Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Kings and prophets
This website has a chart of the kings and prophets, who was where and when. http://www.bible-history.com/black-obelisk/kings-prophets.html. I appreciate the ability to see who overlaps with whom.
Daniel 3:1-30
8 Accordingly, at this time certain Chaldeans came forward and denounced the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, "O king, live forever! 10 You, O king, have made a decree, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, shall fall down and worship the golden statue, 11 and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These pay no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your gods and they do not worship the golden statue that you have set up."
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought in; so they brought those men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?"
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. 17 If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up."
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, 20 and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Because the king's command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, "Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?" They answered the king, "True, O king." 25 He replied, "But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god." 26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them. 28 Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way." 30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Slow down. Quiet. It's Advent: Sermon on Jeremiah 18:1-11
Advent 2B December 4, 2011
Jeremiah 18:1-11 St. Alban’s, Austin
If you’re ever planning to go to Rome, January is a great time to go. The climate is just about the same as Austin’s, so you know we can have some glorious days in January and typically nothing worse than cold rain. The best part is that there are no crowds of tourists.
And so when I went to the Sistine Chapel several years ago I got to stay as long as I wanted to. I didn’t have to wait for hours to get in, and I wasn’t prodded through an airless and humid room like cattle from entrance to exit, able only to catch a glance of God’s finger touching Adam’s and the tormented melting figures in the judgment scene. No, I was able to lean back on a bench for hours and stare up into the ceiling that Michaelangelo painted on his back suspended on scaf-folding for what seemed like eons to the pope. I was able to take in figures that one might not expect to see. Jeremiah, for instance.
What are prophets and seers doing on the Sistine ceiling? Actually, there are seven Old Testament prophets and five Greek sybils, all of whom were purported to have offered assurances of the birth of Christ. The good news of the gospel was at work in the world long before Jesus was born.
Jeremiah, contrary to popular belief, was not a bullfrog. Jeremiah was born into a powerful and prestigious family in the southern kingdom of Judah in the seventh century BCE and was called by God to be a prophet in the year 626. The book of Jeremiah is long, and it occupies a pivotal place in biblical history. Last week Gerard told us about how King Josiah returned the children of Israel to the worship of one God, but after his death everything went straight downhill again when his successors Jehoakim and Zedekiah officially welcomed the idols of Baal back into the holy of holies in the Temple. God commissioned Jeremiah to warn them and the people of Judah that all hell was going to break loose if they didn’t stop.
They didn’t stop.
But, oh, my. How they tried to shut Jeremiah up. He was imprisoned. He was banished. He was cast into a cistern. He was ordered to be silent. He was made to eat his writings. But Jeremiah was called by the Lord, and Jeremiah kept telling the truth.
So what does this have to do with Jesus? I mean, after all, this is Advent. We’ve got a beautiful wreath with two candles burning. We’ve got Nativity figures making their way towards the manger. We’ve got children practicing for the pageant, and if you haven’t started decorating your house or shopping, you might be beginning to feel just a little bit desperate. As they sing, Christ-mas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Jeremiah doesn’t sound much like a fat goose or a sparkling tree with piles of gifts. Jeremiah doesn’t seem all that connected with Silent Night, stranded as he was in Egypt after the conquest by Babylon.
The thing about the prophets, though, is that they were all about promise. They were all about the God-given conviction that when all is said and done, when all illusions are dispelled, we are standing on solid ground. That even though we get beat up again and again as the consequence of our own idolatrous actions, God is in control, and God’s plan for us is all about healing and wholeness and our coming to know our identity as God’s beloved.
But as I said, it can be a very rocky road indeed getting to that point.
We’re very close to the end of our focused attention on our Old Testament scripture readings as we make our way through the Narrative Lectionary. In just a couple of weeks we’ll be turning our attention to the Gospel according to Mark, and we’ll follow God’s project into its incarnation in the person of Jesus and toward the birth of the church as the body of Christ at work in the world.
