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.

The Vinedresser

Preached on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at Low Mass.
(Easter 5, Wednesday: Acts 15:1-6, Psalm 122, John 15:1-8)

Since the time of the apostles Christians have had disagreements over every imaginable topic. When dealing with the disagreements that we face today and tomorrow, we can learn much from the early Christian disagreement over circumcision.

From the Acts of the Apostles, as well as from Saint Paul’s letters we know that there was a heated dispute over whether converts to Christianity who were not Jewish ought to observe the law of Moses and be circumcised. Some on each side of this dispute didn’t only want to win because they thought they were doing the will of God, they also refused to recognize those with different views as Christians. In fact, we are told in Acts that this same group was responsible for trying on several occasions to assassinate Saint Paul and in the end it was through their efforts that Paul was imprisoned for many years and sent to Rome to stand before Caesar.

Yet, Jesus himself who reminds us that we are not to act as judge against one another. He uses the image of the vine to underscore this point. He says that we are like branches on a vine. We are part of him as well as part of each other. Jesus expects that the branches which are on his vine will grow fruit, but he doesn’t want the branches to decide whether or not they are growing fruit. After all, a branch cannot bear fruit if it is spending all of its time trying to tell other branches what fruit they ought to grow. Jesus tells us not to worry about whether certain branches are fruitful or rotten because the Father is the vinedresser and he will remove the branches that are rotten.

Christians have always had disagreements and that’s ok. Every single person experiences God in different ways, but we are all branches on the same vine. When Christians disagree, a good path through our disagreements is to remember that all Christians are branches on one vine. We can spend our time trying to figure out who is rotten and who is fruitful, but in the end that only distracts us from our calling to bear fruit in Christ.

The Peace of God

Preached on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 at Low Mass.
(Easter 5, Tuesday: Acts 14:19-28, Psalm 145:9-14, John 14:27-31a)

Often when people talk about peace, they speak as if peace were the same thing as security and safety. Life is full of things we all use to keep us and our things secure: homes with locked door after locked door, alarms, passwords, combinations, and keys; circles of friends that rarely expand; and of course borders that keep us in and other people out. Not only does every safety net have holes; everything that I am safeguarding will at some point crumble away and be forgotten.

The need for endless layers of security and safety stems from fear and it does not lead to peace at all. The Peace which Jesus speaks about is not security or safety. In fact it seems to be the opposite: it’s the peace to be able to let go of all the fears that keep us holding on to things that will fade and separated from all the people that we’ve never met. Having that Peace doesn’t mean I should drop everything and live without a care in the world, but it does mean that I am called to live my life moving forward to the unexpected and not try always to stay in the same place doing the same things with the same people.

After Jesus’ death, the first thing his disciples did was to gather in a room and lock the door. They were afraid and they responded to this by closing themselves off from the world and locking the door. Jesus appeared to them in the middle of the locked room. He said to them: "Peace be with you," and he sent them, as we all are, to leave behind their locked up lives and go forth into the world spreading the good news of the risen Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles we see how through the work of these same disciples a door of faith was opened not only to the Jews in Jerusalem but Gentiles throughout the whole world.

The Peace of God takes us beyond false security and fear. It is spread to others by sharing the knowledge and love of God with one another, with our friends, with our neighbors, with those we don't know and have never met and even with our enemies. Like the first disciples may each of us unlock our hearts so that we too can spread the Peace of God to each other and be an open door for the love of God to pass through to all people.

Palm Sunday

Matthew Hoxsie Mead
Sermon 5: Palm Sunday
Expository Preaching
R. Wilson, D. Bartlett, A. Nagy-Benson

Palm Sunday: Blessed is the coming kingdom!

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We began the celebration this morning by meeting in the parking lot, blessing palms, and singing hymns in procession as we walked around the block with palms in our hands. Palm Sunday starts as one of the most jubilant Sundays of the year as we read about Jesus triumphantly riding a donkey into Jerusalem, fulfilling the prophesy made by the prophet Zachariah hundreds of years earlier. It is a day that acts as a prelude to the celebration of Easter, a day when we get to take in some fresh air, sing some great psalms and make little figurines and crosses out of our palms. Its a lot of fun and in many ways we experience a joy that probably was not unlike the joy that the crowds around Jesus experienced.

Yet, even as we have just begun to celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we take part in the reading of his passion and death on the cross. There is a clear tension between the two events. One the one hand, the entry into Jerusalem is a wonderful, moving moment when the guy we’ve been rooting for all along finally seems to get his due. He makes his move, rides into the city, and the crowds go wild! On the other hand, we are reminded immediately that this moment of earthly glory will not last very long. Holy Week has begun and the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus has moved to the forefront of our minds this day.

Our liturgy today helps to bring out this start contrast even more. As the service progresses we move away from palms and towards the passion itself: beginning with a procession, reading the passion narrative, celebrating the Eucharist and leaving in silence. Traditionally, the service itself bears two names, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. As Christians with 20/20 hindsight, we know that Jesus’ triumph will be completed in his death and resurrection on the cross and for this reason we really don’t have a huge problem with that tension, with that shift from celebration to ominous waiting for the last hours of Jesus.

