Running Down the Dirt Road to Us: A Christmas Sermon

My friend Chris is one of the best dads I know.  He is a doctor but he always finds time to take his boys on scouting expeditions. His Facebook page is chock full of his two boys, always doing some activity or other, with the same smile on their faces. Those boys are well loved.

Last summer, Chris sent his oldest Mark, to a camp in Missouri. Chris lives in Texas, so this was the first time that Mark would have been away from home, far away from home. Mark had just finished fourth grade. Well, Mark was miserable. He sent a letter home every day. "I want to stick it out," he wrote, "But, dad, I just can't wait for you to come and get me." The camp was just two weeks long but it felt like an eternity.

Chris planned to fly to Missouri, rent a car and drive his boy home. He was so afraid of his airplane being delayed that he flew a whole day early, arriving on Thursday. He was supposed to pick up Mark on Friday evening at 5. He stayed in a hotel and drove around aimlessly all Friday morning. He ate lunch at some diner in the small town near the camp and then drove out arriving about 3 pm. There was a rope across the entrance to the dirt road that led to the camp. A sign on the rope read, "Parents are not allowed to pick up their children before 5 p.m. Please stay behind the rope." 

Other parents had already gathered, looking anxious and tired at the same time. They exchanged pleasantries, how old is your kid, is this his first year at camp, etc. All the questions were perfunctory because none of the parents were listening to each other. They all had their eyes glued to the dirt road. 

By about 4:30, the parents had grown in number. Chris realized that some of them had inched their way to the rope, so as be the first ones to make their way down the dirt road to their kids. Chris subtly moved himself in place. A woman behind him looked a bit overwhelmed by the crowd, but he didn't offer her his spot by the rope.

At 5, two counselors came out. They had enough sense not to step in front of the rope and get trampled by the stampede of desperate parents. Instead, they just stood at either end of the rope, untied it from the poles and let it fall to the ground.

And the parents were off. Chris said he started running like a maniac, all the way down that road. He was not in the greatest shape and got a large stitch in his side. He would do whatever it took to see his kid.

God feels the same. God will do whatever it takes to see his children, to take us home. Gods desire leaves us in the dust. Chris took a plane, rented a car and stayed in a hotel.  God gave up the glory of the cosmos to become a tiny child. Theologians like Saint Paul called this kenosis, the self-emptying of God. God had to bind the Divine self to earth, become finite, small, contained. God went from the infinity of heaven to the dirt of a tiny stable in the Middle East.

I often wonder why God was born in Bethelehem. Why did God chose to come to us in a dirty place where the animals slept, in a land where the ruler was willing to kill children just to make himself feel more secure? Why did God chose a land so violent? Mary and Joseph were so alone. Scholars have realized that not only was there no innkeeper in the gospel story, but the word for inn really means guest room. All we have is this one sentence in the gospel of Luke, "There was no room in the inn" but a better translation is "there was no room in the guest room." Joseph would have been knocking on the doors of people's homes, not of inns. And some of these people would have been his relatives since he was descended from the line of David. These people rejected a woman in labor and someone from their own family! Bethlehem was not a fairy tale. The evening of Christ's birth was beautiful because God made it so, but never forget for a moment that Jesus was born in the dirt, in a dangerous and violent world.

My next door neighbor in Kansas had a son who was diagnosed with leukemia. His treatments were terrible and he was just four. His dad looked like hell warmed over. I remember seeing him in the yard and asking how things were. "Kate, I can't make it better for him," he said. "That is the hardest part. I can only stay with him, hold him, just be there. But I can't fix it. He must fight this cancer himself to live."

I think of Chris, running down that dirt road to see his son.  I think of my neighbor holding his suffering child. We cannot fix the pain that our children have to endure, but we can be there for them, in the midst of it all, we can be there.

That is what Christmas is all about. It is about the gift of presence. Not presents. Presence. Being there with someone when things are hard and life seems almost unbearable. Have you ever noticed that if you try to fix your friends problems or give them advice that you really don't help them at all? God knows that we must struggle to find our way on this earth, that if God were to just fix the worlds problems, that we would learn nothing at all.  Jesus came to save us just by being with us. God became a helpless child just to be with us.

And if God was born in Bethlehem, then God is with us whenever we struggle. God is here with my neighbor and his four-year-old boy as he fights for his life. God is in Peshawar, Pakistan when children are killed in a school. Jesus is right there beside a baby girl who is abandoned in China just because she is a girl.  Jesus is there and when the world seems so awful that we cannot make sense of it. God says, here I am.  I am willing to run down that dirt road into the mess of this world just to hold you. Merry Christmas.

Imagine This

When I was four, I had my first role in the Christmas pageant. I was not even baptized yet and someone decided that I should carry a teddy bear down the center aisle and put in in the manger beside the baby Jesus. My mom was really nervous that I would not be able to make it up the aisle. She thought I might chicken out or just start crying or something. But instead,  I grabbed that teddy bear by the leg, dragged him up the center aisle, and proceeded to dump that bear in the manger. I then marched, with determination and all seriousness, back to my seat.

Only in years later did I get to play Gabriel and announce to Mary that she would have a child. 

This year, we have some new developments, like two female Wise Men and someone gave us pig costumes so we have lots of pigs along with the sheep. But I believe that each child will never forget their part in the story. Just as I have never forgotten being in the Christmas pageant.

Why do we do the same thing every year? Why do we reinact the event of Christ's birth and let children be the players? Why do we tell the same story over and over and over again?

Carl used to work at Belk before he was ordained. One day, a young man came in to buy a cross. He pointed to a crucifix under the glass and said, "I would like to try that one, the one with the little man on it." 

The little man?? The little man? Could it be possible that we now live in a world where people don't even know who Jesus was? Now he is just the little man?

St Ignatius was a Spanish knight who lived in the early 1500's. He was critically wounded in battle and almost died. When he was recovering, Ignatius had to lie still but his mind could wander. Ignatius had an active and vivid imagination. But he began to notice that when he daydreamed about being a saint, he felt better. When he daydreamed about winning wars or making money or finding romance, he just found that the end result was that he felt more lonely. So Ignatius began to imagine the best things of all, that he could be part of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

He imagined what it would be like to be a shepherd on that holy night when Jesus was born.  Was it cold? What did it look like when the angels appeared in sky and sang glory to God in the Highest? Did their wings cover the skies? Did they blend with the moonlight? Was it terrifying? Could the sheep see it too?

Lying in bed, Ignatius discovered a profound kind of prayer. He discovered that by daydreaming, by putting yourself inside the story, you can find yourself there. And you can see things more clearly.

Why do we reinact the pageant every year? Because children are born with both an innate sense of the spiritual and with healthy imaginations. And why should we not encourage them to imagine that they too were there on that holy night? Why should they not imagine this? Doesn't God want them there? Isn't that exactly where they should be?

