9 Pentecost Yr B

It was a hot and humid July day in Sunberg Minnesota for the first of it's kind Braaton family reunion. The kind of day that just standing still you sweat, the kind of summer day that makes you wish for a winter day when the wind blows and makes your bones so cold. This is the July day in Sunberg that we all gathered at the community center to see many we hadn’t seen for years, others, we’d just met. This is the July day that everyone brought their best, their best jello salad, their best potato salad, their best rolls, their best glorified rice, their very best. This is the July day that the picnic tables were full to overflowing with the best potluck in the world. This is the July day that we revel in the abundance that is family, and food, and fellowship.

Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. They all sat there in the city park, about five thousand in all, somewhat more than our family reunions, but not much. Jesus took the five loaves of bread, the two fish, gave thanks for all he had, and distributed them to everyone. They ate as much as they wanted, and when they were satisfied, the disciples gathered up the fragments, and they filled twelve baskets.

It seems to me that this feeding story in the gospel of John is a precursor to the feeding stories of our family and church potlucks and meals. They are stories of abundance. When was the last time anyone went away hungry from your family potluck? When was the last time anyone went away hungry from a St. Andrew’s potluck? When was the last time anyone went away hungry from a meal St. Andrew’s served at the Cornerstone mission? Even when it seems like there may not be enough, somewhere, somehow, there is enough, and usually more than enough. These stories show us divine plenty and generosity. Even when it seems like and looks like abundance cannot be found, “where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” God’s abundance shows up.

I even think the story about David in Samuel is about abundance, albeit judgment. David has so much, he is king, he has wives and property, he has more than any one person could use. And yet he wants more, he wants Bathsheeba, Uriah's wife. God says to David through Nathan as we'll hear in the later verses, "I gave you so much, and you wanted more. There will be trouble for you."

But it's not even about how much we have. How much we have is beside the point. It's that nothing belongs to us anyway. Everything is a gift, we are stewards of that gift. We are called to give thanks, we are called to do likewise, we are called to pay it forward.

But sometimes it feels like we are losing so very much, our retirements seem to have gotten smaller, people around us out of work for months after losing their jobs, and goods and services cost more than ever, how can we even think about paying it forward? We do so because it is our call, it is our mission, and we do it because of God’s abundance, we do it because of this story from the gospel of John, even when it looks like there cannot be enough, God’s divine plenty and generosity and love is ever present, God’s abundance shows up, all we have to do is get out of the way and get involved in the work God has already blessed.

Instead of living in fear, we continue to serve a meal at Cornerstone mission, instead of living in fear, we collect money to provide new clothes for children to begin school in the fall, instead of living in fear, we continue to pay our expenses and payroll here at St. Andrew’s in creative ways.

When we respond to God’s divine plenty and generosity even in a time of fear and perceived loss,

with confidence and abundant generosity ourselves, amazing things happen. We are able to show people the truth of resurrection. Resurrection shows us that when life as we know it dies, new life will arise. We are in the midst of loss and for some death, I am confident in resurrection, I am confident in the new thing that God is doing. And in the midst of God’s divine plenty and generosity, people continue to love one another, people continue to care for one another, people continue to be generous themselves.

And it cannot be accidental that the feeding of the five thousand is followed immediately by the story of Jesus walking on the sea. Jesus said to them, and says to us, “it is I; do not be afraid.” When it feels like we are losing more than we are gaining, when it seems like there is not enough, remember, in he breaking and the sharing of the bread, there is always enough, “it is I; do not be afraid.”

This story from John is not only a description of the way God’s abundance was present then and is now; it also points us to the feast that is to come. This massive picnic in the wilderness is manna from heaven, the bread of angels. Our participation in the feeding of many today, our participation in God’s divine plenty and generosity today, does affect the Kingdom that will come. The story continues to show us that Jesus is the bread of life. Feeding people, their minds, their bodies and their spirits

is what you are about here at St. Andrew's. No one goes hungry, everyone is invited to the feast.

Because Love wins, not fear.

8 Pentecost Yr B

When they got out of the boat many recognized Jesus and his disciples. They began to bring the sick to wherever they heard Jesus was. They begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. Jesus brought healing wherever he went. Jesus brings healing wherever he goes. Jesus brings healing whenever you and I invite him into our present reality. This healing that Jesus offers is physical healing, as well as reconciliation of relationships, wholeness of mind, body, and spirit. Jesus makes whole what is fragmented, In a broken and fragmented world, Jesus is the most powerful reconciling force.

