Ash Wednesday Year A,B,& C 2020

Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
February 26, 2020

On Ash Wednesday, clergy across this communion (and others) impose ashes, with varying degrees of skill, in the rough shape of a cross. Let this mark be a sign of “deep contrition, repentance, and an unmistakable sign of belonging” to God. (See "A Meditation for Ash Wednesday" by The Rev. Katherine Sonderegger of Virginia Theological Seminary.)

We have just heard Jesus praise those who keep their acts of piety secret. His words about piety underscore what has come earlier in Matthew’s Gospel: God cares more about what is in our hearts than what is on the outside. As far as our piety, our devotional practices, Jesus is urging us to pay attention to our intentions. If we receive ashes today just so that other people will see them, if the motivation were all about what others think, then we miss what Jesus is teaching. Instead, let’s be motivated to work on our relationship with God and our love of neighbor. This is what Lent is about, turning our hearts to God and away from all else that distracts. If through acts of personal piety, we seek a closer walk with God and a more loving world, then surely our hearts are in a good place.

In a moment, I will, in the name of the Church, formally invite us to observe a holy Lent. The ashes that follow are a sign of our mortality. It is as if to say, “Without God we are nothing more than dust.” We leave this life as dust, and God takes our future from there. Perhaps, letting go of all ego-inflating pretense makes it easier to acknowledge our dependence on God alone.

One thing I would like to do for Lent is to work on downsizing by letting go of some stuff. I still have books from college, graduate school, and seminary. Each one is a part of me in some way and many hold good memories. But, holding on to them may be one way I refuse to accept my mortality. Perhaps, letting go of some of them will be a type of self-denial, an acceptance that life on this earth comes to an end, and part of a holy Lent for me.

The ashes today remind me that humility is the way to a closer walk with God. Love today reminds me to do what needs to be done so my children will not be burdened with so much of my physical stuff. This kind of letting go reminds me that the things my loved-ones most need from me today are not really things at all; more than anything else, they need my love.

Lately, we have been made deeply aware of the shortness and uncertainty of human life. The evolution of Covid-19 into a global pandemic underscores this. The effects of rapid climate change underscore this. We also live in a time when people are polarized into mutually exclusive silos of opinion…a time when reason seems to have left the arena of civil discourse, and all groups seek to hurt the other at escalating cost. And, this is just at a point when all people need to cooperate for the benefit of our species and our planet. Lent is a time for self-examination including an examination of how we respond to those we do not understand. Lent is a time for us to consider what Love and Reason require of us individually, in our Church, and in the troubled world in which we live. Lent is a time to answer Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be healed?”

Giving alms, prayer, fasting, downsizing, self-examination, humble actions... All of these practices are ways to make more room in our hearts for God. Beginning with today’s ashes, may all of our special acts of devotion, self-denial, and love of neighbor this Lent be intended to draw us closer to God in Jesus Christ. For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. AMEN.

Last Epiphany Year A 2020

Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9
February 23, 2020

On this Last Sunday after the Epiphany, our Gospel reading is Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration.  Jesus takes his 3 closest disciples, his inner circle: Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain.  These 3 witness something astounding.  In an instant, their teacher is changed from flesh into pure radiance and seen speaking with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Law and the Prophets in Jewish tradition.  Jesus is transfigured to reveal his divine nature and shown in conversation with heavenly figures. 

Peter responds to this event by offering to build three dwellings, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  Something strange and mysterious has happened here.  This is big stuff, and Peter stands ready to build something to commemorate what has happened, a lasting monument, a place for worship, and a holy site for pilgrims to come from near and far for generations to come.  To them the Transfiguration is a mystery that draws people to it.

But, wait; there is more... Peter was still rambling about making dwellings when a bright cloud enveloped them, so they could no longer see anything.  And from within that cloud, they could hear a voice: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  On hearing the voice of God, the disciples fell to the ground.  They were terrified.  To be in the presence of God was more than they could bear.

The Transfiguration story involves 2 different opposite reactions.  In the 1st reaction, there is a kind of interest and attraction.  Jesus is revealed as God, and Jesus draws people to himself.  Dwelling places are planned to mark the spot where pilgrims will surely come as they hear of the fascinating event that occurred here.  In the 2nd reaction, there is a kind of shrinking away and dread.  The voice of God speaks to them directly, and it is more than they can handle.  Fear paralyzes them, and they fall to the ground.

