Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, 2012

Proper 6, Year B
17 June 2012
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Athens, Ga.
Old Testament: 1 Samuel15:34 - 16:13 (anointing of David as king)
Psalm: 20
Epistle: 2 Cor. 5:6-10, (11-13) 14-17
Gospel: Mark 4:26-34 (Parable of the Growing Seed; and the Mustard Seed)

Grace.

The unbelievable, perplexing, surprising, often unnerving grace of God. Is it possible that this is what Jesus is talking about in the two parables he tells to the crowds, to the disciples - to us - in today’s Gospel passage?

I can’t take credit for the idea, but I have to confess I find it very, very attractive, mainly because it is simple, and pure, and basically. . . just the kind of thing you would expect Jesus of Nazareth to try and communicate. The difficulty and uncertainty of interpretation is there, of course:  these are parables, after all. Like many of Jesus’ parables they are famous for combining accessible, down-to-earth imagery with lots of room for puzzlement. But strip down today’s two parables about the nature of the kingdom of God: the automatically growing seed and the mustard seed, to their barest elements and what do we hear?

First we hear that the seeds that the sower has scattered on the ground are going grow into the plant they were meant to be, regardless of human effort. The gardener can go to sleep and rise in the morning, then do it all over again, day after day, not lifting a finger to help those seeds, and yet they will sprout and grow.  Modern agricultural techniques aside, that’s truly what seeds are meant to do (right?), using the nutrients from God’s earth and the rain from God’s sky. The farmer has simply to rise and walk out with the sickle, when the fruit is full on the head of the stalk, and reap the bounty of the harvest to take home, to share, to enjoy to the fullest.

Then similarly, the mustard seed, the tiniest, most inconsequential-looking seed of them all, when placed in the earth, transforms in due course - remember those nutrients & rain God’s earth has provided? - transforms into “the greatest of all shrubs” - as high as the eave of a house, they apparently can grow - with such sturdy branches that birds have a new place to nest and enjoy the shade.

So, with us human beings a passive bystanders, as little but observers . . . that is, without the sower of either seed DOING ANYTHING - there is dramatic growth, way out of proportion to our human efforts, and yielding benefits - to all kinds of God’s creatures - that NO ONE HAD TO WORK FOR.

A GIFT, organically present in the very structure of Creation - just part of THE WAY THINGS ARE - a GIFT we do not have to work for, a GIFT that is out of proportion to what we might expect or think we deserve, yielding us real benefits: THAT, bros. & sisters, is a description of God’s GRACE. A description of God come near to us, of God’s closeness to us, of God’s loving desire for us - to be in relationship with us and to enjoy our return of that love.

The kingdom of God, the dominion of God, Jesus seems to be trying to tell us, is a place of uncommon GRACE, of unearned, undeserved, unconditional GIFT. “Intimacy with Christ grows in us as certainly and as effortlessly as seeds grow,” one commentator has said. “We have so little to do with Christ’s nearness to us that we - like the sower in the first parable - can just go to sleep.” Isn’t that just crazy to hear?! That Christ’s nearness to us is NOT about us moving ourselves around, physically or spiritually, earning the “right” to draw close somehow - but rather about the way things already are . . . how . . . very . . . unnerving! This doesn’t sound much like our everyday world, does it? ...our frenetic, busy, working and earning, getting and spending, testing and advancing sort of world, in which taking care of our selves, our families, our communities, necessarily involves everything BUT passivity.

But think about how the ways of the world do not truly fit in our spiritual lives. Think of how typical it is of us, particularly us serious and upright churchgoers, for example, to think we can work our way into dramatic spiritual growth, that we can work our way into that feeling of closeness and intimacy with God that we so desire? Think of our prayer lives and our constant, ever shifting efforts at praying correctly (or perhaps, of constants fears that we don’t know how or can’t). Think of the million ways to pray on offer. Think of the hundreds of conferences and retreats on prayer that are held each year. Ah - think of the gazillion books on prayer. The eternal temptation I’m pointing to, of course, is the attempt at intimacy with God - dwelling in God’s dominion - by technique. And what a temptation it is, especially in our North American culture, still so dominated by the Protestant work ethic, an ethic now mutated and super-sized by the promises of technology, with it’s infinite set of options, it’s lure of efficiency: someone is always building a better mousetrap - I mean a better app - “and by golly if I’m an early adopter THAT will be my ticket to getting ahead. THEN I’ll really know how to PRAY!”

