Sermon of 27 March 2007, Tuesday of Lent 5
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Readings: II Kings 4:18-21, 32-37, Psalm 17:1-8, John 11:1-7, 18-44


The Strong themes of resurrection in today’s readings send us the clear message that the time of Lent is drawing to a close.

In this final week of preparation before we arrive at Palm Sunday and Holy Week, we are given two amazing stories of resurrection that foreshadow Christ’s death and resurrection in the coming two weeks. It is a profound and timely opportunity to reflect on God’s healing power reaching even beyond the grave to restore us to life and a right place with God, and it is a remarkable opportunity to continue this past Sunday’s themes of God doing something new as we reflect on the agency of prophet and messiah in the resurrection of the Shunammite woman’s child and of Lazarus in comparison with God’s own direct agency in Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning.

I have always loved the story from second Kings. One of two resurrection stories in the Hebrew Bible, it is a powerful example of God’s presence with Elijah and Elisha. I have also been fascinated by the description of Elisha’s actions in this story as it so closely resembles our modern practices of mouth to mouth resuscitation and chest compressions associated with CPR.

The story of Lazarus is similarly amazing, particularly the raw physicality of Martha’s warning of the stench associated with a body’s decay after four days in the tomb. This is also one of the few times in the Gospels that we really see Jesus’ humanity portrayed through his own emotional response to events around him. That Jesus is said to be greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved, to the point of weeping, gives us a very real sense of the love he feels for Lazarus, Martha and Mary, as well as giving us that rare glimpse of the human person of the Christ.

The physicality of these stories is, for me, part of their importance as we move into Holy Week next week. The foreshadowing of Christ’s very human response to Lazarus’ death will be mirrored in his despair in the garden of Gethsemane when he pleads with God to remove the cup from his lips just as his powerful faith in resurrecting Lazarus will carry him in the garden to conclude “yet not my will, but yours be done.”

God’s will is a tricky thing to discern, especially where our healing is concerned. We believe very deeply that God wants us to be happy and healthy, but to what extent is that a spiritual reality and to what extent a physical one? We’ve all known people who have an extraordinary faith and a profound and inexplicable happiness and spiritual health while in the midst of a most debilitating and sometimes terminal illness. We’ve also known, many of us first hand, of the awesome healing power of God on our physical bodies as well, and we believe in the power of prayer to aid our bodies in the healing process. But where is that line?

I think Christ points us pretty directly to that place with his resignation to following God’s will. Our two stories both remind us that we are always to bring our cares and concerns to God, especially our prayers for healing and wellbeing. The Psalmist today demonstrates the spirituality of our faith in prayer, asking God to “give heed to my cry; listen to my prayer, which does not come from lying lips.” The Shunammite woman pleads for her son’s life with God and with Elisha, Martha and Mary both plead with Jesus, knowing that Lazarus would have survived if he had been there, and venturing to believe beyond hope that Christ could yet comfort them. Christ surprises them with his willingness to bear the physical stench of deteriorating flesh and demonstrates God’s amazing providence through a miracle that went even beyond what their faith taught them to expect. As Jesus will so beautifully demonstrate next week in the Garden of Gethsemane, we are to bring our prayers of hope and even hopelessness before God, knowing that God’s will prevails in all things and seeking God’s comfort and healing wherever God wills. Where it sometimes may not be God’s will for us to find physical healing, we clearly see through Christ that it is always God’s will to sustain us and give us spiritual health.

I have two stories of my own today to help illustrate what I think I mean =o)

When Fuego was about five years old, she drowned. She had a particular love for ducks, and while out playing with her sister by their Aunt’s lake, she was feeding the ducks some bread. Seeing that one duckling in particular wasn’t getting any bread, Fuego leaned out further and further over the bank to try to get the bread out to the little one, until she lost her footing and fell into the water. She remembers struggling to the surface twice before she lost consciousness. Her sister froze in shock and could only stand watching in horror as her little sister drowned. Thankfully, Fuego's dad checked in on the girls at just the right time and came running to pull Fuego out of the water. By God’s grace, he was able to expel the water from her lungs and resuscitate her. Much as Elisha was able to raise the Shunammite woman’s son back to life, Fuego was given another chance through her dad.

Another friend of mine, Designgirl, was stricken with a rare disease that few survive. While she miraculously survived the illness, her kidneys were destroyed in the process and she was placed on the transplant list. For three years she did an abdominal fluid exchange two to three times per day. She was constantly at risk of infection and was limited in what she could eat and drink and do. During that time, she remained one of the most positive and uplifting people you could hope to meet. She spoke openly about her condition and her hopes and dreams for the future, and went on living her life to the fullest she was able. While this particular story also has a happy ending, many similar examples of the amazing ability people have within physical illness to achieve a profound spiritual vitality and peace end more abruptly. As for Designgirl, after three years of waiting, she received a kidney from her own mother, which her body accepted. She lives a fairly normal life now and hers was the first wedding I performed after being ordained a priest last June.

