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

Overturning Tables in The Temple

In the Name of One God; The Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

“Over-turning the Tables in the Temple!”

What a Sunday to begin! Somebody; if I start turning tables over at the coffee hour, remind me not to take the Bible so literally!

My son David is the Senior Warden at St. Mary’s Church in Dorchester. So last week being my last “free” Sunday for a while, we worshipped with him and later went to brunch. Naturally, I had to search out the indoor plumbing. You know you’re in Boston when you go to the “men’s room” and discover it is not the men’s room after all. Where you would typically see the universal symbol for men or women on a bathroom door, instead you see a symbol half of which is for the male of the species, and the other half, female. The sign below the curious symbol reads; “Whatevah”.

The conversation we’re having in the church and the culture around it about gender and orientation is reaping interesting and renriching ways of looking at one another. I hope we are also learning that the old pigeon holes we put each other into are beginning to disappear. 

The phenomenon is not new to us. It is as old as the Gospel. St Paul put it this way; “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:27,28.

When Paul references “Jew and Greek” he is not merely speaking of those two racial/ethnic delineations, he is speaking of all races and ethnicities. “We are all one!”

When Paul speaks of “slave and free”, he is not only speaking of those with freedom and those without, he is speaking of all folks in every economic class; rich and poor and everyone in between. “We are all one!”

And when Paul speaks of “male and female”, the same spirit is present. I would argue that Paul speaks up for all of us in the entire rainbow of human identity, inclusive of the LGBT community, which for so long has been persecuted and marginalized inside and outside the church. Did you not notice? There it is; right at the outset, in the beginning, as it were; the Gospel proclamation; “We are ALL one!”

Jesus overturned many tables and not just those in the Temple that day. The Gospel overturns our whole way of looking at one another. The Church Jesus planted overturned the tables of all human hatred. Right here at the heart of our love for one another; Jesus places himself on the Cross. Race, class, gender, orientation; this is not how Jesus saw us. Like an old Arab woman once told us when on Pilgrimage in the Holy Land in answer to the question; “What is the color of God?”

She replied; “The color of God is the color of water!” 

Today’s story; The Cleansing of the Temple occurs in all four Gospels. In John it occurs at the outset of Jesus’ ministry in the second chapter, and sets the tone for his whole life. In the Synoptics on the other hand; Matthew, Mark and Luke the event occurs at the conclusion of Jesus ministry. The confrontation of Jesus with the money changers and the Temple Authorities seals his fate and in a few short days there is a trial, a crucifixion, a death and a glorious resurrection! Talk about turning the whole world upside down!!!

I remember when we were in Seminary we fought for civil rights. Jonathan Daniels, a senior student had been shot to death the previous year to my matriculation, for protecting a young black girl. Violence and guns have been around for a very long time and has taken a vast toll on human life. We alone among developed countries kill one another off at the alarming of rate of tens of thousands each year. When I returned from Canada to attend seminary, gun deaths there could be counted in multiples of 10. Still can. Why is that? The young people of Parkland High and our Bishops call us to action. What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do we not understand anyway? Bad enough that there are well over 300,000,000 weapons out there. Worse still that we do not execute the full measure of the Second Amendment which calls for “A well regulated militia”. Until we make sure that the Second Amendment exists under the authority of that clause, the slaughter will continue. Folks we need to join the kids from Parkland and “March for our Lives”!

During the struggle for racial equality John Burgess was elected the first Black bishop in the Episcopal Church. He ordained me a priest in the church of God more than 45 years ago. I thank God for that for so many reasons. His consecration raised many an eyebrow among lots of white folks. 

Then it fell to us to begin exploring the possibility of the ordination of women. The church had fits over the ordination of the Philadelphia eleven and the Anglican Communion has yet to get over it in many quarters.

Then there was this. My uncle was what we called then “a confirmed bachelor”. This was way back in the 1950’s. More recently two of my children broke it to me; “Dad I’m gay”. One was afraid of how Cindy and I would take the news. The other told us to take it or leave it. More recently, I officiated at the wedding of one of Cindy’s sisters and her partner is another woman and they too love one another very much! Good heavens, and I say that advisedly, I’ve been around the LGBT community all my life. If ever there were a non issue in our family, this is it. Yet, in some quarters, the Church and the culture around it have gone downright apoplectic over the idea of celebrating God’s embrace of all people. 

We’ve been over turning tables in the Temple for a very long time. By what authority do we do this? Under what authority did Jesus make his whip of cords and chase out the money changers and those who traded in pigeons and the like? 

In the synoptics, when Jesus cleansed the Temple he told them plainly; “My House shall be a House of Prayer for ALL People” (emphasis mine). Jesus did not pick that turn of phrase out of thin air. He quoted scripture to show by what authority he did these things; specifically Isaiah chapter 56. The prophet considered the question of foreigners and eunuchs in the household of God. Both the Levitical and Deuteronomic Law Code separated foreigners and eunuchs from the sacred assembly. But not Isaiah and certainly not Jesus!!! Listen to this passage from the Prophet Isaiah; 

“Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,

   ‘God will surely separate me from his people’;

and do not let the eunuch say,

   ‘I am just a dry tree.’ 

For thus says the Holy One:

To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,

   I will give a monument and a name

   better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

   that shall not be cut off. 

And the foreigners who join themselves to God,

   I will bring them to my holy mountain,

   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

   for all peoples.”

And then in the next verse the Prophet says;  

“Thus says the Holy One,

   who gathers the outcasts of Israel,

I will gather others to them

   besides those already gathered.”

There have always been persecuted outcasts among those God loves and cares about. God requires care and love among us as well. Lots of folks don’t like foreign folks, and want to build walls to keep them out. I often wonder how high that wall needs to be since so many foreign folks get here by air. Antipathy to the “other” has a long history. My grandmother used to say that it was the Irish who ruined Boston; which tells you what she thought of my dad. And she made me promise on the family Bible, that I’d never marry an Italian. I promised. I later broke that promise. But that’s all right. Ma has all that straightened out now that she’s in heaven. “Don’t you, Ma?” 

Foreign folks have often been given the cold shoulder here and around the world: and too the “eunuch”; those who raise gender and orientation questions. Talk about cold shoulder!

To our credit the Episcopal Church has handled these matters with something approaching Grace, albeit with the notable occasional brouhaha. 

The world doesn’t get what we’re doing sometime. Neither does so much of the church. As Paul so well puts it in today’s Epistle. “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

The core proclamation of today’s Gospel is: “We are a House of Prayer for ALL people”. This is because when Jesus stretched out his loving arms on the hard wood of the cross he did so in order that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace. 

God may surprise us from time to time in delightful kinds of ways just as happened last week after I returned to the lunch table with Cindy and David. “You’ll never guess who I met in the bathroom just now!” It doesn’t matter any more. Jew or Greek, slave or free, it doesn’t even matter any more if we are male or female. Because we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord and we shall always be “A house of prayer for ALL people”

In the Name of One God; The Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.