1/24/2010

Nehemiah 8: 2-4, 5, 6, 8-10 + Psalm 19 + 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 + Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

To get to Nazareth Luke has provided us with several manifestations or “Epiphanies” that reveal who it is who has come among us and what is happening.
First the Shepherds had a manifestation. Then the church led us to Matthew for another with visitors from the East. Then the presentation in the Temple with prophesies and prayers by an old man and an old woman. Next Jesus was baptized and a voice from the heavens manifested the identity of this one Baptized by John. Last week we were at Cana for a wedding where another Epiphany moment occurs over jugs of water turned wine. Now we are at home in Nazareth where one more manifestation takes place in the synagogue. Amazement and wonder continues, and always the power of the Holy Spirit is unmistakable.

Our look at the people of Nazareth sitting in that synagogue is really a look at ourselves. Luke is not just giving us the facts of what happened on a particular day in a specific place. As the opening verses say, he is providing his Gospel so that we might know the “truth.” By “truth” he is not referring to a provable fact. Luke wants us off the surface and the superficial. This is the meaning of “truth” in Luke’s gospel: deeper meaning.

The people of Nazareth would rather stay on the surface, in the shallow. They begin by complementing Jesus with their superficial comments: “Isn’t he nice!” “He uses such big words so easily.” “We know his family, they’re such nice hard-working people.” “He has done wonderful things so we hear, wait till he does even greater things here at home.” “He is our home-town boy.”

Then he takes up the scriptures, and you notice he does not open the book to the lesson assigned for the day. It says he searched for a passage to read. Something different is coming. Then he speaks the first word of his mission. The first word publically spoken in Luke’s Gospel is important. In that word his whole mission is summed up. He says: “Today.” With that word, his mission as God’s anointed is announced, and for Luke’s purpose so is the mission of the church which proclaims the Gospel. The church too is anointed with the power of the Spirit on Pentecost. So the mission of Jesus and the mission of the church are the same.

It is a three fold ministry:
a ministry of preaching Good news of the coming of God’s Kingdom
a ministry of social justice, bringing freedom to those held captive by forces of evil; a ministry of bringing sight to the blind, that is, a ministry of compassion

To be Son of God is to be on a mission of liberation. Wherever human life is impoverished, imprisoned, impaired, it will become enriched, free, and enabled. All this will be done by the power of divine favor. SON OF GOD is not a title of privilege. It is a call to transformative action. (Privilege was the temptation just rejected in the desert.)

The people of Nazareth wanted privilege not a transformation into action. They wanted to be secure, affirmed, and receive the perks of being friends of Jesus. They were unprepared to recognize in Jesus the anointed one of God because they failed to see themselves in any of the prophet’s categories (the poor, the blind, the captives and oppressed). Superficial and shallow, they looked after what they could

get, not what they could become. Their presumed privilege blinded them to the truth of their lives and they failed to grasp the initiative God was offering them. Blinded by their privilege of proximity and familiarity with Jesus, they quickly turned to resentment as they realize that Jesus has taken God’s favor to others beyond Nazareth especially Capernaum said to have a heavy non-Jewish population. Resentment produces anger which is not really anger at Jesus. It is anger at themselves for their own failure, to live as the prophet has instructed them; so as always, the innocent, in this case, Jesus becomes victim of this anger. What they expel from that synagogue is not Jesus, but the truth that they are blind, captive, poor, and oppressed. They are offended, and so are we by God’s grace to all those of whom we do not approve. Jesus does not go elsewhere because he is rejected. He is rejected because he goes elsewhere.

Today this Gospel is proclaimed in this church. We cannot leave here and remain shallow and superficially wonder what we will get because we are here. This was the mistake of Nazareth. We are to be transformed like the Son of God, anointed by the Spirit because of Pentecost our own Baptism and Confirmation.
We are commissioned to preach good news to the poor. To do that well, we must first know ourselves to be the poor transformed into a people who rely on nothing but God alone. That is poverty. It is not a matter of economics. It is a matter of where we place our trust and what we live for. We must know ourselves to be transformed captives free from slavery to wealth, possessions, status and power. God is our only authority, not what other people think. We must know ourselves to have been healed of our blindness to the presence of God in every human being.
The good news is preached best when it recognizes its solidarity with those who hear the message. We are still poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. Yet in the recognition we are released. What we see in the people of Nazareth, we must see in ourselves, and in the seeing become wise and stunned by the truth of God’s grace to all and accept our call to extend that grace where ever it is dulled or dimmed by evil. This must happen today says Jesus through Luke, and “today” must never be allowed to become “yesterday” or slip again into a vague “someday.”