Jesus brings wholeness out of fragmentation, Jesus brings reconciliation to relationships, what happens is transformation, and transformation means change. If you are to be healed, you are to be transformed. Healing and transformation are part of an ongoing relationship with Jesus. Jesus' power to heal, Jesus' power to make whole, is like a refiner's fire. I've been reading with some interest about the presence of many blacksmith's this weekend at the fairgrounds. Imagine what a blacksmith does. They take a blob of metal, heat it so hot that it becomes pliable, maybe even liquid, and pound it into something new, something you could not imagine that lump of metal could ever have been. Sometime that is what Jesus' healing is like. It's a powerful creative force that makes us into something we could never have imagined before, or even done on our own. Sometimes it is more like the peeling back of of an onion skin, one slow and painful layer at a time. It's really different for each of us. But being healed, being made whole, being reconciled is risky business. The risk is in letting go of what is a sure thing, to be made into something new.

The sure thing, the thing we know so well, the thing we are so comfortable with, needs to be refined into something else, something new. Often the sure thing is unhealthy habits we've acquired that lead to a death spiral, not eating well, smoking, drinking, using drugs. Sometimes the sure thing is work habits that lead to financial and social well being, but not right relationship with God, self, and others. Often we hang onto that sure thing at our own peril, but who wants to have their sure thing made into something that may be better, but is guaranteed to be much more painful during the refining. Sometimes we enter the healing process, the spiritual journey, willingly, like those in our gospel today, often we go kicking and screaming.

But the reality is that healing always requires a kind of death before the healing resurrection can happen. There's no getting around that. That's what Jesus' life and death and work on the cross make real for us. That's why Jesus' work on the cross matters to us, to those who came before us, and to those who will come after us. Our lives give testimony to that reality, our stories of healing and new life always include the journey with Jesus through the difficult and painful times.

It's no different for us as a church. You all know that Rick and I were in Indianapolis for our General Convention. Rick was an able volunteer helping people find their way through the maze of hotel meeting spaces and the convention center, as well as finding some time to see Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play, and together with about 3000 of our close Episcopal friends we enjoyed a baseball game and other activities. As a deputy to General Convention, I serve on the Education committee. Our focus was on the foundation of Baptism to all our ministry and the priority of Life-long christian formation. We talked particularly about Confirmation as a mature witness to the transformation that Jesus calls us to. Our conversation dovetailed another committee's conversation about Holy Communion and it's place in our faith journey's. What became clear is something I've known for a long time, that a faith journey is not linear. We don't achieve baptism and then communion and then confirmation and then marriage or ordination and then children... It's much more like a deepening, it's much more like a spiral. The events of our lives, those that are painful and joyful, may cause us to ask questions that cause us to reconsider and recommit and deepen our relationship with God and with others, that may cause us to spend a season of our lives in service or in silence. Anyway, that's a lot of stuff to consider.

Considering these things as an entire church elicit both excitement and fear in people, some get excited about doing things in a whole new way, some get fearful about doing away with time-honored tradition. It's very scary to give up the sure thing for something that is only just being imagined. Being able to have these conversations is very important, and I believe set the groundwork for probably the most important thing we did at convention, and that is to re-imagine the structure of our church. So on a very practical level, we voted to move our church offices out of the building in Manhattan to a less expensive site to be determined, and we voted to re-structure all of the commissions and committees.

We continually ask the question, what is God calling us to do? Who is God calling us to be? Nobody really knows the answer, we are Episcopalians, but we are willing to go into the very frightening unknown, we are willing to take the risk of being refined, made into something we couldn't even imagine before, so that we can respond to God's call in this world of technology and immediacy, and in this world that is so desperately in need of healing. The reality of Jesus in our lives and in our world bring us to a place where we are willing to be transformed, it is scary and risky business. I bet you haven't read about that part in the news.

It is the foundation of Baptism, and it is this witness of Jesus in our lives and in our world that also bring us to a place of approving the provisional use of blessings for same sex couples. Again, we are Episcopalian, and we don't all agree. But I believe as a church we are in a very graceful place, a place where we can be transformed by God's love, we do believe that Love wins, and Jesus' healing makes us new.

And then there was the "Official Youth Presence." Each Province, and there are nine provinces, chose two youth representatives from many who had applied. Cole Meyer, from Sioux Falls, was one of the two from Province VI. The youth were seated with the rest of the deputies and had voice in conversation and debate. They were eloquent, inspiring, and well dressed. Their presence changes us, they are not the church of the future, they are who we are today, and we're blessed to hear their voice.

