Ordinary Prophets / 2nd Sunday of Epiphany, Yr. C

One of the hardest images of the scripture to come to terms with is the Mary of the Gospel.

Because she has been the subject of Near Eastern iconography as the Theotokos, (or God Bearer,) and of countless artists of the Renaissance, we tend to think about Mary in rather static terms. Or we dismiss Mary altogether, because of the errors of the super-pious, who have distorted the Mary of the Gospels to almost deific proportions.

I believe it is appropriate to understand Mary and John the Baptist as Proto-Disciples -- Followers, yet in a sense, “Formers” or “IN-Formers” of the Mission of Jesus, through their own enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.
In just about every Christian tradition, too many preachers have added to this confusion by trivializing and caricaturing Mary (particularly in this passage) as the “pushy Jewish mother.” Quite the contrary, Mary, who by the way is never specifically named in the Gospel of John, confirms and affirms the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in ordinary and subtle ways.
You and I see this miracle at Cana as a quite astonishing event through the description of John. But we are so overcome by the phenomena, that we don’t realize how inconspicuous this miracle comes across in the text.
We are told in verse 9b that the steward did not know where (the wine) came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew).  I think we can also assume from the text that his disciples believed in him, in some part, with the knowledge of such signs as this. Everyone benefitted although many were unaware of God’s hand at play.
Perhaps the same can be said of God at work in our own day.  And perhaps those most oblivious or cynical about God at work in our day are his believers. Why? We tend to be cynical or oblivious, because we believers set criteria God must meet to be purposeful in a sinful and broken world. We expect the Christ, the Lord of History, to function within the constraints of what the Greeks called “Chronos,” or in linear time. John plays to our expectations, having Jesus say,
“My hour has not yet come.” (The hour, for John the Evangelist, is not the start of Jesus’ public ministry or miracles, but the time of his Passion, Death, and Rising.)
Mary, however, does not confront Jesus. That’s neither her purpose, nor, as a mother, her style. Mary, as Jesus, the Evangelist, and hopefully we, ourselves, are well aware that as Servants of God, we are to submit ourselves confidently to God’s “time,” or Kairos, in the Greek.
Mary becomes a catalyst for the Mission of Jesus IN time. Her only comment for the servants is that they should “Do whatever HE tells you.”  

In other words, the Hour, in a sense, will never come. It is His Mission which brings Jesus to His Hour, not just prophecy or portents.   

Jesus, his disciples, and you and I must seize the day, (or the HOUR, if you will.)

Jesus brings forth new wine, late along, the logic of which confounds the steward, very much like the parable of the vineyard owner who pays the last hires the same as the first, in the Gospel of Matthew (20:1-16.)

Many of us have likely known someone who has been an example of a quiet but far from benign example of the wisdom and the chutzpah of the Mother of Jesus. One of those persons for me has been a high school classmate of mine, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Frank Almade.

I was prompted to think of his gifts, when I received an email this week from my Alumni Association Secretary, soliciting nominees for the annual reunion dinner’s award for service to the Church.

Frank has always had a way of living, witnessing, and teaching about the life and the love of Christ which is ever new, not unlike the water drawn from the stone jars and presented to the wedding steward, yet ever the same, sometimes mistaken for ordinary, as the jars and the water was for the other servants.

Frank has taken on some of the most hopeless tasks within the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, leaving those involved empowered and renewed. He sometimes comes across  as a little awkward in some social situations, but that awkwardness is usually overlooked, because people easily see what motivates Frank’s heart.

Like it or not, we too are called to no less a task, that is to believe in the possibility of what we proclaim and to recognize that as servants of the Lord, we are called to an intimacy with him no less than that of his Mother. Like his Mother, we too are called to mentor others. We can spurn that part of our call -- we can muster a dismissive spirit that says we aren’t so called (and we certainly are not as holy), but in doing so we reject the purposes of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

1st Corinthians today speaks of the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit are for the common good. You and I may not be comfortable with our call, but it’s NOT about our comfort. Yet ironically, we often become more comfortable with our call as we accept and use those very gifts.

