A Litany for All Saints

* For all the saints, who from their labor rest,
* Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
* Thy Name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones present at our beginnings:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebecca,
Jacob and Rachel and Leah,
makers of the covenant, forebears of our race:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Elizabeth and Simeon,
Joseph, Monica and Helen,
exemplars in the love and care of children:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John the baptizer, map-maker of the Lord's coming:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:
* Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
* Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who showed the good news to be the way of life:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas the doubter;
Augustine of Canterbury;
Francis Xavier;
Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky;
all travelers who carried the Gospel to distant places:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Bernard and Dominic;
Catherine of Siena, the scourge of popes;
John and Charles Wesley, preachers in the streets;
all whose power of speaking gave life to the written word:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Benedict of Nursia,
Teresa of Avila;
Nicholas Ferrar;
Elizabeth Ann Seton;
Richard Meux Benson;
Charles de Foucauld;
all founders of communities:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
* Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
* And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who gave their lives to the care of others:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Louis, king of France;
Margaret, queen of Scotland;
Gandhi the mahatma, reproach to the churches;
Dag Hammarskjold the bureaucrat;
all who made governance an act of faith:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Peter of the keys, denier of the Lord;
Ambrose of Milan, who answered the Church's summons;
Hilda, abbess at Whitby;
Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, protector of the Jews;
Jean-Baptiste Vianney, cure d' Ars,

Patient hearer of catalogues of sins;
All faithful shepherds of the Master's flock:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary Magdalen, anointer of the Lord's feet;
Luke the physician;
Francis who kissed the leper;
Florence Nightingale;
Albert Schweitzer;
all who brought to the sick and suffering the hands of healing:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O blest communion, fellowship divine!
* We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
* Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Pierluigi da Palestrina;
John Merbecke;
Johann Sebastian Bach;
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
Benjamin Britten;
Duke Ellington;
all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul:

Stand Here Beside Us!
David and the Psalmists;
Caedmon;
John Milton, sketcher of Paradise;
William Blake, builder of Jerusalem;
John Mason Neale, preserver of the past;
all poets of the celestial vision:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Zaccheus the tree-climber;
Brother Lawrence;
Therese of Lisieux, the little flower;
William of Glasshampton;
all cultivators of holy simplicity:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
* Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
* And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones haunted by the justice and mercy of God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Amos of Tekoa, who held up the plumbline;
John Wycliffe, who brought the Scripture to the common folk;
John Hus and Menno Simons, generals in the Lamb's war;
Martin Luther, who could do no other;
George Fox, foe of steeple-houses;
all who kept the Church ever-reforming:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Paul the apostle, transfixed by noonday light;
Augustine of Hippo, God's city planner;
Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, architects of the divine;
Charles Williams, teacher of coinherence;
Karl Barth, knower of the unknowable;
all who saw God at work and wrote down what they saw:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John, the seer of Patmos;
Anthony of the desert;
Julian, the anchoress of Norwich;
Hildegarde, the sybil of the Rhine;
Meister Eckardt;
Bernadette of Lourdes;
all who were called to see the Master's face:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Joachim of Fiora, prophet of the new age;
Johnny Appleseed, mad planter of Eden;
Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice;
Benedict Joseph Labre, priest and panhandler;
all whose love for God was beyond containment:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* The golden evening brightens in the west;
* Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
* Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who died in witness to the Christ:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Stephen the deacon, the first martyr, stoned in Jerusalem:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Justin, Ignatius, and Polycarp, who refused the incense to Caesar:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Perpetua and Felicity, torn by beasts in the arena at Carthage:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley,

Burned in Oxford:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein, put to death at Auschwitz:

Stand Here Beside Us!
James Reeb, Jonathan Daniels, Michael Schwerner,
Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, shot in the South:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martin Luther King, shot in Memphis:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Janani Luwum, shot in Kampala:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Oscar Romero, shot in San Salvador:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martyrs of Rome, of Lyons, of Japan, of Eastern Equatorial
Africa, of Uganda, of Melanesia,
martyrs of everywhere:

STAND HERE BESIDE US!
* But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
* The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
* The King of Glory passes on his way.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones of every time and place:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Glorious company of heaven:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All climbers of the ladder of Paradise:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All runners of the celestial race:

Stand Here Beside Us!

[The people may call out saints' names]

Great cloud of witnesses:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Mary most holy, chief of the saints:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, yes-sayer to God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, unmarried mother:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, gate of heaven and ark of the covenant:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
* Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
* Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus our liberator, creator of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, redeemer of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, sanctifier of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and
the end:

Stand Here Beside Us!

*The litany of saints above is chanted annually at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D.C., at the principal eucharist celebrating All Saints' Day. It was composed around 1979, largely by William MacKaye, former religion editor of the Washington Post, though some of the images were taken from A Liberation Prayer Book of the Free Church in Berkeley, California, and has been adapted here and there in the subsequent years.

