Epiphany News

Mark your calendars! Arnold will be participating with other pastors from the Tallassee area in the Community Thanksgiving Service this year. Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 4:00 pm, at First Baptist Church – 1279 Friendship Rd, Tallassee, AL 36078. It would be wonderful it Epiphany could appear in significant numbers to support Arnold.

Fresh off the presses comes the news that The Revd Arnold Bush will be our Priest-in-Charge beginning November 20. Hope to get a bio and fresh set of pics of Arnold up on the site within a couple of weeks, and then we all should be seeing more of him. Please join me in welcoming Arnold to Epiphany!

These are the notes of The Revd Arnold Bush in preparation for his homily at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany November 6, 2011. His texts were as follows:

Matthew 25:1-13
‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

1 Thess 4:13-18
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

“Be Prepared… Keep awake therefore,
For you know neither the day nor the hour ,MT 25:13”
Sermon notes by the Rev. Arnold A. Bush, Supply Priest, Church of the Epiphany, Tallassee, AL, 11.7.2011, Proper 27A
Text: Mt 26:1-13; I Thess. 4:13-18 “The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids”
I Introduction
If you have a morning meeting a Cracker Barrel at 7:00 am, do you arrive at 6:45 am? 7:05? Plan to leave you house at 6:50 am and arrive at 7:05? Then do you hope everyone else will be late? Ever driven a distance to a wedding and misjudged time to drive and arrive late? I recall being asked by the children of the deceased to officiate at a grave side burial in Jackson, MS. I went to the wrong cemetery on Capital Street. This parable is about showing up late.
When was the last time your electricity was off at night in your home? Were you prepared, flashlights, candles, and generator? Not prepared? Let’s think about several ways we prepare for the unexpected:
a) Automobile… long trip to west coast
b) Hurricane…drinking water, cash from ATM, generator, flashlight batteries
c) Preparing for Sunday Worship? What do you do?
d) Tornadoes…in Lake Martin on SR 63; Selling Tornado rooms in homes or shelter under you concrete slab in your garage.
e) Prepare for your own death: At St. Jude’s, Niceville, FL we had a 6 hour workshop on, “Putting your House in order”; “Planning for tomorrow”: …Power of Attorney; Living Will; Paid up Life Insurance; Up to date Will (include your Church in your will); Charitable Trust; Trust funds, etc.
f) Some of us are wise in how we prepare, but some of us are not so wise…. Bible says foolish. I did not know my parents were going to die…or that I was going to die.
In chapter 24 and 25, Jesus is talking about the Last Things. Mt 24:42, Jesus says , “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”. Then at the end of the parable, v. 13 Jesus says, “Keep awake…neb; Watch, therefore…rsv; So be on the alert..Phillips”

II Background on this Parable
• Jesus has just left the Temple Grounds, and sitting with his disciples on the Mount of Olives where the prophet Zachariah 14:1-21 looks forward when he will be recognized as the king over all the earth.
• There are two parables with the same theme: the wise and foolish servants and the wise and foolish maids. Wise preparers and foolish persons who do not prepare.
• The clue is the opening phrase: “The kingdom of heaven will be like this”… Then, Jesus tells this parable.
• In Biblical times there were three distinct public stages: the ENGAGEMENT; THE BETROTHAL, AND THE MARRIAGE. This story is the third stage where the bridegroom goes to the home of the bride to bring her to his home or place for the wedding. This was done with all participating in the village.
• The bridesmaids would wait along the road greeting him with a precession of light in the darkness. They had flask of oil or large torches. There was eager expectation… like the wedding guest waiting to see the bride appear in public.
• The groom is delayed somehow, and all the bridesmaids have fallen asleep. They are burning their lamps but half of the of the maids are unprepared by running out of oil, so they leave so they may get more oil in their lamps.
• They ask to borrow some oil from the wise maids. They refuse so the foolish go off to purchase from an oil dealer.
• The procession and banquet begins without the foolish present, then the foolish maids go to the door. They are shut out of the wedding banquet. The maids plea recalls Jesus’ warning that not everyone who cries, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. MT 7:21-23 a Gospel verse often used a weddings.

III Insights and Applications to our life
V.2”the foolish took no oil with them…the wise took flasks of oil”
Lack of preparation… I can borrow some…
Our preparation, endurance, perseverance, keeps a good supply of Holy Spirit Oil in our personality.

v.5 “The bridegroom is delayed…”all of them became drowsy and slept.”
Implied? Christian communities waiting for the return of Jesus past 70 AD (the destruction of Jerusalem)
The need of Sabbath rest… our experience of Christ allows us to rest, to drift into sleep with peace in our souls.
Or do we sleep because of anxiety, fear, confusion?

v.6 “its midnight…Come out to meet him”
Highway sign: Jesus is coming… Are you ready? God is coming to us in Jesus, in our prayers, sacraments, in the interaction with others.

v.8,9 “Give us some of your oil….they replied, ‘No! There will not be enough for you and for us… go to the dealers.”
Not share? Grace and invitation is free for all, but we must appropriate this, accept the invitation…. Metaphor of the baton passing to the next in line.
Passing on a living faith in Christ is up to each autonomous individual. Using their volition of choosing, we are simply to accept the BATON OF GRACE. I embrace the Living Christ.
No matter how alive and vibrant a Christian Community where we are loved, forgive, affirmed each member must use their God given volition to receive Christ. God has no grandchildren. Each child of ours, each grandchild, every grandchild must make a personal choice to accept Jesus as they understand Him.

v.10 “While buying oil the bridegroom came and those who were ready (prepared) entered the wedding banquet and the door was shut.”
As Christians we do not like the action in the parable of shutting the door. Maybe ultimately with God, there are some human beings with do not want to live with God as they understand Him.

V11 “Lord let us in, Lord, Lord, open to us…v,12 “he replied, “I do not know you.”
This hard for us to accept, if we enter into the kingdom by grace. Some folks have made no preparation for entrance into his kingdom. God does not force you into heaven.

V. 13 “ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour when Son of Man will return.
The parables in this chapter of Matthew speak of the “last things”, “final judgment”… Here is a metaphor I read this week. Going to heaven to live with Christ, is like going on a voyage on a large ship. Ourr Baptism and personal trust in Christ gives us a state room on the ship. Docking at the harbor is the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no doubt, there is certainty, and you will land in the Harbor…. Now we have to understand the ship will experience hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, wind storms, mechanical problems in the engines, BUT IT WILL LAND IN THE HARBOR.

The opening statements in this sermon dealt with all kinds of preparation… It is obvious the message of Matthew’s message and Jesus’ message is PREPAREDNESS.
Let us caution ourselves that this preparedness is not a PARANOID TYPE OF BEING PREPARED. As I listen to some interpretations of “Those left behind”, “End of the world narratives”… that we are to live in mortal fear of the worst will happen. I believe Jesus calls us to live each day as if it is the last, not in fear or trepidation but in an animated hope for the continual coming of Christ into our lives.

We can be prepared spiritually to taking advantage of the opportunities we have today. We can have a Sabbath time with God throughout the week and week worships helps us overcome the crises in our everyday life.

Am I alert to Christ touching and feeding me daily, weekly, yearly?
How do we keep alert? The answer my friend is blown across the next verses in Ch. 25. The preparation tasks are welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and those in prison (25:31-46) and making disciples in all the world (28:19-20). Love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

These are the notes of The Revd Arnold Bush in preparation for his homily at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany October 30, 2011. His text was the reading for All Saints Day, Matthew 5:1-12.

Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Be-Attitudes Improve a Saint
Three habits of highly effective Saints Christians
Sermon notes by the Rev. Arnold A. Bush, Epiphany Episcopal Tallassee, AL 10.30.11
Texts and Purpose: Matthew 5:1-5 To learn to adopt an attitude of sorrowfulness (awareness of our errors); meekness (humbleness); and being merciful. Three of the eight Beatitudes
I. Introduction: Someone said there are two kinds of people on earth? Those who (1) want to change, to grow and (2) and Second those who do not ever want to grow or change. I assume because you came to the Eucharist this morning you are open for change or improvement as a human being. Right? The sermon is about three of the eight attitudes where each one of can make improvements. Blessed is translated: spiritually happy, an heavenly attitude. These are not individuals but attitudes we are to manifest as follower of Jesus.
Attitudes where I need improvement
I. v.4 ” Blessed are those who mourn (neb :sorrowful; an attitude that causes awareness of one’s own errors ) for they will be comforted”. Blessed are those whose attitude causes awareness of their own errors. Serendipity Bible commentary states to “mourn” means the ability to embrace the pain caused by my own sins or the sins of others.
In Dan MacDougald’s Wisdom from the Aramaic used in Albany, GA, states we gain mental comfort as the brain functions to reveal our mistakes and our wrongs. EG: Story of the shot gun as a teenager in Laurel, MS. An attitude or mark of Christian maturity is the ability to recite a mistake, verbalize a mistake. There is a portion of the Alabama population who cannot admit their errors. Where do the live ? They are in our state and federal prisons and county jails. Maxwell Federal Prison (Eglin AFB in Niceville, FWB). One characteristic of the criminal mind is the inability to process the awareness of error or mistakes. Once in a group studying this Verse about AWARENESS OF ERROR, a physician made calls in the large metropolitan prison, noticed everyone had a story of “not guilty.” The Birmingham News published a portrait of some 20 public officials who are serving time in federal or state prison.
One is the CEO of HealthSouth, who owes 2.3 billion dollars. Some famous persons who were oblivious to their errors were persons such as Hitler, Idi Amin, who murdered many in Uganda in the 1970’s, Saddam Hussein, Castro, and last week the dictator or Libya and others.
In our stages in life, what can I do to become more aware of my errors and mistakes? As we celebrate All Saints, we express our thanks for those who have blessed our life and helped us in our Christian Journey. But we also want to reflect on how we can improve our WALK WITH CHRIST. What is the first step to develop an attitude of awareness of error? Blessed are those who mourn, those who are sorrowful for their sins. Those who are sensitive to how they have hurt others or do not live up to high Christian moral standards.
For me the key is embracing the Gospel of Grace. Experiencing Christ as a forgiving God in moments of self-examination. Receiving the Eucharist each Sunday. You are forgiven!!! A voice comes as you kneel at the rail. This embrace of grace changes the processes within our minds, enabling us to acknowledge our sinful errors increases. This is what I call the law of direct proportion: The more forgiving grace I receive this morning, then the more I can recite or acknowledge my error. The increased power of grace I receive in Eucharistic Worship means the more I can admit, acknowledge my error, sin, lack of a high moral standard.

This truth of acknowledging our faults is found in our Marriage Liturgy in one of the prayers for the newly married couple. “Give them grace, when they hurt each other, to recognize and acknowledge their fault, and to seek each other’s forgiveness and yours.” (BCP, 429; also Litany of Penitence, 268 )

How do we see this attitude manifest in our daily life? In a marriage or family setting, or work environment they are OBLIVIOUS TO ANY WRONGS. They have difficulty saying “I’m sorry.”
I know a gentlemen and a few women, who spend a great deal of energy on always appearing “I have it all together” Their persona is “do not show your dirty laundry in public”, I must cover up my errors.
This is a personal attitude that can be applied to our daily life:
EG. I recall playing sports in Laurel, MS at George S. Gardiner High School…Frank Bowers, John Christmas, Art Vantone, Joe Overcut “Practice makes perfect”. Let’s go through these drills to find our mistakes. Next Saturday the College Super Bowl is coming to Tuscaloosa …. Those highly paid coaches in Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa are very busy this week spending hours eliminating errors and mistakes.
One question for evaluation of a business or organization is this:
“If I were to start over again?” “What would I do different?” “What have I neglected, what mistakes have I made?”
Let me give you a biblical metaphor, In the parable (LK 15), the Younger Son goes to his father seeking his inheritance. Then the Father gives him a large sum of money. The younger son goes away lives with harlots, throws away this money (stayed too long in the French Quarters in New Orleans and the MS Coast casinos). The verse in the parable states: “He came to his senses”, he said, “How many of my father’s servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” He begin to rehearse his speech to his father: Going back home, “ Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called you son, make me like one of your hired men.” “So he went he got up and went to his father”.
“He came to his senses, KJV, he came to himself.” He became aware of his error, able to say, I am sorry, forgive me. It was the waiting father who ran toward him, embraced him with open arms and said “kill the fatted calf, place a ring on his finger… you are my son.” Here we are a Sunday Eucharist, Jesus is here with open arms, embracing us. We can confess our sins, errors, mistakes; We do not have to use energy to create a persona that says we must have it all together. We do not have to be defensive, resistant to persons who assist us in seeing our sins. We can acknowledge our sins, weaknesses, mistakes because Jesus is placing his forgiving arms around us.. Taking in His Abundant Grace.

Now to the Next Beatitude: Blessed are the meek.

II. v.5 “Blessed are the meek,for they shall inherit the earth.” (neb: a gentle spirit; humility; Phillips:( those who claim nothing) for they will inherit the earth. ( Aramaic: “gain the earth” is Nitrous an earned gain, not an inherited gain.; neb “they shall have the earth for their possession.”)

“Humility” is the attitude that permits your mind to receive and understand the needs of others. It is a mechanism within the human brain which acknowledges and perceive the needs of others. When a person is lacking in humility they have blinders that keep them from perceiving the needs of others.
This week…..A parishioner, needed to remove furniture in their apartment last Tuesday… Habitat group of four said they will go.
Without this attitude within each of us, then we cannot hear the needs of those around us. They have a blinder in their eyes that prevents them from seeing practical needs of individuals. They have a emotional hearing problem and cannot here the CRY FOR HELP. EG Safety Engineer in a factory: The Safety Engineer or Risk Management comes into the factory, business, sees unsafe procedures or behaviors that tend to cause injury. For instance, Hyundai Auto Plant south of Montgomery, I-65 will have the goggles of meekness, humility to see the needs of their potential car owners.
This week as you interact with colleagues and friends this week, ask the Lord to help you adopt this attitude of humility. Hearing and seeing the cry for help, the pain of loneliness, the worry and bitterness in their grief. At a lecture last Tuesday at St. Luke’s, Birmingham, a UAB doctor lectured on diagnosis and treatment the Alzheimer’s Disease. He spoke with compassion on the pain the caregivers and spouses go through with Alzheimer’s….Need for respite and understanding from the adult children and spouse.

The reward of this beatitude is earthly achievement. E.G. A sales persons perceiving the needs of their customers.

