The Covenant

The Covenant
February 18, 2018
Church of the Advent, Cincinnati

AUDIO HERE

What is a covenant? 

This beautiful ark is on display at Church of the Advent.

A covenant is an agreement, but not any agreement. It’s a contract between humans and one another and God. Therefore it’s the most sacred and most holy type of contract.

You can’t have a covenant without God and without at least 2 people involved. Marriage is a covenant, not just between the couple, but the couple, God, and the whole church.

Baptism is a covenant, between the baptizand, sponsors, God and the Church. We witnessed this in baptizing Sochi last week.

It’s not just what the people will do in relation to God, or what God will do in relation to the people - it’s both. A two-way street, supported by the whole gathered people.

In the 1st reading, God institutes the first covenant, with himself, Noah’s family and all living beings. 

“This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:”  -All of creation is involved for ever. not even just people. What a reminder of our responsibility to care for the earth as it takes care of us.

We’ve just begun the season of Lent, when we re-examine our baptismal covenant, and all the covenants we have with God, to recommit to what we’ve done right and repent for what we’ve done wrong. Perhaps it’s a time to commit to a new covenant too - but remember, covenants aren’t short term agreements. They often last forever, or at least for the rest of our lives.

An ark made of Legos in Charles' office!

Our tradition of giving something up for Lent is like that. it’s a small sign, a reminder of our eternal covenants with God and one another. It’s a reminder of our promises to love and serve God, and God’s promise to love us, and to protect and to care for us. 

A priest friend of mine said this a few days ago: What if we didn’t just give things up for Lent individually, but what if we gave it up collectively as a church too? What if we as a whole church community gave up gossip or pettiness, or speaking ill of one another for Lent? What if we made a covenant with God to never degrade ourselves and one another with foul language again?

In the face of the horrific gun violence across our nation, What if we as a society made a covenant to never participate in systems of violence again? What if this Lent we gave up tolerating violence & picked up new ways of justice and truth?

What if I told you that you have already made that covenant - and if you don’t believe me, you can read it on page 305 of your prayer book. (Baptismal covenant)

May this Lent be a season of renewed care for the covenants we keep, and to the love between us and God which is behind it all.

What to do about Demons?

What to do about Demons?

Sermon from Feb. 4, 2018

Church of the Advent, Cincinnati

Mark 1:29-35

AUDIO HERE

If you’ve been paying attention to our gospels for the last few weeks, you’ve noticed that this is the second week in a row in which we encounter Jesus, in rather dramatic fearsome detail, talking about - and healing people from - the grip of horrifying demons. They appear like monsters in our scripture, leaping out at Jesus, speaking to him in gruesome voices pointing to him, even calling out his name!

On top of it, remember that not long ago Jesus called these four fishermen out of the boat to come follow him, and in the very first city they visit as new disciples of Jesus, here they are face to face in the grip of a physical one-to-one battle with demons in the flesh! Not exactly the way I’d want to start my first day on the job! Have you ever had a day like that, where you decide to start something new, and as soon as you walk into the door on day 1, you’re thrown right into the deep end, thrashing around trying to figure out what to do & how in the world you’re supposed to stay afloat. I hate to tell you, but sometimes following Jesus is like that!

Now - before I get too much further, I know this subject of demons is a very tricky one in the church. Generations of bad theologies and painful teaching in some traditions has have pushed some awful ideas, often identifying anyone or anything they didn’t like as “demonic” and even making good people to believe that they themselves were possessed by demons for thinking, feeling, or behaving a little different from what those in positions of power would have wanted. So often the victims of this theological mistreatment have been the marginalized, who because of who they are are made to believe that they are demons or posessed by demons just for being a little bit different. And other times it’s those we disagree with politically who in this age of political extremes and abject division, we on both the right and the left characterize one another’s beliefs not just as disagreement but as demonic - leaving us virtually no way to move toward reconciliation and to move forward together. 

