In the first book of the Bible called Genesis God speaks to Abraham and says, “Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation.”
God calls people to leave where they are and go and make new community.
God called Abraham and Sarah.
God called Moses.
God called Joshua.
God called the judges.
God called the kings.
God called the exiles.
For Christians God sent Jesus and called the apostles and Paul and the first followers whose names are recorded in the books of the New Testament.
God calls.
God beckons.
God makes new community.
My family came from England and from Ireland. One almost drowned along the way, others made the journey with ease. All faced life threatening and life giving challenges in a new world. All of them faced a nation that promised new life regardless of the cost of arriving or the cost of staying on these shores.
They came with hope for a future and for something better for their life. Many believed that God had in store for them better things.
Perhaps your parents came too or you came. You and I have arrived here today because the mother of exiles, these United States, promises: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
We are, as the author Jon Meacham has writen, a nation that believes in God and believes in providence; the working out of God’s plan.
We know that God invites, God beckons, God calls out to his people and says: “Go to the land that I will show you.” We know this because we have experienced it ourselves.
God has called us, beckoned us into community.
God is constantly renewing the face of the earth. God is constantly doing his work through the efforts of his holy people. People called to work together, hand in hand, beyond the divisions of homeland and language, for the betterment of creation.
God intends us to be built into a virtuous society, a society who works for the benefit of all of God’s people and not ourselves alone.
When the followers of God have journeyed out into the deserts of life they have called upon God, do not forget us. And, I say God does not forget.
God does not forget his tired, his poor.
God does not forget his huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
God does not forget the fearful or the anxious.
God does not forget the fallen.
And, God does not forget the imprisoned.
God does not forget. God does not turn his eyes away. God remembers his people and their journey. God does not forget, God remembers you and he remembers me.
And when God looks down upon us and sees us in our lives calling out for him. God answers. And, there are many ways in which God answers. One of the ways in which God answers his faithful people calling out to him for rescue and to be saved is to send others.
Did not God send Moses to his people in Egypt? Did not God send Isaiah to comfort his people in Babylon? Do you and I not remember the names of those who God has sent to us to call us by name, to offer us the hand of God, and to lift us out of the dirt and ashes of our broken lives? You and I remember their names.
Those saints of God are generations of immigrants who have gone before us and were not content for their own success. When others arrived they remembered their experience and choose not to act out of fear but to help our immigrant fathers and mothers find their way in a strange land. They did this, these saints of God, because they heard the words of Isaiah calling: help the oppressed.
They heard the words of God speaking to their hearts saying: you were once a stranger in a strange strange land. You remember and you are called by God, this is what our immigrant fathers and mothers heard, you are called to help people into society with dignity, and respect. You are to help them become part of your national family…for they are part of my family -- the family of God.
Immigrants have always built up this nation and benefited us as a nation and as people of faith, by bringing their willingness to hard work, their entrepreneurial spirit, their diverse cultures, and their ethnic foods. Our culture is an immigrant culture.
It is true that immigrants are being demonized today because people are afraid of changing demographics, economic anxiety, border violence, because the system is broken.
These fears are not new fears. They are the same fears that greeted the Irish when they arrived. These are the same fears that greeted the Asians as they arrived. Today these fears greet the immigrant Hispanics, the new Africans, the islanders, and those from the Middle East.
God has never asked us to act out of our fear. God has always called us to act on behalf of the newcomer and the stranger. We know what we must do. We must on God’s behalf see one another as immigrant brother and sister – as family.
We are advocating and praying for reform because we are God’s family.
We are simply advocating for family unity.
We are advocating for reform that allows documentation of immigrants and their families with a path to citizenship.
We are advocating for affordable process.
We are advocating for an environment where people are safe in their community no matter what their legal status is; and that they have the ability to work with our civic authorities to provide for healthy communities.
We are advocating that policies should respect human rights by beginning with humanitarian values. We are advocating that we respect the dignity of all persons.
We are simply saying that we have a moral obligation to provide refuge and to welcome the stranger.
You and I have a responsibility to remember that we were once strangers in a strange land and that we are called by God to care for those now sent into our care.
We must do this because we understand that they represent God. The immigrant and the immigration issues we face today are our greatest challenge as a nation. How we answer the questions posed and the advocacy required will show what we are truly made of.
At the end of the day we can have great slogans, great beliefs, and even be one of the most powerful and greatest nations in the world.
If we do not help people find freedom and liberty…and we do not do this with kindness, and hospitality and love then we may loose the heart of our nation. Indeed, we will have lost the heart of all of our faiths combined.
It is God that calls us into a diverse community, a family of God. It is upon God’s mercy and providence that we depend. And, it is upon God’s call to help the stranger that we discover our journey into God’s kingdom.
