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Saying Yes to God’s Banquet (Sermon) October 12, 2014

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Sermon – October 12, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 23) Track 1

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. Matthew 22:1

 Please be seated.

I LOVE weddings.  As a little girl, my mother gave me her beautiful half slips for my dress-up clothes and you could often find me wearing them on my head as pretend veils.  At 7, as a Roman Catholic, I “made my first communion.”  The experience was fraught with trying to remember so many details.  The best part was wearing the beautiful white dress and the veil.  The best part of the Sound of Music was Maria’s wedding dress.  I still have my Barbie doll’s wedding dress.  And if you would have seen me Friday, my day off, you’d have seen me watching a marathon of, “Say ‘yes’ to the dress.”  I guess in addition to the love and community witness of weddings, I especially love the clothes.

Recently, my grandchildren attended the wedding of their former day care teacher, Miss Tina.  I loved seeing the photos from that day.  The kids looked like they were having so much fun dancing with the bride and with each other.  Later, I was talking with my son.  He said my 8 year old granddaughter, Sydney, really loved the wedding.  She asked her daddy to hold her so she could better see the bride come down the aisle.  As the bride approached, escorted by her father, Sydney whispered in her father’s ear, “We’ll be doing that some day.”  My son said it was all he could do to not start blubbering.

Yes I’d say I’m a feminist and all for women’s rights.  I am astounded by the costs of a wedding and understand why people elope.  All of that is true and I still love a traditional wedding.

And if you’ve planned a wedding or even a big party, you can relate to the king in our Gospel lesson today.  How wonderful that your child is being married.  The day comes and you prepare a sumptuous banquet and party for the community.  You’ve sent invitations and asked people to let you know if they’re coming so you know how much to prepare.  Once the banquet is ready, you send out the notice and suddenly people who said they’d come, don’t even acknowledge you!

Of course you can’t believe it, so you once again send out, explaining all of the work you’ve gone to to create a wonderful party.  Now, those you’ve invited are annoyed and even kill the messengers!  Finally, you just need the food to be eaten — kind of like we try to get people to take home food after pot luck – and you invite everyone, every single person you can find, both bad and good, we are told.

Jesus is trying to explain the Kingdom of God to us.  God prepares a sumptuous banquet, like any parent would prepare for their child who is getting married.  But the day comes and what happens?  Oh, so many other things appear to be more important.  Just like the Israelites in the desert worshipping the golden calf, we find so many other things pulling at us.  This wonderful, loving banquet seems unimportant.  We don’t want to go to the feast.  Sometimes, we even kill those who bring the invitation to us.

And God wants people at the banquet.  God invites all people.  The banquet is open to everyone!  God’s feast is available to everyone, not just a few.  God’s feast is available to everyone who will come to partake of it.

Yet, you cannot come lightly or thoughtlessly, like the man who showed up disrespectfully without a wedding robe.  You cannot expect to slip in, eat some food and dash out!  Stepping into the banquet hall requires responsibility and accountability.  Stepping into the feast God has prepared for us means we acknowledge our host, we respect our host, and we do the right thing by our host.

We join the banquet community.  We do our best to live as God has asked us to do and as Jesus showed us and as the Holy Spirit continues to speak to us.  We do our best to put aside the golden calves in our lives and remember the giver of the feast.

God is delighted to prepare the banquet of life in Christ for us.  God is delighted for us to know how much we are loved.  God is delighted to show us how to live in ways that serve each other, reject evil, worship God in community, and strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.

We must first accept the invitation, then we must show up, and finally, we must come prepared.

Amen

God’s Productive Tenants (Sermon) October 5, 2014

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Sermon – October 5, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 22) Track 1

When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. Matthew 21:34

Please be seated.

We are doing a number of things today.  It is stewardship Sunday when we focus on what of God’s we return to God.  And we are remembering St. Francis, whose commemoration was yesterday, with having our pets here with us this morning and blessing them after the service.

I’m more of a cat person than anything.  Since the day I was born, cats have lived with me off and on.  Sometimes it’s one cat and sometimes it’s as many as three cats.  Many of my cats have come to me, chosen me.  Seems they are messengers from God, really.

For instance, in late 1980, I was going through a tough time.  I was a single mom, barely able to make ends meet.  At Christmas, though, I held my traditional open house.  At some point in the evening, someone opened the door and in walked a beautiful tiger cat!  Just walked in, mind you!  Later the next summer when we moved to Ithaca so I could go to college fulltime, he came with us and used to sit on my books while I was studying.  My two young children and I needed his love, antics and companionship.

So many stories I could tell of the cats who have just walked in to my life and just shown up as loving companions along the way.  I’m sure you have many of your own.

We’ve talked before about what it means to be a steward:  being a steward is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care….  It is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.

When we have pets, we must be good stewards.  Pets rely upon us to care for them.  We feed them well.  We do what we can to keep them safe from harm.  We do what we can to give them a good home.  When they’re sick, we do what we can to help them get well.  When we can’t do these things, we find them good homes with someone else.  We feel so strongly about this as a society, that we have laws about what it means to be good stewards to the animals in our care.  We are appalled by cruelty to animals.  We “get” what being a good steward of God’s creation means through caring for our pets.

