Monday, April 9, 2007

RCL - Easter Sunday C - 08 Apr 2007

Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery, Grahamstown, South Africa
Brother John Forbis, OHC
RCL – Easter Day C - Sunday 08 April 2007

St. Peter on the Rock

When I really reflect on this day, I realise just how amazing it is and at the same time just how difficult it is to preach on. On a day like today, one doesn’t want to get too sentimental or present such warm platitudes that are meaningless, especially since in the last few days, we have faced some stark realities. Jesus suffered terribly and died the death of a criminal. Peter was left with his denials and tears. Mary was left with her own sorrow and loneliness, and the rest of the disciples were left with their hopes dashed and their devastation. And I can identify with each of them or all of them at different times.

So it is in this context that we come with the women to a tomb. We watch these women do the only thing they know to do when faced with death: they come to clean and dress the body. Like the millions of women we have known in so many cultures including our own, they come to mourn and clean and dress a body. These women face death every day of their lives – head on. Death is possibly more real to these women than it is to all of us, complete and absolute, final. They aren’t in any denial about it.

But they come and encounter something entirely different – something completely unexpected, something completely impossible, something terrifying in the face of death. Again they do the only thing they know to do – fall down and bow their heads. And on this day, we all hear an amazing question. The question is at the crux of our life, our whole purpose, and at the heart of Jesus’ teachings. Why do we look for the living among the dead? Jesus is not at the tomb. He is not anywhere to be found for that matter. The only people here are just these two men, telling us to remember … to remember.

All that seems right or proper becomes suddenly nonsensical. What used to make sense doesn’t. What we used to expect we can’t anymore. What used to be the right place at the right time is now the wrong place at the wrong time. And we are perplexed, faced with an empty tomb and two men in dazzling clothes telling us to remember, to remember what God has done and is capable of doing for us even when death seems to be the final answer. What an amazing day! What a day to rejoice! What a terrifying day! What a day to certainly sing a new song! We have an empty tomb, no Jesus, no proof, not even logic but faith is born on this day and the message begins to spread.

We listened to the readings in the lounge – our salvation story by candle light. We have heard from Paul about death being the last enemy that is overcome – that yes, we die through Adam; that is real, but we are made alive through Christ. With all that God has done and will continue to do for us, indeed, why would we look for the living among the dead?

Why would we accept the defeat of despair and hopelessness? Why tolerate the terrible cruelties, injustices and the seemingly meaningless movement of history as some historians in our own century have called it? Why tolerate the powerful forces that would seek to destroy? Why look to depravity for life?

The Angels tell us to remember and that remembrance introduces a restlessness into our being. We can no longer easily accept the world as it is. God’s power, completely alien to us, is real and present and so we are compelled to long, to hope, to strive, to live.

We live by spreading the good news. We are welcomed by welcoming others. We feed by feeding others. We believe by believing in each other. We live by offering ourselves. This is how we are resurrected.

Death comes by a human being, but life comes by a human being and offers that life to us in the very midst of death. With that life is the promise of what will be. Because it is God’s promise as we have heard throughout this Triduum, it is true. Because we now have possibility, we now have promise. Because Resurrection has broken into human history we enact its reality and truth and spread the message. Yes, it is an incredible day! We come to a tomb with our spices expecting to tend to a dead body only to find LIFE itself.

Br. John Forbis, OHC

Sunday, April 8, 2007

BCP - Easter early service C - 08 Apr 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Brother Bernard Delcourt, OHC
BCP – Easter early morning service C - Sunday 25 April 2007




Romans 6:3-11
Matthew 28:1-10
Psalm 114

Lord,
May your abiding Love guide us and enlighten us. May your joy be our joy and may your justice be our life. Amen.

*****

These courageous women of the Gospel went to the tomb early on the day after the Sabbath. We ourselves just went through Holy Saturday; we can only imagine how bitter and painful their Passover Sabbath must have been.

Now, after the Passover Sabbath, a religiously enforced time of inaction and contemplation, these courageous and perseverant women are eager to care for the body of their martyred friend and teacher.

They are worried about how they will gain access to his corpse. They are not so worried about persecution. Their society sees them as second-class citizens and to boot, as followers of a failed and discredited dissident. These women are seen as posing little threat to the established order.

But the tomb would be closed by a huge heavy circular slab that slid shut in front of the chamber –- a chamber hewn out of the rock face. How would they budge it out of place?

It is worth noting here that the male disciples have not yet gotten out of their fright and flight reaction to Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. The strength of fishermen used to hauling nets full of fish out of the water would be welcome this morning. But most probably, in their time and society, embalming a corpse is one of those tasks that gender expectations reserves to women.

