February 25The Second Sunday in Lent (St Paul's)

February 25:The Second Sunday in Lent (St. Paul’s)

lectionary

covenants:

If we have been hearing and responding to the image of Jesus’ ministry, who he is, and what that means for us through the Epiphany season. Our emphasis changes in Lent. Today the theme of Lent is put plainly before us. It is Covenant.

“walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham”

The theme of “covenant” is reworked and repeated with variations throughout the coming weeks of Lent. Next week it is expressed in the Ten Commandments. Jesus cleanses the Temple. The following week, the covenant people grumble in the wilderness. God, who is the other party to the covenant, finally moves to the final response to his wayward, grumbling, always squabbling people. He lifts up the Son of Man on high.

Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Finally, “covenant” is the very word used by Jeremiah in his vision of a new covenant to be made between God and his people, a covenant to be etched on their hearts, not on tablets of stone.

One of the difficulties I have felt over the years as I have taught students the bible – where, by the way, covenant plays and incredibly large part – is that there are different kinds of covenants.

My students readily recognize the analogy of the covenant of marriage with the covenant between God and the people. Their experience with marriage in my experience has been profoundly spotty.

Covenants in our society can be tinged with hypocrisy. Some covenants come with fingers crossed. One is committed until such time as there is a change of mind or heart. Some covenants come with Golden Parachutes. Some come with a “Go directly to jail” card attached, like the student loans that are given to students who will never be able to repay them.

God’s covenant with his people is not that kind of covenant.

Traditionally in biblical studies, the teacher makes the distinction between conditional and unconditional covenants, and those covenants made between two equal parties and those made between unequal parties.

Paul uses the model of the covenant to argue for a change in the conditions of God’s covenant with his people. It is no longer to be adherence to the Torah as the rabbis had developed it but was now to be understood as a covenant of trust / faith in God.

Paradox of Jesus’ new covenant

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ”

With this new covenant that we claim as Christians has come a new set of expectations. It requires, in Jesus’ words, new eyes and ears to perceive the new conditions. It requires the development of a new mind and heart to embrace and interiorize the new covenant. It requires a new way of thinking.

It is expressed as a paradox. Life is now found through death. Victory is found through serving the downtrodden and downcast. The hungry are the ones who are satisfied in this new kingdom to go with the new covenant.

This past week I had occasion to be listening to some of my music while I was sewing hems. Long ago my brother had sent me a recording of Peter Paul & Mary’s biggest hits. In light of recent events I heard some familiar words with new ears, a song written by a recent Nobel prize winner, Bob Dylan.

Blowin in the wind

How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? Yes, and how many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly Before they’re forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind The answer is blowing in the wind

From this verse I hear echoes the Bible. My father was a wandering Aramean; “My burden is light and I will give you rest”; “My peace I leave with you”

Yes, how many years must a mountain exist Before it is washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they’re allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times must a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn’t see? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind The answer is blowing in the wind

This verse makes me think of how we don’t see the things we don’t want to see. Having always done it that way, we can do it a new way; We are so accustomed to not seeing the elephant in the room

Yes, How many times must a man look up Before he can really see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind The answer is blowing in the wind

The final verse sounded to me like words from Jesus himself, addressed to the current events of our day. See with new eyes; how can we look at those teenagers in Parkland FL and not be moved?; “Too many people have died.”

Parkland school massacre

Some years ago a high school friend called me out of the blue. I had not thought of him for decades and in fact it took some doing for me to remember who he was. It was an embarrassing exchange at first. The occasion was my 40th high school reunion. He was living in my old hometown and he wanted to connect with me. It didn’t go very far – our paths had gone so radically in different directions that there was not enough of a connection to make something of it.

He did send me an email that has stayed with me ever since. It was something that he got off of social media or some such thing as it would have existed in 2007. It said, "There are only two people who have agreed to die for you: Jesus Christ and the American service man/woman.

It does not reflect my own salvation theology and the saving work of the cross, but I appreciated what it had to say about Jesus and the members of our armed forces. I’ve never forgotten it.

