Verbum Bonum!!

RCL Year B - Baptism of Our Lord - January 8, 2012

2012-01-08T10:00:00.010-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Trinity Church

Towson, MD

RCL Year B - Baptism of Our Lord - January 8, 2012

Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11

Have you ever stopped to think about - Who you are? Think about who you REALLY are? Is who you are - what you do? or is even who you are – who you’re related to?

All y’all know that I am from the south. You’ve got to love the south… in the south, who you are is definitely who you are related to… I can hear it now… when you walk up to somebody on the street and introduce yourself…

The next phrase out of the other person’s mouth is Who’s your Mamma? or Who’s your Daddy? Who are you related to? Who are your kin folk? Who are your people? and – if you happen to be lost, you ain’t from around here, are ya?

When we stop to think about who we are, we get caught up in a sort of identity crisis… Where when who we are (or who we are related to) and what we do, start to mesh together and become part of our personae.

It’s hard for some folks to figure out who they really are. They live years living into a farce or fake, plastic personae of who others think they aught to be… It’s difficult and sad when society has such the grip on us that it dictates who we are… to the point that we are expected to dress a certain way or have a certain amount of money to be worth anything…

So I would like to pose the question to you this week… what does Christmas / the Epiphany / and the Baptism of the Lord all have in common?? The one thing that they have in common is identity! The identity of who Christ is…

The thought about Jesus’ identity could even be stretched back to Advent when we contemplated the identity of the one we were waiting for…

Epiphany is a season of light and identity… not just Christ’s identity, but also of our own identity… the readings for today, that surround the baptism of Christ shed a lot of light on who Christ is and who we are as his followers.

The book of Genesis is about God’s great beginning in the creation of the world – A world that was a void, without form, Where darkness covered the face of the deep. God spoke forth light in the first mighty act of creation To shine forth and illuminate the world…

And just as God brought forth the light in the beginning God again brings forth the light – and again and shares it with us…

And in the Gospel lesson, the ones going out to John the Baptist to hear him preach were filled with expectation of who he might be, and they were questioning the identity of the One who was supposed to come after him. They were asking, If you’re not the one, then who are we waiting for?… John tells them that the One who comes will baptize with the holy spirit and with fire…

After Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan he was praying and the heavens opened up and the holy spirit descended on him in the bodily form of a dove. Then a great voice came down from heaven “You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased”… And it was witnessed by everyone there…

Jesus’ baptism sets the example for us…

Jesus’ baptism was the Genesis of his life and ministry. The beginning of his traveling, calling, teaching, and healing… Baptism for us is the Genesis of our Christian life and our ministry as followers of Jesus Christ. Is an initiation into the Christian faith… It is that initial sacrament through which God adopts us as Children of God… it initiates us and makes us full members and allows us to be fully included into Christ’s Body the Church by water and the Holy Spirit.

And our baptism is witnessed by the whole community and the whole community makes promises to help us live into our Baptism… In a few minutes, we will once again stand with Annie as she takes her baptismal vows and re-new our own vows… those promises that commit our lives to Christ…

And we know, that regardless of the age we were when we were baptized, that God’s grace came raining down on us to adopt us as children of God and make recipients of the Holy Spirit… and we also had a Christian community backing us up…

See, the Christian life doesn’t occur in a vacuum it is not just “God and me” or a “Jesus and me”… It is experienced in a Community gathered, a community of Christ adopted by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Through our participation, we become the beloved of God those favored by God and we are given the task of doing God’s work in the world.

We know most assuredly that Jesus Christ is God… And that God came to this world as one of us to redeem us, to restore us to God’s favor, so that we might become his Children and therefore heirs of the Kingdom of God, - to forever be in the presence of the One who created us.

Baptism clothes us with God’s grace and surrounds us with God’s light and protection. It gives us a “new life” in Christ… God gathers us as a community, and gives us identity… our only true identity as God’s Children…

Then God empowers us by the Holy Spirit to act… to act and build up the Kingdom of God.

(Please Stand)
Therefore, brothers and sisters, I call upon you now, to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced Satan and all his works, and promised to serve God faithfully in his Holy Catholic Church.

RCL Year A - 20 Pentecost (Proper 26) - October 30, 2011

2011-10-30T08:00:00.007-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

RCL Year A - Proper 26 - October 30, 2011

Joshua 3:7-17

Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Matthew 23:1-12

It almost comical – when people ask me how long I have been a member of the Episcopal Church, I tell them that I am a cradle Episcopalian – To some folks, this implies that I was born into the Episcopal Church and raised by parents who were members of the Episcopal Church. However, I quickly have to clarify it… I consider myself a “cradle” Episcopalian, but that doesn’t meet the purest of the definitions. I am a Cradle Episcopalian that remembers my baptism – because I was baptized when I was 4 years old.

My parents did not grow up in the Episcopal Church, and were not members of the Episcopal Church when I was born. They were members of another branch of Christianity, a denomination that is considered much more zealous as the minister gets up in the pulpit and preaches what are referred to as hellfire and brimstone sermons. Sermons that try scare people into believing this or that, trying to enforce a self-created religious purity code of uber-righteous living. A standard that no member of that church or anyone else for that matter could live into.

Well, it caught up with them… I have heard the story many times… My mom and dad were in church one Sunday and there was the preacher, beating on the pulpit, telling the folks that if they did or didn’t do this or that they were going to hell in a hand-basket… You can’t play cards, you can’t dance, you are not allowed to have a beer with your pizza, you weren’t allowed to read certain books or listen to your favorite band on the radio, because those things were laden with the devil.

What the gentleman that was spewing these things from the pulpit didn’t know is that he had been caught… caught at a local establishment in the company of a young lady that wasn’t his wife, drinking and listening to the devil’s music. Hypocrisy is a nasty thing that can destroy a community of faith.

The story goes that my mom, not wanting to ascribe to the hypocritical rules of that community anymore – in the middle of the sermon – picks up me and the diaper bag and leans over to my father and tells him that she’ll be waiting in the car… The rest is history…

The readings this morning are full of the same ideas, “They preach, but they do not practice.” “They do all their deeds to be seen by others.” These are Jesus’ indictments against the scribes and the Pharisees… Hypocrites, that Jesus calls “blind guides” and a “brood of vipers” in other parts of scripture. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were a self-righteous and pious group of people that had perverted the intent of the commandments of God to such a degree, they no longer were able to practice what they preached.

They wore phylacteries – little leather boxes that contained the words of the Shema and Torah strapped to their arms and to their foreheads – with little practice in their life or understanding of how to follow them or live into what they were wearing. In Jesus’ eyes, they were doing it just to look important and be seen as pious individuals, showing others how religious they were. It was common in Jesus’ time and place to accost someone in public that wasn’t practicing what they were preaching… So that is exactly what Jesus was doing.

And so here we are today… struggling together to learn what Jesus is trying to teach us. Trying not to live hypocritical lives and be seen as more important than any other… trying to be true to ourselves and help those around us the best way we know how. It’s our Christian life, and it’s a daily struggle…

And being the priest, the called leader in the Christian community, the struggle is even greater – because others constantly have differing high expectations, opinions and ideas of what you are supposed to do (or not supposed to do) and how (or how not) you are supposed to do it.

In fact, Bishop Porter Taylor warned our group of candidates as we were preparing for our ordination. He warned us to be careful and stay true to yourself and who we were or we would most assuredly lose our soul. I can attest to you that after several years of ordained ministry, he words are wise and very correct.

I have seen some folks get so tied up in who they thought they were as ordained people – that they forget “who they are” and “whose they are” as beloved children of God… I hope and pray that I have remained true to myself and continue to remain true to myself…

Those of you that have grown to know me over the past 6 months, know that I still try to remain the first to knock myself off of any pedestal that people try to put me on – and if I ever fail to do that, I can always trust my beloved wife to step in and do it for me – because we know that hypocrisy can ruin a Christian community.

But, for us Episcopalians – it’s sometimes a very hard concept for us to get our heads around – with me as your priest, standing her in a pulpit wearing a long colored robe, bowing to the cross as I take my place of prominence in the liturgy, facing the altar to pray on behalf of the community, and empowered to break bread and bless wine so that they become for us the presence of Christ in our communion.

We have obvious pious practices that help us engage the divine and worship God with gestures and bodily motions. So, it’s difficult to hear readings that seem to tell us not to be pious and not to call others father, rabbi, teacher, or even instructor… when in fact, the Christian church has called the leaders of the community father since it’s foundation – mostly as a symbol of relationship of the community to the one who nurtures the community and sometimes needs to exercise discipline and make tough decisions. Paul even refers to himself as one who relates to the community at Thessalonica as a father, urging and encouraging and pleading with his children.

Jesus’ warning here in Matthew is to the Pharisees, a group of people who thought themselves more important than others, more righteous - deserving of God’s favor… it was an attempt to knock them off of their pedestal and have them come to their senses about who they really are and what they were really doing. Jesus knew that the Pharisees had empty practices that didn’t do anything for them – they just wanted to be seen by others. They flaunted their piety in order to win human approval – not approval from God.

In the life of the hypocrite, the light of self-promotion is always on and narcissism always prevails. And in this lesson, Jesus uses the term hypocrites as a broad term when he speaks to the crowds and his disciples and focuses the attention of the crowd on those who seek human approval and praise, rather than approval from God.

And then, without us realizing it, Jesus gives us a remedy to this hypocrisy – pure divine grace. God’s love and favor for us doesn’t need human approval… if we accept God’s love for us and believe and intend to live a life worthy of God… Jesus keeps on loving us and loving us, despite all of our human failings and blemishes.

Neither the problem nor the solution lies in the clothing we wear or the terms that designate our place in the community… The point of today’s reading is clear and it is found repeatedly in the teachings of Jesus…

Jesus is telling us again that God always comes first! Nothing else deserves first place or preference… Nothing else gets to be placed on the pedestal, if you are truly to be called a servant of God.

RCL Year A (Proper 19) - September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T08:00:00.016-04:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III

RCL Year A (Proper 19)

September 11, 2011

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

Exodus 14:19-31

Psalm114

Romans 14:1-12

Matthew 18:21-35

Have you ever been so frustrated with someone that you just wanted to grab them by the throat and choke the life right out of them? As gratifying as it may seem to any of us… we know that it just doesn’t solve anything. This kind of action solves nothing in our world, but only adds to the frustration and violence that caused the original situation in the first place.

We know that violence and a physical altercation like that wouldn’t solve a thing because we are intelligent people of reason and understanding, but most importantly, we know that we have a God that has forgiven us…

Last week, Jesus taught us what to do if we felt that someone in the Church wronged us… We were to go to that person face to face and speak to them, reason with them, learn the circumstances, forgive them and pray with them… If that didn’t work, we were to take a couple of more with us to meet with the person, letting those others help us digest the situation, reason together, learn from each other, and forgive them and pray with them… But as we all know, these are all tough things to do when you are angry… I mean really really angry… with an anger so deep that it becomes the acid of hate that starts eating right through the container of your soul…

We know that Peter understood anger, and we know that he understood forgiveness, but he comes to Jesus anyway and asks… How many times do I forgive? As many as seven?… the amount according to Hebrew custom, that was considered extremely generous… and Jesus says no… you should forgive them 77 times… which was a colloquial way to say always.

So Jesus tells us a parable to explain his teaching… The parable of the unforgiving servant… about a King wishing to settle his accounts going to the folks that owed him money and collecting… A servant was brought to him that owed him 10,000 talents… and that makes us think… how much is 10,000 talents?

Well, a denarii is a day's wage… and talent would be 15 years of wages… so this guy owed 150,000 years of wages. If we compare this to a person today that makes just minimum wage (a mere $13,625 a year) – He would owe about $2,043,750,000 an absolutely absurd amount in any standard of place and time…

So the king calls him forward and demands that he liquidate everything that he has, all his possessions… himself and even his wife and his children which were considered property back then… to make payment… The servant is devastated and pleads with the King for mercy and the king has pity and releases him, and then does the unheard of and forgives him his massive amount of dept…

Wow… this guy should be thankful, happy… dancing on a cloud… he owed over 2 billion dollars and his account was completely zeroed… but what did this guy do? Yeah… he got real bold and full of himself, and when he came upon someone that owed him money, in this case only 100 denarii, he grabs him by the throat and says “give me what you owe me!” The man pleads with the servant, just as he did with the king… but when the man couldn’t pay, the servant had him thrown in jail…

Oooo… This didn’t make the king happy one bit… When the King found out, he had the servant brought before him again, to find out why the servant had not forgiven the other as he had been forgiven. Then he handed him over to be tortured until he repaid all that he owed…

When someone else sins against me? How many times must I forgive them? As many as seven? Jesus says, no -“You must forgive them always…” Sometimes the pop-Christian perspective is to say – that’s pretty easy… forgive and forget… let go and let God… this in part may be true, but the human memory can be far more durable than human will… in being lassie-fair about it all, the act doesn’t become fully erased in our minds, despite our hearts determination to be rid of it completely.

Forgiveness is difficult and our patience runs out very quickly… This causes our reactions to look like more of the servant, choking his fellow servant. The root of the difficulty to me seems to be our hardness of heart…

Jesus sets up a dichotomy of difference between the seven and seventy-seven years, the servant and the king, the 100 days and the 150,000 years… all to show us that forgiveness is not easy, even when it seems outrageously simple on paper.

As Christians, we should continuously work on accepting our forgiveness and start to let go of the things that aren’t worth holding onto in the first place… As Christians, we should be bearers of the message of reconciliation… We should work at being Christ to others… But that forgiveness part, that’s difficult, and it doesn’t do us any good to pretend otherwise.

I am here to tell you that forgiveness is only possible, by the Grace of God! But it is hard work for us and in order to forgive… We have to work at it… To let the flakes and the layers fall off of our tough exterior shell that has become hardened and bitter by our powerful desire for vengeance. Paul reminds us that we are not to pass judgment on others, nor or we to despise them…  because God judges rightly and with an accuracy that we cannot even claim to have.

God may judge, but God also redeems with great mercy and compassion and gives with great generosity.  We should show others this great generosity… especially the folks that we want to choke the life out of… We need to reconcile with them to show them true forgiveness…  And have them encounter in us the vision of God in Christ, the God that loves us and suffers with us to seemingly impossible degrees…  only then can the love and empathy in them spring up and grow in their hearts as it does ours.

I saw an incredible movie several years ago called “Pay it Forward.”  It is a story about the young Trevor McKinney, who got caught up by an intriguing Social Studies assignment. The assignment was to think of something to change the world and then put it into action.

Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward - repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people.  Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in his life but that of his family, but even in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.

In effect, he was changing the world… by “paying it forward” – Even though this movie had no religious theme or undertone, for me it really summed up the just of our lesson this morning… Pay it forward… never letting the chain of love end with you!

Whether we are the offenders, in need of great divine mercy and forgiveness or the offended in need of divine grace and patience… we have no refuge than that of the goodness of God, made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  And if our hearts are open to such mercy and grace, -- out of that divine mercy and grace flows true generosity and true forgiveness…

We all have a God that has forgiven us… all we need to do is accept it, act on it, and pay it forward… thanks be to God!

RCL Year A (Easter 4) - May 15, 2011

2011-05-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Trinity Episcopal Church

Towson, MD

RCL Year B (Easter 4) - May 15, 2011

Acts 4:5-12

Psalm 23

1 John 3:16-24

John 10:11-18

Today we get to leave those post resurrection appearances of Jesus for a minute… You know, those wonderful accounts of Jesus appearing to his disciples after the resurrection, showing himself to his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and revealing himself as he opens the scripture to them and eats with them.

Today we get to focus on something a little different… In today’s gospel reading, here in the middle of our celebration of the resurrection we get to learn a bit more about who Jesus is. But, like so many other bible references, theses images today seem a little strange to us and they are not very easy to understand. We don’t quite understand why Jesus refers to himself as “The Good Shepherd.”

Jesus says that He is “The Good Shepherd,” the model shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of any “sheep ranches” here in Towson. Driving around Towson, I see lots of buildings and shopping malls… and even yesterday I saw the exit for the zoo off the beltway, but no sheep ranches.

So, we’ve got to stop a minute and understand… the folks that Jesus was talking to understood what a “good” shepherd was, and how important their function is to the raising of sheep. Jesus uses the image of “shepherd” as a metaphor – a metaphor to explain who he is… By saying that he is the “Good Shepherd,” Jesus says that he is THE faithful leader, guardian, protector, healer, and loving guide of his people - US… his sheep.

Over the years, it seems that we have romanticized the image of shepherd a bit… When we think of “shepherd,” we think more of a young man (maybe in the Christmas play) with a some kind of towel on his head… standing out in the field with a crooked pole watching over a group of animals that are grazing in the grass.

But, people who know what shepherds are, know they are much more than that. Shepherds had to be tough and courageous, a bit rough around the edges, out on the fringes of refined society… they are the “other” folks, who were not always accepted… More like the kind of people that are considered the “outcasts of society” – the ones that Jesus makes it a point to be with, to eat with, and to teach.

And Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.” We are Jesus’ own. We are the sheep of his pasture… wait a minute – yes – I said sheep. We are sheep - but don’t misunderstand Jesus’ metaphor… He is not calling us simple mindless animals that eat grass all day and stand around and go baaaa…

There is a distinct difference between sheep and any other pasture animal. Sheep are interesting communal creatures… they will stay huddled together in a flock. Unlike cattle that can be rounded up and herded together from behind and pushed in a direction, sheep need to be led from the front… I understand that if you try to herd sheep and prod and push sheep from behind to try to get them to go anywhere, then they will scurry around and get behind the shepherd. Sheep need to be led… Led by a Good Shepherd.

So, sheep are not “dumb” animals. They know their shepherd, and they will listen to their shepherd’s voice as he calls them by name. You could have 3 or 4 different flocks together in a sheepfold, as is common in sheep country, all grazing on the same pasture, comingled, and when the shepherd calls them, they will follow his voice… and go where he leads them, because they trust the Good Shepherd to lead them to good pasture, and keep them safe from danger.

But there are many voices vying for the sheep’s attention. Voices that try to endanger us, the sheep. There are voices of this world today that want to lead us sheep astray. You have probably heard them – or something like them… voices like self reliance, self sufficiency, greed, and idolatry. Voices that try to make us think that we don’t need each other or a good shepherd… voices of this world that try to break up the harmony of our flock and make us start judging one another.

Being timid animals, sheep are vulnerable and are not able to protect themselves, they need the shepherd’s protection… Protection from the wolves, and other predators that may be after them. But if the sheep are as true to the shepherd, as the Good Shepherd Jesus is to the sheep, then they will listen to the Shepherd and follow where he leads, and He will look after them.

But often, at times, we aren’t good sheep. We are stubborn and we don’t go where the Good Shepherd leads. We like to think that we have it all figured out ourselves, and we like to separate ourselves from the other sheep the sheep that aren’t like us, rather than stay with the one flock, under the control of the Good Shepherd.

There are many who are out there that try to be the shepherd and lead the sheep where they think they need to go. Leading them to places that aren’t good for the sheep… Places of danger… There are even ministers out there who think that they are shepherds, possibly trying to scare the sheep into staying with a flock… Telling them that they are the only ones who know the way to the greener pastures.

As your priest, I will be the first to tell you that I am NOT a shepherd, and I will never claim to be a shepherd – Some of you have probably been taught that a minister is some sort of shepherd… I don’t think that it is the proper representation… it really shouldn’t work like that.

I am more of a sheep among the sheep of God, always trying to point the way and show the other sheep who the One true “Good Shepherd” is. It is important that I always follow the Good Shepherd too, following where the Good Shepherd leads.

I heard someone say once that the priest is more of a sheep dog, helping the Good Shepherd keep the sheep in line, and helping protect the sheep against the evil wolves of this world… but we need to remember also that even the sheep dog follows where the “Good Shepherd” leads.

In this passage, Jesus is that only ONE True Good Shepherd, protecting, guiding, loving and caring for the sheep that are His - us. Never forsaking us, always faithful to us, nourishing us, giving us hope, and saving us from ourselves. Jesus isn’t any ordinary shepherd, he is the “model shepherd” (the “Good Shepherd”) that embodies strength and power, sympathy, kindness, and mercy.

Jesus uses a figure of speech… a metaphor that the people of the ancient world in the middle east would understand – but they don’t get it either. With the shepherd / sheep imagery, he tries to teach them how to live in right relationship with Him and with each other. And here we are, gathered today 2000 years later, learning from this passage that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture…

Let us seek the Good Shepherd’s guidance and only His guidance and protection as we dare to follow where our Good Shepherd (Jesus) leads. Amen!

RCL Year A (Easter 3) - May 8, 2011

2011-05-11T15:19:00.000-04:00

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

RCL Year A (Easter 3) - May 8, 2011

Acts 2:14a,36-41
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17

Have you ever noticed that many of the post-resurrection stories… those “post-easter” stories about the risen Jesus are centered around meals? We know from today’s lesson that the disciples knew the Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread at Emmaus…

Jesus comes among the disciples on the road but they don’t recognize him. The disciples are sad, and are moping around on the road between Jerusalem and Emmaus, and disappointed because Jesus and his ministry didn’t quite seem to be what they expected…

He wasn’t the savior that they had hoped for. He wasn’t the one that had ridden into Jerusalem on a colt just a week prior... he wasn't the one that they expected to be the militant messiah… They felt that he was taken and crucified before he could make a difference… before he could free Israel from Roman oppression. You can feel almost feel their disappointment in the story… And then Jesus reveals to them everything that was spoken about him by the prophets… but… they still don’t know it’s him – they don’t recognize him…

They get to Emmaus, and it’s quickly becoming evening… So in an act of hospitality and welcome, that is so common in that region of the world, they invite this total stranger into their home to share some dinner and a bed… They didn’t recognize that it is Jesus. To them, this man walking along the road was just a stranger… a stranger that has now revealed the prophetic scriptures to them. They don’t recognize Jesus until he takes, blesses, breaks, and gives bread to them like he has done so many times before.

It is not a mistake – Meals are very much a central part of Jesus’ ministry. And we know that some of the dinners that he has with folks get him into all kinds of trouble… like when he eats with “sinners” and tax collectors and harlots and those outside the circle of faith. Other meals shared with Jesus feed the multitudes… like when Jesus feeds the five thousand by taking what is available and blesses it, breaks it, and distributes it until ALL are fed – Providing enough for everyone and having enough left over to fill 12 baskets.

On his last evening with this followers, Jesus shared a meal with them, during which he offered his whole self… At his last supper with his friends, Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and shares it – and tells them, this is my body – and he takes the wine and blesses it and shares it and says that this is my blood… And this offering of his WHOLE self became the act - which becomes for us the greatest celebration and expression of thanksgiving to God… that which would sustain them and continues to sustain us and feed us after he is gone.

Our eating together is always a sign of celebration… It is a celebration of our relationships being lived out. It doesn’t matter if we are feeding or being fed. Most church communities (especially Trinity) like to have meals together. They like having meals together because they like being with each other, and they like eating good food. You will also see this in most families. Those that may be gathered at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Mother’s Day, or any other bright occasion on the calendar that may allow us the opportunity to share a meal.

But I want us to think for a minute about the many sacred and holy things that underlie a meal that we share together. Or better yet, the meals that we share with strangers who aren’t family... In communities of faith, these meals become sacramental for us… signs of risen Christ here with us and among us. They become meals that bring us all to a common table, in order to be in right relationship with God and with each other.

That is why, from the very beginning of times when Christians began to worship in their homes and in the catacombs… a meal becomes central act of our Christian life. It is a meal of nourishment for our Christian life together. For the journey of faith that we are all on. In this meal that we share, we experience the risen Christ as a community in the breaking of the bread and then we receive that spiritual nourishment of Christ’s whole self… just what we need to sustain us in our Christian lives and on our journey of faith…

At the center of the Resurrection story is this meal shared at Emmaus: the bread taken, blessed, broken, and given and the risen Jesus is recognized. Christians understand all meals in relationship to the Eucharistic feast… Haven’t you ever wondered why we pray… and give thanks to God before we eat? The Holy Communion, and in fact all meals are for us a foretaste of that heavenly banquet that we will ALL one day share as we feast with Jesus in paradise.

The disciples knew the Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread… May the risen Christ be known to us today as the bread is broken and the meal is shared.

RCL Year A (Epiphany 4) - January 30, 2011

2011-01-30T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Epiphany 4) - January 30, 2011

Micah 6:1-8
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12
Psalm 15

For most folks, the readings today are not very comfortable… In fact, they are deeply deeply challenging. We have all heard the familiar verses before, but I don’t know how much we, as a community of faith, actually understand what we were hearing or what we were reading. These are well known passages, but if we all understood the depth of what the scripture was saying to us, we might start to feel that we have come up short.

As Christians, followers of the way of Jesus Christ, as his disciples, the words in Holy Scripture consistently challenge us to live in a way that is different. A way that is healing and restoring… a way that calls us to a level of righteousness before the living God.

We must first realize that the scriptures (especially the Old Testament lessons) have a Jewish context… and the socio-economic and political environment in which it was written bears much on how we interpret the writings and try to make them relevant to today’s world.

That’s what makes it so difficult for us... that’s what makes it uncomfortable. We’re not Jewish, nor do we understand what it means to be Jewish, we are just normal everyday Christian folk. So, we don’t understand the depth of the meaning of the text from the people that actually wrote it.

We come here on Sunday and then go home and go about our day to day business – we may or may not come next Sunday or read or study scripture during the week – and we may or may not participate in a ministry beyond our Sunday worship. Somehow, being a “comfortable Christian” has become the stylish…

Now for those wiggling in their pew a bit, I would like to share with you the context from which the prophet Micah (in the Old Testament lesson), and Jesus (in the Gospel lesson) are coming from this morning. The term I would like to introduce you to is called Tikkun Olam (say it with me… Tikkun Olam) It is a phrase in Hebrew that literally means “repairing the world”…

But how do we do as Christians repair the world? How do we use what we have and how we act to fix what is wrong with society. There, for us, is the challenging part… it is the piece that calls us beyond our worship and puts our love of God into action. It calls us out of the mode of just showing up on Sunday and sitting in the pew, listening or not listening to what the priest has to say, and puts the reality of the living God to work in society – out there in the streets… It is truly being the church in the world…

That is exactly what ALL of these readings are about – the idea of “world restoration” – Tikkun Olam brought about by the way we act and its influence over others.

It starts out this morning with the prophet Micah, who is preoccupied with social justice. He is the champion of the oppressed and under-privileged of his time. Micah verbally attacks the socio-economic injustices of his day by reminding the people of Israel of God’s favor for them. The people are called by Micah to repentance and again turn their hearts to God – turn their hearts from the worship of wealth and pagan idols, and restore the world rightly to God through their actions and their influence.

After the peoples pleading of – what shall we do? How will we make it right? How will we once again get back in right relationship with God? They go down a laundry list of sacrifices… Sacrifices that they would expect worthy of the most High God… burnt offerings, rams, and calves, and oil… even the ultimate sacrifice of the first born…

But then Micah reminds them of the Tikkun Olam of their responsibility to repair the world…
the responsibility to do what is “required” by God… to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. It’s not a request or even a hint, but a requirement to repair the world by doing three things… to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

The idea of Tikkun Olam even makes its way into the gospel story this morning… Words the Jewish audience of Matthew would understand. Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the peacemakers, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account…

Jesus’ list of those blessed, known better to us as the beatitudes, are really his way of reminding the people that he is talking to of the “Tikkun Olam” that God requires of them… of how to repair the world… He uses examples of things that are not right in society, the poor, the ones considered weak and hungry, those that would be otherwise despised for challenging the status quo… He says that they will be blessed or “happy” in the repaired and restored world – that he calls the Kingdom of God – and it’s the people’s responsibility to bring it about. Just as the prophet Micah before him, Jesus calls the crowd to the restorative action to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Likewise, as followers of Jesus, as his disciples, we are required by God to “Tikkun Olam” we are called to repair the world. But that’s where it gets difficult for us, those of us that do very little beyond our Sunday morning worship. Scriptural teachings are not easy to follow, and just because we have received salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus, doesn’t mean we are exempt from what our faith requires of us.

Every time we see an injustice in society, we are required as a church to help right the wrong. We are required to do what we can to repair the world’s injustice – to uplift the fallen and demand equity for ALL of God’s children, even those different from us. It is manifested through our ministries like our work with the food bank, it’s the village kids project, it’s the work with the foster children in Rowan County and it’s our work abroad saving lives with nets for life. The world’s poor, the destitute, the forgotten, and the hungry are to be remembered and restored, are to be clothed, housed, fed, and protected in our communities effort to do justice.

On top of this, we are required to be kind to one another, to put aside the hate and divisions that divide us and be reconciled and display a genuine loving kindness. This is tough! It’s not the plastic exterior notion of just “getting along” or being nice. We are called to do the hard work within ourselves – and turn to God for help in repentance and then outwardly display God’s love and kindness toward one another regardless of our differences.

