Increase Our Faith!

Sermon for Proper 22C RCL October 6, 2013

Lamentations 1:1-6
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

“The apostles said to the Lord “Increase our faith!””  How many of us have said the same thing or something very similar.  Such as “Lord give me strength to get thru this rough spot.”  And of course most of us add a bargain into the mix and promise to do something in return.  If I get strength/faith/courage – then I will go to church/give money to the poor or some other promise.  This passage from Luke does nothing to comfort us in those moments when we lack faith.  Look at Jesus’ answer to his closest followers.  ““If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.”  It is not the answer we want.  It sounds like Jesus is telling the Apostles that they have no faith.  After all the mustard seed is very small and apparently they don’t even have that much faith because they can’t uproot the trees.  One of the preachers I follow commented that he feels that this is Jesus being sarcastic.[1]  Perhaps so.  But either way it is not what we modern day apostles and disciples want to hear in the gospel.  Where is the good news in that response.  We want Jesus to reassure his followers that they have faith.  We want to read of Jesus giving them the secret of faith.  In this age of self help books and google we want answers.  We do not want sarcastic responses or put downs. 

This is hard.  Especially as it comes after a series of hard sayings and parables that we have been reading the last few weeks.  We, like the apostles have been traveling with Jesus the past few weeks on the journey to Jerusalem and we have heard the answer to the rich young man that the must give away all that he has.  Jesus told us several weeks ago that we must hate mother and father, brother and sister to be able to follow him.  We heard the crazy parable about going after the one sheep and throwing a party after finding a lost coin.  Then we had the parable of the dishonest steward who is praised by Jesus for being dishonest.  And just last week we had the story of the rich man and Lazarus and the great uncross-able abyss between the damned and the saved.  So it is no wonder that the apostle’s want an increase in faith.  All that Jesus has been saying seems to set the bar very high to be one of his followers.  It is not easy.  So too it is with us.  It is not always easy to follow God and to do the right thing.  We want faith. But what is faith?  Faith is not the opposite of doubt.  Faith is not about believing every clause in the Nicene Creed that we will recite after the sermon.  Faith is being in relationship with God.  And the disciple have that relationship with Jesus. They don’t need more.  They just need what they have. 

There is good news in the story.

The good news is that Jesus is telling them that they really do have enough faith.  Faith is about relationship and trust.

The second part of our gospel reading is the good news but it is hard for us to unpack.  When we hear stories of slaves and masters our automatic response is to recoil from slavery.  So this story of Jesus telling us to be faithful slaves makes us recoil.  Here again we want Jesus to come to the slaves rescue not to tell us that the slave needs to be a good slave. 

So how is this good news???  If we can get past our own reaction to slavery and unpack the story we can hear Jesus telling the Apostles and us that we don’t need to have super faith.  We don’t have to be super heroes.  When we go about our daily lives and acknowledging our relationship with God and with each other we are showing that we do have faith.  Faith that truly is strong enough to uproot trees.  I don’t always believe that I have enough faith but I do.

Several years ago when I helped facilitate a series on spiritual gifts the class took a spiritual gifts assessment test.  It is like the personality tests that some of you may have taken.  It asks a series of questions and the answers are supposed to help you identify your spiritual gifts.  One of the people who took the class said that the test was wrong.  That they did not have the gift that the survey said they did.  When I asked what was the wrong gift was the answer was “Faith”.  We all said “no it is right.  You have more faith than anyone we know.”  

Faith can be one of those attributes that we can’t see in ourselves.  Others will see our faith before we can.   When we look in the mirror we have a tendency to see our faults and not our gifts.  We are too critical.  Just like the apostles could not see their faith.  On the journey to Jerusalem Jesus seems to set the bar high.  But that is not what is happening.  Jesus is pointing out that we can do more than we think we can especially when we are in community.  When we are in communion with God and in community with each other we can do more than we think we can.  Each of us has a different mix of gifts and talents.  Our call from Jesus is to exercise our faith and trust that we have the gifts to transform our world. 

