Advent 3 C

"You brood of vipers." What a strange way to win friends and influence people. And what was this "Good News" he was sharing?

Advent 3 C

Transcribed from a Sermon Given on

December 13, 2009

By Rev. Valerie A. Hart

St Barnabas Episcopal Church, Arroyo Grande CA

Now I don’t know what John’s training was, but he obviously didn’t take a class on how to make friends and influence people.  Here he was, out in the middle of the desert, and people traveled not just for miles, but for days, because it was all on foot, out into the wilderness to hear him.  They’ve come to hear him and what does he say to them?  “You brood of vipers.  Who told you to come?”  That sure would make me feel good.  How would it feel if it took you two days to walk here to church today and I got up and said, “Who told you to come?” 

I don’t know, but it worked for John.

Then, at the end of all this about unquenchable fire and judgment and all of that, at the end of it, the Gospel reading says, “And in this way, he proclaimed the good news.”  So, all that’s supposed to be good news.  Where’s the good news in all of that?  What’s the good news?  Well, it wasn’t good news for the rich because they were being told they had to share what they had.  If you owned two coats in that time, you were pretty rich, and you were being told give half of it away.  It wasn’t good news for them.

And for those who were of the Tribe of Israel, sons and daughters of Abraham, the ones who had the right upbringing, it wasn’t good news for them because they were people who believed that because of their ancestry, they were in the right relationship with God.  All they had to do was be born into a family that had its ancestry go back to the beginning of the Jewish tradition and they were set.  And John said, “God can make the stones into children Abraham.  That’s no big deal, your ancestry, who your parents were.  That’s not going to get you right with God.”  So it wasn’t good news for them.

But it was good news for the poor.  It was good news for the outcast.  It was good news for the stranger.  It was good news for the ones who were born to the wrong parents. Because John was saying it’s not about wealth.  It’s not about ancestry.  It’s about repentance.  It’s about being in the right relationship with God.  Because you see, John’s good news was that no matter who you were, where you came from, what your profession was, what you’ve done, you could repent and start over knowing that God loves you and is with you.  And that’s pretty good news. 

And there’s good news in the other readings.  In the very first reading Zephaniah is speaking to the people of Israel who are having a really tough time.  In the Old Testament time period, people felt if a country was having a hard time that meant that God wasn’t with them.  The writer of Zephaniah is saying, “Don’t worry.  Your tough times are almost over.  It’s going to get better.  God is with you.”  And in the Canticle here today (Canticle means song. This one comes from Isaiah; it’s a song within the Book of Isaiah.  These Canticles are used in our morning and evening prayers, our daily prayer in the prayer book, so, if you’re not familiar with morning and evening prayer, that’s where that comes from.) In the Canticle Isaiah is rejoicing because God is present.  He’s with us. 

And then we have Paul.  A wonderful reading from Paul where he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again, I say rejoice.”  Rejoice always.  And this is from Paul who was imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned, kicked out of many different towns, had an ongoing chronic illness, and yet, he could say, “Rejoice.  Rejoice always.”  That’s some pretty good news.  That’s some pretty good news. 

What is your good news?  What is the good news that you might share with someone else?  My good news comes from my story, my life experience.  It comes from a time when I had brain surgery and I couldn’t think and I couldn’t work and I couldn’t take care of my children, you know, all those things you do to make yourself loveable?  I went to school and got a PhD so my parents would be proud of me.  I had long hair down to my waist so I would be attractive.  I wanted to be a good parent so I would be loveable.  We spend much of our lives, especially our young adult lives, trying to do something to make ourselves loveable. 

After my surgery, it was all taken away.  My long hair was gone and I was half shaved because of my brain surgery.  I had just had a baby and so my body, well, I wasn’t feeling real good about my body image.  All the women who’ve ever had children know that you don’t feel real good about how your body looks after you’ve had a child.  I was having difficulties in my marriage.  I couldn’t think clearly.  I couldn’t do my work as a therapist.  I couldn’t even be home alone with my children because I was having seizures.  It was like everything, everything I had done to make myself loveable was gone. 

But I discovered, not in one big moment, but over time, that I was still loved by God and that Christ was walking with me.  That even when all the things I did to make myself loveable were gone, I was and am loved by God.  That’s my good news.  That’s changed my life.  I have to tell people, “You’re loved by God, unconditionally, totally, absolutely loved by God.  And if you mess up and you do things wrong, God’s going to be right there. All you have to do is turn around and say ‘I’m sorry’ and He’s going to give you a big hug and He’s going to keep loving you.”  That’s my good news. 

What’s your good news?  What’s the story in your life?  What’s the good news that you could share with somebody else?  Perhaps your good news is that you’ve been lost in addiction and you found your way out of it and that God was there helping you.  Or, maybe your good news is that when you were alone, you found a community of faith that welcomed you in.  Or, maybe your good news is that when you went through a difficult time in your life, there were people there with you and Christ was there with you.  Maybe your good news is you had a time of deep guilt and discovered that you’ve been forgiven.  Maybe your good news is that you’ve made friends in a community of people who just like you for who you are and you don’t have to fit in with any group.  What’s your good news? 

I went to a program about two weeks ago on PR.  How do you present an organization or a program or a nonprofit or a political agenda, whatever, how do you present it to the world?  One of the talks was given by someone who had done a lot of work in politics.  She said that first of all you need to have short statements that are easy to remember and you have to have one message and keep everything you say on message.  One of the things that was said is you should be prepared with an elevator talk.  An elevator talk is what you can say to somebody when you get on the elevator and you’re going one floor.  In other words, you should be able to concisely state what’s most important about, say, your nonprofit.  You should be able to get on the elevator with someone and tell them what the issue is, what you are doing, why it’s important and what you want them to do before the elevator door opens back up again.

Can you develop an elevator story of your good news?  Can you distill the good news that’s happened to you in a way that you could share with somebody on the elevator?  Now some of you may not have good news yet.  Some of you may be here because you’re searching.  Some of you may be here because you are hoping that there will be something said or something will happen and you will feel the good news.  But those of you who have good news, can you distill it down into a couple sentences?  And can you tell it to somebody else? 

If you went to a movie last night or Friday night and you really liked it, if it was one of those movies where you were moved, maybe you cried during it, but you came out of it transformed would you go home and say, “Under no condition am I ever going to tell anybody about that movie because it’s private to me and I wouldn’t want to hurt them by telling them that I liked that movie because that might be uncomfortable for them.”  Or, would you go and call up your best friend and say, “You got to see this movie.  It’s really great!”  And then you’d go on Facebook and say, “I just went and saw the best movie.”  And you Tweet, “I was at the movies” and you say the name and you get it down to 140 characters somehow. You would want tell everybody what a great movie it was. 

We’ve got some really good news.  We’ve got some amazing good news.  The good news is that God loves us.  The good news that the angels proclaimed centuries ago, we’ll proclaim again at Christmas - glad tidings of great news - the Christ is born - Emanuel.  The good news is God with us, that God loves us, that God is with us, that God sent Christ to show us how much we’re loved, how completely we’re forgiven and that we’re never alone.  That's pretty good news.

