2023 Lenten Preaching Series 1: We've Come a Long Way Baby

In 1968 Phillip Morris launched the very first cigarette brand marketed specifically to women. You’ve come a long way, baby was the slogan that instantly caught on. You may remember that the ads featured an old-fashioned photograph of repressed women smokers behind a colorful, vibrant “New Woman” free of oppression, smoking proudly. Smoking Virginia Slims was freedom, so the ad conjectured.

We may use that same line; you’ve come a long way baby when we think about life in the Garden of Eden … when the LORD God planted a garden and placed there the man whom he had formed. It’s a beautiful image to think that out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food. Those of you who have a green thumb may experience this personally … seeing, smelling and tasting the work of your hands, in your own little garden of Eden.

And while our faith story from Genesis on is long and consistent, the world, our Garden of Eden, our gift from God, has become a very different place … we’ve come a long way baby.

Unlike the initial beautiful image and place in the garden created for us, pollution of all kinds is threatening our world. It is undisputed that the industrialization of the developing world is creating unsustainable pollution levels. And the solution requires a technological and an intellectual revolution; an alternative route to economic prosperity that preserves resources and limits carbon emissions. And these must be developed before it’s too late.

Each of us personally, and all of us together in cultures and companies and nations – have been entrusted with an ability to make decisions that have enormous consequences. These decisions affect us as individuals and as a community, and the planet on which we live. Lent reminds us of that capacity and calls us to ponder the consequences of our decisions individual and collective. This Lenten season we will be focusing on these themes, aided by Laudato si', the Pope’s encyclical. Pope Francis really blows the whistle on us.

This First Sunday of Lent suggests that we see ourselves as Adam and Eve standing before a wondrously beautiful and potentially enriching tree. It asks:

· Are we using the technocratic power we have developed over time as we should?

· What norms are we using?

· What responsibility are we accepting for the consequences?

Adam and Eve made decisions based on what pleased them, but in doing so they inflicted deadly consequences upon the rest of humankind – we call it original sin. Are we continuing in the same vein? Does our malfeasance or even our nonfeasance toward the created world continue to sin against God and one another? Are we just as disobedient to the call of God to be fertile and multiply?

Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent to defy their obedience to God and choose against him. Who are the serpents of our day? Who are they that continue to tempt us not to believe that climate change is real? Further, who are the ones who have given us permission not to do something about it?

Here are some facts we should understand about climate change:

1. Climate change is caused by humans

It’s not caused by the sun nor is it a part of a natural cycle. We have learned a lot of amazing things about how our planet functions—and other planets, too. The data is available, the results have been published in peer-reviewed papers and in popular press. We are responsible.

2. It's not too late to fix the damage that's been done.

We can turn off the road to disaster as soon as we use our collective efforts to put on the brakes and commit to wanting to be a part of the solution, not perpetuating or denying the problem.

3. Climate change affects everyone—including you.

Although some may feel the impacts of climate change more than others, everyone experiences its impacts. Any simple google search demonstrates region by region of the world how we are all affected. Take some time to do the research!

4. Certain issues can have more than one cause

Sometimes people create binaries where it must be one or the other or that it's not responsible to blame everything on climate change. There are many causes, and surely many ways to help change it.

5. There are plenty of fossil fuel alternatives

Solar technology has improved in the past few decades and keeps getting better. Electric power can be made with effectively zero emissions. New technologies for storage and distribution are advancing every day. Powering our society with clean electricity will be a challenge, but we can do it – if we want to do it. It is no longer a technological impossibility, just difficult politically.

Jesus was tempted to make decisions that would bring him comfort, prestige and power. However, he refused, and so became a source of life and salvation. Lent gives us an opportunity to reflect on our decisions and their consequences – in the past, the present, and the future, and that includes our decisions toward the environment.

No doubt, there are plenty of myths about climate change out there. Myths can help people feel in control of something that's complicated or frightening. Some myths may fit comfortably into the pattern of one’s life.

As believers, let’s not let the myths rule the day. Let’s not surrender to those who have vested interests in the status quo. Let’s not be manipulated by emotion, but rather take a real, hard look at the truth and the facts and then do something about it.

Let's work together to ensure the future of our planet for our children.

Let us take time over these next forty days to see how we can be more responsible to our sisters and brothers near and far, those born and yet to be, and to all of God’s creatures with whom we share our beautiful planet – "our common home."

RSM

FALL 2022 PREACHING SERIES 10: Disciples Live as Stewards

We continue our Fall preaching series on DISCIPLESHIP, the tenth part entitled: DISCIPLES live as stewards.

Disciples who live as stewards care for God’s creation and all the resources entrusted to them. The call to stewardship means receiving gifts gracefully, nurturing their growth, and sharing them with others. The call to stewardship is the call to take care – of people, places, talents, and skills we have been given to share.

Like the stewards in the parables of Jesus, we have been entrusted with God’s gifts in the expectation that we will allow them to thrive and multiply to the benefit of all. We are called to be stewards with our whole lives – stewards of our work and of our world around us. In fact, our preaching series this coming Lent will focus on being better stewards of creation!

The Old Testament reading today is from the book of Malachi. The Hebrew word mal’ak means messenger— very similar to the Greek word angelos (“angel”) in the New Testament. We cannot know whether mal’ak is intended as a proper name, Malachi—or it simply means messenger. Scholars are divided on that matter.

We do know that this book was written after the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian Exile and rebuilt the temple, but probably prior to the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah. The book of Malachi was placed at the end of the Old Testament so that it would appear right before the book of Matthew.

