The Cost of Discipleship

Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea-- for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

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This morning I have a joke for you.  An old one that you’ve probably heard, but a good one.  Once upon a time there was a little boy who was standing at the back of the church looking at a plaque with different names on it.  He asked the priest what it was for and the priest explained that it was in memory of those who died in the service.  The boy got a rather somber look on his face, thought for a minute and then asked the priest, “Which service – the 8:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m.?”

This morning I want to think with you about the cost of discipleship.  A theme that is very important to the Gospel of Mark and which is alluded to in today’s reading.  Are you willing to follow Jesus?  To leave everything behind?  It’s a difficult question.  Many people are willing to follow Jesus as long as the going is good and there aren’t too many speed bumps along the way. 

What amazes me in today’s reading is the way that Simon and Andrew drop their careers and livelihoods to follow Jesus.  They didn’t take any time to prepare for what Jesus was asking them to do nor did they take any time to get used to the idea.  They simply went. 

Barbara Brown Taylor, a phenomenal preacher, views this story as a miracle story because it’s really about the power of God.  The power of God to walk right up to a group of fishermen and work a miracle:  creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before.  To those of us who are 21^st century Christians this might be difficult to hear the way our culture emphasizes our choices and independence – our ability to shape our lives and determine our destinies.  “We can do it.”  “It’s within our power.”  “We can fix and improve everything.”  “We can take hold of the future and make it what we want it to be.”  In fact, we have to do it to please God and get to heaven.  The better we are, the more saintly and sacrificing we are, the more likely we are to earn our salvation.  I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds like works-righteousness.  Thinking we can work our way into God’s favor.  Buying into what popular culture says causes us to loose sight of the full power of God to recruit people who have made terrible choices.  To invade the most hapless lives and fill them with light.  To sneak up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and to smack them upside the head with glory.  Whether we’re ready or not, God acts.

When we ultimately do decide to follow Jesus we have to lay down some of our most valuable possessions:  our understanding of the world, our view of right and wrong, our assumptions about whom God favors and whom God despises, our ways and thoughts.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a famous theologian.  He grew up in Germany and then did his theological education at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  He wasn’t impressed with the liberal theology of his day which kept saying we’re getting better and better in every way and met Karl Barth and was challenged by his thinking.  Bonhoeffer left the safety of New York City to go back to Germany to continue his work of fighting the Nazis.  He was arrested in 1943 and found guilty of being a part of a plot to kill Hitler and was hung at a concentration camp in 1945 just weeks before Allied forces moved in to liberate the camp.

He wrote many letters and papers from prison and one of his most famous books The Cost of Discipleship.  The opening words of the book instantly challenge the reader “When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.”  We are called to die over and over in our lives.  To die to old ways of thinking.  To die to self so that others might live.  The path of discipleship isn’t an easy one.  It’s a lifelong journey. 

Bonhoeffer argues that our duty as Christians is so much more than just leaving the world for an hour or so on Sunday morning and going to church to be assured our sins are forgiven.  He labels this “cheap grace” and asks us to go deeper.  To go for “costly grace.”  This is the grace that cost Jesus his life.  Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field. 

Bonhoeffer calls us to a costly grace which cares about the shape of our lives as individuals and as a society.  A revealing test of whether we live by cheap grace or costly grace is to list the important decisions you make in a week and ask what impact your commitment to Jesus Christ had on your deliberation.  How are the values of God’s kingdom reflected in the decisions we make in our nation or in our churches? 

So, are you ready to follow Jesus?  Are you ready to lay everything aside in order to follow him?  Whatever your relationship with Jesus Christ – if you’ve just now decided to follow him or you’ve been following him for 30 or 40 years – I invite you to go deeper.  To respond willingly and enthusiastically when he says, “Follow me.”  Amen.  

