Sermon from February 22

The Readings

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21.  (Ash Wednesday)

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.  But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal;  but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do

Mark 1  (1^st Sunday in Lent)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."  And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.  Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

 The message

We are now in Lent. Our readings, songs, banners, music, and even the tone of the biblical texts we share each week, have all changed. The surprise of Christmas, the joy of remembering “Christ our savior is born”, the revelation of Epiphany, the visit and gifts of kings, the baptism of Jesus, the first calls to “come and follow me” and the world discovering who was born on Christmas, all that will now shift to the wilderness and cross, to God’s saving work through the death and resurrection of Jesus. At Lent, we walk with Jesus and his early followers as they face sin and death, endure and triumph.  I wanted to start Lent off with a review of the two things I talked about on Ash Wednesday since that is when the tone and spiritual heart of Lent is the most obvious.  I apologize is this is a repeat for you but honestly these things are so counter cultural, so different from the world we live in, and so hard for us to really get that we could hear them twice.

First, in light of Jesus warning from Wednesday’s Gospel reading “do not practice you piety before others in order to be seen by them”, I talked about our need to actually practice our piety, not for attention, not for the admiration of others, not to look holy, not to look important or be seen as good but because we need to practice our piety for our own joy, comfort, understanding and peace.  For me piety means something like “to live consciously aware of God’s grace and God’s presence” and that is something we do need to practice. Here this building is filled with people who practice; there is soccer on weeknights, the ABCs, songs and counting in our preschool, bands from the churches that share the space with us on Friday nights, our 12 step meetings where people practice facing addiction together, our choir on Sunday morning and so many others.  We should practice our piety here too, to pray regularly so that it can become a source of strength and part of life,  we should try different spiritual practices so that we can find the ones that help us powerfully experience God’s presence, we should share our faith in new ways and speak of God’s love in new places so that we can find the words that work, we should practice asking ourselves over and over again “what’s the faithful way to react to this situation” or:”how can I use my gifts to serve God and neighbor” so that it can become a part of our regular decision making, we should practice welcoming others and reaching out to new people so that we can really see everyone as a child of God.    

Second, right before we were all marked with ashes, I shared the same idea that I mention each Ash Wednesday.  We might not like to advertise it or reflect on it but we know that we are dust. We do not need to have a little dirt put on our foreheads to be reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return.  Every day, every hour, sometimes, even every minute, we are reminded that we are dust.  We know that we are not invincible, we are fragile. We know there are many things we cannot control, with every pain, ache, cough or cold in our lives, with every disappointment, failure, betrayal or loss, with every scene of suffering we see and every story of war, violence, abuse, inequality or preventable suffering, with every experience of unfairness or broken promises, we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. 

We do need Ash Wednesday though, so that we can come together and be reminded that each of us is dust, each of us has sins, pains, anxieties and fear, and most importantly that even though each of us is dust, each of us is dust that God loves. 

Now, today, we hear the defining reading for Lent, Jesus 40 days in the wilderness before the start of his public ministry. Mark gives us the shortest version of Jesus temptation.  Matthew and Luke both include more details, they write about the types of trials Jesus endures and the offers Satan makes to try and turn Jesus against God and God’s difficult plan for our salvation. In all of the reports of the temptation, we see Jesus practicing his piety and we are reminded that with God’s grace, we are dust that matters, we are dust that God loves.     

First, and this might only be me, but I often fall into this trap of thinking that Jesus has a nice, zen like, meditative time out in the wilderness, that this experience is nothing for Jesus, that he endures it with a smile, that he laughs at Satan’s offers. Really though, this story is about temptation, real incredible offers, and real rejections.  Jesus prays because he has to, Jesus is helped by the angels after the orderal is over, because he has to be.  Jesus needs to practice his piety, he spends every moment in the wilderness, thinking about God’s love and trying to find it despite his own suffering. Jesus strength comes from his baptism, remember, he literally enters the wilderness immediately after leaving the water. In the temptations in Matthew and Luke, we also learn that Jesus’ strength comes from the scriptures, he turns to God’s word to counter Satan’s word, to reject the devils offers, to say no thanks to unlimited power, and decline the wealth of the whole world.   

