St. Simon's Episcopal Church

15 January

2012-01-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Does God speak to you?

I believe God speaks to all of us, though sometimes we don’t hear or understand what God is trying to communicate. From Sunday’s lessons, we learn we often need others to help us hear and see God in our lives. Eli teaches Samuel that it is God who is calling him and how he should respond. Philip drags his buddy Nathanael to meet Jesus.

Who are the Elis and Philips in your life? It’s not easy, but I encourage you to take time to pray, to quiet your mind and open your heart, put fears aside and allow yourself space and time for discernment. God is talking to us – let us respond that we are listening.

M.E.+

25 December

2011-12-26T15:55:00.000-08:00

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Thank you to all who came to St. Simon’s for the Christmas services, making them truly joyous and festive celebrations of the nativity of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Blessings to all in this Christmastide and may you all have a peaceful and happy New Year!

See you in 2012!

M.E.+

11 December

2011-12-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

The collect for the Third Sunday of Advent is one of the most powerful of the year. May the praying of it bring some comfort to our hurting world.

"Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen."

May your holiday preparations go smoothly as the day of the birth of our Savior draws ever nearer!

M.E.+

4 December

2011-12-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things I took away from my trip to Israel is things are not always as you imagine them to be, but God is there – in the surprises and the differences.

Jesus was full of surprises. At the end of his ministry, he talked about his coming again. Last week, as we heard: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Luke says it slightly differently: Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place… (Luke 21:32) But that generation has passed away, right? And many, many, many generations since. Yet we forget something important that we are reminded of in Peter’s letter: Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

So what’s a generation to God? Who knows…but Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and spread the Good News. And we have been charged to do the same. Peter asks his readers a really good question: what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? How are we going to wait for Jesus, both in this Advent and in the seasons beyond?

We are called to share the Good News, not just verbally but by leading by example – living that holy and godly life that Peter writes about; to do that we need to be strong and fit – spiritually, physically and emotionally. How do you attend to your spiritual life? What is your equivalent a 30 minute walk three times a week? I’d encourage you to try daily prayer or maybe reading a passage from the Bible each day, anything to pause and assess where God is in your life at that particular moment, because trust me, God is there!

Waiting with you,

M.E.+

27 November

2011-11-28T17:49:00.001-08:00

First Advent – the first Sunday of the new liturgical church year. Advent is the season where we prepare for Christmas. What are we preparing for and why? I believe we are preparing for the kingdom of God and Jesus’ return. Why are we preparing? Because we don’t know when it will be.

How do we prepare? I suggest it’s no different than making sure we’re ready for any kind of physical opportunity: is your passport ready to go or has it expired? Is your resume up to date? Are you healthy? We need to ask the same questions of our spiritual preparedness: are we living as true disciples? Do we strive to embody our baptismal vows? Are doing our best to resist sin and temptation; and when we succumb do we repent and turn back to God? Because that’s what Jesus is telling us we need to do.

So, while we wait, let’s not be idle. We need to prepare, particularly our spiritual lives. There are all sorts of ways to do that: reading scripture each day, doing an Advent Calendar together. Maybe light a candle on your own Advent wreath and say prayers. What you do isn’t as important as doing something. So in this season of waiting and giving, don’t ignore your spiritual life – make sure it’s on your To-Do list.

Keep awake – Come, Lord Jesus!

Waiting with you,
M.E.+

20 November

2011-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

On this Thanksgiving Eve, I send up prayers of thanksgiving for St. Simon’s. I hope you all know what a wonderful community this is. And I offer you this Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Harvest (BCP, 840):

Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew: We yield to you hearty thanks and praise for the return of seedtime and harvest, for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits, and for all the other blessings of your merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech you, give us a just sense of these great mercies, such as may appear in our lives by a humble, holy, and obedient walking before you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Gratefully,

M.E.+

13 November

2011-11-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

The gospel today can make folks uncomfortable – one of the slaves gets thrown into outer darkness. While I believe that’s an excessive punishment, he did not do what was expected of him.

Ken Stiff, in his sermon, taught us that a “talent” was something that had value. In this particular story, we assume the talents referred to are coins. But he proposed the question, what if the talents were assignments/jobs? Thinking about it in that framework, what might be the talents given to you? What will you do with them?

The slave that buries his talent does himself and all those around him a great disservice. You don’t light a lamp and hide it under a bushel. Neither should we bury our talents.

Yours,

M.E.+

6 November

2011-11-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we survived it – the first weekend without the Dekkers! I don’t know about you, but I certainly felt a hole that I imagine I’ll feel for a while.

It was a big weekend too. There was a funeral on Saturday. We celebrated All Saints’ Day with the added blessing of a baptism. Finally, Kevin Campe (senior warden) announced the members of the Search Committee. Those twelve folks have stepped up to a big job and will need the support of everyone to do it well.

There is more stepping up and supporting to do though. In January, we’ll hold our Annual Meeting and one piece of business is to elect new members to the Vestry. The Vestry’s leadership is key to the success of a parish. I am deeply grateful to the folks who are “graduating” this year. Kevin Campe (senior warden) and Katie Suprenuk (junior warden) have done an amazing job during their tenure and, especially during the transition of Fr. Bob’s retirement. Chris Benne, Bari Flores and Lynn Jensen have served vestry well and faithfully. All this means St. Simon’s is at a time when nominations for new vestry members take place.

A nominating committee is in place and will be meeting this coming Sunday (11.13). The committee is: Kevin Campe, Katie Suprenuk, Lynn Jensen, Bari Flores, Sara Lewandowski and Mary Kurbat. If you are curious or interested in serving on Vestry, please tell one of these folks this week. Or, if you’d like to nominate someone else, please let us know (after you get their permission, of course).

Please pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance through this process.

M.E.+

30 October

2011-10-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a truly festive celebration of the ministry of Fr. Bob and Helen Dekker – 20 years of ministry!

On Friday night, almost 200 people gathered for dinner at the Metropolis. Today, Sunday, over 300 people packed St. Simon’s for Fr. Bob’s last Eucharist as Rector. What a wonderful celebration followed by a beautiful reception in the parish hall.

Thank you to everyone who made this weekend possible. A special thank you to Parish Life (particularly Caryl Medsker, Julie Wood, Katie Suprenuk, Amy Stomper and Ann Kee) for organizing both Friday’s dinner and today’s reception. And thank you to everyone for attending – it was quite a testament to all the lives touched by the Dekkers over the years.

There is no doubt they will be missed, but I know you all join me in wishing God’s blessings to them as they begin this new chapter in their lives.

With love,

M.E.+

23 October

2011-10-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. With this answer to the lawyer’s question, Jesus sums up the 613 commandments in the Old Testament on how a person should live their life. Sounds simple enough, right?

I think not. The main reason I don’t think it’s so simple is because, different than a list of dos and don’ts, these two commandments are all about relationship. Notice Jesus says that we are to love the Lord your God – not some abstract higher power, but the God who created us, who loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Then Jesus says love your neighbor; again, Jesus is not referring to the whole world’s population, but your neighbor – the person living next to you. Living into these two commandments is really hard.

What about love your God? How often do you think about your relationship with God? Do you think of your relationship with God in the same way you think about your relationship with, say, your best friend? I don’t mean to ask the question that we sometimes hear: “do you have a personal relationship with your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?” As an Episcopalian, I always cringe when asked that question. But the truth of the matter is: yes, I do. I do have a very personal relationship with God. And I would suggest we all do. We come together every week and remind ourselves that we do; in particular, I point to the Lord’s Prayer. Remember how it starts? “Our Father…” Jesus didn’t teach his disciples to pray to “Oh higher power, somewhere out in the universe…” but “Our Father”. And the rest of the prayer is about very real, tangible things that are about relationship; we pray to God to give us bread, to forgive us when we sin, just as we do our best to forgive others when they hurt us; protect us from temptation and please, please keep us from evil. Yes, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer of praise – but it is praise for the relationship with our Creator, with our Savior and it is a prayer about living in relationship to God and one another.

Relationships are hard. We want things done a certain way – our way. But living in relationship means we need to open our hearts – to patience and forgiveness. After all, don’t we want the same? I know I do.

M.E.+

16 October

2011-10-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

This is a risk-filled moment in the gospel. In the language of our time, it’s a set-up. Jesus is in a public place. Around him is the usual mixture of people, some attracted to his teaching, others just curious. Mingling with the group are some of his enemies. He is too popular to attack openly so they try to trap him into saying something that can be used against him, something to show that he is subversive. It’s a tactic as old as politics. With wide-eyed innocence, someone asks the dangerous question prefaced by a stream of flattery. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not?” There must have been a dead silence. Anyone with any intelligence in the crowd would know what was at stake. If the teacher said yes he would be making enemies at every level of Jewish life. If he said no he would challenge the Roman occupation.

Jesus’ answer has come down through time. It is the reply of a razor-sharp mind. He holds up the coin and says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Centuries roll away but the question and the reply remain. Why? Because the question and answer present men and women with an eternal equation which has to be worked out in human life.

We all live somewhere between the two poles expressed as Caesar and God. Each of us has to live in what we tend to call the real world, the world of nine to five. Whether it is really the “real world” is another story. Each of us has to decide what we give to the “Caesar” of our nine-to-five life. Do we give everything, all our time, all our energy? Do we make that part of our life an ultimate value; in a word, do we make it our God? Or do we acknowledge that only God is ultimate and that this God demands our allegiance, our integrity, our trust, our worship. That’s the real question.

It is a matter of not looking at our lives as being divided into two worlds, the world of work and the world of worship, with God in the latter but not in the former – a sort of life with a set of compartments. Thinking like that has long been the trap of our culture. God is the God of both worlds. Not until we realize this are we able to begin to work out the relationship between Caesar and God for our lives. Even then, working out the balance of that equation is always difficult, and there are no neat answers. The important thing is to realize that the equation must be continually worked at if we are to be responsible stewards of the one life we have to live.

Peace,

Bob+

9 October

2011-10-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

It’s not often I get jazzed about the 2nd Reading, mainly because Paul drives me nuts. But I do resonate with most of Paul’s letter to the Philippians and this Sunday’s passage is one of my favorites.

First, it is one of the few places women leaders and mentioned and supported by Paul. Next, the following bears quoting:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What a commendation! Think about what is just, what is honorable, what is true. Sometimes, in today’s world, we have no idea what is true. Just because we hear a story on the news or read something in the paper, or follow a link on-line, do we know it’s true? Is that journalist writing to sensationalize or to expose truth and make us want to respond in an honorable, just way? Paul is telling his readers, the Philippians and us, to think! And then, go and do!

M.E.+

2 October

2011-10-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

Jesus offered a vision to the people of his own time. As the risen Christ, he offers the same vision to us. The vision is of a kingdom, what he always calls the kingdom of heaven. It is another way of living life, a kind of alternate universe. And Jesus didn't just talk of that vision - he was the vision. He didn't just speak of the demands of that kingdom – he did them!

So why didn't it all work out in a wonderfully successful way? Why didn't everybody think that Jesus and his vision were just what this hurting world needed? It's difficult to frame a simple answer to this, but we can try.

In his Gospel, John has two phrases which express the tragedy without necessarily explaining it. He says "The world knew him not . . . his own people received him not." Why? John later reports a statement of Jesus which seems to answer that question. Jesus says, "This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light"(John 3:19). There it is in the clearest and simplest words – the tragic heart of the human condition. The Bible's word for this condition, itself simple and clear, is sin.

This is what this parable of Jesus is about. In it, he tells his own destiny. Jesus had no illusions about the consequences of his words and actions. He knew the dark depths of human nature which surrounded him.

The ironic contradiction in human behavior and experience is to reject that which is clearly in our interest to accept. Our judgment is deeply flawed, and our choices are apt to be terribly wrong.