Whether we recognize it our not we do have faith.  The people of St. Paul’s have shown over and over again that we have faith.  Like the Letter from Paul to Timothy we too can be grateful for the faith of our spiritual ancestors. When we look around this church there is a wonderful tapestry of faith.  The faith of the early pioneers of our state and of our church.  The Stanford’s and the Crocker’s.  The power of the early years of the railroad.  The church had the  faith to keep going in the 60’s when a prior Bishop put a priest in-charge here to close the place down because all we were good for was a center for social programs that would be better off in other buildings.

 More recently this congregation showed faith that we could find a way to do ministry without a full time clergy person.  The congregation – with some mix of fear and trepidation – had faith that we are meant to be on this corner of 15^th and J streets as a beacon of God’s love to the community that surrounds us and to those who come to us.  And we do that with each of us claiming our spiritual gifts to help bring God’s loving reign to fruit in full partnership with the clergy. 

We are embarking on a scary and wonderful chapter where your vestry and other leaders of this congregation have faith that we can bring the resources to continue and expand our ministry thorough the New Dollars/New Partners program.  Yesterday the group of us that are taking the New Dollars/New Partners training worked at looking at the assets that we have to offer to others and the relationship assets that we – as individuals and as the church can offer to others in order to expand our ministries.

We can see a time when we have partners who cherish this building and the work we do just as much as our members do.  They may cherish the musical acoustics, or the historic nature of our building and our relationship to early California history, or our ability to welcome all people – and I do mean all – into our midst.  These partners can help us continue to be a beacon of God’s love to his creation.  It is the faith that we can open our doors to people as a sanctuary of peace, prayer and love in the midst of a crazy and sometimes destructive society.  We can do this because we are in relationship with God.  A God who sees good in all of creation and has faith in us to be partners in bringing God’s loving reign to fruition. 

I invite you to see the faith that you have and to exercise it!  Next time you look in the mirror see that faith glowing within you.  It is there.  I see it in you.  And then join God in helping to bring his reign of Love to fruition.  And help us in making St. Paul’s a beacon of love and hope and a sanctuary for all of God’s people.

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[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/  “Sermon Brainwave” Podcast for October 6, 2013

God's Radical Love

 Sermon for Proper 19 C RCL September 15, 2013

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Today’s Gospel reading is familiar to many it includes two of the three parables that are in chapter 15 of Luke.  The one that is missing is one of the more familiar parables – the parable of the prodigal son.  These parables tell us something about the nature of God.  They tell us about the radical love that God has for his creation.

It is helpful to set the stage for these parables.  The Pharisees and scribes a grumbling that Jesus is eating with sinners and tax collectors.  These are not ordinary sinners the way we think of it – especially when people say that the church is a hospital for sinners.  As Dr. Lose from Luther Seminary says , ”while we’re used to thinking “we’re all sinners,” that’s not the way Luke sees it. Rather, when he describes someone as a “sinner” he’s talking about someone whose pattern of sinning is so habitual, even second nature, that the whole community knows of it. Similarly, by “righteous” Luke doesn’t mean those who are either perfect or self-righteous, but rather he describes those who actually and actively try to live up to the law. All of which means that Jesus is welcoming the local untouchables and ne’er-do-wells, the moral disgraces and public outcasts -- welcoming, accepting, and befriending, to the point of embarrassment. And the decent folk are -- quite understandably -- concerned.” [1]  And he goes on to point out that when we hear about Jesus eating with these undesirables it is not a quick bite at the local Starbucks or Subway sandwich shop.  It is prolonged table fellowship.  The closest thing to that first century table fellowship that many of us might understand is a holiday meal with friends and family – it was a big deal. 

It is in this context that Jesus tells the parables of the lost – the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  The parables start out with “which of you…” would leave 99 sheep in the wilderness to fend for themselves and go after one.  Or sweep the house for a lost coin and then throw a party?  The real answer here is none of us!  We would be practicable and stay with the 99 sheep or at the very least find someone to stay with the 99 before heading off to search for the lost.  We would rejoice in the finding of a coin after working hard to find it but not many of us would throw a party – we might celebrate by indulging in some treat but I doubt we would throw a party and invite all of our friends over to celebrate with us.  The party could end up costing more than the coin that was lost.

