All Saints Day Year B

"Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died." "Unbind him." These two lines surround the text for All Saints Day in Year B and provide fertile ground to think about suffering and hope.

All Saints Day Year B

Transcribed from a sermon given

November 4, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart at

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

John 11:32-44

Revelation 21:1-6a

In the Gospel today we hear the story of when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life. There were two lines that jumped out at me, the first one and the last. The first is when Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” And the last one where Jesus says to the people gathered around, and pointing to Lazarus, says, “Unbind him.”

“Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” You can understand how Mary and Martha would have felt that. Jesus was their close friend. He stayed at their home. They had sent messengers to him saying, “Lazarus is very sick, come right away.” And he delayed. He delayed for quite some time, and he didn’t get there until after Lazarus was dead. And they knew that Jesus could have healed him! “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

We look on the TV and we hear about what has been happening with that horrible storm Sandy. Of the more than 100 people that have died. Of people walking along and branches randomly falling on their heads. Of the houses that are under water - some destroyed. Of the destruction of lives. And sometimes when thing like that happen we have this question, “Lord, where are you?”

And in our own lives I think all of us have at one time or another asked God, “Where were you?” “If you were here I wouldn’t be suffering so much.” “Why did you let my loved one die?” “Why is my friend suffering?” Those questions that we have are the same as question that we dealt with in Job that we read last week. That question of why is there suffering and where is God in it. And I am not going to pretend to be able to answer that. Why is a question that people have struggled with for thousands of years. But I will say that it is legitimate to ask that question. When we feel like we have been abandoned it is legitimate to say, “God where are you?” “It is okay to be angry at God,” I like to tell people. My God is big enough that God can handle my anger - and still love me. We all have times that echo those words of Mary, “Lord, if you had been here, then I wouldn’t be hurting so much.”

And the story continues where Jesus weeps. He feels the suffering and the struggle of Mary and Martha and those who are grieving. And he weeps. He weeps with us even now in our hard times.

Then they go to the grave and Jesus tells them to take away the stone. Mary doesn’t want to do that because as the King James version puts it so beautifully, “After four days, he stinketh.” But they roll away the stone and Jesus calls Lazarus out and we get to that line of, “Unbind him.” I imagine Lazarus kind of struggling to walk and he has these bandages around his head and on his arms and on his feet. And kind of confused, I would think, after four days and then being brought back to life. And Jesus says, “Unbind him.”

On Thursday, which was All Saints day, I went to visit a family of the parish. The choir knows them well. The father had died not too long ago and the wife lives with and their son who is dying from brain cancer. They have now called in hospice. So I went to visit. I spoke a little bit with the son who is confused, unable to stand, and suffering. Then I met with the family and we shared communion together. Since it was all saints day I read this Gospel passage, and as I read it I had a new sense of what that “unbind me” could mean, because at that point for Billy it felt as if his body was binding him. His mind didn’t work anymore, his body didn’t work anymore and maybe at some point, the prayer is “unbind him.” Because we know, and we believe, and we proclaim, especially today, on All Saints Day that all the believers when they are freed from this body are one with God. Or as it is so beautifully put in the Book of Revelation, “They will be his people and God himself will be with them.” There will be a closeness, a chance to see God face to face, which is what Job had longed for. To be surrounded by God’s love with nothing in the way.

Right now we are in these bodies. It limits us. They are wonderful. It is amazing. We can see great beauty but only can see a narrow band of energy. And if that is beautiful what does it look like if we could see all the energy around us? The scientists talk about all the universe being made up of energy. Imagine if we could be aware of and see that. And our ears are amazing because we can hear the beauty of a choir, or a bird chirping, or instruments, or a symphony, or the ocean. But it is limited in its range. Imagine if we could hear the sound of the celestial orchestra, if we could hear the angels sing, if we could experience that. We have glimpses of it. Little glimpses of it at a sunset when we see something, or sometimes we hear something, that transforms us. Where we feel that presence of God’s love. Little hints, promises, suggestions of what is there, of what is behind it all. Sometimes I feel like I am a prisoner who goes to visit with my loved one and there is a wall in between, and I can hear them on the other side, and maybe see their outline or a shadow, but I long to be closer. And sometimes that is how it feels with God’s love. Sometimes it feels like that day earlier this week when it was so foggy. There was this one morning when you got up and you could hardly see in front of you. And sometimes I feel like I am walking around in a fog and there is a world and an existence out there that is more beautiful than I can imagine. We have the opportunity to have tastes of God’s love, hints of the magnificent love that God has for each and every one of us, moments when that Kingdom of God that is described as coming in Revelation breaks in upon us and we know that we are loved.

