Sermon: Call and Response

 

Sermon for Advent 1, Year A

St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, December 1, 2013

Lectionary readings for the day, click here.

Sermon for Advent Procession Service, 9:00 and 11:15am

With hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

Happy New Year! Today, as you know,

is the first Sunday of Advent,

so we mark the beginning of a new liturgical year.  The season marks a time of new beginning for us as Christians.[1]

The word Advent means “coming.”

The Advent season is a time to

slow down, be quiet and meditate 

about the real meaning of Christmas.

We prepare our hearts and our lives

as we wait for the coming of Jesus.

This season, we focus on the promise that

God made to God’s people and

how God fulfills that promise in Jesus.

Our Advent Procession captures this sense of waiting

with the monumental 8^th Century Latin hymn,

that we know it as “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,”

translated by John Mason Neale in 1851.[2]

This hymn captures the essence of Advent –

of “coming” –

that if we wait, while we wait, in the waiting, God comes.

The hymn resounds with a call and response

that accompanies any kind of waiting in our lives. 

Our waiting begins with our call to God –

a yearning or longing or pleading

for healing or wholeness, for justice and peace,

or for a deep desire to be known. 

Come, dear God, into our midst. 

Come be with us who are lonely,

be with us who grieve our losses:

loss of a dear loved one, of a relationship,

of health, of a dream, of our identity.

Come dear God and grant us knowledge and perspective,

so that we can understand

why it is hard to forgive someone

why it is hard to ask for forgiveness

Come in a cloud and a mystery.

show us your majesty

in ways beyond our imagination.

Come with power to save us from all that breaks us

and give us victory over our grave.

Come and open up heaven to us,

but close the path of misery,

of suffering, of need.

Come, dear God, be by our side

even in the dark night of our soul,

when despair seeps into our minds.

Come into the hearts of all humankind –

bind our divisions and be our King of Peace.

Come, dear God, we call…

*pause*

And the response from God is a resounding promise,

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee.

Emmanuel *shall* come, God promises. 

In today’s fourth lesson, from Luke,

the angel Gabriel offers God’s promise to Mary,

“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 

This promise echoes the words of Hannah,

mother of Samuel, from the Hebrew Scripture[3],

when she hears from the prophet Eli

that God promised to be with her,

“Let your servant find favor in your sight.”

This promise echoes words of assurances

of power and favor given to the Judges of Israel[4],

“The Lord is with you.” 

The Gospel message echoes the words of assurance[5]

that the birth of Jesus

meant God’s promise of redeeming love

by means of “Emmanuel,”

which means “God is with us.”[6]

Today’s good news is that God is with us,

in our yearning, our longing, our pleading. 

God promises to be with us, always! 

Between the call and the response

lies the mystery of Advent. 

Thomas Merton reminds us,

“The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end

of all [that is] in us

that is not yet Christ.”[7]

During this season, we stay ready

for the full realization of Love.

That is a constant challenge for us –

to self-reflect and to be self-aware. 

Like Mary, we, too, may be perplexed by God’s promise. 

Like Mary, we, too, may need to ponder

what sort of greeting God has placed in our heart. 

Like Mary, we hear that

“nothing will be impossible with God.”

During this in-between time,

we remain constantly alert for Love.

Poet Denise Levertov

captures the essence of Mary’s

astounding ministry

with her poem, “The Annunciation”:

To bear in her womb

Infinite weight and lightness; to carry

in hidden, finite inwardness,

nine months of Eternity; to contain

in slender vase of being,

the sum of power-

in narrow flesh,

the sum of light.

          Then bring to birth,

push out into air, a Man-child

needing like any other,

milk and love –

but who was God.[8]

*pause*

This Advent season,

the good news is God’s promise –

“Emmanuel shall come to thee!”

May we, like Mary, respond:

“Here are we, servants of the Lord;

let it be with us according to your word.”

May we be gentle with ourselves

and those we love this Advent season.

Amen.

---

[1] Advent Seasonal information inspired by the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas’ website,  http://www.epicenter.org/the-season-of-advent/ on November 29, 2013

[2] Raymond Glover, Ed., The Hymnal 1982 Companion, Volume Three A, (New York, Church Pension Fund, 1994)

[3] 1 Samuel 1:18

[4] Judges 6:12

[5] Inspired by New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary on Luke, Volume IX, p. 50

[6] Matthew 1:23

[7] Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts, (Ave Maria Press, 2009), forward by William Shannon, quoted by The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D. in his Advent message

[8] As offered in Cynthia Bourgeault’s Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, (Boston & London, Shambhala, 2013) p.156-157, note 3 of chapter 14: Denise Levertov, A Door in the Hive (New York: New Directions, 1989), p. 87

Sermon: Now, Now, Now

 

Sermon for Advent 1, Year A

St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, 7:45 December 1, 2013

Lectionary readings for the day, click here.

