Holy Brit

Moved to Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 21:38:00 -0400

Some of you know I have two blogs, one here and one on Wordpress. For the moment, I am only going to post on the Wordpress site. www.raggedweaver.wordpress.com

Come and join me on the dark side!

Righteous Action

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 17:39:00 -0400

Righteous Action

Posted on August 12, 2017

So, I am sitting here listening to the people in my house. I am angry at the scenes I am seeing on the news from Charlottesville, VA. There is violence around which ultimately stemmed from the decision to remove a statue of a long-dead Confederate general.

As with everything, there are thready, spidery and wound together paths which lead from that decision to today. I am angry that people do this, but I am also angry that I am able to choose silence. It is not fair. There are many things where this is true. I can sit quietly and set a point in my head at which I will intervene. If someone starts throwing insults, threats, gets out a weapon, hits someone – at one of these points, I can tell myself, I will intervene, I will say something, or call 911.

I am not in Charlottesville, but each and every day there are people around here who choose to treat other people as less important because of race, gender, sexuality, health or economics. The television is on and we are looking at “those” people, meaning the KKK extremists. We are hearing news stories on social media which we need to Google to prevent furthering our own utter outrage (and which are, so far, untrue).

The problem here is not just me, but it is me. At every point where using, or refusing to use, my own voice becomes oppressive to others I am not living into God’s vision for me. There are people whose ideas which I find repugnant. It is not, ever, Christian, to claim that some people have more worth than others, because of anything at all, skin color included.

I can say this, every time I hear it, I will say this. White Supremacy is not Christian. It is not a part of God’s vision for the world.

I can check my facts before I speak. I can look at the humanity even of the people whose opinions I find so sickening. I can’t fix every ugly word or mean action – but I can engage in the world in a deliberate and careful fashion.

Most of all I can stem my anger from a wild and dangerous reaction into a more careful and Righteous Action. Capital letters because, if God can hold anger, then God is angry too.

Sermon 23 July "Wheat and Tares"

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 15:00:00 -0400

(video at bottom of post)

The kingdom of heaven is like…..

When I got to Church this morning I wandered for a few moments. I just paid attention, wondering what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, where I can find it. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the cool calm of the chapel on this steamy morning, inviting me to rest for a moment in God’s presence. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the kitchen full of volunteers, cutting and chopping and baking and breaking to feed all of those of you who will join us for breakfast throughout the morning. The Kingdom of Heaven is the parishioner on a laptop in the Parish Hall, quietly doing something, but with her Prayer Book next to her on the table, ready for worship. The Kingdom of Heaven is like the cheerful good mornings, the person arriving early for the next service. I could keep going………….

This chapter in Matthew is full of allegories and parables trying to explain what God’s Kingdom looks like. It is going to be hard going, Jesus has already faced stiff opposition from the Pharisees.

If you take this story literally, and many do, the Kingdom of Heaven is not so much like my observation above. The more I read this, the more I want to say that this is a parable of its time. Its imagery is agricultural, its message is unrelenting. In it there are two sorts of seeds, two sorts of people - good and bad. God sows one, the devil the other. Good people will shine for eternity, the bad will go to a place of fiery punishment. In order to be literal about this we have to be willing to say that there are people who are born and weeds and will die as weeds and nothing will change that - they are children of the devil.

I don’t know about you, but I am not willing to say that. I do not believe Jesus says that God is so powerless that a human life can be lived from beginning to end with no hope of transformation. So what does Jesus mean?

The crowds who heard these stories did not hear the explanations. The lectionary glues together the text, missing out the story of the mustard seed and the yeast. We just need to be careful, we go from public discourse to private conversation. We do not really understand the intricacies of the references in the original story, nor can we gather the sort of mood Jesus was in with his Disciples.

I wonder whether the parable follows a much wider theme in the Gospels which is the the opposition to Jesus will grow, Kingdom values will exist alongside the values which have come to inhabit Judaism and the Jewish authorities and this will seem insufferable - why does God not just do something about it, here and now? If this is true we are looking at a call to patience, to forbearance, to understanding that there are things which are not plain and simple and the way we think they should be.

In his explanation is Jesus just reassuring the Disciples that their experience of things which are not building up, are not feeding, are not good is real and that there will be a time when even those who look like a part of the Kingdom will be revealed as its enemies? Even within ourselves there is a tension between who we are and who we want to be. The Kingdom as it is here, is a complex and, sometimes, contradictory place.

Personally I do not believe God is arbitrary and mean and the question I really want us to ask is, not what happens to bad people, but what does the Kingdom of God look like? What are our stories and parables?

It is important that we start with the Bible but the images in the Bible are not our every day. Is the Kingdom of Heaven like Starbucks or Amazon? The Kingdom of Heaven is like the Dad who walks his son to school every day or the Grandmother who bakes a cake for her grandchild? The kingdom of heaven is like the doctor who volunteers for a year in the Sudan or the teacher who chooses to work in the inner city?

It is hard, isn’t it, because as soon as we start looking we realize that there is no perfect image here on earth - there are only glimpses. There are chinks of light all over the place.

The Kingdom of heaven is like….. Is it like our anger and our fear? Is it like our judgement and our easy answers? If this parable is to tell us anything, the answer is no, because this is God’s realm and God will tend it.

The word for weed in the Greek is zizania - interestingly this is the genus which we now call wild rice and pay a huge amount of money for in the grocery store. Traditionally though, we have translated the word as “tare” - probably a plant called Darnel - lolium temulentum - the temulentum means drunk, a reference to a fungus which the plant often carries which causes sleepiness and, sometimes, death.

In our age we need reminding time and again that we cannot simply coast through our Christian lives, we cannot be asleep at the wheel, complacent because we have forgotten to keep watch for the weeds which grow in amongst the wheat of the Kingdom. Simply keeping ourselves out of trouble is not the same as being a transforming presence in the world. One of the problems we face as modern Christians is the anaesthetic effect which being a part of the establishment for so long has given us.

Where do you see the Kingdom of Heaven at work? Where are you a part of that work? Where are you being challenged and unseated? Where are you seeing yourself being changed and bearing good fruit through the power of the Holy Spirit? Stop and look. Think for yourself. Use your words, your life, your experience to explore just what the Kingdom of God is like. Walk this way, towards Christ with an open mind and longing heart.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like this. Like us. It is that simple. Each of you is a part. None of you is worthless or without hope of redemption. Live into that hope and that life and be a part of the work God is doing in this place and in the world.

Defeating Sexism, how men can help.

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 19:54:00 -0400

The other day, when the story about Mr. Trump saying that Brigitte Macron was "in good shape" broke, I found myself angry and bemused. Angry, because sexism is real and it hurts. Bemused because I am at a total loss as to how to deal with it.

Sexism in the Church is a real and current problem. It is especially bad when you begin to talk with female clergy. I have yet to meet a female priest who has not experienced some form of demeaning, objectifying or downright discriminatory behavior from both parishioners and, more worryingly, male colleagues and superiors.

But how do you deal with it when someone says something along the lines of, "You are in good shape."? After all, if you are in good shape you have had to work at it, and someone complimenting you should be just that, a compliment. The even harder piece of this is that for many older people it is a compliment with no thought to web of culture and misogyny into which is is woven.

One problem is objectification. Women have been objects for centuries, property to be passed from birth family to marriage family. Little wonder that generations of men grew up and were trained to look at whether women were a good asset and a sensible investment in terms of genetics. The underbelly of the compliment is , "remember to stay in your place, quiet and pretty, that is what you are for."

It might look as if we have done the hard work already, after all women are in all levels of leadership in the Church, so we must be OK. But in some ways, that is just the surface. There are layers of assumptions and culture which we have to learn to notice alongside the blatant sexism which allows people to tell me they would rather have a male priest do their wedding or funeral.

Jesus always challenged assumptions and stands up for those who have no voice. When a woman is victim of a system which is institutionally sexist she cannot stand up to it herself - this just compounds the issue. If you are a man and you are getting this, if you are nodding along and not writing me off as over-reacting or of otherwise reduced capacity then this is your job, this is what you can do. We really need your help.

