Rejoice with Glorious Joy

The First letter of Peter tells us that God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Our response to this Easter message is Alleluia.  The word Alleluia stands for and means God’s name be praised.  We respond with alleluias and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy because, as Peter said, we are receiving the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

During this Easter season we are called to live into God’s new age.  It is the age of resurrected life, an age of forthcoming peace, justice, mercy and love for all people and for all of God’s creation.

A couple of weeks ago Carol and I attended a presentation by Bryan Stevenson who gave a talk on behalf of Read Across Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Committee on the Humanities.  Bryan Stevenson is a law professor at New York University and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.  He is the author of the widely acclaimed book, Just Mercy.  His presentation focused on four themes: proximity, changing the narrative, hope, and discomfort.  I cannot do justice to his remarks but the themes are important for all of us who ascribe to the Christian hope of new life.

Briefly stated, proximity is about meeting people you would not ordinarily encounter.  It means that it is important to go out of your way to meet the stranger and begin a conversation.  Here at All Saints’ we are a diverse group of people who come together each week to share in worship, service, and outreach.  As we engage each other in telling our stories we are developing conversations that can result in constructive dialogue and change.

When it comes to changing the narrative Stevenson pointed out how we have incarcerated hundreds if not thousands of people on drug charges.  We treat drugs as a criminal offense when it is really a health problem.  We do not convict people of alcoholism and send them to prison, so why do we discriminate about other drugs.  We need to change the narrative and that requires a lot of discussion. 

Then there is the matter of discomfort.  When we are engaged in living into God’s new age, engaged in sharing our stories, changing the narrative, and working for peace and justice, there are and will be times of personal discomfort.

The Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us that Easter life is risky, dangerous and demanding.  “Practicing Easter life continues to be risky because it contradicts the deathly commitments of our world -- one devoured by greed, anxiety, and violence.  A practice of Easter life continues also to be one of joy, as attested to by contemporary witnesses who are freed of ancient fears and live by Jesus' command that we ‘love one another.’"

This brings us to Stevenson’s insight about hope.  Many people today experience a sense of hopelessness.  Economic realities and the lack of equality are two examples.  The opposite of hopelessness is justice.  Justice and love are the result of hope.  Hope is a theological issue, and it is the hope of Easter that we celebrate today and throughout the entire year.

In today’s Collect we prayed that God will “grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith.”  And, as we heard in the First Letter of Peter, by God’s “great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”  Our faith as Christians is being renewed into that living hope, living lives that reflect the Resurrection.  It is about practicing Easter life by living into God’s new age.

For the past seven years you and I have been engaged in shared ministry.  It has been a sincere privilege for me to work with all of you in this magnificent and beautiful sacred space.  I shall miss you, the many relationships we developed, the challenges and opportunities for pastoral care, preaching and celebrating the Eucharist.  It is always difficult to say goodbye and I do so with heartfelt feelings of gratitude and thanksgiving for our life together.  Today the time has come for me to leave and for you to embark on engaging new clergy leadership.  My wish is that you will continue to live into the future with a true sense of joy and hope.

The future of All Saints’ Church, the communities you are called to serve, and the coming of God’s new age depend on your commitment as a community of faith.  This is your sacred space and you can make All Saints grow spiritually and economically and thrive by investing yourself in its life and service to people in need.  It is God’s calling to all of you.  May your ministry and mission flourish, and may you by the gift of living hope through Christ’s resurrection share in the grace, mercy and love of God.  Amen.

Living into God’s New Age

“Alleluia, Christ is risen.”  The message of Easter is, "Do not be afraid…. He is not here; for he has been raised.'"  Christ is risen.  God’s love endures for all creation and for every person of every nation, race and religion.  The good news of Easter is that we do not need to live in fear.  God's love and the truth of Christ's resurrection cast out all fear.

The hope of the resurrection with its message that God's love gave birth to Christian faith; and that same hope sustains and motivates the Church's ministry and mission through all succeeding generations.  It is about building those things that shall endure through a vision of God’s new age.

