The Four B's of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

In today's sermon our supply priest, Fr. Diggs, discussed the feeding of the five thousand and broke it, and our relationship to Christ, down into four B's.

1. Bringing

2. Blessing

3. Breaking

4. Bestowing

Briefly (sorry for the fifth B), We bring our meager gifts to Jesus. They don't look like much I know, nonetheless, He gives thanks and blesses them when most of us would complain about the paltry offering. He breaks bread, and in this way His disciples know Him to be the Lord. He bestows not only the bread, but also the responsibility for sharing it with others to His disciples.

In the musical prelude and offertory we heard variations on the theme of "Simple Gifts."

We have so much to be thankful for, the least of which is the fact that the Lord accepts our simple and unworthy offerings in the first place, blesses us in spite of them, and in so doing breaks and humbles us. Lastly He bestows upon us an awesome responsibility to share His Word with "the five thousand."

(From ReverendFun.com)

Alright, Fr. Diggs did leave out the fifth "B"...

Blog about it!

How Hot Has It Been?

So hot that I saw Screwtape standing in line at the lemonade stand.

It has been a bit warm lately. People have been sending me a lot of "It was so hot that..." jokes, and some were quite good, but I'm afraid not printable on these pages.

We have seen hotter, dryer summers here in Upper South Carolina. I can distinctly remember one summer when the temperatures topped 100 degrees every day for a week. That was the summer I helped to dig a trench for a sprinkler system. The earth was like concrete, shovels just bounced off of the dirt. Yeech...

This summer has blessed us with some late afternoon thundershowers which cool things off a bit, and for that I am thankful.

Still, it has been hot. It was so hot that...

...I dove into a heated discussion of East Tennessee forest management (in the middle of Norris Lake).

Thank God for our reservoirs!

Please note, we used personal flotation devices, and so should you!

Where Do You Find The Kingdom?

Today's Gospel readings, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, restored the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast by splicing them into the parables of treasure in the field, a pearl of great price, and the haul of good and bad fish.

Our preacher, Fr. Diggs gave a nice sermon on the subject, but when he referred to Thomas Merton, it was clear that he would tempt us to wander from a strict interpretation of the text.

"Tell us about the Kingdom of God," is something we hear from Jesus' disciples, and it is something many of us often wonder about. Merton tended to think about it in the here and now rather than as something that is to come. The following is from his journals,

"I remarked on the strange and marvelous fact of this apparently easy and natural communication between a monk in a strictly guarded Trappist monastery and a suspect poet (Pasternak) behind the iron curtain. I am in closer contact with Pasternak than I am with people in Louisville or Bardstown or even in my own monastery-and have more in common with him.
And all this while our two countries, deeply hostile to one another, have nothing to communicate between themselves-and yet spend millions trying to communicate with the moon.
The simple and human dialogue with Pasternak and a few others like him is to me worth thousands of sermons and radio speeches. It is to me the true Kingdom of God, which is still so clearly, and evidently, 'in the midst of us.'"

Thomas Merton October 18,1958 III.224 ("A Year With Thomas Merton: daily meditations from his journals" p. 288)

This takes us back to Luke 17, and I wish Fr. Diggs had made that point to lend a little more weight to his argument.

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation."

Luke 17:20-25 KJV

My reading of Luke gives me two images: one is of the Kingdom as already having come in the form of Jesus, who could be touched, and the Holy Spirit which we have been blessed with of whom we often times are unaware, and a second image of Christ's return at which time his presence will be as obvious as lightning in the sky.

So are we left with a little bit of the Kingdom of God in the here and now and a little bit of it to come?

Some like to think that the Kingdom of God is something that can be brought into the here and now if we work harder at it. Some think that by enacting laws to create their vision of a more just world, or perhaps by "voting for change" they can bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. This is a type of progressive theology which I am not convinced that Jesus was trying to get across when he also told us about wheat and the tares and the haul of the keeper fish and the throwbacks.

