Fish

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 21, 2018

3 Epiphany B

          When I was a child, there was a lake just down the path from my grandparents’ house in the mountains.   My guess is that if I went back now, that body of water would look more like a glorified pond.  But to my 7 year old self, standing on the dirt we thought of as a beach, the water was plenty adequate to count as a lake.

          Every year, our grandfather would stock the lake with fish. Do not ask me what kind.  I haven’t a clue.  My brother, sister and I would throw handfuls of dry dog food into the water to make the fish jump, then we would use cheap, plastic fishing poles to catch the fish.  Amazingly enough, the system worked and we were quite successful.  Most of the fish were thrown back, but occasionally we would get to keep the fish and our grandfather would clean and cook them.  We felt quite accomplished, when actually our grandfather had insured a successful catch.  All we had to do was show up with the dog food and a fishing pole. 

          Then there is the way my brother-in-law fishes.  Joe, Don’s younger brother, married into a family that takes their fishing very seriously.  They would never use dog food for bait!  For Joe’s in-laws, fishing requires expensive equipment, high quality bait, and being in the right place at the right time on the water.  The competition is fierce among family members as each person seeks to outdo the other in size and number of fish caught.  Fish that are not the right size or kind are tossed back.  At the end of the day, the fish are brought in, counted and weighed so that a winner can be determined.

          This morning, Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John away from their work fishing and mending nets and says, “Follow me.”  Jesus tells the four men that he will make them fish for people.  Exactly what kind of fishing does Jesus have in mind?  Does Jesus mean the kind of fishing where you throw dog food into an over stocked pond and are guaranteed to catch something? Or does Jesus mean the kind of fishing that is competitive sport and where undesirable fish are thrown back?  Given that Simon, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen by profession, fishing was neither a childhood game for them, nor a serious hobby.  Fishing was their life.  

          In case you can’t tell, I am not very comfortable with this whole idea of fishing for people.  For starters, bait is used to get the fish’s attention, and when swallowed, the bait is gone.  If we are using bait to entice others to follow Jesus, that bait is the gospel, which does not disappear when swallowed.  Secondly, we are not trying to hook or net people against their will.  Rather we are trying to use our lives to show others a joyful, grounded way to follow Jesus so they will want to follow as well.  And lastly, we’re not interested in cutting anyone up and frying them for supper.  We want others to join us in following Jesus so that together we can make this world a bit more like the Kingdom of God.  So, what are we to make of this whole fishing business?

          For Simon, Andrew, James, and John, fishing was their life.  So, this is what I think Jesus is really saying to the four fishermen.  “Follow me and I will teach you how to use your life, your whole life, with all of your skills and your passions, to show others the Kingdom of God.”  The four men happened to be fishermen, as many people were in the first century if they lived near large bodies of water.  The idea of fishing for people caught on in the first century as a way to talk about making followers of Jesus because so many people were trained and skilled at fishing.  But what I believe Jesus really wanted was to teach people to use their whole lives for the purposes of growing the kingdom of God. 

          Jesus looks at each of us today and says, “Follow me and I will teach you how to use your whole life to grow the Kingdom of God.”  Jesus wants to show us how to use our skills and passions as an engineer, a teacher, a business owner, a cook, a plumber, a painter, an electrician, a parent, a nurse, or whatever we might be, to grow the Kingdom of God.  If you happen to be good at fishing, great.  Jesus will use those skills. But there is hope for the rest of us!

          Today is our Annual Meeting Sunday, and a day we stop and think about who we are as a church and what we are doing to grow the Kingdom of God.  One of the things we do at the Annual Meeting is approve a budget, which has lots of numbers reflecting income and expenses.  I wonder what the Annual Meeting and Christ Church would be like if, rather than have a budget with income and expense numbers, we had a budget based on the skills and passions we have that we can use to make the world look more like the Kingdom of God.  For starters, the income side of the budget would be enormous.  We would never be able to say, “We can’t afford that” because we have an incredible talent bank to draw on here.  But what would the expense side of the budget look like?  How would we choose to invest the remarkable skill and talent that we have at Christ Church?  Would we balance the budget carefully as we do with the finances, evenly distributing our resources among the many opportunities we have for making a gospel difference in the world?  Or would we take some risks and budget more than we believe we can ever 8do on our own because we trust Jesus to show us how to follow? 

