Why are you weeping?

Why are you weeping?

God knows there’s plenty of that!

But then there are those who are able to stare into the abyss and refuse to capitulate to the fear and the sadness of it. Take Betty, for instance; she lived her life with spina-bifida. She was not able to process with the choir but she sang with all her heart and soul. She fought off depression all her life until she approached the end. That’s when things changed for Betty. One day as the inevitable came closer, I went to visit her and bring her communion. She was remarkably excited and cheerful. As I was leaving, she said to me; “Don’t forget my envelopes! After all, I promised God that I would tithe.” 

And tithe she did. Ten percent right off the top. I told her; “Betty, certainly you need some of that money for your own living expenses!”

She looked at me resolutely with a cheerful smile; “Oh Fr. Paul, all my life I have not been able to walk without crutches but soon, I will be able to leap like a deer! Don’t you know that for all Jesus has done for me, the least I can do for him is tithe. Besides, I still get to keep 90%!” 

She was so excited and cheerful as she approached the end! Yes, she suffered plenty. But she suffered all her life! As the end approached, she knew things would be very different for her soon and very soon. Because of her witness, my attitude toward giving and generosity changed. Moreover, my whole viewpoint of life, death, and the resurrection changed because of her. 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

In today’s Gospel we are told that Mary was weeping. Not only was she grief stricken over the death of Jesus, but now, to add insult to injury, somebody had apparently taken the body away! She will not even be able to give her “Rhabbouni” a decent burial. The defeat of the cross has now given way to yet another indignity. Of course, she was crying. 

“They have taken away my Lord.”

First the angels asked her why she was weeping. But apparently she didn’t recognize them as angels. That recognition was to come somewhat later on.

Then the gardener appeared to her. Maybe this is the grave robber she thought to herself, and so she said; “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him.” Small comfort, but at least she could give him a decent burial.

Then came the Astonishing Surprise that has altered all of Salvation History. 

“Mary!” 

In that one word there came the recognition that Jesus Christ is Risen today. Alleluia!

“Rhabbouni!” The word occurs but one time in the Bible. It is of Chaldean origin and can be rendered “teacher” or “Lord” like the Greek “kyrios”…meaning “the one who is in control of my life” or “my master”. It is a word used to describe obeisance to the Emperor in the ancient world. It is therefore used by the early church to describe our obedience to our Master. The turn of phrase, “Kyrie eleison” is applied to Jesus as we greet one another in worship.

Jesus tells Mary not to hug him yet. God knows why, but something in Divine logic prevents it. He has not yet ascended to the Father. So he instructs her; “go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”!

Thus Mary’s weeping changes suddenly. Now there is excitability, incredulity, and even maybe a tinge of panic. She went and told the disciples what she had experienced; namely, the first encounter of the Risen Christ!

The weeping was over.

Folks, I wonder what side of the resurrection you and I are on? 

I know what side of the resurrection the world is on. All the warfare, violence, hatefulness, racism, and bigotry; in short, the brutal sin of it all. This world is on the other side of the The Resurrection and hasn’t got a clue as to what the Gospel is. The world has yet to hear the Good News that all our sins are forgiven and that death itself has been vanquished by the Love of God.

The world has yet to hear that Jesus planted a community on earth dedicated not just to the love God but to the love of all humankind. This without any exception. Period. As Peter said; "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.”

The world can be a depressing place and we ourselves can fall victim to its sin and despair. The angels and gardeners are likely to find us weeping. I suspect that you and I are frequently on the edge of Doubt and Despair!

But there are angels and gardeners all around us. In fact look around you today. You are surrounded by angels and gardeners. We can share with one another all our joys and all our sorrows. We can share our faith and doubt. We can tell our stories. We can wipe away the tears. We can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus!

And that’s because Jesus Christ is Risen today! We are the Easter People! We are on this side of the Resurrection! 

In the meantime we needn’t wait until we’re dead to know the victory of Jesus. It won’t do you much good to wait till then  to live eternal life! The living Christ is here and now in the angels and gardeners we meet all around us. You are the angels and gardeners of God for the sake of the world you live in.

Paul knew there was hardly a moment to loose in the new life he could claim in Jesus. He was forgiven. Jesus paid the price for his sins, even for his zealous persecution of the church. He more than made up for all that in the church building skills he developed. He was a teacher. He was an organizer. And what a writer! In his better moments his eloquence spoke of the love of God in such a way as to inspire us to love one another. His famous Hymn to Love is read at so many weddings. Intuitively his words speak to the heart of what we all aspire to in human relationships; “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” ~I Corinthians 13. 

What we aspire to in our life in Christ is eternal life. Still we must settle for reality. Again Paul says in today’s Epistle; “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and God’s grace toward me has not been in vain.” 

Eternal life is the Grace of God at work within us, as it was with Betty. I often remember her witness to the Victory of Jesus. Somewhere today she is leaping like a deer in the heart of Jesus. 

In the here and now of Eternal Life I invite you in the Name of the Church to Proclaim the Risen Christ: you, his Easter People!

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Eucharistic Lifestyle

Thanks-doing!

It is an exciting day! Your new Priest in Charge, Brian Raiche officially begins his ministry with you today and assumes the responsibilities and privileges that come with the office. Congratulations to you. It is a day worth celebrating. It is a whole new beginning!

