I Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God...

                                                                Proper 10 A 2014

Genesis 28; Psalm 139;Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:23-43

Father Adam Trambley

July 20, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

Last week we began looking at what we believe as expressed in our creeds (read it here).  Specifically, we are walking through the form of the Apostles’ Creed in the Baptismal Covenant.  The Nicene Creed that we usually use during Eucharistic services covers the same ground with a few additional theological points about the Trinity and how Jesus is fully God and fully human.  Using the baptismal covenant today is particularly appropriate because we have a baptism.  Todd will be answering these questions with us as he prepares to enter into the family of God in a new and deeper way.  Like all of us, he isn’t answering these questions because he is one-hundred percent certain of every mystery of God, of the details in the life of Jesus, or of how the Holy Spirit works.  He will be answering these questions as we answer them -- with an open heart and mind.  We trust that God will lead us into fuller understanding of whatever we need to know and into a fuller experience of his life that we profess. 

We might want to note here that for much of the life of the church, the creed was sung during the liturgy.  When classical composers wrote their mass settings, they set the creed to music.  The creed was a work of praise about who God is, not a litmus test about what people think.  People sang what they believed because they were exceeding grateful for all the aspects of God that the creed delineated.  Instead of obsessing about whether they were 97% sure or 12% confused about what exactly it meant that Jesus descended to the dead, they sang with full voice to a God who is so amazing and beyond anything we could imagine that his son would descend to the dead out of love for us.  We can bring that same attitude, even if we recite instead of sing the creeds.  Instead of just mouthing the words we have memorized or are reading from the bulletins, we can allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the each of the incredible qualities and glorious works of God that we profess.  We can give praise that we have such a God.

The second Baptismal Covenant question is “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?”  The first part of our response is “I believe in Jesus Christ.”  Connecting Jesus and Christ is the first faith statement in this section.  Jesus is a particular human being who lived in Palestine about two thousand years ago.  Christ is a Greek term that means “anointed” and is a translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah,” which also means anointed.  The anointed one of God who has a special role to play in God’s redemption is this particular man Jesus.  The other connotation of Christ is of the cosmic Christ who is called the Word in the beginning of John’s Gospel -- “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” – and is also referred to in the beginning of the letter to the Colossians as the image of the invisible God through whom all things were created and who is the head of the Body, the church.  Saying that we believe in Jesus Christ links the human Jesus to the eternal Christ of God.  We don’t entirely understand how, but we know they are the same person.

The next phrase tells us who that person Jesus Christ is, “the Son of God.”  Here we profess a faith in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Also implied here, and spelled out in the Nicene Creed, is that Jesus Christ is not a creature whom God created.  Rather he is the begotten Son who is also part of the Godhead.  As Son, he springs from God’s love in a different kind of way than the more intentional creation of the rest of the universe, although again, the particulars are more than we can understand. 

The next phrase is one of two places in this section of the creed that connects Jesus Christ to us.  We profess him as “our Lord.”  We don’t have a lot of lords hanging around twenty-first century Sharon, except the occasional land lord, so we might rephrase this as “Jesus is the boss of us.”  He’s in charge.  What he wants is what is supposed to happen.  We should serve him and live our lives according to the commandments he gives us.  Why? Because he’s God.  And because he loves us and wants what is good for us.  “Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

The next phrases deal with what happened during the life of Jesus Christ.  Some are miraculous, some could be verified by witnesses, some are almost entirely matters of faith.  In each case, however, we are professing what has happened, not a theological interpretation or explanation of what has happened.  We are giving pretty much a “just the facts ma’am” rundown of the highlights of Jesus’ life.  That simple list is enough, because once we have the list, we can dedicate the rest of our lives to figuring out what Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and everything else mean to us.  Reading scripture and understanding church doctrine and theology can help, but just meditating and thinking about the basic facts of Jesus’ life can bear pretty good fruit, too.

“He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.”  Jesus did not have an earthly Father, but is the Son of God, and his birth was unusual.  We know the story with the angel Gabriel telling Mary she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, and how she gave birth while still a virgin.  The Word became flesh through the work of the Spirit of God and the consent of a human being. 

