tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35836821208041788322024-03-21T14:07:11.340-07:00A Song In Progress...This is a collection of sermons and thoughts about life, faith, Jesus, and the Episcopal Church. Most of this comes out of my work as an Episcopal priest, but some comes from my songwriting and other times of inspiration or wondering.
Whatever you believe, I pray you will be blessed by sharing in these thoughts.
The Lord bless you and keep you.Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.comBlogger343125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-38667649716538543662024-03-21T14:06:00.000-07:002024-03-21T14:07:08.953-07:00Sharing the Music that Is in Us<div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Rev. Brad Sullivan</b></div><div><b>Lord of the Streets<br />March 17, 2024<br />5 Lent, Year B<br />Jeremiah 31:31-34<br />Psalm 51:1-13<br />John 12:20-33</b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Sharing the Music that Is in Us</i></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus’ response to the news that some Greeks were looking for him seems odd. Really, most of Jesus’ responses to people in John’s Gospel seem odd. In this case, his disciples tell him some Greeks are looking for him, and he says, “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Just before this, Jesus had come into Jerusalem, and huge crowds had been cheering for him. While he was riding into town, the Pharisees looked to one another and said, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.” The fact that some Greeks had come to speak to Jesus seems to confirm what the Pharisees said. “The whole world has gone after [Jesus].” As much as they’d wanted to keep the whole Jesus movement from spreading, the cat was officially out of the bag and there was no stopping it now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They were right. Early church had no buildings or organized support. They could not worship in the synagogues, nor in the Roman temples, and yet the church, spread like wildfire. People believed in Jesus. They trusted him. They found healing in Jesus. They found love. So, they ministered to others out of that same love, offering that same healing. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” People were loved, forgiven, and healed, and God’s law, God’s love, was written on their hearts. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">See, there’s hearing and learning about the way of God’s love, and then there’s living the way of God’s love. As a musician, I think about the practice that goes into playing songs, getting them fully under your fingers and into your voice. You practice, and practice, and practice, and eventually, you leave the practice room, and you play the songs for others. There’s risk in that, risk in offering that music to be received by others, but it’s also a beautiful offering. When you’ve worked at it so the music is written in your heart, then it’s a beautiful offering and sharing of song and story. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I saw Guy Forsyth play a show last week, and boy does he play. He practices a lot, and then he risks the stage. He plays those songs written in his heart, and his risk is worth it. His connection to the audience is beautiful. The stories he tells through his music, the human connection he brings, receiving his offering of music is healing.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoh4ERnEvioudrVgRkRLmuyeVg8FiuFDgCklO_bdBY_N9cE5sNyE0tiLgYo-uGgq7L5wn-cVMdXYuVNqS7v5Mkqug_HvhV-2LT1Nr5K2Kti0xbComtD0SRN0JxiqHH3dcl7DeYl7OS4fOzHlETovm9Ty9FWZh12tpJyZ18gDg5RSfum9w0lHql8Gl8MJ3O/s1430/Guy%20Forsyth.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1430" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoh4ERnEvioudrVgRkRLmuyeVg8FiuFDgCklO_bdBY_N9cE5sNyE0tiLgYo-uGgq7L5wn-cVMdXYuVNqS7v5Mkqug_HvhV-2LT1Nr5K2Kti0xbComtD0SRN0JxiqHH3dcl7DeYl7OS4fOzHlETovm9Ty9FWZh12tpJyZ18gDg5RSfum9w0lHql8Gl8MJ3O/w358-h201/Guy%20Forsyth.png" width="358" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When the music is written in your heart, then you can play, you can risk, and that brings healing and love to the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That healing and love is what happens when the Gospel of Jesus is written in our hearts. We leave the practice room, we risk, we play, and that brings healing and love to the world. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus talked about the risk of playing the Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,” he said, “it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Early followers of Jesus risked for the sake of the healing and love of the Gospel. They risked being kicked out of their synagogues, and they were kicked out of their synagogues. Gentiles risked being ostracized, and they were. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Gospel of Jesus demands risk. It demands being booed off stage, and if we are, ok. We practice some more, we allow the love and healing of Jesus to be written even more fully in our hearts, and we risk again. We risk not only for our sake, but for the sake of others.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We risk being peacemakers. We risk connection with one another. We risk offering the faith that is in us. We risk trusting in Jesus and following in his ways, rather than holding on so tightly to our lives out of fear of loss, that we end up hurting others and ourselves in the process. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Our futures are uncertain. Jesus told us they would be. Following Jesus means risking that uncertainty. Jesus risked everything for our sake, for the sake of all people. “’Now is the judgment of this world;” Jesus said, “now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.” (John 12:33)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">How did Jesus know that he would be raised and lifted up from the earth after he was crucified? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did Jesus know that he would draw all people to himself? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. How did he know that people wouldn’t simply forget, not believe, or ignore his life, message, and resurrection? My guess is he didn’t know it. He believed it. Jesus believed that people would receive his offering, receive his way of love and forgiveness. Jesus believed that people would receive the healing he offered and that they would then risk as he did to offer that same healing of forgiveness and love to others. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus believed in God, in forgiveness and love, and because of that belief, he risked everything for the sake of all humanity. He invites us, then to risk as well, for the sake of his Gospel and for the sake of humanity. Jesus invites us to risk for the sake of people who may hear, receive, and live the forgiveness and love of Jesus through the risks we take. Jesus invites us to risk forgiveness and love of others.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we just talk about Jesus’ forgiveness and love to others, just tell people about it, then we’re really still in the practice room. If we mostly talk about Jesus’ Gospel, then I’m not sure it’s truly written on our hearts yet. When we live Jesus’ forgiveness and love, that’s when Jesus is written on our hearts. When we truly forgive and love others, that’s when we’re risking. Living Jesus’ forgiveness and love is when we’re out of the practice room and on stage, offering our music to others, making that connection, sharing the beauty and healing of the music that is in us.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-69048638295027866592023-09-26T07:39:00.001-07:002023-09-26T07:39:04.512-07:00But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not Care for Them!<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">The Rev.
Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">Lord of
the Streets<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">September 24, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">Proper 20, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jonah 3:10-4:11<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Psalm 145:1-8<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Matthew 20:1-16</span></b></span></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">But God, I Wanted You to Hurt Them, Not
Care for Them!</span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">“But God, I wanted
you to hurt them, not care for them!” That’s Jonah’s complaint against God over
the people of Nineveh. Jonah was a prophet sent by God to tell the people of
Nineveh to turn from their harmful ways and follow God’s ways instead. Jonah
didn’t want to go there because he wanted God to kill all the people of
Nineveh, and he knew if he went there, they would repent and God would show
mercy.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">So, when God took him
to Nineveh on the Whale Express, he preached to the people, and they repented, and
then Jonah began to sulk. “I wanted you to hurt them, God, not care for them.” Jonah
was displeased because God’s love for humanity was too much for Jonah’s taste.
“It’s great that you love me, God, but you’re not supposed to love those other
ones. I don’t love them. I don’t care about them, so you shouldn’t either,
God.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">If we’re really
honest, Jonah’s contempt for humanity tends to show up in all of us, even if in
less obvious ways. The people we won’t forgive. Our “my way or the highway”
mentality. The irredeemable people we know are on the outs with God. Sometimes
our contempt for humanity is even less obvious than that. Jesus illustrated this
in his teaching about the Kingdom of God with his parable of the laborers in
the vineyard.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">In Jesus’ parable of
the Kingdom of God, people who only worked an hour got paid the same as people
who worked all day. That’s not fair, we may cry, and we’d be right. It’s not
fair. God doesn’t seem all that concerned with our notions of fairness. God seems
concerned about people, the healing and well-being of all of us and of all people.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">All of the people in
Jesus’ parable needed enough to live on, and so they each received the usual
daily wage. That wasn’t making anyone rich. The daily wage was enough to live
on. So, when folks who worked only an hour received the usual daily wage, they
were receiving just enough to live on.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Well, it’s still not
fair, we may say, so let’s look at where our notions of fairness get us. If the
folks who only worked for an hour only got paid for an hour’s worth of work,
they’d have had about an eighth of what they needed to live. If they kept on
with only an eighth of what they needed, they’d soon enough be starving and
dead.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">The landowner had
enough for that not to happen. He was able to pay all of his workers enough to
live on, even those who were only able to work for an hour. Is it fair? No, but
the other option for the people who could only work an hour is eventually just to
let them die.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">That’s where our
notions of fairness get us. You can’t live off only an eighth of a day’s worth
of wages. So we see, our notions of fairness actually hold people in contempt
just as much as Jonah did with the people of Nineveh. “I wanted you to hurt
them, God, not care for them” Jonah was thinking. Then the laborers in the
vineyard were thinking, “It’s not fair that those who only worked an hour got
paid for a full day’s worth of work.” The possibly unconscious reality was
then, “I don’t care about them, and neither should you, God. If they die, they
die.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">We may not actually
think that last part, but our notions of fairness leave us with the
contemptuous mentality of “If they die, they die.” That’s the economic reality of
those upset about fairness.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Jesus’ parable of the
kingdom of God is about economic justice, because economic justice seeks to
care for people and heal people. Remember, that’s the whole point of the
gospel, for God to heal us and for us to heal each other. So, in God’s kingdom,
we use what we have for the well being of others.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">The wealthy landowner
needed workers, and the workers needed enough to live on. The landowner could
have only paid an eighth of a day’s wage for those who only worked an hour, and
that’s probably what would happen most often in our economy. The landowner got
to save some money by only paying them for the hours they worked. They weren’t
owed anything else, and anyone who complained could easily be replaced by
someone else the next day.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">That’s often how our
economy works, but that’s not how the kingdom of God works. If all who call
themselves Christian were really serious about living the kingdom of God, people
would be paid what they really need, not just what employers can get away with
paying them. Of course, not all employers do that. Many employers do pay what
people need, but a great many do not, and a great many people get extremely
wealthy while their lowest paid workers are in poverty.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPaM0p05g_0TrVgiJmAYHKRQoLhCH-wXCwZuuTQw9njOGKZ6p7jQRPJivOl8-ri0RCNukj0vz175vuSgqo5na43-hri81QWcd8LIW3F15JbM1qXZ29dUUvs-S_hxdYkWsfysmc-QDd_Zge3mAmTcpYipapcwqKK0bDVRjd4Bm2DV84zZ6BdN41YS6tGDY/s657/Justice%20and%20Water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="657" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPaM0p05g_0TrVgiJmAYHKRQoLhCH-wXCwZuuTQw9njOGKZ6p7jQRPJivOl8-ri0RCNukj0vz175vuSgqo5na43-hri81QWcd8LIW3F15JbM1qXZ29dUUvs-S_hxdYkWsfysmc-QDd_Zge3mAmTcpYipapcwqKK0bDVRjd4Bm2DV84zZ6BdN41YS6tGDY/w335-h177/Justice%20and%20Water.jpg" width="335" /></span></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">That’s not the
kingdom of God, and for those who think Jesus’ parable is all about getting
into heaven when we die, don’t kid yourselves. Saying this parable is all about
life after death is definitely a convenient way of ignoring the economic
justice that is taught in this parable, but getting to heaven when you die is
not what Jesus was teaching. The parable wasn’t a metaphor for life after
death. Jesus was talking about life here on Earth and God’s continued desire
for us to treat one another with love and to create a society in which we care and
use our riches generously.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">If you look at the acts
of Jesus and his other teachings, he was continually healing the poor and sick,
those who had been left with only an eighth day’s wage, and he was continually
telling those with great wealth to give what they had to the poor.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Pretending that this
parable is not about economic justice is just one more way to ignore the fact
that our apathy towards others and our desires for “fairness” would leave many
people dead, and in fact, our apathy and unthinking ways do leave many people dead.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">“But God, it’s not
fair that those who only worked an hour got paid for a full day’s worth of
work.” Well, if we paid people what the really needed, not just for the amount
they were able to work, wouldn’t that lead to apathy? Many would argue that,
saying, “God’s economy wouldn’t work. I’ll bet the next day, in Jesus’ parable,
no one showed up to work until the last hour.” Well, I’ll bet the landowner had
a fix for that.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Notice the people who
only worked an hour wanted to work, and the landowner was happy to hire them.
If folks had showed up at the last hour, unwilling to work until then, I have a
feeling he wouldn’t have hired them. God’s economy works. We just have to be
willing to care about one another as much as God does. We have to be willing to
let go of our ideas of fairness. We have to be willing to let go of our apathy
towards one another and our contempt towards one another. Then, we will see “justice
roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos
5:24) Then, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). Then, we will see God’s kingdom here on earth
as it is in heaven.</span></span></p><p></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-63707054497957728742023-08-29T07:37:00.005-07:002023-08-29T07:38:26.498-07:00“This Is the Way” (sorry, but it fits)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span>T</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-weight: bold;">he Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">St. Mark’s, Bellaire<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">August 27, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Proper 16, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Psalm 138<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Romans 12:1-8<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Matthew 16:13-20</span></b><i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">“This Is the Way” (sorry, but it fits)</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">So, I’ve been a huge Star Wars fan since I was a little kid.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">When I moved into my office at Lord of the Streets, I brought my Mandalorian Naboo Starfighter LEGO set and the rest of my LEGO Star Wars sets first. The Darth Vader helmet looking over me on the wall. Then I eventually brought in the crosses for the walls and my ordination certificate. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">So, right now is a really good time to be a Star Wars nerd. We've got the new Ahsoka show on right now, the Mandalorian before that. Baby Yoda, or as dorks like me know him, Din Grogu is from the Mandalorian show, and a catch phrase of the show is, “This is the Way.” That means the Way of the Mandalorian, a group of warriors and protectors, and the Way they follow is their code, their Way of life.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">So, being a huge Star Wars nerd, I’ve been trying not to use “This is the Way” in a sermon or even in everyday conversations, and until today, I’ve been mostly successful.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Today, however, it just fits as Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Looking at the ideas of the keys and the binding and loosing, Jesus was talking about how we live out God’s kingdom on Earth. For the people of Israel, living out God’s kingdom was and is tied to how they live out and follow God’s laws. Following God’s laws is often referred to as walking in the way of the law.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Over the centuries, Rabbis have determined how the laws will be binding on people, and even which laws are binding on people’s lives and which are not. For Orthodox Jews, there are more laws that are binding on them than for Reform Jews. Their leaders have determined which laws are binding and how the laws are binding.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">In Jesus’ day too, the religious leaders determined how the laws were to be lived out, and we know Jesus often disagreed with them, even saying in Luke that some were locking people out of the Kingdom because of how they were enforcing God’s laws. Think of last week, when the Pharisees insisted that Jesus’ disciples were doing things wrong by not washing their hands before eating, and Jesus was having none of it, saying that the point of the laws was not to follow them for the sake of following arbitrary rules, but the point of the laws was to heal us so that we would live in the way of love, the way of mercy, and the way of justice.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Justice, mercy, love…this is the Way of Jesus.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2k62hiYQTF_Qa4w4Dow-C8dr_eSXS6zR3mrF0bu8F6yxqmVaSJ9d8RcVTeVLUVPsusJJJyVnAZEWUxFWUJnKCz8kWwjub4OHfcbcpJKlLNDnYf2AfJtOHniAilTZl-Hnppz3-I6g9xQEAB6F1UK2ZD5mf6WpN9ve8WhAfQKHAJmQUHQlzXi6Sef3rz33/s1280/Mandalorian.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2k62hiYQTF_Qa4w4Dow-C8dr_eSXS6zR3mrF0bu8F6yxqmVaSJ9d8RcVTeVLUVPsusJJJyVnAZEWUxFWUJnKCz8kWwjub4OHfcbcpJKlLNDnYf2AfJtOHniAilTZl-Hnppz3-I6g9xQEAB6F1UK2ZD5mf6WpN9ve8WhAfQKHAJmQUHQlzXi6Sef3rz33/s320/Mandalorian.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">So, disagreeing with the religious leaders of the time over how and which laws were to be binding on people, Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” In other words, Peter and the apostles were given the authority to determine which laws were to be binding on the people and how they were to be binding. Peter and the apostles were to determine how people were going to walk in the Way of Jesus.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Very early on, in the book of Acts, we see the apostles determine that for the non-Jewish followers of Jesus, the laws of Israel were mostly not binding. Gentiles didn’t have to become Jewish in order to walk in the Way of Jesus.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Over the centuries, we’ve continued to have leaders determine what ways of life are binding on us in order to walk in the way of Jesus. We have our church councils, our prayer book, our church constitution, and our bishops who determine our Way in the Episcopal Church.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Our way is to walk in justice, mercy, and love. Our way is to spend time daily in prayer, to spend time daily in the scriptures. Our way is sacramental, having ordinary things become ways that God is being encountered in our world in countless ways. Our way is to forgive, to serve, to make do with less so that others may have what they need. Justice, mercy, and love.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, for any of us to truly walk in the Way of Jesus, the Way becomes something that is internalized by us. Why do we pray and read scripture every day? “Because the priest said I had to.” No, we pray and read scripture every day because that’s our Way. Sometimes we may be doing it simply because it is our Way and we’re walking in that Way, but we keep daily prayer and scripture reading as our Way because that Way of life brings healing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">The way of Jesus is ultimately the way of healing. Why would any of us do with less so that others may have what they need? Because we see our brothers and sisters working and not making enough to pay rent. We see our sisters and our brothers getting sick for two weeks and then being evicted because those two weeks without wages kept them from being able to pay that month’s rent. These are the folks I minister with every day, and once folks end up on the streets, it is frightfully hard to get back.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">When you don’t have daily access to a shower and don’t have a place to launder your clothes, getting a job is almost impossible. If you have any mental illness and don’t have a job that pays enough to have good medical insurance, and then enough for co-pays and prescriptions on top of that, then keeping a job can be frightfully difficult. There is a lot of suffering in our world, in our city, and our Way, the Way of Jesus, is to help soothe that suffering.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">When we do, we also find that our own suffering is soothed as well. Times when we don’t quite see it, all we can do is trust. Trust in the Way of Jesus, trust in how Jesus’ way has been handed down to us in the Episcopal Church. Then there are times when we recognize the healing that has been brought by walking in the Way, and it becomes internalized by us. The Way of Jesus becomes our Way, the Way of healing, the Way of justice, mercy, and love.