The Proper of the Day: St. Michael and All Angels

On this day the Church recalls with joy the ministry of angels, those special messengers of God who, Scripture records, sometimes visit humans with messages from God. Perhaps the most important messenger was that of the Archangel Gabriel, who announced to the Virgin Mary the news that she would bear a Son. Given that, I don't know why this feast isn't "St. Gabriel and All Angels," but there it is.

Another name for this day is Michaelmas, and it's the name for the fall term at General Theological Seminary and at Oxford and Cambridge, among others, as well. Incoming students matriculate at General on Michaelmas. At Evensong on this day, each new student signs the Matriculation Book, which, in a single volume, contains the signatures of every student who has ever attended GTS since its founding in 1819. Let me tell you, it was with both joy and awe that I myself signed The Book on this day in 2003.

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost XVI

Lost sheep and lost coins are the centerpiece of the Gospel for The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost. Jesus reminds his hearers and us that there is much rejoicing in heaven at even one person who, being lost, has been found. I think there's a lot to be said for repentance and conversion, no matter how old one is or even how much bad stuff one has already done. Next week we are going to celebrate a Baptism and welcome into the Body of Christ one who was lost and now is found. What a great way to prefigure the glorious sacrament we will participate in next week!

We also continue reading from Jeremiah this week. I can't help but get a bit depressed - I have to wonder what we're supposed to get out of all these dire passages. No one at Trinity has preached on Jeremiah yet. Maybe I will just to be contrary, but I confess it's some hard stuff. Jeremiah's context was living in around Jerusalem way after the fall of the Northern Kingdom (in 721 BC) and while the Southern Kingdom was increasingly isolated and ripe for takeover. Jerusalem itself was taken in 586 BC, and so Jeremiah is trying to warn the people that life is going to get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, the theological language of God haranguing Judah and essentially telling them they deserve whatever they're going to get is, at first blush, not very, well, loving. So it's worth a further look.

We also began a series of readings from I and II Timothy, (called, with the Letter to Titus, the Pastoral Epistles) which ostensibly were written by St. Paul to his protege Timothy. Scholars think they are probably are actually written by one or more members of a "Pauline school" who tried to use the Apostle's style and diction when writings the letters, although they seem to have been written much later, perhaps as late as 70-100 AD. These "Pastoral" letters seem to be more interested in acting than being, so we'll see over the next weeks, through October.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: St. Bartholomew the Apostle

Today Christians remember St. Bartholomew the Apostle, one of the Twelve. Not much is known of Bartholomew, and even the details of his life are sketchier even than for others of the Apostles. It's believed he preached either in India or Armenia, of whom he is patron. One of Manhattan's larger Episcopal Churches, St. Bart's on Park Avenue, is named in his honor. I like the he's a bit anonymous. We don't know much about him, but we honor him for the spirit of Christ in him. Can you do something good for someone anonymously today?

Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost XII

On this the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, we continue to hear from the Book of Isaiah, and today it's God comparing Israel to a grape vine that he carefully cultivates, but to no avail; when God expected justice, he instead "saw bloodshed, righteousness, but heard a cry." The reading from Hebrews continues the discussion about faith from last Sunday, and culminates in the wonderful passage, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." I was struck by that in light of today's Gospel reading:

Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

In my sermon today, I tried to note that Jesus, on the journey to Jerusalem, knows what he is getting himself into. Hence, the urgency and stress under which he labors. And He has been warning the disciples - and us - these past several weeks about how our relationships in the world need to be rethought in light of the Good News of God's forgiveness. Relationships with possessions (the Rich Fool), money (the birds of the air), time (watch and be ready!) and today family may all be impacted, Jesus says. The division that Jesus is talking about here - the separation, if you will, is that which arises because the world, and even members of our own families at times, will not want to hear the Good News and act on it and will in some cases actively prevent us from doing so. The division that happens is not anything that Jesus does - for he is indeed the Prince of Peace, the One who says "Peace be with you!" - is when other people, especially those who are close to us, may separate themselves from us when they see how we are beginning to internalize the Good News and allow it to permeate our own actions and behaviors. Jesus is not telling us here to forget the Commandment to honor our parents. Rather, he is pointing out that even our families may reject us when we begin to act out the Good News toward them. No one is forced to accept the Gospel, and many people are comfortable in their old unreconciled lives. They don't want and don't welcome the challenge of the invitation to live differently, to live a life reconciled to God and to enact that reconciliation in our relationships around us. That's a threat, and sometimes, unfortunately, those who feel threatened will retaliate. That's my sense of Jesus is getting at here. He's not dividing anyone, but nonetheless, divisions will happen.

What to do? Today's Collect calls God to give us grace to "follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life," and the author of Hebrews exhorts us to "run with perseverance the race set before us." Before we set out or continue on that journey with Jesus, each of us can come to the Table and be nourished with true Bread and the true Cup that strengthens us for that journey, one which may well result in division and rejection by others. And then we can go out into the world, prepared for that division, knowing that our traveling companion is Jesus himself, who will never leave us no matter who we might meet along the Way.

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


RFSJ

PS - anyone know how to do paragraph formatting in blogger?

The Proper of the Day: St. Mary the Virgin

Today is the Major Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, Theotokos and Mother of Our Lord. Theotokos means "God-bearer" in the Greek and was proclaimed a title for Mary by the ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. The other title considered at the council was Christotokos, or "Christ-bearer," which many apparently preferred. The council decided on Theotokos because it says more about the nature of Jesus Christ than it does about Mary herself.