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Associate Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

Year B // Epiphany 3 Sermon // January 25, 2009

Baptism of Christ Sermon

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

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            A few weeks ago on All Saints Day as you’ll remember Bishop Sutton was with us and preached about “thin places.”  Those places in our lives that it seems the veil between heaven and earth is very thin.  For him, one of those places was Ireland.  Today, I want to share one of my thin places with you.

            I was probably eight years old when my parents first took me to Santa Fe, New Mexico and I instantly fell in love.  It’s a beautiful town.  Mountains all around.  Adobe houses.  Incredible art.  And one of my favorite places is right in the middle of town.  The Cathedral Church of Saint Francis of Assisi.  I love this cathedral because it’s one of those places you can walk into and can tell people have prayed for hundreds of years.  The art is amazing from the rerodos behind the altar in the Church to the painting of the crucifixion in the chapel.  But for all the beauty of this cathedral, my favorite thing is the baptismal font.

            This Church took liturgical renewal seriously and when it was renovated they did something quite extraordinary.  They took their old marble font, cut out one of the sides and added a baptismal pool.  So if you stand in the middle of the nave the old font is there with water constantly flowing out of it and into an eight-sided baptismal pool.  This allows children to be baptized in the font and for adults to be baptized by immersion in the 3 foot deep pool.  When a baptism isn’t going on it is still amazing to hear the sound of trickling water when a service is going on.  In this space you can’t help but be reminded of your baptism.

            As you’ve probably guessed by now if you didn’t look at the front of your bulletin, today we celebrate the Baptism of Christ.  This is the day when Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in the River Jordan.  It marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and the descent of the Holy Spirit.  This is probably the second hardest Sunday to preach.  The first being of course Trinity Sunday.  What does a preacher or theologian do with the problem of Jesus seeking baptism – especially a baptism of repentance by John?

            As Christians many times we like to think that we came up with baptism.  But in truth Jews had a ritual bath called a mikvah for years before John appeared in the wilderness.  People would undergo a mikvah after child birth, after contact with a dead person, and after certain diseases among other things.  John the Baptist took this idea and tied it in with his preaching – a preaching of repentance. 

            But that still doesn’t solve the problem of why Jesus sought out John’s baptism of repentance.  Did Jesus sin?  If so, we’re in pretty big trouble since the church for centuries has said that Jesus was human as we are in every way, yet didn’t sin.

            For me, this question is a mystery that can’t easily be answered.  I believe that Jesus was baptized by John not because he had sinned, but to stand in solidarity with all of us throughout history who have sinned.  By being baptized, Jesus took upon himself the condition of our human sinfulness. 

            If there’s any doubt about whether Jesus should have been baptized or not it’s solved when the heavens are torn apart and God announces God’s seal of approval.  This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased.  I love the image of the heavens being ripped open.  To me, this also symbolizes that anything that separates us from God was torn down so that now we can get to God.  Because of Jesus we have access to God – we can get close to him.”

            This morning we’re going to welcome five new Christians into our community of faith through the waters of baptism.  One of the questions that usually comes up is why do we baptize infants and I briefly want to say something about that.

            In my Grandfather’s church and in many other churches they practice believer’s baptism where someone isn’t baptized until they’ve made a public profession of faith.  The problem with this, at least for me, is that it means baptism has something to do with the individual.  Baptism is a sacrament just like the Eucharist and sacraments are dependent on God – not us.  Even though I’m the one who will pour water on each person’s head God is the one doing the acting.  God is the one incorporating them into the Body of Christ.  God is the one claiming each person as God’s son or daughter.  And if we believe that baptism is all about God and God’s activity in the world and not ours, it only makes sense that we would baptize infants and children. 

            And this morning, just as we do every year at the Baptism of Christ, the font is filled with water and you are welcome as you come forward to receive the Eucharist to stop and touch the water to be reminded of your baptism.  If you simply want to touch the water, that’s fine, if you want to make the sign of the cross that’s fine as well, or if you simply want to look into the font and be reminded that’s okay as well.  Just remember your baptism today and be thankful.  

