Hapless Hospitality

MaryandMarthaProper11C, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 21, 2013 by Annette Fricke

            “Jesus, tell Mary to help me!” I don’t know about what your take might be on this text, but I want to know just what is going on with the preparation.  Are there more people besides Mary and Jesus?  If there isn’t, why all the fuss?  Is Martha trying to impress Jesus by the perfect food and drink, served in the best manners and the best presentation?  Is she trying to be a Martha Stewart ahead of her time?  I see several things in this passage, but mostly I see this: 1) Martha is annoyed at both Jesus and Mary, 2) Martha is anxious, and 3) Mary is taking on a non-traditional role by listening to Jesus’ teaching.  Mary is learning how to be a disciple, a place previously reserved for men.  Role reversal, to use a modern term is more common now than at that time in history, although still fraught with gossip and wonderings by others to this day.  Just a few years back, we didn’t see male nurses and assumed that all nurses were female and most doctors were male.

            Anxiety can lead one to drink caffeinated beverages which leads to dehydration, confusion, and increased chances of incontinence, as well as high blood pressure.  Anxiety and excessive worry can wreak havoc on a body and produce hyperactivity and excessive verbalization. Anxiety can decrease productivity and ability to concentrate causing poor performance in job interviews, on the job, and on examinations for class. It can pretty much paralyze a person both emotionally and behaviorally. It can cause stomach upset and gastric reflux.  “What am I to do?  Jesus is here!  Mary, please help me!”

            It only takes one unusual occurrence to set a person on edge. A male nurse friend of mine and I were recently discussing certain things that certain aids somehow can’t handle in the performance of their jobs.  I personally never thought that there was the option and always picked up the slack for my co-workers.  But as I say, it only takes one unusual occurrence to set a person on edge.  One such situation occurred at the beginning of this past week.

            The daughter had been there just the day before and had returned to Seattle.  It was Monday, and as with many Mondays, things do not go smoothly.  It was also dinner time when we set up the tables with ice water, set out the butter and creamer.  It was when we gather the residents who are unable to walk by themselves.  My co-worker was becoming frustrated and anxious with a resident.  She asked me to take her down the elevator to the main dining room, the other option for our residents.  As I was descending the elevator with the server for our kitchen and her, she began not feeling well, so asked to eat in her room or our dining area.  We pushed the button to return to the third floor.  By the time we arrived at the third floor, the resident began to collapse.  I was unable to move her, so I called out to my co-worker to help me, “Svetlana, please help me!”  She came and helped me put the resident in a sitting position and we wheeled her in her walker quickly to her room, just a couple of doors down the hallway.  Not responding, so I called our male nurse and got out the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope.  Svetlana asked me if I heard anything, and I nodded and said, “No.”  The nurse arrived and cranked up the oxygen, but still nothing.  She was gone.  The nurse picked her up and placed her on the bed and we were ordered to make her look comfortable for the family.

            We did what we could with what we had.  There was no time to be anxious.  Afterwards, my co-worker wanted to know if she did wrong by ordering me around.  Well, I had not seen it that way.  I felt we had done what was necessary and I told her that.  Some anxiety is necessary because it motivates you to perform.  In the case of Martha, though, it was overwhelming to where she could not think straight.  Both Mary and Martha were trying to do a good thing and I think that both of them had their hearts in the right places.  Martha probably had higher expectations than Jesus, which fed into her anxiety.

            Relating to Martha and Mary’s hosting of Jesus, how do we welcome Jesus?  Do we make people feel comfortable or do we, by our anxiousness, cause them to feel anxiety? Are worried and distracted by many things, or able to focus on the one thing needed? There was a lot more to that story of our resident who died.  There were many questions about procedures and protocols where we could have been distracted, allowing our anxieties to take over, but we kept our focus and will deal with some of those details at a later time. 

            How do we welcome Jesus into our lives?  I don’t think we should take sides.  There are elements of both Mary and Martha in each of us.  I think Jesus is trying to point out here that when we have a guest, our focus should be on listening to and being attentive to the guest.  A guest is like a stranger.  In light of the previous story in Luke about the Samaritan left on the road half-dead, the question becomes how do I make a stranger feel at home?  A guest is to be treated with dignity and respect.  A guest is invited so that you listen to the guest with all of your focus and attention. In a culture of hectic schedules and the relentless pursuit of productivity, we are tempted to measure our worth by how busy we are, by how much we accomplish, or by how well we meet the expectations of others. We often see Jesus’ words to Martha as a rebuke or scolding. However, Jesus’ words to Martha are more of an invitation rather than a rebuke. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” The one thing needed is for Martha to receive the gracious presence of Jesus, to listen to his words, to know that she is valued not for what she does or how well she does it, but for who she is as a child of God.

            God asks us to be of service to our neighbors, our strangers, and our guests; but our service needs to be grounded in our active seeking of God’s presence, strength, and guidance.  If, in all our activities, we have no time to be still in the Lord’s presence and can’t make room to hear God’s word, we are likely to become anxious and troubled. We are likely to end up with a kind of service that is devoid of love and joy and resents others.  It takes both listening and doing. Being open to receiving God’s Word and serving others in the spirit of Christ are vital to living the Christian life.  They go hand in hand.

