As the Waters Cover the Sea....http://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/feed.xml2024-02-18T19:05:08.095000ZWerkzeugSermon: Breathing, Balancing, Ripening…https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-breathing-balancing-ripening2024-02-18T19:05:08.095000Z2024-02-12T01:58:05ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">LENT | WILDERNESS | SOUL & SELF</span></h4><h1>Sermon: Breathing, Balancing, Ripening…</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Mark 1:9–15 ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of a dandelion seed-head, as yet unscattered by the Breath of God." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*RzC3D-Gqs9QxqyVvCJywIA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /></div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Breath from the Divine Heart is coming… | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Abwoon d’Bwashmaya: A breath from the divine heart is coming into our hearts, giving birth to something new this moment: our lives. ³</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let’s take a breath together.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Loose Cannons</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Some of you remember the movie Lawerence of Arabia that came out in 1962. It’s one of my favorites, not only because it is brilliantly shot and acted, but also because it is deeply disturbing. It has a lot to say about power. In it, a British Intelligence Officer, Thomas Lawerence, is set loose to break the strategic impasse in the Middle East by helping the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To say that Lawerence’s bosses are a little reluctant to let him do this in the movie is a real understatement. Lawerence is what is sometimes called "a loose cannon", and it not the habit of diplomats or generals to put the fate of nations into the hands of wild-ones like him, though… even today sometimes, one wonders. They relent however, and into the wilderness he goes.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lawerence of Arabia, as it turns out, is a brilliant out-of-the-box thinker, and the time is ripe for exactly his kind of thinking. Before long, the Arabs are able to do things no one thought possible. Taking the strategically vital coastal fort of Aqaba by attacking from the desert side was one such exploit.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But over time, Lawerence gets seduced by Power. Of course, from HIS view, Lawerence is just using Power as a tool for good. In the movie, he begins to play God, doling out life and death as he sees fit, to the horror of his more balanced friend Ali.</span></div><img alt="Photo of red grapes, almost but not quite at the moment of ripeness, in Montopulciano, Tuscany." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Fkt168dFUDZ2CG3EwYy_Zw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Acting "ripely" is one of Jesus’ teachings… finding that sweet spot between unripe and over-ripe | Photo by Ronald Steed in Montepulciano, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the end, the Brits and the Arabs get what they want, and Lawrence is no longer useful to either of them. Lawerence is, in a phrase, "over ripe"; out-of-balance with what is needed. Lawerence is given a congratulatory promotion to Colonel, and is told to go home.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So Lawerence of Arabia has a lot to say about the tragedy of Power. And that seems as relevant today in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States as it was during World War 1. It also has a lot to say about today’s gospel. Or rather, today’s Gospel has a lot to say about Lawerence.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let’s take a breath together.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Balancing Light & Breath</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Of course, it is not Lawerence who comes up out of the waters of chaos, but Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel, "just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit (the breath of God) descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is exactly the same story from Genesis Chapter 1: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God (the Breath of God) swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light."</span></div><img alt="Photo of a candle and burning incense on a shelf below a cross fashioned from rock taken on Valentia Is, Ireland." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*W-Js5pxoq7gIjYoOwSMFRQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Balancing light and darkness | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In both scenes, the Breath of God is the main actor, and out of the waters of chaos, the Voice of God speaks something new into creation. In the Genesis story, a balance between light and darkness, and in Mark’s story, there is also a balance within Jesus, between the fullness of God’s breath and Jesus’ own personal and very human breath. And God’s breath carries creational words: words of relationship… of belovedness… of pleasure in the other; the words of love. Before long Jesus, like God, is himself speaking something new into creation: "The time is ripe", he says, "and God’s good road… God’s heart-desire, has come near…".</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Taming the Wild One</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But first, the Breath of God drives Jesus into the wilderness, where something has to happen to Jesus before that proclamation can be made. Jesus is also a loose cannon, a wild-one… an out-of-the-box thinker. But, unlike Lawerence, Jesus is going to go on retreat first… he is going to get quickened… balanced, ripened. And that’s what I think happens in the wilderness to Jesus of Arabia; breathing, balancing, and ripening.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The wilderness appears many times in the Bible. It is not chaos like the waters, but it is not easy either. It is a place of intensity and starkness. There are dangers and deliverance. There are wild animals and angels. There might be temptations. It can be intensely lonely… there are no towns or villages… and yet, someone may walk with you there. You need your wits, and sometimes, your only hope might be with the divine:</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Abraham sends his slave-wife Hagar and their son Ishmael into the wilderness to die. They are saved by an Angel.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the wilderness with his flock, Moses witnesses the burning bush, where God speaks something new into him.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Israel wandered 40 years in desert where they were strongly tempted to go back to Egypt, before they entered the promised land. God was with them every step of the way.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Elijah, facing death threats, flees to the wilderness. There, he is fed by angels and goes 40 days to Mount Horeb to hear God’s voice in the sheer silence.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John the Baptist is at work in the wilderness, and of course, Jesus went there to get baptized.</span></div></li></ul><img alt="Photo of a stunning sunset overlooking plowed fields in the forground with the purpled badlands in the distance. Pienza, Tuscany." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*EvONecJWtFBWGywyN-2J_A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The badlands just beyond the field-furrows | Photo by Ronald Steed near Pienza, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To balance this overwhelming presence of God’s breath within him, and his own personal breath, Jesus has to go to the wilderness. He has to LEARN how to find this balance and how to work with it. He has to put his personal breath in a state of privation so that it is DEPENDENT on the breath of God. The whole point of the wilderness is for Jesus to learn to exist in the tension between a spare and dangerous place and the abundant and loving source of creation. (And isn’t holding that tension the SAME for us?) </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus is subject to "temptations" as it is put in English; more like "forgetting" in Jesus’ native Aramaic language. Mark is not specific about the forgetting that Jesus is tempted with, in the way that Matthew gives a full account. So here, we might turn to Major Lawerence for some help.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Soul & Self</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lawerence goes into the wilderness, forgetting the source of his life. He does not remember the Breath of God, only his own personal breath. Violence, war, domination, power, and ultimately, rejection was the fruit of his work in the absence of God. His IS a monumental work, certainly, which just speaks to the awesome potential of the human self… and it is horrifically destructive. We are still dealing with some of the fallout of Lawerence’s forgetting in the Middle East today. It is his friend Ali who actually found a more balanced breathing between self and God, who is horrified by Lawerence’s violence, and takes a gentler path. My sense is that, like Lawerence, it is the temptation to forget God and to grasp power that was offered to Jesus’ human self.</span></div><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*n5RQAl6z5himDgzVPEQG3g.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Forgetting" is sometimes like fog that separates us from Source | Photo by Ronald Steed near Dooneen, Ireland.</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We humans are given a soul and a self. Both are whole in the sense that both come and are sustained by God, but separate polarities of the whole, in the sense that our egos can act independently. We NEED the self to operate in the world. Jesus needed the personal self to incarnate here. It’s not evil… it has a purpose. AND, the personal self gets easily distracted… the ego can forget God. The ego can put itself in the place of God. When we connect our soul to our personal self, and remember that both are fed and animated by the Breath of God, then we find the guidance we need to send our personal self into the world with LOVE, and not POWER, as it’s main tool. The chief sin of humanity has more to do with FORGETTING God’s breath in us than anything else.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And so Jesus goes into the wilderness to tame the wild self within him… to learn how to balance it with the strong Breath of God that is ALSO within him… and to put these two selves in right relationship. It is the personal self that serves the soul; not the other way around. After 40 days of ripening this balance, Jesus is ready to go out into the world with a proclamation; "The time is ripe, and God’s good road… God’s heart-desire, has come near…"</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let’s take a breath together.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Finding Our Own Balance</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All of us are just like Jesus in this way. I think that is actually one of his core messages to us… "you can DO what I am DOing… balance what I am balancing… just put self and soul in right relationship, and remember the one who made you". This Jesus story in Mark is also OUR story. Heaven is so much closer to us than we think… there are thin places where the fabric between heaven and Earth is torn, and one of those places is in our hearts. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Breath of God commingles with our personal breath, and God’s breath gives voice to new creation in every heart as it speaks; of relationship… of belovedness… of pleasure in the other. It is the work of Love in our hearts to FIND the balance between these breaths. Sometimes, we will be driven out into the wilderness as Jesus was, for a time of balancing and of ripening. And in the fullness of time, maybe 40 days of Lent, we are ready to walk when God’s good road comes near.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a Tuscan road running along a ridgeline among fields and hills during the "golden hour"." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*KQEHETaCFEE2AmLay8E0fg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When God’s good road comes near | Photo by Ronald Steed near Pienza, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When we don’t find this balance, when we forget that there is a balance to find… then there is danger, and violence, and war. I can’t help but to think that Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are places where the breath is more like Lawerence and less like Jesus. The fruit of Lawerence’s breathing is Power. The fruit of Jesus’ breathing is Love.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the movie, a reporter asks; "What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?" I find it more than a little ironic that the question is posed about Lawerence’s personal self. He responds; "It’s clean. I like it, because it is clean". His is a self that forgets that he has a soul also, and he forgets that both come from the Love of God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">If there had been a reporter to ask Jesus the same question at the end of his 40 days, the answer might have been "I like it because it’s a place where I find my breath balanced and mingled with God’s breath, it is where self and soul ripen for action… it is the place where I remember that I come from Love."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">May your Lenten wilderness be a place for finding your own breath balanced with God’s Breath… your own self and soul ripened for action… and your own heart discovered within the heart’s desire of the One who is Love.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let’s take a breath together…</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on the first Sunday in Lent, February 18, 2024</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Mark 1:9–15 (NRSV)</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."</span></i></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Some of the themes of this sermon are drawn from: Douglas-Klotz, N. (2022). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: The Hidden Teachings on Life & Death</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Hampton Roads.</span></div>
Sermon: Out of the Waters of Chaos…https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-out-of-the-waters-of-chaos2024-01-23T03:04:27.790000Z2024-01-16T21:41:47ZRonald Steed<div><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">CHAOS | WATERS | NEW CREATION</span></h4><h1>Sermon: Out of the Waters of Chaos…</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Mark 1:14–20 ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of the baptismal font at St Andrews, awash in a riot of color from the stained glass behind." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*dakGG9zR0L8jQXpGxwLc8A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Out of the waters of chaos, new creation comes | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I wonder…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Peter, Andrew, James, and John live as fishermen, and Jesus calls them into something new. I wonder if there is more going on in this simple story than just one of encounter and call. And whether there is more going on today as well.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In Mark’s Gospel, this story is the first call of disciples by Jesus after his Baptism. To understand what might be going on at the shore of Galilee, we might need to start in the Jordan river.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Waters of Chaos</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There is an Orthodox icon, written long ago, that pictures Jesus’ Baptism this way. ³ Jesus is fully immersed in the waters of the Jordan up to his neck. On one shore, the angels hold his clothes, and on the other, John the Baptist pours water over his head. High above Jesus, the Holy Spirit sweeps over the scene.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a portion of stained glass at St Andrew’s Madison, CT showing the stormy waters wreaking the house built on sand in Luke 6." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*W2ljb1u77dyezERz8J0Rnw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the Bible, the waters often symbolize chaos | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In bible stories, water… the sea… the deep… these symbolize chaos. In Genesis chapter 1, right at the very start, it says; </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One purpose of the Orthodox icon is to remind you of this opening sequence. When you see the spirit hovering over Jesus, who’s up to his neck in the Jordan, you’re reminded of the wind from God sweeping over the waters of the deep. In both scenes, the Spirit over the waters of chaos does a new thing.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There are many other stories where new things happen over the waters of chaos:</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Noah’s ark floating on the flood waters of chaos.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Hebrews caught between the chariots of Pharaoh, and the chaos of the Red Sea. God does a new thing by parting the waters of chaos.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the story of Jonah, part of which we just read, Jonah gets swallowed by a fish for three days, surrounded by the waters of chaos, until he "remembers of the Lord". God spits him out on the shore where Jonah goes on to do the task that Jonah was running away from in the first place; to turn the hearts of the people of Nineveh. God does a new thing with Jonah AND with Nineveh.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s a hymn that we sang at the Cathedral last Sunday to celebrate the </span><a href="https://www.episcopalct.org/acknowledging-the-175th-anniversary-of-the-abolition-of-slavery-in-the-state-of-connecticut-and-creating-an-ecct-reparations-fund-appendix-a/" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">175th anniversary of the end of slavery in CT</span></a><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">; "Wade in the water, wade in the water children… wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water."</span></div></li></ul><div><br/></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When God comes alongside chaos, new things happen, new creation springs out. That’s what happens when God troubles the water. So it is with the Baptism of Jesus. In the icon, Jesus is up to his neck in chaos. He is not afraid of chaos; he WANTS to be Baptized in it. And out of that chaos, something new emerges; a new ministry for Jesus… a new way of life for us.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of a piece of stained glass at St Andrew’s Madison, showing the Earth with the waters of Baptism dripping from a scallop shell above." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*6NuimlYn3XtRDtKbSQOilw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Earth, surrounded by chaos | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, take a moment to look carefully around this church-space. It is filled to overflowing with the symbols of chaos. Do you think it is any accident that the primary color of the glass here is blue? On the back window behind you, right in the middle of the cross, is the Spirit’s new light emerging from chaos. Look above you at the rafters. This building is meant to LOOK like an upside down fishing boat, the very thing that Andrew would sail into the waters of chaos. It seems like we are looking through windows along the port and starboard sides, into the chaos of the water outside. The world out there IS chaotic, isn’t it?</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of the altar window at St Andrew’s Madison, CT showing Jesus, up to his neck in the waters of chaos, and victorious on the cross." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*DQ0nbv7OKe1XDou0_NMgSA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus up to his neck in the waters of chaos | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Look at the altar window behind me. I think this window is based, at least in part, on that Orthodox icon I mentioned earlier. Doesn’t it look to you like Jesus is submerged up to his neck in water? See how blue his robe is? You can see the seaweed floating by the lower part of the cross. There are nets and anchors and sea shells. And incredibly, there are five or six tiny star shapes that really look to my eye like bullet holes… so there’s the chaos of modern American life symbolized there as well. That’s even more amazing since I don’t think the designers of this window could ever have imagined American schoolchildren being routinely shot up in classrooms. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All of this is meant to represent the chaos of the sea. Jesus is up to his neck in chaos and he’s not afraid. Out of the waters of Baptism, something new happens.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Taking a Deeper Dive</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, I think we’re equipped to take a deeper look into today’s gospel story.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Peter, Andrew, James, and John make their living by fishing in chaos. The Sea of Galilee represents chaos in this story, and it points to other kinds of chaos going on. John the Baptist has been arrested, and the entire nation is just a captive territory of Rome. There are Roman taxes to be paid, so there’s a lot of political and economic chaos in Israel. In this story, the sea stands-in as the symbol of all this.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of Ron Steed and his brothers Kevin and David, fishing." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Obpp0UPpM88MgKMYZ03TRQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1060;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The author and his brothers, fishing in the waters of chaos | Photo by J.A. Callahan</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s another symbol as well; the nets. Peter and Andrew cast their nets into chaos. Sometimes they catch fish, but often enough, chaos seems to win out and their nets get damaged, which is why James and John are mending the broken strands. I think the nets are symbolic of a human life spent barely making a living in the world’s chaos. It seems like these four people, who are really symbolic of all the people of Israel, are the ones actually getting caught in their nets. These nets stand for the futility of trying to make a living in chaos without God.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">WITH</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus comes alongside and proclaims "The Kingdom of God has come near". Certainly, the Kingdom has come near to these four fisherman, but more importantly, God has come near to the chaos of the sea, and we know that when God does that, something new is about to happen. Jesus tells them "turn, face a new direction, and step off into new life with me". </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And they do… all four of them walk away from the sea, from their nets, from their boats and hired hands and fathers. They walk away from a life spent in the chaos of the world without Jesus, and walk toward a life that will plunge them back into chaos WITH Jesus.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, I don’t want to pretend that life got any easier for them after this; it didn’t. Jesus leads them into all kinds of chaos; alongside the sick and the lame, alongside people who have died… they are going to eat with people (like tax collectors) who they previously despised… they are going to walk right up to the ultimate chaos… the foot of the cross. To walk with Jesus is not to avoid chaos; it is to go deeper into it… even into death. To walk with Jesus is to have your boat turned upside down and to look out the portholes into the chaos of the world.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The difference is, that they are going into chaos WITH Jesus. And when THAT happens, there is new life… abundance… new creation. The sick are healed… the hated ones are given a place at the table with us… the hungry are fed and satisfied… the dead are raised to life. They discover that not even chaos and death can stand between them and the love of God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And here we have really big issue for us in modern times. Some think that the whole point of Christianity is that chaos should be over, and many don’t understand why that hasn’t happened. Jesus came and defeated the forces of evil didn’t he? Why does it seem then like evil is still in charge? What has changed, really?</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of a piece of the Altar window at St Andrew’s Madison, CT showing, what seems to be, two bullet holes." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Qe7ckXd_-LQVnEvY27CZKQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The chaos of modern life… bullets in the bodies of children | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Russia, white supremacy and gun violence… all of these and other issues, seem like complete and total chaos to me. I haven’t got a clue about what to do or even what to say about them. I have no solutions for any of it, only lamentations. I feel both empathy and revulsion, both at the same time, for everybody involved, including my own country. It all seems as intractable as the ocean to me.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Where we find Jesus</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But here’s what I DO know. Jesus is up to his neck in the chaos of our world. If you are looking for Jesus, you’ll find him in the chaos. You’ll find him close to a Jewish hostage in Gaza, and roaming the halls of a Palestinian hospital. You’ll find Jesus in the trenches of Kharkiv. You’ll find Jesus as bullets are received into the bodies of young American students. You’ll find him sitting in the back seat of a car whose black owner was just pulled over in a traffic stop.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">You’ll find him in the quieter places of chaos too. At the bedside of a woman who just learned that she has inoperable cancer. Standing among a family gathered around a dying father. Looking at photos with a young man whose liver is failing from alcoholism.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here’s the thing. The creation story of Genesis has never ended. God rested for a day, and then kept right on creating. And chaos, in some mysterious way, is the raw material God seems to use for creation. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection did not change any of that. What changed is that Jesus has brought us into the creative process WITH him. We are up to our necks WITH Jesus IN chaos. I think that the Peace of God that passes all understanding, which Shariya is going to bless us home with, includes the chaos… that’s part of reason we don’t understand it!</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="All the colors collected in the water of the baptismal font at St Andrews Madison, CT." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*QMF3BkxICI6FFG1gyBRaLA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The deep waters of chaos | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And somehow, from within the deep waters of chaos, hearts are being changed by Jesus toward God’s Peace. Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrainians, Russians, and Americans of every sort and being touched by God. Hearts of stone are being softened by Jesus, and some people are turning toward peace. It happened in South Africa… it happened in Northern Ireland.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Catch and Release</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To become "fishers of people" as Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, we follow Jesus into chaos with a sort of catch and release program. The energy from our tiniest acts of prayer, peacemaking, and creativity flow into the spiritual dimensions, to be used where it is needed in the world. Help to build a house with Habitat-for-Humanity, and the creative energy of that work flows to a Palestinian child whose life will be dedicated to peace in Gaza someday. Share a cup of coffee while getting to know somebody more deeply, and the joy of your budding friendship flows into the trenches of Ukraine to be released as healing. Nothing is wasted. All of this energy is gathered in one place, and scattered like seed in another.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This church-space stands as a symbol and a testament to the presence of chaos all around us, and the presence of Jesus WITH us as we live our baptismal lives. Chaos is always close at hand wherever Jesus is. Just as the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep, Jesus is up to his neck WITH us in chaos, no matter what. And out of that mix of chaos and followers, rivers and seas, fish and nets… out of all of that, comes the light of new creation.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on the third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 21, 2024</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Mark 1:14–20 </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">(NRSV):</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Some of the themes of this sermon are drawn from:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Williams, The Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, Sacramental Living- Trinity College, Melbourne. </span><a href="https://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/getmedia/b1ef15dc-6fdc-4212-81ed-c699ca1dd1f9/TrinityPaper32.aspx" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">https://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/getmedia/b1ef15dc-6fdc-4212-81ed-c699ca1dd1f9/TrinityPaper32.aspx</span></a></div>
Sermon: Being Withhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-being-with2023-12-18T15:59:05.323000Z2023-11-24T18:01:57ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">ADVENT | BEING WITH | NAZARETH</span></h4><h1>Sermon: Being With- The Way of the Lord</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John 1:6–8, 19–28</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> ²</span></h4><img alt="A birds nest of three eggs on the branch of a Christmas tree" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*pNm3SqzjHw96khsQk3So8A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /></div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Advent… a time of waiting for things to hatch | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m not any of those!</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In today’s gospel, John the Baptist describes himself, frustratingly to the priests and levites sent from Jerusalem, as "none of the ones you are expecting. I am not the Messiah, I am not Elijah, and I am not the prophet." I think I should clarify why they ask John about three people like that.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Messiah, we’ve talked about a lot, and while there was not consistent job description for Messiah in the Bible, the general expectation in Jesus’ day was that the Messiah would be an anointed one who would crush the Romans and install the People of Israel as the rulers of the world, with God himself as King. Elijah’s coming, was prophesied in the book of Malachi chapter 4; "I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes." And the Prophet they ask about, is predicted in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like [Moses] from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John says he’s none of these three, which confuses us as well, since Jesus himself seems to suggest later that John WAS fulfilling the role of Elijah. And, what John DOES say about himself was as enigmatic to his questioners as it is to us: "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’" This is a quote from Isaiah Chapter 40 which announced the good news that the Jews were free to return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon in about the year 538 BC. It’s all very confusing, but that is the joy of being Episcopalian; there is nothing so confusing that a cup of tea can’t make better.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a clock tower at the horse stables at Chateau Orquevaux, France." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*chMEJ6Puz5Ut_KSvdAmnbA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1440; --en-naturalHeight:1800;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Time gets turned on its head in Advent | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Among of the many confusing things we have to contend with in Advent, is that time gets turned on its head. Advent is a season when we look at the past return of the Jews from exile in Egypt and again in Babylon, we look to the past just before the birth of Jesus, we look to the past at John the Baptist just before Jesus launches his public ministry, and we imagine all of this as it might apply to the second coming of Christ in the future. We look at the these past events as though they are the future so that we can imagine what the future coming of Christ might be like. Of the characters in today’s gospel, the ones I relate to most are the Priests and the Levites who must have been shaking their heads all the way back to Jerusalem, "What the heck did we just hear from that crazy man in the wilderness?"</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">30 Years in Nazareth</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus himself had his own season of Advent, a time of waiting, and staying awake, and imagining, and that lasted for the 30 years or so he spent living in Nazareth.³ Almost nothing is mentioned in the Gospels about this time, except that Joseph took his family for a while to Egypt to escape King Herod, and a childhood story of Jesus in the temple. His Nazareth life is probably the most important time in Jesus’ life, not because of anything Jesus DID spectacularly there, but because of the little thing he did for 30 years; he was WITH us.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m going to push this idea of "being with" strongly to you; the whole Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ is illustrated BEST by the 30 years Jesus spent in Nazareth that is NOT documented in the four Gospels. It was a time of being with. A time of living with family and neighbors… of sharing meals and stories… of giving hospitality to strangers and travelers… a time of collectively bearing the burden of Roman occupation. That’s what the whole gospel is about, God being with us as we live our lives, and us being with one another. When John says "Make straight the way of the Lord", the way of the Lord he is talking about is "being with".</span></div><img alt="Photo of a curved path at Haley Farm State Park in Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*SE6Ip1w8YjsbJfTVZi9U0w.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Make straight the way of the Lord | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s true, when Jesus started his public ministry at his Baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus entered a three year season of other kinds of engagement; of being FOR us, of working WITH his disciples, and finally doing FOR us the two things that Jesus had to do alone; dying and resurrecting. These are forms of engagement that are different than being with, but they all have ONE aim, to break down the barriers between people, and between humanity and God, that prevent us from being with one another. There is nothing beyond being with that the Gospel points to. Whatever happens at Jesus’ Second Coming, being with is going to the point of it all, that much we can say.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The big picture of the Bible is that humanity lost the sense of being with God at some point… by our own choice, the Genesis stories tell us, people fell out of relationship with the God who walked in his garden at the cool of the day. The whole biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation is about what God is doing to restore us to that relationship. The decisive part is sending Jesus to live with us for a while, and then sending the Spirit to dwell in every heart. God is with us by becoming us. And the very last image in the Bible, is the New Jerusalem (Heaven) coming to a New Earth, where God will make his home with us.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the biggest picture of all, the whole purpose of the Trinity’s launch of creation was to be with what God made. That’s why they made the universe… to enjoy it… to marvel at the unfolding newness of each moment, and to love it. 30 years in Nazareth was just one way that God did this… to be with the people of a small backwater village on one tiny planet in the cosmos. And if you think that was unimportant to God in the big scheme of things; think again. Being with is God’s whole purpose; being with is our whole salvation.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reconciliation IS the Gospel</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Our calling is to imitate the way God is" and "our clue to imitate God is to follow the way God is with us in Christ." We might consider that the time Jesus spent in active ministry, 3 years, pales in comparison to the Advent he spent in Nazareth, 30 years. We might find the same proportion at work in our own lives, with most of it spent just being with others as our highest good. And what time we DO spend in active ways of engagement have the aim being with more and more people who have fewer and fewer barriers to relationship. "There is no goal beyond restored relationships; reconciliation IS the gospel."</span></div><img alt="Photo of an old table with coffee in Tuscany" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*xHJn53ZfWoA3nMqdHZ-hvA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1600;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A shared conversation over coffee | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Once, early in my work with the homeless shelter in New London, I decided "today’s the day I’m going to sit down and have a cup of coffee with one of the shelter guests and maybe see if I can give them some advice." A little Narcissism can be healthy sometimes. What happened stunned me. We had a conversation. He told me about a couple of dreams he had lately. We got to know each other and thoroughly enjoyed one another’s company. I went into the encounter thinking that I would bring solutions to this poor man’s problems; I saw him as a problem to be solved. What I found was that he had an abundance of wisdom that he was eager to share; he was just a person to be loved. I went in thinking I would straighten this man’s life out. Instead, the way of the Lord straitened me out. That is the power of being with.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We might think about Jesus’ Nazareth Advent as we consider the work of this parish as a community and out in the world. Is the Gospel, being with, our highest aspiration? How are we working on relationships? How are we at being with one another? Do we know each other’s deep stories? Do we know what our fellow disciples are contending with? What barriers to relationship, like race, poverty, and politics, are we removing so that we can be with? Do we do things in the world that bring us into relationship with people who are not like us, so that we can hear their stories and receive the wisdom that they offer? In whatever we do, are we making it possible for our parishioners to experience the transformative power of being with? Are we walking God’s good road together, and picking up new friends along the way?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In whatever we do, are we making straight, the way of the Lord?</span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on 3 Advent, December 17, 2023.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² John 1:6–8, 19–28 (NRSV):</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’" as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Quotes after this point, and some themes taken from Wells, S. (2015). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Nazareth Manifesto: Being with God</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Wiley Blackwell.</span></div><hr/><div><br/></div>
Sermon: Found Objects as Art and Hopehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-found-objects-as-art-and-hope2023-11-19T19:09:11.993000Z2023-11-14T14:13:53ZRonald Steed<div><h4 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">PEACE | PRACTICE | ART | SERMON</span></h4><h1 style="text-align:start;">Found Objects as Art and Hope</h1><h4 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Matthew 24:18–22 ²</span></h4></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Mitigating the Madness</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It seems like something is set loose in the world. Do you feel it too? Wars and rumors of wars? Every generation thinks that the world is going to hell-in-a-hand-basket, and ours is no different… but ya-hoo! </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bad-enough things seem to have taken a turn for even worse things. It looks like multiple forces of destruction are intensively and simultaneously at work everywhere. And just when we think we can’t stand ONE MORE THING, a new thing comes darkly with breathtaking force and sometimes, violence.³</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">My wife Roxanne and I have been feeling something… a nudge toward resistance; things we can do and commend to others, however small, that will mitigate or stop the madness, or at least add some peaceful counterweights.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And so, we have written a book, published today, called </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Focal Points in France; Artful Practices that Bring More Peace</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Together, we have prepared 20 meditations; Roxanne painted a scene, and I composed a haiku and wrote a meditation around small peace practices that anyone can take on, to release more peace into the world. It seems ridiculous and trite to suggest that art can act as a force against the powerful forces of darkness and violence at work all around us, but that is what we are proclaiming.</span></div><img alt="Photo of watercolor artist Roxanne Steed painting a jar of wildflowers at Chateau Orquevaux, France." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*U7fC6qgDZAah_xvxAJyspA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Roxanne at work, painting found-objects | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One of the practices we painted and wrote about is the practice of making art out of found objects. The practice is to make meaning in the ordinary and cast-aside.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wildflowers in a Pickle Jar</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Two years ago, Roxanne and I wandered about the grounds of a Chateau in France looking for flowers as found-objects. In early July, the fields were teeming with them. Roxanne framed them up in another found-object, a cornichon jar, one of our favorite snacks. The next morning, the jar of flowers was still joyfully beautiful and hopeful. So we painted, composed, and wrote about the experience of framing up found objects.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A artist friend of ours, Peter Leibert, also transforms found-objects into art; pieces of drift wood, architectural elements, old toys. Or perhaps, more in keeping with Peter’s thinking, the object is ALREADY art; he just helps to reveal its nature to the world. On beach-walks, in flea markets, or around abandoned houses, he intuits something in these objects.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Regarding the importance of the frame Peter creates to surround or lift-up the object, he says, "framed, the composition says this is mine… I did this… I found meaning in this, and I invite you to find meaning in it as well, or in your OWN found-objects."</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Found-Objects Can be Sacramental</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Some of you remember writing haiku in 4th grade. Three lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables. In traditional haiku, the poet tries to capture what is called "a haiku moment", a flash of profound insight. "Haiku moments" are found-objects too… experienced in nature and framed with words that, at their best, might say something about both nature and humanity. For a musician, an emotion can be a found-object, with music as its frame. For the listener or performer, music itself can be the found-object, with an emotional experience as the frame.</span></div><img alt="Photo of Bebe the Cat, chief mouser at Chateau Orquevaux." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*-_u_MHsHOuWjMpwJGo6ecg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Found objects can be all kinds of things | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Found-objects can be people, friends, or strangers, framed up in love. And found-objects can be sacramental: "outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace", a very Anglican idea that creation offers sacramental found-objects, enchanted (sung into being) by the Spirit.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, in a sense, the found-object itself will assist with the framing. The jar of wildflowers flowers paints the picture… the words write the haiku… the emotion composes the score. There is a spiritual dimension to found-objects that has its own will above and beyond that of the artist. This is true, whether or not you consider yourself an artist. We just have to get out of the way… ask our egos to stand aside for a moment, open our heart-space and let the object help us with the frame.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Trauma of Found-Objects in War</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In war, every found-object is invested with threat; they could be land mines, booby traps, and distractions that invite attack from another direction. Rather than framing such objects as art, the combatant PENETRATES them with ordinance. Soldiers, parents, and children alike experience the trauma of war where every found-object and found-person is subject to destruction.</span></div><img alt="Photo of the war memorial in Andelot, France featuring a crowing rooster." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*vq5Nn7gbRKB5dYy9alIchA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">War Memorial, Andelot, Fr. | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Poet and friend TerriAnn Walling, says "Collective traumas, such as constant wars, patriarchal dominance, and colonial subjugation have shaped society through the pursuit of power." And, she says, even non-participants can experience the trauma of war through media: "The emergence of the moving picture uniquely transformed the experience of connectivity… horrific events and stories were broadcast into people’s homes without understanding the implications of witnessing trauma at a rapidly shared scale."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For so many, healing the trauma of actual or witnessed warfare can be very challenging. TerriAnn’s innovative healing approach brings pairs of traumatized people together in safety and in the absence of power, to write and reframe poetry-mosaics that lavish healing on trauma-induced wounds.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We need artful acts of peace to give us a felt-sense of refusal to participate in a world that seems determined to traumatize all of us.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Leaves, Sticks, Rocks</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Last Good Friday, I watched a young child as we moved from waypoint to waypoint along the stations of the cross in the woods outside. As soon as we would pause, this child would set about gathering natural materials, leaves, sticks, rocks, and set them together in an artful display. It was as if, to each object she found, she would whisper "follow me… follow me". This is what making peace looks like; gathering what you have at hand into something beautiful and full of meaning.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Over the last year, we have been working with Molly Fahey, the Social services coordinator at Madison Youth and Family Services to help people in our community. Molly knows very well, better than most, about the poverty that is there to be found, by those willing to look, here in Madison. Sometimes, she finds a family, who makes a little too much income to qualify for state aid, but who desperately need help nevertheless. That’s when Molly calls us to help with our discretionary funds. Working with Molly has helped St Andrews to expand its view… to be able to search, with Molly’s eyes, over a broader range, for found-objects, our neighbors, and to transform them into flourishing works of human art, at least for a little while.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Transforming found-objects into art is one of these practices Roxanne and I recommend to you. And there is another….</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A New Learning: Hope as a Practice of the Present</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Not long ago, I received a new learning: Hope as an emotion about the present moment, rather than as a far off day that will be better than today. This present hope has an openness and expectation that God, divinity, the Spirit… something that embodies divine Love, can be found at any moment. Attending hope expresses a certainty that this is so. Children, like the young artist I told you about, get this; there along the woodland path are leaves, sticks, and rocks just begging to be made into art. Rather than hoping for a better future that never seems to come, this form of hope helped our young artist to us tap into love that was right in front of us. It is like a cool, refreshing drink of water in a parched and barren world.</span></div><img alt="Photo of moss-covered woodlands at Chateau Orquevaux, France." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*vzZSOpyN9qchYPTUKpINPw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What can be found by us as a beautiful and powerful practice? | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To our Good Friday artist in the woods, her’s was a HOPEFUL practice, knowing that the ordinary and the outcast is right there, and knowing that her works of art would last for only a little while, and not caring that its elements would scatter again along the woodland floor. Each artwork was a little act of resistance against the world; trivial and ridiculous; beautiful and powerful.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Peter, Andrew, James, and John were found objects; ordinary and cast-aside fishermen, found by Jesus and invested with more meaning than they could imagine. With the simple "follow me" they were gathered from their nets, and framed up in love, as an act of resistance against the violence of Roman occupation. That simple encounter along the shore… so unremarkable, has sent waves of peace propagating through the universe that we still remember today on St. Andrew’s day.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Found-objects are confirmations of hope; they open up the heart so that Love, not war, will be found by us. And more, WE are here to be found-objects by God, just like Andrew was, framed up by deep and abiding Love… and to God’s everlasting delight. There is a LOT we don’t know about God, but for me, God seems to have the same present hope WE have, that at any moment, each of us will be found by God, vibrating like wildflowers in the world as beloved children.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, go forth with an attending hope and find something… make it into art and invest it with meaning, and you will be putting a stake in the heart of the world’s violence.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, in ordinary time, for the Feast Day of St. Andrews (transferred to this Sunday), November 19, 2023</span></div>
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<div><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Matthew 24:18–22</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ The major themes of this sermon are taken from Steed, R. & R. (2023, September 18). Focal Points in France: Artful Practices that Bring More Peace, </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Found Objects as Art and Hope</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> p33. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Focal-Points-France-Artful-Practices/dp/B0CM1DNS6W?ref_=ast_author_dp" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">https://www.amazon.com/Focal-Points-France-Artful-Practices/dp/B0CM1DNS6W?ref_=ast_author_</span></a></div><hr/><div><br/></div>
20231025 The Beech Trees are Dyinghttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/20231025-the-beech-trees-are-dying2023-10-29T20:24:46.670000Z2023-10-08T22:01:01ZRonald Steed<div><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">ACHE | LONGING | HOPE | OPEN-HEARTS | LOVE | JOY</span></h4><h1>The Beech Trees are Dying</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Matthew 23:34-46 ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo over an overhead view of yellow leafed beech trees in October, the sun shining brightly through the leaves." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*gPUH3Zk44RzIcR1nvXPPWw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Beech trees overhead, looking a little thin in Fall | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Beech trees are dying.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Beech trees are dying, and that breaks my heart. All of them have a disease that causes their leaves to fall off. I first noticed it three years ago in the forest where I walk. While the oaks and the maples were leafing out, the beeches were bare or thinly leafed, and its been that way for three years running. This tree is a staple of the CT forest, and in 10 years, there won’t be any. And, it will affect all the magnificent Copper Beech trees that are so iconic, and some of my favorites.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What I feel about this is part what many people are now are calling The Ache³. The Ache, which seems to wash over many of us, comes from the cumulative weight of all the things that grieve us in COVID times. I feel it about the Israel/Gaza war, the Ukraine/Russia war, the strife in Sri Lanka and in 24 other conflicted places around the globe. I feel it about gun violence and the more-than-daily mass shootings across the U.S. like the one that just happened in Maine on Wednesday. I feel it about climate change, and political strife in the U.S. I feel it about homelessness, and I feel it from the patients I chaplain at the hospital. I feel The Ache in a lot of you.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The problems of early Jewish and Christian cultures were not seen through the same lens that we see and feel the problems of today. I think that is one reason why scriptures written for those times do not seem to strike a chord with many people today. The Ache is certainly there to be found, but it is often spoken about in other terms.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" alt="Photo from the bank of the Yantic River as it flows slowly through the village of Yantic, CT. The orange and yellow leaves of fall decorate the river banks." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*d6adkokCU4uTWHoLpLZ8_w.jpeg" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yantic River in October | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For the Jews who were sent into exile in Babylon, the problem was idolatry; worshiping something other than God like Baal or Astarte… it’s the reason for their exile to Babylon as they saw it. For the Apostle Paul, the problem was sin and for centuries afterwards, guilt was the emotion Christians contended with. Hebrew and Christian testaments, seem focused on a DIFFERENT problem than the one we feel. We read the words, and they don’t seem to fit our experience.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s true, idolatry is still here today; many seem to worship guns and all kinds of other destructive things. And certainly, sin is still here today; we miss the mark in all kinds of ways. But idolatry and sin are judgements; moral condemnations about about action. They are fingers wagged in our face that say "You’re not good enough… you’re not doing it right!" And isn’t that also the whole capitalist idea? To tell us over and over that we’re not good enough, not rich enough, not fit enough, and then to sell us fulfillment-in-a-box to those who can afford it? The whole purpose of The Enlightenment was to propose an alternative and secular system to Christian judgyness, but it just seems to have substituted a new form of moral condemnation! There is a LOT of finger-wagging in American Culture, and maybe a big part of the The Ache is that it feels like we’re being judged all the time; because we are!</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Scarlet maple leaves backlit on a October afternoon in Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Yr4faOuzU61uHtTQaEoAJw.jpeg" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Maples on Fire | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Ache is NOT a judgement; it’s an emotion that wraps itself around us like shroud; we feel it in our bones. We’re in a crises of meaning, and isolation, and loneliness, and neurosis.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christianity has a powerful symbol for that ache. It comes at the very moment when Shariya cracks the wafer of bread and we hear its sharp report echo in this space. That cracked bread stands in, not just for Christ’s body, but for all the bodies broken in Israel, and Gaza, in Lewiston, Maine, in Madison, in your own homes… in all the woodlands of CT.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here are some of the aches that I feel when that bread is broken… maybe you do too:</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I ache that every thing and every one is extracted, commodified, and transacted… that we seem to be not heard, not seen, and in constant conflict with one another;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I ache that what is worthless seems highly prized by all; If you want to know what is NOT prized, just look at those parts of your day that are quiet because the world does not value them;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I ache that for many, whole groups of people are regarded as inhuman and insignificant, and our lives seem meaningless and powerless;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I ache that our therapeutic culture calls us to turn our minds inward to find our true selves and to be as authentic, full and productive, and self-fulfilled as possible, and instead we find ourselves neurotic, exhausted, and vulnerable to depression or addictions. "We experience life as shallow and insubstantial, fragile and precarious. We vacillate between boredom and anxiety." (Beck)</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">These are some of the aches I feel when the bread is cracked. I wonder what yours are.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, the Christian story does not end with aches… it goes on to another emotion. What rises from The Ache is a LONGING for something else… something heartbreakingly beautiful… something the world does not seem to understand or to want.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bishop Jeff said to a group of us recently; "Longing is everything". It turns out that scripture, both old and new has a lot to say about longings; we just have to tune into the right frequency to hear it through all the judgy chatter about idolatry and sin.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Fiery red October leaves at Haley Farm State Park in Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*DeWJf-yuxkJxCoGPbANajQ.jpeg" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The fire of love | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here are some of my longings;</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I long for God to be WITH me, and for the Spirit to enchant all creation and every human heart, connecting me to you with the fire of God’s Love. I LONG for that.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I long for God to hallow and bless the people and the moments that break my heart, those that fill me with joy, and God’s good road that we walk on together; that God will help me to hallow and bless others in "our vocation to be a light to the world, and the salt of the Earth". (NT Wright).</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I long for God to reveal meaning and significance in life; in hardship, in suffering, and in my cross-shaped moments;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I long for God to tune me into me heart, and turn my eyes outside myself toward a LOVE that is much bigger than me, a love that I can trust… toward the rock from which we were hewn, and toward the quarry from which we were dug; Jesus.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I long to feel Love instead of Ache… THAT’S the emotion I want to feel. To love and to BE loved.</span></div></li></ul><div><br/></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christianity DOES have language, and symbols, and practices that help our Ache and our Longing; its language IS heartbreakingly beautiful, its symbols are powerful and rich with layers of meaning, and its practices can fill us with a THIRD emotion, if we let them.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In Christianity, that third emotion is called HOPE. And by hope, I don’t mean a far off day that is better than today. I mean, something I can see and feel NOW, in this MOMENT. The hope I have is a PRESENT hope, a second-by-second anticipation, an ATTENDING hope.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here are a few of my attending hopes:</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that I might wake up to moments of mystical awareness, and witness the enchantedness of creation and its people; to see the "unfolding newness of each moment of creation" (Samuel Wells);</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that we might be drawn together in beloved communities;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that we might have the peace which the world cannot give;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that I might find Jesus each day and find myself in Jesus;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that I might become more and more like Jesus… more fully human each day, and less and less like how my ego wants the world to see me;</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I hope that I might see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their WHOLENESS and perfection by the one through whom all things were made, Jesus Christ.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Those are some of my hopes; I hope them for you too.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christianity tells us that there is one sure and certain way of fulfilling that hope, and that is to open our hearts daily… moment by moment. The heart is the instrument of connection between us… it is the knowing center, the resonating chamber of God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And I know only one way to open my heart to these hopes. And that is to PRACTICE what Jesus proclaims in today’s Gospel: </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">to love the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and to love my neighbor as myself. </span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The cure for our aches, the fulfillment of our longings and hopes, and the bandage for our broken hearts is just one thing; Love. It is in those moments when I open my heart and project that love to God and to you, that I find my hopes fulfilled… I am not disappointed. I DO encounter God’s mystical presence, I see God’s hand at work in the world, I feel love instead of ache and longing. I feel joy. I hope you will too.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So; ache, longing, hope, open-hearts, love, joy. THIS is the emotional path we walk in modern Christianity.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And we might pled with God about this "Can’t we just bypass The Ache?" Can’t we have these OTHER emotions, like hope and love and joy without having so much heartache? Can’t I just get a better therapist, take a new prescription drug, or read a self-help book?</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">No, I’m sorry. This is the VERY thing that Christianity KNOWS that secular capitalism will never understand.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="A woodland road covered in October leaves at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Oz43zSin5MKNm38OdVjhZw.jpeg" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God’s good road passes though our aches and longings… | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s only one path on God’s good road to hope and love and joy and it passes though our aches and longings, through the very things that grieve us. That’s why, as soon as the bread is broken, Shariya says "Alleluia", as though to proclaim how counterintuitively wonderful it is, that in the brokenness of the world, right at the throbbing CENTER of our ache, we encounter Christ. There is no resurrection without the cross; there is no joy without weeping over beech trees.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, be a little ridiculous and go lay hands on a beech tree, and catalogue your aches… stand there and share your longings with that tree. Don’t run away from those emotions… let them wash over you… let the tears well up and spill over. And then, open your heart by projecting love to God and to that living creature. And before you know it; you’ll be right as rain. </span></div>
<div><br/></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, in ordinary time, proper 25, October 29, 2023</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Matthew 22:34–46 </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">(NRSV):</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" ’? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.</span></i></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Many of the themes of this sermon are drawn from:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">BECK, R. (2023). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. BROADLEAF BOOKS.</span></div><hr/><div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut and has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</span></i></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Top writer in: Art, Watercolor, Haiku, Sermons, Refresh the Soul Weekly, and Episcopal Church.</span></div><img alt="Photo of Ron Steed, writer of lyrical heart-stories that are spiritual, simple, and artful" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*laRSbyb1YlpTaT9j.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ron Steed</span></div>
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Sermon: When God’s Good Road Winds its Way…https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-when-gods-good-road-winds-its-way2023-09-25T11:03:01.499000Z2023-09-13T01:27:57ZRonald Steed<div><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">GOD BREAKING IN | DAY LABOR | VINEYARDS</span></h4><h2>Sermon: When God’s Good Road Winds its Way…</h2><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Matthew 20:1–16 ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of nearly ripe purple grapes on the vine in Tuscany." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*tiRezQzzgfWNt27D6mXYyg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What happens when God breaks out in a vineyard? | Photo by Ronald Steed in Montepulciano , Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Come Holy Spirit, and halo-our-heads with the FIRE of your love!</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What Happens?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I wonder what it is like when the Kingdom of God (or as Native American’s put it, "God’s Good Road") breaks into the world? What changes? What doesn’t? Does everything change all at once, or are there small, but important incremental changes that happen? Does it land beautifully and perfectly, or does it land messily?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think today’s gospel story about the Landowner and the vineyard workers has something to say about this. But before we dive into this story, there are a few things we might try to sit with.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Things to Sit With…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First, there is a temptation to think that the Landowner is a character who stands-in for God. Let’s try to resist that temptation, because mostly, the story works better if the Landowner is not God. Let’s just suppose that he is what Jesus says he is; a male landowner. He’s probably pretty wealthy, and judging by all the workers he hires, he probably owns most of the land in the region surrounding his village marketplace. We can bet that if he’s rich, he’s also powerful, at least around this region. He has enough of both wealth and power to hire a manger to keep things running, and to set the terms of employment without question. And he clearly knows things, like what the usual daily wage is all about. I’m guessing that he is wealthy enough that he is not having to depend of getting a day’s wages just to eat; he probably eats pretty well. I think you get the picture; the Landowner is powerful, but he’s not God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Second, think about the incandescent complaint that the first hired workers are making; "These last worked only one hour, and you have made them EQUAL to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat." I’m pretty sympathetic to that reasoning, and I bet a lot of you are too. Haven’t all of us heard the phrase "equal pay for equal work"? That seems fair. Let’s think about it.</span></div><img alt="Sun drenched rows of grape vines lead the eye toward distant hills and fields in Tuscany." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*mMCCi3maYMPHCSaSABUraA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Us who have born the burden of the day"… | Photo by Ron Steed in Montepulciano, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Suppose all the first hired people were women, and that they are the ones who worked all day in the hot sun bringing in the landowner’s harvest. And suppose the last hired people were all men, who worked for maybe an hour. If both groups get paid equally, wouldn’t you as a woman say "Typical… the good ole boy’s club gets paid the same as the women who did all the work… what happened to equal pay for equal work? There’s no justice in what you are doing Mr. Landowner!" </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Or, suppose all the first hired workers are Black and Brown people, and THEY are the one’s working all day to bring in the harvest, and the last hired workers are all white people. It would be the same thing; "Nothing new to see here", the first workers would say, "just the same kind of Jim Crow white supremacy that we experience every single day of our lives."</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Feeing the Tension</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, it’s ok to feel some deep empathy with these first hired workers; they have something to say about equality and inequality; "equal pay for equal work". And… what does it feel like when we receive something unmerited? How about when others receive it? FEEL the tension as you try to hold these opposites together; earnings and gifts. Sometimes, when God’s Good Road breaks in, you might feel this same tension, as though something has happened that transcends and envelops opposites like these. BOTH feel right, and yet you KNOW they aren’t… or a least, it once SEEMED like you knew they weren’t, but now you’re not sure. Mmmmm…. Kingdom of God….</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s a third thing going on here, and that’s about the KIND of people who got hired throughout the day. The first hires are all the ones who showed up bright and early in the morning. They are young, strong and vigorous. They are ABLE to work a full day. And they get chosen for work BECAUSE of these reasons. In fact, if there WERE some weak, or old, or sick ones there at the marketplace that early, they would get PASSED OVER and NOT HIRED. The ones that were idle at nine, noon, and 3 o’clock, are the ones who got up late, possibly because they drank the previous day’s wages… some of them are likely hung over. Or they are old, or sick, or lame, or not the right color if this story were in the U.S., or have some other problem that caused them NOT to be hired earlier. And by the time we get to the ones idle at 5pm, these had to be the absolute dregs of the workforce as far as the hiring managers were concerned. That’s the reality of day labor, and it is no different today than it was in Jesus’ time.</span></div><img alt="Photo of customers buying colorful summer fruit at a marketplace in Andelot, France" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*7468gl9kcJKTBKh5-Tg7pQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1311; --en-naturalHeight:1944;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who Gets Picked to Work in the Marketplace? | Photo by Ron Steed in Andelot, France</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Finally, there’s a fourth thing going on. There’s a LOT of unemployment in this story… enough that there is real competition for a day’s wages. And those wages are needed to eat. If you don’t work a full day, you can’t afford a full day’s rations, or have a warm place to sleep that night. And that becomes a vicious cycle that makes it even less likely that you can work the NEXT day. And if there is some other expense, like you need medicines, or there’s a loan you have to pay back, you can get in trouble pretty quick. When these ones pray "give us this day our daily bread", that’s a pretty life-sustaining request!</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Surprise</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Alright, so having figured out that the landowner really IS a landowner, that the first hired people really DO have a just complaint about the way they were treated, and having thought about the real dynamics of day labor, we might be ready to ask the question; "What does it look like when God’s Good Road, or the Kingdom of Heaven, breaks into this vineyard?"</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One thing I think we can say, is that when God breaks into a place, it’s going to be a surprise… it’s not going to show up where we might expect. In this case, it looks like God’s Good Road has broken into the Landowner’s heart, and that’s the LAST place I would reckon God to be. I mean, I would expect, maybe it would land on one of the workers… maybe a pregnant woman hired in the third group. But surely NOT the rich landowner. But that’s what happened… I think that is what Jesus is pointing to… the Kingdom of Heaven is not predictable like we think… it goes where it will… it goes toward the soil that is prepared to receive it perhaps. And maybe that landowner’s soil was tilled by the Spirit and ready to receive what God seems eager to show him.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One Who Sees Things Differently Now…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Three things seem to have happened to the way the Landowner is suddenly seeing the world.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First, he no longer sends his MANAGER into the marketplace to make the hires, he goes there himself. The Landowner himself goes to meet the day workers. WHAT…. WHAT has touched him so that he thinks he needs to go there himself? The story does not say, but that’s the whole idea about parables, they invite us to ask questions like this. I wonder if the Landowner had a transformative experience before this story… sometime in the recent past where he met people, day workers, who were suffering from unemployment and let their stories touch his heart. And maybe more importantly, he discovered these were people just like him, with gifts, and desires, and dreams that they were eager to share. They were no longer statistics on a payroll sheet, but neighbors whom he could get to know and to love. I wonder if that was the thing that tilled his soil?</span></div><img alt="Photo of a painting in the Duomo di Orvieto of a mediaeval man looking out an open lunette at the scene above him." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*9ga2-verYvs1p_0I_XTr2w.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1870;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Landowner sees things from a different perspective now | Photo by Ron Steed in the Duomo di Orvieto</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Second, the landowner seems to be seeing "the Problem", the Capital "P" Problem, completely differently.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It no longer matters to him that his vast vineyards needing labor to get the harvest in, he’s noticing something else that seems MORE important; unemployed people standing idly around his community marketplace. "I’m going to hire everyone I find who’s just standing around, no matter how many there are. I’m going to provide daily food for as many as I can, because my community is really suffering unemployment, and I have the means to help." He feels this so strongly, that he goes not just once, but five times to the marketplace… personally. Maybe he doesn’t send his manager because his manager is working on a completely different problem.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And third, he’s going to be over-the-top generous with his money. He’s going to pay these workers as a GIFT, not because of the hours they have worked, but because he CAN. The manager has to be beside himself about this! "Sir? … pay them all the same? Are you sure? Can you afford to do this? Is it sustainable? God help us…" The Landowner doesn’t seem to care. That’s what he is going to do.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Last Shall be First…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So maybe, just maybe, THIS is what it looks like when the Kingdom of Heaven breaks into the world. Maybe, the very LAST person you would expect to be touched by the Spirit… this wealthy Landowner, is exactly the FIRST one in this community to have his heart broken.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Does it go well? Yes, for some, but not for everyone. Does it cut across community norms and boundaries? Oh yes… some folks are made very angry by this, and others might eat a full meal for the first time in weeks. Is it perfect? It doesn’t seem like it, and yet, it’s hard to argue with the Landowner’s reasoning… "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?"</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think, when we are looking for God’s Good Road to break out among us, we might think about the lessons of this parable:</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It might break into the places and people where we least expect it.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It might break onto some in ways that seem like a blessing and to others like a curse. It might seem to be both ways to us, both at the same time! It might break into some who never have any idea that it did, but it is very apparent to others who witness it.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It might be messy; might not break in as perfectly as we think it should, though on reflection, it just might be EXACTLY what is needed.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Maybe we should do less looking for it than just being open to when it happens.</span></div></li></ul><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Middle Man</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s an Episcopal Priest and poet I follow, Rosalind C. Hughes, who wrote the BEST poem about this story. It’s focused on the manger, who really IS the LAST person we might expect to receive the Kingdom of Heaven:</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Middle Man³</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The manager suspected</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">that his boss might be a good man,</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God help us</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">, he muttered,</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">manipulating money into</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">open palms and curling fingers alike.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sunset played the devil with his eyes,</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">garbling the complaints of weary</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">and incandescent workers,</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">while those who left first,</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">looking back, saw him haloed</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">as though with living fire.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a sunset in Pienza Tuscany, as the sun touches the distant hills, and blankets the fields with warm golden light…" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*c3fOeAm18MhrbD5vTxVH8w.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"The sub played the devil with his eyes…" | Photo by Ron Steed in Pienza, Tuscany</span></span></div><hr/><ol><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on The Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after the Ascension, September 24, 2023</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Matthew 20:1–16 (NRSV)</span></div></li></ol><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last."</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">3. Hughes, R. C. (2023, September 21). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Middle Man</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Over the Water. </span><a href="https://rosalindhughes.com/2023/09/21/the-middle-man/" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">https://rosalindhughes.com/2023/09/21/the-middle-man/</span></a></div><hr/><div><br/></div>
<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut, has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways, and now works as a Chaplain at Lawerence & Memorial Hospital in New London, CT. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</span></i></div>
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<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Top writer in: Art, Watercolor, Haiku, Sermons, Refresh the Soul Weekly, and Episcopal Church.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" alt="Photo of Ron Steed, writer of lyrical heart-stories that are spiritual, simple, and artful" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*laRSbyb1YlpTaT9j.jpeg" /><div style="padding-left:80px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ron Steed</span></div>
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Sermon: A Longing and an Achehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-a-longing-and-an-ache2023-08-27T17:51:14.665000Z2023-08-14T11:14:07ZRonald Steed<div><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who do YOU say that Jesus is?</span></h4><h1>Sermon: A Longing and an Ache</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Exodus 1:8–2:10 (NRSV) & Matthew 16:13–20 (NRSV)²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of green plants and water lillies floating on a dead calm shore in Bar Harbor, Maine." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*hnh4Ru7TrndNrPmAi_RaPA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A baby found among the reeds sets things in motion | Photo by Ron Steed in Bar Harbor, ME</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Powerful Women</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The People of Israel, enslaved in Egypt, had a longing and an ache… a longing to be saved from slavery and an ache to be their own people. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This morning’s story from Exodus¹ about the rescue of Moses from the Nile river seems like one that could be heard on the news today. It’s about a powerful national leader who is threatened by people who were not like him. And because the principle tool that powerful leaders have is death, that’s what he decrees. The recent stories of floating razor-saw barriers in the Rio Grande, and the apparent assassination of a rival Russian warlord are current-event parallels perhaps.</span></div><img alt="Photo of the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Boston, Mass showing Tubman leading a family of enslaved people to freedom." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Q0PM6Foahg_WhmHHWJrmWA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A leader led by love instead of death in our own times. Harriet Tubman memorial, the first memorial erected in Boston to a woman on city-owned property. | Photo by Ron Steed in Boston, MA</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It is a story about women, powerfully exercising their own judgements in the face of oppression; of courageous and disobedient midwives, and of a mother in agony over the real possibility of losing her child to someone’s fear-driven national policy, and of a watchful sister who networks her contacts. The irony of the story, is that the leader’s own daughter, hearing the baby cry, "took pity on him", becoming herself, the lynchpin that brought salvation to the Hebrews in defiance of her father.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Mysterious Source of Hope</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Much of the Hebrew testament follows, as God’s chosen and rebellious people navigate their way in covenant with God over maybe 1000 years of existence as a people, including a disastrous re-enslavement and exile from Judea to Babylon. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It was in Babylon that they redacted and edited much of the Bible as we know it today, to give meaning to their exile and hope for their future. Some of that hope was centered on a mysterious servant-Messiah, who would figure in their renewed longing and ache. Even after they were permitted to return in joy to Judea, it seemed over the next 500 years that God was absent, and that their exile continued as successions of new oppressors from Alexander the Great to the Romans came to rule over them.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To BE Israel’s messiah was not well-defined; there wasn’t a job description. It COULD mean a lot of things to the Jews of Jesus’ time, but typically, the Messiah was expected to do at least three things:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First the Messiah would become Israel’s King, like King David was in ancient times. You can see why Jesus would want this keep that a secret. It was good news that the people thought he was merely a prophet… prophets might not be as threatening to those in power, although John the Baptist’s head ended up on a serving platter. But to claim to be the Messiah was a very different matter. Israel already HAD a King (Harod), who was subservient to Caesar, and neither of whom was really interested in a rival. Even the Jewish leaders and priests felt threatened by Jesus’ claim. They hoped and expected that a more controllable Messiah would rise from their own lot rather than an uncontrollable nobody from some backwater village in Galilee. Jesus was crucified over his claim to be the Messiah in the end, with the inscription "King of the Jews" hanging over his head. His crowning really looked like defeat for Jesus and victory for the powerful. Death is THEIR tool after all.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Second, the Messiah would be instrumental in the defeat of the enemies of Israel, namely the Romans and the Roman-appeasing King Herod. This is why there is a recurring thread of misunderstanding by Jesus’ disciples and the crowds who were expecting Jesus to raise an army. Ironically, Jesus DID defeat these powers by being crucified by them. Nobody was expecting THAT!</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And third, the Messiah was to usher in the return of God to Israel, who seemed to have been largely absent since Israel’s return from Babylonian exile 500 years before.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Statue of the father embracing the prodigal son in an outdoor garden." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Ct00YkvxuooGZgk7W5WORg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Messiah; man or God? | Photo by Ron Steed at Holy Family Retreat Center, West Hartford, CT</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Human or Divine?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now to the Jews of Jesus’ day, Messiah did NOT mean "second person of the Trinity"… Messiah did NOT imply divinity. "Messiah" carried a sense of being God’s right-hand-man. Further, the title "Son-of-God" ALSO did not mean divine. "Son-of-God" could and did mean "The People of Israel" as God’s chosen nation, and it could also mean the Messiah as the one embodying the People of Israel. So, there was God working together with the Son of God, God’s right hand man, to do God’s work.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Messiah was special, chosen, anointed, seen as a son in some way, but definitely human and certainly not divine. None of the others who claimed to be the Messiah, and there were many, before and after Jesus, claimed to be divine.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And YET, the things Jesus was doing; healing, forgiving, feeding thousands, walking on water, cleansing the temple; all these were things that God alone might be expected to do. So what Jesus was doing, seemed to have divine features that would matter when looked at in retrospect later.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of a stone madonna and child in an outdoor church garden. Both characters have the holy nimbus, or halo, behind their heads." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*AksER1QhQUWFIy7OLvvJWw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The things Jesus did in his life carried a divine aspect that would be important later | Photo by Ron Steed at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Madison, CT</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What is intriguing, is that nobody followed those other Messiah’s after their deaths. Death could only mean that they weren’t the Messiah after all.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Why was it different for Jesus then? What is it that turned Jesus from "human Messiah and Son-of-God" to "Second person of the Trinity"? After all, we St Andrew’s Christians are worshiping Jesus as God now… in this very moment. We are sitting here now because a child was fetched out of the water by a tender-hearted daughter 3000 years ago, and a Messiah came to bring hope to the people led by that child… and something incredible happened to that Messiah.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What Made Jesus Different?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What happened was resurrection… Jesus raised from the dead, which pointed powerfully back at his life as though to say "pay attention to what I said and did in life… there is something more to see there than you think."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And with that, early Christians began, very quickly, to realize that Jesus was more than a person who was venerated and admired as a human, but rather the Creator God itself who was to be worshiped. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It would take another 400 years for the church to find good-enough words to describe the Trinity in the Nicene Creed, but already in Matthew’s Gospel and in Paul’s letters, written within a generation or two of Jesus’ death, we begin to see that language powerfully take shape. And, we are seeing them draw that language from the Hebrew Scriptures, because within the Hebrew Scriptures are found the same stories of divine love; of rebellious midwives, grieving mothers, quick-thinking sisters, and rescuing daughters.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For Christians then, Jesus the Messiah, began to take on a divine nature that went beyond the broad Jewish concept of Messiahship, but was also fully consistent with the Jewish belief in one God. For early Christians, Jesus was God incarnated… God as one of us and WITH us… fully human AND fully divine. Born, lived, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and alive and active in the world to this very day, in the hearts those who sit in these very pews.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What He Did Gives Us Hope</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So what does all this mean to us?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First, that Jesus did all the things that the Messiah was supposed to do to fulfill Israel’s destiny to be a light to the nations. AND, he did shockingly more… over the top more:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">He became the King of the Jews, as the sign on top of his cross proclaimed. And more, he was King of the Kingdom of God… a very different global, even cosmic kingdom, whose guiding principle is not death, but love. The kind of love that that causes midwives to disobey a pharaoh, that causes an agonized mother to set her child adrift in a fragile basket, and that causes a young woman to rescue a child whose cry touches her heart, and a sister brilliantly to make heart-to-heart connections, the kind of love that sends exiled people joyfully back home… the kind of love that Jesus had on full display throughout his life, the kind of love we see in operation all around us today if we have eyes to see, and the kind of love we feel in our hearts if our heads allow it to be felt.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Photo of the fresco Madonna del Parto of Monterchi by Piero della Francesca (c 1460), showing a very pregant mary in blue frock, stading within a tented encousure whose flaps are held open by a pair of angels who look directly into the viewer’s eyes." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*BmePAIdvD7Y3fpNR3_e-_Q.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1613;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The scandal of incarnation… God with us and within us. Photo of the fresco Madonna del Parto of Monterchi by Piero della Francesca (c 1460) | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
<div><br/></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Second, he defeated the enemies of Israel, but that turned out not to be so much the Romans or the Herodians, but Evil… the real enemy… the force of anti-creation in the world. Evil was decisively defeated on the cross, but not yet destroyed. And that gives us co-creational, loving ACTION to take as we work together toward the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom, the model of which is the cross and the resurrection… the pattern we look for when we are looking for God.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And finally, Jesus ushered in a new and fresh presence of God powerfully in the world, in ways that no one had imagined, because it turned out that Jesus was God itself. And THIS tells us a lot about who and what God is. When we are trying to figure out God, just look at Jesus and you will know; God is with us close at hand not far away, active not sleeping, always tugging at our hearts and never coercing, loving our true and authentic selves… what God joyfully made us to be.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It means is that we have hope:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We have a creator God who knows what it is like to be human… God’s been where we are and powerfully IS where we are.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We can listen for what God is telling us in the same way that Peter learned that Jesus was the Messiah… we can listen to our hearts. We can give up the idea that we can know Jesus with our heads. That’s part of what Jesus was telling his disciples… "you can’t know me that way, so stop it. Lean into me with your hearts like Peter just did, and you will learn". </span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We can look for the longings and the aches in our hearts now… the places where WE are being crucified, and KNOW that the Messiah’s resurrection is where we will find respite.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><img alt="Bokeh photo of spiked blue and purple flowers just past their peak in a garden at Weekapaug Chapel, RI" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*YC4cLWgVC3JJdgPBJknkCQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We long and we ache in our own times | Photo by Ron Steed at Weekapaug Chapel, RI</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Our Longing and Our Ache</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Don’t we feel a longing and an ache for our own times? Don’t we long for peace, and wholeness, and meaning in our lives and in our communities? Don’t we ache to be freed from illness, and oppression, and hate? Do we feel like we are exiled from who and what we truly are as humans, by forces whose only tool is death? Don’t we want to be liberated from our complicity in these things? To forgive and to be forgiven? To embrace and to be embraced?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Don’t we long for a Messiah who will free us? One who will hear our cry and take pity on us?</span></div>
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<div><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who do YOU say that Jesus is? What is God revealing about him in your own heart?</span></b></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, in Ordinary Time, Proper 16, August 27, 2023.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Readings:</span></div><h3><br/></h3>Sermon: Darnel & Wheat - Cross & Resurrectionhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-darnel-wheat-cross-resurrection2023-07-24T02:48:05.787000Z2023-07-18T20:32:40ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">GOOD & EVIL | REDEMPTION | GOD’S GOOD ROAD</span></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 (NRSV) ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of a field of summer grasses at the Audubon Center in Pomfret, CT. The Foreground included tall rye grasses that receed to the dark tree line in the distance under a cloudless blue sky." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*KI6tgavSaB3xB_QDN5xT9A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /></div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Summer Fields full of Rye Grasses | Photo by Ronald Steed at the CT Audubon Center, Pomfret CT.</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Before you sit down, I want you to keep standing and take a moment to look around this space… turn to look at your neighbors behind you and across the aisle. Just look and take an inventory of who’s here.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Can you tell which of these people are good and which are evil? Can you tell the wheat from the weeds?</span></div><h4 style="text-align:center;">…</h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Darnel & Wheat</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There are a few things that might be helpful to know about Jesus’ parable of the wheat and weeds for those of us who are not wheat farmers. The weeds, sown by an enemy in the wheat field, were probably darnel, a type of ryegrass that looks exactly like wheat while it is maturing, but whose seedheads are easily distinguishable from the seedheads of wheat. The householder and his staff would not have realized that someone had tampered with their field until the seedheads began to form. Only THEN would they have known. </span></div><img alt="Golden seedheads among the green and tan see grasses among the dunes at Napatree Point Beach Rhode Isalans." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ywKhQe4xXRQSmBa3om-pgg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Seedheads among the sea grasses at Napatree Point Beach, Rhode Island | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That’s why, by that time they realized that a lot of darnel had grown among the wheat, the roots of the wheat and the darnel would have become entangled in the soil, making the wheatfield more like a single living organism than a set of individual plants. To pull up the weedy darnel would have damaged the good wheat significantly, perhaps disastrously.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Darnel has been a problem for farmers since humanity first cultivated wheat, because the grain from darnel is dangerous. People who eat darnel grain in bread become drunk and ill or even die if enough is eaten. So it was a big deal historically. Modern machinery can sort out the seedheads so it is not a problem in western cultures any more, but there are still places in the world where there is a significant amount darnel grown among the wheat.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We know there was a Roman law that forbid someone from sowing darnel in another person’s wheat field as an act of revenge, so it’s clear that this happened enough between angry Roman farmers to warrant such a law, and that Jesus’ parable was realistic to the farmers of his day who heard his story. It’s a mean, petty, and dangerous thing to do. And it was a good stand-in story for what had happened to the world.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Armed with that farming knowledge, there are three things I want to say about this parable.</span></div><h4><br/></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Can We Tell the Difference?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The first is, </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">we are a lot less able to distinguish good from evil than we think we are.</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Remember that fruit that Adam and Eve ate? It came from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and it wasn’t a very large dose… apparently the knowledge effects were not passed down generationally either! There is no doubt that there is evil in the world that causes a lot of death and damage. You only need to look at the news to know that this is true. But it is hard to put a finger on exactly who the evil ones are. I don’t know about you when we were looking at one another, but I couldn’t tell the wheat from the darnel among us.</span></div><img alt="Tall summer grasses in a field at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT. The grass stems are green and the seedheads bobing at the tips are tan." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*5XfXNI8mfjlkbGnWXhC4NQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tall grasses in the fields of Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For the last month, I’ve been serving as a hospital chaplain at Lawerence & Memorial Hospital in New London, and I’ve seen a lot of patients and their families who are suffering with illnesses of all kinds. I sit with each of them and have a chat, and I can’t tell which are wheat and which are darnel. They all look like wheat to me and it seems like non-sense to think that any of them are weeds. Think about your own neighbors and co-workers… can you really tell the good ones from the evil ones?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">On the HOME trip with our young people the week before, we talked to them before they hosted the community meal about people who experience homelessness. The idea was that our society is very quick to label people as winners and losers, and it judges people who experience homelessness as losers. We asked the students to consider that these are just neighbors who have had some misfortune, but who also have hearts, and gifts, and lives that are compelling and interesting, and stories that they are eager to share.