Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sermon for the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24, Year C)
Sunday, October 17, 2010 at St. Andrew’s in Montevallo, Alabama
Jeremiah31:27-34 Psalm 119:97-104 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Quite a weekend here at St. Andrew’s. Our diocesan bishop, our very own Henry Parsley and friends old and new, with us for the blessing of our new campus ministry center next door, a festival Eucharist in this space last night celebrating over 150 years of ministry in this community… and here we are catching our collective breaths… with Jeremiah who shows up telling us of a new covenant where God will have a direct connection with his people, and Timothy urging us to persevere, to be persistent and focused, in living out our call to be bearers of God’s word and faithful in our action.
Then we have today’s Gospel, where Jesus tells a parable about an unjust judge and a poor widow. Like all parables, this story has more than one layer of meaning. One meaning is the one that Luke guides us to when he says that Jesus told it to remind the disciples about the need “to pray always and not to lose heart.”
Probably the most popular reading of the parable, and it asks us to identify with the widow, pleading unceasingly to an outlaw judge, “who neither feared God nor had respect for people, for her petition to be heard.” God is less easily or obviously identified by contrast in this reading with the unjust judge, who after much delay answers the widow’s incessant pestering simply in order to get rid of her.
The analogy is from the lesser to the greater, a typical rhetorical device of that time, so that Jesus comments after telling the story, that if such a wicked man as the judge when he tires of the widow’s pleas, will grant her request, so much more will our just, merciful, and loving God be that much quicker to answer our prayers.
I’ve got to tell you, I’ve always had trouble with that particular interpretation, even if it seems at first blush that Luke sets the parable up to be read that way. The lesser to greater technique is a good one, but can only be taken so far. And this is really stretching it. Usually there is some form of commonality between the lesser and the greater.
For example, Jesus asks in another place if a parent would give his child a snake, and assuming the answer is a resounding “no” goes on to say, so much more so will our heavenly Father give us good things. But, this judge is in no way like God; he is despicable, utterly selfish, with no redeeming values, no respect for anything divine or human; he is a law unto himself, he has nothing in common with our greater, eternal Judge, other than the mere title – judge.
He is the exact opposite of Old Testament judges, who are admonished in 2 Chronicles by King Jehoshaphat to take care what they do, for they are not judging on behalf of human beings but on behalf of God, who judges them. The King explicitly advises and directs them to let the fear of God be upon them, and reminds them to act carefully because with God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking.
The widow in this interpretation is also portrayed against type. Biblical widows typically are referred to in the Bible as, weak, poor and defenseless. They are lumped together often with orphans and foreigners, persons who are the most vulnerable and without resources. And Scripture repeatedly tells us that special concern needs to be shown for these persons who are unable to help themselves.
This widow, however, is anything but helpless. She is bold, brash, outspoken, demanding justice ceaselessly until she gets what she wants. She confronts the judge in his own typically male-only arena, and finally wears him down with her persistence. In fact, he gives in because there’s no other way to get rid of her and in his final comment in Greek, indicates that he’s afraid she’ll give him a black eye. You don’t get that sense of combativeness in most English translations, and we have to settle for the idea that he only fears being worn down, or slandered and his good name destroyed.
This is one courageous, tough, determined woman, totally focused on having her way, on extracting justice, even from the most dishonest, unjust, uncaring, unaware judge in existence.
So what if we look at this parable from a different point of view. What if we are called to imitate her perseverance as disciples, not because she is a victim who with little influence and power could easily lose heart, but instead with her insistent, unwearying, continual, outspoken demand for justice… represents God.
And the judge – well, he’s me… us…. in all our various manifestations individually and corporately. He’s us personally in our own selfishness, complacency, prejudice and resistance to change; he’s us communally in all of our political, economic, and social systems that are unjust, corrupt, and invested in the existing structures of power and the protection of the privileged.
