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