One of the things I have observed in many churches seems to recognize the truth of that saying. Often churches very intentionally include prayers for their members who serve in the military.

I have mused privately with my wife from time to time over the past few years that I would like to hear intentional prayer for a host of other folks who give themselves in service to others. Doctors and nurses, EMT’s, – for that matter, the farm workers who sweat to provide the food we eat, and so on.

But then this last Valentine’s Day the events in Parkland, FL have precipitated various conversations around the country that have caused me to revisit some of those musings.

We have witnessed another school shooting where teachers sacrificed their lives trying to protect their students. We saw in Las Vegas ordinary strangers risking and giving their lives as they served others – often strangers. These are clearly people who are living the gospel covenant as Jesus has given it to us.

I live with a teacher who has given much of her life to her students. She has devoted so much time, energy, and love to her students it cannot possibly be measured. And she is not alone.

I honestly think the time is now upon us that we need to expand our vision of who reflects the saving work of Christ. It includes those men and women who served in the armed forces and first responders as we have watched them again and again put their own lives on the line. But it includes many more who give themselves and in the process reflect the saving work of Christ.

Perhaps in our Prayers of the People we could rotate through the weeks praying for different groups who are reflecting Christ’s work: Teachers, Healthcare workers, agricultural workers, and many more.

We need to pray for the immediate victims and for the 1,000’s of friends, neighbors and extended family members who have been affected by the events in Parkland. We need to pray for the millions of people who have been impacted by the violence and by the impotence of our nation in responding adequately.

It’s not my place to raise political issues directly and if I have offended because you hear my words as political, I apologize. I intend these words to be an invitation to hear and see the events of our own day in the light of the gospel we are here today to proclaim. If I fall short of that aim – which I surely often do – then I beg your forgiveness. In any case and in all places in as many possible ways as I can figure out, I proclaim Christ – and him crucified and risen for us and for all – his chosen covenanted people.

lent1-st-pauls-homily

Homily for Lent 1: St. Paul’s 2/18/2018

lectionary

See what I mean about Mark’s gospel. How hard it is to move through it? Here we are this Sunday still in Chapter 1. We were reading from this part of the gospel back at the beginning of Epiphany. But today we begin a different cycle within a cycle. We follow a Lenten pattern for the season of Lent, then a separate cycle of readings during Easter season.

Jesus’ experience in the wilderness by tradition begins the Lenten season. It so happens that this Marcan account of the wilderness experience, following the baptism, is the shortest of the 3 versions of the Synoptic gospels. In abrupt fashion, not unusual for the gospel of Mark, he tells what went down, there in the wilderness, and moves on with his Gospel.

The wilderness experience is deeply associated with Lent. I learned on Wednesday that you have a tradition of keeping a little desert in the holy water fonts during Lent. A reminder for us of this basic association of Lent and barrenness, desert dryness, danger of de-hydration, etc.

The other 2 lessons today are in themselves striking passages. They have the same kind of effect Mark wanted with his gospel. Mark wanted the hearers of his gospel to wake up like with a slap and take notice. So the reading from Genesis and the reading from 1st Peter cause me stop, think, and wonder, “What’s going on here?”

The 2nd reading is most striking with its short vignette about Jesus traveling to “spirits in prison” and making reference to the “8 persons” who were rescued with Noah and saved by the very water that had destroyed so much of the earth and those spirits in prison. The author points to one of the basic ways that early Christians interpreted Old Testament passages in the light of the Gospel being preached by those like Mark. They understood the passages as a kind of “pre-figuring.”

And, of course, we begin our scripture readings with the very end of the long passage from Genesis that recounts that episode of Noah. The ark, the animals, the flood, God’s regret at having made human beings. Then saving a few and making a covenant never to do it again. A covenant that was signed with a rainbow.

The theme of water. Its power to save as well as destroy. Its prominence in baptism which is itself most deeply associated with Easter. Water as the source of life. Water that takes down a great American city in flood.

All this is introduced to us in these lessons. Desert, water, sin, redemption, Jesus as the agent of salvation, … That sounds like the basic Christian story. And we begin it, in fullness, this Lent 1.