Those who were with him as he entered Jerusalem probably did not expect that Jesus would be condemned to death and killed only a few days later, but that doesn’t mean that they did the wrong thing by making his entry a moment of triumph and joy. They cried out: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" Hosanna is one of those Hebrew words that is kind of hard to translate but it basically means “save us”. The people were literally crying out for a savior and in Jesus they recognized that they had found one. They recognized that there was something special in Jesus.

Their cry brings to mind Jesus’ own words as he opened his ministry. The Evangelist Mark tells us that Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming that the time has come and the kingdom of heaven is near. The crowds with Jesus likewise call out, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” With Jesus death and resurrection the kingdom truly has come, but that moment is still a few days off.

Like the crowd with Jesus, our own worldly perspectives try to name that kingdom so that we know exactly what we are all talking about; we try to make sure we totally understand what’s going on. In a sense, we try to put that kingdom in an enveloper with a nice, neat, clean label on it. Every year after I do my taxes I make copies of all of my documents and I seal everything up in a yellow envelope and label it: “Taxes, 2002”. We like order and we like to know what we have in front of us. Its a very helpful thing to know exactly what is in an envelope so that I don’t have to think about it, or shuffle through the documents inside to see what I’m dealing with. Similarly, although Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom was near, the crowds proclaimed that the kingdom of David was near.

Again, we see another contrast, more tension between the words of Jesus and the words of the crowd. Jesus proclaimed a heavenly kingdom but the crowds were expecting an earthly kingdom. They wanted something but they wouldn’t get it. What they would get would be far greater than they could possibly imagine. There is a wonderful song by the Rolling Stones that came out in 1969 called, You Can’t Always Get What You Want. The chorus of the song explains that you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need. You get what you need. Well, what did they need? What do we all need?

The answer to that lies in the word Hosanna. Like the crowds with Jesus we need to be saved. We might want that to be an earthly salvation where everyone gets exactly what he or she wants. I want a new car, a big house, peace on earth, good food for every meal and no more worries ever again. We can all think of things that we think would make us perfectly happy forever. Yet, the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed was one that could only be brought about by his death. By dying and rising, Jesus gives us eternal life, a kingdom we cannot imagine in our own worldly terms, a kingdom we cannot name or label quite as easily as we might like, a kingdom that we need. Jesus death and resurrection brings eternal life to those who believe in him. Not just eternal life in heaven, but eternal life that begins here and now.

As people who have heard the story before, seen it on TV, or even seen it in the movies or in plays, we know that Jesus must die. We know this and every year we follow him through that entire process, from its triumphal beginning at the gates of Jerusalem all the way to his resurrection in glory on Easter. It is a long and difficult process to go through. Every Holy Week we participate in the last supper on Maundy Thursday, the waiting and struggle in the garden Thursday night, the gruesome crucifixion on Good Friday, and at long last Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on Easter. Today we begin that process.

As we go through Holy Week together this year, remember that the true triumph is the cross. Without the cross we only have fleeting images of earthly kingdoms that are neither perfect nor what we really need. Without the cross we do not have eternal life. Palm Sunday is a somber occasion because we know the details of the passion that is going to be played out this week. Yet, it is also a joyous occasion because we know that at the end of it all Jesus will be redeemed and he will redeem us. He will rise from the dead and usher in a new kingdom of eternal life.

For this reason we cry out together, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" Say it one more time with me: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" Thanks be to God, Amen.

Psalm 51

Preached at Saint James Church, Fairhaven

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

When I was growing up, I went each year to the Saint Michael’s Conference, a one week retreat for high school and college age Episcopalians, led by about a dozen Anglo-Catholic clergy in New England. One of the things that we were taught how to do at Saint Michael’s was how to give our sacramental confession. We were taught to examine ourselves and make a list of all of our sins. When we felt that we had thoroughly examined ourselves, we made our confessions. I always felt much fresher and cleaner after going to Confession at Saint Michael’s because I was able to do a very thorough examination of my soul and confess to God everything that I could remember – not just the really bad things, but also the everyday sins and habits that might not weigh so heavily on me. It was sort of like that feeling you get on a beautiful summer day when you have just taken a shower and you feel refreshed, happy, and care free.

Today is the last Sunday of Lent. Lent is the season of repentance leading up to Easter. The readings and liturgy for Lent stresses this idea, so that by the time Easter arrives we have been given ample opportunity to examine ourselves. You may have noticed that each week we say the Confession at the start of the service. You may also have noticed that today’s Psalm was read at the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. It is very fitting therefore that we again read Psalm 51 as Lent comes to a close. Today let’s take a careful look at confession, repentance, and forgiveness.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my offenses. Wash me through and through from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Sin separates us from God. When we sin we are putting our own wishes before those of God. The first step in repentance is examining ourselves and knowing our transgressions. The psalm writes: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” It is impossible to repent unless you can identify your sins. Do you remember the story of King David and Bathsheba? In this story, David, the king of Israel does some pretty bad stuff. He sleeps with a married woman and gets her pregnant and he has the woman’s husband, Uriah, sent to frontlines of the ongoing war where he is killed. However, when David is confronted about this he admits his guilt and says: “I have sinned against the Lord.”

