Blessing a Blessing Box - A Happy Day

 

Brenda Armstrong and Rev. Jennie Olbrych

    Yesterday at Calvary was a HAPPY day.  Not only have we returned to in-person services, we also blessed a Blessing Box which had been given to Calvary by Brenda and Tim Armstrong.  We are hopeful that it will be a genuine blessing for our neighbors - both as givers and receivers.

Here is the prayer we used, and I will link some additional information. For more information about what to put in a Blessing Box, Click  HERE.

 O God, whose blessed Son has sanctified and transfigured the use of material things:  Receive this Blessing Box  which we offer and grant that it may proclaim your love,  inspire our generosity, and truly be a blessing to our neighbors in need through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Take what you need.  Leave what you can. Little becomes much in the Holy One’s hand.

Lonnie Hamilton and Toure Thompson

  

Rev. Marionette Bennett

Thanks to Andrea Lawrence for the photos!

  

Easter 7C - 2022 - That they all may be One - Community and Freedom

Easter 7C – 2022   That they all may be one. (Jn 17.21)

   St. Mark’s, Charleston   - 5/29/22

  Link to YouTube - sermon starts around 18:50 ish.  Here

Can we hear this heart prayer of Jesus today?  That we all might be one.

He prayed and continues to pray for us – those who will believe- that we might be one.  This is part – perhaps the center of his prayer at the Last Supper and shared with us by St. John.  One in heart and mind.  One in mission.  

Not obscuring the glorious diversity of humankind but being thankful for it.  Not an oppressive expectation of conformity but a rich and flowing unity in which we share life with each other and with the Father and the Son living in and through us in mutual indwelling in the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus holds up for us a vision of what life lived in faith community can be....and this is a vision we need desperately to grasp, now more than ever, and not let go or write it off as some utopian ideal. 

I will admit its been very difficult to know where to focus the sermon this morning –so, forgive me if this seems all over the place. 

Tomorrow we mark Memorial Day wherein we recall those who have laid down their lives  to protect the freedoms and well-being of this country–Raise your hand if someone known to you made the ultimate sacrifice.  Memeorial Day.  We remember them.

They sacrificed for this same country where the fruits of profound disunity are swirling around us seemingly from every quarter – with virulent racial hatred at work murderously in Buffalo, NY to the slaughter of the Innocents in Uvalde  to the ongoing attempts by Russia to destroy a whole people and obliterate their culture along with their cities and homes in Ukraine, with the Russians holding food as hostage in a world where food insecurity is reaching untenable levels.. in Nigeria alone,  76% of the population could be considered as suffering food insecurity – compare that with 10% in South Carolina – mostly seniors and children.. yes, its overwhelming, so hard to know where to focus, and what actions we can take....and sometimes all I can do is pray “Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

And, yet, Jesus was no stranger to these things... violence, war, starvation, murder of  innocents and radical divisiveness were not news to him.. which, I believe, is one reason he holds up for us a vision for what human flourishing can look like – and it is rooted both in true community and true freedom.

I want to suggest that we are experiencing a profound disintegration of  both of these, and it would take a month of sermons to trace all of the reasons why, so I’m just going to point to some markers.

Perhaps obvious,  but needs to be said, the pandemic has hastened the trajectory of the disintegration of community.  Another marker of this disintegration is that, increasingly, people – our family, friends, and neighbors - are struggling with feeling disconnected.  

This emerges as one theme when the young men who take up AR-15s and murder others are considered as a group – they are uniformly described as isolated –living as strangers among family and neighbors – not really connecting.

A study from the Harvard School of Education tells us that we have an epidemic of loneliness in oour country – a “....new report suggests that 36% of all Americans—including 61% of young adults and 51% of mothers with young children—feel “serious loneliness.” Not surprisingly, loneliness appears to have increased substantially since the outbreak of the global pandemic.” (Link to study)  Last month, an older person I see in direction point blank asked me  “How in the world can I make some friends here? “  She had moved to this area five years ago and is still struggling with connecting.  

