Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Daniel Ludik, n/OHC
Commemoration of Father James Huntington, founder of the Order of the Holy Cross
Monday 25 November 2007
Genesis 12:1-4a
Galatians 6:14-18
John 6:34-38
Love must act as light must shine and fire must burn.*
* from "the Rule of James Otis Sargent Huntington and his successors" ed. 1996.
Most of us in the Order have heard these words so often that it must sometimes sound like a tired old cliché. However, I think in these words James Otis Sargent Huntington distilled the essence of the cross we have to hold high in the Order of the Holy Cross, and that is the Gospel imperative: Love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself. Indeed a heavy cross to bear.
As God told Abraham in Genesis: Leave your country, your family and your father’s house for the land that I will show you, and I will bless you and make you so famous that your name will be used as a blessing. Like Abraham, our Founder also listened to God’s call to move to another land and was also blessed for his obedience. He not only moved to another land, at least metaphorically, but he became a radical in the way that he practiced his profession as a priest. He was so radical that he became a monk and founded a monastic Order! He devoted himself totally and tirelessly to the cause of the disenfranchised, the voiceless, the oppressed, the poor, the sick, the excluded, the OTHER.
He went before us to guide us in the footsteps of Christ, holding aloft the cross as a symbol of God’s amazing and unconditional love. Through our Founder’s efforts and ministry the Church adopted new, and perhaps radical, new policies for social justice
The cross of unconditional love should be held up by the Church, above all, but it seems to have slipped a bit.
However, what I hear daily when there has been yet another get together in the name of the Church, where good food and fine wine was undoubtedly served, is: We do not care for the poor, we do not care for peace and justice and we do not care for people suffering and dying from HIV/Aids.
I have grown up under apartheid and it has taken me many years and many difficult experiences to understand how incredibly cruel it is to exclude people from even ordinary day to day living experiences, but much more so to exclude them from something as holy as worship and prayer. The sad truth is that, the more we try to exclude somebody for whatever idea or threat we may perceive, the more we deprive ourselves of a whole and complete experience!
Paul goes further and points out in Galatians 6:15 that it does not matter if a person is circumcised or not, what matters to him is that a person should become a whole new creature. Thus, through Christ we can all become new and enter into God’s love. That means everybody!
Why don’t I get it? In my naïve way the church is supposed to be a haven for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the hurt, the excluded, the rich, the happy, the sad, gay, straight, black, white, add to the list.
Why is it then that the church has allowed herself to be distracted into this long drawn battle about gay issues? I do not know the Bible all that well, but the message that is loudest and clearest from the Gospel for me, is that all are included in the Kingdom of God. That is the good news that Christ brought us.
It is also the message of God’s love that the Gospel proclaims to us: unconditional love. Our cross! How can the church that is the institution of God and for God, build in conditions for membership? How can you proclaim the unfathomable and unconditional love of God for all, yet at the same time throw conditions in the way of some people?
I cannot claim to know the thoughts of Father Huntington, but judging from his legacy that is woven into the fabric of our Order, I would imagine that he would be quite uncomfortable with the debate going on in the Church today.
This debate about an intrinsic human condition, while the results of manmade conditions; people dying of hunger and war and preventable and curable diseases in their tens of thousands, are largely ignored!!!!!!
The fallback for many in this debate, and thus the justification for having the debate at all, is to make it an issue of choice: Oh, he or she chose to be different and can chamge to be like us. Well, if any of my gay brothers somewhere in his life made a choice to become gay, I would like to hear about it, but as a very good friend of mine said about choice: I am not a masochist. Why would I choose to be ostracized by my friends, family and church? Ever since I can remember I knew that I was different, and when old enough, I could identify this sense of being different as being a lesbian. So, that settles it for me. I know her and I love her and I believe God loves her. Totally!!
How can the Church then fly in the face of God and tell his people, the people that he created, are not good enough for his church? Oh, sure you can come, we love the sinner, but not he sin. As long as we have the prerogative to decide what the sin of the day will be.