And today, we are being asked to consider what it means to be good stewards to God’s church, the church of God’s son, Jesus Christ.  Most specifically, we are being asked to consider what it means to be a good steward of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

God tells us through Jesus’ parable.  God provided a vineyard…a carefully built vineyard.  It had everything – a fence to keep animals out; a wine press so the harvest could be preserved; and a watchtower, because the workers would live in the vineyard during the harvest and the watchtower provided safety.  The workers provided the labor to ensure, as much as possible, that there would be a good harvest.  Of course, they couldn’t control the weather, but they could otherwise tend to the grape crop.

Similarly, God has given us all of the basic things we need to be The Episcopal Church in this region of Kentucky.  We are charged with providing careful and responsible management of the basics God has given us, so that God’s mission with God’s people can be realized.  And for those of you who just finished confirmation class, you know that this mission of the church is to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (BCP, pg 855)

And according to our catechism, the church pursues our mission, “as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.” (BCP, pg 855)  Now, we probably need to have regular conversations about what we truly need to be the church.  What do we add to the fence, the watchtower, and the winepress that God has provided?

But for today, let’s assume that we agree that to pursue our mission, that to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ, that we need a facility, a park, items for worship and for spiritual growth, resources for outreach and a priest.  Those are the elements necessary to being the church…to restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ…to pray, worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote justice, peace, and love.

God has given us everything we need.  God asks only that we do the labor and produce a good harvest.  God asks us to be good stewards…to be careful and responsible managers of what’s been entrusted to us.

We know what this means with our pets, yet become squeamish when it comes to talking about what it means for the church, what it means for St. John’s.  And that’s the question put to us in today’s parable.  When God sends God’s workers to collect the harvest, what will be our response?  Will we kill the workers and even God’s Son, so we can steal what is rightfully the landowner’s…what is rightfully God’s?  Or will we do our part to care for the vineyard…to provide the resources necessary for a good harvest?  Will God need to find new tenants for God’s vineyard known as St. John’s Episcopal Church?

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forgive, seriously (Sermon) September 14, 2014

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Sermon – September 14, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 19) Track 1

Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”  Matthew 18:21-22

 Please be seated.

Well, when we hear this, don’t we just want to respond incredulously, “Seriously, Jesus?”  Aren’t some things just unforgiveable?

Earlier this week, we remembered the events of September 11, 2001, now 13 years ago!  Can it be so long ago?  The images are seared in our memory, aren’t they?  You mean we must forgive such evil?  The writer for our Forward Day by Day wrote, “The terrorists who flew the planes on 9/11 forced us to confront the power of evil and challenged us to find a way to respond with forgiveness.” (Forward Day by Day, Vol. 80, No. 3, pg 44)

Seriously?

Last evening, I made a new Facebook friend.  The profile photo shows a younger version of this man who turned 57 yesterday.  In his profile photo, he looks about 5 or six and seems to be perched on his father’s lap.  The father is looking straight out at us…with piercing eyes, a 60sslicked hairdo, gorgeous suit with pretty, thin blue tie and an almost smile on his face.  The epitome of the good-looking early 60s man.  Six years later, the father was murdered on the streets of Detroit.  The boy was only 11 years old, left fatherless.

But that 11-year old boy wrote a letter to the judge in his father’s murder trial, pleading that the judge not sentence his father’s killer to death.  Having lost his own father, this 11-year old boy did not want any other child to go through the same experience of losing their father.

Seriously?

Some things seem unforgiveable and our faith and followship of Jesus Christ demand forgiveness.  Every Sunday, we say the prayer Jesus taught us to say, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Often we remember that Jesus hung on a cross, dying a most horrible death of torture, betrayed by his own community, yet asking God to forgive his killers.

But still, we want to live in the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” where everyone ends up blind and toothless world.

Why does Jesus demand extreme forgiveness and how in the world can we forgive?

Seriously, forgiveness is good for us, spiritually, emotionally and physically, according to the Mayo Clinic’s “Healthy Adult” website. (http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/forgiveness/art-20047692?pg=1) When we can’t forgive, the wrong done to us overtakes us.  We spend lots of brain space to remember what happened, living it over and over.  We spend plenty of emotional energy hanging on to our anger and bitterness.  Not forgiving means we miss what’s happening in our lives today.  We also cut off new and helpful relationships.

Forgiveness, according to the Mayo Clinic site can bring us the following benefits:

  • Healthier relationships
  • Greater spiritual and psychological well-being
  • Less anxiety, stress and hostility
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Fewer symptoms of depression
  • Lower risk of alcohol and substance abuse

Seriously, forgiveness acknowledges our humanity.  None of us are perfect.  We have all done things to hurt ourselves and to hurt others. We are all in need of forgiveness.  Not forgiving means we live as if we could be perfect and as if we are not human, which is ultimately cruel.  Forgiveness means we live with compassion and humility.  That’s what the 11-year-old boy knew – compassion.

Seriously, forgiveness acknowledges our deep understanding of the heart of God.  Time after time, Jesus told stories about how God searches for us when we are lost; how God rejoices when we are found; how God opens wide God’s arms to embrace us when we return.  In other words, God’s forgiveness of us never ends.  There is nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God, Paul writes.  God’s heart of love is rooted in forgiveness, because forgiveness sets us free, both when we forgive and when we know we are forgiven for what we do.