We, as God’s people almost 2000 years after this temptation in the wilderness, We are dust that has experienced, heard and told God’s love, we are dust that has been baptized, we  are dust that has ready access to the scriptures, We are left to ask, imagine and wonder, what will we do with God’s grace, with our Baptism, and God’s word to us, With it, we can resist temptation, reject the inclination to be superior, silence the desire for power and shut out the greed for status and stuff.  With these things, we can ignore the feelings of powerlessness against the very bad things in the world.   Being dust that is loved by God is a very powerful thing This Lent, we are called to dream about what can happen when dust, that is loved by God, acts like it.  Amen

Sermon from Sunday, February 15th

Sermon for February 15, the Transfiguration

The reading

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.  And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.  Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"  Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.  As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

The message:

Today’s Gospel reading is one my favorites to share at the children’s Church services I do each week with the young students in our preschool.  Each year, when this story comes up, I get one of my church robes that has a very shiny gold satin lining.  I hide that robe in a bag and take it with me to children’s church. Everyone asks “what’s in the bag” and I simply say it’s a surprise to help me tell the bible story. I start normally with our song and prayer, then I talk about Jesus looking just like everyone else did back then, that he was not 10 feet tall, he did not glow in the dark, that he was not really fat or really skinny, he was not really black or really white, he looked just like everyone else did back then. Then I tell them we’re going to hear a story about this one time, when something amazing happened and Jesus did look really special.  During the story of the Transfiguration, when we get just before the part where Jesus clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them, I ask the kids to all close their eyes and then I throw the shiny gold robe on.  When all the children open their eyes, they are awed, surprised and even a little confused.  (The whole scene looks a lot like magic being performed by someone how has no idea how to do magic)

Of course, 50 or so days later, we come to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the days when we remember Jesus Passion, his betrayal, anxiety, suffering, trial, torture and execution.  This time around, things are not so easy to talk about with 3-7 year olds. Talking about transfigured Jesus, literally shining with power and dazzling in the indescribable glory of God is pretty awesome. Talking about the events around Jesus death, not so awesome. This time around the message for the children is not so much fun, there are no props and no shiny robes. All I can really say is that “very bad things happen to Jesus.  His friends do not think they will ever see him again”.

Honestly, for most of us, thinking about signs of power and glory like the Transfiguration is much easier to do then it is to really think about God’s power being revealed in weakness, suffering and common things.  If you think about it, if you could fly for 15 minutes after you received holy communion, if every person who prayed for it, won the powerball each week, if whatever teams fans donated the most money to the church won the super bowl every season, if every time we prayed for the hungry, they received food and each time we prayed for the sick, they were healed,  If any of those things happened, this church and every other would be full.   Every discussion about doubt or disbelief, every conversation I had with people who think “the bible is not real” or “God might not exist” would be settled with a mighty sign, I would simply say “yes it is” and perform an incredible sign of power to prove it.      

Of course, as anyone who has lived in this world (which should include everyone here) knows that’s not how things work. This is one of the great uncomfortable things in our faith.  It is much easier to talk about the transfigured Jesus as savior, as God with us, as the redeemer, as the one to be worshipped, followed and obeyed than it is to talk about Jesus on the cross as any of those things. While that is true, God is revealed to us by the cross.  

In theological terms, this great uncomfortable thing is called the theology of the cross vs the theology of Glory. Jesus does not reveal God to us through glory and power. That is there, I mean there are the healings, the casting out of demons, the transfiguration, the stopping of storms, calming of seas and making the broken whole. Through Jesus, there are many signs of God’s power and authority in the world, over all things, but these things are all just glimpses.  Jesus reveals God to us in unexpected ways, through unexpected people, in unexpected places. Jesus reveals a God who is present with us in suffering, who walks with the poor, cries with the mourning,  hungers with the starving, worries with the anxious, sits with the lonely, accepts the hated, and welcomes the stranger. This means God’s ways are not our ways, God is changing things and God does not value what we value.    