I think the challenge for us and the Church is to follow the example of the Founder and do something totally unexpected, and thus help bring about justice. Look at the Order, the legacy of his obedience to the call from God. Yes, we have our problems and there were problems in the Order before, but that just emphasizes our human nature which in itself is a blessing, because we are thus constantly challenged out of our comfort zones and to think in new ways.
And that is what gives me hope, this ability to change.
Just think if the whole church would return to obedience and live the Gospel imperative to love God above and before all else, and your neighbor as yourself. Just think how wonderful a world we could live in! God, through Christ, has shown us what unconditional love looks like. If we all endeavored to love as best we can, we would not presume that we have the right or the power to exclude anyone from God’s grace.
As Jesus says in John 6:37; all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will not turn away. All who come to me!! Once again, who are we as Christians, or the Church, to turn people away, or to put conditions in their way that makes full participation impossible? The message I get from the Church is: do not break your heads over this; we will dictate the double standards.
Paul goes on to point out that the only thing he can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through whom the world is crucified to him and he to the world. Thus we are joined through the cross into one communion with God. It is this cross that the Founder Father took up, and that we in turn take up when we enter the Order. The Cross of unconditional love, of inclusiveness, of patience.
It is this cross that the Church seems to have lost and that we should help reclaim for everyone.
I truly believe that one day we will live in a world where everybody is just another person that is created in the image of God and held in love, but that can only happen when we all bear the cross of love.
As the Founder also says in his Rule:
Holiness is the brightness of divine love and love is never idle; it must accomplish great things.
Amen
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
BCP - Proper 28 C - 18 Nov 2007
Holy Cross Monastery,
Br. Bernard Jean Delcourt, OHC
BCP - Proper 28 C –
Malachi 3:13-4:6
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
*****
Help us to hold on to the hope of our faith -- Remind our hearts that you always are and always will be with us, in times of joy and in times of fear and sorrow -- Strengthen us in doing your will diligently and unconcerned by how well things seem to go.
Amen.
*****
To love God is not just talk. And loving God is not always like walking through a rose garden at dusk.
All three texts today encourage us to keep at our work as Christians, no matter what. In case you need reminding, our work as Christians is summarized in the Great Commission and the Golden Commandment.
The commission is …that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in Jesus’ name to all nations… (Luke 24:47) and the commandment is that …we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourself… (Luke 10:27)
Well, I’m glad we’ve got that settled because now we have to deal with the apocalyptic style of our scripture readings of this morning.
*****
In times when
In a parallel way, apocalyptic literature often made a comeback in the Jewish nation’s collective mind whenever they were on the receiving end of international violence and when it seemed convenient to part with their Jewish identity in order to assuage the difficulties at hand.
Apocalyptic literature is meant to reveal the deeper nature of reality; it tears open the veil that seems to hide God at work in the world; it shows catastrophes and hardships as episodes that we need to endure to enable unity with God.
At the time Luke wrote the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Jewish community (of which the Jesus movement still considered itself an integral part) was reeling from what felt like a world-changing catastrophe. The
So it is in keeping with his times that Luke, at the end of the first century of our era, would use the apocalyptic style to emphasize Jesus’ authority.
*****
First important message: Jesus was truly a great prophet. He spoke great truths and some of them have even been realized by the time Luke writes to his people. Two things that Jesus prophesied have by now happened in their living memory or in their present time:
- The
- The Jesus movement has been, and continues to be, the object of persecutions.
So Luke wants us to know that if Jesus was right about the destruction of the
*****
If earthly powers are doing unjust and unrighteous things, we are not to put the gospel under the bushel. On the contrary, we are to show endurance and fortitude in declaring the gospel. We are to persevere in standing for what is right in both word and action. That is how we will gain our souls. That is how we will gain our life.
Should persecutions ensue; so be it. Persecution may actually give us some highly visible opportunities to testify to the gospel. And we need not worry how we will make our case to those who might want to silence us; for Jesus is with us to the end of times and the Spirit itself will speak through us.
