RCL - Christmas Eve - 24 Dec 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Reginald Martin Crenshaw, OHC

RCL - Christmas Eve - Year A

“Oh I’m so Glad”

At this feast of the Nativity let each person wreathe the door of his heart so that the Holy Spirit may delight in that door enter in and take up residence there; then by the Spirit we will be made holy. Ephrem of Syria

With these words let each of us say to ourselves “Oh I’m so glad”. I am so Glad that by Christ’s birth we are able to experience the divine in a profound way. Glad that each of us with all our limitations and gifts, and foibles have within us the space in our very being to receive the Spirit so that we can be made holy.

Then how do we become holy? How do we let the door of our hearts open so that the spirit may enter? How do we welcome the event this day celebrates that is, the entrance of the divine into human life. How receptive are we really to this Christ, this wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace into our lives? What is this peace and righteousness that his birth brings into our space? And more specifically, the question is: “To whom do we belong? And how do we travel together as people of God?

This evening’s Isaiah reading tells us that we were once a people in darkness and upon this people (that is us-humanity) light has shined on us and the result is that we will live differently. A child has been born who is mighty the Prince of Peace, a wise counselor. He will establish and uphold the earth with justice and righteousness from this time onward. This child who is God among us brings salvation to all. That is what we celebrate and it is to that hope and reality that our identity as a people becomes enfleshed.

I have just returned from an extended trip to the West Coast, and as usual people still ask, “How do you like New York?” or better yet, “Do you still like New York? You of course are aware of the answer they are looking for. It should be a hesitant yes, or I getting tired of the hustle and bustle. And of course they all sigh with gratitude that once again the “Big Apple gets trashed.”

If we look at New York City this time of the year we find that it is a wonderful place to be at during the Advent and Christmas Seasons. New York City itself is festive. Many of the great Biblical oratorios that are usually sung in concert halls are done in the great churches and the acoustics allows a true spiritual experience and engagement with the music. People seem to be less edgy, there is a level of tolerance and a live and let live attitude that is amplified with graciousness, kindness and an apparent sense of community. This festive behavior is a tacit agreement by all of us to suspend the normal hustle and bustle of hurried city existence in the name of a “peace”. Yet this peace exists side by side with commercialism and consumerism. But somehow the winter weather and the implicit belief of most people that this is the time of the year when peace, peacefulness, graciousness should be exhibited in day to day behavior. And then the season ends and we return to the day to day behaviors that we have put on hold for the season. We return to what we call reality.

The Highest Point in New York City’s History
Originally uploaded by Rami Efal

What is reality? Reality are the things that are covered up, the things that are covered up and are very hard to unearth. One of those things that we seem to cover up is hope. We often live without hope. But Hope is a crucial component of human life because it is the energy that gives us the will to live and provides the vision for knowing what the good life is.

Reality is the good news that this incarnation of God in human life and consciousness is not a seasonal salvation, it is about the essence of human and divine life together, it is a partnership. It is through this birth of Christ, God becoming one of us. The incarnation is the place, the entrance to the communal and individual heart so that the Spirit may enter and take residence among you and us and make you and us holy.

The entrance is where the human meets the divine and in the intermingling of human and divine each partakes of the other. It is in God entering into human existence that makes all human life and all social contexts a part of the salvation scheme. This morning’s Isaiah reading makes this clear. No matter how much we try we are not permitted to forget about the people and the world around us. The question of who is our neighbor and what our relationship must be to our neighbor is laid before us in this birth of Christ with astounding clarity.

And what realities do we need to unearth and keep before us during this season? Besides individual acts of kindness, and the exercise of patience, and festivity we need to pay attention to the realities of our communal life. Realities such as the extreme global poverty and disease as well as the unnecessary poverty in the US, the need of finding a better path to national and global security, the hope of advancing a consistent ethic of the sanctify of life, the hope to healing the wounds of racism so that what happened in Jena LA this past year and in other places are addressed & effectively eliminated. The need and importance of a positive understanding and appreciation of the body so that the reality of exclusion due to sexism and homophobia is addressed, and eliminated, The need for ending human trafficking and for promoting human rights, the strengthening of families, the renewing of the moral fabric of our culture, and protecting all of God’s creation. These are the realties that are held up to us, for action by the birth, the incarnation of the mighty God, Counselor, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace who through his becoming one of us as Isaiah says, establishes a new humanity that will be secure in justice and integrity from this time onward and forever more. All of this we carry into this festive occasion and we celebrate all of it as INCARNATION.

Let me end with the words of Julian of Vezelay:

I pray that the Word of the Lord may come again this night to those who wait in silence, and that we may hear what the Lord God is saying to us in our hearts. Let us therefore, still the desires and cravings of the flesh, the roving fantasies of our imaginations. So that we can attend to what the Spirit is saying.

Amen.