In the coming weeks we will have opportunities to talk about these and the other decisions and experiences of General Convention, we will have opportunities to listen to what God calls us to and who God calls us to be here at St. Andrew's. I look forward to the conversation.

4th Sunday after Pentecost Yr B

I love stories about the underdog. We’ve watched Rudy so many times we can recite the lines, and I cry every time Rudy gets put into the game. Mighty Ducks, the first one, is another favorite, I sit on the edge of my seat until the end of the game, even though I’ve seen them win a bazillion times. The Rookie, Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, Remember the Titans, Field of Dreams, and the list goes on. The reason I bring all this up is that I wonder at the question, which comes first, our passion for rooting for the little guy, or the story of David and the story of Jesus?

During the time in which the story in Samuel first was told, Israel is constantly at war with the Philistines. Ancient warfare was highly ritualized. In Homer’s Iliad, we read how battles were conducted in ancient times in the epic story of the siege of Troy, about 1200 BC. We see that each side would send out its great champion who would fight on behalf of his people. Often the battle would end there, because whichever champion won the other side would be so demoralized it would retreat. In this story we read today, the Philistines have a champion who is described as well, huge, Goliath. And the problem is that the Jewish forces have no champion at all. The Jewish troops are stationed on the one side of the Elah Valley, south of Jerusalem, a place that you can still visit today in Israel, and the Philistines are on the other. Goliath is marching out in front of the Philistine lines, shouting curses at the Jews and challenging someone to come and fight him. Choose yourself a man and let him come down to me shouts Goliath. If he can fight me and kill me, we will be slaves to you; if I defeat him and kill him, you will be slaves to us and serve us. The mortified Israelite army has to listen to this, because no one is willing to take on Goliath. One day, David, who is still a shepherd and not a soldier, shows up on the battlefield bringing food for his brothers and he’s shocked by what he sees. Outraged at Goliath’s blasphemous insulting of the God of Israel, David volunteers to fight Goliath, though he has a hard time convincing everybody to let him go out into the field. Finally, he convinces King Saul with his steadfast faith in God.

I remember my first New Testament professor telling us that all history is written from the perspective of the winners. History published in history books is written from the perspective of the winners. The losers don’t write history, and their story is rarely told in history books. Western civilization loves its winners and they are often assigned near divine status, or, at the least, God is on the winner’s side status.

And yet we have before us this story of David in which the underdog becomes the champion. And we have this story of Jesus, in which those who are low are raised up, those who are on the margins are brought to the center, those who have no power are empowered, and lowly fisher folk become disciples.

I wonder if it is just part of human nature to claim to be on the side of the winner. Is it part of our DNA? The biological story may support that. We know the story of the survival of the strongest. We know that the human drive is to procreate, to survive and to thrive. In the animal kingdom the weakest and the smallest don’t last long. But Jesus shows us that in God’s kingdom in dying we are alive, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

God’s kingdom is very different from humanity's kingdom. In God’s kingdom, the underdog becomes the champion. In God’s kingdom, fisher folk become disciples and bring the Good News to all nations, to all people, to the ends of the earth. In God’s kingdom, God has faith in the people, and the people respond with faith the size of a mustard seed in God. In God’s kingdom, faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to grow and accomplish great things. In God’s kingdom, not only does the underdog win, not only does the lowest get lifted up, but even what is dead has new life. In God's kingdom, Love wins every time. Even the faltering and fearful faith of the disciples can become awe.

The Good News is that God’s kingdom has begun. Jesus’ life, and love, suffering and death, and resurrection began God’s kingdom. In God’s time God’s kingdom will be fulfilled. In the meantime, you and I can be active participants in God’s kingdom. We can respond to God’s love, we can respond to God’s faith in us. We can be on the side of the underdog. We can be with the imperfect, fearful disciples in the boat. Both of these texts are about courage and fear and what happens when you let the fear take over. So they are also about what happens when Love wins. We are so much like those disciples in the boat, being afraid of what's under the bed. Every time we turn around someone is telling us to be afraid, someone is preaching gloom and doom. But God's message is not about fear. God's message is about love.

