http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp15_RCL.html#gsp1

Well, that was certainly a happy Gospel lesson.  When I read this, I said to myself,  Well, that’s jolly; maybe I’ll preach about the Epistle.

In the Gospel, Jesus is not talking about peace and love, He talks about fire and Baptism symbolic of judgment and purification. He’s talking about the cross, He’s talking about a time when families will be split and fight with one another.

IN the context of his time he is talking about the fact that Jewish families would  be severely torn apart as some members accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Law and others thought that belief in Jesus as the Christ was a total repudiation of traditional covenantal Judaism and the ultimate heresy. They were still waiting for the Messiah. It was going to be an earthquake of conflicting belief.

In those days, among the Jews the most potentially fractious admission to one’s family was to say, in the words of the song, “I have decided to follow Jesus”. As Jesus predicted families did become divided, father against son, mother against daughter and so forth, and presumably friend against friend.

Today, within families and amongst friends and in the media we hear strident voices trying to tell us what we should believe and do, and how to vote, if we are to be what they consider to be “Christian”.

 I have been witnessing some of the most un-Jesus like behaviors put forth as somehow being consistent with Christianity.  I’m not sure what Bible some of these folks are reading and if their Bible contains the New Testament.

His mention of predicting the weather may suggest that we must discern signs of the times and identify what elements of our lives hinder our service to the God of the lowly and powerless.

When we look at our Baptismal Covenant, and we should from time to time, I think we get a picture of what Christians do and how we are to act if we are proclaiming that we “have decided to follow Jesus”.  The next line in that hymn is “no turning back, no turning back”.  No turning back on working for freedom justice and peace, no turning back from respecting the dignity of every human person.  Additional verses of the hymn say “Though no one join me, still I will follow” and “The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back.

The implications of those simple phrases are immense. 

Turning to the Epistle we are introduced to the idea of faith as the courage to endure; that our charge is to ‘run with perseverance the race that is set before us,’ looking to Jesus as

 the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

Jesus goes before us, supports us from behind, walks beside us, holds us up and never lets go, as we struggle to live into what it means to truly follow him—with no turning back.

This is no small order.  We live in a world where people calling themselves Christians are denying even the earliest scripture that says “And God created everything and said that it was GOOD”.

  In Animal Farm George Orwell has the line “All pigs are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”  That certainly seems to be a prevailing attitude these days in the rhetoric of modern society.

I read on Facebook years ago “We cannot pray in love and live in hate and think that we are worshipping God”

May we each in our own lives figure out in concrete ways each day, what it is we are to do, how we are to act if we make that simple statement:  I have decided to follow Jesus. May we look into our hearts, look at our Baptismal Covenant and ask the question “how does my life reflect the teachings of Jesus.”

 What would someone think about Christianity from what they are hearing and seeing some of what is being done today in the name of Christianity.  What would they think if they looked at US as examples of what Christianity is all about? Would they see our Baptismal Covenant working in us?

When we leave here today, let’s not thinking of it as leaving church but as going out in courage and in joy to follow Jesus.  Have we truly decided to follow Jesus, in all that that implies?

A sermon by the Rev. H. Paul Canady III

Rector of Christ Church, New Bern, NC, on July 28, 2019

http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp12_RCL.html#ot2

I’ve seen a number of social media posts recently from friends around the country the children of several friends making their Christmas wish-lists. Maybe it’s the blazing hot weather we’ve had, maybe it’s a lull in summer activities, or maybe it’s having been with other kids and seeing what they have, but something has sparked it in them to start planning early, to think ahead and provide a list now of their hearts’ deepest desires so those who will procure such items can begin to save or look for good deals. You know, it’s really not a bad idea, actually, to layout those needs and wants and begin to think about them. With some help, maybe some prioritization, maybe some “needs vs. wants” analysis, those kids will have a really happy Christmas. I know that in my house, we have MANY conversations about what’s realistic and what’s not when it comes to the birthday and Christmas list discussions. Putting it on your list doesn’t mean you’ll get it, we say, and sometimes, you say one thing, but there’s something better, something that goes beyond what you could have imagined. I’ll say, too, that for adults, having that list is an important thing. Whether it’s for our personal lives or our work lives, looking at what we need and what we want is a good practice to be in. And it’s more than ok to have two or three lists, too. At a recent stewardship conference, we were told to have a running “wish-list” for the church. Maybe things that would enhance the ministry we do but might not fit into the annual budget. I’ve been caught flat-footed on those occasions when asked if there’s something the church needs that a parishioner or a parishioner’s family might be interested in providing. Our recent Feasibility Study helped put some of that into better light and has helped us create a more prioritized catalog of needs as we care for this amazing parish and the main building in which we worship. Information went out via regular mail on Friday with some follow-up about what happens next after the Feasibility Study. 

