2 Lent Yr A

What is this being Christian really about? Why do we bother, every Sunday, every Wednesday, coming here, to this place to worship a God we cannot see. It would be so much easier to be out with the others, drinking good coffee at Starbucks, or some other coffee establishment, reading our newspaper, eating a wonderful confection for breakfast. Or sleeping in late, or reading a good book, or hanging out with kids and partner after a long and grueling week. And yet we are here. I don’t think it’s because I compel you to be here, I have thought about preaching hell and damnation if you don’t come, hoping to increase our numbers, but I don’t, I can’t. I can’t honestly do that, because I don’t think it’s right or true. Coming here on Sunday mornings, being together, participating in good music, prayers, bread and wine, body and blood, is not about hell and damnation, it’s not about life after death, it’s all about life in the here and now. It is about the eternal life that Jesus talks about with Nicodemus in our story this morning.

Eternal life is not about heaven. Remember on the Last Sunday before Lent, a couple of weeks ago, I said something about kairos and chronos. I talked about time and measuring time and the experience of time. We live in chronological time, we are conceived, we are born in to the world, we grow, we age, and we die. The story we hear from the gospel of John today seems to, and all the other stories as well seem to show a time that is not chronos. The stories in the bible speak about God’s time, they show us kairos, not chronos. The word eternal in today’s gospel doesn’t mean forever. It isn’t a uniform measurement of time like days and years marching endlessly into some unknown or even known future. That’s a category or concept that we really don’t even find in the bible. Eternal as in whoever believes in him may have eternal life, doesn’t mean the literal passing of time, it means transcending time, or kairos, it means belonging to another realm or reign altogether. It means belonging to God’s realm. That is where heaven comes in. When Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present, eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and in whatever is to come. Heaven for Jesus wasn’t just someday; it was and is a present reality. Jesus blurs the lines, inviting Nicodemus, and us, into the merging of heaven and earth, the future and the present, here and now.
That is how you can be born again, because eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection to God. Eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts now. It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and even survive death.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Why do we come here each Sunday morning to sing songs of praise, to worship, to encounter God’s word, to be with each other, to be fed by God’s body and blood? Because new life in Christ demands it. Because the response to God’s amazing creation, God’s amazing love and grace is to give thanks, because the response to God’s amazing gift of life and love is to raise up in prayer and song, and to fall on our knees in awe. And because it’s not about any one of us individually, it’s about us together.

Some Christians have co-opted this language of being born again and have made it into a one time and exclusive deal. If you say a particular set of words you have access to some sort of life after death that means you will spend eternity in heaven, as opposed to hell. That really doesn’t seem to be what Jesus talks about or is concerned about however. Jesus seems to be much more interested in the here and now, and the new life that is available to everyone, but especially people who are suffering, in pain, and on the margins. Jesus gave his life for this new life; Jesus walked a road of pain and suffering, for what? So that some people could have comfort in an afterlife, and so that most people who don’t have access will spend life after death in a place called hell?

God’s amazing and abundant love is available to all, that’s what Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection makes real. There is no exclusivity to it; all of scripture shows us that. That’s why I come here, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Not because it’s an exclusive club, but because together we give thanks for this amazing gift, because together we recognize our need for forgiveness so that we can realize fully the love that God has for us, and because together we are fed and nourished so that we may feed and nourish others.

We are born again. In the midst of the pain and tragedy of this life, and we have observed and experienced some of the most horrific pain and tragedy recently, Jesus walks with us. In the midst of the pain and suffering of our lives, Jesus walks with us. Jesus doesn’t take that pain and suffering away, often we wish he would, Jesus carries the burden with us. The work that Jesus does in life and death, and resurrection, is to absorb all that pain and suffering, violence and hatred, and defeat it with the power of God’s amazing and abundant love.

You and I have access to that new life, to that amazing love, right here and right now. We are born again and again and again. It’s not about a one-time deal; it’s not one moment in time. It’s a process and it keeps happening, with cycles of acceptance and resistance, epiphany and doubt. We keep coming to church and we keep being fed and nourished because this journey is messy and unclear. We glimpse the new life that is right in front of it at one moment, and then we miss it, again we miss the mark, we loose the trail, we wander in the wilderness, and we come back to be fed and nourished and find our way again.