Sometimes what keeps us from experiencing and knowing that love is bindings that we put on ourselves. I mean, think about it. Imagine that you are at work and you are coming home from work and you are really angry at one of the people you work with, or someone cut you off on the way home. For some reason you walk in and you are just angry. You are not angry at your family. You are just angry. But when you walk in the door and your family offers you love, you can’t experience it and share it because you are bound up by your anger. Or when we are afraid. When we are afraid we can’t open and be vulnerable with another person and it takes a certain amount of openness and vulnerability to feel their love. And when we are wracked with guilt and feel like we have done something terribly wrong, when our friends compliment us we can’t accept it because we can’t see ourselves as they do, but we see ourselves through the lens of our guilt. We bind ourselves up in ways that make it hard for us to receive the love that surrounds us and hard for us to share that love for others.

And so I would pray that God would unbind us. Free us from those things that keep us from knowing God’s love and sharing God’s love. That keep us from holding on to the knowledge and the hope that there is waiting for us a time when we will be truly free and know God face to face.

Sermon for Proper 25B

What do Job and Bartimaeus have in common? In spite of their hopeless situations they have hope. It is a hope based on confidence that  God is near and has the power and willingness to make a difference.

Proper 25 B

Sermon given on

October 28, 2012

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

Mark10:46-52

As I looked at the readings for today I was struck by three words. The first is faith, the second is hope, and the third is see or to see. Faith, hope, and sight - they come up in the different readings and seem to cover the themes of the readings very well.

First is the collect for the day, which is a prayer that we give at the beginning of the service that summarizes the whole service. Today it said, “Increase in us the gifts of faith, hope and charity.” The gifts of faith and hope - well just what is faith? I think most Americans might think that faith is to believe that God exists. And there are lots of people who when asked say, “Yes, I believe that God exists.” That is some outside, abstract, out there kind of concept of God. Other might say that faith means not only that you believe that God exists, but that you also believe that God has revealed God’s self through scripture. That might be considered a part of faith, could be. But the Greek word that is used in the Gospel where it says that Bartimaeus had “faith” could be translated as “faith in”. It is faith in God - faith in Christ. As I looked it up in the Greek/English dictionaries, that particular usage of the word faith means more than just believing in the existence of God, or believing in something that God has supposedly said, it involves a relationship. It means that there is a belief that God has the power and is also near enough to provide what we need, to make a difference. It is an idea that God’s presence is right here and God can make a difference. That’s the kind of faith we are talking about with Bartimaeus.

And that was the faith that Job had. This reading today is the last little bit of Job. We read some of Job last week and the lectionary has summarized the whole book in a few readings. Just to give you the concepts, you may remember that Job was a righteous man who loved God and had really good relationship with God. He had the kind of faithful relationship with God that I am describing here. Satan, who in this particular book is like the prosecuting attorney comes to God and says, “Those people, they don’t believe in you.” And God says, “Well, look at Job, he is so faithful.” And Satan says, “Yeah, well he’s rich and has lots of kids, of course he is going to praise you. But if things changed in his life he would turn away. So God gave Satan permission to test Job.

Job was severely tested as no one else has ever been. All of his children suddenly died tragically on the same day. And the all of his wealth was taken away on that same day. Then God said to Satan, “See, he is still faithful to me, even though all that has been taken away.” And Satan said, “Yes, but he is still healthy.” So God gave Satan permission to make him sick. Then he had sores all over his body and he sat in sackcloth and ashes scarping his soars with a broken pot because they hurt so badly. Yet he still had faith in God.

Now Job had these four so called friends. With friends like this you don’t need any enemies. But these friends came to him and basically said, “God wouldn’t have done this to you if you hadn’t done something wrong.” Sort of a karma sort of thing. And Job said, “No, that’s not the God that I have faith in. And I did not do anything wrong.” We know as the reader that he has been righteous, but his friends said that he must have done something wrong. This wouldn’t have happened to you. “No, I am innocent,” repeats Job. And there is this dialogue that takes place.

