Sermon from August 2

Perhaps you have heard a version of this parable wrapped inside a well-worn joke:

There was a preacher who fell in the ocean and he couldn't swim. When a boat came by, the captain yelled, "Do you need help, sir?" The preacher calmly said "No, God will save me." A little later, another boat came by and a fisherman asked, "Hey, do you need help?" The preacher replied again, "No God will save me." Eventually the preacher drowned & went to heaven. The preacher asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God replied, "Fool, I sent you two boats!"

Replace the main character and the setting and you get a similar lesson: we do not always see in the moment where God is acting, when Christ is most present and how the Holy Spirit is moving throughout our lives. We are prone to misread we mistake silence for absence and activity as substance.  God knows, we are human, and we struggle with setting priorities, shifting through life’s many choices and knowing what really matters most. Where and how do we spend our time, energy, resources, worries, passions, and doubts? We hunger to be fed and filled, yet all around us are temptations and distraction to experience the thrill and trend of the moment – the latest and updated version of whatever that we convince ourselves that we must have.

Part of what we do when we gather to pray and worship is to redirect our very real hunger away from what is fleeting and perishable towards what is everlasting and eternal. Or at the very least, teach us and remind us to know the difference – and to learn where to look for the true bread of life. 

Many believe that the purpose of the entire gospel of John can be found near the very end in the 20^th chapter vs. 30-31: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. 

So when we hear passages about signs from God: take note.

Over four weeks we are camping out in the 6^th chapter of John. John speaks a different kind of language from the other gospels.  It cares less about sequential history than he does with painting a larger more expansive understanding.

We get from John the great “I am” statements from Jesus:

I am the light of the world

I am the door

I am the good shepherd

I am the resurrection and the life

I am the way, the truth, and the life

I am the true vine

And, as we heard again this morning and will hear again next Sunday: I am the bread of life

The 23 times Jesus uses these I am statements in John links Jesus to the God who spoke to Moses in the Exodus story. God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM". 

Hear Eugene Peterson’s translation in the Message of this passage: Jesus says: “Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides.”

How are we doing in reading the signs around us and deep within us ? Are we on the right course of knowing the difference between that lasts and what fades away? 

In anticipating of our many anniversary festivities next month, I have been reading our parish history and marvel and the foresight of the founders of this church. Two Academy students, William Waters and Frederick Thompson, walking through the cold on Christmas morning in 1864 to Epping to receive the Bread of Life of Holy Communion. The tireless Caroline Harris, in whose memory our parish hall is named. It is written that she “limited her diet and her comforts” and wrote for friends around New England to raise support for the first church building. They began something that did not fade away. It took root in this community. They and other founders saw a need, sacrificed and contributed, and planted something that lasts today and will live on into the future. When we support the work of a congregation through energy, time and money, we connect with the kinds of choices that Jesus set out to all those who came to him looking for food to eat.

For today then, let me end with a different take of the joke without the punch line.

There was a person who fell into the ocean couldn't swim. When a boat came by, the captain yelled, "Do you need help?" The person said: Well, actually I do. I’m afraid, uncertain, far from home. I lose my way sometimes. Get off track. I am at times lonely, insecure and uncertain.  I fail to see the good things and decent people around me. I need to love and care more, worry and consume less.

And the good news is that the person who fell into the ocean didn’t have to go to heaven to learn this less.  God sends us boats. A lot of them. And lifelines.  And wake-up calls.  And second and third changes, and many more.  

And God in Jesus offers us food – the good kind – that feds our soul.

August 2, 2015

10 Pentecost, Year B

The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton

Exeter, NH

Preparing to Commemorate 50th Anniversary of the martyrdom of N.H.'s Jonathan Daniels

Taken from jonathandaniels50.org Click here to go to link

The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Jonathan Daniels, who was assassinated on August 20, 1965 at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Jonathan, a seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, went south that summer answering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for clergy to help register black voters. While there, Jonathan was arrested along with a number of Civil Rights workers. Upon being released from jail, he along with several others headed to a store to buy a cold drink. As they approached, a local deputy sheriff, Tom Coleman, raised his gun and fired. Jonathan shoved SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) worker Ruby Sales out of the way taking the fatal shot himself.

Jonathan grew up in Keene, New Hampshire where he worshiped at St. James Episcopal Church. To honor him and the beliefs he stood and died for, the Jonathan Daniels Commemoration Committee is spearheading the planning of activities throughout the year locally, nationally and internationally to commemorate his life and death. The committee has adopted a theme for the year based on the biblical passage from Isaiah 6:8 “I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then said I, Here Am I, Send Me.” The goal is to have every person touched by Jonathan’s example to do one thing to make the world a better place to live.

This website is intended to provide a place to inform visitors of the various commemoration activities planned around the US and the globe. Visit the Listing of Events and Calendar tabs to view the events that are being planned. If your organization is planning a commemoration event that you want to include, please submit the details on the Contact tab.  To assist in your planning these three dates stand out. He was born on March 20, 1939. He was assassinated on August 20, 1965 in Hayneville, Alabama. The Episcopal Church celebrates his life and work annually on August 14th. He has been named a saint and martyr of the Episcopal Church and with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of only two Americans listed in the Memorial Book of Heroes and Martyrs at the Canterbury Cathedral in England. A sculpture of Jonathan will soon be displayed on the Human Rights Porch at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

A Symbol of Hate

What has become known as the Confederate flag is coming down outside the state house in South Carolina only a few weeks after the massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston took nine souls. 