</span></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-27593679076999849632023-08-13T08:42:00.002-07:002023-08-13T08:42:41.079-07:00 If You Want to Sink, You First Have to Get Out of the Boat<div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Lord of the Streets<br /></span></b></span><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">August 13, 2023</span></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Proper 14, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Psalm 85:8-13<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Romans 10:5-15<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Matthew 14:22-33</span></b></span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">If You Want to Sink, You First Have to Get Out of the Boat</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water toward them, he stepped out of the boat, and he sank. I know he walked on the water for a time, first, but once he noticed the waves and storm all around him, he became distracted by all of that, took his eyes off Jesus, and he sank.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back in Seminary, we loved to joke about Peter because of how often he failed. He kept trying at things. “I’ll do it. Hey, I can do that, Jesus. Ooh, let’s build three booths,” and time and again, Peter kinda just bungled it all up. So, we see Peter failing a lot in the scriptures, and he becomes an easy target for our poking fun.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To be fair to Peter, I wonder if the reason we kept pointing out his flaws in Seminary was because by doing that, we got to ignore our own flaws and pretend that we wouldn’t have failings like he did once we really got into our ministries. Oh, we were so cute.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s great about looking at Peter is that as many times as he screwed up, he kept trying. Peter kept getting out of the boat trying to walk on water, like he did in our story today. He kept failing, and Jesus kept picking him up and putting him back in the boat. Despite his failure, he kept striving in his discipleship of Jesus.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He could have just decided to play it safe and stay in the boat. He could have just waited for Jesus to arrive. It would certainly have been easier, less embarrassing, less wet. Instead, he kept trying and often he failed, and then Jesus was there to help him up. That wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t gotten out of the boat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you want to sink, you first have to get out of the boat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A friend of mine, Erin Jean Warde wrote a book called, <i>Sober Spirituality</i>, in which she talks about getting sober and the joys sobriety has brought her. One of the chapters is called, “Reading the Big Book with a Box of Chardonnay.” The Big Book is the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. For years, Erin was wondering about getting sober, trying out some meetings, reading the Big Book, all while continuing to drink, even boxes of Chardonnay.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some might say that she was failing at sobriety during those years, but that’s not really true. She was taking a page out of Peter’s book and stepping out of the boat. She kept sinking, over and over again, and Jesus kept pulling her back up and setting her back in the boat. Eventually, she didn’t sink. She stayed sober. If she hadn’t sunk all those previous times, however, if she’d stayed in the boat, she might still be drinking today. Instead, Erin got out of the boat and sank. She gave herself and her readers the freedom to fail.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s what Peter did. He gave us the freedom to fail. That’s what Jesus did when he picked Peter up and put him back in the boat. He gave him the freedom to fail. When Jesus picked Peter up, he said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” We’re not told how Jesus said this. Was it a rebuke? Was he scolding Peter? I like to think he was laughing with delight. “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter had been so excited, “Hey man, I want to walk on water too, call me out there.” That had to have given Jesus some delight, more than the delight he was probably already feeling walking on the water himself.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I imagine Jesus, having created the Earth and that very sea he was walking on, I imagine him full of delight, walking on the water thinking, “This is so cool!” Then to have Peter want to join him, to actually start walking on the water too, and then when Peter sank, I can see Jesus laughing like a parent whose kid had just ridden their bike for the first time for 20 feet and then fallen over. The kid jumps up, laughing, shouting, “I did it! I did it! Did you see?” The parent, laughing and excited, smiling says, “Wow, that was great, kid, why’d you stop?” Fail. Fall down. Keep riding; you’re doing great.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus gave Peter the freedom to fail, and when Peter sank, Jesus picked him back up, gave him some pointers, and set him back in the boat to try again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="602" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORRe-8ubgchzXvjtqFxwF3WMtoxH2uGVK9eNsNvRDoVI5BkAO2KU3o-OW_VKf_8vpFppsx5aFqiNiDgZ0P1mpFEbHpfwrrEKp8hwAovW_kRM9SPfzMIM9bu33Y1kmO1hCcxAWf4pqlNMTT-ee1-0rq81um-N_CBDgoSe6nLip02vOuftPl3wx-G8aZDGV/s320/Darth%20Fail.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus gives us the freedom to fail too. He’s not Darth Vader, angry and murderous with every failure.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I often hear people say, “I’m not perfect; I’m never gonna be,” and they’re almost lamenting the fact. It’s like they’re saying to God, “I’m sorry, Lord Vader. I know I suck.” To which I figure God replies, “Didn’t you read about Peter?”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We’re not supposed to be perfect. God doesn’t expect us to be. It’s a pretty good bet when we step out of the boat, we’re going to sink. God knows this, and God gives us the freedom and even encourages us to step out of the boat anyway.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In our discipleship of Jesus, we’re going to fail a lot. Jesus delights in our continuing to try, our continuing to sink, and his continuing to pick us back up and put us back in the boat to try again. In our discipleship, as we continue to follow Jesus and live his ways, we get to risk failure.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you want to fail, you first have to get out of the boat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-16667875876848088632023-08-01T12:12:00.004-07:002023-08-01T12:13:01.724-07:00Gaining So Much More Than a Pearl<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Lord of the Streets<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">July 30, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Proper 12, Year
A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">1 Kings 3:5-12<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Psalm
119:129-136<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Matthew
13:31-33,44-52</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; text-align: center;"> </span></span></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Gaining So Much More Than a
Pearl</span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">So, there’s
an addendum to the story about Solomon we heard today in which God granted him
long life and riches. Solomon didn’t ask for long life and riches, he asked for
the wisdom to lead the people of Israel well. So, God was pleased with Solomon,
and after agreeing and grant Solomon wisdom, God also granted him the long life
and riches that he didn’t ask for.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">When I
was a kid, reading that story, the sneaky little part of my brain thought, “Well
that’s cool. All I need to ask for something unselfish and then maybe God will
make me hugely rich as well.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Now, I
knew God wasn’t stupid. Having just read that story about Solomon, I couldn’t
just say, “God make me wise,” and expect to become rich. No, I had to try to fool
God into thinking I really meant it. So my prayer was something more like, “God
just make me wise. I’m not going for riches, just the wisdom part, so please
help me out with that. Oh, and if you do make me rich, I’ll use like the hugely
vast majority to give away to others.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">I’m not
sure God said “yes” to either part of that prayer, but I’ve since realized what
I pretty well expected back then, which is that God doesn’t work like that, at
least not for me.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Far from
the almighty golden gumball machine of a young boy’s fantasy, God seems more concerned
with teaching us God’s ways of love and living out God’s kingdom here on earth
than with granting the get rich quick prayer scheme of a teenage boy.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">In one of
Jesus’ parables that we heard today, the kingdom of God was kind of compared to
a get rich scheme involving a merchant and a really big pearl. In the story,
the merchant finds a huge pearl and sells everything in order to acquire it. Going
back again to my teenage boy self, I didn’t find this story of God’s kingdom
all that compelling. I mean, I got that the story was a metaphor, but the
thought of a big pearl just didn’t interest me. What would I do with it, put it
on a shelf and not really look at it all that much? If it was a life-size,
working Millennium Falcon, then I could see the appeal, but the pearl just
wasn’t doing it for me.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAv-UBqwrub5xtZ-PsWuhUGTnrkje1ED7nenQH17cLqKsN-QlYNVdDyGOjQhDn7lakpifQgebrety74ioYI-xHntdXNGx5gxm4GjkqQIHIDfUUgXSAI0JgLt0j6-jWN4gpRZNKtOxpSZubkP1FddUQtvEKcNjoQFRDcrF-lYECHdaF2UucCB7V4MzDB30/s3840/Millennium%20Falcon.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAv-UBqwrub5xtZ-PsWuhUGTnrkje1ED7nenQH17cLqKsN-QlYNVdDyGOjQhDn7lakpifQgebrety74ioYI-xHntdXNGx5gxm4GjkqQIHIDfUUgXSAI0JgLt0j6-jWN4gpRZNKtOxpSZubkP1FddUQtvEKcNjoQFRDcrF-lYECHdaF2UucCB7V4MzDB30/s320/Millennium%20Falcon.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">I wonder
if sometimes my teenage take on the story rings true for many of us, meaning
that I wonder if we hear about living God’s kingdom here on earth and find that
it’s just not that appealing, like hearing about Solomon and thinking, “Yeah,
yeah, wisdom’s great, but what about the money?” I wonder if we hear about
God’s kingdom and think, “Yeah, that sounds lovely, but like a big pearl, I
think I’m just going to put it on a shelf and not look at it all that often.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">God’s
kingdom often sounds like a pretty good idea in church, and then it’s back to
the rest of life. Fears and stresses of life hit us, and we take that pearl and
put it back up on the shelf. The challenges of life make Jesus’ kingdom seem
less appealing than the protection and numbing that often comes with just
getting through the day. Even in those times when we really do want to live
God’s kingdom, we really do want the pearl, but what the heck are we supposed
to do with it? It’s pretty, and a lovely idea. Now what?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Well,
what’d the merchant do? He sold all that he had to get it. For us, that means
seeking God’s help to live out God’s kingdom here on earth. That means changing
our lives to follow the ways of Jesus and giving up anything that gets in the
way of us living Jesus’ way. The merchant sold all that he had to get the pearl,
because living God’s kingdom was absolutely worth the price.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Following
the ways of Jesus, we’re supposed to love our enemies. There’s a cost there,
and a giving up of some of who and how we are. Letting go our fear, our anger,
our desires to force our way in the world. We’re going to risk ourselves for
the sake of others. We’re going to spend large amounts of time in prayer and
seek peace with others. We’re going to give up selfish ways, and we’re going to
join with others in helping to make the lives of those around us a little bit
brighter.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">That’s a
lot. The merchant sold everything he had. Jesus said that we should lose our
lives for his sake and the sake of the kingdom of God. Of course, Jesus also
said that if we lose our lives for his sake, we would find our lives. Think
about this not just as physical death, but also as losing the lives we have,
giving up all of the ways which keep us from God’s kingdom. The merchant
selling everything.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">Then
realize, the guy was a merchant. He didn’t sell everything and buy the pearl to
put it on a shelf. He was buying the pearl to sell it again. He was going to
make back all that he had given up for the pearl and then some. Jesus said,
“those who lose their lives…will find them.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">When we
give up all of the ways which keep us from living God’s kingdom, we aren’t left
empty, with nothing. We gain back so much more. Now, I don’t mean wealth.
Unlike my teenage boy self, we’re not trying to trick God into a get rich quick
scheme. Also, giving up all that we have is not a simple, one-time prayer or
declaration. Giving up all that we have is an ongoing process as we, over time,
bit by bit, realize the parts of ourselves that aren’t living God’s kingdom,
and we, over time, bit by bit, give those ways over to God. We let those parts
of us die, and we begin to see what’s being reborn.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">As we are
reborn over time, bit by bit, here are some things that we gain as we give up
all that we have. We gain peace, no longer struggling with everything and
everyone around us. We gain acceptance that life is not all as we wish it was,
and we find beauty in the life we have. We gain community, joining with others
in living God’s kingdom and offering it to others.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">The
merchant didn’t force the pearl on anyone, telling them angrily or at knife
point, “You have to take this pearl or else.” He offered the pearl to those who
were willing to buy it. As we live into God’s kingdom, we can offer it to others,
not with threats, not because they have to. We offer what we’ve found in God’s
kingdom because we have been healed by it. As we are healed in God’s kingdom,
we offer that healing to others, and joining with others, we see the healing of
God’s kingdom grow. We see the lives of the people around us change for the
better.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;">This
isn’t a sudden get rich quick scheme. It happens over time, bit by bit. God’s
kingdom grows, and the world is healed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><o:p><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-69150307115222741962023-07-20T06:51:00.005-07:002023-07-20T06:51:48.589-07:00Of Journeys and Justice: Staying the Course In Discipleship<div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church</span></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">August 16, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Proper 10, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Isaiah 55:10-13<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Romans 8:1-11<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Matthew 13:1-9,18-23</span></b></span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Of Journeys and Justice: Staying the Course In Discipleship</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Twelve years before being arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a bus, Rosa Parks was already working for civil rights. After she was arrested, it would then be another nine years before most racial segregation was made illegal with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Another year for the Voting Rights Act, and then three more years before the Fair Housing Act.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">For 25 years and more, Rosa Parks was striving for civil rights, and it was over 20 years before she saw large-scale, national results. The same is true for countless civil rights leaders and workers who still continue on to this day. They were and have been committed to the cause, and they changed the world.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Imagine if Rosa parks had given up after 12 years, finally deciding, “To heck with it. Bus driver tells me to move, I’ll move.” The world would not have changed the way it did. She was committed to the cause, and despite setbacks and discouragement along the way, she stayed committed to the cause of civil rights. She didn’t get excited for a while and then quit. She didn’t get distracted or give in because it was difficult. She stayed and changed the world for the better.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">That’s the kind of discipleship Jesus is talking about in the parable he told in our Gospel reading today.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7teUdapeueWLyDtqC9N-_4IzmURwuXhCMeNUHq0cWGNXszKmdFkO6D3VMvJkh3XunVo4ZZ5TMwDXzbaf8xicLZYNyaJf-C7990XsUpvC8gW-Ol68dLi6R3JvMFS2xokICoGXBftpN78TIxwrPsyJhU3pvSgQU_oARZTp9uzH7mSVsvFmFYf-oIrgw1hr/s480/Rosa%20Parks.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="391" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7teUdapeueWLyDtqC9N-_4IzmURwuXhCMeNUHq0cWGNXszKmdFkO6D3VMvJkh3XunVo4ZZ5TMwDXzbaf8xicLZYNyaJf-C7990XsUpvC8gW-Ol68dLi6R3JvMFS2xokICoGXBftpN78TIxwrPsyJhU3pvSgQU_oARZTp9uzH7mSVsvFmFYf-oIrgw1hr/s320/Rosa%20Parks.jpg" width="261" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Jesus’ parable was about a guy spreading seeds to get plants to grow, and he was just tossing the seed about, and when it landed on good soil, it grew and produced a huge harvest. Jesus said that the seed was the word. If we think of that as the Word of God, then the seed is Jesus. The seed of Jesus has been cast, and when it lands on good soil, it produces a huge harvest.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Now, I’ve often heard and thought of this parable as being about how each individual receives Jesus. If our hearts are in the right condition, meaning the soil is good, then we receive Jesus and we gain great faith in him.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">I think there is truth in that understanding, and another understanding is that the growth of the seeds is about our discipleship. When our hearts are in a good place, when the soil is good, then we become committed in our discipleship, and from that discipleship, even more disciples are grown or raised up. As the group of committed disciples grows, then the ways of Jesus grow stronger in the world. As the group of committed disciples grows, the way of healing grows. The way of peace grows. As the group of committed disciples grows, the way of love and compassion grows.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Of course, as Jesus told the parable, a lot of the seed falls on poor soil, or is snatched away, or is choaked out by other things. Think about starting to grow as a disciple of Jesus, and the ways of Jesus start conflicting with ways of life we’re used to. Jesus said bless you enemies, and we’re often used to cursing our enemies and trying to get back at them. Think about when that conflict comes, and we just go with what we’re used to. We strike back at our enemies, and our discipleship of Jesus is diminished. Our commitment to Jesus’ ways starts to fade.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">What about when we are following in Jesus’ ways, and things don’t get better all that quickly? Our lives haven’t changed dramatically for the better right away, and the world around us certainly hasn’t gotten miraculously better just because we’ve started following as a disciple of Jesus. Think about when things don’t get noticeably better fast enough, and so we quit. Nothing really changes, there is no great harvest, and even 20 years later, there is still no huge, societal change for the better. That’s like the seed that falls on the rocky path. We get excited about Jesus and the gospel, but that excitement doesn’t last long, and we’re quickly back to just how we were before.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">That’s how things would have been for the Civil Rights Movement, if Rosa Parks and others had quit even several years into their work because they just weren’t seeing changes come fast enough. Remember, it was twenty years of work by Mrs. Parks before she saw change on a national scale.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Twenty years of staying the course with only modest gains to show for it. At the same time, those twenty years brought forth a huge harvest of other people who became fully committed to the cause of Civil Rights. If Mrs. Parks had been lukewarm in her commitment and work, the movement wouldn’t have grown. Others would not have joined. There would have been no great harvest.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">When Jesus told his parable of the sower and the seeds, he was encouraging his disciples to stay committed to their discipleship, to stay committed to their faith, to stay committed to the ways and teachings of Jesus. He was telling his disciples that if they stayed committed to their discipleship, then they would help grow more disciples, and amazing, world-altering things would happen.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">What are our hopes and dreams for our lives and for the world around us? How about less violence and theft? How about justice in economic practices so that people aren’t forced out of their housing, just so investors can make some easy money? How about people loving and caring for one another, more than just looking out for self-interest?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">I’d say we’ve got a ways to go on those things, those kinds of changes for the better can happen. Our part is to stay committed to the ways of Jesus, to stay committed as his disciples. When we do that, God brings forth growth far more than we can imagine. As we stay fully committed disciples of Jesus, changing our lives to live as he taught, God brings forth growth of even more fully committed disciples, and the changes for the better start to happen.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Like with the Civil Rights Movement, it takes time, decades, even, and lukewarm discipleship or giving up when it is difficult or it isn’t going fast enough isn’t going to make and change or grow any fruit. Changing our lives to follow Jesus’ teachings and way, and then fully committing, with God’s help, God can bring forth God’s kingdom on earth. Fully committing as disciples of Jesus can produce world-altering fruit in our lives and in all of society around us. So, despite hardships, discouragement, temptations all around, we stay the course as Jesus’ disciples, and God brings forth an enormous harvest. <i> </i></span></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-44465452846159984362023-07-09T18:33:00.007-07:002023-07-09T18:35:12.401-07:00Come Unto to Me, and Be Prisoners of Hope.<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">August 9, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Proper 9, Year
A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Zechariah 9:9-12<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Psalm </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">145:8-15<br /><o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Matthew
11:16-19, 25-30</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; text-align: center;"> </span></span></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Come Unto to Me, and Be Prisoners
of Hope.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Both John
the Baptist and Jesus had harsh critics who blasted them for their ways of life.
