Don & Marcie

As most everyone knows I may be a “Father” but I am not a “Dad.”   For a number of years this felt like failure, especially as I watched my friends from High School and College become parents and now Grandparents.  I was never sure that the world was ready for a little version of me running around, so I convinced myself that I was better off without the worry and expense of children.  One of my favorite sayings when people ask if I have children has been:  “Well at least when I hear a kid down the hall screaming his ever-living head off I know its not mine.”

Mom with Paisley (left) and Lilly.

A couple of things have happened recently that have reawakened this topic after a long sleep.  Obviously, Marcie and I are much too old to even entertain the idea so it is not that.

My late Aunt’s Grandson and his wife have recently given birth to twins.  To see my Mother, their great-great-Aunt holding two two-week old girls was an overwhelming experience.  No, not my children, but I enjoyed the moment as if I were an Uncle instead of a cousin.  Paisley and Lilly will grow up to know that they are loved by their parents, Grandparents and a host of others that are no longer a part of their world.  They will know that God did not stop creating after seven days and a mythical garden, but as kept right on and expects us to do the same.

My thanks to Nick and Toni for allowing us to visit them and the two new additions to their family, and ours, and Gods.

Every three years the General Convention of the Episcopal Church meets.  For most Episcopalians, this has become a time of dread.  Since 1941 the Convention has had “human sexuality” as a major topic.  There has been a constant worry that moving in one direction or another might offend one person or another enough that people will decide that they can no longer be Episcopalians.  Sadly, I really doubt that the General Convention has ever done anything that has helped people to find the Episcopal Church.

The convention has been inconsistent and incongruent.  Inconsistent in that they can say something with great force in one convention, only to strike that for the opposing view at the following convention.  Sounds like Congress?  Incongruent that in the same convention that legislation has been passed that disagrees with other legislation that was passed.

The Convention, formed shortly after the founding of the United States is organized in a fashion that was later used in the writing of the US constitution.  The Convention is actually older, and the writers of both Constitutions were some of the same folks.  Two houses of government.  The House of Bishops, composed of Diocesan Bishops,  Bishops Co-adjutor, Bishops Suffragen,  Assistant and Assiting Bishops and Retired Bishops numbering about 500; and the house of Deputies which is composed of 4 clergy (priests or deacons) and for lay members from each Diocese.  This house has about 1000 members.

Resolutions are statements agreed upon by a majority of both houses.  They have no force in law, and are basically the opinion of those who vote.   Sometimes resolutions can be used to push each diocese to move in a particular direction, but the overwhelming majority of the resolutions passed are quickly forgotten.  That is really too bad, and some of them speak very clearly about mission and faith.

In years past the General Convention has taken stands on abortion, the war, slavery, and the right of women to vote.  For good or ill, most people who understand themselves to be Episcopalians are unaware of those stands, and most churches are unaffected by them.   Sometimes at the end of each convention a lot more is said that is really done.

Once in a while a big news item comes along, over the past nearly thirty years that news item has been the church’s discussion of full inclusion in the life of the church of gay folks.  There are those who are quite passionate about this topic all over the church, and in the Diocese of Kansas and here at St. David’s.

In 2003, Gene Robinson was elected by the people of New Hampshire to be their Bishop after having served in that diocese for 18 years.  Because his election was within 120 days of the General Convention, the two houses had to consent to his election rather than the Diocesan Bishops and Standing Committees of each Diocese.  Gene Robinson is a gay man living in a committed relationship.   The General Convention, by an almost 2-1 vote of both houses, consented to his consecration… and life in our church has forever changed.

Individuals, churches and whole dioceses have left our church (legally or not… it has happened).

At the General Convention in 2006, a resolution was passed asking that no diocese elect a person Bishop who was gay and living in a committed relationship and none have.  At the same time, the House of Bishops elected as Presiding Bishop a Bishop who has ordained clergy who are gay, and who participated in the consecration of Gene Robinson.

To say that we are confused may be an understatement.

So here we are in 2009 and who knows what will happen.  I have my thoughts, and I am watching closely.

I know that the people of St. David’s are willing to understand that while we are one church, we are not all in one agreement and how we carry out or not carry out the actions of the General Convention are, for the most part, up to us.

A young boy was afraid of the dark.  His father knew of his fear, but wanted his son to rise above the fear.   So on a particularly dark night, he called for his son, and asked him to go to the barn and make sure the horses were in for the night.  The boy at first objected but then summoning all of his strength he accepted the task.  His father, standing by the back door of the house asked his son… “Son, how far can you see” the boy said, “I can see halfway to the barn.”   His father said, “Then goes that far and stop.”  So the boy started out, walking slowly he was scared right down to his toes.  When he reached the half-way point, he yelled back to his father saying “Dad, I think I have made it half-way.”  The Father yelled back “Son, what can you see?”  The boy answered, “I can see the barn.”  “Then go, son “ the Father said “and check on the horses.”

Today, let us consider what we can see.   There is a limit, not because many of us wear glasses, it is because we fail to give ourselves permission to see because of our own fear.  We do not step outside of our own areas of comfort long enough to even see half-way to our destination, because we fear taking the first step.   How many of us have ever really made a decision based not on what we think is the safe decision, but based upon what it means to do as we are called, or our innermost desire?

Belinda set her heart on being more than what others might have thought possible.  She did not let anyone tell her that she could not; she proved that she could and long before the words “Yes we can” became a part of the vernacular, Belinda said… “Yes I will.”    As an athlete, an enlisted soldier, a mother, an officer candidate, as a nurse and healer, and even in her suffering she never was one to quit.

To be frankly honest we should not be here today, she is way too young for this moment to have come to pass, and it is simply incongruent to most of us to think of life with out Belinda. Her last words to her sisters and those gathered nearby, and to all of us are words that are sacred to all of us of have lased on a pair of boots and worn the uniform of our country…”never leave a soldier behind.”
So how do we do that?   How far can we see?

In the reading from Holy Scripture we see the pain in the sister of Lazarus as she greets Jesus with tears saying…if you would have been here my brother would not have died…  or why did you leave him behind?   Jesus responds by asking her if she understood who he was and she did and yet she did not.  What she did not understand is that Jesus never leaves anyone behind, Jesus loves each of us is with us no matter what we do or where we go in life.

But the decision of those steps is our own.   How we will treasure the memory of our beloved Belinda depends on the steps we take, and what we see in the days to come.

God gives us so many gifts and so many opportunities.  We have the gift of making decisions that are easy or we can push to do the hard things remembering how Belinda did not take the easy way, she worked hard and she lived her life to the fullest.  She could have allowed things to knock her down or out, but she kept moving and going and living and seeing and doing and healing.