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Associate Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

January 11, 2008

Year B, Epiphany 2

Leadership

Exodus 32:1-14

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD." They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."

But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, `I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

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This morning I want to think with you a little bit about our Exodus passage.  As you'll remember, the Children of Israel wonder in the wilderness 40 years on their way from the empire of Egypt to the Promised Land that God has given them.  Can anyone tell me why they wondered in the wilderness 40 years?  Most women could tell you because Moses refused to stop and ask for directions.  I have to admit that that would be me.  I'm not one to stop and ask for directions either.  Thank God for GPS.

Since the Children of Israel are spending an inordinate amount of time together, God needs to lay some ground rules for how they should behave with God and with each other.  Last week's reading laid out those 10 rules to live by -- the 10 commandments.

What struck me as I was sitting with this week's lesson were two things.  One is a carry over from last week and the other is Aaron and Moses' different leadership styles.

Now it might sound kind of strange to hear this lesson from Exodus 32.  It might sound like we're backing up given that the 10 commandments fall in chapter 20.  What's striking is that after God gives the Children of Israel the 10 commandments, they instantly plead with God never to speak with them again.  They were afraid of the thunder and lightning and the smoke.  They beg Moses to be their intermediary and to go between them and God so they never again have to hear God speak directly to them.

So, responding to the people's request, Moses goes up on top of the mountain for a little sabbatical so he can hear God clearer.  He's up there 40 days and the people begin to get a little concerned.  They go from being afraid to hear God's voice to wanting to hear something . . . anything.  So what do they do?  They pressure Aaron to build an idol for them, thereby breaking one, and perhaps two, of the rules that God gave them to live by.  God sees what they are up to and sends Moses back down the mountain.  God is so angry with the people that God is ready to start all over again and make Moses the new Abraham.  To carry on God's promises through Moses and his descendants.  And a rather humorous exchange takes place where God calls the Children of Israel Moses' people and then Moses call the Children of Israel God's people.  Kind of like what happens in most homes when a child has done something bad.  Suddenly it's the other parent's child.  I can't tell you how many times I was my father's child growing up.

Surprisingly, Moses wins this argument and the Children of Israel are spared.

There are a couple of interesting things about Moses' and Aaron's leadership style.  First, let me say that I don't think either one was totally exemplary.  It seems that Moses is a charismatic leader.  He knows how to bring energy and excitement to a room.  In Scripture we're told that when Moses and God got through speaking his face would shine bright red.  Talk about charisma.  But Moses forgot something along the way.  Just because you have a strong sense of personal direction doesn't mean you're a good leader.  You have to bring the people along with you.  You can't lead alone.  Moses' 40 day sabbatical was probably a little long for an anxious group that had just fled captivity.  They needed to know that their leader was with them, that he was okay.  That he loved them and was going to lead them the rest of the way.  Moses was so busy soaking up God's presence that he forgot to stay connected with his community.

Next is Aaron.  Aaron is quite a character.  He rounds up all this gold, throws it into a fire and "Poof!" out pops a calf.  Now if you believe that, I have some wonderful beachfront property to sell you in the Sahara Desert.  We know that's not the way it happened.  Aaron's lack of leadership has to do with solely focusing on consensus.  He wanted to be liked.  He wanted the Children of Israel to like him because he did the popular thing.  Not necessarily the right thing, but the popular thing.  He was too connected with the community and forgot to stay connected with God.  The picture I have of Aaron is he's the assistant rector who decides to change the liturgy and move the altar and baptismal font while the rector is on sabbatical . . . not a very good idea!

So if neither one of these leadership styles -- leading by charisma or leading by consensus -- isn't ideal, what is?  I think it's finding a middle road.  You all knew I was going to say that as an Anglican Christian, didn't you?  Always going for that via media.  As leaders, we need that strong sense of personal direction -- of knowing our mission statement, of knowing where we want to go.  But we can't forget to make sure that everyone is with us on our journey otherwise we'll be 25,000 feet up the mountain while some people are still at base camp.  

