Pentecost and Memorial Day

How interesting a major feast of the church, Pentecost, intersects with major secular commemoration of those who died in our various wars, defending us and our values.  Can we find some connection between them?

Let’s consider Pentecost first.  The arrival of the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ, empowered his followers in amazing ways.  Every year we read the passage from the Book of Acts about the gathered disciples experiencing a violent wind and something like tongues of fire.  Then they were speaking ecstatically in a way they could be understood by folks who came from various regions.  They impressed onlookers as drunk!  What did this mean? Peter, the disciple no longer fearful for his safety, spoke out to let the questioners know how God had acted. Citing a prophecy from Joel, Peter explained that God’s power “in the last days” would manifest itself by the behavior of people and natural phenomena. The rich images of the end of time still fascinate us: “And [God] will show portents in the heaven above and on the earth below, blood, and fire and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the Lord’s great and glorious day.”

What excitement!  What hope for the end of the world of evil, pain, and division!  Yet we know that hope has not yet been realized. 

So we are left with the reality of Jesus’ absence.  He did not return as the first Christians had hoped.  The passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans addresses his concern about our human frailty when we have to rely on hope that God will not abandon us.  So we hear Paul’s encouragement that God’s Spirit will strengthen us and intercede for us so we do not lose hope.

Jesus’ explanation of what he intends for his disciples provides us with yet another picture of God’s Spirit.  The writer of John’s gospel calls this gift from God “the Spirit of truth, the Advocate.” The purpose of the Advocate is to help the disciples testify about who Jesus is by guiding them to the truth about Jesus.

Looking at these three portraits of the God’s Spirit, we may find ourselves favoring one point of view or the other—or maybe sometimes one and sometimes another.  But in all three cases the Spirit is active with us, because God does not want us to feel abandoned. Rather, the Spirit works to empower us, to engender hope and to guide us in seeing God’s revelation of God’s self in the world. All of this, of course, because Jesus could not remain on earth, and he recognized the sorrow his absence would cause.  And now the Spirit’s work continues in each our lives as we deal with evil, with pain, with our fear of death, with all things on this earth that try to separate us knowing God’s love.

This, perhaps, is the link that we can make this year between Pentecost and Memorial Day.  As we remember that those who have fallen in the battlefields or were lost at sea defending our way of life.

God’s Spirit can be with us in all circumstances, especially in those times when evil appears to triumph, when we feel powerless and when we wonder where God has gone.  We pray that the men and women who served our country in wartime and lost their lives were held in the Spirit’s embrace as they suffered and died.

How difficult is Memorial Day for those left behind? Retired Staff Sergeant Luke Murphy wrote an article for CNN online that speaks about this suffering: “As a wounded veteran who served two tours in Iraq, I've been asked to give speeches at Memorial Day celebrations. It's one of the hardest jobs I've ever done.  Veterans Day is easy.  Fourth of July, a piece of cake.  But Memorial Day, that's a tough one. Service members like me think about the soldiers we lost pretty often. I remember when [my friend] was alive, all the stuff we did -- the training, combat and even just hanging out together off duty. Then my mind usually goes to the day of his death. I remember where I was when I heard about it, or what it felt like to see him catastrophically wounded. I picture their faces. They're young; they never get old.”

Sgt. Murphy’s grief at the loss of soldiers who were his buddies could be where God’s Spirit finds work to do on this Memorial Day.  The Spirit would be walking with Sgt. Murphy through his grief, encouraging him and embracing him in God’s love.  The grief won’t and shouldn’t be forgotten, but can be redeemed by the Spirit “who intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

So let us rejoice today that God’s Spirit empowers us, sustains our hope, and guides us.  And let us also remember, with thanksgiving, those service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives for us. Let us remember their sacrifice in silence . . . Amen.

