That We All May Be One

Lent 4A Trinity Cathedral.

Before I begin my remarks this morning, let me say that I was able to spend some time this last week with Bishop Zache Duracin of the Diocese of Haiti while I was at the House of Bishops’ meeting in N.C. I told him of our efforts here, and across this Diocese, to assist in “Rebuilding our Church in Haiti” and he asked me specifically to thank you and to let you know that you are in his prayers…as he remains in ours. So, thank you and if you have not made a contribution in one of our pew envelopes or the glass jar in the Great Hall, I invite you to do so today.

Now to the sermon: Even though we are in the “year of Matthew” in our Sunday lectionary this year, during Lent we have had selections from the Gospel of St. John and we have today the story of the healing of the man born blind – the sixth of Jesus’ seven “signs” or miracles as recorded in this 4^th Gospel. There is not time in one sermon (or even one seminary-level class!) to explore all the symbolism in this account of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind.

There is almost nothing in St. John’s Gospel that does not have at least two or three levels of meaning! All the Gospel writers use symbolism, of course, but John was the most intentional about that and you are nearly always reading on a couple of levels at one time. This story is a perfect example. Before the symbolism starts in earnest, however, Jesus once again comes out against a common “theology of the times” which taught that illness and suffering are punishments from God. You still hear that taught sometimes even today. And sometimes, in our weaker moments, when we are suffering we may even think that: “what did I do to deserve this?”

But, as they come across this blind man, Jesus’ disciples ask, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned…” but his blindness can be an occasion for God’s works to be revealed! (John 9:1-3)  In this answer, Jesus doesn’t attempt to address all the issues involved in human suffering. We don’t know why “bad things happen to good people” but we know that it is not punishment for their sins or the sins of the parents!

Bad things happen to good people because the world we live in is not a perfect world. There is a fundamental brokenness or incompleteness in Creation, which is where accidents and disease and seemingly unjust suffering come from. We often say of such things, “It’s not fair.” But unfortunately “fairness” is not a feature of this fallen and broken world – some people are born in poverty, some of us are born in affluence; some people live in the path of tsunamis, others don’t; some people contract vicious and death-dealing illnesses, and some of us don’t. Life is not fair!

We don’t have the answers as to “why.” But we DO know that God’s grace can be powerfully at work in those situations – leading the rich to share with the poor; providing relief efforts after natural disasters; ministering to the sick and suffering and to their families and bringing such as healing into those situations as we can! And that is precisely what Jesus moved to do as he spat on the ground and made mud, spread the mud on the man’s eyes, and ordered him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. “Then he went and washed,” the text tells us, “and came back able to see.”

Now, to the various levels in this story: The most obvious level is that Jesus was a healer and that, on more than one occasion, he restored sight to the blind. That gave the Apostles, and gives us in today’s Church, our mandate to pray for healing and to exercise a healing ministry such as we are engaged in in this parish.

The second level of symbolism, which could not possibly have been missed by the first readers of John’s Gospel, is that this is a story about Baptism! The Greek word for “spread” as when Jesus “spread” mud on the man’s eyes is the same as the word for “anoint.” In the early Church the baptismal candidates were anointed several times with oil, both before and after they were baptized. Just as King David was anointed with oil by Samuel in today’s Old Testament Lesson and Jesus is called the “anointed one” or “the Christ.” In this story, the man is “anointed,” then “washed” with water, and his eyes were opened!

Right after that, he and his whole family were pursued and harassed by the Pharisees and finally “driven out” of the synagogue. And that was precisely the experience of those early Christians who were reading John’s Gospel for the first time! They had been anointed, baptized, given “new sight” as they were born again in Holy Baptism, and then they – and often their whole families – suffered persecution both at the hands of the Jewish establishment and the Roman government, until finally the separation between synagogue and church became complete sometime early in the second century. They were “driven out.”

And there is yet a third kind of symbolism, which has to do with Jesus bringing light into darkness on every possible level. That is best described by the Epistle to the Ephesians this morning: The author writes, “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, wake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)

It is that profound sense of Jesus bringing light into our dark and fallen world that led Kathleen Thomerson to write the words to one of our most moving contemporary hymns, “I want to walk as a child of the light.” The refrain goes like this, “in him there is no darkness at all; the night and the day are both alike; the Lamb is the light of the city of God; Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.”

Shine in our hearts indeed, Lord. Shine in our hearts throughout this Lenten season. Shine in our hearts as we walk the Way of the Cross on Good Friday (and in our individual lives). Shine in our hearts as we celebrate the Resurrection on Easter Day. And shine in our hearts on that last Great Day when we shall finally see that “the Lamb is the light of the city of God.”

