The Politics of Jesus: A Sermon for 22nd Sunday After Pentecost Proper 25 Year B

It's a challenge to go back and forth between congregations. It is particularly difficult when I preach three weeks in a row, and one of those weeks is at the other congregation. So if what you read below sounds like a rehash of some of last week's sermon at Christ the King, well...it kind of is!  

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One of the concerns I have often heard expressed about the church…and especially about preachers…is this fear that we are going to “preach politics.”

I’ve come to understand this as meaning a person doesn’t want to hear about a particular political party, or politician.

I’ve spent too many years around politics and politicians…including in my own family, so I know that politicians are people…and they can be both saints and sinners just like everyone else.

But if we pretend like there isn’t something “political” happening with Jesus and what he is doing as he marches toward Jerusalem…and that the same types tensions he was facing aren’t plaguing us today…then I think we’re fooling ourselves.

The politics of Jesus are about changing and transforming hearts and minds…and a revolutionary movement to get back to God…loving God and neighbor and our selves. Jesus is about love and love stands in opposition to greed and fear and the othering of people. This is a message that should give us hope and encouragement even if it simultaneously makes us uncomfortable when we realize that this isn’t how the rest of the world operates…and how often we don’t live up to the mission of Jesus.

We see that in the story of the rich man. He went running after Jesus, wanting to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life. He learned that he had to let go of his attachment to things. He can’t do it…and neither can we.

We see it from those closest to Jesus. Peter wants a messiah who is going to overthrow the Roman Empire and restore a king of Israel. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, enamored by Jesus demand that Jesus place them one on his right and one on his left in glory. The others disciples are offended by their request…probably because they hadn’t thought of it first. Do they even know and understand that the ones who literally are on his right and left at Calvary will be the lowest of the low in society, the condemned criminals? Doubtful!

Two weeks in a row now we hear Jesus ask:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Last week…this was the question to James and John, which leads to their self-serving desire to be at Jesus’ side in glory.

This week…it’s Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, sitting on the outskirts of Jericho. He can’t see anything…at least he can’t see anything with his eyes…but he has enough of a spiritual vision that he knows that the commotion off in the distance is a crowd gathering around this one, this man who might be the answer to his prayer.

He bellows out:

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

This is the ultimate “Help me!” We can imagine that desperation in his voice…the pleading cry of one who depends upon the kindness of strangers. No doubt some of us have seen it in the faces of people we’ve come across in our own lives. Maybe we’ve even been in this position at one time or another. Our backs against the wall and our only answer is to turn to God.

The crowd tries to tell this misfit…this outsider…to shut up. Go away! Leave the leader alone. But he doesn’t quit:

JESUS, SON OF DAVID, HAVE MERCY ON ME!

And then Jesus…stops. Up to now, he has been a man on the move. But now, just as with the hemorrhaging woman who grabbed ahold of the hem of his robe, Jesus stops and tells the crowd to let Bartimaeus come to him. This man’s plaintive cry has reached Jesus’ ears and so he invites this outsider in and asks him the same question he put to his very self-assured insiders James and John:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

And…big difference from James and John…Bartimaeus says,

“My teacher, let me see again.”

My. Teacher. Let me see again.

Bartimaeus gets personal. “My teacher.”

My rabbi.

My Rabbouni.

One of society’s forgotten unknowns…already has a clearer sense of who Jesus is than his well-known inner circle of disciples.

Bartimaeus’ profession and request is held in stark contrast to the disciples’ metaphorical blindness and a curious deafness. I mean, Jesus has told his followers at least three times what’s going to happen to him when they get to Jerusalem, how he’s leading a revolution not fought with swords but with love. He has made service to others the cornerstone of his ministry, and yet the disciples are blind to his actions and still hang onto what they think are the symbols of greatness: money and power. They were dumbfounded when Jesus told the rich man to give away everything and follow him.

And let’s look at that rich man for a moment. He wanted what Jesus was offering…but he didn’t want to have to change. He didn’t want to let go of his attachments. And rather than take Jesus up on his instruction to give away his things to the poor and follow, this man turns and walks away.

In contrast…Bartimaeus not only goes toward Jesus…we hear that he threw off his cloak to run to Jesus. In ancient days…beggars needed their cloaks because that’s what they would spread out on the ground to collect the meager offerings tossed in their direction!

So where the rich man fails to follow…and the Sons of Zebedee assume greatness with Jesus will give them some kind of lofty perch when the revolution happens…

Bartimaeus gives up everything and asks to see. And then when he gets his sight…he joins this march to Jerusalem, a long walk toward standing in opposition to all the ways of the Empire, ways that reward with fame and fortune…to strike a new path of power that comes when we show up for one another.

Mark has made great efforts in the weaving together of these various moments to put us in a place of thinking about how we see Jesus and the goal of his mission.

It is a mission that challenges the political and economic forces of his day.

So… if we take the Gospel seriously, it should shake the core of those forces in our time as well.

That’s what I mean when I say Jesus has a political message for us…and it’s one that turns our common understanding of power upside down. If we don’t acknowledge this…then we’re just as blind and deaf as the disciples in Mark.

The way I see it…the culmination of these past many weeks points back to that probing question we heard Jesus ask several weeks ago: “But who do you say that I am?”

That question leads us into a deeper examination of our faith.

Who Jesus is for us?

Who do we say Jesus is in our time? Our place? Our world rife with economic, political, and racial divisions?

And then comes….

“What do we want Jesus to do for us?”

What is the prayer we lift to God to heal our wounds, make peace and seek justice and reconciliation?

O God make speed to save us as we seek your will for our world.

O Lord make haste to help us to be the love and light for those in search of loving kindness.

 

 

 

Leggo the Ego: A Sermon for Christ the King, Proper 24 Year B

 

The weirdest thing about my transitional diaconate has been the bouncing back and forth between two parishes in the same city. It's been hard to keep track of who is who, and to keep in mind what is happening in the life of the two places. I have a much better grasp of St. Barnabas, and that's not saying a lot because it seems like every week, I learn some other details that I had not known before. The one thing I do know about Christ the King is that it is a parish moving into new life in so many ways. Working with a small group of parishioners to craft the Prayers of the People has been enormously helpful as has been having a supervising priest who is generous in sharing with me about life inside this parish still recovering from the death of their founder and only pastor. 

The Gospel of Mark 10:35-45 is the primary text from which this sermon was born...with a little side of Job 38 with God's answers to Job's lamentable lament.

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James and John, the Sons of Thunder. I mean!!

Did you hear what they just said?

Did you hear what these two blessed disciples have asked of Jesus?!

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

“Hmm…kay…What is it you want me to do for you?”

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

I mean!!

Here’s the thing: this request comes after Jesus has…one more time…told them what’s about to happen to him.

I know we didn’t read this part of the Gospel today, but I want you to hear what immediately precedes James and John’s burning desire to be on the right and the left of Jesus:

Here’s Mark’s gospel…chapter 10…verses 32-34

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’

OK…so that’s what they just heard. And now they make this request?

Jesus just said:  

“There’s a showdown coming. The bullies are going to give me over to the Empire, and the tyrants of the Empire are going to put me through hell, kill me, and then I will rise again.

And you want to be where?!”

(And for those of us who know how this story goes…we know that the ones who literally will hang on Jesus’ left and right at Calvary are the condemned criminals…the outcasts…the powerless of society).

This is the third time Jesus has told the disciples in Mark’s Gospel what is going to happen when they finally reach Jerusalem.

And still… these two sons of Zebedee don’t seem to be hearing what Jesus is saying. He has been trying to tell them “I’m not the kind of leader who wants political power. I am not going to march you into battle with swords and spears. I’m leading a different type of revolution.”

He’s not into domination. He’s into service to others.

“Whoever wishes to be first must serve all.”

One time when I went to Atlanta with my wife, she was attending a conference of some kind and I was tagging along for the fun of a short holiday…I decided to go visit Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family had served.

It was a weekday mid-morning, so there weren’t other people around. In the sanctuary of the church, they had a recording of Dr. King’s sermon, which he called “the Drum Major Instinct”, playing on repeat.

I took a seat in one of the pews and listened as his voice boomed in the space. Some parts of the recording had shown the wear and tear that happens to reel-to-reel tape and so there were some garbled moments and skips. But it was his voice and his preaching. And the scripture text was this same one we heard this morning from Mark’s Gospel.

King described that the phenomenon at play with James and John is the same Drum Major Instinct…that need to be at the front of the parade…that has plagued all of us forever and a day.

So while we may want to scoff at these sons of Zebedee, if we were really honest with ourselves, we are just as likely to succumb to this need of our ego.

The ego expresses need when we see the advertisement that tells us how our lives will be so much better with this or that product.

Our ego is what drives us to want to be better than somebody else. It’s the ego that leads to the need to dominate other people.

On a much bigger scale…it’s what keeps the nations battling to be the top dog.

It’s all part of that Drum Major Instinct.

But King also pointed out that Jesus didn’t condemn that instinct. Rather Jesus praises that instinct…if it is reordered and redirected toward service.

The mark of true greatness is not about us having the nicest house and living in the best part of town.

True greatness is rewarded and recognized in the way we strive for justice for the disinherited…

the way we feed the hungry…

the way we treat people struggling to make ends meet.

That’s what Jesus wanted James and John to understand.

“Follow me into being a revolutionary for peace and love and justice and your greatness will be seen in the eyes of those who are seeking kindness and equity.”

That is the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I’ve been talking as if James and John were just arrogant fools who didn’t get the message the first time

or the second

or third time about what it means to be on Jesus’ left and right in glory.

But what if they did understand it?

What if their request is born out of a place of realizing that he’s serious about the confrontation he is about to have with the Empire in Jerusalem?

What if James and John aren’t making their request out of arrogance, but out of fear or need for security?

This is something a commentator raised and I think it’s an interesting thought and so much of it depends on how we read this story.

Again…if we look at what’s in that short section before this exchange with James and John…we read that Jesus and the disciples are “on the road heading to Jerusalem” and Jesus is “walking ahead of them and they were amazed…and those who followed were afraid.” (Mark 10:32b) 

If James and John are followers and are afraid, what is that fear?

Are they wanting to flank Jesus, maybe be his loyal protectors against viciousness and cruelty in Jerusalem? Provide Jesus security and in turn secure themselves?

I’ve seen this behavior before.

There are people who feel God is in danger and they must defend God against whatever perceived attack might be happening against the Almighty.

But I hope we have seen in the reading from Job, God is quite capable of handling all complaints and anger and vitriol any one of us might spew at God at any point in time.

I have enough confidence that my Creator is a lot bigger and stronger and infinitely more patient, powerful, and wise than me and as Proverbs says, there’s nothing new under the sun, so God can take care of God’s self.

But fear and that need for security is a big motivator for us. And just like arrogance…it can deceive us into taking actions and making decisions that ultimately keep us from fully living into our baptism to follow Jesus.

Fear of others is what leads to gated communities.

Fear of others is what keeps us from providing public transportation.

Fear is what keeps us in these polarized places of us and them.

Fear is what picks up a gun to settle an argument. 

But fear is the opposite of faith. And the one phrase that gets repeated over and over in scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments: “Do. Not. Be. Afraid.”

Once more…Jesus tells John and James and us: true greatness is not to be found by sealing ourselves off from one another. True greatness comes in seeing each other and serving each other as children of One God.

As Dr. King noted in his sermon…the best part about this type of servanthood is that doesn’t require special training, or extra schooling.

And I will add one does not need to be ordained.

Ordained leaders can be icons that you look to for an example of service. But we are all called by Jesus to serve each other and our community with a heart full of grace and a souls fueled by love.

As we prepare to enter our new church home downtown what does service look like for Christ the King Episcopal Church?

What are the needs we can meet?

Who are the disinherited we can invite in?

How can we live into our Baptismal Covenant as we ‘strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?’ (BCP, 305).

May we resist the temptation of arrogance or fear as we seek out and serve those looking for loving-kindness.

And let the church say…

Amen.

 

Live Free, Happy, and Out

 

It has been more than 30 years since I "came out," first to myself, then gradually to my family and friends.  In fact, I think I have been out so long that I'm not sure where the closet is any more. And I smile and celebrate when I see queer folks much younger than me who have no problem being demonstratively queer in ways that I would not and, because of the stigma, could not be when I was their age and struggling with my sexual identity in the 1980s. 

Still, I know that there are places in this country and many around the world where being an L, G, B, T, Q, or any variation on those will lead to ostracism, or even death. So for those of us who can be out, hooray! And keep your light shining for those who still live in the shadows yearning to leave their closets. They need to see you and know that, one day, they can be with you.

A prayer for this National Coming Out Day:

O God of love, we give thanks for our lives, for our loves, for our spirits set free from the bondage of pretending to be someone or something we are not; continue to walk along side us, march with us when we seek justice, cry with us when we face opposition, and keep our hearts rejoicing in the knowledge that we are your beloved queer children, and set us as lights for others still seeking to find their true selves. In your Holy Name we pray. Amen. 

Letting Go of Attachments: A Sermon for St. Barnabas, Proper 23B

Christ and the Young Rich Ruler by Heinrich Hofmann

There are things you are taught in seminary, such as theology and Biblical scholarship and research. 

But they couldn't prepare me for some of the challenges of parish ministry, especially strong opinions about koi ponds. St. Barnabas has had a koi pond on its property for more than 20 years, and its been both a source of peace and vexation. Our vestry has reached the end of its rope with the necessary care of the koi, but it is a feature of a garden that was built in memory of a beloved Sunday School teacher. There was never an official dedication, and instead, another beloved member with a yen for the outdoors and landscaping paid for and designed the pond herself. This week has been spent with our vestry clerk researching all of this information and me searching for any family member who might be able to fill in the history, and drafting a letter to the congregation (which now needs to be rewritten given all of our new information uncovered from the past church records) seeking help from anyone who would like to make "Koi Care" their ministry. All this while crafting another letter for kicking off a stewardship campaign. And writing a sermon, interestingly, reflecting on attachments that get in the way of our commitment to living into our call to Christian service and mission. Hmmmm....

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 Main text: Mark 10:17-31

“How hard will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

If we look closely at this statement, we see that it is not worded as a question. In fact, in our text from the N-R-S-V translation, this was a declarative statement from Jesus, complete with an exclamation point.

“How hard will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Of course, Jesus then answers this statement with another famous declaration, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” In other words, it is impossible for a rich person.

Now, it can be easy I’m sure for many of us who don’t have the fortunes of an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos to stay focused on Jesus chastising the super rich. It’s always so much more fun to see Jesus scolding others and not realizing that his imperative is directed at us.

So I would like to invite us to think a little bit more about this passage…and the meaning here of “wealth” and “rich.” I’m not talking about money and stock portfolios.

Rather “wealth” and “rich” could mean anything that we take as “things,” the comforts of life living in the western world.

This story is often referred to as “The Rich Young Man.” That would be true if we were reading Matthew’s account (Matt 19:20). If our lesson came from Luke, this character would be called “a certain ruler” (Luke 18:18).

But unlike Matthew’s “young” man or Luke’s even more lofty “ruler,” Mark’s version tells us that this is “a man.” We learn throughout the exchange that this “man” is someone who obviously has some level religious devotion and clearly has a lot of possessions; hence he’s labeled “rich.”

I think it’s important that Mark hasn’t established that upfront. Here…he’s “a man.”

“A guy”

“A dude”

He’s more “one of us” than a “one of them.”

This man comes running (I love Mark! Everything is immediate, fast-paced!) This man has something singular on his mind, something  important to ask. And he wants to put his matter before this incredible rabbi he’s been hearing about, and so nearly breathless he asks,

“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.”

Wow! What a bold question!

What. Must. I. Do?

What feat of great strength or extraordinary effort must I put forward to gain favor and enter the kingdom of God?

