All Does Mean "All"

I was glancing at today's Gospel and saw it was the feeding of the five thousand.  And I thought, "What a time for this lesson!"  Our country is standing on the edge of a financial breakdown with no money to pay our creditors around the globe.  Why?  How?  Because we are no longer a democracy; we have become the great American lunacracy!  We are governed by the most fearful and angry bunch of intransigents we could have ever elected. 
Thanks be to God the disciples of Jesus were not members of the so-called Tea Party.   Otherwise, that feeding story would have gone something like this:

"The crowds were gathered and hungry and nightfall was coming.  Jesus turned to his disciples and said, 'Let's get out those two fish and five loaves of bread so I can bless them and distribute them equally amongst all the people.' But the disciples said, 'No!'  When Judas attempted to reach for one of the fish to give to Jesus, John and James tackled him.  Peter scolded Jesus, weeping and saying, 'These are our fish and bread given to us.  If this crowd is hungry, it's not our fault.  They should have gone shopping during the day!'"

My take on the Gospel story from Matthew only has the slightest bit to do with our current political crisis.  When I read this feeding story, I am struck by the phrase, "And all ate and were filled..."  The very first time I really heard this passage three years ago, it blew open all the doors and windows in my brain.  It was a powerful and simple illustration of the love of God, a love that can take what seems finite and make it infinite and give equal amounts of love to each one of us... with leftovers!  No one is left out.  No one gets any more or any less than the next person.  And "all ate and were filled."  

Because of our human nature which sees boundaries and beginnings and endings to things, this concept of an infinite "all" is mind boggling.   Surely there must be limits?   There's no way God intends that all of us are to be loved?  As the Austin Lounge Lizards sing, "Jesus loves me, but he can't stand you!"

Not true.  When the word is "all" it really does mean "all."   Again, the apostle Paul speaks eloquently to this point when he says in Romans that there is nothing that separates us from the love of God.  The only thing that can do that is our unwillingness to believe and trust that God really does love us unconditonally and doesn't have some hidden agenda to pull the rug out from under us.

So, what does any of this have to do with the debt ceiling debacle?   What I see in the midst of all the stubbornness and the willingness to plunge our national credit rating into the toilet is a political strategy of not wanting the "other guy" to have a "win".  Specifically, President Obama.   It is not a secret that the Republican Party agenda has been to do whatever it can to prevent the President from achieving anything.   That's an age-old tactic that's been done on both sides of the American political aisle.   But such behavior used to have limits when there was a real national interest at stake.  This Congress, however, is infused with a tea bag that's sat for too long in the water and is bitter and nasty.  And they are willing to make American taxpayers suffer with the potential of higher interest rates because they don't like minorities, especially when they become President.  And they are so reckless that they are willing to let small businesses, the poor, and the helpless suffer.   Because, for all that they may wrap themselves in the flag and thump their bibles, they are not patriots and they are perverting the words of Christ.  

"All", for them, means "all for them."

What a contrast to see how God intended us to understand "all."   And I say, "God, help us all!"

The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like...

In one of those moments of quiet contemplation during this week, I had this thought:

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a borderless country.  We keep driving and driving to find the edge or the line, but it's never there because the Kingdom has no bounds."

Think about it.  When you look at a map, there are clear demarcations of boundaries between states, nations, bodies of water.  We fight wars with rocks and rubber bullets and IEDs over which side of a particular geographical border line belongs to which ethnic or religious group.  We erect walls and fences as a means to protect "our" borders.   

But when we live in the Kingdom... we are not just one nation, but one everything, under God.

I saw a glimpse of that last night on the news.   They were showing scenes from Norway with the first of the funerals for the teenaged victims gunned down last week by the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Christian terrorist.  The girl, 18 year-old Bano Rashid, was a refugee from Iraq who was described by all who knew her as "Sunshine."   Leading the funeral procession was an imam and a Lutheran pastor.  The image spoke the proverbial thousand words in recognition of Sunshine as a child loved by a God that doesn't separate Muslims from Christians, especially as a nation mourned her senseless death.  God, whether as seen through Christ or called Allah, accepts the tears of all of us.  Sadly, this is a message lost on Anders Breivik, and those in the radical fundementalist religious camps.   They are still driving looking for the border of the Kingdom, and in their quest to be right have fallen for the mirage of a border.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a banquet table brimming with exotic and ordinary food and drink where a new chair is always available for someone to take a seat."

Oh, to have a world where people could really believe this is true!   