RCL - Advent 3 A - 16 Dec 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Fr. Tony Cayless, AHC
RCL - Advent 3 A - Sunday 16 December 2007

Isaiah 35:1-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
"John the Baptist preaching" by Antonio Allegri Correggio, Italian baroque painter (c. 1489-1534)

John the Baptist was a great preacher, a man of influence, and a powerful figure. He dressed like an ancient prophet and he proclaimed God's Word. He started a movement. He gathered a following. He had an effective and successful ministry. His influence continued long after his execution by Herod Agrippa in the fortress palace of Machaerus built by Herod the Great on the heights of Moab near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. There John was beheaded. His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus what had happened.

Around the year 53 AD a Jew of Alexandria named Apollos arrived in the Greek city-state of Ephesus. Apollos is described in as an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures, who had been instructed in the Way of the Lord. We are told that he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. A Christian couple Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching and they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately. Apollos was baptized a Christian, went to Corinth and exercised an important ministry in the Church there.

A year or two later Paul on his third missionary journey found a band of John the Baptist's disciples in Ephesus. He passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They replied, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." Then he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They answered, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.

Disciples of John the Baptist carrying on his mission of preaching repentance in this far off Greek city-state. In the early days of Christianity a Church dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built to house his relics in Damascus. When the Muslims conquered Damascus in 635 they used the building on Fridays for their ritual prayers and the Christians continued their Sunday liturgies. This sharing went on for 70 years. Then came Caliph al-Walid ibn Abdul Malek who in 705 A.D. decreed that he shall build the greatest mosque ever - one "whose like was never built before, nor will ever be built after." He bought off the Christians and took 10 years and 11 million gold dinars to replace their church with his mosque. A grand prayer hall with mosaic walls, a huge marble courtyard and a minarets. The marble embellished shrine of St John the Baptist, still lies within the mosque’s prayer hall.

Some years ago I researched the ceremonial use of oil in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Oil lamps, especially Menorahs are a symbol of Judaism. Jews used oil to anoint priests and kings. The "Massiach" from which we get our word Messiah literally means the Anointed One. Christians use oil at baptism, confirmation, ordination, and for the sick and dying, holy unction. Oil is used at coronations. in 1952 Queen Elizabeth II was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey. In Islam I found only two uses of oil. One of them is that once a year in the Great Mosque, in Damascus, the marble tomb of John the Baptist (whom Muslims revere as a prophet) is ceremonially anointed.

The prominence of John’s ministry is attested by the care with which the Gospel writers compose their accounts of him. In the fact that Herod Agrippa had him executed. In the fact his disciples continued to proclaim his message of repentance. In the fact that years after Jesus’ death Christians still encountered groups that knew only the baptism of John scattered around the Roman Empire. In the fact that he is revered by Muslims evidenced by the anointing of his shrine in Damascus and revered by us Christians.

John the Baptist is the forerunner, Isaiah's messenger, a voice crying in the wilderness, the one who goes before and prepares the way. He engaged in evangelism, he was missionary minded. He went out and preached that the Kingdom is near and that the Messiah is coming. People must turn around, repent, be baptized, and be ready and willing to follow the coming Messiah. John the Baptist pointed to and prepared people for the coming of Jesus.

The portrayal of John in the Gospels is that of a prophet who came out of the desert to proclaim the Kingdom of God and issued a call to repentance According to Luke, he was of priestly descent, son of Zechariah, and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, so John and Jesus are related. Matthew and Mark describe John’s appearance and diet: he wore a camel-hair cloak with a leather belt and he dined on locusts and wild honey.

He is called John the Baptist for he baptized in the waters of the Jordan River, those who repented of their sins. He proclaimed the Coming One, the Messiah, the One greater than himself who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Jesus regarded John the Baptist as the last and greatest the prophets. The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed. John proclaimed the nearness of the Kingdom of God. In Jesus God came, in Jesus God comes, Where God is there is his Kingdom. Where Jesus is, the Kingdom, the dominion, the reign, the rule of God is present.

Imagine John the Baptist in prison. Was his preaching and baptizing in vain? Was there hope? Was God about to act in the history of the world or had he got itl wrong? Was Jesus the Messiah or not? He sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

Jesus' answer was simply to point to his own ministry and what was happening. Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.

Then Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John and to offer his assessment of the man and his message: What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one who will prepare your way before you.

The Season of Advent is a time to contemplate one reality which inevitably affects all of us— the precariousness of the human condition. We live in an uncertain world. Traditionally in Advent we meditate on the last things, Death, Judgement, Hell, Heaven.

Christmas will soon be here. Then we celebrate the Birth of Jesus the Son of God. The miracle of birth, the miracle of new birth, the miracle of God's Word, the Incarnate Word, the Word became flesh and lived among us– a more important reality so let us not lose sight of this. Death, and Judgement, and Hell pale into insignificance. Heaven comes into its own.

The prophet Isaiah in our O. T. Reading: They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come and save you."

James' message in today’s Epistle is that Christian hope resides in patience. Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord . . . Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

John the Baptist proclaimed the nearness of the Lord. Jesus said that no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; and then he adds, yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Least in the Kingdom of Heaven. You know - that might be you, or it might be me. But are we really greater than John the Baptist? Jesus says we are. What a responsibility. What a challenge!

