Lent 5B

Even as we come down the homestretch of Lent, even as we realise that next Sunday is Palm/Passion Sunday and the start of Holy Week, the readings for this morning continue the theme of covenant that has been so prevalent this entire Lenten season. At the same time they speak of covenant (particularly the first reading), they also remind us that our faith is not an individualistic faith but one that is lived out in community. The adage says there is strength in numbers; surely there is strength found in a community of believers that can aid the individual during those difficult moments on the faith journey.

The reading from Jeremiah contains the only Hebrew Scripture reference to the new covenant, the way in which God will transform people’s hearts. Jeremiah’s vision of a new future and covenant comes through and beyond the suffering that was the people of Israel’s fate during the Babylonian exile. These hopeful words come from a time of crisis and transition and indicate that God’s response is not one of judgement or condemnation but one of love.

Chapters 31-34 of Jeremiah, the ‘little book of comfort,’ contain announcements of restoration. Jeremiah’s initial words, ‘The days are surely coming,’ stress that whatever happens is a future hope. Referring to the previous covenant made at Mount Sinai following the Exodus (which the people broke), and those with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jeremiah reminds the people that all these covenants happened at critical moments in the life of the community. Whenever transitions and changes brought life and faith into doubt, it was time for a new covenant or renewal of the existing one with God. Out of the old comes the new. All involve promise and hope.

Jeremiah’s language is particularly intimate, speaking of God taking the people ‘by the hand,’ as ‘their husband.’ The word that stands at the center of the passage is ‘covenant,’ a special kind of relationship in which both parties pledge themselves to one another. The law is written on the person’s heart. God’s vow is persistent: ‘I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’ All the people had to say in return was, ‘We will be God’s people.’ Making this covenant with God was a communal act, the work of the community of faith. Salvation is worked out in community as much, if not more, than individually.

We have to be clear that though the Hebrew word for ‘covenant,’ ‘berît,’ is translated into the Latin, ‘testamentum,’ from where we get ‘testament,’ Jeremiah’s text is not talking about the new covenant superceding the existing one. His text is not about Jewish/Christian covenants; rather it is about God’s continually seeking to bring God’s people back into relationship with God.

John’s gospel also speaks about a new covenant, a new way of being with God that comes through Jesus’ dying and rising again. Using an agrarian image of the seed falling to the ground, dying and bearing much fruit, then Jesus speaks about his death. His words come at the end of his mortal life. He has shown his followers seven signs, the last one being the resurrection of Lazarus. Now he and his disciples are in Jerusalem. From this point on, Jesus will talk about his impending death and resurrection, deriving from such a difficult message one of hope. Speaking to some Greeks who wish to see Jesus, and be with him, he tells them that when he is lifted from the earth and hung on the cross, he will draw all people to himself, extending to them the universal hope of eternal life found in Christ.

The way to this eternal life is by losing life to find it. The writer of John makes the contrast between earthly and heavenly life. Letting go of those mortal things to find the heavenly is how one finds Christ. Just as Jesus dies to bring others to life, then must also the believer of Christ have to die to those things in life that separate us from Christ so that one may grasp eternal life.

The way we can do this is through our covenant, that of baptism, and in community. It is far harder to let go of things alone than to walk with companion pilgrims, who are trying to do the same.

And the letting go of earthly things is not just material; it is those things that hinder our living out to the fullest the covenant that God has given us. What is this covenant? Simply, ‘I am yours, and you are mine.’ The laws written on our heart, the grains that die to become fruitful, are simply to love God with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Our vestry spent yesterday morning on retreat. We had a fruitful three hours of talking about what our priorities might be, how might we get there, and how we might live into this new covenant we have established locally, that of a partnership between congregation, priest and diocese. We are living into a new covenant here at Trinity, one that will challenge us, but at the same time, God willing and our hearts being open, will nourish and feed us. You should know that there was a lot of energy around the table as we talked; they vestry worked hard in a short amount of time and modeled transparency for one another. You will be hearing more about our mini-retreat from your vestry members. Feel free to ask them, too! (Vestry, raise your hands.)