Rudlof Otto is known as one of the most influential thinkers of the 1st half of the 20th Century.  He is best known for his work The Idea of the Holy published in German in 1917 followed by an English translation in 1923.  Here Otto attempts to analyze the human experience that underlies all religion.  For Otto, the numinous encounter with God is described with the 2-part Latin phrase: Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans.  The 1st part is the trembling experience of overwhelming power.  In the presence of the Almighty, we are acutely aware of our smallness, frailty, and sin.  Terror sets-in, and our knees fail us. The 2nd part is a response to mercy and grace.  We are fascinated and drawn toward the divine Love which has willed us into being.  For Otto, the strangest and most noteworthy phenomenon in the whole history of religion, the human encounter with God, has two polar-opposite qualities, both daunting and fascinating at the same time.  Of course, this is a logically impossible description, contradictory and not making sense.  It is an emotional paradox. 

People experience emotional paradox when we feel quite opposite feelings at the same time.  As a youth, I remember the high diving board at our neighborhood pool.  I was fascinated with the high dive and scared of it at the same time.  (You don’t see diving boards this tall nowadays; Thank you, insurance companies.)  One time, I ascended the ladder to what seemed like the stratosphere and walked down the board to where my toes peeked over the edge of the board.  My unresolved feelings went off in two directions. On the one hand, there was anticipation of flying through the air and splashing down to join the elite club of those who had made the jump. On the other hand, there was fear of pain, of getting a large hit of chlorinated water up my nose, and possibly losing my swim trunks somewhere in the pool!  (The 1st time up, I turned around and climbed right back down the ladder.)

After Taika Waititi won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay, Layne and I decided to watch the movie, “Jo Jo Rabbit.”  The movie, set in Germany during World War II, tells the story of a ten-year-old boy who has been indoctrinated by the Nazis.  In the course of the film, young Johannes, or Jojo, learns that his mother has been secretly hiding a teenage Jewish girl, Elsa, behind an upstairs wall in their home.  Steeped in the blind fanaticism of the Hitler youth, he is afraid of the girl...but as the story progresses his fascination keeps drawing him to her.  Jojo’s interactions with Elsa change him.  He comes to reject the Nazi politics, and think for himself.  In the end Elsa becomes family for him.

I imagine that the Transfiguration changed Jesus’ 3 closest disciples.  While still cowering on the ground, their friend and teacher, Jesus, walked to them and touched them saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”  They could not stay on that mountain top; they had to descend and return to everyday problems once again.  The change is that the everyday issues would now be seen from a different perspective….so much so that Jesus needed to remind them not to tell anyone about what they had seen until after the Resurrection.  The Transfiguration was only experienced by 3 disciples.  But, Jesus points them, and us, to the Cross.  The Cross is Christianity's Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans.  What God is doing, sending the Son to redeem the world, is fully and finally revealed to all the faithful in the Cross of Calvary.

With this story, the Season after the Epiphany is drawing to a close.  We leave these 3 disciples coming down the mountain, but now with a different perspective, a newfound perception that Jesus is more than a teacher and friend.  The story is just dust and ashes unless we see ourselves reflected in these disciples.  With the help of God’s Holy Spirit, may we prepare for Lent with humility and with renewed faith that Jesus will guide us on our life’s pilgrimage down the mountain and into the valley.  AMEN.

Epiphany 6, Year A 2020

Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston
Gospel: Matthew 5:21-37
February 16, 2020

What we hold in our hearts matters
to God!

Our Gospel reading is again taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Here Jesus continues to speak of a higher righteousness.  We today have before us 3 different examples of how Jesus takes an existing commandment and extends it to be more comprehensive.  These examples show what Jesus meant earlier by righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees.  What was inferred in last week’s Gospel, is made explicit today: the higher righteousness required in the Kingdom of Heaven is beyond the unaided power of human beings, and therefore points to the need for Grace!

In the 1st example, Jesus starts with the commandment to do no murder.  But Jesus goes beyond a restriction on overt human behavior to show that God judges what is on the inside of a person.  We know the commandment, “You Shall Not Murder, but Jesus tells his disciples they should not even be angry with one another.  Certainly, feeling anger in a given moment might come upon us suddenly and hardly seems under our control.  But making a place in your heart for anger is surely a slippery slope to violence.  Perhaps, Jesus is making such a wide fence around the Law of Moses, that his disciples would never come near to breaking a commandment.  But, it is more than that, because Jesus is making a point: none of us can by our own efforts present a pure heart before God.  Righteousness before God requires God’s Grace.  I’m reminded of the versicle from Morning Prayer: “Create in us clean hearts, O God” (BCP, p. 98).

