All Saints Day

"Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died."
"Unbind him"

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 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, 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. 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 things 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. The question is why is there suffering and where is God in it.  

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.”

The story continues and Jesus weeps. He feels the suffering and the struggle of Mary and Martha and those who are grieving. 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. 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. 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 only 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Or 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. 

So I 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. 

Proper 25B

 If Jesus was standing right here and said to you “What do you want?” how would you respond. 

Proper 25 B

Transcribed from a sermon given

On October 28, 2012

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By The Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

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, sight - they come up in the different readings and seem to cover things very well. 

We begin the collect for the day, which is a prayer we give at the beginning of the service that summarizes the whole service. Today it included, “Increase in us the gifts of faith, hope and charity.”

The gifts faith and hope.

Just what is faith? Most Americans might think that faith is to believe that God exists. There are lots of people who are asked about God and say, “Yes, I believe that God exists.” But it is some abstract, sense of God. Others might say that faith means not only that God exists, but that God has revealed Godself through scripture. Yes, that might be considered a part of faith. But the faith meant by the Greek word that is used in the story in the Gospel, where it says that Bartimaeus had faith, is faith in, faith inGod, faith inChrist. According to the Greek English dictionary 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 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 and has the power to make a difference. That’s the kind of faith we are talking about with Bartimaeus.

And hat is the faith that Job had. This reading today is the last little bit of Job. We read some of Job last week. The lectionary summarizes the whole book with just a couple of readings, so I’ll give you some context. You may remember that Job was a righteous man who loved and had a really good relationship with God. He had the kind of faithful relationship with God that I am describing here. 

Then Satan, who in this particular book is like the prosecuting attorney, comes to God and says, “those people don’t believe in you.” 

God says “Look at Job, he is so faithful.” 

Then Satan says “Yeah, 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 in a moment.” 

So God gave Satan permission to test Job and Job was severely tested as no one else I think has ever been. All of his children suddenly died tragically on the same day. Then all of his wealth was taken away that same day. 

God says to Satan, “See, he is still faithful to me even though all that has been taken away.”

Satan then says “Yes, but he is still healthy.” 

So God gave Satan permission to make him sick. He then had sores all over his body and sat in sackcloth and ashes, scrapping his soars with a broken pot because there was so much pain. And he still had faith in God. 

Now Job had these four quote friends. With friends like this you don’t need enemies. These friends came to him and they basically said, “God wouldn’t have done this to you if you hadn’t done something wrong.” Like a simplistic idea of Karma. 

Job replies “No, that’s not the God that I have faith in. And I did not do anything wrong.”

Now we know as the reader that he has been righteous, but his friends say he must have done something wrong. 

Job continues to assert that, no, I am innocent. There is a long dialogue that takes place. Finally we have that profound statement of faith that we read at the beginning of our burial service, which 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 who will justify me and say that I’m right I didn’t do anything wrong, I don’t deserve this. He has faith in a God that is present and able to help him. That never leaves. He has that faith. 

Bartimeaus 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 be repeated over and over again.

“Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me.” 

He said this because he had faith in Jesus. He had faith not only that Jesus was special and a healer, but he believed that Jesus had the power and the willingness to help and make a difference. 

So 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. 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. And 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 see is used in the readings. In the psalm it says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” What kind of seeing is that? We have Job who finally gets the opportunity to be face to face with God, that’s 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 deserve this.” And he gets it. In the whirlwind God appears to him. All of a sudden Job no longer knows God by having heard about God but now sees God. Job is voiceless. He doesn’t have anything to say. God is so magnificent and so much more than he had imagined. 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 transformative. 

“Taste and see.” We don’t actually physically taste God. We don’t actually see God. We see the manifestations of God all around us but that kind of seeing that is transformative is an inner seeing. An awareness of God. The true experience of the presence of God. “Taste and see and know that the Lord is good.”

Let’s go back 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. He doesn’t assume anything. Instead he asks him “What do you want.” 

Bartimaeus says “I want to see again.”

Then Jesus says “Your faith has healed you.” Bartimaeus trusted that Jesus could and would help. He is healed and he sees again with his eyes. But unlike some of the people who are healed and just walk away, Bartimaeus had more of an experience than just physical healing; 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, whatever you want to call him, has the power to help? That Christ is near enough to help? 

And I would ask you if Jesus was standing right here. Physically standing right here, and you could see him, and he looked at you and 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. Perhaps you are struggling with grief or sorrow or depression. Perhaps there is a relationship that is broken. Or perhaps there is someone you love who is sick, hurt afraid. 

If Jesus was standing right here and said to you “What do you want?” how would you respond. 

And the truth is, he is right here. He is near. If we have the kind of faith of Job or Bartimaeus we know that Christ is with us, present with us, all the time, everywhere. We also know that Christ told us over and over again just ask, pray, pray unceasingly. Tell me what you want. Don’t hesitate. 

Right now, today, don’t hesitate to tell Christ what it is that you want.

Proper 23B

What do 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?  

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.  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 had 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 wasn’t able to repay, so he had to borrow some more and some more, and pretty soon, millions and 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 that 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.