Exodus 24:12-18 • Psalm 2 or Psalm 99 • 2 Peter 1:16-21 • Matthew 17:1-9
Sermon:
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
Sunday, March 6
Monday, June 29
Outreach: Sharing our Faith
There are numerous voices out there telling congregations what churches should be about. Terms fly about: emergent, missional, outreach, justice ministry, relevant, etc. Recently some members of Reconciler have spoken about wanting others to experience what they have found at Reconciler, yet how to share this in a situation and culture in which gathering together as a community for worship is hardly a priority at times even for many religious or spiritual people. There is a challenge for Reconciler in that our Sunday worship isn't' necessarily the best way to first encounter our faith community or Christianity, unless one is the type to be comfortable participating in something one might not fully understand. Yet since we have considered Eucharistic centered worship essential to Reconciler's work and for the support of Christians in their various callings, we have not been willing to make our main service "seeker" sensitive, or more accessible. This means that there needs to be some other way for people to be introduced to the congregation and even introduced to our worship life. We have attempted somethings like keeping a booth at some of the sumer neighborhood festivals here in Chicago, as well as events intended for people to get to know us and what Christians might do with the Bible, with a potluck themed as Beer, Bread and the Bible. This was somewhat successful in that it was well attended but only had one. We also had a panel discussion on Fair Trade and had planned to have more but the attendance was small and organizing something like that takes a large amount of time and energy.
Church is a complex thing, for although there is certainly something to the claim that congregations don't exist for the members it is also true that a church community is for those who are part of the church community. We gather to worship to be formed into the body of Christ to be spiritually empowered to live out our callings as followers of Christ, we are both gathered and sent, both under care and caring, ministered to and ministers. To be out in the world to let people know about Reconciler both things need to be kept in mind. Also, we need to keep in mind what is our faith? Why would we feel the need or have the desire to invite people into our Community, why is Jesus Christ important? Why, do we seek to make a difference in the world? In this sense any outreach needs to be willing to say that Christ makes a difference, that in some sense what Christianity offers is true in ways that other paths aren't. This truth should be in the life offered in and through the community of the Body of Christ, thus the ways in which knowing Christ brings truth into our own lives and transforms us, both our failings and our successes. In outreach we are telling our own stories of encounter with the truth who is Jesus Christ. If we are not sharing this and offering this opportunity of encounter with others than all our attempts to be relevant or to seek after justice, or be place of healing etc, will seem abstract and lack authenticity. In a world of choices if we believe people should be interested in Christianity and spend there time on church, then what we bring to the conversation should have some weight that other attachments and communities can't or don't bring people. We can offer something beyond relevance, we can offer the spiritual root and stamina to work for justice, we can offer a path of transformation in and through Jesus Christ both personally and corporately.
This requires a willingness to be vulnerable about how Christ has made us truer, how encounter with God in Jesus Christ transforms us and gives us a vision and the spiritual resources to look at a world of injustice and work for justice. It means finding ways to introduce a worship that should support all these things and lead us to encounter God in these ways, so that a complex symbol system can be entered into once someone does actually come to worship.
We need to stop seeing our worship as the place of initial invitation and see ourselves about proclaiming inviting and explaining before someone ever enters into worship with us. Events like Bread Beer and the Bible or sponsoring panel discussions from a Christian POV on current issues of justice and politics and culture I think are good places both for Reconciler and other churches to start, but we also probably need to think of ways to introduce people to the symbol system of the church a sort of pre-catechumenate mystagogy, I suppose.
I am beginning to wonder if the various types of alternative worship services liturgies, coming from variety of denominations and groups,shouldn't be viewed or offered as the worship of the church, but ways to introduce or re-introduce people to the symbol system of Christians worship. In other words are there ways to give people some sense of the meaning of Baptism artistically and symbolically before they undergo baptism or as they are investigating Christianity, the same for Eucharist and other things.
Church is a complex thing, for although there is certainly something to the claim that congregations don't exist for the members it is also true that a church community is for those who are part of the church community. We gather to worship to be formed into the body of Christ to be spiritually empowered to live out our callings as followers of Christ, we are both gathered and sent, both under care and caring, ministered to and ministers. To be out in the world to let people know about Reconciler both things need to be kept in mind. Also, we need to keep in mind what is our faith? Why would we feel the need or have the desire to invite people into our Community, why is Jesus Christ important? Why, do we seek to make a difference in the world? In this sense any outreach needs to be willing to say that Christ makes a difference, that in some sense what Christianity offers is true in ways that other paths aren't. This truth should be in the life offered in and through the community of the Body of Christ, thus the ways in which knowing Christ brings truth into our own lives and transforms us, both our failings and our successes. In outreach we are telling our own stories of encounter with the truth who is Jesus Christ. If we are not sharing this and offering this opportunity of encounter with others than all our attempts to be relevant or to seek after justice, or be place of healing etc, will seem abstract and lack authenticity. In a world of choices if we believe people should be interested in Christianity and spend there time on church, then what we bring to the conversation should have some weight that other attachments and communities can't or don't bring people. We can offer something beyond relevance, we can offer the spiritual root and stamina to work for justice, we can offer a path of transformation in and through Jesus Christ both personally and corporately.
This requires a willingness to be vulnerable about how Christ has made us truer, how encounter with God in Jesus Christ transforms us and gives us a vision and the spiritual resources to look at a world of injustice and work for justice. It means finding ways to introduce a worship that should support all these things and lead us to encounter God in these ways, so that a complex symbol system can be entered into once someone does actually come to worship.
We need to stop seeing our worship as the place of initial invitation and see ourselves about proclaiming inviting and explaining before someone ever enters into worship with us. Events like Bread Beer and the Bible or sponsoring panel discussions from a Christian POV on current issues of justice and politics and culture I think are good places both for Reconciler and other churches to start, but we also probably need to think of ways to introduce people to the symbol system of the church a sort of pre-catechumenate mystagogy, I suppose.
I am beginning to wonder if the various types of alternative worship services liturgies, coming from variety of denominations and groups,shouldn't be viewed or offered as the worship of the church, but ways to introduce or re-introduce people to the symbol system of Christians worship. In other words are there ways to give people some sense of the meaning of Baptism artistically and symbolically before they undergo baptism or as they are investigating Christianity, the same for Eucharist and other things.
