Worry Worry Worry!!

Today I ran out of time to prepare for Morning Prayer with the Joyful Ladle (Trinity’s soup kitchen) servers.  So I called the Parish Administrator and said…  “Dorayne would you pick out a Gospel lesson from the Lectionary Page and make enough copies for us to do a Bible study?”  Her response was which one?  I said – “makes no difference, just pick one.” 

When I arrived at the church, five minutes before the Bible study, I grabbed the stack of copies and headed down.  Much to my delight she had chosen Matthew 6:25-33 – the “do not worry about your life” one.  We used the African Bible study method and so all shared as the passage moved each of us.

It was one of those Ahha moments for me.  This has been a month of dealing with parish budgets, annual meetings, and upcoming bishop’s visitations, so I was looking forward to being reminded to “lay back, take it easy – God will provide”.  As is often true when I read scripture the Holy Spirit had something else in mind…

What jumped out at me were two lines (beginning and end) “…Jesus said, Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?...      …But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness..”  My mother in law used to say “don’t worry it” – meaning that one was spending way too much time and energy (perhaps compulsively) trying to fiddle with something – trying to change it.  What this Gospel said to me was not to lay back and stop considering whether or not something was going to happen to me (i.e. worrying myself too much), but rather “focus on that which leads you to the Kingdom of God” – that is “get off your duff and do something to make God’s love visible through you in the world.”

Perhaps my epiphany is not the one you are having.  That’s ok because reading scripture is like that a lot.  But I suspect that you will agree that unless you work on something that you want very badly it is not likely to happen.  Building God’s Kingdom is not likely to happen unless we work to make it happen.  What is the most important thing in your life?  Is it your clothing?, your food?, your power?, your greed?  Or is it your compassion?, your love for all of creation?, your hospitality? 

During Epiphany we have seen how Jesus’ life and ministry - illuminated by the stories of his healing and teaching – teaching and healing – sheds light on the nature of God’s love for us and of our path of salvation.  Now as we approach the Lenten season I think it is time for us to assess how our lives illuminate God’s love – and then maybe look for ways to add those spiritual practices like prayer, tithing, worship, and service to build up God’s Kingdom.

Who's in and who's out?

      Not everyone agrees on everything about church!  Duh!!  This is not news to the Episcopal Church for sure.  Not everyone appreciates the altar call that I make each Sunday:  "This is God's Table and all who seek God or seek to be found by God are welcome here!"  Personally, I am not about to set myself in between God and those who seek God's love.  But some would say that the church's canon says that only baptized Christians are welcome.  And well yes - I think that is what the canons say... Then how is the church to survive and thrive if we cannot agree on what it is we believe or hold sacred?
      “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34
      Who is worthy of my love??  Is it only the middle class, white, divorced, females from northeastern Louisiana, with three children, and way too much education that are worthy of my love?  Maybe that is a little too limiting – it would definitely limit my options for a foursome on the golf course.  If Jesus’ command requires that I step outside the boundaries of those who look like me, talk like me, act like me, and have the same social networks - then how far do I go?  Should I include men and/or children?  How about people with limited education or people who email inappropriate jokes to me?  How about people of color?  Non-Christians?  Homosexuals and/or heterosexuals both?  Then what about trans-gendered?  How about Jews?   Arabs?  Persians?  Mexicans?  Extra-terrestials? Where does this inclusiveness thing end?????