Sermon for Matthew 24:36-44

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

Introduction

Some of you may know that

I was not raised Episcopalian. 

No, my early spiritual formation was in the

Church of the Outdoor Sports. 

So I like to say, in the way that one author put it,

“I tasted Jesus before I knew about him”[1] 

At a day and hour that only God knew,

I found myself in the small, hot chapel

of my dear friends’ wedding. 

In that crowded room,

I witnessed my friends’ love for each other,

the blessing they received from their church,

the warmth of their friends. 

There, only God knew the greatness of that gift of

first, freely given communion bread and wine. 

It was an afternoon in Utrecht, Holland,

near where I was working on a computer project.

The service was held in Dutch.

I had, really, no idea what had just happened. 

I tasted Jesus before I read about him

and without understanding a word.  But God knew.

A few years later, back in the USA, a friend invited me

to the weekday Eucharist at his church. 

It was the three of us – the priest, my friend and I. 

As the priest served me communion and

my friend served the chalice,

spontaneous tears rolled down my face as I simply felt,

well, at home. 

Only God knew the day and the hour of that transformation,

readying me to the surprising way that Jesus shows up. 

In Sara Miles’ book “Jesus Freak,”

she describes the Gospel accounts of Jesus as,

“the opposite of that old game of telephone,

where a phrase is passed down the line,

losing its sense as each person attempts

to repeat the words exactly. 

Instead, the tales about Jesus only

gain significance in repetition,

gain depth and breadth as they

resound through different readers,

…and different voices,

down the years…”[2] 

The Gospel readings are God’s way

of getting us ready, keeping us awake. 

And getting ready for God’s love is what Advent is about –

it’s about waiting and staying awake and realizing

that the Word is very very close –  whether we know it or not

and coming among us, nearer. Nearer. Now.

In today’s Gospel reading,

the disciples listening to Jesus

“concluding judgment discourse”

did not know that it was time to wake up –

time to “get ready.” 

They were not “getting” the sense of urgency

that Jesus himself had. 

Jesus tells the disciples, get off your duff! Stay awake!

“About that day and hour no one knows,

neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son

but only the Father…

Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know

on what day your Lord is coming…

Therefore you must be ready,

for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Jesus reminds the disciples how no one knows when

God’s promises will be fully realized

Nor does anyone know exactly when Love will break in –

And Jesus reminds the disciples,  “the end” –

the “eschatological end” of time –

the fulfillment of all God’s promises –

could come at any time. 

Because it can come at any time,

Jesus reminds the disciples to engage actively

in their assigned mission, which for them, meant

building up followers, healing the sick,

feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,

visiting prisoners, and

bringing about God’s reign of justice and peace. 

Do all your mission work,

Jesus says,

with a sense of urgency.

It is through this mission work, Jesus tells them,

that the disciples can strengthen their faith. 

They are to get ready and to stay awake for the many ways

to be faithful to the mission of the God’s community,

the Church;

not to escape from it. 

There is no “rapture” happening here

(one taken and the other left

whether in the field or grinding meal). 

The point of all this urgency,  Jesus reminds his disciples,

is to know the mystical reality of

God’s reign

that is hidden to everyone

except to those who are awake and ready. [3] 

“So get off your duff and keep noticing

how the living God is working in your midst”,

Jesus tells the disciples; stay alert.

I wonder if we, too, need a reminder once in a while

about God’s steadfast promise of faithful love.

I wonder if we sometimes need Jesus to remind us

to do our mission work with a sense of urgency. 

In our recent Parish retreat,

we had a few exercises to respect our inner journey;

To listen to God’s call for us to do God’s work in the world.

We concluded with a final workshop connecting

our inner call with our outward mission. 

Advent is a time to reflect on that sense of urgency:

how we might be reminded to get ready and to stay awake

for mission work:

loving God’s people through prayer and care,

visiting folks in hospital,

bringing communion to shut-ins,

making sandwiches for Casa Maria,

writing our legislators about fair laws

to reduce homelessness and hunger,

to bring about justice and peace in this land.

Advent is also a time to be gentle on ourselves, for once.

Say no to extra tasks and be good stewards of our own spiritual health.

Do all your mission work, Jesus tells us,

with a sense of urgency. 

It is through this mission work that we, too,

can strengthen our faith. 

God is active all around us and nudging us

to engage our faith –

but perhaps we sometimes miss the clues

as we get busy in this pre-Christmas season.

