Keeping the Faith on Memorial Day

 Over there is your great-uncle Francis and here is your great-great-uncle Thomas. Your great aunt Maud is there and Mary, your second cousin twice removed, is here. And you are standing on your great-great uncle Mark. I jumped! Great aunt Carol had taken me with her on her annual Memorial Day visit to the cemetery where her family, and mine, were buried. I have not taken up her practice but I think of her every year. It is some comfort to me, not just for the people whom I had never met and whose names I heard for the first time that day, but for all the people I have known that have passed away.

Memorial Day - Scouts decorate veterans’ graves with flags. People barbecue. And sometimes we remember.

This year I am thinking about the girl in the gospel, twelve years of age, who lay on her death bed as Jesus tarried on the way, to heal a woman of seventeen years’ affliction. He came, but apparently too late: “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” Jesus nevertheless went to the child’s bedside, saying, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” They laughed at him. But he dismissed the crowd, and took the girl by the hand: “Little girl, get up!” (Mark 5:21-43)

William Temple says, maybe Jesus wasn’t wrong. Maybe Jesus knew what he was doing. Maybe the girl was at the point of death. 

Or maybe “sleeping” was just a figure of speech. In any case, the father was in distress, and anticipating the end of his daughter’s life, when he came to Jesus in the first place. 

Anticipatory grief, grief in advance of the expected loss, can take many forms. The desperate plea of a father - not so desperate, as he had faith that this faith-healer could make his daughter well - or the casual disbelief of the onlooking crowd. 

What we are assured of is that those who are going before us into that good night are, like us, in the hands of God. There may be no great-aunt Carol for us to remember us, but we are held in an eternal embrace, which has not just started but has always been. For God is love, and that love is eternal. And in it we dwell.

"For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." (Lamentations 3:31-32)

"For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things, that they might have their being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth: (For righteousness is immortal:) For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity." (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23)

"Remembering loved ones lost," Arizona Daily Star, Keeping the Faith, June 6, 2021. https://tucson.com/lifestyles/remembering-loved-ones-lost/article_dd5e2100-bdb6-11eb-a65a-7b667ac3ff6e.html

ask me anything again

"Purity of heart is to will one thing"--Soren Kierkegaard

When the Lord asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon was wise enough to ask for wisdom. He knew he'd need that to honor and serve his people. And God granted his request. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, people exercise a crazy wisdom: a man liquidates all he owns to buy a field - for there is a treasure in it; a merchant sells all he has to purchase one great perfect pearl. 

And there is more crazy wisdom: a little yeast leavens a whole lump, a mustard seed grows into a bush that birds of the field can rest in. 

Little things grow big. 

If you want your dream to be, build it slow and surely; small beginnings, greater ends; simple things are holy. --Donovan Leitch.

Real Power

 

Back in seminary one of my pals used to phone home and fill in his friends on the latest episode of their favorite prime-time soap opera, which they received six weeks later than the broadcast in the United States.

In the TV show there were, among other characters, a father and two sons. One son ran the family business, the other ran his mouth. And one day the jealous son complained to his father, “Daddy, you gave JR all the power!” and Jock replied, “Bobby, real power is something you take!”

Words not to live by. 

My friend didn’t. Nor his country’s spiritual leader, Desmond. 

Back then his home country, South Africa, lived under an oppressive regime that practiced apartness, apartheid, which segregated some sections of the population from others less privileged. 

He went back home, dangerous as it was, after receiving a master’s degree, to honor his father, who was in his last years, even months, of life, and to serve his country, which was in its latest extremity as well.

At the time ‘the gun’ was considered as an option. But, that is not what worked. 

Years later, speaking to clergy in San Francisco, Desmond Tutu, explained that active nonviolent resistance, and our sympathetic boycott, had been effective.

This was good news to me. I’d watched over four hundred of my peers in college get themselves arrested for trespassing after they occupied the administration building to call for divestment of university funds from the apartheid nation. It only made the local paper.

Desmond, in that talk to fellow preachers, said that like many preachers that he had only one sermon. His was, “God loves you.” The challenger was in the implications.

God loves you. Then what? For followers of Desmond, and my friend for that matter, it meant standing for justice.

And that brings us back to Bobby, JR, and Jock, the characters in Dallas, the Texas soap opera. Real power, it turns out, is not something you take away from others. It may be, even, something you give them. By showing another way.

By their active nonviolent resistance - a challenging option - the protesters, boycotters, and survivors of apartheid had shown those opposed to them, and to the world, another way. 