But back to those wish lists… Whether for birthdays or Christmas or our offices or our homes, they are a written form of our hopes and dreams. Often for ourselves, but often for the benefit and enjoyment of others, too. Having those wish lists, those dreams and hopes, does not make us greedy unless we add to them for the sake of adding to them. But they keep us mindful of our life and what we have and what we need and maybe, hopefully, where God is leading us. 

Both our reading from Genesis and our reading from Luke’s Gospel give us examples of working with God on what is our heart’s deepest desire and what is needed and wanted. In religious terms, we call that “prayer.” And thankfully, both Jesus and Abraham give us different visions of what prayer can be. And even more thankfully, I don’t think either of them are wrong ways to pray. The official teaching of the Episcopal Church, as found in the Catechism in the back of the Book of Common Prayer says that “Prayer is responding to God, by thought 

and by deeds, with or without words.” Abraham is responding to God’s proposal to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. (And if you need a refresher on what their sin *actually* was, check out Ezekiel 16:49-50. It’s not what certain branches of the Jesus movement have made it out to be.) In the same way that Abraham negotiates with God about the number of righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, how many of us have negotiated with God about something? Health. Time. Test-taking. Relationships. You’ve been there. I’ve been there. 

But there’s a component to Abraham’s prayer that Jesus talks about and that most of us mere mortals often forget. The opening line of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples tells us to acknowledge the sacredness of God’s name. “Hallowed be your name” means that we are first and foremost acknowledge the holiness, the sacredness, the uniqueness, the everything-ness of God. To start from any other point is putting our own selves ahead of the one to whom we are praying. Now to be sure, Abraham just starts talking here in the Genesis reading, but after that first request (“Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”), he humbles himself before God with each subsequent request. He affirms that God is the one who controls the situation, and if we read further into the next chapter, we learn that God does not find 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they meet a pretty historic end.  But the other thing that this episode has in common with Jesus’ teaching today is the persistence in prayer, the continuation of the conversation, of the responding to God. Prayer, especially those hopes and dreams of our heart, is never a one-time event. Jesus calls us to continued prayer, not just a “God help me now” prayer, but a prayer that is ongoing. It’s the difference between making your grocery list and deciding what you want when you get there. Which action will give you an outcome you’re more at peace with? 

  Prayer is not a to-do list that we give to God. It’s us looking at the world around us, whatever your world may be,  and being in conversation with God about it. It’s about hearing what God has to say to us, and remember that it’s responding to God with or without words, which leaves open the possibility that God can respond to us without words, too. But with sounds and images. Maybe a song or a feeling. Responding to God isn’t just going about our daily lives and seeing what happens. It’s about being bold in going to those places that God has called us to go, both in our hearts and in person.

Jesus uses the image of the friend knocking on the door of the neighbor who is already in bed. At first glance, it can seem like a hyperbolic story about someone responding not out of neighborly love, but out of persistence. And Jesus like to give hyperbolic examples so this might not seem out of place.  Many people, often myself included, see the person knocking on the door in Jesus’ example as one of us, urgently needing something from God who is represented by the person in bed with the door locked. What happens if we switch the roles… What if the person knocking on the door is God, and WE are the one who are coming up with excuses and reasons that we can’t respond. Abraham was certainly persistent with God, but are we willing to believe that God can be persistent with us, too? Are we willing to humble ourselves and acknowledge that the creator of the universe loves and trusts us enough to help carry out the divine hopes and dreams? It’s not a stretch. Abraham wasn’t always sure of this God he was following. Moses needed a little convincing. As did Mary the mother of Jesus. As did the Apostle Paul. God’s hopes and dreams are no small thing. God needs the voice and the hands and feet of humanity to respond to help make those hopes and dreams a reality. 