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You will hear me talk about Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador who was slain as he said the mass 29 years ago on the 24th of this month. He is an influential voice for me for his commitment to and love for the people of his country. The verse from the gospel of John, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ is on the top of a large poster/mural that was propped up against the wall in the crypt where Romero’s tomb used to be before officials moved it. It is impossible not to read the words and understand to what extent this man internalised this verse. His message still is universally received—judging from the amount of flowers that are by his tomb each time I visit, Romero still is a powerful guide. He understood that by dying to mortal life, we find an unquenchable hope in eternal life with Christ. The way we come to this hope is through the fruits of justice.

Romero said, ‘When we have spread human dignity, unity and freedom—in a word, all the excellent fruits of nature and our effort—throughout the earth in the spirit of the Lord and in accord with his command, … human nature will be free…, illuminated and transformed…. This hope transforms Christians. We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.’

You and I in our own way, in this community of Trinity, in the larger community of Rutland, and throughout the many circles in which we live, move and breathe, are called to work toward a more just society, a society that operates out of love, not shame; out of justice, not injustice; of accountability, not punishment. When we work for these things, then we die to a life of sin and find a life of grace. The grain dies to bring forth new fruit. The covenant with God is re-established.

Saint Francis had the following conversation with God, recounted in this short poem.

God came to my house and asked for charity.
And I fell on my knees and
cried, ‘Beloved,
what may I
give?’
‘Just give love,’ God said.
‘Just love.’

May God grant us the grace to do the same.


[photo: little by little, I am adding things: here, an icon of the Theotokos of the Streets]

Rhetorical question

How come when the medicos prescribe heavy-duty painkillers they don't also prescribe anti-nausea medicine? The two go hand-in-hand.

Our sexton re-separated his shoulder last night and of course he now is super sick from the pain meds. It's insult to injury.

So my rhetorical question is why can't A+B be put together? In other words, can we think holistically?

Pray for him. He's worried about Holy Week but we'll manage. I am worried about him more than vacuumed rugs.

Obdurate

Our governor is like Dubya. He has made up his mind and he won't change it come hell or high water and despite hundreds of people gathering in Montpelier to show their displeasure at his stand on the wrong side of civil rights.

MONTPELIER -- About 300 people jammed into the room next to the governor's office this morning to send the message that they're angry about his promise to veto a same-sex marriage bill.

Gov. Jim Douglas was in his office next door as the crowd assembled for the hour-long protest. He met for about 10 minutes with a handful of same-sex marriage supoorters, but they came away unsatisfied.

"I don't believe we made any headway," said Sandi Cote-Whitacre of Georgia Center.

Douglas announced Wednesday he would veto a same-sex marriage bill making its way through the Legislature. The bill passed the Senate, 26-4, earlier this week and awaits action in the House. Should Douglas carry through with his promise to veto the legislation, a veto override through a 2/3 majority vote in the House would be required to pass the bill into law. It remains unclear whether or not proponents of the measure have enough votes to override a veto.

The crowd of supporters at the Statehouse cheered senators and promised to continue their push to provide equal rights to same-sex couples as those of heterosexual married couples.

Beth Robinson of the Freedom To Marry Coalition said, "The battle is by no means over."

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I spent a fair amount of time writing my rep and all I got back was:

I will vote no regarding gay marriage. I am a Roman Catholic and believe that marriage shalll remain one man and one woman.

So you know what that means... work like hell next year to vote him out of office. It's as simple as that.

More Pixel Pix

My parents have put away all her toys, her dishes, washed all the towels on which she sat. I'll go down and do feline bereavement work early next week.


Christmas 2002


Looking inside at Pixel on her tower


Pixel snow ballet


Christmas 2002


Christmas 2002


Christmas 2003


April 2005


July 2007


July 2007


Christmas 2008

These are the photos already shrunk down. I have others. And my parents have hundreds.

'No!' to a referendum in Vermont

A thread in the comments over at An Inch at a Time, has prompted me to pull my comments and post them here.

