When Jesus Works from Home

When Jesus Works from Home

Live from Lynn, it’s “Godspell”.

Hello, this is Fr Paul Bresnahan. I’m a priest of the Episcopal Church.

Welcome back to “Godspell”: a time to spell it out.

Who is God, and how is God involved in our lives?

“Godspell” is a nice old English word for the Gospel or, what I call, the language of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Silence

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

A Statement of Belief, “Belief” not in the sense that we understand it all, but “Belief” in the sense that this is what we have committed our lives to.

The Apostles' Creed, The Creed of our Baptism, for today please note especially the part about Jesus’ Ascension to the right hand of God,

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
    creator of heaven and earth;
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
    He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
        and born of the Virgin Mary.
    He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
        was crucified, died, and was buried.
    He descended to the dead.
    On the third day he rose again.
    He ascended into heaven,
        and is seated at the right hand of God.    He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
    the holy catholic Church,
    the communion of saints,
    the forgiveness of sins
    the resurrection of the body,
    and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Collect for Ascension Sunday: 

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

The Lectionary assigns the following to be read for this Sunday. How often I find serendipity in something as seemingly arbitrary as the Lectionary;

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Gospel: John 17:1-11

1 Jesus looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you…6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word…9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours…11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

“When Jesus Works from Home”

Dear friends,

Christian folk believe that Jesus Ascended into heaven and sits at the Right Hand of God, from there he judges the living and the dead.

It had never really occurred to me until this week, this year, this Ascensiontide during this pandemic; like many of us Jesus Works from Home. It brought a smile to my face. But I think it bothered Jesus. Look at his prayer in today’s Gospel; "And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Imagine it! If we could be One, just like Jesus and God are One. Imagine our political and religious differences evaporating in obedience to such a prayer as this. Imagine all of us no matter what race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, or orientation; imagine us one in Jesus. 

The Mayor of Boston asked us to work from home if at all possible now that Governor Charley Baker has begun to open things up once more. Marty Walsh is worried about a fresh outbreak if we open up too soon. 

Our Bishops have made it clear. The Church buildings are closed until July at the earliest. But the church is not closed. 

As Bishop-elect Deon Johnson of the Diocese of Missouri recently said:

“The work of the church is essential.

The work of caring for the lonely, the marginalized, and the oppressed is essential.

The work of speaking truth to power and seeking justice is essential.

The work of being a loving, liberating, and life giving presence in the world is essential.

The work of welcoming the stranger, the refugee and the undocumented is essential.

The work of reconciliation and healing and caring is essential.

The church does not need to "open" because the church never "closed." 

We who make up the Body of Christ, the church, love God and our neighbors and ourselves so much that we will stay away from our buildings until it is safe to return.

We are the church.”

We look to Jesus for Hope during this experience. We know what he can do through us. While he was in our midst we recognized him as the Love of God made flesh and blood. Now that he has Ascended to the Right hand of God and is working from home, you and I have become the Love of God made flesh and blood. 

As Jesus forgives so we are forgiven. Moreover we forgive. We are the forgiven forgivers. As Jesus has compassion for us, so we have compassion for others. Jesus reconciled us to God on the Cross. That was hard work. So we are the reconciled reconcilers; the most difficult task of all for human beings. Somehow Jesus loved the unlovable. You and I are the beloved of God. We become the Christ like lovers of the unlovable. 

There are millions of us who buy this whole faith thing “hook line and sinker”. We happen to believe that the Baby was born in Bethlehem. He grew up and was Baptized in the River Jordan and a voice from Heaven said; “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him.” Some listen. Some don’t.

The story goes that he was driven into the Wilderness where he faced his own demons exactly like each of us.

Then he began to go from town to town healing the sick and the mentally ill. He cured the lame, gave sight to the blind and did so whether it was on the Sabbath Day or on any other day of the week. He sought out the the poor, the outcast, the prostitute and  the tax collector. For Jesus there were no classifications like we use by race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation. For Jesus, we were all one in his love.

Somehow he managed to offend the religious and the political authorities. Ultimately he sealed his fate by overturning the tables of the the money changers. So they trumped up charges against him, and held a trial of sorts. He was found guilty of a capitol offense; namely blasphemy. They said he claimed to be God. They crucified him. He died and was buried. 

Here’s where it gets dicey. We Christian folk also believe that he rose from the dead and manifestly appeared to his disciples and to hundreds of others. We believe all this. As I say, and as my grandmother said before me; “I can’t understand everything I know!”

We believe that Jesus Ascended into Heaven. There he Sits at the Right Hand. From there he is Judge of the “quick and the dead”. Notice the judgment is for the living and the dead. 

Judgment?