The kingdom that Jesus offers us is not taken from us by some grudging God; we ourselves choose something else! But even as we paint that grim portrait of our human nature, another face shines through it, that of Jesus Christ. The face is a promise that in Christ our humanity is also capable of a shining glory. Through Christ we can, if we choose, to set foot from time to time in the very kingdom we refuse most of the time. Thank goodness for our patient, gracious, steadfast and loving God!

The Peace of Christ be with you,

Bob+

25 September

2011-09-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T07:22:00.001-07:00

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+

28 August

2011-08-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

Poor Peter...last week he hits the ball out of the park by identifying Jesus as the Messiah, Son of the Living God. But this week he blows it. Can you blame him though? Jesus reveals to the disciples what is to come and Peter doesn't understand why Jesus would have to go through all the suffering and death; his reaction is strong: "God forbid it, Lord!"

Jesus' response to Peter includes some of the hardest words we Christians hear. If we, like Peter, have our minds focused on human things, we will trip ourselves up. Instead, Jesus says: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." These are not words of comfort. These are startling words - shocking words. What does that mean for us comfortable Christians today?

Perhaps it is a copout on my part, but I believe that Paul gives us some good advice in his letter to the Romans. I don't think it's an accident that the passage on letting "love be genuine" is paired with this gospel reading (Romans 12:9-21). Paul's instruction to the people is a wonderful guide for how we should and can live our lives as good Christians today: "...be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer...extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you...Do not repay anyone evil for evil. If possible...live peaceably with all." And finally: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

All of the above is easier said than done, but it is our calling to do our best to live this way. How else will we be known as Christians?

M.E.+

21 August

2011-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

“Who do you say that I am?”

It was in the city, Caesarea Philippi, surrounded by a seamy and very secular society, that Jesus decided to ask his disciples a key question. He asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” But perhaps the next question Jesus asked is more important. After he had listened to their various replies, he said, “Who do you say that I am?”

That question placed everyone on the spot. Peter blurted out that Jesus was the Christ. That moment remains alive throughout time. Jesus asks this question of us now and asks it in exactly the same words, “Who do you say I am?” Each one of us alone knows the reply we have tried to make up to this point in our lives. Maybe we have already said to Jesus, as Peter said, “You are the Christ.” If we haven’t, we need to say it at some stage, if our relationship with Jesus is to be strong and lasting.

It is interesting that Jesus chose Caesarea Philippi as the place to ask his question, a city that was considered beautiful and dangerous, sensual and secular. Look at the world we live in, the world where we are trying to be his disciples. Can that urban world of ours not be seen in very much the same terms as Caesarea Philippi? It certainly can be tough and dangerous; in places very beautiful and impressive. Our places and times are also intrigued by temptations of a sensual nature. We all know that it is used endlessly, much of the time to sell us things we desire.

The point is that it is right in the middle of this very secular world that Jesus asks us his eternal question. He demands that we state our allegiance to him. Notice what he says to Peter after Peter’s expression of faith. Jesus defined that faith as the rock on which God’s work in a Christian community can be founded. Jesus depends on us. What will our answer be?

Peace to you all,

Bob+

14 August

2011-08-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday’s collect was oddly appropriate for my first Sunday back from Jerusalem. It reads:

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life.

“Follow daily in the blessed steps…” I’m fairly certain the liturgists who composed this collect meant that to be figurative language. But I have just returned from pilgrimage. I had the privilege to visit Nazareth, Bethlehem, Galilee and Jerusalem – all places we know Jesus walked. And our group walked the Way of the Cross, the route Jesus walked from condemnation to crucifixion.

So, as I prayed the collect with you, many memories of my trip flashed through my mind. I hope to share the stories of my travels with you as we all do our best to follow in Christ’s footsteps.

M.E.+

7 August

2011-08-07T06:02:00.001-07:00

In today’s gospel passage, we share a moment in the turbulent relationship between Jesus and the disciples. The crowd has been fed. Jesus sends the disciples over to the far side of the lake, promising to follow. Jesus stays to see the people off. By the time they are gone, night has fallen. Out on the lake things have turned ugly; a wind has made the water very dangerous, and the boat is in some serious difficulty. The fact that it is pitch dark makes the situation even worse. At this point, Christ appears to them, moving over the waters. They are terrified. Typically, the one who responds is Peter. Impelled by the sight of his Master, he leaves the boat, reaching for Jesus. Suddenly his courage fails him and he goes under. Christ reaches out to him and rescues him.

What is being offered to us here? First, we all have to take our voyage across the lake, because the lake is life itself. We all take that voyage in the fearful and vulnerable vessel called the self. Because of the vulnerability, we frequently travel with others. To each of us there comes a time of storm, of struggle, and of fear. At such a time, we feel like it is night in our lives. It is in fact at night that we do a great deal of our wrestling with those thoughts that storm the defenses of our half-asleep mind.

At such times, Christ can and does come to us. In our fear he may say in many ways to us, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” We will indeed take heart in the face of what is troubling us. We will make our decision to resist fear. Like Peter, we will get up and risk ourselves in the face of the storm within us, trying to conquer our fear. Sometimes in such a situation we can falter as Peter did. The storm howls around us. The world seems to give way beneath us; we begin to sink. At such a moment, Christ can and does reach out to us. There can be new strength and stability. There can be a stilling of the inner storm. This has been true for many fellow pilgrims who have gone before us, and it can be true for us.

May the Peace of Christ be with you this week,

Fr. Bob+

31 July

2011-08-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

In our gospel, the disciples and Jesus are in a deserted place, with a crowd of over five thousand hungry people. Then, Jesus blesses the few loaves and fish, and amazingly, “all ate and were filled!”
One of the earliest Christian communion prayers says: “As this broken bread, once dispersed over the hills, was brought together and became one loaf, so may your church be brought together from the ends of the earth.”

Perhaps this story of Jesus feeding the five thousand would urge us to add:
“May we, like this bread - like the Christ, be broken and shared with the world, that all may be fed.”
Scattered. Gathered. Scattered.

Theologian Donald Armentrout writes that “Christ has called the scattered grains from the hills and transformed them into something beyond what they had been by themselves: now they are bread. Christ has called the people and transformed them into something beyond what they had been by themselves: now they are Christ’s body.”

If the loaves in this story had remained unbroken – and unshared, they could have fed no one. But when the bread was blessed and broken and shared, “all ate and were filled.”

If the church were to remain only within its community here, without scattering into the world, it could feed no one. But when the church is blessed - and broken - and shared, it can be bread for a hungry world.
After we receive Holy Communion, after we have been fed by “the Living Bread,” we are told: “Go . . . Serve . . .” To this sending, we boldly reply: “Thanks be to God!”

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

24 July

2011-07-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

If the kingdom of God could make all the difference to life, how much would we be prepared to give for it?

Everyone knows the feeling of wanting something so much that you would give everything you have to possess it. Very often we experience that feeling in childhood. It isn't absent in adulthood, but we are less likely to accept the terms of such a transaction. However, we often accept a trade-off without realizing it. Many persons have sacrificed everything else in life for the rewards of professional success, for example, only to find that the prize was not worth the sacrifice.

Whenever Jesus begins any statement with the words “the kingdom of heaven” we know that he is trying to express what human life would be like if our thinking and acting more fully reflected God's will for us. In this case, Jesus shows us a man finding a treasure in a field. The man immediately hides it again, sells everything he has, and buys the field. The treasure in the field is our relationship with God. Jesus is suggesting that this is the ultimate great prize in life. How much value are we prepared to put on such a possession? How much are we prepared to pay?

At first glance, Jesus' next story seems the same, but it is very different. In fact, to realize the difference is to be deeply moved. In this story, the merchant looking for fine pearls is actually God, known to us through Jesus Christ – who is in search of each of us. And when he finds one of us, he is prepared to give everything, even life itself, for us! We might take a moment to reflect on the immense value and worth this attaches to us, a worth far beyond what we expect or deserve. To realize who the merchant in this parable really is, is to realize just how much we are loved. Once again, we are faced with a decision. What response are we prepared to make in the face of such incredible love?

In all of the stories or parables contained in today's gospel, we are faced with a very basic truth. Human life is lived in full freedom to make all sorts of choices. But that freedom carries a price. To be truly free is to be answerable for one's choices - - this gives life its essential meaning.

“Grant us the fullness of your grace, O God, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure.”(paraphrased, from a Collect for Grace in daily living, BCP, p. 234).

Grace to you and Peace,

Bob+

10 July

2011-07-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Jesus told a story about the many kinds of faith journeys people experience. His image of God is that of a sower striding along a stretch of ground. In long regular sweeps of his arm he throws the seed far and wide. That seed represents all of the many ways in which God communicates with and gives grace to us.

A seed falls on the roadway beyond the soil line. A bird comes and the seed is gone. A seed falls among rocks where there is just a thin layer of earth. It grows but it has no nourishment, so it dies. A seed falls among thorns, struggles to grow, succeeds partially, and is overcome. Finally, a seed falls in good rich earth and there are magnificent results.

In a sense, the whole story is true of each of our lives. From birth to death, God communicates with us, fostering our growth, guiding, inspiring, calling. Because we are human we go through periods and circumstances when we become each of those places in the story where the seed of God tries to grow. We can be the path beyond the soil line. That may be a stage in our lives when other influences, some of them actually evil, can snatch from us any link with God. We can become the rocky ground, a person full of initial enthusiasm. But if there comes a time when our allegiance to God becomes costly in any way, we fade out. We can be the place of thorns. We encounter God. It affects us deeply, but something more attractive comes along and we go in that direction. There are many shiny, tempting options in today’s world to make us do just that. Finally, we can become good soil. We encounter God. We grow in Christ, and we respond to God. God becomes the foundation of our lives. We find that life in Christ can be far more satisfying than those other shiny, attractive options. We pray today that you and I can be the ground which receives the seed, leading to a bountiful harvest, enriching our lives and all those around us. Good news indeed!

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

3 July

2011-07-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

These words spoken by Jesus can be such a balm to the soul. I find it especially appropriate that we heard these words today, the Sunday of July 4th weekend. I think of all the soldiers and veterans who are no doubt weary and who carry heavy burdens, both physically and emotionally; and I hope that they know there is rest and healing in Jesus. I pray there are those among us willing to share their burdens. I believe one way to do that is to express gratitude for the profound gift of self each soldier and veteran gives to our military and our country.

I offer thanks and wish blessings upon everyone who keeps our nation safe. And I pray we can all find the rest Jesus promises.

M.E.+

June 26

2011-06-29T19:42:00.001-07:00

Earlier in the 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus is teaching about the commitments we make in family relationships in contrast to the commitment we are willing to make to Jesus.

Jesus is asking that the quality of our love for him should be at least of the same depth and intensity as the quality of our love and commitment for those dearest to us. We will make sacrifices for them. Will we make sacrifices for Christ? We will give of our time to them. Will we give time to Christ? We will do anything in order to strengthen and nourish relationships with those closest to us. Will we do at least the same for our relationship with Christ? Just as we are the only ones who can make these decisions about our human relationships, so only we can decide about the quality and depth of our relationship with Christ.

Finally, in the last verse of today’s gospel reading(Matthew 10:42), Jesus once again implies that the ultimate measuring tool for our Christian faith is through our actions. Loving Christ is not some sentimental concept. Love is obedience to God in Christ. Love is a deed done for another. Love is that reaching out in love and concern for the other.

“Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

19 June

2011-06-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Deacon Sue's sermon today spoke of beginnings and endings. She is right that beginnings seem to hold so much possibility. But when we think of endings, we tend to think they are closed - final - the way books or movies end. All the mysteries are solved; everything is tied up in a neat bow. Yet both Paul’s conclusion to his letter to the Corinthians and the final words of Matthew’s gospel are not close-ended. Paul makes suggestions on how the Corinthians should continue to live. Jesus commissions the disciples to go and tell the world about him and the Good News. The end is not the end.

