Sunday, August 15, 2010
"Formed of Fire" -- Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
Preached by Ms. Shug Goodlow at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, August 15, 2010
O Lord, my strength and my redeemer, I ask that you hide me so that only your Word is glorified. “ Take our minds and think through them. Take our mouths and speak through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire!” Amen.
“Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided.”
These are pretty harsh words coming from The Prince of Peace aren’t they? I was at first happy to accept Mike’s invitation to preach this morning – until I realized what the Gospel reading was for today. I mean come on, what is a poor lay preacher like me supposed to do with this? This is like drawing the short straw! I’ve never even seen this gospel text on a refrigerator magnet.
My first thought was to run and my second thought was to preach on one of the other lessons. Then I thought, I’ll play it safe; I’ll talk about Luke. Finally, I realized there’s no escaping it. I’ll have to talk about this Jesus because we need to understand just who we think he is so we can come to know why today’s Gospel is so unsettling for us.
Obviously, there are differing ideas about who Jesus is. George Carlin, the late comedian and noted “religious authority” has offered the opinion that we have created God in our own image and likeness. In this morning’s Gospel, we find a rather unsettling portrayal of Jesus; Jesus as a disturber of the peace. “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” OK, who are you and what have you done with my Jesus? This is not the Jesus we know. This is not the Jesus we Episcopalians want to know. We want the other Jesus. We want the Prince of Peace. We want the compassionate Jesus. We want the one we sing about in O Holy Night, the one we put out on our lawns at Christmas. You know, we want the Jesus in the velvet paintings next to the ones of Elvis and the dogs playing poker.
This is not Jesus meek and mild. He’s just doesn’t sound very nice here. If this is the good Jesus, Lord I don’t want to be around when the other one shows up! Let’s face it, this Jesus doesn’t sound too happy with us. We don’t want this Jesus!
But what does that say about us? We want it nice and easy don’t we? Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die. We don’t want to do the hard work. We just want to come to church, listen to the pretty music, drop a few dollars in the plate and have a cup of coffee before heading off to the Cardinals game. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s our nature to want things to be peaceful. We don’t want any drama. In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”
The truth, of course, is that we are called to do more than just go through the motions if we are truly followers of Jesus. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus is telling us that following him means that we will have to make some hard choices at times. We might not always be able to do the fun thing or the easy thing. We might not always be able be with people we want to be with. We’re gonna have to do some work!
Jesus flat out warns us that there will be division if we follow him. “ From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided.” Talk about your family feuds!
I’ve learned first-hand that discipleship is not for the faint of heart. Why do you think there were only twelve of them? Jesus doesn’t want part time disciples. He could have millions of those. Discipleship can bring alienation from our friends, family and co-workers. It can illicit scorn from people that don’t even know us. That is what we risk if we take up with this fellow we call Jesus.
Again, Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth. How I wish it were already kindled.” My God, the passion. This is powerful imagery for me. At first my impulse was to see fire as a thing to fear; as a destructive force. But then I came to see it differently. There are lots of images associated with fire in Scripture. Moses heard God’s voice in a burning bush. A chariot of fire carried Isaiah up to Heaven.
Some of you know that Doris and I are jewelry and glass artists. Much of what we create is formed by fire. Many of the delicate glass vessels we make are carefully shaped and placed in a kiln of 1400 degrees or more until we achieve the desired result. The hotter the fire, the more brilliant the color. On the other end of the spectrum, think about the work of the blacksmith. He creates by banging away at a piece of metal and repeatedly thrusting it into a hot fire and quenching it in water until he gets it into the shape he wants. Aren’t we like that? Some of us have been gently and carefully shaped as on the potter’s wheel. Lovingly caressed and shaped by gentle hands into a thing of beauty.
But others of us have been banged into a thing of utility by repeated striking and thrusting into the fire more times than you might imagine. If you haven’t been struck upon the anvil of life it might be hard for you to understand how some of us have been shaped in this way.
I have friend named Sandy Smith who is an inspector for the Los Angeles City Fire Department. She has fought a great many fires from inner city Los Angeles to Malibu. Some of you may be aware that most of Malibu burns just about every year; homes, businesses, vegetation. The insurance companies refuse to insure the homes anymore but they’ve got more money than God in Malibu so they keep rebuilding it. One year in particular I lamented the loss of so many homes, especially the vegetation and Sandy wanted to comfort me so she told me something very interesting.
She said that trees in the forest need to be exposed to fire to make new growth possible and that suppressing the fire would actually be detrimental because the dead trees and other debris create a tinderbox effect and destroy any new growth. The heat from the fire actually opens the cones on cone-bearing trees and releases the seeds. The seeds germinate and re-grow the forest. What a radical concept; life formed of fire!
Isn’t this what our gospel reading is about today? This fire that Jesus brings is filled with chaos and promises to bring division. But if fire can make new life possible what do we need to set fire to in our own lives in order to re-grow it?
We live in a time of situational ethics. What attitude, what behavior, what habits do we need to change? One of my favorite images of fire in the Bible happens after the resurrection. Jesus is walking along the road to Emmaus with two of the disciples. The disciples don’t recognize him until they break bread that evening. When they realize they had been in Jesus’ presence they said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road!”
To burn with the fire of Christ! The thought of it is both wonderful and terrifying. My grandmother used to tell me that the very thing that’s a blessing can also be a curse. To have our hearts burn within us is to be assured of kinship with God. To have our hearts burn within us is to desire to seek a closer relationship with God. Do any of you remember that Chaka Khan song from the 80s called “Through the Fire?” Here’s a little of the refrain.
Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall
For a chance to be with you
I'd gladly risk it all
Through the fire
Through whatever, come what may
Powerful! Now, as we move on to verses 54-56 Jesus gives the crowd what for. “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” I think what he’s really saying is “I’ve had it with you people. You just don’t get it. I’ve told you and showed you that I am on fire for God. Silly me, I thought you would be too!
You think all you have to do is sing a few songs about peace on earth and send out a few cards at Christmas. Can’t you see that following me can separate you from the rest of the world? Can’t you see that following me can separate you from your family? No wonder Jesus is upset with us; we can’t see the forest for the trees.
Doris and I were having lunch one Sunday after church and overheard one woman telling another that she had called her pastor out on the carpet that day about his sermon. Her friend asked her what the problem was and she went on to say that she told him she was tired of hearing about those poor people and that she thought it was inappropriate for him to keep bringing them up in his sermons. Her friend looked stunned. We were so stunned we stopped eating. She then went on to say that they should just go out and get jobs then there wouldn’t be any more poor people and she wouldn’t have to hear about it. She said “That’s not why I go to church.” Lord, some of us don’t want our gospel adulterated by…uhhh…the gospel.
If we were all the same, if there were only one kind of Christian, if we had no differences, if we were never challenged, if we were never confronted with things we don’t want to see, how would we ever grow in our faith?
Why can’t we see what really matters? Are we armor bearers for Christ or not? Are we bearing witness to His presence in the world today? What are we afraid of? I mean, would we understand what Jesus wants from us better if he had a blog? We come to church every Sunday yet we have trouble seeing the signs of Jesus’ presence within and among us. We profess our Christianity but seem to be confused about so many things. We confuse pity with compassion, privilege with entitlement, biology with family, age with maturity, being straight with a reason to hate, and being white with being right and being black with having to step back.
We mistake kindness for weakness, being poor for being irrelevant, being wealthy with being superior, lack of education with lack of intelligence, and the ability to write a big check with being a good Christian.
