Year C - Proper 12 - July 28, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Church

Towson, MD

 

RCL Year C - 10 Pentecost (Proper 12) - July 28, 2013

 

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When was it when you first learned how to pray?…  I can remember one of the first prayers I ever learned… “Now I lay me, down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…  If I should die, before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take…

 

God Bless (and then I inserted everyone and everything from my next door neighbors to the cat)…  Amen!”  Now, I bet those of you that were paying attention to the readings this morning thought that I was going to tell you about the prayer that Jesus taught his followers… In due time… in due time…

 

Like you probably did, I learned the “Now I lay me” prayer at a very young age…  I may not have totally understood what I was doing, but I knew I was praying – and that something exists that is bigger than I am, bigger than even my mom and dad,  or even bigger than my Pop – my grandfather (who was the biggest guy I knew at the time).

 

This was my first formational experience with prayer… You probably can remember your parents or someone significant in your life teaching you how to pray in a very similar way…  The church teaches us that prayer is “responding to God – with or without words”…  So our prayers are our response to God and our recognition of God and how God works in our lives…

 

I can remember, one of the things that I learned many years ago in Sunday School about prayer… Some of you probably remember being taught this too…  It’s called ACTS  A – C – T – S… A stands for Adoration (or love of God), C for Confession (or confessing to God – and release from the guilt of sin), T for Thanksgiving (or giving thanks to God), and S for Supplication (or prayers that we say on behalf of someone else).  We would put these letters on our fingers A C T S --- then the thumb was always pointing back at me…  Then I was supposed to remember to pray for myself…  

 

Today, we heard the lesson, from the Gospel according to Luke, of Jesus teaching his followers to pray, using what we have come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” One of them said “Lord, teach us to pray…”  Teach us to pray! 

 

They were reaching out for a deeper understanding of what it meant to pray to God.  They were asking Jesus, “Teach us that connection that you have to God…  teach us how to respond to God, with or without words!”  Jesus didn’t make them put letters on their fingers, nor did he sit patiently on the edge of their bed and have them kneel there night after night.  He didn’t go through all the resource books that he acquired in seminary and pull off the one off the shelf called “Prayer for Dummies…”  But very elegantly, like so many other things Jesus did, took the opportunity to remind them that they already knew how to respond to God…  After all, most of his followers were faithful Jews, and they had been praying to God since they could talk. 

 

But his disciples recognized a special connection between Jesus and God and they wanted in on that secret…  They thought that he was doing something different from what they had learned as children…  So Jesus reminded them, “when you pray say:  Father, hallowed be your name…” 

 

Within one swoop, Jesus converts a menagerie of thought and images about God and who they thought God to be into a very simple language and direct statement…  He calls God “Abba” or Father with a familiar intimacy – teaching them that God is approachable, but yet remains set apart from the ordinary (therefore holy or hallowed)…  Jesus’ teaching continues… 

 

Your kingdom come – Calling for immediate order to the chaos here on earth this echoes Jesus’ announcement throughout the Gospels for the coming of the kingdom of God.  This statement implies an urgency for this announcement, similar to the story we heard a couple of weeks ago where we heard that WE are to proclaim to others that the kingdom of God has come near…

 

Give us or daily bread – the vital necessities that we need to sustain our bodies…  Bread back then, as it is today, is the difference for some folks between living and starving to death.  If we dig deeper into the original language of the Greek text, the word doesn’t necessarily mean to “give,” (as a once for all) but quite literally translated it means, to “keep on giving.”  So this portion of the prayer in today’s language could actually mean “continue sustaining us, providing for our daily needs like you did for the Israelites in the wilderness, we fully rely on You – Our GOD – to do that for us.”  He goes on…  

 

Forgive us our sins – Jesus knows that all human kind is sinful, and that we miss the mark from time to time when living out our daily lives.  He reminds us to use our prayers to acknowledge our wrongfulness and ask for relief from the burdens of sin that only God can give us

 

And do not bring us to the time of trial – ask God to keep us out of the trouble of temptation and our own desires that bog us down…  

