TRINITY SUNDAY 2014 AT CHRIST CHURCH PUYALLUP

THE SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 2013

In the Name of the Incarnate One. Amen.

For my Advent devotions this year, I decided to reread the Early Church Fathers on the Incarnation. Now, before you roll your eyes and utter word that aren’t supposed to be uttered in Church, let me confirm that, yes, the old boys are as dry as the Sahara. And they’re not the best writers in the world when it comes to syntax and the like. But within that Sahara are little oases of profound beauty that can bring tears to the eye.

They all seem to have different perspectives on many things, but about one thing they are in accord: that Divine Being, whom we call God, is ultimately transcendent; that Divine Being cannot be known; God is immutable – unchanging, without passions nor emotions because God is beyond such things and the Creator of such things. God is not compassionate nor loving nor merciful nor just. God IS all compassion, the fullness of all love, mercy itself and ultimate justice. God is so totally other that no created entity can have access to Divine Being who is beyond time and space and all human knowledge. Divine Being is all knowledge, all sight and all power and in need of nothing, including us.But the Fathers are quite certain about another facet of Ultimate Divine Being: that within the Being of God is also Hagia Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, a feminine aspect of God, through whom all things came into being, all creation was created, who was the Prime Mover when the Big Bang went off billions of years ago. And it is this Divine Wisdom that has permeated the Universe and brought all things to life.

Have I lost you yet? Thought not.

It is this Hagia Sophia that sprung up in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.This Holy Wisdom filled with power and love and compassion and mercy and justice became vulnerable to the living things on this planet by being born, by taking flesh,  by, as St. John says in the Greek of this morning’s Gospel, “pitching a tent” among us, as one of us in the normal human way. It is this Holy Wisdom that pitched a tent  through the obedience of an unwed peasant girl and her finance in a backwater region of a third rate territory of the Roman Empire.

But the question remains: Why? Why would Divine Being and Holy Wisdom pitch a tent among such beings as us? The Fathers, in their dryness also address this question. It was not so that the Word made Flesh could be offered up as a sacrifice for sin. That idea didn’t surface until Saint Anselm in the 11^th Century an Archbishop Canterbury no less. Then the Protestant Reformers got hold of it and took it to its absurd conclusions.

No, Divine Being and Holy Wisdom became one of us God became human – so that humanity could understand its own divinity, say the Fathers. Not that humans become the Godhead, but humanity understands and claims the fact that inside each one of us, inside every human being dwells the Holy and Divine One whom we cannot understand. And such understanding changes everything.

Such understanding awakens in us the emotions and passions of love and mercy and compassion and justice. Such understanding creates within us the desire to take action. Such understanding urges us on to love those who are unlovable, to embrace those who are oppressed and outcast, to sit in solidarity with the poor, the lonely and the unloved, to seek peace not only as the absence of conflict but peace deep within the human soul. The Fathers are clear about one thing: that the Word became Flesh so that God could touch us and that we could touch the Transcendent God. The Word, that Holy Wisdom that John calls the Logos, pitched a tent among us so that the divinity with us could be Holy Divinity through us to those who cannot touch or see or experience it. God became human in Jesus of Nazareth so that humanity could touch and see and feel the very face of God. God became human so that we can recognize the divinity alive in each other and even within ourselves. And when that recognition comes, we come to realize just how beloved we truly are; that despite the transcendence of the Holy One, God comes to live among us to reveal to us just how much, deep within the Mystery of God, that that Divine Love is for us.

And so, since around the year 325, the Faithful have gathered each year around the time of the old pagan feast of the Unconquered Sun to remember who and what we are. And each year, we tell the stories of the miraculous birth of the Christ Child and sing carols of praise the words of which we all know by heart even though we only sing them once a year. And we exchange gifts in memory of the gifts brought to that most Holy Child by the Astrologers from the East and in thanksgiving to God for the gift of that Holy Child.