Someone over there suggested that same-sex marriage go to a vote 'by the people' (my quotes) in Vermont because surely it would win here. And my unvarnished responses are:

No, no, and again NO. We don't want a lot of outside money pouring into Vermont, thank you. This state is small enough that we can buttonhole our representatives. We can take over the state house and we do. We can write our representatives and then see them at town meeting.

There are enough looneytunes here that such a measure could be voted down and then where would we be?

The opposition is preaching exactly that: have a referendum. It is not the way to go nor is it the Vermont way to go.

We really have a better chance in the legislature. It's just that we have this dumb governor. The thought is that by announcing this, he can get the Republicans to vote NO therefore creating an override veto proof vote.

This thought persisted and I wrote again:

Another big reason for not having a referendum in Vermont: IT SETS A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT. It's just a ploy of the Republicans to get referendums on the ballot. Again, I say, no, no, and again, no, to a referendum. You cannot decide civil rights of a minority by a vote of the majority. That's why we have elected representatives.

(If this were to go to a referendum, I think it would lose despite support.)

Vermont has no provisions for referenda and may it stay that way.

I suggest that to understand the Vermont mentality one read, 'Fast Lane on a Dirt Road,' by Joe Sherman.

Vermonters are inherently conservative and this sort of debate forces confrontation in way that undermines the prevalent, 'You do your thing and I'll do mine.' Up until 1992 when Dean was governor, Vermont was solidly Republican in the presidential race. The political change is largely from flat-landers (such as myself) moving up there.

I doubt this will make any difference but maybe now that NH has just voted through marriage for all, the Vermont House might wake up to the fact that tourism dollars are going to stay across the border. It's really crass to say this but perhaps money is the only way to get through to some of them who are on the fence.

[graphic lifted from An Inch at a Time, too]

Life is never simple

MONTPELIER -- Gov. Jim Douglas (R) announced this afternoon he intends to veto the same-sex marriage bill should it pass the House.

"I believe our civil union law serves Vermont well ..." Douglas told a gathering of reporters and onlookers at a hastily called news conference in the Pavilion Building. "I believe that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. ... I'm announcing that I intend to veto this legislation when it reaches my desk."

The Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill Tuesday that would give the same rights to same-sex couples as those of heterosexual married couples. The bill is before the House Judiciary Committee now and is expected to reach the full House by next week.

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Bring back Howard Dean.

Requiat Pixel

My father just called to say that dear Pixel cat died this morning. She did her usual morning routine and then my parents let her out. When she didn't return after half an hour, they went out to look for her. My father remembered that she likes to drink out of the brook so he went over there. As he looked up the brook, he saw a golden rock. Pixel did not drown, she just pure and simply died as she tried to get a drink. He said she was still warm. He took her to the vet where they confirmed what my parents already knew. She now is buried between two stone walls and a path near the brook.

She was 19 years and 10 days old. She died five days after my father's father's anniversary of death.

My father says the hardest part will be not coming down into the kitchen to a table covered with newspapers (they would put them out because she would sleep on the table). There will be so many other little things that will hit them as they go along.

I brought Pixel home to my apartment — before seminary even! — when she was eight weeks old. She was so little she could still sleep in a shoebox. I kept her for a week before my parents came down to get her. She travelled back with them in my father's tennis hat.

Oh dear Pixel....

In my belief system, she has met up with my father's parents. His mother is busy knitting afghans and Pixel now has her for ever afghan.

Someday I will find her.



Meanwhile she has all her favourite sitting places.

Cat appliance

Wrong colour cat but that's my Doyenne! She'll shred anything and everything.

San Romero de las Américas

God’s reign is already present on our earth in mystery.
When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection.”
That is the hope that inspires Christians.
We know that every effort to better society,
especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained,
is an effort that God blesses,
that God wants,
that God demands of us.

24 March 1980

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Twenty-nine years ago San Romero de las Américas was assassinated while celebrating a requiem mass in the small chapel at La Divina Providencia, San Salvador.

