Daily Office Reflection: The Anonymous Faithful

At the Gloaming, 2011, jfd+

MP: Psalms 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); Ezekiel 36:22-27; Ephesians 6:10-24; Matthew 9:18-26


Eve of Pentecost: Psalm 33; Exodus 19:3-8a,16-20; 1 Peter 2:4-10


There are three anonymous people in Matthew's Gospel who are gifted healing from Jesus in today's MP reading. A leader of the synagogue has a healing of sorts: the individual comes and begs for a child's healing. This individual, who was part of the societal structure Jesus was working against, came to the one who could help, more than likely becoming alienated from the leadership. On his way to this leader's home, Jesus heals an anonymous woman, whose faith has led her to just touch the fringe of Jesus' garment, and Jesus saying nine simple words that heal her: Take heart daughter, your faith has made you well. And Jesus heals the leader's daughter, who also remains anonymous.


I can't help but wonder if we are the anonymous ones who are healed in miraculous and simple ways all the time. If we, who struggle with our faith, our belief, our actions to be the Body of Christ in the world today, aren't the ones whom Jesus touches. We all, at one point in our lives, may have been the leader, the woman, the daughter, each healed differently...but healed nonetheless.


I also wonder if we, acting as the Body of Christ in the world today, can by our faithful actions, be a pale-mirror-image of that kind of healing to all those anonymous people we, who are anonymous ourselves, might be able to heal because of those actions, based on who we are.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Just Go

Psalms 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30 * 119:121-144; Isaiah 4:2-6; Epheisans 4:1-16; Matthew 8:28-34

DC Balcony Garden

Jesus is having a number of ups and downs in the last few days of our readings from Matthew. On Saturday, he healed the leper on his way down from teaching up on the mountain. On Monday, he heals the Centurion's slave (from a distance) and then heals Peter's mother and any, and all, who come to Peter's doorway. Yesterday he has a bit of a spat with a scribe and lectures a disciple about priorities of ministry. He then gets in a boat to escape the large crowds to 'go to the other side' and a wind storm comes up while is is sleeping, terrifying his companions, who wake him from much needed rest. And he's a little cranky..."you of little faith"....but he calms the seas to deadness anyway, and the disciples are flummoxed, although probably thankful too.


Than we come to today, where he gets off that boat and is greeted by two individuals banned from town because of the "demons" that possess them. Jesus heals them both, doing as the demons ask and sending those spirits into a herd of swine, who hurtle down a hill and drown themselves. The folks in charge of the swine run off to town to tell what happened, and the townsfolk come out and beg Jesus to just go away.


There is just a whole lot to take in from Chapter 8 in Matthew. But what strikes me today, highlighted by today's encounter, is the authority and certainty Jesus carries. He heals the leper, the Centurion's slave, Peter's mother, all who come-a-callin', calms the nerves of his frightened disciples, cures two individuals with one word ("Go!"), and is still unwanted, misunderstood. (It is understood that this is part of the arc-of-the-story Matthew is creating, and yet...)


How often in life do we feel misunderstood when we are trying to do God's work in the world? How do we react when that misunderstanding leads to treatment that is unappreciative, or worse? Do we stop what we are doing? Or perhaps get sullen and stubborn? Or do we continue doing God's work, being that integral part of the Body of Christ in the world today?


The armor Jesus has on around him is constantly under strain...and he gets a bit testy at times....just like we can. But he still keeps going. And as hard as that can be at times, that is what we are called upon to do as well...just go and do the good work we are called to do, creating the kingdom Jesus opens for all of us. Understanding can come later.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Being Made Clean

Psalms 87, 90 * 136; Numbers 11:16-17,24-29; Ephesians 2:11-22, Matthew 7:28-8:4

Kurant & Citron @ Fire Island, 1999, jfd+

Jesus heals a leper today as he came down from the mountain where he had been teaching the crowds. That teaching ended with yesterday's reading that contained the metaphor about building a house on rock as opposed to on sandy soil, and what happens to that structure when inclement weather strikes. As Jesus is coming down the mountain a leper, an individual shunned and banned from the community, begs to be made clean, to be made whole, saying if you so choose, you can heal me.


Jesus does heal the individual, telling him to not tell anyone, but ironically, to go and show the leaders that wholeness and "cleanness" has been restored. This leper, this individual who had been cast-out, is brought back in. Notice the humble nature of this person's request. It is not a demand. It is not an expectation. There is a turning-over-of-the-will to God in this encounter.