And as we are fed and nourished, we go out and feed and nourish others. And in the end, and in the beginning, and in the middle, that is what Christian discipleship is about, that is what this journey is about. It is about responding to the amazing love that God has for each and every one of us and for all of us, it is about the new life, the eternal life, the life of here and now, that is available to all of us. In the messiness of our lives, in the good and bad choices we make, in the pain and tragedy of human action and in the pain and tragedy of natural disaster, God’s amazing and abundant love is available to Abraham who lived in a land that worshiped gods who were not the One God, it is available to Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, it is available to the Samaritan woman at the well, it is available to the man born blind, it is available to Lazarus and Martha and Mary, all outsiders, all people on the margins, all who never said the words, I accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior. And this same amazing and abundant love is available to you, and to me and to all of us.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.

1 Lent Yr A

We enter the season of Lent with this story that takes place just after Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, and just before Jesus calls his disciples and begins teaching on the hillside. I have said before to you that I think this story is much more about seduction than it is temptation, and I’ll tell you why. I’m reminded of Edmund, in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the books in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Edmund is the third child in a family of four children. He is overshadowed by his older brother Peter, and Edmund suffers from a lack of confidence that contributes to a rather unfortunate series of decisions. When the children enter the land of Narnia through the wardrobe, they encounter eternal winter, brought on by the despicable Queen. The Queen approaches Edmund and tempts him with the sugary concoction, Turkish delight, and some warm and wonderful hot cocoa as well. Thus begins Edmund’s turn toward the despicable Queen, and away from the Lion Aslan, his brother and sisters, and all that represents.

You see, without an exception, temptation looks and feels delicious. It is part of our very humanity to seek out that which we believe is positive, pleasurable, and good. We always embark on the road to perdition with the belief that it is in fact a good. That is the nature of seduction. It begins with a beautiful face, it begins with a ripe red apple, it begins with mouth watering tastiness, it begins with the promise of relief, escape, pleasure, it begins in wonder and amazement, but it does not end well. And yet, often we are powerless to know it or to see it.

The great seducer in our gospel today shows Jesus three wonderful and amazing things. First, stones that may become bread. It may be hard to imagine yourself as Jesus, or not, but try for a moment. You are concerned about poverty and starvation all over the known world. Your instructions to those who follow you are to feed the hungry; over and over you ask your friends and followers to feed the hungry. And here you are presented with a solution to world hunger. Command these stones to become bread. That’s it, that’s all it takes. There are enough stones in the world if they all became bread there would be no child going to bed hungry at night. Who wouldn’t say yes? Feeding people is good, isn’t it?

Second, ultimate safety. If you were unable to be hurt, would you not be able to continue to relieve world hunger forever and for always? If you were unable to be hurt, would you not be able to love everyone all the time? If you are unable to be hurt, would you not have to go to the cross to die? Sounds like a good, doesn’t it?

Third, authority. Everyone and everything answering to you. With ultimate authority, everyone would follow your rules and your rules are good rules. Love your neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned. The world would be perfect if you were in charge.

What’s so wrong with this scene? Nothing at all. Nothing at all. That is the nature of seduction. It looks so good. It tastes so good. It feels so good. It must be right. We are human after all. What makes this story so powerful is that we have been there. Each and every one of us has been there; we may even be there yet today. This is about Jesus, and it is about each of us. You see, it isn’t black and white, right or wrong, it isn’t obvious or clear, and don’t let anyone seduce you into thinking that it is. This journey of life is full of choices, which is God’s gift to us, choice, and a pile of love to go with it. Even Jesus had the choice, the choice to follow the seducer, the choice to give in to the pain and suffering of his journey, the choice to walk away from the cross.

