Barriers

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 21, 2016

16 Proper C

          The television is rarely on in our house.  For the most part, Don and I get our news online.  Other than Downton Abbey, which, sadly, is no longer on, and the occasional Arkansas Razorback football game in the fall, we rarely even think about turning the television on.  The exception is the Olympics.  The games are exciting to watch, but the part of the Olympics I really love is hearing the stories of the athletes.  So many of the people who make it to the Olympics to run or swim, or play basketball or tennis, or do gravity defying gymnastics have a story to tell. Those stories are of starting life in less than desirable circumstances, or of injury or illness that made the Olympics seem like an impossible dream, or of the Refugee Olympic Team whose stories of sheer human survival are beyond anything most of us can imagine. These stories are about obstacles overcome, sometimes with great help from family and friends, other times on their own, as the athletes arrive on the world stage.

          Both our reading from Jeremiah and our reading from Luke’s gospel tell us stories of overcoming obstacles this morning.  Jeremiah is called by God with these words “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah is clearly overwhelmed by God’s words and sees only the obstacles to serving God as a prophet. “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak.  For I am only a boy!”  How can a young boy possibly be a prophet of the Lord?  Who will listen to him?  How will he find the correct words?  What if the people don’t like what he has to say?  What will they do to him?  But God will hear nothing of Jeremiah’s objections or the perceived obstacles in Jeremiah’s way.  “Do not say ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak what I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am there to deliver you.”  Then God touches Jeremiah’s mouth and gives him the words he is to say.  God has torn down all the obstacles standing in Jeremiah’s way and sent him off to do the work Jeremiah has been called to do.

          In the gospel reading, Jesus encounters a woman with a spirit that has crippled her for 18 years. Most people would not even notice the woman in a crowd, she was so bent over.  The woman’s infirmity is the obvious obstacle in the story, and just as God removed the obstacles from Jeremiah’s journey, Jesus heals the woman who can then stand up straight.  She praises God because the obstacle in her life has been removed and she has been healed.  She can now get on with the business of living.  However, there is another obstacle in this story, and that obstacle is the synagogue leader’s understanding of the 4^th Commandment.  The leader of the synagogue says to the crowd, apparently multiple times “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath.”  The leader of the synagogue apparently blames the woman for showing up in the synagogue where she happens to be seen by Jesus and be healed.  There is something quite wrong with that logic, but perhaps the leader of the synagogue was afraid to openly criticize the person capable of such powerful deeds.  But had Jesus actually violated the Sabbath?

          In the 20^th chapter of the book of Exodus, the 4^th Commandment states “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  You shall not do any work-you, your son, your daughter, you male or female slave, your livestock or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blesses the day and consecrated it.”  This is the commandment the leader of the synagogue refers to this morning.  While Jesus is the guilty party, not the woman, in some sense the 4^th commandment has been broken even if for a good and admirable reason.

          However, the 10 commandments are also found in the book of Deuteronomy.  In Deuteronomy, the 4^th commandment reads the same as the account in Exodus all the way through the list of who shall have a day of rest on the Sabbath. But the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is different in Deuteronomy.  In Exodus, the reason given for keeping the Sabbath holy is based on the story of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis.  Deuteronomy bases the 4^th commandment on the story of the Exodus from Egypt.  “Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”  According to Deuteronomy, the Sabbath is a time, set aside each week, when the people are commanded to stop everything and honor God who brought them out of bondage in Egypt, led them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

          On this view, Jesus has not broken the 4^th commandment by healing the woman of her infirmity.  Jesus has done the work of the 4^th commandment by releasing her from the bondage of her ailment, just as the Hebrew people were freed from their bondage in Egypt.  Yes, we are commanded to keep holy the Sabbath day to honor God by pausing from our work to worship, give thanks, and pray.  But the same commandment also calls us to commit to living lives that tear down barriers rather than use the commandments to create them.  One of the scripture passages that we read in Advent, as we wait the coming of the Messiah, is from Isaiah 40: “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low…then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.”  The work of the Messiah is to remove obstacles so that all people can see the glory of God together.

          The church is the Body of Christ and as such, our work is to remove obstacles so that all flesh can see the glory of God together.  We are an obstacle to the glory of God if the words we say and sing with our lips do not match the actions of our lives. We are an obstacle if we preach inclusion and practice exclusion.  We are an obstacle if we proclaim the Prince of Peace, and the squabble among ourselves.  But when, like Jesus, our actions match our words of mercy, love, and peace, the 4^th Commandment in honored.  Barriers fall and the glory of God is revealed. 

