The Prayer Book, page 855

This morning at All Saints' we celebrated the gifts of food; food for the soul in our worship, and food for the body in our action.  At our service we heard from Alane Spinney, the chef for the City Meal Site.  CMS serves about 200 homeless folks each Tuesday evening with a three-course sit-down  hot and nutritious meal.  Alane told us about the history of the Meal Site, how it has grown since moving to All Saints' Church last year, and how grateful the guests are for the service that is provided.  It was Episcopal Charities Sunday.  CMS is one of the agencies that receives support from Episcopal Charities.

Following our service, and in honor of Black History Month, members of the congregation provided lunch for all who could stay.  The food was in the African culinary tradition and everyone appreciated the fellowship and all that was spread before them.

Then, as we have done each Sunday during February, sandwiches were made for delivery to Crossroads so their residents would have lunch.  Sandwich making is rotated every month among several churches to provide lunch at Crossroads.  Then, during the month of March, we have asked parishioners to bring in jars of peanut butter and jelly for distribution.

Food for the body is important, and so is food for the spiritual life of the community.  On page 855 of the Book of Common Prayer it states, "The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.... The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love."

In feeding the hungry, working for justice and an end to oppression wherever and however it occurs, and by giving glory and thanks to God for the gifts we receive, all members of the church seek "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."  We are very grateful for the work and ministry of all the faithful.

"Springtime for the Soul"

If someone were to ask you about your spiritual life or journey in faith what would you say?  Can you think back through your life and describe your own experiences and development in the context of faith?  Our Scripture readings today are about memory and commitment, and they are taken from the stories of ancient Israel, of Jesus, and of the early Christians. 

In the Book of Deuteronomy we heard, "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien...[The] Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us.... We cried to the God of our ancestors; God heard our voice, saw our affliction…and brought us out of Egypt … into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  So now I bring the first fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me."

Israel's faith is the experience of God's saving power in the moment of anguish and need.  The Israelites were nomads or farmers.  They had gone to Egypt probably to escape famine, and their subsequent threatening presence to the Egyptians was a social and political reality.  In their crisis for survival they recognized the true source of power and blessing and gave thanks with the first fruits of the harvest, an offering of gratitude to God. 

A key element in Israel's faith was the powerful force of the community.  In whatever time we live, our ancestor is always Israel, the wandering Aramean.  Every succeeding generation must receive God's gift as a new reality, vowing to live by faith and returning to the covenant God made with the Israelites. 

Christian faith begins with Jesus.  Following his baptism, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, ...was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.… When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time."

At the time of his temptations Jesus was just beginning to sow the seeds of his message.  The reality of his faith was in the tradition of ancient Israel.  Just as his ancestors had gone into the wilderness so Jesus was let by the Spirit into the wilderness, and like Moses, fasted.  Just as the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea, so Jesus waded through the Jordan River and then headed into the wilderness.  There he was tempted three times by the devil.  He was tempted to seek power, to be distracted by physical needs and wants, and to seek a private, personal salvation through a false form of trust.

In commenting on the lessons from Deuteronomy and Luke, the Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says, “These texts constitute a meditation on a primal human question: ‘Who will make us safe?’ The answer, in biblical context, is not a surprise.  The only security is trust in God.”

The passage from Deuteronomy provides “a classic affirmation concerning the God who saves, provides, and protects. … God is powerfully and totally committed to God’s treasured people.”

The narrative of Luke offers a challenge.  “The tempter seeks to talk Jesus out of his security and his vocation by offering other fake modes of well-being…. But Jesus refuses the offer.”

Walter Brueggemann then tells us, “Lent is a time…  to embrace the only reliable gift of well-being.  Imagine choosing the Lord of the gospel rather than money, control, and power—the usual seductions in our society.”

Another writer, Barbara Brown Taylor, in an article in the Christian Century Magazine several years ago, (February 18, 1998), writes that the “season of Lent, [is] from the old English word lenten, meaning "spring" [It is] not only a reference to the season before Easter, but also an invitation to a springtime for the soul.  Forty days to cleanse the system and open the eyes to what remains when all comfort is gone.  Forty days to remember what it is like to live by the grace of God alone and not by what we can supply for ourselves.”

When we live by the grace of God alone, it is “the holy of holies inside of us, the uncluttered throne room of the Lord our God.  Nothing on earth can fill it, but that does not stop us from trying. … Read Luke’s story again. Then tell the devil to get lost and decide what you will do for Lent…. Worship the Lord your God and serve no one else.  Expect great things, from God and from yourself.  Believe that everything is possible.  Why should any of us settle for less?”

May all of us, good friends, during this season of Lent recall the faith of our ancestors and the temptations and trials that Jesus endured.  Then may we reach into the solitude of our souls to renew our faith, to worship and give thanks and praise to God from whom all blessings flow.  Amen.

Ash Wednesday

The season of Lent is a time when many people give up  something.  It is often something we eat or drink like chocolate or candy, or beer or soft drinks.  Some people give up things like going to the movies or some other pleasurable activity, perhaps a skiing trip.

Then, there are other people who like to take something on for Lent. something they do not always do in their normal routine.  It might be volunteering at a food bank or a soup kitchen, or donating blood at the local blood bank.

Still others see Lent as a spiritual journey, attending church services more regularly, reading the Bible faithfully every day, or spending a designated time in reflection or meditation.

The Rev. Ann Fontaine, a priest in the Diocese of Wyoming, and author of the book, “Streams of Mercy” has said:

“When we think of the words of Ash Wednesday – ‘remember you are dust and to dust you shall return’ - remember that scientists have learned that we are of the same dust as stars - so remember also you are stardust and to stardust you shall return.”