The Collect for the Day (a "collect" is simply a form of prayer that "collects" the thoughts or themses of the day and has a specific structure) implies what for the Roman Catholic Church is dogma, but for Anglicans is adiaphora:

O God, who have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

In the Roman rite, and acknowledged in Anglo-Catholic circles, today is actually the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, where it is believed that she was bodily assumed into heaven and did not, as I understand it, physically die. This belief is adiaphora ("something indifferent") for Anglicans because it was not a decree of one of the first five ecumenical councils and so Anglicans are free to acknowledge the belief, or not. Many people throughout the centuries have taken great comfort and strength and growth toward God via a devotion to the Blessed Mother, and I think we as Anglicans must at least recognize that such devotion has been part of Christian tradition that we need to respect. As a matter indifferent, it's up to the individual to discern how much, if any, of a devotion one wishes to engage in; one's salvation does not depend on whether one accepts the Assumption or not.

My own view is that the Mary feasts of the BCP (The Annunciation, The Visitation, and the Feast of St. Mary) strike a good balance. The first two feasts are grounded in Scripture itself. The third (today's) is the traditional day of the age-old festival in Mary's honor, and we kept the hint of its provenance in today's Collect but shifted its emphasis toward Mary's entire life and especially her role as Theotokos. We did not keep a feast of the Immaculate Conception in December because that is also adiaphora, although there's nothing to prevent it, and some Episcopal parishes such as St. Mary the Virgin in Manhattan will. Growing up in the Lutheran tradition, as I did, I confess to a bit of suspicion about the cult of the saints in general, in that devotion toward a saint may tend to take away from one's devotion to Jesus. (Pope John-Paul II's idea of Mary as "co-redemptrix" was perhaps the quintessential example.) Over time, though, I've come to understand there can be different kinds of devotion or worship, and to acknowledge the role the saints have had in Christian tradition over time and really from the very earliest times. So in Evening Prayer, I always include Mary in my list of saints in the final petition of the Suffrages, along with my personal patron, St. John the Evangelist, and any other saint being commemorated that day. And I am personally persuaded that Theotokos is an acceptable title for Mary and one which I can use as well.

So in the spirit of Theotokos, who points not to herself but to the One she bore, let us take the words of Mary at the wedding in Cana to heart when she advises the steward, and us, "Do whatever He tells you!"

RFSJ

Update: The Mad Priest has done it again (scroll down a bit and you'll see what I mean...)

The Proper of the Day: The Transfiguration

On Monday we celebrate the Major Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It's been observed in the East since the fourth century, and in the West since the Middle Ages. In this feast we recall when Heaven and Earth are met together in a single moment, and we look forward to the time when that will be more than a mere moment in time but will be for all people and all times. In the Episcopal Church, we also observe this event on the Last Sunday after Epiphany as well, making it possibly the only moment in Christ's life observed more than once in the church year except for the Resurrection itself, which we of course observe every Sunday on the first day of the week.

It's also the anniversary of the first and so far only use of the atomic bomb, by the United States, against Japan, when Hiroshima was destroyed by a single fission bomb on August 6, 1945.

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost X

This evening begins The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost, with readings from Hosea, Colossians, and Luke. The Gospel is the Parable of the Rich Farmer, who pulls down his barns to build bigger ones, intending to live on easy street for awhile. But God has other plans for him, and all the farmer's own planning ends up for nought. In the words of Jesus, "so it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your
Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without
your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Here's my sermon for today, As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

May only God’s words be spoken, and only God’s words be heard. Amen.

I saw in the newspaper yesterday that the financial markets have been getting quite roiled up, because of the all people defaulting on their home mortgages. It turns out that some people whose credit was less then stellar got some pretty good deals two or three years ago. You know, the adjustable rate kind. Now, their interest rates have risen because of those rates have indeed adjusted, and adjusted upward. So what started as an easy monthly payment to make has become something in some cases much more difficult. Defaults and foreclosures are on the rise, and the ripples are being felt all through the economy.

It’s not just nationally either. Right here in Bayonne, we find ourselves getting squeezed by higher property and income taxes, even though our incomes haven’t risen by nearly the same amount. We’re certainly facing it in our parish ministry, the Windmill Alliance. Costs for things like electricity, insurance, and gas continue to rise, and our payment from our major granters, such as the State of New Jersey, have not kept pace. Perhaps some of you have felt the pinch too, directly or indirectly. Times don’t seem to be very easy for many of us, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

It’s not so different now than it was in the day of Jesus. In fact, it was probably worse. In the United States there is, at least for the moment, a middle class, but in Judea where Jesus was living and preaching there wasn’t one really. You either were rich or poor. And poor could be pretty poor. And there weren’t very many rich people around. In fact, Scripture consistently reports that it was mostly the poor who followed Jesus around to hear what he had to teach and to witness the amazing things he did. Very often his teachings seemed directly on point, immediately applicable to the ordinary lives of the ordinary people of the time. And just as applicable to you and to me. But today’s story seems different. This isn’t a story about the poor. It’s a story about a rich farmer. In fact, I’d venture to guess the vast majority of the people listening to the parable would not have gotten it, or certainly wouldn’t have thought that it applied to them. A rich farmer? Ha! All the farmers I know are living hand to mouth. A good crop? Hasn’t happened around here in years. What’s big J talking about anyway? Maybe he’s been hanging with the scribes and Pharisees too much. Yeah. He couldn’t possibly talking about me. I can hear folks in the crowd thinking just like that.

And maybe that’s a thought that crossed your mind as you heard the Gospel being read, too. I have to tell you, though, I’ve been troubled by this passage all week. Two lines keep coming to mind: first, Jesus introduces the parable: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” And at the end, Jesus says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” It’s pretty similar to something from the letter to the Colossians that we heard earlier: ^“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).” Did you catch the word “greed” twice? I did. Try this on: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, which is idolatry.”

Greed is idolatry. Yikes. What’s this about?