Ultimately, Deacon Sue’s sermon was about remembering her beginning here at St. Simon’s more than two years ago and marking this day – the end of her time as our deacon. She goes on to a new beginning and we will continue as a community forever touched and changed by her ministry.

She shared that her favorite part of the service was the dismissal because, even though it marks the end of the service, the deacon is calling us all to go forth to begin anew our work in the world. Let us heed her words.

Thank you, Deacon Sue, and blessings on your new beginning.

M.E.+

12 June

2011-06-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today Jesus speaks to his disciples and to us of his life being both our window to God and our introduction to the Holy Spirit.

All through these weeks of Eastertide, millions of Christians are reading this gospel according to John. We have been going back over all the things Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room – before he was crucified. Why? Because now we know he IS risen, we can hear them in a new way.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Once again we hear Jesus link love to obedience. Love for Christ is never just a nice feeling. Love abides where there is obedience to Christ.

“He(the Father) will give you another Advocate.” Here is a frequent theme of our Lord. He was saying that his disciples’ relationship with him could not stop at this point - it was only beginning. In fact, the relationship would have to grow all their lives.

And finally, in today’s gospel: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The key words for me here are: So I send you. “All this time I have been teaching you and preparing you for something. And I am not leaving you to do this alone. I have given you the gift of the Holy Spirit, to inspire you, and strengthen you, and to dwell inside of you. And now you have work to do.” Yesterday, at the meeting with Bishop Victor Scantlebury and all of the Confirmands at St. James’ Cathedral, including our Grace Nykol and Alexander Plummer, the Bishop told the gathering that they would receive a gift of the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by the Bishop in the Sacrament of Confirmation. This was not just going to be a nice occasion, or a sort of rite of passage for them. The confirmands would make promises in the service, to reaffirm their renunciation of evil, and renew their commitment to Jesus Christ, and to follow him as Savior and Lord, all words familiar through the Baptism rite. Now they were being prepared for a life of Christian service. At the laying on of hands, the Bishop prayed: “Strengthen, O Lord, your servant Grace, your servant, Alexander, with your Holy Spirit; empower them for your service; and sustain them all the days of their lives. Amen.”

So, being a follower of Christ means living a life of service to God, and being in a relationship with Christ that will grow throughout our lives.

For Grace and Alexander, newly confirmed; for Emma and Elizabeth, baptized at St. Simon’s this morning; and for Tim, Beth, Audrey, Kathryn and McKenzie, who made their First Communions here this morning; and for all of us – may we feel truly called to service in Christ, and may our relationship with Christ be constantly growing, through the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

May the Peace of Christ bless you this day,

Love,

Fr. Bob+

5 June

2011-06-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

We are almost at the end of the Easter Season. Pentecost is just one week away. It is a time for farewells, final pieces of advice. And that is precisely what we have in today’s Scripture readings. In the reading from Acts, the apostles, as the original group of disciples were known after the Resurrection, have gathered. Jesus tells them, “. . .you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8) In the Gospel lesson, we hear another part of Jesus’ final speech to his followers. He asserts that his followers have understood what he has taught them and they believe that he has come from God.

What strikes me in both of these readings is Jesus’ confidence. He does not say to the disciples, “I hope you will be my witnesses after I am gone.” He states, quite boldly, that they will indeed be witnesses. Jesus does not express a hope that his followers have understood his teachings. Instead, he says quite clearly that they have learned what he has come to teach them. They belong to him—and also to God.

As we move into the Pentecost season, our focus will shift to ministry: the ministry of Jesus’ early followers and our own ministry as modern-day followers of Jesus. I hope that we can take heart from Jesus’ confidence. His faith in that first group of followers and in us. That we can carry the ministry forward, both within the faith community of St. Simon’s and in the many communities of which we are a part in the larger world.

Deacon Sue Nebel

29 May

2011-06-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Monday is Memorial Day. In many ways, I believe this day has, over time, become a symbol of the start of summer, a holiday. But the essence of the day has been lost. It was meant to be a time to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, our freedom. I remember stories of picnics, sure – but picnics in cemeteries where families cleaned up the grave sites of their loved ones, remembering them and honoring them. I invite us to try to recapture a bit of what the deeper meaning of Memorial Day is. I want to say thank you to all who have served and are serving and for their families who serve with them. And I offer this prayer:

ALMIGHTY God, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy and especially for those men and women who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to those who are commemorated on those memorials and those written in our hearts your mercy and the light of your presence. And give, O Lord, to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will. Amen.

The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC+

22 May

2011-05-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

In our Gospel passage, when Jesus says to his disciples, "Let not your hearts be troubled," he is really touching the hearts of all human beings. We are all deeply troubled about many things: things about ourselves, our relationships, our future, our society and world. The list is long. In the face of this, Jesus reminds us that our lives are not merely isolated and meaningless phenomena. Our lives are the creation of God, and for the duration of our lives, Jesus offers himself as our lifelong companion.

Jesus then speaks of the destiny of our lives. Life in this world is not all that there is! This may seem fairly obvious to most Christians, yet the sad fact is that many Christians are so influenced by the culture we live in that they no longer see their lives as being lived out as part of a greater life. We need to be reminded of this greater life by Christ's clear and most direct words to us in this passage(vvs. 2 and 3).

Thomas' cry expresses something we all feel. What is the purpose of human life and how do we live it? Jesus' response to Thomas applies to all of us. The way we try to live our lives is the way that Christ did. The truth we try to find in life, and the meaning we attach to our life, is the meaning that Christ saw for his life. For Jesus, the truth about life is that it is a gift from God. The way to live it is to give it back to God in service day by day in all that we do. For Jesus, this was the way and the truth and the life. So it is for us.

The age old question, both inside and outside of the religious community is, who was Jesus and who is he for Christians. The discussions will continue to the end of time since Jesus Christ is a profound and eternal mystery. But we can look at what Jesus says in our passage to Philip in order to hear a great truth about Jesus which we can hold onto always. Philip asked Jesus to show him God. It is something we all desire – to know the essential meaning and source of life. But Jesus turns to Philip and tells him that he, Philip, has already seen a portrait of God in this very friend, Jesus, the one with whom he is talking.

Jesus is our window into the nature of God. Whenever we are conscious of Jesus presence with us, we are also becoming aware of God's working within us. To know such things, and to believe them, and then to use them as the basis for our approach to life, is to have tremendous spiritual resources and blessings available to us, day by day. Thanks be to God!

Love,

Fr. Bob+

15 May

2011-05-15T15:42:00.001-07:00

The world that Jesus knew was very familiar with the figure of the shepherd. Shepherds were absolutely vital to the economy. Ironically, they were not paid very well, in spite of the fact that their work entailed not only long hours outside, but also a great deal of danger, particularly from the threat of wolves. The shepherd always led the flock and was responsible for finding pasture. Any suggestion that the image of the shepherd makes Jesus out to be merely gentle and nurturing is very far from the truth. What is very significant about the shepherd’s role is that it called for a person who was prepared to be gentle and tough, nurturing and driving.

In the language of this passage, there are many would-be “shepherds” today who try to manipulate and exploit people for questionable ends. The name Madoff comes to mind – you may think of others. We might think of the thief of which Jesus speaks as being among these people. A particularly false shepherd is one who leads young people to drug use. Such a shepherd comes, says Jesus, for no reason other than “to steal and to kill and to destroy.” Jesus says of his followers that if they are wise, they will not follow such a stranger, but instead, flee from him.

Jesus then tries to get us to understand our relationship with him. As an image, he uses the door which was part of every sheepfold. Jesus speaks of our “going in and out” by the door which, in a spiritual sense, is Jesus himself. What this means is that a Christian sets out to use Christ’s path or way, to do everything “through Christ,” in short, to live life through Christ’s grace and help.

Jesus then says something we tend to miss in our culture and way of living. He says “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Notice that he does not say he came that we might merely have religion!! Christ offers himself to us not only as the Lord of our religious experience, but as the Lord of our total human experience. We hear this and we nod our heads in agreement, but actually there is a great deal in our culture and society, and in ourselves, that resists this and fights against it.

The truth is that for a Christian, Jesus is the door through which one enters into every aspect of life, into one’s office or shop or plant. Christ is the door through which a Christian enters into a theater or library or art gallery - anything. What we really mean by saying this is that for a Christian, no area of life is outside the guidance and the grace and the companionship of Christ. I hope you truly experience this in your journey this Eastertide.

Remember: Christ is Risen! And you are a follower of the Resurrected Christ. Alleluia!

Love,

Bob+

8 May

2011-05-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

In this season of Easter, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. That is the central event, the focus of our attention. But there is another story that we follow in this season: the story of Jesus' followers. Jesus' appears to them several times and gradually they grasp the new reality: Jesus is alive. What is more important is what happens to them after the Resurrection. They change. Before they were followers; now they are leaders. They become Easter people.

Perhaps the most striking example of this change is Peter. In the stories that we hear in Holy Week, Peter is afraid, cowardly. He claims to be devoted to Jesus, even willing to die for him, but when things get tough, Peter weakens. He turns away from Jesus, denying his relationship to the one whom he called Lord and Teacher.

In today's lesson from Acts, we see a changed Peter. He is preaching to a large crowd of people. He claims Jesus to be the Messiah. He charges the crowd with responsibility for Jesus' death. When they ask what they can do, he tells them to repent and be baptized. And, we learn, after hearing Peter’s words, about a thousand people are baptized.

In this season, we too become Easter people. May we draw strength from the examples of Peter and the other disciples. May we resolve to live out our baptismal promises. To love one another. To treat every human being with respect. To work for peace and justice in the world.

Deacon Sue Nebel+

1 May

2011-05-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today is the Second Sunday of Easter, often known in the Church as Low Sunday. Low because attendance is significantly smaller than the large crowds of Easter Sunday. Low because we feel a certain letdown after the glorious celebration of the Resurrection. Each year on this Sunday, we hear the account of two of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances to his followers. First, he appears to a group of them, but one of them (Thomas) is not there. In the second account, Thomas is present. Told by the others that they have seen Jesus, Thomas refuses to believe that Jesus is real unless he can see and touch him. People often refer to this Gospel passage as the story of “doubting Thomas.”

I have a certain sympathy for Thomas. I am not sure that “doubting” is an appropriate label for him. Instead, I understand Thomas as someone who struggles to believe. To comprehend the impossible. Jesus has died. Now, Thomas is told, Jesus is alive. People have seen him. It is too much. Thomas cannot expand the limits of his understanding to take in this new reality—at least at first. Then, Jesus appears and invites Thomas to reach out and touch him. In that moment, Thomas recognizes Jesus and declares, in a dramatic affirmation of belief, “My Lord and my God!”

In this Easter season, let us remember Thomas. Let us recognize Thomas in ourselves. In our own struggle to stretch the limits of our own understanding. To take in the reality of the Resurrection: Jesus alive in us, in our lives.

Peace,
Deacon Sue Nebel+

24 April

2011-04-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

“Suddenly there was a great earthquake: for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone, and sat on it.”

This morning, the unbelievable is the Truth. Jesus Christ lives. And by the grace of God, we know his presence in our lives today. Jesus is with us in his Word as it is preached, in the Sacraments as they are celebrated, in our prayers as we pray them, and in this community of the Church as we experience it. The Good News of the Gospel is no idle - no made up tale. We have the evidence - the Risen Christ - among us, and for us. Alleluia!