We confuse this place we call church with being a country club for saints, the bringing of war with the making of peace, and perhaps worst of all – we confuse legalism with justice. And we won’t even talk about all the isms…sexism, adultism, ageism, racism.
Author Juan Carlos Ortiz says that most Christians fail to read what he calls the Fifth Gospel. He says, “Open your bible and look at the verses you have circled, highlighted and underlined…the verses like “For God so loved the world” and “I am with you always” and “Nothing can ever separate you from God.” It’s all right there in the four Gospels, Ortiz says.
But the verses you do not underline, the ones you do not circle or highlight or memorize; those are the Fifth Gospel. Verses like Luke 3:11, “If you want to be my disciple, whoever has two coats must give one to the person who has none and the same with food.”
Jesus ministered during a time called the Pax Romana – the Roman Peace. As long as you didn’t make waves you were pretty much left alone. Now I haven’t sat across the porch from God and spoken with him to know exactly what he meant when he talked about interpreting the present time but I think it’s safe for us to guess that he doesn’t want us to just go along with the status quo. He wants our eyes wide open. He wants us to see. Jesus wants us to stand with him. He wants us to burn with passion for him and for our faith. He wants us to upset the apple cart, especially our own. This may mean sacrifice, it may mean a change of direction, it may even mean loss of relationships.
Some sermons are meant to comfort the disturbed; this isn’t one of them. This one is meant to disturb the comfortable including myself. In fact, I must confess, I’m probably preaching more to myself than to you. I think this gospel is so hard for us to hear today because it calls us out, it makes us accountable; to have the courage of our convictions.
Do we really welcome everybody? Are we really willing to serve everybody? Do we really love everybody? Do we really stand with Christ?
My friends, I know you probably don’t think there is any good news today but here it is - God is not ever going to leave us alone. Every Sunday the Eucharistic bread is broken so that we may take it in and be made whole. And we drink Eucharistic wine that has been poured out for us so that we can be filled. So I ask you, what in our lives needs to be broken so that it can be made whole again? What changes do we need to make? I know there are some things I need to change.
At the end of the day, we can’t ignore that Fifth Gospel that Ortiz talks about. God’s work is our work. He is asking us to be committed to the mission of the church but He is not asking us to go it alone. He is asking us to do it in community; he is asking us to do it with him.
Jesus said, “I come to bring fire to the earth.” May he set our hearts on fire. Amen
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Ken Dickinson's Memorial Eucharist Sermon
Preached by the Very Rev. J.C. Michael Allen at Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday, August 14, 2010
In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you so where I am you may be also.
We gather together this morning to celebrate the life our brother Ken Dickinson.
We gather together at the table he loved, the table where he was nourished and loved all his life.
It is a table totally unlike any other table in our world. It is a table to which each and every one of us is invited. No one is turned away. Everyone who comes to this table receives the same morsel of bread and the same sip of wine. It is enough to sustain us on our journey toward the holy mountain, the holy city to which we are all headed.
At this table we do not accept nor do we condone the ways of this world, the way we separate people from each other, separating rich and poor, male and female, gay and straight, black and white, and all the other ways we use to demean and belittle the people around us.
No, at this table all are equal, all are loved, and all are fed the same food in the same amounts.
This is the table which promises it is only a beginning, only a foretaste of what is to come at the great heavenly banquet to which all of us will be invited, the table to which Ken has now gone, the place of life and love and peace and joy.
Ken loved this table. He was nourished by it over many, many years. And in his years at this Cathedral he took his part.
And often enough his part was to play his violin during the Sunday service bringing life and beauty to our worship.
I have a vision of Ken at the heavenly banquet playing his violin with the heavenly orchestra as the people around him join in the dance as they prepare for the meal in all its fullness.
It will no longer be a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, but a feast of all the delicacies and the delights of life, rich meats, fine wines, and more than enough for all to have their share. It will be
all that the prophet Isaiah imagined in his vision of the heavenly banquet.
Ken is there waiting for us. He is calling to come and join him, waiting for us to dance to his music, and rejoice that we are joined together with all those we have ever loved and who ever loved us.
In the meantime we make our journey towards the heavenly city, moving from mansion to mansion, each full of its own joys and sorrows, all of them preparing us for that great mansion we can only dream of now.
Each of us has our stories of those times and places we have been together with Ken as we now reflect on his life.
I first knew him in college. It was 1947. The place was Harvard. Ken had come back from the war. I had come back from the army, but not the war itself. I was four years younger than Ken.
Ken never talked about his experience of the war. Not then.
Only in recent years did he talk of it. I never knew until now that he was a hero in that war. But that was Ken in his simplicity and modesty.
We immediately became close. We lived across the courtyard from each other at Leveret House. We ate together. We drank together. And above all we moved from bull session to bull session as we pursued the heart of our college education.
He was the first of my friends to whom I introduced Priscilla Morison. I wanted my friends to love her as I loved her and he did and they did.
And that is why Ken was an usher at our wedding, one of the young men who stood by my side as Priscilla and I exchanged our marriage vows. It was a blessed moment and Ken was part of it.
Each of us has our story to tell of our times with Ken. Each of us knew him at different times, in different places – different mansions as we made our way together towards the heavenly city.
Those moments were precious to me and those moments have been precious to each of us here. As we remember Ken we do well to dwell on them, share them, and find life in them.
There are many mansions we have all lived in, times when each of us has had our moments with Ken as we made our journey towards the holy mountain, the heavenly city for which this table as we gather this morning is but a foretaste of what is to come.
It is because we have experienced these deep and mysterious things of life in each mansion that we can believe that a greater mansion lies ahead,
Jesus spoke to his frightened friends, frightened at the prospect of the death he was about to die. He spoke to them of the many mansions in God’s house and the mansion to which he was going to prepare a place for them
To prepare a place for them and for us.
For me and perhaps for you as well it is the experience of this presence of God in each of the moments in our lives that have built the trust that the God who has been faithful to us in this life will be faithful to us at the end of our lives. We know now that God is faithful and will always be so.
It is because we have gathered here at this table, this extraordinary table that goes against all the practices and the structures of this life that we can believe that a far greater table lies ahead for us as we move from mansion to mansion in our father’s house.
We can believe that Ken is now preparing a place for us, preparing the feast, playing his music to lead the dance to which we are all called.
In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am you may be also.
Those are the words of Jesus but they are also the words of Ken Dickinson who waits for us to join him at the great heavenly table. He is calling us now. Can you hear him?
In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you so where I am you may be also.
We gather together this morning to celebrate the life our brother Ken Dickinson.
We gather together at the table he loved, the table where he was nourished and loved all his life.
It is a table totally unlike any other table in our world. It is a table to which each and every one of us is invited. No one is turned away. Everyone who comes to this table receives the same morsel of bread and the same sip of wine. It is enough to sustain us on our journey toward the holy mountain, the holy city to which we are all headed.
At this table we do not accept nor do we condone the ways of this world, the way we separate people from each other, separating rich and poor, male and female, gay and straight, black and white, and all the other ways we use to demean and belittle the people around us.
No, at this table all are equal, all are loved, and all are fed the same food in the same amounts.
This is the table which promises it is only a beginning, only a foretaste of what is to come at the great heavenly banquet to which all of us will be invited, the table to which Ken has now gone, the place of life and love and peace and joy.
Ken loved this table. He was nourished by it over many, many years. And in his years at this Cathedral he took his part.
And often enough his part was to play his violin during the Sunday service bringing life and beauty to our worship.