My heart tells me that it does not.  As hard as it is to love some people, to look beyond my own self-centered prejudices, as much as I love being with folks who think and act just as I do, as much as I long to be protected by my comfort zone, as much as I hate to admit that I am not always right – God keeps pulling and pushing on me to be open to the goodness of all those around me.  Furthermore, I believe with all my heart that my very salvation depends on my love for all those other people who are not just like me.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  Jesus did not tell me to guard the church against those who are strange.  Jesus told me that it is in the face of the stranger that I will come to know God.  And it is through my love for that stranger that others will know what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

      This is what I believe to be the core message of the Gospel.  Scripture can be confusing and misleading and contradictory sometimes, but the one message that is sparkling clear is that we are to reflect the abundance of God’s love for us by loving others. 
      I challenge each one of us to begin this new year by doing an honest and thorough search of the ways in which our lives limit love and then praying to God for the strength and courage to change.  Let’s take that charge beyond our individual lives to our congregational life.  How is the life of our parish/diocese/church reflective of this commandment?  As we enter into a new time of congregational life let’s open up that conversation see where it takes us.   
     PS A good way to start is my coming to the Epiphany Series Study Group on Thursday evenings....  :)

Does Trinity speak with a prophetic voice?

The week before Thanksgiving I was in New Orleans at a PICO gathering of clergy from all over the country. PICO… People Improving Communities by Organizing. (or something like that - I can never get the exact wording) I learned a lot about economic issues that effect our society - particularly the more vulnerable people. What I heard made me both sad and mad all at the same time. Sad that we, as people of God, have not been able to make a dent in the suffering of the poor, the children, the elderly, the disenfranchised. Why? Is is apathy? Is it ignorance? Is it greed or a desire for power? Is it all of those things and more? Probably….

I made a commitment to myself and my colleagues while I was there. The commitment came in the form of a Clergy Call to Action. The gist of the statement is:

                      As clergy we witness the pain families face from this financial crisis

　　We stand for and with our people. Even though Americans are working very hard, inequality is growing. Just as ancient prophets spoke out against injustice, we too must speak out.
  　 We believe that the public debate about economic recovery is about moral and spiritual values and the faith community has a vital role to play in healing our nation
　　 We pledge to teach, preach and organize to unify people of faith around reducing poverty and increasing economic and racial justice.
　　 We will challenge our elected leaders from both parties to put the needs of working families, the poor and the common good of our nation ahead of short-term political calculus and special interests.
At Trinity we have already begun to talk about the economy in prophetic terms. Tonight in our Advent study group we had a pretty animated discussion about our investments - where we should and where we should not put our money. We talked about the importance of talking about our own complicity in the economic mess within the frame of our Christian ethics. We will talk more.

What do you think? Should a church invest in RJ Reynolds? (Tobacco) Or Walmart? (Unfair labor practices) Or Chikfil-a (Questionable stand on LGBT rights) How about companies who make instruments of war? Maybe this is what we should be talking about at Annual Meeting rather than the flowers in the church or the kind of music we play.

I’m just saying………..

Thanksgiving is what you make of it!

In Bishop Shaw's Thanksgiving meditation he invites us to "put ourselves in the way of gratitude". Here is the link to the full meditation. He notes that gratitude tends to slip up on him in much the same way as Grace does and that he is overwhelmed by the awareness of God's blessings everywhere.

"I hear ya, Bishop", but too often it seems that it is despair that overwhelms and blessings that seem to be in short supply. Today I received an email from a colleague in New Orleans telling me of an act of desecration in the narthex of the parish he serves. Someone painted swastikas and other aryan symbols on the icons and prayer cards. He said that the damage was not permanent, but that the violent message the vandals left is deeply disturbing.

I believe that such acts are manifestations of deep fear and hatred born out of a loss of connectedness and faithfulness with God and with our neighbors. Dare I say that such fear and hatred are the lingering hanger's on from our history of slavery and colonialism and our refusal as a nation to make justice and equality for all our priority? And yet we stand on the precipice, ready once again to welcome the Son of God into our midst at Christmas. The holiday season offers us an opportunity to renew the ties that bind us to our brothers and sisters in Christ and to God by walking together as children of God - by standing together and refusing to be overcome by the anger, hatred, greed and malice that wants to infect our hearts.

In the season of Thanksgiving our hearts are open to recognize and to name the blessings all around us that are so easily hidden by the news headlines. Let's take Bishop Shaw's invitation to heart and be mindful of these blessings. Let's take the time to be aware of the beauty of a sunlit city and the soft, nestling of the snow in the crooks of the tree branches. Let's let wonder and awe take the place of anger and despair and live fully this Thanksgiving. And then let's come on Sunday and share the Eucharist as we hear Jesus' call to watchfulness and waiting.