When we sin, we must recognize and admit that we have sinned. When we say the general confession we say: “we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” God knows everything, and He knows what we have done and what we have not done. Even though God knows what we have done, we still must admit what we have done. In the case of David, he admitted that he had sinned. In our own lives, we apologize to others for wrongs we have done to them. When we are mean to our friends, we apologize. We say: “I’m sorry for saying such mean things to you, I was wrong to do that.” We must do the same with God. We must confess what we have done.
Confession of what we have done is only the first part. We must also repent. When we repent, we turn from the life of sin we have been living and we point ourselves toward God. At some point in our lives, all of us have gotten lost. Whether we are driving or walking around in an unfamiliar place, we have all at some point gotten lost. When we are lost we try to find our way to somewhere where we know or we try to get ourselves on the right road or going in the right direction. Once when I was driving to wedding in Utica, I took a wrong turn at Albany and instead of heading west, I headed north for about an hour. As soon as I figured out I was going the wrong way, I turned my car around and I went the right way.

Repentance is just like this. Once we realize that the sin we have committed is separating us from God, we turn and follow a path that will not separate us from God. It isn’t enough simply to say, I have sinned, and continue business as usual. Imagine if instead of turning around I had just kept going north until I had left New York, left the United States, and come into Canada. I would never had made it to the wedding and my trip would have been a huge waste of time. Nobody keeps going the wrong way when he finds out that he is going away from where he wants. Nobody intending to fly to Denver, yet finding herself on a plane to Detroit would stay on the plane. We would all get off and make sure we were headed in the right direction. Why should we act any different when our life and soul are concerned? When we say the Confession, or when we go to individual sacramental confession, we must not only identify our sins, we must also intend not to do them again. We must intend to amend ourselves and attempt to live a more Godly life.

Yet, it is hard, we all sin and we all struggle through our lives trying to avoid sin. We all struggle with certain sins which we really don’t want to stop. My father, who is an Episcopal priest once taught a confession class at Saint Michael’s Conference. When someone asked him, “Well, what about all of those things that I confess as sins but I know I am going to go right out and do them as soon as I can. Not only that, but I want to go out and do them.” My father responded that there were many levels of intention. You can intend to intend to stop doing those things. You can even intend to intend to intend to stop something. Our sins

A New War (alternate version)

MATTHEW HOXSIE MEAD
GOSPEL OF MARK
DAVID BARTLETT, ALLEN HILTON
MARCH 30, 2003
SERMON 2: MARK 8:27-38

Note: content from this alternate version of my sermon for class was used in the sermon for Lent 2 (10 Commandments) below.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

You may have noticed that we have a new carpet today at the front of the church. When I was last here two weeks ago we had just moved the pews out and there was a rather barren space at the front up here; this is a welcome change. I think that the rug has made our worship space more comfortable and given it a warmer feeling.

Change is nothing new, in fact we have recently experienced a great change that has affected us in many different ways. A few days ago our nation went to war. We all have a sense of unease about war. Aside from the terrible nature of war and the obvious effects and dangers it has for those who are directly involved in it, we have questions that cannot easily be answered and fears that cannot easily be addressed. How will the war affect us as a nation? How will it affect us individually? How long will the war last? How will it affect our safety and security? Will there be more terrorist attacks? Will it affect our jobs? How will it affect our daily lives? What does it mean for me to be a Christian during a war?

Amidst all the TV watching, newspaper reading, and discussions about the war, you may have noticed that we have settled into Lent, albeit with other things on our minds. Normally, Lent is an opportunity for us, as we prepare for Easter, to try to become closer to God through various acts of piety. We do this by giving up things and occasionally taking on new challenges, adding new disciplines to our lives, or avoiding certain things. Whatever act of piety we may pick up and drop off after forty days, whatever state of mind we might be in, whether we are at peace or at war, in good times or bad times, whether we have a new rug or not we are reminded today that there are many things that change.

Life, in fact, is a series of never ending changes. From the time when we are children until we grow up, we are constantly changing and the world around us is constantly changing. Sometimes, everything seems to be going very well. Other times things are not so good. Things change and because of that, often we carry a great amount of uncertainty with us.

Today’s Gospel speaks to us today, amidst all of the uncertainty and change that we have experienced recently as well as throughout our whole lives. We hear today a two part story. In the first part, Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah. In the second part, Jesus corrects Peter by explaining what kind of Messiah he will be and explains that something beyond what we can see and touch is necessary. Our story begins when the disciples were asked by Jesus: "Who do you say I am?" Peter replied: “You are the Christ.” After this identification, Jesus said that he must suffer, be killed, and after three days rise again. This was something that was very hard for the apostles to understand. Even Peter, refused at that moment to accept that this must happen because he had a worldly idea of what a Messiah was supposed to do and be.

