We're not in Boston anymore!

The Feast Day of the Transfiguration 2017

St. Peter’s Cathedral, Helena, Montana

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Boston anymore”

~Dorothy (a minor variation)

Last night Cindy and I were out shopping. We stopped to grab a bite at Shellie's Country Cafe. When we observed cowboy hats, boots and belt buckles, we looked at each other and said; “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Boston anymore”

Good morning folks and thank you for your wonderful welcome to Helena, Montana. Cindy and I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Bishop Brookhart, Sara Medley and the Cathedral Chapter, and to your wonderful Parish Administrator, Donna Gleaves. You have provided us with a very comfortable place to live in and a basket full of goodies to enjoy. Donna has prepared pages of agenda items for the interim dean to pay attention to as we begin this journey together. It sets my head to spinning as I contemplate; “Good Lord, where have I landed now!”

When we left Boston it was hazy, hot and humid. When we arrived in Helena, it was smokey, hot and dry. This folks, is a mighty Transfiguration! How appropriate that we begin our time together on the very day that Jesus was transfigured right before their very eyes, high up upon the holy mountain. We have what we call mountains in the Berkshires in my home state, but the Native Americans named the place Massachusetts: “Place of little hills”. Those hills are nothing like what we have around us here. How beautiful! I can hardly wait for the smoke to clear to see them in all their magnificent majesty. And as I say that, let us remember those who fight these wildfires. Several have lost their lives in the ongoing battle. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their courage and sacrifice, we owe them our prayers as they face the dangers of the work they do day in and day out. 

It was hot and dry in the desert places where Jesus and his disciples ministered. They focused their work around the sick, the poor and the outcast. They brought them the Good News of God’s love and their love. With courage and resolve they mightily ministered to their needs. 

Then the day came for them to climb the holy mountain. It was cold and windy up there if it was anything like the holy mountains we visited when we took a bus load of high school kids to the Holy Land. 

There was an encounter with the Holy, as so often happens when we are with Jesus. As they prayed there, suddenly Jesus was transfigured and his face shone like the sun, his clothing became a dazzling white. They spoke of his departure, interestingly enough, and as they did, Moses and Elijah appeared and the Glory of God radiated through them. 

Peter, dear Peter, our very own Peter didn’t know what to say. So he said the only thing he could come up with; “Lets make a couple of lean to’s of the sort you make in a mountain when you’re going to spend the night and lets stay a while. Let us dwell in this moment.” Imagine here is Jesus, the One with power over sin and death. Moses the one who brought us up out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom in the Promised Land and then gave us the Law. And Elijah the Prophet who did not shrink from confronting the Powers and Principalities of his time with the Word of God. Neither did Moses shrink from Pharaoh nor Jesus fall away from facing Pilate or the Temple authorities. 

Then as suddenly as they all appeared together, Moses and Elijah were gone and only Jesus remained before their eyes. They heard it plain as day; “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him now!”  

You will remember what Jesus said.  He spoke on the basis of what he did. After all in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus does say; "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven." ~Matthew 7:21. You will remember the Sermon on the Mount. You will remember how he cured the sick, and those suffering from every form of mental illness, and how he went out of his way to visit the outcast and the lepers of his day. Not everyone was thrilled with this approach to human need. And Jesus paid dearly for his love for us all but he rose again from the dead and here he is now in our very midst this day in the power of his resurrection. 

Our church has undergone quite a transfiguration in recent years. We are seeking to understand anew what Paul meant when he said; “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. The Gospel is not about Jew or Greek alone but about any race or ethnicity. It is not about slave or free alone but all economic classifications. Not even gender identity can factor into consideration about the love of Jesus when you think about it.  We are all one in Jesus. We have all put on Christ as a garment. 

Our own blessed Peter, the Rock upon which Jesus continues to build God’s Church, when speaking to the Gentiles, namely the “outsiders” the “foreigners” of his time, said in his glorious Easter Sermon; ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” ~Acts 10

Every one of you gathered here this morning shines with the same kind of Glory with which Jesus shines. I can see it in your faces. And I see no exceptions, even after these first 45 years in parish ministry 45, thanks be to God. 

Mind you there are characters in our midst. There are varieties of gifts, opinion, conviction, temperament, and every Dickensian peculiarity. After all, we are Episcopalians. But when we gather in this holy place and at this altar rail we bring who we are to God and to one another and somehow we gather rubbing shoulder to shoulder in the very midst of God’s Glory. The collect of the day proclaims that as Jesus is wonderfully transfigured so may we be “delivered from the disquietude of this world” and behold God in Glory. It is this very Glory which you show forth in your lives, it is your joy that will bring people to Jesus. Be radiant! Be joyful!