So, let us take our hopes and dreams to God, and allow God’s hopes and dreams to come to us so that we can respond to each other and together. 

###

NOTE: We had two differnt worship opportunities on Sunday. We baptized two amazing children at the 8am service and held an instructed Eucharist at 10am. The Rev.'d Deacon Lisa Kirby offered two versions of her sermon. Only the 8am one was recorded. However, the text for both are found here. 

8:00am Homily

We have a Baptism today!!!  How wonderful.

We also have the familiar Gospel lesson about Mary and Martha.  Martha making busy in the kitchen while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and his companions listening to her Lord’s words.

In southern terms, a friend and honored guest arrives, and Mary sits and visits while Martha goes out into the kitchen to fix up some lemonade and sweet tea, fried chicken and collards and we must have cookies or cake.  She’s banging those pots and pans, making sure she has enough fat back, and yet the noise does not cause Mary to stop what she’s doing and come help her sister.  So, she complains to her guest, who has emphasized that he came to serve, not to be served and says “for crying out loud, make Mary get out here and help me.  And Jesus responds like a line out of the Brady Bunch, “Martha, Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many things.  Then, he says, Mary has made the better choice.

My stars, was that a rebuke?  I don’t think so.  I think it was an invitation.

Note that the lesson never says that Mary was at home when Jesus arrived.  It says

“Martha welcomed them”.  Is it possible that Mary arrived with Jesus, meaning that she had been out on the road with Jesus preaching and teaching?  So, she arrives home and sits with Jesus and the others continuing the conversation they had been having on the road. Now this is shocking simply because traditionally women were not supposed to be out traveling on the road preaching and proclaiming.

Instead of chastising Martha, perhaps Jesus was saying.  “Martha, dear Martha, your sister Mary has been with me as a disciple, don’t you want to join us?”  Why don’t you join us in this important work?

He is in no way denigrating what Martha does, and where on earth would we be without the Martha’s of the world.  There are people in this world who are skilled and generous at the cleaning, organizing, cooking parts of life.  I’m not one of them and my office should have a sign saying “Martha does NOT live here”

Jesus could be saying, Martha, bring your skills and come and be my companion on the journey, help me spread the word or God’s love, Grace and healing power.  What an honor it is to be called to do that work.

I think that Baptism is an invitation into the Gospel life, an invitation to be part of the Jesus Movement.  It is a proclamation made today on behalf of this child who is to receive the sacrament of new birth.  And it is an affirmation of our role in a Christ centered life.

I talked a few weeks ago about how our creeds, our stated beliefs should influence our daily life.  The Baptism service is a glowing example of that philosophy.  We say the Apostle’s Creed and then we affirm our Baptismal Covenant.  I see it as “because I believe this, I will do that”.  And our Baptismal Covenant is both specific and compelling, and sometimes difficult to adhere to.

I believe Bonhoeffer was asked to do something one time he replied, “I can’t do that, it would be contrary to my Baptismal Covenant”.  How many of us apply that test to our daily actions?  That’s mind blowing.  How many of us use this approach to work, life, public service and evangelism?

To the parents, family and godparents.  Can you look at the promises you make for this child, to lead him into a Christ centered life by your faith and witness and remember them.  Perhaps on his Baptismal Anniversary you might look back as those promises and ask yourself, am I doing that?

I never even met 2 of my Godparents and the third never darkened the doorsteps of a church except for weddings and funerals and when she said God it was in the midst of swearing.  I trust you will do better.