Baby Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:40:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | Jun 21, 2017 |

The Nativity of John the Baptist is a mouthful, but that is the name of the Festival we are celebrating this week. Nativity just means birth, and the birth of this child restored voice to his father. John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, has been struck dumb when he did not believe that God would give him, and his wife Elizabeth, a child. After the birth John’s mother said her baby’s name would be John. Family and friends questioned this, as it was not a family name, and deferred to Zechariah who wrote on a tablet, “His name shall be John.” This act of faith confirmed that this was the extraordinary work of God.

The prophetic work of John the Baptist was about preparing a place for Jesus – who would restore voice not just to those close to him – but would allow the voices of anyone who came to Him to be valued and listened to. The age into which John was born was one of noise and violence. Powerful people controlled state and religion. The voice of God had become confused with the voice of factions and party in-fighting.

This restoration of speech in the birth of John is a shadow of the restoration of the right of speech to all humanity. John is the prophet of the Christ, he is the foreshadowing of the Messiah. This baby whom Zechariah and Elizabeth never expected to parent was the “voice crying in the wilderness, prepare a way for the Lord.”

The wilderness into which John entered was not just literal, but a spiritual. A place of desolation and abandonment for God’s chosen people. His birth heralds a new time and, in the heat of the summer, draws us back to the story of a Savior who is coming, who is always coming to each and every one of us to listen and restore and hold.

Final Words

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:39:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | Jun 14, 2017 |

I remember being taught at school how to write a curriculum vitae. We meticulously wrote (by hand in those days) our classes and exam grades and details of after school jobs. Many years later the details that were so important to my earlier self just clutter up a page full of so many other things which have filled my life thus far. Things that were in exquisite detail thirty years ago, now disappear under a broad brush-stroke.

Like many Biblical characters, we do not know much about Barnabas. Details of his personal history and family are left to conjecture using the small pieces of information which are given to us in the Acts of the Apostles. We know he accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys and Paul describes him as an Apostle. Generally it is thought that he died a martyr in Cyprus in AD 61.

It would satisfy my curiosity to know more about Barnabas but it would not change the summary purpose on his Resume which was to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. His journeys were arduous and telling this story of his faith, dangerous. We have no idea what he thought as he woke each morning or the prayers which fell from his lips as he fell asleep at night.

The question I find myself asking is, if there were no details about my height and eye color, about my relatives and friends, what would there be to write about? Is my life absorbed in minutiae which will be lost to time, or is it given to telling a story which time cannot contain?

Caroline+

The Rhythm of the Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:36:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | Jun 7, 2017 | Spirituality |

Off the east coast of Scotland are a cluster of Islands. The Hebrides. If you travel from Oban on a ferry and then take a bus all the way across the Island of Mull you will come to the small Isle of Iona. You will see a cluster of buildings, a small village for fishermen and tourists and then a large stone structure, Iona Abbey.

Columba traveled from his native Ireland to Iona and founded an abbey there in the sixth century. Iona is beautiful but inhospitable in the long, cold and wet winters. Yet, in this place, close to nature, grew a monastery which sent monks out across Scotland and down into Northern England. It was a Gospel message infused by the rhythms of the seasons and borne by people who were closely in touch with their natural surroundings.

We are blessed to live in a place where we, too, can stay in touch with a rhythm which goes far beyond our daily busy-ness. Columba would have had the sound of the ocean, the change of the tides and the smell of the saltwater around him constantly. Ponder a moment, the next time you are on the beach, that we are watching that same rhythm of the earth that Columba watched. We worship the same God, through the same Jesus Christ. Breathe deep and feel your heart beat.

Family Time

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:31:00 -0400

Family time

by Caroline Kramer | May 31, 2017 |

In the Gospel of Luke, we are told the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, visiting her cousin, Elizabeth, a few months into her pregnancy. Elizabeth is also pregnant, with John the Baptist. As with many feasts there is a formal title for this day (May 31), The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Church year traces a path through Mary’s life. The feast of the Annunciation is on March 25. The angel visits exactly nine months before Christmas. (No doubt many women over the centuries have wished they could have had such pinpoint planning for their babies.) On August 15, we remember the death of Mary, this day has various names. In some Episcopal Churches the older date of September 8 is kept.

So, what is so special about this family visit? It is from this story which we get a real acknowledgement of who this baby that Mary is carrying from Elizabeth as she addresses her junior cousin, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Luke 1:42-43)

Mary speaks of her own blessing in the words which we now call the “Song of Mary” or the “Magnificat”. She is chosen for a great task and rejoices in God’s greatness. These are not the words of a demure and weak person, they are words of abiding trust in the strength and mercy of God.

Together these two women provide examples of people who have allowed themselves to be turned upside down and inside out by God and rejoice in God working through them.

What goes up?

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:29:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | May 24, 2017 |

The Feast of the Ascension always falls on a Thursday so it is easy for it to get lost in the middle of a usual work and school week. Forty days after Easter, it tells the story of Jesus return to heaven, bringing to a close the Resurrection appearances. It is an odd sort of story, one which can seem a little more as if it belongs to the realm of dragons and fairies than to any sort of rational religion.

Whatever the mechanics of the Ascension, and they are not at all clear from the Biblical narrative, the message is clear and presented in an almost comical way in the first Chapter of Acts. After Jesus has gone two men in white appear and say to the Disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?” Jesus has already told them that they are to go and tell the good news of the Gospel to Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the Earth – in other words, the angels say, “Stop gawking and get on with it!”

Forty is an important number in the Bible. The Israelites spent forty years wandering in the Wilderness before they found a home. Jesus spent forty days in the desert before he began to fully live into who he was. The Disciples and Jesus’ followers, that early Church, had forty days to learn what the great events which we celebrate in Holy Week and Easter called them to do. Now they are called to task, to live as Christ in the world.

Pentecost, that great day of birth and empowerment for the Church, is just around the corner. The Apostles will taste God’s presence in the fire and power of the Holy Spirit. This Ascension Day we are called, as they were, to stop staring up and waiting for something to happen. Instead we must come down from the mountain and be Christ’s body in the world.

Dakota Hare

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:28:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | May 15, 2017 |

One of the things which we value in our tradition is the stories of the people who have walked the way of Christ ahead of us. Most days of the year have the name of someone whom we especially want to remember attached to them – some are the big, well known, saints like Peter and Mary. Others are lesser known, and May 17 is the commemoration of William Hobart Hare.

Who? You are in the vast majority if you have never heard of him. He was the Episcopal Bishop in the Dakotas at the end of the 1800s. That meant he was overseeing a frontier and missionary Diocese in Sioux land. There were all sorts of expectations around him of what this might mean from both civil and church standpoints.

He is clear – look at who people are, look at their basic needs and wants before you decide what is best for them. Equally, he cautions, do not overlook differences. But he comes down to one definite point of confidence – that God, the true God, the love of God in Jesus Christ is universal and meets the needs of all.

Looking back on this period of history many people have questions about cultural imperialism and colonization. Justice and peace are hard to find in this past. But what about our present? How do we understand ourselves in relation to others, people who are different? How do we make God present and present the story of Christ coherently and yet remain aware of our own cultural assumptions? Do we dare to enter into dialogue which will challenge our thinking? Some may even be asking whether there is a place at all for Christian mission within a pluralistic society.

These are hard questions but important ones. That is why we remember those who have gone before us. Not, necessarily, because they always got it right or conformed to our understandings of life but, rather, because they have entered into the conversations, which we often avoid, with the love of Christ before them. We have to do the same, to bravely step out into what Hobart Hare calls “the hard places of the earth.” Not because we know how, but because we know why and who – God’s love in Jesus Christ.

God made us and loves us and keeps us

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:25:00 -0400

by Caroline Kramer | May 8, 2017 |

Julian of Norwich lived in the fourteenth century in England. She was famous in her own time for her knowledge of God and personal holiness, people came from near and far to visit her. May 8th is the day upon which we remember her. Below is one of her most famous quotes, seeing that God loves us very much.

I saw that [our Lord] is to us everything which is good and comforting for our help. He is our clothing, who wraps and enfolds us for love, embraces us and shelters us, surrounds us for his love, which is so tender that he may never desert us. And so in this sight I saw that he is everything which is good, as I understand.

