Epiphany III - Skip Windsor

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Let us pray:

“Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persevere. Where we cannot be strong, let us be willing to endure. Where we cannot redeem, let us be willing to hope. We know that we cannot do everything, but help us, O God, to do something, for Jesus sake. Amen.”

On behalf of the men, women and children of Christ Church, I welcome our friends and neighbors from Carter Memorial United Methodist Church and their pastor, Gary Shaw, to our worship service this morning. You have traveled a much further distance than coming from 800 Highland Avenue to 1332 Highland Avenue.

We are grateful that you would leave your home church and come to worship with us; and this generosity of spirit is not lost on your brothers and sisters but most appreciated here at Christ Church.

When Caroline Edge and I first talked about and thought about our annual joint service in 2007, we did not know what we were getting ourselves into; nor, did our two communities know where it would lead. It truly was a “leap of faith.” From that moment on we have held three services (and this is the fourth) alternating between Carter Memorial Church and Christ Church allowing us to worship together in what our two denominations call “Interim Eucharistic Sharing.”

I prefer to call us “partners in faith.” Not only do we worship together, sing together, play softball together but we are also in business together: selling CD’s together! For those among us who do not have a CD they will be on sale after our service today!

I am grateful to Millie, Pam, Vera, our organists Jane and Aaron, and our joint adult and bells choirs for their fabulous and inspiring body of work contained on the combined Carter Memorial Church-Christ Church CD.

As our two communities gather together this morning, I would invite us to offer a hearty round of applause to our adult and bell choirs for their musical gifts, their generosity of time and talent, and for a marvelous offering to us and to the wider community. +++++

This is an appropriate Sunday to worship together since it comes during the week of the Prayer for Christian Unity which is book ended between two major feast days of the Christian Church: The Confession of St. Peter on January 18th and the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25th. Since 1908 these eight days in January are reserved as a time for special prayer for Christian Unity. For the past 50 years, a theme has been chosen and materials prepared co-operatively by ecumenical groups and circulated internationally. This year’s theme is based on the text from The Acts of the Apostles 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Prayers for Christian Unity serve to remind us that the early church was one church; and it is a call to us to renew our desire for unity among Methodists and Episcopalians and all Christian churches and for us to return to the essentials of our faith and life together. As we remember the first Christians and seek to renew our Christians ties with one another, it is helpful to always keep in mind that there is more that unites us than divides us in faith. Given the theme for this year’s prayers for Christian unity, we can discern that there are at least four pillars upon which we can agree as partners in faith.

The first pillar is the apostolic teaching of the Word. Before the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were written towards the latter part of the first century, the apostles’ teaching and their own personal testimony guided those fledgling Christians about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These young Christians not only listened to the apostles’ teachings but also were devoted to them and to their words and witness. For a world in trouble, doubt and fear, this was Good News; and from this Good News was born the gospels so that successive generations would come to know the saving power of Jesus Christ and how this power was given to the Church in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The second pillar is fellowship. We are knit together believing there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We come together in community to share our time, talent and treasure; but, more than this we come together to share our joys and sorrows, our nightmares and our dreams, our burdens and our strengths. It is a ministry of our hospitality and presence where we greet and meet one another standing on common ground knowing that we are bound together – one to another – through the Holy Spirit. In the early church all who believed shared all things in common selling their possessions and goods, distributing to all, as any have need (Acts 2:44). The Romans would say about these 1st century Christians, “See how they loved one another,”

The third pillar is Holy Communion also called the Eucharist. It is the primary sacramental act of the Christian Church. By breaking bread with one another we become friends; we seek forgiveness; and we commit ourselves to one another. It is also a celebration of thanksgiving. It memorializes Jesus’ last meal with his disciples and commands them to continue this table fellowship in remembrance of his life, death and resurrection for we are called to be a sacramental people: offered, blessed, broken and given as Christ’s body to the world. As we are fed and nourished in Holy Communion, we are called to go forth to fed and heal and hungry and broken world.

The fourth pillar is prayer. Prayer is the source of our power being empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and make disciples and to seek and serve Christ loving our neighbor as ourselves. Through prayer we come to know the creator, redeemer and sustainer better. Through prayer we are bound together into a holy host to love and care for the least, the last, the lost and the lonely. And through pray we come to see and know how we are being called into the world for common mission and a unified ministry of the baptized. We are given the Lord’s Prayer to share and to pray together so that in praising God, seeking God’s will, asking for our needs, for forgiveness, for deliverance, and for hope we will increase in faith.