And so, I’d like to invite each and every one of you to think and pray about who you’re going to invite to come to church on Christmas.  Inviting somebody on Christmas day is fairly safe.  A lot of people are looking for church on Christmas day and we’re going to make it really easy for you.  We made up these little cards and on the one side is the advertisement that’s been in the ticket about the Episcopal Church. It has a picture of Santa Claus with a little girl on his lap and it says, “Jesus, on the other hand loves you regardless of whether you’re naughty or nice.  Unconditional love and forgiveness are the Christmas gifts of Jesus Christ.  Join us as we celebrate the miracle of His birth.”  And on the backside is when our services are.  Take some on your way out.  They’re by the front door.  Give them to someone.  Give somebody this year a Christmas gift that really will matter.  Invite someone to open their hearts to Christ.  Give a Christmas gift that will last for eternity, and that’s a relationship with God through Christ.  You just might make a friend.  You just might change a life.  And if you’re really shy, you can just slip this on somebody’s desk and they won’t even know it was you who left it there. 

Indeed, we are about to proclaim, and we are proclaiming, good news of great joy.  Let’s not keep silent about it.  Let’s share what we’ve received and offer it as a gift to others.  Amen. 

Proper 21 B

I love the book of Esther and we don't often have an opportunity to preach about it. It reminds us that each of us may be exactly where we are "for just such a time as this."

Proper 21 B

Transcribed from a sermon

Given on September 30, 2012

By Rev Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Arroyo Grande, CA

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10: 9:20-22

The book of Esther is not scripture that we run into very often. In fact, in the Prayerbook Lectionary it is not included at all, so some of you could have been coming to church for years and never have heard it. But the Revised Common Lectionary includes this one passage from Esther. If you do the daily office, which is the lectionary for each day and is what is in the Day by Day, you may have been reading Esther. We just finished Esther. But many of you may never have encountered this book.

It is not real popular for one reason, and that is that it never mentions the word God. It is the only book in the Bible that never uses the word God. They don’t even pray in this book. Now they do have a time when they fast, but there is no prayer. Yet when you read the book there is a sense of the presence of something more because it so often it says, “It just happened that.” It just happened that something good happened, and that would be the action of God. It is what we might today call synchronicity.

So because some of you might not be familiar with Esther, and I actually love the book very much, (it is wonderful to have a whole book of scripture about a woman and named after a woman) I will tell the story. Esther is a very interesting story. It takes place in Persia during what would have been called the Diaspora. It is when the Jews were conquered by the Persians and resettled throughout the Middle East in different cities and towns.

One thing to note about the book of Esther is that it exaggerates everything, including the size of the Persian Empire. It says that it went all the way from India to Egypt, and it never actually was that big. Exaggeration is just part of the book of Esther.

It starts with the king in his palace who is having a great banquet. It is a banquet that has gone, not just for days, but for weeks and weeks. He has been having a huge banquet, and everybody is having a good time. One evening the king’s wine is flowing greatly, and he says, “I want all of you to get a chance to see my beautiful wife, my beautiful queen.” So he tells to one of his people, “Go get my queen and bring her in. Tell her to come to me.” But she says, “No.” She doesn’t come. Now one of the things about the book of Esther is that the king never decides anything on his own. He is always asking for advice. So to his group around him, his group of advisors, he says, “What do you think I ought to do?” And they respond, “Well you’ve got to do something. The queen didn’t come when the king told her to. If that gets out and the women of the empire find out, no husband is ever going to get his wife to do anything.” (You can see why I like this book.) The advice to the king is that he has to get rid of your queen. So that queen is eliminated - she is sent away. She is gone in order to make an example for the women of the empire.

But after a while the king starts to kind of miss having a queen. Then he says, “I really want to have a queen, what should I do?” And his advisors say, “What you should do is you should have your people go all around the empire and bring all the most beautiful virgins here. We will take care of them and make them beautiful and then you can decide which one will be your queen.” He likes that idea. So they go out and they get all the most beautiful virgins and they bring them to the palace. Well one of the virgins that they bring to the palace is Esther. Esther is an unlikely hero. She is an orphan, and she is a Jewish person. She is a Jewish orphan who is being raised by her uncle Mordecai. Her uncle tells her, “Don’t tell anybody at the palace who your people are.” Clearly there is a lot of prejudice against the Jewish people, even back then.

So they then spent two years on beauty treatments. One year of beauty treatments for their skin, another year of beauty treatments for something else. All these virgins are prepared. Now Esther is really smart, she makes friends with the chief Eunuch. The Eunuchs are the ones who take care of the potential concubines. She does everything that the chief Eunuch tells her to do. So finally, after the two years are up, each evening one of the virgins is taken in to spend the night with the king. After they spend the night with the king they go to the other part of the palace where the concubines are. When it is Esther’s turn, she pleases the king. The king likes her a lot and decides to make her the queen. So now this Jewish orphan girl is the queen of all Persia.

Meanwhile, (the plot is more complex) Haman has become the chief counselor to the king. And he is a very arrogant fool. That’s the only way to describe him. Well actually that is a nice way to describe him. If you read Esther for yourself you can figure out how you would like to describe him. But now that he is the chief counselor to the king he feels that everyone should bow down to him. He goes out of the palace, and Mordecai (remember Mordecai) Esther’s uncle is out there and he refuses to stand up and bow to Haman as he goes by. Even though everything is going great for Haman, he is the chief counselor, he is angry. He is so frustrated because Mordecai is not giving him the respect he deserves that he goes home and he asks his friends what he should do about this? He says that he can’t sleep at night because of the Mordecai. They say, “Well what you should do is you should build a gallows 50 cubits high.” Now that is huge - much taller than this church.  So he does it to get ready to use the gallows on Mordecai.

But that is not enough, he is still irritated by Mordecai because Mordecai is not giving him the respect he is due. Since Mordecai is Jewish he decides that it is all those Jewish people that are the problem. He has to get rid of all of them. And so he goes to the king and he says, “There is this group of people that are disrespectful to you and we need to get rid of them.” Like I said the king does whatever the people around him tell him to do so he says, “Okay, do whatever you want.” So Haman goes home ant throws lots to decide what day the Jews will be destroyed. The date that is chosen is almost a year later. Then he sends out under the king’s seal, all over the empire, that in every town and every city, everyone should gather together and kill every Jew and plunder whatever they own. When Mordecai hears this he is very upset, obviously, and he goes in front of the palace in sackcloth and ashes. When Esther hears about Mordecai being out there in sackcloth and ashes she sends one of the Eunuchs out to find out what is going on. Of course as queen she can’t interact with people outside the palace. The Eunuch comes back and tells her the story of what has happened and says that Mordecai said the she has to do something. And she goes back to Mordecai asking, “What can I do? There is a law here that if anyone enters the king’s presence without having been summoned they will be killed unless the king picks up the golden staff and aims it at them and acknowledges them. And the king hasn’t asked me to come to see him for over a month. If I go to him I risk my life.” And Mordecai’s answer is, “Perhaps you have been given royal dignity for just such a time as this.” For just such a time as this.

