Second Sunday after the Epiphany - January 18

Being Known
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
John 1:43-51

Come and see… Philip says to Nathanael. Come and see Jesus.

Do you ever wonder what it was like to actually see Jesus? To physically be in the presence of Jesus?

We know Jesus, of course, in our lives today. As the collect for today says, we meet him and come to know him in Word and Sacrament. We meet and know Jesus in the lives and witness of other Christians. And we meet Jesus as he is revealed to us in our own prayers and meditation.

But what was it like to sit at table with him? To hear his voice first hand as he taught… to hear the passion and authority of his voice? What was it like to literally feel the blessing and healing of his touch? What was it like for Philip and Nathanael?

In one sense we have an advantage over people of Jesus’ own day. We know what to look for, what to expect. But when Nathanael looked at Jesus, what did he see? What did he experience?

There are lots of wonderful answers to that, mostly speculative. But this morning’s Gospel tells us one piece of what it was like to be with Jesus. In this passage, when Nathanael looked at Jesus he saw someone who knew him….Nathanael. As far as we know they had never met. Nathanael was skeptical, at best, that Jesus had anything to offer. But Nathanael was known by Jesus. The physical experience of being with Jesus is the experience of being with someone who knows you.

The Psalm appointed for today is a portion of Psalm 139. Many, including myself, would list it among our favorites. It speaks of being known by God. “You have searched me out and known me… You know my sitting down and my rising up… You know my journeys and my resting places.” God knows me. Most people find this very comforting. To be known, individually, by God. It is a sign of God’s deep caring. God knows us because God cares deeply about each one of us.

Perhaps that is what Nathanael felt… that Jesus cherished and cared for him enough to know him.

To care for others is also part of the church’s witness. We are the Body of Christ today and, as the collect says, we are called to make Christ known in the world. One way we do that is by being people who care enough about other people to know them. We have to work at it. Unlike Jesus, to whom, as God’s Son, all hearts are open, all desires are known and from whom no secrets are hid. It takes effort for us to know others. But the church should be a place to be known. In an anonymous world and depersonalizing world.

The Body of Christ can be a place where our deep fears are known and there are others to face them with us. Just as Jesus walks with us through the darkest times of our lives. When Jesus met people, he knew their needs, and he met them. The Body of Christ is a place where our needs are known, and, as best we are able, met. It is a place where one person’s joy becomes a great chorus of thanksgiving. A place where individual hopes are known and many voices pray for their fulfillment.

This work goes on within the parish… caring enough to know one another. But it is also the work of Christians in the world. To care enough to get to know one another across the many things that divide us: race, religion, gender, sexual orientation. The world desperately needs this work. In contrast to generalization, demonization of a whole group, which is a way to avoid knowing them, we are called to do the work to get to know one another.

A lot of this already happens here within this parish. I hope you know that. This is one of the great and particular blessings of this parish. But there is always more to do. Start at coffee hour. You don’t have to ask each other about your deepest fears or needs. Start with the question: “What is important to you?” Then try it at home, or with other people you encounter. “What is important to you?” I care enough about you I want to know you. Then go to one of the Martin Luther King events tomorrow and go up to someone you’ve never met and say, “My Pastor asked me to ask you what is important to you.”

Nathanael’s life was monumentally changed because Jesus knew him. Jesus cared deeply for him. Jesus knows you, each of you. Jesus cares deeply for each of you. And we have the glorious opportunity to share that caring for one another with all of God’s beloved children whom we encounter.

First Sunday after the Epiphany - January 11

The Prayer for the Seven-fold Gifts of the Spirit

Today I’m going to focus on one prayer in our Book of Common Prayer, the prayer knows as the Prayer for the Seven-fold Gifts of the Spirit.

I mentioned it yesterday in my homily at Pat Braker’s funeral service. It is one of my favorite prayers in the Book of Common Prayer. In the current prayer book it is part of the baptism service and today our focus is on baptism so it seems appropriate. This first Sunday after the Epiphany the focus is always on Jesus’ baptism. Why Jesus was baptized is one of those pesky questions that Christians still debate. I’ve addressed it before. But not today.

Today I want you to appreciate the prayer for the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit. Specifically, it is the second half of the prayer that appears on the top of page 308.

Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.

In his commentary on the 1928 prayer book, Massey Shepherd writes: “This is one of the oldest prayers in the Prayer Book. Essentially its present form [1928] goes back to the Gelasian Sacramentary, but the substance of it can be found in the rite described by St. Hippolytus of Rome in his Apostolic Tradition (early third century). It stems therefore from the time when Baptism and Confirmation were co-ordinate parts of one continuous rite of Christian initiation…”

The Gelasian Sacramentary is an 8th century manuscript of liturgical rites. The Apostolic Traditions are the oldest records we have of church rites. So basically, this prayer has been associated with Christian initiation for as long as we have records. This prayer is about beginning the Christian life.