All Hallows Eve (Day 1)

Halloween is All Hallows Eve, or the Eve of All Saints' Day:

“All Saints' Day is the centerpiece of an autumn triduum. In the carnival celebrations of All Hallows' Eve our ancestors used the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal, the power of humor and ridicule, to confront the power of death.” – Rev. Sam Portaro from “Brightest and Best”

"Halloween is the time of year when we see that Christ has so triumphed over Evil, that even little children can mock the Devil with impunity." – Fr. Victor

 

You, O Lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your Spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: Have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate. Amen.

Lyke Wake Dirge

On this night, on this night,
Every night and all,
Hearth and house and candle-light,
And Christ receive your soul.

When from here away you pass
Every night and all,
To Thorny Moor you come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave hose and shoes,
Every night and all,
Sit then down and put them on;
And Christ receive your soul.

But if hose and shoes you gave none
Every night and all,
The thorns shall prick you to the bare bone;
And Christ receive your soul.

From Thorny Moor then you may pass,
Every night and all,
To Bridge of Dread you come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave silver and gold,
Every night and all,
At Bridge of Dread you’ll find foothold,
And Christ receive your soul.

But if silver and gold you gave none
Every night and all:
You’ll tumble down into Hell’s flames
And Christ receive your soul.

From Bridge of Dread then you may pass,
Every night and all,
To Purgatory fire you’ll come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave meat or drink,
Every night and all,
The fire will never make you shrink;
And Christ receive your soul.

But if meat or drink you gave none,
Every night and all,
The fire will burn you to the bare bone;
And Christ receive your soul.

On this night, on this night,
Every night and all,
Hearth and house and candle-light,
And Christ receive your soul.

October 29 Sermon (Proper 25)

(Given at the 8 AM service.)

Lord, give us the eyes of Jesus to see our neighbors and the strangers we meet.
Teach us what it means to love the stranger as we love ourselves.
Forgive us for our selfishness, for our silence,
for not caring enough for the strangers who come to our communities.
Teach us to love and care for the stranger the way you love us all. Amen
(Rebeca Jiménez Yoder)

Last week the readings were about our allegiance to God (or Caesar). This week it is about love.

As the Beatles would say – “All you need is love. Love is all you need.”

Jesus is asked by a lawyer who was confronting him after he silenced the last leaders who challenged him, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

You can feel the lawyer trying to trap him in his words, but Jesus reminds us of our interconnected relationships.

Jesus said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

It is an ethic of love that matters most. Our relationship, our love of God who created us, to whom we render the whole of our lives and the love of our neighbors as we love ourselves. Love is the key to our interconnectedness to creation.

As a friend of mine put it, “This love I am talking about is a choice, a decision, an act of the will, and it belongs in the heart of your relationship with your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings, your friends, your co-workers. [and I would add it belongs to the heart of our relationship with our God.] Have the courage to not simply talk of love, but to put love into action. The love God has for you is patient and kind and will never fail. Choose to share that same amazing love with the people in your life.” (The Rev. Canon Frank Logue)

As I sat with my friend’s words, I saw this across my screen:

“One neighborhood in Minnesota put their love into action by paying back a beloved World War II veteran who likes to spend his retirement walking around the neighborhood twice a day. But at 95 years old, at times Harvey Djerf needs to stop to catch his breath. “A few years back,” Djerf told ABC News, he noticed one neighbor had left a chair outside for him in their yard.

“It’s kind of snowballed now. I’m up to 12 chairs now,” he said. “They must’ve seen that I was pausing and catching my breath and that’s when they probably took pity on me.”

It’s kindness not pity that makes Djerf’s neighbors in Plymouth, Minnesota, put chairs out for the veteran. They also bring him lemonade on hot summer days and even cookies, he said.

Djerf said it means a lot to him, especially since he’s been living in the neighborhood for 66 years. In fact, Djerf and his wife of 69 years built their home in 1951.” (ABCNews.com)

That is love for the neighbor, a stranger who walks in their very midst. It is kindness. It is following what Jesus asks of us. And sometimes love goes even deeper, for the ethic of love, is an ethic of life.

In March 2008, Christopher Gregory died suddenly from a ruptured aneurism. He was 19 years old. His parents were devastated. In the awful, bewildering hours following their son's death, they were asked to consider donating his organs. But Chris had already answered that question: just the week before he had innocently mentioned that he wished to be a donor. Their decision to donate simply affirmed their son's generosity.

Three months later, they received a letter: "I cannot possibly imagine the grief caused by your loss," it read. "Certainly, there are no words anyone can say or write to extinguish that pain. Nevertheless, you have shared with me the grandest gift I will ever receive - the gift of life."

Chris' parents eventually met the writer whose life was saved by their son's lungs. They would go on to meet the four other people who were given second chances by Christopher's gift. Chris' mom and dad have since become advocates for the Donor Network of Arizona.

