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The
Episcopal Parish of
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St.
Michael and All Angels
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602
North Wilmot Road • Tucson, Arizona 85711
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Selected Sermons and Reflections
2003-2004
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 When We Move From Being Noticed To Being Neglected: Sermon for the Second Week of Advent Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004 by Father Roger O. Douglas I picked up a magazine the other day and saw a picture of John Kerry. Next to it was printed the following: “The defeated Democrat Kerry puts his best face forward.” I wondered how be was feeling. It was a little over a month ago when crowds gathered wherever be spoke, when the media listened to his every word, when his statements were carefully analyzed. Now a month later he had moved from being famous to being forgotten. How quickly we move from being noticed to being neglected. Or, as a newspaper editorial this past week put it, “Presidential losers are consigned to political oblivion.” John the Baptist, our central character in today’s Gospel, probably had much the same feelings as Kerry must be having. As a traveling preacher, John had great success, but he ended up at the king’s birthday party looking like a piece of sliced turkey with his head severed from his body. A magazine of that day might have written. “John the Baptist, puts his best face forward, even if it had been severed from his body.” Most of us know John’s story. He was like a forceful old time preacher. He had a booming voice, an electric delivery and a charismatic personality. Listen to how Fred Buechner describes him:
Where is God for those who have lost their following? Where is God for those who had it made in the past, but are now trivialized, redundant, neglected? Where is God for people who skate along toward a bright future and find that the solid ice beneath their feet has cracked? Where is God for those who have been consigned to oblivion? Where is the God of John the Baptist? I remember once going to talk with a spiritual director when I was feeling depressed. I recall saying how lousy life was treating me. How unfair it all seemed. I talked about how I had been one of the comers in the church, one of the successful cardinal rectors with the ninth largest church in the country. And how I had been treated with a certain adulation, asked to preach around the country, consulted on how to grow a church. But after a while, I became old hat. What had been hot in the 80s became stale in the 90s. I recall sharing all this with my spiritual director. Finally, I worked myself up to the point where I said that I now felt abandoned by God. He listened to my tale of woe, and after a long pause said, “Do you know what the two most important words of scripture are? They are: ‘And yet.’ I don’t want to minimize your feelings,” he said, “but after you have looked at your situation, seen all the negatives, felt all the pangs of defeat, then I would recommend your saying, ‘And yet.’ And yet, God is still by your side. And yet God still has a place for you. And yet, isn’t our God a God who picks up the pieces, finds the lost sheep, breathes new life into dead bodies, has a future beyond what we might imagine? And yet, in whatever way you find yourself, God has a plan and a use for you.” It’s good for us to focus on John the Baptist this morning. Not because of his contribution to the Christmas story; no it’s good because his life shows us the importance of persevering even when we move from being famous to being forgotten. The important part of John’s story was: even in prison, even when neglected by his followers, even when he might have thrown in the towel, John continued to search for what God wanted. You might recall that near the end of his life, John sent one of his few remaining disciples, to find out if Jesus was the promised one. John’s message might have been dated, redundant, and rejected by most people. But at the same time, John was able to say: “And yet.” And yet, God still could use him as the herald of the Christ Child. One other person I would like you to meet today: Martin Luther, this ex-monk who ushered in the Reformation, who by his courage and convictions turned our understanding of Christianity completely around. Luther was persecuted, attacked, called a devil and a fool during most of his life. At one point most of his friends and protectors deserted him and he was brought before the Church tribunal. The opposition hammered him for days. How could he, one single monk, dare to challenge the best minds of the church? Finally the chief prosecutor reminded Luther hat they might burn him at the stake as a heretic or exile him to some far off island. And then, cried the prosecutor, then where would you be? Luther paused, looked about at the assembled church people and said, “And yet, and yet, I should still be in the hands of God.” The essence of Luther’s faith was summed up in those two words, “and yet.” However bad, however perilous, however ignominious, Luther was still able to say, And Yet—God still had a plan and a place for him. We have all been there—when the future seems denied, when all the cheers have turned to jeers, when we find ourselves neglected, forgotten, unnoticed, dismissed, trying to put a good face on a bad situation. It is at those times that we are invited to join John the Baptist, and say: “And Yet.” And yet we can keep preparing for the one who is to come. And yet – God has a plan for us. For remember, we follow a God who calls forth shoots from dead stumps, a people from dry bones, babies from barren wombs—And new life from a tomb. This is the God who enables us to say: And yet – and yet, God still can use us. Amen. |
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| Sermon for The First of Week of Advent Sunday, November 28th, 2004 By Father John R. Smith Today is the first Sunday of Advent--the time when we prepare once again for the coming of Jesus. As the first Sunday of the church year- a "Happy New Year" greeting is very appropriate. As we begin the new year we light a candle each week to remind us that Jesus brings light into the dark places of the world. Today the Prophet Isaiah describes a future shaped by peace for all nations as they walk in the light of the Lord. We wait in hope for this prophecy to be fulfilled. We light the candle of hope for this prophecy to be fulfilled. It is a prophecy for our time so we light the candle of hope to proclaim that God's light is coming into the world. We do this with our mind's eye filled with images of prison cells, war casualties, disaster survivors, and nations "on the edge" in a world of terrorism and threatening divisions . . . this is the precarious position we find ourselves in this Advent Season 2004. No surprise, Advent always begins in darkness. It is not difficult this year to admit that we wait for something to happen, for someone to open the door--to allow the light in, and to change the course of human history. We wait expectantly, hopefully for this One who is coming . . . But our conception of that "Coming" One is all important to how we live in the now, in anticipation of the not-yet. Some of you like to read the New York Times. Well this summer, Nicholas Kristof wrote an article entitled "Jesus and Jihad" which centered on the appalling message conveyed by the latest in the Left Behind series of evangelical thrillers. If the "message" of the last fictional installment, Glorious Appearing, is to be believed (and the writer takes the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptical writing quite literally), Jesus will return to earth, gather non-Christians to his left side (the goats), and toss them into everlasting fire. Kristof quotes from the book in his article: "Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again." Now what makes this remarkable is that Kristof points out that these are the bestselling novels for adults in the United States, and they have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. (As the Barnes and Noble staff person led me to the shelf he commented: these are really popular and selling.) This is why I said earlier that our conception of the One we are waiting for is so important to how we live right now. If this many readers' expectations of the Second Coming are based on a novel that portrays Jesus as returning to Earth to wipe all non-Christians from the planet--clearly we have work to do. The Second Coming is the final return of the Creator, the Savior, the Restorer of the world in which the rule of God will prevail once and for all. It is, therefore, meant to be a message of hope. It is not a coming in wrath--a coming against. It is a coming for. It is that final moment when the whole world--and history as we know it--will openly and totally belong to God. Jesus states in the Gospel: I have not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Now that does not mean there will not be struggle in the here and now. The Light will completely overcome the darkness only at the end. But in the meantime, we have the opportunity to align ourselves with Jesus' work, his Cross and the its promise for all our brothers and sisters. Besides those who are quick to condemn others, while seeing themselves raptured up to glory without a scratch, there are many naysayers. It has never been more difficult to believe in God's redemption--and never more crucial. Edith Stein, philosopher and Jewish convert to Christianity, has written: "The sight of the world in which we live, the need and misery, and an abyss of human malice, again and again dampen jubilation over the victory of light. The world is still deluged by mire, and still but a small flock has escaped from it to the highest mountain peaks. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is not yet over. The followers of Christ have their place in this battle, and their chief weapon is the Cross." But the Cross is not a bludgeon; it is a lamp, a beacon, equivalent to the pillar of fire that led the Israelites across the desert night. It is what we must keep within our sights as we struggle this Advent to be open to that One who will free us from all sin and death, and plant God's kingdom in our very midst. So while we wait we do so not passively, simply wishing for peace, for justice, and joy, but actively working for these realities, confident in the future. As Jesus once came among us in weakness and meekness he will come in great glory in judgment, justice, and power, to redeem the world, to save it from itself. So we work courageously and faithfully knowing that while we work for justice for the weakest among us there is a future worth waiting, living, working, praying, hoping, and dying for because that future is not going to be more of the same but filled with that which we have not had enough of and need the most--God. So we have work to do! Live in this world on the Lord's mountain--seeing everything from God's perspective and not the world's. Strive in small and large ways to prepare for Jesus' Coming which will make all things right. I'll close with a story told some years ago during my Italy days. A tourist was traveling along the shores of Lake Como in Northern Italy. When he reached a castle, Villa Asconatli, an elderly gardener opened the gate and showed him the grounds that he kept in immaculate condition. The tourist asked when the owner had last been there. "Twelve years ago," the man answered. "Does he ever write to you?" the tourist asked. "No," was the reply. "Then from who do you get your instructions?" "From his agent in Milan." "Does he come at all?" "Never." "Who comes here then?" "I am almost always alone," said the gardener, "only once in a while does tourist like yourself come by." "But," said the man, "you keep these grounds just as if you expect your master to come tomorrow." "Not tomorrow, sir," the old gardener promptly corrected him. "Today, I expect him today." May the same hope and expectation buoy our lives today and always! |
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Halloween Sermon, St. Michael's Sunday, Oct. 31, 2004 by Father Roger O. Douglas I once served a church in Connecticut, where I experienced an incident that was never covered by a seminary education. Like many older churches in Connecticut, this one had a cemetery attached to it, where members had been buried for generations. One day, a good parishioner whose relatives had long been buried in that place visited me. He asked my permission to bring in a professional medium. The family's plan was to stand beside the grave of their relative and attempt to contact him. They wanted to seek the departed's advice on various family financial matters. Well, you can imagine my dilemma. Nothing that I had been taught in pastoral theology had prepared me for this. Could I take the chance of offending these good parishioners? Or, should I just shrug my shoulders and say the standard American response: "Different strokes for different folks." I wait still relatively new in the priesthood, and so I took this as a teaching opportunity. I refused, and in a highly judgmental tone, began to tell them we were Christians, and the church didn't believe in stuff like that. We in the church don't believe in communications from the dead, and it was wrong, yes, even sinful, to expect to receive instructions from those who are now buried in our cemetery. Now, almost forty years later, I'm having some second thoughts. Maybe those who have left us cannot hear us. But it isn't necessarily true that we cannot hear from them. Here we are on October 31st. For many, particularly youngsters, this is a holiday that rates close to Christmas. And when Halloween comes up, or to use the church terminology, All Hollows Eve, we in the church begin to think of those who have died. And hopefully, this can be as important as dressing in costume and going out trick or treating. In Latin America, October 31st is known as the Day of the Dead, an important holiday to honor ancestors. On Dia de los Muertos, Mexicans decorate their homes with playful imagery of human skeletons, leave food offerings for wandering spirits, and tend the graves of relatives. It's an important day in their calendars, a day in which they remember the dead. The dressing up in costumes comes from a Celtic belief that on this day, people dressed in outlandish costumes to scare away the dead, who were supposed to roam around. But coming back to the church, and leaving off the history lesson... in the church the only ones dressed in outlandish costumes are the clergy. And their costumes are not so much to scare the dead; as to remind us of what people in the past wore, In other words, to carry on the traditions. And so, not only on this Sunday, but nearly every Sunday, we communicate with the dead. Isn't it true that when we open the scriptures, we are reading from those who have been dead for many centuries? It may seem strange, but we have acted as if ancient people like Isaiah, John, and Peter had something to say. Martha and Paul may know more about God than we do, Amos and Moses know more about life than we might imagine. And we believe that their advice about God, about fife and maybe even about finances can speak to us. It could easily be said, that when you come to church you are coming for a dialogue with the dead. The Christian faith is built on these kinds of traditions. A day like today is a reminder of the gifts we have received from those special people who have nurtured our faith and continually speak to us from the grave. We don't have to make up our faith as we go along, we don't have to continually reinvent the wheel. There are trustworthy guides who have walked before us. We can continue to walk in their footsteps. And this is what tradition is all about We live in a time when traditions for a lot of Americans are of little importance. In the church, traditions seem to be peripheral to our own private spirituality. Traditions seem like something left over from a dead past and can easily be ignored. But we do this at our own peril. I don't know who Susan Dworkin is, but I saw an article of hers that needs to be repeated "I am a godless women," she wrote. "I say this with more than a little regret, for I believe you need a religious community to raise children. People often view traditions as empty. Well, maybe some are, but there is merit and power in following things our ancestors did. There is value in doing something like lighting a candle, reading from an ancient text, not because you necessarily understand it, but because it demonstrates the connection we have through time and space with a community of people." Following Dworkin's lead, I would suggest that on this Sunday and certainly next Sunday, which is when we celebrate All Saints Day, the theme could be, remember your connections. Remember those giants in the faith, known and unknown, those special people now in their graves who have been spiritual guides. When you do this, you are honoring tradition as well as maintaining the connections. There is a fantastic sign, as you enter the Winchester Cathedral in England. It reads: "You are entering a conversation that began long before you were born, and will continue long after you're dead." Some of you might remember, the last time I was in the pulpit, I suggested a vision for a parish church: to become a place of conversation. The conversations are not only with the living, They also include those who have gone before as. When you enter St. Michael's you are beginning a conversation started long before you were born, and will continue long after we have died. Fred Craddock, one of the all time great Baptist preachers, once told of returning to a little church of his childhood. He had not been there in years. Walking into the church, he noted they had purchased a new stained glass window. Admiring the window, he saw a set of names of the donors. He did not recognize any of the names. "You must have had many new folk join the church since I was a boy," he said. "I don't recognize a single name." "Oh, those people aren't members here, " he was told. "This town hasn't grown a bit since you were a child. We bought those windows from another church who no longer needed them." "But don't you want to remove those names?" Fred asked. "Well," he was told, "we thought about it. We're just a little church, never any new people. So we like to sit here on Sunday mornings surrounded by the names of people other than ourselves. People who through the years have been a part of the Christian tradition, people whose generosity made the church grow.” Someone came up to we lost month after the sermon and asked about what I did as I began a sermon, and what was it called? I was caught short, and blamed it on having a senior moment. The answer I would now give is, it is called the inscription. And if I had been thinking clearly, I would have said: "I use an inscription, which is sort of a brief prayer, because many of those before me have used one. And, furthermore, I want to keep in touch with those special people." Maybe those parishioners in Connecticut were on to something? Amen |
