Father Riley's homily for September 27, 2020 and news

The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead the congregation of Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, in Holy Eucharist Sunday at 10am October 4 and 18, 2020.

Beginning in November 2020, Father Riley will no longer serve as Priest in Residence at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph.  Information regarding our plans for November and beyond will be made available as soon as possible.

Online Morning Prayer services Sundays at 10am are available from Bishop Jake Owensby on the diocesan Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/epiwla/

 11am Sunday Morning Prayer services and daily 6pm Evening Prayer services (Mon-Sat) are available from The Rev. Garrett Boyte, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/holycrossdowntown/

An Invitation From Bishop Jake Owensby:

I hope you’ll join me for a series of in-person Zoom conversations called “A Love Shaped Life” Thursdays (6:00 p.m. CDT) in October. This coming Thursday (Oct. 1) we’ll be talking about letting go as a spiritual challenge.

No charge. No registration. All you need to do on Thursday is click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81224620632?pwd=V1V1dmJGQW12djZmb2hDVWp0a1lZZz09

Father Riley's homily:

PROPER XXI - A - 20 - EZ. 18:1-4, 25-32; PHIL. 2:1-13; MATT. 21:23-32

Today’s gospel reading begins with a question from the chief priests and elders to Jesus. They want to know by what authority he is doing the things he is doing. Moreover, they want to know who gave him the authority.

Before we get into Jesus’ response, we need to back up a bit in Matthew’s 21^st chapter to what caused the elders to raise the question in the first place. Prior to Christ’ encounter with the priests and elders in the Temple, he has entered Jerusalem humble and riding on a borrowed colt to the shouts of Hosanna. In some people’s minds, he is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy.

Following his triumphal entry into the Holy City, Christ has gone into the Temple courtyard and driven out the moneychangers. Jesus is not a priest, only the priests have the authority to cleanse the Temple. Yet, he has done what only messiah had a right to do when and if messiah comes. In addition, he has healed all those brought to him.

Thus, the chief priests and elders confront him. The people crowd around him and listen intently to the exchange that takes place between Jesus and his inquisitors in today’s passage. They raise the question of his authority to do such a thing because their authority has been questioned, as it were, by Jesus’ actions.

Jesus is not ready to reveal his identity as Messiah to his scoffers. Rather, he confounds them with a question about John Baptist. Their question and Christ’ question of them requires the same answer and would lead a person to confess that Jesus has come from heaven.

Whether they know the right answers or not, the chief priests and the elders waffle on Christ’s question, and end up by saying they do not know about the origin of John’s baptism. Any answer they might have given would have brought them trouble.

If they could not, or were not willing to admit who John was, they are not willing to admit who Jesus is. Jesus responds to their refusal to answer his question by giving them a parable of the two sons who were asked by their father to go and work in his vineyard.

It is an interesting story, which I would imagine that most of us could relate to. We have all said “yes” to something or someone and then did not follow through. In addition, we have all said “no” and then later changed our mind. However, here, Jesus is zeroing in on the religious leaders.

The priests and elders may not have believed that John was a prophet; but supposed he was, what follows? Some people did what John said, even though in the eyes of the elders they looked like they were rebelling against God. 

Other people refused to do what John said, even though they looked like God’s chosen ones in rejecting John. Just like the two sons in today’s parable, one of whom said “no” to his father, but then did what he was asked to do, the other who said “yes” but then did not do it.

In Jesus’ parable, the tax collectors and prostitutes stand for the first son. The way they were living their lives was a “no” to God; but when they heard John, they changed, repented, confessed their sins, and were baptized.

The second son who said “yes” but did not fulfill his mission, refers to the chief priests and elders who stood in the Temple and seemed outwardly to be doing God’s will. However, they were merely keeping up appearances. They refused to believe John’s message, not only about repentance but also about messiah who was standing unknown in their midst.

Sometimes we are the son who says “yes” and then we go our own way. At other times we are like the one who at first says “no” then we have a change of heart and go and do what God has asks us to do. It has to do with being obedient.

Christ is our example of one who accepts the divine will with complete obedience, trust, and love. As St. Paul reminds us. It is Jesus who “being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but gave it up, taking the form of a servant… and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

The challenge of this parable for us today is to make sure we are responding to Jesus, allowing him to confront us at every point where we have been like the second son saying “yes” to God and yet continuing in our ways that lead us away from God.