Twenty-nine years later, Rome still dithers, trying to decide if Archbishop Romero's death was political, which would mean that he could not become a saint.

Twenty-nine years later, The Episcopal Church observes his Easter day.

And twenty-nine years later, Romero's words still speak to countless numbers of people including this pilgrim who, whenever she is in San Salvador, goes to his tomb, to touch it so as to receive grace and power from Romero para seguir en la lucha.

[La Divina Providencia, actual site where Romero was murdered as he celebrated a requiem mass]

Koan

Can someone please elucidate to me what this oft-used phrase, 'the faith once delivered to the saints,' means? I say this totally tongue-in-cheek. Compa spent days on the Alteplano of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela ruminating on this phrase. (This shot is what 30kms looked like: poplar trees every ten metres, straight, straight path right next to the road, no shade — absolute trudgery.)

Obviously it's a favourite phrase of the folks who are leaving TEC and they fling it at those of who remain, the apostate, because we haven't received whatever this exclusive faith is.

Here a little French is appropriate: Bigre.

Senate votes YES

Senate gives final approval to same-sex marriage

The Vermont Senate gave its final approval to a same-sex marriage bill Tuesday.

By a voice vote with a few barely audible no votes, the bill now moves to the House.

The House Judiciary Committee takes testimony on the bill this afternoon. Testimony is expected to last a week or more before the full House will vote on the bill.

Rules call for each chamber to vote twice on every bill. The same-sex marriage bill passed 26-4 Monday in a preliminary vote in the Senate.

If the bill passes both chambers and they work out any differences in the versions they pass, it goes to Gov. Jim Douglas, who may sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature. He has said he opposes the bill but has declined to say how he would act on it.

Mental health day

I decided somewhat spur of the moment to play hooky. Actually, today was the first day I have taken off since starting here in November so I don't feel too guilty about it and the office staff wasn't bent out of shape either. I needed a day for my soul to catch up with my body. So I took off.

It's always exciting to go exploring on back roads without really consulting a map. I thought I knew where I was going, and figured the road was going eventually to drop me down on the main road. Ah, I should have looked at the map. I saw some lovely landscape, followed a brook, passed somewhere the place where we crossed the road on the Long Trail and then, oh, landed in a little hamlet about five miles away from the main road. OK. That's where the map came into play. I only ended up on two dirt roads and the potholes weren't too bad. Finally I came out further downstream from where I had intended but also saw two little villages I had never seen.

My first destination was Weston Priory, a Benedictine abbey tucked in the Green Mountains. It has been over five years since I last was there and in some ways, little has changed... though one brother died on Christmas Eve morning of ALS and the other brothers are that much older... as am I.


Off their winter chapel is a small room where their aumbry resides. On one wall hangs this simple carving of Saint Francis.


Here is their aumbry. Compa and I spent time in prayer in this little space the day after Bush Père started the Gulf War in January 1991. At the time, we couldn't help but be struck by the words on the door to the aumbry: Ubi caritas es, Deus ibi es.


Guadaloupe (new in the five years) hangs by the votive in the little chapel.


This is the winter chapel. If the service is a eucharist, everyone comes up close to the altar. I landed on diurnum, a short office that has an opening hymn, canticle, psalm, reading, song and final sentence. It hasn't changed much in the time lapse, not so much that I couldn't sing with them (there is nothing printed). I needed that time there, to hear their inclusive version of Psalm 130, Deuteronomy 30.19: Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.

After spending an hour in the chapel alone and in community, I wandered to their gift store in search of a small hand bell. I had bought one there about ten or eleven years ago and left it at my former parish. I need another one for here to signal the start of the service. Alas, the foundry no longer makes them.

So after that time, I then went on a big round-about to Manchester, VT where I went to Northshire Bookstore where I escaped relatively unscathed.

And then back to home.

Even those five hours makes me a bit more refreshed. This may be it until the end of April so I might as well enjoy it.

