homily for tomorrow

A Homily for the 1^st Sunday of Christmas 

All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Southern Shores, N.C. 

December 30, 2012 

Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7 John 1:1-18

Around 90 AD, the community of the Beloved Disciple sees that some of its members who had known Jesus in the flesh more than a half century before are dying off from old age. Over the years, the community has shared many stories about their interaction with Jesus, and now the fear is that there will be no one to continue to tell the stories. So they collect the stories in writing under the direction of several editors who winnow down the number of stories so they might fit into a scroll. The editor begins the collection of stories with a poem to set the theme. The editor knows that the language of prose is inadequate to tell a spiritual story - only poetry has that power, where words glisten in greater complexity, and in reflection, go ever deeper in levels of meaning. The first line goes: “ Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.” Which on the surface can be read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

“Ἐν ἀρχῇ”, “Hen archay”, can mean “In the beginning” - and it can mean “First of all”, or “At the highest and more complex”, or “At the basic or simplest level”, or “Most importantly”, or “Before there was time and space.”

ἦν ὁ λόγος, “En ho logos”, can mean “There was the Word”, or “Personal Expression”, or “Plan”, or “Promise”, or “Intention”, or “Audit”, or “Dream”, or “Hope”, or “Mystery”, or “Deepest murmur of the heart and will”, or a dozen other shades, and this multitude of meanings was echoing in God and was the fullness of God, Godself. Later on in the poem, this multitude of meanings became “σὰρξ”,


“sarks”.σὰρξ”, “sarks”, can mean “became flesh”, or “entered into our brokenness, our selfishness, our self- centeredness, our sinful nature, our limitedness, our weakness, our idiocy, our loneliness, our natures that are turned in on ourselves, our hardheadedness and our soft heartedness, our delight, our ability to laugh and to love, the ability to blush in embarrassment or to have the need to, our enjoyment of our bodies, our tears, our longings, our chatter, our silences, our boredom, our excitement, our pratfalls and our nobility, our deepest fears, our darkest moments, our hidden dreams, …” and “being human” keeps on going. The editor is trying to tell us that the multitude of meanings of logos didn't just put on a costume and prance around for a while; this logos emptied self out to live in our earthly tents as one of us.

We have a simple view of the universe. On one side of the great divide, between the divine and the human, God sits all alone in splendid isolation, the unmoved mover, and pulls the strings or leaves us alone depending on divine whim, while on the other side of the great divide, we humans wallow around in the mud. The problem with that simplistic view is that the editor wants to tell us of God’s deep longing to be united with each part of us - a longing on which God acts and which is still calling for union.

This God acted in history, and people experienced occupying the same space, and breaking the same bread, and drinking deeply of the same cup. But not content with just looking like slumming, once upon a time in the person of Jesus, the divine invites each of us to come and cross the divide, with our spirit emptied into God's hopes and dreams and with God's spirit emptied into our daily life. God is the lover who calls us to come and rest from our burdens so that we may lie down with the divine and participate in the poetry of love. Listen to the one who Matthew remembers calling: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (The Message Translation, Matthew 11:28-30).

This is the word, ths is the promise, this is the hope, this is God, through Jesus, calling us into union.

Reflection on the Slaughter of the Innocents

Today we remember the Slaughter of the Innocents which commemorates the incident in Matthew Chapter 2 where Herod the Great was so threatened by the one who was born to be “King of the Jews” born in Bethlehem that he ordered the death of all the male children of Bethlehem under two years of age. The Medieval Coventry Carol tells this story :

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lullay, thou little tiny Child,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we do sing

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Most scholars do not doubt that Herod would have killed children- he is on record for killing 2 brother in-laws, one wife and two of his own children, but there is no historical record of a mass killing in Bethlehem having taken place. Since Bethlehem was small the number if killed would have beeen small, some estimates no more than 20. But again, as in most of scripture ,the literal is the least important of the interpretations; it is a story in which the truth does not lie in the facts but in its mythic power to capture the deeper truth – we treat life with contempt if it gets in the way with our own agendas.