    I said, what about church?   Her response was that, at her church, the groups and friendships were formed and they did not seem to be truly open to new people. And, she went on, and, when it’s only Sunday morning, there really doesn’t seem to be the opportunity to get to know people.    

  What an indictment! This is the Church for whom Jesus prayed that they may be one..so that the love with which the Father has loved the Son might be in them...and the Son, himself, might live in and through us.  So that as we go out into the world and encounter each other here, that the love of the Father for the Son might be able to stream through us to the world and to each other.

So, here are three ideas about what genuine community in the church -  looks like...this not exhaustive and it can apply to other settings as well.

                                                        True faith community is....

1.  Diverse and, at the same time,  it's characterized by shared vision and values.

St Paul wrote to the Galatians 3:28 – "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." to which I would also add rich nor poor, straight or gay, and even republican or democrat...for we are all one in Christ.   And that’s the key – wonderful diversity and at the same time bound together in Christ.  And what are those shared visions and values.. check out the Baptismal Covenant.

2.  Stable and also porous.  

One of the monastic vows is stability – which for them means a steadfast commitment to a place and a community...it also points us to the long faithfulness of God toward us... in Exodus we learn that 

“The Lord our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but will hold to account the guilty” . . . (Exodus 34:6–7)

So, steadfastness, stability but not to the point of rigidity – a faithful community is one that is stable and remains open at the same time to welcoming the stranger and inviting people you don’t know into your life. 

3.   Rooted in mutual love for each other, active care for others, and accountability.   

Jesus gives us the great example of washing feet – He said,  If I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash on another’s feet.” (John 13.14).. and do you remember the stunt that James and John tried to pull when they said – Lord, when you come into your glory, grant that we might sit at your right and left ? This was a major power play on their part.. and Jesus sorted them out – he said, its other people who try to lord it over each other, but it shall not be so among you. 

To restate:   True faith community is diverse and embracing of common vision and values, stable, steadfast and also open, rooted in mutual love, care for others and accountability. That's a vision of community.

These characteristics come from our faith tradition and are encompassed by the prayer of Jesus – that we might be one with each other – and held in the bond and embrace of love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – the “trinity of love and power”... of servanthood and freedom.

 A bit ago I said that we are in our time suffering a disintegration of both community and freedom.  So, it is to freedom that I turn.

And, this is brought into sharp focus at the moment because of the struggle over the interpretation of the second amendment – in particular, gun rights.  

Has our definition of freedom come to mean that I am free to do what I wish, however I wish, and that the impacts on others be damned and all things must bow to the rights of the individual?    That we no longer take into consideration a communal well being?  I sure see this when I am driving around town or walking my neighborhood.. “O those speed limit or stop signs don’t apply to me...if I want to drunk drive or go 70 in a residential area, what’s that to you?  I’m doing me. “   

Does freedom mean that we can enjoy endless national bickering over every imaginable thing to the point of legislative gridlock?  Does freedom mean  that our citizens are free to succumb to addictions of all sorts:  pornography, drugs,  and violence?  Does freedom mean that it’s just fine to drum any modicum of civility out of the public square?  

Both Memorial Day and continuing massacres of innocents should lead us to ask just what freedoms are we trying to protect? 

In the wake of the Buffalo shootings and revival of the gun rights debate, a clergy colleague ,  Fr. Marcus Halley, said this  

“I don’t want what this country calls “freedom.” What we call freedom is self-centered and wholly divorced from any sense of collective responsibility. I want the freedom God offers: a freedom rooted in the community, our mutual care, our mutual respect, our mutual wellbeing.”

So, what is the vision of freedom we see in Jesus Christ?  In his very first sermon- he invokes the sprit of the prophet Isaiah when he stakes out his mission and proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.  “  Luke 4.18   

                    So, what freedom has Christ purchased for us with his life-blood?