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 A Letter from St. FrancisSermon for The Feast of St. Francis Sunday, October 3rd, 2004 By Father John R. Smith Dear John: I wanted to write to greet you and all your parishioners at St. Michael’s on the occasion of your blessing of the animals. The animals you bless symbolize all the creatures of God and the deep respect and care we must have for all life: yes, for the animals, but especially for each and every human being. I did not always have this respect for life and the peace it brings. A change occurred in me after I was captured in war and was a prisoner in Perugia. I found a copy of the Gospel and read Jesus’ teaching: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be children of God; Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those cursing you, pray for those who abuse you; Take up your cross and follow me. I had heard the Gospel before, but never taken it in my heart. God’s grace helped me live no longer out of my fear, but, instead, embrace the Gift of Peace. I only had a mustard seed of faith, but that was powerful enough to move the mountains of my fears. I had found myself in the same situation the prophet Habakkuk was, crying out: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise . . . The law becomes slack and justice never prevails. Today you and your people are in the same situation as your country engages in wars on many fronts. I came to the conviction that all war is a failure. Even if you "win" there is tremendous destruction, tremendous cost and tremendous suffering. It’s failure of diplomacy. In a sense it is the failure of civilization. It’s the failure of civilized people to find a way of living with each other, to find a way of resolving our differences and conflicts that minimizes damage and maximizes the value of life. War brought about my conversion and maybe it will do the same for your country. Only love can cast out the fear which causes us to strike back. The Great Soul Mahatma taught the futility of revenge and asked: Will you find the real courage to open your heart and offer love instead of fear whenever you "feel" attacked? Remember Alexander Solzhenitzyn who wrote from prison: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? My dear John, there are two keys to becoming a person of peace and a promoter of world peace. Both keys are discovered only in the strength of true humility. The first key is the willingness. The willingness to be peaceful. As my prayer begins: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. I always repeated this a few times to myself at the first sign of turmoil within me or around me. I breathe into the words and realize Christ is within me and in the situation and even in my enemy. This last realization was always the hardest part for me. I could accept that Christ was trying to act through me, but it was much more difficult to see Christ in my attacker or the creator of the turmoil around me. I remember what the poet Longfellow wrote: If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility against us. That is where the second key comes in: Seek not to be understood, but to understand. Seek to understand someone else’s viewpoint or reference. Try to understand their pain, their intent. Christ is present in them and their suffering even if they do not know it. Everyone is potentially a child of God and brother or sister of Jesus. I’ll close for now, praying for all of you at St. Michael and All Angels. Remember the two keys that open the doors to lasting peace. Learn, as I did, that in order to create peace in our world we have to BE peace. Your friend in Jesus, FRANCIS |
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Stewardship Conquers Evil
Sermon for The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, September 19th, 2004 Proper 20, Year C By Father John R. Smith This morning I’d like to start with a story about a man who collects pearls. One day, while walking through the downtown of his city, he sees in a store window the most beautiful, the largest, most magnificent pearl he has ever seen. Instantly he knows he must have it. So he enters the store and an old guy enters from the door to the rear of the showroom. The man addresses the storekeeper, "I want that pearl. How much is it?" "Well, I have $300 in my pocket." "Good, I’ll take that. What else you got?" "Well, I have a Chevy Suburban , low mileage, about two years old, paid off." "Good, I’ll take that too. What else you got?" "Well, I have two CDs worth about $18,000." "Good," says the storekeeper, "I’ll take those too. What else you got?" This goes on and on. That man gives away his house, his property, even his family. Until finally the storekeeper says, "OK, here. The pearl is yours." So the man left with everything he had when he walked into the store--plus the great pearl. But there was a big difference. He walked into owning everything he had. He walked out owning nothing. Instead, everything he had before was now a gift. This story teaches the foundation of Christian stewardship: everything we are and have is a gift to be cared for and used to multiply the love of God the Giver. I like the way St. Vincent of Lerin put it: Do as much good as you can, to as many people as you can, for as long as you can. Do you think you and I have ever played fast and loose with these gifts? Could we ever be accused, as the Gospel puts it of squandering the rich man’s property? What if an account was made of our stewardship and we heard a Donald-like figure say "You’re fired!" Quick thinking passion would be put in high gear. Like the fellow did in the Gospel we would sacrifice our own gain (typical 100% mark-up commission) to do everything possible to make our former boss well thought of and endear ourselves to everyone he’s been doing business with. "You owe a hundred jars, quick, make it fifty." "You, a hundred bushels of wheat? Take your bill, make it eighty." The result of this fast action? Everyone realizes the great generosity of the Rich Man and thinks the dishonest steward is a really fine fellow. He’ll never have to dig a ditch or beg for a dime. When the rich guy returns and sees what’s happened, instead of scolding the former squanderer of his property, he praises him for his shrewd behavior. More people than ever love and respect the Rich Man and so many people in the land have had the burden of their debt lessened dramatically, especially the poor and needy who consistently get trampled on by those having the most. So the manager is praised for his resourcefulness in dealing with the crisis that came upon him--a crisis like the sudden coming of God’s Kingdom. And the Kingdom is already present, confronting evil on many fronts, so Jesus urges his hearers to action, to do what needs to be done with courage and decisiveness: If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants your coat, give your shirt as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go the second mile. Now when we hear these words we might think that Jesus is teaching us to be passive in the face of evil, pious doormats trampled upon in silence, and suffering for the "good" of our souls. So we dismiss these words of Jesus as completely impractical, though well-meaning. Deep down they are even dangerous, since they seem to say that evil should be allowed to have the upper hand with no thought of taking any countermeasures for the cause of good. These thoughts and misgivings would be justified if that is what Jesus meant. Jesus does not teach passivity in the face of evil. On the contrary, Jesus teaches us to respond actively to evil--in courageous and imaginative non-violent ways. These ways have a power in them to stop evil in its tracks when we, the victims, refuse to play by evil’s rules. When you offer the other cheek, and say "Go on, hit me again!" Further insulting slaps have no power to take away dignity and honor. The hitter is shown for what he is- clearly in the wrong. Evil is revealed and disarmed by this creative response. Jesus knew that dignity and honor would be sacrificed when responding to violence with violence. Same with the giving of the cloak- go ahead expose my nakedness- it is you who have lost and been shamed. Here, Roman soldier, I’ll decide freely to carry your pack a second mile- I’m a human being, not the pack animal you think I am. Jesus knew that actions like these counter evil at its source. I think Bishop Tutu tells the story of South Africa in the days of apartheid of a black woman walking with her children down a narrow lane and was confronted by a white man going the other way. When she refused to step aside as she was "supposed" to do, the man spit in her face. She looked him in the eye and said, Now, will you please do that for the children, too? The man, ashamed, stepped aside and let them pass. That day the evil of apartheid began to crumble in his heart. It’s time for us to be shrewd. Let’s put the prophet Amos and the Gospel’s dishonest manager together. The evil that tramples around in our world can best be dealt with by us becoming better stewards, devoting all of our life and everything we have to the Kingdom where God is loved and the lowly are lifted up. Stewardship: personal, corporate, and national is the way to conquer of evil best and make a truly peaceful world. Willingness to give away some of what we think is ours, but is really God’s, makes us, the church, holy and our ministry strong against evil within and without. This is shrewd. This is God’s way. It has to be our way. God will be with us for sure! Amen! |
