3 Easter Yr C May 5 2019

Audio  3 Easter Yr C May 5 2019

Acts 9:1-20, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19, Psalm 30

What if this story that we have heard in Acts so many times, this story that we’ve always heard called “The Conversion of Paul”, this story of change, this story about seeing new, is really a story about how God continues to surprise and disrupt us as we adopt new outlooks on what’s possible?

I have heard it said the only constant in life is change. Change is really hard for me. I really like routine, I really like knowing what to expect. Surprises are fun, but not too often. And I’m a planner, any of you who saw my Holy Week Grid can attest to that. And I am an Episcopalian, that in and of itself shows that I like things in good order. There’s a bit of a stereotype of Episcopalians that suggests it’s hard for us to step out of our comfort zone, we are often accused of doing things the way they’ve always been done. I’m not sure that’s completely true. I think we here at Trinity are much more brave and courageous than we give ourselves credit for. God continues to surprise and disrupt us as we adopt new outlooks on what’s possible when we follow the way of Love.

But what about Paul, in this story we heard today. Luke, who we believe is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul, knew each other, and did some traveling together. Luke tells this story about some of the people who followed Jesus. And this story we read today about Paul and Ananias, is at the very least a story about change, maybe even a story about how God continues to surprise and disrupt the followers of Jesus.

Let’s remember a little about Paul, who in this story was still Saul. Saul was an aggressive young fanatic; today we would describe him as an extremist. He would be wearing a red MAGA hat, but instead of make America great again, it would be make Yahweh great again. Saul was all about defending the purity of the ancient faith. As we encounter Saul, he is still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. This encounter occurs not too long after Stephen is killed by stoning, and Saul approved of the people killing him.

Saul is going about his business. Taking care of the mundane tasks of his day. Making sure he is keeping the law. Much of his day would have been spent studying the Torah, either at Gamaliel’s feet or with others in a Yeshiva, a school. A flash of lightening comes directly at him out of the sky. And he hears the voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you?” Saul asks. And Saul could no longer see. This is Saul’s story, probably reported to Luke as they traveled together.  Luke remembers it this way to tell it to those who will hear. What a story, what an event. What a surprise, what a disruption.

And then in a vision Ananias hears a voice, “here I am,” he says. “Go and find Saul, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” Ananias, probably minding his own business, a disciple, a follower, who is surprised by this voice and whose life is disrupted by this ask to go and find Saul, the one who has done much evil to the followers of Jesus.

It is Ananias who listened and responded. It is Ananias who goes to Saul, and laid his hands on him. It is because of Ananias that something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes. It is because of Ananias that Saul, after three days, could see again. Ananias was surprised by God. Ananias’ life was disrupted. And a whole new world was made possible. Had Ananias not listened and responded, would Saul have ever been healed, followed Jesus, and spread the good news throughout the Mediterranean. Maybe it is Ananias who is the hero here.

And maybe it is you and I who are surprised by God, maybe it is you and I whose ordered, predicable lives are disrupted by the one who creates the possibilities, the one who calls us to follow on the way of Love. Just imagine it, being the ones who in our ordered, busy lives, respond “here we are,” being the ones who carry the light, being the ones who point the way. Just imagine us, the ones who, like Ananias, are there when God needs us to love those who would hate. Just imagine us, the ones who, like Ananias, are there when God needs us to be compassionate when we are fearful of the one who is not like us. Just imagine us, the ones who, like Ananias, are there when God needs us to be merciful and kind.

Just what does that look like? How do we show up for God and love people in the places we find ourselves? This amazing story about Saul seeing the light from heaven flashing around him, and hearing Jesus’ voice, and Ananias’ vision and response may lead us to believe that we are not included in the story. Not many of us hear Jesus’ voice, see the light from heaven flashing around us, or have visions, at least no one has told me about this kind of excitement.

But we are surprised and disrupted by experiences that cause us to say, that was the Holy Spirit. And it is in these ways we tell the story of God’s call to us, of God’s activity in our lives, and of our response to God’s love. When we show up in our lives bearing God’s love, when we show up in our lives bearing God’s light, when we show up in our lives bearing God’s words, we participate in transformation like Ananias did. And we, like Ananias, carry the story forward.

These are the things I hear about.

A few weeks back, after the awful shooting at Christchurch New Zealand, in our community a number of us showed up and prayed and walked with our Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters. We had the opportunity to learn about prayer in ways that are very different from our own, we had the opportunity to pray with people not so very different from ourselves, we had the opportunity to be a part of spreading compassion and love with our neighbors. It seems to me that we showed up in the way we know how, offering love, and compassion, and presence. We listened to God’s voice and responded in ways that may cause healing, that may cause blindness to be replaced by sight.

