The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - June 23

One in Christ
Galatians 3:23-29

The epistle readings for the last few weeks have come from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. A significant focus in Galatians, certainly in a big chunk of chapter 3, is all about identity. Who are the people of God? And what makes someone God’s own? What constitutes identity as God’s people?

 Inevitably for Paul with his history and in his day this meant an exploration of the law, torah.

One commentator on this passage writes: “The torah has been Israel’s pride and joy; the psalmists of old sang its glories. Particularly since the reestablishment of religious life by Ezra after the exile, the torah has been Judaism’s distinguishing symbol. It was read in synagogues not only in Palestine but throughout the dispersion. Though the temple was sacked and the land snatched away, Jewish existence could continue because the torah was present. It made Israel to be Israel” (Charles B. Cousar, Interpretation).

The first few verses of the portion of Galatians we heard today are part of Paul’s discussion of torah. Paul wonders: In light of Christ’s coming, what was the purpose of the law in God’s overall plan for human kind? To discuss that in depth is a sermon for another day, but in brief, at least in these verses, Paul sees the law as a caretaker. “The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came.” The word translated disciplinarian could also be translated custodian or nanny/tutor. Torah was like someone who has benevolent custody of a child and guides and teaches, looking forward to some later fulfillment or maturity.

What is the ongoing role of torah for Christians? That is definitely a sermon for another day. (In today’s passage Paul seems to suggest that we no longer need any disciplinarian or custodian, but elsewhere in Paul and Jesus’ words in the Gospels still place high value on the law.)

But Paul’s discussion of the law is all background for his focus on identity. If torah was the symbol of what made Israel Israel… If torah is what made Israel the people of God…

Then what does it mean to be a person of God now that Christ has come?

Paul says that the identifying characteristic is now being “in Christ.” And it is God’s gift of faith that enables us to be “in Christ.” Faith in this context is not so much a conviction or affirmation of belief (that Jesus is the Son of God or your personal Lord and Savior). It brings the ability to recognize that God is offering you the opportunity to be his own. Think of Paul’s own conversation. It was the mind-blowing recognition that Jesus was talking to him, cared about him. It’s coming to awareness that through Christ, as Paul says in Romans, we are offered the identity of God’s children, adopted as sons and daughters of God. Being “in Christ” is nothing more and nothing less than knowing we are God’s own. To use another wonderful phrase of Paul’s: that we are “clothed in Christ.”

To offer a somewhat ludicrous example. I’m aware that right now there are people who are sleeping in Blackhawks jerseys—their identity as Blackhawk fans is that important. Or I guess you call them “sweaters” if you’re into hockey. But a lot of folks are wearing that identity a lot of the time. To be clothed in Christ is to wear a jersey every minute of the day and night that says, “I am God’s beloved child.”

Putting on that jersey identifies us as God’s own. Then, baptism is the symbol, the seal.

In the last few verses of today’s reading Paul gets to the excited culmination of his discussion.

We’re going to do a little exercise. We all identify ourselves in many ways. As members of a particular family, or by the job we do, or by some passion or interest of ours. So here are some examples of how those of us here might identify ourselves.

Raise your hands. How many here are male? Female? We could count and get the exact percentages of what portion is male and what portion is female.

How many live in Flossmoor? So all the rest of you live somewhere else…. How many live in Homewood? And how many in other communities with other names?

How many of you grew up with a brother? OK, the rest of you just cannot imagine what that experience is like.  Your lives were different.

How many were born in Illinois? In Maine, where I used to live, they have an interesting phrase. You are either from Maine or you are “from away.” There’s Maine. And there’s away. And you’re one or the other. And two feet into New Hampshire is “away.”

In another setting if we had more time and opportunity for conversation, I might ask about other ways of identifying ourselves.

Who voted Democratic in the last presidential election?
What is your racial identity?
Your sexual orientation?

Within this parish community we have individuals with differing identities on all of these issues.

So one more question. Raise your hands. How many of you are baptized in Christ?

Look around you. That is Paul’s point. That is Paul’s point.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

All of these different identities were important in Paul’s day. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. They had huge implications within the society of his day. As, to a large degree, they do today. As the identities I named have significant implications in today’s society.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

All of you are one in Christ Jesus!

