Abundant grace

Proper 20 Year A

September 24, 2017

    We have heard several parables over the last weeks that point to God’s less than perfect farming skills.  Seeds are scattered with little or no regard to what kind of soil they are scattered on;  or letting weeds grow with the good wheat, letting the weeds be weeds, and even letting the weeds take nourishment meant for the wheat.  None of these are particularly wise farming skills.  Today, it seems that God is also a foolish boss as well.

    Who in their right mind pays the day wage for the last only  hour of work?  The laborers who have endured the heat of the day are furious, and who can blame them?  It doesn’t seem fair or just… it doesn’t make sense… not to mention, it’s not good business sense.  

    But obviously the parable, like the story of Jonah from the Old Testament is trying to tell us that God doesn’t think about these things the way that the rest of us do.  We should view these stories as good news… but sometimes that’s hard to do…

    One of the lessons we get to learn today is that God’s sense of justice isn’t quite what we would have in mind… we tend to think about justice in terms of equal resources and getting paid for our work in ways that make sense…. in today’s parable, the wealthy land owner seems more concerned with the day laborers earning enough rather than how long they have worked… a pretty good deal if you came in later in the day…

    The thing is, our God is always extending a pretty good deal.  There is always enough love to spare no matter when we arrive; always more than enough for us and for anyone else who shows up… always… and so the anger that the laborer feel while it seems justified by our standards, isn’t justified by God’s standards…Grace is God’s gift to scatter as God sees fit… parables of grace are hard to hear and to understand because we don’t usually love and extend grace the same way that God does.  and we may never understand just how loving and incredible an action it really is, until WE are the ones arriving at the last minutes of the work day and are surprised to find that our share equals everyone else’s.

    The question that strikes me here, is why do the laborers act the way they do?  Perhaps a more important question, is why do WE act the way we do in the face such love and generosity?  

    We certainly see this theme repeated over and over again in scripture… from the story of Adam and Eve, to our own stories, it seems that we are always trying to get more, trying to get God to give us even more than God already has…  It seems to be part of our nature to be overly concerned with what others are given rather than doing the best we can with what we’ve been given…  What God does with God’s grace and love is really God’s business, not ours.  Whomever God decides to lavish grace upon, does not affect our share, not ever.  Why do we care so much?

    One of the best definitions I have heard of what the church is, is that the church is the place and the people, who bring hope to the hopeless…  What if, in response to God’s blessings and love, we turned around and gave hope to the hopeless?  

    The only response to what we have been given by God, is to give to others.  It’s the only way to really love God in return.  God has not just given enough; God has given more than enough… to quote a much overused phrase, our cup runneth over, and in response, we must reach toward others and give them the hope that life in the kingdom offers…not just in the next world but in this one as well.

    What stood out for me as I read the story this time, is that the land owner tells the laborers to go into the vineyard and he will pay them whatever is right…  and of course, by the end of the story, whatever is right, is much different than we or the workers expect…no matter who the worker is, not matter when they get to the vineyard, they get what they need…

    Abundance is the status quo in God’s kingdom.  There is enough for everyone… it seems that no one has more than anyone else, and no one has to want for anything… it’s a radical equality based on kingdom values, rather than on human values.

    The hope for us and for others, is that God always has more than enough grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness…. for all of us, no matter who we are; even when we live our lives as non believers, or live our lives without giving God a thought; over and over again, grace is offered, whether we accept it or not…

    So… hope, mercy, love,  are all gifts that we can give, because there’s plenty of them to go around… doesn’t always seem like it when we look around, but we are the church, the people responsible for bringing hope… in God’s kingdom, hope multiplies; grace, mercy and love, all multiply… and the more we give, the more there is… isn’t that part of the miracle of living in the kingdom?

    As workers in the vineyard, workers in God’s kingdom of abundance, we need to get the message of God’s unimaginable generosity out there… and part of getting the message out there, is living as though we know the message is true.

