Too Busy for the Banquet....Sermon for Year A Proper 23

This is the third parable.
The third parable we have heard in three weeks.
Jesus is not giving up on the chief priests and the Pharisees.
This is third parable he tells them
as they confront one another in the Temple.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to...

That’s how the parable begins.
The kingdom of heaven.
What does Jesus mean by that?
What do we mean by that?

Is the kingdom of heaven up in the sky somewhere?
Will we only understand it only after we die? Probably.
Yet why is Jesus always talking about it here on earth?

Personally, I struggle with “kingdom” language.
I don’t really have an innate sense of what that means
because I have never lived in a country or in a time-period
with a king.
(other than Elvis Presley, perhaps).

So when my ears hear “the kingdom of heaven”
i usually translate that into “the dream of God”.

I hear and perceive the kingdom of heaven
to be what God deeply dreams for our world.
Our world right now.
As in heaven, so on earth.


The dream of God for you right now on earth is like.....
a wedding banquet.

The ultimate joyful feast--a wedding banquet.
An occasion for celebration and hope and looking to the future
with great expectation.

God dreams for us joy and hope and celebration.
But what do we dream in return?

If we are like those who were the first round of invited guests,
we turn our backs on God’s dream for the world.
We make excuses.
We don’t have time for God or for holy dreams.
We have plans and dreams of our own--
and many, if not most of them, often don’t include God.

Like those guests who turn away,
the truth is,
we don’t take God all that seriously either.
The scripture says “they made light of it.”
We live in a culture that makes very light of God.

The scripture says they went away,
one to his farm, another to his business...

We too turn away from God,
from doing God’s work in the world
from celebrating with God in worship,
because our lives are very very busy.

We make light of God’s dream
because our jobs require long hours,
our families are demanding,
our lives are already way too jam packed and busy.
God, I might be able to fit your dream in between 6 and 8 pm on..
Oh....no, that’s not going to work.
I have a meeting that night....

Sorry, God,
I am RSVP-ing to your dream for the world
with my regrets.


So God looks out on this world
and realizes that those who were invited
to help make the dream come true,
those whom God hoped would join the celebration
are too busy, too distracted, too apathetic, too hostile.

So God moves to Plan B.
Okay, God says, forget my Google Close Contacts list--
open the doors wider.
Welcome everyone to come.
Yes, everyone.
The good and the bad.
I’m fine with that says God.
Go out and gather people to come and join this feast.

Ah! The doors open wider
and the banquet hall is filled with guests.
Ah! thinks God--
NOW we can work together and make the kingdom of heaven
happen on earth.

Now, upon my first reading and study of this parable,
I thought--I wish Jesus had stopped right here.
Wouldn’t that be a great ending--good and bad, ALL are welcome?
Come in. Come in.

But I didn’t write Matthew’s gospel
and the parable continues.
The king--AKA God--
the king notices that one guest is not wearing a wedding robe.


“Friend” the king says--
now one commentary I read this week said
think of the word “friend” here
as more like “Hey! Buster! How’d you get in here.”
Friend in this parable is probably not a term of endearment.

But whoa! God’s next words--oh my!
Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What?!!! Because he wasn’t dressed right?
YIKES!
Our immediate reaction is probably like that
of the ill-clothed wedding guests--
speechless!!

Okay, so maybe this guy
IS the equivalent of a first century wedding crasher--
he doesn’t care about the people there,
he’s just there for the buffet and the bubbly.
And he’s just been busted by the King.

But then we may think,
“Hold on a minute.
You open the doors wide.
You pull this guy off the street
and you expect him to have a tailored three piece suit
in his backpack?!!!”

But I think we miss the point of the parable if we go in that direction.

Think back to an earlier phrase--
“they made light of it.”

Jesus is calling our attention to the fact
that God’s dream for the world
and our role in that dream is not something to take lightly.

Our “wedding robe” is the way we our everyday lives.
The way we treat other people.
The manner in which we order our lives to put God first.
Or not.

Jesus is telling us in this parable
that God expects things from us.
Yes, God gives us grace--truly amazing amounts of grace--
BUT it’s not an entitlement--it’s a gift
and we who receive so much
are expected to give as well.

To give of ourselves.
To give of our lives.
God calls us to take our spiritual life as seriously
as we take our material life.