Chris' father, Eric, wrote this in an article this past summer [June 12, 2017]: "The experience of losing Christopher, but knowing his death meant life for five others, changed me in ways I never thought possible. I learned that it's possible to see God in all things, even tragedy. The more I learned about the science of organ transplantation, the more confident I have become in the existence of God. I learned that the butterfly effect is real, that something as seemingly inconsequential as checking a box while applying for a driver's license can have a tremendous effect years later and miles away . . . Most of all, in the face of division and distrust in the world today, I learned that how we treat one another matters. If the heart of a 19-year-old white boy beating inside the chest of a 65-year-old black man does not give us hope, then I do not know what hope is." [American Magazine]

To love with our whole heart and soul and mind enables us to move beyond our fears and sorrow in order to comfort, to forgive, to heal. Jesus reveals the mystery of our beloved God loving his creation so completely and so selflessly that God asks that such love be shared by his people throughout his creation.

The generosity of heart of people like Chris and those who make possible the gift of organ donations is centered in the love of the "great commandment" of Jesus' Gospel: to love with the same selfless compassion, care and completeness of the God who created each of us.

Those neighbors in Minnesota also showed a generosity of heart for a neighbor in a simple gesture of providing a chair for him to sit in and rest while he walks.

This is love. Love of neighbor as we love ourselves. This is how we love God, by how we treat God’s creation. In the end it is up to us to act:

Do all the good you can,
To all the people you can,
In all the ways you can,
As long as ever you can. (J Wesley)

And do it with love. Amen.

October 22 Sermon (Proper 24)

O Loving God, help us receive the Gospel not just in words or phrases, but rather in power, in the Holy Spirit, so that our lives may bear witness to your call. In confidence, we want to labor in love and breathe your faith, hope and charity. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. (Anne Osdieck)

To what do you give your allegiance?

We all have “devotions or loyalty to persons, groups, or causes.”

· Some here love the Yankees. Others the Red Sox. (and the chosen few the Tigers or Mets!)
· Some are Republicans. Others Democrats. Some are independent.
· Some here love meat. Others are vegetarians or even Vegans. (& sometimes illness or allergies force us to have a certain devotion.)

Often what we are devoted to has a very personal or familial connection to us.

· Some walk against cancer. Others against diabetes or muscular dystrophy or domestic violence.

What gets us in trouble is when we decide that this allegiance means more than anything else, when we lose faith, hope & charity for strife, division and animosity.

For Christians, our ultimate allegiance is to God. That is where we place our faith and our hope.

And yet all these other things we devote our time and talent and treasure too sometimes challenge this connection we have with our creator. They vie for our ultimate allegiance, and sometimes we raise them above our relationship with God. In the Gospel, those who were opposed to Jesus, wanted to test where his allegiances lie…

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

Answer one way and lose those opposed to the Roman occupation in the Holy Land, answer another way and Rome would come down on Jesus. So Jesus asks for a denarius, a Roman coin from the accusers, and famously says to them (KJV):

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Jesus moves the conversation of paying taxes to the emperor from what the Herodians and Pharisees wanted to hear, a trap that Jesus couldn’t escape, to a deeper level of truth. Yes, give to the emperor that which is the emperor's, it’s his picture on the coin, give it back to the emperor. And give to God that which is God's.

In his response, Jesus is not saying, "give to the Emperor those things that are the Emperor's, and the rest to God." Nor is Jesus saying, "give to the Emperor the worldly things and give to God the spiritual things."

These statements would put Caesar equal to God, and Jesus would never make the Emperor or another thing to be worshipped or obeyed or equal to God. That is the wrong perspective. We may give our money back to the government, to the Emperor in the form of taxes, we pay bills with it, we spend it, we save it. But the almighty dollar isn’t almighty, and it belongs to God just as assuredly as we do.

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

“For God created everything that is & by God’s will they were created and have their being.” Everything is part of God’s creation. We are made in the image of God. So the answer that Jesus gives, remind us that we owe God everything, & we owe God our lives: how we live them, how we give them away, it’s all important. Our ultimate allegiance is to God, the creator of all.

Twenty-seven years ago, NASA's Voyager 1 was about to leave our solar system. For 13 years it traveled to the edge of our galaxy taking pictures and collecting data. On February 14, 1990, as the tiny spacecraft moved on to infinity, astronomer Carl Sagan, then a member of the Voyager imaging team, convinced NASA to turn Voyager's cameras around to take one last look at Earth. The photograph of Earth, from 3.7 billion miles away, was hardly beautiful - but this grainy, low-resolution photograph showed the immeasurable vastness of space, and our undeniably small place within it. Sagan later wrote of the image in his book Pale Blue Dot:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark . . . The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand . . .

"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal kindlier with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

The perspective of that remarkable photograph is the ultimate answer to the question the Pharisees pose to Jesus: What is NOT of God? All good things - from a stream of clear, cool water to a parent's love for a small child - begin with God, the Author of all that is right and good and compassionate.

In his confrontation with the Pharisees over taxes & Caesar's coin, Jesus challenges us to behold our "pale blue dot" from a perspective of gratitude for its goodness, resolving to respect and protect it for the good of all our fellow space travelers to eternity, and to remember that our allegiance is to God, who created us & our pale blue dot and this whole beautiful universe.

