Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Year A

What is the source of true happiness? The beatitudes are a radical statement of what it means to be happy.

The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Transcribed from a sermon given

On January 30, 2011

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart, Ph.D.

Micah 6:1-8

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Matthew 5:1-12

I’d like you to imagine that you are an alien from another planet and you have discovered that there is life on this blue planet earth. You haven’t come to visit yet, but you have been able to get our TV channels, so you have this whole array of TV shows over the past 60 years. You are working on your Ph.D. dissertation where you are attempting to discern what it is that makes these earthlings happy. What is the source of happiness based, of course, on the TV shows? Well the first thing you might come up with is that the main source of happiness for human beings is money. You look at the TV shows and see that they will do stupid and crazy things on the game shows to make a little money. They hoard it, they steal it, they hurt each other for it. It seems to be their primary motivation, and what brings them joy.

You might also see that another determinant of happiness is to not get too attached to other people, to play it cool, because you see so much unhappiness because of deep relationships. And so the source of happiness is to be detached, cool, calm.

The next thing is that it is very clear that happiness comes from being assertive. You only need to watch a couple of episodes of Oprah to get an idea that you need to be assertive. And if you watch other shows you see you need to be strong, you need to take care of yourself. Clearly that’s an important source of happiness.

For the next one you might want to get a good overall view of human happiness, so you spend some time reviewing the family sitcoms from the fifties. From this you conclude that happiness for those people came from being satisfied with the way things are.

But then one of your advisors says, “But you’ve left out this whole large body of literature called Survivor. And clearly to be happy one has to be ruthless. One has to be treacherous. And clearly the ultimate source of happiness is to be ‘the winner’. Look at how people celebrate when their teams win. Look at the joy on the faces of the winners of the game shows and how miserable the ones who come in second are.”

Then finally it seems to be important to be famous, well liked, because that is how you get on the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. That’s why so many of the shows, especially on cable, are about these people who are famous. It is not always clear what they are famous for, they are just famous.

So the conclusion of your dissertation comes out and says “According to the TV culture of the United States the source of happiness, the one who would be truly happy, is one who is rich, cool, assertive, satisfied, ruthless, unforgiving, who wins and therefore becomes famous.

Now secretly in your heart are any of those things what you really want? Maybe when you were younger you really wanted or thought were important? Do you want to be famous? Do you want to win? Do you want to have that money?

But of course if you remember we just read the beatitudes. And each one of those is the exact opposite of what Jesus says is the source of happiness. The Greek word translated blessed can be translated a number of different ways. In the New Jerusalem Bible it is translated as happy. It also means that you are blessed by God, that you have a special place in God’s heart, that you are joyous.

So in the beatitudes Jesus says the one who is happy, the one who has the true deep joy, is the one who is poor in spirit, meek (that’s the opposite of being assertive), those who morn, and of course if we open our hearts to care about other people there will be times when we will grieve at the loss of another. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means you are not satisfied with the way things are. To be merciful is the exact opposite of being ruthless. To be pure in heart is to be honest, the exact opposite of the treacherous things you see on Survivor. To be a peace maker means that there is something more important than winning and losing. And of course if you are being persecuted you are not necessarily being liked.

So these are what Jesus says are our true sources of happiness. It is completely counter cultural. It goes against everything we hear about in our culture. And of course it was completely counter cultural in Jesus’ time too. The Beatitudes are radical. But there is also so many of them that you can kind of put them aside. Oh aren’t they sweet, I don’t really remember them and live them out but they are really nice.

One of the frustrations as a preacher when the reading is the beatitudes is there is not enough time to do all of them justice. In fact, I could easily preach for a long time on any one of those beatitudes. So here’s what I am going to suggest. I put on pieces of paper a beatitude and I am going to pass these around and let the Holy Spirit have you pick one, and then pass it on to the next person. Pass these around as I talk. Pick one and take it home with you and hang out with it. If you are a scholar, you will go on your computer and you will look up the translations of it. You might look up some people’s commentaries on it. You could study it that way, even go back to the original Greek. If you are a contemplative type you could sit and meditate on it. If you are a procrastinator you can go and put it on your pile and you will get around to it sometime. If you are a little obsessive compulsive you can decide how many minutes you are going to spend each day looking at it and contemplating it. If you are an artist you could draw it. If you are a dancer, you could see how you would dance this beatitude. If you are a singer maybe you can come up with a song. But be with it. And of course if you are one of those people who is a doer figure out how you can do this in your life.

