Everything to do with Relationships. May 27, 2018 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-17

What has a tongue, cannot walk, but gets around a lot?  A shoe.  What has rivers with no water, forests but no trees, and cities with no buildings?  A map.   What goes all the way around the world but stays in the corner?  A stamp.  Ok, last one, what does 1+1+1=?  One.  At least that’s the answer when you’re talking about God in church on Trinity Sunday.  The only Sunday in the Church Year which celebrates a doctrine rather than an event - which, to be honest, sounds about as exciting as being invited eat cardboard.  But hang on, it’s really not as bad as that.  The doctrine of the Trinity, as you may know, proclaims that our God is one, yet known to us in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And that sounds so much like a riddle that brilliant minds throughout the centuries have racked their brains to come up with an answer with only varying degrees of success. 

In our gospel reading this morning the Pharisee, Nicodemus, is puzzling over his own religious riddle so he comes to Jesus under the cover of night looking for answers.  “Rabbi,” he says, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.…”  And that’s where he leaves it hanging.  Nicodemus really doesn’t pose a question here but what’s implied here is that this doesn’t make sense.  How can Jesus be from God when he clearly isn’t behaving the way that Nicodemus thinks God should?  Nicodemus wants answers.

And here’s where if it were possible I’d cue the music from the classic Rolling Stone’s song that goes, “You can't always get what you want.  But if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need.”  And that’s exactly what Nicodemus gets from Jesus that night.  Definitely not what he wants which is a dry answer to settle a theological question, but instead he gets what he actually needs, a life-giving offer that has the power to transform his world.   “Very truly, I tell you,” Jesus says, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."  Jesus is casting a vision of new life through the experience of God as Trinity. 

But Nicodemus resists.  He’s looking for answers not some religious experience.  And who can blame him?  Answers settle things.  They provide clarity and comfort.  And the added bonus is, is when you limit God solely to the realm of one’s head then that keeps God from meddling in your life - from blowing like the wind and things can get out of control.  That’s the temptation when we speak of the Trinity.  If the Trinity is just some kind of riddle then all then it’s asking of us is to think long and hard, come up with some kind of an answer and be done with it.  But to the contrary the doctrine of the Trinity has nothing to do with riddles of the head but everything to do with relationships of life. 

For our one God is three persons in relationship.  Now know about relationships.  We all have them.  Some are full of love and joy and life.  While others are fraught with struggle and discord and brokenness.   Relationship that is the Trinity is the kind of relationship we were all intended to have.  Relationship that is marked by love, equality, and openness.  And what’s so great for us is that the Trinity is not a closed relationship.  It’s not something that we look at from the outside once a year and think wouldn’t that be nice.  No, just the opposite.  The great love of our Trinity God cannot be contained.  It always spilling out and flowing beyond the three persons.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  The love that is the Trinity is always inviting us to join in - always reaching out, connecting us, enfolding us.  

And one tangible way that we share in that overflowing life of Trinity love is through the bread and the wine we receive here in church.  Talk about something that stirs up a lot of questions with little concrete answers.  But that doesn’t stop us, does it?  We come forward in community with our hands outstretched not to receive answers but to be a part of the mystery, to share in relationship with God even when we don’t have words to explain it. 

But the living in relationship with the Trinity isn’t just for moments in church.  It’s for all of life.  And here’s one way to open up your life in a more intentional way to the great love and relationship you have in the Trinity.  Perhaps you recall that I began this sermon with the words, “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  For me that invocation does double-duty, serving as both a prayer to God to be at work in what I am about to say and a reminder to me that God will work and that I can trust in that.  Now what if in our regular lives, before both weighty and routine things, we invoked the Trinity?   What would life look like if we paused and prayed either silently or aloud, “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” before starting a project at work, or tucking a child into bed, or going to the grocery store, or seeing a doctor?   All those experiences and more would likely have a depth of quality about them flowing from the awareness that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is actually present.  Perhaps even God’s strength or wisdom or peace or patience might be unleashed just by knowing that you are sharing in the life of the Trinity. 

