25 September

Ah, parables.  Don’t you get the feeling that sometimes Jesus is deliberately trying to confuse us?  I know I do.

The theme of the parable of the two sons being asked to go work in the vineyard would seem to be obedience.  The first son is asked by his father to go work and the son says “no”, but then has a change of heart and does the work.  The second son, when asked, says “sure, I’ll go”, but he doesn’t.  Jesus asks us which son did the will of the father.  And the consensus seems to be that it is the first son.  But I believe an argument could be made that, while the first son ultimately did what the father asked, he was not obedient – at least not right away.  The hope that Jesus gives in this parable is we can mess up, even be disobedient and still ultimately make the right decision – to follow Him.

May we hear and answer God’s call to us by our actions, not just our words.

M.E.+

18 September

Once again, Jesus is talking to us about the kingdom of heaven in a parable.  When Jesus does this, we know that he is trying to explain to us how the world would be if the rule of God was obeyed universally.

Jesus is speaking about our concepts of justice – and God's concepts.  The scene Jesus paints would be familiar to anyone in the U.S. who knows the pick-up points for day laborers for farms or ranches around a particular city.  Jesus tells of an estate owner who hires workers in the dawn hours.  They agree on a penny or denarius, the official minimum wage for a day's work.  The owner goes out again and again during that day, so that the last to be hired have only about an hour's work.  However, when time comes to pay everyone working in the fields, they all get the same amount, a denarius.  Naturally there is grumbling about unfairness.  The owner dismisses the charge, claiming to be free to do as he wants with his money.

Notice what the unfairness charge focuses on.  No one can say he was given less than he should have been given.  The earliest made a contract, the others after that didn't, but they received more than the minimum rate.  What probably enrages everyone is that the last group hired got a whole day's wages for one hour's work!  Shouldn't everyone have been paid proportionately to the amount of the day worked?

Of course that's right, we say.  But Jesus' estate owner says no, not on his estate it isn't!  Why?  Because remember that this is a story about the kingdom of heaven, about God's ways, not our ways.  Jesus is teaching that God's way is more generous than human justice.  Human justice would have to be in minimal terms;  the contract with the first workers would be the measure and all succeeding agreements would be calculated downwards.  God's justice is that the first contract represents the level to which all others are lifted.

In daily life, what might this be about?  Let's consider two people.  One grows all his or her life in the knowledge of God and with faith, worshipping regularly.  In that life, God is a reality that brings meaning and joy and purpose.  The other person lives for many years without any thought of God.  To that person, faith is irrelevant, religion is for fools, Christ is merely an oath.  Then, at some point, everything changes for this person.  Faith and God become living realities, Christ lives!  There is purpose, new meaning, real joy, all now just as spiritually nourishing as in the first person's life.  One person has served Christ for many years, and the other has just discovered the life of service in Christ.  That is God's way.  And it can be mind-boggling for us.  God does not measure.  God gives the Holy Spirit abundantly!  Thanks be to God!

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

11 September

Isn’t it serendipitous that today’s gospel, the gospel read on 9.11.11, should be about forgiveness.  In the gospel, Peter asks Jesus: “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”  How do we respond to Jesus’ teaching on the 10th anniversary of 9.11?  One thing to do is take time to reflect.  I felt the following remarks from our Presiding Bishop to be helpful in that endeavor.  I hope you will too.

M.E.+

The Presiding Bishop issued these remarks on August 18, 2011

As we mark the tenth anniversary of the events of September 11, The Episcopal Church continues to work for healing and reconciliation.

Americans experienced the first large non-domestic terrorist attack on our own soil that day, a reality that is far too much a present and continuing reality in other parts of the world. We joined that reality in 2001. Many people died senselessly that day, and many still grieve their loss. All Americans live with the aftermath – less trust of strangers, security procedures for travelers that are intrusive and often offensive, and a sense that the world is a far more dangerous place than it was before that day. Our own nation has gone to war in two distant places as a result of those events. The dying continues, and the world does not seem to have become a significantly safer place.

Yet we believe there is hope. People of faith gave sacrificially in the immediate aftermath of the plane crashes, trying to rescue those in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, trying to subdue the aggressors on the plane over Pennsylvania, and reaching out to neighbors and strangers alike on that apocalyptic day. Clergy and laity responded to the crisis in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania, and prayer services erupted in churches and communities across the nation. St. Paul’s Chapel, near the site of the Towers, opened its doors to the emergency responders, and volunteers appeared with food and socks, massaging hands and praying hearts. Volunteers continued to staff the Chapel for months afterward, and prayers were offered as human remains were sought and retrieved in the ruins of the Towers.

Church communities in many places began to reach out to their neighbors of other faiths, offering reassurance in the face of mindless violence. That desire for greater understanding of other traditions has continued, and there are growing numbers of congregations engaged in interfaith dialogue, discovering that all the great religions of the world are fundamentally focused on peace. The violence unleashed on September 11th and in its aftermath was the work of zealots, disconnected from the heart of their religions’ foundations.

This tenth anniversary is above all an opportunity for reflection. Have we become more effective reconcilers as a result? Are we more committed to peace making? The greatest memorial to those who died ten years ago will be a world more inclined toward peace. What are you doing to build a living memorial like that?

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

4 September

How are disagreements and hurts to be dealt with in the Christian community?  And when we are hurt or betrayed, how do we deal with it?

Jesus suggests that if somebody wrongs or hurts us, we should make every effort to deal with it at the first opportunity, and, if at all possible, one on one.  Jesus is being very realistic, however.  He knows that one on one may not work.  It may be necessary to bring in someone to check what was heard and said.  Jesus goes further.  If the disagreement between two people is within a Christian community, it may be possible to get a small group together whom both sides trust.  Even then, an utterly realistic Jesus sees the possibility of failure.  It simply may not be possible for the opponents to come to terms with each other.  In saying this, Jesus is not saying that some future opportunity may not come to break through the resistance.

Notice an interesting detail in Jesus’ advice when he mentions “a Gentile and a tax collector.”  The attitude towards Gentiles and tax collectors in Jesus’ society was a finely balanced one.  There was a limit to the degree of relationship that was possible.  In the case of tax collectors, there was a real dislike of them.  But in both cases, and this is the point, there was much practical collaboration.  Many things were done together in spite of the mutual guardedness.  Likewise in the church today, it is possible to do a great deal of God’s work while serving side by side with those whom we may not particularly like, by whom, in fact, we may even have been hurt.  So, it may not be easy.  But if it can be done, it can achieve miracles of reconciliation by sharing in a worthwhile task, knowing that in spite of human feelings about one another, both are involved in the work of the same God.  Is it being unrealistic to think this is possible?  If so, it is amazing how often the vision of Christ challenges our ideas of what is realistic.

The Peace of Christ be with you,

Bob+