Remembering, Realizing, and Living

In this week's Gospel lesson Jesus wants to make sure that we're in line with a few things.

Number one, he doesn't want us wearing broad phylacteries. Is your phylactery broad? . . . Don't even know what it is, much less have a long one? OK - check.

Number two, he doesn't want us to have long fringes on our robes, or to be called rabbi. Does your robe have extraordinarily long fringes? Any rabbis out there? OK, check - we've taken care of those too.

Number three, he wants us to be truly humble and live as servants. Hmmm. That one's a litte tougher isn't it?!

A phylactery is a box containing verses of scripture which is worn on the forehead and forearm by devout orthodox Jews. The fringes, or tassels, went along with the ancient dress of Jews. And rabbi, of course, is the title given to Jewish leaders of congregations or teachers.

The problem obviously wasn't with the phylacteries, fringes, or titles. The problem was their use. People were using these things to put themselves above others. They wanted people to look over at them and say, "Wow, look at the size of Mike's phylactery! - he must be very religious."

They were trying to put on a show so that others would be impressed. They were trying to put on a show so that they would feel impressive themselves. They wanted to be noticed, and wanted to feel important.

The thing is, God sees right through all that stuff. As the words of the Collect for Purity say, God is the God to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.

Although don't feel too comfortable about that fact that you neither have a phylactery or a fringe - because we all have phylacteries and fringes. We just call them different things. We build big homes. Or wear fancy clothes. We fuss about our hair. We think that by reading lots of books we'll be smarter. We try and kill the deer with the most points.

If you think about it, you probably have a fringe or two. And, no matter how much hair covers your forehead, you have a few phylacteries too.

This is all totally related to humility, which Jesus explicity asks of us in this reading.

Do you know what humility is?

It's not feeling badly about yourself. It's not beating yourself up unnecessarily.

Humility is realizing, remembering, and living into who we are - who we really and truly are.

And part of that is letting go of what we aren't: we are not in control, we are not in charge, we do not know it all, and we have no more power and authority than God entrusts us with.

We are creatures in God's creation. We are servants in God's Kingdom. And we are completely and totally reliant on God for everything: every breath, every heartbeat, every sunrise, and every blessing.

We build ourselves up - we make ourselves look good - we buy lots of stuff to try and set up the illusion that we're important, we're powerful, we're in charge, we're self-sufficient, and we know it all.

And, the fact is, we're none of those things.

Once we realize that - once we get the big picture of who we are - we can begin to grapple with the smaller picture.

We might be President of the United States. Or King of Burundi. Maybe we clean toilets at the mall. Maybe we're a school teacher, sheet metal worker, or priest. Maybe we're father or mother, grandfather or grandmother.

But, if we're President, we have to be humble - realizing that God has put us in this office, and we're no better than the fella cleaning the toilets. And, if we're the toilet scrubber, we have to be humble, realizing that we're no better or no worse than the King of Burundi.

Ever see the Lion King? I love Simba's early years. He's the son of the King of Pride Rock, and he knows that that means one day he'll be king. He's full of spunk, and he;s full of himself. He sings a song called "I Just Can't Wait to Be King." He longs for the day that he'll be in charge, the day that no one will be able to say to him "do this" "be there" "stop that" or "see here."

But, when he grows up, and 'remembers' who he is - and he actually ascends to the throne he does it with humility and grace. He does it to serve others, save others - even if it means his own discomfort.

Do you see that? Humility was seen when he ascended to the throne. Humility isn't feeling bad about ourselves, or beating ourselves up. Humility is remembering who we are (creatures in God's Creation and servants in God's Kingdom), realizing who we are (as individuals, becoming who God has called you and me to be) and living into who we are.

We don't know it all. We aren't in control. We aren't in charge. We aren't the end-all-be-all of the universe - no matter how broad we make our phylacteries or how big we build our homes.

In the grand scheme of things we are frail creatures a single breath away from death. We live in a universe we know only a very, very little bit about. And, we're in control of very, very little.

But, we are somebodies. We are creatures of God who God loves. We are creatures of God who God sent His Son for. We are creatures of God who have been asked by Him to be His servants in the world and in His Kingdom.

So, let us remember that. Let us realize that. And, let us live into it - leaving our forehead coverings at home.

