advent-2-2017

Homily: St. Paul’s – Advent 2

lectionary

Comfort, comfort ye my people … a voice cries in the wilderness (Isaiah)

a prophet speaks to us as only a prophet can:

… all people are grass … see our God comes with might … to be their shepherd

Then in Mark’s version of the gospel, we take a quick step from the Old Testament prophets right into the New Testament:

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins … He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

John the Baptist

I once got to hear John the Baptist speak. Well, not really John the Baptist. It may have been more like Jeremiah. Well, I’m not sure but in appearance and in his voice he was nothing if not an Old Testament prophet, walking right into a church auditorium in Pueblo, Colorado, ca. 1977.

His name was William McNamara. A Carmelite priest, following in the tradition of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross of 500 years ago, he was traveling the country trying to spread the word of what would be his life-long message. That contemplation and mysticism was available to everyone – not just to some elite group of super-hero-Christians.

I think McNamara must have known that he looked and sounded “like” one of the prophets. From the moment he spoke I somehow knew that he knew (in the biblical sense) of the fiery passionate presence of God that Moses himself knew.

I frequently refer to McNamara when I am visiting churches that have an exuberant “giving of the peace” the way you do here at St. Paul’s. He tells the story in one of his early books about the introduction of the peace in the 70’s. He said e.g. there was the church where everyone stood up and greeted one another, [that was ok with him] then they got out of their pews and greeting people near them [that was ok with him] then they greeted everyone in the building [that was ok with him] then they went outside and continued the peace out there. He decided that wasn’t ok with him. He thought that they missed the point of the peace then.

They were passionate, but passionate about greeting one another and not about celebrating the presence of the living God – who might come in power and glory at any moment, catching them unawares.

William McNamara

William McNamara, also known as Abba Willie, was one of the most influential spiritual writers and mystics of the 21st century. … died at 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, after a long period of illness. He was 89 years old.

The website devoted to his memory says that it is dedicated to McNamara’s unique brand of “earthy mysticism,” a soaring, Christian-based spirituality that nevertheless is inspired by such down-to-earth, life-affirming, passionate figures as Zorba the Greek.

link

Some years after I was first exposed to McNamara I had a lesson from one of my first spiritual directors. He helped me to see that I was probably more of a Zorba wannabe than an actual passionate figure like Zorba.

Whether I was looking on in admiration or yearning for something I could never be, I recognized in this person the voice of one able to summon the presence of God into our midst.

He was acting in the tradition of Thomas Merton re. mysticism for everyone.

“The mystic is not a special kind of person; every person is a special kind of mystic.” (from the opening of Earthy Mysticism.

To my students I repeat 5-6 times a definition: “Mysticism is the experience of the sacred in every day life.” Some of them get it. Most of them do not.

not exotic someone with weird dress and language

subtitle of the book he had just published “Spirituality for a bored society”

• bored is not where we are now … rather stimulated 24/7
• as if what we did in the 80’s to our “boredom” was to find every new ways to be entertained and distracted

loss of passion he would say leads to boredom. What the world – or as he corrects himself several times – he is not really preaching to others, he is preaching to himself – the best, only kind of preaching – what he needs is more passion not less.

• the great heroes of faith, the saints, the mystics, were not passionless but profoundly passionate folk.
• John the Baptist could have played it safe and not preached directly against the sinfulness of the rulers of his day. It might have saved him his head. But he was passionate in his love for God.

Everyday Mysticism

We are meant to hear the prophetic voice at the beginning of Advent

Anthony deMello wrote many years ago, at the beginning of one of his books:

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion – are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.link

Dec. 10 in the Episcopal Calendar is Thomas Merton

He died on this date in 1968. I was privileged to spend almost a month with a colleague and friend of his in the mountains of Wyoming.

Some of you might say – camping in the wilderness, ugh - others might say, – camping in the wilderness, oh how wonderful

In either case, the call of Merton as with all the prophets, is addressed to all of us at any time, in any place, “Come into the presence of the living God.”

