August 27, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Joshua 24:1-2, 15-17, 18+Ephesians 5:21-32+John 6:60-69

None of us get to choose how we are going to die, or when. We only get to choose how we are going to live. That kind of living becomes a constant process of deciding what we are going to do. From decisions between vanilla or chocolate, rye or whole wheat, which paint to chose or restaurant for an evening out, we move on to decisions about career, a partner with whom to grow old, the choice of friends, or a decision to allow an unborn child the freedom to live. Decisions enable us to fulfill the deepest capacity of our real lives.

There are also circumstances in every life that are beyond control leaving us with what seems like no choice at all. Some years ago, I learned a powerful lesson about this from man with AIDS. He said: “AIDS offers me a choice: the choice to become a hopeless victim and die or make my life right now what it always ought to have been.” Even when things seem hopeless, leaving us confused, and helpless, we can always choose our attitude. It’s always about making the right decisions for becoming fully who we are, fully human, and fully alive.

We hear of such choices in the scriptures for this day. First Joshua who succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelites challenges his brothers and sisters to choose who they would serve. The challenge comes at a crisis in their lives, and it is a turning point in the Old Testament. Then the author of Ephesians calls for a decision that evokes mutual caring, love, and fidelity in the model of Christ. The choice of a relationship wherein one would lay down their life for the other is a total abandonment of the perks and privileges of that culture’s patriarchal system for the sake of a mutuality never lived before. Finally, the disciples of Jesus who have come to believe and be convinced reveal their dilemma: “To whom shall we go?”

The choice to be made in light of what is revealed in this Gospel is the ultimate turning point of the New Testament. Those who leave will eat the bread of this earth, and they shall remain hungry and die. Those who believe and are convinced that the Son of God has spoken these words which are true will never hunger or die. But they must do more than believe. They must be convinced. Once convinced, they will have no other direction for their lives. Refusing the gift of living bread and all it signifies is walking away from Jesus. Putting anything ahead of being in this place when this bread and body are broken is walking away from Jesus.  It is not a matter of convenience or of feeling like it, it is a matter of being convinced: conviction! Leaving this altar for a congregation of praise, or fellowship, or “feel good church is walking away from the Bread of Life.

This is the defining moment in all the New Testament.

There are two steps to be understood in this Gospel by the response of the people.

There is more than faith at work here. Faith is the first step, but there is another to follow: that is understanding, or “being convinced” as Peter says it in the final verse today. When we reach that step and live with conviction, eternal life will already be flowing within us and shall have accomplished what was begun in our baptism. The Spirit will have filled us, possessed us, purified us, and enlightened us. We shall see the risen Christ in the Communion of Saints around us at this altar. We shall speak of and live in peace proclaiming forgiveness. We shall choose life, we shall choose life in the Bread of Life before all else,and like these disciples before us, we shall choose the Holy One of God.

August 15, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, O

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10 + 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 + Luke 1:39-56

It’s a story of pilgrims and of barrenness that we proclaim on this Holy Day. It’s a story of two women, one old and the other young. It’s also the story of everyone making life’s pilgrimage; both old and young. The fact is, we are all a barren people: some of us like Elizabeth who has lived on this earth a long time with little if anything to show for it and even less to leave behind; some of us like Mary young and full of youthful dreams all interrupted by a divine surprise that through her life into turmoil.

With lives in transition, they meet as spiritual pilgrims, lives open to God and willing to explore for the sake of goodness the divine plan for their lives. For one it has taken a long time, for the other, it is just at the beginning. Yet through the sons they bore, the Spirit begins a new age, a new creation in which we find the Kingdom of God. It is the age of the Spirit. They have both been filled with it. For one that Spirit brings life. For the other that Spirit bring Joy. It is the end of the ear of barrenness. Caught in the rapture of that Spirit, Elizabeth sings the first “Ave Maria.” Benedicta Tu In Mulieribus: Blessed are you among women. She sings with such Spirit that the child she carries leaps for joy.

The barrenness of human life is at an end. All human life is now filled with the divine presence. The barrenness of sin is now destroyed by this Spirit which will bear fruit in a divine visitor in human flesh that makes us all leap for joy.

We are a people whose lives are in transition. Today we meet in this place like Mary and Elizabeth: some old and some young. Hope and Joy, Life and Holiness are stirring with in us. This day we proclaim that our barrenness is at an end. This day we proclaim that those who are obedient and give flesh to the Word of God will be filled with the Spirit and one day be in the presence of God for death has no power over them.

August 13, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

1 Kings 19:4-8 + Ephesians 4:30-5:2 + John 6:41-51

Remember, Jesus is speaking to the people he has just fed. Their hunger has been satisfied. They have had all that they need. In fact, there was a great abundance left over. But they murmur. They complain. They talk among themselves. Their talk is not grateful. They have missed the point and failed to understand not only what they have received, but who they are because of it. So, he teaches them in clear and certain language with images they cannot fail to grasp.

“They” in this gospel is really “us” in this church. We are a people who have been fed not only with more food than we need because we waste so much, but we have all that we need of everything else. Our garages are full, so full our several cars are often on the street. Many of attics are so full there is danger of being buried alive from a collapse. Our stores and malls are full, our storage units bulge, and evidence of it all will be the garage sale in the parking lot next Saturday! Yet there is murmuring.  We keep all his stuff because deep down inside we fear we may need it. We secretly suspect that God will not provide any more so be better keep what we have. we murmur when it isn’t good enough, breaks down, gets old, and needs to be replaced. We run the constant risk of getting stuck here in all this stuff and failing to move beyond it, move deeper into what it means, and instead of it bring us life and closer to the one who provides, it destroys and shortens our lives as we fight over it, work ourselves to death to get more of it, and never really hear what God has to say.

The Word of God speaks today to people who have been fed more than enough who are being drawn to God and invited into the same relationship with God that Jesus himself enjoys. If that is not you and me, then this Gospel is little more than a piece of pulp fiction. The issue is, who are we and what has happened to us with all this stuff we enjoy?

As Jesus looks at those he fed and cared for so abundantly, he looks at us and speaks these words to reveal the presence of God, not in heaven, but a God who has come down. What he reveals to us is first of all that we are called to something greater than all this – something beyond all the stuff we have been blessed with in this life. This stuff is “manna” — but there is something greater than “manna”. This stuff cannot give us life. In fact, if it’s all we want, we shall die in it.

This Gospel of John is not being proclaimed to unbelievers, to people not blessed or hungry but to people who have already been drawn to Jesus. This Gospel of John awakens us to what has already happened, to what has already been given to us. The fact that we are drawn to Jesus bears witness to the truth that we have already begun to know the Father who sent him. That is why Jesus attracts us, because we see the Father in him, hear the love of God in his words, and experience the love and presence, forgiveness and peace of God in his words and deeds. If we dare to move deeper into this mystery or this wonder, if we dare to “eat” and “drink” this presence dare to take it into ourselves and make it our identity as food becomes our flesh and blood by eating it, that divine life, the divine presence, that eternal life is ours.

There will be nothing to murmur about when that happens. There will be no more empty seats in this church, and the line at Communion will stretch from here to the river. No one will have stayed home at this hour. Their absence says more about us than about them. When we dare to move into this mystery and wonder,

there will be no more bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, or reviling. All malice will be gone. We will be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven us in Christ. We will be imitators of God, as God’s children living in love.