Sunday's Sermon

(if you go to Trinity, Milton, DON'T READ THIS!!!)

 

WHO WAS JESUS?

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads here.

          I’m thinking today of my son and son-in-law who are the fathers of my wondrous four grand-daughters.

          And I’ve been thinking all week about my father, Virgil Hoyt Bradley, who grew up on a turkey farm in Monroe County, West Virginia.

          When he moved to McDowell County, West Virginia to be a coal miner, he told the cook at the boarding house for miners that she had given him the best chicken he had ever eaten, she told him it was turkey. He wouldn’t believe her until she took him in the kitchen and showed him the carcass.

          He had never tasted turkey—you don’t eat the cash crop.

          He had an eighth-grade education, but was one of wisest men I’ve ever known.

          He was a life-long Republican in what was then a deep Blue state. How things change as time passes.

          He enrolled in the army and was a corporal in the engineering battalion of General Patten’s troops. He spent the war building bridges for Patten to drive his tanks across rivers and then blowing the bridges up.

          He once told me, when I asked why they blew the bridges up: “General Patton told us we weren’t coming back!”

          There’s lots more I could tell you about him, but we need to get to the Sea of Galilee.

 

          The Sea of Galilee was not a ‘sea’, it was a lake and not a big one. 46 square miles of water very susceptible to sudden storms.

          Imagine being on a first century boat on a lake when a tropical storm came up.

          Imagine waking up the only passenger who was asleep and telling him they were all going to drown.

          Imagine that person calling out to the elements of nature and calming the storm.

          Wouldn’t you, like the disciples, wonder “who that guy was that the forces of nature obey him”?

          Who is this? Who was Jesus?

          That, by the way, is the name of this sermon—Who Was Jesus?

          I typed, “Who Was Jesus?” into Google and got—are you ready for this?—266 million responses!

          I only read one of them—about eight pages—but it had 566 footnotes!

          People have been wrestling with Who Jesus Was? Since the 2^nd century.

          Scholars and theologians have struggled for centuries to distinguish between “the Biblical Jesus” and the “historic Jesus”, without much success.

          The Jesus we know from the New Testament and from the early Christian writing that are called ‘the Sacred Gnostic writings” that didn’t make it into the canon of scripture established by the Council of Nicea in 325 a.d.

          I brought a copy of the Gnostic writings to show you how much we know about the Biblical Jesus.

          The ‘historic Jesus’—we don’t know much about him.

          There’s a joke about how the archaeologists of Pope John 23^rd came to him with bad news—they had found Jesus’ body.

          “This terrible,” the good Pope said, “we must tell the world, but first I’ll call the Protestant Theologian, Paul Tillich in Chicago and tell him.”

          The Pope and Paul (who called God ‘the Ground of Being’) were on the phone, “Bad news, my brother,” the Pope said, “we’ve found Jesus’ body.”

          There was a long pause and then Paul Tillich said, with a sigh of relief, “My God, he really lived!”

          So, “Who Jesus Is?” cannot be answered with any certainty. It all comes down to ‘belief’.

          In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus asks his disciple ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they answer that some people say, John the Baptist, but others say Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

          Then Jesus says, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God”—and Peter becomes the Rock the church is built on.

          It all comes down to ‘believing’.

          “Believe”, literally translated, means “to live as if…”

          So, in the end, “who Jesus is” depends on who we ‘believe’ he is—who we ‘live as if’ he is.

          That puts a lot of pressure on you and me.

          “Who do WE say that he is?” What do we believe about him? How does he help us to live our lives?

          That is what we must always be asking ourselves, “Who do I believe Jesus is?”

          And how do I live ‘as if’ he was my brother, my friend, my savior, my Lord and my God?

          That’s the question we must always be asking.

          Always asking.

          Always believing.

          It’s up to us.    

 

 

Juneteenth

The Senate passed a bill making Juneteenth, celebrating the end of slavery, a national holiday.

They passed it by 'unanimous consent'--no one objecting.

At least the Senate, though they won't pass the voting rights bill presented  by Biden, to overturn all the bills in state legislatures to limit the right to vote--primarily by black and brown people.

At least the Senate had the sense not to block the June-teenth bill.

So, next year, June 19th will be a national holiday.

Alleluia! 