Can we all, listen carefully to the words of our Baptismal Covenant and ask ourselves:  Am I living that?  Sometimes I do, sometimes I fall short, but it’s always there to remind me…

I think that The Sacrament of Baptism is one of the most powerful services of the church.  We open our arms and our hearts to a new child of God, we anoint him with oil, we make promises on his behalf, and we are reminded that God invites us, just Jesus invited Martha, to be part of a Gospel life, each and every day.

Maybe when we light a candle at home, we might remember this Pascal Candle and what it represents and remember that this child and millions of other children have been welcomed into the household of God with a candle just like the one we will give this child.

May we see that light, and may we be that light, and may we spread the light, to these wonderful children and to the whole world.

10:00am Homily

It’s a story we’ve heard before—Jesus comes to visit the home of Mary and Martha.  Mary sits at Jesus feet, along with the others who came with him, while Martha scurries around fixin’ a spread. She’s running around banging the pots and pans and impatiently asks Jesus to tell Mary to come help her.

Instead of suggesting that Mary help, he turns to Martha and in a voice, reminiscent of the Brady Bunch says “Martha, Martha, Martha.  You are distracted by many things.” Your sister Mary has made a better choice.

Let’s look at this scene a little differently.  It never says that Mary was home when Jesus arrived.  It says that Martha came to greet them.  I think it’s possible that Mary had been traveling with Jesus and the others, teaching and preaching.  That’s mind blowing to begin with, as traditionally women just didn’t do that.

Perhaps, what Jesus is saying to her, is Martha, your sister has become a disciple and a teacher.  Why don’t YOU join us and do the same; you can be a disciple too.  It could be, not a rebuke, but an invitation to discipleship.  It’s an invitation to us all, to join with countless throngs through the ages who have dedicated their lives to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need the Martha’s of the world, those who can organize and get things put together, whose houses are always tidy, meals are on time.  I’m not one of those people—

This is also a story about distraction.  Martha is “distracted by many things”.  I need to look at my life and ask, what am I staying busy doing so that I don’t have to do other things?  It can be as simple as staying busy outdoors, so I don’t have to come in and deal with things that need to be done in my house.

Do I stay busy doing things so that I don’t have to metaphorically, enter my Father’s House (and I’m not talking about a building.)? I’m talking about entering the Gospel life.

We can get so busy in here that we may not get out there!  Out there is where church happens.  Don’t get me wrong, what happens in here is important, but it’s important because of what it equips us to do out there.

Our benediction and the dismissal tell us to GO.

What does the dismissal mean by “loving and serving the Lord”?  Mary and Martha had very different views of what that means, but then it changed.  Jesus invited Martha to go and do what Mary is doing----loving and serving the Lord, not with food, but with real tangible ministry.  What an honor and a privilege it is to be so called.

Being distracted by many things also means the things we worry and fret about, and to which we give mental and emotional energy in our world; and the things we think, like Martha, we HAVE to do.

Someone wrote to me on an ordination card “May you be Mary in a Martha world”.  Might we not need both?

Jesus didn’t tell Martha she “had to” come and follow Mary’s path, but I hope she chose to be a little bit Mary.

We make choices every day; what we will we choose to do? What are our priorities as followers of Jesus?

Let’s look at Jesus invitation to Martha as an invitation to us all. An invitation to Gospel life, to Eucharist. As we come forward to Communion perhaps we might think of ourselves as responding to the invitation to Martha.  To leave our distractions behind and focus on life in the Risen Christ.

Martha, don’t be distracted, come and join us, bring your skills, we need you. What did she choose? What we will choose?

A sermon by the Rev. H. Paul Canady III

Rector of Christ Church, New Bern, NC, on July 14, 2019

http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp10_RCL.html#gsp1

I’m going to be down here (by the Baptismal Font) this morning because we have three small children who will we will formally make a part of the Body of Christ this morning. And much of what I have to say has to do with them and the future we are creating for them. So, I don’t want you to look over and past them when you’re looking towards me. 