Think about it.
How many of us have ever spent a sleepless night
worrying about our spiritual life?
Yet most of us have spent more than one night
worrying about our material life.
How will we pay the bills?
Will I have enough money to retire?
How and I going to afford this or that?

Our material lives get so much attention.
Our spiritual lives and God too often have to wait in line.
Do we take the holy too lightly?

This is what this parable is asking.
Are you going to be part of God’s dream team
or not?

For many are called, but few are chosen.

God has wide arms. The invitation is broad.
Good and bad.
God is an equal opportunity inviter. God calls and calls and calls.

But to be more than called,
to be chosen,
means that we must choose God over the many other
competing factors in our lives.

We are called to be doers of the word,
not just hearers of the word.

We are called to take our Baptismal covenant seriously,
to not make light of things holy,

To be chosen means to put on our wedding robe.
every single morning,
and to do our very best to intentionally live
those promises we made to God--
our baptismal covenant--
to strive for peace and justice,
to respect the dignity of every human being,
to keep praying and showing up to break bread together,
to resist evil in every form and shape it takes.
to help make God’s dream for the world come true.

Jesus tells this parable
with the hope
that those hearing the story might change.

The doors are wide open.
The call has been issued.
The choices now are ours.

Sermon for the Blessing of the Animals

Today we gather to bless the animals and to share communion.
There is one thing I know for certain about animals:
They don’t care for long sermons.

We bless animals on this day to honor creation
and to remember one of the saints of God--
Francis of Assisi.

Much has been written by many,
including Francis himself, about his life.

When Francis was a young man, he loved to party.
But even in that party time of his life,
he was not unaware of the world around him.
One night he left a party and looked up at the stars above Assisi.
He stood there just looking at the stars for a long long time.
He was truly in awe of what he saw.
He said, “If these are the creatures,
what must the Creator be like?”

I say that to you today--
if these are the creatures--this amazing assortment of animals--
what must the Creator be like?

I’d say the Creator is creative--imaginative--visionary--
and has a pretty great sense of humor.
I’d also say the Creator has an enormous heart
capable of immense love.

We don’t just love the creatures that look like us--
our hearts can also fill with love
at the sight of certain faces with whiskers
or at the wag of a tail.

St. Francis always felt that nature--the created world that surrounds us all--
was his first Bible.
That is an interesting concept.
Especially since,
according to an article I read by Richard Rohr this week,
the created world has about a 14.5 billion year head start
on the Bible.

God is a creative imaginative God
who uses anything and everything to get our attention.

But St. Francis was much more than a warm and fuzzy guy who loved animals.
He had a steadfast faith and a heart that overflowed with love.
To everyone. Truly to everyone.

At times in his ministry he was beaten, put in chains and suffered greatly.
He still tried to respect the dignity of every human being he met.
He lived in a time of religious extremists--
his goal was to be an extremist for love, for grace. To all.

He had a great love for the created world--for all things and all people.
We honor St. Francis not just today with the Blessing of the Animals,
but have made him a part of our Episcopal tradition,
by including a prayer attributed to Francis
in our Book of Common Prayer.

You can find it on page 833 if you want to look for it some time.
Here is the prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us show love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord,faith:
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

East Meets West: Centering Prayer and Yoga

Tomorrow I am doing a presentation, along with awesome yoga instructor Nicole Kintz, at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville. My friend Judy Domer invited me to do this and I try to always say YES to friends. I am no expert on centering prayer but it is a spiritual practice that I value deeply. So I present tomorrow and developed this list of resources as a handout. I thought that these resources might be a useful post here on my blog for others as well. This list just touches the surface but is a good place to begin exploring.

Centering Prayer Resources

Recommended Books
The Cloud of Unknowing (author unknown)
14th century book on which the theology of centering prayer is based
You can read this on line, download to a kindle or nook or read it in book form.

Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault

Open Heart, Open Mind: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, by Father Thomas Keating

The Diversity of Centering Prayer, edited by Gustave Reininge

Organizations
Center for Spiritual Resources, www.csr.org
Director: Robbin Whittington, The Center is co-sponsored by the Episcopal DIocese of Western North Carolina and the Cathedral of All Souls. Their website is a great resource for programs going on throughout our diocese.

