St. Paul's Pilgrimage Sunday

“The Brick Church”

at Reid’s Ferry

1642-1753

The earliest permanent settlement along the Nansemond River and its tributaries dates back to 1630.  By 1635, people gather in private homes to read services from the Book of Common Prayer.  In 1642, the Virginia General Assembly divides Nansemond County into three parishes—South (Upper), East (Lower), and West (Chuckatuck). 

Within a few years, the Upper Parish builds a church on high ground overlooking the Western Branch of the Nansemond River near Reid’s Ferry.  Its design is unknown, but most likely it is a simple structure with a rather plain interior. 

It is possible the farm land surrounding the site today served as a Glebe Farm used by the church’s minister.  For many years there was a very old house on the property known as “The Abbey”, and it may have served as church-supplied living quarters for the minister and his family.

“The Handsome New Brick Church”

at First and Back Streets

1753-1800

In 1746, the Vestry decides to build a new brick church in a location where it can serve the greatest number of people.  It places the church near Constant’s Wharf in the newly established “Towne of Suffolk.”

This decision is not popular with everyone.  Some do not like the site.  Most object to the Vestry attaching a levy to every person in the area to fund the project.  Still, the work is completed by July 26, 1753. 

The building, damaged during the Revolutionary War, is badly in need of repair.  Funds are difficult to find as the church now is disestablished from the state.  In addition, the Episcopal Church, with its historical ties to England, falls out of favor in the newly formed country. 

By 1820, the building is torn down and its bricks are sold off. 

“The Episcopal Church on the Hill”

The Union Chapel

1802-1846

Ninety clergymen serve parishes in Virginia at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  By the end of the war there are only twenty.  Suffolk Episcopalians have no minister, our building is in disrepair, and our numbers dwindle. 

Still, people want a space for special services and burials.  A piece of land at the end of Cross Street is donated and a small chapel is erected on the site.  The building is used by Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, and O’Kellyites.

A representative from Suffolk is present at the 1827 General Convention of the Episcopal Church.  Minutes indicate he is a member of St. Paul’s Church, the first record of the use of our parish name.  On February 28, 1828, Bishop Richard Channing ordains Jacob Keeling, an active member of the congregation, to serve as our priest.  He leads our congregation until 1843. 

By 1872, the chapel is torn down and moved to 127 Pine Street.  The cemetery remains, expands, and today is known as Cedar Hill Cemetery.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

300 Block of North Main Street

1846-1895

Episcopalians gather on April 25, 1845 to lay a cornerstone for a new building.  A brick Gothic-style church is completed a year later. 

Our current bell dates back to this site.  The tablets in the Chapel can be seen in a photograph of the interior.  The Altar Rail from the church has been repurposed as an accent piece in our Parish Hall Entrance. 

The building sees much use during the Civil War.  Northern Episcopalians occupying the city use it to hold worship services, much to the consternation of Ms. Mattie Prentiss who, in a letter, writes she is worried what the rector will say when he returns.

By the end of the century, the congregation outgrows the building.  Mrs. A.S. Darden, who owns land to the south and the west of the church, offers to donate a small lot for expansion, but the Vestry determines it will not be adequate for the church’s future needs.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

213 North Main Street

1895—Ongoing

Prior to our church’s construction, this site is home to the Allegheny Hotel.  The lot is narrow and deep, with 70 feet of frontage on Main Street and running westward 273 feet to a creek now running under Clay Street.

Our first service here is held on June 16, 1895.  The original building includes the present sanctuary and a hall with a footprint following our current mezzanine library and chapel entrance.  Randolph Hall is built in 1914.  A u-shaped addition is wrapped around it in 1922.  Our current Christian Education wing is built in 1962.  The chapel is expanded in 1967.  A major renovation in 1989 adds our current office space and bathrooms. 

In addition to the original piece of property, over time we purchase six more lots to make up the grounds we now call our parish home.