Change is possible. One is not bound by his or her past unless one chooses to be. Repent and live! As the prophet proclaims, for the Lord has no pleasure in the death of anyone.

It is not enough that outwardly we strive to “keep up the appearance” that we are Christians. What is needed is a new heart and a new spirit as the prophet Ezekiel proclaims that will not only make us want to give our “yes” to God but to follow through with it.

In baptism, we said our “yes” to God. In baptism we took on Christ by dying with him and being raised to new life in Him; a life we are to live to God with complete obedience, trust, faith, and love. Jesus Christ is the source of that new heart and spirit.

Once we get our response to Jesus as Lord of our Life in order, then as his followers we are to go out into the market place of life to challenge the world. We do this by the way we live our lives in love and service as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord, so that we are asked “by what right are you doing that?’

To which the proper answer would be not to confuse them with riddles about John the Baptist, but to tell them about Jesus the Christ. How His coming into our life has changed who we are, the way we think, and the way we act.

For now, our life is hide in Christ in whom we live and move and have our being; to Him be the glory forever and ever. AMEN+

Service schedule for Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph for October 2020

 

The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead the congregation of Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, in Holy Eucharist Sunday at 10am October 4 and 18, 2020.

Beginning in November 2020, Father Riley will no longer serve as Priest in Residence at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph.  Information regarding our plans for November and beyond will be made available as soon as possible.

Online Morning Prayer services Sundays at 10am are available from Bishop Jake Owensby on the diocesan Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/epiwla/

 11am Sunday Morning Prayer services and daily 6pm Evening Prayer services (Mon-Sat) are available from The Rev. Garrett Boyte, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/holycrossdowntown/

Father Riley's homily for September 20, 2020

The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead the congregation of Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, in Holy Eucharist Sunday at 10am September 20, 2020.

Online Morning Prayer services Sundays at 10am are available from Bishop Jake Owensby on the diocesan Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/epiwla/

 11am Sunday Morning Prayer services and daily 6pm Evening Prayer services (Mon-Sat) are available from The Rev. Garrett Boyte, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/holycrossdowntown/

Father Riley's homily for September 20, 2020:

PROPER XX - A - 20 - JONAH 3: 10-4.11, PHIL. 1: 21-30, MATT. 20. 1-16

Over the course of my forty years of ordained ministry, I have had the privilege to baptize and present for confirmation well over two hundred persons, who ranged in age from infants, to young people, to adults and even the elderly.

For example, I recall one lady in her eighties who was presented to the Bishop for confirmation. I personally baptized a lady in her nineties on her deathbed. I have baptized father and sons and converts to Christianity from other faiths.

As a priest, those were special occasions that will forever be a part of me and I am reminded of them each time I read and or hear today’s passage from St. Matthew about the last being first, and the first last. In the early church, today’s message applied specifically to the Jews (the first called) and the Gentiles (those called later).

In our day, it can be applied to those raised in the church and to those who find the church in later life. God’s generosity is given equally to both early and late comers. Jesus teaches in today’s parable that the former should not be proud of their long service nor resent those called at the 11^th hour.

For it is possible even in a short time or at the end of one’s life to recover and inherit everything. Remember the thief on the cross. The gospel parable of the vineyard, then, focuses on the generosity of God, whereas today’s first lesson centers on God’s mercy.

We see in both cases that there is resentment and anger over the ways of God. Those laborers who came first grumbled at the landowner’s generosity in paying those who came last the same wage. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, became angry towards God because God relented and chose not to destroy Nineveh.

It is the nature of God to be generous and full of compassion, as the Psalmist reminds us, and as Jonah learned. God is free to do whatever He chooses when it comes to reward and punishment, as He is free to dispense His grace and forgiveness. Both of these lessons teach us about the true nature of God.

Moreover, we see in both lessons the true nature of fallen man in his reaction to the ways of God that run counter to our way of thinking and doing. Surely, we can see something of ourselves in both the laborers who grumbled and the prophet Jonah who was not a little disappointed in God.

Just when we think, we have God all figured out, He does something that makes no sense to our way of thinking. Paying those who worked only one hour the same as those who worked all day, for example, does not make sense. Who does that? Who on earth is that generous?

