8 Pentecost, 26-A: The ultimate healing

Lectionary: Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19; Psalm 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 

Good news in our gospel today, eh? Actually, it is, if we have ears to hear. 

Last week, I mentioned that we often hear biblical stories the way the church that raised us taught us to hear them. Our lectionary today offers us a few concepts we were raised to find familiar, and we will reflect on them from a Biblically grounded perspective.

Our Collect reflects an early Christian belief that we are unworthy and dare not ask God for mercy. This sense of unworthiness derives from Augustine of Hippo’s 3rd century doctrine of original sin - that we are born in a state of sin. This doctrine was later strengthened and expanded by John Calvin and other Reformers in the 15th century, and sadly, it survives and thrives in much of Christianity today. I say sadly, because it is not a biblical teaching.

As Episcopalians, you may cling to this teaching if you choose to, but we engage with the biblical teaching that we are born in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27). The world may challenge and tempt us away from that, but God stands steadfastly with us, reminding us of the truth of who we are and whose we are, continually guiding us back to our created state of original goodness - which is how redemption works.

Jesus directly addresses the issue of worthiness in the parable of the wheat and weeds. In Jesus’ time, you could sabotage a harvest of wheat by throwing in the seeds of bearded darnell, a weed-grain that looks a lot like wheat but is bitter and toxic in its maturity. The roots of this weed eventually wind together with the roots of the wheat. Once that happens, it is impossible to remove until the threshing.

Experienced field hands knew that the logical thing to do would be to pull out the weeds quickly so they don’t steal soil space and nutrients from the grain. But Jesus’ parable, like all parables, surprises. The farmer instructs them to let the wheat and the weeds grow together. At harvest time, they will be separated by the reapers, not the field hands, and dealt with according to the will of the farmer. This is Jesus clarifying that the separation of the weeds from the wheat is a divine task, not a human one.

Much of the commentary and discussion about this parable talk about the judgment of God being terrible - the bad weeds (people) being thrown into fire with weeping and gnashing of teeth, and they warn us that God’s justice for us is like that. In his life and ministry, however, Jesus demonstrated a loving, forgiving, humble character. When the law would have allowed Jesus to punish sin, he didn’t. Instead, he forgave people their sins and clarified that the law was meant to serve and benefit humans, not the other way around. (Mk 2:27)

God’s commitment is to reconcile all people, even those who are evil, which, btw, doesn’t mean bad. Evil persons are those who, by their intention or actions, cause division, harm, or sadness; those who build systems that make the burdens of others heavy or oppressive. They may do bad things, but they are not bad.

Jesus demonstrated this reconciling nature of God by calling Matthew, a tax collector, the very definition of an evil person, to be a disciple, transforming him into an apostle, and what a beautiful, hopeful demonstration that is! As for us, we acknowledge in our Catechism that it is also our mission to “restore all people, the wheat and the weeds, “to unity with God and each other in Christ." (Book of Common Prayer, p 855)

In this parable, Jesus is instructing us to live together, being cautious of our judgment. We tend to judge the wheat as good and the weeds as bad, but we need to be careful, because we’re often wrong.

From my grandmother, who was an herbalist, I learned that dandelions are highly nutritious: the flowers, the leaves, and the roots. They are also the first food of pollinators every Spring. It has always shocked me that people will go to such great lengths to eliminate this nutritious plant from their yards, even resorting to known cancer-causing chemicals to destroy them, prioritizing instead manicured grass, which, though pretty, offers nothing of value to humans or pollinators.

Historically, we have also labeled whole groups of people as bad weeds, haven’t we? Currently, LGBTQIA2S+ people, immigrants, women, people of color, and the poor are at the top of our lists.

Jesus teaches us that the weeds will be separated from the wheat by divine action, not ours. When the weeds are separated out, they will be reborn in God because that is the love and mercy of God: to retrieve all that is lost, broken, or damaged and redeem it – bringing new life from death.

We must remember that the weeds are also created by God, and the people deemed to be weeds are also the dwelling places of the presence of God. They may be lost, to be sure, but we know how Jesus felt about leaving the many to go after even one who is lost. So, Jesus says, the wheat and the weeds must live together, entwined by the roots of our common humanity, because God seeks to redeem and reconcile all.

That doesn’t always happen in our lifetimes, as we well know. Sometimes the weeds die in their evil state, unrepentant and still doing harm. Establishing boundaries that protect us from their evil answers Jesus’ call to honor and respect ourselves. As I often say, we may have to let Jesus accomplish the redemption in the next life, when our efforts have failed, which is one reason why praying for the dead matters.

Jesus says, when the angels of God separate the wheat from the weeds, the weeds will be thrown into the furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This powerful portion of Jesus’ teaching pierces the very heart of the apocalyptic tradition in Judaism, a tradition that was carried into Christianity as fire and brimstone threats - but that misunderstands the tradition.

First, let’s consider how fire is used in the Bible. There’s the famously burning bush through which God spoke to Moses (Ex 3:1), and the “appearance of the glory of God was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain for all the people to see.” (Ex 24: 17) In Luke 3:16, John the Baptist declared that the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Fire is biblical language for the presence of God. When the weeds are thrown into the fire, they are thrown into the presence of God where, of course, there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth because those who believe in their own power will resist dying to self, but in the presence of God, who is love, the revelation of the harm they have done will leave them full of remorse as their systems of denial and justification fail, and they know the fullness of their guilt.

This is why we continually repent - which simply means change our course, change what we’re doing, thinking, or believing - and return to God as our Baptismal vows call us to do. Mercifully, God responds by doing what God always does – forgiving us, loving us, and redirecting us, giving us another chance to live the lives of love we were created to live.