One person said that the Old Testament is the story of the repeated failure of the children of Israel to be faithful only to God. God’s project to love creation and be loved in return went off track at the get go. The first little human beings proved to be surprisingly willful, and eventually God hit the reset button with the flood and the ark, but then even those people followed the devices and desires of their own hearts, and then the kings of Israel and Judah got seduced by their foreign wives, and over and over again the people let idols of one sort or another sneak in and occupy the place where only God should dwell.
Advent is a time of preparation in many ways. Some of us are preparing for Christmas by writing letters to Santa. Unfortunately, God is frequently understood to be the big Santa in the sky. We too often equate prayer with handing God our to-do list. I do know prayers sometimes get answered the way we want them. The rain we are having is an answered prayer. I was with our grandson Ben this weekend and he is very much an answered prayer. But I also know that sometimes it feels like God isn’t listening or that God doesn’t care. Why pray if it is not how we get what we want?
Our gospel reading gives us another picture. A prophet in a later time offering the same message as Jeremiah. Repent. Come back to God. Get the idols off your altars and out of your hearts.
Get your life back into focus. Can’t you see? The kingdom of God is here, now.
John the Baptist stood in the murky waters of the river while throngs of people waited in endless lines to be submerged and to receive the promise that they had another chance. These were not the powerful people, the officials in charge of the Temple, the politicos who were in cahoots with the Roman Empire. No. These were the ones whose hearts and bodies were broken and who wanted a fresh start, who wanted to hear that if only they would cleanse their hearts God would indeed come among them. God would give them the kingdom.
Some of us are preparing for Christmas with a frenzy of shopping and planning and running around feeling as if we can’t possibly get done all that needs to be done. I think of the image of Jeremiah up there on the Sistine ceiling. He’s got his head in his hands as if to say, “They still don’t get it.” And probably we don’t, at least not all the way through. But I think we get glimpses.
Look. I’m going to be shopping and cooking and planning just as you are. And I have expectations for what I would like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to look like. There’s nothing wrong with all that. It’s just that it is not supposed to take the place in my heart and on my calendar that only God is supposed to occupy.
Jeremiah and John spoke cautionary words to the people. Repent.
Stop what you’re doing and look and listen and remember. All God wants is your love.
All God wants is for you to love God more than you love anything else.
What might happen if we cleared a little room for prayer – the kind of prayer that is not our wish list but the kind of presence that calls us to stand still long enough for God to gaze on us with love. For us to return our attention to God. Preparation is about time. It is about space. It is about stopping our drivenness to contemplate gratitude. It is about considering what is truly most important to us. What really belongs in the holy of holies?
Our Advent calendar says it all. Jeremiah would approve. John the Baptist would approve. It tells us first, Slow down. Be quiet. If the people of Israel and Judah had slowed down and listened they could have avoided calamity. If the people of Jerusalem rose up out of the Jordan River and truly turned their lives around, they, too, would have been able to hear the words of Jesus. And if we can slow down and listen in these next few weeks, we will receive gifts that have nothing to do with anything that can be purchased or wrapped or placed under a tree.
I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. But knowing and doing are not the same thing. Jeremiah tells us in the metaphor of the potter that God can take what is misshapen and make it perfect. All we have to do is relax and yield to the loving caress of his hands.
Amen.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Jeremiah 18:1-11
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings
2 Kings 22:1--23:1-3 Sermon by Gerard Klingenberg, seminarian
Advent 1B
When it comes to kitchen remodeling there are two types of people, those who plan every little detail and those who swing sledge hammers. For the planners, they measure the exact length required to obtain that perfect refrigerator – stove -- sink triangular relationship. They ponder for hours on just the right texture and color of counter tops and cabinets to fill that perfect space.
The detailers get very excited pulling various artistic and creative ideas together. Then in perfect timing they plan a cruise to New Zealand as one of the most important rooms in their home is uprooted, disheveled and totally transformed, causing layer upon layer of dust and dirt to settle everywhere. They escape living in the resulting chaos and clutter. These guys are the smart ones!
Then there are those like me who immerse themselves into the dust and dirt of it all. They also enjoy planning and coordinating all aspects of the remodeling, but the real excitement comes when they actually begin to tear out the old kitchen themselves. I love kitchen redos for this reason. The first slam of the sledge hammer against the old dry wall, the getting rid of the 1960’s orange Formica with a few swings is awesome. Dust flying, holes appearing, worn out cabinets being broken apart is all part of the excitement.
When I finally see the clear empty open space ready to receive all that is new, possible, beautiful and transformed … it gets my heart racing!
Part of the excitement I must confess is irrational hope I have of finding behind the cabinets or old dry wall a valuable relic from the past: a letter from the Revolutionary War or a strong box filled with artifacts. You know, the kind of relic that prompts Mark Warlberg on the Antique Road show to say: “You have a National Treasure here, worth over a half a million dollars!” Yes I secretly hope for such an item to appear with each blow of the sledge hammer. Yet all I seem to find are old rusty straight edged razor blades dropped into the dry wall space from the bathroom cabinet “slot” in the adjoining room. So much for finding national treasures in unexpected places!
However, in our first scripture reading today, taken from the narrative lectionary series, such an event occurred. In the 7th century BCE, Josiah was appointed king over Judah at the tender age of eight. King Josiah was a man devoted to the ancestral spirit of King David and sought to bring his people back to worshipping YHWH as their only God. His reform was far more sweeping than previous kings and ushered in a new age: one dedicated to worshipping YHWH alone.
During his reign Josiah orders that all statues and items attributed to the Assyrian gods be removed from the Temple in Jerusalem. During this vast remodeling project a national treasure was found: the Book of the Law of Moses. The priest Hilkiah consults the prophetess Huldah as to its authenticity. She informs him that it indeed the Torah: the Law of Moses, and to heed its message:
“Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place."
They took the message back to King Josiah. The king rendered his garment, as a sign of repentance and called the people together to hear the Book of the Law of Moses being read aloud. As they heard Torah being read they rededicate themselves to the LORD, renewing the covenant of their ancestors Moses and King David. They turn their hearts from their adulterous ways of worshiping other gods, and return to the Lord as their first love. This finding of the Book of the Law of Moses in the Temple, many scholars say, is the foundational manuscript for our present day Book of Deuteronomy, and was very influential in the history of the Jewish nation.
Just as King Josiah was appointed king over Judah at the age of eight and is credited for bringing his people back to God through following Torah, Jesus is brought to the Temple for circumcision at eight days old. He becomes the new Torah. Every night as we pray Evening Prayer we recall the words of Simeon, who is a seeker and a watcher in the temple. When Simeon glimpses Jesus being circumcised, he announces to those in the Temple (and to the entire world), that this small child is the Light to enlighten all the nations and is the glory of the people Israel. He proclaims that Jesus is in fact the Law of Moses. Simeon also found a hidden treasure in the Temple, that day.
Jesus becomes the new Torah for us. He, the temple, will be destroyed and raised up again in three days, Jesus tells us. We are brought back to God through Jesus, God incarnate. It is through Jesus that we will return to God in our hearts. Josiah’s reform foreshadows Jesus’ mission, and Simeon’s days of watching for the Messiah are over. Simeon is set free and may now go in peace as he was promised. His days of watching are over. Ours are not.
As you entered Church today things looked different. Look carefully around you and notice the change. The liturgical colors of purple now adorn our altar and vestments. (Even the choir has new purple robes!) The advent wreath and candles are now present and Nativity figurines grace our worship space. These are gentle reminders that something new is happening. Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent.
As a young boy of 5, I enjoyed very much these weeks leading up to Christmas. After want seemed to be a very long time of green vestments, Advent was refreshing. The wreath and candles, the singing of O Come, O Come Emmanuel was a joyous announcement that Christmas was just around the corner.
The Season of Advent to my young mind was all about preparing for Christmas Day. It meant that we would soon be hanging Christmas lights on our house and picking out a Christmas tree at the local nursery. However, in my mind, there was another and far more serious reason for Advent. It meant that I would have to buckle down and start acting like a very good five year old boy because the Advent “clock” had begun. If I was to make a good impression on Santa, the time for action was now! The clock had started ticking and there was no stopping it. I had to make up for lost opportunities where I had failed to be my best. No more pulling my sister’s hair or running through the house screaming like a five year old. Christmas gifts were at stake, here!
These signs of Advent were reminders that this was a time to start over in becoming a good little boy. I could hear the Advent clock loud and clear: Tick, Tick, Tick!
I guess in many ways, the season of Advent is over-shadowed by the fast approaching Christmas Season. We are busy shopping for friends, family and co-workers. Our calendar begins to fill up with seasonal events and social gatherings to the point that we seem to have very little time for ourselves and God. Even at Church, the planning for the Christmas services involves almost everyone in the parish. There are linens to press, vestments to clean, flowers to buy, Christmas trees and manger scenes to set up, the Rector’s Christmas letter to write, Christmas homilies to prepare and special bulletins to create. The list goes on and on. The closer we get to Christmas Day the more we forget about the Season of Advent.
So the Church in her wisdom offers us a time in Advent to stop, pause, and repent of our sinful ways in preparation not for the first coming of Christ, but for his coming again. We are asked to reflect on our adulterous ways of worshipping other false gods. Do we place our trust and hope in God? Do we worship God in our hearts above all things? These are hard questions to ask and I must admit at times I fail miserably.
Yet just as in Josiah’s time, we are invited to discover a new and start over again; to discover in new and unexpected ways who this Jesus is for us. Isn’t that what Advent is all about, returning our hearts back to God in ways that are new and freshly discovered.
May this Advent season be a reminder to us that God is our first love and that we need to remodel our lives based upon God’s love and will for us. We need tear out the “old kitchen” of our sinful ways and habits so that God can find a clear, open and receptive space in our hearts. Hearts ready to receive all that God has planned for us, remodeling us in new and beautiful ways. We need to be watching so that as God finds us so prepared to receive him as the Incarnation this Christmas, so too we may receive him more readily when he comes again in glory. This is a time for remodeling our souls; to find hidden treasures within. The rediscover our first love of God in Christ Jesus. Soul remodeling as in kitchen remodeling is exciting … it gets my heart racing. And God’s heart races in response. Amen
2 Kings 22:1--23:1-3
3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, 4 "Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; 5 let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the Lord; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house, 6 that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. 7 But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly."
8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord." 10 Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "The priest Hilkiah has given me a book." Shaphan then read it aloud to the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. 12 Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king's servant Asaiah, saying, 13 "Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us."
14 So the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her. 15 She declared to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants -- all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. 17 Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. 18 But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, 19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. 20 Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place." They took the message back to the king.
23:1 Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. 2 The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Giving Thanks
Christ the King, Year A November 20, 2011
Isaiah 1:10-20, 2:1-4, Matthew 25:31-46 St. Alban’s, Austin
I don’t spend hours cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I spend weeks.
As soon as the November food magazines hit the stands I scoop them up with a kind of abandon that would horrify me if they were any other kind of magazine. I typically consider magazines to be a waste of money. And I Tivo a bunch of shows on the Food Network, and now there is so much on the web that I spend an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about this single meal. Not the eating. The cooking. The sharing. But it’s not so much a single meal as it is a singular meal.
What’s it going to look like this year, this day that we set aside to set the table with the good stuff, endure relatives we generally avoid, watch football, mess up every inch of kitchen space, gorge ourselves at an hour when we aren’t typically eating, did I mention watch football teams we don’t even care about, go for a walk, nap, and – oh, yes – give thanks to God?
There are the years when it’s all family. Kids home from college. Grandparents come from out of town. New babies and cousins and aunts and uncles, all of us joined by blood or marriage. And then there are the odd years when the table is populated by the stragglers. Sometimes you’re th host. Sometimes you’re the orphan. I’ll never forget the precious friends who included me the first year after my divorce when the court decreed the children would be with their dad. You find yourself sitting down, at your own table or someone else’s with people who might not even know each other or have all that much in common except for the fact that this year they didn’t have a family gathering to go to. Sometimes those are the richest Thanksgivings of all.
Today we are all worshiping together at one service so that we can all give thanks to God together, and one way we do that is by pledging our gifts to God. At the Temple on their equivalent of Thanksgiving first century Jews would literally bring the first fruits of their harvest. So instead of a paper card with writing on it you might bring forward a basket of wheat or a bowl of olives, lemons, pomegranates, honey, cheese, wool. Not the leftovers after you’d taken what you needed for the year, but the very first ones picked or produced. John Bennet and I raised our pledge this year and I have to tell you I sort of gasped when I wrote the number on the pledge card. It’s a stretch. But we’re trusting that God will take good care of us as he always has.