I have a vision of Ken at the heavenly banquet playing his violin with the heavenly orchestra as the people around him join in the dance as they prepare for the meal in all its fullness.
It will no longer be a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, but a feast of all the delicacies and the delights of life, rich meats, fine wines, and more than enough for all to have their share. It will be
all that the prophet Isaiah imagined in his vision of the heavenly banquet.
Ken is there waiting for us. He is calling to come and join him, waiting for us to dance to his music, and rejoice that we are joined together with all those we have ever loved and who ever loved us.
In the meantime we make our journey towards the heavenly city, moving from mansion to mansion, each full of its own joys and sorrows, all of them preparing us for that great mansion we can only dream of now.
Each of us has our stories of those times and places we have been together with Ken as we now reflect on his life.
I first knew him in college. It was 1947. The place was Harvard. Ken had come back from the war. I had come back from the army, but not the war itself. I was four years younger than Ken.
Ken never talked about his experience of the war. Not then.
Only in recent years did he talk of it. I never knew until now that he was a hero in that war. But that was Ken in his simplicity and modesty.
We immediately became close. We lived across the courtyard from each other at Leveret House. We ate together. We drank together. And above all we moved from bull session to bull session as we pursued the heart of our college education.
He was the first of my friends to whom I introduced Priscilla Morison. I wanted my friends to love her as I loved her and he did and they did.
And that is why Ken was an usher at our wedding, one of the young men who stood by my side as Priscilla and I exchanged our marriage vows. It was a blessed moment and Ken was part of it.
Each of us has our story to tell of our times with Ken. Each of us knew him at different times, in different places – different mansions as we made our way together towards the heavenly city.
Those moments were precious to me and those moments have been precious to each of us here. As we remember Ken we do well to dwell on them, share them, and find life in them.
There are many mansions we have all lived in, times when each of us has had our moments with Ken as we made our journey towards the holy mountain, the heavenly city for which this table as we gather this morning is but a foretaste of what is to come.
It is because we have experienced these deep and mysterious things of life in each mansion that we can believe that a greater mansion lies ahead,
Jesus spoke to his frightened friends, frightened at the prospect of the death he was about to die. He spoke to them of the many mansions in God’s house and the mansion to which he was going to prepare a place for them
To prepare a place for them and for us.
For me and perhaps for you as well it is the experience of this presence of God in each of the moments in our lives that have built the trust that the God who has been faithful to us in this life will be faithful to us at the end of our lives. We know now that God is faithful and will always be so.
It is because we have gathered here at this table, this extraordinary table that goes against all the practices and the structures of this life that we can believe that a far greater table lies ahead for us as we move from mansion to mansion in our father’s house.
We can believe that Ken is now preparing a place for us, preparing the feast, playing his music to lead the dance to which we are all called.
In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am you may be also.
Those are the words of Jesus but they are also the words of Ken Dickinson who waits for us to join him at the great heavenly table. He is calling us now. Can you hear him?
Sunday, August 1, 2010
He who dies with the most toys LOSES
“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” then he told them a parable. “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “what should I do for I have no place to store my crops?’, Then he said, ‘I will store all my grain and my goods.’ And I will say to my Life, “Life, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink be merry.’ But god said to him ‘you fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared whose will they be?” so it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward (in to) God”
A brief note here, the word translated soul here is Psyche, which in previous citations in this and other gospels is translated as LIFE, not Soul. It puts a more intense interpretation of this text to me. For if we say “Life! You have ample goods, relax, eat.” This phrase, suggests to me that a person will have the desire or sense of no longer living to a potential or an idea.
I have wrestled with the gospel this week, over and over and over. IN one sense I come to feel that this is a commentary on wealth, for you see the rich man is defined as foolish. And we also have other examples of wealth in the gospels, the rich young man, who questions Jesus as to what must he do to inherit eternal life. Even the prodigal son is a commentary on wealth. Wealth is such a sticky topic to cover, especially in our 21st century Western Culture. We have pledges, bequeaths, unknown sources of Dollars. Sometimes we seem to be in the year round mode of fundraising and for what?
Robert Capon, in his book about the Parables of Jesus “Kingdom, Grace, Judgment Paradox, Outrage and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus” interprets this interaction in the terms of a warning. A WARNING?!? It is a warning “against our less refined desire for material wealth”. Capon frames the meeting with the young man as a conflict between justice based on wealth and the ultimate justice. “The man’s case, no doubt, was good enough” Capon states, “But Jesus’ ministry is not the incidental patching up of injustices. Rather it is the bearing of the final injustice – death- and the raising up from it of an entirely new and reconciled creation”. He adds “We clutch at our lives rather than open our hands to our deaths. And as long as we do that, the real life that comes only by resurrection remains permanently out of reach”. It is living, yes, but living in fear of death. If we truly are a resurrection people, then Death has no hold on us, no sting, it should be nothing to fear! No matter what balance ends up in your bank account or what material wealth you have hidden away.
How many people remember the bumper stickers and t-shirts that touted, “whoever dies with the most toys wins”? Flippant, and pithy and most certainly sure to bring a chuckle, BUT come on, we know that’s now the type of life God is calling us to be a part of. God is calling us into eternal life. Not this life here.
It is this individual first attitude of this life and this world that is so very troubling to my deacon identity. The let me take care of me first! I’ll donate time to do this, once the kids are in school this fall, once they are in high school, once they are at college. I will pledge to church when I get my next raise. This type of life and rationale of thinking is very self-centered. It’s all about the individual.
It doesn’t take into account the community as a whole. It doesn’t enshrine the basic tenets of a Christian faith. When we hide behind the “whoever has the most toys” attitude, we ignore the fact that there are persons all around us suffering. That just because we have been given the gift of affluence, which can be obtained a variety of ways, but often times it is an advantage of privilege, it does not meet with the Christian call to social justice.
And please just let me take a brief detour on this point. When we hear talk show hosts tell us that we should RUN from churches that preach a social justice gospel, what is our reaction? If we are shouting “YES Social justice is wrong!” from the top of our lungs are we truly Christian? Or have we fallen to a false idol of individualism? Saying that to not reach out to the least of us goes against the mandate of Christ to the Body, is heresy! The response of a Christian to the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is YES." Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor. Loving your neighbor is a better Christian response than telling your neighbor to leave you alone, or you are responsible for your own lot in life. Or I got mine you go get yours, when inequities in our society inhibit them to do so. Both compassion and social justice are fundamental Christian responsibilities, and while the body of Christ is called to live out both facets, government is also held accountable to the requirements of justice and mercy. I want a government that works for the people not because of the people. One that betters peoples lives, not existing because of the office.
So what should be done with wealth? Wealth is a gift, whether rightly received through hard work and determination, or at a cost, or perhaps through sheer luck and circumstance, but what should be done with our wealth. I think this is a pertinent question at this time with the Pope bequest in our coffers. What do we do with wealth
How can this gift be used to better the community? And not just the community of Christ Church cathedral parish, but of the community of the diocese, of the city of St. Louis, how can it be used for the future good of all? These are sticky and very thought provoking
I would certainly suggest that we need to evaluate if our life was being demanded of us, and we had to give it all away, what would bring the greater return? Because that is what the gospel says to us, today. Gathering up treasures and storing them for a leisurely life is not what we are called to do. What we are called to do, is to live a life as if we are striving to die! Or more radical, that we are already dead! A life where we are plodding along to enter into that next phase of our lives in the body of Christ, the life of resurrection, a life of being without possessions and only in the communion of Christ within the holy Trinity. That life we are resurrected to is not one that is measured in wealth but in how much we helped our neighbors, and how much we gave away. It’s not about dying with the most toys; it’s dying without anything in our pockets. For we gave all we had, to the better of the body, the church of Christ.