“What the World needs now”

What the world needs now is love sweet love,
Its the only thing that there’s just to little of,
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone,
Lord we don’t need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides,
Enough to climb

There are oceans and rivers,
Enough to cross, enough to last till the end of time,
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
Its the only thing that there’s just to little of,
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone,
Lord, we don’t need another meadow,
There are cornfields and wheat fields,
Enough to grow

There are sunbeams and moonbeams,
Enough to shine,
…
Songwriters: Burt Bacharach / Hal David
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management US, LLC – Artist: Dionne Warwick

There are oceans, and rivers, sunbeams, & moonbeams, … are there enough of them? Have we seen them with the eyes of love?

Our world hums on just fine. It’s heating up at an ever greater pace and will hardly notice when we’ve destroyed the home we grew up in.

The oceans and rivers don’t flow and wave with love. They do it without love or passion. Love and Passion, mystical passion, is our bailwick – our kuleana

Kuleana is a uniquely Hawaiian value and practice which is loosely translated to mean “responsibility.” The word kuleana refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible, and the thing which they are responsible for.

For example, Hawaiians have a kuleana to our land: to care for it and to respect it, and in return, our land has the kuleana to feed, shelter, and clothe us, through this relationship we maintain balance within society and with our natural environment.

One of the most significant things I have heard in my life in the church was said by Bp. Tutu. God has made us responsible for his reputation.

Another had to do with an understanding of baptism, what it meant to be a Christian and what that meant for our understanding of ordination. It was articulated by several bishops I knew in Northern Michigan. Baptism makes us part of the 1 body. The body ordains some to be symbols for the rest of us of what we are all supposed to be doing: being good stewards, forgiving, blessing, serving.

It is the kuleana of all of us to be passionate – profligate – with our love. Not the shallow feelings that are the stuff of too much of our lives. Certainly not the abuse that has passed for erotic love for too long. Passionate love like the great mystics have had: Elijah, Elizabeth of Hungary, Nicholas of Myra, Joan of Arc, Demond Tutu, Thomas Keating, Dorothy Day – the list is long. And none of them could be accused of being tepid with their love.

All of them have built up the reputation of the God whom they have bowed down to worship.

All of them are symbols for what the rest of us are to be about in our lives of compassion and courageous love for the world and the people we share this life with.

Conclusion

If we open our hearts to passionate love, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see, this Advent, we will hear the words of the prophets:

Wake up. Pay Attention. God’s reputation is in your hands now. And may God bless you as you go.

advent-1-2017

Homily Advent 1: St. Paul’s

Opening

I have used the prayer Song of Zechariah for a very long time as a part of my daily prayer. I had it memorized by the time I was 30. Maybe I was drawn to it because it was a song by a father. I recognize I have a special place in my heart for fathers. It was sung by John the Baptist’s father, a priest, at the time his parents took John to be circumcised. He had been struck dumb, you may remember, when he scoffed at the notion that they would have a child at their advanced age. When next he opened his mouth to speak, he named the child “John” and praised God in song.

Towards the end of the song we hear:

Benedictus Dominus (Song of Zechariah)

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God *
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the
shadow of death, *
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

From a long time ago I heard those words addressed to me. prepare the way of the Lord Seems rather filled with hubris doesn’t it? I think I first thought of this when I came across the suggestion that as representatives of Christ, as Christians in our world, we bear responsibility for what other people think it means to be a Christian.

When they walk away from us, will they have met a representative of Christ? Will they have seen something of a reflection of Christ? Or will it be something else?

It seems to me that we are directed to do the same thing that John’s father said about him. We are meant to prepare the way for those who come after us, that they might be able to see Christ.

It’s Advent

I thought about these things because (surprise, surprise) it’s Advent. Once again we Episcopalians and the other odd-ball Christians who follow a church year begin to Keep Advent. We are for a period of time, or for some part of our week, out of sync with the rest of the world around us. Everyone else is keeping Christmas (at least anticipating it) or they are anticipating the end of the year and all that it brings us.