Dr. Skinner from Luther Seminary said “The parable also points our attention to the woman’s actions as an illustration of God’s activity to find and embrace those who are “lost.” Other parables may compare God to kings, noblemen, and landowners. Here, however, God looks like a person just doing what she can. No extraordinary talents. No special training. No obvious privileges. Nobody larger than life.

God looks like someone who shows patient commitment.”[2]

These parables tell us a lot about who God is.  And the image here is not the one that many of us have of a God sitting on a throne in judgment – the type of God that we might picture in the reading from Jeremiah – a God who is going to judge the Nation of Judah. No the image of God here is a God who is a little crazy!  This is a God who recklessly searches for the lost and brings us back, restores us into community and then throws a party.  Can you imagine God being that reckless?  Can you imagine God as that crazy relative who is always happy no matter what happens?  Can you imagine God as the friend who seems to have nothing yet is always extravagant in sharing what they have?  Can you imagine that God will continue to pursue us whatever we do to become lost? 

It is tempting to think about the lost as someone other than us.  After all we are here in church joyfully worshiping God in fellowship – well at least I hope we are joy filled.  Those of us coming to church are more like the righteous in the reading than the sinners.  So what is in this story for us? 

Dr. Lose asks “Can the righteous be lost?”  The answer to me is of course.  I have been lost.  I have fallen into hurt and despair where I can no longer see the goodness of creation.  I have been hurt by people and the institutional church and a part of me no longer experienced joy.  We can be so caught up in trying to be successful as measured by our society that we are blind to what is going on around us.  We can be so self-absorbed that we cease being partners with God in bringing to fruition God’s dream of Love.  We can be lost. But even in our lost-ness God pursues us and there is nothing we can do to keep the Love of God from us. Nothing!

This is the Good News!  That God will continue to recklessly pursue each of us no matter what.  There is nothing we can do that will make God stop the pursuit of fulfilling God’s dream of Love for all of creation.  It is the radical grace of God’s pursuit that guarantees that each of us is loved by God.  And that even the people that we don’t think are lovable are – in fact – loved by God.  No matter what we hold in the dark recesses of our hearts God will recklessly pursue that part of us to turn us around.  To turn the dark into light.  Despair into joy.

We too are called to be reckless!  Reckless in our love and acceptance of the other and the lost.  Being a good Episcopalian I crave order and predictability.  But I also love the spontaneous joy expressed by people during the service.  The joy-filled squeal of a child during the survice is a delight for me and not a distraction.  Seeing the Joy in someone’s face when they realize that they can truly be who they are in this place and that God loves them is wonderful.  We are called to rejoice with people when they turn around and find that God’s reckless love is for them too.  We are called to show the Joy that is God – not judgment.  On this corner of 15^th and J streets we are called to recklessly throw open the doors to one and all.  We are called to see the humanity and God-ness of every person who walks through our doors. 

I see the radical love of God in you the good people of St. Paul’s.  I have seen people embrace others no matter who they are.  It is wonderful that we are able to feed people – both in body and spiritually at St. Paul’s.  I invite all of us to take the radical love of God out of these doors and into our world.  To be partners with God in rejoicing when the lost are found.  To show God’s radical love and Grace that says nothing can separate us from the love of God.  We are called to help bring God’s dream of Love for all of creation into reality in our world.

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[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2737

[2] http://www.odysseynetworks.org/news/2013/09/06/i-know-what-god-looks-like-luke-151-10

Radical Hospitality

Proper 17C- RCL                               September 1, 2013

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Luke 14:1, 7-14

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, `Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, `Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

On one level our Epistle and Gospel lessons talk about hospitality and I think we could do well to explore how important hospitality was to first century Jews – and Christians.  Perhaps what we don’t fully grasp in the gospel lesson is the radical nature of what Jesus is asking.  On the other hand I think there is still a part of us that does get the radical nature of this reading and would rather pretend that Jesus is talking in metaphors and hyperbole and not actually instructing us to take the lowest seat or invite the untouchables to dinner. 