Contemplative Outreach, www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Link to a set of three CDs for purchase with Father Thomas Keating teaching about centering prayer: http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/Contemplative-Prayer/368.productdetails
Local chapter contact: Becky Hannah, becky.hannah@gmail.com

The Contemplative Society, http://www.contemplative.org/

Spirituality and Practice, http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com
Link to an on-line course on Centering Prayer with Cynthia Bourgeault that starts November 7th: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/ecourses.php?id=114&key=cb

Centering Prayer Retreats
St.Mary’s, Sewanee, TN : http://www.stmaryssewanee.org

Valle Crucis Conference Center, Valle Crucis, NC: http://www.highsouth.com/vallecrucis/events.php4

Welcome to the Vineyard--Year A Proper 22

Today was our annual Parish Picnic. St. John's has a tradition of having the picnic at Lake Tomahawk in Black Mountain. This year, however, we had to move it back to St. John's and have it in the Parish Hall. Our weather the past few days has been unusually cold--like 48 degrees and windy! Even indoors we had a wonderful day. We worshipped in the parish hall and the acoustics made us sound like a choir of thousands when we sang. Today was also the first day of our Creation Season using a beautiful new liturgy and music, much of it from the Iona Community. A simple plastic folding table was transformed with a white cloth, votive candles, pottery vessels and fall flowers into our altar. After the worship, we moved in tables and chairs and enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers and portobello mushrooms right off the grill, as well as a diversity of dishes and desserts that people baked and brought from home. The entire day was a powerful reminder of the abundance we enjoy and the abundance from which we are called to share.

WELCOME TO THE VINEYARD


We have in our gospel reading today another parable.
Jesus wants to be certain
that the chief priests and the scribes
understand the point he is making.
Jesus is not trying to be mean or trick them.
He simply wants them to open their eyes to the truth--
specifically, the truth about themselves
and their behavior.

This is difficult for any and all of us to hear at times.
The truth about ourselves.

So Jesus tells a parable.

The landowner plants a vineyard.
He does it with care.
He puts a fence around it to keep it safe, enclosed, hugged.
He puts a winepress there to provide revenue.
He builds a watchtower so they might ever be on guard
for those who would come to destroy
what they have planted and nourished.

Only the destruction comes from within, not from without.
The tenants get it wrong.
The tenants think this marvelous, abundant vineyard
is all their doing.
Yes, they have worked hard.
But the tenants forget that they are just renting.
They don’t own the vineyard.
They didn’t create the vineyard.
You get it.
God is the landowner.
We are the tenants.

We forget that we are not the ones in control.
We forget that we are not the center of the universe.

We forget that our lease here in this world is very short.
None of us know the terms of that lease.
None of us.

God is willing to give us everything we need--
but we get greedy.
We want it all--
even if that means taking from other tenants,
even if that means turning our backs on God.

Even when the priests and the Pharisees
understand that the parable is about them--
they still think the solution is violence--
we will just get rid of Jesus and everything will be hunky-dory.

They are so filled with fear.
Afraid they are going to lose their power.
Afraid they are going to lose their possessions.
Afraid of the truth.
They do not trust God.

So year after year,
generation after generation,
God keeps looking around.

Looking around for those who will care for his kingdom.
Looking around for those who will love all the children of the kingdom.
Who is willing to care for this vineyard--
who is willing to tend and to nourish
for the purpose of sharing the abundance with others,
not keeping the abundance all for themselves.

God hopes it will be you.
God hopes it will be me.
God hopes we can work together as a community
to care for the kingdom of God--this great and beautiful vineyard--
on earth as it is in heaven.

God gives each one of us gifts.
God creates each one of us to be completely unique.
No one--NO ONE--is just like any one of us.
That in itself is pretty amazing.

When you got here to the picnic
I asked you to write down one thing about yourself that is special,
that other people might not know.
I gave you some suggestions--
for example...
....it could be that you make the best brownies in the world.
(that would not be me,
but it certainly could be my husband Tom--
he really does make the best brownies in the world)
...it could be that you served in the Peace Corps
...or that you ran a marathon last year..
...or you have a cat named Ginger
that is the smartest cat that ever ever lived.

These might seem like frivolous things
but they aren’t.
They are little pieces of our stories.
Little bits of blessing
that make us all part of the body of Christ.

So now
I want you to take one of these slips of paper
(if you get your own slip,
you have to put it back in the bowl and draw another)
and then go on a search
for the person who wrote it.

Yes, you’re going to have to get up and talk to people.
Ask them a question...
you know, like "So, Mary do you like to hike?"
If Mary says no and your slip of paper says "I hiked Mt. Everest"
move on to another person and keep asking until you find the match.

When you find your person, go and sit down.

(During this time everyone is chaotically searching for the person who matches their slip of paper--it's a good chaos though, a joyful chaos!)

Let's come back together.
Now I’d like to ask that you introduce your person.
Say their name (you see this is a great way to learn names).
And then tell the group what you learned about this person today.
That little bit of their story that was on that slip of paper.

(Everyone introduces their person with a little bit of their story)

.......
We are a diverse group of people with many different gifts and stories.

We are all in the vineyard together.
We all have short term leases here.
We are all loved by God.
We are repeatedly called to love one another.
To really, really love one another.
Not just in words but in how we act, in how we treat one another.
We are all called to be good and generous stewards.

We are asked to fear not.
Don’t be afraid of generosity
or compassion or mercy or
forgiveness or love.
Be fearless!
YES! Be fearless!!
Live as Jesus calls us to live.
Love as Jesus calls us to love.
Be as God created us to be.

Don’t wait.
Please. Don't wait.
The lease is so so short.

Don't waste or hoard or destroy.

Open your ears to the truth.
Open your eyes to all the beauty and goodness and abundance
God has given us.

Right now. Right here.
In this very vineyard we call the Church.
In this little corner of that vineyard
that we call St. John's.

Amen.

WALK THE TALK...Sermon for Year A Proper 21

WALK THE TALK

The chief priest and the elders march up to Jesus
and interrupt his teaching.
Jesus has come boldly into the temple--THEIR territory--
and has begun to teach.

The officials do not like this one bit.
They’d like to just throw him out--or worse--
but there is also an element of fear.

So instead of tossing him out
they question him, try to trick him.
They want him to convict himself--so they won’t have to do it.
They challenge Jesus in front of everyone.

The chief priests and the elders have a powerful need to CONTROL.
To control their space, their domain.

They question his authority---
What are YOU doing HERE?
Who gave YOU permission to speak in OUR house?

But Jesus does not answer their question about his authority directly.
Jesus will not be put on the defense.

He wants them to think--to ponder--to step away from THEIR authority
and to recognize God’s authority--over all of them--
over the priests, the elders, the people gathered--over Jesus himself.
Only Jesus seems to understand it is not THEIR house--
the temple is God’s house.

So he questions them about John’s baptism.
We need to remember
that at this point of the story John has been killed.
An almost fanciful beheading has made John a martyr to the people.

So Jesus asks the Temple leaders--
Was John’s baptism from heaven or was it just a human thing?
Divine or mortal?

It is an interesting question.
A question, which later in church history, authorities will ask
and struggle over about Jesus, too. Divine or human?

Perhaps this is even a question that we can ask ourselves about our own baptism:
Does our baptism come from heaven?
Or was it of human origin?

I wrote a little book of meditations about baptism a few years back.
I wrote that I was disappointed on the day my baptism--
which happened at age 11 by full immersion.
I was disappointed because I had truly expected to see rays of light
and a dove descend upon me that day at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

I was too young to realize--and too afraid to ask--
that those signs are not needed
to mark an event or us as holy and blessed.

I believe now that my baptism was absolutely from heaven--
walking into that deep pool of water
I was surrounded by more grace and love than I could imagine.

But Jesus isn’t asking about Jeanne Finan’s baptism.
Jesus is asking the priest and the elders to respond about John’s baptism.

And the truth is, they don’t know what to say.
It is a true “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” moment.
And they all know it.

So they respond much as we might,
when fearful,
they say, “We do not know.”

And then (and you can almost see Jesus trying not to smile too broadly)
Jesus replies,
“Well, if you can’t answer my question,
then I’m not going to answer your question.”

Jesus refuses to play their game.
Instead he turns and asks them a question:

What do you think?

And then the parable.
This wonderful way of teaching--of encouraging--people to think.

Two sons.
The father asks each son to go and work in the vineyard.
(Remember--it’s a parable--
think of the father as THE Father--God--
asking his beloved children
to go out into the world and work,
to spread the good news to all the world,
to LIVE the gospel.