*****

And here comes an important aside; sponsored by the son of a Northern European feminist…
If you have paid attention to the scripture readings of these last few weeks, you may have noticed how prominent women are in the narrative. And this, despite the narrative being edited and written by men.
Three points at least, require our attention.

Most importantly, it is a woman who first publicly recognizes Jesus as the Son of God and who symbolically anoints him accordingly. This is the woman in Bethany who anoints Jesus’ head with nard (nard worth a year’s wages, no less). Jesus enjoins that she be remembered by all generations; Matthew complies even if the woman remains nameless. Let’s note that this the only embalming Jesus will receive –- alive or dead -- at the hands of the women who follow him.

Second, women stay with Jesus to his bitter end on the cross. Among the male disciples, only John seems to be able to stay –-John who is probably a very young man issued from the elite of Judean society. As a result, he is not ethnically recognizable as a Galilean disciple of Jesus.

And finally, women are the first witnesses to the resurrection.

Is our God not giving us yet another blatant sign here? Isn’t God including all people in the Kingdom? Whether you are the under-valued, the disregarded or the despised of any society in which you live, full citizenship is yours in the Kingdom of God. May the hearers understand!

And I close this aside which was brought to you by a son of woman.

*****

And now back to the road to Golgotha or thereabouts… Our brave women arrive at the tomb.

“And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.”

Well! That takes care of opening the tomb and of keeping the soldiers from pestering the women. But more to the point, the messenger of God is described in the same terms as those that were used for the Transfiguration of our Lord. This is one of these Gospel moments where we are transported into the Kingdom of God; it is more than breaking into our reality; for a moment, we live in that Kingdom.

And I love how casual the Angel is. I imagine her (I know, I know, we’ll restart the argument on the sex of angels another time) –- I imagine her sitting atop the circular stone, legs dangling in the air and looking at the women with a lovingly and amused look on her face.

‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’


And so, off they go, not a little frightened but elated at the same time. And it is when they have turned their backs on looking for Jesus among the dead that they encounter him among the living.

The gospel offers a parallel between Jesus being the first child of Mary’s virgin womb and Jesus being laid to rest in a cave freshly hewn from a the soft rock cliff (tuff is a soft volcanic stone that surrounds Jerusalem). Jesus is no longer in the womb of earth, in the chamber of death. He is alive and on the move again.

When a child is born, we don’t dote on and cherish the womb that generated the child; we -- including the mother -- all turn our attention to the child and the new relationships that emerge.

In the same way, Matthew, our Gospel source, takes us away from the tomb, away from Jerusalem and its Temple; away from this Temple that has failed to produce the fruit of justice and peace. The old Temple has failed. The new Temple, the resurrected Jesus, has been raised in three days as he had promised.

And Jesus invites us to get going on the roads of Galilee, on the roads where he preached: “The Kingdom of God is at hand”.

It is there that Jesus will give us the Great Commission to keep his commandments and make them known to the ends of the earth.

And so my beloved Brothers and Sisters:
- having crucified the concepts of God that we need to leave behind us, just as we leave Lent behind us,
- having welcomed and traveled with the questions that have no right to go away this Triduum,

I invite you to embrace Jesus’ commandment to “Love one another as I have loved you” and take it to the next territory that’s opening in our lives. Take it away from the tombs, the mausoleums, the buildings that try to enshrine truths or to petrify laws and take Jesus’ commandment to the roads of the world and the paths of our lives. Go to the Galilee of our times and there we will meet Him who is alive and on the move.

*****

Hallelujah! Christ is risen… The Lord is risen indeed. Hallelujah!

Monday, April 2, 2007

BCP - Palm Sunday C - 01 Apr 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Brother Scott Wesley Borden, OHC
BCP - Palm Sunday C - 01 April 2007

Isaiah 45:21-25
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke (22:39-71)23:1-49(50-56)

I remember a time, not all that many years ago, but in a slightly different tradition, when Palm Sunday was just Palm Sunday. Come to church, remember Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem, get palms, go home. (I should add “annoy others by tickling them with said palms”.) We knew that crucifixion was coming, but not for a few days.

In our tradition, we come in rejoicing with palms, but triumph quickly yields to passion and we go out in the sorrow of crucifixion. We get palms with passion...

Putting these two very different things together - the triumphant road into Jerusalem and the road to the cross changes the way I think about these events. This palm-strewn road is really an express highway directly up the hill to Calvary - the road to life and death.

The association creates another association in my mind. There is a Buddhist teaching that says: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Here is Jesus... and here is the road to Jerusalem... and we’re getting ready to kill him. What might the Buddhist tradition have to say that may help us at this particular moment?

