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Some things never change…

When people disagree they get angry and lash out at those with whom they disagree. Even in the most civilized of disagreements, the vehemence of the reaction is proportional to the degree of importance of the matter for which there is a difference. The simple truth is that the more fundamental the disagreement the more violent the reaction.

As the life of Jesus demonstrates, where the disagreement is about God the stakes are the highest and the response of choice is too often murder. Of course, such a response is always irrational, and even more so when it comes to the subject of God. After all, if your God is the almighty and sovereign God, then he probably does not need your protection.

We know that the Jews acted irrationally by having their Messiah killed, but at least he was one of them—a Jew—and, therefore, an internal threat to the purity of the people. However, in today’s religion-motivated terrorism the targets are different. First, the protest is against those who are outside a particular faith community. The offending victims are those who do not believe in a particular deity or perhaps even know anything about that deity. Second, the Jews’ anger was focused—focused on the source of the problem—Jesus. In modern terrorism the victims are killed by indiscriminant acts of violence. Such acts do not differentiate between adults and children or racial and ethnic origin or even whether or not those killed or maimed believe in the same deity as the terrorists. The bombers in Boston could not have known if any of the people near the bombs were Muslim or not.

It is the indiscriminant nature of the evil acts like those that took place in Boston on Monday that define terror. What evil power causes an intelligent and popular college student to place a bomb next to an eight-year-old child? Or how can a human being, a young adult, look a man directly in the eyes as he places a bomb at his feet?

If we ponder that question for a moment, we will realize that we all know that evil power because we all know human sin. There are different degrees of evil, but the cause is always the same—sin. The briefest of glances at human history serves to confirm that this has always been the case. So what are we to do about it? Or do we simply throw up our hands and give in?

For the followers of Jesus Christ giving up is not an option. The answer for us is to seek what Jesus would have us do. It is clear from the New Testament that Jesus expects us to immediately respond in three ways.

1. First, he would have us pray for the victims and their families. Specifically we should pray for physical, psychological, and spiritual healing.
2. Second, we need to thank God for the law enforcement community that responded at great risk and for the unity of effort that allowed the various agencies to work together to quickly rid the streets of the terrorists.
3. Third, we need to pray for God’s redemptive power to work healing in Boston and in our society as a whole.

As we pray these prayers our faith in God will increase because we will experience our futility in the face of evil and sin being replaced by the hope and healing that is only found in God. When we look at the cross we see the greatest evil and the greatest suffering ever known. Yet evil did not have the last word. The grave is empty even today and the strife is o’er. We need not live in fear because Jesus told us, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (Mark 5:36). The One who said those words is the One who experienced the full price of human sin—and yet he lives.

St. Paul’s words to the church in Rome are God’s words to us today.

If God is for us, who is against us? ³²He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

 ³⁸…I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31b-35,38-39).

Earlier I said that disagreements over our understanding of God lead to irrational responses. What we need to remember is that there is a sinful irrationality that leads to murder and mayhem, and a godly irrationality that leads to redemption and life. Jesus showed us the way of godly irrationality through the incarnation and the crucifixion. Likewise the people of Boston demonstrated that same irrationality by jumping the barricades to help the victims immediately after the blasts, instead of running away. That is the irrational response we are called to perform. We live in the presence of evil and sin so, in the words of Eric Metaxis, “for now, we keep running toward the chaos making visible to the world the invisible kingdom of God that will one day fill the whole earth” (Breakpoint, April 18, 2013).

What that means is that our belief in God through Jesus Christ, if it is a true belief, must lead us not to attack those who deny God, but rather reach out to them as Christ has reached out to us—for they too are the victims of sin. We can do this if we hear the voice of our Shepherd and follow him.

Let us pray.

In this world we live in, the violence of the few strikes random victims among the many. We lift up before you, O Lord, these victims, remembering all those who have died, been physically hurt and maimed, been robbed of loved ones and their peace, as well as all those who suffer reactions of bitterness and fear. Dear Jesus, whose perfect love met death by violence and was not extinguished: so enter the hearts and mind of all victims that frailty may give way to your strength, loss to your gain, bitterness to your total and victorious love; for your name’s sake. Amen. (modified from D. Williams, Prayers for Today’s Church).