Ann Fontaine then shares a way of keeping Lent that improves her relationships with others, the planet, herself and God.  She elaborates on a quotation from a former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Arthur Lichtenberger, whom I knew when I was in seminary.  Bishop Lichtenberger focused on a distinction between fasting and feasting.  Lent as a time for taking something on is a time for fasting and feasting:

Fast from judgment, Feast on compassion
Fast from greed, Feast on sharing
Fast from scarcity, Feast on abundance
Fast from fear, Feast on peace
Fast from lies, Feast on truth
Fast from gossip, Feast on praise
Fast from anxiety, Feast on patience
Fast from evil, Feast on kindness
Fast from apathy, Feast on engagement
Fast from discontent, Feast on gratitude
Fast from noise, Feast on silence
Fast from discouragement, Feast on hope
Fast from hatred, Feast on love

What will be your fast this year? What will be your feast?  In whatever you choose may your Lent be a blessing and a renewed relationship with others, the planet, yourself, and God.  Amen.

Fulfilling the Scripture

“The word of the Lord came to [Jeremiah] saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”

God called Jeremiah to be a prophet when he was still very young.   Jeremiah didn’t want the job and gave his youthful age as a reason for rejecting it.  But God brushed aside his objection.  God was well aware of women and men who felt inadequate to life’s tasks.  So God, knowing Jeremiah was the person he needed said,  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  There is no higher calling and Jeremiah finally had no choice but to accept the call and to say “yes” to what God asked of him.

Imagine young Jeremiah -- minding his own business, when suddenly God broke into his life -- when he heard God's call to him.  Calling him to be a prophet, to speak God's word to the people.  Moreover, he was not called to be just an ordinary prophet.  God would set him "over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."

Jeremiah resisted God’s call, and like Moses, Noah, and Jonah before him, he was reluctant to obey this call.  However, God would not accept "No" for an answer.

God and Jeremiah had a conversation.  God said, "I chose you to be my prophet even before you were born."  Jeremiah replied, "Ah, Lord God!  Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am young, not even in the over thirty crowd."  “I am only a boy.”  God countered, "Do not say ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you."

Jeremiah was afraid.  Who wouldn’t be?  God spoke to assure him, "I am with you to deliver you."  Then, recalled Jeremiah, "The Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, 'Now I have put my words in your mouth."

This story poses a question for me, and perhaps you have the same question: Why would God enlist a young and inexperienced person like Jeremiah for such an awesome task of being “appointed over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant?”

The answer is that God called Jeremiah for qualities other than his youth.  It is evident that Jeremiah's success rested not within himself, but with God's word and God's strength.  Jeremiah trusted in God’s call.

We learn in the later chapters of the Book of Jeremiah that the power and success of Jeremiah's life resulted from his new relationship with God.  As his dialogue with God continued, and as God taught him what to say to the people, God empowered Jeremiah with strength and courage to do the work he was given to do.

Last Sunday we read that Jesus, like Jeremiah, was around thirty years of age when he preached in the synagogue at Nazareth.  Jesus opened the Hebrew Bible to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah where it says,

“’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.’”

Then, having read this passage, he rolled up the scroll,

gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.

Today our gospel passage continues where last week’s left off.  “Jesus began to speak in the synagogue at Nazareth: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”  Jesus tried to explain his call to the people in the synagogue.  Those who heard him “spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”  They couldn’t believe this was Joseph the carpenter’s son.  They were not prepared to hear Jesus refer to himself as a successor to Elijah.  Instead, they adhered to the popular belief that Elijah would return in the last days to announce the coming of the messiah.

The people had been living with three and a half years of a severe famine; there were a number of unclean lepers in Israel at the time.  They needed a miracle, a cure to all the turmoil and hardship they were experiencing.  What Jesus said to them was, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

No wonder the people around Jesus reacted with anger. They were outraged and ushered him out of the synagogue and drove him out of town.  As Luke reported, “All in the synagogue were filled with rage.  They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”

Jesus had tried to explain what he meant by saying that no prophet is acceptable in the prophet’s hometown.  He told them, “Doubtless you will quote me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’”  Luke concluded that through some kind of miraculous intervention Jesus was able to “pass through the midst of them (perhaps in a manner like the Israelites who passed through the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians) and went on his way.”

What do we learn from these stories about Jeremiah and Jesus?  How is the Scripture fulfilled in our hearing?

Jeremiah learned to trust his relationship with God, to know that God wanted him to be a prophet and would support and sustain him in his call.  Jesus knew who he was and what it meant to be anointed by God to bring good news to the poor, to heal the sick, and give liberty to the outcasts and downtrodden.  Both Jeremiah and Jesus were willing to risk everything for the mission they had been given.  What we learn is that life is full of risk and we need to trust that God will always support and sustain us in our ministry to those in need.

Jesus proclaimed the message of God’s love for the world and for all people.  That message was and is that God’s desire is to minister with grace and healing to the physical hurts as well as the spiritual needs of every human being.  We learn that if we limit our under-standing and use of the gospel to preaching and keep it separate from doing acts of compassionate loving and caring, we become roadblocks to the advancement of God’s reign rather than vessels of God’s desire.

Jesus reminds us that the Spirit of God is not limited to our understanding.  God is always seeking to expand our relationship with him; always working through us as in and through Christ to reconcile the world to God.  Jesus reminds us that the plea for human justice and dignity, the work of reaching out to the displaced, the oppressed and the poor, is an integral part of the gospel that offers the forgiveness, acceptance, grace and love of God. 

You and I are commissioned and empowered by God for this ministry.  It is what God expects.  It is what we have been baptized and anointed to do, and it is how the Scripture is fulfilled in our hearing.  Amen.