Now it is true that you don’t always get what you want - things happen or don’t happen in life and plenty of our questions go unanswered.  But it’s also true that you get what you need.  And that’s not just some catchy song lyric but a promise from God.  That’s what today is all about - knowing, not in our head, but in our lives that through and with and in the Trinity we always get what we need.  Calling this day Trinity Sunday doesn’t do this good news justice.  I prefer another name the Church has.  Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity.  That’s more like it.  For today we are invited to join in a feast of life.  A feast of love.  A feast of belonging and connecting.  Of getting what we really need.  So come and let us feast this day and every day, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Love? Love! A Reflection by Fr. David

You know you've made a cultural splash when they satirize you on Saturday Night Live!

Like many people, I watched a video of The Most Rev. Michael Curry's sermon at the royal wedding, and then I watched SNL's "interview with Bishop Curry" as well. First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the show's producers managed to get the right vestments for their sketch! But more than that, I was delighted that Bishop Curry had made enough of an impact that people in the media were not just talking about him but even imitating him in skits. True, just his presence at that event made history: an African-American preaching in Windsor Castle, whose chapel had probably never before heard anyone preach like Bishop Curry preaches. And, most important, millions of people listened to his words and were talking about the content of a sermon! Imagine! It was a true act of evangelism, offering a vital witness to Jesus and the love which Jesus embodies (and giving our dear Episcopal Church more good publicity than we've had in years!).

The whole episode makes me happy, but there's a poignant quality to it that leaves me feeling a bit down. In all the commentary that has followed this, including SNL's funny sketch, people keep expressing amazement that anyone should preach with such animation and conviction about the transforming power of love. Various press accounts reported how stunning it was, all the more so because Bishop Curry alluded to the social aspects of love, like establishing justice, ending poverty, working for peace, and welcoming all people. That message needs to be proclaimed urgently and frequently. And for many followers of Christ, that is just part of what it means to experience and share God's love in this world.

So why the surprise in the media? Why are so many people acting like they have never heard such a message before? Well, I guess because maybe they haven't. Certainly Bishop Curry is a brilliant and inspiring preacher who can help all of us hear the Good News of God's love with fresh insights and renewed vitality. But even apart from that, the reality seems to be that, in our society, people don't always associate the church with a message of love. When non-believers think of church, all too often they think of rules, judgment, condemnation, and exclusion. The bemused and startled reactions by so many in the press seem to underline this very point.

So my take away from the royal wedding is that we as a church have work to do! Certainly when people think of Church of Our Saviour, I want them to associate our parish with love and the healing, welcoming, and embracing Good News of God's Reign. My personal goal is that when people hear a sermon extolling the transforming power of love, that they don't react in shock and say, "Alert the media!" I want them to say, "Yes! Of course!"

Feeling the Spirit. May 20, 2018 The Rev. David M. Stoddart

  

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Pentecost Day

I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you.

Well, the disciples are clearly not buying that, and it’s no wonder they feel sad. Jesus is telling them that he is physically leaving them and they won’t see him anymore, but that somehow, because of some mysterious Advocate, they’re going to be better off as a result. Their teacher, their friend, their inspiration is going to disappear, and as they hear that hard news at the Last Supper, no promise of anything is really going to comfort them.

But Jesus never spoke a truer word. All the pageantry and hoopla of this special day, all the festivity of Pentecost, can only happen because Jesus physically went away. And to explain why, let me turn to that most influential work of modern theology known as Star Wars. In the very first Star Wars movie, Obi-Wan Kenobi is training Luke Skywalker to be a Jedi knight and to channel the power of the Force. Towards the end of the movie, Obi-Wan is dueling with Darth Vader, and as they fight, he yells to Vader that he can’t win, because if Vader strikes him down, he will become even more powerful than before. And right after he makes that mysterious statement, Luke comes running in. And when Obi-Wan sees that Luke has arrived, he holds up his lightsaber and stops fighting. Darth Vader instantly kills him, and Luke screams in horror. But, as Obi-Wan knew, it is the best thing that can happen to Luke, because he can no longer rely on Obi-Wan’s power or just observe the way that his mentor channels the Force: Luke now has to do it himself. Only then does he know the full power available to him.