    I pray that we can live in the overwhelming joy that God’s grace brings into our lives; I pray that we can each treat our fellow children of God in ways that aren’t based in the fear and jealousy that lives inside us when we live in a culture of scarcity.  The kingdom has no scarcity; only abundance.  It’s an abundance that knows no limits or boundaries.  May we all be the kind of vineyard keepers that God is.

Jesus forgives...so should we

Proper 19 Year A

September 17, 2017

    Today’s readings all point to one of those ideals of the spiritual life that makes at least some of us squirm in discomfort at the mere mention of it… of course, I am talking about forgiveness.

    Forgiving another is really, really hard work.  Sometimes, the act of forgiving takes our whole life to accomplish, if we are lucky… sometimes there are things that we carry that are so painful, we might never get there…

    I have told you this story from my own spiritual life before, but I am going to tell it again, because for me, what happened was a lesson, and an experience that has helped me in know something about Jesus that I hadn’t realized before… That knowledge has helped me many times since the experience happened.

    I was in my early 20’s, and I was a part time college student at San Diego State.  I was involved in the college and young adult ministry of the diocese, and was a relatively new Episcopalian.  I’m sure I must have been in therapy, and if I wasn’t, I probably should have been.  I was working through some difficult stuff that was both spiritually and emotionally difficult, and it had a lot to do with my anger at my parents for a whole variety of things, none of which is terribly important right now, but it was serious business that day.  The young adult ministry was at worship together, and we were at a point in the service where we were in quiet prayer.  I remember being quite upset, and in my prayers, said something like, “Jesus, how can you forgive me, when I can’t forgive them? “  I heard the answer as if Jesus was sitting there right next to me…  “because” he said, “My forgiveness comes first.”

    I cannot tell you the times I have thought about that moment, and prayed that moment over in my heart and mind… “My forgiveness comes first…”  Now, mind you, this amazing declaration of love did not let me off the hook in any way, but it did help me to not rush into something I wasn’t ready for.  In my experience, forgiving before we are ready, is kind of like cheap grace; it doesn’t go very deep, and it doesn’t mean very much.  Anything that has worth in the spiritual life is going to take some work; not that Jesus loves us any more or less, but like any relationship, our relationship with Jesus takes time, energy and work… and, like other relationships, it isn’t always pleasant or fun…

    In our gospel, Jesus tells Peter that he is to forgive not as many as seven times, but seventy seven times.  And as Tex reminded us last week, it’s not like we stop forgiving on time 78… Jesus is using a large number, a number with mystical significance to a Jewish audience to say that forgiving another is a holy task, and one that overflows with God’s mercy and love, so much so that its value cannot be measured.

    No question, forgiving another can be really hard work; harder certainly than offending, don’t you think?  And before I say anything else, I want to say 2 things; the first is, if you have been wronged by another in a death dealing kind of way, please know that you don’t have to forgive until you are ready; the other piece of that, is that forgiving is about us, the ones who are doing the forgiving, not the offender.  We forgive because is sets us free, not because it helps the offender.  When we hold on to our anger, or to our desire for revenge, we are damaging our own souls.  I think that was part of what happened in my answer to my prayer that day; the kind of anger I was holding inside of me, was likely going to hurt me in some way; I was newly sober, and having unresolved anger is not a good way to stay sober.  Having said that, all of those feelings, all of the anger and sadness had to have it’s time to be expressed; all of us, no matter who we are, have a deep desire to be heard, especially when it comes to the really deep stuff.  The good news, is that Jesus does hear us.  All of those prayers that come unbidden in dark and lonely places, or the ones that come as tears…. Jesus hears those, even if we don’t speak them.  Jesus’ love for us is deeply connected to his ability to have mercy on us…  His love, his mercy has no limits; we all know that ours does have limits most days.  I believe that is at least part of the point of the parable that Jesus tells about the slave and the king.  Let’s remember, that the amount of money that the slave owed the king was an astronomical amount of money; so much so, that no king in their right mind would loan a slave that much money.    What the slave was owed by his fellow slaves, was no where near that amount that he owed;.  The king forgave the overwhelming debt… so, in a sense the king showed mercy twice; by loaning the money in the first place and then by forgiving the debt.  The one who was now free from his debt, would not extend the same mercy to his fellow slaves.  His own greed, his own self centeredness, got him in a heap of trouble.  How on earth, was he going to repay the king, who because of his awful behavior, now demanded his money?  He was in prison; and wasn’t going to be allowed out of prison until he paid.  He was now in a situation that he could not possibly get out of alive.  He would die in prison, not really because of the money he owed, but because he withheld mercy from those who genuinely needed it, even though he himself was afforded the gift of even more mercy.