May we with our lives, truly render unto God the things that are God’s! Amen.

#PrayFastAct for all Who Face Homelessness

From EPPN:

As the seasons transition and the days become colder, we answer the call to pray, fast, and act this month by supporting action for people facing homelessness, unaffordable heating utility bills, and extreme housing insecurity.

THIS OCTOBER, JOIN THE EPPN AND PRESIDING BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE ELCA AS WE:

PRAY for our nation’s elected leaders to stand with those who struggle to secure safe and affordable shelter.

“God of compassion, your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus, whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross: we hold before you those who are homeless and cold especially in this bitter weather. Draw near and comfort them in spirit and bless those who work to provide them with shelter, food and friendship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.” –For the Cold and Homeless, The Church of England

FAST to call attention in our own minds and actions human plight that eviction, poverty, and homelessness create.

Share on social media using #PrayFastAct and @TheEPPN. On the 21st, post a picture of a dinner place setting with the reason you are fasting this month. We fast on this day in solidarity with people who must choose between paying their utility and housing bills and buying food for their family. Consider participating in an electricity or heating fast by turning it off in your home for the day.

ACT by urging our elected leaders to support strong policy solutions that address affordable housing needs and homelessness.

Urge Congress to support strong policy solutions that address homelessness!

Learn more here.

Pale Blue Dot

As mentioned in my sermon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

Why kneel? or stand? What are we saying?

In light of the current dust up around kneeling during the National Anthem, I was thinking about the diversity of Christianity and how some in our ranks (who are Christians) do not swear on a bible, do not stand for the flag (or pledge allegiance), and some refuse compulsory military service.

Here are some articles that may help us to reflect on it:

https://blog.diocesewma.org/2017/09/25/bishop-fisher-why-we-kneel/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/heres-what-many-white-christians-fail-to-understand-about-the-nfl-protests

http://mikefrost.net/tale-two-christianities-knees/  (written in May!) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/24/colin-kaepernick-vs-tim-tebow-a-tale-of-two-christianities-on-its-knees/

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/september/theres-no-dishonor-in-kneeling-on-colin-kaepernick.html

and some background:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-colin-kaepernick-green-beret-20160902-snap-htmlstory.html

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-nate-boyer-got-colin-kaepernick-to-go-from-sitting-to-kneeling/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/colin-kaepernick-football-protests.html

The Power to Live & Forgive

from a Holocaust survivor...

https://www.facebook.com/21898300328/videos/10156791799070329/

I found the video to be a powerful testimony to what forgiveness can do to set us free.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Did you read this story?

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2017/10/20/uf-bell-tower-trolled-richard-spencer-with-black-national-anthem/

The song Lift Every Voice and Sing is in one of our supplemental hymnals.  It is an excellent hymn and poem.  Read the words below and listen to the music:

Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900)
by James Weldon Johnson, 1871 - 1938

Lift every voice and sing   

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.   

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;   

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,   

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,   

God of our silent tears,

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast by Thy might   

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,   

May we forever stand.   

True to our God,

True to our native land.

Read about it here.

Play the video to hear the hymn:

October 15 Sermon

Gracious God, help us to be glad in you always! Focus our thoughts on all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. Guide us in the practice of these things, and may your peace go with us always. Amen.

Life & Death

The images from the wildfires in California are stark. I was watching some drone footage of one neighborhood where the fires ran wild; it left a path of destruction. Homes burnt to the ground. Cars melted. Vegetation destroyed. Harrowing accounts of people who fled from the fire storm & some who tried but couldn’t.

In one video, on one side of the block, there was very little left from the fire. On the other side of the street, the homes looked untouched. Beautiful green yards. Trees with leaves. Cars parked in driveways.

Life & death

For the ancient Israelites, learning to live with neighbors close by who terrorized them, enemies who wanted the land they lived on, the line between life and death always seemed very close.

But in this 25th chapter of Isaiah, our first reading today, they are reminded that the Lord will change the circumstances. God will be their shelter, a refuge from the storm. God will subdue the heat of those against them, still the songs of the ruthless.

But God doesn’t stop there. On the Holy Mountain, on Mt Zion – there will be a feast! A party! With rich food! Wine!

Not only that – but everyone will be invited. All people. God will reconcile everyone.

And death? God will swallow it up for ever.

Death can seem to have such power over our lives – not only by ending life (our mortality), but crippling it too (when we lose a love one or fear it).

But it is God who will act so that everyone will have life. God affirms life over death in Isaiah’s feast.

Likewise, Jesus tells another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven, a parable of life and death.

A King is throwing a Wedding banquet for his son. It is a great big party and he sends slaves out to gather the invited guests, who have already RSVP’d. But they do not come. Again slaves are sent, but these invited guests made light of it, ignored them, beat them, killed some. The King is enraged and destroys the city that houses the unworthy guests.

