Thursday, December 31, 2015

Welcoming the Hidden Christ – Scripture Readings and Discussion Questions

 

Welcoming the Hidden Christ – Scripture Readings and Discussion Questions

Genesis 18:1-8 Abraham and Sarah entertain angelic visitors
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

1. What is your picture of ideal hospitality?  2. Why welcome strangers?  3. What came of this meeting?  4. What can you expect from entertaining strangers?  5. Did Abraham and Sarah know what they were doing, who they were entertaining?  6. Do we recognize the people we are offering hospitality?  7. Does it matter?

Leviticus 19:33-34 (NRSV)
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:33-34 (KJV)
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (NRSV)
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

1. These passages seem to be about respecting those who are already in the country – ‘resident aliens’. How do we treat new arrivals? “new Americans”? Do we treat temporary visitors and new citizens differently? Why?  2. What are the definitions of migrant, refugee, asylum seeker?


Deuteronomy 26:5-7 (NRSV)
You shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

Deuteronomy 26:5-7 (KJV)
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression…

1. This passage, and others, treats sojourners and aliens as somehow similar to widows and orphans and the sick and the imprisoned, that is, as people on the margins, but people with a special claim on our hearts.  2. How do we respond? Do our own experiences of marginalization (as children, minorities, unemployed, etc.) change our response?

1 Kings 17:8-16 The Widow of Zarephath shelters Elijah

Matthew 25:31-46 esp.
v.35 “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” and
v.43 “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me”

1. The scene of final judgment before the throne of God at the end of time is the setting of this passage. Can we imagine that?  2. Here the poor, the marginalized, and the stranger, are identified with Christ himself (though hidden). How does this help us confront the stranger in our own lives?

Romans 15:7
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Ephesians 2:14
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

Ephesians 2:19-20
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

1. These passages talk about hospitality within the context of the unity within the church between Jews and non-Jews. Are there dividing walls in our own time that Christ breaks down?

Hebrews 13:2 (KJV)
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

* * *

"Ya it's interesting how people don't make that hospitality and immigration connection." — someone who works on the border

The United Nations uses “migrant” generally to refer to people living outside their homeland for a year or more regardless of their reason or legal status and often includes international business people or diplomats who are on the move but not economically disadvantaged. The IOM’s World Migration Report 2005 defines “undocumented” or “irregular migrants” as “workers or members of their families not authorized to enter, to stay or to engage in employment in a state” … The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a “refugee” as one who, “owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinions, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”… The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), … defines “internally displaced persons” as those “who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border”…
            Some people may flee their homelands because of political persecution and fall under the category of forced migrants or refugees, for example, but their motivations may also stem from economic considerations and therefore the same people can be economic migrants as well. Most migrants are motivated by “push” factors that drive them away from their homelands and “pull” factors that draw them to better lives in another place. [The term] “refugees” highlights some of the most vulnerable people of the migrant population. (Daniel G. Groody CSC, “Crossing the Divide: Foundations of a Theology of Migration and Refugees” Theological Studies 70 (2009) 642-643 n.)

asylum-seeker:  “an individual who says he/she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitely evaluated.”  (UNHCR)

* * *

From Coracle, the quarterly magazine of the Iona Community (Winter 2015):

John R. Leech (USA): Recently I have observed and participated in a variety of border and immigration ministries in southern Arizona and northern Mexico, from hospitality (el comedor, Kino Border Initiative, Sonora) to deportation proceedings (Special procedures court, ‘Operation Streamline’, Tucson federal courthouse), from keeping vigil at el Tiradito shrine, remembering those who have died crossing the desert, to training with Tucson Samaritans, and serving at the comedor with Samaritans of Sahuarita and Green Valley.

I have spoken with members of St Michael and All Angels and St Andrew’s Episcopal Churches in Tucson, and with volunteers of the Casa Mariposa/Restoration Project, who have been meeting people at the Greyhound bus station in Tucson, people recently released from detention by ICE/Border Patrol.