| Good News, Bad News, and the Lost: Sermon for The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, September 12th, 2004 Proper 19, Year C By Father John R. Smith It's been said that the Gospel is bad news before it is Good News. These past few weeks have been full of bad news: the capture by terrorists of the school in Beslan and the deaths of so many children and teachers; the havoc and loss of life caused by hurricanes Charley and Frances in Florida; continuing loss of life by the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Sudan; so much negative campaigning on the political front; so when you add these things and more to the feeling of our powerlessness, failure, and daily sins of omission and commission it equals a tremendous feeling of disorientation. More than a feeling: we are really lost. What a way to start a sermon! What a downer! But the Good News of the Gospel has to begin with this feeling of disorientation and lostness or we never quite get it's message of hope and salvation. Henri Nouwen wrote that "one way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there." We wonder where God is, but we’re never at home. Things are so bad that we don't want to spend time there. We busy ourselves with so many things outside of our home to keep us from admitting how lost we really are and we miss Jesus who has dropped by to visit us. When we hear the Gospel say "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." We don’t realize it’s us. God breaks his own law and the law of the Pharisees to reach out and save the lost. If we let Jesus find us at the address where we are really lost and need God, salvation can begin and love, joy, and freedom can break out all over! The teaching of the Kingdom of God in the Gospel is that God's whole purpose is finding the lost. The parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to fend for themselves and searches for the one lost sheep is absurd. This example seemed absolutely crazy to Jesus' listeners. Would a person in the sheep herding business leave ninety-nine untended to go looking for one? Of course not! Cut your losses and stay with the main flock. Forget the lost one! In the parable the shepherd never goes back to the ninety-nine- the focus remains on the joy of finding the one sheep that was lost. The story of the woman with the ten coins is the same. It might be that the ten coins were part of a stash the woman held for a rainy day. Every so often she would pull it out and check it, but one time a coin rolled away. When she finds a coin missing she lights a lamp, using precious oil, and sweeps and searches the whole house until she finds it. When she does she calls all her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her in on finding her lost coin. There is never any mention of the other nine coins. All the effort is in restoring what is lost against all reasonable considerations-- whatever it takes: seek the lost. The Kingdom of God is made up top to bottom and sideways of the lost who have been found! If this is the case, then I want to get in touch with my lostness, because its only there I find Jesus. That's why I think Jesus had so little interest in the Pharisees and Scribes, but loved hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. (Everyone's favorite sin is something sexual, and the "sinners" most likely were prostitutes.) Jesus spent a lot of time welcoming those people, eating with them, talking with them, visiting them, and otherwise consorting with them, irking the Pharisees and their righteous ilk in a big way. To get in touch with lostness listen to Paul: "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life." It is when we admit our true lostness that mercy can find us. Like the sheep on the shoulders of the shepherd we come home and its wonderful! Of course admitting that we are lost is no fun. We spend most of our life time trying to make the case to ourselves and others that we're really pretty good: law-abiding citizens and relatively successful at the "game" of life. We stay in constant motion, impatient like Moses’ people at his delay in coming down the mountain. Quick, let's melt all of our gold trinkets down make a calf and worship it. Our impatience means we'll do anything to get away from where we are: our lostness. Even if we become more lost. And what does the Boy Scout handbook say to do when you are lost? It says stay where you are! We, all of us, are the lost one God is seeking. God will find us! I love St. Michaels because we seem close to our lostness and need for God and the Confession that we'll say in a few minutes appears to contain real contrition most of the time- at least I hope so. But what really governs God's behavior toward us is not our sins. And it's not our problems. It's God's need to find us in our lostness and bring us home. Every Eucharist is a new beginning and a thanksgiving of Joy! Let us live this moment to the fullest, be completely present to it, to taste the Kingdom here and now, and to fully be where we are so God can find us and celebrate through us, with us, and in us, the Spirit's presence in the world. And that, of course, is just the beginning. |
| story: Sermon for The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, September 5th, 2004 Proper 18, Year C By Father Daniel P. Richards story in deuteronomy today moses sets before the people a choice life and prosperity or death and adversity if we follow the way of god we will have life this is about a choice and how we live i am convinced that lifeasweknowit pull us away from real life and real prosperity by clinging to what we understand as defining of life and having value we negate the possibility of experiencing what god has for us |
 Fr. Daniel P. Richards
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| we have been sold the idea that life is experience and prestige and power or worse entertainment, being for the right team, and belonging to the winning side and that prosperity is the acquisition of things but what is life? what is prosperity? what is the way of god? why are our lives full of adversity and death as a nation, as families, as individuals? the epistle today hints the gospel hits you over the head paul is writing a letter to a fellow christian asking him to take back forgive and restore onesimus his slave to his true place as brother in christ paul¹s request negates the possibility of onesimus returning as a slave "no longer a slave . . . but a brother" the hint is in this line the social distinction between the slave and the owner has been erased and replaced by a familial relationship under god in christ and a counter-cultural ethic is implied slavery at the time was a culturally sanctioned socially normative economic institution used to pay off debts protect national fiscal security and to punish prisoners of war but it isn¹t even a possibility in the household of god why? jesus is not so subtle whoever does not hate father mother brother sister wife and children cannot be my disciple (makes the moral majority's harping on christian family values seem a bit . . . biblically illiterate doesn¹t it?) what is jesus getting at here? the answer is the cost of living in the household of god while residing in a world of cultural familial expectations and values that seek our good above that of the others if we are going to follow jesus and take on his view of reality his way of living it means taking on a reality in which all are the children of god there is no other father to whom we owe allegiance no other priority, be it our father¹s house, our father's car, or our fatherland we are to see all creation as god's house and all people as god's children this is in direct opposition to the world's allegiance to father and mother and family first then your own state, your own country, then your own life and jesus is dead on here if you decide to live this way it will feel to everyone around you as if you hate what they hold dear but this is what discipleship of jesus demands period just a whole new way of seeing and being just a whole new life now the catch the catch is that the god of jesus is this way already loving beyond all borders of decency beyond all boundaries of respectability this is the universal nature of the jewish god of jesus you are loved already despite anything you are or anything you do if we know this is required of us how much more is god already doing it ? the question is the one moses set before the people in deuteronomy what do you want? are you willing to risk your lifeasyouknowit with its deaths and adversities for real life and prosperity life as the total and open connections of wise relations with all of humanity and a prosperity that is right relation to all of creation by letting go of the small piece we think we own it is a vital and dangerous question i advise you with jesus to count the cost before you start |