What was a Messiah was supposed to do and be? During Jesus’ life and for many years after it, Jerusalem and the entire surrounding region was under the control of the Roman Empire. In many places, the Romans were resented and hated because they were oppressive outsiders who treated the locals with contempt and taxed them heavily. It was hoped that someday a Messiah would come and restore Israel to its former glory. People hoped for a worldly king who would come and kick the Romans out and restore the old kingdom like it had been under King David. This type of Messiah was not supposed to suffer and die, rather this Messiah would make the Romans suffer and would come in power and victory. All of the problems in the world would go away with this Messiah.

Most likely, it was this type of Messiah that Peter himself hoped for. It is therefore no surprise at all that he could not understand or accept that Jesus had to suffer and die. The Messiah that Peter had in mind was one that would satisfy and address all of Peter’s worldly cares. He had put all of his worldly hopes into Jesus and suddenly they had been dashed. Jesus scolded Peter by saying: “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.

Jesus continued on to explain to Peter that it would be difficult road ahead, one must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus.

It is very hard to put our Lord Jesus Christ before the things that we see and do every day. Just as Peter was unable to let go of his worldly view of what a Messiah should be, we too are often unable to let go of our worldly cares, even for a moment. After all, all of the problems in the world did not go away with Jesus. Life is hard enough when you are concentrating on it full time. In addition to working, shopping, cooking, sleeping, taking care of our families, paying our bills, paying our taxes, keeping the house in order, and spending time with our friends, we also have to worry about what is going on around us in the world.

It is for this very reason that we often attempt to maintain certain disciplines for the forty days of Lent. The disciplines that we try to maintain for ourselves in Lent are about bringing us closer to God and resetting our priorities so that we put the things of God and not our own things first. During Lent we do not forget about our worldly cares, to do so would be crazy! No, we simply attempt to make a more concerted effort to put God first in our lives.

The poet Shel Silverstein wrote a funny parody of the classic childrens bedtime prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep”. His parody goes: “Now I lay me down to sleep and pray to God my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray to God my toys to take, so none of the other kids will get them.” We all laugh, but this underscores exactly how much we all really do care about what we have and how we live. But in the long run, we leave this world and everything in it behind. If we put all of our worldly cares and concerns at the forefront of our lives and forget about God, what good does it do us in the long run?

Jesus asks us this same question: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” It is very hard to deny our worldly desires and put Jesus first anytime, but it can be especially hard to trust ourselves to God when we are uneasy or afraid and there are very scary things happening in our world. Even the great disciple Peter was unable to put aside his worldly cares.

War or no war, Lent or no Lent, rug or no new rug in the church, there is always one constant: God’s love. God’s love is there for us no matter what changes we are going through. Whether we are in good times or bad times, whether we are at ease or struggling, God is with us. Now, we have questions and fears and we worry that life will get more difficult. Struggling through life is nothing new. Saint Paul went through many struggles and eventually was martyred in Rome. Yet, throughout all of his struggles he also knew that he could never be separated from the love of God. Listen to what he writes in the 8th chapter of his letter to the Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:38-39]

My message to you today is to open your hearts to God, trust in God and put your faith wholehearted in Jesus Christ. By placing your whole trust in Jesus you can be assured that no matter what he will be with you. Trust in Jesus, put Him first in everything you do and have faith that through good times or bad times, through life and through death He is with you and He loves you.

We are in the middle of Lent now but in a few weeks Lent will be over. We are at the start of a war but at some point that war too will be over. The things of this world are fleeting – honest to God they are – they come and go. They change and they change often and unexpectedly. Some are good some are bad, but even if we gain the whole world we still lose it all in the end. Even if we have everything we want, even our own worldly Messiah, we still have nothing if the love of God is not in us. Reset your own priorities so that Christ is at the forefront of your life because Christ transcends not only life and death but everything in the world that has ever happened or is happening now or will every happen. The Gospel of John tells us that eternal life begins now with faith in Jesus Christ. Put our Lord God Jesus Christ at the forefront of your life now and know that no matter what happens, nothing, not even death itself can separate you from his love.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

A New War

MATTHEW HOXSIE MEAD
GOSPEL OF MARK
DAVID BARTLETT, ALLEN HILTON
MARCH 30, 2003
SERMON 2: MARK 8:27-38

Note, that much of the material for this sermon was used in the Lent 3 Sermon (below) at Saint James.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

You may have noticed that we have a new carpet today at the front of the church. When I was last here two weeks ago we had just moved the pews out and there was a rather barren space at the up here, this is a welcome change. I think that the rug has made our worship space more comfortable and given it a warmed feeling.