As for me, the time has come to conclude my work with you and retire for the sixth time. 

Before I take my leave from this church, however, there is one last thing I would like to share with you. It is a lesson I struggle to remind myself of every single day of my life. It is a lesson the disciples had difficulty learning from the outset. We, the the followers of Jesus, often begin with our anxiety over one thing or another, how little we have and lets face it, we complain. Its too hot. Its too cold. There isn’t enough money. Work is getting to us. Somebody is driving us to distraction. And on and on it goes. 

On the other hand, Jesus begins with giving thanks and distributing what little there is, until all have their fill and then, when we collect the left overs there are 12 more baskets full, interestingly enough, one for each of the disciples. An ample amount to fill the needs of all. We called it a miracle then. But when we give thanks, miracles do happen. This is how Jesus satisfied the hunger of the 5,000. Days later there were 4,000 and the same anxiety attack strikes. Again they say we don’t have enough. Jesus upbraids them; do you still not get it? Give thanks for what you have, share it, and there will be more than enough for all and more besides.

There is a lesson in all this if we wish to live a Eucharistic life. And learn it we may, and remember it we must day after day if we wish to live the Joy of Jesus. My default position tends toward anxious fear over whether there will be enough. But Jesus always begins by giving thanks, breaking bread, and distributing what there is among all that are gathered. And there is always enough.

This lesson is at the heart of our humanity. At the birth of the savior the angels greet Mary and the Shepherds with the reassuring words “Fear not!”. Jesus says the same thing and repeats it time and again at his resurrection; “Fear not!”. In life as in death it is the same thing! And yet we retreat time and again back into our fears as if that were our default setting.

We are called to be the Easter People! Let me encourage you to remember that our Baptism calls us to give thanks with Jesus. This is our new default setting: to give thanks in all things and for all things. To do Eucharist is to do thanksgiving. This is at the heart of our very worship and spirituality. What is it we say?

“Lift up your hearts

"Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

"It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Alas, will we continue to be anxious and fretful over our household budgets? Of course! Will your vestry fuss over property and money matters. Most assuredly so. We’re likely to forget everything Jesus is trying to tell us.

But try to remember, it is not I who am encouraging you to begin with gratitude. It is Jesus who sets the example. It is the biblical narrative that sets the tone for gratitude throughout.

In today’s first lesson Isaiah reminds us of God’s abundant love;

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;”

Imagine! We have been consecrated to God’s service. There’s a reason for profound gratitude not only as servants of God in our every day lives, but as the folk the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Likewise the Psalmist exults in today’s appointed psalm;

“5 For you are my hope, O Lord God, *

my confidence since I was young.

6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;

from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *

my praise shall be always of you.”

And talk of exultation, listen to these soaring words from the Letter to the Hebrews which we heard read to us just moments ago;

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”

How can one’s heart be anything other than grateful to know the grace given unto us in our Baptism and in our Eucharistic fellowship?

The Gospel proclamation today tells us of a woman who had been crippled for 18 years. She stood up straight and of course she praised God. How could she not? The leader of the congregation, however fussed about healing on the sabbath day, when Jesus rather directly confronted him with theses words; 

“Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

Notice the joy, the praise and the rejoicing in all these encounters with the living God.

This is our invitation. When we are afraid or anxious over one thing or another, especially over the issue over whether there will be enough to go around, remember that Jesus tells us to begin with giving thanks, breaking bread, and sharing of whatever we have. Then, what seems like so little to us becomes an abundance for everyone.

Having said all this, I wonder how Cindy and I will make ends meet in the weeks and the months ahead. The extra income is nice. But having said that I am called to remember what I am telling you; anxiety over what little we have does not lead to sufficiency or abundance. Rather it is gratitude for what we do have and learning how to share that gratitude with others that leads to joy!

From the earliest days of my ministry and our marriage, we have given to God in proportion to what God has given us. The biblical tithe is 10%. That is a lot of money. But what about 5%. That’s still a lot of money, but since the beginning, we know that as we share in proportion to what we have been given, more always comes back to us by some miraculous calculus in God’s economy. As we cast our bread upon the waters we never cease to be amazed, perfectly amazed at how the gracious goodness of the Living God becomes an abundant source that provides not only enough of what we need, but also an abundant source beyond what we could possibly have imagined.

Which brings us up to this day. As you prepare for your pilgrimage together, please know that not all your days will be easy. I am reminded of the time when things were going rather badly for Moses. It was in Numbers, Chapter 11

“Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes…the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.’ (Never mind the brilliant series of miracles that brought the people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the wilderness, and the miracle of manna itself, which appeared each morning providing sufficiency for their hunger.) “Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents…So Moses said to the Lord, ‘Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child”, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, “Give us meat to eat!” I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favour in your sight.”

Bad case of clergy burnout there! So how did God handle this faith crisis? He spoke into the heart of Moses and said;

‘Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you. I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.  ~Numbers 11

A good example of community organizing there! As you become more and more of a congregation together, remember, this work is not the burden of the priest, the wardens and the vestry alone. This work is everyone’s work. 

God has consecrated all of you to this service.

Give thanks therefore in all things and miracles will happen for you right here at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Reading.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul