You are called

1/19

Neil and Pam lead us with music

It's a cold but sunny day as I head to Good Shepherd Faith for worship. (But not as cold as yesterday!) As is their style, most prayers and readings are communal. There's always been a strong strain of horizontal at GSF.  And they do share their gifts. Neil always sees the church is decorated and today he and Pam lead us in music with Doug at the piano. After a communal reading of John1:29-42, it's time for my reflection, or "prompting" as they say here.....

Good morning. And since this is the first tine I’ve seen you this year, I’ll say “Happy New Year.”  Still time to be thinking about new beginnings. Although we’re still  dragging a lot of stuff with us into a new year. We’ve got tension with Iran and we're not sure how that’s all going to turn out. And we’ve got an impeachment trial opening up next week. Yesterday in the freezing cold and new snow women in New York City and around the world marched for the 3rd consecutive year. And it was a day no one wanted go out.

So where are we? As interested as I am in resolutions, and I actually think they’re good things, I’m more interested in something else. Have you ever thought about  the fact that the two words we use to describe our work, namely profession and vocation are both religious in nature? Now I know we use the word professional to describe getting paid to do something. I was really excited the first time I got paid for playing music. I thought, “Hey, now I’m a professional!”  But at the root of professional is profession, as in what is your profession? As Christians, we use the word in the context of profession of faith, saying what you believe. So the implication here is that your profession, what it is you do, is in some significant degree a statement of what it is it believe. Take that home and think about it awhile. 

The other word we use is vocation, as in what is your vocation? And at its root, the word vocation means calling. As if our vocation is in response to an inner voice speaking you, calling to you, leading you on. And that’s what I’m interested in today. One my mentors, and my predecessor at West Park as its interim minister, was Philip Newell. The title of his memoir was “What is Your Calling?”  and the beauty of his book was that it was his argument that this this is the central question for all Christians, not just those of us who serve as ordained professional ministers of word and sacrament. That’s what I’d like to reflect on this morning. 

Seems to me that our gospel this morning  is about calling. For John. And Jesus. Andrew and Simon Peter. The setting  appears to be Jesus’s baptism. Like the first verses of John1 are John’s unique take on the Christmas story, these verses are John’s take on the Baptism story. Last week’s gospel was the baptism story in Matthew. Baptism of Jesus Sunday in the Roman Catholic tradition is the final end of Christmastide. (OK, you can take the trees down now.). Just before this in John, the leaders in Jerusalem have sent people out to find out who this wild man in the wilderness is. The Messiah? Elijah? A prophet? John tells them he is the one who was sent to be, called to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord…” John understands his calling to be that of the one who prepares the way. And he does so by baptizing, a version of the Jewish mikve, or cleansing used to become ritually clean again, or for new converts. And he baptizes Jesus. 

One small note about the gospels…they’re all different. Here John says “he didn’t know him”….but in Luke, they are cousins…their mothers quite close. So why doesn't he know him? Well, maybe it's been few years…

Remember…Jesus was not baptized as a  baby but as an adult. As a child he had a bris, a circumcision ceremony. As an adult, he goes to John to be baptized. Why? To show complete and total identification with and solidarity with us human beings of which, even if he is John’s cosmic Christ, he is one. 

And from John, Jesus receives his calling. And he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and from that baptism will flow more calling.  Andrew and Simon Peter start “following” Jesus just because John calls him the lamb of God. Jesus calls them, he says “Come and see…”. I think we worry way too much about what we believe or don't believe. I feel vocation is more important than profession. I ‘ll be blunt…to follow Jesus is more important than to believe in Jesus. Or to put it another way, if you start by following, believing will take care of itself. They say with him and know, just by being with him, that he is the anointed one. They’re ready to roll with no idea of what that might mean. What follows in John is more stories of calling and following. And brings us to us. John, Andrew, Peter….each had their own unique role to play. 

Likewise  each of you here today has your unique role to play, you own unique calling. It is part of our calling as Christians is to help each other discover our own unique callings, not just elders and deacons but each and every one of us, a calling received not with ordination but with our baptism. And beyond that, to discover our calling as a community.

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day. One who heard and answered his calling. No matter where it led. We came and saw. And we became a better people because of him.

Let me be clear. I am not saying w need to be more like Martin Luther King,Jr. There’s a great story about a man who came to see his rabbi worried  that when he came to die and meet God, God would say, Why couldn’t you have been more like Moses?  The rabbi shook his head and said, No the question is, why couldn’t you have been more like you?

So as we leave here this morning, your take home question is, what is your calling? And what is your calling as Good Shepherd Faith church I this year of our Lord 2020? 

Let those with ears to hear, hear…..

My prompting seems to inspire some conversation. Doug wonders what it's like to hear a calling. If God has a distinctive voice or it can be just a thought. And how he had asked for guidance and came up with a thought that seemed crazy but was just the right thing. Pam's been wondering about the difference between a call and temptation. Something we all struggle with. But also gets into the importance of community in helping us with discernment. 

Our worship time is over. I am off to do a winter wedding in the park, thankful it's today and not yesterday......

Gospel John 1:29-42

29The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

Epiphany

1/6/19

(Note Biblical scholars generally agree that the Magi were Zoroastrians from Persia)

I have no lyrics tonight

If I could I would rewrite ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are….’

Tracing the journey of the Magi, los Tres Reyes Magos,

From their homeland across the desert where their eyes

Scan the skies in search of a star 

Or death bearing drone

Until they reach the streets of el barrio

Accompanied by their camels

Like refugees from a Radio City Music Hall spectacular

Bearing gifts for the holy children of Spanish Harlem

Magos heavy of heart thinking of family and friends

Back home waiting anxiously for the next shoe - or bomb - to drop.

Wondering if  before their journey is complete

Their heavily accented Spanish will draw the attention of ICE

Detaining and deporting them back to danger or

Rather well schooled by centuries of mad kings

Insecure in the full awareness of their own illegitimacy

Striking out at children, our magi will, as they say,

Go home by another way.

El Santo Nino waits at border with his parents.

A sixty foot razor wire topped wall confronting them

Wanting  only to make their case for asylum

Seeking shelter among the tents of refugees on the side streets of Juarez

Parents fearing that el Nino Jesus will be separated from them

And put in a cage 

While Jose and Maria are sent back to waiting agents of death.

I am waiting for that moment 

When clear as a shooting star or heat lightning in a summer desert sky 

Or tracer rockets shot across the horizon

That moment of Epiphany comes

When in an instant we get it

We get it

I am waiting for Epiphany 

This January 6

The year of our Lord 2020.

Second Sunday after Christmas: A New Beginning. Again

1/5

The 12th day of Christmas

As I walk up Beverley Road, the wind is gusting so strong it almost takes my hat off. I stop at El Panaderia JPM so I can pick up a fresh rosca de reyes (Kings' bread) for after the service at Beverley.

Los roscas are ready

They are stacked high filling the bakery in preparation for the celebration of Three Kings Day: El dia de los tres reyes magos.  As I near the church, I'm happy to see Christmas decorations are still up. Inside, Preparations for worship are underway with Geraldine and Irina reviewing the service

Irina and Geraldine

and Evgeny as always doing any and everything needed. He feels a personal call to do what he can for this small faithful community.

The table is all prepared for communion.

The service begins and I am ready to preach. 

ready to preach

This was my reflection:

The table is ready

When I was growing up, Christmas was over on January 1st. We’d get up and watch the Mummers’ Parade from Philadelphia and later the the Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena. There were of course college football bowl games games, there were only 4 back in those days. We’d have dinner with my aunt…the last of the holiday cycle of meals fro my family. It was alway a pork roast and Latvian sauerkraut and applesauce. Then around halftime of the Rose Bowl, my dad would  start taking down the tree and that would be it. Thats a wrap, as they say. A week  or so later the local  paper would share its annual brief op ed reminding us of “Russian Christmas.” (Irina and Evgeny seem to enjoy that reference.)But January 1st, that was it for us.

