Author: Laura Arvin

by The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

Philippians 2:1-13; Psalm 25:1-9; Matthew 21:23-32

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Matthew 21:23

“Father Walmsley, when are you going to get your damn clergy out of my office?”  The speaker was a leader in the United States Senate, Everett Dirksen of Illinois, a man whose prominent place in the Congress and whose vote would make all the difference in the cause for which we were there.  He knew the answer to his question.  We would stop our lobbying and celebrate his change of heart when the Congress finally passed the civil rights bill of 1965, one which established voting rights for African American citizens in those southern states where they were disenfranchised. 

CELEBRATION OF HOLY CROSS DAY

by The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

I Corinthians 1:18-24, Psalm 98; John 3:13-17

“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” — John 3:17

One of the most widely quoted texts from scripture is John 3:16.  Will someone quote it for me:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have everlasting life.

No wonder that it is such a popular summary of  Christian belief.  You have seen it everywhere:

by The Rev. Darrell Huddleston

Gen. 50:15-21; Ps. 103:1-13; Rom. 14:1-12; Mt. 18: 21-35

Two little boys had a brother who was a bully.  He was always beating on them.  One day coming home from Sunday School they were discussing the morning lesson which had been about forgiving seventy times seven.  They were earnestly striving to apply this to their older brother.  Finally, one suggested:  “We’ll keep a notebook, and write down every time we forgive him.”  “Yeh,” said the younger of the two, “and when it reaches 490 he had better watch out.”

The ancient rabbis said three pardons were adequate.  Peter went them four better and said seven.  His response was most likely said as repudiation of the 7-fold curse in Genesis.  So Peter’s answer seems quite generous especially when we find no mention in the text of any repentance by the offender.  But, neither the rabbis nor Peter had their math correct, and neither did the two little boys, because when we are counting then we really haven’t understood what Jesus meant.

by The Rev. Darrell Huddleston

Ex. 12:1-14; Ps. 149; Rm. 13:8-14; Mt. 18:15-20

In the Protestant churches of Colonial America the worship services used to last for three hours, with the sermon taking an hour or so of that time.  The rest of the time was for prayer, scripture, psalms and censuring wayward members.  If you had been identified as being guilty of some sin, you were brought before the congregation and asked to repent.  You repented or faced public censure, perhaps exclusion from the church for a time, and possibly excommunication.

Such a practice is practically unheard of today in churches in this country.  I say practically because in the hills and hollers of Appalachia the custom of  ‘churching’ someone still exists in some conservative congregations.  The term means you are thrown out of the church because of your unrepentant sinful ways. The Amish still shun those who won’t repent after they have been confronted.  They are shunned not only by their church but also by their own family. 

by The Rev. Darrell Huddleston

Exodus 1:8-2:10; Ps. 124; Rom. 12:1-8; Mt. 16:13-20

The conversation between Peter and Jesus has been the source of division in the Christian community.  It all centers on what Jesus meant by the phrase “you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.” Going back to the early days of the church there have been four interpretations of this conversation, represented by four early church fathers, all of whom lived in the first two or three centuries after Christ.

Origen (185-254) Peter is only a ‘type’ of every true Christian.

Tertullian (170-220) Peter is the rock.

Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428), Peter’s ‘confession’ is the rock.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christ is the rock.

Some of the early church fathers and The Church in Rome chose to follow Tertullian’s view that Peter was the Rock, then expanded it to mean he was the first Pope and that all bishops of Rome (Popes) are the inheritors of that position.

by The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Psalm 67; Matthew 15:21-28

“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” –Matthew 15:28

One of the memorable people of my growing up years was my Aunt Amanda.  Born in England about the year 1880, she came as a young person to this country to work in the textile mills of Massachusetts.  I used to visit her often as a little boy when I went with my parents to stay with family members in New Bedford before and during World War II.  I will never forget a conversation we had one day walking home from an early Sunday morning communion service at St. Martin’s Church there.  It was sometime in the Spring of 1940.  Hitler’s success in defeating the Allies led to a siege of England, and the Luftwaffe, the Nazis air force, was devastating English cities.  Amanda’s roots were at Coventry, the center of which was totally destroyed by the bombing, and she had lost family members in the blitz. 

by The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

I Kings 19:9-18; Psalm 29; Matthew 14:22-33

“Don’t worry.  It’s me.  Don’t be afraid.” –Matthew 14:30

One morning in August a few years ago, I stood looking out our front door when all at once there came a great roar — it reminded me of the engine of a Boeing 747 — and I watched a violent wind twist the trunk of a towering willow tree at the corner of the yard, perhaps a foot in diameter, and snap it off as if it were no bigger than a matchstick.  And another time, a similar storm overrode all the surge protectors in our house, blew out the modem on Roberta’s computer and the sensors which control our garage door openers.  These were convincing reminders that we are children of Mother Nature, though they amounted to minor and local interruptions of our routine, were soon repaired as one of the prices we learn to live within a complex world. 

by The Rev. Darrell Huddleston

1 Kngs. 3:5-12; Ps. 119:129-136; Rom. 8:26-39; Mt. 13:31-33, 44-52

In our gospel lesson, Jesus bombards us with one parable after another, all starting with the phrase, “The Kingdom of heaven is like…”    …a mustard seed and yeast, a buried treasure and a pearl of great price and a fish dragnet.  Two twined images and a solitary concluding one carrying the theme of hiddenness and searching.   The Kingdom is hidden and is something to be discovered.

Perhaps a better phrase for ‘kingdom’ is ‘reign of God’ as the former implies that it might be a place, or only some ideal that will only be known in the future, certainly not in our sordid mess of a world.  The ‘reign of God’, Jesus tells us, can be discovered in the here and now. 

The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139:1-12,23-24; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place –and

I did not know it!”  And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place!  It is none

other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

The cases of great figures cut down to size function as civic morality tales because, however good most people are most of the time, temptation is universal. Lust, greed, ambition, envy, fear – choose one. Or three. Every human must navigate the triple labyrinth of animal impulse, rational awareness, and moral choice. No one is immune from the recognition to which St. Paul came: “For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7: 19) It takes nothing away from the gravity of criminal acts, or the unacceptability of the exploitation by the powerful of the weak, to see in the courtroom contest between truth and deceit a process that implicates observers as well as antagonists.