The first son says, “No. I won’t go. I won’t do it.”
Maybe in terms of the parable
we could think of this response in the 21st century as something like,
“No. Forget it.
I’m going to Starbucks with the NY Times this morning.
I’m going to a movie instead of the Parish Work Day.
I don’t want to work on a Habitat House
with a bunch of Episcopalians.
So the answer is No.”

But then this child CHANGES his mind.

(This is an important point in the parable--
God gives us permission to CHANGE!!)

The first son goes and works in the vineyard.
He doesn’t make a big deal about
but something shifts inside of him--
or perhaps he goes against his rational thinking
and goes simply because of his great love for his Father--
He goes.
He goes and works.
He shows up.
He spreads the gospel by his actions--
by what he CHOOSES to DO.

And the second child?
He immediately says YES.
Of course I will go, Father.
Remember, I am your GOOD child, your pious child,
you OBEDIENT child.
Yes, yes, yes.

But that beloved child does not go, does not do as he promised.
His words are empty, meaningless--
because there were no actions that followed those words.

This son is all for show.

This child doesn’t need to change his mind--
he needs to change the center of his soul.

Perhaps this son never really intended to go--
he just says what he thinks the father wants to hear
and then forgets about it.
All talk no walk.

Then Jesus asks:
“Which of the two did the will of his father?”

It’s a pretty easy answer.
The priests and the elders know the answer--
The first son.

They KNOW what is right.
They KNOW what God asks of each of us.
Put some walk behind your talk.

And as soon as they answer Jesus,
they know they are trapped.

They know
because they realize they are all talk and little walk.
They detest Jesus
because he fully walks his talk.

And Jesus does not hesitate to tell them
how obvious their lack of walk is.
He tells them that the tax collectors and prostitutes are going to heaven
before you fakers.
That’s right--the lowest of the low,
the despised and the hated
will get into heaven ahead of you.
Why?
Because when they heard the talk--from John and then from Jesus--
they heard it as so true that they changed.
They could not change their past
but they were doing one amazing job of working in the vineyard
to change their present and their future.

And Jesus says to the Temple authorities,
“You did not change your minds and believe him.”

This is a message to all of us who come to church.
All of us who have made a covenant--
a covenant---a binding agreement--
with God at our baptism.
You see we, in so many ways, are the “Temple Authorities.”
We show up here week after to week to say,
“Yes, Lord, we believe.”

There is nothing wrong with believing
but we must be so careful.
It is so easy to just become wrapped up in the talk,
and forget that our real call is to walk the walk.

How do we walk that walk?
There are some obvious ways--
Habitat House, Welcome Table, MANNA Food Baskets, Room in the Inn, Family to Family.

And there are some less obvious ways--
loving our neighbors.
Even if those neighbors seem to us on first glance to be prostitutes
and tax collectors
(I don’t mean that literally--but I think you know what I mean).

Back in the early 70‘s Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang,
“Love the one you’re with.”
They probably weren’t singing a gospel message with those words--
but when Jesus says, “Love one another,”
he never says, pick and choose. Love the ones you like.
He just says love.
Love the one you’re with.
Love all God’s children.

We also walk the walk with prayer.
We can’t just say we will pray for someone unless we really do pray.
If we want to walk the walk
we need to make sure we will go out into that vineyard of prayer
and pray, pray, pray.

We walk the walk by being good stewards--
of the earth, of this parish, of our bodies, our minds, our spirits.

We walk the walk by being willing to listen,
especially to those who feel that no one hears them.
We walk the walk
by being willing to change.

It is so easy to make excuses for not going into the vineyard.

I have thought a lot about the second son this week.
Was he just trying to impress his father?
Was he trying to trick his father?
Was he trying to outshine his brother?
Or did he intend to go--
and just got distracted?
He logged onto his FaceBook page or started watching a movie on television
or got lost in some other distraction.
Time just flew by
and then it was too late.
Oops! I meant to go into the vineyard.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying:
You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Who does the second son think he is fooling?
Who do we think we are fooling sometimes?

Every week our service of Holy Eucharist opens with the priest saying
the “Collect --or prayer--for Purity”.
It begins:

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hid...

Jesus is reminding us of this in the parable he tells.
God knows all our desires, all our secrets.
We may be able to fool the people around us--
though probably not as often or as much as we might believe--
but what we need to remember, what matters is,
God knows.