 

Jesus uses the simple rhythm of what we know as “the Lord’s Prayer” to remind us how we should pray.  How to connect to God and how to respond to God with or without words…

 

Many folks criticize the Episcopal Church for the multitude of written prayers that we have in that little red book in our pews, our Book of Common Prayer.  Some of them say, you don’t know how to pray – you have them all written down for you…  prayer needs to be spontaneous & extemporaneous… 

 

I don’t know about you, but when I am confronted with this, I say…  “The book is great! Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to express myself with words that the true expression gets lost in the search for proper articulation…  I am very thankful that I have learned and read some of the beautiful expressions of prayer that have lasted over the centuries.”

 

But the only prayer I really need is the one our savior Jesus has taught to remind his disciples, for me it is the foundational reminder of how we are to respond to God with our lives…  Of how we relate to God and how we depend on God for our needs, our forgiveness and direction”

 

Whether we learned “the Lord’s Prayer” from our parents or from the church…  We still say it every Sunday…  It is foundational and takes the central position in our liturgy…  It is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to help them remember how they should respond to God…

 

I even know some folks with dementia or a diminished mental capacity that cannot remember how to form a simple sentence in a discussion.  But, they still remember the Lord’s prayer…  We respond to God with or without words in prayer…  and when we use words, we don’t need a bunch of flowery ones to help us talk to Our Father in heaven…  It doesn’t matter what denomination the Christian claims, most of us all know “the Lord’s prayer,”  It may have not been the first one that we learned, but for those that grew up in a Christian home, it was taught to us at a very young age…  And we all know it very well…  Pray it with me…

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…  Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory… For ever and ever…  Amen!

RCL Year C - 9 Pentecost (Proper 11) - July 21, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

 

RCL Year C - 9 Pentecost (Proper 11) - July 21, 2013

 

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When I was growing up, my mother once told me the story of “stone soup.” I don’t know if you have ever heard the story of stone soup, but it goes something like this…

 

Once upon a time, after a great war… there was a famine throughout the land. There was a town where all the people were very hungry because no one had enough to eat and people of the town even hid food from each other, and they wouldn’t share.

 

There was a soldier that came though the town. He was tired after traveling the long way back to his home from the war. He knocked on one man’s door, when the man answered, the soldier explained to the man that he was traveling through and needed a place to stay for the night and something to eat.

 

The man explained to the soldier that there wasn’t any room, and an extra mouth to feed would be absolutely impossible. There wasn’t even enough food for the family and the folks in town, let alone a stranger.

 

The soldier said, “that’s ok I have a tent that I can pitch, if you think that the town wouldn’t mind could I pitch it here in your front yard?” The man agreed to let the soldier pitch his tent in his front yard. After the tent was pitched, he asked the man for a pot of water.

 

The man asked him what he was going to do with the water. The soldier produced a large stone, and explained that he was going to make “stone soup.” The man thought this was absolutely ridiculous, but agreed to get the soldier a pot of water.

 

After setting the water to boil, the soldier exclaimed, “stone soup is wonderful by itself, but it was even better with cabbage.” The man, hearing him, came out with cabbage that he had been hiding. The soldier said, “wonderful! Now if we only had some onion. Stone soup with an onion and cabbage is simply marvelous!” Someone else in the town said, “I think I may have an onion,” and went to get an onion out of his hiding place.

 

This went on for a while - carrots, potatoes, celery, corn, beans, etc… were brought forth from their hiding place until almost everyone in the small town contributed a small amount of food. Soon the whole town feasted on the big pot of the stone soup.

 

Everyone in the town was amazed that it was so good. They claimed that the stone must have been magic. They begged the soldier to let them buy the stone, but the soldier said that it wasn’t for sale, and that the already had everything the needed to make stone soup for themselves.

 

The town was amazed!

 

The stone soup story is really a story about hospitality, but not just about individual hospitality – it is about communal or community hospitality. It’s about a community coming together – Coming together in community is one of the most powerful things that we can do, and it has deep spiritual roots in our faith. Interestingly enough, both of our scripture lessons this morning are about hospitality.