When we are in the presence of God, no matter how unworthy we might have been taught to feel, the pervasiveness of God’s love saturates us, and we can only - finally - love back. It is the ultimate healing. It is reconciliation.

Then, as the parable says, those who have been reconciled back into right relationship in the fire of the divine presence will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God. God’s plan of redemptive, reconciling love for the whole world is reassuring, encouraging, healing, and loving, not threatening.

What if we approach our loving, merciful God, and ask God to heal our brokenness – brokenness we know we have, and brokenness we don’t yet know we have. What if we actually trusted God’s plan of salvation to make us and everyone whole? What if we lived as Jesus showed us how to live, in the midst of yet another harsh and destructive historical moment?

We can do this only through the power of the love of God in Christ who dwells in us, guiding our every step. 

I close with a prayer I adapted from our Noonday Prayer service (BCP, 107). Let us pray. Redeeming God, you have sent your Holy Spirit into our hearts, to direct and serve us according to your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from error, and to lead us into all truth. We thank you and bless you for steadfastly loving and caring for us in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

7 Pentecost, 26-A: Sower, seed, and fruit

Lectionary: Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

 En el nombre del Dios: creador, redentor, y santificador. Amen. In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.

One of my favorite things about Scripture is that every time you read it, there is a new revelation. Underlying that, for most of us, is that we have been taught to hear, understand, and visualize the stories in a particular way - the way the church that raised us imparted to us.

I want to note that when I say “we” throughout this sermon, I mean us as individuals, us as a parish community, and us as the body of Christ, the Church.

The Lockwood window at EEC

Historically agreed upon visual images, like those in our stained-glass windows, along with traditional ways of understanding Biblical stories, develop as we reflect on our story of salvation. That isn’t a bad thing, as long as we remember that the revelation of God to humankind is continual, so when we cling only to traditional images or understanding we restrict God’s ongoing activity meant to enable us to grow and mature in our faith and relationships with God, one another, and our neighbors.

When we hear the Parable of the Sower, most of us were taught to picture God as the sower and ourselves as the soil. We tend to listen, asking ourselves, am I good soil? Which translates to, am I a good person?

So, let’s expand the window through which we are looking at this. Our gospel reading starts with the words “that same day,” which refers to what has just happened, which is that the Pharisees have denounced Jesus as a law-breaker because he healed a man on the Sabbath, allowed his hungry disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath, and healed a demoniac - they say - by the power of Beelzebul.

Jesus responds to these accusations by calling the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” and an” evil generation.” Ya gotta love Jesus’ candor! Yet, despite the overt opposition of the religious leadership, huge crowds continue to gather to hear Jesus, who, in today’s gospel, tells them the Parable of the Sower, which, as the gospel writer says, teaches them many things.

In this parable, Jesus describes the sower as an extravagant gardener who casts seeds everywhere: on soil, pavement, into thorns…everywhere. The sower tosses the seeds out in such a way that it’s possible new life might take root in the unlikeliest of places, something anyone who has seen nature overtake a ruin can affirm.

The traditional approach to this parable is that God is the extravagant sower, sending out seeds of new life into the world, knowing that some won’t live at all, some will live a short life, and some will last and produce fruit. The seeds are traditionally understood to be God’s plan for new life on the earth, and we are the places where those seeds land.

That’s a perfectly legitimate approach. But what if one of the many things Jesus’ parable teaches us is that we are also the sowers of these seeds? Isn’t God already in us, working through us in the world? If we’re waiting for God to act, perhaps we don’t have ears to hear God asking us to act - to be extravagant planters of new life, distributors of God’s grace in the world.

Another of the many things the parable teaches us may be that we are not one of those places the seeds land; we are all of them, at different times in our lives. Perhaps each place: the path, the rocky soil, and the thorns are steps we take toward becoming good soil. I don’t know about you, but I can identify the many times when each of those places was true in my life. It hasn’t been a straight path for me, but a dynamic one, always heading toward becoming rich, receptive soil for God.

Finally, what if we are also the seeds being scattered? We all carry within us unseen potential. Well, unseen by us but known to God.

When we allow God to move in and through us, we often see the outcomes of grace. For example, Emmanuel has had a part in forming many ordained people. It’s a charism that lives among us, one the bishop has noted too, btw. We then send those persons into the world to serve using the fruits of the gifts we helped them discover and nourish.

On an individual level, whenever we respond to a person or situation, we bring either the values of God or the values of the world into play. The choice is always ours. The outcomes of those choices are pretty easy to find. Just take a look at yours and others’ social media.

In his time, Jesus honored and included those traditionally ostracized by religion and society: women, foreigners, and perfidious tax collectors. Emmanuel follows Jesus’ example of this in our time in various ways: 1) raising money to provide menstrual products through our Food Center, because they have become expensive and hard to get for those on assistance, enabling us to respect the dignity of women; 2) loving and serving our foreign-born, immigrant neighbors through our Light to the Nations ministry, led by Susanna+ and her team; and 3) welcoming into our parish family those whom other churches and society cast out because of whom they love or how they identify in all their intersectionality, because we recognize in them the beautiful diversity of all children of God.

Jesus was a religious rebel who challenged the traditional understanding of his time, showing us how to do it in our time. As it was for Jesus then, so it is for us now: there will be opposition to upsetting the status quo by those who establish and profit from it - in societal and religious systems - but there are crowds gathering even now, around our country and around the world, who are hungry for liberty from oppression and genocide; who seek justice and healing for victims of crime; and who desire peace and the pursuit of happiness in their everyday lives.

Many of us find ourselves among these crowds. That’s no accident. It’s part of God’s plan of love.

Because of Jesus, we live uniquely and miraculously in the flesh and in the Spirit. St. Paul got that only partly right in his letter, but that’s OK. God’s revelation is continuous and St. Paul gave us a good start.

In this unique flesh-and-spirit reality of ours, we come to know and understand what we ought to do by that same Spirit who dwells in us, fills us with grace, and empowers us through our faith to accomplish them. As our Bishop said in his recent message in the diocesan e-news: “The Spirit forever calls us beyond what is familiar, beyond what is comfortable, and beyond what is safe, into the holy work of bearing witness to God’s justice, mercy, and reconciling love.” (Art: Pentecost by El Greco)

That is our call, and some of us will produce huge amounts of divine fruit in our lives - like Archbishop Desmond Tutu or Mother Theresa. Some will produce a bit less, and some will produce one small fruit in their whole life.

All of these contributions are of value to God. Life isn’t a competition. It’s a cooperation.

What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. That can be good news or bad news, depending on whether we choose to bring the values of God or the values of the world, which are hostile to God, into play.

Each time we make this choice, it helps to remember that we were once the hardened footpath, the rocky ground, or among the thorns, and God led us to become good soil, often by sending a neighbor to reach a helping hand out to us. It helps to remember that God chooses us to throw seeds of love extravagantly, the way God does, so that love and new life might take root and grow in the unlikeliest of places...  in the unlikeliest of people. It helps to remember that we are all divine fruit - God’s cherished beloveds in the world.

Let us pray: God of extravagant love, give us the courage to be like you: lavish sowers of your seeds of love in the world. Give us ears to hear and understand, and by your Spirit, give us grace to see with your divine eyes, that we may recognize the goodness you proclaimed is in all you have created. You have chosen and empowered us by your Holy Spirit. May our fruit acknowledge the truth that we and all creation are in a continual process of sanctification and reconciliation within your abundant, steadfast, and everlasting love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

4 Pentecost, 26-A: All made one in Jesus, the Christ

Lectionary: Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39 

As many of you know, I grew up Roman Catholic. And not just Roman Catholic, but Irish RC with daily Rosaries at home and Catholic school for my sisters and me.

We called our neighborhood friends who didn’t go to Catholic school, our “public friends.” They used to tease us that we could do anything wrong we wanted, then just go to Confession (which we did every Friday), and get our soul-slate wiped clean. They’d tempt us, for instance, to steal some candy at the five-and-dime because we could just confess it later and be fine.

Even as a kid, I knew it didn’t work that way, but I couldn’t say quite why. St. Paul does a good job of that in his letter to the Romans. Being in the grace of God doesn’t give us leave to continue in sin. In the same way, being Baptized into the body of Christ doesn’t guarantee us a soft and easy road to eternal glory in the by and by. In fact, it’s rather the opposite, as Jesus makes very clear in today’s gospel.

This gospel continues directly from last week’s gospel when Jesus initiated a shift in divine action so that the disciples were now also vessels, vehicles of the action of God in the world.The disciples were being sent out to restore the helpless and harassed to wholeness of life, to wholeness of spirit, and to wholeness of purpose, in Jesus’ name. The disciples were being sent as co-creators of God’s redemption in the world and Jesus tells them it won’t be easy.

There is no soft and easy road to eternal glory in the by and by. It didn’t happen that way for Jesus and it won’t happen that way for those of us who follow Jesus either.

Jesus says, the holders of earthly power and privilege will hate you and fight against you. Even those who are closest to you will become like enemies but stand firm on the foundation of God’s love and fear not, Jesus tells them, for God will always act to redeem.

That is our good news. God is always acting to redeem all things, all people, all the time. The reality of the new age ushered in by Jesus, is this: earth and heaven, the temporal and the eternal, have been made one in Jesus, the Christ. As Jesus explains to his disciples: what happens on earth, happens in heaven. If you acknowledge me or deny me in the earthly realm, that is also what happens in the eternal realm. So, fear nothing and let love guide your every decision, every action.

Jesus reminds us that no one can actually destroy us. They may kill our bodies, but no one can douse that spark of divine life in us. No one. This enables us to be fearless and persist no matter who fights back or how, or for how long.

One would think that sharing the good news of redemption would be work that brings honor and praise, but if human systems are to be transformed, they first must be dismantled, and that rarely happens without a fight. Even in the church.

Last Sunday at the Q & A following PRIDE Evensong, Bp. Gene Robinson affirmed that the in order to move toward equality of all persons, particularly LGBTQIA2S+ people and women, patriarchy must be dismantled. I think what we are witnessing right now, is that the patriarchy is fighting back - hard.

We can look at history and see that the road to cultural transformation has never been soft or easy. Those with power, wealth, and influence wouldn’t - or couldn’t - let go, and those without power or wealth were eventually unwilling to be exploited, disrespected, and oppressed anymore. History shows us that it was usually rebellion, a rising up of the oppressed and their allies, that brought about systemic change.

We are in the midst of a systemic change again, or maybe still... a change that will open the way for freedom and peace for all people. Any earthly or religious system that stands in the way of that will be dismantled because that is how God acts to redeem, reclaim, reconcile.

We aren’t called to travel a soft and easy road into the by and by. We’re called to act right now, following in the footsteps of Jesus, working together as disciples have throughout the ages, bound by the love of God in Christ. We are called to bear the love of God in Christ into the world as it is, that God may transform it into the world it can be: a world of peace, harmony, freedom, inclusivity, full equality, and shared resources that are faithfully stewarded.

How wonderful to have Tony’s Baptism to celebrate today. It focuses us on these values of our faith. It also enables us to remember the promises we made in our Baptism and will renew together today, promises that include turning to Jesus, not to a politician or a political ideology dressed up as religion for understanding, guidance, or security.

We will also renounce sinful desires like the excessive accumulation of wealth or power, and the social, emotional, physical, or economic dominance over someone else, knowing that these things distract us from Jesus’ command to love God with all our hearts, minds, strength, and souls, and one another as ourselves.

We will reaffirm our pledge to actively nurture and strengthen our connections with one another and God through consistent worship and prayer because we know our church community is where we learn, practice, and teach our young ones how to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

Little Tony and his wonderful family are counting on us to keep these promises, and, honestly, it is our joy to do so.

And so, I invite baby Tony, his parents, godparents, and the children of the church to come forward to the font so we can Baptize this precious new life among us.

3 Pentecost, 26-A: Vessels of divine action

Lectionary: Exodus 19:2-8a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23) 

I invite you to go to the Emmanuel YouTube channel to see this sermon delivered live at the 9:30 am service.

 

En el nombre de Dios, que nos ama, nos sana, nos valora y se conecta con nosotros... 

In the name of God who loves us, heals us, values us and connects with us. Amen.

Our gospel today invites us to notice an important shift in divine action. In the chapters ahead of this gospel, Jesus is traveling around the region teaching, healing, and proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand, right here – right now! The people were responding with so much joy and devotion that the religious leadership tried to claim Jesus was healing by the power of the evil one – not God.

Despite the religious leadership's best efforts, the people connected to Jesus in droves. Huge crowds were gathering to receive what he was giving: hope, healing, a sense of value, and connection.

Wherever he went, Jesus connected with the people he encountered, allowing himself to share the pain of their suffering – which is what compassion is. He got his hands dirty, touching the ritually unclean and the actually unclean. Then he healed them – sometimes in their body, but always in their hearts and souls, and restoring them to their communities.

In our gospel today, Jesus is taking the divine action already working through him in the world and shifting it to his disciples. The power to heal remains God’s alone, but now the disciples are also vessels through whom God’s healing power acts in the world. As one of our Bible studiers said, they can’t heal except by the Spirit of Jesus in them.

This a remarkable shift not just because of what is happening, but also because of when it happens. As we heard last week, Jesus has just finished calling his disciples, so this gospel story comes at the beginning of their ministry together.

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated that our wholeness, our fullness of life, depends on connection – with God and one another. Science supports that. 

In 2023, our then Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, reported that in the US, loneliness, that is, separation from one another and social community, adversely affects both our bodies and our society. 

“[Loneliness], Dr. Murthy said, is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death... [As for] the harmful consequences [to our] society... [he says] we will continue to splinter and divide until we can no longer stand as a community or a country.” 

Connection, on the other hand, is healing. I’ll never forget the day in 1987 when Princess Diana visited a
person with HIV/AIDS in the hospital and held his hand. No gloves. No masks. Two years later, she cradled and comforted a baby with HIV. 

Her simple, loving, unguarded touch helped calm the storms of fear and fiction about the transmission of HIV/AIDS and showed the world what it looks like to love and serve everyone with dignity and compassion. Diana’s touch may not have healed their bodies, but it certainly healed their souls, and the souls of all those who suffered from being exiled, judged, and demeaned for what the world called their sin, and the souls of all of us who witnessed it.

The phrase our Scripture translates as “cure the sick” means more broadly: notice those who are weak, who need strength in body or spirit. Jesus’ instruction is to identify the powerless and bring them the power of God’s healing love, which we embody, saying to them, “the power of God, the realm of God has come near to you.”

St. Francis of Assisi once said, “We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.” If I could be so bold as to re-state what Francis said, I’d say: We have been called to be vehicles through whom God heals wounds, unites what has fallen apart, and brings home those who have lost their way.

It’s important to remember that the choice to be reconciled, to receive God’s healing love, always belongs to the person. If they choose not to accept it or to ignore or demean it, walk away, shake the dust from your feet, and leave the rest to God, whose steadfast love will continue to act to redeem beyond our efforts.

A short note on the Old Testament reference Jesus used in this gospel: Sodom and Gomorrah. This is especially important during PRIDE month.

What divided that community from God and one another was a failure of hospitality, of connection. Victorious soldiers raping vanquished men, women, and children was and is a common wartime practice. We also hear about it in prisons, detention centers, schools, and churches. Rape is about power, not sex - the coercive use of power by one person or group to force another into submission. That is the sin Jesus is referring to in this gospel.

I have been a vehicle for God’s healing power many times, affording me the privilege of witnessing God do miraculous physical and spiritual healing in people and in churches. When these healings happen, it isn’t because I did anything other than show up and let God work through me… and that’s the point: God is alive and at work as much today as when Jesus walked the earth, and every time we participate with God our lives and the lives of those we serve are transformed by the shared experience of the powerful love and presence of God drawing near. (Image source: StudioACE)

Being a vessel of divine action is our vocation, our mission. Our Prayer Book tells us that the Church pursues its mission by prayer and worship, by proclaiming the Gospel, and by promoting justice, peace, and love... God’s justice, peace, and love - which are not the same as ours. (p. 855)

Human judgment seeks to separate, isolate, and punish sinners – a category of persons we define differently in each age and culture. God’s justice, revealed to us in Jesus, seeks to rescue, reclaim, and reconnect – which is what salvation means - all whom God created, just as God created them.