Taken from a sermon Preached by the Reverend Charles D. Alley, Rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia on April 21, 2013, The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C.

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

As the Servant lived and died in obedience to God’s will and for the salvation of the people, he will continue in God’s mission by being given life again. After the suffering of his soul and the darkness of death, he will see the light of life (10,11). Unlike the sacrifices in the Temple, death will not be his final estate. Rather, God vindicated him and he will see the fruit of his sacrificial work.

He is risen! He has defeated sin and death, and God has given us the proof by raising Jesus from the dead. The tomb is empty—our Savior lives. The wisdom of the Servant, which is his knowledge of God applied in his life of obedience to God’s will, gives humankind the pattern of life necessary to be reconciled to God. He has justified the people who believe in him by suffering the penalty for their sins (11). Jesus identified with sinners and poured his righteous life into death, thereby filling the void of death with eternal life. By his death he emptied death of death—the tomb was empty and the Lamb who was slain is alive in the world. Death no longer has the last word. The Eternal Word is Life.

This is good news for all humankind. Jesus, the Servant did not die only for those in the human line of Abraham, but for all transgressors who believe in him (John 3:16).  Through him the grace of God comes to sinners by faith. He who interceded for us by his death lives to intercede for us in the presence of God forever (Hebrews 7:25).

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 222)

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The suffering and death of the Servant were not our doing but God’s. He was our substitute when it came to being the atonement for our sins, but our sins did not put him on the cross nor pierce his body. Likewise, we did not hand our sins over to him in order that we might be reconciled to God. The Servant was put on the cross by God and pierced by God (5). We stood aloof and watched the spectacle of his suffering and death (4), while we were still in open rebellion against God (Romans 5:8).  He was on the cross and we were on the ground looking on as spectators. The death of Jesus was not a miscarriage of human justice, but rather it was the execution of Divine Justice wedded to Divine Love.

The Servant took on the sins of the world in a great act of love. He had no sin of his own, and his relationship with God was perfected in terms of his humanity through his obedience to God (Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 5:8). But our sins did not kill him. He bore them so that we would not have to bear the unbearable punishment for our sins. He alone could suffer and die for our sins and yet not die forever because he was himself without sin. He alone could satisfy the demands of Divine Judgment—the curse of the broken covenant, which is the sentence of death (Genesis 2:17; 15:17) and not be eternally destroyed. It was the punishment for our sins that killed Jesus. Therefore, it was God and God alone who pierced and crushed him (5). Both the Servant and God did this out of love for us. The Servant died so that we might live.

By serving our sentence and suffering our punishment, the Servant and God gave us freedom and life.  [H]e was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (5). Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we are freed from our bondage to sin and the punishment of death. By means of that same act of love, we are reconciled to God and experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

            Amen.

“Beware of practicing your piety before others…

…in order to be seen by them” (1).

This verse points out the danger of taking a teaching of Jesus out of context. In this case, when we hear that we should keep our faith private, we are concluding the exact opposite of what Jesus is actually teaching. His lesson is about motives and not actions or even the audience. The context here is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in which he clearly addresses the proper reason for doing what we do, rather than the actions we perform. The key to our proper interpretation is found in the phrase “that they may be praised by others” (2).

Prior to today’s lesson, Jesus follows the Beatitudes by calling his followers to be salt and light in the world (5:13-16). Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship, taught that, in this passage, Jesus is challenging us to BE salt and light, and not just to bear the salt and the light. The difference here is that between who we are and what we do. Being a disciple of Christ is not a role we play, but rather it is the essence of who we are called to be. It is not an either/or proposition. We cannot be Jesus’ disciples and exist without effect or witness in this life. We are either disciples or we are not. We are either citizens of the kingdom or we are not. To hide our true identity in this life is to deny Christ and declare our allegiance to the principalities of this world and renounce our allegiance to the kingdom. These are tough words, but ones that we must hear if we are to follow Jesus.

Our purpose in this life is to make the kingdom visible through our good works. The emphasis here is on making the kingdom/Jesus visible and not ourselves or our works. We are to seek the true light and not the lime light—and the true light is Jesus (John 1:5). Our light is our works and our works are those of cross-bearing—self-sacrificial service to others in the Name of Christ. In short, our works are to light up the cross of Christ for our neighbors.

