Advent 2 A

Chaff exists to protect the growing grain of wheat, but when the grain is mature we don't need it any more.

Advent 2 A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

December 8, 2013

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

This past week, on Wednesday, I completed my duty as a citizen of serving on a jury. As we were on the jury and I was looking at the readings for this Sunday I saw something similar between the idea of separating the wheat from the chaff and what we as members of the jury were told to do. The judge had told the members of the jury to listen with an open mind. Don’t make any final decisions until all the evidence has bee presented, but weigh the evidence. Weigh what people say. Discern what is said that is useful, and what is not useful. What appears to be truthful, and what is not truthful We were to discern the difference between that which was the wheat, the information, the evidence, that we need to make a decision and the chaff, the stuff that for one reason or another needed to be ignored. It was a discernment that we were to make.

We were also told that we were absolutely not to talk about the trial to anyone, including each other, during the time the trial was going on. And that each one of us individually was to make this discernment. To me it all seemed kind of clear about half way through the trial. It was like I’m done; I think I know what is going on. And it seemed real clear to me who was telling the truth and who I didn’t think was telling the truth. You are sitting there very close to the person, you can see their eyes, you can see their hands, you can hear their voice and you can really get a pretty good sense of who they are. But I was wondering what was going on in the heads of the other jurors.

We had quite a variety of people. We had all ages from someone who was in college to people who were retired. We had men and women and people of all races and ethnicities. There were different education levels and different occupations. We had a real cross section of the people of San Luis Obispo county. So I was curious how other people were experiencing the trial.

When we got into the jury room we are supposed to not tell each other right away what our decision is but rather to talk about the evidence. So we started going around talking about the evidence. And it was amazing to me, maybe not amazing, but I felt good about the fact that everyone there saw the same things as being chaff and the same things as being reasonable. The people who testified that I went “I don’t know about this.” The rest of the people went “I don’t know about those people.” And the ones that I thought yeah, I really like what this one had to say. It was really useful and right on and clear, and it was the same thing with the rest of the jury. It was reinforcement to me that everyone can tell the difference between the wheat and the chaff. We are all able to make that discernment if we pay attention, and we take the time and we are open minded about it. It doesn’t matter how much education we have, it doesn't matter how much experience we have, we all have that ability. We can know what is useful and true and what is not useful and probably not true. We all have that ability.

Here John the Baptist is talking about Christ coming to do something like that. Let’s talk for a moment about wheat and chaff. When John the Baptist was talking he was talking to an agrarian people. People who had all seen farmers going about with their fork, lifting up the harvest and having the breeze take the chaff away and the grain fall down to the ground. They knew what that was about. But most of us have not had that experience.

Just a reminder here that as the wheat is grown and as the grain begins to form the chaff comes around that grain to protect it. It is hard and keeps out the bugs, and keeps out the wind and makes that grain of wheat safe as the grain develops. But once the grain has fully matured, now the chaff is a problem because you can’t put the grain of wheat in the ground with the chaff still on it. It can’t sprout and grow and become a plant. And you can’t eat the wheat with the chaff still on it because the chaff is indigestible and it would make us sick if we didn’t get most of it off. So it is necessary once the wheat has matured, once the grain has matured, to separate that grain. To separate that which will grow into something meaningful, which can nurture and strengthen people, from the chaff that grew up around it as it was developing.

It is not saying that there is something wrong with chaff. Chaff is necessary. The grain would not have been able to come to maturity without the chaff around it. But once the grain is mature, that chaff isn’t needed any more.

So the image of separating the wheat from the chaff it is not about some people are chaff and some people are wheat, it is that all of us, every single one of us, is a grain of wheat, a grain of something that can nurture other people, that can grow into something more, to that which God intends for us to be. And we all have chaff. We all have stuff that is left over.

You see none of us got out of childhood without some scars. Absolutely none of us were raised by perfect parents. They might have been good enough parents or they might have been excellent parents, or they might have been really been bad parents, or some combination thereof. But none of us had a perfect childhood. None of us always felt safe, secure, loved and appreciated. Even if we had an ideal family at home we might have been bullied at school. Or had a neighbor that picked on us, or something. A little child is a very fragile thing. Sometimes we can’t handle as children the stuff that happens to us. And so we develop what Freud called defense mechanisms. Freud was the first one to talk about this, but other people have elaborated on it and refined it. This idea is that we have mechanism by which we protect ourselves because some of the stuff that happens to us as children is more than we can deal with.

