Leonard Cambra

Homily: 1-31-10

Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71: 1-6, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13, Luke 4: 21-30

Theme: VOCATION

As I reflect over these readings, looking for a theme, one might be tempted to speak about prophecy, which is clearly presented in all of the readings; or perhaps something more central and particular to the words of St. Paul which focus primarily on love, but as we look not with our eyes, but with our heart, we can see that there is still a deeper theme which unites the themes of both prophecy and love in the readings, along with the sustaining presence of God in the psalm.  That theme is vocation.

              So often when one hears the word vocation, one thinks of a bishop, priest, deacon, monk, nun, or member of a religious community or organization because we’ve been taught that a vocation is a calling from God to serve the greater community of God, and this is so evident in today’s reading from Jeremiah, and yet, this is a very poor and depraved understanding of vocation.  Each and every individual sitting or standing, kneeling or praying here today has a true and authentic vocation that only he or she can fulfill.  The God who formed us, who knew us in the womb, who touched and consecrated us before we were baptized, before we were born, calls us to a deep and lasting vocation which is both challenging, painful and rewarding. 

              Vocation, according to my understanding of the Quaker, Parker Palmer is a gift of true self to be received.  Our vocation is not to be Christ-like per se, or to imitate the saints, or to necessarily be prophets, or speak in tongues, or move mountains, but simply and plainly stated, our vocation, what God calls each and every one of us to be is true and genuine to our self and yet “ an often ignored dimension of the quest the quest for (this) wholeness (which God is calling each of us to) is that we must also embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves as well as what we are confident and proud of” (Palmer: 2000, 6-7).  Let me repeat that, God’s calling us to be true to ourselves means that we must be true to whom we are and “embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves” (ibid).  It is the only way that we can be Christ-like, it is the only authentic response to God’s calling us. 

              This call to authenticity is a spiritual journey which according to Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk “will take us inward and downward, toward the hardest realities of our lives, rather than outward and upward toward …idealization and exhortation” (Quote from Palmer: 80).   So often we are deathly afraid of taking this journey, because it would involve recognizing what we’ve spent life times trying to escape, deny, ignore, burry, and eradicate from our lives and yet if we’d just pause for a moment, it is not our feigned holiness or goodness which unites us, but rather our frailty, our weakness, our wounded self and our deepest hurts.  The most common element of the human condition is our frailty, our weakness and our suffering on the inside, and yet it is what we most deny and try to escape.  We project strength, wholeness, integrity, knowledge and love, and yet we really need to say “I am only a boy” ‘I am only a girl” “I am only a transgendered person” in order to recognize our weakness, our frailty, our brokenness, our common humanity which unites us all in the single vocation of a pilgrimage to authenticity and love.   We must die to those inauthentic and false masks we’ve spent our lifetime developing and hiding behind, in order to be touched by the hand of God, like Jeremiah, and hear the Lord say ‘you are not only, a boy, a girl, a transgendered, for I  am with you to deliver you.”

              There is a question in the gospel which is asked today:  why is no prophet accepted in his home town?   It is not because the prophet’s message is unpopular, nor is it because he can work no miracles, rather it is because the prophet, for the first time has removed the masks with which he has grown up and used to protect himself as a child, as an adolescent, and as a young man, and for the first time stands before his family, his friends, his neighbors as his authentic and real self.   The difference between Jesus the boy, and the man standing before them in the synagogue was not that the people did not recognize Jesus for they even said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”, the difference was that now he stood before them as one who had left his false masks, his false sense of self in the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by those identities he’d grown up with and become accustomed to (Luke 4: 1-2).  Jesus stood in the synagogue as himself, as only Jesus could be, and encouraged his listeners to be transformed by leaving behind that most coveted notion of a chosen people which the people of Israel had stood and identified themselves with for approximately 1,200 years.  Because in time and history the notion of a chosen people had become a false self, an inauthentic mask behind which the people had stood and wrongly identified their acts as those of God, much like Christianity and Christians tend to do today, one need only illicit the insane comments of Pat Robertson concerning the earth quake in Haiti to see this notion of false self hiding behind an inauthentic prophetic mask of Christianity.

              Jesus reminds his listeners of their in-authenticity, by showing them that in spite of whom they believed themselves to be, God worked miracles, not on their behalf, but on behalf of the outcasts, those who had no mask behind which to hide.  Jesus touched the very core of their national identity and sense of self, and rather than begin a process of self examination and a journey inward and downward to authenticity, the people grew so angry and filled with rage that they “got up, drove him from the town …so that they might hurl him off the cliff”  

              What is our own reaction when the masks we’ve created and hide behind are challenged? 

              I can NOT be Jesus, I can NOT be Moses, I can NOT be Francis of Assisi, I can only be me, Leonard Cambra.  You can only be you, you can NOT be who others want you to be, whom you thought you were by the masks you have darned throughout your life time.  “We find our callings by claiming authentic selfhood, by being who we are, by dwelling in the world” (Palmer. 2000, 15).  I am who I am is the most authentic answer of both God and of true Self (ibid, 51).  It is the eternal response of both the divine and the genuinely human and eternal authentic self, for “the sacred center is here and now- in every moment of the journey, everywhere in the world around us and deep within our own hearts” (ibid, 18).  God is not present in the sanctuary if she is not present in our heart, God is not in the world if he is not recognized deeply within us. 

              The world is as it is, only because we project our spirit of inauthentic self hood upon it, and it yearns to be that to which it is called to be.  There is but one ultimate truth to the universe and it is that which St. Paul speaks.  Love is the ultimate truth the only absolute reality, and yet, if we do not know our true self, how can we experience it?  If we do not know the love that burns deep inside of us, how can we claim to recognize it in another?  And yet, most of our lives are spent in pursuit of inauthentic love, of unreal happiness and we think ourselves prophets; we think ourselves so powerful as to move mountains, we boast of our accomplishments, our knowledge, our false superiority and are led by our egos, that we forget that we only see dimly the LOVE that we are called to be, that we were meant to be, if only we would die to those things which we cling so dearly, and yet are not who we really are.  If we could just learn to integrate those parts of us we don’t love or appreciate, we’d realize that they are not really opposites to our goodness, but a part of that goodness.  Darkness is not darkness without light, light is not light, without darkness.  Love cannot flourish or abound where there is not full and total acceptance.   Acceptance rests on knowledge. True knowledge resides in the heart, and a genuine heart abides in authentic love: “I have been sustained by you ever since I was born; from my mother’s womb you have been my strength; my praise shall always be of you” (Ps 71:6).

Stewardship…by Lenny Cambra

10-25-09:  Job 42: 1-6, 10-17; Psalm 34: 1-8; Hebrews 7: 23-28; Mark 10:46-52

The Oxford English dictionary defines Stewardship as the “office of steward” .   Steward then is defined as one who administers another’s property or financial affairs” ; and while these definitions may be helpful, because they constantly remind us, that what we do, is not for ourselves; is not OUR house, is not OUR Church, is not OUR kingdom, the definition still lacks ontological meaning; that is, the definitions don’t relate to ALL of who we are as servants of God, as builders of the Kingdom, as human beings on the face of the earth.

With twenty years of classroom experience and as a keen observer of life, I’ve come to realize that nothing perhaps more accurately describes the universal human condition, than the word- brokenness.  We are all broken creatures in need of healing, and whether we choose to attribute this universal condition to a doctrine of original sin dating all the way back to the garden of Eden, or whether one attributes it to the institionalization of sin, present in the corporations, laws, governments and religious institutions present in society, or if one simply looks at the hurt and bruises in one’s own life journey- brokenness remains the best word I know and have come across in all my years on this planet.

The question is what do we do with this shattered vessel which we carry deep within ourselves?  While the world offers many solutions, there is, in my humble experience, only one that really takes that brokenness, that lack of being whole, and completes it.  My life has shown me, that brokenness is not healed through knowledge, though an honest recognition to the hurt and incompleteness is fundamental to its being healed.  The shattered vessel which we each carry deep within ourselves is not repaired by an endless accumulation of possessions, or wealth, or even fame.  It cannot be erased by cosmetic surgery, diet, exercise, or even constant visits to mental health care professionals.  It takes something more, something greater, and something more real and genuine than all of these things to heal the hurt, to make us whole; and yet how many vices do we ourselves carry that have been futile attempts to escape the pain caused by such brokenness?  What mires have we succeeded in trapping ourselves in so that we might not feel what we know is there?

It was almost exactly ten months ago to the day, that my precious little grandmother-Doris FInelli- breathed her last breath, on Christmas Eve of 2008.  If you had known our little family back then, you probably would have thought that Mark and I were doing a good job, that we took very good care of her; after all, we made sure she received the best medical care, the best possible diet, the best of physical and mental activities.  We administered honestly and truthfully all of her property, and all of her financial affairs with the end of giving her the fullest and best life experience humanly possible for someone with her level of Alzheimer’s disease.  You would have thought that we were good stewards. 

And yet, for all that we gave, for all the sacrifices we made, for as hard as we tried and worked for her so that she may have had the best life situation, that was only half of the story.  True spiritual stewardship is so much more than giving, it is also receiving.  Doris Finelli, our little grandmother- who even on the best of days never measured taller than four feet nine inches, gave back so much more than Mark and I could have ever hoped for or imagined, and still she continues to give to us. 

It is ONLY this form of stewardship that heals the brokenness: a stewardship deeply rooted in love that is manifested in wholly unselfish actions.    It is only a stewardship of complete openness to the transitorines  of  human existence and the moving of the holy spirit which can mend the broken vessel buried deep inside each of us.    It is only a stewardship which is reciprocal in nature, providing for the edification of all its participants that once again makes us whole.   It is only a stewardship that is transcendental in nature, which goes beyond our simple actions, what at times seem to be our fruitless efforts- and yet in and through which, simple and saving grace can be found. 

This is the story of Job, who dared to question God, and who through his difficulty, heartache and learning was deeply blessed by God in his latter days, more than his beginning.  This is the story of the blind man, who when called by Jesus threw off his cloak, sprang up, and was healed.  This is the story of Mark, and Lenny, and their grandmother Doris who together learned what stewardship meant and whose lives were forever altered. 

This is our story, of a stewardship rooted in a Love that heals.  This is our story of a stewardship open to the spirit which transforms.  This is our story of a stewardship of transformational graces which persist long after the simple service has ended.  Stewardship, when done rightly, heals and makes whole.  Our brokenness can truly be healed in true stewardship, and the world transformed. 

Oxford English Dictionary, 1963 V.10

Randomehouse Dictionary

Advent 2

Sunday December 6, 2009

Leonard Cambra

Readings: Baruch 5: 1-9; Psalm 16; Philippians 1: 3-11; Luke 3: 1-6

Here we are at the Second Week of Advent, and it is so evident that something new is happening, the Church has pulled out all the stops in its liturgical regalia: Canticles, chanting, solemn procession, the Advent Wreath, and almost euphoric readings.  Why?  Why in a time of economic cataclysm when the world is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, why, only days after Obama has escalated the war in Afghanistan?  Why when RI is wrestling with an unemployment rate of 13%, when soup kitchens and food pantries are being pushed to their limits, and there are so many good families being forced out onto the streets? What is going on?  Are we blind to the world?  Have we narcissistically turned in on ourselves, falsely warming ourselves in the light of advent candles, and clothing ourselves in the royalty of purple?

Our answer depends on what we are preparing to celebrate.  Last week Rev. Joyce told us to hurry up and wait.  Hurry up and wait for what?  Will we be anxiously waiting only to commemorate the birth of Jesus, a child many call the messiah, or will we be anxiously awaiting and preparing ourselves for his birth yet again in our hearts and thus the world?

If all we do, is remember his lonely birth, commemorating and reliving nostalgically that fairy tale in a manager, then we’ve fallen into narcissism, we have betrayed ourselves, we’ve betrayed his message, and we’ve lost the meaning of Christmas.  We will have barricaded ourselves in a church full of corpses who believe that in giving gifts to one another they are keeping the spirit of Christmas alive.            

Advent is a time of Hope “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1: 6).   Advent is a time of Renewal: “Arise O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.  For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you” (Baruch 5: 5-6).  Finally, Advent is a time of Repentance: ‘It is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. .. And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” (Luke 3: 4-6).  This isn’t about a public works project, or a second stimulus package, but about us, and our changing our paths to prepare for God’s birth in our selves.

If all we do is remember Christ’s coming into the world, and have done nothing to be “pure and blameless” (Philippians 1:10), then we’ve missed it all.  If we have not, in the depths of our heart experimented our own imprisonment like that of Paul’s, then we will not be able to “Take off the garment of sorrow and affliction” (Baruch 5:1) on December 25th and participate in “righteous Peace, [and] Godly Glory” (Baruch 5:4).

Simply said, advent is a formal invitation, both of the church and of God to form an ever deeper and more intimate relationship with the Holy, so that we may be Holy and Perfect as God is so that “our heart is glad, our soul rejoices, and our body rests secure” (Psalm 16: 9).

Holiness and Perfection, use to be very scary words to me and I never could quite figure out how anyone could be so cruel as to call me be something that was always unattainable, like the proverbial carrot on a stick.  It became even worse when I figured that God would also hold me accountable as to how well I’d done in achieving the end to which I just didn’t seem made to reach; but then, much later in life, I realized that my understanding had been all wrong. 

First of all, Holiness and Perfection are not two separate things, but are one and the same thing.  If one is Holy, one is also perfect.  Secondly, they are not about actions, per se, but about a relationship.  One stands in Holiness and Perfection when one stands in a relationship of respect, honesty, integrity and openness with self, and the other person in the relationship- whether it be God, your spouse, or your neighbor that you don’t particularly care for.  Thirdly, when actions do not flow in accord with that relationship, a transgression or sin has occurred.  These transgressions do not remove one from Holiness or perfection, unless they destroy or work to destroy the integrity of the relationship for one or both people.  Thus, if I get upset with someone because they don’t agree with me, I am not being less than perfect, especially if I feel like what I’m saying is in their best interests, but, if I think, say or do something to hurt the dignity or self worth of the other person or myself, then I’ve sinned; I’ve stepped away from that perfection, that holiness that I was called to be.  This advent, and every day we are called to holiness. 

I’d like to end with a story from Thomas Keating (Keating, Thomas. The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation. New York: Paulist Press, 1996. p.45) :

A young man with AIDS was dying in a hospital, and he was literally shaking from the fear of death.  What had been communicated to him as a child was an emotionally charged idea of God as an implacable judge ready to bring down the verdict of guilty, or a harsh policeman ever on the watch- Does this sound like the God you were brought up with?  His God, and perhaps too often our own was someone you would want to avoid encountering.  The young man was afraid of dying and going to meet this hazardous God whom he had heard about in early childhood.

One of the nurses came into his room, and he asked her, ‘Can you help me?’  She said, ‘I can give you a treatment called therapeutic touch.’  He replied, ‘Please do’.  The nurse began the gentle treatment.  At one point his eyes rolled back, and the nurse thought he was going to die, but she kept on with the treatment.  When she finally finished, he opened his eyes and said, ‘You’ll never know what you just did for me.  I have experienced unconditional love.’  About an hour later, he died.

If we have not experienced ourselves as unconditional love, we have more work to do this advent season, because that is who we really are.

Leonard Cambra: Homily: 09-06-09

Readings: Proverbs: 22:1-2, 8-9,22-23; Psalm 125; James: 2:1-10, 14-17; Mark 7:24-27

Clearly these readings proclaim social justice, a theology of Liberation.  Proverbs states unequivocally that the Lord Stands on the side of the poor: (22: 22-23) Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord pleads their cause…; the Psalm says: He Surrounds ALL his people as the mountains surround Jerusalem (Ps. 125:2); and finally the author of James says: Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? (James:2:5).

And yet it’s a very delicate balancing act, both for the church’s mission as a whole and for our own lives, for while the letter of James begs the question: Can faith, without works, save you? (James 2:14) [-which really puts a crimp in Lutheran Theology and the whole line of Protestantism which follows it-] the gospel miracle narratives point out that truly good works need faith as a precondition.  Despite the rebuffs of Jesus himself, and his referring to her as a puppy  the nameless gentile Syrophoenician woman, still persisted, and because of her continued faith: She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone (Mark 7: 30).

Not to get too depressed, but if we take an honest and hard look at the world, we’ll probably soon realize that after two thousand and nine years of Christianity, little has really changed in the world, despite so many efforts and movements and initiatives to make the world better.  As Joyce said last week, this leads Atheists to say that there is no God, and often leads good and very well intentioned Christians to suffer burn out, experience extreme crisis, or to move completely inward and totally abandon the works aspect of faith despite the warning of James that faith by itself, if it has no work is dead (James 2:17). 

While I don’t think I could answer the question of why the world hasn’t significantly or meaningfully changed since Christ’s coming into it in flesh and blood, I do think that part of the answer lies in our understanding of what faith is, in fact, I’d say that to some extent, faith, or our understanding of it is the crux of the difficulty in transforming the world. 

So often when we say faith, we think of our belief, and belief seems to run parallel with our minds, hence we some how have come to equate faith with a consent of the mind or intellect- our brain.  Sadly, this intellectual aspect of faith came very early on in Christianity.  According to Father Thomas Keating:  Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Gregory of Nyssa borrowed the term –Theoria- from the neo-Platonists, that’s to say the philosophers of the time (Open Mind, Open Heart p. 19) and by the time of Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics, Faith came to mean an intellectual vision of the truth (Keating, 19) and yet originally, the Hebrew word was da’ath and meant the kind of experiential knowledge which comes through love.  That is, faith is not something we do with our minds, but with our hearts.  If you’ve ever been truly in love, you know from your own experience that love transforms you, it changes you, it makes you a better person, not just to the one you love, but to the world. 

If we’ve fallen out of love, or been in it long enough we eventually realize that many of those initial good effects of change which love initially had on us weren’t permanent or lasting, it wasn’t because of love or lack of it that we’d fallen back into being our old selfish and self-centered selves, but because we never really took advantage of the love, to really get to know ourselves, to know our true selves.  Every loving relationship we experience, whether with God or another human being, is also, by its very nature an invitation to get to know ourselves, our true selves better.  

While works are an outer journey of the hands for the transformation of the world, faith is an inner journey of true transformation of the heart in a loving and meaningful relationship, and yet, so often- both with God and others, we refuse to make this inner journey.  Bonaventure, a Franciscan contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi wrote: The human mind distracted by worldly cares, fails to enter into itself through memory; clouded by imagination, it fails to turn toward itself through intelligence; attracted by concupiscence, it fails to return to itself through the desire for inner sweetness and spiritual joy.  Therefore, totally immersed in the senses, it is unable to reenter into itself as into the likeness of God (Note, p. 53- The Journey of the Mind to God).  When we don’t allow ourselves to be transfigured by love, then both our works and our relationships begin to break down because they have become inauthentic because we now know that it is only when we truly know ourselves that both true love and faith can flourish in us. 

Real faith, then as I understand it is an action of the heart which involves an inner journey which breaks through images and acts of favoritism (James 2: 1), to a recognition, acceptance, and love of our real self. In this way, “Christ is born in us and He and our true self become one (Keating: Open Mind Open Heart 13).  Only in this way can Jesus say: “Ephphatha” to our own heart, and like the Syrophonecian’s daughter, our demon- the unclean spirit will be gone, and all the more zealously we’ll proclaim it.  Thus will we come to know not in our minds, but in our hearts that “The rich and the Poor have this in common: the Lord is maker of us all” (Proverbs 22:2) and our faith and works will have been united so that the ears of the world will be opened and it’s tongue released to proclaim that those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever (Ps. 125:1).  Amen.   

Homily: 06-28-09…by: Lenny Cambra

Readings: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43

There is certainly a vast array of characters and personalities in all of these readings.  Which one do we most identify with?  Is it David lamenting the death of his political adversary Saul and Saul’s son Jonathon?  Is it the nameless woman from the gospel who had been suffering for 12 long years?  Or maybe it’s the leader of the synagogue- Jairus- who was forced to witness the slow death of his twelve year old daughter?  Or perhaps like the psalmist we too cry out to the Lord from the depths of this hell we call life?  Take a moment to think about which one you most identify with, right now in your life, but before you spend too much time thinking and arrive at an answer, let me pose an even more relevant and pertinent question with regard to all these readings: How much time, energy, money and effort have we wasted wishing that things were different from what they are?   That’s right, how many neurosis, addictions, and problems have we created trying to fight the inevitable or in denying a clear reality which for us is unchangeable?  To pose such questions is not to say that we should become complacent, or that we should not strive to better ourselves and the world around us, or that we should forget about justice and the message of the gospel; rather, such questioning places us where we truly belong, as limited and finite human beings in the middle of a universe which is in constant flux and always shifting.  I think then, in so far as we admit to this, then we admit in some way to being like most of today’s protagonists.   

Death is real, suffering is real, pain is real, being denied love is real, and there is NO escape from these things for anyone who walks on this planet, and yet we try so hard to avoid them, deny them, lie about them.  It is said of the woman in the gospel that (Mk 5: 26) she had endured much (suffering) under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and only grew worse in-spite of all her (futile) efforts.  How many times do we spend our last nickel in an attempt to change some one or something?  How much money have we wasted, if not in attempting to buy a cure for an incurable disease, then to buy love, or perhaps forgiveness or our own self-worth in designer labels and advertising?   How much do we emulate this nameless woman by giving her our own name?

In today’s reading from the Old Testament, we get a very truncated version of reality and I’d like to fill in the picture a bit.  David was in Ziklag.  Ziklag was a gift of the Philistines to David for his good service to them (1sam 27:6).  The Philistines are the same people who just wiped out King Saul’s army and were ultimately responsible for King Saul’s death.  David is in Ziklag because he had just defeated the Amalekites and rescued his family from them.  Irony is at work here on both a historical and personal level.  To speak of David in the context of Ziklag and the Amalekites “is to say something about the way providence has moved with David against Saul” (HBC).  To cap the (historical) irony, it is an Amalekite (the people David just slaughtered to rescue his family and take plenty of loot) who tells David of King Saul’s death.

The personal irony goes much deeper and involves a character flaw which surfaces many times with David: His selfish desire (in this case to be king) leads to actions which result in sad consequences- in this case, not only the king’s death, but also the death of David’s beloved friend –Jonathan-, and David ALWAYS chooses to blame someone else.  In this story it is the Amalekite messenger who is killed at David’s command (2 Sam1:15).  David’s flaw is not his desire for power, but his inability to accept the consequences of his own actions. This same flaw will occur again for David, under very similar circumstances and will result in the death of David’s own beloved Son Absalom (2: Sam: 13-20).   In blaming someone else for the Death of his friend, David deliberately chooses to deny reality and the real consequences of his own actions, because he just can’t deal with it and instead chooses to blame some one else; whereas, had he learned to accept and take responsibility for his own actions, then very possibly, later in his life, his own son Absalom would not also have perished at the hands of his king and father. 

How often do we imitate David in our own lives by blaming others for the consequences of our own actions?  How much alcohol, nicotine, and drugs are spent attempting to deny who we are, what we’ve become, or what situation we’ve created as a result of our own actions or at times in- actions?  Do we as David did, still attempt to blame others, and thus like David, continue to suffer under the weight of dreadful consequences, drowning in a sea of remorse and yet feel powerless to change?   

Power begins with a clear and definite admission of the reality.  If we live lives of constant denial, or if we spend every last breath and penny fighting that which we can’t change- like death, illness, the consequences of our actions and sometimes even suffering, then like the psalmist we can truly “cry from out of the depths” of the hell which we ourselves have created, and in recognizing this hell- choose to be different, by the power of the Lord’s attentiveness to our now sincere supplication.

The Psalmist’s prayer is not a one time deal.  Three times the psalmist says that he “waits for the Lord”.  This implies a constancy of faith in the Lord.  Also, the Psalmist is vigilant (more than those who watch for morning-is in reference to the sentinels whose job was to be ever vigilant throughout the night so that no enemies might use the darkness to encroach upon the city).  By vigilant he is watchful and careful of his own actions so that he does not go back into the same patterns of behavior.  He clearly recognizes that it is not of his own power, but in the Lord’s “steadfast love” and “Great power to redeem” that he is able to change, and if he should fail and slightly embrace old patterns of behavior he clearly recognizes that with the Lord “there is forgiveness” of self.

In returning to the Gospel, we know very little about the woman or Jairus; what we do know is that each was determined to change what under normal circumstances would have been impossible.  Jesus is NOT the hero of this story, nor is the woman nor the little girl, nor even the leader of the synagogue.  The real and only hero of the Gospel stories presented to us here is FAITH.   Through out the Gospel of Mark, people do not believe in Jesus because of the miracles he performs; rather, it is only because of their faith that the miracles can be performed. 

Like the psalmist, do we have enough self-honesty to recognize and see things clearly in our lives as they are?  Do we have enough faith to accept those things which we cannot change?  And finally, do we really believe that with the Lord there is forgiveness and redemption from all our iniquities?  If we can clearly answer yes, then we too can reach out and touch the Jesus alive in ourselves and others.  If we can answer yes, then we too can defeat death itself in spite of the laughter of others, for we will have known and experienced what resurrection truly means in our own lives and in the lives of those whom we have loved and whose spirit is still alive and strong in us.   