As Jesus used a metaphor in wrapping up all of his teachings on the mountain when he ended with the rocky-sandy soil descriptor, about what is this encounter with the leper a metaphor for us? We can ask, based on this reading, a number of questions:

• from where have we been cast out?
• about what are we ashamed?
• from whom are we in need of forgiveness?
• are we too arrogant in our understanding of how the world works and our place here?
• on what are our priorities set?
• are we able to find the humility in ourselves to really ask God for something we think cannot be given or granted, and accept what comes?
• who needs our forgiveness and do we have the humility to really grant it?

Challenging questions from such a brief incident in scripture.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Unanswered Questions

MP: Psalm 119:97-120; Leviticus 26:27-42; Ephesians 1:1-10; Matthew 2:1-15

Implements of Creation, 2011, jfd+ 

EP: (Eve of the Ascension) 2 Kings 2:1-15; Revelation 5:1-14

Jesus "puts-it-to" the Pharisees in our short MP reading from Matthew today. He asks them a theological question about scripture and how God works in the world: where and from whom does the Messiah come? They answer from the text-book they understand: David. And then Jesus causes them to be speechless by asking how that is possible, since David refers to the Messiah as his Lord.


This may not seem all that important, but it is a real turning point in Jesus' relationship (contentious as it was) with the Pharisees. Jesus is continuing to undercut the known and long understood presumptions of how God operates in the world, of how God works in this world. Pushing to the forefront the idea that not all questions are going to be answered, that things are not as black and white as the religious leaders kept insisting that they were (and are). 


Jesus is saying, quite simply and in a direct manner here, that God will surprise us, in particular when we think we have all the answers. By being so very "book-smart" the Pharisees were creating their own understanding of how God works. One of the things Jesus is saying today is that the starkness and one dimensional nature of a black and white understanding of scripture leaves out all the areas of gray in which God actually operates.


We are being challenged today to live into the gray, and allow ourselves the gift and grace of uncertainty in which to find God in the unanswered questions.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Perceiving, Hearing, With Open Hearts

Psalms 80 * 77 (79); Leviticus 25: 35-55; Colossians 1:9-14; Matthew 13:1-6

Wet Feet, 2010, jfd+

We continue in today's passage from Matthew with the interiority theme, and the idea of secrecy that are so pervasive in this Gospel. 


The parable of the sower is familiar, and being so can go unheard. There is irony in that because so much of this passage has to do with perceiving what see and understanding what we hear, and allowing ourselves the opportunity for all those things heard and seen to change our heart. As Jesus says: we should not have dulled hearts, or clogged ears, or closed eyes, so that we may see, and hear, and understand with our heart, and turn.... 


Jesus is asking for honesty today (and throughout these recent Daily Office readings). Honest perception. Honest evaluation. No facades can remain standing in front of looking, hearing and "hearting". Jesus is not demanding that we be always perfect: for none of us ever will be perfect in all things, to all people, or to ourselves. Jesus is demanding honesty. From the realizations that come from honesty, we can and do find a place where our hearts are changed, our ability to perceive what is around us is clearer, and we hear what people are saying far more acutely. 


Taking time today to perceive, truly hear, and let our hearts be changed is what we are called to strive for in this passage. Can we do "all of it" at once? Unlikely. Can we make a start today? Yes. Can we continue this open-ended work? Absolutely.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Unblocked Sight

Psalm 106:1-18 * 106:19-48; Leviticus 23:1-22; 2 Thess 2:1-17; Matthew 7:1-12

Cherry Blossoms in Washington, DC. 2009, jfd+

So much of what we have been reading in Matthew is focused on our having right intentions, being "pure" on our insides: our thoughts, prayers, motivations. This is, partly, the  background for why Matthew has Jesus telling us not to judge others, and that how we treat others is what will be returned to us, and the danger of having our blocked sight be the lens through which we do those judgments (which end up being anything but just). Jesus than says that what we ask will be given, the door will be opened, because God's love and care for us is so great, that, of course, our wishes will be granted....Well, not all our wishes. Matthew throws in an oft overlooked phrase: God will give good things to those who ask. And what are good things?


If we are focused on ourselves, and not doing the work Jesus instructs us to do in our daily lives, how can we truly see? How can we know for what to ask?


In Holy Women, Holy Men today we remember and honor Frances Perkins, a tireless worker for social justice issues during the early and mid-20th Century industrialization and urbanization of America. All of her work was rooted in her Episcopal faith and her inner spiritual-prayer-life that blossomed into fruit of advocating for those affected by unjust labor laws. Her dozen years as U.S. Secretary of Labor during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency is an example of "good things" for which to ask, based on right motivations: focusing on the poor, the oppressed.


Our Gospel selection ends today with the verse In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets...A "golden rule" so to speak...We are directed to have a different focus in our lives, and that needs to start by the interior work we all are called upon to do: cleaning our own house before we can truly focus on others' homes. How can we know for what to ask if our priorities and sight are askew?


Kinda tough stuff today. But good nonetheless.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Daily Office Reflection: Perfect Love

Psalms 72, 119:73-96; Leviticus 19:1-18; 1 Thess 5:12-28; Matthew 6:19-24

I went to bed last night quite disheartened. The result of the voting in North Carolina on an amendment that is hatefully discriminatory has made me quite saddened. Awakening this morning, that mood has not changed much, for I live in a state that will be voting on a similarly biased amendment this coming November. 

Reading our Daily Office lessons this morning a number of things have struck me. Upon opening my Office book and finding (remembering) that we are suffering through Leviticus, I groaned. But the verses provided today highlight how abusive scripture-dipping can be (this is the art of pulling verses out of context from holy writ that can bolster one side of an argument). In Leviticus today we hear that it is an abomination to eat food on the third day after it has been offered up as sacrifice: an abomination subject to severe punishment - being cast out from the people. We also hear that the edges of all our harvested lands must be left for the poor and the foreigners. We hear that we shall not curse or revile our neighbors, we shall not defame them, or render unjust judgments, treating all alike, rich and poor. We are not to profit from war, or bear grudges, but are to love our neighbors as ourselves. How often are these passages weighed against the other passages so often used from Leviticus?

In the letter to the Thessalonians today, we hear how we are to act toward and amongst each other: in a loving and caring way, patient and kind. And our snippet from Matthew warns about the perils of having wealth, and the importance of having an inner-purity that shines out of us, infecting those we meet with the love we know that God has for each one of us. 


And today, in Holy Women, Holy Men, we celebrate the life and ministry of Gregory of Nazianzus, a 4th Century theologian and bishop who led a life that defended the basic truths of our faith from those who would have stripped it of the beauty that lies within. A fight he did not always cherish, and that had personal costs - and yet a path he was willing to follow.


A part of me understands completely why people walk away from "church." I understand why people can look with suspicion at those of us who wear a collar or profess themselves servants of our loving God. Scripture and religion have been used throughout the ages for wrongful purposes, like the result in the North Carolina amendment vote, and the one brewing here in Minnesota exemplifies. Walking away is understandable.


But as a people of faith, with the understanding that there are no simple answers to all of these questions, walking away is not an option. Standing up for the truth of God's abiding love for all of us, refusing to allow voices of abusive intolerance to be the only "religious" voices heard, is the harder road we are called to travel. Ensuring that God's perfect love, a seed of which lies within all of us, is understood, and talked about, and broadcast is part of our mission as Christ's Body in the world today.


Prayer helps gird up our wounded souls. Active, personal engagement is another salve for damaged hearts. Remembering to love those who are being discriminated against by these awful amendments, reaching out to them and letting them know that they are one of God's beloved, is yet another method of healing. Being a voice that counters the hate, although exhausting at times, is also an absolute necessity.


We need to keep those hurt and wounded and angry hearts and souls in our prayers today, and tomorrow, and the next. 


The simple answer is to move away from the hate state to a place where love and equality are enshrined in law. But that is a capitulation to discrimination. We are a better people than that. We are called to be better, and to teach, and to love.
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved
Photo: Matt & Brett's Blessing of their Civil Marriage.

Daily Office Reflection: Matthew's Secrets

Psalms 56, 57, 58 * 64, 65; Leviticus 16:1-19; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Matthew 6:1-6,16-18

The Gospel of Matthew is full of "secrets." Or at least it is seemingly that way. In today's selection from Matthew, we have Jesus talking about appropriate ways to pray and to be pious, and it can be interpreted to center around this pervasive idea of God's secrecy and the hiding of things.

As with most things scriptural, relying on the literal understanding of these verses misses the larger point: the more important point. We all know people whose piety is grandiose in style: and more often then not, false. It is done all for show, and perhaps for fraudulent purposes: to enrich those participating in the show, as opposed to living out the mission and ministry to which Jesus is calling each of us.

Jesus is saying in this passage that if we are truly getting his message, and living into this way of being, we interact with the world in a different manner. We don't need to look dismal when we fast, for it is not a burden to do something for God about which we have passion. 