So I think the challenge God is laying before us is to be leaders who embody a little bit of Moses and a little bit of Aaron.  Leaders who are charismatic -- who have a solid prayer life rooted and grounded in God and who also lead by consensus -- making sure everyone is with us.  So in other words, leaders who have their feet firmly planted on the ground and not in the sky.  Amen.

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Assistant Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

October 12, 2008 // Year A:  Proper 23

The 10 Commandments

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."

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I want to go back and think with you about the culture wars we experienced in 2006 surrounding the 10 commandments. If you'll remember, Judge Roy Moore, a chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court became a hero of the religious right for his willingness to "go to the mat" over the display of the 10 commandments in the courthouse. After he was removed as a justice for his refusal to remove the 10 commandments, he became a national figure speaking all over the country and bringing those 10 commandments with him. What got lost in this entire conversation, at least for me, was the size of the monument that Moore had built. It was 5,280 pounds (2 1/2 tons)! Whenever he would travel and go to an event, a crane had to lift it out of the trailer. What struck me about this whole event were two things: 1.) The number of folks who supported Moore (initially 80% in a nationwide poll) yet who couldn't name the 10 commandments -- don't worry I won't ask you to name them -- and 2.) In the Jewish tradition, the 10 commandments are a source of joy and life, not something oppressive -- especially 5,280 pounds of oppression. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is devoted entirely to singing the praises of the commandments -- "Your law gives life to my soul" says the psalmist. That's quite different than 2 1/2 tons of granite.

Given that each commandment could be a sermon unto itself -- this morning I want to simply think with you about two of those commandments: idolatry and sabbath.

First idolatry. Now you might be thinking "I don't have any graven images in my house, so I'm safe." Well that's not exactly what this commandment is talking about. Idols are about self-worship. They point us away from the worth and dignity of all human life. This week has been a difficult week for many of us as we watched the stock market take a drastic hit. We wonder about our retirement, our pension, our savings. Will we have enough money? Those who have set up money as an idol have had a very hard time. Money is a means to an end when used appropriately. Money allows us to provide food, clothing, and shelter for our families and to give money away to God and to the poor. Accumulating wealth just for the sake of accumulating wealth is a form of idolatry. It's putting your trust in something besides God. It's easier to go through life with idols. It's much harder to trust in the unknown, in the darkness. In the voice answering Moses' request for revelation with the words: "I AM WHO I AM."

Church is the place we come each and every week to have community. To regain our center and to be reminded that God should be at the center of our lives and not idols of wealth, status or position.

The second commandment I want to think with you about is Sabbath. Now you might wonder why I chose this one. It's because this is probably the one commandment we throw around more loosely than others. People don't usually walk around and say, "I'm goint to steal today." "I'm going to commit adultery today." "I'm going to lie." But how many times do we go around talking about "working all weekend" trying to gain the favor of our boss and to try and emphasize the value we place on work?

Six days of work followed by one day of rest is woven deep into the fabric of the Bible.  It all starts with creation where on the seventh day God rested.  Are we better than God?  We as God's people are to rest on one day because God did.  In the Exodus as the children of Israel were fleeing the Egyptian Empire, God provided manna for them in the wilderness.  They could only gather enough manna for the day ahead, but the day before Sabbath they could gather enough for two days.

In 1991 Juliet Schor published a book entitled The Overworked American.  It became a surprise best-seller.  In the book, Schor argues that work hours and stress are up and sleep and family time are down.  Add overtime or second jobs to schedules and single parents are stretched in so many directions that they sometimes feel that they can't manage.  Simultaneously, we are bombarded by messages that urge us to spend more (and so, ultimately, to work more) to keep our homes cleaner, to improve ourselves as parents, investors or athletes.  To make all of this possible, grocery stores are open 24 hours, entertainment options are available around the clock.  We live in an economy and a society that are demanding too much from people.  It seems that the American economy is nearly a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week, 365-days-a-year economy.