ST. PETER’S & ST. ANDREW’S – PROVIDENCE, RI

 January 25, 2009      Confession of St. Peter

Acts 4: 8-13      Psalm 23       1 Peter 5: 1-4      Matthew 16: 13 -19

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield

There is probably no disciple, other than St. Paul, who appears more at the heart of the Gospel stories than Peter. I love this disciple whom we are named after.  Peter was so very human and so very impetuous. I think of him as passionate and quick to act—often before ever thinking but full of faith. So many times he just didn’t get it right.  Like when he tried to walk to Jesus on water and sank because he began focusing on the impossibility of the task rather than the faith of Jesus. Or, when he became so enthralled by the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop that he wanted to set up camp, build 3 tents and stay there forever. Or the time he swore by Jesus’ side that he would never deny him and only hours later not only used violence to defend Jesus but also denied him 3 times to a local woman. Yet it was Peter, accompanied by his wife, who went on missionary trips with Jesus. It was Peter who was central at Pentecost, It was Peter who healed a man crippled from birth. It was Peter who Jesus mandated to “Feed my Lambs” during a post-resurrection appearance.  And it was Peter who was given the keys to the kingdom and provided the foundation of the church. And it was Peter who was the first one crucified and martyred by Nero for his work as a Christian.

            And today, Peter,for a moment finally gets one thing right.  He understands the truth about Jesus identity--, that Jesus was/is more than a prophet, more than a great moral leader, more than a loving example for us to follow. Some had thought that Jesus was John the Baptist who had come back to life. Apparently they looked alike. Others thought he was Elijah or Jeremiah, the prophet, because the Jews believed that one of these prohpets was to appear  as a forerunner of the Messianic Age.  But Peter gets it right. He confesses that Jesus is Lord, Son of God, Bread of Life.  For Peter, Jesus was not only the longed for Messiah; but he was the Son of the living God, the Mind and Heart of God.  And for that Peter receives a new name and new identity from Jesus. In scripture, this  act has a deep spiritual meaning, every time someone’s name is changed is the beginning of a new mission and ministry for them.  A new name is a new identity and a new future direction. Jesus names Simon, son of Jonah (his Aramaic name) PETER or “rock” because it is this disciple on whom the church will be built.  And he is given the keys of the kingdom and the right to bind and loose—which really means to declare what teachings and practices are allowed and to declare what is forbidden.  

         And on this day we celebrate the Confession of St. Peter in his recognition of the identity of Jesus, it raises questions for ourselves? Who do WE say that Jesus is? Has anyone every tested you or pushed you to answer? How about the skeptics around you or the non church goers who question why you would want to be coming to church. Do you think you are better than others? Are you a hypocrite because you only come when you need something from Jesus? Are you old fashioned and out of date—clinging to traditions that aren’t in style anymore?  Who has challenged you to tell them who Jesus is for you? How did you respond?

         I remember a time I was bicycling with a group and ended up down the road around mile 25 with a colleague in the university.  He was a chemist, I believe. We paused a moment at a snack shop and as we started out on our bicycles, out of the blue he asked me in a sort of disbeliev: “You don’t really believe in that stuff do you? You don’t really believe in God?”  In a flash, I answered firmly, “Yes, I do.”  My answer came without thought. Then he asked, “Why?” And that too came out before I even thought: “Because God has saved my life more times than I can mention.” He never asked me anymore questions. End of questions. Later, as I reflected on this, I was surprised at myself because I always have questions and doubts and queries and rarely answer so simply a deep question about my faith. But this time, I needed to affirm and confirm that Jesus is Lord and Jesus guides my life and that is the same Jesus, Son of God, who has been with me in the darkest of times and even saved my life through the grace and actions of guardian angels whose names I never knew and whose face I never will see again.  And although I did not receive a new name that day, I do believe that in my affirmation was a confirmation of a call to a new ministry and a new direction. Who do you say that Jesus is and what call is waiting  you?

ST. PETER’S & ST. ANDREW’S – PROVIDENCE, RI

In Celebration of the Birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Isaiah  49: 1-7         Psalm 40: 1-10      1 Corinthians 1: 1-9            John 1: 29-41

This morning in our Gospel reading we journey with Andrew and Peter as Jesus calls them to follow him. He asks Andrew,  “What are you searching for?” And Andrew wants to know a little more about Jesus before accepting his call, “Show me where you live”, Andrew replies. What kind of life are we talking about? Tell me more, he is saying. The life of Jesus and of his first followers—Peter and Andrew—after whom we are named in this parish led to a courageous commitment to a very different way of life—a world of nonviolence, change of heart, compassion, and forgiveness.

          Our faith, likewise, challenges us to follow Christ in our lives and this often means we go places we never expected and take up challenges we never planned to take up—all because they are of Christ and of working toward the reign of God here on earth.

          Today we celebrate the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  There can be no better example of the challenge to follow Christ and not knowing where that would lead.  No one would plan a life full of ridicule, jail, threats, and finally assassinationg and yet that is where King’s following of Christ led him. In 1955 he was only 26 and a new preacher in Montgomery, Alabaman at the time of Jim Crow and the forced separation of African Americans and whites.  Rosa Parks had just been arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored” section on the city bus.   King was called out by the NAACP to lead a bus boycott to desegregate the buses and stand up for dignity and civil rights. King responded to God’s call  over and over to be a prophet for justice and peace. His vision and struggle expanded from civil rights to include all victims of poverty and violence to lead the “Poor Peeople’s Campaign” in D.C. and later the condemnation of the war in Vietnam. Dr. King didn’t know that his commitment to justice and peace would make him a “lamb of God” like Jesus.

      King translated the Gospel and the discipleship of nonviolence which Jesus taught and lived into the home, places of living, and work. Those who have continued his work bring us a practical way to follow nonviolence in our lives with the “Pledge of Nonviolence” – 7 principles:

1.  RESPECT OURSELVES AND OTHERS – building others up, not tearing them down; avoiding hateful or unkind words, gossip, and physical attack.

January 4, 2009                                           Epiphany (transferred)

Isaiah 60: 1-6,,  Ephesians 3: 1-12,   Matthew 2: 1-12     Psalm 72: 1-2,10-17

SERMON:                                                                                              Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge

 Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.   

As the Hebrews began returning to Jerusalem from 50 years of exile in Babylon (modern day Iraq), a dominant oppressive group within them began to marginalized a group of their fellow Hebrews.  Isaiah invites the marginalized ones to imagine a different world. He invites them to dream of a future beyond the present harsh realities—a new and peaceful Jerusalem!  How prophetic these words are for our world today some 3,000 years later!  As we stand from afar and witness the warring and marginalization of people who live near Jerusalem as bomb after bomb is dropped on the remainder of those in the Palestinians territories and as the tanks roll into kill more people, we need the prophetic prayer and voice of Isaiah:

Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.  

Do we believe that we can dream of a future beyond the misery of war, killing, hatred, and oppression in the Holy Land?  Can the divinity of God become manifest in a world of so little peace? We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Palestine and Jordan and Egypt and Syria and Lebanon and Jordan.

 Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.  

Who would know more about difficulty than Apostle Paul who moved from being a persecutor of those who were considered outside of the true faith of Judaism to being a prisoner for Christ.  Paul would have been the last to guess that God’s saving grace would have intervened in his life. But light did shine down in his heart and give him a whole new way of seeing the world.  . The grace of God became manifest in Paul giving him the special ministry of announcing Gods favor to the Gentiles of the Roman Christian world.  

 Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 

And the wise men—the descendants of the Babylonians-- the very nation that carried the people of Judah into exile, are the very ones who become instruments of uncovering God’s manifestation in the life of a tiny little baby of ordinary peasant parents.  The 3 Kings who came from very different nations and races of the Middle East to join as one team are witnesses to the truth of God’s acting in a dark and hopeless world that yearned for the coming of the Messiah.

Epiphany reminds us of Gods saving action in history. Epiphany reminds us of the manifestation of God’s saving intervention in our own lives. Epiphany calls us to imagine beyond the darkness and pain of our world and to let the light of God work in us and shine through us.

 The 3 wise men gained their wisdom because they were seekers. They were looking for new things, new insights, and new signs. They were open to new wisdom and truth; in fact, they ardently searched for it. They pushed themselves to expand their knowledge of the world. They were eager seekers of a changing truth. Following the star that led them to the divine baby was a personal quest for them, but it also was a team project. In all their differences of nationality, race, and training, they worked together as a team to seeking to the new king. And so we are called to do.

Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 

Let us be seekers of the truth. Let us be open to our wildest imagination of God’s intervention in our world and follow the light that leads us into the dark spots of the world and our lives. Let us walk in faith that God will use us to do a special ministry of announcing God’s favor to a part of the world in need of God’s divine love and grace. Let us commit ourselves to open our hearts to the glory of God and let it shine in us so brightly that we will shine in brightness to others in the ordinary moments of our lives—wherever we go and wherever we are.  

Arise! Shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI    

October 19, 2008                 23rd Sunday after Pentecost                                                  

Exodus 33:12-23    Psalm 99      1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10  Matthew 22: 15-22

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:  

              I recently read that Jesus Christ, taught more about money than any other subject. Twenty-seven of Jesus' 43 parables, that's 62%, have to do with money and possessions—or so a superficial review suggests. One of every ten verses in the gospels deals with money. Today we see the subject of money arise but the real point of our gospel reading isn’t money or Caesar or payment of taxes. It’s our relationship to God.    In our Gospel reading today we see another example of Jesus using the situation to reframe it.  He does what some of our current political candidates does when asked a question: he turns the answer the answer of his own question.  When the Pharisees and Herodians—two unlikely groups to team up—ask him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  He demands:   “Show me the money for the tax.”  They produce a Roman coin which would have borne the image of Caesar, much as our coins today display the profile of Lincoln or Washington or Roosevelt.  And then he gives a statement that can have multiple interpretations: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  

     Well, that settles the question, doesn’t it? There are things that belong to Caesar, like the money with which we pay our taxes, and there are things that belong to God. Such as……..????   And there lies the problem in the interpretation. To the Herodians, his answer may have been interpreted as giving allegiance to Caesar.  But to those who followed God, it forced a completely different interpretation which challenged the Pharisees fear of making the Romans upset.  If you believe in God as incomprehensible and part of all of life: How and where do you draw the line between the things that belong to Caesar and the things that belong to God? What are the things of Caesar and what are the things of God?

     It isn’t uncommon to hear sermons on this passage which totally miss the point Jesus was making. If you look through the lens or eyeglasses of modern culture, you might think that he is telling us to keep the world of politics and the state separate from God. That’s logical from the perspective of our modern culture in which we easily compartmentalize our church life, our work life, and our home life.  But to the ancient world, there was one person and one life.  . Think about what we say when the offering is brought forward on Sunday morning: “All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.”  The fact is that a whole God demands the service of whole human beings.  The God of Jesus has a claim on all of life. So if God demands all of life, what is left to render unto Caesar?   “The things that are Caesar’s.” What are they? Caesar seems to have a claim on much of our lives, but in fact, nothing belongs to him. Everything belongs to God; the things that Caesar claims are merely on loan.

        The way most of us behave suggests that we believe that God has a claim on about one hour per week and a small percentage of our income. But God’s mark is upon every particle of our being—every hair on our head. He will protect every hair on our head, scripture tells us.

         Today begins our Stewardship Drive—our fundraising campaign. It is the time we ask you to pray about your involvement here in the parish and make a commitment of your TIME, TALENT (special gifts), and TREASURE.  During this season, the real question is not how much you should give to God or the church or the parish or how much belongs to Caesar, but how much belongs to God?  If we ask that question, then the real issue of stewardship is not “How much should we pledge?” but “How much should we keep for ourselves?” Tithing or contributing a steady amount can be a spiritual practice that brings us closer to God and helps us grow.  They say that when we tithe we are take our portion off the top of our income or pay and pay God first and not last.

      Today we remember that all that we are and all that we have belongs to God. God is part of all life---our whole life and thus rendering to God what God has a claim on is not burdensome; it is liberation. We cannot divide our lives between God and Caesar. Realizing that life is whole and not fragmented is an insight that brings us freedom. It teaches us that our first and foremost priority is the service of God.  The question that Jesus answer today is not how to compartmentalize our lives, but the opposite: to reinforce that in reality all that we have is on loan from God and we are simply returning it as part of our thankfulness.  ALL THINGS COME OF THEE OH GOD AND OF THINE OWN HAVE WE   GIVEN THEE.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI        

October 12, 2008              22nd Sunday after Pentecost                                                        

Exodus 32: 1-14      Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23   Philippians 4: 1-9   Matthew 22:1-14

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

 Have you ever given a party?  or planned an event, like the flea market last weekend?  For a party you have to decide when you will do it and make a list of who you will invite. And you have to do this in plenty of time before—not just on that day. It takes some thought and time. You have to decide what you will do and what you need to get ready. You have to buy the decorations, and the food and prepare it. Oh, yes, don’t forget to clean your house first. That takes enough time! All of this takes time, attention, and work. It usually gets us excited. We look forward to having a good time or a successful event.   So imagine you did all of this with such care and concern and you invited lots of people and little by little you began getting excuses: “I have a bad cold and I just can’t come”  “I have to visit my sister.” “I have another commitment.” “I have to study for a test.”  You throw the party and wait and wait and no one, absolutely no one shows up.

            How would you feel?  Would you be angry? sad? confused? Would your feelings be hurt? What would you do?  Because this is what happens in today’s parable in the Gospel according to Matthew which Jesus tells to those around him to explain what the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is like. His story is about a King who invites others to his wedding party over and over and they don’t come. They make excuses. They ignore what he has prepared for them. They found other things to do. Their priorities where on their own lives and not being part of this invitation by the King.  So the King invites those he doesn’t know to come and he fills the hall with guests and welcomes those who come with respect.

            The Kingdom of God is a banquet we are invited to—like our Holy Eucharist this morning. We are invited to share in a relationship with God. God has taken time to carefully prepare a huge banquet for us and to bless us with his presence, his joy, his world. Are we making excuses to be part of this? Are we finding so much to keep us busy that God isn’t part of our lives? Are we not valuing this invitation enough to stop and do and partake?

            The interesting thing about the parable to me is that it lets us see things from God’s perspective a bit. We can feel and see how God felt to be disappointed or let down or disrespected by those he cared so much about. It lets us know that God wants a relationship with us that is more than just rescuer or once a week or “extra”.  We are important to God and God wants us to say Yes when we are invited to this grand party to celebrate the relationship.  Each Sunday we say Yes when we come to communion. Each day we say Yes when we converse in our hearts with God through prayer. Each moment we say Yes when we turn our lives over to God and trust that every hair on our heads will be cared for.  So if you’ll excuse me I have to go now to God’s party. Will you come with me?

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI        

October 5, 2008                 St. Francis Day (transferred)

Genesis 1: 20-25        Psalm 148: 7-14      Matthew 11: 25-30                                                                                                                                             Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

 For some Francis of Assisi, born in the 12th century the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, was “God’s fool”, not because he was so stupid or unwise but because how he chose to live his life must certainly have seemed foolish to the world.  That’s why a popular contemporary biography about St. Francis of Assisi by Green and Heinregg is titled: “God’s Fool: The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi.  Although the art world loves to depict St. Francis as a chubby friar in his brown outfit happily walking with the animals, the truth is that Francis may not have looked or acted so neat, clean, and serene in the raw of his life. 

              In his young years after a bit of sickness and a stint in the military, Francis was drawn to reflect on the purpose of his life until one day he got a message from Christ while praying in a broken down church in Italy. It said “repair my falling house”. And that he did-- by selling a bale of fine silk he took from his father’s warehouse to pay for the repairs. This led to a huge argument with his father in public at which his father disinherited and disowned him and some say, Francis renounced his father’s wealth—and all wealth—by taking off his fine, expensive clothes, laying them at his father’s feet, and walking away naked to devote himself to the poor!  This gives a little glimpse of the passion and radical nature of Francis for the poor.  He steered clear of all money from that point on, yet he continued serving God. He repaired the Church of San Damiano by begging for useless stones from farmers and repairing it himself. He got his food by scrounging in trash-bins for discarded vegetables and working daily with food as his pay.  He put himself in danger of infection and leprosy as he cared for, fed, bathed, and kissed the lepers. There isn’t too much romantic about the rawness of how Francis lived, yet many started following him once there was an Order of Friars established, but few could keep up with his standard of dedication to the poor. One more thing that St. Francis did that was unique – he reached out to Muslims and befriended and proclaimed the Gospel to the Sultan during a time of war between Christians and Moslems. He even drew up an armistice between the two warring sides and got the Sultan to agree to sign it; however, Christian leaders would not sign it. A few years before his death, his order spilt into two segments: those who held a limited amount of property in common and those who refused all property. And it is sad that one century after St. Francis of Assisi began living his life of dedication by holding no property, several of those in his order to live like he did (holding no property) were called heretics by those who held common property and burned at the stake in Marseilles, France.

              What has the live and witness of St .Francis offered to teach us spiritually today? First, that spirituality has everything to do with how we live. Second, that it also has everything to do with how we treat the poor, the sick who most fear, and those from other religious beliefs. But even more so, St. Francis found inner peace and rest to the soul by living out his call to ministry daily.  How was he able to do this when his life style was so harsh, so dangerous, and so miserable as living with and as the poor or the leper or the peace-maker can be? Only a fool would toss away all—even the small amenities of a decent meal—to be truthful to their call!  But what Francis of Assisi has to teach us is that he did not find misery, but joy; he did not find anxiety, but rest for his soul. REST FOR THE SOUL COMES WHEN WE TAKE ON THE YOKE OF CHRIST AND OUR BURDEN OF THE DAY SUDDENLY FEELS LIGHT—OR LIGHTER. The Yoke of Christ demands lowliness of heart, obedience to the unselfish life style of Christ, and sincere effort.  It is this yoke we are called to take on and it is this yoke which leads to rest for the soul – a sort of inner peace—knowing that God is in charge and we are simply using our hands, feet, and heart to do the work of Christ.  The bottom line that St. Francis teaches us is that: IN GOD ALONE  CAN OUR SOULS FIND REST.  And for many of us a sort of reverse might be true, it is in our daily living and dedication to the poor, the sick, the miserable, and/or peace making that we find God and our restless hearts are at home.  For those engaged in the hard work of caring for the sick or human services or social ministry or peace-making or helping the poor and suffering, it is important to remember that your souls find rest only by remembering that that God is in charge and we are simply channels of mercy through which God’s love is passed. That was a key to the survival of St. Francis.

              The words of Hymn 593 – Lord make us servants of your peace sum up the prayer of St. Francis and the theme of the Gospel of Matthew.  Just take a moment to digest the words of this hymn which follow the spirit of the Prayer of St. Francis so well. 

HYMN

 Lord, make us servants of your peace;

where there is hate, may we sow love;

Where there is hurt, may we forgive;

where there is strife, may we make one.

Where all is doubt, may we sow faith;

where all is gloom, may we sow hope;

Where all is night, may we sow light;

where all is tears, may we sow joy.

Jesus, our Lord, may we not seek

 to be consoled, but to console,

Nor look to understanding hearts,

 but look for hearts to understand.

May we not look for love’s return,

but seek to love unselfishly,

for in our giving we receive,

and in forgiving are forgiven.

Dying, we live, and are reborn

through death’s dark night to endless day;

Lord, make us servants of your peace,

to wake at last in heaven’s light.

Words by James Quinn (b. 1919) based on prayer Francis of Assisi

Music: Dickinson College, Lee Hastings Bristol, Jr. (1923-1979)

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI        

September 28, 2008                    Pentecost XX  Proper 21

Exodus 17:1-7   Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16   Philippians 2:1-13    Matthew 21: 23-32

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

The stench was strong in the air. The vultures and buzzards were perched on posts not far away and some circled above. Not far from where my fellow North American team members stood, we could see a sight that forever has stayed with me. There were men, women, teenagers, and yes, even children, actively engaged in searching for anything that might be of recycled value. Some families specialized in glass; others in cardboard; others in tin cans. Some even fought to get these stinking items first. all worked tirelessly under the head of sun for 12 hours a day in the middle of this large expansive garbage dump. Each time a garbage truck appeared and dumped more garbage, a group of people would run over and begin their search.

    We met one of them, Jose, a refugee from El Salvador who had escaped his country to avoid being killed by his own military for refusing to kill fellow villagers. All of those who worked “el dumpe” came with the sunrise and stayed until it set. It was dangerous work, not only because of the disease it posed but because as the garbage degraded methane gas grew under it and sometimes it would explode and kill whoever was nearby.

              GLOBAL POVERTY HAS A HUMAN FACE. Most people in the developing world work extremely hard for very little. Some only make $1 per day. Some work in dumps; others have jobs in sweat factories; others work in the home tirelessly and receive no pay; and others in factories, like Marta.  Marta, is a young mother in Guatemala, whose economic stress is so intense that she weeps when she tried to explain her dilemma: she has work but her pay isn’t enough to pay for her transportation, child care, and food. She must choose and it is often her own food that is neglected. She doesn’t know how she will be able to survive as the price of food increases---even a simple loaf of bread has gone up.

¼ of all children in developing countries are underweight or at risk of long term effects of undernourishment (because of lack of food)

2/3 of employed women in developing world are in vulnerable or unsafe jobs

2.5 billion people in the developing world (50% of developing world) live without improved sanitation.

         GLOBAL POVERTY HAS A HUMAN FACE. WHAT IS OUR CHURCH DOING?

         In Zimbabwe, I ride on a local bus that has seats made of wood and a leaking roof.  As water begins to seep down from the roof, a fellow passenger flashes a smile at me and soon opens his umbrella to shield both of us. I tell her that I am on my way to the Mozambique border to visit Bonda, a mission run by Anglican Sisters. She then invites me to come to her place and see the orphanage she just began. It won’t be the first time I receive such an invitation because orphans are a growing group in Zimbabwe. Soon I would learn why this is so. When I arrive at the mission, the sisters greet me and give me a tour. It’s then that I see THEIR orphanage of about 12 babies and toddlers as well as another dozen youth and teens. They are all happy and active. The Sisters tell me that their mission work started as a hospital but as the AIDS virus began to spread, more and more of their patients were parents with children who were left behind when they died. Some of the children, themselves, have HIV. The Sisters are worried. They look tired. It is becoming more expensive and more difficult to keep up with raising so many children they are inheriting. Cloth diapers have to be washed by hand. Babies have to be held and fed. They saw no end in sight but rather a growth of more to come. All they can do is put their hands in God and continue responding to the need that is ever present around them. My visit was in 1998. I wonder what it must be like now after so many years of whole families being wiped out by HIV.

              GLOBAL POVERTY HAS A HUMAN FACE. SOMETIMES IT IS THE FACE OF A MAN AND SOMETIMES THE FACE OF A WOMAN AND MOST TYPICALLY THE FACE OF A CHILD.

               This would all be good news if the rest of the world simply turned their head in apathy or frustration or resistance to do anything about this. But it hasn’t. With the arrival and implementation of the MDGs, there is good news.  Some progress has been made in 8 years. 

Primary School Education:

• In all but two regions, primary school enrolment is at least 90 per cent; The proportion of children in developing countries who have completed primary education rose from 79\ per cent in 1999 to 85 per cent in 2006

              The gender parity index in primary education is 95 per cent or higher in six regions; however, despite impressive gains, girls account for 55 per cent of the out-of-school population.  

Child Mortality & Hunger

• In the last 8 years, deaths from measles fell because about 80 per cent of children in developing countries now receive a measles vaccine. The proportion of children under five who are undernourished declined from 33 per cent in 1990 to 26 per cent in 2006.

HIV/AIDS

Every day, nearly 7,500 people become infected with HIV and 5,500 die from AIDS, mostly due to a lack of HIV prevention and treatment services. Despite these staggering numbers, some encouraging developments have sparked small victories in the battle against AIDS. Thanks to improvements in prevention programmers, the number of people newly infected with HIV declined from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007. And with the expansion of antiretroviral treatment services, the number of people who die from AIDS has started to decline, from 2.2 million in 2005 to 2.0 million in 2007. The vast majority of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa. And women outnumber men in contracting it.  

• The number of deaths from AIDS fell from 2.2 million in 2005 to 2.0

million in 2007, and the number of people newly infected declined from 3.0 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007; 

Water & Sanitation

• Some 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water since 1990;

• The use of ozone-depleting substances has been almost eliminated and this has contributed to the effort to reduce global warming;

• The private sector has increased the availability of some critical essential drugs and rapidly spread mobile phone technology throughout the developing world.

 Since 1990, 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe water.   In 2006, an improved drinking water source was available to 96 per cent of the urban population in developing regions, but only 78 per cent of rural inhabitants.  

