Sunday Preview

The Collect
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Acts 13:15-16,26-33(34-39)

When Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch in Pisidia, they went on the sabbath day into the synagogue, and after the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, "Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it." So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:

"You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. My brothers, you descendants of Abraham's family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

'You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.'

[As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

`I will give you the holy promises made to David.'

Therefore he has also said in another psalm,

`You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.'

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.]

Psalm 100: Jubilate Deo

1

Be joyful in the LORD, all you lands; *
serve the LORD with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.

2

Know this: The LORD himself is God; *
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

3

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.

4

For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

Chaplaincy Review: Langston Hughes, "April Rain Song"

Langston Hughes is back!

"April Rain Song"
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

Morning After Preaching, Second Sunday of Easter

I have a lot of sympathy for Thomas. In fact, I think he gets a pretty raw deal in the Christian tradition, probably because of Jesus’ rebuke. (Of course, Jesus rebuked the disciples – and most especially Peter – all the time, so it’s not exactly anything to write home about.) But Thomas is forever remembered as doubting.

I have a theory about this. After time passed, after Pentecost, when the early Christians could no longer see the risen Christ in the flesh, Jesus’ words are a sort of balm: Blessed are you who do not see but yet believe. If you have no chance to physically put your hands on Jesus, well, your consolation is right there in his very own words.

Human beings are sensory creatures. Taste, touch, sight, sound – these are how we experience the world. If you’ve ever been around a very young child, you’ve seen this at the most basic, instinctive level. As we grow up, we learn not to put everything in our mouths, not to touch certain things, like an open flame, sharp knives and so on.

But the underlying principle of human knowing abides: I know because I have seen, felt, tasted, heard – for myself. This is, in fact, the basis for scientific inquiry, for discovering the world and its material properties. Our whole modern world is based on the very human impulse that we share with Thomas – the urge to know through our senses, in order to fully experience the reality of any given thing. Thomas’s reaction is exactly what our academic culture prizes: not relying solely on what others say, but investigating for oneself. Not taking anything on faith. This is precisely the opposite of what Jesus praises, however. Jesus’ words – that those who believe without seeing are blessed – go against our natural impulses and against everything we’ve been taught.

Part of my sympathy for Thomas is that he only asks to see what the other disciples saw. Jesus came and stood among them; he showed the other disciples his hands and his side. Why is Thomas so maligned for wanting to experience as the others had?

I’m willing to bet that if we were given the chance to see and touch the risen Christ in the flesh, we’d take it. I certainly would! Perhaps Jesus’ rebuke is for all the disciples who were privileged to see him in the fifty days after Easter morning, so that they would remember that their privilege places an imperative on them, one that is passed on to us.

Jesus came that we should have life abundantly. The responsibility that comes with knowing and believing in Jesus is that we share the good news with others. We are called not only to believe but to proclaim Jesus as the Christ and as our Lord, so that each person might know the risen Christ and so that they too might share in abundant life.

It is this responsibility that took the apostles to the temple in Jerusalem to proclaim Jesus as Lord. It brought them imprisonment. It took them across the Mediterranean and throughout the Roman Empire. It led Peter to declare that “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” It brought the apostles and the early Christians into conflict with religious authorities and with the state. It would cost many of them their lives in this world, but not the abundant life that Jesus had promised.

Most of us will never have to risk our lives or our freedom in order to proclaim the gospel. It might require sacrifices of other kinds, or it might be so simple as to be forgettable.

This is precisely the kind of moment that I have experienced. I didn’t grow up going to church. My parents and sister didn’t believe in God. But when I was eleven, a friend taught me the Lord’s Prayer. And in that small moment, the seed of Christian faith took root in my life. I don’t remember my friend’s name, and I’m sure she’s long since forgotten me. But that small, simple moment had real and enduring consequences for my life.

It shaped my choices about how to live my life. It defined how I treated other people and how I nurtured my relationship with God. It brought me here, to this very moment. It opened my eyes to the abundant life that we have in Jesus.