In his book, The Meaning of Jesus, the Anglican bishop N.T. Wright says, the "resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot through with great significance.  What is done to the glory of God in the present is genuinely building for God's future.  Acts of justice and mercy, the creation of beauty and the celebration of truth, deeds of love and the creation of communities of kindness and forgiveness -- these all matter, and they matter forever." 

The vocation of Christians is to build those "things that will last into God's new age."  It is the "vocation to holiness: to the fully human life reflecting the image of God that is made possible by Jesus' victory on the cross and that is energized by the Spirit of the risen Jesus present within communities of persons."

The Christian vision of God's new age is a vision that is greatly transformed from present reality.  Our world is hurting and in need of repair and healing.  In God's new age there will be no famine or malnutrition, no war, no racial or religious prejudice, no crime, no poverty, no lack of health care. 

In God's new age there will be a spirit of freedom and peace, of love and compassion, of justice and equality.  In God's new age there will be a renewed respect for the environment and responsible stewardship of both natural and human resources.  The meaning of the resurrection is that all of our accepted and familiar ways of living are turned upside down.  A new day and a new age is coming.  It is up to us to build those things that will endure.

Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry has a powerful Easter message.  Bishop Curry says, “Jesus arranged his entrance into Jerusalem  [on that first Palm Sunday] to send a message.  He entered the city, having come in on one side of the city, the scholars tell us, at just about the same time that Pontius Pilate made his entrance on the exact opposite side of the city. Pilate, coming forth on a warhorse.  Pilate, with soldiers around him.  Pilate, with the insignias of Rome’s Empire.  Pilate, representing the Caesars who claimed to be son of god…. Pilate, who represented the Empire that would maintain the colonial status of the Jewish people by brute force and violence.

“Jesus entered the city on the other side, not on a warhorse, but on a donkey, recalling the words of Zechariah:

Behold your King comes to you
Triumphant and victorious is He
Humble and riding on a donkey

“Jesus entered the city at the same time as Pilate to show them, and to show us, that God has another way…. The way of unselfish, sacrificial love.  That’s why he entered Jerusalem.  That’s why he went to the cross.  It was the power of that love poured out from the throne of God, that even after the horror of the crucifixion would raise him from death to life.”

Jesus “didn’t just happen to be in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday.  He went to Jerusalem for a reason. To send a message.  That not even the titanic powers of death can stop the love of God.  On that Easter morning, he rose from the dead, and proclaimed love wins.”

God invites us this Easter and every day to live into his new age, to live into Christ's resurrection and to be hopeful about those things that will endure.  Love as Jesus loved.  Have a blessed Easter.  Bless all the people of God everywhere.  Christ is risen.  Alleluia!  Amen.

Giving Life to the World

This year’s season of Lent is soon to culminate with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his Last Supper with the disciples, his trial and execution on Good Friday and his glorious resurrection from death on Easter day. 

For the past several weeks we have come together to read and meditate on God’s holy word and to reflect on the healing ministry of Jesus. Through our worship we continue to grow in the knowledge of God and in the meaning of Christ’s resurrection.  Our ministry is about sharing the gift of God’s grace through life in the Holy Spirit, and our focus has been on reconciliation, how we can heal the divisions that separate and alienate us from God and others.  The ministry of reconciliation is about restoring all people to unity with God and each other.

The story in John’s Gospel about the raising of Lazarus is an account of the work of God’s life-giving spirit.  Lazarus lived with his family in Bethany.  He was the brother of Martha and Mary and a close friend of Jesus.  John tells us that Lazarus was ill so his sisters sent word to Jesus.  The message said, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”  When Jesus received this news he said, “This illness does not lead to death, rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

We can imagine that in writing this story about Lazarus John saw it as a premonition about Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.  “Jesus, greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.  Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’  The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”

Fred Craddock, professor at Candler School of Theology, says the primary function of the story about Lazarus is revelation.  “Some truth about the meaning of God’s glory and presence in the world is made known through Jesus’ ministry.  For the stories to function this way, they must be seen to operate on two levels.  On one level Jesus heals a cripple, opens the eyes of the blind or raises the dead, but on another level he reveals a truth about life eternal which God makes available in Jesus Christ.”