Change is nothing new, in fact we have recently experienced a great change that has affected us in many different ways. A few days ago our nation went to war. Before I begin I would like to note that we all have a general sense of unease about war. Aside from the terrible nature of war and the obvious effects and dangers it has for those who are directly involved in it, we have questions that cannot easily be answered and fears that cannot easily be addressed. How will the war affect us as a nation? How will it affect us individually? How long will the war last? How will it affect our safety and security? Will there be more terrorist attacks? Will it affect our jobs? How will it affect our daily lives? What does it mean for me to be a Christian during a war?

Amidst all the TV watching, newspaper reading, and discussions about the war, you may have noticed that we have settled into Lent, albeit with other things on our minds. Normally, Lent is an opportunity for us, as we prepare for Easter, to try to become closer to God through various acts of piety. We do this by giving up things and occasionally taking on new challenges, adding new disciplines to our lives, or avoiding certain things. Whatever act of piety we may pick up and drop off after forty days, whatever state of mind we might be in, whether we are at peace or at war, in good times or bad times, whether we have a new rug or not we are reminded today that there are many things that change. Life, in fact, is a series of never ending changes.

Today’s gospel speaks to us today, amidst all of the uncertainty and change that we have experienced. In today’s Gospel Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. Throughout the Gospel of Mark, we seen a constant back and forth between Jesus and those around him as they attempt to put some form of label on who he is while he refused to let anyone label him. Finally, today we see Jesus asking his own disciples this very question. “Who do people say that I am?” His disciples replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" To this question Peter stepped up and replied: “You are the Christ.”

After this identification, however, Jesus taught them that he must suffer, be killed, and after three days rise again. This is something that Peter cannot accept or understand. He therefore takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. Peter’s mistake was not that he had failed to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, but that he had a worldly idea of what a Messiah was supposed to do and be.

What was a Messiah was supposed to do and be? During Jesus’ life and for many years after it, Jerusalem and all of the surrounding region was under the control of the Roman empire. In many places, the Romans were resented and hated because they were oppressive outsiders who treated the locals with contempt and taxed them heavily. It was hoped that someday a Messiah would come and restore Israel to its former glory. People hoped for a worldly king who would come and kick the Romans out and restore the old kingdom like it had been under King David. This type of Messiah was not supposed to suffer and die, rather this Messiah would make the Romans suffer and would come in power and victory.

Most likely, it was this type of Messiah that Peter himself hoped for. It is therefore no surprise at all that he could not understand or accept that Jesus had to suffer and die. The Messiah that Peter had in mind was one that would satisfy and address all of Peter’s worldly cares. He had put all of his worldly hopes into Jesus and suddenly they had been dashed. Jesus scolded Peter by saying: “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.

Jesus continued on to explain to Peter that it would be difficult to follow Jesus, one must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. Often it is very hard. It is very hard to put our Lord Jesus Christ before the things that we see and do every day. The disciplines that we try to maintain for ourselves in Lent are about bringing us closer to God and resetting our priorities so that we put the things of God and not our own things first. If we put all of our worldly cares and concerns at the forefront of our lives and forget about God, what good does it do us? Jesus asks us this same question: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? It is very hard to deny our worldly desires and ourselves and put Jesus first anytime, but it can be especially hard to trust ourselves to God when we are uneasy or afraid and there are very scary things happening in our world.

War or no war, Lent or no Lent, rug or no new rug in the church, there is always one constant: God’s love. God’s love is there for us no matter what changes we are going through. Whether we are in good times or bad times, whether we are at ease or struggling, God is with us. Now, we have questions and fears and we worry that life will get more difficult. Struggling through life is nothing new. Saint Paul went through many struggles and eventually was martyred in Rome. Yet, throughout all of his struggles he also knew that he could never be separated from the love of God. Listen to what he writes in the 8th chapter of his letter to the Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:38-39]

My message to you today is to open your hearts to God, trust in God and put your faith wholehearted in Jesus Christ. By placing your whole trust in Jesus you can be assured that no matter what he will be with you. Trust in Jesus, put Him first in everything you do and have faith that through good times or bad times, through life and through death He is with you and He loves you.

We are in the middle of Lent now but in a few weeks Lent will be over. We are at the start of a war but at some point that war too will be over. The things of this world are fleeting – honest to God they are – they come and go. Some are good some are bad, but even if we gain the whole world we still lose it all when we die. Reset your own priorities so that Christ is at the forefront of your life because Christ transcends life and death. The Gospel of John tells us that eternal life begins now with faith in Jesus Christ. Put our Lord God Jesus Christ at the forefront of your life now and know that no matter what happens, nothing, not even death itself can separate you from his love.

Matthew Hoxsie Mead
Preached at Saint James Church, Fair Haven, CT
March 23, 2003
Exodus 20:1-17

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.


A few days ago our nation went to war. We all have a general sense of unease about war and rightly so. Aside from the terrible nature of war and the obvious effects and dangers it has for those who are directly involved in it, we have questions that cannot easily be answered and fears that cannot easily be addressed. How will the war affect us as a nation? How will it affect us individually? How long will the war last? How will it affect our safety and security? Will there be more terrorist attacks? Will it affect our jobs? How will it affect our daily lives? What does it mean for me to be a Christian during a war?

