“we piped and you did not dance, we wailed and you did not weep”

Sermon preached at Evensong on Sunday Advent 2 (December 2006)

Tonight’s second reading is the second half of a larger passage about John the Baptist. Jesus’ remarks about John come after John has sent his own disciples to see whether Jesus is the Christ. Jesus responds by healing many people and preaching the good news to the poor and telling John’s disciples to reply with what they have seen and heard.

Jesus next turns his attention to the crowd. He exclaims that some of them have taken John’s preaching of repentance and forgiveness to heart and some have not. He compares those who do not accept John’s teaching to children who become hostile when someone won’t follow their lead: “we piped and you did not dance, we wailed and you did not weep”.

I believe that the church today can take Jesus’ message to heart. It can be easy to get upset when other people walk to the beat of a different drum or when they don’t follow the lead that we set. From my own perspective as a priest at Saint Mary’s I get frustrated when I go to other churches and they worship in ways that are different than what I prefer. I also get frustrated looking at the various factions of the church trying to push and pull the everyone else in many different directions. In my perfect world everyone would always follow my lead, but most likely my idea of a perfect world isn’t exact the same as yours.

I think that one way that we avoid falling into the “my way or the highway” trap is to follow the example. Of John the Baptist John knew that Jesus was from God because he saw that he spread the love of God to others through his words and his deeds. I think that we can do the same. I don’t think that concentrating time and energy on spreading division and trying to force others to go our way is very productive. However, when we concentrate our time and energy on spreading the love of God to others through what we do and what we say, then not only do differences seem less important but we find that more and more people join us as we follow the way of Christ.

Whe are here for Jesus

Sermon Preached on November 19, 2006
Proper 28B
Daniel 12:1-4a(5-13)Hebrews 10 31-39Mark 13:14-23Psalm 16 or 16:5-11



On Monday my wife gave birth to our first son, Liam. He’s awesome and I would love to stand up here and tell you all about him, but stories about my son are not why we are gathered here today. We are gathered together because of Jesus Christ.

In our Gospel reading today Jesus speaks of times of anguish and despair out of which God’s people are delivered to eternal life. Probably these refer to the sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. That event was a transformative event for the early church in that a great piece of its Jewish roots was gone. What to do?

That I think is exactly the same question we can ask ourselves when we read this passage today. Unless you want to sell books or be featured in the history channel, I’m not sure its helpful to identify these times of anguish and desolation as the prelude to the Second Coming – trying to see signs in the world around us as to when it will happen. Nor am I sure that its helpful to try to figure out who will be delivered and who will not. Rather I think the question we can ask ourselves is the same one the people of the early church asked. What are we to do in the times – difficult times – that we often find ourselves in?

Jesus warns that some people will take the opportunity to point out false Messiahs and false prophets. If you turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper there are always people telling you that life is only worth living when you have power, money, possessions, or pleasure. This isn’t limited only to the secular world. I have heard any number of church leaders point to good solid things like peace, justice and the self-empowerment and claim that that salvation lies within them.

As important and wonderful as it may be to have money, enjoy life, work for peace and feel self satisfied, all of these can act as distractions from seeking out, experiencing and spreading the love that God has for all of us in Jesus Christ. Jesus offers eternal life, can anything else claim to do that?

Next week is the feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the church year before Advent begins. At Saint Mary’s we celebrate this feast by committing ourselves to Jesus. Commitment Sunday is the time to identify those things is our own lives that are important to us see where our priorities really are. Often this means taking an honest account of where and how we spend our money. Do I spend as much money on Jesus as I did on going out to fancy restaurants or going to concerts or going on vacation? Is the time I invest in church and at prayer reflected in the money I give to support the church? Those are questions that I think are important for all of us to ask ourselves.

As I ask myself these questions I wonder what it will mean financially to have a child. My wife and I intend to continue pledging 10% of our income to the church. Its not going to be easy. We will have to give up some things. But I don’t intend to limit my questioning to money. Three days ago my father came by to see our son. He said that one of the things he always prayed for his children was that they would see the face of Jesus. How can I help my son to see the face of Jesus as he grows up? How can I help others to see the face of Jesus?

Over the next week I invite you to join me in asking how Jesus fits into your life. How does Jesus fit into your financial planning for next year? How do you plan to show the face of Jesus to those who are important to you over the next year?

Christ the King

Sermon Preached at Evensong & Benediction on the feast of Christ the King.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. What is Christ’s kingdom and what does it mean for us? I think one answer to those questions can be found in tonight’s readings.

In our first reading the Prophet Isaiah sees a day when the two great nations, Egypt and Assyria, who have historically been opposed to the Jewish people will unite with Israel to worship the Lord. He literally sees many of their differences being paved over with a great highway that stretches through each land.

In our second reading, Peter writes that Christ died for the sins of all, the righteous as well as the unrighteous, that he might bring all of us to God. He illustrates his point by stating that Jesus preached even to the dead, thus ensuring that everyone hear the Good News.

Christ’s kingdom is open for all of us. Jesus is the savior and head of all peoples. Not just some peoples, not just important peoples or rich peoples, but all peoples. And he invites all of us to become citizens of his kingdom through Baptism.

As people of faith and citizens of that kingdom, I believe that we are called to show others that God welcomes them too. There are many ways to do that, but I think Saint Peter gives a good starting point. He says: “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

Whether greeting a newcomer at church on a Sunday morning, talking with a friend over coffee, or answering questions from a stranger on a train, I think that being able to speak kindly with others about our faith in Jesus can help point someone towards Jesus. I think that’s something that each of us can do. I believe that it is something that we, as citizens of Christ’s kingdom, are called to do.

Evensong at Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue

ALL SAINTS' DAY; NOVEMBER 1: EVENING PRAYER:

My first experience of Saint Thomas came about 11 years ago. When I first walked through the door I stood– like most people I think – and just stared at the amazing raredos. To this day I think its one of the most breathtaking and beautiful pieces of art that I have ever seen.

I want to talk a little bit this evening about how we identify the saints. At Saint Thomas, you can pick up an official pamphlet that identifies everyone on the reredos. In the real world its often not so simple.

In the passage read tonight from his Revelation, Saint John refers to those who enter into the New Jerusalem as those who are written into the book of life. In a passage that is read at Mass on All Saints’ Day, he speaks about 144,000 who are marked with the seal of God. Sometimes Christians view passages like this as a way to identify who is saved and who is not.

One night years ago after answering the door my mother was greeted – as probably has happened to many of us – with the question of whether she had been saved. When the woman pressed her about her salvation, my mother asked a question. “Doesn’t your church believe that only 144,000 people are saved?” “Yes”, the woman said, “It says so in the Book of Revelation.” “And how many members does you church have?”, asked my mother. “10 million”, the woman answered proudly. “Well, why are you trying to recruit more members when there isn’t enough room in heaven for the ones you already have?”. The woman had no response.

Its important to note that Saint John also sees a multitude from all nations standing before the throne of God. A multitude so large that it is beyond reckoning.

The church identifies as saints some people who have shown their love of Jesus by being merciful to others, by being peacemakers, by showing to love of God to family, friends, enemies and strangers. The Roman church and the Episcopal church have processes whereby the names and stories of these famous men and women are written down to be remembered for ages to come. But the church has never claimed to have identified all of the saints. That’s why we celebrate All Saints’ Day. Most of the saints are people that have faded into history. Most are people who take up the cross yet remain part of the unnumbered and unnamed multitude following Jesus on the way.

I think we can try to imitate the famous saints of the past. We can echo Saint Mary’s “yes” to God or boldly proclaim Jesus like Saint Stephen did. But I don’t think we should stop there. Often the best examples are offered by the people that we encounter each day. The people we live with, work with or worship with. The people who spend some time working at soup kitchens. The people who donate money to ensure that the church that was there for them will be there for others in years to come. People who give some part of themselves each day to show the love of God to someone else. Today we celebrate all of those wonderful examples of faith and we pray that the Holy Spirit fills each of us to see and to imitate these examples in our own lives.

2 Opportunities

Sermon preached Sunday October 29, 2006

Isaiah 59:(1-4)9-19; Hebrews 5:12-6:1,9-12; Mark 10:46-52; Psalm 13

There are certain things that produce an instant reaction from me. When I hear the church burglar alarm – which is about the most annoying sound ever – I stop whatever I have been doing and run to the nearest alarm keypad. When I hear a smoke detector go off, I look for smoke. When I am driving and I see lights or hear sirens, I move over. These are things that instantly make me do something because life cannot go on as usual after I notice them.

When I read Saint Mark’s Gospel, one of the things that strikes me is how often the people in the gospel react to Jesus in a way that is contrary to what I think would be natural. A few examples:

Throughout the Gospel there are people who see Jesus heal and their reaction is to find some way to get rid of him. This isn’t limited to the Pharisees or even to religious leaders. Recall the story where Jesus casts a legion of demons out of a man and the town’s response is to ask Jesus to leave. If I saw someone healing, I hope that I would try to help out so more people could be healed.