III. v. “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy (Message: You are blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you fine yourselves cared for.; Aramaic: those whose love without conditions; they will therefore receive unconditional love.)
Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. Blessed are those who care….for they shall receive care. Blessed are those who express and share unconditional love, …. Here is a axiom in the 9th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinth. Paul writes: “Remember this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” As we sow, so shall we reap!!!
The church is in the business of forming persons into the image and character of Christ. We are here in Eucharistic worship, we offer our prayers each day, we submit ourselves to Christ, we interact with other Christians, WHY ? So we can be filled with unconditional love. You and I are here so we can be more loving tomorrow and this week with all the folks we will be interacting with in Central Alabama..
In the Episcopal Church we ask every member to make a pledge. We invite all to give a systematic financial gift to the Work of Christ through the Epiphany. Everyone wants the abundance of God blessings to flow toward us. Right? As we sow, so shall we reap!! As we give in financial amounts, so we will receive the abundance of God’s blessings. Suppose we refuse to give a financial gift. Refusal to give is like telling God the following:
(1) To stop giving me the air I breathe,
(2) Stop giving me the ability and skills of earn a living.
(3) Stop allowing me to enjoy all the relationships in my life. Stop… Stop… As a person sows, (gives, loves), so will a person reap (receive, be loved.)
Marriage counselors and therapist use the metaphor of the “Love Tank”. Persons in marital crisis say their “Love Tank” is empty. Why brother, sister, Is anything flowing out of your “Love Tank”. As the love flows out so the tank is refilled.

A Quick review about three ways we can improve our Christian life.
1. Digesting the forgiveness of Jesus in Eucharistic fellowship and prayer this morning will increase your ability to admit your wrongdoings and sins. You will be a happier person to live and work with.
2. Humility is an attitude of becoming aware of the needs and wants of others… this helps you gain achievements over the earthly riches.
3. As you sow merch, so shall you reap mercy!!! As you lovingly give to God’s work so shall you receive abundance of His blessings.
Let us Prayer:
All Saints Prayer…page 245

Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living… awareness of our errors and sins…our adopting humility and meekness…. Walking with mercy. Amen.

We will be celebrating the Feast of All Saints Sunday, October 30 instead of Tuesday, Nov 1. We will use the lessons for All Saints Day: Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; I John 3:1-3; and Matthew 5:1-12.

Here’s what Arnold had to say about this very special Sunday at Epiphany:

This Sunday, October 30, we will be celebrating All Saints’ Sunday. All Saints has many themes and observations. Certainly two themes are giving thanks for the “saints” in our past life as well as the challenge to be more faithful in our Christian Journey today. Thus, as you come to worship this Sunday you will be asked to print the names for some of your deceased relatives or deceased friends who have been influential to you in your Christian Walk. We will offer these names at the offertory and place the cards on the Altar all week.

This is the homily entitled “The Will of God in a Nutshell (a Phy-lac-ter-y)” that The Revd Arnold Bush delivered at The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany on Sunday, October 23, 2011. He based it on the Gospel lesson for that day:

Matthew 22:34-46

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

`The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”‘?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Text and Theme: ff: MT 22:34-46;“Which is the greatest commandment?” How would you answer these questions about life? Who are you? And what are you doing?

I Introduction

A story is told of a discouraged, disheartened, and depressed Rabbi who was thrown into a Russian Prison. As the Rabbi matriculated into the prison system, there was a big strong rough speaking guard who would shout to each prison entering. The guard would speak: “Who are you?” and then the second question: “Why are you here?”. Later the Rabbi conversed with the guard saying, “You ask those two questions so effectively, would you come to my synagogue one Saturday and asked those two questions”. The guard responded by saying, “It will cost you some big bucks.”
How would you answer these existential questions about life?
Who are you? And Why are you here? What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of Life? What is God’s Will?
Philosophers, theologians, professional advertisers, college professors, and pastors all have different ways of answering these basic questions about life.

II Some ways folks define the meaning of life:

a. Life is just something we endure; life is difficult, just trying to get through one day at a time. Some folks just say I was given a poor set of cards…so I cannot win.
b. I have met some folks who just say “life is just one damn thing after another”. They are not saying life to be celebrated with grace filled moments.
c. Some folks just get out of bed to physical limitations, chronic illness, and constant pain or discomfort…. Then they just want to get thorough the week with less discomfort… may be under the care of a pain management physician.
d. Some folks are in employment positions that are danger of laid off. Or there are some retirees who remain bitter, depressed, because they have poor relational skills or unwilling to discover a meaningful volunteer role in this county.
e. If you live on the NW FL Gulf Coast like we did for 20 years or on Lake Martin, you have seen this sign on an large RV, large boat, seen this sign: “The one who dies with the most toys wins!”. Somehow those toys do not fit into their casket.
f. There are some of our colleagues, relatives, or friends who have drifted into a performance mode. They are motivated feel good, look good, do good things please God so he will accept them. Life is really just being a good person with a check list of things to accomplish.
g. Some folks seem to get their esteem by defining who they are by their kin folks. “Tell me, where you from are and who were your mommy and daddy.” I like some research of genealogy, but a few take it too seriously. They define themselves by their ancestors and genealogical family tree. They have no idea they are a child of God adopted by the Creator of the Universe at their baptism.
I am sure we could continue with such a list; but let’s look at one of those questions the Russian Prison Guard asked each prisoner. Who are you ? Pause a moment…. How would you answer this “Who are you”? You are loved by God… you are a child of the King….as I mentioned last Sunday in the story of the coin with Caesar’s image on the coin. Remember we have been stamped with MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.
WHY AM I HERE? I am here because God created me in his image. He is a loving God. A loving God must have an object to love. I am here because he loved me and created me and he sustains me. I am not here on this earth because of a leaf on a Family Tree. I am part of God’s Creation.

III If God loves me and He created me…then it behooves me to seek his will. What is God’s Will?

Now, looking at the context of the Gospel lesson today: MT 22:34-46. In the past few Sundays the Gospel lesson has been taken from Matthew 21 and 22, where Jesus is in the Temple courtyards. There were three parties to whom Jesus was a threat to their way of practicing the Jewish faith. Note this drawing of the Temple on eastern wall of the walled city of Jerusalem.

THE SADDUCEES: They were silenced by the Pharisees. The Sadducees were the very conservative, priestly tradition in Judaism in the time of Jesus. They did not believe in the oral tradition espoused by the Pharisees and believed if it was not in the Mosaic Laws it did not matter. They were very rigid and could not adapt to change. Being the sect of the wealthier and more aristocratic elements of Jewish society they wielded considerable political and economic power. Their very existence depended on sacrificial rituals practiced at the Temple. The destruction of the Temple in 70 AD decreased their influence in Judaism. Their approach left them with 613 laws. If one wanted to know God’s Will they would say: “Here; memorize these 613 laws.”

THE PHARISEES: They were not as rigid as the Sadducees, but they would add new laws needed for changing culture. These new laws were to fill in the gaps of the 613 laws. (248 affirmative laws and 365 negative laws). This was a large number of the Jewish community in the time of Jesus. If one is seeking the Will of God, then they must observe the written Law (Torah) and the oral law (unwritten Jewish religious tradition.) Their understanding of the Law was more complicated. If someone asked what is the Will of God, their answer was “memorize these 613 laws, but a commentary is in the library.”