            Jesus invites all of us to sit at his feet and learn the way of God, to learn servant hood, to drink in God’s mercy in order to be strengthened for the journey of discipleship.  He who calls us, who calls all of us, has paved the road and gone ahead of us.  His invitation remains to follow him.  His hospitality to us is the standard to imitate.  He calls us to bind ourselves to him in outrageous abandon, focusing on nothing else but his abiding words and presence.  You will not always be certain of the steps to take, but God has promised to walk with you and forgive you all your missteps.  God has done far more for us by his sacrifice on the cross than we can repay.  Indeed, we owe a debt that we are unable to pay.  But God has won for us the victory of life, life in the here and now as God’s disciples.  Let us heed his words and share his hospitality.  Amen.

The Merciful One

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is the commonly known title to this section of Chapter 10 in Luke.  However, it is not properly a parable nor is there anywhere in the story that indicates that the Samaritan is either good or not good. The story is so well known, and the use of the terms Good Samaritan for laws of the country and the names of various healthcare facilities, that we assume we know what it means.  When a story becomes familiar, we tend to tune it out to the point where it no longer has that initial shock or tug it had when we had our first insights as to what it was trying to convey to us.

            Here is my story that I think encapsulates the meaning of our story in Luke. There was once a woman who had begun to give up on her health.  She had suffered pain in her neck and back nearly every day, so she decided that because of it, she would take all her meals in her room and withdraw from others.  She began to complain about other people and how mean they were.  When questioned about needing a pain pill or a companion, she denied needing anything.  She said she was fine.  She was independent and did not need a companion. She complained to her daughter who complained to the staff of the facility. Every night she would ask the nursing assistants why the woman across the hall was allowed to live there.  She would say day after day, “If people who are mental cases are allowed to live here, I’m moving out. Who can I talk to about this?” The nursing staff was at their wits end.  She would not see things any other way.  They were ready to give up.  She was an angry woman who insisted that she was independent and yet craved the attention she saw the staff giving others. And she was right about everything, wanting no input from anyone else. They tried everything including checking on her every hour and offering a sip of water.  She even claimed to be the most compassionate person around and yet she continued to complain about nearly everyone around her.  Things came to a head.  One of the aids who had witnessed her accidentally burning herself with the curling iron several times put her foot down and said, “Give me that curling iron!” That was the turning point. A few days later, someone or something convinced her that she should start getting out of bed and have her bed made like others on the floor. She began participating in activities and headed up the movie committee.  She began socializing with people at her table and encouraged others to participate in activities and get out of their rooms.  The next activity she decided to attend was Bingo and she inspired two other residents to go with her. What happened to her fully affirms the truth of a quote from Steve Maraboli, “…the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” That can be a real challenge and yet it is a challenge that we are called to do.

            She has not overcome her pain, but has, in some ways, learned to live with it.  She has learned to accept help. The man who was left half dead on the road in the gospel text is in much worse shape.  His options are far less than hers.  He really is at the mercy of someone else to take care of him. He does not live inside the insular walls of a nursing facility.

            What if, in this text, we see God as the one who is half dead?  What if caring for someone we actually despise, as illustrated in this gospel text, means that we care for and love God?  Is this not some sort of measure as to our commitment to and love of God?  Why else would Jesus tell us to love our enemies and pray for them? There is a sense in which God and our neighbor are one and the same.  If the answer to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength and your neighbor as yourself is this story, then it helps to think of it in that way.  I am showing my love for God when I show it to others.  The words of I John echo in my mind: You cannot love God whom you have not seen if you do not love your neighbor whom you have seen.

            The truth is, many of us engage in tribalism frequently without even realizing it.  And just what is tribalism?  Tribalism is a noun that means, “1) The state of existing as a separate tribe or tribes, 2) The customs and beliefs of a tribal society, and 3) Loyalty to a tribe or tribal values.” In high school, we called these groups cliques.  Cliques had unwritten codes of values and conduct to which members of a clique subscribed.  If members did not adhere to those codes, they were ostracized from the group, possibly even shunned, or became the object of cruel jokes.

            We tend to associate with the people that we feel most comfortable with and who make us feel loved and welcome.  We sense that there is a risk when we travel outside our comfort zones.  When in conversation with others, we try to fit in and not bring up too much controversy for fear that it will offend others in some way.  Yet sometimes, when we dare to throw caution to the wind, we realize that the person we thought was an enemy was someone with whom we did have some common values.  We are all human and all equally children before God and each other.  We need the reminder that God expects us to love each other as God in Jesus Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a living sacrifice.  God entered our story most profoundly in Jesus when Jesus dared to break down the barriers between male and female, the rich and the poor, the Samaritans and the Jews. In uniting with us, Jesus became one of us.  Jesus is both the neighbor who binds our wounds and heals our illness as well as the hated one left for dead.