So she has all her maids fast for three days and tells Mordecai to tell all the Jewish people to fast for three days. When the fasting time is over, she dresses herself in her most beautiful gown and she goes to the king’s presence, risking her life. A very courageous woman. She is also very smart. When she gets there the king acknowledges her and says, “What do you want Esther?” And Esther says, “I want you to come to a banquet. I am giving a banquet for you, and bring Haman with you.” And so Haman is thrilled. He is so excited. Now not only is he the chief counselor, but the queen has invited just him to come with the king. But then there is Mordecai out there who still doesn’t get up and acknowledge him.

So they have the first banquet, and at the end of it the kings says, “And what is it that you want from me?” and she says “I want you and Haman to come to a banquet again tomorrow night.” So there is a second banquet. Everything is all so extreme, everything is exaggerated. But you see Esther is smart. She is getting the king feeling really good. And they come back, and after the second banquet the king asks, “Okay Esther, what is it that you want?” Well she says, “I want you to stop and give me my life because someone is going to kill me and all of my people.” “Who would do such a thing?” says the king. Esther responds, “Well this person sitting right next to you at dinner.” It is the one who has been feeling so good about himself. Of course he ends up on the gallows he made for Mordecai.

It is great switch. It “just happened” that there were the gallows there. It “just happened” that there were the right people in the right place at the right time. So the tragedy for the Jewish people is averted.

This book is part of Jewish scripture partly because it is read every year at the holiday called Purim. It is a holiday of feasting and giving food to one another within the Jewish tradition. Purim comes from the word Pur, which is the name for the lots that were thrown as to what day the Jewish people were to be annihilated. That is the basis for the holiday of Purim.

But to me Esther is really important. It is that line of Mordecai’s that perhaps you are exactly where you are for just such a time as this. I think that might be true for all of us. That where we are, who we are, the experiences we’ve had in our lives, the position we are in, the people we know may not be an accident. We may be exactly where we are for just such a time as this. That God can use us where we are right now - with all our gifts and weaknesses and all our history and our pains and our hurts and our strengths. Right now, perhaps God is calling you to something that only you can do. Where you are right now in your life. And so we have to listen as Esther listened to Mordecai and listened to her heart. We need to listen to what God is calling us to do or be right now. Then we have to have the courage to respond and the wisdom to do it wisely, aware of the politics, aware of the situation, using every gift that God has given us, Because perhaps, even though we may not know it, we may be where we are and who we are for just a time as this. And being called to make a huge difference in the world.

Sermon Proper 19 B

Who is Jesus to you, today?

Proper 19 B

Mark 8:27-38

Psalm 19

Transcribed from a sermon given

September 16, 2012

Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight oh our Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen

And now you know where I get that statement I make before each sermon, from the psalm that we read today. In fact the Prayer Book is quite full of direct quotes from scripture, we just don’t always put down chapter and verse.

But I want to talk to you today about the Gospel reading and the questions that Jesus asks. Because these are the most important questions any person wrestles with. Now the first question is, “Who do people say that I am?” “Who do people say that I am?” Any thoughts? Who do people say that Jesus is? Lucille, any thoughts? Who do people say that Jesus is?

“The savior.” “The son of God.”

Anyone over on this side?

“A really good man.” “Our Lord.” “A perfect example.” “The good shepherd.” “The messiah.” “A healer.” “A great teacher.” “Son of man.”

We’ve got lots of words for him. Later be saying the Nicene Creed which is the ancient statement of faith that says such things as “God from God” but of those words, some of them we’re pretty familiar with. You can probably tell me what a teacher is, because we know teachers. Or a good man, we know about good men. But what does “Savior” mean? What does it mean to say that Jesus is the savior? Saving whom? From what?

Or the Messiah. Now that’s the quote “correct” answer that Peter gave. But the Messiah? What does the word messiah mean? For the Jewish people of Jesus’ time the Messiah was going to be a warrior king like David, who was going to come and get the Jewish people to once again have control of their land, that would fight Rome so that once again they would be free and a great nation. That’s not what Jesus turned out to be. He was a very different kind of messiah. A different kind of savior.

One of the problems with trying to say who is Jesus, when we listen to all the different ways he has been described, is that most of the time it is kind of complex. It is not easy language. But we have heard a lot about who Jesus is. If you went to Sunday School as a child you heard one thing. In the secular world you might hear something else. Here in church we hear other things. So we have lots of answers to, “Who do people say that I am?”

But all of those comments, all the theology, all the books written about who Jesus is, all the creeds - all of that doesn’t really matter. It is the second question that really matters. That’s when Jesus looks at his disciples and says, “Who do you say that I am?” How do you know who Jesus is? What do you say? Not quoting someone else, not based on what someone else says that Jesus is, but who is Jesus to you? Right now, today, this morning.

I find that when we are on a spiritual journey our understanding of who Jesus is changes over time. Sometimes from day to day. It changes as we study scripture. It changes as we are in discussions with others. It changes as we read meaningful books.

“Who do you say that Jesus is?” is the most important question. It makes all the difference in the world. And only you can answer that question. Some might answer that to you Jesus is a great teacher. That is accepted pretty much around the world. There is almost no one who doesn’t say that he had some wonderful teachings and that he showed a great deal of wisdom. That is one way to approach Jesus. It is not quite consistent, though, with what he said. C. S. Lewis wrote that if you say that Jesus was just a great teacher then you have to assume that he was either a liar or insane because he said that he was much more than that. It is hard to take the wisdom and teachings that we find in the Gospels and separate it from what he said about himself. But often the first way we get to know Jesus is as a great teacher. And that is important.

What about when we say that Jesus is my savior or my Lord. Well savior is a tricky word. What does savior mean? How has he saved you? Think about your own personal life. What have you been saved from? What have you been saved for? Or when we say he is my Lord, we don’t have lords these days. We live in a time and place where we have senators and presidents, but we don’t have lords. So there isn’t a real existential sense of what it means to serve under someone else.

So maybe you might want to think about what other language would describe your relationship with Jesus. As I have sat with this Gospel reading for the last week, preparing a sermon, it has affected a little bit how I describe my relationship with Jesus, and I’m going to share that with you. It is personal; it is where I am at today having studied that scripture. Where I am this morning, it may change, but it is what’s true for me right now.

I would say that who Jesus is to me is that he is my friend. He is my friend who loves me no matter what. He is my friend who values me and holds me precious because he helped to create me. I am of incredible worth to this friend; and he accepts me for who I am. Loves me for who I am. And loves me enough to not let me stay who I am but encourages me to become more than I think I can be. He is my friend who is always there, whenever I need him. He always cares.