The next phrase is “He suffered under Pontius Pilate,” and we skip a whole lot of his life in between.  Jesus’ teaching and miracles are important, especially for us, but they aren’t included in the creeds.  Surprisingly, of all the important Biblical figures, the only one who shows up in the creeds besides Mary is Pontius Pilate.  Pilate’s inclusion roots the life of Jesus in history.  This verifiable historical figure tells us that Jesus suffering happened at a particular place and a particular time.  Jesus isn’t a grand metaphor, but someone who was in an identifiable jail in place we can point to during a relatively short period of time.  Saying that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate also professes that ultimately the Roman governor oversaw Jesus’ execution. 

We profess that Jesus “suffered…was crucified, died and was buried.”  What Jesus experienced was a real death.  We aren’t talking about a painless, staged death, or some sort of phenomena where Jesus’ divine consciousness left his body so he didn’t feel anything.  Jesus was executed on a cross, as was common for non-citizens in the Roman Empire, and he was really dead.  Then he was put into a tomb.  The buried part is important at least in part because it tells us that real people were keeping track of the body.  Jesus’ body was cared for after he had died.  Then, when the disciples claimed later that he was raised from the dead, this phrase  tells us that they knew the tomb where he lay, and he wasn’t there anymore.

“He descended to the dead.”  Some translations of the creed talk about him descending into hell.  Between Jesus’ death and his resurrection, he was with the rest of the dead souls in the place where dead souls resided at that time.  He wasn’t spared that part of the experience of death, even if his time there was shorter than most of the previous residents.

“On the third day he rose again.”  This statement is the central aspect of our faith.  Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!  We have a few chapters of scripture that describe Jesus interactions with his disciples after he rose from the dead.  But we don’t have a record of what Jesus did during his death and resurrection, or how exactly Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday happened from Jesus’ perspective. Nor do we claim to know.  Our creeds don’t speculate or provide answers.  Nor do the creeds explain exactly how each component of Jesus’ life contributes to our salvation.  We know that Jesus life, death and resurrection are all important ways that God used to reconcile us back to himself.  But we aren’t told which components, if any, are more important.  If the Word becoming flesh, or Jesus dying for our sins, or Jesus going to hades and breaking the gates of hell, or his rising from the dead and leading us into his eternal Kingdom are the most important.  Different churches and different doctrines emphasize different pieces.  The Episcopal Church for various reasons has our own leanings, but in our creeds simply tell us that all the pieces are important, and we don’t necessarily have to refine it further.  Believing and trusting the entire life of Jesus is enough.

Then we hear that Jesus “ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”  This line tells us what Jesus is up to know.  Since the ascension forty days after Easter, Jesus has been next to God the Father, where he governs the universe and, according the book of Hebrews, acts as our great high priest by bringing our prayers to God. 

This section ends with the second statement of Jesus relationship to us.  “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”   At the last day, Jesus--who loved us enough to leave heaven and become a human being who was crucified--that same Jesus will be our judge.  All of us get to meet Jesus, at the end of time if not before.  We might also note here that our Islamic brothers and sisters also believe that Jesus will come back at the final judgment.  They expect to meet him, as well, even if some of their other beliefs about Jesus are different than ours.

This paragraph is the most important events in the life of the most important person in our faith.  Shortly we will profess them, as will Todd, praising God for the glorious life of his Son, accepting what Jesus has done as being done for us and for our salvation, and living a life in preparation of meeting him at the last judgment.

Creeds, God the Father, Liturgical Colors

                                                                Proper 10 A 2014

Genesis 25; Psalm 119;Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13

Father Adam Trambley

July 13, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

Creeds, God the Father, Liturgical Colors

This morning, we are going to start a series of sermons going “back to basics”.  Over the next five weeks, we will look at pieces of our Baptismal Covenant, while also answering some other questions about what we do and what we believe.  Today, we will look at three things: the creeds, the first response in the baptismal covenant that begins “I believe in God, the Father,” and the colors of the liturgical year.

Some people have asked what we believe here at St. John’s.  They want to know what I’m agreeing to if I keep showing up.  The truest answer may be that you are signing up to be used by God in incredible ways beyond anything you could have previously asked or imagined.  But the answer to the question being asked is that we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to contain all things necessary for salvation; that there are two great sacraments of the gospel, Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist, which were given by Jesus Christ; and we believe what is proclaimed in the ancient creeds of the church which we use in our worship, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.  We’ll tackle scripture and sacraments another time, but right now I want to talk about creeds.

Many churches have a statement of beliefs or a list of doctrines that members are supposed to subscribe to.  Often these include statements about the atonement or how to interpret the Bible or other very specific topics.  The Episcopal Church, coming out of the Church of England, has a more practical bent designed to create a community of faith worshipping together, instead of a church to be divided over doctrinal disputes.  While questions about a variety of topics are addressed in the Catechism that begins on page 845 in the Prayer Book, the primary deposit of our beliefs comes from the creeds recited in worship.  Beyond these basics, almost any opinion about doctrine can be reasonably found within the Episcopal Church somewhere.     

The two creeds we use are the Apostle’s Creed and the NiceneCreed.  The Apostles’ Creed was developed very early, perhaps by the 200’s.  At one point, people believed that each apostle provided one line to the text, which is a nice story but not all that likely.  The Apostles’ Creed can be found, among other places, on page 120 in the Red Book of Common Prayer, and we use the Apostles’ Creed for baptisms and during Morning and Evening Prayer.

The Nicene Creed was developed based on the decisions made about the Trinity and the nature of Jesus Christ at the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon in the 300’s and 400’s.  We usually use the Nicene Creed in our Eucharistic service, and it can be found on page 358 in the Book of Common Prayer.  The Nicene Creed is a bit more complicated theologically, but covers the same ground.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to talk specifically about the Apostles’ Creed as it is used in the Baptismal Covenant.  At baptisms, the Apostles’ Creed is broken into three sections, one about God the Father, one about God the Son, and one about God the Holy Spirit.  Then there are five questions about Christian practice that we agree to, with God’s help.  We will be using this Baptismal Covenant in place of the Nicene Creed today as a way to renew our baptismal promises. 

The first question asked by the celebrant in the Baptismal Covenant is: “Do you believe in God the Father?”  The response, from the Apostles’ Creed, is “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”  Let’s break it down.

The first thing we say is “I believe.”  Belief is a faith statement.  We aren’t claiming something we can prove.  But we are willing to make a claim about God even if we can’t prove it.  We are also willing to live into that claim until we understand it more completely.

The first thing we say we believe in is “God.”   Believing in God states that we are in the great monotheistic tradition that began with Judaism.  We don’t believe in multiple gods, but in one God.

We believe that the one God is “the Father.”  By talking about God the Father, we indicate a belief in the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I won’t go into all the intricacies of Trinitarian theology today, but suffice it to say that we hold God to be three persons in one God and that the Trinity matters to us.  Talking about God the Father also says that we believe that the one whom Jesus called “Father” is the same God who is also almighty and the creator of heaven and earth.  While this might seem obvious, a central tenet of our faith is that we can trust everything that Jesus said about his heavenly Father is true about God, including our ability to call God our Father, and to live as his children. 

God, the Father, is also “almighty.”  God has ultimate sway over everything.  He can do anything he wants.  He is not limited.  He is not equal to some opposing force like the Devil or chaos, but is greater than anybody or anything else.  The Father of Jesus who loves all of us as children is also all-powerful.  Believing God to be all-powerful and the all-good Father raises the problem of evil.  I don’t have time to address that question today, but the Christian answer to that profound question is not one that limits God’s freedom or God’s power.

Then we believe that God is “the creator of heaven and earth.”  All things were created by God.  Heaven and earth are meant to be all inclusive of things physical and spiritual, things seen and unseen, things that we can grasp on earth and things totally beyond us in the heavens.  Saying that all things were created by God has a couple of important implications.  First, it means that all creation is intentional.  God decided to make everything he created.  Nothing was accidental.  No person is an accident in God’s eyes, but everyone has been wonderfully and marvelously made because of God’s love.  The earth is not the body of some dead monster defeated by a great hero, people didn’t sprout up where some deity bled after a battle, and the animals weren’t brought into being when Mother Earth and Father Sky got frisky some night.  Second, God creating heaven and earth means that creation is good.  We know from Genesis that God called his creation good and very good.  So we don’t reject our physical bodies or anything God made as evil in and of itself.  Third, if God is the creator, then we are his creatures.  We are made for God, not the other way around.  Our purpose it to do what our creator wants, and to give him glory.  If we remember that we are creatures of God our great creator, we are much more likely to live the way we are meant to live.