Idolatry is, as you might remember, the worship of false images, things that aren’t God. Remember the Golden Calf? That was an idol, an image. It wasn’t God. One reason it was prohibited to make an image of God in the Ten Commandments was because it’s too easy for us humans, because we’re tactile and use our physical senses, to transfer our worship of an invisible God to a visible something else. But more broadly, idolatry is really anything that takes the place of God in our lives. It doesn’t have to be a statue or something like that. It can be something else, like a person or a place or even an idea. What Jesus is reminding us here, I think, is not that wanting stuff is necessarily sinful. We all want stuff and we want to be comfortable. My wants include decent internet access and my stereo. Yours might be something completely different. My sense is Jesus isn’t talking about those things. My stereo is not going to get in the way of God in my life. What Jesus is alluding to here are the attitudes that take hold of our lives that take our energy and attention away from God. These are the deeply held beliefs and habits of action that turn us away from God, or somehow interfere with our relationship with God. Remember that God loves each of us, you and me, unconditionally. We try to love God back unconditionally as well. Our first response to God’s love is to acknowledge it and then secondly to do something about it. But anything that takes us away from recognizing God first in our lives becomes an idol. Anything that we find we want more than God is greed, which as the author Colossians tells us, is idolatry.

Let me give you by way of confession a very personal example. I stand before you convicted of idolatry. I can see it in my own life. It’s not possessions as in stuff that are my idols. Moving from a big house in Indianapolis into a very small room at General Seminary cured me of that. I had to give a lot of stuff up. I got it all back when I moved to Bayonne, but I found myself not needing much of it anymore and found I could give much of it to Highways. I hope when you have stuff you no longer want or need you will consider that too. But throughout my time at seminary, although I didn’t have a lot of stuff, there was something else I never gave up. I never gave up my own idol, which was financial security. You see, I have been very blessed in my life in so many ways, and one of the most significant for me is that I have always pretty much been secure financially. I’ve never really had to worry about my housing or food or clothes or insurance. I’ve worked hard for it and it’s very very important to me. There isn’t anything I won’t do, to improve, or at least maintain, my ability to keep a roof over my head, food on the table, and all the rest, more than simply waiting for the next paycheck. In fact, I realize that I will do almost anything legal to ensure I don’t lose the financial security I’ve been able to build up. I don’t need to go into all the details, but let me – with some degree of shame – give you just one: I have never in my life been without health insurance. And in fact, I know in my heart of hearts I will do almost anything legal to ensure I keep it. That, my sisters ands brothers, is idolatry, pure and simple. Because the truth is I’m not sure I would work so hard to keep my relationship with God as I would to keep my relationship with health insurance. For me, that’s an idol in my life, because I essentially treat it as more important to me than God, and that, it seems to me, is what Jesus is warning us about.

My friends, I hope you don’t thinking I’m bragging. That’s not my intent at all. That’s not at all what I’m trying to get at Many of you have shared with me your own situations, and I am well aware that they are in many cases far more difficult than anything I have had to face in my own life. In my reflecting on this Gospel in my life, I realized that, although as a priest I’ve dedicated my life to the proclamation of God’s everflowing love in Jesus, I’m not immune. I’m no paragon of perfection. I have an idol – for me it’s financial security – right in my own life. That is the barn that I want to tear down and make even bigger. That is the thing that I now know I have to struggle with in my spiritual journey with Christ. I try to follow Christ daily, but I have this big heavy chest that I’m carrying that is in weighing me down in ways I am probably not even aware of yet, slowing me down and distracting me from following Jesus as closely as I otherwise could.

Now that I am aware of my idol, what can I do? I think the key her is Jesus own words: , “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” It’s being rich towards God that is the way to leave one’s own personal idols behind. First, I’m going to confess my idolatry. I did it publicly to you just now, and I will offer it up with all those things that trouble us when we make our community confession in just a few minutes. And I’m going to listen with new ears to the words that Fr. Jerry will declare in response, that our sins – even greed, which is idolatry – are forgiven in the power of Jesus. Then I’m going to join with Jerry and all of you in the great thanksgiving of the Eucharist for everything God is doing in my life and your life, where God comes among us again in the Body and Blood of Jesus, becoming one in us as we are already in him. And then I’m going to try to take to heart the words we will pray after Communion and go out and do the work God has given me to do, to be a faithful witness of all Jesus is doing in my life and in the whole world. This week, now that I’m aware of it, I’m going to try to reflect on what idolatry means in my life and how I can move toward really having God first in my life. And I’m going to look at my own patterns of giving and stewardship, to see how I can better be be rich toward God rather than storing up treasures for myself. I don’t have any answers for that part yet. Feel free to ask me in the weeks and months ahead how I’m doing. And if you have any constructive wisdom, I hope you’ll share it with me.

My friends, I still have no idea exactly why Jesus chose to tell the parable of the Rich Foolish Farmer to a crowd of people who perhaps had little idea of what he was talking about, instead of to some of the rich folks we already know Jesus also spent time with. I’m just glad I was able to hear something in it that affects me. I’m not proud of what I’ve learned about myself, but I stand in full confidence that God’s love for me is not diminished one iota by my self-discovery. So I join with the author of Colossians, who encourages me to strip off my old self with its practices and day by day cloth myself with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of my creator, God the Almighty. May it be so for all of us.

In the Name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: St. James the Apostle

Today we commemorate the major feast of St. James the Apostle, not to be confused with St. James of Jerusalem. This James is the brother of John, and both were fishermen, the "sons of Zebedee." Peter, this James, and John his brother were the disciples' "inner circle" that were granted the vision of the Transfiguration and who waited with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. James the Apostle is first apostle to be executed, in Jerusalem by Herod. The only martyrdom of an apostle recorded in the NT is that of James, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 11:27-12:3. There's a tradition that James' body was carried to Spain, but there is no real evidence of that.

It's intriguing to me that both Offices and the Eucharist for this day include readings from Jeremiah. Jeremiah, of course, had a hard life as a prophet, and was eventually killed in Egypt. He preached during the last days before Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchednezzar. I wonder about the implications of associating James with Jeremiah. Dieing for the Word is one obvious example, of course, but James did not apparently have a long ministry - it's calculated he was executed in about AD 42, perhaps nine or so years after the Ascension. Jeremiah, if the superscript of his book is correct, lived through the reigns of sev eral different kings of the Southern Kingdom before it fell. Still, there's some interesting ideas in those passages worth further exploring.