So we develop habit patterns to help us feel safe. Perhaps we forget things that traumatized us. Or perhaps we became the comedian in the family and we always had to be telling a joke because we couldn’t stand the pain. Or maybe we become shy and withdrawn because we are afraid of getting hurt. Whatever it is that we did, that we took on, that we carry with us as a way in which we survived.

Those defense mechanisms are absolutely essential because sometimes what is happening to us is more that we can deal with at that moment. So we hide away, we put this protection on, but that protection, that which protected us as a child, as a seed which was maturing, that which protected us is now in the way. It keeps us from being able to grow into the person God wants us to be. It keeps us from being able to nurture and love others with the purity that God wants us. So at some point we’ve to to let go of the chaff.

(The recording ended here.)

Advent 1 A

WAKE UP! How do we find out way out of the darkness?

Advent 1 A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

December 1, 2013

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36-44

The way I might sum up the readings for today is “WAKE UP!!” Wake up, get out of darkness.

We have Paul talking about letting go of the works of darkness. An interesting way to describe something - the works of darkness. Even though this is not an image that is used often, we immediately know what he is talking about. We know that he is talking about those things that we do in the darkness so that nobody sees. The works of darkness are the thing you don’t want anyone to know about - when you sneak off to do something in the dark. We all remember when we were teenagers and in the darkness there was some way that you could get away with more stuff, cause your parents wouldn’t see. And we know that many of the things that are most harmful to human beings happen in the darkness. When we sneak off and we don’t want to get caught.

Jesus uses the image of the thief coming in the darkness.

What are the works of darkness? Well Paul gives us some examples such as we shouldn’t be involved in reveling and drunkenness. Those are things we do in the darkness. Debauchery and licentiousness, well that is usually done at night. And then there is quarreling and jealousy. Well that happens in the light sometimes, but hopefully back in the shadows. Notice that the works of darkness are not all things that we normally consider terrible sins, which in our culture has become anything that has to do with sexual sins. You don’t find the same emphasis on that in the Bible. When he talks about works of darkness he includes quarreling and jealousy. Anything that we wouldn’t want to have seen.

The way I might think about it these days is that the works of darkness are the things you wouldn’t want to have posted on Facebook. Or if you pasted them on Facebook when you were younger you would want to be able to take them off. Anything you wouldn’t want someone else to know about. Things we are not proud of.

Similarly, Jesus talks about the son of man coming at an unexpected hour so stay awake because you don’t know when the son of man is coming. We don’t know when we are going to encounter Christ again, whether it be at the end of time or the end of our own lives. We don’t know when suddenly we will see Christ face to face. What do you want to be doing when that happens? There are certain things that I know I don’t want to be doing when that happens. But of course it is more complicated than that.

Paul says to put on the armor of light - put on Christ. And of course that is what we need to do but it is not simple. If it were simple, if we could just make an intention and say “I’m not going to do that anymore’” and we won’t have all the struggle and drama in our lives. We would all live very good lives because most of us intend goodness.

But it is not that easy. Paul in another place writes “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Do you ever feel like that? We set up intentions. We get up in the morning and we say I’m going to lose weight, I’m going to exercise regularly and I am going to stop yelling at the kids. Basic, simple, not terribly dramatic things that we all more or less intend. And then we remember while we are eating our doughnut. You see there was a doughnut shop right there and we missed eating at the doughnut shop. Then we drive by the gym, because after all we are late for work now after stopping at that doughnut shop. And then when we come home, all of a sudden we discover that our anger has gotten the best of us and we don’t know how that happened, but all of a sudden our voice has been raised. And we feel helpless. We don’t know what to do.

The whole point is that we can’t do it ourselves. We need help. We need someone to help us. What we need is a savior - to save us from our own weakness. To save us from the ways in which we find ourselves opening up a website that we really know we shouldn’t be looking at. Or from those pain pills, yes the physical pain is a lot better, but I still like taking the pills so I am going to keep taking them. Those things that we sort of sneak into unintentionally and then they own us and we feel helpless. And it is only when we know we need help that we can realize that and look for help. And the only thing that can help us, the only one who can help us, is someone who knows. Who knows us. Is someone that was born as an infant, was a child and struggled to learn to crawl. Someone who fell down multiple times as he learned to walk. Only someone who knows what it is like to have friends that betray him, and abandon him and deny him. Only one who knows what it is like to suffer and to struggle. Someone who understands what it means to be a human being.