So we pray:
Stir up your power, O lord and with great might come among us; and because we are hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and
glory, now and for ever. Amen

RCL - Advent 2 A - 09 Dec 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Mrs. Suzette L. Cayless
RCL - Advent 2 A - Sunday 09 December 2007

When my copy of “Southern Living” arrives, the first section I turn to is the selection of recipes for the month. For each of the recipes there is a photo of the finished dish, in color, showing what one can expect to create; then comes the list of ingredients - often unusual and intriguing; finally there are detailed instructions for actually making the dish. I have found that these recipes are reliable - they turn out to be just like the photos - and they taste delicious.

The readings for today resemble those recipes! Isaiah 11:1-10 is like the photo of a finished dish. It gives us a vision of God’s Kingdom with a new and ideal King whose rule will be shaped by the spirit of the Lord. In this Kingdom, the peaceful kingdom, “they shall not hurt or destroy.” The usual order is reversed: predators are friends with prey. Children feature three times in the passage, mingling with the animals without fear and in safety. This seems to foreshadow the words of Jesus: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The political situation that we are familiar with is literally turned upside down. The vision of God’s kingdom requires what T.S. Eliot so movingly described in “Little Gidding” as
“A condition of complete simplicity”
adding in parentheses
“Costing not less than everything.”

In Romans 15:4-13 we find ingredients required for the creation of this kingdom: “live in harmony with one another;” “with one voice glorify ... God;” “welcome one another, ... as Christ has welcomed you, ...;” “abound in hope.” A challenging list indeed. These are not items that we would necessarily choose to select and live by. We give lip-service to them - but as for actually implementing them as the way to live - that finds us all wanting! We all know how hard it is to live in harmony, whether it is in a family, a church congregation, a monastic community. The problem is that in God’s kingdom it is God who selects the ingredients. He is the master chef who knows what will produce the desired end product. “With one voice glorify God.” And here we are, living in a church divided within itself. We try to defend God and what we believe is the righteousness of God - and ignore God’s desire for the unity of the family. “Welcome one another, ... as Christ has welcomed you.” Genuine hospitality is required of the Christian disciple - it is an essential ingredient, not an optional seasoning. It applies whether we like a person or not; whether we approve of a person’s life-style or not. It is God’s choice. “Abound in hope.” There are many nay sayers among us who see only splits in the church family and nothing good to report. But we are bidden to hope; which requires trust in God, in His (or Her) judgment and ability to bring to fruition the vision of the kingdom. We are called to embrace God’s ingredients and allow ourselves to be a part of God’s work.

Matthew 3:1-12 gives the instructions for making it all happen: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” John spares nothing in his warnings; John, who was identified with the wilderness - beyond the bounds of polite society. His call to baptism in the River Jordan was no meaningless symbol but rather the sign of a complete change of life, a cleansing to enable the coming of the kingdom. His words to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the socially acceptable people of the day, were very stern. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance.” There can be no clinging to tradition as a way of salvation but only a total dedication to the one who comes to bring in God’s kingdom. The instructions for the making of the recipe are direct, require much effort, but are doable!

Both Isaiah and Matthew make it clear that evil cannot exist in the presence of holiness. “...he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.” (Isaiah 11:4) “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12) These are terrifying images, that we do not often take seriously. But perhaps Isaiah and Matthew are only stating the obvious! Perhaps it is that evil just cannot exist ultimately in the presence of holiness. By way of illustration I want to use part of a favorite story of mine: one of the Harry Potter books. In the first book of the series by J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger discover the place where the mysterious stone has been hidden, a stone that can bring immortality and therefore sought by the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry reaches the chamber to find Professor Quirrell there ahead of him. This strange man, the Defense against the Dark Arts Teacher, always wears a turban and when Quirrell unwinds this Harry sees that the back of Quirrell’s head is actually the face of Lord Voldemort who has taken possession of the man. Harry has a scar on his forehead left by Voldemort when he tried to kill Harry as a baby after killing both his parents. Now, Voldemort instructs Quirrell to attack Harry. and I quote from p. 294:

“... Voldemort screamed “SEIZE HIM!” and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell’s hand close on his wrist. At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry’s scar; his head felt as though it was about to split in two; he yelled, struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of him. The pain in his head lessened - he looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers - they were blistering before his eyes.
“Seize him! SEIZE HIM!”shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet, landing on top of him, both hands around Harry’s neck - Harry’s scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.
“Master, I cannot hold him - my hands - my hands!”
And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms - Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.
“Then kill him, fool, and be done!” screeched Voldemort.
Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell’s face -
“AAAARGH!”
Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn’t touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain ...”

In the film version of the story, at this point, Professor Quirrell crumbles into dust and is no more - a very dramatic moment. Harry survives; the stone is destroyed putting it finally out of reach of Voldemort. During Harry’s recovery from his ordeal he asks the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore why Professor Quirrell couldn’t bear to touch him. The reply was as follows,

“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign ... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.”