God spoke to Abram and said, “Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation.”
by The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Preached at Immigration Reform Prayer Service, Catholic Charismatic Center, Houston, Texas
Hear the sermon preached in Spanish, with the last 1/4 in English here: http://www.adoyle.libsyn.com/
News following the Immigration Service:
http://www.39online.com/news/local/kiah-religious-leaders-immigration-reform-story,0,3910843.story
http://www.click2houston.com/video/23811580/index.html
http://www.khou.com/home/Interfaith-prayer-service-focuses-on-immigration-reform-95739914.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/7039827.html
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Pide a Dios a su pueblo: Ir a la tierra que yo te voy a mostrar. (Génesis 12:1-7)
En el primer libro de la Biblia llamado Génesis, Dios habla a Abraham y le dice: "Deja tu tierra, tu familia y tus parientes para ir a la tierra que yo te voy a mostrar. Con tus descendientes voy a formar una gran nación; voy a bendecirte y hacerte famoso y serás una bendición para otros. "
Dios llama a la gente a salir de donde están y que vayan y hagan una nueva comunidad.
Dios llamó a Abraham y Sara.
Dios llamó a Moisés.
Dios llamó a Josué.
Dios llamó a los jueces.
Dios llamó a los reyes.
Dios llamó a los exiliados.
Para los cristianos Dios envió a Jesús y llamó a los apóstoles y Pablo y los primeros seguidores, cuyos nombres se registran en los libros del Nuevo Testamento.
Dios llama.
Dios nos llama con señas.
Dios hace nueva comunidad.
Mi familia vino de Inglaterra y de Irlanda. Uno casi se ahogó en el camino, los demás hicieron el viaje con facilidad. Todos enfrentaron amenazas y desafíos en la vida que da un nuevo mundo. Todos ellos enfrentaron una nación que prometía una nueva vida sin importar el precio de como llegaron y los gastos de permanecer en estas tierras.
Llegaron con la esperanza de un futuro y por algo mejor para su vida. Muchos creían que Dios tenía reservado para ellos cosas mejores.
Tal vez los padres de ustedes llegaron o usted mismo llegó. Ustedes y yo hemos llegado hasta aquí porque la Madre de los exiliados, los Estados Unidos, promete: "Dame tus cansados, tus pobres, tus grupos confundidos que ansían un libre respirar."
Somos, como el autor Jon Meacham, que tiene la creencia de que una nación que cree en Dios y cree en la providencia, esta trabajando en el plan de Dios.
Sabemos que Dios invita, Dios nos envía señales, Dios llama a su pueblo y dice: "Ve a la tierra que te voy a mostrar." Lo sabemos porque lo hemos experimentado nosotros mismos.
Dios nos ha llamado, nos envía señales en la comunidad.
Dios está constantemente renovando la faz de la tierra. Dios está constantemente haciendo su trabajo a través de los esfuerzos de su pueblo santo. Personas llamadas a trabajar juntos, mano a mano, más allá de las divisiones de la nacionalidad y el idioma, para el mejoramiento de la creación.
Dios tiene la intención de que seamos incorporado en una sociedad virtuosa, una sociedad que trabaja para el beneficio de todo el pueblo de Dios y no solo para nosotros mismos.
Cuando los seguidores de Dios han viajado a través de los desiertos de la vida y han clamado a Dios, no te olvides de nosotros. Yo les dijo, Dios no olvida.
Dios se no olvida su cansancio os sus pobres.
Dios no se olvida de las multitudes que ansían respirar libertad.
Dios no olvida de los que tienen miedo, o sus ansiedades.
Dios no se olvida de los caídos.
Y, Dios no se olvida de los cautivos.
Dios no se olvida. Dios no voltea la mirada al otro lado. Dios recuerda a su pueblo y de sus viajes. Dios no se olvida, Dios se acuerda de ustedes y se acuerda de mí.
Y cuando Dios nos contempla y nos ve en nuestras vidas gritando por él. Dios contesta. Y, hay muchas formas en que Dios contesta. Una de las formas en que Dios responde a su pueblo fiel que clama ser rescatado y salvado es enviando a otros.
¿Acaso Dios no envío a Moisés a su pueblo en Egipto? ¿Acaso Dios no envío a Isaías a consolar a su pueblo en Babilonia? ¿A caso ustedes y yo no recordamos los nombres de aquellos que Dios ha enviado a nosotros para que nos llamen a cada uno por nuestro nombre, que nos han ofrecido la mano de Dios, y que nos han levantado de la tierra y cenizas de nuestras vidas rotas? Ustedes y yo recordamos sus nombres.
Esos santos de Dios son generaciones de inmigrantes que nos han precedido y que optaron por ayudar, no por temor, sino que ayudaron a nuestros padres y madres inmigrantes a encontrar su camino en una tierra extraña. Ellos hicieron esto, porque estos santos de Dios, habían oído las palabras del llamado de Isaías: ayuda a los oprimidos.