Maybe in a reaction to that sort of awful theology coming out of the extremes of the Christian faith, we “mainline protestants” sometimes overreact in the opposite direction, failing to talk about that which is truly evil in this world at all. Instead we paint pictures of flowers and roses, but shy away from doing what Jesus did - confronting the demonic powers of this world head-on and bringing about healing as in our gospel today. We know that what was considered “demon possession” in Jesus’ time was what we would call severe mental illness today, rendering people unable to speak, or to speak non-sensically, making its victims pariahs cast out of society or left on the street in an era long before therapies or modern concepts of mental health.

What are some of the demons (problems, not people) you see in our society? In our city, country, our world? What are some demons we see within?

In last week’s gospel, just a few verses earlier than what we’ve read today, the demon cries out “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God”.  - The demon calls out Jesus by name and proclaims his holiness even before the disciples do! And at that, he uses nearly the same words  This demon recognizes Jesus’ authority and so do the crowds around them, as Jesus commands the demon to be silent and casts it out of the man who was possessed. 

Immediately afterward, as we begin this weeks story, the disciples seeing Jesus’ healing power take him to the mother of Simon (Peter) and whom he heals - or in the Greek “raised up” from a fever, which in those days was a seriously life-threatening condition. This, we are told, was a physical illness and certainly not a demon, but Jesus goes out and immediately back to casting out more demons, and we get this fascinating line at the end: “and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.”

What do you think this means - that the demons knew him? Where do you see that reflected in the world today?

That takes us right back to the beginning of that story from last week where the demon calls out “Jesus if Nazareth” “Holy one of God” and Jesus commands him to “be silent”. That is one of the primary ways Jesus confronts evil in the Gospel of Mark. “Jesus commands the spirit to “be silent” with the same word as he commands the sea to “be still” “be silent” (Mark 4:39). He rebukes the unclean spirit, the sea (Mark 4:30) and even Peter (Mark 8:33).

I have to say I really like Jesus’ approach - in an era when we see so much pain and degradation from the demons at hand in our society - when there’s so much grief that you don’t even want to pick up a newspaper or turn on the tv for fear of finding out what horrific acts of human violence have taken place today - It feels good to tell those demons to be silent. 

What are some ways in which we might be called to bring silence to the evils of this world? 

It’s a whole lot harder to do in real life than for us to imagine in our heads. It’s a lot harder to confront the racism or the sexism or the mean-spiritedness in the voice of someone you know or even love, and to tell that mean-spiritedness lovingly to be silent. It’s a lot harder to stand up against the threat of physical force to tell the oppressive powers and authorities of this world to “be silent”.

But I really do believe that’s what we’re called to do as the people of Jesus Christ in this world. But first, I’m going to watch a football game.

Amen

What Does a Deacon Do All Day? - Annual Report

Preaching my first sermon at Advent in July 2017

People ask me all the time what it is that a deacon actually *does*. Is it like a priest, but just not yet? Far from it! Take a look at my Annual Report for Church of the Advent from our January 2018 Annual Meeting. In it I share much of my varied and interesting ministries at Advent and beyond!

On July 1 2017, I was proud to join Church of the Advent as its Clergy Resident for a period of two years, through June 2019. In my first six months at Advent It has been my pleasure to participate in a broad range of ministries in nearly every part of life at Advent. As a deacon, my primary purpose is to focus on service to those most in need in our communities, and in the words of our ordination vows, “to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world”. My ministry is also to assist in worship including preaching and in the Eucharist, and to help the priest in matters related to leadership of the Church. I am also a “transitional deacon” which means that I am in preparation and training, with God’s help, to be ordained a priest in the near future. Some of my service here involves training to provide the skills and practice needed for me to be a successful priest. My areas of focus here are are administration, pastoral care, empowerment of others, liturgy, preaching, justice, administering the sacraments, teaching and Latino ministry (with special emphasis on the first three).