To be sure, Buddhism can not give us answers about our relationship with God or Jesus. Its just not part of that tradition. And if your looking for answers, Buddhism is a bad choice. But it’s a great place for questions...

Why should I kill the Buddha if I should meet him on the road? Great Buddhist masters could spend tremendous time sitting with this question. We could spend the rest of our lives, or at least the rest of the morning... If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

But we’re hear to think about Jesus, and Palm Sunday, and the Passion. So I want to highlight just one thing: You can not meet the Buddha on the road. It just can’t happen. So if you meet someone or something that you think is the Buddha, its not: Its an illusion, or a delusion, or some type of lie. We’re not about killing the Buddha, we’re talking about getting rid of false knowledge. The Buddha that I think I've met stands between me and truth.

That’s beyond simplification and a total injustice to the Buddhist tradition, for which I apologize, but it’s enough for our purpose.

Back to Jesus and his triumphant march to death.

Are there ways that we think of Jesus, of God, that are illusions... delusions... falsehoods... dangerous lies? Are there people and things along the road that we have met and mistaken for God? ...objects of our own creation and affection that we want to think of as God?

Yes, absolutely. Some of them are pretty obvious.

Lets pick on Pat Robertson. He knows a god who, in order to punish our nation for our abundant moral failings, lifted the veil of his protection and allowed terrorists to fly planes into the World Trade Center. Sorry Pat, but I think your god has to go too.

Some people know a god who wants them to be rich... very, stinking rich. An appealing god no doubt, but a little hard to reconcile with Jesus who has deep concern for the poor, but pity and contempt for the rich. Prosperity god - your out of here.

Some people know a god who tilts the field in favor of their team. And as a nation we know, maybe only subliminally, but still we know a god who helps our army beat the other army. How much better would the world be without this particular god...

I knew an eleven-year-old who was afraid to pray. He explained to me that when his Grandmother was terminally ill he prayed for her to live - yet she had died. In his eleven-year-old mind he met a god who, for no particular reason, disliked him. So when he prayed for something, this god would do the opposite. How I long for some gentle way to kill this twisted god.

Its easy to see the false gods that other people need to be rid of. Its even a bit fun... I could go on and on... Blue-Eyed-Blond-Haired Jesus of the Sunday school books of my childhood... the god who assures people of one race that they are better than those of another... the god who gives people cancer and swats airplanes out of the sky... the god who doesn’t mind if we pollute the planet because he’s getting ready to destroy it anyway... the list is endless. As our President would say: “bring ‘em on.”

But it is really only a useful process, though not nearly as much fun, if I’m looking for my own false gods. I can’t rid someone else of their false gods any more than they can rid me of mine. It’s the Buddha that I meet, not the one someone else meets, with whom I have to be concerned.

If I meet the god of Pat Robertson along the road, I think I’d be happy to kill it. But I wouldn’t be a better person for doing so. I’d be a killer. As for the god of Pat Robertson - that god would probably just be stronger.

We hear over and over that Jesus died for us - for me. And there are various theologies of Jesus’ crucifixion.

But I’m beginning to understand a more personal one. Maybe part of the reason Jesus died for me is that I need Jesus to die... I need my image of Jesus to be crucified. It’s a very uncomfortable thought. I need to rid myself of some of my favorite images of Jesus. The Jesus that I know stands between me and Jesus.

Its not that all my images of Jesus are necessarily wrong or deluded, but they are all incomplete.

This holy week part of what I feel called to do is make sure that all my images of Jesus get nailed to that cross. All of my fantasies, my projections, my romantic expectations... all the “Jesuses” that I have met along the road. I have to kill Jesus so that on Easter I am ready to meet Jesus.

I’d love to say I thought it was going to be easier after Easter. It would be really great if the true Jesus was the only one that would resurrect. But I’m quite certain that just as surely as Jesus resurrects, I will be able to resurrect my fantasies and falsehoods.

Yet I do believe that I will be a little less attached to my fantasy images of Jesus after I have crucified them. If I can love the false knowledge a little less, I may be able to love the true Jesus a little more.

We do meet the authentic Jesus and we do know him. I’m drawn in particular to the Jesus who gives us a new mandate - that we love one another - that we be conspicuous in our love for one another - the Jesus of Maundy Thursday.

Jesus the triumphant riding like a King into Jerusalem is what I think I want, but Jesus humbly washing the feet of those who should serve him is real. The Jesus of Maundy Thursday calls me to humbly follow. For it is only in loving one another that we can claim to be followers of Jesus at all.

I begin this holy week not in the fear that Jesus will die, but in the faith that as I kill Jesus, through the mystery of the cross and resurrection, I will come closer to loving God.