Escucharon las palabras de Dios hablar en sus corazones diciendo: una vez fuiste un extranjero en tierra extraña. Recuerda que eres llamado por Dios, esto es lo que nuestros padres y madres inmigrantes oyeron, ustedes están llamados a ayudar a las personas a formar la sociedad con dignidad y respeto. Ustedes están para ayudarles a formar parte de esta nación ... porque ellos son parte de mi familia - la familia de Dios.
Los inmigrantes hoy en día y siempre han construido esta nación y nos han beneficiado como nación y como comunidad de fe, trayendo su voluntad de trabajar duro, el espíritu emprendedor, sus diversas culturas y sus comidas típicas. Nuestra cultura es una cultura inmigrante.
Es cierto que hoy los inmigrantes están siendo comparados con el demonio porque la gente tiene miedo de los cambios demográficos, de la ansiedad económica, de la violencia en la frontera, porque el sistema de inmigración está roto.
Estos temores no son nuevos temores. Son los mismos temores que recibieron a los irlandeses cuando llegaron. Estos son los mismos temores que saludó a los asiáticos cuando llegaron. Hoy en día estos temores saludan a los inmigrantes hispanos, los nuevos africanos, los isleños, y los del Oriente Medio.
Dios nunca nos ha pedido que actuemos por nuestro miedo. Dios siempre nos ha llamado para actuar en nombre del recién llegado y el extranjero. Sabemos lo que debemos hacer. Debemos de parte de Dios vernos unos a otros como hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes - como la familia.
Estamos defendiendo y orando por una reforma porque somos la familia de Dios.
Simplemente estamos abogando por la unidad familiar.
Estamos abogando por una reforma que permita la documentación de los inmigrantes y sus familias en un camino a la ciudadanía.
Estamos abogando por un proceso económico accesible.
Estamos abogando por un ambiente donde las personas estén a salvo en su comunidad sin importar su estatus legal, y que tengan la capacidad de trabajar con nuestras autoridades civiles para establecer comunidades saludables.
Estamos abogando por que esas leyes deben respetar los derechos humanos.
Estamos abogando por los valores humanitarios.
Estamos abogando por que se respete la dignidad de todas las personas.
Simplemente estamos diciendo que tenemos una obligación moral de brindar refugio y dar la bienvenida al extranjero.
Usted y yo tenemos una responsabilidad de recordar que una vez fuimos extranjeros en una tierra extraña y que estamos llamados por Dios para atender a las personas que se envían ahora a nuestro cuidado.
Tenemos que hacer esto porque entendemos que ellos representan a Dios. Los inmigrantes y los problemas de inmigración que nos enfrentamos hoy son nuestro mayor reto como nación. Cómo respondamos a las preguntas formuladas y la defensa necesaria se mostrará de lo que realmente estamos hechos.
Al final del día podremos tener grandes lemas y consignas, grandes creencias, e incluso ser una de las naciones más poderosa y más grande del mundo.
Si no ayudamos a la gente a encontrar la libertad ... y no hacemos esto con la amabilidad y la hospitalidad y el amor, entonces habremos perdido el corazón de nuestra nación. De hecho, habremos perdido el corazón de todas nuestras creencias combinadas.
Es Dios quien nos llama a una comunidad diversa, una familia de Dios. Es la misericordia de Dios y la providencia de lo que dependemos. Y en el llamado de Dios ayudando al extranjero descubrimos nuestro viaje en el reino de Dios.
Dios habló a Abraham y le dijo, "Deja tu tierra, tu familia y tus parientes para ir a la tierra que yo te voy a mostrar. Con tus descendientes voy a formar una gran nación; voy a bendecirte y hacerte famosos y serás una bendición para otros. "
Un Sermon que predico en el Servicio de Oración por Inmigración
Dios llama a la gente a salir de donde están y que vayan y hagan una nueva comunidad.
Dios llamó a Abraham y Sara.
Dios llamó a Moisés.
Dios llamó a Josué.
Dios llamó a los jueces.
Dios llamó a los reyes.
Dios llamó a los exiliados.
Para los cristianos Dios envió a Jesús y llamó a los apóstoles y Pablo y los primeros seguidores, cuyos nombres se registran en los libros del Nuevo Testamento.
Dios llama.
Dios nos llama con señas.
Dios hace nueva comunidad.
Mi familia vino de Inglaterra y de Irlanda. Uno casi se ahogó en el camino, los demás hicieron el viaje con facilidad. Todos enfrentaron amenazas y desafíos en la vida que da un nuevo mundo. Todos ellos enfrentaron una nación que prometía una nueva vida sin importar el precio de como llegaron y los gastos de permanecer en estas tierras.
Llegaron con la esperanza de un futuro y por algo mejor para su vida. Muchos creían que Dios tenía reservado para ellos cosas mejores.
Tal vez los padres de ustedes llegaron o usted mismo llegó. Ustedes y yo hemos llegado hasta aquí porque la Madre de los exiliados, los Estados Unidos, promete: "Dame tus cansados, tus pobres, tus grupos confundidos que ansían un libre respirar."
