Author: Rosemary Lovelace

Advent 3A – George Yandell

The story goes that John the baptizer was born on the summer solstice. Six months older than his cousin Jesus, John is a dynamic figure, a man of judgement and light. John burns bright- he lays peoples’ sins bare, his prophecy calls down fire. Yet in today’s gospel passage, John is alone in a dark prison cell. He who recognized Jesus as the Messiah now seems to have doubts. “Are you the one to come,” John asks through his disciples come to Jesus, “or are we to wait for another?” [Adapted from “The Christian Century”, p. 22, November 23 issue.] 

John might well have doubts since the deeds of the Christ are acts of compassion rather than the fiery judgement of the anticipated Messiah John had preached about. (That was in the gospel for last Sunday.) It seems John had backed off his earlier confidence that Jesus was the expected one. [Adapted fm The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol.8, p. 266]

In ancient prisons, prisoners were cared for by friends and family. Their needs were not provided for by the state, but by supporters of prisoners. News traveled freely. Witness the letters Paul wrote from prisons. In the chapters preceding today’s reading, Jesus has cleansed a leper, made the lame to walk, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead. John must have known these stories. And he must have known that these miracles followed a pattern traced by Isaiah hundreds of years before– we heard those miracles attributed to God as described in the Isaiah reading today. The immediate historical context for that Isaiah passage is a prophecy concerning the return of Israel after the exile in Babylon, in which God will provide safe passage through the barren wilderness. They are obviously important for those who heard and witnessed Jesus doing what Isaiah had described– they were living through the oppressive occupation of their ancestral home by the Roman Empire, the most overwhelming empire of all time.

So when John’s disciples come to Jesus to deliver John’s question from prison, “Are you the one who is to come?”, Jesus was generous with John in his reply- “Tell John what you hear and see- the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news (gospel) preached to them.” And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” [Above two paragraphs adapted from “The Christian Century”.]

Jesus was already aware that many would not accept his words and deeds. Thus he goes on to bless those who take “no offense at me”- i.e., those who do not misunderstand his ministry. As the Gospel of Matthew repeatedly illustrates, such misplaced expectations by his followers and adversaries alike would ultimately lead to his rejection.

As John’s disciples depart, Jesus turns to the crowd and begins to speak to them about John. He sees the Baptist as austere and uncompromising— not like a reed that bends and changes direction with the wind. Nor is John like a spoiled prince lounging in his palace, as evidenced by his rough clothing and life in the wilderness. John is clearly a prophet; indeed, he is “more than a prophet”. He is the messenger foretold in the Scriptures who was to prepare the way for the Messiah. He is the one who ushers in the new age of the Messiah, even though he wouldn’t live to see it come in fullness.

However, despite John’s stature as the greatest prophet of his age, Jesus proclaims, “The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. This statement is not a rebuke of John, but an indication of the radical transformation in the age to come. Those in the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus will be “greater” because they will have experienced the glory of God in the light of the Resurrection—an understanding of the future beyond anything John envisioned. Thus, today we too are called to tell out the things that we have seen and heard, and to do our part to prepare the Lord’s way. [Above adapted from Synthesis Advent 3A.]

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) wrote about the nature of the Kingdom Jesus ushers in. He said, “We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord. The third coming takes place between the other two. They are clearly manifest but the third is not. In the first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among Galilean Jews in the days when, as he himself bears witness, they saw him and hated him. In his last coming “all flesh shall see the salvation of our God,” and “they shall look on him whom they have pierced.”

“The other coming is hidden. In it, only the [ones close to him] see Jesus within themselves and their souls are [transformed]. In brief, his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty.

“This [hidden middle] coming [of Jesus] is like a road leading from the first to the last coming. In the first coming Christ was our redemption, in the last he will appear as our life, in this intermediary coming he is our rest and consolation. Do not imagine that what we are saying about the intermediary coming is simply our own fabrication. Listen to Christ himself, “If a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him” (John 14).” Where, then, are they to be kept? Without any doubt they are to be kept in the heart. ….. Keep the word of God in that way…. Let it pierce deep into your inmost soul and penetrate your feelings and actions. …..If you keep the word of God in this way without a doubt you will be kept by it. The Son with the Father will come to you.”

Once Rabbi Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk surprised a group of learned scholars in the 19^th century by asking them: “Where is the dwelling place of God?” “What a thing to ask!” they replied. “Is not the whole world full of God’s glory!” they exclaimed. “Yes,” the rabbi said, “but God dwells wherever people let him in.”

Indeed that is so. And that is the question of Advent: whether it is the coming of the End, and/or the coming of the Christ in the Incarnation: Are we ready to let God in? Are we ready to entrust our lives to Christ? To unclench the fist of willfulness and open the hand of trust, believing somehow that God’s creativity is not exhausted in the past, but is alive and at work in ways more than we can ask and imagine—if we simply turn our lives over to it.

When Gandhi was once asked by a reporter what was the secret to his happiness, the holy man replied, “Three words. Renounce and enjoy.” Renounce control, and embrace grace. Breathe a little easier. Take yourself less seriously. Soar, and leave the results to God. Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding “Christ is nigh,” it seems to say; “Cast away the works of darkness, O ye children of the day.” Advent’s leap of faith awaits us all. [Adapted from King Oehmig in “Synthesis”, Advent 3 2019.]

Advent 2A – George Yandell

I offer you an exercise, a thought experiment. You may close your eyes. Recall your favorite childhood memory from the days leading up to Christmas.// Did you keep peering under the tree, hoping presents would appear? Did you add figures to the crèche as the days drew nearer? Did your family light an Advent wreathe to mark the passing days? What was it like for you? Do you remember what you felt? //

As adults, has anything changed? Ha ha. What do we anticipate now? Is it family gatherings? A feast? Do some of us anticipate sadness at losses that are accentuated near Christmas? The adult preparation for Christmas is often doing for others rather than ourselves, isn’t it? That gets lots closer to the scripture passages for today than our childhood anticipation.

Centuries before John the Baptist appeared, the Prophet Isaiah described a time of universal peace under the rule of an ideal king (Is. 11:1-5). Over time, Christians came to associate this figure with Jesus. This Messianic king was to be a descendant of David, the son of Jesse-hence the reference to a green shoot springing to life out of a stump.

The image of a stump here also conveys the strength and humility of Israel in contrast to the imperial arrogance of the Assyrians (“majestic trees”) that the Lord will cut down (Is. 10:33-34). This king will be filled with God’s Spirit and endowed with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. His delight will be in the Lord, and he will reign with justice and equity for the poor and the meek. Rather than his wearing the trappings of imperial office, “righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins”.