Do whatever He tells you. What is our alternative? Let us grow in courage to take our simple, mundane resources and offer them to be transformed and made holy for what is needed, no less than our offering of bread and wine --

Of no value whatever to God, but transformed for us miraculously for whatever is needed for ourselves as the presence of Christ himself in these elements.

Boundaries or Horizons

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,            
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,            
until her vindication shines out like the dawn,            
and her salvation like a burning torch.     Is 62:1           

The way we are formed as Christians in America, we tend to emphasize the personal aspects of the Christ event. The meaning of Jesus “saving us” by his suffering and death on the cross is enhanced by the idea that Jesus did not suffer without love.

    Because Jesus suffered in love, then it is all the more important to realize that Jesus was not A savior or even THE savior. In our American understanding for the “Reason for the Season,”
we want to understand Jesus as being MY savior -- that he died for MY sins. Jesus is thought of in many evangelical circles as a “personal” Lord and Savior.

    After all, the logic goes, if sin is personal, then grace is personal. And after all, if there’s something wrong or not working in that dynamic, it has to be MY fault, because the love of Jesus is perfect.

In this same context, the favorite hymn of many of us is, “Amazing Grace.” While written by an Englishman, John Newton, in the mid-eighteenth century, it carries that sentiment of being personally saved, “a wretch, like me.”

Most of us have come to expect a lone piper playing, Amazing Grace, at the commendation of a fallen police or fire officer, yet Amazing Grace was probably never played on bagpipes before the Black Watch Regimental Pipes first recorded it in 1976.

Dare I say, FIFTY Years ago, when the liturgy in the Roman Church was incorporating what were hitherto thought of as Protestant hymns into the liturgy, the lyrics of some hymns were changed in the pew missalettes because of differing sensitivities and theologies, notions of political correctness, and in some cases perhaps, to avoid copyright violations.  Amazing Grace, while in the public domain, in that context, had a brief change in its second line from “that saved a wretch like me” to “that came and set US free.” 

But Amazing Grace had become one of America’s own hymns, and as such, was not to be tampered with any more than the pledge of Allegiance. The original words were quickly restored, but unfortunately, the notion it tried to convey was roundly missed -- a notion that tries to surface in today’s Hebrew scripture. God is not edified merely by saving individuals from the jaws of sin and death. God is edified when those individuals, once saved, see themselves as complete by becoming a community of faith -- as the body of Christ:

For Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,

until her vindication shines out like the dawn,

  and her salvation like a burning torch.     Is 62:1b

The Gospel of John today tries to illustrate this another way:

To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become (my emphasis) children of God....                Jn 1:12

For me, it seems, the miracle of this season is not merely the power of one life, the Babe in the manger, destined to be the Savior of the world, though that is by no means a small matter.

The miracle is the call that comes in Communion.

---

We tend to be intimidated by the semantics of the first chapter of the Gospel of John,

(e.g. What is the meaning of Logos, [the Word.]?  

Who or What is “the Light” that Darkness cannot overcome?

What is the World that knows him not? What am I in relation to that World?)

With our curiosity, pre-occupation, or for some, our obsession with these questions and others like these, we miss our vocational call to discern the power we have been given to become children of God.

Without true Eucharist (or Thanksgiving), without taking the full measure offered us as we share the blessing cup, we are just showing up at some arbitrary finish line in a race of our own limited imagination and counting heads.

(“I made it. You made it. She made it. He made it.”)  Who cares? For most of us here today, THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!! 

In Romans, Chapter 5, we read

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.    Rom 5:6-8

We share a great prize, but our children will never have that passed on to them, if they can’t understand why we struggle, (or whether we even want to struggle) with Life’s persistent questions) while other well-intentioned people seem quite satisfied with the mission of their own choosing -- not the Mission of God’s calling.