1. First of all, Freedom from the power of sin and death.

All of us fall short and we all are subject to the sorrows and struggles of this life.  We are impacted by the principalities and endless power struggles of this world – systemic racism being just one example.  And, yet in Christ, we can have dignity and live with freedom of heart and mind in the face of the worst that sin, death, and the wickedness of our fellow human beings can throw at us. .Absolutely assured that sin and death will not have the final word on us.  Freedom seen this way is about the reality of resurrection power at work in and through us both now and for eternity.

2.  The freedom given by God  is for the good of others.

St. Paul wrote in Galatians, the great manifesto of freedom in Christ, 

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13) And, we address our prayer to God as the one in whose service is perfect freedom.. We are given our freedom for a purpose.. and, third, 

3. Freedom comes with responsibility and accountability.

The church in Corinth really struggled with this.  They felt the new freedom that was theirs in Christ but for  some of them it became a license to embrace the worst kind of behavior – St Paul wrote to them.. “Take care lest this liberty of yours somehow becomes a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8.9ff) Their behavior was leading others in the same destructive direction.   So, the law of love of neighbor calls us to be mindful of and responsive to the impact of our behavior on the wellbeing of others.

So, on this Sunday of Memorial Day weekend as we grapple with the continuing epidemic of gun violence and murder of so many innocents, I leave these questions with you..

Will we act on the call to Oneness in Christ and with each other?  Can St. Mark’s do this?  Can St. Francis do this? 

Will we seek Christ centered faith community or continue the drift into isolation and communal disintegration?

And, will we claim the freedom that is ours in Christ, the covenant in Holy Baptism, rather than the shallow and ultimately death dealing vision offered to us by the voices around us?

Let us keep silence for a moment and then I’ll offer a closing prayer ...

Lord Jesus Christ, inspire us this day with a new vision of oneness in you and each other.  Then,  give to us courage to become that faithful community you envisioned and the will to embody the freedom that seeks the well being of all of God’s people.  This we ask in your holy name.  AMEN.

 

Lent - Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

The spiritual disciplines associated with Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The poem below gets at how hard it is to bend ourselves to the first of these.  

Prayer

by Marie Howe

Every day I want to speak with you. And every day

       something more important

calls for my attention—the drugstore, the beauty

       products, the luggage

I need to buy it for the trip.

Even now I can hardly sit here

among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the

       garbage trucks outside

already screeching and banging.

The mystics say you are as close as my own

       breath.

Why do I flee from you?

My days and nights pour through me like

       complaints

and become a story I forgot to tell.

Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning

to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.

All Saints Hope - Sermon for All Saints 2021

 

All Saints Sunday B – 2021- All Saints Hope – St. Mark’s Charleston

A social media friend, Zach Lambert shared a glimpse-of-life at their house this past week  LINK.. it has to do with their three year old son…    He wrote…

We just walked in on my 3-year-old drawing on my wife’s library book…

Wife: Why did you color on my book?

Son: I didn’t.

Wife: Yes you did. I saw you. Why did you do that?

Son: It was an accident.

Wife: No it wasn’t. Why did you do it?

Son: Ummmmmm… because of COVID.

That made me laugh….and I wonder how many stitches dropped, things done or left undone will we attribute to Covid in the years to come?

Case in point…All Saints Day – this past Monday… Nov. 1.. Our prayer book marks it as one of the seven principal - meaning major- feasts of the Church – right up there on par with Easter and Christmas.   It's also one of the days especially recommended for Holy Baptism.

 However,  this past Monday was pretty much just a regular day at our house..and later, when I realized that it had passed without much notice, I felt sad…because there is so much that can sustain us in keeping All Saints Day.

There are two parts to the sermon this morning.. the first is a little teaching about All Saints and the second – is to look at our gospel reading from John and, then, to let the connections between these things speak to our hearts..