God knows if we are all talk and no walk.
God knows if we are trying to change.
God knows what is in our hearts.

And the good news behind all of this?
We hear it in the letter to the Philippians:

God is at work in you.

We are not cast in stone--not our hearts, not our minds, not our bodies or souls.
God is at work--always--in each of us.


Even when we say NO,
we have another chance to say YES.
Even when we say YES and then don’t live into that YES.
we have another chance.

God is at work in you and in me --
in each of us.
And that, my sisters and brothers in Christ,
is very good news.

Very good news for all of us.
Amen.

Be quick to love, make haste to be kind...

Yesterday I led a retreat day at the beautiful Valle Crucis Conference Center. The title for the day was: "In the Midst of the Long, Long Season: Spiritual Practices to See Us Through Ordinary Times." Seventeen women joined me for this day of reflections, prayer, sharing and silence.

At the close of the day I offered a blessing that I often use at St. John's:

Life is short
and we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us.
So be quick to love
and make haste to be kind.
And the blessing of God who loves you
be with you this day
and always.

One of the women, Rebecca, an awesome Baptist minister from Elkin, NC, asked me if I knew who wrote that blessing. I told her I, too, had wondered about it's origin. I first heard it from Marcus Borg at the end of a sermon he preached during the Calvary Lenten Series in Memphis. But just the day before the retreat, I had seen a variation posted on a website (my friend Susan Copley's parish, Christ Church, Tarrytown, NY) and it had a credit. I told the group I would follow up and post it here on my blog.

So here is what a little digging and googling has uncovered. A man named Henri-Frederic Amiel is credited with writing:

"Oh, do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative toward those we love until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened with death! Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!"

You can certainly see the origins of the blessing in this quote by Amiel. He was a 19th century Swiss philosopher and poet. Not a prolific writer but definitely a profound one.

A few things....

Last year I invited Mary Sorrells to preach during our stewardship campaign. Mary chaired our Diocesan Stewardship Commission for several years. She was truly excellent and the congregation responded to her so positively, as did I. What a blessing it is to hear new and heartfelt voices from the pulpit.

This year I thought: I need to invite another lay person to preach during our stewardship campaign. Yes, I pledge to St. John's as do most of the members of our congregation and I do not have a problem talking about money. After all, Jesus talked about money--a lot! But I also realize that some might see my giving as somewhat self-serving; after all, I am paid for my priestly ministry. So I began to pray, to discern whom I should ask. One person kept coming into my prayers over and over. So finally I sent him an email asking him to consider my request to preach. What a blessing that he said yes!

This past Sunday he was our guest preacher at both services at St. John's. His name is Chris Rhodes and he is a longtime member of St. John's and a gifted lay person with many talents--which he shares abundantly with our parish. He is truly one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever met. It wasn't until he stood in the pulpit this past Sunday that I discovered he is also a fine, fine preacher. What follows is his sermon.


Sermon at St. John's Episcopal Church for September 17-18, 2011


Several weeks ago I got an email from Jeanne, entitled, “a few things.” She had asked me if I would get up and talk about “giving.” My first reaction was, is that woman crazy, I’d be scared to death. After my heart settled I thought, what magic words could I possibly give to this congregation that would make them want to give more than they already are. No way. Later I realized, anything I can give this church to help in fulfilling her ministries, I’ve got to be willing to try.

I’m not a preacher, I can’t call this a sermon. I’m not a politician, so I won’t make a speech. I am a teacher, I could call this a lesson plan, but we’re not in school. I am who I am, so I guess I’ll just call it, the world according to Chris……..or perhaps I could call it “a few things……giving, in chronological order”.

Somewhere back between 1964 and 65 I can remember sitting on the living room floor of my grandparents home on Bell Road. While sitting on that unraveling braided rug one dark evening, thunder and lightning in the background, me, my brother, and my cousin were getting a lesson in Revelations. I appreciate my grandfather for making things easy for me to understand. He compared God to Santa Claus, someone who was always watching me, and of course was making a list and checking it twice. Well I’m here to confess, I’ve been naughty, but I hope I’ve also been nice. So I guess the best way for me to get into heaven is to give.

