For All the Saints

Sermon for Year A
All Saints Day

Did you know you can go to iTunes
and for just $ 1.99 you can purchase a PATRON SAINTS APP?

Now this is “app” as in “application”--for your iPhone or iPad--
not “app” as in Appalachian State University
which is often the first thing that comes to the minds
of those of us who live in this part of Western North Carolina.

Technology apps make something easily accessible,
helpful in every day situations.
The Patron Saints app can help you find the saint you need.

Do you want to sell your house?
You need to pray to St. Joseph
and then bury St. Joseph (only a statue)--head first--in your front yard.
Always losing your keys?
Prayers to St. Zita might help.
St. Isidore of Seville became the patron saint of the internet--in 1999.
If you’re worried about whales (as in the animal, not the country),
prayers to St. Brendan might help.

I found out there is no patron saint of drummers
but there are quite a few patron saints for musicians--
Benedict, Cecilia, Dunstan, Genesius, Gregory the Great, even
St. Paul--I take it musicians must need a lot of saintly help!

Of course we have our own saint--most Episcopal churches do--
ours is St. John.
Not St. John the Baptist
but St. John the Apostle and Evangelist.

Now our St. John is considered the patron saint of...to name just a few...
Patron saint against poisoning
(and to my knowledge no one here has ever been poisoned here at St. John's--
so St. John must be doing his work, right?)

Also John is patron saint for art dealers, authors, writers, bookbinders, booksellers, engravers, friendships, lithographers, painters, printers, publishers, papermakers, theologians and ...well, you get the idea.

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist keeps busy!

We can certainly look at saints as extraordinary people.
Unsurpassed examples of holiness and faithfulness.

But the New Testament calls us to see saints
as all those who believe in Jesus Christ and strive to follow.

Believers past and present and future.
We remember them all today
as we celebrate All Saints Day.

The altar hangings, the vestments have all been changed to white--
that tells us that today is a feast day,
even more of a great celebration than the great celebration
we celebrate with Holy Eucharist every week.

I read a wonderful story this week by Richelle Thompson
about a woman named Faye.
Faye was known for laundering money.

Literally.

At her small, rural church
Faye’s job was to collect the offering.
After the service, Faye took the collection home to her house
(Now this is a BIG BIG no! no! in our modern day audit-conscious churches!)
but it’s what Faye did--
and she hid the collection--cash and checks--
in her laundry hamper
until she could make the drive into town to deposit the collection
in the church’s account at the bank.

On occasion Faye would accidentally wash the collection
with the rest of her laundry.
The ink would run off the checks.
But Faye would just call and ask how much someone had given
and then she would fill that amount back onto the check.
Small town. Small church. Small bank.
But big, big love and trust.

Even when Faye was in her 90‘s,
she kept up with the collection
and she never failed to help with the dishes after a potluck dinner
and she knew the name of not just the adults,
but every single child in her church.

Faye did not martyr herself to lions
or reform the worldwide Anglican Communion.

She simply showed up
to love and to serve.
Faithfully.

A saint is a person of exceptional holiness.
That holiness may be recognized by the entire world,
by the church,
or just by us.

A saint is a person who has made a difference in our faith journey.

Today in celebrating All Saints
we celebrate that great cloud of witnesses--
those who have gone before us,
those who still surround us,
and it is just fine,
to even celebrate
even our own little witness amongst the crowd.

A reporter was assigned to do a story on Mother Teresa.
For several weeks he followed her,
shadowing her from morning until night--
sometimes into the night--
as she went about her work.


At the end of his time with Mother Teresa,
as he was preparing to leave,
the reporter thanked her and said to her, quite honestly,
“I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.”

To which she quickly replied, “Me neither!”

The saints of God are not motivated my money.
The saints of God are motivated my overwhelming, unconditional love.

Love for God. Love for one another.

Take time today to give a shout out to the saints in your life.

For those saints we love but see no longer,
say a prayer of thanksgiving.
Remember them always in your prayers.

Oh, how our lives have been blessed by the saints of God!

And if any of your saints are still alive,
make time today
to actually say thank you.
Tell them what their witness of faith has meant to you.
How it has changed your life.

Call them on the phone.
Send them an email or a Facebook message.
Write them a letter.
Go knock on their door this afternoon and tell them.

Give a shout out to the saints.
To the saints throughout history
but especially to the saints
that have surrounded and blessed your own life.

Today we also need to celebrate the saints that planted this parish,
the saints who have nurtured it for over 100 years,
the saints that still plant and prune
and tend this little plot of holy ground.
The saints that made a place and a space for us to grow as witnesses
to God’s love.

For all the saints,
may we give thanks.

AMEN.