The 7th Sunday of Easter: Trusting in God: "Your Word Is Truth"

This summer the Episcopal Church through voting at General Convention will elect a new Presiding Bishop.  There are four candidates. One of the candidates, Bishop Michael Curry, spoke at our Diocesan Convention several years ago. I know a little bit about 2 of the others. All seem to be highly qualified. Yet I wonder if they realize the whirlwind that leading the Episcopal Church will be.

When the current Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori visited Delaware this past winter, she met with various groups up and down the state. I went to a lunch meeting in Celeste Cox’s home and found myself sitting next to her as we balanced our plates on our laps. We chatted briefly and I told her how proud I was of the Episcopal Church under her leadership. I added that she has suffered a lot of criticism, much of it unfair.  She replied, “It goes with the territory.”

For a long while in our history the Presiding Bishop was simply the most senior bishop and remained a diocesan bishop, except when needed to preside over the House of Bishops.  So, although it wasn't by lot, the longevity of one bishop vs. others meant that no one “stood” for the office. Since 1919 the PB has been elected.

What if the “election” process looked like the way Matthias was chosen: praying for God to see which person would be best and then casting lots (in a carefully supervised and video taped moment).  Historically, casting lots was done using sticks with markings, stones with symbols that were thrown into a small area, and then the result was interpreted. I imagine sometimes the interpretation could have been problematic with disagreements among observers.  So the best way today might simply be to draw straws, one with the shortest straw (the loser) becomes Presiding Bishop.

This description offends our democratic sensibilities, I think.  Although many of us profess to try to discern where God may be leading us when we make a decision, it would be hard—were I a General Convention delegate—to give up my vote for Presiding Bishop.  I would prayerfully vote, but that would be my limit. 

Perhaps what the disciples understood God to be like allowed them to trust this ancient method of choosing leadership. The passage we just heard from the 17^th chapter of John’s gospel tells how Jesus understood the one he called “Father.”  What has been called Jesus’ high priestly prayer depicts God as the One who acted and who will continue to act—the One who has given and will continue to give.

God acted in giving the disciples to Jesus. God gave Jesus the words the disciples needed to hear to understand the truth of Jesus.  God will act to protect the disciples in his name, so they may enter the relationship that the Father and the Son have and experience joy in doing that.  God will act to protect them from “the evil one.” Finally, God will sanctify them, setting them apart for the sacred task of mission, testifying to the truth of God’s revelation of God’s self in Jesus..

Because Jesus spoke this prayer as a plea on behalf of his disciples, it may well resonate with us today as followers of the risen Christ. Jesus’s prayer shows that he “entrusts the future to God.”  The community of his followers will understand that their life together “rests in and depends on God’s care.” The intimate relationship conveyed by the tone of Jesus’ words offers a glimpse of how we may relate to God as well. We can envision a future “in which God’s governance and care of [us] is complete” and “in which the experience of God’s love for [us] is realized.”*

But in the meantime we have been set apart for the sacred mission of testifying to God’s revelation of God’s self in Jesus.  If that sounds a bit abstract, it is.  But it can be made very real in the way we live and the way we explain our choices to others.  The Vestry is reading and discussing a book by Dr. Eric Law called “Holy Currencies.”  In it he suggests ways in which a Christian community can “spend” and “receive” certain parts of its life together to renew itself and enrich its ministry to serve. 

One currency he describes is “the currency of truth.” Giving and receiving “truth” means encouraging respectful sharing and listening to all possible points of view about a particular issue. I was reminded of our “holy conversations” about same-sex marriage, guns, and the death penalty several years ago. (I did use some techniques I learned in a workshop with Eric Law during a clergy retreat.)  Choosing to participate in these and following the guidelines, we may have found ourselves more aware of God’s presence as we listened to folks who held opinions quite different than our own.  If we can become so aware of God’s presence in a situation where people disagree, then perhaps “casting lots” does not appear quite as antiquated as it first looks to modern eyes.

I’d like to close with a doxology written by Eric Law (which can be sung to the traditional tune):

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Circling the earth so all may grow

Vanquishing fear so all may life

Widening grace so all may live” 

May we see ourselves and our ministries as filled with God’s joy and grace, so God may be revealed through who we are and in what we do.