First to All Saints…

It must have been a shock to the earliest disciples of Jesus when the cost of following him truly dawned on them.  I wonder if they had hoped his death would have been enough to satisfy the powers that be.  But, then,  Stephen- the very first deacon -was stoned to death and, followed shortly by the death of James of Zebedee – one of the twelve, one of the very first to follow Jesus.  He was arrested by Herod Antipas and then executed with a sword.  These deaths must have stunned and grieved them profoundly.. and they were followed by so many. It became the custom in the early church to remember and give thanks to God for the martyrs.  – Peter and Paul, James the first Bishop of Jerusalem, Polycarp, Perpetua and her friends… ……and then, countless others as the years rolled on. 

Normally,  Church commemorations of particular saints occur on the anniversaries of their deaths – their birthday into heaven. However, for all of those whose death-dates were unknown, a commemoration for "all the martyrs" was established somewhere around 350 AD.  By the 6th  century , the feast began to include non-martyrs as well and became an opportunity for Church families to celebrate all of its saints –and to today -  for us to include those known to us- our own beloved, faithful departed.  I think too about the saints of St. Mark’s – those who labored and sacrificed to form this faith community and to build this church.   

And so, on All Saints, we are called to remember them and to give thanks for their lives and their faithfulness in passing along the hope of the gospel to the next generation…

and make no mistake, it is still costly to follow Jesus…  –this year, 2021,  the total registered number of Christians who have died for their faith is 4,761 …  North Korea, Afghanistan,  Somalia, Nigeria among the leaders in putting to death the saints.  LINK.   I wondered if you knew that.  

This treasure, this hope we have - through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and new life in him – the restored relationship with God- is so very costly – something we don’t always realize or remember. 

  So, remember, remember, remember,  give thanks not only for those long ago brothers and sisters, but also for our own saints –  those we love who have entered into the larger life.. and pray for those who today come to a time of trial and are called to confess their hope and faith at the risk of their lives .. 

So, All Saints – truly a Principal feast of the Church.

Now I want to segue to the second part of the sermon.

I have wondered, and perhaps you have too, what made it and continues to make it possible for our brothers and sisters in the past to so willingly go to the sword, the stake, the killing ground, or to live so vulnerably , so openly that they exposed themselves to their enemies by living out their faith.  Here, I think of Dr. King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Edith Stein, and Oscar Romero- and closer to home - the Emmanuel Nine.…  How could they do that?  

I want to suggest to you that one possible response to that question lies at the heart of our  readings today…

I am not going to try to preach on all three – although its surely tempting – but one thing I did notice when I looked at these together… it’s an idea that keeps repeating…

Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,(Is. 25)

Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, (Rev. 21)

When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. (John 11)

So many tears…so much sorrow…

Jesus says…Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. 

This is the All Saints hope

It’s the hope that shines through the tears..and even the crushing losses that break our hearts.

God sees those tears.. and holds out to us not just the promise for a future comfort but sustains us with a hope which can be a present comfort even as we grieve.  Paul reminds us that the hope given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will not disappoint us.

If anyone needed hope, it must have been Mary and Martha.  Their brother had died despite their plea to Jesus to come and heal him..Twice they say to Jesus – Lord, if you had been here our brother would not have died.  And now, Lazarus  has been in the tomb for four days… past any hope of a miraculous healing from Jesus. Now, they were looking at a life without the protection of a male family member which was absolutely necessary for survival in that time, place, and culture….  Women could not inherit  family property – their home would go to the closest male relative.. so they not only faced the loss of their beloved brother, they faced homelessness and poverty. They most likely were grappling with not only grief and terrible anxiety about the their future but also acute disappointment with their friend, Jesus.  And, yet into their hopelessness and the darkness of death,  he spoke the word of LIFE because he is light of life – LIFE itself.. and his word to all of those standing around – unbind him and let him go.  

Where do you need to hear the word of LIFE today?  What in you, in us, needs to be unbound and let go?  Fear, grief, hopelessness – Hear Jesus’ word of LIFE to you… LIVE.

Glen Scrivener, Church of England priest, evangelist, and poet , speaks to this hope very beautifully in a  brilliant short video piece he created on the background of All Hallows eve … it  ends with this..