 SUMMARY

The goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015 is still possible. At the midway mark, important progress has been made towards all 8 goals, but we face new challenges that can slow down the good efforts we have made: an uncertain global economic future, a food security crisis, global warming, and the continual spread of HIV. The national Episcopal Church and our own Diocese of Rhode Island have passed resolutions urging us to contribute at least .7% (.007) of our annual budgets to fund international development programs of our choosing. There are many good options in folders published by Episcopal Relief and Development, Church World Service, and mission projects you may already know. I have done some calculations to help you. For someone making $150 week in take-home pay, .7% would be $1 per week. For someone with take-home pay of $1,000 per month, it would only be $7. Each of our parishes need to commit to being part of the MDG process. We could do this in our own parish with its annual budget of $110,000 for only $14 per week. If every person attending gave at least quarter each week, we could easily reach our goal of $14. An extra quarter a week could prevent thousands of children from dying before they reached age 5 or it could help prevent HIV from being spread through community education and condoms. By joining our resources together with the commitment to live out the love of Christ extended to all, we can change the global face of poverty from one of misery and tears to justice and dignity.  Let’s join together as followers of Christ and be part of this change.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI    

September 21, 2008           Pentecost IX  Proper 20

Exodus 16:2-15      Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45   Philippians 1: 21-30     Matthew 20: 1-16

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                        SERMON:

            Today’s Gospel according to Matthew ends with one of the most frequent quotes in our everyday life.  How many times do we use it jokingly or as a sign of good will when we choose it?  You are standing in line but somehow someone who just entered gets served before you. So you comment to others near you in line, “Oh, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”  Or you want to do something nice for someone else so you let them go ahead of you saying, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

         We readily sling around this quote or joke with it, but in truth in our democratic culture which is based on the dream of everyone having the same rights and treated equally; understanding the theological lesson behind this little quote is probably the most difficult thing in the world for us. This little quote challenges us to suspend our notion of “justice” and accept that of God’s.  God’s justice is the incomprehensible love of God.  God’s justice is mercy given freely no matter when in our life we turn to God.  God’s justice is based on our need and God’s grace, not on any rule of fairness or equality or individual rights. God’s justice, mercy, and grace can be incomprehensible from a democratic and individual rights perspective.

         We see examples of God’s mercy throughout scripture, In fact, the story of the escape from captivity and journey to a new land by people of Israel at written in Exodus is just full of examples of God’s mercy. In our reading today, despite the grumbling and moaning of those who have escaped through God’s grace, God sends them an abundance of manna/bread. God’s justice, not probably ours! Think of it. When someone you have cared for grumbled and bemoaned how much you weren’t doing for them, did you want to give them an abundance of what you had already given them?   There are 4 stories that most come to mind for me of God’s justice found in the New Testament. First is the story of the lost sheep. A shepherd whose job it is to protect his or her cargo “sheep” leaves 99 of them alone to seek out one that is lost. It seems that without this one sheep, the shepherd’s flock doesn’t feel complete. This is a story with a twist because no shepherd who cared about the bottom line –the money he/she would get for each sheep—would risk endangering so many for one wandering lamb who should have known better in the first place. But this is God’s justice and God’s viewpoint, not ours.

        The second is the story in Gospel of Luke only of the last minutes of Jesus’ life as he is executed by the state. As he is dying on the cross, a “criminal” on the cross to his right grasps and accepts the love he offers and makes a simple request: “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom?” And what is the response of Jesus:  Too little to late?  or Where were you all these years? or Now you want to be saved? What about all the warnings God gave you before this?  NO!  The response of Jesus is to offer love, mercy, forgiveness, and welcome him into the kingdom. God’s justice is not our justice!

        Then there is the well known story of the Prodigal son who wastes the inheritance his father gives him to follow the fast life – wine, women, and fancy cars! (well they didn’t have fancy cars 2,000 years ago but I’m sure he chased something equivalent to consume all of his money.) When he finally gets so desperate that he returns home, his father not only runs to welcome him but throws a party and showers him abundantly with expensive gifts. God’s justice IS incomprehensible.

       And today we have the story of the landowner and the workers. The workers who he gets latest in the day get the same pay as those who begin earlier in the day. It is this parable that really tests our acceptance of God’s justice. The fact that someone who worked 3 hours gets the same pay as someone who worked 9 hours breaks the rules of equity and fairness, besides labor laws of our days. How can this be justice? How can this be part of God’s justice?  But better yet, why does it grate on us? Maybe it is because WORK HOURS—taken from our industrial ways as a nation—are so much part of our way to value what we do. Maybe it is because we are paying attention to individual effort of the worker or the son, rather than God’s grace. Remember the brother of the prodigal son and how furious he became for the abundance of things that his father showered on his brother who had obviously squandered his money because of no work effort. If you believe as American culture teaches that it is through your own individual effort that you are where you are in life, then you too will definitely identify with the prodigal son’s brother. And you will also no doubt identify with the workers in our parable today who were hired earliest in the day.

        But God’s justice and mercy is NOT based on our works or number of hours we put in. IT IS BASED ON OUR NEED, OUR SINCERITY OF HEART IN COMING TO HIM, AND HIS IMMEASURABLE LOVE.  This is God’s “bottom line”.  It doesn’t fit well at all within capitalism, labor unions, or democracy.  But perhaps through the eyes of God’s justice and love, the sincerity of heart and the need for help which the last worker and Prodigal Son brought to the table deserved a free gift of love.  The worker must have been very hungry and desperate. He stayed and waited until work was offered. He was paid, not on the basis of the length of work but on the amount of need he had and the sincerity of heart he brought.  The same for the repentant thief on the cross. The same for the Prodigal Son.

              And the same for us. It is not the quantity of our service (although this is nice to do) or the moral life we have led (although this is also loved by God) or how well we have followed the laws of the land (although we need to do this to live decently), IT IS THE SINCERITY OF OUR HEART IN REACHING OUT TO CHRIST, OUR NEED FOR A MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR CREATOR, AND THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE AND VAST LOVE OF GOD that IS KEY. It is God’s grace—pure and simple. 

            We need to be careful about one little thing here. God is not against good works and service and moral and right living. God is delighted with this because it should be a natural consequence of our relationship with God, but because God’s justice puts need, repentance, and sincerity of heart over works, hours, or years of service.

September 14, 2008                                     Holy Cross Day

 Numbers 21: 4b-9    Psalm 98:1-5    1 Corinthians 1:18-24     John 3: 13-17

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge     

       We wear the cross. We make the sign of the cross. We process in with the cross. We place the cross behind our altar or above it. We stitch crosses   on our vestments and altar linen.  We say the Stations of the Cross during Lent.  We give our loved ones crosses for Baptism. We place a simple hand made wooden cross in the spotlight during Lent and through Easter and drape silk over its arms. We use crosses of many different types. Some have the wounded, bleeding body of Jesus on them. Others have nothing. Some are surrounded by a circle to replicate unity. Others are webbed with other Greek symbols.  Some are almost square and others have a long lanky symbol. Some are ornamental and highly decorated and others are 2 simple pieces of wood. Some are hand made and others are woven or metal or even straw.

        The cross – is one of the most important symbols of Christianity. It is the icon of our faith. It is uniquely the icon of our faith and not that of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or any faith I can think of.  The cross – a political symbol of Roman times because it is how those who opposed the state or rebelled were killed openly and publicly, often low to the ground so that the birds and other animals would come and eat at the flesh of those being crucified. This vile, horrible instrument of state killing is OUR symbol. And today we celebrate the holiness of this symbol.  An atheist once asked me why I wore a symbol of state murder around my neck and close to my chest. Would I wear a symbol of the electric chair as well and feel so happy about it?  It does make us pause to think about it a bit. I have thought about it a great deal and I’m grateful for the question because it helped me question and clarify why exactly I think we Christians value the cross so much. 

              We stand at the foot of the cross with Mary, mother of Jesus. Full of sorrow at the awareness that the one in which we placed our hope has been taken from us. The hope for a world based on humility over arrogance and pride; of servant hood over domination; of love over violence and coercion; of lifting up the poor and downtrodden over leaving them behind in their misery--- that hope has been dashed and smashed by evil, pride, domination, and violence. We weep for the one we love and for loss of our hope in a new world, a new way of living out life. We walk away with the disciples in fear, distrust, and disbelief. We are confused and lost. Our meaning has been ripped from us and we are left with the silent, hopeless, desolate future of misery. We are left with the guilt that we didn’t do enough to stand up to the forces of evil. It is our fault. We condemn ourselves. We are left no longer believing that good can conquer evil, but just the opposite.

          AND THEN WE ENCOUNTER THE LIVING RESURRECTED JESUS IN OUR PRESENCE. We are invited to be part of eternal kingdom building. We are given the Good News of the resurrected and living Jesus who walks and talks with us each day. And we are once again transformed inside out. We are given forgiveness for our own mistakes and weak moments—our imperfections.  We enter into the mystery of the resurrection and now know that LIFE TRUMPS DEATH.  And here is the answer to my atheist friend’s question: the cross is transformed from a symbol of death and destruction from a symbol of taking the hope of a new future from us into just the opposite. It is a symbol that death has been conquered and so has our sinful nature. We glory in the cross of Christ over ages. And we know as a verse of one of the most well-known hymns we know reminds us that the cross will never forsake us because it now represents the Good news of our liberation and Good News of our forgiveness and eternal presence of Jesus Christ in our lives and those who come after us.

V. 2  When the woes of life o-er take me, hopes deceive and fears annoy, never shall the cross forsake me; lo, it glows with peace and joy.

And so do we as we wear and carry and plant and pass on our crosses in all their shapes, forms, and sizes.

For this I am grateful.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI    

September 7, 2008             Pentecost XVII  Proper 18

Exodus 12:1-14      Psalm 149   Romans 13:8-14       Matthew 18: 15-20

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                        SERMON:

              It’s hurricane season again. Last week as I watched the long lines of cars headed out of New Orleans in a massive evacuation, I wondered how much emotional strain the entire city must have been in. Many having lost everything the last time and now not knowing what would happen to what they had restored or built up or managed to save from before.  When faced with a sudden need to evacuate with another uncertain future of what would happen to what was left behind, what did these families choose to take with them?  What was so precious to them that it couldn’t be left behind? 

         The people of Israel had to make a similar choice for the opposite reason. They had been praying for their freedom and liberation from slavery for years and years and now that it was coming, they had only hours or minutes to decide what they would take with them that would still allow them to escape?

         And so it goes in our lives that when we are faced with an uncertain future or even a certain end, our key priorities and values get quickly defined. These times may be the test of what is really important to us, or should be. They are defining times and times that actually liberate us by digging deep inside of us and reminding us of our core values and beliefs.  Thursday will be the 7th year of that horrible day in U.S. history, September 11, 2001. If you remember back to that day as the raw truth of tragedy and misery began to unfold—those images over and over of the twin towers collapsing and people running bloody and shaken up, I am sure that you will be able to remember exactly where you were when you learned about what had happened. Do you remember what you did that day? Or what your own thoughts were about your own loved ones, even though they might have been far from the places of attack? What was most important to you during that day of disaster and confusion?  I remember I had a strong need to contact my children to make sure they were o.k. and to tell them that I loved them.  My daughter lived in Virginia at that time and traveled daily not far from the Pentagon. I needed to hear her voice on the phone and until that moment, I couldn’t concentrate well.  From 8:30 am until 6pm on Sept. 11, 2001, I went from inmate to inmate to check on how they were doing and I heard many stories about who was precious to them and how much they cared about them. I heard stories of guilt and confessions that were prompted by getting closer to what was dear to their heart and their struggles.

               I remember that our attendance at the church I was serving increased by 20-30 per cent during those days as people began to seek some help in defining their values or they just wanted to gather together for comfort and direction. Church and God became a greater priority for them.

              When we are faced with our end or disaster or an uncertain future, what is important to us becomes clear, heightened, and precious in ways we may have taken for granted or never stated before. So many stories came out of the 9/11 tragedy that relived this principle.  I remember the man trapped in the garage of the building who talked with his wife elsewhere on the cell phone until the battery died. When his wife was asked what they talked about, her response was: all the things we should have said long before!

              The early Christians were also faced with a deadline, an expected end. They expected Christ to return within their life time and to end the world. They lived with the anticipation and tension of this expectation. In today’s letter to the Romans, St. Paul is reminding those who lost sight of this that they need to change and get their priorities straight. It’s important to know the context of his writing since it helps us understand that he is laying out to them and to us what is the essence of Christianity. The most precious action of being Christian is to “love your neighbor as yourself”.  Despite all the other things that might be quoted from the many lines in the New Testament, the one that is most comprehensive, most precious, and tops all others is: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELF. And if there is any doubt about what that means, Paul defines it in a negative way that, for us, can simply be: DO NO WRONG TO YOUR NEIBHOR. Do no wrong. That is what the most precious aspect of Christianity: Do NO Wrong to another.  In some ways, I think this makes more sense and is clear on guiding us. If we could claim that we did no wrong to another, we would be close to following the one who loved us beyond measure. Do no wrong to another – don’t insult another. Don’t ridicule them even if they did it to you. Do not offend another even though you are hurt by what they said or did to you. Do not harm them behind their backs by demeaning them or speaking about them or dehumanizing them. Do no harm to another.  
              Our spiritual lives can be cleansed and liberated by weeding out what is less precious, less priority, and less of Jesus Christ in our lives as we rediscover what is important to us.  We don’t need to wait until there’s a national disaster or mass evacuation or death of someone dear to us. The process of sorting through our real priorities, and then living our lives in the light of those priorities, can happen any time.  In today’s lesson from the book of Romans, St. Paul invites us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” by living out the greatest priority of all: Love your neighbor as yourself. Do no harm to your neighbor.  This is the trump card in the cards of a Christian life. No matter what parts of the Bible are quoted to serve an agenda nor what secular laws urge us to put over this or what patriotic lines we here, the bottom line for we Christians is  simple one which is a lot less easy to put into practice: Do no harm to another. Love them as you would yourself.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI    

August 31,  2008                Pentecost XVI   Proper 17

Exodus 3:1-15      Psalm 105:1-6,23-16   Romans 12:9-21   Matthew 16: 21-28

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                        SERMON:

               Carrie, a 30 year old articulate woman, seemed rather happy and well-rounded. She had a pleasant and engaging smile and her spirit was open and clear.  But what I didn’t know until we began our class on emotional awareness was that she carried a heavy burden. It kept her from resolving her grief and loss. Carrie’s younger brother, Joe, who was a student at a nearby college and only 23 years old, had been shot and killed as he crossed the street on the way to college. Carrie held on to anger and her spirit was poisoned by her desire to see this evil repayed somehow by the criminal justice system. Like a backpack full of bricks, Carrie was stuck emotionally. She was angry and bitter and sad and sometimes just hoped for the destruction of whoever did this. Yet Carrie’s dad, a Christian man, forgave the person.

       Carrie reminds me of a little of each of us. We carry backpacks full of bricks on our back everyplace we go when we can’t find a way to not only forgive our enemies but to love them. St. Paul reminds us today of the mandate we have as Christians:

Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

        This is one of the most difficult mandates—perhaps even more difficult than loving our neighbor, unless our neighbor has become our “enemy”. But to much is given and much is required.  Jesus’ death on the cross and his nonviolent ways have been given to us out of tremendous love. In accepting that love and grace, we are in turn to share it with everyone – especially those who persecute us.

         St. Paul knew a lot about persecution. He had persecuted Christians very vigorously for a cause he believed in until one day something dramatically changed in his life and took that burden and hatred off his shoulders. He grasped the idea of love and repaying those who opposed him with goodness and love rather than violence and hatred. He became a follower of the one who practiced this the most. And that’s the person we have chosen to follow. That’s why we gather her Sunday after Sunday to try to learn the meaning of Christ’s ministry and what it calls us to do in out lives.

              One day Carrie informed me that they had caught the person responsible for killing her brother. It was a 16 year old kid who in seeking to get even for the killing of his friend, shot at the wrong person—her brother. And all of sudden the huge monster who her enemy had become shrunk. The taste of the revenge, or what we commonly refer to as “justice” which she so hungered for had turned into a tragic loss of two sons for two fathers who never knew each other. How easy it is for us to make our enemies out to be purely evil or as huge monsters and forget the level of evil that is within us as well which God forgives. Carrie was an inmate I worked with who did 15 years in prison.

           When I think of evil, I remember that old Native American story which you may have heard about a young boy who tells his wise grandfather that it feels like he has two wolves inside of himself: one who seeks to choose the positive and to love others and another that succumbs to temptation and ends of choosing the negative and selfish choice. The boy asks the elder: Which wolf will win? And the elder responds: the one you feed. 

              When we are confronted with evil or persecuted, how are we to respond as Christians?  We have all heard the quote from Luke 6: 29, “When someone slaps you on one cheek, turn and give them the other; when someone takes our coat, let him you’re your shirt as well.” Unfortunately, this has been taken to mean that we should let people brutalize or abuse us. I can’t believe that a God would love us less than violence or that we are asked to relive what Jesus lived out once and for all for us.  It’s a shame that we don’t quote what precedes the ‘turn the other cheek’ part of scripture. Luke quotes Jesus as saying: “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you.”  This is the hard work of Christianity. It is spiritual work. It is the work of remembering the evil act or the persecution you are enduring or have endured but not holding on to it and not wishing and longing to repay it

 It means not being overcome by the evil which has harmed you or someone you love and care about.  Perhaps the only way to overcome evil with good is through prayer to change our own hearts to see the humanity in the one we now call our enemy. When Carrie thought of her enemy who killed her brother, I am sure she never thought of a teenager but rather a hardened criminal or gang member. Even though Carrie, herself is doing a long sentence in prison, I bet she never thought of her brother’s killer as someone who could have been like the brother she loved when he was a teenager.

         It is easy to love those we know and care about. It is easy to love those who have treated us well and shown us love and care. The real test of Christianity comes when we are faced with someone we don’t know or who hasn’t loved or cared for us or worst of all—someone who has sought to do us harm or has done us or someone we love harm. Heaven forbid! Now we are talking enemy or war or retaliation. Or at least we are hoping for that they get their “just rewards” or maybe we just pity them and pray for God to judge them as they deserve. But in raw honesty, this is NOT what St. Paul says that Christianity is about. The task is much more difficult than that and yet that task is also our inner freedom to live whole and clean. An unforgiving spirit is one of the most deadly enemies of our emotional and spiritual health. The more we seek that harm come to those who harm, the more we add bricks to our backpack and the heavier it becomes to our very own spirit, until one day we have become the “enemy” we despise.

        We are called to feed the wolf of love and to stop feeding the wolf within us that hopes for harm to come to the other. We are called to feed the wolf of goodness, not the one of revenge. In fact we are called as Christians to desire the well being of another and to pray for their well being.  If we truly love our enemy then we should be hoping and praying for a day when that person is not our enemy at all, but our brother or sister in the truth.  This is the only way we can not be overcome by evil ourselves. This is the way in which we can seek to overcome evil with good. We are replacing a system of tit for tat with a system of striving for goodness for all. That is being like Jesus. In practicing love and forgiveness to all, we are living out the reality of Christ’s love to the world.  I want to make clear that praying for those who harm us does not mean leaving ourselves open to continually being harmed.  Sometimes the best we can do is to not enter into the conflict or not add fuel to the flame or just get out of the harmful situation. Abuse is never supported by a God of love. But at the same time, we are exhorted here by Paul to not hold grudges, to not hope for harm to come to our abuser, and to go the extra mile by praying actively for good to come to them. 

        I believe we have many examples of the call to love our enemies in our daily world. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop Tutu, and Archbishop Romero of El Salvador would be three of the most famous I can think of. However, I would like to leave us with a powerful contemporary example of a community of very humble followers of Christ. About a year ago, a disgruntled and unstable man took a small elementary school full of children hostage in Amish country in Pennsylvania. He ended up killing a couple of the children. It was a horrendous act. It was an unforgivable act. The children were the epitome of innocence and so was this peaceful, serene countryside of Amish folk. Most of us hearing about this were outraged and disgusted by the heinous act. I am sure the hearts of the parents and the entire Amish community were wrenching from sorrow since the children are raised by all communally. The murders were like many we know in the world today--senseless and undeserved for any reason. And I am not using this story to justify any acts of violence or harm be they physical or emotional against anyone. But what I will never forget and what the world had a very hard time grasping was to hear the elders or even parents openly forgive this man who did this on camera. The reporters were so stunned they switched quickly away from them and many just looked at these Amish farmers as naïve, dumb, not in the real world. I can’t even now grasp the level of love and grace they were able to touch while mourning their beloved little ones, but I will always remember that they offered to the media and each of us watching them a true example of what it means to feed the positive and loving wolf rather than the negative and hateful one. They seemed like a true metaphor of living out the call that Christ gave to us to love those who hate or harm us.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

August 24,  2008                 Pentecost XV   Proper 16

Exodus 1:8 – 2:10    Romans 12: 1-8     Matthew 16: 13-20

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest                                                

                                                        SERMON:

           Two simple midwives, Shiprah and Puah, find a way to openly resist the order given to them by Pharaoh to kill male Hebrew babies when they are born. They fail at his command and when called to the carpet for their disobedience by an angered Pharaoh, they use an excuse that speaks to his racist understanding of the Hebrews. They tell him that the Hebrew mothers deliver so fast that they give birth before they can get to them. The writer tells us “because they feared God”.  They chose to follow the call of God to life over death rather than Pharaoh. even though they could have been heavily punished for their civil disobedience.

             A mother who seeks to protect her baby from the grip of death ordered by a fierce and powerful political ruler dreams up a scheme with her daughter to turn his evil plan on its head and at the same time save her beloved baby.

      . And it was because the mother of Moses would not take death as an option that she and her sister dreamed up a plan to float him by the Pharaoh’s daughter and try to get help from the very place that was ordered to kill him. How clever! It only worked because Pharaoh’s daughter –who knew that this was a Hebrew baby boy, the very one her dad wanted to destroy, followed her conscience and stood for life over death. She risked her Dad’s anger and rejection in bringing into his house the very symbol of what he determined he needed to kill. All of a sudden a cruel, dehumanizing policy against a people was reduced to a cute, tiny little baby with a face and a body that made it so much easier to destroy.

      Pharaoh’s daughter also chose to disobey her father. She opted to obey her conscience over family authority. Consequently, the scheme worked and ironically, Moses was rescued in the same waters he was supposed to be killed in and he, a Hebrew child, and his family become guests and part of Pharaoh’s family. This might not have happened without the willingness of Pharaoh’s daughter to see not the ethnicity of the baby or the faceless policy of her father, but rather LIFE in the form of a cute, little, innocent baby with a face and a body.  In these incarnational moments, Shiprah and Puah, Miriam and her mom, and Pharaoh’s daughter were able to see and value life more than their own comfort, security, or fear of rejection. The God of LIFE speaks to their hearts and the evil of genocide is interrupted.

          I have a moving video tape called “The Courage to Fear” which was done post-World War II. It is a series of testimonies of French and Dutch citizens who hid Jewish families and people during the Nazi era at the risk of their own death. One woman is asked what gave her courage to be so fearless. She replies that she always feared, but she acted anyway because in a prior moment when she saw dozens of Jewish children taken off in a truck, she did nothing. She later opted to hide Jews because she could not live with herself if she did nothing. Gandhi was famous for saying: “All it takes for evil to grow in this world is for “good people” to do nothing.”  One of the critical elements of following a God of love and life is that  WE  (our souls) are affected as much as the others involved. Maybe this is what motivated Shiprah and Puah and Pharaoh’s daughter. Who knows? But it is our challenge when faced with a duty or command to do what we know is in conflict with a God of love and life. It is what motivated me to gather an ecumenical group of laity and clergy to ask what we could do to address the high number of deaths among women released from prison and the high return rate to prison of 60-70 per cent, even though I had been warned by authorities inside prison and even my own Bishop to stop helping those released from prison. 

         When is it o.k. to be openly disobedient to our parents, our supervisor or someone in higher authority in your life?  When are we called to make waves by following the God who loves life? For we Christians, when are we called to follow in our Master’s path of continuing to share a message of “renewing our minds” and standing for peace, nonviolence even at the cost of our lives. At some point in our lives, we find ourselves confronted with the dilemma: to do what is expected or even commanded of us by an authority who clearly has power over us or to RESIST and do something else. In our case, it may not be a matter or life or death but it is a matter of conscience and I would contend it is a matter of whose God we follow: the God of life or the god of personal safety or comfort. And what is at stake is who we follow and who we say and act that our living God is. Who do WE say that Christ is? Where does our conscience call us to go? It doesn’t take courage to get there, just a strong love of God and the courage to fear—to do what we know is right for our own soul’s sake.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

August 17,  2008                 Pentecost XIV   Proper 15

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest                                                

                                                        SERMON:

              Do you remember Joseph and the coat of many colors? His brothers plotted and planned to kill him because they were so jealous and envious of the attention he got from his dad, Jacob, because he was born to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. Well, I have a question for Joseph.  In fact, I have several questions for Joseph.

QUESTION:  Joseph, after your older brothers plotted and planned to kill you and your older brother Reuben was able to convince them instead to dump you into a cistern somewhere on their journey, how could you ever forgive your brothers? When, instead of caring for you as they promised your dad, they sold you into slavery and then took your multicolored coat and dipped it in lamb’s blood to convince your dad that you were dead,  why did you not turn cynical about “family values” of any kind? When you moved from being a slave to being in prison to becoming famous for interpreting dreams for the king and gained much power and influence in Egypt, why did you not just stop caring to ever see your brothers again? And when they came to you out of misery and famine looking for food, why did you not take the chance you had to take revenge for the hatred and ill-will they had shown you as a youngster? And above all I want to know why did you weep so when you told them who you were “It is Joseph. I am Joseph” and saw their dumbstruck look on their faces? Didn’t you enjoy that “gotcha” moment? How could you forgive the very people who attempted to murder you!—even if they were “family”?  You were just 17 and they were grown men at the time. Why not arrest them for attempted murder and rescue your father and younger brother, Benjamin?

              These are my questions for Joseph because in real life these are common reaction in families for much less grave offenses than slave trading. I remember one time that one of my sisters whose husband is a farmer would not talk to my mom for months because my mom allowed my brother to farm a part of the land owned by my grandfather when he passed away. Even though my brother-in-law OWNED over 450 acres of land and my brother owned none, my sister was offended that he was not given my grandfather’s little bit of land of 80 acres to farm!

              Families are great breeding grounds for dispute, envy, and jealousy. Joseph’s family is an extreme metaphor for what many of us experience in our own families or our parish family or the wider church family. So the questions I raise to Joseph also apply to us.

        What motivated Joseph to love in the face of hate? What led him forgive rather than be revengeful or rebellious or cynical or discouraged by the evil perpetrated against him by the very ones who were supposed to love and support him? We could say that maybe he was more saintly than most of us or had more moral fiber. We could say that this is just a story that was made up to make a point and Joseph wasn’t real. We could say that in those days to be cut off from your family roots was unbearable and he was eager to do pretty much anything to reconnect to those. But these are not the things that seem to have driven Joseph to forgive his brothers.

              Joseph tells us in his own words:  It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you. God sent me on ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.  And later after Jacob, his father dies, and his brothers fear criminal prosecution from Joseph, he once again forgives them saying:  Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of may people.  

              Joseph was able to love in the face of hate because he saw broader and deeper than his own circumstance. He trusted deeply in God and God’s purpose for him even though he didn’t know or plan out that purpose. He trusted that God had a plan of deliverance and that he was to play some role in that plan. God’s plan of salvation is bigger than any one of us yet we have a role to play in it. God’s plan of salvation is a mighty play and we have a purpose and a role in that play even though we may not know what it is. Joseph was able to believe in God’s mind and God’s world beyond his own—even in those moments when it didn’t make sense.

              We are invited to do this too. WE are invited to see beyond where we can see and go beyond where we think we can and live out the purpose that God intends for us, which may change from time to time. If it all sounds confusing and beyond our grasp, it is. Jesus Christ has done the work of reconciliation for us and our task is simply to accept that love and simply seek the light of Christ in our lives and follow it—wherever it leads us. Follow the yellow brick road, Dorothy says.  Follow the light of God’s plan for the world as Joseph did and who knows where it will take you. Maybe to enlarge you view of your purpose and the world. Maybe to seriously accept that each of us have a role in God’s plan of salvation—God’s providence. And maybe even to forgive a family member or two as Joseph did with flowing tears and joy and grace.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

August 10,  2008                 Pentecost XIII   Proper 14

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest                                                

                                                        SERMON:

Children’s sermon:

 Point:  Peter’s eyes were partly on storm and partly on Christ

            more he looked at the storm & god distracted from Christ, more he sunk

Theological point: in times of difficulty, we need to keep our eyes on Christ, not on the troubles because with Christ we won’t sink

===================

Plan:

1.  There’s something big going on in one part of the world. Does any one know what it is?  I’ll give you some hints.  (volley ball, swimming, soccer – motions)

              Another hint:  it’s in China.

YES; THE OLYMPICS.

2.  I wonder what it’s like to compete. What does it take?

              --- lots of practice; hard work; consistency;

              --concentration ---- paying attention, FOCUS, 

3.  Today in our story, Peter had trouble paying attention & he sunk in water

4. Reminds me of the story in Gospel today.

   Can you help me act it out?

    Disciples were in a boat, rowing away on lake [2 rowing]

     Jesus on shore  [Jesus walking]

    It’s early in morning and dark  [lights out]

    Wind blew up (woooowoooo)

They were afraid  [fear]

Jesus walks out to boat [on the water]

They think it’s a ghost  [surprise,]

Jesus tells them to calm down. It’s him [calm it]

Peter wants to try walking on the water. He comes toward jesus

Stops looking & trusting Jesus and looks at the wind. 

 and starts to sink

Yells out  LORD SAVE ME

Jesus gives him his hand and they get into the boat

5.  Paying attention to God’s love and remembering to trust in his power is critical.

     If we don’t we sink

Let’s pray to trust in God’s power and love: rescues us from the storms

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI       

July 27,  2008            Pentecost XI   Proper 12

                                                                                                       Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest                   

                                                                           SERMON:

           In one of our most important Christian prayers, we pray “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”  We are praying for the reign of God to come on earth as it already has “in heaven”.  All this talk about heaven and hell seems to lead us to focus on judgment and guessing. I don’t find it very helpful. What if, instead, we were simply to use the language: God’s world?  Then our prayer would be more like: “May God’s world be part of our life on earth.”  What if you were asked to draw a picture of God’s world in your life, what would you draw? We had this task once in a class I took at Maryknoll School of Theology—a Roman Catholic seminary I attended to train us for missions. We were put into small groups and asked to collectively come up with one image of God’s world. In our group was a Korean priest who worked with the poor in Korea and several of us who had lived with the poor in Third World countries. Our image was a huge loaf of broad.  A loaf of bread big enough to feed as many hungry people as possible. Surely God’s world would include providing food for the hungry!     

     In our Gospel from Matthew this morning, Jesus draws a picture of God’s world through parables.  The smallest of seeds yields the largest of trees. A small amount of yeast turns a lot of flour into a large amount of bread.  We don’t have too many mustard trees growing in America but most of us do know about yeast and what the smallest amount of yeast can do to lots of flour.  Have you ever seen the “I love Lucy” episode in which she didn’t quite know this and uses and equal amount of yeast and flour? What a surprise she is given?!!  As the yeast rises and the bread bakes it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bursts out of the oven into the kitchen and living room and she can’t do anything to stop it. It becomes bigger and produces more than she ever could have imagined. Is it possible that Jesus was trying to make this exact point for his followers: God’s world is one which enlarges exponentially the small amount it works with? God’s world is one which breaks into our lives in disarming and powerful ways which we don’t always expect.   The truth might be that God’s world—the kingdom of heaven-- is not so much a place we go or an object, but rather the process of mysterious and powerful things that happen right beneath our eyes – or in our kitchen and living room as in the case of Lucy.

         Could it be that the reign of God or God’s world is breaking into our ordinary, daily world and in the circumstances of our everyday lives? If so, we are called to be prepared for the disarming and unexpected powerful ways in which God’s love and grace are being made visible right here on earth. There is great hope in knowing that the mystery of God literally bursts forth in our ordinary, nitty gritty lives and forces us to pay attention.  When those who have been harmed by another, can forgive and still love the one who harmed: God’s world is breaking in. When one adult takes time to mentor a child who no one has time for because they are overworked by poverty: God’s world is breaking in. When a gay priest who refuses to hide his identity in a closet is so loved for his pastoral care and manner that even a conservative Diocese like New Hampshire elects him as their Bishop despite how disarming it might be to others in the world: God’s disarming world is breaking in.  When those who leave prison with absolutely nothing, but the tank top and pair of shorts they are wearing can find shelter, positive support, spiritual guidance, and social services needed to survive: God’s world is breaking in. When the poor of our community who are burdened more and more each day by diminishing work and resources can find a place where food, a welcome, and a smile are provided: God’s world is breaking in. When a few members of the DeWolf family--one of the richest white families in Rhode Island-- historically can trace their history of actively trading in slaves, put it into a documentary, and then actively encourage others to discuss this blemish of American history: God’s world is breaking in. The hope of the Gospel is with us today. God’s world is bursting forth into our everyday lives, but not in contained, predictable ways—but rather in disarming, powerful, and unexpected ways. It may push us into new directions and new territories. It may be uncomfortable and challenge us to grow in ways we resist. It may seem very off-putting at first, but God’s love has no boundaries and God’s world doesn’t either.  In the Lord’s we pledge to do God’s will to increase the kingdom, to increase the love of Jesus to everyone, but especially to the least, the last, and the lost.  May the grace of God which passes all understanding help us to live out our prayer in our lives:  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

July 20  2008             St. Mary Magdalene (transferred)

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

               Today we celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene, for her outstanding witness, ministry and leadership at the time of Jesus.  All that we really know of Mary of Magdala was that she had “7 demons” and Jesus freed her of these demons when he healed her. She remained devoted to him with a special interest in healing from that point on. It was this relief from her bondage to whatever mental disease she had that made her whole—a new creation in Christ, as St. Paul tells us this morning. Imagine what transforming energy she must have felt moving into this new identity of a whole person loved and supremely important in the eyes of Jesus. She was no longer defined by her disease or who she was, but now through this new spiritual life she was a new person and part of a team of those around Jesus who modeled ministry and witness of his love. This is part of what we really know about Mary of Magdala.  The rest is told in the Gospels.

                According to all the accounts in the 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John), --as we heard just now in our Gospel reading--Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Risen Christ. She passed the message on to the other male apostles who promptly did not believe her. They had to run and see for themselves. Mary Magdalene was not just a woman who happened to show up at the tomb. I think Jesus chose her to be the first witness to the resurrection because of his long standing friendship and relationship with her. She played a key role in his ministry and that of those who followed him. Some have suggested that she was truly “the apostle to the apostles.” She was leader of a group of women who followed and served Jesus from outset of his ministry in Galilee to his death and beyond. She appears in the Gospels more often at every key transition in Jesus’ adult life and her courage and witness exceed Peter and the all the other male apostles. It was Mary Magdalene who stayed at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified; it was her and others in her team who went to the tomb when others had run away out of fear of also being crucified. She wanted Jesus to have a proper burial. And it was Mary Magdalene who out of joy and gratitude who ran to share the good news and witness of his resurrection with the male disciples of Jesus’ team.

  with the disciples (Jesus male team).

         The significance of Mary Magdalene goes beyond her own witness, faithfulness and  ministry—as outstanding as that was. Her story as one of the first female Christian leaders is also our story as Christians today because it reminds us of how much Jesus respected women as whole persons and went well beyond cultural expectations of his day. It upsets the lie that women had a minimal or no role in his ministry. In face, women were not only part of his team, but also a necessary part of his ministry.  In a world in which women were considered property and had no legal rights; in a world in which women were considered possessions, chattel, and material goods, the role of women was transformed by the attitudes and teachings of Jesus.  Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the Risen Christ and she was a woman.   A woman first saw the Risen Christ.  This sends a message about God’s intention: God intends for women to play a central role in ministry in the world.

              So it is rather curious that for centuries Mary Magdalene was painted by the patriarchal church fathers as a “woman of ill repute” who Jesus forgave and extended his love to.  There is no historical evidence in the Bible for this.  For centuries two female witnesses—two Mary’s—were painted and referred to: Virgin Mary—depicted as the innocent, pure, demure, and obedient mother of Jesus. She was the acceptable Mary. Then there was Mary Magdalene—depicted as the fallen, prostitute, messed up woman who was dominated by her evil urges and the antithesis of Virgin Mary. Both images were mostly contrived in the imaginations of the European culture and the church of the time. Actually, if you reflect on this, neither woman was being depicted as a part of the ministry team of Jesus, neither as an on-going, active, independent leader in that ministry. Their identity rested in their past, not their present or future. Their leadership in the early church was depicted from the culture’s point of view, not from God’s point of view.

              We are called as Christians and people of faith to receive and follow God’s point of view. This may seem very simple and clear but agreeing on what God’s point of view is not so simple and clear among many church leaders. If it were, Mary of Magdala would not have been so miss-represented for so many years. Our current struggles to hear one another better and respect the dignity of each other would be making more progress in the church and the Anglican Communion than it appears to be.

              When I was in seminary, I read a lot about the history of the struggle for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. There were two arguments against this I remember clearly. One was the argument and false information that women never played a key role in the ministry of Jesus. Once we deconstruct Mary of Magdala and truly begin to analyze the Gospel, this falls apart. The other argument was that Jesus was a man and therefore only men were to be in leadership in the church or ordained. The second argument is fatal if you are female. But it is also false related to the Gospel as St. Paul reminds us in our beautiful New Testament reading today.  Through Christ we are made a new creation and thus we  not defined by what we did or who we were—but by our new identity of who we are becoming and what Christ has to do with this through grace, love, mercy.  This is God’s point of view designed for all of creation, not just one gender, one race, one nationality, one language group, one sexual orientation.  As you know, in 1974 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church voted to permit the ordination of women after decades of discussion and struggle. The sky did not fall down. The Episcopal Church did not crumble because of our ever presence in seminaries and now as clergy.  Women stepped forward and lived out their role in ordained leadership in the church. The dignity of a few more people was respected, or at least reshaped. I suspect that the same will be true for our current struggles. WHEN WE ARE ONE IN CHRIST, WE ARE A NEW CREATION, FORGIVEN BY GOD AND LOVED FOR WHO WE ARE BECOMING BY CHRIST.

              Respecting the dignity of all persons—our Baptismal covenant and cornerstone here at St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s parish invites each of us to be born and reborn again into part of Christ’s new creation.  It calls us into a new identity of incarnating the love that Jesus showed to all. It means respecting the wholeness, the leadership, and the ministry of all persons—not just those that the culture accepts or defines. Each of us are part of this new identity IN CHRIST as was the first female apostle—Mary Magdalene.  This is the church history we need to remember and to live into today.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

July 6,  2008              Pentecost VIII, Proper 9       

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67   Romans 7:15-25a   Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

              I do the things I do not want to do and I don’t do the things I intend to do.  Sound familiar to anyone?  I really didn’t intend to make that nasty remark to the  driver  who cut me off at the light, but………   I know that I am supposed to love Mr. X unconditionally but I’ve heard bad things about him and I’m afraid to do that……

              This morning we are drawn into the human dilemma which lies within. As once said: We have met the enemy and they are us. By this well known reading from Romans, Paul brings us front and center to what each and every human being who has a moral conscience knows about so well. The power of sin is awesome.  I don’t mean that in a complimentary way but rather in an emphatic way. Paul highlights a war within which we all know: the war between what we know we should do and what we actually do, or what we know we should not do and what we do.  If to us humans, life were as simple that knowledge = action, there would be no struggle with evil, no battle within, and I guess we would either be perfect, numb, or robots.

        In his epistle to the Romans, Paul is addressing “the Law” which in this instance is the same as “the good”.  “The good”, the right thing to do is before him but it is not enough to get him to automatically DO “THE GOOD”.  So at least in this instance, it is not the “Law” that is problematic to Paul nor maybe even his willingness to follow it. Rather it is his sinful flesh. He is highlighting for us a battle within. His sinful flesh refuses to respond to the requirements of God’s Law.

              We all know this battle within. Have you ever tried to stop a habit? Maybe smoking or eating rich and calorie laden foods that you love, maybe an addiction or inability to stop a bad habit.  The Human being is smart and amazing in tricking itself into going against the very “good” it knows about or going against the very goals it has just set for itself.  It does this by having a thousand excuses that sound good to the ear and can lead us down the road of temptation away from the very goal we set or good we are committed to choosing.  Have you met those excuses? In recovery we know them well. “I’ve worked hard, I deserve a treat.”  “No one will know if I just do this in private and alone.”  “God would like me to enjoy a little of life.”  “Well, I’m not perfect so this will prove it.”   “If I don’t do this, my peers won’t accept me.”   “I can just do it once and stop.”  But we know how the story goes, often we buckle in to the temptation and do what we did not set out to do.

       A comedian by the name of Flip Wilson on a t.v. program in the 80s had a character named Geraldine who dressed and talked fine. When she slipped or did something she knew was wrong, she had an explanation:  The devil made me do it.  We can always opt to blame our wrong choice on the devil but we could also take a more Eastern religious view of this human dilemma and accept that we are simultaneously SAINT AND SINNER.  The potential for both lie within each of us.   This is what Paul is pointing out so clearly this morning.  “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate and he goes on after working with this theme and its relationship to valuing the Law to query: Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

              What are we to do with this dilemma that our sinful flesh often refuses to respond to the requirements of God’s law or to the good we know we are called to do?  It seems that we have several options:

#1 -  We could throw our hands up and give into the sin within us and stop struggling to follow the law or do the right thing. In this case, we would have no accountability for our actions and we would live to please our own flesh and selfish ways. After all, we could say, “The devil made me do it. I had no ability to have a say in the matter. The devil is in total charge. I’m a victim to the evil within.”   This would be convenient and simple but we know that it would be a cop out and could only lead to moral misery for us.

#2 – We could try harder to do “the good” or follow the Law and ask god to intervene on our misbehaviors and choice of flesh. We could believe that God is totally in charge and all will go well as a result since we aren’t capable of being part of this story of life. This puts all the work and power with God so that when we do eventually give in to temptation, we will hold God accountable and not ourselves and soon we will be saying that we don’t believe in God because God let us down. The truth be told we had a very naïve theology that was doomed from the beginning because it denied the free will God gave us to choose.

#3 – A final choice might be to learn to see this dilemma of: I do the things I don’t mean to do and I don’t do what I intend to do—in a new way.  Would there be any war within us if we did not believe in the Law or ethics and moral standards?  The truth is that this war within is a sign that we have a moral conscience.   The war within us would not exist unless we had a moral conscience. It in fact is proof that we have a fundamental agreement with the Law and through Christ with the call to live out unconditional love and unselfishness among others.  I think what St. Paul is trying to say is that just an acceptance or awareness of the Law or the morals and good is not enough. It does not basically change us, it only reminds us of our weakness in making good choices.

              Who can rescue us from this body of death and this cycle of evil that we do when we don’t intend to? This is the question that Paul asks. The answer?  grace---that free and loving gift offered to us by the mysterious and loving presence of God. We know that through the love and death of Christ, we are offered a companion to turn to in prayer who lived in the flesh like us and walks with us in this battle within. More than that, we know that we are called to be accountable for the consequences of our choices that we make in struggling with temptation, but after that we are also offered the free gift of forgiveness thanks to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Holy Communion reminds us of the story of Christ in our past, present, and future and refreshes us like the waters of baptism to be given a fresh chance and new beings in Christ.

              “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.!”  whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

June 29,  2008                      St. Peter and St. Paul Apostles (transferred) (patronal saint)       

Ezekiel 34: 11-16          Psalm 87            2 Timothy 4:1-8                 John 21: 15-19                                                                                                                                       Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

                                                                      SERMON:

              This morning we celebrate a patronal feast for Saint Peter. We get a freebie because our church leaders have put him together with St. Paul in this feast which we transferred from Monday to today.  In case some of you are wondering what a “patronal saint” is there is history of the early church.  The patronal festival is usually the feast of the church’s title. Saints are given festival days in the church calendar—usually the day it is believed they died on or another, if not known.  Some churches took their names after certain saints for the day on which the church was founded or their association with a regional or ethnic background or form of ministry. I don’t know what the case is for this church.  As you know, this church is named after 2 saints. That has a history too. St. Peter’s used to be in a larger church building and a larger congregation in Johnston until it almost completely burned down. Its congregation came to join St. Andrew’s, which was here already in this building, and they renamed themselves: St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s.  Raise your hand if you were a member of St. Peter’s originally? and St. Andrew’s originally?  These are the people who helped to make a successful transition of unity. If they didn’t raise their hands, we wouldn’t know that there was any difference in the way they became members of St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s.

      One more part of church history that connects to why we celebrate a patronal feast.  The notion of having a patron saint is a custom that can be traced back to the influence of martyrs in the development of the early church. Churches were built over the tombs or sacred bones of martyrs and thus given the name of that martyr. I can pretty well guarantee you that neither the bones of St. Peter nor of St. Andrew are buried beneath this building. Now we continue the legacy through symbols and metaphors. So what about St. Peter?

      Peter – the rock – on whom the church was built was an ordinary fisherman who was called by Jesus to “follow me and I will make you fish for people.”  We see him close to Jesus throughout the stories in the bible and the interesting thing is that he is always getting it wrong.  He just seems to be clueless about what Jesus is trying to get him to understand. Since he later is the one whom Jesus picks to found his church, we should all be encouraged to know that even in our fumbling and bumbling, God can work miracles.

              We meet Peter at one point who is walking on water and doing fine with it until he doubts his ability and the very act he is already doing and then begins to sink and Jesus pulls him out of the water to save him.  In another example, we meet Peter in an interaction with Jesus in which he puts on his clothes and jumps into the water. His thought and action pattern just don’t seem to work well together.

              We meet Peter at the Transfiguration on the mountain where there is a most holy and amazing appearance of the patriarchs with Jesus and Peter wants to stay forever so he suggests setting up 3 tents and capturing this spiritual moment and freezing it forever. Why go down the mountain where things are painful and messy, when they could stay on top in spiritual bliss forever.  NOT.  Jesus straightens Peter out fast. Then we meet Peter again in preparation for the Last Supper. Jesus is preparing to wash his feet and at first he protests: “Lord are you going to wash my feet? Never. I will never allow that.”  When Jesus makes the point that he is modeling the servant hood he wants his disciples to live out, Peter agrees but he again goes wild with it and misses the point again saying:  “Ok then my head and my hands too.” It wasn’t about cleansing, it was about servant hood.

This is our patronal saint. The good news is that after Jesus dies, Peter becomes a leader of the disciples in bringing the message of Jesus to the multitudes.  And as reflected in all those jokes about him, we know that a prominent biblical story points to Jesus’ promise that he will give Peter the keys to the kingdom. Peter played an important role in the kingdom building of Christ on earth as it was in heaven.

       Many of us most remember Peter for his promise that he would never be the one who denied knowing Jesus and then 3 times in a row he does just that when he finds himself in danger as Jesus is captured and taken away. Many scholars think that this is why today’s reading has a 3-fold question and commission:  “Peter, do you love me”  “Yes, Lord.” “Feed my sheep.”  Jesus is foretelling what Peter will need when he denies knowing him at a later time.

       Like our patronal saint, we are to ask ourselves: Do we love Jesus? If so, we are called to “feed his sheep” – the lost sheep mentioned in the lesson from Ezekiel. We are commissioned as Peter was to seek the lost, bring back the stray, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak. That is where God’s attention is and that is where Jesus is commissioning our patronal saint during the lst century and us during the 21st century. Maybe Peter is asked the same question 3 times to emphasize a point and bring up awareness:  Peter, you have slipped back to your old ways. You must choose between distracting forces and me. Christ is trying to rally Peter and us, to service. Stay focused on you mission of “feeding my sheep”.   Jesus is saying: make sure you remember that if you love me, you will feed my sheep. Here is the big difference between altruism, egotism, and Christianity. Altruism and egotism pushes us to service to feel good about ourselves or to demonstrate to others we are good people.  Nothing bad about this but it is qualitatively different from Christianity.  Someone once noted that:

FAITH DOES NOT ASK WHETHER IT OUGHT TO DO GOOD WORKS; IT HAS DONE THEM ALREADY.  When we, like Peter, grasp and accept the notion of grace and the free unconditional love and forgiveness that is offered to us through Christ, we will do service out of gratefulness, not out of our own need for reward, attention, or reputation. 

        When you do something for others out of gratitude for all the love you have been freely given by Jesus, others may think you are extraordinary or they may urge you to reflect on how good you are or they may hold you up as a wonder or extraordinary person for what you have done, it may be time to take stock of how grace is working in your life.  It will be tempting to do what they urge and there is nothing wrong with rejoicing in seeing the lambs fed, but for the sake of your own soul, don’t mix up feeding the lambs with feeding yourself. FAITH DOES NOT ASK WHETHER IT GOUTH TO DO GOOD WORKS, IT HAS DONE THEM ALREADY. Out of love Christ offers us and our gratefulness for that love—even though like Peter we mess things up and are so imperfect---we want to feed his lambs  and share the abundant unconditional love and blessings that God has given us.  This is the lesson I believe that Peter teaches us and reminds us of through the witness of his own life during Jesus ministry and as the first leader of the church, after the death of Jesus. Jesus asks each of us today over and over: DO YOU LOVE ME?  THEN, FEED MY LAMBS out of gratitude got the free gift of forgiveness, mercy, and unconditional love that we have already been given.

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

June 22,  2008                                          Pentecost  VI, Proper 7

Exodus Genesis 21: 8-21      Romans 6: 1b-11       Matthew  10: 24-39                                                                                                                                       

                                                                      SERMON:

              The discussion in our country on “traditional family values” like those found in “Focus on the Family” by Rev. James Dobson would have us believe that the main job of being a “good” Christian is (a) to be a good citizen and patriot, (b) to be a nice person who never makes waves, and (c) to center our lives around the traditional notion of family which usually means a husband and a wife plus children, living peaceably and happily with each other.  I truly believe that a large segment of the population seeks church experiences to live out this American definition of Christianity. And while each of these values seems benign, they really don’t capture the essence of our Judeo-Christian heritage.  Today’s Gospel reading and backup text from the Hebrew scripture raises the question of what kind of Christian we are called to be and how does this play out in our choices in life—even family.

          While some would argue that the family is the center of formation and should be a traditional one:  think “Brady Bunch” – mom at home, dad working, and children all loving one another, we know the reality of 21st century and how diverse the definition of family has become. But even in ancient times, it appears that when we look closely at scripture, especially the ones from Genesis and Matthew this morning, the notion of family was not monolithic or easily defined.  Abraham, key ancestor of Judaism and his wife, Sarah, use an immigrant slave woman from Egypt—Hagar—as a surrogate to gain the child they can’t have and then throw Hagar and the child, Ishmael, out to the wolves after Sarah later delivers Isaac. This family was haunted by sexual wheeling and dealing, abuse, jealousy, and attempted murder. And yet Abraham was a key founder of Judaism. Since this story frames how the Judeo-Christian world (derived from Isaac) came to view Islam (derived from Ishmael), I would encourage you to read the entire story in the Bible: Chapters 20-22. This story and many others certainly to not hold up or live up to traditional family structure.

              In fact, when we look at some of our Gospel readings, it is uncertain how much emphasis Jesus placed on family as a center piece of being a Christian. We know that at a young age he left his family and went to the temple without telling them. When asked about this he mentioned that it was his Father’s place.  And they were miffed and confused. This morning’s Gospel takes this theme further.  If we were to take it literally as other texts have been taken nowadays, it would suggest that Jesus was anti-family: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother”     But maybe Jesus is just warning against idolatry of family and maybe he is warning us that often to follow him may lead us to choices that conflict with our family members and those we love and who love us.  Being a “good Christian” would mean choosing to follow Christ even at the cost of being in disagreement with our family members.  Our Gospel today is Jesus warning of putting FAMILY over our mission and call as Christians.  There may be at some times in our lives a clash. I can remember a defining moment in my life in which what my father and the church I attended wanted to stand for and what I had been taught by my church, and I thought my father, Christ stood for and they were in opposition. Has that ever happened to you? You find yourself BETWEEN the ways of those around you who you love and treasure and the beliefs and values of Christ who you are called to follow.  I think these are defining and turning moments in our faith journey---in our lives and I think God is calling us to cut through the nonsense to raise up the hypocrisy or disjuncture through our words and actions. This is the controversial sword that Jesus refers to in the gospel today. In my own life, this CLASH at the family level was painful but it also served to firm up my identity as who I was and who I followed and what I was called to stand for, even at the cost of losing my family’s favor. THE COST OF LOSING THE FAVOR OF THOSE WE LOVE. AT THE COST OF LOSING OUR REPUTATION AS A “GOOD CHRISTIAN” IN A WORLD THAT DEFINES A GOOD CHRISTIAN AS SOMEONE WHO IS PATRIOTIC, NOT MAKING WAVES, AND IS A FAMILY MAN/WOMAN.

         I recently read about two women who found themselves in that position a few centuries ago. Let me share the story with you. The Grimkie sisters were daughters of slave owners. They lived in a household where they were waited upon by black people who had been bought in the slave yards of Charleston. They were rocked by them, fed by them, waited on by them. Then something happened. First they offended all of their friends by becoming Quakers. Then they went against everything that they were taught was not simply necessary but right when they began to fight for the abolition of slavery. They moved to Philadelphia where they became very active in the abolitionist movement and their slave owning family was ready to disown them. These two women were popular among the abolitionists. These two very articulate young southern women were to stand and make speeches as repentant slave holders; to write pamphlets about the evils of slavery. Until they realized that it was not just black people who needed human rights. They began to speak about the rights of women and suddenly even their abolitionist friends became very suspicious..

                  The hard lesson of the Gospel and the radical aspect of Christianity take us beyond our families, our communities, our churches, our states, and even our nation. It is Jesus' demand. We are to love him above all other loves, and if that means losing those we love or the reputation as a “good Christian” or a “patriotic American”, we are not to fear, because buried in the demand is a promise: that what we lose for his sake we shall find again, returned to us more alive than ever before."

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

                                                                                    Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

June 15,  2008                Pentecost  IV, Proper 6

Exodus 19:2-8a        Romans 5: 1-8      Matthew 9: 35 – 10:8    

                                                                      SERMON:

              Have you ever thought about what God’s biggest problem is?  Some of you may think it is YOU or someone you know.  But it only takes a few minutes of daily news on TV. or in the newspapers to remind us that there is no shortage of problems for God.  Fires in California, earthquakes in China, youth killing each other in Providence, elderly being mistreated in nursing homes, flooding, tornadoes, and poverty. The list of troubles in the world that you and I would like to see God do something about grows long quickly.  God’s biggest problem isn’t that there are too many problems.  Our Gospel reading today gives a clue as to what God’s biggest problem is.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” This is God’s biggest problem: God has a harvest of lost and hurting people in our world, but does not have enough workers to bring the harvest in!    And this is where you and I come in.  All are needed for the harvest.  Every member of the church has a mandate to take the good news of God’s forgiving and healing love to a broken world.  It is the continuing dream of Christ that every follower of his should become a reaper of the harvest. THERE IS AT LEAST ONE SOMEONE WHOM EACH OF US COULD AND MUST BRING SAFELY TO THE LOVE OF GOD.  So here are some principles of harvesting:

#1  You must see the harvest.

   You can’t be a harvester if you can’t see the harvest. Look at the harvest.  Is the harvest clear to you? Is there anyone you know who really needs the love of God and the comfort of a caring fellowship? People who want to be harvesters must train their eyes to see with the eyes of Jesus Christ.

#2  You must care about the harvest.

When Jesus saw the crowds, “he had compassion on them”. He saw the helplessness and hopelessness of people and his heart was moved to care for them. There is a great deal of difference between the way Jesus saw the crowds and the way the religious elite saw them. They saw chaff; Jesus saw wheat.  They saw outcastes; Jesus saw lost and searching hearts. They saw the unacceptable and untouchable; Jesus saw God’s lost children.  they said, “Who cares?”  Jesus said, “God cares.” In order to harvest, we must have the eyes and ears and the heart of Jesus for those who need him most. Try it this week – make a special effort wherever you are to look at others with the eyes of Christ.

#3  You must go into the harvest.

It is one thing to see the harvest; it is another thing to care about the harvest.  But both can be done from a distance. It is something else to go into the harvest.  That means making a commitment to join with Christ in solving God’s biggest problem. Harvesting can’t be done from a distance. God set the model for harvesting in the incarnation of Christ. As God came in the flesh through Jesus Christ to stand next to us and bear us up on eagle’s wings, so also we are called to enter the harvest and bear others up to the love of God.  This means more than calling the harvest to come to us. That is an old model of the church. We need a 21st century model that looks like Jesus did; we need to go to where the harvest is and seek the harvest. He went places that were outside his comfort zone, his background, even his religion.  He shared the good news of the kingdom with the least, the last, and the lost who became his church. We are called to carry on his work—each of us—and bring the good news of the kingdom to those near and far. 

     May God give us eyes to see the harvest, a heart to care for the harvest, and a willingness to go into the harvest!

St.Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Church,  Providence, RI   

                                                                                    Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

June 8,  2008      Pentecost  IV, Proper 5

Genesis 12:1-9       Romans 4: 13-25     Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26

                                                                      SERMON:

There probably isn’t a bigger figure in Jewish history than Abram and Sarai as you can see by our readings this morning in Genesis and Romans. And we can learn a lot from them for our modern day struggles to find meaning in our lives and to deal with the tension between “reason” and “faith”.   We know through our reading this morning that at retirement age, Abram was called by God to pick up all he owned and bring his relatives to a new place he knew not because God had something bigger in mind in the future of the world, than Abram could see.  It must have taken incredible trust and obedience for Abraham. Imagine at the age of 75 to just leave everything you have worked for or owned or treasured and go to a place you knew not at all to do what you were not sure of. What would that take? It seems outright foolish.

              St. Paul tells us today in Romans that “Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping….he did not doubt God’s promise. He was absolutely sure God would be able to do what he had promised.”  It is said that “faith is hoping in that which there is no reason for hoping.” Now in the scientific world, we would call that “wishful thinking” or “utopian fantasy”. In everyday world, some might call it just foolish. It is fools who can easily hope when there is no reason or evidence for doing so. But theologian, Paul Tillich, points out that no one can live long without hope.  Without hope, there is despair and hopelessness which dull our thirst for the future and close down our present world.  Without hope, the meaning of life for us is challenged.  Most people know despair at some point in their lives.  When our lives are jarred by an event in the present, our despair can lead to confusion. That is because we waver between hope and hopelessness. That is because our something in our present has turned us off from the future, the future of possibility and the openness to it.   [ Recently, I was called to visit an inmate later at 10 pm—an unusual time, but it seemed he was in a crisis of despair enough to lead him to shut his future off---to end his life and a family member urged me to visit him.  I knew him and his wife from our jobs program. He had straightened out his life and had a home, a car, children, and a future. That all stopped when 2 young teens decided that they would use his record to get out of their recent crime and they blamed him. Even though he was with his wife the entire time they said he was guilty, he was picked up and brought to prison. In our system, he was “violated” and will most likely have no chance to defend himself on this. He is looking at completing his last 6 years of probation, or more, in ACI even though he is innocent. that is the way RI law works.   This young man was between hope and hopelessness when I visited him. He was between a present of  an ounce of hope that the judge would actually consider evidence, fairness, and truth to a future of hopelessness.  Being in between hope and hopelessness can seem like hell.  As Christians, it is only our blind faith and our remembrance of God’s grace and power in our lives that we can keep open to hope.  Without hope, positive possibilities of the future begin to shut down. Despair grabs us and erosion of the present begins.                                                       Hope is a willingness to believe in the future. Christian hope is the willingness to believe that God is in our future and the Holy Spirit will direct us there. It is the faith that even in our darkest moment, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death as Psalm 23 tells us so eloquently, God will be with us.  But hope takes patience. It takes a willingness to believe in the presence of the Creator in our midst, in our lives, in our life. Hope is often a choice that God makes in us and we with God to partner together in co-creating this world.

              So what happens when hope dies? Without hope, we act differently. We do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do. We become desperate people or depressed people. Hope is a view toward the future without any idea of what that future will be. Jesse Jackson’s mantra was “Keep hope alive”. Keep the belief that there is a future and it has possibility alive.  We do this through faith.  It is our narrative and history as followers of Jesus Christ that death has been conquered and that God is acting in human history through US, yes through US.  When we remain open to God’s love and grace and let the Holy Spirit flow through us, God uses us to carry out his/her will.   Remembering this in our hearts, keeps hope alive. Remembering that God loves us not for our deeds (Paul reminds us of this today), but for God’s goodness.  This keeps hope in our hearts. And trusting that God is in charge and can see farther and deeper than we can into the present and future can remind us of the call to be faithful which “keeps our hope alive.” Abraham and Sarah are the grant teachers in our history.  Called to do what reason would have said is IM possible, they remained faithful and hopeful and from that were fulfilled the promises of a new nation and a child at very advanced ages in their life history. God is working in and through us in ways we can never understand through love beyond our comprehension. In those times in which we find ourselves locked in the tension between wanting hope and feeling hopeless, we can remember Abraham and Sarah; we can remember Psalm 23 and recite it; we can confess our disobedience to God and our inability to believe in hope at that moment, and then we can once again turn our future over to God and simply trust and obey that he is ABLE and he will care for our present and our future in ways we are not capable.  

Praise to God, all-knowing and loving, whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

May 25, 2008                                  Pentecost  II, Proper 3

Isaiah  49: 8-16a            Psalm 131          1 Corinthians 4: 1-5      Matthew 6: 24-34  

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest in Charge

“Do not worry about your life,” Jesus says. Do not worry.  Just strive for the kingdom and all will be well.  In a time in which the energy policy of this nation is in difficulty and the price of oil rises faster than the sun, we are urged  “not to worry”.  In a time in which a recession is either here or on the horizon, we are not to worry about any of it. Just keep striving for the kingdom of God and “all these things will be given to you as well.”  At a time in which hospitals reject those without insurance or send them elsewhere, we are not to worry about tomorrow. “Look at the birds of the air; they don’t plant or cultivate but God makes sure they eat.”  How are we to take the Gospel reading in modern day life?  We aren’t birds; we are human beings with a mind and reason. This is the Episcopal way that we use our mind and reason to better the world and this certainly includes caring for ourselves, doesn’t it?

       There is so much to be anxious about. There is so much to worry about in 21st century, but then there was probably even more to worry about in the prior centuries—plagues running rampant, primitive understanding of science and health care,  leprosy, wars, empires, slavery, dictatorships, starvation. No generation has an edge on worrying. How are we as people of faith to handle the realities and struggles of life vis a vis our faith? Are we never to plan or help solve our problems?  Are we to stop working and just wait for God’s goodness to fall from the sky?

              I don’t think this is what Jesus means.  He is not condemning planning nor having a livelihood. He is once again pointing to our priorities and our relationship with God. And for us in the technological and richer part of the world, he is warning again the lure of mammon. The bottom line is: Where are our minds set?  If our minds are set on the earth, then we are ready to be lured and we are much readier to trust in things and seek those things out, whether they be: objects, gadgets, types of houses or cars, status, popularity, acceptance, a high life. But if our minds are set on God first, our priorities and our choices will be different.   What we are being warned of here is:  do not forget or lose track of God in our life.  This is a standard we need to apply to our personal daily life and our public life. When business or government thinks of profits first and people second, ultimately a price is paid for all. Our public policy becomes focused on more prisons as means of public safety rather than drug treatment or improved education or training. When we humans take our wasteful life style as deserved or earned and continue squandering our environment, the children of our generation and the multitudes in the world, pay. When our work life consumes us and becomes the ends rather than the means of our survival, we miss out on “life”. This leaves no time for spiritual development or a relationship with God.

              Jesus exhorts us today to “seek Ye FIRST the Kingdom of God”. This means to put our trust in God and our relationship with God FIRST and at the CENTER of our life.  This may take some resistance to all those things that interevene. It may take a new way of living or structuring our day. It may take us in the church challenging one another to begin with prayer as a center of our life, not as an accoutrement or frill.  And this can free us. It can free us from mammon’s temptation and hold on us which is fierce in the advertising world that peppers every minute of our life in this culture.  It calls us to trust FIRST in whatever it is selling—to ease our fears, to assure our future, to bring us happiness.   We are to remember to take our concerns to God and remember all that his Son did for us.   SONG:“Seek ye FIRST the kingdom and his righteousness, ask and it will given unto you, halle, halle lu hia.

               It is easy to get so caught up in working to pay the bills or running children from one activity to another or just worrying about what if that soon we have closed out all possibility for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.  The Gospel calls us to  have hope and faith that God’s love is greater than our pain or worry.  We are called to trust in the mystery and power of God and embrace the love that Jesus Christ showed for us.  

              In our Hebrew reading this morning, the prophet Isaiah was trying to bring a word of hope to his people who lived in exile and knew not their future. Worry should not be your concern because the God of love is in charge and working his mystery in wonderous way.  Trust in God and seek him first and the path will be shown to you. One day he will send a Messiah to spell it out clearly. And so he did as we know. That is who we follow. Seek ye a relationship with Christ FIRST. Let mammon and other distractions not be your priority. To those in emotional bondage and depression, Christ offers freedom. To those who feel inner emptiness and no purpose, the Holy Spirit offers guidance and fulfillment. To those who are weighed down by addictions, God offers liberation.  God has not forgotten anyone. All that is asked of us is that we not forget the love of Christ offered to us and truly make our relationship with the DIVINE ONE first in our life and our end, not our means.

May 20, 2007                                Easter VII

Acts 16: 16-34,  Psalm 67, Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20;  John 17: 20-26

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

       At his Last Supper, Jesus prays for his disciples that “they all may be one.” It is his last prayer for them, just before he is betrayed by Judas and later verbally 3 times by Peter. And so begins the story of the beginning of the church. Although Jesus’ greatest desire was for us to live in unity and in right relation with one another, we in fact have often gone the other way. It is the nature of sin to break right relation with others and with God. I have a strong feeling that Jesus knew this well and that is why he prayed this prayer for the disciples as his last one.

      Our world and our church today are full of fracture and separation. We even find ourselves fighting over one of our principle Baptismal promises: “to respect the dignity of every human being.” We have gotten so focused on our differences in the Anglican Communion that we have lost sight of our common ground and our call to “all be one” and to “respect the dignity of one another.” St. Paul knew and lived otherwise and is a testimony to this. He understood what it was like to see only from perspective and to make sure everyone around him followed this one perspective. The first part of his life as “Saul” had been spent destroying Christians until he was jarred by lightning and blinded. It was this experience that taught him compassion and to walk in the shoes of “the others” he encountered, like his jailer—the very person who probably flogged him and locked him in his cell.

      When an earthquake jars open the cells of the prison where they are detained, Paul and Silas are freed, but do not leave because they know that it would mean the death of their jailer. (In a prior account in which Peter was freed, all jailers were ordered to be killed by the King  for failing in their job.)  This powerful witness of Christ’s love -- of love – to put themselves in danger for the sake of the safety of the very one who oppressed them – was a tremendous respect of the dignity of the one who jailed them.

      How easy it is to lose sight of the light of Christ that burns within others in our midst when we are hurt by them or angry with them or feel threatened by them or just don’t like them! We erect walls that keep us imprisoned from them and we lose our respect for their dignity and humanity.

            For Paul and Silas, it was their deep relationship with the love of Christ and the spirit of love from within that broke the walls of fear and distrust that separated them. When the earth quake shook and the tables were turned: they didn’t flee or turn on the jailer. They didn’t seek revenge to feel better. They didn’t even see him as an enemy. They amazingly saw him as a brother and offered him safety and hospitality. The transforming power of love that they witnessed pierced the heart of the jailer and he soon was soothing their wounds, asking to become part of the church through baptism, and feeding them generously. It was through the acts of mercy and grace shown by Silas and Paul that the jailer and his whole family came to know the love of Christ and was transformed by it. Only then, did Jesus’ prayer come true that “they all may be one.”

            Jesus prayer is one we need to pray today over and over for our church and for our world which is so divided by walls and war. “That we all may be one” – not uniform, but united in the love of Christ. I think that truly God’s heart must break each time we build walls and to seal us off from each other rather than learning to live together and respect the dignity of our differences. 

            God seeks to break down the walls of our attitudes, judgments, and layers of hurt in which we imprison ourselves. God longs to free us of our captivity through mighty acts of love that remind us of Christ’s transforming love. Sometimes these acts come through the kind words spoken to us by those we may have feared or a single smile and concern of a stranger when we are having a rough day or the help of a relative whose heart had been hardened for years by something in the past. Sometimes our captivity is to a belief that those different from us are not “normal” and are less than our own group or church or family.  As Christians we are called to a ministry of bridge building, a ministry of reconciliation as a witness to the risen Christ in our midst.  As disciples of Christ, we have faith that God’s love can cut through the walls of our divisions and break the chains that hold us captive and that the Holy Spirit will work within us to show us the compassion and mercy to never lose sight of the spark or light of God within those with whom we struggle.  The greatest work is left for the church to stand as a symbol of unity but not at the expense of disrespecting the dignity of all its children. Our mission at St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s is to know and show the unconditional love of God by respecting and welcoming all so that the walls of racism, homophobia, ageism, sexism, colorism, and clericalism can be broken as we try to live out Jesus’ last prayer for all of us:” they may all be one.”

April 29                               Easter IV

Acts 13: 15-16, 26-33;  Psalm 100; Revelation 7: 9-17; John 10: 22-30

SERMON:                                                                   

                                                                                    Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                     Priest-in-Charge 

When I was a child, the little church I attended which was a Lutheran one, had two stained glass windows on each side of the church. They were huge in size and in fact most of the wall was this window. As a child, one of these windows served as my icon because I was easily absorbed in it and comforted by it. It was the classic image that I’m sure you’ve seen of Jesus with a shepherd’s crook in one hand as he walks along a pasture area and a little lamb in the other, or maybe yours had him holding a lamb wrapped around his neck. (As somebody who raised sheep, I could never figure out how he could do that or why? Sheep really don’t like to be cuddled or wrapped at all. They would resist the position around his neck). In the image, I think there was a sheep or two nearby him as well.  That image was always glowing in stained glass as the sun filtered through it. It greeted me and spoke to me when I entered and when I got bored by the pastor’s sermon.

            This morning our many hymns, the Psalm and the Gospel remind us of the sacred image of good shepherd in ancient Biblical history and New Testament history. Some call this Good Shepherd Sunday. In ancient Israel, the image of Yahweh (God) as shepherd is a prominent messianic motif. Rulers of the people were often called shepherd – kings and Gods.  This is the image of God as the one who gathers the strays, binds up their wounds, and keeps them in peaceful order.

            The Good Shepherd is such a rich image and one which occurs prominently in the New Testament even into today’s world when we refer to the pastor of a church or when we speak of pastoral care. For the New Testament, the image of shepherd occurs throughout the life of Jesus: remember our nativity scene--- the news of the birth of Jesus was told FIRST to the shepherds.  Jesus was born in the city of David, Bethlehem, named after David who himself was a shepherd before becoming a mighty king.Shepherd:  nativity tradition (manger), son of David was born in city of David who had been a shepherd; news of birth first manifested to shepherds; and Jesus is a shapehrd to the lost sheep of Israe; he separates the goat from the sheep after they share the same pasture; l and shortly after his passion and his death leaves his disciples disciples scattered like sheep andof course who coul forget the 23rd psalm which we say at funerals to give us comfort. It is Jesus the Good Sheperd who walks with us throughout t he valley of the shadow of death, who defends us from prey and enemies

 and who comforts us.

      But today we see another characteristic that is less commonly celebrated. It is the image of a close relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. In fact, they recognize his voice and obey his commands because they have such perfect confidence   in their shepherd & follow him wherever he goes. The question for us is : how do we learn to recognize God’s voice and then follow   it.   This is a question of discipleship for us.   

            As someone once noted, we receive God’s grace . It is free, but the same is not true of being a disciple or of answering God’s call. Grace is free but discipleship is costly because it requires our choice and constant effort. We must choose to be disciples and it is a lot of work.  Building a mutual relationship with Jesus is not sporadic or easy, it is work. Listening for God’s call and hearing it, rather than our own voice, is work.  Trust and obeying in our good shepherd at times when we are not facing the death of a loved one or a difficult period in our life, is the true challenge of discipleship.  Many of us know the 23rd psalm which we typically use at times of grief, sadness, tragedy, in our lives. We can hear the words and see the images in our heart because they speak comfort to us in those times of challenge in our lives.  We can HEAR God’s voice (like a sheep) and are open to following it because we are in need. we are vulnerable and open. Recently one of the men who is incarcerated and found faith only recently told me that he used the first line of the 23rd psalm to calm him down and center him when he was wrongly accused of something and was being punished for that. This man had been part of a motorcycle gang and so to hear him treat these lines with such tenderness and obedience of love was moving. He used first lines as a mantra and it worked. “The Lord is my shepherd, he maketh his sheep to lie down in green pastures” 

I was thinking, if only we could do that ourselves when we are not in such need of comfort!  Isn’t that the challenge of discipleship? to hear the voice of God in our everyday lives (non crisis) and trust and obey in the good shepherd who we follow?  Grace is free discipleship is costly.  It is a costly path to follow but the comfort is that when we have been able to hear God’s voice and follow it, then for the sake of discipleship , we can live in the confidence of the 23rd psalm as we pray a version of it:

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He restoreth my soul. Yeah tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fea no evil. Thy rod and thy stsaff they comfort me. Thoug anointed as…………………………

     April 27, 2008       Easter  VI         St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

                                                                      Providence, RI 02908

Acts 17: 22-31            Psalm 66: 7-18          1 Peter 3: 13-22    John 14: 15-21

                                                                      SERMON

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

      This morning we celebrate “rogation” an old custom of the Western Church which includes processions to bless the crops and remember those who prepare them. Rogation takes place in the springtime when there is a renewing of the earth. For us, it follows Easter and is usually the three days just before the Ascension is celebrated. Renewal and resurrection are underlying themes of rogation. Since we are only a few days away having commemorated Earth Day, today we are called to focus on ecology and the inter-relatedness of the created order.  I would like to draw upon some words of Rev. Bob Wolfort in Earth Sermons collected by Virginia Interfaith Power and Light to promote spiritual understanding of ecology.  He points out that God’s earth has been and continues to be severely bruised and abused and we have much to repent and change in order to care for God’s creation of which we are called to be stewards.
         For example, we know of the big polluters, the big bruisers. These are coal fired power plants; car exhaust; airplane exhaust; clear cutting areas of the rainforests; old and inadequate sewer treatment plants. But there is also what we do without thinking:  You leave your room and the lights remain on, the radio oozes music and it is winter and the window you cracked open last night for fresh air is still open…that coal plant has to keep working for you even when you are not using those items and that plant is sending carbon dioxide and mercury into the air because “you forgot.” We must repent our forgetting.
      You let the water run continuously and hard in the bathroom sink as you brush your teeth and shave. That water, an increasingly precious commodity, is gone and that coal plant again is fired up for your wasting because the water plant needs the energy to keep the water pressure going, We need to repent our thoughtless waste.
        You hear about and see those funny compact fluorescent lights and decide they do not look as nice and they cost more so you do not put out the extra money even though you know that in the long run you will save money because you will use less electricity and the power plant will need to work less and pollute less. We repent of our miserliness that ultimately wounds our mother earth. 
      We remember that our actions affect the globe. We are all interconnected. WE are contributing to the warming of the earth and all are impacted.  Arctic Ice could be gone by 2013.  Polar bears, tundra, permafrost melting. Global temperatures rise; wind and ocean currents upset. Sea level rise: coastal areas flooded…millions will have to move. Draught here and flooding there. And as so often happens, the poor will be the most vulnerable.
 .      We have, at the latest, 42 more years to make drastic changes to bring our climate close to where it needs to be so that we can live.
     “God created the world and it was good.” God set us here to be stewards of creation, not abusers.  Global warming calls us as people of faith to repent and say “I’m sorry.” Because from there we can work to heal the wounds the earth has received.  We can begin simply by saying  “I recognize that I am wounding God’s beautiful creation by leaving those lights on, and the water gushing. “I see that and I am sorry!” I am sorry not only for wasting…I am sorry for misusing the creation entrusted to me by a loving God. And from repentance comes commitment and action and renewal.
 .       We turn out the lights, and turn off the water, and shut off the car and pick up the trash and oppose the construction of new coal fired plants and we clean the street gutter so that the next rain storm does not wash more trash into the local rivers  …because, as the people of faith in our loving and creating God, we want to care well for God’s creation.   We want to be good stewards and caretakers of that which God has entrusted us. And we want to leaver our children and grandchildren and the youth of today a safe and healthy world free of danger and disaster and changing weather- floods, storms, etc. Today as we celebrate rogation, we also remember those who live close to the earth in all parts of the world and who prepare the food we consume. Here in this parish, we are close to food. We serve it, we eat it, and we provide it through our food pantry and soup kitchen programs for those who have been weighed down by poverty and the economy. We know well how the cost of food rises with the warming of the earth. Our action to feed the needy can be connected to an action in our daily lives to turn off the lights when we are not using them, reduce consumption of precious water, recycling our trash, and following the many suggestions you find on your insert.

