(Here's the sermon I gave today at St. James in Higganum. I really didn't prepare it very much--since I've been doing this forever and think I know what I'm doing....The thing was, the way it turned out sort of astonished me. I never meant to go where I went. Maybe the Spirit led me and maybe I'm getting 'a tad off' as we would have said where I came from if someone was slipping into dementia. I even sent it in an email to Bea at the Cluster office to forward to Cluster members with the notice that it was preached at Emmanuel instead of St. James! Don't tell Bern, we have a running total of reasons the other should be 'in the home'!)
Matthew 14.13-21
The gospel today about the feeding of the multitude is interesting in several ways.
First of all, it is one of only three stories told in all four gospels.
In fact, Mark likes it so much he tells it twice! Chapters 6 and 8--look
it up.
The other two stories in all the gospels are the cleansing of the Temple
and the Anointing. John puts the cleansing story near the beginning of
his gospel and the other three have it near the end. And all four
versions of the woman anointing Jesus with expensive oil is very
different in each of it's telling--no one agrees who the woman is and
what the moral of the story is.
But the five telling's of the Feeding are remarkably alike--differing
only in minor detail. When we get the same story told five times it, we
should ponder it's meaning carefully.
It takes place in what Matthew calls "a deserted place"--though anywhere
where there are five thousand 'man', plus ever how many 'women and
children' there were is difficult to think of as 'deserted'! It's time
to eat supper and the disciples urge Jesus to send the crowds to
villages to buy food, but he tells them 'feed them yourselves'. Feed
this mob, he says, with five loaves and two fish. Right, Jesus!
People are always trying to explain this miracle. I had an assistant
once who preached on one of the Feeding stories and said the people were
so moved by Jesus' faith that they pulled out the food they had brought
and shared and that's where the leftovers came from. She and I had
quite a conversation after her sermon. I couldn't see why she just
couldn't be satisfied with it being a miracle--five loaves, two
fish...everybody eats and twelve baskets left over....
One of the reasons this story is so provocative is that eating is one of
the most basic of human needs. Stop eating and you'll die. We all know
that.
Besides, how do we celebrate as human beings? Holidays and special
occasions a observed by sharing a meal with loved ones and friends. Not
only is eating vitally important, it is our way of acknowledging and
celebrating important events.
Plus, this story points to what we do at that Table up there when we
gather. We eat and drink. Not filet mignon and fine wine--rather bad
Port and bread more akin to fish food. But that wine and that bread is
the very blood and body of Christ. It fills our hungers, our needs, our
longing.
We 'hunger' after much more than food. We hunger after hope. We hunger
after joy. We hunger after peace. We hunger after safety. And most, most
of all. We hunger to be 'whole'.
Was it Pascal who said 'there is a God-shaped hole in each of our
hearts'? We can never be 'whole' until that hole is filled in. Jesus
never said we should be 'good'. But he said over and again we should be
'whole'--complete, full, finished....
Let me tell you something that might give you pause about coming to this
railing in a little while: when you leave here you will be carrying
Jesus within you--literally! You will have taken his Body and Blood into
yourself and will carry him out the door.
Can you imagine what truly understanding that would mean? It would
transform our lives! What if we were totally aware that when we leave
this place we are carrying Jesus into the world. What a difference that
would make in how we meet people and 'be' in the world. Our 'God shaped
hole' would be filled in. We would be 'whole' and would carry that
'wholeness' into our daily lives.
What a difference that would make! It would transform our lives and the lives we lead.
Ponder that. Ponder 'carrying Jesus' into the world.
Try to imagine....
amen.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
This is August in Connecticut?
We have windows open at 10:13 p.m. and air conditioning off!
I'm astonished by the summer in New England this year. We usually get 90's and 95% humidity in July and August. So far there's only been one day that I would consider Summer In New England. We sit outside and read most every day, Bern and I. I haven't cursed the gods of summer once yet.
So what's this about?
It tried to rain all afternoon but couldn't, yet there was a cool breeze and it wasn't humid.
I'm beginning to feel like I live on a mountain though Cheshire is probably about 300 feet above sea level--if that.
I'm not complaining...far from it...if this is August in New England I'm glad I live here!
I just don't get it.
But I'm not complaining...not a bit...keep August coming like this....
I'm astonished by the summer in New England this year. We usually get 90's and 95% humidity in July and August. So far there's only been one day that I would consider Summer In New England. We sit outside and read most every day, Bern and I. I haven't cursed the gods of summer once yet.
So what's this about?
It tried to rain all afternoon but couldn't, yet there was a cool breeze and it wasn't humid.