A brief note here, the word translated soul here is Psyche, which in previous citations in this and other gospels is translated as LIFE, not Soul. It puts a more intense interpretation of this text to me. For if we say “Life! You have ample goods, relax, eat.” This phrase, suggests to me that a person will have the desire or sense of no longer living to a potential or an idea.
I have wrestled with the gospel this week, over and over and over. IN one sense I come to feel that this is a commentary on wealth, for you see the rich man is defined as foolish. And we also have other examples of wealth in the gospels, the rich young man, who questions Jesus as to what must he do to inherit eternal life. Even the prodigal son is a commentary on wealth. Wealth is such a sticky topic to cover, especially in our 21st century Western Culture. We have pledges, bequeaths, unknown sources of Dollars. Sometimes we seem to be in the year round mode of fundraising and for what?
Robert Capon, in his book about the Parables of Jesus “Kingdom, Grace, Judgment Paradox, Outrage and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus” interprets this interaction in the terms of a warning. A WARNING?!? It is a warning “against our less refined desire for material wealth”. Capon frames the meeting with the young man as a conflict between justice based on wealth and the ultimate justice. “The man’s case, no doubt, was good enough” Capon states, “But Jesus’ ministry is not the incidental patching up of injustices. Rather it is the bearing of the final injustice – death- and the raising up from it of an entirely new and reconciled creation”. He adds “We clutch at our lives rather than open our hands to our deaths. And as long as we do that, the real life that comes only by resurrection remains permanently out of reach”. It is living, yes, but living in fear of death. If we truly are a resurrection people, then Death has no hold on us, no sting, it should be nothing to fear! No matter what balance ends up in your bank account or what material wealth you have hidden away.
How many people remember the bumper stickers and t-shirts that touted, “whoever dies with the most toys wins”? Flippant, and pithy and most certainly sure to bring a chuckle, BUT come on, we know that’s now the type of life God is calling us to be a part of. God is calling us into eternal life. Not this life here.
It is this individual first attitude of this life and this world that is so very troubling to my deacon identity. The let me take care of me first! I’ll donate time to do this, once the kids are in school this fall, once they are in high school, once they are at college. I will pledge to church when I get my next raise. This type of life and rationale of thinking is very self-centered. It’s all about the individual.
It doesn’t take into account the community as a whole. It doesn’t enshrine the basic tenets of a Christian faith. When we hide behind the “whoever has the most toys” attitude, we ignore the fact that there are persons all around us suffering. That just because we have been given the gift of affluence, which can be obtained a variety of ways, but often times it is an advantage of privilege, it does not meet with the Christian call to social justice.
And please just let me take a brief detour on this point. When we hear talk show hosts tell us that we should RUN from churches that preach a social justice gospel, what is our reaction? If we are shouting “YES Social justice is wrong!” from the top of our lungs are we truly Christian? Or have we fallen to a false idol of individualism? Saying that to not reach out to the least of us goes against the mandate of Christ to the Body, is heresy! The response of a Christian to the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is YES." Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor. Loving your neighbor is a better Christian response than telling your neighbor to leave you alone, or you are responsible for your own lot in life. Or I got mine you go get yours, when inequities in our society inhibit them to do so. Both compassion and social justice are fundamental Christian responsibilities, and while the body of Christ is called to live out both facets, government is also held accountable to the requirements of justice and mercy. I want a government that works for the people not because of the people. One that betters peoples lives, not existing because of the office.
So what should be done with wealth? Wealth is a gift, whether rightly received through hard work and determination, or at a cost, or perhaps through sheer luck and circumstance, but what should be done with our wealth. I think this is a pertinent question at this time with the Pope bequest in our coffers. What do we do with wealth
How can this gift be used to better the community? And not just the community of Christ Church cathedral parish, but of the community of the diocese, of the city of St. Louis, how can it be used for the future good of all? These are sticky and very thought provoking
I would certainly suggest that we need to evaluate if our life was being demanded of us, and we had to give it all away, what would bring the greater return? Because that is what the gospel says to us, today. Gathering up treasures and storing them for a leisurely life is not what we are called to do. What we are called to do, is to live a life as if we are striving to die! Or more radical, that we are already dead! A life where we are plodding along to enter into that next phase of our lives in the body of Christ, the life of resurrection, a life of being without possessions and only in the communion of Christ within the holy Trinity. That life we are resurrected to is not one that is measured in wealth but in how much we helped our neighbors, and how much we gave away. It’s not about dying with the most toys; it’s dying without anything in our pockets. For we gave all we had, to the better of the body, the church of Christ.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
“Where is Christ calling our heart?” – Stewardship of the Pope Bequest.
Dear friends,
The Pope Bequest gives us an opportunity to do as a congregation what we all did as individuals in last year’s stewardship program and will again this year – look at the role of wealth in our lives and how our stewardship of it can bring us closer to God, Christ, each other and the world.
That process requires prayer and care. Here’s what’s happening so far.
*A “Short Term Committee” made up of Jim McGregor, Walt Johnson, Don Allen and Dave Lawson is currently consulting with other financial experts and the diocesan chancellor to come up with a plan for “parking” the bequest for the short-term (six – to – nine months) with the best combination of complete security, rate of return and socially responsible investing practices. They are hopeful to have recommendations for Chapter before the August meeting.
*I am in the process of forming a “Prayer, Listening and Study Team” that will eventually make recommendations to Chapter on the long-term stewardship of the bequest.
Last week, Chapter responded to my request to identify the "qualities, skills and constituencies" that need to be represented on this team. The list below represents their response. They are currently in a process of identifying people who fit this description and submitting their names to me with a rationale for each based on the list. If you have a suggestion that fits list list, please give it to a Chapter member. You can find the list of Chapter members here.
I will then take those names away with me during my vacation (July 26 - August 11) for thought and prayer and will assemble the team when I return.
I hope that by the annual meeting the Chapter will be able to present a vision for this bequest to the congregation. However, while it is important this process not drag on unnecessarily, neither can it be rushed. I and the whole Chapter are committed to everyone in the Cathedral congregation having a voice in this process as well as members of the diocesan family and others who are potentially affected by this gift.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact me at mkinman@gmail.com. But please realize that I will not be answering email while on vacation.
Finally, remember to keep doing what I asked in my original letter:
Pray. Pray in thanksgiving. Pray to learn where Christ would have our heart be. Pray that we will use this gift for the glory of God. Pray for wisdom and courage for me, the Chapter and all who will have special responsibility in discerning where Christ would have our heart be and how to be excellent stewards of this gift.
Trust. Use the grace of this gift to strengthen our belief in God’s abundance in a world that tries to convince us of scarcity, as encouragement to step out in faith.
Rejoice. This is wonderful news, and we have the joy of using it for God to do even more wonderful things. Sing a song of praise to God. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice.
warmly, your friend,
Mike+
------------
Qualities (these are things that we hope everyone on the team will exhibit):
*is active in and committed to the church (including pledging ... with the exception of youth members, who have not been asked to pledge ... something we need to think about for the future!)
*Good listener
*Creative thinker
*Values the church's history, understands our present and is open to a new vision for the future
*A person of integrity, will not manipulate or be manipulated
*Centered and prayerful. Willing and able to engage this as a spiritual process
*A non-polarizing person who engenders respect from a broad spectrum of people
*Able to understand and balance the three-fold role of the Cathedral as Sunday community, mother church of the diocese and cathedral for downtown St. Louis.
