Homily - Feast Days, DEC 26, 27, 28th 2014

Children getting ready for the Christmas Service

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Usually in most churches, the Sunday right after Christmas is a “low key” kind of day.   As you all can see, the Choir and organist have all taken a much needed breather.

And so for today, rather than giving a sermon, I think a HOMILY is more in order.    

You all know what the difference between a sermon and a homily is, right?  A homily is a very short sermon.

And homilies and sermons can be done a number of ways, not just with words.  For example, the children re-enacted the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  All dressed up, bringing the nativity statues forward to the crèche.  The story was read, with Christmas songs and all.

And one the great things about the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Anglican / Episcopal traditions is that we have feast days & saints days.

Much overlooked are the Lesser Feasts and Fasts , especially the feasts right after Christmas day.

DEC 26^th is the feast of??    Yes, the feast of St. Stephen, Deacon & martyr.  Who was St Stephen?  He was in fact, the first martyr of the early Christian church.

And DEC 27^th is feast of St John the Apostle and evangelist. According to tradition, after Jesus’ death he travelled to Asia Minor and settled in Ephesus and was exiled to the Greek island of Patmos.  It was here he had visions & dreams, which he wrote down. This became the book of Revelation.  It is said that John lived to a very old age, and was the only apostle to have been spared a martyrs death. 

And today, DEC 28^th is the feast of the Holy Innocents.   This  commemorates the slaughter of children as ordered by the ruler Herod around the time of Jesus’ birth.  Now, why would he order such a horrible thing?  Herod lived in constant fear that his throne would be overtaken.  And when it was told by the wise men that a “king of kings” was about to be born, Herod was even more afraid.  To keep his throne from being supplanted, he ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem.   The good news is that this event is not recorded in the secular history of the era.  It makes us wonder, why then, did the writers of the New Testament include such a story?  Hmm.

What are the spiritual lessons and nuggets from these lessons & feasts?    I leave it for you to contemplate & pray on these things…

And I know that so many times, at the end of every year, we see the recap of the year.  But I say, let us look forward.  Go forward and don’t look back.  What wonderful things await?  A new year is almost upon us!

Amen.  

"What's Your Song?", (Advent 4, Winter Solstice, DEC 21, 2014)

Sunrise, Winter Solstice, DEC 21, 2014

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Good morning everyone.  Today is a day fully packed with many meanings.  First of all, it is the 4^th Sunday in Advent.   And today is the first day of winter!  So, happy winter everyone!   Yes, for those of us here in the desert, yes winter is a joyful thing!  Seriously!

And today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night in the year, that is for those of us in the northern hemisphere!  This morning as I drove from Phoenix to Casa Grande I watched the sunrise, and it was just beautiful!  The shortest day.  I snapped this photo with my iPhone as I drove down I-10.

If we were somewhere in the southern hemisphere, today would be the longest day of the year.  And if we were in Antarctica right now, it would be just another 24 hour period of daylight!    And if we were up north above the Arctic circle, just another 24 hour period of total darkness!

When I was down in Antarctica, the Sun did not rise in the east and set in the west like it does here.  It moved SIDEWAYS, counterclockwise across the horizon!  It was really freaky to see & experience at first!    The sun never set, it was 24 hour daylight...the sun just spun around in the sky!   I never knew what time it was!

Seeing the Sun spin around in the sky made me wonder, why does the earth spin?  I mean, not all planets spin.   I remember learning this stuff as a child, but when you see this in real life, it really makes you wonder!

It is all so amazing, isn’t it?   Our planet, the cosmos, the stars, galaxies, time, space…and how it all works.    We live on a giant ball that is tilted 23.5 degrees, and spins… and orbits a star, our star the Sun!  

And time does not stand still.    As the earth spins, we in fact are moving right now at 1000 miles an hour!   And God knows what the speed of the earth is as flies thru space orbiting the Sun!    Anyone know?    (I know, just what you were wondering this morning.)  OK, so I looked it up…(runaway brain here!).    The earth’s orbital speed is 67,000 miles per hour, that's 18.5 miles per second!  So in one blink of an eye, we all just zoomed through space nearly 20 miles.     

All so amazing!  