We are asked today to think about "fasting," and "giving alms," and "praying," as metaphors of how we operate within the world. What is behind those acts? What, within us, is driving us to "do" those things? Are they for us alone? For show? For God?....Are they (and other things like them) a step toward our being different on the inside, in how we view the world and operate within it? 

Jesus is asking us to truly look within and understand why we are doing things, acting in the manner we are acting. Are those things we are doing helping us in the building of the kingdom? If they are not, than why are we doing them?

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: The former Chapel at VTS.

Daily Office Reflection: Perfection

Psalms 55 8 138, 139:1-17(18-23); Exodus 40: 18-38; Thess 4:1-12; Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus does a whole lot of good for the therapeutic community today. He tells those he is speaking to to be perfect, like God. To turn the other cheek to all aggressors in our lives.  To give to everyone who asks something of us.  Not only are we to love our neighbor unequivocally, but we are to love our enemies and pray for them and for all that persecute us. Jesus reminds us that even those folks are God's creation, too.  So, folks who read this with a literal lens many times find themselves in the therapist's chair trying to understand why they feel like such a failure in life when they fall short of this extraordinarily challenging instruction from Jesus.

So what are we to make of this reading, that comes right after Jesus telling us to be true to the goodness within ourselves? How are we supposed to live into this command? We pass by people all the time who ask for things: usually money. Realistically how are we supposed to give to everyone? Would we have anything left to survive on for ourselves?

At the church in which I serve, our youth confirmation class was asked during Advent to write our prayers of the people. They asked if we could pray for our enemies? And that, of course, was included in those prayers...and have continued since as the last thing the deacon bids: "We pray for our enemies and for those who wish to do us harm."

When we started this, a number of people told me they were uncomfortable with this...But, we have kept this bidding as this is a weekly reminder of our trying to live into this unattainable perfection to which we are directed today. This is a perfect way in which we can be given the grace of uncomfortableness in church...for if we are not uncomfortable at times, than we are not being challenged and we can all too easily fall into complacency - something that should never happen in church...or our spiritual lives...or our lives, period.

Jesus is trying to unsettle us today. He is asking us to really look at what we are doing, how we are living, and evaluate if we are truly doing all we can to create this kingdom he opens for us. So I pray for myself and for all those around me, to be given the gift of being unsettled, allowing all of us to have fresh eyes to look at our ministry and mission to the world.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Art: Crosses.....jfd+

Daily Office Reflection: Being Real

Psalms 40, 54 *51; Exodus  34:18-35; 1 Thess 3:1-13; Matthew 5:27-37

In yesterday's Gospel from Matthew we heard Jesus say that if someone is angry, or thinks "bad" things about someone else, that person is "in trouble" with God. Today we hear Jesus say (something made famous by former President Jimmy Carter) that if a person has lust in their heart, they have already committed adultery. Jesus also says If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away...

Jesus is not asking all of us to maim ourselves: we'd be a people without eyes and hands if that were the case. Jesus is asking us to be true. True in what we say, how we act, how we feel. There is no falseness or masks or facades allowed. We need to be who we are and let the world know who we are: good people. And if we are not acting out our goodness, then we need to pause and alter our behavior. 

Jesus is demanding that we be our best, inside and out...in all things that we do...We are called to be "real" in all things, to all people...including ourselves. Putting the mirror up to ourselves and really being honest is the first step toward living into this instruction of Jesus. This "real living" is setting the model for those around us to emulate, thereby engaging God's word with our actions and more readily assisting the building of this Kingdom Jesus opens for all of us.

A tall task for us today...but one that can be started in the privacy of our own home by looking in the mirror and truly understanding the goodness that is within us, and then sharing that love with those around us.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Ordination Moment.

Daily Office Reflection: Turning

Psalms: 105:1-22 * 105:23-45; Exodus 24:1-28; Colossians 2:8-23; Matthew 4:12-17  

We have the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in the Gospel of Matthew today. John the Baptist has already been preparing the way, has baptized Jesus, and Jesus has returned from his desert wanderings and self-exploration. John is arrested today and Jesus leaves Nazareth and sets his base of operations up in Capernaum, and he starts to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."


There are a number of definitions for the Greek word "Repent" that Jesus uses today. In our lexicon, it is a very loaded word: much abused by those holier-than-the-rest-of-us types. But, one of the most common meanings of that word in Jesus' time was "turn." A physical turning of the direction of one's life. Jesus is saying to any who would listen: Hey! Turn around and listen to me! I am opening the kingdom of heaven for you, right here and right now! Turn around! A very different kind of kingdom of heaven, for sure, than any might expect. But that understanding unfolds as Matthew's Gospel moves along.


Some of the things our Gospel reading is asking us to consider today is where in our lives do we need to turn? Where can we do a better job living into this kingdom of heaven Jesus opens for us? How do we help others "turn around" and be a part of this joyous love that showers on all of us?
jfd+


Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
Photo: Alley on the PTown flats.

Daily Office Reflection: Orderliness

Psalms 25 * 9, 15; Exodus 18:13-27; 1 Peter 5:1-14; Matthew (1:1-17) 3:1-6

It is interesting that Luke begins his Gospel with a description of what is to come in his version of Jesus' life: an orderly account. While Matthew, who bases all that he writes on the "dis-order" of Mark, begins his account with a very structured laying out of the genealogy of Jesus' birth. This optional reading we are given today from the Gospel of Matthew sets out three distinct groupings of fourteen generations, from Abraham to Jesus. Many scholars have sat down with calendars and calculators to disprove Matthew's genealogy. I believe we miss one of the point's Matthew is trying to make. When we get stuck in the literalism of all of this, we lose the broader and more important nuances of the Gospel.

Notice the women Matthew mentions in the first grouping of fourteen: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah. The stories about these women in the Hebrew Testament are fascinating accounts of women who were strong in very different ways from one another. And the last woman Matthew mentions is Mary: another individual whose strength and courage fleshes out what faithful living entails.

Matthew was taking dis-order and trying to put orderliness to Jesus' life, writing to a community for whom order and connection to the great Hebrew Testament past was vital. He is showing that within messiness (as in the lives of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah and Mary's stories) we can still find orderliness and wonder and God's saving hand guiding us to right action.

Look below the surface today, is one of the things our Gospel is pointing us toward. Appreciate the beauty of dis-order and even chaos, for God is in that too, creating a different kind of orderliness for us to live into and appreciate.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: VTS Campus, 2004.

Daily Office Reflection: Transcendent.. Imminent

Psalms 145 * 104; Exodus 13:17-14:4; 2 Cor 4:16-5:10; Mark 11:18-27

I took a break from writing on this blog during Holy Week and Easter Week. Not a break from reading/saying MP, just from the habit of writing frequently here. We have had strong and powerful readings over the past two weeks. This week we have been graced with Mark, Matthew and Luke's resurrection accounts. If you haven't read all of them in close proximity to one another, it is a rewarding and thought-provoking exercise. And today, we end Easter Week with the account of the Sadducees accosting Jesus about whether or not there is resurrection, trying to trap him in the story of the widow who marries seven brothers in succession.

These bureaucrats were very much stuck in only knowing God as we see God in the Exodus account we read today: as a pillar of cloud/fire off in the distance. They could only see and understand God as transcendent: at a distance away from them. Jesus responds to them saying have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living: you are quite wrong. This is an imminent God, our Jesus. Not some far away cloud, but one who was with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob....the disciples and apostles....and is with us.

This can be a fear-inducing understanding of our God....God knows I thought/did that? There is little wonder that throughout history we set altars far away from us, and bound them with rails. Having that transcendent God, that distant God, is far safer and more comfortable for us to live with daily. But we are quite wrong, as Jesus says. God is imminent, is with us always. That love God has for us is so great, that even me, a human being with many faults, is loved, and comforted, and forgiven.

This Eastertide, we are invited to gather around the altar table, to be embraced in our common meal together by an imminent, loving and present God. Are we willing to walk into that embrace?

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Scott and Christopher's Blessing Ceremony, 2011.

Daily Office Reflection: What We See

Psalm 137: 1-6(7-9), 144 * 42, 43; Exodus 10:22-11-8; 2 Cor 4:13-18; Mark 10:46-52

Jesus' sights are set on Jerusalem, and he is headed there in today's reading from Mark, passing through Jericho on the way. Upon leaving Jericho, a blind individual, sitting by the side of the road, starts yelling for mercy. Those around him tell him to hush, but Bartimaeus ignores them and keeps on shouting, Help me! Have mercy on me!. Jesus pauses and does have mercy upon him, calling him forward asking Bartimaeus what he wants. Barty responds My teacher, let me see again, and Jesus tells him your faith has made you well.

We can be so blinded to all that is around us, immune from the troubles, misfortunes, and down-right cruelty of the world that surrounds us. We all need to have Jesus' mercy thrust upon us, allowing our eyes to be truly opened and to follow him on the way. And to mimic his actions along the way.