Somos, como el autor Jon Meacham, que tiene la creencia de que una nación que cree en Dios y cree en la providencia, esta trabajando en el plan de Dios.
Sabemos que Dios invita, Dios nos envía señales, Dios llama a su pueblo y dice: "Ve a la tierra que te voy a mostrar." Lo sabemos porque lo hemos experimentado nosotros mismos.
Dios nos ha llamado, nos envía señales en la comunidad.
Dios está constantemente renovando la faz de la tierra. Dios está constantemente haciendo su trabajo a través de los esfuerzos de su pueblo santo. Personas llamadas a trabajar juntos, mano a mano, más allá de las divisiones de la nacionalidad y el idioma, para el mejoramiento de la creación.
Dios tiene la intención de que seamos incorporado en una sociedad virtuosa, una sociedad que trabaja para el beneficio de todo el pueblo de Dios y no solo para nosotros mismos.
Cuando los seguidores de Dios han viajado a través de los desiertos de la vida y han clamado a Dios, no te olvides de nosotros. Yo les dijo, Dios no olvida.
Dios se no olvida su cansancio os sus pobres.
Dios no se olvida de las multitudes que ansían respirar libertad.
Dios no olvida de los que tienen miedo, o sus ansiedades.
Dios no se olvida de los caídos.
Y, Dios no se olvida de los cautivos.
Dios no se olvida. Dios no voltea la mirada al otro lado. Dios recuerda a su pueblo y de sus viajes. Dios no se olvida, Dios se acuerda de ustedes y se acuerda de mí.
Y cuando Dios nos contempla y nos ve en nuestras vidas gritando por él. Dios contesta. Y, hay muchas formas en que Dios contesta. Una de las formas en que Dios responde a su pueblo fiel que clama ser rescatado y salvado es enviando a otros.
¿Acaso Dios no envío a Moisés a su pueblo en Egipto? ¿Acaso Dios no envío a Isaías a consolar a su pueblo en Babilonia? ¿A caso ustedes y yo no recordamos los nombres de aquellos que Dios ha enviado a nosotros para que nos llamen a cada uno por nuestro nombre, que nos han ofrecido la mano de Dios, y que nos han levantado de la tierra y cenizas de nuestras vidas rotas? Ustedes y yo recordamos sus nombres.
Esos santos de Dios son generaciones de inmigrantes que nos han precedido y que optaron por ayudar, no por temor, sino que ayudaron a nuestros padres y madres inmigrantes a encontrar su camino en una tierra extraña. Ellos hicieron esto, porque estos santos de Dios, habían oído las palabras del llamado de Isaías: ayuda a los oprimidos.
Escucharon las palabras de Dios hablar en sus corazones diciendo: una vez fuiste un extranjero en tierra extraña. Recuerda que eres llamado por Dios, esto es lo que nuestros padres y madres inmigrantes oyeron, ustedes están llamados a ayudar a las personas a formar la sociedad con dignidad y respeto. Ustedes están para ayudarles a formar parte de esta nación ... porque ellos son parte de mi familia - la familia de Dios.
Los inmigrantes hoy en día y siempre han construido esta nación y nos han beneficiado como nación y como comunidad de fe, trayendo su voluntad de trabajar duro, el espíritu emprendedor, sus diversas culturas y sus comidas típicas. Nuestra cultura es una cultura inmigrante.
Es cierto que hoy los inmigrantes están siendo comparados con el demonio porque la gente tiene miedo de los cambios demográficos, de la ansiedad económica, de la violencia en la frontera, porque el sistema de inmigración está roto.
Estos temores no son nuevos temores. Son los mismos temores que recibieron a los irlandeses cuando llegaron. Estos son los mismos temores que saludó a los asiáticos cuando llegaron. Hoy en día estos temores saludan a los inmigrantes hispanos, los nuevos africanos, los isleños, y los del Oriente Medio.
Dios nunca nos ha pedido que actuemos por nuestro miedo. Dios siempre nos ha llamado para actuar en nombre del recién llegado y el extranjero. Sabemos lo que debemos hacer. Debemos de parte de Dios vernos unos a otros como hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes - como la familia.
Estamos defendiendo y orando por una reforma porque somos la familia de Dios.
Simplemente estamos abogando por la unidad familiar.
Estamos abogando por una reforma que permita la documentación de los inmigrantes y sus familias en un camino a la ciudadanía.
Estamos abogando por un proceso económico accesible.
Estamos abogando por un ambiente donde las personas estén a salvo en su comunidad sin importar su estatus legal, y que tengan la capacidad de trabajar con nuestras autoridades civiles para establecer comunidades saludables.
Estamos abogando por que esas leyes deben respetar los derechos humanos.
Estamos abogando por los valores humanitarios.
Estamos abogando por que se respete la dignidad de todas las personas.