Yes, amazing things are happening every day!   Do we take the time to see & experience them?  Such amazing things right here in the ordinary!

Amazement is related with wonder, and wonder is related with joy!

And joy is one of the main themes of Advent.   In the Reformed tradition of Christianity, (you know, Presbyerian, Congregationalism, the UCC),  there is a tradition of different spiritual themes each Sunday in Advent.  The first Sunday in Advent’s theme is “faith”.  The second Sunday is “hope”.   The third Sunday in Advent, is “love”.  And the fourth Sunday, today, the theme is, what?  You guessed it,  “joy”!

Today in our gospel Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her, "Greetings favored one, the Lord is with you."  We know the story, Mary is with child, a special, holy child.  And when she visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is six months pregnant with...who?  Yes, John the Baptist.  Jesus' cousin!   It was said that when Mary visited Elizabeth, the child 'leaped in her womb (with joy)!'

And the canticle we read today tells us of a young pregnant woman who sings a song of joy … Mary sings her song,  “My soul magnifies the Lord…my spirit rejoices in God…”,  and we know this very famous song, the Magnificat. 

Yes the story of Mary and Elizabeth is a story of hope and joy. Both women rejoice and sing! 

But it is not adequate to just talk about joy, or any emotion, we need to feel it, experience it, express it.  And what helps us do this?  Music!

 

Mary’s song, the Magnificat, has been sung through the centuries.  Countless musicians have played it.  And how many voices have joined in with Mary, singing her song through the ages?  

Yes there is just something extraordinary about music.   It helps us get out of our heads and feel.  Music can change our moods and give us energy.   Music is very powerful and helps us experience and feel the spiritual, the Holy. 

Music really is the language of the soul!

It is always wonderful to watch how even babies respond to music and singing.  Have you noticed that?  

For many years I played electric bass and percussion. One time I was playing a “gig” at a coffee house.  I played the conga drums and my friend was singing and playing guitar.  Two young mothers came up with their babies in their strollers to watch and listen to us.  The babies had pacifiers in their mouths, and I noticed that as I played the rhythms on the drums, the babies moved their pacifiers in unison with the beat!  When I stopped playing, they stopped!  When I started again, they started!

But not only were they keeping rhythm, I could see joy in their eyes as they experienced the music!  It was pretty amazing to see!  Those babies had rhythm!

And how many of you have an early memory of your mother, or father, singing to you when you were young?   And how many of you mothers, and fathers sing or have sung to your babies and have seen that love, that joy in their eyes?

Music is in all of us, no matter what our age or where we are in life!  I think all of us have a song somewhere deep within us, in our souls.  

Mary’s song says, “My soul magnifies the Lord!!!   And my spirit rejoices in God!!!...”  

Think about this… what might your song be?   What do, or would you sing about?  What emotion might your song express?

Perhaps some of us are singing or playing the blues. Perhaps some of us might have one of those annoying commercial jingles blasting in our heads….you know, the kind that plays over and over and refuses to go away?   Or perhaps some of us sing a tune of anger…Hmmm…

When deployed to an airbase in the deserts of Arabia…I may have been a bit out of my comfort zone leading the “Gospel Service”, a style of worship very different than a liturgical style of worship.  

Predominantly African American, high spirited & spontaneous with foot stomping, hand clapping music, lots of “Amen’s”, “Praise the Lord’s”, and “Alright now’s”!    In one word, they had such joy!

And I will tell you… I learned something from them!  With their coaxing and support, I learned a lot from them!  Most importantly, what I learned from them was feeling and experiencing God’s joy through their music, prayers and worship!  

Of course we may not always be singing a song of joy.   We may be in a strange, unfamiliar territory in our lives, a spiritual desert, or in exile, even though we may be physically at home.  

But perhaps with a little effort, daring to step out of our comfort zones now and then, and a little nudging and coaxing occasionally from each other… just as those people in the Gospel service did with me, we may just find the strength, courage, joy and hope even when in unfamiliar territory.

We all need hope and joy!   Our world needs it too.

And with each others' and God’s help, may we share in Mary’s hopeful, courageous and joyful song, and sing the Magnificat with our lives!   

Amen.

Advent and the "Zombie Apocalypse"

Good morning everyone. 

Have you noticed that the past few years the rise in popularity of zombies?   Yes, zombies.  

Zombie movies, zombie costumes for Halloween, TV shows about zombies, there is even the ‘zombie apocalypse’! 

I have been hearing people talk about this and have wondered what exactly is a ‘zombie apocalypse’?!

One time I was on duty at Moffett airfield, the Space shuttle was being flown piggyback on a 747 over various parts of the Bay Area as it was being flown to its final resting place to a museum in Los Angeles.  Thousands of people came out to see this and lined the fences and gates to see it as it flew over us, one last time on its final flight to LA.  It was pretty cool to see.  Later, I heard one colonel describe the event to someone who had not been there, and he said, “It was like the zombie apocalypse had begun!”  

What!!??     Now, I have never really been into zombies, in fact I don’t really even like zombies, so this phenomenon of them being so popular lately kind of astounds me.    I don't get it!  

So it makes me wonder, why this is so?    Perhaps this says something about our society and culture that we live in.   Hmmm. 

Now you may be wondering, how in the world would I arrive at talking about, of all things, zombies in a sermon for Sunday morning. 

But hey, got your attention now, don’t I?   

Now, interestingly, in our gospel reading for today, Mark chapter 13, we have what is known by biblical scholars as the “little apocalypse”:  "In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken…”  

This passage is actually taken from the book of Daniel.   Daniel, as well as the book of Ezekiel and the book of Revelation are all what is known as “apocalyptic literature”.    

Apocalyptic literature tends to be very surreal, fantastic, bizarre & highly symbolic with lots of vivid imagery & characters.   Angels, demons, and other mythological beings, and a giant epic battle between good and evil, with the triumph of God over the forces of chaos.   

Spiritually, apocalyptic literature gives the message of:  “These times are tough, things may get worse before they get better, but hang on!   Hang on just a little longer…and God will intervene….and… the light always overcomes the darkness.”    

So, in dark times…whatever they may be, it is a message of hope.   

When hearing the word apocalypse though, one may think of prophecy, destruction on a catastrophic scale and the end of the world.   Hence the fictional zombie apocalypse and the premise for all those fictional books & movies about the rapture & those left behind.   

Notice I did say FICTIONAL.  But this is the popular understanding of the word apocalypse, not its actual meaning & what it meant in its original language, Greek.   

The word apocalypse actually means “uncovering” in Greek.  “A disclosure of knowledge” or “a lifting of a veil” or “disclosure of things hidden”.     

In other words, a revelation.     

The word “apocalypse” really has nothing to do with end times or prophetic scenarios of the future & end of the world!   These are interpretations.  And we can thank Christian fundamentalism for this interpretation, and because they have been good at spreading this interpretation around, it has become the popular understanding of it.   

Now, also notice that in Mark’s gospel, chapter 13, that more than once it mentions to keep awake, to be aware, be watchful, and to keep alert.

But how many of us, myself included, go thru our days with periods of totally zoning out?  And not only spacing out, but not even being aware that we have spaced out!    

‘Did I close the gate?  Did I lock the door?  Did I turn off the stove?’  And when we double check, of course we did those things, but have absolutely no recollection of doing it!  

How does this happen?  Don’t just blame getting old for this!  It happens to all ages.  Anyone who has taught children, high school and or college knows this!    We sometimes just walk around with our heads in a cloud!  Unaware.  Not paying attention.  On automatic pilot.  Oblivious. 

But what things, important things are we missing out on?  

What things are flying past us when we zone out like a, dare I say it…like a zombie?

Yep, zombies are abound, right here and right now!   Not just in those “bad cinema” horror movies & TV shows!   

Perhaps mindlessness is one of the main spiritual ailments of our times.

This Advent season, let us take heed to Christ’s teaching.   

We may think we are aware & paying attention in life, but are we?    
What is it that we are not seeing?  Or hearing? 

What is it that we might be missing? 

Like a revelation, an apocalypse, a revealing of things hidden, God’s messages come to us all the time.   But are we listening? 

God speaks to us in various ways, but it tends to be ‘delicate’.  If we don’t keep awake, the message can fly right past us!   God can speak to us as we pray, walk down the street, and thru another person.  Perhaps it is just one thing they do, or a little phrase or word they say, and “wham”, we have an “aha” moment, a revelation, and a new spiritual awareness and realization…  

Yes, there are many ways God speaks to us.   Are you watching?  Are you listening?   