And in this he showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand….

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God preserves it. But what did I see in it? It is that God is the creator and protector and the lover. For until I am substantially united to him, I can never have perfect rest or true happiness, until, that is, I am so attached to him that there can be no created thing between my God and me.

go and tell!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 14:05:00 -0400

Go and tell!

The women are told, go and tell. They do not ask what or say they do not understand or wonder where the clergy are when they are needed. They go and tell.

Talk about looking stupid.

“Hey, guys, ah…., we saw Jesus, he is risen from the dead.

“No, I have not been drinking.

“No the stress is not getting to me.

“Yes, really.

“Look, if you don’t believe me go and see for yourself….”

Easter goes on for seven weeks because it is a season of proclamation. We tend not to sing Easter hymns all that time and even the readings switch from assuring us that Jesus is risen to teaching us who Jesus is. But we have a job to do.

The women did not have advanced degrees in theology they simply went and said what they had seen.

“We have seen the Risen Lord!”

What have you seen? What have you come to know, to see as true? It is not clever stuff from books, it is just ordinary people meeting Jesus and knowing that we are known and loved. That is all.

Easter Sermon

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 21:21:00 -0400

Alleluia! Christ is Risen indeed!
When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to Jesus tomb early on Sunday morning, they must have had heavy hearts. They had stayed home, as required, for the Sabbath but as soon as they were able, as the day was dawning, they made their way back to Jesus’ resting place. They found the tomb much as they had left it, guarded and sealed.

Matthew is different from the other Gospels – much more dramatic in his rendering of events. Just as he is the only Gospel writer to mention an earthquake at the crucifixion, now, also, he mentions an earthquake in the garden. Remember how the earthquake on Friday had drawn amazement from the centurion who said this man must be the son of God. This earthquake and the appearance of an angel frighten the soldiers guarding the tomb so much that they pass out. The angel even has the audacity to roll back the stone and sit on it. The power of the Roman Empire and the Jewish State mean nothing here.

The women do not faint or run away. They listen. They listen to the words of the Angel that Jesus has been raised, they examine the empty tomb and they are sent to summon the disciples. As they are going Jesus, himself, appears to them and gives them more explicit instructions that they are to meet in Galilee.

The women must have been afraid as both the angel and Jesus tell them not to be, but then their reactions are to worship and to take the message to the others. They are witnesses to something which is so unbelievable that ever since people have spent a lot of time and energy figuring out how this did not happen. Well at least not really.

When I was a teenager York Minster was struck with lightening which caused a bad fire which did a lot of structural damage. Many people thought it was a judgement from God for consecrating a guy called David Jenkins as Bishop. God was obviously a little directionally challenged as York is well over an hour from Durham whose cathedral sits up on a hill and would be an easy target for divine retribution.

Anyway, what David Jenkins had said was that if the Resurrection of Jesus was simple a magic trick (a conjouring trick with bones) it did not prove very much, other than God might be a good magician. He went on to say that the Resurrection “was not just a single event but a series of experiences which gradually convinced people that Jesus life, power, purpose and personality were actually continuing.”

I am not one of those people who is going to spend much time worrying about how God did things, what Jesus looked like, or whether you really could touch him or not. The simple fact is, that from that moment onwards people were utterly and completely transformed by the ongoing life of Christ in His followers and that continues today.

I may have told this story before, but when I was a university student I struggled to come to terms with life up until that point. It had been complicated and hard. Church had always been a refuge but gradually I moved away from this institution which seemed to have too many rules, too many rude and opinionated people and represented God, who I really did not want to believe in any more.

I was doing pretty well as an atheist, anger was really helpful. So, one Easter Eve, I decided to prive things once and for all. I happened to be walking past the church Eve at the time of the Easter Vigil. As I walked up the steps I said, “Right God, see how much I believe in you now!”
If there is an idiots guide to Atheism I would suggest that the first thing in it should be not to talk to God. Anyway, I was pretty good at standing at the back scowling until the Gloria. As some of you know it disappears during Lent in favor of something more solemn and when it returns the Easter Gospel is just around the corner. Well that was the end of my rebellion. My sulking attempt at disbelief was no match for the sheer power of the dawning of the Resurrection, of the story I knew would be recounted any moment.

But is that just wishful thinking, some sort of self-invented magic trick. God, after all, does not seem to do very much magic most of the time. We often find ourselves much more in fear than we do in reassurance. We find ourselves feeling confused and alone – so what is the point of this Resurrection thing – what difference does it make.

You can easily imagine it makes none at all. You will leave here today and walk back to the same reality which you left an hour ago – good or bad. Just like when I walked out of that Church that evening I would spend years gluing myself back together little pieces at a time. All I can say is what is true for me. It was true than and it is true now.

There are days when I am very afraid – I watch the news, see my kids go out on their own, realize I am moving to a phase of life, wondering about health and bills and all those so mundane and yet all-consuming things which chew at all of us. I could say simply. It is out of my hands, God is in control – but for me, that seems to be passing the buck. Those women on that morning had to prove the truth of that Resurrection experience through their actions.

You see the Resurrection of Jesus is something in which we participate – we share a risen life. We are asked not to be afraid, not because there is nothing which will scare us, but because we are redirected by today’s events. It is not a magic pill, it is a journey of engagement. It is a journey for which we are usually ill prepared and which we often wonder about. But stop long enough to kneel and the feet of Jesus and know that the Risen Lord knows exactly who you are and longs for you to reach out.

My younger self was right, the church is full of annoying, opinionated, hypocritical people – I did not find a new church to sure myself of this – I just realized I was one of them. We are all real people. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were real people. Whilst the excitement of those first few days, weeks, months might have given them a blindness to their precarious situation, there must have come a point where the words in the garden, “Do not be afraid” became a lot less about the extraordinary and a lot more about the ordinary.

Stop long enough to look. Stop long enough to listen, to touch and taste. Christ is Risen, allow that to be an invitation to participate in this journey of light and life.

The Samaria Woman. Lent 3.

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 13:50:00 -0400

As we have seen before, the Gospel of John is differently put together than the other three Gospels. In chapter two we had the changing of the water into wine and then Jesus cleanses the Temple. In chapter 3 Nicodemus, the member of the Sanhedrin, comes to Jesus by night. Then, in this chapter, Jesus meets and talks with a woman at a well in the Samaritan city of Sychar.

The Gospels in Lent are stories of encounter. Jesus encounters himself and his own calling in the Temptation in the Wilderness. Nicodemus finds Jesus by night, today we have the Samaritan woman, next week the man born blind and, finally, Lazarus is raised from the dead. The lectionary deliberately skips through the Gospel in order to give face to those who have met, and been changed by, Jesus person to person.

This is, of course, a key message for Lent. That during Lent we are invited to so order our lives that we make space for Christ. We do this both by special acts of devotion and charity but also by reformation of life – that is the process of straightening ourselves up and trying to iron out some of the kinks which we know we have in the hope that year by year we will walk closer and closer to Jesus through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

There could not be a bigger contrast between Nicodemus and this woman. For one Nicodemus has a name, this woman is one among many who would have been considered outcasts amongst the Jews. She is a Samaritan, remember the hated Samaritans, she is a woman and, it turns out, a woman with a jaded background – not necessarily reflecting her own immorality, but definitely showing her own vulnerability in a male dominated society.

Yet Nicodemus comes by night, he is cautious and he takes the whole Gospel to make anything like a public declaration of faith. It is not until after the crucifixion that he is seen carrying that heavy load of spices to the tomb, apparently one of the followers of Jesus. This woman meets Jesus in broad daylight in what seems like a chance meeting. In broad daylight she runs to her fellow townsfolk, not afraid, apparently, of repercussions, or of not being believed – she runs because she is changed by this meeting.

Perhaps a key difference between the two is that Nicodemus is coming from a place of power and caution. He has always believed that he is OK. That his learning and grasp of the law means that he is faithful and chosen. This woman can publicly have none of that – although her conversation with Jesus shows that she has a grasp of history and theology – she is educated, but not in the formal way of the Pharisee and neither is her role in the public arena of the legislature.

