Father Riley's homily for June 28, 2020

We will meet June 28, 2020 at 10am at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph with Father Riley for our first service since the covid19 crisis stopped our services.

PROPER VIII - A - 20 - Gen. 22.1-14, Rom 6. 12-23, Matthew 10. 40-42

In today’s short passage from St. Matthew; Jesus is concluding his instructions to the 12 prior to his sending them out on their first solo mission. His instructions have included dos and don’ts, as well as the challenges they will face. Not all they encounter will be receptive to their message. They can expect opposition.

However, his words to them also contain promises that only God can make. Jesus makes four such promises in his instructions to them in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew. Jesus chose these 12 for a purpose. They are to be true emissaries in the sense that Jesus and the Father are identified with them.

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent me.”

The Apostles are to be ambassadors who represent the Lord. Their reward will be granted them through their faithfulness. Today’s short passage gives weight to their mission and a promise of reward to those who receive them as well.

In today’s first lesson from Genesis, we see that Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. It was the hospitality of Abraham that resulted in the promise. God’s covenant with Abraham was established in Isaac, because his birth was based on a promise of God. It was not based on physical lineage, for Abraham and Sarah were past the age of childbearing at the time.

In today’s lesson God put Abraham’s faith to the ultimate test. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. Isaac meant everything to Abraham, yet Abraham seems to be willing to do what God asks of him. He was obedient from the heart.

Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain and prepared to sacrifice him as the Lord had directed him. At the last moment, having proved his faithfulness, and his willingness to be obedient to God, the promise is returned to him. God spared his son.

Salvation is based on the promise of the Word of God. Abraham was willing to make a total offering of his only son, the one thing that meant the most to him in life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one of invitation to a total offering of self to God.

This invitation is given not merely to the individual disciple but also to the Church as a whole, to that community of disciples who profess to live out the dying and rising of Jesus, the Christ, in a definitive way.

The Church is a credible symbol insofar as it incarnates the very message it proclaims. However, the Church, as an institution is not perfect. It too needs to die to those things that are not of God, to adjust its priorities so that its mission is clearly focused, to let go of all that distracts it from its one true purpose. This is never been truer, than in the present environment.

The same goes for each of us. We must remember that individually and corporately we are ambassadors for Christ. The world looks to us, as Christians, to see who Jesus really is what he is all about.

Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son as a test of his faith. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to mankind.

God did not spare his only son, but sacrificed him on the hardwood of the cross that all might come to know him, and love him. In Jesus, we are called to sacrifice self, to die to self, in order to live to God.

As we lift up our hearts to God in our worship, we are reminded of God’s gift of new life in and through His Son, Jesus, as we hear the Word of God proclaimed in Holy Scripture.

Moreover, in our receiving the sacrament of Christ’ most sacred Body and Blood we are reminded of the price that was paid for our salvation. Today’s celebration of the Holy Eucharist should bring us to a renewed awareness of the meaning of our call to discipleship.

However, as Jesus told the 12, to follow him will not be easy. There will be times of rejection and disappointment, division and unrest. There will be times when our faith and our allegiance is tested to the limits, when we have to decide whether those persons or things in this life we consider most important, are more so than our life lived to God.

To follow Jesus requires a steadfast faith. One must be willing to sacrifice whatever stands in the way of one’s taking up his or her cross and following Him. Nowhere along the road to God will we be told we can put it down.

However, the challenge of Jesus’ sayings is marked by the promise he makes in today’s gospel to those who accept them and live by them. “He who endures to the end will be saved…whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven…he who loses his life for my sake will find it…”

And at the end of his sayings in Matthew’s tenth chapter, we find the remarkable chain reaction, if you will, of those who serve their fellow human beings out of love for Christ, out of obedience of the heart.

“And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward”

When we do, we are serving Jesus and whatever we do for Jesus, we are doing for God. If we could relearn this simple but profound lesson, and put it into practice, what a different world we would live in.

For it is not only a message that would challenge, but also one that would change people’s hearts. AMEN+

Father Riley's homily for June 14, 2020

PROPER VI - A - 20 -             Gen 18.1-15, Rom 5. 1-8, Matt 9. 35-10.8 -23

“Then Jesus went about all their cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Today’s gospel picks up following Jesus’ having healed a variety of illnesses and exorcising many demons. He has even opened the eyes of the blind. Matthew tells us that Jesus is moved with compassion for those to whom he has been sent. He sees them floundering about like so many sheep without a shepherd.

He says to his followers that the harvest is plentiful in reference to the people, but the laborers are few. So pray, Jesus tells them, that the Lord of the Harvest will send out laborers into the harvest. What follows is Christ’s choosing 12 men from among those who have been with him up to this point to do that very thing.

These 12 Jesus empowers to heal and teach and to cast out demons. In other words, to do what he has been doing all along. However, he warns them that not all who hear their words or witness their deeds will welcome them.

More than that, there will be those occasions when they will undergo persecution. Their words and actions will stir people up and cause divisions even among families. However, he promises that those who endure to the end will ensure their salvation.

Jesus summoned the 12 and gave them power to heal. God’s love is a transforming power to the extent that it is shared in God’s manner of sharing. God’s power is a transforming love when it is exercised in the manner of Jesus Christ’ use of power.

Such power begins and ends with love shared as revealed in Jesus Christ who while we were yet sinners loved us and died for us. It is a mystery we are invited into by virtue of our baptism. That ideal of Christ’ power, the power of compassion, the power to share the good news, and the power to love and reconcile, is not and has not been the power that mankind has and is used to welding.

Just look at our world today. Look even closer at our own society, especially in the past few weeks. Power over others rather than power for others has been and is more typical. The tension between Christian power and abusive power has always existed from the time of Christ to the present day.

It is even evident among those who call themselves Christians, and for all whom Christ died. A warring power has taken over the hearts and minds of many today causing even further divisions. “Might is Right” has become the underlying slogan. This abuse of power has opened a Pandora’s Box giving some the excuse to abuse others in the name of justice.

That, however, is only one story. The Christian story of power, the power Jesus Christ has shared with his Body the Church, is a different story. His is one of “Might for Right,” of power for caring and of reconciliation.

The mystery of the power of God’s love is found in our sharing Christ’ gift of reconciliation. When we do, we discover that we receive more of that gift each time we share it.

Jesus had the power, the power of God to do the things he was doing that left some speechless and awed at his ability to do so while others viewed power strictly from a human point of view. In that, nothing has changed today. That left people with a choice, still does. Either to accept Jesus as God’s chosen deliver or else to believe that he was in league with the devil.

Sadly, Jesus was anything but in league with the enemy. What he was doing sprang from a deep compassion and sorrow he felt in his own heart as he looked at his fellow Jews wandering about as if they were lost sheep without a shepherd attending to their needs.

He changed the imagery to a farming one. They were like a field full of wheat or corn with nobody to harvest it. They were eager for God’s kingdom, but did not know where to look to find it. They were ready and waiting for God to act, but who was going to tell them he already had.

Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that we are to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into the harvest. His disciples did not understand that he meant them for he had not yet sent them out. Jesus tells us to pray the same prayer and if we do, we need to see the answer comes back to us as well.

We are the answer to Christ’s prayer. That may come as a shocking revelation to some of us. What Jesus was doing for the lost sheep of the tribes of Israel, we are, as Church, are to continue to do for the world. That is the Church’s mission. We are part of God’s answer. How awesome is that?

As Jesus sent the twelve, so we, by virtue of our baptism are sent to be healers, restorers, people who bring new life and hope to others in His name. That is a message that we all need to hear today and the one that needs to be acted on.

However, as the disciples discovered, so shall we, not all will choose to welcome the good news. By their words and actions, some will choose to remain in the darkness of evil, violence, anger and ignorance.

They will choose to stick to the old ways of welding power that leads to ruin. Justifying themselves as they do so with “might is right.” Instead of embracing the power of God’s love to make whole, to make new, to heal and reconcile as Jesus taught us to do.

Our society today is a tale of two stories, one of darkness and the other of light. Power is the driving force. The tension exists today, as it did in the time of Jesus between the power of God and the power of darkness that sometimes comes clothed as light and truth only to deceive.

Pray God will continue to keep His Church steadfast in faith and love and give us the strength and courage through His grace to proclaim the Truth with boldness, and minister justice with compassion for the sake of Him who died and rose again, even Jesus Christ, our Savior. AMEN+

Father Riley's homily for June 7, 2020

TRINITY SUNDAY             A - 20 - Gen. 1.1-2.3, 2 Cor. 13.11-13, Matt. 28.16-20

Today the Church celebrates the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Our liturgy is filled with references to the Triune God we believe in and worship. We begin each Eucharistic service with “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We conclude each service with a blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our statement of belief in God, the Creed, is one that professes the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Belief in the three persons of God identifies us as Trinitarians. Jesus taught that the Father is spirit and that we are to worship Him in spirit and truth for such the Father seeks to worship Him.

Jesus, the Son of God, ascended into heaven and is no longer physically present among us, yet He is, “whenever two or three gather in my name, I am in the midst of them.” On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, the gift of the Father for those who believe to enable us to carry out the work we have been given to do, to make God known.

The Holy Trinity, one God in three persons, is a mystery. I for one would have it no other way. If I were able to totally comprehend and understand all there is to know about God with my finite mind He would no longer be the infinite God I love and worship and seek to serve.

Do we have to totally understand God in order to worship Him? “My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. Neither or my thoughts your thoughts.” (Is. 55.8) That puts things in a proper perspective. To demystify God is to dethrone God.

Reason alone will never bring us to God. We come to Him by faith. Faith bridges the gap between what we can know and understand about God and enables us to place our Hope and Trust in Him.

Yet there are those today who like to think that they can and have unraveled the mystery of God. They existed in the time of Jesus as well. They thought they knew all about God. Our Lord, Jesus corrected as many as would open their hearts and minds to His teaching.

The Samaritan women at the well, whom Jesus taught that God was Spirit; the Jew Zacchaeus, who climbed the tree to get a look at Jesus and learned from his encounter with Christ that God was a forgiving God; the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night and was enlightened by the concept of the Holy Spirit and of new birth, to mention a few.

Each had their own view of God and the ways of God which Jesus set aright. Christ taught if you want to know God, what God is like, look at me, and know me. I and the Father are one. Yet the mystery that is God continues to baffle those who seek to know Him strictly from an intellectual view.

The Holy Trinity is revealed in both the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament the Trinity is revealed in subtle ways. In our first lesson from Genesis, the Trinity is evident in the creation of the world and mankind.  “Let us make man in our own image, in accordance with our likeness.”

In the New Testament, the Trinity is revealed fully and plainly beginning with the baptism of Jesus.  St. Paul concludes our Epistle reading this morning with a Trinitarian blessing evidence of the early church’s belief in the Triune God.

Our gospel reading concludes St. Matthew’s gospel with Jesus delivering the Great Commission. We are to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus our baptismal formula is in the name of the Triune God.

The Holy Trinity is one God in three persons. They are one God because they are one in essence or nature. The Father is the unbegotten fountainhead of deity. The Son is equally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Helper and the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father. They operate out of complete unity out of one divine nature.

How the world, how our nation, how our society would be different today if we could all see something of God in each other, recognize it and acknowledge it, and live our lives accordingly. Or do we perhaps see Him? This we are promised.

For now we walk by faith, not by sight. Sight will come when the words of St. John are fulfilled: “Beloved, we are God’s children; but it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

The Holy Trinity is a community of love. Love manifests God, for God is love. God so loved the world that he sent his son to redeem it from sin and death by his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus taught that if we are to be his disciples we must learn to love one another as he loves us.

As we look at our society today there is not much love being shown. Rather, the opposite. We must assume that of all those people violently protesting in our nation’s streets that some must be professed Christians. Their actions, however, do not manifest love. There are even some church leaders who are allowing their politics to override their Christian faith by their words and actions.

If we truly love as Christ loves us, he promised that He and the Father would come and live in our hearts. If God lives in our hearts there can be no room for hate. Love manifests God. The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to lead us and to guide us into all truth; to unite us in love to the Father and the Son and to one another regardless of race or politics.

What makes us one is more than a doctrine, more than a creed; it is God, in all of God’s fullness, power, and love. God shall be with you and in you Jesus said as he promised to send the Holy Spirit. Last Sunday we celebrated the anniversary of the Spirit’s descent upon the Church.

Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we enjoy a personal association and fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings about our fellowship with Christ by establishing a mystic union. God is mystery. He is Spirit and He is Love.

In Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we who have been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity have been called to live in communion with Him who is eternal - with God the Father who created us; with Jesus Christ who redeemed us, and with the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.

The concept of the Holy Trinity remains a mystery. Our finite minds cannot take it all in. Yet, as St. Peter wrote in his first letter (3.8) “although we have not seen Him, we love Him. And even though we do not see Him now, we believe in Him.” This is the faith of baptism and the faith of eternal life, a faith based on love.

May God continue to give us the grace by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of His divine Majesty to worship the Unity.

And may He keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see Him in His one and eternal glory; O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. AMEN+