And he is my friend that gave his life for me. And no love is as great as offering your life for another. We don’t have a lot of experiences of what it means for someone to give their life for us. People who have been in war or people like police or firefighters know what it is like to have companions that go into dangerous and difficult situations together. And they know that these companions will offer their lives to protect each other, risk their lives to protect each other. It is said that when soldiers go into battle once the battle gets intense they are not concerned with their country, they are not concerned with any grand statements of principle, they fight because of their comrades, the ones they are fighting with. And they want to protect them, and they will risk their lives in order to protect their friends, and they would be willing to die for one another.

Christ died for me. He is my friend that was willing to die for me, and in this passage he asks for me to be willing to do the same. To pick up my cross and follow him. And to be his friend the way he is a friend to me. That might mean giving my life, although being in the United States it is unlikely I will give up my physical life for being a Christian. Although there are other parts of the world where that is not so sure. But it does mean transforming my life. It means giving up my self-centeredness. It means giving up my sense of ego control. It means changing my priorities, and it affects every decision that I make every day of my life. There is a prayer in the red prayer book that I often say in the evenings. It is called a prayer of self dedication. It is on page 832 in the red prayer book. It is prayer number 61. I invite you, if you like, to pray along with me.

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee and then use us we pray thee as thou will, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people through our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

And who do you say that Jesus is?

Sermon Proper 17 B

Rules, rules, rules - there seem to be so many rules.

Sermon for Proper 17 B

Given by Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

September 3, 2006

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Brentwood

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

James 1:17-27

There is a story about a man who had the opportunity to visit hell. Upon entering he saw that people were divided up into groups. He asked Satan about the groups. Satan pointed to the first group and said that those were Jews that worked on the Sabbath. He pointed to the second group and said that they were Catholic (pre Vatican II) who ate meat on Fridays. The third group was made up of Methodists who danced and drank wine. Who is that last group that seems to try to keep themselves apart from the others? Oh, those are the Episcopalians who used their dinner fork to eat their salad.

I remember my mother carefully teaching me exactly were things were to go when I set the table. The forks on the left with one to be used first on the outside. The knife and spoon were to be put on the right with the knife blade pointed inward. The napkin on the left. The water glass above the knife, etc. etc.

Our acolytes are taught that the gospel candle, the one on the left of the altar, should never burn alone, so it is always the last to be lit and the first to be put out.

We stand when we listen to the Gospel, out of respect, but only during a Eucharist. We don’t stand for the Gospel during Morning Prayer. Is it that we don’t respect the Gospel as much during Morning Prayer?

Rules, rules, rules, there are lots and lots of rules. My mother used to sum it up by saying, “It just isn’t done.”

We all have an idea of how we are “supposed” to act. We can easily discover we are judging ourselves if we don’t live up to these various rules which in the gospel today would be described as the tradition of the elders.

It is not that there is no basis for many of these rules. Washing one’s hands before eating is a healthy thing to do. But some people take the rules to an extreme.

For example someone with a compulsive disorder will have an action, such as hand washing, which they will do over and over again. A person with compulsive hand washing may wash their hands, come out of the bathroom, and then go and wash them again. They are not doing it because their hands are dirty. In fact often their hands will get red and soar from too much washing.

They don’t do it to get clean, but to relieve their anxiety. When we are anxious, when we have that sort of generalized fear that doesn’t have a name, we look for something solid, stable, consistent. Rules provide a structure. They keep us safe. They make it easier to make decisions. They are predictable.

We tend to get particularly anxious during times of change. When our world is changing around us we want something, anything that is unchanging. We look for stability.

Often we look to the church for that stability. But now is a time of change in the church. General convention this summer has lots of people talking. There are questions about our relationship to the Anglican Communion, who should be ordained and the implications of a woman presiding bishop. The Episcopal Church is changing and that can be a source of anxiety.

And St. Alban’s is in a time of change. I will be leaving October 1. There is be an interim time while you look for a new Vicar, and then there will be a new priest to guide this congregation. Some of you now, or during the next few weeks, may find yourself anxious and unsure. The church you look to for stability is now anything but stable.

It is a temptation in times of anxiety to cling to the rules. To try to find the correct way to do things. We look for something solid, predictable. We want things to be done the way they always have or at least the way they are “supposed to”.

But that is not of Christ. He was constantly changing, stirring things up. There was nothing predictable about him.

And to those who would cling to a set of rules he says, “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human precepts as doctrine.” He is saying that rather than focusing on what God wants – to love God and love our neighbor – we tend focus on less important, but more measurable, things.

Let me ask you, would you rather have a neighbor that does all the right things, mows his lawn, doesn’t make noise at night, etc. or one who has a good heart?

Would you rather have a friend who said and did all the right things, or one who had a good heart?

Would you rather have a spouse that did all the right things, he would open doors for you, she would cook great meals, or would you want one who had a good heart?

And would you want a son or daughter who always obeyed all the rules, or one who had a good heart?

Jesus said that there is nothing outside a person that can defile; rather it is what comes from the heart.

It is easy for us to look at the outside and judge based on whether someone is following the rules. Only God can judge the heart.

Let’s take a look at the end of the Gospel reading, Mark 7:21-22. This is one of the few lists of behavior from Jesus. Usually our behavioral lists come from Paul. But here Jesus spells it out, the evil intentions that come from a person’s heart.

I had one person, not from this congregation, use these verses as evidence that gays and lesbians should not be ordained because they don’t live up to Jesus’ standard. Well, let’s take a look at this list.

Fornication, theft, murder – ah – murder. Just what is murder? Some would say that abortion is murder and judge everyone who is involved with abortion as breaking Christ’s rules. Others would look at the heart of a young girl who struggles with the decision for an abortion. Some would say that capital punishment is murder and pass judgment on everyone involved, others would look at the heart of a governor trying to consider the concerns of the victims loved ones and honor the law. Some consider war to be murder and judge those involved while others would see a soldier with a good heart trying to do his duty and protect her fellow soldiers.

The rules look simple, but they never are. They always have to be considered with the heart.

But lets move on with the list – adultery – avarice. Oh, that’s getting a little close to home, wanting too much for ourselves. Then we have wickedness, deceit, licentiousness – okay – but then comes envy – guilty – slander, pride – guilty again – folly – I know that I am foolish sometimes.

Whenever we look at a list in the Bible and start using it to judge others, or ourselves, we can get into a lot of trouble. It looks so clear, so black and white, but Jesus never spoke of black and white. He spoke of mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

Yet we are always judging others, and even more so ourselves. We see others as not doing it right, or we see ourselves as not doing it right. And we are often prone to do it at church – in spite of Christ’s continual message that we should not judge.

This is a time of change at St. Alban’s. There will be anxiety. It will be easy to get lost in the little rules. It will be tempting to judge one another. But remember what James said in the Epistle today:

“If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.” Worthless. Think before you speak, pray before you judge.

He goes on to say “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Compassion, self control, that is what religion is all about.

Remember, it doesn’t’ matter which candle is lit first. What does matter is that you love one another.