Knowing all of this, believing in all of it, I can do nothing else but proclaim the good news – that Jesus is my Lord and that he is risen – in small ways and in momentous ways, in every way that I can, at every opportunity that I am given. Our faith does not stop at believing. It should pervade everything we do, the choices we make, and the ways that we interact with one another and with everyone.

That is the responsibility that rests on all of us who have come to know Jesus not by sight, but by faith, who have experienced the paschal mystery of Easter, and who have responded by believing: to show forth our faith, because it does not belong to us. It belongs to God. It is a gift that we, having received it, must share. Thomas, for all his doubts and his need to experience though his senses the fullness of Christ, invites us to remember that we are blessed to know Christ and that that blessing is something to share. Amen.

Sunday Preview

The Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Acts 5:12a,17-22,25-29

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life." When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported. Then someone arrived and announced, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!" Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us" But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority."

Psalm 111: Confitebor tibi

1

Hallelujah!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, *
in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.

2

Great are the deeds of the LORD! *
they are studied by all who delight in them.

3

His work is full of majesty and splendor, *
and his righteousness endures for ever.

4

He makes his marvelous works to be remembered; *
the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.

5

He gives food to those who fear him; *
he is ever mindful of his covenant.

6

He has shown his people the power of his works *
in giving them the lands of the nations.

7

The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; *
all his commandments are sure.

8

They stand fast for ever and ever, *
because they are done in truth and equity.

9

He sent redemption to his people;
he commanded his covenant for ever; *
holy and awesome is his Name.

10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; *
those who act accordingly have a good understanding;
his praise endures for ever.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if your retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Chaplaincy Review: Photo Special!

Students & Ben+
Victor, Judith, Ben, and Marianne

Morning After Preaching

I wonder how many of you like murder mysteries? I am not a gambling man, but I’m willing to guess nearly all of you. This is something I’ve noticed about church people: they love a good murder! But why are books about violence and death so interesting to us?

It might be sheer escapism. It might also be that, as Christians, we take seriously the reality of violence and death in the world. Think of the readings we hear throughout holy week. Think of Abraham and Isaac, where God demands that Abraham sacrifice his only Son. Thankfully, God relents and gives Abraham back his Son, Isaac, but God’s power of life and death is clear. Then we heard the story of the people of Israel escaping from pharaoh through the Red Sea. God brings death to pharoah’s charioteers, but he rescues his chosen people. Then we heard from Ezekiel, who also told us about God’s power over death. God asked Ezekiel to breathe life back into the bones of the dead in order to bring them to life. Death is not victorious, these stories say, if God is on your side.

In their own way, murder mysteries are based upon the same struggle of life against death. But there is something else to be said for them: something I want to talk about briefly tonight. They are good training for how to read carefully, how to see things we didn’t see before. They train us to look for the unexpected in what is in front of us. You’ve all heard of Sherlock Holmes, I hope, the first real detective in fiction. Picture Sherlock Holmes holding up what looks like something normal and everyday, and asking his sidekick, Watson, what he sees. “I can see nothing,” Watson says to Homes. “On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see.”

Somehow things in front of us, things under our noses, hide within them all the evidence necessary to figure out what happened. For those with eyes to see, what looks like nothing can, in fact, reveal everything. For those with eyes to see, folded grave clothes, an empty tomb, can reveal the resurrection of the Son of God.

A mystery novel trains us to look for the unexpected. To look at the world in a different way from the way most people look – to be a Sherlock Holmes rather than a Watson. Of course it is Watson who, like many skeptics, thinks that Holmes has lost his grip on reality. Holmes is thought by the skeptic to be eccentric and strange… right up until the last pages, when the truth is revealed. But if we look closely, if instead of skepticism we believe, then we will look as closely as Holmes at every clue. And perhaps we too will figure out what has happened before the final pages.

That was what the angel told the women who came to the tomb that first Easter morning. Luke’s gospel tells us the women went “and found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise’.” (Luke 24:2-6) Remember what he told you, say the angels. Remember the clues he gave. Look with the eyes of faith, and you will know in your heart what’s happened.