So I return to the all time best underdog movie, Rudy. For those of you who don’t know the story, Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but Rudy wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team. He spent two years at St. Mary’s working on his grades and working his way through school. When he finally got into Notre Dame as a junior, he walked on to the team and served on the ‘scout’ team as pretty much a tackling dummy. By the time he was a senior, he had endeared himself to the really good football players, and they really wanted him to be officially recognized as a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and that would only happen if he participated in at least one play. Rudy’s teammates had already experienced his heart, and his steadfast faith, and insisted to the coach that Rudy suit up. So in the waning moments of the last game of Rudy’s senior year, the team and then the fans chanted Rudy, Rudy, coach put him in and Rudy ran a couple of plays. It wasn’t about winning at all, it was about a little guy who responded to life in big ways and with gusto. It was about faith, it was about being fully engaged in relationship with God and with others.

We are called to respond to life's challenges with courage, and not in fear. We are called to row the boat together, and when we do, we'll all get to the shore.

2 Pentecost Yr B

I am reminded of a story we used to read to our children, after the little bird breaks out of the egg, his mother goes to find some food and the baby bird tumbles out of the nest to find his mother. He walks right past his mother and does not recognize her, and then he continues on and asks the kitten, the hen, the dog, the cow, the car, the boat, the plane and the snort, Are you my mother? Of course they were not, luckily the little bird ended up back in the nest, and his mother came home with a big fat worm to eat, and the little bird knew that that was his mother. How did the little bird recognize his mother? in the feeding and in the eating..... This story from Mark is told in the context of a meal.

Mark has Jesus ask this question, who is my mother, who are my brothers, who is my family? In this story that Mark tells us, Jesus redefines the criteria for what constitutes his true family. True family is determined by who does the will of God. What Mark asks us to do with this story is to rethink all relationships a new light, in a kingdom light. Jesus makes a claim about what it might mean to belong to other people, what Jesus does is to make a claim about identity.

People who follow Jesus are people who belong to God and who belong to one another. Our identity is a beloved child of God, we are marked as Christ's own forever, we are in relationship with our creator and the rest of creation. In the time in which Jesus lived and a little later when Mark was writing, this claim made one a crazy person, as evidenced in this story, and it made one guilty of sedition. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem, the religious heavy hitters, decided Jesus must be insane, because surely he would not make claims about kingdom that would make the empire mad, that would just not do. But indeed, Jesus was not crazy, so maybe his claims about kingdom life could be true.

In our contemporary society, which is a post-christian society, to claim identity as a follower of Jesus is tied to being a beloved child of God, this identity is tied to being part of a community of faith, a community of reconciliation, makes one seem crazy. This identity flies in the face of autonomy and individualism and self-determination. Even much of what some call Christianity today is about individual salvation, it's all about me and God. But this passage from Mark is about Jesus' claim of kinship, that we are all related, that we indeed belong to each other, we belong together, and that is like what we experience as family, but it is also bigger, broader and deeper than what we experience as family. The image is much more like an intricate web in which the thread continues infinitely, than a hierarchy in which one person is at the top, or even a wheel in which any one of us may be the hub.

As a follower of Jesus, we find our identity in being a beloved child of God, who has brothers and sisters for whom Love wins. We find our identity in being marked as Christ's own forever in baptism. We are loved, we are precious beyond measure, created for loving relationship with the source of all life and with one another. So what does this mean for us today? What does it mean to be part of this family that Jesus calls together? What does it mean to do the will of God?

Since I have placed this story from Mark clearly in the context of identity, and I have suggested that our identity is formed by being a beloved child of God, and being marked as Christ's own forever in baptism, I will answer those questions about what does this means by looking at the blueprint for following Jesus, our baptismal covenant. According to Dwight Zscheile (Schylie) again, his book People of the Way, Renewing Episcopal Identity is a must read for all of us, "community experiences God's grace and healing in the Eucharist, where the brokenness of our lives and the world is transformed into a foretaste of the heavenly feast. Christian ministry begins in baptism, where our identities are changed and we live no longer for ourselves but for God, for one another, and for our neighbors in the world. We become participating members of the body of Christ through the power of the Spirit."(p.89)

We promise to continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. Continuing in the apostles teaching is a central challenge for us. For many, the bible is an intimidating book that seems difficult to enter into meaningfully. We don't necessarily like everything it has to say. But we must listen to it, we must be informed by it, and we must teach our children and grandchildren it's stories. We must let it become our story so that we may be part of the story. You have opportunities at St. Andrew's in bible study and in Education for Ministry. And if we don't have what you want or need at the time you want or need it, please get it started yourself. The central activity for us as we gather together is sharing bread and that is good. This space is a depository of all of your prayers, you come here and we share our prayers and praise, and you bring that Spirit back out into the world as agents of reconciliation and peace.