“What is really going on here is not only a family crisis in Bethany but the crisis of the world, not only the raising of a dead man but the giving of life to the world.  On one level the story is about the death and resurrection of Lazarus, but on another it is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. The sisters want their brother back, to be sure, but Jesus is also acting to give life to the world.  Jesus declares this truth to Martha at the heart of the narrative: ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’"

When Lazarus emerged from the tomb he was still bound with strips of cloth.  He was alive but he wasn’t completely free.  It took his family and friends to unbind him and to let him go.  This is not only about God’s power to renew life but it is our power to participate in the unbinding of all people who are oppressed, abused, or in any way victims of discrimination.

In an article in the Christian Century the author Christine Chakoian says, “No doubt every generation must wrestle with what ultimately matters—with what is trustworthy, what is the endpoint of life, what we allow to consume and fascinate, motivate and capture us.  But we are being sorely tested in our time as we determine where we will rest our hope, where we will set our minds.… At times like this, we may wonder whether our feeble efforts at justice and compassion and truth make any difference in the world.”

When we think about the struggles in our own lives and in our nation and the world we must keep in mind what it means to be Christian, what it means to be followers of Jesus in this 21^st century.  When we set our minds on the Holy Spirit looking to the glory of God and following the way of Christ, we are on the way that leads to life.  Being a Christian is about fostering new life, what we do to alleviate poverty, to understand and respect people who are different, to build communities of equality and opportunity, and to rejoice knowing that God resuscitates us through his Spirit both in this life and in eternal life. 

God’s Spirit “dwells in us.”  Life in the Spirit of God is about the work of God throughout our human history.  In our world, and in the Church through the ministry of all who are baptized, it is through the Spirit that we are led into a life of justice, peace and compassion for all people.  Our life in God’s Spirit is about continuing the ministry of Jesus.  It is a ministry of healing the wounds and divisions that separate us from others, and it is about bringing peace and a sense of well-being to our troubled world.  Amen.

God’s Gift of Light

During this season of Lent we have included an insert in each Sunday’s service bulletin titled, “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation.”  Today’s reflection is about sin, brokenness and alienation in need of reconciliation.  The Book of Common Prayer states, “sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.”  

There are times when “relationships are broken due to circumstances beyond our control…. For example, victims of abuse, rape, racism, bigotry, the miscarriage of justice, etc. can feel alienated from others because of their experience….”  Whatever the reason for broken relationships the difficult work of reconciliation is required for healing.

John’s gospel describes Jesus as the "light of the world" and the "light of life."  Blindness is the opposite of light.  Light is the renewed and healed relationships that were broken.  The story about healing a man born blind is symbolic of this theme.  It is a story we can read as a drama in which there is a debate between the man born blind and some Pharisees.  Pharisees were the religious leaders during the first century of the Christian era.

The drama begins with an introduction: “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.”  Then, suddenly, the scene shifts to a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples.  The disciples asked about the cause of the man’s blindness and whether it was because of his sin or the sin of his parents.  Jesus responded by talking about the purpose of his blindness  “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

The question asked by the disciples reflected the view that when something bad happened to a person it was thought to have a causal effect that could be explained by sin or by failure to uphold the law.  Jesus’ response was that those familiar categories are not correct when it comes to understanding God.  The healing of the blind man was an occasion for experiencing the reality of God’s presence and power.

Jesus said,  “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Then “he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva.”  In commenting on this story, the New Testament scholar Gail O’Day wrote, “Spittle and clay may not be where we would expect to see God’s presence lodged, but then we would also not expect the Word to become flesh and dwell among us.”

After he was anointed with mud the blind man followed Jesus’ direction and “went and washed and came back able to see.”  The gift of sight had a profound impact on the man who received his sight.  It also had an impact on everyone who heard about it and came into contact with him.