Not leaving Belinda Behind is going to mean making decisions not only to do the right thing, or the loving thing, but to following the calling, to step out into the darkness and to struggle and fight your way through the fear into the joy of a life fully lived.

Not leaving Belinda Behind is not being satisfied with 50% success if you have not given 100% to get there.

Not leaving Belinda Behind is not resorting to unkindness but remembering the healer, the nurse and the gentle, and yet demanding way that she had about her to do not just what you said you would do, but better.

We celebrate this amazing woman not with tears alone, but with the conviction to stand a little taller when the flag passes, to pray a little deeper when we bow our heads to our God and Father, and to try even more to risk a little more to do what we have been called to do in life.  To step into the darkness of our fear, and with God’s helped to see the light of our savior in the eyes of those who look back or who look up to us.

Thank you Belinda, thank you for the way you rolled your eyes, for your quirky sense of humor, for your gifted perseverance and for the way you honored your family, your children and your country.  May the stars of night be a little brighter because you have joined the heavenly kingdom and given us more light even in the darkest times.

In Christ’s name,

Amen

On February 5th Alex, asked his Mother: “Where is heaven?”   Alex had heard a great deal about heaven in his Christian school classes, and he was curious.  If heaven is so wonderful, why does someone have to die to get there?  Why does God make us wait for heaven?   The seven year old was on a roll, he knew where Canada was, and that it was a long way to Wichita, so he was interested in heaven.  Alex may have thought about paying a visit to “check-out” heaven and see if it was really as good as he thought.

Alex and his two siblings William and Nyah, died recently in an accidental fire that consumed their home, and the family’s dog.  At the time that Alex asked his mother about the location of heaven, he could not have known how soon he would find out.

Where is heaven to you?   Some say that where God is, there is heaven and as God is never absent from any location, thus heaven exists parallel to our reality.   Through the years many authors have attempted to put their stamp on heaven with visions of heaven from “Heaven can Wait” or the “Bishop’s Wife” and of course the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”   Series such as “Star Trek” and “St. Elsewhere” along with newer series such as “House” and “ER” have entered into the question of heaven and the afterlife.

One of my favorite visions of heaven comes from St. Elsewhere a program not that unlike “ER” or “Gray’s Anatomy” that ran from 1982-1985.  The series with Ed Begley Jr.,  Howie Mandell, and Denzell Washington among others and on one memorable episode Dr.  Wayne Fiscuss (Mandell) was injured and near death.  As the doctors attempted to bring him back, we were privy to his dreams and after life experiences.  In his dream state he met God and God appeared as the individual or type of individual that he hated.  In other words if you dislike gay African American women, that is how God will appear to you.

The theology behind this idea fascinates me.  God cannot be limited by langauge or appearance as God is God and thus beyond all of that.  God is indeed that which you hate and that which you love.

A current series “The Ghost Whisperer” stars Jennifer Love Hewett, and it too has a theological kernal where the non-living communicate with her trying to tie up the loose ends of their lives before going “into the light” and thus ending their “between” state.

Questions abound about heaven:  Will I really be able to be with those who have died?   Will they have dogs there?  Won’t heaven be borring if there is no temptation?

A cartoon on the door of my office depicts a bunch of angels sitting around a bar drinking beer in heaven with the caption “I thought this would be what I want, but now I have nothing to complain about.”

Some of my best friends in life have had four feet.  Cats and Dogs are wonderful because they love us when we are incapable of loving ourselves.  They provide us with a glimpse of what unconditional love is all about, and no matter what they are always glad to see us.   My 14 year old cat  Punkydoodlefuffernutt passed away the other day and I was amazed at the grief I still feel.   I have no idea if I will see Fuff in heaven, but I do know that being with her at times was a little heaven here on earth.

With all my supposed theological knowledge I really do not know how to answer Alex’s question, but I know that he knows now more than I will know until I too begin that journey.   I may not know the location of heaven, but I know I can never stray where God is not, and that where Love is, there is God.  With God’s help and the saving grace of Christ,  I too will discover that which I cannot know until the day comes when heaven finds me.

Most of the time, we support good works as long as they are not set up in our neighborhood. It may be true that property value plummets when someone opens a halfway house or a hospice around the corner. This decline in value may also happen when the owners of that trendy ethnic restaurant down the street buy the house next door. Most of us think that we should be able to buy a home and live wherever we wish, but that same right may not apply to everyone else.

There are valid reasons for forcing some people to make their “abode outside the camp.” The first and third readings for this Sunday provide us with an example of this. The readings today are really concerned with the reincorporation of the outcast into the community.

I had this kind of thing thrust at me years ago while working in the ghetto in Washington, DC. St. James Episcopal Church in the neighborhood of Anacostia had been a traditional African American Church. Two blocks down the street was Ascension Episcopal Church. St. James was thriving with standing room only at every Sunday service. Ascension, an all white church, was down to just a handful of people. St. James welcomed anyone, Ascension was not only all white, it was a white only church. The Bishop of Washington at the time finally made the decision to close Ascension. The night before their last service, the building was burned to the ground, by members of the church.

Leprosy needs to be seen more symbolically than actually. We are not talking about a contagious skin disease; we are talking about labeling people for whatever reason and deciding that we do not want “those people” around no matter what. I have heard it and watched it in my lifetime, and without making anyone show hands I would bet that you have too. How about Catholics and the worry about President Kennedy and the Pope; we love to eat in Italian restaurants, but we do not want our children marrying one of them, or the Irish for that matter.

Germans were suspect after WWI and we detained American Citizens of Japanese (or any Asian) decent during WWII.

The Mormons were slaughtered on their way to Utah, and the treatment of the Indian people should never be a source of pride.

What did we know about the killing of the Jews at the hands of the Germans, or the murder of thousands of Armenians by Turkey?

Women should be paid less than men for equal work; African people can be bought and sold as property.

In some places today it is perfectly acceptable to hate folks because they are of a different religion or because they are not religious. All terrorists are Islamic or is it that all Islamic people are terrorists.

Discrimination continues today in our advanced society. For whatever reason the need for human beings to build-up by casting down others is a part of the history of humanity.

I would hope that we will someday grow tired of this need to make difference equal to wrong and sameness equal to right.

Our perceptions are not just a matter of political correctness, but rather our own discomfort of those who are “outside of the camp,” and they are the ones who are often in the greatest need of community support. Many of us still shun people with mental disorders or whose bodies are ravaged by an illness even when it is not contagious; we frequently avoid the company of friends or acquaintances who are consumed by grief at the death of a loved one; we keep our distance from people who speak with an accent; and we are suspicious of others whose religious beliefs and practices do not conform to ours.