The beatitudes, each one of them is so rich that you can spend months thinking about it, reflecting on it, living with it and letting it change you from the inside out. You can’t do all of them at once but spend some time with whichever one you pulled out.

The beatitudes are a little long, in our limited attention span culture, to memorize. We like little pithy statements. I was at the board of trustees and the standing committee for the diocese retreat and we were talking about strategic planning. We were talking about the importance of having a motto, a logo, something that is short and clear and that can appear everywhere and sets up your mission statement in just a few words that everyone can remember.

The beatitudes would be a great mission statement but no one would remember them. But the first reading today from Micah gives us from the prophet a sort of shorter version of the beatitudes. Very simple. Very clear. “What does the Lord require. Three things, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” You can remember that one. Do justice, love kindness (and sometimes it is translated as love mercy) and walk humbly with your God.

To do justice means that God wants us to be active. Jesus put it in terms of bringing in the kingdom of God on Earth. Thy kingdom come, here on earth. A just world. A carrying for those who are weak, for the widows and orphan, for the poor and the sick, of seeing that there is justice done on earth.

The second one is love kindness, love mercy. Jesus put it, “Love one another as I have loved you.” To treat every human being as a child of God. To be and live in kindness.

And to walk humbly with God. Humility is one of those words that is often misunderstood. Humility is not a bad self concept. In fact, a person with a bad self concept is often very egotistical because “I’m no good,” “I’m overweight,” “I’m so uncoordinated,” “I’m not smart,” “I just can’t do anything right.” I, I, I, every sentence starts with I. It is all about what is wrong with them. That’s not humility. Humility is being honest about who we are. Acknowledging the gifts we have from God and giving glory to God. That it is not about us.

It is interesting that walk humbly with God is translated by Peterson in the Message (he has some very interesting translations sometimes) as, “Don’t take yourself too seriously, take God seriously.” In other word, being humble is acknowledging the gifts you have and using them to help other people but not taking it too serious. Not thinking too much of yourself, or too little of yourself, and giving all the glory to God. Or as Paul said in the reading today, “if you are to boast, boast in the Lord” because that is where all our gifts come from. It keeps us in the right perspective.

So remember and try to live out “to do justice”. That a wonderful mission statement, vision for your own life, to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

Today we are having our annual meeting and we probably as a vestry will look at a vision statement. But what a wonderful mission statement for a church. A church that does justice. And we do a lot of caring about other people and outreach. That loves kindness, that loves mercy. That knows how to forgive and that teaches people about reconciliation and love. And that walks humbly with God. That acknowledges who we are and what our gifts are. And always remembers that God is the source of all that we have and all that we are. Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God, that is the source of true happiness.

Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 23, 2011

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

I don’t know about you, but I when I was growing up I had this image of the fisherman that Jesus called as being these kind of poor, ignorant fishermen who lived in a real back water part of the world. That they fished in little tiny boats like I’d go fishing in on the weekend and did not have much money or any connection with people. But that is not the way it was.

One of the things that I remember best when I was in the Holy land is when we went to Capernaum. I learned that Capernaum was at the time of Christ was a thriving community. it was right on a major trade route. If you had gone to Capernaum in Jesus’ day and gone to the bazaar where all the shops were you would have of course heard Hebrew, and you would have heard Greek, you would have heard Latin, you would have heard Egyptian, you would have heard Persian, you would have probably heard some of the languages from India. This is because if you were going to get from Lebanon, which is north of Palestine, to Egypt the way to get there was the road that lead by the west side of the sea of Galilee right by Capernaum. And remember this was during the Roman Empire when the roads were relatively good and relatively safe. There was trade between Egypt and India, and most of it went right by Capernaum.

Being on that kind of a trade route meant Capernaum was also a place of intellectual fervor. When you go there and you see the excavations of the town, and they have only excavated part of the town, there is a very large synagogue. Now they are not sure whether this particular synagogue was there when Jesus was alive, but it does date back to the first century. In that synagogue there was a great amount of study of the Law, of the Torah. Some people suggest that most of the Talmud, which is the book that kept the Jewish people together after the destruction of the Temple, was written in Capernaum. So the reason Jesus chose Capernaum as his home base was because it was an exciting place. It was a place of scholars and teachers and things going on.