Monday, November 10
Sermon Proper 27 in Ordinary Time
Amos 5:18-24
Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13
This is the outline of the sermon I preached on Sunday.
Expecting, the Unexpected Hope.
I) Introduction-
a) Americans feel more hopeful after the election of Obama as President.
1) The Election of Obama is significant for this country.
2) Obama’s campaign ran on hope and change, to what degree his presidency will be able to live up the rhetoric, we will see.
b) The scriptures direct our attention away from fleeting politics and all that is passing away to the day of the Lord, the coming of the Kingdom of God and the return of Christ.
1) In this way Scripture tells us, we the people of God, to warn exhort and encourage one another with these words.
2) We are to do so by reminding ourselves that God is beyond us and our politics and our works of justice and righteousness.
c) We are to remember that God and the Kingdom will surprise, terrify, shock and comfort us.
II) Amos’ warning
a) The mistake - expecting God to be on our side or thinking that we are on God’s side without nuance or complication.
1) Why is the Day of the Lord darkness and not light, Why might god’s coming be terrifying? The problem isn’t with God but with humanity with God’s people Israel who think God is just on their side.
2) They were certain of the justice of their cause the justice and righteousness of their actions.
b) Vs. 5:24 in context seems to say that one can only claim to be fully on God’s side if there is absolutely nothing damming up the flow of God’s justice and righteousness.
1) The day of the lord breaks all those things that dam up justice and righteousness, floods the parched land of oppression.
2) Here we have image of floods after the dry season or for us possibly the breaking of a dam, a wall of water of justice descending upon us.
3) Amos tells us that the coming of God in the fullness of righteousness will be overwhelming to us because there are going to be blockages in us and our societies of that righteousness and justice.
c) So Amos warns us be careful what you wish for it will also overtake you, none will escape the flood of righteousness when it comes. So we should warn one another with these words lest we become too comfortable thinking we can know completely and fully implement the justice of God.
III) Jesus parable exhorts us to be ready for it is possible to miss out on the coming of Christ and the Kingdom.
a) What is the fault of the Foolish virgins in what way are they unprepared for the coming of the Bridegroom?
1) They don’t bring extra oil.
2) They were only prepared for what they knew to expect, their fault was not accounting for the unexpected, the unpredictable.
b) Like in Amos the issue is expectation and being open and ready for the excess of God’s coming.
1) The coming of God will be other than what we can encompass and predict.
2) In our seeking for justice in our waiting the coming of the righteousness of God we are to be ready to be taken beyond any expectation.
c) So exhort one another with these words keep awake to the otherness of God, and that God is beyond any human concept of righteousness and justice. God’s justice God’s ways exceed and overflow our abilities. Be prepared to go beyond what is humanly defined as good true and just.
IV) At first Paul’s words of encouragement about those who have died in the faith seem to distract us from caring for justice in this world.
a) To understand this text fully we must ask ourselves what is the power of Death.
1) Death is the power that founds and is at work in all injustice and oppression.
2) Thus an appropriate response to injustice is mourning. When politicians fail (Obama will disappoint in some way).
3) In our living into the Kingdom of God in this age and working for justice and righteousness there will continue to be reasons to mourn.
b) So when we face the continuing power of death manifest in injustice, whether in our own country (Obama: as we have had to confront it in every Presidency) or in the Economic powers in the world or other nations states or in the death of loved one, how will we encourage one another?
1) We miss the meaning of the encouragement to get caught up in debates about the Rapture.
2) Paul is saying that Christ has overcome death and so even in death there is life and Resurrection.
c) Christ had gone to Hades and returned.
1) We or any who go on and face death whether through physical death or violent encounters with oppression and injustice can know that Christ is already there
2) The realities of Death, injustice , oppression can not separate us from what is alive just and righteous, for Christ has gone ahead in death and through the resurrection has planted the tree of life (the Cross) in the midst of death.
V) Conclusion:
a) So we need to continual remind ourselves of these things.
1) Our justice and righteousness will always fall short of God’s; none will escape the rushing water of righteousness when God breaks the dams of injustice and unrighteousness.
2) So be prepared for what we cannot prepare. Be open to the surprise that is the coming of Christ in the fullness of the Kingdom.
3) Lastly encourage each other with the knowledge that Christ has already overcome death, and we are or any who seem to be taking in the grips of death, Christ is already there gathering them to himself .
b) We will overcome death and injustice only because Christ has already overcome. So in life or death we are in Christ by faith and Baptism.
c) May we not forget these things as we gather and as we go out in the world, as we work and act for justice in the world, as we advocate for those with no voice. For our only true hope is in God being beyond our concepts and abilities to realize justice, and in God having in Christ overcoming death.
Psalm 70
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13
This is the outline of the sermon I preached on Sunday.
Expecting, the Unexpected Hope.
I) Introduction-
a) Americans feel more hopeful after the election of Obama as President.
1) The Election of Obama is significant for this country.
2) Obama’s campaign ran on hope and change, to what degree his presidency will be able to live up the rhetoric, we will see.
b) The scriptures direct our attention away from fleeting politics and all that is passing away to the day of the Lord, the coming of the Kingdom of God and the return of Christ.
1) In this way Scripture tells us, we the people of God, to warn exhort and encourage one another with these words.
2) We are to do so by reminding ourselves that God is beyond us and our politics and our works of justice and righteousness.
c) We are to remember that God and the Kingdom will surprise, terrify, shock and comfort us.
II) Amos’ warning
a) The mistake - expecting God to be on our side or thinking that we are on God’s side without nuance or complication.
1) Why is the Day of the Lord darkness and not light, Why might god’s coming be terrifying? The problem isn’t with God but with humanity with God’s people Israel who think God is just on their side.
2) They were certain of the justice of their cause the justice and righteousness of their actions.
b) Vs. 5:24 in context seems to say that one can only claim to be fully on God’s side if there is absolutely nothing damming up the flow of God’s justice and righteousness.
1) The day of the lord breaks all those things that dam up justice and righteousness, floods the parched land of oppression.
2) Here we have image of floods after the dry season or for us possibly the breaking of a dam, a wall of water of justice descending upon us.
3) Amos tells us that the coming of God in the fullness of righteousness will be overwhelming to us because there are going to be blockages in us and our societies of that righteousness and justice.
c) So Amos warns us be careful what you wish for it will also overtake you, none will escape the flood of righteousness when it comes. So we should warn one another with these words lest we become too comfortable thinking we can know completely and fully implement the justice of God.