            How should we approach others who may not meet our criteria of shared values and behavior?  The same way that a young child approaches Mom or Dad when being picked up from babysitting or daycare—with open arms, with energy, smiling and with expressions of joy and excitement.  We need to open our minds to the possibility that we could be wrong about others and their intentions.  People are often contrary when they are not feeling well or their minds are drawn to financial worries.

            Who is my neighbor?  The person you know and love.  The person you can’t stand to be around.  God is your neighbor.  If you have given a drink to the least of the children of God, you have done it to God.  Remember that your names are written in heaven and in thankfulness for that, reach out to others with the same love with which God loves you and Jesus died for you on the cross in order that you may be with God, love and serve God forever and ever.  Our hope and trust is in God because in Jesus, all things are possible, all things are made new and in God is eternal life forevermore. 

            To live into God’s love, we must show mercy to others because God is mercy. By its very nature, mercy is to be shared.  We should not fear, no matter how rough the pathway, because God has tread the pathway beforehand, goes with us and will always be there to strengthen us, and guide us, and bless us with God’s ongoing outpouring of mercy.  The merciful one asks of us just one thing---that we show mercy to others. Amen.

 

Prepare the Way of the Lord

Proper9C, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 7, 2013 by Annette Fricke

          

There are no parallels in the other gospels.  There is nowhere else in the New Testament with the exception that this story is a mirror image of the story where Jesus sends out his twelve disciples on a mission in Luke 9, a story that is found also in Matthew and Mark.   So why does Luke tell this particular story? I think we get a hint in Luke chapter 3, where Luke quotes Isaiah saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  Although we may recognize that this is in reference to the vocation of John the Baptist, isn’t that also the purpose of the angels, the prophets, the twelve disciples and the seventy-some?

            In order to structure humanity’s daily living as well as the games or sports we play, we usually discipline ourselves with a set of rules.  We do this in order that  within the structures of society, we can lead a peaceful co-existence. Several years ago, I took a class on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.  It is the story of a pub owner who creatively seeks a way to drum up business.  He has a brew or two with current patrons of another such establishment, all of whom are on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is the rule: He decides that each of his fellow travelers will tell stories both to and from the shrine and whoever tells the best story, in his estimation, will receive a free meal at his pub, courtesy of the other travelers.  The idea of traveling with others in this poetic story is to provide companionship and entertainment to pass the time since they are on foot. Traveling together protected them from outlaws. But also, this group is focused on their journey to the shrine. They are going to the most popular shrine in England. When Becket was murdered local people managed to obtain pieces of cloth soaked in his blood. Rumors soon spread that, when touched by this cloth, people were cured of blindness, epilepsy and leprosy. It was not long before the monks at Canterbury Cathedral were selling small glass bottles of Becket's blood to visiting pilgrims. As with any such group of people, they are a sundry lot as they go their way. It appears to be a very accurate study of people who are characteristic of those who lived as contemporaries of Chaucer himself.

I see this same phenomenon in my own life.  Everywhere I have been there is this variety of people; they are on the committees, in the parishes, in the families, in the workplaces, in the skilled nursing facilities.  We are all seekers of healing in our lives.  Some of us seek that through God and others through other means. Some see it through the healing medicines and some by the comforting words of nurses or aids. And yet, there is always a challenge for all of us to get along with each other everywhere we go, because all of us are different people with dissimilar personalities and diverse ways of doing things. This even extends to the minutest details of how to make a bed, wash and fold the laundry, or set the table. Some think it should be one way and others another. Sometimes it becomes a matter of wanting a particular person to do a specific task because, simply speaking, that is the way a certain person wants it done.

            In Luke 10, we have a bare bones formula for how to go about on a mission trip preparing the way of the Lord.  It is all business.  They are to ask God for laborers for the harvest.  They are to venture out in twos. They are warned that this will not be an easy task. They are to pack lightly and not stop to greet anyone. They are to go with an attitude of peace and seek to stay where their peace is appreciated and understood. They are expected to eat whatever is placed before them. They will be among people who follow different food rituals than that prescribed by kosher law. They are to cure the sick and say that the kingdom of God has come near to you. Unlike Luke 9, it is not about the mission of the twelve disciples, the so-called inner circle of Jesus.  It is about the others who have also believed in Jesus.  Seventy or seventy-two represents the working of the Holy Spirit.  It is a mirror of the passage about Moses in Numbers.  It also is a number that represents all nations.  Therefore, it is a passage that means we also, empowered by the Holy Spirit, are to go on that same mission into the world to teach, preach, and heal as Jesus did because that is what it means to prepare the way of Jesus. Some will look at this text and say to themselves, “Oh no.  Not me.  This applies to the clergy.  I am just a lay person.”  But if we count ourselves out, how will the gospel be spread?  No; this applies to lay people, too.  And we also will be as surprised as the first disciples were as to what happens when we share the gospel.