I don’t know how you think of the Holy Spirit: As a divine force? A ghostly personage? An abstract concept? What I do know is that all four Gospels attest that the Spirit fills Jesus at the moment of his baptism, when God says, You are my beloved son and I am so pleased with you. In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit is the love which the Father has for the Son, the love which Jesus has for his Abba. Think about that. The Holy Spirit is connection, the Holy Spirit is intimate relationship, the Holy Spirit is love. But our job is not to observe this incredible closeness Jesus has with the One he addresses as Daddy, to look on from a distance and say, “Wow, that’s amazing!” Jesus does not command us to admire him. Jesus calls us to follow him. More than that, to be like him. More than that, to be one with him. The same loving intimacy he shares with his Abba he wants us to share in as well. So, yes, he needs to go away: only then can we have that same relationship ourselves. Only then can we experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who is the very essence of loving relationship.

This is why the Spirit, more than anything else, is the Great Connector, the One who makes us one with God and one with each other. Just look at that familiar reading from Acts. When the Spirit falls on those assembled disciples, they go out into the streets and burst into speech. But they are not speaking gibberish, they are speaking in the languages of everyone gathered in Jerusalem from all around the world. Language barriers simply disappear and walls crumble as the Holy Spirit of God turns a diverse and disparate crowd into a community. So staggering is that reality, so unlike our normal human divisiveness, that onlookers have no way to understand it or account for it: They must be drunk! But they’re not: they’re just fully alive and fully connected. They are, in short, filled with the Spirit.

And so are we. God is not stingy. When we were baptized, God did not give us a little bit of the Spirit. There is no such thing as a little bit of the Spirit. God poured out her whole self into each one of us, giving each one of us the fullness of the Spirit, though the language of ownership is not quite right. We don’t actually have or possess or control the Spirit: the Spirit moves through us, continually connecting us with God, with our deepest selves, and with the people around us. Really, the Spirit is God’s connecting love at work in our lives and in the world. Catherine LaCugna concludes her book God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life with this sentence: “The very nature of God, therefore, is to seek out the deepest possible communion and friendship with every last creature on this earth.” That includes each and every one of us.

So, I imagine there are people sitting here right now who are thinking, “Well, I don’t feel the Spirit.” But if we are not feeling it, it’s not because the Spirit isn’t moving through us. The Spirit is actively present in every moment of our existence. But we are not always primed to feel that Presence: we are too often geared to feel cut-off and isolated, to be in competition or struggle with others. So we stifle the movement of the Spirit in our lives or we ignore it or we just fail to recognize it. Here’s what I suggest, and what helps me to be more alive to the Holy Spirit. You are perhaps familiar with the expression, “Don’t ask God to bless what you are doing. Do what God is blessing.” Well, what God is blessing is loving connection. Where in our lives are we feeling the desire and the drive to connect? That’s where the Spirit is blowing. Every impulse to pray, for example, is the work of the Holy Spirit. Every time we are moved to reach out in love to someone who is needy or hurting, that is the Spirit. When we try to bridge the chasms between races and religions and social classes and political parties, the Holy Spirit is blowing. If we want to feel the Spirit, then we need to move with the Spirit. And all the wonderful fruits of the Spirit, like love, joy, peace, and all those good things will come our way naturally when we just flow with the Spirit and do what the Spirit is blessing.