III) Jesus parable exhorts us to be ready for it is possible to miss out on the coming of Christ and the Kingdom.
a) What is the fault of the Foolish virgins in what way are they unprepared for the coming of the Bridegroom?
1) They don’t bring extra oil.
2) They were only prepared for what they knew to expect, their fault was not accounting for the unexpected, the unpredictable.
b) Like in Amos the issue is expectation and being open and ready for the excess of God’s coming.
1) The coming of God will be other than what we can encompass and predict.
2) In our seeking for justice in our waiting the coming of the righteousness of God we are to be ready to be taken beyond any expectation.
c) So exhort one another with these words keep awake to the otherness of God, and that God is beyond any human concept of righteousness and justice. God’s justice God’s ways exceed and overflow our abilities. Be prepared to go beyond what is humanly defined as good true and just.
IV) At first Paul’s words of encouragement about those who have died in the faith seem to distract us from caring for justice in this world.
a) To understand this text fully we must ask ourselves what is the power of Death.
1) Death is the power that founds and is at work in all injustice and oppression.
2) Thus an appropriate response to injustice is mourning. When politicians fail (Obama will disappoint in some way).
3) In our living into the Kingdom of God in this age and working for justice and righteousness there will continue to be reasons to mourn.
b) So when we face the continuing power of death manifest in injustice, whether in our own country (Obama: as we have had to confront it in every Presidency) or in the Economic powers in the world or other nations states or in the death of loved one, how will we encourage one another?
1) We miss the meaning of the encouragement to get caught up in debates about the Rapture.
2) Paul is saying that Christ has overcome death and so even in death there is life and Resurrection.
c) Christ had gone to Hades and returned.
1) We or any who go on and face death whether through physical death or violent encounters with oppression and injustice can know that Christ is already there
2) The realities of Death, injustice , oppression can not separate us from what is alive just and righteous, for Christ has gone ahead in death and through the resurrection has planted the tree of life (the Cross) in the midst of death.
V) Conclusion:
a) So we need to continual remind ourselves of these things.
1) Our justice and righteousness will always fall short of God’s; none will escape the rushing water of righteousness when God breaks the dams of injustice and unrighteousness.
2) So be prepared for what we cannot prepare. Be open to the surprise that is the coming of Christ in the fullness of the Kingdom.
3) Lastly encourage each other with the knowledge that Christ has already overcome death, and we are or any who seem to be taking in the grips of death, Christ is already there gathering them to himself .
b) We will overcome death and injustice only because Christ has already overcome. So in life or death we are in Christ by faith and Baptism.
c) May we not forget these things as we gather and as we go out in the world, as we work and act for justice in the world, as we advocate for those with no voice. For our only true hope is in God being beyond our concepts and abilities to realize justice, and in God having in Christ overcoming death.
Monday, April 28
Sixth Sunday of Easter - The Spirit of Truth
New Testament: Acts 17:22-31
Psalm: Psalm 66:8-20
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:13-22
Gospel: John 14:15-21
First Peter tells us to be ready to give a defense to any who ask. People I know, people we know, our culture asking, about our hope, our faith. Do we know how to answer? Are we ready to give a defense? As I prepared this sermon I was listening to David J’s album Urban Urbane. David J was a member of the seminal Goth band Bauhaus, who broke up and went on to do their own projects you may be more familiar the Peter Murphy or Love and Rockets and Daniel Ash. David J went on to do more experimental rock and jazzy projects. Urban Urbane as an album deals with as the album title indicates the realities and contradictions of our urbanized world. At the end of this album comes the son No Faith, hear is a questioner, asking the questions, and asserting both a longing for truth and the loss of truth.
No Faith by David J, Album Urban Urbane
Well, I don't know what
The question is
But, Lord give me an answer
Don't know the question
But please give an answer
Searching high, searching low
High, low
I got no faith
In no Catholic churches
Can't waste no faith
On no, no capital purchase
I got no faith in no
Cosmic casino
Run by some guru
In a white stretch limosino
Searching high and low
I got no faith
In no academican
I got no faith
In no evangelist
With a mission
I got no faith
In no government in session
Neo-fascists practiced
In the art of false impression
Searching high and low
Where to go?
I got no faith
In no national institution
Built on an arms deal
And compulsory contribution
No faith in the rich
No faith in the poor
Little faith in anarchy
And no faith in the law
Searching high
Searching low
I got no faith
In no, no human nature
Look at all the armies
And the rape of Mother Nature
I got no faith
In no marital status
Resulting in attrition
And eventual hiatus
Searching high
Searching low
High, low
High, low
How do we answer such questions, such a searching? We too struggle with these questions and yet we are hear. We have some hope in the midst of our own questions. We have been facing some of our own doubts In the face of the resurrection of Jesus in this season of Easter. There are claims of truth in the texts we have been reading, but we do not want to be exclusive. And so we wonder at the words of Jesus that say I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Even so Jesus’ words in John claim a unique position. The particularity of Jesus of Nazareth is necessary for knowing god. All three of our texts say things like the World does not know God, that even when cultures or religions may have some inkling of God, even as creator that that portion of knowledge is ignorance, if it does not lead to Jesus Christ the one risen from the dead. Our texts I think should cause us to doubt what we believe about truth, about inclusive and exclusivist positions concerning the Church.
Our position on truth is perhaps understandable. If truth is abstract and non-relational, if it is something I either poses or don’t, if it is something I can wield in self-righteous satisfaction and demand that others then do as I say because I have the truth and others do not, then our objections to an exclusivist truth are on the right track. Though this reading of our Scriptures is from a position of power and pride foreign to the texts themselves. What I ask of us tonight is to admit that the interpretations we have heard are mistaken and to look at the texts before us from their perspective when Christians were not the powerful but the persecuted, and hear then what our this attitude can tell us about truth and the accounting of our faith and hope.
There is no coercion in this presentation of truth, though there are clear boundaries, but they are permeable boundaries. No one is beyond the bounds of God’s love, not even the dead who died in the flood because they would not repent. In these texts there is no fortress wall, but in the end either you know God in Jesus Christ as the one who is raised from the dead and are saved or you do not. If you do not you are invited to know Jesus Christ. There is no other way to fully know God, who is creator, except as trinity, father Son and Holy Spirit, not because some human said so, but because God has only acted in full self-revelation in Jesus Christ. If you want to know the truth one must be in relationship with Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God and God is truth. This is the logic of these passages.
