"All In"

You know, it takes awhile to feel as if you have moved in. It can take many years, actually.

But along the way, there are occasions that you know you’ve turned a corner – and that you are more at home.

Friday night’s Attitude of Gratitude Parish Dinner was another corner turned for me. What a fantastic night. Talk about an attitude of service – of servant ministry – our Stewardship Ministry Team is awesome, standing on the shoulders of the previous Stewardship Ministry Team. At some point during the evening, I looked around at the full room, tables filled with smiles and conversation and a thick joy filled me. Here we are. We’re in this together. There was a whole room full of people who have discovered the joy of living wholeheartedly – of leaping in with all they’ve got – whether it’s smiling in welcome, handing out plates, pouring coffee, cleaning up – it’s all offered. The two copper coins of self deposited into God’s treasury – available for whatever God decides to do with the gift. I sat at the table with Ida and Florence – neither of whom could hear much of anything – given the acoustics in the parish hall. But there they were, continuing to offer themselves to their fellow Christians, their fellow parishioners.

I want to talk about this sense of being “all in.” I don’t really play poker – I have tried, but I need to keep looking at the “cheat sheet.” And I would never be able to master a poker face – but I like that poker term, “all in.” As in, here’s all my chips, all I’ve got to play with, and I’m going to put it all down – win or lose.

The widow, of course, was all in. Her last two chips, all she had – pushed to the center of the table. All in.

The same with Jesus. He had steadily made his way towards Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there. In the next few weeks after the incident we read about this morning, he was arrested and crucified. He spent these last few weeks the same way he spent all the rest of his weeks – teaching and healing. Now having come to Jerusalem, he taught in the temple. At the pinnacle place of interlocking state and religious power. And just because he was in mortal danger, he didn’t back away from his challenge to a structure that lived on the backs of the poor. No – Jesus was all in. No halfway measures. No wiffle waffling. No backing out. Steady – confident – and 100% - his whole life given completely for those people at that time in that place. He didn’t hold anything back so as to wait for a more opportune time to get his message across, or for a more teachable moment, or for a more insightful group who might understand what he was teaching – what the point of his sacrifice was. He wagered the whole of his life, on this bet that the goodness of God would have the final say, and that this God could be trusted absolutely.

The same with God. In the person of Jesus, God entered into creation – not only as Creator, but as Savior. As the Eucharistic Prayer puts it, "He became one with us, sharing our human nature, living and dying as one of us". Or as one of the most ancient hymns of the church, found in the letter to the Philippians puts it: “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God; but emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”

Through Jesus, God did not depend upon the abundance of his power, his knowledge, his omnipotence and omniscience. God threw his lot in with creation, with humanity, with this bent and broken world – and through the Holy Spirit, He continues to throws his lot in with the poverty of our condition, with the worthless coins of our condition, and not only befriends us here, but works with us to salvages the mess we have made of things, and to redeem us.

The truly miraculous thing is – the widow, Jesus, God – put all their chips in – not into a perfect system, on behalf of perfect people – but into a broken system on behalf of broken people! To a system that was, and is, corrupt. Jesus pointed to the corrupt system of the powerful and privileged Temple/State system that sustained itself by taking advantage of the poor, by “devouring widow’s homes.” He pointed to the deadly combination of power and hypocrisy that displayed itself as false piety. And yet.... he taught there and he pointed to the faithfulness of the widow who gave all she had.

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul pointed to the agape love that God showed towards us through Jesus – “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” This love and faithfulness is a priori – it is grace – and it does not depend upon our goodness, or worthiness, or responsiveness.

God does notice however when we respond – He notices the small quick motions of the faithful ones, the little ones, the ones who make their offerings in faithful trust and gratitude. Who jump in to this "With God" life – not knowing exactly where it will lead them, but sensing that it they are getting themselves in with some really great company!

