Making Space

15th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, September 9, 2012

Isaiah 45:4-7a; James 2:1-10,(11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-34

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

  

Say to those of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God." (Isaiah).  Here is your God!  Where might that be? That here that Isaiah speaks of?  Is it in the church?  In the city?  In the pew sitting beside you?  Inside you?  Where is here?

We are an incarnational people.  We believe that God is present in all God creats, most especially in Jesus Christ, a man who lived in first century Palestine.  Jesus lived in unique relationship with God, in perfect union.  Jesus was fully human and always here with God.  Jesus had the capacity to funnel God's creative and healing energy into the world.

In our readings from Mark, Jesus healed a man who is deaf and dumb.  He exorcises a demon with a word, without even stepping foot in the house.  Jesus is a conduit for the fulfillment of God's purposes on earth, just as we can be.  James is pretty clear, just like he was in last week's reading, that our calling is to believe and act.  In fact, he says, we are to act without partiality.  No one person is less or more important than another.  Each of us is precious in God's eyes.  That's why we address everyone at Sunday Supper as "sir" and "ma'am".  It's an act of respect.  That's why we don't turn anyone away from that meal or this table.  Our doing in love, is God doing in love.  God's power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

"Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God."  So how do we prepare ourselves for God being HERE with us?  How do we prepare ourselves for God taking up residence within us?

The Word Implanted in Us

14^th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, September 2, 2012

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

In the August 22^nd issue of The Christian Century, Wallace Bubar, a Presbyterian minister shares a story about his early church life in a Southern Baptist church.  Bubar writes,

It was called the six-point record system.  In the Southern Baptist church of my childhood, the offering envelopes in the pews had the usual line for your name and the amount of your contribution.  But they also had six little boxes underneath where you could put a check mark, and next to the boxes were six actions: worship attended, Bible brought, Bible read daily, Sunday school lesson studied, prayed daily, gave an offering.

Somebody, writes Bubar, at Southern Baptist headquarters in Nashville had decided these were the six things that were worth recording.  Not the commandments, not the fruits of the Spirit, not the eight Beatitudes and not the seven cardinal virtues.  No, there were six essentials of the Christian life, and bringing your Bible to church was one of them.[1] 

Now, I didn’t grow up Baptist.  I was raised in the Roman Catholic church.  No one there brought a Bible to anything when I was young!  I was so far removed from the Bible that I didn’t even really know any Bible stories … even though I’d heard passages of the Bible read in church every Sunday, practically from the moment I took my first breath!  Never missed church … but never read the Bible for myself until I was an adult. 

Choose

13^th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, August 26, 2012

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

As far as John’s gospel goes we’re picking up right where we left off last week.  Actually we’re picking up reading the last two verses of what we heard last week.  Jesus has just told his followers that they must eat his body and drink his blood if they are to be true followers of him.  He could have made it a lot easier for them by talking plainly, and not in metaphors.  But he doesn’t, and as it says in the message version of this passage, Jesus sensed that the disciples were having a hard time with this.  Such a hard time in fact, that many of them decide to leave.  So Jesus turned to his trusted inner circle of apostles, and he asks them, “Do you also want to leave?” 

At the time when John was writing this gospel the Christ followers were being shut out of the synagogues.  The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed a second time after a failed revolt.  The unrest was firmly blamed on the messianic Jews among them.  Those who still followed the teachings of the prophet Jesus.  The early Christians were being forced to choose whether they would remain within Judaism, or whether they would risk cutting themselves off to continue to follow the Way of Jesus.  Judaism had a tenuous relationship with the Roman leadership, but the outside of that fold, Christianity was an illegal religion.  There were real risks to consider.

A Red, Red Rose

12^th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, August 19, 2012

Proverbs 9:1-6; Psalm 34:9-14; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

Last week, I went to church at St. Patrick's Church in Brewer, ME.  I've been there a number of times, always in the summer, and usually when the priest there is on vacation ... like I am.  This time the Associate Priest was presiding and preaching at the service.  He started his sermon by saying that he had intended to make this sermon a two parter.  Beginning with last Sunday's lessons and finishing with this Sunday's readings.   But things hadn't worked out exactly as he had planned, so he actually ended up condensing last week's sermon and giving us a preview of this week. 

He shared with us two poems, and he talked about the way poetry often communicates a message that is difficult to articulate in everyday language.

To Work and To Love

8^th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, July 22, 2012

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

         Here’s how I imagine the gathering at the beginning of our gospel story.  The apostles are returning in their pairs from the mission that Jesus has sent them out to do.  They are all talking at once. 

“Jesus, you’ll never believe what happened to us in Jerusalem.”

“Jesus, Andrew and I were so tired after walking that first night that I didn’t think we were going to make it into the city to find shelter.”

“Jesus, Peter and I got lost on the path to Jericho and I wanted to kill him for taking us down the wrong road.”

“Jesus, Nathaniel healed a blind woman and her husband was so grateful that he let us stay with them for a whole week!”

 “Jesus, I think I need a new pair of sandals.”

Step out Boldly

7^th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, July 15, 2012

Amos 7:7-15; Psalm 85:8-13; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            In some ways today’s gospel story is almost too ludicrous to take seriously.  We have a “king” who’s not really a king celebrating a birthday with a grand party for his friends and officers.  Shamelessly he allows his daughter to dance for the guests, something that should only have been allowed with family present.  He becomes so enthralled with her dance that he offers her anything she desires, even though the most a daughter can expect to receive from a father is half of what he owns.  But his daughter doesn’t want the kingdom.  She wants the head of John the Baptist on a platter, a truly gruesome request.  Herod has made the gift offer in front of all his officers, and to avoid dishonor he reluctantly … we’re told … sends his soldiers to the prison to kill John.  John’s head is ultimately served up on a platter to the waiting daughter.

Tree or Shrub?

3^rd Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. B, June 17, 2012

Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 92:1-4, 11-14; 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17; ; Mark 4:26-34

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

The passage we heard from Ezekiel is the third part in a larger series that begins with a parable.  The parable goes like this.

A great eagle, with great wings and long pinions,
rich in plumage of many colors, came to the Lebanon.
He took the top of the cedar, broke off its topmost shoot;
he carried it to a land of trade,
set it in a city of merchants. 
Then he took a seed from the land, placed it in fertile soil;
a plant by abundant waters, he set it like a willow twig. 
It sprouted and became a vine,
spreading out, but low;
its branches turned towards him, its roots remained where it stood.
 So it became a vine; it brought forth branches,
put forth foliage.