Three things I’d like to draw our attention to concerning our relationship to this truth that is being in relationship with God. 1) Our relationship to truth is in our being priests. We are to handle our words, and those we speak to about the truth as if they are holy things as though we are priests attending to our most sacred duty. 2) While we are called to recognize that other cultures and religions may have some sense of the truth of God, we are also called to proclaim that only in relationship to Christ can that portion of truth be fulfilled. 3) The truth is about entering the divine relationship of the Holy Trinity who is truth, which thus the truth compels us to obey Jesus’ command to Love, but it is only in the relationship to Jesus that we find this love that is truth.
First Peter is a bit of a rambling epistle and so there is much packed into this brief epistle and this brief passage. It is difficult to pin down one theme. But a theme in this epistle is our priesthood as members of the Church. Our priesthood is derivative from Christ’s. The holiness then spoken of our priesthood is not our possession, but something we receive. Peter begins his epistle calling us back to the time of the Exodus when God took slaves out of Egypt and then called them a nation of priests a holy people, not because of their worthiness but because of what God had done. Our priesthood is not a source of pride but of humility.
We encounter the priestly theme in our passage when Peter moves from discussing our suffering and persecution to how others and we may respond to our suffering. So, in the midst of our struggles in life we are to sanctify Christ in our selves, in our hearts, we are to remember our priesthood our being set apart. Then so having remembered our set apartness in Christ, we are to handle the demand and our answer as to why we have any hope, with gentleness and fear (RSV says reverence). We are to handle the question and our answer, the questioner and the relationship with the carefulness of handling holy objects. This approach to our defense or answer is one of careful attention as a priest attending to the most sacred duty. There is no pride or cavalier attitude allowable in the moment of handling holy things. Our faith, the reason we can have hope in the world and those who notice our faith and our hope, are not to be treated cavalierly or roughly but with holy fear. We are called to answer gently. We are not to act rashly or out of anger or even out of a need to persuade. We are also not to act as if Jesus Christ makes no difference. We are to handle the situation as holy that is to se that occasion and our faith and the person we encounter as a holy thing that we offer to God as priests. We do so because Christ did this and acted as priest not only for the living but also for those souls who having rejected the truth of God in the times of Noah were preached to by Christ. In baptism we are like Noah saved form the flood, for in it we are given a clean conscience through the Resurrection of Christ. We are priests; we have hope and faith because of the work of Christ and our identification with the priestly work of Christ in baptism. As priests we are to proclaim this truth about Christ and the salvation that is found in being identified with Christ’s.
This is also the proclamation Paul gives in Athens when he finds a very religious and inclusive people, so inclusive that they include an altar to their ignorance, to the unknown God. Athens is perhaps not far from where we are at in our context today. In some sense we still harkens back to this seat of philosophy and intellectual center, Plato and Socrates. Our philosophers, intellectuals and many beyond the walls of the academy share this attitude today both of intellectual dispute, search for truth and attempt to be inclusive of all assertions of truth. We learn from Paul that we don’t have to condemn this that we can look into our culture and find the portions of the truth that is known or discovered. Paul goes beyond praise and demonstrates from their own poets’ praise of Zeus that they know something of this God, who is creator, even if this knowledge is, in comparison to knowing Christ, ignorance. Paul recognizes that in culture there may be bits of truth, the beginnings of God’s self revelation, but he is clear to the Athenians that this truth is ignorance if it is not joined with the knowing God in Jesus Christ, who is raised from the Dead.
The particularity of this claim of truth and that the truth is manifest in someone raised from the dead is too much for the Athenians. It is also too much in our context. Perhaps too much for we who have faith in Jesus Christ? I too have struggled with this. What of those who remain with only the portion of truth? In college I had a professor who was Buddhist with whom I studied Buddhism. If it were not for Christ raised from the dead I could have easily become a Buddhist or Hindu. In my conversations with my professor we talked and I saw in him the gentleness of Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and yet I also had to admit that it was partial, that I could recognize the Spirit because I knew Christ. My professor thought challenged me, to recognize the difference and incompatibility of Buddhism and Christianity. I could not follow Buddha and believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and God. Christianity did not claim that Jesus was a Buddha one who had just achieved enlightenment like everyone else can with enough time. We believe that God was in God’s fullness in Jesus Christ, and the Resurrection is the sign of that the universal truth was in one particular human being. Some of those philosophers and religious reject the Paul’s proclamation of this truth, and remain in the ignorance of the altar to the unknown god, others hearing this connection between their acknowledgement of ignorance of the truth ask to hear more, and some like Dionysius the Aeropagite, accept Paul’s proclamation. Paul wavers neither from commending the small bits of truth their culture has come to nor from asserting that Jesus Christ, the one risen from the dead is the only full revelation of God. The only way to come into the full truth their culture and religion already recognizes is to accept the risen one.
It is the risen one, or rather the one who is to be raised, who speaks to us about our being sent the Spirit of Truth, if we show our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments and thus being in relationship with him. Through Jesus we have relationship with The Father and the Spirit of Truth. These are intended as words of comfort Jesus gives to the disciples knowing he is going to his death and they will be fore a time scattered. There is an assurance that the disciples will not be bereft of relationship to Jesus or God. The assurance that we are not left alone as Jesus’ followers. These words then are not intended to boost our egos as believers, but to give comfort and assurance of relationship. If these words are used for a basis of self-assurance and pride then such an interpretation is a lie foreign to the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit, the advocate, the one who is given so that we may remain in relationship with Jesus Christ, who is one with God the Father, is the Truth as Jesus is the Truth, because all are one and God in relationship in truth and love. Remember the commands Jesus gives are summarized in the command to love one another, spoken at the beginning of this speech of Christ’s that he gives just before he is arrested, which we heard weeks ago on Maundy Thursday. The assurance of these words is that in all that is going to happen in all the confusion that the followers of Jesus are not being left without relationship to Jesus and to God, who is trinity. The Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, are all the truth, we are to relate in love to the truth and obey the truth out of love. This truth should bring us to love one another and neighbor, because truth is a person, and the truth is to be in relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.