It is one thing to keep dangerous people “outside the camp,” since they do, after all, threaten the security of the community. But are those people mentioned above really dangerous? They may annoy us or make us feel uneasy; they may disagree with us or their presence may unsettle the comfort of our structured lives. But how do they threaten our safety?

There is probably not a person alive who has not at some time felt like an outcast, and all because some people will have nothing to do with certain races or ethnic groups, with people of a particular age, social or economic standing, or level of education, with individuals who have a different sexual orientation. Reasons for keeping us “outside the camp” may have had no grounding other than the fact that we did not belong to the neighborhood. We know how such rejection feels, and yet we do the same to others.

The answer is quite clear; we see it in the Gospel. He would be moved with pity. He would stretch out his healing hand to the outcast and say: Be made clean. Come join the community. And what would he say to those who tend to exclude others? They too need healing, so he would be moved with pity toward them as well. He would stretch out that same hand and say: Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks, or to those burdened with illness or mourning the dead, or to the newly migrated or religiously different.

This should not surprise us for; after all, Jesus too experienced being an outcast. And why was he forced “outside the camp”? Though he did belong to the community, he did not think like the rest of the group. He welcomed the outcast; he embraced the very people whom others shunned. No one was beyond the circle of his compassion. No one was kept out of his neighborhood. And for this he was ostracized and ultimately silenced.

Today, more than any other day, when more and more people are without jobs and personal dignity is being threatened. Today, more than any other day, when we are becoming more aware of sin of bigotry, we need to make sure that the doors of every church and the hearts of every community are open to all of God’s people. The Episcopal Church with big red doors, a symbol of sanctuary, should never shut its doors on God’s people. We must proclaim by example the healing redemption available through faith in strong name of Jesus.

“Reaching Up”
January 18, 2009 St. David’s Episcopal Church
The Reverend Donald F. Davidson

Today is the 57^th Annual Meeting of St. David’s Episcopal Church.   Today’s meeting is being held in the same room where almost every Annual Meeting has been held, and where the Holy Eucharist was celebrated 50 years ago and again today.  So let us begin not with a recitation of our own history but with a look at our roots, our foundation, and the standards upon which this parish was built and has endured.

First from the Gospel of John, the 13^th Chapter 34^th verse:  Jesus says

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

From the Catechism of the Church:

Q. What is the mission of the Church?
A. The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and
each other in Christ.

Q. How does the Church pursue its mission?

A. The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.

Q. Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?

A. The church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.

Finally, the Mission and Vision Statements of St. David’s Church:

“Honor God, Love One Another”

Our Vision statement:
“With God’s help, we strive to be servants of Jesus Christ.
We seek joyful worship, faithful teaching and continued learning.
We create an accepting and loving fellowship where there is a place at the table for every      person.”

During our service today, we will recite the ancient creed of the church named for the location of the Ecumenical Council where it was written.

There are other foundational documents of our faith including our Baptismal Covenant which includes the Apostles Creed, the 39 articles of faith, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, and the Creed of Saint Athanasius.  Each of these statements was written to help the people of our parish and of our church know what it means to be a part of that church, to worship here and understand the sacraments and to stand on the foundation of the generations before.

We meet today because of those who have gone before us, who built this building and founded this parish.  Because Bishop Jackson Kemper came to this part of the country and started Episcopal house churches, because Bishop     Vail organized the Diocese of Kansas which extended all the way west to Colorado Springs.  Because of the eight priests who served as Rector of this congregation prior to 2004, and because each of you for hundreds of different reasons discovered St. David’s and found a church home.

Slowly, as documents spouted doctrine and understandings and bricks became buildings, as Clergy baptized and confirmed and vestries raised the funds our church in this corner of God’s reign took shape and form.  We stand on that foundation, the very foundation of the living Church of Christ Jesus and that is why we gather today.

Throughout the 57 years St. David’s has been blessed with laity willing to give of their gifts to the betterment of their church.  This is part of the stewardship of all the baptized, but a few go above and beyond and we wish to honor six such people this morning.

We begin with Jerry Palmer.  I appointed Jerry as the Counsel to the Vestry shortly after the fire when I felt it would be beneficial to have an attorney working with the Vestry as we waded through all of the confusing aspects of our insurance coverage.  This year we settled with the Church Insurance Company of Vermont with a very good result in no small measure because of the assistance of Jerry Palmer.  Thank you Jerry!

For the past four years, Ethel Edwards has served as an alternate and delegate to the Northwest Convocation and the Diocesan Convention.  Ethel has attended countless meetings of the convocation as well as the Convention and has represented our parish well.  Thank you Ethel.

Of all of our Ministry groups, Community Ministry takes St. David’s into our community and brings the community to the parish.  Our continuing work with Doorstep, Let’s Help, the Rescue Mission and other groups continues because of this dedicated group and their leader over the past few years Meredith Williard.  Meredith is stepping down from this position this year and we wish to thank her for her dedicated leadership.

Three members of our Vestry are retiring this year and they will be missed.  These three are the last three members of the Vestry who were serving at the time of our fire in 2006.   Each of them has given in their own unique ways, and they will be missed.  Our parish has benefited greatly because of their service.  Herm Simon also served as the Vestry representative to the Endowment Board and the Capital Campaign Committee.  Michele Ediger served as the Vestry representative to Community Ministry and Anita Curry was the Vestry representative to the Executive Committee.   I extend my sincere appreciation to each of our retiring Vestry members.

I hope all of you will or have already read Alan Fries’ report for 2008.  Alan served as our Senior Warden this year and his report accurately lists the kind of year 2008 has been for our parish and our Vestry.   Alan, while a former Senior Warden, was thrust into the position without having the benefit of serving on the Vestry during or after the fire.  Alan was a freshmen member of the Vestry this year and yet the “go to” person for the year.   Very few people could have been elected to the Vestry and just a few minutes later be nominated and elected Senior Warden.  I am here to tell you that my trust in Alan was well founded and he has served our parish extremely well.  His report also notes that members of the Vestry and members of the clergy did not always agree, yet the work was done and the decisions were made.  I am indebted to Alan for his excellent service on the Vestry in 2008 and I am very thankful that he will continue to serve as a vestry member for the next two years.

Jim Clowers continues to be a great blessing to our parish.  In so many instances we have had the right person at the right place at the right time and that is exactly the case when it comes to our Junior Warden.  An engineer with decades of experience in construction who “speaks the language,” Jim Clowers has been at our construction site every day watching and representing you and me.   Thanks Jim.