As we approach Holy Week and Easter, let us take some time this last week to examine our own miracles of both flesh and spirit. I know God has given me more second chances than I could possibly deserve in my life, and while I am profoundly grateful, I am constantly mindful of those around me who, though they may not have been given the same physical second chances, have yet been profound examples to me and to others around them of spiritual health and vitality. Given the option of questioning why or just praising God for giving me the opportunity to continue serving God’s will in this world, I will take the road of Praise.

Christ demonstrates to us today in Lazarus’ resurrection that God’s healing power has no limits. At the same time, we’re given the unique opportunity to witness God’s own grief through Christ at the suffering we experience at the loss of a loved one. Whether in sickness, health, or even in the grave, we are given the opportunity in today’s readings to truly see and believe that God is with us. As the Psalmist pleads with God today, so too we can be assured that God hears our pleas and cries.

May we too be kept as the apple of God’s eye, hidden under the shadow of God’s healing, loving, and compassionate mothering wings. And as we close our Lenten season this week, may we take those final moments of reflection to truly praise God for hearing our prayers and for being with us always as we continue to strive to discern and do God’s will in the world.

Amen.

I'm sad that it's been since January since I've blogged! I'm blogging for two of my classes this semester, which is taking up pretty much all of my blogging time... but it's spring break, so I'm taking a few minutes to catch up!

I finished writing my thesis a couple of weeks ago and will be defending it on Tuesday of Holy Week (3 April). I'm really excited, but also pretty nervous. With so much happening in the Anglican Communion since I submitted it, I'm going to have a lot to answer for that's not in there, so I'm trying to keep up on all the latest news. I guess that's one of the downfalls of being topical ;o)

The two big events on the horizon are Fuego's 30th birthday coming up the week after Easter (I can't wait to take a little holiday of my own and hang out with some good friends), and the "Phone Call" that could come ANY DAY NOW to let us know we have a baby!

We've been preparing now since last October, and pretty much everything is in order now. We've been officially approved by the agency -- everything is signed and filed -- so now we're just keeping a sharp ear out for the phone to ring.

When we signed our home study last Monday, our social worker told us that we could expect to wait about two or three weeks before the phone could start ringing, but it could be shorter than that as well. The initial wait is the agency getting our file out to the agencies around CA, after which they'll give us a ring anytime they have a potential match! When they call they'll give us a synopsis of the information they have on the child -- age, gender, any known disabilities, family situation, etc., and then if we think it might be a match, we set up a meeting where they give us the "full disclosure" on the child. If we still think it's a match, we get to meet them and the next stage is bringing them home (wow).

This has been quite a process for us and we're entirely stoked about it.

Ginger and Fred have been exercising every skill they have to prepare us during these past few weeks... it seems they can sense that we're close to having a major change in our family dynamic, and they are NEEEEEEDY right now. They give us constant attention, whine, yowl, lick, nip at our ankles, snuggle up to us on the couch and the bed, beg to be picked up and played with -- pretty much anything they can do to focus every bit of our attention that they can get on themselves. Since most of you know us pretty well, you've probably guessed that we love it.

I think fuego even posted some pictures of me "slinging" Fred whilst finishing my thesis. (That's a terribly under used word, "whilst," I rather like it =o). When I'm enmeshed in homework up to my ears, the last thing I need is a kitty biting my ankles, jumping repeatedly on my lap, patting his paws at my face and laying down on my keyboard. Unable to explain to my feline first born that "daddy is busy," I can't just shun his love when it isn't "convenient," so I tried out the baby's sling on him and he loves it. He goes to sleep for a couple of hours, I get to finish my homework for the night in peace, and everyone is happy. I realize that it is good that I'm finishing school in a month and a half since I don't think Fred would really understand why there would be a new pink primate in HIS sling rather than him when I'm doing my homework ;o)

Sermon of 13 March 2007, Tuesday of Lent III
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Readings: Song of the Three Young Men 2-4 and 11-20 (also known as the Prayer of Azariah, Song of the Three Jews, Apocryphal Daniel, insertion between Daniel 3:23 and 3:24, or as addition after Daniel 12:13), Psalm 25:3-10, Matthew 18:21-35


Forgiveness is a strong theme in today’s readings. Coming in the third week of Lent, this serves as a powerful reminder of the themes of repentance and forgiveness that characterize much of this season.