All of the categories that divide us were made up by us: gay, straight, non-binary, black, white, brown, alien, native, immigrant... We made them up because we feared what we didn’t understand. We feared that we might not survive or thrive unless we took more for ourselves, even though it meant there would be less for someone else. In order to do that without guilt, we had to dehumanize or demean them, make them less than the dominant “us.”

You can’t kill children unless you categorize them and choose which category you value and which you don’t: Jewish or Palestinian, alien or “illegal.” You can’t destroy clean water sources for people until you categorize those people as undeserving because of their country of origin.

Claiming God’s sanction on the divisive categories we create is a lie we perpetrate. That so many fall into lockstep with them reveals a truth about us as a people, not God.

Jesus sends the disciples out to serve as vessels of God’s loving, healing power, telling them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” It’s important to note that in ancient Israel, the serpent represented healing and divine power as well as temptation and chaos. This is how it was used in the creation story in Genesis, and as Moses' staff in the Book of Numbers. 

(Image: the caduceus used in the US as a symbol for medicine, healthcare, hospitals, and pharmacies)

Being a vessel for divine power can devolve into a power trip unless we are innocent as well. To be innocent is to be pure in intent (meaning in line with the will of God), to be guileless, and to do no harm. 

When you go, Jesus says, know that those with earthly power will try to stop you, and the status quo will be protected even by those who don’t benefit from it. You will be shocked by who will betray you, even those closest to you, but keep going. If they persecute you in one town, go to the next.

As we look at the last sentence in this gospel, we need to remember that Jesus is saying this at the beginning of their ministry – not the end of it. This is not an apocalyptic prediction. It’s a statement of their new reality as vessels of God in Christ’s healing power. As they go, they will become aware of the presence of the Spirit of Jesus, who is the Son of Man, coming to them and working through them.

As we serve in our various ministries, it is the same Spirit, the Spirit of God in Christ, who acts through us, therefore we, too, must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, so that faithful connections are made, no harm is done, and God is glorified by us. Then the people we serve will receive from us what Jesus was giving in his time: hope, healing, a sense of value, and connection. 

Amen.

Pentecost, 26-A: Widening the circle of love

I invite you to go to the Emmanuel YouTube channel to see this sermon delivered live at the 9:30 am service. UPDATE: Our livestream failed us today, so all we have this week is text. 

Lectionary: Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37;1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23

 

Peace be with you. (The people respond: And also with you.) Por favor, tomen asiento. Please be seated. 

I always enjoy the Pentecost tradition of speaking the gospel in many languages all at once. It enables us to experience the limits of our ability to manage sensory input, to hear and understand in the midst of cacophony. At the same time, it offers us the opportunity to marvel at the gift of our diversity.

I've always wished I could be one of those people who could speak multiple languages. Alas, I never had time or opportunity in my life to pursue that dream, but God led me toward another dream I hadn’t even had yet: learning the language of Spirit. Discerning the voice of God, and teaching others how to do that, is the foundation of my ministry.

Discernment is a spiritual gift, and it takes practice. It also takes a community. In the Episcopal Church, discernment is always practiced individually AND in community in a dynamic trinitarian dance of myself, God, and my community. If God is left out of the dance, the path becomes dark and destructive.

Many of us remember, with lingering incredulity, the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, the tragic event where the phrase, “drinking the Kool-Aid” was born. It’s hard to believe that so many people could be led to blindly follow a bizarre ideology proffered by an obviously deranged man and cling to the hope of his promised reward held up like a carrot.

Sadly, it happens a lot. Nazi Germany under Hitler, for another example. Shadows of this are becoming more and more apparent in our world today, which is why practicing and teaching the gift of discernment matters.

In our Collect, we asked God to give us right judgment in all things. Judgment is both discernment and decision. Our discernment is that we see and understand as God would have us do amid the cacophony around us so that we can decide faithfully, responding to the voice of God rather than the voice of the world.

When you hear the word judgment, is that what you hear? Or do you hear the church-driven cultural meaning? If you look up the word judgment in the dictionary, the 2nd definition is: a misfortune or calamity viewed as divine punishment.

This is shockingly sad, and we must repent of that as Church. Why? Because it’s unfaithful, unscriptural, and uncharacteristic of the God of love. God’s judgment always was and still is salvation, rescue, reclamation of all by the forgiveness of sin, which is anything that divides us or disrupts our loving relationships with God, one another, and ourselves. This divine judgment was demonstrated and inaugurated in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.

Our habit of making judgment into a fear of divine punishment perverts a word that should offer us the ultimate comfort! Why have we done this to ourselves? It’s heart-breaking to me. On this wonderful day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God enters us in a real, sensory, and spiritual way, let’s commit to repent of that habit.

The gospel from John reflects divine preparation for the event later described in the Book of Acts – an event that left everyone amazed and perplexed. John tells of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance to his close-knit community hiding in fear in a locked room.

Unhindered by the earthly barrier of locked doors, Jesus stands among them. Amazed and perplexed barely covers how they must have felt.  Jesus says, “Peace be with you” and shows them his wounds, so they’ll know it’s really him.

The followers rejoiced when they recognized him, so Jesus says again, “Peace be with you” to calm them. Then, breathing his own Sprit, the Spirit of the Triune God, into them, Jesus says, as God has sent me, I now send you.

Breathing is a powerful and symbolic word that harkens back to the creation story in Genesis where Creator God breathed life into humans. Now God in Christ, is breathing a new life, a spiritual life into humans – for a purpose!