Let us pray…

Loving God, keep us awake in faith; when our faith grows weary, strengthen us …when our faith grows fearful, grant us courage, when our faith grows despairing, grant us hope, and when the faith of others falters, may we be a light in their darkness...   

Amen.

[Sermon by the Rev. Laura Adelia at St Peter's Episcopal Church, NOV 30, 2014]

"I can't believe it!" "That is why you failed" [The Parable of the Talents]

Good morning everyone!  Yesterday a group of us went to visit the Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence.  And I must say, it was so very beautiful. 

Incredibly, the monastery was only started in 1995.  And today, only 19 years later, it has acres and acres of beautiful churches, numerous chapels, gardens, walkways, orchards and orchards of citrus, olives, & date palms.  Plants are everywhere, as are fountains.  The brick and tile work amazing throughout, all created & built by the monks!  And all this was just bare desert 19 years ago!   

Think of the vision they must have had, the amount of work that they have done to create this beautiful and incredible place!  

They could have said “We can’t afford this!  We can’t build this, it’s the middle of the desert!     

But they didn’t.    

Today we just heard in our Gospel reading the well known story, the Parable of the Talents.  

These days when we hear the word “talent”, we tend to think of certain gifts & abilities that some people seem to have.  
Just look at the many talents right here in this room!

However, the word “talent” meant something totally different in Jesus’ time.  What did it mean?  A talent was an extraordinarily huge sum of money.   In the ancient world, a talent was worth what an ordinary laborer earned over the period of 15 years! 

So, a talent is A LOT OF MONEY!  And I do mean, a lot of money!

Now, this parable is tricky.  Why?  Because it seems like the lesson is all about making money!   Is that what this parable is saying?

In the story, we have a “master” and three servants.  The master gives his three servants three different sums of money before he goes away on a journey.    And the scripture reads, he gave each according to his ability.

To the first servant, the master gives five talents.  To the second servant, two talents.  And to the third servant, one talent.  

Now we know that one talent equals about 15 years of pay.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a modern day laborer earns on average about $30K a year.  So, calculating 15 years of 30K equals $450,000!  

So modern day wise, ONE TALENT nearly equals nearly a half a million dollars.  

But on with our story…

What did the first servant do?  He traded and invested his five talents, and made five more talents!    Let’s look at the numbers.   $450,000 times 5, (5 talents)= $2,250,000!  Making five more talents, that is a total sum of 4,500,000!  (Four million, 500 thousand dollars.)

The second servant invested his two talents, and made two more talents!   You do the math!

And the third servant, did he do with his talent?  How much money did he make?  He didn’t.  He dug a hole in the ground and hid the money!  

After a long time, the master comes home.   And then he goes to settle accounts with his three servants.

The first servant shows his master he had invested his five talents, and made a profit of five more talents!   The second servant, shows his master he had invested his two talents, and made 2 more talents!

The master was well pleased of course!  Hey, wouldn’t you be pleased if someone doubled your money?
 

And what of the third servant?   The third servant was afraid & buried his talent in the ground.  He then returned his talent to his master.   However, the master was not at all pleased.  

Not only was he not at all pleased, the master took the servant’s talent away & gave it the servant who had ten talents!  On top of that, he had him thrown into the outer darkness, along with lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth! 

Why was the master not happy?   The third servant did not lose or squander his money!!    He returned it in full!!  Is the moral of the story just about making money?   

The parable is not about money or ability, it is about trust & faith.

The 3^rd servant lives in fear and he puts his gift, his talent, his treasure in the ground.  He does not put his talent to use!  

“The Parable of the Talents” is not about money or abilities. It’s a story about trust, and taking risk.   In other words, a leap of faith!

A scene from the Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back” pops into my mind here.  Young Luke Skywalker is getting his Jedi training from the Jedi master, Yoda.  Do you remember?  Yoda instructs Luke to raise his spacecraft where it had crashed in the swamp.  He tries, and seems to raise it just a bit….and then it falls.   Luke sighs in exasperation, “I can’t!”     

Then Yoda steps forward,  raises the spacecraft and moves it to higher ground.  Luke  watches in amazement, and says, “I can’t believe it!”   And Yoda’s reply,  “That is why you failed.”

Life is the same way. 

What turns out to be important is not 'how much money did you make' or our abilities, our talents in themselves, but our decision to use them in ways that show our willingness to risk and to trust.   

In other words, learning to live and walk in faith & love, and not fear…  

Believe!   And the seemingly impossible, really is possible!
Amen.

[Sermon given by The Rev. Laura Adelia, NOV 16, 2014]

SERMON: Spiritual Awakenings

Our scriptures for today focus on the themes of spiritual awakening, wisdom & awareness. 

Have you ever had a spiritual experience?  A deep moment of spiritual awareness, or awakening?  What was it like?    How did it impact your life?  Did it change you?  If so, how? 

Deep questions for so early in the morning, I know.    But isn’t this one reason why we are here?  And why we come to church?  To grow spiritually?

Let’s take a look at some first hand spiritual experiences and awakenings as told by the people who experienced them:

One person shares this story:   “I was never really very religious, but one day I visited a beautiful old church in Montreal, and it felt like God literally picked me up and told me he loved me.    I sat in the back of the church, and cried and cried.  It was very emotional.”

And then there is this story:  “I was going thru a really difficult part of life.  I told God to kill me because I hated my life.  Two days later I was hit by a car and nearly died.  Since then, I love life and appreciate everything that I did not ever recognize before.”

And another:   “My mom had cancer, and we all felt so helpless.  In spite of the unknown, I felt God’s presence, leading us thru this…”

And one more:  “I was in a rollover car accident with my two boys.  I had hit a truck.  I felt someone, something was with us as we were rolling over….Although traumatic, we all survived.”   

All of these are amazing stories and experiences.  I am sure many of us have our own spiritual awakening / experience stories.  

Notice these experiences all describe a feeling of a Holy presence.  For some, the experience is triggered by a very intense  or traumatic experience, a car accident, major depression, illness, the death of a loved one, facing death, and so forth.

Visions…  Dreams….  Intuition….a sudden insight….a deep and intense feeling...knowing.    Moments of spiritual awakening can be bizarre and difficult to describe or share with others.   We may think, 'Other people may not understand if I tell them.  Will they think… I’m crazy?' 

What Jesus is saying in this parable of the bridesmaids is that the main task of the spiritual life is to wake up! 

We may read a lot of books on spirituality and religion, study the Bible…but in midst of all this reading & or travel, are we are still distracting ourselves from truly experiencing the Holy?   And growing spiritually? 

Now, this next Saturday many of us are going on a trip to visit the Greek Orthodox monastery in Florence.  Have you have ever stayed at a monastery for a period of time?  They are beautiful, peaceful places, aren’t they? 

What can we learn from monastics? 

The Eastern Orthodox church emphasizes experiencing the Holy, not so much intellectualizing it.  The divine mystery of God is also emphasized.  For if we could explain or understand God, then it would not be God!  

A lady who’s husband had just deserted her was distraught with grief.  She was sitting by the fire feeling its warmth.  She began to walk and a man walked with her, but they did not say a word.  The unknown man who was with her just let her cry.  She cried as they walked, and cried and cried.    As she cried, she began to feel lighter.   Presently, she heard a voice, with gentleness and tenderness that said to her, “Look up dear, look up to the heavens.  There is more to life than this.  Much more…” 

This awakening story is from Bishop Kallistos Ware’s book, The Orthodox Way.   

Prayer, stillness, quiet and inward silence is also emphasized.  Eventually, prayers with words gives way to just being silent…and listening.  Listening.  No longer talking about God or to God, but listening.   

As the Psalm says, “Be still, and know that I am God”. (Ps. 46)

One way to this inner silence is thru contemplative prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer, (also known as Breath Prayer).  It is said repetitively and meditatively, many times with beads or prayer ropes.   It goes like this;  inhale and say "Lord Jesus Christ Son of God".  Then exhale and say, "...have mercy upon me, a sinner".

A shortened version would be (inhale) Lord Jesus Christ...(exhale) have mercy on me. 

Or simply, (said with your breath) Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy. 