There is another Sunday in the church year when we observe the Transfiguration. I love the way the Collect for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany puts it; “O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory.”

We gather week by week delivered from the disquietude of the world we live in so that we may be transfigured from glory to glory. Bring yourselves and others to the Glory of God and the Joy of Jesus!

I hope you allow yourselves to live in this glory. From the moment I first entered this building, I could sense it; you know what I mean; that breathtaking sense of the holy. When Donna first showed me this place I was especially taken with the stained glass windows. Then come to find out, they were made by Charles J Connick in his studios in Boston. Aha! No wonder I feel so much at home here. As we bask in the beauty of this place may I invite you to allow yourselves to be transfigured from glory to glory especially in the inward places of your very souls.

Connick wrote of the beauty of our encounter with God in these words; “If churches are made radiant and beautiful places of worship, we can have a spiritual regeneration without anyone knowing what is going on. Beauty can preach as very few with bundles of words can preach. I want to make beautiful interiors for both churches and souls. I want folks to hear my windows singing.” 

What does God want of us and of this Cathedral as we seek a transfiguration of the human soul? My wife Cindy has a way of bringing me back to earth. Seems there are always bills to pay and stuff to do. You and I know that no matter how glorious the mountaintop moment may be, we always have to come back to reality. The fact of sin and wickedness and death is all around us. How shall we organize ourselves as a Cathedral to confront that sin and wickedness and death? It has been said of Mother Teresa that she was “something beautiful for God”. Her mission was anything but beautiful. She faced into the ugliness of death and loved them to the Gate of Heaven. Jesus came down from the mountain to face his crucifixion, followed then by his resurrection.

You are something beautiful for God especially when you organize your lives around the suffering of the people around you and when you have the courage to become agents of God’s Justice. No Toto, we’re not in Boston anymore. We're right here in Helena. May God grant that we may shine with the radiance of Christ’s Glory. And what is it that God requires of us but “to do Justice, to love Mercy, and to walk humbly with our God”. ~Micah 6:8. Stay tuned folks, next week we celebrate 150 years of mission and ministry in and from this place. God grant that what we do in our time together may guide us toward the next 150 years of worship and service.

In the Name of God, the most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul

A Timely Wedding

The Primates (watch how you pronounce that) have spoken. So have I. Here is today's sermon from St. John's, Sandwich on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

A Wedding in Cana

How Timely

Today's Gospel invites us into conversation around the matter of marriage. How very timely! As you no doubt know the Primates, or "prime bishops" of the Anglican Communion have been meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in recent days and in their wisdom or lack of it they have decided to sanction the Episcopal Church in The United States because of our stand on same sex marriage and other issues of concern to the more conservative wing of the church such as the ordination of women and their consecration to the Episcopate. A majority of these "prime bishops" or "Primates" call them what you will, have voted to put the brakes on over issues concerning marriage equality, gender and sexual orientation.

My dear friends allow me to use my family as a microcosm in all this controversy. I would rather it be conversation, but controversy apparently it is. Apparently my family is a cause of some controversy. 

But, for us here on this day; some conversation first. 

When Cindy and I met, I was 34 years of age, she 26. It didn't take very long for us to figure out that we were just right for each other, five months after we met we were engaged! That was Palm Sunday in 1979, otherwise known as Passion Sunday. That seemed appropriate both liturgically and personally. When we announced our engagement to Cindy's large Italian Catholic family, we raised a bit of a stir. And the first to raise her worry was Cindy's little sister Susan who was about 8 years old at the time. She could not restrain herself as the tears welled up into her little eyes; "Oh no Cindy, does that mean you'll be Irish now?" Just imagine!

Cindy's dad had concerns about her marrying outside the church and told me so on a long walk we took one day. I told him that the day he started going to church would be the day I took his concern seriously. Her mom wondered about what we believed anyway. I told her "we believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Chruch". I showed her the Nicene Creed we recite every week in the Book of Common Prayer. She was visibly relieved. I thank God for giving me the grace to say what I said in those moments because they satisfied the objections at least for the moment. 

Five more months later we were married at Christ Church in Hyde Park, Bishop John Coburn and The Reverend Chester Porteus of Christ Church, Quincy officiating. Talk about raising a stir! It was a wonderful day. It was the last time my extended family was to gather. It was a moment when heaven itself seemed to break through into the present, a most unforgettable moment indeed.

A little more than a year later, David was born, about two years later Joshua was born, and then three years later Michael came into this world. Seems we took a breather there for a bit. 