Finally we have that profound statement of faith that we read at the beginning of our burial service, which I think many of you know perhaps from the Messiah. Job says, “I know that my redeemer lives.” When he says that he is saying that I know that there is someone out there, some aspect, some divine being that I can talk to and I can explain what happened and will justify me. Someone who will say, “You are right. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t deserve it.” He has a faith in a God that is present and able to help him. And that never leaves. What he wants from God is a whole other thing, but he has this faith.

And Bartimaeus has that same kind of faith. When he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is coming by, he cries out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” He was the first one to recite the Jesus prayer, which is probably the prayer that has been said more than any other prayer. In the Orthodox tradition the Jesus Prayer is a very common thing to repeat over and over again. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me.” “Jesus Christ, Jesus, have mercy on me.” And he said this because he had faith in Jesus. He had faith not only that Jesus was special and a healer, but also he believed that Jesus had the power and the willingness to help - to make a difference.

What happened for Job and Bartimaeus was that their faith gave them hope in a hopeless situation. Job’s situation was hopeless. He had lost everything. And his body was deteriorating. It was a hopeless situation, but he never gave up hope. And Bartimaeus was a blind beggar on the side of the street. You don’t get much more hopeless than that, and yet he never gave up hope. When Jesus came he called out to him and asked for mercy, because it is faith, faith that God is near and has the power and ability to help, that gives us that wonderful gift of hope.

The third word that struck me was how the word “to see” is used in the readings. The Psalm started with the refrain, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. What kind of seeing is that? And we have Job who finally gets the opportunity to be face to face with God, which is what he has been asking. He has been asking to be able to be face to face with God so he can give his part of the case, so he can testify, I don’t deserver this.” And he gets what he asks for. In the whirlwind, God appears to him. And we get to the reading for today where all of a sudden when Job no longer knows God by having heard about God but now “sees” God he is voiceless. He doesn’t have anything to say. God is so magnificent and so much more than he had imagined that when he sees God he is silenced.

What kind of seeing is that? He talks about hearing and seeing with eyes but we all know that seeing God is much more than seeing something physically with our eyes. It is a seeing that is transforming. Taste and see. We don’t actually physically taste God; we don’t actually physically see God. We see the manifestations of God all around us but that kind of seeing, that kind of seeing that is transformative is an inner seeing, it is an awareness of God. It is a true experience of the presence of God. Taste and see and know that the Lord is good.

Then we get to Bartimaeus, the blind beggar on the side of the road calling out for Christ’s mercy. Jesus calls him over. He doesn’t just heal him. Now most of us would assume that we knew what a blind beggar on the side of the road would want, right? But Jesus doesn’t assume anything. Jesus asks him, “What do you want?” What do you want? And Bartimaeus says, “I want to see again.” So Jesus says, “Your faith has healed you.” Bartimaeus trusted that Jesus could and would help. And he sees again with his eyes, but unlike some of the people who are healed and just walk away, Bartimaeus has more of an experience than that because he becomes a follower, a disciple of Christ and follows after.

So I would ask you about your own faith? Do you believe that God or Jesus, whichever you want to call him, has the power to help? That Christ is near enough to help? And I would ask you, suppose he was standing nearby, right there, physically, that you could see him, and he looked at you and he said, “What do you want?” How would you respond? What do you want? Perhaps you want some healing, perhaps you have a physical malady that is causing you pain, or suffering or confusion. Or perhaps you are struggling with grief or sorrow or depression. Or perhaps there is a relationship that is broken. Or perhaps there is someone you love who is sick, or hurting or afraid. If Jesus was standing right here and said to you, “What do you want?” how would you respond?

The truth is, he is right here. He is near. If we have the kind of faith of Job or Bartimaeus we would know that Christ is with us. That he is present with us all the time, everywhere. And we also know that Christ told us over and over again to just ask, to pray, pray unceasingly. Tell me what you want. Don’t hesitate. And he also told us that we are to heal, that we are to pray for one another. To lay on hands and heal one another. It is part of the tradition of the church. It is strong in scripture. And so today we will give you the chance to ask Christ for what you want. He is right here.