But first, let’s talk about Lawyers…

Jesus spent a lot of time around lawyers. Or more, they seemed to spend a lot of time around him. The Gospel writers often use them as foils in the story, agents to help Jesus get his point across. I know some really good people who happen to be lawyers, and I’m willing to bet that you do, too. If you don’t know a good lawyer, I’ll be glad to introduce you to one so you can remember they really do exist. Because in the pages of Scripture, they aren’t always the best characters. In Luke’s Gospel today, one stands up to test Jesus. I did a quick survey of English translations of that first verse, and nearly all of them said “test.” The King James Version says that the lawyer is trying to tempt Jesus. So either way, at this moment, the intent of the question isn’t to gain more knowledge but to catch Jesus in some legal trouble that might aid the Temple leadership in stopping him. 

Like a great teacher, Jesus doesn’t answer the question but turns it back to the one asking. And since he’s a well-learned individual, he knows! And he quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 (Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind) and Leviticus 19:18 (Love your neighbor as yourself). The paring of these two verses is also found in Matthew 22, which leads scholars to think that this theme of loving God and neighbor as co-equal laws was in the Jewish mindset before Jesus began his earthly ministry. The lawyer knew it. Jesus tells him he got the answer right, so what else is there? Love God. Love your neighbor. 

“And who is my neighbor,” the lawyer asks. Luke doesn’t help us with descriptions of facial expressions or tones of voice or any of that. The Common English Bible translates the lawyer’s next move by saying “But the legal expert wanted to prove he was right.” Which begs the question: right about what?!

So Jesus lays out a parable about a Samaritan who helped a traveler who fell into the hands of robbers was left naked and half-dead on the road. It’s a story that even non-Christians know the general premise of. It’s a parable that has given the name for laws intended to protect people who help others and even the name of a chain of campgrounds and RV clubs. The scandal of the story isn’t that a Samaritan would help a Jew, and it’s not that a naked, half-dead Jew would be forced to accept help from a Samaritan. It’s not even that the priest and Levite would pass by on the other side of the road. There are some solid reasons for their behavior, that put the call to love neighbor and serve in the Temple in direct conflict. For all they knew, the traveler was dead and touching him would have rendered them ritually unclean and unable to serve in the Temple for an extended period of time which meant they would not be able to provide for their families during that time. We could have a deeper conversation about what Jesus was trying to do in using the priest and Levite. But not today. If you want to grab coffee sometime and wrestle with that piece of the parable, please call me and let’s do that. I’d love it!

The scandal is that while those of Jesus’ own religious following are wanting to split hairs over who their neighbor is, the Samaritan, someone who Jews looked down on as a general rule,  doesn’t seem to care who it is that needs assistance. And Jesus holds that up as the model behavior. He understands that his neighbor is the one he encounters. He doesn’t pause to ask the man’s lineage or bloodline. He doesn’t give a flip about what country he’s from or how he worships God or what language he speaks or even why was traveling alone along a road known to be dangerous. While Jesus’ own people, at least those in positions of religious leadership, seem to be seeking who they can exclude, the Samaritan, whose people worship the same God as the Hebrew people, pays two days’ wages in advance for the care of the wounded traveler. To be sure, Jesus wasn’t the first rabbi to teach this level of mercy and compassion or even to show it. Ancient Jewish texts reveal many such teachings. I wish that 2,000 years later, we didn’t need to still have these teachings. That’s not the world we live in, but it’s a world we can work to create. 

When Jesus said “which one was the neighbor,” Luke, again, does not tell us what the lawyer’s face or his tone of voice was like when he said, “the one who showed him mercy.” Jesus merely says, “Go and do likewise.” 

We want to think of our neighbors as those who share a street with us or a back yard or whose house we can walk to. But Jesus tells us that we have to broaden our viewpoints. We want to think that our neighbors are those who think like us, pray like us, speak the same language as us. We want to think that our new neighbors will assimilate to being just like us instead of bringing their own experiences and ways of living a faith-filled life. Jesus tells us to think bigger than that. Jesus doesn’t invite us but pushes us to enlarge our vision of the boundaries of the rules of God. If the lawyer knew Leviticus 19:18, he probably knew the rest of that chapter too. It has injunctions against harming the deaf and the blind, honesty in marketplace transactions, and allowing the poor and vulnerable to glean from the edges the fields. That chapter reminds the ancient Hebrews that they, too, were once foreigners in the land of Egypt and that foreigners are to be treated as citizens and not be oppressed. 

