Tag Archives: Body of Christ

“Blessed are you, saints of God”

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All Saints’ Day (Matthew 5:1-12)  11/06/2011

This morning we celebrate the feast of All Saints’ Day. The feast of All Saints’ is a day of celebration and thanksgiving for the saints who have gone before us. In the most stringent understanding of “saint,” those given the saintly title have been those who have exemplified a Christian life of sacrifice and loving care toward others; a life that has been carefully examined and granted a status that is seemingly beyond the reach of most of us. However, the more modern understanding (and by modern I mean the last 500 hundred years or so) of a saintly life is typically more broad, hoping to capture the essence of what the saints of God strive to be – the life of one who claims to be a child of God and a follower of his only Son, Jesus Christ. As we sang in our opening hymn this morning, “I sing a song of the saints of God,” and we can all hope to be one too! Continue reading →

“The Wisdom of Giving”

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18th Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 22:15-22)  10/16/2011

A little more than two years ago my mobile phone experienced a few major failures…so, off I went to the phone store and found the perfect replacement. However, technology is advancing so rapidly these days I have recently discovered that my “perfect” phone is no longer on the market. My two-year phone contract has recently expired and, needless to say, throughout this past summer I was keeping an eye on the various speculations of the newest iPhone release, which just occurred this past Friday. The building curiosity behind this iPhone release was made more intense because at the same time there was interest in the health of Apple’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs had been courageously fighting various health issues for several years before this past summer, but his condition caused him to once again step away from his daily duties at Apple and finally in the late summer to step down as the company’s CEO. These two stories, the iPhone release and Steve Jobs’ health, continued to be discussed as summer turned into fall. On October 4th, Apple finally released news of their latest phone and just one day later the world learned that the man behind the company had died. As the world lost Steve Jobs to an illness that he could not overcome, we were reminded of the many great accomplishments he gave the world. During the past several days people have reflected on many aspects of his career and his contributions, but I was particularly affected by his commencement address to the graduates of Stanford University in 2005. Steve Jobs was a man with worldly success giving these graduates the wisdom of life’s lessons…and many of his lessons were forged from his experiences of challenging and difficult times in his life. A graduate who was there recently wrote: “Jobs was not a rousing orator. He looked nervous as he approached the podium. As he spoke, though, his voice gained the strength of someone who knows that what he’s saying is both true and very important. And something unusual happened: we all started paying attention.”[i] Steve Jobs had captured the attention of the crowd as he spoke the wisdom that he had learned from life’s challenges. Continue reading →

“Justice or Generosity? – Yes, please”

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14th Sunday after Pentecost (Matthew 20:1-16)  9/18/2011

Welcome back from summer. You might say to yourself that I am a week late, as last week was Welcome Back Sunday, but this week is the start of Sunday School and our Sunday morning forums – so the school bell rings for the first time this week and I hope that you will join us as we learn and grow together each week. The start of the school year reminds me of the importance that the school year seems to have on each of us, even if we are no longer full-time students we are all affected in some way or have vivid memories of our school days.

A vivid school memory of mine is my first day of Navy Nuclear Power School. On that first day, after being welcomed and filling out some paperwork, everyone was provided with a test that we were assured had no meaning and no impact on our academic records…although the rumor was that the test determined where each person was to be seated in the classroom, with the smart folks in the back of the room and the low-scoring students sitting in the front. As we received our seat assignments the next day I think the rumors might have been true, as I saw many of the smartest kids in the class sitting behind me as I looked out from my second row seat. The opening week of school was a sign of things to come, as my front-of-the-room friends and I studied for many, many hours during the next several months while my back-of-the-room classmates had more leisure time on their hands. By the end of the program we were ranked according to our grade averages and one’s rank order determined the selection order in which you could pick your next school location: either Idaho, NY or CT. As a young man engaged to a woman living in CT, I was filled with nervous anxiety as I waited for my turn. I might have even grumbled as I watched my classmates who did not study as hard as I did select their locations before me. I remember thinking, “I studied as hard as I possibly could for 6 months; shouldn’t that count for something?” Continue reading →

“Gifts of the Spirit: our diversity is our strength”

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Day of Pentecost (1 Cor 12:3b-13)  6/12/2011