So what does this journey look like? We are on a journey together, you and me and all the others. All the best heroes have their posse’s with them. Edmund had his brother and sisters and all the animals of Narnia, Luke had Han Solo, Lea, Chewbacca, and the Holy Trinity of Obi-wan, Anakin, and Yoda, Harry has Hermione and Ron and the whole Weasly family, Woody has Buzz, Mr. Potato Head, Rex and Hamm, you get the picture. We take this journey together; together we share the strength, the wisdom, the courage to make choices, good or bad, right or wrong.

Us humans live daily, maybe even moment-by-moment in the reality of this seduction. It is being fully human after all, what is so amazing is the love that God has for us and the forgiveness that God is willing to heap upon us time, after time, after time. We miss the mark, and Jesus stands with us, surrounded by our company of friends, loved ones, supporters, and Jesus puts his arms around our shoulders, straightens us out, gives us strength and courage, and shows us how to hit the mark dead center. And, while the enemy arrow comes right at him, Jesus also says, let me step into your place and take the arrow for you.

In our lifetimes, we don’t ever feel the absence of seduction and temptation. We are however forgiven. That is where we begin this journey of lent, in the place of examination and forgiveness. We have this opportunity to turn to God, to examine ourselves, to ask again for forgiveness, to look upon our mortality and fall on our knees and ask for the help we need, because we cannot do it on our own. We cannot walk this journey without the one who created us, the one who walks with us, and one another. To believe we can is to succumb to the seduction of vanity, self-absorption, egotism, and selfishness.

On Ash Wednesday I invited you to think about that which you would fast from this lent. It is not about giving up something you love, but it is about abstaining from that which gets in the way of your relationship with God and with one another. What seduces you into believing that you can walk this journey on your own? What seduces you into believing that you are right and others are wrong? What seduces you into believing that you are immortal, that whatever you eat or drink or smoke won’t harm your mortal body? What seduces you into believing that you are the center of your life and others lives? What is it that you will abstain from this lent?

I invite you to journey together; I invite you to a holy lent, The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.

Ash Wednesday 2011

Almighty, forgiving God, help me to accept your healing love today and to practice forgiveness in my daily walk with you and others. In this, the church’s holy spring, we ask you, O God, to renew us. With a gentle breath, blow from our lives the dust of sin, and make us your people again. Lift us from guilt, and shame, and regret, to repair all we’ve broken, and give us the gift of repentance. With the lengthening days, stretch our hearts, too, to be ready for your risen life; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Just as Advent is the beginning of the New Year, Ash Wednesday and Lent are the beginning of our new life. I think we have a deep desire to start over, to begin again, to turn to God and take a deep, refreshing breath of new life, and to say, here I am Lord, I have heard you calling in the night.

This is our opportunity. This is our call. We present ourselves to God, just as we are, confident in the promise of starting over. Ash Wednesday, and all of Lent are an opportunity. An opportunity to put all our attention toward the Gospel call to love as Christ loves. Ash Wednesday and Lent are an opportunity to examine ourselves and find where we miss the mark of that love. Ash Wednesday particularly is an opportunity to come to our senses, to be reminded of who and whose we are, to start over, to loosen our heart’s grip on the things that separate us from the love of God and our sisters and brothers. Ash Wednesday is an opportunity to do that which is described in our gospel reading, to give alms, to pray, and to fast.

Today we are marked again with the cross of Christ. We were marked as Christ’s own forever with oil at baptism; today that same cross is traced with ashes. These ashes remind us of who we are, and whose we are. These ashes remind us that we came from dust and to dust we will return. These ashes remind us that God is God, and we are not. These ashes remind us that we are chosen and marked by God’s love, delight of God’s life,

The ashes of this day mark us as human, and offer us another chance to be reminded that we are called to fast from that which gets in our way of relationships, relationship with God, with those we love, and with those we encounter each day. I invite you to think about that which you may fast from,
what gets in the way of relationship for you? Do you need to slow down? Do you need to abstain from electronic media, facebook, internet, television, your phone? Do you need to make a commitment to consume less, food, drink, goods, clothing? Do you need to pay closer attention to something or someone?