All told, we have been worshipping at 213 North Main Street in downtown Suffolk for 122 years.  We will want to celebrate our 125th anniversary at this site in 2020!

The Holy Communion

A Eucharistic Prayer for St. Paul’s Pilgrimage Sunday:

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give him thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good, and joyful thing,

always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,

through Jesus Christ our great High Priest,

in whom we are built up as living stones of a holy temple,

that we might offer before you

a sacrifice of praise and prayer

which is holy and pleasing in your sight.

Therefore we praise you,

joining our voices with Angels and Archangels,

with the members of St. Paul’s

who gather now around your glorious throne,

and with all the company of heaven,

who for ever sing this hymn

to proclaim the glory of your Name:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

      Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

      Hosanna in the highest.

Loving God,

You appeared in a dream to our ancestor Jacob

and told him you are with him and will keep him

wherever he may go.

So too you have been with the faithful people

of St. Paul’s Church, the Parish of the Upper Nansemond,

for three hundred seventy-five years. 

As our church has moved from site to site,

and as the generations of our members

have tended to the demands of our various occupations,

You have been with us and you have kept us.

You have bound us together with your Holy Spirit

that we might manifest in our midst and to the world

your light and your love

made known to us in your Son, Jesus Christ.

His teachings have guided us to life in all its fullness.

His acts have demonstrated for us

your justice and kindness and mercy.

His offering of himself on the Cross

has destroyed death, cleansed us of the stain of sin,

and opened to all the path to eternal life.

Gathering in community with his friends,

as was his practice,

our Lord Jesus Christ took bread;

and when he had given thanks to you,

he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said,

“Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.”

After supper he took the cup of wine;

and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said,

“Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant,

which is shed for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”

Therefore, according to his command, O Father,

We remember his death,

We proclaim his resurrection,

We await his coming in glory.

We bring before you this bread and this wine,

our offerings of deep thanksgiving and devotion.

We give them to you in grateful recognition

all we have is a gift that comes from you.

We ask you to accept them

as symbols of our life and our labor and our love for you.

Send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts

that they may be the Sacrament of the Body of Christ

and his Blood of the new Covenant.

And even as you make these elements holy gifts for us,

send your Holy Spirit upon us

that we may be your holy gifts

for one another and to the world. 

Strengthen us by receiving this precious meal

that we may be sustained and enthused

for the work and the witness you give us to do

in and through this church in our time.

Through this sacrament remind us

that you are with us and will keep wherever we go.

And at the last,

gather us with all the faithful members of our parish

who have received the crown of life

and heard the blessed benediction of your words,

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

All this we ask through Jesus Christ;

by him, and with him, and in him,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit

all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father,

now and for ever.  Amen.

The Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion:

Let us pray.

Lord God, our watchful shepherd,
we thank you for the gift of our parish

and the legacy entrusted to us.

We thank you for giving us this place

where our faith is nurtured,

our joys shared,

our wounds healed,

and our sorrows comforted.

On this day we are deeply grateful

for the heritage we have received

from generation upon generation

of Suffolk Episcopalians.

And we are honored to be a part of an on-going witness

to your goodness and glory.

May this day, and the holy meal we have just shared,

encourage us and sustain us in our pilgrimage of life.

And may it assure us you are always with us,

and always keeping us,

through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

“Life is to be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards”  - Søren Kierkegaard

Loving Your Enemy

Rachel Srubas writes about her experience after being ordained and serving as an assistant pastor:

Once, a parishioner in the first church I served made a joke of my family name, Srubas, which is derived from sruba, the Lithuanian word for “soup.”  The parishioner nicknamed me “Rev. Screwus,” then worked hard – and successfully – to unite diverse church members in attributing the congregation’s problems to my presence on the staff.

I imagine somewhere, sometime, each one of us has had some kind of an experience similar hers. 

When you heard the word “enemy” read from the Gospel of Matthew just moments ago, who came to mind?  Perhaps you thought of a radical extremist training in a Mideast desert camp.  Maybe you thought of a coworker who is out to get you.  You may have thought of a politician or an ideological perspective you believe is harmful to our country.  Some of you might have thought of a neighbor.  For a few, the word “enemy” just might conjure the image of a family member.

Walter Wink, the author and seminary professor states, “love of enemies has, for some time, become the litmus test of authentic Christian faith.”  That loving your enemy may be the most important manifestation of discipleship is not good news because it is certainly one the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings to follow.

Jesus understood the diverse and personal nature of one’s enemy.  He talks about the “evildoer who strikes you on the cheek.”  In this relationship, you have the ability to strike back.  You and your enemy are on equal ground.  Jesus instructs you to give up your power by offering your other cheek for striking.  Next, he describes a person bent on pressing litigation against you.  While this enemy has the upper hand, it is within your ability to resist.  Jesus counsels you to offer even more to your enemy than he is asking for.  The third scenario involves the ability of a Roman soldier to force you to carry his pack for a mile.  Here, you have no power and no option but to do as you are ordered.  Jesus tells you to carry the pack a second mile.  The final instruction considers a situation where you have all the power over your enemy who approaches you either as a beggar or with a desire to borrow from you.  Jesus says you are to give; you are not to refuse.

I find these teachings terrifying.  I want to tell Jesus not to meddle in my affairs.  I will deal with my enemies on my own, thank you very much.  A 20^th century Russian Orthodox mystic by the name of Silouan the Anthonite said, “People are afraid to cast themselves into the flames of Christ’s love.”  When it comes to loving my enemies, you can count me in as one who does not want to burn with Christ’s love.  But, this seems to be really, really important to Jesus and I suspect Jesus will not let me or you off the hook without a struggle.

We have so many witnesses in our time to the power and importance of Jesus’ teaching.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said this:

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering.  We shall meet your physical force with soul force.  Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you.  We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.  Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you.  Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you.  Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you.  But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.  One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves.  We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

His prophesy is still in the process of coming to fruition, and it has come at a cost.  Still, it has initiated tremendous change.

Mahatma Gandhi recognized how hatred of one’s enemy creates a poison within.  He insisted frequently, “My first fight is with the demons inside me, my second fight is with the demons in my people, and only my third fight is with the British.”  He is not the first person to acknowledge the difficult truth that looking into the face of your enemy is in some ways like looking into a mirror.

Walter Wink writes:

The enemy, too, believes he or she is in the right, and fears us because we represent a threat against his or her values, lifestyle, and affluence.  When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have a part of God within them that still makes transformation possible.

He goes on to note something truly remarkable; observing that every South African black he met during the apartheid period had forgiven their torturers.  This forgiveness paved the way for their enemies to begin to see their actions in a new light.  Love and forgiveness inaugurated change.

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, a professor of literature and author, articulates the foundational truth upholding Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies: “I believe I must love you because you have been loved – lavishly, incomprehensibly – by the One who loved me, and who has put us into each other’s hands to care for one another.”  Every parent of two or more children knows the experience of those children fighting with each other.  Your mutual and unmatched love for each child creates within you a deep longing for them to love each other.  The greater the enmity between the two the greater your heartache will be.  This is how God experiences you and your enemy.

I find myself short-circuiting the possibility of loving my enemy by imagining the most difficult relationship possible and determining love will cost me too much.  Perhaps the place to start is to set aside this situation and work first on a relationship more manageable.  Here are some things to do:

· Learn your enemy’s story.  If you envision your enemy to be radical extremists, read up of their history.  No one is formed in a vacuum.  We are shaped by a story.  What is the story of your enemy?

· Imagine how the world looks through the eyes of your enemy.  What is his/her greatest hope and deepest fear?  How might gaining this perspective begin to transform your response from resistance to compassion?

· What might you offer to your enemy?  Complement the good work of an adversarial co-worker.  Let your sibling inherit the family china.  Help your antagonizing neighbor rake up his fall leaves. 

· And finally, my most important suggestion.  It is one I thought up all by myself.  Pray for your enemy!  The Book of Common Prayer gives us a prayer to use:

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  (page 816)

Perhaps the best thing about this prayer is how it casts our relationship with our enemy not as a “them” problem, but rather as an “us” problem.

“Truly I tell, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  This certainly is one of Jesus’ most challenging teachings.  When I have lived into it, difficult relationships were defused of their toxic energy.  When I have not, well, those failures have been incredibly painful, damaging, difficult, and draining. 

In our lifetime, Jesus’ counsel has influenced people like Gandhi, King, and the apartheid resistance movement in South Africa.  Loving your enemies has changed the world.  This reality gives witness to how it could change each of our lives if we start to live into it.

A Dog on a Rope

If you choose, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.

The bible is full of provocative questions touching on the connection between moral and ethical behavior and divine approval and blessing:

What is the greatest commandment?

Who may ascend God’s holy hill and who may enter God’s sanctuary?

What does God require of you?

I think we can add to these a basic question arising from our first reading: Is it within human possibility to make right decisions and to act faithfully, living according to God’s commands?  I think the answer is yes, generally speaking we have the capacity to do the right thing and to live a good and blameless life. 

Scott Peck, the psychologist and popular author, tells about a visit he once received from an aging, 40 year old hippie who had hitchhiked across the country to seek his spiritual guidance.  The man had never been able to put his life together or follow through on a single important commitment.  Digging deeper, Peck discovered the man had two failed marriages and children from each whom he hadn’t seen in over a decade.  When asked why there had been no contact, the man explained both divorces had been messy and he felt it would be better for the kids if he just dropped out of sight.

Peck told man about how he became a Christian once he saw the inherent wisdom in the kind of personal discipline Jesus taught.  The core of this discipline, Peck said, is found in the Jesus’ teaching on self-denial.  Peck told the man this instruction is not intended to be masochistic, but at the very least is means that whenever a decision has to be made, an option should not be discarded simply because it is hard or calls for personal sacrifice. 

A long conversation about the connection between Christianity, self-denial, and spiritual wholeness followed.  The man made an appointment to come back, but did not keep it.  In fact, he never returned nor did he attempt to integrate any kind of discipline into his life or relationships.

According to the bible, he could have.  He could have lived a very different life, but chose not to do so.  Generally speaking, I think this is true.  It is within the spectrum of our possible options to determine to do the right thing and to follow through.

But my experience also tells me while this is generally true, it does not always hold up in specific circumstances and situations.  There are times – from time to time – when we do the wrong thing.  And here is the interesting thing about these times: at the time most of us do not see it as being the wrong thing to do.  We find a way to rationalize our choices and view our behavior as being good, or necessary, or forced upon us.  I know very few people who only a very few times have ever said, “I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I thought ‘screw it’ and did it anyway.”  It is possible to live your entire life like Scott Peck’s client; doing the wrong thing for what you believe are the right reasons.  

And it is possible to walk the right path all your life, and yet no one who makes this pilgrimage does so without taking a misstep here or a wrong turn there.  I believe it is within our possibility to make the right choice, but I also believe it is inevitable we will make a bad, selfish, destructive decision we will regret deeply once its consequences begin to surface.

Lets think of God’s commands in a way easy to understand.  Lets set them in the context of a family dog who has it in for the mail carrier.  Left on its own, the dog will attack the postal worker at every opportunity.  Now, God made the dog, just as God made the trees and shrubs in the yard.  (Play with me here.)  Lets suppose all the foliage despises the letter barrier as much as the dog.  They may, but God has created them without the freewill to act on their emotions and prejudices.  They are rooted and have no options.  But the dog, well the dog is free to attack or not.  Now suppose God decrees to the dog “thou shalt not harass the mailman.”  The dog knows the rules.  The bible says it is within the dog’s capabilities to obey.  Do you agree? 