The people who are closest to Jesus see him serving people and healing people. They hear him teaching constantly. They travel with him from town to town. Still, we read that they want Jesus to be their personal Lord and Savior. They fight amongst themselves over who is the most important or who will be the most honored. Even when Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James and John – revealed to them in all of his glory – they do not suggest that Jesus reveal himself to anyone else. Instead, they want to build some shelters to keep the this revelation with them away on the mountain. I hope that I would try to find a way to show others what had been revealed to me.

Today’s Gospel finds Jesus at the end of his ministry. As Jesus and a large crowd are walking to Jerusalem, they encounter a blind beggar on the side of the road who calls out to Jesus. The people rebuke the man and tell him to be quiet. I hope I would try to find a way to bring Jesus and the blind man together.

It is against the backdrop of these events that the healing of this blind beggar seems so striking. The man responds after Jesus cures his blindness by immediately following Jesus. He doesn’t leave. He doesn’t get mad. He doesn’t try to convince Jesus to follow him. He remains with the man who has shown that God is working through him. I hope that my reaction to seeing God’s work would be to want to be a part of that work.

I think that today’s Gospel offers each of us an opportunity. I am reminded to take a good hard look around to see where God is working in my life. I see God working in this church. I see the doors of this building that remain open all day as the loving arms of God open lovingly to all people. I see the ministry of all the people of Saint Mary’s reaching out to others as the hands of God working in the world. I see the masses, offices, baptisms, weddings, and funerals that are regularly offered here at Saint Mary’s as a great witness to the power of the resurrection testified to all of New York City.

I am also reminded that I am given the opportunity to be part of that work in whatever way I am able. When you and I see the presence of God, how do we respond? The author of the letter to the Hebrews says: “be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” The blind man was given sight by God and he responded by offering all he had in return: himself.

I try to respond by giving what I have to make sure that I too am a part of this work. Two things that I have found I am able to give are time and money, yet through patience and faith I can probably give more of myself.

I think that the Gospel gives us the opportunity to push ourselves more and more to imitate those people who showed faith and patience. People like the blind man, like the apostles of the early church, like the saints throughout the ages. People who having seen God work in their lives tried to give every bit of themselves to help spread the love of God in Jesus Christ to the world. How is God working in our lives? In what ways do we respond? In what ways do we imitate the saints?

Saint Matthew

Sermon preached on September 21, 2006
September 21, Saint Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist:
Proverbs 3:1-6, Psalm 119:33-40,2 Timothy 3:14-17, Matthew 9:9-13

The name Matthew means "gift of God". If we look at the call of Matthew as told in the Gospels we find some interesting details. Luke and Mark both call Matthew by the name Levi. Luke and Mark also inform us that the dinner that Jesus went to after calling Matthew wasn't just at any house (Perhaps Matthew is being humble in his account of the call), it was at Matthew's own home. Luke goes on to desribe this as not merely a dinner, but as a great feast!

Saint Paul reminds us that God has given us all many different gifts. Matthew used the gifts that God gave him to show the love of God in Christ to others. First, he used the money, food, and home that he had to throw a feast for others to be in the presence of Jesus. The worldly gifts that he had were used immediately to bring others closer to Christ. Second, he gave all of us the gift of his Gospel, witnessing to the power of Christ in his life to peopel around the world for 2000 years.

I think we can use the examples seen in the life and witness of Saint Matthew to find ways to use the gifts that God has given each of us to spread the love of God to others.

John Coleridge Patteson et al.

Sermon preached at Sung mass, Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Year 2, Proper 19, Wednesday, Daily Mass:
Psalm 33:1-12,22*, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 7:31-35

Today is the feast day of John Coleridge Patteson, bishop of Malanesia. He and those with him were killed visiting the island of Nakapu when he was mistakenly connected to slave-raiders had attacked the island.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend a few years ago. I had heard so many sermons in Seminary that didn't mention two things that I think are essential to Christian preaching and evangelism. The first is the death and resurrection of Jesus. The second is love. They are connected and I remember saying that I would be happy if every sermon I heard had mentioned one or the other. When we talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus we are talking about the love that God has for all of us. Love so that nothing, not even death can seperate us from God.

Patteson's death is very similar to the events in today's Gospel. He was killed because someone made an incorrect assumption. Likewise, John the Baptist was accused of having a demon and Lesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton.

If, following the logic of Saint Paul as illustrated in our Epistle today, we start with love; strip everything else away and start with nothing but love, then the assumptions we have don't lead us to killing people, they don't lead us to casting people out, and they don't lead us to trowing around insults and branding people. The cross is a good starting point. The cross is the ultimate example of God's love for all of us. By taking up the cross and following the example of Jesus we are starting with love. Love does not lead us to make the kind of assumptions we see in the demise of Patteson and in today's Gospel account. Love is patient, love is kind, love never ends.

Theodore of Tarsus

Sermon preached on Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Year 2, Proper 19, Tuesday, Daily Mass:
Psalm 100, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31; Luke 7:11-17

Theodore of Tarsus was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 7th Century. He was from Tarsus, the city of Saint Paul in the East, but relocated to England when the English Church was in dire need of leadership and stability following a plague. He was a great catalyst for uniting Christians throuhgout England who had been fighting with each other.

Its is wonderful that we get to hear from Saint Paul about the Body of Christ in the world on this day. Christian disagree with each other even when they live together, but Paul reminds us that we are all one Body in Christ, many different members but one Body. We all have different gifts and we are all called different roles in the Church. I'm going to hazzard a guess that none of us today here at Saint Mary's will be called as the Archbiship of Canterbury but that doesn't lessen what each of us can bring to Our Lord's Table.

We each receive from the same broken bread and same cup of wine at our Lord's Table, likewise we are each members of the one Body of Christ. Saint Paul calls us to cultivate the gifts we have and use the role we have in the church. One way we can live our roles in the church and use those gifts is to unite Christians and help them to realize that we are all one Body in Christ.

Dr. Edward B. Pusey

Sermon preached on Monday, September 18, 2006
Year 2, Proper 19, Monday, Daily Mass:
Psalm 40:8-12, 1 Corinthians 11:17-28,33; Luke 7:1-10

Today we celebrate the feast day of Edward Pusey, one of the founding fathers of the Oxford Movement. The Oxford Movement was a concerted effort by English laity and clergy (some of whom were Dons at Oxford and Cambridge) to bring back beauty of worship and a reverence for the Body of Christ. Saint Mary's was built as an American companion to this movment. The worship, the building, and a great part of the identity of the church are rooted in much of the thinking of the Oxford Movement.

Today we have a new ambo or lectern. Its beautiful. We also have in our presence our own incense meister, Kenny, who has come back to New York to make a new batch of his wonderful incense for us. Beatiful furnishing and incense are things that can add beauty and majesty to our worship, not to spice up the ceremony, but to bring our whole bodies, our hearts, our mouths, our noses, our eyes, and our ears into worshipping the glory of God and reverencing the Presence of Christ in the Sancrament.

Our gospel today speaks of worthiness. Its not through our own merit that we are worthy to stand before God, it is through the work of Jesus Christ who brings our very humanity into God. One of the main tenets of the Oxford movement was that God was for all of us. The beauty of worship and the revernece for God is somethat that all people can enjoy and share. Pusey and the other founders of the Oxford Movement, were not interested in making Church a good looking and beautiful club. They were interested in bringing about a reverence for Christ and letting all people know they were worthy through Christ. By treating the Sacrament with reverence and taking great care in our worship we quite leterally open the door to all people. That reverence extends to all who recieve communion and beyond to the entire Body of Christ in the world.

I invite you, following in the spirit of the Oxford Movement to expereince the real presence of Christ in Communion and to take the knowledge that through Christ you are made worthy and bring it to others. Invite others by letting them know that Jesus Christ died and rose for them too.

Lend a hand, not a snide remark

Sermon preached Sunday, September 17, 2006
Proper 19: Closest to September 14
Psalm 116 or 116:1-8; Isaiah 50:4-9; James 2:1-5,8-10,14-18; Mark 8:27-38

In today's Gospel we hear the account of Saint Peter's confession of Jesus as Christ. I can't tell you how many sermons I heard when I was in Seminary that used this gospel as a platform for bashing Saint Peter: "True Peter confessed Jesus, but he didn't really jknow what he was talking about."; "Well, if you keep reading the Gospel you find that Peter denied Jesus and fled."; etc. Its almost popular for preachers to remind us over and over that Peter and the other apostles weren't perect. In fact, I know I've done it myself.

They weren't perfect; you and I aren't perfect. Taking up our crosses and following Jesus is not an easy thing to do. Every Friday during Lent we offer a service called Stations of the Cross. As we walk with Jesus on the way of the cross we see Jesus fall three times under the weight of the cross. There are two responses to this. Some jeer at Jesus and offer snide remarks. But Simon of Cyrene offers a helping hand. He assists Jesus with the cross that is always difficult to take up.