This autumn the big news had two parts. First, the Tucson bus station began receiving eighty people a night, women with children, released with instructions to appear for a hearing within a month at an immigration court – presumably near family already in the United States – lest an order for removal close their case. No warning. Just dropped off.

Second, the incredible news that the Border Patrol has flown a thousand kids from Texas to Arizona and then put them into a warehouse (I’ve seen it from the road – it is meant for pallets of flour, not for people) in Nogales, AZ. These are unaccompanied minors from Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras), refugees from violence and extreme poverty. The warehouse serves as a temporary (promise: 72 hours) detention facility. It is on La Quinta Road near the truck crossing into Mexico.

The ongoing need for change in policy and practice, compassionate work for change and a deeper understanding of our fellow human beings – exploited and caught in the middle of a gigantic and ongoing crisis – and the need to reach out in love across boundaries: all this continues.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is that this situation is similar to so many others in humanitarian relief and development work: there is an immediate crisis that gets our attention – and an ongoing problem that needs lasting sustained effort.

All of a sudden on our own southern border is an immense influx of refugees, in two remarkable groups, women with children seeking to be reunited with their families, and unaccompanied minors, mainly teenagers but also younger children, who have been sent north without adults.

Preponderantly these people have come north through Mexico from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Why? Besides a sell-job by human smugglers, there are economic and political reasons for this migration.

People come to Arizona to work, to re-unite with their families, or to find and begin a new chapter in their life.

We need to practice a theology of hospitality – a spirituality of migration. We were strangers once too. So – an ongoing need is there. The need for change – in our national policies, in our practices of welcome, in our influence on conditions in other countries, in our attitudes toward the ‘foreigner’ – continues.

(“Sparks of the Light”, Coracle, Winter 2014, 13-14)


sparks

 
John R. Leech (USA): Recently I have observed and participated in a variety of border and immigration ministries in southern Arizona and northern Mexico, from hospitality (el comedor, Kino Border Initiative, Sonora) to deportation proceedings (Special procedures court, ‘Operation Streamline’, Tucson federal courthouse), from keeping vigil at el Tiradito shrine, remembering those who have died crossing the desert, to training with Tucson Samaritans, and serving at the comedor with Samaritans of Sahuarita and Green Valley.

I have spoken with members of St Michael and All Angels and St Andrew’s Episcopal Churches in Tucson, and with volunteers of the Casa Mariposa/Restoration Project, who have been meeting people at the Greyhound bus station in Tucson, people recently released from detention by ICE/Border Patrol.

This autumn the big news had two parts. First, the Tucson bus station began receiving eighty people a night, women with children, released with instructions to appear for a hearing within a month at an immigration court – presumably near family already in the United States – lest an order for removal close their case. No warning. Just dropped off.

Second, the incredible news that the Border Patrol has flown a thousand kids from Texas to Arizona and then put them into a warehouse (I’ve seen it from the road – it is meant for pallets of flour, not for people) in Nogales, AZ. These are unaccompanied minors from Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras), refugees from violence and extreme poverty. The warehouse serves as a temporary (promise: 72 hours) detention facility. It is on La Quinta Road near the truck crossing into Mexico.

The ongoing need for change in policy and practice, compassionate work for change and a deeper understanding of our fellow human beings – exploited and caught in the middle of a gigantic and ongoing crisis – and the need to reach out in love across boundaries: all this continues.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is that this situation is similar to so many others in humanitarian relief and development work: there is an immediate crisis that gets our attention – and an ongoing problem that needs lasting sustained effort.

All of a sudden on our own southern border is an immense influx of refugees, in two remarkable groups, women with children seeking to be reunited with their families, and unaccompanied minors, mainly teenagers but also younger children, who have been sent north without adults.

Preponderantly these people have come north through Mexico from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Why? Besides a sell-job by human smugglers, there are economic and political reasons for this migration.

People come to Arizona to work, to re-unite with their families, or to find and begin a new chapter in their life.