Simplemente estamos diciendo que tenemos una obligación moral de brindar refugio y dar la bienvenida al extranjero.
Usted y yo tenemos una responsabilidad de recordar que una vez fuimos extranjeros en una tierra extraña y que estamos llamados por Dios para atender a las personas que se envían ahora a nuestro cuidado.
Tenemos que hacer esto porque entendemos que ellos representan a Dios. Los inmigrantes y los problemas de inmigración que nos enfrentamos hoy son nuestro mayor reto como nación. Cómo respondamos a las preguntas formuladas y la defensa necesaria se mostrará de lo que realmente estamos hechos.
Al final del día podremos tener grandes lemas y consignas, grandes creencias, e incluso ser una de las naciones más poderosa y más grande del mundo.
Si no ayudamos a la gente a encontrar la libertad ... y no hacemos esto con la amabilidad y la hospitalidad y el amor, entonces habremos perdido el corazón de nuestra nación. De hecho, habremos perdido el corazón de todas nuestras creencias combinadas.
Es Dios quien nos llama a una comunidad diversa, una familia de Dios. Es la misericordia de Dios y la providencia de lo que dependemos. Y en el llamado de Dios ayudando al extranjero descubrimos nuestro viaje en el reino de Dios.
Dios habló a Abraham y le dijo, "Deja tu tierra, tu familia y tus parientes para ir a la tierra que yo te voy a mostrar. Con tus descendientes voy a formar una gran nación; voy a bendecirte y hacerte famosos y serás una bendición para otros. "
Un Sermon que predico en el Servicio de Oración por Inmigración
Friday, June 4, 2010
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter & Responses
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter to the Anglican Communion has energized many responses in The Episcopal Church and throughout the Anglican Communion. Linked are the Presiding Bishop's response and my response.
A Column for the Living Church
I wrote the following guest column for the Living Church at their invitation. It is a more condensed version than the response included above. I have also included it in the Out of the Ordinary.
A Column for the Living Church
I wrote the following guest column for the Living Church at their invitation. It is a more condensed version than the response included above. I have also included it in the Out of the Ordinary.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Pentecost Letter: mapping our location
Dairy maids in Oxfordshire used Chadworth Stones (this is where the word stones came into usage as a weight of measurement) to weigh their butter, moreover, the most popular stones looked vaguely like living creatures as well. Manufactured weights were not available at the time and unknown to Smith, the “marbles” and the “weights” were fossils.
Smith grew “curiouser” and “curiouser” pondering the patterns he noticed in rocky formations while he worked as a surveyor of coal mines and canals. Concurrently, the industrial revolution was driving questions about harnessing energy for manufacturing and human energy for labor. The origins of species was being questioned. It was Smith though, who pulled the many thoughts and questions together and eventually drew the first geological map, accurately depicting the layers of earth's strata. This map is the physical birth of geology and quite literally, changed the world. Geology and the manner of study inaugurated in large measure by Smith literally provided both a wealth of raw resources that industry needed to industrialize the world. I learned this all by reading a wonderful book by The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester.
We live in a world that clearly stands upon the answered questions of Smith's day, but we live in no less a chaotic time. Advances in technology, science, global culture and society challenge many of our preconceived ideas about the world and its origins. The speed of this change is momentous. In The Great Emergence, Phyllis Tickle writes that there are three questions being asked today: Where is authority? What is a human being? And what does it mean to be a religious person in a world of global religious complexity?
The top most sought after jobs this year 2010 did not exist in 2004. We are quite literally training children to answer questions and work in jobs that do not yet exist. China will soon be the largest English-speaking country in the world. The United States is the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Twenty-five percent of India’s population with the highest IQ’s is grater than the total population of the United States.
Twenty-seven billion users on My Space make it the size of the fifth largest country in the world. There are five times as many words in the English language today than there were when Shakespeare wrote. One out of eight couples married last year met online.
Billions of searches are done on Google - people seeking answers.
You can watch more of these facts on a YouTube video entitled: Did You Know? at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMf7FWGdCw
Where do we go when Google can’t come up with the answer? Who do we talk to when we only get computerized voices on the phone?
It would be nice to find a solid place to stand in this scenario.
While I cannot be certain, I do believe that this the very same kind of question that the disciples asked themselves as Jesus explained to them that he was leaving. If I were a disciple I would have asked it as a follow up to Philip's question on the road to Philippi. I would have asked it at the Last Supper. I would have asked it in the Garden of Gethsemane. I would have asked it in the Upper Room and on the shore of the Galilean lake. I would have asked it every time Jesus said he was going away … and in John's Gospel they pretty much did!
Jesus' answer is the same throughout the Gospel, and it reminds us of God's faithful friendship with the patriarchs and matriarchs of our deuteronomistic family: "I will be with you."