Finally, let me say a word or two about our Treasurer.  Being the treasurer of any parish is not for the faint of heart, and serving in such a position for a number of years would try the soul of most people.  Jim Edwards carries with him the unique ability to keep our records and know our records.  With the invaluable assistance of Christy McMullen, our financial team is second to none.

Fifty-seven years also means that the parish has had good staff leadership through the years.  My thanks to the people who work with me every day in being accountable to you and the mission of our parish:  Christy McMullen who begins her 13^th year at St. David’s, Donna Osborne who is in her 5^th year, and Fr. Matthew Buterbaugh who celebrated his first year as a priest last Monday.  It is a pleasure to work with these three people.

As you all know, I am a priest who serves out my calling in two distinct ways as a Rector and as an Army Chaplain.  In my heart I do not think of this as two jobs, indeed I am not sure I think of being a priest as a job at all.  Rather I think of them as two functionalities or two aspects of one calling: one priesthood.   Pardon me for a moment of personal opinion, but I have heard since 2004 that our country is a “nation at war.”  I find this to be incorrect.  While the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are sponsored through our taxes, the citizens of the United States have been only slightly inconvenienced.  Not since WWII have we really been a nation at war, when every citizen was asked to do their part for their country.  Indeed most of us expect our country to do more for us, instead (paraphrasing President Kennedy) of being asked to do more for our country.  I do believe we are a military at war, especially the reserve and National Guard.  Part-time soldiers who enlisted to help with domestic national disasters are being called to four or five deployments.

I was raised by parents who expected their son to never forget what it meant to live in a country based upon the principals of freedom, liberty and justice for every human being.  So, I try to give a little back to my country and I have received more than I will ever give.  I have said many times that I am thankful to the people of St. David’s for sharing me with the Kansas National Guard.  I appreciate your patience when I am gone.  In 2008 I visited soldiers in Germany, Kosovo, Armenia and worked with a team of senior officers on new plans to protect the health of our soldiers who are being asked to return time and time again to combat.   I thank Fr. Matthew, Fr. Herman and Mtr. Barbara for pinch-hitting when I was gone.   I doubt that I will be traveling as much in 2009.

As we move to 2009 I have many hopes and dreams.  I would like to share them with you.

I dream that our Sunday school and youth program continue to grow.  I look forward to working with our Youth Advisory Group and our Christian Education Ministry as we transition into our new building.  VBS this year is a radical change from years past.  A group of college students will be providing a daytime version at Grace Cathedral.  We are moving away from an evening based program and from the same program (albeit good) that many other churches are doing.  Our program will be unique and exciting and will afford our kids a dynamic week of fun and learning.   I pray our youth will participate in the exciting array of diocesan youth events like Miqra, Happening and most of all Camp Wood.   The information for Camp Wood is out already and know that funding will be available for any St. David’s kid who wants to go to camp.

Coinciding with Ash Wednesday and Lent we will begin a parish wide book study on “Creating Uncommon Worship” by Richard Giles.  This short book is profound in getting people to “think” about the way in which we worship.  That is not to say that there is anything wrong with what we do right now, but it is essential that we know why we do what we do.  If worship becomes nothing more than a list of rules of posture and behavior without inspiration then we may not be doing all we can do.  I am not proposing a bunch of new crazy ideas; I am proposing that as we move into a new worship space, we should renew our worship.  I would love to see 50-75 people buy this book and participate in this study.

By the time that we reach the summer, we will begin the exciting move from our cramped temporary space into our new home.  Please remember that much of what was will be returned, and there will be a number of gaps.  Let me share with you a short list of “stuff” that we will need someday:

Sound system for the new parish hall
Furniture for the new parlor
Outside sign
New chairs for the parish hall
Replacement of some tables for the parish hall
Replacement of some vestments
Playground equipment for Zachary’s playground.

The Capital Campaign, the mortgage, wonderful donations and our insurance settlement gives us the building.  It does not stop there and in some sense it never stops.

In 2008 our Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) went up.  Yea!  At the same time our membership decreased.  About mid-year the Vestry requested that the Rector undertake a membership audit.  We have known for some time that our membership numbers are not an honest reflection of our membership.  To tell you the truth I am not sure how that happens, but somehow we have more numbers than we do people.  The Vestry’s request was a good one, and we have an honest number to report to the Diocese and National Church.  It also means, as you will or may have already seen, that our membership decreased from 600+ to 450.   Most of the decrease is numbers without names, some are folks who moved away from St. David’s and some died.  We also gained new members this year.

Financially we finished 2008 in the black as we have for the last four years.  With the Capital Campaign and the current economic conditions I am very pleased with the results of the 2009 Stewardship Campaign.  We increased the percentage of pledging households for 2009, and overall we are healthy.  I admit that not being able to hire a parish secretary is unusual for a parish our size, and yet the dedication of this parish to provide our youth with an active, dynamic, best-in-the-city youth program is worth it.   I thank the parish for your understanding when calling the office and getting the answering machine, or not having Sunday bulletins, or any number of other things that cannot be done.

I am thankful to the Vestry for creating a fund where some excess funds from 2008 will be made available to program areas cut by budget constraints for 2009.  In addition, it is my hope that St. David’s will be able to donate toward the 150^th Anniversary project of the Diocese in building two Habitat for Humanity homes in Coffeyville, Kansas this summer.  We all need to remember the kind donation we received from the people of St. Paul’s Coffeyville after our fire.

I also want to thank the chair and members of our Capital Campaign.  The first effort was to raise the pledges for our new building.  Now the committee will continue to garner new pledges and to continually place the campaign in the forefront so that we have the resources to pay back the loan based upon the pledges that have been made.  Their work is not easy, and will continue for a few years to come.

The new building affords us many opportunities:

* We will be in the spotlight especially around the Diocesan Convention which will include the celebration of the 150^th Anniversary of our Diocese.

* With the consent of the Vestry, I will be appointing a committee to spearhead our dedicatory service this fall.  If you are interested, please let me know.

* I foresee an open house event as well as any number of other events that will welcome members of our community into our new building.

*  Our new building may help us to grow, along with a great music program, an active and innovative Sunday School for all generations and as mentioned a (my generational word) groovy youth program.

Like everything in our common life… it will take all of us.  We all need to continue the kind of perseverance we have displayed during the last two plus years. St. David’s has discovered what it means to be church and to live as church and not be distracted by a building.  What a gift. Now that we face moving into a new building, let us not forget that “church” is not a place, but a people, a baptismal community of believers.

This year will be exciting and formative, we will all be pressed to do more and be more, and we must all be ready to reach up to new heights just as the steel outside reaches for the heavens.  In the words of a well known prayer from our Prayerbook:

“O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord   Amen.