And also, a child will never forget who Jesus is if he or she acts out the story of Jesus' birth. That child will never refer to Christ hanging on a cross as "that little man," if they remember that God was born in human form. 

Much of what the Bible demands can be simply put in one word: Remember. Remember God and what God has done for you. It's when we forget that our hearts wander and we are lost.

Time and again, Moses begged the people to Remember. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. Remember the Sabbath day. The great danger for the people of God, even before Jesus came, was amnesia, the danger of forgetting who they were. It is like a woman with amnesia who has lived a long and happy life and who loves her husband above all others. But when she begins to wander away from home, he finally has to move her into assisted living facility. Over time, to his shock and grief, he watches his wife. She forgets who she is and becomes more and more emotionally attached to a man who lives in her unit. As she forgets, her heart wanders.

And so we as a people are called to fix our love on God and remember who we are and who God is. And we remember by inviting our children to live into the story of Jesus' birth, to BE the angels and the shepherds and the camels and the innkeeper...and we pray that as they dream and play, they remember who they are and what God did for us in sending us Jesus.

When Martin Luther, the great church reformer of the 1500's, was under attack or began to doubt his work, he would mutter to himself, "Remember, Martin Luther, you are baptized!" He would blurt this out at the oddest times, to get himself grounded again, to focus on what was really important.

And all throughout our lives, when we are on the verge of despair, let us repeat the same... Remember, that you are baptized...Remember the holy child. Come to the manger once more and remember who you are!

Imagination is a great form of prayer. Imagine what it was like on that holy night when God became a human being. Imagine if you too were there, sitting in the shadows in that tiny space with animals and dirt and a poor homeless couple, worn out and cold. Imagine that you could see the face of that baby. And for just a moment, glimpse the inconceivable fact that God would limit Himself to such a degree, to become helpless, just to be with us. Sit in that tiny space on that cold night. Be there with him. That is what Ignatius did. That is what we are inviting our children to do.

Make His Paths Straight

Francisco Anglero was born in Puerto Rico in 1944. His family moved to Brooklyn NY in 1949. Cisco was dark skinned and couldn't speak English well so he was beaten up almost every time he went out in the neighborhood. By the time he was old enough to defend himself, he was so full of rage that he beat his bullies with a baseball bat. By the time he was a teenager, he took up body building. Soon he had a reputation and was hired as a bouncer at bars. Eventually, he became a drug dealer.

Cisco's life was made up of violence and chaos. There was only one place of peace and love in his life.

Whenever Cisco came home, even as a small boy, his mother, who had worked hard cooking and cleaning all day, would be sitting in a rocking chair reading her Bible. Though their apartment was cluttered and crowded, there was a clear path from the front door to her rocking chair in the living room. Cisco would walk towards his mother and she would smile at him, rock in her chair and say, "thank God, my son, that you are safe."

Cisco never thought about his mother much. But she was always there, straight across the room, rocking in her chair and loving him. He would walk towards her and she would smile every time and thank God for his safety.

When Cisco was 22, his mother died suddenly and his life really began to spiral out of control. Cisco finally was caught with drugs and thrown in jail. Two men in prison kept asking him to come to church services but he refused. He would turn up his Walkman really loud, roll over in bed, and ignore them. But the men came every week. They would not give up. It really irritated him.

One Sunday morning, the men came by and Cisco started to ignore them but his Walkman wouldn't work. He tried to turn on the TV. It too wouldn't work. He had just replaced the batteries in his walkman. Why wasn't it working? And what about the TV? He said no to the men and rolled over in bed but all he could hear was the other guys snoring and all of a sudden he was crawling out of his skin. So he got up and went to church.

He stood in the back while the people sang. And there, up at the front, he saw his mother. She was looking right at him, singing and smiling. When they asked people to come forward, she waved him up. He saw the path, the aisle between the metal folding chairs, wide open and he walked toward her. Cisco received the bread and the wine and his life changed forever. Leaving the altar, he looked back and his mother was no where to be seen. But he knew that everything had changed for him. Somehow, his love for his mother had given him a way to find God.

John the Baptist gave up a life of privilege as the high priests son to go out into the wilderness alone and listen for God. As Zechariah's son, John would have had the best education, a beautiful home, good food. Everyone expected great things from the high priests son. But John had other plans. John knew that the Messiah was going to come into the world and that he had to leave his life of privilege in order to make room for Christ to come.  He left his parents, his home, his education and he lived as a homeless man in the wilderness. People thought he had gone mad. Why would he give all that up?  People came out to see him and John kept yelling, over and over again, "make your paths straight!"

"Make your paths straight!"

I never understood what John meant.

What does a path have to do with anything? And why do we need to make it straight?

Have you ever been lost in the woods and you can't see where you are going? Have you ever been so busy or angry or so sad that you feel totally lost?

I think John was talking about making room for Christ to find you. John was talking about making room in your life, a straight path for God to find you. I think of the way John left wealth and privilege to make room for God. I think of the way that Cisco, when his life was nothing but chaos and violence, saw a clear path from the front door of his apartment to his mother's rocking chair. And it was that one person who truly loved him, his mother, that was the straight path that he found to God, when the rest of his life was cluttered with violence, fear and anger. When God called him, God simply showed him the path to his mother.

How can God reach you if you are so busy that there is no way to find you? Have you covered yourself with self-pity or grief or worry? We must clear a path, make a way for us to find God and for love to find us.

In New England, when it snows, the very next morning you must go outside with a shovel and work really hard to clear a path to your front door, to shovel out your driveway. This work is back-breaking. In the same way, when we go through hardships, loss or pain, they can blanket our lives, absorbing our every thought, our every moment.  In these times, we must work extra hard to clear a path for God, to find a way back to love. 

Making room in your life for God in this day and age is hard work. There are so many reasons why you can't make time for church or for prayer. Travel, work, family obligations...they prevent us from taking time to worship. They clutter our lives and they seem so urgent at the time. One family I know just realized that they didn't have time for church anymore. But what happens when there is no room in your life for God at all? What happens when there is no path for Christ to come? Is anything worth blocking his way to you? Is anything really that important? We all have the same number of hours in the day. Have you carved out a few of those hours for God?

You have only two more Sundays until Christ's birth. Clear away the clutter and find a path to Him. It is never too late.

The King and the End of All Things

On this day, Dr Mary Neal, an orthopedic surgeon, will tell us what happened to her when she died. Today is the final Sunday of the Christian year. Next week, we start a whole new year with the season of Advent. Today we are not afraid to talk about the end, the end of life as we know it and even the end of time itself.  Today is about what happens at the end.