At our Bible study, one of our members asked, “Is the Spirit of God really in me?” The answer is a resounding YES! It is! Our whole goal, especially on this Pentecost Sunday, is to awaken to the truth of that and ponder what It means for us.

Then comes the strongest admonition I’ve ever heard Jesus give: “if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any they are retained.” Despite what you may have heard this is NOT Jesus giving authority to humans to forgive or not forgive the sinful acts of others. That remains the realm and authority of God alone.

It IS Jesus warning these disciples (and us) that since the reconciliation of the whole world to God by the forgiveness of sin has been inaugurated by Jesus’s death and resurrection, there is something important for them (and us) to remember as we are sent into the world to continue this work. Here it is: when we forgive as radically as Jesus did from the cross, all who are held in the bondage of sin are set free. When we do not forgive, we perpetuate the power and destructiveness of that sin in the world. We must, therefore, be careful and faithful in how we choose to respond.

Last week, I was at the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) celebration where the bishop of Idaho, Jos Tharakan, gave a personal testimony about being the parent of a daughter, and how he might respond if a man came into his confessional and said he’d sexually assaulted that daughter. Bp. Jos said that he’d offer him absolution since he confessed, then he’d leave the confessional, go to the man, and shoot him.

Shocking, right? But also relatable. Bp. Jos clarified that he wouldn’t ever really do that, but he’d want to! Then he reminded us of the difference between reacting and responding.

He’s right, and while Bp. Jos didn’t elaborate that night, I will now, especially as we approach our gun violence prevention efforts.

Reactions are reflexive. Often motivated by fear or anger, even righteous anger, a reaction like the one Bp. Jos described is totally human, but we must practice restraint so that a thoughtful, faithful response can be formed in us. This is why Jesus repeated, “Peace be with you” to the disciples.

In the midst of a cacophonous, excited, emotional state, we must pause to discern how to see and understand what’s happening as God would have us do, and hear God’s guidance for how we are to respond. Shooting another child of God is never the answer, as justified and effective as it may seem, but a faithful response only comes to us when we pause, enter that dynamic trinitarian discernment dance, and listen.

Bp. Jos offered one more bit of wisdom I’ll share with you today because it speaks to the letter to the Corinthians which reminds us that we are all one. Bp. Jos said that as a bishop in the church, he has the authority to tell his flock who they can hate, so he gives them permission to hate any person who is not created by God.

On that first Pentecost, the disciples were speaking to people from many nations, races, and languages, people who practiced religion, and people who didn’t, men and women, slaves and free people. God didn’t ask them to speak only to those worthy to hear, or qualified to hear, or even to those ready to hear.

God's guidance was: speak to the people I have brought near to you and watch me act through your faithfulness. So, they did… and all who were gathered could hear and understand the good news being spoken to them. No one could explain how it happened, only that it did happen.

Our dismissal every Sunday sends us into the world as it is today, to continue the work of reconciliation by the forgiveness of sin, begun by Jesus. We will confront some things those first disciples encountered, like the horrible treatment of immigrants. We will also confront things they never imagined, like the cruel treatment of LGBTQIA2S+ people.

Image by Hildgard of Bingen:
God, Cosmos, and Humanity, 1150 AD

Yet, God has been at work in the world all along, guiding us to widen the circle of love to include all those whom God has made, to speak love to all God brings near to us. We can expect the pushback to continue from those who call themselves Christian yet openly justify hating and killing other children of God. They won’t like it when we speak this good news, but we’ll keep speaking it anyway, trusting God to be present in the dynamic trinitarian dance and work through our faithfulness bringing God’s plan of redeeming love ever closer to its completion.

Peace be with you. (The people respond: And also with you.) And there we have the perfect example of a reflexive spiritual response born of practice in community. Amen.

6 Easter, 2026-A: It all boils down to Love

Lectionary: Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

This sermon was updated following a funeral on Saturday, so I've taken down the pre-recorded video and invite you to go to the Emmanuel YouTube channel to see it delivered live at the 9:30 am service. The updated text is below.

 

En el nombre de Dios: trinidad en unidad. In the name of God, Trinity in Unity. Amen. 

Our gospel today is the next section of Jesus’ farewell discourse, and like last week, we are reading from his teaching given at the Last Supper in order to reflect on it from the perspective of his resurrection.

This part of Jesus’ teaching begins with “If you love me you will keep my commandments...” Is Jesus saying that his love is conditional to our obedience?

At first glance, it might seem like that, but I don’t think he is. In the first place, the word we translate as “if” isn’t a conditional in Greek. It’s a word that implies a future possibility which experience determines. And the word “keep” refers to preserving, maintaining, or continuing something. 

It isn’t talking about obeying at all. That’s a whole different word in Greek.

So we might restate what Jesus said like this: When you love me, you will discover that you will maintain and continue what I have enjoined you to do. Then the question becomes, what did Jesus urge us to do? The answer is: to love.

Love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 13:34) Love your enemies. (Mt 5: 44) Love.

Once, when he was asked which was the greatest commandment, Jesus held up two: to love God with all our hearts, minds, strength, and souls (Deut 6:5), and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18) . On these two, he said, hang all the guidance and inspired teaching.

Granted, keeping those two commandments isn’t easy to do, especially in the midst of the kind of grief of loss the disciples would experience when he was gone from them, a loss he said would happen “in a little while.” So he promised them another comforter, translated here as Advocate, both words being accurate even in their distinction.