For a few minutes this morning, this glorious day, I would like us to consider the best way to celebrate Easter, namely, the way that Jesus did. This day, the most important day in the Church’s calendar, sets loose a torrent of activity – you all have experienced that!
We celebrate Christ’s resurrection in countless bright and colorful ways. We dye Easter eggs, and eat Chocolate covered marshmallow rabbits. We shop for new clothes – hoping for spring weather – and we buy hats and dresses and suits and shoes. We sit down to wonderful festive meals and enjoy dishes of ham or lamb or other treats. We gather for worship: to sing triumphant hymns with brass and tympani and organ; to hear the resurrection gospel, to receive Holy communion, and sing “Alleluia” – for the first time in 40 days. We have all these ways and many more to celebrate this Sunday of the Resurrection.

But I would like to suggest this morning, that we might celebrate Easter in a very different way - - to celebrate Easter the way that Jesus did. And to celebrate Easter this way does not require painted eggs, or springtime flowers, or even crowded churches, as happy as that is. To celebrate Easter as Jesus did means to forgive somebody, even somebody we may not think deserves it. Jesus forgives. He forgives those who don’t deserve it! Jesus forgives all who will receive the gift of forgiveness and even those who won’t. His friends – and his enemies! The Jews and the Gentiles! People of his time - and people of our time! Israelis and Palestinians! Egyptians and Libyans. Afghans and Americans. Jesus comes back in the power of his unending life – to forgive what was done to him on that First Good Friday – by all of us. Jesus comes back to forgive all the people for what they do to him - - in the person of each other - today and every day. And the marvelous good news is that we all have a place under Jesus’ Easter tent, the umbrella of his forgiveness - - all are a part of that great throng of what Archbishop Desmond Tutu likes to call the great multitude of God’s Rainbow people, all the peoples of the world who find a place in God’s outstretched loving arms - - the Rainbow people who find forgiveness.

Each one of us will find a place there, amongst God’s forgiven people, along with the boss that we can’t stand, and the next door neighbor who irritates us, and the family member we don’t get along with – all of us are there, beneath Jesus’ big rainbow Easter tent – though we don’t deserve it. The whole human race, including you and I, pushed Jesus out of this world into death’s doorway. And what happens? Jesus comes back, radiant with glory, and ushers us to the banquet of the forgiven, where old enemies can feast together as friends! Jesus forgives us.
He knows the secrets of our hearts.
He knows us better than we know ourselves.
He knows us, and still he forgives.

So there’s a couple of things that we can do in response this day: We can recall a person we need to forgive – and who doesn’t deserve it. It doesn’t matter who it is, near or far, out of our lives, or closely involved with us. We can decide that the wall of enmity that has divided us has gone on long enough – and needs Resurrection.

Then, later in the service, when we arrive at the Altar for Holy communion or a blessing, we can pray there for the grace to forgive – as we have been forgiven – and by God’s grace, both we and another person may experience Easter resurrection as never before. In the Name of God: our + Creator, Savior, Sanctifier, Of whom the Glory, in both heaven and earth is made manifest – Alleluia! Amen.

17 April

2011-04-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Our Lenten journey has brought us to Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. In this final part of our journey, things shift. In our liturgies, we are invited to become more actively involved than usual. Today, and throughout the week, we engage in a process of remembering. The word “remember” is related to the word “member,” to belong to, to join in. When we “re-member,” we enter into an event or a story. We become part of it. On Palm Sunday, we re-member Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem by holding palms, singing a song of praise, and even joining in the procession. Some people re-member the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion by taking the parts of various people in the reading of the Gospel story, a departure from our usual pattern of a deacon reading the Gospel lesson for the day.

As we move through Holy Week, the pattern of re-membering continues. On Maundy Thursday, it is Jesus’ final meal with his disciples and his act of servanthood: footwashing. On Good Friday, the story of Jesus’ death on a wood cross and our own action of venerating the Cross. On Holy Saturday, in the afternoon, we will have a service of light and water. Children will be offered lighted candles, with the message that they are the light of Christ.

Why do we emphasize this re-membering in Holy Week? Because it is the most important week of the Church year. These are the events that are at the heart of our faith. Because, by becoming actively involved, we enter into the events. We become part of them and they become part of us.

I wish you a blessed Holy Week.

Deacon Sue Nebel

10 April

2011-04-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we were blessed with the preaching and teaching of The Rev. Jim Steen. His sermon on the raising of Lazarus stuck with me all through yesterday and into today. He shared he was most struck by the verse where Jesus tells the people to go to Lazarus (who has just emerged from the tomb) and “Unbind him, and let him go.” This verse, Jim preached, speaks to those in Lazarus’ life who will want him to be the person he was before. We don’t know what Lazarus’ reaction to being raised from the dead was, nor do we know how he lived his life from that point on. One thing is sure, he was not the man he was before he died and rose again.

It was my niece’s birthday yesterday and we decided to go to a movie, her pick. She chose Soul Surfer. I’d not heard of this movie, but discovered that Fr. Jim’s message continued to work in my mind as I watched the film. It is the story of a young woman, a surfer (big surprise), who loses her arm in a shark attack. She is no longer the person she was before. The movie is about her response to the situation, as well as the response of others. Those people are asked to do what Jesus commanded – unbind her. Let her go. Let her live into this new life.

Life is ever changing. When we face a change, a difficult situation, something that changes us, are we able to unbind ourselves? Let the old self go? It’s something to think about as we approach Holy Week and Easter, when Jesus gives us the ultimate gift of new life.

Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC+

3 April

2011-04-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Almost all of the really worthwhile insights in life occur to us gradually. Sometimes these insights take a lifetime. In our relationship with Christ, things are no different. We may have discovered him quite suddenly: in a moment in the liturgy in church, on a weekend retreat, in a conversation with a friend. It could have been in a most ordinary place. In C.S. Lewis’ case, it was on the top of a double-decker bus on the way to the zoo! But wherever and whenever the moment, it is always just a beginning. We may see Christ, but we then spend a lifetime learning what knowing Christ means.

Our gospel passage today is about a blind youth to whom Jesus gave sight. People who had known him blind were so astonished, they thought at first it was a look-alike. They then brought some prominent people, some Pharisees, who seemed blind to the reality of what had happened. All they could see was that Jesus had acted on the Sabbath, and had thereby broken Law. It followed, in their thinking, that Jesus was a sinner, so he could not have been the healer! They simply could not admit that the young man had been healed. They called to his parents. Was this really their son? Of course it was. The leaders turned again to the young man. He stuck to his story. As the questioning goes on, he becomes even more aware of what he owes to Jesus, and more aware that Jesus embodies a power and a love and a grace that these people around him, for all their influence, do not have. In the end they dismiss the young man. Jesus encounters him again and the youth recognizes an even greater authority that calls for his allegiance.

This story is about a person who came to see more and more clearly, while other people became more and more blind to the same reality. Life is like that. There are those who recognize the power and love of Christ, and there are those who are completely unable and unwilling to do so. Today we can make assumptions that healing happens only in certain technical and scientific ways, all of which are valid. But we can also be blind to the hidden ways in which Christ can heal through our memories, our thinking, our emotions, if we are prepared to be open to his healing love. Sometimes it may happen through a friend, sometimes it will be through a professional or pastoral counselor, sometimes a doctor. Our Lord has many ways to reach us. Thanks be to God.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

27 March

2011-03-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

A theme or image running through several of the Scripture readings for today is water. In the lesson from Exodus, the Israelites are complaining about a lack of water. Moses appeals to the Lord for help and, following the Lord’s command, he strikes a rock and water gushes out. That event is celebrated in Psalm 95. In the passage from the Gospel of John, we hear the story of Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well. She has come there to get water and Jesus tells her about a new kind of water, living water. This life-giving water is a gift that Jesus offers to those who come to him.

Why this focus on water? In our own time, in this country, we take water for granted. We turn on a faucet and clean water comes out. If we are not satisfied with tap water for drinking, we can buy bottled water. But it was different for the Israelites, the Samaritans and others whom Jesus met. They lived in desert country where water was precious, never taken for granted.

Today, in many parts of the world, clean water is scarce and, sometimes, not available at all. As we read the stories about the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on nuclear reactors in Japan with the increase in radiation and the possibility of contaminated water nuclear, we are reminded once again that clean, life-giving water is not something to be taken for granted.
One of the Millennium Development Goals addresses this issue, setting an objective of making clean water available in poor countries. Bishop Lee has challenged parishes in our diocese to raise money to provide wells in Third World countries. We will be hearing more about this initiative in coming months at St. Simon’s. It will be an opportunity for us to help those who do not have what we take for granted: safe water.

Deacon Sue Nebel+

20 March

2011-03-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Not the easiest gospel to understand. And if it’s hard for us to try and figure it out, imagine poor Nicodemus. Who’s in control? Born “anew”? Born “from above”? Flesh verses spirit?

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and he’s probably heard of the miracle at the wedding of turning water in to wine. And he certainly has heard of Jesus’ behavior at the temple. And he says that he knows that Jesus must be blessed because “no one can do these signs apart from God.” And Jesus launches into “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Did Nicodemus even get to ask what he came there to ask or discuss what he wanted to discuss? Suddenly he’s dealing with “what?! How can we be born anew?”

Now, Nicodemus would have felt very sure in his place in the kingdom of God because his understanding, along with all of the Pharisees of the time and the Jews of the time, was that if you obeyed the Mosaic Law to the letter of the law, then you were blessed. And that would be the salvation plan. But Jesus – Jesus is turning things upside-down. He’s talking about being “born from above,” which can also mean “anew.” Well, who’s in control here? Many Christians emphasize turning to Jesus Christ, choosing Jesus Christ, being born again. And that is a human choice, a human action. But babies, real babies, they are born by God’s action. How many babies are actually born on their due dates? Who’s in control?

And then Jesus says: “the wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes.” The wind, an analogy for the Spirit of God: mysterious, invisible, certainly beyond our control, but we can discern its effects. We can look outside on a day like today and we can see the branches move and know that there must be wind. Or, if we’re outside, we can feel the wind in our hair, on our faces, but we don’t know where it’s going.

Francis Maloney talks about the difference between the flesh and the spirit. “To be born of the flesh means to be content with what one can observe and control…making judgments on…what one senses. Birth in the Spirit leads to a different way of seeing and understanding.” Nicodemus is stuck in his senses; on what he can see and on what he can control – his behavior. And Jesus is saying: “That’s not it.”

And we’re not unlike Nicodemus. We like to control things. Boil things down, simplify so that we’re not confused. And I asked the vestry on Tuesday – that they have heard John 3:16 a number of times in their lives; certainly many of us have seen the placards at ball games: John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.” And I asked them: is it overdone? Is it overstated? Does it have meaning for you anymore? And I got: Yes! It’s an incredibly powerful statement. And I also got: No, it really doesn’t have meaning anymore.

Carl Gregg, another theologian, agrees that it’s both. That, in typical human form, we try and make it formulaic. But, that verse, like any verse in the bible, needs the verses around it to provide the context. The verse just before it is: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Well, I had to go and remind myself what the story of Moses and the serpent was; I couldn’t remember. And it’s in Numbers 21; it’s while the Israelites are wandering in the desert for years and years. And their feet hurt. And they’re tired and the food stinks and there’s not enough water and they start complaining loudly to Moses. And Moses is like: “Hello?! Not my problem.” And God says: “Fine. I’m gonna send a bunch of poisonous serpents.” Now this is kind of like going to the doctor or the emergency room with a broken arm and having the doctor say: “Hang on a sec” – gets a hammer – WHACK – smashes your toe. You’re not thinking about your broken arm anymore. And the Israelites, with the infestation of the poisonous snakes were not really thinking about how bad the food was at that point. It’s about perspective. And Moses built (or creates, casts) a serpent according to God’s design and tells the people: “if you’re afflicted, look upon this serpent, turn to God and you will be healed.” And that’s what happens.