That is Luke’s second important message to his community; don’t be idle while waiting for the Lord’s return. Jesus himself told parables on this theme.
*****
The prophet Malachi gives me hope that God will make things good “on the day when God acts”, as Malachi says.
Regardless of how far humanity will have progressed by then and regardless of what calamities will have been endured - On that day, moral ambiguity will disappear and reconciliation will prevail.
Unrighteous success and profit will be unveiled and come to nothing. “Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and who does not serve him.”
And “God will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents…”
*****
*****
Now, before we commit today’s scripture and sermon to memory and move on with our lives, I would like us to stop and think for a moment on what it is that makes today’s world an apocalyptic place. What is it that we need to speak out the gospel about?
Is it the overburdening of the environment to the profit of the wealthiest and most powerful and at the expense of the rest? Is it the use of the justice system to punish rather than to repair, restore and reconcile? Is it the use of industrial and military power to impose our worldview whenever our self-interest is at stake? Is it the pursuit of yet another meaningless pleasure at the expense of deeper connection with our fellow human beings?
*****
“Apocalypse now” is not only a Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece; it is one of the themes of the nearing season of Advent. You get a break with the Feast of Christ the King next week, but apocalyptic literature will be back. Think about it.
*****
Lord Jesus,
Help us proclaim repentance and forgiveness. Help us to start by turning back our hearts towards you and doing your will, no matter what the cost.
Make us instruments of your love that the whole world may know you and love you.
Make us instruments of your peace that your Kingdom may break forth amongst us; for you are the ever-flowing source of abundant life.
Amen.
Monday, November 12, 2007
BCP - Proper 27 C - 11 Nov 2007
Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Randall James Greve, n/OHC
BCP - Proper 27 C - Sunday 11 November 2007
Job 19:23-27a
Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
Our Lord comes into our world to save us; to preach Good News to the poor, heal the sick, cast out demons, proclaim the Kingdom, and, apparently, answer stupid theological questions!
While no group today calls itself Sadducees, the attitude of fear, defensiveness, and suspicion they represent in the New Testament remains a part of our human experience in community. Wherever institutions exist, the tension of tradition versus change, the comfortable and known versus the stretching and new will always exist. Modern day Sadducees are all around. We have all encountered them, will continue to encounter them, some of us perhaps ARE them. We can’t make the Sadducees of our day go away, we can’t escape them. We have to face them and model in our frustration and exasperation the patience and compassion and mercy of Christ.
The original Sadducees were a Jewish sect made up of mostly priests who were influential in the Sanhedrin, the ruling legal body of the community. Not much is known about their early formation, probably in the third century B.C. Unlike the Pharisees, who accepted the commentaries and tradition around the Mosaic Law as equally authoritative as the Law itself, the Sadducees sought to take the text of those first five books as literally as possible, living out what they believed was the Covenant in its purest, undiluted, and uncompromised form. Because so much of their identity and focus was around the Jerusalem Temple with its rites and sacrifices, the Sadducees as a group ceased to exist after its destruction in 70 A.D.
Luke sets the context for his largely Gentile audience by including the comment about Sadducees not believing in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not find an explicit reference to resurrection in the Pentateuch, so they did not accept it as doctrine. As you can imagine, Jesus would rightly have been seen as a disturber of their system of belief and power and thus a dangerous threat to the integrity of their understanding of themselves as God’s select and holy people. Like the modern day version, their identity was based as much in who and what they were against as in who they were. Their approach here with the Lord is adversarial, their tone sarcastic, and their intent to trap Him and thus have evidence to publicly shame him as a false teacher who is no follower of the Law and therefore susceptible to severe punishment. It was the opposition of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Sanhedrin along with the Romans working together that ultimately leads to the Lord’s crucifixion.
