Forget the church?

A sermon preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, Florida

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Delray Beach, Florida

3 Easter – Lectionary Year B (RCL) – April 21/22, 2012

Acts 3:12 – 19; Ps. 4; Luke 24:36b – 48

Preacher:  The Rev. Canon William H. Stokes, Rector

Forget the church?

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."  They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.  He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  (Luke 24:36 – 38).

 

            “Forget the church, follow Jesus!”  Those disquieting words were on the cover of the April 2 issue of Newsweek Magazine.  Anyone see or read it? 

Inside the issue was a provocative essay by Andrew Sullivan, British self-described conservative who is the former editor of The New Republic and current author and editor of the blog The Dish.  The Dish, which Sullivan describes as “biased and balanced,” is featured on The Daily Beast website, a partner of Newsweek.[1] 

Sullivan takes Thomas Jefferson and his famous Jefferson Bible, which is currently on exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, as his point of departure.[2]  As Sullivan reports, Jefferson created his Bible himself taking a razor to traditional Bibles.   “Painstakingly removing those passages he thought reflected the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Jefferson literally cut and pasted them into a slimmer, different New Testament, and left behind the remnants.”[3] “What did he edit out?”[4]

Sullivan writes, “He removed what he felt were the ‘misconceptions’ of Jesus followers, ‘expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves.”[5]  Sullivan says that it wasn’t hard for Jefferson.  “[Jefferson] described the difference between the real Jesus and the evangelists’ embellishments as ‘diamonds’ in a ‘dunghill,’ glittering as “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man…”[6]  Sullivan states, “this pure, precious moral teaching was his religious legacy.”[7]  Sullivan quotes Jefferson as asserting, “I am a real Christian…That is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.”[8]

            “What were those doctrines?” Sullivan asks rhetorically, answering, “Not the supernatural claims that, fused with politics and power, gave successive generations wars, inquisitions, programs, reformations and counterreformations.  Jesus’ doctrines were the practical commandments, the truly radical ideas that immediately leap out in the simple stories he told and which he exemplified in everything he did. Not simply love one another, but love your enemy and forgive those who harm you; give up all material wealth; love the ineffable Being behind all things, and know that this Being is actually your truest Father, in whose image you were made.”[9] 

Sullivan continues, writing, “Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection – and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday – Jefferson’s point is crucially important.  Because it was Jesus’ point.  What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand?...If we return to what Jesus actually  asked us to do and be – rather than the unknowable intricacies of what we believe he was – he actually emerges more powerfully and more purely.”[10]

Disregarding the obvious contradiction of Jefferson definition of “being a Christian” and the fact of his having been a slaveholder and someone who never wealthy person who never gave up his material wealth, it is in this last paragraph that Sullivan’s essay reveals the difficulty and conundrums of both his and Jefferson’s project.  Determining what sayings of Jesus have not been affected in transmission by one of the four evangelists we know as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all of whom came decades after Jesus, is enormously difficult and challenging.  Biblical scholars and critics have been wrestling with this question since the Enlightenment and before.[11]  Discovering the “real Jesus” or what that term “the real Jesus” even means is no easy task and especially if he is divorced from such key doctrines as the incarnation and the resurrection.

 In the remainder of his essay, Sullivan turns his eye to what he labels “the crisis of the church,”[12] offering a scathing critique of both the Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy and the current expressions of  Evangelical Protestantism which have become so dominant in the United States.[13]  Interestingly, Sullivan ignores traditional mainline churches, like the Episcopal Church, noting in passing, “For their part, the mainline Protestant churches, which long promoted religious moderation, have rapidly declined in the past 50 years.”[14]  

This past Thursday, a rejoinder piece to Sullivan’s essay titled “Returning to the Sermon on the Mount” was published in the on-line Opinionator section of the New York Times.[15] It was by regular Opinionator columnist Gary Gutting, Chairperson of Philosophy at Notre Dame. 

Gutting observes that Sullivan’s idea of following the moral code of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “freed from dubious theology and corrupting politics that have plagued the history of the institutional church,” is “widely attractive.”[16]   But Gutting also points out the challenges of trying to accomplish this.  “What is this code [of Jesus]?” he asks.[17]   

“There is no doubt,” Gutting writes, “that the core message is love.” “But what does it mean to love someone?” he asks provocatively and appropriately.[18]  He follows up by citing Thomas Aquinas, quoting Aristotle, “to love is to will good for someone; that is, to do what we can, to see that a person has a good life.”[19]   As philosophers are want to do, he then he asks another question, “But what is the good life?”[20]  “We might, thinking of the core message of Jesus, say that it’s a life of loving others.’  “But this response,” Gutting writes, “just takes us in a circle. Jesus tells us that to lead a good life we should love one another, but loving one another requires helping one another lead good lives.  Unless we first know what it is to lead a good life, Jesus’ law of love gives us little guidance in how to live.”[21]

