Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
February 24, 2013
2 Lent C
In our pantry at home, we have three kinds of oats. We have Old Fashioned oats, the kind that require bringing water to a boil and cooking for 5 minutes. We have quick oats, which require bringing water to a boil and cooking for one minute. The real reason we have those is because I have some really good recipes for chocolate cookies that call for quick oats. Then there are some packets of instant oats that our kids must have brought home from college at one point or another. Those oats simply require that hot, not even boiling, water be poured over them and stirred. If I look on the grocery store shelves, I can find all kinds of oatmeal bars that supposedly pack all the goodness of oats into a foil packet I could eat on the run, or single serve containers of oats so that I don’t have to involve a bowl in my morning instant oat ritual, but can pour the hot water right into the container.
While I am picking on oats, I am sure any of us could come up with countless examples of offers for immediate relief from what ails us, instant meals, speedy delivery, shortcuts for cleaning, instantaneous messaging, 24 hour access to our money, all of which reflect our desire for a shortcut to whatever we might need.
The Pharisees offer Jesus a short cut this morning. The Pharisees say to Jesus "Get away from here for Herod wants to kill you." Whether or not the Pharisees are genuine in their concern for Jesus is a matter of debate. While the Pharisees are usually portrayed in the gospels as enemies of Jesus, in Luke’s gospel they are portrayed with more sympathy. Whether or not they are actually concerned about Jesus, it is understandable that they think Herod wants to see Jesus dead. Herod has already beheaded John the Baptist, and when Herod hears about Jesus’ ministry, he is perplexed and wants to see Jesus. Perhaps Herod is merely curious, but perhaps his motive is more sinister. At the end of the gospel, when Herod does get to meet Jesus, Herod will find him innocent. For now, however, the Pharisees warn Jesus to get out before Herod gets him.
Abram would also like a shortcut to acquiring an heir. Back in chapter 12 of Genesis, three chapters ago, God promised Abram land and descendants. Over the following three chapters and countless miles, God has repeated the promise several times. Thus far, nothing has happened. Abram and Sarah are getting older. The promise is rather preposterous. Abram is getting a bit impatient and no doubt a little weary, to say nothing of older. So Abram asks God for a sign. God complies with what seems to us a very bizarre ritual involving a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, all three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon, which are sacrificed. Then Abram falls into a deep and terrifying sleep. Strange though this ritual may seem to our 21st century ears, this acts seals the covenant between God and Abram, and Abram trusts that somehow, in God’s good time, he will have land and descendants.
For Jesus, also, there are no shortcuts. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem and he has places to go and things to do along the way. Indeed, Jesus has just told the disciples, in the verse immediately before our gospel lesson begins, that "Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." Herod would be in the second category and Jesus has no time for him. "Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I must finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside Jerusalem.’" Jesus sounds like someone with a calendar to keep. He has today, tomorrow, and the third day all planned out. If we have been listening carefully to Luke’s gospel, we hear echoes of Jesus’ passion prediction in chapter 9: "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and the only twists and turns he will allow on the way are the work he has been given to do: casting out demons and performing cures. As Jesus moves toward the end of his earthly ministry, he seeks no distractions from this work and no relief from the events that await him in Jerusalem.
Lent is our journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. We remember the voice of God that claimed Jesus at his baptism and again at the Transfiguration with the words "This is my Son, my chosen one." We remember Jesus’ teaching from Isaiah in the synagogue. We remember all the good Jesus has done. And we are tempted to say with the Pharisees "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." We want a short cut to Easter for Jesus, and we wouldn’t mind a short cut for ourselves as well. The reality is that we all have times in our lives when we are on a journey to Jerusalem for which we would like a short cut to Easter. Our readings this morning remind us that our God is not an instant oatmeal kind of God. Our God is with us for the long haul, and while there are often no short cuts to our destination or quick fixes for our problems, we do not travel alone.
The same Jesus who assured the Pharisees that he would be casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, walks with us in our todays and tomorrows casting out demons and performing cures. And the same Jesus who pointed to the resurrection with the words "and on the third day I finish my work" reminds us that no matter how long or dark our path may be, the journey to Jerusalem is ultimately a journey in which death is overcome and life has the final word. The promise of Lent, and the journey to Jerusalem, is not a quick fix, but the promise that we are not alone, and life, not death, will have the final say.
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
February 17, 2013
Lent 1-Annual Meeting
Back in July, I was invited to make a presentation at a workshop for churches seeking grants to support outreach ministries in their communities. My topic was the hallmarks of healthy congregations, in part because I happened to be on the diocesan committee that developed the hallmarks. But I was also asked to present the hallmarks of healthy congregations because Christ Church, Springfield, this church, our church, is considered to be one of those healthy congregations. Since most people would prefer to hear a story rather than a list, I told the story of how we, at Christ Church, came to have a sense of our identity as a church so that if someone asked us, we could say who we are and what we value. On this annual meeting day, I thought I would share that story with you, to remind you where we have been and how we got where we are. I also figure you should know what I am saying about you behind your backs.