The Sadducee represents the person or group of opposition, persecution, gossip, and slander to the young church and to us. Yet knowing their intent, knowing that they were planning how to have him crucified, Jesus listens and answers. He is not threatened or ruffled, fearful or resentful. He doesn’t resist or ignore the very people at work against him but with gentleness and respect attempts to expand and enlarge their understanding of God’s ways to which in their zeal they had become blind. For Jesus there was no “them”, there was just “us” - broken and fragile humanity.
Who is your Sadducee? Think of a person who you know doesn’t like you, opposes your ideas, gossips about you, undermines your ministry, criticizes you unjustly. How do you respond to this person? Would you want to spend time talking with them, counseling them? Would you die for your Sadducee? In the very act of listening and thoughtfully responding, Jesus is giving us a model for how to treat the other with dignity and respect, no matter how wrong we believe or know them to be, how offensive and antagonistic their point of view. Gentleness and respect are part of our call to all as baptized Christians. We discover in Christ a person who is able to respond to the moment and the people who are before him without jumping to conclusions or stereotyping or generalizing them as a group. With some the Lord is angry and direct and graphic. With others he is tender and forgiving and merciful. As a person who knew and accepted himself and trusted God fully, he moved through the world with complete control and awareness of Himself.
As an American, I love competition because it holds out the promise of that very American of virtues - winning. Pick a side, fight for your side against the other side, and accept the outcome. One team wins, the other loses. We often approach faith in the same way. We’re obviously and comfortably on the right side so our purpose is to win the argument and achieve institutional victory for our viewpoint. The other team is always the other, the opponent, the ones to be defeated and cast out in the crusade of truth and justice. While we hold beliefs that may be opposed, we are never free to act hatefully in order to make our case. Jesus sees that these men are Sadducees, but that’s not all he sees. He sees them as persons, beneath the outer label and bluster, he sees persons made in the image and likeness of God in need of a compassionate enlarging and expanding of their understanding of God and neighbor.
The same Christ who said to look at a woman lustfully was to commit adultery with her in the heart also said to the woman caught in the act “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” The Christ who asked the Pharisees how they would escape the fires of hell asked the Father for forgiveness for them as he was dying on the cross. If we make our conflict - whether personal or institutional - about choosing compassion or purity, right practice or inclusion of the other, we must recognize that the Gospels demand both. When we settle and close our minds and hearts and then only pay attention to the parts of the tradition that support our conclusions, then we are in danger of becoming like the Sadducees and must accept again the compassionate and corrective touch of Jesus who reminds us that God is bigger than our agendas and our dogmas.
The church today is in desperate need of people who will take the side of people and not play the game of us versus them, who will give up being victims, taking offense, and attempting to sanctify our judgment and resentment toward the other behind pious labels and finger-pointing. The church is in need of people who believe that even Sadducees may be worth listening to, may have been sent to us to keep us humble and discerning - reminding us of our constant need especially in our disagreement to see the other as beloved of Christ, our sister or brother. Sadducees, by getting under our skin, reveal what that skin is made of and expose our hearts and can, if we are open to it, form us and give us opportunity to check our attitudes and test whether we are living out the peace of Christ. Do you see the Sadducees in your life as people in need of a forgiveness and freedom and respect that God is waiting for you to give?
Although he is not the author of the original commandments, Kent Keith, in his book Anyway; The Paradoxical Commandments, reminds us that while we often cannot control what will happen to us, we can always control how we will respond:
Amen.
Rev. Elizabeth and Me
Originally uploaded by Randy n/OHC The Rev. Elizbeth Broyles and Br. Randy enjoying a quiet moment at the coffee shop.
Br. Randall James Greve, n/OHC
BCP - Proper 27 C - Sunday 11 November 2007
Job 19:23-27a
Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
Our Lord comes into our world to save us; to preach Good News to the poor, heal the sick, cast out demons, proclaim the Kingdom, and, apparently, answer stupid theological questions!