Administration: Each week I participate in a number of activities related to the administrative care of Advent. This often includes attending meetings of the vestry, wardens, Open Door advisory committee, or others. This often includes discussing financial matters relating to the management of the church and Open Door. Each month I closely review the budget documents prepared for vestry to check for anything that may be a concern and to better understand the fiscal health of our parish. I also speak with the money counters nearly every week as they record weekly contributions, so that I might better understand how these processes take place and how donations are to be registered properly. In early November I completed a six-week online course in Episcopal Church Financial Management by Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Additionally I meet with Rev. Stacy at least once per week to discuss staff and administrative concerns as they arise. Bishop Breidenthal also recently appointed me as a member of Diocesan Council, which is one of two major governing committees for the roughly 65 churches in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

Pastoral Care: My pastoral roles at Advent vary from week to week based on the needs of parishioners & the community at the time. Sometimes I am making pastoral visits with Rev. Stacy or alone, including to a few shut-in, elderly or injured parishioners and to those in the hospital. Alternately, sometimes I am meeting with parishioners in my office or Rev. Stacy’s office, or I am pulled aside during the week or at Sunday coffee hour to discuss some issue going on for that person. Sometimes this also involves conflict resolution interpersonally or helping others to process emotional or spiritual difficulties.

Empowerment of others for ministry: For me, empowerment of others has largely taken on two forms; internally at Advent and externally via the Faith Alliance in Walnut Hills. At Advent this has meant helping to train new acolytes and altar guild members, helping to identify potential new vestry members, and discussing with Rev. Stacy ways in which to involve a number of our parishioners in a range of diverse ministries around Advent. As for Faith Alliance, I am pleased to work with a number of lay leaders and fellow clergy from at least eight neighborhood congregations. I also manage the group’s Facebook page and email account, and I help to spread the word about its events digitally, in person and through print media.

Liturgy: Worship planning is of course a very regular part of my role at Advent. I discuss with Rev. Stacy each month the liturgical events to take place in the coming weeks, especially including upcoming feast days or important occasions on the worship calendar. We begin to plan together some ways of bringing the scriptures and traditions of the Church to life within our Episcopal structure of liturgy. I often prepare several of the liturgical resources that may be needed and help those plans to materialize as a worship leader each Sunday, including leading Psalms, prayers etc. I also take turns leading our weekly Morning Prayer on Wednesdays, along with Rev. Stacy.

Administering the Sacraments: As a deacon my role is to prepare the sacraments for the priest to administer. Each week I prepare the bread & wine in the sacristy before the 8am service, and often assist the altar guild in setting up the table for 10am if needed. I also liturgically assist the priest in distributing Communion and help with any other sacramental services.

Teaching: It is a really special part of my ministry to get to help teach about scripture, the Christian and Anglican/Episcopal traditions and other important aspects of our Christian life in our church. Sometimes this takes place in the context of our Wednesday Bible Study, or in helping to instruct new acolytes or Altar Guild members in how to carry out their duties well. Again often I am pulled aside and asked questions about faith, scripture, tradition or spirituality which often leads to a wider conversation. It is also my role to continue to teach and educate myself as a leader of this community. I am now preparing to teach a course during Lent 2018 in “Episcopal Church 101” as an adult confirmation class.

(Diocesan Latino Ministry) Since September 2016 I have been a weekly tutor for the Price Hill Learning Club, which is a program of the Diocesan Latino Ministry in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. We meet on Mondays & Wednesdays from 5-6:30pm with normally about 25 elementary or middle school kids and five adults. The kids are mostly the children of Guatemalan immigrants whose parents speak no English. I help to tutor the students in English, Spanish, math or whatever subjects they need. I also help to be a role model for the kids, and sometimes provide lessons on various events of the Church like Ash Wednesday or All Saints. I also serve as a member of the Latino Ministry Commission for our Diocese, which governs the 4 Episcopal organizations geared to Latinos in Southern Ohio. Because nearly all of our organizations’ parents are undocumented, this leads us at the Bishop’s encouragement to engage in pro-immigration advocacy with elected officials and others.

Note: Some of this report has been previously shared with the Resident's Formation Committee.