    How much does our own inability to forgive others keep us in prison?  There is so much going on today in our society that would have us be selfish with our mercy, our forgiveness and our love.  The empire is only interested in its own well being; and if we fight among ourselves and refuse to see Jesus in everyone else, then we can be used for the empire’s advantage… our anger, our hurt, our fear… all of it becomes weapons against another; and we know that when we are divided, we cannot help each other… all we can see are our own needs and no one else’s matter.  That, my friends, sounds like a prison to me; a prison that it is going to be very difficult to be released from if we don’t start to love and forgive as Jesus has forgiven every one of us.  There is more than enough to go around.  Our soul’s freedom depends on our ability to let go of the chains that we sometimes let bind us.  

    I know that day at worship with my friends was life changing for me.  I began to see the depth of Jesus’ love for me, and the depth of his love for those who had harmed me.  LIke the king in the parable,  Jesus let me know that I was loved enough to be forgiven.   I can’t say that I have gotten it right, even now, but that day I became willing to believe in the possibility of my own transformation, from someone who was frozen in their anger, to someone who could at least believe I wouldn’t be angry forever.  

    Sometimes the first step is to pray for the willingness to be open to the possibility.  It’s not easy… it doesn’t come without risk; but we can live in the certainty that Jesus has already forgiven us and THEM.  We can grow into that place and take as long as we need to, so long as we don’t get lazy and use it as an excuse.  We love because Jesus has first loved… We forgive, because Jesus has first forgiven.  I pray that we can all be set free, knowing that his forgiveness comes first.

Be a living gift to God

Proper 16 Year A

August 27, 2017

    It is a fairly well known fact among my family members that I am a fan of receiving presents.  They don’t even have to be expensive or flashy presents either; what I really enjoy is seeing what people think I might like.  I also really enjoy getting gifts for the people in my life because I like seeing how they react to what I believe will bring them joy; there have certainly been a few times when I completely messed it up, and a few family stories that seem to get told every so often with my missteps seeming to get bigger every time the tales are told…

    Gift giving is a way for us to tell each other that they matter to us; when we give someone a gift that brings them joy, we are saying that they matter to us; that we want to do something nice for them; that we care about our relationship… which is why some of the best gifts aren’t the ones we purchase, but the ones we make, ones that have some of us in them to give to the people we love, gifts that can create memories.

    In our readings for today,  I found myself struck by the words from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul is asking us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to God.  Sacrifice is definitely the language of worship, and it is also the language of gift.  In the Old Testament, there are numerous passages especially in the book of Leviticus that discuss animal sacrifices being given to God; animals, either first born or the most perfect of the flock were ritually slaughtered upon the altar, and blood was poured or used to mark specific places on the altar.  There were all kinds of rules about what parts of the animals could be eaten and by whom; and then of course, rules about which parts would be burned up for God, so that the smoke from burning the animal would rise to God and cause an “odor pleasing to God’s sight.”  Whenever I read those parts of the bible, I always give thanks that I am a priest now, and not then.

    When you and I come together to celebrate the Eucharist, we are coming together to give thanks; that’s what Eucharist means;  to give thanks to God for all that God has done in creating, and loving us and the world.