It starts with the prayer of the lips.  As it is repeated it goes deeper and inward, becoming a mental prayer.  Finally, the intellect descends into the heart.  The prayer is something no longer said, but becomes who we are...in every breathe we take.  Christ within.  

This is captured in the famous Russian Orthodox book, The Way of  Pilgrim, about a man in the 19^th century who hears in a sermon about unceasing prayer.   Stumped by this, the man seeks personal instruction on this and finds himself a staretz, which is Russian for “Spiritual Director”.    

The staretz teaches him the Jesus Prayer, which he says to himself as he walks across Russia!  Of course this takes many, many years.  But as he walks and travels there is spiritual transformation. Eventually, the man no longer verbally says or even has to think the prayer, for it has become him. 

We can see much of the influence of the Orthodox Way right here in the Anglican – Episcopal tradition.    Ora et labora, prayer and work, is the Bendictine motto.    

Bendict of Nursia, being the “father” of Western monasticism, and taking much of his rule for monks from the Eastern Church.   

We get the “Daily Office”, daily prayer from the Benedictines; Morning Prayer, Noontime Prayer, Evening Prayer or Evensong, and Compline.  And for those of you fairly new to the Episcopal Church, all these daily prayer services are right here in the Book of Common Prayer! 

What does all this have to do with you, or all of us, regular people who are not monks and do not live in a monastery?   

Actually, it has everything to do with us!    

For spiritual growth, true and authentic spiritual growth certainly takes more than just coming to church services one hour per week!   

As we head toward Advent, which is by the way beginning in just three short weeks, let us be ever mindful of our inner life.  Opportunities for awakenings are always before us…but are we listening?  

I challenge you to take our your Book of Common Prayer, and pray the Daily Office during the four weeks of Advent.  Pray Morning Prayer when you wake up.  Pray Compline before bed.   See what benefits you may experience in your spiritual life from this practice. 

In the Gospel story, the wise bridesmaids trimmed the wicks of their lamps.  What is the spiritual equivalent of filling our lamps with oil and trimming our wicks? 

Lamps and candles burn slower when the wick is trimmed.    It is similar with plants…fruit trees, and roses – they produce more fruit, or roses when pruned.

What do we need to perhaps prune in our lives, for new spiritual growth to occur? 

The paradox is, that doing less can also help us to awaken to the presence of the Spirit in every breath we take!     

For in the world of spiritual growth, less is more!

Knowledge speaks...wisdom listens...

What is Jesus calling us to do?   To wake up!   And stay awake!

Amen. 

[Sermon given at St Peter's by the Rev. Laura Adelia, NOV 9, 2014]

All Saints / All Souls Day NOV 2, 2014

Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

All Saints

Good morning everyone!  A blessed and happy All Saints & All Souls Day to you all! 
  
I remember a story I heard from a priest long ago.  He told the story of when he was at seminary and the beautiful, historic chapel there.  He said inside the chapel were big stained glass windows, gothic arches, & much religious art including statues of various saints.  

And week after week, month after month, even a couple of years, he attended services in this chapel.  

And then one day, he happened to notice the feet on one of the statues.  They were wearing sandals, probably Birkenstocks.  But that’s not why he noticed their feet.   The saint statue had six toes on each foot!  What, what?  At first he thought the artist must have made a gross anatomical error.  But then he noticed that each saint statue had six toes!

And then it hit him.  The artist who made the statues was making a theological statement.  

What was the artist trying to say?

The artist was saying, the saints are not perfect!

The saints were ordinary people, who did extraordinary things.  Someone with an exceptional degree of holiness.   Someone to emulate.

Being that we Anglican / Episcopalians take our traditions from the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox heritage, we have literally hundreds of saints and official days that we honor them. 

However, some denominations do not celebrate the saints.  In fact, for many denominations, today is known as Reformation Day.  For example, the UCC, my former denomination did not celebrate All Saints Day.  And I really missed the saints!  

So, who is your favorite saint?  Or patron saint? 

And yes, every religion in the word has their saints!  They are just known by different words.  In Hinduism, a saint is a “rishi” or a guru.  Judaism has saints, so does Buddhism.  