Capernaum was on Western the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is call a sea, but actually it is a fresh water lake. It’s probably not even as big as lake Tahoe because on a clear day you can kind of see the hills on the far side of it.  Right across the lake was what was called the Decapolis. Now Decapolis means ten cities. So there were ten gentile cities right across the lake. And at the southern tip of the sea of Galilee was Tiberius, which was a major Roman center. So this was a vibrant, interesting, complex area with lots of different peoples of lots of different backgrounds.

Jerusalem on the other had was kind of a back water. None of the trade routes went through Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s only real claim to fame was having the temple. It was very Jewish and very sure that only if you were purely Jewish were you in the right relationship with God. While Galilee had all these gentiles and pagans, a variety of peoples. And certainly there was some intermarriage. That’s why it was referred to as Galilee of the gentiles. Its darkness was not that it was a backwater, its darkness was that it wasn’t pure.

This is the environment in which Jesus calls these fishermen. These fishermen that Jesus called owned their own boats so they weren’t poverty stricken. They were clearly middle class. They had their own businesses. They were doing pretty well. And the fact that James and John could leave their father in the boat meant that they obviously had hired workers that were helping his father out, otherwise they couldn’t have left. So they came from families that were clearly middle class. Also Jewish men of that time all learned how to read because they needed to be able to read in the synagogue. Very few people learned how to write, but they learned how to read. And they probably knew the Hebrew scriptures pretty well. They weren’t ignorant men. They weren’t poor men.

And we know that Peter was married. We know that because of one of the first things that happens after Jesus comes to Capernaum. He goes to Peter’s house. If you ever go visit Capernaum there is a spot that is Peter’s house, where you can see where the rooms were. And there was a church that was built around it. Now there is a church that is built over top of it. It is a very odd situation but you can see where the house was. So he went to Peter’s house and Peter’s mother-in-law was sick. Jesus healed Peter’s Mother-in-law which means that Peter was married. He was a married middle class man of that time. Probably respected in the community.

It is a different image of the disciples than what I was raised with. I don’t know where I got the image of them being poor. I don’t know whether it was in Sunday school or whether it was the children’s books we had or it was the movies or what, but that was the image that I had. When you go over there you realize that it was more complicated than that.

Now Matthew chooses to pick from Isaiah the passage about Galilee, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” Now remember that Isaiah wrote many years before Jesus. Isaiah was centered in Jerusalem so Galilee was seen as a gentile and that would have been the darkness. The darkness was not ignorance; the darkness was the lack of the pure Judaism.

That image of darkness, that people in darkness have see a great light, let’s think about that for a moment. Imagine that there was a large cave and people went and lived in there, but it was completely dark. We won’t talk about how they managed to live, but they did find ways in which to live there for many generations while there was no light. They learned how to get along by feeling and sounds and so forth, but there was this sense that there was something missing, at least for some of the people. And every now and then one of the younger people might stray a little further out and see, having his or her eyes perceive something in the distance, but not quite sure what that was. And they had a myth in the culture of light, of a way to see in which you could know where something was without touching it. But it was just a myth. Except for the few people who got a little bit of a sense of what it might possibly be.

Then one day someone comes in carrying a lantern. Suddenly the whole cave is lit up. Now those who believed the myth and those who had strayed far enough out that they had seen a little bit of light were excited by it. What a wonder, what a wonderful thing to have this whole new world open up. But of course there were other ones who have had some power, who were afraid that with the light people would see what was going on. Some people might have hidden things that nobody could see when there was darkness, but suddenly, when there was light they could see all the stuff was being hoarded back here in the corner. So they had a mixed reaction to this person who came in with the light.

To some of the people he said, “Come and follow me.” Then he showed them how to get to the entrance of the cave. And he showed them the world in which there was bright light and sunshine. Even though it was a little overwhelming and hurt their eyes, they came to enjoy the feeling of light on their faces and of seeing one another. A whole new world opened up to them and they wanted to just stay and bask in the sunlight. But instead he said, “Look, let me show you how to make lanterns yourself and now take these lanterns back in and lead other people out to the light so that they can know about it too. And teach them about lanterns so that they can go back in and bring more and more people to the light.”