While no group today calls itself Sadducees, the attitude of fear, defensiveness, and suspicion they represent in the New Testament remains a part of our human experience in community. Wherever institutions exist, the tension of tradition versus change, the comfortable and known versus the stretching and new will always exist. Modern day Sadducees are all around. We have all encountered them, will continue to encounter them, some of us perhaps ARE them. We can’t make the Sadducees of our day go away, we can’t escape them. We have to face them and model in our frustration and exasperation the patience and compassion and mercy of Christ.
The original Sadducees were a Jewish sect made up of mostly priests who were influential in the Sanhedrin, the ruling legal body of the community. Not much is known about their early formation, probably in the third century B.C. Unlike the Pharisees, who accepted the commentaries and tradition around the Mosaic Law as equally authoritative as the Law itself, the Sadducees sought to take the text of those first five books as literally as possible, living out what they believed was the Covenant in its purest, undiluted, and uncompromised form. Because so much of their identity and focus was around the Jerusalem Temple with its rites and sacrifices, the Sadducees as a group ceased to exist after its destruction in 70 A.D.
Luke sets the context for his largely Gentile audience by including the comment about Sadducees not believing in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not find an explicit reference to resurrection in the Pentateuch, so they did not accept it as doctrine. As you can imagine, Jesus would rightly have been seen as a disturber of their system of belief and power and thus a dangerous threat to the integrity of their understanding of themselves as God’s select and holy people. Like the modern day version, their identity was based as much in who and what they were against as in who they were. Their approach here with the Lord is adversarial, their tone sarcastic, and their intent to trap Him and thus have evidence to publicly shame him as a false teacher who is no follower of the Law and therefore susceptible to severe punishment. It was the opposition of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Sanhedrin along with the Romans working together that ultimately leads to the Lord’s crucifixion.
The Sadducee represents the person or group of opposition, persecution, gossip, and slander to the young church and to us. Yet knowing their intent, knowing that they were planning how to have him crucified, Jesus listens and answers. He is not threatened or ruffled, fearful or resentful. He doesn’t resist or ignore the very people at work against him but with gentleness and respect attempts to expand and enlarge their understanding of God’s ways to which in their zeal they had become blind. For Jesus there was no “them”, there was just “us” - broken and fragile humanity.
Who is your Sadducee? Think of a person who you know doesn’t like you, opposes your ideas, gossips about you, undermines your ministry, criticizes you unjustly. How do you respond to this person? Would you want to spend time talking with them, counseling them? Would you die for your Sadducee? In the very act of listening and thoughtfully responding, Jesus is giving us a model for how to treat the other with dignity and respect, no matter how wrong we believe or know them to be, how offensive and antagonistic their point of view. Gentleness and respect are part of our call to all as baptized Christians. We discover in Christ a person who is able to respond to the moment and the people who are before him without jumping to conclusions or stereotyping or generalizing them as a group. With some the Lord is angry and direct and graphic. With others he is tender and forgiving and merciful. As a person who knew and accepted himself and trusted God fully, he moved through the world with complete control and awareness of Himself.
As an American, I love competition because it holds out the promise of that very American of virtues - winning. Pick a side, fight for your side against the other side, and accept the outcome. One team wins, the other loses. We often approach faith in the same way. We’re obviously and comfortably on the right side so our purpose is to win the argument and achieve institutional victory for our viewpoint. The other team is always the other, the opponent, the ones to be defeated and cast out in the crusade of truth and justice. While we hold beliefs that may be opposed, we are never free to act hatefully in order to make our case. Jesus sees that these men are Sadducees, but that’s not all he sees. He sees them as persons, beneath the outer label and bluster, he sees persons made in the image and likeness of God in need of a compassionate enlarging and expanding of their understanding of God and neighbor.
The same Christ who said to look at a woman lustfully was to commit adultery with her in the heart also said to the woman caught in the act “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” The Christ who asked the Pharisees how they would escape the fires of hell asked the Father for forgiveness for them as he was dying on the cross. If we make our conflict - whether personal or institutional - about choosing compassion or purity, right practice or inclusion of the other, we must recognize that the Gospels demand both. When we settle and close our minds and hearts and then only pay attention to the parts of the tradition that support our conclusions, then we are in danger of becoming like the Sadducees and must accept again the compassionate and corrective touch of Jesus who reminds us that God is bigger than our agendas and our dogmas.