In the gospel reading this morning, we hear the story of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness. Jesus has just been baptized and he has been led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he stayed for 40 days. The voice of God is still ringing in his ears "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased" when he hears the voice of the devil say to him "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Three times the devil challenges Jesus to do the devil’s bidding to prove Jesus is the Son of God, and three times, Jesus uses Scripture to understand his identity as the Son of God, until finally the devil departs until an opportune time.
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to work out what it means to be the Son of God. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus leaves the wilderness and enters Nazareth where he enters the synagogue and reads from the prophet Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Jesus has discovered something of what it means to be the Son of God and these words are certainly not what the devil had in mind.
I wish I could tell you that our process of working out our identity as the part of the body of Christ known as Christ Church was completed in 40 days and what emerged from that work was a vision as clear as Jesus’ vision. However, the process took years and the vision that emerged will continue to grow and change. Such is the nature of the Spirit.
About five or six years ago our vestry decided to have a parish wide conversation to think about where the energy for ministry is at Christ Church. We had lots of ministry happening, but in a fairly unorganized and random way. So, the vestry hosted 10 meetings over a period of several weeks, used countless pads of newsprint to record your thoughts and ideas, and with the help of some additional parishioners, crunched the data to come up with categories of ministry, which would become the nucleus for ministry teams. Over one summer, parishioners gathered in groups to create a mission statement and goals for each of the ministry teams, leaders for the teams were identified, and we held a dinner in the fall to explain the teams and give people an opportunity to sign up. The teams met quarterly with great enthusiasm at first, then after a couple of years, enthusiasm waned. This is beginning to feel more like Moses and 40 years in the desert than Jesus and 40 days in the wilderness. But what we learned through all this is that we are a church that loves doing ministry, but really does not like meetings.
Fast forward a couple of years to phase 2 of our quest to articulate our identity. The vestry and I realized, with the help of a conference I attended, that our ability to tell the story of Christ Church would be greatly enhanced if we could articulate our values as a parish. The goal was to come up with 3-4 things that we actually value-not what we think we should value, but what we actually value, that tell the story of who we are. So, the vestry employed more pads of newsprint and proceeded to list every single ministry that happens here. That took the better part of a couple of vestry meetings.
Figuring that, in the words of the Ash Wednesday gospel "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," and that where we are investing our time and energy is where our values are, the vestry looked for common themes in our ministries. To describe a months long adventure in one sentence, what the vestry realized is that all of our ministries revolve around hospitality, worship, outreach, or education. Through living those values, we want the world to know that everyone has a place at God’s table. Our budget is now organized around those values. If you read the Annual Report, you will see that our ministries are organized around those values. Joyce Spangler organizes the Clarion around those values. And when we begin a new ministry, we look to see how that ministry fits with those values. When we began Reading Camp, that ministry fit education as we sought to improve the reading skills of rising third graders, outreach as we reached children without a lot of other opportunities to improve their reading, hospitality as we welcomed those children and their families to Christ Church and treated them as our own for a week, and worship to the extent that we sang songs about nouns and verbs with the kids because we like to sing and think music is important. Reading Camp fits the values we hold at Christ Church.
That is where my story ended for the workshop. But this year, we will begin another new adventure. As many of you know, last summer the General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved a liturgy to use for the blessing of same sex unions. Over the summer, because education is one of our values, the vestry hosted a series of three Sunday afternoon forums so that we could learn the theological and scriptural reasons for blessing such unions. Because hospitality and outreach are two of our values, gay and lesbian people have found themselves welcome at Christ Church for years as we have hosted Equality Springfield’s meetings on Thursday nights, the Dayton Gay Men’s Chorus for the last three years, and gay and lesbian people have been vital and visible members of this parish. And because worship is one of our values, we can understand why two people who want to commit themselves to each other for life would want to do that in the context of a church blessing, even in a state where their marriage is not legal.
So, this spring, with the Bishop’s permission, we will bless the union of Rick Incorvati and Kent Brooks. We will not do this in any hidden way, but openly and as part of who we have become as Christ Church and the values we hold. Rick is now in the ordination process and will begin Deacon School in the fall. Our bishop requires that everyone in the ordination process, gay or straight, who is in a committed relationship have that relationship solemnized to the full extent of the law, which in Ohio, for Rick and Kent, means having that union blessed by the church. We did not arrive at this point overnight, by any means, and the vestry and I understand that not all of us will agree with this decision. But the decision reflects our desire to live as a church that embodies the values of education, outreach, hospitality and worship.