          When Jesus tells Simon, Andrew, James, and John that he will make them fish for people, Jesus is not telling them that the work will be easy because they already know what they are doing.  Jesus is telling his four new followers that if they follow him, and take following him seriously, they will use their entire lives in new and challenging ways to make a gospel difference in the world.  On this Annual Meeting Sunday, Jesus calls us to come to this special place called Christ Church to be renewed and reminded of who we are as Jesus’ followers, so that Jesus can lead us out into the world where he will use our whole lives to make the Kingdom of God come near. 

                                                                                      Amen

Hands

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christian Unity Prayer Service

January 18, 2018

Hands

          The book “The Poisonwood Bible” tells the story of the Price family, a Baptist family who, in 1959, left their home in Georgia to save the lost souls of the Congo.  Barbara Kingsolver’s story details the mostly frustrated attempts of the family patriarch, Nathan, to single handedly save the souls of the Congolese people by forcing both Christianity and western culture on them.  The disasters run from the failure of Price’s allegedly superior western plants to bear fruit in the Congo, to the death of the Price’s young daughter, to Price’s utter inability to convert the Congolese to Christianity.  When I first read “The Poisonwood Bible” some years ago, I was struck by the missionary zeal of Nathan Price and the extent to which the Bible was used to divide and control rather than to unite and liberate.

          I could not help but think about “The Poisonwood Bible” when I read the materials for today’s Christian Unity service.  The materials and worship service for today were developed by Christians in the Caribbean, which is a vast and diverse expanse of islands in the Caribbean Sea.  Sadly, one of the things that Caribbean countries and territories have in common is the connection to slavery and European colonization.  The Bible was often used to justify slavery and oppression in the Caribbean as the Bible was used to do the same in our own country.  And yet, the Bible was also a source of hope for the people of the Caribbean as it was for slaves in the United States. 

          The dramatic story of the Exodus has long been a source of inspiration, comfort, and hope, for people in bondage.  Time and again, Scripture refers to the story of the Hebrew people’s miraculous escape from Egypt as the Egyptian army follows in hot pursuit.  If God’s right hand could shatter the Egyptians, surely God’s right hand can destroy any bondage or enslavement in any time or in any place.  The Exodus story not only tells of God’s saving work in the past; the story tells us that God wants liberation for God’s people in all times and in all places. 

          As a 21^st century Christian who lives in comfort and security here in Hudson, I have to say that I have a fundamental discomfort with the story as told in our passage from Exodus this morning.  The story does give credit where credit is due, praising God for God’s mighty acts in delivering the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.  Only God could send plagues of locusts, or frogs or hail, or part the Red Sea.  I am all for giving God credit.  And yet, while God could have liberated the Hebrew people all by Godself, God chose to use Moses, to partner with Moses if you will, to save God’s people from the Egyptians.  Back in the third chapter of Exodus, God called Moses from the burning bush and said, in paraphrase, “I have heard the cry of my people who are in Egypt, and I am sending you to get my people out of there.”  Moses is none too pleased with this arrangement and offers all kinds of reasons why this is a bad idea.  But God is insistent, and describes the partnership God and Moses will have, by which God will convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go, and Moses will lead them out.

          God’s liberating work has been about partnership ever since God and Moses delivered the Hebrew people out of Egypt.  I see the same sort of godly partnership in the founding documents of the Caribbean Conference of Churches.  That document says, and I quote, “We, as Christian people of the Caribbean, because of our common calling in Christ, covenant to join together ….. to overcome the challenges created by history, language, culture, class, and distance.  We are therefore deeply committed to promoting peace, the holistic development of our people, and affirming social justice and the dignity of all persons.”  Together with God, the Christian people of the Caribbean have partnered together to do Exodus work and to deliver people from the varieties of bondage in which they find themselves today.

          The right hand of God is indeed glorious in power, and the power of God is used to liberate God’s people from bondage, working in all the ways described in the hymn we will sing this morning- writing, pointing, striking, lifting, healing and planting.  But what about God’s left hand? 

We are God’s left hand.  Whether Moses, or those who helped Jews to safety during the Holocaust, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, or people who work with victims of addiction, violence, or human trafficking, or God’s own son sent to free us from sin and death, God works in partnership.  The partnership of the churches in the Caribbean in an incarnation of that partnership. 