Before I buy into the argument that the Kingdom is all around us, a nearly completed, done deal, because we have been baptised, etc, and that all we have to do is open our eyes and see it, I will have to somehow forget what our Lord told us when he taught us how to pray, "...Thy Kingdom come."

Surprising Take on One of TEc's Holy Women

The lectionary pages have been working the new "Holy Men and Holy Women" into the calendar, and the comments found there are usually favorable to the recently elected,but today we find a qualified summary for Elizabeth Stanton.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (26 Oct 1902) by James Kiefer

"Mrs. Stanton was born in 1815 and reared in the Presbyterian Church. She found the Calvinist doctrine of predestination dismaying, and rebelled against it. She denounced the clergy of her day for not upholding women's rights, but as she travelled giving speeches on the subject, she found no lack of pulpits available to her. She undertook to write what she called a Women's Bible. It never got beyond a series of notes on selected Biblical passages. For example, she quotes the passage in Genesis where we are told that Noah's Ark had only one window, and remarks that if a woman had been consulted, the Ark would have been better designed.

Reading Mrs. Stanton's life and works, I have an uncomfortable feeling that she was interested in 'religion' only as a potential ally or opponent in her campaign for women's political equality. I once spent some time in a congregation where the preacher never mentioned God or Christ except when they could be quoted in support of the preacher's political agenda. It was not a good experience. For me, reading about Mrs Stanton moves me, not to say, 'Lord, give me the grace to follow you, as you did to Mrs. Stanton,' but rather, 'Lord do I do that? Do I think of you as there to carry out my agenda? If so, then help me to recognize it and to stop it.'

Meanwhile, if we think that the abolition of slavery and the recognition of women's right to own property are in accordance with justice, and are accordingly good things, then we can thank God for accomplishing good through Mrs Stanton and others. 'It is enough to be sure of the deed. Our courteous Lord will deign to redeem the motive.' (Julian of Norwich)

We probably should take a deeper look into her attempt at Biblical revision in "The Woman's Bible" where in the Introduction she wrote,

"Bible historians claim special inspiration for the Old and New Testaments containing most contradictory records of the same events, of miracles opposed to all known laws, of customs that degrade the female sex of all human and animal life, stated in most questionable language that could not be read in a promiscuous assembly, and call all this 'The Word of God.'"

"The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God, I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman, for all the religions on the face of the earth degrade her, and so long as woman accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible. Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt and dignify woman. My standpoint for criticism is the revised edition of 1888. I will so far honor the revising committee of wise men who have given us the best exegesis they can according to their ability, although Disraeli said the last one before he died, contained 150,000 blunders in the Hebrew, and 7,000 in the Greek."

I also wonder if the powers that be who came up with the new list of Episcopal "Holy Men, Holy Women" knew what Elizabeth Cady Stanton had to say about one of the Episcopal church's most sacred cows?

"When we consider that woman are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library

She classified abortion as a form of "infanticide." The Revolution, 1(5):1, February 5, 1868

Also from Stanton:

"Dr. Oaks made the remark that, according to the best estimate he could make, there were four hundred murders annually produced by abortion in this county alone....There must be a remedy to such a crying evil as this. But where should it be found, at least begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?" - The Revolution 1(10) 146-147 March 12, 1868

h/t Clinic Quotes

Or perhaps her review on the lectionary pages was less than favorable because of these views?

Episcopal Mission Closing: Read Again the Parables of the Sower, the Seeds, and the Yeast

This week we learned of the closing of St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Rock Hill, SC. St. Matthias has been a mission church for quite a few years now and never really seemed to grow despite being located in an area of rapid population growth. Here is a snapshot of their stats,

The rather precipitous fall in plate and pledge following 2003 and 2004 is something that has been noted in other churches and in part may be due to the effects of TEc's move in 2003 to make Gene Robinson a bishop despite the fact that he was previously divorced and openly living in a homosexual relationship.

But, other factors were at work in this mission's story, and those factors have to do with why churches are planted, where they are planted (St. Matthias was only 4.6 miles from Our Saviour), and why they grow.

Gone are the days when a centralized authority can look at a map and the demographics of an area and say, "Let's put one of our churches here."