So – here we are – right in the middle of Stewardship Season. Actually – here at Good Shepherd, we are clear that all seasons are stewardship seasons. I love that our wall decoration at the dinner were the signs that Linda Kodet made out of recyclable materials – Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We are jumping in more and more into our identity as Stewards, believing more and more that it is the primary identity given to us human beings. That from Genesis on, we are to be stewards of creation - the animal kingdoms, the trees and water and air and earth. Good stewards of family relationships – of being all in with the ones to whom we’ve promised ourselves to. Good stewards of our time and our bodies and our resources.

At the heart of good stewardship of course is the knowing that none of it is “ours.” It is all Gift. Pure Gift. We are responsible and accountable for the short time that we are here on this earth. And the Good News is that there is One to whom all that we enjoy belongs – and He is here, with us, watching, helping, guiding. He is both the source of all that we have, and the end to whom all will return - and in between, he asks that we take good care of each other, of his world, and of his church.

In the fall season – we talk about the aspect of stewardship that has to do with money. It’s the season when we acknowledge the basic truth that the mission of the church depends upon each of us throwing out lot in with each other and with God– that when God gives us the desire to expand our ministries with teens and children, to have a gardener for three hours every other week, to expand our ministries of outreach, and to adequately maintain this sacred trust of property, and to use the land for the benefit of the community and to pay our clergy and our bookkeeper and our sexton and our secretary – it requires offering back through the church a portion of what God has given us.

What proportion? That is between you and God. The Episcopal Church standard is 10%. Some of us aren’t there yet, but by raising our offerings by an additional 1% each year, we’re on our way. Some of us know the joy of tithing and go beyond. The truth is that God takes whatever we offer and is able to ignite from our sparks of faith, a blaze that will ultimately consume our hearts and fill us with love and joy, peace and contentment.

Let us pray.

"O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us in all grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all harm in this world and the next."

(2nd verse Now Thank We All Our God)

Heaven's Picture Directory

Epiphany, Year A Heaven’s Picture Directory The Rev. Linda Campbell

How many of you have had your picture taken recently? I was sitting in my office yesterday, and my visitor thought they saw lightening outside – then, "no, that’s flashbulbs going off!" For the last two days, the parish hall has been the site of flashing bulbs, instructions to “lean this way just a little bit,” “Turn your head to the side. No, not quite that far.” “Tilt your head a bit to the right.” “Say Hawaii!”

There’s been an outstanding turn – out for the picture directory and we want to make sure to include everyone … whether you’ve been here eighty years or three months. Whether your birthplace is Baguio City, Philippines or Oakland, California. Whether you’re deeply committed to Rite 1 and 17^th century music, or you’d really like to chant Taize, light candles and always use inclusive language. Your picture is important in the picture directory whether you like small and cozy or whether you like big and noisy, whether you prefer the King James version or The Message, whether you would never, ever attend a demonstration against the war or you have several arrests to your name, whether you like organized and orderly, or spontaneous and chaotic.

You. You. You. In all your God given uniqueness, quirkiness, with all your scars and unhealed wounds and fears and anxieties – YOU – your shining face – the epiphany of you – is important. The picture directory isn’t complete until you are in it.

St. Paul didn’t have Olan Mills to help him out, when he wanted to describe the ineffable, indescribable, outrageously improbable mystery of God’s inclusive, welcoming, inviting, enticing love – there were no picture directories that Paul could point to and say, “See, here is a blank spot – that’s where your picture belongs – the Directory’s not complete without it.”

He had words, and he used them. He piled word upon word to try to get across this central point – THE Point – the essential thing at the heart of his ministry – at the heart of his calling. This one thing – this unifying principle for Paul’s ministry – was this: “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

And of himself, sitting in a jail cell, Paul says: “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.”

To get the full import of this mystery shrouded from prophets and angels, and revealed to Paul, through God’s grace, would mean transporting ourselves back into the 1^st century. Jew / Greek – the walls of separation and division simply don’t mean a whole lot to us. We are accustomed, especially in the Bay Area, to words like inclusion, tolerance, diversity, respect for the other ….. and they may even strike us as not particularly religious words, but words having to do more with secular humanism. My guess is that people having a leisurely breakfast right now down at the Sunnyside Café would agree with those words as much as you and I do. .