So the bible begins with this fore-resolved fight

For a moment the darkness, then let there be light

First grief in the gloom, then joy from the East

First valley of shadow, then mountain top feast

First wait for messiah, then long promised dawn

First desolate Friday, then Easter morn

The triumph is not with the forces of night

it dawned with the one who said I am the light. LINK

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world

whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life… (John 8.12)

He is light and  life itself…and when we follow in his way… he will be with us, and his life will be in us and no grave can hold us, and death  cannot bind us  - no matter the fear, no matter the sorrow....and that is the hope which sustained the saints of the past… and that is the hope which can sustain us and that is the hope which will never disappoint…

Let us pray

Grant, O  God of the living, that we would ever hold fast to the light of life, your Son Jesus Christ, and also grant that in our own time, we might join our voices with all of the Communion of the Saints in their unending hymns of joy and praise around your   throne. Give courage and hope to those who  grieve as well as to those who now suffer because of their faith.  This we ask in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reign with you and the Holy Spirit. One God forever and ever.  Amen.

A Blessed Dr. King Day to you

 

Here is a quotation from Dr. King's letter  from jail to the Clergy in Birmingham who strongly objected to his presence and approach - calling him an "outside agitator." .  You can read it at the link below.  I especially appreciate this thought 

 "  I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.

Letter From a Birmingham Jail | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute (stanford.edu)

Yearning and Pilgrimage

Mosaic -Basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo Ravenna early 6th C.

                    

    The church I grew up in had a stalwart men’s section in the choir.  Normally, I saw them in their choir robes and in their places in the choir itself.  One Sunday a year, though, three men stepped out and sang their way up the aisle of the church – each taking a verse of We Three Kings.  No more were they in choir garb, they were decked out – exotic and glamorous in costumes with elaborate robes and drapes, feathers and crowns, furs and even a small few bells were stitched into the hems of their costumes and which chimed as they made their way up the aisle.  

    The congregation would sing the first and last stanzas and the refrain, and each king in turn would sing their verse – moving at a stately pace down the center aisle of the Church – each of them following the star of wonder.  The men they were disappeared into the otherness of the part they played and they were majestic.

    Perhaps you did something like that here at St. Mark’s  in years past.  As a child, for me, it was unforgettable.

    I’ve been thinking  about those three kings or the Magi  as they are called in our gospel reading today – and especially because tomorrow January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany and marks the traditional day of their arrival…. I’ve been wondering about why they made such an impression as a child,  and there are some things that come to mind.

    First – they were so other – so completely outside day to day life – so foreign  - they were from other lands – probably  Persia which is in modern day Iraq,  perhaps also from  India, Arabia, Egypt, Africa – say the ancient kingdoms of Kush or Ghana.  Otherness  captures the imagination.

       I try to imagine what it would have been like when they arrived in Bethlehem…..which was a very small town – an eyeblink of a town… poor and on the outskirts of Jerusalem.  It was agricultural and the surrounding area was used for grazing sheep. 

    So the Magi must have stood out even if their robes were a bit beaten up from the time on the road…   Bethlehem, I suspect, was not used to visitors and sometimes, then as now,  when we encounter someone who is so different it can be anxiety producing, even fearful.  So, perhaps, the residents became afraid as well as intrigued.  They were probably more used to flying under the radar screen especially with the occupying Romans forces who were both greedy and violent. Pays to keep your head down I that kind of situation.

    The other thing that caught my attention about them -other than how exotic they were-  was this:   they were following a star.  They had been looking up, watching, tracking a pinpoint of light and observing as it grew and came into position…and so, following the star, they set out to find the one it foretold.  Their watching, yearning and wondering transformed them into pilgrims and they made their way to Jerusalem.