And so I sat down to write my sermon and what did I get? Isaiah – God’s mouthpiece – in a tirade against the people of Jerusalem saying how much God hates their sacrifices and is tired of their festivals and their worship. Oh, swell! I hate your sacrifices, folks, but come right up here and put your pledge cards on the altar. Huh? And it’s my job to find the good news of the gospel in that!
Well, there’s work to do, so let’s get to it. Isaiah was a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah
in the 8th century BCE at just the same time that the northern kingdom of Israel, where the worship of the one Lord had fallen apart, was being devastated by the Assyrian empire.
Isaiah has a huge job to do.
He has to get God’s words across to his people so they don’t lapse into full-blown idolatry and get wiped out like the northern kingdom. So he starts by calling them names – Sodom and Gomorrah – God destroyed those faithless cities back in the book of Genesis. Isaiah confronts the people for their perfunctory worship of God. Oh, they might get to worship once a week, and they might put an offering on the altar, just enough, and they might observe the required festivals, but God could see into their hearts and God knows that at this point, where they are not giving God the first thought the other six days of the week, the only way to get their attention is by giving them what might be considered a rude reality check. You are on the road to no place good.
But then God encourages. Then God promises. Then God reminds them that God has blessed them in the past and will bless them in the future. Then God reminds them that he is the God of creation and forgiveness and deliverance. All God needs is their hearts.
Not so long ago at a vestry meeting a new vestry person was looking over the church budget. We were talking about service and outreach and this person was flipping through the pages and looked up and asked what percentage of our budget goes toward outreach. I mean, I see numbers for copier expenses and diocesan assessment and utilities and salaries. But where is the number that goes to serve the world off the hill? It looks like we’re spending most of our money on ourselves. I have to tell you it was one of my favorite moments of the year when another vestry member answered, 100% of our budget goes toward outreach.
Jesus said, I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.
This is why we are church. This is why we pledge, hopefully enough to make us gasp a little. This is why we worship together, give thanks to God together, because we grow when we come together. We challenge each other in a lot of ways and we empower each other in ways that would never happen if we didn’t gather for worship and listen to difficult scriptures together
and give thanks to God together for our disparate blessings. I mean, talk about a feast made up of the stragglers! We gather as the body of Christ that is St. Alban’s and we are transformed
for the purpose that we get down off this hill and keep God in our consciousness all week long as we serve the least, the lost, and the last in his name and do our part in the transformation of other lives.
In the society of Isaiah’s world and Jesus’ world and Matthew’s world the dispossessed were the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners, people who had no familial systems to define them or support them. They are why we are Christians. They are why it matters that we give to God in gratitude. They are why it matters that we don’t just go through the motions but worship and serve and share with our hearts. They are why we come together and risk being transformed again and again and again.
The kingdom will be present on Thursday in one form or another as we gather for our extraordinary meal. Whether we are with family or at one of those amazing straggler events, our meal is very much a holy eucharist because there is not a moment of a day that is not the Lord’s and there is not a breath we take that is not pure gift. There is not an act of kindness that doesn’t make God glad. There is not a gift we can give that doesn’t make us richer.
Let us pray:
Gracious and loving God, giver of all that is good and true and beautiful and life-giving. These cards represent our sweat, they represent our lives, they represent our dreams. The pledges which we make on them are but tokens of the awesome gifts that have been given to us and they are pledged in thanksgiving for all we have received, for all we have been inspired to be, for all we are challenged to become, in this place. May they be the first fruits of all we have and not what we have left over, so that we may live out as closely as possible how you give to us.
May we see them as our offering to you, sacred, holy, yet earthy, filled with possibilities. May we hold this image in our hearts and minds so as we watch our offerings each week come to your table, we can see our very selves being part of this offering, it is us on the table, living sacrifices to you. Amen. (1)
(1) Prayer by the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, Bishop of the Diocese of Olympia
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