If we have any doubt about the "truth" of the story then we have not been following the news. How many more times will we just say "Ain't it awful." and then allow the death merchants to spin that "guns don't kill people" and that "Gee whiz we really need more automatic weapons with bigger magazines, so our children will be safe in school, or in the movie theatre, or in the mall, or on the playground; because the only way to stop a "monster" with a gun is with a good man with a bigger gun!" The Right Honorable Governor of Virginia and the Esteemed Wayne LaPierre, who are the record as being "fine Christian gentlemen", were trotted out by their pay masters to both bloviate on the subject and say things like this with a straight face-- so much practice!

Until we are finally able to to gather the collective political will and courage to put an end to this madness of the worship of weapons of mass destruction which can promote our own agendaswe better keep practicing the Coventry Carol:

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

A reflection for Christmas Day

A Homily for Christmas Day All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, N.C. December 25, 2012 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Luke 2: 8-20

Today, Christmas Day 2012, the time of the shopping, pageants, services, and receiving presents is over. It is now time to be still, marvel, and give.

The Gospel lesson tells us that the Shepherds went home marveling, and Mary pondered in her heart while caring for her child. Now that it was over, it seemed time to ask what did this all mean?

What did it mean for the Shepherds? I wonder if one had thoughts like this:

The Angels said, “Fear Not”. I spent my whole life looking for God acting in this world. I heard stories about God being made plain to other people or in other places, but for schmucks like me, God happened to other people. Yes, I go through the religious obligations and services, and other, luckier people seem to enter into it all, but something, I don't know what, has always kept me from committing myself. I saw a baby, and I thought that was all that I had seen. But as I get still, I wonder if I see God not in the Angels, not in the singing, not in the ritual, but in the still small moments of life. Maybe God is telling me that the Divine is in every incarnation. The family we saw is a disposable family- I see hundreds of people like them on the road. Their lives go nowhere. At least I have a job. Yet, maybe this child named Jesus is the one who God uses to open the door for us to see the full worth of God in every disposable person. Maybe the full love and worth of God are even in those people I work with. Some of them seem to be bad news and can be difficult. Maybe the experience of this child is pointing out that it wasn't just one Holy night, but that all days and nights are holy. I wonder if this is what God was saying through the angels and this child? Let me be still a bit longer and ponder this, and then maybe look again at all those disposable moments and people in my life.

What did it mean for Mary? I wonder if she had thoughts like these:

The Angel nine months ago said: “Fear not.” I just think that words are not good enough. Joseph say he loves me, but if he really knew all the things that I had thought while living with him, I'm afraid he would be so hurt and offended that he might never come back. I was just about to lose it when those noisy, unwashed, and half drunk- that would be the only way to explain their behavior – shepherds said that they were just in the neighborhood. I had to smile and be nice - because what can you do when it seems like your home is a pigsty? I was afraid I would scream at them and tell them to leave me alone. I am so afraid of so many things. I'm afraid, I'm afraid I am not going to be a good mother. Look at this child, so small. He felt so big inside me and don't get me started about him coming out. I could drop him. I could hurt him because of my inexperience. I might say things to him that might scar him for life. What if he grows up to hate me for being so insistent on having things my own way? Or if he gets irritated at my own neediness? Yet, he is a gift, a gift given out of love. As I hold on to him, can I hold on to that concept, and each time see not just him but look through him, and his behavior, to the gift he is? I am surrounded by gifts I don't deserve. Who knows? Maybe the shepherds were a gift…

I wonder what does this day mean to you?

Homily for Christmas Eve

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A Homily for Christmas Eve All Saints Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC December 24, 2012 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people

This has been a long service so this will be a short homily; can I hear a “Praise God!” or an “Amen brother!”?

As we gather here tonight, we can ask ourselves “Why did the incarnation happen at this time and in this place and witnessed by these people? There is Mary and there is Joseph, there are the shepherds. We all know the story, the most important figure in all of history is born in a backwater part of the Roman Empire, far away from where the movers and shakers of the world had their splendid palaces and petty kingdoms.