Jesus desires an apostolic community where his disciples are forever unified to God - to the community of God - through the Holy Spirit. Jesus dreams that they will follow him, continue to love as he has loved, and continue his ministry of proclaiming the good news. All of this work intimately reflects the divine community of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), reflects the divine unity, the divine love and the divine outpouring of itself into the world.
We are the Episcopal Church. We are that apostolic community in the world. We are the community united in all of our diversity in and through the power of God's revealing Spirit. We glorify God and we make him known as creator, as unique revelation (Jesus Christ), as empowering Spirit.
Yes, the Holy Spirit, the wind, the pnuema, God's breath, the Paraclete, the wisdom, spirit and perfect love of the divine Godhead moves inside the very being of our church and our congregations, our orders and our mission.
The Episcopal Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. And it is in our apostolic family of God that we find our place on the map and where we will find our solid rock. It is from this vantage point that you and I together forge the reign of God - a reign of peace and justice, a reign where people find their dignity, a reign where others are treated as neighbor. Outside the church we are God's hands at work, we are God's revelation.
Our church may not always get it right. We may not have all the answers for how to live life in this chaotic and changing world. But we do know who we are, where we are and in whom our hearts rest.
Come Holy Spirit come, comfort your people and send us out transforming our congregations, our community and the world around us. Come Holy Spirit come!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday Year C
John 15:26 - 16:15
26”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
16”I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. 12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources
Oremus online text: http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=John+15:26+-+16:15&vnum=yes&version=nrsv
Textweek general resources: http://www.textweek.com/yearc/trinityc.htm
Textweek resources for John’s Gospel this Sunday: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn15_16.htm
Something for Everyone:
Chris Haslam’s commentary: http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/ctrinl.shtm
William Loader: http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkTrinity.htm
"Not everything which masquerades in garments of light brings light. To affirm this Spirit, this Christ of John, is to deny counterfeits and to encounter popular spiritualities inside and outside the church critically."
Interesting article on 4th Gospel from Easter to Pentecost: http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/18-2_Ecumenism/18-2_Berge.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prayer
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Translation: Cecil Frances Alexander
A collection of prayers for Trinity Sunday: http://www.churchyear.net/trinityprayers.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts
This week we continue with Jesus' teaching of the interrelated life of the Apostolic community and the Holy Trinity. While last week's lesson from John focused on the coming of the Paraclete, this week gives an understanding of the interrelated nature of God as Trinity and how that interrelated life is to be a part of the interrelated life of the community.
The very first verse is key to the creedal arguments of the second century and the statement that the Spirit proceeds from the Father became a chorus for the Greek or more Western argument.
Jesus says that the Spirit will bear witness to him. What is meant theologically is that the Holy Spirit will, in it's very person, bear witness to the unity and love between the Father and the Son, and bear witness to their love. The Spirit is the very perfect image of God's love.
It is also clear that the Spirit will provide the undergirding of the community and that those followers, the one's whom Jesus called to be with him, will be witnesses because of God's presence with them in and through the Spirit.
It is clear that the passage holds within itself and Jesus' words a sense of dread for the apostolic comity that remains. Whether a forecast of things to come or reflecting the reality of the time in which the text was written, the message is clear - as the movement continues to take shape and bear witness to a new community life they'll be segregated and separated from the religious roots from which their faith was birthed.
Religious zealots have always sought to purify religion (it is human nature it seems). As this is the Sunday after the Pentecost story I cannot help reflect on the major stories of religious upheaval, from Babel to Babylon to Pentecost to the Reformation, we see God building and rebuilding his faithful followers challenging them in ever new ways. Phyllis Tickle speaks of these moments as great shifts. The nature of the church as Family of God is deeply rooted in these emerging shifts over thousands of years. N. T. Wright's work also gives a clear understanding of the emerging deuteronomistic family of God and how it has shaped us.
The disciples are right in the midst of a great shift and Jesus tells them they will not be alone, and that the Spirit will help them to understand their witness of the Truth which is clearly meant to be the Living Word Jesus Christ. From Stephen to Polycarp the names of the earliest martyrs are eternally with us. Perpetua and her friends have been joined by a holy family of saints who have paid the cost of faith - a family of God martyred by Christians and non Christians alike.
There is martyrdom of the physical body and there is martyrdom of the conscience, too. Our zealotry has little room today for difference of opinion and conscience falls away as we wrestle with the cult of belonging. The heresies of the ancient world catch up with us once again, Donatism and its friend on the opposite sides of the spectrum Gnosticism; Nazarene to its partner Manichaeism. Each requires perfection of its followers, rather than mutual and communal discernment of the Holy Spirit's revelation, which begins not with our knowledge, but of unknowing our common search for truth and our common brokenness and sinfulness. Always beyond us and always our aim, the collect for Richard Hooker is therefore prayed in hope: help us seek unity not for the sake of compromise but for the sake of comprehension.
I guess all of this is to say that it is easier for humans to walk apart because of their zealotry than it is for us to walk together for the sake of truth. No wonder Jesus prayed for the comforter to come and for the unity of those who follow him!