But how can we forgive?

First of all, forgiveness is not forgetting.  People must still face the consequences of their actions.  And if the one who wronged us has not acknowledged that wrong, nor repented of it, they may not be the best people for us to be around.  Remember, we are clear-eyed and wise.  We can forgive and remember.

Sister Joan Chittister, a Roman Catholic Benedictine nun, has written a book of reflections on forgiveness, God’s Tender Mercy: Reflections on Forgiveness (Twenty-Third Publications).  I found an excerpt online, which I think explains a lot about forgiveness.

“A young woman, the [ancient monastic] story goes, who is heavy with child and terrified of being executed for dishonoring the family name, accuses a revered old monk, who prayed daily at the city gates, of assaulting her and fathering the child. The people confronted the old man with the accusation. But the old man’s only response to the frenzy of the crowd was a laconic, “Is that so?” As he gazed into space and went on fingering his beads, the townspeople became even more infuriated and drove the culprit out of town.

Years later, the woman, exhausted by her guilt and wanting to relieve her burden and make restitution, finally admitted that it was her young lover, not the old monk, who fathered the child. In fear for his life as well as her own, she had lied about the attack. Stricken with compunction, the townspeople rushed to the hermitage in the hills where the old man was still saying his prayers and leading his simple life. “The girl has admitted that you did not assault her,” the people shouted. “What are you going to do about that?” But all the old monk answered was, “Is that so?” and went right on fingering his beads.”  http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2010/11/19/the-secret-of-forgiveness/

You see, Sister Chittister explains, “The fact is [,] that there is nothing to forgive in life if and when we manage to create an interior life that has more to do with what we are than with what other people do to us. What we are inside ourselves determines how we react to others — no matter what they do.”  When we are grounded in our faith, knowing deeply our humanity, knowing we are loved and forgiven by God, we are not pulled into the whirlwind of reacting to others around us.

Sister Chittister concludes, “Forgiveness is a gift that says two things. First, I am just as weak as everyone else in the human race and I know it. And, second, my inner life is too rich to be destroyed by anything outside of it.”

So forgive 77 times.  Forgive from the heart so that you may have abundant life…so that you may have joy… so that you may have peace…so that you may live in the love of God.

Seriously….

Amen

The Obligation of Love (Sermon) September 7, 2014

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Sermon – September 7, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 18) Track 1

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  Romans 13:8

Please be seated.

I don’t know about you, but I have thought a lot about love over the years.  When I was 13, a church youth newspaper printed my thoughts about love.  It was a contest of sorts and I remember receiving a check in the mail for a few dollars.  My favorite popular song at that time was, “Love Can Make You Happy.”

Our popular culture gives us plenty of messages about love, but it’s mostly about romantic love and even distorted love.

In our lessons today, we hear a lot about love…about the love of God.  Paul, in his letter to the Romans, emphasizes our sole obligation to each other – to love one another.  The Greek word used is Agape.  According to one commentary, Agape is actively doing what God prefers.  This is not about how we feel, it is about how we behave…. This is NOT about how we feel, it is about how we BEHAVE.

We are reflections of God’s love for us.  God showed us Agape, in that God came to live among us.  God, through his son, Jesus Christ, died the most horrible death at our hands.  Yet, instead of revenge, God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  God continued to show love and interest in us, despite our unworthiness and despite our rejection.  Agape is acting in ways that promote another’s good…that promote another’s welfare.

Open your Book of Common Prayer to page 305.  Let’s read the second paragraph on that page:

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

That’s what Agape is.  That’s what Paul says is our Christian obligation.

But make no mistake, this is not romantic love.  This is not conditional love – you do this for me and I’ll do that for you.  This is clear-eyed love.  This is love freely given, even when we reject it.

For example, look at our Exodus passage.  Now, most of us don’t live on farms anymore, so it might be hard to hear the details regarding the slaughter and eating of the lamb.  But even before the Israelites are freed from their oppressors, God is telling them to remember God’s love in action in freeing them from their oppressors.

Throughout this beginning part of Exodus, we continually hear God telling Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and demand that the Israelites be freed.  “Let my people go,” is the cry.  Now God, I believe, loves Pharaoh AND God is realistic about Pharaoh.  God gives Pharaoh so many chances to take the love actions.  Yet, God says in Exodus 7:14, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.”  God gives Pharaoh chance after chance to be loving to the Israelites…to not oppress them.  Yet with each time Pharaoh rejects God’s demand, Pharaoh and the Egyptians face tougher and tougher consequences.

God’s love of Pharaoh isn’t like the sweet love we so often see reflected in our culture.  This is clear-eyed love.  And just like Pharaoh, we get the chance to be guided by God…to be guided by the way God wants us to live  — love in action.  And just like God, we are smart and shrewd, wise and discerning about the reality of ourselves and of our fellow human beings.

We can work for the good of the people involved with ISIS and we are wise to the facts about the violence and evil they perpetuate.  I’m not sure I can exactly articulate how to work for their good, but it is the way we Christians are called to live.  Working for the good – active loving of the other AND knowing they are hard hearted and must face the consequences of that hard heartedness.

This agape love is challenging and hard, because our emotions pull us.  Also, our either/or thinking.  I must either love ISIS or hate ISIS.  But as Christians, we live in a both/and world.

Look at the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32.  “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me,” says the father’s youngest son.  Now, you know the father knew what was going to happen, but the father does as the youngest son asks.  The father doesn’t try to stop the son.  The father doesn’t lecture to the son.  And the father does not rescue the son, either.  The father lets the son leave, lets the son squander his inheritance – all that the father had to give to him.  The son must face the consequences of his actions and his choices.  The son ends up feeding pigs.  We read, “He would have gladly filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.”  (Luke 15:16)

Finally, the youngest son decides that living as a hired hand working for his father would be preferable to the life he is living.  We read, “He came to himself….”  He decides to go to his father, to own up to what he has done.  “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” (Luke 15:18-19)

And we are totally unprepared for his father’s response.  “But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”  (Luke 15:20)  God gives us guidance and direction and ultimately lets us choose the way we will go.  And God knows that we humans make unwise choices and reject God.  God knows this about us.  God lets us “make our own beds and lie in them” as the saying goes.  Yet, when we want to return…when we come to ourselves…God runs to meet us and embraces us.

That’s the love Paul is speaking about…the love that God wants us to show each other.  The clear-eyed, firmly set in reality kind of love, that works for our own good, despite our own bad behavior.  That works for the good of others, despite their own bad behavior.

And so today in our Gospel, we are given specific instructions about acting in love when another church member sins against us.  We are to go to that person and talk to them directly.  If the person cannot hear us, then we take two to three others with us and talk directly.  If the person still cannot hear us, then we take the issue to the church community.  If the person still does not listen, there are consequences.  The person cannot be part of the community any longer.  Many chances and opportunities are given to the person.  And the person has choices to make, with consequences.  Tough, clear-eyed love.

So, each week, we gather as God’s community.  To the best of our ability, we confess our sins to God.  We pass the peace and greet each other.  We come to the table and eat the meal of love given to us by Jesus our Savior.

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another….” (Romans 13:8)

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are We Rich Soil? (Sermon) July 13, 2014

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Sermon – July 13, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 10) Track 1

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Matthew 13:5-6

Please be seated.

Letting go is easy sometimes.  When I was in the second year of a 2-year discernment process, I found letting go of my things to be very easy.  I had no idea whether the Bishop would approve to send me to seminary and even if he did, I figured it’d be another year until I could start.  Yet, I was ready to get rid of things.  Things like part of my doll collection I’d had since a child.  Things like my Geisha Girl China I’d had for years and the gilded corner cabinet it went in.  Things like the 43 year old kitchen table my parents bought when we’d moved into our new house when I was 11 years old, a table my brother had used in New York City for many years.

I was ready to let go…to downsize…to say good-bye to these things I’d carted from my childhood home and five addresses in Pennsylvania to Connecticut, New York, Kansas, North Carolina, and DC, through two marriages and raising two children.  They held many memories and connections.  Something new was happening and I knew I needed to let go of these things.  They began to weigh me down…hold me down.  These things and my holding on to them felt like the hard soil Jesus speaks of today.  The new thing coming in my life would wither and die trying to plant itself within the things of my past.

Now this openness to change, to parting with my things, was something that only developed over time.  You see, at one time, I kept every single card someone had ever sent to me.  I never threw anything away, it seems.  I paid plenty of money to haul these things back and forth across the country and to rent storage space when I couldn’t accommodate these things in my living space!  I loved the hard soil these things made.  Sure they were often stuck away in boxes, hidden from view and rarely viewed.  At times, I didn’t even notice the clutter they created…getting so used to working around it or having a smaller space in which to live.

Do you create hard soil in your life, so that new seeds sent from God spring up quickly, but easily wither and are scorched by the sun?  Trying to keep things the way they were traps us in a past that is long gone.  It does feel safe, when all around us is changing, but the safety is an illusion and a temporary comfort.

Yesterday, I was trying to plant a rose bush out in the garden.  Now, I didn’t have the right kind of shovel, but even so, the ground was so hard.  I’m not sure that bush has enough depth of soil to survive.  There is some hard ground around here…

Yes, where have we here at St. John’s created hard soil within ourselves so the seeds God sows wither and die?  What do we cling to…things that at one time might have been new seeds, planted in good soil, after all, but now have created hard soil and reject the new seeds?  We didn’t always have the parish hall.  We didn’t always have the kitchen and parlor area.  We didn’t always have the meeting rooms.  The parlor was once offices.  The park was once a school yard.  Each new person who came to St. John’s needed to find the good soil to plant themselves and each new plant created a community with different needs and different skills and different passions.  The one thing that didn’t change was the worship of God and the connection to The Episcopal Church.  But other than that, many things have changed in the church’s 108 years.

God isn’t afraid of the change, I don’t think, because God keeps calling us to do God’s work here in this place.  Yet, are we so hardened, that God’s mission for us withers and dies?  Are we so attached to what is comfortable for us that the seeds do not find depth of soil?  Are we so afraid of change, that we doom ourselves and the community of St. John’s to death?