Christians call this Sunday Christ the King Sunday because we read gospel accounts which talk of Jesus Christ as a King, who, in the end of days, will sit on his throne and determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The King sits in his throne, according to Matthew's gospel, and he separates the sheep from the goats.  But in order to begin to understand what Jesus was trying to tell us, we have to understand what it meant to be a King. 

Sheep verses goats.

Today, when we say the word King, we think of Disney world, make believe, or some form of formal monarchy like in Britain, a monarchy that it is more about old traditions and celebrity than about actual power. Kings just don't exist in modern, enlightened countries anymore, or, if they do, they are just figureheads.

For the Jewish community of Jesus' day, a King still meant something. A King was the source of ultimate authority. To have a successful monarchy, like that of King David, was to ensure stability. It was an end to chaos. A truly good king was their best hope for peace, finally having wisdom to rule the land. It was the best of all worlds, to live under a good king. It was paradise. Just as a bad king could bring terror and famine, a good king could bring a golden age.  A good king could fix all your problems and make everything right.

Jesus was telling us that he is the King. Christ is in charge and that should come as a great relief. It would not have been a source of terror for those who loved him but a source of relief.

Today it is hard for us to imagine any one person having that kind of lasting authority. We want to be in charge of our own lives, to order our own food, to chose our own education, to determine our own destiny. The rise of technology has led us to believe that we can answer any question on our own. Who needs a King when I can fix my problems myself?

 My oldest son was asking an atheist why he chose not to believe in God. He said that he refused to believe in a God who would allow humans to suffer. So basically, when he didn't understand God or  disagreed with God, he would just stop believing, like turning off a switch. Oh, I don't want you, God. I chose not to believe in you. I chose for you not to exist. Now, who is the King in that scenario? Who are we to determine the existence of God based on whether we approve of the workings of the Universe? Who are we to switch channels from believer to atheist to agnostic depending on our evaluation of God's behavior? It is not like visiting websites or buying a new car. When it comes to God, we cannot think of ourselves as consumers. Who is in charge of who?

In the same vein, we often want to determine the salvation of those around us. When someone dies, we tell each other that the person is going to heaven. Notice that there is never talk of hell at funerals.  But the reality of this gospel text is that there is such a place as hell, the alternative to being with God, a place of pain and alienation from God. More importantly, this text tells us that no one but God determines who goes where. It is Christ who makes the call and separates the sheep from the goats. (I always feel bad for the goats...I think they are great. But the reason Jesus uses an image of sheep and goats is that sheep follow the shepherd, while goats do their own thing and tend to roam)  To say that all are going to heaven is as arrogant as saying that certain people are going to hell. It is the language of judgement and arrogance and ultimately of violence because it is not our job to act as King. Only the Holy One sits on the throne. Whenever we try to enthrone ourselves, we do violence and make terrible mistakes. 

The truth is that there is so much that we still do not understand. We may have all kinds of knowledge at our fingertips, but there is still so much more that we can't even begin to contemplate.

Quantum Physicists tell us that the more that we learn about the workings of the Universe, the more we realize how little we know. The more we realize that we are not the King. To learn at the highest human levels is ultimately to become more humble. Wisdom actually begins when we acknowledge our ignorance.

A few days ago, I was driving home in San Marco. I was thinking about work and I was about to make a phone call on my cell phone when a small but fierce crossing guard starting blowing her whistle frantically and marched out into the street towards my car. She stared me down and made such a racket with that whistle that I slowed almost to a stop. It turns out that I was going too fast. It was a 15 mile an hour zone because the kids were just about to get out of school. She was waking me up to the fact that I could hurt someone if I didn't slow down. Once I was nearly stopped  she nodded and smiled at me, as if to say, "Good. You heard me." 

5 foot nothing and full of authority, she was right.

Jesus is blowing a whistle with this story. Is it designed to frighten you? Maybe a little bit. I am not opposed to a hellfire and brimstone in the Episcopal church for a change! Because the truth is that it is not OK to just do what you like with your life. No, how you treat others, especially the poor, has a direct impact on your salvation. So slow down and pay attention to what you are doing with your time, with your life. It does matter. We don't know how, because we are not the King, but we need to be concerned with the matter in which we live our lives.

In this story, salvation has everything to do with recognition. When you serve God, you come to know God, and when you die, the King recognizes you. If you race through life doing what you want, if you live your life like a goat and do not follow Jesus and you don't take time to get to know the King, the Holy One won't know you. "I do not know you," he says. "I have not had a relationship with you." 

When someone comes to your front door, you let them in if you know them. That is what the King does. Salvation is based on recognition and relationship.

We don't know exactly what will happen at the end of our lives or at the end of days, but we know what we need to know. We know that serving God in this life matters, that there is a judgement and that we are to take our faith seriously. The whistle is blowing even now. Slow down and make sure that you come to know the King.

Oil for Your Lamps

It's not every day that two members of this Cathedral are on the front page of the Florida Times Union. Congratulations to John Corse and Ed Graves, two of the four swimmers whose collective ages total 362 years, which means that their average age is 90. They recently won 14 events in the Rowdy Gaines Masters Classic in Orlando. As John said, there are not many in their age bracket. They seem to win mostly by outlasting the competition. They have been swimming together three times a week for many years and continue to compete. What an example for us all. They keep moving and acting as if they are young, and lo and behold, they are still carrying the torch. They are incredible!

How do we keep our light shining? How do we keep young and fit, and not just physically but spiritually? How can we make it through the struggles and challenges of this life and not get beaten down and still find joy?

The season of Advent is rapidly approaching and already we are hearing echoes of Christ's coming in Scripture. Already, we are told to wait, to keep our lights burning, our lamps lit. Jesus tells us to be ready, for when he comes, we want to recognize him. 

Jesus tells us a story this morning about a wedding banquet. When it comes to alluding to heaven, Jesus often talks about parties or banquets. There was no better comparison for heaven itself than a great party, full of joy and celebration. And in Jesus' day, there was no greater party than a wedding banquet.

Scholars have not been entirely able to piece together the events of a New Testament wedding at the time of Jesus. We don't know the exact order of events but we do know that the wedding was a whole series of parties and banquets, often lasting up to one week. We also know that it was the single greatest celebration in that culture, for a man was about to leave his father and mother and make new life with a woman. It was a celebration of procreation itself, of the miracle of childbirth and the continuation of the family line. And much of the ceremony had to do with moving the bride from her parents house to the home of the bridegroom. 

A number of bridesmaids would gather at the home of the bride in the evening. They would be carrying lamps, lit with oil. We don't know if these lamps were simply pieces of wood, wrapped in material that was dipped in oil or if they actually were some kind of enclosed fire. The gospel mentions trimming their wicks, so the old parts of the lamp that had burned would be trimmed back and more oil had to be added in some way if they were to last a long time.

