St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
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Homily Highlights for June 28 – The 5th Sunday after Pentecost
THE LOVE OF JESUS FOR CHILDREN
AT THE END OF OUR VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL WEEK IN WHICH WE ENJOYED HAVING OUR CHILDREN WITH US EVERY DAY, IT IS GOOD TO FOCUS ON THAT SPECIAL LOVE JESUS HAS FOR CHILDREN.
THE HEALING OF JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER
In our Gospel today, we have the story of Jesus healing the twelve year old daughter of Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. There was not at that point a very strong faith in Jesus as a healer and the people laugh at him when he tells them that the girl is not dead but only sleeping. Jesus is not deterred or distracted by doubt and does not seek praise for himself for this healing miracle, but in a very down to earth way instructed them to give her something to eat.
YOU MUST HAVE THE TRUSTING FAITH OF A CHILD
Elsewhere in Mark’s Gospel (10:13-16) we read the story of Jesus brushing aside the rebukes of some disciples and saying “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
In the midst of so much faith-killing fear and cynicism in adult life, Jesus calls us to the innocence, trust, energy and imagination of a child in following him.
CHILDREN NEED OUR LEADERSHIP AND LOVE
The best in our children’s faith and ours as adults grows best when it is nurtured in a committed love.
As a church and as community, our programs of health care, education and religion are a reflection of that love and commitment. So let us care for our children in body, mind and spirit, for this is God’s will for us and one of the real joys of God’s gift of life.
Father Hagerma
Homily Highlights for June 21 – The 4th Sunday after Pentecost
THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF DAVID
“Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul.” (1 Samuel 18:12)
THE SHEPHERD AND THE GIANT SLAYER
David was a shepherd who was called to be a king. On the road to becoming king, David slays the Philistine giant, Goliath, with a sling shot and a stone and becomes the symbol for the triumph of the underdog for centuries to come. What is the power behind that victory? David tells us “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves: for the battle is the Lord’s.” (1 Sam. 17:47) David is nothing in himself but becomes a symbol of God’s power in apparent weakness. An image Paul will use in describing the power of the crucified and risen Christ at work to empower lives that have been broken by suffering. (2 Cor. 9)
JEALOUSY AND POWER STRUGGLES
Although Israel is triumphant against the Philistines because of God’s work through David, King Saul, the first King of Israel, is jealous and repeatedly tries to kill David. Power is a gift from God that, like money and fire, is a good servant but a poor master. It had become Saul’s master and he became very jealous and threatened at the prospect of losing it but lose it he does and David becomes king over Israel. (2 Samuel 5:4) David too at times forgot that “the battle is the Lord’s” and abused his power, but when confronted with his sins, David confesses them and repents and returns to the Lord (2 Sam. 11-12) The most famous of those confessions is Psalm 51 that is for all generations a model for penitence and a regular part of our Ash Wednesday Service.
THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S
So what we find is most important in God’s vision of David’s story is not the slaying of a giant or the long reign of a strong king but the story of spiritual struggle, power in weakness and the call to repent and return to the Lord even to the most powerful. This is the battle that is the Lord’s in every generation, so this story becomes to us God’s living Word. David’s royal lineage ended with conquest by the Babylonians four centuries after his death, although the boundaries of the Israel of King David are a real “battle that is the Lord’s.” Reminding us each year in the voice of an Angel God’s wondrous ending to David’s story, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
Father Hagerman
Homily Highlights for May 31 – Trinity Sunday
LONGING TO BE BORN AGAIN
John 3:3 “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’”
GOD AS TRINITY IS BIBLICAL AND LOGICAL
1)God as Creator (Genesis 1 & 2) - Yet, “Nature does not reveal a Trinitarian God.” The Unitarians’ Nature is beautiful and bountiful as in a sunrise and a harvest. Nature is destructive, cruel and capricious as in a hurricane, famine or deadly illness.