 

In the Old Testament lesson, we have a story about three men that are passing through a town. We don’t know yet where they are going, but later we find out that they are on the way to Gomorrah. This is the town where Abraham and his wife Sarah lives.

 

This story is much different than the “stone soup” story. In this story, Abraham runs out to greet the strangers and calls them “Lord.” He doesn’t even know these guys… They are just passing through, yet he shows them deep respect and welcome. Abraham goes to great lengths to greet these three, and treat them as if they were his best friends.

 

He goes and gets water for their feet, the finest grains for Sarah to make them bread and then he goes out to his field to get the best calf to prepare for them… Hospitality was in Abraham’s nature, it was who he was – it was a very common part of his culture and necessary to his survival. This is MUCH different from the lack of sharing that we get in the stone soup story.

 

The three men are on a journey... they had been traveling a long way, and Abraham tends to the stranger’s every need… he even washes their feet. Abraham showed Hospitality.

 

Hospitality…  It is interesting that in Greek, Hospitality is “philoexenia.”  This word in Greek can be literally translated as “love of the stranger.”

 

In our gospel lesson, Jesus is still on his journey toward Jerusalem. Even though he is a stranger in the area, Jesus is invited into the home of Mary and Martha for dinner. These two sisters receive Jesus and his caravan followers into their home.

 

Now Martha knocks herself out in the kitchen, running around rapidly working hard to show Jesus and his group proper hospitality. However, Mary is mesmerized by what Jesus is teaching, and hangs onto his every word… seated at his feet.

 

Martha then gets pretty irritated by this because she thinks Mary should help her… Martha’s complaint would be viewed by others as legitimate because at that time and in that place the cultural expectation was for the female to manage the household and Mary seemed to be acting like a male. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen to do the proper thing for her. 

 

Some of the power message in this story is what Jesus doesn’t say. People always give Martha the bad rap and condemn her for her overactive busyness… But Jesus NEVER tells Martha that she is doing the wrong thing.

 

At that time, Mary needed to listen to Jesus, and Jesus knew it… she was drawn to him, she wanted to learn… She was being spiritually fed by his words, lingering on every one of them… And as irritated as Martha was, she was doing the right thing too because she was looking out for the needs of their visitors and Jesus. Jesus says to Martha that Mary was doing the right thing…  she was sitting at the foot of Jesus, paying attention to him…

 

So, we actually learn something of the spiritual aspects of hospitality this morning… When we receive a stranger into our midst, we are to look out for them, join together and provide for them, and we work real hard and do the active stuff very well…

 

But we also need to be attentive to the stranger in other ways. We should pay attention to the example of Mary in today’s gospel. Mary didn’t go to great measures to fix something for Jesus to eat, but she does pay keen attention to him, and she learns a great deal from him. Mary also provided hospitality.

 

As a community of faith, we show hospitality in many ways… When there is a stranger in our midst, we pay attention to them, we welcome them into our community, help them through the liturgy, and we invite them to eat with us at the Lord’s Table… Through our attentiveness and action, we let them feel the spiritual presence of Christ through us.

 

This is the same idea that St. Benedict had… Benedict is considered the founder of Western Monasticism… (his feast day was just a couple weeks ago on 7/11). He wrote the rule to govern monks who were living in Christian community under the authority of an Abbot. In his effort to make sure that hospitality was done right, he made sure to include a section on how strangers were to be received in the community. He wrote, “all guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ” who said, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.”

 

This is a good thing to keep in mind when thinking about Christian hospitality. We should be mindful to welcome the stranger as if he or she were Christ himself. We don’t hide our food, and wait for a soldier to show up and teach us how to come together to make stone soup…  We have everything that we need to be a hospitable people, right here.

 

Hospitality for the Christian should be a spiritual discipline, it is how we can show Christ and the way to salvation to others. However, we get all-tied-up with the busyness of life, and we fail sometimes to be attentive to what is right in front of us. Christian hospitality needs to be both active and attentive.