That is: “If I’m ready and willing to try - and even pay for - the newest, most popular, or even most retro way to pray - the right technique - I will finally find what I’m looking for:  the intimacy with God, the nearness to God, the peace of God that passes all understanding.” But no. This is what we call works righteousness - thinking we can earn God’s favor, earn God’s nearness, earn salvation, even, by doing the right thing, by working the hardest, by following all the rules correctly, by using the right technique.

It’s supposed to work the other way around, in fact:  our first task is to become aware of God’s grace - God’s gift of presence to us and relationship with us in Christ Jesus, all an expression of the Creator’s infinite love for the creature - then, and only then, are we truly free to be - to pray, and speak, and behave - as the people we are called to be, that people of hope, justice, and love.

We can’t forget, of course, that any talk of trust - especially the deep, abiding trust in the God of all things that we refer to as faith - has a dark side: normal, standard, human fear. How can we be aware of the grace of God’s presence, of Christ’s nearness, of the grace of the kingdom, when we know there will always be things we are afraid of, whether physical suffering, or personal or business failure, or for the health and safety of our loved ones, or that nastiest of fears: that we may one day find ourselves alone. We cannot deny our fears, but what we can do is lay them at the foot of the cross, give them over to the God who also experienced fear, indeed the ultimate fear of abandonment. The God who overcomes fear is the same One who is much closer to us than we think.

“The maxim of ‘illusory religion’ is this:” said one philosopher: “‘Fear not; trust in God and He will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you.’ But ‘Real religion’ has a different maxim: ‘Fear not; the things you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of.’”

The kingdom of God, the dominion of God, is right at hand, Jesus seems to be telling us in these parables today. The reign of God is here, now, permeating the world, permeating the space between us. We can’t EARN a place in that kingdom, we can’t see it, experience it, dwell in it by using the right technique. We enter that kingdom through trust, the kind of elemental trust signified in our baptisms, when without resistance we allowed ourselves to pass through the waters of new birth; the kind of elemental trust that a sleeping gardener has for the splendid ways of nature, once the seed is sown and the warm afternoon sun is beckoning her toward a nap on the porch. An afternoon nap, yes. Pure grace.

In 1953 and '54 races, fast cars whizzed around Bergstrom Air Force Base

Really fascinating article about motor-racing historically, in Austin and Texas generally, in the context of the U.S. Formula One Grand Prix now being set to happen in Austin for 2012 thru 2021!

In 1953 and '54 races, fast cars whizzed around Bergstrom Air Force Base

Telling Secrets: Lessons and Hymns for Independence Day #3

Telling Secrets: Lessons and Hymns for Independence Day #3

Came across this two days late, but wanted to save it for the future. Maybe there's room at Emmanuel, Athens - not to mention some of other great congregations of our city - for a bit of this kind of creativity at next year's July 4th commemoration?

‘Heretical’ Rev wins at BAFTAs | News | The Christian Institute

‘Heretical’ Rev wins at BAFTAs | News | The Christian Institute

At first I found myself wondering (hoping?) if this series - which I have not seen - would soon be translated to American television a la 'All In The Family' and 'The Office' and a host of shows in the intervening 30 years. And what I mean, of course, is 'translated' just enough to retain the same dry & off-kilter British wit that some of us enjoy so much.

Then I finished reading the article...and saw the concluding paragraphs, the likely 'angle' this apparently conservative news site was after all along:

+++++

In 2009 a Church of England document about the BBC’s portrayal of Christianity made reference to the proposed show, which had a working title of “Handle with Prayer”, saying the church would “wait and see” whether it relied on “stereotypes”.

In January this year a former BBC news anchor warned that Christians are “fair game” for insults at the broadcaster whilst Muslims must not be offended.

Peter Sissons, whose memoirs were being serialised in the Daily Mail, said: “Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended.”

+++++

Ah! So in the UK, where folks are much more on the front lines of how to live together in a truly religiously plural society, this is partly about some Christians feeling they're treated unfairly. They see their faith and Church being parodied or at least used as the context for parody when they feel like British Muslims would never allow British culture to 'get away with' a similar 'use' of Islam. Well, they probably have a point.

