RCL Year A (Christmas) - December 24, 2010

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

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

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

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 camel's 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 upon 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 to 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 by 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 straight 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 and 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 the coarse camel’s hair and leather were 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 the 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 hearts, “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 from 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 to 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 revealed… 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.