Sermon work - cultivating an attitude of gratitude

Working on Sunday's sermon

When reading this Sunday's gospel reading from Luke, we learn of the 10 men who had leprosy who were healed by Jesus.  He tells them to to to the priest so they can be certified as actually clean and healed and able to re-enter society.  As they go, one turns back.  One of the nine men turns around, reverses direction and returns to praise God and thank Jesus.  This one had an "attitude of gratitude."  For this attitude, and the accompanying 180 degree shift in his direction, this one was recognized by Jesus (and by the gospel writer Luke) as "made well" or "healed," or even "saved" because of his faith.

I've been wondering about this one man out of nine and then wondering about the other nine.  Why did he have more of an attitude of gratitude than the other 9?  Why did he return when the others didn't?  Why didn't they return, or at least a few of them, when he returned?  What about his background, upbringing, his own personal constitution, lead him to do such an audacious (but also quite logical...and common-sensical) thing to do?  Even Jesus wonders aloud about the other nine, does he wonder with judgment, does he wonder with alarm, with anger, with sadness, with puzzlement?  We don't know.  But, we do know that Jesus wonders about those other nine.

Something about this one man who had had leprosy led him to have an attitude of gratitude.  I really wonder about him.  However, a key, to me, seems to be that we should not wonder too long about whether this man was just brought up to be more polite, or whether he had a parent who drilled into him the importance of thank you notes and kindness.  A key, to me, seems to be that he DID have an attitude of gratitude, and this attitude, and his grateful behavior, led to not only healing, but wholeness, to wellness and to salvation.

So, what about us?  I, for one, probably spend 90% of my time just going along doing my errands, my tasks, my busy-ness, without really considering the gratitude that should really infuse my life.  What if this were turned on its head?  What if we spent the majority of our life cultivating an attitude of gratitude?  What kind of life would this be?  Would it cost us anything?  No.  Would it help us to have a softer heart and greater kindness and openness?  Perhaps.  Would it bring us healing, wholeness, and salvation?  Perhaps.

I wonder what we might do to cultivate an attitude of gratitude ...

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

4 Epiphany Sermon - "Blessed are you"

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Sermon – 4 Epiphany

30 January 2011

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

Matthew 5: "Blessed are you"

Blessed are you.  Bless you.  God bless you.  The blessing of God, Almighty, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Blessed are you.

When do you hear that you are blessed?  When do you give blessing?  Often, we hear “bless you” as a kind of a knee jerk reaction when someone sneezes – whether in an elevator, in a meeting, or on the street.  Bless you.  We may offer a blessing over food, or ask God’s blessing upon the food that we are about to eat.  “Bless this food for us and us to thy loving service.”  Do we still worry, with the medieval people, that evil demons would flow up our nostrils when we sneeze, unless we are blessed?  What do we do when we offer a blessing before a meal, isn’t the food already blessed – for God made all that is and said “it is good.”

Blessed are you.

The word blessed is consistent with the words, “good,” and “happy,” and “fortunate,” and “healthy” and “well off.” 

In our common thinking, we say “we are blessed,” when we have much.  We say “we are blessed with plenty,” or “we are blessed with good friends,” or “ we are blessed with good health,” or “we are blessed with generous parishioners.”  “We are blessed” then, can be seen as consistent with having the things in this world that give prosperity, and health, and wealth and comfort and peace.

Blessed are you.

However, Jesus does something quite different, perhaps, with blessing.  In today’s gospel, from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he lays out the reality of who is blessed.  He describes who is blessed, and if we have ears to hear, it may strike us as odd – and perhaps even inconsistent or in conflict with the value system that we cherish.  These blessings are often called “the Beatitudes,”

In the Beatitudes, Jesus reverses the general value system of his day, and also reminds us of the ways that our own value system may not be in accord with Christ’s vision. 

Blessed are you.

While they may sound like commands or instructions, they are not.  In these statements of blessing, Jesus is not commanding, he is not instructing his hearers about how to become blessed, rather, he is describing the blessed community. 

He is not exhorting his hearers to become poor in spirit, or to become peacemakers, ….(we’ll get back to this later)…he is not speaking in the imperative mood, he is not using the word “should”…or “must”…Interestingly, and most challengingly, he is using the indicative mood.  He is declaring blessing on the community by pointing out the qualities that are blessed by God.  The word blessing here could be translated, “fortunate”… “happy” … “in a privileged situation” … “well-off.” 