And there’s a parallel between Moses’ story and Jesus bringing it up (not unusual). One, the people were in danger because of their sin. Two, God provides the agent of salvation – bronze snake, Jesus. Three, the agents are lifted up – literally. And four, the people are saved by believing in the agent or by believing in God through the agent. The major differences, of course, are: Jesus is the Son of God and worthy of worship and the bronze snake – not so much. And Jesus offers eternal life, not just extended life.

But Gregg goes deeper to show how things can become formulaic if we don’t really try and go beneath. In 2 Kings 18, Hezekiah becomes king and he’s a pretty young king at twenty-five. And he is “right with the Lord.” And “right with the Lord” means that he worships the Lord, that he has destroyed idols and he has knocked down poles that represent idols; but it also says: “he broke in pieces the bronze serpent of Moses.” That’s hundreds of years from when Israel was in the desert. So this bronze snake – serpent – was carried for the rest of the way, made its way into the temple and had become an idol. People were going with their afflictions to the snake and worshiping there hoping to be healed. It is no longer an agent of God. It is an idol.

And trying to take one verse in the bible, like John 3:16, and making it into a formula is just as dangerous. Yes – Jesus was lifted up and died. But that’s not the focus. The focus is how Jesus taught us to live our lives. The focus is on resurrection. The focus is on Jesus pointing out: it’s not all about Mosaic Law. It’s about the two Great Commandments, which we heard earlier: Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. It’s not enough to just believe in words. We have to live it.

Nicodemus ultimately does live it. Being a Pharisee, when Jesus goes to trial, he fights to try and get Jesus a fair trial. And then, later, he takes care of Jesus’ earthly body after the crucifixion.

How will we embody it?

Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC+

13 March

2011-03-13T19:03:00.001-07:00

All of us have to make decisions. Sometimes it is far from easy. We go through a time of real struggle, sometimes feeling resentful about the process. Sometimes we may feel depressed by the complex choices before us, and sometimes we feel that we want to run away from the whole thing.

It may well be that Jesus experienced moments like that. One certainly faced him when he went into the wilderness after his baptism. Maybe the word wilderness is a good way of describing how we feel when we face making really important choices in our lives. All signposts seem to be missing; we don’t know which way to turn. There may be unknown dangers if we choose one way rather than the other. One thing quite certain is that no choice ever provides the perfect answer. Jesus knew thoughts like that as well. He had heard the call of God to public ministry, and had gone to accept baptism from John in the Jordan. Then he faced the difficult task of deciding how he was going to pursue the vision of God’s kingdom which had been given.

Jesus tells us that the devil offered him at least three ways of building the kingdom. The first was to bribe people into following him. The second way was to impress them. The third was by reaching for power. Jesus says a resounding “No,” because he saw clearly that the devil was appealing to self-image and ego and the human desire for position and power. To build a ministry on what appealed either to his own ego or to the desires of those who followed him would be a betrayal of himself, of his followers, and of God. So Jesus made another choice. He calls people to come to him and with him, not for what they can get, but for what they can give of themselves to him, to one another, and to the world around them.

When we are facing a wilderness of choices, it is important for us to be clear about the basis on which we are finally going to make our choice. Are we merely out for our own advantage? Do we merely wish to build our own image and position? If so, we are failing to bring Jesus into our choosing. But knowing that Jesus himself experienced the wilderness makes him our companion in our time of wilderness. That can make all the difference!

Wishing you a Holy Lent,

Fr. Bob+

6 March

2011-03-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

Today marks the end of the Epiphany season. The season began two months ago with the story of the wise men guided by a star on a journey to Bethlehem to find the infant Jesus. The season ends with the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus up on a mountain with a few of his disciples. Jesus in a new, changed appearance—his face shining like bright sunlight, his clothes a radiant white.

Central to both stories, and to the season itself, is the image of light. When we celebrated the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we spoke of a light shining in the darkness. Each Sunday in the season of Epiphany, as part of the Eucharistic Prayer, we have heard these words: “Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts. . .” That is the gift of Epiphany: a light that we carry in our hearts. The light of Jesus. The light of love.

In a few days, on Ash Wednesday, we will enter the solemn season of Lent. Lent is a stark, often bleak time, seemingly devoid of light. We may feel that we have shut the door on the Epiphany season, leaving it all behind. But that is not true. We still have the gift of Epiphany: the gift of light in our hearts. May that light continue to shine brightly, bringing warmth, comfort, and strength as we move forward in our journey of faith.

Peace,
Deacon Sue Nebel

27 February

2011-02-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

Oddly, the first thing to pop into my head when I finished reading the gospel passage for this Sunday was a Bobby McFerrin song. You probably know it; this is how it starts:

Here’s a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, be happy…[1]

I fully admit I am a worrier. I’m the one who can get locked into the “what if” cycles, but Jesus’ message to us is very wise. Worrying only gets in our way and causes trouble. If we are to serve God, all we do must be focused on bringing the Kingdom of God to the world right now – in the here and now. Obsessively worrying about things we cannot control in the future only detracts from what we can do today.

So I invite us to consider what, beyond the necessities, we worry about. How does that worry get in the way of our lives of Christian witness? How can we teach each other to stay in the present, and focus on the difference we can make in the world right now? Maybe we can remind each other by humming the song I’m betting is stuck in your head now! : )

[1] Bobby McFerrin from the album Simple Pleasures, 1988.

Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

20 February

2011-02-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

There is a wonderful trait in us human beings. We are always seeking to achieve another goal, attain another personal best. We can remember the first attempts at climbing a seemingly unconquerable mountain, Mt. Everest. Or the attempt by a runner to break the four-minute mile barrier. So we will go on, searching in other places for new horizons to push back.

Jesus is like that in what he does for us and to us. Just as there are physical horizons which recede even as we reach a certain point, so our Lord gives us moral and spiritual horizons which always remain ahead of us, calling us further and further to respond to his call.

For thousands of years there had been a standard which limited the extent of the revenge which a person could take on another – that the revenge should reflect the extent of the original injury, and no more, as in, “an eye for an eye . . ..” By doing so, even though it may sound cruel to us, the law was improving life greatly, since before that law, revenge could be unlimited! Now, Jesus takes that standard and moves it to even higher ground. As we look at the four examples which Jesus uses in our gospel(Matthew 5:38-48), realize that the common factor in them all is that we are being asked to give over our will to that of another. We are being asked to respond in a way that seems totally beyond our capacity. Jesus is in fact showing us what it would be like to respond completely as the will of God would have us do. And then we realize that this is the level on which Christ himself will respond when his time of suffering comes.

Everything in us backs away from seeming to give up control of our lives. But just as we are backing away from that demand, we hear him make an even greater one! Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors, do good to those who hate you. We read this and feel overcome. And then, as we read this, we realize that Jesus himself lived out every single one of these things, and he did not do it because he is totally unlike us, or has some magical resources we do not have. He did it in spite of his sharing our human nature.

We can see these seemingly impossible standards being approached by great and saintly men and women, and we know that we are in the presence of greatness, that we are in act in the presence of our Lord. Their response to his demands calls each one of us to greater response in our own lives. Perhaps you and I will be able to climb that mountain in our future, or maybe sooner.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

14 Novemeber

2011-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

I visited another Episcopal church for worship today, a small congregation that meets in a loft-like space in Chicago: Grace Church. I enjoy the opportunity to worship occasionally in other settings and experience our familiar liturgy with variations unique to a another faith community. At Grace today, instead of the familiar “Glory to God” in the first part of the service, we recited a canticle: “A Song in Praise of Wisdom.” The canticle is part of new worship materials that have been approved for use in the Episcopal Church. Wisdom is another word for Holy Spirit. It is often used with feminine pronouns such as “she” and “her.” One sentence in the canticle caught my attention: “In every generation Wisdom enlightens holy souls, making them friends of God.”

That line stayed with me as I listened to the readings for the day, all focused on following the law and, in the case of the Gospel, going beyond a traditional understanding of the law. Jesustells his listeners (and that includes us) that it is not just their actions that are important. Our attitudes and our feelings are just as important. It struck me, as I heard these words, that Jesus is telling us that we should be “friends of God.” If we are faithful to Jesus’ teachings about what God wants of us—that we love God, that we love one another, that we treat one another with respect— then we are friends of God.

As I move forward into the coming week, I am resolved to be a friend of God, a better friend that I have been. I invite you to join with me in the resolution for your own lives in the days ahead.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

6 Feb

2011-02-07T22:46:00.001-08:00

Are you the salt of the earth?
Are you the light of the world?
Yes!
That’s what Jesus said. He didn’t say: “you might the salt of the earth” or “maybe one day you’ll be the light of the world”. He said: “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.”
We tend to remember the names of the beacons of light, like Martin Luther King Jr. But people die all the time standing against injustice and often we don’t know their names; but sometimes we learn them.
A week ago, in Uganda, a man named David Kato was murdered. Maybe you heard it on the news or saw a clip about it. Why is this important? Well, David Kato was murdered because he was the “most out gay man in the country”. Why does that matter? Well, because there’s a bill on the parliament floor in Uganda that’s called the “Kill the Gays” bill, wherein, if passed, it will become illegal to be homosexual and punishable by life imprisonment or death. This matters internationally because Uganda gets a tremendous amount of aid and many countries are watching what they’re doing.[1] Our Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury both made statements about the murder, saying that it was a horrible, tragic event and reminding us that we are all children of God.
Do you need to be martyred to be a light in the world?
Does God require that of us?
Does God require that of me? I don’t know. I gotta say, I hope not.
And why might we want to hide our light? Embarrassment of being disciples of Christ? Fear that our light might go out? Fear of persecution?
I make the argument that we are already shining our lights in the world. Take disasters and big events – take the blizzard last week. Lots of people’s light shone forth as neighbors and strangers helped each other dig out, helped make sure that Meals-On-Wheels happened and did wellness checks. We don’t know who those people are. We don’t know the people who gathered Gatorade and granola bars and brought them to the people stuck on Lake Shore Drive to give them some sustenance and company until they were rescued. What a way to shine forth!
So…remember that you are a light in the world and live into it!
[1] The Rachel Maddow Show: “Roots of anti-gay hate abroad traced to U.S.”; 4 February 2011. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#41434173
Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

30 Jan

2011-01-30T22:41:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-24T22:21:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-18T23:25:00.000-08:00

“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

2011-01-10T22:53:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

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

3 Advent

2010-12-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

Jesus Is Not A Warrior King, But He Is Also Not Santa Claus

John, in today’s gospel, sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is “the one,” the messiah. Perhaps that seems strange to us because John baptized Jesus after balking, saying Jesus should be the one to baptize him. The reason for John’s question is Jesus has not lived up to be the kind of messiah John expected, or that anyone of the time expected. The Jews of Jesus’ time expected a warrior king like David; one who would cause fear and trembling, delivering terrible justice. Instead, Jesus heals the blind, the deaf and raises the dead.

But Jesus and God aren’t Santa Claus either. We can’t help but ask the question: why doesn’t God rescue John from prison and allow him, instead, to be decapitated? Why do we suffer today in so many ways? That is the mystery we all must struggle with in this Advent season. We know, as does John, that Jesus is the messiah because of the miracles he does. Yet we wonder why our personal wishes aren’t granted and, instead, we are called to learn to love all in the world, putting the other before the self. These are hard questions that I certainly don’t have the answers for, yet I try to sit with them in this time of anticipation.

Blessings as you try to do the same,

The Rev. M.E.+

5 Dec - Second Advent

2010-12-05T22:37:00.001-08:00

In today’s Gospel lesson, we encounter John the Baptist. John is a well-known figure in Christian tradition. He is eccentric. A wild sort of man, all rough edges and sharp tongue. He wears a camel skin and, so we are told, subsists on a diet of locusts and wild honey. He announces that one greater and more powerful than he is coming. We interpret his statements to be an announcement of the coming of Jesus in his ministry.