That’s the little child that we are looking forward to acknowledging on Christmas. That’s the one, the savior, the one who has come to save us, to save us from our own weakness. To give us the gift of love and walking with us. Someone who has been in the darkness yet never forgot the light. Who can take our hands and leads us out of the darkness. Who can help us to get the strength to go in the direction that we want to go. The one who can save us. That is the gift of Christmas - the gift of the incarnation - the gift of Christ.

But that Christmas gift, that gift can only be opened on our knees. We have to get down on our knees to open it up because until we realize that we can’t do it ourselves, as long as we are trying to use our own will power, as long as we think we’ve got it all together, as long as we don’t realize that we need a savior, we can’t open that gift. It is only when we realize that the only way that we will find the light is by taking the hand of the one who is the light. Then, then we receive the greatest gift of all. Than we receive the gift of love, of strength, of transformation.

That is what we are getting ready for during Advent. That’s what we are preparing for during Advent. To receive the help we need to find the light, to stay awake, and to know God’s love.

Christ the King - Proper 29 C

What kind of a king offers his life? The thief on the cross knew. Now it is up to us to remember him.

Christ the King

Proper 29 C

Transcribed from a sermon given in 2013

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

Luke 23:33-43

Today we celebrate Christ the King. As I said at the beginning of the service, it is the last day of our year. It is the completion of the whole story of Christ from his anticipation of Advent, his incarnation in Christmas, his work on earth during Epiphany, his journey to Jerusalem during Lent, his death and resurrection with Easter, his sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to his follower’s ministry in the world which is celebrated during this long green season we have just completed when Pentecost is past people of Christ are on earth. On this last Sunday we celebrate Christ the King, the promise of the coming Kingdom of God. Today is the conclusion the finale.

But what kind of a king, what kind of a king are we celebrating. Throughout history a king has been the person with the most power, the strongest with the most followers. As kids you may have played king of the hill. You know, when one strong kid gets up on top of the hill and the other kids try to get up there and push him down. The king is the one who is the strongest. And throughout history the king of any country was the one who had the most armies and was strong enough and rich enough to be able to manipulate people well enough to have power. If somebody else came along and had more power, he would push him out and become king.

But what kind of a king is Jesus? On Christ the King Sunday the image that we read about of Jesus is him hanging on a cross and dying. It is when people are saying that if you are a king, if you are so great, if you are the messiah, get yourself down yet he chooses not to. What kind of a king gives up his power? What kind of a king does not use his power at the time when it is most needed? What kind of a king lets himself be crucified? That is the question for all of us. The answer is that he is different kind of king, a servant king, a king who didn’t come for himself, a who didn’t come to rule, but came for all the people. It is a very different sense of what a king is.

We read today about this poignant experience of Christ on the cross being mocked and humiliated and no one recognizing who he really is. Pilate put up the sign King of the Jews to mock him. The religious leaders don’t recognize who he is, and thy make fun of him. But there is one person there, the person who we are least likely to think would have a deep theological understand, one of the others who are being crucified with him, who recognizes who he is and what it means. Realizing that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, but is something more he is able to say to him, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” A powerful, powerful line. “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He didn’t ask for anything in particular, just don’t forget me. And what is really amazing is that if you look carefully through scripture there is only one person in the New Testament, in all the Gospels, who is promised to be in heaven with Christ. It is that criminal dying on the cross. And it wasn’t because he said some particular statement of faith. It wasn’t because he had been baptized. It wasn’t because he had gone to church. It wasn’t because he was a particularly good person. He just recognized Jesus and asked him to remember him. And Jesus promises that he will be in paradise with him that day. What a promise. Jesus remember me.

So what does this have to do with us who have been told of who Jesus is, who have been promised of what Christ’s kingdom is, who know the creeds and all of that stuff? What does this have to do with us? We don’t need to ask Jesus to remember us, he can’t forget us. Those of us who have been baptized are told that we are marked as Christ’s own forever. Baptism establishes a relationship with Christ that does not end. Christ is not capable of forgetting us. On the other hand, we are quite capable of forgetting Christ. So for us it is not to ask Jesus remember me, it might well be Jesus asking us, “Friend, will you remember me when you go about your daily business?” Will we remember him? Do we remember Christ when we wake up in the morning and take a breath and realize that we are alive for another day, when we see the sun rise and the earth alive? Do we remember Christ when we have that cup of coffee or tea that has that unique drug called caffeine in it that was a gift from God that comes from plants? Do we remember Christ when we eat or breakfast or brunch or lunch? Do we remember Christ when we drive to work or wherever it is that we go during the day? And when we are cut off by somebody on the road do we remember Christ or do we just say “Oh, God!” Do we really remember Christ when we are hurt by someone we love, by a child or a parent or a sibling or a spouse? Do we remember Christ forgiving the soldiers at the cross when we are feeling hurt and angry and resentful? Do we remember Christ when we sit down and we are paying our bills? Do we remember Christ when we think about our finances? Do we remember him when we thinking about how we are going to spend our day? Do we remember him? That is the question for us today.