Then I grew to a young teenager, dropping coins in a mite box. I don’t remember why or anyone telling me why but someone probably said, “it was for the needy”. Needy, I would have thought, who’s needy. I had never seen a homeless person, I’d never seen dirty, holey clothes or rotten teeth, and of course I didn’t know about poverty in this country or starving children around the world. Like most kids growing up I guess I was too well protected.

Sammy was taken from his family at a very early age. I remember him crying for two days and daddy kept telling him, “Sammy, we love you.”

The college years were just a blur, so we’ll skip that. However I do recall loosing a contact because a little 8 year old mountain girl needed a spit cup.

I remember a conversation my father had with Sandra and me. He told us that we live financially backwards. We never have enough money when we’re young and we usually have all we need as we get older. Well at that time I felt like we were the needy ones. As I’ve grown older I tend to lean towards the feeling of today’s collect, to hold on to heavenly things.

So seriously, when did I start to make giving an important part of my life?
Perhaps it was when St. John’s went one Sunday afternoon uptown to the Church of the Advocate to feed the homeless and John Fisher boiled the biggest pot of rice I’d ever seen in my life.

What about when Gene Melton, during a fall festival would put on that silly, ridiculous wig and nickel and dime everyone in sight.

And the bake sales from the ECW, Anne Bryant deserves an award for all the hours that she spent in the kitchen.

How about Wolfgang, nailing plywood up on the roof of the shed so we would have more room to store more junk.

And Betty, sewing those precious clothes for dying infants.

From time to time some of the women here at St. John’s will bring a friend from Black Mountain with them to church on Sunday. I don’t know if anyone ever says thank you, but we do.

You know, we never had a hard time getting volunteers to work on the habitat house as long as Jane was around.

I remember seeing a commercial on TV about sponsoring a child and Sandra said, “why don’t we do that?,” and the day came when a representative from Food For The Poor visited St. John’s.

Maybe I began giving when I witnessed three dedicated ministers in Sonja, Bobby, and Jane, who, while between priests, held this church in their hands.

And you always felt so special when the bishop would smile at you if you accidentally forgot and addressed him by his first name.

I think of Paul, I believe he was wearing a Tux, serving chicken dinners to the congregation for a fundraising dinner and sing a long that the choir had sponsored. He kept telling those of us in the kitchen, what an excellent job we were doing.

I remember when someone let a homeless man spend the night here in the church for a while.

And I’ll always treasure the heartfelt thoughts and words of the outgoing senior wardens and how what they say, feels so real.

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of seeing a small church develop its own habitat program and Patsy along with this small church gave practically everything they could to a poor woman who had nothing and finally for once, the last was first.

And I’m so proud of my aunt, for all the art work she has given this church.

As I wrote this and prepared for this day, I felt a deep appreciation for what Jeanne has to go through each week to give some of the best sermons I’ve ever heard. Jeanne you are our blessing.
I think of all the hard work and perseverance from the hearts of today’s congregation, as I can now look out and see God’s creation at this moment.

I think of all these people and I see how truly blessed I am to be among you, my brothers and sisters. We are a small church but we are a strong church, whose bound by love.
Giving is not something that happens or begins when you’re 4 or 13 or 25. It’s a culmination of experiences you breathe, see, and feel when God somehow finds his way to your heart.

I remember being in the choir room before my grandmothers funeral, my mother was calling out the hymn numbers. 318, and Penelope said, “oh no, not that one, I’ll never make it to the end.” And I thought, what’s that about. So I looked it up. “Here O my Lord, I see thee face to face.” I don’t want to miss out on that.

I sometimes wonder if God sends modern day Jesus to us in the form of a person holding up a cardboard sign. Jesus did not turn his back on us and remember, He’s making a list.
I don’t know if I’ll get to heaven. I give because there are people out there who are less fortunate than me and they need it.

I was watching the History channel 2 years ago on Easter morning before church, “The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ”. Can you imagine being laid on a cross, on the ground, your arms stretched out and having a nail driven through your palm and bleeding to death.

I received a thank you letter from the Food For The Poor organization one time and in it was this piece of paper that read, “And the king will say to them in reply, Amen, I say to you, whatever you did to one of these least brothers of mine, you did to me.” I don’t want to turn my back on Jesus.

I give because I have everything I need. I’m satisfied. I’m here………and I can thank God for that. Amen.