    Part of giving thanks, is giving back to God, gifts that God has given us from God’s creation; we place fine linen, silks, silver, brass, candles, our money, and of course bread and wine and water, on the altar, much as priests used to place animals to be given to God.  We don’t place these gifts here as a way to erase our sinfulness because only God can do that; but we give these gifts to God as a way of showing our gratitude and our love for God; we give these gifts so that we can celebrate our relationship to God; we create memories with each other, we become part of the great cloud of witnesses that has come before, all of us celebrating our love for God and each other.

    Sometimes I forget that the most important thing that you and I bring to this altar as an offering, as a sacrifice, is ourselves.  All the fine linen, silver, and money aren’t going to really mean anything, if our bodies, our hearts and our minds aren’t also offered up to God as gift.   We offer ourselves as gift because God desires to be in relationship with us and desires us to be in relationship with each other.  And unlike the perfect offerings from the flock, we know that we are far from perfect; our blemishes may not show on the outside, but we know and God knows what is on our hearts.  Rather than come to offer ourselves thinking we are spotless, perhaps for us, coming forward fully aware of our shortcomings, is what God desires;  I have spoken a lot about truth telling lately and I believe that when we come to this table with our hands outstretched, asking for Jesus to enter into our bodies and souls, that might be as truthful as we can ever be; when we acknowledge that is it only God who can heal us from ourselves, then maybe we can be ready to receive the healing and wholeness God wants us to have.  Unlike other gifts we might give, the gifts of ourselves is one that is risky for us to give, because it means that we have to be willing to be vulnerable; we have to be willing to change, we have to be willing to actually be the image of God in the world; we give ourselves to God.. and then we are given back to the world as changed people; not conformed to the world, as Paul says, but transformed because we have taken the holiest of gifts from God, and have been changed by the gift…

    What gifts are you bringing to the altar today?  Are you bringing your best, your most vulnerable, your true self most needing to be changed and loved by God?  I urge us all to pay attention; to truly offer ourselves upon God’s altar with hearts longing for love and longing to be changed into hearts that desire what God desires.  Be a living gift, always.

Lies defile our hearts

Proper 15 Year A 2017

August 20, 2017

    My mom used to say that only drunks tell the truth; I’m pretty sure she meant that if someone were drunk, then they were more likely to tell the truth.  Not really sure why she believed that because I didn’t really know her as much of a truth teller whether she was drunk or sober; the level of alcohol in her body didn’t really seem to correlate to her ability to tell the truth, and if anything, it may have made bad things worse.  Many years later when I had to deal with my own relationship to alcohol and it’s affect on my relationship to truth, I decided a couple of things.  First,  I was going to change my relationship to alcohol, and, I was going to, as much as I could, live my life in truth and integrity.  There were so many lies that were part of my family’s being, that I’m pretty sure that the lies were believed, at least by those that told them.  What I am certain of, is that the lies hurt people who certainly deserved better.

The truth is, don’t we all deserve better?  It took me a while to figure out that I deserved better; when you live with people who don’t tell the truth, especially when it comes to what they say about you, it can become difficult to believe the truth about who you are.  

Teresa of Avila is one of my favorite saints;  she died in 1582 and was a major figure in the counter reformation in the Catholic church.  One of the things I admire about her, is that she was always in trouble.  She taught that people could have a personal even mystical relationship with God, and could pray to God without an intermediary, such as a priest.  The common teaching at the time was that people needed their priest to pray and to communicate with God on their behalf; even when people went to church, the mass was celebrated in a language that wasn’t the language of the people.  So, you would sit in church, and if you were lucky you would respond with the customary responses, and you might not understand what was being said.  Certainly, if you weren’t educated, you might be even further removed from understanding.  So, imagine that the church tells you that basically you can’t communicate directly with God because you weren’t educated enough, or important enough; and it’s probably more complicated that that, but that’s the basic premise… then suddenly, someone comes along and tells you that what you have been made to  believe about yourself is wrong; that you matter to God just the way you are, and that God desires a personal, intimate relationship with you, and that you don’t need someone else to talk to God for you?  It changes everthing, right?  Suddenly, you see begin to see yourself as a much beloved child of God who has been freed to pray and worship God in ways that you were kept from for really, no good reason.  When we see ourselves as children of God, when we see the truth about who we really are, we can begin to question and change the systems around us that have been used in false, oppressive ways.   In the gospel of John, we are told that the truth shall set us free; and it is indeed so.  Knowing that we are all created in God’s holy image, indeed sets all of us free from the oppression that others try to force upon us.

“Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  He later on explains that what comes out of the mouth originates in the heart, which is why it defiles.  When things come from the heart, they are more permanent, and are also capable of inflicting great pain upon others.

    When truth comes from our hearts and out our mouths, it may not always be pretty, but it is good, and honest; it teaches us things we need to know, and can help move us toward spiritual and emotional health.  Truth is a gift that is given when there is mutual respect between people.  When we say that we are Christian people, we are making the statement that we believe that Jesus is the embodiment of truth and love; Jesus reveals God the Father to us; in Jesus we are set free to be God’s children, equals in God’s kingdom.  As Christians, we believe in respecting the dignity of others because we believe that all of humanity is created in God’s image, and to speak about another with lies and hatred is a sin against the image of God…

    At least I hope we believe that; I hope I believe it.   There have been so many photographs and stories on the news over the last week that are disturbing, not to mention the deaths and injuries that have also occurred.  It can be easy for us to sit at our kitchen tables, coffee in hand, and think, “well, I would never do anything like that; I’m not a member of ISIS”, or, “I’m not a member of the KKK; I would never kill anyone…” Ok, fair enough.  I am certain that we are all good people who try to do the right things; except when we don’t.  If you and I continue to say that we “aren’t like those people”, without truly examining what is in our hearts and minds, we are part of the problem.  Maybe, we aren’t marching with torches or burning crosses, but maybe we tell racist jokes to our friends; maybe, we have been heard to use language that degrades another person’s being; maybe, we have perpetuated the stereotypes that cause people pain and suffering… maybe we believe some of those stereotypes… anytime we use language that degrades another, we are telling lies; things like using derogatory language for parts of a woman’s body to insult someone is never ok, and in my opinion, further demeans women; the color of someone’s skin doesn’t dictate their intelligence, their abilities or their worth; all people, and I do mean ALL people, are of infinite and equal worth in the eyes of God… that, is the truth; that is the truth that the kingdom of God is built upon, and it is what should be filling our hearts and falling out of our mouths… not to mention, it should be the truth that guides our actions… if we have drunk the poison of the empire, and all of us have to some degree, then we are at least a little drunk with the empire’s lies and distortions of the truth.  The more attached we are to the values of society and empire, the more we think we need to defend ourselves against others, the more distorted our relationship to the truth becomes.  Sometimes, we get so distracted by stuff and what we think our rightful place is, we start to lose sight of who Jesus is, and what we are called to do as members of the kingdom.

Beloved, what we say and what we do, matters.  We cannot continue to believe that what’s going on isn’t our problem; if one of God’s children is being hurt, or oppressed, it affects all of us.  All of us must look inside ourselves and honestly assess what is defiling us by making our hearts act in ways that are contrary to love.  Jesus is the very embodiment of God’s love; as heirs to his kingdom, we are called to breathe, speak, and do God’s love, to continue Jesus’ work in the world.  Anything less, anything that degrades another defiles us, defiles creation, and can encourage all sorts of hate.

As a Franciscan friend of mine said earlier this week, “Let’s love the hate out of each other,”  I pray that we can.  God so loved the world; now it’s our turn.