I'm beginning to feel like I live on a mountain though Cheshire is probably about 300 feet above sea level--if that.
I'm not complaining...far from it...if this is August in New England I'm glad I live here!
I just don't get it.
But I'm not complaining...not a bit...keep August coming like this....
Thursday, July 31, 2014
David is dead....
David Bolton, a priest of the church, died on July 19. He was 85. He lived on an island off Maine but I knew him in New Haven.
David was Rector of Christ Church, the great Anglo-Catholic parish in New Haven. I was Rector of St. Paul's, the left wing broad church in New Haven.
When he retired, sometimes between 1980 and 1985, I took him to lunch to say good-bye.
He told me, during lunch that he had prayed for decades for God to speak out loud and in English to him and 'tell him what to do'.
It was an interesting and odd story until he told me that God had answered that prayer.
I dropped my fork full of seafood salad and gaped at him.
"What was that like?" I asked, full of confusion and wonder.
"Well," David told me, "he had a Mid-Atlantic accent...."
"No!" I said, not caring what God's accent was (though I should have cared, I believe), "what did God say????"
David took a bite of good French bread and chewed it and swallowed it. Then he said, "He told me, 'David, do whatever comes next,' in a slightly exasperated tone.
Jesus, the only time I get to hear what God says out loud and in a Maryland accent, it is that banal--"David, do whatever comes next."
Maybe David exasperated God with his decades of prayers. And maybe God answered his question the only way that made sense.
Maybe that's what happened.
But a Maryland accent? I'm not even sure what that means besides saying 'Bal-ti-mor'.
I send a prayer to God for David's soul...he was a good, a very good man. But God probably already knows that since God spoke out loud to David, in English, with a Maryland accent and told him the most reasonable thing: 'David, do whatever comes next.'
May David's soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
David was Rector of Christ Church, the great Anglo-Catholic parish in New Haven. I was Rector of St. Paul's, the left wing broad church in New Haven.
When he retired, sometimes between 1980 and 1985, I took him to lunch to say good-bye.
He told me, during lunch that he had prayed for decades for God to speak out loud and in English to him and 'tell him what to do'.
It was an interesting and odd story until he told me that God had answered that prayer.
I dropped my fork full of seafood salad and gaped at him.
"What was that like?" I asked, full of confusion and wonder.
"Well," David told me, "he had a Mid-Atlantic accent...."
"No!" I said, not caring what God's accent was (though I should have cared, I believe), "what did God say????"
David took a bite of good French bread and chewed it and swallowed it. Then he said, "He told me, 'David, do whatever comes next,' in a slightly exasperated tone.
Jesus, the only time I get to hear what God says out loud and in a Maryland accent, it is that banal--"David, do whatever comes next."
Maybe David exasperated God with his decades of prayers. And maybe God answered his question the only way that made sense.
Maybe that's what happened.
But a Maryland accent? I'm not even sure what that means besides saying 'Bal-ti-mor'.
I send a prayer to God for David's soul...he was a good, a very good man. But God probably already knows that since God spoke out loud to David, in English, with a Maryland accent and told him the most reasonable thing: 'David, do whatever comes next.'
May David's soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
So I don't often do this...
I read a lot. 5 or 6 books a week, from Cheshire's library. I am a library rat.
I read dozens of books without recommending one.
But I want to.
Carolyn Barkhurst's novel The Nobodies Album is definitely worth a read.
It is a remarkable story and the stuff that will annoy you at first turns out to be the best stuff of all.
I recommend it highly.
I read dozens of books without recommending one.
But I want to.
Carolyn Barkhurst's novel The Nobodies Album is definitely worth a read.
It is a remarkable story and the stuff that will annoy you at first turns out to be the best stuff of all.
I recommend it highly.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
On the other hand...
OK, I'm hard on Israel, I admit it. And there is another side of the story that needs telling.
Hamas is perfectly aware of Israel's tendency to strike back to attacks with gusto. That's what Israel does, always has. Israel is surrounded by people who hate them. And Israel has the firepower to respond brutally. And they will.
So, Hamas lobs rockets into Israel that, to this point, have done next to no damage, knowing full well that Israel will respond with a heavy hand. There is a sense in which Hamas is playing a cruel and cynical hand, provoking Israel to strike back, knowing many innocent people will die, hoping to garner world opinion against Israel's over-whelming response to the provocation.
I know that is true. The people of Gaza 'should' rise up against Hamas and trust in people who would carefully and painfully negotiate a "separate state" solution to the madness in Israel. But, again, they probably won't turn against Hamas because people they love are being killed by the Israelis.