In addition, the dean of the Washington National Cathedral has announced that they will be removing two stained glass windows, installed in 1953, that honor Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee that include the Confederate flag.  You can read more Click here 

It still amazing to me how the Civil Way continues to find its way into modern American life and discourse when it comes to matters of race. It also does not surprise me that that the Episcopal Diocese and Bishop of South Carolina -- for now -- has been largely successful in S.C. courts in separating from the national church and keeping -- for now -- much of their church property. Is there something in the water in S.C., so to speak, where the impulse to reject and go it alone is stronger than elsewhere? Perhaps. 

As you can see from my previous blog about the placement of the American flag in our church sanctuary, we too have been thinking about the power and placement of symbols. So far I detect that our very Anglican "middle way" of having the flag in the narthex seems about right for now.  

My hope in the Confederate flag debate is, like so many other reactions to horrendous events, it does become a replacement or a filler to a change of heart and mind. Racism in America, and throughout the world, is one of the greatest sins against God because it cuts to the core of rejecting God's creation itself. Humanity is created in the Divine image. No one race is greater or less in God's eyes. Period. Always. 

Racism is an expression of our great temptation to distort our own fear and weakness and turn it back onto someone else. 

"God is not done with us yet" is as true today as always. In memory of the nine souls who welcomed a stranger in their midst as Jesus inspired them to do, I pray and hope that some minds and hearts have been moved and changed over this last month.  

Jesus does not tweet

The article in the Washington Post speaks to an ongoing conversation we are having regarding reading out to our culture today -- especially with regard to the coveted "Young Person" generation. 

I have heard similar comments elsewhere. 

What do you think?  Post your comments below and let's get a conversation started.  

Click here: 
Jesus does not tweet

Get up: Stand up

In yesterday's sermon, Sarah Watts encouraged us to stand up. Get up. The implication is: move out.

The church is in this very interesting time when less and less focus is being placed on what we do "here" -- meaning churchy things in church -- and more on what we do "out there" in the world. I believe many people are already practicing their baptism in their daily lives: showing compassion, listening, building up, contributing, visiting the sick and praying. Can we do it more? Absolutely. And we can start claiming we are doing, not to seek reward but to build momentum and encourage others. 

Doing churchy things in church is of course much easier to measure. We can count heads and committees and list them in reports -- not bad things at all -- but it reminds us how hard it is to measure all of the other things, especially when no one is watching. 

As we grow in our relationship with God, seeing the hand of Jesus is visible and hidden ways in our lives, may we remember to stand up. Get up. Move out our world and discover a need, feed a passion, fill a gap, and make the broken whole. Claim it. Share it.

After Emanuel A.M.E.

June 22, 2015

Dear Christ Church Community:

The Sunday after the Charleston massacre found me searching for words to express what I and many might be feeling and thinking around this nation after the shocking events.  

Last week’s murders in Charleston, SC at Emanuel A.M.C. Church are yet another reminder of how far away we are in fully building the Kingdom that Jesus came among us to proclaim.  The act was craven and evil. The list of mass murders through gun violence is long and seemingly unrelenting: Aurora, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; Virginia Tech; Newtown, Connecticut and now Charleston, S.C.  Add in the great loss of the Boston Marathon bombing to the list and it is overwhelming.  And real.

I admit to still be searching for words to express my feelings and thoughts about this latest outrage. Does it matter that the murders happened in a church and not a school, mall, movie theater or college compass? Yes and no.  The deaths and the losses are no greater, yet the sense of sacrilege is palpable.  Christian believers opened up their Bible Study to a stranger, just as Christ would call them to do. They prayed with him. And then he turned on them, shouted hate and in cold blood shot and killed nine beloved servants of God. 

This time racial hatred played center stage, and our long walk with the aftermath of slavery and discrimination continues to hold this country back from achieving the best of what we could become as a people.  Far too many hate crimes are being committed again African Americans today. 

When will real change happen? In our hearts, in our laws, in our attitudes, and in our daily interactions? Soon, very soon we hope and pray. 

Local clergy have organized a vigil this Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. at the Red Brick Church, 2 Spring Street in Exeter.  Occupy SeaCoast is planning a Black Lives Vigil for Market Square in Portsmouth on Sunday, June 28th at 4pm. 

Living in Connecticut after the Newtown massacre in 2012, I thought a real change in society would ensue in terms of common sense gun legislation. I was wrong. What change will come of Emanuel A.M.E.? Removing the confederate flag from the state capital of South Carolina is a good start. 

Flags in church?

My blogging has been remiss for a time. Post Easter lull I think. 

So I have a question: do flags belong in church? Meaning, does the American flag and/or the Episcopal flag belong in the "sanctuary", nave, choir or any other part of sacred space?  

Here at Christ Church in Exeter the American and Episcopal Flags were moved to the Chapel entry hallway (tucked in two corners) during the renovation about 8 years ago. Some members have long noticed and have asked me to return them.  Many others I presume have not noticed and have not mentioned anything.

So I have moved them into our narthex for now-- did so on Memorial Day weekend. And alas conversation has begun, which is a good thing.

What does it mean for Christians to have a national flag in their sacred space?  Is it a political statement? Is it neutralized by having an American flag next to an Episcopal flag? Is it a question of the separation of church and state? If so, should flags be allowed anywhere on church property?

I really hope we can have a conversation about this and come to some clarity about why we do what we do. Does the flag mean the same thing for everyone?  

Do share your thoughts... mpendeton@christchurchexeter.org