Shine in our hearts…Lord Jesus!

Great to be back at the House of Bishops! Can’t remember starting off quite so quickly or intensely!  “Back in the day,” we used to sort of “ease” into the heavy stuff.

After a challenging address by the PB to “show up” in the various challenging venues of today’s world, we had a report from a committee on changes in governance of The Episcopal Church, concerns about the new Title IV Canon revisions (clergy discipline), a report from the committee on same gender blessings, and from a group looking at devising a process for the “reconciliation or dissolution of a pastoral relationship between a bishop and a diocese!”

Wow! For the new bishops: welcome to your new role!

There was also a discussion about the appropriateness of “tweets” and “blogs” from this House. There is a real tension between using the technology we are all becoming used to, and the confidentiality of the House and particularly sending out electronic communication quoting specific people when, in fact, we are simply partway through a discussion and may have reached no conclusions.

It’s a real issue and I intend to be sensitive to how I “blog” here. Certainly, I do not intend to fire off half-baked ideas in the midst of ongoing discussion. But I do think it appropriate to send out this kind of summary as our days unfold.

We shall see…

Lent 1A. Trinity Cathedral. Every year, on this First Sunday of Lent, we have the Gospel account of Jesus’ Temptations in the wilderness. It makes perfect sense because, as we prepare to enter our 40 period of prayer and fasting, we will want to remember why Christians do this every year. We fast and pray because our Lord did, and our deepest desire is to live our lives in “imitation of Christ!”

But it’s a bit of a stretch for most of us to see ourselves tempted as he was during those 40 days. Confronted directly by the Evil One and tempted to turn stones into bread, to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, to worship the devil himself in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. I don’t believe any of us are tempted like that!

Oh, we have our own temptations…often related to power or sex or money and Jesus’ responses to his tempter are still instructive for us: We don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Don’t put the Lord your God to the test. Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Those responses will stand us in good stead however we’re tested.

But I think often our temptations today are, more likely, ones of apathy. We’re often tempted just not to care very much. Not to care about spending time with our God in prayer and learning more by reading the Bible or other spiritual literature. Not to care about getting ourselves to church except maybe once a month or so because we’re so busy or so tired. Not to care much about inviting our friends or neighbors to church or to church activities.

But more important than any of these: not to care about making some kind of a difference in this world for God!  The traditional spiritual practices for Christians during Lent, our Presiding Bishop reminded us this week in her Lenten message, are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And we have a God-given opportunity this Lent not only to learn more about prayer in our Wednesday night classes, to meditate during our Wednesday Noonday organ recitals, and to exercise our spiritual muscles by fasting, by “giving something up for Lent,” but we also have an opportunity literally to “give alms to the poor.”

The Diocese of Iowa and Trinity Cathedral, challenged by our Sunday School and Youth Group, have joined the “Rebuild Our Church in Haiti” campaign to rebuild Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince so there will always be a place people can go during times of trouble. When the January 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, people turned to our church. They knew they would find help there even though nearly all the church buildings, including Holy Trinity Cathedral were reduced to rubble. The Bishop, other clergy and Cathedral staff, offered what food and water they had. They handed out tents until all the tents were gone.

You may, or may not, know that Haiti has the numerically largest diocese of The Episcopal Church. It is home to nearly 100,000 Episcopalians with 97 parishes and 200 schools. In 2008 the Diocese celebrated over 200 baptisms and 700 confirmations. Per capita income there is about $480 a year!

Bishop Zache Duracin, whom I have known for over 20 years, along with the clergy and people of his diocese “have been rising to meet their extraordinary challenges in amazing and inspiring ways,” according to Bishop Pierre Whalon, who visited Haiti recently. “For the past year, volunteers from all over the world have streamed there to help, and money has been collected and wisely spent. Help for all Haitians to recover has come not only through the world’s governments, but more importantly through many non-governmental actors like Episcopal Relief and Development and Caritas.”

“But now the rebuilding needs to start.  The Episcopalians of Haiti are starting at their heart in Port-au-Prince, the (Holy Trinity) cathedral complex, so they can gather the strength to rebuild the remaining 80 percent of their physical assets lost in the 2010 earthquake. Rebuilding the (cathedral) complex will not only give a new spiritual center for Haiti, it will also put back the music school with its orchestra, a trade school, a K through 12 school, and an institute for handicapped children…Just this alone will give the entire capital (city) a shot in the arm.” (Whalon)

As your Announcement Bulletin indicates today, we plan to participate in this campaign starting today and running through Sunday May 29. Our Sunday School children will put coins and bills into a jar each Sunday and there will be a display table and jar in the Great Hall for each of us to give what we can in that way. There are envelopes in the pews in case you would like to make a contribution by checks made out to Trinity Cathedral and marked “for Haiti.” That way we can keep a record of your contribution.