All our passages are about truth because God is the truth, the god revealed to us in Jesus Christ who is raised from the dead. There is no other God, but this God, no other full revelation of this God than in the incarnation of the Son as Jesus of Nazareth. This truth as such can only be received in relationship. This isn’t about my experience or my truth this is about the Spirit of Truth who is given to those who enter into relationship with God through the one who is the incarnation of God and thus died and rose from the dead. This is not faith in me as a preacher, or us as Christians or the Church as separate from Jesus Christ, but faith in the Raised one Jesus Christ. Through faith we enter this relationship. By God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ we are made holy and made to be priests. We are to handle ourselves our words about the truth, which is God, and those who demand an answer to why we have hope and faith with reverence and gentleness. We are to be gentle, to act out of love, to hold all things reverently. In so doing we both acknowledges that in various cultures and religions there is some truth and that there is only one complete revelation of God. There is only one who has the whole truth and that is Jesus Christ, because Jesus is God. All other knowledge experience and understanding of God, is partial and thus also an ignorance. But we are to show forth the love, to show that truth is a person, with whom through the incarnation we can have a relationship. We then as Christians as members of the Church, the body of Christ, are possessed by the truth we do not posses it. We only can proclaim what we have received, we are made holy not by our having something but by the act of God in Jesus Christ through Baptism. Salvation is about being in relationship with God. From this relationship come the proclamation and the truth claims of the Church. Everything is bound up with Christ, the one risen from the dead, as the full revelation of God. God came in our midst to reveal God’s self to us and save us through that revelation because without it we only had our ignorance, our meager groping after the truth and God. In the end all other truth claims even ones that get it partially right are ignorance in comparison to knowing and having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and who give us the Spirit of truth, which is expressed and given in gentleness love and compassion.
Psalm: Psalm 66:8-20
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:13-22
Gospel: John 14:15-21
First Peter tells us to be ready to give a defense to any who ask. People I know, people we know, our culture asking, about our hope, our faith. Do we know how to answer? Are we ready to give a defense? As I prepared this sermon I was listening to David J’s album Urban Urbane. David J was a member of the seminal Goth band Bauhaus, who broke up and went on to do their own projects you may be more familiar the Peter Murphy or Love and Rockets and Daniel Ash. David J went on to do more experimental rock and jazzy projects. Urban Urbane as an album deals with as the album title indicates the realities and contradictions of our urbanized world. At the end of this album comes the son No Faith, hear is a questioner, asking the questions, and asserting both a longing for truth and the loss of truth.
No Faith by David J, Album Urban Urbane
Well, I don't know what
The question is
But, Lord give me an answer
Don't know the question
But please give an answer
Searching high, searching low
High, low
I got no faith
In no Catholic churches
Can't waste no faith
On no, no capital purchase
I got no faith in no
Cosmic casino
Run by some guru
In a white stretch limosino
Searching high and low
I got no faith
In no academican
I got no faith
In no evangelist
With a mission
I got no faith
In no government in session
Neo-fascists practiced
In the art of false impression
Searching high and low
Where to go?
I got no faith
In no national institution
Built on an arms deal
And compulsory contribution
No faith in the rich
No faith in the poor
Little faith in anarchy
And no faith in the law
Searching high
Searching low
I got no faith
In no, no human nature
Look at all the armies
And the rape of Mother Nature
I got no faith
In no marital status
Resulting in attrition
And eventual hiatus
Searching high
Searching low
High, low
High, low
How do we answer such questions, such a searching? We too struggle with these questions and yet we are hear. We have some hope in the midst of our own questions. We have been facing some of our own doubts In the face of the resurrection of Jesus in this season of Easter. There are claims of truth in the texts we have been reading, but we do not want to be exclusive. And so we wonder at the words of Jesus that say I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Even so Jesus’ words in John claim a unique position. The particularity of Jesus of Nazareth is necessary for knowing god. All three of our texts say things like the World does not know God, that even when cultures or religions may have some inkling of God, even as creator that that portion of knowledge is ignorance, if it does not lead to Jesus Christ the one risen from the dead. Our texts I think should cause us to doubt what we believe about truth, about inclusive and exclusivist positions concerning the Church.
Our position on truth is perhaps understandable. If truth is abstract and non-relational, if it is something I either poses or don’t, if it is something I can wield in self-righteous satisfaction and demand that others then do as I say because I have the truth and others do not, then our objections to an exclusivist truth are on the right track. Though this reading of our Scriptures is from a position of power and pride foreign to the texts themselves. What I ask of us tonight is to admit that the interpretations we have heard are mistaken and to look at the texts before us from their perspective when Christians were not the powerful but the persecuted, and hear then what our this attitude can tell us about truth and the accounting of our faith and hope.
There is no coercion in this presentation of truth, though there are clear boundaries, but they are permeable boundaries. No one is beyond the bounds of God’s love, not even the dead who died in the flood because they would not repent. In these texts there is no fortress wall, but in the end either you know God in Jesus Christ as the one who is raised from the dead and are saved or you do not. If you do not you are invited to know Jesus Christ. There is no other way to fully know God, who is creator, except as trinity, father Son and Holy Spirit, not because some human said so, but because God has only acted in full self-revelation in Jesus Christ. If you want to know the truth one must be in relationship with Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God and God is truth. This is the logic of these passages.
Three things I’d like to draw our attention to concerning our relationship to this truth that is being in relationship with God. 1) Our relationship to truth is in our being priests. We are to handle our words, and those we speak to about the truth as if they are holy things as though we are priests attending to our most sacred duty. 2) While we are called to recognize that other cultures and religions may have some sense of the truth of God, we are also called to proclaim that only in relationship to Christ can that portion of truth be fulfilled. 3) The truth is about entering the divine relationship of the Holy Trinity who is truth, which thus the truth compels us to obey Jesus’ command to Love, but it is only in the relationship to Jesus that we find this love that is truth.
First Peter is a bit of a rambling epistle and so there is much packed into this brief epistle and this brief passage. It is difficult to pin down one theme. But a theme in this epistle is our priesthood as members of the Church. Our priesthood is derivative from Christ’s. The holiness then spoken of our priesthood is not our possession, but something we receive. Peter begins his epistle calling us back to the time of the Exodus when God took slaves out of Egypt and then called them a nation of priests a holy people, not because of their worthiness but because of what God had done. Our priesthood is not a source of pride but of humility.