   

Transfiguration

Feast of the Transfiguration

August 6, 2017

    One of the great jokes about Facebook and other social media platforms, is that it’s a good place to watch cat videos.  Seeing as how the Carroll family has six cats (5 boys and one girl, because we’re crazy),  cat videos are one of my favorite things, and given some of the other craziness that’s on social media, I am all about more cat videos.  Anyway, my daughter sent me a cat video a few weeks ago that I loved so much I actually posted it on my facebook wall.  The video was of an old Tom cat.  You know the type, large, striped, a bit feral, kind of mean; I think he had been adopted or was part of a larger foster home…. He was not friendly, didn’t like to play or cuddle… then one day the unthinkable happened…. Kittens.  A small group of the cutest tiny kittens came to live with this grumpy old Tom.  If you have ever been around little kittens, you know that they are cute, fearless, and annoying.   Well, these adorable little demons would not leave this old cat alone.  They climbed on him, chased his tail, ran into him…. All sorts of kitty shenanigans.  The old Tom cat became a different cat.  Suddenly he began to play, he groomed the babies, taught them how to be cats, slept with them lying all over him…. And he even accepted some human love too.  Poor old cat had never experienced love before.  He most certainly transformed into a completely different cat, because some kittens showed him how to live.

    Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, a feast day of our Lord.  We hear these readings every year on the Last Sunday of the Epiphany, but this year, we also have the Feast day fall on a Sunday.  We know the story well; Jesus and the three disciples that were the inner circle go up on a mountain to to pray.   While they are there, the disciples have a vision of Jesus in shining white clothing, speaking with Elijah and Moses, which ties Jesus to the law and to the prophecies.   The disciples hear a voice from heaven that tells them who Jesus is, and that they should listen to him.  The disciples want to capture the experience by building dwelling places for all three of these holy men; I am sure the disciples also want to stay on the mountain.  But, they can’t.  Listening to Jesus, means coming down off the mountain and getting about the business of the kingdom.  It also means hearing and living through some very difficult events.  Just a few verses after the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, he tells the disciples that he is going to be betrayed and killed.  Listening to him, in that context could not have been easy for the disciples who were on the mountain with him… following him in that way could not have been part of their plans…

    Being transfigured, means to have one’s appearance changed, especially changed to a beautiful and more spiritual state.  Certainly, in the gospel for today, we see that Jesus’s appearance was changed in that way; his outer appearance reflected his inner state.  I always wonder when I read this story about the disciples; I wonder if their inner state was changed, transfigured on that mountain.

    I think, that their inner beings were changed; perhaps slowly, just like the rest of us.  Encountering Jesus, is something that is life changing; what it the proper response to knowing that Jesus is God’s son?  How do the disciples respond to Jesus?  How are we changed by encountering God’s love in Jesus?

    I hope that we are changed, and that like that old Tom cat, I hope that we look and act like different people.  Encountering Jesus in the Eucharist gives us the ability to climb the holy mountain and see and experience Jesus; each time you and I come to the table, we encounter the living Christ whose love for us changes us.  We do not come to the table easily or lightly, especially if we allow ourselves to truly recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  As Annie Dillard says in an essay of hers I read years ago, if we were paying attention to what happens at church we wouldn’t wear our Sunday best, we would wear crash helmets.

    When we come to the table, bread and wine are transfigured  into the body and blood of Jesus, and he reveals himself to us as he did to the disciples so long ago on the mountain; and like Peter and the rest, it can be really tempting to stay on the mountain, or to keep our experience of Jesus to ourselves.  But that’s not how it works, and when we search our hearts, and remember the vows that we took at our baptism, we know that we too must listen to him.  We must go out of this place, our place of safety and knowledge and go into our community and do his work.  When Deacon Tex dismisses us at the end of the service, it’s not a dismissal of “hey we’re done, good for us!”  It’s a continuation of what we have done at the table; it is a mandate to go forth, in the name of Jesus as transfigured, changed people who now will go out and change the world.  Like the disciples, sometimes that sounds really difficult.  Being a Christian these days isn’t always easy, and our identity has been co-opted by some folks I would rather not associate with; but when we are changed by our encounter with Jesus, we ought to look and act different; listening to him means that we heal the sick, feed the hungry, visit the lonely; just for starters.  We do Jesus’s work because when his Spirit lives in us, others see him in us… and we see him in each other.  The only response to perfect love, is to love.