                                                                   Amen.

          

Fire

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 14, 2016

15 Proper C

          A few weeks ago, my cousin Larry was in Cleveland for work so he and I met for dinner in Twinsburg one night. Larry lives in Chicago and we see each other once in 5 years if we are lucky.  Ours is a small family and Larry and his siblings are my only cousins. 

          We talked about a wide variety of things that night, and I’m sure the wait staff wondered just how long we were going to stay.  After catching up on each other’s families and our respective careers, our conversation turned to some of our earliest family memories.  Larry and I are the same age, and one of our earliest memories is of the house our great grandparents built in Fordyce, Arkansas.  The house was built in 1907 and was a magnificent home, meant to house the family for generations to come.  Even at a young age, the house made quite an impression on us as we played in the wide hallways and spacious rooms.  But when Larry and I were 5 years old, the house burned to the ground in a deadly fire, causing great tragedy and some division in our family.  Neither of us were there at the time, so the fire itself is not among our memories.  Larry and his family were in Chicago and my family was in New Jersey.  But when Larry and I met for dinner that night, we wondered out loud what our family would be like had the house not burned.  On the one hand, the house would have been home to many family gatherings at Christmas and the cousins would have felt like we grew up together.  On the other hand, the house was filled with things that might well have been fought over in subsequent years, causing more strife and division in the family.  Our conversation was pure conjecture, of course, but from a very early age, we were both well aware of the chaos and division fire can cause, and the impact fire can have on a family.

This morning, Jesus is also aware of the impact and division fire can have, even if he is speaking about a different kind of fire.  If this gospel reading was the entire gospel, I’d have to say that there is no good news to be found, and that we should all pack up, go home, and watch cartoons.  But this passage about fire and division is not the entire gospel, and should not be read as if it is.  Throughout the Scriptures, fire is actually a symbol of the presence of God.  God appeared to Moses in a burning bush.  A pillar of fire led the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness as a sign of the presence of God in their midst.  A coal of fire purified the lips of Isaiah as he began his prophetic ministry and spoke the word of God.  Tongues of fire rested on the heads of the disciples at Pentecost as they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Through the fire, God assures the people of the Divine Presence in their midst.

The Divine Presence does not always make life easy, however.  When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, God sent Moses off to deliver the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  The pillar of fire that led the Hebrew people in the wilderness did not always grant them either success or a positive attitude.  Isaiah’s lips were purified by the coal of fire so that he might speak harsh words of judgement to a people who had strayed far from the path God had set for them.  And when the disciples were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, they were empowered for ministry that not only spoke the good news to vast numbers of people, but also landed them before judges and in jail. 

This morning, Jesus reads us the fine print about being his disciple when he says “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled...Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division!  From now on five in one household will be divided” and so forth.   Jesus has come to bring the presence of God into our midst and he is being brutally honest about the possible consequences of following him.  Jesus is not saying that division is what should happen as a result of his ministry and the fire that he brings. But Jesus is warning his followers that division may happen as some people embrace the light and others flee the flames, even within the same household. 

At Jesus’ birth, the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”  The great passage from Isaiah that we read on Christmas Eve proclaims “For a child has been born for us....and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Our surprise at the harsh words of the gospel this morning comes from a Scripture-based understanding that Jesus is the Messiah of Peace, the one who comes not to divide but to unify.  And yet, when the newly pregnant Mary goes to stay with her cousin Elizabeth who is also pregnant, her song is about the God who scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, who has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly, who has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.  These are not the actions of a God who is primarily interested in keeping the peace.  These are the actions of a God who, in Jesus, is bringing all people into the Kingdom of God, even if it means breaking the peace and causing division. 

This morning we will baptize Cecily Elizabeth West.  When we hear Jesus say “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed,” we might wonder whether baptism is a good thing to do to a sweet baby girl.  But the fire with which Jesus was baptized was the fire of crucifixion and resurrection so that his followers can be baptized into new life.  New life, however, is not the promise that life will always be easy.  The promise of baptism is that in the fire that disturbs the peace, we will experience God.  The promise of baptism is that in the many fires of life, the presence of God will always sustain us.  The promise of baptism is that, by being joined with Jesus and following Jesus where he goes, the final word will always belong to life.