But much more is needed.

Much more.

Racial equality is one of the most pressing issues in our nation.

Our history is sorrowful and deplorable regarding slavery, discrimination, segregation and racial inequality.

Much more is needed.

Much more.

All people are created equal.

We must make what was created the truth.

 

I still have faith

I still have faith in our democracy.

You might ask why--given that a mad-man was president for four years, Q-anon is alive and well, and our most precious democratic symbol, the US Capitol, was stormed with hatred and death on January 6.

I still have faith because our democracy seems to have survived all that.

Sensible and patriotic people are in charge of the executive branch and rioters from 1/6 (I'm sure that will come to be a thing, like 9/11) are in jail and being prosecuted.

It's certainly not over.

But Biden is re-establishing our role in the world. Harris marched in a Pride parade. Legislation in pending to restore voting rights that state Republicans are trying to limit, to prepare our infrastructure and to do something, long over-due, to make our economy more equal.

It's certainly not done yet and the fear of more violence from the extreme right and white supremacists is still possible.

But I have faith in our democracy.

I long for the day I don't have to worry.

But I still have faith.

You should too.

That will help us all.

 

It's a good thing

 No air-conditioning for 4 nights--that's a good thing.

Bern gets congested from AC.

We'll need it a lot later.

And it's a good thing that the former President's Justice Department is being investigated for their subpoenas of phone and email information from the press and sitting members of Congress.

That could, on top of every thing else, really open up some room to fully evaluated the illegal stuff of the previous administration.

The former President (who I will not name here--just as Stephen Colbert doesn't on his late night show) is now thigh deep in wrong-doing where he used to be knee deep.

Nothing could please me, or Joe Biden, more than to see him sent off to prison.

That (at last) might make the maga and lie-believers face the truth.

Which they must if our Democracy is to move on and thrive.

And I also hope for a couple of more cooler days....

 

I can't do anything

I can't do much of anything.

I tore off the bottom part of a railing that goes down our back steps. I tried to fix it with masking tape. It didn't work. Bern fixed it with a screw, I think.

I can't clean the house up to Bern's standards, so she does.

I can't do yard work up to Bern's standards, so she does it all.

I can take out the trash and recycling and do washing.

Nothing much more.

I feel guilty of my incompetence, though I shouldn't. Bern's standards are just higher than mine.

She is just so much more adroit than I am, it embarrasses me.

She even walks the dog better than I do.

I should look at it this way--I'm lucky to be married to her.

And lucky to do as little as I do.

I can preach and do communion and baptize and marry and bury--and she can't.

At least, at that I'm better.

But I love her so.

For 50 years she's been making my life easy.

What a blessing.

 

 

The third meal

 I put Brigit's dinner down before I went to the grocery.

I called upstairs, "Brigit, dinner" and then "I'm going to the store".

Bern heard the second call, but not the first.

She came down after our dog had eaten her dinner and was ready to go out.

But she thought Brigit wanted food and thought I hadn't fed her.

So she fed her again.

Brigit was glad to eat a third meal before her walk.

What a lucky dog she is.

We love her so.

But she doesn't need a third meal in a day!

 

I don't know what I'm going to write

Sometimes (like tonight) I sign on to my blog with nothing certain to write.

I don't know what I'm going to write.

But it will be something.

The weather is wondrous.

No air conditioners for two days.

Sitting out on the deck, reading, with short sleeve shirts.

How good can it get?

In July, I start as Priest-in-charge at Trinity, Milton, which is part of Litchfield, 30 miles from my home.

My last 'cure'--figure out what that means???--was with three churches, only one of which was 30 miles away.

It's a great congregation that  I'm getting to know. I think I'll love it.

A quarter time job in the church means 10 hours a week. Since the trip takes me an hour round trip and the hours include sermon prep. I'll only work on Sunday and one day a week, doing God knows what.

Biden is at the G-7--the seven most wealthy countries. I think I can name them: the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan.

Those leaders agree with our President more than the Republicans in Congress do.

Voter suppression is not an issue in the G-7--except here!

Attorney General Garland today announced the Justice Department will be expanding the group that deals with voting.

Lord help us!

The Maga folks don't want people of color to vote.

What a travesty.

Well, I didn't have anything to write after all....