Vermont Senate just voted YES on S115

The Senate just voted through S115. Attempts to take it to a state-wide referendum were defeated 19-11. That is not good AFAIMC. It's too close a vote to be comfortable. The bill will go to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday and the House may vote on it by the end of next week. If the bill passes both, it will go into effect 1 September 2009 and no more civil unions will be granted. Those already legally joined in a civil union will have the option of getting married.

Sunday cat follies

Last night Young Guy was asleep in the rocking chair and La Doyenne decided to engage in her usual take over process which is to groom the other at while settling down on top of the reclining feline. It works for a short spell.


But then, whoever was there first resents the incursion on their space and begins to get annoyed.


In this case, Young Guy lingered a few more minutes and then jumped off the chair indignant. Mission Accomplished! (saith La Doyenne).


One always has to be very careful when coming in the garage door because usually someone is lurking at the top of the cellar stairs, just inside the door. Today, when I got back from playing in the snow squall, MABFP was sitting there, ready to make a break.


Meanwhile, Young Guy still is trying to figure out this new toy. He hasn't quite gotten the fact that you can't dig under it to get the plastic ball and the one on the inside doesn't get you to the one on the outside.


'Hm, mebbe if I poke at this thing, I can get to the other rolly thing.'


'Oh hell, I am just going to tackle this and see if I can get the rolly thing out.'

Snow squall

This morning I noted that there were little snowflakes coming down before the last service, A parishioner said, Naw, we won't have any more snow. I said, I know better. When I left church at 12.45 this afternoon, I went out into a snow squall that covered the ground in fifteen minutes.


I walked around to the front of the church to capture a shot of the front doors.


Then I walked to the Memorial Garden which hitherto has been inaccessible because of snow.


By the time I got back to the car, I was covered in snow.



Over at the rectory, the backyard went from being bare to covered in snow in about 15 minutes. By the same token, by 2.30 in the afternoon, most of the snow had melted. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Lent 4B (today's sermon)

Many times when listening to a reading, one’s ears (or mind really) will stop at a particular verse and hear nothing else. If I were to ask you which verse you remember from the gospel reading you have just heard, I would bet you would all come up with the same verse: John 3.16, which is at the beginning of the selection.

We hear this verse every Sunday in the Rite I liturgy as part of the comfortable words, which follow the confession and absolution. I can recite it by heart in the KJV as it appears in Rite I: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ Most of us have encountered someone who has recited it to us as proof of their faith in Jesus. It’s like the joke where someone yells out numbers that indicate the punch lines and people laugh. Here, all one has to say is ‘John 3.16’ and others will nod their heads in agreement. This verse is so well known, yet its context is anything but simple to understand and its message not entirely consoling.

So, how do we hear this text with new ears and heart?

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The gospel reading from John is cast in heavy contrasts of ascending and descending imagery and language of light and dark. This particular passage picks up in the middle of a conversation that takes place at night between Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, and Jesus (we will hear the conversation in full on Trinity Sunday this year). Nicodemus is confused by Jesus’ teaching regarding the need to be ‘born from above,’ or ‘born anew.’ Jesus tells Nicodemus he cannot understand because he lacks spiritual insight. Only Jesus truly can understand because he knows heaven, from whence he descended and to where he will again return.

Jesus speaks in veiled terms of his being lifted up on the cross in comparison to Moses holding up the serpent on the staff. Both the bronze serpent that Moses holds up (to counter the fatal bite of the fiery seraphim) and Jesus on the cross provide the means for healing and the restoration of life.


(It wasn’t until this past Friday as I walked the stations of the cross that I realised that the stained glass window closest to the icon contains both the readings from Numbers and John that we have just heard. After the service, go and look at the Romanesque, flat-headed serpent on the staff and its onlookers in the lower panel and then put that image in contrast with the upper panel which depicts the crucifixion.)


This particular lifting up as mentioned in John’s gospel carries another level of meaning: the Son of mortals must be lifted up to heaven as a continuation of the idea of the descending and ascending redeemer. John’s gospel, then, combines the image of the heavenly redeemer with the earthly Jesus.

