Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 23, 2011

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 Epiphany A

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

2 Epiphany A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 19, 2014

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

John 1:29-42

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baptism of our Lord - First Sunday after Epiphany A

"I truly understand that God shows no partiality." These were powerful history changing words from Peter that still are radical today.

Baptism of our Lord

First Sunday after Epiphany A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 9, 2011

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 3:13-17

Today is the first Sunday after the Epiphany. Epiphany can also be translated as manifestation. It is the making known. We think of an epiphany of a new idea as an opening, as something becoming known to us. So the Epiphany is sometimes described as the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. The manifestation of God, the god described in Isaiah -  the servant of the light, manifested to the gentiles, to the ones who aren’t Jewish.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Epiphany is a more important celebration than Christmas. That manifestation of Christ, Christ becoming known, is considered even more important than the date of his birth. And in the East there are three aspects to the Epiphany. Most of us, when we think of Epiphany we think of the Magi, the wise ones who saw the star in the East and came and worshiped the Lord. But that is just one aspect of the Epiphany. The second manifestation was through his baptism. And the third manifestation of Christ was at the wedding in Cana when he changed water into wine.

What we celebrate today is the baptism of Jesus; we remember it and we celebrate it. We have as our gospel reading the story of Jesus’ baptism and the reading from Acts that is really a story of a baptism as well. That segment of Acts that was read today is the middle of a story, so I am going to tell you the rest of that story.

It is about Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion. A centurion was a roman soldier who was an officer who had a hundred people who served under him. Cornelius is described in Acts as being a very caring and good man who is very interested in the Jewish religion, who supported the synagogue, who was very beloved, but he never officially became Jewish. He was a gentile. Now it is understandable why he never became Jewish because for a man to convert to Judaism he had to be circumcised. During the time of the Romans there were universal baths that everybody shared together. Even the sporting events were often done naked. So if someone were to become circumcised it would not have been private affair, it would have been a public thing, and it could have effected his authority as a military officer.

So he had not become Jewish, and this is important because at that time Jewish people did not go into or socialize in the homes of non Jewish people; especially they didn’t eat together because the Jews had very clear traditions of what was acceptable food and what was not acceptable food. And the food that they ate had to be prepared in a certain way. So if they were to eat with gentiles they were liable to eat food that was considered ritually unclean. So this is the context of this story of Cornelius.

One time Cornelius was praying and he had a vision. His vision was that he was to send to Japa, which was a town about two days walk away, to get a man named Peter to teach him about God. So he sent several of his officers to go and get Peter. Just when they were about to arrive in Japa, Peter, the follower of Christ, the leader of the church, who was in Japa was praying and he had a vision. He had been praying in the upper room or on the roof of the house, and he had this vision that there was this hug sheet, like a sail, and it was being lowered out of heaven, and on it there were all kinds of animals, including snakes and things that crawled on the ground. There were ritually clean animals and unclean animals. Then he heard a voice that said, “Peter, kill and eat.” And he responded with, “No, I can’t do that. I have always followed the dietary laws. I can’t eat these things, they are unclean.” And he heard the voice a second time, “Peter, kill and eat.” “I can’t do that.” And then a third time the voice comes to him and at that point Peter realized that he was being told that the dietary restrictions were no longer relevant. Just at that moment the people from Cornelius arrived at the door, and they invited Peter to come with them. Now having just had this vision, he didn’t delay in going with these gentiles.

When they got to Cornelius’ house he went inside and Cornelius brought together his family and friends to hear what Peter had to say. That is when we get to the passage read today. The first thing that Peter says is, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” I truly understand that God shows no partiality - that is a radical statement. It is a radical statement today, to say that there are not restrictions to God’s love. That it doesn’t matter, that God shows no partiality based on ethnic background, based on where you were born, based on your social status, based on anything. God shows no partiality. It is radical today but it was certainly much more radical back then. Back then it was very tribal and to the people of Israel it mattered if you were a descendant of Abraham. It mattered if you were part of the tribe. It mattered if you ate the right foods. It mattered whether you were a Jew or a gentile. But Peter said, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” Powerful statement.