The question reveals so much about this man. Somehow, he has gotten the impression that eternal life with God requires him to put a spotlight on some feat or skill that proves his worthiness.

And he thinks that flattery will buy him an instant answer, maybe one that confirms his self-identity propped up by his many possessions.

Jesus decides the best course is to begin at the beginning.

“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

Jesus is letting this guy know, “I’m not some post-doctoral scholar here who’s gonna drop pearls of wisdom on you, buddy. And if you came here for a simple ‘to do’ list for eternal life, you’re in for a rude awakening.” He then gives him the various commandments that this man ought to know and be adhering to in his life.

And as one commentator notes…Jesus specifically highlights a commandment that is not explicit…telling the man “You shall not defraud.” Definitely a zinger and questioning the way this man came to be so rich in the first place.

The man clearly is not satisfied with this answer. His self-centered desire is for Jesus to give him some sort of silver bullet, or a golden nugget that will answer his question.

The man puts up a protest.

“I have kept all these since my youth.”

“Come on, Jesus! I’ve done all the stuff, but I don’t get it. Nothing is different. When I am going to get eternal life?!”

Then Jesus looks at him. He sees him from the top of his head to his toes. And---this one is only in Mark’s Gospel—Jesus loves him.

“Love” here is not a romantic or sensual love. A quick look at the Greek reveals that this “agape” love is a spiritual love and God’s desire for us to be in right relationship with God and neighbor. Jesus can see that there are “things” getting in the way for this man.

Buddhism labels these “attachments.” And in a similar way, this man has so many “attachments” that he can’t even really live into the commandments. And this is when Jesus gives the man the only answer that will satisfy his question.

You must give up all your attachments, your things, those items that you believe define you. Give them away to the poor, the ones who are the have-nots. Once you have let go of all of that, you will be free and then you must follow me.

Walk my path.

Care for others.

Help the helpless and the disinherited.

Challenge those who will not do right by widows and children.

This, dear friend, is the answer to your pressing question about eternal life.

And that’s when we see the true colors of this man. In his free will, he turns and sulks and walks away.

He has too much. And he can’t let go.

Even if it means helping someone who has nothing.

Are we really surprised?

As I was contemplating this passage, I was reminded of a phrase in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, “The Cost of Discipleship.” Bonhoeffer was the Lutheran scholar and pastor who was killed by the Nazis for plotting to murder Hitler during World War II. He says the call to discipleship comes down to a two-pronged statement about obedience.

“Only a person who believes is obedient, and only a person who is obedient believes.” (D. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).

If we are going to follow Jesus and respond to His call to be disciples of his word and his mission…be “obedient” … we must first let go of our attachments and making excuses for why we need this or that to happen for us to really believe.

There is such a temptation to set conditions…expectations…before we make a real commitment to live and follow the teachings of Jesus.

We keep wanting to have a God who conforms to our image, confirms our biases, meets our demands. Those with means can fall prey to the false belief that somehow having wealth shows how much God loves us.

Not to get too far down a rabbit trail here, but I hear a lot of that in Job’s bitter complaint we heard this morning. We can hear in his words the sorrow of one who had possessions…and can’t understand why bad things have now happened to him.

And yet, even though Job is complaining (and if we had heard the horrible advice of his friends about his particular calamities, we’d understand why he was so distressed at this point), he demonstrates a greater faith than this man in Mark’s gospel.

Unlike the rich man, Job, now having nothing, is oddly free.

He is free of “things” that prevent him from turning to God, even in bitterness, to make himself heard. The mere fact that he can do this shows that he has, despite everything, remained obedient to God. Job turns toward God; the rich man turns away.

The call to us in discipleship is first to be willing to see how our “things” …our wealth…those identities and possessions that make us “rich” …can get in the way of us having a real relationship with Jesus. When we hold onto “things,” we are not really able to follow Jesus into the places that He needs us to go or meet the people and problems of the world he desires for us to address.

For Jesus, the entry into eternal life…is not an academic issue or something requiring a focus group.

As followers of Jesus…eternal life is experienced when we let Jesus transform our hearts…and see our true mission is to care for others, treating one another with respect and dignity.