The Word. Fellowship. Holy Communion. Prayer. These are four pillars that we claim from the apostles’ and from the first church that saw itself as one community. As Methodists or Episcopalians or Roman Catholics or Protestants, we can claim these pillars of unity as we seek to proclaim the Good New of Jesus Christ in the world today. I like to believe that what you and I do as the communities of Carter United Methodist Church and Christ Episcopal Church in worshiping together is to incarnate, in our own small, way the dream of Jesus who prayed that all of us might be one.

In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus calls the first disciples, James and John and Andrew and Peter, to a great adventure in mission. Through divine guidance, Jesus confirmed the truth about a kingdom ministry that would be shared. He would not do it alone but called a diverse hardworking group of people to go with him. Those Jesus called first were fisherman whose ruddy looks, calloused hands, and salty personalities would be counterintuitive to the principalities and powers of his day. They had no experience in evangelism or stewardship. They had neither education nor credentials. Yet, they went and followed Jesus to help share in his mission to make the reign of God visible to all people for all time.
They did not know where it would lead them but they trusted Jesus and so left behind their nets to become fishers of people.

You and I are called to leave behind our old nets and netting and to undertake a great adventure in mission. In service to God and to God’s people, you and I can do so much more together and than we can do separately in proclaiming, teaching, and healing. As difficult as it sometimes can be being in dialogue about matters of governance and ministry between our two denominations, there is far more that unites us than divides us. I am grateful for this day. I am grateful for the gifts we share and the ministry we share in Needham; but most of all I am grateful to God in Christ who gives us the Holy Spirit who moves us and beckons us forth in common mission and purpose.

Epiphany II - Holly Hartman

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.

When I was a young mother, I participated in a book group with members of my church. We discussed books that usually had to do with spirituality and parenting. One of the members said something back then that I have thought of many, many times. She was talking about how to explain certain religious concepts to her children, and said something like this:

“The things I hate about church is the use of the word ‘sin’. Sin makes it sound like we are evil. I don’t like the way it is said so much in worship. How can I explain it to my kids when it makes me feel so bad?”

None of us really knew what to say to that- She was right, of course,- the word “sin” DOES appear very prominently in our liturgy. We are a penitential people; we are asked, very clearly, to “confess our sins” before we partake in the Eucharistic Feast.

This bothered the young mother, and she was afraid that her kids would see themselves as “sinners.” And none of us at that time had the ability to help her with this. We all sat there in silence, and then, probably changed the subject to a more comfortable topic.

Unfortunately, some time passed, and we didn’t see this family very much anymore except for Christmas and Easter. I knew they were still church members but they quietly slipped away from being active in parish life. I often wondered if perhaps the comment that young mother made was more significant than we had realized. What exactly was she struggling with when she talked about her discomfort with the notion of sin? What was she looking for? It’s a question worth asking.

In the Gospel of John this morning, Jesus has just been identified by John the Baptist as the Son of God. There is no ambiguity about this anymore, the way we have seen in other gospels- it is clearly stated here that the Messiah whom we’ve been waiting for is indeed Jesus. It’s Jesus who is the Annointed One, the One who was pre-destined to be our Saviour. The disciples who have been following John the Baptist now turn and begin to follow Jesus. And one of the first things that Jesus does in this newly “outed” state of his is to ask them “What are you looking for?”

The significance of this question is enormous. What ARE we looking for in our spiritual faith journey? How many of us, like the young mother I knew, have questions along the way that we struggle with, maybe even voice, but never receive an answer? What are we looking for, and how can we find it?

By asking this question, Jesus issues his followers an invitation. An invitation to seek. An invitation to turn to Jesus and to ask the difficult questions that are naturally part of any spiritual journey. An invitation to examine some very difficult concepts that one must engage in in order to fully live into this Christian life that we are called to do.

If we don’t ever ask the question “What are we looking for?”, then we run the risk of either blindly accepting what we are told, making for a rather superficial spiritual life....or worse, denying that we even have questions, conflicts, struggles with our faith journey.....again, not living an authentic Christian life. If we don’t voice this question in one way or another, then we lose a sacred opportunity to explore the ways in which God might want us to follow Jesus. I believe that a Christian community- a church- is a place where we can offer each other the gift of sacred listening- that is, allowing each other the space to ask difficult questions and to seek the answers together as a people who have committed themselves to following Jesus.