Amidst all the TV watching, newspaper reading, and discussions about the war, you may have noticed that we have settled into Lent, albeit with other things on our minds. Normally, Lent is an opportunity for us, as we prepare for Easter, to try to become closer to God through various acts of piety. We do this by giving up things and occasionally taking on new challenges, adding new disciplines to our lives, or avoiding certain things. Whatever act of piety we may pick up and drop off after forty days, whatever state of mind we might be in, whether we are at peace or at war, in good times or bad times, we are reminded today through the reading of the Ten Commandments as the Old Testament Lesson that there are certain things that are constants in our Christian lives.

Several thousand years ago the Israelites were given the Ten Commandments by God when they too were full of questions and fears. The Israelites were on the run from the Egyptians, away from the land and the homes that had always known, lost and homeless with no idea what their future held. It was in this situation that God gave them the Ten Commandments. What comfort did those commandments offer to the Israelites when they were afraid and lost in the desert and what comfort can they give us as Christians today?

To answer that question I invite you to open your pew Bibles so we can take a look at the first two of these commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me.” And "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

In ancient Israel, the Israelites were in a world where there were many other cultures, each of which had their own Gods. The most prominent nations, the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and later the Romans, practiced polytheism. That is to say, they worshipped many different gods. For example, in Greece there were gods and goddesses for everything you could think of. Zeus was the god of thunder and king of the gods, Dionysus was the god of wine and debauchery, Aphrodite was the goddess of love, Athena was the goddess of sport and hunting, and so on. Anything and everything had a particular deity and a particular cult. It was almost like the internet is today. Just like in Greece I could have found a cult for anything at all, I can today go online and find that there is a message board or chat room for everyone: whether you are looking to meet other music lovers, other sports fans, other stamp collectors, others who want to talk about politics or world affairs or anything at all.

The difference between today’s “gods” [with quotes] and the ancient gods of polytheism is that today we simply don’t call them gods anymore. In many ways we are just like the Greeks, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans. Whenever we put anything first in our lives, whether it is music, food, hobbies, political causes, sex, work, our cars or homes, or anything at all we too are worshipping man made gods. The Greeks simply attached a name and a divine character to each of these things. The only difference between someone who worshipped Athena, or Dionysus and someone who lives to enjoy sports or partying is that that the first person has attached a name and a character to that desire. We all in many different ways make our own gods out of the things that we do or the things that we have or want. With our mouths we may say we worship Jesus, but with our actions we are often worshipping something else. When our priorities are aligned like this and we through our actions worship something else by making it the be all and end all of our existence, we are committing idolatry. Today, as much as in ancient Israel, we are called by God to leave behind these other gods and put Jesus Christ first.

But often it is very hard. It is very hard to put our Lord Jesus Christ before the things that we see and do every day. It is very hard to trust ourselves to God when we are uneasy or afraid and there are very scary things happening in our world. The ancient Israelites were commanded by God to have no other gods because they too were questioning and fearful. By giving the commandments, God assured His people that He loved them and would be there for them no matter what.

The Ten Commandments, just like our own Lenten disciplines are not necessarily about laying down rules to try to break bad habits, but about resetting our priorities. Just like the ancient Israelites we too must reset our own priorities. If we make idols out the things that are around us what good does it do in the long run? If we put all of our worldly cares and concerns at the forefront of our lives and forget about God, what good does it do us? Jesus asks us this same question: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? [Mark 8:36-37]

War or no war, Lent or no Lent there is always one constant: God’s love. The Israelites may have been homeless in the desert but they knew that God loved them and they knew that they could never be separated from the love of God no matter what suffering they went through. Struggling through life is nothing new. Saint Paul went through many struggles and eventually was martyred in Rome. Yet, throughout all of his struggles he also knew that he could never be separated from the love of God. Listen to what he writes in the 8th chapter of his letter to the Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:38-39]

My message to you today is to open your hearts to God, trust in God and put your faith wholehearted in Jesus Christ. By placing your whole trust in Jesus you can be assured that no matter what he will be with you. The commandment tells us that God shows love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Love God and keep His commandments, put Him first in everything you do and have faith that through good times or bad times, through life and through death He is with you and He loves you.

We are in the middle of Lent now but in a few weeks Lent will be over. We are at the start of a war but at some point that war too will be over. The things of this world are fleeting, they come and go. Some are good some are bad, but even if we gain the whole world we still lose it all when we die. Reset your own priorities so that Christ is at the forefront of your life because Christ transcends life and death. The Gospel of John tells us that eternal life begins now with faith in Jesus Christ. Put our Lord God Jesus Christ at the forefront of your life now and know that no matter what happens, nothing, not even death itself can separate you from his love.