But John the Baptist proclaims more than the coming of someone great. He also proclaims that a new kind of world is coming. There will be destruction of the old, of what is known. You would think that people would turn away from such a message. Quite the contrary, people flocked to John the Baptist in large numbers. They were eager to repent and to be baptized. They looked forward with anticipation to a new world order. Who were these followers? Most likely, they were the poor, the weak, the marginalized of their society. People who had nothing to lose and everything to gain if the existing power structure was destroyed.

John’s message, like the message of Jesus, is a message of hope. It brings light into the darkness of the world of pain, suffering, and lack of hope. As we hear John’s message in our world, we are aware of the darkness of our own world: economic downturn, high unemployment, violence. May John’s message bring the light of hope into whatever darkness may be in our own lives. May it bring the light and hope to the darkness of our world around us.

- Deacon Sue Nebel

First Advent

2010-11-29T21:59:00.000-08:00

Our goals, in the words of today’s Epistle lesson: Lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; live honorably. Let Christ transform us into people who love one another.

We learn from the past. The Bible is a record of divine promises made and kept. God, who was faithful in the past, will be faithful in the future. We are free to give up any obsession we have with the past, past wounds, past anxieties, past hurts, fears, and doubts, and live freely in the present, hoping for the future because God kept God’s promises. God will keep God’s promises.

We are realistic about what is possible. Trusting in God, we are realistic when we hope for things yet unseen, even big things, like joy and peace and salvation and wholeness.

But we are realistic: all of these things lie ahead of us. All of these things are in our future. All our real wholeness, our real joy, our real love, completely, fully realized, is in our future.

That’s whey Advent, and our Christian faith, is future-oriented. Yes, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Yes, he actually died and was buried and rose again and appeared openly to his disciples. Yes, all these things, historically, in the past, happened. But they all happened so that we can live into the future which awaits us, a future for which God is preparing us, a future of which Christ, raised from the dead, is the first fruits.

We cannot underestimate the importance of our future goals. They not only give us hope, but how we envision the future breaks into how we live our present. Our future can form our present, rescue it, revitalize it, give it meaning.

- The Rev. Dr. Amy Richter, rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland

Condensed from Sermons That Work

21 Nov - The Kingdom

2010-11-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

Christ the King Sunday is new to the church. Pope Pius XI introduced it in 1925, a time when despotic rulers and systems began to take hold in Europe: Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin. The Pope wanted to advance a message of security through the rule of Christ over the chaos of tyranny.

And the kingdom of God does stand in stark contrast to the systems of this world. In this kingdom, there is justice. In this kingdom, the justice stands alongside mercy. In this kingdom, the innocents do not die. The kingdom of God is real. It exists, here and now, just not in what you see. It is the kingdom that exists in the heart of men and women who give themselves over to the King of Kings. It exists in the hearts of men and women who give themselves over to peace.

It is because of the peace of that kingdom that we – who live both there and here, at once – can promote justice here. It is because of that peace that we stand against genocide in Sudan and elsewhere. It is because of that peace that we feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

Justice, like a river, flows from that kingdom into this world, through you.

That is what the Kingdom of Christ means. It is otherworldly, and yet it is quite this-worldly. It is quite the here and now, light against darkness.

The light shone, and the darkness could not comprehend it, could not extinguish it.

Rev. Rob Gieselmann, author of "The Episcopal Call to Love"

Condensed from Sermons That Work

14 Nov - Staying Focused

2010-11-14T21:50:00.001-08:00

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus cautions his followers to be alert for false prophets. He warns them not to be led astray by those who claim to be him or who try to tell them when the end is coming. Instead, Jesus tells them, they are to remain faithful, even though they may face difficult times. The time in which Jesus and his followers lived was a much quieter time than our modern world. In our world, we are surrounded by noise and all kinds of voices. Not just people talking around us, but voices of television and radio. The printed words of newspapers and magazines. The visual words and images the Internet. What a challenge it is to stay faithful to Jesus’ message, his teachings.

I was reminded of this challenge one day this week as I listened to an interview with Bishop Gene Robinson on National Public Radio. Bishop Robinson is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. His election as the first openly gay man to serve as bishop caused much controversy and division in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Robinson announced last week that he intends to retire in January 2013.

In the interview, the reporter spent most of the time talking with Bishop Robinson about the controversy. Then, at the end of the interview, she asked him what he hoped to do after his retirement. He mentioned a few possibilities. Then he said, “I hope that I can continue to do what I have always done: share with people the good news of a God who loves all of God’s children.” ‘Wow,’ I thought to myself, ‘here he is in the midst of all this stress and pressure, but foremost in his mind is the fundamental Baptismal promise to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ.’ I say “Amen“ to that.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

7 Nov - All Saints Day

2010-11-07T22:48:00.001-08:00

It seems to me All Saints Day celebrates the cycle of life. For those who have it bad, things will get better. And for those who’ve got it good, well, things could take a turn for the worse. The only thing we can be sure of in this life is everything changes – except the love of Jesus Christ. Conditions always change.

Last night we watched a sweet old movie: Friendly Persuasion (starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and a young Anthony Perkins). The movie is about a Quaker family living in southern Indiana during the Civil War. It is hard enough to live the rules of the Quaker faith in everyday life. But as the Rebel army moves its way north, each family member struggles with how to deal with the impending violence. Not wanting to spoil the movie for you, let me just say I believe this movie is the beatitudes embodied, with the characters ultimately living into “do to others as you would have them do to you”.

I pray that we can learn to live into Jesus’ message and to remember that we are all saints of God.

Peace and Blessings,

M.E.+

31 Oct - Willing To Share Jesus

2010-10-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

In today’s gospel, Luke 19:1-10, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and he passes through Jericho. Many of the citizens hear that Jesus is coming and they turn out to see him. Among them is a man who is both pathetic and formidable. He is formidable because he has been given great power by the Roman authorities. He is pathetic because his authority has placed him outside the respect or affection of anyone in this town. This man, Zacchaeus, is a chief tax collector. And for some reason, he is determined to see Jesus.

Zacchaeus is “small of stature,” as Luke puts it. As he tries to see the famous Rabbi, the crowd makes it impossible. In desperation, Zacchaeus scrambles up a tree, and when Jesus stops beneath him, greets him, and suggests dinner, Zacchaeus is ecstatic! Something happens between the two men that evening that transforms Zacchaeus’ life. We know the reason for this desperation to meet Jesus. He had come to one of the “turning points” in life that can make all the difference if the right conditions are present. This time they are, Jesus claims this “teachable moment,” and the man’s life is turned around.

The other people in the story are the religious folk of Jesus’ time. They grumble about Jesus’ willingness to meet and eat with the wrong people, with sinners, even with this tax collector! Then there is Zacchaeus, thrilled to welcome this unconventional Rabbi to his home. Happy to be accepted and loved. Happy to learn. Happy, in time, to throw off his old life, to part with some of his wealth to the benefit of others in need, and to begin anew! And there are the grumblers in the crowd, pious and fearful, determined to stifle the Teacher, Jesus, and his new ideas. And there is Jesus, friend to the curious, the open-minded, threat to the closed-minded, Jesus, doomed to die on a cross.

We will close with a question for all of us today: How does it feel to see Jesus reach out into the crowd, reaching beyond us, reaching as far as a notorious sinner, this guy, Zacchaeus, whom we think is surely beneath us? We can’t believe that Jesus would show grace to somebody like that! I think this story leaves us with an assignment. If we are going to stay close to Jesus, share bread and wine at his table, then we better be willing to be close to sinners: sinners on the inside of the church, and sinners on the outside.

Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost. So, if we want to be close to him, we’ll have to be willing to share him with the lost. By such sharing, and by such scandalous Grace, salvation comes to MY house, and to YOUR house, this day, and always.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

24 October

2010-10-25T19:21:00.001-07:00

In today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus uses a parable to teach his followers. This story focuses on two familiar figures in the society of Jesus’ time: a Pharisee, a respected person who strives to preserve the laws governing human behavior, and a tax collector, usually despised person because of the burdens imposed on people and, quite often, unfair practices. In the parable, we see the two men offering prayers. The Pharisee gives thanks because he is better than other people. The tax collector acknowledges his sinfulness before God and asks for mercy.

Parables are wonderful teaching tools. Because they present ordinary people, we are drawn into them. We see aspects of ourselves reflected in the characters. Both of the characters in this story demonstrate our own humanness. The desire to feel good about ourselves, often by comparing ourselves to others. We live in a society that encourages us to make such comparisons. Advertising urges us to buy products that will make us “better” than others. And then there is the other part of ourselves. The honesty that admits our tendency to selfishness, to moving away from God.

Each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we have the opportunity to confess our sins. To recognize the Pharisee and the tax collector in ourselves. To be forgiven and reconciled with God once again. That is good news indeed!

Peace,

Deacon Sue

Pentecost 21

2010-10-18T07:13:00.001-07:00

I take comfort from two parts of today’s parable of the unjust judge and the widow. The first is justice is possible. Sometimes we need to be persistent and keep at the system that works so slowly. In the words of today’s sequence hymn (# 711):

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness,
And all these thing shall be added unto you;
Allelu, alleluia!

Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek, and ye shall find,
Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you;
Allelu, alleluia!

The second comfort is that even grouchy, haughty people do the right thing sometimes. The unjust judge certainly did not rule in favor of the widow because she had a good case or because he believed it was the right thing to do. He did it so she would stop pestering him! I believe that is the work of the Holy Spirit and one of the many ways the mystery of God is manifest. Alleluia indeed!

Peace and Blessings,

M.E.+

10 Oct - Running Towards Fullness of Life

2010-10-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Nine healed lepers ran from Jesus.

I’m quite sure that if someone had asked, they might have slowed down long enough to say that God was really swell to do this for them and that Jesus was the most wonderful person in the whole world. But it would have been hard to catch them. There was so much to do, so little time.

No, the issue wasn’t gratitude. The issue wasn’t feeling good about Jesus or anything like that. The issue was that those who had received so much were running so hard in the wrong direction.

They were so full of what they had received, of their gift, that there was just no room for the giver, the source of the gift. They weren’t ungrateful, they were just busy. That’s all; they were just terribly busy. There we are. There is our world. There is our life, in one small, bitter nutshell.

It’s impossible not to see ourselves. It’s impossible not to ask questions such as : What direction are we running? What are we running toward? What are we leaving behind? How often do we stop, or even slow down, long enough to pay some attention, not only to our gifts, not only to all we have and all we have to do, but also to the giver, to the source of it all? Are we so busy running, so busy using what we have, that we can see no farther?

All ten were healed, all ten were given their lives, but Jesus had more to give than that. That’s why he watched and waited, that’s why coming back was so important – because Jesus had more to give. But you had to be there. So only one was made whole, only one was fully made well. All ten were given their lives back; but only one was given the fullness of life.

Direction matters. Let's run towards fullness of life!

The Rev. James Liggett
Rector of St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church in Midland, Texas
Sermons That Work

3 Oct

2010-10-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

We launched our year-long reading of the Bible (in the version called The Story) today. Rev. Frank Yamada led introduced us to the Bible and facilitated some discussion of what the Bible means to us. What words, what feelings, and what beliefs we associate with the Bible. I sensed a powerful energy in the room as people shared their thoughts—first in small groups of 2-3 people, and then in the larger group. I was impressed and moved by people’s curiosity about this important resource in our Christian tradition and a heartfelt desire to learn about it. I think we are in for an exciting time.

Next week we will begin reading and learning together in the Sunday morning Adult Forums after the 10:00 service. We will start with Chapter 1 of The Story, focusing on Genesis. In recent weeks, I have talked to many parishioners who have expressed excitement about this learning project, but some have expressed concern that they have to miss some sessions because of other commitments. We are exploring ways that we people can be involved in active learning, even if they cannot always attend a Sunday morning session. Perhaps one of the most accessible ways will be use of the Internet—some kind of group discussion format, a Facebook page on which people can post questions or observations, or email.

As we begin our work together, I ask that we remember that it is now, and will be throughout the year, a “work in progress.” We will learn by doing, what works best. So, in addition to your reading of the chapters in The Story, I ask you to be active learners. Come with questions. Come with observations of what is working for you and what isn’t. Help us to make this a great experience for everyone.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

26 Sept - Recognizing Lazarus

2010-09-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH OUR PHYSICAL AND TANGIBLE POSSESSIONS? HOW DO WE DEAL WITH OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS? JESUS REQUIRES AN ANSWER. (Luke 16:19-31)

Throughout this sixteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is talking about us and our possessions. He says again and again that this is one of the most important relationships in our lives, and that we will be judged largely on the way we have dealt with it.

Jesus has also been saying that possessions can be both outer and inner. Our relationship to our outer possessions, from which we take so much pleasure, is only an outward sign of our relationship with our inner possessions, our spiritual riches. We can be very rich outwardly and very poor inwardly. We can be poor outwardly and rich inwardly. We can sometimes be rich both outwardly and inwardly, but only if we are prepared to be good stewards of our riches before God.

The chapter ends with Jesus telling a powerful and poin - - - story of the rich man and Lazarus. For his listeners, Jesus was presenting the rich man as an image of themselves, rich and comfortable, but without any compassion for others. These “religious” people claimed a special relationship with God, but how was this spirituality seen in their actions? Jesus is emphasizing the way judgment takes place in human life. We judge ourselves by making our own choices and living the consequences.

When, in the story, the rich man beseeches Lazarus at least go to his still-living brothers, the answer he gets is a terrible one. They have placed themselves beyond reach, and cannot be made to hear. The terrible truth is that we can, by our own patterns and choices, place ourselves out of the reach of God. That will not be God’s wish for us, but it will nevertheless take place. We are free beings, free to make moral decisions. There is of course always a way back, but only we can choose to take it. Thank God that we are offered the love and grace again – and again.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

19 Sept - Balm in Gilead

2010-09-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

Is there no balm in Gilead? (Jer 8:22a)

“Balm in Gilead” is, or may be, a phrase with which some are familiar. You may even know the hymn “There is a balm in Gilead.” But what does the phrase mean? Dick Donovan writes that “Gilead was a mountainous region on the east side of the Jordan River” and was known for a healing balm made from resin from a type of tree that grew in the area.

The answer to the question asked in scripture is that indeed there is a balm in Gilead and the doctors with the skills to use it well. But Jeremiah (and God through Jeremiah) asks the question mournfully because what ails the people of Israel is not of a physical nature; rather, it is spiritual. The balm they and we need to look for is the balm of God’s forgiving grace.

By all means, take advantage of the physical balms available. But also, remember that God is constantly offering healing and love through the gift of Grace. I hope you are able this week to feel comfort in that knowledge.

Peace and Blessings,

M.E.+

12 Sept - Parish Picnic Photos

2010-09-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

New parish picnic photos are available.

12 Sept - Think Upside-Down

2010-09-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I read a book titled The Upside-Down Kingdom, by Donald Kraybill. The author writes about Jesus’ teachings about God’s vision of the world. He points out that Jesus upends our usual ways of thinking. He insists that we should not think vertically, i.e. in terms of power: who is more important, more successful, richer. Instead, he insists that we turn all of that upside-down and concern ourselves with those who are usually considered the lowest, the least significant: the poor, the people on the margins. People who are often overlooked because they aren’t considered important.

Today’s Gospel lesson (Luke15:1-10) is an example of upside-down thinking. When the Pharisees and the scribes grumble that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them,” Jesus quickly responds with two stories. One about the shepherd with a flock of one hundred sheep who puts great effort to finding one that is lost, rather than simply sighing and saying to himself, ‘Oh well. One sheep is all that important. After all I still have ninety nine.’ The second story focuses on a woman with ten silver coins. When she loses one, she searches high and low for the lost one. Like the shepherd, she could have simply let herself be satisfied with what she still had: nine coins.

Jesus constantly challenges us to turn our thinking upside-down. Not to think in the worldly terms of success, power structures. Instead, to have the broadest kind of thinking. To be always on the lookout for those who are easily neglected or forgotten. And to reach out to them. To honor them, to show them respect, to help them.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

5 Sept - Follow Me

2010-09-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

Every step we take with Jesus in this part of the gospel brings us into harsher and harsher circumstances. His tone gets grimmer. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate . . .”(Luke 14:26). To hear that passage even after many centuries is to be chilled by its harshness. It could be terrifying to hear.

This is a time in our Bible reading and study when we must be aware that such exaggerated language was commonplace in Jesus’ society and culture. If we go further down the passage to verse 33, we find the heart of Jesus’ meaning. His demand for ultimate discipleship is that a man or woman “give up all.” What Jesus is pleading for is that to follow him is to offer our lives to him with singlemindedness and deep commitment. To have a religion or faith that is a mildly diverting weekend hobby is not following Christ. Having an intellectual interest in theology is not following Jesus. These things are in their own way admirable, but they are not what Jesus meant when he said to people, “Follow me.”

The decision to follow Jesus Christ is one of ultimate significance in a human life. Very few of us can respond to the call of Christ on the level that some great souls have done. To “renounce all” in a literal way is a fearful thing and is possible only for some. That is precisely why we know these men and women as great souls or saints, both in the past and in our own time. But when Jesus calls us, we decide to follow at the level at which we can. And Jesus accepts us! Good news.

Peace,

Fr. Bob+

29 Aug - Pride

2010-08-31T21:45:00.001-07:00

If someone were to ask us to compile a list of our favorite quotes from Scripture, I doubt that this week’s Gospel lesson (Luke 14:1,7-14) would make anyone’s list. It is an account of an occasion when Jesus really “zings” his listeners, as well as us, with a sharp criticism. The setting is a Sabbath meal at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. Jesus is an invited guest. When he arrives, he notices that guests choose places of honor at the table. He then tells a parable about a similar situation, advising his listeners that they should always choose one of the lowest places, rather than following their initial inclination to choose a higher place.

This parable gets to us because it targets our sense of pride, our desire to feel important. We live in a society that values “higher” positions, based on criteria such as social standing, wealth, power, physical beauty. Jesus, of course, turns all of that upside down. He says it succinctly: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled.” Jesus teaches us, again and again, that we are valued as human beings, as children of God. The values of society that rank people by other standards should be ignored.

This teaching may not make our favorites list, but it should. It is an important one, one that we should always keep in mind. Every day.

Peace,

Deacon Sue

22 Aug - The Power of Touch

2010-08-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Touch is so important. It is one way we experience the love of God and the love of others. I’d like to share a portion of a poem by Geraldine W. Dellenback called “A Psalm of Joy” because it puts into words how I am feeling about God, love and touch:

O Lord God, how glorious is thy love in all the world!
The love that touches the hearts of all people,
The love that causes souls to blend in harmony,
The love that fills hearts to overflowing.

O Lord God, with my whole heart I thank thee!
For beauty and strength,
For warmth and tenderness,
For sincerity and humility,
But most of all for love and for those we love.

O Lord God, protect and guide these loved ones I pray!

Amen.

Peace,

The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

16 Aug - Fierceness of Faith

2010-08-16T23:00:00.001-07:00

In today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 12:49-56), we encounter a Jesus who is strong, emphatic, angry. His words are disturbing: “I come to bring fire to the earth. . . .Do you think that I come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” We are much more accustomed to a gentle, caring Jesus, who reaches out to the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised. Giving them a message of hope, of a better life.

What we see here is fierceness of faith. It is all too easy to forget that such fierceness is characteristic of Christian faith in many parts of the world. Each Sunday we pray for our companion diocese, the Diocese of Renk in the Sudan. The Sudan is an area where Christians suffer persecution for their faith and, yet, they hang on fiercely to the beliefs that are important to them. We witnessed fierceness of faith in accounts of the recent massacre of medical missionaries in Afghanistan. Fierceness of faith in the workers who were working to help the people in remote areas of the country. Fierceness of faith in the determination of the International Assistance Mission, the sponsoring organization, to continue their work.

Fierceness of faith. A quality to be admired. A quality to be celebrated. A quality to hope for in ourselves.

Peace,

Deacon Sue Nebel

What Sacrifices

2010-08-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

Sacrifices – what kind of sacrifices are we supposed to make to God?

The Isaiah reading (Isaiah 1:1, 10-20) seems like a God is ranting. God tells the people that there is no meaning to the sacrifices of burnt offerings and incense. Instead, God calls the people to clean up and that the offerings God wants are more tangible, more personal. We are to cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Doing all that will take a lot of work and sacrifice.

Jesus’ message to the disciples is similar. He tells us not to be afraid, that what should concern us is the Kingdom of God; that the things of this earth are less important. Jesus tells us to sell your possessions, and give alms. These actions take trust on our part and ask us to sacrifice.

What sacrifices are we willing to make to live into the Kingdom of God?

Peace,

The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

31 July - Rich Towards God

2010-08-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

Jesus often uses parables to illustrate his teachings. We have one of those parables in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus begins by making clear to his listeners that he wants them to guard against greed in their lives. Then he tells a short parable about a man who harvests a large amount of crops, so large that he decides to build new barns to hold them all. Once he does that, he declares his delight in having so much. ‘All is well,’ he thinks. Not so. God calls the man a fool for what has done. For storing up possessions. For his sense of self-satisfaction.

Jesus concludes his teaching with the statement,” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” Rich toward God. What an intriguing phrase! Most of the time, we think or say “rich in.” Food is rich in flavor. Music is rich in tone. A place may be rich in resources. When referring to people we may say that they are “rich in wisdom” or “rich in insight.” In all of those phrases we look inward, noting qualities that are possessed.

But Jesus is telling us that we should be “rich toward God.” We should not be directed inward, but outward—toward God. What does it mean to be rich toward God? A few possibilities come to mind: openness to God, service, prayer. I invite you to reflect on the question yourselves. How can you be rich toward God in your life?

Peace,

Deacon Sue

25 July - The "Us" In The Lord's Prayer

2010-07-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me how deep a prayer can be in our memories, in our hearts. Sometimes it seems like I have always known the Lord’s Prayer. And it is always a Spirit-filled moment when I’m praying with someone who is semiconscious and fairly non-responsive that, when I begin the Lord’s Prayer, that person joins in.

Even though the Lord’s Prayer is the basic way we learn to pray individually, it is important to notice the plural. The prayer uses the words “us” and “we,” not “I” and “me,” because community is where we find Christ. If you pray this prayer alone, I guarantee you that somewhere in the world, someone else is praying with you.

Because the words can be rattled off from memory without much thought, I’d encourage you to take time with praying the Lord’s Prayer. Really think about what you are saying. Really think about the blessed relationship we have with God that we can pray this prayer with confidence – especially the confidence that God is listening.

Peace,

The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

18 July - Sides

2010-07-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Mary and Martha
Luke 10:38-42

This story from Luke’s gospel wants us to take sides, between these sisters, Mary and Martha. Taking sides is often what we need to do: lukewarm is not a gospel temperature. But this story is not one of those cases where taking sides will be “life-giving.” Why pit the sisters against each other, or their ministries of domestic management and hospitality on the one hand, and attention to the living Word on the other?

Of course, we busy ourselves with too many things, today more than ever, and we need to refocus our attentions. But the story as it meets us should fill us with holy suspicion: What is the cost of taking sides here? For whom will there be a cost? How can we converse with each other, with our homegrown traditions, and with Christ, in a way that will build a church in which all ministries are honored, and in which the very shape of ministry can change in response to the world’s needs? Perhaps we will find the answer to those questions sitting at Jesus’ feet, with Mary, and with Martha, after the evening banquet.