Mary was a pregnant teenager who, upon discovering she was pregnant, was sent off to her cousin Elizabeth's house. She stays there for three months and returns to her surprised and shocked fiance. Her reputation is clouded, for even in ancient times, people knew how to count to nine. Tradition tells us that Joseph is a carpenter, which was another way to say a day laborer. We tend to want make the family of Jesus important and remember stories of Jesus as a skilled artisan, but Nazareth was a small town, about 400 people, and not rich enough to provide a living for an artisan.

The powers that be wanted to show their power and as a result this poor couple would have had to walk the 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem which would have taken about four days. If you are a day laborer; you don't work you don't eat. The word in Luke's Gospel for the place they wanted to stay would have translated as “Guest chamber”, a large upper room, the same word used for the place that Jesus held his last supper. So there is the possibility that they wanted to stay with relatives - they don't have money for an inn. Can you imagine relatives from four days away showing up with a pregnant teenage wife in tow and she is ready to pop? How would you respond to them? Probably that is why they were shuffled off to the cave where there was a feed trough as a cradle, so that they were out of the way.                

Then there were the shepherds - and we are not talking about the kind of people who would be invited to supper when the baby was born. They were shepherds because there was no other kind of work for them, and they did not belong. God doesn't seem to have any taste whatsoever… How would the relatives have responded to the rabble? How odd of God to use these people. Apparently Joseph and Mary stayed in Bethlehem for a couple years, and he may have found work there, for in Matthew's story, the Magi found Jesus in Bethlehem, and the Greek word used for Jesus is for a child who walks and talks, not a baby. The Magi went into the “house”, not the “stable”, so they have found a shanty in which to stay. When the Magi failed to show up to see Herod the Great again, he sent word that the children of Bethlehem under two years old would be slaughtered.

Joseph and Mary leave town and head to Egypt where they become undocumented laborers for a couple years and then head back to Nazareth, when Herod the Great dies and where they hope that memories might be short and forgiving and work could be found. Nine miles north of Nazareth, there was a massive public works building boom was going on in Sepphoris, where Herod Anitpas, the son of Herod the Great, wanted to build a Roman style city. Pat I went to the ruins of that city some years ago, and we saw how there would have been plenty of work for traveling day laborers. My guess is this is where this poor family spent much of the time Jesus was growing up, an outsider in an alien culture.

God chooses the strangest people. You would think that the divine would choose better people, but God is an equal opportunity lover and picks all sorts of people. In 1924 in The Weekend Book, William Norman Ewer, a British journalist, wrote an epigram: “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” In reply Ogden Nash replied: “It wasn't odd; the Jews chose God.” In our story God called every one of these people. We know that Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and the Magi heard the call from God. But how many others heard the call? I think God called a bunch of other people, but they were too busy wrapped up in their own agendas - or they thought they had better taste than God. I think that God is calling us all the time. We sometimes use the word “call” to be chosen for a job in the church, but I think we are all called to be connected to the living God. We are called to be God bearers in this world which keeps forgetting what God's love looks like. Our call is not about a particular task but to BE - to be outward and visible signs of God's love wherever we find ourselves and with whatever sorts and conditions of people.

Tonight we remember something that happened in a place far away and in a time long ago in a filthy stable, and also to re-live the events that are right here and right now in this clean church. Maybe we can hear the better angels of our nature glorifying God and joining in singing, not just with our lips but with our lives: “Glory to God in the highest, highest heaven and on earth peace among those who God favors.”

A Reflection on Peace

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A Sermon for IV Advent All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC December 23, 2012 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Micah 5:2-5a Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

 The Visitation by Mariotto Albertinelli,1503

Today we light the last candle in our Advent Wreath to remind us that we need to follow the four disciplines of Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace in order for Christ to be born in our lives. Christ is born in the crèche of our being when we are able to prepare a place for Christ. Hope needs to replace despair as a habit of life, for when we are looking down in lament, we cannot raise our eyes in expectation. Anger and resentment need to be replaced by the discipline of love, for love cannot grow and take root when the soil is rocky and hard. Our sense of entitlement needs to be replaced by thanksgiving, for only when we see all things as a gift are we able to have joy. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the discipline of union with God so that peace flows like a river uniting you and me.

In the lessons for today Peace is not easily evident. The prophet Micah, living in the Hill Country of Judah in the 8^th century BC, looks north to see the beginnings of the collapse of the capital of Samaria of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and knows that his kin will be enslaved by the Assyrian Empire. The Northern Kingdom trusted in their own power and in the cleverness of their alliances with the Syrians. Well, that did not work out the way they planned. Now, Micah knows that aggressors have no way to stop their own greed, and there is no other nation strong enough to stop the Assyrians. He suggests that it is only in uniting with the strength of God and not relying on our own strength and cleverness that we are able to find peace. Peace is not the absence of conflict but it is the union of mind, body, and spirit with God

In the section from the Book of Hebrews, the writer looks at the destruction of the Temple by the Romans as punishment for an uprising in 70 AD. Their whole sacrificial system, the way they made peace with God, was in ruins. The way it worked was, when you did something that was displeasing to God, you needed to make a sacrifice in the Temple in order to have an “at-one-ment”, an atonement, a peace with God. Their understanding was that, because of our sins, God was displeased with us, and we could only get right by getting God off our back. If it was a minor sin then only a minor sacrifice was necessary, like a handful of grains thrown on the fire. BUT if it was a big sin, then the sacrifice would be much bigger, like a whole oxen thrown on the fire to be totally consumed, a Holocaust. God was seen as awesome and all that, but sometimes God could tend to get on your back something awful.

Years ago there was this television series called Maude, and whenever Maude was upset with something that her husband had done, she would squint her eyes at him and say: “God will get you for that, Walter.” Maude believed in sic-ing God on people who misbehaved. However, the writer of Hebrews reflects on the whole sacrificial system and suggests that we don't need to define “peace” as having God off our back, but “Peace” comes when we allow God to stand at our side, to be with us, living within us in this mortal life. Peace is not the absence of conflict but it is the union of mind, body, and spirit with God.

In the Gospel story from Luke, Mary does not have a peaceful life. She lives in an occupied nation ruled by a tyrant. Yet in the Galilee region of Nazareth, far from political turmoil, everything seemed to be going fine with her, until an Angel came and disrupted her planned life. Here Mary was, a nice young girl, betrothed to a nice young man, suddenly given an opportunity to be united with God in mind, body, and spirit - to have God live within her. She becomes pregnant, and people start to talk. As from time immemorial, young pregnant girls are sent by their parents to live with relatives outside of town before they start to show. 

Her cousin Elizabeth, who has had her own life disrupted by an unexpected pregnancy, greets and affirms Mary's call by viewing her disruption as a blessing: “And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary responds by singing her own song, a variation of Hannah's song in the book of 1^st Samuel, where everything is turned upside down. I use Eugene Peterson's translation from The Message:

I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
God's mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before God.
God bared God's arm and showed God's strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
God knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.

The song says that Mary is at peace in the middle of turmoil because she is “bursting with God-news”. Mary becomes our icon of finding peace, for peace is not the absence of conflict but it is the union of mind, body, and spirit with God, or as Mary says “bursting with God-news; dancing the song of my Savior God”. Today, learn how to dance with God in the middle of conflict and find peace. May we practice the disciplines of Hope, Love, Joy and Peace and allow ourselves to be bursting with God-news.

Reflections on being sick

This is a self portrait by Carravaggio of the Sick Bacchus and it fit perfectly how I felt.