“The Sermon on the Mount…does not offer a clear view of what makes for a good life…” he observes, then continues, “Many seem to think Jesus is saying little more than be nice to everybody.  Others see a call to heroic life of total non-resistance or self-sacrifice.  Still others hear him as requiring little more than an enhanced version of The Ten Commandments (e.g. avoiding not only murder, but also anger, not only adultery, but also lustful desires).”[22]

            “Almost all Christians ignore many of the things Jesus said on the Mount,” Gutting writes.  “Who literally takes no thought for their lives or for tomorrow?  Who never resists evil?  Who gives to anyone who asks?  Who says, ‘Hit me again’ to an unjust attack?’  “There may be ways of integrating such injunctions into our morality without reducing them to banalities,” he notes, “but the bare text of Jesus’ sermon doesn’t tell us how to do this.”[23]

            He later observes, “None of this is to say that the Sermon on the Mount is not a source of profound moral truth.”  “But,” he states, “this truth is accessible only by reading the sermon in light of 2,000 years of interpretation and development.  Much of the history of Christianity consists of trying to develop a viable way of life from Jesus’ puzzling sayings.  These efforts, moreover, had to go far beyond interpreting Jesus’ words in their own terms.  Augustine and Aquinas, for example, used ideas from Plato, Aristotle and other pre-Christian thinkers to help them understand the ‘law of love.’”[24]

Returning to Sullivan, Gutting observes, “Sullivan is right that Christian churches, as fallible human institutions, have often been obstacles to fruitful understanding of Christ’s moral message.”  “But, he writes, “these churches have also been central in sustaining the traditions of thought and practice that transformed Jesus’ passionate but enigmatic teachings into coherent and fruitful moral visions.  They have been the air – however polluted – that has fed the fire of his message.”[25]

            Gutting concludes, “Read alone, the Sermon on the Mount will either confuse or merely reinforce the moral prejudices we bring to it.  To profit from its wisdom we need to understand it through the traditions of thought and practice within or informed by Christianity.  This does not require membership in any church,” he adds, “but it does require immersion in the culture and history of the Christian world.  In this sense, to forget the church, is to forget Jesus.”[26]

            Two essays, both timely…both provocative…both providing lots of grist for the mill and food for thought…Needless to say, I appreciated the challenge of Sullivan’s critique, but, as you might expect, I land with Gutting and his conclusion.

            In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus appears to the disciples who are gathered together, presumably in the same fear-filled locked room in which we saw them last week in John’s Gospel (See John 20:19).  It is one of the stories and scenes that was inconvenient and uncomfortable for Thomas Jefferson and which he excised from his Bible.  

The gathered disciples are being debriefed by two of their number who had just had an encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus (See Luke 24:13 – 35).  While they were they were talking, Jesus stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you”(Luke 24:36).  The text tells us, “They were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37).

 There is something compelling about the Christian narrative which doesn’t sugarcoat or gloss over the fear of these disciples…After all, the portrayal could have been cleaned up, made them look much more faithful, much more believing.  But the text doesn’t shield them or sugar coat the portrayal…It preserves their fear and it preserves their doubt…

In fact, the text insists on their doubt…While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"  They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  and he took it and ate in their presence (Luke 24:41– 43).   With its vignette about Jesus eating a piece of fish, The Oxford Bible Commentary acknowledges that Luke’s account is the most “unashamedly materialistic” of all the resurrection appearances.[27]  It was likely shaped to counter evolving accounts of Easter, especially in Gnostic circles, that suggested the resurrection was merely a vision or a spiritual experience that was absent the “real Jesus,” however you want to grapple with that term.

Today’s gospel reading is about mysterious, enigmatic, things:  the proclamation of the resurrection itself;  the meaning of Jesus’ messiahship; the insistence on his suffering and dying; the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins…  Even those disciples needed continuing explanation, continuing conversation with Jesus; needed Jesus to unfold the scriptures for them. That would not end. 