Creation itself will be transformed in the Messiah’s age of reconciliation. The images of verses 6-9 describe life as originally intended in Eden, with animals and humans living in harmony, and where the weak do not fear the strong. This peaceful kingdom on God’s “holy mountain” will become a reality because “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (v. 9). This spirit of peace will extend throughout the world as the nations turn to the Messianic king (v. 10). [The above 3 paragraphs adapted from Synthesis for Dec. 2013]

These prophetic images were about God doing for God’s people what they desperately needed. And God’s people were to be open and caring to all the others of the world, working compassion and justice with and for them.

What was John up to at the Jordan? As Matthew says: “All the region streamed out to him, and they were baptized, admitting their sins.” He called out, “Change your ways because Heaven’s imperial rule is closing in.” Scholars have said John was the hinge-point of salvation history, the greatest and last of the prophets of Israel.  He was conducting a massive sacrament, leading people through the Jordan, baptizing them, leaving sins behind, entering the promised land anew as a forgiven people. He was reenacting the Exodus, leading the people of Israel again into God’s kingdom. The one Isaiah had foretold was coming. And those John baptized were ready. 

Provocatively, John offered people baptism apart from the temple– very important- he was taking the place of the priests in declaring people’s sins washed away.  The temple was no longer the center for those people- they participated in a prophetic act. And he said it would be violent when God comes- God will do to the Romans what they had done to Judea. 

“What crossing the Rubicon was to a Roman citizen, or what storming Bunker Hill is to an American citizen, the entering of the land from the eastern bank of the Jordan river was to an Israelite,” writes Brad Munroe [at firstprespueblo.org.] He points out that John’s desert location must have been both provocative and tantalizing—one for which no Israelite could possibly have missed the symbolism. They were preparing for an explosive visit from God. God was indeed promising freedom for a beleaguered people. But the joy of restoration and rest was not yet theirs. And indeed, even today the desert speaks to us of isolation, physical challenge, alienation, and parched spirits. Real dangers lurk there.

We too are often in deserts ourselves. Christmas can accentuate the divides among us, the losses we have suffered. As we anticipate the promised kingdom, the common-wealth of Christ, we need to recall that we too have crossed the Jordan, been baptized, and are now God’s tenants in God’s world. We have died with Christ and been raised up out of the Jordan in new life. That’s the promise of Advent. The coming commonwealth of God is near.

The hallmark of our anticipation, and John the baptizer’s, is reverence. Holy awe like John’s as he beheld the Lamb of God. We sorely lack this reverence. One only need drive the highways or walk the shopping malls. No one seems to be awe-filled, being gently still, expecting the holy. Expecting the holy moves us to respect and kindness toward all of life- and toward ourselves, for we are the ones God created to love. 

It believe for us that Advent and Christmas can be about mystical re-union of our opposites– reunion of our childhood thrill and anticipation with our adult knowledge of pain and loss. Reunion of the youthful love of getting with the mature love of giving. I intend to seek some quiet in the coming days and remember those I love but see no longer. And I intend to embrace with gusto those I love as they appear in different stages over the coming weeks and tell them how much I love them. And wait once again for celebrating of the mystery- the mystery of God come to us.  

1st Sunday of Advent, Year A – Rev. Frank F. Wilson

This morning we exit the long season of Pentecost and begin a new season in the church – the season that we call Advent. Advent, as we all know, is the first season of the new church year. Advent is sort of the preamble to all that we will attend to in terms of liturgy, Biblical texts, and themes throughout this new year. 

You no doubt know that the word “advent” simply means “coming.”  It is a word that anticipates something new, and novel, maybe even glorious is to come.

Actually, if you think about it, we use the word “advent” quite often in everyday speech. For example, we might say that the renaissance marked the advent of a new and vibrant era in the arts, and in science and religion.

We might say that the discovery of electricity marked the advent of the industrial age. 

If you are a fan of University of Georgia football, you might say that the hiring of Coach Kirby Smart marked the advent of UGA’s return to top-ranked football – a thing that Georgia fans have anticipated with great enthusiasm.

And so, we begin this new church year as we do every year. This is a time of year when we put ourselves in a posture of anticipation. The season of Advent is a time of being in waiting. Waiting for he who is to come – anticipating the arrival of the Christ child. But in the waiting, we also find ourselves pondering that time in the future when all that Christ initiated will come into all its fullness. This is a time we sometimes refer to as the Peaceable Kingdom – a term although not found in the Bible per se, is a term that bubbles up out of texts not unlike those read here a few moments ago. The term Peaceable Kingdom was coined by the Pennsylvania artist Edward Hicks. Hicks, a Quaker, was inspired having read certain passages from the Book of Isaiah, including the following: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them…”[Isaiah 11:6-8]

And so it is that this season of Advent illumines and renews our hopefulness in humankind’s potential of someday establishing peace on earth and goodwill towards all.  

One of the ways that we signify that we are living in a time of new beginnings is by the displaying of an Advent wreath and candles. We have one here. The point is the flames from the candles are a symbol of the Light of Christ which comes in the darkness. 

The story is told about the writer Robert Louis Stevenson growing up in Scotland around the turn of the century. The same Robert Louis Stevenson who penned such classics as Treasure Island as well as many non-fiction works. As a young boy, Stevenson lived on a hillside outside of his hometown of Edinboro, Scotland. It is said that each evening young Robert would sit in his family’s kitchen and look down on the town, and watch as the lamp lighter ignited each of the town’s street lamps below. From his vantage point it was as if each light sort of emerged from the darkness in a slow but steady stream, one at a time. Stevenson recalled saying to his mother once, “Look mother, there is a man down there punching holes in the darkness.”

The analogy, of course, the metaphor if you will, is that this is what the light of Christ is like. Embracing and living life as extolled by Christ punches holes in the darkness of the troubled human heart, and the troubled human soul – all in a very troubled world. We have but to turn on TV news any hour of the day or pick up a newspaper to be reminded that it is so. And so, each week as we progress through the season of Advent, we will light more candles to express our deep desire for and our collective longing for the Peaceable Kingdom.

So, the question becomes, “What are we to do with this time of waiting — this time of anticipation and preparation?

Well, let us consult once again the prophet Isaiah in search for the answer to that question. He writes: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob… so that we might be instructed in the ways of God. And the prophet speaks of a time when swords will be forged into ploughshares and spears will be turned into pruning hooks. This is but another way of saying: let us be intentional about casting away the works of darkness and embracing the light. It is about stepping outside of that which bedevils us and embracing that which renders peace, hope, joy, and contentment.

The Psalmist says pray for peace – peace in your own spirit and peace among and between all persons. 

And what does Jesus say? Jesus simply says, “Therefore, you must be ready.” And over the span of his ministry Jesus will say a hundred times over, in one way or another, as do all of our texts this morning, that the way we will be ready is to let love be our guide, our example, and our intention.  Jesus is saying if we can but bring ourselves to just let that simple principle, that simple prescription, that simple way of being and thinking be our guide – our collective guide – we will be ready. We will be prepared. And maybe we would have arrived at what Hicks called the Peaceable Kingdom.