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| reclaiming the most shocking story: Sermon for The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, July 11th, 2004 Proper 10, Year C By Father Daniel P. Richards this may be the most shocking story in the gospel but unfortunately it has become the most well-known and so domesticated the shock wears off and we miss the point being made and trade it in for some bit of nicety about being kind to neighbors but the real impact in this story is not neigborliness this is a sermon in two parts first the storyteller's part |
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| jewish storytelling like other cultural storytelling relies on threes in this particular kind of story you have certain expectations the guy is in a rough part of the country and he gets mugged and left for dead the first person down the road is not going to help we know this we expect this this is a critique against them but not about them the second person should help them but won¹t we know this we expect this this too is a critique against them but not about them the third person down the road is where our hope lies we know this and we have expectations we expect that this person will be like us he will be a joe anybody a jane downthestreet poor as us uneducated only mildly attractive will have a name like ours look like us and save the day he¹ll finally do what is right and show those righteous jerks what's what let me give you an example joy and i lived in berkeley, california for a while and this is what we¹d expect the story to go like there so this guy is walking in the flatlands after dark (poor side of town) and he gets jumped by this gang robbed beaten and left for dead so he crawls out to the street and is half in the gutter well a republican drives by in his mercedez on his way to a fundraiser and hits the gas and drives on toward the bay pretty soon a democrat drives up in a range rover petting her dog but she is on her way to have fifi groomed and doesn't want her upset so she drives off then bumbababum! up the street walks a green party man on his way from the bart station he takes the man and cares for him takes him to the hospital and waits with him and even helps his recount his story to the police this is what we expect someone like us saves the day and the story reaffirms our prejudices and secret suspicions that we are pretty great and critiques the powers that be a little that is what the story is supposed to do so imagine then the shock of hearing this turn in jesus's story now the first two have fit their bill and done what is required we expect that at this point ibrahim the jew poor but devout, a farmer maybe a shepherd who will do his torah-required duty for this his brother but oh no! it¹s a samaritan! half-breed, goodfornothing dogs! who not only claim to be of the land liars! but they have competing religious claims they are arabs with their own place to worship! jesus could've said palestinians telling the story today and the impact and even the characters would have been the same a jewish rabbi has turned the tables on his own people they are called to accept the others as their neighbor and he extends the blanket of the torah even to them but for a moment let me say this a side note to those of you still listening: this wasn¹t really new the torah already applied to them they were already expected to care for the stranger in the land for whomever needed hospitality it wasn¹t new but it was shocking like if today i stood up and quoted jesus "love your enemies" you would all nod but if i name them you¹d go ballistic love bin laden love bush you feel it do you? that rise of bile even though you know that it comes from jesus and that he means exactly that and that you are called to it it still gets those nerves jumping but here is the twist in the sermon that isn¹t the most shocking thing about this story you see jesus wasn¹t telling them that the samaritans were their neighbors he was saying that the samaritan participated in the life of god that the samaritan had eternal life not because of what he believed or because he converted but because he acted as a humanbeing to another in compassion we have no idea if he was a drug dealer or a priest a working stiff or some horrible murderer he acted with compassion and therefore participated in the life of god he inherited eternal life this is why the lawyer can¹t even say the word because jesus has crossed not only the ethical implications he has crossed the religious one this is the divine life that is open to everyone even those that make my skin crawl and yours i don't know really what to say to that the love of god is free to all and this act of love doesn¹t save you it is just an act of love of thanksgiving and celebration like moses i believe this is already written on your hearts and that your discomfort is deeper than if i'd lie to you but surely it is not too hard it is the way of liberation and freedom this love it is the doorway to the divine life that is already yours |
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| stories that define us: Sermon for The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, July 4th, 2004 Proper 9, Year C By Father Daniel P. Richards the stories we tell define us as human beings as communities as nations what stories do we tell when we want to introduce ourselves on a first date? on our daughter¹s first date? to explain why we go to war? to explain why we go hunting? i am convinced that we should tell this story more often the sending of the seventy we could all use the self-making of this story no purse no bag no extra sandals eat what is set before you i've been around phoenix you don't greet anyone on the road what strikes me is that this story is about trust and how to be a disciple is to live in the world with open hands i need this story i overpack for everything can you really live on the kindness of others? this is not just a should do could do maybe think about question this is a question that should lie at the heart of what we mean when we toss around the word faith this is also a story about equanimity if they receive you into a town say "the kingdom has come near to you" and if they reject you so that even the dust of the town is odious wipe it off but still say "the kingdom of god has come near to you" this is about living in the eternal life participating in the life of god jesus tells the disciples that they have been given the power of creation itself even "evil things" will be subject to you will work with you the reign of god when we live the open handed life the life of the wise open to blessing and giving living lightly in the world trusting in the goodness of others while remaining shrewd we find that the creation meets us that the reign is there or here rather in our midst "i have seen satan fall from the sky like lightning" the power of creation and yet we feel like we have only two options hate evil and do nothing or launch ourselves against the wheel of violence with violence an example: i am convinced that the life of competition and the values of greed are killing us that we don¹t tell this story because it goads us too much and i tell you that i think suv¹s are the prime example so i have a choice i can attack them with violence which some have done i could keep eggs in my car for "spottings" and so take revenge for the increased pollution and risk of death that we all face and call it justice but when i act in violence i keep the wheels of violence (and retribution and oppression and anger and hatred and fear and ignorance) spinning i could set out to conquer them through the media which is owned by people who rely on them for existence i could give up and shake my fist at them when i get a chance but i don't instead i talk to people about christ-based ethics and values meaning wise and real decision making about how we are to be a people of just enough and trust in god for daily bread and for protection and a people who love others as well as ourselves who love jesus and the world-family as much my own relatives my own children even we underthrow we subvert with all the power of creation with all the power the creator has it does no good to continue the violence and hatred that has gotten us here paul is right in galations when he writes you will reap what you sow one of the most haunting lines of history is from malcolm x after the death of the kennedy he said "i am an old farm boy and on the farm we knew that the chickens we sent out in the morning returned to roost at night it wasn't somebody else¹s chickens it was our own chickens you ask me if i am sad i tell you that we have sent out chickens of violence and oppression into the world and now they have come home to roost chickens coming home to roost has never made me sad" do not sow to the flesh paul wrote but sow to the spirit of god how do we do that ? in kindness gentleness self-control when someone has trangressed lead them back in gentleness bear one another¹s burdens judge your own work and not your neighbors work for the good of all my religiosity is nothing but this new creation is everything! paul says this new creation the reign of god among us elsewhere in the synoptic gospels jesus quotes isaiah today this scripture he says has been fulfilled the spirit of god is upon me to proclaim release to the captive redemption to the poor/oppressed give sight to the blind and