 

We are show them the love and compassion that Christ showed to us through action, but we also need to listen to the stranger and to learn from them about their journey. We need to have things ready… and we need to be prepared to welcome the stranger in our midst, regardless of who they may be.

RCL Year C - 8 Pentecost (Proper 10) - July 14, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Church

Towson, MD 

 

RCL Year C - 8 Pentecost (Proper 10) - July 14, 2013

 

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Stephanie Spellers, a priest in the diocese of Massachusetts, has introduced a term to the church that I think we need to pay a bit of attention to this morning.  The term is called Radical Welcome.  It’s easy, as she says, when we hear the words - radical welcome - to primarily think of radical welcome as the warm way we receive people at the door or the quality of snacks following the service, but in her book that bears the name Radical Welcome:  Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation, she encourages the reader to stretch beyond…  to stretch beyond the normal way we would think of welcome and go a bit deeper.

 

Stephanie defines Radical Welcome the way I think a church should look at it…  She says that Radical Welcome is a “spiritual practice, it is an attitude of welcome that combines a clear awareness of power and patterns of inclusion and exclusion.”  It’s an awareness and acceptance of who you are, your acceptance of others and spiritual transformation that takes place as a result of the encounter. 

 

For information on how Jesus taught Radical Welcome, We can turn to our scripture readings for today.  Our readings, as familiar as they may seem to us, say something very profound about who we are and how we should be in relation to the other…  of how to be an agent of radical welcome.

 

The Lawyer that questions Jesus about eternal life made a distinct choice to frame his question trying to trick Jesus…  The Lawyer asked him a question directly related to the Mosaic law.  (of which he is considered an expert!). Jesus answers the question with a question and the Lawyer…  Of course, the Lawyer, who is the resident expert in law, responds with what is referred to now as a summary of the law…  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and  with all your strength… and love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

In his answer, the Lawyer tries to backstroke a bit, knowing that Jesus had outsmarted him, and “justifies” himself by asking Jesus to define neighbor.  Then Jesus, as he does though-out his ministry, chooses to use a parable story to explain things…  We know the parable well, probably because it is one of the first parables that we learn as a child in Sunday School…  The parable of the Good Samaritan… 

 

Good Samaritan…  sort of an oxymoron to call it “good Samaritan,” because Samaritans in the Jewish society where not considered anything close to good. There was extreme tension between the Samaritans and the Judeans.  The Samaritans were most definitely the other – the outsider.  They were considered unclean and mixed up pagan beliefs.   

 

Jesus presents his parable story, But Luke doesn’t explain to the reader why some of the characters involved, did what they did…  Maybe because the folks Jesus was talking to already understood the roles of the characters involved, and the predicaments they were in. But today, we are out of context And if we don’t understand who these characters are, it becomes pretty easy to place a lot of blame on the two guys that made the choice to ignore the injured man.

 

Like Stephanie Spellers would say, in order to understand how this message will transform us, we need to have a clear awareness of power in relation to action and patters that exist. We need to step back a second and take a look… We need to examine the scene more closely. Looking at the parable this way allows us to gain a deeper understanding about why the characters in Jesus’ parable did some of the things they did.

 

Let’s look first at the priest and the Levite…  we can understand why it’s pretty easy to let these guys catch all the blame…  They seem pretty arrogant as they trot by on the other side of the road. But what we tend to overlook is that the priest and Levite rank pretty high on the purity list.  According to Mosaic law, they had to remain pure to do their job, that means that they were to avoid, at all cost, ANY contact with a naked body, especially one that was bleeding or possibly dead. So contact with the naked body of the injured man on the road was not even an option for them.

 

They decided to remain pure rather than help the man… to remain pure – true to their office and function and maintain their religious purity according to mosaic law – they pass by on the other side of the road, to avoid any contact with the naked bleeding body.