The church today is in desperate need of people who will take the side of people and not play the game of us versus them, who will give up being victims, taking offense, and attempting to sanctify our judgment and resentment toward the other behind pious labels and finger-pointing. The church is in need of people who believe that even Sadducees may be worth listening to, may have been sent to us to keep us humble and discerning - reminding us of our constant need especially in our disagreement to see the other as beloved of Christ, our sister or brother. Sadducees, by getting under our skin, reveal what that skin is made of and expose our hearts and can, if we are open to it, form us and give us opportunity to check our attitudes and test whether we are living out the peace of Christ. Do you see the Sadducees in your life as people in need of a forgiveness and freedom and respect that God is waiting for you to give?
Although he is not the author of the original commandments, Kent Keith, in his book Anyway; The Paradoxical Commandments, reminds us that while we often cannot control what will happen to us, we can always control how we will respond:
The Paradoxical Commandments:
• People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
• If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
• The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
• The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
• People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
• What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
• People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
• Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
Amen.
Rev. Elizabeth and Me
Originally uploaded by Randy n/OHC The Rev. Elizbeth Broyles and Br. Randy enjoying a quiet moment at the coffee shop.
Monday, November 5, 2007
BCP - Proper 26 C - 04 Nov 2007
Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Scott Wesley Borden, OHC
BCP - Proper 26 C - Sunday 04 November 2007
Isaiah 1:10-20
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Luke 19:1-10
Br. Scott with friends and Associates at the dedication of the new entrance to the Guesthouse's Middle House
I find the reading from Isaiah irresistible right from the very start with its reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Our collective understanding of the sin of Sodom is an interesting thing. A great many people over the years have assumed it was a sexual sin. More recently others have begun to understand it as a violation of hospitality. One thing is sure: it was a really bad place filled with really bad people. And things ended badly for those nasty folks.
The problem with limiting our notion of the sin of Sodom (and Gomorrah - though we never seem to disparage Gomorrianders as much as Sodomites)... Limiting our understanding to any particular sin is that this becomes a way to let ourselves off the hook.
Isaiah puts us right back on the hook. “You rulers of Sodom! You people of Gomorrah!” He isn’t talking to the people of long lost cities from long gone civilizations. He’s talking to his neighbors and the leaders of his day... people who were probably his good friends up until this conversation... And while the words are coming from Isaiah’s mouth, they are God’s words. Through scripture Isaiah is still speaking God’s words to us.
Greeting to us - rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah... It would be rather unremarkable if someone began a prophetic witness today with a greeting like “You people of Sodom...” and then went on to a predictable lecture us about the dangers of sexual misdeeds. I could tune that out in about one heart beat.
But Isaiah doesn’t relate this reference to Sodom and Gomorrah to any type of sexual immorality. The problem, it seems, is that people are worshiping too much, offering too many sacrifices, too many fat beasts, lambs and goats... , too many festivals, too many assemblies... they are wearying God.
Now there is conventional wisdom stood on end... the sin of Sodom wasn’t too much sex, but too much religion..
“Trample my courts no more... Bringing offerings is futile... incense is an abomination to me” says God. “I cannot endure solemn assemblies...they have become a burden to me.”
Does God get tired of our prayers? When we gather in this church every few hours, are we tiring God? ... annoying God? ... angering God?
I think of that scene from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when the clouds part and God appears. Immediately everybody drops to the ground... and God shouts “Get up... if there is one thing I can’t stand, its groveling.” So up they get and immediately avert their eyes... And God thunders “look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Of course it would be absurd or worse to suggest any equivalence between Isaiah and Monty Python... but both give us ways to question how we relate to God... how we honor God.