Among those many ways each of us identifies herself or himself, although we may cherish our Christian identities, our identities as God’s beloved, I think we often put that identity as Gods own pretty low on the list of ways we identify ourselves. For Paul it was at the very top. Being “in Christ” was the pinnacle, the overarching, all consuming identity that dominated all others. And being “in Christ” is an identity that unites, rather than separates. For Paul, being “in Christ” was his most important identity.

What if it were for us? What if we wore our “Beloved Child of God jersey” on top of all our others? All of the time. Just think of the implications that would have.

The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost - June 16

God's Extravagance
Luke 7:36 – 8:3

How do you feel about extravagance? What is your gut reaction to extravagance? (This is another one of those Episcopal sermons.) So how do you feel about real extravagance? Either being extravagant yourself or receiving extravagance from others?

Maybe you are someone who relishes over-the-top experiences… Who likes living to the fullest in every moment. Extravagance means freedom, lack of regulation. Or maybe for you extravagance is purely negative, always irresponsible. Maybe you have mixed, complicated feelings when you think about being involved with extravagance.

For me the overriding feeling is discomfort. Discomfort at having extravagance bestowed upon me. And discomfort at the idea of being extravagant.

I read several commentaries on today’s Gospel and in both the woman who interacts with Jesus in this story was described as showing lavish or extravagant hospitality.

She bathes Jesus’ feet. She kisses him. She anoints him. These are all potentially reasonable acts of hospitality, of kindness shown to a guest. But she performs them extravagantly. Instead of having a servant wash his feet with water and a basin, she bathes his feet with her tears. She kisses his feet. And anoints him with costly perfume.

I looked up extravagant. It means: Lacking restraint. Exceeding what is reasonable.

That certainly fits the woman’s actions.

So how do you feel about extravagance?

Jesus’ comments draw a contrast between the unnamed woman and the Pharisee Simon. And Jesus clearly identifies the woman and her extravagance as the positive figure.

We don’t know much about the Pharisee except his name. He was probably a leader in the town. A man of some means. But certainly not extravagant in his hospitality.

And Jesus implies that Simon does not know forgiveness, does not know himself to be forgiven.

And here’s the heart of the message: Forgiveness is always extravagant. Forgiving someone who has wronged or hurt you is always extravagant. It is not reasonable.

Although we may try and persuade ourselves that forgiveness is a reasonable process. Maybe Simon did. We can imagine that he didn’t consider himself a sinner in need of extravagant forgiveness. He saw himself as a good person who occasionally slipped up on a few details following the law. And when he did he chose to perform the appropriate rituals of cleansing or restoration. And then he could be sure that he had put things right and his status as a good person was unthreatened.

But God’s forgiveness… God’s act of forgiving us… God’s yearning for reconciliation with us even though we sinners repeatedly and profoundly hurt God and shred our relationship with God. God’s eagerness to just put away our sins. That’s extravagant. Lacking restraint. Exceeding what is reasonable. What God does in forgiving us is extravagant.

Are you comfortable with God’s extravagance? The starting point is to acknowledge that we need extravagant forgiveness. That we are sinners through and through and only God’s extravagant forgiveness can reconcile us to God.

A lot of times it’s not easy. Simon didn’t get it.

We’d like this process of reconciliation to be more reasonable. Like Simon perhaps we think of ourselves as basically good people who make the odd mistake from time to time. And when we do, we take responsibility and we initiate a reasonable process of reconciliation… We make sure to come to church at least for a few weeks, say the general confession with extra sincerity, say a few “Hail Mary’s” if we were raised that way. And that’s it. Surely we don’t have to enter this world where extravagant forgiveness is needed or offered.

Except we are in that world. All of us need God’s extravagant forgiveness. And to be reconciled to God means to let ourselves be swept away by his extravagance. And we, in turn, respond with extravagant praise. Praising God not just circumspectly now and then, but without restraint. And we give of ourselves extravagantly. Not just reasonably what we can when we can, but extravagant self-offering.

This Gospel story is about extravagance. And it prods us to work at getting comfortable with extravagance. To participate in a world of extravagance. To welcome God’s extravagant forgiveness. To offer God extravagant gifts and praise.