</span></div><img alt="Wheatfield stubble surrounds a lone tree in late afternoon. It looks out to the mountains far in the distance under a cloudless blue sky." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*GmDbq4D5J9Q4SEcI1ISO2g.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1600;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wheat field stubble in Radicofni, Tuscany | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The students took that idea and ran with it. The really engaged with the staff and the shelter guests during the community meal. I think they came away with the same idea that we just experienced here; you can’t really tell the difference between wheat and darnel when it comes to people, and the labels American society stamps on people are not all that reliable; in fact, those labels are wrong.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We Have a Common Life Together</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The second thing I want to say is that, </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">when Americans hear this parable, they think about individual wheat and darnel plants rather than the field as a whole</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. We live in a VERY individualistic society, even compared to other Western countries, and certainly across the sweep of history. So Americans are quick… a little too quick I think… to label people as good or evil; as winners or losers. Many Americans think that just knowing the political party of another person is enough to say everything they need to know about whether a person is good or evil.</span></div><img alt="Salt marsh grasses in winter seen through the remains of tall phragmites stems at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*GcjAjIhTX_zx3Y1zV7Fjdg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Salt marsh grasses in winter at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Americans really cannot imagine that people are as interconnected as a wheat field… we chafe at the idea that we even have a common life together where wheat AND darnel are intertwined and inseparable. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Americans cannot see what would have been obvious to farmer-listeners as Jesus told this parable in his day; that humanity is more like a single living organism and not just a collection of individuals.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And more… Americans cannot imagine that their own hearts are sown with both wheat and darnel. As one writer put it:</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of [their] own heart?" ³</span></i></div><h4><br/></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Don’t Kill the Evil</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The third thing I want to say about this parable is that </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christianity has a unique way of dealing with evil that is very different from the way the world deals with it</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Americans want to destroy evil… to root it out wherever it is found. We want to kill it and, we will go to war to do that. Of course, what Americans regard as evil differs across our society, most particularly between our political parties, and also along racial lines. But generally, Americans are willing to use violence to destroy whatever they regard as evil. In the American religion, violence is redemptive.</span></div><img alt="The remains of summer grasses in a fall field at Haley Farm State Park in Groton, CT under a brillient Autumn sky." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*EpgyXnSQmXiAMRzMCQ_9_Q.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The remains of summer grasses in late fall at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That’s not that way for Christians who pay attention to this parable and to the Gospels. We don’t kill evil because God doesn’t kill it; we water and nurture it along with everything else, because God waters and nurtures the wheat and the darnel together. Christians leave it to God to sort out the causes of evil in God’s good time, and that includes the evil in our own hearts. We try to wait patiently on God, because only God really knows what is good and what is evil, and God will act on it when God is ready.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We don’t kill evil because we would kill some of the good as well. We don’t kill it because we’re not very good at telling the difference between good and evil. We don’t kill it because every human heart, our own included, is a mix of wheat and darnel and to kill a part of the heart is to kill the whole thing.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We don’t kill the evil because we believe there is more going on in this wheat field than just cultivation; there’s also transformation. Darnel is getting changed into wheat, and that line that runs through every human heart can be moved to make more and more room for wheat, and less and less room for darnel. The work of God’s creation has never stopped, and every moment is a moment when something new can happen that has never happened before. And, we are co-creators in the Trinity’s work.</span></div><h4><br/></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Life Lived Among Wheat and Darnel</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus lived his life exactly they way he is telling us to live with this wheat field. He didn’t kill the Pharisees or the Herodians. He didn’t raise an army to destroy the Romans, even though that’s what everybody thought he was supposed to do. Instead, he lived among the wheat and the darnel, and he healed, he transformed, he nurtured, and he watered. He criticized the powerful who seemed to be scattering darnel seed all over the place, he worked some justice to tamp down the evil where it had became too powerful, and he turned over a few tables to remind evil who was in charge. And… he went to the cross. Evil is real, and sometimes the cross is what happens in fields of wheat and darnel.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a standing stone cross at St Brendan’s Well on Valentia Island, Ireland. The cross is rough-hewn and ancient, and stands among the salt grasses." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*QK8vT7uRO3vkmTEP7gMpIw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Standing Stone Cross at St Brendan’s Well, Coarha Beg, Island of Valentia, Ireland | Photo by Ronald Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Darnel and wheat; cross and resurrection. Its not violence that is redemptive, it is the cross and the resurrection that are redemptive. The wheat fields of our lives, just like Jesus’, includes both of these. Where the darnel is thick, there is the cross. Where the wheat flourishes, there is resurrection. We live in a field that has both, so we’re going to encounter cross and resurrection all the time.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When we exchange the peace here in a few minutes, I want you to imagine you are greeting ones whose hearts are beautiful green fields of young sun-drenched wheat and darnel, fluttered in waves by the gentle summer breeze under a clear blue sky; ones whose fields of rippling grain are deeply woven into your own. </span></div><img alt="Artists walking thought the summer fields of the CT Audubon Center in Pomfret, CT. The scene shows a variety of grasses in greens and tans among rolling hills. A trail winds among them." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*EjZDaSAeIhmrvATPStpNpg.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God’s Good Road passes through many such fields | Photo by Ronald Steed at the Connecticut Audubon Center, Pomfret, CT </span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God’s good road… the road where God traces our journeys and our resting-places, wanders through many such fields. And, the Peace of God that passes all understanding includes both the darnel and the wheat, the cross and the resurrection. May we nurture and water these fields together, and wait patiently until God is ready to sort them all out.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, in Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (year A), July 22, 2023</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 (NRSV):</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Another parable Jesus put before the crowds: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’" </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!"</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ From The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (1973) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn</span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut and has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Medium Top writer in: Art, Watercolor, Haiku, Sermons, Refresh the Soul Weekly, and Episcopal Church.</span></div><img alt="Photo of Ron Steed, writer of lyrical heart-stories that are spiritual, simple, and artful" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*laRSbyb1YlpTaT9j.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ron Steed</span></div>
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Sermon: The Lion is Godhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-the-lion-is-god2023-06-18T16:31:39.610000Z2023-06-08T14:06:29ZRonald Steed<div><h4 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">MISSION | MAASAI | VINCENT DONOVAN</span></h4><h1>Sermon: The Lion is God</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from readings for Proper 6 ²</span></h4><img alt="A lion-shaped door knocker near the cathedral in Florence Italy. The lion, mounted in an oval frame on a green door, is gold colored and holds a bronze colored ring in its mouth." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*8iRyJloT2yl6DjdKCfX86w.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /></div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it…" | Photo by Ron Steed in Florence Italy</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’ve been reading a remarkable book lately by Vincent Donovan³ called "</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Rediscovered-Vincent-J-Donovan-ebook/dp/B07ZQPNZL6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1686930893&sr=8-1" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christianity Rediscovered</span></a><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">". In it, Vincent, who is a catholic priest, tells of his mission to the Maasai people in Tanzania in the 1960s. The Maasai were famously impervious to Christianity to the point that many believed that it was impossible to convert them.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Naked Gospel</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But not Vincent. What Vincent discovered was that much that passes for Christianity in the Western Churches today has a LOT more to do with Western CULTURE than with the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. If Vincent could strip away the cultural parts of Western Christianity, and convey just the "Naked Gospel" as he put it, he might have a chance. He and the Maasai people were largely successful together. And… he learned a few things along the way.</span></div><img alt="Photo of an American Carrion Beetle (Necrophila americana) in the Merret Family Forest, in Mystic, CT. The bettle’s body is black with a yellow head that features a black dot in the center." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*AbvobKx42ewBwNho5pDW0g.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God is already present, at work in cultures we know nothing about | Photo by Ron Steed in the Merrett Family Forest, Mystic, CT</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First, Vincent learned that he was not bringing God or God’s love to the Maasai; God was already there ahead of him and had been for centuries. He said: "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Goodness and kindness and holiness and grace and divine presence and creating power and salvation were here before I got here</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">." He learned the importance of culture to a people, and that God was already working on the Maasai people THROUGH their culture and their faith to bring to them to God. And so Vincent learned that Western Christianity is NOT the only culture that God acts thorough, and to force another people like the Maasai to adopt to western notions of church is to make the fundamental error of confusing western culture with the gospel of Christ. They are not the same.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I want to pause here for a moment to think about the implications of this. Many of us, me included, when we first embark on church-related works of charity or justice, imagine that the whole enterprise hangs on us… that WE are the ones bringing hope and help, expertise and wealth, a lifetime of American success, optimism, and self-confidence to these poor people who are suffering such poverty and ignorance. We think we are bringing God to a place where God has been absent. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">None of that is true. God is always already there ahead of us working through cultures that are nothing at all like our own. If we’re really astute, we might even discover that we are NOT the ones bringing salvation to people experiencing poverty, but rather, WE are the ones being saved by people who are rich in gifts and eager to share them with us, and who happen also to be experiencing financial poverty that is not unlike the spiritual poverty WE might be suffering.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Faith is Like a Lion</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The second thing Vincent learned from the Maasai was about faith. Vincent’s faith had been waning, and he was bitterly upset, maybe even angry, with the way missionary work was done by the Western Christian churches in Africa. It was the Maasai who fixed his faith, and not his own church.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a black Madonna and child taken at Holy family Retreat Center in West Hartford, CT. The statue is made of black stone that reveals a white chalky interior were carved. The Madonna’s dress is richly texturedwith fine gomatrical lines." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*9zP-Yhdq36i5ItwJZMbozA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It was the Maasai who fixed his faith | Photo by Ron Steed </span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Maasai Elder told him that Vincent’s faith was too detached… it was too intellectual. He said Vincent’s faith "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eyes and his fingers took part in the act… He said for a [person] really to believe is like a lion going after its prey. His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him the speed to catch it. All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down the lion envelops it in his [front paws], pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way a lion kills. This is the way a [person] believes. This is what faith is." </span><sup><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">1</span></sup></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Vincent came to understand from this Maasai elder, that faith was a full body experience. I think we see this full body faith, the faith of a lion taking down it’s prey, played out in today’s readings.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hastening, Laughing, Heartbreaking</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Three men suddenly appear at Abraham’s tent, and you can tell by Abraham’s full body response that these are not just three wandering Arameans, but perhaps angels of God or even God itself. Abraham RAN from the tent to meet them, he HASTENED into the tent to Sarah and told her to act QUICKLY (3 measures of flour makes enough bread for a village by the way!), he RAN to the herd to get a calf and HASTENED the servant to prepare it. All of this he set before the three men. That’s a lot of food and a lot of urgency. That kind of over-the-top-faith looks a lot like the Maasai Elder’s lion to me.</span></div><img alt="Pink Mountain Laurel blossoms opening at St David’s Episcopal Church in Gales Ferry, CT. This variety has a lovely pink center surrounded by a vividly scarlet-red exterior." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*KalHAjVEHa93BlI8_mTpGA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Mountain Laurel blooms being, and coming into being | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The men bring unexpected news that Sarah will be a mother, news so shocking that Sarah laughs, but hides it out of fear. And, the men’s prediction actually came to pass, she had a child named Isaac. With this, Sarah says, "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">." This isn’t just a smile or a chuckle that Sarah is feeling, this is full throated, whole body, knee-slapping joy. And, it is contagious joy… the whole community will share in it when she tells the story, which she will certainly do! Her laughter sounds like the Maasi Elder’s lion to my ear.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In today’s gospel, Jesus feels compassion for the people, because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Now, the English word "compassion" seems like weak-tea to me… it does not quite plumb-the-depths of what is meant here. The Greek word used is splagch-NI-zomai, which means a deep, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, tear-welling emotion that Luke says the Good Samaritan felt when he encountered the broken man in the ditch, and that the father felt when he saw his young prodigal son returned home over the horizon. What Jesus feels for his neighbors is full-body heartbreak… it sounds to me a whole lot like that Maasai Elder’s lion.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Closer Than We Think, and Heartbroken…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is the good news of Christ, the Naked Gospel stripped of Western Culture, that Vincent brought to the Maasai and that I am proclaiming to you. First that God is close to us… as close as three men standing at a tent entrance, as close as Jesus walking with his disciples among the crowds, closer to us that we are to ourselves. Then, that we worship a God who feels splagch-NI-zomai for us… gut-wrenching full-body heartbreak for everyone… because we are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a plaque at Hammonassett Beach State Park in Madison, CT, commemorating the Hammonassett People who lived in the region before the coming of European colonists." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*6puFbMHKChNd0XImmZiILQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ones for whom God experienced heartbreak | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God feels heartbreak for Americans and North Koreans, for Dakota people and for Maasai people, for Christians and Taoists and Hindus, for victims of injustice and for perpetrators of injustice. God feels this for everybody, everywhere. And, God feels a especially hurt for the poor, the sick, and the lonely; for those in homeless shelters, for one in hospitals, for those at food banks, for those far from home in strange-lands-not-their-own.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God responds to this heartbreak by pouring love and Spirit into every human heart; love and Spirit that gives us, if we listen to them, a sense of urgency as we hasten to be God’s hands and feet in the world. Sometimes, when we encounter God especially present in the moment, we might have the same contagious and joyful laughter that Sarah had. Sometimes in the Spirit, we might feel that we have faith like a lion… a faith that is full bodied… all in. We might think that we ARE the lion.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Another Thing Learned…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What Vincent brought to the Maasai was the words that described something they already had, but did not see in it’s fullness. What they Maasai gave Vincent was something just as valuable… something more about the ways of God. The Maasai Elder said: "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We did not search you out, Padri," …"We did not even want you to come to us. You searched us out. You followed us away from your house into the bush, into the plains, into the steppes where our cattle are, into the hills where we take our cattle for water, into our villages, into our homes. You told us of the High God, how we must search for him, even leave our land and our people to find him. But we have not done this. We have not left our land. We have not searched for him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think WE are the lion. In the end, the lion is God.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Friends, we are all being searched for by one whose nose and eyes and ears perk up at our presence. This one is all in… they will use their whole body to take us down… to envelop us and draw us into themselves. We think WE humans are the hunters on Earth… no friends, we are the PREY for God’s love that NONE of us can outrun.</span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, for Proper 6 of Ordinary Time, June 18, 2023</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² </span><a href="https://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp6_RCL.html" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lectionary for Proper 6</span></a></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Read more about </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Vincent_Donovan" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Vincent Donovan here</span></a></div>
Sermon: We are SO Saved!https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-we-are-so-saved2023-05-23T00:42:42.370000Z2023-04-24T12:38:59ZRonald Steed<div><br/></div><hr/><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ascension | Salvation | Julian of Norwich</span></h4><h1>Sermon: We are SO Saved</h1><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹. Taken from Acts 1:6–14 ²</span></h4><img alt="Photo of a curving meadow beneath a cloudskape at Halley Farm State Park, Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*2VNnLblDF_GOwoPpV8v-_A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sometimes we are left looking at the clouds | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Something left undone?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">As Christ is about to depart the Earth, the work here being complete, his gathered disciples have one final question; "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now this might seem like a little question, but it’s not… a LOT hangs on the answer. It’s actually a question that is rich in meaning and emotion, and it gives us a little insight into the mindset of his disciples; a mindset that seems to say:</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus we’re sorry to see you go, but looking over our todo list, there seems to be something you’ve not crossed off. Maybe you forgot about it, or perhaps, you got too absorbed with all that crucifixion drama to get it done, so we just wanted to remind you that it still needs doing. Have you forgotten that you were supposed to leave Israel in charge of things? Aren’t you supposed to fix that for us?</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span></div><img alt="A ribbon snake in the early spring spotted in the Merritt Family Forest, Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*41dh6VXtLFQy-t-HMVGN5A.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A ribbon snake that sent me jumping when first encountered… wish that could be fixed | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We might imagine that the disciples are feeling a little exasperated with Jesus. This was, after all, what everybody said that the Messiah was supposed to do, and here we are at the end, and there’s no Kingdom of Israel in sight. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, you might get the sense that the disciples are a little impatient as well, because, they have really, really important work to do on those Romans and Gentiles that will never get done if Jesus does not leave Israel in charge of things, with Earthly power and weapons. I’ve said all along in my sermons that the disciples never seem to understand what Jesus is about, and this is another case of that, even after crucifixion and resurrection.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is it Christ’s Job to FIX Us?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Many Christians and non-Christians today don’t get Jesus either, and the Church has missed the mark a lot of the time. And really, isn’t this OUR question for Jesus as well? "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus, is this the time you are going to fix racism in America, or fix gun violence, or fix the war in Ukraine… Jesus, when are you going to FIX us?"</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> It is as though the work of Salvation has not been completed, there are still things left for Jesus to do, and we’re left looking up into the sky.</span></div><img alt="New leaves of poison ivy, colored bright green and bronze in the Merritt Family Forest, Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*MIHGVUYgLJQiWUuWtuYdng.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Poison ivy, another thing I wish Jesus had fixed for us | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">After all, the big deal about Jesus’ Ascension is that his work is DONE; COMPLETE… nothing more needed on Earth. But when we look at the paper on any day, or watch cable news, it is abundantly clear that the Kingdom of God does NOT seem to be in charge. Surely FIXING that is part of the work of salvation, isn’t it?</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Maybe not. Maybe the work of salvation does NOT include fixing us in the way Jesus’ disciples, both ancient and modern, have imagined. Maybe, the work of salvation is about something else, and that Jesus had in fact, completely finished the Earthly work of salvation before he ascended into heaven.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Three Parts of Salvation</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What then IS the work of salvation?³</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think Christ’s work of salvation has three parts.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">First, the work of salvation is about our past. It is about transfiguring our past shames and failures, our violence and missing the mark, sometimes horrificly and always tragicly, into sources of deep, deep wisdom and insight. It’s about removing the impediment of our past from our relationship with God.</span></div><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*nEHnpRToKRZcAu7u76iddw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Our past is forgiven | Photo by Ron Steed of Castlequein in County Kerry Ireland | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And second, the work of salvation is about our future. It is about transfiguring our future from one that is focused on the fear of death and non-existance, into a future of life, and unimaginable joy and glory. It’s about removing death as an impediment to our relationship with God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That transfiguration of the past is the "forgiveness of sins", and that transfiguration of the future is "eternal life". And those are two of the gifts that Christ gave us free of charge. And not just to those who call themselves Christians, but they are given as gifts to everyone, everywhere. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In your life, whether long or short, you have never looked into the eyes of someone who did not possess these gifts, whether they knew it or not, and whether they believed it or not. The resurrected Christ took the entirety of humanity into himself; all of us, past present and future.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Depth of Desire</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How do we know this? We know it because that is the whole purpose of creation in the first place. We worship a creator-God who wants nothing more than to BE WITH the cosmos that God created, and who will not let our sins or our deaths stand in the way of that desire. In a very real sense, the Trinity decided our salvation long before there was a cosmos that existed to save. </span></div><img alt="Photo of an umber colored sculpture of the father embracing the prodigal son at Holy Family Retreat Center, West Hartford, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*8Poa5SPbHCSgNC2-dYdpLw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The one desire of God is to be with us | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The depth of this desire to be with us, no matter what, was demonstrated on the cross. The depth of this desire to be with us was demonstrated in the resurrection, showing us that not even death could stand between us and God. This is pure love. The revelation of this love… SHOWING us just how far God was willing to go to be with us, was completed by Jesus Christ in full so that he could return to heaven.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Salvation in the Present</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Between our past and our future lies the present, and this is where the third work of salvation operates. And THAT is the work of healing and reconciliation with one another. We HAVE been saved by the forgiveness of sin; we are BEING saved by our continuous healing and reconciliation; we WILL be saved into eternal life.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Why do we need this healing?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Even though our sins are forgiven, the damage of sin remains. More than that, all of us carry the trauma of our ancestors… the ones who received or gave violence, the ones who suffered or inflicted wars and oppressions. Some of the very practices and emotions that you unconsciously carry in your family started in times like Reconstruction or during the Great Depression. You might have no idea why you do them or feel them. Intergenerational trauma might be the reason.</span></div><img alt="Family photo of LCOL Thomas Glover, CSA" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*fTuWsBVxU4Qdqm1q1YanYA.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:785; --en-naturalHeight:1158;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sin might be forgiven, but the intergenerational damage remains to be healed | Steed family photo</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, although we anticipate the joy and glory of eternal life, sometimes we need to bring some of that joy and glory into the present as a healing as well. We need an advanced payment on eternal life to sustain the world.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s the salvation work of healing that continues here on Earth, and for THAT, Christ works THROUGH every human heart. Christ has equipped all of humanity with the Holy Spirit to help us in that work, and we will celebrate Pentecost next week to hallow the day when that became apparent to us.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Special Assignment</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For Christians, Jesus left an additional assignment just before his ascension; to bear witness to Jesus’ work of salvation everywhere. And we we have the Holy Spirit as a powerful helper. You know, it is really only when the disciples got the power of the Spirit and LISTENED to that Spirit, that they began to get it what Jesus was about. Jesus was never there to FIX Israel in the sense that its people imagined, but rather to do something far greater THROUGH the people of Israel; to save all of humanity. He was there to save our past and our future so that we could fulfill our destiny; to be with God no matter what. And Christ continues to heal us and reconcile us, all along the way.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Beatitudes</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How do we DO this work of healing and reconciliation? Jesus told us how in the sermon on the mount; it’s to practice the beatitudes, which he went on powerfully to demonstrate over the next three years of his life. It is to come alongside the suffering ones; to BE WITH those who are poor, those who mourn, and those who are oppressed. It is here that we find God most palpably present. It is to hunger and thirst for the RIGHT things… God’s things, in our actions and in our hearts. It is to practice mercy, and peacemaking, and sometimes to endure oppression ourselves, even when we are doing the right thing. We are blessed in all of this; blessings that flow from our hearts to other hearts.</span></div><img alt="Photo of a woodland waterfall at The Sheep Farm, Groton, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Yxp3AK9vh2skPdSPTN5hrQ.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Blessings flow | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And it is the flow of blessing that is perhaps, our most compelling witness to others about Jesus… Holy Sprit to Holy Spirit through human hearts. To practice these beatitudes in the power of the Spirit IS to bring healing and reconciliation and witness to the world. In other words, it is exactly the way WE are to BE WITH one another, just as the Trinity is with themselves and with us.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yes/No</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, does Christ FIX us? Well, if by fix we mean that we are all destined for eternal oneness with God, then yes! Christ did that! Our past sins don’t stand in the way, and not even death prevents our future with God. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">If by fixed, do we mean that we are given a powerful ally in the Spirit to guide us and a roadmap in the beatitudes to help us heal the world as we seek to be one with one another, then yes again, we’ve been given everything we need!</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But if by fixing us, you mean does Christ gives us the weapons and the power to force the rest of humanity to conform to our wishes? Is NOW the time that God is going to restore the Kingdom of Israel, or the United States, or any other nation? No… that does not seem to be how salvation works.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Mystical Experience</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This can leave us feeling a little ambivalent about Christ. How is it, with all this good news about salvation, that we still have so much trauma, and violence, and sickness in the world?</span></div><img alt="Photo of a standing stone cross on a "soft" Irish day near St Brenden’s Well, Valentia Island, Ireland" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*GjK86m4vaIyTrtmtN6nOBw.