Then he goes on to tell the story of Christ and how he healed, and how he was crucified and died, and how he rose again. The next thing that it says after what we read today, the next thing it says is that Cornelius and the people who were gathered there were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began speaking in tongues. They knew they were filled with the Holy Spirit because they were speaking in different languages. There are lots of different ways the Holy Spirit can manifest and that is one of them. When Peter saw that these people gathered there, these gentiles who were gathered had been touched by the Holy Spirit he said to the others who were with him, “What is to keep us from baptizing them.” And they were all baptized. And it is the first time that non Jews were baptized. Before that everyone had to first become a Jew, agree to all the rules and restrictions of Jewishness, and be circumcised, but here that boundary was broken and this was the beginning of the mission to the gentiles. It is a powerful and important moment in the history of Christianity. Where Christians stepped outside of the mind set of smallness and limit and realized that God knows no. It is interesting that in this case Cornelius and his friends experienced the Holy Spirit before their baptisms. It brings up all kinds of questions about the meaning of baptism, but we are not going to go there today.

In the Gospel reading we hear of Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan, and as he comes out he experiences the Holy Spirit coming upon him like a dove. Now clearly there wasn’t a bird that landed on his head. It was like a dove. It was a simile. It was trying to express this experience of the Holy Spirit coming upon him. The description that is used in the Gospels of a dove is something that people of that time would be used to as a simile, as a description of the Holy Spirit. It is something that people of that culture could relate to.

But let’s try another image. We live in a very different time. We understand electricity, that there is this energy that you can’t see that goes and moves through wires and then makes things work. We have a new movie Tron that takes place inside a computer (Tron 2 I guess) and there is light zooming around. We have these images of energy and we understand it. It makes sense to us because of our culture. So I’d like you to just use your imagination, and if you are not real visual and don’t want to be imaginative, just think about the things I said earlier in the sermon and tune out.

If you have seen some of the really old movies about Jesus the character or actor that plays Jesus is sometimes just fuzzy. Or sometimes in the old back and white ones they make it so there is sort of a little bit of glow around him. Now we have much better special effects and if I were going to do a movie about Jesus I imagine it like this: As Jesus comes up out of his baptism suddenly there is a shower or a waterfall of light that comes down over him. Like drops, tiny droplets of light just flowing all over him and into him and filling him.  And as he gets out of the water these little droplets of light come off him like water dripping off someone after a shower. Then as he walks through the world he would look like a man but every now and then this little bit of light would just drip off of him. When he would touch somebody maybe a drop of light would be on the shoulder and when did a healing maybe a whole bunch of light would go into that other person. It wouldn’t be that he would glow all the time, but there would just be these little drops of light as he walked along, you know, just like water falling off of him. Can you imagine that? Can you see Christ that way? As the Holy Spirit coming into him as light and just kind of going out of him as droplets into the world.

With the baptism of Jesus the understanding of baptism changed. Baptism was an ancient rite that goes back to prehistory as a rite of going and washing to prepare for spiritual events or to wash away sins. It was a common thing to go into the water. What changed with Jesus is the coming of the Holy Spirit as part of baptism. Now baptism, as we understand it, is not a symbol of washing away sins, rather we see it as a sacrament. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. At a baptism not only is the water put on a person, but the Holy Spirit it comes upon that person. So if you have been baptized think of that light coming into you, and washing you, and filling you and transforming you and then coming through you to other people. Imagine yourself filled with the Holy Spirit.

Most of us have had some moment in our lives when we knew there was something special happening, when we experienced the Holy Spirit. Maybe subtly, maybe in the sun set, maybe at a time where you felt energy and healing, maybe at a church service or a communion or at a celebration of some sort. Maybe someone once said something to you that transformed you and you felt the Spirit’s presence. The Holy Spirit is an energy that can come into us like light. Like light that fills us. And like light that can flow out of us so that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit today and we go out of church and we smile at someone in the grocery store that is a little bit of light going to them. Like a droplet that we give. That is what we are to be as Christians. We are to conduits for the Holy Spirit we are to let the Holy Spirit come into us, fill us, transform us and then go out and give it to the world. That is who we are and that is who we are to be. Inviting the Holy Spirit and sharing the Holy Spirit with others, with everyone, for God shows no partiality.