Sermon: B Last Pentecost Proper 29 King of kings 25 November 2012

2 Sam 23: 1-7; Ps 132: 1-13; Rev 1: 4b-8; JOHN 18: 33-37

Grant, O God, that all may be brought under the most gracious rule of your Belov’d Son, King of Kings AMEN

Chip our seminarian, who defines a providential gift as a Field Ed person, is graciously being our parish musician this morning. He was a good sport about giving me apt travel music, from Messiah, “King of kings and Lord of lords, and he shall reign forever.” Some of the music for Jesus as King and Lord, is some of our most familiar and favorite, even if on careful word-checking, we’re less enthusiastic about some of the ideas that go with such august positions as King of kings. The kingly images in music are ones that have leapt out at me this week, rather than visual ones.

Sermon: B Thanksgiving 22 November 2012

Joel 2:21-27; Psalm 126; MATTHEW 6: 25-33

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God. AMEN.

Happy Thanksgiving. Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” On this day, of all days, it’s a toss-up whether I find this sentence condescending, sexist, or just plain objectionable—surely infuriating, “Don’t worry about what we’ll eat”—so who’s cooking for you today? Just as Jesus scolded Martha for not just listening after she’d provided, served, and cleaned up for him, and commended Mary for listening, so also I find it hard to take to be scolded for worry over a meal on Thanksgiving. Maybe Tina’s calm, but I’m always up late making pie, pealing apples and potatoes, writing, and up early to stuff the turkey, so that even if I get home from church latish, we’ll still eat at a reasonable time. Who picked this reading anyway—someone with household help, or a subservient, non-working wife? I suppose one doesn’t need to add worry, but there sure is a whole lot of work on this day for many women—now many people: driving, shopping, visiting, flying, chopping, waiting, baking, cooking, eating, cleaning, and celebrating: so how not to worry about it all coming out right?

Meditation for October 28: “Oh Taste and See”- But How?

Google “Blind Bartimeaus, son of Timeaus, a blind beggar…sitting by the roadside” yelling at Jesus and at least 40,000 entries will pop up. Mark’s account of the event and Jesus’s response — “Go; your faith has made you well” heals the sin-sick soul and yet we know not to expect dramatic acts like this.

Or should we? How? The Psalmist has an answer: “Taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are they who trust in him!” (34:8). I remember the first time I heard the hymn “Taste and See” (LEVAS). I heard it sung vigorously, bodies in motion, in a cathedral on the island of St. Thomas, a cathedral built for the Anglican Church by freed slaves. It sets my soul in motion — still.

Meditation for Oct. 21: -- “Who would be a servant leader?”

Who would chose to accept Jesus’ description of a new kind of leader – servant leader and follow that pattern for their life? Can we give up control and practice authority? Are we willing to stop putting “women in binders,” and share authority? God appears to Job in a whirlwind and speaks with authority. The Psalmist uses similar a similar image in Psalm 104:4 declaring: * “You make the winds your messengers and flames of fire your servants.” The collect for Sunday offers a pattern for servant leadership as well, praying that we  …may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name…

Theologian Frederick Buechner offers a 21st century version of today’s calls to servant leadership: “The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” That shifts our thinking and begs this question, can our faith inform not so much what we do, but who we are.

Sermon: B 18 Pentecost 21 Proper 30 September 2012

Esth 7:1-6,9-10;9:20-22; Ps 124; Jms 5: 13:13-20; MK 9: 38-50

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth. AMEN.

Today we include Michaelmas in our observance and thinking. It’s odd though to have the story of Esther on the same day as Michaelmas, the first being the Purim narrative, a Jewish celebration usually observed in March—and its attendant cookies available at the picnic—and September 29, yesterday, was St Michael and all the Angels. It’s jarring to have asparagus-spring-fertility matched together with and pumpkins-autumn-fruition together, and nearly St. Francis (to come next week and here.) Maybe, seasonal constants don’t shape your day, but they do underlie the Church’s wheel of time, nature’s time, and light patterns in which we live and grow. Also, it’s election time, and elections cross both nature’s wheel of time and our church and personal commitments to decency. Today’s lections each have a structuring, almost echoing, commitment to some sense of decency.

Meditation for August 23, 2012: “Who is of God’s household?”

Today's Psalm (84) speaks of the Temple. But the larger subject is those who are at home with God — 'who passing through the vale of misery use it for well; and the pools are full of water.' And so Solomon, dedicating the Temple (I Kings 8), blesses its use even by sinners, and in times of calamity, and by the stranger - 'that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake.' Boundaries — who is of God's household — are also a theme of today's Gospel (John 6:56-69). Unlike the inclusive Solomon, Jesus stresses them, deliberately provoking his hearers ' 'he that eateth my flesh...' Today's outburst in John evidently rescued his followers to the Twelve (v.66-7). Today's Second Reading (Ephesians 6:10-20) - equally shocking - unflinchingly insists the true disciple is a soldier, with sword, and shield, and helmet.  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear...