What did you see?

What did you go out into the desert to see? What did you see?

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Stir up your power, we pray - and with great might come among us. And the psalmist warns us, put not your trust in princes. The help Jesus gives is the help of Christ the King, a king unlike any other, in fact subversive of the dominant paradigm of monarchy. If he is king, we have missed the meaning of "king" -- Jesus does not come among us like Saul, a mighty warrior, or David, a comely and pious and witty man. 

Jesus does come among us, as healer, savior, and thus king beyond kings. Jesus comes among us and we behold what it means to be king, what it means to be a man; in fact, what it means to be human. 

Remember when he wrote with his finger in the dust? "Neither do I condemn you" he said. Judgement, but judgment in the sense of establishing righteousness. And that meant for the woman accused drawn before him, and for all drawn to his throne, forgiveness of sins. Sin, yes, exists: but beyond it, grace.

Today we return once again to the image of the fore-runner, of John the Baptizer, who having proclaimed that the one who was to come has come, sends for reassurance that Jesus really is that one. 

What did you see? What did you hear? Testify to that, tell John that, says the Lord. 

And the signs he cites say who he is. And who he will be. And what his kingdom, call it that, will be.

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

We anticipate what has already arrived. We have outlived our obsolescence. What was old news, that the day of the Lord would arrive, ho hum, is coming and in its coming is splendor.

And so in the midst of Advent, our 'little Lent' of blue, we have a Sunday of rose. We have a day of joy.

Various people have asked me, what do you celebrate this season? Hope, peace, joy, love. And truth.

For he is coming, and there is judgment. The word of the Lord, embodied in a baby, is the terror of kings.

Wait till you see how Herod reacts, when he hears the Messiah is born.

Wait till you see how Rome responds, when they hear the words, Jesus is Lord (and Caesar is not).

Wait until you hear the words, I follow Jesus, and so I must show compassion to the poor, clothe the nake and feed the hungry, speak for the voiceless and innocent, and do justice in my daily life.

Wait until you see that, you see the hand of God at work in the people around you, the world about you.

Then you will know he is come; for he is certainly near. 

Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha: O come, Emmanuel. Come among us. 

And let what we wish to see and hear be what is seen and heard of us: the presence of redeeming grace.

Hope, peace, joy, love - and truth.

 

• Isaiah 35:1-10
• James 5:7-10
• Matthew 11:2-11
• Psalm 146:4-9

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv3_RCL.html

Thanks to the Rev. Colby Roberts for his sermon last Sunday at St Timothy's, Yakima. https://www.facebook.com/StTimothysEpiscopalChurchYakima

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/community-q-a-new-rector-at-st-timothys-episcopal-church-brings-enthusiasm-spectacular-singing-voice/article_f4f3e7d6-e523-505d-a16b-02ca41fe2eb8.html

 

Psalms 146 (Book of Common Prayer psalter, Coverdale/1662)

1  Praise the Lord, O my soul; while I live will I praise the Lord *

 yea, as long as I have any being, I will sing praises unto my God.

2  O put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man *

 for there is no help in them.

3  For when the breath of man goeth forth he shall turn again to his earth *

 and then all his thoughts perish.

4  Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help *

 and whose hope is in the Lord his God;

5  Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is *

 who keepeth his promise for ever.

6  Who helpeth them to right that suffer wrong *

 who feedeth the hungry.

7  The Lord looseth men out of prison *

 the Lord giveth sight to the blind.

8  The Lord helpeth them that are fallen *

 the Lord careth for the righteous.

9  The Lord careth for the strangers; he defendeth the fatherless and widow *

 as for the way of the ungodly, he turneth it upside down.

10  The Lord thy God, O Sion, shall be King for evermore *

 and throughout all generations.

https://bible.oremus.org/

Climate Justice

 

Let me sing for my beloved
 my love-song
 concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
 on a very fertile hill.
 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
   and planted it with choice vines;
   he built a watchtower
   in the midst of it,
 and hewed out a wine vat in it...

        -Isaiah 5:1-2a

 

 In the name of God, Source of all Being, eternal Word, and holy Spirit: Amen.