The challenge to Hear with new ears

I think has been with us since Jesus himself announced that that’s what he had come to do. He came so that the blind could see and deaf could hear. We are the blind and the deaf. Today I want to hear these selections from scripture with new ears.

I have known people who have collected vast arrays of Noah’s ark objects. When I talk to my beginning Old Testament students, they regularly report that the 2 stories they are familiar with from the whole Old Testament are: Adam & Eve and Noah and the ark. These all-too-familiar passages are in danger of being heard only at a surface level. We run the risk of listening to them with the ears of a child as we had when we first learned them.

We have heard from the end of the Noah story. The covenant that God makes with the survivors of the Flood. The whole account is really rather extraordinary. God has lamented that he ever made human beings – they’ve made such a mess of things.

Now that in itself is an extraordinary point to try to internalize and understand. God having the same kind of emotions that I have when I look back over the points in my life that were clearly bad choices at the time. God in the process of having a do over. I try to get my students to abandon the notion that they can have do-overs on my assignments to them. Accepting consequences – we want that in grown up adults. But here God is doing that on a global scale.

Messiness of animals

Then God directs Noah to gather the whole dirty, noisy, uncontrollable animal and plant kingdom that God made – so that a remnant can be saved to start again.

Last week Mary Pat and I were talking about the messiness of farm animals and I thought back to the time when I had goats and chickens. I’m sure some of you know a whole lot about farm animals.

Possible to see this as something much more than a fun story, worth collecting about? What’s going on here?

Rainbow given to Noah as sign of covenant

Cacophany of the animals, the mess and toil of caring for them, – God makes a covenant with them. And with this family of Noah – God makes a covenant with them. He says here, this bow in the clouds, is a sign of the covenant that I make with you this day. I will never do anything like this again. For all future generations … “I will set my bow in the clouds.”

In other words, God decides that he’s never going to regret having made human beings again. He’s going to take a different approach.

Rainbow Warriors of Hawai’i.

Rainbows are produced by water in the air and the sun shining through it. They play a significant part in Hawaiian culture. UH mascots are known as Rainbow Warriors & Rainbow Wahine: In the past some of the teams were simply known as the “Rainbows” or the “Bows”

I used to regularly climb an extinct volcano on O’ahu. You would get to the top and be able to look down on the partial cone of the volcano. On more than one occasion I was treated to the most extraordinary display of God’s rainbow. Once I witnessed a rainbow that didn’t end at the horizon – like every rainbow I’d ever seen before. It was a 270° rainbow – someone from airplane a 360° ring. The colors were extraordinary, vivid, alive. Another time I looked out over the channel between Molokai and O’ahu. There were little squalls going on in several places. Little patches of rain. But what I saw were 3–4 isolated patches of rainbow colors, bubbling and dancing on the water, like little patches of fire. I was just in awe.

We need to hear the gospel with ears and eyes that are ready to kneel in awe before the glory and the majesty of a God who is prepared to do anything to save us. No more black and white seeing. We must see with rainbow eyes. [1]

After water – the wildernes

God sees with the original rainbow eyes. He looked at his noisy messy creation, animals, humans and said it was good. The rainbow helps remind us of that. He had to have a plan, then, after having made the rainbow covenant. The plan was named Jesus.

So the plan began with Jesus in the water – his baptism – and then the immediate next step was a time in the wilderness. Today’s gospel.

We imagine this as a desert. If you travel east toward the Jordan River, you will travel through dry, barren, desert-like land. The wilderness, though, can be anywhere. Even the wilderness of Palestine wasn’t always desert.

Since before Jesus there has been a process of desertification going on. Fewer trees and vegetation. Less water retained in soil. Hotter, drier. Cf. this link

But the kind of “wilderness” Jesus needed to visit wasn’t dependent on being wet. It could have been in a rainforest. In fact my 2 youngest children got stranded in a rainforest. A family friend took them on a hike that should have been a simple trail. Instead, they left the well-worn path and found themselves unable to go forward and unable to go backward. They ended up being rescued by the fire department.