We, on the other hand, are now beginning a new year. When we gather in church on Sundays we are – as of today – going to hear from the gospel of Mark rather than the gospel of Matthew.

My Mother’s conversion led to our family when I was growing up to keep advent. It meant we didn’t put up Christmas decorations until Christmas eve. It meant that we were accustomed to the 12 days of Christmas when our friends were throwing away Christmas. It meant that we heard a message of prayer and penitence rather than festive celebrations.

Most of our friends didn’t have a clue.

What are we doing? Are we keeping alive traditions because they make us feel better? Because we like the nostalgia that it calls to mind?

I want to suggest today that we are doing a most solemn and important thing by keeping Advent.

Making room for the one who is to come.

Watchword: Make room for the one who is to come – it turns out that we don’t know if it he will come in our lifetime, so it’s all about making room for those who come after

In the most profound way, it seems to me that we are preparing the way for the one who is to come after us. In so many ways.

When I was growing up I encountered the holy in the priests who led our Episcopal summer camp at Evergreen, Colorado. Theyled us in chants and incense. It was where I first encountered the Benedictus Dominus Deus. In college there were all kinds of encounters that led me to have a thirst for the sacred. Music sometimes sent my soul into a reverie that conjurred up God’s very presence, just out of reach. I thought I could study mysticism in English, Philosophy, Religion, Science … just about anywhere.

I was thirsty because others had prepared the way for me to see and feel it.

I once listened to Michael Ramsey teach for a week on glory

Then I finally felt like I had experienced as close as I would get at the 1^st Easter Vigil at Nashotah House seminary. But as always, it was fleeting. It quickly faded. I was ordained and tasked with leading others to experience the same.

With hardly any warning, it was I who was expected to prepare the way for others to encounter the Lord.

I read something like what I am talking about in my evening devotions the other day:

THE JOY BEYOND the walls of the world more poignant than grief. Even in church you catch glimpses of it sometimes though church is apt to be the last place because you are looking too hard for it there. It is not apt to be so much in the sermon that you find it or the prayers or the liturgy but often in something quite incidental like the evening the choral society does the Mozart Requiem, and there is your friend Dr. X, who you know thinks the whole business of religion is for the birds, singing the Kyrie like a bird himself — Lord, have mercy, have mercy —as he stands there among the baritones in his wilted shirt and skimpy tux; and his workaday basset-hound face is so alive with if not the God he wouldn’t be caught dead believing in then at least with his twin brother that for a moment nothing in the whole world matters less than what he believes or doesn’t believe — Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison — and as at snow, dreams, certain memories, at fairy tales, the heart leaps, the eyes fill.

the Gospel

"I love the way Mark’s gospel begins. It has no pretenses. It doesn’t have any smooth phrases. It just starts. This is it. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…

It’s not a bad way to begin keeping Advent. Just jump right in and who do we meet? John the Baptist. Not baby Jesus. Not angels. But a prophet! Surely this is a figure who is preparing the way.

And lo and behold it has been passed on. From generation to generation, the good news has been handed from one family, one generation, to another Passing it on one of the responsibilities of our Christian faith. And it has come down to us. Now we are responsible to prepare the way.

That is the very definition of tradition. Passing it on.

Tevye singing “Tradition” link

A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home… And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word… Tradition."

(Chorus)
Tradition, tradition… tradition
Tradition, tradition… tradition

(Tevye)
“Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years. Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything… how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl… This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start? I’ll tell you - I don’t know. But it’s a tradition… Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

Tevye calls it tradition. Today we call it “Keeping Advent.” The window to be able to see the glory of God has been kept open from one generation to generation.

Keeping Advent.

The one we await is coming. We are right to be expectant, anticipating, waiting … as Advent invites us. But when? We can not say. So prepare the way. Pass on the tradition. Keep Advent.