                                                                     ***

You know Jesus did not coin the term Christianity. That would come later – many years following his death. In fact, early on, Jesus’ movement had no name. A perceptive observer might have called Jesus’ way the way of radically reformed Judaism.  But the earliest followers of Jesus, in fact, simply called the Jesus movement ‘The Way.’ Simply put and at its core, this simply meant the way of love.

The Psalmist this morning focuses on Jerusalem and the tribes of Israel when he prays for peace and prosperity. But Jesus later comes along and offers something of a corrective. He pushes a reset button on the theology of the psalmist. Jesus will say to focus on the tribes of Israel is fine and well, but God’s view of the family of God is ever so much greater than a single tribe or nation. God’s kingdom includes all whom God has made.

The Apostle Paul, arguably the most articulate of the leaders of the Jesus Movement, says that we owe not one nothing except to love one another.

Jesus will say this no plainer than when asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” In response to that question Jesus tells the story of the so-called good Samaritan. And the point of the story of the Good Samaritan is that your neighbor is everyone with whom you share this planet whether that person lives next door, or in a neighboring country, or is your perceived enemy, or is someone who lives on the other side of the world. 

Love is universal. It knows no tribe. It knows no boundaries. It knows no nation.  We are not called to love those whom we might judge to be loveable or whom we might desire to love. We are simply called to love.      

*****

In closing, let me “shift gears” so to speak and admit that now that I am no longer required to attend diocesan Annual Council, it’s been a few years now since I have attended one.  But know that one of the things that takes place at Council is that at some point in the proceedings the bishop takes off his Chairman of the Board hat and gives an address to those 500 or so delegates – about whatever is on his or her heart and mind. It is called an address rather than a sermon because it does not take place within the context of a worship service, but be assured that this address is most always sermon-esk.

And I remember to this day a story that Bishop Wright told at the last Council I attended. It happened that he had recently been in Cuba working in mutual ministry down there. And he told how one morning, before breakfast, he was standing at the window of the room in which he was staying. And he allowed as to how there had been something of a storm during the night that was still lingering as the sun was rising. It was still raining and he said that the wind was blowing quite hard. Rob said that as he was staring out the window, he saw two doves on a power line. They were poised about a foot or so apart. And he said that as he watched the birds, one began to move toward the other. And he watched as, in unison, the two birds began to edge toward each other until they were quite pressed together, side by side.  And there they stayed, huddled and pressed together, heads down, contending with and struggling against the storm. Then Rob said, he witnessed an amazing sight. He said one of the birds lifted its wing and very purposefully blanketed the other dove with whom he was sharing that powerline perch.

My friends in Christ, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. In the meantime, let us be about seeking and pursuing our better selves. In the meantime, in the waiting, let us be reminded that God calls us simply to love one another. In the meantime, as we await the arrival of the Christ child and the advent of creation in all of its expansive glory; as we await that time when love will indeed rule all of God’s creation – in the waiting we are to practice the art of love as if Christ has already returned. 

As the Apostle Paul said, let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us adopt love as our rule of life as Christ demonstrated for us. Let us adopt love as if our very lives depend on it because you know what? It actually and absolutely does.

[Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.]Amen.

Meditation Pledge Card Dedication Sunday – George Yandell

Four parallel stories in all four gospels are actually parallel miracles. Miracles of few loaves and fishes feeding 5,000 people. In John’s gospel account, Andrew speaks up to Jesus, says, “There is a lad here with five loaves and two fish; but what does that amount do for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down,” and he took the loaves, gave thanks, and passed them around with the fish to all the people sitting there. No more mention of the young boy.

What was the boy thinking? Did he regret letting Andrew know about his bread and fish? I suspect not- especially when Jesus passed the food around and at the end, and 12 baskets full of the left-over food was gathered. The boy had witnessed something unbelievable- and his catch of fish and bread had been the catalyst for it. 

Mark’s account doesn’t mention the boy. Jesus tells his disciples to give the huge crowd something to eat. When his friends complain that there’s not enough to begin to feed the crowd, Jesus asks them: “How many loaves do you have? Go look.” The disciples come back to Jesus and tell him, “Five loaves and two fish.” Jesus had everyone sit down, then took the bread and fish, looked up at the sky, gave a blessing, and broke the bread apart, and started giving it to his disciples to pass around. Everyone had enough to eat. The disciples picked up 12 baskets full of left-overs, including some fish. 5000 people were fed. 

I like that this shared story has distinctive differences in the two accounts (Matthew and Luke’s account today follow Mark’s account closely.) The two striking things about John and Mark are the boy, sharing all he had, and in Mark, it was the disciples who distributed the bread and fish- it was at their hands that the bread and fish were multiplied. And in Luke, 12 baskets full of broken pieces were gathered. Much more than the 5 loaves and two fish Jesus blessed and broke for distribution.

The boy contributed all of what he had- the miracle was in the sharing, God’s blessing covered everyone. Some Jesus scholars suggest that it wasn’t only the boy who put in his offering, but that many others did as well. It doesn’t change the outcome- you’d have had to buy 4,950 happy meals to feed the 5,000. 

Our parish turns 36 on Advent Sunday, one week from today. Sam Buice gave us a sense of what the early founders of our parish experienced as their supper club with Eucharist grew into a parish. We are collectively growing into mature adulthood. When I think what the wider community would be like if we’d never been born as a parish, I imagine it impoverished and diminished. And we as well. I am so grateful to be part of this community of saints, founded on a wing and a prayer by generous souls, many of whom are still with us.

I have been tithing since 1983. 10% of my income goes to God through the Church. Susan and I have been tithing since we came to Holy Family 12 years ago. (Draw attention to the chart in the service sheet.) Some couples choose to pledge separately from one another from their separate incomes, respecting one another as they are in different places on their faith journeys.

Some of us are part-time residents of Jasper and Holy Family. You might choose to estimate your giving based on the percentage of time you spend here. 

Many of our regular givers have filled out pledge cards over the past 12 years. 112 of us did so for 2022. What if every individual/every family in this congregation submitted a pledge card? What if everyone came forward with her/his offering, like the young boy in the gospel? The miracle might well overwhelm us. And note, one’s pledge can be modified throughout the year as our fortunes rise or fall. (Read the card aloud, word for word: “I/we commit to give of my/our financial resources to God through Holy Family Church. To support the ministries of Holy Family in 2023 I/we commit $$ as a weekly or monthly or quarterly or annually.”)