Once their lamps were lit, the bridesmaids would then escort the bride to the home of the bridegroom, where the bride would enter and become his wife. One theory is that once the marriage was consummated, the bridegroom would open the doors of his home and invite the bridesmaids inside to a great banquet, a great feast, where all his friends and relatives would be gathered. And everyone would eat and dance and celebrate love and life itself.

In this parable, there are ten bridesmaids, five are wise and five are careless. They walk to the home of the groom and wait outside for the party. This waiting takes awhile and they all go to sleep, as it is late at night. But only the five wise bridesmaids bring extra oil. Only the wise have a reserve. When the bridegroom opens the door to let them in, they must have their lamps lit so that he can see them. When the five foolish bridesmaids realize that their lamps have burnt out, they ask for oil from the wise bridesmaids but the wise ones tell them that they do not have enough and the foolish are forced to go and buy more. By the time that the foolish bridesmaids return, the bridegroom has shut the door. So the foolish bridesmaids knock and the bridegroom opens the door but does not recognize them and will not let them in. Presumably, many others have knocked and tried to enter as well and the bridegroom does not know that these ones are bridesmaids. Their chance is lost because they did not bring enough reserve.

Did you know that you can store up love and joy in your heart? Did you know that gratefulness actually multiplies but so does despair? Just like John and Ed swim three times a week and build up strength in their bodies, so we can practice thanksgiving and joy in an effort to wait for God.

Most of us have already experienced both great joy and great pain in this life. Your identity, your knowledge of your self and the way that you picture your life will come from these experiences. You can choose who you are and what you store up for yourself. Do you hold onto grudges and unfair circumstances? There are plenty to pack away in baggage that you can carry everywhere, you know. Or are you able to forgive the past mistakes that you and others have made? Can you hold onto the memories of happiness that you have, moments of insight, time spent with loved ones, inexplicable glimpses of beauty? What do you hold in your reserves?

The oil that the wise bridesmaids carried with them was fuel for burning, for making light. It illumined who they were so that the bridegroom could see them and invite them in. When Christ comes again, will you be lit up with thanksgiving, or will your life be shrouded in the grey matter of worry and doubt and despair? Love burns brightly. Gratitude burns brightly. And every one of us has something that we can be thankful for.

In 2011 a Canadian rabbi named Ronnie Cahana had a stroke. He was 57. He lost his ability to move any part of his body. He was paralyzed from the neck down, had to be on a ventilator. When his daughter came to him in the ICU, she began to speak aloud the alphabet. He would blink when she came to the correct letter. Slowly, she wrote down his first communication. "Kitra, my beauty, don't cry. This is a blessing." He would later go on to tell her that there are no dead ends, only doors to move through. He would remain grateful for his life, and become an inspiration to many. 

As you begin to think of the coming of Christmas, think of the true gifts that God has already given you. Know that Jesus wants you to come inside his kingdom, his banquet, but he will not recognize you if you have covered yourself up with fear and resentment. Who is it that you chose to be?  A child of the light or a child of the darkness? What is in your reserve? What do you practice? Resentment or Thankgiving? Fear or hope? Self-pity or awareness? What is in your reserve?

John and Ed get into that cold water three times a week to praise life, even when it hurts. They keep their lamps lit even as they age. Keeping joyful is not easy. It is work. It is choosing, every day, to see the good, to give thanks for the gift of life, even when it hurts. Keep your lamps lit with joy for the greatest joy awaits you and Christ always recognizes a grateful heart.

The Offering

Have you seen the movie As Good as it Gets? It is one of my all-time favorite movies and I watched it on Friday night. It is the story of an obsessive compulsive man named Melvin Udall who is just crazy OCD. He can't walk on sidewalk cracks and he lives in Manhattan so he walks around like some lunatic dancer hopping from one foot to another. He has all these rules, like he has to lock his door three times, turn his lights on and off three times and use a new bar of soap every time he washes his hands. He is also the rudest man alive and he alienates everyone he encounters, mainly because his life of rules can only be lived alone. No one alive could possibly put up with his eccentricities. And, as crazy as it seems, his life seems to work this way. He has written 63 best-selling romance novels in his solitary and sanitary apartment and he is rich.

But then Melvin's life is flipped upside down. He falls in love with his waitress and he realizes that he has to get well if he stands a chance to be with her. "She has evicted me from my life!" He screams to his neighbor. And calmly, his neighbor asks him, "Was your life really that good, Melvin?"

The Pharisees were rule-followers. Today, perhaps the worst of them would be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were scared, like all of us are, scared of the chaotic side of life and so, in order to gain a sense of control and to be faithful to God, they got really strict with the religious laws. They got really strict. It was almost impossible to live a Pharisaic life perfectly, it was just too hard. And they would spend hours and hours debating the laws of Judaism. 

And Judaism was set up for this kind of OCD rule-following. The Hebrew Scriptures have no less than 613 commandments! It could take a lifetime just to learn them all let alone follow them. When we think of the commandments, we think of ten. Most of us have just blocked out the other 603.

But even still, not all Pharisees were bad, remember that. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and he ended up loving Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea was also a Pharisee and he gave his tomb to bury Jesus. So, just like following laws with simplistic devotion is not adequate for God, neither should we generalize about this religious sect. There was some good among them.

As Carl mentioned last week, this gospel continues a long conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. These Pharisees and some of the Saducees have challenged Jesus to a duel of the laws, a debate of sorts. They plan to trap him in his words and expose him as a fraud. He must be a fraud. He could not have been a teacher, a rabbi, because occasionally, he broke the rules. So they ask him, "Which commandment is the greatest?"

Now, I have a Jewish grandmother, so I think it's OK to tell you this joke about the Jewish grandmother. I loved my Jewish grandmother dearly but sometimes, she drove me crazy. And there is this great joke about the New York Jewish grandmother that captures mine. It goes like this...

The Jewish grandmother gives her grandson two shirts for Hanukah. He carefully puts on one of the shirts and comes down to eat. His grandmother looks up, frowns and says,

"So what? You didn't like the other shirt?"

The Pharisees were prepared to criticize Jesus for whatever commandments he did NOT say were the most important. No matter which commandment he chose, he could not please them. But he outsmarts them by giving them the most important underlying commandments of all...Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself. These two simple commandments are not rules so much as they are a way of life, a lens through which all rules can be observed and all judgements made. Jesus was teaching them to not get attached to rules and regulations but to think of the underlying relationship with God that illumines all our behavior. He was, quite literally, trying to evict them from their way of life.

We are all afraid. It is part of the human condition. These days, we have new words for it like anxiety and stress, but the feeling is timeless. As human beings, there is so much that we do not know...where will we be for sure tomorrow? Will we die tonight? Will our health hold out? Will we have enough? There are no secure answers to these questions. When someone tells you, out of great kindness, that everything will be OK, they are not telling you the truth. We don't know that everything will be OK, not in this world. Ebola may spread. Wars may increase. This world is chaotic and unpredictable. And, hear me on this, it is a NATURAL response to be afraid.