Jesus’ prayer for his disciples on the night before he died was not that his disciples would always agree.  His prayer was that his disciples would be one.   On the one hand, by being united, the disciples would mirror God’s love for the world.  On the other hand, by being one, the disciples could actually get something done as they continued Jesus’ liberating work.  We gather today to show God’s love to the world through our unity and to bind together because we can do so much more together than we can do apart as we continue God’s liberating work.

          One of my favorite television shows is “Call the Midwife.”  At the end of one grueling day, Sister Monica Joan, an elderly quite eccentric Anglican nun, encourages a young midwife who has had a long, hard day with these words. “The hands of the Almighty are often found at the ends of our own arms.”  May we be those hand, together.

                                                                             Amen.

          

Welcome

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 14, 2018

2 Epiphany B

          Late one afternoon, about 10 years ago, I was working in my office in Springfield, Ohio, when the phone rang.  If you have ever hung out in a church office, you know that we get all kinds of interesting phone calls.  We get phone calls from people needing a variety of kinds of assistance, or people with no connection to the Episcopal Church whatsoever who want to vent about some stand or other than the church has recently taken, or, my personal favorite-companies wanting to offer us a line of credit but needing to speak to the owner.  I would happily put the caller through directly to God if I could!

          That afternoon, however, the call was from a man named Alan Kimbrough.  Alan lived in Dayton, Ohio and was actually my husband’s cousin although we had never connected with Alan in all the years we had lived in Springfield.  Alan was looking for a church that would host the Dayton Gay Men’s Chorus for their Christmas concert.   The Chorus had several church venues in Dayton, but were looking to move out into wider community.  Would the Episcopal church in Springfield be willing to host?

          After some wonderful conversation with the vestry, I called Alan back to say that we would love to host the concert.  We had months in which to plan the hospitality, which we took very seriously.  We knew that exceptional hospitality would send one message and mediocre hospitality would send another message.  When the long-anticipated night finally arrived, we had ushers and greeters scattered throughout the building, which is as much of a maze as this church, and enough appetizers and dessert to feed a small army.  The church was packed with excited people who had come from as far away as Zanesville to hear the chorus.  The atmosphere was electric, and I could feel the energy in the room.  People stayed for a long time after the men sang and enjoyed the reception.  But what I will remember the most about that evening, and hope I never forget, is the number of people who came up to me that night and said, “This is the first time I have ever felt welcome in a church.”

          This morning, Jesus decides to go to Galilee where he finds Philip and says “Follow me.”  Philip then finds Nathaniel and tells him, with some excitement in his voice, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”  Nathaniel should be excited, too.  Philip has found the long awaited Messiah.  But Nathaniel is somewhat less than enthusiastic.  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 

          By the end of the story, Nathaniel has declared that Jesus is the Son of God.  What changes Nathaniel’s mind about Jesus?  What convinces Nathaniel that something good has come out of Nazareth, and that this Jesus is worth following?  What happened was an encounter with Jesus in which Jesus sees something in Nathaniel that is good.  “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  Even then, Nathaniel is skeptical.  “Where did you get to know me?”  Jesus replies “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”  Jesus had noticed Philip under the fig tree when there was no real reason to notice the man.  When Nathaniel realizes that Jesus really saw him, and saw something in him that was good, Nathaniel is moved to say “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” 

          “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  When I talk with people who have never had a connection with church, and all they know about church is what they read about in the press or on social media, they wonder “Can anything good come out of church?”  At best, they see that we give up precious time on Sunday mornings, and often other times during the week.  We believe in a God we cannot see.  We pattern our lives around an ancient book.  We eat bread and drink wine that we call the body and blood of Christ.  We do lots of good works, but so do many other organizations.  At worst, they see church as an institution that divides rather than unites, that preaches judgement rather than compassion, and that condemns rather than loves.  Can anything good come out of church?

This weekend, we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I am reminded of Dr. King when I hear Jesus say to Nathaniel “Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”  Jesus was speaking about Nathaniel’s character.  Dr. King said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  Dr. King gave his life to overcome racism in this country and to tear down the barriers that divide us.  Dr. King’s work was to make this country a place that welcomes all people into all aspects of life regardless of their color, whether drinking fountains, restrooms and restaurants, or places of employment and government office.  Whether based on the Declaration of Independence and the statement that all are created equal, or based on the book of Genesis where all are made in the image of God, Dr. King called us to live like we believe those statements to be true.

