Weekly Lessons and Sermon
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always
acceptable in your sight, oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
acceptable in your sight, oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Happy Father's Day!
Happy Birthday Portia & Dan! We welcome Fr. Wilson next week Blessings to Portia and her family as they attend KinderCamp and to Eden as she attends junior camp at EpiscoWisco Diocesan Camp Save the date: Outdoor service, pet blessing and potluck picnic afterwards.
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Have you ever gone to the doctor, or to the dentist:
And lied just a little bit? Seriously: Maybe you said you exercise more than you really do. Or that you that you floss every day (even if you don’t). I for one, am terrified to admit that I’m a miserable flosser. Maybe you said that you hardly ever have ice-cream or chocolate late at night (when really that’s a little bit of a lie). Or maybe you aren’t quite honest about how many beers you drink in a week. Maybe you just don’t want to admit or disclose all of your symptoms. But here’s the thing: The doctor, the nurse, or the hygienist asks you these questions for YOUR sake. The doctor doesn’t ask about these things because he or she wants you to feel bad about yourself. Or so that they can laugh at you, and gloat about how poorly you’re taking care of yourself. The nurses and doctors and hygienists ask you these questions so that they can get the fullest picture of your health and habits: So that they can ultimately help you be you best and healthiest self. Now, I know you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up. Because I’m the first one to admit that I’m FAR From a doctor or a nurse. But stay with me. I thought about all of this after reflecting on our first reading from the book of Genesis: We know this story well. It’s one of the first stories that kids learn about in Sunday school. But there are some details in the story that we don’t think about. After eating from the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve hear God walking in the garden (at the time of the evening breeze) When they hear this sound of the Lord God walking, they hide from God amid some trees. But God calls to Adam and says “Where are you?” Do you ever think about THAT part of the story? It’s nuts!! God asks Adam a question: But God doesn’t actually need to ask, Because God KNOWS the answer. And God asks the question anyway: Not for God’s sake, But for ADAM’s sake. Let’s continue to recap this story: with all of it’s details: Adam responds to God’s question by saying, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” God responds with two more questions that don’t really need to be answered: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And Adam doesn’t TOTALLY answer the question. He says, “the woman whom you gave to be with me, SHE gave me fruit from the tree and I ate.” God then turns to Eve and asks a question that AGAIN God already knows the answer to: “What is this that you have done?” And just like Adam, Eve doesn’t TOTALLY answer the question: She says: “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” God didn’t need to ask any of these questions. God already knew the answers to all of them. Like your doctor or nurse or hygienist: God doesn’t ask these questions to gloat, or to point fingers, or to bring shame. God asks these questions for Adam and Eve’s SAKE: In order to get them to think about who they really are. What they’ve really done: And to accept the full truth and reality of the mess that they’ve made: And that there’s a way OUT of that mess. Neither Adam and Eve are willing to fully answer God’s question and admit what they’ve done. Both of them want to blame someone else. Neither of them want to take responsibility. And God KNOWS this: And asks them anyway. Because God wants them to be honest with themselves: In order to help them become their fullest, best, and healthiest selves. God wants them to tell the truth for THEIR sakes, Not for his. Because it’s only when we tell the truth: About our mistakes, About our failures, About our fears: That we can move past them into a life of joy. How often have we too lied about what we’ve done? (And I don’t just mean lies about how often you floss your teeth) When we lie (to others or to ourselves) about what we’ve done: or DIDN’T DO: It doesn’t feel good. There’s always a lingering bit of shame. Of fear. Of regret. And maybe even the belief that we aren’t worthy of love or forgiveness. Lying about what we’ve done (or didn’t do) Also doesn’t change the reality. If you lie to your doctor about how much you exercise, It doesn’t make you more fit. It only makes you feel doubly shamed: First: For not doing what you know you should’ve done, And then: Secondly shamed: for trying to cover it up. But when it comes to God: Lying is particularly useless: As God already knows the answer to every question. God’s questions are for OUR sakes. Admitting our sins and wrongdoings are for OUR SAKES: Not for making us feel worse: But to release us from the hold that sin can have upon us. The Psalmist today totally gets it. The Psalmist says: “Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord hear my voice; let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.” The Psalmist is telling the truth! The truth from the depths of his or her being: Begging God to hear the angry, desperate, maybe even sin-filled cries of truth telling. The Psalmist continues: “If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand?” Notice, When God walks through the garden, Already KNOWING what happened: God still asks the questions of Adam and Eve. God does not (as the psalmist puts it) NOTE the very big mistakes that Adam and Eve made: Instead, God hopes that they will answer honestly: Fully admitting to God and themselves what has taken place. And finally, the Psalmist proclaims: “For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared.” Isn’t that fascinating? FEARING forgiveness? Scripture, the tradition of the church, and many liturgies point to the fact that forgiveness is offered to those who are “truly penitent” In other words: We are forgiven only when we fully admit our wrongdoings: We are forgiven when we quit lying to our doctors and nurses, When we quit lying to God and to ourselves. And that is a SCARY thing to do. To dig deep into our selves, Into our hearts, And notice and admit the places where we’ve gone astray. But I can promise you, That no matter how far you have strayed: No matter how big your sins, No matter how many lies: God is still walking in the garden: Calling out to you: And asking a question that he already knows the answer to: It’s your job to answer the question honestly: As God continually calls out to you saying: “where are you?” Amen.