Saint Peter and the other apostles fell and stumbled with the crosses they took up, as we all do. I'm not sure its helpful to concentrate on the stumbling and the falling - to me it comes off like we are people on the sidelines who offer nothing but snide remarks. I think its more hlepful to follow the example of Simon and the example of the apostles themselves who supported each other with the crosses that they bore as they followed Christ and spread the Gospel to the whole world.

Support each other and lend a hand to those who stumble in their faith because it isn't easy following Christ and its never easy taking up the cross. Pray for support from those around you in the times when we all stumble.

Saint Cyrpian

Sermon preached at Sung Mass on Spetember 13, 2006
Year 2, Proper 18, Wednesday, Daily Mass: Psalm 47, 1 Corinthians 7:25-31; Luke 6:20-26

Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint Cyrpian, Bishop of Carthage and martyr. Cyprian is remembered for being very popular among the poor of Carthage. He had been a wealthy pagan before his baptism and when he was converted he gave much of his money to the poor. He is also remembered for weighing on on the issues of his day in a way that was not heavy handed.

Cyrian lived in the middle of the 3rd century at a time when the Church was hashing out and fighting over many internal issues - when isn't the church hashing out and fighting over many internal issues. Two of these issues were the readmittance of lapsed Christians - Christians who had succumbed to official Roman pressure to worship the Romans gods - and the validity of Baptism by heretics.

Cyprian generally sided with the more narrow view on both of these issues, but not to an extreme. He welcomed lapsed Christians backed but he believed that they ought to be repentent of what they had done. In line with his most famous quote: "No salvation outside the Church", he felt that Baptism by a heretic was invalid because it was done outside the Church, yet he argued his position in a civil way and listened to other bishops in North Africa as well as throughout the church.

As we celebrate Saint Cyrpian we are reminded by today's Gospel that it is the people who make up the church. In our dealings with other Christians let our convictions over any issue not get in the way of remembering that all who confess Christ are members of the Body of Christ.

The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister

One of my favorite books, which I began rereading again at the end of my vacation - I haven't had much time to read lately, but I'm working through it - is by Goethe; its called the Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister.

The book follows Wilhelm's attempt to escpape the confinement of every day life... something which actually rings fairly true to many people today. Where he ends up... well that's all part of the story. I won't spoil the book, but its a good read, but his escape turns out to be a road to self-realization and a path to maturity of a sort he never imagined.

As Christians its helpful to remember that we don't always see exactly the path we are on. One thing is certain, if we are following Christ, it means confessing Jesus who died and rose on our lips and in our hearts.

John Henry Hobart

Sermon Preached on Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Year 2, Proper 18, Tuesday, Daily Mass: Psalm 149:1-5, 1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Luke 6:12-19

Today we celebrate John Henry Hobart, who served as bishop of New York at the beginning of the 19th century. Bishop Hobart is remembered mostly for his zeal in growing the disocese of New York. While he was bishop he doubled the number of priests in the discoese and planted new churches in nearly every town in the Diocese. His zeal for spreading the Gospel was contageous and was cought up by the clergy and people of the New York. His efforts not only grew the Episcopal Church, they also evangelized and energized much of New York.

Today we begin Saint Luke's account of the Sermon on the Plain. It is remarkable how Luke narates that Jesus came down from the mountain where he was alone with his disciples to be among all of the people. Whether we consider ourselves church leaders or not, our commission is the same: we are all called to bring the Gospel to all nations and to make Jesus presence known among all people.

The example of Bishop Hobart is a good one. Let the joy and zeal for the Gospel that the Holy Spirit filled him with also fill us so that we can evangelize and energize those around us and make the presence of Christ know to everyone, not as someone who is far off but as someone who is present in their midst.

5 Years after September 11, 2001

Sermon preached on September 11, 2006 at Sung Requiem Mass at Saint Mary's .

For years I played ice hockey; less now than in the past few years, and in fact I haven’t played since 2000. Hockey can be a rough game and in high school I was sent to the hospital with a few broken, cracked, and bruised ribs. To this day, the pain from that injury occasionally bubbles to the surface and my ribs hurt. For me, hockey brings to mind other wounds that haven’t completely healed. I used to play hockey with a bunch of investment bankers and lawyers up at Riverbank State Park. On September 11, a couple of guys who made up my line were killed in the World Trade Center. To this day, every time I think about hockey I think about those guys.

I imagine that each us has a similar story. Some lost family members. Others lost close friends. Others lost people they had worked with or had gone to school with or played with. Others know someone who lost someone dear. All of us have stories that are hard to tell and that cause pain to bubble to the surface like old injuries that never really healed.

I imagine, like me, the stories that we all tell don’t stop there. When I remember those guys I think of the good times we had together on the ice. I think of the goals we scored and the celebrations that we had. I think of the times we banded together to make a stand and hold off the other team. I remember the good times much more than I remember the bad.

All of our readings today remind us that the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s love for all of us. The Wisdom of the Old Testament tells us that the souls who are with God are at peace, suffering no torment and abiding forever in God’s love. Saint John tells us as he describes his revelation that those who are with God do not lack anything, God himself wiping away every tear from their eyes. In our Gospel reading Jesus reminds us that he is the Good Shepherd who will never let anything happen to his sheep. He knows us all by name and no matter where we are, he will find us and bring us home.

One of my favorite Gospel passages is the one where Jesus talks about preparing a place for us in his Father’s house, a house with many rooms. Having died, risen, and ascended, he is now preparing a place for all of us. Every one of us goes home to God and he is waiting for us with open arms and a place prepared. The love of God is amazing and it cannot be overcome by anything, not even death.

I miss my friends, but I know I will see them again. I know I will see them when I meet my Lord and my God and when I experience completely the love of God that I see working in the hearts, hands, and words of people around me: friends, family, strangers.

Today we remember those who died five years ago. In different ways we celebrate their lives. But we come together to celebrate that through the death and resurrection of Jesus they and we have eternal life and we celebrate that through Christ the love of God binds us all together forever. Through the resurrection of Jesus we know that death does not separate us from God or from each other. Jesus promised us that he knows us all by name, and just as Lazarus came out of the tomb when Jesus called his name, so he calls all of us and he gathers us all together: one flock, one shepherd.

I only have one message for you today: Let the love for those we do not see anymore grow in us so that it overflows and shows itself to others. Showing love beyond telling stories and remembering and into showing the love that God has for them and for us to others.

Revised Common Lectionary

Thoughts for the future...

A version of the Revised Common Lectionary (that has not yet been finalized for the Episcopal Church) was offically passed by General Convention this year as the lectionary for the Episcopal church. Personally, I find it troubling that any church would approve of a lectionary that hasn't yet been finished. Be that as it may. In any case, I am doing a complete and thorough analysis (something that also strangely was not available to any delegates at Convention) of the draft ECUSA version of the RCL. I am teaching a class on this at Saint Mary's on October 1st and I will post my results here.

Bread, Sausages, Heretics and Jesus

Sermon preached on August 20, 2006
Proper 15B : Psalm 34:9-14; Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:53-59

For hundreds of years people in the church have been fighting over Holy Communion. What exactly what we are doing in communion? Who can take communion? Who is allowed to do what? What does it all mean? Usually today’s Gospel reading is used as tool in this fight.

I think I can use a recent event in my life to illustrate this.

I celebrated my 30th Birthday party with 30 people and 30 different kinds of sausage. (Please forgive the enormous spelling mistakes in this section of the text) I had bratwurst, knockwurst, bauernwurst, bockwurst, wienerwurst, alpenwurst, kielbasa, hot Italian, sweet Italian, hot chorizo, sweet chorizo, chicken and tomato, duck and armaniac, chicken and cheese, cheese and spinach, brocolirob ropes, soprossata, pepperoni, landjaager, strange unpronounceable French and Belgian sausages, and a bunch more I can’t think of off the top of my head. But why get one of each kind, when you can 5 to 10 of each kind – that’s better even than Noah. If I had to guess, I would say that I cooked a couple hundred sausages that night.

Well, when you cook that many sausages, you run into a problem identifying them at some point. There were plates of sausages that couldn’t be identified because everything began to get mixed together. Nobody could identify for certain what they were eating; all anyone could agree on was that everyone was eating sausage and having a good time.

At my birthday I know I gave someone a Bratwurst that turned out to be an Italian Sausage. I know I gave someone else a mysterious French Sausage that was supposed to be chorizo. Nobody got mad. On some basic level the starting point was that we were all gathered together enjoying sausage together.