The bible says God’s laws for us would be like a rope tying the dog to a post, preventing it from coming in contact with the postal carrier.  True, the dog may charge, and bark, froth at the mouth, and even come within inches, but it will not inflict harm because the rope/law restrains it.  And, well, yes, there are those unfortunate occasions when the dog is so obsessed it chews through the line, is set free.  At those times, well, God help the mailman. 

I think this is an accurate image for what the first reading describes, but is it really what God intends?  Is this what life in its fullest looks like?

Jesus emphatically says no!  God’s intent for fullness of life does not look like keeping in check your anger for your neighbor.  It looks like forgiveness and reconciliation.  God’s intent does not look like refraining from improper sexual relationships, it looks like seeing the person of your sexual desire as a beloved and vulnerable child of God whose wellness you desire, rather than whose appeal you seek to exploit.  It looks like honesty and integrity in personal and public commitments, not “it depends on the meaning of the word ‘is’ is,” or citing “alternative facts” to justifying your positions and your actions. 

What Jesus envisions for us is no more radical than this: is there possibly a way for the dog to experience such a degree of inner transformation so as to make the rope unnecessary?  Jesus’ desire, Jesus’ vision, Jesus’ hope, Jesus’ message, is that we – if we identify ourselves with the dog – can come to a place where we can be untethered in the yard and the postal carrier can deliver the mail without fear of being attacked.

I believe, and my experience tells me, two ingredients are necessary for this to happen.  First, we must will it.  God cannot change anything about us if we are not open to it.  And second, me must allow God’s Spirit to work a transformation in us.  “Do not be conformed to this world,” St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “but be transformed by the renewal of your minds.”  Renewal.  Brought back to who you were created to be.  Something you are open to, but powerless to effect.  Something God has to do in you.  Something you must continually invite and receive, rather than reject and dismiss.

Here is my testimony:  It is a process.  By the grace of God, I am not mired in the most the quagmires of my youth.  However, new freedoms invite new challenges.  While I don’t want to maul the mailman, I find myself continually digging up the shrubbery.  The sun has set on some of life’s challenges only to rise as the dawn on things new with the potentially to be equally or even more destructive.  I give thanks I can always choose the rope of God’s “Thou shall not” until such time as I can trust myself to enjoy the freedom of the yard.

And I give thanks our faith provides me with a weekly opportunity to recall my failures: to bring before God those things of which “the remembrance is grievous unto [me] and the burden of them is intolerable.”  How I thirst for the sense I am more than my failures.  How I rejoice to know God forgives me, believes in me, and supports me in my work of being a better person!  How grateful I am for Jesus’ vision that I – and each one of you – can be a person of genuine goodness, living free in this world without need of restraint because all I desire is to be good, even as God has created this world to be good.  And how comforting it is to experience, as I pursue this goal and, inevitably, fail, how our Lord forgives me, picks me up, and walks with me as I walk the pilgrim’s way to our holy destination.

Salt, Light, and Scouting

W.D. Boyce, a Chicagoan, finds himself lost and disoriented on the streets of London one particularly foggy day in 1909.  A local lad appears out of the mist and guides Boyce through the soupy conditions to his destination.  Wanting to express his gratitude, Boyce offers the child a tip, but his young guide refuses to take it, explaining he is a Boy Scout merely doing his good turn for the day.  Boyce, unaware of the scouting movement, nevertheless is impressed and makes inquiries.  Before leaving London he visits the Boy Scout Headquarters and meets with its staff, possibly even with Lord Robert Baden-Powell himself.  Upon returning to the United States, Boyce launches scouting here and the Boy Scouts of America is incorporated on February 8, 1910.  Its stated purpose at the time is “to teach [boys] patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred values.”  Former President Teddy Roosevelt becomes one of its many early and ardent supporters.

Just 12 years later, St. Paul’s Vestry meets on May 17, 1922 and suspends its regular order of business to give “the privilege of the floor” to Mrs. Arthur Woolford.  She is interested in organizing a Boy Scout Troop here at St. Paul’s.  It appears most (if not all) members of the Vestry know little or nothing about the movement.  No action is taken on the 17^th, but one week later the body reconvenes for “a special meeting… held in the office of M.K. Kendrick in Room 441 of the American Bank & Trust Company.”  The purpose is to consider, endorse, and sponsor the creation of Boy Scout Troop #3.  Several letters pertaining to scouting are read and a proposed charter is presented.  Still, the Vestry needs more time to deliberate the matter.  Eventually a troop is formed and scouting begins at St. Paul’s.  Various troops of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Brownies are formed over the years. 

The Vestry minutes of October 18, 1965 record the following:

Mr. Rusty Hundley came before the vestry to answer questions concerning his requirements for the God and County Scouting Award.  He did just fine.  A motion was duly made by the vestry that Mr. Rusty Hundley has passed the necessary requirements to receive this award.  Rusty thanked the vestry for their time. 

In January 1988, Carrington Pinner, Joseph Brooks, and Garrett McGehee attend a Vestry meeting as part of working toward a God and Family Cub Scout award. 

The last troops organized at St. Paul’s came about in the mid-late 90’s.  Still, many of our young people have participated in troops not sponsored by our parish and in recent years, Ben Leonard, Hack Gallotta, and Sean Leonard have held their Eagle Scout ceremonies in our sanctuary.  The current mission of Boy Scouts of America is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law” and I am grateful to Macey Olenjack for suggesting we observe Scout Sunday today. 

I think it pairs nicely with today’s gospel reading as Jesus tells his followers “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.”  In ancient times salt serves several functions, none more important than as a preservative.  It is rubbed into meat to prevent it from spoiling and it is such a valuable commodity Roman soldiers receive it as their pay (it is from this we derive our word salary).  As salt, Christians act in ways to preserve the world from corruption and decay.

Just as the ancient value of salt may be lost on us, so too may be the value of light.  I jokingly tell people the word “Suffolk” is an old Nansemond tribal term meaning “ambient light.”  It is never dark in downtown Suffolk and it is never completely dark in my house.  This would be completely foreign to Jesus’ listeners.  They know the experience of lighting an oil lamp to pierce the utter and complete darkness of their homes.  They recognize the impossibility of nighttime travel without some type of lantern.  As Christians, the way we live and move and have our being in this world is to be an illumination of God’s purpose for all humanity.  We guide people from the world’s darkness to God’s light by living life as God intends.

I grew up going to church pretty much every Sunday.  I learned about the biblical images of salt and “this little light of mine” from an early age.  I understood Jesus called me to a higher ideal than what I saw around me and scouting helped me develop this in practical ways.  I learned how to interact and cooperate with others.  I learned how to be faithful in carrying out the chores and tasks assigned to me.  I gained a profound reverence for the outdoors and a sense of responsibility for the care and keep of God’s creation. 

My initial experiences with scouting were less than stellar.  With my first troop on my first campout, I shared a tent with a friend and we were the two youngest boys on the weekend.  In the middle of a rather chilly night the older boys pulled out the stakes of our tent and it collapsed.  This particular troop had the rather curious practice of having each scout bring his own food to prepare and eat.  I awoke in the morning to discover troop leaders had “raided” my food.  I was furious and walked out of camp.  And I walked.  And I walked.  And I walked.  Some two hours and twelve miles later I walked into my house.

As you might guess, this led to a trial with a second troop.  Along with a friend from the neighborhood, we were again the two youngest in the troop – the membership of which consisted largely of our neighborhood’s bullies.  It is a cold Saturday morning and my new troop is camping.  The older boys inform us younger scouts they will give us a five minute head start to run off in the woods before they hunt us down, tie us to a tree, and leave us for the day.  It was terrifying.

