March 6, 2022
Lent 1 C George Yandell
Did you hear the parallels? One trek in the wilderness is ending, another just beginning. In Deuteronomy, the Hebrew people are concluding their 40 years in the wilds, and Jesus is just beginning his wilderness sojourn. Moses is giving his final instructions to the people of God before they enter the promised land. They have finally reached their destination. Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He was just beginning his ministry.
In his book The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (Oxford University Press, 1998), Belden Laneoffers an understanding of wilderness I never heard before. He says, “Yahweh is a God who repeatedly leads the children of Israel into the desert, toward the mountain…. The God of Sinai is one who thrives on fierce landscapes, seemingly forcing God’s people into wild [places] where trust must be absolute.” (p. 43)
Instead of leading the people of Israel out of Egypt along the easier, more direct coastal route to the land of the Philistines, they had been pointed toward a longer route, more deeply into the desert, toward Mt. Sinai. God intentionally opted for the more difficult landscape, as if this was God’s usual preference. God’s people were deliberately forced into the desert, taking the harder, more hazardous route as an exercise in radical faith. (ibid, adapted,
February 20, 2022
Epiphany 7C – George Yandell
“Who are your enemies?” I’ve been asking this question of people close to me this week. None of them reports having anyone s/he regards as an enemy. Thus I conclude we miss the point of what Jesus says- “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” I want to talk about enemy, balance, and more. I want to show you what’s at stake when we miss the point Jesus makes.
These enemy/hatred sayings are the very core of the gospel Jesus taught. The Greek word ‘enemy’ comes from a root meaning “to hate.” It’s hard for us to admit hating anyone. Except maybe the driver who cuts us off, the politician who rubs us the wrong way, the drug dealer who sells to those who are addicted. But if we hear these sayings the way Jesus said them, then it’s not so hard to figure. My enemy is anyone who hates me. Anyone who hates me is the enemy. Jesus enjoins me to love that one. Love and pray earnestly for anyone who curses me, anyone who insults me, uses me spitefully.
What possible benefit can there be for me in loving those who wish me ill? It’s not for a reward, although the gospel led the Beatles to sing, “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” Jesus clearly says,
February 13, 2022
Epiphany 5C – George Yandell
Janet was in my classes from 1st to 5th grade. Even so young, I knew she was poor. She wore the same thread-bare dress every day; in cold weather, she had a thin jacket, no coat, and her legs were bare to the weather. I used to think on the playground- “Her legs must be awful cold.” Janet shrank from attention- she rarely spoke, except when the teacher called on her. One January, just after Christmas break, Janet had on a new dress. Then she was wearing it every day. Soon it was wearing out. One of the girls who sat with Janet at lunch told me that the dress was her Christmas present. That third grade Christmas I’d gotten a shiny new bike with built-in horn and lights, plus sweaters and gloves and cowboy boots and hat. I remember feeling guilty, tho’ I probably wouldn’t have called it that at the time. I think Janet was so embarrassed at being poor that she wanted to fade away from us middle-class kids in the new suburbs. I don’t know where she went after 5th grade.
When we hear blessed are the poor, what do we make of it? The first people to hear Luke’s gospel would immediately have heard it as destitute– Blessed are the destitute. That’s what the Greek word means. They would have thought of two separate groups of destitute people and poor people– the nameless poor peasants all around them who lived from hand to mouth each day were destitute. Maybe even some poor folk they knew who followed the Way of Jesus were destitute. AND they would have thought of a legendary community of people who were called “The Poor Ones” or simply,
February 6, 2022
Epiphany V 2022 – Ted Hackett
Today is the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.
Epiphany is the season of the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, so it is fitting that we should move from the immediate revelation of who Jesus is…
You know…His baptism, water into wine at the wedding and so forth…
To stories of people who are “sent” by God. Sent…Sent to tell of God’s saving action.
Now I must warn you…this sermon is going to trace some sometimes complicated theology…and I hope you aren’t bored…
And if you are, there is a centuries-old custom during boring Sermons…going to sleep…
I won’t be offended.
In today’s readings we began with the “call” of the Prophet Isaiah…about 700 b.c….
And then we read a section of Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians…which ends with: “so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.”
And finally, the call of Simon Peter…Jesus told him: “from now on you will be catching people.”
Peter and Paul were Apostles…and Isaiah was too….
Because “Apostle”…from the Greek “apostello” means: “One who is sent”
Isaiah, Paul and Peter were all sent by God to say what was God’s will.
Of course we know about the Apostles….
They all went around the Mediterranean world and preached the “Good News” of Jesus’ Resurrection and His return. And they invited all who heard them to be initiated into Jesus’ Church by baptism.