The image that comes to my mind is of the One who stretched out his loving arms on the hard wood of the Cross so that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace. 

The Cross is our guarantee of Forgiveness.

The criminal who died next to him spoke up with his dying breath and said, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “Today you shall be with me in Paradise:

Of this Judgment John says, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.”

And so Jesus is Victorious over both Sin and Death. Alleluia.

This is the work he does from home. 

I have Good News for you today. You are forgiven. All your sins. The big ones as well as the little ones. Even the ones that won't go away…those everyday habitual sins you wish you could be rid of. Forgiven. All Forgiven. Today, this is where our life begins in Jesus.

There are millions upon million of us who buy all this “hook line and sinker. We are the Easter People. And I am one of them.

Ascensiontide is the season when we celebrate the fact that Jesus now works from Home. 

You and I have work to do. Love one Another. See all those people out there who need you? Go on with you. Love one Another.” Amen.

Prayers for others

On this Memorial Day, there are so many to remember. Not only are there those taken from us in wartime, but add to that the 100,00 taken from us during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Look at today’s front Page of the New York Times, to get some kind of small sense of the cost to us of this current experience.

Add to that our prayers for those who mourn, and those who put their lives on the line every day for the rest of us.

And for those of us who, because of our own health concerns remain in self imposed isolation, I ask you, love one another. 

Lord’s Prayer

A Blessing

See that ye be at peace among yourselves, 

and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good

and God will comfort you and help you,

both in this world

and in the world which is to come.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

And may the Blessing of God the Most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity be upon you this day and always. Amen.

A Year of Rest

A Year of Rest

Note to Reader: The following is the result of a conversation with a friend in New Orleans. Sadly Bourbon Street is not what it used to be and probably won't be for a good long time to come. Likewise, The Boston Marathon is off for this year, maybe for next year too. There is a Biblical perspective to help us understand where we find ourselves us at present. Here follows an attempt to provide that perspective. 

Live from Lynn, it’s “Godspell”.

Hello, this is Fr Paul Bresnahan, priest of the Episcopal Church.

Welcome back to “Godspell”: I like the sound of that word.

We’ve come to a time to spell it out.

Who is God, and how is God involved in our lives?

“Godspell”. It’s a nice old English word for the Gospel or, what I call, the language of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Silence

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Expressions of faith

Lord, You have always given

bread for the coming day;

and though I am poor,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always given

strength for the coming day;

and though I am weak,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always given

peace for the coming day;

and though of anxious heart,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always kept

me safe in trials;

and now, tried as I am,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always marked

the road for the coming day;

and though it may be hidden,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightened

this darkness of mine;

and though the night is here,

today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken

when time was ripe;

and though you be silent now,

today I believe

A Year of Rest

In the midst of this pandemic we find ourselves in a situation that is as novel to us as the COVID-19 virus is to our bodies. There is a struggle among and within us as to how long we need to be in lockdown and when we can open up the economy 

Perhaps we need to declare a Year of Rest. It would not be the first time that we have done so. The history of our experience with God and Mother Nature goes back thousands of years in our shared Abrahamic Faith traditions. In fact, we were required to take one year off in seven in ancient times. We gave the land and ourselves a Sabbatical. The word “Sabbath” refers to the Seventh Day or the Seventh Year. In fact the Ancients prepared for it. We stored up provisions for ourselves so that when the Jubilee Year came along we were prepared. 

We have made no such provision for ourselves in the modern world. We mindlessly keep up the grind on the treadmill. We are  busy. Seldom do we take time away and time apart to think, pray, meditate, recreate, reimagine, reinvent who we are in the deepest part of ourselves. We are not accustomed to the restorative powers of quiet and of solitude. Many of us struggle with that Peace that Passes Understanding we discover when we are alone. What an opportunity if we use the time we have been given.

The Biblical record gives us some perspective. Let me point out three passages I feel are timely and pertinent.

First we need to give it a rest, a “Sabbath Rest”...a year’s rest...perhaps 18 months rest in our case (or until there is a vaccine.) It has been well over 100 years since we “gave it a rest”. We are long overdue. God’s Creation needs a break a “Jubilee Year” to the Lord. Already we notice that the air is cleaner and the Springtime birdsong is more jubilant. 

A “Jubilee Year” requires remission of debt and freedom for all slaves. At least that’s what scripture says, as a colleague of mine hastened to remind me.

The Book of Leviticus, of all things, says this on the subject; “The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD’” .~Chapter 25.

It has been well over a hundred years since we “gave it a rest”. The last time was during the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. Even Calvin Coolidge pretty much shut things down for a while. There were debates about wearing masks. Many of us turned a deaf ear to health agencies and government guidelines and about 675,000 of us died. Worldwide 50,000,000 souls were taken. 