            Of course, this is not the only way to go about spreading the gospel.  Even without this rigid structure, we each are called to do this in our daily lives at work and wherever we spend our time.  Despite the fact that there are many out there who do not believe in God at all or only marginally, there are ears out there that are receptive to the gospel.  I remember attending a social function in the church social hall, conversing with the visitation pastor a couple days after I preached a sermon and the church secretary approached me, tapping me on my left shoulder, asking for permission to quote part of my sermon. I turned around, intrigued by her query, because I barely knew her and she was not a member of our church.  I surmised that she had read my sermon because the manuscript had flown from her desk to become available to the congregation, but had no idea she would be touched by it. I was surprised that she had been struck by the phrase that we are all ambassadors for Christ.  In my mind, I was thinking---that is directly from Paul.  It’s nothing new.  I don’t understand what the big deal is. At the same time, I silently gave thanks for the working of the Holy Spirit in her life. As I thought more about what she said, I was secretly happy that she got it! I totally get the excitement of the seventy-some others about seeing the results of their mission. Jesus had told them about the harvest and they had seen, with their own eyes, the fruits of their labors.

            However, Jesus reminds them that the power he has given them is not what they should be happy about.  He said that we should be happy that our names are written in heaven—that the kingdom of God has come near to us. Think about it; the kingdom of God is known to us because someone, or more likely many someones, in our lives preached it, taught it, and brought us healing because of it as if directly from God. As Christians, we are never without vocation.  We are always both witness to and conduit of God’s grace. We are the body of Christ. Give thanks and remember that your names are written in heaven.

            From Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless others now.” Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.

 

           

The Splanknidzomai of God

Proper5C, Sullivan Park Care Center, June 9, 2013 by Annette Fricke

In verse 13 of our gospel text, we read, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’  If we pay attention only to the second part of that verse, we get the impression that Jesus didn’t understand what was going on.  However, when we look at the first part, we know that Jesus does know and responds in a way that we might find difficult to understand.  Jesus had compassion for a non-Jewish woman whom he didn’t even know.  One rendering of this word that is translated into English, meaning compassion is this, "his heart was gut-wrenched" for her. That sense of being gut-wrenched is like having all of your insides mangled together, painfully pressing you to act.” At seminary, many years ago, we were taught that the culture of the area where Jesus taught saw this emotion as coming from the bowels or entrails of a person.  It is a visceral moment that originates from deep within.  It is much more than sympathy or pity as my Greek dictionary defines it. Notice that Jesus is not asked by the woman, but Jesus takes the initiative, reaching out to her in her grief.  They were a last surviving unit, just mother and son.  A mother alone in that society had no identity.  If we were to fast forward to the gospel of John, to the scene of the crucifixion, in John 19:26-27, we find the following words, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to this mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” 

Luke is defining for us what kind of prophet Jesus is by a series of stories that illustrate it.  We are again reminded at the end of this chapter 7 in Luke where we are told, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”  In this case the dead are raised, but that is not the full import of this story or any of the other stories.  Healthcare in those days, above all, meant a restoration of relationship to family and temple worship.  A central function of Jesus’ ministry is to lead those whose lives have lost cultural meaning back to their proper purpose and direction in life. The death of a son is tragic enough, but for a widow it is double jeopardy since she relies on that male next-of-kin for her very livelihood. Jesus effectively saved her life by restoring her son to his life.

A woman named Julia in England had a son named George who, no matter what she tried, would not speak although she herself always kept trying.  He would cry and be agitated, wouldn’t smile or connect with her in any way.  She was unable to touch him or hold him. She suffered from years of gossip and cruelty by others. She had many tests done and he was finally diagnosed as having Asperger’s, which is a type of Autism.  But the diagnosis didn't leave her with any clues as to what she could do. She was still bewildered as to how to produce a normal emotional growth for her son. Then a cat suddenly appeared in their garden. The cat was bloody, so she told George that he had probably got tangled in someone’s fence or something. When George saw the cat, he amazingly spoke for the very first time in seven years saying in a high-pitched voice, “Baboo! Baboo!” She was so excited that she called everyone she knew in the phone book both friends and relatives and he continued to call, “Baboo! Baboo!”  He bounced around, taking down the Christmas tree and the decorations in celebration.  They became the best of friends and George’s life came alive. He had the cat eat at the table with him and whatever he ate, he gave also to the cat.  If he had fish sticks, so did the cat. One day, the cat rubbed himself against George and George asked his mum what the cat was doing.  So she said, “The cat is trying to show you that he loves you.”  George took that information and rubbed against his mother in the same way.  The gossip about the mad lady began again.  People outside the household wondered about her when they saw her son George  do the same as the cat, rubbing against her leg.  And then the cat suddenly disappeared for about three months.  The mother and her son were in Egypt on Holiday.  They received a phone call that the cat had been found, so the next day, they returned home.  The family that found him was actually about 80-90 miles from their home and invited Julia to tea.  She was lavished with a wonderful spread, and saying truthfully that it was all very lovely, but she was anxious to see the cat.  She was taken to a room.  They opened the door and out came the cat, named Ben by this time.  Ben jumped into her arms and would not let go.  She took the cat home to George and what a grand homecoming it was.  George was reunited and a few other cats were welcomed into the family as well.  Even though the mum had grown up with several cats and grew to have a distaste for them, the fur all over and the cleaning, this was the key to George’s growth as a human being and his happiness.  George is now nineteen years old and in college.  He still has his struggles relating to others, but thanks to the love of a cat and a mother, George is whole and healed. Healed does not always mean cured.  You see healed sometimes just means that things are in proper alignment or equilibrium.  They are balanced. They are restored.