I cannot but be reminded of the fact that as Christians we are each marked by the Love of Jesus who gave his life for us. We bear his sign. Also, of the words in John’s Gospel 1:4-5: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Evil cannot finally exist in the presence of the holy.

We have the vision of God’s kingdom, with the usual order of things reversed; we have the ingredients needed to bring it about; John the Baptist tells us how to do it; by repenting and turning wholeheartedly to the service of the Christ. Our choice is how seriously are we going to follow the one who gave his life for love of each one of us? How deeply are we going to welcome the Christ child anew this year?

Let us pray:
May God’s kingdom come,
His will be done,
in me,
today. Amen.

Institution of the Rector at Church of the Transfiguration, NYC

Church of the Transfiguration, New York, New York
Sermon for the Institution of The Rt. Rev’d. Andrew St. John
as Rector of the Church of the Transfiguration
by Br. Adam D. McCoy, OHC
St. Andrew’s Day, Friday 30 November 2007

Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Romans 10:8b-18
Matthew 4:18-22
Psalm 19:1-6

I can't help myself. William Jude's old tune, Galilee, just will not leave me alone. Join me, if you like...

Jesus call us; o'er the tumult
of our life’s wild restless sea,
Day by day his clear voice soundeth,
saying, “Christian, follow me.”

Which of us has not had the tumult of a life’s wild restless sea? My guess is that there is not a soul here who has not been tossed about, worried about the future as we cast our gaze out to sea. If we cast our nets from the safety of the shore, will we get any fish worth catching? If we launch out in our boat in hope of a greater haul, will God prosper us in our fishing? Will we be safe? Where might we be headed as we sail on under a power not our own, as the shore recedes from view, as the day grows longer and the night comes on? Will we arrive at the destination we desire? What if the storms grow stronger? What might we have to pitch over the side? Will we even reach shore alive?

My guess is that every one of us has had this frightening experience, if not actually at the seashore, then in our lives, for which the tumult of the sea is such an apt metaphor . I have. I know your new Rector has. This parish certainly has. And so has our Church.

In the story we have just heard from St. Matthew, Jesus meets Peter and his brother Andrew, and then James and John, casting their nets on the shore, no doubt watching the weather and the waves with a practiced eye, wondering whether they should launch out into the deep, but on the lookout for trouble if it comes. Jesus calls them: “Follow me.” “Folowe me, and I will make you fisshers of men,” in Tyndale’s translation. “I will make you fishers for people instead of for fish.” (Matthew 4:19)

This is the apostolic call: Follow me. Come work for me, go fishing for me. This word of Jesus comes to those he chooses in the midst of the tumult of the sea of their lives and the busy-ness of their craft and their hope of honest gain. And the miracle is that this word is heard. All four, without hesitation, immediately drop their nets and follow him. Twice Matthew repeats it – immediately -- twice, as if to underscore how remarkable their response is. The Word Incarnate speaks the word and immediately those whom he has chosen hear him, drop their nets and follow him.

Our readings this evening center on the communication of the Word of God, on hearing and responding. Moses tells the people of Israel that the word he is speaking, the Word of God for them in the Law, is not up in heaven or across the sea, needing a special messenger, but as close as their mouth and their heart. Moses’ point is that since it is so close, Israel should have no trouble knowing what God wants them to do and doing it. “The word is very near to you.” (Deut. 30.14)

St. Paul’s midrash on this passage identifies this very word as the Word of faith: the resurrected, reigning and saving Lord Jesus himself. But then Paul goes on: It is not enough that the Word is near to us, in our mouths and in our hearts. The Word demands to be shared. For the apostolic work it is not enough to hear. The hearer must act, must follow, must work. Everyone who calls upon the Lord is invited to enter the new Israel of God, says Paul. Everyone, without distinction. But how will people know about it? Someone has to be sent. Someone has to announce good news. Someone has to get to work on it. Someone has to go fishing.

One of the evidences that Paul’s letters were probably composed by dictation to a secretary – one might say, by preaching aloud to that poor secretary – is that Paul is always interrupting his train of thought to answer objections, taking little side trips into points that might otherwise be missed. Anyone who preaches without a written text knows about this ... and so do their congregations! Here it seems to occur to Paul that there may be problems, even after the wonderful process of the apostolic calling, which he renders with such appealing rhetoric –

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (Romans 10: 14-15)

It occurs to Paul that, even with this great organ peal of ministry commissioning, there are going to be people who hear but are not moved, who will have heard but won’t act. The preacher may be called with every spiritual grace and sign, taught in the best schools by the best professors, examined by the wisest of the elders, ordained by the most grace-filled and apostolical bishop, placed in the finest parish with the most faithful, insightful, generous and gifted congregation, the most beautiful and useful and well-maintained buildings, in the midst of overflowing talents of music, liturgy, education, and zeal for the good of others, in whose need we meet Christ himself. The whole church in fact may proclaim the Word of God in its most attractive and compelling forms. We may cast our well-crafted, well-maintained nets into the sea with our greatest skill and energy. But sometimes the catch is not what we thought we would get. This is what I would like to call the Apostolic Mystery. The Word is sent forth, but its result is not always what we expect.