Gone are the days when a Diocese can accept some donated property and decide that as long as the land is available, "Let's put one of our churches here."

Now is the time to look at new ways of bringing the Gospel to people (see "The End of Church Planting" over at Anglicans United). I still think that success might be assumed if the Gospel message you are sowing is the Gospel of Christ and not some "New Thang."

In a recent article at The Living Church Foundation by Russel J. Levenson Jr. we find,

"Let us confess what we have become: a deeply divided, distracted, dying church. There are clearly bright spots and some places where churches are growing magnificently, but that is the exception, not the rule. Let us quit making excuses. Yes, culture is against us, but no more than ancient Rome was against the early Christians. Yes, our members are dying, but we must be about the business of replacing them. We are too committed to gospels other than the one at the center of Christianity: a relationship with Jesus Christ, and making disciples in his name."

"To confess is to admit not only our faulty ways but also our need for restoration and new life. Some would argue that we should divide even more. This argument, again, comes from the extremes of the church. The far left, committed to revising and modernizing our ancient faith, is happy to see the far right leave (battling fervently for property and assets along the way). The far right, caught in the throes of impatient and uncharitable judgment, allows a root of bitterness to take hold, and departs in a dust storm of triumphant rebellion. Meanwhile, the broad middle waits for the next General Convention, the next leadership crisis and the next massive exodus."

"But if we are willing to admit the possibility that our trails forged since the mid-1970s are fraught with faulty assumptions about the nature of the gospel and its mission, we might also be able to consider reform and new birth."

(h/t Kendall Harmon at T19, and the SC Anglican Communion Network)

We have been reading Matthew's Gospel the past few Sunday's, and last week we read the parables of the sowers of the seeds. Knowing that most small congregations are made up of basically nice folks that you would find to be kind, generous, and friendly, I am beginning to think such the crop failures in TEc are not due to stoney ground, choking weeds, or birds stealing the seed, but rather due to the particular hybrid that is being planted. Like a farmer that is not paying a whole lot of attention, the TEc sower reorders the same hybrid seed that underproduced the previous season rather than going back to the proven non-hybridized version that fed his family for generations.

If there are any doubts as to what type of seed is being shipped, please read this post about the contents of the Episcopal church Publishing Company Catalog.
Let's pause and reflect on today's Gospel.

The Sunday lectionary readings from Matthew continue to be altered by removing certain passages for the third week in a row, and I still think we need to keep the full kernel in place to enjoy the fruits of the Gospel. This week we were presented with Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 which left out two parables. I have re-inserted them in the highlighted text below.

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’


The Parable of the Mustard Seed

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

The Parable of the Yeast

He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

I suspect the omissions of the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Yeast were done to make the job of the preacher a little easier. It is a shame though to leave them out for they speak of the power of God's Word to grow and develop without the need for humankind's attempts at intervention. After all, doesn't it seem that when we try to shape God's kingdom to grow in
the way that we desire that we wind up with stunted plants and unrisen bread?

When considering TEc plants and why they may not grow, it is time for the sowers to look into their bag of seed and realize that this hybrized gospel created through Biblical revisionism is not what the sower of "good" seed was using. It is more like the yeast of the Pharisees in its end result.

It is sad to think in this way of a modern parable of good soil wasted by bad seed, but results are what they are.

I have faith that God will guide the good people of St. Matthias to a new church home.

"You tell me there's an angel in your tree
Did he say he'd come to call on me
For things are getting desperate in our home
Living in the parish of the restless folks I know

Everybody now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
It's time we put the flame torch to their keep

Burn down the mission
If we're gonna stay alive
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven
See the red flame light the sky
Burn down the mission
Burn it down to stay alive
It's our only chance of living
Take all you need to live inside

Deep in the woods the squirrels are out today
My wife cried when they came to take me away
But what more could I do just to keep her warm
Than burn, burn, burn, burn down the mission walls

Now everybody now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
It's time we put the flame torch to their keep"

From "Tumbleweed Connection"
Music: Elton John

Lyrics: Bernie Taupin

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Most of us have seen the following slogan which is used by a certain fast food chain:

I saw the slogan on the side of a vehicle the other day.