Not long ago I was visiting a homebound member of the parish who had long resisted having a Lay Eucharistic Visitor bring her Communion. But then finally she let down her guard and changed her mind. She’s been through a tough time recently, and I was checking in to see how she was doing. She was clearly not feeling well, but then she started talking about the person who now brings her Communion, and she lit up. She was so happy about that, and felt so thankful for that connection. And as I listened to her and saw her smile, I could feel the Spirit. In that relationship, she was experiencing God.

In countless ways, every day, the Holy Spirit is working to connect people with God and each other. During his earthly ministry, Jesus knew that and lived that with awesome results. And now he calls us to do the same. Because the same Spirit that moved through him with such power is moving through each one of us right now — tirelessly, relentlessly, endlessly seeking to connect.

The Ascension of Jesus. May 13, 2018 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53

Ascension Sunday

Today the Church celebrates the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.  In theory, or I should say in theology, the Ascension ranks up there in importance with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day.   But in practice it seems more like a poor stepchild to those high holy days in the church year.  In part it may be a timing issue for Ascension really took place a few days ago on Thursday.  We read in our first reading from Acts that Jesus ascended into heaven on the fortieth day of the resurrection.  So if the resurrection takes place on a Sunday thirty nine days after that will always be on a Thursday.  But because it doesn’t seem right to let such an important moment in the life of the church slip by unnoticed we move the celebration to the following Sunday - today.

That’s one problem that the Ascension has when seeking its rightful place within the life of the church.  But another one is, quite frankly, the optics.  The Book of Acts says that Jesus, “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of [the disciples’] sight.  While the gospel of Luke explains that, “While [Jesus] was blessing [the disciples], he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.”  Given these accounts it’s not so farfetched that in 1961 when the first person entered outer space that one of the things he did was to keep an eye out looking for God.  Upon his return to earth that Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was quoted in some sources to have said, “I looked and I looked but I did not see God.”  And really that’s no surprise, is it?  Ironically, it’s the very science that gave us the ability to launch a person into space that taught us that the three story universe that is often implied in the biblical world (you know, God and the spiritual realm on the top floor, earth and all things physical in the middle, with the realm of the dead on the bottom) doesn’t accurately reflect how things really are.

Understandably to the modern eye, the vision of Jesus going up into the sky in a cloud-like elevator looks a bit ridiculous, making it hard to take seriously.  So let me adjust optics a bit.  Let me note something about clouds when it comes to the Bible.  Whenever we read about a cloud in a story the intent is never to provide some record about the weather of the day, how many water particles were in the atmosphere.   When a cloud is mentioned in Scripture it is almost always an indication of the special and close presence of God.  If we use that lens then with the Ascension story the mention of a cloud or heaven used to express a place or dimension where God resides.  Not so much about an actual visual account that offers a specific location one can travel to, like up in space.   And that is what we celebrate today.  Up until now Jesus has been walking around on earth in a resurrected body - showing up behind locked doors, walking with folks on the road to Emmaus, cooking breakfast by the sea for the disciples - but now that time has come to an end and Jesus leaves this earth in his resurrected body to be more fully present with God.    

So timing and optics are hurdles to get over when celebrating the Ascension, but I think the biggest obstacle of all is that it’s just plain hard to muster a lot of enthusiasm over being left behind.  Who wants to celebrate that?  Just when the disciples were getting used to the new normal with Jesus popping in now and then God changes things up.  Jesus leaves them - at least that’s the way it seems. 

But just before Jesus departs he tells the disciples that this is not the end of the story.   Something big is about to happen.  Something that God has promised.  And in the meantime, until that promise is fulfilled, they’ll have to wait.  Now we have the luxury of knowing what this promise is, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which we will be celebrating next Sunday, but the disciples are completely in the dark.  They have no idea what Jesus is talking about.  They don’t know what the future holds nor how long they will have to wait for it.