And then he sends his slaves to invite everyone they meet, the good and the bad! And the banquet hall is filled. Jesus ends by saying, for many are called, few are chosen. Another grand party, and again the Kingdom of Heaven is like, those both good and bad who accept the invitation and come to the feast.

But there is more to the parable, accepting the invitation and coming is good but the King notices someone without the proper wedding attire. How did you get in here? The man was speechless. So the King had him thrown out. Why is he cast out? Why is he speechless?

The good and the bad were invited after the invited guests failed to fulfill their invitation. But this lone wolf, got in and didn’t know why or refused to answer. There still is an expectation with the invitation!

Everyone, especially those on the margins, are invited but you do it in faith, even with doubts, you show up in faith, not speechless about why you are there. It’s grace. In the end, the importance of these celebrated feasts is God overcoming death with life, invitations to the banquet for everyone. But not everyone always feels such welcome. I recently read a story and it hit home for me…

Five years ago, going out to dinner for the Zohn family was a nightmare. Six-year-old Adin is autistic. At restaurants, the little boy would quickly grow tired of waiting for the food to arrive and would bolt from the table and grab pizza off of other diners' plates before his father could catch him, which would send Adin into a tantrum. So the family stopped going out to dinner.

But Adin's parents, Lenard and Delphine, knew they weren't the only parents of children with autism who missed dining out. So, three years ago, they started Autism Eats, a kind of supper club for families with children on the autism spectrum. Every three months or so the Zohns book a restaurant with a private room, able to accommodate a large group. They consult with the restaurant's management to make sure that the setup is autism-friendly. Food is served buffet or family style so there is no waiting. Music and lighting are adjusted to accommodate those with sensory sensitivity. Since every family who attends has a loved one on the spectrum, there is no need to apologize, explain or feel uncomfortable for a child's behavior.

More than a hundred diners attend, with some families driving two hours or more to participate. These nights out are an opportunity for families who feel isolated by a child's autism to enjoy a night out and socialize with others who have many of the same joys and challenges in common.

Since the Zohns began Autism Eats in their hometown near Boston in 2014, chapters have been established in 13 states, with more to come. One parent said that these dinners are a blessing for her family: "There's no stigma; we can relax and have fun. It sounds like a simple thing, but it's so out of reach for us," she said. "The crowds, the long waits, any surprises, are hard . . . [Our little boy] can be himself and we don't have to worry that we're bothering anyone else's dinner." [The Boston Globe, December 21, 2015.]

The "Autism Eats" club is a living sign of today's Gospel: that everyone has a place at God's feast - even though some of us may need a little more help than others to fully participate in the banquet. If we are to be truly faithful to God's vision for all people, then we must embrace a faith-centered vision that sees beyond race, physical abilities and mental acumen, ethnic stereotypes and economic distinctions to see all men, women and children as made in the same image and likeness of God in which we are all created.

"The king's wedding banquet" & the feast on the holy mountain are celebrated in many different times and places, when everyone has a place at God's table - a table that extends from this altar & our own family/banquet tables in this time and place to God's great banquet table, that holy feast in the next. For when we bring the party to everyone, like Autism Eats, we help bring life from death. Amen.

Changing Columbus Day?

As our nation celebrates Columbus Day, this holiday may bring conflicted experiences and emotions for different Americans. For many in the Native American community, it serves as a painful reminder of the brutal European settlement and conquest of the Americas. Many in those communities and beyond want us to change Columbus Day into one that recognizes the Native (indigenous) Americans in our midst.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori offers the following statement: "I urge you to learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery* and the search for healing in our native communities. But this is also a matter for healing in communities and persons of European immigrant descent. Colonists, settlers, and homesteaders benefited enormously from the availability of 'free' land, and their descendants continue to benefit to this day. That land was taken by force or subterfuge from peoples who had dwelt on it from time immemorial - it was their 'promised land.'"

Learn more here: Doctrine of Discovery repudiation found here.

"It can also be a time of learning and understanding," said Sarah Eagle Heart, the Episcopal Church's officer for Native American and Indigenous Ministries. "Columbus Day could instead be a time to turn away from those things done 'on behalf' of Native Americans so that we all might come to live in justice and peace with all people."

A Prayer for Healing and Hope
 

O Great Spirit, God of all people and every tribe,
through whom all people are related;
Call us to the kinship of all your people.
Grant us vision to see through the lens of our
Baptismal Covenant,
the brokenness of the past;
Help us to listen to one another,
in order to heal the wounds of the present;
And give us courage, patience, and wisdom to work together
for healing and hope with all of your people,
now and in the future.
Mend the hoop of our hearts and let us live in
justice and peace
through Jesus Christ,
the One who comes to all people
that we might live in dignity. Amen.

The above includes an adaptation of materials, Copyright 2011, the Episcopal Church Center. 