The Church and its individual members are to be agents of preserving change and purification in the world, as well as Christ’s light of revelation. Therefore, although Christian discipleship is primarily a matter between Jesus and his followers, its natural effect is on the world. To do things in secret is to hide them. However, if we are called to witness the Truth of Christ to the world, what then are we being told to hide? Jesus is telling us to hide our actions from our inborn desire to be exalted by others—our need to be given credit where credit is due. We are to repent of our self-promotional motives so that we can do the work of promoting the kingdom and our King in this world. Basically, we are to be the candle in the hand of Christ that lights his face and not the searchlight that draws people to ourselves.

http://www.thecathedralofallsaints.org/teaching/idontknowwhat/

http://www.episcopalspringfield.org/ministries/christian-formation-resources-2/proclaiming-the-gospel-101

• Provide encouragement, informal pastoral care, and resources around catechesis and discipleship for clergy in non-CP dioceses and laity in non-CP parishes.
• Bear irenic prophetic witness, from a position of acknowledged weakness, to the power structures of TEC, lovingly and relentlessly holding them accountable to the responsibilities of mutual interdependence in the wider Anglican communion and beyond.
• Proactively maintain relationship and continuous conversation with those ecclesial bodies and their leaders in North America who identify as Anglican, but who are not part of TEC.
• Proactively maintain relationship and continuous conversation with Anglican Global South leaders and their churches, and with the See of Canterbury.

We came out of the meeting with concrete action steps in each of these areas. CP is not perfect. It has been, and continues to be, a loosely-organized coalition of an ad hoc nature. It is still evolving. The leaders all have demanding “day jobs,” and there is no staff. Stay tuned … be supportive.

As the bodily resurrected Christ was taken up into heaven, the angels told his disciples that he would return again (Acts 1:11). Jesus himself said that when he came again he would establish his eternal reign over the world and judge it (Matthew 25:31-33). Thus, Advent also is a time of anticipation of Christ’s return in the second coming. Our hope is found in the consummation of the kingdom as described in Revelation.

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (21:1-5a).

Christ’s first coming becomes the basis for our hope that he will come again. In the Church we understand that Jesus came as the fulfillment of God’s promises in the Hebrew Scriptures. Therefore, since God was true to his promise of the first coming, we are encouraged in our faith that he will also fulfill his promise to return as king. However, as the Incarnation was the beginning of our hope in Christ’s return, we have been put on notice and made accountable for preparing for his second arrival. Advent then is not a season of passive waiting and hoping. Advent is a time of active preparation. We not only long for God’s action to restore all things, but we align our lives with his will so that the nature of God’s kingdom might be revealed to others.

A necessary first step in our preparation is to repent of our self-centered motives and turn to obedience to God’s will. Rather than an experience of dread and sorrow, in Advent this penitence is to be accomplished in the spirit of joyful anticipation. The joy comes from the fact that we are looking toward being reconciled to God and living as we were created to live. In short, in the context of the return of Christ, we are not to focus on avoiding punishment and how much we deserve it, but we are preparing for a joyful and glorious reunion with God and the ultimate fulfillment of his will for us. The experience of Advent is clearly portrayed in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). The expected coming of the bridegroom was the occasion of great joy, but the consummation of that joy was only experienced by those who had made proper preparation.

December is already a month of preparation in our homes. Gifts need to be purchased, wrapped, and sent to geographically distant friends and family. Decorations have to be placed around the house to make the season festive. Delicacies must be baked and the house prepared for holiday entertaining. Plans need to be made for travel for family gatherings and for accommodations for guests. And then there are all the holiday parties, concerts, and events that fill our schedules. It is arguably the busiest time of the year. But every year December 26^th comes and with our preparations barely completed, the anticipated event is suddenly over. Except that we get to anticipate repeating the experience in a year, we are left somewhat empty and nostalgic. Would it not be great this year if we prepared for something eternally fulfilling and meaningful—something that we can begin to enjoy even as we prepare, and have the assurance of complete and unending joy in the future? When you participate in Advent, you prepare for a celebration that has no “day-after!”