Their critics blasted them for the ways of their religion, and their critics blasted
them for the way they spoke to the powerful pointing out ways they were oppressing
others and being hypocrites. Both John and Jesus were executed by the powerful for
all of the above reasons. Of John, his critics said, “He has a demon,” because
of his ascetic lifestyle, his religious devotion and self-discipline. Of Jesus,
his critics said, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors
and sinners,” because of how he spent time with the outcast sinners who were
receptive to his message of forgiveness, his message of changing their ways and
turning to God, his message of love and faith rather than certainty and fear.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">John and
Jesus’ critics were afraid of them and them and their messages. John and Jesus’
critics felt threatened by them and their messages, and so they condemned John
and Jesus. Our Zechariah reading today called on the people of Israel to be
prisoners of hope. John and Jesus’ critics were acting instead as prisoners of
despair.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">I don’t
mean they were sad and forlorn. They were afraid. They were judging and condemning
John and Jesus, feeling threatened by them. They were judging and condemning others,
those they felt were sinning too much, those fellow Israelites whom they felt
were on the outs with God. In their judgment and fear, they were unknowingly prisoners
of despair. Did they have to condemn others to make themselves feel like they
were ok in God’s eyes? Did they condemn others because they were afraid of what
“those sinners” might do to their country or because they were afraid of what
God might do to their country because of “those sinners”?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Being
afraid of “those sinners,” John and Jesus’ critics worked against them, spoke
against them, and eventually had them killed. Such is the way of prisoners of
despair. Fight against. Let anger and fear rule. Seek the destruction or
subjugation of “those sinners,” or “those others” so that they don’t ruin
everything.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Now, on
the one hand, John and Jesus’ critics had the wrong bad guys labeled as “those
sinners.” On the other hand, even if we have the right bad buys labeled as “those
sinners,” fighting against them, letting fear and anger rule, subjugating or especially
destroying “those others” or “those sinners” isn’t really going to help us. Living
as prisoners of despair doesn’t really help anyone.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">I think
we generally know this, although there are times when we don’t see any other
way. How can we not be against people who subjugate others? How can we not be
against people who rape and steal? How can we not be against people who work to
make life difficult and miserable for others? Our brains and our emotions often
tell us we have to be against “those others” who do terrible things, but our
brains and our emotions are wrong. They are stuck in hurt and fear. Our brains
and our emotions are all too often prisoners of despair.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Who will rescue
us from these prisons? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! “Come to
me,” Jesus says. “Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">“Come to
me,” Jesus says, and be prisoners of hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">In our Zechariah
reading today, the prophet says “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.”
What is our stronghold? Our stronghold is God. “The Lord is
a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times
of trouble,” says Psalm 9:9. Likewise, Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer, [the Lord is] my God, my rock in whom I
take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, [the Lord is] my stronghold.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">When
Jesus says, “Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest,” Jesus is promising to be our stronghold. Jesus is
calling us not to be prisoners of despair, but to be prisoners of hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh9XopRIwQYZhH1n1txEu48JaBcP91uXtILWF72YRFVWgiAMMynkgoG98Iq0esUxDpX6ry0XOBzfiSPGjLV0ePTWkrcCeLErEnGJDwxu19b6rhfyljyo2qU3G-G6F-rK3UC-dTXmwH-8EzXk1hvspTmD8-y_P7DZ14-UseCIpC1IjS9SRkseOJ8RNPie4/s320/hope%20painting.webp" width="320" /></span></div><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">As prisoners
of hope, we don’t just rage against “those others,” even if we have the right “others”
in mind. As prisoners of hope, we follow the words of Psalm 37:8, “Refrain from
anger, leave rage alone; * do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.” As
prisoners of hope, we don’t have to be against “those others” who do wrong. As
prisoners of hope, we can, instead, live for those who are hurting, afraid, and
oppressed.</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">If we continually
rage against “those others,” we’ll just keep creating a mightier enemy. The more
anyone fights someone, the more they tend to fight back. Living for someone,
however, we end up building people up, guiding others, living into our truest
selves: helpers and companions for one another. Such is life as prisoners of
hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">So, how
do we go from being prisoners of despair to being prisoners of hope? We don’t,
not by ourselves. We bring our hurt and our fear to Jesus. We bring our anger
and our rage to Jesus. We come to him with those heavy burdens, hard to bear, we
lay them upon him, and he grants us rest. Jesus heals us from being prisoners
of despair and offers his yoke, his ways and teachings, that we may become
prisoners of hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Then, Jesus
offers us help, because as easy and light as his ways and teachings are, they
are still often hard for us. Our brains and emotions, our bodies, still want us
to be prisoners of despair. So Jesus offers us help in giving over our heavy burdens
over and over again. Ask, Jesus says, and I will help you give those burdens to
me. Then, freed of those burdens of hurt and fear, freed of those burdens of
anger and rage, we can find rest for our souls and live as prisoners of hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">We return
over and over to Jesus, our stronghold, and we find that we don’t have to be
against others. We can instead live for one another. We can be against those
who would rape and steal; we can be full of anger and hate, or instead, we can
live for those who might be victims. It’s harder to steal from and rape groups
of people who are joined together, living for one another. It’s harder to hurt
people who are prisoners of hope.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">It still
happens, of course, as it did to John the Baptist and Jesus. Those prisoners of
despair who were against them eventually did hurt them, and yet they remained
prisoners of hope. Their lives continue to bless us two-thousand years later.
Such is the power of prisoners of hope. We return to Jesus our stronghold. We
lay down our burdens, find rest for our souls, and get to live for others. We
refrain from anger and leave rage alone. We stop living as prisoners of despair.
We come to Jesus and live as prisoners of hope.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-79175053577380577452023-07-02T12:30:00.001-07:002023-07-02T12:31:04.250-07:00Be Not Socially Awkward or Weird: AKA - Our Faith Has No Need for Others to Share It<div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><span>The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>August 2, 2023</span></b></span><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>Proper 8, Year A</span></b></span><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>Romans 6:12-23</span></b></span><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>Psalm 89:1-4,15-18</span></b></span><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>Matthew 10:40-42</span></b><i style="text-align: center;"><span><o:p> </o:p></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;"><b><span>Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b></span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;">Be Not Socially Awkward or Weird:</span></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia;">AKA - Our Faith Has No Need for Others to Share It</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><o:p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So, in last week’s Gospel, there was this rather interesting bit where Jesus said that he had come to set family members against each other and, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” At first glance it might look like if we’re going to follow Jesus, we’re supposed to turn against our family? Some might even preach that we should turn against our family or friends if they don’t believe in Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><o:p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That is, of course, completely misunderstanding what Jesus was saying. First note the context. Jesus was talking to his disciples in first century Israel, and the religious leaders of the time weren’t over fond of Jesus and his teachings. He was considered by many to be a heretic, and so were his followers. So, Jesus was warning his disciples, saying, “If you follow me, your family might turn against you. Realize that fact, and if your family turns against you, don’t stop being my disciples. Work to accept that your family might not understand, that they may turn against you.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><o:p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That was a tough pill to swallow: people’s families turning against them for following Jesus, being exiled from their communities for following Jesus. Jesus referred to it as taking up a cross. Jesus was telling his disciples, that it was likely going to get pretty tough for them, and he was encouraging them to continue to follow and believe in him, despite the difficulties. Never let anyone fool you into thinking God is against you, even if people turn against you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><o:p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="lessonindent" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Never was Jesus’ message, you should turn against anyone who doesn’t believe in me. Nowadays, however, some folks seem to turn Jesus’ message around, saying things like, “If someone in your family isn’t Christian and won’t convert, stay away from them, or if someone in your family is a sinner, stay away from them. Shun them.” Must we hate people or declare others our enemies in order to be Jesus’ disciple?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Nope. Nope, nopey, nope, nope, nope. That’s the exact opposite of what Jesus was saying. Jesus wasn’t saying turn against others. Jesus was saying to his disciples, “People may turn against you for being my disciples, and if they do, accept it, be ok with it, and continue to love them. Realize that God is not against you, even if your family turns against you.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Then, in our reading today, Jesus continues assuring his disciples that those who treat them poorly need not be worried about. Those who treat his disciples well, Jesus said, would receive the reward of the righteous. Don’t worry if people turn against you for being my disciple, Jesus was saying. Try not to get too down over it. God’s with you, despite what some may say, and God will be with you always.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So, accept that when we seek to follow in Jesus’ ways, some people may not get it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Now, by and large, most of us aren’t going to face the same kinds of difficulties for following Jesus as his disciples did in first century Israel. His disciples back then faced excommunication, shunning from their families, sometimes even death.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Nowadays in Houston, Texas, when we decide to follow Jesus, some folks may think it’s lame. Some may think we’re going to become terribly judgmental. Some may be afraid we’re going to start hating them because of who they are, things they do, ways of life which some Christians frown upon. Remember, though, Jesus never taught his disciples to hate or shun others. Rather he taught his disciples to accept that people may hate or shun them. Rather than grow angry or resentful, accept it, and continue to love.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">In our reading from Romans, today, Paul talked about being freed from sin. In light of Jesus’ teaching, think about sin as being angry, resentful, or hateful toward non-Christians or folks who may turn away from you for being a Christian. Responding to that with anger, resentment, and hatred is dismissing the freedom of Christ and binding ourselves up in sin again. Folks may hate you…for any number of reasons. You don’t have to hate them back. That is freedom.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There are folks in America nowadays who say Christianity is under attack. I don’t</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDfY2P8ezprodTJ-E1V6_JtIzZ7CF38K0LQVwQsVq8HAXTQlIfLdyN-McIGBOpDinn9LqtJ6RWCicRQvaFHpzDwvknHMQefITG8HLRS15S0Kt4f1WDwngrn7pR9U_sZgWG2faa4Uebt8CnqLDEFD3q_aP4X0LJ9VIgovStMVPLbCGzTFtzbY7JRG4KZ6t/s1344/My%20Beliefs%20do%20not%20require%20them%20to.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1344" data-original-width="1078" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDfY2P8ezprodTJ-E1V6_JtIzZ7CF38K0LQVwQsVq8HAXTQlIfLdyN-McIGBOpDinn9LqtJ6RWCicRQvaFHpzDwvknHMQefITG8HLRS15S0Kt4f1WDwngrn7pR9U_sZgWG2faa4Uebt8CnqLDEFD3q_aP4X0LJ9VIgovStMVPLbCGzTFtzbY7JRG4KZ6t/s320/My%20Beliefs%20do%20not%20require%20them%20to.jpg" width="257" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />believe it is, but even if Christianity is under attack, Jesus said, “be ok with it.” He didn’t say, “attack them back.” That’s the total opposite of what he said.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">There was a gentleman on the Metro up in DC where my wife is right now, and this man got on the Metro and started talking loudly at everyone on the car, telling them about Jesus and how they needed to be saved. That’s not evangelism. That’s just frantic, angry, forcing one’s religion on others. It’s also just socially awkward and weird.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jesus didn’t say, “force your views on others.” That’s the exact opposite of what he said. Jesus didn’t enslave us to being weird and awkward and hating others. Jesus offered us freedom from fear, freedom from anger, freedom from resentment, and freedom from hatred. Jesus offered us freedom to believe in him, and trust in him, and be ok with the fact that others don’t. Jesus was very clear in his message to his disciples that their faith didn’t require others to share it. Others don’t believe as we do, and our faith doesn’t require them to.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“Bless those who curse you,” Jesus taught. How much more then, does Jesus teach, “Bless those who don’t believe as you do.” Love other people. That’s freedom. We don’t have to get angry or resentful towards others. We are freed from sin, yet somehow the church often seems to be consumed by sin, focusing so much attention on sin…usually someone else’s sin.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“We’re all sinners, we’re forgiven, but you…you had better stop sinning.” Why do we get so wrapped up in sin, especially other people’s sin, when Jesus came to free us from sin? Sin is ways that we harm ourselves and harm others. When we get all bent out of shape over other people’s sin, when we drink that cup of anger and resentment, all we’re doing is poisoning ourselves and then harming others out of our own poisoned souls. Getting so wrapped up in sin just causes us to sin.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As Jesus’ disciples, we don’t offer judgment for others’ sin. Jesus was about forgiving sin, freeing us from sin. We may, in socially normal ways, offer people some of the healing we’ve found in Jesus. We also get to be totally ok if people don’t want it. They don’t have to. Our faith has no need for them to. That’s freedom, freedom which Jesus has given us.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Our way as disciples of Jesus is the way of forgiveness, healing, and love. Anger, resentment, hatred of others has no place in the way of Jesus. Others may not like the fact that we’re Christians. That’s ok. We don’t need to force acceptance on others, to force others to be Christian or even to like Christianity. Jesus didn’t teach us to force our faith on others. Jesus taught us to love. Even if people reject you, love them, Jesus said. In the face of anger and fear, offer the way of love.</span></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-35062640794576516052023-06-13T16:26:00.003-07:002023-06-13T16:26:25.626-07:00Remember Who You Are, and then Show Them Who You Are<div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">June 11, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">Proper 5, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Hosea 5:15-6:6<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Psalm 50:7-15<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;">Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26</span></b></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Remember Who You Are, and then Show Them Who You Are</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus was eating with the wrong sorts of people. They were liars and cheats, sinners who defrauded others. Let’s face it, no one like the tax man, but these particular folks, collecting taxes for Rome in Israel were particularly nasty. They were known for collecting more than they were supposed to and pocketing the extra. So, when I call them liars and cheats, sinners who defrauded others, I really mean it. These were the kinds of folks you wouldn’t spit on if they were on fire, and Jesus chose to sit down and have dinner with them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Matthew, you lying cheat, call up some of your friends, and let’s have a dinner party.” That was Jesus’ approach to them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, they seemed to think that Jesus’ dinner with Matthew and his buddies was an endorsement of their lying, cheating ways, but I really don’t think that was the case. Jesus tended to tell people thinks like, “Go and sin no more.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus’ dinner message to Matthew and his friends would probably have been something more like, “How about you don’t lie, cheat, and steal from people anymore?” Jesus’ message would have been like, “Loving other people is how you’re going to find security in this world, not through taking more money for yourself.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now the Pharisees, they might have had similar messages for Matthew and his cheating friends, but the Pharisees seem to have just wanted to shun Matthew and his friends. Keep ‘em away. Call ‘em out for being sinners. Shame them, and write them off.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That wasn’t Jesus’ way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” Jesus said. In response to the charge of “sinners,” Jesus declared that the wrong sorts of folks needed love and healing, not shunning and contempt. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” Jesus said, quoting Hosea 6:6. God doesn’t need healing through religious sacrifice. People need healing through mercy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Right after dinner, Jesus healed two people. One was a woman who had a would which hadn’t healed for 12 years. The other was a little girl who had died. The woman, Jesus healed of her wound, and the little girl, Jesus brought back to life. In addition to healing those two people, Jesus’ actions show what he was doing with Matthew and his friends. Jesus was healing them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jesus saw Matthew and his friends, truly saw them. Yes, they were cheating and stealing from people, but what was going on in them that they thought that was a good idea?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, for one thing, they were living under Roman occupation. Rome didn’t care if any of them lived or died, and they were brutal in their rule of Israel. That’s enough stress to get people to behave badly right there. Then you’ve got all the Roman finery, the money and extravagance the higher ups show off. Matthew and his friends might have started to think that if only they had enough to look as fine and fancy as the Romans, then they’d be accepted and feel less threatened by their Roman overlords.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, lots of stress, fear, and a desire not to be looked down upon by society. With that mix, they stole from people when collecting taxes in order to feel calm, less afraid, and like they just might be accepted. I don’t know about you, but that sounds kinda familiar. Doing something we know is wrong in order to feel calm, less afraid, and like we just might be accepted.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The religious leaders shunned them, likely making matters worse. Jesus, instead chose to have dinner with Matthew and his friends. “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The religious leaders asked Jesus’ disciples. Because they didn’t need shunning and shame, making matters worse. They needed love and acceptance, and then to be offered a better way, a way which doesn’t harm others and which actually gives the life Matthew and his friends were looking for.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What was Jesus’ teaching to Matthew and his friends? Looking at his other teachings, Jesus probably taught them something like this. You don’t need to steal from others in order to be ok. You don’t need Rome to accept you. God already loves you. Fancier clothes and fitting in to some great society isn’t going to make you whole or happy. The friends you have here are more than enough. Love one another. Support and care for one another. Take the jobs that you have, and realize those jobs are blessings from God. Use those blessings to bless others, not to curse them.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MNjw4h1ec5-QL-7_PPx5PvXjz55KKP8kGaW7EMek2-8Pz5S88XXEaPE3BYhSr23k-KQyv5xm666vpbsGqwnDgrNMZxwaR1r3ufuRNJsFLSuK2Ym7d8u0QxOt46tuJbnRm1DDVVeAdr6dx2_25m34D5qWqBsZaEv9hthKblNEf6hZPzGONr2megFeLA/s1839/Remember%20Who%20You%20Are.