We are making three new members of the Body of Christ today. Matthew, Francis, and Virginia are going to live in a world that we create. We are going to place a lot of hope and trust in them as they grow older. But they are counting on their parents, grandparents, godparents, and all of us, you, and the person to your right and your left and in front of you and behind you, to help them take over a world that looks more like the way Jesus would want it to look. A world where we behave like the Samaritan and not like the lawyer, where we see our neighbor both as the person who walks their dog past our house at the same time every day and in the person whose house was lost to a wildfire in California, a world where we understand our neighbor as made in the image of God whether they were born in this country or they come here seeking refuge from violence in their homeland; a world that shows compassion to the most vulnerable whether they are in our own town or being held in inhumane conditions at a detention facility at our Southern border. 

When you have more than enough, you build a bigger table, not a stronger fence. Our job as followers of Jesus is to show our neighbors, all of them, compassion, mercy, and love, whether we want to or not. It’s a tall order, but Jesus doesn’t offer shortcuts. Jesus just offers to walk with us and love us unconditionally as we work to create a better world where all God’s children are also loved unconditionally. 

Keeping in mind Jesus’ answer for us about who our neighbors are and the challenge and opportunity for the world we create for these young people, I invite those being Baptized to come forward with their parents and godparents. 

May God continue to bless Matthew, Francis, and Virginia as they continue to grow into the full stature of Christ. 

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Trinity Sunday June 2019

The Rev. Deacon Lisa Kirby

As I believe, so shall I do

Today is Trinity Sunday but I am not going to stand up here and attempt to explain the Trinity.

John Wesley once wisely said “Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man who can comprehend the triune God. “

Simply put we might say that the Trinity is like H2O---it can be a liquid, a solid, or a gas, but it’s still water—H2O

Our creeds are designed to give an explanation of the Trinity.

I trust we know that the word “Trinity’ does not appear in the Bible.  In fact, the notion of “God in Three Persons” does not appear in Christian writings until the 4th century when the Nicene Creed was written.

BUT, where is the first place in the Bible that we see the three persons of the Trinity acting together?  Genesis. In Genesis God the creator is accompanied by the light and by the winds which blow over the water, so the light of the world and the spirit are present at creation.  As theologian Daniel Migliore says: The creation of the world is the first of the majestic and gracious acts of the Triune God.

Jesus isn’t created in the birth story in Luke, he is only first revealed there.  The Holy Spirit does not come into existence at Pentecost—that is just where she is revealed to us.

The Creeds define the Trinity—look up the Athanasian Creed

On p. 864 in the Prayer Book for the longest explanation.

The Apostles Creed is the “I believe Creed” and we use it in our personal and corporate morning, noon and evening devotions. And at Baptism

The Nicene Creed begins with WE believe and that is repeated, you can guess it, three times. This is the statement of what the Christian Community believes.  

We say these creeds constantly, but my question is ‘so what?’

How do our stated beliefs affect our actions?  If we believe in a God the Creator of Heaven and earth, a creation he declared to be good, do we treat all of God’s creation and creatures as being good and worthy of love?

When we say The Apostles Creed at Baptism, we then renew our Baptismal Covenant which to me is the “therefore” part, the ‘so what’.  We believe this and so we will do that…We will work for justice, freedom and peace, and so on…

I think all creeds should have a “therefore”.  I believe this and so I do that.

When we say the Nicene Creed, it is followed by prayers for “all sorts and conditions” of men.  We pray variously for world leaders, the poor, the sick, the mentally ill, those who are affected by natural disasters, the unemployed, the widow the orphan.  That’s our “therefore”

 If we care about all those we mention in the Prayers of the People, the question is “what are we doing about it?”  Are we standing up for those who have no voice, are we actively helping the poor? Are we advocating for the disenfranchised?

When we say these prayers, are we thinking about what we can do or is it just that we can’t wait for the Peace so we can stretch our legs a little, or ask our friend if he or she wants to go out to lunch after the service, would another friend be available for a committee meeting on Tuesday.