Now although I may not be able to pinpoint for you the exact location of where Jesus went when he ascended into heaven, I can tell you without a doubt where the disciples are right now - in liminal space.  It’s a place between what’s been and what is to come.  Perhaps you’ve been there yourself, where one thing has ended and the next thing has yet to begin, a place of transition between the familiar past and the unknown future.  It’s called liminal, which comes from the Latin meaning “threshold”.  This place is really not a fun place to be.  It often stirs up anxiety and a host of other uncomfortable feelings so much so that the words of the cosmonaut may feel true, “I looked and I looked but I did not see God.”   

Those words or something similar may have come out of the disciples’ mouths that day when Jesus disappeared from their sight and they were forced to exist in liminal space to wait for the unknown future, God’s promise, to come in its own way and time.  And here those disciples have a very important lesson to teach us when we find ourselves in similar circumstances.  What did they do?  How did they manage?  They made the choice to trust God even while living with a host of unanswered questions.  The believers stayed together to worship and pray - which actually made them even more ready to receive the promise that was soon to come.

When Jesus ascended into heaven although from the disciples’ perspective it looked like being left behind, but things are not always as they appear for in truth it was just the opposite.  The Ascension enabled Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to be even more present and seen in the lives of the disciples - and in our lives, too.  Because of the Ascension Jesus is not limited to one place in time on earth but can be near and present with us in the bread and the wine, in the fellowship of the church, in our ministry to others.  The Ascension means that wherever we go, whether it’s a place on a map you can easily find or a liminal space in life that is hard to pinpoint - that no matter where you are - Jesus is with you so that when you look and look you will see God - and that is something to celebrate! 

Ascension Day: A Reflection from Emily Rutledge

A hidden holy day, stuck right there on a Thursday, Ascension Day is not the most celebrated of holidays in The Church.

It's an odd one for many, the risen Christ gets sucked up into heaven (my words, clearly) after spending 40 days with his friends post-resurrection.  He has spent his time healing the trauma of the crucifixion and preparing them for ministry and then leaves them with the promise that the Holy Spirit will be coming.  The Holy Spirit, something they do not yet understand but Christ promises is even better than they can imagine.  I, personally, would be skeptical.  And, once again, they are left to wait.  We know that ten more days pass and then the Holy Spirit does, indeed, arrive and The Church is born.

My Episcopal school in Hawaii, St. Andrew's Priory, was founded on Ascension Day. It  was celebrated as if it was the most important holiday there was.  Christmas and Easter paled in comparison.  It was shocking to me upon graduation that the rest of the world did not celebrate with the enthusiasm that we did.  Junior girls stayed up all night Ascension Eve to decorate the historic coral cross that our school was built around as a gift to the graduating senior class.  There was then an all-school Eucharist, a ceremony where the junior and senior classes sang to each other, and a basic handing off of the school from one class to the next.  Please remember that we were

A.  All teenage girls
B.  From a liturgical tradition
C.  Founded by missionaries alongside a monarchy

Drama and ritual were deep rooted.

While high school seniors are in no way God, they merely think they are, the symbolic leaving and entrusting of a community mirrored that of Christ.

Ascension Day was the Apostles first day of doing ministry without Christ.  While we consider Pentecost the birthday of The Church, Ascension Day can be considered the beginning of labor. Unsure of how the Holy Spirit would be manifested, unaware of the details of what lay ahead, followers of Christ had to move forward, knowing things would never be as they once were.  Christ promised that the best was still to come.

This Ascension Day let's join with the apostles in the hard labor of hope and anticipation in the good that is yet to come. 

Happy Ascension Day!