God made a promise to Jonah that he would destroy the Ninevites, Israel’s most feared enemy, unless they repented. Jonah was hoping for their destruction, but God relented when they turned from their evil ways and repented. Jonah got angry.

He did not want to go to Ninevah in the first place. He went, reluctantly, evermore vigilant as he entered the capitol of Israel’s greatest enemy. Jonah was bent on their destruction. The odds in his own mind were against their listening to God’s warning. But they did.

They listened to his message of God’s warning and took it to heart. They called for a fast, put on sackcloth and ashes and repented of their evil ways. And God relented of His promise to destroy them. Jonah thought he knew God, and the ways of God. He never thought God might change His mind.

God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. It doesn’t make sense, in terms of our earthly thinking, to do what the landowner did in today’s parable. Where is the sense of fairness, of justice, in paying the last workers the same as the first? Perhaps Jesus intends the parable as a warning to the disciples themselves about their own attitudes.

It confuses us and sometimes even angers us when God does not do what we wish or expect Him to do in certain situations as was the case with Jonah. We only have to look at the cross to see this to be true.  None of the disciples expected that.

How could God allow His only Son to be crucified between two common criminals? But He did and in doing so God’s love and compassion for the world, which He had made, was manifested on the cross for all the world to see.

None of Jesus’ disciples believed Him when He said He would rise from the dead on the third day. But he did, and in doing so brought the Hope of new and unending life to all who believe in Him from the first to the last.

Were it not for God’s grace, love, mercy and forgiveness none of us would survive “the sultry east wind” or “the sun’s scorching heat” that we all face in this life. Our anger, frustration and resentment towards our neighbor and even ourselves would utterly consume us.

Moreover, if we focus on the things of this world, that are passing away as I speak: our pride, self-interests and reliance on worldly wisdom and power, then we lose sight of the heavenly. However, if we hold fast to those that shall abide, we gain everything. That is a promise of God.

God does not make contracts, but covenants in which He promises everything and asks of us everything in return. When He keeps His promise, He is not rewarding us for our efforts, but doing what comes naturally to His overflowing generous nature.

God is out there yet in the market place of life, looking for those everyone else tries to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms as He has welcomed us, surprising them (and everyone else) with His generosity.

The early church needed to hear that lesson. Perhaps Jesus’ warning to his disciples themselves about their own attitude towards those whom God calls, and when He calls, is one that we as the church today needs to be reminded of  as well. AMEN+

Service plans for Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead the congregation of Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, in Holy Eucharist Sunday at 10am September 20, 2020.

Online Morning Prayer services Sundays at 10am are available from Bishop Jake Owensby on the diocesan Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/epiwla/

 11am Sunday Morning Prayer services and daily 6pm Evening Prayer services (Mon-Sat) are available from The Rev. Garrett Boyte, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/holycrossdowntown/

Today, September 18, 2020, is an Ember Day:

 "Among many Christians, it is a custom to observe Ember Days, a cluster of four sets of three days in the calendar year, roughly around the start of the four seasons. They are set aside by the Church as a way to mark the passage of seasons through prayer and fasting.

Origins. The term Ember days refers to three days set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer during each of the four seasons of the year. The purpose of their introduction was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy."

Father Riley's homily for September 13, 2020

PROPER XIX - A - 20 - GEN. 50. 15-21, ROM. 14.1-12, MATT. 18-21-35

Today’s gospel follows last week’s where Jesus gave his disciples a lesson on church discipline. In that he gave us a formula for reconciliation which is at the very heart of his ministry and the one Christ has given to the church to continue in His name.

With that said, Peter raises the question how many times do I have to forgive one who has offended me. Seven times? Then, I can check the box and be done with that person? Jesus says no, forgiveness is not like that. In other words, forgiveness cannot be calculated. It is not a matter of mathematics.

It has to do with love, mercy, and grace. Christ gives his disciples an example in the story of the king who whished to settle accounts with his servants. In this parable, the king forgave a servant all of his debt even though it was enormous.

His forgiveness meant that the slate was clean between the two of them, that the servant owed him nothing. It was though the debt never existed. What a gift, what mercy, what grace, what love!

One would assume that the forgiven servant would have felt so good that he could not have done anything but “play it forward” in forgiving a much smaller debt owed him by a fellow servant. But that is not what happened. Why not?

Perhaps what was operative in the life of this servant is something that all of us struggle with on a daily basis. Even though his debt was forgiven by the king, he could not believe that he was really forgiven. Like the brothers of Joseph in today’s first lesson.

He could not forgive himself. He was angry with himself because he had failed to pay his debt. In today’s first lesson from Genesis, the brothers of Joseph who had wronged him by selling him into slavery were afraid of his retribution now that their father had died, even though Joseph had previously forgiven them. They couldn’t believe that it was true. They had not forgiven themselves for the sin they had committed against their brother and were struggling to accept his forgiveness. Yet, it was true. What a gift, what love, what grace, what mercy!

In our human relationships, we often become angry with ourselves over such matters. And when we do our favorite defense mechanism is to project that anger onto someone else. That is exactly what the forgiven servant did. He turned all of his anger and self-recrimination onto the one who owed him.

We have all had the experience of feeling anger towards ourselves because of something we said or did and then find ourselves inadvertently projecting that anger onto someone else, someone safe, someone who had nothing to do with the situation, perhaps a child, a spouse, a friend or a neighbor.

Forgiveness is difficult at best. It would be nice if forgiving the other person seven times were enough. Then, we could simply move on with life. However, Jesus teaches us that is not the way. That is not God’s way. God not only stays the punishment we deserve, but forgives us the entire debt as well.

Thankfully, God does not stop forgiving us after seven times. Because God forgives us, we in turn are to grant forgiveness to others. To believe and accept that God has forgiven us requires that we forgive ourselves. When we cannot forgive ourselves, it is easy to be like the unforgiving servant.

Back in the nineties, I made several pilgrimages to the study the Celtic tradition of the early Church in the British Isles. I traveled to Ireland, Scotland, and England and Wales, and even twice to the Isle of Mann visiting holy shrines and holy sites. One memorable visit was to Iona off the coast of Scotland.

Here St. Columba, impelled by missionary zeal, along with twelve companions built a monastic community in 563.Columba left his native Ireland and landed on the southern end of the small spite of land roughly a mile and half in length and half mile wide. There he lived for thirty-four years evangelizing the mainland and establishing monasteries in the neighboring islands.Tradition has it that if one goes and stands on the end of the isle where the saint landed confessing one’s sins and casting a handful of small stones taken from that beach into the sea, one’s sins are forgiven and the slate wiped clean as the stones disappear beneath the water.

Sometimes the words “I forgive you” are not enough. We need to feel it, to know that it is true. We need to see it, somehow, to believe it. The unforgiving servant could not believe that he was really forgiven. But he was, and so are we.

God’s love, mercy, and grace were manifested on the cross. If we need to feel it to know that it is true, we only have to look at the crucified Jesus. If we need to see it, to believe it, we only need to look again at the dying Jesus whose outstretched arms are open to receive us with love and forgiveness.

If He could forgive those who crucified him, how much more is he willing to forgive us? Through the merits of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, we have been given new life. Our debt has been paid. Our slate wiped clean. What a gift, what love, what grace, what mercy?

Can we believe that we are forgiven? Can we believe that God our King has forgiven us? In the assurance that we are, can we not accept, love, and forgive ourselves? Then free from angry self-recrimination, can we not accept, love and forgive others?

Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer says it all. If we are still counting how many times we are to forgive someone, we are not really forgiving him or her at all. Seventy times seven is a symbol of unlimited amount.

What Jesus really means, of course, is don’t even think about counting; just do it. If our hearts are open, able and willing to forgive others. It will be open to receive God’s love and forgiveness.

“O God, because without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” AMEN+

Father Riley's homily for September 6, 2020

PROPER XVIII - A - 20 - EZ 33.7-11, ROM. 13. 8-14, MATT. 18. 15-20

No one likes confrontation. It is a very difficult thing. Few of us do it well.  In today’s passage from Matthew, Jesus is giving his disciples a lesson on reconciliation for that is at the very heart of his ministry and the one Jesus has passed on to the Church.

Christ’ teaching concerns forgiveness and its grim counterpart. It’s all part of the “binding and loosing” that comes with the ministry of the Church. It has to do with church discipline and in the worse case excommunication. However, excommunication did not originate with the Church. The Jews of Jesus’ day already employed it.