The song of the three young men comes from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they walk unharmed through the fires of King Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace after refusing to bow down and worship the golden statue he has erected. Azariah is the Hebrew name of Abednego before his Babylonian exile where the king renames him and his companions. This prayer is particularly powerful as Azariah, in the midst of a profound miracle of God’s protection and favor, takes the opportunity to pray for all of Israel, that God might forgive them and restore them from captivity to their former glory. He repents for all of Israel, offering in place of burnt offerings and sacrifices, contrite hearts and humble spirits, and offering himself and his rescued companions as a symbolic sacrifice, having been cast into the furnace for their faith and loyalty to God. As the story continues, they are called out of the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, who repents of his own act and honors God, offering protection to Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and promoting them to positions of honor in Babylon.

Our Psalm today give us another splendid example of a prayer of repentance. Modeling the humble and contrite heart that Azariah offers in repentance in the Song of the Three Young Men, the Psalm concludes with the simple and honest prayer: For your Name’s sake, O Lord, * forgive my sin, for it is great.

Taking the theme one step further, Jesus tells the parable of the wicked servant in today’s gospel. The parable sets up an absurd contrast to demonstrate God’s forgiveness for us and our relatively pitiful failure of compassion and forgiveness for one another. The first servant owed his master ten thousand talents, which was forgiven him. Yet he refused to forgive the hundred denarii his fellow servant owed him. To put this in perspective, it’s important to note that a denarius is the day’s wage of a laborer in the field. So to be fair, the second slave did owe the first about three and a half month’s wages. A talent, on the other hand is worth a year’s wages. So what was forgiven the first slave by his master would have been ten-thousand years worth of a day laborer’s wages. It is absurd in the first place that any master would loan his servant more money than he could repay in a hundred lifetimes, and it is even more absurd that after having experienced the awesome forgiveness of so crippling a debt that this servant would jail a fellow servant for owing him an infinitesimally insignificant debt by comparison.

The message of course, is that we are to forgive one another as God forgives us. The warning, however, that comes with this parable seems to me to be more than simply that God will withhold forgiveness if we fail to forgive our brothers and sisters. I don’t believe that God works that way.

God’s love for us is unconditional, and as such there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love and forgiveness. We, however can separate ourselves from God, and when we hold resentment, anger, fear, and hate for another in our heart, we distance ourselves from God until we have become estranged from God’s presence and alienate ourselves from God’s love and forgiveness. It is in this light that we must come to understand repentance.

I very much believe that Repentance is for us. God does not need it in order to forgive us – indeed God has already forgiven us and continues loving us no matter what. We, however, who have alienated ourselves from God through our own self-centeredness and through our unwillingness to forgive, need repentance in order to turn around and see that God has not moved away from us, but that we have turned our backs on and moved away from God.

Jesus' exhortation at the end of this parable is a message speaking to the necessity of the human heart to forgive in order to heal and to fully accept God’s love and forgiveness for us.

Just as the first servant could not fully appreciate and experience the forgiveness shown to him because of his own callous heart, we cannot fully appreciate and experience God’s love and forgiveness for us when we hold onto resentment of others.

I had an abuser when I was a child. It was a family member who will go unnamed, but it was frequent and it was crushing. I was terrified of this person and yet I had to live with them practically every day. The rest of my family and I finally escaped this person when I was about ten years old, and I resented both that person and the time we were still forced to spend together. Although the abuse stopped, I continued being a victim both through my own resentment and through the trauma I had experienced in the daily verbal abuse and frequent physical punishment that would be considered physical abuse by any modern standard. I was twenty years old when I finally found forgiveness for this person. There was no repentance, nor any seeking of forgiveness by this individual, but through God’s grace, I experienced forgiveness for this person in my heart and it has made a world of difference in who I was and who I am today. For me the forgiveness and love came within a couple of years of experiencing the profound love and forgiveness of God for the first time at the Happening retreat I speak of frequently. Having been forgiven the debt of a hundred lifetimes by God, I found the forgiveness necessary to begin building a healthy and reconciled relationship with my relative.

Until I gave up the resentment and anger I held in my heart, I continued to be the victim in that relationship and I continued to separate myself from God’s forgiveness of my own shameful actions and thoughts. In this way, what Christ teaches us in today’s parable is profoundly and deeply true for any of us who have experienced the awesome power of forgiveness in our own hearts. It isn’t because of any lack of forgiveness on God’s part, but it is entirely because of our ability to forgive that we can become open to receive forgiveness.

Thus it is through true repentance and through our own willingness to forgive that we come to accept God’s forgiveness and reopen ourselves to God’s love.

God give us the strength this Lent to forgive those who have hurt or angered us, give us the wisdom to seek your forgiveness when we have separated ourselves from you, and give us the grace to recognize in our hearts when we have turned our backs on you. We thank you for your gift of love.

Amen.