Theologian Walter Wink, an advocate of active nonviolent resistance, wrote about the ‘powers that be’ that through institutional violence dominate the world as it is. (Think of Pilate and Herod and the occupying powers of Rome.)

But domination of the ‘powers that be’, that exert ‘power over’ others, cannot last in the face of the force of love. 

What is real power?

As the Apostle Paul wrote, “God put [his] power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.” And that power can be “at work in us, that is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”  (Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20)

Real power comes from the Cross, the Redeemer, and it comes from the Spirit, the Sustainer and Sanctifier, and it comes from the Creator. Real power creates, sustains, repairs, and brings to fullness the life of the world. Real power brings to fullness; calls to creation to become truly what it was meant to be, calls us to become what we are truly meant to be. It is the way of love.

We have a ways to go.

Sometimes the way of love is very tiring. Sometimes we need to sit still and know that God is God, that Christ is risen, the Lord is king - and those powers that be are not really in charge.

The justice that we seek must be found within as well as outside; as we do justice we will seek mercy.

God loves you. What are the implications of that for you: for you personally, as a congregation, as a community? as a citizen, a believer, a seeker? a brother, a husband, a sister, a mother, a wife, a child of God? 

God is love. How do we live that out?

One last story about my friend. 

He had two sons. The younger one reminded me of their mother. The older one reminded me more of his father, especially, at the age of four, in his passionate obstinacy. 

One day feeling thwarted about something his father had told him to do (or not to do) he called down to his father from the top of the stairs, 

“I hate you Daddy!” His father responded. “Yes, I know, but I love you, son.”

“But I hate you Daddy!” Obstinate. “Yes, I know, but I love you son.” Even more obstinate.

Is there no greater love than that love of a parent for his child, of God for his children? 

For God so loved the world that as his own creation turned against him still he took on human nature himself, subject to all the unthinking hate and unending division of our condition, and told us the truth about love. And hate.

“Yes, I know, but I love you.”

That elder son, a father now himself, learned to live those words; will we?

"Real power is in the love we show," Arizona Daily Star, Keeping the Faith, May 30, 2021. https://tucson.com/lifestyles/real-power-is-in-the-love-we-show/article_58821da4-bcbe-11eb-9d8c-0329edf936d9.html

As you have sent me

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  (John 17:18)

Carey Nieuwhof has written (on his blog) about the challenges facing churches as they ‘reopen’ towards the end of the current pandemic. The challenges usually we break down into questions such as: What have you maintained? What do you want to keep that you have gained? What do you want to discard (after expressing due gratitude)? What do you want to recover?

Nieuwhof, an Evangelical, lists four marks of congregations he expects to thrive in coming years:

In my view, churches that effectively reach unchurched people in the future will likely be those that:

• Fully embrace hybrid ministry—digital and in-person forms of ministry.

• Focus on moving people forward, not getting them ‘back’.

• Embrace the people they’re trying to reach rather than judge them.

• Be Gospel-driven rather than ideologically driven or partisan.

Of course this doesn’t apply just to ‘reaching the unchurched’ and as Stewart McDonald has pointed out we need to focus on the mission not on ourselves. Remembering Barry Beisner’s first sermon as bishop I recall his three points (and yes we have the T shirts):

1. Stay together.

2. Focus on the mission.

3. Keep moving forward in the name of Christ.

In his priestly prayer, in the 17th chapter of John, our Lord prays for his followers, that they may all be one, that they may love one another, that the Father keep them safe, but also that they be sent into the world as the Father sent the Son. 

That’s a tall order. Think about it. To spend your life proclaiming and embodying the arrival of the reign of God. To accept that witness may include martyrdom. 

“When all about you…” Rudyard Kipling’s speech went. A trifle, in comparison, to being sent by the Father as Jesus himself was sent.

But we are not alone. There is the promise, nascent at the time of the Ascension, that we are one, not only with each other, the Father and the Son, but with the Comforter, the Empowerer, the Enlivening Spirit. Not emperor, empowerer: one who empowers: encourages, supports, gives authority, gives freedom to do something. Not just talk.

Remember when the disciples chose Matthias? One of two candidates brought forward, who could witness, from the baptism of John to the present moment, all that had happened, all that had been going on, with Jesus. One who not only saw it but saw what it meant and committed to follow the Way of Love, the Way of Christ. 

We as people of God each have a way to follow. Alone and together. We too are chosen simply because who we are is who God made us to be and called us to become.

He by the power that is at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)

Where do we start? Or, how do we go on from here?