But, most importantly, we gather to remember that the Incarnation is not just a one time event. We gather to remember that God continues to become flesh in us and through us: in a smile to the homeless man selling Real Change in the hours spent in silence with a grieving friend in our care for those for whom no one else cares in our making the cranky check-out clerk laugh in our rejoicing with the joyful in our love for our families and friends and loved-ones in our feasting and in our laughter. And through all of it, the Transcendent and Unknowable One comes and pitches a tent among us through that most Holy Wisdom, through that Word made Flesh who was, and is, and ever shall be, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

10 November 2013

The 25th Sunday after Pentecost

As many of you know, I am not a great fan of Saint Augustine – the great 5th Century theologian of the Western Church who foisted his own personal guilt on us all with his concept of Original Sin. However, on occasion, Augustine had the right idea. One day, he was asked what God was doing before the creation of the universe. He replied, “creating Hell for those who ask stupid questions.” Now, most of us Anglicans left Hell in the dust centuries ago, but I get his point. And Augustine would have had no time whatsoever for the Sadducees in this morning’s Gospel lesson.

The Sadducees were a very small but powerful sect within Judaism. They were the Calvinists of their time. They didn’t believe in resurrection because they had no need to. Sadducees were very rich because, at least to them, God had blessed them in particular. They had all that heaven could provide here on earth and they saw the afterlife as rather a moot point. When you’re dead, you’re dead having had heaven on earth. Those who were not blessed as they were obviously had not received the blessings of God because they weren’t good enough. And of all things, that wasn’t the Sadducees’ problem. And, of course, for them the idea of resurrection was just plain silly.

On the other hand, there have been those throughout the centuries for whom the needs of the less fortunate were also not their problem. These folks – among them many 18th and 19th Century Anglican clergymen, had no problems with the huge divide between the rich and the poor and the conditions under which the latter worked and survived. These folks believed that such people would be rewarded in the afterlife so why worry about this one. If the poor had Jesus in their hearts, they’d be just fine.

We might observe that Our Lord in this morning’s Gospel is certainly kinder than St. Augustine - though I figure that even Our Lord himself was a bit exasperated by the Sadducees’ question certainly not asked in innocent inquiry. Of course, they were trying to pick a theological fight. Whether we like it or not, and no matter how much the Gospels rail against them, Our Lord was born and raised in the Pharisaic tradition of Judaism. He believed in resurrection. His beef with the Pharisees was their hypocritical insistence on ritual purity. But when it came to the resurrection, they were on the same page. The Pharisees were of the opinion that when the Messiah came, the righteous would be resurrected to live in new messianic age.

What no one seemed to know or understand, including Our Lord himself, was that the resurrection was much more than that for which they had bargained. The question of what the Resurrection of Jesus even was has stumped theologians since the day Our Lord peeked out from the tomb. Earliest scriptural references to the Resurrection are the Risen Christ as bright light knocking St. Paul off his horse on the way to Damascus, or a very gauzy figure. It’s not until the end of the First Century and the writing of the Gospel of John, that Our Lord takes on very human bodily forms. But for our purposes this morning, that question will need to continue to be a sacred mystery. At the same time, no one was expecting the Resurrection or else they’ve all been camped outside the tomb filing their nails, just waiting for the stone to move. What really happened, we don’t know. No one had a video camera to bear witness to the events that followed. But what we DO know is that a power stronger than even death itself brought new and abundant life to a small group of Jewish women and men that changed the entire course of human history. It was the power of the Resurrection that gave this little band of people the power and courage and outrageously intense desire to go into the world with the message of God’s unrelenting love for the human race. And it was their joy and compassion and mercy, their refusal to judge and condemn, being God for the world, that brought new and abundant life to millions. And it is this new and abundant life of which we have become inheritors.

We come and sit in this Church every Sunday morning to bare witness that the Resurrection has touched our lives in the most intimate of ways. It is the knowledge of God’s outrageous love for us and all people that brings us back each week. It’s knowing that there is a place where the Gospel of Jesus is lived out: a place where we know that we might be challenged, but never judged nor condemned because such things are not the Gospel. It is living with the security that when life happens we have a resurrected community to hold us in the dark times and lift a glass of Champagne with us in our joy - a community to be Christ for and with us. It is being part of a cause, the ultimate cause of Christ himself, that stands up to challenge the wolves in sheep’s clothing who still preach the purity laws and condemnation of which the Pharisees were so fond in our own day. It is indeed Christ’s own Resurrection which lavishly provides a place where we belong a place for us to call home.

I have always refused to talk about fund raising in Church. I always let someone else do that. That’s what Stewardship committees are for. But I’ve changed a bit. I’ve come to realize that stewardship isn’t about raising money though it might be a byproduct. Stewardship is knowing what we have and who has given it to us and not wanting to keep it just for ourselves. We are not stewards of just our checkbooks. We are stewards of the Gospel. We are stewards of the very power that raised Jesus from the dead which has brought the possibility of new and abundant life to every human being on this planet. And we are stewards of the power of that Gospel in our own little corner of the world on First Hill.

When Ron and I have our yearly conversation about what we’re going to give to the Church, it’s not about the money. Sure, we talk about dollars and cents. But ultimately, it’s about what those dollar and cents mean and what they accomplish. Our paltry little contribution to the whole increases the chances that some poor soul who’s been beaten up by the wolves in sheep’s clothing might find a place of refuge and new life and home and the knowledge that the love of God has no strings attached. What we give ensures that what passes as Christianity in this country is not the only voice that is heard and the peace and love which God has for us all is available to all – even the Pharisees of our own day. We give so that others might have what we have. And it insures that we continue to have a place from which to live out our faith in Jesus and be supported in living the life and Gospel to which he calls us with those who have become our community.

And we don’t give because we ought to or because we should. Guilt is never a good or positive motivator. We give because we want to. We give out of a sense of deep thanks for what God has given us - what God has given to everybody whether they know it or not.

With Ron’s Jewish roots, we make an investment in the thing that we value the most and to the One whose investment in us is our ultimate joy. And we make that investment because this is home. It’s the place we belong. It’s the place where we are fed and nurtured and have the privilege of feeding and nurturing others.

I invite you to invest with us, to invest in our mutual home: for all that it is and for all that it can be.

Some of us may only spend an hour or so a week here. And what’s one hour or so out of 168 minus the 56 we are asleep? Some of us may spend more than that. But even just that one hour is the nitty gitty of what life is made. This is the place – even for that one hour or so – where we live into what life is really all about, - the community to whom we turn in life’s most profound moments, - the place that reminds us that we are indeed loved and lovable, - the place we can be our true selves at least for that hour and nobody snickers.

Whether the cash value of your investment is large or small is somewhat beside the point. What matters is what that investment means. It means that you value this place and that for which it stands. It means you value the Gospel which is its bedrock. And it mans you value the One who is its very bedrock. But ultimately, I invite you to invest in the One through whom God has invested in us, the One whose love for us and the world knows no bounds; the One we know in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Can Holy Mother Church be Saved? ..... Yes, she can.

I’m never sure why I write these things – these essays that nobody reads.  Maybe they’re just for my own self-edification or to sort out my thoughts for my own sake to share with no one.  But, in the long run, it really doesn't matter, now, does it.

Now that the dust is beginning to settle from General Convention 2012, I’m beginning to ruminate about its consequences and actions.  Of course, what I think doesn’t really make much difference.  After all, I’m a part-time parish priest with no real standing anywhere.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  I like it that way.  Just putting my credentials, or lack thereof, out there. 

And on one level, I really have no dog in this race.  Granted, I’m a partnered, gay man – today is our ninth anniversary – so the whole same-gender unions thing is important – to an extent.  On one level, it doesn’t go far enough.  Gay folk are still second class citizens in the Church and will remain so until the same rite used for heterosexuals is used for us and we actually call gay relationships what they really are: marriages.  But what General Convention has enacted is a good first step.

On the other hand, it really doesn’t make much difference to me one way or another.  What Ron and I have is indeed marriage whether Holy Mother Church says so or not.  But this isn’t a monologue on the theology and history of marriage.  That’s for another time.  We don’t really need the Church to validate us.  We can do that on our own, thank you very much.  And those we love and care about and those who love and care about us see our marriage as such.  So does the State of Washington.  So, I guess in some ways it’s a moot point. 

The thing that I’m finding curious, and have for some time now, is the manner in which this issue has become so divisive.  Not that it shouldn’t be.  There will always be differences of opinion, deeply held opinion, on such subjects.  We are, after all, humans and when one puts two human beings in a room and asks each the same question one will receive three opinions, at least!  That’s the way we’re hardwired. 