Our Youth Group will be sponsoring a couple of special fund raising events to support this effort and we may even have a final festive meal at the end of the campaign late in May to wrap things up. Each brick to rebuild Holy Trinity Cathedral costs $10. Obviously, that means $100 would buy 10 bricks, $500 fifty bricks, and $1,000 100 bricks. The Diocese of Iowa has set a goal of $50,000 to be raised over these next 12 weeks.

It’s interesting to me that, in our recent parish survey, amidst all the concerns about the internal life of our congregation, among the top five priorities for people under 35 years old and for those over 65 years old was to “develop ministries that work toward healing those broken by life circumstances.” It is hard for me to imagine people more “broken by life circumstances” than our sister and brother Episcopalians in the Diocese of Haiti. We have, of course, been moved in recent weeks and even hours by more devastating earthquakes in New Zealand and now Japan. Relief efforts will need to be mounted there too, but at least there is an economic base in those countries, and the per capita income more than $480 a year!

And it is hard for me to imagine a simpler and more direct way for us to respond to the people of Haiti than by generously supporting this “brick by brick” campaign to “Rebuild our Church” there.” So, as you pray and fast this Lent – pray for Haiti and fast in order to give. There is no reason to give in to the temptation to apathy.

We can, dear friends, make a difference! Will you help?

Occasionally – not very often, but occasionally –- the proper Lessons for a particular Sunday fit together so well, with one building upon another, that a very clear, consistent point is made. Not many complex thoughts, but one central teaching that we can all take home with us. This Sunday we have such Lessons, and the Collect, or prayer, for today even provides a kind of outline to take us there.

A few minutes ago we prayed, “Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us…” The prophet Isaiah might have written that prayer and his words today are full of thanksgiving to the God who had rescued his people from Exile:

“Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages…” (Isaiah 49) For Isaiah, the bringing of his people home from the long Exile in Babylon was just as great a miracle as their original delivery from slavery in Egypt.

They were to be brought out of the darkness of prison, fed along the way, and shielded from wind and sun just as their ancestors had been all those centuries ago in the desert. They were to be restored once again to the “Promised Land.” Even though they had feared that their God had forgotten them in their time of Exile, Isaiah writes, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15-16a)

Again, in the words of the Collect, Isaiah wanted them to “give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of God, and to cast all their care on God who certainly was showing that he cared for them!’ The Psalmist today shows us what it looks like to “cast all our care on God.” It looks like a child in the arms of a loving Mother:

“O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks/ I do not occupy myself with great matters/ or with things that are too hard for me/ But I still my soul and make it quiet/ like a child upon its mother’s breast/ my soul is quieted within me/ O Israel, wait upon the Lord, from this time forth for evermore.” (Psalm 131) Israel had waited on God in Exile, and God had delivered them…once again!

Today’s Collect goes on to say, “Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ…”

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul would have had every good reason to be filled with “faithless fears and worldly anxieties.” He was in a big fight with the church he had founded in Corinth. There were factions in the church. Some people were accusing Paul of not being very strong or effective as an apostle. They were even wondering if they should continue to follow him or turn to someone else. So Paul writes to them:

“Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself….it is the Lord who judges me.” (I Corinthians 4:1-4)

Paul was kept free from “faithless fears and worldly anxieties” by recognizing that he was not trying to please every member in the church at Corinth. He was trying to please God. And his confidence was that God loved him with a love which was immortal…and that no hassle, no conflict, no “clouds of this mortal life” could take from him that love which was able to save his soul.

Paul had learned that lesson from a Great Teacher from whom we heard in this morning’s Gospel, “Therefore, I tell you,” Jesus said, “ do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing…And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?”

“Therefore do not worry,..for it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:25 passim)

So…what is the “one central point” made by all our Lessons today? The teaching, or message, the Church wants you to take home this week? Listen again to the Collect:

“Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…”

In other words: God loves you with a love that will never end…a love that will not let you go! Be thankful for that love! And don’t worry so much! Don’t let the cares and occupations of you life overwhelm you. Give them to God…and see how much better he handles them than you do!

In other words: Strive first for the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well!