We encounter the priestly theme in our passage when Peter moves from discussing our suffering and persecution to how others and we may respond to our suffering. So, in the midst of our struggles in life we are to sanctify Christ in our selves, in our hearts, we are to remember our priesthood our being set apart. Then so having remembered our set apartness in Christ, we are to handle the demand and our answer as to why we have any hope, with gentleness and fear (RSV says reverence). We are to handle the question and our answer, the questioner and the relationship with the carefulness of handling holy objects. This approach to our defense or answer is one of careful attention as a priest attending to the most sacred duty. There is no pride or cavalier attitude allowable in the moment of handling holy things. Our faith, the reason we can have hope in the world and those who notice our faith and our hope, are not to be treated cavalierly or roughly but with holy fear. We are called to answer gently. We are not to act rashly or out of anger or even out of a need to persuade. We are also not to act as if Jesus Christ makes no difference. We are to handle the situation as holy that is to se that occasion and our faith and the person we encounter as a holy thing that we offer to God as priests. We do so because Christ did this and acted as priest not only for the living but also for those souls who having rejected the truth of God in the times of Noah were preached to by Christ. In baptism we are like Noah saved form the flood, for in it we are given a clean conscience through the Resurrection of Christ. We are priests; we have hope and faith because of the work of Christ and our identification with the priestly work of Christ in baptism. As priests we are to proclaim this truth about Christ and the salvation that is found in being identified with Christ’s.
This is also the proclamation Paul gives in Athens when he finds a very religious and inclusive people, so inclusive that they include an altar to their ignorance, to the unknown God. Athens is perhaps not far from where we are at in our context today. In some sense we still harkens back to this seat of philosophy and intellectual center, Plato and Socrates. Our philosophers, intellectuals and many beyond the walls of the academy share this attitude today both of intellectual dispute, search for truth and attempt to be inclusive of all assertions of truth. We learn from Paul that we don’t have to condemn this that we can look into our culture and find the portions of the truth that is known or discovered. Paul goes beyond praise and demonstrates from their own poets’ praise of Zeus that they know something of this God, who is creator, even if this knowledge is, in comparison to knowing Christ, ignorance. Paul recognizes that in culture there may be bits of truth, the beginnings of God’s self revelation, but he is clear to the Athenians that this truth is ignorance if it is not joined with the knowing God in Jesus Christ, who is raised from the Dead.
The particularity of this claim of truth and that the truth is manifest in someone raised from the dead is too much for the Athenians. It is also too much in our context. Perhaps too much for we who have faith in Jesus Christ? I too have struggled with this. What of those who remain with only the portion of truth? In college I had a professor who was Buddhist with whom I studied Buddhism. If it were not for Christ raised from the dead I could have easily become a Buddhist or Hindu. In my conversations with my professor we talked and I saw in him the gentleness of Christ and the presence of the Spirit, and yet I also had to admit that it was partial, that I could recognize the Spirit because I knew Christ. My professor thought challenged me, to recognize the difference and incompatibility of Buddhism and Christianity. I could not follow Buddha and believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and God. Christianity did not claim that Jesus was a Buddha one who had just achieved enlightenment like everyone else can with enough time. We believe that God was in God’s fullness in Jesus Christ, and the Resurrection is the sign of that the universal truth was in one particular human being. Some of those philosophers and religious reject the Paul’s proclamation of this truth, and remain in the ignorance of the altar to the unknown god, others hearing this connection between their acknowledgement of ignorance of the truth ask to hear more, and some like Dionysius the Aeropagite, accept Paul’s proclamation. Paul wavers neither from commending the small bits of truth their culture has come to nor from asserting that Jesus Christ, the one risen from the dead is the only full revelation of God. The only way to come into the full truth their culture and religion already recognizes is to accept the risen one.
It is the risen one, or rather the one who is to be raised, who speaks to us about our being sent the Spirit of Truth, if we show our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments and thus being in relationship with him. Through Jesus we have relationship with The Father and the Spirit of Truth. These are intended as words of comfort Jesus gives to the disciples knowing he is going to his death and they will be fore a time scattered. There is an assurance that the disciples will not be bereft of relationship to Jesus or God. The assurance that we are not left alone as Jesus’ followers. These words then are not intended to boost our egos as believers, but to give comfort and assurance of relationship. If these words are used for a basis of self-assurance and pride then such an interpretation is a lie foreign to the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit, the advocate, the one who is given so that we may remain in relationship with Jesus Christ, who is one with God the Father, is the Truth as Jesus is the Truth, because all are one and God in relationship in truth and love. Remember the commands Jesus gives are summarized in the command to love one another, spoken at the beginning of this speech of Christ’s that he gives just before he is arrested, which we heard weeks ago on Maundy Thursday. The assurance of these words is that in all that is going to happen in all the confusion that the followers of Jesus are not being left without relationship to Jesus and to God, who is trinity. The Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, are all the truth, we are to relate in love to the truth and obey the truth out of love. This truth should bring us to love one another and neighbor, because truth is a person, and the truth is to be in relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.
All our passages are about truth because God is the truth, the god revealed to us in Jesus Christ who is raised from the dead. There is no other God, but this God, no other full revelation of this God than in the incarnation of the Son as Jesus of Nazareth. This truth as such can only be received in relationship. This isn’t about my experience or my truth this is about the Spirit of Truth who is given to those who enter into relationship with God through the one who is the incarnation of God and thus died and rose from the dead. This is not faith in me as a preacher, or us as Christians or the Church as separate from Jesus Christ, but faith in the Raised one Jesus Christ. Through faith we enter this relationship. By God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ we are made holy and made to be priests. We are to handle ourselves our words about the truth, which is God, and those who demand an answer to why we have hope and faith with reverence and gentleness. We are to be gentle, to act out of love, to hold all things reverently. In so doing we both acknowledges that in various cultures and religions there is some truth and that there is only one complete revelation of God. There is only one who has the whole truth and that is Jesus Christ, because Jesus is God. All other knowledge experience and understanding of God, is partial and thus also an ignorance. But we are to show forth the love, to show that truth is a person, with whom through the incarnation we can have a relationship. We then as Christians as members of the Church, the body of Christ, are possessed by the truth we do not posses it. We only can proclaim what we have received, we are made holy not by our having something but by the act of God in Jesus Christ through Baptism. Salvation is about being in relationship with God. From this relationship come the proclamation and the truth claims of the Church. Everything is bound up with Christ, the one risen from the dead, as the full revelation of God. God came in our midst to reveal God’s self to us and save us through that revelation because without it we only had our ignorance, our meager groping after the truth and God. In the end all other truth claims even ones that get it partially right are ignorance in comparison to knowing and having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and who give us the Spirit of truth, which is expressed and given in gentleness love and compassion.