During this coming time of change, whenever there is change in your life, whenever there is anxiety, remember that there is only one adequate response – Love God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That will get you through the tough times, and that is the only rule that ever really matters.

Proper 14 B - Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2

You are invited to the greatest banquet ever. How should you behave?
The answer can be found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Proper 14 B

Transcribed from a sermon given on

August 12, 2012

At St Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev Valerie Ann Hart, Ph.D.

Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2

Imagine that you are invited to the greatest banquet ever given by the richest person on the earth - the most powerful, most well respected, most famous. This person is giving a banquet and you are invited. He or she has picked out the most magnificent setting. It is a banquet hall that is filled with chandeliers and beautiful curtains and gorgeous tables. There are waiters and waitresses all dressed up and fancy. As you get there people are arriving in their limousines. Everyone is dressed to the T. It is the most magnificent banquet - and you have been invited.

Of course the first thing you do when you are invited is, if you are a woman, to get your hair cut and your nails done. And if you are a guy you might still get your hair cut. If you don’t buy new clothes, at least you pick out the best clothes that you have, and you make sure that they are clean. Of course you take a nice shower because you want to be your best at the banquet.

You go to this banquet and it lives up to be every thing you imagined it would be. There is beautiful music playing in the background, but not so intrusive that it gets in the way of conversation. There is food - oh there is food. If you feel like seafood you get your choice. You can have salmon or you can have crab, and there’s lobster You could have lobster tails in all kinds of different ways. If you are more of a red meat kind of a person there is steak that is cooked just the way you like it. And chicken, oh the chicken, all the different ways you can possibly imagine chicken. And there is rice, and there is pasta, and there are fruits, and there are vegetables. And of course there are deserts. Ah the deserts! And you know what is great about this feast, no matter how much you eat you don’t get uncomfortably full and it is all healthy for you. Even the deserts are healthy for you! This is the most magnificent banquet ever.

So how would you behave when you are at that banquet? How would you expect other people to behave? Well first of all you wouldn’t expect a whole lot of swearing to be going on. You would expect people to be fairly kind to each other and polite. You certainly wouldn’t expect to look around and see people taking the food and sticking it in their pockets to take home. You wouldn’t imagine a lot of arguments, but kind conversation and a lot of thankfulness. And a lot of joy. It would be sort of like the best Thanksgiving you can imagine at your grandmother’s.

You see this banquet, this banquet we are invited to, is Christ’s banquet. And just like our grandmothers when we went to the best most amazing possible Thanksgiving, it is from him. He is offering himself. He has prepared the banquet. He is the banquet. He wants us to be there, and he wants us to consume him. He wants us to eat him. He wants us to fill ourselves on his love and his grace. Just like Grandma spent days making pies and cooking food and giving of herself, of her time and of her love so that we can all be nurtured, not just by the food, but by the relationship, by her love and by the gathered family.

Of course one difference with Thanksgivings is if you are in a family that is like most families not all them live up to what they are supposed to be. We aren’t always kind to one another when we come together on Thanksgiving, but we’ll get to that.

Now imagine this wonderful feast, this perfect feast, this gift of Christ - and all we have to do is show up. It is the Kingdom of God. It is how Jesus described the Kingdom of God as a wedding feast that we are all invited to. And all you have to do is show up and be willing to receive it - to feel that love, and that joy, and that thankfulness.

Like I said not every Thanksgiving is perfect. We sometimes don’t live up to what we are called to be as family. We don’t always love each other, but we are invited to. If you take a look at the passage that Paul wrote in the letter to the Ephesians you will see that Paul is writing a description of how we are supposed to behave at the great banquet, how we are supposed to behave at the banquet of the Kingdom of God. He is saying to the people that they have been invited and have said yes and have chosen to become part of the family of Christ.

This passage begins with the words, “So, then.” So then since you have come to the banquet this is how you are supposed to behave. “So then, put away falsehood, let us speak the truth.” It doesn’t make any sense to lie at the banquet where everyone has more than enough. Why would you need to lie? “For we are members of one another.” It’s a family. We are all the family.

Then he ads, “Be angry, but do not sin”. This is interesting. In my family Thanksgivings were often uncomfortable because there was someone who was angry but didn’t think they should say anything about it in front of the family. You know what it is like when you walk into a room where everybody is angry, but no body is talking about it. They all pretend everything is just fine. Sometimes you wish they would just fight with each other because at least they would get it out. Paul is saying its okay to be angry. It’s okay to express your anger. If someone steps on your toe, tell them, “Hey, you stepped on my toe.” But then you let it go. Don’t go to sleep. “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Don’t go you stepped on my toe three years ago at Thanksgiving. You stepped on my toe and I was too polite to tell you then but today I just can’t stand it any more and I have to tell you.” We have all been to those kind of Thanksgivings as well. At least if you had as dysfunctional a family as I did. So it is okay that we sometimes hurt one another and that we feel angry because we have to know what our anger is before we can forgive and then once we forgive we are starting all over again.

Paul adds what seems obvious, “Thieves must give up stealing.” If you are at the banquet and Christ has given you everything you possibly could need, the promise that you will never hunger or thirst, all the love you need, all the support you need, all the caring you need, why would you ever steal? Why would you have to hoard things? At this great banquet where there is more than enough for everyone, why would you keep stuff aside for yourself? Instead Paul says that we should get a job so we can make money to give to others. When we are at the banquet where there is more then enough our job is to give away to other people, not to hoard it for ourselves.

Paul continues, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up.” Who would want to be at a fancy banquet where everybody was trash talking everybody else. It would ruin the whole thing. Instead you would want to be at a place where people are encouraging one another, lifting one another up.

We don’t want to, as Paul puts it, “grieve the Holy Spirit” so we are encouraged to “Put aware all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.” That’s how we are to live in the Kingdom. That’s how we are to behave at the great banquet of Christ.

Paul concludes, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” This banquet is an offering from Christ. You see there is no greater delight for Christ than to feed us. That is his purpose. That is why he became incarnate - to feed us - to be the bread of life - to nurture us - to give us the love and forgiveness, the caring and the compassion, that we need to thrive, to grow. It is his delight to give the banquet, all we have to do is show up and then live lives as if we truly were receiving all that we need, all the love that we need, all the compassion that we need - to live lives that are fully alive and filled with hope and tenderness and compassion.

Ash Wednesday

"NOW is the acceptable time," writes Paul. Ash Wednesday is a yearly reminder of our mortality and that all we have is right now. It begins the season of Lent in which we are offered an opportunity to get things right and be reconciled to God. 

Ash Wednesday

February 22, 2012

Transcribed from a sermon given by

Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Paul writes, “Now is the acceptable time.” Now! And Joel, the prophet, who like all the prophets said that God is unhappy with the way the Israelites are living, tells them that even now if you turn around, even now, if right now you change, repent, things could be different. NOW! Now is such a strong word, especially for those of us who are procrastinators.

It is a reminder that is now is the time. The paper you have been putting off writing is due now. The job you haven’t finished is due now. The phone call you have been meaning to make needs to be done NOW. There is no time. It is right now.

