Sermon Proper 23 B

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

Sermon for Proper 23 B

Transcribed from a sermon given on

October 11, 2009

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Arroyo Grande CA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon for feast of St. Francis

The feast of St. Francis is this coming Sunday. Here is a sermon I gave in 2009 based on the lectionary readings for St. Francis.

Transcribed from a sermon

Given on the feast of St. Francis

October 4, 2009

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St Barnabas Episcopal Church

Arroyo Grande, CA

Matthew 11:25-30

One day St. Francis was walking along and saw a huge flock of birds.  Now, Francis couldn’t help himself, he had to preach the Good News.  So, he preached it to the birds and he said to the birds, “Oh birds, you are so loved by God.  You are so special in God’s sight. God knows everything about you.  God cares about you, and loves you, and thinks that you are wonderful.  And, oh birds, sing and praise God because that’s what you are made to do.  Praise God because you are so loved and so cared about.” 

This is what Francis preached to people as well - that we are incredibly loved by God.  Now, we’re not sure that he actually preached to the birds.  That is one of those stories that you’re never quite completely sure of because saints develop stories around them.  But it is a wonderful story.  And we know that Francis loved creation -all of creation.  So, we can imagine him preaching to the animals. 

He also loved what he called ‘sister poverty.’ It is a way of living a simple life while owning nothing.  Of course he didn’t start out that way.  This was a choice he made.  His father was a wealthy entrepreneur.  He was a merchant in the city of Assisi and sold cloth.  They had a huge home, wealth, power, beautiful clothes, everything you could want growing up.  His father was a little worried about Francis because he was a dreamer and his father wanted him to be brought up to take over the business. On the other hand, his mother, who also had a spiritual dreamer side, encouraged her son and his dreaming. 

But, he was a pretty typical wealthy young man. He was handsome. He played the flute very well. And the girls loved him. The young men followed him for he was obviously very charismatic. He had a group of young men that would follow him around and they would do whatever he wanted to do.  He had it all.  He was at the top of his form. He was what every young man in our culture would say they would want.  Then he decided he wanted adventure and glory.

So, in order to get some adventure and glory, he joined the army.  His city was in an ongoing constant war with another city. So Francis got his armor to become a kind of knight.  He went off to war, to this glorious thing.  What he discovered that war was not that glorious an adventure. He saw the pain and the suffering. Then he was taken prisoner.  He was in prison for a number of months in a small cell at the bottom of a castle where he was ill and miserable. When he came out, he had a different attitude about what was important and what wasn’t important. 

He was trying to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life.  He was praying in a church where some of the walls had tumbled down, a very old church.  As he was praying in front of the crucifix, he heard the crucifix saying to him – rebuild my church.  Francis took it literally, thinking that Christ wanted him to rebuild this physical structure.  He started rebuilding it and put all his money into it.  He used up all his money.  Then he started taking money from his dad and his dad got tired of paying for rebuilding this church.  So Francis started begging for bricks.  And even though he had never done physical labor before, physically, he was physically rebuilding the church.

Then he went a step further, realizing that he needed to renounce his wealth.  But, I get ahead of myself… He had a choice to between living the life that the culture said was good and living a different kind of life. 

On Friday night this week, I went to see the Michael Moore film, Capitalism: A Love Affair.  Whatever you feel about Michael Moore, I’m not going to go into the politics of it - but there was one thing that I found very interesting.  He was asking the questions – “Is capitalism Christian?”  And, “What would Jesus think of capitalism?”  He made his point by taking some clippings from a movie about Jesus. These clips present different images of Jesus.  We have the rich young man coming up to Jesus and saying, “What should I do?”  And, Michael Moore dubs in a different statement then you’d expect.  Then, the young man says, “How do I have eternal life?”  Jesus goes up to him, takes his face in his hands, looks directly in his eyes and says, “Maximize your profits.” 

I think that made the point very clearly that Jesus is probably not concerned with our profits.  Jesus actually said, “Sell all you have and give it to the poor.”  Jesus is not concerned about our profits.  He’s not concerned about our 401K.  He’s not concerned about our retirement.  He’s not concerned about our new car.  He’s not concerned about any of that.  That’s not relevant. 