In addition to the formal creeds, which are intended to define the Trinity and the Grace of our loving God we have personal beliefs about life and about our relationship with God that are revealed to us directly and thru scripture.

What are those beliefs? How do they affect our lives?

What if we went home today and began writing a personal creed concerning our beliefs about God, life and the Universe. They’d all be different—Kirbian, Dailian, Canadian creeds.

We would begin by putting at the top of the page the words “I BELIEVE”.  Then we would write down the things we believe in. What do we each believe about creation, mankind, our place in creation?   Even if you can only quote the song “I believe in love” it has significance, and certainly relates to the Trinity which defines the greatest love.

Secondly, having written down what we believe, we will need to acknowledge that those beliefs have implications for how we live day to day. It’s the “so what”?  If all you can put down is “I believe in love”, what are the implications involved in living in a loving manner.

So, after each of our beliefs we will want to put the word: THEREFORE, which answers the question “so what”?

Because our beliefs should determine our actions. What we believe colors how we approach everyday issues in life and also the big societal issues: capital punishment, abortions, the medical and emotional treatment of our returning troops, children at the border,  how we look at homosexuality, the environment, conflicts in our community, in our church and within our own families

it’s a process.  What is revealed to us through scripture and revelation concerning our Triune God and its working in our lives, will not be same tomorrow as it is today. Our responses will not be the same.  Our understanding is evolving and growing because, like the disciples in today’s Gospel, we can’t take it all in at once.

I pray that we are always open to the changing, life affirming revelations of our most loving Triune God, and that we may draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to live in harmony with those revelations, living so that what we profess with our lips, we believe in our hearts and show forth in our lives.

Pentecost and the nearness of God

A sermon by the Rev. H. Paul Canady III

Rector of Christ Church, New Bern, NC on the Pentecost Sunday

June 9, 2019

There was wind and there was flame and there was smoke and strange words being uttered that people could maybe understand and maybe not. Something magnificent was happening and people were confused and bewildered. They had recently seen God do something really amazing, but this? This made no sense whatsoever. The sharpest minds amongst the group may have known that the world, or at least their world, was going to change dramatically, but in all likelihood, they didn’t know how or why. And really, most of the assembled people had no idea what was going on. They would all have to wait until Moses came down from the mountain to hear what exactly happened and what message God had for the people so recently set free from bondage in Egypt.

God’s people, according to the 19th chapter of Exodus, were assembled at the base of Mt. Sinai. Tradition holds that this is the same location where Moses first encountered God in a Burning Bush a number of years back. This time Moses is encountering God to receive the Law, the Torah, God’s expectations and code for faithful living. God knew there were, like most humanity, a people prone to wander and stray, so God spoke to Moses who shared with the people what God would do for them and what God expected of them in return and what would set them apart from other peoples who followed other gods. Among the articles in this code of living, God said, “I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” This is a promise that God reiterates over 25 times in Hebrew Scripture. God even said to them, “Remember this day and celebrate it.”

So the generations to come after that event on Mt. Sinai celebrated the giving of the Law. And they joined that celebration with the spring wheat harvest. Jewish people then, as so many do now, believed that the Torah gives life to the soul, and knew that wheat means bread which helps give life to our bodies.

This Festival became one that Jewish people were supposed to go to Jerusalem for the celebration. It also became known as the Feast of Weeks. It is celebrated 50 days after the first night of Passover. It is also known as the Feast of Pentecost.

And that is why devout Jews from every nation under heaven were in Jerusalem on a day that happened to be 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus. They spoke so many languages because they had dispersed around the known world, some by force several centuries before and others by choice. Some may have moved back to Jerusalem and remembered the language or languages of the places they once lived. Others may have been there for Passover and stayed for Pentecost.

In the same way that the Law came in fire and smoke to Moses, it now comes to this new generation, a generation who have heard directly from the Son of God that to love God and love neighbor are the two most important Laws and everything else flows from there. And this new reality and teaching comes to them in tongues of fire resting on their heads.