Doesn’t that make this parable easier to understand? Not only does the widow seem more “god-like” in her dogged resistance to injustice, naming it, facing it and denouncing it until justice is achieved, so also is another pesky problem with the more traditional interpretation done away with. When the judge is seen as the figure representing God, the story implies that if one badgers God persistently enough, one can eventually wear God down and get anything they want.
Now, I understand that this can be is a common attitude towards prayer – after all, Jesus does say, “ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” But instead of hearing this as another admonition to persevere and not to lose heart, we hear it instead as technical advice on how to get our way with God.
I read not long ago about a church announcing that it would be hosting an all-day seminar on “how to Minister and Receive Healing,” and the description for the seminar said, “The seminar is designed to train people how to minister healing, see results when they pray, and understand how to receive healing.” Did you hear that – “see results”? Is that what prayer is about? Is that why we pray? In order to “see results”?
With the widow playing the part of God in this parable, the story also becomes one of godly power revealed in seeming weakness. And it offers points of view about the methods that might be used to achieve a just end. It is, after all, the judge that worries about getting a black eye; there isn’t an indication that the widow was ready to give him one. Violence isn’t part of her strategy. She just keeps on keeping on and never loses heart.
I was reminded of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the power of persistence. In developing his strategy for continual mass non-violent demonstrations, he wrote that he was inspired by Gandhi who’d said about the British, that the Indian people must “never let them rest.” and Gandhi had urged them to keep protesting daily and weekly in lots of different ways. King comments, “All history teaches us that like a turbulent ocean beating great cliffs into fragments of rock, the determined movement of people incessantly demanding their rights always disintegrates the old order.” And then he says, “Our powerful weapons are the voices, the feet, and the bodies of dedicated, united people, moving without rest toward a just goal.” In another place he wrote, “Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.”
So, are you ready to be a “co-worker” with God following the pattern of this gutsy and spirited widow? There are many ways our discipleship can take shape and make a difference, as many ways as there are people here today.
One example comes from a friend over in Georgia, who recalled a state legislator for the area of New York where she had previously served a church, who was totally disinterested in the efforts of a local group that was promoting affordable housing for the poor. Beth was a part of the advocacy group, and they continued, day in and day out, to call him, send him letters, visit his office, take him to see the sites that concerned them. And finally, one day, he gave in; he saw the light – they’d beaten him down! And he went on to testify before Congress about the need for affordable housing. Through their efforts, they’d made him an instrument of God’s justice in spite of himself!
I was also of another story about a woman who at the age of 80 approached a local fabric store to request the old dress patterns that they would be soon throwing away to make room for newer ones. She knew that these patterns could be sent to other countries to help women make much needed clothing. But she was denied despite repeated requests. So, she drove her Cadillac to the alley behind the store day after day and waited, and one day, the patterns were thrown into the dumpster, and she jumped out with her stepladder and climbed into the dumpster, tossing patterns out on to the pavement one after the other, only to realize then that she couldn’t get out of the dumpster. So she picked up her cell phone and called a friend to come and rescue her. She also has arranged with Hartsfield Airport to receive the scissors that are confiscated from travelers, to send to sewing centers. She now has a warehouse full of items that nobody else wants, but that she can send to places in need.
And among many of our own examples of outreach at St. Andrew’s is the gathering and sorting of gently used clothes to give away to those in need in our community of Montevallo.
Jesus asks at the end of this parable, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In the last two weeks of readings, we’ve heard faith described as obedience and as gratitude. Today, faith is found in persistence – God’s and ours. Throughout our lives God continues to call us; and so long as we live it will continue. We will never arrive at the place where we can say, “I’ve done it all; God can’t ask any more of me.” God’s call may be different at different times in our lives, but there is always more to do. At times I… we… will listen well, and at other times not so well, but “God’s voice is never stilled. Each time we hear and respond, [each time we persevere], we become more the [faithful] person God calls us to be.”
May Christ find us faithful to the end.
Thanks be to God!
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.

Saturday, May 08, 2010

An introduction to Taizé

Life at Taizé from Taizé on Vimeo.



hey, y'all, to commemorate 70 years of Taize and the 5 years since Br. Roger's death, the community is putting together videos which start with this 15 minute or about life in the community and continues with other short ones, still more being posted each week throughout the month.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Sermon for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
Saturday, February 07, 2010 at St. Andrew’s in Montevallo, Alabama
Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13] Psalm 138 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon


Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

So, today we’re putting out into deep waters with this great story about how Jesus calls the fishermen to follow him on the path to discipleship. This Gospel story from Luke the Evangelist, a physician from Antioch and a sometime companion of Paul, has three particular parts that I’d like to reflect on.

First, we hear how they’ve been out fishing all night on the Sea of Galilee and they’ve caught nothing, how Jesus borrows Simon’s boat and teaches the crowd on the shore and when he is finished, he turns to Simon and says, “Put out into deep waters and lower your nets.” That seems a pretty incredible statement, and one worthy to spend some time with. Of course, Simon Peter is at first resistant and tells how he knows all about fishing, and Jesus couldn’t know anything, and there are no fish to be caught… but then he gives in and does what Jesus says. In a poetic way, we probably all feel like we’ve spent our whole lives out on the water all night and haven’t caught anything, and along comes Jesus telling us to put out into deep waters. That’s God, always pushing us out to go farther than we think we can go, into the unknown, into uncharted waters. So the question becomes: how is Jesus pushing you these days out into deep waters? How are you going to respond to his call?

Then, they make a big catch and both boats nearly sink because of the great number of fish, and how does Simon Peter respond? He falls at the knees of Jesus and says, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” There is a great mystery here. I think the Gospel is telling us that whenever we enter into the presence of God, whenever we realize that we are in the presence of Christ, we suddenly recognize not only his light and holiness, but our darkness and sinfulness. So the Gospel calls us to recognize our sinfulness before Christ, to realize that we are sinners. But Jesus does not condemn Simon Peter or us. He loves us, forgives us and calls us. We are sinners but we are also greatly loved by God, and we need Christ to help us and save us. For me, I want to change Simon Peter’s plea to say, “Never depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man and I need you.”

Finally, Jesus says this great line to Peter, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men and women.” With that, they leave their nets, their boats, the fish, their parents… and follow him. Jesus says the same thing to us today. He does not want us to live in fear. Instead he invites us to live in relationship with him, to follow him and to join his campaign to change the world by leading one another and all people to God and God’s reign of love and peace. So we can ask ourselves: How are we dropping our nets and following Jesus? How do we practice discipleship to Christ today? How are we trying to catch people for Christ and the reign of God?
A stumbling block in considering how to respond to Jesus’ call to us is that it is can be all too easy to become so preoccupied with our inabilities and shortcomings, that it leaves us nearly in a state of inaction. It can be difficult to believe that God, who is holy and pure, can use the most imperfect men, women, boys and girls … people like you, like me. But God does.

Facing whatever feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness, or sinfulness … whatever that loud voice in our ear is saying, in opposition to the small still quiet voice of God, and in the light of God’s holiness and righteousness… facing that is a necessary step if God is to use us as instruments of God’s love. Simon Peter, the prophet Isaiah, the Apostle Paul, and innumerable other women and men of God inside and outside of Scripture share in this experience. In contrast to God’s virtue, the women and men who God commissions will always identify their own faults and failures. But in spite of that, they will also recognize God’s readiness to forgive and empower, which frees them to work with peace and confidence on behalf of poor and hungry people in our nation and around the world.

And as we begin to respond to God’s call to us… with our minds to think, hearts to love, hands to serve… it is important to know, as best we can, what has worked, what has not, and why. To do that is what, in my vernacular, is referred to as participatory community based research so that the needs we’re meeting are indeed of those that we’re appointed to serve. That how we determine the needs, and how they’re met, is formed in equal partnership between traditionally trained “experts” and members of the community to which a ministry is intended.

In the wake of the earthquake and devastation in Haiti, thought it might be helpful to review an experience of “helping” that has become an example of what the result can be when other interests or concerns end up being placed ahead of the real and actual needs of the poor, working poor, and hungry.

I think that it is always important that we educate ourselves about whoever it is that we’re partnered in ministry with, in this case about the history of Haiti and its people's incredible struggle of resistance and self-determination against continued cycles of colonial and neocolonial suppression. The mainstream media continues to stress that Haiti is the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere without offering a serious analysis of why that is the case.
One way to begin to understand Haiti's experience with poverty and economic oppression is in the history of the eradication of the Haitian Creole pig population in the 1980's, a modern parable and as recounted by former Haitian president Jean Bertrand-Aristide.