Jesus had to go the wilderness where he would meet the demons he needed to meet. As with so many things, Jesus showed us the way that all of us must travel. Facing our demons. Where there is no going back and going forward means to deal with our most fierce demons. It is confronting fears. It is getting past the things we are trying hardest to avoid. It is hurts that seem unforgivable. It is formative experiences that can’t be re-done. All of it can only be redeemed. The Father’s eyes see with rainbows. He knows that it can all be redeemed.

Some of you in this congregation have experience with centering prayer. You will have received the teaching that is a basic part of contemplative prayer. It is that when one enters deeply into prayer, very often if not inevitably one conjures up dark forces – like the demons I have mentioned. As with so many things, Jesus leads the way for us.

When I mentioned the tv show This is Us a few weeks ago, some of you resonated with it. You too have enjoyed the show. In an episode this season we witnessed a small breakthrough in Kevin’s treatment for drug addiction. It had very much with him facing his demons. It was his wilderness. summary

• demons of our past are a barrier to the joy the future holds for us
• making peace with our demons of the past is the way forward
• we must transform them into gateways to peace a dynamic of psycho-therapy

That is our invitation in Lent. Come, follow this path, pioneered by Jesus. You are invited into a peace which passes all understanding. Because the demons – our demons – will be vanquished.

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1. cf. The Watkin Path: An Approach to Belief [by his daughter Magdalen Goffin] is a panorama of twentieth-century social and political history seen through the life of E. I. Watkin (1888–1981). The interplay of love, frictkion, war, politics and money, together with a relentless search for religious truth, makes this book read more like a novel than a biography blog on Watkin  ↩

February 14, 2018 St Paul's, Monroe

Ash Wednesday Homily: St. Paul’s, Monroe

Lectionary

Begin liturgies where actions speak as loud as words

Today it is ashes.

• Later it will be dramatic readings of the Crucifixion
• Washing of feet
• Bow before the cross in adoration
• Baptism:
• Why I have been an advocate of lots of water at baptism – preferably a pool so that it looks and feels like a bath – which the word baptism really means.

Owen as youngster was scared of ashes – didn’t like masks at halloween either.

Young people can often see spiritual reality that older folks can’t.

1st priest boss:

this gospel is an occasion where the church does the opposite of what Jesus literally says. “Don’t show off your piety before others” – and I clearly found it powerful to wear ashes in public as an affirmation of my faith.

Is this Jesus having a sense of humor? Being ironic? It is crucial to my experience of Jesus that he can laugh and be ironic.

Should we rub off the ashes when we go out the door? Not? The fact that tonight it is late and we probably won’t run into very many people means that it’s not a significant question tonight.

But it’s not really the point of the gospel passage, is it.

Why here? because tradition? Because we’ve always done it?

The gospel is forceful in preaching against hypocrisy

• Be genuine. Be who you are. No pretending to be what you are not.
• How do we come to figure those things out? So that our yes is yes and our no is no? Our self-awareness is flawed and we are in need of inner healing and renewal
• The path to being exactly who we were made to be by the God who loves us profoundly is laid out for us in the liturgy today.

From the liturgy:

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and
meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning
of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now
kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving

For myself the most powerful moment in this liturgy is when I read the words inviting us to the keeping of a holy Lent.

These are 3 of the 5 Pillars of Faith in Islam (the others being Pilgrimage & Profession of faith)

That it fits the life of Muslim as it fits the life of a Christian is a reminder that this is what we do – it is how we live - what gives us life.

We fast from something in order to cleanse ourselves. In order to regain focus. To rediscover what is important and what is not.

POPE FRANCIS’ WORDS (Lent 2017)

Do you want to fast this Lent?

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger and be filled with patience.
Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries and trust in God.
Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

We give alms out of a sense of the need to give. We don’t do it from obligation, but from our own need to give. There was a man who approached me one day in the church parking lot and asked me for a couple dollars to buy some gas for his car. I reached in my pocket and gave him what I had – either a 10 or a 20.