*An occasion of unprecedented significance in the history of the Episcopal Church (2011)

This “Lament over the Doctrine of Discovery” is the first time in the history of the church that we have attempted to come together as followers of Jesus Christ, Native and other people, to openly acknowledge, honor and lament before God and each other, the grievous circumstances of the settlement of this nation. As General Convention 2009 had the courage to repudiate the Doctrine of
Discovery and to call us to transformed understandings, practices and relationships, tonight we gather here in Indianapolis and throughout the Episcopal Church to share this event with those who participate in Local Laments over the Doctrine of Discovery.

What is the Doctrine of Discovery and what does it have to do with me?

The “Doctrine of Discovery” is a term referring to several documents and policies of church and state that legalized the violent and unjust settlement of North and South America, giving these actions, and their long-lingering tragic consequences, the full sanction and blessing of church and state. Without some awareness of the reasons why and ways in which these policies and actions grievously violate the values of our Christian faith – to continue in the prayers and fellowship, preserve in resisting evil, proclaim Good News, seek and serve Christ in all persons, strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being – we cannot live out that faith with honesty and integrity.

October 8 Sermon (post Las Vegas)

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of America,
and the people of this land are his pleasant planting;
God expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
righteousness, but heard a cry!

Forgive my changing a few words from scripture but it does feel like those words from Isaiah this morning are being addressed to us.

God expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
righteousness, but heard a cry

And once again our land is thrown into anxiety with such carnage and senseless death.

276 mass shootings this year. Over 11,000 dead; 24,000 injured. We hear & see shootings in our cities, in the countryside and now this horrific scene in Las Vegas.

On top of that we have fires, earthquakes, hurricanes (a new one that has just come ashore), flooding. I feel overwhelmed by it all. So much death and destruction.

Our land indeed is crying out for justice, for righteousness, for peace. We caught glimpses of it at that terrible event.

From our first reading, we hear about God planting a vineyard…

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

This is not the Jones Farm Winery, but God talking about us, planting his choice vines, but instead of yielding grapes, it yielded wild grapes. For we have not done justice, loved kindness or walked humbly with our God. Instead what followed was violence, bloodshed, a cry.

Isaiah goes on (in a verse not printed in the bulletin) to make it clear that the violence mentioned is about those “who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!” (Is. 5: 8)

A vineyard given to many becomes a land where through greed, it has become a land for only one.

It is with this background that Jesus is telling his parable of the evil tenants, for they do not understand Jesus as the cornerstone of the faith but many understood his parable that he is the son and they are the wicked tenants and they want to arrest him but fear the crowds…

And yet if we think about the parable, we are now the generations who are the tenants in God’s vineyard called the Church. How do we give of the harvest today? What is our fruit?

The warning of the last line, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” is a reminder that God has expectations that we produce fruit. Not unblemished, perfect fruit, but fruit of who we are, our time, our talent, our treasure, those God given gifts. God is not waiting for us to fail. No, God is waiting for us to follow Jesus, to live in faith so we can truly have joyous, generous & authentic lives, to be the fruit that is born from a vision of abundance, and share that with the world. For God expects among that fruit to be justice.

“Thinking of the vineyard of Isaiah with Jesus’ parable prods us to understand this parable, too, as referring not only to collective violence such as that threatened against Jesus but the ongoing social violence of the religious and political leaders. Properly tending the vineyard of the Lord is about properly caring for all people in society, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Jesus was seeing quite the opposite in his time and the Risen Christ continues to see this systemic injustice continuing unabated in our time.” (Abbott Andrew of St Gregory’s Abbey)

We must tend God’s vineyard in our land, to help justice take root for everyone, not anger or fear… Think about it this way.

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, a dragon wreaked havoc throughout the land. One day, while the king was away, the dragon attacked the castle. The dragon was so ugly and smelled so disgusting that the guards froze in terror as the dragon demolished the palace. As the destruction continued, the guards finally came to their senses and began to shout and curse at the dragon and threatened the beast with their weapons. But the angrier and more threatening the guards were, the bigger the dragon got, the worse the dragon's smell became, the more violent destruction the dragon wreaked.

In the midst of the turmoil, the king returned. He had never seen a creature as ugly or experienced a stench as foul as this dragon, now twice the size it had been. But the wise king knew exactly what to do. He smiled at the dragon and welcomed it. He softly patted the dragon's scaly tail.

"Welcome to our palace," the king said. "Has anyone offered you anything to eat or drink?"

And with each kind word and gesture, the dragon became a little smaller, less smelly, and less threatening. The king's court began to catch on. One steward offered the dragon tea; another brought bread and jam; the court physician treated an old wound in the dragon's hide. At every kind word, deed or thought, the dragon grew smaller and less threatening. The king and his court continued to be kind. Soon the dragon became so small he could hardly be seen. Then, after a maid offered a blanket for the night, the dragon vanished completely.

In its place there appeared a small dove, that flew away into the morning light. [Adapted from "The anger-eating demon" from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? by Ajahn Brahm.]