But isn't this in part due to what Christians, themselves, have allowed to happen to their faith - once the homogenizing factor across all Europe, once the huge kingdom of 'Christendom' - over the years? That is, as Christians have taken their faith less seriously; and (19th-cent.) liberal philosophy & politics have pushed it into the fake ghetto of 'religion' and 'spirituality' as something merely to be kind-of tolerated, but not really lived out; and as it descended into a purveyor of simple bourgeois moralism, it's become much easier - even imperative? - to make fun of it.

So I wonder how "Rev." would translate onto the American television scene? I don't suppose we have any self-righteous, bourgeois moralists to make fun of on this side of The Pond, do we?

@Comradebecks

The perfect antidote to my Advent-Nazi tendencies...

With thanks to Chris for a lovely & lighthearted composition, and a hat-tip to Episcopal Cafe for posting it, enjoy a little mid-Christmas-season verse: The Christmas Rant Is Over

Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord
24 December 2010
5:00 p.m. Festal Holy Eucharist & Carols
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Athens, Ga.

Old Testament: Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Epistle: Titus 2:11-14
Gospel: Luke 2:1-20

“Particular kinds of peace”

To my sisters & brothers in Christ at Emmanuel, to your visiting family members, to visitors & guests of all types, to seekers and sojourners passing through this place: Grace and Peace on this most holy night!

It was just over a year ago that I listened to a professor at the Yale Divinity School suggest, in a talk to a few Episcopal priests, that preachers shouldn’t, well . . . preach so much. Father Robert may well be wondering why I haven’t yet taken this to heart! The point the good professor intended to make, though, was that of keeping the focus on Holy Scripture; on ways the Church might uphold the beauty and purpose and logic and tradition that had made it holy in the first place. One significant way of doing so – this professor suggested – was for preachers to keep the commentary to a minimum and mainly just find ways to retell the story.

Scripture, he argued . . . Scripture, like that most wonderful story we just heard, is like a cathedral to be inhabited and explored and appreciated, through many visits and over long periods of time. One shouldn’t mainly appreciate cathedrals by reading books about physics & art history & the engineering of buildings, he argued, but by roaming around and exploring all the side chapels, the nooks & crannies & soaring vaults, soaking in the incredible beauty of the art & architecture, uncovering bit by bit the overarching purposes for which the structure was built, uncovering the purposes of the builder. Likewise it can be with our exploration of Holy Scripture and it’s sweeping narrative of God’s saving acts.

So when I read something called “The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ” for the first time the other day, and realized that only the folks at the later liturgy tonight would hear it – they will hear it in song, actually – I realized that you all should have the opportunity to hear THIS particular retelling of the story:

“Today, the twenty-fifth day of December, unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth and then formed man and woman in his own image. Several thousand years after the flood, when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant. Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah; thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the judges; one thousand years from the anointing of David as king; in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel. In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome. The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since his conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary. Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.”

Do you hear the history in that retelling of the story? Do you here the gradually narrowing specificity? Do you hear the zooming in? Do you hear the particularity?

What I’d like us to ponder briefly tonight is the “SCANDAL of [that] particularity.” Yes, the scandal.

Because you see, to the modern mind, to the kind of cultural understanding and thinking that has dominanted Western, and certainly our North American culture for centuries, the idea that the God of all Creation would burst through the veil of the eternal, the infinite, into history; that God would deign to reveal Godself to a particular people – a tiny group at that – and in a particular place – not in the capital or a major city of one of the great empires in human history, but in a tiny village in an out-of-the-way place – and to a particular mother . . .

. . . the idea that in such a particular, material, flesh & blood, way – through the actual history of an actual group people – that the Creator of the universe would introduce the gift of Godself, the gift of salvation for all . . . TO THE MODERN MIND THIS IDEA IS SCANDALOUS. This is an affront to our cherished assumptions that, when you get right down to it, haven’t all people everywhere at all times had the same basic, universal understanding of what’s rational, what’s reasonable, of what’s right and what’s wrong? Isn’t all this religion stuff – of whatever flavor – just cover, just really powerful stories that point to greater, universal truths that any observer – if she can simply gain enough objectivity – can eventually grasp, with or without faith?