Now, Francis heard this story of Jesus and the young man, where Jesus said, “Sell all you own and give it to the poor.”  Once again, Francis took it literally and went out and sold everything he had.  He went to his father and his father was upset.  So, he said to his father, “Here take all my clothes.” and he stood naked.  He gave it all up and embraced poverty.

I remember when I was in high school and I read my first book about St. Francis.  I got to that point and I was very disheartened because I knew I wasn’t about to give it all away.  I still haven’t gotten to the point where I can give it all away.  There aren’t too many saints like Francis.  And, even the Franciscan brotherhood, by the time Francis died, had given up absolutely poverty, the idea of owning nothing and had started to own their own homes.  Francis’ ideal of absolute poverty frees one, but it takes a very special kind of person to do that. 

In the reading that we have today in the gospel, Jesus says, “Come ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and humble of heart.”  This is an animal image.  When two animals are yoked together, they do everything together.  They eat the same food.  They go to the same watering hole.  They pull the same load.  It is all shared. 

So, if we yoke ourselves with Christ, Christ shares our burdens and helps to carry them.  All that Christ has, and all that Christ is, becomes ours.  Christ, the creator of the universe. If we are tied in with him, what is there to worry about?  What is there to be afraid of?

Those of you who have been in the church for a long time and used to use the “old prayer book”, the 1928 prayer book might like me remember growing up and hearing these words every Sunday, “Hear what comfortable words our savior Christ says to all that turn to him.  Come onto me, all that ye travel and are heavy laden and I will refresh you.”

When we trust Christ, when we offer ourselves to Christ, our burdens are lightened and our worries are less.  We may not be saints like Francis who can give it all away, but, when we are yoked to Christ, our priorities change and it’s easier to be generous, and to be fearless, and to be joyous.  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 20 B

When we want to be seen as the best we are living in a zero-sum world, where if I win you lose. The Kingdom of God is a non-zero-sum world, where everyone can win.

Proper 20 B

Sermon given on September 23, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St Barnabas Episcopal Church

It seems like I was not the only little girl that dreamed about being Miss America when I was growing up. I guess today little girls might dream about winning American Idol. And the boys all dreamed about being the best baseball player, or the best football player or the best whatever. It seems we all have this fantasy of being the best at something. And in our culture a lot of energy goes into determining who is the best. This summer we saw the Olympics and the Olympics is a huge industry where for four years people train and work and struggle so that they can be named the best in the world. They get to have that short little time where they are labeled "The Best".

We all know that feeling of wanting to be the greatest. We can understand the disciples in the scripture today. Our society is so focused on determining who is the best that some of the most popular TV shows are the quote “reality shows” where week-by-week, losers are sent off. They may be kicked off the island or no longer dancing with the other stars. Now if you are a star, doesn't that mean you are a success at something, that you are one of the greatest? Yet you have these people that already have some great ability learning to dance and working really really hard to be the best dancer on Dancing with the Stars. It is all about being that number one - about being the greatest. It doesn't seem to be enough to just do our personal best, we want to be the greatest.

We want our children to do well. We want it to be l like it is in Lake Wobegone where all the children are above average. We are constantly measuring ourselves against other people. And that is what the disciples were doing. But sometimes, trying to be first, trying to be the fastest, trying to be the best, trying to get attention can backfire. My brother had an interesting experience when he went to Vietnam. A large group of soldiers took a big airplane over to Nam. When they got off the airplane there was a bus and everyone was loaded on the bus and taken to the base. Now this brother of mine was never one to be overly enthusiastic about anything so when they got to the base he sat as people were pushing and shoving trying to be the first ones off the bus. You've seen that in airplanes, how people are hurrying to try and get off the airplane. With not much effect. So soldiers were pushing and shoving to get off while standing outside the bus was a lieutenant. The first half of the people who came off the bus were all put over to one side. And after enough people were off the bus, the ones who got off later were put in another group. Now the ones who got off first were the ones who were sent to the front lines because they figured that those were the ones who were going to be enthusiastic soldiers. The ones who took their time went to the base, so my brother spent his time in Nam working in an office.