I choose you. May 6, 2018 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

John 15:9-17

Thankfully they don’t happen very often anymore, but back in the day it was standard practice.  I’m talking about the schoolyard pick.  For me, growing up, it typically happened in P.E. class.  There was a game to be played which needed two teams, so the teacher would call two students forward (usually a couple of the most athletic boys).  They were then made team captains, and instructed to take turns picking someone for their team.  The first few rounds were easy.   Everyone knew the toughest, most athletic boys would be picked first.  That was a no-brainer.  The challenge came when the selection of potential teammates had been pared down to the boys who were deemed “weaker” or less athletic and a bunch of girls, some of whom were very capable athletically.  The captains would huddle with their teams to weigh their options.  As the teams debated we, those yet to be chosen, had no choice but to just stand there passively as we were pelted by their judgments.   In this every man for himself scenario, I didn’t care about anyone else I just wanted to be picked - the sooner the better - and most of the time my fragile sense of self-worth remained relatively intact because I was often one of the first girls to be chosen.  But that means that others were not so lucky.  Eventually, as everyone knows, in schoolyard pick the group to pick from is whittled down to two.  Two kids whom their peers have deemed for whatever reason the least desirable.   There they stand all by themselves with everyone else in class looking at them, judging them, weighing their merits.  And finally they are put out of their misery with one picked over the other, which I’m sure is small consolation.  The last kid is left to briefly stand alone before slinking over to join a team fully knowing that they were never chosen.   

Now even if you were one of the lucky ones who was always picked first in the schoolyard I have no doubt that there have been plenty of times for each one of us here that we have felt the sting, even the pain, of not being the one who’s picked - not offered the job, not chosen as the love interest, not invited to the party, not accepted into the school, not welcomed into the group.  No matter how old you are it never feels good not to be chosen.  We all desire to be valued, to be wanted, to be picked.  So hear the good news that is just for you today.  Jesus chooses you.  Take a moment to let that sink in.  When it really counts Jesus chooses you.   You are valued, you are wanted, you are loved by none other than God in Christ.   For “you did not choose me,” Jesus declares to each one of us today, “but I chose you.” 

And the news just gets better.  When Jesus chooses you it doesn’t mean that someone isn’t chosen.  Although that’s the way we’re used to things working not only in the schoolyard, but in the world at large - that there’s a certain amount of resources and if one person gets something that means that someone else doesn’t or if one person is picked then another person is not - that’s not the way God’s world works.  The Kingdom of God is clearly not of this world because it is all about abundance - which means that no one gets less when someone gets more.  Or when Jesus chooses you it doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t choose me.  There’s not even a ranking involved.  There is no better or higher pick - none of that exists with our abundant God.  Rather you are chosen.  I am chosen.  The disciples are chosen.  The Gentiles who we heard about in our first reading are chosen.  Every single person is chosen.  Chosen and loved and cherished and valued.  No one is left out.  No one is left standing alone.  Everyone belongs.

And here’s something else that goes against the grain of this world - Jesus chooses us not because of how great we are - I hope I’m not bursting anyone’s bubble here - but because of how great and loving and generous God is.  Notice that our reading from the gospel of John takes place during the last evening Jesus is with his disciples - just hours before he is arrested and walks the way of the cross.  Knowing all that is to come Jesus says, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”  He’s talking to his disciples - all twelve of his disciples.  Jesus chooses them.  Clearly this is not based on merit - he chooses Judas who betrays him, Peter who denies him, and the other ten who abandon him in his hour of need.   Jesus chooses them and he chooses us because they as well as we are created in love and live in love - a love that is not something we are flung in and out of because of our actions - rather a love we exist in and abide in always and forever as pure gift from God. 

You did not choose me but I chose you.  Each one of us is chosen to be on Team Jesus.  The team that’s all about love and abundance - a team that is the complete opposite of the every man for himself way of being instead it’s every member is so valued, so necessary, so needed to make up the very body of Christ in this world.  And we, the members of Team Jesus, are deemed with the task of bearing fruit, blessing the world with everlasting fruit that in one way or another proclaims the good news that everyone is loved, everyone is valued, everyone is chosen.  And as we do so God’s joy will be in us and our joy will be made complete.  Which leaves me with only one more thing to say: Go Team!