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="1839" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MNjw4h1ec5-QL-7_PPx5PvXjz55KKP8kGaW7EMek2-8Pz5S88XXEaPE3BYhSr23k-KQyv5xm666vpbsGqwnDgrNMZxwaR1r3ufuRNJsFLSuK2Ym7d8u0QxOt46tuJbnRm1DDVVeAdr6dx2_25m34D5qWqBsZaEv9hthKblNEf6hZPzGONr2megFeLA/w400-h115/Remember%20Who%20You%20Are.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Remember who you are. Having dinner with Matthew and his friends, that was Jesus’ message to them. “Remember who you are.” You have been living as a bunch of lying cheats, but that’s not who you are. You are beloved children of God. Remember. Remember who you are, and then show them who you are.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We all get caught up in harmful behaviors. We hurt others, and we hurt ourselves. Sometimes we hurt ourselves and others through ways we try to be loving. A man I knew was sick and struggling to get better. He was trying to get off drugs because they were making him worse. Whenever he was around his friends, they showed him love by giving him drugs, which they would do together. They were being loving, and they were being loving in a way that hurt their friend.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think Jesus’ message to them would have been, “Remember who you are.” You don’t need the drugs to be ok. You have each other. You are beloved children of God. Remember. Remember who you are, and then show others who you are. Accept the healing that comes from God, the healing that comes from love and relationship. Accept God’s life within you, and be healed. Be healed from stress. Be healed from fear. Be healed from the American Dream which says once we have enough stuff and riches, we’ll be well.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be healed to know that just ain’t true. No amount of riches or stuff will ever make us well. Drugs and numbing won’t make us well. Love of one another will make us well. Accepting God’s love for us will make us well. Remember who you are, Jesus says. You are beloved children of God. Remember. Remember who you are, and then show them who you are. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-2560206286682003062023-06-05T06:44:00.007-07:002023-06-05T08:42:08.181-07:00Affirming the Image of God In Which We Were Made<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br />Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br />June 4, 2023<br />Trinity Sunday, Year A<br />Genesis 1:1-2:4a<br />2 Corinthians 13:11-13<br />Matthew 28:16-20</span></b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Affirming the Image of God In Which We Were Made</span></i></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Jesus said to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Three names, three persons, yet there is only one God. How’s that work? Welcome to Trinity Sunday. Folks have been confused over the idea of the Trinity for, oh, about 2000 years. How can we say the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God and also say there is only one God?</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Think in terms of relationship. Are you closer, more united to the people you love most in the world than you are to people you’ve never met? Of course you are. We feel great unity with our dearest loves. So, thinking of the Trinity, take that unity you feel with those you love, remove the limitations of our physical beings, multiply that unity by infinity, and we begin to have an idea of how God can be a trinity of persons. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons so perfectly united together in love that they are one. God is a relationship of person by God’s very nature, and we are made in God’s image, as we were told in the story of creation in Genesis. God created humankind in God’s image, male and female. All people are made in God’s image, every person who has ever been. That image is one of relationship, love, and creativity.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">God created all that is. “Let there be light,” and there was light. Let there be dry land amidst the waters, and the dry land appeared. Let there be all of the plants and animals over all of the earth and sea, and they were created. We were made in that same image of creativity. Art, music, thousands of ways we create beauty and joy in the world. That’s part of the image of God in which we were made.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Of course, we also mess up and misuse our creativity. We’re hurt and broken, and so out of our hurt and fear, we create bad things too. Systems of oppression. Weapons for war. Marginalization and discrimination of people. These we create as well, and all of these things we create fight against our very nature. We were made in the image of love, relationship, and creativity so anytime we use our creativity to work against love and relationship, we are destroying the very best of who we are. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Many of us are celebrating Pride Month right now, celebrating the beauty of our LGBTQ siblings, people made in the image of God, the image of love, relationship, and creativity. Now, I know a lot of Christians say that there is something wrong with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, that there is something broken about the image of God in them? I’m here to tell you that just ain’t so. Reading and really understanding scripture affirms that our LGBTQ siblings are made in the image of God just as they are, and their relationships, genders, and sexualities are blessed by God. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNXHZhBddVJAJMyyMba8Ok-MKVU5PBwSLRVmuJRjPwpJQxZr3Fl5KqLTrnQy8le6PVgGyjhqntoSh0_NdBdi8WDwwqN29AUtdBC9WRKJWcvbqC9m2v2P99F0_P1JBDZttXqXDlk-MDNfNPXf1M9lAY3mgL-r9EXcRBT8mL3t_EnlPFJoynSc3IVX0O/s1339/Halleluy'all.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1339" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNXHZhBddVJAJMyyMba8Ok-MKVU5PBwSLRVmuJRjPwpJQxZr3Fl5KqLTrnQy8le6PVgGyjhqntoSh0_NdBdi8WDwwqN29AUtdBC9WRKJWcvbqC9m2v2P99F0_P1JBDZttXqXDlk-MDNfNPXf1M9lAY3mgL-r9EXcRBT8mL3t_EnlPFJoynSc3IVX0O/s320/Halleluy'all.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">When we affirm this, we’re living in the image of God, the image of love, relationship, and creativity in which we were made. When instead we marginalize, discriminate against, and oppress our LGBTQ siblings, we fight against and harm the image of God in which we were made. Rather than marginalization, discrimination, and oppression, we were made for love, relationship, and creativity. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Other ways we affirm the image of God in which we were made? Simply having good relationships with one another. God is three persons so perfectly united in love that they are one. In all of our relationships, we have three people as well, or rather two people and God. Whom do we invite into our marriages? God. Who is a part of each of our friendships, working and moving together with us in our relationship? God. Every relationship we have, therefore, is an image of God, an image of the Trinity. When we love others, or even when we like others, we are affirming the image of God in which we were made.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Additionally, when we remember others, we affirm the image of God in which we were made. One of our parishioners, a man named Matthew, died over the weekend. He was a tall, white man, grey hair, and he was very difficult to understand when he spoke. He was also a very kind man who gave the shirt off of his back to another could be warm. He even seemed to be at peace about the fact that he had cancer. We will have a memorial service for him sometime in the next month. Matthew was made in the image of God, and he should not be forgotten. Many people are forgotten, but they too are made in the image of God, and as scripture tells us, there is still memory of them, of their deeds, of the love and relationships they had, memory of the hurt, and memory of the healing. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Healing is a part of the image of God in which we were made. We all need healing, and that is a part of our creativity and love. In the beginning, we’re told the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Sometimes darkness ends up ruling us. We cease caring much about others. We are full of anger, full of hurt, and we do terrible things to others. Anyone who would rape another person has got a formless void of darkness within them. In seeking to fill that void, they harm others, tearing at the beautiful image of God in which that other person is made. "Let there be light," God says, to cast out the darkness.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Now, that light may need to come during time in prison, so that person doesn’t harm others and continue to rape others in the meantime, but that light can come. When God says pray for our enemies, God means for us to pray for those who harm others. God means for us to pray for healing for those who harm others, because everyone who harms another person has some amount of a formless void of darkness within them. If we’re honest, each one of us has some amount of a formless void of darkness within us. That darkness within us isn’t a part of our nature. Our nature is love, relationship, and creativity. The formless void of darkness within us comes from the times when we’ve been hurt and harmed. God sees our darkness, recognizes our hurt and harm, and God desires healing for us. God desires healing for all who harm others. God desires healing, and so God says, “Let there be light.”</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: medium;">Let there be light to shine and cast out the darkness within us. Let there be forgiveness and love to restore the image of relationship in which we were made. Let there be a deep recognition of the beauty of others, the image of God in which all were made, to cast out the oppression, marginalization, and discrimination we have against others. Let there be light to cast out our darkness and affirm the image of God within all of us, the image of love, relationship, and creativity. </span></p><p></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-76477051762995036242023-05-29T05:33:00.002-07:002023-05-29T05:33:07.868-07:00The Status Is Not Quo<div style="text-align: left;"> <b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">May 28, 2023</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Pentecost, Year A</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Acts 2:1-21</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">John 20:19-23</span></b></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">The Status Is Not Quo</span></i></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">In the spoof super-villain/super-hero show called, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the villain, Dr. Horrible, is an awkward, fairly likeable guy, who sees lots of problems with the world and wants to fix them. At one point, he has a kind of successful, somewhat botched heist in which he stole gold bars from a bank. Being a super-villain, he stole the gold bars with a teleportation device, and it worked, except that it turned the gold into this grey, sludgy goo. Rather defensive, he says that what he does is not just about making money, it’s about taking money. Kinda Robin Hoodie, I guess. He says it’s about “destroying the status quo because the status is not quo. The world is a mess,” he says, “and [he] just needs to rule it.” So, he seems to kinda want to fix things, but of course being a villain, his methods aren’t exactly great. He’s trying to join the Evil League of Evil, he fights (and loses) against his nemesis, Captain Hammer, and he creates various teleportation devices, freeze rays, and death rays.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyc8MXplm9l4DIC5axAtJzr_A_PF83dz8bFDz8MCMFyOz7VFGqNuFqDExrVFRPkhxHV0oPZMomFJ0OiT19U9UZ_tMe6I6Bdlszl_OYGZgjv9mj0euFuqCEaj-nbsJpCMzDu4mRHRaO9-oarLCuz11Qp_Y2BatSbqGvWn3nk9ojfGsECw0FfVf-4Z-q2A" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyc8MXplm9l4DIC5axAtJzr_A_PF83dz8bFDz8MCMFyOz7VFGqNuFqDExrVFRPkhxHV0oPZMomFJ0OiT19U9UZ_tMe6I6Bdlszl_OYGZgjv9mj0euFuqCEaj-nbsJpCMzDu4mRHRaO9-oarLCuz11Qp_Y2BatSbqGvWn3nk9ojfGsECw0FfVf-4Z-q2A=w280-h320" width="280" /></a></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">That line that he says about “destroying the status quo because the status is not quo,” however, is what really gets me…laughing and thinking about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">The world is a mess, and the Holy Spirit comes, not to rule it like Dr. Horrible, rather the Holy Spirit comes to help humanity heal it. Recognizing that the status is not quo, the Holy Spirit comes not to destroy, but to heal the status quo.</span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">We heard in John’s Gospel that Jesus breathed on the apostles, and they received the Holy Spirit to continue the work Jesus had done. They received the Holy Spirit to continue Jesus’ mission in the world because the world was a mess and in need of healing. Unlike Dr. Horrible, however, they weren’t going to rule the world. They weren’t going to force the changes they desired upon the world. That wasn’t Jesus’ way. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Remember when a woman was caught in the act of adultery, and a crowd was going to stone her to death? Jesus wasn’t having it. Now, the people were following the law that they knew; adulterers were to be stoned to death. Nevermind that they conveniently forgot about the guy who was a part of the adultery. “Who cares about him; let’s just kill the woman,” seems to be their mentality. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">So, they decide to stone the woman to death, and in modern times, we don’t use rocks to kill people; rocks have been replaced with bullets. So they crowd of angry people are going to fix some of the mess in the world by pulling out their guns and shooting this woman, and before they do, Jesus says, “Wait a sec, y’all. If you want to shoot this woman, that’s fine, but how about you only do it if you’ve never sinned. If you’re perfect, if you’ve got no reason why someone might come shoot you at some point, then go right ahead, fire away.” Jesus wanted to change the status quo because the status was not quo.</span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Of course, all the people put their guns away and left. The crowd wanted to force the change they wanted to see in the world, and Jesus pointed out that by their way of forcing change, they would just as easily be the ones being shot next for something they’d done wrong. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Jesus brought about change in the world through healing, through grace, forgiveness, and love. The woman and the crowd then got to offer change in the world through that same grace, forgiveness, and love. The world was a mess, and Jesus sought to heal it.</span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">This story, of course, happens in the context and backdrop of Ancient Rome which occupied and ruled Israel at the time. Rome thought the world was a mess too, and they, like Dr. Horrible, didn’t want to heal it; they just wanted to rule it. So Rome ruled much of the world, they did destroy the status quo wherever they went. If they liked what you did and how you did it, then you could rather peaceable be part of Rome. Most of the time they didn’t like what you did or how you did it, though. They felt that you were a mess so they decided to rule you with an iron fist, and if you didn’t fall in line, if you were too different, too weird, didn’t fit into what and how they wanted people to be well, they’d just kill you to force and coerce obedience. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">That’s not the way of Jesus. Forcing change through coercion, fear, pulling out guns and killing the ones we don’t like…that’s the way of Rome. Jesus’ does see that the world is a mess and that the status is not quo, and Jesus’ way is to heal the world, to heal the status quo through grace, forgiveness, and love.</span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">So, on this day of Pentecost, we’re remembering the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring others into Jesus’ way of healing the world. Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church, and it kind of is, although Jesus’ church had been gathered for some time as Jesus was there with them. This was kind of the beginning of the church after Jesus had ascended. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and a whole crowd gathered around heard them talking in their own native languages. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Disparate people united by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of living Jesus’ mission in the world. As Bishop Doyle points out, the story is not really about the birthday of the church, but “of sending, of going, of being empowered with gifts for the journey and being unmoored from our appointed seats at the table to a world hoping for light in the midst of a shadow. Pentecost is NOT about the birth of a church; it is about the ever-expanding reign of God and the Good News of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus outside our church boxes and upper rooms and actively spreading into the world around us.”</span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit recognizing that the world is and the status is not quo, and then inviting us into God’s mission of healing the world. Of course, the Holy Spirit also sees that the status is not quo within each of us, and so the Holy Spirit offers to heal and change us, rather than have us force our change on the world. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">The people gathered around the Apostles didn’t force them to speak in other languages. The Holy Spirit made that change, and the people heard what the apostles said in their own language. Rather than force change, the Holy Spirit made the change within the people. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">I saw a kind of bumper sticker saying the other day, saying that sometimes God doesn’t change your situation because God is instead changing you. My first thought was, “Oh, cute.” Then I saw a friend’s comment on that, saying that God is not a vending machine, but a coach. Yup, that rings true. Rather than helping us force our change on the world, God sees that the status is not quo within us, and God offers the Holy Spirit to heal us so that we can help heal the world. </span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: verdana;">The world is indeed a mess, and as much as we may want to rule it, doing so just leads to the way of Rome and angry mobs, the way of guns, and force, and coercion. The Holy Spirit, instead, guides us with grace, forgiveness, and love. The Holy Spirit sees that the world is a mess, sees that the status is not quo, and then the Holy Spirit heals the status quo within us and invites us to join in healing the status quo in the world.</span></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-26043033610977636062023-05-22T09:58:00.003-07:002023-05-22T09:58:27.601-07:00Rejoicing as Calm, Peace, and Striving for Justice<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">May 21, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">7 Easter, Year
A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Acts 1:6-14<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">John 17:1-11</span></b></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><o:p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Rejoicing as Calm, Peace,
and Striving for Justice</span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the
movie, “Flight,” Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot who made a miraculous
landing in a crippled airplane that should have crashed, and he was able to
save all but three people on board, and those three died because they took off
their seat belts. The only problem was, he was drunk and high on coke while he
was flying.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Throughout
the movie, he’s heralded as a hero, which he certainly was, and there was an
investigation into the flight, as there certainly should have been. So, as he’s
hiding the fact that he was drunk and high during the flight, he spirals
further and further into alcoholism. He fights the truth because in his mind,
it doesn’t matter if he was drunk. He’d landed the plane. No one else could
have done what he did. He was a hero, and he should have been lauded as a hero.
At the same time, he is thoroughly miserable and pretty much seems to hate
himself, his life, and most everyone in his life.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The
investigation turns up missing vodka from the plane, which he had drunk, and
his team of lawyers decide to say that one of the flight attendants who had
died, had drunk the vodka. All Denzel has to do is lie, agree to that story,
and he’ll be off scot-free, and exalted by everyone as a hero.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">As he’s
about to give this lie, he finally realizes that he can’t do it. He can’t lie
about this flight attendant who had herself saved another passenger, buckling a
kid into his seat, which is why she was out of her seat and died. He admits to
being drunk and high while flying and ends up in prison over the whole thing. No
more flying. No more career. No more being a hero in people’s eyes.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Rather
than being miserable, however, he ends up sober, happy, glad that he finally
admitted what had been going on. He says that for the first time in his life, even
though he’s in prison, he’s finally free.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Humble
yourselves,” Peter wrote. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of
God, so that in due time he may exalt you.” Until the end of the movie, Denzel
Washington’s character, was seen as a hero, lauded up high by everyone, but inside,
he was down in the dirt low. He was miserable. He was angry. He was scared, and
he resented and drove off everyone around him.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Then, he
humbled himself by admitting the truth, and finally, he was exalted. He was in
prison, but he was exalted, because he was finally joyous and free. He was also
no longer alone. We see, while he’s in prison, pictures and letters from people
who care about him, people whom he had driven, but who have now been able to
reestablish their relationship with him. Even though he’s in prison, he’s
finally exalted.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that in due time he may
exalt you.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Ok, so
let’s look at what this passage obviously doesn’t mean. If you talk like crap
about yourself, and if think like crap about yourself, then God will reward you
by making you ruler of everything. That’s obviously not what this passage means.