Lent is also a penitential time, a time to forgive and be forgiven. God loves us with an abundant love, love that seeks nothing, love that does not exclude. The Greeks had a word for the forgiving kind of love, agape; it means a profound concern for the welfare of another without any desire to control that other or to be thanked by that other. This isn’t an easy love. If we can follow it, it will mean that we will never exclude. Not the old, the ill, the dying. Not the people who have hurt us, or who have done us wrong. Or the people to whom we have done wrong.

Jesus set the standard for forgiveness. What does Jesus' teaching on forgiveness require of us, and how can we begin to practice this kind of love and forgiveness toward others?

How have you felt, for at least a fragment of a second, the forgiveness of God?

When you approach forgiveness with this kind of love in mind, you put yourself in a position to be healed, When you are able to forgive, you begin to be healed.

I invite you to ponder the kind of love God has for you, I invite you to approach the kind of forgiveness that does not want or need or manipulate. I invite you to be marked with ashes, and begin the journey of love and forgiving. A journey that begins with ashes, that includes sadness, silence, and suffering. A journey that passes through some dark and scary places. A journey that moves through ashes once again, but includes the eventual joy of new birth, new life, new creation, resurrection.

Today I ask you to write. What it is is up to you. But it may be something about what you need to fast from, it may be something you wish to do during lent, it may be something that you need to be forgiven for, it may be something or someone that you need to forgive. Whatever it is, it’s between you and God.

Mystery of Goodness, by whose gaze we are called into being and held in life: teach us the secrecy of prayer which seeks no reward; the generosity of love which forgets itself; the gift of a treasure uncountable and unconsumed; through Jesus Christ, the Son of the Wilderness. Amen.

Last Epiphany Yr A, The Transfiguration

This story of the transfiguration is always the last story we read as we approach Lent. We are presented with the mighty characters of the past, in the present of the story, and in the present of our own time. Moses and Elijah. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Moses, who led the people out of Israel, and walked with them through the wilderness constantly encouraging them, constantly pointing them toward God, especially when they got whiny and impatient. Forty years they spent in that wilderness, a whole new generation of Israelites was born before they got close to the land that was promised. Moses guided them the whole way, Moses saw God, but Moses didn’t live to see the fulfillment of that journey, Moses saw the promised land, but died before they got there.

Elijah was a prophet in the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab, the 9th century before Jesus lived, according to the Book of Kings. Elijah defended the worship of Yahweh over that of the more popular Baal, he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and ascended into heaven in a whirlwind, either accompanied by a chariot and horses of flame or riding in it, depending on what you’re reading. In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord," making him a harbinger of the Messiah.

The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus in this story shows us something about God. We creatures, we humans, count time chronologically. Many of you went to the musical Rent over the last couple days. That is a story that questions the measure of time, and even the quality of time with the lyrics of Seasons of Love. “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in the life?” These lyrics, while suggesting the continuum of life, carry some angst for something more than tick-tock time. What we have in the story of the Transfiguration, is a story of God breaking into our time, it is a story that shows us time out of time. It is a story that calls us to bear witness to God’s inbreaking Kingdom. The song asks how do you measure a year in the life, the transfiguration story asks us what difference does it make?

This transfiguration story takes place in God’s time, not our time; it is a story of kairos, not chronos. Madeleine L’engle suggests that kairos, God’s time, can sometimes enter, penetrate, and break through chronos: the child at play, the painter at an easel, the person at prayer, friends around the dinner table, the mother reaching out for the newborn; like the story we have before us today, with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all in one time.

God breaks into our time, we have captured here a moment of Gods time, to show us something amazing. In Star Wars, we see Obi-wan, Anakin Skywalker and Yoda; past characters all showing up in the present, to say something important to Luke Skywalker. In the story before us today, Moses, Elijah and Jesus all show up to say something important. What is it? What difference does it make? And how do we bear witness to it?

This is my son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased! The very same words heard at Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan, the very same words spoken just before Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the story we will hear next week, the first Sunday of Lent. God is trying to get our attention here, and God is doing it by breaking into time. Peter and James and John see something extraordinary, something that is not bound by time, and they hear something extraordinary, Listen to him! Listen to him!