I was chastised by one of the people in the church who was renowned for being responsible with money. He told me that he was probably just going to use it to get “high.” – I knew that. I tried to teach him something that day – I don’t really think I succeeded. I tried to teach him that I gave at that moment because I needed to give. It did not have to do with the merits (or not) of person receiving the alms.

We pray. Not because there are some words or form we are supposed to follow. It is not a time for telling God something he doesn’t already know. Prayer is a time for aligning ourselves with God’s purposes. Through listening, speaking, reading, singing, – and silence. Something like this prayer from Thomas Merton.

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
– Thomas Merton

I invite you then to the keeping of a holy Lent. By means of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting may you grow more fully into the knowledge of who God made you to be so that as you go forth into the world in the power of the Spirit, the world will see and know the glory of the One you follow as Lord and Savior.

feb-4-2018-sermon

Sermon Epiphany 5 – Feb. 4, 2018

Lectionary

Isaiah 40:21–31 1 Corinthians 9:16–23 Mark 1:29–39 Psalm 147:1–12, 21c

1 Hallelujah! How good it is to sing praises to our God! * how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!

• Paul: both free and slave
• Jesus heals many (Simon’s mother-in-law)
• Jesus preaches to many

Epiphany season as:

• inauguration, revelation, manifestation, of Jesus’ ministry
• Baptism, wilderness,
• Choose a team
• Heal and teach with power and authority

We continue where last week’s gospel reading left off

Epiphany season is in many ways an extended series of readings about who this Messiah is who has come into the world. Last week we heard he is one who “teaches and heals with authority.” This week in a sense we go deeper. Rather than ephasizing what he does we begin to get a sense of how he goes about doing it. What is the character of this person?

A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, ‘I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about his eyes and his voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross-the way he carries me.’ Frederick Buechner

We won’t pick up the thread of the narrative until June, after we have worked our way through the themes and narrative of Lent and Easter.

Who is he?

Jesus has just entered the house of his disciples Andrew and Simon Peter. This is a house probably more like the houses I got used to seeing in Hawai’i than the houses that most of us live in around here. In Hawai’i they were all small and densely lived in. It was not at all uncommon to have 3 generations living under one roof. In fact 4 was maybe more typical. And in the houses of the Micronesians that I knew there were not just several generations living together but there were siblings and aunties and uncles.
There was no doubt a lot going on as they entered the house.

By the way:

I have in the text here a picture of a site in modern day Capernaum. It shows a layout of ruins from 1500 year old Byzantine church and behind it very new and modern chapel. On the outskirts of the ruins you can find a sign that reads: The House of Peter: The Home of Jesus in Capernaum?
Beneath the foundations of this octagonal Byzantine martyrium church at Capernaum, archaeologists made one of the most exciting Biblical archaeology discoveries of the last century: a simple first-century A.D. home that may have been the house of Peter, the home of Jesus in Capernaum.
For much of Jesus’ adult life he lived in the small fishing village of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. It was here during the infancy of early Christianity that he began his ministry in the town synagogue (Mark 1:21), recruited his first disciples (Mark 1:16–20) and became renowned for his power to heal the sick and infirm (Mark 3:1–5).
Early travelers to the site had long recognized the beautifully preserved remains of the ancient synagogue that many believe marked the site, if not the actual building, of Jesus’ earliest teaching. But an important detail of how Christianity began still remained: Where in the town had Jesus actually lived? Where was the house of Peter, which the Bible suggests was the home of Jesus in Capernaum (Matthew 8:14–16)?
Italian excavators working in Capernaum may have actually uncovered the remnants of the humble house of Peter that Jesus called home while in Capernaum….
Buried beneath the remains of this octagonal Byzantine church, excavators found the ruins of a rather mundane dwelling dating to the first century B.C.
Although slightly larger than most, the house was simple, with coarse walls and a roof of earth and straw. Like most early Roman-period houses, it consisted of a few small rooms clustered around two open courtyards. Despite later proving to be one of the most exciting Biblical archaeology discoveries, the house appeared quite ordinary. According to the excavators, however, it is what happened to the house after the middle of the first century A.D. that marked it as exceptional and most likely the house of Peter, the home of Jesus in Capernaum. (Biblical Archaeological Review)
Capernaum info It seems that one set of rooms in the complex was preserved for several centuries, as if they were venerated, and then gradually it was built up into a place of pilgrimage where Christians even etched their names onto the walls. By the end of the 5th c. an elaborate Byzantine church had been built covering the whole site.

