BCP/NRSV
February 7, 2010
Do you remember when ____?
Epiphany 5, Year C, RCL
February 7, 2010
When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Do you remember where you were when the world changed?
Do you remember what you were wearing? What you were eating? Who you were with?
Do you remember how you got the news? Was it from a friend? On the phone? Was it from the TV or radio? Did you see it on the internet?
Do you remember how you felt? Were you anxious? Were you heartbroken? Were you filled with excitement and anticipation?
Did you know right away that most everything in your life was going to be different? Or did it take a while to sink in?
Did you need a few hours or days or even weeks to realize that the way you’ve known everything to be up until this moment was going to be different?
And now that you’ve had a chance to reflect on how your world changed, was it as big as it could have been? Or was it bigger?
No matter what our age, we’ve all had at least one moment in our life where our world changed, where everything we knew to be true was tossed up in the air and we were often left with many more questions than answers. No doubt that one of those questions was, “OK. What now?”
We have two examples from our Scripture lessons today of people who have a momentary encounter with the holy and whose lives are forever altered. The prophet Isaiah receives his call to ministry in a most unforgettable way. His vision is set not at a specific moment, but rather in a particular year. Writing, “In the year that King Uzziah died,” would be similar to us saying, “It was the fall of the year the Red Sox came back from three games down to beat the Yankees in the American League Championship series.” (Or as a former rector of mine would say, "The time the Yankees blew it!") It wasn’t that Isaiah’s audience didn’t know King Uzziah. He was the king of Judah for nearly 52 years, having taken office when he was 16. So when Isaiah writes that he saw the Lord sitting on the throne of the Temple in the year that King Uzziah died, people would have an idea of what he was talking about. I have to believe that Isaiah knew at that moment that his life was changed. The vision of a heavenly creature flying to you and touching a hot coal to your mouth is not one Isaiah (or any of us) is likely to forget. The moment was so real for him that when the voice of the Lord said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?,” Isaiah said, “Here am I; send me.” Did you notice that his world was so changed by that moment that he didn’t bother to say, “So where are we going?”
Our Gospel lesson highlights another group of folks who had a world-changing experience. A few of the fellas who had been out fishing all night are coming back to the shore with empty nets. It’s one of those conversations with Jesus that was recorded in a slightly, um, more formal way than it really happened. There they are cleaning their nets after a rather unsuccessful night of fishing, and here comes Jesus. He climbs in, offers some teachings to the assembled crowd and then says to Simon, “Put out in the water a little bit further.” I wonder what kind of look Simon gave Jesus just before their world changed and they were first-hand witnesses of an amazing fishing miracle ever. They needed all the help they could to get the fish back to the shore. And after James and John and Simon get their fish to the shore, they walk away from… what does the Gospel say? They walk away from everything to follow Jesus.
For Isaiah and for Simon, James and John, the world changed, and they were changed, when they had their encounters with the one true God.
We all remember where we were, what we were doing, and maybe even who we were with when that world-changing moment happened. I remember very distinctly where I was and what I was doing when the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Centers were attacked, and when both of the Space Shuttle disasters happened. I also remember where I was when Navy beat Notre Dame at football for the first time in my lifetime. I was with my dad, and his dad had taught us well that Canady men don't pull for Notre Dame.
I have a firm memory of what was going on when my other grandfather died, and where I was sitting in when I found out my best friend’s mom has inoperable cancer. I remember exactly where I was and what I ordered for dinner when my parents told me that, at age 12, I wasn't going to be an only child for much longer, I even remember what was going through my head in the seconds before Emily told me the two of us were going to become the three of us. And most recently, I remember where I was when my future brother-in-law called to ask if he could officially join the family.
It’s not at all unusual for us to remember what we were doing and where we were when those world-changing moments, whether it is a mind-numbing tragedy or a something that gives us an immeasurable sense of pride.
The moments we least often remember or talk about are the ones, like Isaiah, Simon, James and John, where we are stopped in our tracks and given the opportunity to turn our feet and our hearts to follow God.
Make no mistake about it: It is a scary proposition.
The prophets of the Hebrew scripture were ridiculed, cast out of their towns and villages, and they were often killed. Genesis does not have any references to Noah’s neighbors coming to help him build the ark after he followed God’s call. Jeremiah ended up in a well, left for dead, after he called out the king for his idolatrous behavior.
The followers of Christ haven’t always fared much better. We don’t need to re-count the history of how the church was and continues to be persecuted over the past 2,000 years.
Saying to God, “Here am I; send me” is no small task. Walking away from our fishing nets and our families to walk with Jesus is a great leap of faith. Isaiah, Simon Peter, James and John were changed people. Their messages reached thousands in their lifetime, and billions in the generations since. I’m not under any allusion that any of us will affect that many people, but those guys probably didn’t think that either.
We, too, have the opportunity to be changed by saying, “Here I am. Send me.” We have the chance to share the message of Christ by taking the bold, bold step of prayerfully discerning what fishing nets we need to walk away from so that our world can be changed by God.