The church has been here many years.  God has faith in us, I’d say.  God keeps calling us and guiding us to be the good, rich soil that produces thirty, sixty, and even one hundred fold.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yoke of Jesus (Sermon) July 6, 2014

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Sermon – July 6, 2014

The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW

St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 9) Track 1

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:29-30

For the past couple of weeks, I have begun volunteering at the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour in Lexington.  This radio, TV, and internet show is usually taped in Lexington at the Lyric Theater, 44 weeks out of the year, usually on Monday evening before a live audience.  The diversity of entertainers who are on the show is interesting.  They usually find it easy to stop in Lexington on their way to somewhere else like Nashville or Chicago or New York.  The show is unique in that the guests perform their work and also talk about their craft.  In addition, the show relies heavily upon volunteers to set up, staff and tear down the stage.

I’m still learning, but right now, I arrive at 4pm on a Monday afternoon and put lightbulbs in the floor lights or set up for dinner or do various errands.  Usually once the show begins, I can sit down and enjoy it.  It is the tear down at the end of the show that requires many people.

There is the sign to take down and store, the floor lights to dismantle, unplug, and stack.  The various instrument stands and amps to put away.  And the cords to wrap….  You see, there is a special way to coil the various cords so they don’t get tangled and so that they easily uncoil to be used for the next show.  If you do it right, you can fling the cable out and it will not be tangled at all.

And of course, the more people who are there, the shorter time it takes to do the work.  The work is spread among many people.

At the end of our Gospel today, Jesus encourages his followers to put on his yoke.  Now a yoke is something used with various animals – water buffalo, oxen – animals who help with work.  A yoke is important for a variety of reasons, so Jesus’ plea to his listeners has much to impart to us.

 

  1.  A yoke provides guidance and direction, letting the animals know which way to go and where to go next.  We all need God’s guidance in our lives.  Jesus’ teaching and example and the Holy Spirit are the yokes in our lives, telling us where to go next.
  2. A yoke provides training.  Yokes can be used to train the animals how best to work.  Throughout our lives, we need teaching and training about the work God is calling us to do and the best way to live the Christian life.
  3. A yoke allows animals to work together.  Most of us are familiar with seeing a pair of oxen yoked together.  The yokes prevent the oxen from fighting with each other, and allow the oxen to pull and to work together.  Jesus tells us our burdens will be lighter if we take on His yoke.  One of the reasons is that we can share our burden with each other in Christian fellowship.
  4. A yoke allows the animals to do more work and move heavier loads.  By its very design, the yoke makes it easier for the animals to work.  And isn’t that true with the yoke of Jesus?  Jesus’ teaching and example…Jesus’ love…Jesus’ meal, all make our loads lighter.

When I think about tearing down the Woodsong’s stage all by myself, I feel overwhelmed.  First of all, I don’t know how I’d get that sign put away! My burden would be heavy. It would take many hours.  With so many of us, though, the burden is spread. I’m excited to help…happy to help…feel satisfied when everything is put away.

And that’s how it is with Jesus’ yoke.  When we carry our burdens alone, we feel overwhelmed, even paralyzed, weighed down and heavy.  We may think, (and how many of us have done this) that we must bear our burdens alone.  Or we want to be in total control, so we rely only upon ourselves.  We don’t want anyone telling us what to do!  We don’t want anyone else to know what’s going on with us!  We believe to be grown up and mature, we need to do it ourselves.  We are afraid God will demand too much from us.  So we refuse the yoke.  We refuse the guidance.  We refuse the teaching.  We refuse to spread the burden around to make it easier to bear.

Jesus reaches out, encouraging us to put on his yoke.  “Don’t be afraid,” he says.  “I am gentle and humble,” he says.  And here is the most blessed promise, “…and you will find rest for your souls.”

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcoming Jesus (Sermon) June 29, 2014

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Sermon – June 29, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month
Third Sunday After Pentecost (Track 1)

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Matthew 10:40

Please be seated.

“How was your weekend?,” is a common question on a Monday morning in many workplaces. Usually we give a nondescript answer of , “It was fine,” but with some friends, we may go further.  “It was great, because I saw my family.”  “It was wonderful, because I just relaxed.”  “I got a lot done in the garden and it’s looking really nice.”  “Well, cleaning wasn’t all that fun, but at least the house looks better.”  The question seems innocuous and friendly; a good way to get into the week.

But for some, that question is scary.  For people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, they have to think about this and many other seemingly simple questions.  They must carefully pick their words.  In some places of work, they could be fired because of their sexual orientation.  Even when protected in their place of work, co-workers can shun them or put them down because they are LGBT.

Many of us hug when we say good-bye, especially when we are catching a train or a plane.  We give each other hearty hugs upon returning home.  You see it at transportation terminals all of the time, yet LGBT people must be very careful about this.  Is it okay to walk down the street holding hands?

And what about church?  So many religious groups reject people who are LGBT, even telling them they can change or easily deny themselves.  That being LGBT is not inherent to who they are, but an aberration of humanity.  And so some start on a life of hiding, trying to be something they are not.  Loving God, loving Jesus deeply and profoundly, sometimes called to religious service, they suffer.