I don’t know what your new Rector thought his catch would be when he embarked on his mission as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as a committed Christian lay person, then as a deacon, a priest, and finally as a bishop. I can guess – perhaps an overflowing Australian congregation or two or three in a life’s priestly ministry; perhaps a loving, well tended, effective diocese reaching out to those in special need of God’s love and joy and peace in cooperation with his episcopal colleagues in Melbourne. Perhaps more! If we trust the Lord’s call to us, we should dream of what might be, and then work to make it happen. We should put our talents to work, and then go fishing as best we can. Our rational and conscious intentions, our preparation and our work, are all necessary, blessed by God and loved by God.

But there is also another element at work in the Apostolic Mystery of proclamation, of hearing and responding. I believe our psalm this evening hints at it:
The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.
One day tells its tale to another, *
and one night imparts knowledge to another.
Although they have no words or language, *
and their voices are not heard,
Their sound has gone out into all lands, *
and their message to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

This is another type of apostolic proclamation altogether. God’s own creation proclaims. The very heavens, the day and the night, are apostolic heralds of the good news. The word is very near you, indeed. It is in your mouth and in your heart, and in the passage of time, in the light and in the dark. The skies themselves testify. “The earth is filled with the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea” as another great hymn proclaims. God does not leave the proclamation to us alone.

The earth is filled with the glory of God. When we hear the call as a Christian community and follow, when we do the apostolic work, when we proclaim, as you do in this great parish with your tradition of holy worship, great preaching, wonderful music, generous outreach and social witness, we are not projecting a lonely voice into the void. We are joining a choral symphony already in progress. God is already doing his work, at all times, everywhere, with everyone. When we hear the call as individuals and follow, discovering the talents God has given each of us, finding the word in our hearts and in our mouths, when we each act creatively to proclaim in our own lives this great and good Gospel, we are not acting in a vacuum, but joining a world already loved and empowered by the Word. And when we commission a fine priest and bishop of the Church to lead this wonderful parish, we are asking him to join in the great mediatorial work of Christ already in progress, which has been bearing fruit in the world for two millennia, and in this parish for one hundred and sixty years. He is not alone. We are not alone. The Church is not alone. The world is filled with the Word of God through which it was made, which joins with and through the whole creation in unceasing praise to the Father. May that unceasing praise be yours here in this place.

Andrew, you have had some tumult and some wild and restless seas in your life and ministry. You cast off from the safety of the shore to follow the Lord as a fisherman, eager to be sent to proclaim the Word and the love of God that others might believe and know and live in Christ. You had no idea, really, where you were going, or where you would end up, even if you once thought you did. What may have seemed an ending is now a beginning. Listen to the chorus of God’s Word already at work all around, interpret it for your people, and love them into the Kingdom.

And you, members of this great parish, you have work to do. Listen for and hear the call of Jesus Christ even when the sea seems wild and restless. Hear his call and follow him. Take up the tools of your life’s work and make them instruments of a new work as apostles, heralds, messengers of God. Let your feet be beautiful as you bring good news. Be transfigured by the glory of God. Let the Word of God and its light shine in you and through you and from you. Look for, learn to recognize, and join with all the goodness of God’s transfiguring and transforming energy at work already and always all around you.

And to all of us here this evening: Let us tell the glory of God. Let us show God’s handiwork. Let us tell our tales and impart our knowledge each to the other. Even when we think we don’t have the words, let our sound go out into all lands, and our message to the ends of the earth. Like the sun let us run our course rejoicing as brides and bridegrooms and champions do. Let us join with all creation in the praise of the one whose Word is Holy.
Amen.

Feast of Blessed James Huntington - 25 Nov 2007

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

BCP - Proper 28 C - 18 Nov 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Bernard Jean Delcourt, OHC

BCP - Proper 28 C – Sunday 18 November 2007

Malachi 3:13-4:6

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Luke 21:5-19

*****

Lord Jesus,

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.

*****

Apocalyptic literature was to the Jewish nation what Western movies may be to ours.

In times when America deals with moral ambiguity and the violence that seems inherent to our national life, we often see Western movies making a comeback. If you pay attention to what’s hitting our silver screens lately, you’ll see that this genre is being explored once again – just as it was at the height of the Vietnam war.

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 Temple at Jerusalem, the most meaningful center of religious worship, had been destroyed, the city’s population had been massacred after a horrid siege, and the remnant of population had been dispersed in the rest of the Roman Empire.

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.

*****

With today’s gospel passage Luke conveys two important messages to his community.

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 Temple has been utterly destroyed,

- The Jesus movement has been, and continues to be, the object of persecutions.

Through the meanderings of our Lectionary, Luke’s intent is truncated by today’s gospel excerpt. Where Luke wanted to take us eventually is that Jesus will return in glory, just as he prophesied.

So Luke wants us to know that if Jesus was right about the destruction of the Temple and the persecution of his followers, he is also right on his second coming. That is Luke’s first important message to his community. Jesus will come back in glory. You can count on it.