Sunday, April 20
Fifth Sunday of Easter- The Way The Truth and The Life
Sermon preached by Jorge Sanchez
New Testament: Acts 7:55-60
Psalm: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Gospel: John 14:1-14
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me": one of the most memorable, most poetic, and most often quoted verses in the Gospels, maybe in all the Christian Scriptures. And I find it terrifying.
When I first got the invitation to preach, I was told that I could choose from among a few Sundays, but that this Sunday, today, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, was the Pastoral Team's first choice of when I was to preach.
I looked up the lectionary readings, saw this Gospel, and immediately thought, "Well, that Sunday's out."
Yet as I read the other lessons for other Sundays, this Sunday and particularly this Gospel kept harassing me. After some thought, I decided to accept the challenge and the call God was issuing me through the Pastoral Team's preference.
The Pastoral Team's preference was just that —a preference— but I think God took it over to make it a call to wrestle with the Scriptures.
As I am sure is the case with many, if not most of you, I find this verse greatly troubling. It is a seemingly exclusivist statement; therein lies the great stumbling block for me. No Jesus equals no God equals no heaven, as the rest of the chapter explains or at least implies with its mentions of the many dwelling places in the Father's house.
Exclusivity, in general, does not sit well with me. So much so that for a few years in college and a few after I was a practicing Baha'i, and shortly after Hank was born, when I was beginning to sense a call to ministry and a deeper connection with God, I though of answering that sense of call within the Unitarian Universalist tradition. While I feel certain of what the Truth is, I am not comfortable with that Truth becoming a barrier; indeed, I do not think the Truth is a barrier, the way so many mis-use this verse to make it a litmus test as to who is and who is not, who may and who may not call themselves children of God.
So there I was, thinking about preaching for the first time, and I could choose to look at this verse —this scary verse that made me very suspicious and defensive— or I could choose another. So, as I
am a fool, I chose to preach tonight.
And before I begin reflecting on tonight's lessons, I hope that, if nothing else, you realize the necessity of grappling with passages of Scripture that are troubling, confusing, seemingly uncharitable and exclusive. While in our own personal study we may be able to say, as Marilynne Robinson says, "One wishes it were not so," we cannot in our witness to the church and the world. Too often those who identify as progressive/liberal/pick-your-label Christians simply pass over these passages about sex, or vengeance, or patriarchy, or exclusivity with a dismissive "Oh, the Spirit says something different now," or "Well, it's clear that's just wrong." That's not enough.
So, once I tried to figure out what this Gospel meant I looked at this passage in context, both of John's Gospel and the lectionary.
Something I had never noticed is that Jesus says this after the washing of feet. Jesus says this right before he dies. Judas has ducked out of the party early, and the Apostles know something is up. Thomas asks, "Where are you going?" Phillip pleads, "Show us the Father." They all look at him and, with their eyes, they say, "Throw us a freakin' bone here, Jesus. Things are getting weird. Things are getting scary."
And Jesus gives this perplexing, baffling, challenging, non-answer: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus is saying here the Incarnation is sufficient for knowing God: "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do." If you want to know God, Philip, do the works that I do, because I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To know God do the works I do.
And here is a new challenge this presents: the one who does the works of God knows God, whether we agree with that one or not. That includes Christians we disagree with as well as non-Christians who are doing the work of God. With a seemingly exclusive statement, Jesus includes all those who do the work of God and thereby know God. Jesus healed and consoled and guided, but he also prayed quietly in the Temple and included and, yes, rebuked people, pushing them closer to the truth of their lives to hopefully push them closer to the Truth of the Gospels.
We the many members of the Body may not always understand each other, may not always agree with each other, but the multi-faceted even idiosyncratic witness we give is the very Incarnation itself: it is the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except by finding and accepting one's unique vocation, right here, right now, both short-term and long-term: it might be changing baby diapers or adult diapers or dealing with the crap we get from a person who's hurting or scared or lost or drunk with power or willfully oblivious to the needs of others.
Take Stephen. Poor Stephen! A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a deacon, chosen and set aside to serve —to do the works of discipleship, to take care of the most marginalized of the marginal, the widows and the poor— he walks the Way, the Truth, the Life, and less than sixty verses later it gets him stoned! That stinks! Discipleship sucks! The Way is hard! Thank God for those dwelling places, otherwise Stephen is S.O.L. So associated has Stephen been with his martyrdom that he is often depicted in artwork with those fateful stones floating around him or even resting on his tonsured head.
What does this mean for us? The stewardship we expect to be our vocation might not be what we are remembered for; our witness might be associated with some rather unpleasant rocks. I say this because our vocation goes beyond social justice. It is easy to think of serving those who are economically or politically disenfranchised, but this is a diverse neighborhood in many ways. Part of this church's ministry might be to minister to the spiritually lost and poor, a ministry I find somewhat distasteful. I grew up Roman Catholic, so the focus on solidarity and service to the poor runs deep, but I wonder if sometimes we are also called to minister to those who are poor in hidden ways.
But take note, even in that hard, hard moment of martyrdom, putting his money where his mouth was, taking his last stumbling Steps, Stephen prays for those who stone him. Not condescendingly, not self-righteously, not smugly, but in love, in the love of the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
And yet First Peter consoles us, as if the two poles of the Way are martyrdom and consolation: long for the spiritual milk of fellowship, of love, of the good in the world. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." We are to live as a body of priests to serve God and God through God's people. You —like Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene, Thecla, Junia— are not perfect, often fearful, sometimes sinful, but good enough because we are children of God through the Incarnation.
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." The Way is hard but it is do-able, scary, but be not afraid because we are up to the task.
Andrew Marr of Saint Gregory's Abbey quotes another monk, Sebastian Moore of Downside Abbey, as saying "Fear keeps the show going the way we know it and prefer it."