In Jesus, God transforms the ugly dragons of our vineyards by his Spirit of compassion, mercy and forgiveness. We, too, can re-create God’s vineyards by embracing Christ's Gospel of selfless and humble servanthood. Jesus comes with a new, transforming vision for the vineyard given to us: a vision of love rather than greed, of peace rather than hostility, of forgiveness rather than vengeance, a vision that enables us to reconcile even the ugliest and smelliest dragon among us.

In the end, it is you and I that will help tend this beautiful land we have been given from our beloved creator. One plant at a time. One kind gesture at a time. Into the lush Kingdom of God meant for everyone, no exceptions. May we dirty our hands working to produce that fruitful kind land. Amen.

More Prayers to be Used after a Mass Shooting

Almighty God, who knows death, violence, and loss so intimately, bless all who weep and mourn the gun violence in Las Vegas, send your people to heal, encourage, and uplift; and stir in our hearts the will and resolve to say enough is enough, to work for sane gun reform, discovering new ways to work together for the peaceful nation we all desire; we ask this in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen. (Rev. Chris Yaw)


A couple of services you can use at home or anywhere:

https://allsaints-pas.org/a-litany-in-the-wake-of-gun-violence-2/

https://sulfurfreejesus.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/vigil-after-violence/

A Video Reflection & Prayer from the Presiding Bishop (on Las Vegas)

Presiding Bishop, Anglican Primates respond to Las Vegas shooting | Episcopal Church

and a second video from the Evensong service:

Poems for Las Vegas

To Those Born Later by Bertolt Brecht

I

Truly, I live in dark times!
The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead
Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs
Has simply not yet had
The terrible news.

What kind of times are they, when
A talk about trees is almost a crime
Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
That man there calmly crossing the street
Is already perhaps beyond the reach of his friends
Who are in need?

It is true I still earn my keep
But, believe me, that is only an accident. Nothing
I do gives me the right to eat my fill.
By chance I've been spared. (If my luck breaks, I am lost.)

They say to me: Eat and drink! Be glad you have it!
But how can I eat and drink if I snatch what I eat
From the starving, and
My glass of water belongs to one dying of thirst?
And yet I eat and drink.

I would also like to be wise.
In the old books it says what wisdom is:
To shun the strife of the world and to live out
Your brief time without fear
Also to get along without violence
To return good for evil
Not to fulfill your desires but to forget them
Is accounted wise.
All this I cannot do:
Truly, I live in dark times.

II

I came to the cities in a time of disorder
When hunger reigned there.
I came among men in a time of revolt
And I rebelled with them.
So passed my time
Which had been given to me on earth.

My food I ate between battles
To sleep I lay down among murderers
Love I practised carelessly
And nature I looked at without patience.
So passed my time
Which had been given to me on earth.

All roads led into the mire in my time.
My tongue betrayed me to the butchers.
There was little I could do. But those in power
Sat safer without me: that was my hope.
So passed my time
Which had been given to me on earth.

Our forces were slight. Our goal
Lay far in the distance
It was clearly visible, though I myself
Was unlikely to reach it.
So passed my time
Which had been given to me on earth.

III

You who will emerge from the flood
In which we have gone under
Remember
When you speak of our failings
The dark time too
Which you have escaped.

(1940) German; trans. John Willett, Ralph Manheim & Erich Fried
 

Somehow We Survive by Dennis Brutus

Somehow we survive
and tenderness, frustrated, does not wither.
Investigating searchlights rake
our naked, unprotected contours;
over our heads the monolithic decalogue
of fascist prohibition glowers
and teeters for a catastrophic fall;
boots club the peeling door.
But somehow we survive
severance, deprivation, loss.
Patrols uncoil along the asphalt dark
hissing their menace to our lives,
most cruel, all our land is scarred with terror,
rendered unlovely and unlovable;
sundered are we and all our passionate surrender
but somehow tenderness survives.

(1963) South Africa


Pax  by D. H. Lawrence:

All that matters is to be at one with You, the living God;
to be a creature in Your house, O God of Life!
Like a cat asleep on a chair
at peace, in peace
at home, at home in the house of the living,
sleeping on the hearth, and yawning before the fire.
Sleeping on the hearth of the living world,
yawning at home before the fire of life
feeling the presence of You, the living God
like a great reassurance
a deep calm in the heart
a presence
as of a master, a mistress sitting on the board
in their own and greater being,
in the house of life.


(1928) England


The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

(1968) USA
 

Statement from the ECCT Bishops

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

 

Once again our country is ravaged by the scourge of gun violence in yet another mass shooting.  At this point in time, Sunday's shooting in Las Vegas has resulted in 58 victims and over 500 injured in what is being described as the largest mass shooting in modern United States history.  Such an act of violence is contrary to God's will for humanity and all that we stand for as followers of Jesus.

 

As your bishops in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, we participate actively in the network, Bishops United Against Gun Violence (BUAGV) -- BUAGV website here, and Facebook page for Episcopalians Against Gun Violence here. In fact, we both helped to found BUAGV in the wake of our own Sandy Hook tragedy, and Ian continues to serve as Co-Convener of BUAGV.    