January 24, 2010
One body, many parts
Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, RCL
January 24, 2010
There is some text, but it's better to hear it. Go here for the audio.
January 24, 2010
There is some text, but it's better to hear it. Go here for the audio.
January 10, 2010
The Sacrament of You
First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C, RCL
The Baptism of our Lord
Today is the first Sunday after the Epiphany, and the day we remember the Baptism of our Lord and Savior. We make a nearly 30 year leap from the day when the Magi appeared at the home of Mary & Joseph to pay homage to the little child Jesus to the day when Jesus begins his earthly ministry. Jesus’ baptism by his cousin John is recorded in all four Gospels in a similar manner, although each has its own signature marks. They all include Jesus in a crowd of people, that this was not an individual event, but one done in community. They all include John’s prophetic statement that he will baptize with water, but one more powerful is coming to bring the
While each Gospel recounts Christ’s Baptism, each presents a few different details. If we pay careful attention to the particularities of the way each Gospel writer tells the baptismal narrative, it adds some real freshness and depth to the story. John’s Gospel has John the Baptist telling of the descending dove and the voice from heaven. Matthew tells us that John protested, not feeling worthy to baptize Jesus. And Mark’s Gospel says that the dove and the voice came from heaven as Jesus was coming up out of the water.
It is only in Luke’s Gospel that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus after he is baptized, and, a more important detail, as he is praying. And he was with others who may have been praying, too. The rest of Luke’s Gospel and Luke’s second book, Acts, will show Jesus and his followers deeply engaged in prayer. And that prayer was often followed by some action, either by Jesus himself (in Luke) or by the Holy Spirit (in Acts) or by the Apostles. Let’s hold on to that image of prayer followed by action for a few minutes and talk about the sacrament of Baptism.
Everything I’m about to tell you is in the Book of Common Prayer, beginning on page 857. There are two great sacraments of the Gospel: Baptism and Eucharist. Those are the only two things that Jesus commanded his followers to do in his physical absence. Baptize with water, and share bread and wine as a reminder of his bodily sacrifice for his followers. The Prayer Book-definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, “given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”
Grace is the unearned, unmerited, undeserved favor God shows us. By grace, our sins are forgiven, our minds are enlightened, our hearts are stirred, and our wills are strengthened.
The outward and visible sign of the Eucharist is the bread and the wine. The inward and spiritual grace is the holy connection we make with Christ, where our bond with Christ and our neighbor is strengthened and we are forgiven of our sins.
The outward and visible sign of Baptism is the water. The inward and spiritual grace is the union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family (the Church), the promise of forgiveness of our sins and a new life in the Holy Spirit.
The Episcopal Church takes Baptism very seriously. We see Baptism as the entry into life in Christ, whether that new life begins at two months of 72 years. And if we have a new life in Christ, then we are full members of the church as well. Much like we say at the start of the marriage liturgy, this is not something to be entered into lightly or unadvisedly. One of the biggest changes to our theology of Baptism with the dawn of the 1979 Prayer Book was to say that Baptism is most “appropriately administered within the Eucharist.” We take these two great sacraments of Christ and we put them together for a powerful, powerful visual that not only is God so close to us we can touch and feel the Holy, but that we are empowered by God to go into the world and share that sacred Love with those we meet.
Jesus’ baptism, as I noted earlier, is set in prayer and with other people, many of whom I imagine would become his followers.
Each of our sacraments, Baptism and Eucharist, has an action, followed by a prayer. After the newly Baptized has had water wash over his or her head, we ask God to give this person or persons an inquiring and discerning heart, a spirit to know God, and the courage and will to persevere. Baptism is something that we believe is going to last a lifetime, and be the start of something new and amazing.
After we have all had the chance to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist, we give thanks to God for accepting us as living members of Christ’s body and heirs of God’s eternal kingdom. And just so we don’t think that the Eucharist is merely a nice little memorial action and not something to strengthen us for ministry, we ask, in one of our prayers, for God to “send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”
It’s in that prayer that we remember that the grace that is given to us by God is not ours to keep. Instead, it is ours to share. To keep it to our selves would not be what God intended. Jesus didn’t say to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “Go baptize a few folks, but don’t tell anyone.” He said, “Go into all the world.” That grace may be inward, but it’s not meant to stay there. God intends for each Baptized Christian to carry that grace out into the world, for us, you and me, to be the outward and visible sign of God’s grace to a world that so desperately needs it. God calls and continues to equip each of us to be a sacrament, to be that outward sign of God’s grace.
It may be as simple as a smile to someone at the gas station or as generous as a check to an organization that assists those in need. It may be using the gifts God has given you to help teach a child to read or maybe it is visiting an elderly neighbor whose family doesn’t visit very often.
We are empowered by God to be living sacraments, instruments of God’s grace in the world. For each of us, that call may be different, but it is nonetheless real.
How are you a sacrament of God’s grace?
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