We are sometimes simply unaware

of God’s action in our life.

And in this season of Advent,

we are nudged by God to get ready. To be awake. To Notice.

Yet here is the thing.  Jesus reminds us,

as he reminded the disciples:

God knows the time and brings about abundant life. 

God’s love and presence is steadfast and faithful.

Jesus says to the disciples, wake up! 

God is ready for you!

God knows the hour and

God is preparing you, dear disciples,

with ready hearts and steady hands

to do God’s mission in the world. 

In the letter to the Romans, Paul reminded the readers

to “put on” the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ

Because that is how to be awake and aware,

and walk in the light of the Lord.

*pause*

Author and monk Thomas Merton once said,

“The Advent mystery is the beginning

of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.”[4]

“The Advent mystery is the beginning

of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.” 

Today’s good news is that God is readying us. 

God is always ready,

always “on” and always loving. 

Perhaps, knowing that God is always ready,

we can engage fully in our mission work.

Perhaps, knowing that God is awake to our gifts,

we can join our community’s work

bringing about justice and peace.

Perhaps, knowing that God is ready,

we can trust our gifts to respond to another’s need. 

One of my favorite hymns (#333)

captures Jesus sense of urgency quite nicely.

Now the silence, now the peace,
Now the empty hands uplifted;
Now the kneeling, now the plea,
Now the Father’s arms in welcome;
Now the hearing, now the power,
Now the vessel brimmed for pouring;
Now the body, now the blood,
Now the joyful celebration;
Now the wedding, now the songs,
Now the heart forgiven, leaping;
Now the Spirit’s visitation,
Now the Son’s epiphany;
Now the Father’s blessing,
Now, now, now.

My sisters and brothers in Christ,

Advent season is the in-between time. 

Get ready.  Stay awake. 

God’s love is *right there*! 

Now.

Amen

---

[1] Sara Miles, in her book Jesus Freak (p.1) describes her introduction to church this way and it helped me put words to my experience as well.

[2] Ibid., p.2

[3] New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume VIII (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995) p. 446-447

[4] Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts, (Ave Maria Press, 2009), forward by William Shannon

Sermon: Blessing Are You When

Sermon for The Order of the Daughters of the King

Southern Area “Quiet Day,” All Saints Propers

St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ

The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse, November 2, 2013

Lectionary readings for the day, click here.

Sermon based on Luke 6:20-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our sustainer. AMEN

Good morning!  What a joy it is to be here this “quiet day”

and to get to know more deeply

the faithful Daughters of the King from Southern Arizona.

Thank you, Jean, for a meaningful reflection and meditation.

When I first arrived at St. Philip’s only a year ago,

Liz Weber invited me during my first week,

to participate in a DOK meeting. 

I joined that day’s meeting and found it to be

deeply relational and prayerful. 

In the weeks and months that followed,

I gained a profound sense of how the DOK

live into the rule of life – of prayer, and of service.

Every week, I receive, from parishioners or guests

these blue cards requesting prayer from DOK.

Every week, at our mid-week services,

we, as a gathered community,

read the entire list of prayer seekers, maintained by our DOK. 

Every week, faithfully, the DOK serves our community by praying, by serving and by leading others nearer to Christ.

The readings for All Saints, today,

uphold the sentiment of being a DOK.

These readings reflect what it means to be a disciple

and about which the concrete realities of prayer

and need for blessings are named.

In Luke’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speak of concrete realities

to his disciples.

“Jesus looked up at his disciples and said,

Blessed are you who are poor…

Blessed are you who are hungry …

Blessed are you who weep …

Blessed are you when people hate you…”

Jesus speaks of concrete realities and human needs

– individual and communal.

Jesus models, of course,

a standard for which every disciple should strive –

beginning with pronouncing God’s blessings.

In pronouncing God’s blessings, the “beatitudes”

are active statements that declare God’s favor. 

Jesus declares God’s favor on people

who have concrete needs –

they are poor, hungry, weeping or are hated.

How fortunate are these people, utterly dependent on God.

Their livelihood, food, comfort and love is sourced

in the kingdom of heaven. 

And, in pronouncing God’s lamentations, the woes –

or ‘woe-itudes’ – are statements that declare

a forthcoming calamity on those who prosper now

through their own power.

Alas, how terrible it will be for them, Luke emphasizes. 

The four woe-itudes correspond to

the four beatitudes in the same sequence.

Together, these eight lines emphasize

Jesus’ scandalous overturning

of every conventional expectation. 

And we follow this teacher into these scandalous overturnings!

Importantly, note that Luke’s beatitudes

differ from Matthew’s.

Luke’s speak in the second person –

“you” rather than the third person “they.” 