We promise to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord. The call to following Jesus is a call to transformation, deep change that encompasses our hearts, minds, and every aspect of our lives. This part of the baptismal covenant acknowledges the persistent reality to sin, to miss the mark. The persistent reality of evil isolates people, fragments people and relationships, breaks relationships, and causes people to do horrible things to one another. We dis-integrate in the face of evil. God is the single most integrating force in this world. We are transformed from disintegration to integration, from individuals to a body of christ.

We promise to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. It is time to tell Jesus' story, it is time to tell your story, it is time to identify where God is your your life and in our live together. This is the story of wholeness, of reconciliation, of peace. This is the story about God's choice to walk with us, to walk with humanity through the pain and suffering of this life. This is the story of suffering and death, and the reality that our creator walks with us through that, doesn't take it from us, but walks with us in the midst of it. It is the story of resurrection. This is a story you all know well. New life happens, Love wins. We need to tell this story by word and example. We need to give others the gift of walking together and not alone, we need to give others the gift of community, of meaning, of purpose.

We promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as ourselves. As followers of Jesus we need to love others as we have first been loved. I have heard people say things like they don't deserve to be treated with respect, or she didn't deserve that painful death, or he doesn't deserve to have that tremendous gift. The reality is that what we deserve and what we get have nothing to do with each other. Jesus walked this journey on earth, suffered humiliation and pain, went to the cross, not because he deserved it but because of love. On the cross Jesus absorbs all that pain and suffering and takes it out of the world with him, and non of us deserve any of that. God loves, love wins, and that's enough. Christ comes to us as the stranger or as the guest. We are called to love others, in whom the image of God is present.

We promise to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. We are marked as Christ's own forever, we are called to God's mission of restoring human community, the place in which we live and move and have our being, to right relationships. Living as followers of Jesus means sharing in Christ's compassion for the vulnerable, suffering, hungry, homeless and poor. We do so as participants in God's kingdom, as participants in God's family, not because we can solve the world's problems through our own strength. This is God's work in which we share, this is God's mission in which we participate. As Bono, of the band U2 has said, "Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing -- because it's already blessed."

We are family, we are followers of Jesus, they may call us crazy, but what a way to go.
Love wins, Amen.

Trinity Sunday

If you remember back to ten reasons to do church, that I talked about last week, you'll remember that I began with eating. Much of our gathering together is around eating a meal, eating bread and drinking wine. I'm reading a fabulous book called People of the Way, Renewing Episcopal Identity, by Dwight Zscheile (Shylie), he writes

"Every Sunday at ordinary Episcopal churches, something extraordinary takes place. In a society in which tables of hospitality are mostly closed off to strangers, a public feast is held. You don't need to buy a ticket to this meal. Not everyone necessarily knows each other; not everyone gets along perfectly, but they come together nonetheless. The food is simple stuff - bread and wine - about to become something more than itself. As the story is told and songs are sung, a change takes place. Hearts are lifted. The brokenness in the lives of each of the participants, and the brokenness of the world, is brought into focus. Healing begins to pour through it. Lives turned inward are opened outward. In the midst of the messiness and richness of this meal is the presence of Jesus, felt and known through the Spirit, tasted in the bread and wine, inviting us and the whole of the world into community with God." (p.44)

I think this description of what we do when we gather together has everything to do with Trinity, which we recognize today. I've told you before about the time when I was in high school at my regular Sunday evening youth group meeting. The young priest came to teach us all about the Trinity. I figured I'd have all my questions answered that night, but no, I left more confused than I was when I arrived. But it's really not that hard. Theologians and systematicians make it more confusing than it has to be. You know, in many churches that have multiple priests on staff, it's always the new guy that preaches on Trinity Sunday because no one else wants to.

Trinity is a way of talking about the richness of God's communal life. Trinity is community with God, it is relationship. It is God's nature to create others to share in God's life. As followers of Jesus in the first few centuries sought to make sense out of the relationship between the Jesus they had known as Lord, the Spirit they experienced in community, and the God of Israel to whom the scriptures gave witness, they developed the doctrine of the Trinity.

The reading we have before us today from Isaiah shows us the God who is creator of all, of all that is seen and unseen, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And from Romans we see the Spirit that bears witness that we are all children of God. In John, we see Jesus, who comes into this world and lives and loves and suffers and dies and absorbs all the pain and suffering and violence on the cross. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about what new life is all about. This is Trinity. It is how God presents Godself, it is how we humans imagine God in relationship. It is a model of how we may live this life in community with others on the way.