After 40 days, Jesus left the wilderness and began his ministry, more aware of who he was as the Son of God. At Christ Church, knowing who we are and what we value as children of God sends us out into the world with the message that we believe to be the gospel message of Jesus: There is a place for you at God’s table.
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
February 10, 2013
Last Epiphany
Every Wednesday morning I tutor 5th grade math at Horace Mann Elementary School. Math seems like an odd choice for someone with three degrees in religion, and, indeed, the choice is ironic since I nearly failed 5th grade because of math. But despite my love of theology, scripture, and liturgy, there is something quite satisfying about 5th grade math because there is always a right answer. Plus, I have an app for my phone called "Mathisfun" in case I get stuck. The other satisfying piece of 5th grade math is that I get to work with the children on problem solving skills that are also life skills. For example, last week we worked on problems like this: "The cheerleading squad is selling candy bars to earn money to go to cheerleading camp. They sold 30 bars of chocolate for $8 each. Then they lowered the price of the candy bars to $5 hoping to sell more. How many candy bars did they sell for $5 if the total amount of money raised was $300." Those kinds of story problems made me crazy when I was in 5th grade. They seemed totally overwhelming and I had no idea where to start. So, I ask the child I am working with "What do we know?" and get her to tell me all the information we are given in the problem. Then I ask "What do we need to know?" Then the hard part: How are we going to get from what we know to what we need to know? While that is not easy for these children, at least they feel like they have taken some control of the problem by identifying everything they do know so they have the tools to figure out what they need to know. Likewise with life: when we are overwhelmed by something that seems beyond our comprehension, if we can identify what we do know, we can then use that knowledge to figure out what we need to know, and find a way forward.
This morning, both the Hebrew people who are following Moses through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, and Peter, James, and John, who have followed Jesus up the mountain, encounter that which is overwhelming and beyond their comprehension. The reading from Exodus tells us that after Moses came down from the mountain, where he had been talking with God and had received the 10 commandments, his face was shining so brightly that his brother Aaron and the rest of the people were afraid to come near him. In response to the people’s fear, Moses would veil his face when he talked with them, then would remove the veil when he went up on the mountain to talk with God. While our reading from 2 Corinthians gives an unfortunate account of that veiling that has more to do with the 1st century tensions between Jews and Christians than with the glory of God, the writer keeps open the possibility that hardness of heart can keep all of us from experiencing the glory of God. However, the Exodus story tells us that, through Moses, the people encountered the glory of God which was far more than they could begin to comprehend. So, in order to control the resulting fear, Moses veiled his face.
Also this morning, Jesus takes Peter and James and John and goes up on the mountain to pray. And while Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed, his clothes became dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and spoke of Jesus’ departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. In his confusion, Peter offers to take control of the situation and build three booths, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Confusion turns to terror as a cloud overshadows all of them and the voice from the cloud says "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him." The voice does not explain away their confusion, or give them reason not to fear. Peter, James, and John have beheld the glory of God and what the glory of God says is "This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him."
What are we to hear? Immediately before the transfiguration, the disciples heard Jesus say something they didn’t understand and probably didn’t want to hear. Just a few paragraphs before Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on the mountain to pray, Jesus says to his disciples "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Then Jesus goes on to say to them "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." Those are hard words, and given that the disciples made no response to those words whatsoever, I can imagine that they found the words to be hard, offensive, confusing, or all three. No wonder Peter wanted to build booths on the mountain for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and stay there a while! The disciples may not have understood what was happening on that mountain, or the reference to Jerusalem there, but being in the presence of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah was certainly preferable to hearing Jesus talking about the Son of Man undergoing suffering, rejection and death. However, God commands the disciples to listen to Jesus, and Jesus is headed to Jerusalem and the cross.
Today, we sing the great alleluia hymns and bury the alleluias as our way of experiencing something of the glory of God before we, too, move down the mountain toward Jerusalem and Jesus’ departure. Every year, I too, would like to build a booth and dwell right here and keep singing these hymns rather than head down the mountain to Lent. But as we move into Lent, which, when we take seriously, can be confusing and overwhelming, we take something we know of the glory of God with us on the journey. Today we also bury the alleluias. On the mountain, Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. As we move into Lent, we do so with the full knowledge of where we are going: to Jerusalem, to the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, and only then to his resurrection. What we know as we enter Lent is something of the glory of God and what will happen at the end of our Lenten journey. What we do not know is how we will be transformed by that journey if we trust in the glory of God to accompany us and are willing to make the journey. The only way to find out is to trust in what we know and follow Jesus down the mountain.
Amen.
Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
February 3, 2013
4 Epiphany C
One of the first churches I served when I graduated from seminary was St. Mark’s in Sidney, Ohio. St. Mark’s was a very small congregation, maybe 25 people on a good Sunday, that worked hard to have a big impact in the neighborhood around the church. At one point, they did a demographic study of the neighborhood and discovered that a high percentage of the households were single parent households. So, the church applied for a grant from the diocese to put a playground in the church yard and began an after school program. The church was justifiably proud of their ability to take on ministries that were seemingly too large for such a small church. The words "Ah Lord, God, but we are just a small church" would never come from their mouths. Granted, to have the kind of ministry this church had, they had to be pretty united and of one mind about taking on these projects. But that was rarely a problem. They were a small, close knit group of Episcopalians.
Then a group of people approached the vestry about using the church for a bible study. The group had been using the meeting room at the public library but had been asked to leave. The reason they were asked to leave the library was not because they were studying the Bible, or because they were disruptive, messy, or poorly behaved. They were asked to leave simply because they were gay. And because there are no laws that protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the group had no choice but to find another place to meet. Might they be able to meet at the Episcopal Church?
At the vestry meeting which followed, the "Ah, Lord God’s" flew. The fear was palpable. "Ah Lord God, we are but a peaceful church. What if people picket?" "Ah Lord God, we are but a small church. What if this divides us?" "Ah Lord God, we can barely pay our bills now. What if people stop pledging?" Some people on the vestry thought hosting the Bible study was a fine idea and a new way to reach out into the community. Others were furious at the conflict and the challenge this request was causing. In the end, the vestry decided that hospitality was the best course of action, and that the vestry should not be afraid but believe that God would be present in both the Bible study and in any consequences of that hospitality. In the end, no one stopped coming to church, no one stopped pledging, and no one picketed the church. The fears were unrealized and the Bible study group was deeply grateful for the church’s hospitality.
This morning, both Jeremiah and Jesus will infuriate people. We only hear about Jeremiah’s call this morning. God is sending Jeremiah to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and overthrown, to build and to plant. That is 4 verbs about destroying and 2 verbs about building up. This is our first clue that Jeremiah’s ministry may not be a happy one. Jeremiah will tell the people that worshiping idols, neglecting the poor, and believing false prophets are not what God had in mind for God’s people, and that the consequences of their actions will be dire. The people are furious with Jeremiah, and for the prophet’s efforts, he will attacked by his own brothers, beaten and put in stocks, imprisoned by the king, thrown in a cistern and threatened with death. Clearly the people did not want to hear the words God put in Jeremiah’s mouth.
Jesus also infuriates the people in his hometown synagogue. Last week we heard Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Today we hear Jesus say "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All the people in the synagogue are amazed at the words coming from Jesus’ mouth. They marvel that this is Joseph’s son. If Jesus had just stopped there, he could have gone to coffee hour and gone home in peace. But, good rabbi that Jesus was, he wanted the people to understand the words he had just spoken. The long awaited Messiah was not coming just for them. The chosen people were not the only people God chose. Jesus reminded the people in the synagogue of two Biblical stories in which the love of God touched Gentiles: the story in which Elijah, the foremost prophet of God, was sent to the widow of Zarephath during a severe famine to provide a miracle of food for the widow and her son, and the story of Naaman the Syrian, who was not just a Gentile, but an enemy of the Israelites, and who was the only leper cleansed. The people in the temple, who just a moment ago were speaking well of Jesus, are now furious and try to throw him off the cliff because Jesus is telling them they are not God’s only beloved people.
Why are the people so angry? Neither Jesus nor Jeremiah are telling the people that they are not loved by God, even though that is what the people hear. Both Jesus and Jeremiah are challenging a people who want to define the love of God on their own terms. Jeremiah speaks to a people who want the love of God to allow them to behave as they like with no consequences because they are God’s chosen people. Jesus speaks to a people who wants to believe that God loves them and no one else. Both speak to a people who are furious because they can not, or will not, hear God challenge them to understand the love of God in new ways. Both speak to a people who are afraid because their basic assumptions about their faith have been challenged.
By partnering the stories about Jesus and Jeremiah with the reading from I Corinthians, we are reminded that the most basic commandment of God is to love God and each other. When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus will quote the book of Deuteronomy and say "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." Paul writes "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth." Both Jeremiah and Jesus are challenging the people to this kind of love- of both God and their neighbor, and to understand their neighbor as all people, not just people like them.
What the people at St. Mark’s in Sidney realized is that the love of God is not something we get to define, hoard, or control. When we try, we wind up furious and afraid for we are trying to conquer that which cannot be subdued. What the people of St. Mark’s learned is that the love of God is meant to be given away, and that when given away, even to those with whom they might not agree, their experience of God’s love multiplies. Only when we give up trying to control who gets God’s love and who does not are we free to love with the love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
Amen.