Looking back, the group of young mothers didn’t really have the tools to be able to help our friend with her concerns about sin. We listened, but by saying nothing, might have made her feel badly for even asking the question. I am speculating now, but I believe we missed the opportunity to help her -and ourselves- seek and find some answers about this notion of “sin”, for example, that may have helped her feel more connected to our community and more able as a young mom to help her children with their faith journey.

I am not suggesting, of course, that we all need to be Bible scholars or enlightened spiritual gurus, but I do think that by asking the question “What are we looking for?”, we can begin to find some answers that will deepen our understanding of what God, through his son Jesus Christ’s example, is calling us to be.

Let’s go back to the concept of sin. On one hand, I can understand how it might be off putting to label ourselves as “sinners”- and in some circles, this word is used intentionally to promote guilt, which is turn, acts as an agent of control to make people think about things in a certain, narrow way.

On the other hand, however, with some discussion and wrestling with this word “sin”, we might realize that acknowledging our sins is really, in fact, acknowledging our humanity.

Yes, we, as human beings, are sinners. We ALL make mistakes that hurt other people and ourselves. It’s perhaps an unfortunate yet very expected part of our human condition, and we cannot avoid - we “err and stray from God’s ways like lost sheep, by what we have done and by what we have left undone”, over and over again, in ways both small and large, every day of our lives.

But instead of despising ourselves for our “sin”, the invitation from Jesus is one that comes out of love. There is hope. The Gospel reading this morning speaks to this hope. God has sent us a “Lamb of God”- Jesus, of course- to “take away the sins of the world.” We don’t need to be isolated and ashamed when we commit acts of sin. We don’t need to deny them. We take comfort in the knowledge that there is someone- Jesus- who’s job it is to redeem us of our sins.

Within this softer context, perhaps the mother that I knew so long ago at another church, may have been able to eventually find relief and even joy in the act of confessing her sins- aloud and in community, together on Sunday mornings- acknowledging and accepting her very human state and asking for a new start- before partaking in the Eucharistic Feast.

I haven’t been at Christ Church very long- just about four months now- but I see many places in this community where people are given opportunity to ask difficult questions and to seek answers together. One such place occurs every Sunday, between the services, when people are invited into the Memorial Room to discuss the mornings readings. I haven’t been to the Wednesday morning Bible Study but imagine that a similar discourse occurs there. The intercessory prayer group, which meets monthly after church to pray for those in need, is a place where church members speak very openly about their struggles and their faith. I am hoping that, within a short time, a women’s retreat, a book group, and perhaps a group for young mothers will also be places for open seeking and sharing one’s spiritual journey with others.

I pray that this community of Christ Church will continue to strive to be a place where her members, her People of God, will know what it means to ask the question “What are we looking for?” and will know how to seek each other out to find answers together along the way.

Please pray with me.

God, Thank you for sending us your Son. Our Messiah, our Annointed One, our Lamb of God. Thank you for giving us each other and for always reminding us of your steadfast love for us and desire to follow the ways of your Son.

Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Jesus, bearer of our sins- have mercy on us. Grant us thy peace.  Amen.

Epiphany I (Baptism of Our Lord) - Timothy Kenslea

Why do we get baptized?  My guess is that many, even most, of us here today have been baptized, as two new young members of our church are about to be.  I doubt many of us gave it much thought at the time—especially since we probably had as little to say about the decision to be baptized as these young people did.

We do know that baptism has been one of the central sacramental traditions of the church from its beginning.  All of us are familiar with some sturdy conventional interpretations of the meaning of the rite—interpretations that are rooted in scripture.

In Matthew’s gospel, just before today’s reading, John the Baptist refers to the baptism he administers “with water” as being “for repentance” (Mt 3:11).  Many of us have learned to associate baptism in that way with cleansing from sin.  Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, tells them to consider baptism a kind of initiation rite, in which the newly baptized “clothed [them]selves with Christ” (Gal 3:27).

In the gospel accounts of the baptism of Jesus, though, Jesus gives us another way to think about baptism.  Matthew’s account, which we heard today, is particularly instructive.  Matthew’s is the only gospel that records a remarkable conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist.  I imagine it taking place in a kind of stage whisper.  John expresses real surprise:  “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  Jesus replies, “Let it be so now.”  He adds an assurance that this will be the way for them — for both of them —“to fulfill all righteousness.”