 

As wrong as it may seem to us, as far as they were concerned, according to the law, they had no other choice…  The Samaritan, on the other hand, didn’t even rank on the purity list…  they were despised by the Jews and they were considered unclean…

 

This particular Samaritan was traveling back and forth on the road, from Jerusalem to Jericho and carried with him oil, and wine and what seemed to be some considerable funds. Some of the Biblical scholars suggest that he might be a trader of goods. A trader of goods at that time was a despised profession, because they were thought to have gotten rich at the expense of others.

 

But this Samaritan trader decides to stop… to stop, and to help the poor man that was injured, bleeding, and lying there in the road…  Using the wares that he carries with him (his livelihood)… He cleans, anoints, and dresses the man’s wounds… and then goes above and beyond the call of duty, and loads him on his own donkey and takes him to a nearby inn.

 

So we have Jesus’ telling his parable this morning to a group of listeners that understand the characters in the story…  and they also understand what a predicament Jesus presents to the Lawyer.  And although we may have learned this story as a child, we may not have thought about it this way…

 

On the surface, the story seems pretty simple… and Jesus gives the lawyer a clear answer. He puts care for a fellow human being ahead of any of the “Mosaic purity laws”…  And therefore explains the true sense of the law – “to love your neighbor” without the need of worrying about who your neighbor is…  He may have not called it that, but he explains Radical Welcome.

 

It kind of makes us mad today, that the priest and the Levite characters in the story ignore the injured mam, but Jesus understood the folks he was talking to…  He knew that the folks wouldn’t think anything of a priest or a Levite deciding to pass by on the other side of the road.

 

The people understood the role of the two men and why they did what they did, as they understood the law…  But Jesus also knew that the group he was talking to would be completely “outraged” because he used the Samaritan in the story to show mercy to the man… and he used the Samaritan to be the one who became the neighbor… to be the new standard by which to act…

 

In our lives…  in our journey as Christians, we are often faced with the question of who is our neighbor, and we are always challenged to offer our neighbor an attitude of Radical Welcome - and love them as we would love our self. If we have the attitude of radical welcome in our hearts, and if we love everyone who is other to us without condition, then we are doing exactly what Jesus wants us to do!

 

As we go forth from this place, we can take with transforming teachings from this very brief parable told by Jesus that takes us right to the point! We can understand what Radical Welcome meant to Jesus – that we welcome and care for and love ALL – We don’t jump to conclusions about someone and judge them because they act or dress a certain way, but we strive to engage and understand…  understand why they’re doing what they’re doing…  And then we let go of our own convictions and understandings and do what Jesus calls us to do…  to be a nurturing, healing, and reconciling presence in the broken world around us.

RCL Year C - 7 Pentecost (Proper 9) - July 7, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Trinity Church
Towson, MD

RCL Year C - 7 Pentecost (Proper 9) - July 7, 2013

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This is the weekend after our celebration of this country becoming a sovereign nation, happening some 237 years ago, on July 4, 1776.  What is interesting is that the actual legal date of separation from British Rule in America was actually July 2, 1776 when the Continental Congress voted to accept the “resolution” of independence. After this resolution was debated and revised, it was writ in the famous declaration on July 4th. I have done some teaching in the past about how close and interrelated the foundation of government in this country is to the foundation of our beloved Episcopal Church in America; independent from, but now in full communion with the Church of England.

 

A few years ago, I was able to attend “The Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island, in Manteo, NC. I had seen it as a child, but I got the chance to see it again, as an adult (and as a priest). I don’t know if you have ever had the chance to see it, but it is an outdoor production reenacting the early English settlement chartered by Elizabeth I to Sir Walter Raleigh on Roanoke Island in 1584.  Anyhow… It is amazing to me how much “church” there is throughout the play, up to and including the priest, Fr. Martin, who accompanied them on the voyage, baptized Virginia Dare (who was the first recorded Christian baptism in North America), and suffered with them through the hardships that led to their mysterious disappearance.

 

It must have been amazing to be that mission minded…  to be that focused on bringing not only western civilization to a unknown foreign land, but to also bring their church with them. Though the play didn’t cover it, we also know that the native American ally of the colony, Chief Manteo, was also baptized there with Virginia Dare. What courageous missionaries they must have been for what they were willing to do in order to share their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord with a much different culture than theirs.