An Anglican Commentary on Norway's Tragedy

A Facebook friend posted this commentary by Rev. J. Barney Hawkins IV about last week's slaughter in Norway.  The piece can be found at the Virginia Theological Seminary's website on Anglican Communion Studies.  Hawkins' commentary reminds us of the Gospel passage a few weeks ago about the field where there were seeds sown, but in the middle of the night, someone planted weeds to grow up alongside the wheat.  Hawkins writes:

In times like these, I find helpful a “Litany of Contradictory Things” in which there are verses like: “Wheat and weeds: let them grow together; Arabs and Jews in Palestine: let them grow together; those whose thinking is similar and contrary: let them grow together.” I would add a new verse: Christians and Muslims: let them grow together.

In that parable, the sower of the seeds instructs the slaves to leave the weeds alone.  To yank them from the ground might tear out the roots of the wheat as well.  He says to let them grow together and the reaper will make the distinction of wheat from weed. 

That's the problem with an extremist such as Anders Behring Breivik.  He is convinced of his own rightness and has thus tried to elevate himself to be God, the judge and jury of the world.  His anti-Muslim hatred... a sentiment unfortunately shared by other Christian extremists... so warped him that he opened fire on children.  

Many in Christianity are quick to point out that Breivik's actions are absolutely counter to the teachings of Christ.  Certainly, if Breivik, and the other so-called 'christians' who rail against Islam understood the teachings of Christ, they'd back off their vitriol and beat their automatic weapons into ploughshares.  We can live side-by-side in this world.  What happens when we die is anybody's guess.  That's the great unknown, and will remain unknown to us until we are able to bear the unveiling of that next level of understanding.  For now, we live in the tension of difference.  And that's OK.

Baptismal Responsibility

At St. John’s, we baptized two children into the Body of Christ. Baptisms are a great service, and not just because the featured attraction are the cooing and crying young ones in the pretty white gowns.

It is also the time when we, the adults of the congregation, renew our own baptismal vows not only through a call and response recitation of the Apostle’s Creed; we are also asked a series of questions:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching, in the prayers and the breaking of the bread?

Will you resist evil and when you fall into sin repent and return to the Lord?

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? 

Will you seek and serve Christ in all people loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being?

The answer to all of the above: I will, with God’s help.

God is always willing to help. But are we always willing to do our part?

The point of our participation in the baptism of a child or adult is to recognize that we have certain rights and responsibilities as members in this Body of Christ. It’s not enough to just sit on our rears and watch the world carry on. We have an obligation to see how the world is carrying on, and call out the world where there is no justice, peace or respect of every human being. Membership in this Body does not give us a pass on caring for each other and the world we live in. That care and concern becomes a 24/7, 365 days a year call to action.

Too often people of the Christian faith treat these vows as applicable only between the hours of 8-noon on a Sunday. That’s when you hear the name Jesus, in a way that is formal and reverential, right? The rest of the time, it’s every man, woman and child for him or herself to slog through this muddled up world, dodging through life’s traffic and always looking out for numero Uno.

Uh-oh. I used Spanish words. That’s the language of so many of those “illegals”. We’ve been seeing an increase of laws meant to make it impossible for anyone who isn’t a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant to hold a job, go to college, get medical care or—hey—even get a ride from someone to get to a church so they, too, can take God out of the box for about an hour and fifteen minutes. As noted HERE on my blog, my mentor stood in a pulpit of an Episcopal Church in Alabama and noted that the anti-immigrant law in Alabama, HB56, is not only anti-immigrant; it is anti-Christ. As far as the Gospel message of “love thy neighbor” goes, that new law is an epic fail. She preached a message that reminded the congregation of what it means to have been marked and sealed as Christ’s own forever at their baptism.

Many of them didn’t like that reminder. Just like when Jesus tells the rich young man that if he wants to be “perfect”, he’d sell all his possessions and follow him. The rich young man, realizing the magnitude of what Jesus just said, clutches his possessions and sulks away.

For the rich young man, the “possessions” might have been his gold, his cups, his jewels. Or it might also have been his prejudices and his assumptions that since he isn’t one of “those people” he was a step closer to “perfection.” And here’s Jesus telling him he has to give it all up… including that "holier than thou" attitude? “No way, dude. I know who ‘my kind’ are and I’m not hangin’ out with those furriners!”

The current trend of picking on immigrants is not a “new thing”. The same prejudice that denies services to an immigrant is the same prejudice that denies rights to LGBT people is the same prejudice that says all blacks are criminals, all women are too emotional to handle difficult decisions, and the disabled are “inspirational” when they live their lives. There is no “respecting the dignity of every human being” in any of that. Where is the seeking and serving Christ in all people? And what have we done to the Good News, a message of freedom that the apostle Paul describes as, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”?