Evil, sickness, and even death will continue but for this one day, the woman in the gospel lesson who grieved the loss of her son, had been restored to wholeness with society, and her family which had been taken away by death was once again renewed.

As we read in Psalm 23, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." The psalmist does not pretend that evil and death do not exist. Death lies ahead for all of us, saints and sinners alike, and for all the ones we love.

There are few other descriptions that I know that better describe the love of God in the actions of Jesus.  Jesus had deep compassion. What kind of prophet is Jesus?  The dead are raised. Jesus is the embodiment of compassion (splanknidzomai) and calls us to be the same.  God has always been and always will be there to strengthen us, no matter what our journeys may bring or where they may take us.  God sees what we need and fills that need. Blessed be God. Amen.

To Live in God's Reality

TrinitySundayC, Sullivan Park Care Center, May 26, 2013 by Annette Fricke

            Today is one of the most dreaded Sundays of the entire year on which to preach.  I know this.  My Facebook newsfeed has a joke about it which is this: A picture of the group of people who ordain—represented, of course by one of the three in a miter—that would be the bishop and the caption reads, “Prepare her as a deacon in your church to be asked each year to preach on Trinity Sunday.”  The truth is, I have seen some bad sermons on this day, including the one children’s sermon given by an ordained pastor of the Lutheran Church in which the Trinity was explained as one person with differing relationships to other people in his life.  I no longer try to explain it in my own words.  There is a hymn that I believe captures it much better.  It is attributed to St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who lived around 385-461, and goes like this in the first verse, “I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.”  And since we know God most profoundly by way of Jesus, the fourth verse is, “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 the mouth of friend and stranger.” The words seem to echo the gospel according to John and to speak to all that God is. And to underscore and reinforce the meaning and main point of this hymn, the fifth verse is the last, “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 has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word.  Praise to the Lord of my salvation; salvation is of Christ the Lord!” And not to mention, for those of you who know music, the tune is written in ¾ time.  Waltzes are also written in ¾ time, not as easy to sing or conduct as 4/4 time.  There is something about three that makes it difficult to comprehend.  It is not natural.  However, we are not alone.  The early Christians debated the whole concept of the Trinity for the first several years of Christianity and thus the Orthodox Christians began labeling those who believed otherwise as heretics.  Even though the concept of the Trinity is really difficult to describe or comprehend without being heretical, this is the Orthodox Christian teaching. The Orthodox Christians’ hierarchical teaching authority did a great job of enforcing that teaching and snuffing out other teachings to the contrary, except when discoveries were made recently that there was plenty evidence in print of other teachings, tucked away in jars in caves. 

            Why do I mention and quote that which is attributed to St Patrick?  Because he lived during the time that the Nicene Creed was freshly debated, written, and revised to elucidate our understanding of the Trinity.  The Eastern Church leaves out one of the phrases of this well known creed and adds other phrases.  The truth is that the Eastern Church does not believe or confess the same concept of the Trinity as the Western Church.  The Church remains divided on this, what appears to be a crucial doctrine.

            We find another description of God in The Book of Concord which was written by the reformers of the 1500s.  It reads like this, “We unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the decree of the Council of Nicea, that there is one divine essence, which is called and which is truly God, and that there are three persons in this one divine essence, eternal, without division, without end, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, one creator and preserver of all things visible and invisible.  The word “person” is to be understood as the [Church] Fathers employed the term in this connection, not as a part or property of another but as that which exists of itself.  Therefore all the heresies which are contrary to this article are rejected.

            Between 710 and 714, The Apostle’s Creed as we now know it was formed and solidified.  It is much shorter than the Nicene Creed and has found a wider audience that subscribe to the belief that it puts forth.  Here is one modern version, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting. Amen.”  In this version, the descent into hell and the resurrection of the body are rejected as doctrine.  In times past, Christians did not cremate bodies for burial because they believed in the resurrection of the body. Later scholarship revealed that the concept of hell was borrowed from neighboring religions.

            Although on the surface, it may look like a lot of bickering and fighting amongst Christians, this is for sure: we no longer use the words of anathema, heretic, or excommunication as often or as with much vehemence as in our history.  We no longer burn people at the stake because they do not believe as we do or burn their books.  Christianity has learned that belief comes from the heart and to what the heart consents.  Nobody can force anyone else to believe anything.  You are free to pick apart anything that I say or anyone else says.  What you believe is what you believe and nobody can take the right away.  During the terror of Hitler, those who were not thrown into the gas chamber and actually survived the duration of captivity, were those who recited in their minds the scriptures and hymns, both Jews and Christians, but mostly Jews.  Our minds are free and will always be free.