So what is one to do?

Culture tells us to take a fancy vacation (yet again requiring more money and thereby more work) or buy a piece of exercise equipment that can burn 500 calories in 5 minutes.

Here is where our Jewish brothers and sisters have something to teach us.  The idea of Sabbath is at the heart of Judaism.  What would it be like for us to set aside one day a week for rest and worship.  If you have to work on Sunday, like me, finding another day to do it.  Spending a day where you focus on taking a walk, resting, talking with loved ones, reading.  Taking a break from shopping or e-mailing.

So the next time you run across the 10 commandments I hope you can name at least two of them and to remember that they aren't weights to bog us down, but a way to help us stay centered by focusing on God rather than idols -- especially the idol of money and to give us rest and peace by keeping Sabbath.  Amen.  

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Assistant Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

October 5, 2008 // Proper 22

What does it mean to DO justice?

Matthew 18:21-35

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

"For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.  So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.'  And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.  But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, 'Pay what you owe.'  Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.'  But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.  When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had take place.  Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked slave!  I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me.  Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?'  And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.  So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

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When I was 15 1/2 my parents decided it was time for me to learn how to drive so I could pass my driver's test.  I guess they finally got tired of chauffeuring me around all the time.  The worst thing was parallel parking.  We went downtown on the weekends when downtown Oklahoma City was like a ghost town and practiced parallel parking more hours than I'd like to remember in front of the federal building.

On the morning of April 19, 1995 I was sitting in class at school.  The room we were in didn't have any windows and we felt the building shake.  We were talking amongst ourselves because we didn't remember seeing any clouds in the sky as we were walking into the classroom.  We at first assumed it was thunder.  A few minutes later a student who had forgot to wear a tie (I went to a private Christian school that had a dress code)  was returning from home when he said he saw some cars driving over 80 miles an hour on the highway.  It was all rather strange and surreal.   Our teacher turned on the TV and we heard the breaking news that there had been an explosion downtown.  At first, reporters thought it was a natural gas explosion.  Then, as reporters often do in a vacuum of hard facts, they jumped to the conclusion that it was "Muslim terrorists."  And finally, the truth emerged that two people planned this attack in retaliation for the government's actions of the Branch Dividians in Waco, Texas.

Seeing all of this on the TV was hard to believe and I can remember many nights after this happening taking the "long way home" and going along Interstate 40 which was an elevated highway where you could see the damage very clearly.  Being unable to believe the place where I learned to parallel park and that had been so calm so many times before was the center of such chaos and tragedy.

As you know, this week we passed the seventh anniversary of September 11 and what happened in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D. C.  The events that happened in Oklahoma City when I was a junior in high school come the closest to me being able to understand what happened on those days.  It's just now 13 years later that I'm able to talk about my experience of being in Oklahoma City during the time of the federal building bombing.  These are difficult things to talk about without our emotions getting the best of us.  Sometimes sadness.  Sometimes anger.  Sometimes wanting revenge.

This week's gospel lesson is particularly hard to hear in light of September 11.  But I think in other ways it's not.  What I want to think with you about is the parable Jesus tells about the man who is forgiven his enormous debt who turns around and is unwilling to forgive someone who owes him a small sum.  This is one of those Gospel lessons that as I heard it as a kid I enjoyed listening to the first part about forgiveness, then Jesus turns the tables on me at the end where the man  is unwilling to forgive his fellow slave.  This man has been forgiven so much yet he's unwilling to forgive someone else.

I think the reason this gospel angered me so much hearing it growing up was my innate sense of justice.  Bishop N. T. Wright in his book Simply Christian:  Why Christianity Makes Sense argues that within each of us is a longing for justice.  We want people to be treated fairly and justly.  Deep inside of us we know when someone has been wronged.