to proclaim the year of the lord's favor but he leaves out one of isaiah's phrases "and to proclaim the day of the lord's vengeance" it isn't there it isn¹t jesus's job nor ours just because we've been adding it all these years to explain god'snotfixingit or stoppingus doesn't mean it's of god so i vomit up the poison of my days and eat the fresh fruit of a new land flowing with milk and honey where there is enough for all somehow beyond my struggling to fixit or hoard my undue share and we sit by the river jordan watching the snake crawl to the water and drink and maybe even he is part of the peace that comes when the defending and destroying has stopped even our worst selves are welcomed and transformed i told the boy who had lost two fathers that pain is like a two rocks in our chest that we carry around and that our job is not to get rid of them but to know that they are there and part of us and to recognize them as our own then i told him to sit with his father's memory (thankfully they are good) and to simply be with him and love him and to take his pain into his love and there it will be transformed from a rock that is ugly and destructive to a statue of remembering and honoring a marker of remembrance that his pain is a marker of his love and that is okay and to love others as well taking them in and transforming them to a new family and he is ten and he laughed and said that's what grandma does (he is older than he should be but blessed and already part of the revolution) i welcome you to any table i sit at or stand at as my own sister my own brother welcome to the revolution oh you are so much a part of it the other thing i want to tell you is what i told a good friend who is begining his own spiritual life after great healing after great abuse and death that eventually our job as christ in the world is to be able to take unto ourselves the whole world to take all into our love as surely as we are part of it all o conscious dirt! or spiritual mud! even bin laden even bush even ourselves even earthworms and sharks and sparrows even someday the raven rumi said there are a thousand ways to bow and kiss the ground! may the rain in you be a baptism and the spirit breathe through the tree of life which grows at your feet a word about violence the scriptures - even ours the recorded human experiences of god the bible is holy in its humanity the stories of faith that we stand in and study but they are told from our side and we are human even moses bathsheba david mary paul and we are hurting and angry and broken even as we are holy and tender and compassionate even as we are conscious we are dirt and we are learning so we justify our killing with god and in anger we cry out for vengeance for our pains it is not enough to hope to attain to the bible to reach the holiness of our ancestors in the story seek not the masters seek what the masters sought so said hi my first teacher don't simply seek to find jesus seek the world that jesus sought don't think that because isaiah made it into the spiritual top 40 he wrote the perfect song for your life we begin in the story already going on but it is still going on we are living it today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing and amended always we begin again god is god of the present of the living as jesus said not of the dead we aim our arrow at heaven but i think it's meant for us here and now i am always struggling with my vocation loathe the traps of teaching the tradition getting beyond the bible as textbook or worse science book or perfect i hate perfect there is a great example that i never get to use in church women in la a few years ago were getting plastic surgery to correct their ummmm . . . junk - too big too small too whatever and the writer a beautifulstrong woman herself admitted to being taken in by the selfdoubt about perfection until she saw the before and after photos and the women themselves before they were different individual unique and interesting after they were same bland boring perfect give me a creek over a canal a human being struggling with god pissed and compassionate and imperfect and loving and forgetful a lover of dubious taste smelling of the body and the good earth over the religious man dressed up and clean and virtuous and smiling without laughter give me a priest with tears broken on love a thousand times before the correct one don't struggle too much with being at the margins only be ready for the moment when the weaver needs your bending even to the center of the mandala that the present becomes gratitude i think you cultivate gratitude like a child like adam in the garden by naming i think poetry becomes my practice of gratitude because i name my world through it and the thousand moves of it so i want to read you a poem my credo is this little poem by e.e. cummings that i want to end with may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile |
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| eastersunday By Father Daniel P. Richards we walk when we can to the tomb knowing that life is the way we always suspected our hope in pools beneath the executioner's wood our grief has turned numb and we do what we probably should take care of the details so we mix our spices and oils and go as we have always gone it was according to luke the traditional way of preparing bodies after the sabbath day the state it is said always wins in the end so here we go again the state of things are as they have always been there is war somewhere and losses here at home |
EASTER SUNDAY 2004 St. Michael & All Angels Church By Fr. Daniel P. Richards  |
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justified killings and innocent people sacrificed to the greater good we live lives of collateral damage the environment ruined for a comfortable drive to work someone somewhere is working her 1000th day in a row so that i can have affordable tennis shoes or cheap lettuce a child this morning is watching television alone what can we do? we try to take care of the details and sit is the reality that consumes us the pragmatic pessimism that sighs and says once again this is the way things are we go to war because we are supposed to when someone wrongs us we have to hit them back we have to have these betternewerbigger weapons or suv's to keep danger at bay but it doesn't work does it? we load the gun and the child finds it we buy organic and still get cancer we love our children and they walk away eastersunday eastersunday is the ultimate proof that the way things are is an illusion the grief that numbs is confused by the emptiness of the tomb and the way things are is underthrown by a god who works in death to do the new the thing we did not expect and cannot explain the moment of death has become the moment of life god met us where we felt most abandoned crying out my god my god why have you forsaken me? the answer did not come when we wanted it when all the world would see and they would know that we were right that we were on the winning team but rather in whispers and bleached clothes to the women whom not even peter and john quite believed and yet here we are still scratching our heads and asking exactly what it means i don't know but i hope towards this that god is here with us the god that didn't fix the way things are didn't soften the religious leaders hearts or overthrow rome that didn't go searching in the dark sabbath for revenge or mount up an army to go after "them" but that god the creator comes quietly after the storm and whispers "tabitha cum" to the little girl and takes us by the hand leads us out into a new light maybe too bright or too dim to quite see everything and the soldiers are still standing guard at the comer but somehow it all seems new and the people around us are no longer enemies or even strangers now but they wear the smile of family and friend someone breaks a fresh loaf of bread and says "this" and we take it and become someone gets out the bottle of wine and says "remember" and we do we remember who we are gathered in this quiet room the unsuspected and somewhat surprised family of god no god didn't make us perfect nor did we win but god told us even in the worst of what we could do that we are still god's own and loved and god tell us now in this festal laugh that the way things are is new the reign the household jesus proclaimed exists and always has the whole world over our family is waking up and slowly getting it as though at dawn the light of a new day shines and all are one how then do we five in our cheap tennis shoes and believe the woman who sews them is our sister? that the people in the mosque are redeemed somehow and that our soldiers are more than killing machines? i don't know but i get up every morning and i sit alone in a blue room with a candle and an icon and i remember who i am and then when 1 go to the store i think about who else has touched these things and i remember that they are loved too and that they deserve what i do and instead they get the way things are so i put my hands into the clay of my tiny corner of the world and i get to work building the new jerusalem where the way things are is the way i know them to be soaked in the light of this eastersunday morning a world made new and being made new by christ yes and by the christ in us today we will baptize these five children and we will say with them the words we say about who we are let us not say them only but remember them in our lives and not come to this table lulled to sleep by the way things appear to be but let us come to this table awake to the new day and ready to work to hand to them a world with fewer crosses and more empty tombs with more justice and a greater peace and when jesus comes again in glory he'll find a house he recognizes and their familiar faces already getting out the bread and wine for the greatest party ever thrown and everyone will be welcome daniel p. richards |