It's James and his brother John, who ask, through their mother, for thrones on the right and left of Jesus, prompting him to remind all the disciples, and us today, that true Gospel leadership is self-giving, not self-serving. Worth a thought in these days of what seems to be a lot of self-aggrandizement on the part of the seperatist factions within the Anglican Communion.

O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

RFSJ

More on the Feast of S. Mary Magdalene

I've been thinking about Mary M all day. I was not able to attend the Eucharist today, but I did observe both the Morning and Evening Offices. At MP we read from Zephaniah ("Shout, O Daughter Zion!") and Mark (Mary M witnesses the Crucifixion and discovers the Empty Tomb.) Evensong gave us The Song of Miriam from Exodus ("Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously") and a wonderful, if dense, ode to the consolation of Christ from 2 Corinthians 1. The Offices give us several different suggestions about thinking about Mary M - and I'm not even including the proper Psalms (116 in the morning, 30 and 149 in the evening). So why is it that I can't seem to get into this feast? What is it that leaves me cold this evening?

I think part of what I'm struggling with is how observance of this feast has in some way edified me or lifted me up or helped my ongoing transformation/continuous conversion to the mind of Christ. I know that, at a minimum, merely observing the Offices is a good discipline (whence we also get the word "disciple") and that I should not expect any particular insight or result. Praising God in the daily round of prayers is reason enough to do the Office. So then why am I bothered that nothing seemed to happen today? Isn't thanking God for the witness of Mary M enough? Why not?

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: S. Mary Magdalene

Today is the Major Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. We remember her among other reasons as "Apostle to the Apostles," because it is she who first announced the Resurrection to them. In some icons (such as at right) she is seen holding an egg:

Tradition relates, that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited the Emperor Tiberias (14-37 AD) and proclaimed to him about Christ's Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him an egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: "Christ is Risen!" Then she told Tiberias that, in his Province of Judea, Jesus the Nazarene, a holy man, a maker of miracles, powerful before God and all mankind, was executed on the instigation of the Jewish High-Priests and the sentence affirmed by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Tiberias responded that no one could rise from the dead, anymore than the egg she held could turn red. Miraculously, the egg immediately began to turn red as testimony to her words. Then, and by her urging, Tiberias had Pilate removed from Jerusalem to Gaul, where he later suffered a horrible sickness and an agonizing death.

From this, the miracle of Mary Magdalene, the custom to give each other paschal eggs on the day of the Luminous Resurrection of Christ spread among Christians over all the world. On one ancient hand-written Greek ustav, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasias near Thessalonika (Solunea), is an established prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha (Easter) for the blessing of eggs and cheese, in which it is indicated, that the Hegumen (Abbot) in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: "Thus have we received from the holy fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy apostles, wherefore the holy equal-unto-the-apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering."

(From http://www.thenazareneway.com/mary_magdalene.htm)

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know you in the power of his endless life; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost VIII

Today we read from the prophet Amos, who had some pointed things to say to the capitalists of his day, from Colossians, that ode to the cosmic Christ, and from the Gospel of St. Luke and the familiar and yet maddening story of Mary and Martha.

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of Yesterday: Pentecost VII

Yesterday was the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, and in this Year of Luke we heard the very well-known Parable of the Good Samaritan. I was filling in at All Saints' Hoboken. Here was my sermon. I welcome your comments and feedback, as always!

May only God’s words be spoken, and only God’s words be heard. Amen.

I recently had an experience that was rather troubling to me. You may recognize similar encounters in your own lives. I was coming home from an evening in the City. It was perhaps 11 PM or so. As I was unlocking the door to my apartment, a man dressed in slacks, a nice shirt, and a tie came up to the porch. He startled me a bit when he spoke to me. He told me that his car had broken down in the next block and he was trying to get some money to take the Light Rail and PATH back to Newark where he lived. I was in my collar, and he asked if I was a priest. I said yes, and he went on to tell me he was Catholic, had gone to St. Peters’ Prep in high school and asked if I could help him out.

Now remember it was 11 o clock at night and my key was literally in the door. I was not in the most comfortable of situations. I did something that was perhaps foolish – I got out my wallet and pulled out a bill - a five, I think – and handed it to him, telling him the light rail was down the block. He walked quickly off, and I got inside and locked the door as fast as I could. I just wanted him to go away as quickly as I could get him to do so. I was relieved when he went off in the direction of the light rail.

Now I can imagine what some of you are thinking. Was I nuts? How could I possibly have done that? How could I have believed his story? It’s almost exactly like the ones the you hear downtown. You know, I need bus fare to get to Philadelphia or Boston or Memphis or wherever. Or my family was burned out of our home. Could you help? I admit I was very skeptical about my friend’s story. I could have said I’m sorry I have nothing for you and sent him on his way. Of course, I was in my collar after all. That’s did make things a little different, at least from my point of view. I felt like I had to do something.

Why was that? Why did I think it was important for me to do something in this situation? Well, it’s because I am informed in my thinking by today’s Gospel, the very well known, perhaps even famous, Parable of the Good Samaritan. Many of use have heard it countless times. A lawyer asks Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. They have a theological discussion, and the lawyer actually has the right answer from Jesus’ perspective. The lawyer, being a good lawyer, then asks what’s actually a very reasonable question: Well, who is my neighbor then, that God commands me to love so much? Jesus tells the story of how a man was robbed and left for dead on the dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho, which was a good day’s journey away. A priest passes by and ignores the dieing man, and then a Levite, who also looks the other way. A Samaritan comes along, and he rescues the poor victim, and goes out of his way to take care of him, even spending two day’s wages to make sure the man would get decent treatment at the hotel. And then Jesus turn’s the lawyer’s question around: He doesn’t ask if the man who was robbed was a neighbor, he asks who was a neighbor to the man? And the lawyer answers that it is the Samaraitan who is the neighbor. Jesus then gave the famous command: “Go and do likewise.”

