Letting God outa' the Box

Friday, March 26, 2004

 
Sermon for Lent 5 year C at the Church of Saint Philip in Jackson MS

Isaiah 43:16-21 * Psalm 126 * Philippians 3:8-14 * Luke 20:9-19

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus”

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Luke, we hear the parable of the tenants of the vineyard. Often our reflections on this parable are limited by its ending. “When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.” A quick read or listen can lead our minds to wander…if it is applicable to us at all. Not a scribe or chief priest, this parable may not seem pertinent to me. Or, we could see the parable through a lens of historical understanding, assuming the parable only speaks to the nation of Israel who, like the tenants, killed the messengers of God, the prophets in the Old Testament. On the other hand, this parable can also easily lead our thoughts to our own stewardship of our world…God’s gift of creation in which we live and have our being.

For me, this parable moves me to re-examine how I view my own thoughts and actions. The tenant seem to be highly convinced that they are acting rightly given their situation, but Christ points to their thoughts and action as wrong. More often than I acknowledge, my view of a situation can be skewed.

At Council this year, Bishop Gray touched on this point when he referenced Paul’s illustration of seeing truth “through a glass darkly” (1 Cor 13:12), also translated, “for now we see in a mirror, dimly” in the New Revised Standard. Before I came to St. Philip’s, my glasses had grown very dark and my view was very dim. My life of choices, experience, and culture had tinted and shaped my lenses in a unique way. During my time at St. Philip’s, my lens began to re-tint and reshape the view through which I saw the world within me and around me. I began to learn how to let parts of my life die and allowed new elements to grow in their place. However, if I had not forgotten the way I viewed the world before joining the St. Philip’s community, my new view would have appear surreal (and at times it did). I may even have thought it a dream or hallucination. I would have (and actually did try) to re-establish my old point of view where I thought that I felt comfortable, but I had changed, and even going backward brought me no comfort.

In Paul’s message to the Philippians, he is asking them to let go of their old view. Paul is addressing the sense of security the view we know often brings. When he states: “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more”. Paul speaks out of his sense of security that he had in his Jewish past. He did all he was required to do, and more! In the language of the movie, “O Brother where art thou”, Paul is ‘Bona fide’! What Paul seeks to forget…to leave behind is his sense of surety arising from his own actions; his own view of himself as Bona fide. Paul’s blinding conversion on the road to Damascus changed his view. He says that “for [Christ’s] sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish”.

The tenants in our parable today feel assured in their actions through their view of the situation. They had done all the hard work to produce the harvest. They see themselves as entitled to reap the harvest of their works. But, Christ’s parable tells them their view is rubbish. They are living, as Paul had before his enlightening road trip, in a consuming view of their own righteousness. Like the fig tree in last Sunday’s parable, they are alive but bearing no fruit. Their lives have become self–centered focused on their own wants and needs…a way of life I have often thought of as ‘survival mode’.

I have found it is all too easy when stress or pressure or change occurs in my life to slip into survival mode. However, in survival mode I hold everything I am dealing with inside and guard myself against intrusion by other people. My survival mode actually narrows my vision, hiding possible solutions to the issues causing me stress. I have even found that I am even guarding myself against intrusion from the Holy Spirit. My survival mode, while in theory guarding me from pain, also prevents any growth. As we all know, growth can often be a painful experience. Growth often means allowing the old to die to give space for the new. And this is where Paul speaks to me when he says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his suffering by becoming like him in death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul is attempting to model for us and for the Philippians of old, the need to place our faith in Christ and allow our selves to experience the pains of life and humbly allow God to produce new life according to his will. Like the tenants, we have to surrender our fields, which we hold and guard. For if we rely on our own selves, our own knowledge, our own righteousness, we will be as the builders who reject the stone that is the true corner stone. It is only under the guidance of God, our true landowner that our vineyard can hope to grow and bear fruit.

On this fifth Sunday of Lent, we can look forward to see the upcoming pain and death that awaits our Lord. Has the Lenten period in the desert been a time when we have started to let the old die away or have we just hibernated in survival mode? Are we prepared to suffer the pains of letting go of our old selves? Are we prepared to share in Christ’s death, allowing our old selves to die? For it is only if we allow ourselves to experience the pain of dying to how we view ourselves and the world, that we can hope to grow into a new view and a new life.


It is only by daily dying to our old selves that we can hope to be born anew with our Lord each day.

In the name to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Fr. Bill 9:46 AM

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Saturday, March 13, 2004

 
Sermon for Lent 3 year C at the Church of the Atonement

Exodus 3:1-15 * Psalm 103 * 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 * Luke 13:1-9

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last Sunday, Father Bill instructed us to embrace Jesus as the Savior. This week’s Gospel lesson moves us to surrender our lives to Christ.

"Surrender Your Life to Christ"…sounds like another Christian catch phrase that is often given without a good explanation. The assumption that we know how to surrender of lives is usually present in exhortation of this phrase. In Mississippi, we often referred to such exhortations as the "Altar Call" because most of us had at one time attended a Protestant church that at the end of the service called people to come down and have hands laid upon them and turn over their lives to God. Being a shy kid, I found the idea of doing such a thing in front of a large group was terrifying to me.

When I heard this phase in my late twenties, I thought: Sure, sounds like a good idea. I haven’t been doing such a good job controlling my life so far. My work was unsatisfying. I had some good friends, but we all seemed to be just doing the theme of the 1980’s in just ‘working for the weekend’ when we would drink beer and search for girlfriends. I felt much like the fig tree in today’s Gospel; I was living but I was not bearing any fruit.
I approached an acquaintance at church who had on of those "let go, let God" bumper stickers on his car. I told I was interested in letting go of my life and letting God take control. His response was, ‘Oh, you need to go to Cursillo’.

It was at Cursillo that I began to see what Christ was talking about in today’s Gospel. Like the people present with Christ, I was looking at the world through a lens of cause and effect. Simply thinking if I was good, God would reward me and if I were bad, I would be punished. In good southern dialect, I was told that was ‘stinkin’ thinkin’. In the words of author J. B. Philips, "my God was too small".

God is not simply a judge who rewards and punishes those who show fruit or not. God not waiting to push towers down on the worst sinners. Bad things do happen to good people. We cannot eliminate the effects of human free will in society. Often accidents, calamities and atrocities are acts of human will not God’s will. Today’s Gospel is not saying judgment will not occur…it is saying we cannot predict when it will occur. In essence, we have no control.

This was my first epiphany in Surrendering my life to God…understanding that I really have less control over my life and---what is more---less control over my death than I thought. My idea that I was truly in control of my life was only an illusion. The first step, in turning my life over meant giving up the illusion of my control. This sounded very similar to Neibuhr’s serenity prayer that I was familiar with:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.

As I began to understand the limits of my own control, the light began to dawn on a new understanding of the word ‘repent’. In the rural areas that I used to drive, there is always a small hand painted sign nailed to a tree with REPENT in black on a white background. I used to think repent meant simple ‘stop sinning’, but I began to see it for its true meaning ‘stop and return’…turn around and face God.

In today’s lessons, Paul is telling the Corinthians to repent…to turn from their old ways and face God. He refers to the Exodus, in our first reading, when ‘our ancestors’ lost their faith in God and sought after the old ways they knew…the old ways that gave them some illusion of control. Failing to die to their old selves as slaves in the ways of the Egyptians, our ancestors remained in the wilderness. Their perception of God was too small. Paul cautions us saying, "These things happened to them to serve as an example and they were written down to instruct us". Just as Moses, Pharaoh, the Israelites, we are called to set our faith upon a God who remains somewhat mysterious to us…telling Moses, "I AM WHO I AM". Our God cannot be limited like idols, which are subject to our control. Our God is a Great God, greater than all gods, or idols of human construction.