Jesus would promise the gift of the Holy Spirit so that his message and presence and teaching could continue to be mediated to them and to those who would come after them…At times the Church has been true to the Holy Spirit and done wondrous and sublime things, produced saints, Francis of Assisi (who Sullivan makes reference to in his article[28]), Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu…At other times, it has been sinful and disobedient and been guilty of great sin…

I love Christ and his Church…The Church has nurtured me in my awareness, love and understanding of God…In many ways, I was raised by the Church…The community of parish churches I have been associated with from the time I was a child has held me in its arms all my life, from Barbara Trippel who taught me in Sunday School as a little boy at St. Luke’s Church in Forest Hills, to the people of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Delray Beach today…

Without the Church and its role as the repository, the glorious repository, of the story of God in Christ, as a repository of the sacraments, as a repository of the faith, I do not believe I would know or love Christ…

            To be sure, I am not uncritical of the Church, nor am I naive about its history… As I have said already, the Church has been guilty of great evils and great sins throughout its history, and this does continue, as Sullivan made clear in his article… We need to always challenge the church and hold it accountable to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to challenge ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Church, which is, after all, made up of all of us…The Church is always about the business of reformation and will be until the end of time. 

I am also critical in my approach to the scriptures.  A historical/critical approach to the Scriptures has been a gift to us all since the Enlightenment.  I’m thankful that I am part of a church that places a high premium on reason and critical thought. 

But again, I love Christ and his Church.  The Church provides what to me are essentials for living:  an encounter and experience of the living, risen Christ and an awareness of my story as a Christian.  The church has given me the disciplines and rhythm for regularly engaging in the Christian life which I suspect I might not maintain without the Church’s cycle of worship, prayer and the liturgical year.

            The Church has always provided me with a rich expression of deep community…the generations gathered, praying for and caring for one another…We are, as I have often pointed out before, the only place in society where four generations regularly interact with one another...And there is deep need, and deep hunger, in our culture today for genuine, caring community…

            Through its focus on mission and outreach, the Church provides me with means by which I can try to live out the command of Jesus to love – to care for others – to try and help others have and lead a “good life.”  And so, at St. Paul’s, through Paul’s Place, our after-school program, very at-risk children and youth are given a leg up in a society where the deck is stacked against them. Families who are homeless are provided with shelter and food…A village is being built in Bondeau, Haiti and children are being educated and fed. 

            Today, we are going to commission three new Stephen Ministers…These are people who have given up 50 hours of their lives in the past few months to undergo training in how to offer distinctively Christian care to fellow-parishioners and others who are hurting or grieving…They will sacrifice more of themselves as they give time to meet with those who have lost a loved one; or who are terminally ill, who have lost a job, or divorced, or who are going through some other crisis which life inevitably throws at us…

Why does this Church do this? Why does any Church do these things?  Because Jesus commanded us to love and in our 2000 years of wrestling with his teaching and trying to live it out, we believe these things are important, just as we believe our life together as Church is important, even when the Church screws up, as we all screw up in our lives…But then, this is part of Jesus’ core teaching, isn’t it?

Repentance, and forgiveness of sins is to be preached in my name, Jesus said to those disciples so long ago and says to us today (Luke 24: 47).  God in Christ is always calling us to turn again to him, to turn again to him anew….”You’re not quite there yet,” he always seems to be saying to us, as the Church, and as individuals…

“Keep listening to me….Keep reading what I said and what others think I said…Keep wrestling with it all….Keep trying to figure it out…More important, keep striving to live the life I commanded you to live, my kind of life; the life of love, sacrifice and service…I know you can do it…Remember, you need one another, and you need me…Oh, and remember that promise I made to you…Thomas Jefferson didn’t include it in his Bible, but I said it…

“I am with you always, even to the end of the ages” (Matthew 28:20)…You can count on that!”

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[1]  See website at http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/ .  Biographical information from Wikipedia “Andrew Sullivan.”

[2]  Sullivan, Andrew  Christianity in Crisis, April 2, 2012 found on the Daily Beast website at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/01/andrew-sullivan-christianity-in-crisis.html

[3]   Sullivan – printer friendly edition (pfe) – p.  1

[4]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1.

[5]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1.

[6]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1.

[7]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1.

[8]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1.

[9]   Sullivan (pfe) p. 1 – 2.

[10]  Sullivan (pfe)  p. 2. 

[11]  The quest for the “historical Jesus” was an Enlightenment project of the 18^th century and began in earnest with Hermann Samuel  Reimarus, a German philosopher and Deist.  Albert Schweitzer is a significant figure in detaling the quest in his book The Quest for the Historical Jesus published in 1906.  His modern succesors are members of the so-called “Jesus Seminar” founded in 1985 by scholar Robert Funk and including biblical luminaries John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg.   The Jesus Seminar has also been the object of scholarly criticism for its “reductionist” tendencies, tendencies exhibited by Jefferson  and his Jefferson Bible.  This was well artcilulated by Roman Catholic layman and author Gary Willis who wrote,  “This is the new fundamentalism.  It believes in the literal sense of the Bible—it just reduces to what it can take as literal quotation from Jesus. Though some have called the Jesus Seminarists radical, they are actually very conservative. They tame the real radical, Jesus, cutting him down to their own size...the sayings that meet with the Seminar's approval were preserved by the Christian communities whose contribution is discounted.  Jesus as a person does not exist outside of the gospels, and the only reason he exists there is because of their authors' faith in the Resurrection. Trying to find a construct, ‘the historical Jesus,’ is not like finding diamonds in a dunghill, but like finding New York City at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.”  (from Willis, Gary What Jesus Meant, New York: Viking Press, 2006) p. xxv – xxvi – quoted in Wikipedia “The Jesus Seminar”). 