And finally from verse 14 in today’s Psalm 147:

He has strengthened the bars of your gates; *

    he has blessed your children within you. 

How are our children, either those of our upbringing or those we hold in stewardship in these parish walls being blessed by our strength and example?

Let our hearts be lifted up by these words from Ken Sehested for this New Year past

Benedicere

By Ken Sehested (adapted)

May your home always be too small

to hold all your friends.

May your heart remain ever supple,

Fearless in the face of threat,

Jubilant in the grip of grace.

May your hands remain open,

Caressing, never clinched,

Save to pound the doors

Of all who barter justice

To the highest bidder.

May your heroes be earthy

Dusty-shoed and rumpled,

Hallowed but unhaloed,

Guiding you through seasons of tremor and travail,

Apprenticed to the godly art of giggling

Amid haggard news

And portentous circumstance.

May your hankering

Be in rhythm with heaven’s

Whose covenant vows

A dusty intersection with your own:

When creation’s hope and history rhyme.

May Hosannas lilt from your lungs:

Creation is not done

Creation is not yet done.

All flesh,

I am told,

will behold

Will surely behold…

http://bit.ly/WRZ2mJ

 

Benedicere (“to bless, to praise”) is based on a prayer by Ken Sehested, author of “In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public.”

Concept: David Felten & Scott Greissel

Edit: Scott Greissel

Cameras: Gregg Brekke, Scott Greissel, Jeff Procter-Murphy & Edwin Serrano

Copyright (c) 2012 livingthequestions.com

Christ in the Contradictions (Proper 6B: 06/17/2012)

 One of the images used today by Jesus to describe the kingdom is the growth of a plant -- a progression from the seed to the plant, and ultimately to the grain, fruit, or vegetable the plant supports. 

  

Mk 4:26 ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’ 

But in this imaging, it's hard to distinguish whether the image of the kingdom is captured in one or ALL of the images: the Sower/Harvester, the plant, and the sleeping and the rising.  

Is the Sower/Harvester Jesus? God Creator/Father? Are you and I the Sower/Harvester, in that we find ourselves as the hired hands called at different times to a harvest, 

MT 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’  

We are told that whoever the harvester is, he doesn't know how it is that seed progresses from seed, to plant, and to yield. 

Is the grain faithful souls ready for God?  

  

I think that's hard to say  from what the parable tells us. One thing about grain is that beside the unknown marvel that brings about the head or the kernel is the relatively certain technology that requires  almost all grains to be transformed somehow before it is useful. (Even corn has to be at least boiled, steamed, or grilled before it can be consumed by humans.) 

And if you think about it, grain growth is terribly inefficient. Most of the plant that sustains growth is usually destroyed. 

Think about the Church. If the Church is part of the plant, part of the kingdom, what part is it? 

If the Church is the dwelling place of faithful souls, most would say the Church is the grain. 

Then what does that imply? What is the destiny of faithful souls in the kingdom if they are grain? Are they destined to be beaten, crushed, pulverized, made into a dough or a whiskey mash so that something useful can come of them?  

(You know, I'm just sayin'.) 

Jn 12:24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  

Does Paul in Second Corinthians speak only for the members of the church or for the church itself, when he says today, 

II Cor 5:6 So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 

Is the Church simply the grain and fruit that is gathered and both practically and mystically transformed? 

That is an important part of our image as a Eucharistic people. The bread is a symbol of grain gathered and made into something new as bread, as Christ brings us together to become One with Him as a new, nurturing, and life-giving Creation.  So too the wine, which in the Roman Missal, 3rd edition, it says,

   

Blessed are You, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink. 

Grain and fruit that is gathered and transformed. Wonderful image! 

But might it just be that at least as far as this pericope or vignette from today's Gospel from Mark is concerned, the Church may not be the "product" of the harvest but its sustenance.  The Church, rather, might be the stalk and the "head"  protecting the grain that gets the full brunt of the harvester's sickle and is left on the threshing floor. As with our own bodies, I believe we become comfortable with the creaturely form that is the Church, and that's when, sometimes, the tension becomes the greatest for the Church. 