The theology behind these extraordinary statements is perhaps clearer when said this way:

God, Divine Love, unable to bear the sight of humanity perishing, sends Jesus into the world to save it. Divine Love wants to fill people with a life that does not end. Even if people have strayed from their grounding in God and oppressed one another, God does not seek condemnation. The divine desire is for salvation. The judgement of God is love and life.

This theological presentation concludes with that famous verse, John 3.16, now rendered a sound-bite. In context, this verse stands at an important transitional point of the gospel. The dialogue with Nicodemus ends and John 3.16 offers the idea that God’s love has provided the means for salvation through Jesus.

But then, what do we do with this question: if God loves the world so much, why is any of it condemned? Because that is where the quotation continues. Those who enter into the light, who receive Jesus, are saved and those who don’t are condemned.

What do we do with this light and dark imagery and this judgement talk?

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Eugene Peterson, in his interpretation of the bible, The Message, renders this complex multi-layered verse this way:

‘This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.… This is the crisis we’re in… God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.’

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Peterson’s approach is fairly helpful, despite the notion of people wanting to please God—God has already told us that we are God’s beloved and while it is good to do things pleasing to God, that doing good is for our good, not God’s. What is useful is Peterson’s recognition that when faced with goodness, people are often more inclined to turn away from it. I have the rather earthy (!) image of people who, like cockroaches when a light is turned on, will scramble crazily for the dark corners of the room, or do anything to get away from the glare of the light. Sometimes goodness is too much to bear.

When faced with unconditional love, people will question it. And when faced with the truth, especially about themselves, people will want to flee from it, rather than confront it, make amends and be made new.

George Herbert (1593-1633)’s poem Love (III), describes the Divine Love that seeks us and our too human reaction:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;
Love said, “You shall be he.”
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.”
“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”
“My dear, then I will serve.”
“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
So I did sit and eat. (1)

Eric Selinger, a NEH summer seminar professor, notes how the poem tracks the shrinking distance between God and the soul as it goes along. (By the end, it vanishes altogether, as God is actually ingested.) Love is first welcoming, then observant, then solicitous. The hesitations of the speaker are transformed into his own self-revelation, or maybe self-transformation. (2)

It is so hard for us to accept God’s invitation to receive forgiveness, to let ourselves be loved. It is so hard to receive Jesus’ invitation to come to the table and be fed with the bread of life and cup of salvation. But God comes seeking us, wooing us to this life of light.

If we live the truth, and do good deeds, we will be able to handle the brightness of light when it shines on our lives. If we seek living openly in the light, then we will be less predisposed toward the darkness—whether it is self-condemnation or not loving our neighbour as ourselves or not loving God.

Getting to that point of being able to live in the God-light takes honesty and time. Living in the God-light means exposing the racist, sexist, classist ways of our daily life, both collectively and personally. It is hard but rewarding and life-giving work. Working toward the integration of all equally into our society would, indeed, be most pleasing to God, as well as bringing about the fullness and completeness of each person as God has intended when God created us. We then are engaged in the God-work that we have been given to do; we invite into our lives the God-light.

As Hymn 490 states, ‘I want to walk as a child of the light, I want to follow Jesus. God set the stars to give light to the world. The star of my life is Jesus. In him there is no darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike. The Lamb is the light of the city of God. Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.’

Yes, shine in my heart. Maybe then I will understand just how much Love is seeking me, and how I need no longer be afraid to enter into that God-light.

END NOTES
(1) Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto, http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/979.html
(2) http://saysomethingwonderful.blogspot.com/2006/09/herbert-love-iii.html

[photographs: Hopkins Chapel, top panel depicting the crucifixion; lower panel depicting Moses and the bronze serpent; close up of bottom panel[

Lent 3B (last week's sermon)

The story of Jesus driving out the money sellers in the temple is always an option for the gospel reading on Holy Tuesday, the week-long journey through the cross to Easter. With that overlay, hearing the story four weeks before Easter gives us a taste of what lies ahead not just in the gospel narrative but also in our own faith journey. It also is a peculiar story because it is one of the very few gospel stories where we see a truly ripped Jesus. It seems uncharacteristic, especially coming from the gospel according to John, which starts off with such an elegant and mystical description of Christ’s coming into the world, with words we hear every Christmas Day, ‘In the beginning was the Word….’

