Category: Uncategorized

Day of Pentecost May 31, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date May 31, 2009

Acts 2:1-21Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Romans 8:22-27Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Letâ€™s call him Adam. He was one of the unhappiest people Iâ€™ve ever known. Nothing and nobody could please him. Everything was always against himâ€”and against him personally. If there was a new policy at work, it was a terrible idea and instituted by his boss for the express purpose of making Adamâ€™s life miserable. If his daughter was having trouble at school, she was having trouble just so as to reflect badly on her father. And churchâ€”well, every change, every experiment, every new hymn tune, every sermon, was a direct insult to Adam. I had a special file folder labeled â€œAdam lettersâ€ telling me so.

I was on my guard big time therefore when Adam made an appointment to come and talk to me. I dressed carefully, so there would be nothing for Adam to criticize in that department, one of his favorites. I went over in my mind all the things in the last month or two that he might find fault with, preparing my defenses. And still I dreaded our meeting; my heart rate rose as I watched Adam pull into the church parking lot and get out of his car and I felt my breathing constricted.

So I was surprised when, once weâ€™d settled into our chairs in my study, Adam pulled out a small white card and handed it to me. â€œMy therapist said I was to work on these things. And he said if I had trouble, to come and talk to you.â€ This was news to me: that Adam would seek help in therapy! But there was more. On the card was written: â€œPractice praying before the Altar in church. Put yourself in the presence of God. Let God show you how much he loves you. Be with God in the light of love.â€

â€œIâ€™m having trouble with this,â€ Adam said. â€œI canâ€™t do it. I canâ€™t even begin. I donâ€™t know what heâ€™s talking about.â€

Tags Advocate, baptism, Holy Spirit, love, Pentecost, Satan

Uncategorized

Easter 7 May 24, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date May 24, 2009

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

1 John 5:9-13Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

John 17:6-19

Our Christian religion is full of paradoxes. Indeed, we could almost say that the presence of paradox is our best indicator that we are in the presence of God. For instance: Jesus is truly and fully human, but at the same time truly and fully God. God is One, but at the same time Three. You and I are sinners, but also saved. And all that is just the beginning. All through our history, people have tried to rationalize or clarify away these paradoxes. To say that Jesus wasnâ€™t fully human or wasnâ€™t really divine. That God was not Trinity. That we are not really sinners or not surely saved. We call those attempted simplifications heresies. By eliminating the paradoxical element of our faith, they take the life out of it. There is something about the tension in paradox that is necessary, that is the heart of Christianity.

Tags Ascension, beauty, immanence, liturgy, music, paradox, ritual, transcendence, Worship

Uncategorized

Easter 6 May 17, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date May 17, 2009

Acts 10:44-48Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

1 John 5:1-6Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

John 15:9-17

This wonderful little reading we have this morning from the Book of Acts. Letâ€™s listen to it again:

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers [that is, the religious insiders] who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles [that is, the religious outsiders], for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” [That is, for bringing them into the Jesus movement that became Christianity.] So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

One of the great figures of history will surely be Pope John XXIII. He was elected pope in 1958 as an old man, a placeholder, a transitional figure. But out of the blue one day, at a routine church meeting, he announced that he was convening a great council of all the bishops from around the world, to reform the Church, to bring it into the modern era. And he did, in ways that dramatically changed not only the Roman Catholic Church, but all of Christianity.

There are many little stories told of this old and gentle saint. One of the ones that I think of most often is that when he would lie awake at night, worrying about the council he had convened, about the Church and its future, he would say to himself, â€œAngelo, Angelo [for that was his baptismal name, Angel], whoâ€™s in charge of the Church? You or the Holy Spirit?â€ And then he would fall to sleep like a baby.

Tags change, Holy Spirit, Jesus, love, tradition

Uncategorized

Easter 5 May 10, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date May 10, 2009

Acts 8:26-40Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

John 15:1-8Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

(Members of the youth group presented a dramatization of the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. The congregation renewed their baptismal vows, sprinkled with water from the Font by the children.)

Our lives are shaped by little coincidences that arenâ€™t coincidents at all, but the workings of Godâ€™s Holy Spirit. We can plan our lives, our childrenâ€™s lives, so carefully. We can work so hard at fulfilling dreams. But in the end, the power of the Spirit working largely unseen trumps whatever we try to do. Would I be here this morning, would I be an Episcopalian, let alone a priest, if a college friend had not invited me to come with him early one Sunday morning to the S.S.J.E monastery in Cambridge? I doubt it. The working of the Spirit.