Even when embracing who they are, coming to see themselves fully as loved and created by God, they can’t be sure that the faith community of their choice will welcome them.  In a church I belonged to, it appeared that LGBT people and couples were accepted, but when one couple wanted their photo for the church directory to portray them together as a couple, there was protest.  One of the men said, he never knew how much he could say about his life to others in the church, especially the young people, because he wasn’t sure the young person’s parent approved of him.

All of that hiding takes its toll.  The suicide rate for youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning is much higher than the norm.  People who are Lesbian and Gay form heterosexual marriages, hoping they might change…marriages that, while the two people truly love each other, often end in disaster.  People who are transgender find it difficult to get the medical care they need and the support needed to effectively transition.

While things are much better than they were even ten years ago, we continue to live in a society and a country that is unwelcoming and inhospitable to people who are LGBT.  For instance, I did not put in the newspaper that we were having this service.  I asked some of our members who are LGBT about whether to do this, because I don’t live as a person who is LGBT, so I can’t say totally what the dangers are here in this community or this region.  Ultimately, it seemed best to keep it quiet, but maybe I was wrong.

I informed Everlasting Arms of our service today, because I knew their faith understanding is different from ours.  You see, they are not here.  I thought of so many stories to tell you, but realized telling them would embarrass or make things difficult for some people.  I censored myself and what I am saying today. All of these little things are so painful.  As someone who is heterosexual, and fully understanding how heterosexism has been oppressive to people who are LGBT, I am sorry.  I hope I and I hope we at St. John’s can do better and lessen and stop the suffering.

Desmond Tutu says the most evil thing you can do is make a person think they are not a child of God.  Forcing people who are LGBT to hide tells them there is something wrong with the way they were created.

Jesus says, whoever welcomes the stranger, welcomes me.  There are no “buts.”  There are no qualifiers.  The passage doesn’t say, “Welcome the stranger, but only if….”

No, Jesus welcomed all and we are challenged to do the same.

In doing so, we truly are challenged.  As we talked about when we read the book, Radical Welcome, when we truly welcome as Christ did, our lives will be changed and may be reordered.  How was it to come into the sanctuary today with the rainbow paraments on the altar and the candles?  Being welcoming does not mean staying in control; it means being in partnership with those welcomed, creating something new in the process.  It means listening and hearing what the person, who before this time has been considered “other,” finds welcoming and hospitable.  It means trying to find a way for all of us to feel welcome.  It requires a new way to live together.

When we can truly welcome one another…when we can truly be hospitable, we bring the Kingdom of God right here and right now.

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give Me Jesus (Sermon) May 25, 2014

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Sermon – May 25, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Sixth Sunday of Easter

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. I Peter 3:15-16

Please be seated.

In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus

Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Give me Jesus

I was reminded of this Spiritual, found in LEVAS II, hymn 91 in the past couple of weeks,  No one’s sure who wrote it or when, but it came from the tragedy and toil of people who were brutalized by being enslaved.  They found hope, despite this brutality, in Jesus.

I have been around people in tough circumstances and heard them cling to Jesus.  Just over two weeks ago, I was at the University of Kentucky with Ann and Travis.  They were anxiously awaiting the birth of Bella.  They had to go all the way to Lexington, because doctors had seen something that led them to believe Bella might need some surgery on her head soon after her birth.  I was there when doctors came in to talk to Ann and Travis.  The doctors couldn’t say how serious the problem was.  I heard the doctor say there was a chance little Bella would not live.

Yet Ann and Travis were realistic and positive.  I’m sure they were a little nervous, but they had discussed things.  They had made plans.  They had prayed and they knew a whole community was praying for them and for Bella.

And there was such joy in the room, too, because just the night before, Travis had been baptized.  He was so happy!  Travis truly embodied what we heard in I Peter, chapter 3, verses 21 and 22 this morning:

And baptism…now saves you– not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Travis’ baptism was an accounting for the hope that was in him.

On Wednesday, I went to the viewing for Dalton Christopher Brewer, also known as Buddy.  His death at the age of 31 was so tragic for his family.  The past seven years had been difficult for Buddy, after his beating and subsequent traumatic brain injury.  Family and friends were devastated to learn of his death.  At the viewing, I heard time and time again from family member after family member, through tears and cries of woe, “I don’t know how I’ll make it.  The only way is that we have Jesus.”  Someone said, “I don’t know how people make it through something like this without Jesus.”  In the midst of terrific grief, there was hope of making it through.

We are Jesus people.  We are people of hope.  And we must always be ready to give an accounting of this hope.  The hope shines through.

I met a mother earlier this week, whose 27-year-old daughter has a rare disease that only about 150 people have.  This young woman has been in and out of the hospital since she was two years old.  Yet, she has graduated from college.  She got married.  People say she is always smiling and how can she be so happy, given what she deals with physically every day.  She says, “I have faith. That’s what gets me through.”

The hope shines through and when people ask her for an accounting, she is ready and able to tell them about the hope within her.

Now Episcopalians are not known for our public evangelism.  We tend to be quiet about our faith and our religious beliefs.  In fact, many people are quiet about their faith.  Religious beliefs are considered private, individual choices by many.  Yet as a friend once said, if your faith has given you hope…has given you life, why wouldn’t you share that with someone?  If your faith and this community of St. John’s have given you hope…have provided a way of life for you, find a way to share that with others.  Find a way to give an accounting that is gentle and reverent.