The woman in this story knew herself to be a sinner. She also knew herself to be extravagantly forgiven. And she responded with extravagant love, praise and self-giving. We should be more like her.

The Second Sunday after Pentecost (proper 4) - June 2

Infallible Providence
Collect, Proper 4

As I was spending time with today’s propers this week—the collect and lessons appointed for this Sunday—I never really got past the collect. It’s old, dating back from medieval Latin service books.

As we pray it in English, one phrase in particular struck me. “O God… put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things.”

Put away from us all hurtful things. And then it continues—give us those things that are profitable for us. Put away from us all hurtful things. When the collect was written, this undoubtedly referred to external things that could hurt us. We pray to be protected from hurt. But as I hear it I wonder if it couldn’t have a broader meaning as well.

Put away from us all things that are hurtful. Put away from us all things that have the power to hurt. Put away from us, protect us, from all those things outside ourselves that might hurt us. Accident or illness. Or the meanness and unkindness of other people who have the power to hurt us.

But also put away from us the things that we bear, that we cling to, that have the power to hurt others. Put away from us all of the weapons we carry that give us the power to hurt others. Scorn, indifference, words that degrade or wound.

And also put away from us the things we use to hurt ourselves. We have the power to hurt ourselves. As we nurture anger until it festers, or put ourselves down, or carelessly neglect the lives and bodies God has given us.

Put away from us all things that are full of hurt. All things that have the power to hurt.

It seems to me that’s almost the only prayer we need on a daily basis.

But it continues: Give us those things that are profitable for us. I don’t know what the original Latin is, but the word “profit” is so wrapped up with financial assets in our minds it may be hard to get passed it. But this is from God’s perspective. Looking at ourselves with God’s eyes, what sorts of things are profitable for us? What things enable us to live more fully into the people God hopes for us to be?

Blessings profit us. Anything that brings holiness into our lives. Gifts, recognized as God’s gifts, are profitable for us. And being a blessing to others profits us because it knits us more closely into God’s work and presence in our lives.

Faith is profitable for us. As we pray that God will give us profitable things, let us pray for a deepening and strengthening faith.

The capacity to love and show compassion profit us. Hope and perseverance are profitable.

And reconciliation is profitable. Whenever we experience or work for reconciliation, for the healing of estrangement, we profit greatly. Reconciliation with one another always brings with it reconciliation with God.

So in this collect we pray for discernment, for God’s help in identifying those things in our lives that have the power to hurt. And we pray for God’s help to put away those hurtful things. And we pray for God’s help in identifying those things that profit us as children of God and for God’s help that we may welcome and cherish these profitable gifts.

And we are able to pray for, to hope for, this discernment and help from God because we are surrounded by God’s providence.

And that’s what this collect is really about. It’s really about God’s providence. Providence is not a word we use so much these days in general conversation and I have to remind myself what it actually means. I tend to think of it as meaning God’s plan or purpose. But that’s not it. It means God’s care and protection. God’s loving care and protection.

God’s providence is right there in the first phrase of the collect. Collects typically start with an address to God, followed by some descriptive phrase highlighting a particular quality of God. This collect highlights God’s never-failing providence. Our God is a God of never-failing love and protection for us.

I gather that first phrase of the collect has undergone some variation in different English translations. In the first English Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer translated it as God’s providence that “cannot be deceived.” Nothing in the world can deceive or distort or diminish God’s providence. A more literal translation would be God’s providence that is “infallible.” Cannot fail. God’s loving care and protection of us cannot be diverted, or diminished or fail in any way.

Ultimately, nothing can deny or destroy the loving care of God for us. This collect teaches us to trust in that never-failing providence—even when circumstances around us may seem to our eyes hurtful or uncertain.

This collect teaches us that God’s providence is never-failing. And in praying this collect our trust in the presence of God’s never-failing providence is increased. Praying helps believing. Praying over and over again builds trust. Especially as we remember the countless Christians who have prayed this prayer—in various languages—for centuries and centuries. Listen to their voices, to their prayers. Their witness to God’s never-failing care and protection.

 O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things…