“In 1982 international agencies assured Haiti's peasants their pigs were sick and had to be killed (so that the illness would not spread to countries to the North). Promises were made that better pigs would replace the sick pigs. With an efficiency not since seen among development projects, all of the Creole pigs were killed over a period of thirteen months.

“Two years later the new, better pigs came from Iowa. They were so much better that they required clean drinking water (unavailable to 80% of the Haitian population), imported feed (costing $90 a year when the per capita income was about $130), and special roofed pigpens. Haitian peasants quickly dubbed them “prince a quatre pieds [prahn-suh-a-ka-truh-pyay],” or “four-footed princes”. Adding insult to injury, the meat did not taste as good. Needless to say, the repopulation program was a complete failure. One observer of the process estimated that in monetary terms Haitian peasants lost $600 million dollars. There was a 30% drop in enrollment in rural schools; there was a dramatic decline in the protein consumption in rural Haiti; a devastating decapitalization of the peasant economy and an incalculable negative impact on Haiti's soil and agricultural productivity. The Haitian peasantry has not recovered to this day.”
With stories like this to inform but not discourage us, it reminds me of what I think is one of the most amazing dimensions of our faith… that God is willing to forgive each of us, all of us, and to empower us in our work on behalf of the least among us. What a wonderful God we worship, who knows our failures and yet says, “Your sin is blotted out. Don’t be afraid. I am sending you to do my work in the world.”

I think that Jesus is the greatest person who ever lived, and he really is worth following. That it’s worth it to drop our nets, change our lives, and try to follow in his footsteps. It’s also so very important that each one of us join his project of calling people to discipleship, of catching people for Christ, of being fishers of women and men. There are a lot of politics and campaigns these days, which has become the cultural norm it seems, but for me the Gospel campaign of Jesus is the only one worth joining, the one worth giving our lives for, the one that I choose to give my life to.

So, what does it means to join the Gospel campaign of Jesus?

I think that in this world of hate, indifference and fear, our job is to catch people for Christ’s love.
In this world of gossip, pettiness, hypocrisy and lies, our job is to catch people for Christ’s truth.

In this world of enmity, resentment, grudges, revenge and the death penalty, our job is to catch people for Christ’s compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation.

In this world of injustice and oppression, our job is to catch people for Christ’s justice.

In this world of selfishness and greed, our job is to catch people for Christ’s way of selfless service.

In this world of violence and bombing raids and colonial occupation, our job is to catch people for Christ’s nonviolence.

In this world of war, nuclear weapons, imperialism, and global militarism, our job is to catch people for Christ’s peace.

In this world of despair and death, our job is to catch people for Christ’s hope, for the new life of God’s reign of resurrection. From now on, we are catching women and men for the nonviolent Christ.

And in the words of Sir Frances Drake, who knew a lot about being called to deep water, let us pray…

Disturb us Lord when
We are too well pleased with ourselves
When our dreams have come true,
Because we dreamed too little
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to shore.

Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sermon for the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord (Year C)
Sunday, January 10, 2010 at Trinity Church in Clanton, Alabama
Isaiah 43:1-7 Isaiah 43:1-7 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17,21-22
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

You know, if you were a member of the Orthodox Church and following the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian civil calendar that we follow, the twelve days of Christmas would have only just begun, and the feast of the Epiphany wouldn’t be here until January nineteenth. I mention this because in the Orthodox churches, the gospel lesson you would hear read on Epiphany is not the story of the visit of the Magi that we heard proclaimed last Sunday, but the reading we just heard about the baptism of Jesus. For the Orthodox, this is the primary story of God’s manifestation, which they call by an even stronger word than “epiphany.” They call it “theophany,” the blazing forth of God.

Why this story in particular? Well it’s not because they have such a high theology of baptism (although they do), but because this is the only story in all of the gospel accounts where all three persons of the Trinity are named as present – are acting in the world. There’s Jesus, of course, obediently but surprisingly being baptized in the river Jordan. There’s the Holy Spirit, descending like a dove from the heavens to Jesus, and There’s the voice of God, heard blessing Jesus, and claiming him as beloved Son.