[12] Sullivan (pfe) p. 3. 

[13] Sullivan (pfe)  p. 3. 

[14] Sullivan (pfe)  p. 3.  For a thorough, thoughtful and well-research treatment of this decline and theory for the reasons behind it  see Putnam, Robert D. and Campbell, David E. American Grace:  How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York, London, etc:  Simon & Schuster, 2010).   

[15]  See Gutting, Gary “Returning to the Sermon on the Mount”, April19, 2012 Opinionator – The New York Times at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/returning-to-the-sermon-on-the-mount/ 

[16]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[17]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[18]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[19]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[20]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[21]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 1.

[22]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 2.

[23]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 2.

[24]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 2.

[25]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 2 - 3.

[26]  Gutting (pfe)  p. 3. 

[27]   In the oral delivery of this sermon I mispoke and attributed this quote to Fred Craddock.  It was actually written in The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2001). P. 958.  

[28]  Sullivan (pfe) p. 4 ff. 

The cloak of Mary

A sermon preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, Florida

4 Advent – Year B – December 17/18, 2011

2 Samuel 7:1 – 11,16;  Luke 1:26 – 38

Preacher:  The Reverend  Canon William H. Stokes, Rector

The Cloak of Mary

“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  Luke 1:28

            Three years ago, just days before Thanksgiving, the 13 year-old daughter of one of Susan’s cousins died unexpectedly and tragically.  In my 20 years of pastoral ministry, I have come to understand that there is no greater grief than the grief of a parent who experiences the death of a child; no matter what age that death occurs….It is doubly grievous when the child is young.  

            It is unclear whether Susan’s cousin’s child took her own life or whether a dangerous behavior went wrong and ended disastrously. Sadly, in either circumstance, this is not an uncommon occurrence in our society. 

            It needs to be said to our young people, and especially those in their teen-years, life is precious; you are precious.  You must be careful.  Don’t do reckless things.  It may seem to you, you are immortal, indestructible; as though nothing can hurt or harm you; but it can.  There is no reset button in life.  

            As adults we need to be reminded:  Too often, our young people are hurting and especially teenagers; we must pay careful attention to them, be in caring conversations with them; we must look carefully at what they are doing, how they interact with their friends and classmates, what they are doing on-line.  Too often in today’s world they are isolated and alone, disconnected, even when they are connected on-line. Parents, grandparents, other caring adults, if you think something is wrong in the life of a young adult you know, go with your instincts, follow-up on it.  Don’t ignore it. We must meddle in their lives.  

            I’m not suggesting that there was any fault or negligence in the instance of Susan’s cousin’s child….They were a dedicated, loving family and very conscientious parents.  It’s just that in this past year, I’ve had to minister to the families and friends of two young men who died from self-inflicted injuries.  I am deeply concerned about the state of our young people.  Suicide is the 3^rd leading cause of death in the United States for people age 15 – 24.   

            The daughter of Susan’s cousin was a beautiful child and her parents adored her.  She was their miracle child.  She was conceived after her parents had been told they would be unable to have children.  Susan and I went up to New York for the wake and the funeral to be with them, to love them and suffer with them, to join in their grief. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep,” St. Paul enjoins us.  We went to weep.  The mother of the 13 year old girl, Susan’s cousin, had been a bridesmaid at our wedding. 

            It was, as you can imagine, a heartrending experience…We celebrated the life of this child, this dancer, who loved pets and her friends, and above all, her family.  We celebrated her life and we grieved her tragic death.  This is a very devout and faithful Roman Catholic family.  The child had attended Catholic school.  The funeral mass was held at the church connected to the school.  All her classmates attended.  During the mass, an essay she had written just weeks before was read.  It was about Christmas and family and how vitally important being with family at Christmas was to her and how much she loved them. 

            At the luncheon following the service, another of Susan’s cousins sat with us; the child’s aunt; the mother’s older sister.  We have been close over the years.  She shared with us some of the excruciating experiences of the previous days.  The child had been discovered in critical condition and had been taken to the hospital and placed on life-support in an ICU.  It soon became clear that she would not recover.  After a couple of days and countless prayers, when all hope for a miracle had been exhausted, the decision had to be made to remove her from life support.  It was an anguishing decision only her parents could make.  They were not alone, however.

