​Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
The Feast of Christ the King, Year A
November 22, 2020
 
It all started with as car accident in 2013. Dolly Parton, of country music fame, had been in a fender bender, and out of an abundance of caution, she went to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to be evaluated.  Her injuries were not serious, but she did need a surgical consult in case there were internal injuries.
 
Her doctor was a man named Naji Abumrad, professor of surgery at the prestigious research hospital.  Dolly being Dolly chatted up her doctor.  By all appearances, they had little in common, but in getting to know one another they found real common ground.  Dr. Abumrad is a Lebanese immigrant from a remote and very poor mountain village.  Immediately, Dolly identified.  She grew up poor in a remote mountain community too.  They both had large families.  They both had found success in their respective fields.  They both had deep gratitude for what they had been able to accomplish from their humble beginnings.  They both had a heart for helping others.
 
Dolly being Dolly kept up with her new friend, asking about his work and taking an interest in his scientific research.  In April of this year, just after the big COVID lockdown, Dolly asked Dr. Abumrad about what research that could be done to find a vaccine.  He told her about Vanderbilt’s partnership with Moderna and promising work in some initial stages for a vaccine.  Without even being asked, Dolly made a gift of one million dollars in honor of Dr. Naji Abumrad.
 
To be clear, a million dollars is not nearly enough to fund such a massive and emergent effort, but her gift got the project off the ground and as it did, they drew attention and were able to secure gifts and grants of many more millions.  This past week, Moderna announced that their trials had yielded a 95% effectiveness rate.  What started through an unlikely friendship led to a vaccine with the potential of saving millions of lives and helping us all regain opportunity to be together.  If all goes as well as we hope, plans are already in the works to begin rolling out the vaccine in early 2021.  This is a great story and a great gift to humanity.  It all came from a human-to-human connection about the experience of poverty and the opportunities of generosity.
 
Today we celebrate the last Sunday of our Church year.  Advent begins next Sunday.  On this occasion that we call the Feast of Christ the King, we are put in mind of the primacy of Jesus way of love that rises above all earthly constructs of power and control.  And the lessons we read for this day, we are invited to turn our perspective of power inside out and upside down. 
 
In gathering his disciples for one of their last meetings, Jesus reminds them and us that the highest and best acts we can do out of love for God is to help one another.  The disciples have been angling for places of privilege in the coming Kingdom of God, but Jesus challenges them to bring about the Kingdom of God in the here and now.  Doing so does not happen through flashy displays of wealth and influence, rather doing do comes through serving God in serving people in need.
 
The pastoral metaphor Jesus employs is separating the sheep and the goats.  Sheep are well known to his folks.  They are sources of clothing and food.  They are low maintenance creatures that feed on grasses and cause very little trouble.  They may not be the brightest of beasts, but they are gentle and easy to tend.  Goats, on the other hand, are more ravenous and combative.  They consume everything in sight, pulling up plants be the roots and laying waste to pastures.  They need to be corralled and limited in number to protect precious grazing land.  When Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats to bring about the reign of God, the people know exactly what he means. 
 
The story is not so much about damning the goats to eternal fire as it is helping us to remember to channel our inner sheepness and put away our tendency toward goatness.  This reign of God that folks seem to put off as some apocalyptic event is meant to break into the here and now.  We do not care for the least and the lost in order to gain favor with God as much as we care for the least and the lost because of the favor God has already shown to us.  We are not about dominance.  We are about humble service.
 
On this Christ the King Sunday, we do our formal ingathering of pledges for the work of God through Emmanuel Church in the coming year.  You all are really generous folks, even in an uncertain time.  If you have yet to pledge, please do so that we might plan and budget appropriately for 2021.  It will be a year when healing and hope will come together and it will be a year of restoration and revival even if it is gradual. 
 