In my life, I’ve tried to encourage others to celebrate all 12 days of Christmas. The frantic build up of what goes on in the world around us, the secular Christmas season, we might call it, has finally passed and I like the idea that we can hold on to the church’s celebration even as the stores are already moving on to Valentine's Day hearts. 

My world was pretty crazy the December. I usually have a tree trimming party the last week before Christmas. But not this year, I’d just about given up. But Christmas Eve I picked up a small tree and last night I had friends over for a “11th night of Christmas Party.” 

So that makes today the 12th day of Christmas, as the song says the for true loves to be giving and receiving "12 drummers drumming" and you know the rest…winding up with a "Partridge in a Pear Tree". And of course there's the the famous Shakespeare play…12th night used to be a major event in England. It used to be a big night for parties…with servants honored and masters serving...So today, maybe there’s one gift left for us to open.

First…what’s going on? Well a President who’s just been impeached has decided to up the ante with Iran by taking out the second most important political figure, Sort of the Iranian VicePresident  and military chief of staff all rolled into one. And we sit, holding our breath, not sure what is going to happen next and praying for peace. During the Hanukah season on three occasions there were deadly Anti-semitic incidents as people feel now freed to say and do the acts of open hatred they could not before. (Today at this very hour there’s a solidarity march across the Brooklyn Bridge…and Monday night there’s a rolling candlelight boil for peace beginning at 5 PM.) And of course we each have our own challenges in our own lives and families. 

And so we have this opportunity to begin. Again. You know the whole idea of NewYears’ resolutions has come under criticism as raising false expectations, etc., but I kind of like it. It's not a bad thing to review your life and decide to change some things, it might actually work. We should write  our list down and bring ft to church with us a year later and see how we did.

So I mentioned one more gift to unwrap. I’m talking about out gospel this morning,. The first chapter of John. And if you think about it, it’s John’s version of the Christmas story. John’s Jesus origin story as it were. And it starts not with a little baby, but with a Christ who is  there and has been there since the beginning of time and will be there until the end of tine. The very source and content  of the light that started shining at creation and continues to shine with, for and in us, even in the darkest times…for the darkness has not overcome it. 

So Christ’s time on earth is an interlude, for us a critically important time, but for him, just part of his reality. But there is this….And the Word became flesh and lived among us,….and from him we receive grace upon grace and grace and truth. Grace, because as it says... who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Not our will, not our actions, not any decision, we are saved by God’s grace….

And he is truth. We live in a time when truth is an elusive quality that seems to change depending on who’s saying it and what they want. So if we want to know what is true, it has to come as seen through the lens of Christ. What would he see? What would he do? 

That last is important. We don’t do what is right to try and save ourselves. We do what is right because it is right. Because it is true. And just, as John tells us, we know God by what we see in Jesus, others will know Jesus by what the see in us.

So let us make our resolutions.  Let us continue to shine the Christmas light every day. Let us see the face of God in others and seek to show the face  of Jesus to those who see us. Let us take this opportunity for a new beginning, 

All the blessings of Christmas ..and a happy new year to you….

We share our communion together. There are announcements. the woman who we were going to visit with communion has died. We have two visitors from the nearby shelter. They'd like to have a Bible Study to come to. 

The service concludes and its time to go downstairs for another breaking of bread. I will share the Rosca.

Cutting the rosca and looking for Baby Jesus

And it turns out it's me who gets the baby Jesus in my piece, which I am happy to give to Geraldine. Christmas continues. Soon I will be back in the cold blustery wind again heading back to Manhattan. 

Christmas continues

Gospel John 1:(1-9) 10-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 1314And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.