I have been playing with being sick for the last couple of days. I made a bunch of visits on Monday and on Tuesday morning as I staggered to workout I started to cough- a little. One of the people who uses one of the elliptical machines close to where I work out is undergoing chemo so I decided to cut back the visits because I may have been given a gift of a “bug” that I did not want to share with everyone else. I huddled in my office and coughed -a lot. By 2:00 in the afternoon I was hacking and went home for some rest. At the vestry meeting that evening I sat six feet away from the others and on my way home was a danger to myself and others in driving because of some over the counter medication. They really do mean it when they say we should not operte heavy machinery! I stayed home on Wednesday with no relief and then got drugs from a Dr's visit on Thursday. I think I am getting better and should be able to do the services on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

We only discover the weakness of our own humanity when our agendas are thwarted and we come to the limits of our strength. Left to my own strength I am a pitiable creatures and when I reach a dead end I realize I need a power greater than ourselves. It is appropriate it is December.

While the birth of Jesus probably did not happen in December- the shepherds would not have been in a field watching their flocks by night later than September – December or even January seems to fit that barren time when we need some incarnation. Yet incarnation is a spiritual event beyond merely an historical event in a land far away in a time long ago.

Bear with me, this is my segue into thinking about the symbol of the Incarnation for the coming Christmas Day, the Christmas Season, indeed for all seasons. We live into, and claim, Incarnation whenever we allow God's love to come into our lives- where the “word becomes flesh” and our flesh is filled with God's Holy Spirit. 

I love the Christmas pagents and all that, I tear up in nostalgia for the season, but I think I am able to really know the incarnation when I see the love and strength sharing among people when the services are not going on. When I see a family decide to try forgiveness instead of being right; that is incarnation. When I see a couple hold hands and breathe deeply of the breath of a power greater than themselves in order to get through the mess they made of their lives; that is incarnation. When a see a person stop thinking about the presents and starting living in the presence: that is incarnation.

I tend to see things as symbols and not mere signs; signs just point to something but symbol does not just point to something but it participates in that to which it refers. The Christ mass happens not only in churches but in homes, in shelters, in offices; wherever 2 or 3 are gathered together comiung to ask for strength to make it throught the day with integrity.

There is a prayer I have used for the last couple mornings, and I recommend it, from the Book of Common Prayer on page 461: In the Morning

This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring

forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I

am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still,

help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it

patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.

Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit

of Jesus. Amen.

sermon for sunday- long nights of weeping but joy comneth in the morning

 

A Sermon for III Advent                         All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores, NC December 16, 2012                                 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Canticle 9 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18

Today we light the pink candle in the Advent Wreath, and it symbolizes Joy. The past two weeks we have looked at the disciples of Hope and Love and next week we will light the candle for peace, but for us today we resonate in Psalm 30:5: “For God's anger endureth but a moment; in God's favour is life: weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.” 

 

I spent part of Friday night weeping as I held a grandmother and grandfather in my arms last night as we prayed to make sense of the horror which had visited their family. Their granddaughter had been one of those 20 children slaughtered and there are no easy bromides that we can cart out to cover it all up as some part of God's plan. This beautiful child had been here in Southern Shores and with all of her energy she had run the Turkey Trot and laughed. Her grandfather laughed about how much energy she had and then cried because he would never see that energy again in this life from her. For them and for all of us it will be a long night before joy cometh in the morning.

“Joy cometh in the morning”, but how do we reconcile that promise with the Gospel lesson where John the Baptizer blasts out, “You brood of vipers, who warned you of the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” I like the way that Eugene Peterson translates this verse - “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God’s judgment? It’s your life that must change, not your skin.”

What is a viper? A Viper is a snake that, in order to stay alive, takes advantage of smaller creatures but lives in fear of things bigger than itself and will strike out to protect what it thinks it needs to have. They are sneaky, vicious, and merciless and like to crawl under rocks to be cool, lie out to bake in the sun to get warm, and their only joy is when they are destroying somebody else. Underneath, their life is dominated by fear, and the only option for someone in fear is “fight or flight”. I am sure that none of you know anybody like that. I am sure John is probably talking about other people and not us.