Jesus is saying to his listeners then and to us today that the important question is not who our neighbors are but how we act toward them. He de-emphasizes the object of the love we are to show and instead emphasizes how we are to show it. By turning the question around, Jesus seems to be saying that it’s more important to deal with one’s inner motivations then in quibbling who should receive the love we’re commanded to show. What’s important is being a neighbor, and in the context of the parable, being a neighbor to one in need.

My sense is that this is pretty important. Jesus hung out with all sorts of folks considered undesirable in his day, as I’m sure you know. Especially in Luke’s Gospel, women, Samaritans, Romans, slaves, all seem to get special notice in teaching and in action. In short, every person and group that traditional Jewish culture of the day – or sometimes even Jewish law – said was outside the pale were the kinds of people Jesus pointed to as enjoying God’s favor just as much as the Chosen People of Israel did. And notice that Jesus spent no time commenting on how dumb the robbery victim was for taking the road alone. His hearers would already have known it was dangerous. Jesus himself took that road on the way to Jerusalem, passing through Jericho on the way. Jesus very particularly critiziced the priest and the Levite who did not stop to help. Remember, though, that on one level it was perfectly understandable why the first two passers-by didn’t stop. Their work, their vocations, their very reasons for being, called them to be ritually pure so they could serve in the Temple without offending God. Even to touch a dead person was to make a priest of a Levite ritually impure and unable to serve for perhaps a week or more. So given the victim’s injuries, one might have cut the priest and the Levite some slack. But Jesus didn’t. In fact, he picked one of the most hated ethnic groups he could have to show the contrast between all three of them. Samaritans were considered barely better than Romans by Jews. Samaritans and Jews didn’t mix, and Jews considered the Samaritan beliefs in the Torah only and that it’s OK to worship Yahweh on Mt. Gerazim and not only in Jerusalem to be essentially heresy. So for Jesus to show up a Jewish priest and a Levite with a Samaritan would have been startling for his listeners. And to top it off, Jesus has the Samaritan go overboard in generosity – showing mercy, as the Scripture has it. And so the lawyer is commanded to go and do likewise – be like the Samaritan and bend over backwards in generosity.

And of course we, who are followers of Jesus and want to imitate him, want to go and do likewise too. But it doesn’t seem so easy in 2007. Maybe it wasn’t so easy in Jesus’ day either. We have to dig into the parable to get the nuances of who was who and why they might have acted like they did. But the command and the sentiment seem clear. Go and Do likewise. No need to investigate the worthiness of the recipient of your giving. No need to check and see if he or she really needs it. Jesus did not have the Samaritan teach the victim how to be more aware of one’s surroundings in dangerous situations or to give him judo or tae –kwon-do lessons. Maybe that came later. What the Samaritan did first and foremost - which Jesus clearly commends here - is take care of the man’s immediate needs for medical attention, safety, and lodging. The rest of it can come later.

In the Sermon on the Plain, which is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says this: ^“Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again” (Luke 6:30) And again: ^“give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38) Here is a specific teaching that says very straightforwardly to give to anyone who asks. Don’t ask questions, Jesus seems to be saying, don’t worry about if the person is worthy or not. Just do it. And in Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells the crowd and us not to worry about stuff, because God already knows we need them. Rather, he says, “Instead, strive for God’s  kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

And that, my sisters and brothers, is a tall order. If we give like that, pretty soon we’ll be out of resources ourselves, right. The poor will still be poor and the scam artists will be rich and won’t give anything back when we ask for it, because they sure aren’t going to follow the Gospel. So what, is Jesus crazy or what?

I could stand here and contextualize away and maybe suggest that the context of the Sermon on the Plain was about being radically open in spirit and didn’t necessarily mean to just dissipate one’s resources in giving. I could point out that the Samaritan, as good as he was, didn’t check the robbery victim into the Westin Hotel and give him an unlimited credit card. He did what he could, as far as we can tell. And all of that would be true and would be reasonable conclusions to draw. At the same time, the tone of the Parable here, coupled with the stuff from the Sermon on the Plain and the later teaching on worry, does lean in an unmistakable direction of giving generously, even radically. The whole Gospel of Luke does, actually. Luke’s Gospel is the social Gospel in many ways, because in it Jesus is constantly showing an awareness, an openness, a mindset toward those less fortunate in his society. And it seems to me that’s what we can take from today’s parable too. One’s giving starts from the heart and is habit forming. When one actively cultivates a habit, an awareness, an openness to the other, that’s actually living out the Good News that God loves all people. If God loves me, then I can turn around and do that too. So Jesus encourages us to be neighbors for the other by helping out, by giving of what he have, perhaps even radically. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to go bankrupt ourselves. It doesn’t mean that we ought not be wise with our resources as we live in to that new mindset. It does mean that a steady habit of giving will transform each and every one of us just as much as, even more so, than those we give to.

So that’s why I gave money to someone who may well have not needed it. I didn’t do it for him, although I do hope he really did have a broken-down car. But I did it more for me. I’m trying to cultivate a mindset of giving and openness to the other, in the same way that Jesus gave so much for me and for each of us. It isn’t easy at times – I’m only human, after all. But actively working towards my own transformation – a continuous conversion to the mind of Christ that today’s parable lays out for us – will allow me to do my own little part to make God’s economy real today. So I hope that man used the money well. If he did, great. If he didn’t, there’s not much I can do. But I’m going to try to keep giving to whomever asks. I’m going to try to be the neighbor that God calls me to be.

In the Name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of Yesterday: Pentecost VI

Yesterday was The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8C in the liturgical calendar. We heard the story of the Syrian general Naaman and his leprosy, a final warning and benediction in the letter to the Galatians , and the Sending of the Seventy (or maybe 72) in the Gospel. Of course we celebrated the Presnese of Christ among us in the Holy Communion, and had a nice coffee hour as well.