Today we’ll gather in the pledges of those who’ve chosen to give to God through Holy Family Church for 2023. For those unable to be present today, or those who’ve not sent in their pledge cards, a reminder notice will be sent in the coming days. I recall Bp. Whitmore’s words 6 years ago: Generous giving consecrates ourselves to Christ.// Giving 10% (or more!) allows us to live 90% free- knowing we’re bound up with Christ in the work of the kingdom of God. Pooling our giving creates us as a holy community, as consecrated disciples. I am convicted that as we combine our hearts in the movement of the spirit in a moment, God works through us. Stepping up, pooling our substance, deepens our faith, increases our fellowship, and spreads the good news way past this congregation into God’s good world. I can see the little boy’s eyes wide with amazement. Jesus is opening us up to new life, new freedom.

Proper 28C – George Yandell

Here are some facts about a region known to many of you. Over a period of 200 years, at least 8 major events troubled this region. See if you can tell where it is.

• At the beginning of these 200 years, a series of major earthquakes rocked the region, killing untold numbers of peoples, devastating communities.
• There was intensive slavery, masters growing rich on the backs of their slaves.
• A massive conversion to commercialized agriculture focused on crops that big companies could sell in foreign markets, causing landowners to go into debt, because they couldn’t compete with the huge combined farms. Small landowners were driven off their farms and turned into sharecroppers.
• Grinding poverty grew among the population, as the rich grew richer.
• A civil war tore the region apart. Throngs of residents were conscripted into military service, sent to die in battles close to home and far away.
• The victors occupied the region after subduing rebellions large and small; racial minorities were oppressed.
• The infant mortality rate grew to epidemic proportions.
• Religious institutions failed to honor their mission to protect the poorest of the poor.
• Toward the end of these 200 years, a charismatic leader arose who protested against the treatment of the impoverished people. He preached non-violent cooperation. His disciples watched in horror as he was violently killed.

What region am I describing? Yes, Palestine in the period from 170 BCE to 30 CE. All these statements are true.

The homeland of Jesus is split by the northern end of the Great Rift Valley. Palestine experiences an average of two destructive earthquakes per century, 2-6 light shocks each year. After the Hebrews revolted under the Maccabees against the oppression of the Syrian rulers 162 years before Jesus was born, they actually achieved independence for a time. In the century Jesus’s birth, Roman legions occupied Syria and established their headquarters there. In 5 BCE, while Mary was carrying the baby Jesus in her womb, peasant Jews revolted in Sepphoris (5 miles from Nazareth) and in Jerusalem. Roman legions were sent south to quell the revolts. One legion passed right through Nazareth on the way down to Sepphoris. They practiced a scorched earth policy, raping women, taking slaves, leaving devastation in their wake.

Jesus delivers his last teaching before his crucifixion in today’s gospel. It is called ‘the little apocalypse’. Apocalyptic writings interpret a present or impending crisis as the last crisis of this age of human history, before a new age begins.  

After Jesus spoke to the disciples and others in Jerusalem, they probably looked at one another, and replied, “So what’s new about this? This is our world you’re describing. Why should anything change?” Jesus tells of the world as it is, war after war, crisis after crisis. He longs for the world to be transformed into the world as it should be. Jesus knew God’s heart. Jesus knew God longed for God’s kingdom to cover the earth so that justice and peace would reign. The disciples who slept out with Jesus on the Mt. of Olives had entered kingdom life with him, and sampled the surpassing peace the kingdom promised. And they knew the world was shaking and in flames all around them. They were living on the fault line. 

What fault lines are destabilizing our Holy Family community? What temblors do we feel in Jasper? // Listen again to Luke: Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that you (plural) are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and ‘the time is near! Do not go after them. When you (plural) hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”

The important word here is ‘You’ plural. “Don’t be led astray- you all, my community, stay together.” “Cling to one another”, Jesus was saying- “The end of this age is near, God’s kingdom is pregnant now. You are the kingdom being born now.” Jesus meant for the disciples to hold onto each other through all sorts of calamities.  That tiny community grew to 33 million followers by 350 CE. More than half the population of the entire Roman Empire. How did that happen? They lived the kingdom of God as real and present.

The 1^st evidence of God’s kingdom present now = peace in the midst of chaos. The 2^nd evidence = love growing in fellowship, sharing God’s gifts with all. The 3^rd evidence= serving the world with joy. It’s like a double helix of the individual and the community- each strand growing into God, separate but connected. Knowing, loving, and serving God. The individual’s growth into God’s heart is carried in community, and the community grows as I am led deeper into knowing, loving and serving God. That’s what Jesus grafted into the hearts of his disciples- hold onto one another: know, love and give to God through the fellowship. That’s why followers of the Way of Jesus still flourish today in the midst of pain and devastation.

I want tell you a story about living through the worst, of disciples that won’t let go, and the present kingdom of God. There was a wild boy named Charlie in my home church in Knoxville. He was two years older than I. His mother, Beth, taught my 4^th grade Sunday school class while my mother taught Charlie’s 6^th grade class. My mother said it was the most challenging class she’d ever taught because Charlie instigated all sorts of mischief.

When I got to 9^th grade and went to high school, Charlie was a junior. He was one of the boys who drove fast, drank beer and smoked cigarettes. He was always called to the principal’s office. After his junior year, Charlie was flunking out. He enlisted in the army. Keep in mind this was 1968. He trained to fly helicopters, and went to Viet Nam as a med-evac pilot. Home on leave the summer after my junior year, Charlie attended Church one Sunday in uniform. He was a changed person. He had found his calling in life. He stood proud. He said he’d seen things that brought out the very best and the very worst in people. He was a man on a mission. In my senior year, Charlie’s helicopter was shot down as he was airlifting the wounded from the battlefield. Charlie and all aboard were killed. 

At Charlie’s funeral in our Church, I sat in the choir loft with other volunteer singers, and looked down at his flag-draped casket. I couldn’t accept that Charlie’s body was inside it. It was surreal, unbelievable. News cameras were taping the service. A distant war had become personal and horrifying. Charlie’s mother Beth was devastated. She withdrew from her friends. She and her husband divorced a year after Charlie’s death. She was lost in her grief. 

There’s a postscript: Charlie’s mother didn’t stay submerged in her grieving. Her fellow church school teachers wouldn’t let her go. They kept calling, going by her house, urging her to come to planning lunches, and finally her resistance caved. She started teaching again, sharing in the planning for the special events of the parish. She spent large portions of each day volunteering, helping to build a remarkable Christian Ed program.  By the time she died in the early 1990’s, Beth had experienced resurrection. She once remarked to some of her fellow teachers, “You know, I miss Charlie every day. But God has entrusted throngs of children to me. I love each and every one of them- I’ve seen them grow up and flourish. I’d never have my heart fill with love again had it not been for my fellow teachers- they wouldn’t let me go.” That was how the rector quoted Beth at her burial. Everyone knew it to be true.  This is still our mission- cling to each other through good times and bad. Don’t let go. No matter what fault lines shift under us, we are God’s kingdom people. The new age of God’s peace begins here and now. When you pass the peace today, realize it’s a prayer for the one in front of you. A prayer for the peace that is God’s kingdom coming. Jesus intends we live it. 