This past week has been the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK. I’m sure if you turned the TV on once during the week you have realized that because there have been so many specials remembering him. When I think about JFK and the wonderful quotes from him, the one that I can’t forget is when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It is a profound statement of what is important. In many ways since JFK we’ve gotten even more of a consumer society. We have gotten even more into a society that asks what is in it for me. Whether it be the tax code or a new law or health care or a new store we might go to. Is that store going to be the best for me? Does it have the best parking, the best prices? What is in it for me?

One of the conversations that church leaders have been having for the last ten or fifteen year, is: How are we as churches to be in a consumer society? Less and less people chose a particular church because that is how were raised so that is their denomination. More and more they pick a church that satisfies their needs. Is it a church that has good parking? Is it a church that is near my home? Do I like the people there? Does it have the kind of classes I want to take? Is the service short enough, or long enough? Is the preaching what I like to hear? Is the music my kind of music? Does it satisfy me? And that is the consumer mentality. The danger is that we start saying that about Christ or the Church.

You do sometimes get that sense that people are going to church and being in relationship with Christ because of what Christ can do for them. Obviously being in relationship with Christ is the best thing that we can possible do for ourselves. It brings us peace and joy and meaning and purpose and it helps us at the tough times. We go to him for healing. That is all absolutely right, but that is not all of it. There are times when we desperately need Christ’s help. But there are times when Christ needs us. It is a relationship. It is a friendship. And any friendship where you just go to the other person and ask for help is not a friendship anymore. We also need to ask what can we do for Christ. Not just what Christ can do for us. And what can we do for Christ’s church, not just what the church can do for us.

 On those days when we are feeling lost and alone, and we come to church, and we so need to feel God’s love, we feel God’s love not just through the service but by the other people around us, by the welcome at peace, by the sense of a community gathered together. If the only people who came to church on a Sunday morning were the ones who were hurting there would be nobody there to help them. So we need to ask not just what Christ and the Church can do for us, but what we can do for the church and for Christ? We need to ask what we can do to help to bring in Christ’s kingdom.

The other thing that I remember from JFK is his challenge to the country to have a person on the moon within a decade. Looking back, it might not seem as dramatic as it was, but at the time it wasn’t even known if it would be possible. It was a big audacious goal. It was a challenge It was a challenge that took money, time, effort, and everybody coming together and working on it. Out of it not only did we get a person standing on the moon but more importantly we got the miniaturization of computers and we have satellites that we can use for our GPS. If we hadn’t had the work to get to the moon do you think we would have a cell phone whose computer is larger, has more computing ability, than the great big room sized computers did fifty years ago? Teflon and a whole bunch of other things that inform our lives were secondary effects of this great audacious goal.

It has been a long time since a leader in our country has had a goal like that, that has challenged the country to come together for that. But those kind of goals can be important to a community. St Barnabas is right at the edge of a change. I’m only going to be your rector for two more months and then there will be a person, an interim, a priest who will be here to help as the community comes together to figure out where do you go from here. Who do you want to hire as your rector? What direction do you want to go? St. Barnabas is in a really good place to have a big audacious goal. This is a community that is healthy. It is not broken apart. It is working together. We have wonderful, generous, loving, caring people. We have brilliant people giving talks on philosophy. We have people with hearts that give to the homeless. We have singers that share their gifts. St. Barnabas, with God’s help can do just about anything. I would like to encourage and challenge this community to as you think about the future think big. Think about what this community can do to help bring in the reign of God. Think of how you can share Christ’s love with the thousands of people who live in this are. Think of what kind of a difference this church can make. Have a goal like having a person on the moon that is worthy of the people who are here. And through it all each and every day remember Christ. Remember Christ’s kingdom, and remember that now that you know of Christ’s love your responsibility is to share it with others.