The DO lectionary creators put the perfect reading for this last day before we enter into Holy Week. I pray that all of us may truly see, may truly follow Jesus on the way this coming week. Truly have our eyes opened to see, and be in, and help the building of this kingdom Jesus opens for each and every one of us.

In Holy Women, Holy Men we celebrate John Donne today, a great poet and preacher of the 17th Century. In that Collect we pray: Open our eyes to see, with your servant John Donne, that whatever has any being is a mirror in which we may behold you. A wonderful prayer to live into as we willingly follow Jesus on this Holy Week walk.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Provincetown Harbor, 2007, jfd+

Daily Office Reflection: See the Kingdom

Psalms 95, 102 * 107:1-32; Exodus 2:1-22; 12:27-13:3; Mark 9:2-13

Yesterday's reading from Mark ended with the first verse of Chapter 9, where Jesus says to the disciples and the crowd surrounding them, Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.

And today, immediately following that verse, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain, and transfigures before them, is visited by Moses and Elijah, and a voice tells them to listen to Jesus, the Son. There are volumes written on the Transfiguration. Just as much attention is also paid to this verse 1 of Chapter 9 where Jesus announces the Kingdom God. Some say Mark was giving hope to the people to whom he was writing, a people under siege, who had lost almost everything they knew and cared about. Hope that Jesus was going to "return" in their lifetime.

I wonder if, and I do believe that Mark was doing something else. In his reporting on Jesus' life, it is so much about Jesus' swift and terse actions telling all those he encounters that a change is a-comin', the change is here. Get ready. Jesus is announcing his kingdom, The Kingdom of God, opened for all of us by his ministry, Passion, death and resurrection. We are in the Kingdom, now. And we can see the Kingdom, now. We have our own free will to do what we can, with all that we have, to see that kingdom made apparent to all.

Making the Kingdom of God readily apparent to all, living into this Kingdom, here, now, is how I read that verse preceding our Gospel account today. The harder question to answer is, how do we actually effectuate the making apparent of this Kingdom to a society and world tone-deaf to this actuality? A challenging one to noodle today.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Alley charging, 2008.

Daily Office Reflection: Still Not Seeing

Psalm 101, 109:1-4(5-19) 20-30 * 119:121-144; Genesis 50:15-26; 1 Cor 12:1-11; Mark 8:11-26

We have been reading the story of Joseph since the first Monday in Lent. We conclude that story today, 14 chapters and four and half weeks later. It is an incredibly long story about one individual, for Scripture. A fairly well known one too, with a Broadway musical having been made from this story.

After Jacob dies in Egypt and is taken home, in our concluding verses today, Joseph's brothers start to worry that he will punish them for their act of betrayal many years before. They concoct a lie about Jacob telling them to tell Joseph to promise that he will treat them well. Joseph breaks down in tears, and the brothers, realizing Joseph has seen through their lies, break down as well and apologize, and all is well. They still did not see, nor understand, Joseph's heart and good will, even after he had treated them so well, cared for them, during the long years of famine.

In a similar way, the disciples in our passage from Mark today still do not understand what Jesus has been preaching/teaching. Jesus walks away from an argument with the Pharisees today and alludes to the Pharisees' teachings as yeast and something to stay away from, and the disciples start talking about bread. You can almost hear Jesus sigh in frustration: after all this time, after all the miracles, after all the lessons, still you don't see? You are still trying to be literal with me?

I wonder how frustrated Jesus would be with us - for all of us can act like his disciples at times, just being dense. All of us can act like Joseph's brothers, losing the big picture because of self-interest. The challenge today from these readings is for us to consider where we are being too narrow-minded, too narrowly focused, too literal. What is the bigger picture we are missing?

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Art: Station #7, jfd+, 2012

Daily Office Reflection: 12 Evils

Psalms 87, 90 * 136; Genesis 47:27-48:7; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Mark 7:1-23

"fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly" is the list of 12 evils that come from the heart, which Jesus provides to his disciples today. This list is given in explanation of Jesus' strong dressing-down of the Pharisees, who criticize the disciples, and through them Jesus, for not ritually washing their hands, and foods, and dishes, prior to eating. Jesus, in turn, tells them they are full of whoeey, as they allow parents to be disregarded, in violation of God's commandments, as well as "many things like this."

Jesus outrages the leaders further by saying anything, all foods, are clean and should be eaten as gifts from God. Jesus is breaking apart the rigid controls set in place by the leaders of Temple society over the generations. Rules, laid upon rules, which grew to occupy life, as opposed to paying attention to that which is really important is the focus of Jesus' attention in this passage. Rules can help govern, but they can also (and often are) used to circumvent things we ought to be doing.