Being humble does not mean thinking badly of yourself, and being exalted by God
does not mean becoming the best, most important person ever.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">True
humility means seeing ourselves as we truly are and accepting ourselves as we
truly are. If we’re great at stuff, we can admit that. We don’t have to be
jerks about it, but can admit that we’re good at things. Where we’re not good at
things and probably never will be, we get to admit that too. We look deep
within ourselves and admit our faults. We get to admit our triumphs. We get
admit where we’ve hurt and harmed others. We get to look at ourselves with deep
honesty. That’s humility.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Now another
thing Peter writes about in his letter is not just when we hurt others, but
when we are unjustly hurt by others. What does humility have to say about that?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Humbling
ourselves when we are unjustly hurt by others can mean not accepting their hurt
and denigration of us. Humbling ourselves, again, means accepting ourselves as
we truly are, not as the person who hurt us sees us. Then, humility can be
letting go of the resentment we have toward that person. “Cast all your
anxieties upon [God], for he cares about you,” Peter writes. Letting go of anger
and fear is an act of humility. Doing so gives God something to work with to
help heal us. I’m angry, I’m fearful because this person is hurting me, Lord,
and I can’t handle it all on my own. I need your help. As we seek humility,
even when we’ve been harmed, we open ourselves up to God’s healing.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">What
about, however, when we’ve hurt others? Well, humility in that case is
admitting the fact that we have hurt them, and then also looking at why we hurt
them. Perhaps because they hurt us first, and they absolutely deserved whatever
we did? Perhaps we hurt someone because we were scared or anxious? Again, when
we look humbly into the depths of ourselves, at the truth within us, we give
God something to work with to be able to exalt us.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">So then,
what does being exalted look like? I first talked about Denzel Washington’s movie
character being exalted by being in prison but also, finally being joyous and
free. I said that being exalted does not mean becoming the best, most important
person ever. In this life, being exalted is not about being raised up above
others. Being exalted is about being raised up out of our own misery and fear.
Being exalted means being able to love who we are, warts and all. Being exalted
means trusting that God cares about us, casting our anxieties upon God rather
than lashing out at others because of our anxieties and self-soothing through
destructive means.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Calm.
Peace. Acceptance. That’s what being exalted by God looks like. Freedom from
the bondage of hatred and resentment toward those who harm us unjustly. That’s
what being exalted by God looks like. Even when our enemies are society at
large or our governments, even when they are the ones who harm us unjustly, Peter
writes for us to rejoice. That sounds odd.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Rejoice
insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad
and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” Rejoicing doesn’t mean pretending
to be happy and acting like nothing is wrong. Rejoicing can look like can look
like calm, peace, acceptance, and letting go of hatred and resentment.
Rejoicing can look like casting our anxieties upon God. Rejoicing can look like
trusting that while in this life, all will not go as we want or deserve, there
is a new life after death in which God will grant us the love, the delight, and
the exaltation we deserve.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUUb-BLa9CARAjO14mfs63VqQf6Eknz3hDQCzwLqyG5GLIjjB2u3gbyZF4P4UJpayYMmgnuhoGgdMBY3dULxCOCIBiJA2b60pVje2nuIePPGb8W999PZqV8dXMxLQeKfCPZp0tsYNx_FxBw4rwW7GUVonvWZo0jnNt69HPtlAjnKDygTN2CTeoE6xZ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1024" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUUb-BLa9CARAjO14mfs63VqQf6Eknz3hDQCzwLqyG5GLIjjB2u3gbyZF4P4UJpayYMmgnuhoGgdMBY3dULxCOCIBiJA2b60pVje2nuIePPGb8W999PZqV8dXMxLQeKfCPZp0tsYNx_FxBw4rwW7GUVonvWZo0jnNt69HPtlAjnKDygTN2CTeoE6xZ" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">With
rejoicing as calm, peace, acceptance, and freedom from hatred and resentment, we
get to rejoice and still admit sorrow. Admitting the fact that we are still
hurting and afraid is part of humility and being exalted. Rejoicing,
exaltation, and humility don’t mean that we’re going to be a doormat. When
being unjustly oppressed by others, rejoicing doesn’t mean that we say, “No, it’s
fine. You can keep on oppressing me. I’m good.” That’s not rejoicing. Rejoicing
means striving for justice. Rejoicing means joining with others to stand up to
oppressors, but doing so with love rather than hatred.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Rejoicing
doesn’t mean denying the hurt or pretending all is well when all is not well. Doing
so is the opposite of humility: pretending, lying to ourselves and everyone
else around us.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">That’s
what Denzel Washington’s character was doing in the movie, <i>Flight.</i> Humility
is honesty with ourselves, honesty with others, and honesty with God.
Exaltation is freedom from the bondage of hatred and fear, freedom from
self-loathing, freedom from anxiety and misery.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Rejoicing,
even amidst suffering, is calm, peace, acceptance, and freedom from hatred and
resentment. Rejoicing is sometimes still mingled with sorrow, but rejoicing is
trusting in God. Even though all will not be right in this life, all will not
be as it should be in this life, we rejoice as all will be well. Whether in
this life or the next, we rejoice as all will be well. We rejoice with the exaltation
of calm, peace, acceptance, and freedom from hatred and resentment that is
brought by humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God and casting our
anxieties upon him, for he cares about us. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-46804989581750812192023-05-14T17:07:00.002-07:002023-05-14T17:07:38.167-07:00“In returning and rest we shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be our strength.”<p> <b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b></p><div><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br />May 14, 2023<br />6 Easter, Year A<br />Acts 17:22-31<br />1 Peter 3:13-22<br />John 14:15-21<br />Psalm 66:7-18</span></b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“In returning and rest we shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be our strength.”</span></i></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Has anyone else ever found themselves worshipping an idol, or is it just me? Interesting Sunday when the priest tells you he’s been worshipping idols, but I figure I should be honest about that when the sermon topic includes idol worship. Now, in our reading from Acts, Paul was talking about what we often think of as idols, little statues of gold or wood, and no, I’ve not bowed down and prayed to a little statue made of gold or wood. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It was bronze…kidding. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">When Paul saw all of the things the Athenians had for their various religions, he saw idols, little statues, and he saw an altar to “an unknown God.” Paul let them know that God was not actually unknown, and pointed out that God is not anything like a little statue. God is not something that we make. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">God is, in fact, beyond all of creation. As vast as the universe is, all of the universe is contained within God. Anything that we could make or do is contained within God, for as Paul said, “In God we live and move and have our being.” Rather, than something we make, God made us and all of creation so that we would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Union with God is the deepest desire of our souls, and God is always united to us. The trick of the devil is not to separate us from God; that’s impossible. The trick of the devil is to have us think that we’re separated from God and then to think that something else will fill that void. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the Garden of Eden in the second story of creation, we find desire for knowledge as the first idol. Remember, God told the humans not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the serpent told them that they actually should eat it, told them that God had lied to them. The serpent tricked them into thinking that their union with God was broken and gone. Then the serpent let them think that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would somehow replace their union with God, would satisfy their longing for union with God. Their union with God wasn’t actually broken, but the serpent convinced them it was and then lied to them about how they could fix their longing. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Classic marketing strategy on the serpent’s part. Here’s a problem you didn’t know you had; now you can fix it by purchasing this.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Our souls want union with God. We actually have union with God, but our hurts and fears, our anxieties and traumas often keep us from realizing the unity we have. We feel a deep longing for peace. We feel great disquiet within ourselves, and we long comfort, for soothing, for some way to know that we are ok or to stop caring that we are not. In our hurts and fears, our anxieties and traumas, we seek all sorts of things which we think will fix us or fill us. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Some seek money and power, never having enough, even when they’ve got more than they could need in multiple lifetimes. Others simply have enough, and yet they still fret constantly, worried about the future and if there will be enough. In either case, money can become an idol when it becomes our focus in soothing all our fears and anxieties. That’s one of the kinds of idols I was talking about earlier. If only I had enough not to worry about money, well then, I’d be ok. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">We have countless idols, not statues of gold and wood, things that we think will help soothe our souls. Being right and making sure we can prove others wrong can be an idol. Hanging on to anger and resentment can be an idol. Finding fault in others to make ourselves feel better can be an idol. The what ifs of the past or the if onlys of the future can be idols. Numbing and escaping reality can be an idol. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">So, now when I ask, “has anyone else ever found themselves worshipping an idol,” maybe you get my meaning a bit more? The kinds of idols I’m talking about: money, more, being right, resentment, anger, escape, what if, if only, numbing out…these kinds of things are idols I’m guessing all of us find ourselves turning to. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">My point is not, “Oh, we’re terrible idolaters, how awful of us.” My point is that we are hurting, and we tend to seek help in ways that don’t actually help us all that much. We unwittingly believe the serpent’s lie that our union with God is broken and any number of these other things will fix it. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The truth is, “In God we live and move and have our being.” God is with us, among us, around us, in us, and through us all the time. So, when we set our minds on other things to fix us, we ignore the life all around us. When we turn to the idols of money and more; the idols of being right, resentment, anger; the idols of escape, what if, if only, and numbing out, when we turn to those idols, we block out God in whom we live and move and have our being. When we turn to these idols, we block out the peace we can have by turning to God in whom we live and move and have our being. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">I was talking with a gentleman a while back, seeking some peace, and we talked about prayer and meditation as ways to be with God, rather than disassociate from our fears and anxieties. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">We talked about having a rhythm of prayer. Rhythm has been found to help heal trauma. Our bodies are wired for rhythm. Our breath, our heartbeats, the steps we take, all in rhythm. There are the rhythms of the sun and the moon, night and day, the rhythms of the seasons. We’ve separated ourselves from a lot of these natural rhythms in modern society, and I believe that adds to our stress. So, adding in some rhythm of prayer can help heal our bodies, spending time with God in whom we live and move and have our being. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the Episcopal Church, we have a rhythm of prayer. Eucharist every Sunday. We also have daily prayer: morning, noon, evening, and night. Following this rhythm of prayer helps bring rhythm back into our lives and helps bring us into constant awareness of God’s presence with, and around, and within us. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Another way to spend time in awareness of God meditation, specifically a meditation prayer called Centering Prayer. In Centering Prayer, you spend time in silence, focusing on your breathing, simply being in the present moment, aware of God’s presence around and within you. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The way it works is you sit in silence for a few minutes, or up to twenty minutes, and you simply breathe. Before you begin, you choose a “sacred word,” generally something related to faith: God, Jesus, Love. Mine is Peace. The sacred word is used to draw us back to the center and back to the breath. As we sit in silence, thoughts will come, as thoughts tend to do, and when thoughts come, we say our sacred word in our minds to let go of the thoughts and draw us back to the present, to the breath. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Centering Prayer is a way of letting go of our thoughts, simply experiencing the quiet (or the noise) of the present. Simply experiencing the quiet of breathing, of life around us. Simply experiencing God in whom we live and move and have our being.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2j34Ns2G2GVE8fHX9F_5uwil8jUPtEsZYN_NtqrpFCpy6MjMYQ-1RKPQw7FJjBXz4NZpFVsbe8wVX1zGJnR-oOeFHNWvETFU8O1a_2LqC1-kc_WxQslulOxUdXD443EfU9i4_mSwBqB8b6rRWohpNJ9XccCf_llbuPj75LjVY71rqWmlar1aporeu_Q/s320/rawImage.jpeg" width="320" /></div><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The result is peace. </span><p></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Dwelling not in the past or the future, but simply dwelling in the present, focusing on the breath, breathing God in and out, we find peace. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Rather than disassociate because of hurt and trauma, rather than use various idols, we can seek rhythm of prayer and meditation. We can seek to know and live unity with God, for it is God in whom we live and move and have our being. Union with God is the deepest desire of our souls, and despite the devil’s lie, we are still united with God. We always have been. When we let go our idols, when we turn to rhythm of prayer and meditation, we help our bodies realize the union with God that is always there. The union with God that is always with us. The union of God that brings us peace.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-23205108520963689472023-05-08T07:13:00.001-07:002023-05-08T07:13:07.855-07:00Because Sometimes, We Kinda Suck…<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">May 7, 2023</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">5 Easter, Year A</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Acts 7:55-60</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">1 Peter 2:2-10</span></b><br /><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">John 14:1-14</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Because Sometimes, We Kinda Suck…</span></i></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.” As he was actively being killed by an angry mob with rocks, Stephen prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">We see the absolute worst and the absolute best of humanity right there. We see a man who was so full of love and hope, that he did not fight against the mob or kill in order to save his life. He was at peace during his murder, praying forgiveness on his murderers. We also see a violent and angry mob worked up into a lathered frenzy so crazed that they gleefully murdered a young man because he believed something different than they did. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">In this moment of our history, we see humanity’s enormous capacity for good, for selflessness, and for love. At the same time, we see our brutality and mindless rage, and end up having to reckon with the fact that humanity is so hurting and broken that when God became human, it only took us 30 years to kill him. God, who is love, became human, and we killed him in 30 years.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">So, we humans are pretty fantastic, and we also kinda suck.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Still, we have the fact of God becoming human. Knowing that we would kill him, God still thought it was a pretty good idea to join with us in our humanity. God thought it was a good idea to become one of us, to join with us in every aspect of our humanity, including our death, and God thought it was a good idea to join with the absolute worst of humanity by allowing us to perpetrate the very worst of ourselves against him. God joined with our lives, our deaths, our goodness, and our hurts and atrocities. Despite the fact that we often suck, God still thinks that we’re also pretty fantastic. God thinks we’re worth saving. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">So, Jesus told his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said, because he was going to prepare a place for us to bring us home. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Our home is unity with God and unity with one another. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Where’s that? Thomas wanted to know. Where is this home with God and one another? Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Follow in my ways, Jesus was saying. Follow in the ways of forgiveness and love, and you will find your home with God and one another. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Follow in my teachings, Jesus was saying. Follow in the truths I have taught you, and you will find your home with God and one another. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Follow in my life, Jesus was saying. Follow me and trust in the life I give, the resurrection life I have given, joining humanity and divinity. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">God thought we were fantastic enough that God became one with us, and Jesus is telling us to trust in that unity with God and then follow and live, recognizing God in every person around us. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">What about if we don’t believe that, however? What if we don’t believe that God is in every person around us? Well, what we believe seems to be less important than how we treat one another. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus said that whatever we do to one another we do to him. The people in the story Jesus told didn’t believe that they were one with God. They weren’t following Jesus or seem to believe in Jesus. Those who treated others with compassion, respect, healing, and love were told basically, “Welcome home.” </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Treating others with compassion and respect is the way home Jesus talked about. Treating others with healing and forgiveness is the way home Jesus talked about.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Treating others with mercy and love is the way home Jesus talked about.