Melvin Udall was terribly afraid, but he tasted love and this love evicted him from the safe life he had created. He was changed. In order to find love, he had to walk on cracks, unlock doors and touch people. He made the choice to turn himself over to love and risk loosing everything in order to find something worthwhile. He had to break all his rules for love.

Today is Ingathering Sunday. As you approach the altar, you are invited to make your financial pledge to the church by placing a pledge card in the offering plate. Some of you have pledged online and you can just place a blank card in the basket or fill it out again. But as you approach the altar, I want you to pray about something. Pray with me that you and I can offer our whole lives, our whole selves to God. Pray that our fear, our stress, our anxiety and our busyness will not prevent us from offering everything to God. Allow God to evict you from the safety of your life and into a life of risk and purpose for Christ.

Jesus ends the debate finally by asking the Pharisees a question that they cannot answer. "If the Messiah is David's son, then why, in the Psalms, does David call him Lord?" The Pharisees have no answer. They are silent. After chapters of debate, they are finally silent. Jesus shows them that they do not have all the answers, that they never were safe. There will always be things that they cannot understand, questions that go unanswered.

    We are all lost and afraid and no amount of rules and regulations will protect us from the vast unknown. Only in Christ can we all find our safety, our home.

The Invitation

Herman walked into the house after a long day at work. He took off his boots and started to put them away in the hallway closet but it was jammed with his little girls shoes and toys and her ladybug umbrella. Why doesn't Lorraine make her learn to clean up her things? Why were the women in his life both slobs? He started to clean up the toys and boots so that he could close the closet door, meanwhile his mind was drifting again to work.

Was Jennings going to get the promotion over him? Why had he agreed to let Lorraine stay home? Maybe he needed to put in more hours to show his dedication to his boss. And why couldn't Lorraine keep a clean house when she was home all day? 

Herman walked into his bedroom. His little girls dresses were strewn all over the bed, along with some of his wife's blouses. Where were they anyway? The cat, Mrs Spots, jumped on the bed. Herman sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. Why was he always so tired? It must be the pressure at work. If he got the promotion, would they have to move? Would they get any tax breaks this year? They needed a bigger house but that would just end up a bigger mess. He stood up, changed out of his suit and hung it up in the closet, put on his sweatpants and went into the living room, where there was a note from his wife on the coffee table.

"Herman, we waited until 5 and finally had to leave. Did you forget your own daughters birthday party? After all her planning about bowling with you and her friends? Please drive here as soon as you can...your cell must be turned off."

Herman remembered that he had turned off his cell about 3 so as not to be interrupted at work. He remembered the look on his little girl's face when she handed him a picture she drew, "that's you and me," she said, "bowling together." Then she looked up and asked him, "You'll be there, won't you, Daddy?"

And somewhere, deep in his soul,  Herman heard a door shut. 

Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like  when a King sends out invitations to a great party but people refuse to come. There was no greater party in Biblical times than a wedding feast. It could last for a week. The father would pull out all the stops, offer everything he had for he was celebrating life itself. With the marriage of his son came the possibility of children, of his family line continuing beyond his death. The wedding banquet was a celebration of life itself.

    The King sent out invitations to the banquet, but the guests refused to come. If you read the parable carefully, there are two kinds of refusals. Some seem violent in their refusal, like they hate the King and they try to kill his servants. But the second kind of refusal comes from people who may love the King and even be friends with him but they are too consumed with the responsibilities of life to celebrate. So one man goes to his farm, another to his business. Jesus says that these people "made light of the Kings invitation." They did not take the invitation seriously.  These are the people I want to focus on today. This invitation is no big deal to them. They have more important things to attend to, things that, if they could get them done, would make them happy.  The good people, the ones who really try, like you and me, get so consumed with the mundane aspects of life that they turn down God Himself.  Their fundamental mistake was that they confused happiness with joy. While chasing after happiness, they missed the invitation to joy itself.

There are tons of books out about happiness. Everybody in America wants to be happy. Walgreens tag line is "Where happy meets healthy." There is a book called The Happiness Project that is a National Bestseller and all it's about is a middle-aged woman who lives in New York City and how she is trying to be happy. Having the right amount of stuff, a decent job, exercise...all recipes for happiness. All we want is to feel good. All the time.

Meanwhile, God is offering us joy. Joy is very different from happiness. It has little to do with your moods. And it is all about waking up to the invitation that has ALREADY been offered to you in your baptism. To know that, no matter what happens to you in this life, you are loved with a kind of radical love that you do not deserve and all you have to do is say yes, put on your best clothes, and come to the party. All you need to do is agree to the invitation, to take it seriously, to come. Joy is a state of being. It is rock solid. It is nothing more than the acceptance of God's love.  It has nothing to do with the events of your life or how you are feeling. It is done. Joy only has to be accepted.

Do you know what the priest is called who presides over the Holy Eucharist? The one who tells the story at the table? That person is called the celebrant, because that person presides over a great banquet, a banquet of joy.

At the Bavarian National Opera House, there was a man named Karl Valentino who performed in the 1930's. He was the last of what people used to call "The Metaphysical  Clowns." He would dress like a clown and do pantomimes that had profound significance. 

One particular pantomime began with a bare stage except for one circle of light. The clown entered the stage and began to search diligently for something that he had lost. After a time, a policeman came up to him.

"Have you lost something?"

"The key to my house," answers the clown. "If I can't find it, I can't go home tonight." 

With that, the policeman joined the search. Finally, he asked, "Are you sure that you lost it here?"

"Oh, no, I lost it over there," said the clown, pointing to a darkened part of the stage.

"Then why on earth are you looking here?"

"Because there is no light over there."

To look for something where it doesn't exist is the ultimate form of futility. To search for joy where you can only find happiness at best, is to waste your life away. It is to say no to the invitation because you are too busy trying to be happy. 

To spend your time worrying about finances, mortgages, work issues, schedules, cleanliness is to waste the invitation. Worrying of any kind is a rejection of the invitation that God has already made. St Paul says, "Do not worry about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God." Consumers are just that, they are consumed by the myth that buying stuff will make you happy. Happy. Even if it does make you happy, you get nowhere. You spend your life chasing after a mood or a feeling of wellbeing. You might as well chase after the wind. Meanwhile God is offering you joy itself.

The end of the parable is the most disturbing because the King gets mad, really mad. The King gets mad at the people who refuse to come to the banquet and He gets mad at the man who comes but refuses to put on a white robe. St Augustine taught that the wedding robe would be provided by the host for all who needed one. If that is true, then this guest had been provided with a robe but he refused to put it on. So although he came to the feast, he did not participate fully, and that was as bad as not coming at all.