            This older sister telling us the story and her other sister were present in the ICU, standing on by the side of their younger sister, the child’s mother, ….They were holding onto her, holding her up as she looked at her daughter lying in the bed with tubes all over the place and a machine breathing for her.  “How am I going to do this? the grief stricken mother sobbed aloud….Her sister hugged her tightly and said to her, “You’re going to wrap yourself in the cloak of Mary.”  “You’re going to wrap yourself in the cloak of Mary...”  

            It was a sensitive, faithful, perfect evocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And, being a very faithful person herself, her younger sister knew precisely what she meant and did precisely that:  She wrapped herself in the cloak of Mary; and she and her husband made the awful, painful, heart-breaking decisions they had to make and released their daughter to the arms and loving mercy of God.

           

            Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee;

            Blessed are thou among women; and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

            Holy Mary, mother of God; pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,

            It is Advent…It is Mary’s season; a season marked by joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ; but joy that is bittersweet….We know the destiny of this woman.  We know the destiny of her child.  “Mary,” from the Hebrew, Marai or Miriam -- the name means “bittersweet,” “grieved,” or “sorrowful.” It is a fitting name for this woman, the mother of our Lord…

            For many, and especially for those who are not Roman Catholic, Mary is an enigmatic figure…To be sure, most recognize her as the mother of Jesus and, at least, give her credit for that.  Many are moved by portrayals of her in masterpieces down through the ages – Raphael, Correggio; Michelangelo – but what place does she have in our faith?   How does she figure in our piety? 

            For most of its history, Protestantism has relegated Mary to a back seat and left her there.  Although the early reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin for example,  held very positive views Mary, revered her; later Protestantism felt too much unbiblical superstition, even cultism, had attached to Mary.  Consequently, Mary was pushed into the background; brought out twice a year, of necessity; to give birth to our Lord; and to grieve over him at his death.  Other than that, generally speaking, in the Protestant world it was better not to speak of her (though the experience in Anglicanism has been somewhat different since the 19^th century and the high- church Oxford Movement).  

            What are we to make of Mary today?  What is our position as a church with respect to Mary?  How should she fit into our beliefs and personal religious practices and piety? 

            In 2004, the second Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, known as ARCIC  II, the body charged with the responsibility of leading our two churches in the dialogue toward unity, issued a document often referred to as The Seattle Statement.  The actual title is “Mary – Grace and Hope in Christ.”[1]  This is an agreed statement about what the two churches hold in common about Mary.  It also makes clear where there are still differences and disagreements.  It’s a fascinating, well-thought out and very helpful 62 page document.  I commend it to you.  You can access it on-line. 

            In the Preface to the document, the Co-Chairmen of ARCIC II, Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnely of Perth, Primate of Australia and Roman Catholic Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett of Seattle write:  “Our Agreed Statement concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary as pattern of grace and hope is a powerful reflection of our efforts to seek out what we hold in common and celebrates important aspects of our common heritage. Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, stands before us as an exemplar of faithful obedience, and her "Be it to me according to your word" is the grace-filled response each of us is called to make to God, both personally and communally, as the Church, the body of Christ.[2]

            In this opening statement, the two archbishops make a clear allusion to the story of the Annunciation to Mary, our Gospel reading for today.[3]  It is a powerful story which clearly brings Mary to center stage….She is an essential actor in this drama with God….She is integral to the Incarnation – to God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ.  We cannot tell the story of the Incarnation, nor even assert the doctrine, without her.  This opening chapter of Luke’s Gospel brings her forth, puts her in center-stage, and we see at the outset that she is a remarkable; indeed a blessed, woman…

            "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." (Lk 1:28).  The word that is rendered “Greetings” in our text is actually the Greek word “Rejoice!”  Joy is not her first reaction.  The text tells us, she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.     

            The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Lk. 1:30)  This is hardly reassuring....It must be noted that in the Bible, those who find favor with God often find themselves in overwhelming and threatening circumstances.[4]  Mary’s story will turn out no differently….

            “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."(Lk. 1:31–33) 

            In that moment, Mary could not possibly have imagined the kind of king her son would be... This son of hers would be raised to greatness, but it was greatness by way of the cross.... She would earn her name, “Bitterness,”  “Sorrow,”  “Grieved.”

            There is great risk and great cost at being favored of God.....There is great risk and great cost to Mary in giving birth to Christ. To give birth to Jesus is to risk love, sacrificial love - self-giving love for the sake of others, for the sake of the world....Loving always entails risk....Divine loving entails even greater risk still....