*****

Luke’s second message to his community is to continue our living witness to the message of Jesus Christ, in the meantime.

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…”

*****

In the meantime, we’ve got work to do. And the author of the second letter to the Thessalonians (probably a disciple of Paul, not Paul himself) gives us further guidance in how to be faithful to God. Loving God is a work of community and everyone should actively be involved; it gets harder the more people are coasting and running a commentary from the sidelines. As our writer to the Thessalonians says; “do not be weary in doing what is right”.

*****

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.

*****

Let us pray.

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.

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:

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.

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.

BCP - Proper 23 C - 14 Oct 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Daniel Ludik, n/OHC
BCP - Proper 23 C - Sunday 14 October 2007

Ruth: (1-7) 8-19a

2 Timothy 2: (3-7) 8-15

Luke 17: 11-19

When I applied for my visa to come to the US, there was a separate form that men have to have to complete that deals with military involvement.

One of the questions asked is whether you have been involved in a war as an aggressor and in what capacity and whether you have been involved in a war as a victim. The official at the Embassy was quite bemused when I answered yes to both these questions.

Even though I am a born and bred Namibian, we were administered by South Africa until the 24^th of March 1990, when we became independent. Prior to that we were part of the whole South African apparatus and as such we were involved in South Africa’s fight to maintain apartheid. Anyway, I was conscripted into that, but that is another story.

Then, in 1995, I had the opportunity with two friends to go and farm in the Republic of the Congo. Africa being Africa, we did our homework as well as we could. We visited the Congo three times to investigate all possible pro’s and con’s. We tried to get a feel for the country and its people, how comfortable we were with their government and structures, how willing the people were to receive us on the terms their government stipulated for us, the markets, etc.

We tried to plan for every contingency and eventuality; some of us even prayed about it – not me though, I was not in the praying mode then. Like Timothy exhorts us, we tried to follow all the rules!

We have eventually convinced ourselves that it was a good deal and we converted everything we owned into cash: cars, houses, pensions, policies, and bought the supplies we would need to get started. Then we shipped the whole toot to Ponte Noire and flew up to meet our destiny. Despite all the usual bureaucratic hiccups, we were eventually settled on the farm and started doing what we came there to do: to plough and plant and be independent.

All went well; we had cleared hectares of virgin soil and planted maize (corn in this part of the world) and vegetables and were calculating our profits, when the civil war broke out. There was a dispute between the sitting president and the previous president over the tiny problem of a private army of 5000 men belonging to the ex-president. The two could not see eye to eye on having this army roaming the countryside in the build-up to elections. The rest is now part is now part of history.

Anyway, one night while we were in hiding in the provincial capital, Dolisie, the three of us with the wives and child got together and that was when I said to God: get us out of this and I will reconsider. Reconsider what? Well, I was to find out big time!

When we eventually returned to the farm, it was cleared out, so my friends, being married, eventually decided to return to South Africa, but I stayed behind to work in the Congo, and like the one healed leper, I got more that I bargained for!

Just like we had the goal to become rich and independent, so the ten lepers of the Gospel had the goal to be healed. They have heard about this man, Jesus, who can heal the sick and do other wonders, and when they heard he was coming their way, they made sure they got close enough to him to ask him to heal them. They cried out for healing, probably also promising to reconsider, as I did, and Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests. As we know, in those days, the priests had to declare them clean and healthy before they could rejoin society.

This time Jesus did not touch them, he called on them to have faith, and in believing they were healed. They must have been overjoyed, and I would imagine a bit gob smacked; imagine being a smelly, filthy wreck of a person one moment and the next we are clean and able to move freely, and even more importantly, we are not outcasts anymore, but once again we are part of society!

I also see the healing from leprosy of the lepers as a visible demonstration of sin and what happens when God forgives us our sins. Just try and imagine what these poor lepers looked like, covered in sores and most probably limbs and digits missing, and then they were healed and whole! What a wonderful image!

Yet, even though all of them were healed, only one of them, the Samaritan, turned back and, prostrating himself, thanked Jesus. Jesus then told him to get up and go, his faith has healed him.

Of course the others were also healed by their faith. They did not have a relapse of leprosy because they did not go back, at least I do not think so. They did receive the blessing of healing, but they missed out on the blessing of a relationship with Jesus.

And that was part of the blessing that I did not bargain on when I said I would reconsider! Like Ruth, I was wandering without much in a foreign land, and yet God was there to comfort me and guide me. And this experience eventually gave me the courage to, once again, risk everything to follow God. When I became a monk, I did it willingly, and in gratitude, because I knew if I wanted healing, I had to have faith! Once we have freedom from worldly anxiety and fear and trust in faith, we have amazing freedom for God’s work.

Another blessing in this Gospel is the knowledge that God is available for a relationship with all of us; not just a chosen few. If the Samaritan, who was considered a double outcast: he was from the wrong tribe and had leprosy, if he could be healed and brought into a relationship with God, that means we all have a place; BUT the choice is ours.