I bind unto myself today, the strong name of the trinity, by invocation of the same, the three in one and one in three. Creative, compassionate, merciful. Father, son, spirit. Mother, daughter, servant. Composer, musicians, music. Author, story, reader. Swimmer, water, breath. Steam, liquid, ice. Light, wave, particle.

Essentially, the Trinity says what our sacred text says at its opening creation story: that it is not good for humans — or God for that matter — to be alone; that meaning is created in community and through relationships; that we do better as creatures when we join hands rather than raise fists. Trinity is God experienced in community, Trinity is God's abundant and amazing love spilling out creatively as it includes all of God's creation. Trinity is much less a doctrine, and much more a dance. A dance in which everyone participates.

So what does Trinity mean for us today? So many people believe the story that dominates American life today, you indeed may be one of them. That you are what you earn or achieve, that identity must be cobbled together from a wide array of shifting possibilities, that you must work incessantly at securing meaning and community because these things are not given. Amidst competition, consumerism, anxiety, and opportunity, life is what you make of it, largely on your own. Underneath these swirling waters of struggle lay the deep currents of isolation, fragmentation, and despair.

The story that we tell, the truth that we tell, is one in which every human life is precious beyond measure, created for loving relationship with the source of all life. In this story, your worth is given, not earned. You are welcomed into a community in which no one goes hungry, differences need not be a cause of division, but a gift to be celebrated, you are offered forgiveness and are released to forgive others. You are claimed by a love and power beyond your own. You are held in arms of grace, you are part of a community in which Love wins. And in that, you are freed to participate in the restoration of human community and all creation.

Trinity calls us to wholeness, to relationship, to community. Trinity calls us away from isolation, and frees us to call each other neighbor. Our response to that is to participate in what God is already doing in the world. If our God is a God of relationship, of community, of co-creativity, maybe that's what our mission is in the world. Maybe participating in what God is already doing in the world is about building bridges, reaching out, inviting others into the Love that wins, the love that embraces every one no matter what.

Maybe participating in what God is already doing is about accompanying people, walking with people who are hurting, and offering partnership in that. It isn't always about relieving suffering, sometimes it is walking the path with others, like Jesus does. Maybe participating in what God is already doing is about responding to those who would crucify us, with love and not revenge, therefore absorbing hate like Jesus does, instead of inflaming hate. Maybe participating in what God is already doing is showing that Love wins, like Jesus does, instead of spewing words of judgement.

Trinity, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, is about participating in a web of relationship, eating with a community of people, dancing with others to the music of the seraphim. It is proclaiming with Isaiah, Here I am, send me! It is proclaiming with Jesus, Love wins. Amen.

The Feast of Pentecost

We often talk about the Feast of Pentecost being the birth of the church. It's not about the birth of the church as we know it today, in our contemporary minds we often equate church with the church building, and church with institution. But these readings don't point us to buildings or institutions, they point us to people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. People who become followers of Jesus. People who know that in their lives, Love wins.

Indeed, today I think Pentecost is about breaking out of the framework, and being about God's reconciling mission in the world. Pentecost is about being a follower of Jesus and doing it together, with other people on the way. And for us, it is about doing it in this peculiar and particular way as Episcopalians at St. Andrew's. As I've been reflecting on church, and as I've been influenced by a few "top ten" lists I've seen floating around blogs, I've come up with my own "ten reasons to do church." They are actually in no particular order.

1 Church is where there is always something to eat, and everyone gets fed. We know our risen lord in the breaking of the bread, we know our risen lord in the sharing of a meal, we know our risen lord in the hearts and the faces of those we feed as well as in the feeding. Something mystical and amazing happens when we are made Jesus' body through the sharing of a meal. We are made whole, we are put back together, we are joined with God and with one another.

2 Our liturgy, what we do when we are gathered together, makes sense of our lives. Because many of us live hectic and full lives, we make room for silence. Because we need a language for worship of that which is not us, we pray with words and symbol, we pray with music and song, we pray in order and in chaos. Because when the pain gets too hard to bear, we have a place to put it here, in this place. And when the joy and gratitude bubble over, there are others to catch it and share it.

3 No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you. That one is not really mine, it's from Robin Williams, who is an Episcopalian. We engage in the very important skill of theological reflection. We engage the world, and we consider it through the lens of scripture, tradition, and reason. We read scripture together, we learn about its context, we talk about it, we even argue about it, and we make up our own minds as to how we live its call in our lives. You don't have to check your mind at the door. And no matter what we gather around the table and eat together anyway.