I find it a little unfortunate that our reading today leaves out 6 verses of Luke as I think it helps put the tension into the scene. It is important to put these parables into some context.  This is another story of Jesus doing things on the sabbath and the Pharisees trying to see if he is going to break the sabbath rules – yet again.  Eating a sabbath banquet was not breaking the rules.  All of the food was prepared before the sabbath so no work was done to prepare the food on the sabbath.   

So why were the Pharisees watching Jesus in verse one?  Because in verses 2 – 7 Jesus breaks sabbath rules and heals a lame man.  “Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’ And they could not reply to this.”

Healing was work and Jesus in performing the sabbath healing is trying to get people to understand that the sabbath is about giving thanks to God – and healing someone actually gives praise to God’s creation and to God so it really is ok!  So it is with this act of defiance to a strict keeping of the sabbath that is swirling around the room when Jesus goes into teaching mode and we hear the parable of the seats and the parable of the guests.  

This scene of people jockeying to get the best seats is so familiar.  We all are guilty of it.  We come to an event – or a banquet - early to get the best seat.  We want to be close to the entertainment – or a seat close to the head table at a wedding.  I saw it just last weekend when I attended the wedding of my niece in Bend.  And I have to plead guilty in reserving a seat at a table very near the head table.  After all who wants to sit at the back where you can’t see the bride and groom?  

Or looking back to my school days – and I am not talking about my college days but remembering my high school days back when dinosaurs roamed the earth!  Remember the cafeteria?  How the popular people all sat together?  If you – like me – were not so popular you didn’t dare try to sit at their table.  It just wasn’t done.  If you did you would be humiliated.  And how rare it was for one of the popular people to come sit at the table with the nerds and the geeks?  Sitcoms still use this scenario. 

And what about who we invite to our parties?  Society still obsesses about getting invited to the right party and inviting the right people to our parties!  I don’t know too many people who will invite people to their parties without regard as to who they are or without an eye to have some reciprocal invitation some time in the future.  I did have a dear friend in the church – Nell who did invite everyone to the ranch.  Every time she would meet someone she would say “you must visit me at the ranch” and she was not just making nice – she meant it!  When I would go to the ranch I was just as likely to run into someone from the Haight-Ashbury as I was to run into a diplomat from another country – all were truly welcome.  But people like Nell are – unfortunately – rare!  

Not much has changed in the 2000 plus years since Jesus taught these parables.  If we are really willing to look at our actions and the actions of our society these words of Jesus are still as radical and biting today as they were then. Jesus is telling us that we should not be jockeying for the best seats at the banquet.  We should not be so sure of our status – that God sees status differently than we do.  God does not see the fine clothes and the fine house as a measure of our worth.  The measure of our worth is how we work to help bring a radical new order to society.  We are called to show love to all of God’s creation.  To build up people rather than tear them down.  We are not to worry about who we invite to our banquets for it is those who we think will not be able to return the favor that may well give us greater rewards than we might ever get.  

 But this is not easy.  Even at our churches how easy is it for us to invite everyone to the banquet?  I think we do a pretty good job here at St. Paul’s in inviting anyone who comes through our doors to join us both in the foretaste of the heavenly banquet that is the Eucharist and inviting people to eat with us at coffee hours.  But how much are we really doing to invite people into our church?  Can we do more to reach out into our community and to those who are frequently uninvited by the rest of society?  How do we reach out to people who think that a fortress-like stone building like ours is a place where they would not be welcomed?  How do we let people who the church has historically marginalized know that they really are welcome here – and not just as visitors but as full members who can and should help mold who we are?  How do we let people know that you can have questions and doubts about God and be faithful members of our community?  

Radical welcome is not easy!  I struggle with how we can really open our doors – and more importantly our hearts - to those who think that our table is only open to the cool people and the wealthy people.  I wish I had the answers.  But it is not one person with the answers who is going to be able to make a difference.  We all have to want to reach out and show God’s radical hospitality to the hungry and the hurting.  At times we will have to let go of the neat and the predictable and let God break into our lives.  