We give of our treasure, our time, and our abilities not because it will gain us more favor with God.  We give because we are grateful and we are gifted and we are all in this world together for God.  Early in my ministry, one of my mentors had me look at the list of the most generous givers in the parish relative to their abilities.  He wanted me to see that list to teach me that those were the most engaged, active, and joyful folks in our community.  The grumblers, as he called them, kind of remained on the fringes of our community and rarely gave much at all.  I will never forget that lesson.  In this parish, I do not look at who gives how much, but generosity of spirit abounds here.  I know that first hand.  Thank you and thank God.  Emmanuel lives into its name:  God with us.  The Kingdom of God is not far off or some futuristic reckoning.  The kingdom of God is here and now.
 
I believe this because holiness happens.  What started with a car accident in 2013 resulted in a friendship and unlikely kinship between Dolly Parton and Naji Abumrad.  From that, love gave way to generosity, which gave way to opportunity, which gave way to help and healing for who knows how many.  They did not do it all, they simply played their role in the helping the reign of God thrive.  They took what they had and what they knew and leveraged all of it for good.  Seriously, Dolly Parton has plenty of money, but she does not have as much as she could have because she gives lots and lots of it to serve others.
 
Love in action works this way.  It multiplies.  We do not have to have hit songs or medical brilliance.  We do not have to have great wealth or enjoy positions of high esteem. We do not have to be perfectly pious or completely put together.  All Jesus asks is that we are willing, that we are available, that we are creative, and that we are grateful.  Even as we do small things with great love, God does great things through the likes of us.  Amen.    

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 28, Year A
November 15, 2020
 
If I were to begin this sermon as I would like, I would hand out big pieces of drawing paper, markers, crayons, paint, and even glitter.  Then, I would invite you to draw a picture of God.  Some would balk claiming they do not have artistic gifts.  That is not the assignment.  Still others would jump on the task and do a stick figure something just to humor me and get to the point.  Still others would be delighted to enter into a creative exercise and would ask for extra time to cover the page.  If we were in an art studio with big tables and easels, we could have a big day together.
 
The fact is that as a teacher of An Introduction to Theology for high schoolers, I gave this assignment on the first day of class.  I took them into a big airy space and gave them all kinds of media to create.  Some took it seriously.  Some wondered what my point was.  The rest of them just played along because they knew that, as I had that I told them, I would grade them -- if only on effort. 
 
In 15 years of teaching that course, I noticed a ubiquitous and major theme.  In drawing God at the beginning of the class, most of the pictures portrayed God as an old, bearded man in a white robe.  There were varied versions of the man, gazing over the earth, and often, he was hurling thunder bolts.  It became clear to me that the image of God the drew was informed more by the Far Side comics and the Simpsons T.V. show than anything else.  This gave me the opening and the opportunity to offer the class as a way of consulting new and different sources.  If their pictures were more abstract, that gave us an opportunity to begin to put words to their perceptions.
 
Among preachers of the lectionary, this is known as Holy Scripture Sunday or Bible Sunday because the opening prayer invites us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the holy scriptures which we say “were written for our learning.”  It is a classic prayer that expresses the way we approach the Bible as the Word of God.
 
Inevitably that leads us to interpretive problems in developing our image of God.  We have that grim first lesson from Judges where the presumption is that when the people do what God wants, they succeed, and when they do not, they founder and suffer.  Remember that the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is a living account of how people thought of God and interpreted what was happening to them.  Their lives were precarious and they came from a context of believing that God or gods needed to be pleased and appeased.  Some of that mythology holds on even to this day.
 
When we come to the Gospel, we hear the parable of the talents.  It is an old chestnut of the faith and a popular lection for stewardship season.  If we read it as straight allegory, we are servants or slaves to a master with high expectations.  If we take what we are given and make more with it, God is pleased.  If we hoard what we are given and play it safe, we are to be left out in the dark.  Matthew is fond of the theme of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  There is a kernel of truth in here.  We do believe God as wildly generous, and we believe that our response to such generosity is to be responsive and creative in serving God.  
 