WF Arndt, a Lutheran scholar writes: “The faith of the Samaritan had not only led to his physical health, but had brought him full salvation, the forgiveness of his sins, a place among God’s children. In the case of the nine, faith had gripped their hearts in the hour of their bitter need, but it had evaporated when the misery was gone!”

It is like our coming to church, week after week; what is it that we want or look for? There will be as many answers as people you put the question to, but I think the important thing is to keep our central goal in focus; knowing Christ and building a relationship with him, and to make our home in him. To know God is to serve God, we cannot separate the two. And to serve God is to act. As Christians we are called to conversion and to act is to convert; believe, forgive, repent, serve, LOVE.

Amen.

BCP - Proper 22 C - 07 Oct 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Robert Magliula, n/OHC
BCP - Proper 22 C - Sunday 07 October 2007

Habakkuk 1:1-6(7-11)12-13;2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:(1-5)6-14
Luke 17:5-10


No wonder they longed for and asked for increased faith. On their own, the disciples knew they had no chance of doing what Jesus had summoned them to do: leave home for his sake, love enemies, bless persecutors, judge not, lay up no riches, carry no possessions, give to whoever asks, be servants, wash feet, catch people like fish, heal the sick, never worry, don’t cause others to stumble, forgive endlessly. That last one is what they were told just before they gasped: “Increase our faith.”

The disciples, like the rest of us, knew their limits, at least some of the time. Then there were those other times---those mountain top times---when they felt capable of so much more, when they were certain that they could go so much further. We know these moments---the ones when we feel so loved and accepted that we feel capable of almost anything. In those moments things come together just right, things make sense, they work.

Why do we find ourselves slipping from what feels like increased to little faith? How can we be so trusting one moment and so not the next. The human condition looks like a sieve when it comes to faith. We leak. We hemorrhage. Faith drains from us in any number of ways: sin, routine, distraction, fatigue, depression, anxiety, boredom, laziness. I’ve come to realize that for me, faith fades most through the rigors of daily existence. The dramatic and the traumatic certainly take their toll, but at such times, I feel faith oddly strengthened. It’s the daily living that wears me down.

The point that Luke is trying to make is that disciples’ need outside help if they want to live the life Jesus calls them to live. Faith for Jesus was radical trust in God---in all things and for all things. It was personal and intimate, childlike in its simplicity. It was marked by a wholehearted willingness to trust God in every dimension of life---anywhere and everywhere, in things great and small. For those who place themselves in this sort of position, who yield their deepest selves to God, for them, all things are possible. This is the place from which flows abundant life. The power of faith has less to do with moving mountains than it does with empowering us to live the life God desires us to live.

We need not wait, as the disciples thought, for large faith before we tackle the practical problems of living. We need only act on the small faith we already have, faith small as the tiny mustard seed. If we pray, trusting God’s will for salvation, for healing, for grace to love someone unlovable, or to forgive an enemy, even small faith can result in unbelievable things.

A contemporary image of faith compares it to a muscle. You use it or you lose it. Living morally, having conscious contact with God on a daily basis, loving our neighbor, are ways of exercising and developing our faith. Look at the prophet Habakkuk. The people of Judea are about to be crushed by the fierce and cruel Chaldeans. He laments to God, “How long shall I cry out for help and you will not listen?” Yet despite the confusion, the frustration, and the ruin that is all around him, he remembers that his God is faithful, that God will have an answer. However long it takes, he will wait. Keeping faith with God in difficult times, keeping faith with what sometimes feels like a difficult God, lies at the heart of our Gospel for today. God’s faithfulness is more important than our faith. Jesus knew this, but it is something that we easily forget. That’s why when we come together as a community on Sunday, we recite the creed---we remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness by recalling our salvation history in the Eucharistic prayer.

Action elicits faith. Trust grows when it is nourished even in the face of what seems unlikely and impossible. The power of faith is as unlimited as the power of God because it is of God. It is not based on our strength, our intelligence, our achievements, our influence. Like the disciples, we need not wait for an infusion of faith in order to live our lives. We need not be more than human with our fears, anxieties, and doubts. We have all been or are in the place that Habakkuk was---not hearing, seeing, feeling God’s presence in the midst of our lives. It is not a place that inspires trust. But God does respond. “Look and see”, God says, “be astonished, be astounded”. God gives an insight, a vision, that gives us the courage to trust, to wait, to look more deeply into ourselves, into our God. It is already within us, whether we can recognize it or name it. By uncovering our longing to trust, to be faithful in the place we find ourselves at this moment, we unearth the astonishing reality of what is already there. In effect, Jesus turns the disciples request around on them. "Increase our faith", they ask, and he points out to them that they have enough already. In spite of their fears, anxieties, inadequaties, they have what is needed. We have what is needed, and we are encouraged to live as though we do. David Whyte has a poem called Faith which speaks to this place where we so often find ourselves. It begins.