Now if you’re sitting there thinking “Well I’m not scandalized by the story of the baby Jesus!” then excellent. What this means is that you’re postmodern. You’re completely in synch with the 21st century vibe. Because what postmodern thought has reminded us, something all ancients knew without realizing it – is that ALL truth emerges from a particular human perspective, from a particular tradition, from particular times and places. Because the only way we, as mortals, can fully grasp things is in the particular, the material, the ‘stuff’ of our lived experience or the experience captured in a tradition.

So somehow, in the very particular, very specific story and proclamation we heard tonight, on this holy and blessed night, God uses the particular to God’s universal, or better, to God’s ultimate purposes. A powerless young woman from a rural village in ancient Palestine gives her assent when she understands God to be asking her to become a mother of a very special child. A simple but honorable working-man bucks his initial intuition and proceeds with plans to marry her and become a father earlier than he’d expected to. The always onerous and untimely edicts of a distant, imperial government force this unlikely pair to travel , and to a crowded village where no vacancies remain.

The particulars go on from there, of course, all the way to the bitter end. We’re reminded of this even when we recall, on virtually a weekly basis, that Jesus’s execution was ordered by one Pontius Pilate, a minor official within a vast Roman bureacracy, a person who otherwise would not merit mention in a single line of a single history book – yet one who was so integral to the uncovering of God’s truth that he has played a part in the creed Christians everywhere have recited for 1,700 years.

So tonight, here in Athens, Georgia, how do we pick up the story? If the Truth we proclaim once again at this glorious feast is not abstract, not some essence, but one that comes to us in the particular? If it’s something we must inhabit, a story in which we must search for and find ourselves, then how are we to connect? How are we to make our habitation within the stable in Bethlehem?

Remember the angels’ proclamation of “Peace and goodwill toward humankind” as they announce Christ’s birth to the shepherds? We know from other parts of the story, after all, that this is the Prince of Peace lying in a manger. That in this child: in who he is, and what he will do – the love he will shower on all humanity – the peace that reigns in heaven is made manifest on Earth. Can we have access to this peace?

Isn’t it when we think about the particular desires for peace in the world, the particular peacemaking that we can cite, and the particular peacemakers we can cite, that we begin to see the connections between our everyday struggles and hopes and dreams and the ultimate peace of God, Christ’s peace, the Peace that passes all understanding? That is, not in the generic, feel-good, universal peace of the type cited on ‘holiday’ cards, but actual, flesh & blood reconciliation between people or peoples, actual flesh & blood encounters between people in the street, in their offices, in their homes, that bring us face to face with what God has done and is doing in Christ.

---There is the particular peace sought by tens of thousand of our brother & sister Christians in southern Sudan – many of them, like us, Anglicans through their historic connection to the Church of England – who are about to vote in a referendum for independence, after 50 years of civil war & the genocidal terrors of Darfur? That is, there is the peace of swords beaten into plowshares, in part through the work and the prayers of the Church in The Sudan.

---There is the particular peace still sought on the Korean peninsula, in part by goodwill ambassadors of Christ like our neighbor Don Mosley, a counselor on reconciliation to globetrotting former presidents and a regular visitor to Communist N. Korea, yet a man who normally lives on $15 a week, the produce of a small farm, and the kindness of strangers, while helping to care for refugees on a small piece of land just up the road outside Comer, Georgia.

---There is the particular peace in the Holy Land sought by Israelis & Palentinians of goodwill, aided and abetted by 12, 13, and 14-year-olds from the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, who sign up every summer to be “Kids 4 Peace,” spending two weeks hosting Israeli and Palestinian kids: Jews, Christians, and Muslims living & playing & praying together and forgetting the ways of war as they build flesh & blood friendships, hour by hour, peace-pal to peace-pal.

---The particular peace sought by Iraqis & Afghans of goodwill, aided by our American brothers & sisters & friends & cousins who serve in the Armed Forces – trying to do the right thing – trying to suppress violence and to forge space for civil society – with the place, tools, and mission they’ve been given.

---The particular peace of a stable, loving family environment longed for by the children of our community who are cared for by ChildrenFirst, who will soon do their ministry from a cottage up the street.