We know, when they had this conversation, that Jesus and John knew of each other —    in all of the gospels, John the Baptist gives his followers the promise that “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me” (Mt 3:11).  We have reason to believe that Jesus and John knew each other, maybe even quite well.  Matthew doesn't tell us this, but Luke — the other gospel that recounts Jesus’ nativity, infancy, and childhood — tells us that their mothers are relatives (Lk 1:36).  So John, who sees his baptism as one of repentance, expresses surprise.   The roles should be reversed, he insists.  Jesus does not need to be cleansed from sin; nor does he need to put on Christ like a garment.

So why does Jesus go to John to be baptized? What are we, the baptized and the about-to-be-baptized, to make of the example of Jesus, as we try to follow it, in this case?

I think it’s important, in trying to understand Jesus’ baptism by John, to remember that this is not just baptism with water, but baptism in a river.  To be baptized by John, Jesus steps into the waters of the River Jordan.

Rivers exert a powerful pull on our imagination, still.  I started to make a list, off the top of my head, of references to rivers in popular culture.  I stopped counting songs after I came up with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell, the Talking Heads.  It’s the river of life, the river of dreams; it’s the river we go down to, we’re drawn to; it’s the river we want to be taken to, the river we wish we could skate away on.  Anyone who grew up in my generation remembers Michael, rowing that boat ashore on the deep, wide, chilly, cold Jordan River.  Fans of the Broadway musical can never forget how Old Man River just keeps rolling along.

A river forms the backbone of what’s arguably the greatest American novel, in which Huck Finn travels along the Mississippi on a journey from immaturity almost all the way to responsible adulthood, and his friend Jim makes his journey from slavery, to freedom, back to slavery, and finally back to freedom for good.

But rivers had, if possible, an even more powerful hold on the imaginations of people who lived at the time of Jesus.  When I think, as a history teacher, of all the things rivers meant in the ancient world, two things stand out:  A river is a highway, calling people forward on a journey; and a river is a boundary, challenging people with the prospect of what's on the other side, if only they dare to cross.

At the start of the long journey that will take him to Calvary — to the cross and the tomb and the stone rolled away — Jesus steps into the river to be baptized by John, “to fulfill all righteousness.”  When he steps out of the river, a voice from heaven calls him “my Son, the Beloved.”

Jesus is calling us to follow his example in baptism.  What does this mean for us?  In this light, it means to embark on that journey, to cross over that river with him, to break down those boundaries—whether they separate nation from nation, race from race, or class from class.

How are we to do this?  This is why the choice of today’s second reading, from    the Acts of the Apostles, is so felicitous.  The connection is not just that Peter mentions Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  Peter also gives us a powerful example of what we, as baptized people, are called to do.

Peter is such a complex, engaging, sympathetic, flawed character in the gospels.  He stands for us.  Witnessing the Transfiguration, his response is almost comically enthusiastic:  “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three [tents] here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Mt 17:4).  He fell asleep during the Lord’s dark night of the soul at Gethsemane (Mt 26:38-46).  And of course, what we always remember most about Peter is that on that night of Jesus’ arrest and torture by the Romans, he denied that he knew Jesus — three times — just a few hour after insisting, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you” (Mt 26:35).  And this from the man Jesus said would be the rock (Mt 16:18) on which he would build his church!

But here, in the Acts of the Apostles, we see a different Peter — a transformed Peter.  To place today’s reading in context:  Peter is on a journey to Cæsarea.  He crosses over an unspoken boundary when he preaches the good news to the Gentiles there.  “We are witnesses,” Peter says of himself and his fellow disciples.  “[We] were chosen by God as witnesses.”

Peter and the other apostles had experienced a different kind of baptism at Pentecost  (Acts 2:1-4) — not a baptism by water, but a baptism “with the Holy Spirit and fire” — the one that John had told his followers the one who came after him would bring (Mt 3:11).

Empowered by his baptism by fire, and by the experience of seeing, and eating and drinking with, the risen Lord, Peter — even weak, flawed, self-important Peter —is able to proclaim his startling message.  His fear has left him.  His testimony about Jesus is simple and clear:  “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

As it was for Peter, our baptism is not just a ritual of initiation or absolution.  It is a call to us, flawed as we are, to follow Christ, and to be witnesses to his message of salvation.  However we fulfill that call to be witnesses, may we have Peter’s ultimate humility in recognizing that it is a journey not of our own choosing but of God’s.  May we recognize that in our baptism we are chosen and empowered by God to go on this journey, to break through boundaries beyond our imagining—we are called by Jesus to follow him, and step into the river.