      In Native circles the Earth is treated as one’s mother. They sing: The earth is our mother, we must take care of her. The earth is our mother, we must take care of her. May our repentance of daily habits that can be no more help us to take care of our mother who God gave us out of love and called us to care for.  Amen

April 22                               Easter III

Acts 9: 1-19a; Psalm 33: 1-11; Revelation 5: 6-14; John 21: 1-

SERMON:                                                                  

                                                                                    Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                     Priest-in-Charge 

            The ancient peoples of the Bible were agricultural people. They were deeply connected to the Earth and its creatures. They wrote about this, sang about this, and prayed often about this because they were so aware of how they depended upon a healthy relationship between themselves and all of creation. Their survival depended directly upon the earth and they not only knew this but respected it. The Canticle we sang today, the hymns, and the narrative from our Gospel of John reflects this.

            We, however, in the 21st technological, urban world found in modern countries are disconnected from our relationship to the earth and her creatures. Until something disastrous happens, like Katrina or a hurricane or tornado, we tend to think that our survival depends solely on our own expertise and technology. We are only gradually becoming aware of our dependence and direct relationship to the earth and other creatures here as global warming brings us strange climate reactions, like strange and unusual temperature ranges or violent weather patterns that are new.

            Today we celebrate earth day. It reminds us of how interconnected we humans are to all creatures throughout the world and to the earth. What happens in one corner of the world really does impact another somewhere else!  The cars we drive, the fuel we consume, the    have an impact on the earth. That is the bottom line of global warming—to acknowledge that what we humans are doing – especially in the industrialized nation of the United States – is playing a major role in diminishing (deprecating) the earth. The earth is warming up and the result of this one little factor is that tides will rise, weather patterns will change, floods will happen, droughts will increase where they hardly ever existed, and people will die in massive ways.  There is a cost to pay for our lifestyle of ________________ and it is our children and many poorer countries who will pay this price.   My friends, when the sacred truth of the nature of the earth as God’s and the fullness thereof  becomes an “inconvenient truth” to scientists (as Al Gore points out in movie with this name) so that our life style of consumptions and squandering the world’s earth can continue,  our world is in  deep trouble.

            In her book, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology, author Sally MacFague, presents the model of the universe as God’s body which is being battered by ecological deterioration.which is being brought about by a crafty enemy: ourselves. Our addiction to nonecological, high tech life style is diminishing life on the planet. It is diminishing God. She suggests that we need a radical shift in our thinking and our way of living from how we can change the environment to suit our own needs to how we can adjust our desires, our needs, and our practices to what is best for the entire earth. The question comes down to our poor stewardship of God’s body, the earth. We are fortunate today there is gradually more consciousness about the ways in which the earth is being diminished that will be irrevocable. However, unlike war or other emergencies, we often do not see or react with what we are producing – global warming – with a great rush of energy to change our practices.  But if Saul can have powerful experiences that can open his eyes and shift his entire perspective of who he is called to be and who he was called to serve, then there is hope for us that one day, we too, will have a powerful experience that opens our eyes and shifts our perspective from human beings at the center of the earth to human beings as living in a responsible interdependent relationship with other creatures in the world.  There are ways that you and I can be vigilant stewards of the earth in our homes, in our church, in our work, in our places of entertainment. Some of them are listed on your inserted handout. Please take them home and post them. Begin the process. This is a beginning and one has to begin somewhere. We have begun some of these here in this parish, primarily to save money, but the good news is that often in trying to save money and consume less, stewardship of the earth is actually improved. This is the time in which the awareness of  global warming and other diminishing of the earth is being raised. It is now a justice issue.

            Global warming, however, needs an approach that extends throughout the world and will need policies changed and that means legislation and economics that encourage the stewardship of the body of God. For people of faith, we are called to remember that our life style and lives play a major role in whether the body of God is respected or diminished. What cars we drive, what light bulbs we choose, whether we continue using disposable cups, what applicances we buy, how long we shower,  whether we choose paper or plastic when shopping or recycle our bags or use a cloth bag – all these are no longer individual decisions that have nothing to do with impacting others in our world. They each remind us of our connection to mother earth, to one another, and above all to God whose body we are called to be much better stewards and who offers us a chance, like Paul was offered, to have the scales removed from our eyes and make a radical shift from individualistic thinking to collective stewardship.

April 20, 2008       Easter  V                         St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

                                                                      Providence, RI 02908

Acts 7:55-60   Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16                    1 Peter 2:2-10               John 14:1-14        

                                                                      SERMON

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

              In our reading from the Book of Acts, the author of Luke introduces us to Stephen who was chosen as one of the seven for a very simple job – to be a waiter. While the 12 apostles were focused on preaching and important leadership positions, Stephen’s job was a humble one—to distribute food to the widows.    Who would have thought that being a waiter could be so dangerous? Although Stephen was chosen to serve, not to preach, his witness of caring for the least in the community becomes so controversial that it provokes the ire of the community. In crossing the standard line of only feeding the Jews in the community and also feeding the gentile, he challenges the powers that be and is eventually killed for it. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, comes not from preaching the word, but from feeding the hungry!  A message clear for us is that those who follow Jesus bear witness to him simply by imitating his value of self-sacrifice. In the simple act of feeding the widow, Stephen does the works of Jesus, but in the process he opens himself to the forces of the world that will not stand for such a witness and he is stoned to death. Yet, in the face of death-dealing stones he clings to Jesus, the Living Stone, who has already passed through death and has taught him the way.  

      Notice how Stephen prays when he is confronted by imminent death. His prayer is not a prayer out of fear and for his own safety. That’s how many of us would pray when we are confronted with danger or death: “Lord, save my life.” Stephen, instead, prays: “Lord keep my Spirit.” His prayer is pure faith and trust that whatever happens, Jesus will be there and meet him. “The heavens opened up” is another way of saying that Stephen was open to receive the overpowering love of the Holy Spirit that reassured him that Jesus would be with him through thick and thin. We have so much we can learn from the humble service and faith of Stephen.

      Most of us will not be called to be martyrs. But we will find ourselves in hard times and challenging situations. When you find yourself in difficulty, remember Stephen’s way of praying and pray. “Lord keep my spirit free from fear.”  “Lord keep my spirit free from bitterness and resentment.” “Lord keep my Spirit free from panic and anxiety.” And who knows? Maybe through a different way of praying, you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and feel reassured that whatever happens in your future, Jesus—the Living Stone-- will be there and meet the emergency. God’s goodness will reign and everything is going to be o.k. because your life is in God’s hands.

April 15                                        Easter II

Acts 5: 12a, 17-22, 25-29;  Psalm 118: 19-24; Revelation 1: 9-19; John 20: 19-31

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                                   Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge 

    Sometimes I think it must not be very fun to be named Thomas because our everyday culture considered Thomas to be weak and of little faith --or at the least a disbeliever. We  commonly say, “Don’t be a doubting Thomas”.  Thomas gets a bump rap.  He was really a disciple of great faith and courage. He had proved this by accompanying Jesus at times of danger. Thomas is you and me when we simply want to know Christ first-hand and not simply through the words and experiences of others. Some have called him the Patron Saint of knowing-first-hand. I think he plays such a prominent role in our Gospel today because the writer wants us to understand that an important part of our own faith journey and our own appreciation of the acceptance and joy of the resurrection is in our own first-hand experience.  When we are touched through our own experiences by the power of the resurrection, something deep within us is moved and like Thomas we can say “My Lord and My God” as we feel that transformation of Christ’s love within us. By our own experience what we have seen, what we have looked upon with our own eyes, what we have handled with our own hands, what we have  touched and encountered through Christ’s saving love for us during our own times of despair or sorrow, leads us to personally prepare for the power and joy of the resurrection.  Thomas is a symbol of the truth of our faith journey, that is, to a certain extent it has to be our own experience with God, including touching the pains of Christ in ourselves and others and discovering the spirit of Christ’s saving and amazing love that renews us and some how directs us to an even greater commitment to this world of love. He is risen he is risen and our lives are never the same for then.

     I once went to a workshop in Connecticut with Carolyn Prentisse to learn more creative ways to design worship to relate to youth. I will always remember the “Doubting Thomas Rap” that a group of youth she worked with wrote and she published. It is powerful and contemporary. That’s why I’m going to get into character as a “rapster” and rap it for you now. I think you may remember it more than my sermon because it is so real. However, the congregation has a big part. They must echo the chorus when they are cued and that is:

              Doubt is the word that everybody heard. I doubt it. I doubt it. I doubt it.

So please try it with me and then we will begin.

(practice session)

Below is the rap as I have revised it to fit our context)

THE DOUBTING THOMAS RAP

Peter was sitting in the Upper Room

   With James and Andrew and John.

Thad-de-us was there and Matthew too

    Along with Levi and Bartholomew.

And in comes Jesus

   Through the door which was closed

Right in the middle of the room.

   “NO Way!” cried Peter. “You can’t do that!”

You’re supposed to be lying in the tomb.

CHORUS:  I DOUBT IT is the word that everybody heard.

I DOUBT IT.   I DOUBT IT.   I DOUBT IT.

Don’t be afraid, Jesus said to his friends

   Shalom be upon you today.

He blessed each one

   And when he came to the end.

He left the same way he came in.

CHORUS: 

Now in came Thomas, in from the street

He had missed what Jesus had said. 

     “We saw him! We saw him!” the disciples cried.

But Thomas shook his head

    As though they had lied.

And let out a  sceptical sigh!  

CHORUS: 

Thomas looked around, and said with a frown: 

“You want me to believe that he walked in the room

   Through a door which wasn’t even open?

 You expect me to believe that Jesus is alive

    The same Jesus whose body was broken?”

 CHORUS:

“I need to touch the holes in his hands

    The holes where they put those nails.

And I need to put my hand in his side

   And then I’ll know that he died, that he died.

    Because…..

 CHORUS.

There was a hush in the air

   And Jesus was there.

Thomas had tears in his eyes.

   “Lord, is it you? How can it be?

 Don’t you know I was there when you died?”

CHORUS

“Thomas, don’t you fear.

   There’s a mystery here

And we all have a big part in it.

Death ain’t the end, my doubting little friend

As you  see with me, it’s the beginnin.

CHORUS

“Thomas, touch my side,

    then you’ll know first hand

That it’s true what they’ve said,

     I’ve risen from the dead.

 May peace be with you forever.

Then Thomas felt the love

    And the mystery from above

And he was never the same

you can feel it too

Yes, you and you and you.

Just trust in his love that comes from above

And shout out the words that we need to be livin’:

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN!

April 13, 2008        Easter IV      St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

                                                          Providence, RI 02908

Acts     Psalm 23   1 Peter      John  

                                                          SERMON

                                                                                 Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

Amen.

April 6, 2008            Easter III      St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

                                                          Providence, RI 02908

Acts 2: 14a, 36-41   Psalm 116: 1-3, 10-17   1 Peter 1: 17-23   Luke 24: 13-35          

                                                          SERMON

                                                                                 Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

Emmaus---a place located only 7 short miles from Jerusalem. The disciples are not just walking on the road to Emmaus, they are walking away from Jerusalem, away from the crucifixion, away from the triumphant celebration of their King who now was dead and, to them, gone. They were walking away from despair and hopelessness. This road they were on was a road between their past and an unknown future. At most they are in shock. Just trying to figure it all out and what happened to them. They are numb to the present and full of concern. What were they to do now? Was it all a fake or a hoax? Were they duped?  They must have felt empty. Their hearts were low and sad, most likely and they had no answers anymore. What had seemed to be crystal clear and certain in their minds was now fog and confusion. What they went along with and did was now ready to be left behind or forgotten as their leader was gone.  Most likely they really didn’t know what they believed now.  Their faith was up in the air and not grounded at all.

Have you ever been there on the road to Emmaus in your life? I wonder if this is how many people who valued Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership felt when he was assassinated? Or JFK?   The spiritual journey of the road to Emmaus happens in our lives when life takes a u-turn and we are left with the despair and disappointment. Maybe for the disciples, the road to Emmaus was like walking out on life out of despair or anger.

 I believe it certainly was a defining moment in their spiritual life.  When they met this stranger along the way, they were really in a battle for their heart.

The contemporary spiritual writer Kathleen Norris reminds us that "to believe" is not a matter of the mind, but a matter of the heart because what we "believe" is what we "give our heart to." We see this played out in the story today.  The stranger who walks along side them and dialogues with them about the events that have so depressed them leads them to see life in a whole different way. Through scripture, he reminds them that death didn’t have the final word and that the risen Christ was present for them. He opens their eyes to the risen Christ. He fills their hearts with hope and desire to find and share the love of Christ with others. They testify to one another: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”  They had met the living Christ and their hearts were on fire. The love of Christ puts our hearts on fire. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit which moves us to give our heart to what we believe.   

We don’t want to miss sight of an important part of the story of the road to Emmaus. Since we know that the stranger was Jesus because we have a secret that the disciples didn’t have at the time—that’s part of the intrigue of the story—we can miss the importance of the stranger here.  The fact is that the disciple’s eyes were opened partly because they extended the hospitality of Christ to another they met who was in need. They practiced Christian hospitality. Without that, their hearts may not as burned so brightly. Christian hospitality is an act of unselfish and unconditional love offered to another we don’t know—a stranger, a newcomer, an alien, an ‘other’ who has no standing in our world or those we know.  Hospitality calls us to be unselfish and focus on the needs of others, rather than our own. Hospitality calls us to be open and flexible and to surrender any claim to our way of doing things as superior. It calls us to be invitational people rather than incorporators. Hospitality calls us to listen and receive more than judging or evaluating. Hospitality calls us to find the living Christ in the unknown. …to find the living Christ in the unknown…..to let our eyes be opened to encounter a blessing in what might inspire fear, rejection, or withdrawal.   Hospitality is Christ’s gift to us because in doing the hard work of being open, unselfish, focused off our own needs, listening and receiving rather than judging or evaluating. Hospitality is finding the face of Christ in the stranger in need. Strangers are a gift to our faith and a blessing from God because they   call us to not get stuck in our ways or not cling to arrogance that our ways are superior to any others. It is through the attitude of openness, unselfishness, and ready for change that TRANSFORMATION IS POSSIBLE – our own. The truth about hospitality is that we are transformed when we share the love of Christ with others in need in our midst – in needs of attention, in need of inclusion, in need of education, in need of community and connection. Hospitality is opening the door to let Jesus Christ into our way of life.

   Hebrews 13:2: “Continue to love each other with true Christian love. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”  Love each other but don’t forget to welcome strangers. True hospitality can transform us because when we open our heart, our door, our life to a stranger, we in turn are transformed in our spirit and attitude. Our eyes can be opened and we see differently. This is the gift that the unknown, the stranger, offers us. Can we take it?  It depends whether we can practice radical hospitality with the unknown, the stranger, in our midst. Radical hospitality is nothing more than unconditional love which calls US to CHANGE rather than the other/the stranger. WE are offered the call to CHANGE. How different? We are offered the gift of the different to invite us to grow, to be transformed.    Strangers and new ones are a blessing waiting to happen if we recognize the stranger as the living Christ in our midst. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we can be transformed to follow the living Christ and our hearts can be burning to show love and tell others about our journey of transformation on the road to Emmaus where we met the risen Christ in an unknown person who filled our hearts with truth and focus and clarity on what we believe and what and who we give our heart to. May your journey on the road of despair or hopelessness or fear be filled with strangers who can help you encounter the living Christ in the heart of who you and your journey of the heart and may you be blessed with the power of Christ’s love burning in your heart to share the Easter joy of his love.

 March 30, 2008      Easter II        St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

                                                          Providence, RI 02908

                                                          SERMON       

                                                                                 Rev. Joyce Penfield, Priest

        Last week was Easter Sunday, a time we found Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb and not only finding the stone rolled away, the body gone, but claiming to have seen the risen Jesus and to have talked with him.  This Sunday we enter a time of fear. We find the disciples locked in a room behind closed doors out of fear for their safety.  The same crowds who had loved Jesus and sought afterhim, had also participated in executing him and now might want to come after them, too. It must have been a time of hell for them—definitely, emotional confusion. They were grieving the death of Jesus, their beloved leader. They were grieving their own failure to stand with him to the end. Maybe most of all they were grieving the loss of hope and promise the one they had followed held up for them.  It all seemed to have disappeared. Now look where they found themselves!

       Has this ever happened to you?  For many of us it rings true! We start out a relationship with the greatest hope, love, and intention—whether it be as mothers or fathers or aunts or uncles or brides or grooms or partners or new employees or eager students or clergy or parish leaders.  Some time along this path of hope, love and promise, we meet the world of conflict, bad choices, disappointments, personalities, failure, hatred, prejudice, disrespect, meanness, violence, cruelty, etc. and like the disciples in John’s Gospel today, we begin to doubt whether what touched us originally ever really existed or could exist again in the future. We begin to deny any possibility of a world built on  hope, love, nonviolence, and peace. We begin to let our past negative experiences run our present and future direction. We kick ourselves for letting our guard down enough to believe that unconditional love could ever be possible. We opt for fear, doubt, and guilt as we lock others out and ourselves in the darkness –alone and isolated.

        The disciples were confronted with these same feelings but they were not alone or isolated. Their world was not one haunted by extreme individualism and “make it on your own” philosophy. They gathered as a community to confront their confusion and hurt. In fact, it was “community” which held the ray of hope for bursting out of a very low point in their faith journey. Even while locked in fear and doubt, they reminded each other of another story circulating at the time. It was said that this woman, Mary Magdalene, had made an unbelievable claim that the stone to Jesus’ grave was rolled away from the tomb, his body was gone, and as she left there, she met the risen Jesus who spoke to her. Of course, she was “just a woman and they often exaggerated the truth. And then suddenly in this upper room of disciples stood the risen resurrected Jesus—wounds and all.  What were his first words? "Peace be with you."  No fear. No scolding.  No turmoil. No doubt.  Just “Peace be with you.”  These are the words we say to one another after our prayers every Sunday: “The peace of Christ be with you.” Powerful words of forgiveness, love, and oneness. “The peace of Christ.” These words reconnect us to the unconditional love and forgiveness of the risen Jesus who returned to his disciples to bring them the Spirit of love to carry on and witness to others to go out and be peace and love and justice for the world. Just as God sent Jesus, so Jesus sent them into the world that God loved so well.   

  But Thomas, who arrives afterward and misses everything, very reasonably says he won't believe until he sees for himself the mark of the nails on Jesus' hands (he sounds almost modern, doesn't he?); he even wants to put his own finger in the mark of the nails and to feel the reality of the resurrection for himself. Thomas’ doubt was part of his faith journey. Our own journey must often touch the wounds of others and in so doing encounter the presence and Spirit of the risen Christ. Isn’t that the essence of ministry to our broken world?  Resurrection isn't something that happened a long time ago, something that we simply commemorate each Easter. In our day-to-day lives as the church in ministry, like Thomas, we put our hands on the wounds of this broken world.  We witness to the hope that sustains us in knowing that we are going to rise again, that everything is going to be all right in the end. 

"We cannot keep the Spirit to ourselves. We are gifted with it for the sake of others. God gives the church the spiritual gift of resurrection life so that the church will bring it to bear on the world."  It sounds as if a personal, private faith is not what Jesus intends for us, but instead he wants a Spirit-filled church to be his gift to the world.  As 20th century church leader, William Sloan Coffin reminds us: “We belong to one another, according to the vision of the religious community, the saving vision, the ancient prophetic vision of human unity, all of God's children on this earth.” The Spirit was given to us because we are connected to, and responsible for, one another. This is what church should continually remind us of. We are not called to be lone rangers or to isolate ourselves in our own gloom and doom. As followers of the risen Christ, we are called to gather together in his Spirit of love and receive the mystery of hope and newness of the resurrected one in our midst.

Whenever we're afraid and hiding out, all locked up, God comes to us in the midst of our fear and says, "Peace be with you." Whatever doubts churn in our minds, whatever sins trouble our consciences, whatever pain and worry bind us up, whatever walls we have put up or doors we have locked securely, God comes to us and says, "Peace be with you."  Whatever hunger and need we feel deep in our souls, God calls us to the table, feeds us well, and sends us out into the world to be justice and peace, salt and light, hope for the world.  We can do it, if we keep our eyes open, our minds limber, and our hearts soft and willing to love.  As God sent Jesus, God sends us, this day. For this we should always be grateful. The love of Christ is risen and present today right here in our midst. Alleluhia. Alleluhia.     

January 14, 2007

Extremists --   What comes to your mind when we hear this dramatization?

King wants us to know that changing the world to include all of God’s children equally rocked the boat and when that happened, he was called a name. We hear lots of names nowadays which trigger an instant fear of attack and repulsion and rile us up for doing all kinds of things that seem right. The word I’m thinking about in this century is “terrorist”. Just to use the term automatically jerks us to condemn another or group and agree to go on the offensive to strike them down. In King’s day, that term was “extremist” and it was being used in the Christian community by those in churches.

King offered a voice, a vision, and a way.

         He raised awareness through direct nonviolent action among many people to confront some of the extremisms which were evil, specifically: racism, poverty /materialism, and militarism.  In his last book, Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community? King made a strong case for addressing racism not only in this country but internationally and for eradicating global poverty and local, and for pursuing nonviolent alternatives to war by means of the United Nations. 

     Metaphor was a WORLD HOUSE

 1.  Share the world’s resources:

        He proposed a Marshall Plan to eradicate global poverty – wealthy nations would dedicate 2% of the GENps to aid programs for the poor over a period of 10-20 years.

2.  Encourage cooperation, not competition.

      He spoke of moving beyond nation-state thinking to a genuine coalition of efforts that valued opinions of all countries.

3. Nonviolence as a way of life.

    He would have worked to end the global arms trade.

4.  Win friendship and understanding

   --not isolate

January 21, 2007                                          Epiphany III

Nehemiah 8: 2-10,        Psalm 113,       1 Corinthians 12: 12-27,       Luke 4: 14-21

SERMON:                                                                                           

                                                                                                                   Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge  

What is happening to the Episcopal Church in the world today? Why are some churches in the Anglican Communion separating to form a new type of church all because a leader in the church represents a diversity they want to deny or exclude from the body of Christ.  Do you see the image on the front of the bulletin in which all are gathered at the communion table? Imagine if a few members gathered together and told a few others at the table that they weren’t welcome to be part of the feast until they looked, acted, or were like them. What a violation of Paul’s metaphor of the church of Christ!  What would happen if our eyes told our hands that they couldn’t be open anymore and had to remain clenched? But for St. Paul, this would be a blasphemy of the creation of God and it would create division in the unity of the body. Perhaps this is what has happened in the Episcopal Church today.  In order to avoid division, we have asked some part of our body to stop being itself or to just go away. Can this truly be unity? Paul’s metaphor reminds us so clearly that unity is only possible through diversity. How long will it take for us to grasp this concept: unity does not mean uniformity, it means diversity working in harmony.

     In addition, Paul’s metaphor reminds us that diversity is not the cause of division nor is it something we should tolerate or put up with. No. It is the opposite: our body can not operate fully or as a unity WITHOUT this diversity of gifts given to us by our creator I know how true this is.  A few months ago, I learned painfully how important my tongue is to eat, to talk, and to drink. When the dentist ulcerated it, every tiny movement was painful and I became aware of how important it was for my whole body to function. I no longer take it for granted since that painful time in my life.