                                                                   Amen.

Values

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 7, 2016

14 Proper C

          A couple of weeks ago, the Christ Church vestry had a Saturday morning retreat.  Our task was to identify and articulate our values as a congregation and then use that information to create some structure for our many ministries.  We spent a lot of time thinking about where we put our time, our talent, and our treasure at Christ Church, and had a great time in the process.  What do we, as a congregation, hold dear based on the evidence of where we put our human, building, and financial resources?

Our goal was not to come up with a list of what we think we should value, or what we think we should be doing, but to use what we are doing, which is a lot, to figure out what we currently value.  Basically, we were looking for the revelation of the obvious. We were limited to three values so that we had to focus and push for clarity.  The list we came up with will not be the values of each individual in the congregation, as each of us, including myself, will have values that are not on the list.  We wanted to be able to state what an outsider might see as the values of our congregation based on the evidence of our ministry.  What we came up with are worship, fellowship, and outreach.  You will hear more in the near future about the formation of ministry teams and how we can come together to both support each other in the ministries we currently have and bring forward new ideas. 

          This morning we hear Jesus say “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I think Jesus would also say “Where your time is, there your heart will be also.”  Where we put our time and treasure matter, according to Jesus, because those actions tell us what our values are.  Many stewardship sermons have been preached on this passage, extolling the value of looking at our calendars and checkbooks or online banking statements to see where our heart is.  And while that is an appropriate application of this passage, the rest of what Jesus has to say this morning has us dig even deeper into our lives as Christians.

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,” says Jesus.  “But know this, if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.  You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”  What does being ready have to do with knowing that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be found also?

Interestingly, the lectionary pairs this passage with a passage from Isaiah in which an angry God gives the people a very stern rebuke for the way that they worship.  “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts,” God says.  I imagine the people were fairly confused by God’s stern words, since they worship according to the commandments of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible.  The animal sacrifices and incense offerings are all described in detail in the book of Leviticus, so why is God so upset that he begins his diatribe this morning by comparing the Hebrew people to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is most certainly not a compliment?    

           The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a horrible story, found in the 19^th chapter of the book of Genesis.  A close reading of the story, which should be R-rated for violence, reveals that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a condemnation of abominable hospitality and gross injustice.  The prophet Ezekiel (16) also refers to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the accusation against them is “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and needy.”  In these first verses from the prophet Isaiah, the charge against the people is that they bring offerings and make sacrifices in the temple when what they really need to do is “learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow.”  When the people do those things, then they will no longer be like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Is the prophet Isaiah condemning all acts of worship?  Not at all.  In another few chapters, at the beginning of chapter 6, Isaiah himself will be in the temple worshiping God when he has his great vision that leads him to say “Hear I am, send me.”  God does not hate our worship.  God hates worship that is not paired with seeking justice, rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan, and pleading for the widow.  Worship that does not lead to action is what God’s soul hates, not worship in and of itself.  God says “wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes.” Those are acts of worship, acts that call us to repent of the times we turn a blind eye to human need and suffering. 

So, how are we to be prepared for the coming of Jesus, the thief who wants to steal nothing more and nothing less than our hearts?  If we listen to the prophet Isaiah this morning, we hear him tell us, in no uncertain terms, that we are called engage in worship that transforms us and compels us to work for justice and peace.  Our own baptismal covenant calls us to seek and serve Christ in all people.  We prepare for Jesus by meeting Him in worship that nourishes us, by seeing Christ in each other and loving each other even when we don’t always agree, and going out into the world together to seek and serve Christ there.  Worship, fellowship, and outreach, taken together and done well, help us practice recognizing and serving Jesus in each other and in the world around us.  I am convinced that when we can recognize and serve Jesus in each other and in all people, we will be prepared for Jesus both now and in the age to come.   

                                                                             Amen.

Cereal

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 31, 2016

13 Proper C

          Camp Mitchell is the Episcopal Church camp in the Diocese of Arkansas, a sacred place where I worked as a counselor during the summers I was in college.  Most of the camp sessions were age-based, so all of the children were more or less the same age.  However, there was one session for low income inner-city children of all ages that was called the Robert R. Brown camp, named for a former Bishop of Arkansas.  The counselors all loved this camp session because we knew the children were getting the experience of a lifetime and we all wanted to make the time as special for them as possible. 