We have started up again the order of St. Luke’s, which is a group of people who have a concern for healing prayer. We have reenergized it here at St. Barnabas. We’ve had several wonderful meetings with 6 or 7 people each time. We have been studying the healing stories of Jesus and praying for one another. And you may have noticed that sometimes one of us is in the back corner during the Eucharist to offer laying on of hands and healing. What we want to do today is provide an opportunity for everyone who chooses to come forward like we do on our Wednesday healing service. To come forward and one of us will be here to offer prayer. It is said that some people have a gift for healing. When you hear that it doesn’t mean that that person heals it is only God that can heal, it is Christ that heals, but sometimes having a person lay on hands, put into words your prayer and offer it to God can be a powerful opportunity for healing.

Of course we never know exactly what that healing is going to look like. Bartimaeus got to see with his eyes, Job got to see with his heart. Today we would like to offer the opportunity for healing to you. So instead of our usual prayers of the people we are going to use the litany of healing that we use at our Wednesday healing service, and then after that I want to invite any of you who would like to come forward to come the altar rail for healing prayers, and anyone who is called to help is welcome to lay hands on people as well. It is what we were told by Christ to do and it can be powerful. And if you don’t want to come forward, that’s fine. Sit in your pew and pray and be with God and in God’s presence.

So let us stand and share in the litany of healing.

 

Proper 24 B - thoughts about creation

I have no old sermons available for proper 24 B, but I will be preaching a children’s sermon this coming Sunday. These are some thoughts about the relationship between human beings and the creation that were sparked by the readings for this Sunday.

Proper 24 B

Some thoughts for Sunday Oct 18, 2015

Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

In the Old Testament scripture reading from Job, God is questioning Job as to where he was at the time of creation. Rather than giving Job an opportunity to ask his questions God asks the big question. It quickly becomes clear to Job that he has no right to question God and God’s justice when God is the source of all of creation.

Psalm 104 is a song of praise to God for creation. “You have set the earth upon its foundations.” “O Lord how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”

In the Gospel reading from Mark (10:35-45) we read of James and John’s desire to sit at Jesus’ right and left had when he comes into his glory. Jesus reminds all of the disciples that, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.”

I have been thinking about the glory of creation and human beings’ position within that creation. In Genesis humans are told that they are to be the rulers or the to have dominion over the earth and its resources. Unfortunately we humans have become despots. We have plundered the earth for our own power and wealth without regard for the long-term well being of that which we have been given. We do not need to think very long to come up with examples of dictators who enriched themselves and brought the people of their lands to poverty.

Jesus points to another way to be the ruler or have dominion. It is in line with the Old Testament concept of the good king or noble ruler who rules in order to help those who live in the land by providing stability and leadership that encourages the people to work together to provide for all of the people.

We can see today what human selfishness is doing to this earth. We can see the degradation of the environment, we can see the loss of species, and we are becoming more and more aware of the planet wide change in climate. Human beings have not done a very good job as the rulers of creation.

Perhaps it is time to listen to Christ’s words and understand that our responsibility is to serve creation, and in that way to take our rightful place in serving God. Human beings have been given the gift of reason and the ability to build and create. We have the knowledge now to begin to understand the long-term effects of our decisions on the whole planet.

In this incredibly wonderful planet that we have been given let us serve this creation. Let us use our gifts to enhance the well being of all the creatures of the earth. Let us stop focusing on power and wealth and begin focusing on serving and health.

This is what Christ modeled. He cane not to be served by to serve. Let us each remember that our role in the cosmos is to serve not to be served - to care not to be taken care of - to build up not to destroy.

Sermon Proper 23 B

The rich young man was loved by Jesus and challenged to let go of his attachment to his wealth. What is your attachment that Jesus might lovingly ask you to let go of.

Sermon for Proper 23 B

Transcribed from a sermon given on

October 11, 2009

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Arroyo Grande CA

There is a story from India of two monks who were total renunciates of the world. They went off into the Himalayan Mountains and found two caves. They had nothing except for some straw on the bottom of the cave to sleep on. They prayed and they meditated and they worked to be unattached to the things of the world.  Now things get a little musty in a cave in the Himalayas over the long winter so when spring came and the sun came out they took their straw and put it out in front of their caves so the sun could refresh it.  Then one of them went over to visit the other, and as he was walking up he accidently stepped on the straw of the other monk. Immediately the other monk got very angry and yelled, “How dare you step on my straw!” 