Most Episcopalians don't like to think about an angry God. We prefer the God of the New Testament who is loving and not angry, we say. But, in truth, Jesus does talk about God getting mad and why shouldn't the King get mad? When you really love someone and you give them all that you have and you invite them to the most important celebration of life itself and they turn you down, wouldn't you be mad? Anger is not the opposite of love, it can be an expression of love. No, it is indifference that is the opposite of love. God is angry when you do not say yes to the invitation, when you forget your child's birthday party because you are so preoccupied at work, when you miss out on the joy of generosity because you are too busy trying to play it safe, when you run after happiness and miss the banquet of life itself.

And to make God angry is a serious matter that ends in death. In the parable, the King destroys the people that kill his servants and burns their city. This is no joke. Making God mad is no joke. We want to sugarcoat the story, but the truth is that nothing seems to make God more angry than when we refuse an invitation to the celebration of life itself.

But to please God is so easy. All you have to do is come. Come to church. Come to the celebrations of love and laughter in your life, with your whole self, not preoccupied or distracted, but being fully present.  Come to the eucharist with your whole self, ready to love and be loved, ready to give and to receive, ready to accept that God wants you despite all your faults and foibles. You have been invited. All you have to do is come.

Francis Moments

About twelve years ago, I was working at a church in Kansas and it was early on a Tuesday morning. My son Luke was four years old, my son Jacob was just two. My husband was off somewhere training for an Ironman and I had to get the boys ready for preschool, get myself ready for work, and get us all out the door on time.

Mornings are nuts with toddlers and pets. Mornings can be nuts even if you don't have kids. I was frazzled and I remember distinctly that I had butter in my hair. I locked the front door and herded the boys to the car but Jake saw something on the front lawn and he wriggled out from under my grasp.

"Mom,mom,mom, mom!!" He exclaimed with sheer joy. "Look!look!look!look!" There on the lawn was a dandelion. Jake wanted to "blow on it", that was the way he said it at two- "blow on it." But I was so anxious and mad at him for slipping away and I couldn't get it out of my head that we were going to be late. So I hustled him into the car.  He started to cry.

It's been twelve years and do you know what? I can't remember for the life of me what could have been so important that I had to rush. But I do remember my two year old's beautiful blond hair shining in the sun and how he wanted to blow a dandelion with me. And I remember his anguished face when I forced him to rush and we missed blowing on that dandelion.

Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants." Infants. The little ones. That early stage of childhood when you are overwhelmed by the sight of a bird in a tree or a spider in its web. That early stage of wonder and simplicity. That is when you can see God. When we get older, we become so absorbed in our busyness, in all the cares and occupations of this frantic life, that we lose the capacity to see God. We lose the gift of wonder.

But let me tell you something true.

You cannot find God by running faster or doing more.

Let me say that again. 

You cannot find God by moving faster or doing more. 

God can be found only by going back to that state of early wonder that you once loved. You must stop and blow on the dandelion.

St Francis is the most popular of all the saints. He is universally loved across Christian denominations. In the year 1204, Francis was a wealthy soldier on his way to war when he had a vision of God. This vision changed everything for Francis. It changed his perspective forever. He gave up life as he knew it and decided to live simply. When his father confronted him to bring him home, Francis stripped naked in front of his father, the bishop and the whole village. "Do you want my belongings? Take them! Do you want the clothes on my back? Take them!" 

Francis no longer cared about stuff. He gave up his wealth and prestige in exchange for the riches of nature. Francis was rich in the songs of the birds and filled with the beauty of the flowers. He saw the animals as his friends and as icons for the beauty and majesty of God's creation. He found nature so beautiful that sometimes he would sing to the sunrise, preach to the birds, or just stand there and stare at the beauty of God's handiwork with tears streaming down his face.

I love how little kids, when you see them in the grocery store, they just stare at you, right at your face, as if there is nothing more fascinating. They don't yet have the inhibitions or preconceived notions that tell them not to stare, that it is impolite. They don't care about what they need to do next or how their stare makes you feel. They are just fascinated. That's the way that Francis was, with the whole of creation. He was fascinated.

I want you to take a moment to stop and stare with me. Just gaze on the beauty of the animals before us, the majesty of the trees, the sight of the rays of the sun. Take a moment, stop and stare. (silence)

I realized recently that there are holy moments that come to all of us every day. Most of us race around, trying to get somewhere, speeding up in our cars, rushing down hallways, calling people on the phone, hopefully NOT texting while driving but listening to the radio and getting annoyed by the nasty driver who won't let us into the line or annoyed at the traffic jam that seems to go on forever. But whether you are in the car or on foot, sometimes you are gifted with a moment when you can stop and stare at something in nature, something that God made. A sunset, a blooming flower, a drop of rain on your winshield.  This is an invitation to take a Francis moment, to stop your motion and pray for the world and give thanks for the beauty that you see. Stop and stare. Pray and give thanks.

Are you a person who gets overwhelmed by the thought of praying daily? Maybe morning prayer or devotional reading is too much for you to take on and it just becomes another item on your to do list. What if you tried this instead...what if you looked for Francis moments, moments of wonder and fascination, when you can simply stop whatever you are doing and stare. Moments of being instead of doing. Moments that are totally unscheduled. Moments that are spontaneous. You never know when and where they will happen. Late at night as the rain beats down on the roof... Stepping outside as a fog lifts. Taking your dog for a walk. And you just take that moment and treat it as a gift from God and calm down, breathe and become like a small child again, full of joy and wonder.

I want you to try it this week. Let God give you Francis moments.

You cannot find God by running faster or doing more, but you can find God by acting like Francis, like a small child, who marvels at creation and stops to blow the dandelion.

Not Fair

Anna was eighteen and just starting college when she found out that she was pregnant. The father was a fling, totally unreliable and had no interest in the child. Anna's life was turned upside down. How could she be so careless? How could she let this happen?

After praying, crying and talking to her parents and friends, she decided to give the baby up for adoption. The child deserved a good life and she was unfit to be its mother. And, to be honest, she didn't want to sacrifice her life. She wanted to go to college.

A couple from Connecticut adopted her baby, a little girl. They had two boys and really wanted a girl but didn't want to chance a pregnancy in which they might get yet another boy. They took her baby as their own and Anna gave up all parental rights. She was no longer a mother, or so she thought.

But every day of her life, even if it was just for a moment, Anna would wonder about that little girl. How was she growing up? What did she look like? Was she happy? She wondered if her daughter would ever contact her, but she never did. And Anna assumed that she had no right to know what her daughter was up to. She went on with her life but a part of her always wondered.

When Anna's daughter, Jennifer, turned 30, she prepared to be married in Connecticut. One day, she came home from work and her fiancé gave her shocking news. "Jennifer," he said. "I don't think that you are ready to marry me."

"What!? Why?" she asked, about to burst into tears.

"You need to find your biological mother. You have always wondered about her. Find her. Find out who she is. Then we can be married..."

Jennifer began to search for Anna. Anna had always left her contact information with the adoption agency in the hope that her daughter might some day want to know her. So she was not hard to find.

You could have knocked Anna over with a feather when she first heard her daughter's voice on the phone. It sounded so much like her own! They began to speak, they met for a long weekend at the beach. And Jennifer decided that she wanted Anna at her wedding. And not only that,  Anna was to sit in the front row  with the parents who had raised her daughter.

Jennifer's adoptive parents were remarkably generous in welcoming Anna into all of their lives. Together, they shared grandparent duties when Jennifer had her first baby. But all the time,  Anna could not help feeling that it was so unfair. So unfair and yet so beautiful. She hadn't done any of the hard work. She hadn't changed diapers and put up with pimply adolescence. And she got all the benefits, as if she had been there from the start. She got to sit in the front row at her daughter's wedding.

Today Jesus tells us a parable about a landowner who is not fair. He hires workers all throughout the day, from morning to night. But when the day is done, he pays them all the same wage...those who worked for five minutes get the same amount as those who worked all day. It is clearly and unabashedly unfair.

God is not fair. God is good and infinitely generous but no where in the Bible does it say that God is fair.

I knew a man who lived the most wild life: partying and drugs and women and gambling- he did it all. At the age of 65, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was all alone. His third wife had left him after he had yet another affair. 

This man found my church in the yellow pages (yes, it was years ago).  He came to my office and confessed his sins. One week later, he called asking me to come to his home because he was too sick to come to me. He sat in an armchair and told me that he had had a vision of Jesus walking towards him with his arms open. He cried. And the next day, he died.

His funeral was a mess. He had made no plans. His wives and mistresses were warring with one another, but I believe that God welcomed him home, at the eleventh hour.

And how is this fair? Here we are, worshipping faithfully, giving our money and time, serving the poor the sick and the needy, and all he did was party! It's not fair!

The notion of fair comes from the mind of a two or three-year old. It is a good notion but it is a human notion, too simplistic for God. God is too wise to be fair. God knows things we do not. God is too vast to give us all the same thing. We are so unique and so individual and only God can fathom what we need.

When John Claypool's daughter died at the age of nine from cancer, he sat at the breakfast table one morning so depressed he could hardly breathe. How could God be so unfair? Why did other parents get to keep their kids? Why did he have to suffer? Why did his daughter have to suffer?

Then, in  a moment, John looked up and he saw his son, sitting across the breakfast table eating Cheerios, healthy and alive. And in that moment, John realized that it was his choice. He could be angry about how unfair life was or he could be grateful for the child he had. That was the defining moment of his life. He decided that God was not fair but God was good. John realized that his daughters life was a gift. He had her for seven years.

Think about your life. Where do you feel like you've been cheated? How do you compare yourself to others? What do they have that you don't have? A better job? A nice house? Healthy kids? Life is difficult. But it is a gift and you won the lottery just to get here. Jesus never promised us that life would be fair. You have a choice as to how you see your life. Do you want to be grateful or do you want to be angry because life is unfair?

You may say to yourself, "Why should I be grateful? I have arthritis so bad I can hardly walk. My husband left me. I am alone in this world. I lost my job..."  And you are right. Some of you, in fact, most of us, have had to suffer in this life. But look around you. How is it that you were born? How incredible that, out of all the infinite possibilities of genome, that you came to be? How incredible that you breathe? Dr Ryan Uitti spoke at Episcopal this past week and he said that it is hard NOT to believe in God. It would be like believing that a tornado passed through a junkyard and left behind a F16 fighter jet. There is too much beauty and genius to the creation, there is too much intentionality.

Life is not fair. You are right. God never promised us fair. God promised us love and a front seat at the wedding of life itself, at the dance of creation, the great feast of God.

The Reality of Relationships

Richard grew up in a nearly perfect family. His dad was a renowned surgeon. His mom stayed at home. He had a younger  brothers and their life was full of safety, learning and fun. Their dad was stoic, calm and loving. They adored him and waited with excitement every night for him to come home. They loved to get him to wrestle with them on the living room floor after dinner. He was big and strong and seemingly invincible, their protector and their provider.

Richard grew up, got a law degree and began to practice law. At the age of 30, with no warning at all, his is dad...his dad, who he had looked up to his whole life, decided to start another family.

Richard's dad fell in love with a patient, a woman 20 years his junior, and he decided that he did not want to be a father to his adult children any longer. He told them that he had never told them how much he resented them. He sent Richard a letter. "I have raised you and provided for you. I have experienced too much sadness and resentment trying to raise you and care for your mother. I give up. I am no longer your father." Richard was so devastated that he could hardly breathe. His father had simply never come to him when he felt discouraged or angered by him. He did not communicate conflict and then he just left. Richard was devastated and alone. He felt that his whole childhood had somehow been a sham.

Richard was never able to reconcile with his dad, despite many letters and phone calls. When his dad died, he did not even know about it. One of his friends happened upon his dad's obituary and that's how Richard found out that his dad was gone forever.

There is a powerful myth that exists in the church. It is a myth that defies denomination, it exists in all churches from the evangelical to the progressive. The myth is about relationships. The myth tells us that if we are faithful we will not have broken relationships, that if we are faithful,we will not fight with one another. The good Christian gets along with everyone, right?

Conflict, disagreement, argument...these things are not bad. They are the way that we have of communicating difference, hurt, confusion. Conflict can be very painful but it can also be incredibly helpful. If you do not have conflict, be careful. Someone may not be telling the truth about how they are feeling. Richards father refused to communicate when there was conflict. He let his resentment build and then he ran away from his entire family. Conflict is an inevitable part of human relationships.

St Paul once wrote that we see through a glass dimly. Sometimes, when people are in a disagreement, it is almost as if there is a glass wall that stands between them. This glass wall is transparent but it is a bit warped. On one side, a person sees through it and everything looks one way but the person on the other side sees things differently. Many of the conflicts that arise between us arise simply because we have experienced an event differently. Our perspectives, what we see and experience, are different and we respond to what we are seeing and this leads to conflict.

Conflict in the world and especially in the church is inevitable. Let me say that again, conflict is inevitable. If there is conflict in your life, it is not because you did anything wrong. It has to do with our fallen world and our lack of perspective. We see through a glass dimly. Dimly. The glass is sometimes warped by our hurts and the repetitive patterns of our lives. Sometimes we can't even see each other at all.

Jesus talks about relationships today and he openly talks about conflict. He talks about conflict in a way that assumes each of us will experience it. "If your brother sins against you, this is what you do..." He gives us a clear and concise list of instructions. The instructions are simple and yet they are terribly hard to do.