It was parked outside a local eatery.

I sat across from the occupants of said vehicle and observed their menu selections from the above restaurant with interest.

All I can say is that it is hard to live into your beliefs at all times, especially when you are hungry.

The Purpose of the Parables Kinda Got Left Out

Today's lectionary reading from Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 contained, or should I say did not contain, yet another one of those curious lectionary edits that left me scratching my head. I include the omitted verses in the bold text below.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!’

Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

‘Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

Could it be that Jesus' words, "For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away" might be considered too exclusivist to the modern pluralist leaning Episcopalian?

Or is it just a coincidence that for two weeks in a row we get a softer, gentler Jesus presented to the Sunday morning crowd than what the full text might suggest, and that crowd never gets to see the sterner reality facing those who reject Him?

Freedom, Liberty, and the Command to "Kill and Eat."

What did you have to eat on the Fourth of July? Here in South Carolina, it was pork barbeque, coleslaw, potato salad, etc. All kinds of things that are probably not healthy and likely to defile the coronary arteries. Freedom and liberty are two of the reasons why we overindulge as we do on holidays, but all that pork made me think about the O.T. prohibitions about certain foods and how these laws are often dragged out when someone tries to trash Biblical moral codes. The "shellfish argument" is one such track that people take when trying to justify the blessing of same sex marriages.

As far as eating pork or shellfish goes, in today's reading from Acts 10:1-16, Peter is commanded three times to "kill and eat" all manner of things.

About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

If we did not have Peter's vision, how would Christians today feel about the liberty to indulge in pork products? Would there be a group of "orthodox" Christians who eat pulled turkey on the Fourth of July and another group of "liberal" Christians who eat barbequed pork and shrimp?

Would the "liberal" pork eaters ask the "orthodox" to bless their meal?

Would the pork eaters pass a resolution at a General Convention of the church to provide for liturgies for the blessing of their dinner?

O Lectionary, Lectionary, Thou that carves up the words of the prophets and the words of the Lord.

Today's readings from using the Lectionary raise some interesting questions about the rationale behind the lectionary edits that we have noted on numerous occasions on these pages.
Genesis 24:34-38,42-49,58-67 I won't focus on the O.T. edits today, but be sure to read Chapter 24 of Genesis as a whole.
Psalm 45:10-17
Romans 7:15-25
Matthew 11:16-19,25-30 is what our Deacon chose as the focus of his sermon today.

‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’

(Deleteted verses went here)

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘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.’

You have to give our Deacon credit for mentioning the missing verses, but I have a different take on how they are an integral part of the Gospel.

So, read the Gospel selection again, but this time I have inserted the missing verses,

‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’

Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.
For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘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.’

Our Deacon pointed out that a judgement worse than that delivered onto Sodom awaits those who reject the yoke of Christ.

Does anyone else see the importance of the Jesus' suggestion in the course of his reproach that repentance is needed from those who accept Him? I have heard it said that there are several points that should be made in the course of preaching, and the need for repentance is one. Without these verses, the Sunday morning crowd at church gets another pass. Oh yeah, the yoke is easy when you don't have to repent.

I also see the missing section as a key to why Jesus is thankful in the next part for this revelation. If there is no judgement, who needs to be thankful?

Time after time, we have seen similar edits. I suggest to you that the Lectionary is contributing to the delinquency of Sunday pewsitters. It is a clear pattern, and you have to wonder why the people who wrote the lectionary chose to present a watered down version of the Scriptures to the congregations (who do not read the Bible regularly and whose only exposure to the text is likely to be on Sunday morning). My theory has been that the editors do not want to scare people with all that judgement and wrath business (as if they might not come back next week for more). I am beginning to think that there are deeper theological implications of the lectionary edits. How does the revision affect our thinking about things such as repentance, salvation, atonement, sin, judgement, and the might and power of the Lord?

The long term effects of listening to an expurgated Bible every Sunday cannot be healthy.

Maybe that has something to do with the decline of the church.