The very last verses confirm the reality of Jesus' own perfect revelation in that the Spirit's work will confirm what has been taught. There will not be a new or differing revelation as time wears on. Now some will say, but don't we believe that the Holy Spirit continues to work and reveal God in the world through the mission and ministry of those who follow Jesus?
I think sometimes we get confused about what is changing. As a person who loves to think systematically and theologically, how I understand this may in fact be different than most, but what I am about to say also fits with my understanding of the Episcopate as keeper of the church's faith, handing down a living tradition of apostolic belief. The revelation of God in the unique person of Jesus Christ and the community of the Godhead as Trinity is an unchanging reality and faith. However, I remember at this point, and always at this point (humbly I must admit), the prayer for the church from our prayer book, page 816: where [the Church] is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it... All this is to say that here are the areas where I believe the church is challenged, not with new revelation but with the challenge of seeing God and God's mission more clearly.
Raymond Brown confirms this reading in today's text when he writes: "Verse 14 reinforces the impression that the Paraclete brings no new revelation because he receives from Jesus what he is to declare to the disciples..." The author records Jesus' concept that he, like the Paraclete, is an "emissary of the Father. In declaring or interpreting What belongs to Jesus, the Paraclete is really interpreting the Father to men; for the Father and Jesus possess all things in common...In Johannine thought it would have been unintelligible that the Paraclete have anything from Jesus that is not from the Father, but all that he has is from Jesus." (R.B., Anchor Bible, John, vol ii)
Perhaps in our time the Gospel -- the Good News-- is the promise that seeking the truth, come whence it may and cost what it will, intends to be nothing less than a pilgrimage into the heart and community of God. So I pray at the end of my life's journey, may I find I am closer to God and that such a closeness reveals and births in me a love for my real and ever expanding family of God.
The Lambeth Bible Study Method
This Bible study method was introduced by the African Delegation to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church. It is known by both names: "Lambeth" and "African." This method is derived from the practice of Lectio Divina. The entire process should take about 30 minutes.
Question #5: "Briefly identify where this passage touches their life today," can change based upon the lesson. Find lesson oriented questions at this website: http://www.dcdiocese.org/word-working-second-question.
Opening Prayer: O Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. One person reads passage. This person then invites a member of the group to begin the process.
2. Each person briefly identifies the word or phrase that catches their attention then invites another person to share.
3. Each shares the word or phrase until all have shared or passed using the same invitation method.
4. The passage is read a second time, preferably from a different translation. The reader then invites a person in the group to begin the process.
5. Each person briefly identifies where this passage touches their life today, and then invites someone who has not shared yet.
6. The passage is read a third time, also from another translation, and the reader invites a person to start the process.
7. Each person responds to the questions, "What does God want me to do, to be or to change?"
8. The group stands up in a circle and holds hands. One person initiates the prayer “I thank God today for …” and “I ask God today for…” The prayer goes around the circle by squeezing the hand to your right.
9. When the circle is fulfilled, the person who initiated the prayer starts the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father…”
John 15:26 - 16:15
26”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
16”I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. 12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources
Oremus online text: http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=John+15:26+-+16:15&vnum=yes&version=nrsv
Textweek general resources: http://www.textweek.com/yearc/trinityc.htm
Textweek resources for John’s Gospel this Sunday: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn15_16.htm
Something for Everyone:
Chris Haslam’s commentary: http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/ctrinl.shtm
William Loader: http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkTrinity.htm
"Not everything which masquerades in garments of light brings light. To affirm this Spirit, this Christ of John, is to deny counterfeits and to encounter popular spiritualities inside and outside the church critically."
Interesting article on 4th Gospel from Easter to Pentecost: http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/18-2_Ecumenism/18-2_Berge.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prayer
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Translation: Cecil Frances Alexander
A collection of prayers for Trinity Sunday: http://www.churchyear.net/trinityprayers.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts
This week we continue with Jesus' teaching of the interrelated life of the Apostolic community and the Holy Trinity. While last week's lesson from John focused on the coming of the Paraclete, this week gives an understanding of the interrelated nature of God as Trinity and how that interrelated life is to be a part of the interrelated life of the community.
The very first verse is key to the creedal arguments of the second century and the statement that the Spirit proceeds from the Father became a chorus for the Greek or more Western argument.
Jesus says that the Spirit will bear witness to him. What is meant theologically is that the Holy Spirit will, in it's very person, bear witness to the unity and love between the Father and the Son, and bear witness to their love. The Spirit is the very perfect image of God's love.
It is also clear that the Spirit will provide the undergirding of the community and that those followers, the one's whom Jesus called to be with him, will be witnesses because of God's presence with them in and through the Spirit.
It is clear that the passage holds within itself and Jesus' words a sense of dread for the apostolic comity that remains. Whether a forecast of things to come or reflecting the reality of the time in which the text was written, the message is clear - as the movement continues to take shape and bear witness to a new community life they'll be segregated and separated from the religious roots from which their faith was birthed.