And it sounds strange when we translate blessing this way…the “well off are the ones who are poor”….the “happy are the ones who are persecuted”….the “peacemakers are in a privileged situation.”….These are quite strange statements to our ears, our ears which are far more accustomed to the sense of blessing as being happy and well off and comfortable;  blessed with plenty, with leisure, with goods, with toys, with vacations, with the stuff of the world. 

These are quite strange statements to our ears when we, in some sense, believe in the “prosperity gospel,”  … that if we believe in God, go to Church, and follow all the dictates of the church then we will receive wealth, health, and long life.  However, when we reflect deeply, we see that– the stuff of this world do not give us deep connections.  We also know that all too often whether or not we believe or go to church or follow the dictates, our lives can get messy, and the church is no protection against the vicissitudes of life – the ups and downs of every human life.  (And, we know that we are not getting out of here alive.)

When we truly enter into this text, it may resonate with us in a deep way – but we may have to set aside the myth of blessing meaning that we will have a lot of things, and life will be easy (even Jesus said he was not good, but only God was good). 

These sayings are not practical advice for successful living (quite the contrary, in some ways), but prophetic declarations made on the conviction of the coming (and already here) kingdom of God.

They do not merely describe something that already is, but brings into being the reality they describe.  The truth claim embedded in the message is not dependent upon the message itself, but, rather, rests on the shoulders of the speaker.  That is, the statements have weight, and have transformative power because it is Jesus who declares the blessings.  Isaiah 61:1 – Jesus is the anointed one – and he is here to bring about the year and the time of Jubilee…prisoners go free, hungry are fed…etc.  “what cannot be forgotten is that the one who preaches the sermon is the Son of God, that is, he is the Messiah, making all things new.  The sermon is the reality of the new age made possible in time.” (Stanley Hauerwas)

These crazy words only have meaning because they were said by Jesus, and Jesus alone has the power to enact them, to not only describe those who are blessed, but also to do the work to constitute the blessed community.  Hear in these words the presence of Jesus – to follow Jesus is to take on his journey – the one who is poor, the one who is a peacemaker, the one who is persecuted. These words describe, but also create community.  These are not merely a series of statements, but there is an enacting going on, a transformative quality.    “What cannot be forgotten is that the one who preaches the sermon is the Son of God, that is, he is the Messiah, making all things new.  The sermon is the reality of the new age made possible in time.” (Stanley Hauerwas)

They are not merely statements about general or cultural human virtues – because most of them will “get us nowhere” in the world’s currency.  They look opposite to common wisdom.    They are for the “eschatological community living in anticipation of God’s reign.”  “the sermon is not a heroic ethic.  It is the constitution of a people.” (–Stanley Hauerwas)

Jesus lived the message of the Sermon on the Mount.  He “put his money where his mouth was,” he “walked the talk” of his sermon, he “preached what he practiced, and practiced what he preached.”  Beyond being merely consistent, because he is the Son of God, he also created a community with these words.  As God created the universe by speaking it into being, “let there be light,” here Jesus created the beloved community. 

Blessed are you.

And so, here we are, sitting (or standing) here and wondering how our own sense of blessing, matches up with the blessing of Jesus.  For we may not be poor, we may not feel like a peacemaker, we may not be persecuted.   But Jesus does bless us, even us, in our incompleteness, even us in our brokenness, even us in our inconsistencies and our failures.  Jesus blesses us and binds us together as a community, including those who are poor, including those who are peacemakers, those who are persecuted….and through his words of blessing we receive the goodness of God, and we are given the strength and the charge to continue his mission in the world.

Blessed are you.

Lent 3C Sermon - "Beyond the wilderness" ~ The Rev. Peter Carey

Lent 3C Sermon

7 March 2010

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, VA

Exodus 3: 1-15; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Hindsight is 20/20 they say.  Looking back at history can sometimes make us think that quite remarkable events were not so remarkable.  Looking back at history demands a sense of clearing the decks before entering into the world that came before.  To enter the world of Lewis and Clark, for instance, would demand that we look carefully at the assumptions that they held, the experiences that they had, and the abilities and temperament that they had as they began their journey to the West.  As Lewis and Clark headed West, they probably had no real sense about just how treacherous the journey would be.  They probably had no real sense about how just how high and forbidding the Rocky Mountains would be.  Having climbed the Blue Ridge Mountains and having learned the skills they needed for the wilderness put them in a good position as they headed into the wilderness.  However, their Voyage of Discovery would land them not just in the wilderness, but beyond it. 