    They said to Herod, as we heard, “ Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?”  - for the star was a sign that a mighty king had been born and they had been drawn irresistibly… Having seen the star, they yearned to greet the new King.  In a sense, they are the first pilgrims we have a record of in the Gospels, and I’d like to shift for a moment to the idea of pilgrims and pilgrimages.

    In its most basic sense, a pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.  Another description is this:  “The journey of a pilgrimage is often difficult. Pilgrims [may] travel long distances. They have few belongings. [and]  They carry little baggage. They may encounter hardship and challenges. However, God is always present along the journey; (we as) [and] pilgrims must remain alert to the signs, and cognizant of God’s guidance along the way.”   

In our psalm today- Psalm 84 – we have a comment about those who are pilgrims..  v.4  -  Happy are the people whose strength is in you!  Whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way..

Happy are those whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way.. 

    There is a kind of unsettledness, a yearning that draws us to pilgrimage, and I believe that this is grounded in our longing for a deeper relationship with God, in our hunger for an encounter with the Holy One and a sense of God’s presence with us.  The psalmist in Ps 84 goes on to say  “They will climb from height to height and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.”  Did you hear that?  It’s a promise that God will bless the spirit of pilgrimage and that yearning for him by revealing Godself. 

    The Magi had that yearning and it compelled them to follow a star,  and God blessed them by leading them to the child Jesus – Immanuel.   So, too, many others down through the ages have had that yearning and have sought God’s presence in journeying as pilgrims.  It would not be a reach to say that the Church is called to be a pilgrim people.   

    There’s an old hymn – based on a 17th century John Bunyan verse. It’s entitled,  “He who would valiant be,” and it’s in our hymnal.   The first verse goes like this:  

He who would valiant be, ‘gainst all disaster, 

Let him in constancy, follow the master.  

There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent, 

His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim. 

    I once went to a funeral of a woman who was a dedicated church member, and we sang that hymn changing the hes and his to shes and hers – it worked just fine.

    How are you doing with the yearning for God’s presence?  I believe it is built into us. Is there a star you are following?  Remember, part of our on-going call is to be pilgrims  - to continuously seek the face and presence of God in Jesus… wherever it takes us.

    Yearning can be a very uncomfortable feeling and sometimes we judge ourselves for our yearnings.  We may yearn for companionship, or financial security, or for peace from worry or conflict or for justice.  Sometimes our yearning is so intense that we repress it.  Sometimes it drives us to make foolish decisions.   I want to suggest to you that at the heart of any human yearning is our longing – sometimes almost subconscious- for deeper relationship with God who alone can satisfy our restless hearts.

    But back to the Magi for a moment because we can pick up some good pointers from them for how to conduct a pilgrimage.

    First of all, they went in some innocence – some naivete-  to Herod who had been granted the title of “King of Judea” by the Roman Senate…perhaps the Magi assumed a son had been born to Herod who would be the new King.  They were mistaken.  Their foreignness could have seemed a threat and they probably only escaped with their lives because they promised to come back and tell Herod where the new king might be found.   Herod’s yearning was not to worship a new king.  Rather, his yearning was to hold onto power by any means possible. He had, in the course of trying to do so,  murdered one of his wives, her two sons, his brother-in-law, her grandfather, and her mother because he feared they were plotting against him.  He was ruthless and murderous as we see in the slaughter of the Innocents which followed when the magi did not return to him.  

   So, the first pilgrimage tip would be:  be careful when you deal with power structures and consider if you or what you represent poses a threat to them and plan accordingly.  As you know, the Christian path often leads into conflict with Empire and with those who would hold onto power at any cost.  So, as Jesus counsels us and the disciples as he sent them out – be innocent as doves and smart as snakes  as we journey along.

    The second tip the Magi would pass along is this:  Pay attention to your dreams especially on pilgrimage.  God often has spoken to people through dreams as we see throughout the bible.  St. Joseph is a great example of this.  He not only listened to his dreams but he acted thus saving the Christ Child from death.