Back to the Eucharist. Some argue that the bread and wine becomes the physical body and blood of Christ only remaining like bread. Others temper that slightly by saying that we are truly partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ when we truly partake of the bread and wine. Others claim that Christ is really present in the bread and wine, in some definable way. Still others claim that Christ is really present in the bread and wine, but not in any definable way. Others claim that Communion is a time when we remember Jesus. Others think of the Communion as simply a gathering together showing that we are gathering together. All of these things are supported in various ways by Scripture. Believing strongly in various aspects of our faith is a good thing, but if we begin to hold up parts of what we believe over Jesus’ love for all of us, we run into problems which aren’t helpful for us or the church.

Often Christians move beyond supporting something with Scripture towards condemning other Christians to hell. For example, Roman Catholics begin by speaking of certain “heretical doctrines”. Anglicans have favored phrases such as “repugnant to the plain words of Scripture”. Lutherans like to nail things to church doors. The best though is the oft used phrase: “Satan’s burping whore of Babylon” to describe another denomination.

Was it Jesus who said: “When two or three are gathered together in my name they will find a way to insult and cast out two or three others who are also gathered together in my name.”?

No, actually Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The point of the Eucharist is not gathering together to find out who is toeing the party line and who is not. Using the Eucharist as a tool to claim others are heretics or even the Whore of Babylon isn’t helpful. It doesn’t spread the Gospel and generally it makes all Christians look stupid and mean.

If I were to start a fight at my birthday party because everyone didn’t agree with me over which sausage was which, I’d be a bad host and I’d be missing the whole point of why we were there in the first place.

The point of the Eucharist is gathering together with Jesus in our midst. Jesus offers all of us his body and blood, on the cross as well as in the sacraments of bread and wine instituted at the last supper. Jesus welcomes us all to his table. I do believe that the Body and Blood of Jesus are really present in the Bread and Wine on the altar, but I know that not everyone would agree with what I believe.

I can’t make you believe what I believe, I won’t tell you you’re going to hell because you disagree with me over what is going on in Communion, but I can explain to you why I think belief in the real presence can be a powerful tool of spreading the Gospel and a great witness to Jesus Christ.

Saint Mary’s has historically been a community that holds the presence of Christ in the bread and wine as a very special and amazing thing; nourished by Jesus himself; adoring Jesus in the most holy sacrament; being blessed by his presence; and becoming one with him as he is one with the Father. Saint Mary’s has also historically been a community that uses such an understanding of the Sacrament to welcome all into the mysteries of Christ’s love for all of us without forcing people to sign off on something that has 50 pages of fine print. Saint Mary’s is a place where the grace that fills us when we are in church sends us out into the world to show the same love that God has for all of us to others. We partake of the Body of Christ and we act out our identity as the Body of Christ in the world. The high regard and respect that we hold for the Sacrament is reflected in the high regard and respect that we try to have for one another. Just as Jesus welcomes us to eat with him, so we too do our best to welcome others.

Today I invite you to partake of the Body of Christ. Jesus offers himself to you. Take him and offer his love to someone else. Invite someone to your church to be one with Jesus.

Back from vacation and 30...

This blog has been somewhat slow lately due to vacations, weddings, birthdays, and generally no time to spend on the blog. My apologies, I will try to keep it updated throughout the rest of the Summer and beyond.

My 30th Birthday was last week! The day after I turned 30 I read a message from Father Paschal (a priest at Portsmouth Abbey in RI) published in the Abbey newsletter. I will pass his wise advice on to you. He said that every day, everything (excpet for sin) can be offered up to God. On those days where you find that there isn't enough time to do what you hoped to do, where the isn't enough time to devote your attention to everything you wanted (like this blog!), remember... everything that day can be offered up for service to God, whether it is mundane or not, almost everything we do can be done for the glory of the Lord.

In the morning, devote the new day to God. On a birthday, devote the new year to serving God. When you stumble, devote the challange of rising to God.

Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Today we celebrate the feast day of Jonathan Myrick Daniels. Jonathan Myrick Daniels lived about 50 years ago. He had a life cnaging moment at the church of the Advent in Boston on Easter Day. During the singing of the Magnificat he was moved by the words of Mary to get up and do something.

His response to the Gospel was to join the Civil Rights movement.

Today, tomorrow, and every time you are in church, singing hymns, hearing the Scripture read, praying the Lord's Prayer, or reading passages from the Bible, don't just hear what the Lord is saying to you, heed it. Jonathan Myrick Daniels responded to the Gospel. Tomorrow we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When you hear the words of the Magnificat, read at the Gospel, what will your response be?

Saint Mary Magdalene

Sermon preached on the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, July 21 (Eve) and July 22, 2006
Judith 9:1,11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:14-18; John 20:11-18; Psalm 42:1-7

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years, you've probably heard about Mary Magdalene. She has been dragged through novels, movies, TV shows, magazines, and many other places. If you want fantastic stories that have little to no basis in history then I guess go read the books and see the movies and become facinated.

A little historical background is sometimes helpful. The Gospels that we read in church were all written down within 30 to 50 years after Jesus' death and resurrection. His initial followers began to die off and accurate records of Jesus' ministry were written down from their recollections. These accounts are often blunt and brief. They don't fill in many of the holes that people sometimes want filled, so over the next few centuries other stories began to appear. Most of these are wild tales about Jesus followers and Jesus himself. There are stories about Jesus as a child getting mad at his teacher and killing him, then feeling bad and rasing him up. If you want wild stories, there are plenty of them. The Gospel accounts just aren't wild enough for some people... then or now. It seems that what was true for filling in the holes of Jesus life is also true for filling in the holes in the lives of the saints.

If we actually look at the Gospel accounts we find out all we need to know about Mary Magdalene. She had been possessed by demons, but her encounter with Jesus changed her life. when he healed her. She went looking for Jesus' body after he died and instead she encountered Jesus risen from the dead. She then went and told everyone else.

In our own lives, wouldn't it be great if the final word was... "an encounter with Jesus changed her life... and she went and told everyone else!" Let the Spirit work in your life in such a way that you can overcome whatever is keeping you from telling the Good News to others.

William White

Today the Episcopal church celebrates William White. Bishop White was the first Bishop of Pennsylvania and one of the first Bishops in the Episcopal Church. He is responsible for the system of church organization that the Episcopal Church has - he was ademant that the laity have a role in church decisions.

As laity you have been given a great responsibilty. Take it.

On this day I ask your prayers for all Bishops in the church. Pray that they firmly fix their hearts on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that they direct their dioceses for the spread of his Gospel to all people through word and deed. Pray for all bishops every where.

On the Scriptures

Angelus Article for Sunday. July 16, 2006
The Angelus is Saint Mary's weekly newsletter - archives are available on the Parish Website.
My grandfather spent his life working as a lobsterman; one of his sons was a lobsterman, the other a fisherman. I know that sound advice, a number of nets, traps, and locations of fertile fishing grounds were passed from father to sons. They were given the tried and true methods of fishing.

Like my uncles, I am fortunate to have had a number of things passed down to me. Last week I visited my godfather, a retired priest, in Maryland and went through his bookshelves with him. “This is a must have.” “This is useless.” “You might find this handy.” “I used this every week as part of my sermon preparation.” With such tools and advice from my godfather and other priests (in particular my dad and my colleagues at Saint Mary’s), I am learning the tried and true methods of being a “fisher of men”.

I love telling others about Jesus Christ. I love preaching at Low Mass when there is little more than a moment to instruct the congregation about who Jesus is or what Jesus said and what that means for us. I love preaching at Solemn Mass when there is a little more time to dig deeper into the day’s readings and, hopefully, reveal that much more about Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. I love teaching classes, especially Bible studies. I can’t imagine being able to do any of this without having received what was passed on to me by others.

It’s certainly true that God is revealed to us in the people around us, after all if we truly believe that we are members of the Body of Christ then we see and hear Christ in each other. Jesus has been revealed to me through the words and actions of bishops, priests, deacons, and laity with whom I interacted throughout my life. I learned about Jesus by listening to and talking with professors and students and by reading treatises, commentaries, and histories at Chicago and Yale. From all of these (whether positive or negative examples), I learned that the tried and true methods of Christian ministry rely on being pointed again and again to the gospel of Christ revealed in the scriptures.

It makes perfect sense if you think about it. These Christian leaders, whether they are people living today or people who lived hundreds of years ago are all links in a chain of clergy, theologians, preachers, and other church leaders stretching back to the very apostles that Jesus himself sent into the world to teach and baptize all nations. The apostles and disciples who had followed Jesus during his ministry, who had seen him, spoken with him, and eaten with him after he rose from the dead passed on to others all they knew about who Jesus was and what he had taught them. They used the same Hebrew and Greek scriptures to talk about him that he used to talk about himself. They wrote letters and gospels, and inspired others to write gospels and letters so that there would be an accurate record of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, as well as an accurate record of how Jesus was understood by those who were personally sent out by him to the rest of the world.