In Christianity, the first “saints”, or rather, those who were later deemed “saints” were the martyrs, those who were killed for their faith.  By the 3^rd century and forward, relics of these martyr / saints became holy objects.  And the places where they were killed or buried were believed to be especially holy…sacred ground.

There seems to be a correlation between death and holiness. 

Once we have lost a few loved ones, cemeteries and their sacredness take on a whole new meaning.  The graves of our loved ones who have passed on… we are walking on hallowed ground.  

Which then leads us to All Souls Day.  I think it is no coincidence that both All Saints and All Souls Day are back to back.  

The celebration of the saints and remembering the dead are in other religions and cultures as well, and on these very same few days!

In ancient Rome, there was the Lemuria festival, where the Romans practiced certain rites and rituals to expel evil and malevolent spirits that were believed to visit during this time of year.  

And over in the British isles, there is Samhain, (pronounced Sah-win), a Gaelic & Celtic festival that marks the end of the harvest season, and the beginning of the darker half of fall, which begins on Oct 31^st at sunset.

In Mexican culture, we have Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. 

The Catrinas

Have you ever seen or been to Dia de Los Muertos celebration?  Families will create a home altar of flowers, pictures, candles and the favorite foods and candies of their dead loved ones.  

Why?  It is believed the spirits of the dead return to visit at midnight on OCT 31^st.  Then on NOV 2^nd, in many Mexican villages, there will be processional throughout the town or village to the cemetery.  And there many people will be, with food, music, mariachis play, the priest gives a mass.  And the spirits of the dead return to their graves.

The love ones who have passed on are honored and remembered.  And for the dead, they know they are still loved and not forgotten.

Interestingly there are many other similar traditions around the world all on these same three days!  

Is all this just a grand coincidence?   It does make one wonder!
But why Oct 31^st, NOV 1st & 2nd?

Well, as with most holidays, “holy days”, it has to do with the seasons of the year.  

Oct 31^st – NOV 2^nd is the midway point between the Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice.  It is the journey into “darkness”, from NOV 2^nd to the shortest day of the year, DEC 21^st, (that is in the northern hemisphere).   The days get shorter and shorter, colder & colder, & the nights longer.  The leaves have fallen, the plants and trees go dormant.

To the ancients, it certainly must have looked like the earth was going into a sort of giant death!

We don’t see the drastic changes so much here in Arizona in the warm climate of the desert.  As well, as we don’t have daylight savings time here, the shorter days are not so pronounced.   But in other states, wow!  It gets dark by 4 pm or earlier!  

But are all the saints people from the past, and long dead and gone?  Or do we have saints in the here and now, right here among us? 

Oh, I think we do!    And I am sure many of you right now can think of someone who is a modern day saint, or …has “saint-like” qualities.  

A few years back I met a lady who shall remain nameless, as she would probably die of embarrassment that I am speaking about her.  She created and ran an animal rescue organization, and I adopted one of my dogs from her.  
A few years later, I adopted another dog from her animal rescue organization.  This second time around, we got talking.

I asked her how she got into the animal rescue business, and she told me her story.  She was stricken with cancer, and survived it twice.  The second time around, she made a promise to God that if she lived, she would do something to help animals.  She survived.  

And so she started her animal rescue organization.  She has rescued, saved, helped, etc. and has found homes for literally hundreds of dogs.  

I listened to her story, spellbound.  She described herself as a rescuer.  I shared with her that I was in the Air National Guard, and in a “Rescue” unit.  

She asked what I did in the military.  I sighed.  I hoped she would not think I was going to push religion on her.  I told her I was a chaplain.  She asked what faith I was.   I told her I was an Episcopal priest.  

She responded, “You’re a priest?  My dad was an Episcopal priest!”   

Her work saving animals was / is her ministry.   

Yes, all of us know a modern day saint or two.  Think of them right now.  Especially think of them, as the world tends to overemphasize the negative. 
Yes, we especially need positive thoughts.  And the saints.  Ordinary people, who do extraordinary things…

“A saint is always someone through whom we catch a glimpse of what God is like”.

Let us pray…

O Almighty God, who by thy Holy Spirit hast made us one with thy saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may ever be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and may know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to thy power and mercy. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who liveth and reigneth forever and ever.
Amen.