You see, when we are baptized, we are saved.  When we are baptized, we are called to do God’s work.  A friend posted this anonymous quote on Facebook earlier this week:   Carry the water of your baptism with you through the vast desert of this world and dispense it liberally to every traveler you meet. 

We have this gift of Jesus.  We have this gift of love.  We have this gift of hope.  It begins with our baptism…with God claiming us for God’s own.  We water the world.  We water souls.  We do this as individuals and as the community of St. John’s.

St. Teresa of Avila, who lived in the 16th century, wrote this prayer:

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

We are called to be Christ’s body to the world.  In doing so…in clinging to Jesus, we are joyful in the midst of hard times.  We can get through our rough times.  We bring joy and abundant life to the world.

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you and until the day you die, know the gift of Jesus.

Amen

 

 

Come as you are. (Sermon) April 27, 2014

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Sermon – April 27, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Second Sunday of Easter

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”  John 20:27

Please be seated.

I love country music.  The twangier, the better.  I really need to go to Nashville.  One of the things I love about country music are the puns or the play on words.  They make me laugh.  They are so clever.  For instance, have you heard the Billy Currington song, like my dog?  The refrain goes:

Want you to love me like my dog does, baby.
When I come home, want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog. 

Who comes up with this…so funny and yet so true.

Well, this past week, thanks to Linda and Paula, who frequently give me CDs to listen to while I’m driving, I’ve been listening to a Randy Travis CD of Gospel Tunes.  Some are familiar hymns like Blessed Assurance and Love Lifted Me.  Some I’d never heard before.  I’ll sing for awhile or listen for awhile and then my mind drifts.  So somehow I’d missed one of the songs .  It’s called, Pray for the Fish.  I became curious about it and decided to really listen.  And I was surprised and delighted to hear:

Everybody gathered where the river runs wider

At the edge of town
To see that Eddie Lee Vaughn baptism
Was really gonna go down
Folks bet their hard earned money
That water wouldn’t change a thing
They set the odds at a hundred to one
His soul wouldn’t never come clean
Then the preacher said
People take a moment or two
There’s something we need to do

Pray for the fish
They won’t know what’s coming
When the sin starts rolling off the likes of him
Lord be with ‘em, they ain’t done nothin’
Please won’t you leave them just a little bit ‘a room to swim
Pray for the fish

Well the preacher ducked him under
That cool clear water
Then he did it again
Eddie came up yelling
Lord in Heaven Hallalujah!
I’m a brand new man
Well the water got to bubbling
Sky got to rumbling
And the thunder backed up the choir
The fish started jumpin’
It was like they was swimmin’
In a lake of fire
Then Eddie’s momma stepped out of the crowd
And started yelling out loud

Pray for the fish
They won’t know what’s coming
When the sin starts rolling off the likes of him
Lord be with ‘em, they ain’t done nothin’
Please won’t you leave them just a little bit ‘a room to swim
Pray for the fish

He said everybody cross your fingers
Fold your hands
Pray for Ole Eddie
But before we say amen

Pray for the fish
Lord be with em, they ain’t done nothin’
Please won’t you leave them just a little bit ‘a room to swim
Pray for the fish
Lord pray for the fish

Well that Eddie Lee Vaughn was quite a person, wasn’t he, to get the waters roiling and on fire because of the sin rolling off him at his baptism? 

Now how in the world, does this relate to our Gospel today?  To our most familiar story of “Doubting Thomas?”  Even today you’ll hear someone say that another is a “Doubting Thomas.”  Well, Mr. Eddie Lee Vaughn of our humorous song states an obvious truth about how Jesus cares for us as shown in this Gospel:  Jesus comes to us exactly as we are. 

Yes…. Jesus doesn’t say, You MUST have faith before I’ll come to you.  Jesus doesn’t say, you MUST be perfect before I’ll come to you.  Jesus doesn’t say you MUST have no doubts before I’ll come to you.  Look at this story.

First of all, where was Thomas when Jesus came the first time?  Why had he left the group?  They had huddled together in fear after the trauma of Jesus’ death.  Even though they’d heard the reports of his resurrection, they were still afraid.  But where had Thomas gone?  Had he abandoned the community?  Had he left the group?  Did he get angry because of some decision they’d made and decided to leave?

We don’t know where he was…just that he wasn’t there.    He obviously returns to the community, but does not believe what he’s heard.  He has doubts about what his friends saw.  He won’t believe it until he sees it.  Isn’t that like so many of us?  Good friends come to us and tell us their experience or their story, but we are skeptical.  We might not say that directly to them, but sometimes we put them on the “witness stand” so to speak, questioning every part of their story.  Sometimes we trust science, even though scientists will tell you they don’t understand everything.  Most of the time, we want to see it for ourselves.  We are so like Thomas.

And Jesus could have refused to come back again.  Jesus could have said, “Well, that’s just like Thomas, and I won’t have anything to do with him.  He needs to get right and believe in me.  He needs to have faith in what his friends are telling him.”  Jesus could have refused to come in the way that Thomas needed him to come.

Instead, Jesus returns when Thomas is there.  Jesus consents to Thomas’ demand,  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25).  Jesus allows Thomas to put his finger in the holes where the nails were.  Jesus allows Thomas to put his hand in the side that was pierced.  Jesus accepts Thomas.  Jesus loves Thomas.

This doubter, Thomas, believes.  Jesus comes to him as he is and in a way that strengthens Thomas’ faith.  What did Thomas do?  Remember on Jesus’ first visit to the Disciples, Jesus said,

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)

Jesus came to the disciples to commission them for their life’s work…for the work they must do now that he is no longer with them in human form.  Tradition has it that Thomas traveled to many places, including India.  He brought the Gospel and faith to India.  He is still quite revered there. 

Come as you are.  Come with your doubts and your skepticism.  Come with your questions.  Jesus accepts you.  Jesus loves you.  And Jesus will strengthen your faith, so you, like Thomas, can say, My Lord and my God! (John 20:28).  Jesus will send you out into the world to do the work only you can do.

Amen

 

 

Happiness (Sermon) Easter April 20, 2014

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Sermon – April 20, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Easter Day

 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.   John 20:16-17

One of my great joys in becoming a grandmother is the ability to travel with my grandchildren.  When my grandson Logan was 18 months old, I brought him to my home in Maryland for one night.  This required great preparation, because his mother was not sure this was such a great idea.  I promised that if he had any trouble being away from home, I would get in my car at any time of the night and drive the 100 miles to bring him home.  We had so much fun, going to the National Zoo.  He was never homesick. 

When Logan was 4, I decided to take him on a 3-day trip to Syracuse, New York, about 300 miles away.  My mother was from that area and I have fond memories of going to visit my grandparents and my mother’s extended family every summer.  While I knew my grandson would not have the same experience as me, I wanted to show him around…see these things through new eyes.  And my good, longtime friend of over 30 years lives there and I wanted her to meet Logan.  My granddaughter was just a little too young to go, I reasoned, and I also wasn’t sure I could travel with both of them, so the plan was to take Logan. 

He was so excited.  He had a new outfit for our trip.  In addition to his suitcase, he had a backpack filled with his precious toy cars, some books and a stuffed animal or two.  I told him I was going to take him to a big lake, where you couldn’t even see to the other shore and he said, “Grandma, I’m just little.  Can’t you take me to a little lake?”  I could tell this grandson of mine loved a new adventure.  Yet, he was well aware that his mother would miss him tremendously.  She had told him she’d do the “happy dance” when he returned home.  A couple of times before we left, he made sure to assure her.  He would be talking excitedly about what we planned to do.  Then he’d stop and say, “Mommy, I know you’ll miss me.  And when I come home, you’ll do the happy dance.”

My grandson was never homesick on our trip.  He loved every minute of it.  At one point he even said he didn’t want to go home!  But when we drove up to his house, he was so excited and he and his mother did a wonderful happy dance together.

And that’s what we see Mary doing in the garden.  Can’t you just imagine her happy run to embrace Jesus?  And what did she look like as she ran to tell the others she had seen Jesus?  After witnessing Jesus’ terrible death and then arriving at the tomb to find his body gone.  She was distressed and scared.  Then to see him risen!  She rushes to him.  

More recently, Pharrell Williams has caught the world’s attention with his song “Happy.”  Originally the closing song of last summer’s animated film, Despicable Me II, with the funny and loveable minions, the video came out in November.

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

It’s a catchy tune.  The original video has 191 million views.  And people around the world have created their own videos.  From Hong Kong to Algeria to soldiers in Afghanistan, school children and people of all ages.  All dancing and saying, “happiness is the truth.”  It has become a kind of protest song for freedom, even.  People in Ukraine made a video as part of their protest and overthrow of the corrupt government there.  We in this country can relate to that since one of our founding documents, The Declaration of Independence, talks about the inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” 

And today is the happiest of days in our Christian faith.  Jesus rose from the dead.  No power on earth could keep him in the tomb.  He rose and is with us always.

Yet, our Christian happiness is different from those fleeting moments when we feel excited or in a good mood.  That’s the beauty of this day and of our Christianity.  Happiness is deeper.  The happiness we have is with us always.  It is the knowing deep inside that Christ is risen…that Christ is with us…that nothing can keep us down. 

Yes, we have our trials.  We have our days when we’re not feeling so strong emotionally or physically.  Some of us are often depressed.  We may not look happy on the outside.  That’s not what it’s about.  Our happiness comes from the knowledge and faith that we have a lifeline of hope – the sure and certain knowledge that God raised Jesus…death was destroyed.  There is always resurrection.  There is always new life and new birth. 

And on those days when that happiness is hard for us to embody…when it’s buried somewhere deep inside and we just can’t tap into it…we have each other… the whole Christian community.  Every minute of the day someone is praying for us.  We have this community of St. John’s Episcopal Church right here and right now.  Don’t you often find yourself thinking of your brothers and sisters from church during the week?  Or at least over a couple of weeks?  Those little prayers…that’s the lifeline of hope…that’s the link to deep happiness. 

So, “it might seem crazy…

Mary runs to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” she announces.  Her weeping turns into happiness.  Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Amen