I will be supplying (i.e., substituting - I don't know why we use the word "supply" in this context) at All Saints' Hoboken next Sunday, while their rector is on vacation. They have two services and the lessons are here. I welcome ideas on how to make the Parable of the Good Samaritan relevant in 2007 when so many of us have heard it so often. Maybe we just need to keep hearing it to make it sink into our heads and into our hearts.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Independence Day

Today, July 4, the Episcopal Church observes Independence Day as a Major Feast of the Church. There are proper Morning and Evening Prayer lessons and Psalms, and a Eucharist is appointed for today. I think it's an excellent thing, in the midst of our fireworks and barbecues, to thank God for that true Freedom we ultimately have, and to use that Freedom for the good of all people.

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this
country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the
torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and
all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our
liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I commend today's readings to your attention. Seems to me the Evensong readings in particular are a bit triumphalist, a la America as Manifest Destiny, even eschatalogical in some ways. One doesn't have to read them in that light of course, and perhaps it's my own disquietude over the state of our affairs as a nation that is coloring my own reading. But see for yourself. Happy 4th!

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Pentecost V

Today is the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Trinity Parish uses the Revised Common Lectionary and the Scriptures for today are here.

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I offered the following reflection on the excerpt from the letter to the Galatians:

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be always acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

These past few weeks we’ve heard a lot in the news about freedom. The Supreme Court just this week decided that it was not an infringement of a student’s freedom to punish a student who put up a sign saying “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” at a public rally that was school sponsored. Recently the CIA released some of its Family Jewels, documenting how in the 1960s and 1970s it had systematically tried to deny freedom to all sorts of people the US government didn’t like at the time. We are debating what freedoms that immigrants, illegal and otherwise, may have in the country. There’s a continuing controversy here in Bayonne about whether requiring student uniforms in the public schools is an appropriate infringement of freedom or not. The rights and freedoms of enemy combatants that we have captured in the course of the war on terror are on our minds, especially after the bomb scares in London this weekend. And of course I can’t not mention Paris Hilton: she regained her freedom when she was released from jail recently.

All of those examples of what we usually think of as freedom are one kind of freedom, political freedom. The dictionary defines freedom as:

1.	the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint:

2.	exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.

3.	the power to determine action without restraint.

4.	political or national independence.

And that’s usually what we think of, especially during this time of year when we celebrate the independence of our country from England on this coming Wednesday, the 4^th of July, Independence Day. We fought a war over our right, here in what would become the United States, to decide our own affairs without interference form England or anyone else. Throughout the 231 years of our independence, we’ve gone to war several times to protect or regain freedom on behalf of those who have lost it. We think it’s so important an ideal that we are willing to risk lives and money when we think freedom is threatened, especially our own. And I think we as a nation can be proud that we enjoy the freedoms of speech, the press, religion, and the other political rights guaranteed to US citizens in the Constitution. We have much to be thankful of, although there are many even today who seem bent on abridging our own freedoms.

But regardless of the state of our political discourse, regardless of how you or I might agree or not on the issues of immigration, school uniforms, taxes, free speech and all the rest, as Christians, you and I also enjoy another kind of freedom entirely. That’s the freedom that Jesus Christ won for each of us in his life, death, and resurrection. It’s both a freedom from and a freedom to. At its basic level, what Jesus did was free us from fear. See, in the usual state of affairs, we as human beings get afraid. We’re afraid we’re not good enough. We’re afraid no one likes us. We’re afraid no one loves us. We’re afraid God doesn’t love us. And that fear then lay on each of us like a wet and freezing cold blanket that stops us from being who God wants us to be. If I think I’m not good enough, I probably won’t try to reach forward and try things that maybe I’m perfectly capable of doing but don’t think I’m worthy enough to go for. And if I’m afraid that I’m not loved by other people, I will stop loving and appreciating my own self as well. That can into a downward spiral, compounding in on itself into disease, depression, or even merely quiet and daily despair over the state of my own life. Perhaps some of you know folks who are in that vicious cycle of self-hatred. I’ve been there at times. Perhaps you have too.

This is what St. Paul means when he says in today’s excerpt from the letter to the Galatians when he says, “For Freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In the death and resurrection of Jesus, he says to us, God is here, and God is with you, and God loves you. Each and every one of you. You and You and You. And so you can let go of the fear that froze you in its wet cold grip. You are freed from that fear by God’s love. You don’t have to be a slave, in Paul’s word’s, to self-hatred, to fear.

That freedom is the priceless gift that God gave us in Christ Jesus. It’s worth far more than all of the political freedoms we have. If today I were arrested and put into prison, I know that I am still free from the fear that I am worthless, that I am unloved, that no one, not even God cares for me. Because God does care and love me, and everyone of you too. I am loved by God, and as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, nothing can separate me from the love of God. No matter what! That goes for everyone!

And that freedom is powerful and absolute. No court can take it away. It can never be abridged. It’s granted by God in Jesus and we know it by the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So the question is, what to do with it? Remember the dictionary definition: “the power to determine action without restraint.” That certainly seems to apply here. That’s the second freedom that that as Christians have. We have granted freedom from, and we have been granted freedom to – to what? To do whatever we want? After all, God loves me, no matter what, right? So that means I can do whatever I want to do in my life and it will all by OK, right?

Nope, not at all. That idea is one that Paul addresses in several of his letters, not just this one to the Galatians. It turns out that lots of the early Christians thought the same thing, the Corinthians especially. And so Paul points out to both them and us that our freedom to is actually the limiting one, oddly enough. We are freed from fear and even death, true. And we are freed to be who God created us to be. Paul suggests that the best way to do that is to “use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” So we are freed by Jesus from fear and to be who God wants each of to be. And then we’re supposed to voluntarily give up that freedom to be slaves? To each other? That sounds weird. And to the ears of the Galatians, that was positively scandalous.