Many years before the drama of television soap operas and reality shows like “The Jersey Shore” and “The Real Housewives,” there was the real-life drama of the city of Corinth. The ancient city of Corinth that was known to the Apostle Paul was a city that was populated under the supervision of the Roman government; the Romans sending a diverse population of unwanted citizens from the capital city of Rome. With its population growth and its strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea, the city of Corinth soon became a busy trading center and the culturally diverse population became an interesting community for Paul to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul’s message of Christ was well received by many Corinthians, but his first letter reveals to us that the diversity of the people also led to a diversity of understanding of how to live together in their newly formed Christian community. The Corinthians continued to argue about many aspects of their common life: how to worship together, how to live together, and whose spiritual gifts were most important. Paul urged the Corinthians to settle their differences and live together in love. Paul encouraged the community to set aside their childish arguments and come together. He wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:11-13) Continue reading →

“Following the Good Shepherd”

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4th Sunday of Easter (John 10:1-10)  5/15/2011

As we journey through our lives we experience significant milestones that mark important points in our lives; days that we will long remember with great clarity. Throughout this past week I have had the privilege to be present with others as they experienced or prepared to experience some important events in their lives: the pure joy of Baptism, the wide range of emotions of a Burial service, the excitement of marriage preparation, and this afternoon the celebration of my niece’s Confirmation. These events are important times in one’s life. These events are times that hold particular sacramental significance in our relationship with God and with others; often we feel closer to God as we experience these occasions. But throughout our lives we also live between these milestones; in fact, most of our days are filled with the everyday challenges and joys that shape and define our journey through life. In the midst of these ordinary days, where do we find God in our everyday experiences? Where do we find Christ when the important milestone day has ended, everyone has gone home and we are left with the joys and challenges of everyday life? Continue reading →

“Forgive each other, love each other, and don’t be a grinch!”

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7th Sunday after the Epiphany (Matthew 5:38-48)  02/20/2011

Throughout the past several days I have been following the events unfolding in Egypt with great fascination. The protests of the people who gathered in Tahrir Square were first coordinated through the social media channels of the Internet but then continued with and without the assistance of technology. Although it appears that the Egyptian government successfully shut the Internet down for a time, people who had previously never known each other continued to come together to unite behind a common cause – the hope of a new and better government that fairly represented the voice of the people and could provide all Egyptian people the promise of a better tomorrow.[i] But the region of the Middle East has a lot of history; and this new chapter of life does not come without uncertainties and the anxieties of tomorrow’s realities. The people of Egypt have questions: questions about their new government and their future. The people of the Middle East region have questions: questions about Arab/Israeli relations and the impact that the Egyptian demonstrations will have on neighboring countries. And the people of the world have questions: questions about the stability of the region and how the future will impact global relations. All of these questions are wrapped around one important center point: how will we decide to live together in community? This is an important question, no matter where you reside: How will we – we, the Egyptian people; we, the people of the Middle East; we, the people of the world; we, the people of this parish; how will we live together in community? Continue reading →

“Passing through the threshold of Christmas – our lives are forever changed”

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1st Sunday after Christmas (Gal 3:23-25; 4:4-7)  12/26/2010

Throughout the past several weeks my daughter has been going through the college selection process…and we have shared this journey with her. As many of you can confirm, this process can be a time of joy and anxiety in one’s life, both for the young person going through the process and for those offering their love and guidance. The life changing events that accompany the beginning of one’s college years are not limited to this experience alone. For young adults the experiences of moving out of your parents’ home, joining the ranks of the working world or the military, or starting a family all have their life changing effects. And as we grow older, we continue to pass through significant thresholds of life – particular points along the journey through life where, due to some experience or due to someone we encounter, we are forever changed. Continue reading →

“Reflection of the Daily Office: The power of Faith”

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Daily Office for 10/04/2010:  Gospel – Luke 5:12-26

Today’s Gospel reading presents us with many lessons…and a rich complexity of issues woven together throughout the story. Among the lessons offered in Luke 5:12-26, the power of faith seems to jump off the page. Jesus is in the midst of a busy crowd and has just healed a leaper and the crowds persist to surround Jesus. The crowds are so great that a paralyzed man cannot come close enough to Jesus to have his healing touch change the man’s life.

“Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”” (Luke 5:18-20)  Illustration by Graham Kennedy

The Scripture tells us that Jesus saw “their” faith and healed the man. The power of faith has certainly healed the paralyzed man: faith in Christ’s ability to heal body, mind and spirit; and faith in his friends’ ability to get the man to Jesus regardless of the obstacles. The power of faith brings us closer to Christ and places us in the center of the community of believers – only through community are we known as the Body of Christ. Who has carried you to the feet of Christ and who relies on you to break down the barriers that separate them from the healing powers of Jesus?