Lily Pad or Launch Pad?...Sermon for Year A Proper 26

I want you to keep two images in your mind.
The first is a lily pad.
That’s right--a lily pad--floating peacefully on the water.
Crystal clear water with this beautiful lily pad.

The second image is the image of a launch pad.
That’s right the kind of launch pad that shoots a rocket into the air.

Lily pad. Launch pad.
Hold on to those images.
We’ll get back to them in a moment.

Now some of you may remember the hit song by
country singer Mac Davis that starts...

..O Lord, it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror,
‘Cause I get better lookin’ each day....

Now you may not care for country music
but Mac Davis captures the essence
of what Jesus is telling his disciples
about the scribes and the Pharisees.


These people are in love with themselves.
They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
Even their prayers and their worship are for show.

They like to have the seat of honor and be greeted with respect.
But they don’t lift a finger to help.
They let everybody else do the hard work
but they like to do the hard bragging
about all they do.

Jesus reminds us that God knows the humble.
Jesus sees clearly
 and tells us very very clearly:
The ones
who like to show off to others,
they really don’t have that much to show.
The greatest among you will be your servant.


The greatest among you will be your servant.

This is our call--to be servants.
Servants to one another.
Servants to creation.
Servants to our church and our communities.
Servants to God.

jesus does not disagree with what the Pharisees are teaching.
Not at all
in fact, Jesus says, do whatever they teach you and follow it.

But then he adds
...but do not do as they do for they do not practice what they teach.

Jesus is proclaiming to his disciples
about how to be a community of faith,
how to be the church in the world.

You know the church is not a building.
The church is the people of God.
We are a little community of God’s people
named St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Now back to those two images you have been holding
in your mind:
Are we a lily pad or a launch pad community?

Is Church a beautiful place to come
and just sit and rest and soak in the colored light
from the stained glass window?
Or is church a place to be inspired,
to be launched into the world as a servant?

Lily pad or launch pad?

Paul says to the Thessalonians,
lead a life worthy of God.
A better translation of that word we hear as “lead” might be “walk”--
walk a life worthy of God.

n other words,
“Walk the walk that the gospel teaches you.”
Walk and behave and do in the world
the good news you have heard from Jesus Christ.

Walk the walk.

Jesus is not critical of what the Pharisees are teaching.
He is critical of the fact that they are not walking the walk.
He is critical of the fact that they are walking AWAY from what they are teaching.


Lily pad or launch pad?
Are we called as Christians to sit and be eye-candy--
or are we called to go out into the world and serve?

Serving does not wear one face.
You can serve with a Habitat hammer in your hand
and you can serve with a loaf of bread
delivered to someone who is suffering.
You can serve by offering your time to someone in prison
and you can serve by offering your time and transport
to someone who needs a ride to church.

Gandhi said:
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

I think Gandhi was talking about lily pad Christians--
not the launch pad Christians Jesus calls us to be.

For most of his life Albert Einstein had portraits of two scientists,
Newton and Maxwell, hanging on the wall of his office to inspire him.
But as he grew older he took down those portraits and hung two others:
Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi.
EInstein said he needed new role models--
people who were not models of success,
but people who were models of humble service.

O Lord it’s hard to be humble...
And not because we are perfect.
(Sorry, Mac Davis!)

It is hard to be humble because the world around us
tells us in so many ways
that what we need is a beautiful new lily pad.
The world around us tells us that what we need is to be the best,
to beat out the competition, to win,
to get the best seats, the fastest car, the biggest paycheck,
to impress people.

I don’t think the Pharisees started out
turning their back on the launch pad.
I think they started off really trying to walk the walk.
But they got distracted by all the bells and whistles
and false truths of the lily pad.
And they wandered so far away
and felt they had so much to lose
that they just could not walk their talk.

Oh, they kept preaching and teaching and pretending to be holy.
But they probably feared and hated Jesus
because he revealed to them
the harsh truth about whom they had become.

Lily pad or launch pad?
Two thousand years later
we are still faced with choosing.

Who will we be as Christians?
Who will we be as the Church?

There is a story that many of you may have heard.
It is credited as a story told by a Cherokee Indian chief.

The old chief told his young grandson about a terrible battle
that was raging.
His grandson asked,
“Where is this battle?”

His grandfather replied,
“This battle is inside you. Inside me. Inside everyone.
This battle is between two wolves.
One wolf is Evil.
It is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment,
lies, apathy.
The other wolf is Good.
It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

“But Grandfather,” said the young boy, “which wolf wins?”
The grandfather looked at his grandson and replied,
“Which wolf wins?
Whichever wolf you feed.”

We are called to walk a life worthy of God--
to feed the good wolf,
to leave the lily pad
and launch ourselves into the world
proclaiming the love of God
loving and serving one another.