---The peace sought after by homeless folks taken care of by Churches all over Athens via IHN, that simple peace of a quiet evening to rest & recuperate, with one’s children safely in the hands of friends, after a long day of work or a day spent pounding the pavement to find work.

---The particular peace sought after by many in this community, even many in this room, as we seek to mend broken relationships in our homes, extended families, and workplaces; as we seek to do the right thing by our kids; and as we seek to treat anyone we encounter with respect and integrity.

You see, in the scandalous world of the truth that shines from the stable at Christmas, there is a place in the story – and good work to be done – for all who seek God’s peace.

How to count in the Church

Byassee does a great job here of pulling together many strands into a coherent question: with numbers in mainline churches declining for decades; simultaneous decline in mainline Protestant theology on evangelism, broadly construed; the countermanding growth of evangelical mega-churches, and their very Wesleyan emphasis on discipleship via small group life and accountability to peers in such groups, what's wrong with Methodists & Episcopalians & Presbyterians & others asking about numerical growth?

Duke Divinity Call & Response Blog | Faith & Leadership | Jason Byassee: How to count in church

Ayia Iluvatar: My Indispensable iPhone Apps

Ayia Iluvatar: My Indispensable iPhone Apps

Wanted to save this nice list of apps, many of which I've never heard of, but which sound loverly. Maybe you'll find 'em useful, too. Thanks to David Simmons.

First test of mobile blogging!

Reflective countdown to U2 show in the ATL, 6 Oct. 2009

New blog project. Something to do with the ol' noggin. Output rather than input. You get the picture.

The fam and I have tickets for U2's 360 tour show at the Georgia Dome in the ATL on Tuesday, 6 October. Sweet. I'll get to see the band for the first time in 8 years (twice in 2001 at Philip's Arena), and *finally* the boys will make their first U2 show, after the sad fall of 2005 when we had to sell our 4 tickets to the Cleveland show (Vertigo tour) after changing seminary venues at the last possible moment. Austin was simply too far away to make the trip. Sold the tix on eBay, and making a killing on them was not that much consolation, believe me.

So, the plan: grab a set list from the tour as it has gone down thusfar, and over the coming days, post the lyrics to each song and a short reflection on each. As simple and as hard (for me, allergic to projects) as that.

So to start us off, here's tonight's setlist from the tour's third and final show at Croke Park in Dublin. It's a damn good one, and what an incredible thing it must've been to be there in a Dublin audience for a U2 show, whether tonight or Friday or Saturday.

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day - My Hometown, New Year's Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Stay (Faraway, So Close), Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One, Bad

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

For now it's enough just to try and take in this amazing list of songs from the 30+ year career of four guys from Dublin, guys that wrote much of the soundtrack to my formative years and continue to do powerful things musically and otherwise. The beauty and spiritual and experiential depth behind this list boggles the mind. More soon...

Watching Blades of Glory with the fam. Next: unpack car. Then: finish sermon. Long week!

breezy sunshine, dust bunnies, packing & unpacking...

Moving, Day Whatever. To bed, in new house for 1st time. Beautiful March weather for move day. Thankful & content.

Moving, Day 5: Looonnnggg day, but huge amt. painting & carpet-cleaning done. House looking bigger & brighter by the hour. Thanks, Grammie & Pop!

New search engines aspire to supplement Google - CNN.com

This CNN article indicates that all sorts of new search sites are out there, with all sorts of neato-keen features, and I hadn't a clue. As an "early adopter" of Google as the search engine of choice, I find that these probably damn cool developments mainly just make me feel, well . . . old.

New search engines aspire to supplement Google - CNN.com

Moving, Day 4: 1st coat of paint down & 2nd on 1/3 of space. Fed pot roast to the hard workers.

Moving, Day 3: All spackling done & sanded. Paint & brushes bought. Taping begun. Grammie & Pop set to arrive tomorrow morning to lend a hand.

Moving, Day 2: All utilities transferred, save the Evil Empire - Charter cable. Nail holes spackled & mostly sanded. Walls ready for painting.

Moving, Day 1: What went in first? Why, three boxes of books . . . of course.

ponders packing. Will (his) people personally pack their particular possessions? Or will he have to hack it himself?