Sermon: Souper Bowl Sunday & U2charist

And from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. And they all went down the mountain.

One reason I think Jesus didn’t stay up on that mountain with Peter and James and John was that he knew he had more work to do down the mountain. It would be nice to stay in some booths and revel in that glorious moment, just as Peter had wanted to do. But Jesus has more healings, more teachings, bringing Good News to the people. It was a wonderful moment of clarity for those three disciples to really understand that Jesus is God’s son, and that they do not need to be afraid of what happened or what is to come. It would be important memory for those disciples, especially after Jesus’ death, to pass on to the other faithful disciples.

But this is no hallmark moment to stop in, for the ministry of Jesus is always among the people, in the valley, in the city, Jesus may go off to a mountain for a short retreat but he never stays there long. His ministry is now our ministry, and we too cannot stay on the mountain top, build our little booths and try to keep our faith away from the grit and dirt of our everyday lives. No. Our faith is meant to be there in the earth, in our lives, in this messy world, in all there is…

I am reminded of St. Teresa of Avila and her words: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the earth, yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.” –St Teresa of Avila

It is we who embody Christ in this hurting world. It is not enough for us to be sympathetic for this world as a missionary in Africa said, we must be active!

“This is our moment, this is our time, this is our chance to stand up for what is right. Three thousand Africans, mostly children, die every day of mosquito bites. We can fix that. Nine thousand people dying every die of a preventable, treatable disease like Aids. We have got the drugs. We can help them.” -- Bono

We gather today for a U2charist because it is Bono and others who remind us that this is our time, our moment to do what is right. To reach out and help our brothers and sisters around the world who are hurting, who are in need, for we can help them. As Bono and BB King sing in When Love Comes to Town (our postlude music),

I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword
I threw the dice when the pierced his side
But I've seen love conquer the great divide

When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame

It is that love that came down to us in Jesus, a love given to us by the Spirit of God, a love that is so much a part of us that we are called to give it away To catch that flame, the love that conquered the great divide, and what we do is share it with the world.

Today is the Souper Bowl of Caring, reminding us even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game and a great Patriot victory, it is the Lord who helps us be mindful of those who are without even a bowl of soup to eat on this day. The soup pots at our doors, the offertory plate, our food basket provide us the opportunity to help those who are in need of help this season. In a time when the economy is not doing so well, with foreclosures up and jobs down, there are people going hungry everyday, and we can help them.

But what we do is not just for today, we can help tomorrow too, and we can look beyond to distant shores. In the year 2000, leaders from the United States and 190 other nations came together to develop a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. To guide this critical work and measure its success, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created. In 2007 - at the midpoint of this historic effort - Episcopal Relief and Development, Jubilee Ministries and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church launched the MDG Inspiration Fund to highlight the urgency of reaching these goals.

You all will receive information on the MDG Inspiration Fund and you all are invited to participate. The income generated from the MDG Inspiration Fund will be primarily used to fight malaria, which is an objective of MDG #6, along with HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases. Malaria is an easily treatable disease and is a high priority for many of ERD’s partners in the Anglican Communion. The fund supports of ERD’s NetsforLife program, a partnership for malaria prevention in 16 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our children supported this program last Spring with their Pennies from Heaven cans.

NetsforLife is important because the malaria prevention program uses long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets to protect people, teaches basic techniques to prevent malaria, and how to identify symptoms early and what medicines are truly effective.

So why do we do it?

Because Jesus went down the mountain, to walk among the lowest of that society, the forgotten, the castoff, the sick, the lonely, orphans and widows too. Jesus offered Good News and healing took place and people began to live new lives. What we can offer is our love, our prayers and our support to help heal this world, provide supplies that will help families be free of Malaria, so they can tackle other things, like fresh clean water or education for their children. When we do it to the sick, the poor, the needy, it is Jesus who reminds us that we are doing it to him.

Or as Bono put it…

“The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with the virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble and the cries we hear during war time. God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us, if we are with them. This is not a burden. This is an adventure. Don’t let anyone tell you it cannot be done. We can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.” -Bono

Amen. Amen.

Souper Bowl Sunday Sermon (U2charist)

One man come in the name of Love…

And so begins the song "Pride, In the Name of love" by the Irish rock band U2. The first song at our U2charist this morning at 10:15.

My mind always thinks of Jesus when Bono sings that line…one man come in the name of love.

Today in the Gospel, we hear that Jesus gets in a boat because the crowd was so great, pushing him out into the lake of Gennesaret; he gets in a fishing boat, has them just go out a little ways from shore and sits down and teaches the people.

Why? Because he comes in the name of Love. He came to teach, to show a better way of living, he came to help dig up our soul, to help us be lifted out of our blues and to be reconciled with each other and with God.

The crowd is drawn to him, and as he begins his ministry, he needs some help, and he begins to call the disciples…

The boat he is in, is owned by Simon Peter and James & John, the sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon in their fishing company.

But on that lake, when they have not been able to catch anything, it is Jesus who tells them to go to the deep water and fish. Reluctantly, they go.

And the catch was amazing, all on board that boat were amazed at the catch of fish…

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"

And Jesus sees in them, disciples, the help he needs.

Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

They left their business, their families, the fish, and went with Jesus to catch people.

I can imagine those first disciples thinking, using the words of U2:

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

It was a beautiful day on that lake, and they left everything so it would not go away, Jesus had touched something so deep in them that they had to go.

We are gathered here this morning because of something inside each of us, God has touched us in some way that we are here, compelled in way we may not understand but like the disciples, we are here to be touched, to be taught, to not let this beautiful day get away.

But there is more to our discipleship than following that call inside of us to come and worship on Sunday, it is important to be part of community, to pray and worship but it is not the only piece…

Our discipleship is also beyond these windows, these doors, out in a hurting world.

Just as Jesus and his disciples gathered amongst themselves and then went out to the villages and highways to minister to everyone, so to we gather here and then go forth into our world.

For the other piece of our discipleship is what we do in our world…
I saw a t-shirt the other day that asked “If You Were Arrested For Being A Christian, Would They Have Enough Evidence?”

Which of course, speaks to our discipleship, our living out what we believe. It is our actions that show what we believe.

Bono said in 2003, "This generation will be remembered for three things: the Internet, the war on terror, and how we let an entire continent go up in flames while we stood around with watering cans. Or not." He was seeking support from the West for AIDS relief and debt reduction in Africa.

I also think of Bono’s words at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC last February. He said:

“A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea… And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.
Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed. Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do.”

He’s right, it is our discipleship, our calling from our baptism, that we are to reach out in love to those in need, just as Jesus and the disciples did and what God is doing in our world now.

That’s why on this day, a day where revel in football, we join other faith communities, schools and community groups around the nation to remember those who go hungry every day, and help fight hunger and poverty in our local communities, by what we collect and give away, both money and canned goods.

If indeed we are going to make poverty history, then we must tackle the issue at home and abroad, that’s why we continue to learn about the Millennium Development Goals, and how we can play our part in achieving them.

Bono said, “These goals—clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty—these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which the US supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.”

Beatitudes, which mean blessed or happy, and indeed, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.”

And in our day, it is God who looks to us to come in the name of love and to help fill the hungry, to aid the poor, the sick, those in need, for everyone to get taste of the Kingdom of God in our time.

It is as John Wesley of the 18th Century would have us do, following the call of Christ, he wrote:

“Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can." -- John Wesley

I believe Bono would agree. For by doing all the good we can, we are following the one who came in the name of love, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.