It is a cruel and cynical gambit by Hamas. But, ironically, cruelty and cynicism often prove successful.
I think it is next to impossible for any American to 'understand' the Middle East since we are so prone to apply Western psychology to any far-flung conflict. That's why I call it Western psychology--the only people who attempt to explain human behavior by psychology are the folks from Western Europe and North America. Psychological 'thinking' doesn't dominate in the rest of the world. No wonder we are so inept at figuring out what to do about issues in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe. the Arab world and South America.
Most of the world, beloved, doesn't 'think psychologically'. (Unfortunately for them, many Israelis DO! So they don't understand their enemies at all.) Our categories and evaluations are based on our assumption (false!) that everyone thinks like we in western Europe and North America do....And they don't.
The way the rest of the world thinks isn't less subtle or less sophisticated than we think--it simply doesn't have its foundation in Freud and Jung and Adler. ("Psychological thinking" is just over a century old...it is amazing how totally we in the West have bought into it!)
God help us if we ever meet intelligent creatures from another Universe--we'll start wondering about 'depression' and 'anxiety' and 'bi-polar disorder' and they won't have a clue what we're wondering about.
I think as psychologically as the next person--but I do recognize that as a defect when trying to understand people who don't.....
Hamas is perfectly aware of Israel's tendency to strike back to attacks with gusto. That's what Israel does, always has. Israel is surrounded by people who hate them. And Israel has the firepower to respond brutally. And they will.
So, Hamas lobs rockets into Israel that, to this point, have done next to no damage, knowing full well that Israel will respond with a heavy hand. There is a sense in which Hamas is playing a cruel and cynical hand, provoking Israel to strike back, knowing many innocent people will die, hoping to garner world opinion against Israel's over-whelming response to the provocation.
I know that is true. The people of Gaza 'should' rise up against Hamas and trust in people who would carefully and painfully negotiate a "separate state" solution to the madness in Israel. But, again, they probably won't turn against Hamas because people they love are being killed by the Israelis.
It is a cruel and cynical gambit by Hamas. But, ironically, cruelty and cynicism often prove successful.
I think it is next to impossible for any American to 'understand' the Middle East since we are so prone to apply Western psychology to any far-flung conflict. That's why I call it Western psychology--the only people who attempt to explain human behavior by psychology are the folks from Western Europe and North America. Psychological 'thinking' doesn't dominate in the rest of the world. No wonder we are so inept at figuring out what to do about issues in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe. the Arab world and South America.
Most of the world, beloved, doesn't 'think psychologically'. (Unfortunately for them, many Israelis DO! So they don't understand their enemies at all.) Our categories and evaluations are based on our assumption (false!) that everyone thinks like we in western Europe and North America do....And they don't.
The way the rest of the world thinks isn't less subtle or less sophisticated than we think--it simply doesn't have its foundation in Freud and Jung and Adler. ("Psychological thinking" is just over a century old...it is amazing how totally we in the West have bought into it!)
God help us if we ever meet intelligent creatures from another Universe--we'll start wondering about 'depression' and 'anxiety' and 'bi-polar disorder' and they won't have a clue what we're wondering about.
I think as psychologically as the next person--but I do recognize that as a defect when trying to understand people who don't.....
Monday, July 28, 2014
So when is 'enough' enough....
Sanity and reasonableness if unraveling each day. Ukraine, thousands of children at our southern boarder, mass kidnappings in Africa, and the chaos in Israel.
This will not make me friends--but I'm old enough that I have enough friends already--when will the world tell Israel 'enough is enough'.
Hamas lobbing rockets into Israel is like Mississippi throwing rocks into Georgia and all the power of the US armed forces being aimed at Mississippi.
Israel has an armed force just inferior to ours. Israel could wipe out the Middle East in a week or so--Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia--all of it. Their restraint in not doing that is admirable. But the carnage they're unleashing on Gaza is beyond all belief. A thousand Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed and 4 times that many wounded while a handful of Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians have died--that is far beyond an 'eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth' that the Hebrew Bible allows.
Gaza is, I believe, about the size of New Haven County. Imagine the Marines by land, the Air Force by air and the Navy by sea attacking New Haven County!
It is incredible to me that Israel has a 'get out of jail free' card to play in this latest deadly game of War Monopoly.
How many Palestinians equal one dead Jew? Eight hundred, a thousand, ten thousand? Hamas can't damage Israel in any significant way--it's like Mississippi vs. the US government. No contest.
When will someone say to Israel, "this isn't right...you can't extract this punishment for what are, in essence, 4th of July fireworks fired from Gaza toward you."