            Whether or not she was aware of the price she would have to pay when she said yes to God, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.”  (Lk. 1:38)  Mary took that risk and paid the price.....Mary deserves, demands, our reverence, respect and more….

            The Seattle Statement produced by the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission states, “Among all the saints, Mary takes her place as Theotókos [God-bearer]: alive in Christ, she abides [please note the present tense], with the one she bore still 'highly favoured' in the communion of grace and hope, the exemplar of redeemed humanity, an icon of the Church. Consequently she is believed to exercise a distinctive ministry of assisting others through her active prayer”[5] ] Again, please note the present tense].

            The statement continues, “Many [Christians]…experience a sense of empathy and solidarity with Mary, especially at key points when the account of her life echoes theirs, for example the acceptance of vocation, the scandal of her pregnancy, the improvised surroundings of her labour, giving birth, and fleeing as a refugee. Portrayals of Mary standing at the foot of the cross, and the traditional portrayal of her receiving the crucified body of Jesus (the Pietà), evoke the particular suffering of a mother at the death of her child. Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike are drawn to the mother of Christ, as a figure of tenderness and compassion.[6]

            “You’re going to wrap yourself in the cloak of Mary,” Susan’s cousin said to her young sister, grieving mother…It was beautiful and prayerful and perfect; in full keeping with the empathy and solidarity referred to in The Seattle Statement. 

             So much in our culture’s observance of Christmas is superficial and artificial…Too often, the power and poignancy of the Christmas story, the reality and truths of the Incarnation, become diluted, cheapened and robbed of their power to speak to the very depths of our souls; to reach into us and touch our hearts; to shed light into those deepest places of darkness and despair that yearn for the saving Word of God…

            On this 4^th Sunday of Advent, we reflect on the powerful images of Annunciation….We are invited to wrap ourselves in the cloak of Mary; no matter what our circumstance this day -- joy or sorrow; to allow the seed of God’s Word, Jesus Christ, to be conceived in our hearts and in the wombs of our souls anew and to join our voices with Mary, the ever-blessed one, in saying “Yes….Here am I the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word” and with Mary, to sing out this Christmas, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”  

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[1]   Mary:  Grace and Hope in Christ  also known as “The Seattle Statement” was prepared by the Second Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC II) and released on The Feast of the Presentation – February 2, 2004.  The full version of the definitive text can be found on-line at http://www.aco.org/ministry/ecumenical/dialogues/catholic/arcic/docs/pdf/mary_definitive_text.pdf

[2]   Mary:  Grace and Hope in Christ – The Seattle Statement  p. 2

[3]   Luke 1:26 ff.

[4]   The examples of Moses, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul are a few examples.

[5]   Mary:  Grace and Hope in Christ p. 53

[6]   Mary:  Grace and Hope in Christ p. 53

Extry, extry read all about it!

A sermon preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, Florida

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Delray Beach, Florida

2 Advent – Year B (RCL) – December 3 – 4, 2011

Isaiah 40: 1- 11; Ps. 85: 1 – 2, 8 – 13; Mark 1:1 – 8

Preacher:  The Rev. Canon William H. Stokes, Rector

“Extry, extry, read all about it…” 

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!’”  Mark: 1: 2

            Extry, extry, read all about it… I can picture newsboys in the 1920s, 30s and 40s on New York street corners hawking the latest edition of The Herald Tribune, The New York Times or The Daily Post to passersby as they announce the day’s headline stories….From that ominous day in October 1929:  Extry, extry read all about it….Stocks slump $14,000,000,000 in Nation-wide stampede to unload…Bankers to Support Market Today![1]

            Or how about this one from almost exactly 70 years ago, December 7, 1941: Extry, extry. read all about it… Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor – President to Address Congress.[2] They’re haunting, aren’t they? I have images of them; those newsboys, I can hear them, see them, calling out those headlines.  I have seen enough movies and newsreels; it’s a vivid image for me. 

            Of course, the news these newsboy heralds cried out about was usually bad news – the stock market crash; the Hindenburg disaster; Pearl Harbor… Some things don’t seem to change…although…

           

The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophet Isaiah:  “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight!”(Mark 1:1 – 3).

           

            Today, both of our readings, the reading from Isaiah and the Gospel reading from Mark, are about heralds and news, Good News…In both instances, the news delivered was news people longed to hear;  yearned for….It was life-giving news!

            Imagine you are a Jew from Judah…You are 65 years old….It is the year 540 B.C. or so….47 years ago, when you were 18, you lived in Jerusalem….You were from a well-to-do family; trades people, perhaps….Life was good, though it wasn’t easy….Your country was small and had lived under oppression for centuries – first the Egyptians, then the Assyria.