To her, Jesus proclaims who he is, fully. And from this proclamation she becomes consumed as a messenger of the Good News. Her response to “ I am He,” is to tell people. This is a message of abundant gladness, overflowing joy, exuberance. It is a fountain which will not run dry and a spirit which will never thirst again. Through this brief encounter the woman is washed from the inside out and given value and purpose.

If you heard about the fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, last year you may also have heard that Dollywood came close to disaster. A lot of people laugh at Dollywood but my children were raised on a diet of roller coasters and bluegrass and Dollywood checks both of those boxes. One of the resident singing groups is called the Kingdom heirs, notable in our family, because my late father-in-law, who never cared too much for Church, would go to their shows multiple times in a park visit. They are a Gospel Vocal group, and we are that family who sing in the car, yes, in four part harmony. This might not be your cup of tea but one of their songs is about this Gospel. The line which jumped out to me this week was:

“Give me a drink, that I should never thirst again, so she went away a’telling the news about the water of life.” She went away a’telling.

Appalachian culture is one of stories. If you are familiar with the mountains you know not to expect a short answer to most things, stories abound and you may as well settle in an enjoy them. Bluegrass songs often tell long stories, larger than life characters fill their notes. A’telling is a big part of life when there is nowhere to rush to, and nowhere to be except right where you are, on long winter nights.

The woman rushes, but she drops everything she is going to go and tell the story – she even leaves her water jug. I wonder when we are so compelled to simply stop everything and involve ourselves in a story. If you listen to talk radio, you may have driveway moments, when a story has grabbed your attention and you sit and listen to the end on the driveway instead of going into the house.

There are incidents and disasters which catch our attention but many become background noise as we put aside the distraction they cause. We have blurred the line between the reality and drama of life and the tales we weave around movies and television. We are no longer shocked by things which should make us stop and weep. The 24 hour news cycle moves us on to the next story, the next person, the next nation.

What do we engage with which causes us to change our path and leave the water jug at the well. What makes such an impression on us that we just have to move and move others?

Apathy was precisely what Jesus was calling the people of Israel to move away from and it was a hard all because we do not notice when we are there. There are so many calls in the Old Testament for people to behave as if their religious rituals mean something – Amos 5, Isaiah 11, 1 Samuel 15 to pull but a few chapters.

Perhaps this Gospel is a reminder to us that apathy, a lukewarm response, is not an option. Where do we encounter Jesus and do we remember that promise of water, water which is gushing up. You can see that image, water which is so eager to break out of its confines that it cannot be contained. With this water we become the same, so eager to tell the story, so eager that our story is known and valued by God, that we rise up, we gush.

There is a song from the Iona Community in Scotland about the Holy Spirit, in it the Holy Spirit is referred to as the enemy of apathy. We, the church, are not a painful trickle of vaguely good news, we are a mighty roar of excitement and wonder. We are those who are send to challenge apathy, not become its victim.

“But those who drink of the water I will give them will never be thirsty.” Imagine that. Never thirsty – unless we shrug, and say “That’s nice” and fill our pitcher and go to our house and drink alone. Then we are thirsty, really thirsty.

Blessed are....

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 08:39:00 -0500

There are a whole lot of movies around about seeing history differently at the moment. I have not yet seen Hidden Figures although I have been told by many people here that it is one of the best movies they have seen. In case you have not come across it, it is the story of the african american women who worked for NASA in the space program as mathematicians and scientists.

Over the weekend I saw Bridge of Spies, based on the story of James Donovan, a New York attorney, called to defend and accused Russian Spy in 1960 and then asked to negotiate the release of Gary Powers and a student, Frederick Pryor.

Recently I have seen a lot of the Beatitudes, well at least parts of them, popping up on my Facebook feed. They are well known, they offer comfort and it makes sense, in times when it is difficult to know what to say, difficult to make sense of things in the ways which we are used to, that we turn to something familiar which might seem to frame our own concerns and offer us hope and stability.

Verses of the Bible often appear in social media, together with a pretty sunset photo or a challenging social photo. They are popular because they are like drive through religion or cramming down a bar of chocolate - immediately satiating, somewhat addictive - but we all know what happens when the sugar high wears off.

Jesus is at the beginning of his ministry. He has survived, thanks in no small part to Joseph (remember we are in Matthew, not Luke). He has been baptised, has survived the Temptation in the Wilderness, chosen disciples and now is surrounded by crowds of people interested in hearing, seeing and being touched by this new preacher and healer.

We cannot be sure whether the Beatitudes were actually preached to the whole crowd or whether they were a message to the Disciples. It is easy to overlook that first verse about going up the mountain with his followers - Matthew does not make it clear whether the crowds followed and were in earshot. It might not matter, only, having the thought that Jesus might only be talking to His inner circle should make us take seriously the possible intensity of His message.

The Sermon on the Mount sets the scene for Jesus ministry - this is what a Disciple is like, then, as we go through the chapters, this is what Christian community is like. Mountains and high places, of course, indicate the closer presence of God - going up to say these words is a powerful symbol of their origin. Moses went up the mountain to receive the tablets which summarized the old law, Jesus ascends to proclaim a new paradigm of covenant and being. These sayings are no spiritual candy and we would do well to hear them in their context.

This idea of claiming an alternative view - or actually, seeing things as they actually are, is at the heart of the Beatitudes. The Greek is strange - a string of adjectives at the beginning but no noun or other object and no verb in the first part of some of the sentences. Interpret as you will. The Latin version of the Bible, the Vulgate, gives us the word Beati neatly at the beginning of each sentence. If is from here we get our word Beatitude. Blessed or honored from the Greek.

The thing is that Beati has almost opposite meanings in secular and ecclesiastical Latin. In the secular world it meant the rich, those who had been blessed with prosperity and wealth. However, the Church took the same word and turned it into a word about Saint. The blessed, the saints. This blessing, then, is a characteristic, not something we are getting. It is not a thing, a noun, something that is going to be done to us - it is who we are, an adjective.

And it is who we are, not who someone else is. It is tempting to use the Beatitudes as a sort of checklist as to how we are doing. How blessed are we, will we make it. We treat them as some sort of Spiritual inventory. I mourn, I hunger after justice, I tell people to be nice to each other - that is peacemaking, right?

But let’s for a moment see the Beatitudes in a different light. Let’s see them as a challenge and not a panacea. What if being a Disciple means that I am already Blessed - then I am already meek, poor in spirit, I mourn, I hunger and thirst after justice etc. If I have said yes to Jesus, if I bear the name Christian, then what if I have already signed on to all these things? What if this is a challenge to us to live into our faith and not a promise of future reward if we manage to check enough of them off on the list?

The thing that really stood out to me in the movie Bridge of Spies was when James Donovan was talking to a CIA agent who tells him there are no rules in the game of international espionage, that his attempt to defend Abel, the accused man, is lost. Throughout the movie Donovan has been driven by what he sees as a quest for ultimate justice, doing the right thing. A sham lawyer for a sham trial is not in his vocabulary, no matter what it costs him.

“My name's Donovan, Irish, both sides, mother and father. I'm Irish, you're German, but what makes us both Americans? Just one thing, one, one, one, the rule book. We call it the Constitution and we agree to the rules and that's what makes us Americans and it's all that makes us Americans so don't tell me there's no rule book and don't nod at me like that….”

What is is, then, that holds us together as Christians? What is our Constitution? I would suggest the the Beatitudes are a good place to start. I wish I could tell you all how to live into these sayings, how to act into the blessedness which we receive from God, but I am not really sure I know for myself. I do know I need to ask.

“For theirs is the Kingdom of God,” is how we are accustomed to thinking about the Beatitudes. This makes it easy for us - we act, others are the poor or the oppressed and we look after them and then we all get, like a super prize, the Kingdom of God. But there is another way to translate these words, “because of them is the Kingdom of God”. That is a very different thing. That is not something that we will get around to when we have time, when the kids leave home, when it does not cost us much and might not cause embarrassment.

If because of us there is the Kingdom of God we must get on with being the Kingdom of God on earth. This is not, as my father would have said, all about “pie in the sky when we die”. This is about finding our common story and those things which bind us together as the Body of Christ here and now. We are in confusing and dangerous times, far too confusing and dangerous not to take this seriously.

This is not a “when I get around to it” thing, it is a here and now thing. It is an important thing. It is an unsettling thing. The Beatitudes are not a panacea but a challenge. A challenge to live lives which are transformed and transforming. “Blessed are you….” says Jesus. Blessed are we and we must learn to live as those who understand both the gift and the gravity of that title.

advent 3 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 18:06:00 -0500

Advent 3 2016

I am not the best movie watcher. I like to know what is going to happen to characters before I commit to them. Strangely I do not have this problem with books but getting to the last scene of a movie and finding out that she chooses the wrong one or he chooses stability over a dream – those things leave me feeling disappointed – talking to the screen – I didn’t see that one coming or even worse a movie which just stops, almost mid-sentence and you are left wondering.

When we meet John the Baptist he is fiery, he is a prophet in the manner of all good prophets – outspoken, daring. Now he is in prison. In the real world we should not be surprised, he called the Pharisees and Sadducees sons of snakes – children of that first evil which in the Book of Genesis sets up a rift between humanity and God. The reference to the Biblical story would not have been lost on them.

John is an exciting character, ushering in a new age. I suspect what happens for a lot of us, it did for me, is that we meet John by the Jordan a lot earlier than we meet John in prison. The John of the Jordan is great for children’s stories – he is weird and you can elicit a big “Yuck!” when you talk about locusts and wild honey. In many ways he might look like a sort of Biblical superhero. When the penny drops that this is the same person who is now sending a message to Jesus asking if he even had it right there is a sense of profound sadness – we want to rewrite the end of the story. We want Jesus to sweep in and do something. But this is the real world.

That Jesus leaves John might be disconcerting. That John has doubts also gives us uncomfortable questions. We really want him to be on the same page as Jesus – pretty much automatically. If John, who has stepped so far out on a limb for faith is having doubts - what about the rest of us? But the Gospels are not a corporate annual report – they are not set out to impress with smiling faces and carefully rounded numbers – they are messy. Like the hero dying before the credits or the pollution remaining in the city, if we look at the Biblical narrative we will see a direction – which is always towards relationship with God and with each other – but we will also see a lot of loose ends and tangled threads as people deal with being, well, people.

Jesus does not even say, “Yes, I am the one.” He sends back a message which might sound a little obscure to us – but, actually, to John, this will be a profound reassurance. We know John knew the prophets – he was quoting the texts at the river. The message that Jesus is healing and freeing is what has been told for centuries – perhaps the paradigm is not what John expected, perhaps he, like others, was looking for a more forceful entry into society, but Jesus clearly says – this is what you have been saying – it is OK.

The messengers go back to John and this is the last we hear from him. We hear of him later, that he is executed but Matthew’s point here is not so much to let us know that John the Baptist’s fears have been allayed but rather that Isaiah’s prophecies are being fulfilled.

The rest of the passage addresses that unspoken piece of the question to the crowds. Jesus turns to the crowds and asks them what people expected. Royalty – another Herod? Herod who took the reed as his symbol and held is staff as a rod to beat the people of God. Herod who dressed in fine linens but was broken as a vassal king in a Roman state. I was thinking about those old cartoons this week, cat chases mouse, coyote chases road runner. The inevitability of those stories and the resolution always being that the victim turns into the oppressor – and on it goes. The ending is obvious, the stories are clever and how revenge is achieved is what kept us glued as children.

This endless chase, this endless struggle for power is not what Jesus is offering. He is not just bringing bigger and better of the same. In these stories there is not any room for change.
Herod is part of an endless cycle, the cat chases the mouse until the mouse learns to become a cat – and so on.

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” And this is enough, this is a powerful testimony. But hang on, you say, Jesus picks and chooses, not everyone gets healed. What good does that do? If this is going to mean anything then, surely, he should be a bit more universal in his efforts – why not release some sort of healing ray over the earth so that there is no more sickness or pain or dying.

All three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have a story about a man who is paralyzed and who is lowered down through the roof of a house where Jesus is. Jesus words to him are, “Your sins are forgiven,” there is outrage. Jesus told the man to walk and he did – that is the piece we want to notice. First though, he sets him free. Sin and illness were linked in the Jewish mind. Illness might even be a punishment for inherited blemishes from previous generations. This healing is a revolution of forgiveness, of breaking the tyranny of old oppressions and guilt.

Jesus frees all those who come to him not only from physical burden but from indebtedness to something which they could never hope to understand. Jesus removed them from the controlling power of the Jewish orthodoxy and orthopraxy which kept them away from relationship with God by underlining the sinful nature of their very existence. Mark Davis uses a wonderful phrase – Jesus re-describes them. He re-describes them as beloved and new.

Yesterday Kris was watching a TV show whilst I was in the kitchen. It was called “Last Chance University”. The show is about a small college in Mississippi which gives young men who are great at football but not so adept at life a second chance. I did not get to watch to the end but will try to go back to it. There is a fundamental piece of any rehabilitation and that is to give worth and independence and this is hard work when everything in a person is wired to think the opposite.

I know this from my own life. I have said before that I grew up in a difficult household. You don’t really notice at first but then as you get into school you realize with a growing dread that everyone is not the same. It all ends up with little sense of self-worth. With a fractured understanding of a theoretical love, with a theoretical basic humanity and every grain of your being knowing that this is just not true, that you are just not there and so it goes on. I am sure each of the young men on the TV show has a story which has, in some way or other, led them to this place and they have walls a mile high, thinking that no one can see it.

This sort of pain is what Jesus is confronting in His people. They are told in words that they are
Covenant people but they are sick and suffering and the pieces do not tie up for them. This is not just the messiness of humanity – this is the sin of a sick system. Physical healings demonstrate a reality of reconciliation which is happening. Jesus redescribes these lives as worthy – God makes us worthy. All of us.

This is not an easy act. If we think through the subversive political nature of Jesus inviting oppressed people to worth it is huge. John the Baptist might actually seem quite soft and cuddly in comparison to allowing people who have no belief in themselves to function as beloved, as full human beings with their own voices, opinions and joys. In Advent we must struggle with this. We are called to radical healing, to describing people around us as children of God, to offering healing and light. But how do we do that? What risks are we taking that in redescribing someone else we allow God to redescribe us. Where is the star and the manger? And where is God’s pen in our hands?

It doesn't feel like Advent

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Thu, 8 Dec 2016 13:08:00 -0500

It doesn’t feel like Advent. I am not rushing from warmth to warmth trying not to let the cold get into my bones. I am not taking photos of frosted branches or slipping on black ice on my walk to, well, wherever. The sky is not so tight and close that I feel like I could reach up and touch it. The grayness is not painted on a tight canvas just above my head. And the days, while short, are not so minimal as to mean that both my morning and evening commutes are in darkness. Although this is our fourth Advent in Florida I miss the idea that on Christmas Eve, when all is finally quiet and still, or at least getting there. When there is no more to be said or done with gifts and ribbons. When the moment nears of the great mystery of that Sacred Birth – we literally come in out of the cold and dark into a church filled with warmth and light to break bread and listen for the silence of that moment of God kissing the earth with God’s presence in humanity.
Sometimes it is difficult to unravel the way we want to feel in a season and the reality of where we are. The temptation is to write it off. It seems easier to ignore than to endure a difficult or disorienting Christmas which is unfamiliar or saddened in some way. I know that if I think that God is not speaking because I am not listening, then I am likely to miss out. I know that if I am not listening because I am mourning some emotional reward of the past, that is gone, then I really need to own that and look at what might be in store.
Funny, the weather is promising temperatures in the 30s tomorrow. I apologize. I will try harder to find Advent in the sunshine in future!

Finding a Season

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 22:22:00 -0500

My head is humming with snowmen, meadows and Parson Brown who, in my opinion, has a lot to answer for. A morning of thrift shopping with some of my teenage children revealed that I am wrong – Christmas does start the day after Thanksgiving. In previous years I have compared secular culture and church culture with all the zeal of the righteous but something else has struck me.