            Barbara Taylor Brown, a celebrated Episcopal priest puts it this way in her book titled, The Preaching Life, “While it may seem more respectable to approach faith as an intellectual exercise or more satisfying to approach it as an emotional one, our relationship to God is not simply a matter of what we think or how we feel. It is more comprehensive than that, and more profound. It is a full-bodied relationship in which mind and heart, spirit and flesh, are converted to a new way of experiencing and responding to the world. It is a matter of learning to see the world, each other, and ourselves as God sees us, and to live as if God's reality were the only one that mattered."

            However, as one old wise priest said, because of the creeds about such things as the mystery of the Trinity, the church has survived all these years.  It has been both bane and blessing as we still strain to figure out who God is and who we are in God’s world.  This much we know for sure, and it is not dependent on any doctrinal statements or beliefs of any kind: God loves us and constantly seeks to have a relationship with us and seeks that we have a relationship with each other.  God will always be there to create and re-create newer understandings and insights for us and we will grow in them if we continue to be open to them and love from our hearts.  The Trinity remains a mystery and is probably best seen that way and not explained.

You will Set the World on Fire

PentecostC, Sullivan Park Care Center, May 19, 2013, by Annette Fricke

'A Prayer to God the Father on the Vigil of Pentecost' by Thomas Merton
Today, Father, this blue sky lauds you. The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip poplar tree praise you. The distant blue hills praise you, together with the sweet-smelling air that is full of brilliant light. The bickering flycatchers praise you with the lowing cattle and the quail that whistle over there. I too, Father, praise you, with all these my sisters and brothers, and they give voice to my own heart and to my own silence. We are all one silence, and a diversity of voices.
You have made us together, you have made us one and many, you have placed me here, in the midst as witness, as awareness, and as joy. Here I am. In me the world is present, and you are present. I am a link in the chain of light and of presence.
Whatever may have been my particular stupidity, the prayers of your friends and my own prayers have somehow been answered, and I am here, in this solitude, before you, and I am glad because you see me here. For it is here, I think, that you want to see me and I am seen by you. My being here is a response you have asked of me, to something I have not clearly heard. But I have responded, and I am content: there is little more to know about it at present.

Pentecost is the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai. This feast is still celebrated as Shavuot, which also includes the celebration of the first fruits of the harvest. Later, in the Christian liturgical year, it is also a feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the twelve Apostles of Christ.

In the Eastern church, Pentecost can also refer to the whole fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, hence the book containing the liturgical texts for Paschaltide is called the Pentecostarion. The feast is also called Whit Sunday, or Whitsun,especially in England, where the following Monday was traditionally a holiday. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday.

Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Twelve Apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church."

The Pentecostal movement of Christianity derives its name from the New Testament event.

The biblical narrative of Pentecost, where the 11 Disciples of Christ (Acts 1:13, 26), along with about 109 other individuals (Acts 1:15), including many women, among whom was Mary the mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14), received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. As recounted in Acts 2:1–6:

“

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”

While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy ("I will pour out my spirit") In Acts 2:17, it reads: "' In the last days it will be,' God declares, 'I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:41 then reports: "So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added."

Peter stated that this event was the beginning of a continual outpouring that would be available to all believers from that point on, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Traditional interpretation holds that the Descent of the Holy Spirit took place in the Upper Room, or Cenacle, while celebrating the day of Pentecost (Shavuot). The Upper Room was first mentioned in Luke 22:12-13 (“And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found as he had said to them: and they made ready the passover."). This Upper Room was to be the location of the Last Supper and the institution of Holy Communion. The next mention of an Upper Room is in Acts 1:13-14, the continuation of the Luke narrative, authored by the same biblical writer. Here the disciples and women wait and they gave themselves up to constant prayer: "And when they had come in, they went up into an upper room, where there was present both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his friends." Then, in Acts 2:1–2, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting." The "place" is in reference to the same Upper Room where these persons had "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication".

This description of the beginning of the Church tells us quite succinctly what the early Church was all about. It is even more simply put in verse 42 of this second chapter of Acts: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  As Christianity spread throughout the world, Christians adopted many different practices as to what they heard from the preaching and teaching and how to go about structuring the worship and administration of the community of believers.  “What did Jesus really say?” and “What did Jesus really mean?” continue to be studied by mainline denominations.  The popularity of the abbreviation WWJD seems to have died out—WWJD meaning, “What would Jesus do?”  And yet, at a certain level, this is a question we need to have in mind on a daily moment by moment basis.  If Jesus were here in the flesh once again on earth, what would he do and how would he address the various situations and issues we now face in our world?  God now leaves that up to us, having given us the resources and opportunities to be Jesus’ presence in the world. Catherine of Sienna’s answer is this: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” the first Christian pyromaniac!  Her answer is to have zeal enough to set the world on fire, not literally of course, but to take the word of God very seriously.  Think of it this way: the world used to marvel at martyrs---now the world celebrates celebrities. What do you celebrate?