The Old and New Testaments have been passed down to us by the church. Christian worship is taken from them. Christian theology interprets them. Christian preaching exposits them. Why? So that Jesus Christ is revealed to us today the same way that he was revealed to the first apostles: as the way, the truth and the life; as our King and our God. The scriptures are not the only way God is revealed to us, but they are the tried and true method of knowing Jesus that has been passed down to us. Like fishing or anything else, we can always go it on our own through trial and error. Maybe I’ll catch a lobster with a fishing pole – I actually did it once by chance – but I can tell you for certain that going out with my grandfather, baiting and dropping traps in fertile lobster waters, and hauling in a catch of more lobsters than you can imagine is the tried and true method of catching lobsters.

This summer, I invite you to encounter Jesus in the exact same way Christians have encountered him for the past two thousand years, read what Jesus himself said, and find out what those who knew him said about him. If you don’t know where to start, read a Gospel or an Epistle or even take up the Daily Office and become familiar with the entire Bible.

A Carpenter

Sermon preached Sunday, July 9, 2006
Ezekiel 2:1-72; Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-6; Psalm 123

Saint Mark tells us that Jesus was a carpenter. When Jesus returns to his own home, his neighbors are astounded at the works and teachings of this man who they know, a mere carpenter. Today’s gospel is not about carpentry, its about faith, but I think carpentry is a good starting point for talking about faith.

I’m no carpenter, but I took five years of woodshop and I worked for a summer at a construction site. An important part of building anything is that you have to be able to look at the materials and see whatever it is you are building in them. Seeing one piece as a leg, another as part of a side, another a joint. All parts to the whole. What may have looked to someone else like a useless pile of wood or bricks for me is a bench or a building… just not finished.

Faith is like that. You see what’s there even when sometimes others are sure they know better. When Jesus returned home during his ministry, some people were amazed at what Jesus had been doing, but his neighbors knew better: they saw the carpenter they already knew everything about. His teaching and his miracles may have been astounding, but at the end of the day, it was just Jesus the carpenter. They responded to him like a visitor to a construction site might respond when shown a pile of bricks: “yeah, its bricks; who cares?”.

His followers on the other hand saw Jesus through eyes of faith. His teaching and his miracles showed without a doubt that God was working through him. After he was crucified, his followers encountered the risen Lord and knew that this Jesus was in fact the Messiah, the Son of God who offered eternal life to all who believed in him. They responded to Jesus like a carpenter or a mason might respond when shown a pile of wood or bricks: “Wow, what are you building! What can I do to help?”

Faith shows us who Jesus is in the exact same way it showed his disciples who he was. We see God working in our lives and even working through us. Through the power of the Spirit acting in the world and acting in our lives we know that Jesus isn’t just a carpenter. We know that Jesus is the Son of God and through him we have eternal life. Sometimes that’s impossible to explain to someone else because they just can’t seem to see what we see and sometimes its because they just claim to know better.

Its like those two blind men Jesus heals in the Mark’s Gospel. The first after being healed said everything looked like trees – that’s what he saw and it took Jesus healing him a second time to show him that what he saw wasn’t the whole story. The same as seeing a pile of bricks as nothing but a pile of bricks. That’s the same as seeing Jesus only as a carpenter.

The second blind man in Mark’s Gospel was healed immediately. He saw everything clearly. The same as seeing a pile of bricks as part of a building. That’s the same as seeing clearly that Jesus is the Son of God.

Faith makes us see things clearly, but that’s only the first step of being a disciple of Jesus. Faith provides us with the opportunity to respond to what we see.

Knowing that Jesus has given us eternal life means that we can let go of everything that ties us to the world and be free to take hold of the cross and the love of God with our whole selves. Saint Paul is a great example of someone who took the opportunity his faith gave him. In the Epistle today we heard how Paul throughout his ministry was able to put aside his physical ailments and ignore the persecutions and insults of others because he had faith in Jesus Christ.

Knowing that Jesus is the Son of God also changes the way we look at everyone else. Through faith we don’t see the people around as part of a world we are leaving behind, but as our neighbors. Neighbors we are called on to love as we would our own brothers and sisters. A great example of how faith changes the way we see each other can be seen right here at Saint Mary’s. We welcome everyone who comes to the door, offering a seat and all of the materials needed to worship. We welcome all Christians to come forward and receive communion. We welcome anyone who is not Baptized to speak to one of the priests and begin the life changing experience of becoming a Christian.

Opportunities for moving closer to God or your neighbor are everywhere. This week, just pick one and cultivate it.

Still on Vacation...

Books conintued:

I finished Flying Colours yesterday after a quick day and a half read (I took the train to Philly and back again - there was nothing to do other than read). Great book!

It reminds me that sometimes things start off slowly and continue to build and build. This book begins slowly and doesn't really seem to go anywhere, slowly getting more and more interesting. By the midpoint, its hard to put it down.

Today I began Commadore Hornblower. The saga is almost done - three more books including the one I just started. What to read next? We'll see!

Vacation....

I'm off for the next 2 weeks, so the sermons will be on hiatus.

However....

Following the lead of my favorite priest I will give updates on the books I am reading and maybe even some of the music I am listening to. After all. Vacation is a time away and there is nothing like music and books.

Books:
I am rereading the entire Hornblower saga right now. The next book (Flying Colours) is my favorite of the series and I am plowing through another favorite (Ship of the Line) to get to it. Maybe I'll start tomorrow? If you have never read teh Horratio Hornblower novels by Forester, I highly recommend them. The Prince may be a great book for (ruthless yet competent) leadership theory, but Hornblower is a wonderful series about a man struggling in the midst of things he cannot control and doing the best he can... and doing it remarkably well.

Music:
A friend of mine who has been sick lately requested Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon to get him through his bedrest. Not a bad choice. I'm a big Floyd fan. However, I have always been a much bigger Rolling Stones fan. One of my favortie albums (ever) is Exile On Main Street. If you think you like Rock, this will be your favorite rock album.

Enough of this... I'm back to vacation!

Our Father

Sermon preached Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Year 2, Proper 6, Wednesday, Mass: Psalm 31:19-24, 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Today is the first day of summer! Do you feel different? Its kind of like asking someone on their birthday: Do you feel older? Sometimes new things don't feel new, we have to grow into them. As the summer wears on we will leave behind our cold weather clothes knowing that its unlikely to dip back to the 50s in July or August. Likewise as the year rolls on after a birthday I always get used to the fact that I am however old I am and leave behind more and more things of my youth.

As we continue reading from the Sermon on the Mount today, Jesus reminds us that life as children of our Father in heaven may not always seem so different than life in the world. We encounter the same temptations as everyone else: to be popular, to be praised, to be important in other people's eyes.

Jesus reminds us that the relationship we have with each other is founded not on a superior relationship with God - prayer and fasting are means of growing closer to God, not of growing farther away from each other - but rather our relationship with each other is built on the fact that through Christ we have become children of God, children who can truly cry out to our Father. This means that although we may not always feel that it is the case, those we might try to impress are actually our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called not to feel superior, but to grow closer to them in the same we we grow closer to God every time we pray.

When you pray the words of the Lord's Prayer, meditate for a moment on the first words: Our Father. Through Christ God is Father of all of us and we are all not just children of God, we are not only heirs of the kingdom, we are brothers and sisters to each other in Christ.

Love your enemy...

Sermon preached on Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Year 2, Proper 6, Tuesday, Mass: Psalm 51:8-13, 1 Kings 21:17-29, Matthew 5:43-48

A good portion of what our Lord teaches can be viewed as a commentary on the Lord's Prayer. Or, from a different pespective, the Lord's prayer acts as a concise summary to everything that Jesus taught.

In Today's Gospel Jesus reminds us that we are not only called to love our neighbors, but also our enemies. The people who with hate me, insult me, offend me, rip down or destroy the things that I love; anyone that might in any way be thought of as an enemy....In addition to my family, my friends and those who agree with me Jesus reminds me I am to love all of my enemies as well.

Often I am sure that my first instict is to try to get back at my enemies, but the words of our Lord remind me that this instruction is no different than the Lord's Prayer which Christians pray whenever they gather together. We prayed it noonday prayer. We will pray it during the Mass today, and many of us will pray it several more times privately or in services throughout the day. Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer we ask our Father to forgive our trespasses and our sins, just as we forgive those who tresspass and sin against us.

At the heart of Christian faith is the revelation of God as our Father. God isn't just my friend and my companion, in fact he isn't even my Father... he is our Father. He is Father to the whole world and through Jesus we have all been made his sons and his daughters. Just as God offers the marvelous gift of creation to everyone - the good and the bad, the just and the unjust - as the sun shines down on all of us, so too we are all called to offer the love that the Spirit has filled us with to everyone regardless of whether they are our neighbors, friends, or enemies.