COMMON PEOPLE LEFT OUT: To practice Judaism in the time of Jesus left out the common people who could not go to the Temple of synagogues to read and study. Fishermen, homemakers, shepherds, farmers , carpenters, etc did not have time like a scribe to study all the 613 laws. Needless to say, Jesus was on a collision course with these Jewish sects. As we see in the Gospel scene, the Pharisees find a very informed lawyer to devise a question that would trip Jesus up. So the lawyer comes up with this clever question, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” All of us have our favorite song, hymn, Bible verse, American hero, and proverb. So, in that culture everyone had their favorite law. If he picked one, then they could say he is against all laws except the one he picked. In this entrapment question, Jesus could have struck out at the Pharisees in anger. Instead, Jesus is smart and quotes from the SHEMA found in Deuteronomy 6:5. This passage was quoted twice daily and men wore a phylactery on their forehead. A phylactery is a small box with the SHEMA written in a small piece of paper. Jesus draws together Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus19:18. Deut 6:4-5 reads: Here, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength….tie these as symbols on our hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of our houses and one your gates. “
He merges Leviticus 19:18, “ but love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus is stating the best way to fulfill the first is in loving your neighbor. The two belong together. Like two hinges on a door. The two belong together is the New Law, the new commandment.

A METAPHOR: My computer broke in December. I had a hard drive rather crowded, but Staples placed all my five years data on a small flash drive. Jesus has taken the 10 commandments, all the 613 laws in the Torah and placed them in a chip, flash drive, within a nutshell. What is the Will of God for you and me? We do not have to be speed readers, attend college, seminary, read Greek or Hebrew, like the Pharisees expected others to do to fine the Will of God. No, we can be a shepherd, farmer, work on Sundays, homemaker, we can do the Will of God in our work-a-day-world..etc.
How can we seek the Will of God? How can we fine meaning in our lives? Why am I here? I am here to do the will of God.
Read together, BOCP,351
(Jesus said, “The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The Second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.,” MK 12:29-31….
The Will of God is to love God and to love every human being. This has been stated in thousands of ways. Look Up to God Loving Him; Look out loving others; the vertical of the Christian Cross points up to God and the horizontal reaches out to others. This is the greatest commandment with two hinges.
How would you answer these existential questions about life?
Who are you? I was created by God to use my own volition to love him back and love my every human being on earth.
Why are you here? To align my will with the God’s Will of loving Him and others.
Meaning and purpose in life as I greet each new day with a love for God, Jesus, Christ… and expressing love the crown of creation, men and women.

IV Way to Love God with our HEART,SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH

These four areas in Biblical times represent the entire human being. God has created us for His pleasure that we exist and are created. (Rev.4:11 and BCP,377). I John states, “He first love us.” Jesus says we are to love God back. Our word for loving God back is WORSHIP. Worship is our response to God. In the Catechism, BCP, 856 states: “Prayer is RESPONDING to God by thought, and by deeds, with and without words. In short, Jesus is saying let us respond to with our whole being, heart, soul, mind, strength. Last Sunday, I spoke about oblations being presented at the Altar.
Here is a schematic of the first part of the greatest commandment:

ATTENTION	Mind	Thoughts
AFFECTION	Heart	Emotions
ABILITIES	Body	Strength

1) ATTENTION: We give other our attention by thinking about them. EG One pre-marital advice is give your spouse DAILY ATTENTION. How can I make my spouse happy, meet their needs, how to be more loving. Let us go though the day giving Christ our thoughts, tell the folks around you about your love for them, tell Jesus.
HOW: a) Running conversation with Jesus. Such as Br. Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God :Frank Labach’s The Game with minutes; Malcolm Boyd’s Are you Running with me Jesus. EG Beepers on watches; dots on watches, chimes, cards on the dash board, memory verse in pocket, let introverts say “thank you Jesus or Praise God”

2) He wants our AFFECTION – our heart. Do you remember that TV commercial by Budweiser Beer with the son in the fishing boat. The Son says, “I love you Dad.” The commercial reminds us that some men have difficulty expressing in public, “hugs, kisses, saying I love you.” Some of us need be become emotionally closer to God. Let’s pay attention to the many wonderful expressions of praise, affirmation, love to God in the hymnology. Some hymns or contemporary songs will cause me to weep or choke up. EG Joke about an expressive visitor in the pew. Von Hagel said, “I kiss my daughter because I love her, I also kiss my daughter in order to love her more.” As I said last Sunday, show your affection be whispering “thank you’s”.

3) He wants our ABILITIES – love God with all our strength…Let us love God with our attentive mind and thoughts, love him with our heart and emotions. Now let us love Him with all our strength and abilities. If you and I are going to respond to God in worship with our strength and abilities, our behavior and actions must support our love. Colossians 3:23 reads: “Whatever you do , work as it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for men.” We express our love in actions by doing such things as: repairing broken things, make a visit to someone, do and errand, prepare a meal, visit a friend in need. This phase has meant a lot to me: “Work as though you are working for the Lord.” Our tasks and work can become our WORSHIP. I recall a annual liturgical practice used on the feast of their Paton Saint, St. Andrew’s Parish in Panama City. Parishioners were asked to bring a symbol of their work or profession. Such things a ipads, Huggies, day timers, carpenter tools, cook book, product flyers, calculators, scissors, etc. When we offer our work to God who is our BOSS, this is a form of WORSHIP. We all can discover: “LIFE IS NOT SO MUCH WHAT WE DO, BUT FOR WHOM DO WE DO IT.”

As I said last Sunday quoting from Paul’s phase in the 12 chapter of Romans. “So then, my friends because of God’s great mercy to us, I appeal to you: offer yourselves (present yourselves) as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing him. This is the true worship that you should OFFER.”
I am aware I have not spoke in this sermon about Jesus’ phase from Leviticus “Love you neighbor as yourself.” That will come later.
This month let us love God with our attentive thoughts. Let us Give him our affections. Love him with the strengths in our abilities as we work for the Lord.

Prayer: Lord we do not have a small phylactery to wear on our foreheads, but in our baptism we were marked with the sign of the cross. You have loved us, created us, showered us with blessings, now may we live this campus Loving you with our entire being, heart, soul, mind, and strength. And loving our neighbors as ourselves.

BCP, p.832, bottom, Self-Dedication used after post-communion thanksgiving prayer.

Here are the notes The Revd Arnold Bush used to deliver his homily at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany October 16, 2011. He based it on three of the readings in that day’s lectionary:

Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13) Page 725, BCP
Cantate Domino

1
Sing to the LORD a new song; *
sing to the LORD, all the whole earth.

2
Sing to the LORD and bless his Name; *
proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.

3
Declare his glory among the nations *
and his wonders among all peoples.

4
For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; *
he is more to be feared than all gods.

5
As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols; *
but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

6
Oh, the majesty and magnificence of his presence! *
Oh, the power and the splendor of his sanctuary!

7
Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples; *
ascribe to the LORD honor and power.

8
Ascribe to the LORD the honor due his Name; *
bring offerings and come into his courts.

9
Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness; *
let the whole earth tremble before him.

10
Tell it out among the nations: “The LORD is King! *
he has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”

11
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
let the sea thunder and all that is in it; *
let the field be joyful and all that is therein.

12
Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy
before the LORD when he comes, *
when he comes to judge the earth.

13
He will judge the world with righteousness *
and the peoples with his truth.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead– Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

“Ways of Giving and Offering to God”

Theme: Offering to the Lord is one theme in 3 of the 4 readings.

I Introduction

“Do you have a $5 dollar bill to place in the offering envelope?”

“Do you have a few “ones” to tip our waiter?”

“ I have written the check for the weekly offering.” All these statements are expressing appreciation or thanks for what God had done for us or a waiter has done for in a restaurant. For some it is a natural as saying “thanks for the meal”, ‘thanks for the inviting us”, or “thanks for being so attentive to during our wonderful meal”

There are three verses in the readings having to do with offering to God.

II Three verses related to the Offertory and
the personal offering of our lives to God.

1. Psalm 96:7 & 8 (Note the translations) KJV: “Give unto the Lord, o Ye Kindreds of the people…Give unto the Lord the glory due his name”
NEB: “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, bring a gift and come into his courts.” JB: “Pay tribute to Yahweh…tribute to Yahweh of his name’s due glory. Bring out the offering, bear it before him. “

BoCP: “Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his Name; bring offerings and come into his courts.” These verses from Psalm 96 are in the imperative. He is admonishing the reader to bring offerings into the Temple for worship. As we come into the courts of worship, let us bring some offerings.

2. I Thess. 1:2; “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father you work of faith and labor love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. “ Paul is offering prayers of thanksgiving for the effective work done by the church in Thessalonica. Certainly we can adopt a habit of offering thanks to God for what others have done for spreading the Kingdom of God in Central AL.

3. Matthew 22:20,21 JB: “ Jesus said, Whose head is this? Whose name? 21 “Caesar’s” they replied. “Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar—and to God what belongs to God.” NRSV: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that hare the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

In our worship we have a few gestures for saying thanks or acting out our thanks and appreciation.

III Gestures and Actions in Eucharistic Worship

In Eucharistic worship there are four great ACTIONS, or GESTURES:

(1)He took, (2) He Blessed or gave thanks, (3)He Broke and (4) He Gave. I want us to look at the first action as noted in the rubrics in the BoCP.

Open to page 361, there are three paragraphs describing what is to be acted out.

First, hold the page 361 and turn to the right to page 276. The celebrant is to read with one or more offertory sentences. Thus the reading of one of these sentences begins the Offertory…. He Took.

Psalm 50:14:”Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and make good you vows to the most High.”

Psalm 96:8 “Ascribe (give credit) to the Lord the honor due his Name; bring offering and come into his courts.”

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present (TO OFFER, nev) yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Present: placed at the deposal of God. Same word as presenting the Levitical victims and offerings in the Temple)

Then the last sentence in the middle of page 377: “Let us with gladness present the offerings and oblations of our life and labor to the Lord.”

(oblation: act of offering something to God)

Now back to page 361,

The second paragraph, During the Offertory, a hymn, psalm or anthem may be sung.

The third, paragraph: Representatives of the congregations (not just men in suits) bring the people’s offerings of bread and wine, and MONEY AND OTHER GIFTS, to the deacon or celebrant. The people STAND WHILE the offerings are presented and placed on the Altar.

What is going on here in our worship? Why this offertory procession? Why the standing? Our checks, money, plates are symbols of our life. We are placing our needs and the world’s needs into Christ. We are saying take these tasks, responsibilities, into your hands to influence and control. The celebrant stands at the Altar on behalf of the body of Christ offering these oblations is to our Lord.

EG. An analogy of a child on the beach picking up sand dollars, hermit crabs, sharks tooth, etc and bringing them to the parent to admire, affirm, and bless. That parent is commenting on every object placed into the child’s bucket. The parent is paying attention to the child. This morning the Father God is paying attention to what we are offering, or giving back to God. God is TAKING AND BLESSING what we offer to him.

IV Context,background and application of this
Incident of attempted entrapment by the Pharisees.

A. Enlightening the context: This “Render to Caesar” and “Render to God” in the KJV over the centuries has been used to support many political theories, reforms for taxes and freedom from religion in the USA. Remember resistance to Jesus’ teaching is building up while Jesus is on the temple courtyards in Jerusalem. In Chapter 21 and 22, these parables are being heard by the chief priests and Pharisees. In chapters 21 and 22 of Matthew, Jesus is coming under pressure as he enters the Temple area. He drives out the money changers. The chief priests challenge his authority. Pharisees and Sadducees were looking for a way to arrest him as he spoke in parables against their practices on the Temple Grounds. They are attempting to entrap Jesus with a question: “Is it right to pay taxes to the Caesar (a word for the Emperor)? They want a Yes or No answer. A No, means that he is willing to join with a rebel political group and throw out the Romans. Romans may arrest him if he says No. If he says Yes, this means Jesus would be prepared to abandon God’s priorities to accommodate the Romans. The coin they produce is a land-tax coin used to go one of the Roman governors.

B. THE IMAGE ON THE COIN? We are also stamped with God’s Image. We belong to God who made US. We are created in the image of God. The presence of sin may have defaced us, but as we use our gifts and abilities, we are living into our image of the One who made us. The Christian Religion will advance when all of us know we are created in the image of God. I recall hearing about an Episcopal Congregation on All Saints Sunday (Nov. 1) of a procession of several children’s Sunday school classes forming a procession marching into adult classes and then outside in the courtyard, and eventually down the main aisle in the nave. In this procession the children had banners and hats with the words “make in the image of God”… “make way for the image of God”. I want all of you see whose image is on the coins in your purse or pocket. George Washington, Lincoln ? etc. let this be a reminder you are made in the image of God. You Belong to God. Every time you are involved in a crowed place, Mall, store, stadium, school…. Everyone is made in the image of G0D

C. “RENDER TO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD’S”: “give back to God that which belongs to God” Mt.22:21. As we start each day, God has given us the gift of a new day. If our day starts as 6:00 am, 7:00 am, he has given EACH A NEW DAY. One way we give it back to God is to go through the minutes and hours of the day offering service to others. Each day is a gift from God. ONE GESTURE, One WAY, I remind myself each day or moment is a gift from God by being quiet for a few moments. Breath deep six times right now. Become aware of your breathing. Breath in long deep breaths, thanking Him for the oxygen. Then breathe out thanking him for the previous breath. Let us use every breath to serve God. A SECOND GESTURE is to use the palm of your hands is to offer thanks for a particular object, experience, person, and place. Form the image in your mind and repeat it with hands raised. Be specific. EG: Thursday, Habitat lunch for 5 college students for Villanova Univ., framing; Whataburger, kicking the soccer ball with grandchildren, tennis game Friday.

D. GIVE BACK TO GOD…. Making a prayer of oblation or offering: As you are about to engage in a very simple task, work project, chore around the house…. Offer the task to God, “Lord I offer this need, ingenuity needed. I need wisdom to accomplish this task. Lord you know how all these functions work on the computer, show me how… Lord as I interact with my child or grandchild, help me be the best parent or grandparent with them.”