This step in Lent is a time to examine our lives. We are to look for the ways in which we have sought to wrestle control of our lives away from God and ways in which we have made our image of God too small. Where in our lives have we supplanted God for idols of control? Where have we found ourselves trying to change what we cannot change? Where have things or activities become idols we use to find control?

Surrendering our lives to God is no easy business for us just as it was difficult for the Israelites and the Corinthians. It requires us to constantly discern those things we can control and those things that we need to offer to God and allow God to control. If we seek to bear fruit like the fig tree in today’s parable, we have to allow the Gardener, our Lord Jesus Christ, to work in our lives. While some days we may be overwhelmed by the amount of fertilizer in our lives, we are called to accept the Gardener’s help and reach out our limbs to God. As we will sing in our closing hymn today, we will again be reminded that we are called to follow in Christ path, we are called to die daily to the way of self, dying with Christ, for if we do not die with our Lord, we will not rise with our Lord, like the Easter flowers in spring.

In the name to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Fr. Bill 7:16 PM

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Monday, March 08, 2004

 
Some thoughts on the sacrifice of the mass

'Sacrifice' has a double function in Cranmer's euchristic liturgies, referring primarily to the self-offering of Christ on Calvary, and, in an altogether derivative way, to the self-offering of the people of God in praise and thanksgiving for the benefits received. Crucially, however, Cranmer scrupulously separated this self-offering of the church from any association with the symbols of bread and wine, limiting it occurrence to the post-communion prayer of the people. The Eucharist is thus shaped around the corporate memorial and participation of the redeemed in the benefits of Christ's passion, not around the sacrificial mediation of the priest, passively observed. From "Ministry and Priesthood" by John Webster in The Study of Anglicanism

In his article "Holy Communion"(also in The Study of Anglicanism)William Crockett, also point to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as being "once offered" and not needing to be offered again. He notes that "All commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, or the sacrifice of 'ourselves, our souls, and bodies', were carefully excluded" in Cranmer's reformation of mass. Crockett goes on to speak of the movement of theology in the English Church...moving from transubstantiation (real presence) to the "receptionism" (also a real presence doctrine which focuses on the "worthy receiver rather than...the elements of bread and wine."

In response to the medieval situation which sees the clergy having an imbalance of power and sees the sacraments as become idols, the movement away from the priestly control of the sacrifice seems appropriate. Especially, if the clergy were exhorting the laity to sacrifice themselves, their souls,and their bodies while they grew fat on the offerings.

The idea of sacrifice in the mass intrigues me because my Anglo-Catholic influenced parish uses the language of sacrifice during the offertory:

Priest: Pray, my brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.
People: May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his name,
for our good and the good of all his Church.

I like this. It does not have the gender-neutral language, but I like the theology expressed: the offering back to God from what God has give us. I find this giving back to God moving me, pulling me into the "action" of the Eucharist, not leading me to passive observance. The element of sacrifice in the mass draws me into the anamneis...giving me a greater awareness of the Christ sacrifice on the cross...a feeling of God reaching out to us and the call for us to turn, repent and reach out to God.

Crockett continues telling the history of Communion in the Anglican Church, noting Dix's The Shape of Liturgy and the World Council on Church's Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, which moves to "'The fundamental character of the eucharistic prayer' within this wider structure 'is thanksgiving...'" Is the element of sacrifice in the Eucharist being lost...except in my Anglo-Catholic parish (and a few others). If so, is it a good thing to lose?


Fr. Bill 10:57 PM

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Thursday, March 04, 2004

 
This morning I heard a Crosby, Stills and Nash song on the radio that I had not heard before, Cathedral
Here is a portion of the lyrics:

I'm flying in Winchester Cathedral
Sunlight pouring through the break of day
Stumbled through the door
And into the chamber
There's a lady setting flowers on a table covered lace
And a cleaner in the distance
Finds a cobweb on her face
And a feeling deep inside of me
Tells me this can't be the place

I'm flying in Winchester Cathedral
All religion has to have its day
Expressions on the face of the saviour
Made me say
I can't stay

{Refain}
Open up the gates of the church and let me out of here
Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to heed the call
So many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can't believe at all
Now I'm standing on the grave of a soldier that died
In 1799
And the day he died it was a birthday
And I noticed it was mine
And my head didn't know just who I was
And I was spinning back in time
And I am high
Upon the altar, high
Upon the altar, high

The nonsensical rambling of someone on an acid trip in Winchester Cathedral, as suggested by someone on the web? Could be...probably so...but the words stirred my thoughts to the cultural discontent directed at the institution of the Church in the late Sixties.