We can sense when people near us are beginning to panic. We can see it in their faces and body language. We can feel the energy of it building like static electricity around us. Perceiving this among his disciples, Jesus speaks directly to it, saying, I will not leave you comfortless or alone with no one to love you, take care of you, protect you, and celebrate you. I am coming to you - to comfort you and support you forever.

As with our gospel reading last week, we are invited to contemplate this teaching of Jesus with spiritual understanding. One day, Jesus says, we’ll get it! We’ll know that God is in Jesus, who is in us, and we are in him, and through him, we are in God. 

Get it?

I remember when I was in my seminary Greek class, and we were all feeling so overwhelmed by how vastly different Greek was, from the alphabet to the layers of meanings, and the many conjugations and tenses. Our professor assured us that one day, we’d just get it, and he snapped his fingers.

Oh sure, we thought. Easy for him to say! But he was right. One day, it suddenly all fell into place and the learning began to happen at lightning speed, like a vortex was opened.

Jesus was promising the same thing… On that day you will know that I am in God, and you are in me, and I am in you. When you know that, deeply... spiritually, you will walk the path I have begun and you will be able to preserve and continue this way of being in the world. You will know love, divine love. You will know that you are loved by God, and by me, and I will be revealed to you in ways you couldn’t have understood before, and it will change everything! 

The knowledge Jesus is talking about here is that intimate, innate spiritual understanding that comes from living as the next born of the coexistence of humanity and divinity I preached about last week.

I want to return to one important phrase Jesus said: I am coming to you. Then Jesus speaks of the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth.

Last week, Jesus claimed himself as I AM (God), the way, the truth, and the life. All of this time, Jesus has been trying to guide the disciples into knowing him as God Incarnate – a tough thing to comprehend - even now. In this gospel moment, Jesus is introducing the third person of the Trinity – even harder to comprehend – but so important.

Jesus is God who is Trinity in Unity. One God. Three persons. ONE GOD. 

Jesus says I am coming. The Spirit is Jesus, who is I AM (God). And Jesus does come again – in a big way - at Pentecost and breathes his own divine spirit into those first followers and ever since into us. That was not what anyone was expecting, but God has a very long history of accomplishing God’s plan of love outside our expectations and beyond our understanding.

Our Jewish forbears handed to us an apocalyptic expectation of a day when the world would end, when the Messiah would come down to earth on a cloud to give a final judgement and end the world. The vestiges of that live on in current Christianity, but God had something else in mind, and Jesus accomplished it in a way that exceeded all human understanding, hope, or desire.

First, the final judgement has already happened through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus when the Triune God judged that the whole world would be reconciled to Them by the forgiveness of sin. 

In this gospel, which is ahead of the crucifixion and resurrection, the disciples could never have imagined what was about to happen. Jesus is preparing them for the unexpected, unanticipated thing God was about to do saying, I will leave you, but I am coming to you – and he did – as the Spirit of Truth, the Third Person of the Trinity.

The second coming has been and continues to be accomplished by the Trinity of God. As we say in our Advent wreath candle-lighting prayer, Christ is coming. Christ is always coming.  That’s why Jesus compels us in this gospel to live as he urges us to live, no matter what happens around us. 

I am coming, so love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 13:34) Love your enemies. (Mt 5: 44) Love. 

Beloved Dame Julian of Norwich, Medieval mystic, speaks of this so eloquently. Here are her words: 

 “I desired in many ways to know what was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after..., I was answered in spiritual understanding, and it was said [to me]... Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same.” (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 86)

Icon written and copyrighted by Anne Davidson and commissioned for my ordination. Used with permission.

This is the love in which “we live and move and have our being” as Paul quoted from the poets of his time… the love who “holds our souls in life and will not allow our feet to slip” as the psalmist says. It all boils down to love: divine, eternal, sacrificial, joyful, mutual love.

This doesn’t change the fact that we will know suffering, doubt, and darkness throughout the course of our lives. In addition, we may get it, as Jesus said we would, then lose it again, and get it again, over and over in the course of our lives.

Knowing this love with spiritual understanding means that we will never be alone in any of the “changes and chances of this life.” (BCP, 133) We will never be comfortless. We will always be, as Dame Julian says, clothed in the love of God, which “wraps and holds us… enfolds us for love and will never let us go.”

We also have each other. Prayer not only “fastens us to God,” as Julian says. It also fastens us to one another, connecting the love of God in you to the love of God in me. Those connections are real, and through them God acts to change the world, working in and through us.

Since Julian of Norwich has been so present in this reflection, let’s close with the prayer assigned to her feast day, which was on May 8. Let us pray: Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

5 Easter, 2026-A: Pondering God in us

Lectionary: Acts 7:55-60, Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14 

En el nombre de Dios: creator, redentor, y santificador. Amen. In the name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen. 

I’m a big fan of classic English literature. I love how the characters in those stories sat in reflective thought for hours just pondering. For example, in Charlotte Brönte’s novel, “Villette” the main character, Lucy, spends three hours reflecting upon a single conversation she had with Dr. Bretton. (
Smith, Elder, & Co, UK, 1853)

Three hours! Can you imagine? There is wisdom in this, though. Taking time in reflection often leads to a fuller understanding.

It’s a lost art I wish we would reclaim, and church can help us do that. As it happens, our lectionary writers provide us the perfect opportunity today by leading us to revisit the Last Supper, even this far into the 50 Days of Easter, and reflect deeply on what is being re-presented.

Before the resurrection, the disciples heard Jesus’ words, but we’re told, they didn’t fully understand them. After the resurrection, everything Jesus said and did has new, more profound meaning. The church is invited to spend some time listening deeply and letting God guide our understanding, because these events will be the foundational guide for our life choices, just as they were for those first disciples.