    In seminary,  I had a classmate from Ghana, and once we were talking about this very thing - dreams  He said that in the village where he grew up that the elders often spoke of  dreams and also interpreted dreams that the people brought to them.  He said, ruefully,  I wish I had listened more to them and learned how to do that.  

    The Magi were warned in a dream to not return to Herod and  they returned to their own country by another road.  Pilgrimage tip number 2 - Listen to your dreams.  

    Now, I’d like to come back to the yearning that moves us to become pilgrims and seekers and followers after a star.  Yearning is centered in the heart.  During the time of ancient Israel and during Jesus’ day, the heart was not just a muscle which served a biological function… it represented the center of self – of thought and feeling – of being really.  Some recent studies have suggested that the heart functions as a second brain which is really interesting to think about and seems to cohere with a more ancient understanding of its functioning. 

    So, yearning is centered in the heart but as I suggested earlier, we often suppress our yearnings for God along with so many other things (news reports of war, murder, disaster to say nothing of our own tragedies that we live with).. we repress these things - often just so that we can function and get through the day.. the difficulty is this:  the more we repress, the more wooden or stonelike our hearts become.  Sometimes this is a necessary and good short term survival mechanism, but long term it causes us to lose our capacity for meaningful relationship not only with each other,  or with the natural world, but, most importantly, with God.

    So what are we to do?  There’s a hint in the last verse of the carol, “In the bleak midwinter” – composed by the brilliant Christina Rossetti - and which we will sing at the presentation of our offering today.  It goes like this

                           What can I give him, poor as I am ?

                           If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

                            If I were a wiseman, I would do my part;

                            Yes, what can I give him- give my heart.

    I used to think this was just sweet sentimentality but, when you think about it, giving our heart to Jesus is what we invited to do… to love him and place him at the center of our lives, to make his priorities ours, and to trust him with our lives.    So today, it is still Christmas , it’s the twelfth day of Christmas and it is not to late to give our heart to Jesus – maybe for the first time or perhaps to renew our willingness to give him this most precious gift.  This reminds me of something Martin Luther said.  When we are baptized the old man drowns down in the font but, the problem is that he keeps trying to crawl back out. So, too with us.  We might have given our heart to Jesus but then taken it back.  Sometimes, we may have done this multiple times.

    Do you recall that St. Augustine said our hearts are restless until they find our rest in thee? In him alone is our yearning satisfied as we walk the pilgrim way with him by our side and as we follow the star that lights our way.

    Let’s take a moment for some silence and then I will close with a prayer.

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus Christ,  Give to us fresh courage to be pilgrims and to follow you - our True Star… Receive  now for the first time or once again the only gift we truly can give you: our heart, our selves, our souls and bodies. Let us receive anew your life, your light, your peace, your justice, and your love.  Breathe these anew also over this Church family that we may truly know you and serve you.  This we ask in your most Holy Name. Amen.

To Become the Child of God - Christmas I 2023

 Christmas I 2023 – St. Mark’s – Dec. 31, 2023- JTCO

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. (John 1.1.12)

(Link to audio file is HERE)

Christmas blessings to you all… I hope you are continuing to celebrate the great twelve days.. this season of light…

At our house, son Max has headed back to his marine base in Hawaii,  presents have been purchased and opened, the cookies and meals prepared and mostly eaten.. and finally, just last night, we had a moment to light the fire, to put on some Christmas music, to lower lights and light the candles - to be still and to let Christmas truly come.  I recommend it.  Celebrating holidays, as you know, can be exhausting.. and it can lead one to wonder – why are we doing all of this dashing around? And perhaps, more to the point, what difference does it all make – what difference can  Christmas make this year?

As I pondered that question – this passage from our gospel reading came to mind – But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…

I want to warn you that this may be two sermons in one – so please stay with me. It should come together at the end.

What can it mean to become a child of God? 

Here is a story that speaks to this question most beautifully.

It comes from the Rev. Fred Craddock – minister, preacher and seminary professor- now with the Lord - and is recorded in his book The Craft of Preaching.   He tells about a trip he made with his wife, Nettie, when something remarkable happened...