2)God in Jesus Christ reveals a divine power of creative compassion in the midst of suffering. Emmanuel— “God with us” in human form. (Matthew 1:23)
3)The power of love of the living God is not bound in time and space to 1st century Roman Palestine where Jesus of Nazareth lived and ministered. A Holy Spirit for all times and places is needed. Jesus explains this in John’s Gospel: “If you love me...I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever...the spirit of truth...for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17) Jesus sends us to do his ministry in the power of the eternal Spirit, naming the three persons of the Trinity. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you to the end of time.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
WE LONG FOR A BETTER WORLD WITHOUT TRAGIC SUFFERING
I don’t think we need to be persuaded that there are many things in this world that are deeply wrong and must change. The innocent suffering that cries out from far away or from our own community is an outrage to the heart and soul made by God for love. It is a righteous anger but a potentially despairing state without a deep transforming faith. At such times there is a deeply felt longing to be born again into a place where in the words of Scripture “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of thing has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) Jesus makes the still challenging proclamation that this tearing down of the old order and the birth of a new is happening in Him and that the sacrament of Holy Baptism is a sign of that.
BIBLICAL FAITH IS WITHOUT ILLUSIONS ABOUT THIS WORLD
“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”
“Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”
Signs of evil in this world exist also: Signs that rebellion against God’s will take their toll in the corruption and destruction of people of God. But rebellion is against the Sovereign who is ultimately in control and judges and calls to account evil and embraces its innocent victims in the same power of love that embraced the cross of Jesus Christ in the transforming light of Easter.
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
Just before the cleansing flood in the story of Noah’s Ark, Scripture tells us that “The earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence.” (Genesis 6:11) There was a need for rebirth after the flood but the water of this rebirth is a sign of the Holy Spirit in Baptism into faith in Jesus Christ. The dove that brings the olive branch of peace to Noah (Genesis 8:11) descends upon Jesus as the Holy Spirit at his Baptism (Matthew 4:16) and a new order of life begins. A new order that calls us to “strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” A new order that heals, forgives and corrects when our striving fails us and we find we must be born again and again and again into the persevering love of God in Jesus Christ—for God so loved the world.
Father Hagerman
Homily Highlights for May 24 – Pentecost Sunday
SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD
John 15:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
THE WONDROUS WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Spirit of the living God breathed life into all creation and we thank God for that gift of life.
The Spirit of the living God empowered the ministry of Jesus Christ showing us the face of a loving God and the model of what it means to be human in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:27)
The Spirit of the living God gives gifts for service (1 Cor. 12) and gifts for living well and wisely. (Is. 11:2)
The Spirit of the living God creates family and all forms of healthy community and the gift of love overflows beyond ourselves.
What an abundance of blessings it is for all of us and everyone brought to Holy Baptism when we say “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”
THE NEED FOR CONTINUAL RENEWAL
All who are baptized have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. Every year of our lives we must continue to “own” that new identity of being a child of God in Jesus Christ. It is renewed powerfully in the Sacrament of Confirmation performed by the Bishop. Today we are privileged to renew our own Baptismal Covenant refocusing ourselves on the essentials of Christian Faith and Practice:
1) The Historic Faith of the Apostles Creed
2) The Holy Eucharist in which we hear the Apostles’ teaching and the words of Christ in Scripture and join our hearts in prayer and the sacrament of the breaking of the bread.
3) The spiritual disciplines of resisting evil, confessing our sins and embracing the Lord’s forgiveness and gift of wise spiritual growth in our lives.
4) Proclaiming by word and example the Good News of God in Christ—our parish mission statement.
5) As we proclaim God’s love for all, we are challenged to live it by loving our neighbor as ourselves and striving for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
In all these thing, the Holy Spirit brings us a new Pentecost and renews our faith.
Father Hagerman
Homily Highlights for May 17 – Ascension Sunday
WANT TO GET AWAY?
SCRIPTURE READING
John 17:15-16 “I am not asking you to take them out of the world but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world.”
THE COLLECT
“Do not leave us comfortless but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before.”
THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING JESUS
The nature and meaning of Christ’s Ascension into heaven is one of the great mysteries of the Christian Faith for it must answer the question: “God, where are you?” Throughout the Gospels we experience a compelling presence of Jesus as teacher and healer and the death and resurrection of Jesus are the central events that define the faith. What then are we to make of the Ascension into heaven in a profoundly materialistic age. We look to the prayer today which we call the Collect because it “collects” the key themes of the Scriptures and the collective prayers of our hearts. “Do not leave us comfortless but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before.” The new presence of God in Jesus Christ will be in the Holy Spirit.
WHERE IS THAT PLACE WHERE CHRIST “HAS GONE BEFORE”?
In our Collect for Ascension Day we say that “Our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.” Jesus Christ has not disappeared after all and in asking the question, “God, where are you?” we will need to look in many directions for an answer from the God who has “filled all things” with the Holy Spirit.
1) Creation is begun and sustained in the power of the Holy Spirit and we respond with thanks and a deepened sense of our call to good Creation Care.
2) Christ has walked with the sick and the suffering in a ministry of healing and we are called to follow.
3) Christ has fed the hungry and we are called to follow.
4) Christ has created a new world wide family in his church and we are called to follow.
5) Christ has taught us to pray in a personal way to a personal God we can call “Our Father” and we are called to follow.
Jesus always taught us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and at work among us and within us. It does extend beyond this life but while we are living the gift of years we are given Christ does not want us to be “taken out of the world” but to be a part of God’s work of transforming it through the values of the Kingdom of Heaven. The life of the Spirit is countercultural and life changing so that in a real sense a follower of Jesus Christ does not “belong to this world.” If we imagine “the world” to be the place where the tragedies of war, hunger, crime, natural disasters and disease are unchangeable cycles that are beyond our control then who wouldn’t want to get as far away as possible. God’s Kingdom is a vision that will never accept that as the final word and calls us to a close walk with Christ in justice, peace and compassion in this world and beyond.
Father Hagerman
Homily Highlights for May 10 – The 6th Sunday of Easter
CHRIST’S ASCENDING LADDER OF LOVE
John 15:12 “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.”
“LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” (Matthew 22:39)
As Christians we view love as the heart of the faith, long to live according to that vision, but are painfully aware that we often fall short of it. Still, we are called to rise and try again for this is the compelling power of the faith. The call to love begins at home and in close communities; “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It assumes a love of self and moves us to develop disciplined habits of care and concern. Its rewards are in the blessings of healthy community. We experience this most intensely in family life. The comfortable tranquility of the community may be shaken as Jesus calls us even higher.
“LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND PRAY FOR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU.” (Matthew 5:44)
Sometimes the bond and identity of a close community contains a shared sense of who the “enemy” is. To hold up an enemy in prayer challenges us with discovering the humanity of another and challenges the comfortable camaraderie of contempt for others. It can be a risky kind of love. Yet, in the midst of family and community feuds, we may thank God for this vision of expansive love; for our neighbors or a family member may have become a perceived “enemy” and the ministry of reconciliation will depend on a vision of love that moves us beyond the comfort zone of our feelings and our certainty of what the “truth” is.
“LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU” (John 15:12)
Nothing less than a living, personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can unlock the full potential of our love. When our own weaknesses have us baffled and beaten down we need to reach for Christ’s hand and hear his voice saying “rise and follow me.” Good ideas alone have never saved us, something in us even rebels against the call to love. It takes a life changing relationship with the living God to make us people who love fully and receive love thankfully.
“LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH”
(Mark 12:30)
It is important to remember that before Jesus says anything about loving our neighbor as ourselves, he teaches that the love of God is “the first and great commandment.” First things first; for it is in that love of God that we will find both the strength to love and the forgiveness for our failures to love. In climbing Christ’s ascending ladder of love we may slip and fall down a step or even fall off the ladder altogether. If in those moments of dusting ourselves off and rising again, we find a deepened empathy for the struggles of others, our power to love will have grown even stronger. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98) Calling a bruised imperfect people to be God’s beloved community.