Living WIthout Fear

As I was wrestling with the Bible in preparation for this week’s Tuesday night Bible study I came to a startling realization: the opposite of faith isn’t faithlessness or doubt. The opposite of faith is fear.

As I pondered this further, I also came to a place where I realized that the opposite of hope is also fear.

I think this is one of the reasons that the most often quoted commandment in the Bible – given by angel, prophet, God and Jesus is Do not be afraid, fear not.

However, the same cannot be said for love. The opposite of love can involve fear: fear of the one not being loved (they don’t look like me, act like me; they scare me. . .). But, the opposite of love is indifference: absolute carelessness. Ennui. Passive rejection.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer: what is the most important commandment? Luke, the author of the third Gospel remembers this story a little differently. He also remembers a lawyer coming to ask Jesus a question to test him, but the question is different: what must I do to inherit eternal life.

Two different questions by a lawyer, but the same answer from Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and. . . love your neighbor as yourself.

These are two ultimate questions, and Jesus gives an ultimate answer. And the answer has nothing to do with all the ‘thou shalls’ and ‘thou shalt nots’ – but it has to do with an encompassing love of God and fellow humanity.

The thing that scares me, and worries me most about our modern society isn’t the blatant irreligious behaviors and attitudes of the day. It isn’t all the squabbles that churches and denominations can have about biblical interpretation or Christian ethics. What worries me the most is the profound indifference that pervades our world.

There are vast numbers of people who aren’t wrestling with the existence of God, or how a God of love can let bad things happen in the world, or even wrestling with the deeper issues of institutional religion and genuine faith. There are vast numbers of people who just don’t give a hoot about God.

About a year ago someone, I’m supposing coming home from a night of drinking, threw a beer bottle at St. Peter’s, breaking a window. That’s indifference. That’s absolute carelessness about God.

There are throngs of people who just turn off when they hear the word “God” or “Bible” or “church.” They just don’t care.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, and in several other places in the Bible (including Deuteronomy, which Jesus quotes word for word here) God asks us to love Him. Did you ever wonder why?
It is a little odd to think that we’re ‘commanded’ to love. I don’t command Zoë to love me, I just hope she does. I don’t command Karen to love me, I just hope she does.

Why does God ask us to love him? Well, I think the answer is a little painful: because God has to. Somehow we just aren’t wired to love God the same way that God loves us.

And all God asks from us is that we love him. He gives us life, and our families, and health, and this beautiful planet, and all the blessings of this life. He gave us His only Son, and His Son gave up His Life for us.

And we’re not asked to pay God back. We’re not asked to make up for all the things that have been lavished on us – as if we ever could. All we’re asked to do is love in return. To not be indifferent.

If I had to ask Karen to love me, that would be a pretty sad statement on our relationship wouldn’t it? It would make me seem and feel pretty pathetic.

That God has to ask us, reveals so much more about us than God though. It shows our weakness, our sin, and humanity’s predisposition to turn from God and turn to our own desires.

That so many people completely ignore God, act completely indifferent to God, throwing beer bottles at symbols of his Presence and existence must break His heart.

Our job as the church is to reflect the love that God has for us onto the world. Our job is to help the world realize that God loves us – all 6 billion of us. And, our job is to be an example of how to love God and our fellow humanity in return. We are to be known by how we are loved and how we love.

When the Church fails to do this, I would say that we’re not only falling short of our Christian duty, but that we are failing to be the Church at all.

We are to have faith, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God exists and that God loves. We are to have hope, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God loves us no matter what, that God’s in control, and that all shall be well. And we are to love, not be indifferent: loving because we are loved, and loving that others may know the Source of all love.
Amen.

It's Party Time

Two stories:

A couple months ago there was a story that was reported in the Associated Press about an engaged couple who called off their wedding at the 11th hour. It was only a couple of weeks before they were supposed to walk down the aisle, but something big happened - big enough to cancel (or postpone) the biggest day of their lives.

Which is all fine and good. Probably a good decision. The thing was the bride's family had already rented the out the reception space at the tune of $10,000. The deejay was paid, the cake was ordered, and the chef booked. You don't get out of something like that at the 11th hour. You can get out of the wedding, but you still have to pay everyone in full as the contract they signed said.

10,000 bucks. Oooops.

So now what?

Well, the former-bride-to-be called all her family and said that they were going to have a party anyway. It would just be without the other half of attendants (the former-groom-to-be's family).