If Christmas is about anything, it is about a God who deeply embeds Godself in a culture and a time and a place. The challenge for Christians, especially in this world of fluctuating culture, is to seek out those things which are leading towards the light and love of Christ and to do what we can to bring this Good News of a baby born in a stable to those dark parts of our society which, often, most need to hear it.

Perhaps the message is more about discernment, about understanding glitter and sparkle which reflects life and joy and seeing that which marks deep sadness and death. Christmas, for us, is a tale of the unexpected. Of all those throngs flooding into Bethlehem for the census, who would have guessed Mary and Joseph. God’s ways are not our ways. We cannot abandon the world we are called to live in by slightly pious whining, but we can look at it through God’s eyes. We can journey towards Bethlehem as those who have said “yes”, with great joy, those who carry a great treasure, and those whose eyes are opened,daily, to the world in new and Christlike ways.

After the storm?

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:10:00 -0500

God said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 1 Kings 19:11-13
Listen, all of you, for the Lord is always passing by, hanging around, wanting us to hear. Out nation is full of noise. Remember how, yesterday in the Gospel, Jesus said to ignore all those voices which claimed to have definitive answers to the Disciples question about the end times - He is also speaking about all that noise which is going on around us.
Now, don't hear me wrong. We cannot remain in silence in the face of oppression and inhumanity - but we can start there. Elijah did not get to stay on his mountain - he was sent to finish the work which he had been given to do. These moments of retreat and silence allowed him to listen to the answer, from God, to the question - what are you doing here Elijah.
It can be hard, over all the pressure groups and media interests, and even our own internal dialogues, not be caught up in yet another wave of anger and fear. Vilifying the "other" is becoming so normalized in many circles that we no longer even see it as unreasonable. Truth has become relative to stance and there are many deceivers in this age. The god we find in this chaos might feel comfortable, might look like us and sound like us but will become unreliable with the ebb and flow of national life.
Take time to breath. Take time to fact check. Take time to try to understand, to listen, to talk with and not about. These are activities where the voice of self must be silenced. Where the chaos of emotion must be quelled. These are activities of the Holy Spirit in the soul. As we pass from the earthquake, wind and fire of our current national report, we may enter the silence of God's answer. What are you doing here?

don't let panic rule your lives

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 10:58:00 -0500

Luke 21:5-19

Years ago, I was helping with an interim at a parish in Southwest Virginia. It was about 25 minutes’ drive from where we were living so every Wednesday lunchtime I would jump in my car and head for the noon Eucharist. With four small children at home I should confess that I was sometimes a little less than focused on where I was going and what I was going to do than I might have liked to be.

Anyway, on that day, there was a man with a sandwich board standing on the side of the road. I had actually seen him several times before but had seen the words “Prepare to meet thy maker” on his board as an invitation not to engage in conversation with him, at any point. I did not stop this day, I did not talk to him either, but I did find a whole new meaning in his message. Before I had always seen a kind of scary get saved quick because tomorrow you die thing. Distasteful, preying on fear – not something we Episcopalians say at all. But I was on my way to Church, trying to glue a coherent prayer together. I was indeed, trying to prepare to meet my maker. Not at the end of time, but at His table and His invitation. It was actually a profoundly reassuring message or God’s presence – and, even though my general sense of distraction made me feel terrible, I knew I was welcome in God’s presence.

Now, I have no idea whether that man had thought about our day to day encounters with God rather than what happens after death. I did not see him again. But today this passage reminded me of him and his sandwich board. This Gospel seems to be offering a sort of final prognosis – when this and that and those happen then everything is finished. But if we take a moment to breath and allow, we might find it a salient reminder of God’s presence and care.

This conversation happens shortly before Jesus is arrested and tried. The disciples are, no doubt, beginning to guess that something is up – that things are not going to turn out quite the way they might have expected. They start by admiring the Temple, like any good tourist in Jerusalem. Jesus cuts them short – it won’t be here, he says. By 70AD we know that this was to be true – the Temple was gone together with the Jerusalem of the Jews.

The disciples seem to have a bit of a panic at this point – when, they ask. Now, this bit is important to listen to carefully – there will be false prophets and they will tell you this is the end – do not listen to them. Jesus does not say there will be anyone who will tell them when the end is coming – take note.

But….bad things will happen. There will be all the same sorts of things which there always have been in human history. Wars, uprisings, kingdoms rising and falling, natural disasters. Jesus does not say God is doing this. He does say they should not read too much into these things.

But the news gets even worse, not only do all the bad things which have always happened continue to happen but now the disciples themselves will be persecuted. Sounds like a great gig, I might have gone home, made some hot chocolate and snuggled up in a blanket and kept my head down at this point. Except I wouldn’t and the Disciples didn’t because there was something bigger going on. The Kingdom of God is going on.

And Jesus answer to all of this – do not try to be a clever clogs, do not think that you are going to win the argument. I will speak, not you. I will make you wise, not reliant on your own cleverness. This is not about it being easy about heaven here and now, this is about trusting that you have one foot on earth and one foot in heaven because you are children of God and that means everything.

So, whilst all this sounds scary and we might ask, well what is the point of this religion thing if it does not give us some sort of protection status? Jesus is clear that living in some sort of fantasy bubble is not the point. Living in the real, complicated, messy and hostile world is the point. Living in the real world and witnessing to the truth of God’s Kingdom.

When I was a child there was a TV series called Dad’s Army. It was about the Home Guard in England - that was a group of folk who were older or medically unable to serve in the regular armed forces who came together to provide a sort of home army - the idea being that in the event of a German invasion, every available person would be needed and having trained units who knew the layout of their local area in detail would be a plus.

This was a comedy. Lance Corporal Jones was an older man who had served in the Army in the Boer War but he had a catch phrase - don’t panic. It was funny because when he was saying don’t panic he was usually running in circles waving his hands around, panicking. Had there been imminent danger he would not have been the sort of person who you wanted around to help.

That word which Jesus uses - terrified - also means do not let panic overtake you. After this election season this should be something we pay a lot of attention to. Panic, allowing fear to rule us, is a dangerous and ugly thing. For months we have had scaremongering and personal attacks. This election has been the most angry and polarising which many of us have experienced.

So what do we do. Jesus is clear to the Disciples - life will not always be easy, but don’t get caught up in spinning your own wheels. Listen to me so that I can speak for you.

This sort of reasoned response takes disciplined enough to stop and listen, to calm our own fearful voice in favor of listening to God’s. It is something which we, as Christians, are called to learn. We are called to be peacemakers, not hard negotiators and there is a difference. We are not here to find clever ways to make out faith fit our belief system we are here to face God, all together, with those who agree with us and those who do not. Learning that my neighbor who had opposing views to me can still love God as much as me is a hard lesson - because it points me to something outside myself.

That is not to say that everyone is always right - it is to say that we have to strive to be the non-anxious presence - to stop our own internal anxious dialogue long enough to engage in real conversation.

To whom are we looking to for our voice? To whom are we listening to for our wisdom? Where have we twisted God into a version of our own needs and desires and forgotten that is not how God works at all? I would hazard a guess that there are not many people in here who did not feel angry at some point over the past few weeks about some aspect of politics. My guess is there are some here who might have had some interesting (and loud, perhaps) conversations over the candidates and parties.

There are always going to be tough times and times of argument, but as we go through life we have to learn who we are and how we react in those times. Do we panic and flail and fall back on the worst possible version of ourselves or can we learn to pause and put ourselves aside, if only for long enough to ask God to come in. When I pray for God’s help I am not writing off my values and opinions, I am just turning myself in the right direction. That is what all of us do week by week when we come to the altar – we turn ourselves in the right direction – the trick is to keep ourselves that way as we go through our day to day life.

As we move forward together, listen. Become a safe and holy space for a world which is confused and hurting. Hold that direction which you find here before you. Try to pay attention to how you are feeling, how things are affecting you and stop long enough to breathe a prayer.

“Do not prepare what you are going to say,” said Jesus, “I will speak for you.” Create a peace into which Jesus can speak and pray always for God to calm you and guide you in all your ways.