When we let the Holy Spirit into our lives it can be messy.  She can lead us to invite those who cannot repay us to the banquet.  The Holy Spirit will blow open the doors of our institutions and of our hearts and that can be very scary.  But as our lesson from Hebrews said today “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  I would go even further and say that by showing hospitality to strangers we will at times entertain God without knowing it.  Indeed I have had some of my most powerful encounters with God through people that most would try to ignore.  Being given a big bear hug after giving one of our members, who some might want to avoid  - communion has been a glimpse into the radical love of God. 

…………….

50 years ago black people in many parts of our country where second class citizens at best.  They were relegated to the back of the bus.  They were told to drink out of separate water fountains than white people.  They were given menial jobs and rarely given the seats of honor at the banquet.  It was in this context that the March on Washington took place 50 years ago this past week.  It was in this context that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech.  Where he articulated a dream that all people – regardless of color or economic status would be treated fairly and equitably.  That all would be equal.  That dream of Martin Luther King is also the dream of God.  That all will be equally loved and have equal access in our society.  Much of our society has come a long way in the last 50 years.  Many of the repressive laws that were on the books have been repealed and equal access to jobs is – at least in theory – the law of the land.  

Unfortunately Martin’s dream is still just a dream for many.  We still have too many people who cannot get jobs.  We still have too many people in this country, and in this town, who go hungry and do not have safe housing. 

 

On Tuesday Trinity Cathedral is sponsoring a pilgrimage – or dare I say march –to city hall to call on our leaders to include an affordable housing element in their general plans – which they are starting to update.  If you can participate you are invited to gather at Trinity Cathedral at 3:30 to walk to City Hall – or you can meet them at City hall at 5:30.

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We are invited today – just as Jesus called his followers 2000 plus years ago to open our hearts and open our doors to everyone.  To turn upside down societal expectations and societal norms of who is in and who is out.  We are called to practice radical hospitality.  How are we going to do that?  How are we – as individuals and as a church – going to bring God’s radical dream of Love to our world?  Amen.

Celebrating 164 Years of Ministry!

Sermon for Proper 15C- RCL August 18, 2013

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Luke 12:49-56

Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Celebrating 164 Years of Ministry!

Today we are commemorating 164 years of ministry as a congregation!  And what a Gospel lesson we just heard.  This is one of the hard texts to hear let alone figure out what message it might have to say to a congregation that has been in Sacramento for 164 years!  It is tempting to go straight to the last part of our reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews and talk about the great cloud of witness and pretend that we did not just hear Jesus say that he came to bring “fire to the earth”!  But while that would be the easy route I don’t think it is the fair path for you or for me.  When we hear difficult passages it does a disservice not to wrestle with them and see what they might be saying to us today.

One thing that I like about this passage is that it is difficult.  In the 2000 plus years since Jesus walked through Israel with his disciples we have, for the most part, turned Jesus into some meek and mild creature.  We have frequently taken the fire and passion out of his life and ministry.  Many of the parables have lost their impact.  In this country, even as we enter what is being called a Post-Christian age, it is not controversial to attend a Christian Church – that has not always been the case and still is not the case in some parts of the world as we have seen in Egypt recently.  When our Gospel was written – about 40 years or a generation after Jesus’ death – it was controversial to be a Christian. 

What does this Gospel lesson say to us today?  Does it make you squirm in your seat?  Would you rather hear about the Jesus who came to bring peace to the earth?  The Jesus who came to heal the sick and lift up the downtrodden?  We all would probably rather think about the Jesus we see on our three Jesus windows – Jesus knocking at the door, Jesus the shepherd carrying the cute little lamb and Jesus standing on the cloud ascending into Heaven.  Or perhaps the Jesus in our High Altar window – the Jesus as Victor – is more to your liking.  But there is more to Jesus and his call than being sweet and lovable people.  Hopefully there is a fire – a passion - to perform the ministries that we are called by God to live out.