          Three things stick out in my mind about Robert R. Brown camp. The first is that the girls in my cabin, who ranged in age from about 7 to 13, pushed all the cots together to form one big bed so they could all sleep together.  None of them could imagine sleeping alone in a bed.  Secondly, I woke up one morning to the sound of lots of water activity going on in the bathroom.  I got up to see what was going on and found a couple of the older girls washing everyone’s clothes in the sink with hand soap.  None of the staff had thought about the fact that these children might not have a week’s worth of clothes to bring to camp.  But the girls were unfazed by their lack of clothes, nor did they ask anyone else to wash for them.  They simply got together and did what they needed to do.

          Lastly, at breakfast on the first full day of camp, one young camper had pulled up the hem of his t-shirt to make a big pocket and had filled his shirt with little boxes of cereal.  The camp director, a fairly tall and somewhat imposing man, stopped the young camper and asked what he had.  The young camper looked like he had just been caught with the contents of a Brinks truck rather than a shirt full of apple jacks and fruit loops.  I have always remembered what the camp director said to the young, scared camper.  He said “You don’t need to take those with you.  They are all yours and you can come back and get one anytime you want it.” “Really?” said the camper, not quite believing his ears.  “Really,” said the director.  For children who come from families who are food insecure, the thought that there was enough food all the time for everyone was pure fantasy.

          The man in Jesus’ parable this morning is not from a food insecure family.  We are told from the very beginning that the man is rich, and his land had produced abundantly.  Our first reaction to the parable might be to wonder what Jesus has against being responsible and preparing for the future, since that is what the rich man appears to be doing.  He is going to store his abundance for his retirement.  Many of us have saved to buy a house, for the education of ourselves or our children, for vacation, for retirement or any number of other future opportunities.  What does Jesus have against being a responsible grown-up?

          Actually, this parable is not about preparing for the future.  Listen to what the rich man says when his crops have produced so abundantly. “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?  I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grains and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”  In three sentences, the rich man uses the word “I” six times.  The parable is not about hoarding, as the man plans to use the abundance of his crops so he can relax, eat, drink, and be merry.  The parable is not about being lazy, since before the partying can begin, the man has to pull down his barns and build larger ones, which sounds like a lot of work to me.  The parable is about thinking that all that we are and all that we have belongs to us, and believing that we are the navel of our own universe.  Nowhere in this parable does the man consider that his abundance might be a gift to be shared.  As the saying goes, this is a parable about the self-made man who worshiped his creator.

          In the reading from Hosea, we hear God speak with a broken heart.  The people of Israel have gone their own way, chasing after gods who they think will bring them security, making alliances with foreign powers rather than trusting God to protect them, and exploiting other people for their own gain.  Just as the rich man in the parable was looking for security in the abundance of his own crops that he had grown himself, the Israelites were looking for security in alliances and gods of their own making.  The Israelites have forgotten all that God has done for them.  Hear the heartbreak in God’s voice: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son.  The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols.  Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.”  The Israelites have forgotten God and the way God calls them to live, and God knows the consequences of their actions will be disastrous.  The Assyrians will invade and conquer Israel, which will result in what we know as the 10 lost tribes of Israel.  When the life of the rich man in the parable was demanded of him before he ever got to relax, eat, drink, and be merry, perhaps he realized that his security was in the wrong place.  When the Israel was invaded and occupied, they, too, realized that their security had been misplaced.  “So it is,” we hear in the parable, “with those who store up treasures for themselves, but are not rich towards God.”

          Not too many weeks ago, we heard a lawyer ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked “What does this law say?”  The man replied “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus says “Do this and live.”  Those words are the summary of all the law and the prophets, and those are the words that describe what Jesus means by being rich towards God.  Jesus’ parable this morning is not about preparing for the future.  Jesus’ parable is about living today in a way that is rich toward God.  The children at Robert R. Brown camp certainly had no earthly treasure to store up for themselves, but they were rich toward God.  They took care of each other, and made sure that everyone had what he or she needed.  They shared what little they had.  Even the little boy who wanted to take the cereal back to his cabin was not likely taking it for himself alone to hoard for the future.  He would have shared his abundance just as the other children would have shared theirs.  When we put our security in living as people who love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, we will live richly toward God, everyone will have enough, and our security will have a solid foundation.