Thoughts from London 3

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Tue, 4 Oct 2016 04:46:00 -0400

The Compass Rose meeting which I am attending is kind enough not to start until 9am. This means that I have had time to visit one of my favorite Churches, All Saints Margaret Street. I managed to get to Evensong and Benediction on Sunday and to Morning Prayer and Mass for the past couple of days.

All Saints is very firmly a child of the Tractarian Movement – that nineteenth century wave or high church worship and radical social action which swept Victorian England. In London, as in US cities, churches were often planted in area of great need. Slum living was a reality in every major city. There was little hope and disease was rife.

Today at All Saints morning mass is accompanied by the snoring of a couple of folks who are sleeping in the back of the church because they have nowhere else to sleep.

Benediction is a service which has fallen out of favor in many places. It is ridiculously formal and centers on what is called The Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Basically consecrated bread is placed in a holder called a monstrance and eventually, during the service, attendees receive a blessing with the sacrament.

Intellectually I find the whole thing bizarre but attending the service nearly always moves me deeply. There is something about simple adoration which we do not get to do very much. We are all busy and our worship runs to a schedule. Adoration and wonder is a slower project.

We talk a lot about telling stories and when we take time for adoration we are telling a consistent story. Whether it is through a formalized service or an informal act and time in adoration we are putting ourselves in right perspective with God. If we can allow God’s beauty and splendour to literally take our breath away we might begin to understand our place in God’s kingdom.

We are those who are invited in to a place which by any other measure we have no place to claim a right to. We are those who are invited in, not just as guests but as beloved children. I think I like Benediction because it gives me nothing else to do but consider this, to revel in this, to wonder in this.

If we are to tell our story we have to allow our story to be true for us. Adoration is a fundamental part of our humanity but it is not rational or, really, controllable. In our logical and carefully controlled lives adoration is not something we find easy, it makes us vulnerable and out of our own control. Through it though, we find a voice which is not seeking simple sense, but is infused with holiness. This is our story and our song.

Thoughts from London 2

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Tue, 4 Oct 2016 03:42:00 -0400

On the Tube train this morning I was looking at the advertising. The one that caught my eye said, “Are you making excuses not to quit your current job” followed by, “let number one look after number one.” I am on my way to morning prayer and mass so it is with a note if a stark contrast which I write. “Let God look after number oneashnumber one nurtures and tends God’s world.” Well, that is sort of what the Lords Prayer says.
In the context of attending a meeting of an international Anglican body this is a tough call. Almost everyone here is wealthy, white and privileged. Two of the largest Episcopal churches in the USA are here. St Martins, Houston and Christ Church (yes us), both have multi million dollar budgets.
Yesterday we heard Richard Chartres, Bishop of London speak. I asked a question about how he would assess the difference in mission and Evangelism opportunities in the very different landscapes.of the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. The answer boiled down to a global conversation.
Face to face conversations are costly. Practically we have to spend money to get somewhere or to invite someone to join us. But.more than that, we cannot turn a real person off. We have to put aside our supposition of difference and engage in out commonality. This is hard because the only thing we Cana really rely on in thst moment is that God is in both of us Andis already looking after us. We need to turn our time and energy to each other.
Thinking back to that advert, perhaps the question we need to ask is whether we are making excuses not to begin conversation, not to undertake the urgent work of the Kingdom. This is not a call for an employment agency. We are the Church. We are already joined, like it or not, by a common table and a common baptism. One Lord, one faith, one Church.
The fields are ripe for harvest. The fallacy of our individual independence has, at some point, to give way to a deep knowledge of our interdependence and our calling as sons and daughters, adopted in love and grace, and called to familiarity and community.

Thoughts from London

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Mon, 3 Oct 2016 06:41:00 -0400

I am in London at the annual Compass Rose Society meeting. We are meeting in the same room where the General Synod of the Church of England convenes but this is a group of folk who come together annually. Most are from America, Canada and Hong Kong. All have a passion for the Anglican Communion around the world and its workings.

If you do not know much about the Anglican Communion it is worth taking a look around on the Internet. The Episcopal Church in the USA is the official branch of the Anglican Communion in the United States. We are bound together by common roots in the Church of England. Our liturgy and tradition are recognizable all across the world.

We are, however, very different people with very different stories around the Communion. From the affluent Churches of the USA (no matter how we complain about the struggles of our smaller churches) to the Anglican Church in Sudan whose theological college is the size of a large living room and who lack even basic books to educate their new priests.

In the American Church we got a bit mired down in our own arguments – and these conversations continue both nationally an internationally – but they must be conversations and not antagonatistic virtriole and anger. We are all the Body of Christ. As we emerge from our self-imposed dysfuntion we are turning our minds to mission and it is worth noting that so are our brothers and sisters around the world.

We have to consider the story we are telling as a community around the world. It might be easier for us simply to talk to those who are close to us, who agree with us, whose culture is similar enough for us not to feel uncomfortable and awkward when we even enter the room. But this it not the narrative which we are a part of. The narrative which God has called the the Anglican Communion to is much broader – that is that we all serve one Lord, that we all live lives in a Christlike manner, that we are all bound by an ancient tradition but that we do not all think alike, look alike and we certainly do not all agree.

Re-engaging with the Anglican Communion gives us possiblities for the sort of story telling which values the other and seeks commonality and not discord. This is a strange thing in our world. It cannot be bought but it is profoundly appealing.

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 4 Sep 2016 05:26:00 -0400

“Bah! Humbug!” exclaims Scrooge at any mention of kindness or festivity that surrounds Christmas. Scrooge is miserable, miserly – he hates others to be happy and he certainly hates to be drawn into anything that looks like concern or charity.
All those words we use – miserable, miser, misery come down to one thing and that is hate. The verb in Latin and Greek for “hate” is miseo. Whoever does not hate, says Jesus today, and goes on to list just about every family member we might have and, he adds, whoever does not hate their own soul.
Bah! Humbug! Are we all then supposed to turn into cold hearted Scrooges – locked away inside ourselves and fearful of anything which resembles warmth or human kindness? We might be tempted to take up this anger if we only read this passage. But in the context of a Gospel which is at times tough but which encourages love and community what are we to make of this apparent volte face on Jesus’ part?
Let’s look at what is going on. Last week we had the story about hospitality. Jesus suggesting that people move away from the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” model of living and social advancement – much of which revolved around meals and entertaining.
In the Jewish world, family was vital. Extended family. First cousins often married, thereby extending the bonds within a family unit. Sons usually remained at home and brought wives to their father’s household. Social advancement depended on everyone cooperating with social norms. Usually your job came with your family. You identity was bound up in family. That is why widows and orphans were needy of charity – they were no one.
The word “hate” is almost certainly hyberbole – it means make a clear choice between kingdom life and this strictly defined and often stifling family life. But even as hyperbole, it makes its point – this is a tough choice and following Jesus will involve everything in a person’s life changing. Hate is not the motivation which Jesus is suggesting – love is. But a person, who in love, chooses the way of the cross over the way of human influence will have an initially difficult time maintaining the life which they have known up until now. Much as they would, were they to revolt against those around them in hate.
These crowds have begun to hang on every word, they are amazed at Jesus’ actions. They do not listen to the leader of the synagogues objections, they must be feeling empowered and ready for action and Jesus say, “Hang on! Not so fast!”. The discipleship which they seek is not just following around after a magical circus act – it is something more. Firstly it will cost them and secondly it will take work and preparation.
I think we often read those accounts of the early Disciples leaping from their boats and running to Jesus open armed as the usual model of Discipleship. We forget that they often limp through the Gospel, barely understanding and that they are broken by the events on Good Friday. Their journey is one of growing understanding and growing commitment. It might be vaguely heretical but I wonder whether Jesus started off with a lot more than twelve and we know about the ones who stayed the course.
Sit down and plan, says Jesus. Sit down and plan your tower, look at our enemy in the war. Use the wisdom of the elder to negotiate peace if that is what needs to happen. This is very different from the ebullient Peter and James and John dropping nets and splashing through the water. Much slower, more calculating. Much harder work.
Perhaps I need to work harder, pray harder, look holier, disable the horn on my car. I need to make sure I can build towers, accumulate bricks and wealth and workers. I can wage wars against the infidels if only I can focus my attention hard enough. If only I can make that magical clean break away from all those people who hold me down. Away from that ridiculous feeling that I have needs and desires which are actually OK. Hmm. Probably not.
You see, all of that makes the work of Discipleship up to us, and it isn’t. Jesus warns us that we need to take this seriously, that we need to understand the cost but that we are not all on our own. We are not striving after some bizarre sort of greatness which we can define and put in a nnice neat box.
During the London Olympics, Nike made a series of commercials which involved the central messaging that we should not limit our concept of greatness to those who we would watch competing in the events in the Olympic venues. It was not that others are not great, it is that what we think of as great does not include enough people.
The series was not shy about saying that you had to put in some serious time and effort to your sporting activities but it was saying that greatness is in everyone. Great.
But what if that was true. What if commitment and time and effort – no matter our level of performance in a sport, made us great? Is that OK? It is not OK in the way we define ourselves in our culture. But what if we choose against our culture? What if we question that need for advancement and climbing the ladder by promoting ourselves and our values over another. This is the criticism of family which Jesus makes, that it demands a self-definition which denies the worth, or worthiness of another.
Jesus says – try to deny the worth, to hate, the system you are a part of, try to see that you are only as worthy as the person across the room, the street or the religious divide and when you are willing to do that. When you are willing to count the cost of reaching up to heaven, when you are willing to assess possibilities without your ego controlling the outcome, then you are a disciple.
The parody of this has become a rather sniveling, subservient version of Scrooge but one with the same level of anger and hate in them. The words are right and a smile is often strangled out of terse lips. But love disappeared somewhere with the 63rd consecutive week on the coffee rota – not that anyone is counting.
This is how people have often experienced Christians, this is who many people assume Christians are. Squashed up and lonely losers who have no idea about real life and offer a bitter pill covered in platitudes. Jesus knows this. He sees it all around him in the Jewish establishment which he is so often at odds with.
Luke gives the clear message that the Kingdom of God is not for those who have, apparently, clawed their way to victory but for all those who find their greatness in defining themselves, first and foremost as those loved by, and in love with God.
It is uncomfortable to think this one through. It is no longer about best for me, or even best for my family. Life is a team sport but the team is made up of all sorts of people who we thought were playing on a different field. What do we choose? What do we not choose? Who or what are our gods and who do we allow to treat us as if we were, somehow, divine?
Our greatness, if it is anything at all, is not found in our self-definition or our own sense of achievement or failure. It is found in the image which is reflected in us, not a human image, but the image of God. Becoming a greater and greater likeness of Christ is the work of the kingdom. This is the greatness we live into because we are, not because we are trying to be.