Today and every time you pray the words of the Lord's Prayer pray for strength not to forget those who sin against you, nor only to forgive those who sin against you, but to love those who sin against you as your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Hot & Cold

Sermon preached Monday, June 19, 2006
Year 2, Proper 6, Monday, Mass: Psalm 5:1-6, 1 Kings 21:1-16, Matthew 5:38-42

Its got to be 100 degrees in here tonight; I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about that. Saint Mary's is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. There are a few days where its just right, but even then, those days where I think its a perfect temperature in the church are days where others thinks its still too cool or still too hot.

It seems to me that worshipping at Saint Mary's throughout the year is like being a Christian in a world full of churches and denominations that can't agree about anything. Somebody is always too hot and complaining about it. Somebody is always too cold and grumbling about it. There are people who are always trying to adjust the temperature to suit their own desires. And of course the are people who find it hard to figure out why the weather is the only thing anyone ever talks about in church when its the worship, not the temperature that we are here for.

In the readings today we saw two responses to a disagreements. The first was to use any means necessary to win the dispute. In this case we heard how King Ahab lied about Nabboth and had him stoned, just to get his vineyard. That reminds me of a man who once demanded that the temperature be exactly as he wanted it in the church, assuming we kept it hot on purpose and not because we don't have AC. In the second we read the difficult words that Jesus offers on the subject. Turn the other cheek when someone strikes you. Give someone your coat if they want it. Go an extra mile with someone who forces you to go somehwere you don't want to go.

Its also possible to interpret these words as weakness and indifference to the reality of life. Afterall, nobody wants to get walked all over, just like nobody wants to be in a building thats 100 degrees just because a handful of people prefer it that hot. But I am not sure that's what Jesus is talking about. I beleive that he is offering us a great gift to remember that what is important to the world need not be our concern.

To return to the heat example, instead of rushing over to the thermostat every time I get uncomfortable or yelling out in the middle of the service that I'm too hot, I can do what most Christians have been doing in the church since the day it opened: set my heart firmly on Jesus. It may sound overly simplistic, but when when someone does something I don't like I find that the more I set my heart on Christ, the less important my original concerns seem to be. Ive noticed that there is always something to complain about. Always something to correct. Always something to get mad about. But I've also noticed that when I concentrate on those things I concentrate less on Jesus. I spend more time trying to figure out how to pay back the person who slapped me and less time trying to do what I can to spread the love of God to others.

Corpus Christi

Sermon preached at the Church of the Advent on Coprus Christi, 2005

“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

Today is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ: Corpus Christi. This is the day that we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus himself. To be more specific, we celebrate Christ’s real presence among us in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. I think Christians, and especially Anglo-Catholic Christians recognize that Jesus is really present in the elements of the bread and the wine. Not just in a spiritual warm and fuzzy way, but in a way where we really do know, and feel and recognize the presence of God among us.

But far too often we as Christians and especially as Anglo-Catholics stop there. We are perfectly happy to come to Mass, partake of Christ and go home. We are sometimes even happier when we can come to Benediction, adore our Lord and then go home satisfied to have been in the presence of God. Satisfied to have entered into his courts with praise and thanksgiving. And satisfied once again to go home and leave Jesus where he belongs in church.

But the real presence of Christ in the sacrament is only the first part of what it means to talk about the Body of Christ. We too are the Body of Christ. When we are baptized we die to this world and we rise again with Christ into eternal life. We are marked not only as Christ’s own forever, but also as part of his Corporate Body forever. Christ is the Head and we, the Church, are his Body. When we eat and drink his Body and Blood at the Mass we are recognizing and partaking of the unity that we already have with Christ from our Baptism. The Eucharist isn’t a magical elixir that brings us temporary closeness to God – that would make it no different than the manna in the wilderness that maintained life. It is the most precious Body and Blood of Christ which was shed for us so that we can be children of God who have eternal life in unity with Christ, now and forever.

The fundamental identity that we have as Christians is not as sinners who occasionally get to be in God’s presence at Mass but who never manage to live up to the bar of perfection that we set for ourselves and for others. We all spend so much time trying to distinguish between sinners and saints that far too often we all fail to see that we all are children of God and we all are one in Christ as members of his Body.

All of those walls that we ourselves build to divide us can’t separate us from the love of God in Christ and no matter how hard we try it just isn’t possible for one part of the Body to tell another part that they aren’t needed or that they are any less important than any other part. The Father’s house doesn’t have penthouses for saints and doghouses for sinners: its one house and we will all be together under one roof. The heavenly banquet that Jesus is preparing isn’t going to take place at different times for different people with different menus to suit all of our personal preferences. When Jesus feeds us, he provides more than enough food for all of us, and the food he gives is his own flesh and his own blood which doesn’t just bring us long and prosperous lives in the land of milk and honey, it brings us eternal life in unity with God.

We have a very personal, close and intimate God. He became fully human – fully God and fully man – died, rose again, and ascended to the bosom of the Father so that nothing could ever separate us and God. He abides in us when we eat his body and drink his blood just as we abide in him when we accept him as our Lord and savior. We are his Body and he is our Head.

Our job, as his Body in the world, is to spread the message of salvation that we already have in Christ by inviting everyone to be baptized into his Body just as Jesus commanded us to do before he ascended; by making sure every single person knows that he or she is welcome at our Lord’s table just as Jesus himself ate with everyone from Pharisees to tax collectors; by letting everyone know what there is more than enough to feed and satisfy us all so that will never hunger or thirst again; and by telling every single person that they don’t need to worry about reserving a room at the Father’s inn in advance. We all already have a room in is how house waiting for us. And Jesus himself isn’t only right here with us, calling us each by name, and showing us the way, he is abiding in us all today and every day. With all of us every step of the way, now and for ever.

Fool!

Sermon preached on Thursday, June 15, 2006
Year 2, Proper 5, Thursday, Mass: Psalm 65:1-5, 1 Kings 18:41-46, Matthew 5:20-26

A quick browse across the world wide web will reveal a few things about people in general. Here's one thing I noticed. We are not opposed to branding each other fools. Whatever the forum may be - political, religious, entertainment, you name it - there is a tendancy to claim that the source of our disagreements must come from the sheer stupidity of the other side.

What saddens me the most is how this way of dealing with problems or disagreements has so consumed most Christian forums, online or otherwise. If I say anything that some other Christian disagrees with, often, the response is simply that I am a fool. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm ignorant.

That may be true, I may be a fool. But in today's Gospel we are reminded by Jesus that how we interact with people who disagree with us is as important as whether or not we are sure we are right. It was the Pharisees who dealt with people who disagreed with them by calling them fools or by casting them out of the community. It was Jesus called his disciples friends and said make friends quickly with people who accuse you.

As I see it, there are two ways to try to do what Jesus is talking about. The first is to shrink the circle of friends I have to a small group that agrees with me about everything. The second is to radically alter that way I deal with people by treating everyone as if they were a lifelong friend. I work hard to make sure that disgareements do not keep me from my best friends, I can work hard to approach disagreements I have with everyone in the same way. If I go the first route - and I think the more seductive and easier route - I will find that at some point my small circle of friends has become just me. If I go the second route I will find that I constantly fall short of living up to my own expectations.

However with the help of God, a with the power of the Spirit, I will find that that gap becomes closer and closer. Pray for the power of God to fill you with the strength to love everyone as much as you love yourself, as much as you love your God. With that power the word "fool" will thankfully escape our lips far less often then the word "friend".

Salt and Light

Sermon Preached Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Year 2, Proper 5, Tuesday, Mass: Psalm 4, 1 Kings 17:7-16, Matthew 5:13-16

There is a tension in many homilies that I have heard or read about the life we are supposed to live as Christians. Often I think in an effort not to sound too preachy, sermons approach Christian living as something we are called to do, but of less importance than believing in Christ. I think the problem is in creating the tenision in the first place.

In today's Gospel our Lord speaks of his followers as salt. I've always had trouble getting my head around this image, but I think I finally see what Jesus is talking about and its much more simple than I would have imagined.

Through Christ we are not simply flavored like Christ in the way that something flavored with salt beocmes salty. Actually, we become Christ in the same was we might become salt, the flavoring agent. We are then able to flavor the world. Its really the same image as the light image. Jesus is the Light, through him we too become the light of the world. Its similar to passing a light by a candle to someone else holding a candle. Once the candle is lit, its lit and it has become a light, not simply brightened up by the other light,.

As Christians, the challenge isn't to become more salty or brighter or more Christlike. We have already become salt, become light, and put on Christ. The challenge for us is to find ways to flavor others with the salt we have become and put ourselves in a place where our light is acting as a beacon to the whole world.

Saint Barnabas

Sermon Preached on June 12, 2006 - the Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle (tranfered)
June 11, Barnabas the Apostle: Isaiah 42: 5-12, Psalm 112, Acts 11: 19-30; 13: 1-3, Matthew 10: 7-16

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Barnabas. Barnabas first appeared on the scene in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is singled out for his generocity: at his conversion to Christianity he sold a large peice of property he owned and gave the money to the church. Later, he went to Antioch and working with many different Apostles, including Paul, Mark, Simeon, and many others he converted many to Christianity. Barnabas was particularly generous with his money and his time and these gifts, combined with the gifts of the Spirit seen in the other Apostles helped to spread the Gospel to new parts of the world.