Except I have more than a sneaky suspicious that, if we dig deep enough, we can discover some snakeskins among us. Years ago when I was teaching in a college in Virginia, I would go back each summer to our place in Boone where, for grocery money, I would act in an outdoor drama. The summer before I went to seminary, they gave me the part of the villain, the British ( I gave him a Scottish accent), Col. Mackenzie. I was so mean and vicious that, every night during the climatic reenactment of the Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain, when it looked like I was going to kill the young heartthrob hero in a sword fight but at the last second I got killed by that sweet young man, the audience would cheer. Yet, there was more. At the acme of the cheer, in my final ounce of venom, I would shoot the young man in the back as he ran back in victory to oh-so-virtuous Dr. Geoffery Stuart, his loving father. I had played Dr. Stuart for several years, which was a much bigger part, but I sure enjoyed playing the villain, the viper, the snake in the grass.

When I played snakes in the grass, I did some healing of my soul. I knew what it was like to be a viper because in my life there were instances where I have been a viper. I had found all sorts of “good” reasons to justify myself, but now I had to get beyond the excuses. Coming to grips with my own “viperness”, I had to dig deeper for the roots, and I found, like the viper, I was ruled by fear, limiting my choices to fight or flight. But once I stopped trying to minimize my behavior as a way of distancing myself from responsibility for my actions, I had to accept that it was part of my shadow self, and once I really claimed my own shadow I could decide that I did not want to continue being trapped into destructive behavior – behavior that was destructive to myself and others. When I claimed my shadow, I could see there were other options for me to take. The Greek word for “Take another option” in the Gospel lesson is “metanoia” which can be, and is, translated as “repent”.

This is the situation that the people who come to John on the banks of the Jordan face. They are sick and tired of running away from themselves by acting like vipers. John calls them what they act like and gives them the insight to find another option. “And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" Look at the three options that John addresses:

There are those who are so ruled by fear that they are never going to have enough, so they clutch on to what they have because they are so afraid, but their fear tells them there is never enough. Luke remembers “In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." It is only when you give, will you free yourself from fear. Figure how much you will give off the top as a way of being freed from your stuff controlling you, rather than you controlling your stuff. Misery is replaced by joy, or as the Psalmist says: “weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”

“Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?"” Tax collectors were agents of the Roman occupying forces and as such they were resented by the people. They were given quotas by the Romans, and the Romans did not care how they got the money. The tax collectors’ fears were that they were alienating themselves from their own people, so, trapped by the “fight or flight” mentality, they gouged the people so that might create strongholds of privilege for themselves. They felt trapped into being vipers. John said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." The option was to do their jobs honestly and fairly because if they refused to do the job entirely, the Romans would only bring in someone else who would gouge the people. There is a joy when you can face yourself in doing an unpleasant job with integrity - “weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”

“Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?"” Soldiers were strangers far from home and outnumbered by the civilian population which trapped them into fear, so, finding themselves unable to desert and flee, they turned into vipers and bullied the civilians. Bullies find they are strangers to themselves, and do things they find hard to live with. John says to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages." It is only when you allow yourself to be vulnerable that you have the option of feeling anything besides fear. Choosing the option of vulnerability, “weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”

Isaiah sings of the choice we make in the Canticle we sang this morning: “Surely, it is God who saves me; * I will trust in him and not be afraid.” Joy is a choice we make each day. Real Joy does not come from having more stuff, from being islands of privilege, or from having control over people. Joy comes from trusting in a power greater than ourselves to free us from the tyranny of the fear of not having enough, the fear of isolation, or the fear of fear. “Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”

That is the good news for us vipers.

In horror

In a hour from now a grandmother will get in her car and leave this town driving up to Connecticut. I held the grandmother and grandfather in my arms last night as we prayed to make sense of the horror which had visited their family. Their granddaughter had been one of those 20 children slaughtered and there are no easy bromides that we can cart out to cover it all up as some part of God's plan. This beautiful child had been here in Southern Shores and with all of her energy she had run the Turkey Trot and laughed. Her grandfather laughed about how much energy she had and then cried because he would never see that energy again in this life from her.