*Dependable (this is a major time commitment and we need people we can count on)
*Able to put personal agendas aside, start with a blank sheet of paper.
Skills (these are things that need to be represented somewhere on the team, but not by every member)
*experience in finance
*excellent communication skills
*someone who doesn't have a financial background who can raise questions that perhaps otherwise wouldn't be raised.
*someone with a firm understanding of/investment in the "maintenance" needs of the Cathedral
*someone with a firm commitment to the Cathedral as a missionary body.
Constituencies (these are groups that need to be represented on the team as a whole)
*someone representing families and children (possibly someone under 18)
*someone from each of the three services and the choir
*representation that reflects our diversity
Because we are the Cathedral for the whole diocese, we do not need to limit membership to just Cathedral attenders. Also consider that some people might be good "consultants" to this group - people brought in because of specific expertise.
The Pope Bequest gives us an opportunity to do as a congregation what we all did as individuals in last year’s stewardship program and will again this year – look at the role of wealth in our lives and how our stewardship of it can bring us closer to God, Christ, each other and the world.
That process requires prayer and care. Here’s what’s happening so far.
*A “Short Term Committee” made up of Jim McGregor, Walt Johnson, Don Allen and Dave Lawson is currently consulting with other financial experts and the diocesan chancellor to come up with a plan for “parking” the bequest for the short-term (six – to – nine months) with the best combination of complete security, rate of return and socially responsible investing practices. They are hopeful to have recommendations for Chapter before the August meeting.
*I am in the process of forming a “Prayer, Listening and Study Team” that will eventually make recommendations to Chapter on the long-term stewardship of the bequest.
Last week, Chapter responded to my request to identify the "qualities, skills and constituencies" that need to be represented on this team. The list below represents their response. They are currently in a process of identifying people who fit this description and submitting their names to me with a rationale for each based on the list. If you have a suggestion that fits list list, please give it to a Chapter member. You can find the list of Chapter members here.
I will then take those names away with me during my vacation (July 26 - August 11) for thought and prayer and will assemble the team when I return.
I hope that by the annual meeting the Chapter will be able to present a vision for this bequest to the congregation. However, while it is important this process not drag on unnecessarily, neither can it be rushed. I and the whole Chapter are committed to everyone in the Cathedral congregation having a voice in this process as well as members of the diocesan family and others who are potentially affected by this gift.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact me at mkinman@gmail.com. But please realize that I will not be answering email while on vacation.
Finally, remember to keep doing what I asked in my original letter:
Pray. Pray in thanksgiving. Pray to learn where Christ would have our heart be. Pray that we will use this gift for the glory of God. Pray for wisdom and courage for me, the Chapter and all who will have special responsibility in discerning where Christ would have our heart be and how to be excellent stewards of this gift.
Trust. Use the grace of this gift to strengthen our belief in God’s abundance in a world that tries to convince us of scarcity, as encouragement to step out in faith.
Rejoice. This is wonderful news, and we have the joy of using it for God to do even more wonderful things. Sing a song of praise to God. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice.
warmly, your friend,
Mike+
------------
Qualities (these are things that we hope everyone on the team will exhibit):
*is active in and committed to the church (including pledging ... with the exception of youth members, who have not been asked to pledge ... something we need to think about for the future!)
*Good listener
*Creative thinker
*Values the church's history, understands our present and is open to a new vision for the future
*A person of integrity, will not manipulate or be manipulated
*Centered and prayerful. Willing and able to engage this as a spiritual process
*A non-polarizing person who engenders respect from a broad spectrum of people
*Able to understand and balance the three-fold role of the Cathedral as Sunday community, mother church of the diocese and cathedral for downtown St. Louis.
*Dependable (this is a major time commitment and we need people we can count on)
*Able to put personal agendas aside, start with a blank sheet of paper.
Skills (these are things that need to be represented somewhere on the team, but not by every member)
*experience in finance
*excellent communication skills
*someone who doesn't have a financial background who can raise questions that perhaps otherwise wouldn't be raised.
*someone with a firm understanding of/investment in the "maintenance" needs of the Cathedral
*someone with a firm commitment to the Cathedral as a missionary body.
Constituencies (these are groups that need to be represented on the team as a whole)
*someone representing families and children (possibly someone under 18)
*someone from each of the three services and the choir
*representation that reflects our diversity
Because we are the Cathedral for the whole diocese, we do not need to limit membership to just Cathedral attenders. Also consider that some people might be good "consultants" to this group - people brought in because of specific expertise.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
"Paint Me!" - Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Preached by the Rev. David K. Fly at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, July 11, 2010
“But wanting to justify himself, the lawyer asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” Luke 10:29
Ida was a prostitute who lived in Paris. When the artist Romare Beardon met her in the late 1920s, his first impression was that she was one of the ugliest people he’d ever seen. But he liked Ida and was sorry she chose the life of a prostitute. He became her friend and was able to get her another job for which she was always grateful. As a way of expressing her appreciation, Ida arrived every Saturday to clean Beardon’s studio.
At the end of the studio, Beardon had placed a large piece of brown paper. Saturday after Saturday, when Ida arrived, the brown paper would be hanging in its place and would be as empty as the Saturday before. She finally asked what he planned to do with it. “I’m eventually going to paint something there,” he said, “but as yet have no idea what I’ll paint.”
“Paint me,” said Ida. Bearden was so taken back that he couldn’t respond to this unattractive woman who said, “Paint me.” In the following Saturdays, Ida brought up the issue again. Finally, Beardon, who didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her the truth said that he just felt he couldn’t paint her and that was that. “If you can’t paint me, you’re in the wrong profession,” Ida told him. Beardon who eventually became a main figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement was shocked by her words. Here was an emerging young artist being confronted by a lowly prostitute. But Ida went on to say, “I know I’m ugly and I know that’s why you feel you cannot paint me. But when you can look at me and find what is beautiful, you’ll be a great artist.” Romare Beardon sadly confessed many years later that he never did paint Ida the prostitute, but that her words never left his memory.
The story of the artist and the prostitute came back to me when I read today’s gospel. A lawyer who wanted to test Jesus asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus asks him what he had read in the law. And, of course, the lawyer rightly answered that he should love God with all his heart and soul and strength and mind and love his neighbor as himself. But then the lawyer pushes his luck. He asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And that’s when Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer much as Ida turned the tables on that young artist in Paris. Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus describes the ugliness and then tells the lawyer to paint it!
And for the lawyer, there’s a lot of ugliness in the story. The first unattractive part is that the main character is a Samaritan, an unclean person who should never be the hero of any story. The lawyer knows that much. The second character is a man broken and bleeding in a ditch along the road to Jericho. And then Jesus describes a couple of upright citizens not unlike the lawyer, who are too busy or too offended to bother responding to the man’s need. Of course, it’s the Samaritan who takes care of the man, bandages his wounds, takes him to a place where he can recuperate and pays his bills. “Which of the three,” asks Jesus “was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer, the one who had just described the answer to the eternal life question, has to respond, “The one who showed him mercy.” Notice, the lawyer doesn’t say, “The Samaritan.” Perhaps he just couldn’t get those words out of his mouth! So Jesus simply says, “Go and do likewise.”
“I know I’m ugly,” says Ida the prostitute to the young artist Romare Beardon, “but when you can look at me and find what is beautiful, you’ll be a great artist.”