In some ways, the spread of the Gospel in the early church is like my new razor, the Gillete Fusion - it has five blades on the main razor and one blade on the back. Its awesome! The five razors each work together for a smooth and painless shave. The one razor on the back is small enough to reach places that the five can't go. Although one razor does an alright job and sometimes is necessary to go places a whole group cannot, in general, many razors working together do a fantastic job and do things that one razor could never do alone. Spreading the Gospel likewise takes the gifts of many different people. Sometimes the Spirit fills a specific individual with gifts that allow her to go places and preach in ways that others cannot. But even so, the church still needs all of her members to work in concert with each other, each bringing his or her distinct gifts to the mission of the Church.

On Saint Barnabas' day may the Spirit fill us all to go out into the world generously giving the gifts we have been blessed with to others. Let the Spirit also strengthen the bonds of our common Christianity so that we can work together and spread the Gospel in more ways to more people.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Sermon Preached Trinity Sunday Evensong- Year 2 June 11, 2006
Year 2, Trinity Sunday, Evening Prayer: Ecclesiasticus 43:1-12, 27-33, Revelation 19:4-16,
Ephesians 3:14-21

It’s a trend in parts of the church to avoid the actual names of the Trinity. If you visit 10 churches across the city, there’s a good chance you’ll hear about somebody called the “source” and you will get blessed in the name of a bunch of descriptive nouns. Are descriptions an accurate way to talk about God?

A popular and Biblically accurate way of talking about God is as creator. The author of our first reading from Ecclesiasticus marvels how the wonders of the universe, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the rainbow all show the glory of God, yet his greatest praises of God are in noting that these things fall hopelessly short of actually describing God.

God is the creator. I like large cuts of prime steak. These things are both true. But, if you referred to me as that priest who likes steak you wouldn’t be saying much about me, so too if I refer to God only by a handful of attributes I wouldn’t be saying much about God.

There is this great show hosted by Carl Sagan called Nova that explores the marvels of the universe. Almost every episode Carl Sagan notes that there billions and billions of something in the universe: stars, planets, solar systems. These things are attributes of the universe, but they hardly describe it.

There are billions and billions of ways to speak about God, and to be perfectly honest, God only knows which of those is accurate and none of these descriptions actually attain God. Through the name of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we know God as both infinitely personal and infinitely incomprehendable.

Saint Augustine concluded his book aptly titled “On the Trinity”, with a prayer to God: A wise man, in that book we name Ecclesiasticus spoke thus concerning thee: “We speak many things, and yet attain not: and the sum of our words is: ‘He is the all.’” When therefore we shall have attained to thee, all those many things which we speak, and attain not, shall cease: one shalt thou abide, all things in all; one shall we name thee without end, praising thee with one single voice, we ourselves made also one in thee. O Lord, one God, God the Trinity, whatsoever I have said in these books that comes of thy prompting, may thy people acknowledge it: for what I have said that comes only of myself, I ask of thee and of thy people pardon. Amen.

There is nothing wrong with descriptions of God, but my starting point when I name God is as he was revealed by Jesus to his followers: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – I don’t start with obvious and often unhelpful descriptions but begin with a God with whom I have a personal relationship.

When I name God as my Father I name myself as one of his children. When we name God as our Father we name ourselves as children of God.

Just as Jesus was baptized and named Son of God, so too we are baptized, named a son or daughter of God, and name ourselves and each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Just as Jesus died and rose from the dead, so we as children of God can have faith that we will rise to eternal life as well. Just as Jesus ascended to his Father’s house, so too we can have faith that we will all have room prepared for us in our Father’s house.

By naming God as Spirit, we name the Spirit who descended on Jesus at his Baptism and filled the apostles and gave them power to preach the Gospel to all nations, as the same Spirit who descended upon us at our Baptism and works in us to spread the love of God to the world.

This personal relationship comes from the fact that God is Father, Son and Spirit and it is dramatically different from the world where people often don’t treat each other like fellow human beings, let alone like loved ones. This relationship with God and each other can’t be gleaned from marveling at the sun, moon, and stars or even the rainbow. It can only be revealed by God himself: Jesus Christ.

We praise God as Father, Son, and Spirit every day. But it is today that we stop for a moment to truly appreciate the gift that Jesus has given us by revealing God as more than our creator, more than our redeemer, more than any descriptive word can possibly say about God. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saint Boniface

Sermon Preacher on Saint Boniface Day, Monday, June 5, 2006
Year 2, Proper 4, Monday, Mass: Psalm 91:1-7; 2 Peter 1:2-7; Mark 12:1-12

Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint Boniface. Boniface lived about 1300 years ago. He was a monk in England who wanted to do missionary work. He went to the area now known as the Netherlands and was not very successful. After a trip to Rome, he was sent to Germany. There he was a fantastic missionary. He built up communities and churches. He was so successful, that he was made bishop and eventually archbishop and finally was given a permanaent see in Mainze. As great a missionary as he was, he was an even better Bishop and the work he did for the church as a Bishop helped set the course of Christian history for hundreds of years. After he retired he returned to the area now known as the Netherlands to continue mission work. There he was martyred by pagans.

Sometimes, the Spirit calls us to do things that we might not expect to do or even things that we don't really want to do. Boniface always wanted to be a missionary in the Netherlands, but the Spirit called him to Germany. The Spirit even called him to be a bishop instead of a travelling missioner.

The Spirit calls each of us in different ways. Sometimes it calls us to do things that are unexpected. Listen to the Spirit and open your heart to his guidance. Often when we are doing God's work in the world it is not what we expected to be doing. What is the Spirit calling you to do?

Deep Concerns!

Sermon preached on June 3, 2006, Easter 7, Saturday:
(Acts 28:16-20, 30-31, Psalm 11:4-8, John 21:20-25)

Being a priest means getting fun mail and email fairly often. A good amount of the email or snail mail that I receieve seeks to address some deep concern the writer has for the church I am working at (Saint Mary the Virgin in Times Square). Let me give you two examples.

Recently I recieved a letter going on about how aweful we were because we are a Roman Catholic church (actually, we are not; we are an Episcopal Church) and how the Roman Church has been unbiblical since the Emperor Constantine introduced all sorts of Pagan practices into the church, such as Sunday worship (actually he didn't do that, the disciples did that, its in John, Paul, and Acts among other NT places), how we worship saints and statues (actually we don't, all of our prayers are addressed to God), and how none of the things we apparently did were attested to in the Bible. I've gotten numerous letters like this over the last two years and had many conversations that were very similar. Defending my parish and Western Christianity against these wild accusations and pointing out the many inacuracies in the letter would have been an exercise in futility, but I was tempted to write a brief comment about the fact that the Bible he was so sure had all the answers was inextricably tied to the Church that he hated so much. After all, the Church gave us the Bible as well as all of the traditions and customs that he finds so unbiblical.

I get many emails from people who are deeply concerned about various things as well. Usually the emails are liturgical complaints written in such a way as to just be borderline nasty (but not quite). A recent email wondered about the dating of a certain feast during the year and how we could break with tradition by celebrating it on a Sunday rather than on a Thursday. In an effort to be helpful, I replied the reasons why we do what we do. This of course initiated a barrage of emails nitpicking various things in my repsonse. Again, it would have been pointless to argue with someone who needed so badly to be right about things that he wasn't even involved in, still I was tempted.

Both of these examples, and many like them, are no different than the every day encounters all Christians have with the world. The world, be it in the church or outside, is deeply concerned with details and often we are all tempted to wade into the deep waters of deatils. Details are often important, but when you or I resort to nastiness, anger and outright hatred to ensure that the details we find important are correctly observed by everyone else, then we've got a problem. If I spend all of my time making sure I'm right and correcting the many mistakes I see in others, then I am not going to have any time to spend following Jesus, let alone any time showing others that despite all of the errors we all make, Jesus still loves us.

How are we to navigate a world (and a church) where details are important and still be disciples of Christ? One way is to set our hearts firmly on the pilrgim way. Jesus reminded Peter not to be overly concerned with the fate of the Beloved Disciple. He simply asked him to feed his sheep and follow him. By accepting the direction of the Holy Spirit and using the gifts he has given us to point others towards Jesus, we will find, I think, that we will be less concerned with what others are doing wrong and more concerned with showing the love of God to others, regardless of whether they are on our side or not. As we follow Christ, may we alwasys pray the Spirit to help us seek first the kingdom of God.