*Gail R. O’Day, Reflections on John 17: 1-26, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, p.797-8

The 5th Sunday of Easter - God Abides in Us and We in God: Bearing Fruit?

As you know, before I preach I pray.  I created the prayer to bring the experience of preaching and listening into a relationship.  You, I and God make up the relationship.  “ Gracious God, be in our hearts; be our minds; be in our lives—and help is to live in your Holy Word.”

God’s Holy Word as scripture should by my preaching and by your listening be broken open in such a way that God can be better known.  We can never understand God fully.  But as my grandson would say, “You can try.”  “Trying” in this context means approaching the Liturgy of the Word—the reading of scripture and the preaching—with an open heart and with an attentive and open mind. God’s revelation of God’s self can happen in the relationship we have created today—a relationship may seem quite momentary, ephemeral—but the feelings and perceptions that arise in this momentary relationship can be carried forward in our lives beyond  these walls.  You may not remember my words—I don’t even remember them for very long—but the experience of feelings and perceptions engendered can last through the hours and days and weeks to come.

The final phrase of my prayer becomes important now.  To “live in God’s Holy Word” doesn’t means to keep all the commandments.  That would be to live by God’s Word.”  To “live in God Word” is to dwell in relationship with God—perhaps we might say “abide.”

“Abide” that word comes up again and again from both the first letter of John and and from the passage from John’s gospel:

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

The literal translation from the Greek in 1 John that talks about God abiding in us and we in God sounds a bit strange but helps to clarify the epistle writer’s meaning: “the God in us stays” and “in him we stay.”  The same verb is used by Jesus in describing the relationship between the vine and the branches: “the one staying in me and I in him . . .”

So “abide”—yes, an old fashioned word—could refer to the modern concept of “hanging out with” or just “hanging with.”  And, in a more theological sense, since these texts are speaking about God and humans, “being in relationship with.”  Not, of course, just you and God—but you, God, and other folk.

When we abide in in Jesus, the vine, there lots of branches. More than than the fact that many branches are all connected to Jesus, there is the issue of these branches bearing fruit or not.  The fruit referred to in Jesus’ illustration takes its life and achieves its purpose of nourishing humankind only in relationship with the central vine.  So God stays in us and we in God.

Because God’s Holy Word is more than scripture, it is Jesus and God’s creative power.  The writer of Genesis uses this phrase with each act of creation, “And God said . . .”  The writer of John’s gospel tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  So when we “live in God’s Holy Word,” we become part of a relationship that will make our lives fruitful signs do the coming of God’s reign.

As I was thinking about “abiding” this week and through “abiding” bearing fruit, my mind kept coming back to the two tragedies in the news this week: the devastating earthquake in Nepal and the street violence in Baltimore. 

In Nepal the local rescuers worked and worked, even after they thought all the survivors had been rescued.  They continued their tasks, I believe, because of their relationship to the people in the destroyed communities. They were abiding, staying at their tasks, because of the relationships  they lived in with others of that community. 

In Baltimore, I heard a report that clergy who served in the area of the unrest did their best to connect with young people and their parents on Tuesday after Monday’s looting and burning.  They sought to remind them that this community where they lived, you could say “abided,” would not be made better through acts of destruction. Their relationships in the community were important, and working together in those relationships they could advocate for the change they desired.  Did this make a difference? It’s hard to say, since other factors changed on Tuesday as well.  Did the people of the neighborhood who came out to help clean up the streets on Tuesday make a difference? Again hard to say, but this showed people recognizing that they live in relationship—abiding in a place with others—and need to bear fruit in that relationship.

So there is God’s abiding in us and we in God, our living in God’s Holy Word, and our living in communities with relationships connecting us to each other—and to God, even if the people with whom we are abiding don’t understand God as we do. What can this look like for each of us? What can this look like for our parish?  Can our commitment—with God’s help—to staying in relationship and bearing fruit be a sign of God’s coming reign?