We refer to the Church in our postcommunion prayer, Rite I, as 

very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs, through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom. 

That image, then creates a paradox, that is very difficult for priests and other ministers to deal with. As ministers, we have a certain degree of responsibility to be good stewards of the people and assets with which we have been entrusted. Yet we find ourselves always needing to choose between the stewardship of the bricks and mortar that comprise our parishes, with the nagging admonition of Wm Temple, a mid-twentieth century Abp of Canterbury, who said 

The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. 

 

But our tendency is to want to look good, so that by looking good, we may appear good and valuable to those around us, thus perpetuating our Church community as "members incorporate in the mystical body of (Jesus)"  by attracting new members. Evangelization is not about looking good. Evangelization is about proclaiming the good news to everyone, even, and perhaps especially when because of that good news we may not look good  to the world around us, which doesn't deal well with complicated stuff. 

The good news to be proclaimed is that God glories in contradictions. The good news to be proclaimed is that good things sometimes happen in dangerous  and courageous situations. 

It was bad enough that Samuel went out in the face of Saul to find a new king for the people of Israel. Samuel also had to contend with the prejudices of Jesse, who was convinced that God would work through the strongest, the smartest, and the bravest of his sons, and not through his youngest and most naïve. 

The good news for us is  that God wills to work in the face of our doubts and in spite of our "sure-knowledge." 

While study and discernment are vital to the life of the Church, study and discernment must not stand in the way of God's contradictions. 

Like the sower, who does not know precisely how seed sprouts and grows as it does,  there are ways and means God chooses to glorify himself and also build us up that defy explanation or logic. Only then will be able to fully discern the challenge of our time and stewardship -- that we can see the perils all around us, close our eyes, and walk by faith.    

How is It? Pentecost Yr B

How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Among the different things that may or may not be happening in this moment, there are likely both supernatural occurrences as well as explainable phenomena about how people of good will dispose themselves to truth. Part of, “How is it,” is explained for us in the context of Peter’s proclamation.

Peter is proclaiming to the Diaspora, the Parthians, Medes, etc. who might come to Jerusalem for the Festival of Shavuot, known also as Pentecost to Greek Jews, as it was fifty days after Passover. Shavout celebrated God giving the Torah to the Israelites and the offering of first fruits at the Temple. (As it happens, this year Shavuot will run from sunset tomorrow May 26 - nightfall May 28.)

During this time, dairy products are traditionally consumed and, oddly, the Book of Ruth is studied. (Odd, because Ruth is not a book in the core of the Torah, “the Law,” but a story of relationship and outreach of the gentile, Ruth and her Mother-in-Law, Naomi.)

The Diaspora, even then were both honored and scorned. They were honored as important parts of all the towns where they were throughout the Mediterranean, the African interior, and the Arabian Peninsula. By law or design, they frequently lived within their own ghettos, but their synagogues were open focal points of learning, art, science, and ethical reflection.

Many Gentiles who came to listen, and in some cases participate in the rabbinic discussions were considered “gated” proselytes whether in Judea, Galilee, or in their own cities. They weren’t expected to become observant Jewish converts. These Gentiles only had to observe the seven minimum tenets of the Noahide Law, the ancient rule from the time of Noah:

·         do not worship idols,

·         do not blaspheme God's name,

·         do not murder,

·         do not commit immoral sexual acts,

·         do not steal,

·         do not tear the limb from a living animal, and

·         do not fail to establish courts of justice.

So these Jews visiting Jerusalem and foreigners who might be in Jerusalem for study or trade would have a general understanding of some of the languages of the region around Jerusalem. You’ve probably heard it said that Jesus and the Apostles, being from Galilee, would usually speak a language known as Aramaic, with Hebrew as the language of the Torah and worship.