God the creator, the first person of the Holy Trinity, doesn’t show up in person much in the gospels. Jesus mentions God a lot, of course: talks to God, talks about God, teaches others to do the same. But there’s only one other personal appearance, at the Transfiguration, where God does and says the exact same thing as in today’s story. The rest of the time it’s angels and prophets and especially Jesus speaking on God’s behalf.

So what can we learn from this unique “blazing forth” of God in all three persons at Jesus’ baptism? Well… other than that Jesus’ baptism was taken seriously enough that the whole family showed up?

First of all, notice what the three of them are doing. Jesus is doing what he always does: being fully human, fulfilling and yet somehow subverting rules and expectations in a single action, over turning social understandings of power and priority just by showing up – being a different kind of Messiah than everyone was expecting.

Secondly, and to use a word from John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is paracleting away: in other words, mediating between the divine and the earthly, and in so doing showing that the two are intimately connected, that God has both the will and the means to act in human lives.

And then there’s God the creator. That voice, doing again the most important act from the creation story, which is not the making itself but the divine assessment: “It is good.” “Behold my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This final quality report, both in the creation story and in the gospels, is the part of the creative act that often seems to be ignored, both in our lack of respect for the things and people God made and declared to be good, and in the contrary assessment of Jesus made in his lifetime and after by so many. Humankind has not always been as well-pleased with Jesus as God was.

So God is revealed to us, in all of God’s three-personed godliness, in the moment of Jesus’ baptism. It is a moment we uniquely recall when we baptize; when you were baptized. In communion we call on the risen Jesus to be known to us in the breaking of the bread, but in baptism we expect all three persons of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be present and involved.

We pledge ourselves to them, all three, in the Apostle’s Creed. And in the rest of the Baptismal Covenant, [which we will have a chance to renew in a few minutes,] we also pledge ourselves to do the same things that God is doing in the Theophany, God’s blazing forth, at Jesus’ baptism.

We pledge to continue in the Apostles’ teaching, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers, and to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin repent and return to the Lord. In other words, we pledge to embrace being fully human – to live into (and occasionally to subvert or transform) the stories and traditions that we have been handed, and to hand them on to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. And we pledge to recognize that our failings, our shortcoming, our sins, do not set us beyond the reach of God’s love; that God is always ready to love us and to receive us when we repent.

We pledge to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ. This is Holy Spirit work – to be the messenger and message to those who ache to hear of and to experience the love of God. We, like that dove, are bearers of God’s Word, and our Baptismal Covenant reminds us of the seriousness and solemnity of the charge… to carry the good news to the ends of the earth.

And, finally, we pledge to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. Do you see how those pledges give life and force to the recognition of God’s proclamation of the goodness of creation and of Jesus? The indignities, the uncharitableness, the cruelty that we visit on one another and on the world reflect a failure to embrace the goodness, the God-pleasing rightness of all that God has made, of all that has been given into our care.

And one of the great things about these pledges is that they make wonderful touchstones. They are an ‘easy to carry with you’ guide to Godly action.

When I am cross ways with someone, or am making judgments about him or her, am I truly seeking Christ in that person?

And whether or not I find the Christ that I know is there in that person, are my choices and actions serving Christ?

Am I, by my words and actions at this moment, showing the world the good news about God in Christ – that the embrace of love reaches beyond all boundaries to draw the children of God together – that God can and does love you, can and does love me… extravagantly, passionately, without limit?

And perhaps most importantly, for ourselves and for our institutions, am I respecting the dignity of every human being?

Do the choices that I am making right now, that my family, or committee, or Vestry are making today; honor and uphold the dignity of every person those decisions will affect?

Because if not, if the answer to any of those questions is “no,” our Baptismal Covenant, and indeed the love and example of God, calls on us to make different choices, to keep struggling with our choices, to keep learning from and repenting our mistakes, until we can honor those pledges with our lives as well as with our words.

And when we do that – when the gospel is proclaimed in all we do, and Christ is sought and served, justice and peace are striven for, and the dignity of every human being is respected and cherished, then God will blaze forth again and again, and we shall all be well pleased.

Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.