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.