We need to practice a theology of hospitality – a spirituality of migration. We were strangers once too. So – an ongoing need is there. The need for change – in our national policies, in our practices of welcome, in our influence on conditions in other countries, in our attitudes toward the ‘foreigner’ – continues.

(“Sparks of the Light”, Coracle, the quarterly magazine of the Iona Community, Winter 2014, 13-14)  
http://iona.org.uk/media/coracle/

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Christmas1



This is the Sunday of Light: of the Light that shines in the Darkness and the Darkness has never put it out.

This is the Sunday we bear witness to the Light: the Light of the Good News of God.

What we have done this year, this past Advent and this ongoing Christmas season, is to bear forth into the world the Good news that is the Light of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

We do this through our actions, as symbolic as our liturgy, and as concrete as our activity during the week, in the world. We show forth the Light, and we bear witness to it, potentially in all we do.

This past few weeks I have been the grateful witness and participant in many manifestations of the light in the midst of darkness. I have been aware of the darkness, of fear and misunderstanding and willful hate, of ignorance and exclusion and pompous piety. And I have been aware that throughout all of this we the witnesses to the light have not given up.

In fact, we have shone out! – in so many ways…

I see it in the processions – in the All Souls procession from St John the Evangelist parish church down to the mission church of San Xavier, and in Las Posadas right over on South Main Avenue with the schoolchildren of Carrillo School.

I have seen the light of Christ shining, being borne forth by his people.

I have seen it in the pointedly political bi-national Las Posadas on the border in Nogales, with the dioceses of Tucson and Nogales leading, and many people concerned with our border and immigration policy and practices taking part in a mildly long walk.

I have seen it in our Christmas celebrations, in church and community – church in community:

·     Advent Lessons and Carols
·     Bake sale at the Parade of Lights
·     Carols and Beer!
·     Longest Night service – and all our services.

When we take a gift to a friend or a greeting to a neighbor, when we wave someone ahead of us on the street or in line at the grocery store, it may not mean much to us – or to them. But it gets us going. It gets us started on another path than the one that leaves us in shadow.

When on Christmas Eve a few of us were talking through the fine points of the liturgy, Vicar Kate reminded us that the gospel book itself bears witness to the light. When it was carried first in procession, before the story of the Christ Child was read, it was the vessel of illumination. It carried a light that was leading the way – the light of the Good News of God.

As we heard that story again and for the first time that night, we could almost see the glow around the people gathered in the little town where the child lay. There in that faraway place, new Light had come into the world.
It came in dangerous times, in a risky way. It came in by the small door, not through palace gates, but in an ordinary small place.

Light comes to us sometimes without angels – or with only shepherds to witness. Sometimes we are the shepherds, the poor ones trying to keep warm on a cold night – just doing our jobs. But then…

The word comes to us and dwells among us, the word which is the light of all people.

We have a new job to do.

That job – that work – is to bear witness to the Light; what that means, how that plays out for each of us, is the daily task, and the daily opportunity, of our new lives in Christ.

May we as we go forth into the world into this new-coming year, bring with us a little bit of the glow of Christmas night, as we too, like the shepherds and angels before us, try to hold aloft the Light that reveals the truth to all, and the glory to all, of God with us.

Eternal light, scatter the darkness from our hearts and minds, enlighten our lives with you glory, and give us the power and wisdom to live as sons and daughters of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


David Adam, Glimpses of Glory (SPCK, 2000) 18.

Preached at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona. Sunday 27 December 2016
JRL+

Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Sunday of Light

First Sunday after Christmas

This is the Sunday of Light: of the Light that shines in the Darkness and the Darkness has never put it out. This is the Sunday we bear witness to the Light: the Light of the Good News of God.

What we have done this year, this past Advent and this ongoing Christmas season, is to bear forth into the world the Good news that is the Light of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

We do this through our actions, symbolic as our liturgy, and our activity during the week, in the world. We show forth the Light, and we bear witness to it, potentially in all we do.