The third troop I tried proved to be my lucky charm.  It focused on the ideals of scouting and was committed to helping boys experience the timeless benefits of the movement.  We camped once a month – year round in Ohio.  We were divided into patrols and each patrol spent weekly meeting time planning out what it needed and how it would be organized for the campout.  I learned to cook, to clean up, and to carry water.  I also learned the joys of hiking, mapping, and reading maps with a compass.  Within a year I was one of the older boys and led my own patrol.  The experiences I had with previous troops greatly informed how I used my age and position.  I used it as an opportunity to lead and to guide, to encourage and to uphold mutual expectations.  I would not have used these images at the time, but it gave me a place to practice being salt and light. 

Here is a newsflash for all of you: I am still not perfect at it.  There are times I should be thrown out on the path and trampled under foot and there are times when a basket should be put over me to cover what it is I am burning.  But I am trying.  Scouting was for me a wonderful place – among other things – to figure out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in a setting not entirely set within the context of the church. 

Well, enough about me.  What about you?  When did you first embrace your call to be salt and light?  As you were growing up how did you personally experience the world’s decay and darkness?  In what ways did your life shine God’s love and grace for all to see?  How do you experience it today and how are you salt and light in 2017?  May I suggest these questions set the agenda for conversation around the table as you enjoy today’s Souper Bowl Lunch!

Changing the Way We See the World

We just heard the first twelve verses of Matthew’s record of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”.  This opening passage is known as the Beatitudes because in the Latin each begins with the word beatus meaning, blessed, happy, or fortunate.  It is not only an incredible teaching, but also a phenomenal piece of literature set within a historical context. 

Of the four gospels, Matthew’s is written primarily for late 1^st Century Jewish readers.  The author does several things to connect Jesus’ teaching with his intended audience.  First, he sets each beatitude in a structure reminiscent of the parallelism found in the Psalms and other poetic writings of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Beatitudes 1-3 and 4-6 each contain exactly 36 words in the original Greek.  The final two beatitudes contain 35 words.  This is not by accident and would not be lost on Matthew’s readers.

He makes an even bolder statement in describing the setting.  Jesus is on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee when the crowds gather around him.  The text tells us he begins to speak and teaches them.  Mathew places the moment in contrast to one of the most significant events in Hebrew history: Moses receiving God’s 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai.  Some 1250 years before the Sermon on the Mount, only Moses can go before God.  There, the people must to remain at the foot of the mountain and anyone who transgresses beyond the allotted distance perishes.  A thick cloud shrouds the mountain Moses ascends because no human can bear to look directly at God’s glory and live.  In Jesus, we have God in flesh and all people are free to approach him without fear or apprehension.   This message too would not have been lost on Matthew’s original readers.

The sharpest contrast between Moses and Jesus is found in the content each delivers.  God gives to Moses a series of commands – “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.”  Whereas Moses prescribes the do’s and don’ts of moral and ethical behavior, Jesus describes it.  He commands no one to be poor or meek or merciful or pure in heart.  He directs no one to search for a reason to mourn or to seek just causes or to make peace or to be persecuted.  He simply says as you do these things you are blessed.  People who live this way, Jesus says, are happy.

Through his initial teaching on the Sermon on the Mount Jesus does not intend to change the world, rather he intends to change the way his followers see the world.  It is as if we are wearing a pair of glasses with lenses designed to filter out a specific light frequency.  Jesus invites us to remove these glasses and wear a pair he prescribes; a pair which allows us clearly to see the world as he and God have created it to be.  The world is not changed by changing our glasses, but how we see the world is changed.

Jim Barringer, a Christian musician and church teacher, says this is how the world looks if you look at it through the glasses the world gives you: 

·       “Blessed are the rich in material wealth, because they pull all the strings and have all the nice things.”

·       “Blessed are those who put on a stiff upper lip and pretend they aren’t hurting, because vulnerability is weakness.”