Years ago B.F. Skinner wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity where he suggested that the use of behavior modification could free us from the morass of the freedoms we use for the destruction of others. There is no doubting that freedom, the freedom to push violence as the answer to problems and the freedom to posses weapons of destruction are part of the problem. Some preachers are uncomfortable with freedom and end up pushing the idea of God as a monstrous Big B.F. Skinner in the sky who runs sadistic experiments on us as a test to see if we pass the "finals" of the course of life. I utterly reject that kind of God and yet secretly wish for a God who would take all freedom out of our hands so we do not keep killing each other.

Today in the darkness of the freedom chosen by a misguided individual and society, God is here as we gather together in the midst of things we cannot understand and work to find a way to redeem the irredeemable.

Reflection on the life and death of Jane Harvey

 

Homily for the Celebration of the Life and death of Jane Harvey December 15, 2012 All Saints Church Southern Shores, NC Thomas Wilson

Psalm 23, John 14:1-6

We come together to give thanks for the life and death of Jane Harvey. Jane is at rest in the arms of her Lord who loves her and she is fortunate. Today we also are the fortunate ones who can proudly say we know Jane Harvey in this life. I do not use the past tense, for knowing Jane makes a difference today not just yesterday.
In the lesson from the Gospel of John Jesus is speaking to his disciples as they gather together before he is to enter into a series of events that will lead to his arrest, trial crucifixion and resurrection. He is telling them, and us, that he is going, and in that going he is preparing for a place for them that where he goes the disciples will also go.
I know that many of you are thinking that he is talking about about setting up for us mansions above the sky floating on clouds, but I don't think that Jesus is talking about geography. We tend to think of heaven as a place, but the understanding Jesus had was that heaven is the presence of God. I think Jesus is saying that he is going into the very heart of God, and where that heart of God meets the brokenness and suffering of the world. That existential moment when the heart of God shines light and love and confronts the injustice, the apathy of corruption, the abuse of the poor, the selfishness of greedy hearts, the fear, the loneliness is what Jesus is entering into. This is the place he prepares us for, this is dwelling place, the mansions, that Jesus is preparing for us, this is where the Kingdom of the Heavens come into conflict with our puny little kingdoms of our own making.
The weapons that are used by the Kingdom of the Heavens in this conflict are not the weapons of choice for the puny kingdoms. These weapons that Jesus uses are hope, forgiveness, mercy and love. The Kingdom of the Heavens begins, not after we shuffle off this mortal coil, but in this life, right here and right now, when we choose to dwell in the overflowing heart of God in daily life using the weapons of hope, forgiveness, love and mercy. Jesus calls himself and his actions the “Way” into the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Once we live in these dwelling places, death itself, the destruction of our bodies, cannot stop our permanent dwelling in the overflowing heart of God. Heaven, in this world and the next, is the loving presence of God, as Jesus reminds us, “wherever two or three are gather together in my name, I will be in the the midst of them.” Heaven is the sacred space between us whether our earthly bodies are breathing or not; for love never dies and cannot be confined in such a fragile container as our bodies.
Jane lives in God's presence, I do not use the past or future tense, but the everlasting present. Jane is a conduit of love which she shares with her family of origin, her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her extended family, her students, her friends, her church, her medical practitioners and with whomever she came into contact. We do not have her earthly body with us here in this room. We do not have that gentle smile of grace she gave. We do not have the sound of the words she would say to so many of us as we would leave her physical presence; “I love you.”  
Ten hours before her death I remember her saying that, “I love you”, to me and it put me in mind of all the hundreds of times, be it in restaurants, hospital rooms, churches, on the beach, the grocery store, over phones; whenever I would leave her she would tell me, “I love you”, because in this broken world over which we have little control, you never know when, or if, we might encounter each other again. I have only known her for nine and a half years, one of you, Susan, has known her all of her breathing life and for nine months before, Bob for more than half a century, and the rest of us somewhat less than that but we have all heard that phrase “I love you” from her lips, thousands, hundreds, scores of times and she means it every time.
Jane is an equally opportunity lover, I do not use the past tense for love does not die. She does not consider if the loved person deserves that love or not. Love is a gift from the heart dwelling in God and it is not rationed based on approval. Jane lives in the sacred space between us who know her. She lives in the sacred space in God's heart which is, was, and will be, her dwelling place.