            In 612 B.C. the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians and a struggle resulted between the Babylonians and Egypt.  Judah, your beloved country, was caught in the middle…In 605, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, defeated Neco of Egypt way up in the north, at the battle of Charcemish, in Syria….Judah came under Babylon’s control….Then King Hezekiah, your king, did something stupid, rash – he rebelled against Babylon and its king….The reaction was swift and brutal. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, laid siege to Jerusalem and, in 587 B.C., destroyed the city, killing many of its inhabitants; burning many of its buildings; destroying the great Temple that had been built by Solomon.  You had been fighting, but were captured.

            The Babylonians forced you from your home, from your land, forced you on a long march to the north, through parched rock-hills and deserts – the long, barren way between Judah and Babylon.  You were settled in a ghetto and forced into labor. Each day, every day, you slog out your existence in this foreign land of Babylon…You and your people, your fellow exiles have thought long and hard about your relationship with God and what led to this; about how you ended up this way….After all, you were supposed to be God’s chosen people. 

            As you and your fellow Jews read the sacred scriptures, the Torah, and especially the confrontational words of some of the ancient prophets, words which had been carried into exile with your community, you and your people realize you had not been faithful to God for decades, even centuries. 

            Again and again, God had called you and your people into holiness and righteousness but, you had constantly turned away from him.[3]  Through the prophets, God demanded compassion, care and justice for one another; and especially for the most vulnerable, the poor, the sick, the aged, widows, orphans.[4]  Instead of compassion, care and justice, there was greed among the people in Judah and Israel; selfishness, corruption and callousness….There was disdain for the weak, for the poor.[5]  People forgot about one another….They also forgot about God; forgot about God’s ways….God receded into the background; only brought out for the occasional feast or celebration, and then only nominally.[6]

            The teachers, the rabbis in exile with you, had concluded that because of all of this, God had turned his back on Judah and your beloved Jerusalem.  God had turned his back on your people, on you; had allowed you to be delivered into the hands of your enemies as punishment.[7]  Your instincts tell you they are probably right and you and your people wonder, “How long, O Lord?  How long will the term of this punishment last?  How much longer will we have to endure this oppression?”

             One day, you are gathered with the faithful for prayers….Yes, you have questions, doubts, but you still gather with the synagogue; still listen to the sacred writings; still say your prayers….One of your number, a known prophet, [8] who had carried on the tradition of Isaiah of old[9], speaks out to the assembly….He had had a vision; the Lord had spoken to him in a dream…Hear his words:

“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:1 – 3).

 The return home…to Jerusalem….God will make the way…You feel the hope rising in your heart….Can it be?

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 40:4 – 5).  

           

The voice speaks to the people through the prophet:

 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion…Be a herald…Be a herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" (Isaiah 40:9).  

            Shout it out!  Announce my presence, announce my return from the mountain top! See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.   He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep (Isaiah 40: 10 – 11).   

            Imagine you are that one in exile; who has lived under the yoke of oppression in a foreign land for 47 years… This is the news you have been waiting for yearned for, ached for, it is life giving news to you in exile; you sob in bittersweet joy.  The day of deliverance is at hand…You long for home.

            Just so you know, the  prophet’s words were fulfilled….In 539 BC, Babylon was defeated by the Persians…Not too long after that, Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews, the exiles of Judah to return to their homeland; to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.  Can you imagine being among those exiles, being part of that group to return home…The prophet heralded Good News indeed!  Éxtry, extry read all about it!

            There is more to this story:  It appears, at least to us who are Christian, that Isaiah of the Exile’s prophetic words were fulfilled in more than one way….We glean this from today’s Gospel reading:

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!'" (Mark 1:1 – 3).

Mark is a herald speaking of a herald.  What do I mean by that?

           

            Mark, the author of the oldest of our canonical Gospels, has something important to say, Good News to offer…. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…. (Mark 1:1) He is a herald, a newsboy, with a Gospel, Good News message….It is the Gospel, Good News message about Jesus Christ and his kingdom and, like the Isaiah whom he quotes, he knows he is speaking to people in exile.

            It’s not the same kind of exile as that which was experienced by the Jews in Babylon….It’s more of a spiritual exile….It is, perhaps, the exile of Jewish Christians in Palestine, feeling the direct threat of the Roman empire just before the fall of Jerusalem and the subsequent destruction of the Temple, painfully echoing the destruction nearly 600 years earlier by the Babylonians.[10]  It is, perhaps, the exile the Gentile Christian minority in Rome experiencing the persecution and cruelty of Emperor Nero.[11]  Yes, in both instances, the hearers of Mark’s Gospel are exiles.  They are isolated, alienated and oppressed….They are anxious and fearful about much:  violence, brutality and persecution; wars and rumors of wars; poverty, famine, disaster and disease….They are human, just as human as we are… They often wonder where God is, what God is doing…..