Something extraordinary is happening here, God is breaking into time, and it changes us, it transfigures and transforms us. It may even change the world. It is that extraordinary experience that we must bear witness to. There is no staying on that mountain, Peter and James and John went back down the mountain, utterly changed. We too, accompany them down the mountain, and bear witness to God’s extraordinary shining.

God shows forth God’s glory, God shows that life with God is without limits. It is like the Eucharistic moment, it may be comfortable and calm, it may be nourishing and refreshing, it may be inspiring and illuminating. We really want to stay, but we can’t stay in it, and we can’t repeat it. But it changes us. It gives us the ability to persevere, and from it we are sent out into the world to do the work we are given to do, we bear witness to God’s presence. We are sent out into the world to bring peace and to show forth God’s reconciliation and healing to a broken and fragmented world.

The glory that is shone forth in this story of transfiguration is a touchstone. We may return to it, but we can’t control it, it is out of our time. We come to worship and sing God’s praises; we come to find stability in an unstable world. We come to hear the story of our faith that has not changed over time. And yet God’s word and our worship are not comfortable, they are not static. God’s word and our worship are growing and changing, becoming the creation that God has intended for it.

When we bear witness to the transfiguration it may cause us fear, as it caused Peter and James and John to fear. Because we are called to go down the mountain and confront the comfortable and disrupt the status quo. We are to bear witness to the love of neighbor that Jesus demands. We are to bear witness to the arrest and torture of the one who is the Good News, and we are to bear witness to the inauguration of God’s kingdom on earth with Jesus Christ God’s son.

As God breaks into our time, transfiguration promises to accompany us into our ordinary lives. We carry the extraordinary into the ordinariness of our work and our school and our play. It becomes the spirit that inspires and creates us; it becomes the life that gives us life. It is that which is in the eyes and souls of those whose paths we cross, it is in the respect and dignity with which we treat everyone we meet.

We bear witness to the transfiguration when we are about God’s mission. God’s mission of healing and reconciliation. God’s mission of putting fractured souls back together in this broken and fragmented world. God’s mission of loving and serving your neighbor.

The Lord has shone forth his glory: Come let us adore him.

8 Epiphany Yr A

We have been hearing the Sermon on the Mount now for a few weeks. Jesus has been teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus has been telling his listeners what that kingdom looks like. Blessed are you, for you are a child of God. You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world. Your relationships shall have dignity, your words have power, you need to live with each other with honesty and integrity. You shall love your neighbor. This is kingdom life. Today Jesus tells his listeners, and us, not to be anxious about earthly things. God takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field, and so God will take care of us too.

However, telling people in this day and age not to be anxious about anything is like telling people not to breathe anymore. It's almost ridiculous. What would we do with ourselves if we didn't have to worry? As a culture, we're anxious about everything. And, if we aren't, we have 24-hour news and color coded threat levels to help us along. We have instant reports of unrest in the world, and of earthquakes and devastation. We live in fear; fear of not having enough, fear of those who are different from us; fear of the other.

But, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount tells us that one of the prime values of the Kingdom of God is that we not be anxious, because God takes care of us all and, if we are in God's hands, what do we really have to worry about? So how do we live as Kingdom people, how do we follow Jesus in a culture of fear, in a culture where anxiety is sold on the evening news?

The whole Sermon on the Mount is a text that we need to seriously absorb into our lives. And, at times that absorption will be incredibly difficult, because it's values are so contrary to the values our world typically lives day-to-day. Blessed are you, for you are a child of God. God takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field, and so God will take care of us too. As my friend Larry posted on his facebook, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

The difficulty for us is living in this assurance; the difficulty for us is living as citizens of the Kingdom in the midst of the conflicting messages, in the midst of the anxiety that is perpetuated everywhere we look. We are people who seem to be mightily afraid. However, anxiety is not unique to us in this particular age. Anxiety and fear have been recorded in history since history has been recorded. Anxiety is part of the sacred story of our people; anxiety is part of the story of each one of us. In Isaiah today, we are assured that God will not forget us, people may forget, but God does not forget, don’t worry about that.