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Come home, Jesus says, to unity with God. Come home to unity with love. Come home to the life we saw Stephen live in our reading from Acts, who even in the face of death, did not kill, or shout, or condemn, but offered forgiveness and love to those who were killing him. Stephen was home already, and after he died, he continued living at home with God.</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">That is the life Jesus offers us, the peace and healing that Stephen had. </span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Just in the last two weeks, we’ve heard of how many murders? Dozens? Some within blocks of here, some near, some far away. How many countless others have there been that we don’t even know about? When I said earlier that humanity often sucks, we know that already. We know that all too well. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAvDVlSrFtW5w-fO4SDUJHarTtoxT-Mx38rsYDY1zVjuPt5x7bn8dsIPmmS7sxIgB_Mw30J7HGMNAhZEWhZPZ_-iiJnyUhobOmu-Qn5q6JCpjoyIoJe2Yxltu5zI4mhTs6GWgcidQlYjhuCf5_BiYqDbXC-iW5kc_sluSAhrt949yH2dCQP9LJfzybkQ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2024" data-original-width="3600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAvDVlSrFtW5w-fO4SDUJHarTtoxT-Mx38rsYDY1zVjuPt5x7bn8dsIPmmS7sxIgB_Mw30J7HGMNAhZEWhZPZ_-iiJnyUhobOmu-Qn5q6JCpjoyIoJe2Yxltu5zI4mhTs6GWgcidQlYjhuCf5_BiYqDbXC-iW5kc_sluSAhrt949yH2dCQP9LJfzybkQ" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">God knows that too, and that’s exactly why God became human, because God sees us. God sees the goodness of humanity along with our brokenness, and God knows we need healing. God knows we need healing of our hurt and our fear. God knows we need healing of our anger and despair. God knows we need healing from our rage and brutality. So, God joined with all of that, so that even at our worst, Jesus is there with us saying, “Come home.”</span></p><p><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Come home to peace. Lay aside your anger. Lay aside your need to vengeance. Bring me your hurts, Jesus says, and follow me home to healing. Bring me your anger, Jesus says, and follow me home to forgiveness. Bring me your despair, Jesus says, and follow me home to peace. Bring me your fear, Jesus says, and follow me home to love. </span></p><div><br /></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-83424629840488995132023-04-30T07:44:00.008-07:002023-04-30T07:51:03.169-07:00Is It Living or Just Existence?<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">April 30, 2023<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-themecolor: text1;">4 Easter, Year A<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Acts 2:42-47<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">John 10:1-10<br /></span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></i></span></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is it living, or just existence?</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;">Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The thieves Jesus was talking about were all kinds of folks who would rule over others, promising all sorts of goodies, maybe easy street, maybe victory over enemies, maybe power, or maybe just solace and a temporary reprieve from having to feel the difficulties of life. A lot of those things sound pretty good. Not feeling the difficulties of life for a while, victory over enemies, easy street, power…those all sound pretty good, and yet Jesus said the folks peddling those things are thieves coming steal, kill, and destroy.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Power for one tends to mean domination over for another. Easy street for one tends to mean subjugation and oppression for another. Victory for one tends to mean death, defeat, and despair for another. Not feeling the difficulties of life tends to mean not dealing with the difficulties of life and sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of resentment, desperation, and fear.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Following in those ways, then, leaves us in a life of fear, doesn’t it? Desire for easy street, victory, and power: fearful that we won’t get it and someone else will. Desire not to feel, fear of life and actually having to face life. Following in those ways of the thief, we end up not truly living, but just existing. We want what we don’t have or can’t have. We’re afraid of losing what we do have. We numb so as not to have to experience life as it is. The ways of the thief leave us just existing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the midst of our fear and our sometimes just existing rather than truly living, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the earliest church, which we hear about in Acts 2, we’re told that “those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” We’re further told that they spent time together, shared meals together, had glad and generous hearts, praised God, and had the goodwill of all the people. That sounds like the total opposite of fearfully existing. Spending time together, sharing meals with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having the goodwill of all the people sounds like truly living, like the abundant life Jesus came to give.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, how do we live this abundant life? I could simply say, “just trust in Jesus,” but we know from scripture and from our lives that faith without action doesn’t do a whole lot. In the book of James, such faith without action is even called “dead.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, what action makes our faith alive such that we have the abundant life Jesus came to give. Well, again in Acts 2, we’re told, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That sounds pretty good. Being together with others, learning about and following the ways of Jesus, sharing meals and praying together. That sounds like continually turning our hearts toward God and one another. That sounds like building a community of trust and love.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was a man who did just that in a story Jesus told. He was a powerful man, living on easy street, managing a rich man’s money, but he was dishonest, and maybe was taking some on the side. When he was found out and was about to be fired, he went to everyone who owed the rich man money and reduced the size of their bills. The point of the story was that when this man lost his power and easy street life, he learned to rely on the people around him, and they knew they could rely on him as well. With money and power gone, he quickly built up a community around him, because that community of people, living in trust and love with one another is the abundant life Jesus came to give.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Like the man in the story Jesus told, the people in the early church, were a community that relied on each other. They lived in abundant life, not on easy street, not with power, victory, or numbing. They lived an abundant life in community with one another.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That community, that abundant life takes trust. Abundant life takes letting people in. Abundant life takes looking out for and depending on one another. The abundant life Jesus described takes faith and prayer together with those on whom we depend. The abundant life Jesus describes takes learning and living Jesus’ ways.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxpj5BB8RFLVYX_NCB1AhrvoKVH7pctLGU0RoCcGx9B3skPwHCPjiTPHtmVLG-GK48KN2j58kKrcYFAm7AxebVlSnjoudUBjRo6DJ1cgua5Yy46yTI2mYkVLdc6mFPB_x5Zei8TKfMdM8BDwkJlkrwELI3JKml11P7lDLioOC52ALJfhhigKG0SyEj_A" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxpj5BB8RFLVYX_NCB1AhrvoKVH7pctLGU0RoCcGx9B3skPwHCPjiTPHtmVLG-GK48KN2j58kKrcYFAm7AxebVlSnjoudUBjRo6DJ1cgua5Yy46yTI2mYkVLdc6mFPB_x5Zei8TKfMdM8BDwkJlkrwELI3JKml11P7lDLioOC52ALJfhhigKG0SyEj_A" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of those ways of Jesus is to cease fighting. We cease fighting, and rather than living against others, we live for others. In Jesus’ abundant life, we’re not just going it alone from one thing to the next, but we’re taking action together. We’re not just reacting to one another, but we’re reaching out in support and love.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In Jesus’ abundant life, we’re seeking a revolution, not with power and victory over and against others, but a revolution of life lived together, for one another. A life where we have ceased fighting and spend our time instead in prayer and fellowship, sharing meals together, learning and following the ways of Jesus, learning to love and trust one another.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s abundant life. The power and victory over others, easy street and numbing our pain, that’s not abundant life. That’s the fearful solitary life of the thief who came only to steal and kill and destroy. The abundant life of Jesus is love, trust, community, prayer, fellowship, learning and following the ways of Jesus. The abundant life of Jesus is a revolution, living for one another, taking action together, reaching out in support and love, not just existing, but truly living.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-54138061797016625062023-02-04T16:46:00.001-08:002023-02-04T16:46:31.458-08:00"For the Hurt, the Blessed, and the Damned" has Arrived!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r5GH1FFEAnc" width="320" youtube-src-id="r5GH1FFEAnc"></iframe><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); color: #0f0f0f; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">My book is here! I wrote “For the Hurt, the Blessed, and the Damned” to be a source of healing, and I hope it will be for you. You can order it on BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon.com.</span></div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05); color: #0f0f0f; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;">“For the Hurt, the Blessed, and the Damned” offers healing, connection, belonging, and love through a loving God who becomes human, joining with humanity in our brokenness, to reconcile us to God and each other.</span></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;">Far from the “believe in Jesus or go to Hell” of much modern Christianity, we find through scripture, our daily lives, and Jesus’ life of healing, that Christianity is a religion of healing, connection, belonging, and love. Knowing that we need healing, God joins in every aspect of our humanity, even the various hells in which we find ourselves. Whether hurting, blessed, or damned, Jesus joins in all aspects of our lives so that anywhere we are, God is there for healing, connection, belonging, and love.</div></span></span>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-50644075725413463882023-02-04T10:10:00.001-08:002023-02-04T10:10:08.160-08:00Repairers of the Breach<div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b><b>Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church<br /></b><b>February 5, 2023<br /></b><b>5th Sunday After Epiphany<br /></b><b>Isaiah 58:1-12<br /></b><b>Matthew 5:13-20</b></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Repairers of the Breach</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">You will be called repairers of the breach. That’s what Isaiah told Israel, if they would follow in the ways of justice and mercy, then they would be called repairers of the breach. Now, when I hear repairer of the breach, my mind goes to sci-fi and fantasy where the castle wall is breached or the hull of the ship is breached, and the enemy comes pouring in. They gotta work at getting rid of the enemy then, and they also gotta repair the breach so more of the enemy don’t keep coming in.</p><p>For Israel, that the enemy coming in was largely their own behavior. “You oppress your workers,” Isaiah said, “you fight and strike with a wicked fist.” Israel was bringing all of this hurt, anger, fear, and shame onto itself because of how the people were treating one another. What was the remedy, Isaiah said? “Loose the bonds of injustice, let the oppressed go free, share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked, cover them, and do not hide yourself from your own kin.”</p><p>Kindness, mercy, compassion, love. That is how Israel was to be repairers of the breach, and kindness, mercy, compassion, and love is how we get to be repairers of the breach.</p><p>When Jesus talked to his disciples in Matthew 5, he commanded them to let their light shine. He commands us to let our light shine, and the light is the light of God dwelling within each of us. The light Jesus talked about is a part of us. Kindness, mercy, compassion, love; these are the light of God within us. Notice that Jesus didn’t say “create the light” or “kindle the light”. He said, “let it shine.” The light is already there. God’s light dwelling within each of us, part of us. Let the light of kindness, mercy, compassion, and love shine. Let the goodness and beauty of your innermost-self shine.</p><p>Jesus told us this because with our light shining, we get to be repairers of the breach. </p><p>There are quite a few breaches in our lives, aren’t there? There are big breaches (nations, unjust systems, etc.) and there is only so much any one of us can do about those. When we have influence, we get to use it to help repair those breaches. </p><p>Many of us don’t have that kind of influence, however, so tend to get angry and resentful at those injustices and breaches. In our anger, we want to strike with a wicked fist. Our anger and resentment end up covering the light within us, and we can no longer repair the breach, because in our anger, we’ve become part of the breach. </p><p>“If the salt has lost its saltiness,” Jesus said, “then it’s no longer good for anything.” Ok, so chemically, salt really can’t really lose its saltiness, but salt can be mixed with other things. Other junk and crud that ruins the salt and makes it no longer any good. That’s what happens to us when our anger and resentment block out the light. Our salt loses its saltiness. </p><p>Now, why do anger and resentment ruin our salt, block the light? Why do anger and resentment block the beauty and goodness of who we are? Because we get hurt and afraid. Jesus knows this. He’s been human with us; he knows our hurt and our fear, and in our Gospel reading today, Jesus is saying, “be healed of your hurt and fear. Let go of anger and resentment over the injustices and breaches in the world which you can’t repair. Be healed; trust the goodness and beauty of who you are, and then work to repair the breaches which you can repair. </p><p>With our saltiness restored and our light shining forth, we get to be repairers of the breach. Letting go of our anger and resentment, letting Jesus heal our hurt and fear, we get to live the kindness, mercy, compassion, and love that is our truest self. We get to heal others as we are healed with that same kindness, mercy, compassion, and love. Then that healing gets to spread.</p><p>We know that our society and our community has lost its saltiness. The light of goodness is blocked out by hurt, fear, anger, and resentment. As repairers of the breach, sharing the light of kindness, mercy, compassion, and love, we find that light spreads. Sharing the light of kindness, mercy, compassion, and love, we find the saltiness of our society restored. Bit by bit, person by person, heart by heart, we are healed, we share that healing, and the breaches in our walls are repaired. The hurts of our society are soothed. We find the world a safer and more loving place in which to live. </p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-51940310889325765202022-09-06T09:14:00.003-07:002022-09-06T09:14:35.798-07:00Ok, Maybe I’ll Hire An Electrician This Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Emmanuel Episcopal Church</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">September 2, 2022</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Deuteronomy 30:15-20</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Philemon 1-21</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Luke 14:25-33</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ok, Maybe I’ll Hire An Electrician This Time</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Some of y’all know I write songs, and several years ago, thinking of how my kids would sometimes be rather challenging, I wrote a song called “Don’t Breed,” as in don’t have kids. It’s tongue in cheek, though considering Jesus’ teaching today on hate your family if you want to be my disciple, maybe I secretly wrote “Don’t Breed” to please Jesus. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions,” after having decided to hate your whole family, Jesus taught. So, we’re supposed to give up everything we own, live with nothing on the street, having first told our entire families that we hate them and want nothing to do with them. Not exactly the feel-good film of the fall. What if we doctor this up a bit with, maybe you don’t have to give up everything, because after all, your stuff shows how blessed you are by God, but make sure you hate…well maybe not your family, but all the right people whom you’re supposed to hate. If you’re not sure who those are, your pastor will tell you whom to hate. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That doesn’t seem quite right either, does it? In order to be Jesus’ disciples, we’re supposed to bring hurt and discord into the world, dishonoring our families, hating others, and then possibly leaving ourselves with nothing and no one? That’s obviously not what Jesus meant.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">We are to give up anything that binds us and weighs us down, preventing us from following in the ways of Jesus, ways which, by the way, were given for our benefit. That’s what Jesus meant. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jesus talked about the cost of being his disciple, like the cost of building a building. Make sure you have enough to finish, Jesus said. You decide to build a building, and you start running short of cash, so even though you don’t know a whole lot about electricity, you decide to wire the building yourself. Hey, it may work out, but being that you don’t know what you’re doing, you might just set the building on fire. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Ignoring Jesus’ ways, holding on to the things which bind us and weigh us down, is like choosing to wire that building yourself. You might just want to pay the electrician instead. There’s a cost to it, but the benefit is a building that has lights and air conditioning and doesn’t have electrical fires and burn down. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKA4gMp8AVmykS0tMqx5tf2jvmA7kH5gNvMU7_krojItCkl1m5Ajy4eN0ub8N6OTNACSjrFxiOhde7-JKkpxMoGUtmp8gb3j-pmg9ve3Vcdub1uQDtwRsyXRuFCT7_S70l0b3yOAVtA1hGUKeCKteEbBlSiALeANd_xWwRR58IvO5WLbQR5ulxh_N5/s480/Building%20on%20Fire.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="480" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKA4gMp8AVmykS0tMqx5tf2jvmA7kH5gNvMU7_krojItCkl1m5Ajy4eN0ub8N6OTNACSjrFxiOhde7-JKkpxMoGUtmp8gb3j-pmg9ve3Vcdub1uQDtwRsyXRuFCT7_S70l0b3yOAVtA1hGUKeCKteEbBlSiALeANd_xWwRR58IvO5WLbQR5ulxh_N5/s320/Building%20on%20Fire.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />That’s very similar to when “Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, ‘See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.’” Moses went on to tell Israel that if they obeyed God and walked in God’s ways, they would be blessed and have life, but if they turned away from God’s ways, they would perish. See, when God set before the people “life and death, blessings and curses,” God was not promising to reward or punish the people of Israel based on their obedience. God was telling the people of Israel truths of creation. Heaven and earth, God said, were witnesses against Israel. The blessings and curses God announced were simply the ways of Heaven and earth, the ways of creation. The blessings and curses are simply the way things are. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If you wire your building incorrectly, you might just set the building on fire. Life and death, blessings and curses, not because you disobeyed and got punished, but because that’s simply the way electricity works. God wasn’t threatening the people, “be good or else.” God was saying, “for your sake and benefit, I hope you wire your houses correctly.”
