St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

How to Preach without being Preachy:

Do:

Tell Stories

"Frankie and Johnny were lovers"

Explore Failures

"root-a-toot-toot three times she shoot"

Do highlight confusions

"Johnny loved another woman"

Explain what is going on

"Frankie was jealous. And Johnny was a liar"

Don't:

say "God says." Look - it's a song.

say "I do things right" Have you ever been jealous?

say "Don't do this." If people have to be told not to murder, they have a problem.

Well, did finish the triathlon. I finished as a good Christian.

Which means I came in last, in my age group.

I learned that I wasn’t very competitive. I passed one person on my bike, and felt guilty about it. “Are you sure you can’t go any faster?” I said, “look, I’ll wait for you.”

During the swim, I just let everyone go first.

Dear Friends in Christ.
Grace and Peace from our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

In our times, everybody is called to redefine himself/herself and the faith one holds. It is a time of great confusion. For those who wish to know our position on matters of our faith, here are our reflections as we try to "be prepared all the time to answer anyone who questions the integrity of our faith."

Our salvation comes from God through Jesus Christ, the only one "full of grace and truth." It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that draws us to God - the grace we receive unconditionally.
As we received grace, we too try to live according to His grace and become gracious in holding the truth, in how we treat other people and as we relate with one another.

The grace of Jesus Christ has called us not only to renounce evil [ the expression of the Mosaic Law] but more so to bear the fruit of the Spirit of God which is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control." Our new life is characterized not so much by avoiding or renouncing evil and sin, but by actively doing what is good -- a reflection of our new life in Jesus Christ. As notorious sinners used to run to Jesus for help, the Church too should become a safe place of refuge, a gracious space where sinners come. If sinners continue to reject and run away from the Church, we will soon know that Jesus is no longer there - in the Church!

Our mission statement expresses it well:

To communicate in word and deed the love of God to everyone in the Diocese, whatever their conditions might be, so that they may know him as Savior;
Be committed to him as Lord;
Rejoice together in the fellowship of the Spirit;
Worship him as Father,
And go out with this message of Jesus Christ's love to others

I want to talk a little bit about where we are, and why we're here.

Why is the mainline protestant church in decline?

1) Demographic shifts in work, age and children
a. Women working
b. People working harder; less voluntarism
c. Graying population
d. Fewer children (although thank you Bendas and Russells)

2) Lack of clear role in the culture
a. Mainline Protestantism's recent successes included
i. The United Nations, which prevented and mitigated serious conflicts.
ii. The Marshall plan which ended war in Europe
iii. The sanctuary movement
iv. Anti- Apartheid
v. Corporate social responsibility
vi. The human rights movement
b. As these became secularized, church role became diminished

Further, we are now encountering the global community as direct neighhbors. Our world has become more interrelated and complex than hinted at when the telegraph was invented. We have American-style Tibetan Buddhists who worship in this building. People in Africa read what we're saying here. We have instant access to viewpoints from the Middle East and England.

We do not live in a culture that assumes the Christian story.

We communicate quickly - sometimes without thought to what is communicated. We are found through the internet, our images interpreted through other people's eyes.

Every new member over the last two months has found us because of our webpage. I spent a lot of time, this summer, testing web-design programs. Fortunately, over the last three months, the number of hits on our web page has increased threefold.

We are caught within global forces that affect us Christians in Westchester, a suburb of Babylon.

The biggest hurdle for us personally is: we're busy. Plain and simple. As we were dipping into the endowment, I often wondered, what would we do without Debbie, our secretary? Would any of us have the time to mop the floors, take out the garbage, and prepare the soup kitchen reliably? Could we help the ECW set up and tear down? Would we be willing to stand next to the drain as Carlos did at 2 in the morning whenever it rained, to make sure there was no flood damage? Would we share our time to renovate our apartments into a livable condition? Who will ensure the bills get paid on time? Who will put off the contractors? Who will call the plumbers, or not call them, when there is a leaky valve in the thrift shop? Who will calculate the numbers in their head as the tenant complains for the third time about the inadequacies of her apartment.

I imagine that
If I were to take a poll
About the cultural issues that concerned you, I would get a wide variety or responses,
A polyphony of problems and complaints and concerns about the direction of our culture.

We might talk about what institutions and behaviors
We should eliminate with the heavy hand of the state;
Others of which we should express
our distinct disapproval and disappointment;
Other problems we should ignore
because we are a church,
the details of such issues
which we know little.

A few suggest supporting reproductive rights;
others find the same representing
A horrifying holocausts.

It has been 15 days since
I have been called as rector, of this beautiful church,
this warm and caring congregation, managing a small part-time staff
in a city, just a half-hour north of Babylon,
a few blocks from county and state courthouses,
three blocks from public housing,
next to an elementary school,
in one of the wealthiest counties, in our wealthy state,
in our wealthy country.

And noone has yet changed the locks.

I've been wishing that I could bring for you
two big stone tablets,
tablets that had been given to me, from on high,
from God himself, or at least from seminary,
Tablets that would give us instructions, a road map,
a plan by which we, here in our small congregation, could implement with confidence,
without any sort of fear or worry,
our anxieties about the future,
dissipated like a dandelion's seed in the wind,
a formula where all we would need
is to plug in our own numbers,
put the right people into the right places
and voila, a prosperous and vital parish appears.

Two tablets,
or even just one.

One would do.

One tablet handed by God.

By Fiat.

We'd need verification of course.

Someone would.

Who knows what advice would be on those tablets?

I don't have those stone tablets.

But even if I did what then?