So this drama weâ€™ve just witnessed, about the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch, is about the working of the Holy Spirit.

Tags Acts of the Apostles, baptism, Communion, Good News, Holy Spirit, mission

Uncategorized

Easter 4 May 3, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date May 3, 2009

Acts 4:5-12Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

1 John 3:16-24Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

John 10:11-18

Halfway through Jesusâ€™s earthly ministry, his journey from the shores of Galilee to Jerusalem, he asks his disciples a pivotal question: â€œWho do you say that I am?â€ You may remember that St. Peter blurts out the answerâ€”â€œYou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.â€â€”what is called the Confession of Peter. I say this is a pivotal question in the gospels, because it begins to prepare the disciples for what is ahead: for the crucifixion and the resurrection. â€œThe Son of Man must suffer, and be crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead.â€

But the question can be turned around: Who does Jesus say that we are, each of us? Here, too, it is pivotal. For how we answer has everything to do with how we go through life, with all its challenges, its deaths and resurrections. It has everything to do with our discipleship.

Tags Good Shepherd, soul

Uncategorized

Easter 3 April 26, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date April 26, 2009

Acts 3:12-19Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

1 John 3:1-7Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Luke 24:36b-48

Â Â

It would have been very easy for the first followers of Jesus to have spoken of him simply as a great teacher, a holy man who exemplified everything we should be in our lives. That would have gone down more smoothly in their day, as it certainly does in ours, where many people believe just that. But this is not the Jesus to whom the earliest witnesses testify. They give us this risen Christâ€”a human being crucified, wounded in hands and feet and side, but a human being raised from the dead, a physical presence who ate physical food and whose physical body could be touched, particularly his wounds. A human being who was thus also the Son of God. This resurrection reality is what the first followers insisted upon, what they were persecuted and died for.

Tags discipleship, Incarnation, liturgy, resurrection, witness, Worship, wounds

Uncategorized

Easter 2 April 19, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date April 25, 2009

The Rt. Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley

Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” â€“ John 20:30

I was talking recently with a friend who has for a long time been struggling with her faith. She has for years been alienated from the church in which she grew up. Its preaching and its worship didnâ€™t connect at all to her life. She had stopped trying to pray. And then the bottom fell out of her life. “I suddenly felt as if I had been shipwrecked on a desert island,” she said, “I didnâ€™t know what to think or what to do.” If you havenâ€™t yourself been as wounded by life as she was, you know plenty of people who have.

The story of Easter is about people who were as devastated as my friend.

Tags doubt, Easter, suffering

Uncategorized

Easter Day April 12, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date April 12, 2009

Acts 10:34-43

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Mark 16:1-8

When I was a little boy our family went to the Unitarian Church. In a lot of ways it was a good religious beginning for me. I learned to love and honor Godâ€™s creation, to respect other people and their beliefs, to value justice and peace, and maybe most of all to appreciate the importance of rational thought. Unitarianism, at least in its American form, grew up with our Nation in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was about casting off the superstitions and hierarchies of the Old World and building a New World based on enlightened values. But one thing we didnâ€™t have at the Unitarian church, at least the one my family went to, was Easter.

Tags Easter, rationalism, resurrection

Uncategorized

Easter Vigil April 11, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date April 11, 2009

O.T. History of Salvation

Romans 6:3-11

Luke 24:1-12

Around the church tonight is this wonderful series of quilt-style banners depicting the story of Godâ€™s saving work through history. We have six of them now; Nancy Stehno just completed the one over the organ, illustrating a passage from the Book of Proverbs about Wisdom being more precious than gold. Nancy, I hesitate to tell you this, but there are six more we could do, if we draw on both the Episcopal and Revised Common Lectionaries! But, one at a time. Thatâ€™s the way God works, so you can work that way too.

Actually, there could be more than 12 banners. There could be an infinite string of banners, stretching into the future, because God is working out Godâ€™s plan of salvation in every one of our lives, in the world around us, in every event in the newsâ€”even the terrible ones.

Tags baptism, death, Easter Vigil, Exodus, Passover, resurrection, salvation, sin

Uncategorized

Good Friday April 9, 2009

Post author By vicar
Post date April 10, 2009

John 18:1-19:42

We have, of course, four gospel accounts of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Early attempts to harmonize the four into a single true or pure gospel were rejected by the Church. There has never been, and there never will be, a single â€œtakeâ€ on this man we call the Son of God.

Tags cross, Good Friday, icons, Passion, St. John