Embrace what is new, embrace who is new, move forward together, tell the good news, and live it out.

***

Jesus, in his resurrection appearance to the disciples just before his ascension, had said, 'you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

What that means, to be his witnesses, in all its implications, becomes the business of the church.

Good thing the Spirit shows up. It's time to get on with it.

As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  (John 17:18)

JRL+

Christ the King Episcopal Church, Tucson.

Sunday after the Ascension

• Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

• Psalm 93

• 1 John 5:9-13

• John 17:6-19

https://careynieuwhof.com/the-coming-church-split-its-not-what-you-think

"If you can keep your head when all about you..." (If—, by Rudyard Kipling. https://poets.org/poem/if)

"What do we do now?"

"What do we do now?" 

or to put it another way 

"What are you doing here?"

The first quotation is the last line of "The Candidate" (1972) a movie about a young guy running for Senate.

The second is what the Rev. Paul Pfotenhauer greeted us with one Sunday in spring 1974 at a sunrise service on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, overlooking Monterey Bay. 

As I'd just dragged myself out of bed, I reacted kind of intemperately to the question... but it was the Sunday after the Ascension and what he asked us is what "two men in white robes" ask the disciples as they gaze up toward heaven. (Acts 1:11)

And the first question is one they began to address in the first chapter of Acts, verse 12ff. They gathered, prayed, and picked a new leader to replace one that had fallen. And then as the Holy Spirit came upon them they continued to meet together in the evenings, teach and pray in the Temple during the day, share all in common, and add to their number...  and in time go forth into the world, care for the sick - whoever they were, spread the good news by word and example, and in all things act with compassion as their master had done. 

"What do we do now?" Donald Nicholl used to say that doing what has to be done next is the beginning of wisdom: what he refrained from saying is that that can be hard to do. 

Jesus, in his resurrection appearance to the disciples just before his ascension, had said, 'you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

What that means, to be his witnesses, in all its implications, becomes the business of the church.

Good thing the Spirit showed up. It's time to get on with it.

Christ the King Episcopal Church, Tucson. 16 May 2021.
Seventh Sunday of Easter

• Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
• 1 John 5:9-13
• John 17:6-19
• Psalm 1

"What do we do now?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myEpap3TxVs

"The Candidate" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/

no greater love

Turner House, Cowell College

Sojourners titled its Scripture commentary for May "What we see on Pentecost is a bewilderment." I'd call it rather an un-bewilderment, as it was on Ascension and Pentecost that the followers of Jesus saw him for who he really was, and was becoming. Hence the connection, noted by Michael Ramsey, of Ascension with the sovereignty of God come to earth in Jesus Christ. 

For May 9th, their commentary is titled "God's Friends" and that does capture something of this Sunday. One commenter, Herbert McCabe, says that God loves us because we are in Christ and share his Spirit." Rather I would say, "God loves us." - full stop - and then "We are in Christ and share in his Spirit." His indwelling spirit enables us to enter into the inner life of God that is Love and it empowers us to take that love into the world. 

So as we re-open, or contemplate re-opening, our lives 'post-covid', let us not only continue precautions, but think about more than what it means to relax about personal restrictions - wash hands, wear mask, keep distance, no risky mixing - but what it means beyond taking care of ourselves to be sent as disciples of the living Lord. And indeed, as Stewart McDonald points out, beyond 're-gathering' among ourselves.

What should we be doing, as we are released from timidity and boredom into a more opened-up world? How shall we serve him, proclaim him and witness him, embody his kingdom spirit, this spring?

We begin with the pursuit of truth in the company of friends: learning to love one another as he loves us. And then we go forth rejoicing...

Christ the King Episcopal Church, Tucson.

9 May 2021
Sixth Sunday of Easter

• Acts 10:44-48
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17
• Psalm 98

Sojourners, May 2021, 48-49.

A. M. Ramsey."Ascension." Alan Richardson, ed. A Theological Word Book of the Bible. New York: Macmillan. 1950. 22-23. 

https://www.cityonahillpress.com/2009/01/15/modest-memorial-carries-heavy-history/

Sacrificial Goat

Jack Zajac

Arthur's Table

As was their custom on the feast of Pentecost the Knights of the Round Table gathered with their king at Camelot and regaled each other with tales of their adventures over the past year yet none took his seat until a new adventure had presented itself. And so it was that they not only looked to the past but cast their eyes ahead into the unknown yet eagerly awaited future.