How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

How hard it will be for those with attachments to “things” to be free enough to be in a life-giving, life-affirming relationship with Jesus.

How much easier it will be for us to feel the joy of eternal life when we make that first difficult step to stop holding back pieces of ourselves from God and hanging on to our old ways and attachments.  

How much richer our lives will be when we allow ourselves to be transformed by God’s deep love for us and this planet, so that we can offer that same love to each other.

 

A Feline Farewell

Reunited after three years of seminary
 

Valkyrie “Kyrie” Gage aka Rivkah bat Chava v’ Shoshanah

July 1, 2002-September 23, 2021

I am heartbroken to post that our beloved sweet and very loving cat, Kyrie, has crossed over the rainbow bridge to be reunited with her dog pal, Sammie, her true love, Boris, and to find her Nana Gage, who she adored and liked boys as much as she did. She probably does not want to see her brother Ziggy, so we won’t go there and the sister she never met, Pepita, wouldn’t want to meet her.

We “poached” Kyrie at Railroad Square one night during a run of the fall Faust cabaret. Her G-dmother, Dr. Sherri Kasper, was in the cast and helped to capture this tiny gray kitten that chased a bug into our dressing room. Her Aunt Beatrice and Uncle “Mr. Boy” Matt took her to our house after we were introduced to this little creature, pounding her paw through the dilapidated beer box that was serving as her makeshift cage. Her feisty nature was the signal that we had found a new cat.

Kyrie started out quite feral. She did not want us to talk to her or touch her and if we picked her up, she would try to swat us in the lips. Gradually, once she was over the insult of having been removed from Railroad Square and provided an 1100-square foot house with beds and chairs and other luxuries, she allowed the “tall one” (who would later become “Christian mommy” or “Shabbos Goy”) to interact with her. I would sit outside to do crosswords, and she would wander around the yard and then eventually sit with me and let me touch her.

It was only after we made the fatal mistake of adopting Ziggy, a lanky orange boy cat who was the perfect annoying little brother, that she learned to be truly affectionate. She saw how Ziggy would get things because he loved to sit in our laps and ride on my shoulders. Shortly before his sudden death, Kyrie came to me one night, let out a mournful meow (she normally just trilled) and jumped in my lap, allowing me to pet her for an hour. She wanted me to know that she knew how to be a lap cat, too, and that I was forgiven for bringing Ziggy into the fold. Following his death, she became very affectionate toward both of us, and enjoyed when I would carry her around the house in my arms or on my shoulder and let her look at the world from a higher angle.

When she was young, Kyrie liked to have me roll rocks down the driveway so she could chase them. She was very good at batting them down and loved to hop like a rabbit when she got particularly excited. She was an excellent huntress, and once treed a raccoon. For a time, she would play with a miniature dachshund named Patty. Patty’s owner would bring her over to the house and the two of them would do sideway ninja runs across the back of the furniture in the living room and wrestle and tumble around on the floor.

When Isabelle converted to Judaism, I made a promise that we would raise Kyrie to be Jewish. This was in response to the question that had been posed to Isabelle about how she planned to “keep a Jewish household living with a non-Jew (aka me).” Kyrie enjoyed sitting with her “Jewish mommy” when she would listen to practice recordings of the Temple Israel cantor as Isabelle was learning her Torah portion. Kyrie never quite understood rules of kashrut, believing that the rules did not apply to “mountain lions” (she was small, but believed herself to be bigger). For years, Isabelle made Kyrie’s cat food to counter all of her peculiar ailments that we suspected might have a connection to her diet. This might account for her longevity.  

She always seemed to enjoy listening to the sounds of Hebrew…and would often walk out on me during Christian services the minute we started to recite the Apostles or Nicene Creed or the Lord’s Prayer. She never understood, nor did she appreciate, my absence to attend seminary. She finally made her displeasure known when she peed all over my first-year notebooks (thankfully, she waited until AFTER I took the General Ordination Exams!)