Like much in our Prayer Book, it comes originally from Scripture, from Isaiah 11:2. This is the bit in Isaiah that starts out “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,” so it is part of the Messianic prophecy.

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 

Don’t get hung up trying to count seven in the prayer for the seven-fold gifts of the spirit. In Isaiah it sounds like six. Depending on how you count in our current prayer book you can get anywhere from four to eight. If you read Isaiah in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the OT known in Jesus’ day, I guess you get seven.

In the 1928 book, the prayer appeared in the Confirmation services and the version was (in my opinion) not nearly as good as the current one. “…daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear…” The current prayer book returns the prayer to the primary initiation rite, Baptism, and uses a new version of the prayer which is actually based upon fuller versions of the ancient prayer.

Massey Shepherd quotes The Rev. Dr. A. J Mason, who notes that these gifts are not ends in and of themselves. They are not themselves “moral virtues,” rather they are “gifts which set a man in a position to acquire moral virtues…”

There are two things in particular that I like about this prayer. First, is the reminder that all of these things are gifts. Gifts of the Holy Spirit for our Christian journey. It is one thing to observe the world. It is a gift of the Spirit to discern truth. Courage and perseverance in faith are gifts. It is one thing to see the world around us. It is the Spirits gifts to know joy and wonder. These are gifts. And second, as Dr. Mason says, they are gifts that equip for action. They are tools or skills that we need for the Christian life. They aren’t just gifts that we receive to our benefit and then are done with. They equip us for the Christian life.

As we renew our baptismal vows today, let us also renew our appreciation for the seven-fold gifts of the spirit, given at baptism.

The Second Sunday after Christmas - January 4

They Went Home
Matthew 2:1-12

I know you all are counting. Today is the 11th day of Christmas. We don’t always get two Sundays during Christmas season, but we do this year. The Gospel reading we heard today is Matthew’s version of the nativity story. We don’t hear it as often in church. Luke’s nativity story is appointed on Christmas Eve. You’ll notice there are no angles or shepherds in Matthew. (And no magi in Luke). No nativity in Mark or John. The general nativity story that is familiar to most of us is a conflation of Matthew and Luke.

There’s one line in today’s Gospel that I want to focus on. "They left for their country by another road." I think other translations say “They went home.” They went home by another road to avoid Herod. But they went home. They worshipped; they offered gifts. And then they went home.

Interestingly, Luke also tells us that the shepherds went home. “The shepherds returned [to their flocks], glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen…” They went home.

You would think that the shepherds and magi would have wanted to stay, to linger at the manger. But both Gospels are clear. The shepherds and the magi went home. They saw Jesus; they worshiped; they went home.

I can think of three reasons why they might have headed on home.

1. They had things to do. Kingdoms to run. Sheep to tend to. Obligations to fulfill. They returned to those tasks and obligations of their lives, but they returned to them transformed by what they had seen in the manger. 
2. They went home eager to share the story with others. Luke tells us that the shepherds returned glorifying God. 
3. They went home to work on their faith. To nurture the seed that had been planted in their souls in Bethlehem. 

We are like the shepherds and the magi. We come here. Every week or almost every week. We come here to meet Jesus. We meet Jesus at the manger, at his table. We meet Jesus in the faces and lives of one another and in the words of the Bible. We encounter Jesus here. And then we go home.

1. We go home to the tasks and obligations of our lives. But we go home to life those lives as Christians, formed by the one we encounter here. 
2. We go home to spread the Good News with other people we know who are “out there” in the world. 
3. And we go to work on our faith at home. 

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the first two of those before. We could all do better, but we do think about being Monday through Saturday Christians and about being evangelists.

But what about that third reason to leave here and go home? To go home to work on our faith…

I recently came across a blog post by Kyle Oliver, who’s on the staff at Virginia Seminary. It’s called “A Resolve [it’s that time of year!] to Practice Faith at Home.” He writes (You can read it HERE):

Studies have shown that the most significant factor among those that help faith “stick” in adolescents and persist into adulthood is what researchers call “family religiosity”: talking about faith, participating in household devotions, serving those in need as a family. In other words, faith is formed, or not, in the home—more so than in church, it turns out. And adults benefit from family religiosity too, both of their family of origin and their faith at home practice as adults—even single adults.

Faith that “sticks” is nurtured and grown AT HOME.

Talking about faith at home. Personal and family devotions. Doing ministry as a family. He asks these questions to help prod us towards resolutions that might help build and nurture a faith that sticks:

• What new or additional ritual might help faith stick a bit more for us? 
• What practice with friends and loved ones could regularly gather us around the light of Christ?
• What rite of passage or other life transition might provide an occasion to give thanks for God’s many blessings or even to share with God that we’re ready for better? 

Faith that sticks is formed at home.

So after our time together here with Jesus, go home. Go home to build and nurture your faith.