[They] were vacationing in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, eating hamburgers in a restaurant. An old guy comes up to them and asks them who they are, what Fred does for a living, how long they plan to be there, etc., all making Fred antsy. Then, after finding out that Fred [was] a preacher, the man says he has a story to tell. Fred asks him to sit down with them. And the man tells his story.

 He told them that he was born in these mountains to a single woman. [Early 20th century] In those days that meant shame, a lot of shame. Boys at school had names for him. They guessed at who his father was and knew who his mother was, and they made his life hell. He ate his lunch at school alone every day.

He started going to a little church in Laurel Springs pastored by a large, bearded, craggy, big-voiced preacher, who scared the boy but drew him as well. The boy would go just for the sermon and then sneak out before anybody could corner him and say, “’What’s a boy like you doing in church?’” But one Sunday he couldn’t get out in time. The aisle was blocked by church members. And he was scared, because at the end of the aisle was the preacher. Then came the confrontation: the preacher looked at him and said, “’Well, boy, you are whose child?  ’” And the boy flinched. What would be next? ‘Whose child . . .’ was his whole nightmare. But then the gruff, rough, preacher paused and said “’Boy, you are a child; you are a child of God. I see a striking resemblance.’” 

The preacher “swatted the boy on the bottom and said, ‘go, claim your inheritance.’”

“[The old man] said ‘I was born that day.’ [Fred] said to the old man, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Ben Hooper.’ And then he left. [Fred said to himself] Ben Hooper? Ben Hooper? [That name rings a bell.]

“Oh, yes. I remembered my father telling me about how the people of Tennessee twice elected a governor named Ben Hooper who had been born to an unmarried mother.” Fred writes, “Ben Hooper had told me a story. No, Ben Hooper had told me the story.” 

YOU are a child a God – beloved – because of Jesus and how through him – his birth, his life, his death and the power of his resurrection – you have the power of being a child of God.

Hear this today - Whatever happens to you in this life, if anybody tries to run you down and make you feel less than – whatever befalls you - Remind yourself – I am a child of God…  (pause a moment and repeat that to yourself)    Now, that is something can make a difference this Christmas for you – 

And the preacher also said to the boy – go claim your inheritance – We could spend a lot of time on this – on what our inheritance is as a child of God – but I want to back up in our gospel and point to just one thing – 

John says of Jesus Christ that what has come into being  in him is LIFE and the life is the light of the world.. and that light shines (the verb gives the sense of continuously shining) and the darkness does not overcome it – then, now and forever.

So, when we belong to Jesus as members of his family, that light surrounds us, dwells in us and leads us…what an inheritance!

Three thoughts about the Light of Christ which has come to us..our inheritance

That light can lead us in times of confusion where it’s hard to see the way forward –no one puts this more beautifully than Cardinal John Newman  who wrote in the first verse of a poem – the title is the same as the first line…

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom

Lead thou me on

The night is dark, and I am far from home

Lead thou me on

Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see

The distant scene, one step enough for me

The kindly light of Christ can lead us through whatever darkness surrounds us  (and there is plenty of it today).  This is part of our inheritance as Children of God.

The light of Christ leads and also can reveal the truth of a situation or can give us insight or wisdom – Have you had this kind of experience?  You get an intuition or a hunch or a whisper of the spirit about a situation – not something that would ordinarily be seen or known… that  is also part of our inheritance as Children of God..

And, finally John tells us that what has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people –

The light of Christ which can live in us – is life itself.. eternal life, resurrection life – and what an inheritance that is..

So, beloved of St. Mark’s, something that can really make a difference this Christmas is for you to get it down into your bones that you are a beloved Child of God with a present inheritance of nothing less than the Light of Christ…

I want to invite you into a moment of silence and then I’ll offer a prayer…

Let us pray

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word.  Grant that this light , enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reign with you, in the unity of the Holy Sprit. One God now and forever.  AMEN.