(With thanks to Jane Redmont for her inspiration)

Peace to you this week,

Fr. Bob+

11 July - The Good Samaritan

2010-07-12T22:17:00.001-07:00

Today’s Gospel lesson is one of the most well known stories in Scripture: the Good Samaritan. Even people who are not familiar with the Bible or have not participated in a formation program as children recognize the term “Good Samaritan.” Hospitals and laws concerning actions to help others in trouble bear his name. We have memorialized this nameless man, known only by his ethnic identity, for his willingness to help someone in need.

I think we need to look at this familiar figure from a slightly different perspective: how he moves through life. We see him traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, alert to his surroundings. Perhaps he is somewhat wary, watching for possible danger. The priest and the Levite who have preceded him have exhibited the same alertness. But when they come to the man who has been beaten by robbers lying at the side of the road, the first two see him and move on. They travel with their eyes open, but their hearts closed. Not the Samaritan. He moves with his eyes and his heart open. Seeing someone in need, he responds with compassion and generosity of heart. He reaches out to help.

On this “Good Samaritan Sunday,” I suggest that we reflect on how we move through life. Do we travel along with our eyes open, but not our hearts? Or do we proceed with hearts and eyes open? What is your answer to those questions?

Peace,

Deacon Sue Nebel

4 July - Curing Dis-Ease

2010-07-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

Jesus began his ministry by drawing around him a small circle of new disciples; it was the number of Israel’s tribes. Because he felt that his task was to form a new people of God, a new Israel, he took this number as symbolic.

Now Jesus takes the next step in his mission to the world. He selects seventy people and sends them into the surrounding countryside two by two. One thing we can’t help noticing is that there are very few directions. They are “to greet no one on the road.” They are to say “Peace to this house.” They are to accept hospitality. If they are not received they are to leave. In addition, they are told to heal the sick, and say to them “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

It is significant for Christian life today that the only specific action Jesus commands is to heal the sick. Increasingly for contemporary Christians, the healing ministry is strong and widespread. We can be thankful that healing ministry is an important part of our ministries at St. Simon’s. And then, there is a realization that in a frantic and tense and fearful world, the great power of Christian faith can be to bring healing to the lives of individuals– the healing of fears, angers, anxieties. Perhaps just as valuable is the ability of Christian faith to bring a renewed sense of meaning and purpose into people’s lives.

Our generation of Christians may well be called to a ministry whose primary task is healing, both in individual lives as well as in social and political situations. As we watch Jesus send people out on an essentially healing mission, we realize that healing may be a Christians’ primary vocation in a world of great “dis-ease.”

Peace,

Fr. Bob Dekker+

27 June - Faith

2010-06-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

When we gather on Sunday mornings for our celebration of the Holy Eucharist, an important part of the service is the affirmation of our faith. We use the Nicene Creed, a statement of Christian beliefs that dates back to the 4th century. We say those words in community, joining a long string of people that have said the same words over the centuries.

The words are familiar, sometimes too familiar. It is all too easy to say them in rote fashion, without giving much thought to their meaning. I find it helpful to occasionally experience (and say) statements of faith that use new and different phrases. I offer you an example, one that I experienced at the conference of the North American Association of the Diaconate that I attended this week.

Affirmation of Faith

We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone. Thanks be to God.

Peace,
Deacon Sue

20 June - Banishing Demons

2010-06-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

This Sunday’s Gospel – Luke’s version of the healing of the Demoniac – raised an interesting question when we studied the passage at Vestry last Tuesday: is this story meant to be taken literally or figuratively?

My answer was: “Yes.” It doesn’t matter if you believe in “real” demons or want to try to understand the story by putting the modern medical label of schizophrenic on the Demoniac – either way the story is still incredibly powerful. Jesus’ authority is abundantly clear. Legion knows who Jesus is and how powerful he is. The real question is: do we? And are we willing to let Jesus banish the “demons” in our lives? We are all, in one way or another, resistant to change – especially self-change. Equally, we are all comfortable with the phrase: “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”.

I think this story is inviting us to look at our demons (addictions, times we dig in our heels, etc.) and question whether or not we trust that Jesus has the power to banish them. We are loved by God now. And we will be loved by God if and when we change and let go of our demons. But do we love ourselves now? Do we really trust in God’s love?

Peace,

The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC

13 June - Forgiven

2010-06-13T23:05:00.001-07:00

A theme constantly in Jesus’ teaching and very near to his heart was the necessity for forgiveness in human relationships. The day Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray he put the issue of forgiveness at the heart of our relationship with God. In two simple and inseparable petitions, he teaches us for all time that forgiveness is conditional. We cannot be forgiven unless we ourselves are forgiving people.

We mention this because something very like it is at the heart of the story in the gospel. It was customary at a meal in the Greco-Roman style for strangers to stand around the edge of the room in the shadows. They might be poor or in some other need. They might be trying to attract the attention of a prominent guest from whom they wished a favor. In Jesus’ case, a woman wants to thank him. She does so very effusively and passionately. Jesus’ host is silently appalled by her behavior and Jesus notices.

How does Jesus deal with the situation? From what he says, we can assume that he and the woman have had a previous encounter. She is known as a sinner, possibly a prostitute. It is obvious that Jesus has made all the difference in her life, probably making it possible for her to deal with the anger and self-hatred which are part of her existence. Anger and self-hatred are part of many of our lives and to get this point across, Jesus tells a story. Its message is that the greater a person’s sense of being forgiven, the greater the gratitude will be. Jesus then applies this to our inner lives. The key statement Jesus makes is in verse 47. “I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

This theme obviously was central in Jesus’ thinking. We hear it in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple. We hear it again in the story of the prodigal son. On each occasion, Jesus seems to be saying that to realize without illusion who we are, to realize how little we can claim to be, yet at that same moment to realize that we are accepted by God precisely on these terms, is to discover the secret of inner freedom and inner acceptance. To taste this is to taste the Kingdom of God.

Peace,

Fr. Bob +

30 May - Trinity Sunday

2010-05-31T21:54:00.001-07:00

Paul explains that the life of faith is a slow and laborious process and that hope is born of character, character is born of endurance, and endurance is born of suffering. At each moment the world must be understood in its momentary revelation in order for the greater truth to emerge. Unless we allow ourselves to experience suffering, not shying away, we will not know endurance. Only by giving ourselves over to a self that values endurance will we be of character, and only for those of character does hope endure, allowing us to live with and through suffering. The cycle begins again.

Jesus, likewise, invites us to a life of faith built on slow growth, on timely revelation, saying, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now." Wisdom in God also is revealed according to the concreteness of our experience, its place in time, inviting us to see clearly the age and the faith we inhabit, to witness its limits, knowing that only in that full knowledge does continued and renewed revelation emerge.

The disciples look on in bewilderment. "We cannot hear?" they wonder, examining themselves for their own unreadiness. What is it in us that cannot hear, what in us prevents us from looking at our faith with open eyes, stepping into its mystery, its slow unfolding, patiently examining its details so that when God reveals himself anew we might know the difference?

This Trinity Sunday we are invited to stand in faith, to stand precisely where we are, in the mystery of the Trinity, in the mystery of a God revealed to us in this moment, this age, this life and this faith, a mystery that we explore, unravel and receive together, knowing that in seeing more truly, with each new revelation, we step into greater hope, greater joy, greater love, greater knowledge and communion with the three, the one.

Read Entire Sermon

- excerpt from "Sermons That Work:" Jason Sierra, Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries, Episcopal Church Center

23 May - Jesus Is Everything

2010-05-23T22:45:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

Am writing to you on the Eve of Pentecost, the day before we will celebrate much in the liturgy for the Day of Pentecost, including: the birthday of the Church through the coming of the Spirit upon the disciples; Holy Baptism as we welcome Annalise as the newest member of the church; and First Communion with 14 children on a very special day in their lives. So much to celebrate!

And then, on the next day, Monday, we are called to carry on the work of the Church in the world. We are not alone, since the Spirit will be with us to inspire us and support us in all of our work. And, the Church that we call home is founded on the One through whom we have all been given new life, our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I invite you to meditate this week on the names by which our Savior is known, and give thanks for being called as Jesus’ follower.

“Hope, life, way, salvation, understanding, wisdom, light,
Judge, door, most high, king, precious stone, prophet, priest,
Messiah, sabaoth, teacher, spouse, mediator,
Scepter, dove, hand, stone, son, and emmanuel,
Vineyard, shepherd, sheep, peace, root, vine-stock,
Olive tree, source, wall, lamb, victim, lion, intercessor,
Word, man, net, rock, house:
Christ Jesus is everything.”
- (Damasus, Fourth century)

God bless you as we begin this season after Pentecost, the days of “ordinary time.”

Peace,
Fr. Bob +

16 May - The Perfect Hiding Place

2010-05-16T23:17:00.001-07:00

Today, the 7th Sunday of the Easter season is an in-between place. Three days ago the Church celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, marking Jesus’ final departure from his followers to settle in his place with God. Jesus has assured his disciples God will be with them. The gift of the Holy Spirit, which we will celebrate on Pentecost, has not yet arrived. I wonder what it was like for Jesus’ followers in that place of not knowing. What was familiar has disappeared and they do not know what lies ahead. All they have is an assurance that God is with them. I imagine them wondering to themselves, ‘So, where are we going to find God?’ This question reminds me a wonderful folk wisdom story that provides one answer. I share it with you.

“A legend tells how, at the beginning of time, God resolved to hide himself within his own creation. As God was wondering how best to do this, the angels gathered around him.

‘I want to hide myself in my creation,’ he told them. ‘I need to find a place that is not too easily discovered, for it is in their search for me that my creatures will grown in spirit and in understanding.’

‘Why don’t you hide yourself deep in their earth?’ the first angel suggested.

God pondered for a while, then replied, ‘No. It will not be long before they learn how to mine the earth and discover all the treasures that it contains. They will discover me too quickly, and they will not have had enough time to do their growing.’

‘Why don’t you hide yourself on their moon?’ a second angel suggested.

God thought about this idea for a while, and then replied, ‘No. It will take longer, but before too long they will learn how to fly through space. They will arrive on the moon and explore its secrets, and they will discover me too soon, before they have had enough time to do their growing.’

The angels were at a loss to know what hiding places to suggest. There was a long silence.

‘I know,’ piped up one angel, finally. ‘Why don’t you hide yourself within their own hearts? They will never think of looking there!’

‘That’s it!’ said God, delighted to have found the perfect hiding place. And so it is that God hides secretly deep within the heart of every one of God’s creatures, until that creature has grown enough in spirit and understanding to risk the great journey into the secret core of its own being. And there, the creature discovers its creator, and is rejoined to God for all eternity.”

From One Hundred Wisdom Stories from around the World

Peace,

Deacon Sue

2 May - I Value You

2010-05-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

A theme of “value” seems to flow through this Sunday’s readings (5 Easter). Peter learns not to question the value of spreading the Good News to gentiles. In Revelation, John testifies that God will dwell with us and we with God; all will be made new. Even in the Gospel, Jesus’ new commandment dictates that we learn to love (i.e. value) one another.

William Slone Coffin wrote in Letters to a Young Doubter about a way to look at value I’d never thought of before. He writes:

“…God’s love doesn’t seek value; it creates it. It’s not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement. Just think: we never have to prove ourselves; that’s already taken care of. All we have to do is express ourselves—return God’s love with our own—and what a world of difference there is between proving ourselves and expressing ourselves.” (96)

I am grateful for Coffin’s words and hope that we can live into Jesus’ commandment expressing our love for all, especially God.

Peace,
The Rev. M.E. Eccles, LPC