Fear motivates us in strange ways. It is fear that helps us to protect our children from danger; it is fear that causes some of us to step into danger. We often fear that which we cannot change, and then ironically, we fear change. And fear causes us to hold on tight to what we have, whatever it is we have. Wealth, luxury, housing, one another. We are afraid of what tomorrow might bring. We hold on so tight to those we love; we can’t let them go to live their own lives.

This is what Jesus addresses in this part of the teaching. We hold on so tight to our money and possessions, what we consider our wealth, we can’t see beyond any of it to the abundance that God has for us, to the love that God pours upon us.

But fear only holds us hostage; it keeps us in bondage. What are you afraid of? What causes you to be anxious? The dark or the light? Having enough or having too much? Death or life? Growth and change, or the status quo? What is it that holds you hostage; that keeps you in bondage? What is it that gets in the way of your relationship with God? That’s what this passage is about. It’s about slavery to that which is not God. It is about the freedom that God offers.

It is about the priority of God’s gift of love, God’s gift of new life, God’s gift of mercy and compassion. Because Jesus was born into this world, because God came to be one of us, we are free to live fully and completely as a beloved child of God. We must remember, especially when we read a passage like this, which seems rather glib, that in the struggle, in the muck and the dirt, in the pain and suffering that is life, this God we trust in walks with us, by our side. That’s what incarnation is about. Only a God who is willing to be in this life with us, is a God in whom I can place my trust.

What does that mean to you and to me? It means we are free to be the people that God loves. It means that we live in the midst of God’s abundant love for us, even when we don’t feel that love all the time. It means that we live in the midst of abundance, not of scarcity. It means that we no longer have to spend our lives searching for whatever it is that will fulfill us, because God has already given us all that we need, God has given us new life. No longer do we need to look for love in all the wrong places, in money, in work, in power, in our 15 minutes of fame, because God’s love for us is enough.

It is so hard to trust in God’s abundant, extreme love for us, to not be anxious. But that is exactly what we are asked to do. In trusting in that abundant, extreme love, we are free. Not trusting in that abundant, extreme love, we remain in bondage; we remain afraid to really live.

The freedom of God’s love is freedom from being attached to status and honor and power. It is being freed from the slavery of making money just because we can, and spending money, just because we can. It is being free to make and spend and give our hard earned money as a steward of the gift of life and the gift of hard work.

The freedom of God’s love is freedom from being consumed by the worry about the value others assign to each of us. Value is not based on what we can produce, or on what we look like, or on what we consume, or on what we eat, or what we wear, or on how we sing, or dance, or our athletic ability. Value is based on being God’s creation, God’s beloved.

Strive first for the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Be free to be a steward of that abundance.

The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.

7 Epiphany Yr A

We continue reading in Matthew the Sermon on the Mount. The setting is really much more like a hillside, with people gathered to hear the rabbi teach. Jesus is teaching about God’s inbreaking Kingdom, Jesus is teaching about what life as a citizen of God’s kingdom looks like.

There is a story that is part of NPR’s Story Corps, and it’s been floating around a bit lately. It’s about Julio Diaz, who stepped off the New York City subway platform after work one night; he was simply planning to walk over to his favorite local diner for a meal. But when a teenage boy approached him with a knife blade gleaming in his fist, Diaz, a 31-year-old social worker, knew the evening was about to take a more dramatic turn. The young man demanded Diaz’s wallet, and Diaz passed it over without objection. But just as his mugger turned to walk away, Diaz called after him: “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something.” The mugger turned around, surprised. “If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The teenager looked at Diaz in disbelief, and asked why he would do such a thing. Diaz replied, “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money.” He told the young man that he’d just been heading out for dinner, and that he would be happy for some company. The young mugger decided to take Diaz up on his offer, and they headed into Diaz’s favorite local haunt together. As they were sitting at the table, the manager, the dishwashers, and the waiters all stopped over to say hello to Diaz, and the young man was amazed at his popularity. “You’re even nice to the dishwasher,” he exclaimed.

