Year C
\u00a0Acts 16:9-15
\u00a0Psalm 67
\u00a0Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
\u00a0John 14:23-29<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a baby is born\u2026 they experience themselves as indistinguishable from their mother\u2026 they have no awareness that they’re a separate human being\u2026 especially when they’re looking into their mother’s eyes\u2026 often while being fed\u2026 and it’s in this mirroring\u2026 that they begin to form a sense of self-worth and identity\u2026 and as infants develop\u2026 they begin to differentiate\u2026 to gradually become aware of their separateness\u2026 that’s why I label the so-called Terrible Twos\u2026 the Terrific Twos\u2026 because these toddlers are becoming their own people\u2026 learning to learn how to set their own boundaries\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was a child\u2026 my father would sometimes set a boundary for me\u2026 set a limit\u2026 tell me what to do\u2026 or what not to do\u2026 and sometimes I asked “Why\u2026 ” and sometimes he’d explain in ways I could understand\u2026 and sometimes he just said\u2026 Because I said so<\/em>\u2026 and you’ll be a happier little boy when you do as I say<\/em>\u2026 and this guidance sometimes felt like nothing less than interference\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And many of us continue\u2026 into our teenage years… resisting this authority\u2026 we don’t want our sense of agency to be challenged\u2026 but then we sometimes also want to hold authority accountable for our actions\u2026 for example\u2026 those in the military can say they were “just following orders”\u2026 others can say\u2026 well\u2026 so and so told me to do it<\/em>\u2026 and we might remember that famous line from Genesis\u2026 She did give to me and I did eat<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now\u2026 not only individually but collectively\u2026 we continue to be in a time of transition\u2026 we continue to struggle in many different ways\u2026 and on many different levels\u2026 figuring out who we ought to listen to\u2026 and what is authoritative in our lives\u2026 who and what to believe\u2026 what’s true\u2026 and what’s a lie\u2026 figuring out what serves only a few\u2026 and what serves the many\u2026 figuring out how to be neighbors to each other\u2026 and our reading from Revelation tells us that no one who practices falsehood will be able to be a part of the beloved community\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But sometimes\u2026 some of us\u2026 diminish\u2026 or attack\u2026 or kill our neighbors\u2026 as happened in the recent mass shooting at the Tops Grocery store in Buffalo, New York\u2026 because they’ve collectively come to believe the lies of white supremacy\u2026 you see\u2026 we came to this country looking for liberty\u2026 but brought slavery\u2026 and there are those who want to continue to believe that they are better than people of color\u2026 and they have chanted\u2026 You Will Not Replace Us\u2026 or Jews Will Not Replace Us\u2026 as demonstrators did several summers ago at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia\u2026 and let me be clear\u2026 these are not Gospel values\u2026 and for any of our elected leaders to remain silent in their aftermath\u2026 or to minimize their egregious nature\u2026 is to be complicit in their actions\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Gospel reading today began with v. 23\u2026 but in v. 22\u2026 Judas\u2026 asks Jesus\u2026 Lord\u2026 how is it that you will reveal yourself to us\u2026 and not to the world\u2026<\/em> and in response\u2026 Jesus makes a monumental distinction\u2026 he says\u2026 my own Peace I give to you\u2026 it’s not the peace that the world gives\u2026 the peace that the world gives is temporary\u2026 inconsistent\u2026 it’s variable\u2026 it’s dependent on changing conditions\u2026 it’s as easily broken as cease-fires are\u2026 it comes and goes as dictators rise and fall\u2026 as individuals or groups vie for power and control\u2026 or try to make a name for themselves\u2026 that’s why one of the Beatitudes says\u2026 Blessed are those who support God’s Peace\u2026 for they shall be called God’s Children\u2026 and the Peace that God gives\u2026 is a peace which passes understanding\u2026 it transcends human-made words and phrases\u2026 it comes not from understanding intellectually\u2026 but from experiencing that in spite of any external events or lack of them\u2026 that whatever chaos is swirling around us\u2026 we are grounded in the silence of God’s presence\u2026 that our identity is rooted in the Ground of Being\u2026 that we remain unshakable\u2026 because God’s promise is not place\u2026 but presence\u2026 and God’s face looks like hospitality\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 those who keep my word will be loved by the Father\u2026 and we will make our home with them\u2026 and the Greek word that’s translated as home\u2026 is meno<\/em>\u2026 but meno<\/em> also means to abide\u2026 and this verse echoes Ch. 1:14 of John’s