Year A - Epiphany 4 - January 29, 2017

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

Year A - Epiphany 4 - January 29, 2017

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

I couldn’t help but try to focus on the current events this week through the lens of scripture, Christian behavior, and teaching. If we take scripture seriously at all, then these passages in today’s context of immigration issues, wall building, and human torture the passages we just heard become very challenging.

We know what the Bible says, we have all heard the familiar verses before, but I don’t know how much we, as a community of faith, actually hear or pay attention to what we we’re reading. These are well-known passages, but if we all understood the depth of what the scripture was saying to us, we might start to feel that our lives and actions have come up a bit short.

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

I think the first thing we must do is just stop for a minute and realize that the scriptures, especially the ones that we just heard, have a Jewish context… The historical, socio-economic and political environment in which the Bible was written bears much on how we should interpret the writings in order to make them relevant to us in today’s world.

That’s part of the difficulty... that’s part of what makes it uncomfortable. We don’t understand completely because we’re not Jewish. We don’t understand culturally what it means to be Jewish, we are just normal everyday Christian folk. So, it’s a challenge for us to comprehend the depth of the meaning of the text from the people that actually wrote it.

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

Now for those who might be wiggling in their pew a bit, I hope to share with you the context from which the prophet Micah (in the Old Testament lesson), and Jesus (in the Gospel lesson) are both coming from this morning.

The term I would like to introduce you to is called “Tikkun Olam” (say it with me… Tikkun Olam) It is a phrase in Hebrew that literally means “repair the world”… It is a concept that those who follow Judaism would understand, it is part of the teaching or the “Mishnah.”

But how is this relevant to us? How do we Christians repair the world? How do we use what we have and how we act to fix what seems to us to be wrong with our society. There, for us, is the challenging part… it is the piece that calls out of our comfort zone, beyond our worship and puts our love of God into action.

It calls us out of the mode of just showing up on Sunday and sitting in the comfortable pew, listening (or not listening) to what the priest has to say, and puts the reality of the living God to work in society – out there in the streets… It is truly being the church in the world…

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

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

After the peoples pleading of – what then shall we do? How will we make it right? How will we once again get back in right relationship with God? – they go down a laundry list of sacrifices… Sacrifices that they would expect worthy of the Most-High God… burnt offerings, rams, and calves, and oil… even the ultimate sacrifice of thfirstbornrn (the fruit of the womb for the sin of the soul)… But then Micah reminds them of “Tikkun Olam” of their responsibility to repair the world… the responsibility to do what is “required” by God… to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. It’s not a request or even a hint, but a “requirement” to repair the world by doing three things that God requires… to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

The idea of “Tikkun Olam” even makes its way into the gospel story this morning… Words the Jewish audience of Matthew would understand. Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the peacemakers, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account… Jesus’ list of those blessed, known to us as the “beatitudes,” are really Jesus’ way of reminding the people of the “Tikkun Olam” that God requires of them…  of how to the repaired and restored world looks like… Jesus uses examples of things that are not right in society, the poor, the ones considered weak and hungry those that would be otherwise despised for challenging the status quo…

He says to them that they will be blessed or “happy” in the repaired and restored world – the world that he calls the Kingdom of God – and it’s the people’s responsibility to bring it about. Just as the prophet Micah before him, Jesus calls his followers to the restorative action… to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Likewise, We, as followers of Jesus, as his disciples, we are required by God to “Tikkun Olam”… we are required to repair the world. But that’s where it gets difficult for us, especially those of us that do very little beyond our Sunday morning worship.

Scriptural teachings are not easy to follow, and just because we have received salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus, doesn’t mean we are exempt from what our faith requires of us.

Every time we see an injustice in society, we are required, as a church, to help right the wrong.

We are required to do what we can to repair the world’s injustice – to uplift the fallen and demand equity for ALL of God’s children, even those different from us.

It is manifested most simply, most locally through our ministries, like our work with the Assistance Center of Towson Churches food bank…

It’s speaking out against what we see going wrong with government… It’s advocating for building relationships, not walls… It’s finding a way to help the stranger in need, not keeping them huddled in an airport, scared for their life.

It’s caring for and properly using and conserving our natural resources, not disregarding the voice of the Native American community just to make a dollar.

It’s keeping our baptismal promise to seek to serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. Not letting our fears of the “other” control our decisions.

And it’s keeping the promise to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being… Not subjecting those being held in our custody to torture for information (that probably won’t be accurate anyway)…

The world’s poor, the destitute, the forgotten, and the hungry are to be remembered and restored… are to be clothed, housed, fed, and protected in our community’s effort to do justice.

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

I actually found this manifested is a little boy I know, this remarkable young man, Henry, who is a fellow Episcopalian (member of Epiphany in Timonium), he and I are both students of TaeKwonDo… He started what he calls, “The Kindness Club” … calling out and recognizing random acts of Kindness wherever he sees it. Tikkun Olam calls us to be part of the Kindness Club!