Going into the wilderness, into uncharted territory, demands courage, stamina, and a kind of fearlessness that we may not really think we possess.  But, we each have entered wilderness from time to time in our lives. 

The wilderness of loneliness. 

The wilderness of joblessness. 

The wilderness of the necessary losses that come with living. 

The wilderness of experiencing the death of loved ones. 

The wilderness of unrealized dreams. 

The wilderness of facing our own mortality. 

We each have entered the wilderness.  And we each have also gone beyond the wilderness.  When we enter the wilderness of our lives, we may find the urge to return by the same way.  We may look to follow the bread crumbs that we left as we entered the dark cave.  However, for most of us, the only way out is the way through and beyond.  The path “back” takes us through and beyond.  Like the Magi after they visited the infant Jesus, we often “go home by a different way.”  To go into the wilderness demands courage, stamina, and a kind of fearlessness that we may not really think we possess.  And yet, somehow, we do. 

Some things happen to us when we move into, and beyond the wilderness.  In the midst of it, we may feel that we cannot see how we can even go on into the way ahead.  At times, in the midst of it, we may not really feel God’s grace blessing us and supporting us and empowering us.  But God is there, whether or not we turn aside and are able to sense God’s presence makes no difference.  God is there, embracing us, supporting us, enfolding us always, even as we make our way through and beyond the wilderness.

Going beyond the wilderness is sometimes, in retrospect, where we see that God’s hand was upon us.  I know in my own life.  When I look now to at a time when I found myself far from home, feeling alone after a significant relationship ended, I see that God was working to open me up to experience more of the Spirit, to experience greater things than my paltry imagination could dream up on its best day.  When I look now to that time of mourning for the life that I thought I would have, I see that in the midst of that sadness, depression, and loneliness, God was bringing me beyond the wilderness.  Though excruciatingly difficult, it was a soulful time.  The modern writer, Thomas Moore (not “a man for all seasons”) has written several books on the soul.  In “Care of the Soul,” he writes of the surprising gifts that can be given to us even in these difficult times, and the ways that the life of the soul may be deepened as we move beyond the wilderness.  Of course, it helps to have the 20/20 vision of hindsight.  If I were now talking to myself then , my then self would tell my now self to get lost, in far more colorful language. 

This movement to a holy place beyond the wilderness is the movement that Moses was making while he herded his father-in-law’s flock. 

“He led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight. . . God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses.’ . . ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’”

So, we hear the story of God calling Moses to be the catalyst for the next great chapter in the history of God’s people.  There, beyond the wilderness, God appears to Moses.  The life story of Moses to this point included being rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, and then as an adult, Moses killed one of the Egyptians who was beating a Hebrew slave and Moses was on the run.  He had made a life for himself, joining the family of his wife, Zipporah, having a child and working for his father-in-law.  We know the rest of the story, so we forget that Moses had already pretty much settled down.  We know the rest of the story, so we forget that Moses was adamant that he was not gifted in speech, and argued with God about whether he should lead his people.  We know the rest of the story, so we forget just how terrifying it must have been for Moses to return to Pharaoh. 

Hindsight being 20/20, we look at Moses as a prophet, liberator, and gigantic figure, leading his people to freedom and then leading them in the wilderness for 40 years.  However, in today’s story, Moses encountered God beyond the wilderness, and was being called out of the vision and plan that he had for his life.  Out there, beyond the wilderness, Moses’ imagination was broadened, and he encountered the living God, who assured Moses that “I will be with you.”  Out there beyond the wilderness, Moses found a new chapter in his life that he would not have ever imagined.  Out there beyond the wilderness, there may be a new chapter for us as well.  Hindsight being 20/20, we may be able to see that our own times in the wilderness caused us to go beyond the wilderness, to a place that was, “holy ground.”  And so, we continue our journey through life, knowing that there will be times in the wilderness, they come whether we long for them or not.  We continue on our journey through life and we can have some comfort in the fact that not only is God there with us in the wilderness, “thy rod and thy staff they protect me,” and that we are enfolded in God’s loving embrace.  We can also have comfort that as we move beyond the wilderness, there is holy ground for us, there is a place where God has made a home for us, where we will turn aside, remove our sandals, and be empowered and given strength for the journey ahead.

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 that 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, "Thoughts in Solitude"

 HERE.