I heard a story from three of you, all separately, about finding yourself in the same store at the same time. Each of you coming to that place carrying some sort of a burden, and each of you leaving that store having been lifted up, encouraged, by one another. Now that may seem like a small thing, and a serendipitous coincidence, but I believe what happened is that you showed up in your life, you responded to the healing that you have been offered in your relationship with Jesus, and you let that light shine.

You see, it is because each one of us has been broken and healed, it is because each one of us has been loved back into life, it is because Jesus stands in our place, and the fragments of our lives put back together again, that we can say “here I am Lord, I will carry your love, I will show up and show forth the truth of your love.” This is what changes the world. Love is what changes the world.

Feast of the Epiphany (trans) Jan 10 2016

Feast of the Epiphany (trans) Jan 10 2016 Audio

Every good fairy tale begins with once upon a time. As the tale progresses we hear of princesses, princes, witches, fairy god-mothers, good and evil, and happily ever afters. But sometimes people mistake God's story for a fairy tale. For them God is a magician who will swoop down and rescue them from bad decisions. Or God is someone with whom a bargain can be made. God, if you get me out of this mess, then I will go to church every Sunday. This would be the transactional God. And there's the God of certainty, just like in the fairy tale, good and evil are very clear, you can tell them apart by the color they wear. And, as long as the rules are followed, as long as the other remains the other, as long as good and evil are kept separate, we will live happily ever after and all our wishes will come true.

There was a movie not long ago, Into the Woods, a fairy tale mash-up that leads the viewer on a journey through the deep, dark woods. Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and the Bakers, discover that the journey is not necessarily one of happily ever after, but of joy and pain and suffering. It is a fairy tale that is as much unlike a fairy tale as is our story of incarnation, love, and resurrection. The journey into the woods is fraught with tragedy and deception, broken promises and wishes come true, good that looks like evil and evil that looks like good. Family trees that are organic and families that arise from death and new birth.

Now, I love a good fairy tale, a fantasy story even better, Fairy tales and anti-fairy tales may teach us truths, and show us the precariousness of life, but the Jesus story is not a fairy tale, it is the truth. It is the Divine Love Story, in which the God of all creation shows up in human history, Emmanuel, God is with us. We are in the midst of incarnation, the baby born in a barn, born to change the world, born to bring new life, new light, new hope. The world is about to turn. And today we are invited into the woods with the magi, we are invited to this journey with Jesus, with all it's twists and turns, with all it's chaos and messiness, in danger and in light.

These magi, who show up for this birth, are there so that we may see the significance of this baby, this birth. These magi show us that there will be some time when political tyrants will be overthrown. These magi show us that brutal power exercised to control the weak and the vulnerable will be toppled. And these magi show us that those in power need be afraid, because the one who is to overthrow them is here.

The story we have before us today, this story of the wise ones from the east who follow the Light to the child born in a barn, helps us to see the cosmic importance of this birth. This birth happened in a particular place at a particular time in the context of a particular tribe, but the arrival of these wise ones from the east shows us that it wasn't just for a particular people at a particular time in a particular tribe. Matthew's intent in telling this story is to show us that this birth changes the world, the wise ones from the east know that, and they know the importance of keeping the birth from Herod, so they go home by another way.

God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people in through visitors from the East. From a manger, where a child lies wrapped in bands of cloth, God’s reach, God’s embrace in Jesus, gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with pain and suffering. Jesus even calls the dead back to life. Ultimately, Jesus draws all people to himself as he is lifted up on the cross. In Jesus, no one is beyond God’s embrace.

And, maybe these magi are like Cinderella, or Jack, or Little Red Riding Hood, or the Bakers. Maybe all of them show us that incarnation, God showing up in our lives, calls us to respond to life's circumstances, the sadness and tragedy that we encounter, with the same kind of love that God has for us, God's beloved. Incarnation, God showing up, calls us to show up for others, not because we have something they do not, like power and prestige, or all the right answers, but because we are just like them, broken and flawed, hungry and tired. God, born in a barn, vulnerable and cold, calls us to show up for others because we are all alike, in need of the assurance of the absolute and abundant love that is only God's. With the magi, we carry that love into the world, not because of who we are or what we possess, but because we are loved.

Perhaps our journey is not so different from that of the magi, with their turns sometimes into safety, sometimes into precarious territory. Perhaps our journey is not so different from those who go into the woods. Sometimes we may be needing to ask for directions, sometimes divine guidance may be so obvious that we could not miss our destination. Sometimes we may be looking for those with whom to travel, those who are like us, broken and lost, needing family and friends to help us find the way.