It’s not just the Transfiguration and signs of power vs some other events,  The theology of the cross happens again and again, at the most important moments in God’s story:  the weak defeat the strong,  the people of Israel conquer places they should not, things change that should not change, the unknown prophets confront power and win, Christ our savior and king is born as a born child out in a barn, Christ our savior and king has no army and is killed by people who have a big one, women witness the resurrection and run churches, fishermen, tax collectors and persecutors become the first bishops, illegal and underground Christians convert an empire,  

That’s why two weeks ago in our Gospel reading, Jesus is casting out a demon and orders it to be quiet, That’s why last week, Jesus would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. God would not be revealed to the world through the cries and knowledge of supernatural beings, Even today, immediately after the transfiguration, as Jesus and the witnesses walk back down the mountain Jesus orders them “to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead” God would not be first revealed to the world through the transfiguration either, that would happen through the cross and resurrection

As we end the season of the Epiphany, the last story we have of the world figuring out what happened on Christmas, about discovering who exactly the child born that night was, we are challenged, curious and strengthened for the approaching time of Lent.  We know who it is that we are walking on the journey with

Sermon for February 8th, 2015

The reading

Mark 1

As soon as Jesus and his new disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.   He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.  That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.  And the whole city was gathered around the door.  And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.  In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.  And Simon and his companions hunted for him.  When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you."  He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do."   And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons

The message

In the Bible, we have 4 different Gospels.  Each one, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all report on the events of Jesus' life, ministry, teachings, death and resurrection as well as share some theological reflections and understanding of what the events mean.  Each one was written by different people, for a different audience, in a different time period and social context.  There are very few stories found in all 4 Gospels (one is the feeding of the multitude), many are in two or three and a few that are unique to one (For example the prodigal son and Good Samaritan are only in Luke).  Each book focuses on telling the world that Jesus Christ is the savior who set us free from sin and death through his life, death and resurrection but there are different approaches, words, tones and points of focus. This year at church many of our Sunday readings will come from Mark’s Gospel, the first and shortest of the 4.

It’s important to remember that when you compare Mark to the other Gospels, it is very fast paced.  There is a strong focus on the urgency and sense of hurry in Jesus work.  In the original Greek text of Mark, the words Kai Ethous, meaning "and immediately" appear every few sentences.  Most of the “and immediatelys” have been removed in modern bible translations to make reading it simpler.   Even so, as we go through Mark's Gospel this year, you can tell from his report that things happened very quickly. From start to finish, Jesus ministry is one thing right after another. You are left imagining that Jesus was in a hurry, that during his ministry, he saw every moment wasted on travel or distraction as time that could have been better spent healing, teaching or sharing God’s love.    

This morning, our reading comes from the very first chapter of Mark and we can already see that Jesus is driven by how important his work of sharing God’s message with the world is. Jesus works aware of the time constraints and challenges there were in getting to, communicating with and helping everyone.  In many ways it is easy for us to relate to Jesus here.  The rapid, and often unforgiving pace of Mark's Gospel and Jesus drive to do it all, probably feels familiar to many of us. Our world, the space where we live, work, love, and experience God’s grace in, is rapid and often unforgiving. We admire, lift up and celebrate the successful, the vision driven, the dedicated and committed. We wear how busy we are like and advertisement, a t-shirt that says "I am important”, “I am good at something”, “I am needed” ,“or “I am capable of doing things”, We live in a world where “I know your very busy, but thank you for the time” is a big compliment and sign of respect.  We see busy Jesus as a model of the ideal work ethic and an example of what we should be doing. 