“Your appointed festivals... My soul hates. They have become a burden to me...” Monty Python might fidget with the deck chairs, but Isaiah is sinking the ship. Worship and prayer are central to our lives as followers of Jesus - but Isaiah seems to be saying that God is weary of listening, or worse, that God is actively annoyed with our worship. “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you... your hands are full of blood.”
George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community and primary re-builder of the ruined abbey on that little Scottish island, was fond of saying that heresy, in his opinion, was praying for the recovery from ill health of poor, old Mrs. So-and-so, but failing to do anything about her substandard housing that was making her sick.
Praying for justice, but accepting the privileges that injustice can bring us, is offensive. Praying that God will heal the sick, but systematically depriving large portions of our society of access to sound medical care, is abominable. Praying that God will make peace when we have a lifestyle that requires the world to be at war, is futile.
It is as though our prayer was something like: “Dear God - please make all these good things happen so that I don’t have to do any work... so that I don’t have to sacrifice... so that I don’t have to change my life...” And God says: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
That, it would seem, is the sin of Sodom with which Isaiah is concerned. Proclaiming our love and devotion to God while living our lives in a way that dishonors God and frustrates God’s purpose.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean... Learn to do good. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” Isaiah seems to have caught wind of the Gospel...
Jesus doesn’t call us to be saints - just to learn to be saints. Look at the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector in this morning’s reading from Luke. Tax collector is code for big, bad sinner. If Isaiah were relating the story he might well have said “Zacchaeus was a chief Sodomite and he was rich.” Nasty, wicked, bad...
So naturally Jesus becomes best buds with the sodomite tax collector. “Hurry - I must stay at your house today...” you wicked, nasty tax collector. Jesus seeks out the lost. The tax collectors, the sodomites, the poor, the oppressed who have no helper, the diseased, the despised.
It would be very nice if Zacchaeus had come under Jesus’ influence and then decided to give away half his wealth and write all his past wrongs... and then Jesus said now I must come stay with you as some sort of reward.
But it’s the other way round. Jesus says I’m coming to be part of your life - ready or not... and Zachaeus says OK... and I must put things right in my life - start to undo the injustice I have participated in... help those who have no helper. Sanctification is the response to grace, not the precursor. Ready or not Jesus is with us - and our response must be like Zachaeus - we must learn to do good.
Our prayer and our worship are wonderful and powerful tools to help us to learn to be followers of Jesus, to give us vision and strength. But if in our prayer and worship we are not leading us to follow Jesus - to build God’s kingdom - they are futile. Worse still, if we are praying and worshiping as a way of avoiding building God’s kingdom, that is hateful to God.
Lord Jesus; help us to learn to do good, to seek justice, and to plead for those who have no voice. Amen.
Br. Scott Wesley Borden, OHC
BCP - Proper 26 C - Sunday 04 November 2007
Isaiah 1:10-20
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Luke 19:1-10
Br. Scott with friends and Associates at the dedication of the new entrance to the Guesthouse's Middle House
I find the reading from Isaiah irresistible right from the very start with its reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Our collective understanding of the sin of Sodom is an interesting thing. A great many people over the years have assumed it was a sexual sin. More recently others have begun to understand it as a violation of hospitality. One thing is sure: it was a really bad place filled with really bad people. And things ended badly for those nasty folks.
The problem with limiting our notion of the sin of Sodom (and Gomorrah - though we never seem to disparage Gomorrianders as much as Sodomites)... Limiting our understanding to any particular sin is that this becomes a way to let ourselves off the hook.
Isaiah puts us right back on the hook. “You rulers of Sodom! You people of Gomorrah!” He isn’t talking to the people of long lost cities from long gone civilizations. He’s talking to his neighbors and the leaders of his day... people who were probably his good friends up until this conversation... And while the words are coming from Isaiah’s mouth, they are God’s words. Through scripture Isaiah is still speaking God’s words to us.