“Haven’t you been taught that you should be nice to everybody?” Diaz asked him. “Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teenager replied. Thanks to Diaz, he was beginning to see that kindness wasn’t such a strange phenomenon, after all. When the bill came, Diaz told the teen that he’d have to get the check. After all, he still had Diaz’s wallet.

But the teenager slid the wallet back across the table without a moment’s thought, and Diaz treated him to dinner. Diaz also gave the would-be mugger a $20 bill to take with him –in exchange for the young man’s knife. “I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right,” Diaz said. “It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

The collection of scripture we have before us begs the question, what does the kingdom of God breaking into human existence look like? I think this story wonderfully illustrates what the kingdom of God looks like. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In the kingdom of God Jesus says, there is not a set of laws, there is not a rulebook. Children of God, citizens of the kingdom are called to love and to serve. Citizens of the kingdom are called to respond with mercy and compassion, healing and reconciliation in all times and all places. Matthew interprets the verses from Leviticus as kingdom life as well. You shall leave some grapes in your vineyard for the poor and the sojourner, the immigrant. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Kingdom life is different than worldly life, and kingdom life is not easy or even clear. There is not a time when we are relieved of kingdom life, and that is the very hard part. Kingdom life starts now, not some later date, and not after death. Jesus says, you have heard it said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. And then Jesus goes on to say, “for God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” You see, we are all in the same boat here. We are all accountable to these standards. Not one of us gets off easy, just because we have money, power, popularity, or fame.

But the reality in which we live is that God’s inbreaking kingdom is happening right now, but we do live in this in between time, this time before the fulfillment of all time. So we are called to live in this now and not yet reality, we are called to life a kingdom life in this world as God affects healing and reconciliation.

So how does this picture of kingdom life form and inform us in this day? Most assuredly kingdom life calls us to walk to a different drummer. Kingdom life calls us to love, not to hate. Kingdom life calls us to treat everyone with mercy and compassion, not disdain and derision. Kingdom life calls us to respond to those who speak and act badly with concern and kindness.

In this world where those who speak the loudest get listened to, how do you use your voice for peaceful change? In this world where spending is about special interest and personal programs, how do we stand for moral budget making? In this world where justice is confused with revenge, how do we turn the other cheek, how do we speak about healing and reconciliation? In a world where forgiveness is unacceptable because punishment is the only acceptable outcome, how do we drop to our knees and approach our creator with humility?

You see, this sermon on the hillside is about us. We are the blessed, and we are those who mourn. We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and we are the ones who loose our saltiness, and we are the ones who put our lights under a basket. We are the ones who come to the altar to bring our gifts, and the ones who need to leave our gifts at the altar to reconcile with our brothers and our sisters. We are the ones who turn the other cheek, and the ones who deliver the first blow. We live at one and the same time as citizens of the kingdom and as those who miss the mark. This is the reality of our lives, we are not perfect, perfection only comes as we live our lives enveloped in the love, the mercy, the compassion, of our God. We may not be perfect in ourselves, but we are not off the hook either.

The truth is that Jesus walks this road with us, to show us the way. The truth is that on our own, we tend to mistreat, to miss the mark. But we are children of God, and we are citizens of the kingdom, we are the peacemakers. We are called to avoid the violence and hatred that has crept into our social and political discourse these days. We are called to offer others a chance to escape the cycle of violence and hate that is so prevalent in our society. Our mission is God’s mission, healing and reconciliation, mercy and compassion because we are citizens of God’s kingdom.

The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.

5 Epiphany Yr A

What we hear today in the gospel of Matthew is truly exciting. And it is a continuation of the blessings that we heard last week. Matthew shows us and tells us what it means to be the blessed child of God. Blessed are you, you are called and named salt of the earth and light of the world. Being salt of the earth and light of the world is part of the blessing. You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world. Your value is already stated. As a disciple of Christ, you can’t help but be salt and light. You have no choice in the matter, Jesus says, this is who you are. You can’t help but make things livelier and shed light on the matter. So what do we do with that? How do we respond to that? What does it mean to be the salt and the light for the sake of God’s mission of healing and reconciliation in the world?