Then, finally, we are required to walk humbly with our God. I think that the issue to work on here is the humility. Saying we are humble and actually being humble are two totally different things. Humility demands that we come to a realization that its not about us and we don’t have it all figured out all the time. It requires a submissive approach to our worship, prayer, and study as we listen and watch for the presence of God in our lives.

God has exercised a model of humility for us in the person of Jesus Christ. God has emptied God’s self in complete humility and became one of us and lived among us, in order to model for us what is required of us.

And if we remember the story correctly, as great a teacher and healer and prophet as Jesus was, the society rejected him, convicted him and sentenced him to die as a common criminal. So, if we are actually doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God as Jesus did; we might just get hung on our own cross.

It doesn’t surprise me that the stated mission of the Church in our teaching (the catechism) is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. Our mission as a church is not a mission of just Sunday worship – but, it’s the difficult mission of repair and restoration. A “fixing” of the world so that ALL people might be in unity with God AND each other in our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Tikkun Olam” – repair the world… do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Amen!

RCL Year A (Epiphany 2) - January 16, 2011

2011-01-16T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Epiphany 2) - January 16, 2011

Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42
Psalm 40:1-12

More than any other time in the Church year, Epiphany is a season of light. It starts out with the Magi (or Wise Men) following a bright star that illuminated the night sky. It is a time designed by the church for us to reflect on coming of the dark. The dark and desolate places of our lives and coming to live out in the open (in the light of Christ.)

It is an invitation to be baptized as a believer in Christ and to participate and share in his ministry. Last week was the First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord, and in place of the Nicene creed in the service we stood up and renewed our baptismal vows… As it is fitting and proper to do on that day, as it is during the great vigil of Easter, on the day of Pentecost, and on All saints day.

These are the major feasts are especially appropriate for baptism – but even though we didn’t baptize anyone, we took a moment to remember our own baptism… to remember WHO we are and WHOSE we are, by virtue of our baptism – our baptism by water and the holy spirit into the life, death, and resurrection, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ own baptism illuminates our understanding of who Jesus really is… The savior that takes away our sins and offers the whole world redemption… He is the Holy anointed One, He is the Christ! Today we follow that awesome reminder with the lessons that were read.

Last week we heard the story of Jesus’ baptism from Matthew’s Gospel. But today, we hear that story a little differently from John. In John’s story, The baptizer John proclaims several times who Jesus is. John said, “look… there he is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world… He is the one that I have been talking about… He is the Christ, he is the one that came into the world. Believe me, when I baptized him, I saw the Holy Spirit descend on him, and I heard the voice of God say that he was the one, God’s only son, with whom He is well pleased!”

Baptism is the first step of our living into the light of Christ! – and the theme that unites all the readings today is “Call.” It is the famous writer Parker Palmer who says that your “call” by God, referred to by Palmer as our true vocation, is something you can’t not do!”
I realize that his phrase is a double negative, but I think he uses this language it to make a point.

It is the deep yearning, that yearning and seeking that is deep inside us. It is something that is knit into the very fabric of our lives. – This is expressed by Isaiah who says, "the Lord called me before I was born" – before I was knit in my mother’s womb, you knew me!” The Psalmist adds, that after waiting patiently for the Lord, "he lifted me out of the...pit... and he set my feet on a high cliff..."; The epistle from "Paul, called to be an apostle," to Church in Corinth "called to be saints" and equipped with all the necessary spiritual gifts; even though they weren’t so good at it in practice.

John story, after he explains who Jesus is, is the call of the first disciples. I find that the most engaging part of this passage is Jesus' first conversation with the two disciples.

He sees them following him and asks them a question, "What is it that you are looking for?" They answer the question with a question: "Teacher, where are you staying?" Jesus says, simply, "Come and see." The question he asks them first, "What are you looking for?" is strangely enough the question that begins the service of admission to the catechumenate.

Since the ancient church, the catechumanate (from where we get the words catechuman and catechism – the learners and the teaching) has been the period of preparation for baptism. It has most recently been resurrected in the church as a preparation for confirmation: "What do you seek?" In that service, the answer is "Life in Christ!" This is essentially what the Christian faith believes that all of us are seeking.

Andrew and the other disciple don't know that – or at least the text doesn’t say it – But they do ask a question "Where are you staying?” Where are you coming from? Where are you going? Jesus' answer was simple, open, and inviting: "Come and see."

We need to realize that the Gospel is not something that we read in a book or learn from a statement; It is a life, that must be led, experienced to be understood. Jesus is inviting these two disciples, these two seekers, to “come and see” and share in His life. He doesn't set conditions, or insist on a permanent commitment, or make them “sign in.”

He simply invites them to experience what it means to live "in Christ," to live into the "kingdom life." That is at the very heart of that word that we are often afraid of as Episcopalians: “evangelism.” The way we tell the story of salvation and invite seekers to come and share in the life we have in Jesus the Christ.

In Epiphany season, we are exploring and spreading the light of Christ through the world – beginning with us. On some level, each of us is continually being invited by Christ to share more deeply in his life. We are all called by our baptism to extend the invitation to the seekers that we meet to "come and see."

The completion of the story, of course, is the irony that Andrew goes back and invites his brother, Simon – who Jesus calls by a nickname, “Peter” or “Rock” (Petros in greek means rock). Peter, as we well know will be the steadfast rock of the continuing church - the keeper of the keys. We need to stop and think for a minute: What if Andrew had not been invited by Jesus? And what if Andrew had not followed? How would Peter find the way?

We never know what plan God has that may be set in motion by us, as we invite people into the light of Christ, into the gospel, and into the community of the church! And people come and see how we acknowledge and accept who Jesus is to us by the way we act.

To follow Jesus as Lord and Savior means that we are called to live into the light of Christ and illuminate others lives… it’s something that we can’t not do! For a baptized Christian, Jesus is our source of light and life. He is our reason for being!

We all have many questions that we don’t have all the answers to, you have even heard me refer to life many times as one big mystery that we are all living into. But, we need to tune our ear this morning and hear what our Lord Jesus Christ is calling us to do.

Today – Jesus is calling us out of the darkness into the light. He is calling us to participation in the life of His Holy church… calling us to live out the gospel in our lives… And the question is: What is it that YOU seek? Follow Jesus… and come and see! You may just find what your looking for…

RCL Year A (Christmas) - December 24, 2010

2010-12-24T22:30:00.001-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Christmas) - December 24, 2010

Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
Psalm 96

One of the things that I like most about this time of year is the wonderful movies that come on Television. I like ALL of them… It’s a Wonderful Life, the Santa Clause 1,2, & 3, A Christmas Carol – all derivations thereof (especially the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge), Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, Jack Frost, Elf, Home Alone 1, 2, & 3, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (starring non other than the great Bing Crosby), and so many others…

I even like the animated shorts – the cute 30 minute specials like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and everyone’s favorite – the Dr. Seuss Classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

You may now be saying to yourself, “I came to church on Christmas eve at 10:30 to hear Ken talk about Christmas movies? I thought this was a church!” Well, this is church! And if you will bear with me a minute, I will explain WHY I like all these Christmas movies, and why they are worth mentioning, here, tonight!

What I hope you noticed immediately about these movies, is that in all the movies that I listed, the birth of Jesus Christ is not mentioned (with the exception of Charlie Brown). There is not a word that is prophetic or spiritual in any way. No baby in a manger, no travel to Bethlehem, no visiting shepherds, nothing to do with the real reason for Christmas – the Christ Mass.

Christmas… The celebration of the humility of God emptying God’s self completely and becoming incarnate, becoming flesh, becoming one of us, to live among us, and show us how to be with each other… Pure love embodied in the flesh of Jesus Christ…

Not a word… However, what these movies DO have in common is that they are all stories of interactive relationship. Regardless of how fictional they may be, they all tell us much about relationships… relationships with each other… relationships with family, with friends, and even relationships with those whom we may not like very much.

I think Jesus, who spoke profound truths and taught with metaphors and parables, would find these stories delightful in the way that they personify and teach us about relationships. The way they tell the story of relationships… That’s why they are so good… That’s why we watch them…

They let us reflect for a second about how we interact with each other, of how good it really could be for us if we practiced right relationship… if we would only let out heart be warmed a bit and our lives lived out for someone else besides ourselves – even someone that we may not even know.

So, all of these movies are really about relationships and togetherness… Togetherness with strangers, family, friends, and colleagues.

I have often said that God is revealed to us as a God of relationship… Not just the relationship of the trinity, complete within God’s self, as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, but God as relationship with us and us with God.

God desired to have a relationship with us, in order to teach us about relationship. God became human, born of a woman, born under the law of Moses, born poor – on the fringes of society, to a family of artisans – crafters, who were not anything close to noble. God chose this entry in time and place to teach humanity about relationships, and how to participate fully in the important things of this world that have heavenly eternal rewards.

But, what we need to realize is that the incarnation (God becoming flesh – God becoming human) isn’t complete without us. William Porcher DuBose, the great theologian, said it best when he said that “God in Christ is only half the incarnation. Christ in us is the full other half.” The story of what happened in Bethlehem a little over 2 millennia isn’t finished, isn’t finished until that “Christ” lives in each one of us. “Christ in us” completes the relationship, it completes the incarnation. Then we all become part of the story.

The way we act in relationship with each other shows others who we know God to be. It shows others that we have the light of Christ that burns and lives within us, and the same Christ is born and lives out in our actions.

The shame is… is that we still don’t get it… it doesn’t matter if we completely understand the miraculous story of the birth of Jesus, and know all the details of the scene of the shepherds and the angles. If we don’t live his teachings out in our lives then it’s all for not. The incarnation must be completed as the Christ is born in us and through us to others. In order to experience the incarnation, we must all participate in it.

Those wonderful movies – the secular, fictional, Christmas stories give us a way to reflect on relationships as we are entertained by the story. But, we may never watch them the same way again. The relationships in those movies don’t make any sense to us out of the context of the incarnation of God the Son.

As my wonderful Church History professor, Don Armentrout, always use to say that there are only 2 books in the library… It’s true! When you go to the library, you only find 2 books – you find our Holy Scripture (the Bible) and the rest of it is Church History! No, seriously… what Dr. Armentrout means that everything we experience in our lives, secular or otherwise, is influenced by religion in one way or another. So we can bet, the next time we watch How the Grinch stole Christmas, we can learn something profound about the theology of Dr. Seuss.

In order to have a relationship with us, God become one of us, born of a pure young woman, so that we might have a restored relationship with God… All we have to do is accept it and participate in it… and we do that through our involvement… involvement in our community and in our family… That’s the true meaning of the Christ Mass, which we have all come to participate in tonight.

We gather around the Lord’s table as a community, as a family and share a relationship as we break bread and share the cup. We receive God in Christ and Christ in us, and we are nourished to go out and share it with the world.

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among all people with whom God is well pleased! Merry Christmas!

RCL Year A (Advent 4) - December 19, 2010

2010-12-19T10:30:00.002-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Advent 4) - December 19, 2010

Isaiah 7:10-16
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

As we move further into our advent time of anticipation and preparation, we get more and more of the images that we would all expect to be building up to… The story of how ancient prophecy was fulfilled, and how God became a human being… became incarnate… became flesh and bones…

We are probably all familiar with the pageants that the children put on this time of year. Some of you probably were in one a while back… The pageants act out the story of God’s incarnation, when God became one of us… became human – and was born as a child in a stable in Bethlehem…

I can remember as a child, participating in these pageants either by wearing my bathrobe and one of my Mother’s dish-towels on my head, carrying a staff, being a shepherd, and leading around the other children that were dressed in fluffy white sheep suits.

My sister, whose name just happens to be Angel, was always dressed as an angel - with a white surplice and transparent wings and a coat-hanger with garland and tinsel hallow…

When I was older, I was allowed to play Joseph… which was an honored roll, but it was bit awkward because all I did was just stand there… Most of the time, these wonderful children’s reenactments follow the poetic story from the Gospel according to Luke… “And in came to pass, in those days, a decree went out...” Luke’s gospel we know very well, and it is very detailed… His description of the annunciation to Mary and the holy birth of Jesus is by far one of the most glorious stories of the Christian faith…

However, in Luke’s rendition of the story, Joseph doesn’t get much mention, doesn’t get a whole lot of attention and definitely no speaking parts in the pageant! Matthew’s verses that we hear this morning put the spotlight on Joseph and how that ancient prophecy was indeed fulfilled… The text that we just heard is somewhat brief… it is, however, deeply interlaced with a profound meaning.

Matthew’s readers were part of the early Jewish Christian community. They would understand exactly what he was talking about. This is what we called “high context” language. Meaning that, the intended hearers of the message would understand what Matthew was saying, simply because of their experience and knowledge.

We may have a hard time understanding its richness, because it is not our “normal” way of doing things. So, let me set up the gospel story for you a bit this morning…

At this point, Matthew tells us that Joseph’s family has made a marriage agreement with Mary’s family… They are betrothed, the contract has been signed and the dowry has probably already been paid… Joseph and Mary were not involved in a romantic courtship or engagement like our society would expect today - before the decision was made for them to marry. Unlike we would expect of couples today, they are betrothed and their marriage was one of community, honor, and position.

And though he was an artisan, a carpenter, Joseph was a considered to be a righteous respected member of the community, and Mary’s family saw him as a competent provider, a potential good father and a man of honor.

So, let us reflect again for a second on Joseph’s strange predicament…

This honorable man, this follower of the Torah, the Law of Moses… this good Jew has received some scary news. The young woman, that he has just made a betrothal commitment to, has become pregnant - and the child is not his, because they have never been together.

You can almost feel the gasps in the ancient audience as they heard the story for the first time… What a scandal!!! Pregnant? A young woman who is supposed to “pure” – pregnant???

Joseph was in a real bind… and he has a huge choice to make… the way I see it, he basically has three options. He can choose to follow the letter of the Law of Moses, which says that Mary and her whole family is to be dishonored – publically disgraced – which would ultimately cause Mary to be taken out and stoned to death.

He could dismiss her quietly, retain his honor, and have her face the consequences of being unwed and pregnant, which would also ultimately lead to her public disgrace and death.

Or he can make the choice to listen to the vision he has in a dream and have faith in what an angel of the Lord told him, that the child that she carries is “holy.” The angel even gives him instructions on what to name the child. He is to call him Yahshua (In Hebrew) (or as it was written in our Greek New Testament –Iesous). We best know the name by our Anglicized Greek – Jesus – which means “God saves.”

We all know what Joseph does, or we wouldn’t be here today.

Joseph is called a “righteous” man in the Gospel reading. However, he didn’t follow the letter of the law, and humiliate Mary. He chose to listen to what he understood was a messenger from God that spoke to him in the dream, and let the prophecy be fulfilled through him.

So Joseph took Mary to be his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she gave birth to the holy child – Yahshua… A child called “Immanuel” by the prophet Isaiah - “God with Us”

Joseph is the model for us this morning. He is a model of faith and commitment… of following and listening to God. Joseph stands, at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, as a model of what Matthew hopes for all Jesus disciples — For each reader of the Gospel – as we live in the tension between a prevailing understanding of God’s commandments and the new thing that God is doing in Jesus the Christ.

By Joseph’s decision to obey the shocking and unexpected command of God, he is already living the nature and heart of the law and not its literal meaning. He is already living out the new and higher righteousness of the kingdom of God, that Christ in his ministry calls us to.

In a difficult moral situation, Joseph attends to the voice of God, and he is willing to set aside his previous understanding of God’s will in favor of the word he understands to be from the living and saving God.

We are very much like Joseph, living in the tension of our life… We must make decisions on a daily basis, moral and otherwise, as we journey through this life. Our nature sometimes is to fly by the seat of our pants, trying to steer our way without God, because we think that we have it all under control.

To cope with his tension, Joseph chooses to follow God. Likewise, we should be trying to do the will of God through our hearts, our actions, and our decisions… Living this life, loving one another, breaking bread together, and responding to what we understand to be God’s call on our lives.

As Christmas – the celebration of the birth of Christ creeps around the corner, we should stop here a moment on the 4th Sunday of Advent and reflect… reflect on the presence of the living God in our life. Using Joseph’s response to the living God as our model, let us use what little is left of our Advent time of anticipation and preparation to stop and take a minute to be still amid the craziness… And realize that our God is indeed with us, redeeming us, loving us, and saving us…

Because we so desperately need a loving and living God to be present with us and help us direct ALL of our decisions… We say – Come, Lord Jesus!!... Come Lord Jesus and direct our decisions, and direct our lives…

RCL Year A (Advent 3) - December 12, 2010

2010-12-12T10:30:00.003-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Advent 3) - December 12, 2010

Isaiah 35:1-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
Canticle 15 (Magnificat)

We live in a world that acts like it doesn’t need God...

It’s kind of depressing, especially this time of year when our thoughts and our minds should be focused on the reason for the season. And yet, we are so hung up on the need to have that “Christmas feeling” of “peace” and “joy” we often forget to include the Christ that makes it all possible.

We go on about things and we don’t make God… and we don’t make Christ a priority. And we wonder why our society suffers… and we wonder why evil and greed exists in this world.

We live in a world where it has become all about us… We have become so inward thinking, that we even ask the questions, “what’s in it for me?” “How do we win?” or “What do we have to gain?”

What ever happened to what Jesus taught us… about loving one another, just for the sake of loving? What ever happened to giving just for the sake of giving?

These are not strange and “new” concepts…

In ancient Israel, the people were on the threshold of complete destruction. God’s people had once again turned from God and they were sitting on the edge of total devastation. They stopped trusting God and loving each other, and they relied totally inwardly on themselves. Evil and greed had taking over, because they had lost their focus on what was really important. They had forgotten to love one another and give just to give and not focus on what you get.

Like us, they were living in places subject to their own demise… those wild and wilderness places of darkness (the ones I talked a bit about last week).

So God sent them the prophet Isaiah to remind them (and remind us) that God is God and we are NOT. To remind them, that regardless of how bad it gets God will be there and be the one who redeems them. God will make blossoms bloom abundantly in the desert out of absolutely nothing! And all shall see the majesty of God!

This will be a day of great comfort but it will also be a day of great judgment. Everything that we understand in our conventional wisdom will be redefined.

If we have adequately prepared, all we need to do is be patient. We need to be patient for the coming of the Lord, heed the prophet’s warning and be ready. But we say we don’t want to wait, we don’t like to wait; “we want it all, and we want it ALL RIGHT NOW!”

That’s how the community of James was acting. They knew Jesus was coming back and they had been planting seeds in order to grow the good fruit. But they weren’t patient, they wanted to reap rewards right now. They weren’t willing to wait and be patient. They didn’t understand that things happen in God’s time not ours.

So they were challenged to strengthen their hearts and not go about grumbling and complaining, but prepare and be patient. Be patient, for the coming of the lord is near.

And, dear friends, it is nearer to us now than it has ever been. It is even nearer to us now than it was last year. God continues to send messengers, prophets to us to prepare the way, to get people ready to receive the kingdom of God.

Isaiah and John are just two of the prophets that we hear about this morning. One of them (Isaiah) reminds us that God delivers God’s people who remain faithful. The other (John) has been captured because of his conviction and imprisoned as King Herod’s political prisoner.

But even in the darkness of John’s cell, he remains faithful and seeks to learn what Jesus is doing, how Jesus is redeeming the world. John asks the hard question for all of us… the question that we all want to ask at one time or another: “Are you the one who has come, or are we to wait for another?”

He wants to know if Jesus is the “real deal” or not. Is this business of Christ, the messiah, the savior of the world more than just a figment of John’s (or any other prophet’s imagination? Jesus answers John, very much like he answers us. Jesus says that we have to decide for ourselves whether or not he is the “real deal.”

We have to look for the evidence. Jesus tells John’s disciples to go tell John what they hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

So, when we look for the evidence, what do we hear and what do we see???

I am convinced that regardless of how bad things seem to get, of how this world seems to be focused primarily on selfish desires, there are always glimmers of God grace… God’s grace in Jesus Christ that comes shining through in our relationships with others. When we see this grace, when we witness it, we are more apt to confess our belief in the Lord Jesus. When we see results of his abundant grace and mighty works taking place around us, then our soul can tell out the greatness of the Lord like the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary.

Mary, who must have faced embarrassment and ridicule for her pregnancy, but none the less followed through with the will of God. The will of God for her life that brought salvation to ours.

As we prepare this Advent season, we are called to a place of patience. In these between times, of the already and the not yet we are all called to be pregnant with anticipation for the second coming of Christ. We are called to let Christ grow in us and we are called to make him known to the world, all in preparation for his coming again.

That is our purpose in this world… this world that thinks it doesn’t need God… Our purpose is to know Christ and make Christ known, to be Christ to others and to love and serve others in the name of Christ. We go about this world making disciples for Christ, fellow followers that will proclaim him and love others in his name.

This world may think it doesn’t need God, but this is a world that SO DESPERATELY NEEDS God… and it’s our job to remind others that everything in this world comes from God and exists for God’s glory.

If we want to bring true Christmas joy in our lives; if we want to live a redeemed life, forgiven, restored, and renewed, then we must wait and prepare, and put things in their proper order… prepare and focus on what’s really important… Focusing outward…

Focusing outward and proclaiming the greatness of the Lord by sharing the love and joy that Jesus brings to OUR life and by making His might and His deeds known to others.

Christ is our TRUE hope… and Christ is our TRUE gift…

OUR one true reason for the Season is Jesus Christ our Lord. Go out and know him, and make him known!!

RCL Year A (Advent 2) - December 5, 2010

2010-12-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Advent 2) - December 5, 2010

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

As you just heard in today’s reading, John the Baptizer is a bit of a “STRANGE” character… And, I’m not just talking about the way he acted… just look at the way he dresses. He is all dressed up the latest wilderness fashion of the time with his camels hair and leather, not to mention the “strangeness” of his diet – Locusts and wild honey.

I am wondering what would you think of John if you came up on him today? Would you recognize him as a great prophet of God and then follow him into the wilderness to hear his prophetic message? I doubt it very seriously.

Now, I know that we shouldn’t judge folks by what they wear or what they eat, but I know some folks that tend get in those little gossip circles with their friends when they run across someone who they feel isn’t dressed right. But somehow, someway, people were intrigued with the strange character of John and his message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” What could he possibly be talking about??? They were all fascinated…

The folks back then knew the ancient scripture of Isaiah and they knew what it said about a voice crying out… (by the way, there was no punctuation in ancient times… so the interpretation of Isaiah is a bit askew) It was either a voice – ‘crying out in the wilderness’ or a voice crying out – ‘in the wilderness...’ None the less, Matthew’s take on it was this… “There’s a voice crying out in the wilderness – prepare the way of the Lord, make strait in the desert, a highway for our God.” They wanted to know more… so they followed John.

Have you ever been lost in the wilderness? The desert or the forest… (It’s probably easier for us to associate wilderness with forest…) I mean really lost - deep in the woods? It can be a very scary experience. You look right an left and everything looks the same. After an hour, it is hard to tell one tree from another. You get more and more frustrated by the second, and cannot find your way out. I am sure that most of you can understand that feeling.

Now put that on top of going into the woods with a man as different – as “strange” as John… it’s not a very comfortable feeling. And it probably shouldn’t be! The wilderness is a scary place! In the ancient world, any kind of travel was dangerous… especially through the wilderness. You only traveled through wilderness places for specific reasons (for family, for feasts, or for business)… So traveling TO the wilderness was definitely unheard of.

The wilderness was considered the home of demons and a very unlikely “destination” for anyone. So, why the wilderness, and why with John?

All four of the Gospels tell us something about John. The evangelist, Matthew, spends a few lines this morning telling us what John is wearing… I think that his manner of dress might be a clue for us… Please understand that coarse camel’s hair and leather was not the preferred ancient Palestinian dress. It was extremely different, and definitely worth mentioning. But not only worth mentioning… I think that it is significant to who John is and the message he has…

This isn’t the first time we have heard of this “outfit.” Some of you may remember in the first chapter of the second book of Kings where it describes a prophet of God who is “A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist” – sitting on the top of the mountain… He made fire come down from heaven and consumed 2 kings armies before going down with the third to meet the king – Only to tell the king that he is going to die.

This was Elijah the Tishbite. The great prophet of the living God of Israel that shook up the Hebrew scriptures. Now, if I were a good Jew, for me – that would be enough reason right there to follow John anywhere. The folks back then were actually thinking that John might be Elijah that had come back to give them a message.

But John wasn’t giving just any old message. He was telling them to get ready for something. He is here to shake them up – and give them a reality check! He was telling them to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

So, to the Jews, John was Elijah the Tishbite who had come to prepare the people of Israel for “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” This excites the Pharisees and the Sadducees so they come out to John to be baptized…

You remember the Pharisees and the Sadducees… The Pharisees (the pompous religious elite – and the Sadducees, the non-believers in resurrection) But John ridicules the Pharisees and the Sadducees and compares them to snakes running scared from the judgment that is coming. He challenges them to change their heart, “repent” of their sins, prepare, and make their selves worthy.

Last Sunday, we were reminded again that Advent was a time of preparation and anticipation. We learned that we are the keepers of the watch, and are to keep awake and live honorably… to make ourselves worthy.

Those themes continue this week with today’s text – And John is here to show us the way… and to shake us up a bit and give us a reality check. In Advent we are called to search down deep… Deep down into the dark wilderness places of our lives… Deep into those desolate places where our demons dwell… Places we don’t like to go… Places that are strange and different to us… We go to these places to prepare and examine ourselves… to see if these “trees” that we are growing in our life are truly bearing the good fruit?

This process of examination, discernment and repentance can be a difficult one. It requires us to have an open mind wanting be changed and a heart wanting to be warmed. It requires us to be ready to admit that to ourselves that we DO need change and guidance, even when we think we don’t.

John is here this morning to help us take that journey to those wilderness places, and the strange and different John gives us a message… The message of hope that something great is coming and we are to get ready.

But the narrative that we are given today in the third chapter of Matthew doesn’t really identify the one who is coming…. (now, we know the rest of the story, and we know that John is talking about Jesus the Christ) But, today it’s not revealed to us… All we know now is – that John says that the person is very powerful and he is not worthy to even carry his sandals. The lectionary leaves the rest a mystery careful not to reveal the story too soon - of the awesome glory of God that is just around the corner.

So we are called by the text this morning to exercise a little restraint… and not get too terribly anxious… We are called to spend some time in active anticipation, looking inward at the fruit we are bearing, in hopes that we are bearing the true ripe sweet fruit that our God expects of us.

Because the rest of the story will unfold to us in due time and ALL will be reviled… All we can do today, is sit here in our advent anticipation and examine ourselves… and repent, for the kingdom of God has come near! We sit here today and hope that when whoever comes… we are truly ready!

RCL Year A (Advent 1) - November 28, 2010

2010-11-28T10:30:00.005-05:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A (Advent 1) - November 28, 2010

Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44
Psalm 122

I have got to be honest with you, when I was little, I was afraid of the dark… Not that I believed that there were monsters hiding under my bed or in the closet… It was just that the darkness made things seem so different. Different in a way that was a bit scary.

Needless to say, I was a child with a very active imagination, and the darkness held the unknown and unseen, and it made it difficult for me to relax and get to sleep. Sometimes the shadows of the darkness cause me to see things differently… What I knew to be a coat hanging on the doorknob, became a short person standing guard at the entrance to my closet, or what was a chair with an afghan thrown over it, became that odd looking thing that I had never seen in my life… I would sometimes stare at these things for hours, waiting for them to move… waiting for the light to come on again in the room, and reveal its true identity.

I can bet that perhaps some of you don’t like the darkness. And even though you probably won’t admit it, you don’t like not being able to recognize and understand what lurks in the shadows. No matter how much we mature, our natural instinct is to be afraid of the unknown – of what we can’t see. And the absence of light makes it very difficult to see anything.

Now, we have several ways that we deal with this… We can age, and simply grow out of the fear… We use night-lights (or artificial sources of light) that give us a sense of false security… but, some of us never deal with it, and just end up living in the darkness. These folks sometimes need assistance (a professional) to help them deal with the darkness in their lives, a counselor.

That is what our scripture lessons are talking about this morning… About keeping awake, putting on the protective armor of true light, and walking and living in the light of the Lord, the light of Christ. A place where there is no fear, and there is peace and rest. We deal with the darkness in our lives by relying on the wonderful counselor, Jesus Christ.

In the season of Advent, we all become the keepers of the watch, and must keep awake and be ready. Even though it’s dark and scary sometimes, we know that this is our time to wake from sleep, live honorably, and keep watch. We watch in active anticipation for the arrival of Christ. Not to commemorate the baby Jesus being born in a barn, but the arrival of Christ in His power and glory, descending on the clouds, coming back to reclaim the world for justice and peace! For him to establish a Kingdom under His rule where there is no war and the swords are beat into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

But we live in a world that doesn’t honor faithful living… and we aren’t prepared for this final judgment. Like Paul tells the Romans, we need to wake up and recognize our salvation because the day is near. But, we are not good watchmen… We want to be comfortable, so we chase after things that give us a “quick fix” but do not gratify in the long run (things like reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, and licentiousness) aggressively going after pleasure, and over indulging.