The second scene of this drama tells us that the blind man was a beggar.  “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar” began asking questions.  The fact of being blind had resulted in economic deprivation.  The blind man lived on the margins of society.  He lacked access to the social systems of care and support for those who could afford it.  He could only sit and beg and, because he had been born blind, he had never been able to work.

Next the third scene follows with neighbors asking questions: "Is this the man who used to sit and beg?"  They could not agree about the answer they heard so they asked where they could find Jesus.  When the man said, "I do not know," they took him to the religious leaders, the Pharisees, for further questioning.

The Pharisees asked questions that were similar to those of the neighbors.  When they heard his answers some of them wondered how a person who did not observe the Sabbath could do this, and others said that no sinner could perform such signs.  Then they got to the essential question, “What do you say about him?  It was your eyes he opened.”  The man now able to see answered, “He is a prophet.”

The Pharisees could not believe what they heard so they questioned his parents.  The parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes.  Ask him; he is of age.  He will speak for himself.”  But the Pharisees who had already asked him refused to accept the truth of his statement.  Questioning the parents resolved nothing.   

In the final scene the Pharisees once again questioned the man.  The point of this round of questioning was the man's reluctance to make statements about things he didn't know.  He simply accepted what had happened and told them, "Though I was blind, now I see." The interrogators were not pleased, they became angry and reviled him.  “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.... We do not know where this man comes from.” 

With his new sight the man had a skillful retort, “Here is an astonishing thing!  You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The entire drama demonstrates that the Pharisees were the ones who refused to see.  They could only accept that the blind man was born in sin.   They could not see God at work in giving the gift of sight.  Nor could they see God at work in any way that contradicted their preconceived views.  They were so sure of themselves that they “drove [the man] out.”

In her commentary Gail O’Day writes, “The Pharisees looked at Jesus and the man born blind and saw sin.  The man born blind saw the power and presence of God in his gift of sight and recognized Jesus as the one who made that power and presence possible.”  The man worshiped him; his life was transformed.

How do we see and what do we know?  We can be blind to truth that is right in front of us.  You may know about John Newton, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace.”  Newton was "spiritually" blind.  As a successful slave trader in the 18th century he saw African people only as a commodity to be traded and used.  Then, amazing grace burst into his life, and he was given the gift of sight.  One day Newton looked into the eyes of one of his slave cargo, and instead of an object, he saw a human being, a child of God.  All the slaves he had shipped were human beings but he had failed to see them as they were.  Until that moment he was blind to the truth.  Years later he wrote, "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."

The work of God is the work of reconciliation, of healing and forgiveness.  It is the work of compassionate love giving the gift of sight and new life.  What keeps us from experiencing and being transformed by the healing power of God in our lives is our own blindness to God’s power and presence in the lives of those around us.  Our transformation happens when we let the light shine.  We heard about it in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “Now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”  May our eyes be opened, and may we be reconcilers and healers of broken relationships so that the light of God's love will be visible to everyone.  Amen.

Refreshing Water of Life

In your service leaflet there is a reflection from the Center for Reconciliation.  We are using different reflections each week during Lent to remind us that Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  Today’s focus concerns how the church can create safe spaces for people to engage in the emotionally difficult work of reconciliation.

The biblical stories from the Book of Exodus and the Gospel of John are about reconciliation.  As we heard in our first reading the Israelites in the Exodus story quarrel and wrestle with God without realizing that it is God who is testing them.  John’s Gospel account is about Jesus’ relationship with a Samaritan woman and what it means to include those who are religiously and culturally different.  The message of these stories is that we are to be reconcilers, people who bring others together out of respect, and who work hard to understand that God is the God of all people of every nation, ethnicity and religion.

Throughout the wilderness stories there is disagreement and quarreling between the people and Moses.  Moses had led the people out of Egypt and into the wilderness on their way to the promised land.  As they traveled through the desert there was no water and the people became thirsty and angry.  In desperation Moses cried out to God, “What shall I do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me.”  The Lord replied, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.  I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.  Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” 

The dispute between Moses and the people was serious.  Moses felt his own life was in danger.  The details in this story are important: the elders were taken along as witnesses.  Moses’ staff, which was so significant in the story of the plagues, is the chosen instrument, and God’s presence is dominant: “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.”  Moses will strike the rock with his staff and God will cause water to gush from it bringing life to the desert and the people.

Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness to Mount Sinai and the promised land was a time of danger and testing.  The Israelites met with numerous obstacles as they moved from one camping place to another.  There was insufficient and bitter water, and not enough food.  People were fearful and complained, unprepared for the challenge of faith in the wilderness, so they longed for a return to the security of slavery in Egypt.  They grumbled against Moses, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?  Was it just to have us die of thirst with our children and livestock?”  They quarreled with Moses and they tested God, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

By testing God they learned that God is the “Rock,” faithful and worthy of trust.  From the Rock came streams of water, enough to sustain life for their journey.  While they thought they were quarreling with and testing God (Massah and Meribah mean quarreling and testing), it turns out that God was, in fact, testing them.  The Lord took

the initiative, cared for them, and reconciled them to God.

Although the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John was not thirsting in the desert wilderness, she was in a wrong place at a wrong time.  She lived and worshipped in the wrong place, she was the wrong gender, and she had an unconventional marriage.  Jesus, however, refused to judge her. 

Jesus’ traveling through Samaria seemed calculated to highlight his presence among those who were considered “unworthy.”  At the end of the story, the despised Samaritans came out to meet Jesus because of the testimony of this woman.  They invited him to stay with them and after they listened to him, they concluded that he was not limited to what either Jews or Samaritans expected in a messiah.  They confessed that he was “the Savior of the world.”

The story becomes intriguing in revealing how this woman emerged as the unlikely witness who brought a whole town to Jesus.  Her encounter with Jesus did not begin well.  They did not even use language the same way.  He asked for water, but she hesitated because of her surprise at being asked.  Jesus told her she should ask him for a kind of water that would quench all thirst.  She continued to think about the endless task of drawing enough water for her household needs, but Jesus said,  “The water that I will give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”  What an astonishing statement!

There are many dimensions to this story.  It is about Jesus’ identity as the one who comes from God, makes God known, and is one with God.  It is also about religious tensions and the struggle to overcome them.  The story of the Samaritan woman has been referred to as a “paradigm of all reconciliation” in which an ancient enmity begins to heal through the conversation at the well, her testimony, and the experience of more and more Samaritans who come to hear Jesus because of her witness.

Two people, taught to loathe each other because of religious difference, create the possibility of reconciliation and shared faith through serious conversation and acceptance.  It is a narrative that invites us to look deeply into our own lives to see what leaves us fearful of looking into one another’s eyes, especially if those eyes belong to someone who is different.  The Samaritan woman serves as a model in which real listening, questioning and sharing lead to profound understanding and faith.  It is a story of reconciliation that invites us to step into an unfamiliar place of dialogue from which may come the possibility for real healing and new life. It reminds us of the reality of God’s presence: the One who makes all conversation possible, the Rock from which flows life-giving water.

None of us has been an ex-slave wandering in the Sinai wilderness, hungry for food or thirsting for water.  None of us has drawn water from a well in Samaria.  What we learn is that God is gracious and cares for all people, and we can be agents or ambassadors for reconciliation.  In the midst of our doubts, divisions, testing, and frustrations while attempting to resolve problems in our relationships, God is there to sustain and provide the water of life.

The gospel proclaims that Jesus is himself the living water that springs up, wells up within us and satisfies our insatiable human need -- our thirst for God.  As the late poet Denise Levertov wrote in “The Fountain:”

            Don’t say, don’t say there is no water.

            That fountain is there...

            it is still there and always there

            with its quiet song and strange power

            to spring in us,

            up and out through the rock.

Amsn.

Called to an Adventurous Faith

We heard in our first reading that Abram responded to God’s call and journeyed to an unknown land.  He had no maps, charts or computers to guide him.  It was an act of faith trusting in God and going to the land that God showed him.  He had to leave his family and country to make this journey.  It was a decisive break with all he had known. 