Now of course the darkness that Isaiah was talking about and the darkness that Matthew was talking about, was not the lack of physical light. It is not that kind of darkness because of course the sun shines in Galilee. It was a different kind of darkness. It was a spiritual darkness. That darkness in which you feel there is no purpose in life. The darkness you might feel when your life is getting up in the morning, having a cup of coffee, going to work, doing your work, coming home, having dinner, going to bed and then getting up the next morning and there is nothing else in the world. It is the darkness of feeling alone and unloved and uncared about. It is the darkness of guilt, and fear. It is the darkness of grief and loss. It is the darkness of addiction. It is the darkness that keeps you from knowing that spiritual light, that thing you’ve heard about, that myth that some people talk about that there is something more. That inner sense that there’s got to be more to life than just this. That there is something missing.

Most of us here today have had glimpses of the light. It might have been a sunset over the ocean where everything was so perfect that you know that there is something more. Or it might be in a relationship where the love between the two people let’s you know that that love comes from something greater than ourselves. Or it might be being at the birth of a child and the wonder of a new life. We get little glimpses of the light in our lives and there is a sense that there has got to be more, there has got to be more.

Then Jesus comes into our lives and Jesus is that light, that “more” that we have been longing for. Those glimpses we got is right here. So the the disciples saw by the sea of Galilee that here was a person walking along who carried and manifested that which was the deepest longing of their souls. He manifested the love of God in a way that people could see.

That love of God is like light in the sense that we look around and light is everywhere. The only reason we can see shadows is because there is light, but even in the shadows there is light. The light is all around us, heals us. What Jesus showed us was that in which we live and have our being. That God which is love and loves us like a bright light, that loves us completely, that gives us meaning and purpose and hope even in the dark times.

Jesus walked in the world and manifested that in a way that was extraordinarily attractive so there were those who followed him. What he did was he taught them and he showed them the light. And then he said “Now that you have seen the light, now that you have experienced it, it is your job to go out and lead other people to the light.” You can’t just bask in it. You have to go back and share it with other people. So if you have experienced that light of Christ, if you feel drawn to become a disciple, to follow that light, to let that light fill you and change you and empower you and give you peace and joy, then the next step is to share that light with others. It becomes a natural thing because the more we let that light in to come and fill us and transform us the more we are that light in the world. People see it in our smile, our forgiveness, our compassion and the way we hold ourselves.

That we have to be willing to tell people what is it, what is it that makes us different? To be open to sharing that gift of knowing the light, of living in the light, of experiencing the light all the time. To be willing to share that with other people. And invite them to come and follow Christ.

2 Epiphany A

"Come and see." Christ's gentle invitation to Andrew is a wonderfully power form of evangelism.

2 Epiphany A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 19, 2014

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

John 1:29-42

I’d like you to imagine that you are someone who is a seeker after God, who wants to know God better. You hear of a preacher, a well known preacher, who is out in the wilderness speaking. People are going there like crazy to hear him. You think that maybe this is the person who can lead you closer to God. So you travel for several days to a place in the desert where there are a whole lot of people, hundreds and hundreds of people, who have gathered around. They are staying in tents and they are sleeping on the ground, and there are little groups around fires. It’s kind of like Woodstock. And for those of you who are younger and don’t remember Woodstock, it’s like Burning Man or Coachella. Well, people from all over are just gathered together, and they are all there because of this preacher. So you find your way to get close to the preacher, and you find it inspiring. You spend time there getting to know the preacher better and better. You get a chance to get close to the preacher, to actually become one of the people in the inner circle, to be right there next to him when he is preaching, to hear what he says just to his close group of friends, his close followers.

One day you overhear him say, “That one there, that one there is from God.” And the next day you hear him saying “That is the lamb of God. That is the one sent from God.” Listening to this you get the sense that “Oh, I’m supposed to be with that one. I am supposed to leave the preacher that I have found to be so meaningful and helpful and go after that one.” So you start following him. Following him through the crowds. There are all kinds of people and animals and it is kind of crazy but you keep following him, and then at one point he turns around and says, “What do you want?” Interesting question. What do you want?