It’s been a busy and exhausting week!
I know a few of you started off your week with a middle of the night phone call about a water alert here at the church! Working together, our wonderful team was able to make sure that everything was fine, and make any fixes that needed to be made. In my house, We had all of those “Last week of school” Activities and commitments. It seemed that between my husband and I, one of us had an evening meeting every night: While our kids were bouncing off the walls in excitement for summer. And I just returned last night, from Eau Claire, after attending an ordination of our Church’s newest deacon. Not to mention that the ordination service started nearly an hour late, because the Bishop arrived late after hitting a deer on his way: totaling his car! He was blessedly unhurt, for which we can all be very grateful. After a long and event-filled week, it’s a delight to take some time to reflect on: And enjoy the Sabbath. TWO of our lessons today focus on the Sabbath. The first, from Deuteronomy is a reminder of God’s commandment to “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” The second, is a story from the Gospel of Mark, where the Pharisees are disturbed to find Jesus’ disciples “plucking heads of grain” on the sabbath: Leading up to Jesus curing a man with a “withered hand” And setting the Pharisees straight about what the Sabbath is actually about. But what IS the Sabbath actually about? Modern American Culture will have us believe that the concept of “sabbath” or of “weekends” in general: is to do your home chores, mow your lawn, buy your groceries, and lay on your couch while scrolling online or watching tv: All so that you can get up on Monday morning and get back to the grind. The Rev. Canon Whitney Rice, a priest in Missouri suggests that the power of the sabbath is that it is sort of “beautiful and holy purposelessness”. Think about that very first Sabbath day. God rested after creating the world and all that is in it. God did not rest on the seventh day for the purpose of getting right back to work on the eighth day. God rests on the sabbath day and commands us to the same because the sabbath has its own value: Completely apart from work. It’s always been funny to me: that people primarily describe the Sabbath day as a day of rest from work. It doesn’t play out that way for me. I go to work on Sundays! And Sunday’s generally leave me more exhausted than any other day of the week! Sabbath is so much more than that. And much harder to practice than a mere “day off from work.” And this passage from Dueteronomy today shows us that. THIS appearance of the Sabbath is not tied to rest after the creation of the world. It’s more than that: And its directed to the specific people of Israel, And their liberation from slavery in Egypt. This time: Keeping the sabbath, Having a day without work, A day of rest, Is enjoyed by EVERYONE: Including the weak and the powerless: Including the overworked slaves, Sabbath is for EVERYONE. In a world like Egypt, Or later Greece or Rome: Or even in our world today: It’s assumed that leisure and rest is for the elite: Those with enough status to be ABLE to take a day off of work: But here we are: In a commandment from God: That EVERYONE---should receive the grace of rest. It’s rest and grace available to everyone. For no other reason, than to just rest in the grace that God gives to everyone. And in our other lesson today, Jesus tells us that the sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath. Sabbath is not about following a set of rules: Checking a box so that you can get into heaven. Sabbath was made FOR YOU: And for everyone else: To receive the grace of rest: And receive further connection to the God who made us and loves us enough to give us such beautiful and glorious rest. When Jesus healed the man with the withered hand, That man may have had the first REAL sabbath rest he has ever had. Jesus made the space for him to finally be able to rest in that grace. We are similarly called to take our sabbaths: And make space for everyone else to take that time too. But There’s one more parallel to these two stories today about the sabbath: And I think it’s an important one. Generally, when Jesus heals, he reaches out to touch someone and heal them. But in our story today Jesus says to the man “stretch out your hand” The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Jesus invites, Even COMMANDS the man to reach toward him, And in that reaching the man is healed. And there’s a parallel in the Deuteronomy story. God tells the people to remember their time enslaved in Egypt, That the “Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” In one reading, Jesus tells a man to stretch out his hand, And in another, God reminds the Israelites that God saved them with an outstretched hand. On the sabbath: God outstretches God’s arm to YOU. On the sabbath: God outstretches his arm to EVERYONE. God outstretches his arm in order to connect with us: And at the same time: Jesus invites US to stretch out our own arms toward God: Resulting in the two arms meeting. Sabbath is much deeper than avoiding work. Sabbath is a time where God reaches out, And we reach out, And we are united. And it’s all that matters. I invite you to take some time this week: To Stretch out your hand in rest: And allow others to stretch their hands out as well: So that you might feel the fullness of God’s healing grace and rest: The grace and rest that was made FOR YOU. Amen. 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February 2025
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