(commentary)

Two weeks ago I was part of a group that stood near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip overlooking Gaza City near the City of Steriot.  The truce between Hamas, who had taken control in the Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, was in force and on this day it was quiet.  We met with officials of the government of the City, a city which had been hit by hundreds of home-made rockets over the past months and years.

The life in Steriot is basically living under constant threat.  The only thing that the people of this small city know is that a rocket will fall on them at any time on any day.  The director of the city’s counseling center told us that there were children in the community that had not lived a day of their entire lives without the threat of rockets, and other stories of how mothers had to make choices that are beyond our understanding.

Normally, the people of Steriot have as much as 30 seconds to get out of the way of an incoming rocket.  The director told us of a situation where a mother has two children in a car and has to make a choice of which one will be left in the car and which one she will grab and take into a bomb shelter.

Kids no longer play outside, schools are mostly underground and people live with terror as a constant.

The rockets from Hamas did not stop during the truce, only Israel’s response to the rockets stopped.  During the truce, Hamas by virtue of underground tunnels and possible assistance from Iran, has re-stocked their arms in wait for the truce to be over.  Yet all through the truce the rockets kept coming at a rate of 2-4 a week.

The border crossings remained open during the truce allowing Hamas to sell goods in Israel and receive fuel and goods from Israel.  However, for some reason, Hamas sent rocekts down on the border crossing itself forcing them to close while their security was re-instated.   Hamas also would set off rockets toward Israel while the prevailing winds were in the opposite directions leaving the rockets to fall to the ground within Gaza causing unnecessary destruction.  Why?  One can only wonder.

Israel has now taken decisive action after months of rocket attacks during and after the truce.  I will leave the question of “reasonable” response to scholars and such, but remember that the Gaza is part of Israel, it is within the territory of a soverign nation and that the extremist organization within the Gaza has attacked innocent people in nearby communities for quite a long time without any response at all.

Israel gives 60-120 minute notice of their counter-attacks, allowing the people of Gaza to take cover, and the attacks are targeted at military operations not schools, hospitals or innocent civilians.   There have been in many stories of Hamas holding spur-of-the-moment events in areas where Israel has indicated an upcoming counter-attack for the purpose of drawing CNN.

There is nothing good to come of the continued violence between Israel and Hamas, but the world could be better served if the press would report the long story and not simplify it to the last punch.  Such reporting leaves the hearer without truth.  It should remind us of a elementary school playground where the kid that finally punches the bully after taking it longer than necessary, is the one who gets caught … or in this case recorded.

Christmas Eve, 2008
St. David’s Episcopal Church
Topeka, Kansas

There is no other moment of the year when we are more aware of the absence of peace than at Christmas.   Peace is possibly more difficult to find on our earth now than ever before, and in some places on earth peace is unknown or something read about in history books.

Human beings naturally want to be in a state of peace with each other.  Indeed peace is normative, war is learned.  We celebrate the arrival of Jesus whom the prophet foretold as the Prince of Peace, and yet tonight from across our island planet are prayers “Dear God, please, bring us Peace.”

There is a story of a young Norwegian soldier during WW II, and his mother and father and his whole family were killed. It was a tragic situation.  He was now alone for his first Christmas Eve.  He was very depressed.  He came out and stood by the edge of that Norwegian fjord and in his frustration and bitterness, he shouted into the sky:  Glory to God in the highest? … and the fjord echoed back… HIGHEST   Highest   highest.   And on earth, PEACE? … Peace…peace…peace.  The young man sat down and cried. … There was no peace. Peace for him was only an echo that began to fade and fade and fade far away.

Christmas peace?  It is only an echo tonight in so many parts of the world.   Christmas peace is only an echo in Bethlehem tonight, that’s for sure.  The week before last we drove by Bethlehem just a mile or two outside of Jerusalem.  The City is fenced off from the rest of Israel and Israeli citizens may not visit there.  The road going by has been tunneled under the city.  Only a handful of Christians live there now. I doubt if any of you would want to spend much time in Bethlehem tonight, or feel safe there. … Christmas peace is only an echo night in Ethiopia and the Sudan … Or shall we remove the troops between North and South Korea …or within Bosnia, Kosovo … within Rwanda … and would you feel safe?   And certainly Christmas peace is only an echo for those families who were bombed by a terrorist.  Is that what Christmas peace is, merely an echo?  Just an echo from the distant past?    Cheryl Whelan one of our members is in Iraq tonight, waiting for peace.

Christmas peace is merely an echo in so many homes tonight.  There is a great deal of harm going on for so many reasons.  There are those who are embarrassed by the pain and turmoil within homes caused by fighting, alcohol, drugs and dishonesty of all kinds.  While the weapons may be words, the wounds especially on the children can be just as deep and long lasting as any physical wound on a battlefield.  Dear Lord, bring us Peace!

Is Christmas peace only an echo in so many people?s personal lives, an echo within our psychological selves?  There are so many tensions and so much stress and we get ulcers and migraines and heart attacks and we explode in anger at our children in anger at our spouses over nothing…exploding at just about everybody if for a short time, when things don’t go the way we want. Then we are so embarrassed by our explosions.   Christmas peace?

Longfellow wrote

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat, peace on earth good will towards men.  In despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said, but hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth good will towards men.”

Walter Henry tells a story from W.W.II.   He tells us one of those stories of one of those Christmas truces during war, where the sun goes down on Christmas Eve, and soldiers are not supposed to shoot at one another until the next morning.ÿ The Germans and the Americans are on opposite sides of the line, opposing each other.ÿ There was a young American soldier, and he was just getting ready to push that detonator to explode a set of mines on the other side.  A flare went up, and he knew that is was the beginning of the Christmas peace, the Christmas truce.  He settled down into his foxhole and as the night went on, in the distance, not so far away, he heard this gorgeous German tenor voice,  stieliege nacht   heilige nacch,  He listened…and listened…and he knew that voice anyplace…the voice of Johan Leibr…his music teacher from Munich.   Johan Liebr started to sing the second stanza, and the American soldier began to sing with him…and there was a momentary break in Liebr?s voice…a crack in his voice…but he continued…and together they sang all of Silent Night, one in German, the other in English.  The night continued. One would begin to sing a Christmas carol and the other would join in singing through the night.  But…but…but…dawn came. It was time.   A flare pierced the sky; the truce was over; and the young soldier regretted it as he pushed the button and killed the enemy soldiers…and his music teacher, Johan Liebr.   Peace on earth.   Is it only an echo from the past?

What is wrong with us human beings anyway?  Why is it that we cannot find a better way?