We had no choice. We had to give it a rest.

Now we are being told to do it all over again. It is a profound sacrifice for us. And painful beyond measure. Giving up work, restaurants, pubs, retail shopping and the like is costing us jobs and businesses. Giving up our livelihood. Where will our food come from if we all just stop?

Farmers and ranchers have crops and livestock to tend to. How would we manage a sabbatical for the entire economy? 

Many have to clean up after the rest of us in hospitals, nursing homes, city trash collection. People of color have been disproportionately effected. They pack our meats, they pick our fruit and vegetables and flip our hamburgers, serve up our daily Dunkin’s in the morning. They are our servant class. 

A judge in Los Angeles country has told the authorities to move the 65,000 homeless away from the freeways. Where are they supposed to go? Not surprisingly Native peoples are also paying the price with their lives.

In the meantime there are those who put the the value of the Almighty Dollar and the Economy ahead of the value of human life. There is precedent to this human tendency also.

Secondly the Scripture reminds us about the danger in worshiping the The Golden Calf? Remember this one?

   ~Exodus 32:1-14

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Ah, how nice it was to have a shiny new golden god you could see to worship. It was like the shiny Bull on Wall Street. It was like having cold hard cash on hand. Look at the gods we’ve made for ourselves. The Almighty Dollar reigns. The Economy is our Supreme Being. 

As for those of 1,400,00 of us who are sick and the 87,436 who have died, I get the sense that some in positions of national leadership put the economy ahead of those of the people we love. I am waiting for a convincing expression of compassion from those who put their trust in the Economy. 

By the way, these are not numbers. These are people. I happen to know three of them at Logan Airport who contracted the virus. One did rather well and showed few symptoms, one was really sick and his recovery has been a long and difficult, one has died. 

I live a the Gateway City; Lynn MA. We have been especially hard hit. Of the 95,000 who live here, 3,000 are sick and 80 have died. Many of my neighbors are people of color and some do not speak English as their first language. Many are fearful of ICE because they await Green Card clearance or are not yet quite “legal”. 

Secondly listen to what the Scripture say of the alien who lives within our borders. Our Abrahamic Faith Traditions have something to say about that too. Again from Leviticus of all places; 

"When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."

   ~Leviticus 19

We are suffering similarly in other Gateway Cities across the nation. Some people feel judged and vulnerable and do not know where to turn or who to trust. These are hard times for so many.

Perhaps if we put people first ahead of the Golden Calf we worship, we could take a Jubilee Year, a Year of Rest. “Stop the World” we want to get off for a while, a respite from the grind of it all.

Thirdly

Who then shall we worship as a nation? The Golden Calf? The Bull on Wall Street. Or shall we love God and shall we love one another? Who is first? What or who is the God we worship and serve? Perhaps a Year of Rest might give us time to set our priorities straight once more. 

For those of us who love Jesus we are under a moral mandate to follow in the steps in which he walked.

Jesus sets the record straight on who comes first. The Great Commandment: ~Matthew 22:34-40

“A lawyer, asked Jesus a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Many Americans are willful, self-centered, and egotistical bullies. There are those whose racism, misogyny, xenophobia and so on are not far for the surface. There is the potential of violence and they love to brandish their weapons. 

But the vast majority of us are caring, compassionate, generous, and eager to learn. We care very much about one another. Our better angels bring us to our good senses. Jesus was unarmed. Jesus gave his life for the sins of the whole world. Whatever violence or hatred there is, Jesus loved us through it all. 

Jesus speaks to our better angels. Maybe the Ancients knew something we need to learn again. We need time off especially the poorest among us. Sabbaticals need not be only for clergy and professors. I can imagine that with some creativity we could rotate responsibility and manage a sabbatical for all God’s children if we choose obedience rather than oppression.

How would we pay for it? Here’s an idea. “Trickle Down” economics? Nah! The truth is it has been a time of “Triple Up” economics. The concentration of wealth is now in the hands of the 1% of the Super Rich and the Vast Multinational Corporations. Perhaps out of your generosity of spirit you would write the check for our elderly, our poor, our homeless. 

We can be a kinder and gentler people with the alien in our midst. This is the biblical mandate. And we need to put God first, meaning we need to put humankind first. As for the Golden Calf and the Almighty Dollar? 

This is not our God, and we will not fall down and worship them. that we are told to worship, not me? I will not bow down and worship any but God and serve the people of God. 

Prayers for others

Lord’s Prayer

A Blessing

See that ye be at peace among yourselves, 

and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good

and God will comfort you and help you,

both in this world

and in the world which is to come.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

And may the Blessing of God the Most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity be upon you this day and always. Amen.

God bless us everyone,

Fr Paul