Let us pray. Almighty God, we ask through your Son our savior Jesus Christ that you give us the strength and guidance to put you first in our lives. We pray for perseverance and resolve so we can press on through our own lives toward you, Father. We ask that you illuminate and strengthen us with your Holy Spirit so that we may walk with you in holiness and faithfulness throughout this Lenten season, through these times of unease and worry and all the days of our lives. Bless us, sanctify us and help us to trust in you above all else in our lives. Comfort us in our struggles. We pray that you will gently correct us and lead us on the paths of righteousness so that we may follow your commandments and live together in faith, peace, and love. All this we ask through your son our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Transfiguration

February 20, 2003
Expository Preaching: Yale Divinity School
The Transfiguration: Mark 9


Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I have lived in Boston, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and New Haven. I have done a fair amount of moving. Moving can often be an extraordinary event. In many ways it can be a life-changing event. When we move we leave behind our old homes, many of our friends, and most importantly we leave behind many of the things that make us comfortable. When I have moved, I only feel comfortable again when I have spent a fair amount of time arranging everything just as it should be (or sometimes as it used to be). In this sense, moving can be a great adventure. It can be scary and it can be hard, so we do as much as we can to make it easier. In the past four years alone I have moved four times. I am very familiar with boxes. The last time I moved from Ansonia to New Haven, I had the entire thing down to a system. I boxed everything up and enlisted the help of three friends, one jeep, one minivan, and my station wagon. Everything was about as organized as it could be. I boxed up everything and labeled all of the boxes and it really made my life much easier because I was in control.

Today’s Gospel passage speaks of a very different type of extraordinary event. Surely the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ on the mountain is one of the more amazing scenes in the entire Bible. In a short passage we learn that Jesus took with him only three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain. There he was transfigured or transformed before them. We are told that the clothes that Jesus was wearing became whiter than any bleach can make them. We are also told that Jesus talked with Elijah and with Moses, the two most important intermediaries with God in the entire Old Testament. After this, Peter suggested making three booths or tents so that they could remain there. The evangelist tells us that Peter suggested this because all of the disciples present were terrified. Finally we are told that a cloud formed over them and a voice came out of the cloud and said: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” And then, as quickly as it had all begun, it was over and Peter, James, and John were again alone with Jesus on the mountain. As the scene ends with the four of them returning to the others Jesus tells them to tell no one what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Peter, James, and John probably felt honored to be taken apart from the group and brought up the mountain. They had already witnessed many amazing things that Jesus had done. They had heard him say many amazing things. In fact, Peter only a few verses before this scene had made his own confession that Jesus was “the Christ”. However, this feeling of honor rapidly turned into terror. The Christ that Peter had confessed had turned out to be a little more real than the apostles bargained for. A trip up the mountain had turned into an event of such extraordinary nature that it had really put a scare into all of them. They must have all wondered who Jesus really was, because at this point he is surely more than a teacher or even anything that they might think a messiah might be.

The transfiguration of our Lord is a preview of what is to come. Up until that point in the Gospel, Jesus has only hinted at who he is. In fact, just as he does when he returns with the disciples from the mountain, he adamantly tells people not to reveal who he his. When Jesus is transfigured on the mountain he is seen for the first time in some form of heavenly glory. He is seen with the two most important figures in Israel’s history. For the disciples who were there, the revealing of the truth must have been awesome. Not only awesome in the sense that it was a really wonderful thing, but also in the sense this is was a very terrifying thing. Peter, James, and John had literally just witnessed God on earth. Whether or not they knew that at the time is doubtful, but one thing is fore sure. The event they were witnessing was stranger than anything they had seen and it was something that was completely out of their control.

When Peter suggested that maybe they should build some tents or booths for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, he trying to in some way organize what he was seeing. Just like when we move we try to organize everything so that we are more in control, Peter was trying to organize what he saw so he could feel a little more in control. He was in effect trying to build three boxes. One labeled “Moses”, one labeled “Elijah” and finally a box labeled “Jesus”.

Peter’s response to this exciting and scary revelation was to try his best to bring some order to the situation. He proposed three shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Exactly what order he would have brought about by building shelters is kind of hard to imagine, but in the end it didn’t matter. Peter wanted to organize in a human way and make more permanent a scene that could not be organized in a human way. Even though he had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, he was not yet able to fully grasp what that meant. He didn’t understand yet that Jesus was God on earth. In his attempt build three shelters he was trying to organize and contain the situation. To put it bluntly, Peter was trying to put God into a box. Not only that, but Peter was trying to put God into a box that was equal to the boxes he wanted to put Moses and Elijah into.

This is not anything that Peter alone is guilty of. In our own ways we try to put God into our own little boxes. Every week we divide up our time, we divide up what we devote ourselves to, and very often God gets only a small piece of the action. Along with the rest of the boxes in our lives, God is put into a box. God is reserved for Sunday. The rest of the week is my time. Or maybe God only gets Sunday morning. Football or ice-skating takes up the rest of Sunday. The week is for work, family, and maybe Joe Millionaire or the West Wing on TV. By treating our own lives like this, we are doing exactly what Peter has suggested. We are trying to organize God to fit our own realities.