Happy Thanksgiving and a Blessed Advent,

Jane+

They sell the needy for a pair of sandals.... (Amos)

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it."  - Stephen Colbert

       For about a month now I have tagged my emails with this quote.  I have gotten more comments from this one than any other quote I have ever used.  I first saw it on an email from Sojourners, a Christian group whose mission is to “articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”  It is a noble group with an even nobler mission. 

       Most of the comments were supportive and then along the way, I got tangled up in a Facebook debate over whether or not we really do have a responsibility to care for the poor through public programs i.e. do we need to “do justice” as well as charity.  Here is the comment from unnamed Christian that ignited the fire…

“The assertion that Jesus was a socialist or liberal is misguided and incorrect because the premise is grounded in the liberal ideology of American politics, not in biblical exegesis. Not one place in the bible did Jesus advocate it was the function of government to do what loving human beings ought to do on their own.”

       I beg your pardon…..  Mt 25: 31-46, 19:21, 5:3… Luke 4 88-19, 11: 39-42…  not to mention the prophets and Torah.  Ahhh  like Amos warned……

Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;^*
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷ they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth,
and push the afflicted out of the way;

      My personal favorite is… “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like and everflowing stream!”  Personally, I would rather not be in the way of that torrent!  Still I know that there are a lot of faithful people who believe that it is the responsibility of individuals - not governments - to provide for the poor (I use the term loosely and inclusive of a plethora of justice issues).   The problem comes when individuals do not step up to the plate and a chasm appears separating the “haves from the have-nots”.  When push comes to shove, most human beings hunker down to protect their own nest-egg and leave the "needy other" to swing in the breeze.  If there is no organized social justice system to intervene, then the rich just get richer and the poor get you know what.  The chasm that separates has grown wider and wider in my lifetime.  (Remember old Lazarus?)  

       This month we will begin to reflect on what it means to be a Christian in the face of the economic crisis in which we find ourselves.  No shame or blame – just good faithful exploration of what the scripture really says and how we might faithfully exercise our responsibility to God and our neighbor.  I invite you to seriously consider joining us for this discussion.  Thursday evenings at 7:15 following the Eucharist.  Be there or be square……!!!!!  OK too much?????

Onward! (as my friend Joan says….)

What's on your list?

There is on old worn out joke about a rich person who told the preacher that he was tired of hearing over and over in the sermons about how no one really owned anything…  all of creation belonged to God.  The rich man invited the preacher to come to with him to see his vast collections of art, his yacht, his many homes and considerable business properties.  He said to the preacher, “All of this is mine… now can you really stand there and say I do not own it?”  The preacher smiled and said, “Ask me that in 100 years.” 

The reality is there is no luggage compartment in a hearse and no pockets in a shroud.  You know we can even stretch it a little farther and say even our very lives are on loan from God, because none of us knows the journey or the time our lives will take.  But rather than be morbid this is good news.  We have the opportunity to work collaboratively with God and to nurture and tend God’s creation with the same love and tenderness that God has nurtured us.

The church is part of God’s creation.  Unfortunately we have not always tended it well.  But the church is also the vehicle through which we study, serve, and worship God.  It is a place of comfort in stress and pain.  It is a source of beautiful images that send our thoughts soaring.  It is a place of challenge for us when our lives turn toward selfishness.  Last week we heard Paul tell us that our very salvation depends on our living our lives as Christ taught us.  Imperfect as it is the church is the single best entity for Christians to practice that way of life. 

I am grateful for the abundance of comfort in my life.  I have worked hard all my life and I, like the Rich Young Man, have many possessions.  But when I make a pledge to the church I am acknowledging that nothing in my possession is really mine.  All of it belongs to God.  God invites me to keep 90% of what I am loaned.  The rest helps to nurture and sustain the building of God’s Kingdom. 

