Services at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph March 2024

 

The following services are planned for Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph:

...Good Friday (March 29) at 5pm with The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman

...Easter Sunday (March 31) at 10am with The Rev. Mary Richard

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily from February 4, 2024

"The First Deacon"

by The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman

4 February 2024, Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph, LA

Year B, Epiphany 5 Isaiah 40:21-31, 1 Corinthians 9:16-23, Mark 1:29-39

 

Today’s Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law. This story lays out a pattern for us, actually a couple of patterns that are well worthy of our reflection as we head toward Lent.

The first pattern is set by Peter’s mother-in-law. She was, no doubt, in charge of the household. That’s the way it was. The senior woman—the matriarch—was in charge of the household.

She is sick when Jesus arrives. I like to think she was sick from doing “grandma daycare”! I do grandma daycare and love to do it, but occasionally I come down with some kid disease the grandbabies caught in regular daycare.

In any case, although she is sick, Jesus is welcomed in. He learns of her illness and immediately goes to her bedside.

Now I must pause to explain a couple of things because so much in our reading of Holy Scripture is lost in translation. Our reading says Jesus “lifted her up.” The Greek used here is the same exact word as is used for Jesus’ resurrection.

So what we have here is a mini Easter, a foreshadowing of the Easter story. She is not dead, but in a sense, Jesus resurrects her. And what does she do? Immediately she begins to serve.

Again, our lesson says she begins to “wait on them,” and the Greek word used for that is diaconia. And diaconia means “service among others.” It is also the source of the word “deacon,” and deacons are the icons and leaders of servant ministry in the church. So Peter’s mother-in-law is, in that sense, the church’s first deacon.

But remember what Jesus said about himself. For the son of man came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). We are all called to serve, from Jesus on down. We are all called to announce the Gospel by our actions in service to others.

Peter’s mother-in-law’s home becomes a house church, a home base, a gathering place for those who need forgiveness, healing. Our translation of this story says “the whole city was gathered around the door.” Older translations say "the whole world was pressing up against the door."

It’s important to note that Peter’s mother-in-law’s home, powered by the Love of God in Jesus, is a new kind of gathering place, one outside of the mainstream of religious institutions. And outside of the mainstream of religious instiutions is where Jesus did most of his work. Yes, he preached in the synagogues. But the places place of healing, administering justice, and helping all who come looking for him mostly happened in this new type of gathering place, outside of the mainstream.

So that’s the first pattern: Peter’s mother-in-law receives the Love of God in Jesus into her home/life, she is raised up from her place of weakness by the Love, and the Love shines through her and her home as she ministers to others. To this day, her home in the middle east is a revered site of healing and pilgrimage.

In what ways does your own life become a conduit for God’s Love? In what ways has your home become a base for comings and goings in Love?

The second pattern in this story is set by Jesus himself. He serves; he heals the multitudes pressing at the door. The story say he began healing at sundown; it was probably the Sabbath. And from sundown until who knows what wee hour of the night, he healed the multitude at the door. He must have gone to bed exhausted.

Nevertheless, he gets up early, the story says, emphasizing that it was still very very dark. He gets up and goes to a deserted place to pray.

Which of us has ever done that? Or would do it? I might indeed wake up early when the house is quiet and everyone else asleep. But if I think of praying, I am most likely to convince myself that I’ll just lay here in bed and pray, right?! And I’ll be back asleep again in minutes.

We’ll get up early to go hunting. Or to catch an early flight. But to get dressed to go out in search of silence and solitude? Not likely.

But Jesus must refresh his relationship with Divine Love through prayer in silence and solitude. He must go back to the source of all Love.

Thomas Merton was a monk and poet who lived alone in a cabin in the woods that he called “the hermitage.” He so craved solitude that he got special permission to live by himself in this cabin, rather than in the monastery proper, where he went for meals and communal worship services.

Here’s Merton’s description of what I think Jesus is up to in this story: Let me seek, then, the gift of silence … and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into prayer: where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is all in all.

Wherever you go—outdoors, a space in your home, an empty church (Christ Church is never locked. St. Thomas’ in Monroe doesn’t even have a lock on the front doors.)—the more silence and solitude the better. Go, listen, which is a form of prayer, breathe—breathe in God’s love, wisdom, peace…

And what does Jesus do next? Restored, he plunges back into the waiting world. He answers his call, he expands his ministry. He takes his disciples to spread the good news of God’s love to the neighboring villages.

Seeking, loving and serving human beings is as much an absolute as seeking, loving and serving God. One movement is vertical, the other horizontal; both are essential.

Jesus left us in no doubt about the necessity of this simultaneous movement in two planes: toward God and toward each other.

Here’s how author Carlo Caretto puts it: The closer you come to God …, the greater … your craving to love human beings on the level of action. The perfection of men and women on earth consists in the integration … of our love for God and our love for human beings.

Notice now, these two patterns:

Peter’s mother-in-law receives the Love of God in the person of Jesus into her home and life, he reaches out to her in her weakness and raises her up, and she responds with diaconia, loving service to humankind that extends far beyond her immediate household.

Jesus, full of God’s Love, heals and serves and ministers to the world pressing at the door, goes out into silence and solitude—that is, prayer—to be refreshed by the very source of Divine Love, then returns to the world to expand his own ministry in love to the world.

These are really two versions of one pattern—the very same pattern we will shortly enact. We serve. We get spent and exhausted and cranky and sick and tired of it all. We come to the Holy Table to be refreshed, to be renewed in body, mind and spirit. And we go back out to serve some more.

That is our theology of Holy Communion. That is what we who are dwelling places of the Holy Spirit do.

 

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.

 

Sad news and service schedule

Service Schedule:

December 20: 5pm Holy Eucharist The Rev. Don Smith

December 24: 2pm Morning Prayer with Communion, The Rev. Deacon Bette Kauffman

December 28: 1pm visitation and 2pm memorial service for Nicholas Isaiah Dorrell with Rev. Don and Deacon Bette

Nicholas Isaiah Dorrell

July 13, 1996 - December 18, 2023

It is with great sadness that we announce Nicholas Isaiah Dorrell, a member of our congregational family, passed away on December 18, 2023, from an overdose of fentanyl. He was 27 years old. Incredibly intelligent and funny, he was loved by all who met him, and his joyous laughter will now bless heaven. He enjoyed boating, the beach, and anything to do with the great outdoors. Over his too-short lifespan, Nick enjoyed work as a deck hand and engineer for tow boat companies ranging from the northern reaches of the Mississippi River, east to Panama City, FL, and west in the Intracoastal Waterway to Texas. He also had jobs cooking crawfish, working as a farm hand and construction work including heavy equipment and boat operations. Nick lived in Tensas Parish for numerous years and became friends with many of the officers of the Tensas Parish Sheriff’s Office due to his exuberant driving habits. Nick also had a love for animals, several of whom he brought home, including chickens, turkens, an opossum, a calf, and most recently a kitten named PJ. He will be greeted in heaven by his first puppy Money Dog and his later dogs, Maggie and Beaudreaux. He is preceded in death by his maternal and paternal great-grandparents, and two second cousins. He is survived by his parents Shelley and Laurence Leyens, David and Kim Dorrell, brothers Corey Leyens and Junior Dorrell, and sister Madison Leyens.  Nick is also survived by his grandparents Nancy and Brent Smith of Vicksburg, MS and Faye and Sam Corson of Saint Joseph, LA. Visitation and service will be held at Christ Episcopal Church in St. Joseph, Louisiana, on December 28, 2023. Visitation is at 1:00 p.m. in the Parish House and the service at 2:00 p.m. Prior to fentanyl addiction, Nicholas lived life to its fullest. In lieu of flowers, please mail donations in memory of Nicholas to Home of Grace, Donation Services, PO Box 5009, Vancleave, MS. Or, via their website @ https://www.homeofgrace.org/give/

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily from December 10, 2023

 Hanging Out

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

(Year B, Advent II, Isaiah 49:1-11, 2 Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8)

It is easy to rush through Advent. Indeed, our lives at this time of year seem especially geared to push us relentlessly forward at an ever more frantic pace.

In my life, this past week was especially tiring. Our Grace Episcopal Day School & Nursery celebrated with our annual Christmas Festival Thursday afternoon. The first few days of the week were all preparation: working out last minute logistics, sending out messages to teachers and parents, pulling festival games out of storage and setting them up, decorating. Then Friday was all clean up, put away, etc. 