This past month I have been the grateful witness and participant in many manifestations of the light in the midst of darkness. I have been aware of the darkness, of fear and misunderstanding and willful hate, of ignorance and exclusion and pompous piety. And I have been aware that throughout all of this we the witnesses to the light have not given up.

We have not given in. I see it in the processions – in the procession on All Hallows’ Eve from St John the Evangelist parish church down to the mission church of San Xavier, in Las Posadas right over on South Main Avenue with the schoolchildren of Carrillo School. I have seen it in the more pointedly political bi-national Las Posadas on the border in Nogales, with the dioceses of Tucson and Nogales leading, and many people concerned with our border and immigration policy and practices taking part in a mildly long walk.

When we take a gift or a greeting to a neighbor, when we wave someone ahead of us on the street or in line at the grocery store, it may not mean much to us – or to them. But it gets us going. It gets us started on another path than the one that leaves us in shadow.

When on Christmas Eve we were talking through the fine points of the liturgy, Vicar Kate reminded us that the gospel book itself bears witness to the light. When it was carried first in procession, before the story of the Christ Child was read, it was the vessel of illumination. It carried a light that was leading the way.

As we heard that story again and for the first time that night, we could almost see the glow around the people gathered in the little town where the child lay. There in that faraway place, whether the child was in a barn or a cozy back room of a family home, new Light had come into the world. It came in dangerous times, in a risky way. It came in by the small door, not through the gates of the palace, but in an ordinary small place.

Light comes to us sometimes without angels – or with only shepherds to witness. Sometimes we are the shepherds, the poor ones trying to keep warm on a cold night – just doing our jobs. But then…

The word comes to us and dwells among us, the word which is the light of all people.

When we see it, when we hear it, we may not know how to ignore it. We have a new job to do.

That job – that work – is to bear witness to the Light; what that means, how that plays out for each of us, is the daily task, and the daily opportunity, of our new lives in Christ.

May we as we go forth into the world into this new-coming year, bring with us a little bit of the glow of Christmas night, as we too, like the shepherds and star-watchers before us, try to hold aloft the Light that reveals the truth to all and the glory to all of God with us.


 
Sunday 27 December 2016
St Andrew's Episcopal Church
Tucson, Arizona




Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Welcoming the Hidden Christ - reading list

Gray-Reeves, Mary, and Michael Perham. The Hospitality of God: Emerging Worship for a Missional Church. New York: Seabury Books/Church Publishing. 2011.

Morris, Clayton L. Holy Hospitality: Worship and the Baptismal Covenant. A Practical Guide for Congregations. New York: Church Publishing. 2005.

Pratt, Loni Collins, and Daniel Homan, O.S.B. Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press. 2002.

Smith, Gary, S.J. Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor. Chicago: Jesuit Way/Loyola Press. 2002.

Spellers, Stephanie. Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation. New York: Church Publishing. 2006.





Friday, December 4, 2015

whose story?


What story are you in? Whose story? Are you in a story of fear or a story of joy?

Is this passage from Luke two stories:
one of fear, anxiety, and power;
one of joy, gratitude – and truth?

You could look at it that way – or you could look at it as one story –
one story of how the people of God move through times of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear; through temptations to greed, pride, envy, and all the rest;
to a place beside the birth site of Jesus,
to a time of joy, fulfillment, and peace,
that like God’s presence is already but not yet visible among us.

Advent after all is a time of joyful anticipation, expectation, and preparation for God’s presence yet to come…
but it is a time also to remind ourselves that
that presence has always been with us –
that the God who is to come, proclaimed by John and heralded by angels,
is already among us, already present.

The Hidden Christ –
the one seen in the face of a stranger, in an outstretched hand of welcome, -
is among us, waiting to be known:
to be newly born at Christmas,
surprisingly revealed in Epiphany, and
finally recognized on the Cross and in the glory of the Resurrection.

That Christ is present with us now.


Luke 3:1-6



Baruch 5:1-9
or Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 4 or 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6