                                                                                      Amen.

Prayer

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Episcopal Church

July 24, 2016

                                                     Proper 12 C

Since arriving in Hudson almost 3 months ago, my GPS and I have become very good friends.  While I always get where I am going, and I have no problem stopping to ask for directions, my own sense of direction is not great. In my first month here, I tried to take the back route from the church to our house in Connecticut Colony by turning left on Prospect and following my nose. I ended up in Macedonia. So, I like a good set of directions, preferably in the form of a voice coming out of the speakers in my car saying “in one half mile, turn left.”  When I follow the directions, step by step, without second guessing them, I get where I am going.  As I have said before, with the help of the gps, I always get where I am going, but I often do not know where I am.

In today’s gospel lesson, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.   I shouldn’t speak for the disciples, but my guess is that, like many of us, what they really want is something like a good set of directions that, when followed exactly, will get them where they want to be, at least metaphorically.  This sounds much more selfish that it actually is, because I believe that in most cases our prayers are for others, not for ourselves.  We want to be able pray such that our loved ones are healed, war and violence come to an end, hunger and poverty are eliminated, people get along, and our own limitations are conquered.  Teach us how to pray, Jesus, with exact step by step directions, so that God will hear our prayers and be moved to act.  And so Jesus gives us the prayer we know and love as the Lord’s prayer, tells us the story about a man who goes to his friend at midnight and beats on the door until the friend answers, and then Jesus makes what seems like a rash promise that if we ask, we shall receive, if we seek, we will find, and if we knock, the door will be opened. Jesus seems to tell us that persistence in prayer pays off with the desired results, and that God would never give us a scorpion when we ask for an egg.  But, the reality is that we don’t always get what we pray for, no matter how persistent we are, or how closely we follow any particular recipe for prayer.  We ask for eggs, and sometimes, all we see are scorpions.  So, what could Jesus possibly mean? Why bother with prayer when many of our prayers seem to go unnoticed by God?  

I find it interesting that Jesus’ teaching on prayer parallels the last hours of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to ask for 4 things: that God’s kingdom come, that we receive our daily bread, that our sins be forgiven, and that we are spared the time of trial.  These four requests parallel the events of Jesus’ last hours.  Knowing that Jesus’ hour has come and that his earthly life will soon come to a painful end, Jesus takes bread, regular daily bread, and blesses it, gives it to his disciples and tells them to eat this daily bread in remembrance of him.  Jesus also tells the disciples that he will not eat this bread again until the Kingdom of God has been fulfilled.  “Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread.”  Then Jesus blesses the wine and says “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  “Forgive us our sins.”  Then Jesus kneels, at the Mount of Olives in Luke’s gospel, in the garden or in Gethsemane in other gospels, and prays.  “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.”  When Jesus finishes praying, he says to the disciples, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”  And do not bring us to the time of trial.

There, in Jesus’ last hours, in the face of his suffering and death that his prayers to God will not remove, are all the pieces of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. This is the context into which Jesus’ teaching on prayer must go.  Prayer is not a set of directions we must follow to get what we want or be delivered from our suffering.  Prayer is a way of being persistent followers of the crucified and risen Lord in the midst of whatever scorpions life hands us.  Prayer is a way of uniting ourselves and our concerns with Jesus in his death and resurrection.  That does not mean that we do not make specific requests of God when we pray.  Jesus was very specific in his request: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.”  But Jesus reminds us that the primary gift of prayer is not eggs and fish, or whatever it is that we want or need, but the Holy Spirit, which will always be given to those who ask and which sustained Jesus through the darkest of times and sustains us as well.  In the context of Jesus’ suffering and death, the Lord’s Prayer specifically and all prayer in general is not a means to an end or a set of directions to be followed in order to get to the desired location or result. In the context of Jesus’ suffering and death, prayer is a way to connect with the Holy Spirit so that we can live into the words from the reading from Colossians this morning. Prayer is a way to receive Christ Jesus as Lord, to live our lives in him, rooted and built up in him established in the faith, abounding in thanksgiving.

                                                                             Amen.