Think about the holiday that we just celebrated… Thanksgiving. Another major feast of the church that our society has hijacked… It has taken it, and rearranged it into a gluttonous feast followed by football and shopping. I am wondering if our forbearers, the ones who sat down with strangers to give thanks to God over a shared meal, would be proud of what we have become…

Instead of walking in the light of Christ, we are wandering around in the dark cloud of consumerism. The consumerism that has convinced us that we need this or that… it has become an artificial light in our darkness. And we wonder why this time of year is so difficult for folks that are dealing with depression and anxiety… It’s because, in our American way of life, we have replaced the true foundation in Jesus Christ with the “Stuff” that doesn’t satisfy.

We try to overcome our anxiety by trying to make it happen quicker by decking the halls early with all kinds of stuff… somehow trying to make that euphoric holiday feeling come, thinking that the artificial lights will chase away our darkness.

Jesus said that he will come back… and like the days of Noah before the flood, life has been one big party, not being concerned with doing anything to honor God, or giving God the glory… we all know what happened during the time of Noah – the flood came and swept them all away… so Jesus warns us to keep awake and be ready because we will not know when he will come… be ready, because one will be taken and one will be left… He will come like a thief in the night at an unexpected hour.

Our advice today from our Lord Jesus Christ, our Wonderful Counselor, as we start a new church year together, is to stay alert and live faithfully… Like the scriptures tell us, we should “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” – Be clothed with Christ as we take on his teaching and model his holy righteousness… This is our “armor of light” that repels the darkness…

We are the keepers of the watch… and what we do as Christians, our work in this world, is only accomplished in the spirit of wakefulness and watchfulness. We are called to faithful work, awareness and sensitivity, living in the mystery of things that are to come. And it’s not an easy place to be… it’s like living in the middle of the “already” and the “not yet.”

We are called during the season of Advent to a period of eschatological waiting, anticipating the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to vanquish the world’s darkness…

Today, we have a beautiful new advent wreath here, adorned with new oil candles that will be dedicated in a few minutes. With the passing of the Sundays in Advent, we light another candle, symbolizing the light of Christ that is coming into this world… growing brighter and brighter, casting away the shadows of darkness, until the day of the incarnation when the true light comes into the world and all the candles will be lit…

So keep watch my friends, put on the armor of light, and let the light of Christ grow in our hearts and in our lives… and be ready to receive our Christ at His coming.

RCL Year C (All Saints') - November 7, 2010

2010-11-07T10:30:00.003-05:00

Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (All Saints') - November 7, 2010

Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31

Sainthood, what is it? – and more importantly, how do we attain it? Because this is All Saints! (November 1st – transferred to the following Sunday) One of the 7 principal feasts of the church! Yes!!! As big as Christmas Day, and Easter Day and The Epiphany and the Day of Pentecost – this is All Saints!

It is the day that we celebrate ALL the Saints (Sanctus) – All Hallows – All the Holy Ones! When most people think of saints they think of those folks that have a special day of the calendar. You know – the great ones – the martyrs of the faith, who stood out by the way they led their life and were recognized as the Holy Ones – Saints (from the latin Sanctus)

But if you think about it for a minute All Saints is about us! It’s about ALL the baptized. We attain sainthood by virtue of our baptism… our baptism, by water and the holy spirit that brings us to new life in Christ and includes us fully as members of Christ’s Body, the Church.

In Baptism, we participate in Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection, and are made heirs of God’s heavenly Kingdom… Not the kingdoms of this world, that our first lesson in Daniel speaks about... those are the Kingdoms that tear down and destroy. But the Kingdom of God… where we will have life everlasting in the presence of God.

When we pass from this life to the next, we will take our place among the saints of God the holy ones that have gone on before us… I’m not necessarily talking about the ones who have a special day on the liturgical calendar… But ALL the saints, who have professed and practiced a faith in Christ Jesus and proclaimed Him as Lord and Savior. That’s exciting stuff!!! Exciting News!!! We should be jumping around and celebrating… shouting from the rooftops!!!

But we are just sitting here like Episcopalians – straight faced, with no emotion… (the frozen chosen) Yes, that’s lovely…

It’s exciting!! It’s something to get jazzed about!!! You can feel the excitement that Paul expresses to the church in Ephesus… He is so excited, you barely know where one sentence ends and the other begins…

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power…
(even in 16pt font it take up 7 lines)

We can feel it in the rhetoric as he displays his uncontrolled and uncontained excitement about faith and love and the will for the future… The people in Ephesus weren’t just living in history, they were making history by the way they led their life and Paul was excited! He has heard of their faith in Jesus, and their love toward the saints and he was excited!!

Have you ever been that excited about anything? Have you ever been that excited so much that it seemed nothing else mattered? Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot, we’re Episcopalian and we’ve developed a melancholy faith… and we don’t get much excited about anything… Unless someone (God forbid) is sitting in our pew, or unless someone doesn’t kneel or bow in the liturgy when we think they should.

We need to stop worrying about the “stuff” of this world and get excited about the everlasting life that we share in Christ Jesus. We need to get excited and claim our Sainthood, and live out our holiness in the streets and in the workplace, not just come here on Sunday and rot in the museum.

But again, we are a melancholy people, how dare we mention Jesus in public or make any sacrifices in our life that might be considered holy… It’s just not proper… We are scared to be Saints… We are scared to be what God has called us to be because it may cost us something… We may have to adjust our busy schedules or open our minds enough to let the graces of God transform our thinking and show us something new.

Maybe we think that we are not good enough, or maybe that God doesn’t love us enough, or that we, for some reason, aren’t dressed right, or that we don’t have enough money in our 401K. Whatever the reason, we are afraid, and we don’t claim our sainthood, but none the less, we are created in the image of God (and God don’t make no junk!) and by our faith and witness of Jesus as our Lord and our baptism, we are Saints!!

Today, Ivan, Beth, & Joey will join the ranks of All the Saints and be welcomed into the fellowship of Christ Body, the Church through Holy Baptism. A holy baptism that adopts us as God’s children sets us apart for God’s service and bestows on us the Grace of God in the promise of everlasting life.

As always, I had the pleasure to speak to Ivan & Beth about baptism in preparation for this big event… I explained to them that baptism is the initiatory step (the primary sacrament), the way into the fullness of life and participation. The way into the community of the church and the door to the sacraments – which are the vehicles of God’s grace.

Ivan, Beth, & Joey… this is your license to learn, to be involved, and let the love of God in Christ guide you as you grow in understanding of God’s great love and God’s abundant grace…

We are all in different phases of the great journey that we call growth in the Christian life… but none of us is any more privy to God’s Grace than any other.

Then we have the business of the Gospel reading: the beatitudes… or attitudes that some have suggested we must adopt or ways we have to BE in order to live the Christian life…

Jesus has just come down to the people from the mountain - to be among the people, and he blesses them – and he heals them… Then Jesus begins to teach the newly chosen disciples that are with him…

Blessed are you who are Poor… Blessed are you who are Hungry… Blessed are you who weep… Blessed are you who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed on account of the Son of Man… Wait a minute… the disciples must be saying… What does it mean to be blessed??? Does this mean that we have to be poor, hungry, weeping, or prosecuted? If so, I don’t want any part of it!!…

After a quick cursory and uninformed reading of the scripture passage we just heard… it seems that Jesus might be giving us a bunch of marching orders or imperatives to be followed … It has been the past interpretations and even could be the interpretation of some folks today… that you actually have to be Poor to get to heaven…

But once again, we must remember that this is the “scandalous” Jesus, the man who hung out with outcasts, women, lepers, tax collectors and sinners, the one who is always challenging the conventional understanding of the way society was supposed to be… Jesus begins to upright what society has turned over and straighten out what has been perverted and abused…

Jesus says that if you go against the conventional understanding of society, and honor the poor, and bless and heal, then society will probably hate you, reject you, and defame you… But no worries… your reward will be everlasting life with God in heaven!

But then we have the woes… the turn of focus turns from blessings to woes… With the woes, Jesus condemns the stubborn ones… the rich who think they are self sufficient… the ones who are laughing at God because they think they’ve got it all figured it all – out by themselves… These are the folks who don’t think that they have any more to learn… and these are the ones who vie for control…

In the big picture of things, the blessings for us are many… and we all are all very blessed in our lives… Most of us have a roof over our heads, and most of us are not wondering where our next meal will come from…

Jesus’ beatitudes are not a prescription by which we should live… But rather, they provide a focus of reflection on how we should respond in thanksgiving to God’s generous blessings in our lives… how we should live out our sainthood.

If we set our lives with the priorities of the beatitudes: If we truly let our holiness given to us in baptism shine though us and the way we live our lives and let it form us into the saints God wants us to be… If we honor the poor, and proclaim the teaching of Christ, what could that mean to our society today?

My brothers and sisters, (and my about to be – brother and sisters in Christ Jesus) I challenge us to live out our sainthood, claim it, own it, and then go out and live it… and let it so form us as Saints in God’s heavenly kingdom.

RCL Year C (Proper 24) - October 17, 2010

2010-10-17T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 24) - October 17, 2010

Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

We live in a world of instant gratification… from the human desire to have an immediate pat on the back for a job well done, to the microwaves ovens sitting on our kitchen counter…

In our world we spend a whole lot of time rushing around to find the source of that instant “feel good” – an unhealthy sense of urgency has taken over our culture…

It is displayed in our culture by the fast paced trading on the stock market – causing our stocks to rise and fall in a matter of seconds. It is even seen in commercials on TV… We are told that we need everything from instant weight-loss to those work from home businesses that will make us instant money…

The images in our society of this “instant” need will absolutely make your head swim… Instant breakfast, instant coffee, and ATMs that dish out “instant” money.

I sometimes feel that the internet is a direct result of this need for instant gratification… As great as it is, it is a source of instant knowledge – to know what the weather is, what the current news issues are, and it even gives us the real time sports scores… In seminary it was even common for us to look up facts on the internet concerning what the instructor was talking about, and then cut and paste them into our notes…

This need for instant gratification and spontaneous reward has even worked its way into our prayer life… When we pray to God, we want instant results… It is somehow that we want the Almighty, Omnipotent, creator of heaven and earth to be reduced to our vending machine. Push a button… have a prayer answered… And we think that if God doesn’t give us instant answers, then we believe that we are somehow not good enough, or deserving of God’s infinite graces.

We fall into the rut of thinking our faith is quantitative and not large enough or our prayers are not sincere enough… We think that maybe God isn’t listening… it’s then that we often either give up, or feel defeated and quit praying all together.

Jesus tells us a parable this morning about a widow, and a judge… The widow has a need for justice in a time and place when widows did not rate anything in society. Widows were on the bottom rung of the ladder and had no rights. They were exploited and oppressed.

Unlike today, widows were not even allowed to inherit their husbands estate, and if they didn’t have any sons to take care of them, they were often forced to return to their father’s family. Interestingly enough… The Hebrew word for widow means “one who is silent” or the “one unable to speak”

So this widow, who was not even allowed to speak in society on her own behalf, is pleading with the judge for justice… We aren’t told what the issue was, but we are sure that she knew the judge… he didn’t respect anyone or anything, not even God, do you think he had the time or even the desire to spend a second discerning the appropriate justice for this widow?

The widow is persistent in her pleading and doesn’t give up… It almost seems like she gets a bit feisty in her pleadings because there is some language in the scripture that indicates the Judge may have thought she would become physical. So, the judge takes action and grants her justice, almost as if to brush her off or somehow get rid of her.

Jesus takes this image and puts God’s love for the faithful in contrast… If this Judge, who doesn’t respect anyone, not even God grants justice to the persistent widow then how much MORE will God do for us, who cry out to God? How much MORE will God bless those who are persistent and faithful with their prayers?

Over the past few weeks, we have really gotten our tool box for discipleship full of useful equipment that we will need in our ministry to others as we seek to proclaim the kingdom of Jesus Christ to the whole world.

We have learned to be moving forward, and mission focused. Jesus has made sure that we know how to receive others with radical hospitality, and how to serve them without prejudice. We have loaded up our tool box with prayer, love, and faith. We even learned a couple of weeks ago, that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds, then we could do tremendous things like move mountains.

Today, Jesus adds to his metaphor of the mustard seed of faith, and teaches us about persistence. Yes, we must have faith, but our faith requires persistence. Persistence to keep close to God, even when it seems to us that God is far off. Persistence to keep praying even though it seems to us that God is not listening.

The scripture indicates that we should to show our faith in God through the persistent actions in our life. This parable often gives folks the false impression that we can somehow conform God to our needs for instant gratification. That we can somehow “wear down” God and get God to do what we want God to do by our persistent prayers.

But – that’s not the point at all. Our persistent prayers to God are NOT a means of controlling God. We cannot reduce God to some genie in the sky that grants us wishes. God will not be controlled like that! Our prayers to God are the mechanism that guides our hearts and minds to help us grow - to be formed and be informed by God’s love for us and God’s will for our lives.

Our prayers to God are the way we grow and are formed in our faith. It is how our minds focus on and how our soul connects with the One who created us. It is the way we know WHO we are and WHOSE we are. Prayer is our response to our God, with or without words.

In faith, we keep praying, and in faith, God keeps listening. We show our faith by the fact that we are even praying at all... trusting that God hears us and that God will respond to us.

When we pray, there are rarely any easy instant answers or any instant gratification. There is no microwave or website or lever to pull that will automatically give us the connection that we are longing for. There is no instant salvation. But, God is always faithful and God always acts in God’s own time. So, we keep on praying with persistence knowing that God loves us, hoping and trusting that God will deliver us, and that God will provide us with what we need.

It's not going to be instant... But it will happen! If we are paying close attention, we just may even recognize it.

RCL Year C (Proper 22) - October 3, 2010

2010-10-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 22) - October 3, 2010

Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

When we come to church, we hear a lot talk about faith. We read about faith in the Bible and we even sing songs about faith… But what is Faith?

I have often heard people mistakenly say that faith is a type of reasoning that is the opposite of doubt. But we know that the opposite of doubt is certainty… So, what is Faith?…

In today’s gospel story, Jesus’ disciples made what would seem to be a logical and obvious request… “Increase our faith!” We can picture them on the road… all prepared for discipleship… equipped with all the stuff they needed to build up the kingdom of God…

They were pumped up and ready for mission, and they have packed wisely for the journey… They were welcoming the stranger in their midst, and had even started eating with tax collectors and sinners… Jesus taught them well…

He taught them how to be steadfast followers, and how to use all their money and stuff that they were entrusted with to glorify God and build up the kingdom…

I get the image of some young rookie football player, all suited up in a new uniform, helmet on… looking right in the coaches eyes… We all expect him to say “put me in coach, I can do this… I am ready to play.”

But instead, the young player is saying… “help me... please… what if I get hurt?, what if the others don’t block for me?... What do I do if… ???” and his worries go on and on and on…

The disciples are prepared… and Jesus knows they are, because he has prepared them… But with all the preparation, the disciples still don’t get it, they still don’t trust that God will be with them… So they ask Jesus for an increase in their faith… Like they can top off their tank with “faith” and be ready to continue the journey. Sort of like a “fill-er up” with super high holy octane!

But, Jesus’ response to his disciples relates directly to the power of faith itself… Explaining to them, that the power of faith is so strong that even the smallest bit of it could prove to be a tremendous force…

Then Jesus takes the discussion an unexpected level. He basically says, to do the Job I have given you to do… to be my disciple… it isn’t going to require very much faith at all. All you need to do is obey God and do our duty… Jesus then depicts each of the disciples as a humble servant, who’s duty is to be hardworking, not expecting to be thanked. He says that this is what faith is… It is our duty within the relationship to God…

I think, most simply, when we say that we have faith, it means that we trust God… to be God.

Sometimes, most often where people are ill, folks will say, “if you have faith, you will be healed.” Or worse yet, “your faith isn’t strong enough.” We assume that if Jesus says that our faith can move trees… when if we had any faith at all, we would certainly be healed…

I think that we fail to realize that this means we would be manipulating God… trying to get God to conform to our image... instead of us being and living in His image… In other words, we get hung up in the world of, “If I have enough faith, then God has to do exactly what I want God to do!” That’s not what Jesus is saying at all!

Jesus makes it clear that we are expected to have faith… it is part of being Christian, just like serving is part of being a servant… Our faith doesn’t require God to do anything. God does not heal us because we have faith. God heals us because God is God. God loves us simply because God chooses to love us…

God is active and present in our everyday lives, and gives us more than we could ever ask for or imagine… Neither our level of faith nor our actions can earn us God’s favor or salvation! (which is another misconception - and another sermon in its entirety)…

So - How much faith is enough? Do we need to have a lot of faith, or will just a little bit do? The answers may surprise you.

The followers of Jesus said to him, "Increase our faith." Jesus answered them, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."

When we have faith in God, our faith isn’t quantitative… it isn't a question of how big or small our faith is, it is qualitative… it is a question of how powerful our God is, and with God all things are possible!

Some of you know that today is World Communion Sunday. It is a Sunday when all of the denominations in Christendom that are part of the National Council of Churches have agreed to have a celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

As we know some of our brothers and sisters in Christ, do not celebrate The Lords Supper but once per quarter, or once per month. Unlike us who celebrate every Sunday. But today everyone is gathered around the Lords Table breaking bread and sharing the cup.

As we approach the holy table this morning we receive by faith the body and blood of the Lord our Savior Jesus Christ. My prayer is not to ask God to give us more faith. But, it is simply to ask God to help us use the faith that we have, and to help us do tremendous things to His glory and then trust that God will do the rest.

RCL Year C (Proper 19) - September 12, 2010

2010-09-12T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 19) - September 12, 2010

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

We may think this morning… “Hey!! This week, these lessons are easy! We know right away what it says! You know, it’s like that hymn “Amazing Grace”… I once was lost, but now I am found… I got it preacher, you can stop right there! End of Sermon – See you next Sunday…

But, I’m not going to let you off that easy! Sometimes when we read the lessons, we think they are so easy… So easy that sometimes we like to get to the point because we think we don’t need to open the box…

It’s easy for us to jump right to being “lost” like the sheep and the coin from the Gospel lesson… We jump so quick that we loose the depth of what the scripture readings are telling us together this morning…

The prophet Jeremiah talks to us about how Judah interpreted what was happening to them… they were under attack, their lands were being destroyed, and their lives were falling apart. As far as they knew it, the end was near and all was lost!

They evaluated their situation and decided that they were suffering this dilemma because they were not following God’s ways, so God must be punishing them. The logic that they are using is pretty easy to understand. It is so easy to blame God for our misfortunes even though we are probably the ones who caused them in the first place.

But we have to remember, regardless of who is doing the destroying, out of the destruction God brings re-creation and restoration. Out of tearing down God builds up. Just like out of crucifixion God provided resurrection and out of death God brings us to life everlasting.

It’s hard to hear about that portion of the journey it difficult for us to spend time wrestling with the questions, trying to figure out where we have gone astray. It becomes so easy to blame God when something doesn’t go like we think it should. But, it becomes just as easy to praise God when something happens to us that we perceive as a blessing.

We think that these things are easy, because deep in our minds we think that it’s all about us instead of it being all about God. We are so hung up on that Amazing grace… that divine favor… God’s grace for us, that we don’t look beyond the gift of God’s Grace into our desperate need for God’s Grace.

We need to remember that God and only God has the ability to form, transform, restore, re-create, and resurrect. It must be that we are a bit hard-headed, and stubborn. We need that element of control because we have it all figured out. That’s probably why we don’t let God shower us with the abundance that God has in store for us.

In the new testament lesson, we get a first hand account of Paul’s testimony. Paul, a blasphemer, a persecutor, and man of violence was transformed into an example of the faith. Prior to his conversion, Paul thought he was very much in control. The scripture says that he acted out of ignorance. He was blinded by the things that he refused to believe. He was lost, and had that desperate need for God’s Grace.

And God went to work on Paul… redeeming him, restoring him, and re-recreating him for God’s glory. Paul was lost until Paul found God on the road to Damascus.

So, that brings up the question for us to ponder this morning, “In reference to God, who is lost – and who is found???” In reference to God, not in reference to the Pharisees, (who think that they have it all figured out)… or in reference to ourselves (because the Lord knows, we’re not in control, and if we use ourselves as a reference, and we consider ourselves found then everyone not like us is lost…) But in reference to God… Who is lost and who is found… In reference to God??

The gospel lessons this morning, Luke gives us 2 parables in the lost trilogy – the lost sheep and the lost coin. I say it is a trilogy, because the story of the lost son (some of us know it better as the prodigal son) that comes right after it, but we hear that story in Lent.

In the first parable, a shepherd looses one of his sheep. Shepherds are talked about quite a bit in the Bible, and is often used as a metaphor for how God tends to us and cares for us… In the case that Jesus presents, the shepherd has a hundred sheep (Now – a hundred sheep is a pretty large flock. Most families would only have a small fraction of that number.) And Jesus gives us a clear invitation to identify with this thankless shepherd asks the question, "Which one of you?"

Which one of you, having 100 sheep, and loosing one, would leave the 99 in the wilderness? It almost makes it sound as if leaving the ninety-nine was the natural response, but that is far from the case here. It’s actually an absurdity.

It’s not practical! Anybody with any kind of business sense would say, don’t worry about the one. Protect the core business -- the ninety-nine. We can survive a one-percent loss. We cannot survive a ninety-nine percent loss. But Jesus speaks to us about leaving the ninety-nine… leaving the 99 not "safely in the sheepfold," but in the wilderness – an extremely wild and dangerous place.

The little lost lamb is found, and "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.” This is a nice thought, but it’s truly absurd! But, I think it’s absurd to make a point… The point to see in this story is the radical and absurd ways that we are called to act as disciples of Christ in the world, because of the way God acts radically toward us.

It’s just like the church. Sometimes as a church we do stuff that the world would consider absurd. You can take your pick and fill in the blank. But we do these things in order to respond to the unquantifiable grace that we have received... the love, forgiveness, and pure joy that we can only get from God. When the shepherd comes home, he calls together all his friends and neighbors. The shepherd's joy cannot be contained, but overflows throughout the whole community.

The second parable this morning is about a woman that has 10 silver coins, but looses 1. Again the balance is upset… Where could it be? How could I have been so careless? How difficult is it to keep a mere ten coins in the bag? Lost! Nine coins will not be enough. All ten will be required to meet the needs of the month. Look under the bed. Carefully sweep the rooms and sift through the debris. Where could it have gone? Check the mantel once again. "Ah, there it is!" Rejoice!

Throughout his ministry, Jesus introduces us to the kingdom of God, a radical place of upside-down rules, an absurd place where the norms are different than that of the world. In these stories about the kingdom of God, Jesus teaches us about the radical nature of God's love. This is a place where the ordinary rules of business calculations do NOT apply.

The shepherd mourns the loss of the sheep, so the shepherd searches until he finds the sheep. The woman is frantic at her loss of the coin. But, the joy she expresses at the coins return is beyond extreme elation!

The parables of the lost, really aren’t about being lost at all they should be referred to as the parables of the found! The reaction to finding the lost sheep and the coin is a metaphor for God's joy… God’s joy over the one sinner who repents.

So God's joy really is the point of these parables…

The Pharisees think that they have it figured out, and chastise Jesus for eating with the wrong people… grumbling and telling Jesus that they are sinners… that they are all lost... But Jesus seeks them out and eats with them… Jesus finds them and shares a meal with them, and teaches them, and transforms them into and example of God’s grace, just like he does with us…

Like the people of Judah, we are all here in the wilderness, in the desolate desert, in the ruins of our life, living in the issues and problems that we have made for ourselves. The problem is, like Paul we think we have control of it. But, we are just as lost as we can be. However, no matter how lost we may feel, or how horrified we may become, God is there. God is there to restore us, to reconcile us, and re-create us… All we have to do is accept it and live into it…

The sheep wonder off and go astray, the coin drops off the table and onto the floor… But, all we need to do is remember that God is radically searching for us until we find God. Yes, you heard me right, God is so radically searching for us… searching for us until WE find God. And thank be to God!! God doesn’t follow the normal rules. God doesn’t write us off, or cut the losses because each and every soul is precious and deserving of God’s love.

God doesn’t keep us confined on a short leash, but lets us wonder around in the wilderness. And we do… we even get lost, because we are all a rebellious and sinful people. It is God’s love for us that continuously draws us back to God.

Regardless of how lost we may feel, or how sinful we may be (and when we finally figure out that it’s not about us) God is there… God is there among us, ready to draw us back… and bring us home to the church. So that when we repent we can be reconciled to God and be re-created and restored through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because when we are lost, it is only through God that we are found!

RCL Year C (Proper 18) - September 5, 2010

2010-09-05T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 18) - September 5, 2010

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5, 13-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

Life is full of “responsibilities”... We have responsibilities to our families, (our husbands, wives, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, children… Godchildren)… We have responsibilities to our jobs… We have responsibilities to our community… and we even have responsibilities to our church…

But ALL of us, as baptized Christians, have a responsibility to God, as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And all of our responsibilities fall into that delicate balance of our lives… our actions, our time, and our money. We must look at today’s readings in this context… In the context of these “responsibilities.”

It is just seems to complicate things sometimes when we mix up our other responsibilities with the responsibilities that we have as “disciples”… disciples of Jesus Christ.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is not only walking with the 12, but he is once again with the whole “crowd.” He has left the table of the Pharisees, (where he was last week), and is continuing to move forward to Jerusalem… forward to the cross, and the fait that awaits him…

But the crowd that is with Jesus, sees him as a real “winner” because he is a great teacher and healer… They see him as the messiah that will help Israel rise up and once again become a great nation. They want to be part of the social “in-crowd” and associate with him so that they can be “winners” too…

They want to be with Jesus and “be seen” with Jesus – because they think Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem to claim his crown. But the crowds are completely oblivious of the horrible fate that awaits him in Jerusalem. And they don’t understand the consequences or the burden of the journey that Jesus is on.

Like the crowd that is with him, we have heard a lot about discipleship on his journey… From Sunday to Sunday during this long green season – the season of church growth after the day of Pentecost, we have learned what kind of followers we need to be, and how we need to give of ourselves, engage mission, and love each other… During this season we have been led to grow in faith, examine our lives and actions, and re-evaluate our responsibilities so we can be better disciples of Jesus…

We knew, because Jesus has warned us before, that being his disciple isn’t going to be easy, but we didn’t really expect anything like what we heard today. Jesus’ words are hard to hear in our context... they aren’t comfortable…

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus uses strong language to make a point… to teach the crowd (and in retrospect, teach us) that discipleship is costly – it carries a pretty big price tag.

Jesus does not make discipleship any easier for us than the cross was for him... He does not offer us buy one get one free deal, an easy payment plan, nor does he lower any expectations of difficulty. He gives it to us straight!

He has talked about discipleship many times, and he has never tried to disguise the cost. But this time he actually writes the price tag for discipleship in great big numbers, big enough for all of us to really see. This time, Jesus demands commitment!

The question is, are we ready to accept the responsibility and be a disciple of Jesus Christ? In our society, we are tempted to sugar coat the message and hide the true demands that being a disciple of Christ has on our lives… and we end up with more of a motovational speach instead of a sermon preached on the gospel of Christ... In the interest of filling the pews, afraid that we will run people off, we don’t to challenge people to faithful stewardship – faithful worship attendance – careful study of scripture – compassion for the less fortunate – or other costly responsibilities that being a disciple of Christ demands of us!!

Costly responsibilities that mold and shape us… costly responsibilities that require us to change our lives!

Instead, we play it cool, and cater to our feelings… we worship the god of family and convenience, and the lord of money and stuff.

Which one of us will have a commitment to serving at church and then as soon as something (that we perceive as better comes along) – we are looking for a replacement…

Or which of us evaluate the cost of discipleship as inconvenient… and when worship or study time conflicts with our sleep schedules, we adopt a religion of convenience, rather than a follow a way that promises eternal life.

And I have one more… Which one of us, when it comes to giving to the church, does so by giving things like toilet paper or reams of paper, or other specific needs that we are important… rather than disciplined proportional giving so that we can keep the lights on and pay salaries.

I have a feeling we have been comfortable too long… we have stressed the “freeness” of forgiveness so much, that we have ended up with “cheap grace.” We have become lazy about practicing our faith, giving our tithes, saying our prayers, and participating in our community. We have forgotten that the cost of discipleship is expensive!!!

We all want the rewards of what being a Christian means or we wouldn’t be here today. Yet, we are not willing to accept the responsibilities and pay for it by the way we live our lives. Instead, we continuously crucify Jesus again, making him pay over and over again, when he has already paid the debt once for all.

Now it’s our turn to step up! It our turn, and our responsibility to learn, to worship, and reach out, and become the best follower (the best disciple) that we can possibly be!

Now, I may have just gone from preachin’ to meddlin’ (like a seminary professor of mine likes to point out anytime a preacher has a strong message) but that is exactly what Jesus has done in today's Gospel lesson.

He's gone from preachin' to meddlin'. "If you don't hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, you cannot be my disciple. None of you can become my disciple unless you give up all your possessions."