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 Father John R. Smith
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Lent, Easter and the Crucified Mind - A Sermon by Fr. Smith Saturday, April 10, 2004 Dear Friends: We have arrived at the threshold of Easter. Alleluia! Lent and Holy Week have flown by. It's been great to see some new faces among us. I've been wondering if the Passion of the Christ movie has had some effect on our attendance- probably some. During Lent and Holy Week the themes I've thinking, praying, and sharing about have centered around two basic hopes: that we can free ourselves with the Spirit's help from the limits we put on our love of God and our neighbor, and, in doing this take on more and more the mind of Christ as the way we view the world and all the people we meet. The time in which we live is demanding this of us and even dragging us, kicking and screaming into a new way of living. |
The biggest shift in mentality to enable all this is the Crucified mind. The Crucified mind is one with God and neighbor, seeks the good of the other, is willing to repent of personal faults, while overlooking the faults of others, and go the extra mile. The Crucified mind is able to let go of all those judgements of others which separate us from God and all of our brothers and sisters. We can meet each person and situation (even brought close in the media) trying to see it through the eyes of Christ: conquering the evil and pain in the world by a willingness to take some of it in to be destroyed by love- Christ's love in us! But another mind is vying for our attention and among religious people and clearly has the upper hand in our day: the Crusading mind. The Crusading mindset permeates our thoughts with conviction about everything that is wrong in our world and other people- especially those who differ from us. From a position of self-righteousness we clearly see who is in the wrong, who our enemies are, and we take on the goal of annihilating them. We become very careful about who we share the love of Christ with because many are unworthy of His love. Our judgements make us more and more isolated, enjoying gathering only with like-minded "Crusaders" like ourselves. St. Paul, who was the greatest example of a person who changed by God's grace from a Crusading mindset to a Crucified Mind, writes in Philippians 2:4ff: Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who,k though he was in the form of God, did not regard egaulity with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. |
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 Sunday, January 04, 2004Resolutions for the New Year that will probably work: Fr. Smith's Sermon for Second Sunday after Christmas When I was called to serve in this diocese in 1987 my first assignment was St. Michael’s in Coolidge and Christ Church in Florence. On my days off, Kathleen, the kids, and me would sometimes come to Tucson to shop. I remember going down Wilmot in those days and seeing the Sign in front of the parish: It’s a sin to build a nuclear bomb! Almost eight years later, when I came to this parish, the Sign had been changed to: Jesus was a refugee. The idyllic scene of the Christmas story and crèche didn’t last very long. The picture on the prophetic sign was of the Holy Family, Joseph leading Mary and the child Jesus on a donkey as they fled to Egypt. And they stayed in Egypt around six or seven years before God-inspired dreams guided Joseph to bring his family to settle down in Nazareth. All of this divine guidance and moving around was due to Herod’s slaughter of innocent children two years old or younger. Just ten days from the Christmas celebration we are given a stark reminder that the plan of our redemption always involves suffering and death. As T.S.Elliot wrote. In his end was his beginning. Remember the question to Jesus: Are you a king? Herod orders the death sentence of innocent children to end the threat to his earthly kingship. Then, as in our own day, the ones who suffer most in this world are innocent children, gassed at Auschwitz, napalmed in Vietnam, starved to death in Africa, always at the hands of fear, greed, and power. The ancient story repeats itself over and over again, “wailing and loud lamentation are heard in Ramah, Rachel is weeping for her children.” The question that we wrestle with: Where is God when innocents suffer? This is the scandalous question which plagues us and yet is answered during the season of the Incarnation we are celebrating. The answer is that God is never far off at all. God is so close to us, in fact, that God has become one of us in Jesus, a human being born into poverty, rejected by respectable people, and executed as a criminal. In Jesus, God meets us at the very core of our suffering. Any pain that the world can manufacture will ultimately be swallowed up in God’s compassionate and gracious love. In the Gospel today there are no less than three occasions where God’s presence in a dream resulted in deliverance from harm for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. God is still at work today, acting for our good if we, like Joseph, prayerfully listen to our dreams, act on them, and go with the flow of God’s love in communion with the Church, God’s word, and Sacraments. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” We might find ourselves in an “Egypt experience” as Joseph did, at first glance awful, until we realize God is with us in that place, there’s a shortage of skilled wood-workers, and we can obtain food and every basic need by his skill as a carpenter. The Good News is God is with us. And God will bring us back. Jeremiah saw his nation conquered and his people marched into exile in Babylon. But in faith, Jeremiah knew this was not the end. There would be a return. “For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.’ See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here . . . I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow, I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord.” So God brought Israel back. He brought the Christ child and his parents back. Has he ever brought you back? Once, twice, many times? Amen? Just as Jesus’ life was spared so that the way was cleared for his ministry, so to we are spared, brought back, given every spiritual blessing, so the way can be cleared for our ministry as baptized members of his body. We are spared, brought back, healed, forgiven, for a purpose. To witness that God is with us and can do great things through us if we are awake and attentive. Today’s Gospel teaches us to listen to God’s voice in all circumstances, even in dreams and intuition, as God uses all these means to prepare us for service. The other day, Annie, my daughter, turned to me and asked: Dad, have you made a resolution for the New Year? I confessed that I hadn’t made one. But maybe this could be a resolution for me and for you: that we really try to listen to God this year, realize God is with us, and is leading us back, not to live for urselves alone, but for ministry in his church. Let’s back up this resolution appropriating Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, a community of the church not much different than we are. “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” So, four gifts for the New Year: wisdom and revelation, hope, riches of a glorious inheritance, and power. Believe and it happens! |
| Fr. Smith's Sermon, Sunday, November 16, 2003 These next four weeks, two as we end the church year and the first two Sundays of Advent, we deal with the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Today readings introduce the coming of Christ at the end climatic time of the Great Tribulation. Now we can think about all this as years, or even hundreds of years away- not in our lifetime at all. But isn’t it the truth that some people are experiencing great tribulation in their lives right this very minute? I’m talking about people who have suffered massively from fire and natural disasters, warfare, murders, famine, floods, refugee migration, and sometimes losing everything. When these things happen to you and the people that you love it is great tribulation and it is the end of the world as you know it. Jesus isn’t trying to play a guessing game with his disciples: who can guess when the end will come? Then, in his day, all along the history of the world, and in our own time, Jesus knew there will be times of great tribulation and distress. And when the great tribulation that effects your life or mine hits-- the big question is whether we will be awake or asleep? Are we prepared with a knowledge of God’s love and care for us that gives us the hope and endurance we need or have we in subtle or not-so-subtle ways postponed knowing God? Are we people of faith in name only or people of commitment and deep trust in God’s providence over our lives? These relevant questions are being forced on us these days--even if “tribulation” seems