What is Up?*

Proper 28

1 Samuel 1:4-20

Mark 13:1-8

Click link for Homily given at

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

New Harmony, Indiana

This Summer

My family and a few close friends gathered

To celebrate my mother’s 80^th birthday

My mother is incredibly sharp at 80

She still beats me at any and every skill based card game

Or any game that has to do with words

Building words, finding words, spelling words…

Bottom line:

She has an AW-INSPIRING and enviable 80 year old brain

At some point in the party I found myself

in the middle of a conversation group

sharing the incredibleness of the muscle that is my mother’s brain

And as soon as I used the word MUSCLE

Out of left field

my “know-it-all” doctor brother

Began to give a lecture about the brain,

what it is and how it is MOST CERTAINLY

NOT a muscle!

I wanted to say

WAIT A MINUTE

YOU DIDN’T LET ME FINISH

THAT WASN’T MY POINT AT ALL!!!

But my bother can be very captivating

This is why I feel a certain kinship

With that disciple in today’s Gospel

He’s having a similar experience of being misunderstood

“Look teacher…What large stones and what a large building!!!”

The stones were big…the building was AWE-inspiring

And then Jesus, who seemingly, out of left field,

Usurps the conversation and

begins talking of wars, and famines, and earthquakes!

SO…What is up?

In sympathy with that disciple

I’ve been asking

What brings me to the point of AWE? 

A few recent ones for me:

…ancient trees over 1,000 years old…

take your breath away AWE!

…that perfect bite…that perfect balance of savory and sweet…

I don’t swallow…AWE!

…being in Chicago and looking up and knowing that the toilet on the 108^th floor actually flushes…

frozen at the thought AWE!

And then there are the

Big and old and complicated…things…for a lack of a better word

That bring about another kind of AWE in me

A comforting AWE

An AWE that makes me feel safe and secure

An Awe that gives me a sense of order

I would place my religious heritage in that category.

The gift of my faith

And perhaps my national citizenship as well.

My being an American

These things ground me.  They give me an identity.

There is still another kind of AWE that I am familiar with

An AWE born of FEAR

And…well

It happened this week-end

As the horrific story

Unfolded from Paris

I was quickly consumed

And gut-wrenched

I found myself wrapped me up in Fearsome AWE

at how miserable and sick

We human beings can be

But no matter the source of my AWE

There is always an accompanying FROZENNESS

Sometimes short lived  

and

othertimes downright debilitating

So when our Gomer-Pyle-like disciple…

…perhaps a newcomer to the big city

turned back

took a last look at that 36 acre Temple complex

A building and stones that testified to HIS people’s love of God

When he turned and saw…what was surely WAY TOO BIG TO FAIL

He froze a moment

“GOOOOLLY…That is sumpin’ else

Why was Jesus so UNIMPRESSED

with what seems so obviously impressive?

And why does he get all

creepy and cryptic and apocalyptic right then??

If NOT the Temple

What DOES inspire AWE in Jesus?

I went looking for an answer

And I found some clues

The Gospel of Mark is pretty anti-temple

Mark is writing at a time after

the actual Destruction of the Temple in 70 AD

A destruction… historians tell us

that was accompanied by

slaughter and rape and pillaging

…a very traumatic event for Mark’s Community

….And it was still fresh in the community’s memory

2 chapters ago Jesus was in the Temple

            and threw out the money-changers

1 chapter ago…Jesus condemns the Temple’s long-robed,

            honor seeking, lengthy prayer reciting, Scribes…

And a few verses before today’s text

We have Jesus in the Temple

This time

According to Mark

Jesus is Close to the treasury

            …Mark is clear to say

            …He’s watching all the large sums being tithed

and Jesus responds in Awe

Not to them

But to the poor widow

and her two small coins

the gift of her whole livelihood.

What Jesus finds awe-inspiring

            Is the unexpected reversal….

He notices the un-noticable

And then it is forever noticed.

I think we can fit Hannah in here too.

She fits into this reversal well

In my imagination Hannah is great great great grand mother to our unnamed widow

Hannah has a very insecure future…

            Ancient World-No Son-No Security

            She’s Unimpressed

                        by simply being a “favorite”   (Elkanah)

            She’s Abused by her sister-wife  (Penninah)

            And She’s not going to allow a judgy priest to                                                                mistake genuine prayer - for drunkenness!

Hannah is the subject of an Awe-Inspiring reversal

The Priest ELI…and his greedy and conniving priest-sons

            Will Get their just desserts…stay tuned.

But Hannah, in a surprising reversal,

ushers in new era of Israelite history

In the Book of Samuel (1Samuel 1:4-20)

We are given Hannah

Whose prayer is so real, and passionate and unfrozen

that she seems drunk

Hannah… whose life unfolds most unexpectedly.

And In the Gospel

We meet Jesus

… so unimpressed with the Temple

            With major donors

            With long scripted recited prayers

… but so clearly impressed with

            a widow and her two small coins

So when Jesus starts all the scary and mysterious talk

The “apocalyptic” talk of wars, and earthquakes and famines

            (the stuff of our nightly NEWS)

He’s revealing something to us.

(that is what apocalypse means)

After all the dramatic descriptions

What DOES he say????

“Do not be alarmed”

When I first read it

I’m like…really Jesus…that’s all you have!!!

This is one of those instances

where I would love to hear his actual voice delivering this line!

I bet it was thick, and commanding, and thoroughly emphatic!

