will rise.

The spirit of truth…which is the spirit of Love…poured into their hearts…beating with that Wisdom…will be with them…lighting their way through the fog that wants to frighten them into silence.

The trouble created by those who oppose the work of Love will not win.

It won’t win because Love does not give up or surrender.

No bullies or tyrants can defeat them as long as they remain fueled by the Wisdom of Love.

What a message for us to be hearing now in the 21^st century America!

These words of Paul are still true today.

The troubles we are facing in this country are real…fueled by those who desire to keep us divided when God’s call is for us to be united. 

But even as we see this reality…these efforts to make us afraid…we can tap into our faith because “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:4-5).

That is the alternative reality and the promise made to us through God the Father…the Son…and the Holy Spirit.

That is the Wisdom that runs through all our being as we look for ways to continue serving our neighbors here in Lowndes County and throughout this region.

Carry that hope…that love…into this week.

Stay the course… and meet the challenges before us with wisdom and love.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Out There! A Sermon for Pentecost with Holy Baptisms

 

What a fantastic way to celebrate Pentecost. We had not one, not two...but six baptisms! Both of which were family affairs. A mom and her two toddlers; two moms and their teenage daughter. All of them came to us through our modest outreach efforts on Ash Wednesday offering "Ashes-to-Go" in the parking lot of the church. 

Don't ever let anyone say that the Holy Spirit is dead.

She's alive...and is still making beautiful mischief while the world feasts on mayhem.

Text: Acts 2:1-21

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What a scene that must’ve been in the upper room that day…the day that the Holy Spirit swept in like a great mighty wind.

All these people…from different regions of the world as they knew it at that time…are in Jerusalem.

The disciples are huddled together…not quite knowing what to do with themselves.

They’d been moved by the words of Jesus.

They’d given up their careers and left their homes to follow Jesus.

They’d just been on an emotional rollercoaster…having seen him killed by the Roman authorities…and then he reappeared to them…resurrected from the dead.

He continued to encourage them…and then left them again to ascend into heaven.

So there they are…sitting there…looking at each other…trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing with themselves now.

Suddenly…a great gust of wind throws open the doors and the windows of that room.

The Holy Spirit lights their hearts and minds…and most importantly their mouths…on fire.

They start telling the story of God’s love with such a passion in languages they’d never spoken before.

But others are hearing them.

They understand them.

And what they’re hearing are words that express a universal truth about their true selves:

They are all beloved children of God.

It had to be an incredible moment!

It reminds me of the time when my wife and I were visiting Lourdes in France.  

The grotto of Bernadette is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site…which isn’t far from where Isabelle grew up.

People from all over the world come to this place…many seeking healing.

When you walk through the plaza as you approach the grotto…it’s like the United Nations of languages.

People are speaking French…Italian…German…Spanish…just lots of other languages all around you.

There’s often a religious service taking place in the grotto…which can also be in whatever is the native tongue of the priest.

We were there in the afternoon…and so the priest was leading people in reciting the rosary…with the Hail Mary and Our Father prayers.

Groups were filing through the grotto as the people prayed.

They were touching the stones of this cave where Bernadette reportedly had had a vision of the Virgin Mary in the 19^th century.

But then…as the service was ending…the priest began chanting the Ave Maria.

And the whole place…in the grotto…and out in the large plaza…people stopped.

And in one voice…they all join in singing the chorus together.

It didn’t matter what nationality they were…or even whether they were Roman Catholic or not…in that moment…we were all made one…in the Holy Spirit…united in this song of praise.

That sense of being swept up in a single a voice and singing in joyful praise of God is how I imagine what it must have been like to be in that upper room at that moment.

Filled with the Holy Spirit…these followers of Jesus have something like a new life breathed into them.

Look at Peter.

I think many of us can relate to Peter as that disciple who wants to follow Jesus…and gets it right sometimes and falls short in so many other ways.

Peter raises his voice …and begins a soliloquy about Jesus.

The Spirit is stirring him up…and he’s speaking with that level of confidence and eloquence like he’d never had before.

If we remember way back into Advent…we heard how John the Baptizer had promised that while he was baptizing with water…the one that was coming would baptize the people with fire.

Well…here it is…just as he had promised!

And with this baptism…it’s time for those who had been worried and afraid…those who had been wondering what to do…to put aside any doubt or fear…and get out there.

Their hesitations…are literally and figuratively burned up and blown away.

They’re free…and liberated to proclaim proudly…who they are and whose they are.

It’s out of the Upper Room and into the streets…and beyond!

Thomas went to India.

John went to Turkey and Greece.