There is a story of a young boy who was once playing hide-and-seek with another boy. He hid himself well and waited for his playmate to find him. After waiting a long time, he came out of his hiding place, but the other boy was nowhere to be seen. The boy who had been in hiding then realized that the other boy had not looked for him from the very beginning. That made him sad and so he ran to his grandfather to tell him what had happened. Tears welled up in his grandfather’s eyes as he listened to what the little boy was saying and then he told the child, “God says the same thing: ‘I hide, but no one wants to seek me.’”
Our God hides in the bodies of those whom we have discounted, in those who are hurt and broken. As Archbishop Tutu has said, we don’t have a choice of neighbors in this world – God is to be found in all people – ALL PEOPLE – black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful, gay, lesbian, so-called straight – Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist – God hides in you and in me. If we recognize God in our neighbors, how can we go on spending obscene amounts on budgets of death and destruction, knowing full well that a minute fraction of this money would insure that children everywhere have clean water to drink and food to eat and adequate and affordable health care. God is to be found walking in the grand palaces of the Church but God suffers in the ditches of Soweto, and Santiago and St. Louis. When we learn to look on the world and see its beauty we discover the hidden face of God. And God longs for us to seek and find him. For as we do we will come to know our neighbor and as we learn to love our neighbor we will find the answer to the lawyer’s question of Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Amen.
“But wanting to justify himself, the lawyer asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” Luke 10:29
Ida was a prostitute who lived in Paris. When the artist Romare Beardon met her in the late 1920s, his first impression was that she was one of the ugliest people he’d ever seen. But he liked Ida and was sorry she chose the life of a prostitute. He became her friend and was able to get her another job for which she was always grateful. As a way of expressing her appreciation, Ida arrived every Saturday to clean Beardon’s studio.
At the end of the studio, Beardon had placed a large piece of brown paper. Saturday after Saturday, when Ida arrived, the brown paper would be hanging in its place and would be as empty as the Saturday before. She finally asked what he planned to do with it. “I’m eventually going to paint something there,” he said, “but as yet have no idea what I’ll paint.”
“Paint me,” said Ida. Bearden was so taken back that he couldn’t respond to this unattractive woman who said, “Paint me.” In the following Saturdays, Ida brought up the issue again. Finally, Beardon, who didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her the truth said that he just felt he couldn’t paint her and that was that. “If you can’t paint me, you’re in the wrong profession,” Ida told him. Beardon who eventually became a main figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement was shocked by her words. Here was an emerging young artist being confronted by a lowly prostitute. But Ida went on to say, “I know I’m ugly and I know that’s why you feel you cannot paint me. But when you can look at me and find what is beautiful, you’ll be a great artist.” Romare Beardon sadly confessed many years later that he never did paint Ida the prostitute, but that her words never left his memory.
The story of the artist and the prostitute came back to me when I read today’s gospel. A lawyer who wanted to test Jesus asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus asks him what he had read in the law. And, of course, the lawyer rightly answered that he should love God with all his heart and soul and strength and mind and love his neighbor as himself. But then the lawyer pushes his luck. He asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And that’s when Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer much as Ida turned the tables on that young artist in Paris. Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus describes the ugliness and then tells the lawyer to paint it!
And for the lawyer, there’s a lot of ugliness in the story. The first unattractive part is that the main character is a Samaritan, an unclean person who should never be the hero of any story. The lawyer knows that much. The second character is a man broken and bleeding in a ditch along the road to Jericho. And then Jesus describes a couple of upright citizens not unlike the lawyer, who are too busy or too offended to bother responding to the man’s need. Of course, it’s the Samaritan who takes care of the man, bandages his wounds, takes him to a place where he can recuperate and pays his bills. “Which of the three,” asks Jesus “was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer, the one who had just described the answer to the eternal life question, has to respond, “The one who showed him mercy.” Notice, the lawyer doesn’t say, “The Samaritan.” Perhaps he just couldn’t get those words out of his mouth! So Jesus simply says, “Go and do likewise.”
“I know I’m ugly,” says Ida the prostitute to the young artist Romare Beardon, “but when you can look at me and find what is beautiful, you’ll be a great artist.”
There is a story of a young boy who was once playing hide-and-seek with another boy. He hid himself well and waited for his playmate to find him. After waiting a long time, he came out of his hiding place, but the other boy was nowhere to be seen. The boy who had been in hiding then realized that the other boy had not looked for him from the very beginning. That made him sad and so he ran to his grandfather to tell him what had happened. Tears welled up in his grandfather’s eyes as he listened to what the little boy was saying and then he told the child, “God says the same thing: ‘I hide, but no one wants to seek me.’”
Our God hides in the bodies of those whom we have discounted, in those who are hurt and broken. As Archbishop Tutu has said, we don’t have a choice of neighbors in this world – God is to be found in all people – ALL PEOPLE – black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful, gay, lesbian, so-called straight – Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist – God hides in you and in me. If we recognize God in our neighbors, how can we go on spending obscene amounts on budgets of death and destruction, knowing full well that a minute fraction of this money would insure that children everywhere have clean water to drink and food to eat and adequate and affordable health care. God is to be found walking in the grand palaces of the Church but God suffers in the ditches of Soweto, and Santiago and St. Louis. When we learn to look on the world and see its beauty we discover the hidden face of God. And God longs for us to seek and find him. For as we do we will come to know our neighbor and as we learn to love our neighbor we will find the answer to the lawyer’s question of Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Amen.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
America, The Beautiful -- Independence Day, 2010
Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy Independence Day, everybody.
We have a strange and strained relationship between days like this and the church. I think it’s because we tend to cluster around two poles when we think of God and country.
The first – let’s say over here on the right -- is American Exceptionalism. This is the idea that the United States has a special favored place not just in the world but actually in the eyes of God. And that God has actually selected this nation for a special purpose.
The biggest problem with American Exceptionalism is that there is nothing in scripture that supports this and plenty that works against it. The idea of a special status for one nation – particularly the most powerful, wealthiest nation on earth goes against our belief in a God who demonstrates in scripture that if she has a preferential option, it’s for the poor and not for the powerful. Against our belief in a God who loved the whole world so much that God became human in Jesus Christ.
And yet American Exceptionalism and it’s cousin, Manifest Destiny, have been prime shapers of American domestic and foreign policy for most of our nation’s existence.
The second -- let’s say over here on the left --is the use of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to say that religious ideas and faith and the political realm shouldn’t mix and the church has no role in politics.
Now that’s a legittmate stream of belief. Not one I hold to, mind you, and certainly not one Jesus did. But you can’t get there using the establishment clause. Does anyone know what the Establishment Clause of the first amendment actually says? That’s right – that there shall be no establishment of religion … and it’s also been read to say that the state can’t show preference of one faith over any other. Not that you can’t bring religious ideas into the conversation and certainly not that the church shouldn’t get involved in public life.
So we have these two poles and neither one of them really works. And in true Anglican fashion, I believe there is a third way, a middle way between American Exceptionalism and complete separation of faith and our public life. And the road map is one of our most treasured hymns … America the Beautiful. Take out your hymnals and take a look at it, it’s hymn 719.
America the Beautiful was written by Catherine Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College. In 1893, Bates was 33 and took a train across the country to Colorado and was inspired by the nation she saw along the way. And at the end of her journey, standing on the pinnacle of Pike’s Peak, the words of the poem came to her, and today it is one of the best-loved American songs.