Jesus is not in awe!

He’s not impressed!

He’s not going to be frozen! 

               

Here’s what I believe Jesus is telling us:

Watch out for Temples and the like

Be careful about what inspires AWE in you

            And what that Awe produces in you

And When you are faced with the reality

of large-scale human or planetary suffering

When you find yourself debilitated by fear induced FROZENNESS          

Don’t succumb to despair

Don’t stay in the frozenness

Don't make frozenness your home.

Because

Jesus says,

I’m telling you

You have AWE inspiring potential!!!

You really are an important part

of this kingdom-thing

The GOOD NEWS

My friends

Is that

…what is Awe-inspiring to God

Is each one of us

Unfrozen

With our two coins

And our passionate and un-drunken prayer

Doing our daily bit, together,  
to love God and love our neighbor

literally…
For the life of the World!

…To Be That Frail

Friday of Week 32 in Ordinary Time

Feast of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

For years now I have driven by the Mother Cabrini Shrine on my way to visit my sister in Evergreen Colorado.  I know I have asked about it and googled her many times.  But today, on her feast day, I actually read a little about her life.

What sticks out is the line "…because of her frail health."  Like the widow and her two coins (Last Sunday's Gospel Mark 12:38-44) amongst the noteworthy tithers at the front of the line…it is such as these that God places front and center.  And my notions of what "ought" to be are continually being upended.   

The result?  I am never off the hook.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini with her frail health
The widow and her two coins
Me and my -------------

In my plenty, or in my want 
I have something AWE inspiring to offer
for the life of the world
GO!

Getting Ahead

Thursday of Week 32 in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 7:22-8:1

Psalm 119

Luke17:20-25

When I am processing with/conversing with friends, family, people I meet in the hospital, I find myself using the phrase "…try not to get too ahead of yourself."  Come to think of it…I say this a lot.  That probably means that I need to hear it myself!  Projection?

It is so easy to "get ahead of myself."  In the middle of the night when sleep eludes me "racing ahead" can take me to all kinds of dark places where mundane worries can strangle my peace and the light of hope gets squeezed out in favor of fear.

This Lucan text, this apocalyptic text, is a response to the Pharisees' tendency to "get ahead of themselves."  If apocalypse means "unveiling"; what is Jesus unveiling?  It sounds a lot like "…now y’all don't go getting ahead of yourselves.  This kingdom that has you all worked up…its not like there’s a road map.”  It is among you…close at hand…within your reach.  Look for the light that brings hope out of darkness.  That's the clue for today.  

I so easily identify with those Pharisees!

On this Feast day of Saint Josaphat

A prayer for Christian Unity

"That all may be one" John 17:21

Psalm 34

Tuesday of Week 32 in Ordinary Time
Feast of St Leo the Great, Pope, Doctor

Psalm 34

I will bless the Lord at all times;

His praise shall ever be in my mouth.

Let my soul glory in the Lord;

the lowly will hear me and be glad.

It's hard for me to recite this Psalm…it deserves to be sung!
34 calls upon my mouth.  But also eyes and ears.
My mouth…what it speaks and even what it eats.
My eyes…what I see and what I don't see.
My ears…what they hear and what they tune out.

I can make it all blessing.
I can do that by engaging all my senses for the work of justice
and for healing the brokenhearted
and for raising the lowly

I will bless the Lord at all times…
and I will fall short
but as my friend says: 
"God is indeed glorified in the effort"

My Seeking...God's Rejoicing

Thursday of Week 31

Luke 15:1-10

The heart of God has resources galore. It's always open. Always understanding. Always forgiving. Not to worry God can handle it. 

Could these lost & found stories be about more than the sheep and the coin?  Jesus is addressing the murmuring of the Pharisees...the righteous.  And he is commending the attentiveness of the crowd of sinners. 

My sinfulness is sneaky. I have to be deliberately attentive to begin to find it in its ever-new disguises. So that's why all the rejoicing! Finding is hard work...but it is the raw material for the repentance that causes God's rejoicing. 

I spend  lot of time thinking about what my righteousness ought to look like. Hah! Could all that thinking be a good hiding place. 

Be attentive. 

No self-righteous murmuring focused on the sinfulness of others. 

Give God someone to rejoice over...today!!!

Heads AND Tails

Tuesday of Week 31

Romans 12:5-16

Paul seems to be addressing something that has been on my mind: balancing that practice of cultivating a space within…a space for Christ in me, with being in Christ among the great multitude.

The de-cluttering effort of mine, I’ll call heads. I focus on putting the stuff that occupies my heart into perspective.  The pearl is in the middle and it is large it is reserved for the most intimate relationship I have.  The one I have with God without whose attention I do not exist…God who called me into being.  I make a place for Christ in me.

And then there is tails.  This is my place-finding in the mystical body.  I am one part, one gifted part, of the body.  This fits the Pauline language of being in Christ. 

In v.3 Paul warns each one “not to think more highly of himself than he ought.”  Be sober…don’t get drunk on yourself!  Rein in the heads side.  Then he goes on to remind the saints of the tails side.  

It can be lonely having Christ in me without being in Christ…rubbing up next to all the other saints-in-the-making.  It is in the among where the antidote to too much heads calls for me (according to Paul) to love, anticipate, respect, not grow slack, be fervent, serve, rejoice, and be patient.  All these are done better in relationship with others!

Heads and Tails

On this election day

Flip-Flopping is good for the soul!