Because the truth is, that is all we have. All we have is now. It is Ash Wednesday. After my sermon I will bless ashes and put them on each person’s forehead. Each time I put them on I will say, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return. I will do that with those who are older, with those who are in mid life and with the children who come forward. It is a reminder that this body in the not too distant future will be dust.

On Ash Wednesday I sometimes think about the people I have come to love at St. Barnabas who are now dust in the memorial garden. Remember that you are dust, like the flowers in the field that are here today and dust tomorrow. It is sobering. It reminds us of our mortality.

The church every year has this service so that no one forgets and everyone remembers that all we really have is now. Some of us here now may live 50, 60 even 70 more years. Some may die in a year, some in a month, and maybe some won’t make it through the night. None of us know. All we have is now.

And what are we to do now? What Paul tells us we are to do now is to be reconciled to God. To be reconciled, what does that mean? Reconciliation means being in right relationship and that is really what sin is about. Sin is about not living in a right relationship. Not living in a right relationship with God, not living in a right relationship with other people, or not living in a right relationship with yourself.

So tonight, at the beginning of Lent, we are reminded that NOW is the time to get things right. Now is the time to reflect upon our relationships and see what needs to change. Who needs to be contacted? Do you have a brother or sister you haven’t spoken with that needs a call? Or a neighbor that you had a fight with and you need to make up with? Or perhaps you are not in right relationship with yourself. I’ve noticed that most of the time when people say that they are going to give something up for Lent the thing they are giving up for lent is something they really should give up for the rest of their lives. (Except of course chocolate.)

What I mean is that when someone says, “I’m going give up smoking for Lent” I think,  “Good start,” but I hope you never smoke again. You are not in right relationship with yourself if you are hurting yourself. And now is the time to look at whether you are treating yourself the way you would want to treat others. If you are working too much, now is the time to reconsider. If you are finding yourself sitting around too much, now is the time to start walking. If you are ignoring feelings, now is the time to understand them and express them. If you find yourself in a situation that is not healthy for you, now is the time to love yourself and be in right relationship with you.

Now is the time for reconciliation with God. The wonderful thing about reconciliation is that God longs for that relationship even more than you do. Remember the story of the prodigal son who takes half of his father’s estate and throws it all away and turns around and comes back. All he has to do is take a few steps toward home and his father is running toward him. All we have to do is turn around a little bit toward God, make a first step, a first effort to be reconciled with God, and God runs to meet us because of God’s mercy. It is that mercy that is talked about in the psalm we just read and in Joel, where it says that God is a merciful God slow to anger and quick to forgive.

I started out by talking about our mortality. This service begins with the Ashes and the reminder that we are mortal, at least that our bodies are mortal, But the service ends with the Eucharist, with the Holy Communion, in which we remember that Christ died for us so that we will never die. So there is some part of us that lives, that is beyond the dust the makes us up. Through God’s mercy and in God’s love we are promised not just forgiveness, but everlasting life. And NOW, right now is the right time to be reconciled to God and your neighbor and yourself.

5 Epiphany B, Mark1:29-39

She is lying in the back room with a fever when her son-in-law invites a large group of people to the house. Someone walks in, takes her hand, lifts her up and she starts to serve everyone. What are we to make of this?

5 Epiphany B

Transcribed from a sermon given

February 5, 2012

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

Mark 1:29-39

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

I used to have a really difficult time with this story of the healing of Simon’s Mother-in-law. The feminist in me couldn’t stand the thought of this woman getting up from a fever and immediately serving everybody. What’s that about?

But this time, as I’ve been working with this particular passage, I have come to a different understanding. I have thought a lot about this woman, this mother-in-law of Simon, who would later be called Peter. This story takes place very early in Jesus’ ministry. People don’t know him very well. Now I’m a mother-in-law and I have a wonderful son-in-law. He is a loving solid person who has a good job and cares about my daughter. I try to imagine how I would feel if some strange wandering spiritual leader came along and said, “Follow me” and my son-in-law left his job and started wandering around with a group of strange people. I wonder how this woman felt about Jesus, especially since she was sick, had a fever and was lying in back room of the house when Simon invited Jesus and all the disciples and all these people who want to be healed into their home.

Now they didn’t have big houses. I was in Capernaum when I was in Israel and they have excavated the town from the first century and you can see the foundations of the houses. They are tiny, tiny by any standards. They are three or four ten by ten rooms, maybe a little courtyard no bigger than that. This was not a house where she was off at the other end could have quiet. This was a tiny place. And yet her son-in-law Simon brings this entire crowd with him. I wonder what she was thinking. I don’t have any idea, but I like to use my imagination and think about how people, how characters, might have been thinking.

But then what happens is very interesting. It is very short, just one little sentence, but Jesus comes to her in her bed and he takes her hand and lifts her up. There is something sweet and tender in that gesture. He doesn’t come into the room proclaiming healing, he doesn’t do any laying on of hands, and he doesn’t make any mud or touch her ears or any of that stuff. He doesn’t demand a demon leave. Instead it is very gentle and very tender. He reaches down and takes her hand and lifts her up. What a wonderful image for healing. Christ taking our hand and lifting us up.

In the readings today we hear from someone else who was healed, and that is from Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. Now, remember that Paul had his issues, he had his demons. When Christianity started he was furious; he was filled with anger. He wanted to destroy them and he supported stoning Christians. He was so obsessed with getting rid of this heretical group that he was traveling all around searching for them. He was on his way to Damascus when Christ came to him. Maybe in not so gentle a way. He got knocked off of his donkey. But Christ came to him and healed him. Not necessarily of a physical illness, but from whatever it was that caused him to be filled with so much rage and resentment and need to control. He was transformed. What he says in his letter today is,  “I am obliged to preach the Gospel.” He has to do it. Nobody is making him do it, but there is an inner compulsion and need for him to serve - to tell others.

I think that is something that happens when we are healed, when we experience the loving, healing touch of Christ. It was thirty years ago when I had brain surgery and I will never forget that after the surgery everything looked different. The sky was a brighter blue; the trees were a deeper green, having faced the potential of my own mortality and coming through it. Even though there would be struggles in the recovery, coming through it I felt this profound thankfulness for being alive. I discovered that I started praying,“How can I serve?” At the time I wasn’t even an active Christian yet for several years I asked,” How can I serve?" There was some way in which the thankfulness for my life and my health meant I needed to give back. It was not contract. There was no sense that God healed me in order for me to give back. There was no sense of debt. It was just what else could I do with the thanksgiving that I had but to serve.

It took a couple of years, and no one was more surprised than I was when the answer was to be ordained. But I like Paul, I have to give back, because when I don’t there is no joy and when I do it is full and complete. And so when I think about this woman whose hand was lifted up by Christ - when it says she served them this wasn’t some woman who was told she should get in the kitchen, this was a person who was healed and needed to serve in whatever way she could.

