Advent 2016

Advent: a coming into place, view, or being; arrival.

-  www.dictionary.com

Regardless of where we might individually identify in the many cultural, social, and political frames in which we place ourselves, this is certainly a time of Advent. Wherever we have been, as communities, as congregations, as neighborhoods, as families, and even as persons, there is not one of us that does not perceived that something new is coming into place. As veils have been pulled back which once covered complicated aspects of ourselves, we are forced to see anew the challenges of our mutual dependence. We are even challenged to ask ourselves of our own essential being; who we are in the many relationships we share.

Not one of us can deny that this will be an Advent that we remember for generations to come. And we cannot deny the (literal) elephant in the room that now focuses our beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Our very own bishop, the Right Reverend Sean Walter Rowe, offered a powerful testimony and inspiring commentary on the results of the general election. It carefully articulated that our mercy must be tempered with advocating social justice. Bishop Rowe also reminded us of the importance in reconciliation for the offender to accept responsibility and ask forgiveness, noting that mercy to an unrepentant sinner may be most difficult to show. As we navigate this difficult time, we remind ourselves of the importance of our obligations to be the voice for those who are in great anxiety.

I have been reminded by congregants of the struggles that they have had in their life journey. While I may be called to share a vision of comfort and calm, I also affirm the capacity for empathy and sympathy we all have toward those who have experienced much more fear and enmity from others. When we see the way some Episcopal churches have been vandalized and attacked for being welcoming and affirming of God’s love, we are reminded that there may be pushback, especially in these volatile days, against our inclusivity.

We are asked to be an Advent people. Our readings and liturgies of this liturgical season ask us to recognize our reliance and trust, as a people, in the promise of Christ’s coming. It is a challenging time, and we need to have room in our hearts to see Christ there, and the courage to give birth to him in the lives of others. Advent is a time of preparing, a time of affirming, and a time of waiting.

But we will arise, and shine, in faithful proclamation that our Light has come!

In hopeful anticipation,

Fr. Shawn

Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins to All Humanity

...the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations... 

- Luke 24:46-47

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

The Gospel of Luke is a gospel for both insiders and outsiders. For the insiders, it grounds Jesus' ministry in the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation, in glorious canticles, miraculous scenarios, and insightful parables. Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of Israel's hope, and all things necessary to human salvation are encapsulated in this Good News.

And human salvation includes...well...everyone! If you're human, then you are saved by the Incarnate God in Jesus the Christ. In this verse from the end of Luke's gospel, the Risen Jesus is in the midst of the disciples, and is helping them to understanding the meaning of his presence, providing insight from the entirety of scripture, He said that things were written about him in the "Law of Moses," or the what is known as the Torah, in the books of the Prophets, or what we call the Nevi'im, and the Psalms, which is held in the Ketuvim or wisdom literature. In other words - all of what we Christians sometimes refer to as the Hebrew Scriptures.

The ground for faith in God's love of humanity is made evident in the life, ministry, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is our faith. However, it is not our faith to hold to ourselves. It is also our commission that we share that faith with others.

And this is where Jesus' ministry jumps from Jerusalem to all of creation - that we share the gospel that all sins are forgiven, that we are called to change our motion to be what God has created us to be. This is not just a Gospel for believers; it is a Gospel for all humanity.

We are charged that we are to share with others that when they are loving God and loving one another, then they are doing as God has created them to do. When we fail to live into our design; when we deny that we are created, when we ignore the gift of our own lives, when we refuse to change paths of our lives, when we reject that others are also created by God, when we reject God's diversity in creation, when our arrogance refuses to allow for God's forgiveness of others, when we cease to allow our faith to inspire us to move and act on behalf of God's desire for right mindfulness and right action - we are not heeding the invitation of the Risen Jesus to preach his name and his Good News to all.

It is a full challenge to respond to Jesus' charge. It is a charge that we must embrace each day of our lives. It is the Way to the Truth and the Life that we find in our Savior.