This gospel story holds the potential of hitting very close to our hearts since we live in a culture whose lifeline, air and water is money. Our entire life is defined by how much of the stuff we have. Less is our life defined by the good that we do with it. Even less of our life seems to be defined by who we are, rather than what we are.

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Unless you’ve been on retreat or walking the Camino de Santiago where you’ve chosen not to read newspapers, watch television or go online, you have surely heard about the collapse of the stock market and, even more problematic, the collapse of the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff. He bilked billions of dollars from investors (something like $65B), including my hometown’s police department, notables such as Elie Weisel, Stephen Spielberg (many, many Jewish clients), and countless non-profits. The hospital where my brother works lost $5.7M. He says, ‘There is a new verb around here: getting “Madoffed”!’ I can’t even begin to imagine what a person can do with all that money. Madoff may say he is embarrassed and sorry but the fact remains that his greed has left many people without their nest egg and some are actually facing homelessness. Not all these people were the super wealthy either and many didn’t even know their money was with Madoff’s firm until the scheme blew apart. What is this mess really all about? The idol of money, of course.

How many times have we heard stories of some church person bilking the church, of all places? The church where I was baptised, woke up to the realisation twenty-five years ago that their treasurer had skimmed off some $125.000 during his tenure. My mother even was affected by the crime because the money she gave in memory of her mother for a garden statue of Saint Francis disappeared and the statue was never bought. What was it all about? The idol of money, of course.

Today El Salvador will elect a new president and vice-president. The campaign has been vicious, physically violent at times, and filled with half-truths and outright lies. It is hard to know who will win and regardless which party wins, they will be faced with a country riddled by gangs and poverty. A friend lamented that Salvadorans used to complain about fourteen families running the entire country. Now it’s down to about four or five. There may be an emerging middle class but the poor are getting poorer and poorer by the day. The well-to-do can afford to drive around in $45000 cars while others can’t even afford the tin roof over their heads. What’s it all about? The idol of money, of course.

What’s wrong with these pictures? Do I really need to say so or don’t we already know? And, if we do know, then where do we go from here? Do I need to say that our culture has a really confused relationship with money? What do we make of Jesus’ rage at the money changers in the temple?

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Jean Vanier, the French founder of the Arche communities for persons living with mental and physical handicaps, sometimes the most broken and forgotten people around the world, knows another way of living that is not contingent upon one’s worth predicated in monetary value but in spiritual goodness and humanity. He comments on this passage from John:

The first place Jesus visits when he goes to Jerusalem is the Temple, the ‘house of his Father.’ For the Jewish people, the Temple is the sign of the presence of God: God’s ‘dwelling place’ among them.

But what does Jesus find in the Temple?

People selling cattle, sheep and doves and money changers sitting at their tables. People had changed his Father’s house into a place of commerce!

Jesus was enraged and he drove the people out of the Temple. Instead of worshipping God, people were making an idol of money. They were selling animals for sacrifice at an unjust price. The money changers were taking a big commission, impoverishing those who were already quite poor because of the Temple tax they had to pay with Temple money, not Roman money. …

We can imagine the commotion, the screaming, the noise of the animals, the sound of money falling to the ground as Jesus chases the animals out of the Temple. The money changers and those trying to hold on to their animals shout in fury. The whole place is in chaos! Jesus, with a whip, filled with the ‘zeal of his Father’s house’ cannot bear to see this holy place—where the Jewish people were called to listen to God and be faithful to God’s covenant of love—turned into a place of commerce. (1)

Vanier reads into this passage that, as Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers, he is also overturning people’s understanding of themselves. As Jesus speaks of the sanctuary of the Temple, he is also speaking of the sanctuary of the body. He shifts the conversation from the sacredness of the Temple to the sacredness of his body. Vanier then goes on to say:

Jesus, hurt and angered by the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem, ‘his Father’s house,’ is also crying out against the desecration of the temple of our own bodies. We human beings are also called to be the home, the dwelling place, of God.