Her decline started about two weeks after her 19^th birthday. We had lots of suggestions of what might be happening, but in the end, it is unknown exactly what made her go downhill so quickly. And this last week has been very difficult to watch her lose all interest or ability to eat. As hard as it was to make the decision to have her put down, it is the best decision.

We are going to miss her very expressive little thumb tail, her trilling which in these last few years developed into full-throated meows, and how she was always wanting to greet us and anyone who visited. If they happened to be men, well, that was all the better in her world. Isabelle and I are grateful to Sherri and The Animal Hospital at Southwood.

Zichronah livracha. May her memory be for a blessing.

 

 

The Need for Prayer: A Sermon for Pentecost 21B at St. Barnabas

 

This was a terrible week in my life. A post to follow this one will explain it a little more, but I had to finally say "good bye" to my beloved cat, Valkyrie "Kyrie" Gage, who was one of the most loving animals I have had in my life. It broke my heart to leave her to go seminary. And I was just happy that she hung on long enough to have a couple months together once I got home. That said, I simply could not wrap my mind around the Gospel for this week, and I had to prepare to lead a vestry retreat the Saturday before at St. Barnabas, so this sermon had to be written in a day and be what it was going to be. Certainly, I needed a lot of prayer; I imagine others did, too. And as I joked, "If you want to talk to me about cutting off your hands or gouging out your eyes, we can do that at another time." 

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One of my friends and mentors once told me years ago that one should always preach on the Gospel. That’s the only text preachers should focus on for their sermons. Fortunately, I went to seminary and my Homiletics professor…Homiletics is the preaching course…told us we do NOT have to preach on the Gospel every Sunday. In fact, she encouraged us to break away from that mode of thinking that the Gospel is the only text we need to hear about. Thanks be to God for that! Much as I love all four of Gospels for different reasons, and much as I can get into Mark and would love to one day stage a dramatic reading of Mark’s Gospel because it so action-packed and dramatic, I found myself this week reflecting on and being deeply drawn to our reading from the Letter of James.

As just a little bit of context about this reading: for some reason, the committee that assembled our lectionary readings decided to hit the fast-forward button…and skipped us past the first half of James Chapter Five that set the stage for why James has chosen to end this wisdom letter with a statement about prayer. Briefly, what we have not heard this morning is that in the preceding 12 verses of Chapter Five, James calls out the rich and those who exploit laborers and then turns his attention to the ones being oppressed reminding them not to lose hope in their place of suffering.

And so we start with today’s reading:

 “Are any among you the suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:13-14).

Prayer is our avenue for being in dialogue with God…both with and without words. We tend to pray at times of suffering or illness, and James is reminding us here that at times of joy and celebration, we should also pray with music and songs. Lift up our voices in Hallelujahs for the birth of a child…a new life-giving work opportunity…recognition of accomplishments. Those are the times to sing to the Lord a new song…rejoice in God and call upon God’s name!  In fact there’s the old adage that those who sing songs of praise are praying twice.

Music can be a helpful way to enter prayer because it speaks to the right side of the brain, that center of our creative activity, and doesn’t require words. It can be a potent and powerful way to pray with those who have suffered a stroke or are living with Alzheimer’s slowly stealing their memories. More than once when I was doing my chaplaincy at Hebrew Home in Rockville, Maryland, I found the best way to communicate with residents was to sing with them. There was one African-American woman who had had a stroke. She didn’t talk much at all, but would nod her head yes or no, or she might tell me “my back” and then make a face to indicate that her back was hurting. I decided to try music with her. And I figured a woman of her age, she was in her 80s, I couldn’t go wrong with suggesting I play some Mahalia Jackson singing “Precious Lord.” On this particular visit, I pulled up the YouTube video on my phone, and we started listening to Ms. Jackson’s soulful rendition. I looked at this resident and sang along with the recording. And this lady, who had not said much at all on my other visits, joined with me in singing along with the video. We became our own duo in her room, praying for God to take our hand and help us stand.

 I have been talking about songs of praise and thanksgiving, and music can sometimes be the simplest way for some to express themselves when they are feeling too broken inside for words. It can also aid us when we feel our prayer life is dry.  