Time for a commercial.  In television, they take commercial breaks after so much talking and we need to take a commercial break now in the midst of a sermon.  I would like to tell you about a beer commercial…made by Budweiser beer.  In this Budweiser commercial, they have two great big workhorses, two big Clydesdales, and behind the Clydesdales is a beautiful sleigh.  You see the giant horses trotting through the snowy woods, down a quiet country road, and up to a country house.  In this commercial, have you ever seen the sleigh in front of the big Clydesdale horses.  And the horses are behind the sleigh, trying to push the sleigh along.   Have you ever seen that?  Of course not.  That would be dumb, for a big Clydesdale to be pushing a sleigh.  We all know that the sleigh is behind the two great big Clydesdales. That?s the way it is with peace.   There is one great big Clydesdale and its name is justice.  There is another great big Clydesdale and its name is righteousness.  Behind the two workhorses of justice and righteousness comes peace… Peace always follows after justice and righteousness.  That is true within your family life, your personal life, the life of your city, your neighborhood, your state, your nation, your world.   It’s the same everywhere.  If you want peace, you find it after you pursue justice and righteousness.

The magic (and by magic I am speaking of faith) of the birth in Bethlehem is not about a Virgin giving birth or the majestic star.  The magic of the birth is not about angels bringing greetings to shepherds or animals giving up their warm place on a chilly desert night.   The real magic is not even the Incarnation itself .. that God would be wrapped in human flesh in the most vulnerable of forms imaginable that of a newly born infant.   The magic is what we, imperfect human beings can do, I believe must do, with the message God has given us.

This special magic, the gift of of Christmas faith does not grow old or out of use by thousands of years of retelling.  This message does not get polluted with the newest of cultural fads, this message lives in the midst of the human heart beating with a singular idea of hope, tied with justice, righteousness and the reality that we are God?s hands, and voices, and we have the power to make things right.

We, all of us, are the way in which God’s Peace can be real and God has given us on this night the way, “the way” to make peace and to bring peace.  Not by a sword or duress, not my manipulation and stress, not by marketing strategy or scheme but by compassion, kindness, truth and love.  Not by masking over the bitterness and the hate, but by lifting up the wonder and awe of a little baby, innocent and unstained before the world.  The little baby will lead us out of the terror of following our own means into the joy of being disciples of the Prince of Peace.
There is hope tonight, more than ever before because there is Christ tonight.  Listen to the echo, listen for the joy, listen for the angels, listen for the baby, and listen to your heart.

Amen

As I write, I am sitting in a breakfast restaurant in my current hotel Tel Aviv on the Meditarainan sea.  Ok, is this strange… you bet!  Am I a fish out of water!  No kidding!   I am in some kind of dream world.

I am reminded of reality when I hear old television theme songs blasting from the PA system, or hear my fellow travelers talking about one issue or another.

Yesterday I stood with 10 others looking out at at the border between the State of Israel and the Gaza Strip, I saw baloons in the air that keep watch to see if rockets will be fired into a nearby city.  Gaza, home of some 1.4 million people who have been in a state of unrest with Israel for decades.  Some understand this narrow strip of land as being a part of Egypt that Egypt may not really want, and separated by every conceivable difference from Israel.

The people who live in nearby Steirot have coped with the rockets coming down on them for years.  One blasted a park about two-weeks ago.  This is a quiet and strangely peaceful war zone.   The reason of our visit is quite is finding the secret to their existence.  How do they cope?  What makes them stay?  How does the Government and military help them?  What kind of people love their homeland so much to subject themselves  and their children to this kind of life.

Safe rooms, gas maskss, drills and visits to psychotherapy have become common place and yet for some reason it is “worth it.”   That in itself is the question behind the question, the meaning behind any meaning?

This trip has been filled with the unexplainable, with experts and briefings and with brief visits to sights I had once visited 17 years ago.

Yesterday, we took a tour through Yed Vershem, the Holocost museum in Jerusalem.  A must stop in this city of must stops.  Six Million Jews were killed by Hilter and they do not so much celebrate or even memorialize their deaths, they remember.  The point of the museum is not to say look at what horrible things happened to our people, it is more than that.  The point is to remind those who were not alive so that what took place could never, will never… Please God, never happen again.   The newest part of the museum is a haunting memorial to the 1.5million children who were killed.

The people of Israel stand tall, united and defiant against a world which has attempted to make them the something they are not.   They have remained strong and quite healthy, our job is to learn from them and help our own soldiers gain a little of their inner beauty and ability to face anything that gets in their way.

Shaloam!

Don
Tel Aviv  0750 10DEC08

Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent, 2008
Thanks to my dear friend Canon Ben Helmer

We know the carols of Christmas, but to me the Advent carols are even more beautiful. I admit that one of the reasons I cannot wait until our new building is finished is due to my way of praying. I love to sing, and I pray while I sing.

“Lo, He comes with clouds descending” are the opening words of a well-known Advent hymn that will be sung in many churches today. Another hymn many will sing is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” The two hymns are bookends for this First Sunday of Advent, one celebrating the coming of Jesus to reign in glory, the other beseeching God to come and dwell with us. We need both to capture the tension of this beginning of the Church Year.

But a closer reading of the Gospel reveals that Jesus is not interested in encouraging speculation: But about that day or hour no one knows.only the Father. (Mark 13:32). Instead, we are to put our efforts into living an expectant life by keeping alert and watchful.

Much of our speculation could easily become waiting for a good show. In fact current fictional literature often focuses on the show as people are raptured, plucked out of airplanes or automobiles, offices or homes, leaving others behind in a time of tension and fear. It’s all portrayed as though we are pawns and victims in a cosmic struggle that we can’t do much about. That misses the point, if not the intent.

Instead Jesus calls us to action in Advent. As we will see in the coming weeks, this action is one of repentance and mission, not simply waiting around for things to unravel. The images in today’s Gospel of going on a journey and making arrangements for others to be in charge are good ones for Advent.

The church family can all go on an Advent journey together. This is the time when churches should seize the high ground and treat these four weeks like we are serious about our Advent living. My first church, Incarnation in Salina would make a Jesse Tree with the symbols of prophecy hung on the branches. They would cut down a small barren tree, puts it in a stand, and everyone in the church would make symbols for Advent and cut green leaves out of shiny foil. As the Advent season progressed more symbols and leaves are added to the tree.

In another church, the congregation has an Advent Event where everyone comes together for an evening of fellowship, makes Advent wreaths that are especially appropriate for home use, and studies about the season and its message. It’s always fun to do something as an alternative to the mad Christmas rush, and everyone can get into the spirit of preparing to meet Jesus when he comes.