Of course, pick up the Chronicle, scan the national and international news and you will quickly see that even basic respect and tolerance for those who are different is not widely practiced. The overwhelming response – still, in 2008, to those who are different and perceived as threatening is violence, domination and control – whether through economics, politics, or firepower. It is human. The names many native tribes have for themselves simply mean “the people.” … When we are honest with ourselves, we too have the same proclivity to define ourselves over against others – especially others who are really different in ways that we don’t approve of.

Time for a confession. I don’t understand Islam. I haven’t yet taken the time to read the Quran, or commentaries on the Quran. I haven’t even read Karen Armstrong’s recent book on Islam. So – I am ignorant and yet I carry judgement. And I don’t think that it is possible for me to just intellectually jump over that judgement, even if I were to do research. I know it would help if I took it upon myself to form relationships with Muslim believers. It is always more difficult to judge when one is personally involved. Nevertheless – I know personally that it is possible to think of oneself as loving and inclusive and diverse and yet to draw lines – to be divisive in the privacy of one’s heart.

Faced with your “enemy,” it is tempting to pretend reconciliation rather than to face the brutal facts of what you actually think and feel – and then lay yourself bare before God. Prayer is hard work. Change is hard work. And a fundamental re-orientation of your life doesn’t happen automatically. The early church didn’t just easily understand or accept this glorious mystery that Paul reveals as the heart of the gospel. It took dreams, arguments and mysterious encounters, until by the 10^th chapter of Acts Peter finally “opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:” But church conflict didn’t end in the 10^th chapter! Paul was hauled before a whole church commission – kind of a Diocesan tribunal – because he insisted on coloring way outside the lines. He finally won through because by the 11^th chapter of Act, it is recorded that “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18)

This wasn’t just a marketing ploy on Paul’s part, or a design to fill the church pews, or a way to poke at the main Christian community back in Jerusalem – Paul was absolutely and utterly convinced, to the point of going to jail and ultimately giving his life – of this one main big idea: read to us last week by John, from Galatians: “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” It is repeated again in this week’s reading from Ephesians: “Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

This is the church’s wealth – this wisdom of God in it’s rich variety – and the mission is to make this wealth – this mystery of God’s boundless inclusive love actively known.

And what do Gentiles – outsiders – bring in their wake? Well, like the Gentile Magi, they bring gifts – and sometimes the established community isn’t quite sure what to do with the gifts. Whether the newcomers are to a church or to a country, they bring gifts. Do you and I have the eyes to see the gifts, and the heart to receive them? The second thing outsiders bring are that they shake up power assumptions. Herod, the established ruler, got pretty bent out of shape thinking that there was another ruler in the neighborhood. The established church of Jerusalem got pretty upset with Paul for changing the power structure – for establishing far flung communities of faith that were building their own ways of doing things. Are you and I open and ready to let power change hands – to let those who haven’t had a voice began having a voice – a voice that effects change? And thirdly, outsiders bring joy. Outsiders can restore a sense of joy to communities whose lives have become kind of ho hum and ordinary. I like earlier biblical translations of the Magi’s response “When they saw that the star had stopped, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” The description bends over backward with expression! The NRSV tries to subdue the hyperbole, saying simply they were “overwhelmed with joy,” Either way, you get the picture – they were jumping up and down with happiness! In Acts – as a result of Paul’s conviction that they belonged as well: “when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord:” (Acts 13:48)

Outsiders restore joy, they upset the power balance, and they bring gifts. And the deep abiding long term vision of the church is that there is a place in the heavenly picture directory – whether Olan Mills is in charge or not – for each and every shining face of God’s beloved children. You and you and you. And those who are not yet known to us. Those who have yet to be invited.