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" /><div style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Mystics have much to say to us | Photo by Ron Steed at Coarha Beg, Valentia Island Ireland</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Julian of Norwich, who lived in 14th century England in the time of the Black Plague, had the same question. At 30, she got sick, and while hovering near death, she had a mystical vision of Christ who gave her sixteen "showings". She survived her illness, and was so profoundly affected by her vision, that she spend the rest of her life writing and re-writing about her experience. What was left to us was an incredibly positive, hopeful, and optimistic account of the work of salvation.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In it, she asks the same question we have on our own hearts; why did God, in God’s forseeing wisdom, not stop sin from being? Christ does not answer her fully, but rather tells her that sin was necessary, without saying why or what role it plays. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then, Christ goes on to say to her, one of the most hopeful and comforting things I think has ever been said about the completed, and the continuing work of humanity’s salvation; "ALL shall be well, and all SHALL be well, and all manner of thing shall be WELL." We are SO saved.</span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on The Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after the Ascension, May 21, 2023</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Acts 1:6–14 (NRSV):</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When the apostles had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">³ Many of the themes of this sermon are drawn from:</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wells, S. (2015). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Nazareth Manifesto: Being with God</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. John Wiley & Sons.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wells, S. (2022). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. CANTERBURY PRESS NORWICH.</span></div><hr/><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut and has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Top writer in: Art, Watercolor, Haiku, Sermons, Refresh the Soul Weekly, and Episcopal Church.</span></div><img alt="Photo of Ron Steed, writer of lyrical heart-stories that are spiritual, simple, and artful" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*laRSbyb1YlpTaT9j.jpeg" style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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Sermon: God Turned a Corner…https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-god-turned-a-corner2023-05-23T00:11:36.933000Z2023-03-27T18:36:20ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Maundy Thursday | Love | Being With</span></h4><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon: God Turned a Corner…</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹ Taken from Exodus 12 & John 13 ²</span></h4><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1600;" alt="Photo of a shaded, cobbled street in Pienza, Tuscany, that turns a corner into a sunlit way." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*yC5tM-XGYR5UwE8iyJxMpw.jpeg" /></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">On Maundy Thursday, God turned a corner with us | Photo by Ron Steed In Pienza, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Have you ever turned a corner in your life? Found yourself at a point where one long phase of your life was clearly at an end, and another was ready to begin?</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Converging</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In my home parish of St. James New London, we turned a corner in 2008. The previous year, we had allowed the newly formed Homeless Hosptiality Center to set up beds on the Parish Hall for people suffering from homelessness. This was shortly after the City Council had zeroed the social services budget, meaning there would be no city-funded winter shelter.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">As we would cross the Parish Hall for coffee after services, we would pass through a valley of these beds. For a lot of us, this was what the gospel-in-action looked like, but for many, the very survival of the Parish was put at risk. It all came to a head at a parish-wide meeting about this ministry in the fall, and that meeting wasn’t pretty. There wasn’t a lot of love in that moment.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1067;" alt="Photo of the large parish hall at St James Episcopal Church in New London, CT, showing morning sun streaming through the windows onto rows of green army cots used to house people experiencing homelessness." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*DdBkIpbY_ZPsmkS6IPDf-A.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Cots in the Parish Hall at St. James Episcopal Church, New London | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One of the positive outcomes was that we asked a team discern what to do. We met all Spring and Summer of 2008, and we did it prayerfully. What really touched me, was that although there were members on every side of this contentious issue, by the end of the summer, all of us began to converge on a solution. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s not the solution that was so striking; it was the converging of hearts from animosity toward consensus that got my attention. We turned from a place of being task-oriented and mutually suspicious, toward a place where we genuinely enjoyed one another’s company. We liked being with each other; we loved each other.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This was a work of the Holy Spirit through all of us. God’s presence was WITH us and we FELT it. And God was there with us because we ASKED God to be with us. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">100% voted to keep the shelter at St James as long as necessary, and to move the shelter to some better space in the building. We had turned a corner with God’s help. Now, we could not only be with our homeless neighbors in a new and more hopeful way, we could be with one another.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Turning Cosmic Corners</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tonight’s gospel is about Jesus turning a similar corner on a global scale at dinner on Maundy Thursday.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That story starts with the Trinity, whose deepest desire was to create something that was not themselves, and then to be with and love that creation, no matter what. They launched the universe, and in the fullness of time, nurtured a planet in a backwater galaxy, and chose a tiny tribe called the People of Israel as the ones they would be with. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">They knew from before the beginning, that at some point, Jesus would be incarnated to live among them and love them, and for better or worse, would extend their presence to all the people on that planet through this chosen people.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The story of Israel as a chosen people, and God particularly with them started at Passover in Egypt, which going forward became the first month… the month from which all things were counted. As we just heard in Exodus 12, God helps them to turn a corner from slavery to liberation as God’s chosen people; "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand….</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">" Those sandaled feet would pick up a lot of road grime over the centuries… things did not always go well. But God never gave up on them, no matter what.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a woodland path and footbridge in the Merrett Family Forest in Mystic, CT, backlit by afternoon sun" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*vZ6IOOu5gfiiz1R7OwNebA.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The People of Israel picked up a lot of road grime on their path | Photo by Ron Steed in Mystic, CT</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And Israel discovered that it was never closer to God than when it was in deep, serious trouble, with muddy feet and stubbed toes, whether wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the promised land, or suffering 70 years of humiliating exile in Babylon before returning to Jerusalem. Even back in Jerusalem there was a succession of conquering powers, the Romans being the most recent; it was a muddy road and it seemed like Israel was in still in exile.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And so, the time came to turn a new corner, and that corner arrived at dinner on Maundy Thursday, the day before Jesus was killed. "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">." </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a sunlit hilltop covered with white and black sheep beneath bright cumulous clouds in Radicofani, Tuscany." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*fCfTHdLnIgzds7X0iIYBdQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who exactly are "his own"? | Photo by Ron Steed in Radicofani, Tuscany</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">" This was Jesus washing the centuries of grime off Israel’s feet, proclaiming that the end of that road, the end of exile has been reached. </span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How Do We Know?</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It was always the ambition of the Trinity to be with all the people of the world and to love them, and to do that through the people of Israel, and now, it was time to see that ambition underway. Jesus turned the corner with THIS: "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How do we know that this new commandment was the trailhead of new path? How do we know that this was a corner turned? There are four ways we know:</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Because it was love in the first place that enabled the Trinity to make and be with its creation. </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It was love that enabled God to be with the people of Israel, in spite of all their troubles and their wrestlings with God. </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It was love that brought Jesus into human form on the Earth to live with us. </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And it would HAVE to be love that would enable Jesus’ disciples to proclaim God’s presence with the whole world, and for the people of the world to embrace God with them.</span></div></li></ul><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We Can’t Do Liberation by Ourselves</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Humanity turned a corner that night in our relationship with God. With the washing of road grime from the feet of Jesus’ disciples, the long muddy road that began at Passover centuries before had come to an end at last. A new being-with was now underway, one marked by the liberation of the whole world through Christ. And Christ’s disciples were called to show the world how that gets done, how God does it; through love and through the cross.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That doesn’t mean that turning the corner with the new project went well, it didn’t; it was cross-shaped at every point, particularly when the disciples tried to do things by themselves, without God’s help. Peter struggled right off the bat; "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">You will never wash my feet</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">", Peter said, as if, he could do this thing by himself without Jesus. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Within 24 hours, Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied Jesus three times, all the rest of the men scattered to the hills every man for himself, the women gathered at the foot of the cross in mourning, and Jesus would be dead. So much for loving one another; the project was not off to a great start.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We are STILL struggling on this path. We have trouble loving our neighbors today as the news on any day will tell you, which is just another way of saying that </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">our power to love one another is a gift that has to be given by God and received by us</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Like washing someone’s feet, there has to be a giving and there has to be a receiving; both can be hard to do… sometimes the receiving part seems the hardest part of of all; it was for Peter, and it may be for some of you. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I wonder if we will learn as disciples of Jesus, that loving one another without asking for God’s help is just not possible. Love is a GIFT that we have to RECEIVE. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I run up against this all the time. I run headlong into a conflict and forget to ask for God’s help to make it a loving encounter instead of headstrong encounter. I forget, that instead of needing to be right and getting my own way, I need to let go of that need and let the Spirit guide me in love. Maybe that is your experience too.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is why, each of our baptismal vows ends with</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> "I will with God’s help". "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? I will, with God’s help</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">."</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1311; --en-naturalHeight:2060;" alt="Photo of a puddled woodland path, bubbling from a summer downpour in the Merrett Family Forest, Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*xuOvVBtJUEfq0oMGQ_DCxQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We still get muddy feet | Photo by Ron Steed in the Merrett Family Forest, Mystic, CT</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God loves us in Christ no matter what. That is the lesson of the cross… God wants nothing more than to be with us, even if the cross is what happened when God tried to get face-to-face with humanity. Jesus broke the Trinity so that he could be with us; God allowed him to break that bond so that Jesus could be fully with us as far as life would take him. Sit with that between now and Easter. Easter shows us that not even death could stop the Trinity and their desire to be with us. And Pentecost has put God’s Spirit in every heart as a gift, to help us with that work.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God turned a corner with us on Maundy Thursday. It was not just the people of Israel that God would be with, but all of us in the whole world. God loves you to the end of forever… this is why he is with you and wants nothing more than to BE with you in Christ, no matter what. And, God loves your neighbors… all of them… the same way. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Can we ask Jesus to help us turn this corner with him? Can we ask the Spirit for the power to love and can we receive that gift from others with the Spirit’s help? Can we love one another in the power of the Spirit, to God’s glory and praise? We can… you can; with God’s help.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><hr /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on Maundy Thursday, April 6, 2023</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Readings:</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Exodus 12:1–4(5–10)11–14 (NRSV) </span></h4><div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it.</span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.</span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.</span></i></div>
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<div><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John 13:1–17, 31b-35 (NRSV)</span></b></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean." </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."</span></i></div>
Sermon: Once you SEE it, You Can’t Unsee It…https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-once-you-see-it-you-cant-unsee-it2023-06-08T13:57:27.870000Z2023-03-19T19:09:51ZRonald Steed<div><br /></div><hr /><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">CONFLICT | SUFFERING | DEATH | NEW LIFE</span></h4><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon: Once you SEE it, You Can’t Unsee It…</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St Andrews Episcopal Church Madison, CT ¹, John 11:1–45 ²</span></h4><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a clump of daffodils on the cusp of blooming at Holy Family Retreat Center, Hartford, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*GpbIz0WMVlntzF_vkll2uw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There is an underlying pattern to the Gospel | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s A Different Pattern</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Many Christians believe that the the whole idea of Christianity is to escape an evil Earth when you die, then go to heaven and live forever as some disembodied spiritual being. In this version of Christianity, being eternally punished in hell is a real possibility. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That’s not the pattern we‘re hearing this morning. NONE of that is the Christian message the New Testament writers are telling. It is certainly NOT what John is telling us in the story of Lazurus.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John is telling us an Easter Story that is at the very heart of the Gospel, and it is GOOD NEWS; it is the Cliff Notes version of the same story we hear throughout the healing stories in the gospels, in many of the parables, and that we are going to hear very soon in Holy Week. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All of these are part of the SAME Easter pattern that includes the following elements: </span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">conflict, </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">suffering, </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">death in some form (literal or figurative), </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">mourning and loss (which is where the hell is BTW), </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">and THEN… the creator God brings new creation and new life. </span></div></li></ul><div><br /></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And THAT is the Christian message and the Christian hope. THAT is the pattern of the Gospel.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a hawk sitting on the branch of a birch tree outside my front window." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*deGIRG7sbUmQeq529Goj-Q.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The pattern begins with conflict | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The pattern begins with conflict within an incredibly diverse creation, and ends with new creation. Hell is somewhere in the middle and it’s not permanent… rather, in some profound way, the suffering and mourning and loss, like the weeping of Jesus, Mary and Martha, and their neighbors, somehow rolls away the stone from the tomb where new creation emerges. </span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict is a Feature, not a Bug</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lazarus’ story begins with two conflicts. The FIRST is that Lazarus becomes sick and the conflict is between his life and the life of something that infects him. Both lives, Lazarus and the infection are lives created by God. Here we have the diversity of creation, God’s creation… human life and viral life, come into conflict.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here’s the shocker; conflict is not a BUG in God’s creation software; it’s a feature. It is no accident that the highlight of the eucharistic prayer is when Shariya breaks the host in two. And it’s not only the Body of Christ in the bread that gets broken; it’s also the Body of Christ sitting in the pews. Just let that sink in.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a broken and damaged tree trunk at Connecticut College Arboretum, New London, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*bJbOo7zCRPsHhUgzexyKvQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The highlight of the Eucharist is that something gets broken | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The SECOND conflict in the story, is the increasingly intense conflict Jesus has with Judaean leaders and ultimately with the Romans, that is headed toward a climax very soon during what we call Holy Week. "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">" "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yes, yes I am</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">" says Jesus, who does not run from the conflict or fight against it… rather, he rolls with it. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus’ response to conflict, OUR response to conflict, seems to be part of the pattern God wants us to see. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here I need to be crystal clear. I don’t want to pretend for a second that to Mary and Martha, and even to Jesus as he wept, Lazarus’ death seemed wrong, and senseless, and awful… they might have even called it evil. For anyone who has lost loved ones, illness, accident, and injustice is horrible… we feel that deeply, we grieve these losses. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a thorn studded branch with a scarlet red bud swelling among them at Harkness Memorial State Park" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*NJWtRjKgxCqTABM81usMBw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We grieve loss and feel it deeply. And yet, there is transformation also | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And yet… somehow, there is a mystery at the center of the Gospel; that conflict gets used for transformation. That a part of the good news is that weeping turns to joy. And if weeping hasn’t turned to joy yet, then the story is not yet over. Weeping does not have the last word. </span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict: the Engine of Creativity</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict is in the center… conflict that can lead to illness, alcoholism, old age, homelessness, and death; all the human tragedies and traumas that bring, even Jesus, to tears alongside us. To the world, death is the end of the story, but to Christians, death is NOT the end of the story… why? </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Because going to heaven is not the point; heaven comes to us… the endlessly creative God comes to LIVE with us and in us. And he comes to us in the form of the one who says "I am the resurrection and the life."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The creator is ENDLESSLY creative and always moving. God didn’t FINISH creating on the 7th day, God just took a sabbath rest… God is STILL creating… and the conflict wired into the fabric of creation becomes the ENGINE for creativity, for Jesus, for us humans, and for the creator. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="An branch with alternating red buds beginning to swell at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*JzJVrs_-TP6TdmGwbQ-qvw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict is the engine of creativity | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Gospels are FULL of this story pattern, where weeping turns to joy: </span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus healing the sick is one way the Gospel writers tell the Easter story, </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">the restoration of the prodigal son in Luke is the same story, </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">so is the rescue of the beaten-one-in-the-ditch by the Good Samaritan. </span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The raising of Lazarus from the dead in John repeats the pattern,</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">and soon, the resurrection of Jesus will be told. </span></div></li></ul><div><br /></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">These are all the SAME Gospel story.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We are C0-Creators</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">AND, we humans are called to be CO-creators with GOD. Jesus orders the Lazarus’ community to finish the transformation: "unbind him and let him go". This is a call to JUSTICE, not just a charitable removal of bandages, but setting FREE our formerly dead neighbor to live their new life. This co-creation, this justice-work, is part of the Gospel too; it’s called reconciliation, the restoration of relationships.</span></div><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Recurring Pattern of Good News</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict with Alcohol</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I knew a man who suffered his whole life with alcohol, and that is not an unusual form of living-death for a lot of you in your own families. One day late in life, as he lay jaundiced in a hospital bed, a Doctor visited. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">As I look at you in this bed</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">", the Doctor said to the man, "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I see myself a few years ago. You have a choice to make today. You can keep doing what you are doing, and suffer a long and agonizing hell as your liver fails, OR, you can ask me to take you to Alcoholics Anonymous, an even harder cross-shaped path, where you might have a chance to have a new life.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a tangled web of evergreen branches at Connecticut College Arboretum, New London, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*cLam5iC6fSjdCHoDADv9LQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Alcohol addiction is a tangled and living hell on Earth | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This doctor was like Jesus calling for Lazarus to come out of the tomb. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The man came out of that tomb and went to AA. There, the AA community did some justice; they unbound him and let him go. Those 12 steps were hard and painful… a cross the man had to carry, and he did. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Over time, the man became a Sponsor himself, and like that Doctor, acted as Christ in the world for others suffering from alcoholism. New life; new creation. Lazarus raised from the dead and reconciled with his community.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict with Old Age</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I have known people suffering from old age who discovered a new vocation of service near the end of their lives; strengthening broken relationships, inspiring their families and neighbors with vision and with hope, coming to a place of deep spiritual wisdom and kindness that they were eager to share… arriving at a place of profound healing, not in their aging bodies, but certainly in their lives. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">These were venerable and wise people, raised to new life near the end of this life with new purpose… and then, fully ready to enter into a time of sabbath rest when the time came, as it will, for all of us. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of snow falling quietly at Camp Washington, an Episcopal camp and retreat center n Lakeside, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*48gfORxpoEjVgmiyDjiOTw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A sabbath rest? | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Maybe we will take a sabbath rest like the creator God took on the 7th day. The New Testament writers tell us that, because the creator God is endlessly creative, we will get resurrected just as Christ was resurrected, in a new, more human body, here on Earth. Maybe we have a pit stop in heaven, the writers don’t say and we don’t really know. But the whole point of the New Testament Writers is that heaven is coming to Earth, and we, and our friends and neighbors are coming with it into new life!</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Conflict with Homelessness</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I have seen people suffering homelessness who are in living hell… they are DEAD as neighbors, dead as citizens… they enter the tomb of a homeless shelter, where they are brought back to life by volunteers and staff who, like Jesus, call to them. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">They are rehoused and restored as neighbors… they are restored to dignity. Lazarus raised from the dead and reconciled with their community.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In July, we are taking a large group of young adults and parents on a Project HOME journey to Maine, where I hope THEY will see the same pattern among guests there who suffer from homelessness. I wish I had understood the good news at 14 that I now know at 63. If I had, I might have lived my life very differently. But that’s ok too! Part of the Gospel pattern is that nothing is wasted, even if you don’t see the gospel pattern until late in life!</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">If You SEE the Pattern…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">If you know what the pattern looks like, you will SEE Lazarus raised from the dead every day in this parish, in your families, out there in the world… THAT is the Christian Hope. And it is a hope we can see in the present moment all around us, in THIS life.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of blooming snowbells at Holy Family retreat Center in Hartford, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*RMtMUOT4-0q1Gpv_RazABg.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This pattern, IS the Christian Hope | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s one of the reasons as a Deacon, I keep pushing you toward Justice work… so that you will get transformed when you see the Gospel pattern at work! When you feel your weeping turned to joy by the hands of someone you think you’re there to help!</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The focus and energy of Christian life is NOT life after death… that’s NOT what New Testament writers like John are telling us. Their stories, like John’s story today, are about new life and new creation in THIS life… here… among us, old and young together… out there in Madison, Guilford, and New Haven… in thin-places where heaven and earth come together, intersect and overlap. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Where a doctor stands at a bedside of a suffering alcoholic, in a chair as a neighbor calls a aging one to new purpose, in the tomb of a shelter where the team houses a couple who had been living in their car, at a table where a 16 year old shares a meal with another experiencing homelessness and receives the gospel as a gift from them. THESE are the thin-places of new creation and new life.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We see this pattern in the story of Lazarus, and we will witness the SAME pattern, even more profoundly during Holy Week. And once you SEE the pattern, you can’t UNSEE it.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">During our lives, we are given the Holy Spirit that literally lives within us… the presence of the creator God within us. The endlessly creative God who is always on the move, is showing us this Gospel pattern, this Easter pattern, over and over again. God is showing us what HAS happened, what IS happening NOW, and what WILL happen in the future. If you see the gospel pattern, you can’t unsee it. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The question is… what will you DO with it, once you see it?</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a pond and field emerging from winter at the Connecticut Audubon Center, Pomfret, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*o47t5Dty6vmevazbC6Wtyg.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Once you see the pattern, what will you DO with it? | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div><hr /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on Sunday, March 26, 2023, Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year A)</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">John 11:1–45 (NRSV):</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." </span></i></div>
<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." </span></i></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.</span></i></div>
Sermon: The Bedrock of Justice is Knowing One Anotherhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-the-bedrock-of-justice-is-knowing-one-another2023-05-23T00:11:34.454000Z2023-02-10T16:34:46ZRonald Steed<div><br /></div><hr /><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Justice | Community Organizing | Relationship</span></h4><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon: The Bedrock of Justice is Knowing One Another</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹</span></h4><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1440; --en-naturalHeight:1050;" alt="Painting by watercolor artist Roxanne Steed of people passing one another on the morning streets of florence Italy. The light seems bright and the shadows are long as people walk in morning sun." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*FGWH5pK8259T4pMFNy1Jvw.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Do we know each other well, or just in passing? | Photo and watercolor painting by Roxanne Steed in Florence Italy.</span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Taken from Matthew 5:21–37 (NRSV):</span></h4><div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one."</span></i></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Please…</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Please do not tear your eyes out or chop your hand off. Jesus’ suggestion that you should do yourself bodily harm is a figure of speech, common in his time among his people, intended to demonstrate one’s intensity on an issue by taking it to the extreme. I really worry about Christians who try to read the Bible literally on days like today! First, they miss a lot of the narrative’s subtlety, beauty, and nuance, and second, they might just harm themselves. So, no need for that.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Be Justice-Doing People</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This reading from Matthew is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that takes up all of chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew’s gospel and is a teaching given to his disciples so that they would understand his purpose and the radical way of his ministry. This section is sometimes called the "Five Torah Intensifications," in which Jesus offers a Torah law, "you have heard it said…" and then proclaims "but I say…" where he intensifies the rule to illustrate a deeper meaning that transcends the rule.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a dead tree riddled with woodpecker holes in the Merritt Family Forest, Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*V-Exbhg095WJ9LxFfnT7MA.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can follow the rules and still do injustice | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It is as though Jesus is saying, "Listen, the law will only take you so far. You can follow the rules if you like and everyone will think you are a righteous person, but you will still miss out on a larger principle. You can follow the rules and still do injustice. I want you as disciples to be justice-doing-people, not just rule followers."</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is an insightful understanding of the Torah in my view and a great criticism of the religious leaders of his time who were trying to enforce the law. One thing about the times Jesus lived in, is that the Pharisee movement was a religious fundamentalist movement, not unlike some of the religious fundamentalist movements of our own time. The Pharisee's viewpoint was that Israel had lost its way and that only by returning to the strictness of the Law, would Israel be saved by God.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, "You think you are doing God’s will by following the Law, but you are not acting justly. You are missing the whole point of the Law, which is to see that God’s Justice is done on Earth. Worse, you are making up new rules as you go that compound the error. Your moment is missing the mark big time!"</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Charity vs. Justice</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, I’m not interested in going through the particular rules Jesus uses to illustrate his point, but I do want to linger on the deeper idea that doing justice is hard, and requires us to step back from whatever it is we are doing and take a closer look.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’ve had new learning recently about justice. Justice and charity, while similar, are not the same thing. Charity is focused on meeting an immediate need, like food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, welcome to the stranger, clothing for the naked, care of the sick, and visitation for the imprisoned… all those things Jesus mentions in Matthew 25.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1067;" alt="Photo of a bowl of apples in the parish hall of St. James Episcopal Church, New London, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*yj_HY0NUF1X6OhNboPSFpQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Charity is not the same as Justice | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s not a complete list of charitable activities (and I don’t think Matthew or Jesus, intended to be one). Charity solves an immediate problem that can’t be solved by the suffering one. At its most urgent, it may very well save lives. It is an act that heals an immediate need.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Most of what churches do, this one included, are charitable, and there is certainly a need and call for action, but very little of what churches do really qualifies as justice, and justice is what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel and throughout the Sermon on the Mount.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Just as Jesus is intensifying the Torah toward justice, justice is charity intensified to the point that it not only meets immediate needs but actually changes the system so those issues never become a need again in the future.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Faith-Based Community Organizing</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And changing the system is a tall order for a parish like St. Andrews. If we wanted to change a policy in Madison or Hartford as an act of justice, no politician is going to be impressed by a priest, a deacon, and a couple of dozen parishioners, but they might be impressed by 50 pastors, imams, rabbis and a couple of thousand people of faith.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How do you get that many pastors and people together? Where would you start?</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Fortunately for Connecticut, we already have two faith-based organizations in place that are already doing precisely the kind of justice I am talking about. One is called the Greater Hartford Interfaith Action Alliance (</span><a href="https://cljct.org/ghiaa/" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">GHIAA</span></a><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">) and represents 45 communities of faith in Hartford with over 15,000 members. GHIAA includes two Episcopal churches.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" alt="Photo of a natural mass planting of goldenrod in a meadow at Haley Farm State Park in Groton, CT." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*FOJ4TDFQnsGFkj3H4w8i_Q.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Politicians need to see mass plantings of people to be motivated toward Justice | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The other is called Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut (</span><a href="https://weconect.org/" rel="noopener" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">ConeCT</span></a><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">) and consists of 39 faith communities along the Connecticut shoreline, including three Episcopal churches. A third organization is just beginning to organize in Southeast Connecticut and I am helping with that.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">These organizations' sole purpose is to spread justice in their parts of Connecticut by working to change policies and build new structures that solve people’s needs. How do they decide what to work on? They canvas their membership in dozens of house meetings where parishioners like you tell the stories of injustice they are encountering. Those stories are carefully written down and verified by volunteers who do the research to validate what the stories are telling them.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Relationships — Trust — Stories</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, how many stories are we talking about here? A dozen? A hundred? No… well over a thousand in GHIAA’s last house meeting drive. Out of those thousand carefully recorded and validated stories, GHIAA chose justice issues they could win in five major areas: Education, Gun Violence, Mental Health, Housing, and Environmental Justice, areas that a lot of you are concerned with. They are not out to solve these big problems, but rather, focused on issues within these problems that they can win. They chip away at the problem, one issue at a time.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Notice what they did and what they did not do. They did not start with a problem. They started with people… people they know really well. They listened to their stories: real stories of injustice that people were experiencing. They did the work to validate those stories. And then they looked at what the stories were telling them, to find the issues they were going to work on. The action of justice rose from within… from relationships.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1357;" alt="Photo of laughing artist Natalia Almonte reacting to a story over a shared meal at Chateau Orquevaux, France." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*HFYJGQShmxrAmLGXmCEyTw.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Artist Natalia Almonte. Heart-stories connect us deeply, sometimes delightfully | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And this is the bedrock of justice. To do justice, you have to be in relationship… deep relationship. Doing charity does not require us to be in relationship with the ones who are suffering. We might meet them (I hope so). We might have a conversation with the ones who are suffering, but charity does not require more than a brief interaction.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Justice requires a deep relationship—the kind of relationship in which heart stories are exchanged because when you can exchange heart stories with another person, you can establish the kind of trust in which they will tell you their own stories of injustice. Relationship — Trust — Stories. There are no shortcuts to that progression. Justice is built on that rock.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Authority of Knowing People Well</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And this is what Jesus is doing during the Sermon on the Mount. He is not just proclaiming his agenda in a vacuum but is recounting back to his disciples the stories of injustice he has heard and how his way of justice (God’s way of justice), will bring justice to them. This is all thanks to the deep relationships Jesus has made, the stories they have told one another, and the mutual trust he has developed.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Sermon on the Mount resonates with his disciples because it draws on their own stories. The end of chapter 7 says, "</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and NOT as their scribes.</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">" The authority that Jesus had rested foundationally on the relationships he had formed… the scribes didn’t do any of that.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of Artist-in-Residence Clive Knights telling the story of his art during an open studio session at Chateau Orquevaux, France" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*HbugS5KmDaWu2_61mnTcbA.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Artist Clive Knights conveys authority in his works. His authority rests on the deep relationships he formed with the other artists | Photo by Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus heard their stories of mourning, meekness in the face of power, and hunger for people who will act rightly. The need for mercy, poverty of every kind, peacemaking, and the injustice of divorce (which, at that time, could be a death sentence for a woman), the lack of authentic relationships, and oaths made that went unfulfilled. Jesus is not proclaiming charity with his Torah intensifications; he’s proclaiming justice.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And what’s striking about Jesus’ way of justice, is that he is not going to use the Roman methods to get there. He is not telling his disciples to use power over others, violence, extraction, exploitation, exclusion, manipulation, racism, transactional relationships, or hustle culture; all the methods the world still uses.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Rather, Jesus will bring justice through power sharing, symphony, harmony, flourishing, thriving, wholeness, abundance, forming beloved communities, unconditional love, and being friends with a God who scatters blessings like seeds. This is not the way of the world, but it is God’s way of justice.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus really doesn’t want you to tear your eyes out or chop your hand off, but he is serious about justice and wants you to know it. I’m wondering how we might answer that call here at St. Andrews. I’m wondering if we might have a future with a faith-based community organization like ConeCT. If we do, I know what the first step is; it’s to get to know one another more deeply than we do. That’s what the bedrock of justice is. Amen.</span></div><hr /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on Sunday, February 22, 2023, Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A)</span></div>
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<div><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut and has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Top writer in: Art, Watercolor, Haiku, Sermons, Refresh the Soul Weekly, and Episcopal Church.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" alt="Photo of Ron Steed, writer of lyrical heart-stories that are spiritual, simple, and artful" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*laRSbyb1YlpTaT9j.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ron Steed</span></span></div>
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Sermon: Follow the Way of Self-Giving Lovehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-follow-the-way-of-self-giving-love2023-05-23T00:11:35.053000Z2023-01-23T01:31:43ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">CONVERGING FORCES | CALL</span></h4><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon: Follow the Way of Self-Giving Love</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹</span></h4><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Taken from Matthew 4:12–23 (NRSV)</span></h4></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."</span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.</span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.</span></i></div><hr /><div><br /></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" alt="Photo of a glass bowl full of tangerines. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*NlU3Dex8BmIvJnVEBh22vQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">How did we end up here? | Photo by Ron Steed</span></i></span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">At the Dinner Table</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John are sitting around the table after the evening meal. Jesus has just excused himself to go pray; it is the first time the four of them have been alone together since they met Jesus at the shore. James asks "How did this happen? How did we end up at this table?" For a moment there is silence as they ponder what had happened earlier that morning.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All four of them were fishermen with businesses to manage and families to feed. All were deeply networked into the economic system gathered around the fishing industry in Galilee. And they walked away from all that onto a new path. </span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To Fish in Capernaum</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To make a living as fishermen, the capital was needed for boats, sails, rigging, nets, weights, and anchors. If these weren’t owned outright, they had to be leased for a share of the catch.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of Long Island Sound as seen from Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT. The sea is calm with only a little wash on the boulders in the forground, but the sky is dark and threatening. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*9UnUA9TARAKzLyjtYu4I_w.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Dark clouds on the sea’s horizon | Photo by Ron Steed</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, there were taxes to be paid to powerful leaders in Jerusalem and of course, in Rome. There might have been a fishing cooperative in Capernaum to support, that would regulate their catch and shield them from the powerful if that was possible. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">They were part of this network of family and villagers, suppliers and consumers, fish processors and shipping brokers, regulators and tax collectors. Much of the wealth of Palestine was taken by the Romans, and that might have consumed most of what they caught.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It may be that they made enough to sustain their families, with perhaps a little extra to keep up with the capital needs of their business. They weren’t "middle class" as we might think of them. They were certainly not among the class of hated and despised tax collectors who skimmed off the top for themselves. They were not among the urban elite, but they were also not homeless. With the Roman presence in Palestine, they probably carried more stress to make ends meet than we do today in Madison.</span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">More a Command than an Invitation</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So when Jesus came up to them as they worked along the shore, and said </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Follow me, and I will make you fish for people", </span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">why did they get up and go? They left a lot behind.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of Episcopalians at a winter beach on Long Island Sound at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT. We had gathered in walk in nature for the afternoon and spend some time in worship together. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*04-odcPIHgqy44Ss7kTW4A.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A different kind of fishing | Photo by Ron Steed</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But there was something about Jesus. He spoke and acted as though he was in charge like he was speaking with AUTHORITY. His "follow me" sounded more like a command than an invitation. It sounded like something that someone in charge would say.</span></div><h3><br /></h3><h2>Three Converging Forces</h2><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One reason they walked off in a new direction might have had to do with the three major forces that were converging together in the Palestine of Jesus’ time:²</span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Romans</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Romans were one force, at the very peak of their power, led by Caesars who claimed that </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">they</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> were the "son of God", and acted like it. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">They didn’t conquer the known world for the joy of it; they needed what the Middle East produced; wheat, fish, wealth… food to feed the incredibly overpopulated city of Rome. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" alt="Photo of a Roman theatre in Arles, France on a cloudy day in summer. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*YnVx6gKjBfWfwYeDOYtniw.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Keeping Rome fed was the aim of every conquered place | Photo by Ron Steed in Arles, France</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The propaganda of Rome was that their presence was "good news" (Gospel), bringing peace and stability to the whole world. The Romans were a people who had </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">arrived</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> to power and glory, and they saw the history of their arrival as divinely inspired. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I don’t think the fisherfolk of Capernaum saw it that way.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Jewish People</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Jewish people were the second force. They returned from exile in Babylon 500 years before, and had suffered a succession of overlords; Alexander the Great, his sons, and eventually the Romans. It was as though the exile had not really ended for them. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">They also had a history… a history that said God would put them in charge of the world, including the Romans. And God would tap a Messiah, an "anointed one" to help. They had a prophecy that the fullness of time had arrived; NOW was when that Messiah would appear. That is WHY people were so excited about John the Baptist’s proclamations in the desert that the Messiah was coming. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Jewish people were a people who were looking </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">ahead</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> to their </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">own</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> golden age of power, and it looked to many like that time had come. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Just to show how volatile that hope was in Palestine, there were three Jewish-Roman Wars fought between 66 and 136 AD, all led by ones claiming to be the Jewish Messiah. The Jewish people lost all three disastrously.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a palm sized stone worn smooth by the ocean and painted with the word "peace". Placed on the beach at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT to be found by someone. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*40I0oXWlB7Nuv1abvNX01w.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Inspired by hope, nervous about war? | Photo by Ron Steed</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Some of the fisherfolk of Capernaum were probably inspired by this deep Jewish hope for God’s future, but maybe nervous that war was the way.</span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Force 3: God</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God was the third of these converging forces, acting decisively in history through Jesus to establish God’s </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">own</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> kingdom on Earth; a kingdom that was </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">nothing</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> like what the Romans were exercising, and </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">not</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> what the Jewish people were expecting either. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus was the Messiah and much more. All of this focused on a cross where all three forces came to a head; where Jesus was hung by a Roman governor, at the behest of local elites with their own agenda, and on which God in some mysterious way, would inaugurate God’s own Kingdom. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of the cross atop the steeple at St. James Episcopal Church, New London, CT on a perfectly blue and cloudless fall day. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ex4k7cSoSxwmrYI-eTy9hQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A convergence of three great forces on a wooden cross | Photo by Ron Steed of the steeple of St. James Episcopal Church New London, CT</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Turn and Face a New Way!"</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In the meantime, with these three forces swirling about, there is Jesus in the fishing village of Capernaum, acting very much like he is in charge, and proclaiming his own "good news", not to the Romans, but to his own people; </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." </span></i></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Listen!" he is saying. "Change your mind about the way you are headed… turn and face a new way! God is here with you and he loves you deeply… God’s Kingdom is near to you. The way you are facing friends… the direction you are headed… will lead to disaster. It is </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">not</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> what God wants for you or for the world… follow me and I will show you what to do and what the Kingdom of Heaven is about!"</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a cobbled alley near the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The way is darkened, lit only by the reflected light of nearby stonework. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*wi9NHP0eCt53I_YNbDlurw.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Friends, the direction you are headed will lead to disaster | Photo by Ron Steed near the </span></i></span><b><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Uffizi</span></i></span></b><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Gallery in Florence, Italy</span></i></span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Compelling Appeal of Jesus</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think this was the compelling reason that Peter and Andrew, James and John left their families and their businesses to follow Jesus’s call. What Jesus said, and the authority with which he said it, offered both hope and an alternative to violence… Jesus offered some truly </span><b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">good news</span></b><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">… not the parody of good news that the Romans offered, and not a zealous war that many among the Jewish people wanted. Maybe the Kingdom of God would be different. The healings and curings that Jesus did, underscored the point that something new and fresh was happening through Jesus. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">From Jesus’ point of view, the whole strategy of God from the very beginning of humankind, across the entire biblical narrative, right up to his ministry in Capernaum, was to restore all of the creation through people who are also part of the problem. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were now a part of that strategy.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a tidal marsh at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT along Long Island Sound. This winter photo shows a strong vertical stand of tall grasses through which the tidal marsh can be seen, along with the scrub brushes and conifers that make up the tree line on the far shore. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZdAfKMI960ejHIowAyA78Q.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">An offer of hope and an alternative to violence | Photo by Ron Steed at Harkness Memorial State Park</span></i></span></div><h3><br /></h3><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Similar Forces at Work Today</span></h3><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Friends, these three forces are still at work among us today, and we are faced with similar choices.</span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The West as Rome</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Western World today, and principally the United States is something very analogous to Rome.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">It sees itself as a culture that has arrived and the history of its arrival as divinely inspired. Its propaganda tells the world that the United States is a city on the hill whose beacon of light is a blessing for the whole world and that we come bearing peace and security. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But in truth, the West is willing to destroy the planet’s climate to get what it wants. And it is happy to send its weapons to every corner of the Earth to get what it wants. And it will take indigenous land and slave labor to get what it wants… it already has. And if you’re Black or Brown, you might wonder who gets included in the West, because it might not feel like you are counted among them. </span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of a tide pool on Long Island Sound. The waters are captured at a still moment through which the viewer can see the rocks, stones, sand, and shells of the tide pool. Photo by Ron Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*tPdhf2Iz3yzvISSvwfd0ng.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The west seems more than willing to destroy our planet | Photo by Ron Steed at a beach on Long Island Sound</span></i></span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Those Who Aspire to POWER</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And, there are Christians today and others, who aspire to power. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There are many who think that God will act decisively to put them in charge, to judge who will be seen in God’s favor and who will not. There are many who are looking ahead to their own golden age of power and many of them think that the time is now. And they will use violence to get it.</span></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But with God… Things Have Changed</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Where the third power, God, is concerned, two important things have changed, and one has not:</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><ol><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The victory has already been won on the cross and in the resurrection, and Christ is reigning with the long view in mind. He will not resort to power and violence as the world practices it but will work out his victory with peace and self-giving love. We are called to do the same.</span></div></li></ol><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><ol><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Spirit has been given to humanity to fill us and guide us. At a minimum, those who follow Jesus are given this gift in abundance. We are called to ask for the Spirit and to lean hard on it. </span></div></li></ol><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><ol><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Just as the strategy for the Earthly Jesus was to work through people like Peter, Andrew, James, and John; people who are also part of the problem, that strategy is still the way with the risen Christ.</span></div></li></ol><h4><br /></h4><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Let go of the Outcome and Trust the Process</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All human beings, Christians included are still getting Jesus’ call </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." </span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">We are still getting the same command from Christ;</span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">"Follow me, and I will make you fish for people". </span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Many have heard and have followed his compelling call.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="A bokeh photo showing an abundance of green-grey lichen covering a post that has rotted away. In the unfocsed background beyond lies a tidal marsh at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT. The day is overcase, so the color of the lichen really pops. Photo by Ron Steed." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ynJs12ERV1mC07YcSxLAVQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="font-size: 10px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The world seems full of sickness and disease… is there a medicine close at hand? Photo by Ron Steed</span></i></span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For our part, we have to let go of the outcomes and trust the process of Christ. It may be that our climate gets devastated; Christians will be there to provide what comfort and healing we can. It may be that the church as we know it will be unrecognizable in a couple of generations. Let it go; Christ will have the church that Christ needs. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think Peter, Andrew, James, and John were able to answer the question they pondered that night after Jesus called them. Jesus’ call was compelling and his authority was unmistakable. They were able to let go of the outcome of their decision, and trust the process that Jesus was calling them to. It didn’t always go well, but in the end, all four of them, filled with the Holy Spirit, ended up spreading the Gospel of Jesus across the globe. I hope we can do that in our day too. Amen.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><hr /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">¹ This sermon was delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT, on Sunday, January 22, 2023, Third Sunday after the Epiphany (Year A)</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">² Discussion on three forces derived from Wright, N. T. (2011). Chapters 3 & 4. In </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Simply jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. essay, HarperOne.</span></div>
Haiku: In the Vernal Poolhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/haiku-in-the-vernal-pool2023-05-23T00:11:35.748000Z2023-01-20T13:14:53ZRonald Steed<div><b>in the vernal pool-</b></div>
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<div><b>Spring peepers sleep in cold mud</b></div>
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<div><b>for the call to call</b></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/1b6bc8b4-f02c-a8b7-1058-140473e89492/d314a88f-984c-a05d-de6f-cb91202c10d8.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:4032;"/><div><br /></div>
Haiku: Old Nest-Box Emptyhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/haiku-old-nest-box-empty2023-05-23T00:11:35.161000Z2023-01-19T13:24:27ZRonald Steed<div><h3>HAIKU | PARTICIPATIVE ART | SHORTFORM</h3><h3>Do you have a haiku for this moment? Add it as a comment!</h3></div>
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<div><b>old nest box empty</b></div>
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<div><b>after its fruitful season -</b></div>
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<div><b>algaed and lichened</b></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1399; --en-naturalHeight:1866;" alt="A watercolor journal entry by Roxanne Steed showing an old birdbox standing in a meadow at the Connecticut Audubon Center in Pomfret, CT. The color palette is mostly greens and yellows for the early fall. The birdbox itself is in full light on one side, blued shade on the other. The margins are filled with notes about the scene. Photo and painting by Roxanne Steed" height="934px" width="700px" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*wOwCpZbvnaRpWYvlj5G4Ng.jpeg" /><div>Roxanne’s watercolor journal entry about the old birdbox | Photo and painting by Roxanne Steed</div>
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<div>This haiku moment happened as Roxanne painted and I pondered an old nest box. It sits unoccupied now that Autumn has arrived and its fruitful season has passed, and I wonder if there are any fruitful seasons ahead for it…</div>