4 People love one another. That is an action, not necessarily a feeling. We treat each other, and all those who come looking for acceptance, with dignity and respect. And when we don't, we ask for forgiveness and are granted it. This is a vision of the kingdom. In God's kingdom, all are loved, all are cared for, all are forgiven. In church, we fall short but that continues to be the vision.

5 Children are always welcome, old people too, and gay people and straight people for that matter, and ordinary people, and extraordinary people. God loves everyone, no exceptions, and church, this church in particular, lives that out. Again, not perfectly, there are times when we forget who we are, we forget that our number one priority is to welcome all as Christ welcomes all.

6 There are some important times in people's lives that we pay attention to: birth and baptism, marriage, death, and even the times in between, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, times of sickness and suffering, times of joy and celebration, comings and goings. We pay attention to these times because it is often at these times the time and distance between us and God, us and the others in our lives, thins. It is these times when we lift our hearts and our voices to give God praise, to ask for strength and courage, to turn to one another for support, not because we have to, but because it is what our humanity calls us to. We talk to God and with one another in the words that come into our hearts and our minds, and when we cannot find the words to say what needs to be said, we turn to our Prayer Book. We turn to the words that have been said and prayed through the years, the decades, and the centuries. There we can place our joy and our sorrow, and know that we are held in the awesome presence of our Creator God, our Father and Mother God, our loving God.

7 We show up consistently, we listen, we tell the truth, and we try, hard as we might, to let go of the outcome. This one is the foundation of all ministry. We show up. That's a tough one these days. There is so much that demands our attention. There are many, many things we could be doing besides coming here to do this each Sunday morning. But we know that it's not about having the time to come, none of us really have any time, instead, it's about knowing that to be whole people, we need to stop for a few moments, stop and listen to God and to one another. We show up.

We listen, we listen to God's word, to one another, sometimes you even listen to me, I try to listen to you. We listen in the silence of this space, we listen to the cacophony of the marketplace, we listen to the music of the spheres and the music we make together. We listen.

We tell the truth. How hard is that? The truth that God loves you no matter what. The truth that God came and comes into this created world to walk with us on the way. The truth that there is pain and suffering and sometimes life just sucks, but we are not alone. The truth that in Jesus life, and suffering and death on the cross, Love wins. The truth that nothing belongs to us anyway, the truth that we are stewards of God's creation, stewards of our children, stewards of this beautiful building, and we live in gratitude for all of it.

We let go of the outcome. See number eight.

8 We recognize that God is God and we are not. We are not the center of the universe, we are not the hub of the wheel, we are not the most important of God's creation. We are interdependent, we are one part of a mighty creation, we are not in control. We let go of the outcome.

9 We recognize that we are transformed by God's amazing and abundant love in Jesus Christ. The relationship that God has with us changes us, the relationship we have with others changes us. We begin to look more and more like people of mercy and compassion, we begin to look more and more like people who feed each other, who feed the hungry. We begin to look more and more like people who miss the mark, ask for forgiveness, and are loved regardless.

10 We go out into the world as followers of Jesus, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to visit the imprisoned, see number 9. We embody mercy and compassion, we listen to God's call in our lives, we seek to get on board with what God is already blessing. We recognize that God is the greatest healing and integrating force in an increasingly fragmented world. We understand that it is our call to be the peace makers, the light bearers, the agents of healing and reconciliation in the world.

So there's my ten reasons for church, and for this church. On this Feast of Pentecost, I ask some questions about the future of the church. How do we keep ever reforming, ever emerging? How do we find a way to speak in a language people can understand? How do we stay nimble, that is, how do we respond to the global nature of the world in which we live, and how do we respond to the ever more instant communication that people have in their hands and at their disposal? How do we help people to see that true freedom is in relationship with God, with Jesus, with the Spirit, and with others?

I have ten answers, see above. Love wins. Amen.