My childhood copy of the tales of those knights and their kings contains several chapters that begin that way. As an early reader I was unsure where the idea of Pentecost came. Only to find out as an adult that it was a day fifty days after Easter that marked the beginning of the church. And to learn later that seven weeks after Passover comes the feast of Shavuot. The feast of the barley harvest and more importantly of the renewal of the covenant on Sinai with God’s people. 

One of my favorite Bible stories is the story of Naomi, Orpah, Ruth, and, eventually, Boaz. Boaz comes in to the story late, after Naomi and her two daughters-in-law become widows. Orpah stays in Moab but Ruth and Naomi trek across a famine-struck terrain to Naomi’s home town, Bethlehem. There they encounter, notably on the threshing floor, Naomi’s cousin Boaz.

The future becomes brighter; indeed Ruth becomes great-grandmother of David… and so this little family becomes the root of the royal family and indeed the holy one.

We might tend to look back as these ancient women might have; might have stuck with safety, as Orpah did; but we might also take a page out of their (four-chapter) book and look ahead.

Not a bad lesson for this spring day.

JRL+

Helen Cohn. "The measure of a people." Keeping the Faith, Home + Life, Arizona Daily Star. Sunday, May 9, 2021. E3.

the planet is burning

The planet is burning. I have that on good authority. The secretary general of the United Nations said so, in his annual state of the planet address. And his report was based on the best available science. The intergovernmental panel on climate change has been providing the science to policy makers and the public for years. You can read the reports for yourself or listen to the scientists - some of the best are right here in Tucson, at the University of Arizona. So there are the facts. The hard physical facts. 

Now what are we going to do about it? That is the soft side of the issue, the hard to measure side, except perhaps for sciences like sociology. It is values, culture, beliefs, ethics, morals, and religion. 

So it seems like we’ve come to the right place, if we are contemplating climate change as people of faith. As a community of believers, we hold these values to be self-evident, and well worth repeating. Our life is a gift from God. All that is, is a gift from God. We are called, as all human beings are called, to enjoy the earth - as all our fellow creatures are, but beyond that to care for the earth. We have as human creatures a unique consciousness, an awareness, not only that we are creatures - and we rejoice in that - but that we have the joyful burden of responsible creaturehood. Beyond stewardship we are called to full participatory partnership with God in the care of creation.

Now how do we do that, right here on the local level? We each of us in our abundance and scarcity, aware of our independence of will and our total dependence on the Creator for all that gives, sustains, and fulfills life - we can do and act and advocate and take on practical personal, communal, and congregational, national and international, public, political, nonprofit and voluntary association, and for profit (as we do well by doing good) business: we  can make a difference. Let’s get started. Let us look at what we are doing already - individually, and together. 

And so I’ll tell a story for you who know the limits of your means. There was an energy crisis. But I was in college. And I saw my neighbor Kevin returning to the dorm, strolling across the quad. And I called out to him,

-- Kevin. There’s an energy crisis.

-- Yeah, John.

-- But we don’t have cars. We can’t drive slower. What are we going to do?

-- Well, John, I’m walking slower, and I’m talking slower, and I’m …

   … thinking slower.

See? You can always do something. But thinking faith may tell us more is needed now than simple self-control. My friend Roger the Arctic explorer, that is, the physical oceanographer of the Arctic Ocean, has been for many years traveling to the North Pole. In addition to my letters to Santa, he has been carrying measuring instruments, and monitoring and reporting on physical changes in the composition of the ocean: temperature, pressure, salinity. And by now you have probably learned what he and his fellow scientists have seen and heard directly and have written home about. 

Open water where once there was solid ice. Great glaciers melting and calving icebergs into the sea. Those icebergs are made of fresh water. And that ice, melting, plunges into the sea a cold stream of fresh water forming and moving between Greenland and Canada, pushing the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream south, and weakening the current. This means that particular places like Europe and the Isles of Ireland and Britain will be getting colder water than they have enjoyed for, oh, thousands of years, or before people learned to make fire or chip rocks for tools. So things are changing in a big way. And there is no planet B. And Mother Nature bats last. 

Is this the ball game? Not yet. There is hope. We can do something about it. And if we don’t - the next generations coming up are going to make sure we hear about it. But we will be able to see for ourselves - if we’re spared. So go forth, enjoy the earth, and take care of the planet. It’s the only home we’ve got.

JRL+

"Enjoy, care for the Earth," Keeping the Faith, Home + Life, Arizona Daily Star, Sunday May 2nd 2021, E3.

https://creation.azdiocese.org/dfc/newsdetail_2/3207530