We all know about that drive to be the best, to be acknowledged. And that drive to be best, to be first, comes from seeing the world as what is called a zero-sum game. In game theory, a zero-sum game is where there is a certain amount, and the more that I get the less you get. And the more you get, the less I get. It is like a pie. There is one pie and the bigger your piece the smaller my piece. It is a game where you either win or lose. There is no such thing as both people winning, or both people losing. I win you lose, you wind I lose. Therefore I have to fight. It is seeing the world as not enough and therefore I have to struggle - to get the love from my parents or the respect from my colleagues or the pay raise from my boss.  I have to be the best, to stand out because if they get it, I don't. That's a zero-sum game. And that is how most of us spend most of our lives.

But the Kingdom of Heaven that Christ proclaims isn't a zero-sum game. It is what is brilliantly called a non-zero-sum game. A non-zero-sum game is one in which the total amount available can be increased. In other words how much I get is not lessened by how much you get. It would be like when you have the pie instead of saying if you get a big piece I don't get as much you say “Hey, let's bake pies together so we can have more pies.” Most economic interactions are non-zero-sum games. If I am getting more than enough milk from my cow with more milk than my family can drink, and your apple tree is over abundant, I'll trade you some of my milk for your apples and we both win! We both have a healthier diet. That's a non-zero-sum game. That's what most exchanges are because you wouldn't trade for something if it wasn't going to help you, even though people sometimes negotiate as if buying a car or buying a house was a zero-sum game and try to win the negotiation process. But the truth is that if you didn't want that house and think that you would be better off by getting that house and the person selling it didn’t want the money for selling it, you wouldn't be there to negotiate anyway. No matter what, you are both going to win.

God’s world, the Kingdom of Heaven that Christ proclaims, is a non-zero-sum game. When there are five loaves of bread, if you get two that doesn't mean that anybody else is going to get less because there is more than enough to feed five thousand people. In the kingdom world, in the world of God, there is abundance and there is abundance on this earth. I was just reading an article that said that studies have shown that all around the world approximately forty percent of the food that is raised for human consumption never reaches a human being, but gets thrown away. Forty percent. Some times that because there is a problem of storage or shipping. In the United States it is more likely to be because we buy too much and restaurants buy too much. We end up throwing some away. In developing countries it has to do with not having the shipping or not having storage facilities. It is sometimes difficult to get the food from where it is raised to the people who need to consume it.

We live as if this world were a zero-sum game, but if we work together we have more than enough. In a hunting/gathering society the hunters go out as a team because it is hard to hunt large animals by yourself. Then when an animal is killed, it is more than one person can eat, so it is brought back to the whole tribe and everybody shares. It doesn't matter who is the one that kills the animal in fact everybody is cheering everybody else on. Because when one does well we all do well.

It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. Imagine two men, two families who have houses on the same block and they both have very large lawns They start to get into a competition of who is going to have a better lawn mower. The first one gets a riding mower and the other one has to buy a better riding mower. Then the first one has to buy even better riding mower and pretty soon they have these two fantastic riding mowers that cost so much that they are both in debt. And they ride them for a couple of hours a week. Now the other option they had would be to say, “Hey, let's put our money together and we can buy one mower that we both can use and we can get the top of the line without going into debt.”

The way we see the world - is it an issue of being the best or doing what is the best? Is it seeing life as a zero-sum game where the more you get the less I have or do we see it as a non-zero-sum game where the more you have the more we all have together? Where the more we work together the more we thrive.

And you see the problem with wanting to be the greatest is that it is completely unchristian. Remember, Jesus told us we are to love one another. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves not compete with them. So, if I am busy trying to get what's best for me, if I’m trying to get on top, I'm not being loving to the ones I consider less than I am. Every time someone says I am the greatest they are saying that others are less, and that's not loving, that's not compassion. And we will find that for those who have ever won an award for being the best, the ones who won a contest, who have gotten the gold medal, that satisfaction doesn't last for very long. But the satisfaction that comes when we help another person - when we help someone else to thrive and to grow and to be a better human being - that is a satisfaction that stays with us and feeds us.

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.