The Epiphany
Isaiah 60:1-6,9
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. The gifts of the Magi are among the treasures of this season. The wise men and their gifts have been the subject of legend and lore. They captivate the attention most likely because they appeal to our materialistic sensibilities. We love the mystery of these characters and the exoticism of their precious presents. The charm of the tableau made of the humble infant in the crude surroundings of the stable, juxtaposed with the opulence of the three sages whose obeisance encompasses all the riches of the world is one of the most compelling of our tradition's icons.

This season, and the event we celebrate today -- the Epiphany -- draw our attention to the offertory of the Magi. We focus upon what they have brought, and are fascinated by that impulsive curiosity that has brought them to their bringing. Just as they were drawn by the light of the mysterious star, so we follow the gleam of their shining gifts and polished characters, whose sheen is set against the foil of that earthy stable in the darkened streets of Bethlehem. So captivating is the aesthetic of that image that it defies the historical reality revealed of the scriptures: the reality that this event, if it transpired at all, was a thing apart -- perhaps as much as three years apart from the birth of the baby.

Today we have a great opportunity, not just to keep our ecclesiastical kettle from boiling over, but to preserve the world anew, and to teach the mystery of charity to a world hungry for love but steeped in self-interest. Our world has forgotten Sirach's wisdom, that true friendship is beyond price and cannot be bought or sold in the marketplace.

And I firmly believe that gays and lesbians -- whether they have legalized their domestic partnerships, had their unions blessed, or gone off to Canada to get married -- can be teachers in this new school of charity for the church and the world, to offer a teaching as powerful as what the monastery taught in the days of Aelred.

The sermon

Usually on Christmas,
We're terrible at purchasing gifts for each other.
Chia pets, just aren't that amusing
after the third year you receive them.
Donnie and marie records.
The too-tight sweater
(must I lose a few more pounds?),
or a scarf that isn't in season.

We tend to pay more for gifts,
than the receiver would spend on the same object.
And we get gifts that make us pause, wondering
does the person really know me?

Not that we want to be ingrates;
but it is easy to wonder what people really think about you
when you get your third idiot's guide book.

You know that they care,
but they paid too much for it.

So we buy gift cards
They are efficient and effective.

You might feel a bit guilty when you get a gift you don't appreciate.
You'll never tell them what you think.
You might keep their gift in the same wrapper.
Give it another year to someone else who can appreciate it more.

Sometimes its simple gifts that are enough.
Film and batteries were what my father wanted;
good tea for my mother.
Some gifts you can't go wrong - photo frames, perhaps.

A pashmina scarf will be worn as long as the design isn't to ostentatious.
Gloves -well we all lose gloves, so gloves are useful.

Consumable gifts - great. A little pleasure in one's life,
like some coffee or wine you wouldn't necessarily buy for yourself.

But gifts are an art.

Gifts, we know, please us. They create attachments,
help us strengthen our relationships between one another
with a peaceful economy.

Giving is an easy pleasure.

Giving is an implicit praise.

Sermon for Christmas Eve

One hundred years ago, on an early Christmas morn
The era of instancy was in this way born
the first radio signal was heard, a solo violin
a new medium to relay and send our human signs.

Across the cold north sea a few travellers
heard "O Holy Night" pipe from the cosmic ether
a hymn and a reading to offer some solace and hope
A sweet sound from a distant record player.

The message was static: an AM radio wave:
the fuzzy monochromatic scratchy kind,
But within the white noise our aloneness was staved
by a calm voice that was sweet and mild.

But our own age is marked
by the cacophanous sounds,
of attention-seeking homonoculi
seeking to make our minds bound;

We send many messages, a metallic chatter,
about diets and podcasts, cancer and stars
myspace and lonelygirl, eight cylinder cars
But does Kevin Federline's album really matter?

When we send these signals into the future,
or to some alien planet with life like our own,
will they wonder about Nicole Richie or Orlando Bloom,
Inquire about about America's next top model.

Or If someone was listening
to our conversations across the spectrum,
They'd think the devil or savior was Lindsey Lohan,
George Bush, or Osama Bin Laden.

They'd hear the reports of suffering and pain,
the victims cry, of disasters, tsunamis and hurricanes,
about sex and starvation, weight loss and worry
think we are drunk, or alone, and that war is far too easy

But there is a radio signal,
a living song for us to hear
a promise sent from ages past,
a whisper that says "don't fear.

"There are no ghosts or monsters,
No powers that can chain,
rob your hope and freedom,
even your destiny has been renamed."

By a single sound of hope,
an aural beacon within the noise;
that would burn and char our despair
transform our emptiness into joy.

So within that static and confusion
that penetrates our ears
This message through the ages
is passed from year to year

That for believers, the sinners and the true
all things are possible, all necessary things, for me and you;

Within the darkest nights of the heart,
the hidden valleys of the soul,
a light in the corner of the world,
gets lit to make our hearts full.

It says, you don't need Paris Hilton,
to occupy and distract your mind;
or the toys we buy and break,
to waste away the time;

If we faced our fears and depths,
the losses and wins we've forgotten
we'd find our bodies strengthen,
with this radio signal from before;

A radio message, a beacon, that has gone through all time
which we trace to a signal way back to Palestine:
A voice in the wilderness, saying "the lived life - your life - is dear
though your world might be ending; be still; never fear

The tribes of the world will sing his holy name,
of faith, hope and love, and liberty from shame.
With his birth, his flesh and his blood, our Lord's break into time,
a history that makes all history, enchanted and sublime.

But I am still sorting through the din
and static of the world,
its promises and luxuries,
its temptations perpetually unfurled.

The song of the story,
returns me to this ground
to make me humble and generous,
though I still like to party around town.

White Plains, that is.

It says, I am loved, and therefore I am,
He came, and now I am free.
There is a future though it is dim,
but the light is just enough so that I will see.

That my spirit and body, weak and frail,
will be strong and right.
With the sound of sacred comfort
that now pierces through this night.