January 3, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Epiphany of the Lord 1/3/2010

Isaiah 60: 1-6 + Psalm 72 + Ephesians 3:2, 3, 5, 6 + Matthew 2: 1-12

The chief characters of these verses from Matthew’s Gospel are obvious, and there have been enough Christmas pageants, plays, and rendition of their visit to the new-born to confuse and complicate our ability to grasp the message and the purpose of these twelve verses. We have given them names they do not have. We have decided that there were three when the Gospel never says so. We have sentimentalized the whole event to the point that asking what it’s all about makes one feel like the Grinch that stole Christmas or Mr. Scrooge.

The challenge of what is implied here, and the purpose that seems to motivate Matthew is enough to make us uncomfortable if we really want to listen to Matthew’s message and intent. He is always the Jewish writer tuned in to the prophets and the law and anxious to see the law and the prophets fulfilled. The vision proposed by the Third Isaiah which opened our liturgy today was a powerful influence upon Matthew. This image of a great throng of the saved returning home forgiven and freed by God’s providence inspires Matthew to share his conviction that the coming of Jesus in flesh and blood, in time and space, has precipitated the fulfillment of the ancient prophet’s vision. Matthew sees in these figures bearing their gifts all the non-Jews for whom the Christ has also come. It is a parade of nations who, like the Jews, have been invited to live in the light of God’s peace and salvation.

Matthew’s hope for universal unity poses a great challenge. Tribalism threatened the unification of the clans of Israel and Judah. Territorial disputes and conflicting loyalties to their leaders made for great conflict. The appearance of Jesus did not bring these to and end. Discrimination, power plays, and prejudice continued to thwart the vision; and it isn’t just a matter of history either. We live in that history.

We can point to the Sudan, Congo, Ireland, Sunnis and Shiites, and countless other examples of prejudice, racism, aggravated by fear and hatred; all continuing to thwart the vision. But pointing the finger around the world is simply a kind of denial of our own condition and a failure to look into our selves. Racism has never been more powerful and more destructive than it is right now. This nation is secretly and savagely weakened and threatened by racism. Racist jokes, bumper stickers, tee shirts, and posters are everywhere shaming us with the truth of how deeply divided, suspicious, and fearful we are.

The vision the Prophet and the Gospel put before us must push us to move beyond pride and ego and, rather than blame another, make the first step toward unity.

Exclusiveness is a natural human inclination. Life is easier with people who are like us, who think the way we think, and do things the way we do. Including strangers different from us and from unfamiliar cultures is a major challenge. When we get down to the basics of food, water, clothing, shelter, and jobs, the desire to take care of our own grows stronger. The notion that we all do better, when we all do better is very attractive on paper until there is not enough to go around. But there is no mistaking or watering down the message of the Epiphany’s story. God is inclusive, and God’s people will be so too, or they will not be God’s people.

Jew, Gentile, Christian, Muslim, Black People, Brown People, Yellow People, White People, Male,

Female, Gay, Straight: whoever, where ever are all invited, and if we can’t get along respect, care for, and love one another here on earth, what’s the point of thinking about heaven? What will be different there than here except we will have died.

In the background of these verses, a great evil lurks. Matthew calls him Herod. We would do well to pay attention to him – at least as much as we pay to those who come visiting. The figure of Herod in these verses points to the eventual rejection of Jesus not only by Herod but also by those who were disappointed at the manner in which he exercised his role as Messiah. Notice how indifferent those scholars of the law are as they confirm the information of the visitors. You would think they would pack up and go running along with these gift bearers: but not to Bethlehem. In their minds it’s a slum.

The contrast between Herod and the Magi raises the issue of an internal struggle between the part of us that accepts the Messiahship of Christ and the part of us that refuses to embrace His teaching. Those teachings include a call to be open and welcoming to others, regardless of their differences, their looks, their language or their customs. The challenge we have today is to look closely at the Herod in ourselves, and step into the light of Christ out of the shadows of fear and distrust and take our place in the great immigration procession that will lead us home. We are all immigrants when it comes to faith. Leaving behind the poverty of our ignorance and our slavery to sin, leaving the danger of hatred and fear, we move out of the darkness to walk in the light of Christ. We must raise our eyes and look about not to see how we are different from one another, but to affirm how we look in the Light that has come shining upon us all. Only in oneness will the glory of God be revealed.