Balance

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 17, 2016

11 Proper C

          My mother firmly believed that hospitality is one of the cardinal virtues.  Had she been prone to such language, she would have called hospitality a gospel value, maybe even the gospel value.  When guests arrived at our home, everything was ready so that she could attend to the guests and not the stove.  She wanted the guests to feel expected and welcomed.  The table was set with utmost care and much thought was given to who would sit next to who.  She remembered her guests’ food and beverage likes and dislikes and planned the menu accordingly.  Since this is the way I was raised, and the language I speak is the language of the church, hospitality is a gospel value for me, even if I am not so good about having everything ready when my guests arrive.

          Great hospitality obviously takes a lot of preparation and work, which is a point that seems lost on Jesus this morning.  Martha has an unexpected house guest today, and wants to offer only the finest hospitality, which takes work.  Her sister, on the other hand, is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he has to say.  We can easily hear this story as one that asks us to choose between work and contemplation, action and prayer, doing and being.  Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better part, leaving all of us Type A get-it-done personalities very uncomfortable and a little annoyed.

          The truth, however, is that Jesus has nothing against getting things done.  Last Sunday, we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In that parable, the lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.  When Jesus asks the lawyer what is written in the law, the lawyer responds with the words of the Shema “You shall love the Lord your God with all your, heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus says “Do this and you shall live.”  At the end of the parable, when Jesus asks the lawyer which of the three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers, the lawyer answers “the one who showed him mercy.”  Jesus says “Go and do likewise.”  Add in all the times Jesus sends the disciples out to do something, and Jesus clearly has nothing against doing.

          What Jesus does have a problem with is distraction and worry.  “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.”  Perhaps Martha simply needs some balance in her life, a balance of work and devotion.  We talk about work/life balance in our own lives as we balance work and play, or times of action and of prayer.  We talk about balance in terms of a scale so that no one facet of our lives outweighs another and we try to stay on an even keel.  If you are like me, that’s a lovely thought that does not play out well in real life.  But there is another way to think about balance, which is to think about the balance of a dancer, having a strong core, a center point, and a great deal of flexibility.  With a strong core, movement is graceful and balance is maintained.  Out of a strong core, comes great strength and focus.  Out of a strong core, responses are deliberate, not haphazard. Perhaps Jesus is encouraging Martha to strengthen her spiritual core, to find that kind of balance, so that she is not distracted and worried in her work, but focused and secure. 

          In the reading from Amos, we hear harsh words spoken to people whose core has been weakened and who are an extreme case of loss of balance.  God’s chosen people are meeting the challenges of the world by trampling on the needy, and turning the Sabbath into something to be endured until they can get back to the work of exploitation and practicing deceit.  The consequences of such behavior will be dire.  The behavior is a result of losing focus on their identity as God’s chosen people, letting the core get weak, and being distracted by many things.   Martha’s distraction is simply the work of hospitality.  The distraction condemned by Amos is the distraction of greed and dishonesty.

          How do we strengthen our core as Christians, both individually and as a congregation?  Certainly prayer and corporate worship are part of that, as are Bible study and theological reflection on our own lives and the events in the world around us.  Knowing who we are as Christians and being able to articulate that identity strengthens our core.  Knowing how our gospel values inform our decisions and our actions strengthens our core.  Practicing living as Christians with each other in this place strengthens our core so we can live as Christians in the world with grace and flexibility. 

          We have seen troubled and fearful times in our country and around the world this summer, especially over the last few weeks.   The Republican National Convention takes place in our back yard this week, bringing fears about security in Cleveland.  We are distracted by many things.  The temptation to retreat from the distractions of the world and simply sit at Jesus’ feet is huge.  In a message to the church on Friday, Michael Curry, our presiding bishop, said “Prayer is not an escape from the world but a way of deeper engagement with it by drawing closer to God and closer to each other.”   Sitting at Jesus’ feet was not an escape from the responsibilities and challenges of hospitality and gospel living, as Martha accused Mary of doing.  Sitting at Jesus’ feet provides focus and strength so that we can engage the challenges of life, not out of fear, or worry, or distraction, and certainly not by the exploitation of other people, but with the balance that comes from being grounded in the gospel.

                                                                             Amen.