It helps to put this passage into some context.  When Jesus says these words he has already set his face towards Jerusalem.  He knows that he is a controversial figure who has upset the powers in the temple and also the Roman occupiers.  He was not bringing peace but was pointing out injustice.  It was not a meek and mild Jesus that was hung on the cross but is was a Jesus with a fire burning for justice that was willing to confront the injustices he saw in the systems of his day.  Jesus saw and rebelled against a system that perpetuated injustice.  He knew that he was on his final earthly journey to Jerusalem.  He could read the signs and hear the murmuring of the authorities who wanted him out of the way. 

This reading also tells us that Jesus was feeling stressed.  It is good to remember that when we are feeling stressed and cranky that God will understand.  After all Jesus was stressed and cranky as we read about in a number of places in our Gospel readings.  For example, it was not a chilled-out Jesus that turned over the tables in the Temple and drove out the moneychangers – it was an angry stressed Jesus. 

We are called to be angry and feel stress today at the injustice of the world around us.  We are not called to rest on our laurels and become the grand parents of all Christians in Sacramento after 164 years! 

Saint Paul’s has a history of change and even of fire!  The first organizing meeting was held in a blacksmith shop in August in Sacramento – it is hard to get any hotter than that! 

In our history people left Saint Paul’s to start other churches.  Both Trinity Cathedral and All Saints were started when people left St. Paul’s (Or Grace Chruch as is was known when Trinity was founded).  It could not have been easy to let people go and start “rival” churches.  But look at what good has come out of the process.  Trinity Cathedral and St. Paul’s have been able to do great things as partners that we may never have been able to do as a single church.  All Saints has gone on to have a great ministry with youth and young adults with their wonderful location near Sac City College.

In the late 1890’s Grace Church – as we where known at the time – was faced with a building, their second, that was literally falling down around them and by that time in out parish’s life many of our wealthy members had moved out of Sacramento to San Francisco.  By 1903 the parish had sold the building, acquired the lot that this building is on – reorganized as St. Paul’s and built this building – which suffered a fire in about 1914 that destroyed the original organ and the High Altar window – which was a Crocker memorial.  But St. Paul’s still refused to close.  The people saw a need for justice and ministry on this corner and rebuilt. During the depression we witnessed St. Paul’s and Trinity reunite in order to conserve resources. 

In the 1960’s  and 1970’s when St. Paul’s should have closed – after the urban flight that saw so many people move out of our urban centers and into the suburbs – it struggled to keep going – even after a fire destroyed the Parish hall the people kept going. The people of St. Paul’s had a fire in their bellies for justice and started St. Paul’s center for urban ministries – which saw offices set up in the nave and the Altar put of wheels so it could be moved out of the way during the week.

 These ministries eventually outgrew our facilities and became River City Food Bank and Episcopal Community Services

 The first vocational Deacon in our diocese was raised up from this congregation.  The diocesan Hispanic Ministries started in this place – and it is from them that we have the gift of the statue of the Virgin Mary.  This congregation called the first openly gay person in a life long relationship to go before the Bishop and the Commission on Ministry and Standing committee seeking ordained ministry – which although a long road culminated with my ordination June 29^th.  St. Paul’s quite simply has persevered.  But not only persevered but continually called and calls for Justice and Love.  Sometimes our initiatives have caused some to leave and find other spiritual homes while at the same time we have attracted others to a life where the pursuit of Justice and Peace continue to burn in our hearts and actions.

What are we called to do today?  How are we going to sustain a fire for justice and mercy in downtown Sacramento?  We continue to be a place where people can come for spiritual and bodily feeding.  But are we called to do more?  As part of our ongoing discernment we are participating in a program called New Dollars New Partners.  It is a program that challenges us to see the community that we are in and to identify new opportunities for mission and ministry.  It is a program that challenges us not to try and do it by ourselves but to look to see if there are partners in other churches or community groups that can help us bring God’s dream of Love and peace to the earth.  And yes there will be times when we are all stressed and angry about the injustice in the world – and we should be mad just as Jesus was in our gospel lesson and call out those who – while they can predict the weather – refuse to see the hand of God at work about us.  We are to call out those who continue to build structures and amass wealth and leave the weak and hungry to suffer.  Calling out injustice will create tension and will create divisions.  The comfortable – which I admit includes me – do not like being reminded that we are called to bring justice and healing to those who our society would just a soon forget.