All Souls – Ted Hackett

The last time I preached I referenced the Big Bang as the origin of the Universe and Black Matter and the James Webb telescope.

A couple of people referred to it as a “physics lesson”…

Well, I am risking doing it again.

I am not a physicist…though Astrophysics has fascinated me since grade school…

And…I got an A in High School calculus…an achievement, since I wasn’t really very mathematical!

What I have been fascinated with lately is something called “Quantum Entanglement”.

This is something that physicists have known about for years…but no one knew what to do with it…so they largely ignored it.

Some of you may know about it.

In my limited understanding…if in a laboratory you examine two particles which are bound together…as often occurs in the natural order of things and then bombard them with microwave photons…

They split apart…

If then the lab moves one of the split-offs, and puts a lead barrier up between the particles and then moves them apart a big distance, they act like they were still bonded together.

If one moves, the other moves instantly…in spite of being split apart.

How do they “know…this happens faster than the speed of light!

Einstein called it: “Spooky action at a distance”…

And initially simply did not believe it.

Some physicists think there is something like a space-time superfluid we don’t know about. which allows for instant waves.

Others think we will never know. 

When I was a kid, my Uncle Louie…

Those of you who have heard me preach over the past years know about Uncle Louie…

A bachelor, ex-basketball player who was a trickster with a sly sense of humor whom I adored…

In spite of the fact that he complicated my toilet training by convincing me that there were alligators in the city sewers which sometimes appeared in commodes!

Louie adored his mother and continued to live with her all his life…

She took care of him…and he took care of her.

When he was only fifty-something…

Louis died…complications from his heavy drinking…

My grandmother was bereft…

She felt abandoned and lonely…

She refused the offers of her two remaining sons to move in with them….that old apartment was home…and it had been home to Louie, and she was staying there!

My father and his brother knew better than to argue with her!

But she was still distraught…

She used to prowl the apartment at night…

She would go in his room and look at the art on the walls…

She would sit in the front sunroom overlooking the night street…

And she would talk to him…

And she became convinced that in some way …he was with her!

He was there.

My parents worried that she was hallucinating…

They asked about visions and such…

Being Irish as she was, the idea of Ghosts was familiar…but she denied it…

“I’m not seeing things…I’ve no truck with ghosts!”…she swore emphatically…

Louie was…just…there!

She knew it!

Now it’s easy to explain psychologically…

a distraught old woman…

Grieving and abandoned…

Finding comfort in delusion…

But I remember my father…though skeptical…still not quite accepting that it was a simple psychological phenomenon…

Maybe it was a leftover from hearing Irish folk beliefs so much of his young life…Banshees and all that…

But he did not give up his impression that there was something there…

That she and Louie were…somehow…

in touch…

Molly said Louie reassured her they would see each other again…

And, she said, to her surprise…

He was not in Purgatory…

as he probably deserved!

My mother…who was a physician…

Did not object…

She had married into an Irish family!      

But if you ruled out delusions and hallucinations…

What could be going on?

Our experience…at least since the 18th century, is that those who have died don’t come back…Jesus being the exception…

We just don’t believe it can happen!

We can’t quite get our arms around the dead living somehow on just the other side of a kind of screen but being close to us.

Which is exactly what Christians believed for sixteen hundred years.

It’s just not possible we think.

But…

Think of those two sub-atomic particles…

Welded together and then blown apart…

Moved so that distance and a lead barrier separates them…

Still, somehow, seeming to communicate…instantly…

Faster than the speed of light!

I can’t get my arms around that…

And neither can a lot of physicists!

I am not suggesting that souls are sub-atomic particles

I am not even suggesting that this is an analogy…

I am suggesting that we don’t understand all about how barriers and distance work…

So why should we understand how the membrane-like barrier between us and those we love who have passed on through it, might allow communication between us? 

After all…distance and a lead wall can’t stop communication between to particles that were bonded together.

And what, after all, is what we call the “Communion of Saints?

It is all who are bonded together in Christ…

Our Lord…who died and rose again…

Still himself, but now transformed

Transformed so that he lives forever

Lives, so that those who are united to him by our very humanity…

All of us who are part of God’s creation…will be re-born to live together in love.

For in Christ nothing…

Nothing shall be lost!

And in the meantime we are told…as Paul says:…

“ I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

So even death cannot separate us from those on the other side of that barrier…

And so we light candles…

Yes in their memory…

But also in communion with them…

And so we offer our love in the form of bread and wine…

And we receive Communion…

Communion in Christ’s Body and Blood.

And we are in Christ…

And as we pray for those on the other side of that temporary barrier…that thin membrane…

We know they are with us…

In those memories which are a promise of being together again…

For nothing can separate us…

Nothing…

So let us remember, give thanks

And know they are with us…

And we with them… Bonded forever in Christ’s love!

Proper 26C – George Yandell

This is the traditional rendering of the song many of us learned in Sunday school:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And when the savior passed that way he looked up in the tree, and said, “Zacchaeus you come down for, I’m going to your house today, I’m going to your house today.” Zacchaeus was a wee little man but a happy man was he. For he had seen the Lord that day, and a happy man was he, and a happy man was he.

The song seems most intent on letting us know he was small of stature and was extraordinarily happy to entertain Jesus. Many of us would have quailed at what Jesus did to Zacchaeus. Yet Zacchaeus became not only happy but grateful to Jesus. 

The background: Jesus is nearing Jerusalem. He has just warned the friends traveling with him that in Jerusalem he will be handed over to the Roman authorities and be killed. He is passing through Jericho. Just prior to this story of Zacchaeus, Jesus had healed a blind beggar on the outskirts of the city. It is a miracle healing- the crowd didn’t think the blind man worthy of Jesus’ attention. Yet Jesus heard the blind man crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Those in front of the blind man ordered him to be quiet, but Jesus stood still and ordered the blind man brought to him and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied, in front of the throng who’d shushed him, “Lord, let me see again.” And Jesus said, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” The man immediately began to see again, saw the face of Jesus and followed him. When the people saw the man blind, now seeing, they all praised God. 

We heard last week about another tax collector who was praised by Jesus for his humility. In Zacchaeus we meet a tax collector who is anything but humble. The tax collectors in Palestine made unregulated profits by preying on the poor, the working class. 

Zacchaeus would have been considered a sinner of the worst sort- he was the ring-leader of employees who extorted taxes and much more. Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name- he must have had notoriety beyond Jericho. Strangely, the name Zacchaeus means ‘pure, righteous.’ [New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 5, p. 952] If you look closely at the two back-to-back stories you find Zacchaeus is also healed by Jesus- the blind man wanted to see, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. In both stories the crowd tries to suppress the ones who want to see- and both exult when Jesus heals them. Zacchaeus’s healing is no less a miracle than the blind man seeing again. 