"Save a tree. Shrink your Sunday leaflet" article at Episcopal Cafe

My most recent article, "Save a tree. Shrink your Sunday leaflet" was posted today over at the Diocese of Washington's Blog, The Episcopal Cafe. Here is an excerpt:

Save a tree. Shrink your Sunday leaflet

What would it take for us in the Episcopal Church to stop producing millions of pages of bulletins and service booklets every Sunday? We all know how costly it is for our environment to keep producing paper, to say nothing of the cost of making and maintaining computers, printers, copiers, sorters, and duplicators. . .

Read the rest HERE.

Sermon, 13 August 2006, Proper 14 B

 

Peter Carey, Guest Preacher, Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr

13 August 2006, Proper 14 B

Psalm 14; Deuteronomy 8:1-10; Ephesians 4:30-5:2; John 6:37-51

What are the tricks that you use to remember things?  When I was a kid, my grandmother used to say that tying a string around your finger would help.  The problem with that is that all I would remember is that I forgot something.  In the Harry Potter books there is a magical device called a “remembrall” which glows when its owner has forgotten something.  However, once again, it does not tell you what you have forgotten.  

There ARE a lot of things to remember – ATM passwords, birthdays, directions, addresses, to do lists, car inspection date, bills, meeting with the bishop, preaching at Redeemer, the books of the Bible, Spanish vocabulary, the baby’s favorite toy, remembering to pray, my wedding anniversary, and where did I put the keys?

And so, I have a Palm Pilot with years of appointments and hundreds of addresses.  I have a cell phone with dozens of numbers.  I keep a journal to remember my thoughts and ideas and I’m working on putting my keys next to the door when I enter our apartment.  It can be hard to remember.  My friends tell me it only gets worse as I get older.

What about remembering God?  One theologian had the interesting definition of sin as “God-forgetfulness,” which appeals to me.  How do we live when we forget God?  

Remembering God is a key theme in today’s reading from Deuteronomy, whose author offers an interpretation of the story of Israel’s time in the wilderness.   A bit of research tells us that this text was written once the Israelites were well-established in the Promised Land, perhaps even several generations after the time in the wilderness.  

The People Israel were called to remember the time in the Wilderness, so they would remember God, and would continue to live according to his covenant – Covenant to God, and Covenant to One another.

The People are urged to remember the time in the wilderness.  In the wilderness they had an experience of the divine, and they learned that all they have is gift from God, and they learned total dependence upon God.

Total dependence upon God.  The wilderness forced them to see that they are not God.  In the wilderness, it is clear that they are not in control of their lives, instead, all they have is a result of the Grace of God and the goodness of God.  In the wilderness, they were dependent upon God, and upon each other for their survival. … 

The People were fed in the Wilderness.  They were fed manna, which was enough to sustain them, but it did not last beyond the day.  I sometimes wonder what this manna was.  Was it bread, was it some kind of a PowerBar substance that wasn’t so tasty to eat?  What was it?  Well, no one really knows exactly what this substance was but we know that the Israelites weren’t ecstatic about it after eating Egyptian delicacies.  What we do know is that the manna was enough but not more than that.  Every day the manna had to be collected and the people had to serve one another.  Likely, the healthy and strong needed to gather the manna for the sick and weak.  The distribution of it had to be done by the whole people, not just the priests!  There was no scarcity, but there was no extra.  The wilderness forced the Israelites to see that they were dependent upon one God, but also that they were dependent upon each other.  The manna falls from heaven, and must be consumed that day.  There is no time to hoard the food, and to get everyone fed, communal practices develop.  These communal practices of hospitality and care developed and became a part of the culture.  However, as is wont to happen, once the time of the wilderness was over, they began to forget the myriad ways that God Provides.  

From the wilderness we learn to remember God, and also to practice a faith that is in concert with others.  From the wilderness, the whole body of God’s faithful people works together and is sustained by mutual care and affection.  They were sojourners in the land, they were the outcast, outside of the comfortable lands of Egypt, and not yet resting in the land of promise.  The wilderness was where God taught them.  There they learned humility.  There they learned the pains of hunger.  There they learned to depend on God.  There they experienced the hospitality that God provides.

We sometimes want to try to forget the tough times, to get over them, to put them behind us.  This passage in Deuteronomy does not let the People Israel forget – on the contrary – the writer challenges them to remember the wilderness times.  The writer challenges them to remember their tradition, to remember the history of how they got where they are, to see the shoulders on which they stand, to see the journey that their ancestors made.

Many times in the Bible, the story of the Exodus is retold, as in today’s reading from Deuteronomy.  Clearly, this story was retold many times and it is important enough to be remembered!  God provided for the People Israel, and they were to remember, and to be thankful.