 

Today’s Gospel lesson is about mission…  about Jesus words of urgent preparation to 70 disciples… telling them to go out into the nearby towns and villages and proclaim the good news to repent – that the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus has prepared them for the work they must do to build up the body of believers. He prepared them for their “mission” among the villages and towns…  The “hard” work...  The hard work that will not be received by everyone, especially in their hometowns… Hard work that will be the source of ridicule and laughter to some, and the way to salvation for others, but ALL must be reached.

 

It’s all Mission.  Mission framed in the sense of urgency to Go Out!  The willingness to be sent to go out and do what God has given you to do!  I think that this was Jesus teaching us how mission is to be done… Not relying on ourselves, but trusting in God to provide what is needed for what must be done. Focus on God’s providence in the face of challenge and rejection. Mission done with urgency and complete trust in what God provides.

 

How come when it comes to modern mission in the church, we don’t follow that biblical example? We would rather complain about our scarce resources than trust in God’s providence and love for us.We focus on our sensitive nature and how we may feel when the negative rejections come, rather than rejoicing in the many blessings that God has provided for us. We would rather be sure of our own security than to risk it boldly spreading the Gospel.

 

Jesus sent them out, and gave them instructions, to spread a message of repentance to everyone, knowing that some will refuse them and some will listen. The scripture tells us that they went out and casted out demons and anointed many with oil and cured them. Jesus wants no less from us…  Jesus wants us to be bold… bold and daring to be the church in the world. Bold enough to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near, and is hear with us in the living body of Christ, the church. The Church… the community where we worship, engage in dialogue, learn and challenge each other. The community where we hold each other up, support each other, and reach out into the world around us bringing us all closer to the kingdom of God.

 

We can learn a lot from our history… The history of our country is ingrained and entrenched with the missionary efforts of those Christians, both lay and ordained, that have gone on before us, spreading the good news and building up the kingdom of God as they went. We are here today in this Christian Community because a group of Episcopalians started to worship together in Epsom Chapel in 1838 (just a couple blocks from here).

 

We share that wonderful legacy of foundation and mission, and we have the responsibility to continue… to continue to build up the kingdom of God right here in Baltimore County.

 

And we have the opportunity today, just as we do each and every day…  Every time we walk down the street, or see our neighbor in the yard, or talk to a friend in the grocery store; we have the opportunity to share with them the terrific and life giving presence that we have in our lives, because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

And we have an opportunity to ask them to be a part of that fellowship and partner with us in mission and come and worship with us. Not forcing them into the car or scaring them into believing this or that, but simply inviting them and welcoming them to be a part of a community that nurtures and nourishes souls with the love and grace of Jesus.

 

We can only imagine the hardships that the first missionaries experienced, but they trusted that God’s provision and grace would give them exactly what they would need at the time that they would need it. As a result, Trinity Church, this very community, continues to be a thriving community of faith. Our forbearers knew something about mission and providence!

 

Since its missionary inception, this church has survived 175 years of wars, suppression, depression, economic calamity, and even ritual and liturgical change. And we keep going. We continue to be formed, informed, and transformed by the living presence of Jesus Christ in our lives, as we celebrate Him and worship Him.

 

Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori has challenged us in the Episcopal Church in the United States to continue to vision itself as a missionary church, a re-creation, “a new Church.”  Our challenge is to go forth from this place envisioning that “new church,” using that Biblical lesson of urgency and providence, trusting that God will be there with us.  Be there with us as we reach out to welcome others and invite them to become part a thriving and vital, focused and engaged community…  A steadiness in this unsteady and ever changing world around us.

 

We are each responsible, each responsible for our own faithfulness. We are not responsible for the response we may receive when we offer our ministries in Christ’s name, but we are each responsible for being faithful stewards ourselves… responsible for our own faithfulness to what we are doing. The only thing that we are assured of… Our only sure and certain hope is in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is with that assurance, and only with that assurance, that we can go out and proclaim the good news in this world both boldly and faithfully.