Keep it Simple

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 3, 2016

9 Proper C

          Our family enjoys taking mini-vacations to nearby cities where we visit museums and enjoy the local cuisine.  By mini, I mean two days and one night, or perhaps two nights.  The mid-west offers many opportunities to visit cities within a short driving distance, and we have been to Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati, as well as some others further afield. When we went to Cincinnati, we visited the Underground Railroad museum the first afternoon and the next morning we went to the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky.  At the entrance to the Creation Museum, we were greeted by a man handling a snake.  The snake was wrapped around his shoulders and was clearly a friendly snake, but a live snake nonetheless.  I was left to wonder whether the snake was a Genesis Chapter 3 snake, which had power over Adam and Eve, or was it a Luke 10 or Mark 16 snake, over which the disciples would have power?  Either way, the clear message was that believers could handle snakes with no fear for their lives or their souls.  However, Don and I had lived in the mountains of western North Carolina for a couple of years, and every year there were one or two stories in the local paper about people who took Jesus’ words literally about the ability of disciples to handle snakes and scorpions.  Unfortunately those folks found that they could not actually tread on snakes and scorpions, and their attempts were met with dire consequences.  If you have ever read the late comedian Robin Williams’ top 10 reasons to be an Episcopalian, you know that reason number 10 is no snake handling. 

          The promise of the ability to tread on snakes and scorpions has such dramatic flair and miraculous potential that we can easily overlook what is perhaps the real miracle in the gospel story this morning.  On this 4^th of July weekend when we celebrate independence and freedom with fireworks that shoot glorious power into the air, Jesus sends the 70 out, not independently, but two by two to recruit more workers for the harvest.  Rather than send them out with everything they need for a successful mission, Jesus tells them to take nothing with them.  Rather than freeing them to be in control of their accommodations as they travel, Jesus tells them to rely on the hospitality of others, eating and drinking what is provided.  Rather than give the disciples a powerful argument that proves the truth of the gospel, they are simply to heal the sick and say “The Kingdom of God has come near.”  By 21^st century American standards, the 70 are destined for failure.  But rather than fail, the 70 succeed and return to Jesus with joy.  They go two by two, make themselves vulnerable as they take nothing with them and rely on the hospitality of others, heal the sick, proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near, and they are successful.  Snake handling looks like a minor miracle in comparison.

          Simplicity and vulnerability are also at the heart of the story from 2 Kings this morning.  Naaman, commander of the army of Aram, has leprosy.  A quick trip to Urgent Care is not an option for Naaman.  Instead, his cure involves a young Israelite girl who tells her mistress about the prophet in Samaria.  The mistress talks to Naaman who tells the King of Aram, who gets the King of Israel involved, who sends Naaman to Elisha.  These connections do not happening via email, much less text message.  These connections likely took weeks or even months to make.  Finally Naaman reaches Elisha, who tells the commander to wash in the Jordan 7 times and he will be healed.  Naaman thinks this is ridiculously simple and is offended.  All of these connections, deep vulnerability to strangers, and this is what he gets?  But his servants say to him, in what may be one of the wisest passages of Scripture “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean'?"  So Naaman does as Elisha instructed and, indeed, his skin is healed.  The miracle is one of connections, vulnerability, and simplicity.

          Jesus sends the 70 out to draw people into the Kingdom of God by proclaiming that the Kingdom has come near.  If Jesus’ followers are welcomed, they are to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near.  If Jesus’ followers are not welcomed, they are still to proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come near.  The way we know that the Kingdom of God has come near apparently has nothing to do with the success of our efforts.  The Kingdom of God has come near when we live as people who are connected to each other, allow ourselves to be vulnerable to outsiders, and keep the message simple.  Paul tells us in the letter to the Galatians to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.  Even as someone quite new here, I see you bearing one another’s burdens at Christ Church and in the wider community all the time.  I have heard stories from you about times when your burdens were born by fellow parishioners.  When we live as people who are connected to each other and use our actions bear one another’s burdens, we both show the world what the Kingdom of God looks like and invite them in.  Like Naaman, we sometimes want to make the work of drawing people into the Kingdom much more complicated than required.  We’d like be able to buy a program or get a complicated set of instructions guaranteed to fill this church with people who want to make a gospel difference in the world.  We can think that living as people who are connected with each other and bearing one another’s burdens sounds like a ridiculously simple way to show people what the Kingdom of God looks like.  Wouldn’t something complicated, like the promise of being able to tread on snakes, metaphorical or literal, be much more effective way to draw people to the Kingdom of God?  In response, we hear the servants of Naaman say “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean'?"

                                                Amen.