And it’s not the Diaspora and the Proselytes who doubted what’s going on.  The sneering cynics whom Peter is addressing were the Judeans and those living in Jerusalem, who were jealous or generally bitter toward such outsiders – Galileans, the Diaspora, “Gated Proselytes.”

Now return to the first question:  “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

We can presume some supernatural dimension, that Peter was speaking in some sort of Hebrew or Galilean Aramaic, and the Diaspora and foreign proselytes were hearing in their home languages.  But perhaps Peter was speaking in a language that the Diaspora could understand if they were open to hear it, again by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Diaspora and proselytes would otherwise hear only the din of the big city.

An example today would be rock music and rap music. I can’t hear the words – I don’t hear the words – I won’t hear the words of such songs, partly because I am convinced those lyrics have no meaning for me.

The Diaspora knew the Jewish scripture not because it justified their existence, but because they saw the universality of their scripture and tradition partly by the way the gentiles around them were attracted to it.

As Episcopalians in contemporary Chelan and Douglas County, and in contemporary America for that matter, we are sometimes embarrassed by the way many Christians appear to scorn our “cafeteria Christianity.” What is not so clear to us is the fact that there are those within our community and country who admire the courage of our Church, as we stand shoulder to arm with people scorned in our community, our society, and our country – aliens, the poor, addicts, visionaries, advocates for justice, and others deemed “Pariah” and “Leeches” to our way of living.

Peter proclaims a day when the Spirit will be poured out upon the most despicable – Slaves, both Men and Women.

On the Great and Glorious Day of the Lord, somehow, Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.

In Romans, Paul speaks of a Spirit present, even in our own day, which can help us in our own weakness.  And what is the great weakness of our own day?  Is it promiscuity?  Greed?  Addiction? Genocidal and Internecine hate and War?  Maybe.

But I think the great weaknesses of our own day is that our “sons and … daughters (do not) prophesy, (our) your young … have been made so cynical that they dare not see visions, because our old (no longer value) dream[ing] dreams.”

Dreams are seen in our time as things that will let you down. And it is in THAT void all the rest rushes in.

Why isn’t $10 billion enough for the likes of Bernie Madoff that he must grasp $20, $30, $50 billion? Madoff and the rest of the 1% believe more in lies than dreams.  The 1% of our nation and world have to stockpile behind their false security of gated communities and possessions to live forever. Dreamers, on the other hand, can’t get rid of it fast enough, because a lot is never enough. The Dreamer doesn’t have to dream alone..

The true Dreamer CAN’T dream alone.

He or she must entrust their dreams to others with the strength, hope, and stamina to carry them forward. 

My dream can’t be a $200,000 RV.  My dream has to be the journey.

My hope cannot be a world without snow. My hope has to be the generosity of strangers, who will help push my car out of the rut.

My security cannot be my 70 rental properties in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, and Monitor. My security must be my sense of safety in neighborhoods where residents have a vested interest – where sons and daughters are not left to fend for themselves in the midst of dangers they cannot figure out for themselves – the dangers of idle time, cars, drugs, sex, booze, and guns.

In today’s gospel, Jesus says

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

Simply put, the Spirit cannot and will not be let in where it is perceived as neither wanted nor needed.

Many love the concept of Self-Reliance but few have studied it like Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said,

Your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. "What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love."

Emerson says it little better than the Beloved Disciple.

We possess only that which we are able to love. It doesn’t work the other way around. We are tempted to believe that possessions create an environment within which we are then able to love.

Jesus says,  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.”

In this time of reflection on the mission of the Church, I ask you to meditate this week on what you cannot bear the Lord to say to you in these days. Not WHETHER, but WHAT.  If you don’t come up with anything – Try HARDER. Nothing in the Gospel is just for the other guy.

Listen for that Spirit in your heart, as it sighs too deep for words.  Those sighs will carry with it

·                     patience in the midst of the mob,

·                     strength in weakness, and

·                     hope in our unknowing.