Let me give you an example.  A few weeks ago my partner Jason and I took our Godkids David, who is eight, and Grace who is five, to the Air and Space Museum.  Grace is at that age where she is keenly aware of justice.  There were three times that day when her brother did something and we'd hear, "That's not fair."  By the third time feet were stomping and yelling commenced.  We know that justice looks like and we're always striving for it.

When we see someone treated differently because of the color of their skin, because of their religion, because of their sexual orientation, or because of their socioeconomic status we know it's wrong.

One of my favorite theologians is Dr. James Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Cone speak back in January at the Trinity Institute.  A questioner asked him about the present "crisis" in the Anglican Communion around human sexuality.  "Will there ever be reconciliation in the Anglican Communion over issues of human sexuality?"  Dr. Cone, who is an African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor and not an Episcopalian, had nothing to loose by answering this question candidly and honestly.  He said reconciliation can never happen until there's justice.  Until gay and lesbian Christians are treated with dignity and respect and treated equally as straight Christians.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa would probably respond in the same way.  Reconciliation couldn't happen in South Africa until justice had won the day and blacks were treated with the same dignity and respect as whites.

So today I wonder where God might be calling us to work for justice.  I wonder if we as a nation have been forgiven much and now it's time for us to forgive others.  My hunch is the answer to that question is yes.  We as a nation haven't been totally innocent in a number of atrocities.  I wonder if seven years is long enough for us to begin to think about healing.  I wonder if God's dream for us as a country is to walk in those words from Micah 6:8 -- to DO justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.  Amen.  

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Assistant Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

September 14, 2008 // Year A:  Proper 19

Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us

Exodus 12:1-14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:  This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.  Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.  If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.  They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.  They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs.  You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.  This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly.  It is the passover of the LORD.  For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments:  I am the LORD.  The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live:  when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.  You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance

n n n n n n n n n n n 

I don't know about you, but this passage from Exodus has always been difficult for me.  If you'll remember two weeks ago we started this cycle at Exodus 1 with the brave midwives who go against an unrighteous law and stand up for justice by allowing Moses to live.  God chooses to turn the world upside down with the Exodus by five women and a baby.

Last week our reading from Exodus had to do with the call of Moses.  Moses doesn't want to do the job that God has called him to so he comes up with excuses -- mainly that he stutters.  Does that get him out of it?  No.  God tells him that his brother Aaron can help him.  Then the lectionary conveniently skips the plagues and takes us to today's reading -- the institution of the Passover.

Now before I get to the Passover I think I need to at least touch on the final plague -- the one I can still see vividly in my mind from Charleton Heston in the Ten Commandments.  When the angel of death comes and takes the firstborn -- firstborn of cattle and firstborn of human beings.  The first time I remember hearing this text and it really setting in I was about nine years old.  I was a little scared at first because I thought that meant I was going to die since I am my mother and father's only child.  But then I remembered a loophole . . . my dad had a son from a previous marriage.  So that mean that Wayne would die -- not me!  Oh, happy day!  That was appealing at the time when my brother and I fought like cats and dogs -- but not so much today.

This raises some difficulties because we have to ask hard questions like "Does God love the Hebrew people and not the Egyptians?"  What does it mean when we read over and over that "God hardened Pharaoh's heart?"  These are hard questions that don't have easy answers.

For me, God's love is an inclusive love that loves everyone.  But God is also a God of justice.  The Egyptians had enslaved the Hebrews for hundreds of years and God is never on the side of oppression.  For some reason God chose a certain people to be God's own.  It goes all the way back to Abraham and the covenant God and Abraham made together.  God bound Godself to a people.  God didn't have to do this.  God chose to do this.  In these powerful stories from Exodus we see that God is always on the side of human freedom and free will.  Pharaoh could have changed his mind at any time.  He didn't have to reject God's will for justice.  I think by the third plague even I would have got God's message.