    Peter, James. and John didn’t tell others about what happened on the mountain, at least not at first.  It took them some time to see and experience who Jesus was, and it wasn’t easy for them even after Easter morning.  As Easter people, it isn’t always easy for us, and I hope that we are still learning and experiencing Jesus, and as we do that, I hope that we are continuing to change and become the people of love that God has created us to be.  Love that is truly felt and experienced, will change us.  For us, to love as Jesus loves, is to live.  May we go forth from this place today, as transfigured people.  May we encounter the living Christ at this table, and may his love fill our hearts so that we may be bearers of that love in all that we do.  May we listen to him with our whole being so that the noise and chatter of the empire fades away, and we can truly be people of his kingdom.

Prayers the size of mustard seeds

Proper 12 Year A

July 30, 2017

8th Sunday after Pentecost

    As you might imagine, I get asked a lot about prayer; how to pray, when to pray, why pray… all sorts of interesting questions that we all desire answers to.  If you’re like me, sometimes those questions come from a place of wanting to get it right; I like knowing what I am doing, and the more experience I get in life, it seems the less I know.  Parenting is one of the world’s most humbling experiences near as I can tell, and I know that I often feel like I’m making it up as I go along; priesthood is similarly humbling many days… there’s just no way to “know” in any kind of way that makes sense how to parent, or how to be in any kind of close relationship with people; you just have to do it; and some days are going to be ok, and others, not so much… but hopefully we learn from our experiences… prayer is very much like that, I find.   Our Catechism defines prayer as “ responding to God, by thoughts and by deeds, with or without words”.

    Sounds like other relationships we have, doesn’t it?  Our lives are a series of responses to other people, and of course the more invested we are in the relationship the deeper the response.

    So, how invested are in our relationship to God?  Are our responses to God the deep longing for God of our souls, or just merely responses that we give out of a sense of duty?

    Prayer, is our life’s work.  Whether our prayers are part of corporate worship or the private groanings that we would never share with anyone, prayer is what we were created to do.  The goal for Christians is to “pray without ceasing”, that is, our lives are to be a constant, unending response to God.  Sounds a bit daunting, right?  There are so many distractions, so many things that demand our attention, that it seems impossible to respond to God all the time.

    Paul tell us thing morning, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”  I have talked before about the Spirit praying within us, and it’s obviously a concept and image that means a lot to me.  Not sure I have ever mentioned it so many times in one year, but for whatever reason, I think it bears some repeated reflecting on.  If I look at some of the parables in today’s gospel, prayer is how we access the kingdom of God.  Prayer is sometimes that mustard seed that is so small, and seems so insignificant, at least compared to whatever else has our attention; maybe we just give God a passing thought as we go on to the next thing.

    Yet, the Spirit still uses that small seed of our prayer.  The Spirit can can help our prayer to grow so that it’s not just a passing thought or something that we do because we think we should.  Our prayers, even when they seem small and insignificant, can still help us to respond in ways that God asks us to respond.  Even if we start small, prayer is important.   I always tell people that if they want to build a relationship with God, there isn’t a wrong way to pray.  What we need to do, is show up to worship, just start talking.  Our prayer book includes so many wonderful prayers, including all of the biblical psalms, if we need some help or ideas.  But we can also just start talking.  There is so much in our lives that we need to talk about… the joys, the stuff that’s hard, the stuff we love, the things we need help with, our fears… it all matters to God, and when we can talk to God honestly, when we can let God’s Spirit move and pray within us, the journey to pray without ceasing has begun, and when you and I can pray without ceasing, our spiritual lives become rich; we live closer to God as the Spirit prays within us.  When we pray without ceasing, we no longer cans stand by while God’s people are in need; our prayers, our connection to God, helps us to respond to God and to God’s people.  Prayer, remember, isn’t just about what we say (or don’t say) but it’s about what we do.  When we pray without ceasing, when the mustard seed of our prayers grow, we are able to be the great shrub that provides for those who need it.