Last Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday, we heard Jesus claiming himself as the gate, who, as Susanna+ preached, is a different kind of gate – a gate that opens out to welcome in, instead of closing in to keep others out. This week, Jesus says that no one can come to God except through him.

This statement has often been used by the Church as an exclusionary text. Unless you are Christian, or a particular kind of Christian, you cannot enter. Sadly, that totally misunderstands who Jesus is, as the second person of the Trinity, and does harm by excluding the very people Jesus died and rose to reclaim.

By using the I AM statements in this gospel, Jesus is claiming his divinity, which is now intimately and innately tied to his humanity. I AM is the name God used to identify God’s self in Exodus. In Jesus, the fullness of the Trinity of God is now revealed to us in human form.

By this revelation, Jesus invites us into a new relationship, one that moves us beyond a literal, earthly understanding and into an expansive, spiritual understanding. The literal listeners, symbolized by Thomas in this story, ask, ‘Where are you going? How can we know the way?” In other words, how do we follow you? Remember, this is before Thomas has touched the divine wounds in the resurrected Christ.

Jesus responds with amazing compassion, gently addressing the very human hesitance to move from earthly to spiritual understanding. He clarifies that what he is speaking about isn’t a location, but a relationship: “where I AM, there you will also be… because I AM in God and God is in me… If you know me, you know the fullness of God also…” Trust me, Jesus says, but if you can’t trust me, trust the works themselves. They, too, reveal God.

You’ll notice I changed the word “Father” to “God” when quoting this gospel. The reason is, the centuries-old habit of the church using the term “father” exclusively for God has led to both a denial of the feminine aspect of God and the diminishment and value of women. The outcome, with which we are still contending today, is the ongoing subjugation and exploitation of women and others who lack power or privilege: children of all genders, LGBTQIA2S+, immigrants, the poor, and the vulnerable.

The word Jesus used in this gospel, which has been translated only as “father,” has multiple and layered meanings and opens up to us the vastness of the nature of God. The word actually translates as nourisher, protector, upholder; nearest ancestor, progenitor of a people, the founder of a race or tribe.

Jesus, the Christ, who proclaims himself as “I AM,” God, is our progenitor, our nearest ancestor. Through Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, we have been given a new relationship with the Trinity of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, who dwells in and acts through humanity.

Jesus was the firstborn, the progenitor of the state of coexistence of divinity and humanity. We are the next born of it, because where Jesus is, there we are also. Jesus, who is God, dwells in us and we in him.

When we ponder these words of Jesus, they reach deeply into us, moving us beyond our earthly understanding and into a deeper, truer, broader spiritual understanding. This will definitely take some time, probably more than a single 3-hour ponder session.

Moving into this new relationship with God will require us to open ourselves as we reflect, and to respond to God each time They tap us on the shoulder and call our attention to Them. When we do, our understanding grows, matures, expands... and we realize that the truth God is revealing to us will affect every decision we make and every action we take.

The story of the stoning of Stephen is a perfect example of how earthly ears resist hearing the truth of God. The world will kill speakers of the truth to maintain the status quo, the agreed-upon storyline.

I remember when I was about five years old, and I would try to tell my family and the nuns at my Catholic school about my spiritual experiences of God: how the trees sang a song of heaven to me; how forest critters, including snakes, drew close and hung out with me like family; how the healing power of God opened my awareness to illness and injury in other people’s bodies, or how God my Mother would hold me in her lap and heal me from the continuing abusive experiences in my childhood.

I learned very quickly that these were not welcomed discussions, especially my experience of God as Mother, which I had before my Christian educators taught me that God could only be Father. It didn’t stop these experiences from happening - it only stopped me from talking about them.

It’s probably no surprise then how much I love the maternal metaphor in Peter’s epistle, where he says: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk.” Long for the nourishment at our Mother's breast, that leads to a spiritual understanding that will work and live in cooperation with earthly understanding because by it we “grow into salvation.” In other words, by it, we mature in our eternal and temporal relationship with God.

If ever you “have tasted that the Lord is good…[Peter says] let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, ...a holy priesthood…” Like Jesus, Peter isn’t talking about a location when he says “be a spiritual house,” and he isn’t talking about an ordained office when he says “be a holy priesthood.” He’s talking about the fullness of the human-divine relationship that is in all of us, because of Jesus.

The spirit of Jesus lives in us, and that truth affects how we hear Jesus say,” the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.” It’s hard to imagine doing greater works than Jesus did - raising the dead, healing the man born blind, calming the storm on the sea… but only when we listen with literal ears and from an earthly understanding.

In fact, we’re already doing these works. Whenever we accompany someone through a time of transition as they let go of their old life or their old self, or a loved one, and step into a new life, God, who dwells in us, is doing Their work raising the dead back to life. When we speak the truth of God in Christ by our lives or using words, and someone finally gets it, God has done Their work in us, bringing sight to the blind. When we walk willingly into someone’s nightmare, bearing the peace of Christ to them by our very presence, God has worked through us to calm the storm in their life.

Jesus concludes this portion of his farewell discourse with a statement that truly deserves reflection: “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” Jesus isn’t promising that we can have whatever we want. Quite the opposite.

Jesus is promising that when we enter into the intimate, innate relationship with God who dwells in us, what we desire will begin to reflect God’s desire, and the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven by God in Christ who works in and through us.

I pray we all spend time reflecting often and deeply with the one who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life in us so that we will be guided by God in every circumstance and teach our young ones how God’s will is accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.