Peter went to Rome.

Matthew to Syria.

This fledgling ragtag movement of love…compassion…healing and mercy that Jesus had been leading has taken off…and the church has come into being. Hallelujah and Happy Birthday to the Church!

And just like any birthday…this is not a one-and-done event.

Birthdays keep coming.

The Spirit keeps lighting up more people…bringing more and more into this practice of love.

Think about all those we’ve seen throughout time who have shown courage and strength despite whatever obstacles get thrown in their way.

We can see the fruits of the spirit at work through religious leaders like Howard Thurman…and Martin Luther King, Jr….and even the Philadelphia Eleven.

We can witness how the Spirit gave courage to leaders in civil rights like Rosa Parks and Marsha P. Johnson.

We know the presence of the Holy Spirit when we look to those people who fill us with hope…the people who gives us encouragement…the people who remind us that when God surveyed all of creation… God called it all good.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit…to keep us moving…stretching…and embracing the good that is in us and confirmed through the waters of baptism.

Today…we are blessed to be baptizing Anna, Brandi, Madison, Aureila, Ridley and Brittany.

Through these waters of baptism we are both welcoming you into the Body of Christ…that big…amazing…and very diverse Christian family.

And we are confirming what has been true about each of you all along: you are beloved children of God…valued and precious in God’s sight.

Each one of us who has been made part of the Christian church…no matter what denomination or orthodoxy…are made one through baptism…all singing that same song of praise to God…who is Love everlasting.

And that’s the message that needs to leave here and be taken out into the world.

The Holy Spirit is that person of the Trinity that keeps nudging us toward living lives that reflect Christ’s love….and Christ’s mission to care not just for ourselves but others.

And—I need to warn y’all—the Spirit is pretty relentless in the pursuit of us and getting us to get out there.

As one of my spiritual directors here in the diocese used to tell me, “The Holy Spirit has got some mighty sharp elbows, and she doesn’t mind sticking you in the ribs when it’s necessary!”

Let’s go! Let the Spirit be the guide! And let’s make God’s love be the core of our beings.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unity in Troubled Times

 Hello again!

If you're wondering what happened to me...I have been away. Far away...across the Atlantic enjoying a break from my every day to spend time visitng friends and family in France. It was nice to be removed from regularly being exposed to the horrors happening in the country, but I wasn't sealed off in a bubble. I did still have access to the internet. And that means I saw stories from home getting posted on Facebook.

The worst one was the report about the 50 Florida Highway Patrol cruisers along with several unmarked cars and a massive police force of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended upon a construction site in Tallahassee between the two major universities the day before we were coming back. The purpose was to terrorize the Latino/a population of the city, but the practical effect meant that construction workers all over the city went home out of fear that they would be the next arrests. 

Out of 100 or so arrests, only four got booked into the Leon County jail. Many were eventually released. And still others can't be found. Thanks to Secretary of State Marco Rubio (a Floridian who might as well be called an "anchor baby" since his own parents immigrated to the USA from Cuba before Castro's revolution), thousands of men and women have had their temporary worker permits and other documentation cancelled because.......

Well....because....we're now going to ciminalize being brown and a foreigner.

Seeing this news made me want to stay in France. Never come back to the USA...until we get rid of this regime once and for all. 

But I knew that wasn't possible.

And God seems to have a purpose for me here. Maybe to deliver sermons to a small Congregation in Southwest Georgia.  See what you think.

Text: John 17: 20-26

+++ 

 My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

 

That prayer by the American monk and theologian Thomas Merton is called “A Prayer of Unknowing.”

I’ve used it before…and find that I go back to it from time to time.

And it seemed like the perfect prayer for this particular Sunday…in which we are in this liminal space not only in our church time…and also where we are in our current moment in this country.

The church calendar tells us that we’re in this suspended moment between the Day of the Ascension…the day that Jesus makes his final ascent to sit at the right hand of God…and the celebration of Pentecost next Sunday…which is when the Holy Spirit…that third person of the Trinity…will make a dramatic entrance and serve in that role as that guiding conscience…and spirit of truth and courage for those who are believers in Christ.

In our Gospel reading from John this Sunday…what we’ve heard is the final portion of a very long prayer that Jesus offered to the disciples right before his crucifixion.

This final farewell in John’s Gospel stretches over about three and half chapters. It serves as Jesus’s last pep talk to his followers…reminding them that to love one another as he has loved.

To remember the source of that love that he has shown them is none other than the love that comes from God the Father.

He wants them to hold it in their hearts that the greatest love they can show is that love that isn’t self-serving and selfish…but reaches out and gives comfort and support…especially to those who find themselves down and despondent.