    How is the Spirit calling each of us to listen to the stirrings in our soul?  What might those stirrings be asking of us?  I pray that even if we think our prayers aren’t enough, we will pray them anyway, and let the Spirit help them to grow our relationship to God may deepen, and we can continue the work Jesus has begun.

Abba

Proper 11 year A

July 23, 2017

7th Sunday after Pentecost

    Anyone who has ever had small children in their lives, knows how sweet and wonderful it is to have a small child raise their arms toward you so that you can pick them up.  The look of longing and desire that comes across their faces is so real, especially if they are in pain or in need; sometimes it’s an occasion of pure joy for the child and for the one who is being reached for.  Those are certainly some of the best moments life has to offer.

    The image of a child reaching for a beloved adult or older child ran through my mind as I read our reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul speaks of our being adopted as children of God, and as children our spirits join with Jesus’ Holy Spirit as we cry out to God, “Abba, Father”.  As children of God, our cry of Abba is one of deep love and intimacy.  We are not reaching toward a cold, impersonal God who knows nothing about us, but rather, as a small child reaches towards someone they love, we too, reach toward the One who loves us more than we can ever imagine; Our God knows each of us deeply, and intimately, and takes great joy in reaching towards us to embrace us as cherished, beloved children.

    The Spirit of God lives within each of us; and it is that Spirit that helps us to move in God’s world to do God’s work.  There was much in Paul’s world that caused pain and suffering; Paul speaks of the earth’s birth pangs, and that the earth would be made free from its bondage to decay… what a powerful image that is; there is so much in our lives and in society and the world that leads us to decay; the search for happiness in things that do not matter… money, power, sex, addiction… any of those whether on a personal level or a national level, lead down a path of absolute destruction for us and for those around us…

    But we don’t have to be ruled by those things; we are adopted children of God, heirs of the kingdom of God… we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit so that our search for happiness is simple; we know that it is God alone that fills those places of emptiness that we all have in our hearts… but if we put aside our pride and greed and whatever else stands in the way, when we reach for God, our desires and needs are fulfilled beyond what we thought was possible.

    So, we are adopted children of God… adopted into the very life of God through Jesus… and in us, God’s Spirit dwell… so, now what?

    It’s get to work time my friends.  The world will continue to head towards decay unless you and I let the Spirit within us do it’s work.  You and I have to listen, we have to put our trust in the hope that God will indeed act; but we also have to hope that we will be inspired to act;  this life and this world were gifts from a God who loves without limit; that kind of love extended towards us is what propels us into the world to act on behalf of the world that God loves.   If we are paying attention when we worship, when we pray, when we read scripture, then God’s Spirit should stir within us prompting us toward some action to lessen the pain around us.  And here’s the thing; the Spirit dwells in all of us; doesn’t matter what our political views are, what we look like, what our favorite color is;  God’s Holy Spirit is delighted to dwell in each of us, and we don’t have to agree on anything that the world might try to divide us with; all we have to do is agree to follow the Spirit’s leading, follow the example of Jesus by loving all whom we come in contact with, and those things that divide us will no longer be important.   And who knows, as we work together, side by side, maybe we will learn something about each other; maybe we will understand what divides us and search for ways to lessen the divide.  It’s hard to focus on issues that divide us when we are working together on a common cause to help further the kingdom.

    May we all rejoice in our adoption as children of God; may we find joy in reaching towards God who is Abba, the One who loves us and knows us more than we can love or know ourselves or each other… may our hearts, souls and minds be on fire for the work that the Spirit is leading us towards as individuals and as a community; may we always celebrate the world that God loves and may we love all God’s people…in the words of Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, “All means all”.  Love is our inspiration, and love is our work… so let’s get inspired, let’s get to work...