Jesus uses the commandment against adultery as the 2nd example.  And Jesus extends this to a higher level.  The Law states, “You shall not commit adultery,” but Jesus tells his disciples they should not have lustful thoughts about another person who is not their spouse.  Then Jesus goes on to say something even more remarkable.  And, written words can’t do justice to the way Jesus delivered these words.  In my own imagination, it went something like this (in a mock serious manner): “Well, if your eye causes you to sin, if that is what the problem is, your eye, then by all means pluck it out.”  But here’s the deal: we all know the problem is not the eye, or the hand for that matter. There is no surgical procedure that can save us from sin, salvation comes only by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary.  The problem is not the eye or the hand, the problem is the human heart, and our desires have all fallen short of the standard.  The only way the wayward heart can be brought back into the fold is by the transformative power of God’s Love.

The 3rd example here is the prohibition against swearing falsely.  Perhaps, Jesus has in mind the 9th of the 10 Commandments, “You shall not be a false witness.” But Jesus tells his disciples they should not even swear (or make oaths) at all, much less make false ones.  The interpretation of this prohibition, though, has been problematic in history.  At one point the Anabaptists in England (who insisted upon a strict, literal, interpretation of the Bible) believed that Jesus’ new rule meant Christians could not swear to tell the truth even in a court of law. (But, we know from scripture that Jesus later testified under oath before the high priest, Caiaphas.  See Mt 26:63-64.) Our Anglican ancestors in the faith believed that Jesus was speaking of a Christian rule of conversation and not of courts of law, or marriage vows, or solemn declarations before God such as used in ordinations of the clergy.  You can read this snippet of Anglican theology for yourself: Of the 39 Articles of Religion, it is the 39th and entitled “On a Christian Man’s Oath.” It may be found in the Historical Documents section of the Book of Common Prayer pp. 867-876.  (At the liturgical quiz bowl among Galveston Episcopal Churches, if there ever is one, you may be asked to list something which may be found in the Historical Documents of the BCP!)

So, what’s wrong with swearing you have told the truth in a casual conversation among friends?  As a student in college, I tried to compliment my French professor, Madame Schaeffer.  As class was about to begin, I remarked, “Madame Schaeffer, you look very nice today.”  She immediately responded in a perturbed voice, “Mr. Dearman!  What do you mean….today?”  My comment about today, had left in question every other day.  It is the same when a person swears that they are telling the truth.  Does this mean typically that person should be suspect and only to be believed when they are swearing?

In the higher righteousness required by the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus’ disciples are always to tell the truth.  There should never be a need to protest that any one particular thing among others we say is the truth.  God demands that it all be the truth and nothing but the truth.  But, consider exaggerations, hyperboles, obfuscations, spreading rumors, “putting lipstick on a pig,” or what I call neural misfires. It is all too easy to say something that is less than true.

So it is that we stand judged by the light of Jesus’ extension of the Law.  Its primary purpose is to show that we, by our own efforts, can never earn God’s favor.  We can do nothing good without God, so we always pray for God’s Holy Spirit to make up for what is lacking in our well-intentioned efforts.  It is all Grace!

And now, we will move forward this morning with the Baptism of little Owen.  How astounding it is that we will claim an infant to be an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Owen is to become the newest Christian on the Earth, not by virtue of anything he has done to earn it.  We will enact the outward and visible portion of Baptism with water and oil, and he will have the promise of his parents, sponsors, and others to guide him going forward. But just know this...the inward and spiritual part of Baptism, the heart of the matter, is solely the Grace of God!  AMEN.    

The Presentation, 2 February 2020

Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
February 2, 2020

My grandson not long after he was born.

Hey, what happened to the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany?  Our bulletin covers and scripture inserts, today, are all entitled with “The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple.”  Some of you have heard me say before that I thought it would be fun to have Episcopal churches in Galveston compete in a liturgical quiz bowl.  This may never happen, but I still want to prepare you, so here ya go with an explanation of the missing 4th Sunday after Epiphany.