From this first, and shortest, paragraph of the Apostles’ Creed, I want to turn to our liturgical colors and seasons, because I’ve been asked and this seems a good place to talk about it.  The colors we use for my vestments and for the altar and pulpit change according to the seasons of the church year.  While the liturgical seasons go back very early, the colors for those seasons are a bit more recent, and in the middle ages some places used slightly different colors.  None of the liturgical colors are found in the Prayer Book, but I’ll run down the liturgical seasons and the colors we generally use.

The church year begins in Advent, which starts four Sundays before Christmas.  Usually it falls around Thanksgiving weekend.  There are two colors that are used for Advent.  Purple is a penitential color, and has been traditionally used during this season when we hear and respond to John the Baptist’s call to “repent.”  More recently, many churches have chosen to use blue for Advent as a way to differentiate it from Lent.  The Advent blues tend to be rich, beautiful, and wintery, which is probably part of why people like them.

Beginning Christmas eve, and for the twelve days of Christmas, we use white or gold, which are interchangeable liturgically.  White is the color for joy, resurrection, triumph and glory, and is used for most of the great feasts of the church, as well as for funeral masses, when we celebrate the resurrection.

After the Christmas season, we use green.  Green is the color for the time in between the great feasts and fasts of the church year.  It brings to mind growth, which is what all Christians should be doing.

During Lent, we use purple as a sign of penitence.  Here at St. John’s we have a set of black vestments with purple trim that we use because they are particularly beautiful.  We don’t use colored trim on the altar or pulpit during lent, to provide a more somber atmosphere.  Some churches use a crème color with black and scarlet trim as an alternative to purple.

Red is the color of the Holy Spirit and of blood.  We use it for Pentecost, and also for Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the feasts of martyrs. 

After red for Pentecost and white for Trinity Sunday, we return to green until Advent.  The Altar Frontal we use during this season, as well as for weddings, is a crème color with a multi-colored design in it.  We use this “all seasons” hanging because it matches my summer chasuble better than the regular green we have.  This particular chasuble was an ordination gift, and has embroidered on it the tree described in Psalm 1 as a metaphor for the righteous: they are like trees planted by the water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not whither, everything they do shall prosper. 

Does anyone have any particular questions on any of the things we’ve looked at today? 

Isaac, Rebekah, and God at Work

                                                                 Proper 9A 2014

Genesis 24; Psalm 45;Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Father Adam Trambley

July 6, 2014 St.John’s Sharon

This morning’s first reading is about how Isaac and his wife Rebekah end up together.  The process is different than what it was for Abraham or Jacob, or, for that matter, most of you here this morning.  Isaac’s mother Sarah has recently died, his father Abraham is old, and Abraham wants him married.  Isaac has to find a wife if he is be the vehicle to fulfill God’s promise to make Abraham a great nation.  We heard two weeks ago how Isaac, and not Ishmael, was to be God’s instrument.  So we need to find the boy the right girl.

The build up to this passage is interesting.  Abraham sends his servant to go to Abraham’s people to find a wife.  He doesn’t want a local wife from the Canaanites, presumably because of their idols, but he doesn’t say.  Then he tells the servant not to let Isaac go with him.  Abraham traveled all over the place, and found a wife and a couple of concubines.  Later Isaac’s son Jacob will go back to his uncle Laban’s and come back with two wives and two concubines, and Jacob also travels rather extensively.  But for whatever reason, Isaac isn’t trusted either to travel or to find his own wife.

Abraham commissions the servant and the the servant trusts God to lead him to the right young lady.  He also brings lots of jewelry and gifts to persuade that right young lady when God identifies her.  He gets to the city of Nahor, where Abraham’s family lives, and he stops at the local well, which is where a lot of Biblical romance occurs.  He prays that the right woman would come and draw water for him and his camels.  Rebekah comes. Abraham’s servant asks for a drink and she gives him water and takes care of his ten camels, which is just a little bit like pumping gas for the guy in the Rolls Royce when he asks you to.  While the camels are drinking the servant prays for guidance, and decides that God has indeed sent this young woman.  So he gives her some bracelets and a nose ring.  (I don’t know about you, but back in my courtin’ days, you give a girl a nose ring and she was swoonin’.)  Rebekah runs home to tell her mother about the situation, and to show him her presents.  Rebekah’s brother Laban comes out, meets with Abraham’s servant, and negotiates the marriage.  In the morning, Rebekah decides to leave immediately with Abraham’s servant. 