The rich do not fare well in the gospel of Luke. But in this story, the rich Zacchaeus shows others how to respond to meeting Jesus. Jesus came to his house and the crowd grumbled, berating Jesus for being a guest in the house of one so notoriously sinful. 

Then Zacchaeus stood in front of Jesus, in his lavishly decorated house, fine food being served, and did what was a hallmark of a true disciple of Jesus- he made a declaration, “Half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and those I have defrauded, I will pay back four times what I stole.” This is not only confession, but restitution. Jesus then states to Zacchaeus and all gathered in his house, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.”

I usually don’t appreciate the sayings pastors put on their Church signs, but I keep revisiting the sign I spied last Tuesday in front of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in John’s Creek: “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.”// Don’t you hear the urgency in Jesus’ inviting himself into the house of a notorious sinner? Zacchaeus responded to that urgency and switched seats, he put Jesus in the driver’s seat. He was now in the presence of the one his soul longed for. Jesus had offered Zacchaeus the way to leave behind completely the notorious life he was living. His ethics had immediately shifted toward the God whose people had condemned him. He was now in a bold new place, salvation had come into his household. 

I believe Jesus in that house was teaching not only Zacchaeus but his followers, and us, a new way of living in God’s domain now. This was a moment when God gave the chance for Zacchaeus to stand on new ground. He grew up into a new person in that exchange. He now was in the vanguard of the Kingdom movement of Jesus- an unlikely new example of grace.

There are moments when God gives us new opportunities. We get the chance to dive deeply into the transformed life Jesus offers. Jesus offers the miracle of transformed life. That life is always in company with the others being reshaped by the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are opened, new freedom flows into us. The mark of that change is not only within our hearts but in thankful responses of grace. Zacchaeus leapt at the opportunity to make things right by giving back that which he had received, albeit by extortion and theft. When we yield to the transforming spirit of Jesus, we pool our gratitude in generous giving. God blesses and multiplies our offerings. That’s what we aim for in consecrating our lives in Christ. That’s growing into the full stature of faith. There is urgency for us as well. Our community needs us more than ever to lead others today, lead them intograce-filled giving.

Zacchaeus wasn’t just a wee little man- he had become a towering example of soul-filled gratitude to the Son of God. He had invited Jesus to become the pilot of his life, the captain of his household. Jesus became the source of new life. The ‘righteous one’ had earned his name. So may we.  

Proper 25C – George Yandell

The verses from Joel for today begin by calling on God’s people to “be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God”, because their fortunes had been reversed after the widespread destruction of the locusts. The rains have returned, the harvests will be plentiful, and the people shall once again have enough to eat. They are to praise the Lord their God, who dwells among them, for they “shall never again be put to shame”.

Joel proclaims a glorious future in which God’s Spirit will be poured out on all people, no matter their age, gender, or social status. God will be revealed through prophecy, dreams, and visions. At Pentecost, Peter quotes these words of Joel (Acts 2:17-21) in his call to faith and salvation at the coming of the Holy Spirit. (Adapted from “Synthesis: A Weekly Resource for Preaching”, October issue.)

Today’s Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is addressed to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt”. This parable is unique to Luke and provides a further example of Luke’s teachings on prayer and Divine reversals. It suggests that the prophecy of Joel is not being realized in the time of Jesus. The people are not all receptive to the Holy Spirit and they are not united in working God’s program.

Jesus presents two sharply contrasting main characters. The Pharisee was a person of elite status, education, and respectability who knew and meticulously followed Mosaic Law. He would have been held up as a model citizen. (Adapted from “Synthesis: A Weekly Resource for Preaching”, October issue.)

The term Pharisee comes from the Greek word ‘pharisaios’, which in turn comes from Aramaic ‘perishayya’ meaning ‘the separated one.’ In Jesus’s day, the term Pharisee was interpreted different ways: it meant one who had withdrawn from sin by rigorous observance of the Law. Or it could have referred to one who has become set apart through observing what is good in the law- and it could have referred to Jews who had withdrawn from the popular political uprisings of Jewish militants against Roman occupation and extortion.

At the opposite end of the social spectrum was the tax collector. In first century Palestine, the responsibility of collecting Roman taxes was often contracted out to both Gentile and Jewish agents who could charge any tax rate they wished as long as the government received its due. By keeping the difference, tax collectors could become quite wealthy. (ibid)

Since many devout Jews regarded the paying of any tax to a foreign power as treason against God, any Jew participating in and profiteering from this system was considered a collaborator and a traitor. For this reason, a tax collector was counted among the worst of sinners and was banned from Jewish social and religious life. (ibid)

In the first two instances, knowledge & performance of traditional religious obligations set the person apart. Jesus condemned the practice of tying one’s quest for God to observing the law. He frequently dined with Pharisees, and may have been raised a Pharisee. But he disputed with those whose relations with God were founded only in pietistic actions of legal accountability. Jesus knew that strict religiosity could become an end in itself, and keep one separated from God as well as separated from unholy people. 

The 18^th Century English poet Robert Smithy must have been thinking of the tax collector when he wrote this poem:

Lord! Who are merciful as well as just, incline thine ear to me, a child of dust!

Not what I would, Lord, I offer thee, alas but what I can.

Father Almighty, who hast made me man, and bade me look to heaven, for thou art there,

Accept my sacrifice and humble prayer.

Four things which are not in thy treasury I lay before thee, Lord, with this petition:

My nothingness, my wants, my sins, and my contrition.

Thomas Merton wrote: “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.”

Madeleine L’Engle says in A Circle of Quiet: “The moment that humility becomes self-conscious, it becomes [pride]. One cannot be humble and aware of oneself at the same time. Therefore, the act of creating- painting a picture, singing a song, writing a story- is a humble act…Humility is throwing oneself away in complete concentration on something or someone else.”

The figure of [pride-fullness] in today’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector illustrates this simple point. When one’s focus is “all about me” it is impossible to [live in] true humility. If constantly thinking about oneself and one’s “humility” immediately cancels the good, how might the virtue of humility be approached? If we cannot judge our own humility, how can we develop this trait?”

When we do not allow ourselves to “get in the way” and are concentrating on a task by “throwing ourselves away,” it can bring us closer to God and others. Prayer and meditation also qualify as “creative acts” that involve throwing ourselves away, forgetting ourselves, and abandoning ourselves to God. The other tasks of “making” and “creating” in our lives teach us about the qualities of true prayer.  What we can offer God is both the Pharisee and the publican within us. We are both at once- both our pretense and our sins separate us from God. As Jesus proclaimed, “all who humble themselves are exalted.” Exaltation then is a flow, a yielding to God in every moment. It means God knows us, embraces us, and intends that we enter the work of the Holy Spirit as love is poured out on all people, no matter their age, gender, or social status. God is revealed even now through our dreams and visions. Enter the flow- God is creating us anew in each moment as we concentrate on others and lose ourselves in the life of the Holy Spirit.