The danger here is that we become too focused on Jesus as busy that we miss the other parts of his life, work and ministry: namely 1- that Jesus always stopped for people in need of healing, teaching, or a sign of God's love in their lives and 2- that Jesus never neglected his relationship with God.  First, In terms of Jesus stopping for people in need, we live in a world where people in need are honestly seen as annoying, distractions and in the way of our busy lives. We hurry by people in need. We accept that people get run over or left behind as part of life. We can easily see people who are not so busy are seen as slow, lazy or somehow defective and less worthy of good things.  That is something Jesus never did.  We actually saw this last week in the Gospel reading, where Jesus is teaching in the synagogue and he is interrupted by a man possessed by an unclean spirit. The crowd tells the suffering man to keep quiet.  Jesus tells the crowd to keep quiet and heals the man with the unclean spirit.  Jesus never worried about running out of  healing, grace or love. We see plenty of this love and attention for those in need, for the weak, troubled, rejected and outcast, throughout the Gospel.  We could use more of it in our world though.     

Our next point about Jesus example in today’s Gospel is that Jesus never neglected his relationship with God.  We are only in the first chapter of Mark but we can already see that Jesus was so tired and drained from the work that he needed to take a break to recover. That is just what he did, Mark reports that "In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed". Jesus made time for prayer, recovery and spiritual health, he knew that his work could not be done without it.  

That is a lesson we could all learn from.  When I was at my internship in CT, we were at the Bishops’s retreat and a number of us skipped the evening worship and workshops to drive over to a local church and hear Barbara Brown Taylor (a very well known preacher / teacher that many pastors heard about during classes).  I don't necessarily remember too much of what she said, I do remember that at the church, everyone who was supposed to be at the hotel for the bishops retreat looked at each other like, yeah, you shouldn’t be here either. I also remember  Taylor kept coming back to the idea that keeping the Sabbath, the biblically ordered day of rest, that not working one day a week, no matter how important you think you are, or how urgent the situation, that this law was no burden, it was a gift. To stop and rest, to stop and pray, was not a sign of weakness or being inferior, it was part of a healthy life and part of God’s grace to us.  This stood out to me for all these years because I don’t know if I ever heard anyone else, before or after, talk about it.

This morning, the call is for us to understand the example set by Jesus, who knows the urgency of God’s work in the world but who also knows that people are important because they are children of God and loved by their creator, not because they are busy and who knows we cannot live well without taking a break to rest and pray.   It is my hope that church is a place for you experience all of those things.    

Sermon for February 1, 2015

Sermon for February 1:   4^th Sunday of Epiphany

The reading:

Mark 1: They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"  And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."  At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.                                                   

The message

Over the past few weeks, Woodside has been in the news (for a change it is not about the great food).  After many years of constant and often unrecognized work, our friends and neighbors in the community have been recognized for their efforts by different newspapers, radio and tv stations. Recently NY 1, the NY Post, Abc news, 1010 wins, the Queens Courier, DNA info and others have all done stories about individuals or groups in Woodside that have been shoveling snow for neighbors, painting over graffiti, restoring fire alarm boxes, cleaning up the streets and overpasses, reporting dumping, planting trees, caring for gardens  and helping with other quality of life issues. The stories of their work have been told to help inspire others and share examples of what can be done when people support each other and work together towards something good. 

The streets that most of you walked on to get here this morning have all benefitted from these efforts. 

When I first arrived here about 5 years ago, 43^rd and Woodside Avenues were all covered with old graffiti and chipped paint.  There was always a nasty pile of stuff dumped on 43^rd  and even our own church needed a touch up here and there (still does really).  Over time, things started to get cleaned up. Trash was removed and walls were painted and repainted. Today, 311 gets called about dumping immediately and the sanitation department (who probably recognize jen’s voice by now) picks up within a day or so.  Jen also patrols the area and straightens out. There is really no more graffiti either.  If it goes up, we usually try to paint over it within a few hours.  (That’s what all those random pails of paint you see around the church are for).