These words…that John has Jesus speaking…were not just meant for disciples of Jesus gathered with him in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.

This was an important and necessary speech for the followers of Jesus that made up John’s community in 100 CE…about 70 years after the crucifixion.

These were the very early Christians…both Jews and Gentiles…the ones who were beginning to be identified as Christians…who were living at a time where they felt their world was crashing down around them.

At the time that John was writing this Gospel…the early followers of Jesus were in a very difficult spot.

They’d been hoping that Jesus would have ushered in a new Messianic age.

Instead…they had endured and survived a brual war with the Roman Empire which ended with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

And they found themselves unwelcomed in the synagogues of the Jewish population which didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah.

So they were a minority within an already persecuted minority.

We can imagine that some people might have been falling away from the faith at that point.

So this long prayer of Jesus in John’s Gospel is there not just to get his disciples in the right frame of mind for what was coming with the crucifixion.

John wanted his own community to buck up…be brave…and don’t give into hopelessness…and to continue to live into the way…the truth and the life that Jesus had shown to those who believe.

That message was meaningful then…and it is clearly meant for us now.

Take a look at the way this passage begins. We hear Jesus pray:

 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” (John 17:20)

If the disciples had let their fear of the Roman Empire shut them up…if they had let their anxieties over what the authorities might do to them get in their way of acting…we would never have known the story of Jesus.

If Peter had just curled up into a ball of shame and guilt…and if Paul had never had his amazing conversion experience on the way to Damascus…this Jesus movement might’ve lasted only for a few years.

If John’s followers had allowed their depression and their dread to dominate their thoughts and made them go silent in face of oppression…the Gospel of Jesus would never have spread beyond Palestine.

This prayer shows us that it’s through the followers…those who are committed believers in Jesus…people who’ve been moved and touched by the Christian story…it is through them that God’s love becomes really real to the greater population.

And it is through our participation…in hearing this prayer…that God’s love links us to our ancestral heritage of all the faithful who have come to believe in God through Jesus Christ.

So this is a prayer about unity.

Not only unity with the ancestors and the saints that have gone before us.

This is about bringing ourselves…our souls…into communion with God.

Feeding our hearts on the love that is “the Alpha and Omega…the beginning and the end” of all things (Rev.22:13) and unifying us individually and collectively with the holy.

It also serves as a prayer of unity right now…in our present moment…bonding us in mutual aid and affection for one another.

And—boy—do we need that unity now!

Because there are those forces that want to divide us and make us fear and hate one another.

They want us to see our differences—whatever they are—racial…political…gender identity…orientation…ethnicity…as reasons to pull away from one another.

I was deeply hurt and angered by a recent raid on a construction site this past week in my city of Tallahassee.

More than 100 people in safety vests and neon colored shirts and jeans were arrested and put onto a bus with no air conditioning…because they were undocumented.

By the end of the day…only four people were booked into the Leon County jail.

Many others were released.

And still others were sent off…even though they are not criminals.

These were people who were working and contribuiting to society as their asylum claims were getting processed.

This was an action that was an overkill of police force…an apparent attempt to cause the maxium amount of fear in the city…especially among the Latinos and Latinas in the area.

But of course such things never just touch one segement of the population.

We’re all interconnected.

What happens to one group will have ripple effects that touches everyone.

Lots of people…white people in Tallahassee…and not all of one political camp or the other…were shaken.

All of the construction projects in Tallahassee screeched to a halt…and now no one feels safe going to work.

Wives are missing their husbands.

Children don’t know what’s happened to their dads.

Again…we see these words of Jesus in John’s Gospel:

"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:25-26)

There will always be those who will attempt to get us to turn on one another…to break our bonds of unity.

There will always be efforts to touch those dark corners of our hearts that make us see the “other”…however we define that “other” for ourselves…as a person or a group of people to fear.

Don’t give into that temptation.

Remember the promises we make at our baptism…to seek and serve Christ in each other…loving our neighbors as ourselves…striving for justice and peace among all people…and respecting the dignity of every human being.

This prayer that Jesus offers…one that is particularly geared toward people who are living in a time of confusion and uncertainty…is the constant reminder that we have so much more in common with one another…so much more that unifies us…to each other in the Body of Christ…and brings our true selves into deeper relationship with God.

This prayer reminds us that even when we’re uncertain about things going on in our lives…to keep walking in love…and bringing that love out into the world.

The love that Jesus demonstrates again and again…a love that knows no “others” and has no black out dates or exceptions.

That love is OUR superpower.

Use it.

Live it.

Share it.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.