Tag Archives: service

Wolves, Rivers, and changing God’s World

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Pentecost 19A (Matthew 22:15-22)  10/19/2014

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (Matt 22:17), said the disciples of the Pharisees, along with the Herodians, to Jesus as they stood in the temple. An interesting question posed by an interesting group of people; a strange group of “friends” you might say. The Pharisees were more concerned with religious “correctness” and righteousness, while the Herodians, supporters of the royal family of Herod, would have been more concerned with political power. But these strange friends found common ground in their challenge to Jesus…a question that by its very nature had a lose-lose response: if you suggest paying tax to the emperor, you are a friend of Caesar and the Roman empire which was set against the Jewish people; and if you suggest withholding your tax payment, well you are a religious zealot and a dangerous insurrectionist. These Jewish authorities had been listening to Jesus teach the crowd about the kingdom of God and they seem to have had enough of his rhetoric…they were determined to entrap him with a unanswerable question. The problem for the Jewish authorities, however, was that the question is only a trap if you think in black and white, right and wrong: the Roman empire or the kingdom of God, devotion to my worldly life and its success or devotion to God and all that God invites us to be. In this black and white world, the question posed to Jesus was fraught with challenges beyond belief! Jesus’ response to their tricky question might appear black and white in our hearing: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:21b) But Jesus does not live in this black and white, earthly or divine world; Jesus lives in the fullness and abundance of God’s creation, and his response amazed the authorities and sent them away as they considered all that was given to them from God; and how their lives would change if they listened to Jesus. Continue reading →

No worries, just be a Witness!

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Seventh Sunday of Easter (Sunday after the Ascension) (Acts 1:6-14)  6/01/2014

“As they were watching, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?'” (Acts 1:9-11) These three short verses of Scripture from the Book of Acts are among my favorite verses in the Bible, for many reasons. Just prior to this description of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, we are told of the many post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and the final lessons he hoped to give to his followers, teaching them how to spread the Good News of Christ. But now the time has come for Jesus to leave them, and leave them he does…and they are left standing by themselves, filled with awe and more than just a little worry in their hearts. Suddenly, two heavenly beings burst into this dramatic moment with a question: “Why are you standing there looking up to heaven?” I really love this question because it is so simple, yet so challenging at the same time. I feel some kinship with the disciples as they gaze to the heavens with their mouths hanging open, the universal sign of “my goodness, what’s next?” The Ascension of Christ marks the 40th day of Eastertide, and in those forty days Jesus continually prepared his disciples for the next chapter of their ministry in the world. And we have heard throughout these past weeks that the disciples often did not really understand Jesus’ lessons to them; again, I feel some kinship with these earliest followers of Christ! And now, Jesus has departed from their midst; their great rabbi, their teacher, has ascended and left them to carry on…a bit overwhelming! What should we think of this story; what can we say about our first class of Christians? Should we understand the Ascension as a graduation story or something else entirely? Continue reading →

“Why the Boy Scouts are wrong…again”

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As a young boy I looked forward to Wednesday afternoons because after school my friends and I would gather as a pack, a pack of Cub Scouts engaged in crafts, games and many other activities. My involvement with Scouting continued and my personal growth and appreciation for everything that Scouting taught me continued until a myriad of other activities in high school pulled me away. Although I never achieved the highest levels of Scouting as a young man, my memories are as distinct as the lessons I learned: respect others, appreciate your community and try to give back, give thanks to God for all that has been given you, and of course many lessons of outdoor life and skills. I can also list many things that Scouting never taught me, because these things just never seemed to matter to those involved with learning and having fun together: the color of one’s skin determines who you are, you are limited by who you keep company with, and your personal sexuality is a cause of judgment against you. These last things were not only never addressed, but if one were truly attentive to the Scouting Oath and the Law of Scouting they were proved to be completely false…or so I thought until fairly recently. 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 →

“The gift of Faith – renewed and rekindled by our actions”

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Proper 22C (2 Tim 1:1-14 and Luke 17:5-10)  10/03/2010

John Westerhoff, an Episcopal priest and theologian, shared his understanding of faith development in his book, Will Our Children Have Faith? Westerhoff opens his book by stating, “It is a truism that Christian faith and education are inevitable companions. Wherever living faith exists, there is a community endeavoring to know, understand, live and witness to that faith.”[i] Throughout the remainder of Westerhoff’s book, he clearly explains that his definition of education is not limited to the classroom. The companionship of faith and education is most profoundly experienced as we learn in the fullness of our journey through life. Last Sunday morning at our forum, the St. John’s J2A pilgrims shared highlights from their trip to Scotland and those in attendance heard their profound experiences – experiences that will shape and inform their journey through life. Throughout the forum, each pilgrim came forward and shared some concerns they had before the trip (the potential difficulty of living without electronic gadgets, the discomfort of living on a vegetarian diet, and the unease of traveling with people that you barely know); and they also shared their understanding of life after the trip (garden grown vegetables are not so bad, traveling without electronic gadgets fosters conversation and friendship, and the beauty of the Scottish landscape revealed to them the presence of the holy). The pilgrimage was a profound experience for those who made the trip, but as members of this community, as people who witness the pilgrims’ journey, we encounter the holy and we are profoundly changed as well. Profoundly changed in our understanding of life and profoundly changed in our understanding of faith. The gift of faith, freely given to us from God, but a gift that is ours to grow through our discovery; our determination; our wonder of the holy. Our faith must be “rekindled” as the author of Paul’s letter to Timothy tells us this morning. Continue reading →

“Challenging ourselves to follow Christ beyond the boundaries of our world”

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Proper 18C (Luke 14:25-33)  09-05-2010

When my family and I moved from the Chicago area to Alexandria, VA, we searched for the familiar among the unfamiliar of our new surroundings to soften the transition. As we thought about our new home, we realized that Alexandria is the home of T.C. Williams High School, which was familiar to us from the movie “Remember the Titans.” The movie was released approximately 10 years ago and is a popular sports movie about a high school football team. The story deals with the racial integration of the team and the challenges faced by the coaches and the young players. The players and coaches face the difficult road of coming together as a team, both on the field and off, yet they must live among the pressures associated with the society of Alexandria, VA in 1971…a society with the cultural norms that had yet to fully embrace the idea of racial integration.

This morning in our Gospel lesson we hear of the large crowds following Jesus as he slowly makes his way toward Jerusalem. The large crowds prove the popularity that Jesus has attained, making him as popular and as well known as a modern day sports figure of our time. And as is often the cause with famous people, the people have made some assumptions about Jesus and have formed their own opinions of him and what their life should be like as one of his followers. However, Jesus takes some time to address the large crowd and tell them his understanding of what their lives have in store for them: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:26) Continue reading →

“Blessed are we who are called to serve others”

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Second Sunday of Easter Yr C (Jn 20:19-31)  04-11-2010

Throughout this past week, I have been drawn to the unfolding events of the mining disaster in West Virginia. The challenges to the recovery efforts persisted throughout the week, like unrelenting nightmares that refuse to loosen their hold on a community already grief-stricken with the loss of 25 people. Every morning, I turned on my television to hear the latest information and hoped to discover at least some good news from the brave efforts of the men and women who were working to rescue those miners who were unaccounted for in the initial search. Every morning, the media would ask the same question: can we believe the missing miners are still alive? And then the reporters would respond to their own question: the chances of anyone surviving are slim, but the families and all of us can still believe a miracle can happen. Continue reading →