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jlXGQQb2E7c?start=1546" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I think of our economy where we want, and in this country get, a lot of inexpensive things. Companies here get to hire cheap labor over there, and we get a lot of inexpensive stuff. We also get a world where which used to have subsistence living and farming now have extreme poverty for most as farming gave way to factories and those at the top have plenty while those at the bottom no longer have enough. That causes a whole new level of suffering in the world, of poverty, strife, and discord. These curses of poverty, strife, and discord are not punishments meted out by God. They are simply the natural way the world works. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Desire for more and more inexpensive stuff is faulty wiring. Give up your possessions, Jesus said, and let me rewire your building.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jesus knows that all of our lives have some faulty wiring, and Jesus knows that sometimes the wiring is so bad, some folks just need a new home. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Imagine a family who treats certain other people terribly: maybe it’s because of racism, maybe it’s classism, maybe it’s just general irritated misanthropic grumpism. Whatever the issue, imagine a younger member of the family doesn’t feel the way his family does and wants not to treat others terribly, but he feels trapped. What if his family turns on him for choosing to treat these people well? “You’ve gotta choose, us or them. You fall in with them, you choose to associate with them, then you’re no longer one of us.” The young man chooses not to treat the others like dirt, and his family rejects him for it. That’s the cost of discipleship. He wasn’t hating his parents, but he was choosing to let them hate him if that’s what it cost to do the right thing. He was choosing to unbind and unburden himself. He didn’t give up his family. He gave up acquiescing to their hatred and terrible behavior. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That can be the cost of discipleship, but what do you get for that cost? You get a building that’s wired so that it doesn’t burn down. Rather than a life of hatred and anger, raging against all that you find objectionable in the world, you get to stop drinking the poison of your own anger, thinking that it’s going to hurt someone else. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">See, God’s ways, the ways of blessing and life, are given for our benefit, and by extension for the benefit of all around us. It can be hard to pay the cost of God’s ways. We tend to stay in our ruts where it feels safe. We’re afraid of letting go, afraid of offending, of being without, of not being enough. Can I really trust God to rewire my building. I’ve done it myself already, and sure there are electrical fires, but that’s really other people’s fault. I’m set in my ways, and I’ve got a lot of stuff which provides me with a sense of security. My wiring is doing just fine, thank you very much. Maybe I’ll take a suggestion of Jesus here or there, but I’m certainly not going to let him rewire the whole building. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Trusting in Jesus is hard. When we feel the pull or the nudge of Jesus to change our ways, to give up some way that isn’t bringing life, it’s hard to trust that we’ll be ok. When we feel the pull or nudge of Jesus to let go of some of our stuff, believing that we really are being held down by it, it’s hard to trust that we’ll be ok. When we feel the pull or nudge of Jesus to stop going along with ways which bring hurt and discord into the world, even if that risks our loved ones rejecting us or risks us having inexpensive stuff, it’s hard to trust that we’ll be ok. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When we do trust Jesus, however, we find that we have fewer electrical fires in our buildings. We find greater freedom and happiness, having been unbound from things which have weighed us down. We find peace and an honest desire to be of benefit to others. We find ourselves freed from the morass of fear and self-pity. Trusting in Jesus’ ways, we find that the blessings and curses which God promised Israel really aren’t supernatural reward or punishment, but are the natural way the world works. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Trusting in the ways of Jesus, we find ourselves walking in the flow of God’s blessings, of creation’s blessings. Like a building properly wired, there’s a cost, but there’s also a benefit: life, love, peace. Amidst a world that still doesn’t always go as we wish, Jesus calls us to let go of whatever is keeping us from following in his ways, and we let go and turn things over to Jesus over and over. Bit by bit, trusting Jesus with the wiring more and more, and finding ever more blessing as we do. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-32022518694659086132022-08-30T19:51:00.003-07:002022-08-30T19:57:28.270-07:00The Good Old Days<p>My latest song release, "The Good Old Days." I wrote it back in 2013 and was able to get it recorded in 2021. Looking back to all the days gone by...maybe these are good old days too.<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=3100918367/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 442px; width: 350px;"><a href="https://bradsullivan.bandcamp.com/track/the-good-old-days">null by Brad Sullivan</a></iframe></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-28838707377348517392022-08-23T08:38:00.004-07:002022-08-23T08:44:34.439-07:00Becoming a People Healed<div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Emmanuel Episcopal Church</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">August 21, 2022</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Isaiah 58:9b-14</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hebrews 12:18-29</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Luke 13:10-17</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Becoming a People Healed</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” That’s what the leader of the synagogue taught the crowd who was gathered there. “Don’t bother us with that crippled woman, we gotta keep God happy with us,” is basically what the leader of the synagogue was saying after Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath. When this woman came to synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus actually paid attention to her and paid enough attention to realize that she was not only crippled, but that she had been crippled for 18 years. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, he was able to heal her, but what was he to do? It was the Sabbath, after all, and no work was to be done on the Sabbath. Never mind that people made all kinds of exceptions to the “no work” rule because they had to. You weren’t going to let your animals starve or go without water, so you had to do some kind of work to feed and water them.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Healing a woman, though, well, that was a bridge too far. “To Hell with all these needy people. This is the Sabbath, damnit. We’re here to get right with God.” Jesus was hardly the first to question such an idea that God was more concerned with proper religion than with how people treat one another.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“Why do we fast…but you do not notice?” The people cried out in Isaiah 58. “Well,” God said, “because you serve your own interests with your fasts and oppress your workers.” ‘You have a fine way of seeking to please me through your religion, through your belief,’ God was saying, ‘but what will really please me is if you will recognize me in all of the people around you and then act towards them as you would towards me.’</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">As Jesus said in Matthew 25, whatever you have done to each other, you have done to me. In other words, the way we treat people is the way we treat God. All of creation is one with God. All of creation is within God. Nothing is separate from God. So, when we don’t care about another person, we don’t care about God. When we treat others poorly, we treat God poorly. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I’m thankful for these reminders, by the way. When I’m bothered by this jerk or that jerk who’s been doing this or that jerky thing, I’m actually bothered and annoyed with God in that other person, and that other person probably has their challenges they’re dealing with, maybe I could be more compassionate.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9f4Yk0sQD5HwJTj39q3weKaPnqDBnmRAliy4hUM5Hu1piuJLMW75a_3G7evCMG-_9yuOho53jD8Vnr2QrViWnD8G-FHdO2sxmf337IsuPttR_H7pH_vXdGx6XOu_32TgcZhn9-f7QNqW3QRc0sHf4DvV6Ck8oRJx8QKKvDbKXIF-WLPE8vEZt1bJ/s892/Healed%20People.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="892" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9f4Yk0sQD5HwJTj39q3weKaPnqDBnmRAliy4hUM5Hu1piuJLMW75a_3G7evCMG-_9yuOho53jD8Vnr2QrViWnD8G-FHdO2sxmf337IsuPttR_H7pH_vXdGx6XOu_32TgcZhn9-f7QNqW3QRc0sHf4DvV6Ck8oRJx8QKKvDbKXIF-WLPE8vEZt1bJ/s320/Healed%20People.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When we treat others poorly, we treat God poorly. So, when the leader of the Synagogue in Jesus’ day said that the woman shouldn’t have come to be healed on the Sabbath, he was saying that God shouldn’t have bothered them to be healed on the Sabbath.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The leader of the synagogue wanted to be right with God and wanted to lead the people to be right with God. He lost sight of God’s teaching, however, that the way they treated other people was the way they treated God. When Jesus healed this woman on the Sabbath, he was teaching the people that caring about others, seeking justice and healing for others, striving for relationship with others was how they were going to be right with God.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Nowadays in our country, there is also a longing by many to be right with God, or to get back to being right with God. If we would be a country that trusts in God, then God would smile upon this nation, and we would all be better off. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I just read about public schools having to display “In God we trust” signs in prominent places, if those signs are donated to the schools. This is a new law in Texas, and I think I understand the sentiment behind the law. If we get people to be more religious minded, to believe in and have some fear and reverence of God, then surely many of the ills of society will be reduced. If we can get people back into church (or synagogue, mosque, what have you), then society will go back to honoring one another, treating one another well, and living as though God is concerned with each of our actions. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps if we convinced more people to go to church, then God would see and be pleased. Of course, going to church is not a formula, nor is simply believing in God. There are many who believe and trust in God who are then violent toward others because those others don’t believe in the same way. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The idea of trusting in God more, going to church more, is really about us being healed more. Healed in our bodies. Healed in our minds. Healed in our spirits. Healed in our relationships and in community. Being part of a church is about being part of a community, knowing and loving other people. Being part of a church is about recognizing God in all the people around us, realizing that treating God with honor in the people around us is the religion and the community God seeks for us. Treating God with respect and dignity in the people around us is the religion and community God seeks for us. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">If we look at the “In God We Trust” signs through the lenses of Isaiah 58 and Jesus’ healing of the woman on the Sabbath, we might say, “In Caring About and Loving People We Trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>“In being a just society where people have high enough wages such that they needn’t work two and three jobs not to be in poverty, we trust.” </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“In believing that people deserve high wages more than they deserve charity, we trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“In wanting to give schools adequate funding, rather than ‘In God We Trust’ signs so that teachers are paid enough not to have to have second jobs and don’t have to buy classroom supplies, we trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“In reducing cycles of poverty because we see and act towards all people in our society as though we were seeing and acting toward God, we trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“In striving for a medical and insurance system in which one medical bill no longer bankrupts many of the working poor, we trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">“In tenants no longer being thrown out on the street because landlords didn’t pay for water and electricity included in rent, we trust.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps if we trusted in God by approaching our business and personal finances, our actions and daily choices in such a way that we saw people as being as vitally important as God, then God would see and be pleased. Our “light would rise in the darkness”, God would guide us, and we would be called “repairers of the breach.”</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">We don’t please God by being religious enough. We please God by becoming a people healed. Caring about and loving people leads to a people healed. Seeing each person as God leads to a people healed. That’s our way, the way we strive for at Emmanuel. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Building relationships with teachers and families at Rhoads is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed. Building relationships and serving folks at The Gathering Place is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed. Building relationships here, seeing someone you don’t know well and introducing yourself, our newcomers’ lunch, calling each other and supporting one another is about becoming a people healed, a larger community healed.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">All of the ways that we are working to see others, to see God as we see others, are helping to ensure that we are all seen. We’re striving with God to build relationships and connections, with one another and with others beyond here, to become a people healed. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath because Jesus knew that becoming a people healed was what the Sabbath was for in the first place. “In God we trust,” because we know God wants us to be a people healed. Knowing that God’s desire for us is to be healed, we trust that we don’t need to be good, righteous, or religious enough for God to be pleased with us, and we don’t need to try to force anyone else to be either. “In God we trust,” because God desires healing for us, and “in God we trust,” because honoring one another is how we honor God.</span></div></div><div><br /></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-18416286446029143492021-10-31T11:18:00.006-07:002021-10-31T11:31:37.349-07:00"To White Shores, and Beyond, a Far Green Country Under a Swift Sunrise"<div style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b><b>Emmanuel Episcopal Church<br /></b><b>October 31, 2021<br /></b><b>All Saints’, B</b></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>John 11:32-44</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; text-align: left;"><i>White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.</i></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I’ll venture to guess that all of us have felt this way at some point. If you had been here. Where were you? Where are you?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Lord, if you had been here, cancer would not have killed my loved ones.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If you had been here our city wouldn’t have flooded, children wouldn’t starve, people wouldn’t work three jobs and be in poverty.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">If you had been here, we wouldn’t have people who are feared, harassed, and killed because of the color of their skin.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Lord, if you had been here, COVID wouldn’t have ravaged our world.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Where are you, Lord? Where were you?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">As much as we wish death would not separate us from our loved ones, especially when they are young or the death is brought about by violence, death continues to happen even when God is walking on earth among us. We may wish or sometimes think that because we believe in Jesus, death won’t come for us or our loved ones until we are old and prepared for it, having lived a full life. The truth that we know, however, is that death comes to all of us just as randomly and as certainly as it does for everyone. No right formula of prayer, belief, or ritual is going to stop that. We who believe in Jesus can’t stave off death any more than anyone else can.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Jesus didn’t come to stop death from happening. Death is supposed to happen. Without death, there is no new life. We know this in nature in the way biology works, in the way the earth works. Things die and return to the earth, and when they do, new life happens. New trees are nourished as old trees die and give nutrients to the soil. The same is true for animals, even for humans. Death brings new life, and a new kind of life.<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2HwgCSBwf1A/YX7d0yN-hsI/AAAAAAAAAnk/kSPFEs2ogww35QdpKgkuyVqi_TEKtMttACLcBGAsYHQ/Far%2BGreen%2BShores.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="680" height="176" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2HwgCSBwf1A/YX7d0yN-hsI/AAAAAAAAAnk/kSPFEs2ogww35QdpKgkuyVqi_TEKtMttACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h176/Far%2BGreen%2BShores.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When we die, we become new life. We are changed, not ended, alive with God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>See,<br /> Jesus didn’t come here to keep us from dying. Jesus came here to keep us living.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Now death can take many forms. Physical, mental, emotional, relational. How often are we and other alive in our bodies, but suffering death in many other ways. These deaths too are going to happen in our lives, that’s the nature of life. Jesus didn’t come here to stop these deaths from happening. Jesus came here to keep us living amidst all of these deaths.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Thinking of these non-physical deaths, I imagine a man who was cheated by a business partner, whose dream company is no longer his, but his former partner’s. He’s angry, as well he should be. Losing his business, his ideas, his dreams, that was a death for this man. I can imagine this man thirty years later still resentful, bitter, and angry. Broken, basically, having never really recovered from the betrayal and loss, he is mostly alone, not trusting, barely loving. His life really ended with that betrayal, and though he’s physically alive, he’s mostly dead inside.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“Unbind him, and let him go,” Jesus said. I can imagine this man taking a different path than continued resentment, bitterness, and anger. I can imagine this man releasing his past, releasing his hurt, and letting new life take place within him after that death. Thirty years later, I can imagine this man with a great life, a life different than what it would have been, but a life in which he loves and is loved, where he trusts, where he is fully alive, living life abundantly. Part of him died and went into the tomb, but he let it go. He was unbound by that death so that he could continue living.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Now, when death happens for us, all kinds of death, including the physical death of our loved ones, part of us dies too. Part of us goes into the tomb with Lazarus’ body. His body, after four days in the tomb, was decomposing, rotting. There was the stench of death and decay, and the same is true for us when parts of us die and we lie in the tomb. We’re sad, maybe lost, sometimes resentful and angry. “Lord if you had been here, cancer would not have killed my loved ones; our city wouldn’t have flooded; children wouldn’t starve; people wouldn’t work three jobs and be in poverty; folks wouldn’t be afraid, harassed, and killed because of the color of their skin; and COVID wouldn’t have ravaged our world.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When these deaths happen, we get to think and feel this way. We get to be sad and lost, resentful and angry. Even through that fourth day in the tomb when the stench of rotting flesh is upon us, we get to be sad and lost, resentful and angry. Such is the nature of death, but we aren’t meant to stay there forever. “Unbind him, and let him go,” Jesus said.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Come out of the tomb, for there is new life after death.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That’s true for the many non-physical deaths which take place throughout our lives, and it is also true with physical death. Jesus didn’t come here to keep us from dying. Jesus came here to keep us living.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So too with physical death, we hear Jesus’ words, “Unbind them, and let them go.” Physical death is not the end, for we continue living on in a way we don’t fully understand. More than physical life, we continue on with life in God. All of us together, unbound by death, the communion of saints, fully alive, even though our bodies have died.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">All of our loved ones. All of the saints in our lives. All of the saints in the church. Past. Present. Yet to come. We are all unbound from death and brought into full life with Christ in God. That is the communion of saints, for death is not the end. As the wizard, Gandalf said in the the movie “The Return of the King,” “Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">With the deaths in our lives, we often say, as Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Yes he would have. Now “unbind him and let him go.” For Jesus did not come to keep us from dying. Jesus came to keep us living, living fully with God throughout this life and even after this life has ended, gathered together in God with all of our saints and loved ones, gathered to white shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.</span></p></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-62893283621052227242021-10-31T11:02:00.004-07:002021-10-31T11:04:57.330-07:00We Never Need Fear Showing Compassion<div style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b><b>Emmanuel Episcopal Church<br /></b><b>October 24, 2021<br /></b><b>Proper 25, B<br /></b><b>Mark 10:46-52</b></div><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">We Never Need Fear Showing Compassion</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, Jesus met a man on the outskirts of Jericho who was blind and lived his life begging on the streets. Who was this guy? Did he have any family? If so, why wouldn’t they care for him? He wasn’t crazy. Had no demon. He wasn’t dangerous. He was, however, obviously a pretty terrible sinner, otherwise he wouldn’t have been blind. That was often the thinking. Rich? Successful? God had blessed you because you were so deserving. Poor and downtrodden? Well, I don’t know what you did to anger, God, but maybe stay over there because I don’t want any part of it.</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Never mind that God clearly states in the Book of Job that prosperity and adversity don’t come to people because God has chosen to bless them or curse them. Unlike us, God doesn’t play favorites. Unlike us, God doesn’t share with those he likes and shun the ones he doesn’t. The man’s blindness was not due to divine retribution for anything, and yet people of Jericho probably saw the blind man as cursed by God. That tended to be the thinking.</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps that’s why no one would take him in. Thinking he was cursed, people let him beg on the street. They even shushed him when he tried to talk to Jesus to ask to be healed. “Oh be quiet, he shouldn’t heal the likes of you.” Or maybe, “We don’t want him to know you’re here; he’ll think badly of us.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In any case, Jesus heard the man crying out to him, and Jesus cared about the man, calling him to come to him. What Jesus didn’t do was ask for any sign of repentance. He didn’t ask the man to stop sinning. He didn’t tell him to forgo his wicked ways, he just asked him what he wanted. “I’d really like to see,” the guy said. “Cool, I can take care of that;” Jesus replied, “your faith has made you well.” With that, Jesus healed him, and the man followed Jesus as a disciple.</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By Jesus’ response to the man, we know that his blindness was not any sort of divine punishment. No repentance required. The fear and disdain which the people of Jericho had for this blind man was not necessary. God hadn’t cursed him, and God wasn’t going to curse them if they were near to him or kind to him.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps then, in healing the blind man, Jesus healed not only him, but also the people of Jericho. Consider the message given to the people of Jericho by the fact of Jesus healing this man.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“You needn’t be so fearful, isolating and shunning those who are downtrodden. You needn’t be so afraid of God that you shun those you think are being punished by God. That’s not how God works. See, you have great love inside of you; that’s how God works, and if you remove your fear, your love can flourish. You can love and care for the downtrodden. You needn’t shun them. You can love them.”</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are people who often get shunned nowadays by a good number of Christians. Those who get shunned include our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer siblings, shunned because they are seen as sinners, quite possibly cursed by God. They aren’t, of course, and there is no reason for them to be shunned. We see more and more of our LGBTQ+ siblings coming to meet Jesus in the Episcopal Church because by and large, they aren’t shunned here, and like the blind man, they follow Jesus as disciples and apostles.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course there are other groups of people who get shunned by various Christian groups. Those who welcome our LGBTQ+ siblings often end up shunning those who had shunned our LGBTQ+ siblings. The shunner becomes the shunned. Fear, hurt, even compassion for a group of people are all reasons why we end up shunning others, but having compassion on one group of people doesn’t mean we have to shun another group of people.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We have great love inside of us; that’s how God works, and if we remove our fear, our love can flourish.</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We needn’t fear giving compassion to fearful, angry people. Folks get angry because they are fearful. I daresay we all know what that feels like. Right now, we’ve got folks who are afraid of COVID and so they are taking precautions against it. We’ve also got folks who are afraid of losing their jobs due to the precautions against COVID harming the economy. We can have compassion on both groups. Even as we get terribly afraid and the other group causes us even greater fear, we can still have compassion for fearful people. Jesus’ healing of the blind man shows us that. People are afraid, and we don’t need to be against one group of frightened people in order to be for another group of frightened people.</span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">God was not cursing the blind man, and Jesus’ compassion on him showed that compassion on one another is God’s desire for us. God doesn’t desire our contempt for those we fear. Of course, we’re going to feel contempt for those we fear, and that’s what we get to give to God, rather than to them. God can handle our contempt of others, as we give it over to God and ask his healing to remove our fear and contempt so that love can flourish. That’s how God works, through the great love inside of us.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-spDbAUXb_J8/YX7aKvrVaLI/AAAAAAAAAms/mAh0BM-5gzIkdr8qfHuuw_9Nv-ty_G03QCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="940" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-spDbAUXb_J8/YX7aKvrVaLI/AAAAAAAAAms/mAh0BM-5gzIkdr8qfHuuw_9Nv-ty_G03QCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="286" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">We never need fear showing compassion. We needn’t fear showing compassion and<br />love for the wrong sorts of people. The blind man was seen as the wrong sort of person by the people of Jericho. We’ve got lots of wrong sorts of people in our world. Vaxers, anti-vaxers. Maskers, anti-maskers. Believers in climate change and climate change deniers. Those sinful groups of people whose morals and views of the world are utterly at odds with God’s ways, and those pointing out those sinful groups of people who believe that their own morals and views of the world are in step with God’s ways.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><p></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All of these groups of people are doing their best in the world to do the right thing. All of these groups of people have great fear and end up behaving out of that fear. All of these groups of people get to have compassion shown to them. All of them, and all of us have great love inside; that’s how God works, and if we remove our fear, our love can flourish.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-90841595431285208342021-10-19T07:57:00.004-07:002021-10-19T07:57:41.753-07:00Be a Friendly, Neighborhood Spider-Man<div style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b><b>Emmanuel Episcopal Church<br /></b><b>October 17, 2021</b></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Proper 24, B</b></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Mark 10:35-45</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Be a Friendly, Neighborhood Spider-Man</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the movie <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i>, Spider-Man, aka Peter Parker, desperately wants to be an Avenger. The Avengers, such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow, are Earth’s mightiest superheroes. Their base of operations is Avengers Tower, they are known throughout the world, and they are the ones you call when the really big bad stuff happens.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Spider-Man has superpowers, and at the same time, he’s a teenager, Peter Parker, still in high school. His quest to be an Avenger keeps being denied, and he is discouraged because he has lofty ambitions, and wants to do more than just help the people of his neighborhood, Queens, New York. He wants to be saving the world. He wants a spot at Avengers Tower.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, through all the twists and turns of the movie, eventually, he is offered a place among the Avengers, but by that time, he’s come to see the value not only of “saving the world,” but also the value of being there for the people around him. He turns down the offer to be an Avenger, saying, “Well, I mean, I'd rather just stay on the ground for a little while[, be a] friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Somebody's got to look out for the little guy, right?”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5LhpiNjkhus/YW7c0fZqfNI/AAAAAAAAAmc/kllHEIF4CuQiAqkklIpFQVVOrJLhEROYgCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1233" data-original-width="1920" height="206" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5LhpiNjkhus/YW7c0fZqfNI/AAAAAAAAAmc/kllHEIF4CuQiAqkklIpFQVVOrJLhEROYgCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He didn’t need glory. He didn’t need fame. Look out for the little guy, and be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When James and John, the sons of Zebedee asked Jesus to sit next to Jesus when he came into his glory, they were basically wanting to be Avengers. They thought Jesus was going to rule over Israel as king, and so they wanted to sit on either side of his throne. Of course this first meant fighting a war against Rome with Jesus at the helm, and after destroying the Romans and avenging Israel, they would rule over Israel with Jesus.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">They misunderstood of course one thing, that Jesus wasn’t going to be fighting any war against Rome. They also misunderstood their role, their importance, and their need for a throne in order to be effective as disciples of Jesus. Notice that Jesus didn’t rebuke them for their request. The other disciples did, they were pretty hacked off about it, but Jesus saw that James and John were actually thinking too little of themselves, as if they didn’t matter without some throne, as if they couldn’t really make a difference without a throne. So, Jesus calmed his disciples, called them to him, and taught them a lesson about who they were and what their ministry really was.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“You know that among the Gentiles,” Jesus said, “those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you…” He didn’t say “it should not be so among you;” that you shouldn’t be tyrants over each other. Jesus said, “it is not so among you.” “You are not tyrants over each other.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rather than rebuke James and John, Jesus looked into their hearts and saw not a desire for tyranny or greatness for their own sake. Jesus saw a desire for good, and in his response, Jesus is basically saying,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p7" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Y’all are asking for greatness, and knowing your hearts, I can see that you aren’t asking to be tyrants over others. Your hearts are in the right place. What you are asking for is a serving role, but you don’t need a throne to do that. You already serve, even in seeming lowliness. The service you are doing is just as important and often more important than that of lords of rulers.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Keep your feet on the ground for a while. Be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.</span></p><p class="p8" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That’s where we find the most effective and Christ-like ministry has been throughout the church. The church as Empire is not what grew disciples of Jesus and healed peoples’ lives. The church as mighty and ruling over others has actually ended up causing a lot of harm in the name of Jesus. No, the real ministry of Jesus through the people of his church happened in the people of the church serving with each other and serving with those in their neighborhoods, looking out for the little guys. The same is true in our world today.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, this is not to say that there is not good ministry being done by the church on an institutional, organizational level. There is much good ministry being done through the organizations and institutions of the church engaging with other organizations and institutions, even globally. There has just been formed an Episcopal Church delegation to the United Nations for an upcoming UN conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Ellen Singer, from our diocese, will be part of that Episcopal Church delegation to the United Nations. That’s pretty cool. That’s global-level influence of the Episcopal Church.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, when I first heard of that UN Delegation, my reaction was about like Spider-Man wanting to be an Avenger or James and John wanting to be next to Jesus in his glory. I thought, “I want to go to the United Nations,” but then I quickly realized, “Yeah, actually I really don’t.” I’m glad for those who do. There is great ministry that is done within large bodies, organizations, institutions, and that’s a good thing for the church to be able to offer counsel for those making decisions that affect many, or most, or all. Not to be in charge as Lords over people, but to counsel those who are.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even so, the majority of Jesus’ ministry through the people of his church happens in the neighborhood. The majority of Jesus’ ministry through the people of his church happens in the relationships we have and the relationships we continue to cultivate and form. We don’t need titles, or thrones, or global-level influence to do important ministry as disciples of Jesus.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Helping the kids and teachers at Rhoads Elementary is important ministry, looking out for the little guy. Ministering to people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia through The Gathering Place is important ministry, looking out for the little guy. Calling your friend or neighbor who is having a rough time and having some coffee or lunch together to connect and go through that time with that person is important ministry, looking out for the little guy.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No one needs to be an Avenger to be a disciple of Jesus. We just need to look out for the little guy, keep our feet on the ground, and be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-65176130424833609702021-10-19T07:53:00.002-07:002021-10-19T07:53:34.379-07:00“F%&k You Jobu, I’ll Do It Myself.”<div style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px;">The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b><b style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px;">Emmanuel Episcopal Church<br /></b><b>October 10, 2021<br /></b><b>Proper 23, B</b></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Mark 10:17-31</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">“F%&k You Jobu, I’ll Do It Myself.”</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the 1989 movie, <i>Major League</i>, star slugger, Pedro Cerano, could hit the ball clear out of the park as often and with a swing almost as beautiful as Yordan Alvarez’. Unfortunately, in the movie <i>Major League</i>, Pedro Cerano, superstar slugger, could not hit a curve ball, nor could he presumably lay off of them? So, he routinely stuck out as other teams realized that the curve ball was his Kryptonite.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2eT9Mm2L1KA/YW7b4hwfcYI/AAAAAAAAAmU/JQ8fLWmIMnIhBYwNtzq7RJwXgdMQAwJsQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2eT9Mm2L1KA/YW7b4hwfcYI/AAAAAAAAAmU/JQ8fLWmIMnIhBYwNtzq7RJwXgdMQAwJsQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The best solution might have been to work with a hitting coach, but alas, Pedro’s solution came in the form of a tiny, crazy-haired statue of a wild-eyed man he called Jobu. Pedro offered Jobu rum and cigars, and once even a whole chicken (KFC) in order to help him hit the curve ball. Jobu was a straight up idol which Pedro was using to try to make his life easier. When it kept not working, Pedro finally said, “[To heck with] you, Jobu, I’ll do it myself,” at which point he of course hit a curve ball out of the park.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I bring this up, one because I’m a little excited about the Astros and the postseason, and two, because Pedro’s use of Jobu is a pretty good example of an idol being used to try to make life easier. Ancient idols, carved or sculpted, set in homes and prayed to were meant to keep bad things away, to make life easier. Idols were thought to grant your requests if you prayed to them just right, if you gave them rum and cigars and whole chickens.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, many of us don’t have small statue idols like Jobu that we use to try to make life easier, but idols can come in many forms. For the man who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, his idol was his wealth. His wealth, his riches, his stuff made life easier, and he seems to have believed that he could’t be happy unless life was easy, that he couldn’t be happy unless life wasn’t hard. See, unlike Jobu, the rich man’s idol seems to have been working for him in making his life less hard. So, when Jesus told him to set aside his money, the idol that made life easier, he thought that he couldn’t be ok without it. He believed that he couldn’t be ok if life was hard, so he walled himself off from life in God’s kingdom.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here’s a secret, life is always going to be hard, at least hard at times, and no amount of rum offered to Jobu is going to change that.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“How hard it will be,” Jesus said, “for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven.” How hard it will be to enter the kingdom of heaven for those who fear life being hard and aren’t willing to risk life being hard. That was the challenge for the rich man whose idol was his money. Well, here’s another secret, you don’t gotta be rich to have idols get in the way of risking for the kingdom of God.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Will I be ok? Will I have enough? Will I be enough? Do I have enough money, time, experience, expertise? How will I possibly be ok if I give up much of anything that I have? These are fears that I dare say all of us face, and I dare say most of us have some kind of Jobu to which we offer rum. Sometimes that idol is simply walling ourselves off from risk.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Into all of that fear and unknowing, Jesus is teaching us to trust God in the unknowing, accepting the fact that yes, things may fall apart, and to trust that we are enough (and there are others with us). Jesus is teaching that we can never offer Jobu enough rum to safeguard against life being hard, so be ok with taking risks and giving things up for the sake of God’s kingdom.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“We gave stuff up!” Peter said in his very very Peter way. “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and you are going to receive much more, people around you to support you so that you will be ok even without as much money, time, or rum and cigars to offer to Jobu.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus’ disciples gave up the protection of life as they knew it in order to live life in God’s kingdom with new people, new situations. Often we protect ourselves by walling ourselves off from new situations. We keep ourselves from entering new relationships and new situations for which we feel we are not enough. Our walls feel like they make life easier, but remember what God did to make life easier in Genesis 2? God made a human companion. Humans were made to be helpers and supports for each other. We find wholeness in new relationships and risk because we were meant to be there for each other. That’s life in God’s kingdom.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, for a way that we can be there for each other and for others, to risk new relationships, I’m going to turn things over to Kathryn Johnson, Counselor at Rhodes Elementary school. We have begun a partnership with Rhodes Elementary to serve and minister there, and Mrs. Johnson is going to talk with us about the school and how we can serve and minister there.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">…</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">…</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus is calling us in this time and in this place, in our new home, to risk for the sake of relationship, connection, and service in God’s kingdom. Serving and ministering at Rhodes is one of the ways Jesus is calling us, and the usual questions probably arise. Will I have enough time? Do I have enough expertise? What do I know about serving with kids? I’m too old to relate, or I’m too inexperienced to know what I’m doing.</span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With our questions, doubts and uncertainties, realize there will never be enough protection, there will never be enough rum for Jobu to make us ready or enough. Like the man with great wealth, Jesus is calling us to life in his kingdom, even though it may be hard. He’s also assuring us that what we’ll find in serving others is the peace that we’re looking for. What we find in giving up our various Jobus, in risking new relationships in new situations, is that we actually are enough; we actually can hit that curve ball. We actually don’t need all of our protection to make life less hard. We have each other, and we have a wonderful new opportunity to serve and live the life of God’s kingdom.</span></p>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3583682120804178832.post-13517108815118012722021-09-26T19:05:00.005-07:002021-09-26T19:33:43.637-07:00Glorious Train Wrecks and Glorious Symphonies<div style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The Rev. Brad Sullivan<br /></b></span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Emmanuel Episcopal Church<br /></span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">September 26, 2021</span></b></span></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">Proper 121, B</span></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">Mark 7:24-37</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Glorious Train Wrecks and Glorious Symphonies</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Have you ever had a terrible empathy fail? You’re overcome with emotion, exhausted, and totally stressed out by all that is going on, and you feel completely not good enough for all that is going on. So, you talk to a friend about it. The friend responds with, “Oh, that’s ok, it was so much worse for me last year.” You end up feeling even worse, like you’re still not good enough, but now you’re also unimportant.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I’ve been in a workshop for the last couple days called, “Dare to Lead,” made by and based on the work of Brene Brown. She is a researcher and author of “Dare to Lead,” “The Daring Way,” and other books about shame, how destructive shame is for us, and how empathy is the antidote for shame.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Different from guilt which says, “I messed up or did something bad,” shame says, “I am messed up, and I am bad.” Shame is the feeling of being totally unworthy of love and belonging. Alone. Scared. Not good enough. Not worth people’s time. One of the major<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>antidotes for shame is empathy. Empathy helps us feel connected to others. Empathy doesn’t dismiss our pain, our fears, or the things we’ve done. Empathy looks at us as we are, warts and all, and says says, “I’m here with you; I get it; you aren’t alone; and you are totally worthy of love and belonging.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Sadly, a lot of Christian theology says the opposite. We’re sinners, totally unworthy, and destined for torment forever. That’s what we deserve…unless we believe in Jesus. Then, we’re still unworthy, but God loves us anyway. That’s a pretty abusive theology. Shame is at its root. You’re terrible, unworthy, you don’t belong; you’re no good; you should be punished. Shame, being unworthy of love and belonging.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Then, according to these theologies, Jesus comes along and says, believe in me, and God won’t punish you forever…because God loves you. That’s what abusers do to their victims. Tear them down, make them feel worthless, and then say, “I love you, and I alone can make you well, not worthy of love…but I alone will love you even though you are totally unworthy.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">That’s about control, not empathy or love. It’s bad theology which turns God into an abuser, rather than a loving God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">See the truth of our nature is that we are made beautiful, wonderful, and totally worthy of love and belonging. We’re not born with some stain of original sin. That's bad theology. We’re born, and we are hurt over time. We fear. We act out. We hurt others our of our own hurt. God is of course not happy with all of the hurt and harm we do, but God does not see us a terrible and totally unworthy of love. God loves us and hates to see us hurting ourselves and hurting each other.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So, to help heal us, God became human, showing us empathy and love. God, Jesus, knows exactly what it’s like to be human. Life is hard; being human is hard. It’s beautiful, and messy, and painful; a glorious train-wreck, and a glorious symphony all at once. By joining with us in being human, God says, “I’m here with you; I get it; you aren’t alone; and you are totally worthy of love and belonging.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">So then, believing that theology, that we are worthy of love and belonging, believing that God is not just trying to control us with fear and shame, what is Jesus saying with this dismemberment/mutilation lesson?</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BjUhjIsLecU/YVEtfhib1MI/AAAAAAAAAlw/ddCBywtBf0IKecUn3vezb24glmGgTRhAwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="936" height="190" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BjUhjIsLecU/YVEtfhib1MI/AAAAAAAAAlw/ddCBywtBf0IKecUn3vezb24glmGgTRhAwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Well, obviously, Jesus is not literally telling us to cut off our hands or else he’ll punish us forever. I know it sounds that way. “It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands…and to be thrown into hell.” “If you mess up too much, I’m going to hurt you…forever.” That’s not love. That’s shame, control, fear and abuse. Remember, Jesus loves us and we are worthy of God’s love and belonging. This dismemberment/mutilation lesson, then, cannot be saying, cut off your hand or I’ll punish you forever. The lesson cannot be about shaming us and forcing control over us with coercion.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Hear the lesson instead in the light of empathy and love, and you’ll see that this lesson is about taking seriously the harm we can cause, showing us just how bad that harm can be, and so encouraging us to take big steps to choose instead a way of healing and restoration.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">“Golly, cutting off my hand sounds terrible, and Jesus is saying that the harm I can cause to myself and others with my hand can be even worse than that. I can harm other people in ways that are worse than removing my hand; I can in fact harm people in ways that become like Hell on Earth. I can’t bring about Hell on Earth. I really don’t want to do that; I don’t want to cause harm like that. I mean, I’m often hurt and angry, but gee whiz, I don’t want to bring about Hell on Earth. Maybe I oughta seek another way?”</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">See, this cast into hell part of Jesus’ lesson is not really unknown to us. Planes flown into buildings. Being so angry and feeling so alone that it seems like me against the world. Choosing numbing behaviors so much that people never address the problems in their lives, but just keep growing more isolated and resentful. Politicians wanting to win so badly and being so assured of their righteousness that they denigrate the other side as being evil, bringing about such division and strife that we can’t even countenance the thought that there may be some good coming from the other side, that freedom and public health become enemies of each other.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">We get being cast into hell. We do it to ourselves all the time. Not casting ourselves into Hell on Earth can take drastic change, drastic giving up of something we hold dear and can’t imagine being without. Giving up the need to be right in a religious belief and for others to share in that belief. Letting go of resentments and accepting one’s own faults so that it is no longer me agains the world. Letting go of numbing so that we actually have to work together on life’s challenges. Giving up dehumanizing anger and entrenched wrangling over ideological differences so that we don’t make things even worse than our fears of what might happen if the other side won.</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Giving up these things can feel like cutting off one’s own hand, or foot, or eye. Jesus is then hold up that pain next to the pain of the hells that we often make and cast each other into. Jesus is showing empathy and love, saying, “I know the healing work is hard, and I know, as we all know, how much harder life is without that healing work. Even though it can feel like cutting off your own hand, doing that healing work is so much better than living through Hell on Earth.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">God loves us, not in spite of us being unworthy of God’s love. God loves us as God’s children, and we are totally worthy of God’s love and belonging. God also teaches us hard lessons because God knows life can be even harder without them. “I’m here with you; I get it,” God says. “You aren’t alone; and you are totally worthy of love and belonging.”</span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /></p></div>Father Snorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11511174615793690755noreply@blogger.com0