For Bates it was a love sonnet. Had she been from Ghana, and had just finished traveling from Mole to Accra, she would have written it about Ghana. But she was an American who was overwhelmed by the beauty of her own homeland. There’s a special love for home. A place that home has in our hearts that nothing can replace, nor should it. And so Bates wrote this love song not because America was the best place on earth, but because it was beautiful and most of all it was home.
That needs to be OK for us to own. That needs to be OK for us to celebrate. It needs to be OK for us to thank God for and love this nation passionately and have it have a special and even exceptional place in our heart and not have that mean we think America has a special or exceptional place in God’s heart.
So let’s name it. What do you love about this country? What about this country makes your heart sing?
The congregation responds
Ray Simon is going to help us out a little bit here. With all these things on our heart, let’s stand and we’re going to sing the first verse of America the Beautiful.
All those things that are good about America. All the things that we love. We are so thankful for them and we should be. We should thank God for America, the Beautiful. America our home. But look again at those last lines.
America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown they good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea. This is what makes this hymn different and remarkable. Look at what we’re asking from God. We’re not asking God to “give us what we deserve because we’re so wonderful.” We’re asking God for two things.
First is grace. Grace is unmerited love. Unmerited. Grace is forgiveness. Grace is love for the sake of love, not for the sake of anything we are or anything we’ve done. Far from American exceptionalism this is a recognition not that God is using us for great purposes but that we deeply need God to be fully alive, to be whole, to be the nation and people God dreams for us and all nations to be.
Second, we’re asking God to take what is good and crown it with what? With brotherhood. Of all that is good about this nation, we are asking God to make our highest good a quality of relationship that is unparalleled in love and fidelity. As wonderful as anything else about this country is, we’re asking God to put in our hearts a deep love for one another and have that be our crowning good.
What’s remarkable and beautiful about this hymn is that we’re saying yes, America is Beautiful, but we’re not there yet. The deepest beauty. The most profound good has yet to be achieved. And that good – faithful love to one another – is our standard. And because by ourselves we fall short, we are appealing to God to continually shape us more into that image.
And that means it’s not only OK to name where we fall short of that lofty dream, it is our duty as citizens to name it just as much as it is our duty as Christians to name those places where we fall short of that other love commandment --- to love one another as Christ loves us.
So we named what makes our heart sing about our country. What makes your heart weep? Where do we fall short of that vision of being a grace-filled nation, whose good is crowned with brotherhood.
The congregation responds
We as a nation generally don’t do this enough and don’t react well when people do. We call people America haters or worse. Martin Luther King did this and he got called a communist. But if those insults are hurled at us we must not turn our faces away, because this literally is a matter of life and death. As Christians it’s a matter of life and death because we give our lives over to Christ, we put our whole selves, souls and bodies, on that table as a living sacrifice to that love. But as Americans it’s a matter of life and death because our nation’s actions mean life and death both for the people who sign up to defend it and also for the millions and even billions more whose lives live in the ripple effects.
And that’s why we sing this second verse.
People have served in our armed forces for many reasons -- from volunteering, to the compulsion of the draft to economic compulsion. But whatever the reason, that service represents a willingness to put their lives on the line for a greater good. To offer, if necessary, what President Lincoln rightly called "the last full measure of devotion."
As Christians, we have to respect that, because that act of self-giving is at the heart of our call to be disciples of the one who gave himself for the love of the world. It must be acknowledged, celebrated and even revered. In fact, the willingness to offer that "last full measure of devotion" is so sacred that we as a nation have a sacred duty to make sure it is never demanded except when absolutely necessary. That it is only demanded, as in the case of those honored dead at Gettysburg, literally to preserve not our nation's economic interest or our strategic position but the dream of a good crowned with brotherhood.
That's why in addition to honoring those "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life," we must ask God to "mend our every flaw." The soul of our nation must be confirmed in self-control, her liberty in law.
America has been called a grand experiment and a dream in search of realization. As Christians we believe true greatness comes from the same things that Catherine Bates sings about in this hymn – the ability to put our sisters and brothers before ourselves, our ability to control our appetites and distinguish between freedom and license, our ability to acknowledge our flaws and seek a higher wisdom and will than our own in the face of them.
The dream of America. The dream of Catherine Bates. The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King. The dream God had when God became human in Jesus. These dreams are one. They are the dream that we would all become fully alive in the way that can only happen when we give ourselves for each other and the life of the world. And our duty as Christians and as Americans is to hold on tight to that dream. To not let go of that dream. But to not only be dream-bearers but to be truth tellers. Not proclaiming American exceptionalism and not saying the Gospel has no place in the public square, instead living that third and most excellent middle way. To, in the words of Gandhi, be the change we wish to see in the world, in our nation, in our church and in our lives.
As Christians it is our duty to be engaged in the public life and to celebrate the goodness and beauty of our nation and also to hold ourselves and our nation to the standard of love that Catherine Bates sang and Jesus Christ lived. That is the dream we celebrate this day. A dream that though it at times has been in deep, deep disguise still lives in our hearts and in the heart of this and every tribe, nation and people.
AMEN
Happy Independence Day, everybody.
We have a strange and strained relationship between days like this and the church. I think it’s because we tend to cluster around two poles when we think of God and country.
The first – let’s say over here on the right -- is American Exceptionalism. This is the idea that the United States has a special favored place not just in the world but actually in the eyes of God. And that God has actually selected this nation for a special purpose.
The biggest problem with American Exceptionalism is that there is nothing in scripture that supports this and plenty that works against it. The idea of a special status for one nation – particularly the most powerful, wealthiest nation on earth goes against our belief in a God who demonstrates in scripture that if she has a preferential option, it’s for the poor and not for the powerful. Against our belief in a God who loved the whole world so much that God became human in Jesus Christ.
And yet American Exceptionalism and it’s cousin, Manifest Destiny, have been prime shapers of American domestic and foreign policy for most of our nation’s existence.
The second -- let’s say over here on the left --is the use of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to say that religious ideas and faith and the political realm shouldn’t mix and the church has no role in politics.
Now that’s a legittmate stream of belief. Not one I hold to, mind you, and certainly not one Jesus did. But you can’t get there using the establishment clause. Does anyone know what the Establishment Clause of the first amendment actually says? That’s right – that there shall be no establishment of religion … and it’s also been read to say that the state can’t show preference of one faith over any other. Not that you can’t bring religious ideas into the conversation and certainly not that the church shouldn’t get involved in public life.
So we have these two poles and neither one of them really works. And in true Anglican fashion, I believe there is a third way, a middle way between American Exceptionalism and complete separation of faith and our public life. And the road map is one of our most treasured hymns … America the Beautiful. Take out your hymnals and take a look at it, it’s hymn 719.
America the Beautiful was written by Catherine Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College. In 1893, Bates was 33 and took a train across the country to Colorado and was inspired by the nation she saw along the way. And at the end of her journey, standing on the pinnacle of Pike’s Peak, the words of the poem came to her, and today it is one of the best-loved American songs.
For Bates it was a love sonnet. Had she been from Ghana, and had just finished traveling from Mole to Accra, she would have written it about Ghana. But she was an American who was overwhelmed by the beauty of her own homeland. There’s a special love for home. A place that home has in our hearts that nothing can replace, nor should it. And so Bates wrote this love song not because America was the best place on earth, but because it was beautiful and most of all it was home.
That needs to be OK for us to own. That needs to be OK for us to celebrate. It needs to be OK for us to thank God for and love this nation passionately and have it have a special and even exceptional place in our heart and not have that mean we think America has a special or exceptional place in God’s heart.
So let’s name it. What do you love about this country? What about this country makes your heart sing?