Both “sides” of the opinion field come from basically the same place.  Both come to heart-felt beliefs – for which they are willing to die in a ditch – to some degree honestly and for various reasons as well as personal experiences, histories and biases.  Each side has its theological, biblical and secular reasons for the conclusions to which they have come.  Each side also ignores the facts that the other side presents.  And each side believes that its opinion is the right and only conclusion to which any committed Christian can come. 

When one boils it all down, theology isn’t really the issue.  As a colleague reminded me, this is much more a psychological issue than an issue of belief.  Each side has had its feelings hurt....badly; though each side would be loathe to admit it.  Many of those quarreling are men and men in general wouldn't know a feeling if it slapped them in the face - especially white, Anglo-Saxon men.  For the conservatives dealing with the marriage issue, I really think that their real problem is the "ick" factor.  Comments I've read center on what two men do in the bedroom but rarely what two women do.  It seems to be a visceral reaction to something they consider beyond distasteful.  Well, the ick factor is OK.  It's what they're feeling.  But basing one's argument on feelings rather than facts isn't a helpful way to come to conclusions.  The exact same can be said about the GLBT community.  While its paranoia may be based in some profound experience of personal and communal history, at some point those feelings of paranoia need to be worked through and healed.  Wallowing in self pity is never the road to wholeness.  The Church, at least the Episcopal Church, isn't a place where such self pity is necessary.  The Gospel of Jesus is about transformation and healing, not wallowing in the muck.  The cross was three hours.  The resurrection is eternal.

However, ours is not a Tradition of blacks and whites, of knowledge of the ultimate truth beyond some basics like “Love God, love your neighbor.”  We have always been a Tradition of multiple opinions, practices and beliefs.  We have even gone so far as to label the adherents to these beliefs and practices as “parties” at different points.  These parties have fought and scrapped for their beliefs, sometimes vociferously.  And when the dust had settled, they gathered around the same Table and broke bread together and passed the Cup, understanding that what they held dearest was still incomplete at best.

Our present situation is different, and I might add, in my opinion quite un-Anglican and certainly un-Christian.  Each side has based its opinion on their experience of the Divine, its study of Scripture and theology and its own personal and cultural biases.  This is all fine and good and as it should be.  How else does one come to a conclusion?  At the same time, each side has taken on the role of being the mouthpiece for God – claiming ultimate, sole truth – while demonizing the other.  Accusations are made of the other side being “un-Christian,” or “bigots,” or certainly on the road to hell.  People have walked away from the table while the other side has said, “Good riddance.” 

Some have made the argument that the Church has declined in membership because of certain trends within its ranks and have abandoned her like rats on a sinking ship without looking at the statistics.  These statistics reveal that all churches are declining in membership especially the evangelical churches and the Roman Church.  However, I believe that the decline in membership within the Episcopal Church has little to do with Prayer Book revision or the ordination of women or the blessing of same-gender unions.  I believe that the decline in membership among the churches and especially the Episcopal Church is due to the fact that those outside the Church do not see an outward and visible sign of the presence of Jesus.  We have willingly left behind our call as a Tradition offering to the world a community in which to deal with the ambiguities of life and faith and have replaced it with the need for being “right.”  We have lost our abilities to see that the other side may have a kernel of truth buried somewhere.  And we have lost the mutual respect for each other to which our Baptismal Covenant calls us, not to mention Jesus himself.  We have become – each side of us – has become arrogant and self-righteous at the expense of the other and at the expense of the Gospel.  And the time has come for us to cease and desist and return to the humility before God to which Jesus calls us. 

The prime example of this phenomenon is seen regarding the full participation of the GLBT community.  Over the past forty years, the GLBT community within the Church has been vocal about the pain it has suffered feeling like second class citizens.  It has blamed who are labeled “conservatives” as being narrow minded and bigoted and the source of its pain.  Those who object to the full participation of the GLBT community within the life of the Church have labeled this community as “sinners” or worse and the decision of the Church to bless the unions of same-gendered couples as a betrayal of Scripture and tradition and even God “himself.”  This betrayal is blamed on abandoning the true faith at best and at worst heresy.  And this betrayal is the fault of the liberals who are much more concerned with being politically correct than faithful.  And the actions of these liberals have caused them such great agony.  And for each side, the only way that such pain can be alleviated is by the former abandoning its position and firmly taking up and firming the cause of the latter.

But we have always been a Tradition of the middle way.  From the time of Elizabeth I, we have always not just tolerated but celebrated the fact that while striving for the same thing – reconciliation and renewal of the world in Christ – we approach it from different vantage points and places.  Ultimately, we have affirmed the same Creeds and prayed from the same Prayer Books and read the same Bible but been open to various and sometimes seemingly and actual opposite interpretations of the same.  And we have lived comfortably with that knowing that our knowledge of God is miniscule compared to the Being of the Divine.  But we have forgotten that we are but human.  We have forgotten that we are fallible and inconsistent beings created in the image of God whose love for us is infinitely beyond our comprehension – and not just us, but for the whole world.  And until these trends are admitted, addressed, worked through and healed, the Church as a national institution will continue to flounder and make absolutely no difference in the world.  We will continue to be viewed as hypocrites and Pharisees by the vast majority of the population and rightfully so.

I am certainly not willing to claim to be the mouthpiece of God but I am willing to offer an educated opinion based on my own sense of the Divine and the teachings of our Lord with the caveat that I may be totally wrong.  However, the opinion is that the Church as institution needs to move into new – or old – territory.  I believe that she is being called to be a witness to the love of God made manifest in the person of Jesus of Nazareth whom we call “the Christ.”  This is not a new call.  But she needs to begin the process of listening and hearing from both sides of the ecclesiastical spectrum all over again.  She needs to acknowledge that among her children there are those who hold beliefs and opinions so dear to them that they are willing to die in a ditch for them.  The last thing she needs to do is tell her children to “play nice.”  Nice never solves anything.  It just fosters smoke screens and subtle – or not so subtle - dishonesty.  But what Holy Mother Church MUST do is insist - in the name of Jesus Christ - that we affirm the vital things that unite us: the faith in the Trinity, the Humanity and Divinity of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule; and refuse to condemn each other for the things that divide us.  Agreement is not the goal.  Honesty is the goal.  Mutual respect in the midst profound differences is the goal.  The end of judgment and condemnation is the goal.  Humility is the goal.  In a word, the Gospel is the goal. 

Only when Holy Mother Church has begun the healing process between her children can she get on with the real work of the Church: reaching the world with the unconditional love of God in Christ.  That’s our job.  That’s our mission.  We’ve spent enough time arguing with and condemning each other about tertiary issues and put the Gospel on the back burner.  And the world is laughing at us and rightfully so.  And, at the risk of being the mouthpiece of God, God is shaking the divine head and rolling the divine eyes. 

The Anglican Communion in general and the Episcopal Church in particular – among others – has the best “product” on the market.  Our worship is second to none.  Our theology is intentionally broad – for the previously stated reasons.  Our music is glorious.  We reach out into the world trying to alleviate human suffering.  We have a commitment to justice and peace not based on political correctness but in our response to the teachings of Our Lord.  But our advertizing is horrendous.  And the only way we can correct it is to return to the foundations upon which our Tradition was founded.  We need to return to the Gospel which unites us and agree to disagree on the secondary and tertiary issues – for they have become the Devil among us - and get on with the work of renewing the world in Christ. 

Therefore, I, a simple parish priest of little account – who likes it that way! – call upon the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church – and maybe even the Anglican Communion - to invite all its delegates and bishops and any other of the interested faithful to assemble and begin the process of the renewal of the Church.  The hierarchy might invite someone like Archbishop Desmond Tutu as moderator of this gathering = after all, I am talking about truth and reconciliation.  The venue doesn’t have to be a trendy convention center and its participants housed in fancy hotels.  Such a gathering and such renewal must be based in a sincere desire for reconciliation between those whose heart-felt beliefs are very different with the intent of returning to the mission to which we are called.  It must be based on a sincere desire to let go of the need for being “right.”  It must be based on stating beliefs and feelings in humility and respect for those whose beliefs are at the other end of the spectrum.  It must be based on the sincere and heart-felt belief that condemnation and judgment have no place among Christians.  It must be based on the sincere willingness to listen to the deep convictions and hurts of the “other” and understand that such convictions and hurts are not based necessarily in malice or ill-will but a profound commitment to faith as the “other” sees it.  It must also require that each “side” take responsibility and ownership for its own pain and anguish and cease blaming the other as its cause and insisting that until the former side agrees with the latter, the pain will continue.  Such a gathering must gather based on the profound and stated belief that we might understand what it means to “forgive us our sins as forgive those who sin against us.”