All of that was a long time ago and here we are still giving thanks to God for the love we share, the love that brought three young men into the world and the love that continues to pour out from our lives both professionally and personally. 

The stirrings in the church continued. Early on I stood with those who were divorced and wished to be remarried in the church. That finally happened around the time of our marriage. I have stood with those who struggled for civil rights, and gender equality. My special and specific advocacy has focused on the poor, the hungry and the homeless. But I have also advocated long and hard for equality for all whatever race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. The business of sexual orientation has caused the biggest stir of all it seems. It has been a matter of controversy and not only for the church. And now this latest from the Primates of the Anglican Communion.

Our bishops and our Presiding Bishop have issued statements about all this and and you can read what they have said by checking the above links. My dear friend, the Bishop of Montana has also spoken on the matter and I find what he said very helpful. 

I take a personal interest in all this. You see my uncle was one of those folks who never married, but did have a very good friend by the name of Jimmy. Their relationship lasted for over 50 years. My mom, by contrast, went through three marriages that we know about until she finally got it right. We can thank God for that mercy. But I used to ask my grandmother about my uncle and why he never married. This was back in the days before we really talked very much about the matter of sexual orientation or used the word "gay" in the way it has come to mean in recent years. My grandmother told me that my uncle would probably never marry because he was as the Dowager Countess of Grantham might say, a "confirmed bachelor". I came to understand what that euphemism meant in due course. 

My uncle was known for getting into his cups from time to time and one day he became especially agitated and asked me this question. He was never quite comfortable with the fact that I became a priest. He felt that the church harboured ill will to his "kind". He said to me, and I'll try if I can to catch the flavor of it. He was solid working class and spent his entire career working buildings and grounds for the Mother Church in Boston. 

"Hey kid, you with the turned around collar," he said, dripping with sarcasm, "I want you to tell me what you think about me. And tell me to my face. I don't care what your church thinks about me. I want to know what you think."

"Geez Al," I said with some trepidation. After all, I knew this would mean a lifetime of struggle for me and my church. "You're fine with me."

He said, "If that's the case then stand up for me some day in that church of yours. Stand up for me and Jimmy."

Well Al, here I am standing up for you and Jimmy, but many, many, more as well. In fact right here at St. John's Church, you stand with those who embrace traditional, divorced, remarried and same sex marriages. In fact we in the Episcopal Church are coming to see that we really are a "House of Prayer for ALL People" and that there are no outcasts in this church. 

You may remember in your reading of scripture, that Jesus embraced all sorts and conditions of people, tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, rich and poor, the lame, the blind, the mentally ill and so on. And on the day he overturned the tables of the money changers in the Temple he did say "My Church shall be a House of Prayer for ALL People". I would submit to you, that we are seeking to be obedient to Jesus in who we seek to be as a church. 

Our new Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, expressed his disappointment this week over the actions of the Primates meeting. But then he said a wonderful thing; "Perhaps our high calling is to be that part of the Anglican Communion that seeks to witness to the church as a place where we are becoming more and more "A House of Prayer for ALL People". Furthermore, as Paul the Apostle has said. "For there is no longer Jew or Greek, (or any other race or ethnicity, there is no longer slave or free, (or any other class of rich or poor) and there is no longer male or female (or dare we say any other orientation), because we are all one in Christ. Paul by the way, has been called the Apostle to the Gentiles, which is just another word or "outsider". 

I am so proud of our church for standing with my uncle, and Cindy and me as we seek to live out our lives of faithful love, or my mom, who took a while but did get it right at long last.

And now wouldn't you know it two of my sons happen to be gay. Both of them devout Episcopalians. Both love to sing. Michael sings a repertoire of sacred music with a professional a Capella men's singing group called "Chanticleer"...by the way there's quite a few gay guys in that choir. And they are very grateful that there are voices like mine who will stand with them and with so many who for so long have been made to feel outside the embrace of God's love. For some suicide and self destruction seemed like the only way out. I know about that personally. I've worked very hard to save those who considered that way out of their sense of dilemma. It was I. It was this church. It was your love that talked them out of it.

No! The world is a wedding. And Jesus is right there in the midst of it, performing his very first miracle, a miracle that continues to unfold to this day. When the wine runs out he calls for the water jars set aside for the rites of purification. Then he changes the water into wine so that all God's children whatever race, ethnicity, class, gender or orientation may gather together and be One at last at God's Great Banquet Table. And the water has been changed into the best wine of all because you see, we may now be obedient to Jesus. We may at long last, love one another. There now you Primates! Shall we continue the conversation? 

In the name of The Most Holy, Blessed, and Undided Trinity. Amen

Fr Paul