January 1, 2010  at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Numbers 6: 22-27 + Psalm 67 + Galatians 4: 4-7 + Luke 2: 16-21

It is the year 431. The Bishop of Constantinople has been preaching about Christ saying that “a baby of two or three months old ought not be called God.” He is not the first to think this, but he is the most credible and as Bishop of Constantinople, the most important person to say it. He is on good terms with the Emperor and feels safe. There are objections to his opinion about this matter, and before long word gets to Celestine who is Bishop of Rome that the divinity of the Christ is being challenged by the Bishop of Constantinople, and so there is trouble coming.

Not far away is Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria who hears of this teaching and begins to respond and correct this challenge to the expression of faith that has been tradition since a Council in Nicea a hundred years earlier formulated a Creed which said: “The Word became Flesh”. Celestine in Rome and Cyril in Alexandria united in their efforts to correct this man named, Nestorius who was the Bishop of Constantinople. At their urging the Emperor ordered a Council of all Bishops to convene probably thinking that they would work it out and it would be a safe way for Nestorius to be heard with the protection of his favor. I doubt personally that the Emperor had much interest in such theological issues. He just did not want the Christian Churches fighting one another. No unity. No peace.

The history of this Council makes interesting reading from the point of view of human behavior, power politics, manipulation, and passion. Why they met at Ephesus is a good question except that it was “neutral ground” fairly accessible by land or by sea, and there was room in a great basilica. Now remember it was the year 431 so there was no convention center with grand hotels. Travel from any of the great centers of faith and civilization was a matter of months, not days. They were to convene after the celebrations of Easter and Pentecost, so it was summer time, late June to be exact, and Ephesus is in southern Turkey. Think hot! Think dry! Think formal ecclesiastic garments, add in great passion and determination, and then think: “Get me out of here.”

Cyril came with 50 other Bishops. Nestorius came with 16. The Bishop of Rome stayed home probably because it wasn’t safe to travel but sent delegates. Since he was not present, Cyril presided so Nestorius was mad and would not attend. He had a number of important supporters like the Bishop of Antioch, but they stayed away and kept sending messages asking to delay the start of the Council till they could get there; but those who were there, hot and miserable got tired of waiting. Cyril drafted a letter to Nestorius outlining his errors and asking him to clear things up and stay in unity. Nestorius refused. The Bishop of Rome joined in the persuasion, and Nestorius still refused forcing the Council to declare him a heretic and out of communion. The real and important consequence of all this is what we celebrate today: an affirmation of the unique divinity of Christ that preserved the human nature totally, entirely, from the moment of conception.

I tell you this story and share this history today partly because we’ve had a long two weeks of celebrations and festivities around Christmas and New Years, and partly because a lot of people mistakenly think this is a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While in English it may use her name, this is really the first feast of Christ the Son of God. It is a day for us to profess our faith in common, and affirm that Christ is God, and that the Word is made flesh.

Every age has struggled in one way or another with distortions and exaggerations or even outright error when it comes to naming and relating to Jesus Christ. In our time, it is the opposite of Nestorianism. Instead of exaggerating the human at the cost of the divine, we seem to toy around with the other side exaggerating the divine at the cost of the very real and very human man, Jesus Christ. We distance ourselves from him. We use his divinity as an excuse for not imitating him or believing that we can do what he asked of us.

It is the Incarnation that we celebrate today and in doing so we affirm that our God has come among us and shared every experience, every moment, every joy, and every pain of human life from conception to death. We are chosen by God in this way to share in Divine life just as God chose to share in human life. This is redemption! It is a new creation! It must leave us with hope in the face of every challenge and tragedy: hope that God is with us, and in His Son, he shows us how to live through every human experience. There is no human experience that Jesus Christ did not face and resolve with his experience and his teaching from the death of a child to a run away greedy son; from betrayal by closest friends to misunderstanding and slander; from being used by friends for their own advancement to the injustice of a death sentence; from the death of friends like Lazarus to the jealousy of his peers. He did it all and so can we is what God says to us in Christ because God is with us, God is for us, and God is within us. Calling Mary, the “Mother of God” is an affirmation of the nature of Jesus as “Son of God.” While it names her and honors her role, this day is about Jesus Christ, and this day is about us and how we shall live in the year 2010 as God’s chosen people. It is reason enough to believe, to hope, and to wish each other a Happy New Year.