Today we will take her ashes and leave them in the waves rolling on the beach she so treasured, but she will not leave us. She is here when we say “I love you” with each other. She is here when we take the so limited time to spend with people who want to learn, as she lovingly does with her students, either in school or in life, for we are all her students in love. She is here when, not if, we need to forgive each other. She is here when we hope, when the odds are stacked against us and we ask for strength from a power greater than ourselves to get through it, one day at a time.
Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Jane knows the Way, the Truth and the Life and she lives it with her love from her dwelling place in the heart of God.
Today there will not be a reception after we leave the beach. Jane reminds us that there is limited time; so we ask all of us to tell the people who love Jane that her love exists in you. Then leave and before the sun sets this evening look for a person with whom you are estranged and forgive them- not as they deserve but as they are loved in the overflowing heart of God. Today, stand up for someone who is a victim of injustice as a sign of the love in which Jane's participates. Today, be with someone who needs mercy going through a rough time and go out of your way to help someone as a sign of the love in which Jane participates. Today, say to someone, and mean it, Jane's words, “I love you” for she is alive with you when you love.

Lincoln and acting and vipers

 I am looking at the phrase "Brood of vipers" from the gospel lesson for Sunday and I got to thinking about what does it mean to be a "viper"

Years ago, when I was teaching in a college in Virginia I would go back each summer to our place in Boone where for grocery money I would act in an outdoor drama. The summer before I went to seminary they gave me the part of the villain, the British ( I gave him a Scottish accent), Col. Mackenzie. I was so mean and vicious that every night during the climatic reenactment Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain, when it looked like I was going to kill the young heartthrob hero in a sword fight but at the last second I got killed by that sweet young man, the audience would cheer. Yet, there was more; at the top of the cheer- in my final ounce of venom I would shoot the young man in the back as he ran back in victory to oh- so -virtuous Dr. Geoffery Stuart, his loving father. I had played Dr. Stuart for several years, which was a much bigger part, but I sure enjoyed playing the villain, the viper, the snake in the grass. It was also part of the healing as I discovered my own "viperness"

There are two ways of doing a part; (1) from the outside in- where the actor uses technical skills to mimics what the character will look, move or sound like and then find your mark and says the lines the playwright wrote. Which is a not bad to earn a living, it is called play acting and it can be fun. So can turn on the tube of movies and see it done and if the actor is skillful it is non offensive. Let me give you examples in the new movie Lincoln. I can think of three actors which did good jobs; Bruce McGill playing Secretary of War Stanton, Jackie Earle Haley playing Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, and James Spader playing political operative William H. Bilbo. They all did competent work, McGill did a nice eye roll and impatience as Stanton listening to one more story from Lincoln, Haley got the walk and canniness right in Stephens, and Spader did a couple comic bits of corruption, good actors keep the story moving. But you didn't really see anything behind the lines. sometimes the problem is that the actor is just projecting a persona, mask, and if it goes on too long it can get boring or predictable for the actor and the viewer as the actor lets you in on the charade and you just don't take the character seriously. 

(2) The other way of doing the part is to go from the inside out. Here one uses one's deeper self and finds the resonance of the character with ones history. It requires the actor to construct a history which the playwright does not know. The actor asks things like what was it like when I was betrayed? What did it look like? What did it sound like? What did it feel like? What was the internal conversation at the time? The actor claims the character's kinship with themselves. Back to Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis projecting Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones letting us see Thaddeus Stevens, David Strathaim inviting us into William Seward, here are living persons who understand the character and the spaces between the words are full of thoughtful activity just as if you were involved in an intimate dialogue with a real person's struggle, now you may not agree with his interpretation, you may be offended, or amused, but you are engaged as you discover the meaning behind the words. This is not an historical pageant but moments caught in lightning.