Jesus' list of 12 evils emanating from within us is his response to these rules that don't address these baser instincts that can live within us. By paying attention to, and making all efforts not to violate these 12, we can all live without nano-second-controlling rules and regulations. Instead, we can be free and imaginative in creating the Kingdom Jesus proclaims. Difficult, but not impossible.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: DC Garden-Terrace. 2011.

Daily Office Reflection: Rushing To....

Psalms 75, 76 * 23, 27; Genesis 43:16-34; 1 Cor 7:10-24; Mark 5:1-20

Jesus heals the howling and self-bruising demoniac, who was living among the tombs in the area the Gerasenes had settled, in Mark's Gospel today. Those poor swine, numbering 2000, get possessed by the legions within the individual and drown themselves after a wild rush down a steep bank leading to the sea. The townsfolk are perplexed, upset, afraid, and begged Jesus to leave. He complies, rejecting the healed individual's request to accompany him, instructing him, unusually for Mark, to go and proclaim the good news of God. The individual goes and proclaims the good news of Jesus.

Miracles and wondrous workings, and massive change to a society are things we read about in today's Gospel. Jesus up-ends a society's system; at the same time he saves an individual, not only from self-abuse, but from the abuse/mistreatment/neglect of the individual's own town-folk.

For what is this story a metaphor? What do we accept as "normal" behavior, and/or treatment, that we should not? What has our culture, in our rush for self-satisfaction, chosen to ignore, push aside, lock away? Who might be the demoniac, living on the outskirts of our awareness, needing healing, whose healing would up-end and forever change how we view and understand the world?

Good things to noodle on from this familiar story.

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer, All Rights Reserved.

Photo: jfd's (lost) DC Garden, 2011.

Daily Office Reflection: On Parables and Secrets

Psalms (70), 71 * 74; Genesis 42:29-38; 1 Cor 6:12-20; Mark 4:11-34

The Gospel of Mark is filled with the idea of secrets. Jesus doesn't want anyone to know what he is doing, outside of those with whom he has personal contact. The parables are a mystery to those who hear them: we hear today With many such parables he (Jesus) spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Mark, the first of the Gospels, was written to, and for, a community that had just experienced the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and were a community under siege from all sides. This explains the tone and tenor of a lot of what we hear. But if we were to take these parables, and the whole of Mark, as metaphor, and we think about this idea of parables and Jesus telling us things as we are able to hear, how would we view the world differently? How would we approach our lives differently?

Almost all of life is experiential, we learn things along the way, we grow and develop. We try out some things, like a suit of clothes, but as we grow and change that new and shiny suit slips to the back of our closet. So, I don't know if Mark and Jesus' parables are so much about "secrets" as about our continued and growing developmental understanding of the richness of God's kingdom all around us; a kingdom that we are meant to foster and nurture and assist in developing.

So, maybe, we don't understand scripture all that well. That doesn't mean we should stop trying.....

jfd+

Copyright 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Before the Wedding, Johnny & Bryan's DC Shindig, 2010.

Lent 2B

Genesis 17:1-7,15-16, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38

Preached @ St. Christopher’s, Roseville, MN, 3/4/11

(A PDF of this sermon is available on St. Christopher's Website, which can be reached by clicking on the title "Lent 2b" which contains the imbedded link.)

In “Gareth and Lynette,” Tennyson wrote a story of a young man who had a vision that he was to join King Arthur’s circle of knights, to which his mother objected. She pulls out her arsenal of arguments against her son’s desire: bribery, promising to arrange hunts and sport and a bride - his age, saying he is too young – guilt, at leaving her alone. All of these being good reasons to try to keep her son from what she perceives as a harmful choice. But her son replies

O Mother, How can ye keep me tethered to you – Shame.

Man am I grown, a man’s work must I do.

Follow the deer? Follow the Christ, the King.

Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King –

Else, what fore was I born?