Proper 24C – George Yandell

In Luke’s gospel, women speak 15 times. Their words are given 10 times and not given 5 times. In contrast, men speak 100’s of times. There is a virtual din of male voices. But the number of women depicted in Luke and the emphasis on their presence in the narrative are surprising. There is a notable tendency in Luke to defend, reassure, and praise women, compared to the other gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Many of the passages presuppose their economic helplessness in a male-dominated society. [Adapted from Women’s Bible Commentary, Newsome et al editors, pp. 497 & 499.] I see them as standing for all the destitute people of Jesus’ day and place. Yet they often challenged the powers that were.

Today’s parable is often called the “Parable of the Unjust Judge,” but it could also be called the “Parable of the Pushy, Nagging Widow.” Did you notice she didn’t come on with flattery for the judge? There was no: “Oh noble and just sir, may I humbly ask you for your favor”! No! She came in shouting “Vindicate me!” And she kept it up until she wore down that shameless man. She was praying.

I think we often trivialize prayer by limiting it to what Phillips Brooks once called rather breezily “a wish turned heavenward.” God isn’t room service and I think God, like us, is not moved by wishing upon a star. Prayer, like faith, has to be integral to our being. Passionate. God expects not petitions but relationships. God expects us to be really there when we engage God. A prayer once uttered by St. Teresa of Avila says: “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it is no wonder you have so few of them!” Perhaps not the most pious of prayers, but she was full with God and she was fully engaged even if somewhat angry.  

We have really to put ourselves into prayer to hear and be heard. Once a student had been visiting a retreat house and met with her spiritual advisor before leaving. “Why,” she asked, “has my stay here yielded no fruit?” “Perhaps,” the advisor replied, “because you have lacked the courage to shake the tree.” This is important not only for our prayer lives, but also for taking God’s Presence into the world. God intends us to cooperate with God through our own faith and prayer and actions. The church has inherited the role of judges to pray and work with God collectively to bring mercy and justice into the world and to ensure that the community protects those most in need of special protection. [The above 3 paragraphs adapted from William J. Albinger in Oct. 2013 Synthesis.] 

The late Henri Nouwen believed that Christians need to stand up publicly against all that goes against God’s love, including war, poverty, and weapons of mass destruction. He wrote: “True prayer always includes becoming poor. When we pray we stand naked and vulnerable in front of Our Lord and show God our true condition. If one were to do this not just for oneself, but in the name of the thousands of poor people surrounding us, wouldn’t that be ‘mission’ in the true sense of being sent into the world as Jesus himself was sent into the world?”

Jesus uses the example of an official who is corrupt in using his judicial power to teach us about the reliability of God. The judge who “neither feared God nor had respect for people” resembles the modern ideal of disinterested jurist—impartial and unbiased, without prejudice and superstition. Should he be seeking election to the bench, we might vote for him. Yet Luke calls him “corrupt.” Whatever responsibility he had to the greater community to mete out justice, the judge had a special obligation to see that these “little ones”—such as widows without means of honest livelihood—received their just treatment.  

The widow keeps coming to the judge with a plea for simple justice against her adversary. She seeks only what is her due. We do not see him taking the facts into account. But the widow continues to come to him and the judge knows he is being backed into a corner and must do something.

The perfect secular leader can be influenced neither by public opinion nor by religious principle; and yet this widow is able to get to him by hammering away. And so—how much more will the God of mercy be ready to come to the aid of those who are seeking help? The parable is one of contrasts and just desserts. But its central message admonishes us to pray with that very persistence.

We need to pray, not to inform the all-knowing God of our needs, but to impress into ourselves our own inability to meet those needs. Pray without ceasing—not for God’s sake, but for your own. As we pray we may be made aware of something in ourselves—or in the lives of those for whom we pray—which somehow stands in the way of God’s purpose. We need not always think that this is some sin unknown to us consciously— though that may indeed be the case.

More often, people may refuse to accept what God seeks to do in and for them because they feel unworthy; they may assume that God has better things to do than to care so intimately and thoroughly for their needs.

But God is infinite in love and capacity for caring, and nobody ever can be worthy. So our individual lack of qualification is not important. Therefore, persisting in prayer as Jesus instructs is not really to wear down God’s indifference or unwillingness to help us. Rather, the aim of true prayer is to wear down the unjust judge within ourselves.  Jesus intends that whatever is wrong in us may be made right by God’s grace. Prayer is a dance between insistence and surrender, of missing the mark and hitting it, of selfishness and self-sacrifice.

Richard Rohr wrote in Immortal Diamond, “God is the ‘goodness glue’ that holds the dark and light of things together, the free energy that carries all death across the Great Divide and transmutes it into Life.”

I contacted my first spiritual mentor a few years ago. Ron DelBene is now retired from interim rector work. When I asked if he might come here to lead a weekend on spiritual growth he responded, “George, I have the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. I really can’t travel and teach anymore, but I will continue to pray for you.  [Tale of sending Ron my prayer journal- his letters always ended with “Our prayers unite us.”] Our prayers unite all of us. Not in some ephemeral way, but in bonding us together, bringing spiritual wholeness and power. They unite us in the beating heart of the resurrected Jesus, who desires more than anything that we cooperate with God for God’s justice to be done in God’s world. 

                         

Proper 23 – Ted Hackett

I am going to ask you to do two things this morning.
I will frame two pictures for you…
And ask you to remember them both at the same time…
I don’t think you will find it hard…
They are memorable images.

The first is an image of first century Palestine…
Imagine a little band of Jews…blue collar guys..
Walking along a dusty, hot road…
Passing through an area which was neither Samaritan nor Jewish.

They have just entered a little village…
A cluster of small, simple houses and maybe a workshop and an Inn…..
And as they go they hear tinkling bells…
It is a small group of Lepers…
They have banded together because
they cannot associate with any “clean” people…
They are “unclean”…thought to be sinners who are contagious.
They are in dirty, tattered clothes and must wear bells
to warn people to keep away from them.
O.K. …Hold that picture…

Now…picture some of the astounding images you have probably seen taken by the new James Webb telescope…
Images of things that happened a quarter of a billion light years ago…
And light travels one hundred and eighty six miles…per second!
Do the math, as they say…
There are so many zeros in that computation
that I can’t wrap my mind around it…
That’s why physicists use the letter “C” to indicate
the speed of light…as in Einstein’s E=mc2

This means we will be able to see an estimated 200 Billion other Galaxies in our Universe.
And maybe…some empirical clues to such phenomena as
Dark Energy and Dark Matter
which make up about 85% of the universe’s total mass…
And to make it even more complicated…we don’t have a clue about
whether the Dark stuff came into being with the Big Bang
or there was Dark Matter before the Bang and was the medium
in which the Big Bang took place!
Furthermore…Webb can get us perhaps a
quarter of a billion years from the Big Bang.