We all need Christ’s healing. We all have aspects of ourselves that are not whole and complete. We may have physical ailments, we may have psychological struggles, depression, anger, fear, and we all have demons, those things that control us, our addictions, our fears, our resentments, the old hurts that still are percolating around in there. We all have demons we need to be freed from. Each and every one of us needs to be healed.

I’d like to invite you to close your eyes and think about and open up to what needs to be healed in you. Give it a word or a phrase or an image. A physical ailment, a psychological problem, an inner demon, a spiritual questioning, a sense of hopelessness, whatever it is, what needs to be healed? And then invite Christ to take your hand and to lift you up.

(Pause)

And if you feel now or in the future a sense of the healing power of Christ’s love you might find, you just might find, you might find yourself asking, “How can I serve?”

4 Epiphany B Sermon

What does it mean that Jesus spoke with authority? What is wisdom? I explored these questions taking from the Gospel, Psalm and New Testament readings.

4 Epiphany B

Transcribed from a sermon

By Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

January 29, 2012

Mark 1:21-28

Psalm 111

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

I wonder what it was about Jesus that touched the people in Capernaum. Mark writes that they said that he spoke with authority, not like the scribes.” I wonder what that means.

Now I understand that the scribes back then were a lot like my college professors when I was getting my Ph.D. When I was working on m Ph.D. anything you wrote had to be footnoted. You couldn’t write your own idea. It had to be an idea that somebody else had written and then you applied it. I am sure you have read that sort of thing or been to a lecture where someone is analyzing what someone who lived twenty years ago thought about what someone who lived a hundred years ago had to say about something that was written five hundred years ago. You’ve been there. You know. Today’s version of that is, “And this is my first slide of 123, let me read it to you. ‘Slide Number 1’.” That is how the scribes taught. 

Now Capernaum was not a backwater, it was right on the intersection of two major trade routes, and the synagogue in Capernaum was famous for the scholarly work that was done there. In fact it is believed that much of the Kabala was written in Capernaum. So the scribes there were intelligent and well known, but also had a style of looking to others rather that speaking from themselves. Jesus was different. They said he spoke with authority.

I wonder if what he spoke with might have been described as wisdom. Wisdom is an odd thing. It is kind of like great art. You can’t really describe what it is, but you know it when you see it. The same is true of wisdom. It is hard to say exactly what wisdom is, but when someone is speaking or writing with wisdom we recognize it. Think in your life, did you know anyone that you would say was wise? It could have been a teacher, it might have been a grand parent or an aunt or a neighbor. It could have been a book you read or someone you saw on TV, but somehow you just sensed that that person spoke with wisdom.

Now we know that wisdom is more than intelligence. We have all met very intelligent people who aren’t very wise. It is that absent minded professor kind of thing. People who you know have brilliant minds but somehow they haven’t translated that brilliance into how they interact with the world.

We also know or have known people who have a lot of knowledge. They know a lot about a lot of things but we wouldn’t call them wise. In fact that is what Paul says in the reading today. That sometimes people with some knowledge who think they know say too much. Today we might say - TMI - too much information.

The way Paul describes it is so beautiful and accurate - he says that knowledge puffs up. What a great way to describe someone who takes their knowledge but doesn’t apply any wisdom to it, as being puffed up.

In this letter he is probably talking about people who were part of the Christian movement called Gnostics. Gnostic is spelled with a Gn and it comes from the Greek word to know. The Gnostics believed that there were some things that some people knew that other people didn’t know. And of course the Gnostics believed that they were the ones who knew. There are people around that might described as Gnostics today, but I won’t decide who they might be. I’ll leave that to you.

Now they believed, they were certain, that there were no idols so there was no problem in eating meat offered to an idol. You have to remember that back at that time animal sacrifice was the source of meat. You didn’t just go and kill an animal and eat it, it was always sacrificed to something. So, they said that there is nothing wrong with eating meat sacrificed to an idol because idols don’t exist. Paul writes, “Yes, you are right. Idols don’t exist, and so eating meat sacrificed to an idol is really not a big deal. But, some people don’t know that . Some people still think that idols are relevant. So if they see you, someone who is so knowledgeable (Paul had a wonderful way of writing letters) eating food sacrificed to an idol it might hurt them. They might feel that it is okay to worship an idol.” So knowledge can puff up.

But where does wisdom come from? If wisdom isn’t intelligence, if wisdom isn’t knowing a lot, what is wisdom? And how do we recognize it?

The psalm for today says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But what does fear of the Lord mean? Now there are many books and articles written about the words that are translated from Hebrew and Greek into fear and exactly what they mean. They all have an aspect of the kind of fear you might have if there was a lion that escaped from the zoo or you knew that there was a problem and there was someone who was dangerous out in the world. There is an aspect of that kind of fear but it is much more than that. If you look at the psalm where it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it also says, “Great is the Lord.” So there is a fear of the Lord because God is so great. Then it says in the fourth verse that God is gracious and full of compassion. We don’t need to be afraid of something that is gracious and full of compassion. Later it says that he gives food to those who fear him. We have to assume if he gives food to those who fear him it is not those who are scared of him. There must be something more. And then in the seventh verse it says that the works of his hand are faithfulness and justice. Done with truth and equity. So this fear of the Lord is much more than being afraid of him, it is about respecting God. Acknowledging how great and powerful and wonderful God is.

 One of the places where the fear of the Lord is talked about is with Abraham. Paul at one point wrote that Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son was seen as righteousness because of his fear of the Lord. In that case fear of the Lord was doing what God wanted him to do, even when it wasn’t something that he particularly wanted to do himself. And yet Abraham is described as a friend of God. He is called God’s friend. He is the only person who is described as God’s friend. God and Abraham had a particularly intimate and close friendship. So we can’t say that Abraham was afraid of the Lord. He had an intimate friendship with the Lord. So fear of the Lord has to do with not wanting to disappoint. Respect, revering, fearing the Lord. So that is the beginning of wisdom.

There is another thing to consider here. Where Paul says that knowledge puffs up, the next line he writes is, “love builds up.” So wisdom is not about knowledge or intelligence, but definitely has a lot to do with love, with relationship with God, with love for the people around you and love for God. We recognize wisdom, the wisdom that comes from a deep walk with God, a respect for God and a love for God and for people. That is what we see with wisdom. That is what we recognize in a wise person, and that is the wisdom that we should seek for ourselves.

Second Sunday of Christmas Sermon

Why is Matthew's story of the birth of Christ so different from Luke's? What do the reactions of the Wise Men and king Herod have to teach us about ourselves?

2 Christmas Sermon

Given at St. Alban's, Brentwood

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

January 4, 1998

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

         Usually when the Christmas story is presented, the various traditions are so combined that we may be surprised to realize that the story in Luke and in Matthew are quite different, or at least describe different aspects of the story. And Gospels of Mark and John don’t mention anything about the birth of Jesus. Let’s just quickly review to give a context to today’s Gospel reading.