Sermon: Don’t Make Me Pull this Car Over!https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-dont-make-me-pull-this-car-over2023-05-23T00:11:36.140000Z2022-12-24T16:02:35ZRonald Steed<div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">CHRISTMAS | GOOD NEWS | TAYLOR SWIFT</span></h4><h3><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon: Don’t Make Me Stop this Car!</span></h3><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹</span></h4><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2018;" alt="A watercolor angel by artist Roxanne Steed" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*15OlbQvYqWegqJZhkOpOGg.jpeg" /></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Watercolor angel by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Taken from Luke 2:1–20 (NRSV)</span></h4><div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. </span></i></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!" </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. </span></i></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.</span></i></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:958; --en-naturalHeight:664;" alt="Photo of Vedder and Frank Steed in front of a 1942 DeSoto c1946" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*9KrVNKn4QgVnGgKJfh6vRA.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">My father and grandfather with a 1942 DeSoto | Photo probably by Mildred Steed c1946</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Don’t Make Me Pull This Car Over!</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">I grew up in a household with three boys. God bless our poor parents… we didn’t make it easy for them. When we would go on a car trip, my middle brother and I would get the window seats, and our youngest brother would have to squeeze in between us. After a while, as we got bored, a finger would jab into my very ticklish brother’s ribs and he would cry out. That would get a "sush" from Mom and would quiet us for a bit.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But of course, with more teasings and noise-makings, the threat of judgement would be laid down from Dad; "Don’t make me pull this car over…." That’s when we knew we were right on the line between fun and painful judgement. The threat usually worked; only once did the car actually slow and pull over.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1547;" alt="1950 DeSoto owned by my Mother’s Callahan family" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*CD-M2Scpto4hSBXxwioHrw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">1950 DeSoto owned by my mother’s Callahan family | Photo probably by James Callahan</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">My parents had two simple plans for raising the three of us.</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Plan A was to lay down some rules; "Follow the rules, finish your chores, do well in school and all will be well with you."</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Plan B was a reckoning.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">So plan A was a ruleset, plan B was a more fear-based approach.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Plan B</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For many Christians, God seems to have the very same approach that my parents had. Plan A was to give the people of Israel the law, a ruleset. Plan B was "Don’t make me send my son down there!" So there are some rules and there is some fear to back it up.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of mural at Orvieto, Tuscany of the last judgement" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*mGssRklwPqRx8SADYu2--g.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There’s plenty of scriptural material to suggest a Plan A and Plan B approach; but is that what Jesus is about? | Photo by Ron Steed at the cathedral in Orvieto, Tuscany</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now there is plenty, PLENTY of material in the scriptures to support this notion… you do not have to look very hard to find it:</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The gist of the prophets seems to be "Don’t make God pull this car over!"</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis seems to be a case where the evil of humankind grieved God to his heart and made him "sorry that I have made them". And so, the story goes, the car pulled over to the side of the road and there was a reckoning for all of humanity; Noah and his family excepted.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">As I have been preaching throughout Advent, John the Baptist seems to have plan B in mind when he says "the axe is lying at the root of the tree". He seems to be saying "Now you’ve done it, God is sending his son down from corporate headquarters and boy are you people going to get it!"</span></div></li></ul><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus as Plan B</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">For a lot of Christians, God seems to live on a far distant galaxy, except on Christmas and Easter when he comes down to wag his finger at us about human sexuality. But things had gotten so bad that he sent his son to square us away, and now Jesus is threatening to come back a second time to finish the job!</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:500; --en-naturalHeight:1153;" alt="Photo of Tiffany window in St. James Episcopal Church, New London, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*tJP1kf9FKQ0Ee89237BcgA.png" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Angel announces Plan B in a window by Tiffany Studios | Photo by Ron Steed at St. James Episcopal Church, New London, CT</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">To a lot of Christians, God seems to using Jesus as Plan B, the thing God would have to do if Plan A didn’t work. And the cross! Well that seems like some kind of cosmic Taylor Swift song that God sings "Look what you made me do!" That song even has the right lyrics "Honey, I rose up from the dead!" Art imitates life more than we might like to think….</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus as Plan A</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Friends, that’s not what is going on here.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus coming to Earth in human form was always Plan A, Jesus IS always Plan A, and Jesus will always BE Plan A; there was no plan B. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">God wants nothing more than to be with us, in every way possible way. God POURS itself into creation, so God has ALWAYS been with us from the very start of creation. Creation itself was the FIRST incarnation of God, the first enfleshment of God. God loves creation by BECOMING creation; God loves creation by uniting with creation, not by excluding any part of it.²</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:2141;" alt="Photo of mushrooms in the Merritt Family Forest, Mystic, CT" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*UR2TOCYbxN8Y-PNO2zyrzg.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Part of the First incarnation | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All of this is true on the cosmic level, and it is true on the level of this baby whose birth 2000 years ago, God’s SECOND incarnation, we are celebrating tonight, and it true now with all of you. God loves us by BECOMING us, God loves us by uniting with us, not by excluding us. God is WITH us, now and forever… not on some far away solar system, but present with us and within us. Just hold on to that idea for a bit.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A Story of Politics</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the lens of politics. I know; the very LAST thing you want to hear on Christmas Eve is a sermon about politics, but I’m afraid that’s what Luke has handed us this evening! "Luke, look what you made me do!", is what I want to sing!</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And you can tell this is a political story because Luke starts off with an imperial decree from Caesar Augustus, a decree that everyone, including Joseph and Mary are not just obligated to follow, but DO follow. They go to Bethlehem in Luke’s story because Caesar told them to go.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, historians think Luke’s story is pretty thin on facts. There is no evidence of an actual census that might have taken place around the time of Jesus’ birth, but this story tells a truth that does not rest on whether a census took place or not.</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Gaius Octavius</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Luke is telling the story of a powerful Roman man, Gaius Octavius, who regarded himself as the Divine Lord of the World, and another, seemingly powerless man Jesus, born in Palestine who ALSO claimed that title. There are a lot of titles thrown around this narrative; both men claimed them. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">One of them got himself crucified as a result, while the other lived a full life to the ripe age of 75. But that wasn’t the end of the story; we worship Jesus and not Gaius Octavius and there are reasons for that.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, that phrase Luke uses "Caesar Augustus" is not the Emperor’s first and last name; rather, these are two titles that the Emperor, Gaius Octavius claimed, something similar to "President of the United States" which is a title and not the name of the person holding that office.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" alt="Photo of the colosseum in Arles, France" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZcKrnDv4bP_W8dYjYSsSMw.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">School children in Arles, France learn a lesson about Roman Power at the ancient colosseum | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The title "Augustus" however, is a claim to divinity. Certainly, anyone in Luke’s community of educated Greeks reading or hearing Luke’s gospel would have known this right away, even though that idea seems a little remote to us today.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">And that phrase the Angel announces to the shepherds "I am bringing you good news of great joy" would be instantly recognized as the opening line of every Roman imperial decree: "Caesar Augustus, the Anointed Son of the Most High, brings good news of great joy to his people, that there will be peace and security throughout the world!" Luke’s story actually mocks Roman imperial decrees!</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Committing Treason</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Someone reading or hearing this story in Luke’s time might have thought to themselves "Whoa, that’s a risky story! That’s just what the emperor would say! Isn’t it a bit treasonous to proclaim Jesus that way?" Yes, yes it is.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of the Smiling Angel at Reims Cathedral" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*NkGahzlRYgcyHjhLGJRGsA.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Smiling Angel at Reims Cathedral… happy to push some limits I think | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">But that doesn’t keep the angels in Luke from pushing at this risky boundary. Consider that phrase "Son of the Most High", which is what the angel tells Mary about Jesus in Chapter 1. That is exactly what Octavian DID call himself after he declared his father Julius divine. So Octavian ALSO regarded himself as the son of a God.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The angels go on to announce to the shepherds that Jesus is "the savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord". That would have been heard as "the savior, the anointed one of God, and one who must be obeyed". These are all titles that Octavian claimed for himself.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Even when the chorus of angels sing "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those of whom he favors", it is exactly the kind of imperial praise that would be heaped onto Caesar, and it would have been heard that way by anyone who listened to this story read aloud.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of angels at Reims cathedral, France" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*husNUjtkr9S2t1J8Gi52DQ.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Angels at Reims Cathedral, France | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">All of this is to suggest that the theme of Luke’s entire birth story is THIS: "Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not".</span></div><h4><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">What Jesus Plan A is All About</span></h4><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Now, this begs a really important question which gets to the very heart of what Jesus’ Plan A is all about. If Jesus was Lord, and Caesar was just a parody of what lordship was about, in what ways was the lordship of Jesus DIFFERENT from the lordship of Caesar or any OTHERS, including all those today who claim authority over humans?</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus claimed the same power as Caesar: Son of God, the Anointed One, Lord, Savior, Bringer of Good News, Bringer of Peace. The difference is WHAT Jesus DID with that power.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of bread basket at Chateau Orquevaux, France" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*2ZzHaUwXyQLnDUO_mba9ew.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Forms of power that stand with us, not over us | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Unlike humans, Jesus gave his power away; Jesus emptied himself of power. Rather than using his power fearfully as Caesar did, Jesus gifted his power; to heal, to mend, to repair, to soften hard edges, to gather together, to search for the lost, to share meals with rich and poor… with the righteous and the unrighteousness, to warn us where our human ways with power would lead if we kept it up, to mourn our losses with those who suffered and bind their wounds when we didn’t listen to that advice, to show us a better way to live, to have life and to have it abundantly through love and not through rulesets, by embracing one another as God embraces us… everyone… everywhere, unconditionally, without excluding. Humans had the freedom to follow their own minds all along, even cruelly, and Jesus was WITH us, no matter what. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Jesus did these things while living as a human on Earth. The Risen Christ does these things through us NOW, TODAY as Body of Christ on Earth. Christ still gives his power away… still empties his power into us in the same ways. That was Plan A all along; to give it all away as a gift of unconditional love. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Christmas invitation to us then, is to be like Jesus… like babies in a feeding trough; weak, vulnerable, dependent on others, powerless. And… to be growing, learning, thriving, having life and having it abundantly.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">There is so MUCH about God that we do not know and CANNOT know. But what we DO know about God… what God has revealed to humanity all over the world in all times and in all places, and especially through Jesus Christ, we can treasure and ponder in our hearts, just like Mary did and does.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">May all of you have a joyous Christmas and a blessed new year. And may God with be you in Jesus Christ, Plan A, always and forever. Amen.</span></div><img style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" alt="Photo of lights and decorations on a Christmas tree" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*J8xJlcpzQmr8k_WurTQFOA.jpeg" /><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Photo by Ron Steed</span></div><hr /><ol><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sermon delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT on Saturday Evening, December 24, 2022; Christmas Eve.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Rohr, R. (2019). Another Name for Everything. In </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for, and Believe</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (p. 15). Convergent Books.</span></div></li></ol>Birthhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/birth2023-05-23T00:11:38.788000Z2022-12-24T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Saturday December 24</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Birth</div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>on this holy night -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>She gave birth to the one who </b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>wants to be with us</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#<span style="color:rgb(32, 32, 32);">birth</span> #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/fb1c5777-927b-1ab4-36cf-47664b9db478/9986775b-0f92-fdb2-8857-ae6316a1ffe3.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3775; --en-naturalHeight:2379;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Abstract watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Restorehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/restore2023-05-23T00:11:38.888000Z2022-12-23T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Friday December 23</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Restore</div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>When things disappoint -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>golden light and growing things</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>restore us to health</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#<span style="color:rgb(32, 32, 32);">restore</span> #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/29104f6b-214d-c4b6-620a-d8bece3668ec/c3e7d200-503a-84a3-1292-537df7d9a7a3.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed at Haley Farm State Park, Groton, CT | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Choosehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/choose2023-05-23T00:11:36.444000Z2022-12-22T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Thursday December 22</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Choose</div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>we just think we choose -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>sometimes the mystery makes </b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>the choices for us</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#<span style="color:rgb(32, 32, 32);">choose</span> #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/535b0f8e-aab5-ac2a-2501-1a6b50bdcaf6/08a18827-224d-e06d-8466-40df6027cd2f.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3770; --en-naturalHeight:2623;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor abstract by artist Roxanne Steed in which the medium and the water made all the critical choices | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Obediencehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/obedience2023-05-23T00:11:34.899000Z2022-12-21T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Wednesday December 21</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Obedience</div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>give ear and listen</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>to the pleadings of nature -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>needs obedience</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#<span style="color:rgb(32, 32, 32);">Obedience</span> #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/8168118e-55af-4bb8-89ce-33d81b257b65/5d9f8f29-c693-947d-cb83-5cb88e2da4f5.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2935; --en-naturalHeight:2920;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT looking toward Fishers Island, NY | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Hearhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/hear2023-05-23T00:11:36.164000Z2022-12-20T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Tuesday December 20</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Hear</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>surfside Kerry cows -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>hear the lows announcing it</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>the waves that speak out</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#hear #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/bd0db8f2-f753-8959-6d41-c5d51c71c3c1/dfc69de8-f5d6-58c0-c781-085f147f4c37.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Oil painting by artist Roxanne Steed on Valencia Island, Ireland looking toward Portmagee | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Signhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sign2023-05-23T00:11:36.063000Z2022-12-19T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Monday December 19</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Sign</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>light on horizon -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>warning to ones a-sailing</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>a sign to seekers</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#sign #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/9422bba3-da94-6cc6-41c1-5b95e73a23ea/7898562d-e935-01ad-9ec2-e7f542abfd1e.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
Purifyhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/purify2023-05-23T00:11:35.954000Z2022-12-18T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Sunday December 18</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Purify</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>Keep just the essence -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>Purify motion gesture </b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>and joyful tulle skirts</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#purify #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/92a4954b-316f-0f60-9908-48fe5e9d05c2/998eb044-9d79-24e1-077a-18593d50f0c0.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting at Chateau Orquevaux, France by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
Majestyhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/majesty2023-05-23T00:11:35.894000Z2022-12-17T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Saturday December 17</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Majesty</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>mother of God and</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>son of man play on the beach -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>majesty enfleshed</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#majesty #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/fd6b720a-7492-55d1-f790-8d25e6cf2c8f/6cddac0c-5c5f-cee1-79bb-ea99a333972e.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3023; --en-naturalHeight:4015;"/><div><br /></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting at Inch Beach, Ireland by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
Travellerhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/traveller2023-05-23T00:11:36.248000Z2022-12-16T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Friday December 16</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Traveller</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>traveller pathway -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>lingering vulnerably</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>in heartful places</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#traveller #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/f6bbb1f5-fbe9-680b-f66f-c7339c17437f/55382ccd-712c-e4a8-7337-700e99833a64.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3023; --en-naturalHeight:4016;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting at Chateau Orquevaux, France by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Photo of the painting site at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area | Photo by Ron Steed, Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
Belovedhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/beloved2023-05-23T00:11:35.249000Z2022-12-14T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Wednesday December 14</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Beloved</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>FEELING belovéd -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">gathered with community</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">and wildflowers</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>#beloved #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/6c3dc036-8b58-3e67-aa12-de051d723d79/d466e413-3caf-e5cd-9518-73d1d24c76bd.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2610; --en-naturalHeight:2610;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed of our "queen" by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
Thirstyhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/thirsty2023-05-23T00:11:38.442000Z2022-12-14T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Thursday December 15</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Thirsty</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>sky-colored channels</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>drench the thirsty marsh grasses -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>tidewaters flowing</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<div>#thirsty #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/3c8f7c2d-2d1a-199c-da54-cd76c188e267/cb40b6b5-5946-2265-f57a-fa72be8c0eff.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2828; --en-naturalHeight:2829;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor painting at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/3c8f7c2d-2d1a-199c-da54-cd76c188e267/7e28f1d8-8f12-23e5-7b1f-d0ebfa7f11ee.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Photo of the painting site at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area | Photo by Ron Steed, Watercolor painting by artist Roxanne Steed</span></div>
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Strangerhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/stranger2023-05-23T00:11:38.744000Z2022-12-13T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Tuesday December 13</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Stranger</div>
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<div><b>wisp of connection</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>as we pass by the stranger -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>can we go deeper?</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<div>#stranger #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/8163856f-e2fa-db15-051f-bb18b46d61cd/0c59e062-a299-f1bb-a78d-b90365436228.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1440; --en-naturalHeight:1046;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor journal "carrot people" demonstration by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/8163856f-e2fa-db15-051f-bb18b46d61cd/f227126a-67c8-a483-e976-9aa21e516ca1.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:4032;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">A nun walks by in Florence, Italy | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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Wildernesshttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/wilderness2023-05-23T00:11:37.339000Z2022-12-12T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Monday December 12</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Wilderness</div>
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<div><b>in the wilderness</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>only clouds change over time -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>inner-outer fog</b></div>
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<div>#wilderness #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/4c81d817-15e4-e268-b817-396c3f80a2c5/b7b9ecac-2802-2088-fbfd-a2c497bab9d0.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Watercolor journal cloud demonstration by artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</span></div>
<div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/4c81d817-15e4-e268-b817-396c3f80a2c5/0674a4e4-b11e-dc54-914d-2ba4568408b9.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Clouds over the wilderness near Chateau Orquevaux, France | Photo by Ron Steed</span></div>
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Messengerhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/messenger2023-05-23T00:11:45.445000Z2022-12-11T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Sunday December 11</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Messenger</div>
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<div><b>"do not be afraid!" -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>the messenger carries words</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>of hope and comfort</b></div>
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<div>#messenger #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/7538d83e-a5dd-e303-351b-891235e8f99a/74189a71-30c1-e967-585f-f480d6183855.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2795; --en-naturalHeight:3554;"/><div>Watercolor angel by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/7538d83e-a5dd-e303-351b-891235e8f99a/a6fe93b8-9c5b-3ee8-006d-3725f422acf5.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2780; --en-naturalHeight:3507;"/><div>Watercolor angel by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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20221211 Sermon: We Belong to One Anotherhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/20221211-sermon-we-belong-to-one-another2023-05-23T00:11:42.753000Z2022-12-11T12:21:19ZRonald Steed<div><h4>ADVENT | BELONGING</h4><h4>St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹</h4><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/a7222954-6b65-a029-318c-01561cae3859/66f0a11b-4281-956b-7a8b-9330735b8af1.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:4032;"/></div>
<div><b>Are You Sure You’re the One?</b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"</span><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">You brood of vipers!</span></i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Do you remember that phrase from last week? I saw several of you scribbling notes during the gospel reading, so I know you remember! </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">That was John the Baptist calling out the Pharisees and Sadducees when they came to visit him in the desert. Jesus will ALSO use this phrase against the same team later in Matthew Chapter 12. And both John and Jesus use THIS saying in common: </span><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near"</span></i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">. So, there’s a lot of overlap between John’s message and Jesus’,</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">But in today’s Gospel, something really interesting happens. John begins to wonder whether Jesus really IS the Messiah. He sends messengers to Jesus to ask him "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">A Different Idea</span></b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Now, WHY has John the Baptist begun to doubt whether Jesus is the one or not? </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">You might remember that John also said THIS: </span><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." </span></i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">John the Baptist had every expectation that Israel’s Messiah, whoever that might turn out to be, would be the one to pick up that axe and start chopping and burning. And that is NOT what Jesus did. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">That’s why Jesus responded to John so enigmatically, paraphrasing Isaiah 35 that we just read a moment ago: </span><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"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…." </span></i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Jesus had a very different idea about what it meant for the Kingdom of God to come near; he saw it as a healing kingdom, a good news kingdom, a kingdom of hope. Its a kingdom that remembers that we belong to each other. Jesus left that axe at the base of the tree; he didn’t pick it up. And this was the thing that John just couldn’t understand. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">The Great Comma</span></b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">You know, I think a LOT of Christians don’t get that about Jesus, even today. So many Christians are expecting him to start swinging that axe around… they WANT him to start swinging that axe around. And I get it; they want justice. I want justice too… I’ve found myself screaming "You brood of vipers!" during the evening news! </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">The problem for Christians is, many THINK they know the ones who DESERVE to get chopped down. They think they KNOW the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness, the difference between good and evil. And isn’t that part of the point of the Adam and Eve story? Their DESIRE to know the difference between good and evil was stronger than their desire to know God.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">This is hard stuff. I understand that we have to know a lot about justice to live together on Earth, but I’m wondering as Christians, if we might put more emphasis on the healing that JESUS was DOING rather than the axe swinging that John the Baptist was hoping for. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">We’re about to say the Nicene Creed together in a few moments, and we’ll pause for a split second at what some have called "The Great Comma". </span><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"> "…</span><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man (pause) For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate…" </span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">That pause was Jesus’ entire life! Everything he did! All that healing and good news and hopefulness! None of THAT made it into our foundational statement of faith! We might have been better off as a church if our creed had paid more attention to what Jesus DID rather than trying to parse out what the Trinity IS. Just sayin’.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">A Healing Needed for Today</span></b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Maybe we can do more of that Jesus work here at St. Andrews. As a community of faith, we can do what Jesus did… we can leave that axe lying at the root of the tree until the end of the age, and give hope NOW to people who are suffering; we can remember that we belong to one another.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Here’s a specific something I would like us to think about; maybe we can help make housing more affordable in our region. It’s a big problem, and a lot of our neighbors are suffering because of it. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Recently, many of the region’s clergy have raised the alarm about affordable housing, and here is some of what they have to say in a letter to the editor of The Day</span><sup><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">2</span></sup><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">:</span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">Low-income and affordable housing construction has lagged since the 2008 recession, and more recently many low–rent units have been bought by investors, given minor make-overs, and returned to the market at rent levels that are beyond the means of most low-income renters, especially seniors living on limited and fixed incomes. While wages have stagnated for decades, the cost of housing has soared.</span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">The recent series produced by </span><b><a href="https://www.theday.com/section/housing-lab/" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(51, 102, 153);">The Day’s Housing Solutions Lab</span></a></b> laid bare the housing crisis’ human impact in our region, and many clergy are seeing the suffering up close: Our homeless response system is struggling to keep up with increasing demand and too often being unable to address all the need -- we find newly unhoused people sleeping in their cars in the parking lots or in green spaces; more individuals approach the congregations we serve for rent assistance or more common, assistance for paying a hotel bill, as local hotels are increasingly serving as a substitute for permanent housing (Shariya has gotten calls like this). Most of those caught in this web of vulnerable circumstance live paycheck to paycheck in low-wage jobs and are one medical emergency or necessary car repair away from economic collapse.</div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">This may seem unsurmountable; it is not. A key first step toward the community’s well-being is the steepest; more empathy. In the words of Mother Theresa, "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."</span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">We have forgotten that we belong to each other. We ask that you hear our plea to remember that we belong to each other, and be assured; this crisis is solvable.</span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">Righting this ship asks us to change systems that prevent progress. One of those systems of greatest impact are zoning regulations. Often these regulations prevent construction of multi-dwelling units, for one. As well, although state law established a target of reaching 10% affordable housing in every community (including Madison), this law has not yet prompted many communities to encourage such development.</span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">We all want our communities to thrive and progress. Providing safe and affordable housing only amplifies that possibility. In recent weeks, clergy all across our region have reminded the congregations they serve about exactly that, as we shine light on this crisis. </span></div>