So how do we go forward?  I think one of the keys is at the end of our reading form the Epistle to the Hebrews.  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us….”

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnessed.  We can take comfort in the fact that those who came before us did not give up on this parish when all the signs said we should quit.  We did not give up when we could no longer afford a full time priest and instead the church became invigorated and looked to the ministry of all of the baptized to continue being a church that calls for justice and love.

We can be proud that we have a history of 164 years of ministry in Sacramento.  That we continue to be a place of healing and justice for our community.  Like our Gospel lesson we are continually called to see and heed the call for Justice.  Our call as Christians is not an easy one if we really follow Jesus.  It is a call to turn the structures of society upside down.  It is a call to feed the hungry, cloth the naked and visit the sick and those in prisons – both physical prisons and prisons that society puts those not like the majority in all the time. 

How do you want to see God and Jesus?  Do you want a God who is meek and mild as expressed in our stained glass windows?   Or do you want a God who can see injustice in the world and is willing to get angry when justice and love are trampled by society?  I dare say that if history is any indicator St. Paul’s will continue to be a place of peace but also a place that gets angry at injustice and is willing to work to bring justice and peace – and God’s loving reign to reality in this world.

What is Prayer?

Sermon for Proper 12 C RCL 

Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Today’s Gospel lesson includes Luke’s version of what we now call the Lords Prayer.  One temptation would be to look at and compare the different versions between Luke and Matthew and perhaps look at the myriad of translations.  That can be a fun academic exercise – well at least for some!  But I would like to focus today on prayer – and focus beyond the lords prayer.  You will also notice that I changed the Old Testament lesson today to the one from Genesis instead of from Hosea.  I did this because it will allow us to – perhaps – explore a little deeper the nature of prayer and what it says about God and what it says about us.

How many of us pray regularly?  Don’t worry I am not going to ask for a show of hands.  Being good Episcopalians I am willing to bet that most of us are most comfortable using a prayer book or memorized prayers.  At least in public.  It can be scary to be asked to give an extemporaneous prayer in public.  Yes even for the clergy!  We too often fall back on learned prayers in our worship and in our public ministries.  One of the wonderful things about this particular passage from Luke is that we see that the disciples – who have been with Jesus – Jesus whose life was centered on prayer – the disciples had to ask to be taught how to pray.  They wanted instruction.  So what is prayer?

For me there are two types of prayer.  One is the type that is scripted prayer.  It is the Lords prayer that is so deeply ingrained into our DNA that we can say it without even hearing the words anymore.  That is why I like to say different versions from time to time.  It makes to turn off the auto-pilot and pay attention.  Not that the autopilot is bad.  It is good to have something that we can trust will be there when our words fail us.  It is wonderful to know that we have a backstop when our world has crashed around us and we can’t think of words.  I also love the predictability of our church.  I know I can attend an Episcopal service just about anywhere and the core of the worship and the core of the prayers will be familiar and I will be at home.

There is also another type of prayer and for me that is conversational prayer.  It is the unscripted free form prayer that can bubble up from deep within our souls.  One of the blogs I read regularly – “Leave it where Jesus flang it” – opens her prayers with “Hey God – Its Margaret”.  Not a churchy, Episcopal Book of Common Prayer way to open a prayer.  But it is good.  It is a way that says that we can have a conversation with God.  That prayer can be a two way street – a conversation.  It is also consistent with the Lords Prayer where Jesus taught the disciples and us to call God Aba – Father – Daddy.  A term of affection.  Not an address to an all powerful all mighty indifferent God.  But to claim our special status as intimate children of God.  Or if you prefer partners with God in creation.

How we pray reflects how we see God.  And I will be the first to admit that for me my vision of God is a fluid thing.  I want to see God and the wonderful loving parent who is just as happy at play as doing anything else.  Society has built another image of God as the bearded monarch on the throne – who knows all and sees all, is unchangeable and all about judgment.  I want that image of God too when I see the injustice in the world and humankinds inhumanity to each other.  That is when I want a god who will spite the oppressor and make the world a better place.  How we pray can also say a lot about us.  Can we envision ourselves as partners in the bringing of God’s dream to fruition?  Or do we see ourselves as pawns in some mighty clockwork creation where we do personal good so that we can get into heaven at the end of times?  When I am at my best I certainly try to be a partner with God in bringing the dream of a loving creation to complete fruition!