We have been given great gifts.  However, the main condition to receiving these gifts is that we remember, we remember that we are dependent upon God, we remember that our very lives are contingent upon God’s grace, and we remember that we are not God!  

When we get comfortable and have spent time away from the wilderness, we might begin to forget our centrally dependent nature.  We might forget our call to obedience.   We might forget to call out the name of our Lord in prayer and praise.  In the wilderness, God is a central part of the lives of the People, and in our own times of sorrow, pain, and darkness we also turn to God.  However, God is not just the God of the wilderness, God is not just the God of the borders, or of the gaps in our lives where we can’t explain using our thinking and our science.  God is always there, supporting us and providing for us!

When we remember what God has done for God’s people, and what God has done for each of us, we experience that our very being flows from God.   When we remember God we see that all we have is temporary, we see that our present struggles will pass away, and we will be dust.  When we live remembering the wilderness we begin to really pray.  The Catholic monk Thomas Merton likened deep prayer to the experience of hanging over an abyss by the hairs of your head.  Total dependence; focused prayer.

We are not the lords of our lives.  Initially this may strike fear into our hearts.  However, when we realize that we are ever resting upon God, that we are ever living in the loving hands of God we live with the certainty that we are surrounded by a loving embrace.  God is in the center of the wilderness AND God is at the center of our lives.  We are reminded by the writer of Deuteronomy to remember God’s work in the wilderness so that we might see that God is also incarnate and real, here in the midst of our lives.

While it is good to remember the wilderness, let me be clear God does not need us to remember God.  God is with us.  God’s grace is with us at all times. 

Jesus reminds his followers of the way that God provided for the People Israel, but goes further.  He makes the point that now God is providing the bread of eternal life.  In the gift of Jesus to the world, Jesus is the Bread of Life.  While the manna disappeared at the end of the day, the bread of life is never diminished.  We remember the wilderness and when God was in the center of the Isralites’ lives.  In Christ, God is incarnate, real, and central in the very midst of our lives.  Christ is the Bread of life, and as bread, Christ is in the mundane and the real, the overlooked and the everyday.  For this we are extremely thankful.  We do not need to go to the wilderness to experience the goodness of God.  We can eat the living bread in the midst of our lives and be one with the Body of Christ.

We remember and we give thanks as we participate in the Eucharist.  Eucharisto – thanksgiving – thanksgiving and also we remember all that God has done for us.  In this thanksgiving, we feed one another and are unified in Christ.  We gather, we remember as we break bread that we are one in Christ.  We gather around this Eucharistic table, and we also celebrate God’s incarnate nature as we break bread throughout the other 6 days as well.  

As we break toast to feed an infant in a highchair, Christ is there.  As we share a plastic-wrapped sandwich from the hospital cafeteria on a tray with wheels, Christ is there.  As we share food with the hungry and we break bread with them, Christ is there.  In Christ, we have been fed the bread of life, and we experience God in our midst as we give thanks for all the awesome things that God has done for us.  We are dependent upon God, and all that we have and all that we are is gift.  God’s gift to us is seen here in the creation of the world, the creation of all the wonder around us, and creation of each of us.  

As we remember the wilderness of our lives we remember God.  God provided for us there the manna from heaven, God taught us to rely upon God.  We need not go to the wilderness to meet God.  God being God and we being dependent on God does not mean, however, that we have no responsibility. God calls us to practice Godliness to those in wilderness places, in wilderness times.  We are called to provide hospitality to those who in the midst of their own wilderness.  We practice this hospitality not because we are merely being ‘nice,’ and not to make us feel good about ourselves.  Rather, we do this because in these actions we become unified with God and humanity when we provide the bread of life for all those in need (which includes me and you!).  Resting in the loving arms of God, we practice Godliness where we “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”  

God was teaching that God is God and we are not!  It is upon God that we all depend.  And this was a teaching that was forever; not just for the time in the wilderness, but also for God’s people after reaching the Promised Land.  

In a few minutes we will gather together, we will bless, break, and give bread that not only helps us to remember God, but also celebrates God in our very midst.  And, as we partake in this glorious thanksgiving feast, we feast together in unity upon the Bread of Life and become One as the Body of Christ.  After we feed each other, we send each other out to remember and to live in remembrance of all that God did for the Israelites in the wilderness and for all that God does for us through his Son.

There is no need to write it in our PalmPilots for God has written it on our hearts, and has fed us with the Bread of Life so that we might live, and live abundantly.