What's amazing about this entire Exodus saga is that God does fantastic things around very human characters -- namely Moses and Aaron.

One of the greatest gifts I ever received in my life was the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew for a year as an undergraduate student.  One of the blessings was to study it with a lay conservative Jew.  Throughout the year, she taught us about various festivals and traditions from Judaism.  She said if you ever want to understand modern Judaism, you need to study four things:  1.) The Exodus, 2.) The Babylonian Exile where Israel is conquered by a foreign people and forced to live in a foreign country, 3.) The Destruction of the Temple, and 4.) The Holocaust.

In order to help this Christian class of Hebrew students better understand Judaism she tried to teach us everything she could about the Exodus, and especially the Feast of Passover celebrated by our Jewish brothers and sisters in the spring of each year -- which usually closely coincides with our celebration of Easter.

What's amazing about the feast of Passover is that it it celebrated just as our passage tells us this morning "with loins girded, sandals on your feet, and staff in hand."  In other words you've got to have your traveling clothes on.  The equivalent today would be to have on comfortable shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes.  The other amazing thing that is done is they eat bitter herbs to remind them of the bitterness of slavery and so they'll never enslave a people as they were enslaved.

By participating in the ritual of Passover, the past becomes the present.  These ancient stories become alive once again and it's a way for Jews to pass on their story from one generation to the next.  It's how children learn the story of Judaism.

Now you might be wondering what this has to do with Homecoming.  The key is in the celebration of Passover.  As Christians, we have our own celebration each and every week called the Holy Eucharist.  Like our Jewish brothers and sisters, this is a way for folks new to the community of faith to hear of God's saving acts in history over and over again.  By listening to the words we pray in the Eucharist we are participating in something that happened in the past, yet becomes real and present to us once again.  It's no accident that at the end we say, "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast."

Christ is our Passover and has opened the way to freedom and peace.  Our job is to work with God in bringing about that reign of justice, freedom, and peace.  Amen.

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Assistant Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

September 7, 2008 // Year A:  Proper 18

Link to audio:  http://www.box.net/shared/y6c9cnk08s

Stepping up to the Plate

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."  Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor.  They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.  But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.  The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor.  They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live."  But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.  So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?"  The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."  So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.  Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.  The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.  When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.  His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river, while her attendants walked beside the river.  She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.  When she opened it, she saw the child.  He was crying, and she took pity on him, "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said.  Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"  Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes."  So the girl went and called the child's mother.  Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages."  So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son.  She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

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Because I've been away on vacation the last few weeks, I have a joke for you:

One Sunday the rector woke up and realized it was an exceptionally beautiful and sunny spring day and he just had to play golf.  So he called the assistant rector and told him that he was feeling sick today and needed him to preach instead.  As soon as he hung up the phone, the rector was on his way to a golf course forty miles outside of town.  This way he knew he wouldn't accidently meet anyone he knew from church.  Setting up on the first tee, he was all alone.  After all, it was Sunday morning and everyone else was in church.  At about that time, Saint Peter leaned over to God while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're not going to let him get away with this are you?"  God sighed and said, "No, I guess not."  Just then the rector hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin, dropped just short of it, rolled up and fell inside the hole.  IT WAS A 420 YARD HOLE IN ONE!  Saint Peter was astonished.  He looked at God and asked, "Why did you let him do that?"  God smiled and said, "Who's he going to tell?"

This morning I want to think with you about our reading from the beginning of Exodus.  As you'll remember we've traveled through the stories of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob and Rachel, and most recently of Joseph and his rise in a foreign country -- Egypt.  He becomes Pharaoh's right hand man as it were.  Then, Joseph dies and the Pharaoh that knew Joseph dies and that's where our passage picks up.