But there is a deeply personal side to all this as well. Each of us has a heart that longs for things to be better. We want peace, even though much of the world clamors for war. We want justice, even though many tell us to take advantage of every opportunity to get more, though often it means others will have less. Recently this has hit me more personally. My father’s age and other problems may make it necessary for him to give up his driver’s license. I long for the time when Dad was a young strapping man, my heart longs for that. But, instead Advent calls us to an abundant life that is more spiritual and less material. It invites us to put our faith and trust in God’s mercy and divine intervention. It compels us to have a heart for truth, mercy, and justice, and to find ways and time to work for those things because they are the things God cares most about.

We are called to “cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.” There is certainly a moral dimension to this. The secrets we keep, the lies we tell, the hatreds we cherish, the schemes we dream up to get what we want are all in need of being thrown out. But their replacement with light is not automatic. What begins to transform us is our turning from maintenance to mission, from scarcity to abundance, from self to others. In a culture filled with ways and web sites on how to do things better for us, we are called simply to love without controlling, and respecting without reacting.

The church is not a club or a pastime, or something that one does when there is nothing else to do. It is a vivid sign of God’s having entered the world to redeem it.

Advent is a good time for us to live like people who are being redeemed. It is a good time to develop new relationships with people outside our walls. Advent is a time for a new beginning, a time to examine our structures and see what helps us to move out in mission.

While the norm is often to adopt a family for Christmas, what about adopting that family forever? Meeting basic needs is an essential Christian enterprise, but developing relationships is the ultimate one.

Emmanuel means “God with us” in a relationship that will totally transform us. There are others seeking this transformation but they don’t know where the door is. We need to show them.

Advent is not merely a season of preparedness, but a time to let go of everything that stands in the way of receiving God’s gift to us, the gift of Jesus.

Chaplain (COL) Don Davidson
don.davidson@us.army.mil

Reading the Newspaper can be Hazardous to your health!

I admit that I am a newspaper addict. Every morning I look forward to one or two newspapers and a cup (ok 2) of coffee. I like to know what is going on in the world and lately there has been anything but joy. Everyone will be or already has been affected by the downturn in our economy. We are all forced to weigh each financial decision carefully and with the holidays approaching those decisions become more and more difficult. Our emotional responses and our financial realities can be at war with each other, and that debate is a spiritual issue.

Financial decisions are spiritual decisions. Our Creator God gives us everything we need and loves us so much to set us free to make our own choices. Thus what we do with what God has given us is spiritual. When we spend our resources unwisely, or impulsively we cheat ourselves out of the life we have been given. Here are a couple of questions that might help in this season of buying:

a) Do I need it or do I want it?

b) Will the purchase help all the members of my family?

c) Is this a healthy choice (physical, emotional, financial)?

d) Does this choice honor my faith and my values?

I hope we all celebrate this wonderful season. I hope we honor our faith by attending religious services and gathering our families for prayer. I hope we make good financial choices that keep us living in a spirit of gratitude and personal thanksgiving.

Article for the “Plains Guardian” December 2008.

Celebrating Janet”
A sermon honoring Specialist Janet Simpson
Monday, November 17, 2008
Chaplain (Colonel) Don Davidson

Although it is natural for all of us, today is not a day we come together to ask questions, or to receive answers. Indeed on this day we must push aside all the speculation or conversation and all the worries of “why” and “how” and move to a different place as we seek to remember, and thank God for the life of Janet.

We do this with the wonderful assurance of the resurrection of Jesus our Lord, and the writings of Saint Paul which reminds us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love we know in Jesus.

One of the ways that we experience that love is with friends and as is obvious as we gather here today, Janet was rich in friends. A gifted athlete, Janet was a beloved member of the athletic community at Pittsburg State University. There is nothing quite like being a member of a team, any team really. Each member of the team is given different gifts, but the team as a whole benefits from the gifts of all of its members. This is much more obvious when we watch the poise and splendor of athletic competition. Basketball is fast-moving, and strategic, a sweaty earthy dance of grace and perseverance resulting in just the right finesse that makes it possible for a ball to find a hoop suspended over a glistening floor.

Janet loved playing basketball and would play as often as possible with anyone who was interested. It did not matter if it was one on one of five on three, she was there and she was ready, and the idea of team was never far from her heart.

She understood, possibly better than most of us what it meant to regard friends and family with very little difference between the two. That devotion to friends and love of family is apparent in the poetry she wrote. Janet’s Poems shared the deepest and mostly unexpressed feelings of her inner life.

Some of the poetry is magically whimsical like this portion of the poem “Sun Goes Down Moon Comes Up”

“While watching the sunset I notice the moon, coming up over a blue lagoon. I always wondered why that happened, the moon coming up as the sun is going down. But then I thought they just want to go to a funky town. So I watched the sunset and the moonrise, and suddenly to my surprise. I saw a bunch of beady little eyes. They bounced and rolled, jumped like they were cold, until I saw one of them fold a tiny piece of paper and they gave it to me, and this is what it told.

How when where, and why could you ever watch the sky, if you ever do so again you will be captured by a very scary guy.

Then I rolled over and fell out of bed to my mom saying ‘Wake up you sleepy head!’ I guess it must have been a dream, now that I am awake I think I’ll have some ice cream.”

Other poems talked about love and that inner search that only those who have ever loved would understand: the yearning of the soul, the touch the hope the wonder and mystery and of course the longing. Poetry comes closest to speaking the language of love, and yet it too is limited by definitions and inner understanding, only the author knows for sure. There is one thing we can know from Janet’s writings, Janet was full of passion, kindness, thoughtfulness and joy.

She also showed this kind of devotion to animals. As her mother put it, there wasn’t an animal that Janet did not love.

The Army seems a wild departure for an athletic, animal loving poet, but if we did but admit it, almost every soldier feels a love and passion for service to their fellow human beings and their country.

Janet’s Mom understood that basketball and boots created an odd balance and yet they came from the same heart, a heart filled with the joy of the team.

Graduating from Basic and Advanced Individual Training, Janet was excited about going to the big sandbox, as Army folks call Iraq. Her commanding officer Major Adam Douglas Krein talked about her desire to be, in his words:

My first impression of Janet was that she was very energetic and motivated. She was outgoing and positive. Her resounding voice and genuine smile directly reflected her personality. She cut her hair short. She was a tough girl that could get away with a hair cut like that. It was a statement. She was a Soldier and wanted to be treated like a Soldier. Not a girl, woman, female. A Soldier.