Jesus has been gathering followers everywhere he goes. He does so because they see him go against the society norms and deliberately include the poor, heal the sick, and talk a lot about love and money. But, Jesus is now telling these same folks that if they want to stay with him, if they want to really be his disciples, they have to give up “everything” – EVERYTHING… family as well as possessions.

We could almost imagine his followers thinking, and some of you are probably thinking it about me… "Hey, I liked him a lot better when he was giving me a warm fuzzy – preaching about love. Leave it there! How dare you ask me to change my life." Jesus HAS really gone from preachin' to meddlin'. Jesus is challenging his disciples to radically change their lives… to completely put what they say and what they believe to the test… to put it in its proper place, before any of their own comforts.

These words are very difficult to hear, but this is where the rubber meets the road! You may remember a few weeks ago in the 12th chapter of Luke, that we heard a few Sundays back, Jesus said practically the same thing: “if you want to be a disciple, your household may be divided… Mother against daughter, Father against son, etc…”

Being a disciple is a REAL responsibility! It take dedication and hard work. People may not like us for it, they may consider us to be unpopular or un-cool. They may not even agree with what we are doing or why we are doing it. And, as so many disciples have found out before us, the price that we pay may be the cross!

But all through Luke’s gospel, Jesus points us to the cross. All through Luke (that we have been hearing this season) Jesus challenges the thinking and lifestyles of his listeners (us)… Challenging us to become “real” disciples, to be dedicated participants in our community, to engage in mission, and have a steadfast direction.

But we still have that troubling part… the part where Jesus says that if you don't hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – and yes, even life itself – you can't be my disciple. It’s the word “hate” that just doesn't sound like Jesus.

The Greek word that is used for hate is (miseo), it doesn’t mean “hate” at all in the sense that we are accustomed to hearing it… It’s not the anger and hostility that we would normally associate with the word “hate.” It means that being a follower of Jesus, being a true disciple, “outweighs” the most honored human relationships… It means that EVERYTHING is secondary to our relationship with God in Christ.

So now, if we look at Jesus’ instructions in the proper context, it isn't a call to “hate” at all – but a call to set our priorities and responsibilities right. Because putting anything – anything at all – before our relationship with God skews the rest of our relationships and responsibilities, and messes up our whole life.

The key to understanding the Gospel this morning is to first look at how we act towards one another. If we do this, we won't be like the builder that Jesus uses as an example, who lays an improper foundation and is unable to finish the work that he started.

Instead, we will have the proper foundation to build on and our priorities will be right. And when things are set right with Christ as our foundation, we will see our personal relationships grow deeper and our life have more meaning.

And then there’s that troubling part about taking up our cross… There will always be the cross… As Christian disciples, we always have a cross – but in the cross, we know that on the other side is God's promise of resurrection.

Jesus challenges us today to and intense examination of every aspect of our lives. For instance, how we use – or abuse – the gifts and blessings of our life and the wonders of God’s creation around us? It is all tied together… It could be something as simple and as how and where we shop (or even what we buy)… it all has a place in our spiritual lives… and it could even include the lives of people (people that we will probably never know) and how they are effected every time we go to the store… There are hundreds of other examples that each of us could probably can think of.

The important thing is to remember is… this Gospel makes us take a good look at our responsibilities and priorities – It makes us take a good look at the place that God occupies in our lives.

If this passage makes us squirm in our pews, and think to ourselves that Jesus really has gone from preachin' to meddlin', we need to stop and say, “why?” Why are we squirming?? Are we worried that we might be unwilling to pay the price of discipleship to really be followers of Jesus? Are we worried that we might need to make some changes in our lives?... changes necessary to straighten out our responsibilities and priorities?

The truth is… this gospel lesson ought to energize us to get up off of our duffs and get on about the business of being real disciples of Jesus Christ. To not worry about how much money we have our don’t have, but be faithful disciples, and fully engage opportunities to learn and participate in mission, and give generously so that we can grow these ministries.

In the coming weeks, I would like us to take a good look at where God is in our life… The place of God is in our life is our silent acknowledgement of who and what we know our God to be… It shows up all over our lives… of how we act, our relationships, our checkbooks, and even our participation...

If God is first, then don’t just sit around casually and say God is first!… lets do something about it!!

If God is second, then Lord have mercy on us! Let’s find out what is keeping God from being first and re-evaluate our responsibilities and priorities and do what we need to do to put God first! Amen!

RCL Year C (Proper 17) - August 29, 2010

2010-08-29T10:30:00.003-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 17) - August 29, 2010

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

As most of you know, I grew up in Southern Virginia. I was very blessed to have known both sets of my grandparents, who lived very close to us.

On Sunday afternoon, after church, we would gather at my grandparents house for a proper “southern” Sunday dinner… complete with homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and my grandmothers famous homemade rolls.

My dad’s whole side of the family would be there… His older sister, her husband, and their 4 boys… My uncle (dad’s twin brother) and his wife… and us 4 (Mom, Dad, my sister and I). At any given time, there would be 14 to 21 of us that would eat Sunday dinner there.

At my grandparent’s home, as I would imagine in most houses, seating for that many people was a problem. They were fortunate enough to have a long rectangle table in the dining room. I can remember that my grandfather would always sit at the “head” of the table with my grand mother to his right. Likewise, my father, being the oldest male of the 3, would sit at the other “head” of the table, with my mother to his right. Everyone then would sit in their “proper” place… My aunt would sit to my grandfathers left and my dad’s brother would sit to my fathers left. The youngest folks at the table were my older teen cousins.

My sister, younger cousin and I would sit at the “kids’” table in the kitchen. It was considered an honor in my family to sit at the adult table… and I didn’t get to move there until I was in high school! This arrangement isn’t strange to us. Some of you may have experienced the same kinds of things whether it was in your own families or your jobs.

I know that I have experienced this type of hierarchical “seating chart” most of my life. Throughout military school and college, formal business dinners and functions, and other formal gala affairs, it was always the same… Folks always sat in positions of honor, depending on who you were and how important people thought that you were.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus is invited to the house of the leader of the Pharisees for a dinner on the Sabbath… The Pharisees, you know, were the religious elite, (the important folks) and they are very interested in Jesus’ eating habits. After all, Jesus had been known and often accused of eating with tax collectors, outcasts, and sinners. Upon arrival at the home for dinner, Jesus immediately notices how the guest choose their places of honor. Once again, Jesus takes the opportunity to upset the traditional order of things and stand society right on its ear.

Who sat where at a meal during the time of Jesus, as in some cases today, was a critical statement of social standing. Dinners were important social occasions, and they were often used for political gain. Who you ate with, and who you associated with defined who you were and how important your position was to the society.

So, the folks invited to this dinner, scramble around the table to be the first to get to the “good seats” (the places of honor) so they might be seen and have a chance to “hob-knob” with the right people… they strived to be the ones sitting in the positions of power and authority.

But Jesus sees this and teaches them, he says, if you are invited to eat with someone, do not sit in a place of honor, but go sit in the lowest place… because, all who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there with his teaching on the “seating chart” he goes on to teach them about their guest list of “who should have been invited.” He says, don’t invite the rich and famous, so that they may invite you in return… but invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be repaid on the day of resurrection.

Now, if we see Jesus’ teaching simply as a lesson in social etiquette for dinner parties – of how to arrange our seating chart and our guest list, we are completely missing the point… Jesus is speaking to us in a much larger context. He wants us to understand how powerful it is to share a meal equally with someone. To eat with someone is to engage them intimately, to share God’s generosity with them either as a host (as God is our’s) or as a guest (as we are God’s) …

We are at our best, as Christian people, when we share a meal… Some folk would like to think that Christianity in a nutshell revolves simply around a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” A personal relationship is necessary, but Christianity is a very social concept, and we connect with God and experience God through our relationships… our interactions with each other as part of the body of Christ.

Eating together in fellowship with one another is one of the best ways that we can accomplish this. So, it shouldn’t be strange to us that the central act of Christian worship (since the beginning) includes table fellowship at the celebration of Holy Eucharist.

Through the Eucharist, the spiritual grace that comes from being united with one another in Christ is imparted to us. That is why we sometimes call it communion... It is a gathering of the community in union with each other and with God… in one great fellowship of love. We know through scripture that Jesus desires to have that close fellowship with us. That’s why he told us to share a specific meal when we gather… Jesus wants to connect with us intimately as our host.

It is only Christ Jesus who frees us from the constant competition of our culture’s struggles for power and esteem. Jesus frees us from hierarchical relationships and the attitudes, and barriers that they create, so that we can be free to create community with each other and enjoy the security that only comes from God’s grace in our lives.

In the middle ages, the myth about King Arthur and the knights of the round table help us understand today’s lesson. The legend is that King Arthur was a humble king, as was his father, and he understood his place as the first among equals.

They used a round table because a “round table” doesn’t have any position of power or privilege… It has no “head.” It was said that Merlin, Arthur’s trusted magician, built this table copying Joseph of Aremethia’s “Grail Table,” or the table supposedly used by Christ and his disciples at the last supper. A table where all who sit at it are considered equal…

Jesus teaches us this morning that we should cultivate and practice humility in our lives, and uses something as common as sharing a meal to show us how simple it can be.

In that practice of humility the standards and practices of discrimination and prejudice are overthrown. The outcasts, repentant sinners, and yes – even the tax collectors, will be accepted as equals in the kingdom of God. They will all be with us at the table of Christ!

Jesus is inviting us into that kind of fellowship with him, to eat at his table, and experience the foretaste of that great heavenly banquet that we will experience at the resurrection of the righteous…

There is no hierarchy at the table of Christ, there is no prejudice, no class, and no race… There is just us… us in the company of all faithful believers, sitting with Jesus at his table. And what an incredible honor it is for us to even be invited.

RCL Year C (Proper 16) - August 22, 2010

2010-08-22T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 16) - August 22, 2010

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

What bends us out of shape??? Why is it, when we don’t get our way, our first instinct is to act like kindergarten children and get bent all out of shape? Bent out of shape because we don’t want to do something, or we don’t think that we need to do something… we contort ourselves and grimace at the mere thought of doing something that we don’t agree with.

Why is it so hard for us to un bend from the old “norms” – the way things have always been done, and bend in ways that help give new life and vitality into our community.

We get all bent out of shape at the most unlikely sources… but as we know, it’s not God that twists, it’s us that do the twisting… it’s not God who destroys, it is us that are self destructive. Our God saves… no matter how bent out of shape we feel, no matter how shaken we get, when we reach out, God is right there to make it right… to heal us, to restore us and to give us new life.

Last week, we heard the passage of Jesus, longing to bring fire to the earth, and “getting things cooking.”

I have often used the idiom in vestry meetings and other forums, that I “shake” the snow globe. If we think about it, that’s one way to keep things going.

I had a snow globe as a child, you know, one of those glass balls with a winter scene inside and water and flecks of white that looked like snow. I would keep it on my night stand, and before I went to bed, I would shake it! And if I woke up in the middle of the night, I would shake it again!

It was my way of keeping it going… of keeping the snow falling… So the snow would fall, and then make the scene in the globe complete.

We are all part of that scene…

The scene that God created for us… And I will admit… I do things in order to “shake” the snow globe sometimes, to keep the things going that Jesus started. To make us feel a bit uncomfortable with the way things are, and make us think about the way things could be.

Shaking the snow globe is a wonderful process of examination and reexamination… of shaking up and loosening the insecurities that we hold on to that are of this world… After the shaking we see the solid eternal things that are of God that remain.

What remains is that grounded and steady truth of God… the root of the power of relationships and community… the love of God that binds us all together. The problems is, whoever is doing the shaking… that sometimes we don’t like the way the snow globe has been shaken, and we get upset for one reason or another. This feeling can cause us to get all bent out of shape.

Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. And the scripture says that a woman with a crippling spirit has been bent over and not able to stand up straight for 18 long years… Without her asking, in one word and a laying on of hands, Jesus heals her from her ailment and restores her to perfect health…

She immediately stands up straight and begins praising God. But in doing that one profound act of healing and mercy, Jesus shakes the snow globe of society and disrupts the status quo.

The leader of the synagogue then gets all bent out of shape and accuses Jesus of breaking the law because he healed on the Sabbath. But, like people so often who get bent out of shape, he doesn’t come to Jesus and confront him directly, he keeps saying to the crowd – accusing Jesus – sort of like going behind Jesus’ back. But Jesus sets it right, comparing his actions to simply giving water to a donkey or ox. He restores dignity and gives new life to the woman, setting her free from her disorder, from the demons that torment her.

When we get bent out of shape about something, our tendency is to grimace, and contort our faces to show people that we are not happy, we talk behind backs and accuse wrongly, especially if we think that our way of life is being challenged or disrupted… especially if we think our snow globe is being shaken.

When this happens, there is only one answer… to let the eternal love of our Lord Jesus Christ reach out to us and heal us… to help us loose our grip from whatever demon it is that we are so gravely holding onto and allow Jesus to show us a way of trust in God and the eternal solid things that should be the focus of our attention.

It is our only way that we keep things going… Jesus “got things cooking” by bring the consuming fire to the earth last week. Now, it’s up to us to keep things going.

The way I see it, we have 2 choices: we either act like the crippled woman and let ourselves be healed and restored stand up straight, and praise God… Or we can be like the Synagogue leader and get all bent out of shape, accuse, talk behind peoples backs, and complain about others and the way things are…

It is when and only when we surrender ourselves to Christ's Lordship, and completely give ourselves over, and live for Him that we begin to see the things that bend us out of shape are meaningless.

So, will we accept Christ as he attempts to mold us and form us into his image, restoring us and making us whole? Or will we reject Christ and think we have it all figured out by ourselves and continue to walk around all bent out of shape?

RCL Year C (Proper 15) - August 15, 2010

2010-08-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 15) - August 15, 2010

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

I have talked before about us living in a world of paradox. In the stress and tension of everything, we live in paradox. Life as we know it is a paradox: Good and Evil, War and Peace, “Normal” and “Not Normal.”

We could even carry it further: Rich and Poor, the “Haves” and the “Have Nots,” Heretic and Orthodox, Straw and Wheat, Heaven and Earth, Truth and Lies… Our contemporary culture defines paradox as a riddle without an answer; a problem without a solution; or a tension that cannot be relieved.

We all live in this tension of a paradox – and it is extremely difficult. Within the paradox, we must make decisions to govern our lives; who to follow, how to act, and even what to believe. We long for everything to be spelled out for us and we wish that someone would just hand us an instruction book that we could follow.

Even with all the knowledge, skills, and abilities that we have acquired through social developments, new discoveries, and even technological advances, we often make mistakes living within the paradox…

But, we DO need to give ourselves credit sometimes… because sometimes we make the right choices and get it right. But we know that sometimes we just fail! No matter how hard we try, sometimes we just lay a big ole’ egg…

When we get into a real mess, we wish that we could prophesy and tell the future, thinking that if we somehow know the outcome, that it will be that much better for us. But we can’t – so we have to live within the mess that we have made for ourselves.

The word paradox even makes us uncomfortable until we realize that even the Holy Scriptures, (the New Testament in particular), is full of paradox.

Jesus has been teaching us a lot these past few weeks, in the season following Pentecost, the time when Jesus is on his journey of ministry, on his way to Jerusalem… We have learned about how to be a better disciple, we have been sent out into the muck of our lives to try to live the good news of our salvation. We have been taught to greet others with hospitality and love them – thereby being Christ to them. We have even been called to show greater commitment to eternal things by giving, sharing and living in our community and growing in our common life in our relationship to one another.

This morning, it seems like, all of a sudden, Jesus changes gears on us and throws us into sort of his own paradox. We go from Jesus calling for intense following, loyal devotion, and urgent mission - to Jesus speaking of fire, division, and prophecy. These word are scary and hard to hear, especially after last week’s message of “don’t be afraid little flock.”

Jesus doesn’t use his normal tone that we have been getting used to over the past few weeks. It isn’t the faithful following, mission, and hospitality that we have been hearing about. Where are the comfortable words that Jesus has been giving us in the previous 42 verses of Luke’s Gospel?
Therefore we have the paradox that Luke presents us with this morning. And we need to look for the answers in the tension of the paradox between what we have been learning (about what it means to follow Jesus as Lord and savior) and what we are presented with this morning.

Jesus says that he came to bring fire to the earth and he wishes that it were already kindled. To us today, this seems harsh, like Jesus is wanting to impose some kind of harsh judgment. A judgment like we would expect in the end of times when the whole world is to be judged.

However, if we read this passage with the same urgency of mission that Jesus has been presenting to us all along, we can put some of the language that he uses in its proper context. We can start to understand that Jesus is actually teaching us in the way he has been teaching us all along.

In Jesus’ time, the word they used for their outdoor oven was the same word that they used for earth. So, when he says he came to bring “fire” to the “earth.” It is an idiom for getting things started or as we would probably say today, “let’s get cooking!” So, Jesus wanted to “get things started” and Jesus knows that getting things fired up with any kind of urgency is going to cause some real social problems for his followers…

This was a REAL problem… Family and social status was all they had, it was their source of livelihood, and most often the difference between their life and their death. Back then, you were alienated from your family or clan by associating with what was considered to be an inappropriate social relationship (the folks on the “other side” of the tracks, the wrong crowd that your mamma warned you about)… in this case, it was Jesus!

You are putting everything at risk: your wealth, inheritance, your social status… everything that meant anything! You would move very quickly from being a “have” to being a “have not.” The consequence of that kind of involvement would be enough to cause so much tension and stress that it would pit family against family, son against father and mother against daughter and divide the household completely.

We cannot make a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior without it affecting the way we relate to each other, the way we relate to our friends or even to our family members. As we have learned over the past weeks, our commitment to Christ shapes our values, our priorities, our goals, and our behaviors. It causes us to change the old patterns of our lives and makes us face difficult choices in our commitment to the gospel.

And our decision to follow Jesus sometimes is faced with opposition from others. So, we opt to live into the tension of the paradox in the choices we must make. When we set out to follow Christ, and do what we perceive to be the good, moral, and right, we are doing something counter-cultural… The theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr, calls this dilemma Christ and Culture in paradox.

Jesus himself knew the devastating consequences that the choice to follow Him could have. So, he warned his followers to be prepared to encounter the same hardships. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must look at our own lives, through the lens of the paradox,

What do we pay close attention to… and to what do we turn a blind eye? What claims our closest attention? Fluctuations in the stock market? Evidence of our social standing? Our grade point average? Opportunities to look good before our superiors at work? What things do we watch with the same close attention that the Palestinian farmer paid to changes in the weather? Jesus’ sayings this morning challenge us to examine the paradox and the tension that exists between what gets our attention and what is neglected in our own lives.

We should consider whether the inconsistencies in our lives reveal a pattern of prioritizing “insignificant” things while jeopardizing those things that could have the greatest value and importance.

We could ask the questions of ourselves… Have we given as much attention to the health of our church as we have to our retirement plans? or Have we given as much attention to the maintenance of our spiritual disciplines as to the maintenance schedule for our car? Where in the scale of our attention to detail does our devotion to the teachings of our Lord rank?

Jesus says that we may be able to interpret the weather by looking at the dark clouds in the sky! (channel 14 could probably learn something here…), but why do we remain blind to what really is going on in our lives??

As we approach the holy table this morning, and partake of the bread and wine which is the bond of communion that we share with each other… It is our unity, it is what unites us… and our belief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior…

We receive it and are nourished with the spiritual food that is his alone to give… In our community of faith, we have made the conscience decision to continue the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The question for us this morning is what are we doing to “get things cooking?”

Are we doing what he commanded as we live through the struggles of discerning our path together? We live in the paradox, so let us remain focused on why we are here and what we are doing… That way, and only that way, we can make the effort to move forward in the mission of our Lord together.

RCL Year C (Proper 14) - August 8, 2010

2010-08-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 14) - August 8, 2010

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

Last week, we talked a bit about priorities, and setting the priorities for our lives in order to live into the kingdom of God… About how our priorities become messed up, and skewed all out of whack, as we pursue the devices and desires of our own hearts.

In the gospel text from Luke this morning, Jesus continues that message, but he basically says, "Don't be afraid. I will give you the Kingdom of God. Use the gifts that God gives you so that you have permanent benefits – and – then you will be happy – if you are ready for my return."

Or, we could even paraphrase it in a more simple way, don't be afraid, enjoy your stuff and be happy. This sounds like a wonderful, simple, easy lesson! But there is one problem - None of us can do this!

Most of our lives are spent on a never-ending journey, running around in circles with one foot nailed to the floor… searching for something that can give us hope and meaning to our lives.

We surround ourselves with all kinds of “if only” promises to ourselves – holding onto a false idea of hope…

• if only we had enough time… then we would be more involved…
• if only we made enough money… then we could give more to the church…
• if only we had a full time priest… then the pews would be full and our programs would be busting at the seams.
• if only we had things exactly the way they were when I was a child in this parish – back when times were good… then we would be just fine…
• if only we were able to keep this building exactly the way it was when it was built in 1827… then somehow we wouldn’t need to go out and invite our neighbors to church, they would just want to come.
• if only we had enough money in our plate… then we could give 10% to the diocese

In this mornings lesson, we find out that Jesus came to earth to take the "if only" phrases out of our lives. So, let’s examine the gifts promised to us in today's Gospel lesson and look at how he eliminates the "if only" phrases from our lives.

"Don't be afraid."

To live into the Kingdom of God is to live in a realm without fear. Jesus said in our lesson that we are not to fear! - because it is God's pleasure to give us the kingdom. The absence of fear is achieved only when we are filled with love. By being filled with the love of God is the door we open to enter the Kingdom where there is no fear. This is good news! But it is scary.

Perhaps this is the reason that the first thing that ALL of the angels say when they appear in a passage of scripture is “don’t be afraid!”

"don't be afraid." Now, there is some irony in all of this. Living without fear because we are filled with the love of God… This can be a scary concept!

The next promise from Jesus in this text is that we should enjoy our stuff forever. We have all heard the phrase that “we reap what we sow.” We can have an “eternal” purse. There is that text that says we are to "lay up treasure in heaven."

But - the treasure of heaven, or the stuff in an eternal purse, is not money at all. There is no divine Swiss bank account! Just like I said last week… You can’t take it with you! The treasure of heaven is the relationships that we build here on earth.

I don’t think that we completely understand the consequences of giving to God and what it means for the work of God to be done in this world. We are not just talking about money here… Part of that work is sharing the good news about Jesus by the way you live your life... When this good news is shared people are drawn to God. They are led to claim Jesus as Savior and submit to his authority. Then the ultimate reward is to enter that realm of love we call the kingdom of God… and that kingdom is eternal!!

We are the treasures of heaven for each other! Jesus ' invitation is deep… we are to send our treasures on ahead of us in the form of relationships grounded in the love of God.

The final promise of Jesus in this morning’s lesson is happiness. So far, we are called to live unafraid after giving away all our stuff. Now we are told that this is the way to happiness…

The word "blessed" in this passage is most appropriately translated as happy. The text calls "blessed" or "happy" those who are ready for the Lord's return. So, how can we be ready for the Lord's return? Some interpret this question in a very moralistic way.

But, as we know – being ready for Jesus' return is a little more complicated than that. The readiness we are dealing with this morning has very little to do with morality. Though morality and virtue are good in and of themselves. They need no justification.

In reality, none of us is ready for the Jesus’ return just because we are good – regardless of how good we think we are, readiness for Jesus' return is grounded in the quality of the “relationships” that we have with each other and with Him. This readiness is a result of the love we have for each other and for Jesus…

Our “if-onlys” can be turned into true hope if only we can discover how to live without our "if onlys" by learning through the relationships on our journey together. Everything that we are seeking in life are ultimately discovered by being with each other and seeking it out together.

The Christian life that Jesus is promising in this text is very much like this. In relationship with Jesus and through learning about him together… we grow into the promises of today's Gospel lesson. As we grow in love and community with each other, we grow less and less in fearful…

As we grow in love and community with each other, we become more and more focused on eternal relationships… As we grow in love and community with each other, we await Jesus' coming not with dread, but with joy.

Perhaps it is scary to think about living this way, but remember the first thing that angels says, "don't be afraid!"

RCL Year C (Proper 12) - July 25, 2010

2010-07-25T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 12) - July 25, 2010

Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

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 Lord’s 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 existed that was bigger than me, bigger than my mom and dad, or even bigger than my Pop (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 that prayer is “responding to God – with or without words”… So our prayers are the response to our recognition of God 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 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 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, He 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…”

Wow… what a sentence… Within one swoop, Jesus converts a menagerie of thought and images about God and who they thought God to be into very simple and direct language…

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, 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 “give,” but quite literally translated it means, “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 in 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 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 our prayer book. Some of them say, you don’t know how to pray – you have them all written down for you… prayer needs to be spontaneous…

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, it is for me 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 a 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 know some folks with dementia or a diminished mental capacity because of a stroke or some other problem that cannot remember how to form simple sentences in a discussion. But, they still remember how to pray 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 all of us 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 (Proper 10) - July 11, 2010

2010-07-11T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 10) - July 11, 2010

Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

I would venture to guess that most of you know what a “plumb-line” is? For those of you that don’t know, a plumb-line (or plumb-bob). It is a weight, usually with a pointed tip, that can be used as a vertical reference line. It has been in use for thousands of years, even before anyone knew anything about gravity. The way it works is: The builder or craftsman, would dangle the weighted string from up above, and use it as a reference to make sure that whatever they were building was in “plumb” or truly vertical.

I built houses for many years, so this imagery from the Old Testament lesson sort of jumped out at me. But, little did the prophet Amos know that the plumb line that God was setting in the midst of God’s people, was none other than Our Lord Jesus Christ. By the virtues and witness of Christ, are we all measured by God…

Our readings today, as familiar as they may seem to us, say something very profound about who and how we should be. The Lawyer (or Scribe) that questions Jesus about eternal life made a distinct choice to frame his question trying to trick Jesus…

He asked him a question related directly to the Mosaic law (of which he is considered an expert!). Jesus answers the question with a question and the Lawyer, who is the resident expert in the law, responds with the summary of the law…

“Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength… and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Then the Lawyer tries to backstroke, knowing that Jesus had outsmarted him, and “justifies” himself by asking Jesus to define neighbor. Jesus, as he does though-out his ministry, chooses to use a parable to explain things…

We know the parable well, probably because it is one of the first that we learn as a child in Sunday School… The parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus presents his parable story, but St. 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 that they were in. But today, 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.

We need to step back a second and look at examine the scene more closely… to dangle a plumb-bob in their midst and measure their actions. Looking at the parable this way allows us to gain some 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 seems pretty arrogant as they trot by on the other side of the road.

But what we sometimes overlook is that the priest and Levite rank pretty high on the purity list. According to Mosaic law, they had to remain pure, that means that they were to avoid, at all cost, ANY contact with a naked body, especially one that was bleeding and was possibly dead or dying. So contact with the naked body of the injured man on the road was not an option for them. So they decided to remain pure rather then help the man… To remain pure – true to their office and maintain their religious purity according to mosaic law – and pass by on the other side of the road, to avoid any contact with the naked bleeding body. As far as they were concerned, 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… 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 considerable funds. Some of the Biblical scholars suggest that he was probably a trader.

And 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 in the road…

Using the wares that he carries with him… He cleans, anoints, and dresses the injured man’s wounds… and goes beyond the call of duty, and loads him on his own donkey and takes him to an inn.

So we have Jesus’ parable told 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 learned this story as a child, we may not have seen it this way… On the surface, the story seems pretty simple… but Jesus gives the lawyer a clear reference point… a “plumb-line,” from which to measure…

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…

It kind of makes us mad today, that the priest and the Levite ignored the injured man… 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 used the “plumb-line” of the law… Jesus even knew that the group would be completely “outraged” because he used the Samaritan in the story to show mercy to the man… and be the one who became the neighbor… to be the new standard by which to act…

In our lives, and our walk as Christians, we always feel as if we are measured by this or that… trying to figure out how “in-line” we are… But, if we focus on moving forward in our daily lives and use Christ as our plumb-line then we don’t need to worry about how the world measures us. We are doing exactly what Jesus wants us to do!

As we approach the holy table this morning, and receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ… It becomes for us our food for our journey through our Christian lives… As we receive it, we are reminded of our salvation, that we have through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ…

In response to our salvation, it is our responsibility to make decisions in our life guided by the Holy Spirit… It is our call from Jesus to Go Forth and Do Likewise.

RCL Year C (2 Pentecost) - June 6, 2010

2010-06-06T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Proper 5) - June 6, 2010

1 Kings 17:8-24
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17

When you have faith, and trust, and are doing the will of God, there is NO doubt that BIG and wonderful things will happen!!! I wonder who here among us has witnessed what would be considered a miracle? I mean a real, bona-fide, honest to God, miracle?

Really? Some of you have never witnessed a miracle? Why not??? Miracles happen every day! Don’t they? If they do, why do we say that we haven’t ever seen one? What do we think miracles look like? What are we waiting for to happen??

Are we waiting for a “great prophet” to rise among us to declare “God’s Favor” towards us… if it happened, would be know what a “great prophet” would sound like?

I love the story of the old man, who when asked if he had ever witnessed a miracle, he said no… and then when they asked him how did he know, he said, “I’ll know one when I see one – it’s kind of like a duck – You know, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

How will we know? Do we need a flash of light, or a voice from heaven? Do we need to have the dead brought back to life right before our eyes – here this morning during a Sunday service? And if that happened, how would we deal with it?

Would we really know it when we see it? would we be better believers – would we then learn to engage our faith in a tangible way? Would we have taken off the blinders… the blinders of our own ideas and ideals of how things should be, enough to let the miracle be recognized?

We get so caught up sometimes in looking for something specific to happen, that we sometimes miss what is happening all around us… I think it’s because miracles are always surrounded by suspicion. So, in order for us to see them to happen, we must have faith and trust completely in God…

The widow in Zarephath that Elijah is sent to by God in our Old Testament story, is down to her last jar of meal and last jug of oil during a severe drought – she even makes the comment to Elijah that she is out collecting sticks to make a fire so that she can go home and prepare it for her and her son to eat it and die.

This sounds pretty tragic. Especially for this poor widow… who in that culture was a little less than a second class citizen… She had barely anything to live on, because she has no one to provide for her. And it sounds a little selfish and even far fetched to have Elijah ask her to make him something to eat.

But Elijah told her to trust… trust that the Lord God of Israel will provide for her… trust that the jar of meal and the jug of oil would not be emptied until the rains came down. And it happened just as Elijah said.

But like so many of us, the woman didn’t rejoice in the miracle, she may have not even recognized it, because her son got sick and died. And to make matters worse, she was quick to blame God through Elijah – but she was obviously feeling pretty guilty about the life she had led – blaming his death on her recognized sin. Elijah then took her son upstairs and laid him across the bed and prayed over him “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”

Elisha prostrated himself over the boy three times and the child revived. The woman was finally then able to recognize the miracle, and acknowledge that Elijah spoke the prophetic truth. But is THAT what it takes for us to recognize a miracle? Would we know the prophetic truth if we heard it?

Jesus and the disciples went to a town called Nain and met up with a crowd that was obviously involved in a funeral procession. The body of a man was lifted up on a bier to be carried to his grave from the city. Then, Jesus encounters his mother who was a widow (who now had less than nothing because of the death of her son and no one now to protect her).

She was obviously upset, and Jesus had compassion for her. Jesus risked the social faux pas of speaking to an unprotected widow, and went up to her and told her not to weep. Then, Jesus messes up again, making himself ritually unclean, and touched the bier where the dead body was and told the young man to rise!

The young man rose and began to speak – and Jesus gave him to his mother! The scripture says that fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying “a great prophet has risen among us” and “God has looked favorably on his people” and they spread the word throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

We know that when we have faith, and trust, and when we do God’s will, BIG and Wonderful things happen… the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead rise! And things that were wrong are always restored to right.

In the lessons this morning, two widows loose their sons. Two widows, who are on the low rung of the social ladder, loose everything that protects them from societies ills. And in the blink of a miracle, both of these women have restored to them what they have lost. In compassion God reaches out to both of them and touches them and brings them to new life.

What would it take for us to recognize a miracle? Would it take us seeing the dead rise to new life… Would it take that which was wrong being restored to right?

Every time a baby is born, it is a miracle!

Every time a flower in springtime comes back and beautifies a garden, it’s a miracle!

Every time we get to the end of our rope but somehow make it through till another day, it’s a miracle!

Every time a person that is vexed by guilt and self-hate turns to the self affirmation found in Jesus Christ and is convinced that God loves him/her, it’s a miracle!

Every time a congregation that is on the edge of self-destruction because of prolonged conflict and polarization comes to a renewed commitment to the common life in the body of Christ, it’s a miracle!

Why is it that we always seem to look for the odd and unusual acts that defy the natural order before we consider them a miracle? These are pretty BIG and Wonderful things!! And by every standard that I can think of, these would all be considered miracles!!

I think that miracles happen to us and around us all the time, we just have to have faith and trust in God in order to recognize them…

We all have the opportunity today to participate in a great miracle, the miracle of the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You probably won’t see a flash of light or a voice from heaven, but you will witness and participate in the miracle none the less… and in this miracle, we will feel Jesus’ presence with us, and his love and compassion surround us… and when we take in and feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the sacrament, we are spiritually nourished and restored to new life. And ahhh, what a miracle it is...

RCL Year C (Trinity Sunday) - May 30, 2010

2010-05-30T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Trinity Sunday) - May 30, 2010

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8 or Canticle 2 or 13
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

It is probably not a surprise to any of you… but the word “trinity” never shows up in the bible. It’s just not there. Jesus never refers to God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as “the trinity.” However, in the celebration of the life of the church, and the calendar year today is “Trinity Sunday.”

This is the Sunday that scares most preachers to death, as they stumble about trying to explain what had been discerned by the early church and revealed to us in their teachings as the mystery of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

So how did the concept of the Holy Trinity (the triune God) end up with its prominent place in Church doctrine, if it doesn’t show up in the scriptures? I for one, don’t think that they sat around one day and just dreamed this stuff up. It took nearly 350 years of prayer and discernment, arguing and struggling to articulate their faith to one another in terms that they understood. Reasoning about how God had been revealed to them, and what it all meant.

So, in effect, if we look at it, the Holy Trinity is God’s revelation to the Church, it is how we perceive God… as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is our perception of a mysterious divine relationship of the ONE true and Holy God.

The graphical representation on the front of the bulletin, originated in medieval times, but it doesn’t do the trick of giving an explanation to the unexplainable. Because that’s what God is… To our limited feeble minds… God is the unexplainable, the incomprehensible, the divine mystery… But for some folks, that’s not good enough. They need to be able to explain the mystery – so it’s not a mystery anymore, but fact!

But every explanation that we could ever come up with, only leads us to further confusion and a deeper need to pray and reflect on the mystery. To me, I like to view the mystery of the trinity as a divine relationship. There are many images that come close to describing this relationship. Most of the best ones are from the early church, and they still speak to us today...

In the 16th Century, St. John of the Cross explained it, “God is the One who loves so completely that there must be a co-equal lover to God to receive that love; and the love between the two is so dynamic and powerful that it is the third person. God is Lover, Beloved and Love.”

But, for my favorite, and probably the most profound that I have ever heard, you have to go back real early… it is the way Tertullian describes it. Tertullian was an early Church father that lived between 160 and 220 a.d. He said, "God the Father is a deep root, the Son is the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit is that which spreads beauty and fragrance."

Tertullian’s description is definitely one way that we can try to get our head around it, but it still comes up a bit short, because we are still trying to describe the indescribable – and explain the unexplainable.

There have been some that say: The Triune God is such a mystery, that any attempt to explain it would be heresy. But the trinity for us, the Church, in its complexity of divine mystery and all things unexplainable, becomes for us the lens through which we view the world. And if we let it, it puts things in perspective so we can build the bridges for ourselves off of what we know.

We know the person of Jesus Christ, who is the word that the prophets spoke, the word that become flesh and dwelt among us. Who lived and died as a human being, yet without sin. Who while he was on this earth, he taught and healed, preached justice and peace, and casted out demons and raised the dead. Jesus died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice of sin for the whole world, to open the way of access for us to have a relationship to God.

We know that the person of Jesus Christ taught about God, and referred to him as Abba, (Father) which is probably more like “Daddy” – a term of love and endearment, a term of deep compassion and respect, a term of admiration and equality. And we know that God, Abba, Father, created everything that is – and is the source of all being.

And We know that the person of Jesus Christ spoke of the Spirit of Truth that guides into all truth… the Sophia or wisdom… called the pneumas or Ruach – the mighty breath of God or a violent rushing wind (like we heard about last week when the disciples experienced the wind at the feast of Pentecost) that guides and sustains the Church into all truth.

So we know God, by how we have experienced God… We know God as the One God who created us, and we know God as the One God who redeemed us, and we know God as the One God who sustains us – and we refer to them in terms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. and referring to God in those terms gives us the words that we can use to share that wonderful story – as one of divine relationship.

God is complete in God’s self as One God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… And I hate to break it to you… But God doesn’t need us, God doesn’t need any one of us… It is us who so desperately need God. But even though God doesn’t need us, God loves us, his created image. He loves us so much, that he desires to have a relationship with us… He desires that relationship to the point that he became one of us so that he could invite us into himself = the divine relationship.

We may not be able to completely understand it, but we trust and strive to live into that relationship on a daily basis… And as we participate in that divine relationship, we invite others to participate with us… It is our purpose in this life, and it is how we find true communion and unity with God and with each other.

RCL Year C (Pentecost) - May 23, 2010

2010-05-23T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Pentecost) - May 23, 2010

Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, (25-27)

It is the custom at many churches on the Day of Pentecost to arrange for a simultaneous reading of one or the other of today’s Scripture lessons in multiple languages. Of course, this is dependant upon the different linguistic skills of the members of the parish community… Like today, for example, we heard Acts 2:1-7 read aloud in English, Spanish, French, Latin, and German…

While most of us trust our High School and college experience, sometimes communities are actually diverse enough to have folks who can read and speak the scripture in their native tongue… The idea of course is to remind everyone that today is the Day of Pentecost, When people “from every nation under heaven” heard the disciples proclaim the Good News “in the native language of each,”

The only problem with the idea is that the net effect is sometimes more one of Babel than of Pentecost. You remember the Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis: the story of humankind’s pride in trying to reach the heavens on its own power and of God’s response which left the entire world tongue-tied.

Ever since then understanding and cooperation have been hard to come by. Our world today is still tongue-tied… What CAN be misunderstood WILL and usually IS misunderstood. But Babel, the parable of the first clash of cultures and failure to communicate, is more than a mythic explanation of the differences among nations and languages. It is an accurate description of the human condition itself…

We often do not understand one another even when we speak in the same language. We all remain obstructed by our fundamental inability to accept the differences among us in how we live and in what we think and even how and what we believe.

But is it really God who has scattered us? Is it God who has made us aliens in our own land and sometimes in our own minds? Is it really the Lord who has confused our speech and turned us deaf to each other? Or is our Babel today perhaps the result of how humanity forgot the grammar of grace and the vocabulary of God?

At Babel, the people in their pride built a tower to reach God and the heavens, and the Lord scattered them. “This is only the beginning of what they will do,” predicted God in the judgment of human sin and conceit. Sadly, the people didn’t understand how unnecessary it all was. As one scholar has pointed out, God is always more willing to come down and join us here on earth than we are able to reach the heavens by our own enterprise and effort.

At Pentecost, the Spirit of God comes down upon the disciples, resting on each of them and thereby bringing them, and us, all together once again. The disciples got a crash course in the language of God. It might probably be fair to say that after Pentecost the days of Babel should be over.

The great differences among us, in communication and dialogue, in culture, sexuality, race and background, in wealth and poverty, are scattered in “the rush of a violent wind.”
As Acts tells us, the differences are burned away by tongues of fire. It does not matter NOW whether we are the Parthians and Medes of yester year, or Americans, Europeans, Africans or even Iraqis of today. Well, that is what is supposed to have happened at Pentecost.

So, how come we still fail to understand each other today? Why doesn’t everyone speak the same language? Or at least understand the world in the same way? Is the promise of Pentecost hollow and without meaning? These are all good questions.

But what happened at Pentecost IS important to who we are as followers of Christ, and the reality of Pentecost is universal for everyone. When the disciples spoke, they didn’t just speak to believers but to the peoples of the whole known world, and when they spoke, they were understood in a multitude of languages.

There is no question that what they said made sense to everyone. What they spoke was no doubt the language of peace as they had learned it from our Lord Jesus Christ himself. “Peace be with you,” he said to the disciples, as we read in today’s Gospel lesson.

These are words that can be understood by everyone. this is even how, 99.95% of the world greets each other… They greet each other with an exchange of peace: Shalom, La Paz, La Pache. Specifically, in Hebrew culture, they greeted each other with Shalom, wishing the other person completeness in God.

Perhaps the greatest phenomenon of Pentecost is that all the peoples gathered at Jerusalem on that day heard the disciples - amid the buzz of the city and even the hustle and bustle of their own lives. Everyone heard them… and each person there understood the Good News of the salvation of Jesus Christ not only in Hebrew and Greek, which were the common languages of that time and place, but in the language of the human heart. The language of God… The language of the one true and universal peace and completeness.

Now (as it was then), all nations and peoples yearn to hear words of forgiveness and peace. But we live in a world that doesn’t like to listen. Too often we hear what we want to hear and simply call it the voice of God.

So if our lives and our world are more full of babble than Bible, perhaps it is because we are not taking the time to learn and discern or stop and listen. We have not learned the language of God given to us by the Holy Spirit. Yes - We pay lip service with a few words, and speak God-talk here and there and perhaps even say our prayers together as a family or even go to church on Sunday.

But it is not the vernacular of our everyday conversations. All this God-talk or language about God is only an approximation to the actual reality of God, because we know that our human language cannot fully comprehend the divine mysteries.

No one human being today owns the truth. No one owns God. No one owns the church – No one owns THIS church, nor can they put God in a box or even a book... God is so much more than we can comprehend…

But I promise you… the more we listen, the closer we come to God. And the closer we come to God, the more there is to hear and understand of “God’s deeds of power” and God’s great love for us. And then, just when we finally think we may have all this God business figured out, God surprises us yet again and challenges us to delve deeper to love those we cannot possibly love and to forgive what we would consider unforgivable.

Paul tells us from his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”
The Spirit, even though it is one with the Father and the Son, can never be bottled or canned. The Spirit is at work in each of us, always fresh and always new, It is the language of God waiting to be translated into the language of our own lives.

It is only in the extent of the effort we make to accept the other, to welcome and embrace the stranger no matter how different or foreign. It is then and only then that we come to understand the language of God. Then and only then is our Babel turned to Pentecost.
As the Spirit used the speech of the disciples on Pentecost to reshape and redirect the lives of those who listened to their words, so the Spirit on this Day reshapes and remolds us… But ONLY if we are willing to listen.

After all, God speaks to us all the time in the one true word that ends fear and brings everlasting peace — the Word-Made-Flesh, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Portions of this sermon were inspired by The Rev. Dr. Frank Hegedus, a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

RCL Year C (Easter 2) - April 11, 2010

2010-04-11T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Easter 2) - April 11, 2010
Low Sunday

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

Right now, there are people out there trying to gather “proof.” Trying to gather proof through the “facts” that they can find… to give their beliefs merit…

Like the Crime Scene Investigators that we see on those popular television shows, that are gathering their evidence to solve a crime, they are out there gathering the “proof” so that they can believe in this or that…

Shows like CSI appeal to us, because that’s what we want, isn’t it? To be able to prove things… It’s like forcing the pieces to fit in some gigantic puzzle… Prove things… so that what we say has merit and authority.

We can “prove” so much with our God-given minds – Why not prove God? Why not prove Jesus? Wouldn’t that make our lives much easier? If we knew ALL of the answers to ALL of the questions??? Or would it??

I guess that we could go out like so many before us and start a quest to find archeological “proof” of the historic Jesus… We could use our inquisitive, God-given minds to act like Crime Scene Investigators and search for and gather all the facts. But would that proof actually help us believe?

I would suggest that “maybe” in our time, it is harder for us to take things on faith because we are so incredibly good at finding that “tangible” or at least the “scientific” proof for so many things. And it is extremely frustrating when science offers us something different than what has been believed for centuries… our beliefs are challenged our doubts raised…

Galileo Galilei was a devout Christian & gifted theologian… and the man considered to be the father of modern physics… He was responsible for many scientific discoveries in his lifetime… But he had an argument with the Church… because in 1609, he introduced the idea of a Solar system – a “heliocentric” or “sun-centered” system with revolving “planets.” But back then, (just 400 years ago), the interpretation of the Bible supported an Earth centered universe.

The Church convicted Galileo of Heresy and sentenced him to spend the remainder of his life locked in a tower. Now, Galileo’s theories have been “proven” and it is readily accepted by Christians worldwide… but now we interpret the context of the scriptures much differently…

But why do we think what we believe needs to be based on some kind of proof? Some people think that the opposite of faith is doubt. but it’s not… The opposite of faith is certainty! So, If what I believe is based on faith, and the opposite of faith is certainty, where does that put doubt???

Just because you believe, doesn’t mean that you can’t doubt… I believe that doubt is related to belief and engaged in a type of wrestling match back and forth, struggling with the questions of the faith... Someone who really wrestles with the questions has a lot more in common with the apostles, and a lot more in common with you and with me.

Doubt is not a bad thing. Doubt can lead us to faith…

In the Gospel lesson this morning, Thomas didn't get to see the resurrected Jesus at first. He didn't have a new found faith in the risen Christ that the other disciples did after they saw Jesus. Thomas was somewhere else. And regardless of how much the others that were gathered in that upper room testified to Thomas that they had seen the risen Christ, Thomas still had his reservations.

He said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I WILL NOT BELIEVE!

It is important for us to notice in the story that Thomas engaged his doubts. He came forth, He asked to be able to see. He wanted to believe! He already believed in Jesus the person… he traveled with him, learned from him, and saw him die on the cross outside of Jerusalem. But his struggle was to believe in the risen Christ. A week later the risen Jesus appears to them again: This time Thomas is with them! Jesus tells Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, reach out your hand and put it in my side, Do not doubt but believe!”

And don't we want to believe like that? Of Course We Do!

Even on those days when the story of the resurrection seems a bit beyond our grasp… We want to believe. We want to come forth; We want to ask to be able to see the wounds; And… We want to invest our lives and our souls in something tangible. We want to be able the make the proclamation that Thomas made, “My Lord and My God! because what happened to Thomas works for us. We are a society that needs that kind of “proof.”

Then Jesus throws a twist in Thomas’ new found faith that is based on “tangible” evidence. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” We have not seen… yet we believe… we may doubt sometimes… but we are here… and we believe…

For centuries, this Sunday (The Second Sunday of Easter) has been called “Low Sunday…”
This is done mainly to point out that sharp contrast between this Sunday and all of the “High Holy” festivities surrounding Easter Sunday. In fact, I think that the folks who go to church
on the Sunday after Easter understand this lesson better than anyone else.

You are here because you understand that the resurrection of Jesus and Easter is not just a pleasant springtime tradition to observe with bunny ears, colored eggs, marshmallow chicks, and hiding candy for the children to find.

You are here because the risen Christ has invited you to a meal and you have come back for this meal again today. There is the faith! You're acting out your beliefs. You're acting out your faith that has been handed down through witnesses of the faith. Witnesses like those in the lesson from the Acts of the Apostles who have been willing to take action and proclaim the resurrection amid persecution and ridicule.

We are all called as Christians to live into our faith (last Sunday, I called it practicing resurrection…) so that we can continue the witness to others. To tell them the story of God’s salvation. Salvation that comes to us in Jesus the risen Christ.

The action of living into our faith strengthens our faith, and helps us diminish our doubts. Faith is not some obscure mental act. It is not something we have to fabricate in our heads or understand completely. Faith is the state of being… being “possessed” by the love of God. And we act on it by telling others, so that they, too, can enter into that state of being being “possessed” by the love of God.

This is what I believe… Doubt is not a bad thing… Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe that he rose from the dead? Do you believe in life everlasting? Let US be able to say without seeing - My Lord and My God! So that we can Gracefully accept our gift of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then we can Gracefully live into our gift of everlasting life with our God.

And, when we are like the beloved Apostle, St. Thomas… and we are filled with doubts… Let us ask for God to fill us with the power that we need to boldly profess our faith… So that, while we are strengthening our own faith, we are also passing it on…

So, let us now stand and turn to page 358 in the Book of Common Prayer and again boldly profess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed…

RCL Year C (Lent 5) - March 21, 2010

2010-03-21T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Lent 5) – March 21, 2010
Writen also for the "Opponents of Christ" series

Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8

Jesus is well on his way to Jerusalem. His entry, and the actions that will take place afterward, will be celebrated next Sunday (week) with a reenactment and a dramatic reading.

But today, we aren’t there yet. But we are well on our way.

Jesus and the 12 have stopped off in the village of Bethany, just west of Jerusalem, about 6 km. Our gospel story from John says that they stop off at the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha.

We remember it is Lazarus that Jesus raises from the dead in the 11th Chapter of John after he had already been in the tomb 4 days. And today, on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and the 12 stop by for dinner…

And after reclining at the table, preparing for supper, Mary takes a bottle of pure nard – a expensive imported perfume mixture made of an herb that grows in the foothills of the Himalayas… and anoints Jesus’ feet… and then, in an extremely informal and intimate act of care and compassion, she dries Jesus’ feet with her hair.

A women letting down her hair in public, especially in front of several men, was just not done in these times… But Jesus’ feet were anointed and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Then Judas Iscariot perks up, and rebukes her… He says to Jesus, “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor?” This is almost a whole years wages for a working man… Now, I want to know how Judas knew the value of this extravagant imported perfume… how was he familiar with such things?

We are told that Judas Iscariot is the son of Simon Iscariot, who according to the Gospel of John, was a leper that was healed by Jesus and also Pharisee. It is unknown if this Simon (Simon Iscariot) is the same Simon as Simon the Zealot, who is referred to in the other gospels… But it would seem that John is making this inference…

If Judas Iscariot was in fact a Zealot (who was a zealous Pharisee – someone who had status and wealth in society – who later started a movement against the roman government)… If Judas was a Zealot, then he would probably have some knowledge about such an extravagant item, but the scriptures don’t say exactly.

None the less, Judas is verbally upset at Mary, who is anointing Jesus’ feet… Saying that it could have been sold and the money given to the poor… Then the gospel writer goes on, and makes sure that we know Judas is the opponent here – the one that will betray Jesus… and John calls Judas a thief and says that steals from the common purse…

Jesus is quick to set Judas straight, and in the process, teach us something about hospitality and discipleship… and teach us something about ourselves. In Mary’s act of anointing Jesus’ feet, she offers him an unequalled service of hospitality and generosity not worrying what she will get out of it.

And Jesus says to Judas, “leave her alone! She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.” Some say Mary did this act because she was so happy that Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead… She repaid Jesus with the act of anointing his feet with an expensive perfume.

Whatever the reason, Judas rebukes her. And, in Jesus’ comment to Judas, Jesus prophecies his own death and burial… Something that will happen sooner than any of them sitting at the table could possibly imagine.

I have spoke many times from the pulpit about using our wealth to build up the kingdom of God, and to further the work of Christ in the world. It has been the practice for centuries that the place of worship represents the house of God.

By giving God our FIRST and our BEST, we erect a building for our worshipping community to represent a certain awe and wonder… a certain majesty, that surrounds our view of who God is, and how God works in our lives.

Like Mary, we are all called to this type of extravagant discipleship – it represents the BEST of who we are… the best of the community, and its value is unequalled. Like Mary’s use of the costly perfume, we use elaborate metalwork and expensive cloth appointments, and have nice facilities to represent to the world who we know our God to be. To give God the best of our best, and then we set it aside for worship and for the work of the kingdom.

When we don’t act like this – when our buildings are falling down around us, or our facilities are not in order… Or if anything that we have here at our place of worship, is inferior to anything that we have in our own homes, it says that we don’t value giving God our best.

Mary gave God her best, and perhaps unknowingly – out of an act of gratitude, nointed his feet with the most costly of perfumes made of pure nard – and Judas called her down for it…

Judas seemed to have his own agenda of forcing Jesus hand to make a move, and start a rebellion against the Roman oppression something a Zealot would do. And in this process, (possibly driven by greed,) Judas Iscariot sells Jesus out and becomes the opponent of Christ today.

Judas wanted Jesus to step up and be the Messiah that he expected, not the messiah that Jesus came to be. In Judas’ eyes, the Messiah was supposed to be a freedom fighter and deliver Israel from oppression… but that’s not why Jesus came. Jesus came to heal, and restore, and to bring peace, in his own way, by teaching us to love and care for each other not by wielding a sword and leading a rebellion.

This is the last opponent that we will find in the Gospel stories as we travel through this season of Lent. Next week, Jesus will continue on his journey and enter Jerusalem in a display of majesty and be honored as a king… but today, he’s not there yet.

He stopped over and ate dinner at a friends house, and was treated with honor and respect, and much love…

Oh that we could love as much…

RCL Year C (Lent 4) - March 14, 2010

2010-03-14T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC 27013

RCL Year C (Lent 4) - March 14, 2010
Written also for the "Opponents of Christ" series

Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Have you ever taken notice at community dinners, or school, or even picnics… whenever food is involved... who it is that we eat with? Is it the same people, family, or close friends?? or is it people that you feel safe eating with? People that you want to get to know?

Have you ever been the “outsider” at a meal, or not welcomed at a table because you were different?

You can really see it in schools… It is most visible in High School the great social microcosm… where you are identified by who you eat with… it defines who you are…

It’s really quite comical… if you allowed to eat lunch with the cool people, then you are accepted by the cool people… If you are allowed to eat with the geeks…you are accepted by the geeks and made fun of by the cool people… If you are allowed to eat with the jocks… then you accepted by the jocks…

This mode of eating with and acceptance isn’t a new thing… it is precisely what the Pharisees are worried about. The Pharisees are lay people; the pious, religious elite… (the snobs) they are concerned with keeping up appearances… They walk around “holier than thou” boasting about keeping the letter of the law.

They are afraid… they are afraid that they will be caught eating with the wrong people… therefore compromising their religious purity. And their snobbery has pushed them to a new level today as they attack Jesus… criticizing whom he chooses to eat with…

The Pharisees were trying to test Jesus and trip him up… almost accusing him of some sort of ritual impurity… But, as always, Jesus is ready for them… wanting them to understand acceptance and equity… ready to teach them about God’s wonderful abundant grace.

And Jesus tells them a parable… a parable that is one of the most familiar stories in Scripture… The parable of the Prodigal Son… It is sometimes called the Parable of the Lost Son, even though the word “prodigal” doesn’t mean lost at all. In fact, the word “Prodigal” actually has a pretty complex meaning rolling the concepts of wastefulness, extravagance, and recklessness into one term…

Most of us have heard the story told and retold, over and over again – about how the younger son wants his inheritance early, gets it, goes off, squanders it, lives in the gutter for a while and then realizing that his life was much better at home comes crawling back to be reunited to his father by doing this, he majorly irritates the older son… so there we have it… the story in a nut shell…

Some of us may identify with the “renegade” the one wanting it all, then after getting it, going off and blowing it… being wasteful, extravagant, and reckless (being prodigal)… ending up living in filth with pigs – And only after that happening – realizing that may not have been quite the right path to be on…

Or when we look at ourselves, we see the older son, that even though he also received his portion of the father’s inheritance early seems loyal, and wiser – wanting to “win points” by doing what he thought to be responsible by hanging around and taking care of dad… Only then to get upset and angry when the younger one that didn’t work as hard seems to gets all of the preferential treatment…

The most obvious characters in the story are the two sons… they are folks that we can easily identify with. Both of them are just as troubled, and together offer us a two sided mirror view of our own lives that are sometimes overindulgent, angry and complicated…

But we must not forget that the most central character of the whole story isn’t either of the sons at all… The actual focus of the story is the loving and accepting Father… The story even starts out, “There was a man that had two sons…” He is introduced to us right away, but doesn’t say anything until about the middle of the story… He divides his livelihood between the two sons… Then we think his actions are pretty simple… When the younger son returns, the father runs out to accept him in a loving embrace… and then gets him the “best robe, a ring, and some sandals.”

To us the father seems to be loving and forgiving enough and we may think it is just nice that he goes to great measures to restore the son that went astray… But in ancient times, the father’s actions in the context of the story, would be viewed by others as extremely unexpected and perhaps completely scandalous!

It is at this point that… We must remember that the younger son asked for his share of the inheritance early while his father was still alive, as if he said, “I wish you were dead…” By doing this the younger son dishonors the family and the village, and then squanders all that he had been given…

When the younger son returns home after loosing it all, the father’s actions are suspect again… He doesn’t wait for the younger son to come to him, nor does he walk out to him in a dignified manner, as was expected in those days… The father girds up his tunic and RUNS out to greet him…

Upon seeing his father, The son repents… like he had practiced so many times before… Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you… I am no longer fit to be called your son… Dad, I lost all that you gave me, even though I didn’t deserve it in the first place… I squandered it on foolish living and cheep thrills…

The father quickly accepts him back into the fold clothes him in a robe, but not just any robe, the “best” robe that was usually set aside and worn by the father for ceremonial occasions… the robe, the ring, and the sandals were all signs that the father accepted the younger son again as a FULL member of the household… and not just as a servant...

Then the father takes further action and sends his servants to kill the fatted calf, so that everyone can celebrate the return of his lost son with a large feast, (yes – they eat together!) with music, and with dancing…

Today in Jesus’ story, the father throws a party… a feast and celebration for the return of his prodigal son, who was lost. Jesus uses this loving Father to teach the hearer of the story something about more about God’s love and acceptance, God’s restoring power, unequaled generosity, and unending grace…

And it is also interesting that Jesus tells this story while he is sitting and eating meals with outcasts, tax collectors, and sinners… Folks that are just like us…

We have all been lost… but as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Church in Corinth, “In Christ we have become a new creation… everything old has passed away and it all has become new!” In Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself, continually calling us back into right relationship with our God… As believers in Christ Jesus – as Christians… We know that even though we may be lost, we can turn in my confession and be restored to a right relationship with God in Christ…

The Episcopal Church is a confessional church… We believe in both private and public confession to God… And Upon our confession, we have the burdens of our sin lifted, as the priest reminds us of our forgiveness by pronouncing God’s absolution… Like the son who was lost… We will have a chance in a few minutes to humble ourselves, and get on our knees and confess our sins against God and against our neighbor in a corporate confession…

Then, like the father who fully accepted his prodigal son, and wished for his son to be re-united, we will accepted and united with our brothers and sisters in Christ when we share the peace of God with each other… Then and only then will we have the chance to approach the table restored & accepted, forgiven, and renewed and be united with God and with each other in the great celebration – the feast of a holy communion…

In life, we unfairly judge people, or classify them by who they care to dine with but by doing that, we are no better than the Pharisees, who with their snobbery, become an opponent of Christ.

But, when we repent of that, and realize that God is the only judge and we truly confess our sins against God and our neighbor; God forgives us and accepts us unconditionally… and restores us - each and every one of us and makes us a new creation in his Son Jesus Christ our Lord…

So, be united with your brothers and sisters in Christ and enjoy the celebration – it doesn’t matter who you eat with… it’s the fact that you are eating together, united and accepted by God as one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and the feast that you are eating is a foretaste of the fathers heavenly banquet.

RCL Year C (Lent 3) - March 7, 2010

2010-03-07T10:30:00.000-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Lent 3) – March 7, 2010
Also written for the Opponents of Christ Series

Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

Why must we have a reasons for everything that happens???

In August of 2005 a category 4 hurricane, Katrina, hit the gulf coast of the united states and the New Orleans, LA levy system broke. The city flooded and Approximately 1800 people lost their lives and thousands lost everything else.

On January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m. an earthquake – 7.0 on the Richter scale – occurred in Haiti. An estimated 230,000 were killed, but the total is still unsure as they continue to dig through the rubble. The major quake caused 33 aftershocks that ranged from 4.2 to 5.9... and 3 million of Haiti’s 9 million people were in immediate need of aid. A major portion of the buildings collapsed and left millions homeless.

In our need to put a reason on these horrible natural disasters, the first thing that we so often do is ball up our fist and scream at the sky… Blaming God for causing this to happen… or yelling at God for not preventing this tragedy.

Some have even gone so far as to issue half baked, non-theological reasons why God would have done such things, stating that all that “evil living” must have caused this to happen.

I think that the worst thing I have ever heard anyone say when something bad happens… is that “It must be God’s will.” It just makes me cringe to think that people believe God is causing bad things to happen…

Putting God in a position of some sort of divine puppet master, pulling our strings... making us dance or that we are in some giant ant farm for God’s amusement and that God has some sort of giant magnifying glass, displaying a cruelty toward us… God’s living creatures.

No, I don’t believe that it is God’s will to hurt us, or cause us harm… but in our lack of answers it’s the only “answer” we sometimes have. Our need to have an answer gets the best of us, and we blame God and turn from God instead of letting God lead us through it… Instead of letting God help us deal with the tragedy, allowing our faith guide us and God to heal us.

By blaming God, we let God take on an image of divine smite and cruelty, instead of the loving, sustaining, healing, redeeming, and restoring creator that we know God to be.

This kind of divine blame isn’t a new thing… humans have been blaming God since the beginning of time. The old testament is full of it... Every time that something bad happens in the old testament, God is accused of some cruel, harsh, vengeful reaction toward humanity – and it was often seen as a result of some sin. Sin – or atrocity that they had committed

Sin… sin is people doing wrong… not God doing wrong… people doing wrong to other people.. people doing wrong to each other, to themselves, to the earth and to God. And this sin… this wrong doing causes cruelty and evil to breed and exist in this world. We have all experienced or been witness to the horrible cruelty that people can do…

And today, we hear the story of Jesus learning about a group of Galileans that where killed at the temple while they were making their sacrifices. A horrible atrocity committed against the Galileans by Pontus Pilate.

Pontus Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, known for his cruel acts up to and including crucifixion. Pilate used his position of power to take advantage of others and inflict violence and cruelty as a means of governance…

The noted Jewish historian Josephus, wrote about an account that mentions Pontus Pilate: I’d like to read you from Josephus’ writing… “On another occasion [Pilate] caused a riot by spending the sacred treasure from the temple, without permission, on the construction of an aqueduct which brought water into the city from a distance of seventy kilometers away. Mad with rage at this proceeding, the crowd formed a ring around the tribunal of Pilate, who was visiting Jerusalem at the time, and attacked him with a violent outburst. Pilate, foreseeing a revolt beforehand, had dispatched among the crowd a troop of his soldiers, disguised as civilians but armed, with orders not to use their swords but to beat any rioter who got out of hand. At the proper time he motioned to his men. The Jews perished in large numbers, some from the blows which they had received, while others were trampled to death by the crowds who were trying to flee from the beatings. Frightened by the sight of the victims, the multitude grew silent.”

It is argued that this could be the account that Jesus is being told about in this section of Luke… and we know that the first thing the people did was blame God… after all… it occurred at the temple, where they were gathered, making sacrifice… The scripture doesn’t say, but we can be assured that they thought God was somehow the cause of the Galileans death, because they must have committed some horrible sin…

then Jesus’ answer is clear and concise… Jesus says, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will perish as they did.”

Pilate was the cruel catalyst of the Galileans death… and we know that Jesus would also suffer and die at the hand of Pilate… but it’s not God that causes these horrible things to happen… it was the cruelty of humanity…

And like so many other times, Jesus uses this horrible situation to teach us. To teach us about repentance… (the Greek word used here is metanoia…) a change of heart and mind… a rebirth… a new direction…

That all must repent and turn to God, or we will fall into the horrible violent demise such as the one dished out by Pilate. Not that God is going to cause the death, but that WE are going to cause it if we keep sinning against each other and living in these cruel a sinful ways. We will become victims of our own circumstance.

And Jesus goes on to use another example of a tower falling on 18 people… and again Jesus says no, calling the people to repentance. Repentance, and conversion… a true change of life and turning to God so that they are living for God, and are fully dependant on God to guide them, and to strengthen them, instead of blaming God for everything bad that happens, they are called to look at themselves in the mirror and see themselves for who they truly are (images of their creator) and repent.

Then, in order to explain how this works, he tells the parable of the fig tree… about the owner who comes looking for the fruit and not finding any… and about the gardener who begs the owner not to give up on the tree, explaining that it is capable of bearing fruit, to be patient while he tends it, and nourishes it…

The owner, God, looking for the good in this world in Gods followers who are bearing the good fruit... The Gardner, Jesus, who intercedes for us, and nourishes us, and tends to us… and us, the fig tree, responsible for using the nourishment that Jesus gives us to bear good fruit…

In Lent, we are called to repentance as we seek to be reconciled to God, but remember that God's reconciling work in us doesn't happen in an instant. Reconciliation is often a long, sometimes painful, process as we learn and grow and turn as we look within and strive to do the things that God wants us to do. And along the way, on this journey, we count on Jesus to nourish us and unite us together in a bond of love as we live and worship together… And Jesus feeds us with the sacrament of his body and blood that sustains us on this journey…

I don’t know why hurricanes or earthquakes happen, or why those or other natural disasters kill or hurt people… but, I am surely not going to blame God for those tragedies. I am going to depend on God to guide us to do the right things that we need to do to help those affected see the grace of God in us.

There are horrible evils in this world that are spread about by people… People who hurt other people with violent and non violent acts of cruelty… ugliness, prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance… but it’s not God causing these things to happen… It is God there who has given this cruel world a second chance… a chance to change… a chance to turn to God… A chance to repent of our sins and start living for God instead of blaming God…

And God even goes a step further and helps us along the way, by giving us the spiritual nourishment that we need to stay focused and strong and continue the journey… God’s way is not a way of sin and death, it’s not of violence and cruelty, and it’s not of hate and disaster… But God way is a way of forgiveness and resurrection, of new life and equality, and of love, re-creation, and redemption...

As we continue our journey through this Holy Season of Lent, we will continue to examine those place in our lives that need repentance… that need metanoia… and as we find them, we get a chance to confess them, we repent of them, and can turn to God

And then in turn, God forgives us and restores us to that right relationship and nourishes us so that we can bear good fruit.

RCL Year C (Lent 2) - February 28, 2010

2010-02-28T10:30:00.002-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Lent 2) – February 28, 2010
Also written for the Opponents of Christ Series

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35

I don’t want to produce any kind of paranoia by asking this question…
but, have you ever been around anyone that wish you any kind of harm?

Weather it was in a job, or in a group of others in the community… have you ever been in the situation, where you were asked questions, or where you were tested in order to trip you up, or make you say something that you would probably later regret?

It’s a game that politicians sometimes play, as they make their ploy for office… they just lay back waiting on their opponent to make a mistake, so that they can pounce, and point out the opponents shortcomings, trying to make themselves look good… The “muck-slinging” goes on in political speeches and even ads in the media. I for one am so glad that it’s not an election year, so I don’t have to hear such mess.

The Pharisees in today’s gospel are busy doing just that… they are busy following around Jesus, hanging on his every word, asking him questions and trying to trip him up… waiting for Jesus to make a mistake and say something that would enable them to back him into a corner, so that they could once and for all end his sudden rise to popularity among the people and his perceived rise to power – that was surely upsetting the status quo… but this time, they try to look like the good guys, as they warn Jesus of Herod’s murderous wishes…

So we are talking about two groups here… like so many of these types of groups that existed in first century Israel… Jesus and his friends and followers making up the inner group, and Herod and his supporters making up the outer group (of which the Pharisees are definitely a part)…

Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great… Antipas – the one who was chastised by John the Baptist for unlawfully divorcing his wife and then taking his late brother Phillip’s wife for his wife… A political “yes man” when it comes to dealing with the Roman government, that had control of the region at the time, and even worked for them as a client of state.

Herod liked his status and power, but he was paranoid, and scared that someone would take away his throne. So, he feared anyone that stirred things up in the region… Especially a dynamic preacher like Jesus of Nazareth. He had murdered John the Baptist for stirring up things, surely he would be out to kill Jesus… because he saw Jesus as an immediate political threat, upsetting the status quo in the whole region…

But when Jesus is warned by the Pharisees about Herod, his response is somewhat surprising… Not at all phased by what the Pharisees had to say about Herod wanting to kill him… says “go tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work…’”

It sounds almost sarcastic or ‘in your face’ – somewhat different from the Jesus “meek and mild” that we sometimes picture in our heads… but THERE is the teaching point. Jesus is trying to point out that his work is not done yet, and that NO ONE, not even Herod, with whatever power he thought he had, was going to keep him from finishing what he came to this earth to do. And Jesus calls him a fox… Herod the fox… who is Herod Antipas anyway, to threaten Jesus?

Then in a most interesting use of metaphor, in a lament over Jerusalem, Jesus compares himself to a hen that gathers her brood (the children of Jerusalem) under her wings.

Herod – the outsider – the fox – the aggressor

Jesus – the insider – the hen – the protector

The fox and the hen are natural enemies, one depends on the other for food, and the other tries to protect her young, even if it means laying down her life…

Herod, the fox, is a true opponent of Jesus… an enemy, in fear that Jesus is making so much ruckus, that his cushy set-up with the Romans is going to be disturbed. So much in fear that the Pharisees know what measures he will take to safeguard his throne… up to and including murder…

Today there is a fox in the hen house… we need to stop for a minute and think about what that means to Jesus and his ministry… Jesus knew he wasn’t finished, and had places to go and people to see… teaching to do, so that more folks to hear the good news and come to believe the way of life and truth that he was advocating… a life bound to and dependant on the One True Living God.

Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem, where he will ride in on a donkey and be welcomed with palm branches laid at his feet and people shouting, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” but he isn’t there yet because his work is not finished.

I have often said that Lent is a season of self examination. A time when we do some inward looking at who we are and who’s we are, so that we can capture and own our “true identity” as children of God. Part of that “capture” of our true identity, is learning how to be who God made us to be, and develop a genuine personae without any kind of façade. To put away our façades that are based on fears of what we feel other people will think… so that we can be free to do Christ’s work in the world.

There are “Herods” in our life that enjoy their cushy positions of perceived power, that threaten the growth of the ministry of Jesus Christ… because it will upset the status quo and disrupt the way it has always been done… but, like Jesus, that shouldn’t keep us from doing what God has called us to do, from being who God has called us to be, and from going about doing the ministry of healing and casting out demons that needs to be done.

It doesn’t mean that we can’t be our real selves and own our true identity as children of the One True Living God.

Today there is a fox in the hen house… but we are blessed enough to be part of the brood… The brood that is gathered under the wings of our comforter, and our protector, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

RCL Year C (Lent 1) - February 21, 2010

2010-02-21T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Lent 1) - February 21, 2010
Written also for the "Opponents of Christ" series

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

Frederick Buechner, the famous American writer and theologian, in his 1992 publication “Listening to Your Life,” writes: "For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year's days. After being baptized by John in the River Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question of what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves..."

What it means to be themselves…

What does it mean to be ourselves? I mean, really be ourselves…

As we dig down deep during lent and examine the yucky-ness of our lives (cause we all have yucky-ness in our lives) and seek to learn who we truly are, we may root up many demons… you know, those things in our life that cause us NOT to be what God created us to be… it’s a very difficult thing for us to do, but we can’t deal with those demons in our life if we just ignore them… cause they don’t go away.

Our self reflection about the would of, could of, or should of (s) in our life are not so that we can sit idle and morn regret – for something that we did or didn’t do, but we do this “soul searching” so that we can face the outpouring of love and grace from God with a clean conscience. That is what repenting and forgiveness is all about.

That is why we are specifically called in this season of Lent to repent… repent and reflect and repent again… it is a time for the “come to Jesus meetings” in our lives…

I had a person that worked for me… This guy was really good at his job, which was sales… he could sell snow to an Eskimo, and then get them to buy a freezer to keep it in. But, as good as he was, his paperwork was never in order… I would get after him time and time again to clean up his paperwork…

Every time I had to officially council him, we would call it a CTJM – or a “Come to Jesus Meeting”… So lent, for us, is sort of a “come to Jesus meeting,” where we go through the paperwork of our lives and clean house! To purge everything from our lives that draws us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord!

Jesus went off in the wilderness right before he stepped out in ministry to “learn who Jesus was” as Buechner says… and there he met his demon, the devil, the tempter, the deceiver, the slanderer, or the traitor…

Now, when we think of the “devil,” some of us think of this manifestation of evil that we learned to think of as Lucifer, or satan who, according to some interpretations was really God’s fallen angel… You remember being taught that the angel, according to Isaiah 14, thought he was just as powerful as God… and was cast out of heaven…

The word Lucifer, is more of the Latin translation of the Hebrew word used in scripture, Helel, which means “to shine brightly.” And word “Helel” was the Hebrew term for “morning star.” But 200 years before Christ, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek called it “Satanos” and then the translation in the 3rd Century after Christ into Latin… Scholars continue to argue… and things seem to be “lost in translation”…

But we need to know, however, that the scripture doesn’t say anything about Jesus being tempted by Lucifer or Satan… it just says “the devil” which comes from the Greek in the New Testament “ho diabolos.”

Now, our society has even perverted the seriousness of it a bit, by making it an anthropomorphic figure of this funny little red guy with horns, a pitchfork and a pointed tail that sits up on your shoulder… telling us what to do and what NOT to do…

But that is NOT what we’re talking about… that’s not what “ho diablos” is…

We are talking about real, serious, earnest temptations here…

Imagine this… you are alone in the wilderness and you are hungry… and you can do anything you want to… you are ALL POWERFUL… wouldn’t your first instinct be to turn rocks into bread?

Jesus’ was… but he knew that he didn’t create the rocks to be bread… and he knew that in order to succeed in the ministry that was before him, that he needed to restrain in order to teach… to teach us that we need to learn to feed each other beyond the physical need to eat, that we need to help each other live our lives to the fullest, and truly reach out and love our neighbor as our self… Really teach us that we cannot live by bread alone, like it says in the Book of Deuteronomy…

And imagine… if the world was running amuck (and is…), and all the people are fighting with each other, and worshiping false gods (or what I like to call mammon), which is money (or wealth), and again you were ALL MIGHTY… wouldn’t your answer be to wave your hand and establish equity and respect among all people, and establish your true dominion over everything? wouldn’t you?

Jesus surely thought of it in the desert, thinking about all the destruction and deceit in the world that he could make perfect with just one wave… but again did not succumb to the temptation in order that we might learn… in order to teach us… to teach us that even though God’s wonderful abundant grace is free for the asking, we have a responsibility to turn to God and live for God in order to fully accept it… To teach us to only worship Only the Lord Our God and serve only Him, like it says in Exodus…

And imagine… if we were IMMORTAL and could instantly prove our divinity by doing some death defying act that would establish our eternal fortitude… or our inability to die… then wouldn’t it make sense in some perverted way, to jump off of the highest point in the city?

You can better bet that Jesus thought deeply about this “easy way out”… but again, was not driven by temptation so that he might teach us… teach us that life is full of trials… full of “prove its” and “I dare yous” – and it doesn’t make us any greater if we push the envelope and give in to others whims and wishes to put ourselves in stupidity’s way…
But Jesus wanted to teach us what he learned… Do not put the Lord your God to the test…

Then the temptation left Jesus for a time… and we are left with the story of Jesus’ real encounter with the demons of his human life… living his human life as he teaches us to live ours… Jesus never told us that our lives would be easy… we all have trials in this life, trials of our own humanity to deal with… trials that we must go through, not because God is testing us… but, to realize that we are called to go through these things with God’s help…

The temptation is very real, but I doubt very seriously there’s a little red guy with horns sitting up on your shoulder whispering in your ear… so when you make the wrong choice, you can’t claim “the devil made me do it…”

We cannot live though the trials and tribulations of this life without God’s help… that’s why we ascribe in our baptismal vows to “persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord” – with God’s help!

It’s because we can’t do it alone, and thanks be to God, we are not expected to…

In Lent we are expected to go deep, and dig around in the dark places of yuck-ness in our lives and call out the devils… the temptations… and own them… and deal with them… and repent of them and turn to God… so that, as Buechner says, “we can in one way or another ask ourselves what it means to be us…”

So that in the end, we can remember that we are all children of the living God. So, in our digging around for demons, and in our introspective self examination during this lenten season… and as we are discovering what it means to be us…

We need not forget Who we are and Who’s we are!!

RCL Year C (Epiphany 5) - February 7, 2010

2010-02-07T10:30:00.004-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Epiphany 5) – February 7, 2010

Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13]
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

It had been a very long night… Simon and the other fishermen were tired… they had been at it ALL NIGHT LONG… lugging on the nets and reaping no reward for their labors… All they want to do is get things cleaned up, wash out their nets and to go HOME!

Have you ever been on a fishing trip when you didn’t catch anything? I know that I sure have… And I know the blaming that goes on as a result of not catching anything too… things like, we must have gone at the wrong time… we went to the wrong spot… or we brought the wrong bait… but, we can be sure that Simon, James and John knew what they were doing… They were professionals and this was their lively hood… and fishing on Lake Gennesaret south of Capernaum was a thriving business!

Fish was one of the main staples in this area, and was eaten more than any other meat. There were catfish, carp, and panfish… Fish were either eaten fresh, or they could be processed, salted, dried or pickled for export. Fishing was BIG business!!! And we can bet that Simon, James, and John were good at it. But this time their nets were empty, and they were tired…

They tried at night, when most of the fishing was done… we can even assume that they had tried at all the great spots… But their nets were still empty. What was the problem???

So, at this point, they are saying to themselves… Forget it! Lets just get the nets cleaned and get on back to our homes and get some sleep… And along comes Jesus with a great crowd of followers hanging on his every word… right in the middle of all the net cleaning… (kind of like someone coming into a store – right at closing time when the clerk is ready to go home)
Luke says that Jesus borrows a boat so that he can preach to the crowds from just off shore… This would have probably created a wonderful auditorium effect with the sound bouncing off the nearby mountains. And after he preaches, he asks Simon, who had been working all night long, to go out to the deep water and let down his nets…

With a little frustration at first, Simon tries to explain to Jesus, “We have been at this all night!!! and we haven’t caught anything…” (Simon implies - What makes you think we are going to now??) (almost if to say… What do you know, your just a carpenter, leave the fishing to the professionals) Simon, seeming at first like he has something to prove, honors Jesus’ request.

Then, in one of the greatest miracles in scripture, Jesus causes them to catch enough fish to make their nets start to break and their boats begin to sink… This was a lot of fish… these boats were about 26’ long 7’ feet wide and 4’ deep, and they were taking on water!!! Simon, James and John were so amazed… After they returned to shore they left everything, and at Jesus request, followed him to ‘catch people.’

It is so often that this passage in Luke is simply seen as a metaphor for God’s wonderful abundance that God provides to those who are obedient… While this is true, I think that we should go a step further (a little deeper – if you will)… and figure out why it is meaningful for us today.

Today has been set aside by the Episcopal Church in the United States as “Theological Education Sunday.” And that has caused me to look at our Gospel story today a bit differently…
I kept saying to myself… How do we go deeper? How do we go deeper??

Have you ever been in deep water? I mean really deep water in a small boat… I can testify that it can be a pretty scary experience! So, how do we row OUR boats out into the deep waters and let down our nets?

Considering the importance of Theological Education in our Christian lives together, this passage makes us realize that it isn’t about catching fish any more… To me, this story is much more about going deeper… It’s about responding to our thirst to learn more about God and how God acts in our lives…

It is about going out deeper and letting down our nets into the waters of the unknown… and when that it’s done… It’s about going out and catching people… telling others about what you have learned and sharing our exciting experience, so that THEY might also turn to the truth in Christ Jesus… But, It has been a long NIGHT!... and we are tired, so how do we do this???

It takes a deliberate act… making sure that we create and seek opportunities to be formed (informed, and transformed) into the image of Christ…

It takes commitment… a commitment to stick with the program and see it through. A commitment to taking away something and applying it to our Christian walk.

And it takes consistency… Christian formation and education is a continuous process that just doesn’t happen over-night. It is a consistent process of continuous and consistant formation and discernment…

Most often, this is the Sunday that seminaries send seminarians and theological students use the as an opportunity to show off their wares… However, I take a different approach to it… I see it as an opportunity here / today to reinforce what we are doing within our community to grow in our faith, and hopefully challenge ourselves to take it a step further (to go deeper)…

At this point in my life have been through 3 academic years of formal “Theological Education.” and I have been an ordained parish priest for about just as long… I know that I have been through a lot… but I also know that I am not done yet… I know that God isn’t finished with me yet… I understand that my theological education did not end with graduation from seminary… nor does it in with a certain number of years of ordination or of baptism!!

Because, it is my prayer that our living God will continue to form, inform, and transform my life. It’s a process… I also pray the same for all of you sitting here today.

It takes deliberate action to put together quality Christian Education opportunities. An example of these would be the Lenten series on the “Opponents of Christ” that is coming up, and the prayer book class on Sunday mornings, Bible studies and interactive discussions with groups in the community such as the youth and the Episcopal Church Women.

With a commitment to them and some consistency, opportunities like these are great ways to learn and grow in your faith… And if you mix them in, and possibly supplement them, with some of resources available through the greater church (the church’s major programs such as “Education for Ministry” and “Disciples of Christ in Community,”) then you have an abundance of resources that will bust your net!

It all started with 3 simple fisher-folk who after a very long labor intensive, unproductive night decided to go deeper at Jesus’ request… They ended up being so amazed by what happened, that they followed Jesus wanting to know more… wanting their lives to be continuously enriched and their nets to be filled… They were rewarded with so much more than an abundance of fish that almost sunk two boats.

As we approach the holy table today to partake of the bread and wine that we know to be the body and blood of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ… We can ask ourselves how we can learn more about what it is that we are doing? How do we learn more, so that we can continue to be filled?...

Jesus asked the fisherman to go deeper and let down their nets after they were tired and ready to give up… and Jesus calls each one of us to do the same… So, go deeper, learn and grow in your faith and be committed in your worship, and in your study… engage and commit to the opportunities before you to learn… and then let your nets bust with God’s great abundance…

RCL Year C - (Epiphany 1C - the Baptism of Our Lord) - January 10, 2010

2010-01-10T10:30:00.004-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C – (Epiphany 1C - the Baptism of Our Lord) – January 10, 2010

Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Have you ever stopped to think about - Who are you? Think about who you REALLY are? Is who you are - what you do? or is even who you are – who you’re related to?

You’ve got to love the south… in the south, who you are it is definitely who you are related to… I can hear it now, you walk up to somebody on the street to introduce yourself and the next phrase out of their mouth is Who’s your Mamma? or Who’s your Daddy? Who are you related to? Who are your kin folk? and you ain’t from around here, are ya?

When we stop to think about who we are, we get caught up in a sort of identity crisis… Where when who we are (or who we are related to) and what we do, start to mesh together and become part of our personae.

It’s hard for some folks to figure out who they really are. They live years living into a farce a fake, plastic personae of who others think they aught to be… It’s difficult and sad when society has such the grip on us that it dictates who we are… to the point that we are expected to dress a certain way or have a certain amount of money to be worth anything…

I pose the question this week… what does Christmas / Epiphany / and the Baptism of the Lord all have in common?? The one thing that they have in common is identity! The identity of who Christ is…

And the thought about identity it even stretched into our Advent series, when we asked the question about the identity of the One that cometh… when we asked, “who are we waiting for???” I said Wednesday night at our Epiphany service that Epiphany is a season of light and identity… not just Christ’s identity, but also of our own identity… and the readings for today, that surround the baptism of Christ shed a lot of light on who Christ is and who we are as his followers.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah says that God calls the people of Israel out of exile in Babylon… God calls them by name and leads them through the waters and fire… God saves them ALL from harm, God redeems and restores them (saves them) and re-gathers them into community…

Just as the people of Israel are gathered and redeemed so God gathers and redeems us… And in the Gospel lesson, the ones going out to John the Baptist and listening to John preach repentance were filled with expectation… and were questioning the identity…Of the One who Cometh.

The were asking, If you’re not the one, then who are we waiting for?… and John tells them the One that will baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire… The cleansing power of the Holy Spirit will come and burn the chaff (the sin) that the wind blows away.

John tells them that the One coming will separate the pure grain (our true self) from the chaff the inedible, unusable, scaly parts of the grain - the waste (or the sin in our lives). And as wind and fire of the Holy Spirit blows and burns in our lives, the sin is consumed and forever removed. And with it, there is a transformation that takes place in us, (a metanoia) a desire to turn to God and repent and change…

And in Acts, the outcasts in Samaria have undergone this change and been baptized, so the Apostles Peter and John went to them to give validity to their experience (an apostolic witness to their faith) and laid hands on them and strengthened them with the only spirit.

After Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan he was praying and the heavens opened and the holy spirit descended on him in the bodily form of a dove. Then a great voice came down from heaven “You are my son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased”… And it was witnessed by everyone there…

Baptism is an initiation into the Christian faith… that sacrament through which God adopts us as His Children… it makes us members and gives us full inclusion in Christ’s Body the Church by water and the Holy Spirit. And our baptism is witnessed by the whole community and the whole community makes vows to help us live into the commitments of our Baptism…

In a few minutes, we will once again stand and re-new those promises those vows that commit our lives to Christ… And we know, that regardless of the age we were when we were baptized, that God’s grace came raining down on us to adopt us as children of God and make recipients of the Holy Spirit… and we also had a Christian community backing us up…

See, the Christian life doesn’t occur in a vacuum it is not just “God and me” or a “Jesus and me”… It is experienced in a Community gathered, a community of Christ adopted by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Through our participation, we become the beloved - those favored by God and given the task of doing God’s work in the world.

We know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God… God came to this world as one of us to redeem us, to restore us to God’s favor, so that we might become his Children and therefore heirs of the Kingdom of God, - to forever be in the presence of the One who created us.

God gathers us as a community, and gives us identity… our only true identity as God’s Children… Then God empowers us by the Holy Spirit to act… to act and build up the Kingdom of God.

(Please Stand)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, I call upon you now, to renew the solemn promises and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced Satan and all his works, and promised to serve God faithfully in his Holy Catholic Church.

RCL Year C (the Feast of Epiphany) - January 6, 2010

2010-01-06T19:00:00.001-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (the Feast of Epiphany) – January 6, 2010

Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12
Psalm 72:1-7,10-14

Today has many names…

The western Church calls it Epiphany (the Greek word that means an intuitive leap of understanding), The eastern Church calls it Theophany (or the appearance of God in visible form) or it could simply be called the Manifestation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

Regardless of what we call it… it means one thing to us… We know who God is a little better, because God revealed God’s self to us in the person of Jesus Christ… An he did it for ALL People!