E. OFFERING TO WORK OF CHRIST: Now to your offering to the work of Christ through His Church. I am assuming 99% percent of the members of Epiphany are paid, enumerated, awarded financial dollars for the skills, abilities, sweat hours, energy, brain trust you have used in your work. Most of us receive a check or a deposit to our checking account. We are paid for the work we complete. Dollars per hour or minutes. EG, $20.00 or check from your employer (school, business, government, commission, fee, etc. ) For the purposes of this metaphor we will call the money in the offering CONGEALED SWEAT or congealed mental effort. The check you give is a piece of your life’s blood, sweat and tears. God asked us to give a tithe, 10% back to his work. He gives us all of what we have. We belong to God, He created us… but He just asks us to give a percent back to him on a regular and systematic way. When I place a check in the Offering Plate and it is elevated at the Altar, this is my congealed sweat… part of me being offer up to God. Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present (TO OFFER, nev) yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” In presenting this to Him thus, I am saying “I am at your disposal Lord. I am presenting myself to you this Sunday… then use me… I am at your disposal. “ I am presenting myself to serve the Beans and Rice at Epiphany. Lord I am at your disposal…. Use me, let me listen to those who are coming, may I greet this with a welcome from Christ. EG or if you need someone to teach the children, I am presenting myself to be a God’s Disposal.

F. WHAT WE OWE THE STATE AND WHAT WE OWE GOD? Making a wide distinction between owing the government and owing back to God can be confusing. The verse “Render to Caesar…or render to God” has been used over the centuries for tax reform and political theory. Paul states we are to honor the government. In the 13th chapter of Romans, Paul discuses the issue of honoring and respecting governmental authorities. Romans 13:1,6 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. … This is why we pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time for governing.” There is a sticky question here, if we make too large a distinction between “Owing or giving to the Government and Giving to God”. I do believe in the “establishment clause” in the US Bill of Rights. There are times we are integrating the secular and sacred responsibilities. If I am an employee of the government, then my faith in Christ expects me to be a competent, responsible teacher, law enforcement officer, extension person, administrator, secretary, officer in the military. If I am employed outside the government, God may be calling me to serve as adult chaperone in the public school, as coach a city recreation soccer team, distribute food to the poor from USDA sources. These roles are crossing the secular and a sacred. We can serve God in both the sacred and secular part of our lives.

G. Summary and Prayer.

Last Sunday, Rob stood in the front of the nave just before we collected the offering and shared with us his thoughts about “penal substitution,” the concept that the death of Jesus was necessary for our salvation because God’s sense of justice demanded it. From this concept has flowed throughout Christendom (at least during the last 400 years) an entire lexicon of salvation metaphor, speaking of our being “washed in the blood” and speaking of Jesus “paying the ransom (or debt) for our sins.” What follows here is not the text of what Rob said, because he spoke extemporaneously and we have no record of his exact words. However, Rob was kind enough to provide us this exploration of the doctrine in a slightly different form but which covers many of the same concepts.

Jesus did not make possible the forgiveness of God …Jesus did not make it possible for God to begin to forgive …Jesus embodied the forgiveness that has always been within the nature of God / Jesus in his death on the cross did not open a way to God that would otherwise have been closed and unavailable … Jesus in his life and death shows us a way into God that has always been open / Jesus did not come solely to die for our sins purchasing our safety from a wrathful, revengeful God … Jesus came to show us through his life and in his obedience which lead even to the cross – the way to live … to have life and to have it abundantly.

But that example … that wholly consecrated life so threatened our death grip on power and our material seizure that we found it necessary to kill him … to remove any possibility that his example and message might actually catch on … with the cross we responded to his best with our worst … and then to our shock … despite what the prophets and sages had long suspected … to our shock when we had done our worst God did God’s best … God answered our condemnation of His Son with the cosmos transforming power of the resurrection. God showed us an answer to violence and selfishness and scapegoating that in our brokenness, we could not imagine …

That is what I believe … that is the sense that I make of it all. It is in this that I find the hope of which the apostle Paul speaks with such confidence … confidence that could not have arisen from his continually challenging circumstances / Paul was no optimist …looking around at the good times and arrogantly assuming they would surely continue … how well we have been reminded recently of such folly … no … Paul was no optimist … instead Paul peers into the cool stillness of an empty tomb and sees beyond the circumstances of his momentary distress …into the eternal … and there he finds hope.

I say all this and say it, I hope, provocatively because paradigm shifts are tough. Prying loose the interpretive stranglehold that the reformation has on most of our minds…on most of our theologies is tough. Perceiving a different, yet biblically rooted way of understanding the work of Jesus —when so much around us such as the hymns we sing….the preaching we hear, often on television or the radio … or the theology we read on popular books …all of that makes it so easy just to continue to say the same things and to think the same things we have thought and said for at least the last 400 years. That the death of Jesus was necessary because his violent death paid a ransom to free us from the consequences of our own apostasy….his violent death purchased with his blood forgiveness from an angry and unplacated deity.

When we hear certain texts from our scriptures we hear with minds shaped by interpretations placed upon the scriptures by the reformers in the 16th century…interpretations that have spoken with power to multiple generations …interpretations that led Christianity through several centuries of expansion ….interpretations that should not be altered without great care …but which are nonetheless ripe for reconsideration….not in order to deny the transforming power of the life and death of Jesus, but rather to find within those events power for new generations to come and for the continuing conversion of souls grown cold in a world estranged from the God who birthed it.

When most of us hear certain verses from scripture …verses from Colossians and Romans … we slip into an interpretive stance largely defined by the reformation…it is what we know. That Jesus died on the cross to satisfy the justice of God…somebody had to pay for our sins … somebody had to die to preserve God’s honor. It should have been us but Jesus comes along and takes the fall … God…according to this interpretation … God does what Abraham knew was unthinkable …but this time God does not blink as happened back when Abraham lifted the knife over his son Isaac … this time no ram emerges from the thicket … and just like that, we sinners are off the hook. some theologians understand the story of Abraham and the near sacrifice of his son Isaac to be a polemic against child sacrifice … strange isn’t that God is later understood as violating the ban on such a sacrifice.

For several centuries now we have found hope within an interpretation of the life and death of Jesus that sees Jesus as a substitution for us … a stand in for the ones who should have been on that cross. we have understood God to have required death as a penalty or payment for our rebellion … God’s righteousness – it has been said – demands that a price be paid … that God’s honor be restored. We are saved through the violent death of an innocent victim.

I am simply saying that these interpretations … and they are just that … these interpretations of the life and death of Jesus no longer work for me … and I suspect it is the same for many of you but you have been afraid to say so … afraid maybe because an alternative seems unavailable … afraid because you did not know that these interpretations are just that. the time has come once again for a different approach to that core message of old time religion…a different way of understanding the meaning of the life and death of Jesus. we hesitate because we confuse the interpretation with the things itself … the problem for me is not —let me be clear before you put tweet, e-mail and blog your dismay … the problem is not with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus…. the problem is with the ways we have chosen…in our limited ability…to make sense of those events.

The apostle Paul was the first to cast about for some way of understanding the meaning of the light that burned his soul on the road to Damascus. he began to express his apprehension in the only terminology he knew … the sacrificial system of Judaism … over the next few centuries others also tried to find someway to articulate what it is that happens in and through Jesus. Anselm and Abelard are two of the best known but there have been others, who in great faith sought to offer interpretations for their own generations. we are sometimes overwhelmed and under informed recipients of all of this.

Actually one of the earliest to offer an interpretation was the bishop of Lyon…Irenaeus. He was a champion of the fight against the Gnostics and other heresies…he was a champion of the need to settle on an approved list of writings to guide the church and to connect it with the teaching of the earliest apostles thus giving us what we now recognize as the new testament. He is recognized as a father of the church, meaning that he falls well within the mainstream of Christian teaching….and, most impressive to me amongst his considerable credentials is that Irenaeus studied with a man who studied with a man who had actually been amongst the first disciples of Jesus.