In the Book of Common Prayer, near the front of the book, beginning on page 15 is a section on the Church Calendar.  The 7 principal feasts, or holy days, are listed first and include 3 on fixed dates: All Saints’, Christmas Day, and the Epiphany.  According to the rules (rubrics), whenever one of these principal feasts occurs on a Sunday, it will take precedence over however that Sunday might have been designated otherwise.

Then, we find on page 16, a list of three other holy days that take precedence over a Sunday: The Holy Name, The Presentation, and The Transfiguration.  The Presentation is a feast appointed on a fixed day, February 2, every year.  But when it occurs on a Sunday it takes precedence.  So if you are ever representing Grace at a liturgical quiz bowl and you get the question: “When Epiphany 4 and The Superbowl and The Presentation all occur on the same Sunday, which of them will govern the liturgy for that day?”  Now, you know the answer.  Go team!

Our Gospel reading describes the occasion of The Presentation...but first, some background.  According to the Law of Moses, every first born boy literally belonged to God.  At the time of the Exodus, when the Egyptians were dealt the final blow, the firstborn male of every household died.  But God spared the firstborn of each Hebrew household where the blood of a slain lamb was painted on the doorposts.  So, from that time all firstborn boys were henceforth thought to belong to God.  The way that devout families recognized this claim was The Presentation. This involved presenting their boy child at the Temple in Jerusalem and redeeming him, that is, buying him back from God.  According to the law, the price was a choice lamb to be sacrificed at the altar.  But lambs were expensive, and the law made an allowance for families who could not afford a lamb.  Families could redeem their child less expensively with 2 pairs of birds.  Jesus’ humble family origin was underscored by this more modest sacrifice.

In Luke, Jesus’ family is said to have visited the Temple every year, but we have stories associated with only 3 times Jesus actually entered the Temple.  Once in the final days of Jesus’ life, when he most likely precipitated his arrest by disrupting Temple sacrifice by driving out the merchants.  Then, again when Jesus was 12 years old, he stayed behind unbeknownst to his parents who eventually found him sitting and conversing with the teachers.  Needless to say, Mary and Jesus were upset. Jesus was in big trouble.  And first of all, Jesus was brought to the Temple not long after he was born, in order for his parents to fulfill the law by redeeming their son with a sacrifice.  

With each Temple visit something about Jesus was revealed.  He was shown to be both fully God and fully human.  So, near the end of his life, God’s justice shines out when Jesus confronts the Temple practices that excluded the poor.  He said, “You have turned it into a den of robbers.” In speaking truth with his “fully-God” authority, Jesus incurred the ire of the religious leadership.  Fully human, also, Jesus was vulnerable in the face of those who were seeking his life.  When he was 12 years-old, Jesus, stayed behind after a family visit to the Temple. In this way, he demonstrated devotion to his heavenly Father’s house.  But when corrected by his parents for going missing, Jesus was respectful and obedient to them as the law required of any normal child.  And, at the Presentation, Jesus is redeemed by his parents as would be the first born boy of any devout family, but then he gains the notice of 2 exceptional individuals, Simeon and Anna.  In a profound twist, Jesus is brought to the Temple to be redeemed but is, at the same time, proclaimed to be in himself the promised redemption of God, the very embodiment of God’s Love.  Jesus is the One who will redeem the world from Sin.

So, on the Feast of The Presentation, we are celebrating when Jesus was brought to the Temple for the first time and revealed to be both fully human and fully divine, God embodied in flesh, and blood, and human history.  We refer to this as the Incarnation, and it is astonishingly good news for us that Jesus was both fully God and fully human.  As one of us, Jesus was able to lay down his life.  As the Son of God, Jesus was able to defeat death and win for us eternal life.  

I don’t have to tell you that we live in a broken world with lots of stuff to worry about.  We live in a world deeply divided; we live in a world where novel diseases emerge and spread rapidly; we live in a world beset with calamities: earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, and impending climate change.  Bottom line: if the best we have to offer in the face of these challenges is selfishness, nationalism, and corporate greed, we are toast!  

But, there is good news that our world desperately needs to hear. The fallen nature of humanity is not the final word.  As the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus movement, we have a share in spreading this good news in the way we treat others, in the things we say and do.  The call is to live each day in a way consistent with faith that Love has already won. We belong to something that is greater than the challenges we face.  Bottom line: we are loved by God and God’s love is stronger than we could ever ask or imagine.  The Presentation gives us a window into this Love. AMEN.