 

 

Be like a Tree

7EasterC, May 12, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Annette Fricke

            As I was thinking about whether or not to even mention Mother’s Day in my preaching today, I came across this piece.  The author is a woman who is not a mother and in this essay, she expresses how she feels when certain pastors in her life would say on that day, “All of you who are mothers, please stand up.”  Motherhood is much more inclusive than that and she does a great job of articulating the various forms of motherhood within our earthly experience.  Here is what she wrote:

            The wide spectrum of mothering: To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you. To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you. To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you. To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you. To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is. To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you. To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you. To those who have disappointment, heartache, and distance with your children – we sit with you. To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you. To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience. To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst. To those who have aborted children - we remember them and you on this day. To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children - we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be. To those who step-parent - we walk with you on these complex paths. To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren, yet that dream is not to be - we grieve with you. To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you. And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you. This Mother’s Day, we walk with you. Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you. by Amy Young.

            And then I thought of this: This gospel text basically says the same thing three times. "I in them and you in me, and together we ARE the body of Christ..." In the midst of the horrifying yet miraculous news of three girls.... what they endured over the last decade... these three now rescued young women in Cleveland are returning to families who are experiencing bitter-sweet reunions as one's mother had died just two years after her absence. Still there were other family members who can't wait to "catch them up" on their families’ and friends’ lives. We all hurt for these women... and their friends and family because we can only imagine what that must be like. Their names were made known and not forgotten and God's love remained and still remains! We pray for their healing. "I in them and you in me, and together we ARE the body of Christ..." I guess the question is, do we hear Gospel in this prayer--that because Jesus prayed it, God must surely have answered this prayer and our task is to show in our lives the unity that God has already given us...? Or do we hear Law in this prayer--look at how broken and fragmented we are when Jesus prayed that we should be one. How far have we fallen from the prayer that Jesus prayed?

            Jesus' prayer that we may be one, is clearly for the purpose "that the
world may believe that you have sent me" (vv.21 and 23). The Christian community on earth isn't some cozy little gathering of "like minded people" that Jesus has in mind, but a group that will change the world. As said by Peter J.B. Carman, "unity isn't for its own sake but for the sake of (being a) witness to the love of God and the authenticity of Christ as the one 'sent'." In other words, we are the ones sent by Jesus to be witnesses of the love of God to all of humanity. Since the basis of this unity is found in God's love, our message must be rooted somehow in this love, as with all our relationships. We find that peace and that glory when we join in with the love Jesus has for us and extend it to others. We have been given the power to respond in love, even when someone intends us evil.

            Jesus’ prayer is a futuristic prayer.  He is praying for us because we are now his disciples in the world.  Broken though we may be, represented by many different denominations and Christian groups, Jesus calls for us to unite into a single unit. Like the pieces and colors of a stained glass window that lets the light of both the world and Jesus in, so we are.  The nature of the unity of Jesus’ disciples in this world that he yearns for is to be as profound and close as the unity of Jesus and the Father.  As a child, my eyes would wander to the stained glass windows of my church.  Each one of them represented an important story or key phrase from the scriptures.  Above the altar was the picture that represents this gospel text.  It is a picture of Jesus praying on a big rock in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is a reminder that Jesus cares very deeply for us.  That is the kind of deep love he hopes to instill in us so that we will love as he loves us, to hold back the words and thoughts of cursing, name-calling, jealous and malicious gossip, questioning others’ motives. In union with God in prayer, we will be guided to do that which is no longer our will, but God’s will.  Paul followed God’s will when he went to Macedonia, we are told.  He was open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.  That was his guide for ministry. God calls all of us to that intimate union in constant prayer.  At the very least, we should all pray for each other in our daily lives, in all our contacts with others, all of our relationships. We are made in God’s image to be in relationship with God and all of humanity.  That is the stuff we are made of.  Thomas Merton put it this way, “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It “consents,” so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.”  Paul was doing that which Jesus did and continues to do through us.  But, as Merton so eloquently states, we need to be like the tree and consent to God’s creative love working in us.  We are called to be God’s love in the world, a world that works at tearing us down rather than building us up; a world where things happen that we don’t understand, where there is pain, crippling of hands, knees and feet.  It is a world of kidnappers, murderers, liars and cheaters. It is a world of violence that we sometimes see as senseless and irrational.  Intentional acts of kindness are sometimes forgotten by random acts of violence.

Until Someone Believes in the Risen Jesus

EasterC, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 31, 2013 by Annette Fricke

                Early on the first day of the week, we are told, while it was still dark---If you have ever studied the gospel according to John, the theme of dark and light runs throughout.  We first see it in chapter 1, verse 5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Raymond Brown, the late, great scholar of John, writes: "In this Gospel, where light and darkness play such a role, darkness lasts until someone believes in the risen Jesus."

Compliments of Apologetic Press, According to Eric Lyons, “Mary Magdalene is mentioned a total of 12 times in the New Testament—the oldest historical record mentioning her name. All 12 occurrences appear in the gospel accounts, wherein we learn the following:

Jesus cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9).

She was one of many who provided for Jesus out of her own means (Luke 8:1-3).

She witnessed the crucifixion of Christ (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; John 19:25).

She was present at His burial (Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47).

She arrived at Jesus’ tomb on the Sunday following His crucifixion to find His body missing (Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-7; John 20:1).