Do you ever think about faith as a journey, a journey both inward to self-understanding and outward toward others and as part of our covenant relationship with God?  We talk about Lent as a journey or a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the cross of Calvary.  We sometimes follow it imaginatively in our hearts and minds as we read and reflect on the Biblical texts for Palm Sunday and Holy Week.  The readings today, however, suggest a deeper, richer, and a more exciting metaphor: they suggest an adventure.

Abram's decision to go to a strange land is significant.  The whole biblical story and the influences of Christianity are the result of a decision to embark on an adventure.  The history of faith begins with those who were willing to accept and risk an unknown future, to adventure and struggle with an unknown destiny.  To leave home and all that seems secure is a difficult decision.

Prior to the time of Abram the biblical history and story was about the separation, alienation or estrangement of human beings from God.  That history culminated in the Flood, the story of God's intervention to correct what had gone wrong.  Then, following the Flood, Abram became the first ancestor of the Israelites, and he was the first person with whom God made a covenant.  At the time of establishing this covenant, Abram's name was changed to Abraham and his wife's name was changed from Sarai to Sarah.

Abraham's story tells us that he did not seek God, it was God who proposed the covenant to him.  A new relationship was needed, and God initiated it.  God offered to make Abraham and Sarah the forebears of a huge nation, provided that Abraham would follow God wherever that might lead.  Abraham chose to trust God, to accept this adventurous faith, and do what God asked, although he was already a seventy-five year old man with a wife and no children.  Life can be full of surprises at any age.

Another account of adventurous faith, although different from that of Abraham, is our gospel story about Nicodemus.  Nicodemus was also asked to make a significant decision.  He was a good person with enviable qualities, a leader and Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council.  People looked to Nicodemus for guidance and saw him as a mentor.  He was a courageous seeker of truth, but he was also a cautious person.  So he went after dark to see Jesus and to question him about what he had been hearing.  When he met Jesus he said, “no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  Then he was caught off guard by Jesus' reply, "No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Perhaps Nicodemus should have known that if new life is ever to be lived there must be a new direction, a transformation.  After all, this was Abram's story, and it was part of Jewish history.  Nicodemus undoubtedly knew the prophecy of Ezekiel, "Thus says the Lord God:  I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you to your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.  Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people and I will be your God."

Nicodemus had some doubt about Ezekiel’s prophecy and asked Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?"  Jesus replied, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  In other words, some things cannot be predicted or proven.  Mystery is real.  The wind comes, who knows from where or how, cleansing, invigorating, freshening, and then it is gone.  It is the same way with God.  Faith and trust are needed to assure that change is really possible, and that new life can be attained.  Jesus said whoever believes, whoever has faith in God, “may not perish but may have eternal life.”

In your bulletin insert on “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation” there is a quotation that speaks to the reality of adventurous faith and the concept of friendship.  It requires faith and trust for the work of reconciliation to occur.  Reconciliation is about “restoring relationships to the center of our lives, ministry and mission.  Friendships that open into reconciliation validate the message of good news.  Our practice becomes inseparable form our message, and affirming the imprint of God in each human being compels us to love as an extension of God’s love at work in us.”

Adventures often result in surprising experiences, exciting and sometimes risky or dangerous undertakings.  There is a sense of the unknown and the unexpected.  The poet Maya Angelou once wrote: "Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure.  We leave our homes for work, acting and even believing that we will reach our destination with no unusual event startling us out of our set expectations.  The truth is we know nothing, not where our cars will fail, or when our buses will stall, whether our places of employment will be there when we arrive, or whether, in fact, we ourselves will arrive whole and alive at the end of our journeys.  Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen didn't happen.  We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed."