         In Luke we have the most extensive description of the birth story. It is in Luke that we hear of Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. It is in Luke that the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she will conceive. It is also in Luke where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and says that beautiful piece of poetry we call the Magnificat.  It is only in Luke that there is reference to the decree that all should be enrolled and the journey to Bethlehem of Joseph with Mary who was with child. It is in Luke that we hear of the lack of room in the inn and the child being laid in a manger. In Luke the birth is announced to the shepherds, and no one else. Eight days later they have the child circumcised and then they go up to Jerusalem for the purification rites after which they return to Galilee, to the city of Nazareth.

         In the Gospel according to Matthew we get a different picture. It begins with the genealogy of Joseph. It then just says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph and became pregnant (no angels announcing it to Mary). Joseph plans to divorce her, but an angel appeared to him in a dream and explained that it was a child of the Holy Spirit, so he marries her but doesn’t have relations with her. It then says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod. There is no mention of traveling from Nazareth, in fact from Matthew’s description it would sound as if Joseph and Mary lived in Bethlehem before the birth. The birth is announced not to shepherds, but to wise men from the east via a star. (Luke doesn’t mention a star, yet the shepherds are usually shown with a star.) The wise men contact Herod about the prophesied location of the birth of the savior, and Herod decides to do away with the child. That’s where we get to the current reading where Joseph once again gets a message in a dream and goes to Egypt to protect the child and returns not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth, once again in response to a dream. It turns out that the only overlap in the two stories is that Jesus’ parents were Mary and Joseph, that Mary was a virgin, and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

         Why should such different stories be told? Well certainly at the time of the writing of the gospels, 30 to 60 years after Jesus died, there were many stories passed on about him. Which of many stories the writers of the Gospels decided to include depended upon the emphasis that the writer wanted to make. They would also include those stories that were meaningful to them personally.

         So, today we have the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt and (although we skipped the description of it) the killing of all the male children under two years old in Bethlehem. Matthew presents two very different reactions to the birth of Christ. The wise men, who see a star, a glimmer of hope, and travel great distances to bring their gifts to the Christ child, and Herod, who reacts with fear and tries to destroy the savior of his people. Why would Matthew choose these two stories?

         One thing to remember about scripture is that it is written on multiple levels. On the one level it tells the direct story of events, on another level it is a parable, a representation of something deeper. It speaks on the concrete level and on the spiritual level. Let’s take a look at this stories form a spiritual level.

         We see here two responses to the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ, the birth of Christ, is not something that only happened 2000 years ago, it is also something that spiritually happens to us. The Christ, the savior, is born for us today, is potentially born in our hearts, in our beings. If we are like the wise men, we see a glimmer of light, a star in the east, a glimmer of hope, a spark of belief, that something wonderful is taking place. Inside us a spark of light is born, and if we are like the wise men, we follow that star and we respond with gratitude and gifts.

         But, often there is something within us more like Herod. Something within us that is afraid of the birth of the savior.

         Let’s take a deeper look at Herod. There is no historical evidence of the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem, but there is agreement that it is the sort of thing that Herod would have been quite capable of. He was not descendent from the kings of Israel, but became king because he had helped the Roman’s when they took over the country. His claim to legitimacy was through his wife who was a descendent of the royal family. He was constantly afraid of losing his power, probably because he knew he didn’t legitimately deserve it, so he would brutally eliminate anyone who he thought would challenge his authority, including several of his children. When he heard of the birth of the predicted Messiah he was afraid of losing his power to this newborn “king”. Therefore, he tried to have him eliminated. The wise men brought gifts, welcoming the birth because of their wisdom; Herod brought death because of his fear.

         So, is there a part of us that is like Herod, a part of us that thinks it is in charge? A part of us that exerts a power and authority that is really not legitimate? Is there a part of us that is in truth a petty administrator but acts like it is a King? Is there a part of us that has been given some authority on day-to-day matters that has forgotten the real purpose behind that authority? I would say yes, that part of ourselves that has come to be called the ego.

         Our egos are necessary and important; they manage our activities and interaction with the world. They make decisions about what we will do when and how. They are the administrators of our psyches. They help us to survive. But they are not the king. They are there to serve our spiritual selves, yet our egos have forgotten that. When the Christ child is born in our hearts, when God’s love is born in us, the ego gets scared. When we begin to want to live our lives, not as our ego has learned to do in order to survive, but as our deeper, spiritual, loving essence wants us to, the ego gets scared. The Herod in us gets scared, and wants to destroy the potential new king.

         How do our egos respond? In many different and sometimes subtle ways.

         One way to think about it is that through Christ God is giving us a wonderful gift. The most wonderful of gifts - full, complete, and unconditional love. God stands there, with arms outstretched, offering this gift. How do we respond? “Oh, you shouldn’t have.” “I don’t deserve this.” “I couldn’t accept this from you.” “I am so unworthy.” “I don’t have anything to give you in return.”  or “What’s the catch?” “What do I have to do in exchange?” “Nobody gives this kind of gift without a hook.” “This couldn’t be for real.” All God wants to do is give us Love, but we are afraid to accept it. We are afraid to accept it because if we truly accepted that we are unconditionally loved by God, our whole sense of self, our whole way of being in the world, the whole game of our ego, would have to change. We would have to let go of guilt, of fear, of shame, of our poor self concepts, of our sense of ourselves as not enough, of not being lovable. And if we did that, the power of our ego would be eliminated. We would be free beings. Free and joyous beings. And that is terrifying. Terrifying to our egos.

         And so we ignore the gift, deny the very existence of the giver. We have doubt, our rational minds struggle against our personal experience. The Herod in us wants to destroy the gift of love.

         The real Herod did not understand that the kind of king that Jesus was would not interfere with his administrative duties. Jesus was not a king that would try to overthrow Herod. Jesus’ kingdom was very different than that. And the birth of God’s love within us does not want to eliminate the ego, we need our egos, rather it wants to transform it, have the ego become the instrument of spirit. And if we open to this we discover that we are more powerful then ever.

         If Herod had not been so insecure, if Herod had faith in his own abilities, if he had not developed a grandiose image of himself, he would have also been able to welcome the birth of the Christ. If we can love our egos, acknowledge their place in our lives, they may be more willing to welcome the birth of our spiritual selves, rather than try to destroy it.

         And if not, we have to take the Christ child to Egypt, to that country from which the chosen people came after going there in time of famine. We keep that sense of the spiritual, the divine, that spark of hope, that star burning within us in a safe place while we work on our egos. That is what all the spiritual practices are about, quieting our egos, putting them into place. All the prayers, the fasting, the meditation, the study, is to lead to the place where our egos as we knew them are dead, so that the spirit can return from Egypt and take its rightful place as the king of our lives.

         What is there within you that refuses the gift, that tries to eliminate that birth of the knowledge of just how deeply we are loved by God. Is it fear, guilt, shame, self-doubt, the need to know, the need for control, or that all pervasive sense of not being enough. Nurture the child of light within you, honor the fears of Herod, and accept the gift of love, the warm wonderful gift of God’s unconditional love, which is incarnated in the Christ child.