It seems that our approach to that other penitential season—Lent—is so different. Easter seems far away as we gather Ash Wednesday to begin weeks of abstaining from something important to us, and commitment to fasting, reflection and alms-giving.

In contrast, the beginning of Advent is a mad dash into planning, shopping, decorating, office receptions and parties with their special foods and beverages, and more. It is a time of year when our society does everything in its power to entice us to over-indulge in every way possible, beginning with Thanksgiving and going all the way to Christmas.

For the past few years, many Christians have been quick to complain of a so-called “attack on Christmas.” I am far more likely to bemoan the attack on Advent! The first Christmas tree I saw this year appeared in Sam’s Club… before Halloween! I was stunned and dismayed.

Today’s lessons—Isaiah’s cry on behalf of the Israelites, John the Baptist’s rough-hewn lifestyle and in-your-face preaching—seem truly misplaced amongst the cheery holiday music, fresh greenery and glittering ornaments that have already filled our lives. Who wants to go into the wilderness when we can hang out here in Christmasland?!

But the wilderness has things to offer that we cannot find in the hustle and bustle and beauty of Christmasland. Holy things. And these passages give us some clues. This morning I invite you to hang out for a time in the Holy Land of Advent.

Let’s begin with the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 40:1-11, NRSV):

Comfort, O comfort my people, 

says your God. 

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, 

and cry to her 

that she has served her term, 

that her penalty is paid, 

that she has received from the LORD's hand 

double for all her sins. 

Of course, Western Christians can hardly hear these words without hearing the soaring music of Handel’s Messiah. But the prophet does not allow us to simply rush straight to the triumph of the Allelujah chorus!

First, even as we are comforted, we are reminded that we need comfort due to the magnitude of our sins and the penalty we have paid. We have suffered as a result of our estrangement from God.

Please do not hear that as a theology of retribution. The bad things that happen in our lives are not God’s punishment for our sins. Rather, things go wrong in our lives and we lose sight of God. We try to comfort ourselves with all the wrong things—mood-altering substances like alcohol, extreme busy-ness, spending money, whatever—and the more we do that, the farther away God seems to be. And we suffer.

Second, Isaiah draws attention to the one thing that most reliably causes humankind to suffer, and that is our mortality. We are flowers, beautiful but fragile, for flowers do not last. The wind blows. We wither and die. All of us in this space this morning are old enough to have dealt with loss.

Memento morí…?

This world often seems devoid of the comforting presence of God! We often feel forsaken by God! Isaiah reassures us that God is there in the wilderness of our lives. That God patiently waits to speak tenderly to us, to feed us and to gather us and to gently lead us home.

Turning to today’s Gospel lesson (Mark 1:1-8, NRSV), I’m again struck by these opening words:

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, 

who will prepare your way; 

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 

`Prepare the way of the Lord, 

make his paths straight,'" 

With this enigmatic opening, St. Mark connects his main character, Jesus the Christ, with the God of Hebrew Scripture, through his lead character, John the Baptizer.

John the Baptizer hung out in the wilderness, and people went in droves to hear him—in spite of the fact that he bore the bad news of sin and the need for repentance. Indeed, in Matthew’s account, John calls the religious elite of his day a brood of vipers!

So why did the people flock to him? As Mark says, he also bore the good news of another to come, one who would share with us the forgiving waters of baptism, but one who had more—much more—to offer.

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me, John says. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

We go into the wilderness to repent, wait and prepare. In today’s epistle (1 Peter 3:8-15a, NRSV), St. Peter tells us how: Patiently, because God’s days are unlike ours and God has been more than patient with we. Keeping awake, for we do not know when God comes again. Living godly lives, doing the things God has called us to do to hasten the kingdom—which we know from Jesus’ teaching means loving God and our neighbor as ourselves.

Dear friends, let us hang out for a while in the holy land of Advent. For here we find God’s comforting promise of mercy and grace bestowed in the coming of the one for whom we prepare—the one of power and glory who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.

The Rev. Canon John Bedingfield's sermon from October 22, 2023

 

 

            Finally.  Today we hear Jesus saying something that we can instantly understand.  For the last several weeks we’ve had a series of cryptic sayings, parables and allegories.  But this morning we get a good old saying that we can sink our teeth into.  “Give … to (Caesar) the things that are (Caesar’s), and to God the things that are God's.” 

            This morning we find Jesus in the Temple teaching.  The Pharisees are still trying to trap him into saying something that will make him appear in a bad light.  So, they send some of their disciples to ask him a very carefully crafted question.  “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  It is not often that someone of my limited Greek scholarship disagrees with translators, but this is one such time.  The original Greek does not use the word, “pay,” here, but rather the word doumai (doumai) meaning, “give,” or “give back.”  That will be important in a minute.  Now the trap that they set is obvious for modern readers who know the story.  If Jesus says yes, it is lawful under Torah to give back your taxes, he incurs the wrath of faithful Jews who resent Roman occupation and dominance.  If he says, “No, it is not lawful under Torah,” then the Romans have grounds to arrest him for sedition.  But Jesus knows this. 

            Jesus’ response to his questioners though, is truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.  He asks these disciples of the most scrupulous adherents of Jewish law, the Pharisees, to give him the coin used for taxes.  Apparently one of them whipped out a denarius.  This is interesting because the denarius was equal to a full day’s wages – some say that it would be roughly equivalent to $100.00 today – and this disciple (a student of the religious leaders) had this much in his pocket.  More interesting though is the fact that one of these devout Jews had this coin in his pocket, in the Temple.  After all, they only used Temple currency in the Temple, not Roman coinage.  Jesus asks the pointed question, “whose image is on the coin?”  His questioners respond that it is Caesar’s image.  In actuality, what was on the denarius was the reason that no devout Jew would have been carrying one in the Temple.  The coin indeed had Caesar’s face on it.  But it also had an inscription that said, “Tiberius Caesar, August son of the divine Augustus, high priest,” which made it blasphemous (for holding Augustus out as being divine).  So, Jesus had already exposed the questioners as being hypocrites. 

But then comes the coup de gras.  Here, the Greek uses the word, apodote (apodote), which is related to the word doumai (doumai) but means, “to give back.”  So, Jesus tells them to give back to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to give back to God that which is God’s.  And it is here that our lesson this morning takes its interesting turn.

            Rather than what we have most often been taught in our lives, Jesus was not trying to define a distinction between the secular and religious worlds here.  Not at all.  Rather, what Jesus was doing was pointing out the absolute and awesome truth of the world.  That which bears Caesar’s image, belongs to Caesar.  Caesar minted it.  Caesar decided its value.  Caesar circulated it.  Therefore, Jesus says, if you believe it appropriate to give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, then do so.  However – and this is a huge “however” – you must also give back to God that which belongs to God.  The implications there are a big deal.

In the first chapter of Genesis, we get the stage set for this statement, when it says that God made human beings in God’s image, “He made them in His image.  Male and female, He made them.”  Give to Caesar all that bears his image and was made by him.  Give to God all that bears God’s image and was created by God.  Suddenly we’re not talking about giving a part of what we have as our weekly, monthly or quarterly offering.  Suddenly we are talking about all that we have – indeed, all that we are, belonging to God and our need to give that back.

            I will tell you that part of what Jesus is talking about – just a part, but part nonetheless – is money.  Elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that we should “lay not up for ourselves treasure on earth, … for where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”  Truly, Jesus knew that if you follow the money, you will most often find people’s priorities.  But here, Jesus is not saying, just give the first 10% to God and all will be well.  This goes much farther than that.  This is about dedicating our lives to God.

            How it will look when we take the opportunity to give back to God, to answer God’s call, will completely depend upon where each one of us is in life.  Remember a couple of weeks ago when the Gospel was the parable of the wicked tenants?  Well, what God wanted from the tenants was for them to give back to God that which God had given them.  What did Isaiah say to us that day about what to give back?  Justice and righteousness. 

Some of us don’t feel like we’re in any position to greatly impact issues of justice and righteousness.  Some of us don’t feel like we have much in the way of money to give back.  Some of us have what we believe to be an absolute dearth of time to give back.

            It is up to each of us to look deep inside – to look critically at our own lives and to actively listen for God’s call as we try to discern what it is that God is calling us to give back.  What, in each of our lives, will be so central to who we are that when we give it, it will feel like we have given it all back to God?

            At the church where I interned while I was in seminary, there was a man who was, by most standards, wealthy.  He gave more to the church than any other, single giver in the parish.  But to him that did not feel like he was giving it all back.  That’s why he volunteered to handle all of the building and grounds issues at the church.  He didn’t write checks to repairmen, he learned how to do the repairs himself and spent his precious time and energy getting them done.

            I knew a young woman in another church, who really struggled financially, but went out of her way to come a long distance to the church so that she could help with the children’s education program.  It felt like it was what God was calling her to do, so she gave the time – difficult though it might be on any given Sunday.

            And I know many people who have given up lives that were successful and full in many ways, in order to follow God’s individual calls to them and to seek ordination, with all of the secular uncertainty that that decision brings.  They have given back their careers because that is what they believe God called them to do.

            Are these people better, or more holy, or closer to God than all of us?  No, just different.  Everyone is called by God, but as St. Paul says, it is to exercise the individual gifts we’ve been given.  So this week, let’s all look critically at where the things are that can separate us from God and begin to rid ourselves of them.  Then let’s starts, one day at a time, to try to discern God’s call, heed that call and give back to God ALL that God has given us, by walking in the path God has given us and living into the wonder of a life lived, faithfully serving.  We all have to give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s.  Now let’s see if we can treat God as well and give to God ALL of that which is God’s.

In the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Proper 24A Sermon 102223, Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

 

 

Sermon by The Rev. John Payne (Ret.) from September 24, 2023, in Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

 

God’s Grace by The Rev. John Payne (Ret.)

Sermon given in Christ Episcopal September 24, 2023

 

One of the great inventions of modern Western society is the labor union. Far too long those with money, land and privilege shamelessly exploited those who had none. The novels of Charles Dickens bear this out. When, after a long struggle, workers with no power, except their own labor, managed to stand together and force the issue with the wealthy and the strong, it was a great day for freedom and justice. By and large, the unions did a good job checking exploitation or reversing it. The unions were not perfect and other issues change the role of some from what their founders had envisaged. My father worked for the railroad for 40 years and was a union man. As far as my memory serves, the Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen never made unreasonable demands or called for a strike. However, my father’s union, as most others, would have been horrified at the story of the laborers in the vineyard in today’s Gospel (Matthew 20:1-16). If you found the idea of forgiveness without limits rough going, then strap yourself in for more turbulence.

 This is another parable of the kingdom, and the purpose of the story is to say something about God. Jesus also probably intends the parable as a warning to the disciples about their own attitudes regarding a perceived favored status.

 The incident of the rich young man who clung to his possessions rather than follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-30) completely flabbergasted the disciples; and Peter asked the “64 Thousand Dollar Queston”: “Look, we have left everything and followed you, what then will we have?” The flip-side of today’s parable may well be a warning to the disciples: don’t think that, because you’ve been close to me so far, you are now the favored few for all time.  However, notes N.T. Wright, Jesus is accepting, for the purpose of the story, the social and economic power of the landowner in order to say something about God. What is he saying? We need to look closely at the last group of workers, the ones who were hired with only one hour of the workday remaining. Had they not been in the marketplace earlier? So the landowner questioned them: why haven’t you been working? The answer is revealing: “Because no one has hired us” (v.7). Nobody, in other words, wanted them. Perhaps they were the sort of people employers go to great lengths to avoid. But the landowner did not hesitate to hire them.

 What’s more, they were paid a full day’s wage for one hour’s work! Here is the rub. The story is very irritating if you see yourself as one of the conscientious, hardworking, deserving people who worked all day. But it’s very reassuring if you identify with the latecomers who don’t get what they deserve, but get something better. C. S. Lewis would call this being “surprised by joy”. When grace cuts through our moral calculus, it elicits grumbling, not gratitude. When someone else whom we perceive to be unworthy receives grace, we grumble. When we receive grace, well, that’s different, because we think we’ve earned it. There is a striking parallel in the Old Testament when David, in face of protests, decides to reward equally the soldiers who fought bravely and those who, because of exhaustion, remained behind to guard the camp (1 Sam. 30:21-25).

 Underlying both stories is the idea that God’s grace is not on the basis of merit but of  his compassion. Jesus’ vision of the divine compassion is greater that divine justice. Those who worship this God must imitate his generosity.

 However, most of us still identify with the laborers who worked all day; after all, here we are in the “vineyard”. We’ve been in the church all our lives, from the first, put there by loving parents. It’s only natural for us to think that we’re the most deserving because we’ve been here all along: working, praying, giving for the kingdom of God. This ought to entitle us to something special. If the truth be known, most of us think in terms of merit rather than grace and somehow deep down believe that we’ve earned salvation by our faithful service. However, as N. T. Wright notes, God’s grace is not the sort of thing you can bargain with or try to store up. It isn’t the sort of thing that one person can have a lot and someone else only a little.

 The point of the parable is that what people get from having served God is not, strictly, a reward for the work done. God doesn’t make contracts with us. He makes covenants in which he promises everything and asks of us everything.

 A devout Episcopalian died and appeared before St. Peter who said, “Welcome to heaven. It takes 1000 points to get inside the Pearly Gates. Tell me about yourself.” The man proudly told of his perfect attendance in Sunday school, service as an acolyte, participation in the youth group and his many years as a lay Eucharistic minister.  Peter said, “Very good. That’s worth one point.” The man wrinkled his brow and continued, “I’m 90 years old and was a faithful communicant my whole life. I tithed my income, served on the vestry, volunteered in many organizations to help the poor and needy.” Peter replied, “Excellent! That’s also worth one point. You now have two points. Please continue.” The man’s face turned bright red and in a burst of anger, blurted, “Damn it! At this rate the only way I’ll get into heaven is by the grace of God. That’s right, by the sheer grace of God.” Peter extended his hand and exuberantly proclaimed, “Congratulations, that is worth 998 points. You now have 1000 points, so welcome aboard.” How easy it is to forget that Christianity is essentially a consummate love story.

 How is it that we get lost in the subplots of law, sin and judgment?  Because it’s easier to be legal rather than loving. It’s ever so easy to overlook, in the parable, that, although the first hired hand did indeed bear “the day’s burden and the heat”, that is not what earned their reward. Our labor alongside Christ is its own reward, and working in God’s vineyard for any other reason is bound to disappoint, because God “pays” all who enter the whole of what there is to give, his saving grace. Devout church people can easily assume that they are the special ones. In reality, God is out in the marketplace, looking for the people everybody else tries to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms, surprising them (and everybody else) with his generous grace.

 God promises a world big enough for those whose lives don’t add up to anything to have everything. Actually, we’re all the “eleventh-hour” workers whose debts have been paid and whose forgiveness has been secured by Jesus Christ our Lord.

 In the world’s mathematics, one plus one always equals two. But in the mathematics of the kingdom, one sheep is equal in value to 99, and a landowner pays the first and the last workers the same, because he wants to give to everyone according to their needs and not what they think they deserve. The haunting words in the parable are the landowner’s remark, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (v.7). Today’s first reading (Jonah 3:10-4:11) speaks to the limitless forgiveness  of God that defies all human boundaries. It’s like a mirror held up to our face to reveal how we take ourselves and our tendency to divide up the world as God’s way.

 The book of Jonah is also a vision of God at its best: compassion, inclusive, emphasis on sovereign grace and freedom, and mercies wider than the universe. Little wonder that we often find God working on the “wrong side” of the street.

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily from September 4, 2023

 

Touched by the Hand of God

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

Year A, Pentecost XIV, Season of Creation 1

Jeremiah 15:15-21, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28

 

Friday was World Day of Prayer for Creation. It is a special day of prayer that seeks to remind us of our responsibility as caretakers of God’s creation and to renew our right relationship with God through creation. It was established in 1989 by Dimitrios I, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church.

The World Council of Churches liked the idea very much and turned it into a movement and season, the Season of Creation, which begins September 1 and ends October 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.

Today, millions of Christians of many denominations recognize and celebrate the Season of Creation as a time of renewal of our relationship with our Creator through creation and of our commitment together to be the worthy caretakers God calls us to be.

The movement has a website called “Season of Creation,” and every year a large steering committee of bishops and lay leaders devises a theme and a logo and develops a myriad of worship resources for individuals and churches to use. We will use one this morning—a special set of suffrages in place of the usual ones.