Luke’s speak about concrete socio-economic conditions

rather than spiritual conditions, of specific people.

As Daughter, you know first hand

from the prayers that you offer each day

about the concrete conditions of which specific people

have need – illness, loss, brokenness, despair. 

*pause*

From Jesus’ teachings,

the disciples gained insight to the kingdom of heaven. 

The disciples learned to take a Divine perspective into prayer,

and in obedience to God’s will,

the disciples sought out opportunities

to offer blessings and to heal others. 

In this same way,

the Daughters gain insight to a Divine perspective

and follow Jesus, as disciples. 

By living into your rule of life,

you are in the thick of opportunities to offer blessings

and prayers for healing and reconciliation.

Long ago, the election of Israel began with God’s promise

to bless Abraham and his descendants and make them

a blessing to all the peoples of the earth (Gen 12:1-3). 

No wonder, then, that we resonate so deeply

with the Aaronic blessing from Numbers,

“The Lord bless you and keep you.” 

This prayer tells the good news that

God not only redeems us but that God blesses us as well. 

So what has happened to the art of blessing? 

The beatitudes we hear today call us back

to the power of blessing and of being blessed. 

In blessing, Daughters are in the unique position

to lead others nearer to Christ

through this specific and mutual form of prayer. 

In mutual blessing, a prayer need is set apart

for divine purpose:

In mutual blessing, Daughters

bear witness to the creating, redeeming, and sanctifying

love of God

As the Spirit empowers the pray-er,

the pray-ee and The Church (capital C)

are blessed and strengthened.

Celtic philosopher and poet, John O’Donohue,

offers guidance on the art of blessing.

He cries that “the commercial edge of our culture

[cuts] away at [the] human tissue and webbing

that held us in communion with each other…

we have fallen out of belonging.”[1]

And I would add, we fall out of community

because of those concrete life challenges. 

Yet, it is in those life challenges

that we find the crucial thresholds crying out

for prayer and divine assistance:

of illness, job loss, relationship challenges, death, addictions.

There, at the edge of our culture,

these crossings demand the use of new words. 

Yet what is nearest to the heart at these times

is often farthest from any word. 

Your blessing, your prayer, is to offer,

“…[words and images] which present

a psychic portrait of the geography of change.” 

A blessing, a prayer, describes that new Divine geography

and a new pathway for God’s presence.

A blessing, a prayer, that daughters offer, can touch

what O’Donohue calls,

“…tender membrane

where the human heart cries out to the divine ground.”[2] 

Through your touch, your prayer, your blessing,

you join the quiet eternal that dwells in all souls –

the eternal that is silent and subtle. 

You invoke the Spirit to emerge and embrace

those concrete needs of specific people.

In your blessings and prayers, Daughters, remember that when the word “God” is too huge,

your role in prayer is to name that

“…life itself as the primal sacrament –

the visible sign of invisible grace.”[3] 

*pause*

Your blessings, then,

are windows into the divine for those with whom

and for whom we pray. 

Your blessings, then, name God’s presence

and grace that is already there. 

That is the spread of Christ’s kingdom.

The language of blessing is invocation – a calling forth. 

When you invoke a blessing,

the Holy Spirit springs forth and surges into presence. 

As a Daughter, you are called

to give and to receive

blessings upon blessings,

prayers upon prayers,

grace upon grace.

That is your gift to The Church.

Scripture reminds us that

“we see through a glass darkly.”

That is the place on which the Daughters’

rule of life depends –

that threshold between the visible and the invisible.[4]  

In that “thin place,” in that place of concrete needs,

God calls the Daughters to invoke

the invisible structure of kindness and prayer

for divine assistance in ours and others’ lives.

O’Donohue reminds us today, as we celebrate All Saints,

“…that one of the great storehouses of blessing

is the invisible neighborhood where the dead dwell.”

He continues…

“Our friends among the dead

now live where time and space are transfigured.

They behold us in ways they never could have

when they lived here on earth. 

Because they live near the source of destiny,

their blessings for us are accurate and penetrating,

offering a divine illumination not available

according to the calculations of the visible world.”[5] 

All the Saints remind us that

time behaves differently when blessings are invoked.

Daughters,

may you realize your power to bless, to heal

and to renew one another through God’s steadfast love. 

And

may we all be given the grace to trust

that the gifts God gives

will be sufficient to accomplish the work God calls us to do.

May we joyfully participate with God

in making the world the place of blessing

it was created to be.

AMEN.

---

[1] John O’Donohue, To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, (New York, Doubleday, 2008) p. xiv

[2] Ibid p. xiv

[3] Ibid p. xvi

[4] Ibid p. 188

[5] Ibid p.212