Irenaeus offers a fundamentally different interpretation from that which we usually hear of the salvific work of Jesus. Irenaeus understood that it was the resurrection of Jesus …this great transformative and new thing of God ….he believed that it was the resurrection of Jesus – not the crucifixion – but the resurrection that revealed the way of salvation for you and me and for all of creation … he understood crucifixion…in all its violence … as the ultimate rebellion of humans against their God … not the instrument of salvation but rather the climatic – last gasp- of human arrogance, ignorance, and impatience. Irenaeus believed that just when man did his worst in executing God’s son …God responded with God’s best in the resurrection.

Our being made whole … our salvation lies then not in the violence of the crucifixion but, as I love to contemplate …it lies in the still, coolness of an empty tomb. God responds to the violent death of Jesus at the hands of humans with the transformative power of the resurrection. for Irenaeus our redemption rests upon the life-long fidelity of Jesus certainly not in some supernatural exchange between an angry God and a demi-god named Satan. God’s honor need not be appeased by a death .. instead ….instead God’s love …what one theologian characterizes as an abyss of forgiveness …God’s loving mercy floods the cosmos bearing up the one in whom all things shall be made new. The one through whom all things shall be lifted up.

Thus it is that God proves God’s love for us …God’s love is poured into the cosmos which itself breaks forth in praise…laughing as Sarah laughed the second time, celebrating the new and unexpected life within her. Her patience and perseverance rewarded. the body that she thought could bear only death now the bearer of life. in this she models the joy of all creation when finally freed from its own labor of birthing God’s new kingdom.

In a world all too filled with anger and violence is it not time for Christians to speak of redemption in a way that does not add to that violence? Is it not time to recover, within our own ancient teaching, a way of speaking of our redemption that lifts God well above our own limited attempts at justice which sometimes seem to be nothing more than state-sanctioned revenge?

Long before we learned the language of redemption whose lexicon is that of violence …centuries before, in fact, Irenaeus gave us a way of understanding Jesus that depends instead on the vision of an empty tomb and of a new creation founded in the re-creative power of love.

This same Jesus, now risen, still has compassion and still calls his disciples to go forth to announce the good news of God’s kingdom … a kingdom that arises from an abyss of forgiveness…and the still coolness of an empty tomb.

This is the homily The Revd Rob Morpeth delivered at Epiphany on October 9, 2011. His text was that day’s Gospel reading:

Matthew 22:1-14

Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, `Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, `The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, `Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Things are coming to a head between Jesus and the Sadducees and Pharisees, the two primary religious groups in Israel. In this section of the Gospel of Matthew they mount their most pointed attack on Jesus. They fire off question after question, hoping to trip him on some fine point of doctrine and belief. They hope to catch him in a theological error and pull a noose around him as tight as possible…ridding themselves of this perplexing and troublesome fellow who presumes to speak for God.

It is important for us to recall that it is within this context of attack and confrontation that Jesus says what he says. It is not a friendly Sunday school room with like minded people politely discussing the Sunday reading. Those who are asking these questions are openly hostile. In this tense context Jesus speaks pointedly…directly…even harshly.

In the parable of the wedding feast his message to the Pharisees and Sadducees was clear enough. In this parable there are those who had not the time to join the feast when the invitation went out. They were too preoccupied to attend. It may be that Jesus even hints of his own approaching death, mentioning in his parable that the invitees killed those who came to invite them to the feast. They lose their place at the great wedding banquet and in an image that would turn their world upside down, Jesus pictures the riff-raff of the city being welcomed to the feast. Significantly, good and bad are all welcomed.

There is little question that Matthew, the author of the Gospel, includes this story partly because it would have been important in helping the Gentiles in his congregation…now some 50 years after Jesus first told the parable …. it would be helpful to their understanding of their events that lead to their inclusion in the kingdom. They would have understood from this story that Gentiles were those invited in the second round of invitations. They would have understood that the Jews were those who had declined the original bidding of the host. The destruction of the city mentioned in this version of the parable would have reminded them of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans.

But those messages to the Sadducees and later to the Gentiles in Matthew’s congregation are not compelling for us. Those are no longer our questions. That is no longer our context. We are right to wonder if there might be something more in this story when placed within our own time.

There is certainly something to be said for those passages about gnashing of teeth and weeping. We can let our imaginations run wild conjuring up horrific images of hell and eternal suffering. We can imagine a God-forsaken time and place somewhere beyond…somewhere out there. And we can dangle the prospect of such endless suffering before us as a negative reinforcement to our moral journey. But such fantasies take it all too literally, I think. and more importantly, they leave us with some difficult questions about the nature of God.

Another approach, more consistent with that I believe about God, … another approach is to realize that, if we are still just long enough…and if we are attentive enough to our own souls we can find a place within … a place within that is God-forsaken. A place that has not been kissed by grace. A place within our own spirits and psyches where there is gnashing of teeth…a place deep within where our souls cry out.

A place of hurt…a place in which we feel bound by the past. Unable to loose ourselves from things done and left undone. A place where we fell vulnerable…clothed only in remorse, in regret. Our place of gnashing teeth and weeping eyes need not be on some distant shore beyond the grave. It may be as close as our own troubled spirit and darkened memory.

And it is here perhaps that we may now recognize ourselves in this story this morning. We may now see that we fit best in the role of the man who is cast out at the end of the story. He is cast out of the feast because he lacks the proper clothing. He is bound hand and foot and thrown into darkness. this hapless character may be our point of entry into this story from Jesus.

We are this man. We are if there is a place within that remains somehow off limits to God. We are this man if we have rejected the garment offered by the host at the wedding banquet. Perhaps because of ignorance…perhaps because of pride and stubbornness…perhaps because our wills remain as yet unbroken. Whatever the reason we are become a little like Adam and Eve who grasp at a fig leaf supposing they can hide from God. But this garment does not meet the dress code for the banquet. A garment of our own design held onto long after it has served any possible purpose. And thus in our refusal to accept the garment offered, we are left weeping and gnashing our teeth.

The answer, of course, is to accept the garment offered by the host. To cast aside pride and stubbornness in favor of grace and forgiveness. to grant the healing spirit of God entrance into our hearts and memories that the bindings might be loosed and the darkness illuminated. so that whatever is broken within us might be made whole.

To understand it might be helpful here to recall another parable of forgiveness and feasting. The prodigal son would know well what we mean if we speak of an inner place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that story the son runs off to make a life for himself. Turning his back on his father…even wishing his father dead by asking for his inheritance early – the son sets out on his own prideful…determined…even lustful course. But he does not succeed for long. he is soon out of money, out of pride and out of his mind in regret.

And it is just at that moment that the story of the prodigal son parallels the parable today. the judgement visited upon the son as he weeps amongst the pigs is a judgement of mercy. A judgement that seeks not condemnation and death but rather transformation. It seeks to make new that which is judged. The son is seized by the memory of his father and turns…turns back toward him. And the father who exclaims his joy upon seeing that the boy has turned back to him offers him a new garment …. the father runs to his son and clothes him in the finest robes and welcomes him to a feast.