Exodus 19, when God begins to give the Law, also talks about God appearing in a might roar of wind, and the opening story of Scripture tells us that the very breath or wind or spirit of God moved over the face of the earth. Spirit, wind, and breath all have the same word in Hebrew: Ruach;  and the Ruach of God brought order out of chaos and life where there was nothing.

Fire and wind are prevalent throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, which are the same stories that those gathered in the Acts 2 scene would have known. When the storyteller tells us that God is using fire and wind then we should realize that God is doing something powerful and new in that moment. The same is true of water, and the rest of this chapter of Acts tells us that about 3,000 people were Baptized that day, which no matter what the method, that’s a lot of water.

Once again, at a pivotal point in this fledgling faith movement, God does what God does best:

-- Show up unexpectedly

-- Show up with familiar symbols and in familiar ways

And this time, the fire and the wind didn’t symbolize a new law and a distant God. Nope. God’s relationship with humanity had developed quite a bit over the past 1300 years or so since Mt. Sinai. This time, it symbolized the renewal of the Law of love and life and that God is very, very present, visible, audible, even touchable. Jesus had been promising this Spirit, the Advocate as he calls it in today’s Gospel reading. He didn’t, of course, say where or when or even how. The Holy Spirit descended on him at his Baptism in the form of a dove. So if the disciples remembered that, maybe that’s what they were looking for.

But this moment called for something as unexpected as a burning bush or a shepherd boy being anointed as king of Israel or even as unexpected as God dwelling among us as a human.

It called for the Holy Spirit, present with God since before time, to show up in the context of an already-planned worship service. Acts doesn’t tell us who was leading this worship or who was even supposed to. But if we needed further evidence of the power of that Spirit, the first sermon given is by Peter, the very disciple best known for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and denying Jesus in his most critical time of need.

This Pentecost moment was a turning point not just because of the dramatics but because the Apostles were starting to understand what it means to take ownership of this Jesus movement and work to carry it forward. It can, if we allow it to, serve as a reminder of the nearness of God in both the powerful and the mundane. It should also remind us that God is literally just a breath away from us at all times. The fabric streamed through the Nave is intended to remind us of that nearness of God, the ability to just reach out and touch, to see the detail of God’s breath in our midst.

Like those first Apostles and converts, we are not meant to stay where we are and bask in that “God is near me” glow. Nope. We are meant to share that Good news in what we say, how we live, and how we respond to the events in our world. To love God and love our neighbor as if it will make a difference in the world because it does!

And like those early apostles and converts, we are called to trust in the Holy Spirit of God to help us see what God is doing in the lives of others so that the testimony of God isn’t just up to us to point out, but for us to witness and be renewed and strengthened in our own faith.

Those in the early church didn’t find life with the Holy Spirit to be all Sunshine and Roses. And Jesus never promised that. In fact, they found quite the opposite of both sunshine and roses. They were jailed, beaten, ridiculed, and ostracized by those outside their movement. They even found themselves with plenty to disagree about within their own ranks.

But they relied, as we all should, on the nearness of God for strength, for endurance, for the ability to see the next step in the journey of God’s salvation for all people.

God gave the first law to Moses on Mt. Sinai in the midst of fire and smoke and wind. It was a law that promised God’s protection and closeness as the Israelites made their way to the land long promised them. And though far from perfect, God’s people more often than not trusted God to care for them.

In the Pentecost moment after Jesus’s Ascension, the Holy Spirit comes in fire and wind to empower, embolden, and enlighten God’s people to line into the message of Jesus’ life and witness, most especially to love God and neighbor. Because we cannot love one without the other. And for those who put their trust in that Spirit, the movement started by Jesus grew and grew. That moment changed the world, and we are all here because of it.

So what is our fire and our wind? The Holy Spirit appeared in that Pentecost moment and hasn’t stopped leading and speaking ever since. What is God trying to get us pay attention to? What of the teachings of Jesus and of God’s faithfulness that needs to be renewed and reminded in our lives? In our community? In our world? How do we experience, witness, and share the very nearness of God which can and does empower us to change the world?

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