You may recall the story from St. John’s gospel concerning the man born blind. When the man’s parents were questioned by the Pharisees on how it happened that their son born blind could now see, and who had done it, they refused to answer and referred their inquisitors to their son.

They were afraid of being excommunicated from the synagogue. For anyone who believed in Jesus or who acknowledged his work were threatened with being put out of the synagogue. (Jn, 9. 20-21)

The Ash Wednesday Liturgy contains an invitation to a Holy Lent. Within that invitation is a reminder that “the season of Lent was a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and resorted to the fellowship of the church.” (BCP 265)

Jesus gave the church a three-step process in order to do so with the Hope that the offender might be reconciled. The “grim counterpart”  that of excommunication comes at the end of the process when the offender refuses to repent and instead chooses to continue in his or her ways that run counter to God.

The prophet Ezekiel in today’s first lesson was chosen by God to be a “watchman.” His mission was to warn God’s people to turn from their evil ways and return to God. God demanded of Ezekiel that he never give up; never cease to warn a stubborn and rebellious people. In this Ezekiel shows us a God of Hope. It is the Hope of God that makes possible the forgiveness of God.

Reconciliation is a huge issue today and not just in the church. We see clearly the results of not doing it in our society. We are a divided people. Violent protests continue in our nations’ streets.

In some of our major cities, anarchists reign. The destruction of private and public property and the loss of human life are masked behind so-called peaceful demonstrations by a media that seeks to convince the majority that it is “ok.”

Many of us prefer to pretend there is not a problem. We refuse to face the facts, swallow our anger or resentment, paper over the cracks, and carry on as if everything is normal. On a smaller scale, we have broken marriages, shattered families, and divided churches.

Many Christians have taken this paper over the cracks option, in terms of dealing with individuals, and or institutions, believing that this is what forgiveness means, pretending that everything is alright, that the other person or persons has not done anything wrong.

To ignore it, however, will not do. Obviously, the question came up in the time of Jesus that is why we have his teaching in Matthew’s gospel. Evidence of Christ’ teaching on Church discipline being put into practice can be seen in St. Paul’s writings, primarily in First Corinthians 5.5, and Galatians 6.1.

One cannot ignore the problem. There is no reconciliation without confronting the evil that has been done. Forgiveness does not mean saying, “it didn’t really happen’ or ‘it didn’t really matter.’ In those cases, you don’t need reconciliation; you need to clear up a misunderstanding.

Forgiveness is when it did happen, and it did matter, and you are going to deal with it. Jesus gives us a three-step process in which to do that very thing with the Hope that the offender might be reconciled to the one who has been offended.

The hard part comes if the offender still refuses to yield and be reconciled.

However, together with the hard challenge comes a dramatic promise. We are not left on our own as we struggle to become the sort of communities, families, and churches Jesus is describing. God’s presence is with us. If we take that seriously, engaging in reconciliation will still be costly but it will always be done in real Hope.

The gospel, you see, makes the same demand on us as God did Ezekiel. Never give up. Persevere in Hope that they will hear and listen, and turn back to God. The key to reconciliation is perseverance.

It may be in the end that we have to let go, if they continue to refuse and remain steadfast in their actions. But we do so with the Hope that one day they may return. This Hope is reflected in St. Paul’s message about love, the ultimate debt we owe one another.

Love supports our patience; Love never gives up on the other. Forgiveness is based on love, God’s love for each of us, and our response to His love by loving others as Christ first loved us.

It is God’s love that gifts us with life. This in turn is the love that we owe each other.

The message today is to Hope, to have the greatness of heart to hope even in the one who wrongs us, to Hope that our nation will be healed, that our divisions may cease, and that the Church may be one.

For the meaning of our redemption is that God continued to Hope in us. God’s hope, God’s love, went to such lengths that Christ gave his life on the hard wood of the cross that we might be reconciled to God.

Christ gave his life in the expectation that we would turn from our sinful ways and live. For God, Ezekiel proclaims, does not delight in the death of a sinner, but that he indeed may turn from his ways and live. AMEN+

 

Father Riley's schedule for Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, September 2020

 

Father Riley will lead the congregation in Holy Eucharist at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, September 6 and 20, 2020.  10am.