But that’s just it. If God loves me and wants to be in a restored relationship with me, then God wants the same thing for each of us. And God asks us to use our freedoms – our unrestrained power to determine action without restraint – to choose to be in restored relationships with those around us too. Our brothers and sisters, co-workers, parents, students, teachers, friends, everyone. If I am freed from fear, I don’t have to worry is someone is or is not going to respond to the relationship I offer someone. Remember, I already know that nothing can separate me from the love of God. So without fear of rjection, without fear of alienation, I can go ahead and work on restoring the relationships in my own life that are broken, just like how God, in Jesus, is constantly restoring my relationship to God. My relationship with God is constantly breaking – I can’t help it, because I am a human being. And God in God’s love is constantly fixing it, so that it’s whole and right again.

So now re-read that long list that we heard just a few minutes ago – the so-called works of the flesh: “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” It’s a mistake if we hear this passage and think of the flesh as our bodies and the Spirit as our souls. In reality, what Paul is referring to when he talks about the works of the flesh is that power of sin and separation in the world today. It’s more than a metaphor or a figure of speech. This list is a description of what happens when people are afraid – when they have not understood they are freed from fear in Jesus Christ. And that other list? That’s what the world looks like when we are freed to be who we are created to be: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” These fruits of the Spirit are also more than a metaphor or a figure of speech. They describe what being in restored relationship with God and each other and the world and our own selves actually looks like. We are freed to be who we are created to be, and what God creates us to be is in whole relationships. And that’s what those look like.

My sisters and brothers, is isn’t as if God does not want us to have a good time. God does. I am aware that many of our sisters and brothers in other faith traditions do say that. But remember the wedding at Cana. Jesus made more wine so they could continue the celebration. There is a time and place for having a good time, of course, and just because we are freed from fear does not mean we are freed from the laws of mature – we can still over-indulge in any number of ways. When we do that, of course, we still have to face the consequences of living in a broken relationship with our own selves, because that’s the consequence of too much anything. And we have to face that too. But today’s passage from Galatians is not a laundry list of does and don’ts. We have freedom from and freedom to because of the impossible love of Jesus for each of us. We have freedom from fear and sin and even death. We have freedom to be as God has created us to be. If you see something from that first list in your own life, perhaps it’s an indicator of a broken or bending relationship that you might not have been aware of. When you see something from the second list, you can be sure that it’s happening in relationships that you are in that healthy and sound and as God desires.

On this 4^th of July week, we as nation remember the political freedoms we have fought for and won. As you go to the fireworks or to the shore or are having a barbeque or whatever it is you are going to do, remember, too, that we have, in Jesus, far more valuable freedoms that Jesus fought for and won for us. We are freed from fear, and we are free to be who created us to be.

In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: SS Peter and Paul, Apostles

Today the Church celebrates the ministries of the co-founders of the church of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul. Both were martyred in Rome, although neither death is recorded in the New Testament itself. By tradition, Peter is accounted as the first Bishop of Rome, hence its title as the See of Peter. Paul, of course, was instrumental in spreading the Gospel into the Roman Empire. His epistles (letters), some of which scholars know are from his hand and some which almost definitely are not, are the earliest expositions of what the Good News of Jesus meant to the believers only two generations after the Ascension.

Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of the Day: Feast of Nativity of St. John

Today (for a few more minutes at least), we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Also called the Forerunner and the Baptizer, this is the John who is considered Elijah, the last ofthe "old order" who points the way toward Jesus but who very clearly is not to be considered on the same level. The Daily Office readings make that perfectly clear. Raymond Brown suggests in The Community of the Beloved Disciple that there are those known to that community who do think that John the Baptist was the Messiah, hence the effort of the Fourth Gospel - and all four, really - to make very clear who John is and who John is not.

We remember today, 6 months before Christmas, the birth of him who made the way plain for Jesus who is the true pioneer and perfecter of our faith:

Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Proper of Yesterday: Pentecost IV

Yesterday was the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost:

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving­kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RFSJ

The Season After Pentecost....

Well, we now move into the long period of the season after Pentecost in the church calendar. It isn't really the "Season Of Pentecost," because we don't continually review and celebrate what happened on the Day of Pentecost. I don't much like saying the "season after Pentecost," although that is how the Sundays are named in the BCP. I guess I prefer the old title of Trinitytide, which is the "green" season between Trinity Sunday and the First Sunday of Advent.

So, welcome to Trinitytide!

RFSJ

Trinity Sunday

Today is the First Sunday After Pentecost, or Trinity Sunday, when the Church celebrates the mystery of the Holy Trinity after successively observing the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At our parish, Trinity Parish in Bergen Point, it's not only our Patronal Feast (the liturgical day on the church calendar corresponding to the name of the parish), but also the occasion of our annual parish meeting. Some might suggest the Church inflicts Trinity Sunday on the unsuspecting faithful; it's considered a hard occasion to preach. I'm not sure why. Here's my sermon, slightly edited - see what you think:

Trinity Parish in Bergen Point

Trinity Sunday 2007 RCL

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Canticle 13; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

R. F. Solon, Jr.

In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity! Amen.

Take out your Tidings, the worship bulletin for today, and turn to the prayer list page. You should find on it the old logo or seal of our own Trinity Parish in Bergen Point. [See above - RFSJ] Depending on your eyesight – and mine isn’t very good – you might be able to make out some of the detail. In the exact center is a circle that has the Latin word Deus – it means God. Around the center circle are three other circles. One shows a hand cupped around some tiny little people. If you look closely at a scan of the logo on a computer, you can seeing them praying! That gentle hand is the Almighty Creator. Over on the right of the center circle is a little icon of Jesus Christ, holding a Lamb on his shoulders and wearing a red and white halo. And below the center circle is a bird – a dove – descending from above with seven stars. That’s the Holy Spirit, and the seven stars included in the image are, I’m pretty sure, the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit that we celebrated just last Sunday at Pentecost.