7 Easter Yr B

These readings we have before us in these days, the story of the resurrection, the story of the road to Emmaus, the story of the Ascension, the story of the birth of the church at Pentecost, are all stories that challenge our perspective, stories that challenge us to remove the limits we have put on our own humanity. As I challenge you to change your perspective, I offer this about a young woman I know. Today I challenge you to see life, death and resurrection from a new perspective, and to do so, I want to tell you about Pam. I know Pam from my days of coaching swimming at the Blaisdell YMCA. Pam was in high school when she swam for the team. She was one of those who showed up for practice, who worked very hard, who had some good times but wasn't a first place swimmer, and who had a lot of fun. I remember Pam most clearly as one of four on the relays. In those days she was all about supporting her teammates, swimming her very best, having a great attitude, and helping out when and where she could. Pam actually reminds me of myself. Rick and I were married during one of those swimming seasons, and Pam, with all the other girls in her relay, were at our wedding, we have pictures of all of them at the wedding, the whole team in fact. Pam's children, two little girls, swim for the Blaisdell YMCA swim team. Now my sister, Mary, who coordinates aquatics there, knows Pam and her husband and their children well. About six months ago, Pam was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After a little radiation, it was clear there was nothing to be done. I have kept up with Pam's dieing by way of the Caring Bridge website. Her sisters write about once a week, they write about their sister, they write about their nieces mother, they write about their brother-in-law's wife, and as I read what they write I am reminded of the young woman I knew so many years earlier. Today she is a sister who is supportive and present, a mom who is filled with joy at the live's of her children, and a wife who is attentive to her loving husband. And the story they are telling about life and death is heartbreaking, honest, and grace-filled. Pam lives in a thin place, the door to her new life is open wide, and soon she will step through it. Her sisters also tell a story of perspective. Pam has lost so much, she has lost the ability to run and play, and yet every smile and laugh and hug are treasured. The gap between Pam's life and death is minuscule, really non-exsistent. It really is no different for us. I share this story with you today to illustrate perspective. The value of our lives and our relationships all depend on where we stand and what we see. We perceive a time and space gap between us and God. We perceive a chasm that stretches from here to eternity. But, you see, the gap between this life and the resurrected life only seems big and wide and deep from our perspective. I am pretty sure from God's perspective, the gap between new life, the resurrected life, is not so big. From Pam's perspective, there is no gap, that place is thin and holy. With Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension, and the gift of the holy spirit, the gap has been closed. Why can't we live in those thin places, where God's love and grace are so very close. We get so hung up in that perceived gap. We get so concerned with time and space that we can't even seem to function. We ask questions that miss the point. We wonder how much time we have before we must or are forced to turn around and pay attention to God. We ask about what happens to us after death. Some people focus so desperately on right and wrong behavior. And we wonder why, why do good people, young people, get brain tumors and die. But all of that misses the mark. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus show us that God's love is operative right now. God's love was, is, and will be forever. God's love is available to all, no exceptions. There is no gap between God and us. God is with us in love, God is with us in the gift of the spirit, God is with us in one another. Our job is to respond to that love, not at some later date, not once and for all, but now, and again, and again, and again. Our response to God's love looks a lot like the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Our response to God's love looks a lot like how we live our lives, and how we die our deaths. Our response to God's love changes our perspective. And the story of the ascension shows us that Jesus is with us always. I don't quite understand how that works, it's the gap thing all over again, but that is the wrong perspective. The ascension shows us that somehow in this Good News that love wins, God's love is made available to every one at every time, when life is good and joyful, and when life is hard or broken. At some time and in some space, Jesus physically walked this same road we are on. But one of the limitations of embodied humanity, Jesus' embodied humanity, your embodied humanity, is that we occupy physical time and physical space. Another limitation of embodied humanity is that we stop occupying physical time and physical space. What changes with Jesus is that God shows us that God loves everyone, no exceptions, at all times and in all places. What changes with Jesus is the gift of the Holy Spirit. What changes with Jesus is that the gap is closed between God and creation, God and us. Our response to God's love changes our perspective. The story from John we have before us today is actually a Jesus prayer, it's the other Lord's prayer. In it, Jesus asks God for joy and protection for us, for all of us who occupy this life. With the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the gap is closed. Our response to God's love changes our perspective. The cracks in our hearts are filled with God's healing love. The cracks in our relationships are filled with God's forgiving love. The cracks in our perfection are filled with God's perfect love. The space between God and us is thin, the gap is closed, Jesus does that for us. From God's perspective, we are already enveloped, engulfed, we are already one. Our job is to respond to God's love with mercy and compassion. As we respond with mercy and compassion, as we respond with the fruits of the spirit, as we respond with joy and grace, our perspective changes. We are transformed, and Love wins. As we respond to God's love with joy and grace, the situations in which we find ourselves are transformed. We become the peacemakers, the graceful ones. We become the bridge between God and those whose hearts have been hardened, and their perspective changes. The space between God and us is thin, the gap is closed. Love wins. Amen.