During this season of Lent God calls us to an adventurous faith, a journey toward the place that is our center, our inner self where the Spirit of God is within us.  It is the place of our wholeness, our authenticity, the place of from which creative responses to life’s challenges emerge.  It is where our awareness of God’s presence within and around us surfaces.  Are we willing to leave the comfort of the familiar and go on an adventure of faith?  Our corporate adventure in faith is our covenant with God and our relationships with one another.  It is our love of God and our compassionate care for each other as we care for ourselves.  This level of meaning has to do with our worship, our outreach and service to others in friendships that lead to wholesome relationships and reconciliation.

Let us risk an adventurous faith, to be creative, and to work for the sake of God's love in the world.  "God so loved the world that... whoever has faith in God may not perish but have eternal life."  Amen.

Our Human Freedom

The story in the Book of Genesis about the tree of knowledge and the narrative in Matthew’s gospel about Jesus' temptation in the wilderness share a common theme.  The accounts of Adam and Eve in the garden, and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness are stories about us.  Do we live as God desires, or do we yield to temptations and fail to live purposeful and responsible lives?

In the Genesis story, God watered and planted a garden.  It was an extraordinary garden for Adam and Eve.  From the very beginning the story implies that human beings have shared in God's creativity.  The work of gardening is good work and Adam and Eve were "put in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it."

Near the end of the Genesis story, there is a theological discussion between the serpent and the woman.  God had said, "You may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die."  But then a crafty serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 

This manipulation by the serpent led Adam and Eve to view God's prohibition as an option, and their act of eating the fruit resulted in their eyes being opened.  They knew the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, so they devoured its fruit.  With this act Adam and Eve turned from faithfulness and trust to sin and alienation.  God's intention for a life of harmonious relationship was set aside by their free choice of knowing both good and evil.

As a consequence of their behavior Adam and Eve met with disappointment and frustration.  While theirs was an act of disobedience, it was also a time of growth and liberation.  They were free to go against God's command, setting the stage for the themes of sin and alienation, forgiveness and redemption that runs throughout the Bible.

Thousands of years later following his baptism Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."  Just as Adam and Eve had been tempted by the serpent in the garden of Eden, so was Jesus tempted by the devil.  His first temptation was about turning stones into bread.  Jesus responded by quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."  He pointed to the fundamental nourishment and direction provided by God's word. 

The devil was not satisfied so he took Jesus to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple.  This time the devil urged Jesus to force God's hand by throwing himself down, trusting that God would protect him.  But Jesus refused the temptation and again quoted Deuteronomy, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."

Then, for a third temptation, the persistent devil took Jesus to a very high mountain where he could survey all the kingdoms of the world.  It was a place of revelation and teaching.  Here, he promised everything to Jesus if he would only fall down and worship him.  Had Jesus succumbed to this temptation his role as God's Son would be completely negated.  So Jesus forcefully declared, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."

In these stories Jesus repeatedly refused to manipulate God or to rely on anyone other than God.  Feeding the hungry was a primary responsibility for Jesus and his followers, but not by miraculously turning stones into bread.  Jumping from the top of the temple would have been a spectacular act, but it would only result in a cult following and would not have glorified God.  Turning to the easy way of idolatry might have resulted in personal power and prestige, but it would not have resulted in faithful service and honor to God. 

In Matthew's day the early Christians found comfort from the sustaining power of God's Spirit.  They also found courage for their own struggles because of Jesus’ victory over the devil’s temptations.  In our day, what it means for us to follow Jesus by refusing to give in to temptation, and refusing to exercise power and control over others, is to live by God’s word and to worship and serve God in all that we do.  It is our ministry and mission of restoring all people to unity with God and each other.

We are members of the human family of God.  We share the same DNA with all other human beings.  Adam and Eve are our ancestral parents and we are given to the same temptations as they and Jesus were by failing to listen to God and working for his intention of restoring all people into a harmonious relationship of love and service.  As Jesus’ disciples did so can we through prayer and service find the sustaining power of God’s Spirit in our lives.