This is a feast day that has been celebrated as a major feast in Christendom since before the year 354. At one time it was bigger than Christmas – because it included the birth of Jesus and the visit of the magi in one fail swoop.

It is a season of Light, filled with images of identity and journey, of understanding and a coming to know…

The story of the Magi (or Kings) that bring gifts to the Christ Child are familiar… They are as familiar as their lore – the lore that has become ingrained into the stories of the Christian faith…

The mysterious astrologers (the magi) or Persian priest, definitely non-Jewish (or Gentiles) from another place and another culture… They somehow see the need to honor and worship the new born “king of the Jews”

We don’t know how many there were, the scripture just calls them magi (have you ever wondered where the word magic comes from). Early traditions of the church asserted that there must have been three, because that’s how many gifts that were given… And the church even named them - Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar

The gifts are important, because they weren’t just any gifts that someone would give a newborn… These gifts tell stories within the story… about the identity of this miraculously born Jesus.

They become revelations of who the new born is and is to become…

Gold – a symbol of kingship and dominion on Earth… and Jesus will be referred to as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Frankincense – a fragrant incense burned in the temple of God every day by the priest… and Jesus will be referred to as the Great High Priest

Myrrh – the combination of spices used to anoint the dead and Jesus will suffer and die a human death for us on the cross.

God chose to reveal to astronomers the Good news of a miraculous birth that took place in a manger in Bethlehem of Judea. And these astronomers followed a great star over a mighty distance to worship a child revealed to them as “the King of the Jews.”

The scripture tells us that when the star stopped over the place where the child was that the magi were filled with joy and coming into the house they knelt down and paid him homage - they worshipped him…

This is the first revelation to the Non-Jews (or Gentile people) that God came into the world for the WHOLE WORLD not just the Jews…

Jesus walked on this earth and lived and died as one of us for everybody… so that everyone might come within reach of God. The God that created us, redeems us (or re-creates us), and continues to sustain our lives... the God that loves us so much that he became one of us…

The question to us is… how will we respond to that… Will we continue to be complacent and uninvolved, and live life for ourselves?

Or will we decide to follow the light of Christ? Do we make the difficult journey with the magi and cross the hard obstacles along the way? Will we follow the light of Christ that will eventually lead us to the cross?

The light of God has come into the world… so that we might see and experience God face to face…

After worshipping Jesus at the manger, the Magi carried the light of Christ out into the world with them, as they returned to their homes. So we, too, are called to rise from our worship here… leave the manger and move into the world, bearing the light of Christ – To take it to the places we live work, the places we work, the places we study, and the places we play.

And we are to remember that we are always called to welcome ALL who come to share in that light – The light of Christ!

RCL Year C (Christmas Eve) - December 24, 2009

2009-12-24T23:00:00.002-05:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Christmas Eve) - December 24, 2009

Isaiah 9:2-7

Titus 2:11-14

Luke 2:1-20

Sometimes we think too much… I know that I do, especially when it comes to preaching on Christmas Eve. Most preachers that I know are terrified of it, I think it’s because there are so many more in the congregation than usual…

People that come on this holy night to experience the wonder, the awe and the mystery of the miraculous birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Most congregations double in size on the holy feast days of Christmas and Easter… That in itself is a mystery…

So, I thought and prayed this year until my head hurt and then I thought and prayed some more... and in my study, I ran across some folks… folks that seem to have been short changed in the nativity story… folks that appear right in the middle of all the action in the gospel lesson that we just heard.

Shepherds!

You remember the shepherds… every young boy wants to be a shepherd in the Christmas pageant. It's the character in the reenactment that gets to wear their bath robe and put one of mamma’s checkered dish-towels on their head... You know... The Shepherds... the ones that watched over their flocks in the field by night…

The working class… grubby, and smelly, just trying to earn a living. If Mike Rowe were around then, he would have probably interviewed them for the show Dirty Jobs. They were classed with the other working stiffs… folks the tanners, sailors, butchers, camel jockeys, and other despised occupations…

But unlike these other occupations, Shepherds were different, since they were away from home at night they were unable to protect their families and therefore they were considered dishonorable. These folks were the lowest of the low, and yet God chose them first…

God chose the shepherds… and revealed to them the Good News of the miraculous birth. An Angel appeared – and stood before these shepherds and the glory of God surrounded them and they were scared - to - death…

And the Angel said, "don’t be afraid – I am bringing you Good News to share with everybody! ALL PEOPLE!!" And the angel told them where to find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and laying in a feeding trough. And then there was a bunch of Angles singing… "Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace to everyone! with whom God is Well Pleased!"

And the shepherds decide to go and see this miraculous thing that God had made known to them. And they found it just as the Angel had told them, Mary & Joseph and a child laying in a manger (a feeding trough) wrapped in strips of cloth…

But the amazing part of this story is… it didn’t stop there.

These simple shepherds were so excited by what they saw, they went and told others about the child… and all who the shepherds told were amazed… The mystery and awe that surrounds us on this holy night is partly made possible by the shepherds… God chose to reveal God’s self to the lowest of the low – the dishonored in society and tell them of the miracle of the birth of Christ…

A miraculous birth to a peasant family that didn’t have a place to stay when they traveled… and didn’t even have a bed for their new born baby… God trusted that the shepherds would go and see what had taken place and share it with the world…

This is just the beginning of the story of Jesus who is the Christ… A man who we know will turn the world on its ear, disrupt society and make an impact like no other has ever made… In 1926, Dr. James Allen wrote a poem. The poem is called One Solitary Life some of you may have heard it before… I would like to share that poem with you to give us something to ponder in our hearts this evening…

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village

The child of a peasant woman

He grew up in another obscure village

Where he worked in a carpenter shop

Until he was thirty

He never wrote a book

He never held an office

He never went to college

He never visited a big city

He never travelled more than two hundred miles

From the place where he was born

He did none of the things

Usually associated with greatness

He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away

One of them denied him

He was turned over to his enemies

And went through the mockery of a trial

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves

While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing

The only property he had on earth

When he was dead

He was laid in a borrowed grave

Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone

And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race

And the leader of mankind's progress

All the armies that have ever marched

All the navies that have ever sailed

All the parliaments that have ever sat

All the kings that ever reigned put together

Have not affected the life of mankind on earth

As powerfully as that one solitary life

God humbled himself and was born as a human...

God came to live among us as one of us…

God didn’t come to us in glorious splendor, he came to us from a poor family that had no place to stay when they traveled, so they stayed in a barn.

He didn’t have royal robes and fine garments, he was bound with rags – strips of cloth or swaddling clothes. He didn’t live a life of luxury… he didn’t even have a bed. He was laid in a feeding trough…

But it IS from that feeding trough that he continues to feed the whole world!

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among all people with whom God is well pleased! Amen!

RCL Year C (Advent 2) - December 6, 2009

2009-12-06T10:30:00.002-05:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church, Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C - Advent 2 - December 6, 2009

Baruch 5:1-9
Canticle 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

(transcribed from audio - sermon preached without notes or manuscript)

This time of year reminds me of my mother. I know that she reads my sermons regularly, so God help me when she gets hold of this one. I am going to talk about her a little bit, but in a kind way… During the season of Advent, my mother is always… oh, let’s say fussy. To the point of the halls decked just perfectly. When I was growing up, there was almost a tree in every room, a rope of holly on the mantle of the fireplace, candles on the tables and a single white candle in each window, and of course fake snow… and I am not talking about the spray stuff, I am saying the bag o plastic shreds – where you put one handful on each branch of the tree… I even think she is looking for some this year, but hasn’t been able to find it. On top of the decorating, she always found time to bake. Fruit cakes, cookies, cakes, and even one year made candy. Her preparations were meticulous, and everything had to be just so.

We are called, like I said last week, to a “preparation” in Advent... careful, meticulous preparation. But John calls us today (John the Baptizer) to a different kind of preparation. A preparation for the coming of the messiah.

The words from the 40th Chapter of Isaiah, the prophet, are echoed by Luke the evangelist… Make straight paths… straighten out the crooked spaces, make the high places low and the low places high… but, do this in the wilderness.

Something very interesting that I think we need to pay attention to. The place between Egypt and the Promised Land always involves “wilderness.” The way to salvation, the salvation of our God in Jesus Christ always involves wilderness. The wilderness places that you have heard me speak of before. Those are the places of chaos. Places of the wild and crazy. The places where demons dwell. Places where food is not bought and can’t be found. The wilderness is the lowest point, where people had to go to fully rely and depend on God in order for God to bring them into the promised land. To bring them to salvation.

So, if you think of it like that, in order to find our way to Christ, who is our salvation… to find our way to the promised land, we have to go through the wilderness. It is a way that we go by preparing ourselves. Preparation through personal discovery. It means wrestling with things in our lives that we otherwise don’t want to mess with.

It makes me think, “where is the wilderness?” Our mere lives are the wilderness, and we are on a journey through the wilderness, where we are looking for direction, where we are looking for guidance, where we are looking to be fed and nurtured as we grow and go along the way.

We are looking for God to make those paths straight, and our narrow ways to be made smooth, because sometimes we come along boulders in the path, and regardless how much we try, we cannot remove those boulders by ourselves. We have to trust God and let God provide us with that smooth path. We have to come together as a community to bring forth the Kingdom of God, and move those rocks together. To make that path straight, and the wilderness that much more tolerable.

Regardless of how fussy we may get this time of year, John is there to tell us the way to the Kingdom of God. The way to Christ. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I picked the illustration that was used on the front of the bulletin, it is Leonardo Da vinci’s portrait of John the Baptist. If you notice the in the painting he is pointing up. In most of the artist renditions of John, John is pictured pointing up, pointing the way to salvation.

That is what John does for us. John through his, as you have heard me call it before, his unexpected, unlikely messages. He was one of those messengers that you wouldn’t expect anyone to listen to him. But he is so strange, he gets our attention. He points the way to salvation.

He is the son of the high priest, Zachariah, but he doesn’t conform to the norms of society for that sort of family. He dresses in camel hair and puts a leather belt around his waist and eats locust and wild honey, and tells the people to come and follow me, we are going out to the wilderness, we are going out to discover those places in our lives where we need that true change. In Greek it is called metanoia, a real change of heart, changing the way from a sinful life to a life of righteousness.

We are called out to the wilderness to discover those places in our lives where we need metanoia. Where we need to make a change and repent of that sin, and then we can prepare the way for Christ to come. Not only as a child in a manger… cause we love the baby stories – we love the heavenly host of angels and the manger and the animals – it’s very very nice, but that is not exactly what Advent is all about. Advent is sometimes about scary things, of an apocalyptic or eschatological nature, in preparation for Christ’s coming again in might and great glory.

So we take this time of preparation, and if we loose some of the fussy-ness in our lives and go over to the other side and think more about what we can do to prepare ourselves, to prepare our souls and bodies to see the Christ who is coming, who is coming again. But we can’t do it by ourselves, we do that as a community of faith, because we are here in the wilderness of our lives on a journey. It is a journey through this life.

When we go forward from this place, we should think about how we can be that prophetic voice that cries out to others in this wilderness of our lives and lead other to that repentance (that metanoia) that change and conversion in their life.

That change and conversion that needs to take place. It needs to take place in their lives like it took place in our lives so that we can receive the Christ.

So as we go forward from this place, and think about how the preamble to today's lesson would be written in a more modern language… we could say, in the first year of the presidency of Barack Obama, when Beverly was Governor of North Carolina, and John was elected Mayor of Cleveland… a voice cried out in the wilderness of North Carolina, make straight the paths, make low the high places, remove all the obstacles that lay in between, and prepare the way of the Christ to come among us.

RCL Year C (Advent 1) - November 29, 2009

2009-11-29T10:30:00.004-05:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Advent 1) - November 29, 2009

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

(transcribed from audio - sermon preached without notes or manuscript)

You only have to walk down the street in Cleveland, down main street, to see what’s happening. Just last week, actually before thanksgiving, they put up the lights, and the garland, the bows… and you can walk into any retail store, even before Halloween and see trees, these evergreen things that we like to bring into our homes, and ornaments, and ribbons and bows and frilly things used to decorate our homes.

Now, I am not going to preach against all of that… but I am going to call you to an awareness of what the season is. The season is Advent! It is a time of preparation… preparation for the coming of the messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ who came and dwelt among us, but not necessarily for the coming of a baby that was born in a barn 2000 years ago, but also for the coming again in glory and majesty.

That’s what the readings were about. Jeremiah in a torn and horrid situation witnessing the burning of his own community was not torn to strife and despair, but drawn to hope in the restoration of Israel.

The church in Thessalonica, was taught by Paul not to run scared, not to fear what’s going to happen, but be united with Christ in His coming again.

And Jesus tells us in the Gospel that it’s time to start paying attention. It’s time to prepare ourselves. It’s time to prepare introspectively and collectively for when He will come again into the world.

This time of year, in our society, it seems that time of preparation is hijacked… That time of introspective thought and prayer and dedication and focus on the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we ran straight from All Saints’ to Christmas.

We want Christmas to be here so bad. That we don’t want to stop and take some time to think about what we are waiting for, who we are waiting for… The commercial society has hijacked the feelings and magic of the coming of the messiah to sell goods and to boost the economy. They have hijacked it so much that we don’t spend time preparing ourselves with prayer, and fasting, and meditation about what is happening… what is happening now, and what happened then…

So Advent is a time of the already, and the not yet… We know that Jesus came… Came into the world, died on the cross, and saved us from our sins. The saving work has been done… that is the already. Jesus promised that he would come again into the world to draw the whole world unto himself. That’s the not yet. So we are in that liminal space between the already and the not yet. And we were warned to prepare ourselves…

The gospel reading say that we will see signs, but we are not to worry about those signs huddled in a corner, worried about what we have or don’t have – or done or not done – so many preachers hijack this scripture and try to sell from the pulpit some kind of celestial fire insurance, or a get out of Hell free card, instead of taking the time to nurture the people in the faith to teach them how to prepare with prayer and anticipation and expectation for the coming of the Christ.

That’s what Advent is about. It’s about the already and the not yet. It’s about the time that came, and the time to come. The time to come of the One who was and is and is to come. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming into the world, and we are called to prepare and look for signs and not run from those signs in fear, but hold our heads up high, for our redemption awaits us all.

RCL Year B (Proper 27) - November 8, 2009

2009-11-08T10:30:00.009-05:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church – Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Proper 27) – November 8, 2009

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

(transcribed from the audio - sermon preached without notes or manuscript)

We have to do some thinking about these readings. We have to do some serious, serious introspective evaluation of who we are. Not only who we are in society and community, but who we are as children of God.

Why is it, regardless of how much we have in this world, it’s never enough. It’s never enough. Why do we feel that way? It’s never enough. Regardless of how much we make, or how much we think we make or think we need, it’s never enough.

It reminded me of a story that I heard when I was very young. It’s a story about a great king, a great and RICH king, King Midas, you probably have heard it before. The king was so scared that he would never have enough, never had enough of what he needed in this world, so he made a wish that everything he touched would turn to gold. King Midas made a wish and was granted that wish, so EVERYTHING that he went around and touched was instantly turned to gold. But the problem was, when his daughter ran to embrace him, and jumped up in his arms to hug him, she too in fact was turned to gold. Tragic story… Tragic story… Do we have enough? Is there enough??

Jesus tells us that it’s the scribes who walk around in fine robes at the temple, dumping there money into the treasury as they walk into the temple, “look how great I am, look how much money I give” But they are giving out of their abundance – they have a gospel of scarcity, because they want to hold on to what they have in order to control others, in order to use their money as a weapon and their checkbook as a sword. “I will only give when it benefits me! – when I get something out of it! - I will write that check and put if forth to do whatever damage it will do!” A gospel of scarcity, and fear that there is not enough… so they store it up in grain silos where “moth consume and thief break in and steal.”

But Jesus, on the other hand points out, as he and his caravan are parked over across from the treasury – you can get the picture… as he’s kicked up against the wall, observing what’s going on… as people are walking by – and he sees this poor widow, one of the least of society. Widows and orphans have no worth in the society of the ancient world. This widow comes up, and everything she has in this world are two small copper coins - how Jesus knew they were copper, I have no idea – but translated to modern day worth it is about a penny.

Two small copper coins, not worth a whole lot, not used like the modern day penny that the government can round off to a number and collect tax, but it represented everything that she had. And they were putting the offerings in these big fluked jars that people would come by to dump there money into, put their tithes and offerings in as they entered the temple. This is how they contributed to the economy to make it go, to make the temple grow, and further the spread of the kingdom of God that cared for others.

This woman comes by and gives everything she had in faith and puts it in the treasury not knowing where her next meal was going to come from, but trusting in God and in the goodness of the community that she belongs to, she contributed to the commonwealth of the community.
A gospel of abundance! The idea that the Lord God blesses my life and gives me everything that I have, and makes me everything that I am is a gospel of abundance. I am not afraid to give and contribute because I know that the Lord will return to me 10, 20, 1000, 100,000 times than I could ever contribute.

A gospel of abundance vs. a gospel of scarcity… do we live in this community, in this life, in this world thanking God for everything that God gives us – and everything that we have, and everything that we rejoice in? Do we live practicing a gospel of abundance, or do we live this life afraid to take the next step or walk the next mile or go to the next phase, or be something out of the box because there is a little bit of risk involved? Or fear that we are not going to be “open” next year or the year after that? Do we live out of a gospel of scarcity?

This is wonderful time to have this reading and this text as we gather for the Annual Parish Meeting after the service. I have reviewed the Annual Meeting notes minutes from the last 20 years, and I am convinced that one year we live out of gospel of scarcity, and then one year we live out of a gospel of abundance, then the next year it starts over – we live out of a gospel of scarcity, then we live out of a gospel of abundance.

I have made it a point in my presentation at the Annual Meeting, and in my ministry to help you and nurture you to live out of a gospel of abundance – to be thankful for everything that God has given us and everything that we have to be viewed as a gift from God.

There are many readings through the latter part of this liturgical year, back to back readings that have built up to this point… I want you to think back to last week and the week before, to the gospel story of blind Bartimaeus.

Blind Bartimaeus got up from his roadside vocation of begging, where he had his cloak spread out to receive the alms that were pitched his way. That was the only way he had any money to live on. The only way he survived and was able to eat was by begging. He had his cloak spread out, sitting there, and he heard Jesus passing though the town and he abandoned everything he had, and everything that he felt secure about in order to follow Jesus. He through off his cloak and left it there, as the scripture says, and he ran to Jesus. And Jesus healed him and made him see… and made him see.

Sometimes we walk around with our eyes shut, groping along the wall… Do you remember that imagery from the sermon? How often do we let Jesus and the gospel open our eyes to see the positive around us? … to see the energy in everything that we are engaged in and involved in, and how many times do we let our hearts and our souls rejoice in that?

And how often do we come to that table, knowing that Jesus is ALWAYS there, and it’s Jesus that continues to give to us in ways that we can neither understand nor imagine, but our souls continue to be fed and filled. And then we take that gospel of abundance in ourselves, and some of us go out into the world around us and spread the excitement of everything this community has going on.

That is what the Church is! It is a thanksgiving and gathering of the community. That is what the word “Eucharist” means - Thanksgiving! It is NOT a sacrifice of Jesus over and over again like the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, but it is our continuous act of thanksgiving and praise to God for everything that God has given us and done for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And it’s everything that we are drawn to, to fill that void and emptiness in our lives – to keep coming to the table day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year to keep being fed in ways that we don’t always understand, but its more than we can ask for or imagine.

So this morning is a morning of self evaluation, of something to think about, deep down inside whether we live out of gospel of scarcity where we are afraid – or whether we trust the abundance of Christ and His presence in this community.

So come to the table, let yourself be fed, let your souls be nourished – there is always enough. And then carry that abundance with you and go out to rejoice in, and glorify God in the world around you. Amen!

RCL Year B (All Saints') - November 1, 2009

2009-11-01T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL – Year B (All Saints’ Day) – November 1, 2009

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

Happy All Hallows’! This is one of those special days, one of those great feasts in the liturgical calendar where we pause for a minute and remember all the holy ones (All Hallows’)… the Saints that are part of our common life as Christians…

All of the saints that have gone before us, ALL of the saints that are here today and ALL of the saints who will come after us… All part of that great communion or gathering of the saints.

You all know, that I love to learning about Church History and ALL of the great witnesses that have gone before us… But I want you all to know that most of the Saints’ that I know were not great witnesses to the faith, nor will they be martyrs, or great confessors, or not even great theologians. But they are Saints!… and that includes us. We are all saints…

I love telling the story this time of year about the wise old priest who was once asked, “How many people were at the early celebration of the Eucharist last Wednesday morning?” The old wise priest replied, “There were three old ladies and the janitor… several thousand archangels, a large number of seraphim, along with several million of the triumphant saints of God.” He had a grasp of what it meant to be celebrating with that great ‘cloud of witnesses’ or the communion of saints at every Eucharistic feast.

It is actions like this that become the answer to our deep human urge to be part of something larger than ourselves, to not just stand alone… It gives our simple individual lives meaning. It has often been said that “one drop of water, when left alone, evaporates very quickly. But one drop of water in the immense sea endures.” We are connected to something larger… we are very much a part of that great communion of saints.

We are as St. Paul said, “Children of God.” We hold that divine seed of Christ within us, because we have been created by the one true living God! We are Holy – All Hallow – We are blessed! We are Saints! That’s what we are!

Because everyone who claims Christ as Lord and Savior, and has been baptized into Christ’s life, death, and resurrection has been purified and made holy, and made His saints - Saints to dwell in the fellowship of the communion of saints. And today is our special feast day! This is our day to celebrate the everlasting life that we have as a result of our faith in Christ and our adoption as Children of God. That’s a lot to take in…

We have a special day on the calendar that is ours… I don’t know if any of us realized that... But not only do we have a special day, we share it with all the other great ones that don’t have another day specifically assigned on the liturgical calendar…

You can probably sit for a second and think of who those great ones are… You could name all the saints in your life… it could be your husband or wife, your sister, brother, cousin, child, nephew, grandparent… the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the peacemakers… anyone in whom you have been able to recognize that Christ within…
That Christ that is the light… the light of the world… I always like the image of a stained glass window… reminding us that as saints we are like a stained glass window… We let the light of Christ shine through. Or even the other metaphor that says… “a Christian is like a keyhole, though which other folk see God”... All of the Christians in our lives are saints; it is just that some of them have day jobs and most of them will never have a feast day named for them.

The challenge this morning is for us to be that stained glass… to be that keyhole… To be that person on the day job that lets the light of Christ shine through…

Allowing others to see that Christ within because we live with that unquestionable faith in the God who created us, who redeemed us, and is sustaining us…

This morning, we get to add two more to that great multitude of saints who walk in the light of Christ. In a few minutes, Ginger and Megan will share with us in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and become part of the great communion of Saints.

They, like Lazauras, in the Gospel Lesson, will come out of the darkness of the tomb of their lives into the light of Christ. They will loose themselves from the things that bind them down, the evils in this world that seeks to destroy the creatures of God.

It has been a long season of learning… learning how to live a life of discipleship… learning of how to be the church and love one another, growing and learning about how to reach out to others and show others the kingdom of God… Learning how to build up God’s kingdom using our earthly treasures and talents. Letting the Christ that we believe in, whom we emulate… who is known by us, and who knows us – be known to the world. And when it gets rough, that is when it is most important… That’s when we have to reach down deep, into our innermost self, and trust that God in Christ will help us.

It is our training to become saints…

Have you ever noticed the baptismal covenant promises, (that we will say together with Ginger and Megan in a few minutes). It never says that we can do it all by ourselves… It never says that we have been shown, therefore we are on our own…

It always says, “with God’s help”… It is with God’s help that we are able to resist evil, and proclaim the Good News of God in Jesus Christ to the world…

It is with God’s help that we continue to learn about our faith in the apostles’ teaching, and continue to break bread and join in the prayers… to love “the other” our neighbor as our self.

It is an ongoing process for us… with God’s help… so as assured as our sainthood may be, it is up to us to continually strive to become the best saints we can be – with God’s help…

As we stand in a few minutes and recite the baptismal vows, we will once again have the chance to own these for ourselves, we get the chance to be refreshed, and transformed, as we seek to be formed in the image of Christ…

My prayer for us is that we all pay attention to the words as we own them once again… And then seek to do the things that we promise to do together as followers of Christ… and then live a life worthy of the sainthood that we have all been given.

RCL Year B (Proper 25) - October 25, 2009

2009-10-25T10:30:00.001-04:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Proper 25) – October 25, 2009

Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

There once was a young man that found an old tarnished brass lamp. He began to polish it to clean it up a bit and all of a sudden… POOF! - out popped a genie! “I will give you three wishes,” said the genie. You may have anything you like.”

So the guy thinks for a minute and says, “I would like a billion dollars." (10% of which I will give to the church) "You shall have it," and the genie grants him the wish. "Anything else?"

The guy thinks for a while. "I would like a brand new red 2010 Mustang GT, maxed out! With a big engine and a booming stereo system." "Your wish is my command,” said the genie. And the Mustang magically appeared.

What is your last wish? "Hmmm. I think I'll save my last wish for later." "OK, suit yourself," says the genie. So the guy gets in his new Mustang and goes for a drive to show off to all his friends. He turns on his booming stereo system…

But there's a very familiar commercial on… and the guy starts singing along to it: "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener." The moral to that story is… Be careful what you wish for…

These past few weeks we have heard the stories from scripture of the disciples wishing for positions of power; of one wanting to be exalted over the other to some kind of important position within the kingdom of God…

When two of the disciples, James and John came to Jesus… Jesus asked them, “what is it that you want me to do for you?”

What is it that you wish for?

Today we hear the story of the blind beggar, who is identified to us as the son of Timaeus. Bartimaeus… We are told that Bartimaeus is sitting on the side of the road begging… Positioned carefully by the side of the road, with his cloak probably spread out to receive any alms that may be pitched his way…

Doing the only thing he knows how to do… living within the shame of his condition… And along comes Jesus and his caravan of followers, making their way toward Jerusalem… Now, Bartimaeus cannot see, but he can surely hear the crowd, as they must be causing a large commotion… Among the buzz of the crowd, Bartimaeus figures out that Jesus must be with them… So, He cries out loudly… “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!!!”… Addressing Jesus by his royal lineage, focusing on Jesus… and forgetting about his begging for a minute… Bartimeaus cries out… Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!!!...

And after being told to be quiet… He cries out again, even louder… Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!!!... Jesus stood still…

Again, Bartimeaus cried… Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!!!... Over the noise of the crowd, Jesus heard the voice of the blind beggar… Then Jesus tells the crowd, “Call him here…” Bartimeaus springs up and goes to Jesus… Jesus asks him… What do you want me to do for you?...

What is it that you wish for???

And very affectionately, and very simply, Bartimeaus replied, “Teacher, let me see again.” Then, without smoke and mirrors, and no drama… with no spitting on the ground to make a mud cake… or any other mysterious physical act, Jesus simply says, “go, your faith has made you well. ”

What is it that you wish for???

Bartimeaus is the son of Timeaus. His name, literally translated, means: “bar” (son of) and “Timao” (honor). Bartimeaus wasn’t just a blind beggar. A son of honor was sitting by the roadside begging for his next meal. And he goes to Jesus when Jesus calls him…

By his faith, Bartimeaus regained his sight. Jesus restored his “place of honor” in society from the shame of his condition. After he was healed, Bartimeaus abandons the security of his roadside vocation and follows Jesus and the caravan to Jerusalem…

What is it that you wish for?

Bartimeaus doesn’t seek power. He doesn’t hope for a high office. He doesn’t crave being special, or anything “flashy.” He doesn’t want to do something and be seen… All he wants to do is see.

He wants to be ordinary, and see the beauty of the world and God’s creation around him. This is the only transformation that Bartimeaus desires. And in that transformation Bartimeaus moves from blindness to sight. It is not a matter of medicine or magic It is only a matter of faith that opens his eyes.

Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” and we grope along sometimes like the blind… along a wall groping along like those who have no eyes, and Jesus wants to know what we wish for… Do we want to be seen like James and John, one seated on the right hand and one on the left… Or do we just want to see, like Bartimeaus?

What is it that we wish for???…

Do we wish to be seen in positions of power, ready to impress our friends? Or do we wish to just see, and then follow Jesus along the way, down the road to Jerusalem?

Following Jesus down the road to Jerusalem, where he will be beaten, hanged on a cross and die a traitor’s death. We know that faith alone in Jesus made Bartimeaus well, and like Bartimeaus, even in our blindness and most broken moments, we can recognize the presence of God in Jesus Christ.

And we cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us… And we know that it’s Jesus that hears us, and by our faith, He makes us well. So, what is it that we wish for???