Throughout the training process, she always led from the front. I don’t think fear was an influence in her decision making process. She wanted to do a great job. She made her junior and senior leadership proud. SPC Simpson became a popular name amongst the battalion leadership. I admit, I bragged about her and her impeccable attitude. All the female Soldiers in the 1161^st Forward Support Company made me proud but, SPC Simpson was to be emulated and admired as a leader by men and women, whether superior, subordinate or peer.

Janet was not patient. She was not always sensitive. However, she was real. If you were real, she befriended you unconditionally. She was loyal to her new comrades. She shared her thoughts and opinions with her friends even if they didn’t ask her to. Her outside tough shell enveloped her congenial care for true friends. She once told me she actually loved animals more than people because animals are never fake. You love them, they love you back. That’s it.

Sadly wearing the 60 pounds of gear necessary for soldiers in combat zones took its toll on Janet and she was forced to return to the states before the rest of her unit. This was devastating to her as it would be to most of us. She was a part of a team, a team for her unit, a team for her state and a team for her country.

We come together today to celebrate that kind of passion, that kind of love and that kind of devotion to friends, to family, to country.

We all mourn today and I join you all in wishing it were not so, yet, as Paul says because of Christ, death cannot separate.

At the end of Army briefings, and I know that many of us in this room understand this, there is a “take home” element. Now this is not by any means an Army briefing although we celebrate the life of a very special soldier, but I do have a “take home” for you, and here it is.

B.C.E.

Remember these three letters, B.C.E. Because Christ Endures.

Because Christ Endures you too can endure the moments in life which are beyond understanding. When we sink into the depths of sorrow and pain, B C E Because Christ Endures, we can rise beyond those depths to see the sunrise and roll over and find the ice cream.

When we wonder and are discouraged about the way people are treated because of any number of reasons, B C E Because Christ Endures we know that someday we will reside in that place where there is no pain or sighing, but life everlasting.

When we worry about wars and the inability of human beings to find peace, B.C.E. Because Christ Endures we will know his peace, a peace that the world cannot give, a peace found in his grace.

Dear Janet, we will miss you but B C E Because Christ Endures we know you are well, playing basketball with the angels in the wonder God’s unconditional love.

Most of us find Jesus’ words hard to hear, hard to take and I bet most of us would really rather not admit they are in the Bible. I do not come to bring peace but a sword, and to set parents against children. This is not what any of us would want Jesus to say, and yet here it is right in the Gospel of Matthew.

One of the more interesting translations of this passage uses an even less desirable word: hate. I came, Jesus says, to cause a man to hate his father and a daughter to hate her mother and those who hate you will be members of your own household. I doubt this is the best of the translations, but it does get to the heart of what Jesus was saying and it shocking.

What do we do with this?

We all know something of hate, we may not want to, but we do. Hate is real. Most of us have experienced someone hating us. I once told a group of clergy that I never new hate until I became a priest and while I think that is horrible, it is also quite true.

While we use the word much too easily, hate is real. More than “I hate this pair of shoes” or “I hate the way this suit makes me look.” Hate is all enveloping, consuming and quite contagious.

Hate is alive and well in culture where an it seems ok to hate the girl who got the last cheerleading position, or the boy who was selected the starting halfback. Politics doesn’t help where the purpose seems to be how quickly we can make the other guy look bad so we look good.

Even sports are not immune, good natured rivalries are not enough?

This parish has had the chance to see hate up close and personally with placards and songs, and even more recently with an arsonist that did not appreciate us.

Hate has caused families to split apart, horrible words to be spoken, and war long after whatever caused the problem in the first place has been forgotten.

Was this what Jesus wanted, did he want us to hate someone simply because we disagreed with them; because we were this and they were that or because we thought ourselves so much better that they?

No, thankfully, that was not what he was talking about and to understand that we need to go back in Matthew’s time. I doubt you will ever here this passage discussed in a fundamentalist or evangelical church because to leave Jesus encouraging hate is nearly unthinkable.

Matthew’s time was not all that different than our own. In Matthew’s time, if a person were to announce their conversion to Christianity, they were shunned by their family. They were as if they had never been born. Fathers disowned Sons, and Mothers disowned daughters. Those who were the new Christian’s family were indeed their enemies.

Shunning or Christian membership by judgment is alive and well today. If you dress the wrong way, say the wrong thing, or have the audacity to believe slightly differently than someone else …in some churches you can be expelled, or as we have seen recently, if you have the audacity to believe something differently you can get a public rebuke.

What gets me about this is how quickly we all say that is horrible, until someone comes along with something that someone thinks should be rewarded with this kind of righteous response.

What Jesus was teaching to his disciples was that being a Christian means being willing to put everything else aside; that Christianity is not easy and it takes constant work. Jesus did not tell his disciples to hate, he told them to be ready to be hated for being a disciple. Jesus did not give his approval for families to break apart, or for weapons of battle… Jesus said that being a Christian means standing up in the family for what is right even if you are the only one left.

The temptations are plentiful these days. We can do, and say, and be, almost anything and doing the right thing, thinking the right thing, loving our neighbor when everyone else is hating them for one reason or another is where one can really feel the weight of the cross and the burden of being worthy of the name Christ.

We are being pushed and pulled these days in all sorts of ways. Yet we know that only Christ gives us the peace of eternal life and only Christ loves us and asks us to love even the most unlovable among us, even when it is the most unpopular thing to do.

I love liturgy. I love the consistency, the tradition and the idea of doing that which has been done for centuries. I like the dignity of liturgy, and the warmth that a community at worship can give someone in times of great joy and grief.

I love our Book of Common Prayer, and although an imperfect compromise (prayer book design by committee) it conveys the best of our church in services that follow life from birth to death and all the transitions in between.

In all of that, however, I do not think that liturgy should be performance art. Somehow, liturgy loses something when it becomes a performance by an extremely gifted choir, drilling acolytes, and preachers who present their words more like an actor on a stage.

I want to see an acolyte wave to her Mom, or a deacon that holds the hand of a wayward three year-old while reading the gospel.

As a man without children, members of my various parishes have been worried that I would not know what to do around children, and indeed may think (as many still do) that children should not be a part of services of worship. Soon after becoming the Rector of a parish and while giving a Sunday sermon, a young girl of about 2 ran up the aisle with arms open “needing a hug.” She ran right for me and…well…what was I to do? I scooped her up and held her for the rest of the sermon.

Now that is liturgy! It needs to be human, it is supposed to be imperfect, it is about people and their individual relationship to and journey with their faith in Jesus who ate with sinners, and blessed children.

I would much rather be a part of a service of real people celebrating the love of Christ in the Eucharist, than be a spectator with ticket in hand for the 10:00 Sunday performance.