Marr explains that the "show" referred to is "the tendency to keep our society going by making a point of excluding some people s o that we can define ourselves by what we are not rather than we are. In the risen life, [in the life of an Easter people] we define ourselves by who we are —children of God.
Christ is risen. Let us walk the Way, proclaim the Truth, and embrace the Life as children of God, gathering around the Table and inviting everyone —everyone— in.
New Testament: Acts 7:55-60
Psalm: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Gospel: John 14:1-14
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me": one of the most memorable, most poetic, and most often quoted verses in the Gospels, maybe in all the Christian Scriptures. And I find it terrifying.
When I first got the invitation to preach, I was told that I could choose from among a few Sundays, but that this Sunday, today, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, was the Pastoral Team's first choice of when I was to preach.
I looked up the lectionary readings, saw this Gospel, and immediately thought, "Well, that Sunday's out."
Yet as I read the other lessons for other Sundays, this Sunday and particularly this Gospel kept harassing me. After some thought, I decided to accept the challenge and the call God was issuing me through the Pastoral Team's preference.
The Pastoral Team's preference was just that —a preference— but I think God took it over to make it a call to wrestle with the Scriptures.
As I am sure is the case with many, if not most of you, I find this verse greatly troubling. It is a seemingly exclusivist statement; therein lies the great stumbling block for me. No Jesus equals no God equals no heaven, as the rest of the chapter explains or at least implies with its mentions of the many dwelling places in the Father's house.
Exclusivity, in general, does not sit well with me. So much so that for a few years in college and a few after I was a practicing Baha'i, and shortly after Hank was born, when I was beginning to sense a call to ministry and a deeper connection with God, I though of answering that sense of call within the Unitarian Universalist tradition. While I feel certain of what the Truth is, I am not comfortable with that Truth becoming a barrier; indeed, I do not think the Truth is a barrier, the way so many mis-use this verse to make it a litmus test as to who is and who is not, who may and who may not call themselves children of God.
So there I was, thinking about preaching for the first time, and I could choose to look at this verse —this scary verse that made me very suspicious and defensive— or I could choose another. So, as I
am a fool, I chose to preach tonight.
And before I begin reflecting on tonight's lessons, I hope that, if nothing else, you realize the necessity of grappling with passages of Scripture that are troubling, confusing, seemingly uncharitable and exclusive. While in our own personal study we may be able to say, as Marilynne Robinson says, "One wishes it were not so," we cannot in our witness to the church and the world. Too often those who identify as progressive/liberal/pick-your-label Christians simply pass over these passages about sex, or vengeance, or patriarchy, or exclusivity with a dismissive "Oh, the Spirit says something different now," or "Well, it's clear that's just wrong." That's not enough.
So, once I tried to figure out what this Gospel meant I looked at this passage in context, both of John's Gospel and the lectionary.
Something I had never noticed is that Jesus says this after the washing of feet. Jesus says this right before he dies. Judas has ducked out of the party early, and the Apostles know something is up. Thomas asks, "Where are you going?" Phillip pleads, "Show us the Father." They all look at him and, with their eyes, they say, "Throw us a freakin' bone here, Jesus. Things are getting weird. Things are getting scary."
And Jesus gives this perplexing, baffling, challenging, non-answer: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus is saying here the Incarnation is sufficient for knowing God: "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do." If you want to know God, Philip, do the works that I do, because I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To know God do the works I do.
And here is a new challenge this presents: the one who does the works of God knows God, whether we agree with that one or not. That includes Christians we disagree with as well as non-Christians who are doing the work of God. With a seemingly exclusive statement, Jesus includes all those who do the work of God and thereby know God. Jesus healed and consoled and guided, but he also prayed quietly in the Temple and included and, yes, rebuked people, pushing them closer to the truth of their lives to hopefully push them closer to the Truth of the Gospels.
We the many members of the Body may not always understand each other, may not always agree with each other, but the multi-faceted even idiosyncratic witness we give is the very Incarnation itself: it is the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except by finding and accepting one's unique vocation, right here, right now, both short-term and long-term: it might be changing baby diapers or adult diapers or dealing with the crap we get from a person who's hurting or scared or lost or drunk with power or willfully oblivious to the needs of others.
Take Stephen. Poor Stephen! A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a deacon, chosen and set aside to serve —to do the works of discipleship, to take care of the most marginalized of the marginal, the widows and the poor— he walks the Way, the Truth, the Life, and less than sixty verses later it gets him stoned! That stinks! Discipleship sucks! The Way is hard! Thank God for those dwelling places, otherwise Stephen is S.O.L. So associated has Stephen been with his martyrdom that he is often depicted in artwork with those fateful stones floating around him or even resting on his tonsured head.
What does this mean for us? The stewardship we expect to be our vocation might not be what we are remembered for; our witness might be associated with some rather unpleasant rocks. I say this because our vocation goes beyond social justice. It is easy to think of serving those who are economically or politically disenfranchised, but this is a diverse neighborhood in many ways. Part of this church's ministry might be to minister to the spiritually lost and poor, a ministry I find somewhat distasteful. I grew up Roman Catholic, so the focus on solidarity and service to the poor runs deep, but I wonder if sometimes we are also called to minister to those who are poor in hidden ways.
But take note, even in that hard, hard moment of martyrdom, putting his money where his mouth was, taking his last stumbling Steps, Stephen prays for those who stone him. Not condescendingly, not self-righteously, not smugly, but in love, in the love of the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
And yet First Peter consoles us, as if the two poles of the Way are martyrdom and consolation: long for the spiritual milk of fellowship, of love, of the good in the world. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." We are to live as a body of priests to serve God and God through God's people. You —like Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene, Thecla, Junia— are not perfect, often fearful, sometimes sinful, but good enough because we are children of God through the Incarnation.
"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." The Way is hard but it is do-able, scary, but be not afraid because we are up to the task.
Andrew Marr of Saint Gregory's Abbey quotes another monk, Sebastian Moore of Downside Abbey, as saying "Fear keeps the show going the way we know it and prefer it."
Marr explains that the "show" referred to is "the tendency to keep our society going by making a point of excluding some people s o that we can define ourselves by what we are not rather than we are. In the risen life, [in the life of an Easter people] we define ourselves by who we are —children of God.
Christ is risen. Let us walk the Way, proclaim the Truth, and embrace the Life as children of God, gathering around the Table and inviting everyone —everyone— in.
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