There are problems with the direct allegory style of imagining God through this lens.  It sets up God as a cruel master who expects some sort of measurable return on investment from us.  The power dynamic also implies and unequal distribution of resources according to ability.  This could lead to seeing the wealthy as more able or more blessed.  And all of this runs counter to everything Jesus preaches about the poor being mightily loved and blessed as well.
 
It is no wonder that the Far Side, Simpsons old, bearded, thunderbolt wielding God is pretty standard in folks imagination.  We need to dig deeper.  Today, I raise the possibility that, in this parable, Jesus is questioning our view of the way God works.  Jesus begins in saying that the kingdom of God had been thought about this way…. He may be saying that we have some of it right:  God is wildly generous, and hopeful for us to take what is given and thrive for God’s sake and out own.  It is also possible that Jesus is telling us that we have some of it wrong too, especially if we consider what we are given as a measure of our ability -- or our power as some translations put it.  Remember, Jesus is in the Temple and addressing the religious elites.  They are plenty hopped up on their power. Their position provides them with lots of material wealth and, they believe they have all the answers. They are trying to trap this Jesus character as misguided as he criticizes their narrow understanding of who God loves most. 
 
Remember that this is the last parable Jesus tells before he will be arrested, tried, and executed as a blasphemer and traitor.  He is about to show that God will stick with us, forgive us, and even rise to live with us no matter what.  St. Paul summarizes this, in his letter to the Thessalonians, reminding us that “we are not destined for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us… that we may live with him.”  The last word is not punishing, it is loving.  Maybe we are not so much about getting people to heaven in the future, as we are about helping them out of hell now.
 
We do need to take the Bible seriously.  We do need to mine it, meditate on it, argue with it, and pray with it to develop our picture of God.  And to do so, we need to look at it whole.  Parts of it will always be problematic.  We have reason and rational minds as gifts to use too.
 
For the final exam in An Introduction to Theology, I asked my students to draw God again and write an artist’s statement explaining the picture.  Most of what I got was expansive, imaginative, and profound.  In holding the Bible, various teachings, and the right use of reason in creative tension, we grew together.
 
The challenge of today is to consider how we are to account for what we are given all the while understanding that there is a God of grace, mercy, and forgiveness rooting for us to thrive.  As we grow in faith, our picture of God will change and develop over time and through experience.  Pull out your crayons, markers, paint, and the glitter of imagination.  Imagine God.  This is not blasphemy.  It is a creative way to seek God and a deeper relationship with God.  Have fun with it. God wants to be seen and known just as surely as God sees and knows us all as beloved creation.  We are all an unfinished masterpiece in progress.

​Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 27, Year A
November 8, 2020
 
Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins
 
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
 
or press an ear against its hive.
 
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
 
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
 
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
 
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
 
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
 
I love this poem.  I loved it because of its irony, its ambiguity, and its paradox.  Here we are, hearing a poem that criticizes any narrow interpretation of its meaning, all while the poet wants to make a point about its meaning.  The joke, here, is on all of us.
 
When we gather each week to hear parts of the sacred story of God in relationship with us, we wrestle with the truth as presented.  We look through different lenses: the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) Letters from Paul and other early Christians, and the Gospels (literally Good news) of Jesus the Christ.  It is not always easy to interpret what we read.  Sometimes, it is just hard to pay attention to what is said.  And there are so many holy words, cultural nuances, translational issues, historical contexts to understand, and scads of commentary and literary criticism from their time to our time.  And then there is theology (literally God words).  Theology is extracted from the texts as well.  Heaps and volumes of theology have spewed forth from monastics, clerics and academic researchers.  I you want to read about a word, a line, a passage, a parable, or book of the Bible, there is more than one could ever read out there. 
 
Every now and then I just google a verse or two and see what people have written about them.  I am not sure how their search engine chooses what to show me, but usually Wikipedia is in there as are some super fundamentalist sites that want to tell me what to think and where to send my money.  The internet can take us from being a searcher to being a product for commerce pretty quickly.  I do not recommend this form of inquiry as more than entertainment.
 
I am all for scholarly inquiry and I spend much of my life immersed in interpretation, but in the end the Word of God is more like a poem than a theological treatise.  The Word of God is a story not a text book.  And that story intersects with my story as a Christ follower and our story as a faithful body.  It might be good to take Billy Collins’s advice and hold it up to the light like a color slide rather than tie it down to find out what it really means.
 
All of our lessons for today are both revelatory and problematic.  Joshua issues the clarion and bedrock call to “choose this day whom we will serve,” but in process portrays God as jealous and vengeful God.  Saint Paul, in his effort to comfort the Thessalonians who are expect God’s kingdom to come immediately, gives us this end times apocalyptic rapture image of being drawn up into the sky.  All of that muddies the waters of what happens when we die because, he says, the dead do not rise until some second coming of Christ, but at the cross Jesus tells the thief at his side he will be with him in paradise that day.
 
We tend to look to the Gospels to be more definitive and central as they focus on God made human.  And yet, Jesus’ parable of the ten bridesmaids is more of a head scratcher than an affirmation of truth.  We can’t be sure who the bridegroom represents or if we are the wise or the foolish bridesmaids, or if we have enough to share or not.  About the only clarity to be found here is the final line’s admonition “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
 
I am not suggesting that the Word of God is meant to confuse us, but it is meant to challenge us as much as it is to comfort us.  Holding these passages up to the light, we might find a broader and wider meaning rather than chasing details down a rabbit hole.  As the Orthodox say: “Is mystery.” 
 
From Joshua, it is fair to say that we set up false gods of money, ego, and power.  They may not be Amorite or Egyptian gods, but they do obscure our faith and devotion to our One God.
 
From Saint Paul, the details of what happens when we die may be unknown, but we rest in hope of resurrection as is promised.  This life is part of a much bigger life in God.
 
And from Matthew, the parable may be confusing, but the conclusion is not.  God comes to us whether or not we expect God to show up, and it is good to be on the lookout for holy happenings.
 
We have just lived through a week of shifting sands.  The back and forth of our election have us all reeling to the extent that we are concerned or paying attention.  There are and will be endless analyses, speculations, accusations, and interpretations.  What does it all mean?  It means we are divided and not of one mind as people and as a nation.  That is really nothing new, and it was true before the first votes were cast.
 
If your candidate lost, fellow Christians we still have our mission.  It comes not from party affiliation but from baptism: to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.  If your candidate won, we still have that same mission.
 
There is a great scene in the classic movie Rudy that helps sum this up.  In the film Rudy is young man working tirelessly to make the Notre Dame football team.  Along the way he in befriended by a Catholic priest who looks out for him.  Near the end, Rudy asks the priest if he has done enough, if he has prayed enough.  The priest responds: “Prayers happen in our time, the answers come in God’s time.  And in 35 years of religious studies, I have come to realize only two incontrovertible facts:  There is a God, and I am not Him.”
 
We can wax philosophical, theological, and even poetic, but the truth remains: our meaning, our existence, and our destiny is a gift of God.  In all of the confusion and chaos of life, may we hold ourselves and one another up to the light and shine.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
All Saints, Year A
November 1, 2020
 
Today is a great church day: All Saints Day.  It is a day when we remember and celebrate that we are members incorporate in the communion of saints.  We are part of a great cloud of witnesses to the love that goes back centuries and centuries and stretches forward into eternity.  Today is a celebration day, a remembering day, and a perspective gathering day.  With so much cluttering our short-term spheres of concern, it is good to take a long view and remind ourselves of the power of God outlasting and overcoming whatever chances and changes vex our souls.  We even use the term ineffable joys to describe the horizon of our hope.  Ineffable means indescribable and unutterable, but still we ought to talk about it.
 