When they get back to the area where Abraham is from, Rebekah sees Isaac wandering around in the evening, quite possibly on his way back from the ancient Israelite outhouse equivalent.  Rebekah gets off her camel, put on her veil, and goes and meets him.  Then scripture tell us two things, both a little bit odd.  Isaac takes her into his dead mother’s tent and marries her there.  He loves her and is comforted after his mother’s death.  Probably not exactly how you want to start life with your new husband – making him feel better about losing his mother while you take over her tent.  But he loves you and you have his nose ring, so everything should be OK. 

Here at St. John’s, we are back in the midst of wedding season, again.  I’m working with two couples right now, and am hopeful for a few others in the near future.  Last year, we had eight weddings, which is far and away the most I’ve ever officiated in one year.  Most of my more interesting stories from being a priest have occurred as part of weddings, especially before I knew enough to say, “That sounds like a nice idea, but it really isn’t going to work.”  I say that partially in jest, but in all honesty, I’m not sure I’ve ever been involved in a perfect wedding, where everything from beginning to end happened exactly the way it was all planned.  In most cases, the hiccups didn’t matter, and probably nobody even noticed, with the possible exception of the time in Warren when the ceiling fans blew strongly on the wax candles that were lit down the center aisle, one of which was dripping all over the best man’s shoulder.  But regardless of a detail here or there, everybody could focus on the important things in the moment, which was a joyful celebration of God knitting together two people who were now married.  In the end, what God was doing at that moment was much more important than build-up, the planning, or whatever other details and expectations may have seemed so crucial in the abstract. 

We see the same things in the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.  Walt Disney Productions is probably not animating their story as a musical about “true love”.   But God was fulfilling his promise and moving his grand plan of salvation history forward through the arrangement and consummation of this marriage, which, by the way, doesn’t involve a priest or a church or even a wedding cake.  Either Isaac or Rebekah, or we hearing the story today, might think that something else needs to happen for everything to be right, or to be romantic, or to really count, or to be truly worthy of the marriage of one of Israel’s patriarchs.  But God doesn’t need or demand any of that.  God’s not bound by our expectations or our sense of the way things have to be.  He’ll work with whatever we give him, and given the kind of shape we are usually in, we should be grateful that he keeps his promises, even in what may seem like less than ideal circumstances.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”   We might be surprised to hear that Jesus is inviting us to take on a lighter burden, when we are also told to take up our cross and to live into a perfect love for God and neighbor.  But Jesus is really inviting us precisely into a life of love that makes our loads lighter than we can imagine.  Jesus only wants us to carry the burden of being the people we were made to be, rather than trying to live up to all the “should” and “oughts” and expectations and false facades that make up so much of our lives.

When we are truly honest, we add so much to our own burdens, as well as the burdens of other people.  Instead of allowing life to happen and looking for how God is working in the midst of it, we decide that things have to be a certain way, and decide that we can’t work with them if they aren’t.  When we look for what God is doing, we can find him more than capable of working in even the messiest situation.  If we decide to be about what God is about, then even when everything seems to be going wrong, we can seek God and cooperate with what he is up to.  Our burden there is light, because all we are responsible for is to work alongside of God.  If we take up Jesus’ yoke, and turn over control of our lives to him, then none of the things that aren’t supposed to have control over us can become heavy burdens to us.   

But if we refuse Jesus’ yoke, our burdens get very heavy, because we take on yokes that are both impossible and unhealthy for us to carry.  We worry about how things appear and how they look, rather than just worrying about making things the best they can be.  We worry about what people think of us and about controlling our image, rather than just being authentic to who we are, and apologizing when we make a mistake.  We worry about the future and having enough and guaranteeing long-term success, when all we need to do is seek first the Kingdom of God today and let God provide us what we need.  We scramble around to manage our fears, when God invites us to love, because when we are busy loving we find our fears just disappear.  We take on any number of burdens we shouldn’t have, and refuse to take up the one yoke that strengthens us as we carry it.

We don’t have to be perfect, nor do the situations in our lives have to be perfect.  Isaac and Rebekah were far from perfect, and their wedding arrangements were problematic on a bunch of levels, but God worked through them and kept his promises through them.  God will do the same with us.  All we have to do is take up Jesus’ yoke and cooperate with what he is doing in our lives.  He will be doing the important work of love, and that work will lighten our load as we engage it, while also blessing those around us.   Taking up Jesus’ yoke gives us a true “happily ever after.”