This book is composed of six dialogues or verbal controversies, bracketed by an opening verse at the beginning and a Godly challenge at the end. The snippet that constitutes our lectionary reading is part of a larger section that constitutes the sixth controversy. That section begins with a reminder by the Lord that the people said:

It is vain to serve God;

What profit is it that we have followed his instructions?

They complained,

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up;

Yes, they tempt God, and escape.

In other words, they are wondering out loud, why follow the Lord? What’s the point? It seems as if the wicked get away with all the bad that they do, why shouldn’t we act like that too? In other words, they are really questioning why they should be good stewards! Why not just take and use everything as if it’s all theirs without considering the consequences?

Today’s Gospel from Luke prods us to focus on the big things, on predictions that seem to be apocalyptic in nature. But when you read Jesus’ words correctly in Luke 21, you realize that it was not the distant horizon of history that was supposed to occupy our minds, but times and events much, much closer to hand—in Jesus’ case, the events in question were quite literally within the reach of his arm to the spot where Judas stood.

For Jesus, his words would have almost immediate resonance when one of his own friends would betray him to the authorities. But the rest of the disciples would not exactly have to wait until the roll was called in order to experience moments of truth and terror when they, too, would have the choice to stand firm for their Lord or not.

Too often we think that passages like this one are meant to make us starry-eyed surveyors of distant horizons. Actually, they were meant to inspire discipleship and faithfulness over the long haul and in all the tough circumstances we’d face long before The End would come.

As someone once put it, Jesus was not training short distance sprinters but long-distance marathon runners who could carry his message far and wide for a long while to come. What’s more, in and through it all we are being reassured: God will be faithful. Jesus by his Spirit will give us the words to say.

How ironic that a passage that makes some people unsettled—even as the disciples were initially unsettled to hear Jesus predict the destruction of the Temple—is actually meant to settle us in our faith and re-assure us. It’s also instructive that we may need the power of that reassurance sooner rather than later in our lives. That may not be an easy message to hear, but it is one we may need to hear anyway.

That’s really the message of stewardship. While we surely need to be concerned for the future, we also need to be attentive to being better disciples here and now. In my tenure as you pastor, I have spoken many times of our responsibility for each of us to do our part … Some respond well, unfortunately others do not – the numbers speak for themselves. I underline again, that our good stewardship not only helps us to prepare a better future, a better parish, a better Church, a better world for our children, but helps us build up the kingdom of God here today.

In that spirit, I’m happy to invite XX, a member of our Finance Council, to share with you the highlights of our annual report. Please listen carefully because as disciples, as disciples who are called to be good stewards, and as we enter this season of giving, we are all called to respond fully and generously.

RSM

FALL 2022 PREACHING SERIES 9: Disciples are Prophets

We continue our Fall preaching series on DISCIPLESHIP, the seventh part entitled: DISCIPLES are prophets.

A prophet is a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. Surely some of you are already thinking, how can I be a prophet? I’m having a hard enough time just being a simple believer – and you want me to be a teacher or proclaimer of the will of God – forget it!

Many people think of prophets as fortunetellers who predict the future. In reality, they are much more like social critics or op-ed writers. They challenge political and religious leaders and their people to do what God wants them to do. They frequently attack political and economic elites for not taking care of the poor. They even criticize foreign entanglements and wars. And they frequently do it with harsh words.

I think that in a way, prophets do speak about the future by reminding the people of their time that should the positive and necessary changes not happen here and now, today, there will be consequences, even negative ones in the future. In a real way, prophets challenge us to see the big picture.

The Old Testament reading today tells us the tragic story of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons – tortured for not breaking their faithfulness to God’s law. Listen again to their conviction:

You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life,

but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.

It is for his laws that we are dying.

Theologically, the major aspects of the second book of Maccabees that resonated with Roman-era Christians and medieval Christians were its stories of martyr-ology and the resurrection of the dead. Christians often gave sermons and comparisons of Christian martyrs to the Maccabean martyrs, along with the hope of an eventual salvation – underlining their belief in the resurrection.

The Maccabean faithfulness to their belief in God’s law directed their actions, guided their words, and gave them the courage to face the consequences of their actions, even and including torture and death. Unlike many who would change with every wind and whim of the temporary trends and leaders of the times, these Maccabean martyrs saw the big picture and kept their eyes on the goal.

Today’s Gospel from Luke is the story about the Sadducees questioning Jesus about the resurrection. The Sadducees weren't really concerned about how to word the wedding vows. They were using the wedding example as a way to discredit Jesus' teachings. The Sadducees appear as opponents of belief in the resurrection, a doctrine which was held by Jesus, and ridiculed it by citing a possible, but far-fetched case, which makes nonsense of it. The Sadducees are part of a trend of trying to trap Jesus at this point in Luke's gospel. We even read further on in Luke:

From that point on, the chief priests, the scribes and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him (19:48).

So, as he teaches in the Temple, various groups come to try to trap him with questions about his authority, about paying taxes, and now, about resurrection.

Remember, the Sadducees are different from the Pharisees. They didn't believe in the Resurrection, and so they were “sad”. And Jesus counters their attempt to trap him with a scriptural story that affirms that which they did not believe: the reality of the life to come, but one in which current relationships take on a different form. He exposes them to the bigger picture.

What is our bigger picture? What are the things that we hold on to dearly? Are we like the people in the time of Maccabees who switch and sway with the temporary trends of the times, the newest fads, the cliché words, movements and thoughts, or our lives grounded in the big picture and the promise of Jesus?

As disciples, as disciples who are called to be prophets, that’s our task … to teach belief in and proclaim that our goal is heaven … resurrection and life forever with Jesus and all the saints.

My friends, let’s be prophets!

RSM