How much is 'enough'? And when will some one tell them to stop this madness?
The attacks on Gaza smell of Holocaust. I'm sorry to say that and regret that I wrote it. But at some point Israel has to be brought to task for the literal 'overkill' they always inflict for lamentable offenses against them.
Of course, if Mississippi were launching rockets and lobbing mortars into Georgia, reprisal would be expected...but there is a limit to the size of reprisals that would be tolerated.
There's no such limit on what Israel does when attacked.
There should be. Enough is enough....
This will not make me friends--but I'm old enough that I have enough friends already--when will the world tell Israel 'enough is enough'.
Hamas lobbing rockets into Israel is like Mississippi throwing rocks into Georgia and all the power of the US armed forces being aimed at Mississippi.
Israel has an armed force just inferior to ours. Israel could wipe out the Middle East in a week or so--Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia--all of it. Their restraint in not doing that is admirable. But the carnage they're unleashing on Gaza is beyond all belief. A thousand Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed and 4 times that many wounded while a handful of Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians have died--that is far beyond an 'eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth' that the Hebrew Bible allows.
Gaza is, I believe, about the size of New Haven County. Imagine the Marines by land, the Air Force by air and the Navy by sea attacking New Haven County!
It is incredible to me that Israel has a 'get out of jail free' card to play in this latest deadly game of War Monopoly.
How many Palestinians equal one dead Jew? Eight hundred, a thousand, ten thousand? Hamas can't damage Israel in any significant way--it's like Mississippi vs. the US government. No contest.
When will someone say to Israel, "this isn't right...you can't extract this punishment for what are, in essence, 4th of July fireworks fired from Gaza toward you."
How much is 'enough'? And when will some one tell them to stop this madness?
The attacks on Gaza smell of Holocaust. I'm sorry to say that and regret that I wrote it. But at some point Israel has to be brought to task for the literal 'overkill' they always inflict for lamentable offenses against them.
Of course, if Mississippi were launching rockets and lobbing mortars into Georgia, reprisal would be expected...but there is a limit to the size of reprisals that would be tolerated.
There's no such limit on what Israel does when attacked.
There should be. Enough is enough....
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Finishing my creed
GW Frazier, who used to be a member of St. James in Higganum, but now lives in Costa Rica, used to talk to me a lot about his 'creed', as opposed to the Nicene Creed.
GW pointed out correctly, that the problem with the Nicene Creed is that there is nothing in it about Jesus' life and teaching. This is how it goes: "...he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried."
Nothing whatsoever about his life and teachings. GW used to say Jesus' life was consigned to the semi-colan after "Pontius Pilate"!
So, referring back to my last post, I want to give you my Creed. It was modified today by the reading from Romans. I don't often praise Paul, but in the 8th chapter of Romans, he absolutely 'nailed it'!
Here's what he said:
Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, no height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That was the only thing missing from the things I believe.
CREDO
I believe we must strive to love one another as God loves us.
I believe we much welcome the stranger in our midst.
I believe we must treat everyone else as we want to be treated.
I believe nothing--not anything--can separate us from the love of God.
OK, that's it. I'm through now. That's what I believe and all I believe. Everything else--even stuff about the Sacraments, which I have a very high view of--is secondary to that.
I stand by that. That is my Creed. It's all I need and more than enough.
Sometime I'll rave on about the Nicene Creed. But not tonight. Tonight I have said enough. I know, without a doubt, that's what I believe....
GW pointed out correctly, that the problem with the Nicene Creed is that there is nothing in it about Jesus' life and teaching. This is how it goes: "...he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried."
Nothing whatsoever about his life and teachings. GW used to say Jesus' life was consigned to the semi-colan after "Pontius Pilate"!
So, referring back to my last post, I want to give you my Creed. It was modified today by the reading from Romans. I don't often praise Paul, but in the 8th chapter of Romans, he absolutely 'nailed it'!
Here's what he said:
Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, no height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That was the only thing missing from the things I believe.
CREDO
I believe we must strive to love one another as God loves us.
I believe we much welcome the stranger in our midst.
I believe we must treat everyone else as we want to be treated.
I believe nothing--not anything--can separate us from the love of God.
OK, that's it. I'm through now. That's what I believe and all I believe. Everything else--even stuff about the Sacraments, which I have a very high view of--is secondary to that.
I stand by that. That is my Creed. It's all I need and more than enough.
Sometime I'll rave on about the Nicene Creed. But not tonight. Tonight I have said enough. I know, without a doubt, that's what I believe....
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