In Luke’s account, the evidence of resurrection was already hidden in all that Jesus said and did. For those with eyes to see, Jesus had trained his followers to look for the unexpected. For those with ears to hear, Jesus had told his followers the mysterious truth about himself. So, as the angels say: Why be perplexed? Why seek the living among the dead? For the truth, the mysterious and wonderful truth, is that Jesus Christ has risen. Jesus Christ is who he said – the one whom death and darkness could not defeat, God’s own Son.

Tonight is a night of great joy. The mystery of the death on Friday afternoon has revealed its truth – that Jesus Christ is God’s Son come to be among us, come to release us from sin and death. Life has beaten murder on the cross. Christ has overtaken death. And Christ’s life can overtake us too, lifting us up to God.

Back in the early days of the Church, those about to be baptized learned all about mysteries – the “holy mysteries,” or mysteries of faith. In Jerusalem, over 1600 years ago, St Cyril played the role of Sherlock Holmes, teaching those about to be baptized how to “see everything.” They learned how to see with the eyes of faith, learned how to recognize the Bible’s truths, learned how to encounter God in the world. We can still read St Cyril of Jerusalem’s words to those to be baptized.

“Already there is an odor of blessedness upon you, O ye who are soon to be enlightened: already ye are gathering the spiritual flowers, to weave heavenly crowns: already the fragrance of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon you: already ye have gathered round the vestibule of the King’s palace; may ye be led in by the King!” A bit more poetic than a Sherlock Holmes novel I will admit. But Cyril is trying to instill the sense of anticipation, of wanting to be drawn into a mystery, in a way that employs your reason. Like all good Episcopalians, he doesn’t want people to leave their brains outside church.

On Easter morning in Jerusalem, the newly baptized received the fullness of that mystery: received the Eucharist for the first time on Easter, the day of Jesus’s resurrection. They now tasted what they had been taught: the mystery that is hidden in bread and wine. For the first time they experienced what we learned on Maundy Thursday, about the gift of Jesus’s life in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

The gift that was given in that Last Supper, the gift of Jesus’s own life, was handed over late on Thursday night to the Jewish authorities, who handed the gift over to Pilate, who eventually handed it to the people, who took that life away by shouting “Crucify him!” on Friday. The gift of life, which we humans tried to snuff out on the cross, is offered to us again as Christ rises from the dead.

The Eucharist is possible only because Christ, though dead on Friday, is risen again. Risen and present still. The mystery of the empty tomb is the mystery of Christ’s life offered to us still. Why, then, do you seek the living among the dead? Today death and darkness have lost. In bread and wine is life. Alleluia!

A later version of the poem,

Grace

My anger is a ball.

I clench it in my fist like a ball.

It grows a little, prints against my palm.

I roll it, it becomes a ball again.

It is very small. I press it smaller.

Some days it is so small I think I lose it.

But it has strung the center of my palm.

Absently, I flex my spider ball

I let it drop, it bounces up again

Travellating, a glob that slides on string.

When I sleep, it throbs and I relax.

In the morning it is swollen slightly.

Sometimes, I like to play the magic cup game:

Spin a ball slicked under three plain cups:

One for you, one for me, one for us:

Make a guess – where is my anger now?

I have been told

I do not know

The silver cliffs

Of your authority.

But I have heard

And have been told

That if I hurled –

My ball would rise

And maybe pass

The highest peak –

And so I hurl –

Air rushes with a sound –

And nothing:

I’m still waiting for rebound.

--

I'm happy with the formal changes, but it may need some tweaking yet.

Sunday Preview

The Collect

O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Acts 10:34-43

Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Psalm 118:14-17, 22-24 - Confitemini Domino

14

The LORD is my strength and my song, *
and he has become my salvation.

15

There is a sound of exultation and victory *
in the tents of the righteous:

16

"The right hand of the LORD has triumphed! *
the right hand of the LORD is exalted!
the right hand of the LORD has triumphed!"

17

I shall not die, but live, *
and declare the works of the LORD.