But, if only half the party is going to show up - what would they do with the other empty half of the room.

Well, I'll tell you what they did: nearby was a shelter for homeless women and children. There were about 50 of them in residence at the time. And, they all got invitations.

50 homeless women and children, a few of the volunteer workers at the shelter, and the bride's family ate salmon, shrimp, and steak. The chef exchanged the wedding cake for strawberry shortcakes. And they all danced the night away together.

And when it was all over, the people at the shelter took back with them the leftovers.

Wow.

The second story took place a little closer to home.

You all know by now that over 300 evacuees from the Super Dome in New Orleans were taken to Camp Dawson, in Kingwood, West Viriginia, just an hour or so from here.

Many of those people were among the poorest of the poor. They had little to begin with, and they had nothing now.

Nothing but their lives. And each other.

There was one engaged couple who were taken to Camp Dawson. They were so thrilled to be alive, and so thrilled to have each other, that after 3 years of engagement they decided that it was finally time to tie the knot.

Like right then!

So, Red Cross workers turned into wedding coordinators and ushers. People from Kingwood donated a wedding dress, a tuxedo, the wedding cake, flowers, a harpist - everything they needed for a blowout wedding. A nearby resort even gave them a honeymoon night on the house!

They invited the Governor of West Virginia to attend - and he did.

After the wedding on the Army base, the adjacent country club opened its doors for the reception - of course free of charge.

And the residents - the other evacuees - cooked real gen-u-ine cajun food.

And, as if that isn't enough, the couple invited everyone who had ever volunteered at the Camp Dawson shelter to attend.

Gosh I wish I hadn't heard about this all after the fact! I love cajun food!! And, I would have loved to have been part of this celebration of love, life, and redemption with those beautiful people.

Wow.

Do you see the similarity in those two stories?

Of course there are major differences. In the first story a $10,000 reception was opened to people who never could have dreamed of eating that well, or being treated so well. And in the second story it was the victims of this disaster who opened the doors to people who hadn't gone through what they had.

But, in both stories the doors were opened. The tables were made available to all. Money, race, background - none of it mattered. The doors were thrown open in love and hospitality.

According to Jesus in this morning's Gospel lesson, that is a glimmer of what the Kingdom of God will be like. All will be welcome at the feast. All receive an invitation to God's banquet - regardless of who they are, or what kind of station they hold in life. God invites all.

I remember helping friends with their wedding plans. They had X number of dollars to work with and a whole host of friends and relatives to invite. To fit their plans into X dollars they had to cut people from the invite list.

Old Aunt Sally? Haven't seen her for a while - out. Uncle Buck? He gets roudy at receptions - out. Our cousins from Alaska? Well, they won't come anyway so we'll send then an invitation to make them feel included, but we know they're out.

I also know people who have combed through their address books intentionally screening out people - even people from thier family. To be honest, there were people ion my family that I thought long and hard about inviting or not.

But, this is not how God works. He throws out the address book, and tells people to comb the streets - twice - so that everyone - EVERYONE knows that they have a place at the table.

There are just two things left:

1) Just getting the invitation isn't enough. You have to RSVP. You have to respond. You have to show up and take your place.

And, 2) you have to be prepared to act like a guest in God's house. All may be invited, but there is a code of conduct at God's party - there's a dress code. You can be invited, show up, and be kicked out - which may just be worse than rejecting the invite in the first place.

We - all of us - are worthy enough - important enough - and loved enough to have been given an invitation live with God, and have God live in us. All we need to do is show up, and live in a way that honors him.

After that - it's party time!

The Very Heart of God

When someone gets angry, and starts to act that anger out through yelling, screaming, or other violent means, what is the usual reaction?

Of course, the party being yelled at, usually yells back.

Anger, when not handled properly, usually begets anger, defensiveness, and other poor behaviors.

But, what about when someone tells you that you've hurt them. Or disappointed them. Or betrayed them. Oh. Oh my. That's different. That pierces the heart.

When I worked at New Dominion School, a school for boys who had gotten into some form of trouble at home or with the law, we dealt with 'feelings' - or emotions. Sure, there was a work component to the school - we chopped wood, built our own tents from raw materials, and cooked some of our own meals - and sure, there was a wilderness component to the school, as we lived outdoors 365 days a year; but what we really did through all of that was work through emotions.