Religious zealots have always sought to purify religion (it is human nature it seems). As this is the Sunday after the Pentecost story I cannot help reflect on the major stories of religious upheaval, from Babel to Babylon to Pentecost to the Reformation, we see God building and rebuilding his faithful followers challenging them in ever new ways. Phyllis Tickle speaks of these moments as great shifts. The nature of the church as Family of God is deeply rooted in these emerging shifts over thousands of years. N. T. Wright's work also gives a clear understanding of the emerging deuteronomistic family of God and how it has shaped us.
The disciples are right in the midst of a great shift and Jesus tells them they will not be alone, and that the Spirit will help them to understand their witness of the Truth which is clearly meant to be the Living Word Jesus Christ. From Stephen to Polycarp the names of the earliest martyrs are eternally with us. Perpetua and her friends have been joined by a holy family of saints who have paid the cost of faith - a family of God martyred by Christians and non Christians alike.
There is martyrdom of the physical body and there is martyrdom of the conscience, too. Our zealotry has little room today for difference of opinion and conscience falls away as we wrestle with the cult of belonging. The heresies of the ancient world catch up with us once again, Donatism and its friend on the opposite sides of the spectrum Gnosticism; Nazarene to its partner Manichaeism. Each requires perfection of its followers, rather than mutual and communal discernment of the Holy Spirit's revelation, which begins not with our knowledge, but of unknowing our common search for truth and our common brokenness and sinfulness. Always beyond us and always our aim, the collect for Richard Hooker is therefore prayed in hope: help us seek unity not for the sake of compromise but for the sake of comprehension.
I guess all of this is to say that it is easier for humans to walk apart because of their zealotry than it is for us to walk together for the sake of truth. No wonder Jesus prayed for the comforter to come and for the unity of those who follow him!
The very last verses confirm the reality of Jesus' own perfect revelation in that the Spirit's work will confirm what has been taught. There will not be a new or differing revelation as time wears on. Now some will say, but don't we believe that the Holy Spirit continues to work and reveal God in the world through the mission and ministry of those who follow Jesus?
I think sometimes we get confused about what is changing. As a person who loves to think systematically and theologically, how I understand this may in fact be different than most, but what I am about to say also fits with my understanding of the Episcopate as keeper of the church's faith, handing down a living tradition of apostolic belief. The revelation of God in the unique person of Jesus Christ and the community of the Godhead as Trinity is an unchanging reality and faith. However, I remember at this point, and always at this point (humbly I must admit), the prayer for the church from our prayer book, page 816: where [the Church] is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it... All this is to say that here are the areas where I believe the church is challenged, not with new revelation but with the challenge of seeing God and God's mission more clearly.
Raymond Brown confirms this reading in today's text when he writes: "Verse 14 reinforces the impression that the Paraclete brings no new revelation because he receives from Jesus what he is to declare to the disciples..." The author records Jesus' concept that he, like the Paraclete, is an "emissary of the Father. In declaring or interpreting What belongs to Jesus, the Paraclete is really interpreting the Father to men; for the Father and Jesus possess all things in common...In Johannine thought it would have been unintelligible that the Paraclete have anything from Jesus that is not from the Father, but all that he has is from Jesus." (R.B., Anchor Bible, John, vol ii)
Perhaps in our time the Gospel -- the Good News-- is the promise that seeking the truth, come whence it may and cost what it will, intends to be nothing less than a pilgrimage into the heart and community of God. So I pray at the end of my life's journey, may I find I am closer to God and that such a closeness reveals and births in me a love for my real and ever expanding family of God.
The Lambeth Bible Study Method
This Bible study method was introduced by the African Delegation to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church. It is known by both names: "Lambeth" and "African." This method is derived from the practice of Lectio Divina. The entire process should take about 30 minutes.
Question #5: "Briefly identify where this passage touches their life today," can change based upon the lesson. Find lesson oriented questions at this website: http://www.dcdiocese.org/word-working-second-question.
Opening Prayer: O Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. One person reads passage. This person then invites a member of the group to begin the process.
2. Each person briefly identifies the word or phrase that catches their attention then invites another person to share.
3. Each shares the word or phrase until all have shared or passed using the same invitation method.
4. The passage is read a second time, preferably from a different translation. The reader then invites a person in the group to begin the process.
5. Each person briefly identifies where this passage touches their life today, and then invites someone who has not shared yet.
6. The passage is read a third time, also from another translation, and the reader invites a person to start the process.
7. Each person responds to the questions, "What does God want me to do, to be or to change?"
8. The group stands up in a circle and holds hands. One person initiates the prayer “I thank God today for …” and “I ask God today for…” The prayer goes around the circle by squeezing the hand to your right.
9. When the circle is fulfilled, the person who initiated the prayer starts the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father…”
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