 

This morning BUAGV bishops met via conference call to address the situation in Las Vegas.  We were joined by the Rt. Rev. Dan Edwards, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.  Together we drafted the following statement and call to prayer and action.  As bishops of Connecticut we stand behind this statement of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence and commend it to you.

 

As described in the closing of the BUAGV statement, we ask that our ECCT Cathedral and all parishes in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut open their doors for prayer tomorrow, October 3, 2017, and join at noon in the ringing of our church bells for all those who have died in Las Vegas.  Let us come together in prayer and solidarity with the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada and all who are committed to overcoming gun violence in our nation and in the world.

 

God bless us in these difficult times.  And may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

  

Faithfully,

  

The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Bishop Diocesan

The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan

Statement from Bishops United Against Gun Violence

 

We share in the grief and horror of people across our country and, indeed, around the world in the wake of last night's mass shooting in Las Vegas. We have spoken with our Bishops United Against Gun Violence colleague and brother in Christ, Bishop Dan Edwards of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, and we have offered him and the people of Nevada our prayers and promises of assistance. We stand in solidarity with the diocese and the people of Nevada as they cope with this massacre.

 

It has become clichéd at moments such as these to offer thoughts and prayers. But as Christians, we must reflect upon the mass killings that unfold with such regularity in our country. And we must pray: for the victims, for their loved ones, for all who attended to the victims in the immediacy of the shooting, for the first responders who do so much to mitigate the awful effects of these shootings, and for the medical personnel who will labor for many days to save the wounded. We must also enter into the sorrow of those who are most deeply affected by our country's cripplingly frequent outbursts of lethal gun violence. We must look into our own hearts and examine the ways in which we are culpable or complicit in the gun violence that surrounds us every day.

 

And then, having looked, we must act. As Christians, we are called to engage in the debates that shape how Americans live and die, especially when they die due to violence or neglect. Yet a probing conversation on issues of gun violence continues to elude us as a nation, and this failure is cause for repentance and for shame. It is entirely reasonable in the wake of mass killings perpetrated by murderers with assault weapons to ask lawmakers to remove such weapons from civilian hands. It is imperative to ask why, as early as this very week, Congress is likely to pass a bill making it easier to buy silencers, a piece of equipment that make it more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect gunfire as shootings are unfolding

 

Even as we hold our lawmakers accountable, though, we must acknowledge that a comprehensive solution to gun violence, whether it comes in the form of mass shootings, street violence, domestic violence or suicide, will not simply be a matter of changing laws, but of changing lives. Our country is feasting on anger that fuels rage, alienation and loneliness. From the White House to the halls of Congress to our own towns and perhaps at our own tables, we nurse grudges and resentments rather than cultivating the respect, concern and affection that each of us owes to the other. The leaders who should be speaking to us of reconciliation and the justice that must precede it too often instead stoke flames of division and mistrust. We must, as a nation, embrace prayerful resistance before our worse impulses consume us.

 

We join with the people of God in fervent prayer that our country will honor those murdered and wounded in Las Vegas by joining in acts of repentance, healing, and public conversation about the gun violence that has ripped us apart, yet again.

 

On Tuesday, October 3 at 9 a.m. Pacific time, churches across the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada will toll their bells in mourning for the victims of the shooting in Las Vegas. Bishops United Against Gun Violence invites congregations across the country to toll their own bells in solidarity at the same time: 9 a.m. Pacific; 10 a.m. Mountain; 11 a.m. Central; Noon Eastern (St. Pete's will ring its bell at Noon). The number of times the bells are rung will be based on the number of dead as reported at that time including the perpetrator of the violence. Watch for updates on the

Episcopalians Against Gun Violence Facebook page.

Praying for #LasVegas

The Supplication

O Lord, arise, help us;

And deliver us for your Name's sake.

O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers and mothers have declared unto us, the noble works that you have done in their days, and in the time before them.

O Lord, arise, help us;

and deliver us for your Name's sake.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

O Lord, arise, help us;

and deliver us for your Name's sake.

From our enemies defend us, O Christ;

Graciously behold our afflictions.

With compassion behold the sorrows of our hearts;

Mercifully forgive the sins of your people.

Favorably with mercy hear our prayers;

O Son of David, have mercy upon us.

Both now and evermore we humbly pray you to hear us, O Christ;

Graciously hear us, O Christ; graciously hear us, O Lord  Christ.

The Officiant concludes

Let us pray.

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (For the Human Family, BCP. p. 815)

Loving God, Jesus gathered your little ones in his arms and blessed them. Have pity on those who mourn for the victims in Las Vegas slaughtered by the violence of our fallen world. Be with us as we struggle with the mysteries of life and death; in our pain, bring your comfort, and in our sorrow, bring your hope and your promise of new life, in the name of Jesus our Savior.

Amen. (Enriching Our Worship 2, p. 143)

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 833)