There’s more to the entire logo as well. Connecting each of three outer icons is a bar that says “non est,” which is Latin again for “is not.” So the whole logo tells us that The Almighty non est the Son and the Holy Spirit non est the Father and the Almighty non est the Spirit. But there’s even more. Running from each of the outer icons to the center circle is a bar, and in that bar it says, “est.” In other words, the Almighty est Deus, the Almighty is God. The Son est Deus – the Son is God. The Spirit est Deus. The Spirit is God. What this ancient symbol of the Trinity, the Patron of this parish church, tells us is that God is One in Three and Three in One. The Undivided Trinity. What a paradox! How can three – Trinity – be One? How can one be Three and still be One?

I could perhaps end right here and now and simply throw up my hands and say, well it’s a Mystery! On to the Creed! Of course, that wouldn't solve much either, because the Creed itself has three sections, each corresponding to, you guessed it, one of the Persons of the Trinity. So that’s no help.

So what is this Trinity? What is this that we invoke at the beginning of our worship? We say “Blessed by God, Father, son, and Holy Spirit.” We pray "through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God." And at the end we often hear something like, “The Blessing of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier be with you and those whom you love.” What’s all this about?

There has been so much written about the Trinity. The doctrine itself is embedded in all three Creeds that we confess at various times. Ask me about the third one at coffee this morning. But for all the words written, all the treatises published, and even all the excommunications cast, it seems to me it’s pretty simple to understand.

We know Jesus by many names but one that is supremely powerful is what John’s gospel calls him, the Word with a capital W. Think about "word" for a moment. The beginning of John’s gospel says this in Chapter 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The evangelist is speaking of Jesus. The very first thing that this Gospel says about Jesus has to do with the relationship between Jesus and the Almighty. In fact, I’d venture to say that the entire theme of the gospel of John is about how Jesus the Son of God is so closely connected to God the Almighty, whom he calls Father. And the Word was God. Jesus est Deus! And of course the Almighty est Deus too.

But what about the Holy Spirit? The first reading from Proverbs is a glorious poem from the lips of Wisdom. Wisdom is, of course, the first of those sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, and was with God at the very beginning of creation. Wisdom says, “When he established the heavens, I was there. When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the human race.” And St. Paul, in the passage today from his letter to the Romans, speaks of God and Jesus Christ and the love of God that has been poured into us through the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit exists and has a relationship with the Creator but is clearly non est the Almighty. And yet the Spirit est Deus!

In other words, God is Love, or better yet the Lover from whom the whole universe burst forth in the force of that Love. But even before the universe began, the Lover had the Beloved, because Love, like a spoken word, must come out and be separate from that which loves. And it is Love itself that envelops the Lover and the Beloved and binds them together in the never ending and ever-deepening relationship of one to another. The Trinity simply is our expression of the God that is Love, the eternal Beloved who always existed, and the Spirit of Love itself. And when you think about it, you can’t really say what’s the beginning, which came first. You can’t have a Lover without Love. You can’t have Love without a Lover. And having a Beloved means there is One who Loves. It’s all about relationship, about being in relationship and wanting to be in relationship.

And our logo of Trinity Parish represents that fundamental aspect of relationship of God as well. Look at the logo again. There is a single circle running around the entire logo that contains all of this and indicates who we are as well. We – Trinity Parish in Bergen Point - are in essence enveloped by that same Lover, Beloved, and Love that binds them. Because it binds us together too. We who are members of Trinity Parish are part of the great circle of Lover, Beloved and Love. We who are the body of Christ here in Bergen Point become one with Christ and so feel the power of that all-encompassing Love of the Beloved. We, you and I, are drawn into the never-ending dance among the Three Persons of the undivided Trinity, the dance of life itself that existed before time and space, and will exist long after both time and space have ceased to be.

And we can take the Trinity as a model for our own lives as well. We know, because we have felt and continue to feel it, that the Three-in-One is always with each of us, loving us with that total love that forgives absolutely everything, no matter what. In our baptism we are incorporated into the network of the Trinity. That network of love will never break and we will never be cast out of it. It will never be offline to us! But sometimes, the love we try to model to others isn’t always enough. We try to imitate it, but we still get angry, frustrated, upset with each other. We sin, sometimes horribly, against one another, the earth, ourselves. Although our relationship in the network of the Trinity is forever, our own relationships with one another sometimes are not. We try to love and sometimes, perhaps often, we fail. You may have experiences, or are experiencing, something like that in your own life. I know I have. But let me tell you, you may find, as I have, in the back of my mind and my heart, that God stills me and still loves you, and that the brokenness of our lives and our relationships too is drawn into that network of Love that is the Three-in-One. That has been a great comfort and even joy. The Good News after all, isn’t complicated. It’s pretty straightforward. There doesn’t have to be much mystery about it. Lover. Beloved. The Love between them. We’re part of it, permanently. That’s it!

On this day we not only celebrate the Mystery of Unity in Trinity, but we also give thanks to God the Three-in-One, our Patron, for the founding and continued prosperity of our own Parish, named in honor of that same Mystery. As we eat and drink together at the Holy Table in the quintessential act of relationship, let us also give thanks for this parish church, founded in 1859 and now in its third structure. Today after our celebration we will take counsel together for the future of our parish at our annual parish meeting. We have much to talk about. We will, in just a few months, break ground for the additions to the parish complex. We will, on June 17, celebrate in a public way what we have done so far with our own ministry of relationships, the Windmill Alliance. We are discerning other relationships we may wish to enter into with other congregations and service institutions. We will elect a new slate of Vestry members to take their place in the leadership of our parish. And we will eat and drink some more, in that quintessential act of relationship among us. May we who bear the name of Trinity Parish in Bergen Point, and who have the Trinity itself inscribed in our logo, always honor our Patron by continuing to invite all people into relationship with God who is Lover, Beloved, and the Love that draws all together.

Amen.

RFSJ

(PS - Sorry about the inconsistent formatting - very frustrating!)