Tennyson’s story is meant to evoke questions in us, two of which are: In what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

Good and challenging questions. Our Gospel reading from Mark today raises those same questions. In the verses just before ours today Jesus has been identified, by Peter, as the “Messiah.” And then we have the rebuking back and forth between Peter and Jesus, with Jesus then turning to the crowds around them and he talks to them about faith, belief and a re-focusing of our priorities. In what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

Peter was very much acting the part of the mother in Tennyson’s story: wanting and believing in his understanding of what “Messiah” means. Jesus, very much like the son in Tennyson’s tale, is following a path that he knows is right, is the correct one - one he invites us to, asking us to deny our self, take up our individual cross and follow him. Jesus is not talking about self-hatred, or our Lenten penchant to give something up (a/k/a denying ourselves something). Jesus is asking us to focus on what is really important in life. Jesus took up his individual cross and changed the world by carrying that individual cross. We are asked today to pick up our cross, and change the world. Jesus’ cross gave us redemption and love that is beyond measure. What is our cross, that picking that up, dropping those things that are truly unimportant, can change our world? In what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

Our Hebrew Testament reading of God’s renaming of Abraham and Sarah (from Abram and Sarai) is all about faith, and faithful living. Paul, in the portion of the letter to the Romans we hear, defines Abraham’s reward as being based on the righteousness of his faith, not Abraham’s adherence to the law. In what did Abraham believe? In what did he have faith?

Richard Rohr has written about Jesus’ three “P”s: power, prestige and possessions. Rohr says that over 90% of Jesus’ concerns and teachings were on the seduction of these three Ps: a seduction that takes us away from that which is really important in life. We all have seen examples of people who are hugely successful, having power, prestige and enormous possessions, and yet are unhappy, unsatisfied, unfulfilled - Truly living a life not worth anything. This is not a new phenomenon, as Jesus was preaching against this mind-set 2000 years ago. And we are hearing about it today. In what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

Steadfast faith…that is one of the things we ask for in our Collect today. Faith in what? Belief in what? Jesus asks a rhetorical question to the crowd: For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? The new Common English Bible translates that same verse as Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? Why would people gain the whole world and lose themselves? Jesus is asking us to focus on that which is important in life…on the kind of life we are leading…to regularly ask the questions: in what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

A number of years ago, I was asked to sit in on an ecumenical conversation from a group visiting the United States from Northern Ireland, on a trip exploring how different denominations in the U.S. were addressing GLBT issues. In this group from Northern Ireland were: Presbyterians, Catholics, an Anglican priest, a Baptist minister, Unitarians, and a few others. The conversation was guarded and careful at first, but as it got going there were some surprises. The first truly negative comment about GLBT people came from the Anglican. This evoked a very strong response from the Baptist minister and the catholic lay individual, who voiced strong opposition to the Anglican priest’s opinions. Surprising, perhaps, and unexpected to have a Roman Catholic and a Baptist minister give full-throated support for full inclusion of people they felt were a minority, and being discriminated against. In what did those people believe? In what did they have faith?

Our Gospel and other readings, that ecumenical conversation, focus our attention on the possibilities of the in-breaking of God into our world. The retiring Suffragan Bishop of New York, Cathy Roskum, talking about this in-breaking of God into the world said: Supporting MDGs cannot just be about good works and charity and writing checks. Even working for justice does not cover it. But, true sharing of wealth and resources is the in-breaking of God’s realm: mountains of wealth are lowered and the deep valleys of poverty are raised to make the path level for the coming of God.

In what do we have faith? In what do we believe? Do we, here at St. Christopher’s believe our baptismal covenant vows in which we regularly promise to see Christ in the “other”, to seek and support justice and equality, to respect everyone’s dignity? How do we live out those vows? How do we support justice and equality and dignity if we remain silent on issues of the day that make inequality the norm? Where is our voice supporting and arguing for the marginalized? Does our silence make us complicit in acts and beliefs in which we do not agree? In what do we have faith? In what do we believe?

How can we act out our faith, as a community of faith, as the Body of Christ in Roseville today? Would Jesus stay silent when there was a substantive chance that a large swath of people were about to be marginalized: told they are less than those who view them as different? How should – how can our voice be heard?

Anytime there is an attempt to concretize into law prejudice, discrimination, inequality of a group thought of, by some, as different, we, as Christians, must rise up and voice our opposition, and actively work to halt those attempts. Our silence will be damning to us in the long run. We must act to show that discrimination, prejudice, inequality are the exact opposite of God’s in-breaking into the world. While Our actions in opposition to these attempted acts to legalize inequality and injustice can be that in-breaking of God into the world exemplifying the truth: ALL are welcome at God’s table for all the sacraments. ALL are equally loved.

Some will say this is too political – others not enough. It seems we are called by Jesus today to ask the hard questions and find a way to actively create a world where justice & equality for all is made palpable and real for all…..Is this something St. Christopher’s is willing to do? - Else, what-fore were we born?..... In what do we believe? In what do we have faith?

Copyright © 2012, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

Art: Cross 23, (a/k/a "Jessica's") jfd+, 2011