You are blessed, you are salt, you are light. This is who and how God has created. It is the truth, nothing can change that. Being salt and light means that something happens when we, Jesus’ disciples, go into the world for the sake of God’s mission. And yet, so much of the time we spend believing something else. What does the world say we are? Irrelevant, ignorant, hypocritical. Too old, too young, worthless, useless. But God says we are blessed, God says we are salt and we are light. No matter what we do, and we do try hard, we can’t shake our saltiness or lose our light. It’s what God has made us to be. We need to listen to what God names us, not what the world names us. We need to know what is already true, and in knowing that, we can put it to the best possible use, being salt and light for the purpose of God’s mission of healing and reconciliation in the world.

Recently we wanted peanuts, in the shell. So we bought a huge bag of them, and got them home and opened them up and realized that they were unsalted. How disappointing. Salt enhances and adds flavor to so many foods. We are the salt of the earth, how do we flavor the world? How may we be the salt of society, preserving, reconciling, adding taste, giving meaning where there is no meaning, giving hope where there is no hope?

Nelson Mandela said in his 1994 inaugural speech. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” We are the light of the world, how do you enlighten the places and people you encounter?

There are two really important things we need to hear from Matthew this morning. First is that we are salt and light, we are children of God, we are named blessed, we don’t do anything to get that designation, it just is. Secondly, as we fully inhabit that truth about ourselves, when we bring our saltiness, our light, and our blessedness into all of the parts of our life, into our work and our school and our play, we are the agents of God’s mission that we are called to be, agents of God’s healing and reconciliation, agents of mercy and compassion. Now, as much as and maybe even more than ever, we need to be salt and light.

That said, I want to tell you a little about the meeting I was at in Charlotte North Carolina this past week. I am on the Council for Life-long Christian Formation, formerly known as the Episcopal Council on Christian Education. We changed our name to more closely say that we believe that discipleship is a lifelong endeavor, there is never a time when we are done. The Council for Life-long Christian Formation is a council of advice, support, and implementation connected to the person who holds the job for Life-long Christian formation at our Church Center, and the team of four people who make up Life-long Christian formation, Youth Ministry, Young Adult Ministry, and Camping Ministries. I tell you all this because it is always important for us to remember that we at St. Andrew’s are connected to the greater church, nationally, provincially, in our diocese, in our deanery, and locally as well. Very briefly, our diocese is a geographical grouping of Episcopal churches that happens to be all of South Dakota. Our province is a geographical grouping of Episcopal dioceses that happen to be all states as well, MN, IA, ND, SD, NE, MT, WY, and CO. I say happen to be, because that is not the case for all dioceses or provinces. Our deanery is a geographical grouping of Episcopal churches here in the Black Hills, and we meet as such once or twice a year, which is to say that we are all connected, and related in various ways.

Part of my job, as the Provincial representative to the Council on Life-long Christian formation, is to tell our particular story about the joys and the challenges of teaching discipleship and forming 21st century Episcopal Christians, and to listen to the stories that others have in their own contexts. One of the challenges we face in all areas is refigured budgets. Rather than looking at our budgets as bad news, I think we are presented with opportunity. The opportunity is that we can wiggle out of our cocoon and be more nimble. One opportunity is to use and share technology. For example, there are people working on an application for your phone that would not only locate an Episcopal church for you, but also provide the means to download the entire service so you have it right in the palm of your hand. Another example is meeting by webcam instead of in person, as you know it is much less expensive that way. But it’s not all about technology; I want to assure those of us who feel maybe technology is leaving them in the dust. We definitely have a mind toward older adult ministry, as we experience more and more baby boomers in our congregations.

This is all to show you the vital and exciting movement of our church as institution, and as body’s of people on the local level. We, as individuals in the Episcopal Church, and as one part of the universal and catholic church, are salt and light in the world. Another example is that our Presiding Bishop was just named to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

So today, and as we re-gather later for our Annual meeting, I leave you with the question again, how are you salt in the world? How are you light in the world? How do you participate in God’s mission of healing and reconciliation in the world?

The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.