You don’t have to be rich to become attached to things, and I think that that’s what this gospel is about.  It’s about our attachment to things.  We have here a young man who has been living his life with as much authenticity as he can.  He has been trying to follow the guidelines, the Commandments, and he comes and he kneels in front of Jesus.  He does everything right.  He is sincere. Jesus looks at him, and it says that Jesus loved him.  Jesus loved him.  It’s very rare in the gospels that such a thing is said about an individual person, but here it says that Jesus loved him.  So out of that love for him, out of seeing this sincere young man and out of that love, Jesus tells him what he needs to enter the Kingdom. He tells him that he needs to give away or sell all that he owns, and give it to the poor and come and follow me. Sadly, the young man is unable to do it.  You see, Jesus saw in that young man what his obstacle to a full life was – what it was that kept him from being fully alive and living his life with freedom and love and joy and being part of the Kingdom right now, as well as in the future.  He saw that he was attached to his money, and his money kept him from being free. 

There are lots of different things that might keep us from feeling free.  Money tends to be particularly dangerous, because with money, you never get enough.  I was watching 60 Minutes last week, and there was this interview with a man who did a Ponzi scheme that was brought in multimillions of dollars. This man was a successful lawyer.  He was respected.  He was wealthy.  He had a beautiful home in New York City.  He had everything, but he had a dream of having more – of having a larger practice with people under him.  In order to set that up and have the wonderful fancy offices that were in his mind, he needed to borrow money, and he couldn’t borrow it legitimately, so he made up a story to borrow the money.  But then when the payments came due, he didn’t have it, so he had to borrow some more and some more, and pretty soon, millions of millions of dollars. 

He didn’t need it.  He had it all.  Any of us would have looked at him and said, “My gosh, he is so wealthy.  He has everything anyone could imagine.”  But when you’re attached to money, there’s never enough.  Each one of us has different things that catch us – that keep us from being completely free; that keep us from being the loving, loved, joyous children of God that God intended us to be.  Some of us might be attached or addicted to drugs or alcohol. Or we might find that food keeps us from being free.  Or we might find that it is our jobs or old resentments or guilt that imprison us.  We may find that we’re in a relationship that keeps us from being whole and healthy.  We may find that our relationship with a grown child keeps us tied in and that child from being fully alive.  We each have our own ways in which we’re caught and we’re trapped. 

I’d like you now to imagine Jesus standing in front of you and looking at you with great love.  What would He say to you that you need to let go of in order to be the fully loving, joyous member of the Kingdom of God that you are intended to be? 

We all have things that catch us and hold us back.  Jesus said to the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go into heaven.  Well what does he mean by the eye of the needle? Some people have suggested that one of the gates to Jerusalem was called the eye of the needle, and it was a low gate that a camel couldn’t get through, especially a camel that was loaded down with stuff, and so you had to unload the camel in order for them to get through.  The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that was built by the mother of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century has an unusual door. Churches almost always have big doors, and the bigger the church, the bigger the doors.  They’re very dramatic.  But the Church of the Nativity has a tiny door.  It’s about four, four-and-a-half feet high, and maybe two-and-a-half feet wide.  It’s built that way so you can’t get in riding a horse.  In fact, you can’t get in carrying a lot of stuff.  You have to put down whatever your loads are before you can enter the place where Christ was born.  And you can’t walk in with your head held up high and with pride.  You’ve got to bend down with your head down in humility.  That’s how to enter.  That’s how Christ entered the world, and that’s how we enter where He was born.  And that’s the only way we can enter into the Kingdom of God – unburdened by the things that we’re attached to.  Humble.  Just ourselves. 

The disciples are concerned because a rich person can’t get into the Kingdom of God, because at that time in that culture, if you were rich, it was considered that you must be blessed.  You must be important and powerful. The rich were seen as better than the poor.  Our culture hasn’t changed all that much.  We still see the rich and famous as somehow blessed and important.  So they said, “Who can be saved?”  If a rich person can’t get into heaven, who could?  And Jesus’ answer is, “For mortals, it’s impossible.”  But for God – for God, all things are possible.  For God, the rich young man can be part of the Kingdom.  We, with our attachments, can be part of the Kingdom if we offer them to God.  If we ask for God’s help, all of us can be the joyous, loving people that God intended us to be.