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us!! Be careful what you wish for…

RCL Year B (Proper 24) - October 18, 2009

2009-10-18T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B – 20 Pentecost (Proper 24) – October 18, 2009

Job 38:1-7, (34-41)

Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b

Hebrews 5:1-10

Mark 10:35-45

It's a really nice thing to be around a polite person. Most of you know that I was at my son’s graduation from Air Force Basic Training last weekend. It was amazing to see the person that my son has transformed into, but what I think amazed me the most is how he treated others.

When he was out on his town pass and on base liberty, he was extremely polite to everyone, even those in his own flight. It was beyond the simple yes sir, no sir, yes mam, no mam… It was genuine and sincere, and it had become part of who he is. He was always a polite kid, but this time it was extremely noticeable… Even the way he treated the new recruits that were just starting their training…as he passed them, he whispered words of encouragement telling them that it would only get better.

It caused me to take notice immediately about the way I respond to others. I have always tried to be a polite person, using those “good” words that I learned as a child… such as please and thank you. After all, it’s the right way to be, but every once in awhile I forget.

Instead, I find myself reverting back the barking… you know, those times when we make requests of others that sound much more like military commands, rather than respectful requests. Such as, “While you’re up, get me something to drink” or “make me a sandwich.” Does it sound familiar?

Sometimes the way we come across to others is so much a part of who we are, that we don’t even realize how harsh it sounds. It makes others want to come back with that horrible question, “What do I look like, your slave?”

Or sometimes it's just that "look" that will burn a hole right through you. I have had that said to me… I know that probably some of you have too… Whenever someone says that to me, I feel extremely bad… I regret that I did not choose a kinder way to ask. And the word “slave” itself generates a very negative and guttural feeling in me…

Having the word “slave” thrown into a conversation makes many people uncomfortable and nervous. Sometimes I am on the receiving end of that word, but sometimes I’m the one directing that word in another direction. Many of you may think it’s not a big issue, but that’s not the issue that I want to debate here this morning.

Rather, It’s just a description of how I personally feel when I hear the word. I think we can all agree that our words matter. Words have great impact, power, and a lasting presence. And we need to take a minute and realize that they can hurt people as much as they can heal.

That’s why it’s so hard to listen to today’s Gospel lesson from Mark. Jesus says, “whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Slave of all... what in the world does that mean?

We hear the word “slave” and immediately we conjure up images of mistreatment, abuse, degradation, despair, hardship, and sometimes even death. And when Jesus says that slavery is something we need to embrace and model ourselves after, it gets more than a little confusing. In what ways are we to be slaves? What exactly does God expect of us?

It’s important to remember that all language has limitations… Our words, phrases, analogies, metaphors, and even stories themselves (such as parables) are never perfect representations of the meaning behind them. And so, in this case, we must understand that Jesus is affirming SOME aspects of being a slave FOR others, but there are probably other aspects of slavery that Jesus would not and could not support, nor would he ask us to condone or embrace.

So, what aspect of being a slave is Jesus asking us to live out as his disciples? Well, we’ll probably never know exactly. But I’d like us to take a look at one aspect of slavery which might be helpful to us as we walk our journey of faith.

We often think of slaves as simply taking orders from others, doing whatever the task-master asks. However, it was so much more than that. In many ways, the slave did not live separate lives from that of the household they served. Their life was not their own. Rather, their life was fully immersed in and completely overlapped with that of the family they served. The family’s concerns were their concerns. Their well-being was that of the family’s. The family’s needs were their needs. And whatever the family requested, the slave provided if he or she was able --- with no questions and no conditions.

This sort of overlapping of lives is something many of us just don’t do. We like to keep our distance. We have this bubble around us that we like to live in. We like to pick and choose when, where, and how we will love. We help others and care for them only when it’s convenient, or give only when we have something to gain. And if we just don’t feel like it, well, you know what happens. We just sit on the sidelines, detached, leaving others to fend for themselves.

My guess is that when Jesus encourages us to be a “slave” for others, in part, he is asking us to resist the temptation to stay uninvolved and unconcerned. Rather, he’s asking us to enter into --- in a very real way --- the lives of those around us.

In today’s Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews we heard, “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

Jesus entered into our world… God became one of us, and knows what we’re going through. If only we could do the same --- enter the world of others --- and share in their struggles and joys, their hopes, their fears, and their dreams. Truly serving others requires that we carry some of their burdens, take on some of their pain, and help them work through some of their difficulties and struggles. Imagine if we all truly acted that way.

Imagine if every “I need you to . . .” was followed by, “Let me know how I can help.” Imagine if every expression of sorrow was followed by an offer to listen and an attempt to understand. Imagine if every admission of guilt was followed by, “I forgive you.” And imagine if not one person had to journey through this life feeling alone or abandoned.

This is the sort of “slavery” and service that our Lord calls us to. And the good that we do for each other is a good thing in and of itself. Of that we can be assured.

But it is more than that. When we are truly present to one another… the bonds between us grow a little stronger, our understanding of one another becomes a little clearer, and the walls between us begin to be torn down. Mistrust turns to appreciation, suspicion turns into hope, and indifference turns into to true caring.

All of that can be a reality. But, staying in the tiny world, this bubble, that we create for ourselves is not enough. It is beneath who we are as children of God… God entered our world in the person of Jesus Christ, and the world was changed forever. If we are willing to step into the world of another… step in all the way… who knows what might happen?

Parts of this sermon were derived from the musings of the Rev. Deacon Mark Arnold, Sacred Heart Church, Jim Falls, WI – thank you for your words of wisdom, my colleague and friend in Christ!

RCL Year B (Proper 22) - October 4, 2009

2009-10-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B – 18 Pentecost (Proper 22) - October 4, 2009

Job 1:1; 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

What does it mean to live in “right relationship” with God and with each other? Are we doing it? Are we even trying to do it? If we were ALL striving to live in “right relationship,” would we do anything different than what we are doing?

I want to go out on a limb here a bit, and suggest that our only purpose in this life is to practice living in “right relationship.” Right relationship with God and with each other! If you think about it for a minute, our entire life is surrounded by relationships… of course there is the obvious relationships – our relationships to our spouses or significant others, our family and extended family, our brothers and sisters, our parents and our kids, our friends and our enemies, our church, our teachers and our students, our co-workers… and the list goes on and on and on – with just the “people” in our lives!…

Then there is the not so obvious relationships – our relationship with our surroundings (the created order around us…) the plant and animals, our pets, trees, the environment, or even the relationships with our possessions or the stuff that clutters our lives… money, houses, furniture, cars, jobs, hobbies, or our passions... and THAT list goes on and on and on…

Anything and everything and everyone that comes in contact with our lives is a sort of relationship… and if we stop to think about it, we know that relationships are powerful things – good or bad, they form, inform, and transform our very lives…

The very Bible, the book of Holy Scripture… is a book about relationships. Relationships between God and us and our relationships with each other… of how good, bad, or ugly it could possibly be…

In the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament, we learn about God’s relationship with Israel, (God’s chosen people)… In the Old Testament, Israel learns to rely on God’s faithfulness… God’s faithfulness that continually redeems and restores them back into “right” relationship. And in that relationship, we know of some who learn to be faithful… Faithful in following and accepting God’s presence in their lives.

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us about relationships, both, relationships with God and with each other. In today’s lesson from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus continues the teaching that we heard about. You remember the difficult stories in latter part of the ninth chapter of Mark that the bishop taught us about last week? The stories about cutting off that which keeps you from having a “right” relationship with God. I, for one, am glad we understand the amputations that Jesus speaks about more as metaphors that are used to represent other things – I don’t think Jesus was into literal body mutations.

In our story this morning, Jesus and the disciples have traveled down the road a bit and they have reached the edge of the wilderness in Judea near the river Jordan… hmmm… doesn’t this sound familiar? We knew a man who preached there in the wilderness - John the Baptist! So, Jesus is now in back in John’s old venue and he starting to get noticed and attract attention.

A large crowd was starting to form around him and – as was his custom – Jesus begins to teach them… But the Pharisees have different ideas – The scripture says that they were going to test, and we can assume that they want to embarrass and defame Jesus…

We already know that Jesus has upset the social order in order to set “right” the relationships that had run amiss… so the Pharisees decide to test Jesus by asking him about the legalities of divorce. Jesus teaches and argues with them about the intent of the law… He explains that the only reason that the law allowing divorce was given is because Humans are “hard hearted.” That God’s intent, as He quotes Genesis, was for us to become one flesh – the “new creation” that we speak of in our marriage liturgy.

But as humans we mess up relationships, we mess up relationships because we live far from the created balance and order that God intends us to live into…

After Jesus answers the Pharisees, they go into a house… And as usual, the disciples still don’t quite understand what Jesus was teaching… So, Jesus enters a deeper conversation with His band of closest followers and teaches them about some of the consequences of divorce and human separation.

Then the unthinkable happens… little children are brought to Jesus for a blessing, but the disciples rebuke them… and think the children are disruptive. (You want to know why I am an advocate of children being in the liturgy? Read this chapter closely!)… Jesus stops the disciples and takes the opportunity to use the situation to teach them about the greatest relationship of all.

Jesus speaks to them of the restoration of the world to “right” relationship… The Kingdom of God, being one in which people have humility, openness, and the relational gift of being childlike... Childlike - where the complex issues in relationships that we all seem to get messed up in, confused about and stressed out over, all become simple, faithful, and earnest…

So, what does it mean for us to be in “right” relationship? I would like to suggest, it takes a divine balance… A divine balance that is that is sincere uncomplicated and unprofaned. A relationship where we actually seek to serve God in Christ and all do our part to help reconcile this broken world to get it back into right relationship with God…

We all made promises in our baptism (and reaffirmed them last week) to be good stewards of ALL Creation – because everything was created by God and BELONGS to God… and is put in our care… We also promised to seek to serve Christ in ALL persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves… If we just follow through with those two promises and live out our baptismal covenant, then we will start to know what it means to live into “right” relationships.

If it is - in fact - our purpose in life to practice living in “right” relationships, then we are here this morning in this community of faith, to learn how… we are here to worship and learn, and we are called to have our hearts and souls as open vessels to receive the word and the body and blood… so that through our worship and learning, we are formed and transformed… So we learn how to nurture and nourish each other and learn that it is God who nurtures and nourishes us…

God wants a “right” relationship with each and every one of us… and part of that “right” relationship with God… is living in “right” relationship with each other… here at Christ Church and in the world.

RCL Year B (Proper 20) - September 20, 2009

2009-09-20T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Proper 20) - September 20, 2009

Proverbs 31:10-31

Psalm 1
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Mark 9:30-37

Be Somebody!
Just do IT!
Life is short!

Let’s party all night long and take in our fill… we ALL deserve it! You have to MAKE it to the top in life to be successful! I am stronger than YOU are!

Don’t let your co-worker stop you… just use them as a stepping stone!

Go ahead and get to the Top… that way you will look good! So… take on that extra responsibility! If offered the chance, move into that corner office with a view!

It doesn’t matter what peon you had to step on to get there. Make more money, get a bigger house (with a bigger mortgage)! Buy a new car! Get that extra credit card! Or better yet… Just “claw your way to the top”

At this point, you are saying to yourselves… Wait a minute Ken…

But, I am here to tell you… That yesterday, today and tomorrow… That imagery in our society is REAL…. And it’s scary! There is so much pressure in this world to do just that! And it causes us ALL anxiety!

So… This morning - the question is… What ARE the disputes among YOU? Where do they come from? Family?, Work?, Church?, Money?, Power?… You want something and cannot have it… You covet something and cannot obtain it…

Our modern society puts so much emphasis on obtaining positions of false power and authority…

I even heard a young mother just the other day saying to her young child, “when you grow up, one day you aught to be president!” I even think that MY mom used that one on… That may be ok for a kindergartener, but what happens if that level of aspiration is forced?

You’ve got to BE a Doctor… BE a Lawyer… Be Somebody!… Don’t get me wrong… There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with having a successful life, or aspirations for success accomplished with hard work, but too many folks see it as a “zero sum game.” Where there is a “winner”… there must be a “loser.”

Therefore, we do everything that we can to “Claw” our way to that top position of power sometimes at the expense of others… and as the peak of the Mountain gets smaller and smaller on the way to the top there is less and less room for us to stand, but one finally emerges… victorious! What anxiety that produces… It is no wonder that one in ten young people in the United States today have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

This isn’t completely unlike what is going on in our readings today. We were very carefully warned at the beginning of the service, as the collect so plainly tells us… “not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly!” Anxious? – about earthly things? – Who us???

NOW… that statement even makes me anxious! Anxious about being anxious!

Anxiety and Society are friends… And our Society LOVES Anxiety!!! And anxiety is created in all types of situations… How will I get that job and a corner office with a view??? I have been a faithful employee for YEARS!... I deserve more responsibility – AND – MORE MONEY! Will I be accepted????

Or even better yet…

Lord, who will sit at your right hand in the place of honor? Lord, you said you had to die… do you think when you are gone, I can be in charge? Lord, don’t you like me better than him?

Can you imagine what the anxiety level is of the disciples? In their society, that is what they know… They lived in a world where honor and status had extreme value… Their obsession with positions of power rendered them totally incapable of understanding, or even accepting what Jesus is trying to teach them.

Even though Mark’s account of this incident says that they were silent when they hit Capernaum, (on their way to Jerusalem) Jesus knew something was going on… Jesus tried to teach them along the way, as he told them over and over - That “the Son of Man is to be betrayed, killed, and then risen in three days… But the scripture says that they continued to not understand… and they were anxious…

They were all caught up within the struggles for power of their world, arguing with one another about who was the “greatest" and who would sit at his right hand… Jesus, like so often before, uses the opportunity to try to teach them more… He tells them, “Whoever wants to be first… must be last of all and servant of all?”

I can only imagine the responses…

but Lord, I left my job and my life and followed you… I have listened to your teachings… I believe that you are the ONE that has been sent by GOD into the world… You ARE the Messiah, the Christ!

We can only imagine…

I am ready to run with the ball… Put ME in coach… I am ready to play!

The disciples were anxious… and yet they still did not understand… and at this point… they were getting more and more anxious…

So… In the midst of their anxiety and them not understanding… Jesus goes a step further… Jesus takes a little child in his arms… A little child, who was considered to be the weakest and most vulnerable member of their society… A little child, with little or no status and the least among those within the community or family… And Jesus said to his followers…

“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

In one phrase, Jesus collapses the whole power structure that his disciples were climbing and disarms their understanding of the way things work in society. They learn quickly that they need to put it back together and reassess things in their heads and in their manner of life VERY differently.

They must welcome the child… Because when they welcome the child… they welcome GOD! They must come off of their “high horse,” forget about their quest for personal greatness, and completely HUMBLE themselves... Completely Humble themselves and show a radical hospitality to even the weakest member of their society…

And this is a very difficult thing for them to put into practice… This is very difficult for ANYONE to put into practice

St. Benedict, the abbot of Monte Cassino, lived in the 6th century. He wrote a famous “rule” to govern Monastic life. Part of that rule included 10 steps of humility… After listing all the steps he says, “after ascending all these steps of humility, the monk will quickly arrive at that perfect love of God which casts out fear. Through this love, all that he once performed with dread, he will now begin to observe without effort, as though naturally, from habit…”[1]

Now - We are NOT Monks in the 6th Century. However, we must show welcome like Jesus says, but, not just to each other… We need to welcome the lowest of the low… we must cast down our personal delusions of power, and redefine in our lives what it means to be “great.” We must HUMBLE ourselves… and through our acts of personal humility and welcome, God will casts out our fears, and remove our anxieties…

In our gospel story, Jesus will not be among his disciples for very much longer… He has told them that he will die, they are scared… and they are anxious… because they don’t understand. But, we have had 2000 years to figure it out… We know the rest of the story… We can look beyond the cross to the glorious resurrection… We know that the saving act of Jesus has been done… But we are still anxious about earthly things…

So, as we approach the table this morning, let us humble ourselves… let us put aside our personal power, and our rank and status, and let us get rid of our personal feelings and realize that we are NOT better than anyone or anything that happens to kneel next to us…

Let us understand that we don’t have to be “successful” by the world’s standards to inherit the kingdom of heaven… let us not be anxious…

Don’t be anxious about earthly things, but love things heavenly…

[1] Benedict’s Rule 7.67

RCL Year B (Proper 18) - September 6, 2009

2009-09-06T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC 27013

RCL Year B (Proper 18) - September 6, 2009

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Psalm 125
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

Mark 7:24-37

Today we kind of get bombarded from all directions!

The scripture readings are bring us full circle, calling us to a self-awareness, generosity, good works, humility, and dignity as God’s redeemed people. The lesson from James is a sermon in itself; therefore, I am not going to preach that one again.

It is something that we should probably meditate on. It is as direct as it gets with a call to action for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How appropriate is it to hear this lesson of a call to action on this weekend that we honor those that labor? After all, we are a redeemed people, our sins are forgiven, and in response to that forgiveness, we should desire to go out and do those good works and show the Christ that we experience to the world.

But this morning, I want to focus on the healing miracles that we just heard about in the Gospel reading.

Jesus is going (somewhat haphazardly) from town to town, trying not to be noticed too much, for fear of drawing a large crowd and too much attention to himself… at this stage he has found himself a sojourner in a strange land, depending on the hospitality of strangers in order for him and his rag-tag caravan of followers to survive.

His mission at this point, is to preach repentance and redemption to the children of Israel. They have found themselves in the region of Tyre and Sidon. This is pretty far north of their normal stomping grounds around the sea of Galilee.

This was up near Mt. Lebanon, along the sea coast of the Mediterranean. It was most definitely Gentile territory. Not a good place for a Jewish boy to roam.

Word had obviously spread in the region about all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing… the healing & the casting out of demons… He was developing quite a reputation. Jesus shows up, and all of a sudden all things are made well. He comes for a visit and suddenly the mute are speaking, the crippled are walking, and the blind are seeing.

No wonder he can’t get a moments peace! We have to remember that this is ancient Palestine... In a time when there were no hospitals, no ambulances, and no pharmaceuticals – Compared to what we are accustomed to, this is an extremely harsh world with sickness and pain and death… until Jesus shows up!

The grape vine of communication is quick, and a Syrophoenician woman immediately hears of the great healer that has come to town. She has a daughter who has an unclean spirit, so she goes to Jesus… and in an act of pure humility, this non-Jewish woman, bows down at Jesus’ feet and begs Jesus to help heal her daughter.

Not surprisingly, Jesus tried to dismiss her. He actually seems rude and insults her, calling her a dog (which was pretty commonplace for a Jew to say to a gentile – most times much worse)… Jesus’ words were, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

Ooooo… you can almost feel the tension in the air, as this woman (who should have never addressed a man in public), claims her dignity and get’s very bold. She doesn’t return the derogatory remark, but remains humble in her dignity… She answers, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Jesus acknowledges her, and tells her that because of her statement, she can go – her daughter had been made well.

It is amazing that we get the images of humility, dignity, and restoration all in the same short story of an encounter with Jesus. It almost seems that we have heard it before? Maybe we have?

One of the things I miss most about the Rite I liturgy in the Episcopal Church is the prayer that was usually said after the Agnus Dei, before the bidding to the table called the Prayer of Humble Access…

If you will indulge me for a moment and open your Prayer Books to page 337 – find that prayer at the bottom of the page and let us read it together… slowly. And, if you have never done it before, this is the time to pay attention and think about the words…

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

Does it seem familiar? It is a prayer that is older that we can imagine… it was taken from the Old Latin Sarum Litrugy and was translated to English in by Thomas Cramner for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.

It is a way of approach… A way to approach Jesus, who is present with us in the bread and wine of the blessed sacrament. Suddenly, in this prayer, we are in the mindset of complete humility, putting ourselves behind the place of even the Syrophoenician woman in the Gospel lesson, by claiming that we are not even worthy even to gather up the crumbs under the table.

But the prayer also claims our dignity, the dignity that we receive in our baptism as followers of Christ, as we are admitted to the table to eat and drink the body and blood and be nourished, restored, and ready to go out and proclaim the risen Christ!

But hold on!

That’s where we need the second part of the Gospel lesson that we heard… We know how to approach Jesus, now what do we do when we get there?

A deaf man with a speech problem was brought to Jesus. Jesus takes him away from the crowd and then in the crudeness of form, puts his fingers in his ears and spits and touches his tongue and says “Be Opened” – Opening his ears and loosening his tongue… So that he can hear and speak plainly.

Jesus meets us, right where we are in the crudeness of our humanity. He is present with us and wants our ears to be open to listen to his holy word, and he wants our tongue to be loosened so that we can proclaim it to the world. We approach in humility, and we are restored to dignity then we go forward into the world and proclaim what we have heard…

These two stories of healing are very real to us in our journey of faith… we come to Jesus from different places, through different circumstances, and Jesus meet us right where we are.

We experience his real presence in our lives through the Eucharist, and then we leave in dignity, forgiven and restored, ready to proclaim the gospel to others… And we are also ready to do all those good works that James is talking about!

So take this with you this morning… humble yourself and come to the table, receive the body and blood of Christ… Take in His “real” presence in the Eucharistic elements and let your souls and your bodies be nourished. Be restored to the wholeness that only Jesus can give you and then go fourth into the world to proclaim the gospel with your life and do the good works that Jesus has given us to do… Amen!

RCL Year B (Proper 15) - August 16, 2009

2009-08-16T10:30:00.004-04:00

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Episocpal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Proper 15) - August 16, 2009

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20

John 6:51-58

I once knew an Italian man that lived in our small neighborhood back in Delaware. This man owned the local restaurant on main street and freshly baked all of the bread that he served. The small restaurant was always full of the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread… You know the smell… It seemed absolutely heavenly! He would even make those little Italian “bread knots” which are tied pieces of dough painted with mixture of garlic butter and herbs. I can see him behind the counter now, adding just the right amount of ingredients, mixing it up, kneading the dough… All of the things that he made were just perfect and extremely delicious…

We were frequent visitors in that small restaurant, we often went there several times a month and sometimes, several times per week. Once we left Delaware, Kelly and I caught ourselves comparing other restaurants to that tiny little hole in the wall we found in Delaware with the wonderful fresh baked bread.

We continuously notice ourselves looking for that perfect bread. Even thinking of that little restaurant today makes me extremely hungry. We had found other breads in our travels, but we are still hungry for that fresh baked bread by that Italian man in that little restaurant in Delaware.

Now, I know that bread has been around for a very long time… But, it is hard to imagine that they had bread that good 2000 years ago. We have to remember that bread was THE staple food it was a major part of every meal, it was made from scratch and it was a big part of everyday life. Bread required a lot of work to prepare.

The “good” bread (often called ‘clean’ bread) was mostly eaten by the rich, and it was was made with sifted flours which were milled at night. It took over three hours just to prepare. Then it was baked in an outdoor oven.

As good as this bread must have been, this wouldn’t have been the bread that Jesus was talking about in today’s Gospel lesson. The bread that Jesus was speaking of wasn’t the “good” bread – eaten by the rich… nor was it the modern fresh baked bread made by that wonderful little restaurant in Delaware, it isn’t even the bread of our ancestors which was the “manna” provided by God to the Israelites who were roaming around in the wilderness. But – it is the bread of everlasting life!

So – what is this bread of everlasting life?

And why are we all now so very, very hungry for it??!?

The crowd that Jesus was teaching was completely full! – or were they? This passage occurs just after Jesus had just fed them all – over 5000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, then the disciples filled up the 12 baskets with the leftover scraps.

Now, it’s the very next day and the Jews are still following him around waiting for more signs. He tells them that they are working for the wrong bread. They are working for bread that causes death, when they should be working for bread that gives eternal life. Then Jesus tells them that they they must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man in order to have everlasting life.

Jesus once again turns the understanding of Jewish law on its head. The Jews had strict laws about how blood was to be handled. Blood was the life-force of the Hebrew people and therefore had an essential role in sacrifices which were fundamental in Hebrew society. Drinking it would have been completely repulsive and an abomination against God and God’s law. Ritual purity of the food had to be kept!

The clean animals were prepared so that all of the blood was drained a certain way. So – if they had all these rules governed animals… Eating the flesh of a human was completely unheard of… And yet, now they are being told by Jesus to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

People back then – and even for people today, found this is very hard to listen to and even harder to understand. “Eating Flesh? and Drinking Blood?” Yuck! We just don’t get it!

Like the Jews we are still looking for “real” bread instead of focusing on what Jesus wants us to learn. And this is a far cry from the restaurant containing all of that wonderful baked bread. But we should understand that there is much, much more to eating flesh and drinking blood…

This play on words today helps us understand the true humanity of Jesus – Because Jesus was fully human, complete with a body of flesh that could be broken and blood that could be spilled… Yet, at the same time it explains the divinity of Jesus – Unlike the manna that came down from heaven in the wilderness, He now is the bread that has come down from heaven, and offers all those who eat of it - eternal life.

Only the physical body of an animal, in this case, the human being of Jesus Christ, has flesh and blood… and it is the physical incarnate life and death of Jesus that is our life-giving food… and then Jesus give up his life, his human existence, for the life of the whole world… Jesus offers forgiveness of our sins and new life… His life for our life… Only God can do that!

His flesh is to be broken and blood is to be spilled… and we are to be nourished with this awesome gift of Jesus’ self…

Little did the Jews know what Jesus was preparing himself for. Jesus was preparing himself to suffer death, death on a cross, and offer himself as a whole, complete and sufficient sacrifice for the whole world.

So, what are we to do now? How can we get this life-giving bread?

At a meal with his disciples in the upper room the night before he was taken to the cross, Jesus took bread, and after he had given thanks to God, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said “Take, eat, this is my body that is broken for you, eat this in remembrance of me.”

And after they ate he took the cup of wine, after he said the blessing, he gave it to his disciples saying, “Drink this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant that is poured out for you, drink this in remembrance of me.”

We all need this food that Jesus is offering… it’s not just merely some optional gift that we all can ignore, because apart from the life that Jesus offers us… we are all dead. We come to the table in this Church week in and week out in order to share a meal of the body and blood of Jesus. We call it a Sacrament (a principal sacrament) because it is to us, the most prophetic, of the outward and visible signs of the inward and spiritual grace that we receive from Jesus.

Taken, broken, poured out and given to us freely…

Not because we did anything in this world to deserve it, but because God loves us unconditionally – so unconditionally that God gave us his only Son so that we could believe, be forgiven of our sins and have a chance to be reconciled to God.

We are all hungry… Not for the fresh baked bread of this world from some bakery in Delaware, and not for the manna that our ancestors ate in the wilderness, but for the bread of everlasting life that only Jesus can offer us.

I encourage you to come forward to the table this morning and feed on that spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of God’s Son, our savior, Jesus Christ. and be filled with life… but not just life, life everlasting…

RCL Year B (Proper 13) - August 2, 2009

2009-08-02T10:30:00.001-04:00

Kaytlynn Saunders (Age 16)

Christ Episcopal Church

Cleveland, NC

RCL Year B (Proper 13) - August 2, 2009 [Youth Sunday]

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a

Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

Make us peacemakers, O Lord, that we may be called children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. May we never suffer calamities, never fear temptation. When the struggle is over, may we rest in the peace of God, the peace of utter tranquility, through our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Being the youngest of three children, I have often found myself in situations where I wasn't allowed to do something that my brothers were allowed to do. I wasn't supposed to use big kid scissors, or ride my bike without training wheels. I had to wait until I was big enough, or I had enough experience riding that bike without falling over.

But like all children, I was always thinking of ways to make myself seem older, taller, or smarter. Once, when I was 3, I even talked Kyle into taking off those training wheels. I had it in my mind that if I could show mommy and daddy that I could ride a bike, they would let me do what my big brothers got to do. Need less to say, that didn't go so well. I ended up head over heals over the handlebars and face-planted into the concrete.

Even though I got in trouble for doing all of these things, I knew that my parents still loved me. They taught me that I should be patient and wait for what is to come, instead of just rushing ahead and getting hurt.

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus' followers seemed about as patient as I was. They were looking for the material things in their life that showed them that Jesus was the son of God.

They were so focused on the bread that filled their stomachs, that they ignored the true reason why Jesus was there... to teach them, and to show them that God is always there like a mother or father to love them – unconditionally.

When they found Jesus on the other side of the sea, Jesus tried to explain to them why they had come looking for him. Like any impatient child the people asked question after question. Even after Jesus had tried explain it all to them, they still needed proof. They needed something that they could see and understand from experience.

Just like me, trying to understand why I couldn't do the things that my brothers did. It was Jesus that helped them understand. Jesus explained to them that God was the one that gave their ancestors manna from heaven, not Moses. And it is God who gives them the true bread now, that bread being one that sustains life... Jesus... who God delivers to the world for all of us.

After the people had heard what Jesus said they believed him and asked for that bread always. Jesus says to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

If we are patient and believe that Jesus will feed our minds, bodies, and souls, with the bread of life, then we can open our eyes to many things.

We have an opportunity today to come receive the bread of life in communion. Jesus gave us this gift so that we would never be hungry... And so we wouldn't be concerned with what we should do to make ourselves seem something that we are not. He gave us this bread so we could be more focused on getting others to the feast so they will not be hungry.