Greeting to us - rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah... It would be rather unremarkable if someone began a prophetic witness today with a greeting like “You people of Sodom...” and then went on to a predictable lecture us about the dangers of sexual misdeeds. I could tune that out in about one heart beat.
But Isaiah doesn’t relate this reference to Sodom and Gomorrah to any type of sexual immorality. The problem, it seems, is that people are worshiping too much, offering too many sacrifices, too many fat beasts, lambs and goats... , too many festivals, too many assemblies... they are wearying God.
Now there is conventional wisdom stood on end... the sin of Sodom wasn’t too much sex, but too much religion..
“Trample my courts no more... Bringing offerings is futile... incense is an abomination to me” says God. “I cannot endure solemn assemblies...they have become a burden to me.”
Does God get tired of our prayers? When we gather in this church every few hours, are we tiring God? ... annoying God? ... angering God?
I think of that scene from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when the clouds part and God appears. Immediately everybody drops to the ground... and God shouts “Get up... if there is one thing I can’t stand, its groveling.” So up they get and immediately avert their eyes... And God thunders “look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Of course it would be absurd or worse to suggest any equivalence between Isaiah and Monty Python... but both give us ways to question how we relate to God... how we honor God.
“Your appointed festivals... My soul hates. They have become a burden to me...” Monty Python might fidget with the deck chairs, but Isaiah is sinking the ship. Worship and prayer are central to our lives as followers of Jesus - but Isaiah seems to be saying that God is weary of listening, or worse, that God is actively annoyed with our worship. “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you... your hands are full of blood.”
George MacLeod, the founder of the Iona Community and primary re-builder of the ruined abbey on that little Scottish island, was fond of saying that heresy, in his opinion, was praying for the recovery from ill health of poor, old Mrs. So-and-so, but failing to do anything about her substandard housing that was making her sick.
Praying for justice, but accepting the privileges that injustice can bring us, is offensive. Praying that God will heal the sick, but systematically depriving large portions of our society of access to sound medical care, is abominable. Praying that God will make peace when we have a lifestyle that requires the world to be at war, is futile.
It is as though our prayer was something like: “Dear God - please make all these good things happen so that I don’t have to do any work... so that I don’t have to sacrifice... so that I don’t have to change my life...” And God says: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.”
That, it would seem, is the sin of Sodom with which Isaiah is concerned. Proclaiming our love and devotion to God while living our lives in a way that dishonors God and frustrates God’s purpose.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean... Learn to do good. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” Isaiah seems to have caught wind of the Gospel...
Jesus doesn’t call us to be saints - just to learn to be saints. Look at the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector in this morning’s reading from Luke. Tax collector is code for big, bad sinner. If Isaiah were relating the story he might well have said “Zacchaeus was a chief Sodomite and he was rich.” Nasty, wicked, bad...
So naturally Jesus becomes best buds with the sodomite tax collector. “Hurry - I must stay at your house today...” you wicked, nasty tax collector. Jesus seeks out the lost. The tax collectors, the sodomites, the poor, the oppressed who have no helper, the diseased, the despised.
It would be very nice if Zacchaeus had come under Jesus’ influence and then decided to give away half his wealth and write all his past wrongs... and then Jesus said now I must come stay with you as some sort of reward.
But it’s the other way round. Jesus says I’m coming to be part of your life - ready or not... and Zachaeus says OK... and I must put things right in my life - start to undo the injustice I have participated in... help those who have no helper. Sanctification is the response to grace, not the precursor. Ready or not Jesus is with us - and our response must be like Zachaeus - we must learn to do good.
Our prayer and our worship are wonderful and powerful tools to help us to learn to be followers of Jesus, to give us vision and strength. But if in our prayer and worship we are not leading us to follow Jesus - to build God’s kingdom - they are futile. Worse still, if we are praying and worshiping as a way of avoiding building God’s kingdom, that is hateful to God.
Lord Jesus; help us to learn to do good, to seek justice, and to plead for those who have no voice. Amen.
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