If we are baptized in Christ, then we are not given an opt out on compassion and caring for all people. Period!

Welcome to the newly-baptized. With God’s help, and your willingness, we can make this a better world for everyone.

Thank You to New York's Fab Four

The Bishops of Central New York, Western New York, Long Island, and Rochester.



These four bishops have said they will allow their priests to bless AND solemnize same-sex marriages in their dioceses.  The Bishop of New York (which includes Manhattan) has said priests may bless the same-sex couple, but the civil authorities must marry them.  That's actually the closest to my opinion on the topic. 

But then, I think the church needs to get out of marrying straight couples as well, and turn that all back to the state to do.

All quibbling aside, I'm excited for all the couples in New York who have been waiting for this day.  And I am pleased that a majority of the Episcopal Bishops there are giving an example of pastoral generousity that I believe is a right and good and joyful thing!  Thank you, Bishops Adams, Franklin, Provenzano and Singh for opening the church a little wider and letting more light in.  Blessings to all of you.

Prayers for Norway

 The news from the normally tranquil Norway is horrific.  At last count, there are 91 people dead from what appears to be the actions of an angry right-wing Christian fundamentalist.   As with all horrible crimes involving bombings and mass killings, the initial reports were that a group with ties to Al-Qaeda was claiming responsibility for the carnage.  And, like many times before, that turns out not to be the case.

One friend on Facebook noted that when the fundamentalism is Islamic, we condemn the entire religion.  When it is Christian, it's the act of a lone mad man with a vendetta.  Point taken.   The tendency of the "we" is to see the "them" as a monolithic group where as we are able to make distinctions among our own "kind."

  But religious fundamentalism, no matter the religion, is dangerous and destructive to the tenets of the faith.   I don't believe that Islam demands of its followers that they strap dynamite to their bodies and blow themselves up in a market place in Jerusalem any more than I believe there's anything in the New Testament that says Christ wants us to kill socialist children in Norway.

Atheists will likely leap at the opportunity to knock all monotheism as fueling such madness as what happened yesterday in Oslo.  But this has nothing to do with what is actually in Scripture. Or Torah.  Or the Koran.  This is about madness.  Period.  The religion layered on top of that is just window dressing and used to nefarious ends that aren't in keeping with the vast majority of the people who practice said religion.

We, believers and non-believers alike, should be able to agree upon the basic idea that this world has got some crazy people.  And they will do crazy things. 

Prayers ascending for the country of Norway, the children, the families and the government workers that were directly affected by yesterday's terrible events.  Peace be with you.

Mary Magdalene: The "Other" Mary

We hear a lot about Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  The Blessed Virgin.  The one who gave us the gorgeous Magnificat.  

And then there is Mary Magdalene.   The whore.  The harlot.  The slut.  The one who in the musical "Godspell" is given the sultry number, "Turn back, O Man." 

How in the world this woman has come to be linked to the legend of the prostitute turned disciple of Christ is something that baffles me.  I believe it can be traced back to the weirdness of people who don't like the thought that even the most "earthy" of women might have been Jesus' BFF. 

Even my "hometown hero" Dan Brown speculates in his multi-million dollar books that Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ had a child.  And that means Jesus had sex with a woman.  Yikes!!!  NEVER!!! 

Dan Brown's midrash on Magdalene aside, the story that seems consistently linked to Mary Magdalene is that she was the one at Jesus' resurrection and hence the first to see the resurrected Christ and spread the good news.  From John's Gospel:

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her. --John 20: 11b-18

So, let's just suppose that Mary Magdalene is the same notorious Mary, the sinner who had demons driven out of her or maybe the sinner who anoints Jesus and washes his feet with her hair.  If that's the case then I say, "Bravo!"  What a wonderfully powerful statement of Scripture that a person of ill-repute is the one who gets to see the most amazing miracle of them all--a resurrected from the dead Jesus--and is the one told to go and share it with the others.  It is common throughout the stories in the Bible that it's the ones with warts and blemishes that in fact are given the glory of being God's chosen messengers.   Not always the easiest of tasks to carry out, but still they do it.  And she has been given the gift of being the first to see that not even death can take down Christ.  For God to choose her sends the message to all throughout the ages of Christianity that the one who we might not think of as "worthy" deserves our attention because that one may be bearing a tremendous gift.

And therefore, on this day, I say all those who have ever felt the scorn of the self-righteous should rejoice and raise a glass to the lady who truly embodies that amazing redemptive spirit of Christ to embrace us and restore us.  As a portion of her collect reads:

Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know you in the power of his endless life...

Can I get an Amen?