What do justice and righteousness look like to us? How are we to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness flow like a mighty stream? 

We are inheritors of the original inhabitants of the land, caretakers, stewards, and, when the time comes, harvest helpers and celebrators of its providence. Among us are those descended from the earliest days, and those who have come from the four directions, from north, east, south, and west, to this place inhabited for countless millenia and cultivated for now over four thousand years. But change is coming.

Change we have ourselves instigated, and inherited, from the well-meaning and the obtuse, the greedy and the generous, as they in their best lights (and worst) built the city we know today as Tucson.

And in it, even as the power company tears down its coal barn, are the effects being felt of all those generations, over the past 250 years particularly, that have led us to a point near the point of no return.

There is a pretty silly movie called the river of no return. A small group of people shoot the rapids in a cumbersome raft. Not something you want to do twice. And in our case not something you can repeat.

Because the climate is at a tipping point. In 50 years we might not recognized the landscape, for the changes in weather pattern, vegetation, growth or decay of civilization. There are some things we can do, non-exclusive responses.

Here are three we will be discussing at this year's convention, one you can watch if you have internet access.

1 : We can sharply reduce carbon emissions. We can reduce carbon emissions that cause the Greenhouse Effect and combat climate change. We can employ efficiency and conservation and move toward a low-carbon economy (and yes burning less coal and oil helps).

We can tackle climate change at its source by taking coordinated, aggressive action to reduce the CO2 we put into the atmosphere.

2 : We can prepare and protect our communities, assessing the risks ad taking care of the most vulnerable. 

We can work together now to secure our communities and strengthen our resilience in the face of climate-related impacts.

3 : We can accelerate innovation, promoting clean energy and creating new technologies.

While climate change represents a serious long-term challenge, it also presents unique opportunities for ingenuity and innovation.

How shall we meet the challenges of a warming planet?

The challenge of climate change is daunting. 

But this is the challenge we face, us and our generation, and we are called to face it. 

 

Remember then that a loving God is behind us, a God who is sovereign over all Creation, and that in his Spirit we find guidance and strength. As we have been promised, in the words of the prophets, he has a plan for us, a plan for good and not for harm, a future with hope.

 

To all earth's creatures God has given the broad earth, the springs, the rivers and the forests, giving the air to the birds, and the waters to those who live in water, giving abundantly to all the basic needs of life, not as a private possession, not restricted by law, not divided by boundaries, but as common to all, amply and in rich measure.
- Gregory of Nazianzus c.329-c.389 (quoted in http://edgeofenclosure.org/proper22a.html)

 

Options and suggestions from  

Climate Choices: How Should We Meet the Challenges of a Warming Planet?  National Issues Forums Institute. 2016. ISBN: 978-1-943028-03-0 (www.nifi.org)

 

 

 

dig out the muck

If leaf trash chokes the stream-bed,
reach for rock-bottom as you rake
the muck out.
- Marie Ponsot b. 1921 Springing: New and Select Poems

http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent1c.html

The summer of "Stairway to Heaven" I worked at Gaithersburg Car Wash and I'd hear that song over and over on the radio playing as I greased the fittings inside the machines. We had a particularly gritty chore once. The (primary) owner backed his old jeep up one day to the front end of the track (the belt that pulled the cars through the washing machines) with a little trailer attached. The muck and filth from the cars washed down into a pit at that end of the car wash - a pit about the size of a gas-station rest room, 6x8x8 or so, and we'd clean it out once in awhile. The owner, Bobby T. Lee, would haul it away in his jeep trailer to dump it out at his farm on some waste land. But how it got there - how the filth got out of the pit - was hands on and up to us. One of us would jump down into the pit and stand upon a piece of plywood board supplied for the purpose, and shovel the muck (on which the plywood - and you - balanced) into a bucket to be hauled up and away (by rope at first, held by a watching companion) and off to the farm, ultimately. You had to dig deep to get to the real filth. I suppose the farther you'd go, the more toxic it became.

March
10
First Sunday in Lent

Year C
RCL

• Deuteronomy 26:1-11
• Romans 10:8b-13
• Luke 4:1-13
• Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16