First and perhaps most importantly, when someone wrongs you, GO AND TALK TO THEM. Out of all Jesus' instructions, this is the one we most avoid. We want to pretend that it didn't bother us. We don't think it is worth our time. We don't think the other person will respond well or we are just too darned tired. If we really followed this commandment, we would be talking to someone at least once a week right? Daily? Be honest. How many times does someone hurt your feelings or wrong you in some way? But so many times, if we just follow Jesus' instructions and go to the person alone, without gossip or self-pity or wallowing...so many times the dispute ends right there and in many cases, the relationship is strengthened. It is so hard to be honest about this. It takes time. It takes effort. And sometimes, we just want to do what is easiest, to pretend nothing is wrong, or to tell anyone or everyone else about our hurt and not the person who hurt us.

There are times when you do go directly to the one who hurt you and try to talk to them, and it doesn't work. There are times when people don't admit to wrongdoing or their perspective on life is so different from yours and in their eyes, they are the victim not the perpetrator. And in those cases, Jesus tells us to go back to the person but this time with witnesses or, literally, listeners, people who are objective and have integrity, who will not take sides. Take with you people who see clearly and have the capacity to listen. Let them see and hear the truth. If they cannot explain or help you reconcile, then bring the conflict to the church. Technically, the word ecclesia that Jesus used meant community. Clearly, Jesus wanted the conflict aired and discussed, not kept in the dark.

Finally, if none of this works, we are to end the relationship. Stop trying. Let the person be a non-relationship for you, like how a Jew was instructed in Jesus' day not to speak to a Gentile and a tax collector. Just let it be. And maybe this is the hardest part of all. It is hard to stop trying.

Jesus is telling us that it is OK to have people that you cannot or do not relate to. That is the final breakdown of the myth. Jesus is saying that, even in church, there are times when you have to end a relationship. Conflict should not last forever. After a number of tries, it becomes obsessive and sinful. Try, get help, and if you can't fix the relationship, end it. Don't let it live broken forever. Let it go.

The pain of saying goodbye to folks who will not change is devastating. Richard wanted a relationship with his father but his father would not have it. And this pain is something that he still carries with him today. He never really got to say goodbye.

No human relationships are perfect and sometimes the least inadequate solution is goodbye. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, Paul says. Sometimes, the only thing that we can do is not to harm each other.

"Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven," Jesus said. Heaven will be a place of relationships. The people who you love and live in relationship with will somehow be there. I am not sure that we will ever fully understand these words until we get there, but it is enough to know that relationships are part of your spiritual life. Relationships are part of how you live out your life of faith. You can bind people to you in love but you also have the capacity to loose them, to let them go. Why must we work so hard on our relationships? Because your relationship with God is impacted by your relationships with others. Your relationships affect your soul. And when we get along and truly connect, when two or three of us are really together and for even a brief moment, our barriers come down and we see each other clearly, God is there.

So communicate. Tell each other about the little conflicts before they get huge. Don't slack off or hold it in. Talk to one another. And, if after much effort, you cannot resolve a relationship, let it go. That's what forgiveness means, letting go. Do not stew or obsess or gossip. Just hand the relationship back to God.

Rocky's Priorities

The word Peter means rock. Cephas in Aramaic,  Petros in Latin. Jesus called Peter his rock. He would build the church upon this rock. But the funny part about Peter, or Rocky as one theologian calls him, is that he was not solid at all at first.

Peter made more mistakes than anybody. He denied Jesus three times, he distracted from the event of the Transfiguration by trying to build monuments, he even gets called Satan by Jesus just a few verses later. How could Jesus have looked to someone so unreliable to start the church? How could Jesus have seen rock-solidness when the rest of us can only see a bumbler? What was it about Peter that made him the one to trust?

Peter does one thing right in the gospels. When Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is, Peter nails it. 

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asks Peter.

"You are Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."

Peter knows who Jesus is and he devotes his life to Jesus. For all his faults and foibles, he puts Jesus first. He knows that Jesus is the Christ, the ruler of his life, the most important one in world. He makes Jesus his first priority. He gets that part right. 

As Christians, Jesus asks us all this very simple question. He asks it all of our lives...

"Who do you say that I am?"

We answer this question by the way that we live our lives. Is Jesus your Lord? Is Jesus the first priority in your life, above all other relationships? We answer this question not just with words but primarily with our deeds. Does Jesus have some time in your day? And is Jesus part of your financial budget? We set our priorities primarily by allocating our time and money. If you want to see what is most important to a person, look at their calendar and look at their bank account. Where are they spending their time and where are they spending their money? That will tell you much more than words.

On July 20, 1969, two human beings changed our world forever by walking on the surface of the moon. But before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong got out of the Lunar Module, Buzz did something amazing, something that very few people know about.  Buzz Aldrin gave himself communion on the surface of the moon. It was the first thing that he did. After his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts magazine.

 Aldrin was an elder at a Presbyterian Church in Texas. He wanted to do something for God on the surface of the moon. He wanted to show the world that God was the first priority in his life. He asked his minister what he should do and the minister suggested communion. Buzz did not know that this would be possible. So the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a vial of wine and Buzz Aldrin took them with him. He and Armstrong had only been on the surface of the moon for a few moments when Aldrin made the following public statement:

 “This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John and he took communion.

Later, he wrote about taking communion on the moon..."In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the scripture...

 I am the vine, you are the branches.

 Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit ...

 Apart from me you can do nothing.

"I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility.  It was interesting for me to think the very first liquid ever poured on the moon and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.  And of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon - and who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "Love that moves the Sun and other stars."

Buzz answered Jesus' question, "But who do you say that I am?" by receiving communion on the face of the moon. How will you answer Christ's question?

Today, you will have an opportunity to walk around this campus and view a variety of ministries of this Cathedral. One way that you can answer Christ's question is to devote a portion of your time to serving God. This can happen in so many ways, from preparing the altar to serving a meal to the homeless. Look around. God is asking for your time, see what you can do to serve Jesus here in the core of the city.

In the next two months, we will also be asking you to make a financial pledge to the Cathedral. The more that you give, the more ministry can be done from this beautiful place. Consider your financial priorities. Is God right up there on your list? Are you giving enough to really be making a sacrifice for God? The amount of your pledge is not as important as the weight of its importance in your own budget. Giving should be the first thing that you do, not the last. Who do you say that Christ is in your life? Is he a top priority? It is sacrificial giving that changes the world. 

Buzz took communion on the surface of the moon. It was the first thing that he did. His first priority.

Peter left his home, his wife and his job to follow Jesus. What are you willing to give up? What are you willing to give? Do you take communion every week on the morning of the first day of the week? Is it the first thing that you do?

Jesus asks us all..."But who you YOU say that I am?"

How you chose to live your life...that is your answer.