She saw the risen Lord, spoke with Him, and later reported the encounter to the apostles (Matthew 28:9-10; Mark 16:9-11; John 20:11-18).

Mary Magdalene apparently was a devout, faithful follower of Christ. Not a shred of solid biblical or extra biblical evidence suggests she played the role of harlot, wife, mother, or secret lover. The New Testament, as the oldest, most reliable witness to her identity, testifies loudly and clearly about her genuine faithfulness to the Lord, and keeps silent about those things which twenty-first-century sensationalists allege.”

In addition to the above, there has been controversy as to whether or not the other Marys mentioned in the New Testament are also her or separate identities.  I think I will go with the separate identities since Mary seems to have been a very common name for women during the time of Jesus and it only makes sense, as a writer, knowing that it is a very common name that one does need to distinguish which Mary is the subject at any given point in the narrative.

However, despite the confusion over which Mary was where and did what, one thing is in agreement in all four gospels.  Mary Magdalene is named in all of them as being one of the very first witnesses to the resurrection.  She, along with other women was the first to arrive at the empty tomb, not the male disciples.  In her confusion, she ran to tell the disciples.  She noticed that the stone was moved, but didn’t go in. She did not walk.  She ran. She ran to Peter and the other disciples, perhaps only half believing or half remembering that Jesus had said that he would rise from the dead, half believing that perhaps his body was simply moved or stolen.  We know that the stone would have been rolled at an incline so as to make it very difficult to move the stone. We really don’t know what her inner thoughts were but could probably assume that she was scared as well. But we do know that she, who had been healed of seven demons by Jesus, is now privileged to be one of the first to discover the empty tomb and the possibility that her Lord has done something even greater. Could it be that the incredible rising from death that Jesus talked about really did happen? Could it be that we also can live in that life that Jesus talked about in his earthly ministry? Could it be that Jesus’ deep love, commitment, and loyalty to his disciples---the ones who travelled with him as well as those who believed in him from a distance and those yet to believe---could it be that this is the fulfillment of that love?  Could it be that there is a deep truth here, a longing fulfilled and yet far surpassed?  Perhaps the lyrics of “Alfie” from 1966 that say, “Without true love, we just exist.” hit the nail on the head.  We were created in love by God to be in relationship with God who not only loves us, but is love.  Would that not be the ultimate disappointment if God loves us from the point of our creation, but then all dies with him and dwindles to nothing? This is the challenging part of the story for most people.  Did the resurrection really happen?  Will that happen to us?  Or rather, does that happen to us?

I know that for Mary Magdalene, the resurrection was very real.  She had been profoundly healed. She had been very ill and now she was a committed disciple of Jesus, one who contributed money to his ministry while he was on earth.  She was there for Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, faithful to what she thought was the end.  That is how things end.  I am sure she had seen it many times before: people are born, they live here on earth, and then they die.  End of story-- right? Without our belief in Jesus as the Messiah of God, the ultimate Messiah who sets everything right, who makes a new covenant with us, who completes the circle that always seemed to be not quite right before---without that belief and the riveting reality of resurrection, it is the end of the story.  What could the life of Jesus possibly mean if we don’t believe in the transforming power of God in Jesus?  What does the Lord’s Supper mean if it is not Jesus’ transformation of his followers?  What does baptism mean if Jesus is not raised from the dead?  What do all those stories about healing and forgiveness mean if Jesus is not raised? In the words of Dr. Jerald Daffe, “Mary Magdalene provides an example of the power of God to transform a life. Regardless of the depths of sin into which one has fallen, he or she can be rescued and changed into a new creation with a new purpose in life. Mary Magdalene once suffered under the control of demons but was delivered to become a disciple. Countless similar stories can be found throughout the history of Christianity. The names are different, but the renewal is the same.”  Think back to another Mary, the one who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, her hair, and her tears.  She showed great sorrow, deep and genuine contrition for her sin.  When all around her ridiculed both her and Jesus, Jesus stuck up for her and said to leave her alone, that she is doing a good thing.  When I saw in the news that Pope Francis washed the feet of prisoners on Maundy Thursday, I and many thought to ourselves, that he did a good thing. Next thing I know, there is another press release titled, “Pope’s foot-wash a final straw for traditionalists.”  It turns out that the offense was not because they were Muslim or prisoners, but some were women.  According to the liturgical rites, this is not to happen because only men are to have their feet washed.  Some saw it as promoting the ordination of women.  However, the Pope is apparently against the ordination of women. 

Without getting into this further, I think you can see how it is that we end up with controversy over the meaning of stories in the Bible.  What strikes me the most is that this pope seems to like more interaction with people and likes to do more than just talk about things.  He expressed that he chose to take on the name of Francis because Francis of Assisi was a champion of the poor.  He also demonstrated that by suggesting to the people of Argentina that they not come to his enthronement as the new pope, but rather give their money they would have spent to the poor.  Jesus is not with us in the same sense as he was with us on earth before the resurrection.  All is now changed.  It is transformed. John tells us that the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. "In this Gospel, where light and darkness play such a role, darkness lasts until someone believes in the risen Jesus."