22

The same stone which the builders rejected *
has become the chief cornerstone.

23

This is the LORD'S doing, *
and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24

On this day the LORD has acted; *
we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Colossians 3:1-4

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Luke 24:1-10

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.

Chaplaincy Review: Oscar Wilde, "Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa"

Ocsar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, poet and novelist. He left Ireland in 1878, and spent the subsequent years in London, Paris and the United States. This particular poem, "Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa," was written in 1881.


I WANDERED in Scoglietto’s green retreat,
The oranges on each o’erhanging spray
Burned as bright lamps of gold to shame the day;
Some startled bird with fluttering wings and fleet
Made snow of all the blossoms, at my feet
Like silver moons the pale narcissi lay:
And the curved waves that streaked the sapphire bay
Laughed i’ the sun, and life seemed very sweet.
Outside the young boy-priest passed singing clear,
“Jesus the Son of Mary has been slain,
O come and fill his sepulchre with flowers.”
Ah, God! Ah, God! those dear Hellenic hours
Had drowned all memory of Thy bitter pain,
The Cross, the Crown, the Soldiers, and the Spear.

Morning After Preaching

We are about to enter a life-changing week. Life-changing for us, precisely because it was life-ending for Jesus. The first holy week was a tumultuous one for him whom we follow. Christ Jesus began where we did today, with a triumphal entry – a triumphal entry into Jerusalem when he was hailed by the people as King. They waved palms, and spread their cloaks upon the ground, and shouted “Hosanna, hosanna” at the top of their lungs.

But within a week their cries changed. Changed to “Crucify him, crucify him.” And so began his rejection by the people, rejection even by those like Peter he had called his friends. He was left alone to die upon a cross. This week we are invited to walk the way of the cross with Jesus, and unlike Peter to stay with him to the end.

Christ, the man, underwent great change in the first holy week. We call it the time of his Passion because of the emotional and physical torment he went through. Think of the emotions a human being experiences when he is hailed one day with cries of “Hosanna,” only to be spurned five days later and condemned to death. Think of the emotion that led him to cry out in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Let this cup pass from me” – let this anguish and pain pass from me. Think above all of the change that greeted Christ, as it will greet each one of us in our own time, as he passed from life into death.

In spite of the changes, there is something changeless in Christ too. For Christ is not just fully man. Through all the changes of holy week, Christ remained changelessly God. He remained God even in his very weakness, remained God in his human death. And this is precisely why this week can change us. It can change us because during this week we come face to face with the changeless God. During this week we recognize anew the wonder of God coming to us. God has entered into human flesh to work our salvation.

“Christ Jesus,” says St Paul, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-6).

“Though he was in the form of God,” says St Paul, “though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Instead of remaining in the form of God, Christ took on the form of a human. In so doing, his divine substance did not change – God cannot change – but took on human substance as well. Thus he was “found in human form… humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

As we accompany him through the time of his Passion, we will chart the changes in Christ’s human form. We will perhaps feel his emotions within ourselves: the joy, the sorrow, the anguish. Even if we cannot feel his emotions, we know that there are people who every day experience joy, sorrow and anguish. We can see what those emotions look like. We can see how horrific pain, or isolation from friends, or fear of death, shape and scar people. Jesus was shaped and scarred in just these ways during holy week, but he suffered these things that he might overcome them. But how?

God is powerfully at work in human pain and suffering because Christ has become like us in order to transform these things. Here is how one fourth-century saint put it: “When a great king has entered a large city and taken up residence in one of the houses of it, such a city becomes worthy of great honor and is no longer assaulted by any enemy or bandit, but is rather deemed worthy of every attention because of the king residing in one of its houses. Such is the case of the King of all. As soon as he came to our realm and took up residence in one body, like our own, the whole conspiracy against humanity by its enemies” – evil and sin and the pain they cause – “has been stopped and the corruption of death which had formerly ruled over them has been obliterated.” (Ath, de Inc. 9) Little did the people know how accurate they were when they welcomed the king into the city of Jerusalem. Through his death there even death’s victory would be obliterated.