The theme is repeated in the writing of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah portrays God as the one who clothes us upon our turning to him. He writes, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God, for God has clothed me with garments of salvation. God has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

George Herbert understands it rightly in his poetry. That great parish priest writing in the 17th century knew what it was to be delivered from places of grinding teeth and weeping. Listen as he casts the truth of this parable in poetry…he writes …

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack from my first entrance in
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, if i lacked anything.
A guest, I answered worthy to be here,
Love said, you shall be he.
I, the unkind, the ungrateful? Ah my dear i cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply.
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them
Let my shame go where it doth deserve.
And you know not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

The poet priest models for us the heart that is properly turned that it might be clothed and attend the feast.

The invitation is now … in this moment … to all who would put aside their preoccupations and come … to those willing to lay aside vainful pride and to confess a need. Let the host provide your garment. Be loosed from that which binds and blocks loves abiding in your life. The King of Love calls. Come and join the banquet.

This is the homily entitled “Not Mine But Thine” that The Revd Arnold Bush delivered at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany on October 2, 2011. He based it on that day’s Gospel lesson.

Matthew 21:33-46

Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

`The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Theme: Like the tenants, we also behave like the tenants acting as if all is “ours”. Plus, we too reject Jesus by our indifference, but His divine spark of initiative is constant and can change us.

I Context and Themes of the Parable

Context: If this parable is treated as a allegory then there are many themes: Owner? Who?…Vineyard? …Fence/hedge?…Whom?…. Tenants/sharecroppers? Whom?…Slaves? Whom?…Son? Rejection “the stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone/cornerstone’”
v.43 “Taken away from you and given to a people that produce fruits of the kingdom.”

II Dramatizes the Rejection of Christ

In the parable the owner time and time again sends his servants then his son. God keeps coming to us. This is the GOOD NEWS. Grace is God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved. (BOCP, 858)

The parable is not just about poor economics, but about showing God is willing to go at lengths sending reserves to reach us in forgiveness. Jesus is addressing the religious establishment surrounding the practices of the Jerusalem Temple.

EG: (A) John 1:11 “He comes to his own and his own received him not.”
(B) The Cross and Resurrection, “God coming into the middle of our lives.” After the resurrection, Jesus comes to the disciples who returned to their profession of fishing.
(C) Jesus’ prayer outside the Jerusalem walls, ”Jerusalem (2X) how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.”

Any initial hearing of this parable, we would say to ourselves:” Why those tenants were so evil. They are so blunt. They are so criminal in their rejection of the Owner coming to receive his just due. Their rejection is extreme, but I suggest our rejection of God is more subtle, less violent, and less aggressive.

III Our non-aggressive or subtle rejection

Looking at the psychology of rejection we know feelings do surface when we feel rejected: As a child not being selected to a sports team; as an adult when friends neglect to invite to lunch or notice us. Most are civil enough do not say, “You are not welcome to come with us to this party or trip.” We do not wake up and say to God I am having nothing to do with you, I am rejecting you this week.”
Yes, you and I have subtle and less aggressive ways we reject Jesus as he comes to us in everyday activities. EG.
A. Lack of praying, talking to him, acknowledging him (Professor Margaret Gaughter’s, Practice of Prayer reminds us of our neglect in prayer).
B. Hoarding or keeping the love we have experienced to ourselves. In the Prayer of St. Francis, BOCP 833:“instruments of his love” “blockers of his love.”
C. Participation at Eucharist: We can find all kinds of ways why not to come. The competition to Church of the Epiphany is not the Baptist, Presbyterian, UMC, in Alabama. Here is the competition to Sunday Worship: the trips, TV, sporting events on Saturday night, Sunday paper, house guests, going to see relatives, sporting events on Sunday AM.
D. I suggest to open your hands and an outward expression of welcoming Christ into your life
Here is the applications questions: How do you welcome Jesus in to your life of a daily basis? Are there any actions in your life that may make Jesus unwelcome in your life?

IV “Not Mine But Thine”

V33 :”He leased the vineyard to tenants and went to another country.” They were entrusted to grow and protect the produce, but they practiced massive embezzling and drawing off funds which belonged to the owner. They were saying: The owner had made a big investment in the vineyard, a hedge/fence, a wine press, a watch tower. They said these are MINE. They claimed the grapes, the watch tower, the hedge, the wine press are MINE. Our possessions, our work environment, our responsibilities are the vineyards God has placed us in. As we survey our possessions and skills we often say THIS IS MINE.
We also claim our possessions! My automobile, my house and yard, my flat screen TV, my computer, my appliances, my skills. Our name may be on the titles. However, GOD HAS ENTURSTED US TO MANAGE THEM. GOD IS THE OWNER. The owner had entrusted the tenants to manage the vineyard. He trusted them to make sure the vineyard produced fruit.
EG: Here are some practices found in Crown Financial Ministry or Financial Peace University. In western thought, we tend to emphasize our accomplishments by human efforts and human ingenuity. These achievements enable us to have these possessions. But often we forget everything comes to us as a GIFT FROM GOD. We may say to someone “you are gifted”! But do we mean Sally is GIFTED BY GOD. Stewardship is based on God as the owner and we are the managers of our abilities, jobs, and possessions.
Note this Warning found in Deuteronomy 8: 7-18,:“Do not say to yourself: “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” Here is a helpful exercise I suggest you do three times this October. Do the first one this week. Walk through your home and yard, looking at the furniture in each room. books, pictures, awards, etc. As you walk say, “thank you Jesus for loaning me these things.”
The writer of Genesis 1:11 states God has given us dominion over our environments. We are to manage these areas. In the parable the owner gives the vineyard to others. We are to use those things with which God has gifted us. Ever heard “USE IT OR LOSE IT”? Yes, we have been given “gifts to manage.” If we do not use them appropriately we will lose them.

V God is the owner and he has given each of us a vineyard to manage.

The tenants acted as if these vines, this vineyard with a wine press, tower, and hedge are MINE. If deep down in our hearts, we know all our possessions, family, relationships, talents and abilities are THINE. What attitudes and behaviors may change?
For me, when I have those moments knowing God is the Owner, I am aware of my desire to honor and please him.
I am less possessive, if something breaks, thank you Lord for letting me use this thus far, I see what I can do to repair it or have it fixed. Wednesday, our mechanic replaced our brakes. Thank you Lord for letting us use this Toyota Highlander.

When I say these things within and around the house are THINE, I am more grateful, more appreciative, for His letting me use them. Are you appreciative of your computer, word processor, printer, social networking. He has loaned us many things to use.

VI Practice Hospitality Skills

The primary thrust of this parable is how God never gives up in coming to us. Grace is defined as God coming toward us. The incarnation is God coming to us in human flesh, in the material and visible world. Christ always quietly knocking on the door of our consciousness. Sometimes when Zoe and I are checking into a hotel, or entering a restaurant we feel welcomed by the small things they do. EG: “Welcome to Moes!” Come right in>
In your daily routines during the day, do you take a few moments to welcome Christ into your life? Is he the unseen guest at your meals? Is not the act of praying one way of opening yourself to Christ’s presence? Do you prayer for the Holy Spirit to make himself known to everyone as we worship in this sacred place?

VII Keeping focused on letting into our lives.

A real story from Barcelona, Spain, Olympic Stadium, about Derek Redmond and his father Jim Redmond from England.
In the Epistle Philippians 3:13-14 “ but this is one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly (upward) call of God in Christ.”
The Message, by Eugene Peterson, “but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. Let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.”