This is the situation Andrew finds himself in. So like most of us the answer that Andrew gave was actually a question, “Where are you staying?” Where’s your camp? What hotel are you staying in? After all, how do you answer that question of what do you want? So Jesus invites him to come and see. He follows and spends the day with him, and after spending just a day with Jesus, Andrew immediately goes out and tells his brother. He begins evangelizing and telling other people. And he brings Peter as well. Jesus’ response of “Come and See” is a powerful response. He said come and be with me and see what you find. Come and see what you hear and what you experience. Then it will be up to you to decide whether this is the right decision to be with me. It is a gentle kind of evangelism.

So what would happen now if someone is seeking after God, is searching for a deeper relationship with God and somehow somebody tells them about Jesus, and they want to know more. Well they can’t physically follow Jesus anymore. So where are they to find him? Where does he live? Where is he staying? Where do we invite someone to come and see who Christ is? Well, it is the church, because the church is Christ’s body in the world. The Church, not just this little local church but the Church universal is how Christ is made known in the world today. It is referred to as Christ’s body. We are Christ’ hands and eyes and ears and mouth and feet. We are Christ’s instruments in the world. So for a seeker who is looking to find a closer relationship with God we’d say, “Come and see.” Come to church. See what it looks like. See what you experience. Come and see Christ in the Church. And if the person is receptive and sees well what he or she will experience is Christ’s presence here. They will see Christ in the smiles of greeting in the people. They will see Christ in the service that is done in the community. And if they stick around a little while they will begin to see Christ in how the people of the Church listen to one another and support one another. They will see that when one is sick others go to visit or to bring them food. When one is lonely they are reached out to. When someone is in grief they are supported. They begin to see that when they personally hurt they will be cared for.

And they see Christ in those who are weak and needy and realize that in serving them and caring for them others are being Christ as well. They may experience the presence of the Holy Spirit at a baptism or Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. They will begin to see that there is something going on here. Maybe they can’t put their finger on it, they can’t put it into words, but there is something that they will experience when they come and see. That is how the Church is to be Christ in the world.

Our job is just to invite - come, see, give it a try. If you like it great, if you don’t fine, we’ll send you something in the mail once a year, but otherwise nothing lost. Come and see. We are the light of Christ as was said in the prayer today, and as Isaiah reflected. The church is Christ in the world.

And yes, it is made of human beings and it is not perfect. Most people will at some point, if they spend enough time at a church will get hurt by somebody along the road, but in general we are called to be Christ in the world, Christ’s love. To be an example of what Christ and God intend for all people.

This weekend we are remembering Martin Luther King Junior. There was a man who was the light of Christ. He showed what a Christian can be, and how one person can make a great difference. He wasn’t perfect, none of us are, but he lived his life with integrity trying to do what he understood was a Christian way to be. He fought against oppression and was passionate enough to risk his life and even die for that passion to get rid of oppression of all people. But he also taught that we are not to oppress back. We are not to fight back. He lived and taught non-violence. Someone that I friended on Facebook sent around this weekend a copy of what was written before the Montgomery boycott of the busses. It was something that was sent around and signed by Martin Luther King Jr. and another one of the leaders. It was to all the people, after they had had integration of the buses and it said that it is going to be tough. Some of the white people are going to be happy to have you on the bus but there are some for whom this is going to be difficult. And you may find that people will be abusive. Don’t give up your dignity. Don’t respond back in kind. Don’t push it. Go and take a seat on the bus but don’t purposely chose to sit next to someone just to make them uncomfortable, instead just do what you need to do and when someone abuses you or speaks poorly of you just ignore it, do not respond back. If you need to, go to the bus driver who has been told that they are supposed to support this. But you don’t need to get up and leave.

It was a wonderful description of how to remain dignified and yet not superior. To be present and not abused, but not abusive back. It was a statement of what it means to be a Christian. To live our lives with love for all people, respecting ourselves and everyone else. Martin Luther King Jr. was an example of what it means to be Christ in the world as a light to the nations. And that is what we of course are all called to be. Imperfect though we are - to be instruments of God’s love and to be Christ in the world.