30 Jan

Suppose we could ask Jesus what were the most important things he wants to tell us. Certainly his answer would mention the kingdom of God. He constantly referred to it and told several stories to illustrate it. “Listen,” he would say, “the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, is like . . . “ Then he would choose something perfectly familiar to his listeners, and weave a story around it. Jesus is showing how things would be if God ruled our personal lives and our society.
Always the attitudes and responses of at least one figure are those of a totally loving person. We see this very clearly in two of Jesus’ best-known stories. The father is completely loving in the story of the prodigal son, as is the Samaritan in the tale of the wounded traveler. In such character sketches, Jesus is drawing a portrait of God.
In our gospel today(Matt. 5:1-12), Jesus turns to the crowd and decides to share with them, and of course with us, what kind of world we would have if God’s holy and loving will were reflected in human thought and action. What astonishes anyone really listening is the way everything Jesus says seems to fly in the face of all we have come to think of as practical and possible and reasonable in our society!
In Jesus’ scenario, it is the poor in spirit, not necessarily the confident and the powerful, who find the kingdom. Mourning is not necessarily something which destroys us. It can help us to discover the comforting love of others and so glimpse God’s kingdom of love. Meekness, contemptible in our society, can often be deceptive. Underneath it there can be a great deal of grace and holiness, if we can only be open to it.
On and on Jesus goes, giving us glimpses of a kingdom which turns our values upside down. Our society tends to think that being merciful is weak; Jesus says otherwise. Our society tends to think that being pure is rather quaint; Jesus says otherwise. Our society often thinks of peacemakers as interfering or unrealistic or even subversive; Jesus says otherwise. What this gospel is telling us is that we would be wise to put our whole value system under the light of Christ’s mind and spirit. The results would often surprise us, to put it mildly.

Peace,
Fr. Bob +

23 Jan - Jesus Calling

Today’s Gospel lesson is a familiar story: Jesus calling his first disciples.

Walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee he sees fishermen, first Simon and Andrew and then James and John. He calls to them to leave their work and come with him. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” he tells them. Hearing this story, we may wonder, ‘What made them drop their nets and go with this unknown person? What drew them to him?’ We don’t know the answers, of course, because Scripture does not share the thought process of these four men with us.

I think one answer to the question may be that Jesus offered the possibility of a new life, one that would stretch these men. In becoming disciples, these four men entered in to new work. Their horizons widened. They traveled to places they had never been before. They met and worked with new people, people who were probably quite different from those whom they had known. They stretched themselves, becoming teachers and healers. They probably did things that they never thought they could do.

That is actually a good description of the life of discipleship to which we are called as present-day followers of Jesus. We are not asked to drop our current work or leave our families. But we are called, each and every day, to stretch ourselves. To reach out in acts of generosity and compassion to others. To face challenges, to do what we did not think we were capable of doing. To carry on what Jesus and those early disciples started.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

16 Jan - Called to Fellowship

“God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor 1:9)
How true Paul’s statement to the Corinthians is! With the Annual Meeting coming up next Sunday, I am very aware of the Christian fellowship we are all called into every day. Just before verse 9, Paul is giving thanks for the people he is writing to and the gifts they have been given – “speech and knowledge of every kind;” in fact, Paul tells them they “are not lacking in any spiritual gift.” I believe the same is true for all of us at St. Simon’s. God has called us together to be a vital place of community and worship and has given us all the gifts we need to continue to be good stewards and witnesses of Christ’s love in the world.
Come next Sunday at 9:00 a.m. to worship and give thanks for the many blessings we share. Stay for the Annual Meeting where we will celebrate our journey to date and prayerfully discern where God is leading us this year.
Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC +

9 Jan 2011

Decisions are difficult for us all. At about the age of thirty, Jesus felt called to a decision in his life. His cousin, John, was talking to anyone who would listen about a new kind of world he felt sure was coming, a world for which people needed to make some changes in themselves and in their society. Jesus decided to go to John, to step down into the water of the Jordan river and to be baptized, intending this to be symbolic of the fact that one stage of his life was ending, and another was beginning.

We Christians need to ask if there needs to be a moment like that in our own lives, a moment of deciding how to be Christian and follow Christ in a new way in our changing world. We may not have been baptized as children, or been confirmed in our teens. Even if either of these things happened in our early years, we may still feel the need to find a way to say Yes to Jesus again. A friend might ask us to go on a Cursillo weekend. We might decide to attend an Enquirers/Confirmation class with the Rev. M.E. Eccles this year and to present ourselves in front of the Bishop for Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows, as provided for in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 419. That would be a great way to refresh our knowledge of the Christian faith and end with our making a renewed commitment to Christ.

When we decide to do something like this, we know that we are following in the footsteps of Jesus himself. He knew what it was like to feel the need of renewing commitment to God. Jesus made a decision and he acted upon it. He offered himself to God for God’s service.

Notice what happened when Jesus did this. He became even more aware of God’s spirit being alive and active within him. So will we. The spirit came to Jesus like a dove. A dove is the symbol of peace, in this case inner peace. In the coming of inner peace, we will experience the coming of the dove. Secondly, Jesus knew that he was being addressed by God. He knew himself to be in close and loving relationship with the God he addressed as Father. We too can come to know that relationship with God if we decide to act. We will find it through our relationship with Christ. We will find a deep peace. We will be called to serve. And we will come to know who we really are.

Peace to you,

Fr. Bob+

2 Jan - Post Christmas

Christmas is over. Even though our “official” celebration lasts 12 days, until the Epiphany on January 6, for most of us Christmas is over when we return to normal routines of work and school after New Year’s. Many of us have probably taken the tree and the decorations down. The warmth and glow of Christmas have faded or disappeared.

The sense of warmth and joy that is so much a part of Christmas in the Church—the center candle in the Advent wreath now lit, the familiar carols, the joy of Jesus’ birth—fade quickly too. Our Gospel readings for the Second Sunday after Christmas sound a somber, even menacing tone. On this day we hear of the visit of the wise men from the East, being asked by Herod to inform him of where the newborn Messiah is. The wise men, sensing that Herod has evil intentions, do not return with this information, but instead head “for their own country by another way.” In an alternative Gospel reading for the day, Joseph is warned in a dream to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt and remain there until danger is past.

These readings remind us that the birth of Jesus was not a welcome event to those in power. These words are a first indication of what will be an ongoing theme in Jesus’ ministry: opposition from those who want to maintain the status quo. Jesus will challenge those who want to follow him in his ministry, as he challenges us today, to be critical of social structures that create and maintain a system of haves and have-nots, injustice, and suffering. He will challenge us to take action: to love one another and to work for justice and peace in the world.

Sound familiar? It should. Those are our baptismal promises, the pattern of our lives . And so, Christmas over, we continue on in our journey of Christian life.

Peace,

Deacon Sue