            That’s’ certainly how those Jews felt who went down to the Jordan River to hear the piercing message of that wily preacher - prophet John the Baptist who all four Gospels link with Isaiah of the exile.[12]  For Mark, for the Church, John the Baptist, with his rough clothing and strange diet, with his intense, wild personality, has come to prepare the way….He also is a herald; a newsboy; a mouthpiece crying out God’s message of deliverance to people who are suffering; who are hurting; who are broken and sinful; who are exiles.  John sets the stage for deliverance, just as Isaiah of the exile had set the stage for deliverance 500 plus years before.   Extry, extry, read all about it….

            Now here’s something remarkable….The voices of these heralds – Isaiah, John the Baptist, the writer of the Gospel of Mark -- are sounding forth once again…They are sounding forth once again to people who are suffering; to people who are in exile, too often lonely, isolated, alienated and afraid. 

            They are sounding forth to people who, too often, anesthetize themselves with stuff or alcohol, sex or drugs; to the young person who is wasting his or her life playing video-games, living in a virtual world instead of the real world; to the teenage girl who cries alone in the bathroom because every time she looks in the mirror she doesn’t see Kate Middleton or Rihanna…These words are sounding forth to the middle-schooler being bullied; to the 50 year old whose unemployment has run out and who has to decide whether to buy food or pay the electric bill; they are sounding forth to the mother and father of two who are in foreclosure; to the 75 year-old just diagnosed with cancer; they are sounding forth to the mother whose 20 year old child has just died in an auto wreck; they are sounding forth to the family of a father killed when he walked in on a burglary….

            The words of these heralds are sounding forth to us, each and every one of us, who sit so often in darkness, who, all too often, have become so accustomed to this darkness we don’t even know we are sitting in it….We are “strangers in a strange land” to quote Robert Heinlein’s classic title?  Too often lonely, isolated, anxious, oppressed, afraid – We are exiles.

            But thanks be to God, the heralds’ words sound forth again calling us, inviting us, urging us, to come out of the darkness and into the light:  Comfort, comfort my people, says your God ….  The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God….As it is written in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”  

            Yes, this Good News of Advent, is addressed to us who are the exiles in this world…

            There is one more thing….and is vitally important…We are called to be heralds of this news to others…. “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of Christ” we are asked in the Baptismal Covenant (1979 Book of Common Prayer, page 305). 

            We are called to be Isaiah of the exile saying to others, Comfort, comfort my people….   We are called to be John the Baptist telling those whom we meet who are hurting; telling those who we love who are fellow exiles with us, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  We are called to be Mark proclaiming the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God this Advent season… Extry, extry, read all about it!  It is news worth telling….It is Good News indeed!

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[1]   The New York Times, October 29, 1929

[2]   From The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) December 8, 1941 (slightly modified) – The original headline read:  “Japan Declares War on U.S. – Roosevelt Will Address Congress Session Today”

[3]   See Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:26; Deut 7:6;; 14:2; Jer 2:3; Is. 4:3 

[4]   See Deut.. 16:19; Is. 1:17, Micah 6:8

[5]   See Ps. 10:2; 12:5; 109:16  Is. 3:13; 10:2, 32:6-7; Amos 4:1;5:11-12; 8:4 – 7

[6]   See Jer. 2:32; 3:21;13:25; Hos. 2:13; 8:14

[7]   See Kings 24 – 25; Jer. 7:21 – 34

[8]   The reference to this newer, “known prophet” is to the person Biblical scholarship believes is responsible for most of the material in Isaiah 40 – 55 and has designated “Second Isaiah” or “Deutero-Isaiah” or “Isaiah of the Exile.”  It is clearly a strand of tradition that is generally distinct from the material found in Isaiah 1 – 39.

[9]  The  reference to “Isaiah of old” is to the original Isaiah, son of Amoz, an 8^th century B.C. prophet in Judah to whom material in Isaiah 1 – 39 is generally attributed.

[10]  The Romans invaded Jerusalem and destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 A.D.

[11]  There was a great fire in Rome in 64 A.D.  Historians believe that Nero set the fire himself to clear out the ghettos, then blamed the Christians and persecuted them.   A considerable number of scholars believe Mark’s Gospel may have been written in Rome in the period 65 – 70 A.D.

[12]  Besides Mark 1, see Matt. 3:1 ff; Luke v3:1 ff and John 1:19 ff.