It is our celebration of the Resurrection of the Messiah.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

In the joy of our eternity,
Shawn+

Ash Wednesday 2016

I am a social media wonk. It’s not just a hobby for me; as a professor of communication, I am fascinated by the comings and goings of various social media fads and by the tidal wave of social media apps for my smart phone and tablet devices. My students are constantly telling me about new ways to share information, interests, and entertainment. And while they tell me that Facebook (what some in my generation call “The Facebooks”…good grief) is SO 2005, I still maintain my FB profile and presence, post and share information, and keep up with family, friends and alumni. Yes…I do have 5,000 “friends,” and frequently, when I post something controversial, I lose followers and can replace them with one of the many requests I have in cue.

Recently, there have been a plague of surveys which somehow are supposed to tell you something about yourself that you didn’t know, or reassure you of something that you’d like to believe is true about you. For example, I was engaged in a photo survey of my pictures on FB, and that my celebrity doppelganger is either a husky Russell Crowe or a thin John Goodman. I took both as complimentary. I also found through a questionnaire that my Anglican theologian heart is best represented by 19^th century Anglican priest and university professor, F. D. Maurice. I had no idea who Maurice was, until I looked him up.

Our collect for Maurice in Lesser Feasts and Fasts asks God to “Keep alive in your Church, we pray, a passion for justice and truth; that, like your servant Frederick Denison Maurice, we may work  and pray for the triumph of the kingdom of your Christ….” That resonated with me, so I looked further into his life and teachings.

Studied law? Not me. Refused his law degree because he would not subscribe to an oath of conformity. ME! Joined the Anglican Church because of personal responses to other traditions. ME! Came to theology after other studies. ME! Professor of humanities studies. ME! Formed the Christian Socialist Movement. (SHHHHH! I also have leanings in that direction…).

Maurice was a passionate ecumenist, which, after working decades at a diocesan Roman Catholic institution, I have sincere empathy. He wrote more commentaries on New Testament studies than Old, and I am drawn to the Gospels and Epistles as well. What hooked me more were some of his most quoted statements.

“We have been dosing our people with religion when what they want is not this but the living God.” My students at Gannon University frequently say that they are disillusioned with traditional Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches who insist that their particular Christianity is the ONLY way, truth, and life. The sad reality is that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and not the religious institutions that mediate the Gospel message. The reservations of young people are communicating to us very clearly that Christian territorialism weakens the message, especially when that message is one of Christ’s desire for radical forgiveness and unconditional love.

“Competition is put forth as the law of the universe. That is a lie. The time has come for us to declare that it is a lie, by word and deed.” We are not out to triumph over one another, but to see that God’s will triumphs over all. When we divide ourselves as winners and losers, when we strive to dominate, decimate, or destroy those who differ from us, then we are not living into Christ’s examples to broaden our understanding of all humanity as our neighbor and our care.

“I do not think we are to praise the liturgy but to use it. When we do not want it for our life, we may begin to talk of it as a beautiful composition.” Liturgy communicates faith only if the audience of liturgy understands what it is saying. Language, gestures, ceremonies without meaning and without function have no part in the liturgical life of the Church. We must be constantly creating, refining, and innovating our worship so that it is meaningful and relevant to the faithful. And we must also appreciate the nuances and delicacies with which we perform our rites and rituals. Liturgical aesthetics are important, as long as they are appreciated not as museum pieces but as living, breathing expressions of thanksgiving and oblation.

“Christian Socialism will commit us at once to the conflict we must engage in sooner or later with the unsocial Christians and the unchristian Socialists.” Those who do go to church on Sunday mornings and then flip the bird to their neighbor as they pull in the driveway are just as mistaken and dangerous as those who wish to impose economic equality without engaging forgiveness and repentance. If there is to be equity in society, then the equity is best grounded in Christian social teaching. Gannon University’s integration of Catholic Social Teaching in our coursework and service learning/volunteerism has enlivened in me the importance of working for justice and peace, not just as a humanist, but as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We cannot separate social justice from the Gospel message; and, in fact, when we integrate them faithfully, we also become doers of the word and not just preachers.

I still have much to learn from F. D. Maurice, and I will continue to read his works and glean strength from his example. The connection is a gift I never thought I’d get…from a silly survey on Facebook!

Peace in Jesus Christ.

Fr. Shawn