Woolly life

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline Kramer) — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 07:42:00 -0400

Today we meet Jesus at the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple, or Hanukah. It celebrated the time, some 200 years earlier when the Maccabees (a family of Jewish warring heroes) successfully routed the Syrian, Antiochus IV from Jerusalem and reclaimed the Temple. Think along the lines of 4th July. But imagine further the feeling if 4th July was celebrated with an invading force in the country. It would be a bittersweet celebration surrounded with the question of when these oppressors, the Romans, would be forced to leave as well.

We have seen many times how most people were expecting a military hero to overthrow the oppressive Roman regime. And so, this is the opportune time to get Jesus to say he is the new leader. Of course, this is not a simple question for Jesus to answer. He has already said quite enough in the previous chapters for those asking to know he is not playing to their script.

These folks did not want to be sheep. I am not sure I am always that keen either. After all sheep are pretty stupid, right? They follow around with those big bobble eyes, chewing away. Unlike us, sheep really do not make decisions or have opinions. If there is a good shepherd they will be OK, but they have no ability to do anything for themselves.

Well, here are some sheep facts to make you happier about being a woolly friend of Jesus. Sheep need each other. From my extensive research (Google) you need five sheep, less than that and they get leary, sheep live in community and only sick and lost sheep hang out alone. Take note - individualism is not a woolly virtue.

Sheep are not always quiet and cuddly. If you are thinking about getting after some lambs or if you messing with the Rams in mating season you probably need to check your health insurance. Push sheep far enough and they stick up for themselves, so woolliness does not, necessarily mean simply letting things happen.

Our woolly friends might not be as stupid as we thought, either. This is a wonderful story from the BBC.

"Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire Moors (Great Britain) taught themselves to roll 8 feet (3 meters) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids to raid villagers' valley gardens. According to a witness, "They lie down on their side or sometimes their back and just roll over and over the grids until they are clear. I've seen them doing it. It is quite clever, but they are a big nuisance to the villagers." [Source: BBC News, July 2004]"

Clever wooliness, well who would have thought? So why not be a sheep? Well working together, needing others, working things out and trusting in a shepherd, those are hard. The tendency in our society is to try to exist as frightened and marooned individualists. Perhaps we should go easy on the sheep after all.

There is a movie called The Tale of Desperaeux. It is about a young mouse who refuses to be afraid. At one point his parents are called into the principal's office because his behaviour is causing serious concern. "He is just not afraid," says the principal. His parents shake their heads and exclaim that they did not realize how bad it was.

Despereaux refuses to live in a world where he is always the victim and where there is no hope of conversation with those who are presented to him as enemies. I wonder how many of us look at the world around us as a place which makes us afraid. Certainly, the amount of pharmaceutical commercials on TV during the evening news makes me think we are certainly eager to control illness. Attack ads on television makes me think that we are eager to control those who do not agree with us.

The general tenor of our society is one of individualistic protectionism. And whilst we have the right to look after whatever and whoever we want if we are not careful we lock out the things which make us fearful so securely that we lock ourselves in, and even there, locked in, there are variables which we cannot control and we become prey to our own anger at the unpredictability of the world in which we find ourselves.

This is not to say we do not have things in life which scare us and make us angry. Of course we do. There are illnesses and broken relationships. Jobs which disappear and changing times. The people who came to Jesus that day had real problems. They were living in an occupied country under an often brutal regime. Jesus is not doubting the reality of this, or preaching a simplistic message. Instead he says that they are not listening, they are dancing to their own drumbeat - they have lost the ability to hear the voice of the shepherd because they are trying to decide their own direction. "You are not my sheep," Jesus is saying, "because whatever I say right now you are determined not to hear."

How often do we do that? Do we come to Jesus with the story already written and ask Jesus whether he is in or out of our version of things? Dangerous for sheep. Without checking on the shepherds plans flocks of hundreds of sheep have been know to plough off the edge of cliffs. "Yes or no?" we say to God, little pausing to hear that that answer actually is, "ask a different question."

Sheep are fairly simple creatures but all creatures have the same basic need for food and shelter, for companionship and safety. That is the job of the shepherd. We have a more complex list of needs - that is what it is to be human. But sometimes we write more into that list than we need to. Sometimes we will not listen to God so that we understand the right question in our lives because we are so stuck on the track of the way we thing things should be.

The story of that mouse, Despereaux is the story of trust in a world which is not out to get us. It is the story of the possibility of change. It is a story about childhood which refuses to go away, about the trust in something greater than the walls we can build around ourselves and those who are like us. In other words it is the story of freedom. In typical cartoon form the freedom based on human spirit. But we know, from experience, that this is something which, despite the confidence of Disney, we cannot do on our own.

The people who came to see Jesus were desperate for a national holiday which celebrated a current freedom and not a remembered one. Jesus never condones their captivity but he seems to understand that military rebellion will have disastrous consequences. Freedom is in a different place. Freedom which goes beyond human constructs and circumstances.

We should, of course, always fight for an end to injustice and terrible circumstance. Jesus was not saying it was all OK the way it was. He was just asking them to start somewhere else, start from being in the flock of which He is the shepherd. That would mean letting go of their script, letting go of the questions which they asked again and again with little answer.

Jesus says the same to us. Listen to me first. Be a part of me first. Learn my voice, live with your flock. Know where your strength comes from. I wonder what the world would look like if we all stopped fighting our corners, all stopped asking for our own version of the Saviour, and looked at the world through Jesus eyes. A woolly world is not one of stupid inaction, it is one of allowing ourselves to trust that we can only begin and end a journey from the Shepherd who is our very beginning and our end.

Holy Brit

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