Taxes to pay? What do you say?....Sermon for Year A Proper 24

Ben Miller and Michael Watts,
both professors in Economics at Purdue University,
wrote a paper back in 2009 titled,
“Oh, the Economics You’ll Find in Dr. Seuss.”

As the paper’s title indicates,
it’s about a variety of economic concepts
that one can find in the books
by children’s author Dr. Seuss.

I thought about Dr. Seuss and this paper on economics
as I read Matthew’s gospel this week.
There is much about economics in the gospels.

In today’s gospel
those trickster Pharisees
are out to try to entrap Jesus once again.

They send out their eager young disciples--
this time with some Herodians--
government officials.

I thought if Dr. Seuss had written this gospel scripture
it might start something like this:

Oh, Rabbi!
Could we ask you a question?

Taxes to pay?
What do you say?
Big emperor, little emperor?
Big God, little God?
Tell us, Jesus, what you think.
Help us throw you in the clink.


The disciples and the Herodians are pretty thrilled with their question--
They believe they have Jesus just where they want him--
with this lose/lose question.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor--or not?

Jesus is getting sick and tired of their foolish games.
And he tells them so:

Oh you silly hypocrites.
Oh you make me lose my wits.
Coming up with tests for me
As if I’m too blind to see.
What you want is rid of me--
Your questions are just foolery.

But Jesus takes a deep breath and asks:
Do you have one of those coins used to pay the tax?

Oh. Ooh. They’ve got him now.
They hand him a denarius.

And Jesus asks them.
Who’s head is on this coin?

They reply “The emperor’s.”

Alright, says Jesus. Tossing the coin back to them.
Then give to the emperor
what belongs to the emperor
and give to God what belongs to God.

The disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians were amazed.
Why?
Because they realize their little plan has not worked.
In fact their little plan has worked against them.
Their little plan is now a large dilemma.

Because essentially Jesus has trapped them.
Jesus has left them with a far bigger question than the one they asked.
What belongs to God?

They have already failed the test.
Just by having that coin in their pocket,
they have broken the first two commandments:

Commandment 1: You shall have no other gods before me.
Commandment 2: You shall not make for yourself an idol...you shall not bow down or worship them.

The commandments, given to Moses,
were not just words to be put on a bookmark
or memorized in Sunday School--
this was the covenant they had made with God.
This was their rule of life.

The Pharisees and the Herodians
have shown themselves to be compromised--
by having a pagan god--the emperor--
right in their own pockets.

Jesus is not talking about separation of church and state here.
First of all,
in the time of Jesus there as no ideology
that separated civic and religious life.
The concept of separation of church and state
originated with Thomas Jefferson in the late 18th century.
We have to be so careful
that we do not project our own modern culture
onto the culture of Jesus’ time.

You see the Emperor--or Caesar--was not just the head of state.
He was--by his own self-proclamation--proclaimed to be a god.
And if you didn’t worship the emperor as a god,
you were in serious trouble.

Now we can say, well, we don’t have an emperor any more,
so I don’t have to worry.
I’m down with Jesus.

Really?
What belongs to God?
That is the question Jesus is asking--then and now.

There is a lot about economics in the gospels.
Jesus taught more about money than any other subject.
27 of his parables--out of 43--have to do with money and possessions.
1 our of every 10 verses in the gospels deals with money.

The Bible includes 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 on faith,
and more than 2000 verses on money.

In the church today
we really do not like to talk about money.
Talking about money makes some of us uncomfortable.
It makes some of us mad.
it makes some of us guilty.
It makes some of us sad.
We feel “our” money is nobody’s business.
“Our” money.

The truth is
our relationship with money
is often very reflective of our relationship with God.

Jesus does not let us escape.
Jesus wants us to ponder and struggle and become more clear
about whom we really worship.

Jesus is asking a much more powerful and difficult question:
What really belongs to God?

It is rather amazing what happens
when we are willing to acknowledge that everything belongs to God.
When we are willing to live with that as our guiding principle.

Teresa of Avila lived in the sixteenth century in Spain.
It was a time when women had little voice, little influence, little power.
And yet...and yet..
she reformed her Carmelite order,
she founded 17 new communities,
she wrote 4 books
and she confronted and challenged many people--
both women and men (including John of the Cross)
about their relationship with God.

Teresa of Avila was very clear that all this was possible because of God.
Not because of her.

She wrote:

“Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to lived by you alone; and that there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.”

What belongs to the emperor?
and what belongs to God?
This is still the question with which we struggle.

And to close, in the tradition of Dr. Seuss:

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there.
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet...

You’ll encounter the emperor prowling his beat.
When will you bend? To whom will you bow?
What really belongs to God?
Pray upon this right now.


Pray upon this right now.
Amen.

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.