Sermon: Knock and the door shall be opened; Ask, and you shall be answered
By the Rev. Thomas C. Jackson
Today’s scriptures offer us a series of compelling perspectives of how we can live in right relationship with God. A recurring theme woven into these texts centers on walking close enough that we ask God for help as we need it. Our Gospel says “ask and you shall be answered.” Yet this thread begins much earlier with Abraham after he has “entertained angles unawares.” Now, as God is about to depart, God says:
“I’m going to Sodom and if they are as bad as I hear I’m going to wipe them off the face of the earth.” How does Abraham respond? Does he cheer the omniscient, all-knowing deity on? Does he ask for ringside seats to watch as the city is destroyed? Does he congratulate God for “getting it right?”
Abraham does none of this. Instead he thinks of the people of Sodom and asks God, “would you destroy that city if you find 50 good men?” God answers: “No for 50 good men I will not destroy the city.”
Abraham does some quick math and realizes he has a problem, he can’t think of 50 good men in all of Sodom. So Abraham asks: “What if there were 40 good men?” God answers: “No for 40 good men I will not destroy the city.” Abraham is still thinking of people he knows in the city and asks:”what if there are 30 good men? God answers: “No for 30 good men I will not destroy the city.” Still wracking his mental address book, Abraham asks: “What about 20 good men?” God answers: “No for 20 good men I will not destroy the city.” Now reduced to counting on his fingers, Abraham starts with the little finger on his left hand and ends at the same finger of his right hand. “What about 10 good men?” he asks. God answers: “No for 10 good men I will not destroy the city.”
What does this story tell us about Abraham’s way of relating to God? This encounter is unlike the myths many of us know about the Greek and Roman gods. Can you see Zeus patiently enduring this series of questions? Zeus most likely would have lost patience and hurled a thunder bolt at Abraham half way through the process.
For Abraham, God is approachable, a divine being Abraham can ask for help. Read more »
Just one thing – July 18 sermon – the Rev Jane McDougle
It’s hardly a new idea that we need to be paying attention if we wish to see and know God more. It’s certainly not a new idea that distraction can separate us from God: so why is it so hard for us? I think there are many answers to that question: feelings of unworthiness, of ineptitude (I’ll leave the praying up to those who can), and of doubt. I also wonder if there’s a bit of the Martha in all of us too, ‘if God really cared about me, God would notice, and God would give me what I need’. Read more »
Spiritual Implications of Dementia – from the Huffington Post, July 13, 2010
“Eloquence is irrelevant: dementia sucks really bad. Dementia defies platitudes and niceties; however, it does not defy meaning and life.”
Church of England moves towards consecrating first woman bishop – in 2014-ish
All the Women Bishops in the Anglican Communion (who were At the 2008 Lambeth Conference) plus two Korean bishops
During the past few days, the Church of England’s Synod has been meeting in York and voting on measured that could lead to the consecration of their first woman bishop in 2014-ish. This issue has generated a lot of heat in the English church, and I’ve been closely following media reports. If you are interested, please check out these there posts on my Blog, A Lamberth Pilgrim:
- CofE: plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose until 2014-ish
- Lord, oh Lord, what is the Church of England Coming to?
- Women just saved the Church of England.
All of the Lambeth 2008 Bishops
There’s an interesting story behind the photo above which I took at the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. It sheds some interesting light on the CofE’s debates over women bishops. A highlight of each Lambeth Conference comes when the assembled bishops, drawn from around the world, gather for a group photograph. My snapshot of the larger group is at left.
A newer tradition is for all of the women bishops at Lambeth to also gather for their own group shot. There are, as you can see, eleven of them. Out of all those bishops on the left, there were eleven women bishops at Lambeth in 2008. Granted, some women bishops, like The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, chose not to attend that conference. A larger number of male bishops decided to stay home for very different reasons than those offered by Bishop Harris. So the point remains: only a very small number of women are bishops in the Anglican Communion.
You may have noticed there are two men in the picture at the top of this post. I believe the bishop of the left is The Rt Rev. Kyung-Jo Francis Park, then e diocesan bishop of Seoul and the primate of Korea and the bishop on the right is The Rt Revd Paul Keun-Sang Kim, who then served as coadjuter and now serves as e diocesan bishop of Seoul and the primate of Korea. Here’s how they came to be included in this picture.
The “official” group shot was completed and the women bishops had just finished their group shot when Bishop Yoon approached them and asked if he and Bishop Kim could have their pictures taken with the women bishops. The women, pleased but perplexed, agreed. Sending their confusion, Bishop Yoon explained: “You see, this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to have our picture taken with you.” Lambeth Conferences, you see, happen every ten years and this was their first opportunity to be included in a group shot with the women bishops. Which, I suggest, bodes well for the next Lambeth Conferense, by which time there should be a few English bishops included in the group photo of women bishops.
July Sunday Soul Work–an invitation to a conversation — July 4, 2010
“Sometimes I make appointments with God. God, being the God of all time and eternity, presumably has no constraints on time, but we creatures often do. And when matters of sufficient urgency press upon me that require more than ordinary work in prayer, I find it helpful to suggest something like a 2:00 a.m. session, when interruptions are not apt to occur. Such appointments seem only sensible—and I am deeply grateful for such times. But it occurs to me upon occasion that it is certainly an odd thing to be able to talk with the God of the universe, whether at 2:00 a.m. or any other time.”
In God’s Presence by Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki:
Chalice Press; 1996
How we worship God, how we talk or pray to God, even how we notice or understand God in our world are all very much connected to who or what we think God is. We have learnt some things about God from our faith traditions with their scriptures, worship, prayers and ways of being in the world. Others we have learnt for ourselves from our experiences of the divine in the world around. We have all found ways to sort through the different aspects of God that we have experienced. However, this sorting is a complicated process when what we’re paying attention to is so much more that we can possibly grasp. And yet, we do our best dancing between ideas of God as creator, judge, king, redeemer, and parent; between God as way out there or right here; with God as all-powerful and all-knowing, or maybe God is, and that isn’t the point
– or is it?
I invite you to use the ‘comment’ box at the bottom of this posting to enter into this conversation. There are no right or wrong thoughts or replies. July 4 we used the first poem in Bill Countryman’s new poetry book “Lovesongs & Reproaches: Passionate Conversations with God”, (Morehouse Press; 2010). In the poem, the poet rails against God, ‘why did you not do better?’ A question that I’m sure each one of us has asked at one point or another. Read more »
July 4 Sermon: Becoming all we can be — Rev. Jane McDougle
THE NEW COLOSSUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Emma Lazarus Read more »
Sermon: Elijah’s Mantle & A Prophet’s Reward. The Rev. Katherine Lehman
5 Pentecost, proper 8, June 27, 2010
1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21, Ps 16, Gal5:1,13-25; Luke 9:51-62
As with many prophets before him, Jesus believes that things have to change. What makes Jesus the messiah is how he demonstrates the mechanism of transformative change, and so delivers it into our hands, something like a hot potato!