Gospel which says\u2026 And the Word became flesh and dwelt<\/u> among us<\/em>\u2026 or lived among us\u2026 depending on which translation you use\u2026 but the Greek word from which dwelt and lived comes\u2026 also means to abide\u2026 it also means tabernacled\u2026 it also means to pitch a tent\u2026 And the Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us\u2026<\/em> and it makes some sense\u2026 that when a nomadic people pitched a tent\u2026 it meant they were going to be there for a while\u2026 and what Jesus tells them is a continuation of what Jesus said to Nicodemus earlier in John’s Gospel about needing to be born of the Spirit\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 the Father and I will abide forever with those who keep not my Word\u2026 but the Word of him who sent me\u2026 but the way we’re going to do it\u2026 is that I’m going to go away\u2026 and send an Advocate\u2026 the Holy Spirit\u2026 whom the Father will send in my name\u2026 and the Spirit will teach you everything\u2026 and remind you about everything that I have said\u2026 it sounds to me like God’s Law written on our hearts\u2026 when intuition and revelation become as common as common sense\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fr. John Meulendyk wrote\u2026 perhaps we really don\u2019t understand Spirit\u2026 or more importantly\u2026 how deeply frightened we are of how the Spirit might move in our lives if we allow her\u2026 in actuality\u2026 the Spirit exposes our deepest fears\u2026 and longings\u2026 and desires\u2026 and at the same time\u2026 opens up a way for us to heal from what frightens us\u2026 and what frightens us the most on a spiritual level is the fear that we are alone\u2026 so we become preoccupied with ourselves\u2026 preoccupied with our ideas about ourselves\u2026 our opinions about ourselves\u2026 and preoccupied by what we think other people think about us\u2026 we cut off our relationship with God because we think that God couldn\u2019t really accept us just as we are\u2026 so we try to find affirmation in another place\u2026 person\u2026 job\u2026 or even in addiction\u2026 but the Holy Spirit breaks apart that falsehood\u2026 it\u2019s like a butter churn where the paddle goes back and forth\u2026 instead of up and down\u2026 and sometimes our lives are like this\u2026 we may take five steps forward and then slide back three\u2026 and it can be discouraging until we realize that we’re not moving forward toward perfection\u2026 but are making butter\u2026 and that there’s a qualitative wisdom in this honest\u2026 humble\u2026 and vulnerable way of walking through our own life\u2026 when we notice that we’re doing it in a community of people who are doing the very same thing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a baby is born\u2026 they experience themselves as indistinguishable from their mother\u2026 and as they develop\u2026 they begin to differentiate\u2026 but that’s only the first half of the story\u2026 the second half of the story is about our journey towards re-unification\u2026 not as Nicodemus wondered about entering the womb again\u2026 but so that we can experience the same unity with our heavenly parent that Jesus experienced\u2026 and then we’ll wonder why we didn’t let go of the grip we had on our puffed-up sense of autonomy\u2026 in favor of the Spirit’s loving guidance\u2026 that much sooner\u2026 since as my Dad might have said\u2026 we’d have been happier children\u2026 if we had just listened to the Spirit that much sooner\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Acts 16:9-15\u00a0Psalm 67\u00a0Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5\u00a0John 14:23-29 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 When a baby is born\u2026 they experience themselves as indistinguishable from their mother\u2026 they have no awareness that they’re a separate human being\u2026 especially when they’re looking into their mother’s eyes\u2026 often while being fed\u2026 and it’s in this mirroring\u2026 that they begin to form a sense of self-worth and identity\u2026 and as infants develop\u2026 they begin to differentiate\u2026 to gradually become aware of their separateness\u2026 that’s why I label the so-called Terrible Twos\u2026 the Terrific Twos\u2026 because these toddlers are becoming their own people\u2026 learning to learn how to set their own boundaries\u2026 When I was a child\u2026 my father would sometimes set a boundary for me\u2026 set a limit\u2026 tell me what to do\u2026 or what not to do\u2026 and sometimes I asked “Why\u2026 ” and sometimes he’d explain in ways I could understand\u2026 and sometimes he just said\u2026 Because I said so\u2026 and you’ll be a happier little boy when you do as I say\u2026 and this guidance sometimes felt like nothing less than interference\u2026 And many of us continue\u2026 into our teenage years… resisting this authority\u2026 we don’t want our sense of agency to be challenged\u2026 but then we sometimes also want to hold authority accountable for our actions\u2026 for example\u2026 those in the military can say they were “just following orders”\u2026 others can say\u2026 well\u2026 so and so told me to do it\u2026 and we might remember that famous line from Genesis\u2026 She did give to me and I did eat\u2026 And now\u2026 not only individually but collectively\u2026 we continue to be in a time of transition\u2026 we continue to struggle in many different ways\u2026 and on many different levels\u2026 figuring out who we ought to listen to\u2026 and what is authoritative in our lives\u2026 who and what to believe\u2026 what’s true\u2026 and what’s a lie\u2026 figuring out what serves only a few\u2026 and what serves the many\u2026 figuring out how to be neighbors to each other\u2026 and our reading from Revelation tells us that no one who practices falsehood will be able to be a part of the beloved community\u2026 But sometimes\u2026 some of us\u2026 diminish\u2026 or attack\u2026 or kill our neighbors\u2026 as happened in the recent mass shooting at the Tops Grocery store in Buffalo, New York\u2026 because they’ve collectively come to believe the lies of white supremacy\u2026 you see\u2026 we came to this country looking for liberty\u2026 but brought slavery\u2026 and there are those who want to continue to believe that they are better than people of color\u2026 and they have chanted\u2026 You Will Not Replace Us\u2026 or Jews Will Not Replace Us\u2026 as demonstrators did several summers ago at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia\u2026 and let me be clear\u2026 these are not Gospel values\u2026 and for any of our elected leaders to remain silent in their aftermath\u2026 or to minimize their egregious nature\u2026 is to be complicit in their actions\u2026 Our Gospel reading today began with v. 23\u2026 but in v. 22\u2026 Judas\u2026 asks Jesus\u2026 Lord\u2026 how is it that you will reveal yourself to us\u2026 and not to the world\u2026 and in response\u2026 Jesus makes a monumental distinction\u2026 he says\u2026 my own Peace I give to you\u2026 it’s not the peace that the world gives\u2026 the peace that the world gives is temporary\u2026 inconsistent\u2026 it’s variable\u2026 it’s dependent on changing conditions\u2026 it’s as easily broken as cease-fires are\u2026 it comes and goes as dictators rise and fall\u2026 as individuals or groups vie for power and control\u2026 or try to make a name for themselves\u2026 that’s why one of the Beatitudes says\u2026 Blessed are those who support God’s Peace\u2026 for they shall be called God’s Children\u2026 and the Peace that God gives\u2026 is a peace which passes understanding\u2026 it transcends human-made words and phrases\u2026 it comes not from understanding intellectually\u2026 but from experiencing that in spite of any external events or lack of them\u2026 that whatever chaos is swirling around us\u2026 we are grounded in the silence of God’s presence\u2026 that our identity is rooted in the Ground of Being\u2026 that we remain unshakable\u2026 because God’s promise is not place\u2026 but presence\u2026 and God’s face looks like hospitality\u2026 In fact\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 those who keep my word will be loved by the Father\u2026 and we will make our home with them\u2026 and the Greek word that’s translated as home\u2026 is meno\u2026 but meno also means to abide\u2026 and this verse echoes Ch. 1:14 of John’s Gospel which says\u2026 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us\u2026 or lived among us\u2026 depending on which translation you use\u2026 but the Greek word from which dwelt and lived comes\u2026 also means to abide\u2026 it also means tabernacled\u2026 it also means to pitch a tent\u2026 And the Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us\u2026 and it makes some sense\u2026 that when a nomadic people pitched a tent\u2026 it meant they were going to be there for a while\u2026 and what Jesus tells them is a continuation of what Jesus said to Nicodemus earlier in John’s Gospel about needing to be born of the Spirit\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 the Father and I will abide forever with those who keep not my Word\u2026 but the Word of him who sent me\u2026 but the way we’re going to do it\u2026 is that I’m going to go away\u2026 and send an Advocate\u2026 the Holy Spirit\u2026 whom the Father will send in my name\u2026 and the Spirit will teach you everything\u2026 and remind you about everything that I have said\u2026 it sounds to me like God’s Law written on our hearts\u2026 when intuition and revelation become as common as common sense\u2026 Fr. John Meulendyk wrote\u2026 perhaps we really don\u2019t understand Spirit\u2026 or more importantly\u2026 how deeply frightened we are of how the Spirit might move in our lives if we allow her\u2026 in actuality\u2026 the Spirit exposes our deepest fears\u2026 and longings\u2026 and desires\u2026 and at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128,46,114],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-gods-peace","tag-gods-promise","tag-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1614,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}