Today, I want us to talk about saints and sainthood.  To get there, I invite you to engage in a simple exercise:
 
First, as you consider all of Holy Scripture and all of the passages and verses that impact our life of faith, which stand out as most important or impactful.  This is not a moment to bible shame if you did not do the whole memory verse competition in Vacation Bible School as a kid.  But what are the ones you remember.  What are the ones that guide you, comfort you, and challenge you to live into what we believe?  Is there a biblical greatest hits list in your mind?   Got that?  Ok, let’s move on.
 
Second, as you consider all of the great music and hymnody of the Church, can you come up with the most impactful of all the songs we sing in worship and praise?  All Saints has some great ones: I sing a song of the saints of God, For all the Saints from whom their labors rest, Ye watchers and ye holy ones.  It is really rough not to be able to sing together.  We will again, and by will we appreciate what we have missed.  There are, however, no rules against humming loudly behind our masks.  Think of all the tunes and word that come to mind.  Can you list the top five?  Got that?  Ok, let’s move on.
 
Third, could you name the top five sermons that you remember having a lasting impact on your life of faith and formation?  Ok, that one is fraught with danger as sermons can be like a good joke.  You may remember that you liked it, but cannot retell it exactly.  It does not hurt my feelings if you have a hard time with this one.  We all do.  Got that?  Well, neither do I.
 
Finally, as you consider your life of faith and your own personal formation, can you identify those individuals who have had the greatest impact?  These can be people you know or people who have achieved some notoriety.  In your mind, can you make that list of the mentors, friends, and people of greatest influence in your life?
 
Now, which of these lists were the easiest to formulate?  Which of these lists got you really thinking and connecting to who and how you have become who you are: what you believe, how you behave, and what you hope to become?  Most people say that list of people was the easiest to assemble, the most evocative of goodness, righteousness, and, even, holiness.
 
I have my own list: family friends, teachers, some clergy, and even, a particular Sunday school teacher.  In my life of working is parishes and schools, I have been blessed to encounter God in soaring sacred worship, profound celebrations of song, moving and eloquent preaching and proclamation, solemn liturgies, and seasonal blow outs, but the glue connected my faith into a relatively coherent and meaningful enterprise has come through the people of God.  In God’s continuing love affair with the world, God’s people have kept the faith, and kept us faithful, more than anything we can read, study, sing, or proclaim.
 
These people are saints.  We tend to think of saints as long dead giants of the faith.  Some of them were persecuted or martyred.  There is even a process for commending saints.  The Episcopal Church has complied books of remembrance and mini biographies.  It is a fair exercise, but a bit much as there are so many to recognize that the we have run out of days in the year.  And if you ask me, the ones I know have had more impact on me than one who converted folks to Christianity at Antioch in the 8th century.
 
Today is a great church day because we get beyond all of the officialdom of churchiness, throw it all up in the air, and consider the great gift of those who have shown God to us.  Despite all of the hype we give to the term saint, saints are not perfect people.  No person is pure, holy, righteous, and blameless all of the time.  Saints come with faults, foibles, and failings too.  But the great power of God is to shine through the cracks of human brokenness and reveal great love.
 
So, hold up the saints of your life in the light today.  Give thanks for them.  Think on their witness.  But there is one more thing.  Know that it is not only possible, but likely, that you are a saint for someone else.  Yes, you and I have the power to reveal God to others.  We call our parish Emmanuel because that means God with us.  Sure, God is revealed in the Bible, God is honored in the prayers, God is praised in songs and anthems, but God really becomes real as God’s love busts into now in the love we have and share together. 
 
Today is a great church day because it is our day too.  It is the feast of ALL SAINTS.  That great cloud of witnesses stands beside us, behind us, and before us, helping us to be saints too.  Amen.
​