Yet we, like Peter, must sometimes stop for a moment, stop trying to fit God into our lives in a way that works for us. We must listen to God. What is God saying? God is saying the same thing he said to Peter and the others on the mountain: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” Listen to him. Listen to Jesus. The voice from heaven didn’t say listen to him only when and in whatever way is most convenient or best for you. Listen to him, don’t put him in a shelter because God is easier to deal with that way. Don’t try to box up God so that you can put him in the closet and open him up at your own convenience. To do that is to put God on a human level. God is everywhere, God knows everything, and God can do anything. To try to negotiate with God or to control God is impossible, and to think that one can do it at all is to misunderstand God.

As Christians we are called every day, every hour, to listen to God. This week take a few moments out of your day to pray or give thanks to God. God does not wait here at the church for us to come to him on Sundays, he is present with us every day. God is present in our lives all the time. Let us pray.

Lord God, we have experienced your love through the gift of your Son our Lord, Jesus Christ. Send us out into the world with confidence that you are with us every hour of every day. Bless us this day and every day as we give thinks to you for your wonderful creation. Help us to listen to you. We ask this through your son our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Equal before God

Epiphany 6, Year B, 2003
2 Kings 5:1-15 – Healing of Naaman
(Mark 1:40-45)

Sermon Preached by Matthew Mead
Saint James Church, Fair Haven, Connecticut
February 16, 2003

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

My great-grandfather loved to sing hymns in church and he loved to sing loudly. The only problem was that he was a terrible singer; he couldn’t hold a note to save his life. One time when he was asked why he sang so loudly, even though he was not a good singer, he replied that he loved to sing hymns because he loved to praise God. “After all”, he said, “God doesn’t care how I sing, He loves my singing just as much as he loves when someone sings really well.” His point was that God’s love for us all is the same, whether we are good singers or bad singers, whether we are the “haves” or the “have-nots” of the world. God loves us all equally.

What do today’s readings from Scripture tell us about our own worth to God? There were two readings today that speak to us about our own worth to God. If we turn to the second book of Kings, chapter 5, we can take a look at the first. This is the story of Elisha the prophet and Naaman the commander of the army of the land of Aram. Naaman was a very important and powerful man but he had a problem. He had leprosy, a serious skin disease that would have been very hard for him to deal with.

One day, Naaman heard that there was a prophet in Israel who might be able to heal him. So, he went down to Israel and was directed to Elisha, the prophet. Naaman came with ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing, not to mention his entire entourage of horses and chariots over to Elisha’s house.

When I lived in New York City the President would come to town every now and again. For ten blocks in every direction the roads were closed. I was in my car once and I had to wait at 66th street for fifteen minutes while the President drove by. Whatever I was doing, wherever I was going, whomever I was going to see could wait because someone very important – more important than anyone else in New York that day – was driving by and had to get where he was going.

This was about the same treatment that Naaman was used to getting. He expected a big deal to be made out of his arrival in the town where Elisha lived. But Elisha didn’t make a big deal out of his arrival. In fact, Elisha didn’t even bother to go out to speak to Naaman himself; he sent a servant with a simple message: “go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed”.

It isn’t surprising that at this point Naaman got angry. What good was it for him to come all the way down to Israel with lots of money and people if he couldn’t even get some respect and a good old fashion miracle from the prophet? Luckily, one of his servants told Naaman: “if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” So Naaman gave the suggestion a chance, went down to the river and washed seven times and was healed. He then returned to Elisha and said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” His pride nearly got the best of him but in the end he was shown the mercy and grace of God because he sought out God. Neither Elisha nor God was impressed with Naaman’s display of importance. His money didn’t do him any good. His entourage didn’t earn him the type of healing that he had hoped for. He was made to humble himself and lose his pride; only then was he healed.

Now, Naaman was rich and he got healed despite his money. But he wasn’t the only leper who was healed that we heard about today. If we turn to today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, we read of another leper. This leper was an unnamed man who had no money to give and no large entourage. He was a man who had nothing, and on top of having nothing he had leprosy. For Naaman leprosy was an inconvenience, for this man, it was a life sentence as an outcast. The difference between the two men is remarkable. Naaman had everything and he expected healing, his way or not at all. Naaman even brought lots of money to pay for his cure. The unnamed leper in the Gospel had nothing and so brought nothing to Jesus. He could offer nothing at all so he got on his knees and begged Jesus.

We are given the examples of two people who are at different ends of the spectrum. One is wealthy beyond all imagination. The other has nothing at all except a debilitating disease. Yet even with all of their differences they both sought out God and experienced God’s love and mercy.

We are all of equal worth, in fact infinite worth to God. As Christians we know that we are all worth the same to God. We know this because it was for us that God gave his only Son to die on the cross. Jesus died for everyone, from the famous general to the unnamed leper. Today’s Bible readings give us two examples of people who received the mercy of God. Let these readings today give you new confidence in your own faith. God’s mercy and grace are available to everyone. Pray to him with faith. Draw near to him with bold expectation. And know that God is with you.