When this process has begun, then those assembled must recommit themselves to the Gospel of Jesus Christ – to the basics of the “faith as this Church has received them.”  Such gatherings may start out small and take much time and many gatherings but in the end such gatherings must have at their goal the recommitment to seeking the will of God though the clues may be in shadows and the answers ambivalent and vague – which they always are – without becoming polarized, self-righteous or given to blame.  Such gatherings must recommit themselves to providing Eucharistic communities where those who have frequently seen us as hypocrites and Pharisees feel welcome to join us in trying to figure out the mystery of life in communion with the Divine and Holy One.  At some point, each bishop and delegate needs to return to his/her diocese and begin the same process at home.  Within dioceses which have come to some resolution on the given issues and maybe others, the process needs to happen anyway.  And from the diocese to the parish/mission.  Then, and only then, can the Church begin to grow – not with the intent of increasing numbers of butts in the pews and pledges in the coffers, but with the intent of bring hope and wholeness to a suffering world.  It is only then that Holy Mother Church can regain her own hope and wholeness by living out the mission to which she has been called. 

There is much I revere and respect about the Roman Church, at least on a theological level.  There are also things that I don't buy into such as the Marian Dogmas, the Roman version of Purgatory, the all male priesthood and the obsessive legalism which seems to pervade her, not to mention that my take on the Gospel and the teachings of Our Lord are considered much too liberal for her tastes.


We Episcopalians and Anglicans are not immune from our own versions of hypocrisy but at least we seem to be attempting to confront them when they rear its ugly head.  However, the hypocrisy of Rome has gone to the point where it betrays the Gospel.  The fact that the hierarchy continues to diminish (a deeper word needs to be found) the abuse of children by priests while opening an all out assault on the backbone of the Church, her Nuns, is about as anti-Christian as one can get.  The hierarchy of the Roman Church has lost all credibility.  The Roman laity continue to uphold the Gospel and live the teachings of Jesus while their "leaders" drag the Church further and further back into the Medieval and Dark Ages.  


I can never deny the validity of the Eucharist of the Roman Church.  It's the same as the Anglican Eucharist.  But the celebration of this most Blessed Event by the hierarchy has become an abomination in and of itself.  To celebrate the Mass while at the same time subjugating women, condemning gay people as "unnatural," accumulating wealth, power and status which could alleviate most of the suffering on the planet may just be an abomination.  Celebrating the very presence of Christ himself while denying and willingly rejecting what he taught is the very definition of sin.  Claiming to hold absolute truth while while living a lie is totally contrary to the message for which Christ went to the Cross. 


I don't want to judge the leaders of Roman Church - as Our Lord has forbidden such things, and rightfully so.  And it certainly is not the place of a simple parish priest of little status to cast aspersions on Successors to the Apostles.  But, as a baptized Christian who vows to "work for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being," to sit back and say nothing concerning these things is to give tacit approval.  As a priest, called to pastor and teach, to say nothing is to be a false witness to those to whom I am responsible.  And as a human being, to sit back and say nothing - and do nothing - while my fellow humans are degraded and belittled, even denied their full humanity, especially in the name of Christ, is to betray my own humanity.  


There is little a simple, rather insignificant (and gladly so!) Episcopal parish priest can do to set right the wrongs of another and more powerful institution, let alone his own.  But I can and do pray, and invite you to do the same.  Pray for a new heart for the Bishop of Rome and his henchmen.  Pray for strength, fortitude and courage for the Roman Catholic laity and the thousand of faithful priests and nuns that serve them.  And pray for ourselves.

O Gracious One, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior.  

Amen. 

                 From The Book of Common Prayer (1979), adapted.