It's a rather difficult beginning.  All the assumptions that the Hebrew people held are thrown out the door by this new king.  They had been an alien people in Egypt to be sure, but they were a valued people.  The Pharaoh who is unnamed becomes scared because of the number of Hebrews.  He's worried what will happen when the Hebrews outnumber the Egyptians.  Something he's not going to allow to happen under his rule so he makes the Hebrews slaves and gives them hard and difficult tasks to perform in the hopes that they will stop growing as a nation.  This doesn't work.

Next he asks midwives to go against their vocation which is to bring life into the world and to begin killing.  Thankfully the midwives don't follow the Pharaoh's directions and come up with a creative excuse -- that the Hebrew women give birth much quicker than Egyptian women and the baby is already born by the time they get there.  Now if you buy that, I have some oceanfront property to sell you here in Frederick -- just see me after the service!

What's amazing about these women are a number of things:  First of all they are named -- Shiphrah and Puah.  Most women in the Bible aren't named since it arose from a patriarchal or male-dominated society.  That should be our first clue that something important is going on here.  Secondly is the way these women are willing to engage in acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance for the sake of justice.  These women are willing to risk their very own lives so that God's plan and purpose can be brought forth.  If it weren't for these women, there would never be an Exodus because there would have never been a Moses!

The other amazing thing is how God chooses what patriarchal and power-hungry Pharaohs of this world consider low and despised as an instrument to shame and overthrow the arrogant and strong.  We see this over and over again in scripture.  Just think of Jesus' birth -- being born to an unwed teenager!

While Pharaoh is trying to make the Nile River which is a source of life for thousands of people an instrument of death, three women who work together succeed in making it a place of rescue and life.  It's like the words of the Magnificat are coming true hundreds of years before they were uttered -- "God is bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly."

God's intervention into the crisis does not come through dramatic sweeping events, but in a small one -- the birth of a little baby named Moses.  God, through five women and a baby, is able to lead a nation out of bondage to freedom.  It definitely gives power to anthropologist Margaret Mead's famous quote "Never underestimate the power of small group of people to change the world."  That's the hope that we are called to live into as Christians each and every day.  But this isn't a hope that is without risks.  Just as each person in this narrative had to take different risks in order for God's plan to come to pass, sometimes we too are called to take risks.  To speak out boldly against injustice.  To perhaps be like Shiprah and Puah and to engage in civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.

So my question for you this morning is when have you taken a risk for God?  Has God ever called you to do something uncomfortable or a little "risky" and you walked away?  Where have we as a community of faith -- All Saints Episcopal Church -- taken risks?  Where might God be calling us to risk everything for the sake of the Gospel?

Let me tell you a brief story which might shed some light on these difficult questions.  Walter Brueggemann is a much beloved preacher and professor of Old Testament.  After Hurricane Katrina, he did something very "non-theological."  He traced the origins of jazz.  What surprised him was that jazz music came out of the barrio, among "those who go for broke every time because there is so little to lose, so much to hear and say, so much to hope . . ."  Brueggemann invites us to journey deeper into the history of jazz that goes deeper than New Orleans.  That story is told in Exodus 1.  Told in the midst of a Pharaoh whose name we cannot remember, because if you have seen one Pharaoh, you've seen them all.  This nameless "Lord of Egypt" who tries to stop the music is stopped in his tracks by courageous women because of their singing in the Hebrew barrio where dances of freedom began long before the feet of the Children of Israel ever touched the waters of the Red Sea.  There arose defiant dances, dances of freedom, and dances of gratitude and hope.(1)

So this morning I invite you to step up to the plate and take risks.  To not be afraid to speak out against injustice in whatever shape or form it takes.  And to listen to the music playing on the underside -- the music of what is to come -- a season when justice will rain down like the waters in the sea.  Amen.

(1) Taken from Brueggemann's sermon "Variations from the Barrio" in his book Inscribing the Text

The Rev'd Thomas S. Rogers, III

Assistant Rector

All Saints Episcopal Church

Frederick, Maryland

August 24, 2008 // Year A:  Proper 16

Link to audio:  http://www.box.net/shared/2j70c126d8