          Can anything good come out of church?  Both Jesus and Dr. King call us to treat people exactly the way our Baptismal Covenant calls us to treat people.  If we work for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being, no exceptions, and seek and serve Christ in all people, no exceptions, then people of all races, economic backgrounds, educational levels, nationalities, and sexual orientations will know that they are welcome here.  And to all who wonder, the answer to the question “Can anything good come out of church?” will be a resounding “Yes!”

                                                                             Amen.

Baptism and Baby Food

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 7, 2018

1 Epiphany B

          Last Wednesday morning, the office staff packed up the baby food that you brought to church on Christmas Eve and we got the food ready to be delivered to the Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit and Medina Counties.  Hundreds of containers of baby food had been offered at the creche at our Christmas Eve services as gifts for the baby Jesus and hungry babies in our community.  The Battered Women’s Shelter provides emergency shelter to women and their children who are escaping an abusive situation, often leaving behind all of their belongings.  The shelter provides clothing, food, and all the essentials to the clients who live there.  The baby food will provide nourishment to their youngest clients, who may not have to sleep in a manger, but are having to make home in a strange place.

What, you might ask, does our offering of baby food have to do with the baptism of Jesus, which we celebrate this morning?  Given that yesterday was Epiphany, the date on which the Church celebrates the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus, and today Jesus is a grown man being baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin John, time is certainly flying by.  And I think my children grew up quickly!  Mark's gospel, from which we hear this morning, tells us so little about Jesus' baptism that we have to hear the same story about John the Baptist that we heard during Advent in order to get a gospel reading of a respectable length.  Mark makes three succinct points about Jesus' baptism.  First, Jesus went into the wilderness and was baptized by John the Baptist.  Secondly, the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit descended like a dove. And lastly, a voice came from heaven and said "You are my Son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased."

          All of the gospels give us some account of Jesus’ baptism, and we celebrate Jesus’ baptism every year on the first Sunday after Epiphany.  Mark’s version may be the shortest, but his version is packed with meaning.  First, Jesus went into the wilderness to be baptized.  Immediately after his baptism, Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and then he entered the many wildernesses in which people found themselves in order to bring healing and wholeness.  Lastly, Jesus walked into the wilderness of crucifixion.  Jesus’ baptism in the wilderness was not protection from the wilderness.  Instead, Jesus’ baptism called him to engage the wilderness. 

Secondly, in Jesus' baptism, the heavens were torn open and a dove descended as a bit of the kingdom of heaven was made known on earth.  In the Hebrew scriptures and tradition, the dove represents a sign from God, or the Spirit of God.  For example, in the story of the great flood, once the ark came to a stop on the mountain, Noah sent out a dove to see if there was any dry land.  The first time, the dove came back with an empty beak.  The second time, the dove brought back an olive branch, a sign that life was returning to the devastated land.  The third time, the dove did not return, so Noah knew that the people and animals could enter dry land.  The dove was understood as a sign from God, to let Noah know when he could safely leave the ark.  In Jesus’ baptism, the heavens were split open and this symbol of God’s presence flew through the opening.  The Kingdom of God had broken through to earth.  The first words of Jesus' ministry will be "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near.  Repent and believe in the good news."  The Kingdom of God may have come near in Jesus’ baptism, but Jesus’ work is to make that Kingdom even more present on earth. 

Lastly, Jesus hears the voice of God say "You are my Son, the beloved.  With you I am well pleased."  Mark doesn't tell us, and I don't believe Jesus knows, exactly what that means.  But Jesus trusts that God is present with him and Jesus moves throughout his ministry living into his identity as the beloved Son of God.  His work ushering in the Kingdom of God is to assure others of their identity as God’s beloved children, whether a woman on the margins of society due to illness, or a man possessed by many demons, or the children Jesus took into his arms.   

So, what might Jesus’ baptism have to do with gifts of baby food?  Jesus' baptism propelled him into the world to not just to proclaim the Kingdom of God, but to make that Kingdom real and present, and not just to be the beloved Son of God, but to tell others that they, too, are beloved of God.  Baptism, whether Jesus' baptism and or own our baptism, is not just about our own personal relationship with God.  Baptism certainly connects us to God eternally and marks us as Christ’s own forever, but baptism also sends us out from this church into the world to make the Kingdom real and present in concrete ways to all of humankind.  Baptism sends us into the wilderness where people do not always live in safety, have warm homes, enough food to eat, or the resources to care for their children.  Baptism sends us out to show people with our lives that the Kingdom of God is present on earth.  Baptism sends us out to tell people that they are beloved of God, no exceptions.