If ever in our lives our long journeys do lead us precisely to the place we have been seeking, to the place where we see Jesus, may we like them also rejoice, becoming overwhelmed with our joy.  But always on the way, may we show forth the love that wins, may we give freely in response to that love. May we follow Jesus and show up to feed one another.

Sometimes we go into the woods and are overwhelmed by the fear, and the dark. Sometimes we read our newspapers and become overwhelmed by the brutality of our neighbors, the fear of our nations. Sometimes we get overwhelmed and exasperated by the huge need of so many in in our community, our city, our nation, our world. And in those dark places we wish it were different. But wishing only works in fairy tales. Our call is to respond to the God who shows up in our lives and in our community of faith. As we respond, as we with the magi go home by the way of love, and compassion, and mercy, we with God are capable of changing the world. That's what incarnation is. Showing up, walking the way, going into the woods, and bringing with us all that we are, all that we have, not because we have more or better, but because we are loved. Love changes us, together, we change the world.

13th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 16 Yr B August 23 2015

I'm telling my best Vikings Packers joke, because after today, I don't think I'll be able to tell it again.

The Vikings and the Packers had an ice fishing tournament. The first day the Vikings caught 100 fish and the Packers didn't catch any. The second day the Vikings caught 200 fish and the Packers didn't catch any. The third day the Packers were getting worried so they dressed Aaron Rogers up like a Viking and sent him with the Vikes to see why they were catching so many fish and the Packers couldn't catch any. That day the Vikes caught 300 fish and the Packers caught none. They said what's the deal Aaron, are they cheating or what's going on? Aaron said you bet they are, they are drilling holes in the ice!

You have heard me say over and over again, I place all of my faith in the truth of resurrection. I place all my faith in the reality in which we live, the reality that God's creation is death and resurrection. This community of faith has experienced it's share of death and resurrection. We all know that, and we walk that road together. So today, I want to talk about baptism, and ministry, and resurrection.

My baptism, Salah's baptism, your baptism, is what empowers each of us for ministry. Baptism reminds us that we are God's beloved creation, and in baptism we are claimed and marked as God's own forever. Baptism matters. Water is a powerful force that can kill as easily as give life. In it we join with Jesus in death, and in new life. Baptism reminds us that it is in the letting go, letting things die, that we are free to be the amazing creation God intends for us. 

So we are baptized for ministry, what does that mean? And what does that look like? We show up. We are people of incarnation, we don't just attend church, we are the church, and the church shows up. The church shows up to care for one another, to advocate for those with no voice, to feed each other and those who are hungry, to love those whom society will not.

We listen, to one another. We listen to those with whom we most vehemently disagree. We listen to those who are most different from ourselves. We listen to stories of lives, when they are much like our own and when they are so very different from our own. We listen without needing to inflict our own opinion, judgement, or morality. We listen, as if it Jesus is in our midst. And indeed, it is, because we also know the reality of incarnation, Jesus in our midst. 

We tell the truth, the truth that love wins, the truth that death does not have victory, but that the work that Jesus does on the cross is the victory. The truth that we miss the mark, we often slog through the muck and the mess,

and God loves us, and we love one another, anyway. The truth that perfection is an illusion, brokenness is the reality, and healing possible because God shows up for us and we show up for each other, bearing light and love into all the dark places. Truth is that prosperity and success are not what God's heart's desire is for us, but God's dream for creation is love, and relationship and connection. The truth that this life is not really even about any one of us, but about all of us together and God's love in the midst of us.  

And we let go. We let go. This may be the very hardest part. We cannot control God's love, or even who God loves. We cannot control what dies and how new life arises out of that death. When we don't let go, we get into all sorts of trouble. 

So, you, you individually, you St. Andrew's, you, have shown up as church, and shown me what that looks like. We have prayed with each other in this space, and in the parish hall and the garden and the park and the hospital. You have shown me what communion and community look like. We gather here, at this table, shoulder to shoulder, standing and kneeling, holding hands and holding each other, to be created as the body of christ, to offer our brokenness to be healed, to be filled with the healing bread and wine. You have shown forth communion and community in your homes, around your tables. You have fed one another and you have fed me, and Rick, and our children, as family. You know what being a minister is, you live that out day by day.

You show up for the Cornerstone meal, you show up for Love INC, you show up at United Campus Ministry. You are church for so many.

You show forth God's kingdom, you are part of God's love for all of creation. Our work, our call is to bring God's love, God's healing and wholeness into the world, into our workplaces and our playplaces. Don't ever be discouraged by numbers, always be encouraged that you get God's mission in the world, and you get on board with God's love in the world. 

Always know that new things are hard, and you can do hard things. Always know that God's dream for you is that you love and welcome everyone into this sacred space. Always know that you have shown me, and us, love and compassion and mercy, and that love always wins.

Thanks be to God.