So how do we pray?  I love the section that we have today from Genesis.  Abraham’s prayer is one that is certainly one that we probably have had with God – in one form or another.  A prayer where we bargain with God. It is another type of prayer that can spring from the core of our very being.  It is a conversation.

God has just issued judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins – for their lack of hospitality to the stranger.  God is so mad that he tells Abraham that he is going to wipe them off the face of the earth.  (Note:  I generally try to use inclusive imagery when I talk about the God head being neither male nor female but the imagery here – thanks to Metro Goldwyn Mayer is just the bearded God on a throne for me)  And then Abraham does the unexpected.  He has a conversation with God about who God is and the relationship between God and God’s people.   Abraham is willing to bargain with God!  “Abraham came near and said, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"” 

In essence Abraham is reminding God that even in God’s anger that Abrahams God is a God of hospitality, love and justice.  Not a God of unjust vengeance.  Will God slay the righteous with the wicked?  Surely not.  And from this point we have Abram bargaining with God.  If God won’t destroy the cities if Abraham can find 50 good people what about if there are only 45?  40? 30? 20? What about if there are only 10?  Each time in the story God agrees that even if there are only 10 he will not – after all – destroy the city.  Did God change his mind?  Did Abraham have to remind God about God’s own nature?  I don’t know.  I certainly think that God can change and grow as we and the God’s creation changes and grows.  I know – some will think it is blasphemy to think that God changes and perhaps what really changes is us. 

If we are partners with a loving God then we help bring the change into a world that cannot see or hear God’s dream.  If we see God as Hospitable – one who will open the door at any hour to provide hospitality.  If we see God as one who desires to give his creation good gifts and not evil then we need to be agents to bring to fruition God’s dream of Love and care of all creation to this world now.  And we can only do that in conversation with God. 

The two parables that come with the Lord’s Prayer in our reading today remind us of the nature of the God and to whom we pray and for whom we are partners in this creation. We are called by God to be a people of hospitality as God is a God of Hospitality.  Even – and perhaps especially – when it in not convenient.  Most of us – I dare say – would be like the man in bed who didn’t want to get up and provide hospitality to his neighbor.  After all it was not his friend who showed up in the middle of the night.  But through the shameless persistence of the man who needs bread to be able to offer hospitality the man finally gets out of bed to help.  It is an active prayer life that changes us and lets us know when we too have to get our of our comfort zone to provide hospitality.  We are called –as in the parables to offer sustenance and love to those around us as partners in creation – not to offer scorpions and snakes.

Prayer is that conversation. Prayer that springs out of our common prayers and prayer that spontaneously come from our hearts.  Prayer opens us up to let God break into our heart.  Prayer lets us empty our hearts and our pain to God.  Prayer makes space for us to listen to the heartbeat of creation.  Prayer lets us see that we are partners in making this world a better place. I don’t believe that prayer is some magical incantation that will make things different. But the conversation – the dance that is part of our relationship with God and with each other that ultimately does change the world.

When we provide hospitality and love to our neighbors we are answering prayers as well as praying.  I invite all of us to go out of this House of Prayer and create a world of prayer.  To have the conservations with God that will hold the good, bad and absolutely ugly up to the cleansing light that is Good.

Let us pray.

Hey God – Its Rik and the people of St. Paul’s.  Thank you for being in conversation with us on this corner of 15^th and J streets in Sacramento.  Help us to open our eyes to see your hand in the world around us and remind us that we are your partners in bringing your dream of Love into our world.  Thank you for being strong when we are weak and for accepting all of our prayers.  Our prayers of joy and sorrow, thanksgiving and lament.  For comforting us when we cry –and crying with us when creation is hurt.  For laughing with us in our happiness when we experience the joy of your creation.  But most of all thank you for the conversations.  Amen.