He cites Etty Hillesum, ‘a young Jewish woman in Holland, who was later gassed by the Nazis in Auschwitz, who had a deep sense of the value of each person as the “home” of God. At one time, when she was in Westerbork, waiting with other Jews for their final hour of deportation to Auschwitz, she wrote that her only desire was to help people discover the treasure of their personhood, that each person is called to be the ‘home of God’: And I promise you, yes I promise you, my God, that I shall try to find a ‘home’ and a roof for you in as many houses as possible. There are so many empty houses where I will bring you in as a guest of honor’ (69).

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What if you and I truly were to encourage one another to find the sense of our value as people and not as consumers (because in some ways, we also are money changers)?

What if we were to help others find their treasure as a human being? What if we were to help each other discover how we each are the home of God? And what does being the home of God mean?

A few things, for starters…

• finding our value, not in money, or what we have, or what our vocation or profession is;
• reminding ourselves that we are God’s beloved and always have been regardless of whatever we have done that might have injured our neighbours and ourselves, though we do need to turn our lives around and seek forgiveness;
• setting aside time for God through prayer, service and delight and wonder in God’s creation;
• becoming what we already are and have been through baptism (in the words of Saint Augustine);
• using righteous anger in unjust situations that take away another person’s sense of being God’s beloved.

What other ways can you think of encouraging others and yourself to be God’s home?

An article in a recent publication by the Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador suggests, ‘We are invited to live in a simple way, ready to give and receive. We shouldn’t excuse poverty. Poverty kills people, physically and spiritually. But to live with gratitude for what we have, and hold onto that which gives us life is to live in God’s economy. Being rich is not a sign that God blesses us. Neither is being poor a sign that God punishes us. Living with joy and care with all of God’s creation within our communal relationships is a sign of God’s blessing.’

If we live into all these suggestions and encourage one another and ourselves, we will (in the words of Saint Augustine) become what we already are and have been, marked as God’s own for ever through baptism. Then, too, shall we better know God, for the ‘glory of God is the human being fully alive’ (Iranaeus). Finally, we will find a new economy — God’s — that will change our lives.

END NOTE
(!) Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004, 64, 66).

Friday cat blogging (por fin)

Lots of photos from the past couple of weeks....


With help, our friend is scaling the heights of every bookcase in the house so here he is in the bedroom.


I don't encourage this, it was a one-time shot, but Young Guy tries out the new iPhone and bluetooth earphone or whatever you call it.


MABFP found a nice place and her presence compliments the colours of the sweater.


YG has had a hankering to get up on top of the double bookcases but the only way to get up there was with help. He is discovering he can't quite move around up there as he could in the other house.


Damn, these ceilings are low!


He tries out a new runner made in Iran that I got at a bookstore down in Chester, VT.


The sun makes it a bit hard to see but they are both batting the ball back and forth and are getting good at it.


He also gives a try at getting the ball up on top while La Doyenne watches.


Poor Orange Guy was in the basket first and along came Young Guy. Not many this go-round of our orange boy but he's fine.

Breaking News: Senate panel votes yes

[Night update below the earlier posting]


The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted unanimously to approve a bill authorizing same-sex marriage in Vermont.

The committee has been taking testimony on the issue all week, and heard from supporters and opponents of the proposal.

Sen. Kevin Mullin offered an amendment to put the issue before the public in a vote, but other members opposed that amendment. It failed 4-1, with Mullin the only supporter.

The committee unanimously approved an amendment to change the religious exemption portion of the initial bill, and added "spouse" the the terms "bride" and "groom" on state forms.

[Mullin is my senator... and is going on the opposition's line of 'taking it to the people,' and putting this to a referendum, which is not how things operate, fortunately, in Vermont.]

photo is from Wednesday night

More later.

[later] What happens next is that the full senate will vote on the bill next week and then it will go to the house. Whether the governor will sign the bill if it makes it through these two remains to be seen because he maintains that civil unions provide everything that is needed.