The congregation responds
Ray Simon is going to help us out a little bit here. With all these things on our heart, let’s stand and we’re going to sing the first verse of America the Beautiful.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties
above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.
All those things that are good about America. All the things that we love. We are so thankful for them and we should be. We should thank God for America, the Beautiful. America our home. But look again at those last lines.
America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown they good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea. This is what makes this hymn different and remarkable. Look at what we’re asking from God. We’re not asking God to “give us what we deserve because we’re so wonderful.” We’re asking God for two things.
First is grace. Grace is unmerited love. Unmerited. Grace is forgiveness. Grace is love for the sake of love, not for the sake of anything we are or anything we’ve done. Far from American exceptionalism this is a recognition not that God is using us for great purposes but that we deeply need God to be fully alive, to be whole, to be the nation and people God dreams for us and all nations to be.
Second, we’re asking God to take what is good and crown it with what? With brotherhood. Of all that is good about this nation, we are asking God to make our highest good a quality of relationship that is unparalleled in love and fidelity. As wonderful as anything else about this country is, we’re asking God to put in our hearts a deep love for one another and have that be our crowning good.
What’s remarkable and beautiful about this hymn is that we’re saying yes, America is Beautiful, but we’re not there yet. The deepest beauty. The most profound good has yet to be achieved. And that good – faithful love to one another – is our standard. And because by ourselves we fall short, we are appealing to God to continually shape us more into that image.
And that means it’s not only OK to name where we fall short of that lofty dream, it is our duty as citizens to name it just as much as it is our duty as Christians to name those places where we fall short of that other love commandment --- to love one another as Christ loves us.
So we named what makes our heart sing about our country. What makes your heart weep? Where do we fall short of that vision of being a grace-filled nation, whose good is crowned with brotherhood.
The congregation responds
We as a nation generally don’t do this enough and don’t react well when people do. We call people America haters or worse. Martin Luther King did this and he got called a communist. But if those insults are hurled at us we must not turn our faces away, because this literally is a matter of life and death. As Christians it’s a matter of life and death because we give our lives over to Christ, we put our whole selves, souls and bodies, on that table as a living sacrifice to that love. But as Americans it’s a matter of life and death because our nation’s actions mean life and death both for the people who sign up to defend it and also for the millions and even billions more whose lives live in the ripple effects.
And that’s why we sing this second verse.
O beautiful for heroes proved
in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved,
and mercy more than life!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
confirm thy soul in self-control,
thy liberty in law.
People have served in our armed forces for many reasons -- from volunteering, to the compulsion of the draft to economic compulsion. But whatever the reason, that service represents a willingness to put their lives on the line for a greater good. To offer, if necessary, what President Lincoln rightly called "the last full measure of devotion."
As Christians, we have to respect that, because that act of self-giving is at the heart of our call to be disciples of the one who gave himself for the love of the world. It must be acknowledged, celebrated and even revered. In fact, the willingness to offer that "last full measure of devotion" is so sacred that we as a nation have a sacred duty to make sure it is never demanded except when absolutely necessary. That it is only demanded, as in the case of those honored dead at Gettysburg, literally to preserve not our nation's economic interest or our strategic position but the dream of a good crowned with brotherhood.
That's why in addition to honoring those "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life," we must ask God to "mend our every flaw." The soul of our nation must be confirmed in self-control, her liberty in law.
America has been called a grand experiment and a dream in search of realization. As Christians we believe true greatness comes from the same things that Catherine Bates sings about in this hymn – the ability to put our sisters and brothers before ourselves, our ability to control our appetites and distinguish between freedom and license, our ability to acknowledge our flaws and seek a higher wisdom and will than our own in the face of them.
The dream of America. The dream of Catherine Bates. The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King. The dream God had when God became human in Jesus. These dreams are one. They are the dream that we would all become fully alive in the way that can only happen when we give ourselves for each other and the life of the world. And our duty as Christians and as Americans is to hold on tight to that dream. To not let go of that dream. But to not only be dream-bearers but to be truth tellers. Not proclaiming American exceptionalism and not saying the Gospel has no place in the public square, instead living that third and most excellent middle way. To, in the words of Gandhi, be the change we wish to see in the world, in our nation, in our church and in our lives.
As Christians it is our duty to be engaged in the public life and to celebrate the goodness and beauty of our nation and also to hold ourselves and our nation to the standard of love that Catherine Bates sang and Jesus Christ lived. That is the dream we celebrate this day. A dream that though it at times has been in deep, deep disguise still lives in our hearts and in the heart of this and every tribe, nation and people.
O beautiful for patriot dream
that sees beyond the years
thine alabaster cities gleam,
undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.
AMEN
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Chapter workday focuses on growing Cathedral community.
On Saturday, June 26, the Cathedral Chapter met in Washington, MO for a daylong strategic planning meeting to look at two major issues in our Cathedral life:
*How can we better welcome newcomers and draw them into our community?
*How can we continue to draw current parishioners more deeply into our community life?
The morning session on newcomers used materials from the Rev. Stephanie Spellers on moving beyond being inviting or even inclusive to what she calls “Radical Welcome”: What does it really mean to embrace people as who they are without expecting them to become who you are. (Go here - http://vimeo.com/4378280 - to hear more about this concept). They then spent time identifying more than 30 different points of contact we already have with visitors entering our space, discussing what our core message is that we want to communicate, looking at the existing means of communication (and talking about the ways everything from the way someone is greeted to the structure of our liturgy and what hangs on the walls is part of communication), and finally identifying immediate tasks to move us forward.
The afternoon session included an examination of the four orders of ministry (lay, bishop, priest and deacon) and a discussion of church involvement as opportunity to grow deeper into Christ. There was also a discussion of the work of author Daniel Pink’s work on what really motivates people and how the matches up with our call to ministry (for a sense of Pink’s work watch this 20-minute talk here - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html. The day completed with conversations about the importance of personal relationship and invitation and Chapter members’ commitments to model this behavior for the congregation in getting to know people and specifically inviting them into ministry.
Chapter workdays will happen twice a year and are times for in-depth, strategic work that monthly meetings cannot hold. Got questions? Want to know more? Ask the provost or a Chapter member!
*How can we better welcome newcomers and draw them into our community?
*How can we continue to draw current parishioners more deeply into our community life?
The morning session on newcomers used materials from the Rev. Stephanie Spellers on moving beyond being inviting or even inclusive to what she calls “Radical Welcome”: What does it really mean to embrace people as who they are without expecting them to become who you are. (Go here - http://vimeo.com/4378280 - to hear more about this concept). They then spent time identifying more than 30 different points of contact we already have with visitors entering our space, discussing what our core message is that we want to communicate, looking at the existing means of communication (and talking about the ways everything from the way someone is greeted to the structure of our liturgy and what hangs on the walls is part of communication), and finally identifying immediate tasks to move us forward.
The afternoon session included an examination of the four orders of ministry (lay, bishop, priest and deacon) and a discussion of church involvement as opportunity to grow deeper into Christ. There was also a discussion of the work of author Daniel Pink’s work on what really motivates people and how the matches up with our call to ministry (for a sense of Pink’s work watch this 20-minute talk here - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html. The day completed with conversations about the importance of personal relationship and invitation and Chapter members’ commitments to model this behavior for the congregation in getting to know people and specifically inviting them into ministry.
Chapter workdays will happen twice a year and are times for in-depth, strategic work that monthly meetings cannot hold. Got questions? Want to know more? Ask the provost or a Chapter member!
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