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<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">The first step in adjusting our collective sails is growing our collective empathy. We witness acts of great kindness and ingenuity in our communities. Let’s apply both, to change the systems that impact our ability to have affordable housing.</span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">That’s what a lot of clergy in our region, including me, had to say about affordable housing. </span></div>
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<div><b>A Bigger Impact</b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">Now, St. Andrews already does some work on this. Many parishioners help with Habitat for Humanity which builds or renovates houses for new low-income owners. Some of our people sit on local boards that might have an impact on affordable housing. Our two Sacred Grounds groups are learning about many of the systems that have brought problems like this disproportionally to black and brown families in CT. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">There are a couple ways for us to have a bigger impact however. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">One is to come together with other local communities of faith and pool some of our collective leadership and resources. There are a lot of faithful people in Madison and Guildford, and a lot of them want to put a dent in this problem. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">We could join a faith-based community organization like ConeCT, which represents over 30,000 people of faith from more than 40 faith communities from Fairfield to New Haven. They have recently been asking faith communities in Guildford and Madison to join their work. We might consider that. </span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(35, 31, 32);">This kind of work is not trivial, and it takes time and leadership and funding to make it happen; maybe several years are needed.</span><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"> And you can bet that there will be opposition; it is no accident that zoning boards are one of the greatest impediments to affordable housing in CT.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><b>Why?</b></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Knowing WHY we might consider something like this is key however. We might do it because Jesus healed the the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the deaf. He raised the dead and brought good news to the poor. He left the axe at the bottom of the tree, and worked on hope instead, much to John the Baptist’s surprise. We can look to see what hopelessness looks like in our own time, and follow his lead to bring something hopeful instead. </span></div>
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<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Jesus had a very different idea about what it meant for the Kingdom of Heaven to come near. And while there were vipers to be criticized in his culture, just as there might be in ours, Jesus saw the Kingdom of Heaven as a healing kingdom, a good news kingdom, a kingdom of hope. Its a kingdom that remembers that we belong to each other, and that’s where Jesus did his work. We can too. Amen.</span></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><ol><li><div>Sermon delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT on Sunday, December 11, 2022; 3 Advent</div></li><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Paraphrased from: Greater New London Clergy Association. (2022, November 20). </span><i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Together, We Can Find Solutions to Affordable Housing Problem</span></i><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from </span><a href="https://www.theday.com/letters/20221120/together-we-can-find-solutions-to-affordable-housing-problem/" rev="en_rl_none">https://www.theday.com/letters/20221120/together-we-can-find-solutions-to-affordable-housing-problem/</a><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></div></li></ol>Flourishhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/flourish2023-05-23T00:11:43.444000Z2022-12-10T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Saturday December 10</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Flourish</div>
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<div><b>hearts vibrating with</b></div>
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<div><b>hopeful frequencies of love -</b></div>
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<div><b>they <span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">find and flourish</span></b></div>
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<div>#flourish #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/82c8a72b-fa0d-0233-e940-e102b31af1ec/578284d1-aacd-035c-33a9-50c646e46a78.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2517; --en-naturalHeight:2517;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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Firehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/fire2023-05-23T00:11:45.842000Z2022-12-09T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Friday December 9</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: fire</div>
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<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">heart-fire of people </span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">who sang away our grieving -</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">common loss and hope</span></b></div>
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<div>#fire #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/0ba960f3-39b2-37ce-1a72-80d049fbd6cb/8ab3d3f6-aa8f-81df-2baa-01d72d1131cc.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:4032;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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Breathehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/breathe2023-05-23T00:11:43.756000Z2022-12-08T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Thursday December 8</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: breathe</div>
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<div><b>hills have life within -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>they breathe quietly resting </b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>with crops and blue sky</b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#breathe #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/e1475d65-674a-9b22-6fdc-29aa1cd57a01/8bf48793-5b8d-5653-4021-720fa8c12a59.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/e1475d65-674a-9b22-6fdc-29aa1cd57a01/1ff6975b-70c9-6cd3-744a-f7ab13410ab0.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:4032;"/><div><br /></div>
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Welcomehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/welcome2023-05-23T00:11:49.995000Z2022-12-06T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Tuesday December 6</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: welcome</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>lavender welcome -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">gentle hospitality </span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">bending giving-way</span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#welcome #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/3c51c940-d0ed-b2b5-36f5-9397eb647b03/cdd41c57-5e71-218a-b570-8861c15ec54c.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2660; --en-naturalHeight:2544;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/3c51c940-d0ed-b2b5-36f5-9397eb647b03/0ebb8c41-258d-50f1-ca0e-414877c399dc.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1315; --en-naturalHeight:1887;"/><div><br /></div>
Winnowinghttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/winnowing2023-05-23T00:11:42.339000Z2022-12-05T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Wednesday December 7</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: winnowing</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>tossing life aloft</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>to separate fear from joy -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>Spirit winnowing </b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#winnowing #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/759dc822-b127-b8d1-5474-e869d79b201c/20b70f7c-016d-1a2e-582a-d9f4ca38f376.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3024; --en-naturalHeight:3008;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><span style="color:rgb(36, 41, 47);"><div class="responsive-embed embed-16by9"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yS7uhDoayIk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen title="Wind Blowing Seed Heads"></iframe></div></div>
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Rainhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/rain2023-05-23T00:11:46.689000Z2022-12-05T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Monday December 5</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: rain</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">plinking pattering -</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">then a more lilting rain from </span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">kindness toward soaking</span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#rain #AdventWord</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/df2f40c7-badd-03b9-c607-08d4fe78f139/4db90470-3a83-d2f3-9747-16fc8f64c0c8.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3008; --en-naturalHeight:4030;"/><div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/df2f40c7-badd-03b9-c607-08d4fe78f139/717bb6bf-9a09-45f4-8968-9ad68b541c93.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2643; --en-naturalHeight:2643;"/><div>Watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div>
Delighthttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/delight2023-05-23T00:11:46.142000Z2022-12-04T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Sunday December 4</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: delight</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>delight is finding</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>someone living their best life -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>cat meditation</b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#delight #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/0fbb8629-1949-d5c6-1a81-205436b61750/047cb94b-658e-705c-4e3b-47884065e412.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2940; --en-naturalHeight:2903;"/><div><br /></div>
<div>Watercolor journal entry by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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Unityhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/unity2023-05-23T00:11:46.278000Z2022-12-03T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Saturday December 3</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: unity</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>the One we worship -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>wants nothing more than to be</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>with in unity</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#unity #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/4e1a6a72-8766-e7fa-a81f-7a9ff660ea15/ba67081c-09b2-f478-4ae6-eb695009d503.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3020; --en-naturalHeight:3008;"/><div>Watercolor journal entry by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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Ready!https://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/ready2023-05-23T00:11:46.564000Z2022-12-02T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Friday December 2</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word: Ready</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>young wedded couple -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>their new life stands before them</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>volkswagen ready</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#ready #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/84e03e5e-fd31-3304-8fbd-1992cd3b5892/cd015931-2387-f6b7-1fef-3e0fb44ea0e3.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4029; --en-naturalHeight:3023;"/><div>Watercolor journal entry by Artist Roxanne Steed showing a just married couple and their ready get-away-car in Arezzo, Italy | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
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Makehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/make2023-05-23T00:11:44.952000Z2022-12-01T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Thursday December 1</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>we make artfully</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">with paper brush and pigment -</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">peaceful practices</span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#make #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/49ceada7-61d5-580e-b3cf-6dfbcc0f72d6/821020ad-b6ea-27ef-f218-4700b5f260e8.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1315; --en-naturalHeight:1968;"/><div><br /></div>
<div>Watercolor Artist Roxanne Steed practicing peace | Photo by Ron Steed</div>
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Mountainshttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/mountains2023-05-23T00:11:46.150000Z2022-11-30T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Wednesday November 30</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">ridge-lines and mountains -</span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">are slate-stained and stretched across </span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div><b><span style="color:rgb(41, 41, 41);">the arc of the way</span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#mountains #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/61ccfedb-cc58-8425-51ba-5c352cbcd4c6/cd02555d-7677-7f25-44dc-cfd01519dbb8.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3017; --en-naturalHeight:4012;"/><div>Slate-colored mountains stretch behind Pienza, Tuscany | Photo by Ron Steed</div>
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Teachhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/teach2023-05-23T00:11:48.552000Z2022-11-29T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor |Tuesday November 29</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>we teach to convey</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>the joy and gladness of our</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>creativity</b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#teach #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/e779b7cb-0d24-7463-3c6d-acac12ebbfe4/3fabe4c2-89a2-d0d7-4753-b6a0dbb89abc.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1311; --en-naturalHeight:1973;"/><div>Watercolor Artist Roxanne Steed in a teaching moment at Bagnoregio, Tuscany | Photo by Ron Steed</div>
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Togetherhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/together2023-05-23T00:11:47.655000Z2022-11-28T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Watercolor | Monday November 28</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><b>two trunks fused in love -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>as though a force of nature</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>oned them together</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>#together #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/2ee37487-470a-7c7e-ddbb-438a0353e62b/2468be4d-fd45-d0b7-910f-dfcef7ffc30a.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:2718; --en-naturalHeight:2718;"/><div>Photo of a watercolor painting by Artist Roxanne Steed of a beautiful crabapple tree standing on the shore at Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT.</div>
Walkhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/walk2023-05-23T00:11:50.359000Z2022-11-27T14:04:01ZRonald Steed<div>Haiku | Sunday November 27</div>
<div>2022 Advent Word</div>
<div> </div>
<div><b>"walk, don’t run!", says she -</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>himself ambles to the pub</b></div>
<div><b><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div><b>to keep that wisdom</b></div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>#walk #AdventWord</div>
<div><br /></div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/a3e1e426-0f60-b842-f3d1-0efb547f918f/47af0217-2b81-26b9-ad79-df8058ddde72.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1352; --en-naturalHeight:1915;"/><div>Oil painting by Artist Roxanne Steed | Photo by Roxanne Steed</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><div class="responsive-embed embed-16by9"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ecEp451MXDg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen title="“Walk, don’t run!” She says"></iframe></div></div>
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Sermon: Abandoning the Selfhttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/sermon-abandoning-the-self2023-05-23T00:11:43.282000Z2022-11-14T00:32:07ZRonald Steed<div><br /></div>
<div><b>Clip source: </b><a href="https://medium.com/p/b4f47ed66657/edit" rev="en_rl_none">Editing%20Sermon%3A%20Abandoning%20the%20Self%20%u2013%20Medium</a></div>
<div><br /></div><h4>ST ANDREW’S DAY | THE WAY </h4><h3>Sermon: Abandoning the Self</h3><h4>St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT ¹</h4><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/5c1b55ad-fcdf-4bd0-8a1a-e798690849c1.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div><br /></div><h4><b>Taken from Matthew 4:18–22 (NRSV)</b></h4><div><i>As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.</i></div><h4><b>We Know Nothing</b></h4><div>We know almost nothing about Andrew. What is written about him in the Gospels is too sparse for meaningful thoughts about his character, and the supposed history of his post-Pentecost preaching, travels, and martyrdom was not written until more than 200 years after his death, which really calls its truth into question. Even his link to Scotland seems pretty thin, having more to do with the movement of some of his supposed remains.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/62389bd5-321a-47f7-a1ed-139031751f57.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div style="text-align:center;"><br /></div>
<div>So what to say about Andrew? Well, given that he is not only the Patron Saint of Scotland but also of Russia and Ukraine, we might imagine that whatever is going on upstairs in Andrew’s office, his staff would certainly seem to have their hands full these days! </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Maybe, there are four things we can say about Andrew that might be close to the mark.</div><h4><b>They Didn’t Get it</b></h4><div>First, I think Andrew and all the apostles and disciples who followed Jesus before his crucifixion didn’t get what Jesus was about. What Jesus was doing was not what they thought he was up to. This is very clear in Mark’s gospel, but in the others also. And it’s easy to understand why. Israel was anticipating the Messiah to save them for a long time, and Jesus was neither the first nor the last to make that claim.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/e6e351d1-cfb0-4d7d-95c8-ba2912e85ee1.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div><br /></div>
<div>People believed that God’s anointed one would raise an army and crush the Roman oppressors and do it with God’s direct help and blessing. You can almost imagine Andrew walking along saying, "Yeah, great story about the Good Samaritan Jesus, but where are we supposed to get the weapons? And who will teach Peter how to use a sword? He’s a hazard to himself and others where sharp objects are concerned!" And, even though they didn’t understand Jesus, I think they loved him deeply… both were true.</div><h4><b>Moral Injury</b></h4><div>The second thing I think we can say is that Andrew, and all the other male Apostles, suffered moral injury when they abandoned Christ as he was being arrested. A moral injury is a type of trauma received when one acts on or witnesses events that run counter to deeply held moral convictions. So after following and loving Jesus for 3 years, to abandon him in the middle of his arrest had to hurt, particularly when that arrest led directly to crucifixion.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>It would not surprise me if some of the Apostles, huddled in fear in the upper room after the crucifixion, blamed themselves for Jesus’ death. The gospels follow Peter’s particular injury, but certainly, all the men felt something similar for actions that departed so strongly from their deeply held beliefs about Jesus, even if those beliefs were fundamentally wrong. It was their love of Jesus that was the source of their traumatic moral injury.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/0bc53941-8fbc-4560-b8c7-b8a633feefb3.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div>It is not uncommon for veterans to suffer moral injuries in exactly this way, particularly those who have endured combat. It is one of the reasons why some veterans are reluctant to talk about their war experiences; what they were made to do in our name was sometimes unspeakable. It could make them feel deeply compromised as human beings.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>These two aspects of Andrew’s experience, the fact that he didn’t understand Jesus, and the moral injury he likely suffered by abandoning Jesus in his hour of need, really give me a lot of comfort. If Apostles can do things like THIS and be forgiven… well, so might we. We might be getting Jesus all wrong… we wouldn’t be the first. We might be doing things we think are contrary to the Gospel, inviting moral injury… again, we’re not the only ones. If Andrew can be forgiven, and he certainly was, then we can too.</div><h4><b>Troubled and Astonished</b></h4><div>The third thing we might be able to say about Andrew and his fellow Apostles is the utter astonishment they must have felt starting on Easter morning. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>First, with the report of Apostle Mary Madeline and the other female apostles about the empty tomb. Later, to their amazement, Jesus himself appeared in the locked upper room where they were all hiding from the authorities. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>At some point afterward, Andrew witnessed Jesus disappear during the Ascension. And finally, 50 days after Easter, all of them experienced the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>In the Gospel of Thomas, a book not part of the New Testament canon but which might have been written as early as the first Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, "<i>Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will reign over the all.</i>" I think Andrew and everyone else felt deeply troubled by all of this, and then…astonished.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/e0bcf873-44c2-4a91-aa14-e0838fad6888.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div>With that complete astonishment, I think the Holy Spirit unified them with Christ and gave them the courage to come out of the locked upper room so that they could reign in the Kingdom of God. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>I think that, with the help of the Spirit, they came to a much better understanding that the risen Christ was so much more than they thought the living Jesus was; cosmically more. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>And, I think they came to an understanding that all of humanity was something far more than just the people of Israel; cosmically more! And that in Christ, the essence of humanity and the essence of God were made one. And that was good news for everyone… good news for everybody.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>At some point, if their tradition is true, the twelve were ready to spread this astonishing Gospel as far and wide as they could, each taking on a different part of the known world. Andrew reportedly went to Greece and eventually to parts of Ukraine and Southern Russia. I think he never heard a highland bagpipe, I’m sorry to say!</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/1f32ad32-65a4-4cab-94af-446c936ab355.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1600; --en-naturalHeight:1200;" height="195px" width="260px"/><h4><b>Not Today’s Christianity, but "The Way"</b></h4><div>And this brings the fourth thing we might be able to say about Andrew. I think the Christianity of Andrew was almost nothing like the Christianity of today. It wasn’t even called Christianity, but rather "The Way." </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>It did not have Bishops, Priests, and Deacons… no liturgical vestments, no organs or drum sets, and no church buildings. It did not have creeds or doctrines or New Testament scripture. And somehow, without all these things, people came to faith in Christ.</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>At its simplest, what passed for a creed might have been "Jesus is Lord", and its fundamental practice was love; "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself". </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Maybe there was a simple Eucharist as a practice of mutual love and oneness in Christ. And Andrew’s Christianity had stories… stories about Jesus and stories that Jesus told. My sense is that The Way of Andrew’s day was more about the practice of love than about belief. "See how they love one another" might have been the symbol of Christian practice.</div>
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<div>I’m pointing all this out, not to suggest that we need to throw our own practices away, but rather to show the strength and nibleness of the Holy Spirit. She has worked on Christians who have all OUR current practices and many others, and she has worked on Christians who had hardly ANY practices at all. As we navigate ahead through changing times, we might take comfort in all that… Christ is fully capable of shepherding us, no matter what.</div><h4><b>Abandoning the Self</b></h4><div>So what WAS the experience of Andrew?</div>
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<div>A friend of mine sent me this; "<i>There are so many variables in life over which we have little if any control. Rather than seeing life as a series of obstacles, frustrations, and impenetrable questions, we could instead see life as an endless stream of invitations to cooperate with whatever God is up to and to abandon ourselves into God’s hands and God’s time.</i>" ² </div>
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<div>I think this sums up nicely the experience of Andrew and the other Apostles. After everything, they gave up control as an illusion… stopped worrying about obstacles, frustrations, and impenetrable questions. </div>
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<div>Rather, they abandoned themselves into God’s hands and God’s time. I think they were full of the Holy Spirit who helped them to see the endless streams of invitations to join what God was up to in Jesus Christ.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/2fc29767-d18a-49a1-8e6a-909d527230dd.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:1599; --en-naturalHeight:2133;" height="347px" width="260px"/><div>Each Apostle followed a different path, each confident that there was nowhere they could go where Christ was not already there at work ahead of them; nowhere they could be where they didn’t carry Christ burning in their hearts. They woke each day to become less and less like themselves and more and more like Christ. Andrew knew his oneness with Christ, a oneness we are all created to have.</div>
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<div>May Andrew’s Way with Christ inform our way too. May we be assured that when we don’t get it right about Jesus, we’ll be OK. If we suffer moral injury along The Way, we’ll be OK. May we be troubled by Christ, and astonished by Christ. May we remember that the The Way is about Love at its core, and may we grow less and less like ourselves, and more and more like Christ, every day. Amen.</div><hr /><div><i>...</i></div><ol><li><div>Sermon delivered at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Madison, CT on Sunday, November 13, 2022; St Andrew’s Day (transferred early from Nov 30)</div></li><li><div>Sent to me courtesy of The Rev Lynda Tyson; Almquist, B. C. (2020, April 21). <i>Waiting on God — Br. Curtis Almquist, </i>Society of St John the Evangelist, Boston. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ssje.org%2F2018%2F10%2F02%2Fwaiting-on-god-br-curtis-almquist%2F" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">https://www.ssje.org/2018/10/02/waiting-on-god-br-curtis-almquist/</a></div></li></ol><hr /><div>If this resonated, there are more!</div>
<div><b><a title="https://medium.com/refresh-the-soul/sermon-jesus-deeply-woven-into-the-fabric-of-every-life-339cfefd41e8" href="https://medium.com/refresh-the-soul/sermon-jesus-deeply-woven-into-the-fabric-of-every-life-339cfefd41e8" rev="en_rl_none">Sermon: Jesus- Deeply Woven into the Fabric of Every Life</a></b></div>
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<div><b><a title="https://medium.com/refresh-the-soul/a-targum-on-sending-the-70-9ea4552335ca" href="https://medium.com/refresh-the-soul/a-targum-on-sending-the-70-9ea4552335ca" rev="en_rl_none">A Targum on Sending the 70</a></b></div>
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<div><i>The Rev. Ron Steed is an Episcopal Deacon in Southeast Connecticut and has served the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in a variety of ways. He writes haiku and lyrical prose that he hopes will help others put the head and heart in right-relation.</i></div>
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<div>Top writer in: <a href="https://medium.com/tag/art" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">Art</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/tag/watercolor" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">Watercolor</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/tag/haiku" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">Haiku</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/tag/sermons" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">Sermons</a>, and <a href="https://medium.com/tag/episcopal-church" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" rev="en_rl_none" target="_blank">Episcopal Church</a>.</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/ce98edc1-871c-4f28-a317-5c0d8a188bcb/2f11e7c4-5e77-4dc8-b96d-20c0604722a9.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:180; --en-naturalHeight:180;" height="180px" width="180px"/><div>Ron Steed</div>
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earth-tones saturatehttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/earth-tones-saturate2023-05-23T00:11:43.734000Z2022-10-24T16:41:08ZRonald Steed<div>earth-tones saturate</div>
<div>autumn pumpkins and flowers -</div>
<div>seedtime fruitfulness</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/73c19fde-8b85-43c7-bad5-96ae82f528b5/25406bfd-6890-8761-3c1a-79340f5a17cc/c0d0bd08-b875-5d89-d951-ac9658b2b4b3.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:4032; --en-naturalHeight:3020;"/><div><br /></div>
time of golden lighthttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/time-of-golden-light2023-05-23T00:11:48.448000Z2022-10-22T20:09:57ZRonald Steed<div>time of golden light</div>
<div>season of raking shadows -</div>
<div>fall falls on farm fields</div>
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autumnal watershttps://waterscoverthesea.postach.io/post/autumnal-waters2023-05-23T00:11:50.233000Z2022-10-22T19:59:49ZRonald Steed<div>autumnal waters -</div>
<div>receive what the trees give them</div>
<div>and bathe in color</div>
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