There is a theory, a theory which went mainstream with the publication of the book "Real Boys," that says problem kids are problem kids because they can't handle their emotions. This issue presents itself mostly in boys because boys are unfortunately taught that displaying emotions is somehow 'unmanly' and unacceptable behavior for men.

And so we'd see new boys come to the school, and they'd come to us hard as nails. They were violent, verbally abusive, and did their best to act 'thuggish.' Gradually, we'd teach them to work through their emotions - their feelings. Maybe they had been abused, or neglected, or both. Maybe they had major issues in their home and family lives. Whatever it was they had feelings, and they were acting those feelings out through being violent, being criminal, and acting as if they were above their parents or above the law. When we taught them ways for them to express their feelings in positive ways - how to be angry, or sad, or happy in socially acceptable forms, they didn't need the bad attitude and bad actions.

One of the things they learned along the way, as they dropped the thug act, was that their actions gave other people feelings too. Especially thier family.

It was amazing to see these kids interact with their parent for the first time after being with us for several months. Whereas they really didn't care what their parents said or did before, now they would sit riveted listening to their parents talk about how hard it was to have them in the house. How they loved their child, but they couldn't stand his behaviors anymore. Often the parents would break down sobbing, obviously so in love with their child, but so broken bby what their child had become as a teenager.

Seeing how their actions effected their parents pierced these kids hearts for the first time. They, once hard thugs, would break down too. They would say how sorry they were for what they had done. For the first time in a long time they would tell their parents how much they loved them.

Over the next year or so this boy would grow in leaps and bounds into a boy who wanted to do well, and who wanted to make their parents proud. They knew how bad they had hurt their mom and dad, and they never wanted to do that again.

The emotions that love brings out are amazing - especially the love that parents have for their children. That unconditional love is so incredibly powerful. It can move mountains. Or at least move time hardened hearts.

In our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah this morning, we find raw emotion. What we actually find is a love song, written from a parent figure to His children.

My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

The beloved here is God. He gave his children a vineyard. He built it. Cultivated it. And he expected great things. He expected great grapes because he cared enough to plant the very best grape vines.

But, when the harvest came, the grapes were unusable. Someone had squandered all that the beloved Father had put into the vineyard.

And here is where the emotion is seen:

What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?

What more could he have done? How much more could he possibly have loved his children?

I watched a family one time who had a daughter that was so loved. She was showered with everything she ever wanted. Sohe was so close to her father. He did everything for her, and would have done anything else for her. And then one day, this teenage daughter turned out to be living a life that no one else knew about. The grief in the father was so strong: how much more could he possibly have loved his daughter? What else could he have done? How could she have done this - to him?

In Isaiah, we see the relationship between the people of God and their Heavenly Father.

Here in the beginning of the 5th chapter, we see a picture of God that isn't majestic, or all-powerful, or other-worldly. Here we see God's heart. We see his brokenness and pain. Here, in this passage we see into the character of God, and we feel his despair.

His people had abandoned him. They had been given so much, but they squandered it, worshipping other gods, living in reckless and immoral ways.

He had given them so much, what more was there for God to do?

Here, God is vulnerable.

The more you love, the more vulnerable you become to beng hurt.

And for a God who loves infinitely - boundlessly - there comes the potential for infinite and boundless pain.

We see something similar in the Gospel lesson. God, sends people to his vineyard who are killed by those he put in charge. So he sends others to the vineyard. They are also killed. And so in an act of ultimate vulnerability, he sends his own son, who is also killed.

There is a tendency to understand God in a very abstract way. To picture him as a old man, with a white beard, in a white robe, sitting on a throne aeons away. There is a tendency to think that the God in the Old Testament is a God of wrath and anger.

No, our God is a God of love. And we are people that fall down, and disappoint again and again.

And, as a God of love - as a God who is willing to be boundlessly vulnerable - he is willing to be boundlessly in love with us, and boundlessly patient with us.

God was hurt by his people in the days of Isaiah. He was hurt by his people in the days of Jesus. And, of course, we continue to disappoint, and hurt, and betray his vulnerable love.

But, his love will never cease. It will never come to an end.

And if for no other reason - if for no other thing in the universe - shouldn't we just love him back? Can't we try and make him proud? Can't we open ourselves to boundlessly love, since we are so boundlessly loved?

I pray so.