Of course, I was not doing any of this during my first year or two here.   I would walk by, complain, comment and move on with my day.  It was just a part of life, it seemed inevitable that there would be graffiti and dumping on a virtually empty street with almost no residents on it.  That changed when I walked into Dave and a group of people actually painting 43^rd avenue. I worked with them for the day and learned that they had painted virtually all of the public walls in Woodside (we are basically the last block in Woodside) along with lots of other projects.  The group and the people who work with them are driven by some very simple ideas, 1: it is our problem and our responsibility and 2- we can do something to fix it.  It is a group of people claiming their authority as people of faith, members of the community, concerned citizens or all 3 and then doing something with it. 

   

We can easily use these events in our community and the ideas behind them to help understand Today’s gospel reading from Mark.   As Jesus teaches in the synagogue and then casts out the unclean spirit we see Jesus claiming his authority as God with us and then doing something with it.   This story of Jesus’ encounter with the crowds in the synagogue, the man with the unclean spirit and the unclean spirit itself happens at the very start of Jesus ministry.  So far, in Mark’s Gospel all that has happened is Jesus baptism by John, Jesus temptation by Satan in the desert, and Jesus calls to his first disciples to come and follow.  This morning’s lesson, conversation and casting out are literally the first thing that the disciples see and hear Jesus do after they accepted the invitation to follow him.  

In Mark, this story serves two purposes. First in continuing with the meaning of Epiphany,  we have another example of the world figuring out what happened on Christmas, of people starting to see, hear, and understand who exactly this child born out in a barn really is.  Here people realize that Jesus is one who teaches with a sort of authority they have never heard before and acts with a sort of authority they have never seen before.  People would usually teach by summarizing or looking at comments from other scholars or teachers and adding an opinion or different perspective.  Jesus was more clear and certain in his words, declaring that God’s kingdom had come and even teaching things that went against the religious authorities and traditions.  In the same way, many people in Jesus time would try to cast out unclean spirits with  tricks, offerings, invoking some sort of magic prayer, power or object, or performing a ritual. In this case, Jesus simply tells the unclean spirit to “be silent and come out” and it listens.  Jesus does not need tricks or anything else, he knows that God has the ultimate authority and this unclean spirit can do nothing about it. 

The second purpose of this story is an invitation from Jesus to the disciples and us to claim our authority as children of God, to live as people forgiven, loved and welcomed, as people who know that God has the ultimate authority over the world, evil, sin and death.  Jesus knows that his followers from that day almost 2000 years ago when Peter, Andrew and the first ones joined him until today will face doubts, criticism, attack, fear, great powers and intense suffering. From the first day he wants to make sure they realize that God is the one with the power.   For us today, that means acting boldly, confident in God’s promises and power to change things.  It means claiming our identity and authority as a child of God and knowing that we can create change, we can serve our neighbors and work in our community, we can raise awareness and share the comfort and joy of our faith, we can even stand up to long standing racism, institutional injustice, bad governments, brutal wars, deceitful media, life crushing businesses and broken systems, we can stand up for the poor, hungry, tired, sick and exploited.  

During our work in the neighborhood, most of us have heard,  “why bother, it’s just going to come back, there is just going to be more garbage or graffiti tomorrow.”  Most of us have talked to people about petitions, protests, donations, marches, or others ways of doing something about a global wrong only to hear  “what can I do”, “What difference will it make”, “the problem is too big”, “it’s been broken for so long”, or “whose going to listen to us”.  This morning, as we hear the stories of what has happened in our own neighborhood and see a glimpse of how Great is our God in the start of Mark’s gospel, we are reminded to not sell ourselves short, to not think our faith is meaningless, to not feel powerless against evil, to remember that, as it actually says right up there, in the center of the place we gather to worship and celebrate God’s love, (pointing at a sign in the sanctuary)  “with God, all things are possible”.