In Sunday School I invited the kids to write down or list the blessings in their lives.  At first they balked.  They said that they did not know what to write.  When I changed the question to what are you grateful for in your life the list went to the second page.  What’s on your list?    

A Day in Vermont

Pictures from our trek to Vermont.  It was a full day.  We had the opportunity to speak at length with Angie Emerson who is the diocesan stewardship person and is now coordinating the highway relay system to move food and goods to places it is needed.  They are a resilient lot.  We heard the expected FEMA stories.  One woman filed for FEMA assistance on her house that was off the foundation in one section.  The inspector told her that he could only do a partial inspection and that she would only get a partial payment as he could not inspect the whole house because part of it was unsafe for him to walk.  Meanwhile next door they were told that because the put a temporary shore under the floor the house was now stable and so would get no assistance.  These stores sounded all too familiar.  Talked to one woman – a priest who noticed lights on in a house across the road and her husband grabbed a flat bottom boat and saved their lives.  That night 5 families slept (or not) in their house – animals and children too.  She is coordinating relief in Moretown.  We went to Randolph, Bethel, West Hartford, Moretown and more.  The destruction is in pockets but where the water came the destruction is total.  We drove over partial bridges and washed out roads.  St Pauls WRJ fed 575 folks today.  There was an assembly line of pick-up cooks making lunches.  In Northfield they are washing clothes, and all over there is mud.  At one point Brattleboro reported that they had run out of peanut butter.  An emergency delivery was dispatched to get them some. 

Pictures on Trinity FB Page
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.280273841999780.89849.231444203549411&saved#!/TrinityHaverhill

What follows is a list of needed items.

Current needs include:  Please note that the needs will change by next week.  No long term collections or drop-offs please

Health is a big issue.  All of the mud from the floods is contaminated by sewage, so basic first aid items, and protective latex gloves.

Emergency Clean-up Buckets (such as Church World Services provides) you will need:

One five-gallon bucket with resealable lid

• Five scouring pads
• Seven sponges, assorted sizes
• One scrub brush
• Eighteen cleaning towels (reusable, like Easy Wipes®)
• One 50-78 oz. box dry laundry detergent
• One 12 oz. bottle of liquid concentrated household cleaner (like Lysol®)
• One 25 oz. bottle liquid disinfectant dish soap (like Dawn®)
• One package of 48-50 clothespins
• Clothesline, two 50 ft. or one 100 ft.
• Five dust masks
• Two pairs latex gloves (like Playtex®)
• One pair work gloves
• 28-bag roll of heavy-duty trash bags (30-45 gallon)
• One 6-9 oz. bottle of insect repellent (pump, drops or lotion, not aerosol)

Please provide all liquids in new, unopened plastic bottles. Be sure to send only new materials. Place all items in the plastic bucket, making sure they are packed securely to avoid damage during shipment, and seal lid with packing tape. If you can’t provide the complete kit, any and all of these items are needed.
Gift cards for clothes and school supplies (Walmart, K-Mart, Staples, Walgreens, Kinney’s, etc.)

Gas cards for people in the Proctorsville area (specifically Sunoco and Gulf) for the purchase of gas are needed because there are no longer supermarkets nearby.  People have to travel 30 - 45 minutes from Proctorsville to buy food.  Local markets were destroyed.
Socks and Underwear for both genders, all age groups, all sizes

Canned and non-perishable food – wholesale-size and household size

Household necessities (diapers, toilet paper, dish and laundry detergents – if you use it in your house, there’s a need somewhere)

Personal necessities (soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, contact lens solution, etc. – again, if you use it daily, there’s a need somewhere)

Plastic bins for people to protect the belongings they have been able to salvage.

Thank you to all those who have been responding tirelessly to the efforts. All of us need to remember to support each other as we are supporting those in need. Please remember to take a break now and then – we can’t do it all, all at once and there are many who are responding. Please step in to give others a break as you are able.