To aid us in this ministry there is enclosed with your worship leaflet an insert of “Reflections from the Center for Reconciliation.”  It is the first of a series we shall use each Sunday during this Lenten season.  In today’s Reflection the question is asked, “what do you think is the human family that God dreams and intends?”  It states, we are all brothers and sisters, a family of God’s dream that we would work to build a world where we all truly live as a family defined by love.  As St. Paul said in his Letter to the Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and he has now given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

To be fully human, to live a life of faithful service, to honor God in all that we do, to resist temptation for selfish gain, personal power or prestige, to use our knowledge responsibly -- these are the challenges we face every day.  May this season of Lent be a time for all of us to grow more fully into the nearness of God’s Spirit as the human family worthy of God's love.  Amen.

Living into God’s Holy Presence

One of the vows we make in our covenant with God is to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.”  In our relationship to God we remind ourselves of this when come together for worship.  In worship we recognize our faults by confessing our sins against God and our neighbors, and through forgiveness we strengthen our unity with Christ and one another.  Worship is a constant reminder that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God; and it reminds us about what is required for living into God’s holy presence.

Our readings appointed for today concern what it means to be the holy people of God.  We heard in the Book of Leviticus, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the congregation, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”  St. Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth said, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple?  God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  Then, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

A discussion in the book of Leviticus is about what it means to be holy.  The Israelites were freed from bondage and slavery in Egypt.  Through the exodus theirs was a special covenant with God, and holiness included wholeness, perfection, and relationships among people.  God is holy and we are to live in the same way, lives that are holy.  Genuine holiness is about caring for the poor and the alien. 

In using the metaphor of a farmer the author of Leviticus said that those who left the remnants of the harvest on the edges of the field, were not to “strip your vineyard bare; [but] you shall leave the fallen grapes for the poor and the alien.”

The commandments about relating to others focused on justice and responsible behavior.  You shall not lie or steal, nor swear, nor keep for yourself wages of someone you hired until the next morning.  “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great; with justice you shall judge your neighbor, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Living a holy life is about being responsive to the needs of the larger community.

St. Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth concerned the community.  He wrote that everyone belongs to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.  The context for his letter was a divided church in Corinth.  Some of its people were loyal to Paul and others to pagan gods, Apollos or Cephas.  To use today’s terminology, we might say that the church was in need of conflict management.  What mattered to Paul was a loyalty that was much greater than loyalty to the leaders of the local community.  He stated, “everyone belongs to Christ” and said, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  He then asked, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? … God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Today’s gospel continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we have been reading during the past several weeks.  It has to do with being holy and what is involved in being perfect as God is perfect.  Being perfect is Matthew’s way of calling the disciples to holiness, to being fully committed to Christ. Christian living calls us to live into the fullness of the commandments; it is a life of maturity, wholeness, holiness, and perfection as a disciple and follower of Christ. 

Jesus began each commandment with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said…, but I say to you….”  He then used the examples of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  These commandments reach their fullness when one can turn the other cheek, not refuse anyone who wants to borrow something, and when one can love one’s enemies and pray for those who oppress or persecute. 

Jesus pointed out how much easier it is to do the limited things, the least demanding things.  There are people who love others who love them, so they greet their brothers and sisters.  But Jesus asked, “What more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  Then came the real challenge: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This is the challenge for all of us today.

Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, commented on this challenge.  Brueggemann writes: “Christ’s human possibility [is] a defiant alternative to the human self proposed by the dominant values of our culture.  Our culture offers an autonomous self accountable to none; the new self in Christ is accountable to God in obedience.  Our culture offers an anxious self who is never safe or adequate; this new self is safe with God.  Our culture offers a self that is one-dimensionally profane in self-regard; this new self is authorized to holiness in attentiveness to the poor, the neighbor, and finally the enemy.”

The take-home message is that the holy people of God live a different kind of life.  As holy people of God we are to live lives that are characterized by a generosity and a grace that goes beyond the accepted cultural norms and the usual laws so easily taken for granted.  Our is to be a life devoid of fear and hatred, a life filled with love and respect for every person, whether the poor or an enemy or the marginalized.  The Christian life is a holy life built on a foundation of love seeking to be perfect as God is perfect. Amen.