to have bypassed us. The scriptures for today are a type of literature called “apocalyptic”. It’s the loud unexpected knock on the door or the telephone ringing in the middle of the night causing your heart to skip a beat. It’s the jumping out of bed and your feet touching the cold floor. It being forced to leave your warm bed and covers. Apocalyptic is a call to wake up to spiritual reality which when it comes down to it is the most real of all. What we call Reality TV is a joke compared to what apocalyptic is all about. All of us experienced “apocalyptic” on September 11. The world as we knew it was changed in a matter of minutes. An acquaintance of mine wrote about her apocalyptic experience of that fateful day. Since September 11, we’re all insecure, frightened, and fearful. If it happened once, it could happen again, at any time. Since then, we’re all struggling to define ourselves and our culture in new ways, taking into account what used to be unthinkable. The scriptural images of the end of the world used to seem alien. Apocalyptic visions seemed to apply to something long ago and far away. Now, our global village smaller, with so much news from the Middle East, the images from Scripture seem somehow to be coming very close to our lives with wars and rumors of wars in places with biblical names seeming right next door! Holy wars in the Holy Land aren’t just long ago and far away, and now colonial occupation of biblical places has me smack-dab in the middle of apocalyptic events--even if I don’t choose or didn’t choose to be there. What used to be “there” is here, wherever I live.” Whew! I said to myself when I read what she wrote a couple of weeks ago. This is how I’m feeling too. Maybe you feel the same way. What are we going to do about it? First off, it is a perfect time to make a solid act of faith. When things look bleakest in the world around us, when there is no hope for a purely human solution: do everything possible to live in faith. When we finally realize what scripture has been trying to tell us all along: That the present age is under the dominion of Satan, the world is up to its neck with unrighteousness, that the righteous, even twenty Mother Teresas, are powerless to redeem the situation we find ourselves in and there is no prospect for improvement. The only way out--the only hope we have for salvation the way things are going-- is for the Holy God to intervene. Do you have that “apocalyptic” feeling? For me, this feeling engenders not more fear, but hope. Satan is not the opposite of God. God has no opposite. The opposite of Satan is Michael, the Archangel, our patron. Appearances to the contrary, notwithstanding, God is in control, God reigns! The Day of the Lord is coming when all the plans and architecture of this present age will be supplanted by the rule of God. Nothing in our human dimension is permanent. Not our country, not the Constitution. Not the Supreme Court. Not the National Cathedral or this church, a symbol of God’s presence in our midst. None of these things have survival value. Everything we take for granted as center-pieces of our culture and community, in education, government, religion, and economics, will pass away. Only one thing has survival value in this world and the next: love. So instead of hiding our heads in virtual sand, or giving up all responsibility for this world and just sit around and wait for Jesus to return-- we are called to stay awake and pay attention to everything happening around us with love. Now I was hoping that this Sunday’s readings would lead to a consideration of stewardship at this time of year when we make our commitment for the coming year. If the call is to wake up, then Stewardship, taking responsibility before God for how we use our time, talents, and money keeps us awake like nothing else can and effectively helps us to pay attention in love to what God is doing in our lives, community, and the world. This week I came across some research by Esther Harding, a personologist and author of a book entitled The I and the Not I. It contains a scientific study about the consciousness of animals. The scientists discovered that an animal sees and hears only what concerns itself and is insensitive to all else. Every animal, in other words, lives in a world of its own. The study examines the life of a little creature called a wood-tick, which, at certain times in its life cycle, needs the blood of warm-blooded animals in order to reproduce. The wood-tick attaches itself to the bark of trees and waits for a host animal to pass by. With many ticks in the woods and far fewer warm-blooded animals to walk by, the wait for some wood-ticks has been as long as 17 years! During this time there is nothing else that meets the need of the tick, and nothing else to which it responds. Hardy, who takes this study and applies it to her work as a personologist, says that even though humans have a higher consciousness than “lower animals,” this enclosed world view persists in the human day to day environment as well. We tend to see only what concerns us or meets our needs. And we tend to turn off, or ignore, those things which we deem irrelevant to our situation. All of this speaks to our own consciousness of the “end times” and the wisdom of living awake and sober as good stewards of all God has put into our hands. We might like to stay warm in bed under the covers of unconsciousness, or sit in a piece of bark waiting for life to come to us, but then along comes this Gospel wake-up call to come alive to the world, the living God who created it all, and the church which he called into being, and whatever happens, we are never to despair. I know what some of you might be thinking. Smith’s sermon can be summarized in one sentence: Stewardship leads to the end of the world! Cute, I agree, but what if its true? Just think of who is coming at the end of the world- being a good steward makes a lot of sense! |
Monday, November 03, 2003A reflection on the Gospel, Sunday, October 26th by Fr. SmithSometimes if we really want to "see" or understand something we have take the most radical and trusting step of faith first. Bartimaeus, a blind begger, is squating, begging for alms, and hoping that the pilgrims heading for the Passover celebration in Jerusalem will throw a coin or two into his cloakfolded over his legs. He knows all the best places to beg, and though blind, has survived relatively well over the years. Bartimaeus' blindness has heightened his sense of hearing. He doesn't miss much of what is going on around him. He has heard that one Jesus or Nazareth is soon to pass by, and when he does he cries out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. The crown around him tells him to b quiet, but he continues to cry out to Jesus. And Jesus stops! Jesus calls for Bartimaeus to come to him. Bartimaeus jumps up and runs to Jesus leaving behind his cloak!. This is a very significant detail in the story. The cloak kept Bartimaeus warm at night and was the collecting point for the alms he received. It was probably one of his few possessions and leaving it behind as a blind person he would never find it again in the confusion of the great crowd heading for Jerusalem. Seeing his faith and perceiving that Bartimaeus was ready, Jesus asks him the question he asked others: What do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus had left everything- he could have asked for monetary help, but instead he asks that he might regain his sight. Jesus instantly gives him back his sight. The story concludes with Bartimaeus following Jesus "on the way" as the newest disciple. |
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All Saints celebration November 2nd, 2003 - a reflection by Fr. Smith
St. Michael and All Angels church and school celebrates a "full" liturgical calendar remembering each Saint and Anglican hero as their day comes along. But at All Saints we remember the "rank and file" folk "just like you and me" who are baptized in the faith and whose deeds of love and mercy over the years are largely unheralded. There are no natural-born christians. There is no such thing as christian DNA. Surely loved by God from the moment of our conception, each of us still has to be introduced to Jesus Christ the Lord of life. The everyday "saints" our the ones who have done this for us and it is these we celebrate on the Feast of All Saints! The "saints" we're giving thanks for today have dents in their halos for sure. They merit the name saint not because they are free from imperfection, but because they tried to imitate Jesus in their lives. St. Paul refers to "saints" in all his letters to the churches and chides those same people at times for their wilfulness, quarelsome, self-serving ways, as well as their sexual irresponsibility. But they are still "saints". Even St. Paul, after his conversion confesses "I don't understand my own actions. The very things I do not want to do, I do. And the things I do want to do I don't do." The children we baptized on All Saints are "canonized" into the joyful following of the Lord. They will need their families, friends, and the witness all of us to come to know Jesus Christ and the happiness this relationship brings. And when life brings sorrow, as it surely does at times, Jesus will be the One who will wipe away every tear from their eyes. |
Fr. Smith's Sermon Sunday October 19th, 2003 |
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