     How many years had I had this tongue? How many times had my tongue moved in my mouth? Billions, probably. And yet I was totally unaware of its importance, its value, and the necessity for the survival of my body. Suppose we were to apply this to the diversity of people in the world who are invisible or openly excluded to be full and whole members of the body of Christ! The body of Christ is less whole. It is hurt and wounded and not able to function as a unit – all because we are so unaware of the importance, the value and necessity for the survival of the universal church of those excluded from full membership at God’s table with legitimate voices as the body of Christ.

        Thanks to the grace of God, the body of Christ is the mystical union with Christ which no humans can deny others because the transforming love of Christ breaks through even the most divisive situations. Remember the beginning of the 20th century, when women were not accepted as full members of the body of Christ, nor as legitimate leaders to ordain. The “theological” excuse used then, and still used by some parts of our universal church, was that Christ wasn’t a woman and therefore woman couldn’t practice sacramental rites—a necessary function of clergy.. However, the love of Christ broke through in a remote part of the world in 1944 when Florence Li Tim-Di was ordained the first woman to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion. In more ancient times, the love of Christ broke through the exclusionary and hard heart of Saul on the road to Damascus and transformed him into Paul who wrote more books in the New Testament than anyone else. Paul learned how much he needed others to live and we are called today as a church to learn and re-learn how much we need the diverse gifts and natures of others to continue the life of the church in its mystical union with Christ.

Let us glorify the body of Christ given to us by God whose power working in and through us, is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

January 28, 2007                                          Epiphany IV

 Jeremiah 1: 4-10     Psalm 71: 1-6, 15-17   1 Corinthians 14: 12b-20  Luke 4: 21-32   

SERMON:                                                                                           

                                                                                                                   Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge  

        When is the last time you thought about, “Why on earth are you here?” No, I don’t mean just here this morning in church, I mean here on earth. What is your purpose in the world? This is a deep question.  It is a spiritual question and to seek its answer takes us on our own spiritual journey. This question isn’t the same as the one we got when young: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Because this question of your purpose in the world stems from God’s love for the world and for you. Yes, you!

        Jeremiah and Jesus – both called to prophetic ministry – knew this. Jeremiah recalls his call to this ministry in our reading today: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah was in God’s mind before he was conceived and before he was born. Jeremiah had a plan and a purpose which was given to him by God because God so loved the world he wanted it Jeremiah to be the spokesperson of that love, truth, and justice. God called Jeremiah to prophetic ministry.

 This was 2,600 years ago! What about us, today?  In his nonfiction, best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren would have us remember that to find your purpose you must begin with God because: 

 “You are not an accident. Even before the universe was created, God had you in mind, and he planned you for his purposes. Your birth was no mistake. God’s motive for you was his love. God made you so he could love you. Your life has a purpose and no matter how many self-help books you read, you can’t figure out your purpose on earth without starting with God. 

So how exactly are we to figure out our purpose on earth? It is tempting to think of this as a finite, static answer, like we might get from a Mission Impossible assignment; “You have been called to an amazing purpose. Life in Jerusalem is corrupt. Your mission, Jeremiah, is to preach a prophetic word. Destroy this tape before you begin!” But we all know this only happens in the James Bond movies.

     What if our purpose in life is just to work hard at accepting that God loves us for who we are, not who we aren’t and God yearns for a true relationship in which we return that love by honoring and glorifying him and meaning it in our heart. Here are some specific ways we can do this each day to fulfill our purpose in life:

#1   We can bring glory to God by worshiping God, not just here in this intentional service of worship but in our daily lives by enjoying God’s creation and life.  St. Iraneus once said, “The greatest glory of God is the human being fully alive.” 

#2    We can bring glory to God by honoring and loving others and ourselves as God does. This means those we like and those we don’t like.

#3    We can bring glory to God by serving others, that is, by using our gifts not for selfish reasons but for the benefit of others.

#4   We can bring glory to God by sharing God’s love with others and helping them explore their purpose in the world.

         Each of us are called to use our gifts in specific ways to bring glory to God. We are given free will to choose to do this or not. The choice is not often an easy one. As was true for Jeremiah and for Jesus, the choice may lead us on a difficult path or at least one that requires us to sacrifice time or money or our personal goals or needs.

          The most difficult task we may confront is to accept deep in our heart that God, the Transcendent one,  created us because he yearns to have a mutual relationship of love with us which includes forgiveness, no matter what we might have don. But it is up to us to say, “Yes”, because each time we say, “Yes, God, thy will be done, not mine” and then indeed do God’s will, we choose to fulfill God’s purpose in the world and bring glory to God.  St. Paul reminds us that “Everything comes from God alone and lives by his power and is for his glory.” (Romans 11:36)

Let us give glory to God whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

February 4, 2007                                         Epiphany V

 Judges 6: 11-24a   Psalm 85: 7-13   1 Corinthians 15:1-11     Luke 5: 1-11   

SERMON:                                                                                    

                                                                                                                   Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge  

   After this service, St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s will have its 167th Annual Parish Meeting. This is a time for us to reflect on 2006 and evaluate ourselves a bit so that we might launch out into the depths of 2007... It is a time to reflect on the purpose that drives this parish and to begin to discern where God is calling us in the future. One small step in that direction might be to just reflect on why St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s is important in your life. What special role does it play?  You will have a chance to help us learn more about that by writing down a phrase or sentence on paper during coffee hour. We plan to use some of these statements in finishing our welcoming brochure for the church.

    I would like to give some of my observations and reflections from 2006. This is a small, family-sized parish of no more than 95 members, of which less than 1/3 resides in Providence and fewer yet in the neighborhood. St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s is an Episcopal parish in a very Roman Catholic area of Providence. There was growth in this parish in 2006, although as much as we would like or hope for. In 2006, 2,317 people took communion in this parish—roughly 55 more than 2005—and 25 private communion services were provided in 2006, compared to 8 in 2005. We doubled our weekday Eucharistic services in 2006 (from 4 to 8). In 2006 we had 3 Baptisms and 3 Funerals and at least 8 new persons began worshipping regularly with us.

      Two outreach ministries of this parish, Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry ministries, which we pray for each week, play a significant role in the neighborhood.   Last year we fed 730 adults and 152 children a full 4-course hot meal through the Soup Kitchen and provided 473 bags of groceries for about 10 persons per week in 2006. That is well over 1,500 meals for as many people. This would be significant no matter how many other churches were feeding the hungry, but to my knowledge, none of the other many, large churches in the area have regular feeding programs. 

     In addition, this parish is indirectly providing a needed service to the community by renting its space to two other ministries: Shekinah Family Ministries and The Blessing Way. In 2006, The Blessing Way provided 50 contemplative prayer sessions for over 141 clients and 436 hours of case management for over 64 clients to help them make a more successful transition back to Providence from prison or residential drug treatment. 

    St. Peter’s and St. Andrew’s has many other strengths beyond the few I have mentioned here. But we also have many challenges, particularly: the need for some on-going adult Christian education to build up our discipleship and spirituality; improved stewardship and evangelism approaches to bring the Good News to others; and Vestry Roles and training. In annual report, I gave 3 new directions I pledge to put more attention on. What would be yours?    

Like the 4 fishermen in our Gospel reading, at the end of a day in which we overworked, we often feel tired and discouraged. But we know that is not the whole story. There is one who we follow who calls us beyond despair to hope and love. We are called to put out into the deep and let down our nets for a catch. This means we can’t stay in shallow water where it is safe. It means we are called to risk change and do something different.  Even if we have “tried that before and it didn’t work”. The disciples maxed out their day, worked hard, and caught no fish. But they were faithful to the call and challenge Jesus gave them to trust in him and Do something different. Let’s remember their story when we live out our story and be able to say: “We’ve tried that before, We did that, but if you call us God and say so, we will put out into the risky deep water and let down our nets. We will turn our life over to you, Christ, and let you lead us with your love and strength.   Let our story as a parish be that of Peter’s who doubted but followed and tried anyway and was amazed at how God’s love extended to his life. It can and it will to ours as well.

Let us give glory to God whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

 March 25, 2007                                          Lent V

Isaiah 43: 16-21,    Psalm 126,    Philippians 3: 8-14,     Luke 20: 9-19 

SERMON:                                                                                 

                                                                                                                   Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                    Priest-in-Charge 

       In this morning’s reading from Philippians, St. Paul recalls his conversion from Saul the destroyer of Christians to Paul the servant of Christ.  It is quite a story of transformation and grace which can encourage any of us to believe in the mystery and power of God to make a way in the wilderness of our lives and those of others. Thank goodness!  As grateful Paul is to the power and presence of Christ that he has experienced in his life, he is also quick to remind us that he is still a work in progress. God is not finished with him just yet, nor is he finished with shaping us.  Lent has given us a chance to focus on that formation and shaping.  Through review of our lives and self-examination we are reminded of our need for salvation and for God’s loving presence in our lives and our actions. Jesus even gives us a parable in today’s reading to emphasize how easy it can be for us to lose God in our daily living.

              A landlord leases his vineyard to some tenants and when it comes time to collect his portion of the produce, the tenants quick out, and even kill, those he sends to collect.  Apparently the tenants had totally forgotten that they had leased this land and didn’t own it. They had begun acting AS IF they owned the land.  I imagine that they were so filled with self-importance and business of the day that they just lost touch with who truly was in charge.  It is easy to be judgmental and tough on the tenants in this parable. After all, they go out of their way to get rid of whoever is sent to them; they even go to the extreme of organizing and killing the son of the landlord.  Few of us would see ourselves acting in such an ungrateful and irresponsible way.  But the parable challenges us to look around within ourselves and in the events of our daily lives to identify when our pride or sense of importance might lead us to put things ahead of God. 

              The tenants had forgotten that all that they grew came through that which the owner of the vineyard had planted and leased them. And so is true for us. God is the source of all creativity we bring to our work, our job, our school, our home – our daily lives.  I am amazed at how my own personality style or past experiences or obligations of the day can lead me to so concentrate on my own ability that I forget who is the true owner of any ability or creativity I might bring to a task. It is so easy in the schedule of life to get so focused on the work of growing those vineyards that we forget who the true owner is.  It is all too easy to have so many tasks on our plate that we lose sight of God as the source of our life.  I found myself in this situation easily this week as I rushed to get from one meeting to another. I was already 10 minutes late to a staff meeting at ACI. The warden had already growled at me for missing the prior two meetings and I wanted to reduce her complaints so I was determined to get to this meeting; however, I arrived for clearance at the front date at the worst time possible—in the middle of the officer’s  tallying up the result of counting inmates for that afternoon.  I stood anxiously patient for the first 5 minutes and then I grew less patient and asked to get in for which I got a sharp negative response and a potential for conflict was on its way as I grew angry. In the midst of this tension, I found myself feeling “very important” and seeing them as “trivial” and “less than me” and I thus lost all sense of the light of Christ within them.  It was a learning moment for me because I lost touch with my owner, the true landlord of my life—the one I say I follow. Like Paul reminds us, we are works in progress. The season of Lent gives us the opportunity to examine ourselves daily, to become aware of our taking our own will into our hands and leaving God out of the picture, and then to repent and turn back to God’s assuring love. For me, looking closely at this incident taught me that even in the simple times of getting to a meeting, I need prayer—if for no other reason to remind myself who is the true landlord in my life and how his Son and my Baptismal Covenant call me to treat others. And through repentance and confession, God is doing new things in me. And for this, I am grateful.

Amen.

June 17, 2007                                 Pentecost III

2 Samuel 11: 26-12:10,    Psalm 5: 1-8,   Galatians 2: 15-21,   Luke 7: 36-8:3                 

SERMON:                      

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

            St. Paul sums up the human dilemma we all face when he writes (Romans 7: 14-25) “What I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate….I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Paul is reminding us of our sinful nature and how close at hand and how easy it is to follow “another law at work.” The scriptures we have today show us 3 ways of responding to this human reality.

             David not only falls short in his lust for Bathsheba, a married woman, which he isn’t able to control. Without questioning, he uses the power of his office to please himself recklessly and doesn’t stop there. To cover up his abuse of power, he ultimately arranges the murder of her husband, Uriah—a captain/soldier in his own army. The amazing thing is how quickly in the story David moves from one bad decision to worse ones so that he won’t be exposed. So where is God here? God is in the voice of the prophet, Nathan, waking David up to what he had done and confronting him with his extravagant sin through a story. Notice that David’s response is not one of denial or excuses or evasion or more deception. It is one of honesty in admitting just how far he had fallen short.  And God’s response? To this honesty and acceptance, it is instant forgiveness.

            The unnamed woman in the Gospel has also fallen short in her life, but unlike David she is very aware of it.  In fact, this very awareness and her lack of much power or position in society could have been the very things which sent her running from Jesus and burdened her so much that she submitted to even more wrong doing because of the debt she owed. She must have had a special type of faith because she did not let her past prevent her from deep and direct encounter with Jesus. She did not run from him but ran to him and received the love and forgiveness he freely offered her—EXTRAVAGANT FORGIVENESS.  It moved her to tears that fell on his feet and she wiped his feet with extravagant perfume as a sign of her gratitude for his mercy. She owed much and was forgiven extravagantly. That is how God is. Those who admit honestly and accept that they have fallen short and owe much are given God’s extravagant forgiveness and grace.

            A third Biblical character we see today is not highlighted much is Simon, the Pharisee, for whom it almost seems Jesus is telling this story. He is able to love Jesus but not the unnamed woman. He is a sinner but seems to be the last one to know it. He has moral ideals and is able to see how others fall short of them, but is in denial of how he falls short of them himself. He is like many of us who can’t imagine that we are capable of murder or thievery, but neither did David and looked where he ended up?  Simon has put his trust in his own ability to meet his moral standards—a dangerous path to walk for a human being even if he has great intentions.  Simon isn’t able to be honest and accept his own sins –his jealousy of this outcaste woman in getting Jesus attention; his dislike of someone outside the realms of the “right rules and rituals” he held on to so tight,  his fear of someone he saw as capable of tarnishing the one he followed or his religious people.

             This morning we have 3 biblical examples of messing up or falling short.  They bring us face to face with ourselves and urge us to ask ourselves:

            How do we handle being made aware of how we are falling short? Do we get honest and admit it when confronted with the truth—even when we think or ourselves as incapable of making such a sin or “not that type of person”? God’s extravagant forgiveness is waiting for us to decide. Through honesty and admission, David received that forgiveness immediately

            How do we handle our awareness of how much we fall short or have fallen short in daily affairs of our lives? Do we get so burdened that we withdraw from others and life or just escape by our work or food or drink? It’s easy to do. The unnamed woman may have been filled with self-hatred and dislike of her past, but she didn’t let that prevent her from a deep and direct encounter with Jesus. She let her many sins LEAD her to SEEK OUT the love of Jesus. She brought her burdens of sinfulness directly to him and was OPEN to receive his extravagant grace and forgiveness. Her tears of gratitude flowed on his feet.

         I am sure that Simon, the Pharisee was striving to be the best person he could. He was doing what his religious community taught him – living out their rules of a “good person”. He didn’t want to face his inability to live up to these standards. There was no room in his belief for that. How often do we forget that sinfulness and falling short of our own standards is part of being human? God doesn’t expect us to be perfect—God wants a relationship of honesty, acceptance, deep encounter, and openness.

            Like David, we are called to REPENT, that is, to get honest and admit our mistakes –the ones we have done and the ones we have held in our heart or mind.  Like the unnamed woman, we are called to let go of our past by bringing the burdens of our own debts and mistakes to God and by seeking out a deep and direct encounter with the love of Jesus.  It is this great humility that reminds us of our need for forgiveness and the love of Christ for us that we meet and receive EXTRAVAGANT FORGIVENESS so freely offered by God.  The power of the stories in our readings this morning is that they lead us to acknowledge the sin in ourselves in both our actions and our hearts—our arrogance, envy, lust, greed, jealousy, hatred, etc.-- and once we get honest with all of these, we can be open to receive the extravagant mercy,  love, and forgiveness of God so freely offered to us.

June 24, 2007                                     Pentecost IV

Zechariah 12: 8-10; 13:1,    Psalm 63: 1-8,  Galatians 3: 23-29;   Luke 9: 18-24

SERMON:                       

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield

The reading from Galatians today reminds us of our baptism and the importance Jesus held for unity of his followers.  The point is that when we are incorporated into Christ in baptism, all distinctions which might get in the way of our unity have been removed: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.”  Why? “for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” He was not lobbying for us to deny our differences or pretend they aren’t there or to focus on our commonalities. Any of these strategies might or might not work to form community, but his focus was on what being incorporated into Christ through baptism meant.  Jesus was urging a radical type of unity:   “As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”  In so many words, the legitimacy and credibility of the gospel is only known through the unity of the believing community! That’s us – the church. It is through the witness of the church that the unbelieving world can know the Good News of the love of Christ.

              So it is sad today to see how far we in the church continue to stray toward division and disunity. In the Anglican Communion, we hear a lot about “unity” and working toward it, but is that happening at the expense of what our baptism promises that we will always be different from one another but through baptism the differences of our identity or nationality or race or gender or sexuality or socioeconomic status or ability or education or age or eye color or whatever are to be no obstacle to loving one another or being one in Christ Jesus. 

            Paul has an important lesson to teach us today in our understanding of our differences of identity and being one in Christ Jesus. He is not talking about setting our differences aside for the sake of working out a common good. He is not talking about denying our identity for the sake of unity because this would be a false unity, wouldn’t it? How can I deny I am a woman when the society reminds me of it over and over in how I am treated and not treated? He is talking about accepting the differences of identity among each other and not letting these be a source of division or disunity. You see, he had planted churches in Galatia during his first missionary journey. But within months of his ministry there, certain groups entered to contradict the Good News he had preached. Theses people began to claim that non-Jewish converts to Christ had to keep the Jewish law in order to be saved. They had to follow Jewish ways in order to be true Christians, and one of these laws was circumcision. Paul’s writing to the church of Galatia is to make it clear to all that the Good News was one of liberation for them – truly. They were free to be themselves and that meant they were free from the demands of Jewish laws. They did not have to conform to Jewish ways to be Christian. I think this message was not just to the non-Jewish converts but to all those in Galatia who were getting it all wrong about being “one in Christ.”  Being one in Christ doesn’t require the lack of diversity or abandoning one’s identity, but just the reverse, it requires the RESPECT FOR OUR DIFFERENCES OF IDENTITY.  “In Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith.” The barriers are lifted. We who believe in the good news and liberation of Christ Jesus are the children of God and the heirs of Abraham. All the promises God gave to Abraham now belong to us.  We all have a place in God’s family. And by the way, if we are children of God, that makes us brother and sister to one another—no matter what other realities define our lives! To be one in Christ is to live this out.  This is the foundation of Christianity. Amidst our differences of identity, “everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This should be the cornerstone of all of our discussions and disagreements about difference today in the church. If unity of the church is held up as a something sacred and worth stretching for, we need to remember that it is unity IN CHRIST – not “cheap” unity which denies or eliminates differences we don’t want to accept.  When we find ourselves unable to give up a prejudice or break down a barrier because of difference, Paul’s reminder to the Galatians sets us straight.  Greeks did NOT have to become like Jews in order to be full-fledged members of the church. Females did not have to become males. Slaves were not barred until they became free. Baptism broke down these barriers. All followers of Christ became one in Christ--- they did not become the same as each other, but ONE. Through baptism they were joined in Christ Jesus and that was the basis for unity, not the similarity of their identity. In no way does unity demand conformity to the majority. We need to apply this learning to diversity in the wider church today. If we did, our discussion about “unity” and its “sacredness” would look very different. We wouldn’t expect gays and lesbians to give up their sexual identity in order to be members of the church or leaders in the church.  If we got Paul’s idea of being one in Christ, we wouldn’t expect newcomers to have the same values, culture, or language that the majority in our parish might have? We would be willing to sacrifice our comfort level to be open to change in different ways of doing things. We would be willing to sacrifice our ownership of how things are done to new ways that might even be better. We would be willing to stop, listen, and learn from newcomers instead of trying to teach them how to do what we have always done for years. I believe by doing these things, we would grow into new ways. Unfortunately, often we silence these new opportunities by helping to acculturate the newcomer to OUR ways. A colleague of mine who I met in seminary once told me that at her the first worship service she did as an associate at a large church, she   came down and begin to shake a few hands with the parish at the peace. The “rector” sort of chuckled and mentioned that she was so new she hadn’t learned the custom of remaining on the altar with others and that only he came down and shook hands with a few in the congregation. It was a way of stopping a new practice and silencing her as well. What a missed opportunity, I thought, and what a way to put her in her place for his comfort, I knew. How often do we do this without ill intentions?

               The challenge of Galatians to live as ONE IN CHRIST is radical and challenging and upsets our comfort level. The whole world is watching …it is up to us to live out the reality of Christ through the love and respect we show for each other, especially those we consider different from ourselves. Will we live into the tension of diversity and difference in love?  That is what the future will answer.

August 26, 2007                                           Pentecost XIII

Isaiah  ,    Psalm 46   Hebrews 12,   Luke 13: 22-30

SERMON:                       

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

              Imagine that you were invited to a very special and important banquet, let’s say the Governor of Rhode Island or a Senator of Rhode Island is having a special formal event and invite you to it. You can imagine all the important people who may be attending. It is a big deal. You assume by your invitation that you are important—you are one of “the chosen ones”.  In fact the thought of attending this banquet reminds you that you deserve to be there. You spend a good deal of time preparing for this big occasion. You go out and buy a very special dress or suit that will be acceptable. You plan out your day to arrive well in advance so that you can get the best seat and get as close as possible to the Governor or Senator who invited you. And then it happens. When you arrive, you may be turned away and treated as if you never received an invitation. Or if you are seated, it is last and in the least important position—far away from anyone important. And to make matters worse, other guests who come late and dress a little shabby are let in immediately and even seated right next to the Governor or Senator who it appears they seem to know quite well. How would you feel?  Maybe thoughts like the following might come up for you: “What is going on!!! It just isn’t fair. I worked hard and made all the correct preparations and now I’m treated like a stranger? How could this be that those who arrive late and don’t seem important at all could be treated so favored?!!!”

      Such a scenario like this one is probably not very realistic for everyday life in Rhode Island, but it would have been for Jesus. This morning in our reading from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is teaching the “religious” ones in his midst a little about the kingdom of God which he is bringing in. It is a kingdom that is unlike any of their day. It is one with a narrow door and a hard road. We can call this kingdom an upside down kingdom because it so reverses the roles and rules of the world around us.

     In this Kingdom salvation comes NOT from practicing ritual in the right way or even being a good citizen of the state or maybe even following all the commandments although all of this might be important for the person. In the kingdom or reign of God which Jesus is bringing in, salvation comes free surrender to God’s sovereignty. That is, from turning our lives over to God and developing a personal relationship with God through Jesus. Actually, the kingdom of God is not a place or an event. It is a process and a relationship between God and us deep in our heart and it begins right here on earth today.

         “Are you saved?” “Have you been saved?”  This is the language some people use to characterize an important moment in their life when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and their whole life was turned in a new direction. I believe what they are saying is that they for the first time personally surrendered to God’s power, might, and love and it opened up their life and liberated them. This is how I understand their experience. But accepting Jesus as your Savior or turning your will over to God or however you might say it, is ONLY THE BEGINNING OF YOUR STORY, NOT THE END.   It is a great beginning of the hard road of salvation but it is not the END.  Because salvation is not a moment, a feeling, an event, or a place. Salvation is a process and state in which we submit to God’s reign in our lives and the world and live according to it over and over and over. 

              Isn’t this what we pray for in the Lord’s prayer when we pray:   “thy kingdom come, thy will be done”. It’s a 3-part prayer:

#1    we are first, turning our will over to God and recognizing that God is sovereign and almighty;

# , we are submitting to God’s will over our own because we have accepted that God is sovereign; and

#3   we are committing to work each day toward the reign of God, the kingdom, in our hearts and the world.

      Each day we have an opportunity to build a personal relationship with God. Our Gospel lesson today reminds us that the door to enter is narrow and the road is hard. Only those who truly know God enter. As we know in life, the road that leads to destruction is easy while the road that leads to life and the Kingdom is hard and the door narrow. Each day we have another opportunity to build a deeper relationship and reliance on God and God’s will in our life. Each day we have another opportunity to in our hearts to sit at that banquet table with God one day. So as they say, “don’t be a stranger”. Let God lead your life and your salvation journey so that one day you can feast with others at that messianic banquet table.

Sept. 2, 2007                                    Pentecost XIV

Ecclesiasticus 10: 12-18 , Psalm 112,   Hebrews 13: 1-8,   Luke 14: 1, 7-14

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

Have you ever been somewhere you felt totally invisible? For some reason you didn’t count. You were a non-entity to those around you for some reason. I’d like to share one person’s experience through a story.