I have also been chewing on the theology of the "sacrifice of the mass".

Some weeks ago, a fellow blogger (Much Ado) took a lot of heat for talking about the with holding pledges from the Episcopal Church because the General Convention issues. I am opening myself for a similar blasting, but I going to wrestle with these thoughts in public. Where is the sacrifice in giving if we only give to the things we totally agree with? It is kind of a 'love your enemies rather than just loving those who love you' idea. I understand not giving because you believe the soliciting cause to be wrong, so this is not an attack on anyone who has chosen to with hold a pledge. It is more of a rambling, incomplete thought/work in progress frothing from the juxtaposition of "the Sacrifice of the Mass" and the discontent with the Church I felt in the CSN song above.

'Faith' and 'Trust' often seem to come into direct conflict with 'Control' and 'Reason'.

The sacrifice we offer to our Lord, our giving of time, talent or treasures releases our control of these and gives control and use of them to our Lord. Is the personal sacrifice akin to the giving up of our control? Is our gift, now given to our Lord, given in faith and trust that He will use them in ways beyond our own reason...beyond the limits of our control? If we give ourselves to the Lord with 'strings attached' are we truly giving ourselves? Is the sacrifice in the complete letting go...giving in full faith and trust that our Lord will judge rightly the best use of our gifts?

Being asked to sacrifice by those who appear to only be giving with strings attached, could be very disheartening. It could probably be seen as 'improper modeling', especially if done by leaders, parents, authority figures...clergy.

Blast away...
(oh...the 'comment' button seems a little 'sticky'...so you only need to press it once to post)


Fr. Bill 9:13 AM

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Tuesday, March 02, 2004

 
Just one more mornin'
I had to wake up with the blues
Pulled myself outta bed, yeah
Put on my walkin' shoes,
Went up on the mountain,
To see what I could see,
The whole world was fallin',
right down in front of me.

'Cause I'm hung up on dreams I'll never see, yeah Baby.
Ahh, Lord, help me baby, or this will surely be the end of me, yeah.

Pull myself together, put on a new face,
Climb down off the hilltop, baby,
Get back in the race.

'Cause I'm hung up on dreams I'll never see, yeah Baby.
Ahh, Lord, help me baby, or this will surely be the end of me, yeah.

Pull myself together, put on a new face,
Climb down off the hilltop, baby,
Get back in the race.

'Cause I'm hung up on dreams I'll never see, yeah Baby.
Ahh, Lord, help me baby, or this will surely be the end of me, yeah.


From "Dreams" by The Allman Brothers Band, 'Beginnings' CD


The Blues often expresses the pain and anguish of letting go. That is probably why I love listening to the Blues during Lent...a time when I try to let go of my tight-fisted (yet imaginary) control over life and allow room for God to take the lead. The anguish of letting go and being purged of the things that are not best for me. The pain of changing from the thoughts and habits I know and covet like a cherished teddy bear. The fear of allowing something new to happen in my life. The Blues gives musical language to joys and sorrows of my human existence...or just illustrates how truely 'suthurn' I am.

Moving through 'Beginnings', the Brothers tune "Whipping Post" conjured up images of the scourging of Christ in The Passion, while "Revival" brings back the joy of the resurrection, proclaiming that 'love is everywhere'...The Holy Spirit is everywhere.

just some Ramblin' thoughts...in meditation with some Ramblin' brothers in a band...the Fillmore Concert is the next spin
Fr. Bill 9:37 AM

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