You might recall that I first learned about this movement one year ago and spoke about it the first Sunday of September from this very pulpit. And I must in fairness warn you that for as long as you are stuck with me the first Sunday of every month, you most likely will hear about it again when the season rolls around again!

So.. let us look at today’s Gospel lesson through a Season of Creation lens. Notice that it begins with Jesus summarizing his mission on Earth for his disciples. In just one sentence—a handful of words—he goes from life to death and back to life again. That was the path for him and it is the path for his followers. Jesus was about life, first and finally. The passage through death, the way of the cross, is neither beginning nor end. As he himself says in John’s Gospel, I came to bring life and to bring it abundantly.

From a Season of Creation perspective, what is striking about Earth is that it is teeming with life. Cosmologically speaking, it is a speck of rock spinning through the emptiness and darkness of space but through the miracles of atmosphere and water, it is crawling with and blooming with life in myriad and complex forms—biodiversity so rich and complex as to be declared “good” over and over again by its Creator (first chapter of Genesis) and to be loved by its Creator.

So here are a few statistics, just because I happen to know them! In 2019, I went on a wildlife photography trip to the Osa Peninsula: one little finger of land sticking out into the Pacific Ocean: 10,000 insect species, 700 trees, 463 birds, 140 mammals, and 25 dolphins and whales. One little finger of land, perhaps the most biologically rich place on Earth.

But unless you live under a rock, you also know that we are losing the richness and fullness of life on Earth at an alarming rate. I could stand here and cite dismal statistics all day. Instead, I’ll refer you to a wonderful book called Rescuing Biodiversity, Johnny Armstrong, retired MD, Wafer Creek Ranch near Ruston.

And why is Earth losing biological richness at an alarming rate? Us. That’s why. Habitat loss, Invasive species (because we do dumb things), Pollution,   Population growth (human), Overharvesting. (E.O. Wilson: HIPPO) Note that even though “human” is named in only one of them, we humans are responsible for all of them.

In sum, friends we are interfering with God’s plan for abundant life to flourish on Earth. We are not valuing, conserving, caring for what God declared to be “good.”

And that leads me to Jesus’ dialogue with Peter. It’s about values. It’s about priorities. It’s about where our heads are at! Which is fixed on human things, not divine things.

Our human minds are set on things like… making money. Not a bad thing in itself; we all need money. But when we look at creation through a lens of economics, rather than through God’s lens of “good” in and of itself, we destroy, we overharvest, we fill wetlands with dirt to build shopping malls.

Perhaps THE paradigm for long-term destruction in exchange for short-term cash is the clear-cutting of millions of acres of longleaf and shortleaf pine across the state of Louisiana back in the late 1800s.

We’re still paying for that folly. Today when I get home, one of the things I must do is write a letter from Louisiana Master Naturalist Association in support of a project Louisiana Dept. Wildlife and Fisheries is doing to restore longleaf pine savannah in an area that was clear cut all those years ago.

Another human mindset that leads to desecration of God’s sacred creation is.. convenience. We’re too busy to wash dishes! We’re in too much of a hurry to get to the next thing to be bothered with cleaning and refilling a water bottle.

Last week cleaning up after Canterbury, I needed to take home left over food, and heard myself ask for “something I don’t have to wash and bring back…”

In other words, we stumble, like Peter. We get caught up in the destructive cycle of instant gratification, addicted to our busy busy life style, caught in the snare of an economic system that allows a small minority to over-indulge while the majority struggle to make ends meet, and nearly 800 million of our sisters and brothers – one out of ten! – go to bed hungry every day!

Jesus calls us to sacrifice, to generosity, to a simple life-style that values creation as “good” in and of itself. Jesus calls us to share, and of those of us who have more, to share more.

Care of creation is about responsible living. It is, of course, about big decisions—like working with other nations to reduce carbon emissions worldwide. But it is first and always about the daily choices we each make.. about what we buy, what we drive, where we set the thermostat, how we love our neighbor—and all of our fellow creatures on planet earth.

End with Brothers of St. John the Evangelist:

Creation–Jesus was intimately involved with the natural world. When he spoke of God and God’s Kingdom, he almost always pointed to the natural world:  seeds, the harvest, the clouds, vines, weeds, sheep, fire, water, lilies, bread, wine. Walk out into God’s wonderful creation – and be touched by the very hand of God. –Bro. Tristam

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.