Pentecost: Gifts of the Spirit

Sermon Preached Sunday, June 4, 2006
The Day of Pentecost: Psalm 104:25-37, Acts 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:4-13, John 20:19-23

Today we celebrate the work that the Church has done through the power of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate that the commission given by Christ to spread the gospel to whole world has been followed. Our work is not done, but today we celebrate this feast on the other side of the world from Jerusalem, knowing that the power of the Spirit has shown the love of God to the ends of the earth.

Pentecost isn't specifically about the giving of the Spirit, its more about being filled with the Spirit and using the gifts that the Spirit gives to go out into the world. In our first lesson from Acts we see how the disciples were filled with the Spirit and they began to preach the good news to those around them. The Acts of the Apostles narrates how the various Apostles continued to spread the Gospel accross the known world.

How did they do it? They used with the gifts that the Spirit gave them to spread Christ's Gospel. They didn't all have the same gifts and they didn't spread the Gospel in the same way. On the first Pentecost we see how the Apostles spoke to the people in many different languages. It wasn't just Saint Peter speaking in all those different languages, it was the different apostles speaking different languages to different people.

I look around at the Apostles who grace the walls of this church and think: 'how can anyone live up to that?" I don;'t know all of those languages, I don't have all of those gifts? I look on my life and wonder how often someone has said that I was letting them down in Jesus' name because I couldn't do what they asked of me. I didn't have the money they needed or the time they wanted me to spend with them. On Pentecost I am reminded that the different Apostles each had different gifts. I am also reminded that I know languages they didn't speak that day.

You and I have many gifts, but our gifts are not the same. One person might be given the gift of being the legs of Christ in the world, spreading the gospel to others. Perhaps another is given the gift of being the hands of Christ in the world, showing God's love to those around him. Perhaps anothers is being the arms of Christ, comforting those in need. Perhaps yours is being the body of Christ, showing God's presence to those who are alone in this world.

If I try to be everything for everyone, I will find that I am letting some people down. When I worry that I can't be all things for all people I remember that neither could the apostles. I think the apostles would be amazed at the various gifts that we all have. I think they would tell us to cultivate the gifts we have, learn how to use them to spread the Gospel, and find those gifts that we have but aren't using.

Today is a celebration of the work that we have all done, beginning with the Apostles and continuing today to us here in the church. All of this work has been accomplished because God has filled us all with his Spirit. Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. Let us cultivate the gifts he has given us, and find and use gifts that we never knew we had.

Disciples Then and Now

Preached on Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at Low Mass.
(Easter 6, Tuesday: Acts 16:16-34, Psalm 138, John 16:5-11)

On Thursday we will celebrate Jesus' Ascension to the Father. In today's reading from Saint John's Gospel Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for his death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father. The disciples fears were justified. What were they to do if they lost their founder and leader?

As we read through the Acts of the Apostles throughout Eastertide we see how they responded. We see the various apostles’ lives mirroring Jesus’ life: they proclaim the kingdom of God by preaching, gaining new disciples, and even performing miracles; they are put on trial, persecuted, and killed by Jewish and Roman leaders.

They were able to move beyond their fear because Jesus had given them the gift of the Holy Spirit. A Counselor who could help them to interpret scripture, help them to recall what Jesus had taught, and help them to understand Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. A Guide who could lead them out into the world and help them spread the good news of Christ. An Advocate who could help them preach, teach, and perform signs to show the world that God was with them.
A Comforter to fill them with the knowledge that God was still with them even if Jesus had ascended to the Father and the knowledge that God was with them no matter what, even if they were put on trial and persecuted.

The issue of a church whose head and founder has been gone for 2000 years remains to this day. One of the toughest questions that I, as a Christian, have to answer is how I can base my whole life on someone who died 2000 years ago. What proof can I give that Jesus rose? What proof can I give that there is such a thing as eternal life? What proof can I offer to back up Saint Paul’s claim that all you need to do is believe in Jesus and you will be saved?

There is no one answer to the question: “why do you believe in Jesus?” Any answer that comes from the Spirit that dwells within anyone who follows Christ is right. It is through the power of the Spirit that we too mirror the life of Jesus. It is through the Spirit that you and I proclaim the kingdom of God by preaching, gaining new disciples, and performing signs; it is through the Spirit that when we are put on trial we have an answer and if we are persecuted we can endure.

When you and I cultivate and use the gifts that we have been given by the Spirit, we show the love of God to the world and our very lives prove that the lord has risen indeed!

Growing Peppers

Preached on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at Solemn Evensong & Benediction.
(Year 2, Easter 6, Sunday Evening Prayer: Ecclesiasticus 43:1-12, 27-32; James 1:2-8, 16-18;
John 6:27-35)

My wife and I have a garden on our roof-deck. Knowing that I am a novice gardener, suppose you and I were on the roof deck, and I showed you an empty flower pot and said: “Look, I’m growing chili peppers!”. You might say: “Where? I don’t see anything.” I would say: “Oh, I guess they haven’t started growing yet, so you can’t see them.” You might say: “Ah, when did you plant them?” “Oh, no”, I would say, “I haven’t planted them yet.” You would probably say to me: “You aren’t growing peppers at all. Saying you are growing them isn’t the same as actually growing them. You need to plant them and take care of them as they grow. That’s what it means to be a gardener.”

In general, the Epistle of Saint James is concerned with the problem of Christians who claim to have faith, but don’t act out that faith in their lives. This is what he is talking about when he warns all believers not to be double-minded. He says that if Christians truly are the first fruits of the new creation, then they ought to look like it.

The church has always been concerned that for some faith is nothing more than hollow words, you might say that the Epistle of James is the official voice of this concern. Taken to the extreme, this can be used to prove that someone is a Christian while someone else is not. I don’t think that James is raising a bar that is impossible to live up to, nor do I think that he overly concerned with the occasional test of my faith that I pass or fail, instead I think he is offers an encouraging reminder that being a Christian is more than just claiming to be a Christian.

To return to the garden image, he’s not concerned with how big the chili peppers have grown, nor is concerned with the fact that sometimes I forget to water the chili peppers or even with the fact that on some days I just don’t want to water them. He’s concerned with that fact that I am telling you I am growing chili peppers when I haven’t even planted them.

James encourages everyone who says they believe in Jesus to continue moving towards Christ. Saint James is not scolding me for being a bad gardener, instead he’s offering his help on where I can get some seeds, and how I should plant them, and what I need to do to make sure they grow. He’s not going to report me to God because I was too lazy to water my garden for three days in a row, instead he is reminding me that I won’t have any chili peppers if I don’t water my garden. He’s not condemning me to hell because of the fact that my chili peppers were fewer and smaller than they could have been, instead he’s comforting me with the fact that I can become a more experienced gardener over time if I put my heart into it and if I carefully tend my garden.

I think that on some level being a gardener is actually very similar to being a Christian.

Being a Christian is more than just a title, more than just an occasional checkup; its a way of life. Sometimes what we have grown does wither a little bit or doesn’t grow as well as it might, but enduring such trials brings the knowledge that what has withered can grow strong again. Enduring trials also brings that knowledge that a little more care and maintenance can prevent going through the trial the next time around.

Saint James also teaches that encouragement is more than telling someone else that they are wrong. Encouragement is offering guidance to those who are in doubt, offering a helping hand to those who are in need, and being there to say that our Lord loves us regardless of what fruit we grow.

The Conversation

Preached on Thursday, May 18, 2006 at Low Mass.
(Easter 5, Thursday: Acts 15:7-21, Psalm 96:1-10, John 15:9-11)

Have you ever had one of those conversations where you were talking to someone about something and then suddenly you find you are talking about something else, and they you move off onto another tangent, and before you know it, the conversation is about something entirely different and you can’t remember what you were first talking about? Sometimes, that makes for stimulating conversation, but usually it makes for nothing more than interesting small talk and pointless babble.

Life in the church can be like that as well. Throughout Eastertide we read the Acts of the Apostles, and its amazing to see in Acts how often the work of spreading the gospel gets sidetracked by discussions about other issues. Throughout the early church there were many different issues that often changed the conversation from being about Jesus to being about something else. Some of the earliest disciples seem to have been more interested in bickering about whether or not Jewish customs ought to be observed by Gentiles than in talking to others about Jesus. The second century church was often more concerned with casting out members who had publicly rejected Jesus in the face of persecution than in unconditionally forgiving them. The third century church was often more interested in rebaptizing people who had been baptized by bad clergy than they were in baptizing new members. Its not that the issues themselves weren’t important, the problem is there has been a tendency by many Christians to forget that the conversation is about Jesus and not about the issue.

In our own church there are many things that can distract us from the fact that it is by the grace of God that we are saved and given eternal life. We can’t earn it, we can only believe and accept this grace and abide in this free gift of love from God. No matter what part of the current conversation of the church we might be interested in, it is always of utmost importance to remember that God loves us all unconditionally. When we abide in that love we realize that many of the things that we care so much about, that we think are the conversation, turn out to be things that are nothing more than distractions which keep us from accepting the grace of God in our own lives and seeing it in the lives of those we are talking to.