The Big Bang…the point at which something…
An inconceivable sub atomic something which
contained all the detectable energy that moves the
universe, exploded and the Universe literally exploded into being…
And at this moment that explosion is still in
process as the universe expands…
Blowing out…everything in it moving
away from everything else…
Literally…space expanding because space and time
are functions of the universe and were “born” with the Big Bang…
All of it evolving in enumerable ways…
Running on energy from
That cosmic explosion billions of light years ago
Begun from an infinitesimal bearer of energy…
In a nano second!

These are numbers…
Scales…
Events…
Which our brains are not capable of comprehending…
As the philosopher Noam Chomsky rightly says:
“Our brains are not designed to comprehend some things…”

But we are curious, we human beings…
We want to know, we want to understand…
Some theologians have suggested that our curiosity…
our drive to understand…
Is the basis for the original sin…
The snake in the Garden of Eden told Eve…
if she ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge…
She would be like God!

But I don’t think so…
The early Church theologians called the sin in the Garden
“Felix Culpa”… “Happy Sin”…
Because it started us on the great adventure
of discovery…
The Sin is not the curiosity…
The sin is the misuse of what we discover!
And what seems to be the case is that…
The more we discover…
The more we uncover the
more we find we don’t understand!

The search is a marvelous adventure…
If we don’t destroy ourselves in the process!
But…back to the Big Bang…

If there was a Big Bang…what “Banged”?
If there is an explosion…
Something had to “explode”!
But the Big Bang theory seems to assume there was…nothing…

Years ago, Emory had a series of “Interdisciplinary Faculty Dinners…
Someone in the Academic Deans’ office discovered
that the various “Schools”…Business, Arts, Physics, Medicine, etc.
kept to their own disciplines and didn’t talk to each other…
We were all in our own, self enclosed “silos”…
except for a few individuals who talked to one another…
So the Dean took this model…
Individual scholars talking to each other as a model
and set up a series of interdisciplinary dinners
and invited a mixed bag of faculty…
At one of them, I was next to a physicist…
A nice guy I enjoyed talking to….
We got on the subject of the origin of the universe…
and he tried to explain what Physicist were thinking about that.

In the process he talked about stuff like “Cosmic Inflation” and
“Cosmic Vacuum”…and at one point about “alternate theories”
which seem to point to an everlasting system of
multiple Universes we can’t know…
Something about String Theory…
But with each answer…there was another question…”
For there to be a Cosmic Vacuum, there has to be an absence
of something…an absence of air for instance…
And that is something.
Finally he said to me, with a smile:
“You are the theologian…that’s your field.”
I said: “Yes…the Question of Why is there Something
rather than nothing at all”
He lowered his voice and said: “Einstein asked that question…
and said being was eternal. He didn’t know and we don’t either
I think we never will!”

The more we try to solve the Mysteries of the universe…
The more we think of them as “problems to be solved.”…
The more of the problems we do solve…
We find that the very solution produces yet more problems to solve!
An endless chain of problems…
Each one an adventure of the Human Spirit…
But none of them ever answer to the Question:
“Why is there something rather than nothing at all”

Now the easy …and tempting…thing to do is say:
“Well, of course…the basic Something is God!”
And in one sense that is true…
But that’s a bit easy…
I could say… “But why is God?”
It seems the more we question…
The more we look to solve problems…
The more we find unanswered questions…
Till finally we say…
“That’s a mystery”

And though we usually mean: “that’s a problem we can’t solve”…
That is not what the Church means by “Mystery.”

Now…
Go back for a bit to the start of this sermon….
Remember the image of that little bunch of poorly fed Jews
trudging on a dusty road toward Jerusalem…
Remember the pitiful, filthy little band of lepers
with their tinkling warning bells…
Jesus’ fame has spread and they recognize him…
But the rules are that they can’t come near…
So hoping for some money they cry: “Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us!”

But instead of giving them money, Jesus says: “Go show yourselves to the Priests.”
In that moment they must have recognized something about Jesus because….
Against all experience…
Against all reason…they obeyed!
They turned and went…
And as they went…
Their skin turned pink…
And they realized…
They were…cured!
They were well!

The priests would ask them to make a thanksgiving sacrifice and then certify that they could rejoin society!
They could hug their family…
They could eat with friends…
They could live!

Something that only God could do… had happened!
The Church would come to understand that this…
and other…miracles that Jesus did were because
he bore the power and authority of God…

In fact…
Against all reason and experience…
He did them because he was and is God…
God and yet fully human…

That is not a problem to be solved…
That is a mystery to be lived into…
Not a proposition to understand intellectually..
But a mysterious reality to trust…
To give ourselves up to…Mystery…
In which to find faith…

John says at the beginning of his Gospel … ” No one has ever seen God, it is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart who has made Him known!”
That means…that the unknowable Mystery that is
at the beginning and end of all that is or ever will be…
The power and mystery that we glimpse in the Webb telescope pictures …
The awful…awful and fearful One who is the author of all that creation
we see before our eyes in those pictures…
God …
Almighty and unknowable…

Has made himself known in a Galilean carpenter from an enslaved people…
To see Jesus…in his ordinary humanity…yet in his healing power…
To see Jesus, naked and alone…on the cross…
Hanging in helpless, agonizing death throes…
Is to see God…
God…who stooped to be one of us!
And who can understand that?

And to see in our mind’s eye…
The empty tomb…The Angels…
The risen Christ coming through closed doors,
yet eating as the human He is…
Risen…both God and human…
Who can solve the problem of how that was done?

To know the man Jesus is to know the unknowable God…
who for us and our salvation became fully human
The way we treat other people…is how we are treating God.
And it matters to God…
It matters so much that God became one of us…
It matters so much that God died as we die…
And rose that we might live… forever…

Us…a little, passing speck in the incomprehensible universe…
For us…us…he did all this…

In the words of the hymn we sang moments ago:
“My God, how wonderful thou art, thy majesty how bright, how beautiful thy mercy seat, in depths of burning light!
How wonderful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be….thine endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity!
Oh how I fear thee, living God, with deepest tenderest fears, and worship thee with trembling hope and penitential tears.
Yet I may love thee too, O Lord, almighty as thou art,
for thou has stooped to ask of me… the love of my poor heart!”

Sing thanks…
Transient and tiny as we are…
Sing Alleluia!
The source of all that is…
Knows us by name…
And stoops to ask us…
For our love!