    Once there was this little girl sitting by herself in the park. Everyone who came by passed by her. She looked sad as she sat in her pink dress, bare feet, and dirty body. But no one stopped as she sat there. She never tried to speak and she never said a word. No one stopped. One day a woman who had passed by decided to go back to the park, in curiosity, to see if the lil’ girl was still there. She was, right in the same spot. The woman decided to approach her and as she got closer she could see that the lil’ girl had a very scarred face. As she got closer to the girl, the lil girl lowered her eyes slightly. The woman sat down beside her and opened with a gentle, Hello. The lil girl seemed shocked and stammered a “Hi” after staring for a long time into the woman’s eyes. The woman smiled and the girl smiled back. They talked until darkness. The woman finally asked the girl why she was so sad and the lil girl looked at her with a sad face and said, “Because I’m different.” The woman replied, “That you are!” and smiled. The lil girl acted even sadder and said, “I know.” “Lil girl,” the woman said, “you remind me of an angel, sweet and innocent.” Slowly the lil girl got to her feet and said, “Really?” “Yes you’re like a Lil Angel sent to watch over all those people walking by.” And the lil girl shook her head, yes and smiled. With that she spread her wings and said, “I AM. I’m you’re guardian angel.” The woman was speechless and shocked. Was she seeing things? And then the lil girl made her point: “For once you thought of someone other than yourself, my job here is done.” Before she left, the woman jumped to her feet to ask, “Wait, so why didn’t anyone else stop to help an angel?” The lil girl looked at her and smiled, “You’re the only one that could see me,” and then she was gone.

     How easy it is for someone to feel invisible in the presence of a community or group! Have you ever had this experience? Maybe you’ve been in a foreign country or language setting totally by yourself. It can be a stressful situation and make you feel like a child, helpless, and maybe wanting to be invisible for awhile. It is refreshing to remind ourselves that when some gather and feel quite at home and part of a group, others may feel invisible or left out—strangers—because we pass them by or use words, symbols, names or references that remind them that they are outsiders. This is not the ethic or way that the Christian community is to live. We continue to show love and hospitality to strangers because Christ loves us and shows us that same visibility. We are in turn commanded to show it to others I our midst, especially in our parish life. We are exhorted to show a spirituality of graciousness and hospitality. This is a mark of the presence of Christ in our midst. That is what the writer of the book of Hebrews wanted to remind the Hebrew community of his day in our reading this morning: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.  Sometimes our best intentions to live up to this ethic go astray. Perhaps no one intended to neglect to show hospitality to the lil girl in the park in our story, but she looked different. She didn’t seek THEM out. She wasn’t an extrovert. Maybe some people saw her but were afraid of her. Maybe others were just too busy to worry about someone who was silent anyway. And maybe still others went to the park to enjoy their friends or relatives and therefore didn’t notice anyone else around them. Fear of the different, fear of the future can derail us from showing hospitality to those who are vastly different from us.  Hospitality also involves learning to view a situation from the perspective of the other – the guest--- the stranger—the newcomer. This is hardest to do in those situations in which we are most familiar with and feel the most comfortable. But strangers and those things we fear or dread or don’t always understand bring the tension we need to change. That is often the very part that makes them angels for us. Discomfort can often be an invitation to grow into Christ’s love for the world. It can be a reminder that if we are trulyl following Christ, we are to care for the outcaste, the disabled, the prisoner, the poor, the hungry as Christ did. 

     Last year we began discussing some possible ways to reach out to the community, to invite in newcomers, and to increase our hospitality as a parish. At first we called this effort/committee Angels Unaware after the Hebrews scripture but soon it was humorously called the Fat Angels committee after a stained glass window image that was in the church and being put up on our new website.  As Christians we are called to follow the example of Christ to identify with the nobodies, to transgress class and race boundaries, to remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them. All of these are part of the ethic of humility and hospitality. How do they figure into our current decisions and discussions? How do they help us address fear of change, fear of the different, fear of this parish’s future? Where is Christ in our present and future? These are questions left for us as we respond to the command to “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. “

Sept. 9, 2007                                    Pentecost XIV

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20,  Psalm 1, Philemon 1-20,   Luke 14: 25-33

SERMON:                       

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

  “Choose life so that you and  your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.”  Moses exhorts his people as they are about to cross over into the promised land WITHOUT HIM. He will die shortly. They will bury him and only his words and past will they have to go with them. There were no Will & Testaments in writing at that time. He wants them to go with the best guidance and knowledge. CHOOSE LIFE and by doing so you will not choose death. Choose life: love the Lord your God, obey God, hold fast to God.

     The people of Israel are connected to us not only in the past but in the present by WORDS – by covenants which God made and Jesus Christ later fulfilled. Covenants were a sign of God’s love for us and choosing life over sacrifice. They were created to direct us. In ancient days, there were no leases, contracts, or written agreements. One’s Words counted for everything, especially if sealed in a ritual. A COVENANT WAS GOD’S SOLEMN AGREEMENT OF LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE.  With each one, God asked us to in turn live a certain way that chooses life over death.

NOAH – blessed all humankind, forbid murder, promise never to destroy life on earth

                 sign = rainbow

ABRAHAM -  great nation, bless those who bless God and curse those who curse God, land, Abraham father ,

            sign = circumcision

MOSES – make children of Israel HIS people if they obeyed and kept covenant

              give Sabbath

          SINAI COVENANT – 10 commandments; how to live

DAVID – David and his descendants rightful kinds of Judah

       sign – Jesus, Messiah came later

NEW COVENANT

      prophecied in Jeremiah 31:31-34   I will write my ______ on your hearts

      Last Supper,  Jesus says cup ofteh Passover meal is the cup of the New Covenant in his blood.                ….the Old Testament rituals of atonement and blod sacrifice are fulfilled in him.

        Davidic line --- FULFILLMENT OF NEVER ENDING LIFE THROUGH HIM (resurrection)

BAPTISMAL COVENANT – our promises to choose life made on behalf of little ones and by ourselves.  Our verbal commitment in a ritual to live CHOOSING LIFE in our way of treating one another, in our way of living in the world, in our way of choosing justice and forgiving one another and in our discipline of obeying God by worshipping, taking communion, reading the Bible, etc.

COVENANT – Sunday school

Sept. 23, 2007                                  Pentecost XIV

Amos 4: 4-12;  Psalm 138; 1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16: 1-13  

SERMON:                     

                                                                                                     Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                      Priest-in-Charge 

 Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 - The Gospels
Luke 14:25-33 - Luke 16:1-13 - Shrewd Discipleship

Key Verses: (NIV)

• 1: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions." - This parable is not just a finger pointing at the Pharisees or others who have strayed, it is for all of us to consider as we live our lives.
• 2: "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer." - As we live out our lives each day we must bear in mind that at some point we will be called to "give an account of (our) management."
• 4: "I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses." - The shrewdness of the manager is revealed as he lays out a plan for his future.
• 8: "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light." - The "children of light" are to have the same wisdom and foresight in serving God as the "children of this world" have in serving themselves.
• 13: "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." - Jesus moves His lesson from the focus on the self, as in the case with the shrewd manager, and turns it towards the kingdom of heaven.

Points to Contemplate:

• Are you wasting your possessions? As you accumulate things in life, do you use them for the building of God's kingdom? Do you acquire things simply to 'live on' or do you 'live for' the accumulation of wealth? Have you been blessed richly by God? Has He put you in a management position in control of great wealth and resources? Why? In what way is He calling you to be a blessing to the world? What steps can you take to insure you are not wasting the possessions God has provided you?
• Are you being shrewd? Jesus' story of the shrewd manager seems to be telling us that using our wit to scheme and plot in behalf of God is a good thing. Do you wonder why Jesus would point to a selfish cheat as an example for Christian behavior? Is He suggesting that, as Christians, we must be purposeful about our ministries? Do you put all of your energy and focus into the success of a ministry or do you find it acceptable to get by with a half-hearted effort? Do you work at improving and enhancing your talents and gifts in order to be the best you can be for God? How far could you go in the building of God's kingdom if you were as shrewd and purposeful as the manager in this story?
• What master do you serve? The manager in this story was focused on wealth and self-preservation instead of serving his master. What aspects of your life have become more important to you than your service to God? Do you line your nest and fulfill your needs first? Do you look around at each situation to see what is in it for you? Are you involved in ministry only because it meets your needs or the needs of your family? Are you putting yourself or God first? Which master will you choose to serve?

 Oct. 7, 2007                                 

SERMON:                               Recovery Sunday

Habakkuk 1:1-6; 12-13; 2:1-4  Psalm 37: 3-10   2 Timothy 1: 1-14    Luke 17: 5-10

                                                                                                                              Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                              Priest-in-Charge

This morning we celebrate recovery.  We celebrate the process of confronting addiction to drugs, to alcohol, to food, to sex, to cigarettes.  Today, we need to acknowledge a reality which is part of too many family members or ourselves within our nation.  Just look at the figures and it becomes clear. In our nation, over:

      * 18 million suffer from an addiction to alcohol

      * 54 million are hooked on cigarettes

      *  8 million abuse legal drugs

      *  2 million addicted to crack; 1 million to heroin

Figures may be facts but these facts are more than objective statements. They lead us into stories of brokenness and struggle that affect the lives of many of our loved ones and ourselves. Too often the church has remained silent and in denial of the presence of addictions in parish lives, but denial can never lead us to wholeness or health. This morning we name the struggle of addiction as a prevalent aspect of 21st century American life for many and then we recognize that there is also the hope and presence of the Holy Spirit in the day by day process of recovery. Recovery Sunday reminds us that those who have struggled with addiction and found the pathway of recovery have many blessings to bring to each of us and our parish. Christians in recovery have powerful stories of God’s deliverance in their lives which need to be shared and we need to hear. They are statements of how lives have been put on track and saved through the grace of God---the amazing grace of God.  We are all enriched by these stories. They make us dig deep into our own spiritual history and examine when God’s saving grace has touched us and moved us to clarity of decision or to follow a pathway which normally we would not have chosen. Recovery Sunday reminds us in the church that we have lots to learn from those who have walked the painful path of addiction and gotten set free by God.  It calls us to ask ourselves and reflect on: What has us held captive in our lives? Is it healthy? Do we serve that which holds us captive or do we serve God’s call to life and wholeness?

          In our second reading today, Paul is writing his last will and testament to his disciple and missionary, Timothy. Paul knows that he will most likely soon be executed. When we know that death is coming close, somehow it makes our values clear and distinct. Paul wants Timothy to know that his success was not based on his own ability, his skill or his courage but rather on the power of the Holy Spirit working within him.  It is this power of God working in us that we accomplish the kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.  Those who are in recovery know that it is only through God’s power working in them that they can succeed in recovery. They know by experience what all people of faith need to learn: it is only by turning our own human will over to God’s plan and God’s way that we are delivered from those very things around us that hold us captive. This is another one of the major paradoxes of Christianity: by turning our will over to God, we are freed from those things in our will which hold us captive. That is, by trusting in the power of God and God’s purpose and grace, to guide us, we are delivered from our attachments. That makes sense doesn’t it? As long as we feel that WE are the ones in charge, we will cater to the very things to which we become attached. We are humans. What we desire will be our goal and our target and soon we will be structuring our decisions around this goal and believing that WE ARE IN CHARGE. Our ego becomes the center of our universe and our God.

         Psalm 37 reminds us to put our trust in God. Be still before God and wait patiently for him. Confidence and patience are required. In God we trust means exactly that: to trust in God, not our ego, not ourselves, not our loved ones, just God. I can’t think of any group more than those in recovery who have learned and relearned this the hard way. “My way or the highway” does not work. It is a pathway to destruction for them. There are lessons to teach all of us here. Our surrender to God’s will should be a daily affair. It means acknowledging who we serve and who we follow. It means praying and reflecting enough during the week to become aware of the Holy Spirit tugging us to follow God’s will, not our own. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. Sometimes we are called or moved in pathways that we never planned or predicted but which in our gut we know is good because we draw energy and love.

      Recovery can help us as a parish. This week we will be launching our stewardship campaign and it is a perfect time to ask :

              #1 Just where is the Holy Spirit calling us as a parish to build God’s kingdom and to live out God’s plan of salvation in the world?

              #2 What resources do we need to do this?

              #3 Where will these resources come from? How are each of us called to donate these resources of time, talent, and treasure --- of our time, our special professional, personal, and spiritual gifts and our money.

We need resources to keep the building open and running. But where are we being called in particular here that is our very own special call as a parish in this community, this city, this diocese, and this state?  Let us all pray on this and listen to where the Holy Spirit calls us. And then give generously out of gratitude for the free gift of salvation from our attachments.

Let us above all give Praise to God whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine   

 Oct. 28, 2007                               

SERMON:                                XXII Pentecost

Jeremiah 14: 7-10, 19-22    Psalm 84: 1-6      2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18       Luke 18: 9-14

                                                                                                                              Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                              Priest-in-Charge

         Even if you aren’t a Red Sox fan, you can’t miss the pride and team spirit in the air for them. I’ve noticed that for the most part New Englanders love their Red Sox. And they love winning and being ahead of the curve (pun intended).  Just watch a recent game and you can see the fire and passion of the crowds on both sides. I’ve heard everyday people who don’t even play baseball refer to the Red Sox as if they were on the team or owned part of it:  “Our pitcher, Josh      , is  the best in the area.” “We didn’t trade X in time last year…..”  This team spirit builds a feeling of ownership and pride and collective energy.   All of this fire and spirit has made me wonder:  How can we tap into the same fire and spirit and passion that feed us spiritually?  What if we brought the same vigor, fire, and passion of our lives to our church or our parish?  Could it lead each of us to feel so much ownership and commitment that we could step out of our traditional box and take a risk toward new ministry, right here at St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s?  What special and distinctive contribution is St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s called to bring to the world?  

     Church is not a baseball club or team. I believe the major difference between the two is that in the church we come together to hold each other accountable and to keep each other honest.  The purpose of church is to lead us beyond ourselves and our selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-righteousness to care for those in need—especially those who are not like us, to reach out beyond our own members, to recognize our own sinful nature and need for the mercy and forgiveness of Christ.  The parable told by Jesus in our Gospel of the day is pretty clear on all of this. We see opposed in it two extremes: a tax collector whose profession was despised by most people of his day and a Pharisee whose religious vocation was respected in the Jewish world. And as typical of many of Jesus’ parables, there is a twist to make the point primarily to those of us who consider ourselves people of faith or religious. Look at the Pharisee: he missed the point of God’s love. In fact, he was locked in himself. He really doesn’t offer a prayer, but rather thoughts about himself---arrogant thoughts which judge everyone but himself. The center of his world was not God, but himself. He holds contempt for others in his self-righteousness. In modern language, I would say that he allowed the dark side of his heart to paint others as “the other” and “less than” and definitely not part of the same ‘acceptable club’ as him. How easy it is for we humans to see only the negative or differences in those we do not know and thereby separate ourselves out from them:  THEM and US in opposition. When we do this, we miss the humanity of others because we are basically just focused on ourselves and our own little club or group.  In contrast, the tax collector in his demeanor (head down) through humility of soul was able to go beyond himself. He had a soul open to God. IT was clear that God was the center of his world, not himself. His prayer was a plea and cry to God. It was one which we all need to pray – a little 7word prayer that we should pray on a regular basis: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

              “God, be merciful to me a sinner” when I begin to see others as less than myself; when I begin to fear others, because of my own divisions; when I ignore or fail to find Christ in those who I consider so different from myself; “God, be merciful to me.”  Help me to be the light of Christ and find the light of Christ in the stranger, the other, the one I would least expect it or the one I see the most different from myself. Christ came to break down divisions and build up a more powerful and spirited group than any sports team – his church whose purpose is to teach us to be unselfish and humble in soul yet so full of spirit, and fire, and passion for the love of Christ that we take it out to the world and live it out as a parish and as a church.. This year the Congregational Development Commission will be asking our parish—St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s to think, reflect, and pray on what Psalm 84 refers to:  In what way is the living God burning in our hearts and spirit?  What is distinctive about our gifts, our mission, and the ministry of this parish? How can we strengthen what we already do and do well and yet step out of our traditional boxes and walk with faith into new directions? Over the next 5 years, where can we expand our ministry to get beyond ourselves and our self-centeredness?  The hope St. Paul knew in the face of betrayals from close church members and even a threaten of his beheading should inspire and fire us up enough to go beyond focusing on just survival and looking inward to making a bold step outward and forward to be and find Christ in our neighborhood, our city, and our state.  So let us continue to pray that little 7-word prayer to remind us to have humility of soul as we begin this journey:  “God be merciful to me a sinner!”

I give glory to God whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

Nov. 1, 2007                                 ALL SAINTS DAY 

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 44: 1-10, 13-14;    Psalm 149; Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-17; Mt. 5: 1-12

                                                                                                                Sermon

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                Priest-in-Charge

I remember reading once about Desmond Tutu who served as the Archbishop of South Africa during the difficult days of the apartheid struggle. One time he was speaking in New Jersey and a friend of mine was so excited to attend the speech. I asked her why she was going and she responded, “because I feel a little more holy in his presence.”  I FEEL A LITTLE MORE HOLY IN HIS PRESENCE. Today, as we celebrate the feast of All Saints Day, I can’t think of a better and simpler explanation of a saint.  One who makes us feel a little more holy in their presence.

              In the Bible, “saints” is always used in the plural and refers to those who are living—in fact, to the LIVING PEOPLE OF GOD.  During the first few centuries after Jesus died, “saint” came to mean those who gave their lives to bear witness to their faith. And today, there is a broader understanding of Christians of ancient and modern times who make a heroic commitment to Christ and bear witness to their faith, even at the cost of their lives.  Lesser Feast and Fasts – marks those dead and alive, ancient and modern. Today, we celebrate All Saints Day and we remember those we knew and never personally knew that made us feel a little more holy in their presence. They may not have given their lives as martyrs, they may have been our relatives or others we have known, they may be dead or alive. They are most likely ordinary people who in their ordinary, everyday lives, have helped us to feel a little more holy. They are those who have been a window through which the deep love of God could shine through to us and our darkness.

              They are 20th century people like Archbishop Romero of El Salvador who called the military in his country to lay down their weapons and stop killing their own people. He himself was killed while saying mass and giving the Holy Communion to others. They are people like Elizabeth Cady Stanton who worked for women’s voting rights in the 18th century and was never martyred or Harriet Ross Tubman who after she safely escaped slavery herself, repeatedly risked her life to return to rescue hundreds of slaves from slavery. Saints are people like those in our lives who have in their ordinary living have been windows through whom the light of God has shown through.  They are people who make us feel a little more holy in the presence of their ordinariness. – A LITTLE MORE HOLY IN THE PRESENCE OF THEIR ORDINARINESS.  But why is this so? Think about it.  Why?

              Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew gives us a clue. Jesus is trying to teach us that this holiness in ordinariness comes from humility, love, trust, and courage which are products of those whose interests and desires are turned in the direction of the kingdom of God. That is our mandate. That is our calling as Christians, as followers of God.  The saints around us have drawn their strength and action from God – by daily turning their interests and desired toward God and letting the Holy Spirit work within them and their everyday lives to simply BE WHO GOD HAS CALLED THEM TO BE. That is our task as well. Because as the hymn goes:

              :saints are like you and me and I aim to be one too.

Let us give glory to God whose power working in us is infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

Nov. 11, 2007                

SERMON:                                XXIV  Pentecost

                                                                                                                              Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                              Priest-in-Charge

27: "Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question."   - Their question was designed to undermine the teachings of Jesus. It was a question they had pondered long and hard. They felt that there was no answer and because of this, it proved there was no afterlife. Jesus shows the Sadducees that their thinking is confined and limited. To fully understand the kingdom of heaven they would have to start thinking outside the box they had created and begin considering the unlimited possibilities of God.

This is a challenge for each of us – a challenge to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX THAT WE OFTEN CREATE OURSELVES OR FIND COMFORT IN.  ONLY THEN CAN WE INVITE IN THE UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES OF GOD. The Sadducees had an extremely narrow viewpoint of God. Their discussions among themselves simply reinforced that limited perspective.  So…..Ask yourself: When have you put God into a box and limited His capabilities in your life? Do you spend seek out like-minded people that only reinforce your already established and narrow-minded beliefs? Or, do you truly seek answers to difficult questions - answers that may expand your image of God?  Thinking outside the box calls us to carefully listen to opposing points of view and to not   shut them off

The Sadducees fully expected that Jesus would be stumped by their question. Instead, the answer they got was totally different than the one they sought. What happens when the answers you seek are different than what you expect? Have you ever been seeking God's support for an issue in your life only to be led to a completely different and surprising answer? Have you ever found yourself beating your head against a wall, working diligently to force a round peg of an idea into square hole in your life, only later to find a less difficult path, a round hole, presenting itself to you?

GOD IS A GOD OF UNLIMITED POSSIBILITES. IN FACT THAT IS PART OF THE MYSTERY.  WE COULD JUST SAY THANKS BE TO THE ONE OF UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES.  As Luke writes: "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive." – For us this is HOPE. God promises hope instead of hopelessness. He offers unlimited possibilities instead of destinies that end up simply in a grave. He is a God of love and He gives His children eternal life.
Frequently in life we think we know all the answers to the questions we face. We worry if we have chosen the right school for our children and if they are in a safe and healthy environment. When sickness or other burdens invade our lives, we quickly lose hope. We fear for  our future  WE HUMANS LILKE OUR BOXES. THEY ARE PREDICTABLE AND COMFORTABLE. When we ask questions to God, they are often an exclamation, rather than a real question:  “Why me God?”  For those who have asked the questions but we fail to listen to the answers God provides. Instead, we accept there are no answers and our life is hopelessly limited to disparaging pain, suffering, and fear. Our life as Christians is based on the promise of the resurrection and the faith that death does not have the final word in our lives because through the God we worship—he One with whom nothing is impossible---.   we can place our faith in God in all situations in life, not just the issues where we think we know the outcome.

Dec. 2, 2007                                   Advent I

 Isaiah 2: 1-5       Psalm 122  Romans 13: 8-14                Matthew 24: 37 -44

                                                                                                                Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                                St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s                                                                                                                         Episcopal Church, Prov. – RI

                                                                                                                Priest in Charge

              As we begin a new church year –Year A – and a new church season – Advent, we light the candle of hope to light the way in the darkness. Here in New England the days of light of grown shorter and we feel the effects of darkness. We can’t do what we normally have done as easily. It feels a little gloomier at this time of the year. WE are more aware of our need for light when before we took it for granted.

              There is much more to darkness than physical darkness, however. There is emotional and spiritual darkness. Isaiah knew about it. That is why he cries out: “O house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord.!”  It is the light of the Lord that overcomes a sense of being lost.  The light of the Lord breaks through spiritual darkness and unites us to the heart of God in fresh new ways. This is the gift that can be ours on this first Sunday of Advent –the light of God.

              Light signifies a new beginning. In the beginning God created light when all that there was was chaos and void. Light brought life and warmth. As light was God’s very first creative act – so light is at the heart of the divine life. Where God is, there is light.  Light is the symbol of Advent as well. We light the Advent candles one by one each week to celebrate the fact that light has come to us in the birth of Jesus Christ. When we make room in our hearts for Christ, we work toward building God’s reign here on earth and accomplishing a key purpose of the church – to be the Body of Christ – a sign of the kingdom of God on earth. The church is called to be more than a group of folk gathered to socialize and to support one another. It is called to be more than a group of people who pray together and worship together. The church is called to be an outpost of God’s peaceful kingdom in a dark, hostile world of selfishness, hostility, violence, and hatred. When we in the church life up to and live out unconditional love, unselfishness, and nonviolence, we are answering God’s call to build the kingdom of God here on earth. One of our primary mission as people of God as “church” is to be a beacon of hope and a life line for those who are in darkness inside of themselves and in the world, those who are searching for hope in a broken world.  

      This morning we are given a beautiful vision of the ways of God from the prophet Isaiah: “ they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”  PEACE SHALL PREVAIL.  How far we are from this today? But whose fault is that? Is it God’s or is it ours for not working harder or believing that God’s vision is being called into being through us each day!  Isaiah’s vision is clear on the issue of war. To him, there is no such thing as a justified war. Simply that Peace Will Prevail.  God’s kingdom will arrive when there is no more war.  Each time we pray the “Our Father”, we are praying for His kingdom to come and His will be done on earth as it is already being done in heaven.  If our hearts are filled with hope as we wait for the birth of our Savior and if we truly believe that God calls us to work toward his kingdom on earth, then we need to take this time in Advent to re-examine ourselves. What steps towards peace are you taking? How have you been a beacon of light in the darkness and brokenness of the world?  When the light of Christ is within us, we cast a beacon of hope and warmth into a cold world that is lost in its way and fed by dissension, conflict, violence, and war. What swords in your life have you beaten into plowshares this year?  Each sword you turn into a plowshare is one more piece constructed toward the reign of God. God has faithfully promised that his kingdom will come and his will be done and it IS possible for all wars to cease. What a wonderful Christmas gift it would be to the world if everyone woke up that morning and said: “Let’s learn from God how to live and start by turning the instruments of destruction around us into tools of construction and healing.” –swords into plowshares.  What a wonderful Advent it would be if each of us would wake up each day of Advent and plan for that day to turn the swords of anger and violence within us to the plowshares of love and forgiveness. It is possible. God has faithfully promised that His kingdom will come.  We are called to live that promise out in our hearts and lives. I would urge you each day this week to pray the prayer of our collect for today:

 “Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility.”

Amen.

Dec. 9, 2007                                  ADVENT II

Isaiah 11: 1-10                 Psalm 72:1-8                    Romans 15: 4-13            Matthew 3: 1-12 

                                                        Sermon

                                                                                                  Rev. Joyce Penfield

                                                                                                  St. Peter’s & St. Andrew’s Episc Church

                                                                                                  Priest-in-Charge