Capernaum: Simon Peters House

This is a place that we might even be able to walk around and touch today. And there Jesus walked into a family’s house all abuzz with news of this new preacher & healer.
In the hubbub Jesus is made aware that Simon’s mother-in-law was sick. I have really often been amazed at the specificity of this character. Not a member of of Simon’s household. But his mother-in-law.
This is a quiet and compassionate encounter. Not like the noisy encounter we saw last week with a man afflicted with many spirits. It’s not a public place, with shouts and cries going up, people clamoring to hear or touch this teacher. Perhaps she was lying down in a corner of the main room. How many rooms were there? There couldn’t have been many.
He took her hand and lifted her up. That phrase is used again later in Mark and it used by Luke when the apostles heal after the Resurrection and Ascension.. I picture it as an intimate, gentle, and graceful move.
Then the focus shifts to the mother-in-law. She is healed. And her first response is to serve the household, the visitors, this person who has just miraculously healed her. The word used here is the verbal form of the noun we know as “deacon”.
I think of the lesson from the former bishop of the Upper Peninsula when he said that we ordain people so that they can be a symbol to all the rest of us Christians that a part of our vocation is to serve one another. "
The greatest among you will be your servant" (Matt 23)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 1 Peter 4:10 ESV
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13 ESV
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 ESV
Simon’s mother-in-law got it. ’… but there’s something about his eyes and his voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross-the way he carries me.’ Frederick Buechner

That evening, at sundown they brought to Jesus many who needed healing.

Sundown, of course, was the mark of a new day. It had been the Sabbath and now Sabbath was over. So the townspeople rushed from their Sabbath rest and went straight to this house where they heard Jesus was staying. Jesus then healed. He cast out spirits. He commanded the spirits to do what he said.
All of this while the whole town was clamoring at his door.
When I was growing up people used to just come by our door. Maybe someone would say, “Can Dale come out and play?” Later I have lived in several communities where it wasn’t unusual for neighbors to just “pop in.”
Now if I had a whole neighborhood banging on my door, I don’t think I would take that very graciously. I don’t know if I would have my wits about me.
But that’s what Jesus did. With grace. With Shalom. He proceeded through this crowd, responding to each of their needs as they presented them.
Breathtaking don’t you think?

Serve with grace of Christ.

Back when I was a younger priest there was an older priest I admired. Mostly it was because he had started the Milwaukee area hospice and that was a ministry I was and still remain very interested in.
He also started what became a very important place for people living on the street to get a hot meal. When it started it was on Saturday afternoon when no one else was serving such a meal. The way he staffed this “soup kitchen” was with volunteers from all the area churches, starting with Episcopal churches.
As a new priest I was charged with getting our parish involved and before we could serve on a Saturday afternoon we had to be trained. In the course of that “training” I learned one of the most important lessons of my life. I have tried to live by it everyday since. I am grateful and indebted to you Michael Stolpman.
The lesson was delivered to us passionately with deep conviction. It was a little like, “You will do this or don’t bother coming.”
The direction we got was this: "Your job is to serve all the people who come here for a meal. As you fill their plates you are to do it with the same kind of care you would give to serving your mother and a Thanksgiving meal. When you have finished serving meals, you are to go out to the tables and have conversation with whoever you meet – as if you were sitting with your best friends. In summary, you are to treat each person you meet as if they were Jesus himself.
That is the lesson that Peter’s mother-in-law learned that day in Capernaum. It is the lesson that each person who was healed that day in Capernaum learned.
If we allow ourselves to be touched by Jesus, we will learn it too. I am convinced that is the way we will end up going forward in our lives. ’… but there’s something about his eyes and his voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross-the way he carries me.’ Greet each person you meet as if they were the Lord. The may well be, you know.