I’m talking about those times when we pray and we just aren’t sure that God is listening. The 16^th-century Carmelite mystic John of the Cross termed this the “Dark Night of the Soul.” We’re in the Dark Night of the Soul times when we pray but feel nothing in return. Our prayers may feel like “Blah,” just rote and mechanical.

Or maybe we are in anguish, and we pray but we still are left feeling restless and hopeless and we wonder if we’ve been abandoned. The psalms are full of such prayers, including the one Jesus quoted from the cross, Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

For John of the Cross, this is not a time to believe that prayer is worthless. Rather this is the time when our faith is actually experiencing a growth spurt because it is being put to the test. When we are in the Dark Night, the demand of us is the ability to develop patience, which requires sometimes slowing down, relaxing our minds, and breathing through the time of trial we are in. It is a time of letting go of the attachment that we will get an answer to our prayers. We tend to want to fashion God not only in our own image, but to meet our own ends and our own desires and to do it right now. John of the Cross, and his fellow Spaniard Teresa of Avila encourage us instead to not be attached to a particular outcome of our prayers. The attachment becomes a distractor and even blocks us from having a real dialogue with God. Developing an openness gives us the chance to move through the darkest parts of the Dark Night to discover the awe and wonder of God’s constant presence around us.

Now in letting go of a fixed outcome…we are not going to satisfy that 21^st century need to have God immediately text back a thumbs up or smiley emoji.

But God may show up to us in the face of a friend or even a stranger treating us with love, kindness and dignity when we’re under stress. Or simply in being able to get a good night’s sleep and wake up with a clearer mind to put toward whatever had been weighing us down the many nights before. That may be the beginning of a prayer being answered.

If individual prayer is good, then bringing our individual selves together in community to pray corporately for the needs of our world and others is especially important. Giving voice and acknowledgement to what is happening around us and placing that before God serves as the reminder that there is a Source of strength, courage, compassion and mercy that is greater than ourselves.

Our corporate prayers don’t make things happen. By lifting up our hearts and minds to God in prayer, putting our intentions out there in a Godward direction, we are trusting God to hear us and meet us. And in making this a communal activity, it draws us closer to one another, and creates bonds that are deeper than the superficial and quirky things that make us different. And in our world today, where there just seems to be so much anger and strife, putting aside our differences to pray may be a way for us bring the temperature down and start to see each other again as children of God.

One thing in the James letter that I think needs to be addressed is the talk of “sin” in connection with being “sick.” In this case, we’re seeing that James was a man of his First Century time when disciples believed that people became physically blind or disabled because they “sinned.” I think we now know that disability is not a sin and I also trust we know that microbes that cause viruses infect people…no matter who the people are or how often they pray. But if we look at this in another way… when people are sick or ill…it does result in a separation from their church community, and that can feel like a separation from God. And the most common short-hand definition of “sin” is “separation from God.” This is one of the reasons it is so important for us to remain informed about who in our membership is not here because of an illness. 

Physical and social isolation has been such a constant since March 2020 that we might have become numb to the pain it causes. And this separation brings shame on the person who is sick as if they have control over a virus or any ailment that has got them down. This is why James says it is so important for the elders of the church to go out and meet the person at their sick bed. Elders can mean clergy, but it can also mean longtime members or others who have a leadership role in the congregation. This past week, I have seen evidence that this is happening at some level in our own community with texts and emails alerting me to a problem with one of our members. And it seems there is an interest in making this even more a part of what we do here.

Finally… bringing people back who have gone away. James maintains helping the person who has wandered off from the community not only helps the wanderer; it will “cover a multitude of sins.” This odd ending to the letter leaves room for some reflection for us. Lots of people have wandered off because COVID hit and caused a lot of fear and caution and maybe even confusion about being open. We are open. But how will people know that? And how will they know how they will be received when they come back? The only way for them to know that we’re thinking of them is to invite them back to be part of our community.

A community that worships and prays together is one that grows stronger, healthier and more vibrant. And praying helps to shape what we believe and demonstrate in our interactions with others out in the world. May the love of God…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, grow in you through regular dialogue with God in prayer.