This is where the baby food comes in, along with the meals we serve at Open M, the houses we build with Habitat for Humanity, the Christmas presents we provide through Giving Tree, the scarves, caps, mittens, blankets and sleeping mats we make to keep children warm, the food we provide for the Hudson Food Pantry, the hospitality we offer at Welcome Table, and the many other ways we work to make the Kingdom of God more present on earth.  Where else in Hudson and Summit County do people need to be shown that they are beloved children of God?  The more we use our lives to show people that they are God’s beloved children, the more our community and the world will resemble like the Kingdom of God.  Baptism calls us to enter the wilderness, whatever that wilderness may be, to make the Kingdom of God known with our words and actions, and to show people that they are God’s beloved children.  Just like Jesus. 

                                                                             Amen.

Story

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Episcopal Church

December 31, 2017 (8am only)

                                                     Christmas 1

How appropriate that today, as we stand at the edge of one year and on the cusp of another, our gospel lesson begins with those magical words "In the Beginning...."  I think there is something inside each of us that longs to know about our beginnings.  Our sons, who are now quite grown, still like to hear stories about their beginnings.  And when we run out of stories about their beginnings, they want to hear stories about when Don and I were little, or when our parents were children.  Our kids have always want to know where they come from, and they want it in the form of a story.  Even as small children, they knew that the story of their beginnings goes back way beyond the moment of their individual births, and that understanding their beginnings is an important part of figuring out who they are.     

So, today, we hear the story of our beginnings as Christians.  John begins his gospel "In the beginning" echoing those words that begin the book of Genesis.  "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the the face of the waters, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  The Greek word "logos" is translated as "Word" in every translation of the New Testament that I know of, but it can be translated many other ways such as "speech," "reason" or "plan," or even "rational thought" but the most interesting translation, I think, is "story."  In the beginning was the Story, not just any old story, but our story, the story of our relationship with God.   

The gospel lesson we heard this morning is John's version of the Christmas story.  John's version of the story of our beginnings as Christians has no manger, no swaddling clothes or barn animals, and no baby Jesus.  This gospel lesson would make a terrible Christmas pageant!  But this gospel lesson is very clear about who Jesus is.  Jesus is the Word, the story, that has dwelt with God since the very beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.  Jesus is God made flesh so that we can know God, not as an abstract concept, or a deity that we can know the fullness of the story of God's relationship with humanity, from the very beginning right up through our own relationship with him in the present.

What does this story of our beginnings tell us about ourselves?  First, in Jesus we meet God as God wants us to see our Creator.  We meet the God who wants to communicate with us, be in conversation with us, walk with us and experience our humanity.  God could have chosen to be revealed as light, or diamonds, or an incredible sunset or a powerful earthquake, but instead God chose to be revealed to us as one of us.  It is difficult at best, perhaps impossible, to have a relationship with a sunset or a diamond.  God's revelation as a person shows us how deeply God wants to be in relationship with us.  Jesus is God's offering of God's entire self that we might have this relationship.  This story tells us that we are meant to be in relationship with God, and that we are, in fact, God's beloved children.

The second thing we learn from this story of our beginnings is that God, revealed in Jesus, is not going to be obvious to everyone.   John says "He was in the world, but the world did not know him."  There are many people right here in Hudson who are good, gracious people, but do not know Jesus, and who have no interest in knowing him.  The same God who wants a relationship with us so much that the Word became flesh in Jesus, gives us the freedom to choose whether we want to respond and reciprocate that relationship.  It is a gracious God who continually offers the gift of Jesus, but allows us the freedom to say "no." 

Does this mean we should stop introducing people to Jesus?  Absolutely not.  We each have the responsibility and the privilege of introducing Jesus to whomever God sends into our lives- family, friends, co-workers.  But the gospel tells us that we should not expect that our introductions will always be met with joy and wonder.  John the Baptist, we are told, came to testify to the light, even though not everyone would believe.  We, too, are called to testify to the light, even though not everyone will believe. 

New Year’s Eve is a prime opportunity to reflect on who we are and what we are called to do.  Who are we?  We are beloved children of God with whom God is dying, literally, to have a relationship.  What are we called to do?  We are called to bear witness to the light of Jesus at all times and in all places, so that no one will walk in darkness because they haven't seen the light.  May we be faithful bearers of the Story.

Amen.