I want to write about faith,
About the way the moon rises over cold snow
night after night,
faithful even in its fading from fullness.
Slowly becoming that last, curving, and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself.
I do not give it the smallest entry.
Let this then my small poem
like a new moon
slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

+Amen

The poem "Faith" is from "Where Many Rivers Meet", by David Whyte

BCP - Proper 21 C - 30 Sep 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Reginald Martin Crenshaw, OHC
BCP - Proper 21 C - Sunday 30 September 2007

Amos 6:1-7
1 Timothy 6:11-19
Luke 16:19-31, in The Message version, as read and preached by Br. Reginald.

Let us pray: No matter what you’re going through You don’t have to worry and don’t be afraid because joy comes in the morning, troubles they don’t last always for there is a friend in Jesus who will wipe away your tears. You don’t have to be afraid and if your heart is broken just lift your hands and say, I know that I can make it, no matter what may come my way, My life is in your hands. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (The words are a portion of Kirk Franklin’s-“My Life is in your hands” from his CD entitled--God’s property)


Begin: I want to begin this morning’s reflection on the Gospel with the prophet Amos. I begin here because Amos as usual comes to the point, He wastes few words and his words opens us to this mornings Gospel with clarity. He says, “Alas for those who are at ease in Zion and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria…who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp…who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile. The reference “to the ruin of Joseph” means lack of concern for the welfare for the people of Zion- the people, the masses- one’s fellow human being. If you ignore the people, reject them oppress them because you can because of your wealth, or if you ignore the concerns and welfare of the people as you bathe in your privilege and wealth, you will be the first to be sent away.

Amos is listening and articulating the community’s groans and giving them a voice. A groan is different from a mere complaint or gripe. By definition, a groan is inarticulate. It is a cry of deep distress or pain that does not always reveal its source or cause. Amos is sensitive to groans-the inarticulate cries of a people’s distress—because such groans are the initial and indisputable signs which announce: “all is not well!! Something is terribly wrong. This is not how God wants things to be.

This is the context for understanding this morning’s gospel story about Lazarus and the rich man. We are presented with a situation in which wealth, power and privilege is set against oppression, pain, and suffering. Each world, the world of wealth, privilege, and power and the world of oppression, pain and suffering are magnified in this morning’s gospel and are brought together for dialogue and reflection by the concurrent deaths of the rich man and Lazarus. This gives us the opportunity to confront these two worlds with all they represent and with all the realties these two worlds reveal so that we can learn to respond with the light of faith. That is with righteousness, godliness, endurance, gentleness, and love. Well, there it is, all we have to do is follow it. It is all so easy to do but is it?

In our novitiate Bible study on Friday, Br. James reminded us of this. It is so clear, he said, that we are told what to do and it really is that easy, what’s the problem but, the issue is is it that easy? Do we get it? What gets in the way of us not getting it? And why didn’t the rich man get it. What was in his way? And Brother Robert reminded us about the issue of entitlement of the rich man that even in Hades he didn’t get it. He was still trying to negotiate with Abraham when he saws him with Lazarus. Clearly from his perspective there was a resolution to his torment without a change in either his behavior, consciousness or attitude.) He even goes so far as to request that Abraham work a miracle. He was to come back from the dead and tell his remaining brothers that they ought to live differently. (so maybe he did get it at least partially) Abraham refuses also recognizing that he doesn’t get it enough by saying to him that if they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, that is, to pay attention to God’s dream for humanity as revealed through the prophets, the Torah and Moses, a miracle is irrelevant. Their minds and hearts won’t be changed by the extraordinary entrance into their lives of the dead. It would be viewed as another form of entertainment.

The point is that power and privilege often results in a fundamental dis-ease that I call “lack of awareness.” This “lack of awareness” puts one in isolation and out of relationship with the rest of humanity. It is an inability to see and understand that the human person is formed, shaped, affirmed and identified, through a complex organic relationship among and with other human beings in which compassion, mercy, love and justice are the threads that make the human organism of relationship so profound and holy. Therefore, human beings are not commodities that can be bought sold, or ignored at will. To commodify other human beings is a supreme act of atheism. You have set yourself outside of everything, outside of God’s creation. This is a profound ignorance this “lack of awareness” that affects your ability to love, to be intimate, to seek peace and justice Let alone to show compassion and mercy. Lack of awareness also means that one takes no responsibility for the process of restoring, repairing or making satisfaction for restoring harmony to the human community. It prevents one from achieving that purity of heart by which we see and commune with God.

The point of the Gospel is that this dis-ease of “lack of awareness” is a particular temptation for persons with wealth. This dis-ease is not just the problem for the wealthy but the comfort of wealth and power enable “lack of awareness” to run rampant and undeterred.

The antidote for this dis-ease is found at the end of today’s second lesson, 1 Timothy 6:11-19. It reads: “ As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
If you failed in this The Rev. James Cleveland sums up the results this way in His Gospel hymn “It’s goin' be too late”. The hymns says: “Won’t it be sad, so sad if my Jesus comes and you won’t be ready, sad, so sad, its goin' to be too late…Don’t let him catch you with your work undone. It will be sad, so sad, its goin' to be to late.” Amen.