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

God has showed us a model of humility in the person of Jesus Christ. God emptied God’s self in complete humility and became one of us and lived among us… And, if we remember the story correctly, as great a teacher, healer and prophet as Jesus was… society rejected him, convicted him and sentenced him to die as a common criminal. So, if we are actually doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God as Jesus did; we might just get hung on our own cross.

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

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

Year A - Epiphany 2 - January 15, 2017

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

RCL Year A - Epiphany 2 - January 15, 2017

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

More than any other time in the Church year, Epiphany is a season of light. It starts out with the Magi (or Wise Men) following that bright star that illuminated the night sky. It is a time designed by the church for us to reflect on coming out of the dark… Out of the dark and desolate places of our lives and coming to live out in the open… into the light of Christ. It is an invitation to be baptized as a believer in Christ and to participate and share in his ministry.

Last week was the First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord, and in place of the Nicene creed in the service we stood up and renewed our baptismal vows… As it is fitting and proper to do on that day, as it is during the great vigil of Easter, on the day of Pentecost, and on All saints day. These are the major feasts that are especially appropriate for baptism  but even though we didn’t baptize anyone, we took a moment to remember our own baptism… to remember WHO we are and WHOSE we are, by virtue of our own baptism – our baptism by water and the holy spirit into the life, death, and resurrection, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Last week we heard the story of Jesus’ baptism from the Gospel according to Matthew. But today, we hear a portion of the story a little differently from the Gospel according to John. In John’s story, the baptizer John (not the Gospel writer) proclaims several times who Jesus is.  John the Baptist said, “look… there he is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world… He is the one that I have been talking about… He is the Christ, He is the one that came into the world. Believe me, when I baptized him, I saw the Holy Spirit descend on him, and I heard the voice of God say that he was the one, God’s only son, with whom He is well pleased!”

Baptism is the first step… Our first step of our living into the light of Christ and embarking on the journey that we are all on together!

The theme that unites all the readings today is “Call.”

Who are we called to be and what are we called to do as baptized persons??

It is the famous writer Parker Palmer who says that our “call” by God, referred to by Palmer as our true vocation, is something we can’t not do!” I realize that his phrase is a double negative (and it’s driving the English teachers in the congregation crazy), but I think Parker uses this language it to make a point.

Our true vocation is this deep yearning, a yearning and seeking that is deep inside us. It is something that is knit into the very fabric of our lives. – It’s in our DNA. This is expressed by Isaiah who says, "the Lord called me before I was born" – before I was knit in my mother’s womb, you knew me!”  

The Psalmist adds, that after waiting patiently for the Lord, "he lifted me out of the pit... and he set my feet on a high cliff...";

The epistle from "Paul, called to be an apostle," to Church in Corinth "called to be saints" and equipped with all the necessary spiritual gifts; even though they weren’t very good at it in practice.

John story, after he explains who Jesus is, is the call of the first disciples. I find that the most engaging part of this passage is Jesus' first conversation with the two disciples. He sees them following him and asks them a question, "What is it that you are looking for?" They answer the question with a question: "Teacher, where are you staying?" Jesus answers, simply, "Come and see."  

The question he asks them first, "What are you looking for?" is strangely enough the question that begins the service of admission to the catechumenate. Since the ancient church, the catechumanate (from where we get the words catechuman and catechism – the learners and the teaching) has been the period of preparation for baptism.  

It has most recently been resurrected in the church as a preparation for confirmation and spiritual enrichment: and I’m thinking very seriously about offering it during the Christian Education hour during Lent.

The question is "What do you seek?" in the Catechumanate service, the answer is "Life in Christ!"  This is essentially what the Christian faith believes that all of us are seeking. Andrew and the other disciple don't know that – or at least the text doesn’t say it – But they do ask a question "Where are you staying?” Where are you coming from? Where are you going? And Jesus' answer to them was simple, open, and inviting: "Come and see." 

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

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

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

The completion of the story, of course, is the irony that Andrew goes back and invites his brother, Simon – who Jesus calls by a nickname, Cephas (in Aramaic) which translated to Greek is “Petros” or “Rock” (Petros in greek means rock). Peter, as we well know will be that steadfast rock of the continuing church -  the keeper of the keys to the kingdom.

We need to stop and think for a minute: What if Andrew had not been invited by Jesus? And what if Andrew had not followed? What if Andrew had not invited Peter? How would Peter have ever found the way?

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

To follow Jesus as Lord and Savior means that we are called to live into that gospel life that illuminates the lives of others. As Christians, It is our calling… our true vocation… It’s something that we can’t not do! 

For a baptized Christian, Jesus is our source of light and life. He is our reason for being!

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

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