·       “Blessed are the aggressive, because nice guys finish last.”

·       “Blessed are those who have low expectations, because they will never be disappointed.”

·       “Blessed are the merciless, for they will become CEOs.”

·       “Blessed are the people who only care about morality when it’s convenient, because they will have a much easier life.”

·       “Blessed are the winners, because everyone who’s not a winner is a loser.”

·       “Blessed are those who don’t take a hard stand for anything, because persecution isn’t fun or easy.”

In the prime of his career, Charles Barkley appeared in a magazine ad clutching a basketball with a menacing look on his face.  The caption read, “The meek may inherit the earth, but they’ll never get a rebound.”  It is hard to argue against the world’s logic, but we might want to ask if, in the end, is a rebound that important.

This week I watched a PBS documentary about the residents of 740 Park Avenue in New York City, a building home to thirty-some billionaires.  Their lives are marked by power and opulence.  Residing at various ends of the political spectrum, each contributes millions of dollars to various political campaigns, lobbyists, and think-tanks in order to influence legislation as well as public opinion for their benefit.  I cannot imagine what it is like to live in a lavishly decorated, 20,000 square foot New York City apartment or to have members of congress dedicated to doing my bidding.  But I do challenge the notion that any or all of the residents of 740 Park Ave. are any happier than I am.  Most put on a good public face, to be sure.  But I imagine each to be so driven by competition and a burning desire to promote self-interest that the pleasures of their material things – extravagant beyond anything any of us will ever know – are fleeting at best.  They spend their lives trying to staple the morning dew to a flower’s pedal; an enterprise that does not make for happiness.

They may say even if their lives are not happy, they are no less happy then ours, and they have all the nice things.  I disagree.  We have things money cannot purchase.  Through this weekend’s Vestry retreat, as each of us shared why this church is important to us, two themes surfaced again and again: first, we find God in this place, and second, we experience God’s love for all people in the common life we enjoy with one another.  These are relationships that transgress education, social status, and economic well-being.  Our relationship with one another is ground in the Beatitudes.  It is lasting.  It is real.  It is eternal.  And it is blessed.

Jesus teaches the crowds out of God’s deep love for each of us. 

·       While destitution is not a virtue in and of itself, Jesus recognizes there are riches to be found in poverty that no amount of wealth can purchase.

·       In a world clutching tightly on to everything, Jesus says letting go and mourning a loss is a path to comfort and healing.

·       The world tells us to lash out at our enemies, to have a strong and immediate response to every perceived insult, threat, and attack, but Jesus suggests there is a value to enduring injury with patience and without resentment; a response he calls meekness.

·       Jesus says happiness involves recognizing the connections we share with one another and knowing, as Paul says, when one person suffers, we all suffer.  This is why we crave for a just world where every person is rightly treated. 

·       Our Lord suggests happiness does not come from what you can do to others or in what you can make others do for you, but rather in discovering what others might need from you and offering it to them; in doing for others those things they may not be able to do for themselves – being merciful.

·       Jesus says happiness comes from having a personal and godly integrity.  Our behavior, our actions, and our deeds do not change to harmonize with the situation.  Our pitch in life emanates from our Baptismal vows.  We are pure in voice and in heart. 

·       And we work to create harmony among individuals, within a group, throughout our community, and in our world.  Happiness is found in peace – in concord, not discord.

·       We accept pursing happiness as Jesus describes it at times will not be popular.  It will put us at odds with those who define their happiness through the colored lenses of the world’s glasses, which come in many different hues and shapes.

Karoline Lewis, a seminary professor writes, “The Beatitudes are a call to action for the sake of creating the world God imagines.”  I cannot imagine a more difficult or a more meaningful pursuit in life.  The world presents us with so many easier and lesser paths.  We are a part of a movement that men and women have given everything for, even their lives, in witness to the truth of and the life inherent in the teaching of God’s Son incarnate.