[Sermon given by The Rev. Laura Adelia, NOV 2nd, 2014]

SERMON - "What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary" (Rabbi Hillel)

There once was a Rabbi, Rabbi Hillel, who lived about a hundred years or so before Jesus’ time.  He was originally from Babylonia, and as a young man made his way to Israel to study the Torah.  He worked as a woodcutter and did not make much money, and at times could not pay the admission fee at the synagogue to study the Torah.  It is said, because of him, this fee was abolished.   

But he just did not study.   He was also known for his kindness, gentleness and concern for humanity.  Eventually Hillel became a leading rabbi and religious scholar of his day.  

Most certainly Jesus and his contemporaries read or studied the teachings of Rabbi Hillel.  

And from Rabbi Hillel, there is a story of a gentile who wanted to convert to Judaism.  After being chased away by another rabbi, the would-be convert approached Rabbi Hillel and asked him what he needed to know in a nutshell.  Rabbi Hillel told him, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary."

If you thought this sounded a lot like the Golden Rule, you are correct.  The Golden Rule however is just worded a little differently, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
 
What is the root of these teachings?  Love!

So let’s talk about love!

Love is the basis of just about all world religions.  And more songs, poems & stories have been written about love than any other topic in the world! 

And who does not want love?  

What gives you love?  How do you feel it?  How do you give love?  What is it that you love?

You know, you all have such a wonderful look on your faces right now...for you all are thinking about love and how it feels.

When I think of love and feel it, it is so closely related to the feeling of peace.  And joy, and happiness.  All these are intertwined.

I heard from someone, who heard it from someone, who told someone, who heard it from someone else, that if I talked about my doggies one more time in a sermon they would explode!  Well, here goes.  So if we have any explosions here, you will know why...

Yes my three doggies bring much joy, happiness and love to my household.  And when they sit next to me in the morning as I drink my coffee and emerge into consciousness, how peaceful and wonderful it is!

Of course, having three little dogs does make for extra housework & cleaning.  But, it is a labor of love.

So, what more can I say about love that has not already been said before? 

The Buddha’s Flower Sermon pops into my mind here.  Are you familiar with it?   In Buddhism, this is a very famous sermon.  It goes like this…  

[SILENCE.  Pick up a flower and smile.]    

Lotus flower

And that’s the sermon!  I will explain…

The Buddha was with his followers.  They sat quietly.  He picked up a flower, and smiled!  It is a sermon not of words, but an act.  

So what is the message?  

It is an act of love, appreciating the beauty of the flower, its “suchness” as it is called in Buddhism, and imparting this wisdom to others by the action of holding up a flower and smiling. 

For you see in Buddhism, direct experience is way more important than doctrines, creeds and intellectual analysis.

I thought of the wordless Flower Sermon because when it comes to love, no matter what we say about it, nothing in words is entirely adequate. 

Perhaps that is why we sing about it so much.  For music helps us open a door to feel that love.

In the Hebrew Bible there are 613 mitzvahs.  A mitzvah is a law, a commandment.  When a Jewish young boy or girl have their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, they become a son or daughter of the commandment.  As full fledged Jews, they now must follow the Torah, the law.

This is why in our Gospel story for today, Jesus is asked, ‘Teacher, what is the most important commandment?’

And how does Jesus answer?   

He quotes the Shema from the book of Deuteronomy:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…”  
 
Jesus then goes on to say there is a second commandment – “to love your neighbor as you love yourself”. 

This second commandment is also is from the Hebrew Bible.  It’s in the book of Leviticus:   “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord your God.”

How easy and wonderful it would be if we could just do this!  But oh so hard it is sometimes, for some people are just, well as we know, just more difficult to love than others!

So I ask you, do you love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul?       

And, do you love your neighbor as yourself?    I mean, really?

But wait!   Don’t answer with words!    Let us answer by how we live.  

Let us answer by how we treat people…and animals.    Let us answer by how we talk to people… or about them.    Let us answer by our actions, by what we do, and what we do not do.    Even by what we think.   

For 'God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God'.  (1Jn 4:16)

'Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…' (1Cor.13)

Let us pray...
Oh loving God,  help us to live and walk in your love.

Amen. 


[Sermon by The Rev. Laura Adelia, given Oct 26, 2014]